Regarding cilantro ("koriander" auf deutsch): I'm really intrigued by this issue, and I've read so many opionions from the haters, that state cilantro tastes like soap to them. And yet many others state that at first they couldn't stand the taste, and then later grew to like it. So I'm still not sure whether it's truly a matter of different taste bud physiognamy, or just a matter of taste preference.
(I do detect a slightly soapy component in the herb, but especially when it's "not so fresh". When it's fresh, it's a lovely pungeant aroma, much like basil.)
Some people just don't like odd intriguing flavors, and others do. For instance, for those who hate anise, I doubt that it tastes different to them than to anise lovers. It's probably just too strong, herbal, and weird. Then there's milk vs dark chocolate. Some people just prefer the sensation of rich creamy mild milk choco, and others the exciting, complex, and less soothing flavor of dark. I think it's really just a reflection of personalities, and how one prefers to feel, rather than a difference in taste buds.
Also, I personally loathe ketchup. I'm sure I taste it the same way as everyone else: sweet, tangy, mild but vinegary. To me that's disgusting, the sugar ruins the flavor of any savory food it's put on. I far prefer very spicy tomato/salsa condiments, with no sugar. To others, it's the opposite, the sharpness gets in the way of the flavor, and they just prefer to have their food flavor washed over with sweetness.
To each his own -- you're free to indulge your inferior tastes, I'll stick with my correct ones :)
- Mood:
mischievous
Which doesn't imply I'm going to write such a thing right now. But I wanted to share this NPR story with people I know, some of whom I know are rabid cilantro-haters, so I'll just start here, to get back in the swing of things:
It's really bizarre how many flavors, including cilantro, anise, and amaretto, create such extreme reactions of love or loathing in different people. Here's some insight for you sad, boring people who apparently prefer flavors like parsley or water over cilantro:
Getting To The Root Of The Great Cilantro Divide
In particular, the cilantro-hating author of this piece embarks on some scientific sensory research, to determine whether the cause of his cilantro-aversion is indeed being a "supertaster", as many cilantro-haters pathetically claim.
However:
"This, it turns out, is the real problem. My whole life I've been unable to pick up on the scent that is so overwhelmingly good for cilantro lovers that it trumps any possible bad. I come to a disappointing realization: I am not an X-Man with superkeen sensory abilities. I am a sensory dud who's missing the true nature of cilantro."
- Mood:informative
So, that out of the way, just a quick update about this year so far. No major changes in status quo. OK, bye, thanks for reading!
Actually, the year has been a combination of incredibly lovely friends and events, interspersed with periods of general malaise. Chris & I threw a combined birthday party for ourselves March 8th, and I felt an incredible joy and appreciation for all my friends. There was a hilarious Fasching party, and a fun Crytek Christmas party as well. http://www.flickr.com/photos/bonemesh/c
Saw Emilie Autumn again, and also a few times now, at random places in Germany, I've hung out with "Vecona", one of Emilie's Bloody Crumpets, and the costume designer for the group, and others. She is one extremely talented, interesting, and sweet person. I'm just blown away by the creativity and beauty of her costumes. You can look up her work if interested, I somehow don't feel right providing an "unauthorised" plug to her business... maybe stupid, but.
Speaking of WGT, I'm going again this year. That's in 4 days! Several Frankfurters as well. Though sadly, a lot of people I've seen in previous years won't be going this time. A friend from Finland is visiting and it will be her first WGT, so I kinda get to see it thru virgin eyes again. Since she likes to bake, I got inspired to try it myself. I've never actually baked anything from scratch in my life. But I had this obsession to make zucchini "bread" (cake), so I found a bunch of recipes, gene-spliced and mutated them, and am now attempting a whole wheat brown sugar zucchini oatmeal spice monstrosity. The batter tasted lovely, so it has potential, but it's apparently too moist, and is taking too long to cook. We will see... I want my first creation to live!
- Mood:
excited
True, after I arrived at SeaTac Dec 30th to travel home, United delayed 3 flights, re-routed me once, kept me at SeaTac and SFO for 11 hours, and finally an hour after we boarded the plane destined for Frankfurt, cancelled the flight entirely. True, all passengers who had New Year's Eve plans in Europe didn't have them any more. True, I was one of the people with such plans, wanting to play with my friends at Batschkapp in Frankfurt. And truest of all, no one in their right mind should ever fly United again, as this was just the latest incidence of delay and brokenness they've subjected me to.
However, this odd combination of United's general incompetence, holiday chaos, and a leaky cockpit windshield, made my New Year holiday much more special and memorable than it likely would have been. As I stormed off the plane, doing my best to boil alive any airline crew I saw with my laser microwave eyes, I vowed that I would not let United win. I wasn't supposed to be back in San Francisco. I was there just 5 days ago, visted friends, Xmas shopped, danced, etc. But actually, there were some people I didn't get to see (or see enough) in SF last week, and I knew I could have a fun NYE. I was supposed to connect in DC, but was randomly re-routed through SFO. Lucky, lucky, they didn't strand me in, say, Saint Louis :-$
What I did the next 2 days
- Waited in line to get re-scheduled, etc, called and messaged a few friends. Most of them seemed fairly happy about my "ill" fortune :)
- Convinced the slow and confused United rep to book my flight late on the 1st, as I told them I would not be celebrating the New Year transition over the Atlantic Ocean, as they assumed.
- Got a hotel voucher for that night (only), took a shuttle to the Red Roof Inn, met some fellow stranded passengers in the crappy diner for midnight breakfast. Turned out to be quite enjoyable. A German woman, and a lovely couple from Lyon, one of whom didn't speak English, and was delighted that I could have even a rudimentary conversation with them in French. I was honestly in the mood for French toast, so we discussed the difference between that and "pain perdu". I also very deliberately told the waiter I wanted the "French toast", not "Freedom toast" as it was listed on the menu. Yes, it was a horribly embarassing moment to be an American. I didn't imagine any restaurant in the Bay area would take so red-neck a stance.
- Got a lovely refreshing sleep and shower.
- Went back to the airport, waited 2 more hours to finally get my bags (I had no change of clothes with me). Had coffee.
- Rented a damn car. Cost a lot, and I could perhaps have managed with BART, and rides from friends, but I didn't want any of this surprise vacation to be wasted on yet more hassles and delays.
- Met my friend Ben again, one of the people I didn't spend enough time with before. Until last week, I hadn't seen him for 8 years, and was very surprised to find him living in SF. We spent the afternoon having lunch, and talking about wildly various stuff, including math, dating, and improvising recipes. He also had been going to Death Guild recently, something I never would have imagined him doing. We both got ready for Death Guild at his place, though we went separately.
- Called the beautiful and hilarious
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
voodoosmile, arranged to go with her to Death Guild too. Though we had sushi and stuff last week, I was very happy to spend more time with her as well. I met her and some friends / roommates at a small NYE party first, and because everyone was being so silly and friendly, we ended up passing the midnight hour there, and got to Death Guild quite late. - Got to the Glas Kat, and had a great NY party there. Dancing, laughing with friends, observing club drama. Not too different from a regular DG, but in my situation, more than worth the $20.
- Got to finally see Amber (my ex-wife). Last week, we were both very sad not to see each other, as she was out of town that week. She's still very special to me... almost immediately after splitting up 3 years ago, we became close friends, and have kept in fairly regular touch ever since. She looked awesome, and seemed overall happy and in good shape. Danced a storm, despite recent knee problems :) I was really lucky to see her.
- After the club, Sophie and I decided to look for breakfast instead of after-parties. After some failed options, we ended up at the Lucky Penny, which is perfectly acceptable when you just want basic breakfast. It was quite fun. She generously let me crash at her place, so we went back there, and talked some more with the roommates, till it was finally beddy-bye time.
- Woke up the next morning semi-refreshed, packed up, and got coffee. There were people I wanted to see before my flight. It turned out I just caught up by phone with Ben and Amber, there wasn't time to meet them again. I did see my friend Molly, who was only able to meet me for an hour last week. But I finally met her pet snake, and then we caught up some more over a not-so-greasy Mel's lunch.
- Went to the airport, turned in the car, and.... despite the standard totally inefficient, tiring, and aggravating United check-in process... the plane actually took off and flew to Frankfurt!!!
- Mood: happy
- Music:Wundervolle Weihnachtszeit (2 euro convenience store CD)
Warning: Don't even look at the London picutres, they're completely boring :)
Yeah, I was pretty sick of sight-seeing by the time we got to London, so I didn't do much, or take any pictures of note. I'd been there several times before, and really just wanted to have fun and enjoy the city itself. Which I did actually. Met some old and new friends, shopped, had great meals, slept, and went to some very cool parties.
But for token visual adornment, here's the Generator hostel, and the awesome Camden Market.
From Edinburgh, we took a comfy train to London, for our last 5 days of fun... or something like it.
The first couple days we visited my ex-Lucas Arts friends, Charlie and Rachell, in their cute Barnes flat (SW London). Was really comfy and nice, they fed us great food, and we got to play a bit with their 2 year old, and shop for birthday presents for her (Dr Seuss, and a fantasically illustrated fairy tale book).
I went to Camden Town market twice, once with Kwan (it was my first time), then again another day. Say what you will if you're jaded, but I love the place :) Dozens of punk / goth clothing stores, some of them truly unique, Cyberdog store, which is an experience in itself, lots of ethnic street food. Nothing exactly cheap, but worth it I think for all being in the same place.
Next 3 days we stayed at the Generator, this funky hostel that presents a chill / party image, and partially lives up to it. We also met Kwan's Australian friend Jo, and her boyfriend Ed, who were very fun, and hung out with them a couple nights. Went to the Intrepid Fox pub (goth central hangout), Devonshire Arms bar / dance club for an 80s night, another weird 80s / goth party in a small 3-story converted flat, and finally on the last night, the Slimelight. That was a very fun night, they played a usual dark music mix on the main floor, and some varying hard techno on the upper. A lot of weird people there, most nice, some a little worrying. And the final night we stayed up all night before our flight home.
Another note
(for those who care anything about spatial / temporal / emotional relationships)
This trip, I brought along an itsy GPS tracker, which I later used to geotag all my photos.
Also, I'm going back to flickr for the time being for my photo hosting. It's more full featured, and I like the community involvement, and mutual discovery, even if I'm taking very few artistic photos. One of the reasons I'm down on Fotki is that their mapping feature is very primitive, and it does not import Exif GPS data! You have to manually re-place any photos you want to map. Retarded. So I switched back to flickr, only to discover that, on practically the day I uploaded, they had rolled out a new mapping system, which by virtually unanimous user opinion, is a complete disaster. Utterly confusing UI, only able to view 15 photos on a map at a time (!!!), and no way to actually search for photos on a map region by user, tag, etc. But at least they have something. If you go to any of my sets, and click on the "map" link, you'll get a map loaded, with a ribbon of photos that at least lets you see 15 at a time. Again, for those who care ;)
The first couple days we visited my ex-Lucas Arts friends, Charlie and Rachell, in their cute Barnes flat (SW London). Was really comfy and nice, they fed us great food, and we got to play a bit with their 2 year old, and shop for birthday presents for her (Dr Seuss, and a fantasically illustrated fairy tale book).
I went to Camden Town market twice, once with Kwan (it was my first time), then again another day. Say what you will if you're jaded, but I love the place :) Dozens of punk / goth clothing stores, some of them truly unique, Cyberdog store, which is an experience in itself, lots of ethnic street food. Nothing exactly cheap, but worth it I think for all being in the same place.
Next 3 days we stayed at the Generator, this funky hostel that presents a chill / party image, and partially lives up to it. We also met Kwan's Australian friend Jo, and her boyfriend Ed, who were very fun, and hung out with them a couple nights. Went to the Intrepid Fox pub (goth central hangout), Devonshire Arms bar / dance club for an 80s night, another weird 80s / goth party in a small 3-story converted flat, and finally on the last night, the Slimelight. That was a very fun night, they played a usual dark music mix on the main floor, and some varying hard techno on the upper. A lot of weird people there, most nice, some a little worrying. And the final night we stayed up all night before our flight home.
Another note
(for those who care anything about spatial / temporal / emotional relationships)
This trip, I brought along an itsy GPS tracker, which I later used to geotag all my photos.
Also, I'm going back to flickr for the time being for my photo hosting. It's more full featured, and I like the community involvement, and mutual discovery, even if I'm taking very few artistic photos. One of the reasons I'm down on Fotki is that their mapping feature is very primitive, and it does not import Exif GPS data! You have to manually re-place any photos you want to map. Retarded. So I switched back to flickr, only to discover that, on practically the day I uploaded, they had rolled out a new mapping system, which by virtually unanimous user opinion, is a complete disaster. Utterly confusing UI, only able to view 15 photos on a map at a time (!!!), and no way to actually search for photos on a map region by user, tag, etc. But at least they have something. If you go to any of my sets, and click on the "map" link, you'll get a map loaded, with a ribbon of photos that at least lets you see 15 at a time. Again, for those who care ;)
- Location:virtual London
- Mood: mischievous
Oh, at the disgusting chippy shop, they not only sold batter-fried fish, but as long as they had the batter already made, batter-fried sausages, pizza, and hamburgers as well. On the plus side, Kwan & I had the best Chinese buffet ever. Almost 100 different dishes.... explodelicious.
I also managed to go to a dive club called the Cathouse on Friday. As close as Glasgow gets to goth, a big grungey college-style bar, they played a lot of NIN, nu-metal, alternative stuff, and it was pretty fun.
Glasgow
My impression was, this wouldn't be a bad place to live. It's a lively city, with lots to do, and lots of different sections. Most of it is fairly modern and un-pretty, but there are lovely historical buildings and neighborhoods scattered all over. The Necropolis, with its spindly monuments staring down onto Glasgow Cathedral a from a hill, was truly ominous, and reminded me a bit of the Barrow Wights from FOTR (that didn't make it into the movie). On the other side of the city, the University of Glasgow, and Kelvingrove museum, are astoundingly beautiful buildings.
Edinburgh
As millions have said before, one of the most beautiful and well-preserved medieval cities in the world. You can spend the day hiking up the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle, down again to St Giles Cathedral, through a bunch of windy streets to visit shops or restaurants, cross the river to a more mainstream urban area, with a spectacular view back to the medieval skyline, hike up Calton Hill, which has a strange collection of a cemetery, Governor's Mansion (in the form of a mini castle), and Greek-style monument.
I'd advise against the Edinburgh Tourist-Trap / Dungeon. Kwan wanted to go, as it's done by the same company as the famous London Dungeon, but it turned out to be much lamer. Even if it were well done, I think it's completely superfluous to have a haunted dungeon attraction, with fake ghosts and medieval chambers, in a city chock full of the real thing.
I also visited the Scotch Whiskey Heritage Center. Didn't have time for the overpriced tour, but had fun browsing dozens of brands of scotch, and picking up a few minis as stocking stuffers.
As millions have said before, one of the most beautiful and well-preserved medieval cities in the world. You can spend the day hiking up the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle, down again to St Giles Cathedral, through a bunch of windy streets to visit shops or restaurants, cross the river to a more mainstream urban area, with a spectacular view back to the medieval skyline, hike up Calton Hill, which has a strange collection of a cemetery, Governor's Mansion (in the form of a mini castle), and Greek-style monument.
I'd advise against the Edinburgh Tourist-Trap / Dungeon. Kwan wanted to go, as it's done by the same company as the famous London Dungeon, but it turned out to be much lamer. Even if it were well done, I think it's completely superfluous to have a haunted dungeon attraction, with fake ghosts and medieval chambers, in a city chock full of the real thing.
I also visited the Scotch Whiskey Heritage Center. Didn't have time for the overpriced tour, but had fun browsing dozens of brands of scotch, and picking up a few minis as stocking stuffers.
Stirling
Another fantasticly preserved medieval city, just an hour north of Glasgow. Another high hill with windy streets to climb, to an intact castle. Historical gaols and renaissance residences along the way, and lots and lots of pretty houses. Stirling Castle was quite important historically, situated on an easily-defensible berg at the cross-roads of the high and lowlands. And it has a beautiful view of the Wallace Monument. Oh, there was also a really good Indian restaurant!
Another fantasticly preserved medieval city, just an hour north of Glasgow. Another high hill with windy streets to climb, to an intact castle. Historical gaols and renaissance residences along the way, and lots and lots of pretty houses. Stirling Castle was quite important historically, situated on an easily-defensible berg at the cross-roads of the high and lowlands. And it has a beautiful view of the Wallace Monument. Oh, there was also a really good Indian restaurant!
- Location:virtual Scotland
- Mood:
awake
Lahti
Anyway, we arrived in this dinky town, to visit these girls Kwan & I had met at M'era Luna. And all the aggravation and stress from traveling disappeared soon after seeing them. Tiia and Anne met us at the bus, said they had been drinking all day, and were happy to continue. We talked about going out to bars or something, but ended up staying in and having a "pajama party". Which was really pretty quiet, but a neighbour left a complainy note under the door anyway, which we of course ignored (see below). Probably not the best idea, because the next knock on the door was the police. There was a 10 minute interrogation, that Kwan & I sat terrified through, not understanding a word, but the officers were pretty quickly convinced that we were doing nothing at all wrong, and went back to chew out the neighbor.
We spent a couple days in Lahti. Mostly walking into town to buy food and many many beverages, then going home to eat, listen to music, watch movies, play games, drink, and whatever. It was very very fun. We played a silly boardgame based on "Moomin", a creepy but cute series of Finnish cartoon characters. Finland has some weird food too. Really delicious is rice bread, a kind of pastry topped with non-sweet rice pudding -- breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Kwan accidentally bought blueberry soup -- thinking it was juice. And they have tar schnapps; flavored with real tar, or something like it, tastes burnt and sweet and very good.
Also, the second night, we met with my friend Mikko. He's a fellow programmer at Crytek, and it turns out bizarrely, not only does he also come from Lahti, but he was visiting his parents the same days I was there. It was too bizarre a situation not to take advantage of. So he and a friend did meet us at a couple bars, and back to Tiia's for more socializing into the wee hours.
Helsinki
The four of us then took a train down to Helsinki, hoping to have some fun there, and do something on Halloween, before 3 of us had to fly out. Hahahahahahaha. It was one of the saddest Halloween nights I can remember. First, Finland doesn't really "do" the holiday. Second, it was on a Wednesday. So, uh... we found a club that claimed to have a Halloween party, and the less said about that place, the better. We stayed an hour, and were glad we wasted only an 8 euro entrance fee. After that, some bar hopping, an Aussie bar (of course), and 2 metal bars. (I somehow get the impression metal is popular in Finland). All dead. It was pretty funny actually, so sad it became entertaining. At least we enjoyed each other's company. Also, the night after Halloween, we went back to the Inferno Bar, and, tired of the metal music, decided to annoy the other 5 patrons by playing Guitar Zero... very very badly :)
Aside from that, and the usual shopping and late night drinking (this time in a hotel), there were some pretty cool things to see in Helsinki. A nice cemetary, with squirrels (if you look at it on Google Earth, half the pictures are of red squirrels). An ancient sea fortress on a chilly island. A harbor with a lot of character, almost beautifully gloomy and grey.
After the Inferno Bar, we went back to the hotel, as usual, to drink until our plane left. Since our navigatoresses were already well on their way to drunk, it took about twice as long as usual to find the hotel. On the way, we ran into 2 Itialian guys, who could never adequately explain how they got to Helsinki, just that they didn't like being there. Understandable. So they came back to the hotel too. Yet another ridiculous time.
Even though Finland was by far the worst sight-seeing destination on the trip, I, at least, loved the whole visit.
- Mood:
nostalgic
(All ze pictures here)
Paris
We stayed a week here. Spent some time with these people (Mathieu & Maya). Became pretty good friends, and in between went to a lot of bars, a goth party on the Seine, even a private fetish party at Maya's. No pics of that, I'm afraid.
During the days, Kwan & I ran our bodies (and moods) ragged, seeing the most beloved sites of Paris: cemeteries and catacombs!
There was also a Dali Museum, an Erotic Museum, some churches, and a big metal tower some guy built a while ago.
Of course the best thing in Paris, and the only real reason to go, was:
Seriously, as I mentioned before, it's a mutant Disney well worth seeing, especially the Fantasyland scenery, and Space Mountain.
- Mood:
finally - Music:EBM radio
San Francisco, Dec 21 ~ 24 (Fri ~ Mon). See whichever friends I can, finish Xmas shopping, have some decent food again, and most likely visit Pop Roxx Saturday, and Death Guild Xmas Eve (even if I'm the only one there).
Seattle area, Dec 25 ~ 30 (Tue - Sun). Traditional (sort of) Xmas time with the littermates in Gig Harbor, excessively relax and indulge in doing nothing, visit Seattle a couple of times, probably the Merc Fri or Sat, see whichever friends I can.
Frankfurt, Dec 31. Again this year, after contemplating alternatives, will ring in Silvester in the home town. It was fun last year. Though Berlin is still an option....
Like I said, if anyone's going to be around at this time, drop me a note!
Vacation continues... currently in Glasgow, using the internet at the library. Has been very adventurous and weird so far. Gorgeous scenery, beautiful times, and a lot of stress. I'll just say that things will be different when we get back.
But to continue the Paris trip. Oh, I do love Paris. Besides being eye-wateringly beautiful in so many areas, the vibe is infectious. People just seem very content to be Parisiens, whether they're smiling or frowning. They just look confident, and at home in their city & life. Much of Germany seems so... awkward in comparison. And in style, and my god, in food, there's just no comparison.
So, besides the sites & cemetaries I wrote about last time, we did a few big things. Thursday was Disneyland. Extremely fun, for me mostly :) Comparing it to LA Disneyland was a blast. The Paris version is smaller, and a lot of things are different, and not as good, some things are better. The Phantom Manor is half the same as the Haunted Mansion, but the outdoor graveyard is replaced with an Old West Tombstone themed one. Space Mountain kicks ass over the LA version. Incredible G-forces, mag-lev, loop, and even darker. And Fantasyland has an excellent Alice in Wonderland walk-through maze. We had an excellent seafood lunch and bottle of wine at the Blue Bayou restaurant. We left when we were tired and freezing. I think Kwan really enjoyed it, even tho she went mostly for me.
Shit, out of time again...
Monday we flew into Paris, and expected Kwan's friend Mathieu to pick us up at the airport. But due to a transit strike, certain Metro lines were down, so we had to take a bus into the city. There we met Matheiu and his friend Maya, had some drinks, then went to apparently the main Paris alternative bar, the Black Dog. In most countries outside Germany, alternative = metal. The popularity of goth, industrial, even punk is much smaller by comparison. Anyway, it was a very atmospheric bar, appropriately metal, filled with smoke, but fun. Afterwards, went back to Mathieu's for more drinks, and the conversation took a serious turn, as many do influenced by alcohol. After that bonding of a sort, we all spent more time together off and on during the week.
Tuesday, Kwan & I started on her sight-seeing agenda, starting with of course, the Eiffel Tower. I was making fun of her for nagging about seeing the most cliched attraction first, and when she first saw it and said, "ah, no big deal", I laughed and pretend slapped her around a bit. But it is actually impressive and beautifully designed, and it was fun and a lot of exercise to climb the stairs. Then we went to the famous catacombs in Montparnasse, an underground infrastructure carved out in the 18th century, then in the 19th century during a plague, filled with corpses transferred from all the surrounding cemetaries. There are litterally millions of bones lining kilometers of corridors, stacked in neat rows, with the skulls set in interesting patterns, including a heart-shaped one. We were satisfied to take the official tour, but apparently there are many more passages that haven't been opened to the public, and some residents of Paris like taking illegal catacomb tours.
Later in the week, we saw 3 cemetaries, including the gorgeous Montmartre and Pere Lachaise, the Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, a Dalis Museum, the Erotic Meseum, and a Medieval Museum.
Um, was going to finish this, but out of time. Currently in Finland, and Kwan, our friends and I are leaving their home now in Lahti to Helsinki for 2 nights. So have to finish later. Bye!
But I'm marking the end of the project by taking a nice complicated vacation. So I've spent my new free time (trying to) plan for that, and also stupidly planning a party 2 days before, and cleaning the apartment for the first time in a year, so it could stay clean for an hour... But the party was great, people seemed to enjoy themselves. Can't believe how much alcohol they went through (not me, of course).
Pics: Oktoberfestchen
Thanks very much to
kali_666 for helping out a lot with the party, and mostly for being the inspiration and most of the perspiration for this trip. I guess that's about it for now. We'll be in various places for 3 weeks, seeing old and new friends,
![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
rodneyorpheus and sepheri included. It's now 6am, and like a moron I'm still up finishing packing, and wasting time on things like LiveJournal. Good night.... eventually.- Mood: excited
Less than 2 weeks till we leave for Paris. I'm just now starting to have time to get excited. Listening to various French podcasts at night to refresh the college français. Not that I'll be able to have meaningful conversations, but in my experience so far in foreign countries, any amount helps. I think the Saturday before, I'd like to have a combined bon-voyage, pre-Halloween, any-excuse-to-party party. At the moment, it sounds very appealing.
P.S. My roomie Chris is currently vacationing in Cairo. Have fun and be careful!
- Mood: accomplished
It struck me today while reinstalling the OS on my home PC, that it's quite similar to molting. My old shell had gotten worn, cracked, faded, and slow. It couldn't repair itself any more. I didn't want a different OS. Just a brand new version of the same thing. But shedding the old skin and growing a new one is traumatic, and a bit scary. You're naked for a while, without your convenient and necessary tools, programs, and settings. It takes a few days for the shell to harden, gain colour, and become a new home again. But when it does, you feel rejuvenated, stronger, and safer.
Wish me a good molt!
2. Near Paris
Today, Kwan & I were planning some things to do in Paris. Besides the obvious -- cemetaries, ossuaries -- it suddenly occurred to me:
Disneyland ParisMake that, pre-Halloween in Disneyland Paris! Hmm, I actually don't know that much about the park. But having been to Cali Disneyland a few dozen times, the combination of similarities and differences are going to be fascinating. Yes, they have a "haunted mansion".
- Mood: jazzed
kali666 came over, made a delicious fish dinner, and then, after weeks of haphazard and incomplete planning, we poured a couple draughts of absinthe, sat down, and finally booked the flights for our vacation this October+November. Hahaha, our ridiculous plans are actually going to happen!Ridiculous, because we're making a 3-week mini-European tour, to cities chosen solely on the basis of one of us knowing someone there. Ridiculous, because the trip to each city had to be booked individually. We used kayak.com, and it wouldn't do a 5-way multi-segment combined trip. Ridiculous, because some of the flight times and exchanges will make us annoyed and exhausted. And I hope it will be a blast. Combination of friend-seeing and sight-seeing (well, in some places at least).
Itinerary
- Oct 22 - 28th: Paris. Nothing else need be said.
- Oct 28th - 31st: Lahti, Finland. Coming back from Paris to Frankfurt, staying in the airport a few hours, flying to Helsinki late at night, then taking a 1-hour bus to Lahti.
- Oct 31st - Nov 2nd: Helsinki. Our friends will come back to Helsinki with us, to do something or other there for 2 days. Halloween in Helsinki!!!! Fun... maybe... hopefully?
- Nov 2nd - Nov 6th: Glasgow. Flying out early morning. Probably stay up the night before.
- Nov 7th - Nov 11th: London. Found a £ 16 train trip, which will be only slightly longer than a flight + additional transport, and much more convenient and pleasant.
- Nov 11th: Vacation done. Back to Frankfurt. And start planning my winter vacation to the States...
- Mood: vacationy
Like Alien. Beautiful.
- Mood:
fascinated
One thing that just caught my interest, a new series on the HD-only satellite network Voom. Dead Art explores cemetaries, and the artistic or fascinating contents therein. It sounds great... something I'd love to see in HD (along with LOTR of course). Then I read who the series host was. Disappointed! So, in all likelihood, it will be more annoying & lame than truly inspiring. Still, I would without doubt watch a couple episodes... if I had Voom... and an HDTV.
(Realistically, I'll probably wait till after Xmas to get one. They'll be even cheaper then, and face it, I'm hella busy until then anyway.)
- Mood: enthralled
However, I've been very busy. And often overwhelmed, overstimulated, occasionally depressed, overjoyed, or overtoxicated. I find it hard to communicate with people unless I feel organised in my life, and I haven't been. So I barely avoid making the people near me mad, by occasionally acknowledging their existence, and sometimes fail at that. That said, I still do write a lot privately. Log events, chew ideas, impressions, and emotions.
Anyway, I've also taken pictures of recent events, so I could save a few thousand words by just showing those.
2 weekends ago was M'era Luna. One of the most fun festivals I've been to. Was really happy to go to 2 so far this summer, in addition to WGT. Kwan (
kali666) and I went together, shared a tent with some friends, which we helped set up at midnight in the rain. Saw lots of Frankfurt friends there, saw lots of bands. Hung out a lot at the Moon Bar (cocktail stand), getting drunk while listening to bands not quite interesting enough to stand and see. Met 2 lovely people from Finland, spent a lot of time with them, and had a teary goodbye wine party. We might visit them this fall, when we both have vacation, as well as France & Scotland. Kwan was (mostly) a very fun festival companion. 
A week later, there was a little outdoor goth gettogether at the Frankfurt Alte Oper. Pretty uneventful, although some nice pics of friends. The police did chase us away, even though we were very quiet and polite. People just didn't like the way we looked.
About a month ago, our friend Ines had a small birthday party, and some of her dolls got drunk and totally had seks together. We took pictures of course. Michael Jackson & My Pretty Pony.... who would have thought (besides everyone).
Also, here are random pictures of friends and such at clubs, mostly stolen off the net. There are more albums on my Fotki site, which you can look around at. I'm slowly uploading my pic collection there.
This is a pic from the Cruxshadows concert in Frankfurt. I'm only a partial fan of theirs... songs vaguely appealing or pretty, but the Xian influence bugs me.
It's not all clubbing and fun, of course. Still working hard at finishing Crysis, and it's coming along very nicely. Starting to look forward to what comes next, though! And trying to find time to finish Harry Potter 7. It's a sad comment that I can't even spare an hour a night to do that... Oh my god, I had a dream last night that someone did spoil the ending for me, and I almost beat him up.
I'll just post this here, because I don't know where else to do it, and LiveJournal is my current "default" thought-recording medium. And that's the problem.
I'm desperately in need of a tool or system for comprehensively storing and organising.... mental stuff. All my current tools are either a bit too cumbersome, lacking features, or don't work together well. And that means I don't use them as much as I could, and my plans aren't as organised as they could be.
And the tool(s) have to do the following:
- Store a variety of heterogeneous stuff: random thoughts and ideas, to-dos, ongoing brainstorming things, links / bookmarks / interesting articles I find, and just to throw everything into the same pot, calendar and contact items as well.
- Very fast to use, letting me jot down something with as little or much info as I want.
- Let me tag and otherwise categorise it the way I want, and associate meta-data such as links, dates, (and wtf not, geo-coords).
- Bookmarks and saved web articles as well (this can be a separate tool).
- Automatically time-stamp everything I enter (even things that normally don't have dates such as contacts and links).
- Be very easily searchable, by timeline, tags, etc. Let me re-org and prune items when I get around to it.
- Ideally, be more than just a PIM conglomeration, and allow higher-level outlining, mind-mapping, white-boarding, etc.
- Be online, and instantly accessible or syncable to any computer.
- Sync with my Windows Mobile phone.
Yet I'm not willing to just opt out of the ridiculous input of the information age. I want tools that let me spend only as much time as necessary saving, finding, and creating important or fun stuff.
I already know of many tools that can do at least some of this (google apps for instance), and I know I'm capable of researching and ultimately finding the best possible tools myself. But I wouldn't mind hearing ideas others have (and I wanted to get all my thoughts and requirements down here).
- Mood: explody
- Music:Biodustrial Radio
99% of the time in Germany, I don't need or want a car. It's so strange, in the States I had a license and car continually since I was 17. I couldn't imagine existing without one, and grew easily annoyed with people who didn't drive and always mooched rides. Well, the necessity of a personal auto is definitely different in California vs Europe, but still, I've found it really odd to be on the other side of the driver / moocher fence.
On a few occasions where I really needed a car, such as when we drove to Frankfurt every weekend to look for flats, or to Woodstage last month, I rented one. Which was a great solution, with one minor drawback: I was driving illegally. See, whether your foreign driver's license is valid in Germany depends on which country it's from, and in the case of the U.S., which state. So, California, the driving capital of the world, apparently has such abysmal standards for driving skill that it's in the lowest category of license transferal: a Calif license is valid for only the first 6 months you live in Germany. After that, you have to take a full German driving exam, written and practical. Und es kostet viel Geld!
Fortunately (I guess), these rules are too complicated for rental car companies to check. As long as I show them my current U.S. license, they really have no idea how long I've lived here, and whether my particular license is valid. It's all my own risk to take, and I just hope I don't get pulled over. And so far, I've been lucky, though
kali_666 was highly freaked out by idea of us driving 4 hours to Woodstage under such circumstances, and friends back in Frankfurt were debating that weekend whether I was currently enjoying the concert, or rotting in jail.So, now I'm committed. I could plead unenforceable contract due to inebriation Saturday night. But I'm actually happy with the challenge. Now to look for driving schools.
- Mood:
nervous - Music:And One
Heh.... it wasn't my night. On the way, the rain got stronger again, and I started to get mildly soaked. But it wasn't that bad, until the huge friendly truck drove friendlily by me and through a deep friendly puddle. We're talking a Splash Mountain sized wave washing over me. I swore creatively for about 10 seconds, then decided to laugh it off. The water was warm, and there was beautiful lightning everywhere. What would life be without silly unexpected happenings like this?
It has been raining all summer. 4 out of 5 days it's at least on-and-off drizzle. Last week was non-stop pouring, every day. It's really wack here. This comes after a winter with no snow. Yeah, I partially find it all amusing, but... sometimes, you just want something you can rely on, you know? Like, a summer with dry days... where you can, you know, plan things outside? At least 3 outdoor events this summer have been canceled due to people idiotically assuming that a summer day would be rain-free. So, yes, it's amusing... but also annoying. Like a certain friend or relative (most of us have them) who you can never rely on. Any promise they make about something they're going has an equal chance of either being kept or not, so you now simply ignore such promises. Too bad, really. If only the weather weren't such a fair-weather friend.
- Mood: amused
