It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

For the land of Christmas, Germany doesn't go very all-out on the decorations the way we North Americans do. Sure, some people string lights across their balconies or put those little candle-light things in the window, but the full on house-framing, outdoor-tree-decorating, reindeer-on-the-lawn/roof stuff is largely missing from German Christmas decorating.

You know how I know I've been here too long?

I was taking the bus home last night (because I got on the wrong train since I was engrossed in my book, but that's a different story), which is always a nice thing around Christmas because you get to see house decorations on the non-main roads. So, I was looking at the lit stars and candles in the windows, when I saw a couple of trees in the yards strung with lights.

It must be a testament to how rarely that happens, because two things went practically simultaneously through my head:

1. "Huh, you don't see that every day."
2. "Are people even allowed to do that?"

Now, upon reflection of that stupid second question, the only thing I could think was why wouldn't people be allowed to put lights on the trees outside? The little voice in my head remarked "possible fire hazard"? Which, of course, makes absolutely no sense. After all, this is the country where a few good people still insist on putting real candles on their Christmas trees, while much of the rest have those electric candle lights full with melted-wax look in a safe attempt to mimic the real thing.

The thing that worries me is that my first reaction was "Is that verboten?!"

Who's officially eingedeutscht?

I am! Me! Me!

My Bucket List, aka Brag-a-thon

So, today on Toytown, I saw a thread reminding users that, hey, since the world is ending in three weeks, it's time to evaluate our bucket lists to see what's doable in that period of time.

Considering I'm a compulsive list-maker who has at least four or five lists hanging around at any given time, you'd think one of those lists would be a bucket one. Although I did have a similar sort of list I made (what to do by 30) a few years back, I have yet to have a true bucket list.

Sure, there are things I'd like to do, see or accomplish before I die. High on my list of to-dos are getting my PhD one day, actually becoming trilingual (which means I'll actually have to end up sticking to another language long enough to move past the advanced beginner/intermediate stage), finally being able to converse in Russian and creating my own mini-library. I'd also like to actually go to Russia (China, too), live in another foreign country and maybe give marriage another shot some day. I'd also really love to publish a book, if only anyone would find my musings awesome enough to be worth their hard-earned dough.

The chances of me checking these things off some list before the world ends are pretty slim to none. I guess I'm really a sort-of long-term planning kind of gal.

Still, I was curious to see what other people put on their bucket lists. So, since I'm entirely unoriginal, I went to bucketlist.org to see what people think are awesome things to do.

I admit that there are a lot of things on there I haven't done (errrm... trying shrooms, for example), or would never, ever do (hot-air balloon ride, anyone?).

Still, I feel lucky to have done/experienced some things that other random interwebbies-strangers feel important enough to include on a bucket list.

I've learned to bellydance, have seen the Northern Lights (about a gazillion times, mind), have seen a sunrise in the desert, seen some Mayan ruins, swam with dolphins, moved to a foreign country, learned a new language, visited the Eiffel Tower, been in a helicopter, gone to a foam party and had a headbanging competition.

Since (obviously) the world is about to end, take some time to consider -- are you happy with the experiences you've had so far, and are you cool with not having done the things you always wanted to do?

If not, you have three weeks! Looks like it's time to buy that ol' PhD from one of those diploma mills I've seen advertised on the interwebbies!

Be Careful What You Post on the Internet

Internet safety. Blah, blah. Don't share any personal information, don't do this, don't do that. It's been drilled into our heads forever. And yet, people still slip up. Sometimes it's serious, and people get hurt. I'd prefer not to focus on that, though. I'd prefer to focus on the funny. And when I say funny, I mean funny for everyone except the person involved.

Confused? Allow me to explain.

I'm a member of a web-site called Toytown Germany. Basically, a site for expatriates in Germany. *ahem* ENGLISH-speaking expatriates. Despite all the good information that comes across the site, however, there is a lot of baloney. Sometimes the baloney is of a serious nature, such as discussions about the Air France airbus that recently went down in the ocean. Other times, we get caught up in hot topics such as gay marriage and US immigration. (In case you didn't know, gays aren't allowed to immigrate into the US to be with their partner.) Anyway, what started out as a good discussion has turned into a load of baloney. And by a load of baloney, I mean gays arguing with closed-minded heterosexuals about sodomy and being homosexual in general. 

But I'm not here to discuss gay rights. I'm here to highlight the complete idiocy of one of the members. This member was bright enough to use his last name as his user-name. Incidentally, I didn't know it was actually his last name until today, when another member googled the dummy. (Did I mention this last-name-using idiot member was basically referring to gays as sodomites, as if heterosexuals don't do it, and involving himself in general gay-bashing.) So, another member googled his last name, which just so happens to show up on the first page of hits. Some quick research and comparing of his profile information on Toytown and the information on Google shows that he is an associate professor at a university in the States. 

You can see his CV, picture, and publications online. Everything. Now, this is useful for students at the university to find out more about their professors. But it's also available to everyone. So is the idiocy he posted on Toytown. 

A lot of people generate random pseudonyms on the internet to stir things up. It's called trolling. It's nothing new, really. And usually, it doesn't matter; the worst that happens is you get kicked off the web-site for being a general pain in the butt. For this noob, though? Posting such information could be potentially harmful for his career, seeing as his university claims their professors to not engage in bigotry (which was happening on Toytown). 

I'm not going to say who this dummy was, because it's not my place. I'm not really revealing anything secret, either, as all the information is on the internet for everyone to see. Besides, if you're really curious, I've given you enough information to connect the dots on who this guy is. 

But, even though my post is about this dumb-head (that would be a rough translation from Dummkopf), it's not really about him. It's not even about internet safety as much as internet awareness. We share more on the internet than everyone said to. And for the most part, our lives stay the same; perhaps, after a bad run-in, you may be internet-stalked like I was for awhile, or some other little annoyance may happen. But be careful of what CONTENT you post online. The internet isn't always anonymous, and things you say in cyberspace could come back to haunt you. 

Moral of the story? If you want to troll around the internet and be a general idiot, go to an internet café, sign up with a ridiculous pseudonym that could in no way be traced back to you, and go nuts. But if you have a PhD, please be smart and not post bigoted things that can be traced back to you. Internet awareness one-oh-one.