When you are looking at an online news source and there are pictures relating to the story or event, they are usually small and few in number. In most cases the photographer that covered the story took quite a few great shots but only a few were chosen. The rest will probably just end up in an archive and remain unseen by most people. The Boston Globe has an often updated new feature called The Big Picture that showcases photography pertaining to current events. Check out the cool photos from today’s opening ceremony at the Olympics in China, the solar eclipse a few days ago or the Large Hadron Collider. Cool stuff.

So last week was my birthday. Like every year, M got me an awesome present. (Seriously, I’m so lucky. She is so awesome when it comes to giving gifts. It’s rubbed off on me because I don’t want to look like a schlub in comparison, so I try to best her which of course makes her want to best me, which is not hard because she is so awesome. See how it works?)

This year she took me to TreeTrek in Bad Bevensen. Now, if you remember, I have been to Bad Bevensen before. It doesn’t exactly bring back happy memories, but that’s where the fun is if you want to go climb around in the woods, zipping around from tree to tree.

Click for more photos.
I think I’m going to incorporate a zip line into my stage act, thus allowing me to fly over the audience during my bitchin’ guitar solos. It’s been done before, but in Hamburg?

Hey kids, if you’re like me, you’re interested in the Large Hadron Collider and you somtimes check up on the Cooldown Status of the Superconducting Magnets. When they all get to 1.9K, it’s showtime, baby!

Question: If you were to be in the path of the electron streams, would it tear your body apart or just pass through you like all the electrons that are passing through you this instant.

In Turin, Italy in the late 50’s-early 60’s, there were these Italian brothers, who built their own radios and antennas to listen in on the radio signals of American and Soviet space missions.

I think Germany loves Obama more than America.

No more Golden Girls reunions

Hey John Ashcroft, from one Missouri boy to another, go fuck yourself, you hypocritical piece of shit. Waterboarding is torture. Period.

I really think he should try it out himself and see how it is. Wait a minute. Didn’t the US try and convict Japanese soldiers for warcrimes after WWII for waterboarding US soldiers? Yes.

Waterboarding has been considered torture by every administration before this one. It has been prosecuted since 1800.

I don’t really talk about politics anymore on this blog. I just don’t care. I know that apathy is part of the problem but it just doesn’t matter. The game is rigged. It makes my blood pressure rise and I get real angry. The last general election and the aftermath destroyed nearly every bit of faith and hope for humanity I had and any idealism I held for good. Put a fork in it. It’s done. Sometimes I wish the violent and bloody revolution that is coming will get here quick so we can just have a little excitement and get it over with.

Here’s a picture of a rainbow. 😉

On July 5th, 2008 in Lüneburg, there was and Oldtimer or Veteran Rally. That’s what Germans call it when a bunch of classic car owners get together and raise hell through the countryside.

I believe they started on Am Sande, drove through the area around Lüneburg and then ended up on the Marktplatz in front of the old Rathaus.

You will see many different kinds of cars here, that you may not typically see at American car shows. There was an old Model T, a Model A, and a sweet Mustang, but I think that was it as far as American cars. Well, there was also a WWII-era Jeep. There were a lot of Mercedes as well as a few models from Renault, Rolls Royce, Porsche, VW, Citroën, BMW, Opel, Aston Martin, MG, Jaguar as well as some I have never heard of before.

We found something interesting in our planter in front of our house. We didn’t plant it there. Honest! This has absolutely nothing to do with our recent trip to Amsterdam.

I saw it a few days ago when it was real small and just thought it was a weed, you know, the bad kind. Then a few days later as I was coming home from work, I noticed it was a bit larger.

Oh. hey…What?….Is that what I think it is?

We have a bench in front of our house right next to this and every so often we find people resting on it, or chilling, or passed out drunk. I assume someone was sitting there smoking bowls and threw there seeds and stems into the planter.

Unfortunately, this is still illegal in Germany. It was right out on the street in front of the world. As much as I would love to dabble in the horticultural sciences, we pulled it up and threw it away. You hear me? It’s gone! Don’t call me up and ask, “Hey dude, you got any stuff, dude?”

Two items of discussion today.

1. Amsterdam. Dude, that Amsterdam shit will knock you on your ass and make your brain stem sizzle. The coffee is good too. I took lots of pictures. I also attended my first MeFi-Meetup. We watched the Dutch football team get beat by the Russians. The facility where we saw it was awesome. It was in a restaurant on the top floor of a building directly on the harbor called Restaurant 11. There was a tremendous view over the city. It is also a nightclub and the game was shown in a huge room with several huge screens along the walls. It was great. Unfortunately the building is being demolished in just a few days so it was one of the last events taking place there.

   If you go to Amsterdam, you may be tempted to go on one of those big fancy canal cruises with the huge canal barge where some boring schmuck drones into a microphone. Resist that temptation and book a ride with the St. Nicholas Boat Club. You will not be sorry. This is the tour for those that want to see the real Amsterdam. It is totally relaxed and you can drink, eat and smoke whatever you want on the boat.

   If you are looking for a place to stay in Amsterdam, you may be tempted to book a room at an expensive hotel or hostel. Resist that temptation and book a room with citymundo.com. You can rent housboats, rooms, houses and more for a reasonable price.

   Amsterdam is famous for, among other things, its red-light district and coffee shops. There is much more though to see. That being said, it is fun to go to the red light district around 5pm, grab a beer at a corner pub and then sit down outside or at the window and just watch people go by. It’s fun to watch families from the Midwest find themselves in there and have their children ask questions like, “Why are those women standing there in their underwear?” Good times.

2. European Football Championship
   In case you have been living in a cave or just in the Western Hemisphere, you may not know that the European Football Championship is going on. The final is on Sunday and it will be between Germany and Spain. Whenever Germany wins, there is a party. Being the exemplary cultural ambassador that I am, I have been doing my part and joining in the festivities.
   The semi-final between Turkey and Germany provided interesting commentary. For some reason there seem to be a lot of German employees calling in sick recently. Almost every bar in town has a big screen tv set up for the games. It has been a boon to the local economy. We’ll shall see who the champions are on Sunday.

Hello Earthlings, Thanks to those that keep stopping by in anticipation of a new message from the cosmos. Alas, this message will be short. Me and the XX meat based sentient unit are escaping for a long weekend to a city you know as Amsterdam. In our absence I leave you with some non meat-based musical entertainment. Enjoy.

How long could you survive in the vacuum of space? Never mind, it turned into spam. Don’t click.

Don’t Smile Too Much, German Shop Assistants Warned

Are you fucking kidding me?

A German psychologist has warned “professional smilers” such as flight attendants and shop assistants that too much forced smiling can cause stress, depression and even heart problems. It’s unlikely to become a major health issue though — German customer service isn’t renowned for its friendliness.

Emphasis added by me. German shop assistants aren’t that bad, but if you had one that acted like a bubbly perky American clerk, you would think something was wrong. There is nothing unusual about a cashier having an attitude that ranges from dour to surly. I was contemplating this the other day at Rossmann as the cashier threw my change and receipt in roughly my general direction after making my purchase.

I think this whole smiling business might be one of those made-up German afflictions, like a Kreislaufstörung, or Anemophobia (fear of drafts). Germans are always opening and closing windows. On one hand they are scared of the draft (Es zieht! Mach das Fenster zu!) and on the other, they are always lüften-ing the room out (Ach, mein Kreislauf! Mach das Fenster auf!). That’s why German windows are so sturdy and kick-ass. They need to be with all that opening and closing.

If German passengers could open the windows on a Boing 747 mid-flight, they would. I wonder what the other astronauts had to do to keep Hans Schlegel from trying to open the windows in the International Space Station? (Ach komm schon! Nur ein bisschen Luft schnappen!) Well, actually, it looks like he didn’t get his wish. He was sick for one of his scheduled spacewalks.

Schlegel, 56, was diagnosed with an undisclosed illness as the shuttle docked with the space station.

You know what that means. Kreislaufstörung.