4professionals
Monday morning: today my goal is to find a library... not sure if I should bring a laptop... laptops are rarely seen here, whereas on any given day in Lladro (on 15th in Seattle) 1 in 3 people was cruching away on a keyboard oblivious to the world. I have yet to see a laptop in a cafe here, even the ones that boast free wi-fi ( a rarity). Hmm.
Post titled: ON Cellphones, Handys, Mobiles or whatever you may call them
I do now regent not having downloaded a ridiculoulouly stupid ring tone to my phone, like Jay-Z's Dirt off your shoulders (note, sitting in a Vietnamese resteraunt here last night waiting for our take-out I did happen to hear ì99 Problemsî playing in their speakers, heh)
But I'm happy not being addicted to the constant connection for the time being. Furthermore, the very existence of cell-phones in America seems to be an issue of (literally) importance for many young people and business folk.
The line of thought being: "I'm on a phone, talking while walking or while in a bookstore, therefore I am IMPORTANT" Perhaps this is a natural evolution of the individual within society: the need to feel important... and why does my phone battery last for 4 days when my razr only lasted one-and-a-half?
Further: Beside lack-of-cellphone-oppression I am pleasantly otherwise out of the loop which is interesting. I tuned into the BBC radio briefly yesterday and the talk of Iraq and Afghanistan seemed impossibly far away, even though I am geographically now much closer to those countries. What does seem close is local politics. The huge deal yesterday about weather to extend the U-Bahn (metro) life 5 further, or the protests on reformpolitik or whatever, and other issues I don't yet really understand.
At the video store I had no idea what was new, since things are arranged by category/them and not alphabetically and all new-releases are movies that have come out withing the last year, it was impossible to tell, but there were many oddities I might not have otherwise come across.
The flea market yesterday was fascinating. Huge and full of oddities. Nadine bought a beautiful magenta scarf that must've been 7 feet long with three large pom-poms on wither end. I found a much-needed double-male earphone jack wire which is useful for recoring directly from the computer to my digital audio device. Everything was very reasonably priced, and when we get an apartment of our own furnishing it with great stuff won't be a problem... I guess we just have to decide on a time period. (1930's-70's, somewhere in there.)
It was the first time I can recall having been in the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood, beautiful but strangely enough I had my first encounters with what might be considered ìhipstersî and that was a big turn-off. I find myself avoiding (if not growling) at english-speakers here. (With the exception of the the Brazilian couple we shared a table with for Coffee, cake, pommes, soup, wine after the flea market and, of course, the nice german-speaking englishman at the party the other night, -there were even some canadians across the room (whom I assumed at first were americans) who I specifically avoided... I don't know why really, just a phase perhaps. Clean break between the old life and this new one. Guess I'm (subconsciously?) wanting to be thoroughly be out of the loop.
We bought a bike lock for Nadine's other bike, which is brilliant because it means I can now bike around town with the thousands of other fahrradfahrer. Bikeriding, as I've said before and will say again, is so liberating. Quick transportation that puts you in direct contact and interaction with your environment... how beautiful is that? No ginormous hills here to deter you either, it's all pretty-much flat. This is an issue I wonder about, it it really the geography that deters bike riding in any given place? For example: how Holland has one of the (of not THE) largest cycling populations and their country is flat as a pancake... hmm.
Either way it allowed me to quickly return the Rotes Curry take-out which was NOT with Tofu but mistakenly with chicken, and return the movie (Shopgirl) before midnight. As I said, a ìdayî is a workday, so to keep a movie overnight one has to pay for 2 "days" grrrr. Shopgirl was much better than I'd expected, (had expected a romantic comedy) it was pretty harsh, and Jason Schwatzmann's character was a bit too annoying at times but overall it was good. We initially were going to rent to the Constant Gardener, but decided it was too brutal for a pleasant Sunday evening.
Post titled: ON Cellphones, Handys, Mobiles or whatever you may call them
I do now regent not having downloaded a ridiculoulouly stupid ring tone to my phone, like Jay-Z's Dirt off your shoulders (note, sitting in a Vietnamese resteraunt here last night waiting for our take-out I did happen to hear ì99 Problemsî playing in their speakers, heh)
But I'm happy not being addicted to the constant connection for the time being. Furthermore, the very existence of cell-phones in America seems to be an issue of (literally) importance for many young people and business folk.
The line of thought being: "I'm on a phone, talking while walking or while in a bookstore, therefore I am IMPORTANT" Perhaps this is a natural evolution of the individual within society: the need to feel important... and why does my phone battery last for 4 days when my razr only lasted one-and-a-half?
Further: Beside lack-of-cellphone-oppression I am pleasantly otherwise out of the loop which is interesting. I tuned into the BBC radio briefly yesterday and the talk of Iraq and Afghanistan seemed impossibly far away, even though I am geographically now much closer to those countries. What does seem close is local politics. The huge deal yesterday about weather to extend the U-Bahn (metro) life 5 further, or the protests on reformpolitik or whatever, and other issues I don't yet really understand.
At the video store I had no idea what was new, since things are arranged by category/them and not alphabetically and all new-releases are movies that have come out withing the last year, it was impossible to tell, but there were many oddities I might not have otherwise come across.
The flea market yesterday was fascinating. Huge and full of oddities. Nadine bought a beautiful magenta scarf that must've been 7 feet long with three large pom-poms on wither end. I found a much-needed double-male earphone jack wire which is useful for recoring directly from the computer to my digital audio device. Everything was very reasonably priced, and when we get an apartment of our own furnishing it with great stuff won't be a problem... I guess we just have to decide on a time period. (1930's-70's, somewhere in there.)
It was the first time I can recall having been in the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood, beautiful but strangely enough I had my first encounters with what might be considered ìhipstersî and that was a big turn-off. I find myself avoiding (if not growling) at english-speakers here. (With the exception of the the Brazilian couple we shared a table with for Coffee, cake, pommes, soup, wine after the flea market and, of course, the nice german-speaking englishman at the party the other night, -there were even some canadians across the room (whom I assumed at first were americans) who I specifically avoided... I don't know why really, just a phase perhaps. Clean break between the old life and this new one. Guess I'm (subconsciously?) wanting to be thoroughly be out of the loop.
We bought a bike lock for Nadine's other bike, which is brilliant because it means I can now bike around town with the thousands of other fahrradfahrer. Bikeriding, as I've said before and will say again, is so liberating. Quick transportation that puts you in direct contact and interaction with your environment... how beautiful is that? No ginormous hills here to deter you either, it's all pretty-much flat. This is an issue I wonder about, it it really the geography that deters bike riding in any given place? For example: how Holland has one of the (of not THE) largest cycling populations and their country is flat as a pancake... hmm.
Either way it allowed me to quickly return the Rotes Curry take-out which was NOT with Tofu but mistakenly with chicken, and return the movie (Shopgirl) before midnight. As I said, a ìdayî is a workday, so to keep a movie overnight one has to pay for 2 "days" grrrr. Shopgirl was much better than I'd expected, (had expected a romantic comedy) it was pretty harsh, and Jason Schwatzmann's character was a bit too annoying at times but overall it was good. We initially were going to rent to the Constant Gardener, but decided it was too brutal for a pleasant Sunday evening.
posted by "Post-Google" by TAR ART RAT at 3:20 pm
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