Final Words in 2008

So much for keeping this thing up, but at least I can get one more post in before the clock rolls over again and we start with the resolutions and a New Year.

The festivities have already begun here. Two days ago the shops started selling fireworks and I, of course, went out early and bought my little arsenal. The intermittent booms outside serve only as foreplay for me.

Being here, immersed as I am in German all day long, has caused me to seek out sources of English wherever I can. I get a little CNN in now and then, but my anchor is the NY Times and I follow the news doggedly. It's been a hurricane of a year looking back and honestly, I'm not sure even the eye of the storm is anywhere in sight let alone an end.

I am thinking especially of our soldiers who are serving overseas, the small business owners around the world who are furiously strategizing ways to survive these precarious economic times, and the suffering masses around the world who daily experience a hell on earth we can only try to conceive.

I have so many wishes for the New Year and none of them are for myself. There are too many others in the world who need our wishes. If I have one aspiration for 2009, it would be to quickly and successfully negotiate the end of my pursuit of this B.A. degree, get back out in the workforce and find some avenue to contributing to the improvement of the world.

There are no more borders to speak of: try as many might to erect and maintain them, the demands of our human race place demands on all of us as members of that race to struggle with new vim towards some kind of global unity. There is no more chance for isolation: We can not choose to be alone; neither as individuals nor as nations or even hemispheres; advocacy by those who have for those who have nothing is the only acceptable option. Advocacy can be as simple as having a conversation with someone about current events and as complex as choosing a new direction for one's life.

2009 is not going to be pretty, for anyone, but behind every great crisis lies the potential for great greatness. This above all is what I hope we as a race of humans will work towards this year and all those that follow; a world with less tolerance for war, famine, and human rights abuses and more tolerance for that which we do not understand, that which is different and that which frightens us.

As the clock rolls over, let us embrace each other and make room for one another; there is after all, plenty of room on this Earth if we would only figure out how best to use it.

Peace and love to all.

Tag der deutschen Einheit

October 3, 1990. The official date of German reunification. These days it is a national holiday here in Germany. Most shops are closed, most restaurants stay open to take advantage of the increased foot traffic. The was a quiet, Sunday afternoon feel to the day. Katja and I checked out an art installation in our neighborhood at Torstrasse 166. It is a "Zwischennutzungsgebäude." Essentially an empty apartment building whose next, more permanent use has not yet been established and so the space was given over to artists, 12 of whom were invited to use one each of the apartments in the building and create an installation. The project is open to the public for a couple of weeks, then the whole thing goes away. Berlin is filled with such projects.

Here are some pix, not very good ones mind you, but a few. My favorite apartment is the one where the artist uses overhead light projectors with tranparencies, invites visiting members of the public to stand somewhere in the room and then he 'draws' them into his piece via the transparency. Once the subject leaves, their light projection self remains and becomes a part of the installation.


Exterior of the Building, Torstrasse 166






This place was a crazy web of black yarn, literally coccooning the entire space except for the narrow walkway that allows access to each room.






Transparency room, the artist worked live




Room of the Rising Sun

So, um, yea... That semester is over, as is the one that followed it

I am not really committed to beginning to think about possibly starting to perhaps blog/write/journal on any kind of semi-regular basis, however given the sheer volume of change that has gone on in my life of late I somehow remembered that at one time or another I had this forum of one, this referendum on my Self, this little corner of the net in which to deposit my (frequently banal) thoughts.

So, pretty soon I'll have something interesting (or not) to post here, but for now...

Hi from Berlin.

Two Weeks and Out

Not much time left in the semester. It's been a whirlwind but and I'm glad it's almost over. A learning experience to say the least. UCB is a completely different pond from the CA JC system. I'm looking forward to a month of decompression and then getting a whole, new clean-slate semester to start with. How much information can one person process in two weeks? I'll find out soon enough.

Overweight and Underpaid

I've been exploring the many facets of the term 'downward spiral' for at least the last year and a half now. I've discovered that it is entirely possible to experience a downward spiral without all the expected and normally incumbent depression. Stress is probably the main culprit for my complete lack of motivation towards any creative endeavor whatsoever. At any rate, here is the nutshell.

The last post on this site is entitled 'Hurricane John' and was written by me in an attempt to get back into writing something with any kind of regularity. Much like this post, I suspect. Since then, among the various house projects (new roof, new fireplace, new windows), trying to finish up at College of Marin so as not to be an uneducated loser (my transfer application to UC Berkeley has been accepted, one more step out of Loser-dome), and working at a job I decided three years ago I didn't want to do anymore (still don't), with any free time that has come my way I've pretty much been content to sit at my desk, play World of Warcraft and eat pizza.

Sexy.

Not to give the impression that the activities involved in the last sentence have been a complete waste of time, here is a screen shot showing my Priest character riding an extremely cool Nether Drake:

Hurricane John

So I've been about as lazy as it gets with regards to updating this thing. It isn't like there isn't anything interesting going on in my life -- there is all kinds of stuff -- but I found I have this messed up desire to make every post 'significant' when really I should be using it as a vent, as a rant, as an expressive element in life.

Ya. Anyway, I'm flying down to Los Cabos tomorrow morning bright and early to secure the property from looters and vandals and pick up the pieces of the ranch left behind by Hurricane John. The fucker basically made landfall on the ranch. A Category 3 hurricane, with winds in excess of 150 mph, devasted the coastline where the ranch is. No roofs on most of the buildings, some outbuildings simply aren't there any more, but it sounds like the house itself weathered the storm fairly well. I'm mostly concerned about the horse and the sheep, I'm sure they aren't too happy.

We'll know tomorrow. Of course I won't have email (or a modern toilet for that matter) until I get back; but Katja is sending the digital camera down with me so I'll have some shots to post when I get back.

Wish us luck!

Non Monsieur, Pas de Climatisation

Imagine my indignation at paying - well, someone paid for it, not me necessarily, but it reads better this way - 80 Euros per night for a room in a three-star hotel in France, when the weather outside is -- mmm, warm, I'd say (40C or so, give or take a pint of sweat) -- only to discover upon check-in that, in fact, this recently renovated hotel does not actually boast in-room air conditioning.

As a result of my incredulity I went ahead and did a little research online. It seems the French hospitality industry has overlooked this bit of in-room technology. This oversight seems to be pandemic. On the three largest French language hotel booking websites (expedia.fr, hrs.fr, hotels.fr) you can't even specify Air Conditioning as a search criteria. The hotels that do feature A/C all tend to be 4-star and upward establishments. Granted.

I think my favorite part is the dismissive condescension in the voices of the Concierge personnel from whom I solicit this information. The simple question, "est-ce que les chambres sont climatisée?" has been met with more scoffing and French clearing-of-the-throat sounds than I thought possible. They also don't seem to be so keen to have me book a room with them after hearing the question, a phenomenon I attribute to latent feelings of inadequacy with regards to the hotel itself, because, deep down, they know they should be able to offer rooms in which actual sleep can be accomplished when the temperature outside is over 90F at 11:00p at night. I'd seriously have a better night of sleep in the car, in a parking garage, with the engine and auto A/C on.

It's a good thing all that cheese, baguette, veal and wine tastes so fantastic.