10:16 – Barbara is taking down and putting away Christmas/Saturnalia decorations. I’m doing laundry.
Work on the prepping book continues. I’m still in the stage of writing a sentence or a couple paragraphs on random items as I think of them. Some of the chapters are already pretty well filled-out, but many are empty or nearly so. In other words, it’s just like any other book I’ve ever written.
Christmas actually BEGINS on Christmas Eve and then goes for twelve days thereafter, or at least until Epiphany Sunday. So our stuff will stay up until then accordingly. Of course we also have peeps up here who leave their decorations up/out for months, inexplicably, unless sheer sloth.
Another overcast day and 41 degrees; tomorrow the temps will drop 20 degrees and further for the rest of the week.
NFL playoff games all day today and into tonight; OFD will be rustling up nachos grande supremo.
Survived cross country skiing except for downhill part. After a couple tumbles decided to walk back. At 63 I don’t need a lot of falls. Groomed trail. Level ground and uphill was slow but I did it. Entire family I am visiting are excellent cc skiers, son is competitive skier, I looked like an idiot but I did it. May try again.
Currently -18 here in Rena with about 25cm of snow. Had reindeer stew for dinner and it was quite good. Dark at 16:30. Tonight sleds in the snow. Damn trains in Norway charge $1.40 to use a not so clean bathroom and Norway is super expensive.
But… but… Europe is so much better than the US! Trains are cheaper and better! You’re just an Ugly American, you racist warmenism-denier!
Yeah, downhill on x-c skis takes some getting used to. Your feet aren’t completely inside big-ass boots. Groomed trails are good. Everyone looks like an idiot when they start. Dark at 16:30 here, too. But no reindeer. Dr. Bob Scrooge machine-gunned them all with a Ma Deuce he built down there in the Tropics.
Merry Christmas!
Oh boy, here we go again:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/27/world/asia/airasia-missing-plane/index.html
Malaysia and Indonesia both being largely muslim countries, no connection, I suppose…
Christmas actually BEGINS on Christmas Eve and then goes for twelve days thereafter, or at least until Epiphany Sunday.
In Eastern Orthodox and some other churches, it’s 40 days. Runs until Candlemas, the purification of Mary.
Hey OFD, for my eddification and perhaps others on board, can you explain what the 12th night is all about? I asked a friend in India about it but his English wasn’t so good and God knows what brand of Catholicism they practice down there anyway. On top of that, I think he went on about the 13th night.?
Is anyone else getting -4 January 2015 for the journal date?
I love sci-fi novels that involve Nazi “Super Science” and the evil doers who get their asses kicked.
An article from Daily Mail on a new underground Nazi complex in Austria should fuel some stories.
Get writing Mr. Steve F.
Second World by Jeremy Robinson
The Black Gate by Michael R. Hicks
Yes, Mr Atoz. In Bobland, every year starts on a Saturday.
jim`, IIRC, the twelfth night of Christmas is twelve ladies yammering. And don’t worry. If you don’t have twelve ladies, however many you do have will make up for it by yammering more.
“Hey OFD, for my eddification and perhaps others on board, can you explain what the 12th night is all about?”
I can’t add much more than what the Wiki article has:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Night_(holiday)
It’s a hodge-podge of stuff that in its earliest guise predates Christianity. And I’ve always understood Epiphany to be January 6 but I come from the old Anglican/Episcopalian tradition prior to becoming a traditionalist Roman Catholic.
And here is the Catholic version:
http://catholicism.about.com/od/holydaysandholidays/p/Epiphany.htm
And rather than Mr. SteveF’s “twelve ladies yammering” it’s twelve drummers drumming, which could also be very annoying. He does have this right, though:
“…If you don’t have twelve ladies, however many you do have will make up for it by yammering more.”
Proven here every time more than one is gathered.
How many collie birds were there again?
Ho ho ho.
Thanks OFD. The confusion between dates explains why he kept saying 13 days.
MrAtoz, may I assume you’re a fan of Iron Sky?
Mr. jim,
Yes a fan of Iron Sky (backed the crowd source). I hope they make the sequel with Hitler riding the T-Rex.
Nope, no police problem in the US.
Great illustration of why you do not tell anyone that you are are a prepper:
http://www.dailycollapsereport.com/column-1/shelter-must-watch-preppers/
One of the earliest Nazi super science sf stories is Heinlein’s Rocket Ship Galileo, written in 1947.
As for the discovery of the facility in Austria, it looks to have been stripped, probably by the US Army and OSS. The US knew of the Nazi bomb program, and the fact that they were on the wrong track. It’s been said that Heisenberg deliberately led them down the wrong path, but the evidence is ambiguous.
It’s been said that Heisenberg deliberately led them down the wrong path, but the evidence is ambiguous.
I thought that the evidence was uncertain?
The plot to kill Heisenberg? …
Oddly, the OSS (Office of Strategic Services, which was the precursor of the CIA) changed its mind and sent former Red Sox catcher Moe Berg to find out what Heisenberg was up to. They gave Berg a rudimentary education on nuclear physics and a list of keywords and phrases to pay attention to and sent him on his way. A symposium was arranged in Zurich, Switzerland and Heisenberg was invited to attend as a guest speaker. If any of those keywords or phrases that Berg learned were said at the speech, indicating that Heisenberg was working on an atomic bomb, Berg’s orders were to kill Heisenberg right then and there. Luckily for both scientist and spy, Heisenberg’s speech was not about atomic weaponry. It was also in German, which Berg knew how to speak, but probably had a hard time understanding physics in.
I love sci-fi novels that involve Nazi “Super Science” and the evil doers who get their asses kicked.
And the best of this genre is “Lightning” by Dean Koontz:
http://www.amazon.com/Lightning-Dean-Koontz/dp/042523360X/
“Nope, no police problem in the US.”
Mundanes must obey all commands of the Annointed Warrior-Hero Priesthood instantly.
For countless stories of cop abuses here in the land of the twee and home of the knaves, see William Griggs’s many accounts, usually found at lewrockwell.com and the fairly recent book by Radley Balko. It is not exaggerated or hyperbole or myth; too many are outta control now. And more of the public is aware of it. Waving the bloody shirt from NYC now will stem the resentment temporarily but we’re looking at some bad juju coming down the pike.
I thought that the evidence was uncertain?
The cat’s out of the box. If we knew where it was, we wouldn’t be able to read it.
Damn trains in Norway charge $1.40 to use a not so clean bathroom
But… but… Europe is so much better than the US! Trains are cheaper and better! You’re just an Ugly American, you racist warmenism-denier!
I KNOW Ray is old enough to remember that toilets in the US were not always free. They used to charge a penny — some a nickel — back in the ’50’s to open the stall, and urinals were in stalls, not in the open, as is the practice today. The lower trim of the stalls was high enough that my dad had my brother and I just duck underneath them to get in, then let him in when we were through (doors could be opened freely from the inside). There were pay toilets in the public parts of department stores, office buildings, and even in the classroom buildings and student union at Ball State Teacher’s college, which is where most of my memories come from, as my parents got their Masters’ there before I started school.
By the 1960’s, most pay toilets had disappeared, but free toilets are an American thing. If you go outside of the US, be prepared to pay. Although one is not denied admission to the toilets in Germany, there is almost always an attendant on duty who expects to be paid when you exit, and many will hassle you if you do not plop something down.
Also, one thing I always tell Americans who have never travelled to Europe: use the restrooms when you see them, because there are nowhere near as many restrooms open to the public as in the US — probably less than a tenth what we have here. Only the largest department stores have them, no smaller store will have one, nor is there one in most train stations.
Also, one thing I always tell Americans who have never travelled to Europe: use the restrooms when you see them, because there are nowhere near as many restrooms open to the public as in the US — probably less than a tenth what we have here. Only the largest department stores have them, no smaller store will have one, nor is there one in most train stations.
Man, is that ever true. And always be prepared to pay, for some reason women really have a problem with this.
Don’t Europeans excrete at pretty much the same rate and in the same amounts we North Murkans do???
Soon they’ll be charging for the air people breathe inside buildings or sumthin.
Charging for public restrooms seems to me to be the height of incivility.
Charging for public restrooms seems to me to be the height of incivility.
Europeans, especially Germans, seem to be very practical. My great grandparents, immigrants from Stuttgart around 1900, started each family meal with “guten appetit, if you do not work you shall not eat” according to my mother. They made everyone around the table say it. My other great grandparents from Brussels were a little calmer.
During my two tours in Korea, it was not unusual to see peeps peeing in the alleys in downtown Seoul. Kids would just squat right on the sidewalk.
Oh, yeah, during my first tour, 1983 or so, raw sewage flowed right into the river by Camp Casey.
Soon they’ll be charging for the air people breathe inside buildings or sumthin.
Obola wants to charge you for the CO2 that you exhale since you are one of the privileged class.
“During my two tours in Korea, it was not unusual to see peeps peeing in the alleys in downtown Seoul.”
Siblings down in MA report seeing recent? immigrants from the Middle East and south Asia squatting on railroad tracks within view of passing traffic.
“…since you are one of the privileged class.”
Wait–let me check–yup, I’ve got dat ol’ white privilege thang goin’ strong. Muh feelz are bad now. I wish to give up my assets fort-wit and turn ’em all over to da rising underclass who deserve it much mo.
My great grandparents, immigrants from Stuttgart around 1900, started each family meal with “guten appetit, if you do not work you shall not eat” according to my mother.
I do not believe that is the attitude today, as while I was there, they were always touting that no one in Germany has a reason to go hungry or be without a place to sleep, as the country considered themselves well-off enough to supply ample places for the down and out to stay and be fed. Street begging was forbidden, but in Berlin I saw it regularly in certain places going unchallenged. I am told that Köln does not tolerate it though, so regional differences apparently prevail.
That culture is much different than ours. Individuality is not rewarded, but to be suppressed. Everyone is encouraged to march to the same drummer. Rules are loved and obeyed without grumbling. A job is never done until the tools are cleaned and put away. Work done shoddily or with mistakes, is to be entirely pulled up and completely redone from scratch — not just patched over.
And above all, Germans are very clear that one’s life exists because there is work to be done, Life is the work itself, work does not exist to ‘have a life’ as we put it here.
That sounds a little too much like that “motto” that was on the sign above a certain gate there a few decades ago.
Princess here is scheduled to spend her “junior/senior” year (don’t ask me to figure out the McGill academic year calendar) in Leipzig, so we shall await her intel; she is mos def an individual but also kinda PC, thanks to twelve years of publik skool indoctrination.
For some reason, you made me think again of Mel Brooks in History of the World, Part I, with Obama shooting skeet:
Obama: “They are my people! I am their sovereign! I LOVE Them. Pull! (shoots screaming peasant flung into air) Drifting to the left…
That sounds a little too much like that “motto” that was on the sign above a certain gate there a few decades ago.
I always thought that was a demented purposeful twisting of the real national attitude from the psychopathic SOB’s that created those places.
I always thought it was dangerous to assume that some deeply hidden flaw in the German people allowed them to go along with this. I suspect in the same situation we’d see similar results in any country on the planet. Historically, peoples pick out scapegoats to blame for things they don’t like, and they have no hesitation to slaughter those scapegoats. I can see Americans doing this, although we as a society are probably one of the most individualistic and therefore the least likely to follow a new Hitler or Stalin.
Heck, I can even see Canadians doing it. (I was about to say Norwegians, but then I remembered Quisling. Point made.)
1985, too, though there’d been talk of taking care of that.
On post, the turtle traps* were getting covers because so many people had been falling in. This was nothing new about that, but the 2ID’s new commander decided that Something Needed To Be Done. And some of the “temporary” huts which had been there since before I was born were being replaced by poured-concrete “permanent” buildings. Except that the attention to detail and the workmanship in general was so poor that the permanent buildings were unlikely to last more than a couple decades.
* A lot of background needed to explain that: Korea has a monsoon season, with lots of flooding. There were drainage ditches along the main road in Camp Casey, headquarters of the US 2nd Infantry Division. These were concrete, a couple feet wide and a couple feet deep, and uncovered. Drunk soldiers (and occasionally non-soldiers and occasionally non-drunk soldiers) often fell in them, especially when they were new and not used to open ditches along the road. Hence, traps. Now, the 2ID’s “arriving personnel” quonset hut was right next to the “departing personnel” hut, but it took a whole year to get from the one to the other. Hence, turtles. Taken that way, it should apply to all US soldiers, but the term mainly referred to the new arrivals, for the first month or two they were in country.
The Holocaust slaughter was just a part of much larger purposeful extermination of those living between Germany and Russia who were intentionally killed by either Stalin or HItler. Was it here that somebody recently pointed to the review of a couple books written about that ugly extermination?
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/11/worst-madness/
What is so very hard to deal with, is that the millions caught in this debacle — millions — could not defend themselves. Even if one was an experienced prepper and could live off the land indefinitely, could they escape invasion by a foreign insanity that annihilated not just dozens, hundreds, or thousands, — but millions!?
“Heck, I can even see Canadians doing it.”
Not doing. Done. They’re called Indian Reserves, same as you guys. See also “Komagatu Maru”, Chinese Head Tax, Japanese Internment Camps and blocking Afro-Americans from immigrating to Canada by claiming they all had TB.
We don’t simply line them up and shoot them.
Yet.
A job is never done until the tools are cleaned and put away
Ah, the joys of German/Swiss/Austrian workers. I still remember my shock, the first time I ran across this. We had ordered a telephone installation in our apartment in Basel. The guy from the phone company came, had to drill a couple of holes, installed the phone connection, went to his car… At this point, I assumed he was leaving. Wrong. He was getting his cleaning equipment, to clean up the dust from drilling the holes.
At the opposite extreme, we have workers in the UK. Need a cable, they’ll just string it any old way. I remember visiting one guy’s (very nice) house, where the electrical cable for the light in the toilet ran exposed on the interior walls, sort of haphazardly hidden behind the toilet. There was no attempt to put it behind moldings or otherwise out of sight, even though it would have been perfectly possible. Wallpaper glued on upside-down, sink overflows not actually attached to anything – the UK is pretty amazing.
I think Chuck exaggerates the German situation a bit – people do enjoy their lives – but the work ethic and doing your job well, these are definitely an integral part of germanic culture. Which is to say: in Germany and also here in German-speaking Switzerland and in Austria.