I am a full-time pedestrian again. *sigh*

Locked up my bike near the subway station at 2pm today. When I got back at 7pm it wasn't there anymore.

People are fuckin' arseholes. Didn't your momma teach you that you're not supposed to take other people's things?!?

>:(

Thank god it was, like, ten years old. But just four months ago I'd invested nearly €100 to fix the tyres, the brakes, lights, everything.

I found this so fuckin' interesting that I had to share.

This is from a Rolling Stone interview with Omar bin Laden, who is Osama bin Laden's son. He left his father's "camp" in the mountains in Afghanistan a good six months before the attacks of 9/11. He hated his father's violence and has chosen a peaceful life for himself. But what he has to say about his father's "plans" is astounding:

* * * * *

"I never thought the attack would be civilian buildings, like the World Trade Center," Omar says. "I thought it would be a ship, like the USS Cole. My father's dream was to bring the Americans to Afghanistan. He would do the same thing he did to the Russians. I was surprised the Americans took the bait. I so much respected the mentality of President Clinton. He was the one who was smart. When my father attacked his places, he sent a few cruise missiles to my father's training camp. He didn't get my father, but after all the war in Afghanistan, they still don't have my father! They have spent hundreds of billions. Better for America to keep the money for its economy. In Clinton's time, America was very, very smart. Not like a bull that runs after the red scarf."

"I was still in Afghanistan when Bush was elected," he continues. "My father was so happy. This is the kind of president he needs — one who will attack and spend money and break the country. Even Bush's own mother says he is the biggest idiot boy of his family. I am sure my father wanted McCain more than Obama. McCain has the same mentality as Bush. My father would be disappointed because Obama get the position."

"Do you think Obama can win in Afghanistan?"

"Out of what you see," Omar asks, "what do you think?"

According to Omar, Americans are actually lucky that his father has not been captured or killed. "It is going to be worse when my father dies," he says. "The world is going to be very, very nasty then. It will be a disaster."

"Omar always says that without the head, the arms and legs will run wherever," his girlfriend says.

[...]

As Omar sees things, his father had destroyed the Soviet empire. Now, nearly a decade after 9/11, his father's vision for an America of economic ruin and a soul-sapping war in Afghanistan has come to pass. As far as Omar is concerned, his father has brought ruin to two empires.

* * * * *


I don't know, for some reason the fact that Osama bin Laden is happy that the Bush administration went to war in Afghanistan because they "took his bait" makes me feel somewhat sick inside.

(Source: Rolling Stones article)

Man, I pretty much let this thing die... :/

Flew to California on August 21st, flew on to New York City on September 1st and flew back to Germany on September 13th. During those weeks I got to hang out in San Diego, Los Angeles, take a road trip to Las Vegas, spend time in New Jersey and New York City and take a road trip to Washington DC.

Much, much fun was had, and I kinda wanna write a real travel report with photos and everything... but my internet's upload rate is really slow (something might be wrong there) and it takes forever to upload pics. So who knows if I'll get around to it.

Since I got back in mid-September I've been hell busy: working my 20-hour law firm job, working my 11-hour online editorial office job, figuring out how to finish my studies and preparing my master's thesis and crap... Oh, and much time was spent planning the work & travel thing in Australia, which I plan to do next year with my best friend Sabrina. :D

We've already made a list of all the things we need to do before we go, and it ain't short.
There's so much to take care of when you wanna go overseas for 12 months. Not only will I have to either give up my apartment or find someone to sublet it to; I will also have to quit my jobs, cancel my health insurance here, get international health care coverage, get an international driver's license (the one I had in Australia in 2007 expired), get a new passport (my current one will expire in 2011 when I'll still be overseas), and I'm sure there's other things I'm forgetting... Oh, and then - of course - we'll have to apply for the work & travel visa early next year and book our flights. And save up shitloads of money. ;)

So yeah, as you can tell it's all coming together... lol.

Can't wait to go, though. It's almost up to the point where I don't even care what final grade I'll get on my Master's degree because I basically just wanna get my studies over with and get the hell outta here. Not because I don't like to live here and be with my family & friends here, but because I am just "itching" to go back to Australia - to where it's warm and sunny and people are laid-back and sweet and the beaches are heaven and the cities are exciting and the countryside is beautiful... It's been almost two years since I got back now (!) so by the time Sabrina and I fly there next August/September it will have been almost three years.

Also, this time around I wanna go to Adelaide and Perth and the west coast (I only saw the east coast and got as far south/west as Melbourne last time). I also wanna see some of the outback, go to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) and, of course, go back to all the places I fell in love with last time.

AND I'd love to go to New Zealand this time around, which I didn't have the time nor the money for in 2007.

Alright, I gotta run, I'm going over to my friend Eike's house for dinner and DVDs. Possibly making brownies together. Yum.

Since my last entry kind of became pointless after I found my iPod again (the assumed loss of which was the reason for my frustrated rant) I've decided I will now update with a little bit of an experiment.

I'll make a short post in English, then translate that into German. (For those of you who don't speak it and might be interested to see what it looks like...lol.) Finally, I will use a translator website and see what they come up with. Maybe hilarity will ensue. Here's hoping. :P


English

It's Friday night, shortly after 8pm, and I am at the office. Usually I wouldn't be here on Friday nights, but this week (and next week) I'm working all five nights instead of four because - as some of you will know - I am going to be spending four and a half days in London at the end of the month. So I basically swapped days with one of my colleagues by filling in for her these two Fridays so that she will work for me when I'm in London. Hence, no need to take any days off. :D Aren't we clever.

I will go out for a post-birthday cocktail with my friend Nicki tonight after work. Other than that I want to go to the gym twice this weekend and also desperately need to clean up my place. You get so much more neglectful when you live on your own. ;) :P

Alright, not much more to say so let's see what the translator website comes up with.

-----------

( My own German translation )

-----------

( German translation by a translator website - completely off )


LMFAO!!! Okay, this probably won't be very funny to anyone who doesn't speak German, but that text makes no sense whatsoever! These translator websites just take the English text and translate it word for word, which means the entire structure of the sentences, the grammar, and the order of the words (all those things that are COMPLETELY different in my language) are just the same as in English, therefore in German it is absolutely wrong. XD

It's like saying in English, "I have big hunger and want something eat" ;D

I am against the Pope.

I cannot understand any Catholic person who glorifies the Pope and follows his teaching simply because he's the Pope, without questioning his actions, methods, and ways of thinking.

Now, as most my friends will know I am an atheist so obviously I do not care for the Catholic faith or any other religions in this world.

But what the current Pope has done and continues to do these days is outrageous and shameful. Especially because the man is German.

He rehabilitated a group of previously excommunicated Traditionalist bishops who are against reforms in the Catholic church - they're essentially conservative hardliners who "reject the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965 which decided, among other things, that neither today's Jews nor the Jews of the time of Christ were all responsible for the death of Christ" (quoted from some website).

Among these rehabilitated conservative asshole bishops is one British guy named Williamson who, in various interviews, directly denied that the Holocaust happened: he doesn't think 6 million Jews were killed (according to him it was "only" 300,000) and he doesn't think that gas chambers existed in the concentration camps.

HOW COULD SOMEBODY NOT BELIEVE THAT THESE THINGS ARE TRUE?!?!
Why do they think anybody would LIE about the gas chambers? I just don't get these ignorant people. It makes me fuckin' furious. And to think that someone like that was re-integrated into the Catholic church! I don't believe for one second that the Pope didn't know about this bishop's beliefs.

(Oh, and by the way, in my country Holocaust denial is actually a crime!)

As if all those things that have been in the news these past few days weren't bad enough, now I find out that the Pope made another outrageous decision:

He appointed (if that's the right word) a new bishop in a town in Austria who thinks the Harry Potter books are "satanic", and that Hurricane Katrina was God's way of punishing the sins of the people of New Orleans (suggesting that those who died deserved it), and who doesn't want anybody in the Catholic church who's gone through divorce.


I know not all Catholics agree with this or think like this; but if you're a Catholic that means you accept the Pope as your "leader". Well, I think you shouldn't. You're wrong about it. I think he's just an old, conservative man (whose personal opinins on some of these matters we don't even know) who is given way too much power.

[/frustrated rant]

LOL this is so cute!!!

VIDEO: Sasha Obama gives her dad the thumbs up after inauguration

23 December 2008

9:20pm

Imke is still at the office and will be for another half an hour. Thankfully, there's not that much to do so she can use the office color printer to print out covers for CDs that she burnt last night (as Christmas presents for certain people).

Anyway.
After I get home tonight I'll have to wrap some gifts, pack my things, go to bed, sleep & then get up, put the cats into their boxes (which, hopefully, they'll let me do without too much protest!), take them to the cat boarding place, then go up to my parents' house... and spend Christmas there.

Ah yes, Christmas! That's happening, too.

Merry Christmas
to every one of my friends who may be reading this! *hugs* :) Hope you have a nice and, most improtantly, relaxing holiday...!!!

I don't know this guy and have never watched his show before, but damn, he just said everything exactly the way I see it! If two people of the same gender wanna get married, what's it to you??

( This is about politics, but it's funny )

If this man becomes president, it is not completely unlikely, given his age, that he might not survive his first term. Then the USA would have President Palin, which would even be worse. Check out ( this woman's stupidity )

OMG she doesn't even know what the Bush Doctrine is!!!!! How embarassing for someone who's a politician and someone who, as a Republican, supports President Bush!! Yet she doesn't even know what she's supporting. Not to mention the fact that, when she finally does answer the question, she says that it is okay for the U.S. to strike preemptively whenever intelligence suggests that another country might attack the U.S. Yeah, the same way the intelligence "strongly suggested" that Saddam Hussein was an "imminent" threat to the U.S. Basically, if they hadn't invaded Iraq, Saddam would've launched a nuclear weapon against America two days later!!!

Right?

Now, I'm not as naive as to think that if the Obama/Biden ticket wins the election, the world will be a peachy happy place. But if McCain/Palin wins, I do think the world will be a worse place.

This simply deserves its own entry.


You know you're German if...

You separate your trash into more than five different bins.
Your front door has a sign with your family name made from salt dough.
You carry a "4You" backpack.
You eat a cold dinner at 6pm.
You call your cell phone "handy" and a projector "beamer".
You have no problems with nude beaches and saunas.
You have asked your Asian-American friend, "No, but where are you *really* from?"
You have gotten splinters from environmentally friendly toiled paper.
You call an afternoon stroll "Nordic Walking".
You are shocked when you have to pay for dental care.
You own a pair of jeans in a color other than blue.
People start talking about Hitler and Hofbräuhaus when you tell them where you're from.
Tenth grade was all about dancing lessons.
You work 40 hour weeks and have 6 weeks of vacation a year, but complain about hard times.
Your childhood diet consisted of Alete and Zwieback. Your college diet consisted of Miracoli and Döner.
You were educated about sex by Dr. Sommer.
You yell at people for jaywalking.
You grew up watching "Löwenzahn" and "Die Sendung mit der Maus". And Baywatch.
You think college tuition is an outrage.
You routinely go 100mph on the highway and tailgate heavily.
On your last day of high school you made your teachers sing Karaoke and jump through hoops.
You wear brown leather shoes.
Your first audio tape was Benjamin Blümchen and Bibi Blocksberg.
You have ended an English sentence with "..., or?".
You can tell at least one Manta joke.
You're a college student in your 11th year.
You spent hours in school learning to pronounce "th".
You expect chocolate in your shoes on December 6th.
You complain that in other countries everything is dirty.


LMAO!! Most of those make me go "OMG yes!!!" :D

Anyway... off to bed.