Aidan-Wan Kenobi

Some fooling around in After Effects and Premiere created this masterpiece.

Economic Fail

This guy needs to have his econ degree revoked. Fail!

From the abstract, published in 2003:

Can the euro ever challenge the dollar as an international currency? This article argues that Europe's new money is fated to remain a distant second to America's greenback, for four reasons...

Har-de-har-har. I wish ol' Benjamin J. Cohen had an email address on his article so I could ask him how he's doing after this brilliant bit of inductive reasoning.

Fat Germans

Yesterday I had to make a late night milk run for our baby. So at 9:45, I went down to the Real (like a German Wal-Mart that is open late) to pick some up. I grabbed my milks and got in the only check-out line that was available. As I'm waiting, I took a look at the couple in front of me and behind me and what they were buying.

I know it's popular to bash Americans for their increasingly casual dress, poor eating, and rampant obesity, but the Germans aren't that far behind if the two couples that I saw there were any indicator. The first couple was in their mid-to-late twenties. They looked like they had been living out of their car for the past week. That may have been the case, but either way they looked like bums. T-shirts, old shorts, flip-flops; an overall disheveled appearance. Among their "groceries" were:

- a six-pack of 1L Fantas ("with more orange taste" on the package)
- 4 or 5 bags of those Haribo gummi candies
- 4 or 5 large sized candy bars
- several packs of gum
- two additional 1L bottles of soda
- some assorted types of chips

Yum. That rung up for 38€, or almost $60. For junk food. Of course, there's places in the American marketplace where this isn't so outlandish. But you won't find me ordering the Junk Food Junkie anytime soon.

The second couple was a little better dressed than the first couple. At least their clothes didn't look visibly dirty and wrinkled. However, there was one big distinction: their size. The second couple were both well over 6'4" or more. The woman was bigger, easily 6'5" and +250 lbs. They were giant specimens of human beings; more stout than fat. Their groceries consisted of:

- two bags of Haribo gummi candies
- a 1L tub of ice cream
- a large bag of assorted cookies
- a bag of brotchen-style rolls
- another package of cookies
- a large piece of meat (I believe it was pork)
- a stick of butter

Clearly these people love carbs and meat.

After seeing what other Americans buy at the commissary on post, and now seeing the caliber of shopping that these two anonymous German couples did, it's not hard to see why obesity is so rampant. I think people have forgotten how to prepare and cook real food. So they buy this "ready-to-eat" mess and their body slowly breaks down as it's deprived of the nutrients that it needs.

I realize that my "field study" of Germans and their shopping habits is fairly limited, but I've just gotten here and there's plenty of time for me to accumulate more data. In the meantime, eat a salad.

Wir wohnen aus Deutchland

It's been a couple of weeks since our last post; for that I apologize. However, I think everyone can cut me a break considering that since our last post on 23 May, we received orders to move to Germany, packed up all our things and drove up to Mannheim. It's been a fast-paced couple of weeks.

We currently live on Sullivan barracks, located in the city of Mannheim. Here's a overhead from Google Maps for those that don't know where that is:




It's a pretty industrial area, but there is a large city park and lots of bike trails around. And there's plenty of smaller, quaint German towns nearby and we're just a short drive away from the famous Black Forest (Schwarzwald in German). We've just gotten our house somewhat in order from the unpacking. The movers were here just last Tuesday, so there's still a fair bit of work to be done.

Although we were sad to leave Italy, we're trying to make the best of the German experience. I will say this: they certainly know how to make a beer around here. I've had some incredible beers already, and that not even going out and looking for a good German beer. So although I am going through Italian wine withdrawals, I'm trying to explore the alcoholic traditions of our new host country.

Once we get some picture of the area, we'll through them up here for you to gawk at. I guess we'll also have to get a new name for this blawg too.