jayes_musings: (Quotes -- doesn't take degree in applied)
Especially having DVDs sent rather than Watch Instantly?

I'm having a problem with them sending me DVDs in order from my queue. This has happened about three times now (first time I thought it might just be a glitch, second time was right around the Holidays so I was too busy to do much about it).

The Problem...which is also a rant )

ETA: Okay, a FB friend found a number for me (apparently, I had to log all the way out and still go a couple of clicks to find their 'homepage', and it's there....obviously because no already signed-up customer could ever need to contact them), so I shall be calling later.

ETA2: *sigh* And that number was the British number for Netflix (as friend is in Britain). Although it did clue me in that I had to switch Tunnel Bear to the US proxy...and finally found their number. And will (again) call later (yes, they're available 24/7 but I'm on my way out).
jayes_musings: (Too Cute -- go to hell)
or something )

I don't really know what my point is here except....SO BLOODY AMUSED!
jayes_musings: (Gerry -- 300 Genetic perfection)
Last weekend (if you've seen my FB) me and the hubby went to the nearby city of Trier (oldest city in Germany) and enjoyed the Brot und Spiele (Bread and Games) fest that they held amongst ruins of the Imperial Baths. They had a Roman camp, artizans, food and beer (it is Germany, after all!) and displays. Unfortunately, we didn't know we had to buy the tickets to the full Gladiator Games in advance, so we missed out on that, but next year.

Certain muses were also very much awake.

ROMAN PICSPAM )
jayes_musings: (Too Cute Icons -- I'm the quiet one)
Well, as some of you on Facebook may have seen, I'm in Germany and have been for about two weeks. Not that I've had much time at all to spend a lot of time on the Internet. Yesterday, we moved into our house, but it might take until Friday (or later) for the DSL to be connected. So at the moment, I'm snagging free wi-fi at different places on base...which is also a pain in the ass, as we only have one car at the moment, and I can't wait until hubby gets off his butt and calls about two potential used cars we've seen for sale.

In the meantime, I'm trying to catch up on reading flists -- although I've tried to keep up when I have been able to get on line -- but if there's anything people want me to see/read/whatever, post a link and I'll get there.

I'm also setting up journals over at Insane Journal, and will be RPing over there quite a bit...although I will be keeping, and probably crossposting to and from, my main LJ journals. Many of my 'lesser' pup journals, however, will be transferring fully to IJ to take advantage of the increased user icons for free accounts.

If anyone wants to know my new address and/or phone number, leave a comment...which will be screened. :D

I do have a few emails to reply to, and I'm sorry to those people that I've taken so long to do so, but I will in the next few days.

Now to get my writing mojo back...as with being in transit and with no time to myself for over a month, the pups have for the most part been quiet. I have ideas, just not the inclination to write them down.
jayes_musings: (Fassy -- smoking hot)
Over the past few weeks, I've been watching Band of Brothers. It's a series that the hubby and I have wanted to see for a long time but never got around to it, so once I got a Netflix account, it was put into the queue. Of course, it did help that Michael Fassbender is in several of the episodes (mostly 'blink-and-you-miss-him' scenes, but he's there).

Anyway, I'll probably do a picspam/review later, but after watching the final episode last night, where Easy Company are at Bertchesgarten and Kehlsteinhaus (the actual name for the Eagle's Nest), I was reminded of when I was there not long before we left Germany. And I was impressed that, unlike most Hollywood films, they actual did a very good job of reproducing the house, especially the room with the fireplace (although maybe it was a little smaller IRL). However, I now want to go back and take another look at the marble fireplace, to see if I recognize any of the names...as the Americans carved their names in it...as well as chipping chunks off for souvenirs.
jayes_musings: (Bricktop)
...and who spoil it for the rest of us.

For the past few years, at least as long as I've been in Germany (over 4 years now), the senior class has had their graduation at a town about 20 km from here in a medieval abbey. It is a gorgeous building with magnificent architecture. In a word, it makes graduating from the High School here a special thing....because, hey where in the States is a kid going to get such a memorable opportunity?

Well, a few weeks ago, I found out that this years graduation -- which is also #1 son's graduation -- will be held on base at the base gym. I assumed that this was because of security issues with a heightened security threat at the moment. Disappointing, but okay, I can accept that as a valid reason. What I can't accept, and really pisses me off, is what I found out just a little while ago.

Someone complained about having the graduation in this abbey because of separation of church and state issues! WTF!?!? I'm agnostic, and I don't have a problem with this because it's not about having the ceremony in a religious building, but in a historical. A once in a lifetime opportunity for these students, and something that they would remember. It is just a venue, with nothing religious taking place. Besides the Germans don't have the same restrictions on separation, and as we are in Germany, we should respect their standards (as we are told endlessly on AFN "commercials").

So, my son is screwed and he and the rest of his class will have a graduation in a 50-year old, run down gym. Just because someone decided to be offended. Now that's really special, ain't it?

What also pisses me off about this, is that this isn't the first time he's been screwed with school. Back in Virgina, he had to go to a middle school that was not the closest, but they needed students from the base to attend to make a more racially diverse student body. In 8th grade here in Germany, he was supposed to go on a week long trip to England, but it had to be cancelled due to security concerns as the Iraq War had just kicked off (understandable, but very disappointing)...and they did nothing to make up for it, and of course, the following year's 8th graders did take the trip. It's just not fair for him, and no wonder he's just totally disenfranchised with school. Nothing good happens.

ETA: A photo of where he should've been graduating from:
Abtei PrĂ¼m
jayes_musings: (There goes a hairball)
First some pic spam of what I've been doing recently )

I got around to watching "Fast Food" one of GB's early films. I have to say that it's one of those films that had GB not been in it, I wouldn't have bothered with it. It's not that it's a bad film, per se, just meh. It definitely has its moments, unsurprisingly for me those moments feature Gerry.

He plays a character called Jacko, who is one of a group of friends who do nothing but petty crime, drug dealing, eating fast food, and arguing about the royal family. They are joined by an old friend who moved away as a boy and is trying to revisit his life to find that it's not as good as he remembered. Jacko one of the smarter ones in the group, but probably the most psychotic. A pizza is delivered and it has pineapples on it, and Jacko verbally lashes out at the (immigrant) delivery man. Later the pizza man brings another pizza, and Jacko loses it when he sees it has anchovies on it in a scene that is quite violent and disturbing. Other bits include Jacko drinking heavily at a party and licking the armpit of some girl *g* and playing a video game in just his underwear!

There really was nothing about the other characters that engaged me to care about them, and really there's not much to care about Jacko either, 'cept that it's Gerry! Although Jacko's psychopathic tendencies did put me in mind of another of his characters, Jackie Jr. from "Shooters" and it was an interesting coincidence to note they both have the same name.

Anyway, I'll probably only watch it again to do a proper review and to get some screen caps...because Gerry in leopard print briefs deserve such treatment!


Finally, I've created a community [livejournal.com profile] themanypaths. Basically what it is going to be is a place for me to put all the stuff from my website, which I'll eventually be closing down. It will feature reviews, pics, and fic of my main interests. If you're interested in joining, either just to look or comment, please go over and join. It's moderated to begin with, but I will open it up if other people want to contribute useful things. It'll be going active in the next week or so.
jayes_musings: (Flash Harry)
Hubby called me at work yesterday (he's currently away for a couple of weeks) and he found out that he made Chief (E-9...highest enlisted rank). So when we leave Germany next August, we'll be moving onto another base for 3 years instead of retiring.

Kind of a double edged sword...we've both had enough of the Air Force and the way things are going generally that retiring would be nice. Get away from the military and try something else, although also a little daunting. But the only reason he decided to try for Chief was for the retirement money it will give him, nearly double of what he would make now. And that money, yeah, very good.

Now to keep my fingers crossed we get an assignment to England...or somewhere *very* nice in the States.
jayes_musings: (Hmmm Coffee)
Last night after work (about 9pm), I had to drive from one base to the other (about 15km away) to pick up my youngest from his school's Halloween dance. Now the road that links these two bases is notorious for accidents as Americans can't drive on anything that has even the slightest bend in it. Because of this, the wing commander has a policy that no one in an American Forces registered vehicle can overtake on this road, unless it's a tractor or something. So I'm poking along behind this one car that's reluctant to go faster than 60kph and is braking on *every* bend. Then the traffic comes to an almost complete halt. First I think accident, but it's on the straightest part of this road...so would be very odd. Turns out that there is a cow trotting down the middle of the road. I'm a little back, but one car is actually herding this cow along the road and up this turn-off a little way ahead. Just weird, but I guess the joys of living in the country...although almost 4 years of living here and that's the first time I've seen that.

Anyway get to the other base finally and pick son up. Didn't know what he was going to go dressed as, as the costume he's planning for Halloween isn't assembled yet. Most of the kids had the cheap, tacky store bought costumes, but mine (with eldest helping him) had raided the closets and went as Mr. Smith...he even had the wire earpiece. Best of all, he won first prize for 7th Grade...and if there had been an overall prize, he probably would have one that. He looked sooo cool.

On the down side of things, it's 8:30am I'm still not fully awake yet and I need some tea or coffee...except that we have no milk. So coffee it is, I guess. I can drink that black...not my favourite way, but drinkable. Tea OTOH, I can't, just can't...and I do actually prefer tea in the morning. ACK.

And update on the sword....Waahh...I'm too slow, it's gone. I didn't think it would go like that. Now, I'm hoping against hope that maybe, just maybe, hubby may have got it as it was sold on Saturday...the day I saw it. A Christmas present perhaps? I can dream. But I asked in the store about it, which was quite an ordeal in itself.

Me: You sold the scimitar?
Lady: The what?
Me: The scimitar, the big curved sword. *points to where it was*
Lady: Oh the curved one, yes we just sold that.
Me: *cursing to myself*
Lady: It was hanging right here *points to different spot* The cavalry sword.
Me: No, this was a big curved sword, that one's smaller. (and totally different, but I didn't say that)
Lady: Yes, the curved one, that was the calvary sword.

She gets another lady out...and I go through the same explanation. I even draw what it looks like, but they still think I mean the calvary sabre. She even goes to get one of them out from the back. Well, just one look at the box and I know that's not the one, but she takes it out, still convinced this is the one, but I tell her no. Then I see this letter opener on display that's a scimitar...so I point that out, hoping they get the point. Another lady there (why this tiny shop has 3 people working there, I don't know) looks up from what she's doing and says..."Oh, you want the scimitar."

*headdesks*

"We sold that on Saturday, I think it was."

So after all that, that's the only one they had, they don't know if they're getting more or when their supplier will next be round. Poo!
jayes_musings: (Default)
First of what will be an occasional series of observations/musings on German customs, daily life, and other oddities that strike this foreigner living in Germany as remarkable in one way or another.

Tomorrow is May Day, or Labour Day, here in Germany and a public holiday, but it seems that the celebrations begin tonight. Apparently, according to tradition, this is when witches come out and about instead of waiting for Halloween. What happens is that teenagers play tricks by taking things from people's yards, etc and hiding them someplace else. And they don't get in trouble as long as they don't damage things. A strange custom, and I'm here wondering where to temporarily store all the plant pots so they don't go walkabout. Does this include larger items such as patio furniture? I guess we shall see tomorrow morning.

A rather sweeter side of this custom is that teenage boys also draw a chalk line in the road from their house to their girlfriend's house...sometimes a few kms away. Why? I don't know...but it is sweet.

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Jaye

August 2020

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