Skyzy's Attempt (another try at commitment)

02:45 pm - Blog Migration

Because of the Way Back Machine, I was able to retrieve one of my old blogs! Who knows how long it'll take, but I'll be reposting it on this blog, with the correct dates. That means new posts! Except really old posts!

I should also mention that a lot of posts that were once public have now been made private as I migrate certain subjects over to another blog as I try to clean up all my various blogs and websites.

I'm also planning on migrating as much of my fb rants back into here and using this as a proper blog once more instead of stupid, shoddy, restrictive, irritating fb.


And April 2003 is up!

And so is May 2003!

And now June 2003.

And finally November 2003 is of this migration and my job is done!

03:22 pm - The Rat King

As most of you know, I have a slight obsession with the weird, the morbid, the macabre, the grotesque, and the revolting, so I have NO idea how I'd never heard of this before!

Rat king

Go ahead, click on the link. I'll wait.

Don't worry; they're fairly uncommon nowadays due to the rarity of it occurring in brown rats, which have all but eradicated the black rat (where this is more common). It's also possible if a bunch of rats encounter a sticky substance that gets coated on their tails (Boston Molassacre, anyone?). Their tails encounter one another and, well, there you have it. Butterfly wings and domino schemes :)

Doesn't anyone else wonder at how they can survive for years with their tails caught up in other rats' tails? All I keep thinking of is "rats with missing tails" or "tug-of-war."

09:23 am - Chain Spam

I hate to burst everyone's mystical bubble, but I KEEP GETTING THESE:
"Take the last two digits of the year in which you were born - now add the age you will be this year. The results will be 111 for everyone in whole world."

This is simple math and it works for ANY YEAR. It is NOT because this year is mystical or magical. So, please! For the love of math! Stop spamming me with this!

I'd say I've been pretty "lucky" in my life so far and I've never forwarded on any of these things, regardless of how cute the poem is or how much I value someone's friendship or any other threat/promise it might state if I don't.

I was hoping with the advent of social networking, people would stop forwarding them and just start posting them as notes or status updates or something. *sigh* Even modern technology can't keep your own friends from spamming you.

04:39 pm - Brilliant Idea

Not sure if this has already been created. If so, I would absolutely love to know about it. But sometimes life gets sucky. Usually you have friends you can tell this shit to. Sometimes, you don't. Right now I'm going through a bunch of personal shit and I can't think of a single person I could tell, not even my brother or sister whom I have normally told everything in the past because some of the shit involves them, too.

I wish there were a website where you could log in as either a "listener" or a "talker" and basically randomly get joined up with someone in a chat where you can cry out all your problems if you're the talker and you can help solve other people's problems if you're the listener. It would be completely anonymous and you would be matched up with people randomly from all over the world.

Basically, an unbiased ear.

You would have to reciprocate of course. Like for every time you talk, the next time you have to listen or something.

Current Mood: depressed

09:00 am - Funny Times

So, we all know Marie lives in Eugene, OR, which is home to University of Oregon whose mascot are the Ducks. And Eugenians are huge UofO fans to the point where everything is plastered green and yellow and with big O bumper stickers and duck emblems everywhere.

And we all know that I have a blackberry pearl, which means letters are doubled up on the keys.

Now that the backstory is completed, I'm at SFO sitting on a plane waiting to take off to get to Eugene for the holidays. The pilot makes the announcement that we might be diverted to Portland because of the weather. So the following text conversation takes place between me and Marie:

Skyzy: might be diverted to portland because of the weather
Marie: what weather? it's fine here. no snow or ice like seattle
Skyzy: they're claiming it's a dog issue
Marie: what the fuck is that?
[at this point I realize I had typed "dog" instead of "fog" and couldn't stop laughing at the image of a dog running across the runway in Eugene, preventing planes from landing]
Skyzy: Fog. Duck you!
Marie: Yes, we are all Ducks up here in Eugene
Skyzy:  Dog, duck. Fog, fuck. Predictive text, my ass!! And I'm not meaning the donkey.
Marie: Don't you mean "fonkey?"
Skyzy:  oh, go duck yourself. i gotta turn my phone off now. Love you. Lates

Current Mood: amused

09:16 am - A poem from Vinnie

We spent Thanksgiving in Oregon. In Oregon, there are some laws regarding the sale of alcohol. You can buy beer and wine from most anywhere, but you must buy liquor from a state-run liquor store.

So, Vinnie and I, being from California where you can buy alcohol whenever and wherever you like, go on an adventure to find some rum on Thanksgiving for the eggnog.

We soon discover that every liquor store is closed per mandatory government holiday rules. Marie is stressing because she wants everything to be perfect and now she's going to have rumless eggnog, making everything not perfect.

Vinnie decides to calm her by sending her this poem:

Come on now where's that holiday cheer?!
Are you looking for something to coddle?
Don't spend Thanksgiving with a bottle.
Besides, we've still got our vino and BEER!

Current Mood: grateful

11:40 am - My First Free Day in Vienna

So I totally didn't go get something to eat. Instead, I got preoccupied with uploading my photos to my flickr site and now it's way too late for me to eat. If I did eat now, I've learned I won't be able to sleep.
 

And now I've wasted the night uploading pictures (stupid internet access keeps resetting) and updating here. All I've had to eat today was that chicken sandwich from Starbucks. Oh well.

Current Mood: determined

09:58 am - Language Differences

As I mentioned before, this is the first time I have traveled anywhere where English was not the first language of the nation (Mexico doesn't count because that was Tijiuana and they speak English fluently there for all the Americans who go there to drink before they turn 21). I've learned the best way to communicates is to mumble something close to what I'm asking and gesture. 9 times out of 10, the mumbled English sounds close enough to German and, complete with the gesture, they understand what I'm asking and think I speak German. Three times now, people have started conversing in full-fledged German to me. At those times, I resort to my most favorite saying: "Sprechen de Englisch?," which of course they always do.

I wonder if it's Americans' complete obstinence to learning foreign languages that has caused the rest of the world to elevate English as a second language. Or perhaps, it is England's previous world power status that made it unnecessary for Americans to speak anything but English. Either way, English is the default language here that everyone switches to when they don't speak the same language. It's very interesting to watch when someone speaking French encounters someone speaking German and they both start speaking English to communicate.

I never realized how much German I knew without ever learning it. Or maybe because English has Germanic roots, that's why it's easier for me to understand. I picked up a newspaper on the train today and was able to read it fairly well. Put it this way, there was an article about them closing down Schonbrunn station  tomorrow until October (this is the station closest to my hotel that I will need to take to work tomorrow). And I was able to understand about 90% of it so when my train arrived in Schonbrunn and I saw the signs posted (both in English and German), I already knew the information.

I wonder what people think of me and if they recognize I'm American by sight? Although I did get stopped twice this morning by people asking for information/directions, the last time by an American family. When I started speaking English with an American accent, they started laughing with enjoyment. I must look German or something. Then again, I seemed to get stopped for help no matter where I go. I must look easily approachable while at the same time like a local who would be able to help.

It's funny, but there are so many German catch phrases in English (not looking up the spellings, but here are a few: Danke Shein, Bitte, Sprechen de Englisch, Nein, Guten Tag, Geszunheit, Aufweiterzen, etc...). I have a hard time saying them because it feels so cliched of me to do so. I'm working on using German a bit more. Today, for example, I have been using "Danke" every time I want to say "thank you," but it still feels awkward and posuerish of me.

And now I will be practicing my German by going downstairs to speak with the Night Clerk to find a bite to eat. The first two front desk girls knew English, but this guy doesn't seem to know it very well.

Current Mood: contemplative

09:43 am - Dinner in Vienna

Note: I wrote this on my blackberry, but of course, even after calling AT&T Thursday and verifying everything should be working, turns out I have no service in Europe.

It almost feels like I had dinner in a pub. It was a bit too bright, but the same atmosphere with the antiquated, beer and cigarette smell that is so familiar. Which reminds me, I wonder how it is that everyone smokes here so much when it is like $9 a pack of cigarettes. And it's not outlawed anywhere except for on the trains. But you can smoke in the restaurants, the hotel lobbies, the train stations, EVERYWHERE.

I prefer that smell to what I've been smelling since I arrived: the absolute lack of deodorant. Everyone smells like body odor, but not in an unwashed sense, just a human body way. No wonder Americans always comment about smelly Europeans. It brings back memories of when I worked at that French company with Eagle Feather and all those fragrant French coworkers.

I have no idea what I just ordered, but the taxi driver who took me from the airport to my hotel told me that the wienerschnitzel is the best. When he first said I had to get that, I was thinking "as in hot dogs?" I even said, Oh, we have that in the US." Let's see what the Vienna equivalent really is. I just noticed that wiener is the German word for Viennese. So, it's Viennese...something. [A quick wikipedia lookup shows it's Viennese cutlet which now also explains why he asked me "pork or wien?" and I was all, "not pork" but I had no idea what wien was and when I asked him, he didn't understand or had no way of translating it to English and just looked at me and said, "wien" again as if that were what it was].

How bizarre is it to see all these people not speaking English with different mannerisms. I've only ever been to the UK and Ireland (and Mexico and Canada), so this is my first experience surrounded by foreign words. I've noticed with the British, the French, and even the Kiwis to a lesser degree that there's a different fluidity to movements and gestures. Americans seem to produce a smoother flow when gesturing or talking with their hands, more open even. Foreigners (to me) are a bit more jerky, almost like a stutter. It's very interesting to observe.

My weiner schnitzel has arrived. I think it's basically the Austrian equivalent to fish and chips. It's a fried meat thing [veal] and it comes with a salad (salat) instead of chips. The salad is actually pickled vegetables: lettuce (the only thing not pickled but with the vinegary sauce on it), green beans, potatoes, and cucumbers with the staple cabbage (sauerkrat). But at least I'm now fulfilling my cabbage craving that I've had for the past month that no amount of cabbage eating back in the states has been able to abate.

Time for me to put down the crackberry and enjoy it.

Current Mood: thoughtful

02:52 pm - Life Update

I'm leaving for Vienna tomorrow, so I figured I should give a brief recap on what has happened in my life since January (the last official Life posting).

1. Vinnie and I got back from Europe.
2. Vinnie never moved out so we could keep Shady from moving in. Then he quit his job in February because his boss wouldn't give him enough money to market their product and he couldn't work for someone who didn't want to succeed. He's been on unemployment ever since, taking a "mini retirement" until next July (when the governmental dole runs out). He figures he's paid into it enough. When he gets old and decrepit, he won't be seeing it anyway because it'll all be sucked up by all the current baby-boomers who are retiring. He'd rather have fun now while he's 24 and energetic than 75 and falling to pieces...if he even lives to whatever ancient age it'll take before Social Security is available for his generation.
3. Spent the entire month of February in NYC and Michigan for work. I only had one day home than entire month and that is because I refused to fly straight from NYC to Michigan and insisted on coming home for a night,  not only because of the principle, but also for clean clothes and extra airline miles.
4. I got a written warning in March for some trumped up bullshit. So I gave my two weeks' notice in April without another job lined up (I'm highly marketable), got hired on at my current job, and then had a two week vacation in between jobs while Xander was out here.
5. Around this same time, I got a full and complete refund from Dell for the two years of ongoing laptop saga. Which is part of the reason why I wasn't so worried about not having another job lined up; I had $2000 extra cash in my pocket for a laptop already paid off on my credit cards.
6. At the beginning of April, Kiwi came out to stay with us. She loves to walk for miles every day. Then again, what do you expect with her living in London and all. She also is a bit of a teetotaller, but even still, non-judgmental.
7. The day before Kiwi left, Xander came to stay with us (on my airline miles because I have so many). This was also the last day on my job. The whole two weeks Xander was out here were two of the best weeks of my life. We did so much fun, touristy things that I got to see California from a whole different perspective.
8. I started my new job in May. Went to Dallas for a week of training. Came back from training and have been mostly bored at work ever since while they continue to train me.
9. Every three-day weekend (Memorial day, 4th of July, and Labor day), I've flown up to Oregon to spend with the sister because for some reason, the now usual price of $800 roundtrip drops to $250 on three-day weekends to Eugene. Go figure.
10. Speaking of airlines, I tried getting rid of some of my airline miles when they started cutting services and making it difficult. No one wanted to travel anywhere or they didn't have the money. Eventually Andrew took me up on it.
11. Andrew came out towards the end of July to visit and we all see how well that went.
12. I leave for Vienna tomorrow for more training and then, according to people in the know, I'll finally be not-bored at work and actually doing some actual work!

Current Mood: accomplished