Shakin’ or Strokin’ It at the Urinal.

So I’m in the men’s room doing what drinking a liter of cola causes one’s body to do, and out the corner of my eye I see another guy doing the same thing. Now we all know that we men have to shake it a little bit after we get done doing our business so that we don’t leave little wet spots in our pants, but this guy starts stroking it. I mean I wasn’t like staring at him or anything but I have really good peripheral vision and the guys wasn’t being discrete about it. He was getting his whole arm into the act.

I have no idea why I’m sharing this with you people but it just struck me as odd that this was the way this guy took care of that little jiggle.

What Were Your Inner Feelings During Elevation to Peerage?

Recently I witnessed an Elevation to the Order of the Laurel. I was the Court Herald when the person was placed on vigil, and so I read the invocation of vigil for Her Majesty (His Majesty was still traveling). One of the first things I noticed was how it mentioned that being elevated is a responsibility higher than what most people have taken already. Very much in line with my own thoughts on the subject.

Later my lady and I were talking about peerages and her comment was so insightful that it really made me think about my own wishes/desires. So as not to prejudice anyone who is thinking of answering the question I’m going to ask I’m not going to describe my view on this subject just yet. I’ll wait to see if I get some answers and then I’ll share the answers with you as well as my own view point on the matter as well. The question I’m asking (knowing that there is at least one SCA Peer who posts on wordpress and hoping he will be willing to answer this question) is this:

What were your “True” inner feelings on the day you were elevated? Were you surprised that your deeds and work had been acknowledged or did you feel that you have finally received just compensation for all your years of hard work?

I’ve asked my own Knight this question and I’m awaiting his answer (hopefully he will feel comfortable enough for me to discuss his feelings publicly). The reason I’ve made bold the word True in the above question is because first like all humans you really need to clear away your own conscience trying to lie to yourself (we all do it and you know it), before you can really know what you really felt. If you don’t feel comfortable discussing this in a public forum you can also email me at lord_zephan AT yahoo DOT com. In a couple of weeks I’ll post my feelings on the matter and hopefully will have some comments from Peers as well.

iPhone in Germany open to all!

Yep I saw this coming a while ago. When Apple first announced it was intending on selling its iPhone here in Germany I figured that if they attempted the same type of forced deal here that they have in the US that the German courts would have something to say. Man I love being right.

So as a brief summary I’ll put it to you this way. Apple and T-Mobile entered into an agreement similar to that between Apple and AT&T in the US concerning the selling of the iPhone. T-Mobile rival Vodafone protested that agreement in German court who then issued an injunction that requires T-Mobile to allow people to opt out of the two-year contract, as well as preventing them from selling the phone with a SIM lock, so that people can use other carriers. Now the kicker is that T-Mobile doubles the price of the iPhone for those people who opt out of the contract so now they are looking at 1000 Euro price tag.

Not sure how this is going to end up but I’m putting my bets on the iPhone being much less exclusive on who provides service here in Germany than else where. Sometimes you just have to love German business laws.

Disappointment in Drachenwald

We recently traveled to the Kingdom University event for Drachenwald. We were full of hopeful excitement since many of our old Shiremates of previous years would be attending and we were really looking forward to seeing them again, as well as taking some classes. This was the first Kingdom level event we have attempted with our son. I knew from previous events that the Kingdom had Youth Minister to assist in ensuring that children also have a place to participate and have fun. I of course figured this would be the case here. The event had approximately 140 people registered and about 10% were children under 12. You kind of figure that someone would have thought of this, but sadly no. There was really nothing for small children to do at this event, and sitting through 1 to 2 hour classes for small children is just not feasible. The only place where our son could play and stay warm (it was pretty cold outside) was in the sleeping room which we shared with seven other people. Now, you would think that this would be ok because these people “SHOULD” be going to classes. However, several of these people wished either to sleep in or to take a long nap before court and feast. So this left us with pretty much no where we could take our son. Now, we weren’t looking for someone to watch our child for us, just a place where he could be a child. Our question: Where the hell was the Youth Minister, or a deputy, or someone to say “Hey we should do something for the children!” Sadly like most in the SCA (at least as I’ve seen it) everyone only thought of things for the adults. I had one mother say to me on her arrival, “I hope my children stay asleep so I can be an adult for a while.”, and this coming from a Royal Peer.

Now if the family-unfriendliness were the only problem we felt then I probably wouldn’t be commenting about this here, sadly that was not the only problem at the event. This one was much more personal. There was a Royal Peer at the event who I’ve known since I’ve moved to the Munich area. He was a member of our shire and he and his lady were friends with me and mine. So much so that  he stood as my Best Man at our wedding. They ended moving away to the Barony of Knights Crossing just before our wedding. We hadn’t seen them in a couple of years and we were really excited about seeing them again. During the time we hadn’t seen them, he was Knighted, and then they won Crown. Although there was a greeting (even with a hug) there was no real warmth in the greeting. More distant and forced as though they were only going through the motions. I had hoped to talk to him about a previous conversation we had had about Chivarly some years before. I didn’t even get a chance to bring it up. I asked my wife later how she felt about seeing our old friends again, thinking maybe it was just me. She also felt that our old friends treated us as though we weren’t worth their time. In my mind and heart at least if you are friends with someone it doesn’t matter if they were Knighted or not, or if they had won Crown or not. They are friends to be treated with warmth and respect. If they are friends that I have not seen for sometime of course I would find a way to sit down and talk with them about what is new in their lives or what they are currently doing, and most especially what has happened since we last saw each other.

My wife and I have pretty much decided that if this is what the SCA is about then maybe we don’t want to be a part of the SCA, at least not here in Germany. Here, the SCA is not the only game in town.

A Mars is a Milkyway, A Milkyway is a 3 Musketeers, but a Snickers is a Snickers

Yep I’m talking candybars. For some reason here they just aren’t the same as I remember them. Some time ago my wife and I were in an argument about Milkyway candybars. I swore up and down that they had caramel in them and not just nougat. My wife said no no they only have nougat. So we went to a store and she bought me one and sure enough there was no caramel. So basically here in Germany a Milkyway is nothing more than a miniaturized 3 Musketeers bar.

So later in my I’m about to eat Mars bar. Mostly because we had them and needed to get rid of them, because I’m not overly fond of almonds in my candybar. What I come to find is that Mars bars don’t have almonds here. However, they do have caramel so basically a Mars bar is a Milkyway.

I am very thankful that my favorite candybar is the same here as it is back where I grew up. That is the Snickers bar. Still has peanuts, still has caramel, still has nougat all covered in milk chocolate. I wonder why they didn’t change it?

The Right Tool for the Job? Using firearms to remove tires.

Well it seems that Europeans get another view of how dumb some Americans can be with their firearms. This article found on the BBC website proves just what you shouldn’t do to remove the lugs from your car tire.

The summary, a 66 year old man trying to remove a tire from his Lincoln Continental became so frustrated that he decided to use his 12-Gauge shot gun and blast the nut from his wheel. Needless to say this didn’t work and he ended up in the Hospital with shotgun pellets in his feet, abdomen, and chin.

So if you want to remove that stubborn lug nut get an impact wrench and air compressor. Shotguns won’t remove the nut unless the nut is referring to yourself.

Interior Decoration From the 70’s gone MAD!

 My wife and I are planning on eventually buying a house, once we get enough money for such an undertaking. We were looking last night at a website that posts property for sale here in Germany. There were some nice houses and some that weren’t as nice but this one stood out and had us almost in tears when we saw the interior decoration.

The outside of the house doesn’t look too bad, sadly the housing agent didn’t use this as the first picture instead they used this one.

This is where we started laughing. We have referred to this as the Red Room and is a place where you could film 70’s style porn. The red satin wall paper really does it for me as well as the 70’s era television on a stick sitting in the corner. Now if you think that this is all and that the rest of the house is better you should just keep reading.

This next picture is the reverse of the last. I’m not quite sure what the lady on the left hand side standing in the window thinks she is doing. Escaping most likely. The arch really is something though I’m not quite sure why the rest of the wall is black. At least it isn’t as red as the rest of the room.

The Red Room also has an annoying little corner that leads to … even more hideous red satin wall paper.

Now if you think that is funny let us take a look at the rest of this color coordinated house. Following the Red Room we come across the Blue Room or Maybe it should be Sapphire I’m not sure but it is definitely blue.

Follow the blue room with the Green Room. And what a disgusting shade of green too. I’m pretty sure that the previous owners were either 1. Very proud of how uniquely decorated their house was, 2. Extremely old, or 3. Blind

The bathroom left me completely speechless. My wife giggling over my shoulder and I couldn’t say anything my mind was lost in the thought that someone would mix sand brown with black in such a terrible way. It kind of put me in the mind of a Hundertwasser house.

This is probably the least eye injuring room in the house. The thing is I’m not sure what it was suppose to be used for.

Here is an example of the entry way. The mixture of red brick and green was again really hard on my eyes. It kind of looks like a waiting room in some old doctors office or worse.

The saving grace for this house (cough) is that it comes with its own little swimming pool.

I’m not sure what to make of this house other than I would not spend 218,000 Euros on it. EEEK

Open Letter to the Munich Mass Transit Group MVG.

I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t expect anyone from the MVG to actually read this post let alone respond to it. I do hope that some one else living in Munich reads this and starts thinking and possibly continues this on. Even if they don’t oh well at least I’ve got it off my chest.

Tonight my family and I were leaving from the Frötmanning U-Bahn station to where I had parked the car. As we were crossing over the tracks we could see numerous U-Bahn trains that were off duty sitting there lit up like proverbial Christmas trees. I’m not just talking about break lights or warning lights but ever single light in every car all the way down the train. These trains are fairly long and that is a lot of energy being used up. Now, I’m not really that much of “Green” person however, with the current raising costs for energy I can’t understand why a company that seemingly raises ticket prices every year can waste so much energy.

So this is for you MVG, turn off the lights when not at use so that I don’t have to pay higher ticket prices next year!

A Great Telling of the 1066 Conquest of England.

A fellow blogger here on WordPress has started telling the story of the 1066 conquest of England by the Normans as well as a bit of the background leading up to it.

You can find it here: http://samuraidave.wordpress.com/category/1066/

He’s doing it in a serial way and at the time of this post he has two parts up, with William just now landing in England. A great read, I’ve not checked the accuracy of the story but it looks well done and as I said he writes it very well. Definitely worth a look if you are interested in Medieval England from around the middle of the 11th Century.