What's up on Thursday

Nothing.

Amazon

Oh yeah, go here and donate money to the American Red Cross. They'll take the money down and give it to the people hit by the Tsunami.

New Years Blues

I have been invited to a million different places for New Years - parties in various parts of Eurostan, drinking parties in the mountains, in cottages, in cars. But since I may or may not have to work on the 31st, and enlightenment on this subject is not immediate, my current plans consist of a couple of bottles of czech champagne, czech girlfriend, and fireworks over czech city.

2004 Year in Review

"• Osama bin Laden remained at large for yet another year (although we did manage, at long last, to put Martha Stewart behind bars)." Read Dave Barry's article. Oh and check out this article on the Netherlands.

A very Nick Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone Well I have survived my trip to Moravia, land of curvy women and mysterious liquors. My journey began on Friday, with a 3 hour train ride on a well-crafted Romainian train car. I succeeded in ignoring the stains on the seats. Luckily we were not beset by any gift-deprived gypsies, so we arrived in Moravia tired and significantly present-endowed. Or actually the girlfriend was so endowed, as she was bearing the brunt of a rather large package of gifts shipped over by my mother. Friday morning consisted of some good sleeping-in. Quite enjoyable, the kind of useful present that is often lacking on a Christmas day. We lazed around for a bit, checking out the gf’s parents new surround-sound system. Then it was off to ‘Midnight Mass’, which was held at 4pm. My complaints about this were judiciously ignored by my audience, and I headed over to the town square at 3:45pm for the late-night service. On the way I saw something that I hadn’t even seen in Texas: someone riding a horse to church. The church was gloriously baroque and uncomfortably crowded, leading my gf to exit the scene and hang out in the town square. I managed to last through 3/4ths of the thing, until it was time for communion. Then the confusion began. The audience was packed in like schoolgirls at a Bon Jovi concert, and people were looking for God’s flesh like those aforementioned girls were seeking…okay, I guess that sentence would just be wrong. Anyway I had to walk out of the church, around and back in, then outside to find a deacon to receive communion. I then joined my girlfriend and a rather large mob of people outside the church, and listened to a brass band play Christmas songs. Really cool. After that we headed back to the gf’s place for the Christmas dinner. Apparently in the CR and also in Slovakia there is no meat eaten on Christmas Eve. Sorta like on Good Friday. So fish is on the menu. But this is not your Rainbow Trout. Instead it is the Carp, a rather nasty fish that, when fried in a nice crust, ends up pretty tasty. The only problem is that it’s quite bone-ridden, although I happily avoided the yearly Czech TV hospital dispatch, detailing people who were dealing with carp-bones in the throat. After dinner Jana’s mom rang a bell, and we filed into the living room for the gift-opening. They don’t have Santa Claus here – although they do have a big thing on St. Nicholas’s feast day. No, instead the little baby Jesus delivers the presents. There are numerous plot holes in this story (i.e. how does a baby Jesus deliver a breadmaking machine to mom?) but the idea is fairly amusing. Anyway, I got some good presents. Jana gave me some books by famous Czech authors (in English, of course). Mom gave me clothes and a nice pair of sunglasses. I was joking around beforehand that all the presents Mom sent me were black socks. In what was a momentous first for me, I was actually disappointed that I didn’t receive any. I need some black socks. The rest of the evening consisted of gift-admiring and wine drinking. Jana’s grandfather came over for a bit, and he spoke English. He told me how, after he graduated from college, he was forced to go teach in a crappy eastern mining town because he was ‘politically unreliable’. Imagine that, New York coffee shop denizens. For all your complaining, you’re not being forced to work out of a wi-fi-less feed store in Minot, ND. That was really interesting to hear. The evening ended with more wine drinking and eventual dozing off to sleep. Weekend highlights: 1) Endless supply of Christmas cookies. Various theories were bandied about, including a wormhole to another dimension or helicopter airlifts of sugary goodness. 2) Jana’s Mom’s determination to make me eat mass quantities of food. After ingesting a rather sizeable portion of potato salad, Jana’s mom pointed and said ‘More’. I deferred. Jana told me that ‘no question had been asked’. 3) Jana had a friend from Bolivia over for lunch on Sunday. I like meeting people from all over, and I had never met a Bolivian. Turns out that they’re pretty cool. 4) Avoiding watching ‘Bridget Jones Diary’. I actually purchased this for Jana, but managed to watch ‘Band of Brothers’ on my computer instead. I also avoided ‘Pretty Woman’. 5) Czech TV’s constant replaying of movies featuring bad claymation. So now I’m back at work, or actually not working so hard considering there is no one to do any work with. So considering Christmas is over, I would like to wish a happy Kwanzaa to you all.

Global Beer Brands

He added: "We used to be in the beer business. Now we're in the consumer relationship business." Uh oh, sell your Interbrew shares. I really hate this garbage - you ARE in the beer business. Make your beer better. You can fool some people into paying $7 for a 'Stella Artois', but you can't fool me. Read the article here.

The crappiness of being old

So it's the 23rd of December and I'm working. On monday, the 27th of december i'll be working. This is a travesty. Why am I here? no one else is. I'm only here because i'm at the bottom rung of the socio-economic ladder. And to climb up I have to prove my worth by showing up at work and doing nothing. I remember my christmas time in texas...laying around watching tv...drinking beer by joey's hot tub...lil steve doing something stupid... Last year I was laying around the co-op drinking a case of pabst blue ribbon (PBR) every other day. How times change. But I will actually be doing something interesting tomorrow. I'm off to the great untamed wild of Moravia, where I will eat a dead fish to celebrate the birth of my Savior. They Celebrate christmas early here too - on the 24th instead of the 25th, because of the time difference. (By reading that last sentence you just became stupider. this is my power...) I'll try to get some photoblogging of the whole event done tomorrow. Keep checking in for updates while you eat cookies and watch your mom frantically wrap presents.

Interesting Articles

"Bismarck famously remarked that the most important reality of the 20th century would be the fact that the United States spoke English." Read the rest. I Don't know if I agree with this. But the whole Capitulation thing goes with the WWII stuff nicely...

Wrong,wrong,wrong...

And Anna Nicole Smith is in no way involved???

Christmas Carp

Good story in the IHT.

Winter Gloom

So it's 4:30pm here, and it's completely dark. I haven't been spending nearly enough time in well lit pubs...

Prehistoric weirdos

"Old person with funny hat" describes far too many people in this town.

Globalization and its Discontents

"They tell us how we are doing in exporting security to these lawless areas (not very well) and which states they would like to take “off line” from globalization and return to some seventh-century definition of the good life (any Gap state with a sizable Muslim population, especially Saudi Arabia)." Read the whole thing.

Interesting Article

Immigrants in Dutch Society.

Merry Christmas

I saw a guy bash in a Carp's head the other day. Jana told me that I reacted like a small czech child. Not a normal czech child, who apparently thinks it's great. Just a small one. It was gross. And those little plastic pools where they beat the shit out of the Carp are sponsored by Eurotel, a cell phone company, and have floating advertisements in them. That's nonsense. And now I have to be careful wherever I walk that I don't get hit with the spray that comes of the bashed-in fish heads.

What i don't miss about america

This

Nick's Blogging

Monday morning. Got my online banking working, and my rent paid. I'm home free for 2005. Check out this article. Good stuff. To those who complain my blog is too politically oriented: have you had beer with me? Are you my friend? Then you know that i like to argue about that sort of thing. so argue back with your own blog.

More fun from the Onion

You must read this. Aaaaahhhh.....

Weekend Approaching

As all 3 of you reading my blog might notice, I’ve been quite delinquent in posting this week. I went to the US a few days ago to visit my sick uncle, who passed away on Tuesday. It is sort of hard for me to cope with, as he was my favorite relative. My dad and I thought it was sort of strange, when we went to get coffee on Tuesday morning, how our lives had kinda stopped for a bit, but the world still managed to keep on going… Anyway: this weekend I will finally get to be a bum. More accurately, a semi-busy bum. I’ve been out of Prague for the past few weekends, and I have lots of stuff to do: 1) Find a gym. Every time I ate McDonalds at the Amsterdam airport I felt my belly get a little jigglier. 2) Buy a DVD player for my girlfriend. The woman has never seen Star Wars. I question her membership in Western civilization. 3) I will be holding a meeting for all the foreigners at my office. We will discuss the trials and tribulations of living in post-communist eastern Europe. The meeting will be taking place at a brewery. This is why I love this place… By the way, I would like to make everyone aware of the ridiculousness of movie companies. No, I’m not bothered by their production of various Tim Allen Christmas movies (there was one on the plane to Houston. Instead of watching it I just stared at the seat in front of me for two hours. More intellectually rewarding). It’s the whole Region 1/Region 2 DVD thing. This is an annoying travesty meant to screw me (specifically: NICK) over. It means that DVD’s from Europe can only be played in European DVD players. This means my Family Guy DVD’s won’t play here. But I got around that. My computer only allows you to change regions 5 times. I got around that. The DVD player I will buy here – I will purchase a Chinese off-brand for 70 bucks. The store will provide me with codes to get around the region problem. So I’ll get around that. The key here is grasping a new concept: the electronics handyman. They’re like the guys who used to fiddle with cars. They have no formal training, they can’t really do too much, but they can fix the stuff they need fixed. I have no idea what’s going on under the hood. But I can fix the balance on surround sound speakers. I can eliminate spyware from a computer. Parents: have a problem? Check with someone under the age of 27. They can fix it. And if there’s a problem with the car? Ask Dad.

Back in Praha

So I have returned from the US. Usual shockers: fat people, large portions/cars/roads/tv’s/houses/etc… But then again, everything is bigger in Texas. The thing that shocked me was how WARM it was. I didn’t need to sheathe my body in layers, no scarf and coat. It was disorienting. I also had an interesting experience with MPSuperstore, an online retailer. Check out this quote from Joanna Costello, as found over at Instapundit: A couple of years ago, I was in the market for a nice camera and went shopping around on the net. I found the best price (a listing for $500 on a MSRP of about $1000) and added it to my shopping cart. I was given an expected shipping time of 3-5 days and was then offered some "special deals" on rechargeable batteries and other accessories. The add-ons weren't at all impressive and quite expensive. I declined the add-ons and tried to complete my purchase. I then got a message that I needed to call a toll-free number to complete the purchase...for security reasons. I called and was give a *very* hard sell on the accessories. I again declined and was then told that upon further investigation, the camera really wouldn't be shipping for at least 3 weeks and I should just try to make my purchase again at that point. And, no, they could not add my name to a waiting list. It became clear that the online merchant was making up for the too-good-to-be-true price of the camera by selling add-ons at incredible mark-ups. So, I ended up buying the camera from J&R Music for $750. Since then, I almost never bother with any merchant I'm not already familiar with. This SAME EXACT THING happened to me. Not kinda – THE SAME. Except I yelled loudly at the guy, who pissed me off so much. I always wondered how some places sold things for so cheap, and that’s why.

airport update

Well I just watched a couple of episodes from the third season of Family Guy. Just spectacular stuff. Less weird pop-culture references, more laughs per minute. Distracted me from the fact that i'm stuck in an airport.

Airport blog

This airport sells three things 1) Dan Brown books (and that's it as far as the written word goes) 2) Clogs 3) Every type of alcohol possible. By combining these three things with a good throwing arm and a low tolerance for alcohol, I see the opportunity for Sabotage. Proper sabotage. Purchases today: 1) 10 Euros for internet 2) 7 euros for McDonalds 3) 5 euros for economist Yes, i sacrificed better food so I could purchase the economist. I couldn't imagine the pain of a 10 hour flight with another Dan Brown book. by the way, the McDonalds here served the chicken sandwich (no beef eating in eurostan - mad cow...) in a styrofoam package. I was like what the hell?!? This is the continent of Kyoto treaty and high-handed environmentalist crap. Hell, those styrofoam containers get in the ocean and sea turtles get stuck in them and all... i realized the airport is like the mall, except with fewer teenagers. You can buy a suit here (with angel wings, apparently - i wondered if i puchased it if i would have better access to those Victorias secret models with the wings and all. remember i've been awake for 26 hours), jewelrey, and there are two mcdonalds. and wi-fi. but it still sucks like the mall. people don't really want to be here. they're just stuck. believe me, it sucks to a significant extent. is anyone reading this, by any chance? wanna email chat? nickmoles@mail.utexas.edu

dazed and confused

I found mcdonalds. i want to eat something better, but due to monetary constraints i can't visit the tropical fun of Sandwich Island. I also can't spend 12 euros on a north sea salad at the Dutch restaurant. and the bookstores only sell shit by Dan Brown (Da Vinci Code). endless rows of 'angels and demons'. damn it.

spaniard

some spaniard is roaming around here, and is definitely abusing the right to wear sweatpants. i'm gonna smack him, i've been awake for a long long time....

Ethnic weirdness

The hip-hop arab sitting across from me with the portable DVD player turned out to be american.

interesting develpments

okay, i've hit the 24 hour mark. currently watching movie trailers, chatting with high school compatriots. there are a bunch of Ghanians in this section of the airport. I'm the only one with a mac...

Belarussian hooch pipeline

http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,2763,1371491,00.html Because how often does it come up?

self indugence

yes, i am blogging from an airport bathroom. In addition to having a seven hour layover and being awake for 23 hours, I have gas.

Cool

Check this out. Turns out Hannukah is cool. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6662217/#041210. Kwanzaa is still retarted though. I feel strongly that a holiday created by a professor at Long Beach State University in 1961 should not be in any way equated to 1) Celebration of Jewish war success several thousand years ago or 2) The birth of the son of God. Although I do enjoy watching US presidents try to keep a straight face (or in Bush's case, poorly hide his confustion) celebrating the thing So put away your Kwanzaa menorah (you know, like the jewish one except with funny colors) and watch Texas beat Michigan. And that goes to all the athiests celebrating christmas. YOU ARE A SLAVE OF THE CONSUMER SOCIETY. Remember, I've been awake for 23 hours, and am stuck at an airport. I like black people and the retarted shopping people. And michigan people too.

fat people

People here are fatter than people in the CR. It's actually really weird. And i'm about to go to Houston, Kingdom of the Fatties.That reminds me of a caption in 'America (The Book)' It says that in the future, since diets are so expenseive, we'll just give up and change our notions of beauty. It shows one of those pictures of a woman from the neck down, prominently displaying her obese ass. The caption reads 'In the future you'll want to 'tap' this'. Just hysterical stuff. Love that book. Question of international etiquette (sp?) What's the deal with traditional costumes? Why do only certain family members wear them? I am looking at some sort of Indian family down below. The man is in a ratty t-shirt and jeans, kids dressed normally. The woman is wearing star-covered pajamas and a body-length blue and orange scarf. What the hell?

exciting posts

So I've decided to create what will, without a doubt, be the most exciting running blog ever created: I will document here, in real time, while everyone is asleep, what a 7 hour layover in Amsterdam's Schiphol airport is like. Since I will be here for a significant portion of my life, I purchased a 24 hour wireless connection for only 10 euros. Considering the dollar exchange rate, this means I only had to give up the soul of my firstborn son to bring you this sort of fake journalism. So buckle your seat belts and prepare to be bored, bored, bored. By the way, This is the sixth time i've been in this airport. that's absolutely preposterous, and i should be tarred and feathered for this nonsense. that damn KLM just offers such cheap-ass rates to the US... Well, at least it's better than going through de Gaulle. Pavol told me that that place is a nonsensical maze of crappy engineering. Well, considering it was built by the FRENCH...okay,okay, i shouldn't do that anymore, especially since my roommate is french and all. although he has a british flag hanging on his wall. i think i have a defective frenchman, which means he's a cool guy. it's those bastards with their tricolore that you have to watch out for. Or not, considering they run at the first sight of... okay, i'll stop i'll stop. i know that everyone in the US is asleep right now, and truthfully no one reads my blog anyway except my girlfriend. and she's asleep in europe now. i've been awake for over 21 hours now. There is an 'AUTHENTIC' irish pub just down the way. I wonder if i will get signal there...

Setting the Mood

So i'll be heading to Houston tomorrow, to visit my sick uncle. I'll be heading out of here at 7am tomorrow, and arrive in Houston at 7pm, which will add up to 18 hours of travel time. Should be a blast. And I've borrowed my roomates DVD's to watch on the way. Band of Brothers should set the mood properly. Although I must say: last time I came back from Europe I was unemployed, fat, and generally had no purpose in life. I was also leaving my girlfriend, and all my friends here behind to lay around my parents house and do nothing. On the flight over I read American Psycho. That was uncategorically awful. Still, the best setup ever came during my visit to Auschwitz. We left prague for Krakow on Friday night, and since we were terrified at the thought of grimy eastern types stealing our digital cameras, we spent the whole ride awake. Saturday night we went out and partied, then I endured a 3 hour grilling about Bush's Iraq policies. So I went to Auschwitz hung over, without sleeping for 2 days, and just having endured a gruelling political discussion. And the weather was grim and rainy. Auschwitz really shouldn't be visited on a sunny, warm day. Of course the place would be depressing during the second coming of Christ, it's that bad. Sorry for the depressing post, but that's what I'm gonna be putting up for a bit. Go read The Onion for something better.

Libya

Check out this photoblog from Libya

Red and Blue America

Check out this map. Interesting stuff.

What's up with Nick

So i'll be in Houston this weekend visiting a sick relative. Anyone else gonna be in town? On to other items: Doctors in Austria proved that Victor Yuschenko, the opposition candidate in Ukraine, was poisoned. The story is that he was having dinner with the head of the country's secret police. While driving home he became ill. Wow, connect the dots there. On a more lighthearted note, check out this site. Apparently Americans are pretending to be Canadians abroad! Grow some balls, men! Be American and proud! Actually this is fine. Check out the quote: ""It's a tempest in a teapot. American travelers have been disguising themselves as Canadians for 30 years," said one expert in Canadian-American relations at the University at Buffalo, part of the State University of New York. " I have on occasion claimed to be Canadian, to avoid harassment and lengthy political discussions. Last year I got stuck in one from 4am-7am, with 5 Germans, drunk in Krakow. Really could have been avoided. It's not a matter of Pride, but Pragmatism. Canadians are like Robin to our Batman - cuter, friendlier, and a little gay. Email group friends my remember that quote from yesterday. I liked it. And check out this story. This is, of course, no surprise. The amazing thing is that such a high percentage of people admitted it in a face-to-face poll!

Christmas Recommendations

So I am going to recommend a book for people to give as a christmas gift. It is called Quicksilver. It's the start of the Baroque Cycle, which is my favorite 3,000 page exploration of 17th and 18th century politics and economics. In good novel form, of course. So challenge yourself.

Fresh off of Drudge

This is so weird.

About Havel

He isn't overly popular here in the Czech Republic, but outside the country people are throwing around his name for things like UN Secretary General and first lieutenant to Jesus. I like the guy, though. Check out this post from Paul Smith on Havels views: "And that was Havel's biggest criticism of communism - that it forced the citizenry to compromise their moral worth, their dignity, in return for petty rewards, creating a nation of men with no personalities and no true concept of self. Havel recognized this tragedy for what it was, and he would certainly recognize that much of the world's population still lives under such conditions." Good Stuff. Furthermore check out the Carnival of Capitalists. I really like intellectual capitalism. None of that ham-fisted post-soviet gulag capitalism. I'm talking competitive, non-government influenced creative destruction. Hell yeah.

The Onion

There is no commentary necessary here.

Ukraine Update

Check this out: Apparently 1 million votes appeared in Eastern Ukraine were added after the polls closed. This is according to a member of the central election commission, testifying to the Supreme Court. Fraud? Yeah, I think so...

Jerry Falwell

Uh oh, Jerry Falwell is in trouble! His usual hyper-religious fog was exposed as a smelly conglomeration of rank hypocrisy. Check out the exchange between the dude and Chris Matthiews over at Surfergirl.

The FCC

From Michael Powell, head of the FCC, in today's NYT: "Some have also questioned why the commission is unwilling to issue rulings before a broadcast, as was the case with the recent network showing of "Saving Private Ryan," a film the commission had previously held was not indecent. While ABC and its affiliates understandably would have liked to know the program was in bounds before proceeding, the precedent of submitting programming or scripts for government review borders dangerously on censorship. The Communications Act expressly forbids the F.C.C. from banning a program before broadcast, and any such effort might very well run afoul of the First Amendment. This is a step I do not want to take." Bravo, Mr. Powell.

On Blogs

So apparently 'Blog' is one of the most searched terms on the internet. Microsoft has just announced plans to try to take over the blogging world by making it easier for the average user, the non-intellectual who wants to post their online diary. But who would want to read that? My girlfriend was just discussing the other day about the crap that's in the blogosphere. So I pledge I won't post unless I have something mildly interesting to say. And today I have nothing. Cheers.

Ukraine Update

Well, I haven't posted much on Ukraine for a while. Things are progressing nicely, with Parliament firing the Yanukovich government yesterday. There has also been a good bit of silliness on his part: "Yanukovych yesterday seems to have had a bit of a breakdown. The Minister of Transportation finally jumped ship and said he wasn't going to stick with Yanukovych any longer. Yanukovych responded to this by kicking the guy in the nuts." From Orange Ukraine Reportedly one of the Eastern Oligarchs also got off a plane and punched Yanukovych in the face for wasting all the money he gave the PM to steal the election. Kinda sad, but funny at the same time. Anyway: some good links - First check out Orange Ukraine up there, and this excellent story from the Moscow Times. Fistful of Euros continues with good updates. Once you get into these sites you can find the real juicy stuff - I'm just here as a gateway for people like my mom, whose blogosphere savvy is somewhat limited. So check them out, and read the eyewitnesses to revolution