Chaotic Boredom

So I guess I’m a superstar! Yeah, right … it’s funny what one will do when a whole lot of boredom gets mixed with just the right amount of alcohol… Last night was the last time that I would be able to hang out with Chris until after the holidays so we decided to go a bit crazy and take part in the awe-inspiring excitement that is Camarillo on a Tuesday night.

In Chris’ defense, he was all for heading up to Ventura to check out some live music. I, unfortunately, was feeling a bit under the weather (still am … but the Zicam should take care of that – I hope…) and didn’t feel too much like attempting to tackle the Ventura Main Street scene when not firing on all cylinders. So we ended up hitting jj Brewsky’s and Outlaws Grill & Saloon in Camarillo (had a short stop at the Lamplighter in-between for some foosball and pinball, but didn’t stay long – not enough “scenery”…).

There weren’t too many women out last night (neither kittens nor cougars) but, seeing as it was a Tuesday, that was kind of expected. Probably a good thing in hind-sight – my karaoke recitals of Pink Floyd’s Time and Metallica’s (well, it’s actually Queen’s; but the version I butchered last night was Metallica’s) Stone Cold Crazy may have actually lowered my already damn near non-existent chance at ever getting any action. I did, however, have the balls to get up on stage (in front of quite a few strangers) and make a spectacle of myself – that’s got to be worth something, right? Chris opted out…

Hence the satirical “superstar” remark at the beginning of this post. A complete stranger (just some dude) complimented me on my performance of Time and Chris was nice enough to say that I did well; but I “know” the truth – although I do appreciate the kindness. There’s no better way to prolong a hysterical drunken display than to praise it and I’m positive that what I did last night was little more than a hysterical drunken display…

Exciting, huh? Just one more karaoke story (nothing new there – who hasn’t done that…?). I guess it exemplifies the boredom that my life has become of late – although boredom ain’t so bad – sure beats the hell out of many other possible scenarios… I guess this means that I’m finally coming to terms with my latest “living away from home” situation. Things are currently proceeding smoothly enough that I can afford to get bored. I wonder how long this’ll last…?

I’m thinking “not very” from the way the Pussy Wagon (oh yeah, I finally decided on a name for the Corolla…) started this morning. I was quickly reminded of the Thanksgiving Day disaster when I turned the ignition only to hear the engine “attempt” to start – several times... After hopping out, opening the hood and pretending that I might be able to do something useful (disconnecting and re-connecting a few wires here and there…) she finally decided to start with a coughing, whining sound approximating the lungs of a life-long, multiple-pack-a-day smoker. I was able to get to work this morning; however the difficulty that this vehicle often displays whilst shifting through the lower gears appears to be getting worse and I’m a bit worried about my ability to return home this evening. Something tells me that little more than the 161,000+ miles already achieved will soon need to be engraved into this classic Toyota’s headstone – “She retires from service leaving behind fond memories of adventure and one rather pissed and somewhat screwed dude … rest in peace, Pussy Wagon…” I do so hope that I’m mistaken here…

And the worst part about all this is that Chris – my highest probability for a ride home should the Pussy Wagon not start – took off to spend Christmas with his family today. He won’t be returning until early January. I’m actually scheduled to be flying out of LAX in a few days to spend Christmas back in Colorado myself – assuming I can get to the airport… If the Pussy Wagon does start (and continues to run for the next few days…) I’m going to be getting a little preview of what life will be like after poor Chris ships out to Afghanistan. You see, things are now a bit different than I reported earlier. Chris has decided to keep his house. Not only that but he is going to let me continue living there whilst he is away on duty. This means that I should now have a place to stay for the entire duration of my job out here – although this length of time is still unknown…

My initial contract (the one that started on October 15th and was scheduled to go for three months or 520 hours – whichever came last) should be finishing sometime in mid-January. I say “should” here because the whole “whichever comes last” aspect of the contract throws a bit of a monkey-wrench into the figuring. Add to that the time of year as well as the fact that I do not get paid anything for hours not worked (and this includes any time that this office is closed for any holiday vacations) then it quickly becomes apparent that the 520 hours will be “coming last”. It is now looking like I’m going to have approximately 137 hours left when I return from the Christmas break on the 2nd of January. That’s actually about three and a half weeks (assuming little to no overtime) which works out pretty well with my initially scheduled flight to return home of February 1st. So my guess at a return date was pretty good – except…

The contract has been extended. They’ve added another “3 month / 520 hour” (whichever comes last) term to my job. I guess I need to purchase another round-trip flight to head back out – perhaps on the 3rd or 4th of February. The flight home seems a bit silly now; however the final tournament for the Denver Poker Tour (the tournament that I won four certificates to play in) is scheduled to run on the 1st of February. If all goes well, I’ll be flying home on the 1st, participating in the tournament and then flying back out to California a few days later.

Unfortunately the DPT is the DPT. I just went to their website to check on the current status of this tournament and was a bit shocked (okay, I wasn’t the least bit shocked; but I’ll say that for its pure sarcastic nature…) to see that all mention of this tournament has been removed. Oh well, screw it… I’ll jump off that bridge when I come to it, I guess…

Once again, I’m rambling. I doubt that anybody’s read this far although I must give props to those that have. I’m going to head out now and see if the Pussy Wagon’s going to start. Wish me luck, I guess…

bis später,

Coriolis

Bah-Humbug!

Once again, it’s the Christmas (oh wait, I’m sorry … “Holiday”) Season and this, of course, means it’s time to shop! At least that’s the messages that all these commercials are shoving down our throats; and I’ve noticed something a bit interesting this year – apparently the perfect gift to purchase your loved ones is a brand new automobile. I mean, come on, a fucking car – for Christmas!? Are there really that many people that can afford to actually purchase a car these days? I think not…

No … what these salesmen are trying to sell you is a brand new 5-year (often as long as 6-year these days) loan. Yeah, that adheres to the whole idea behind the gift-giving premise – “Here honey, I bought us a new $500 per month payment for the next 5 years – Merry Christmas!!” I mean do these car companies think we’re stupid enough to fall for that? So, perhaps you’re losing your house to one of those nasty little foreclosures this year; hell, why not buy a car for Christmas? That’ll fix everything…

Am I the only one that’s noticed this apparent large increase in “buy a brand new vehicle for Christmas” commercials this year? Perhaps this is just a southern California thing and it happens like this every year; however I swear that 1 out of 4 commercials (both TV and radio) are inevitably telling you that you really should purchase a new car (as a gift, mind you…) this year for Christmas. I can tell you this much – I won’t be doing that…

And another thing that’s been bugging me lately is this stupid iPhone craze. So far, I do not believe that I know anybody that’s purchased this “Tickle Me Elmo” for 2007; however the marketing campaign for this product is making it appear that it’s only a matter of time before not owning one will get you shunned from civilized society. The question I have for Apple is why do we “need” this over-priced cell phone (because that’s what it is – a cell phone…)? So, you can watch movies on it, play MP3s, and even surf the net – whipty-freekin-do! I can already do these tasks (with much higher bandwidth and clarity) using my home computer and home theater. It is most definitely my opinion that the only useful feature of this iPhone gadget is the phone – and I already have a cell phone that works just fine, thank you…

But I guess that’s just the way the American consumer appears to big business this time of year – lemmings that can easily be suckered into disposing of their hard-earned money on a bunch of crap that they don’t need. Yeah, go ahead and buy your wife that BMW; make sure all of your children receive their shiny new iPhones – it’s the best gift that these corporations can get.

Merry Christmas to all; and to all that buy an iPhone – get bent!

bis später,

Coriolis

Breaking an ARM

So let me get this straight … Georgey and the American Securitization Forum are planning to implement a 5-year rate-freeze on millions of subprime loans taken out by citizens that, once the actual consequences of the loans they opted for were realized, are having trouble making their payments, right? Doesn’t this seem to be rather counter-capitalistic to anyone else? And since when did the government ever want to help out the layman at the expense of big business? Something seems fishy here…

For one thing – and at the risk of sounding a bit cynical – where’s my payola? I mean sure, I could have opted into one of those ARM loans when I purchased my mortgage (or when I refinanced it – on two occasions) but I understood the risk and chose the safer (and what I thought was much more intelligent) alternative – a fixed-rate mortgage. Hell, if I knew the government was going to step in and change the “rules” for the subprime option, maybe I would have chosen differently. But no … I thought I understood the risk and opted to select the higher fixed rate for the main reason that it was fixed. Now that it appears there’s a life-vest being thrown to those that chose incorrectly, it seems that my sound financial planning was in err…

And how, exactly, is this going to be a good thing for the nation’s economy? I think any somewhat reasonable person is aware of why the financial institutions were so quick to push the variable rate loans on pretty much everybody – they stood to make a lot of money if the economy took a downturn, right? Well, now that this downturn has occurred, the government is going to (at least temporarily) punish these financial institutions for bad choices made by borrowers? Yeah, I’m sure that’s going to please investors. I don’t think missing projected profits because the government decided to basically nullify the contract terms on millions of loans will sit too well with the people that were supposed to be making money with the original terms…

The main reason that this whole idea bothers me is because it’s just one more situation where ignorance is being rewarded in this country. It’s no wonder that other nations hate us when we keep getting away with such blatant stupidity. And since when was ignorance a viable candidate for charity? If they choose to “help” those that made the wrong loan choice, exactly when are they going to “help” those that chose correctly? Oh wait, those that chose correctly don’t need any help. For those that didn’t, I’m of the opinion that “you made your bed – lie in it”.

bis später,

Coriolis

Super Major Service

So I took the Corolla (the one I bought from some dude on craigslist) in for some diagnostics this morning. I’m taking its failure to start on Thanksgiving as a bad sign and figured I better get it checked out before I end up getting stranded somewhere. Running into issues with this car is really no surprise – after all, you really do “get what you pay for” and $750 is pretty cheap for a car. It’s got over 160k miles on it and that is, by far, more miles than I have ever put on a car. Heck, I’ll bet that if I added up all the miles I’ve put on all the cars I’ve owned that I would still total less than 160k. Hmm, I guess those Toyotas really do run forever…

So I basically got ripped off – but I really don’t care. They charged me a bit over $200 to replace the battery (which it most definitely needed) and fuel filter. I probably didn’t need to replace the fuel filter, but Chris (my new roommate) seemed to be rather adamant about it being a possible issue and I was informed that the fuel filter on the car appeared to be the original. I guess switching it out after 160k miles couldn’t hurt … oh well, Chris’ll be happy…

The mechanic working on the car did actually do a thorough inspection and came up with a “laundry list” of things that should be done. It was rather comical … the guy was telling me that I needed what they referred to as their “Super Major Service” which included a full tune-up changing the wires and plugs; a new timing belt and water pump (the current one is apparently leaking); a new radiator, thermostat and hoses including a coolant flush as well as replacing the transmission pan gasket and filter; etcetera, etcetera…. The funny part was that he quickly realized (probably from the look on my face) that I wasn’t going to be purchasing his “Super Major Service” and opted out of even attempting to make the sale. It was then that he mentioned overhearing me say I picked up the car for a few hundred bucks. I’m pretty sure he realized that all I was trying to do was keep the car running for a bit longer and had no intention of throwing any more money than I needed to at it. He suggested I keep an eye on the coolant and I might be able to get another year out of her…

One thing I did notice is the car seems to be producing far less clanking noises from the rear now. Perhaps, during the detailed inspection, something loose got tightened a bit…? Whatever the case, it seems quite a bit more solid now – I guess that’s good…

Of course the main repair work that needs to be done on this car is the removal of that “I ♥ LA DERBY DOLLS” bumper sticker and scraping off the butterfly over the rear window brake-light. I think I’ll get started on that after work today… I mean sure, I have nothing against the L.A. Derby Dolls (hell, I didn’t even know who they were until checking the Internet) however stating to the world that I “♥” them is a bit misleading. As for the butterfly – now that’s just gay…

I do need to name the Corolla; however the right name just hasn’t come to me yet. If you’ve read my earlier posts, I’m sure you remember me talking about my former cars – Shannon and Christine – as well as my two current automobiles in Colorado – Precious and Betsy… I need a name that fits for the Corolla – something old, a bit beat-up, well traveled, used and tiny that hints at her awe-inspiring power (try not to miss the sarcasm there…). Something like Esther, Gertrude or Blanche, perhaps … they just don’t seem to pull off the tininess aspect well enough… Feel free to toss me some suggestions…

The good news is that I now officially own the aforementioned, yet-unnamed vehicle. I finally received some mail yesterday. I had to pick it up at my old apartment since the US Postal Service seems to be having rather pronounced difficulty with the forwarding of already-forwarded mail situation that I now find myself having to deal with (this is now “supposed” to have been fixed – I guess we’ll see…) and included in the bundle was the title with my name printed as the owner. Strangely enough, it’s a California title. I was thinking that I would be receiving a title from the state of Colorado (as that’s what I was told at the DMV here in California) although the document received is most definitely a California Title of Ownership – a California Title of Ownership that has a Longmont, Colorado address for the primary owner – go figure… That just seems strange to me…

I suppose that means if I were to sell the car prior to its current registration expiring that I wouldn’t even have to go through the hassle of registering it under my name in Colorado (something I am planning on doing during my Christmas trip back home); although that seems unlikely. The current registration is valid through February of next year. My initial contract out here should be completed sometime in the second half of January and I am currently scheduled to be flying home on February 1st but, from the way things currently appear, there is a high probability that the contract will be extended and I may be flying back out to California as quickly as the 3rd or 4th of February. If the contract is extended, I’m going to need the car. Of course, being that I was able to obtain a California title with my Colorado address, I am now beginning to think that I might just be able to renew the registration for the vehicle here in California. Is anyone out there familiar with vehicle registration and primary residence laws? Don’t you need to be living in the state that you register your vehicle in…?

Something tells me that you might be hearing more about this car in the future … probably not in a “good” way… Or is my pessimism getting the better of me once again? You never know … perhaps that new fuel filter was just what the doctor ordered…

bis später,

Coriolis

The Long Walk to Nowhere

I read this article “How Your Creepy Ex-Co-Workers Will Kill Facebook” by Cory Doctorow on Yahoo! News yesterday and it got me thinking…

Mr. Doctorow presents an interesting study on the social aspects of the Internet and the various “walled gardens” that keep popping up (Facebook, SixDegrees, Friendster, MySpace, etc…) providing pretty solid arguments as to why these social networks are really nothing more than ways for big businesses to squeeze more money out of the public (be it through membership fees or the less direct – however highly trafficable – pushed advertisement) as well as detriments to the open Internet that everyone should be pushing for. He also demonstrates the dangers that these social networking services present which was what got me to thinking…

The conclusion that I came to is that social ability is a set of skills. Unfortunately, for most in today’s society, the importance of teaching these skills has been minimized. Everybody is apprised of the importance in acquiring academic aptitude; however the need for social savvy seems to have been mitigated to skills one either acquires naturally else is condemned to trudge throughout life in absence of.

How I came to this conclusion might not be very obvious to many – or perhaps it’s blatantly obvious to most but just not evident to me. You see a while back, prior to flying out to California, I was checking out my MySpace page when Todd started asking me who my “friends” were. I have a whopping total of 34 “friends” on MySpace and, interestingly enough, I was only actually able to identify 10 of them as people that I would even consider “known” outside of MySpace and fewer still that I would consider friends. Todd was amused by this. He has 31 MySpace “friends” and, except for Tom (the default sysop “friend” that everyone gets by default) and Tool (the band), the remainder actually are Todd’s friends.

He then asked me why I would want to have people I don’t even know as “friends” on MySpace and I basically told him that I didn’t care. The way I figure it is that, if somebody stumbles onto my MySpace page and decides they wanted to be my friend, who am I to say “no”? Sure, you need to at least attempt to verify that the new request is coming from an actual person (this is usually easily accomplished by checking out their page) and you’re going to get some people that may become nuisances in the future; however there’s nothing stopping you from removing them from your “friends” if this happens. I’ve noticed quite a few people on MySpace with literally thousands of friends which leads me to believe that I’m not the only one that thinks this way…

But I’m starting to stray from my original point… You see Todd is somebody that understands what is necessary for a person to be socially adept. He’s learned the importance of this well enough to not even have to think about it – it’s become second nature. I, on the other hand, have somehow missed out on this education. The whole issue of us comparing our “friends” lists on MySpace was just one more of many instances where my lack of ability in the social arts has become painfully obvious. And it’s not just that he has somewhere on the order of ten times more actual friends than I have on MySpace; it’s more about my having friends that I don’t even know seems comical to him. After all, it is pretty silly…

So what am I getting at here? I don’t really know… I guess it has to do with the realization I recently came to that “what” you have in this life is far less important than “who” you have. When the shit hits the fan, you can always count on your friends – assuming, of course, that they are true friends. And don’t get me wrong here – I am extremely thankful for the few friends that I do have; I’m just wondering why, when I am in a situation that separates me from my friends for any length of time (and it seems to be happening quite often…), I seem to be completely incapable of making new friends. Is it a learning disability?

Oh well … fuck it. It’s not like I’m going to suddenly come to any realization that’s going to change anything. Besides, the grass is always greener … right? I really need to stop over analyzing everything. Bottom line here is that shit happens because shit happens. Now where was I going with this post…? Oh yeah, nowhere…

bis später,

Coriolis

A California Hike

Well, I hate to admit it, but one major problem that I am now facing since moving down to California is lack of sufficient exercise. Okay, so there’s really nobody to blame but myself here – I could very easily force myself to get up a bit earlier and complete my standard (yet admittedly lacking) morning workout routine; however I must admit that I seem to have lost a bit of the will power…

I think the boredom and lack of results with my current social endeavors is slowly, but surely, turning me back into my old, boring, somewhat reclusive self. This is not good as I do remember that my old self had issues – not only social issues with low self esteem, but health issues as well. At one time I was a full 225 pounds of heart attack waiting to happen and I’m starting to think if things don’t start improving soon that I’m pretty much heading down a fast path back to that wreck. But I am aware of this and I am also not going to let this happen without a fight.

Oh it’s not going to be easy – I can guarantee that. I had a very hard time prying my ass out of bed this morning. I did, however, complete a minimized version of my workout. Unfortunately I’ve not been able to do that much as of late due to tweaking my back a few weeks ago; however the back seems to be much better and I need to get back on track. I’m hoping to get back to my full morning workout soon although I am being a bit cautious – I don’t want to screw up my back again…

Now my patented (okay, so it’s not patented) morning workout used to consist of the following, in the following order: 50 of those silly extended arm rotations (both forward and back for a total of 100) that we used to do in gym back in the day, several iterations of side stretches (whatever it’s called when you raise one arm and stretch it toward the ceiling while bending your body sideways), a few body rotation stretches, 50 toe touches (I think this might have been where I screwed up my back when I increased this to 100 a few weeks ago…), 25 push-ups, 20 crunches, 20 leg lifts (while lying flat on the floor – another candidate for the back issue…), 50 jumping jacks, 20 more push-ups and finish it all off with another 20 crunches. I’m actually not too sure about how healthy a routine this is, but it seemed to be working decently for me – I am down to a 32” waist. Oh yeah, and when I was living in the apartment, I would replace the second set of push-ups and crunches with a round of weight training (2 sets on three machines) every other day. I’ve lost the use of the weights and been forced to return to my weightless routine since moving; although it’s been quite some time since I’ve completed the whole routine…

Right now the jumping jacks are gone, the toe touches are down to 20, the leg lifts are down to 10, the crunches have been cut to one set and the second set of push-ups was a measly 5 this morning. I’m hoping to return to the entire routine soon enough; however I’m going to need a bit of a boost in my will power… Wish me luck…

Apart from the minimized (often excluded) morning workout, my life here in California has also become much more sedentary. When I was living back in Colorado, Todd and I would often partake in physical activities – hiking, disc golf and even ping-pong at times – however, now that I have purchased a car and actually drive to work each morning, the physical activities have dwindled quite a bit. Last Friday I decided to do something about that…


Now that I’m living on the CSUCI campus, I’m basically surrounded by mountains. The negative aspect of this is that my cell phone has a hard time getting service. The somewhat positive part is that I can actually do a bit of hiking. I believe that there is a total of one trail up the mountains around the campus and I decided to take a walk up this trail last Friday – soon discovering that my gazelle-like prowess is a bit questionable when it comes to this trail. I was thinking that it would be much easier than hiking in the Rockies (heck, you start off more than a mile below the Rockies’ trailheads) but quickly discovered that there was more to it than just elevation…

For starters, I was wearing my New Balance cross trainers (basically tennis shoes…) – most definitely not the foot apparel of choice for this trail. Turns out this trail is quite steep in several areas with the added advantage of being comprised of mainly loose stones and pebbles. It wasn’t at all like the much more refined trails that I have hiked in the Rockies. Worse yet was the discovery that I’m not good at walking (well, mainly sliding as I remember it…) down these steep trails. When I informed Chris of my difficulties on descending the trail I was informed that he basically just runs down – yeah, that would be the end of me if I tried that … I ended up on my ass a couple times just attempting to walk it…


I am, however, proud to say that I was able to make it to the summit and back without killing myself. It was pretty good exercise and the views were spectacular. I asked Jessica if she wanted to join me prior to heading out but she opted not to – leaving me to go it alone. Nothing new there, but it was probably a good thing in hind sight – I think anyone that was with me would have been a bit dismayed at the extremely slow rate of my descent – Hell, Chris runs down when he goes…

I was able to get some decent photos on my hike – took a few videos as well but doubt I’ll be doing anything with those. As is always the case, the photos are poor substitutes on actually being there but I figured I could post a few to show my blog readers where I am currently living. It should most definitely highlight the point I was trying to make earlier about being in the middle of nowhere… I am miles away from pretty much any “life” – which I guess makes sense when you consider that this used to be a mental hospital. You will notice, however, that construction is currently underway and the area is currently expanding. Who knows … perhaps this will turn into a “happening” campus sometime in the future…? For now it’s basically regarded as a commuter college…

And that’s about all I have to report today. I realize that this is a boring post and seriously doubt that many (if any) will even be reading these words; however this did give me something to do as I was running through various experiments with the clock tree synthesis for this chip I am working on. Anything to make time pass a bit quicker…

bis später,

Coriolis

Out With a Bang

So I told you about Summer (my first trip into the world of craigslist’s “services – erotic”) a couple posts ago and mentioned that I would most likely be posting the other story a bit later. Well, since I really have nothing to do – boredom has become a constant companion as of late – and since there’s nothing much else to write about; I figured I’d waste some time by typing up my second story of Internet purchased debauchery. Let me now introduce you to Reagan – don’t know her “real” name, but Reagan was the name she was going by…

It was the last Thursday at my over-priced apartment and I was actually planning to move to my new residence on the CSUCI campus that evening. Since I was moving out of the apartment and since I was going to be moving into Chris’ house, I figured this would be the perfect time to utilize one of the “outcall” escorts. Giving my address to the girl wouldn’t be an issue as I wasn’t even going to be living there anymore and there is no way in Hell that I would be inviting a prostitute (or sorry, an “escort”) to Chris’ house; so I gave Reagan a call somewhere around noon.

She looked pretty hot from the pictures posted and was claiming to be the “Ultimate GFE” (another one of those codes that you need to know … GFE is GirlFriend Experience – you can find the definition online if you’re interested…) so I figured I’d give her a call and depart my apartment “with a bang”. When I spoke with her I discovered that she would be coming from Santa Barbara – about an hour’s drive from Thousand Oaks; but as long as I agreed to an hour minimum purchase, she seemed to be fine with it. I suggested that she head down around 6:00pm and was instructed to call her back at 4:00 to get the final arrangements set. That was cool … I figured I could head over to CSUCI afterward or just put off the move until Friday – I was already contracted to pay for another week at the apartment and had no actual “need” to be leaving that night anyway…

So I called Reagan back just prior to leaving work for the day and gave her the address. We actually got along rather well on the phone although I suppose that just might have been part of the “Ultimate GFE” advertised. We arranged it where she should be arriving at the apartment somewhere around 6:30 that evening. I left work, stopped by the ATM for a bit of a withdrawal, headed to a liquor store to pick up a bottle of Patron and returned to the apartment. It was then that it occurred to me that I had eaten nothing that day – I was pretty hungry…

When Reagan arrived, I inquired if she might be interested in getting a bite to eat prior to starting the clock on the “escort” service and she was cool with the idea. I ended up taking her out to TGI Friday’s and buying her a steak dinner. So not only was she getting the service fee for her “services”, she also got a free dinner out of me. But that’s cool … I was hungry and I really did need to eat…

After dinner we headed back to the apartment and had some fun. It was pretty much the standard routine. She didn’t allow any kissing on the mouth (I believe she said something like “not on the first date”) although I was able to “convince” her into letting me get away with some cunnilingus. I don’t know … it was a decent time. Never worth what you end up paying, but that can be said about most women, I guess… At least with these you’re guaranteed to score.

So that was that – my final night at the over-priced apartment. I put off the moving until Friday but that was no big deal – it just meant that I would be moving into the house alone for the weekend. But I was able to get some sex – it’s looking like that’s not going to be happening again anytime soon…

bis später,

Coriolis

craigslist

So I purchased my vacation flights for Christmas. Well, “vacation” seems like a strange word to use here as I will be flying home for Christmas – I guess you could call it a reverse-vacation… The bad part is that I am not going to be able to get back to Detroit (well, Allen Park, but the Detroit area…) this year. I believe that this will be the first time I won’t be spending Christmas with my family. Unfortunately circumstances – as the currently are – are making the trip undoable. That’s okay though … at least I’ll be getting out of California for a bit.

The “home” that I mentioned flying to is actually my house in Colorado. Granted it’s not what is usually meant by “home for the holidays”, but a more literal translation of the phrase. It’s cool though, I can spend some time with my new family (Todd) and complete a few tasks that I need to do – fun stuff like gathering documents needed for taxes and registering this car that I bought prior to the California registration expiring. It’ll also give me a chance to hit the slopes, which is cool. I haven’t gone skiing in years…

Of course going skiing might not be such a great idea for me. I’m still chugging along with absolutely no health insurance. Knowing my luck, I’ll end up breaking a vital bone or two and spend the rest of my life paying the outrageous costs of emergency medical coverage that we lowly un-insured are charged. I don’t know … I used to be rather skilled in the Alpine arts. I’m hoping that it’s like riding a bike and the techniques will quickly come back to me prior to my slamming full-speed into a tree or something. Wouldn’t want to pull the ole “Sonny Bono”…

So I went back and read some of the earlier posts on this blog – you know, back when this blog actually had a few readers – and can’t help but feel as though I have let those few readers down. It’s rather apparent to me now what used to make this blog interesting – basically sex and drugs. Well, I am sorry to inform you that the “drugs” aspect will not be returning. I quit all that since returning to the States… Don’t get me wrong here – it’s not like I am trying to say that, in the words of Mr. Garrison, “Drugs are bad…”; however, with me, I came to the conclusion that I needed to stop. My brain needed the rest…

As for the “sex” aspect, the game’s changed a bit since leaving Europe. You see, I’ve basically attempted to go straight with the romantic (well, sexual…) aspects of my life and yes, a driving force behind this decision is the fact that “sex for hire” is a bit of a more complicated task here in America. Not only that, but it is also illegal in 98% of our states. That being said, it is still obtainable…

Now anybody that knows me is well aware that my legitimate dating skills are at best sub-par. “Nonexistent” is probably a better diagnosis … although I have actually been attempting to work on them lately. Unfortunately I find myself on yet another extended business trip alone and hitting the “hot spots” as a lone individual can be difficult for even the ordinary people … suffice it to say that it’s much harder for me… Oh I have tried – lord help me, I’ve tried – and have thus far, apart from a few interesting interactions that I would never have had previous, succeeded in very little.

Once again I feel that I need to clarify my position prior to informing you exactly what I did about it – I am a guy. Also, as I have made perfectly clear in my postings from Europe, I am rather fond of sex. Not that I’m any good at obtaining it, but I sure as hell am fond of it… What does one, such as myself, do when confronted with a conundrum such as this? One word – “craigslist”.

I believe that I have already mentioned that you can find anything on craigslist – and I do mean “anything”… As a case in point, there are “escorts” listed on craigslist that, for a price, will gladly spend some time with a guy as a companion. Do I recommend utilizing these services? Hell no, but I seem to have a hard time when it comes to following my own recommendations. I have, since heading out to California, purchased these “escort” services – twice in fact… Am I proud of this? Nope … but it’s been a while for me and, being that I don’t have much else to do in my free-time out here, I figured I’d give it a try… I met up with Summer at a La Quinta hotel…

There are several codes that you need to be aware of whilst browsing the escorts listed. The main one (apart from making sure that it is a w4m – woman for man – as opposed to something that you might not want … beware of the Crying Game…) is whether the escort is offering incall or outcall services. An incall is a service where the customer needs to meet the escort somewhere (it was a hotel room with Summer) and an outcall is where the escort will travel to the customer’s location. It seems that a majority of the women offer either and just put a bit of a premium on the cost of outcall service. Some, however, don’t – as I found with Summer – she only offered incall service…

When I headed out to the address that Summer gave me on the phone, I actually wasn’t aware that I was heading to a hotel room. Seems like it would have simplified things a bit if she had told me, but maybe she just assumed I would have known. But I didn’t know and was actually assuming that I was heading to her house (or apartment) and drove directly past the La Quinta. Ends up I had to call her for clarification before she told me that it was a hotel room. We finally got the directions figured out and I headed into the La Quinta parking lot and drove around to the back. She said that she would come out and meet me…

I was a bit shocked when I saw her. She was young (her posting was claiming 19) but that was expected. The unexpected aspect was that she was pregnant. And I’m not just talking a “little” pregnant … I found out upon speaking with her that she was 7 months pregnant! Oh well, that was an interesting twist. I can now add “pregnant” to the varieties of women that I’ve had sex with…

I’m not going to get into the details of our encounter as I have in the past. There’s really nothing new here anyway (except for the bun in the oven aspect…). She had her rules – no mouth kissing and no cunnilingus – and protection was mandatory (and I had no problem with that…). I suppose the good news for me was that my ED is gone. All in all it was an interesting way to pass some time (about an hour, but I wasn’t keeping track…) and that’s really all I have to say about that.

In fact, that’s basically all I have to say for today. I’ll probably get around to posting the story about my other venture into the craigslist’s “services –erotic” realm although I doubt that there will be any more. It’s much more expensive here in the States and not really worth the risk… I think I’m better off sticking to my plan of going legit, right…?

bis später,

Coriolis

What's the point?

Did ya ever have one of those lives? You know … one of those lives where, no matter what you do to change things, the pointlessness of it keeps slapping you in the face? As much as I hate to admit it, that’s pretty much the definition of my life – absolutely pointless… It’s actually rather funny (not so much funny, “ ha ha,” as funny, “interesting…”) in a way. I mean I’m trying – oh my god how I’m trying – to find some point to my existence but all I seem to be able to find is more and more pointlessness.

Now don’t get me wrong here … it’s not like I’m giving up all hope or anything. I’m just curious as to when the hell it’s going to be “my” time? Or perhaps I’m mistaken in thinking that others in this world have somehow discovered reasons for their existence. Is it possible that all of us are walking around feeling as useless as me? I doubt that… It seems to me that most people have something (a family, a job, friends, a bloated sense of self importance, etc…) that keeps them chugging along. What, exactly, is it that keeps me going? Is it the challenge of making the best out of the endless bad circumstances that I, myself, seem to be getting in to? No – there’s no fun in that … take my word for it… What is the “light at the end of the tunnel” that I am trying to get to? Is there even an end to this tunnel…?

Let me back up a bit and explain how I got to contemplating my existence. I’m not going to reiterate everything from my past (unless you are new to reading this blog, you already know that most of that was covered on here about a year ago…) however I feel that I need to update you a bit on my present. Here’s a brief (well, how “brief” it will end up being is currently unknown … I’ve been known to ramble at times…) synopsis of my California trip…

I came to California in mid October for money – nothing else, just money. You see, if you’re going to live in a capitalistic society, you need to be making capital. Unfortunately for me, I have been unable to find work in Colorado for the last couple of years and have therefore been forced to take contract jobs abroad in order to earn enough money to support my extravagant lifestyle. And by “extravagant lifestyle” I’m referring to plain old survival… I’ve acquired a few “things” in my life thus far (a house, a few cars, a few computer systems, home theater equipment, etc…) and I’m in the standard position of supporting these purchases now. This, of course, makes it necessary for me to make money and my latest quest for this needed money has landed me in California – not by choice, mind you, but by pure need…

The job I landed is in Thousand Oaks. I therefore found my initial housing at a furnished apartment in Thousand Oaks. My idea was to pull this contract job off “European Style” and try to accomplish what I did in Germany – no car … transportation by foot (and possibly public transport) alone. I figured I’d save some money and hassle by not needing to rent a car and get some good exercise as well. My plan lasted about a week and a half. Survival in southern California is far different than Europe – a car is mandatory. I ended up purchasing a rather run-down 1990 Toyota Corolla from some guy on craigslist for $750…

So I bought the car which made my next move finding more reasonable housing. The furnished apartment that I was in was not cheap. In fact the phrase that best describes it would be “outrageously overpriced”! They were charging me $89 (I actually talked them down from the $110 they wanted to charge) a day!! This, of course, comes out to about $2700 a month!!! Now, for a guy that is out here for nothing more than the money, paying $2700 a month for lodging is not going to work. That cuts into my profits enough to make this trip damn near pointless. Once I bought the car and was able to find housing a bit further from the office, I began my search for more reasonable accommodations. I headed back to craigslist to see who was looking for a roommate…

That’s the great thing about craigslist – you can find anything on it, and I do mean anything. For this task, I was looking for reasonably priced temporary housing in Ventura County and quite a few prospects were available. There were listings for furnished and unfurnished apartments, condos, town houses and guest houses; however I quickly realized that finding a place of my own wasn’t going to be cheap so I chose to look for shared housing instead. I responded to many postings where people were looking to rent a room with mixed results. I am, after all, a male that smokes and you’re far better off being a female non-smoker if you’re planning on moving in with others. I had a close call with one lady in the city of Ventura but missed out on that when she cancelled our initial meeting a mere few hours before I headed up there – I guess she decided against having a guy move in at the last minute. There was also a room in Moorpark (another female looking to rent out a spare bedroom) that fell through at the last minute – she decided to rent it out to a non-smoking female instead… It wasn’t looking good for me. Luckily, I was able to find a guy living on the CSUCI campus that didn’t let the fact that I am a male that smokes sour the deal. I moved out of the overpriced apartment and onto the CSUCI campus last Friday…

So I’ve found myself temporary housing that will be saving me a couple grand per month. This is good. It goes a long way in helping me out with why I’m here – the money – and the dude I moved in with seems to be cool enough. Of course I haven’t actually “lived” with him yet as he was gone for the entire weekend. I basically spent the weekend in his house by myself which, I must admit, felt a bit strange… It did, however, give me an opportunity to explore my new surroundings alone and pretty much got me to questioning my life a bit…

You see, I am now living on the CSUCI (as some call, the “C-Sucky”) campus about a mile and a half outside of Camarillo, CA. It’s about a 20 minute drive from here to my job in Thousand Oaks. Unfortunately that’s pretty much the only good thing I can say about my new location. CSUCI (California State University Channel Islands) is a rather new campus – about 5 years old from what I’ve been able to gather. Before that, it used to be the Camarillo State Hospital – the home for some of California’s most mentally insane. From 1936 until 1997 – when the hospital’s doors were closed for good – this place was home to thousands and thousands of alcoholics, pedophiles, and people with mental illness and retardation. Apparently the place is said to be haunted and the back entrance to the campus seems to be quite the magnet for unexplained phenomena as it has hosted numerous unexplained car accidents – one that apparently claimed the life of one individual whose autopsy showed an otherwise healthy woman who just happened to suffer a freak brain embolism.

So that’s where I’m living now and the “haunted” aspect isn’t even the worst part about it. This campus and the nearest city (Camarillo) are best described as “dead”. I moved in on a Friday evening and decided to scope the place out a bit. Nothing was happening on the actual campus. I think I noticed a total of something like five students walking around but there appears to be absolutely no place to “hang out” on the campus. And all this time I thought Wayne State was bad … I’d take it over CSUCI any day of the week now… Well, the lack of anything happening on campus lead me to drive into Camarillo to see what was happening there. I ended up stopping at this sport’s bar for a beer however didn’t stay long. There was a decent live band; however the 5 to 1 ratio of guys to gals didn’t really make the place all that inviting to me. I actually ended up heading back over to the TGI Friday’s in Thousand Oaks. At least I kind of “know” a few of the bartenders there…

This brings me to the “social” aspects of my California life – or, more to the point, the lack there of… You see when I was living in Thousand Oaks the social events were a bit of a roller coaster ride. I came out here hoping to experiment a bit with breaking out of my shell – I’ve never been a very socially proficient dude and it’s always been a problem that I’ve been hoping to solve – and I think I was able to make a little progress. I think… Of course I suppose when looking at the events on more of the macro scale, no progress was actually made. I got a fake email address from one girl, crashed a costume party in Santa Monica with these guys I met, got an actual number from this really cute 21-year old who has since apparently decided that I was no longer worth communicating with and became pretty much a regular at the TGI Friday’s in Thousand Oaks. There is more to most of those stories, but that pretty much sums up the big picture. Bottom line is that I’m living out here as a friendless dude that hangs out at the TGI Friday’s bar quite a bit and getting to that outcome didn’t require any progress.

So … I’ve been wondering just exactly what all this is about… What am I trying to do? Where am I trying to get? Anywhere…? I mean what the heck is the purpose of all this? It’s not like I’m out here panning for more golden life stories to astound others with … nobody’s interested in hearing them anyway… No … I’m just, as always, alone on yet another journey. Heck, if I’m lucky, I’ll even be able to make enough money to pay my taxes…

bis später,

Coriolis

Lone Soul

Well folks, life is continuing to trudge forward. The last couple of months have been very trying for me and the end results are that I now have a housemate, I’m still heading through life as a lone soul and, once again, I am going to be living elsewhere for an unknown amount of time in order to “make a living”. Same ole, same ole…

The housemate thing is rather interesting. My buddy Todd has moved into my spare room. I’m not going to get into the details on exactly why, but a couple weeks ago he found himself in a position where he was considering moving back to Illinois if he couldn’t find a place to crash around here. I got the call at 2:00 in the morning. I told him, of course, that he was more than welcome to move into my house – I have a spare bedroom and bathroom that he could use. After all, Todd’s a good guy and if we’re not ready and willing to help out a friend in need then what, exactly, is this world coming to? I’m more than happy to give up some personal freedom to help out a friend…

And yes, I am well aware of the stories about friends living together causing nothing but trouble. Perhaps this will end up being another one of those; but isn’t that what life’s all about? Sometimes you just need to roll the dice and see where they land. I think that not knowing the final outcome is what makes life interesting. A mundane existence of predetermined outcomes seems a bit pointless to me; and besides, as I said earlier, Todd’s a good guy and I do believe that the new living situation will be beneficial to us both. I guess only time will tell…

As for the “lone soul” thing, the last few months have been tough. Once again, I let myself fall for a woman and, once again, I did a rather spectacular job of fucking everything up. It’s one of those “if you don’t learn from your mistakes then you are destined to repeat them” stories that I am still too annihilated by to discuss details on. Bear in mind that this is, by no means, a common occurrence for me – I would estimate that it’s been at least 15 years since any woman has interested me enough to get me to even make a play for – and I am now in full understanding of the reason. Denial hurts … denial caused by one’s own ignorance and stupidity devastates!

Yeah, I know … I should “be a man” and get over it. You’re right, I should. Unfortunately I know myself a bit too well and am well aware that this sting’s going to be around for quite some time. Does it make sense? No! Hell, truth be told, I hardly even knew her… She was merely another of the countless people that one encounters randomly throughout one’s life and, to be honest, I can’t even rationally explain the attraction. Whatever it was, it sure as hell was powerful…

So here I am, once again, confronted with the reality that I am destined to live out the remainder of my years without the only real thing that I need – love. I guess I’m just a hopeless romantic devoid of the skills required to do anything about it. Maybe I’ll be able to hone my skills in this area before the next encounter – of course I’ll be 52 then…

The good news about the last couple of months is that I was finally able to land a job. I was trying to get a job close to home; however, for me, things never end up that ideally. Next Sunday I will once again be boarding a plane. This plane will then fly me to Los Angeles where I will need to find a way to get to my new home in Thousand Oaks – I don’t know … taxi, perhaps? You see, that’s where the job is – Thousand Oaks, California.

What this means, of course, is that I am going on another little adventure. It’s not overseas this time, but it’s definitely not “around the block” from my house. It IS, however, another place that I have not yet been and an opportunity to explore some new territory. I’m not sure how long I will be there but am currently expecting it to be no less than 3 months – quite longer, actually… From what I hear about the cost of living around there (and it’s high – I am already feeling the pain by seeing what my furnished apartment is going to be costing) I wonder how long I’ll be able to survive… Oh well, maybe these new frustrations will help me to get over my devastation a bit quicker. Also, I’ve heard that the population density is quite high in southern California – plenty of opportunities for random encounters…

bis später,

Coriolis

Things have been better...

Okay, so I know it’s been a while since I chatted with you guys … sorry about that. Although I’m pretty sure that nobody cares too much…

Life’s been beating me up quite a bit lately. The worst part is the lack of employment. I did, however, have three phone interviews a couple of days ago. The first and third were for the same job and the result of the third was a rather kindly written rejection email that I received yesterday. Not that I blame them or anything – I suffered third degree “brain freeze” during the interview and wasn’t even able to remember tool commands that I was using on a daily basis a bit over a year and a half ago. Granted, they all came flooding back to memory somewhere around 15 minutes after the interview was over and there’s nothing like remembering the answers after the test has been taken…

I’m really not that upset about not getting that job as it would have required me to spend what was sounding like a minimum of seven months in Santa Clara, California; and my interpretation from the discussions pretty much lead me to believe that it may have ended up becoming a permanent move over time. No thanks. I’ve spent enough time in the ole Silicon Valley back in my Avant! days to make the thought of moving out there rather gut-wrenching. Besides, I rather enjoy living in my little house here in Colorado.

This, of course, brings me to the second interview. That was for a short (2-3 month) contract job down in the Tempe, Arizona area. Word from my recruiter is that the manager I spoke with was impressed with me however nothing more has come of that yet. I was pretty much expecting a call yesterday to possibly schedule the next interview with an actual engineer but haven’t received said call. Perhaps I’ll send the recruiter an email to inform her that the Santa Clara job is no longer an issue. Yeah, that would probably be a good idea; but 2-3 months is rather short. Oh well, I guess I better do something soon…

I’ve even been thinking about getting back in touch with the recruiters in England that landed me that job in Germany. From what I have been told, they apparently have several positions to fill throughout Europe pretty much at any time. I don’t know … it just seems to me that – being an American citizen and all – I should be able to find decent employment here in the states. It’s a bad sad to me that an experienced engineer can’t find a job that doesn’t require him to live away from his house for extended periods of time, though. Doesn’t that pretty much defeat the purpose of buying a house to begin with? Sure, I can own a house but I can’t live there – something’s a bit mixed-up with that…

Good news is that I do believe that I have successfully paid my German taxes that had been due for the last few months. I “believe” this as I have not received any more letters requesting payment and am going by the “no news is good news” policy. I haven’t received anything verifying that the payment was received; however I most likely wouldn’t be able to read it anyway – all the requests for payment I received were written in German leading me to believe that any correspondence from Germany would be the same. I’ve heard nothing from my German accountant either; although I was informed that her office was closed until August 13th – Europeans make vacations a must – and I suppose she may have just not gotten around to writing me yet… I do believe that the bank routing number issues were resolved correctly and the money was correctly received. I suppose we’ll see how long that belief rings true sometime in the near future, maybe…

Well, that’s pretty much all I have to say for now. Perhaps I’ll write up a little article on my latest poker endeavors sometime soon but there’s really not much to say. I’ve been a regular at the “Wacky Wednesdays” up at the Gilpin Casino in Blackhawk but must admit that my earnings are currently in the red. I’ve even been having discussions with Todd about moving out to Vegas and giving the poker-for-a-living thing a shot; but I seriously doubt that’s going to actually happen. I guess one never really knows until one actually does, though. I’ll let you know if that ever happens…

bis später,

Coriolis

For now, goodbye...

I’m back in Michigan. I actually flew in last Sunday. It’s been one long, very strange week…

It was less than a month ago that I made the 18-hour drive home from Michigan; I wasn’t planning on returning (back to Michigan) so soon, but circumstances and fate ended up making the decision for me. You see, my grandmother had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer just prior to my arrival in early May (the end of the trans-Atlantic trip on the ISADORA). I was lucky enough to be able to spend some quality time with my noticeably weaker, yet still completely coherent grandmother during the two months that I spent before returning to Colorado; however, being away from my home for a complete year made returning a rather high priority. I drove back to Colorado with my long-time friend Mike fully aware that a return trip to Michigan might be needed in the near future…

I received a call from my mother last Thursday informing me that my grandmother had taken a turn for the worse and that I should start looking for a flight back soon. Ignorant of the actual urgency of the situation, I booked a flight scheduled to arrive in Detroit at 8:20pm the next Tuesday. I was hoping to possibly get my landscaping issues taken care of prior to flying back to Michigan. The landscaping plans were quickly scrapped when I received another call (this time from my father) Friday evening informing me that the nurses looking after my grandmother were only expecting her to survive another 24-48 hours. I then changed my outgoing flight to the next available and left Denver International at 6:50am Sunday morning.

I arrived at my grandmother’s apartment stock full of some very exhausted family members (many days had passed where my uncle, aunt, father, mother and cousins had been waiting for the inevitable with very little sleep) and my grandmother – extremely weakened and unable to talk but still alive. I had made it back before she passed and was able to speak to her. Although she was unable to speak back to me, I do believe that she was aware of my presence as she struggled to open her eyes while I was speaking with her. I’m not sure how coherent she was – the morphine may have hindered her a bit – but I am positive that she was aware of my presence.

The next day she appeared to have quite a bit more energy. She was able to open her eyes without much hassle and was even attempting to speak. We all (my family) did our best to keep her comfortable however it was pretty much all down-hill from there. I returned on Tuesday and spent a couple of hours with her prior to heading out for a round of disc golf with my brother. It was only the Hospice nurse and me (I was glad for this as I was hoping that others were finally getting some much needed rest) and I helped roll her over a couple of times. She would open her eyes during these adjustment periods however the glazed look in her eyes didn’t appear to have any comprehension. I told her that I would be coming back – perhaps not that day – but that I would be returning and said, “For now, goodbye.” These are the last words that I spoke to my grandmother.

I received a call on my cell phone during the ride back from the disc-golf course with my brother. It was my sister-in-law. She told me that granny had passed.

The funereal was earlier today and the burial will be in a few days down in Murray, Kentucky. I’ve decided not to head down to Murray and will actually be flying back to my home in Colorado this Sunday afternoon. Although no elaborate ceremony or display is scheduled in Kentucky, family members will have the opportunity to attend the burial with her two sons (my father and uncle) and their wives. It’ll be a solemn burial for a wonderful woman.

Although she has passed from our mortal world, Grandma Bowen will forever live in my heart.

bis später,

Coriolis

The Root of All Evil

Okay, I’ve said it before and I’m going to say it again – money is the root of all evil. At the least, it’s a big pain in the butt. Check this out…

I’ve received my tax assessment from my German accountant and it appears that I still owe close to €1000.00 on my 2006 taxes. That’s not too much of a surprise; unfortunately I have no way to make this payment. I am paying a German accountant to basically handle my German finances although I am beginning to wonder why I am paying her. I guess the money was to get the taxes filed correctly as I would never be able to figure out the German tax forms; although I guess that’s where the service ends. I’ve made several inquisitions as to how I could make this payment now that I have returned back to the states and the only advice received has been useless.

The standard routine for making this tax payment is to transfer from a German bank account. Unfortunately for me, I had closed my Dresdner account just prior to leaving the country and therefore have no German bank account to make this payment. I figured this wouldn’t be an issue – how could sending money for a payment be complicated? I mean, as far as I’m concerned, if anyone wants to send me money I’m positive that I would make it simple for them. The Germans, on the other hand, must think a bit differently. A simple process is anything but what I have experienced … oh, and by the way, my taxes still aren’t paid. It’s not that I didn’t try; I just have not discovered the secret to getting this transfer completed. The due date is next Tuesday and I’m about 95% sure that this cluster-fuck won’t be resolved before that due date is long gone…

Now, to add to the confusion, I’m currently spending some time with my parents in Michigan. The added issue that this causes is that Wells Fargo has a total of zero branches in Michigan and, since a branch visit is required to complete an international wire transfer with Wells Fargo, a three hour drive to Angola, Indiana was required to even attempt this payment. I attempted several other payment techniques (a transfer from my American Express, Money Gram, Western Union, etc…) but got absolutely nowhere. As a last ditch effort, my father and I decided to drive the three hours to the closest Wells Fargo branch today. Surely the bank would be able to make this transfer, right? WRONG!

I guess the official tax documentation that I received from Germany didn’t have the correct information on it to make an international wire transfer possible. Or, more true to the point, the “Lead Teller” at Wells Fargo wasn’t able to use the information provided to get the payment made. I guess an IBAN number, a BIC (which looks to me like a SWIFT code) and two account numbers with separate BLZ numbers for each wasn’t sufficient. What all those numbers and codes are is unknown to me; but I am not a banker – I would think that a “Lead Teller” for Wells Fargo would be able to figure out how to get the payment made; but I would be thinking incorrectly as Deborah was unable to figure it out. Bottom line here is that, even after a six-hour round trip to Indiana, my German taxes are still not paid.

Not only that, but I also took the remaining €4400 with me to deposit. They were more than happy to deposit this money into my account at a buying rate of 1.2648. After checking the foreign exchange rates for today, I now completely understand why there was no problem with this – the exchange rate of USD to EUR is currently at 1.358. I lost over $400 by depositing the money into my account! I personally think that it’s a bit unfair to lose over $400 by depositing MY money into MY account but I guess that Wells Fargo must really need the help or something. Why else would they so blatantly screw one of their own customers?

Oh well, I guess that’s just America these days – banks that aren’t even able to correctly do a transfer to pay due foreign taxes but are more than happy to screw their own customers on a simple deposit of funds that happen to be in a foreign currency. It’s fucking pathetic…

bis später,

Coriolis

Tschüß, Germany

Well, I’m sitting on my final train ride here in Germany – at least for this trip… We just left Hannover and now I have five hours to kill before arriving in Amsterdam. How will I use up this time? I guess I’ll write a blog entry. Heck, I’ve been getting a bit behind on writing up blog entries (you can blame Tiger Woods PGA Tour ’07 for that…) so I think I’m a bit overdue…

I guess this is the perfect opportunity for me to basically write up a final summary of the nine months that I spent living in Braunschweig – you know, the whole “things I learned” type of summary. I’m not going off of any notes here (nothing new there) so you will have to bear with me if this article starts deviating courses rather randomly. It seems that there was quite a bit that I wanted to mention on this blog but I’m positive that I won’t hit everything. I’ll try to do my best…

I’m sure most of you have seen the movie Pulp Fiction, right? Do you remember that scene where Vincent is talking about the time he spent in Europe (Amsterdam, I believe) near the beginning of the flick? He mentions how it’s basically the same as the states however it’s the little differences that seem to stand out so much. I always liked that scene however I now appreciate it at a much deeper level. According to Vincent, a Quarter Pounder is called a Royal in Europe. This is true – of course … metric system and all – however in Germany, if you order a Royal (actually called a Hamburger Royal) the default sandwich that you are actually ordering (at least currently) would be a Hamburger Royal TS (the TS stands for Tomato and Salad – the German word for lettuce). If you want the equivalent to a standard Quarter Pounder in the states, you need to order a Hamburger Royal ohne TS (without TS). There’s no need to worry about the “with cheese” addendum as cheese is also the default. The Hamburger Royal TS also comes with mayonnaise instead of ketchup … it’s not bad, but it’s just not the same… A Big Mac is a Big Mäc and no, they don’t have Whoppers at their Burger Kings.

Another interesting thing about the McDonald’s is the way they do the “value meals”. They’re called “menus” and, if you want large fries (Pommes Frites) and a drink, you order a “maxi menu”. The thing about the menus is that they are the same price (not much of a bargain, either) for whichever of the six sandwiches you choose – Big Mäc, Hamburger Royal TS, McRib, McChicken, 6-piece McNuggets or McFish. The price also remains the same regardless of the drink – one of the various sodas or even a shake. To give you an idea of exactly how much of a bargain these menus aren’t, a “maxi menu” with an additional sandwich on the side runs €8.18 (I placed this order quite often to use up the 70-some Euros of change that I acquired). That’s about $10.88! And to me, the beef just wasn’t the same quality as the beef used in the states. (Now there’s something I never would have imagined saying – a ringing endorsement to the American McDonald’s beef…)

I believe that I may have briefly alluded to the next little difference in at least one of my earlier postings; however I do think it is worth revisiting – the population density. No matter the time of day – or even the day of the week (except Sundays) – the main city squares are teeming with people. It’s pretty much like you are constantly living at some sold-out event at a major American sports arena. I guess this all ties in with the more laid-back work ethic and the lesser dependency on automobiles for transportation (bikes and feet seem to be the predominant transportation modes) yet I was always amazed at the number of people that were out and about. I suppose it’s a much healthier lifestyle as I did lose quite a bit of weight living here; it just seemed so interesting to me – a guy that’s lived his entire life hopping in a car to pretty much go anywhere (regardless of the distance…).

I suppose one of the negative little differences is the amount of graffiti. Sure, America has its own graffiti problem however it seems to be limited to the large cities and slums. Over in Europe, the stuff is everywhere! Not that it’s all bad – some of these masterpieces appear to be works of some pretty decent artists. It just soils what is still a beautiful countryside enough to stand out to me. I guess this could be no more than a byproduct of the large population densities however the multitude of idiots creating this graffiti aren’t really showing too much respect for their own homelands…

Smoking is most definitely much more accepted in Europe. You can smoke in any restaurant or bar and very few of them even bother to have a non-smoking section. The number of smokers is also much higher than you would find in any American city these days. Heck, I would say that, overall, the smokers appear to be the majority. It definitely wasn’t a positive aspect for me as I must admit that I’ve actually started smoking more than a pack a day since moving here – I guess that’s something I’m going to have to work on a bit when I return home…

It’s a bit strange in a way because (at least in Germany) the price for cigarettes is rather high. A pack (sold only in boxes – you can’t get soft pack cigarettes) will run you €4 (about $5.32) and there is absolutely no discount for buying in quantity – a carton (which, interestingly enough, doesn’t come in a box) sells for €40. Not only that, but the packs only have 17 cigarettes in them as opposed to the 20-cigarette packs sold in the states. So you end up paying $53 for 170 cigarettes. If I remember correctly (and it’s possible that I don’t), a 200 cigarette carton sells for $30-$35 in Colorado. I guess this is a pretty good counter-argument for raising the “sin tax” on cigarettes in the states – apparently the die-hard smokers (no pun intended) have no problem paying the higher prices. Many over here choose to “roll their own” cigarettes (in fact even I was doing this for a little while … until I got sick and tired of the hassle) to save some money as you can pick up a canister of tobacco (about one carton worth of pre-rolled cigarettes) for about €30. That’s still close to $40 American…

As far as sporting events in Europe, I only have to say one word – soccer. Soccer is HUGE in Europe! I mentioned in an earlier article that you could always find a large number of fanatic soccer fans at pretty much any train station on any weekend and this is absolutely true. Most of the yelling and screaming fans that you find at the train stations are the younger adults (I would say late teens to early twenties) but, upon living directly above a sports bar, I also discovered that this fascination with soccer is not only limited to the kids. It was common on a soccer night to have the yelling and serious noise making continue very late into the night – sometimes until 4:00 in the morning… Hindered my sleeping a bit, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it … I guess soccer fans will be soccer fans…

Recycling is big in Germany and the people living there seem to have no problem going through the efforts required to facilitate this. At several places throughout Braunschweig they have these recycle bins where you need to separate your recyclables into their correct categories (clear glass, brown glass, green glass, cardboard and some other ones that I never bothered to figure out) and deposit them into their corresponding bins. No “reward” is dulled out for going through this effort (although I do believe that you could get money back if you returned the recyclables to the stores – much like several places in the states) however these bins were often times seen full to capacity. The reason behind this, I suppose, is my next topic of discussion – German people always follow the rules.

I heard it said several times that when you are in Germany, you need to follow the rules. This statement is absolutely true and it appears as though the German citizens have taken the “rule following” to heart. Countless times I would notice people waiting at a crosswalk for the crossing signal to turn green. It didn’t matter whether there were any vehicles around at all, they would always obediently wait for the signal to cross. I attempted to wait with them, most of the time; however I will admit that there were several occasions where I just crossed the street leaving the crowd behind me. I realize that this is not proper traveling etiquette (when in Rome…) but standing there waiting for the light to change when no traffic was even visible just seemed silly to me. I actually almost got run over by a tram a few days ago due to my impatience, but that’s just because I’m an idiot and forgot about the added danger that the trams provide…

This brings me to my next topic – walking in Germany can be dangerous. Not quite as dangerous as Athens where the people seem to have a rather bad habit of driving on the sidewalks; however there are many more things to watch out for than one would find in a typical American city. You’ve got the horde of people, a lot of bikes (they ride in the same territory as the walking pedestrians most of the time), automobile traffic and trams. You basically need to keep on your toes at all times to assure that you make it to your destination safely. Perhaps this is why the crowds constantly wait for the crosswalk signals … yeah, it’s starting to make sense now…

One thing that actually surprises me a bit is the difficulties involved in dealing with German banks. And it wasn’t just the bank I used (Dresdner), two other contractors had similar experiences and all three of us were using different banks. I could understand a time delay for international transfers and such, but even transferring funds to German banks became multi-day (if not multi-week) ventures. And there’s nothing quite as satisfying as having funds withdrawn from your account and spending a few days in some unknown void before arriving at their destination. The worst part about it is, even if you go to your bank and enquire about the transfer in progress, the only thing you’re ever told is to wait because they apparently can’t tell you where your money is. When I tried to pay my German accountant her fee for my tax preparation, it wasn’t until a week later that I noticed the money somehow returned back to my account. I was never notified of the problem and actually needed to go back to my bank and re-send the funds. It’s a good thing I was able to check my account online (oh yeah, the website is only available in German so you can image what a hassle that can be) and notice the returned funds or I guess my accountant never would have been paid…

And get this – I closed my Dresdner account yesterday. There was €5133.24 in it, so I brought along my Wells Fargo checkbook expecting to have the funds transferred to my American account. Unfortunately Dresdner Bank doesn’t do that. Sure, there were several occasions in the past where I was able to successfully transfer funds between these two accounts; however when an account is being closed, the funds can only be transferred to another German bank. The result of this is that I ended up walking out of the bank yesterday with €5133.24 in cash! I also received my €900 security deposit back from my landlord yesterday which brings the total that I am currently carrying with me on my trip home to well over €6000! That’s damn near $8000!! I sure hope I don’t get robbed or anything…

Well, my train is currently arriving in Amersfoort which means the next stop is Amsterdam Centraal Station. I suppose this is a good point to stop writing and start preparing for the assuredly difficult task lying ahead of lugging my two wardrobes, an extremely over packed suitcase (it weighs about a ton…) and a very large notebook computer (and case) from the station to my hotel (it’s across the street – kinda – from the station however it’s a pretty long walk…). Thanks for reading my blog – hopefully you found it a little interesting…?

bis später,

Coriolis

Excess Baggage

Okay, first off, no – I am not coming home in a hot-air balloon. That was (as I am pretty sure anyone would have concluded) an April Fools joke. Sloof Lipra is, after all, no more than “apriL foolS” spelled backwards. It would have been an interesting trip, I suppose; however I am going to be returning (as mentioned earlier) on a Polish steel freighter. Yeah, I know what most of you Americans are thinking; however the Polish people have accomplished much in their history aside from just becoming targets for purely American jokes… Who knows? Maybe I’ll discover a new joke that begins, “So this American boards a ship run by a Polish crew…”

But that’s not what I am going to be telling you, the valued reader (all three of you…), about today. Today I want to share a rather interesting experience I recently had involving some of the luggage that I was needing to get home. And that last sentence is correct – I “was” needing to get this luggage home. I don’t need to any more; and if you read on, you’ll discover why…

Here’s the thing – as I’m sure I have alluded to in several earlier postings, I’ve actually lost quite a bit of weight spending the last eight and a half months over here in Germany. This, by no means, should be taken as a negative review of the German cuisine – far from it … the German food I have had has all been very good (except for this meat-gelatin dish that I accidentally had for lunch once). The reason that I lost so much weight (at least 50 pounds, although I do believe it is more as the 34 inch waist jeans that I purchased to replace my old 38” jeans aren’t quite as snug as they used to be) is a combination of the walking necessary for life over here (I never acquired any sort of vehicle other than public transportation) and my own unwillingness to go through the complications that always arose when acquiring food in eateries where English was not understood. (And yes, I am completely aware that learning German would have been a great thing – and I tried, half-heartedly – however the German language and I just don’t seem to get along very well…)

The way that this relates to my luggage issue is that I actually bought a couple suits (with two pair of slacks for each), something like three sports coats, some shirts and a couple ties prior to flying out here thinking that I would need them for work. I had four suits that I purchased some 14 years ago when working at EDS however they no longer fit the larger Americanized version of me and I donated them to charity before shelling out the $1800 plus for my new wardrobe. Turns out that I didn’t need the new suits – I could have shown up at work in shorts and a T-top and nobody would have even raised an eyebrow… I was unaware of this though and came prepared – a bit over-prepared…

It made the initial trip out here a bit more difficult as I needed to (by myself, mind you) haul two over-packed wardrobes, one rather large and completely stuffed rolling bag as well as an oversized laptop (my 17” screen HP Pavilion dv8000t desktop replacement machine) along with all the little accessories through the Denver International Airport and the Hannover Airport. I got very lucky and, as fate would have it, was able to get picked up in Hannover by my two cousins, Dale and Russ, who just happened to be vacationing in Europe at the time. They were nice enough to actually drive me to the Hotel Café am Park in Braunschweig and even helped me lug all the baggage up the three flights of stairs to my initial room. My trip home is going to be a different beast all together. I will be taking a train from the Braunschweig Hauptbahnhof (main train station – see, that German language is something…) to the Hannover Hauptbahnhof; switching trains in Hannover and continuing on to Amsterdam’s Centraal Station where I will be staying in a hotel for a couple nights before taking either a cab or a ferry to the Police/Customs station in IJmuiden followed by yet another cab ride the final two miles to the actual port where I will be boarding my ship. I think you can easily see that this trip is going to be much easier if my load is lightened a bit…

Due to all the weight loss, it ends up that the money I spent on the clothing prior to coming out here was a waste. Everything that I bought is now way too large for me. Taking this into consideration, I decided that I needed to somehow make it so that I wouldn’t need to be transporting these now over-sized outfits with me on my return trip – that would lighten my load quite a bit. My first idea was to ship these suits home beforehand and just pick them up again at my parent’s house in Allen Park, Michigan. Good idea, huh? Well, here’s how that went…

From all of the information that I was able to gather on shipping large items, it appears that you need to start off by getting large boxes. I packed up all my suits and sports coats into the two wardrobes that I brought with me and then needed to located a box (or possibly two) large enough for me to pack these wardrobes in. But I’m in Germany and have no local support. Where would I get boxes? It’s not like you can just go online and find a store that sells boxes; and, from what I had been informed by Jon who was doing pretty much the same thing for his return trip, the DHL (the European equivalent to UPS) office didn’t have any boxes that were large enough. Last Saturday I decided to just go for a walk and see what I could find…

As it turns out, I ran into what appeared to be the German version of a Home Depot about a mile or so down this main street from my apartment. They’d sell boxes, right? I headed in and started looking … and looking … and looking… I finally found where a couple of cardboard boxes where on display; unfortunately they were way too small for my needs. I then decided to go attempt to inquire with their Information desk. The first question I asked was the standard, “sprechen zie Englisch?” with an obviously negative response. The lady working the desk then made an announcement over the PA system and motioned for me to stay and wait. Shortly thereafter, this guy showed up from the back that spoke a little English and I, once again, went into my charade-talk mode and inquired on whether or not they sold any larger boxes. I got the impression that he understood as he asked me to wait there while he headed off back towards the back of the shop once again.

As I was waiting, another lady appeared and the first lady behind the Information desk motioned her toward me as well. This new lady also spoke a little English and I, once again, attempted to explain what I was looking for as well as tried to explain that there was already a guy trying to help me who instructed me to wait where I was. This didn’t seem to make a difference to her as she then told me to follow her and took me back to a display of these small metal boxes that they were selling. I then explained that I was looking for much larger, perhaps cardboard boxes for shipping purposes. She then began leading me toward the boxes that I found earlier and I was doing my best to explain that they were far too small when the first guy returned with two very large, rather beat-up cardboard boxes which he then gave to me. I asked if I needed to pay for them and it was made clear that I could just take them. Sweet! Although the boxes seemed a bit excessive, I figured I could make them work. I thanked the nice employees and headed out of the store with my found treasures…

So there I was, a mile (perhaps a mile and a half) from my apartment now in possession of two very large (they were folded at least) boxes that I awkwardly hoisted onto my head and started walking to the nearest bus stop. I hopped on the next bus and took it a large portion of the way back to my apartment then wrestled these boxes up the elevator and into my dinky little apartment. It wasn’t until returning to my apartment that I was first able to see what kind of boxes they were. The first one was a huge rectangular box that happened to be missing one very crucial flap and the other was some sort of strange-shaped box that I was never even able to figure out. In the end, these boxes were not going to work. Oh well, it was nice enough of the people to give them to me; however my next move was to drag the boxes out of my apartment, back down the elevator and straight to the recycling bin that I knew of a few hundred meters away…

A large portion of the rest of that day was spent lying in my bed as I had screwed up my back wrestling with those boxes. I’m thinking that I somehow re-triggered the injury suffered when bruising my tailbone in Amsterdam a couple months ago as the pain came back with a vengeance. It started off mild, but as time went on the act of merely walking became a choir. I’m very glad to say that everything got better the next day; but I took this as a sure sign that I don’t want to be lugging all this extra luggage with me on my farewell journey. I guess I am getting old…

Okay, so the box idea was pretty much shot now – I wasn’t about to attempt that again. What was I going to do then? I was thinking I could ship the extra weight back by just shipping the actual wardrobes, themselves; but this is Germany. When you’re in Germany, you follow the rules – that’s just the way it is. I didn’t think that DHL would ship the wardrobes unboxed and my previous attempts to find some sort of luggage concierge service came up with a $600-$700 price tag. There’s no way I was paying that much to ship clothing that no longer even fit me. I remembered visiting a couple second hand shops here in Braunschweig a few months ago with a fellow contractor that was looking to buy a sports coat for the Christmas party. I briefly considered trying to sell the stuff there about a week ago but decided to avoid the hassles of communication that I was sure to encounter. Whilst speaking with my brother on the phone after the box ordeal, he got me to reconsider. He suggested I sell the stuff rather than risk throwing my back out attempting to bring it home. Okay, so my next attempt was to sell it…

Early Monday I decided to remove all of the extra crap I stuffed in one of the wardrobes and took that wardrobe along with all the clothing from the other wardrobe with me as I headed out to the second hand stores. Upon entering the first store, it was made very clear to me that they weren’t interested in purchasing anything from me. They didn’t speak any English; however I clearly got the impression that they weren’t interested. Okay, fine – I’d try the other store I knew of. Different store – same results. The proprietor of this second store appeared to speak English pretty well and I asked him why a second hand store wouldn’t be interested in purchasing damn near brand new suits and he mentioned something about some sort of large corporation that does all their purchasing. I told him that he could have everything (including the wardrobe) for €500 but he wasn’t about to buy anything. Remember, this is Germany- you follow the rules…

Well, what I did next is a bit crazy – I’ll be the first to admit it. I headed back to my apartment, went directly to the room where my garbage is collected and threw away damn near $1800 worth of brand new suits! I kept the shirts as they’re not very heavy but everything else went in the trash. I also kept both wardrobes as carting the suitless wardrobes with me on the trip shouldn’t be too cumbersome…

Lesson learned through all this – never bring more than needed on any trip. After all, at my age, traveling light might actually save my back…

bis später,

Coriolis

See the World

Well folks, here’s an interesting twist – I’ve decided not to travel home on a working freighter; instead, I’m going to be flying home the old-fashioned way – hot-air balloon!

It’s going to extend the trip a bit as I am going to have to basically go east rather than west and the length of the trip is going to be governed completely by the various weather conditions encountered; however I do believe that this little bit of “thinking outside the box” should most definitely assure an interesting journey. There is always the possibility that I might not make it, but life’s full of risks and I think I’ll be okay…

I met this guy – a Mr. Sloof Lirpa – at this Irish pub yesterday evening and he informed me of this rather interesting bet that he made with is buddy. You see Sloof’s one of those eccentric multi-millionaires with a LOT of free time on his hands and he’s a well-seasoned balloonist. He’s completed many rather time consuming (and distance consuming) trips in the past, but he has yet to try the coup de grâce of the ballooning world – the round the world trip. When mentioning this to his buddy just a few weeks ago, he pretty much got dared to do it. He mentioned that a wager was involved however never actually told me what the stakes were – I’m assuming it’s quite a bit; although Sloof seems to me like a guy that would do pretty much anything if anybody’s fool-hearty enough to doubt that he actually would…

The coolest part is that, although Sloof usually does these trips as a lone traveler, he invited me along for the ride (well, a large portion of the ride as I will be leaving the balloon at a still to be determined landing somewhere as near to Detroit as we can manage). I was telling him how my work here has now ended and that I was planning on heading back to the states soon and he seemed more than happy to invite me on his little trip. He said that it would be a nice change to actually have another along for the ride since the conversations he usually has with the voices in his head are becoming a bit repetitious as of late. I’m hoping that the many stories of my own life (many of which can be read earlier in this blog) will be enough to keep him interested so that he doesn’t decide to throw me out of the journey somewhere in the middle of the Ukraine or anything… Nah, this guy seems pretty “on the level” (well, if you discount the conversations he frequently has with “voices in his head” and all, but we all have our little idiosyncrasies, right?) – I’m sure he won’t leave me abandoned…

Not only that, but the trip ends up being no cost to me! How sweet is that? Sloof said that he would gladly cover all the provisions for both himself and me – he is, after all, a multi-millionaire. I figure that he would be more than happy to pay my way just for the added companionship he would be getting. Heck, I’m worth it!

So anyway, we’re currently scheduling departure in the next couple of weeks. This changes my plans a bit as communication during the journey will be extremely limited. I figure I’ll just try to keep in touch with my parents at any rest locations we end up landing in and pretty much take it from there. I’ve always wanted to “see the world”, and what better way is there than by hot-air balloon?!

bis später,

Coriolis