The University

If I won the lottery, I would still work at the University. That is serious. I am from a part of the world that knows all about FU money. At what point do you have enough money that you can quit your job and symbolically say Fuck You to anyone in your life who hassles you for no reason. They got nothing to do with you anymore. It’s a wispy dream TV show editors talk about over cups of coffee in between cutting 3 minutes segments. How much you need? My number is probably already on this blog but still, I would work at the University. Why?

*I have 3 classes on Thursdays, 10:15-11:45, 12:15-1:45, 2:15-3:45, something that is a dream for an English teacher, (except I wish the breaks were shorter), it’s in the middle of town.

*I have 12, 21, and 23 students in the 3 classes, not a bad size for a university group.

*The students are 20-25 years old, well-travelled, open-minded with the innocence of not having gotten up at 7am in the morning for a year straight.

*Very interesting topics are discussed openly. Today’s topics were: 9/11 conspiracies (students’ idea), Media, Surveillance, and Education as 3 20-minute presentations together, and in the last group we read a blog entry from www.dailykos.com from Bruce Fein, Reagan’s deputy attorney general, making a clear case for the immediate impeachment of Dick Cheney.

*We had a make-up class in this afternoon because there were two holidays onThursday in May. We watched one episode of My Name is Earl and then we watched Thank You for Smoking.

*I earned enough money today to pay for my whole month’s basic expenses.

*I often see students around town and invariably we are both Saturday nighting, maybe even have a shot together.

Are those enough reasons?

– listening to Howard Stern internet radio.

–trying to read my news blogs for today’s info

–wanted to go running at 7pm but was so happy to be home after a long day and wanted to chill a bit.

–going down to the market 30 seconds away to buy some dinner before watching a German style “Popstars” contest show.

–have to be out the door by 8.40am tomorrow.

–gotta work Saturday 11am-2pm

–saw 3 examples of my t-shirts for the fashion show which is in two weeks

–i am yawning.

Flashback: One Year ago or so… Germany v. Sweden

Would you get a colonic on a first date?

Welcome to MTV’s “Next”. Some dumb bitch had her date get a colonic and then they went to have tea. He had the chance to have 118 dollars or go on a second date with the girl. He took the money.

Another new job

That’s how easy it is, sometimes…I am teaching one class at a language school of the University and they asked me to teach a two-day-a-weeker, not my favorite but no problem. It also means working until 7:30pm on Thursdays but that’s okay, it keeps me out of trouble.

I’m pooped, having started my day at 6.38am and now it’s 10.57pm. We went to dinner for our roommate’s birthday and now just had some homemade tiramasu by Assiyeah and Caro, yummy!

Tomorrow’s another long day, 8am to 12:30pm and then 6-9pm. I know that break in the middle is nice but really I get home at 1pm and have to leave at 5pm so that already eats into it. If the weather is all right, I might go for a jog then but we’ll see. I have to clean up my desk and prepare some more stuff for the exhibition. I’m hoping to hear from a place in New York about doing an exhibition there in August, in fact, I think I’ll call them now…

Jason

Gregg quit!

A friend of mine resigned from one of his jobs for the next semester. I am so jealous! I’m so stupid, I wanted to quit this job for awhile but have just been sort of floating by. I will teach one, at most two more semesters and then I’ll be done with it too. I have said for awhile now, more than a year, that my soul dies slowly and surely every moment I’m there. I’m happy that Gregg’s time on the beach in Turkey helped me clarify his objectives but I think also for me there are a couple of important factors:

1)I might have to pay back a lot of money to German Social Security so I need the money.
2)Studentenwerk, one of my jobs, might not happen again next semester
3)I quit the VHS- Emmendingen already for next semester
4)I don’t know if my new company work at Ecomal will happen next semester

Those are some big factors. I could live with far less money but it’s really nice having extra each month so when I “waste” 100euros last weekend, it’s not the end of the world, ya know?

We’ll see what happens. I hate teaching there, it’s my least favorite job but as a self-employed traveloholic…

An email to some student

Some 17-year old sent an email to about 30 English teachers complaining about points taken off of a test he had taken. He could understand how these were points and his feathers were up in a huff. I responded with a little of my breakdown in the sentences in question and then he wrote back wanting specific citations for why this was the way it was. Here was my response to him (in English of course, even though he’s complaining in German about how good his English grade is):

How much does all of this change your grade? Life is too short sometimes, ya know? I’m sure you could do your own research if you want to know the answer to that. You want specific reasons for nuances of language and I don’t have the time to find an explanation that will satisfy you. I could see why you thought you should have gotten more points but I also agree with some of the points taken off. Das ist halt so, verstesh?

And learning something by heart (auswendig) doesn’t apply knowledge, only memory. I should take off more points for that!

Enjoy the weather

Scottish drinking song I learned friday night

I want my hole
I want my hole
I want my holidays

To see the cunt
To see the cunt
To see the country

Fuck you
Fuck you
For curiosity

I want my hole
I want my hole
I want my holidays.

It’s better when you’re drinking and there is a slight sway to you on the bar stool.

We have a new branch of government!

Dick Cheney is his own branch of government now. I love learning new things about the US Government. He has avoided oversight of classified materials the past 4 years and has been using the argument that he is “not an entity of the executive branch”. That’s interesting.

He apparently used executive privilege to hide from the American people which energy executives he met with in 2001 to form the president’s energy policy. Now we see he’s not in the executive branch. I guess he’ll be telling us that information soon.

It feels like a joke because life is so good here in Germany but how can Dick Cheney wake up each morning and think that he is doing what’s best for the American people? I’m starting to be convinced that he is a psychopath. He probably started the job as a sociopath but especially since Sept 11, he has been at the forefront of advocating violence as a way of resolving our problems. Hell, he shot a buddy in the face early last year.

I hope I get to see the shit hit the fan. These old fat white guys may be running a statue of liberty play but they forget that we all have the internet now and can keep a much better eye on the ball than we could before. It’s just a matter now if we have enough guys on the D-line…

Chris Cannon

Another dude I would have never known about.

He’s a Congressman from Utah and he’s a jackass. He’s a partisan hack, only using the talking points (Clinton did it, pleasure of president, accusations have yet to…).

In the Goodling testimony last month, the dude started quoting an article about Murtha and his outburst on the floor.

Thanks, CSPAN

Paul McNulty

You think I ever gave a rat’s ass who that guy is? Not until January, when I first heard about the US Attorneys being fired en masse in attempts to what:

1)prevent investigation of Republicans
2)bring fraudulent voter fraud cases against Democrats
3)cover up fraudulent Republican voter fraud
4)bring fraudulent cases against Democratic presidential candidates for the 2008 election
5)???

Can you believe some people think that nothing improper has been committed? Who put the names on the list? Why? If that can’t be answered, we have a breakdown of justice. Our justice department has been compromised. We are no longer a first world country.

I doubt —

Some women protesters have just been removed from the hearing room. They are from Code Pink.

I doubt that McNulty is going to drop any bombshells but how’s he going to answer the people who said he didn’t tell the truth? He’s going to disagree and not know about other people. And there was a paper that cut him out of the loop. He’s not part of the problem in my opinion but maybe he’ll say something about someone else. The White House is involved. The fact that millions are emails are missing, some are not being turned over, the president is claiming executive privilege what two of his aids are writing back and forth, it stinks. I just don’t think it’s from his mouth. Meirs, Rove, Taylor, Sampson, Goodling, Gonzales. The first 3 are from the White House…