For example, WuB clearly loves getting thoroughly trashed on white wine and slapping flatmates on their en-penised thighs. I encourage continuing in this direction, cultivating his thigh-slapping and penising skills, but to also throw in some beer every now and again because dammit, he should.
Well, I mean, I don't love it. White wine is a pretty shit substitute for good beer, and I made a pretty awful first impression on a lot of people.
and I made a pretty awful first impression on a lot of people.
I'm blaming your poor choice of booze. If they saw an obscure Belgian beer in your hand, they'd have thought, "Well, I thought at first he was just an obnoxious asshole, but based on his fine choice in fermented beverages, I've decided that he must be a man of refined taste and upstanding character. Clearly I am too feeble-minded to understand the complexities of his behavior."
And that's the important thing. Though, as a Rum-swigging mentalist, I can only advise that you if you must be a drunkard, be a lovable one. I mean, I was reasonably known for drinking a shitload of rum and barbecuing meat like a champion, but I was fun to be around while I did it, so people were into that. Or in other words -
Part of figuring out who/what/where you want to be involves doing stuff that you think you want to do, even if it's going to piss some people off. So don't say, "Well, I made a bad first impression on some people, so now I won't get black-out drunk any more." I mean, maybe those people suck. Maybe you didn't make as bad an impression as you think. Maybe they don't fucking care at all. Or maybe you're right. But don't limit yourself because of uncertainty regarding the outcome.
I'm also not saying to go get black-out drunk every night, because that's bad for you and you'll probably fail out of school. But don't not get black-out drunk just because you might offend someone.
Boo-yah: More work booked. I'll be away in November cruising the Pacific. I'll hit Hawaii, Fiji, American Samoa, Sydney, New Caledonia (wanted to visit this place for years!), lots of stops in New Zealand (with maybe a few days off on my own time to see the islands), Tasmania, and Melbourne. Lots of places I've not been to before. And I'm getting paid for it. Awesome. And I'll be meeting friend again on most of the ships.
Fail: Away from Berlin for over 3 weeks. Pausing work on my new show. And a lonely girlfriend left behind. Again. Not awesome.
Boo-yah: To make it up to my girlfriend, I said we should go on an adventure together again. She can pick anywhere in the world she wants to visit next spring, and we can make it happen. We could end up anywhere.
Boo-yah: To make it up to my girlfriend, I said we should go on an adventure together again. She can pick anywhere in the world she wants to visit next spring, and we can make it happen. We could end up anywhere.
That's a good game. Of course, we end up in southern France a lot playing that game.
Boo-yah: To make it up to my girlfriend, I said we should go on an adventure together again. She can pick anywhere in the world she wants to visit next spring, and we can make it happen. We could end up anywhere.
That's a good game. Of course, we end up in southern France a lot playing that game.
Southern France would be a bit weird, as that is where I traveled with a previous girlfriend on our first trip together. It's also like how I told Juliane at the end of our first ever cruise together in September:
"I'm glad we're going direct from the ship to Rome's airport, and not to visit Rome itself?"
"Why's that?"
"Because when I visited Rome with my last girlfriend, I broke up with her before seeing her again. And the girlfriend previous to that? We visited Rome together on our first cruise."
My suggestion for "Anywhere in the world" was a trip to Kenya for a safari. There are direct flights from Berlin to Mombasa a few times a week. That could be fun, right?
Booh-Yah: So we had a small party at my apartment and I had this rather furious make-out session with a girl I like. Fail: She came with some of her friends, one of which has a crush on her.
I had some cool people over to my room and introduced them to ponies. We watched like 7 episodes before they finally left. My roommate thinks I and everyone I associate with are total weirdos.
Befriend the one that has a crush on her immediately. Eliminate potential problems before they can start, and hey, by doing so, you're also possibly making that person's life a little brighter.
Sure, you might throw them into a crisis of their friend being well after the girl they have a crush on, but unless the person is a bit of an odd duck, if you get to be friends with them, it's more likely they're begrudgingly happy that their friend is with someone nice, that they approve of, of even better, both of their friends are happy with each other.
Flight to SFO from Portland delayed two hours. Free wifi. I bought a sandwich today that was advertised as "Bigger Than Your Head!" I'm hungry. I still have well over half that sandwich left.
Assign your own fails and boo-yahs.
In other news, I keep discovering things that are really things. Things that are real. Things that you can buy. Things I thought were only things in movies made in the USA, but weren't real things. But they are real things! You know, like Lunchables. It's like America loves nothing better than living up to stereotypes of itself.
Anyway, after a conversation about these things that are really things, someone suggested I write a song about those things. I think I will!
Fail : Spent 6 hours rerigging the Red Alert 3 Peacekeeper model we revised. Twice, because I made a genderswapped version as well. Was incredibly boring. Boo-yah! : The ingame results look awesome, and we have both male and female Peacekeepers now. Super Fail : However, due to the black magic voodoo originally used in the game, I have to redo the goddamn rigs from scratch on both models just so we can have the combat shield disappear when we need it to. Gaaaaaaaaaaah.
Fail - Lost power yesterday for about six hours. Boo-Yah - Because a transformer blew up right near my house! I love explosions, and transformers are really quite good. It's got the satisfying THUMP of a water-heater going up, the WOOOSH of the mineral oil turning into flammable steam, and the fuzzy buzz noise of high-voltage power arcs.
It's actually the things I've seen in movies, which I didn't think were a common part of American life, or even a real part of American life, that turn out to be common.
The most obvious example is the phone number in movies. Every phone number has the area code 555, right? First I didn't notice this, as it isn't obvious. Once I knew about it, it just became a movie thing, but a thing that isn't actually a thing, just a thing in movies.
As I was thinking of writing a song about this, I was going to start a list. Here are a few things I've noticed, some on my first visit in 2004, some in 2005 and 2006, some later on in 2009 and 2010, and some on my trip this year:
* Taco Bell. I thought this was a comedy invention in movies. * So many cup holders in cars. * Big Gulps. Drinks so big they wouldn't fit in the cup holders so the cup is small at the bottom and big at the top. * Veterans with massive beards at almost every busy road junction. Surely this was just a conceit of movies! * Fat people. People so big that they would never fit on a plane and would never be able to leave America. On my very first day in America, back in 2004, I went to the Niagara Falls. There I saw my first fat people. I thought I'd seen fat people before, but it turns out not. They were so impressively fat that a Japanese man made his family stand in front of the fat couple for a photo. The fat couple didn't notice, as they were ordering waffles from a waffle stand! Niagara Falls, one of the wonders of the natural world, and the fat American couple are equal tourist photo opportunities. * Fat school children. I thought the fat kids in comedies were the biggest fat children the casting agents could find, for maximum comedy effect. But nope! These kids are pretty common. Kids are so unhealthy that they are obviously ill. And they are kids. How can they not be treated? * Infrastructure racism. Not going to go into this here. * Policemen with guns. Also now more common in Europe, but the guns are just so much more visible in the US. * Bacon with syrup for breakfast. * New York just looks exactly like it does in every movie, though that is specific to that one city. * Baseball caps. I once line up at immigration in an airport in the US, and it was in the summer months. One line is for Americans, the other line for non-USA people. In the non-USA line, one man wore a baseball cap. In the American line, 95% of the men wore baseball caps. * Long white socks pulled up the leg while wearing shorts.
I'm sure there is much more, but those are the things that come to mind now.
Comments
Still had a damn good time.
So drink beer and stop giving a fuck.
I'm also not saying to go get black-out drunk every night, because that's bad for you and you'll probably fail out of school. But don't not get black-out drunk just because you might offend someone.
Fail: Away from Berlin for over 3 weeks. Pausing work on my new show. And a lonely girlfriend left behind. Again. Not awesome.
Boo-yah: To make it up to my girlfriend, I said we should go on an adventure together again. She can pick anywhere in the world she wants to visit next spring, and we can make it happen. We could end up anywhere.
Fail - Met her while on my month long tour of America. In New York. I live in Leeds, England.
"I'm glad we're going direct from the ship to Rome's airport, and not to visit Rome itself?"
"Why's that?"
"Because when I visited Rome with my last girlfriend, I broke up with her before seeing her again. And the girlfriend previous to that? We visited Rome together on our first cruise."
My suggestion for "Anywhere in the world" was a trip to Kenya for a safari. There are direct flights from Berlin to Mombasa a few times a week. That could be fun, right?
Fail: She came with some of her friends, one of which has a crush on her.
Guess it wasn't such a bad time, man.
Sure, you might throw them into a crisis of their friend being well after the girl they have a crush on, but unless the person is a bit of an odd duck, if you get to be friends with them, it's more likely they're begrudgingly happy that their friend is with someone nice, that they approve of, of even better, both of their friends are happy with each other.
Booh-yah: Flatmate counters by blasting Neutral Milk Hotel even louder.
Free wifi.
I bought a sandwich today that was advertised as "Bigger Than Your Head!"
I'm hungry. I still have well over half that sandwich left.
Assign your own fails and boo-yahs.
In other news, I keep discovering things that are really things. Things that are real. Things that you can buy. Things I thought were only things in movies made in the USA, but weren't real things. But they are real things! You know, like Lunchables. It's like America loves nothing better than living up to stereotypes of itself.
Anyway, after a conversation about these things that are really things, someone suggested I write a song about those things. I think I will!
Boo-yah! : The ingame results look awesome, and we have both male and female Peacekeepers now.
Super Fail : However, due to the black magic voodoo originally used in the game, I have to redo the goddamn rigs from scratch on both models just so we can have the combat shield disappear when we need it to. Gaaaaaaaaaaah.
Boo-Yah - Because a transformer blew up right near my house! I love explosions, and transformers are really quite good. It's got the satisfying THUMP of a water-heater going up, the WOOOSH of the mineral oil turning into flammable steam, and the fuzzy buzz noise of high-voltage power arcs.
The most obvious example is the phone number in movies. Every phone number has the area code 555, right? First I didn't notice this, as it isn't obvious. Once I knew about it, it just became a movie thing, but a thing that isn't actually a thing, just a thing in movies.
As I was thinking of writing a song about this, I was going to start a list. Here are a few things I've noticed, some on my first visit in 2004, some in 2005 and 2006, some later on in 2009 and 2010, and some on my trip this year:
* Taco Bell. I thought this was a comedy invention in movies.
* So many cup holders in cars.
* Big Gulps. Drinks so big they wouldn't fit in the cup holders so the cup is small at the bottom and big at the top.
* Veterans with massive beards at almost every busy road junction. Surely this was just a conceit of movies!
* Fat people. People so big that they would never fit on a plane and would never be able to leave America. On my very first day in America, back in 2004, I went to the Niagara Falls. There I saw my first fat people. I thought I'd seen fat people before, but it turns out not. They were so impressively fat that a Japanese man made his family stand in front of the fat couple for a photo. The fat couple didn't notice, as they were ordering waffles from a waffle stand! Niagara Falls, one of the wonders of the natural world, and the fat American couple are equal tourist photo opportunities.
* Fat school children. I thought the fat kids in comedies were the biggest fat children the casting agents could find, for maximum comedy effect. But nope! These kids are pretty common. Kids are so unhealthy that they are obviously ill. And they are kids. How can they not be treated?
* Infrastructure racism. Not going to go into this here.
* Policemen with guns. Also now more common in Europe, but the guns are just so much more visible in the US.
* Bacon with syrup for breakfast.
* New York just looks exactly like it does in every movie, though that is specific to that one city.
* Baseball caps. I once line up at immigration in an airport in the US, and it was in the summer months. One line is for Americans, the other line for non-USA people. In the non-USA line, one man wore a baseball cap. In the American line, 95% of the men wore baseball caps.
* Long white socks pulled up the leg while wearing shorts.
I'm sure there is much more, but those are the things that come to mind now.