My Country Shame on Thee

The main thing I’ve gained (well, the money’s a close second…) since moving over to Germany is actually a bit sad. What I’ve gained is a rather vivid understanding of how America has pretty much lost its way…

Now don’t get me wrong here – there is no other place that I would rather live than America; however I’ve been starting to think that the only reason for this is the language issue. You see, communication is extremely important and the only place that I feel comfortable with my communication skills is America – and that’s purely due to the fact that I was raised there. I do not have a firm enough grasp on any foreign language to be able to successfully express myself (and let’s face it – I’m not willing to put in the effort to change this). The result, of course, is that I need to live in the states. This doesn’t mean that I need to be happy with what America seems to be turning into and I believe it’s about time somebody started speaking up. “We the people” need to really take a good look at what’s going on…

I got a comment from Sherry on my How Not to Behave on Christmas post about drug testing that reminded me of one of our nation’s issues – as a nation, we’ve become way too willing to let societal norms be mandated by others. It seems that the individual has lost control of what is most important – his own life. I’m sure that many of you out there will disagree with me; however I really don’t care what somebody does on their own time as long as it doesn’t have a negative impact on others. And by “others” here I am referring to people unassociated with the action that this person has decided to partake in – the “innocents”.

It seems to me that way too many laws are being passed these days that are designed to limit an individual’s rights in an attempt to force that individual to “fly straight”. That’s great but shouldn’t it be up to the individual to discover his own flight path? I mean just because certain citizens believe that there are some practices that are considered unacceptable behavior doesn’t – at least to me – mean that all of these practices need to be outlawed. Perhaps certain aspects need to be reigned in (you can drink alcohol all you want, but driving under the influence is a punishable offense) but to completely outlaw a behavior just because some people are going to do stupid things is not what I would call “freedom”. In fact it is an excellent example of pure subjugation and living in “the land of the subjugable” doesn’t have quite the same enticement as living in “the land of the free”.

Now granted I’ve done some pretty stupid things in my life (and if you’ve been reading my blog this should be clearly evident); however I have always taken responsibility for any actions I have taken. I’ve been lucky enough (at least so far) to avoid any consequences that would ruin my life; however I have “rolled the dice” a few times and I am well aware that many of those dice rolls were imbecilic. The thing is that “freedom” gives me the option to take these chances – it leaves the decision up to me. If you want to live in a free society, you need to understand that it comes at a cost. I think the cost is that you need to be willing to allow others to decide for themselves how their lives should be lived. Sometimes, bad decisions are made – that’s just human nature…

I don’t know… It seems to me that what seems to be in limited supply these days is respect. Whenever a freedom is abolished it is because somebody took advantage of this freedom to disrespect others. The junkie that made the decision (and a “decision” is what it was) to abandon society in order to live out his life in some sort of chemically induced euphoria shows absolute disrespect to anybody that was relying on him to continue to be able to properly function in society. Is this the fault of whatever drug this individual has let himself become a slave to? Nope. The fault falls completely on the individual. As far as I know, no drug exists that is capable of auto-ingestion. Does the fact that some people are stupid enough to abuse these drugs mean that the drugs, themselves, should be outlawed? I believe not…

Okay, before I turn this post into an argument for drug legalization (that was just an example), let me get back to my main topics of freedom and the American image. For most Americans “America” and “Land of the Free” are synonymous. That’s what we’re taught in school and few of us ever even question the correlation. The question that one needs to now contemplate is – as long as we sit back and continue to watch our freedoms slowly get revoked – how long will it take for these terms to become unrelated? The rest of the world already seems to be taking notice of this and it really is doing quite a bit of damage to the American image on the global stage.

The saddest part is that this revocation of our rights has actually become political ammunition and for all the wrong reasons. I mean how the hell did homosexual marriage become an issue? I mean who cares? So a couple of guys decide to get married? Is this going to be the end of the world? Umm, nope. All it’s going to do is create one more family. Perhaps you don’t agree (based on your own subjective definition as to what actually constitutes a “family”), but should this stop them from having the freedom to get married? Oh well, I suppose they could always move to some other country that allows same-sex marriage (the Netherlands, perhaps…) or live in one of the states that allow it (Massachusetts or Canada – but I tease…); but if they happen to live in one of the other 49 states I guess they just don’t get that freedom.

And we, as Americans, should be completely ashamed of ourselves for what we have let air travel to, from and within the United States become. Although all the silly little rules that the TSA has forced people to live by has done very little (somewhere on the order of nothing) to help protect us (check this out…), they sure have weakened the image of us throughout the world. I mean we basically threw out the fourth amendment for nothing more than paranoia. I mean how are we supposed to be viewed as the “Land of the Free” when we are so quick to dismiss a portion of the Bill of Rights out of paranoia?

I’ll admit that I don’t have any simple solution for getting America, once again, focused on what’s really important – letting freedom ring (although impeaching Bush seems like a good start…). I hope, however, that this silly little blog entry has maybe gotten you to look at this from a different perspective. Who knows, maybe sometime in the future being an American might once again become something to be proud of whilst traveling abroad … we can only hope…

bis später,

Coriolis

How Not to Behave on Christmas

So, last Friday the company that I am currently contracted to here in Germany threw their annual Christmas (Weihnachten) party. I didn’t go. Turns out, I believe, that ended up being a good decision on my part. For one thing, the entire thing (I guess they had a band there) was done in German. As I am sure most of you are already aware, I do not speak (or understand) German. Yeah, I know, that’s nobody’s fault but my own – the fact remains that I am completely unable (well, “unwilling” at least) to comprehend things when they are delivered to me in Deutsch.

Also, I saved myself €20 by not attending. You see, the party is free to the full-time employees of this company; however, if we contractors wanted to attend, we needed to shell out €20 (€30 if you wanted to bring a guest). I actually asked Julie if she wanted to attend this party to get a bit of insight into the corporate world that she will soon enough be entering (Oh, by the way, congratulations are due for Julie as she has just recently been accepted to the University of Florida on a “full-ride” academic scholarship! Way to go, girl!) although she decided against it. That’s cool – saved me €30 since I decided not to attend myself – and I really doubt that we would have had very much fun. Corporate Christmas parties are always questionable on the amount of fun offered – usually they turn into just one more opportunity for the “pets” of the bosses to, once again, grab hold of a buttock and pucker up. Since kissing ass is something that I do not do, I usually need to find fun by other means and an open bar can become dangerous…

My first experience with this was back when I was still living at the Theta Tau house and working at Ticketmaster. We had a Christmas party; and, being that it was Ticketmaster (pretty much the only place that you could get tickets for any show in the southeast Michigan area), the party was held at the Fox Theater in downtown Detroit. Not only was it held there, but we (well Ticketmaster) had the entire venue to ourselves. The bar, unfortunately for me, was open – wide open – and I took advantage of it…

At the time, my drink of choice was a Tom Collins. I lost count of exactly how many Tom Collins I had that night, but I know it was a large number. How I know this is from the results. It was another night of, as Dave Attell puts it, “time traveling”. One minute I was sitting at a table drinking my Tom Collins and, what seemed at the time like one minute later, I was waking up in my bed back at the frat house. Exactly what happened between these two seemingly unrelated events was completely unknown to me. It wasn’t until I returned to work the following evening that the stories started coming out.

Turns out that I was the last person to leave the Fox Theater that evening. In fact, the staff of the theater must have noticed my car in the parking lot (after locking me in, I would guess) and needed to head back in to find me. The worst part about it all was that I was allowed to drive home. Luckily for me, the Fox Theater is actually rather close to the Theta Tau house and I was somehow able to make it home in one piece. My car had a new, and very large, dent (well, if you could actually call the body being so bent out of shape that the driver-side door couldn’t be opened a “dent”) right between the front left tire and driver-side door. How that happened is still a mystery; however nobody’s come “looking for me” so I’m thinking that I somehow did it on my own…

This, my friends, is not the way to behave – the fact that it was at a corporate Christmas party just makes it that much worse. Of course this was just a computer operator’s job at Ticketmaster, so I really wasn’t too worried about any negative repercussions. When I was working for Avant!, however, I should have been somewhat more concerned…

The Avant! Christmas party (at least for the Colorado employees) was held down in Colorado Springs. Now Colorado Springs is a bit of a drive from Broomfield (where I was living at the time) – about 2 hours or so… It was decided that I would head down there with my buddy Doug (who was working in sales for Avant!). He picked me up in the “Dad Van” and we (Doug, his family and I) headed down to the Springs for the party. Since it was scheduled to be an evening party, we all got ourselves hotel rooms … you know – to put off the drive back until the next day. After checking into our rooms, we headed to this bar/restaurant (I have no idea what the name was…) where the party was scheduled to be. Once again – open bar…

I really don’t remember very much of that evening; however, sufficed to say, I once again awoke in my hotel bed with absolutely no knowledge of how I had gotten there. This time, however, my wallet was nowhere to be found. So … not only was I waking up with confusion and a serious hang over, I also suddenly had a mystery to solve – I needed to find out where my wallet ended up. Unfortunately I was unable to solve this mystery before we needed to start heading home; so I boarded the “Dad Van” with Doug and his family and traveled back to Broomfield … sans wallet.

Luckily for me, I received a phone call later that evening from this club down in Colorado Springs. They had my wallet. After a short (2 hour) drive back down to the Springs, I was able to retrieve my wallet (with everything in it, amazingly…) and repeat the drive back home. Talk about a long day…

Well people, I guess the reason that I am writing up these stories is really nothing more than a bit of an exhortation for everybody to, unlike me, take care this holiday season. If you’re heading to a Christmas party this year (perhaps for work) and are planning on doing a little drinking, be careful. I got lucky on both of the incidents mentioned above; however things, very easily, could have ended much worse – it’s amazing I haven’t killed myself (or even worse – somebody else) yet. If I end up being stupid enough to continue doing such careless things, I’m pretty sure that I will. Lives can very easily be destroyed at any moment – it’s up to us to make sure that we limit this possibility as much as we can. So please take heed this holiday season and remember that you take sole responsibility for your actions. Think before you do and don’t do what I did… Besides, experiences are just so much more rewarding when you actually remember them.

bis später,

Coriolis

Bush-league

I’ve been thinking lately about the complete and utter failure that is the George “Dubya” Bush presidency. These thoughts are both disturbing and down-right frightening. I mean how on Earth did this waste of a human successfully “win” the presidency for the last six years? Six years is a long time. Shouldn’t the checks and balances inherent in the American government have ousted this guy years ago? Something’s wrong with the system and I really think we need to fix it ASAP!

Now granted, I will be the first to admit that this blog posting is being written completely from information that I, personally, believe to be true. In other words, I will not be doing any (well, maybe a little…) research to support my opinions. I’m just going to sum up the situation from the point of view of your typical American, me. My opinions are based on what little research I have done in the past as well as the endless “news” feeds that are constantly being shoved down our throats. The only difference with this post is that I am going to tell the world exactly how I have processed this information. I’ll leave it up to you to decide on whether or not any of my points are valid…

As everyone already knows, this fiasco started back in 2000 when Dubya, a man whose life could be described as nothing more than a string of failures, was somehow able to win the presidential election. You all remember that time, right? The election was decided by one state, Florida which just happened to have his brother as governor and Katherine Harris as Secretary of State. I’m not going to re-hash all the details of that mess; however I believe that Bush and his cronies did successfully manage to steal that election. Were crimes committed? Probably. Will anybody ever need to pay for these crimes? Other than being forced to live with themselves (which, I realize, won’t be too hard for these people), probably not.

Okay, so Dubya made it into the Oval Office. Suddenly the point of whether or not he should rightfully be there became moot. For some reason the American public just accepted the fact that Georgey was our new president. Sure, there were many (mainly the Democrats) that weren’t happy about this fact; however it was a fact. Oh well, elections don’t always turn out the way you were hoping. They’re supposed to turn out in favor of the majority; however the 2000 election is a clear demonstration that this is not always the case. It seems blatantly obvious to me now that qualifications aren’t nearly as important as connections (“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” – so very true…) – most notably in the world of politics. And isn’t that world where we need qualified individuals the most?

No problem though – the way our government is set up is supposed to guarantee that, even if something like this happens, it won’t be the end of the world. The various government branches are designed to work as a rather elaborate system of “checks and balances” that ensures democracy. Having the position of president occupied by “the wrong guy” doesn’t really change much. It might make the US look a bit worse to many foreign countries (having a baboon as our main spokesman); however the legislative and judicial branches will keep this baboon in check. At least that’s the way things are supposed to work…

Everything changed on September 11, 2001. Our country was under attack. There wasn’t a foreign country trying to invade or anything – just a rather well organized group of religious extremists. After it had been determined that it was al-Qaeda who was responsible for the attacks, Dubya and his cronies did the right thing and, with the full support of the United Nations, went after Osama bin Laden (the mastermind behind the attacks). Afghanistan was invaded and the al-Qaeda infrastructure in Afghanistan was destroyed. Bin Laden, however, got away. Why did this happen? Because the Dubya crew decided that they would use this opportunity to fabricate a connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda. Why? So that most of the troops that were deployed to Afghanistan could be pulled out and used for our next war – in Iraq.

The connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda was no more than a fabrication - a fabrication created by the Dubya crew in an effort to intentionally fool the American population (who were being scared to death by the media at the time) into actually supporting the plan to invade Iraq. Let me be clear on this – George W. Bush and his advisors intentionally lied to the American people in order to invade Iraq! Not only is this unethical, I believe that it is illegal. Luckily for us we had the United Nations to deal with before we actually went and did something completely unheard of throughout history – invade a country that posed no threat to America.

This, of course, didn’t stop the Dubya machine from somehow (and this still confuses me) getting congress to actually give George the power to declare war. It wasn’t long after that when Georgey-boy did just that – he completely ignored the United Nations and sent American soldiers into Iraq. He sent young American volunteers into Iraq on completely fabricated reasoning. More of these volunteers have died in Iraq than the number of innocents killed on September 11, 2001. Congratulations, George … you have successfully killed more Americans than Osama. That should make you sleep better…

Here’s where the almost surreal aspect of what we are currently experiencing comes into play. Yeah, I know that the Democrats did finally hit the Dubya machine a bit by taking congress; however I still remember what the Republicans were spouting prior to the election – the whole “we need to stay the course and not cut and run” bullshit. Don’t they realize that, if we had “stayed the course” in Afghanistan, things could look a lot better now? Maybe we would have actually captured Osama bin Laden (the main person actually responsible for the attacks on America) and at least brought some closure to the thousands of families devastated by the 9-11 attacks. Unfortunately, however, Bush decided to abandon Afghanistan (cut and run) and start a war with Iraq. Why? Because he had a personal bone to pick with Saddam Hussein. You see Saddam had threatened to kill George Bush Sr. and Dubya really wanted to show the world that “You don’t mess with Texas!”

Well George, I honestly don’t know how you can live with yourself. Not only has your personal vendetta greatly weakened the image of the US throughout the world; it has caused more US (the country that you are supposed to be protecting) deaths than the terrorist act that you deliberately used to get your war started (not to mention the astounding number of innocent Iraqis that have been killed). Very good, Dubya – bravo… If your religious beliefs end up being correct, you should have plenty of stories to share with Satan after you die and end up in Hell.

The saddest part about all this is what Curious George and his associates have done to the American image. As most of you are already aware (well, the one’s that have been reading my blog), I am currently living in Germany. This has given me a first-hand view of what foreigners (well, Europeans, at least) now think of the United States and it’s not good. The worst part about it is that I agree with them. I’m beginning to wonder if America’s image has been soiled to the point that it may never be cleaned again.

Where do we go from here? I don’t know … but it seems to me that impeaching Bush would be a good start. And, for god’s sake, get our soldiers out of Iraq – we should have never sent them there to begin with…

bis später,

Coriolis

'Tis the Season!

Well, here it is once again – the holiday season! Christmas! The portion of the year that is designed for happiness. It can become stressful for some (okay, pretty much everyone) but we need to be careful not to let these stresses take over and ruin this opportunity. It is my belief that the reason for the season is to let everyone take a break from the everyday chaos that is life and get together with friends and family in an effort to keep the insanity figures from getting a bit out of control. The smart people will understand this and heed the advice. The ignorant will get lost in the stresses and turn this time into no more than another choir.

Of course the retail sector is aware of the season – I think they start paying close attention to it earlier and earlier each year. Yeah, the day after Thanksgiving is the official start to the number crunching; however I think that the non-official beginning for the Christmas shopping season starts a bit earlier – somewhere around the 4th of July it seems… The thing that one must remember is this: Christmas is not about the amount of money that one spends; it’s about getting the chance to spend time with those you actually want to spend time with. Buy these people gifts if you want; however the time spent with them is completely free and a hell of a lot more rewarding than a new tie or a pair of socks.

You see, Christmas is the grand daddy of ‘em all. It’s the holiday that trumps all other holidays. (No offense to Chanukah, Kwanzaa or even Festivus but I consider these to be no more than Christmas renamed…) Whatever you call this part of the year, the meaning remains the same – happiness and cheer! After all, I am an atheist and even I understand the need for this time. Do I believe that, a couple thousand years ago, a child was born (to a virgin, none the less) that was the one and only son of god? Hell no! Many do, but I don’t. Does this change the fact that every year, around this time, I am presented with the perfect opportunity to head back home for a bit to meet up with people that I am always happy to see? No! And so far I have always taken advantage of the opportunity and taken that trip back to my hometown. I’m sure that I would survive if, for some unknown reason, I was unable to head home for the holidays; however my heart would be there even if my physical body wasn’t.

As I mentioned in my Now What? blog post, I am once again heading home for the holidays. I’ve made it home before from Florida (once) and from Colorado (many many times) but those trips were simple – a few hours on a plane. It’s a bit different from Germany – a much longer trip and quite a bit more expensive – but the trip will be made. It would be stupid of me not to go. I’m looking very forward to a couple weeks where my life is once again my own. It’ll give me a chance to relax a bit and get back in touch with people who have “been there” throughout my life. These are the important people and time spent with them is absolutely priceless.

It’s actually very interesting being in Germany at this time of the year. Not to be too hard on us Americans, but the Europeans seem to have a better fundamental understanding of the holiday season. The Christmas markets have been erected and opened in all of the major cities (there’s a rather interesting one in Braunschweig) and the crowds have been flocking. People are gathering, glühwein is flowing and sweets and trinkets are being bought and sold. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. Perhaps I am not seeing it, but the hectic shopping frenzy that is Christmas in America appears to be toned down quite a bit over here. Granted I might get a different opinion if I were to actually participate in the Christmas shopping here; however I am definitely not feeling the pressure to go out and spend money that seems to be ever-present in the states at this time. Who knows, maybe not knowing the language is an advantage here…?

I will say this though – I now understand the existence of Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland (the “World’s Largest Christmas Store”) up in Frankenmuth, Michigan. I always wondered why such a large Christmas themed store was associated with a city whose motto is “Michigan’s Little Bavaria”. Granted I am actually living in Lower Saxony here in Braunschweig; but if Bavaria is anything like Lower Saxony then I completely understand it. Christmas is a big thing over here in Germany… (Bronner’s, by the way, is a well known place – I remember seeing a billboard for it on I-75 in Florida. It said something like “1300 miles ahead”…)

Anyway, here’s to you on this Christmas season! Try to enjoy your time and don’t let the little hassles become more important than the true meaning of the season. Remember that, although the commercials will be telling you otherwise, it’s not the actual gift that matters – it really is the thought that counts. Remember that when you receive a “bad” gift from someone. Be happy in receiving the gift – for the gift that you are actually receiving is the comfort that comes from knowing that the person giving you the gift was thinking about you. And really, could you ask for anything more?

bis später,

Coriolis

Kidnapped

Okay, time to put on the brakes. What am I doing??? This blog is supposed to be a “happy place” and here I go and start turning it into some kind of personal shrine to my pathetic little miseries… To hell with that! Let’s get back to the more fun and far less depressing blog posts. I remember this one time during my senior year in college…

I was standing on the corner of I-94 and Cass Avenue waiting for my little brother, Woodstock, to pick me up and drive me home to the frat house. I had just finished work at Wayne State’s CARS (Contracts and Related Services) department and didn’t feel like walking back to the house so I figured I would take advantage of my position in the fraternity and call up a pledge to pick my lazy ass up. Woodstock (my “little brother” of the pledge class) was who I reached and I was now waiting for him to pick me up.

A little background here: I had now been a full brother in the Theta Tau Professional Engineering Fraternity for three to four years and had been living in the frat house for pretty much all of that time. Living at the house gave me a bit more visibility in the fraternity and I quickly obtained a reputation as a perfect choice for “pledge master”. I guess I was just good at giving the pledges shit… I was, however, also good at fulfilling the duties associated with being pledge master and believe (if I remember correctly) that I was given the title no fewer than three semesters during my time at the house. I was, once again, pledge master during the time that this story was occurring. Woodstock was part of the pledge class and he was lucky enough to have me designated as his “big brother”.

You see, the responsibility of a big brother is to be a kind of personal helper for his little brother throughout the pledge period. It can become a stressful experience and it’s nice to know that at least one of the brothers will be there to help a pledge when really needed. Woodstock was very lucky in that his big brother – me – was also his pledge master. It was a bit strange for me though as I was responsible for both pushing him to the breaking point (as pledge master) as well as picking him up when he fell (as big brother).

Woodstock picked me up from work and started heading back toward the house. We went driving down Cass Avenue heading toward Alexandrine Avenue – the frat house was located a couple blocks from Cass on Alexandrine. The funny thing was that, for some reason, Woodstock didn’t hang a right on Alexandrine as I was expecting; instead he continued to drive down Cass. It was then that I started to realize that we weren’t heading back to the house – I was once again being kidnapped!

Kidnapping, as it turns out, was just one of those things that was part of pledging Theta Tau. There were even rules (completely unwritten, but known by all) about kidnapping and they were pretty easy to understand: A pledge could kidnap a brother as long as the brother was alone and no other brother witnessed the kidnapping. A brother could kidnap a pledge pretty much whenever he wanted and nothing could be done to stop it other than the pledge somehow getting away. Once kidnapped, the brother (or pledge, depending on who was kidnapping who) would be left at some undisclosed location with enough money to make a phone call to the house and a six-pack of beer. The money was so that the kidnapped could call for a pick-up and the beer was for something to do while waiting for the ride. It was an interesting concept and actually wasn’t done very often – we were college students and free time was often spent studying; however kidnapping the pledge master was a great way for the pledges to assert themselves and administer some payback. I, being the pledge master time and time again, was kidnapped several times. I looked on it as a good thing – it showed that my pledges were adjusting to the frat life mentality rather well…

I looked over at Woodstock and asked where he was taking me. I then informed him that I had a test (I think it was a differential equations test but I’m not really sure … might have been physics…) the next morning and that I needed to get home to study a bit. Unfortunately, having something to do doesn’t mean much after you have been successfully kidnapped. Woodstock just told me to relax. He said that all I needed to do was cooperate (basically not try to escape) and that I would be in control over when I got dropped off. Where I got dropped off was another story – I had no control over that. I decided to cooperate. I really had no other choice…

It was then that Woodstock made a bee-line for the Windsor tunnel. He drove me to Canada! If you are not familiar with the geography around the Detroit area, Canada is right across the river. In fact, if you need a decent trivia question for sometime in the future you could always ask, “If you travel due south from Detroit, what is the first foreign country that you will encounter?” The answer, actually, is Canada.

After arriving in Windsor, Canada, it became clear to me that Woodstock was just playing this kidnapping by ear. He had no plan. He was just making it up as he went along and decided to stop in at this 7-11 type shop (I forget what the name of the convenience stores in Windsor are…). He then entered the shop and returned with a Super Big Gulp of Coke, a fifth of Southern Comfort and a Penthouse magazine. He proceeded to dump out almost all of the Coke and filled the Super Big Gulp cup with the Southern Comfort. He handed the drink to me and said that I would be dropped off as soon as I had finished drinking it. The Penthouse was for my entertainment – thoughtful, huh? I started drinking the Southern Comfort – I needed to get home…

Okay, so I really don’t remember exactly what time it was – this was something like 15 years ago – however I do know that it was late … late enough for the Windsor Airport to be closed. How I know this is because that was actually where we ended up. After I had finished drinking the Super Big Gulp of Southern Comfort, Woodstock dropped me off at a bench outside the (then closed) Windsor Airport. He walked me to a pay phone and made sure that I was able to get a ride and then left me there to fend for myself. There I was, drunk as shit, sitting on a bench outside the Windsor Airport with my Penthouse magazine waiting for Ox to arrive and take me back to the frat house.

The only things that I remember prior to blacking out are having a little discussion with a security guard that came out to see what I was doing and jumping in Ox’s truck after he finally arrived. The next clear memory that I have was waking up, about a half hour before my test was scheduled, in the loft of my room. (This seems to be a common occurrence in my stories – I’m out drinking alcohol somewhere and I inevitably "time travel" a bit and wake up in my bed. Maybe the lack of memory is what makes these stories so memorable for me…?) I quickly got out of bed, threw on some clean clothes and rushed to the university for my exam. I made it in time, but it really didn’t matter – I guess it goes without saying that I didn’t do very well on the test…

I then returned back to the frat house and cleaned the bathroom. Somebody (I’m assuming it was me) had made a mess in there the previous night and puke was pretty much everywhere! I guess slamming down a Super Big Gulp of Southern Comfort will do that to a guy… No big deal – I took responsibility and cleaned it up…

That was living at the frat house. All in all it was a good thing – rather than getting burned out with nothing but studying, we had our little amusing experiences that not only gave us interesting memories but also kept us grounded. Sure, I suppose you could argue about the stupidity of some of these experiences; however we always did our best to make sure that nobody got hurt. For instance, Woodstock made sure that a ride was coming before he left me alone. I suppose that something bad could have happened after he left and before Ox arrived, but that’s just the way life is – nothing is ever guaranteed. Sometimes it helps to be forced into an uncomfortable situation at times just to discover how you are going to cope … you might actually surprise yourself…

bis später,

Coriolis

Now What?

I headed back to Amsterdam over the weekend. Unlike my previous trips (Trip 1 [A][B][C][D], Trip 2 [A][B][C], Trip 3 [A][B][C]), I decided not to visit with any prostitutes. You read that right – I did not purchase any sex. I was most definitely planning to – even brought the Viagra with me – but the way things turned out, I didn’t… I’ve come to realize that sex for the sake of sex just isn’t much fun (at least not for me, anymore) and actually paying somebody for the opportunity to not have any fun with them is asinine.

Not to mention that the whole “red light district” scene is getting old. Yeah, it was interesting when it was all new to me; however I’ve now spent many many hours in Amsterdam’s red light district and can now see what it really is – completely from first-hand experience, mind you... The best way that I can describe it would be to call it an adult-oriented Disney Land. There are plenty shows to see (sex shows, mainly), rides to ride (prostitutes) and foods to eat. The thing is that Disney Land even stops being fun if you go there too often.

So what, you might be wondering, was I doing in Amsterdam then? Well, that’s a darn good question. I really don’t know… I was pretty much there because “that’s where I go” every month or so. As I’m sure I’ve already mentioned, this “traveling by myself” thing isn’t working very well for me – I usually end up wasting way too much money and have little to no actual fun. I always figured that Amsterdam was the exception in that it was a place that I could pretty much guarantee myself some fun whether I’m traveling with someone or, as is usually the case, alone. I’m now beginning to wonder if I can even remember what “fun” is…

I did create a video while I was there. It’s nothing fancy or anything – just me chatting with myself and the camera whilst sitting in my hotel room a couple hours after eating a box of Philosopher Stones (a.k.a. Truffles – a shroom variety). Maybe I’ll post this thing somewhere and share it with you – with today’s technology it shouldn’t be too hard – however I really don’t know how interested people would be in seeing it. I mean, to sum it up, it’s really nothing more than me beating myself up about being the loser that I am.

Here it is:


So I guess that’s why I was in Amsterdam over the weekend – to make a video of myself emotionally beating myself up. That can’t be healthy… I don’t know – have I lost the ability to enjoy life? It seems to me that I’ve run out of things to look forward to. I’m looking forward to heading home for the holidays but then what? I’ll be returning back to Germany to finish my work and after the contract’s done heading back to Colorado to resume my “life as normal”… My life has turned into nothing more than an endless series of nothing. I exist for the sure purpose of existing…

Oh well, I really don’t have much else to say right now. Maybe I’ll head home this evening and start working on converting the video into a format that’s easier to post. Yeah … at least that’ll give me something to do… now done...

bis später,

Coriolis

The World's Oldest Profession

My buddy, Todd, sent me a rather interesting article from the Associated Press explaining that Amsterdam city officials are going to be shutting down about one third of the prostitution “windows” in the famous red light district. The new measure designed to “revoke brothels’ licenses when it suspects operators have used them for money laundering or other illegal financial activity” goes into effect on the 1st of January. (For anyone interested in reading the article, it can be found here…)

Something tells me that this move is going to be completely misconstrued by the morally righteous out there. The shutdown is actually not a condemnation of prostitution in general; rather it is an attempt to battle the illegal financial activities that the prostitution industry is currently teeming with. The goal is laudable; however I worry a bit about the negative implications that this is going to be placing on an industry that many believe shouldn’t even exist. I do, however, think that “the world’s oldest profession” will survive. Who knows? Maybe this is a step in the right direction? Perhaps if all of the illegal activities associated with prostitution are controlled more thoroughly, prostitution might be able to become a more reputable industry.

The thing is that (apart from the rather large crowd of – usually religious – naysayers out there) I think any educated person can easily understand the benefits that prostitution actually provides to a society. It gives men a sexual outlet to utilize rather than forcing these same men to find their own way of obtaining sex – seems to me that this should have a positive impact on rape and other sexually related crimes. Other benefits of legalized prostitution are currently being stressed by the Croation People’s Party. They believe it would cut the spreading of sexual diseases by imposing better controls. Prostitutes would have to report to the authorities to get employee status, social security and health care. They would also be required to get tested for venereal diseases on a regular basis. This would give the prostitutes more incentive to practice safe sex as catching a disease could very well eliminate their source of income.

Unfortunately this issue is really only arguable outside of the United States (the “land of the free” … indeed…) as the US government has already made it very clear that prostitution, itself will always be a crime. (Well, except for Nevada … and why, exactly is it legal in Nevada? I need to look into that a bit…) In fact, back in May of this year, Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., chairman of the House subcommittee on global human rights, urged Germany to re-criminalize prostitution (prostitution was legalized there in 2001) and suggested that the nation should be reclassified as an “egregious violator” of human trafficking. Interestingly enough, the 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report gave Germany its highest overall rating for compliance on efforts to stop trafficking. Is it possible that Mr. Smith is using something other than facts in his recommendations? Perhaps he feels that his morals are so pristine that he is compelled to forcefully impose these morals on, not only his actual constituents, but foreign countries as well…? Once again, the arrogance of the US government shows its ugly face…

I’m interested in hearing what your thoughts are on these issues.

bis später,

Coriolis