A RANDOM BARRAGE OF IMAGES

FROM THE BBC

Simpson's phrases used in the BBC? Wowza...



SPEAK ENGLISH ENGLISH?

Credit to Kurt's blog. Here's the link. This will be useful for talking to people in England.

George Bernard Shaw said "England and America are two countries separated by a common language." If you've ever heard 'cockney rhyming slang', you know it to be very true. If you've never heard much, here's a quick primer of some. As with American slang, this changes quite often.



QUOTE OF THE DAY

Eurotrip: "Hello, and welcome to Amsterdam's finest and most luxurious youth hostel. We feature one medium sized room containing 70 beds which can sleep up to 375 bodies a night. There is no bathroom. Nor is there one nearby. If you do not wish to have your valuables stolen I suggest destroying them or discarding them right now. You can also try hiding your valuables. In your anus. This will deter some but of course not all thieves. Once you are inside, the doors are chained and locked from the outside. They will not be opened again until morning, no matter what. Should a fire occur due to our faulty wiring or, uh, the fireworks factory upstairs you will be incinerated along with the valuables that you have hidden in your anus. Tips are greatly appreciated."



ANOTHER QUOTE OF THE DAY

Vigo: "On a mountain of skulls, in the castle of pain, I sat on a throne of blood! What was will be! What is will be no more! Now is the season of evil!" - Ghostbusters 2.



DIALING COUNTRY CODES

From Richard, we have this.



JOSH

I beat Josh in chess. I wanted to gloat in this blog. Is it wrong of me to use a blog to boast to hundreds of people in thirty or forty countries that I managed to defeat Josh in chess when he hadn't lost in seven years? Josh thinks so. That adds to the sweetness of the victory. How many words can I put down just on this? How far can I stretch this out? Stay tuned...



FROM ERIKA
This gave me a chuckle.



SKYPE

Limited time offer on skype - if you're wanting to contact me via skype, do it now because I'm not sure how well it will work when I'm Europe. If you don't know my contact name in skype, put a message in the comments section and I'll contact you. I may record the conversations (if it's cool with you) for possible release later on a podcast. [I use skype for chatting with people because in todays world, typing is a bit silly.]



MOVIE REVIEW - EVOLUTION (2001)

This I classify as a 'fun movie'. It has several good actors in it and is pretty neat to watch. Sadly, this is the only thing I've seen worth a shit with David Duchovny starring aside from the X-Files...

It also has such quotes as: Governor Lewis: "I oughta throw the whole goddamn, jacked-up bunch of you in prison. No, not that cushy federal place with the loose jumpsuits. *State prison*... with the crotch binders!" When I heard it, I thought he said "crotch biters" - which IMO would have been better. Scarier. I'm not even sure what a 'crotch binder' is.

While IMDB gives this movie a 5.9, I give it a solid 8.

FUCK THE DENTIST

FUCK THE DENTIST

Well, I got fucked. Again. When I had set up the dental appointment, I told them that soon I would be out of town and this was the last month I could get in. I got a call on the day of the appointment saying the dentist was sick and the next time they could get me in would be in MAY. Fuck them, I'll get it done overseas. I'll have to check in Czech Republic to see how much a dentist is there. Actually, I asked Jana to make a call as I still don't speak Czech. I know that it will be expensive everywhere west of that. If it's still too expensive in C.R., I'll have to go further east.



PASSPORT TO EUROPE

Watching Samantha Brown now. I'm checking out the one on Munich currently. Another thin good looking announcer - with a nice chest. Initial impressions, she's a bit daffy. We'll see if it gets better. I like the landscape shown thus far. Brings back memories, I can't wait to get back there. I'll write up a review of this series after I've seen some more.



WHAT NEWS DO I RECOMMEND?

If someone is wanting to be entertained by following celebrities and fed mindless garbage the way Americans eat at McDonalds, no - American media is your best choice. If you are wanting actual news, I'd suggest the following places:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ (England)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/ (German)
http://english.aljazeera.net/ (Arabic)
Unless you are in the same position as I am (very unlikely) all news will just be pretty much 'mindless entertainment'. However, you can get lots of stuff (in English) that isn't slanted by 'American special interest groups'; our standards of journalism have fallen. Do some research into who owns the tv stations, newspapers, radio stations in America. Then do some research to find out who owns those companies. And keep working your way up. Then, look surprised.

Am I saying that it is not OK for anyone but Logan to intake news? Not at all. As anyone who has been reading this blog knows, I'm a big advocate of mindless entertainment. If you want it, chew it up. The problem comes when you believe what they are feeding you without checking other sources. Just the way something is said changes the entire meaning/emphasis. People who watch just the American news then form opinions of it IMO are lazy fuckers who will believe whatever they are told. Go the extra step - check out other newspapers from foreign countries. Pretty much all of them have an English section; if not, there is always google translate.

The reason that I am interested in sucking down some foreign (screw American media) news is that it is extremely relevant to me as I will soon be there. Whether I like it or not, America is very active in world affairs. If they start some shit in a foreign country, that can increase my threat level not only in that country but in other countries that are nearby, etc. I'm doing things like keeping tabs on 'the Arabic situation' to see if/when it is safe to go there.

Most people don't have these kind of immediate concerns. This is why I regard media as pretty much 'entertainment' for the masses. You don't get extra points/money for being 'well informed'. I think it arguable we could substitute the word 'programmed' for 'informed'. Hell, compared to other American news agencies, 'the Onion' actually looks credible!

In conclusion, be careful what you take into your brain; it is probably not helping you.

And, PS: Fuck the dentist.