Hola amigos. I know its been a while since I wrapped at ya.

First of all, I finished my course at the Fachhochschule. 9 months of no weekends are finally over. Project was a success, the suits loved it, final exam was so-so. Graduation BBQ was sweet. At the party there was lots of beer. I don’t know how many I drank. I lost count after 6. I mean I wasn’t on a mission or anything. They just kept magically showing up in front of me. I somehow didn’t get very drunk. Lord knows it wasn’t for lack of trying.

In these troubled times I can’t say no to the friendly international gesture of an offered beer. The Pan-Atlantic Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft is tense enough these days as it is. I don’t want to offend anybody by not drinking their beer. It’s all about diplomacy my friends. Sometimes its hard and sometimes its sooo easy. I’m just doing my part to make the world a better place. Oh yeah, there was also Bratwürst, um, natch.

After finishing school I took some time to reflect on how much of a lucky guy I am. In just a little over the course of two years I came to Germany, learned German, found a job, bought my first car, and won a €3000 grant from magazine for an advanced course in Multimedia Informatik from which I graduated. I know it is not like that for 99% of the other foreigners that come to Germany. It is much harder. Many show up here with nothing more than the shirt on their backs and maybe the shoes on their feet. More often than not they have no one to help them with the culture or the language. I’m am so grateful for all I have and especially for the certain someone who put up with me and helped me out here from the beginning.

I went to see some real live gospel music last night. The Glory Gospel Choir came all the way to Kirchgellersen from Harlem. It was nice to get a dose of soul. It wasn’t like the scene in The Blues Brothers when Jake and Elwood see the light, but it was still nice.

I googled Chillmost.com today. There are a few people linking to me that I don’t even know. That means 1: Somebody’s reading this often mindless drivel and 2: This Internet community vibe groove thing is real. I’ll reciprocate the favor here for now: notes on the atrocities and Muslims for Kucinich. I will do a little redesign here soon and have them somewhere on the page.

Both sites link to me because I support Kucinich. It is hard to do any serious campaigning for him over here. But just check him out. If you take the time to inform yourself about how he stands on issues you might think he’s the guy. If you do think so and then you say to yourself, “Yeah right, it could never happen,” than it never will happen because you’ve already given up. Don’t do that. Vote with your conscience. Its not a high school student body president election where the popular/cool/ass-kissing winner has no power to do anything else besides getting pizza an extra couple times a month in the cafeteria. No, this is about real power. We’ve seen what this kind of power can do in the last couple of years. I’m sick of it already. How can one man squander in such a short amount of time the world’s biggest and most heartfelt outpouring of sympathy and help? Not to mention backing out of treaties designed to make the world a safer place. And don’t forget about Kyoto. The real power is ours. We have the power to get Bush and his cronies out of there. Can you honestly think to yourselves that Bush has helped our nation or made it a better safer place? I can’t understand how any person who has taken the effort to inform him or herself about what is going on in the name of Americans all around the world, can say yes. It is so easy for most of you to vote. I have to fill out forms, mail em, receive a ballot, and then send it in. A little inconvenient but its worth it. Actually there is a saying that goes, “People vote with their wallets not with their conscience.” If that is true then Bush will probably lose anyway.

Saw an interesting story here today. Its full of informative links that you can follow and inform yourself.

That is all. Thanks worker bee.

Ride ’em Cowboy

I am almost done with school. We are in crunch-time for the final project. Details are secret. No really, I had to sign a NDA and everything. What I can tell you is that I’ve gotten pretty good at programming Flash. Maybe I will update my little shooting star thing up there.

I can’t wait for it to be over though. I haven’t had a real weekend since October. I’m so tired and ready to flip out. I am so Urlaubsreif. For vacation I’d like to go to Spain or Croatia or somewhere on the fringes of Europe. I’ve lived here for over two years but I haven’t had the chance to really visit and explore Europe. I did go to Ireland with my dad and brother for a week though (Oh, my liver jumped!). That was cool. And I did go to Paris for a few days last year.

To wrap up I’d like to introduce you to two special friends of mine. Awww Yeah.

Happy Forth of July! Although I am not in Amiland at the moment I just want y’all to know that I’m feeling it. I had 4, that’s right, 4 hotdogs yesterday. Hamburgers unfortunately weren’t on the menu. Please read the next paragraph carefully and think about it.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Now if your saying,”Oh there he goes again…”, then you are part of the huge apathetic anti-voice that won’t find your courage to speak up before it is too late.

That is all. Class dismissed.

“a little revolution is good now and then.”

-Thomas Jefferson

“Those who give up liberty for the sake of security deserve neither liberty nor security.”

-Benjamin Franklin

Farookie is back. Not much is changed but there are more bandwidth boxcars.

Here’s the new April May June cover art for the Du Kannst EP designed by yours truly.

Here are three blogs from Bagdhad. It gives a very interesting perspective on what is going on over there. contrary to what The Chimp tells us it sounds like the war is still going on.

Salam Pax. If you havn’t heard of this one then you’ve had your head in the sand for the last 6 months.

His pal G,

And a new female blogger, Zainab.

These people risk a lot and put their lives and security on the line whenever they post. Due to the fundamentalist conservatism over there, a lot of their opinions and frank comments are not appreciated and could get them into some trouble.

Ok a few things:

Dennis Kucinich is who I’m supporting for President. Its a longshot but I’m voting with my conscience.

The best online translator is here: Tha Shizzolator. It makes life that much more interesting.

A fashion accessory I was going to design but someone beat me to it: The American Traveler Apology Shirt: A must buy for Americans abroad.

From the Guardian: In extracts from her book on the curious lives of human corpses, Mary Roach visits a field full of rotting bodies and (below) watches a cadaver help test car safety. Click here for the lovely details. Eww.

More fuel for the fire boys. I hope the press starts asking more questions and stops sucking the teat of the Bush administration.

And last but not least: If you drive this car or think it is cool, you are a dick. Don’ try to justify it. Just accept it and kill yourself asshole.

anger subsiding…..rising…subsiding. All work and no play make Nate something something..

I played at the Lüneburger Stadtfest on Friday with my band April May June. Despite playing with a substitute bassist we did pretty good and a lot of people came out to see us. Here are a few pictures of us rocking out.

The Band!!

Here’s me looking like a chump.

On Saturday I went to see Besser play on the Marktplatz. They seriously rock. They are probably the best band in Lüneburg. The have sort of an Acetone/Velvet Underground thing going on there. Here they are:

After Besser I went down the street to El Toro, a nice little tapas joint where my friend Herbert works. After getting thoroughly toasted with red wine I took this picture:

Then I went to check out the techno tent that was set up in an old courtyard. There wasn’t much going on there accept a few tapped out rave kids. I then went home and crashed at about 10pm. Yeah Stadtfest!

UPDATE!

I had a gig two weeks ago as well in Winsen/Luhe. It is not like I’m a big rock star and want to show off my pictures but check this one out. That’s how you play when your slide disappears and you have to get creative. It is also very rock and roll.

Aww Yeah!! My brother Ben graduated from Highschool. Way to go bro! Get it while you can. At least I know somebody is reading.

Designed cover for AprilMayJune EP. I don’t know if the others will like it. Its actually some of the best layout work i’ve ever done. I’ll post a screenshot when it is done

My Mom sent a huge box full of Girlscout Cookies. Samoans, Tagalongs and of course Thin Mints. I was thinking about bringing them to work and distributing them but I had to reconsider. They are Girlscout cookies after all. The Thinmints are almost gone and I didn’t eat most of them. Hmmm. So I put the rest in the fridge and I’m waiting to put it on some Rotze Grotze. They better still be there when i get home dammit.

A crazy memory came back to me the other day. Being in my aunts garage in the middle of July, fishing a can of grape Vess (its the billion bubble beverage) out of the cooler, and in the background there is Jack Buck and the Cardinal baseball game on KMOX. Just the sound of a baseball game coming in on a crappy AM station…You cannot hear something like that in Germany.