Being an Expatriate in Germany and Being a Parent.

I am an Expatriate. I’m an American who lives in a foreign country. Now I was very fortunate that I’m married to a local national, so many of the things about understanding German culture and how to deal with the German bureaucracy has been dutifully explained or handled by my wife.

The reason I’m bringing this up is that a couple of weeks ago my wife received a call from woman who just moved to Germany with her husband and young son from the United States. Oh and she’s high pregnant (thus the reason why she called my wife). So of course my wife really couldn’t let the woman hang out without help. This made me think about what it was like to learn about Germany, and how easy I had it. I tried to imagine what it would be like if I had not my wife with me. Wow that would have been hard.

Germany is really a great country when it comes to supporting families (well ok it is better than the United States, it could still be better actually). Here are some of the help that the government gives you.

Kindergeld: This is a payment of 150 Euros per month per child (I think there is a limit after 4 children I can’t remember) to offset the money you spend in taxes.

Elterngeld: This is a payment, usually for about 3-6 months, to the mother starting at about 300 Euros per month. This is payed to offset her loss of work payment for a period.

This is only a couple of things that a Pregnant woman needs to know about in Germany.

Banned from the Blue Light Special!

From the wonders of LiveJournal Images I found this gem and just had to pass it along. You really need to read what this guy did, as I went along I laughed harder and harder. I could almost imagine this to be true.

Looks Like I Gotta Stick with Snake III

Well here I am all excited because this is the first mobile phone that actually came with a data cable so I can do things with it on the computer. I had dreams of searching for some nice little games to upload to the phone for when I have to ride the mass transit alone and need to keep my mind busy with something or other. I didn’t really look for anything specific. Maybe a little blackjack simulator or a bit of reversi to keep me busy when I don’t feel like being social.

Sadly all my dreams have come crashing down. It looks as though I’ll be playing Snake III forever. Why might you ask? Well for a couple of reasons. 1 I’m cheap, I would rather find some simple annoying game that doesn’t cost anything to keep me occupied rather than spend a few Euros on some more thought out and better developed game. The bad thing is even these rather simple annoying games cost something from what I have found. If they don’t cost anything then they aren’t compatible with my phone (according to my phone) even though the site says it is compatible with a Nokia 6288. 2 Even if a game describes itself as free it means that it uses ads. Now I don’t mind an ad system but I don’t want them using my data package to send me ads. I don’t have nor do I want an unlimited data package (because of issue 1 I’m cheap) partially because I would never use the thing. If I want to surf websites I’m not going to do it from a screen that is 2X4 cm in size, I’m going to use my laptop or desktop computer where the screen is much larger. So if I want a game that uses ads then I have to allow it to down load ads (it doesn’t say how often it wants to download ads nor do I care).

Here’s a point all you stupid freaking Mobile Phone Software Developers need to learn; IT AIN’T FUCKING FREEWARE IF YOU FORCE SOMEONE TO USE ADS OR ANYTHING THAT WILL COST THEM MONEY!!!

Oh yeah and quit saying it works for a certain brand of Phone until you’ve tested it on that brand, Morons.

Yeah I know I’m complaining about something that will never change. I don’t care if you want me I’ll be in the corner telling the damned line where to find the next number.

My New Phone Arrived

So last night after rushing home I found that my new Nokia 6288 was delivered. As a matter of fact my wife had already unpacked it and plugged it in so that it was almost completely charged by the time I opened the door.

I’m still getting use to the interface, and remembering which buttons to push, however I’m really enjoying this cellphone (handy as they say here in Germany). I have a nice sleek black model that of course has to have the T-Mobile branding but hey I can’t complain for the price (only around 13 Euros for it). It has Bluetooth, IR, and a USB connector. I can actually connect my computer to this thing via the USB connector and then access the internet through the phone.

This thing has a 2 Megapixel camera. Not as fancy as my Cannon but hey for a quick and dirty I need pictures thing you can’t beat it. It also uses MiniSD technology for memory storage. I think I’ve got a 2GB MiniSD running right now so I have plenty of space. It also doubles as an MP3 player. I’m getting ready to check that out right now so I can’t talk quality yet. The sliding case feature is great as it unlocks the buttons automatically when I use it. However, I still have to hit a particular key to lock the buttons again after closing the case.

Honestly the only real complaints I have is that I’m forced to access the phone’s memory through the Nokia PC Suite, which although easy to work with and such doesn’t give me the flexibility to just load stuff into the phone’s memory space like I would like. The headphones use the lower plug interface the same one I use to connect to the computer. However this connection is bulky and not so easy to put together. I would have preferred to have a standard headphone jack that everyone uses. This way if the headphones break then I don’t need to spend a ton of money getting ones that fit only Nokia phones.

Overall my first impressions of the phone are good. I’m looking forward to using it.

UPDATE

I figured out how to access the chip more-or-less directly. I’m still not 100% happy with the interface but it does seem to work. From the Nokia PC Suite click on the file manager icon and a modified Windows Explorer opens allowing you to see your computer’s hard drive and the memory locations in the phone both the chip and the phone’s memory. It works but not 100% the way I like it. Also if anyone knows if there are ways to convert WMV format to the format used by the phone’s media player?