TGIF everyone...post a pic!

[Drum]

I've been traveling for 3 weeks...just arrived home, and have 36 hours until I have to continue the journey. Still, it's good to be back. :)

How're y'all?

:hi:


(Last night's hotel, Indiana PA)

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear Drum!

That is a nice pic of you! I'm not sure I've seen yours before...

Anyhow, here's me! Just liked how I looked after my shower today, so I snapped a couple...This one's the best of the lot:



I didn't even put on my glasses...no makeup or jewelry either!

[Drum]

3. Oh CaliforniaPeggy, straight outta the shower is the best, isn't it?

Love it. :)

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. I'm so glad you like it!

Thank you!

:pals:

[ThomCat]

67. Wow. Your hair is getting long!

:hi:

I would love to have long hair again, but it would look horrible on me. It grows outword into a huge "jew-fro." :(

[CaliforniaPeggy]

82. My dear ThomCat!

It is, isn't it?

I haven't even decided just how long to let it get...

And I think you look fantastic, with your hair just the way it is, sweetie!

:hug:

[miss_american_pie]

2. Hi

:hi:

[Drum]

4. Hi miss_american_pie!

:)

[Left Is Write]

140. Wheee!

:hug:

[DarkTirade]

6. Me and my guitars.

[Drum]

11. Those are great

I hadn't seen one yet of your acoustic. :)

[DarkTirade]

15. I got this one too.

Not the best picture. :)

And I guess I might as well throw in my bass too.

[TZ]

21. I'm waiting for the pic of you and your violin!

Rosin up that bow!;-)

[DarkTirade]

24. I don't really play much anymore.

I should though. :P

[RainDog]

7. I'm already being tortured with a pic, so...

I'll just ask you to please make a pin-up picture in high rez so I can make it poster size and put it on my wall... okay? :)

[Drum]

10. Lol...those files are sealed.

:evilgrin:

[Dr. Strange]

8. You know what happens when you post pics?

You end up with threads like this: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x7645803

[RainDog]

9. ...

:spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank: :spank:

[TZ]

12. Shush! You aren't supposed to let the cat out of the bag...

Anyway, just for that I'm gonna "punish" you with more material..I think this is appropriate for Friday night:

[Drum]

32. Perfect!

:thumbsup:

:hi:

[madinmaryland]

106. Given the revelations today, is that Dick Cheney in the reflections of your glasses?

:hide:

[TZ]

121. ....

Are you kidding me? Darth Cheney would never visit Aruba..too dangerous ya know..Natalie Holloway proves it!:crazy:

[Taverner]

13. Me

[Drum]

14. Very b&w

:)

[Taverner]

17. B&W?

I thought I took a color pic!

Man, stupid webcam!

[Drum]

36. No, I mean

stark contrast. If I fuzzed my vision a little the back of your chair merged with your shirt, and looked like some umpire's garment against the white wall & window...or looked like you were locked in those medieval "stocks."

Gosh that's good beer!

[Guava Jelly]

16. What the hell

You've got a kind of Bowie look about you..You are a handsome guy.

[RainDog]

19. so are you.. AND now you're a spinal cap ninja!

thanks to Dr. Strange.

[Guava Jelly]

20. Thank you

I think :D

[VenusRising]

25. Hey you!!

How are you, sweetie?!

I hope you have a great weekend.

:hi::hug::loveya:

[Guava Jelly]

34. Hey :)

I am good.
And around for about 20 more minutes.
Love the picture of you below..Hubba hubba :loveya:

[VenusRising]

35. Big plans for the evening?

:D

[Guava Jelly]

40. Dinner with friends

I have a bottle of wine and dessert.
(And tomorrow I am going to need to hit the treadmill):mad:

[VenusRising]

41. Sounds like fun!

I hope you have a good time. :toast:

GoPsUx in running shorts.....hmmmmm.....:think: :evilgrin:

:P

[Guava Jelly]

42. .

(I wear undies not shorts) :D

[VenusRising]

47. That's good to know.

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

Have a good time tonight! :hi::hug:

[Drum]

26. Lol, Bowie.

I wish, man :D Actually in college I heard "Rob Lowe" a lot. Somewhere along the way the comparisons began tending more toward "Willem Dafoe"...which to me is actually more flattering.)

Thx for the compliment. Takes one to know one.

[BeachBaby]

48. Very much so. As soon as I saw ya.....

first person who came to mind was Rob.

Trust me - take that as a compliment. :)

:hi:

[VenusRising]

18. Welcome home!

Me.

[Drum]

28. Thanks, and

THANKS! :D

[VenusRising]

30. I should be thanking you!

Your arms were making me swoon a little. :blush:

[Drum]

33. Awwww...it's all just

a lucky moment of lighting. Really.

;)

[VenusRising]

38. Since I'm married

I'll pretend that's true. ;)

[ThomCat]

68. And here's another one of you.

This is one of my favorite pictures! :hug:

[swag]

74. Great shot.

You're a great person, Thom.

Thanks again for guiding me back uptown.

[ThomCat]

83. I wish you'd visit NYC again.

It would be awesome to hang out with you. :)

[VenusRising]

95. But most importantly....

it's YOU!!! This is one of my favorite pictures, too. :)

:hug::loveya:

[stuntcat]

118. great pic!!

What a great pic! :loveya:

[fizzgig]

22. meet belle

she belongs to my guy, but she lives with me and he's going to teach me to play :)

[VenusRising]

27. ooooOOOOOOooooo.

Those are super cool! I can't wait to see your YouTube drumming videos. :)

:hi:

[fizzgig]

44. here's one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM6o1Hv7ec0&feature=related

:P

[DarkTirade]

62. New haircut?

Something looks different at least. :P

[fizzgig]

64. i've been waiting to debut the new 'do

:P

[Drum]

29. Dammmmmn!

I would kill to have a drumset (even more: a set of Roland's) I really envy you! :applause:

[fizzgig]

45. my guy is really happy with them

i love to just sit down and fool around...great stress reliever :D

[DarkTirade]

60. Ooh... nifty.

I wouldn't mind learning to play those. I don't think I'd be any good at it, but I wouldn't mind trying. :)

[fizzgig]

65. you'd be a lot better than me, i'm sure

i have no musical training, no rhythm and no coordination :P

[DarkTirade]

76. Out of those three, I only have one. :P

[fizzgig]

79. i have a hard time believing that

:P

[DarkTirade]

93. Rhythm has never been my strong suit...

especially when it comes to trying to do a different rhythm with each hand.

[ChoralScholar]

23. Didn't have one handy, so I used the old laptop webcam....

Here's me, studying away, wearing my Hollister-knockoff shirt from Myrtle Beach. I didn't even know it resembled Hollister shirts, but my students informed me.

[Drum]

31. Hope your studying goes well,

and that you can get back to beach-time soon. Thanks for the pic!

[Aristus]

37. Happy Friday, Drum, and everybody else...

[Drum]

39. Nice! Very mirthful.

:toast:

[NMDemDist2]

43. damn! you are gorgeous!

where have you been all these years??

:hi:


:blush:


ok, now that's out of the way, here's one I took this morning, showing off my sweet pea ladder

[Drum]

46. You are too kind...

:blush: And do stay in touch with your optometrist! ;)

Grow, lil swee'peas, grow!

:hi:

[BeachBaby]

49. Sorry I keep posting this one, but it's the only recent one I got.

Me and my boyfriend - last fall:

[Drum]

51. good picture = worth reposting

You look happy. :)

[Dr. Strange]

56. See, I couldn't ninja-fy that pic.

You should really post a new one.

[ThomCat]

69. Cuddly pictures are always welcome.

I wish we all had significant others so we could all have cuddly pictures. :)

[BeachBaby]

87. Awwww, ThomCat....

I imagine there's someone for everybody - and they always seem to show up when you least expect it.

I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be at LynneSin's next weekend - looking forward to meeting you! And I promise, there will be as many hugs as you want from me! :hug:

[madinmaryland]

107. So you're bringing Bobby Flay to the party???

:hi:

[Fox Mulder]

50. Southern Italy and Southern Ireland

These aren't my pictures. I'm watching Samantha Brown Passport to Europe and she is spotlighting both of these areas. I would love to visit these places.

Sigh.

[Drum]

52. Wow, beautiful!

Both are places I'd really like to visit, with some time to hang around. :toast:

[Fox Mulder]

53. I've got my Powerball ticket.

I'm hoping I win so I can go to those places.

[Drum]

54. Lol, know whatcha mean

I bought some mega-million tix on my way home tonight. Just a hunch. ;)

[Ellen Forradalom]

55. Nothing says "glamour" quite like

a huffling, puffing, sweating, plodding runner a half mile from the finish line.

[Drum]

57. Determination is sexy!

The gloves, not so much. ;)

[Ellen Forradalom]

58. Especially snot-covered gloves

Way far from sexy.

[ThomCat]

70. That photo shows off that you're very intelligent.

You know how to be prepared and sensible! And you're showing that you're in damned good shape. That is amazingly sexy package to any guy with enough brains to be worth the effort. :)

[Ellen Forradalom]

94. oh la la

Quel séducteur, mon ThomCat!

[Rising Phoenix]

59. how are you sweetie

:hi:

[ThomCat]

72. Those don't look like very happy pictures.

I hope you're not stressed out or depressed. :hug:

[Rising Phoenix]

77. a bit stressed

but not depressed.....I'm really doing ok....I"ve been experimenting with photography and have pix of me in all states of mind...

[Drum]

89. Hi!!

Very nice portraits... :)

[Rising Phoenix]

97. thnanks hon

:loveya:

[angstlessk]

61. Very nice mirror you got with that room...did the pic of the man come with it?

sorta like a picture frame with ready made family photos?

[DarkTirade]

63. I think those only come with pre-orders.

You can't get 'em at the store off the shelf.

[bixente]

66. Well

It's curious because this photo was taken a little over a month before I was admitted to hospital where I was declared to be hanging off the edge of a cliff with my bare fingernails . Saying this, it wasn't as if I was shot in between dates, the condition simply took its natural course. It's a good indicator as to why pulmonary hypertension is so difficult to detect - if you sat me alongside one with a common cold, the latter would appear worse off than me. Those with my condition can be laughed off, "you say you tire easily? Don't be so lazy". It's not so obvious. Also I was told by a transplant doctor that it's women in particular who are marked as delusional! Maybe this post isn't in the spirit of the thread - I don't know what TGIF stands for - but I'm sensitive about my image, I look shocking, me and my oxygen mask or nasal prongs. :D Forgive me.

[Drum]

80. Hey

no need to ask my or anybody's forgiveness. :hug: My header meant TGIF = thank god its friday, to the degree that's a relevant milestone in people's weeks.
Not nice that people would be dismissive of your condition. Ignorance can lead to such misunderstandings, a pity. I do hope that you'll feel, and get, better. :)

[bixente]

96. Ah

I should of expressed myself better. While others have been unfortunate enough to encounter such treatment, I myself cannot claim as much, thankfully.

Thanks to you, and Peggy.

I don't have the energy to commit myself to work or school, still I can appreciate Friday nights as it's a time I can spend with my family watching Aussie Rules on the television. hehe

My Friday night was spent well, although I'm so engrossed in my book that I kind of regretted that the game was so engrossing. "Ah, what's waiting for me in chapter 10... but look at these players running so quickly!"

[CaliforniaPeggy]

85. My dear bixente!

This is a great pic, and you are a very handsome young man!

I am sorry you're so ill...

Never worry about a pic that shows you with your nasal cannula; you're not alone with having to wear that...

:hug:

[lost-in-nj]

100. aw sweetie

you look wonderful



very nice.....


cute and mysterious.......
LOVE the face


"hug"

lost




we are here when and if you need to talk!!!!!!

[Cabcere]

141. Wow

:loveya: You look a lot like one of my exes - which is definitely a good thing, as I think he is extremely handsome, and so are you! :) Thanks for sharing the pic, and I'm sorry you've been going through such a rough time - hope things get better for you soon. :hug:

[Tuesday Afternoon]

71. a cat picture for Friday --

[swag]

78. Friday cat blogging: it's still the law.

For some reason, that pic is red-exed. Maybe DU doesn't like the png format.

Have a good weekend!

[Tuesday Afternoon]

84. Sorry. will try again --- it is showing for me ---

let me try it this way ...

[swag]

90. Nice work!

[Tuesday Afternoon]

91. ~

;)

thanks to hanging out with all these techno geeks around here,
I have learned a thing or two:thumbsup:

[swag]

73. Still quite handsome, I see, and suave as fuck to boot.

Welcome home. I'm sure you will relax and enjoy yourself.

Here are the girl and me recovering in your town a few years back.

[Drum]

81. You wonderful soul!

Good to catch you, swag! :D I do hope you're well...I need to keep in better touch. Nice pic! (I believe this was the Hoboken? I went there for the first time recently, had a great day.)

:hi:

[swag]

92. Yeah, doing well!

That pic was actually midtown Manhattan after a few days of touristing, seeing music and art, and eating and drinking well with two very fine in-laws.

Glad you got to Hoboken. So goddamned cute and comfortable, that town.

Best to you.

[RainDog]

116. I LOVE that picture! n/t

[FlyingSquirrel]

75. ZOMG Bush gets a new personalized license plate!!!

No, NO Bushie! It's WMD!

[kineneb]

86. with wildflowers

or why I love my part of California (that is my front yard, known as The Meadow)

...looking a little sad and out of it, 'cause Hubby died the week before the photo.

[Drum]

88. What a beautiful setting.

Really gorgeous. :hug:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

111. My dear kineneb...

What a nice picture!

I love your Meadow...

You look fine too...not out of it at all...:hug:

You joined DU on my birthday!

:pals:

[Meshuga]

98. Father and son

[Drum]

99. Wow, handsome dudes

what a resemblance. Did you look like him when you were a tyke?

[Meshuga]

101. He actually resembles more of my wife's family

Their genes are strong. He does not look like me when I was a little kid (I wish I had a picture handy) but I think he is starting to look more like me as he grows. Poor little guy! :-)

Thanks, BTW!

[amitten]

102. Drum, quit postin' yo' damn hot self.

Showoff! :P

(I don't have a pic...)

[Drum]

104. well there's this one:

[amitten]

109. You're not fooling anyone. n/t

[LeftyFingerPop]

103. Two to three years ago...

[siouxsiecreamcheese]

105. haven't posted in a while

so what the hey, me and my overplucked eyebrows

[HughBeaumont]

108. Beginning of February . . .

[lildreamer316]

110. Those are BEGGING for captions.

Unfortunately, the hair dye has seeped into my brain...
I laughed at the juxtaposition of the last two.

[HughBeaumont]

113. Original Thread, back in February . . .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=7422238

:P

[DarkTirade]

112. I just can't help but think "Mah name is Earl" every time I see that second to last one. :P

[u4ic]

114. Welcome back!

Great self portrait! :hi:

Are you travelling around just in the US, or overseas?


I haven't done one of these in a while...probably cuz I haven't been around lately.

[Guava Jelly]

117. Hubba hubba!!

Hey you! :loveya:
Who said you could get a life ;)
Beautiful as always m'friend

[u4ic]

135. Hey you!!!!!

:hug: :loveya: :hi:

[ForrestGump]

137. Take your stinking paws off her, you damned dirty ape!!

Oops. Sorry. I guess Chucky Heston's death affected me more than I thought (and I'm 26 minutes in to The Omega Man)....

[Guava Jelly]

151. But i don't wanna

She's so paw-able :evilgrin: :rofl:

[RFKHumphreyObama]

133. Looking great U4ic

But then again you always have so nothing's changed

I (and undoubtedly several others) have missed you and hope to see more of you:hi: It's just not the same without you

[u4ic]

136. Hello my friend!

Thank you for your kind words. I hope to get back here more often. :hi:

How have you been? I hope things are a bit easier for you now, though the feeling of loss will never truly subside. :hug:

[Aristus]

157. WOW!

u4ic, you look gorgeous! :loveya:

[u4ic]

159. Taint you a sweetheart!

:*

[Aristus]

160. Just telling the truth...

:hug: :*

[DFW]

115. I'm constantly on the road, too, but when I'm not:

About 1000 years ago, someone plunked this down in what was to become our back yard:

and between our house and the castle grounds, you can sometimes see us:

And once in a blue moon, I still get to play with/on my friends:

They were made for me about ten years ago by an old friend (now 80) from Serbia.

[Drum]

119. Wow! Those pictures look like the ones

from the "after" pages of the I Won The Freakin' Lottery album. Good times indeed! Thanks for the glimpse of several paradises.... :)

[DFW]

145. First off--that's the neighbors in the castle, not us!

A rich architect was offered the castle grounds which were a mess after the war. He got
to buy them for a song, but with the proviso he would pump his own money into restoring
and keeping the place, as it was one of the oldest of its kind in the area. He kept his
word, and restored the place faithfully on the outside, and put a series of horse stables
there, his own architect's studio, a fancy (as in $60 per person with today's euro) restaurant,
and a small concert hall with a small sound-proof apartment for performing musicians, in case
they were coming from too far away to drive home after their performance, or if they got there
a long time prior to their performance.

Another thing they did right was to rebuild the place in such a way that the public could walk
through the gorgeous gardens of the castle grounds any time, so the place could be enjoyed by
everyone, and not just the owners. Our town here is rather proud of the way it was done, and
justifiably so.

[harmonicon]

158. WOW!

Where is that?! France, Germany? I want to play a concert there!! How do they book the hall?

I was just in Europe for a month, and there were plans to go for walks to see castles and things, but the weather was total crap this past month.... ugh.... too bad.

[DFW]

168. German Rheinland

Near Düsseldorf

I have no idea how they book gigs. They have everything from classical to Jewish Klezmer,
and it's always sold out, which pisses us off, living next door, but we're always away,
and never find out about the good shows until it's too late.

I have news for you--the weather still sucks. We are getting really depressed over here.
I have to run over to America this weekend for a few days, and if it's grey and raining
in NYC and Texas, I'm going to be yelling for some CHANGE on my own, and it won't have
a thing to do with morons and Machiavellis in the White House.

[harmonicon]

170. sounds like a great place to live

I didn't think much of the way the city of Dusseldorf looked when I was there, but Elsass/Alsace in France is gorgeous, and that's near by. How do you like it there compared to the US?

[DFW]

171. Düsseldorf was bombed flat in 1945

So the city is totally rebuilt. It has some fancy quarters, and the Old Town (Altstadt)
with the adjecent community of Kaiserswerth is either faithfully preserved, or faithfully
restored to the way it way in about 1780. We sometimes drive over there (about 15 minutes)
and take hour-long walks along the Rhein banks. If you wanted, you could walk in one direction
for hours uninterrupted.

The Alsace region is somewhat farther away, as we hit the Netherlands if we travel due west,
and the Ardennes region of Belgium if we go slightly southwest. France is a good 4 hours hours
away be car, and even then, you have to travel through the Champagne region (Reims etc.) to
get to the Alsace/Strasbourg area. That is down by Karlsruhe.

But as for living there, we like it. Our town has been there for about 1000 years, and the
farmers and bakers still come into the town square on market day, which is 3 days a week.
Food has become horribly expensive here, but we support the farmers and bakers as much as
we can, as it would be a real loss if this way of life were to die out in favore of Wal Marts.

Our town is outside the city (we selected it for easy airport access) and as it turned out,
it is very conveniently close to many of Europe's top medical facilities. This turned out to
be crucial as my wife's breast cancer was treated at one of the top breast cancer clinics in
Europe (Düsseldorf-Gerresheim), and I was saved by the cardiac team at the Krupp-Klinik in
Essen, which is 25 minutes by car in another direction. Our daughters were born at the local
hospital, which also removed a thyroid tumor from my wife, and patched it up so well, you can't
even see the scar despite that it was a huge operation (tumor was the size of a tangerine, but
grew inward, so it wasn't immediately obvious).

The town has a lot of history, and as you can see by the castle grounds, takes a lot of care
to preserve its optical beauty. We have a small circle of German friends from a whole range of
fields. The former Moscow bureau chief of West German radio news, a judge on the tax court,
a business consultant who is called one day to Chicago and the next day to Dubai, teachers,
doctors, social workers, etc etc. There is never a shortage of stuff to talk about when people
drop over, and it is common to just walk over somewhere and chat with friends on the spur of
the moment. Many of these people lived in student communes in the late 1960s/early 1970s and
have never really been hermits since. There are lots of small concerts, plus big names like
Mark Knopfler and Steely Dan that play in the big cities close (as in half an hour or less) by.
Also, it is an hour's flight to Denmark, Switzerland, France, England, Poland, the Czech Republic,
Austria, northern Italy and the farther away German cities like München, Leipzig or Berlin.
Amsterdam and Brussels are so close as to make them impractical to fly to unless you have an
onward connection to destinations on other continents.

For a few photos of the area, there is this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arterondo/2254801962/in/set-72157603824055012/
and some American guy did an amateur video of Kaiserswerth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvxORtkvC7I

Downsides are crowded conditions, high prices, and a lot of grey skies.

It reminds me very much of New England, although N.E. has better weather. I have cousins in New
Hampshire and take vacations in Massachusetts. If I ever retire back to the States, though I am
southern-born, I will retire to New England, as it most resembles our life in Germany, and my wife
would settle for nothing less.

Plus, the weather here still sucks, I don't care what anyone says!

[harmonicon]

172. sounds great

I knew that the whole area had been bombed. I have a lot of German friends, especially in the Duesseldorf/Essen/Dortmund area, but always think the cities are complete garbage, because of the bombing. I guess the towns are another story.

Sorry about the history of health problems, but it seems like you were lucky enough to be in the right place to deal with them.

I know that the weather is garbage, but I'm not one to mind weather if other things in a place are really good. It's probably unrealistic for me to be such a dreamer, but I really would like to move to continental Europe some time in the next few years, and wonder where I should be looking. I couldn't afford to buy anything, but maybe I could get a job somewhere (more likely than getting a job doing what I do in the US).

I think I'll have to wander out into the country side the next time I'm over there :)

[DFW]

173. You'd be amazed at what you might find

Perfectly livable small towns with easy access to big cities and airpports
can be found within 15-20 drive/local train ride of the city center or the
airport. Our town happens to both, which is why we chose it 26 years ago
after getting married. I travel a LOT, so proximity to an airport was a
must, and my wife was pregnant, so decent medical facilities were a must
as well. The proximity of the specialized medical care was something we
didn't even think of at age 30, but we were VERY thankful for it 19 years
later. We lucked out there, pure and simple.

I don't know if you are single or not, but I certainly found the love of my
life here, and, ironically, so did my ex-girlfriend in the States. We ended
up marrying Germans within a week of each other. I have no idea if she is
still together with her husband, but she was the solid both-feet-on-the-ground
type, so I would guess she is, if I had to guess.

It has been so long since I have really resided in the States, I couldn't tell
you if I would be happier back home or not. I am kinda used to things here, no
question, and American friends who visit us love the place. A friend who is a
professor of physics at a University in the Midwest even comes over here to house
sit for us when we are on vacation in the States, as he could never afford three
weeks of hotels priced in euros at today's rates. Detroit has started nonstop service
to Düsseldorf, so he flies out of there. For us, it's someone keeping an eye on the
house while we are away (break-ins are rampant here). For him and his wife, it is
a vacation with a free house rental in a storybook town next to a castle with a moat
and peacocks in the courtyard. Everybody's happy.

Would I be happy leaving? I couldn't tell you. If I could have my summers on Cape Cod
and my winters in Waikoloa or Kailua Kona, I wouldn't complain, but I'd miss Europe
sooner or later for sure. If you are looking to move here, I have to say that (outside
of Switzerland) Germany, France or Spain would be THE places I'd be looking to settle
down. Denmark is cool, but it gets a little grim in the winter. If you are serious about
moving here (and if McCain gets in, I wouldn't blame you one bit), make SURE you are fluent
in the language of the country you are looking to move to, and be positive you are ready to
make a solid long-term commitment to being part of your new country and new town. Finding
one of the friendly natives to shack up with never hurts, either. Getting married is a
nightmare of paperwork, but if you're doing it for love and not for the residency permit,
by all means go for it.

[DarkTirade]

120. Holy carp.

Suddenly I'm very jealous. :P

[DFW]

146. Well, the weather is usually not too nice

But there's worse scenes to greet the eye when you walk out of your front door, that's for sure!

[RainDog]

134. where's the farm?

I love the layout of those old European farms - the attached buildings.

oh, I'm on a mission to find a european who will, as an act of mercy, green card marry me so that I can get a job in euroland. do you know any humanitarians?

in lieu of that, can you find someone who would like to go into biz with me there - a little book shop - preferably with rare and out-of-print books (I have some of those of my own already... two I'm still hunting down info on.. one a total surprise.) That, too, would be an act of mercy, or a good tax shelter? You would accrue maximum good karma points, I'm sure, that you can trade in for valuable prizes.

Or maybe you know someone who wants someone to start a library and needs a curator? I'm trained as a rare book librarian and have worked in the field (tho not as much as I'd like - I switched fields) and have my own tiny collection that demonstrates my very good eye. I promise! :)

I am slowly losing my ability to speak or read French b/c I'm not in a situation that requires it very much. I also lived in Flemish Belgium and can order the hell out of vegetables at the green grocer but didn't write very much in Flemish. Mostly I spoke to my ex m-i-l with a combination of broken Flemish, French and dramatic gestures.

although I am rude, lewd and socially unacceptable here, I do know how to behave in real life and do, more often than not. It's not as much fun, but we all do what we must to survive...

...anyway- it never hurts to ask, even as a joke, even if the answer is no. --because sometimes the answer is yes!

p.s. pay no attention to the spinal cap album cover. I have no idea who the person is who created that and he will be properly punished at the appropriate time.

[DFW]

148. Funny you should mention the book shop

One of our (any most of Germany's) favorite TV shows is about an amateur private detective who
owns an antique book shop, and never makes any money at either. He is always borrowing the car of
some low-level nerdy civil servant he knows, and always gets off his minor violations of the law
because the local chief of police was a schoolmate of his and she takes pity on him, though she
gives him an earful every time he gets caught. It's a great show, always funny, but with a lot
of social commentary thrown in, and always a little excitement at the end. Probablly the best
German series since "Liebling Kreuzberg" or "Ein Fall für Zwei." The series is called "Willsberg"
after the name of the book shop owner. All real-life type characters, too. He is overweight,
middle-aged and balding, and all the other characters look like "real people," too.

Other than that, we don't know any real-life libraries or book shops, and the economic situation
over here in euro-land isn't much better than it is in the USA. It's a better place to be
unemployed or sick, but who wants to be either?

Except for the horses being allowed to graze anywhere on the grounds they want (to the delight of
the local kids), the castle grounds are too small to really be considered a farm--more of a
living museum.

The best humanitarian I know already married me (she's the blonde woman in pic #2), and I don't
even want a European residence permit. If McCain gets elected, I might reconsider that. If McCain
does not get elected but takes office anyway (as in 2000 and 2004) that still applies.

Come to think of it I don't even know your age or gender. A good friend of ours was just dumped
(after 30 years of marriage!) by his super-ambitious, ten-years-younger wife. He's a doctor, and
is a really nice guy, just turned 60, so if you're female and in your fifties, he's about the only
one we have "in stock" at the moment. German is actually not very different from Flemish (I speak
both), and so you'd have an easy time with the language. You'd be outta luck as far as getting a
library job, which would require citizenship and fluency in German, but the book shop? Who knows?
Maybe you could find a life-imitating-art situation. How good are your detective skills?

[RainDog]

149. OMG! someone actually gave a considered reply to my request!!!

this is a first! and so, of course, I am now having a "deer in the headlights" moment.

...and am revealed as a poseur, a wannabe adventuress, a Walter Mitty Thurberette. Because the person you mention is a good friend, I wouldn't want to inflict myself upon him - *I'm* too much of a humanitarian for that. However, it's good to know you keep stray males in stock if I were ever as brazen in action as I am in words. :)

"green card" or "tax shelter" are concepts that are sooo much simpler than "relationship." sigh. I guess I'll have to go back to sending out my resume to academic libraries. :/

I'm familiar with the similarities between Dutch and German... the sentence structure, verb placements... I was in Hamburg and Berlin last year with some friends and could figure out some written advertisements, etc. if they were fairly simple. When I studied Chaucer, I was amazed to see that Flemish is so like early English - in Chaucer they still shared some of the same verbs. "Weren" comes to mind. When my friends and I were in Berlin we went to the flea market. I found a little 12mo of Sterne's Sentimental Journey. Not an extremely valuable book, but valuable to me as a keepsake.

I'm putting together a project about books as objects.

The German television show sounds like art imitating life because I am, of course, a skilled detective. I read all the Nancy Drew novels, which, of course qualifies me as a junior sleuth. I'm not familiar with German tv. My taste in German media runs to Mephisto or Run Lola Run - the Fassbinder trilogy - Europa Europa - Wim Wenders' work... Goodbye Lenin was funny. I thought The Lives of Others was devastatingly good. The Damned is a little too overwhelming for me. The U.S. isn't very good about distribution of foreign language films, of course, beyond the biggest titles. "M" is still one of the greatest, to me. Peter Lorre... what more could you want from a film!

What are you doing in Germany? (now that I've propositioned you for pimpitude, it would probably be nice to actually know you. lol.)

[DFW]

150. What am I doing here, umm, yes, well, you see, how do I get around this?

OK, first off, I am NOT with the CIA. That is about as far as I will go.
I represent American interests abroad for an outfit that is not listed
in the Washington phone book. That'll have to do.

By the way, we thought that "The Lives of Others" was one of the two best
German-language films made since World War II, the other being Schlöndorff's
filming of "Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum)."

[RainDog]

152. another first! james bond in the lounge!

shaken or stirred?

Yeah, The Tim Drum is also a great movie/book. My favorite Belgian films are Ma Vie En Rose and Daens.

Who are some interesting contemporary German authors in English translation, to you? I read Perfume a long time ago. Apparently Patrick Süsskind is also a dramatist? That book was so well written, as far as creating a world of the senses though only one of them. The ending was something of a let down. I read about but haven't seen the movie made from that one. I do not think the essence of that story's power can be conveyed via film.

okay, another question for you. I assume you can answer this one. Have you ever read Emmanuel Todd's "After the Empire?" I just wondered what someone with your work concerns thought about Todd's assessment - considering his earlier success predicting the downfall of the USSR.

[DFW]

153. I have to admit to not having read that book

I can answer your question, but regrettably in the negative. (And neither
shaken nor stirred. I don't do alcohol) You do have me curious, though. One
of our best friends here was Moscow bureau chief for West German Radio news
from 1993 to 1998, and he still has a Russian girlfriend and goes back a LOT.
His perspectives on the situation there have been very insightful as well as
accurate except for being able to predict the immense wealth that came from the
high oil price. That was unforeseeable in 1998. Bus only a VERY few Russians
have profited from that. There is still a huge gap between rich and poor there.
The relatively few haves have it all and the rest are as bad off or worse than
they were under the Soviet system, not that having the KGB watching over everyone's
shoulder was pleasant. I had a few run-ins with the East Germans back in those days,
and it used to send shivers up my spine watching soldiers of the "really existing
socialism" parading around East Berlin doing the Nazi goose step. My father-in-law
was drafted off his farm into the Nazi army (Wehrmacht) at age 17, came back from
Stalingrad at age 18 minus a leg and his youth, and his biggest wish was that his
grandchildren be all girls so they would never have to have anything to do with the
military (he got his wish). He saw horrors we couldn't begin to dream of. No glorious
parades, just parts of human bodies (including his own) being blown to bits by artillery
shells in subzero weather. He never held it against the Russians, only Hitler and the Nazis.

Now you have gotten me interested, and I will see if I can grab a copy of Todd's book when
I am back the States next.

[RainDog]

154. Emmanuel Todd

He's a French demographer who wrote that the Soviet Union would fall because of its own internal contradictions way back in the 1970s when Wolfie and Rummy were telling everyone the USSR was going to huff and puff and blow our houses down. Todd's reasoning was a look at the level of education, esp. for females, birth rates (lower birth rates per female translate into greater means to overcome totalitarianism, both privately (family) and nationally. He looks at systems and sociology and anthropology can and do explain forces of history, rather than the "great man" idea.

His book should be available where you are via FNAC or W.H. Smith. (or Amazon UK, etc.)

After the Empire is about the U.S. Todd said that the U.S. is already post-Empire - and evidence is micro-wars undertaken b/c of the economic dependency on mil/industrial production as export. He wrote this early in the Bush junta era. He thinks Chomsky gives the U.S. too much credit for its ability to manipulate events (not its ability to CREATE events... rather, its ability to control the course of the same) in the same way that Huntington, from the other ideological approach, gives too much power to America via the "clash of civilizations" meme.

Todd wrote that the middle east would evolve into more democratic states no matter what they hoped otherwise. Iraq, iow, would have achieved democracy on its own based upon things like the level of education for women, birth rates, etc. again. The U.S.'s action set back the progress in Iraq rather than created any. He sees the M.E. like pre-French Rev. Europe... on the eve of revolution.

Here's Todd on Charlie Rose when Rose was in Paris (Todd isn't on until 39:00.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQGfTnkULug

Over the last 7 years, I found if I wanted to get any sort of measured picture of the US's actions or any non-hysterical analysis of the same, I had to go outside of U.S. journalistic sources... unless those sources were bringing info that had already been published elsewhere. With the exception of people like Jeremy Scahill or Naomi Klein. Democracy Now!, I've found, has been the most accurate source for info here, based upon what shows up, in passing, in the U.S. media a year or so later.

Both far left and moderate to far right analysis in the U.S. is too hysterical and the moderates cannot read the world until long after others in other places have already seen the course of our actions. Moderates are trying to placate the views of the powerful in order to maintain their status as "moderate" here. This skews their judgments. The same thing happened when the neo-cons first got a foothold during the Ford years.

I'm curious also to know if you've ever watched Adam Curtis' BBC docs. The Power of Nightmares is the most well-known, but The Mayfair Set is also available via google vid, as well as The Century of the Self. His themes seem to be the powerful's fear of the "masses" and the unintended consequences of actions meant to dampen that power. In Cen/Self he's very effective talking about the, frankly, irrational and paranoid origin of the prisoner's dilemma from then untreated schizophrenic John Nash.

well, happy talk on a photo thread! :/

I am curious to know what you think about Todd's pov and Curtis', considering you come to these subjects from a diff. frame of ref.

[Orsino]

122. It's dark in here. Need pic thread.

[SallyMander]

123. TGI... S?

I'm always late to these parties :P

Nonetheless, here's me and IzaSparrow, a little blurry :hi:

[Cabcere]

142. You two are such a lovely couple.

:D I'm really happy for you both. :hug:

[SallyMander]

156. Hey, thanks sweetie!

Somehow i missed your reply! :hug:

[Boudica the Lyoness]

124. How do you post a picture?

Please could tell me how do put a pic on here. I feel like such an idiot for not being able to figure it out.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

125. My dear English Lady...

Here's how:

First, you need to sign up to an image hosting site. I use Photobucket, and these instructions work on their site.

Once you have the account, you will see a box labelled "Images from my PC" which will have places where your pics will go. Next to each place (a rectangular box) is the word "Browse". Click on that, and the photo files in your computer will open up.

Then, once you have the photo file you want, you decide which pic you want in your Photobucket account...

So you click on that pic, and then click "Open".

And voila! That pic will be magically inside the rectangular box...

Just keep doing these steps till you have all the pics you want in Photobucket...

Then "Upload"...

And they will appear!

You'll want to make them smaller...so click Edit over each pic, and follow the prompts...

I use Message Board for the size...

Good luck!

:hi:

[Boudica the Lyoness]

127. Thank you so much Peggy

I will see if I can do this.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

128. Check your PM...

[Dangerously Amused]

126. WHO is the sexiest guy on the planet?

DRUM is the sexiest guy on the planet.

- - --

My pic... eh, I got nuthin' new. So I present the Boris and Natasha Dancers for your entertainment perusal instead:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGaR3QD6U-E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wikVkxfUxE&NR=1


:hi:

[Drum]

131. You are very sweet,

maybe the sweetest?? :blush:

Thx for the links...hilarious :D

:hi:

[stuntcat]

129. now it's Saturdaaaaayy!!

This is me two weeks ago in San Francisco-

[DarkTirade]

132. Wait... which one's you, the wrinkly one with the big nose or the brunette?

:shrug:

:P

[auntAgonist]

130. sorry, changed my mind

:)

:hi:
aA

[S n o w b a l l]

138. Mom & Sisters in bowling shoes

Me on the left....

[Cabcere]

143. Cute picture

LOVE the bowling shoes! :D

[S n o w b a l l]

144. Thanks cabcere....

The bowling shoes are pretty sexy, huh?

[blockhead]

155. nice looking family,

especially the one on the left.:9

[Left Is Write]

139. I've been gone so long, I no longer remember how to post pics.

;)

Nah, I'm kidding. I remember.

[Skittles]

147. casualty of Thursday's storm here

yes INDEED

[crim son]

161. Drum, looking hot as usual.

Me, last night before the symphony, blurry and grouchy:



Jeebus, why always so huge?

[Drum]

165. Thanks crim son!

And I think your photo looks pensive, not really so grouchy, but what do I know? What was on the concert you heard?

[crim son]

166. Elgar's Opus 47,

Concerto for violin, Opus 35 in D maj. by Tchaikovsky, and after the intermission, Brahms' Symphony 2, Opus 73 in D maj. I didn't care for the Brahms... but for me he's hit or miss anyway. The Bangor Symphony Orchestra is the longest-continually-running community orchestra in the U.S. and they're really very good. For the Tchaikovsky they introduced the winner of the Maine H.S. Concerto Competition, a violinist of seventeen years, and it was a pleasure to listen to and watch her.

Thanks for asking! :hug:

[Cannikin]

162. recently abused photo

Anne Rice/Stan Winston inspired :freak:

[crim son]

163. That's on myspace

and you manage to look creepy! :hi:

[Drum]

164. very cool!

:D

[jobycom]

167. Someplace that I'd rather be.

[pdx_prog]

169. Me...outdoors as usual....