Incoherent Scribblings

New Toy Update #1

I figured out why I was unable to save pictures on my new digital camera. Everytime I went to see how much space I had used up on the flash card, I was hitting OK after I checked… Only upon closer examination, I was choosing OK to the camera’s question “Do you wanted to re-format your flash card now?” Re-formatting the flash card erases all previous photos! Oops!

You would never know that I profess to be technology-literatre, now would you?
Anyway, now that I have solved that minor problem, I am now ready to post my first digital picture here.

These are my violas (a.k.a. Johnny Jump-Ups), which are growing beautifully, thank you very much. Maybe I have broken the curse of the black thumb.

New Toy!

Well, I finally did it. Yesterday I bought a digital camera.

After weeks of research, going into stores and fondling about every digital camera available, and establishing myself a budget (about 200 euros), I bought the Canon Power Shot A300.

According to reviews, it is about the best camera you can get with all sorts of nifty features for the price. The only down side is that it comes with 2 AA alkaline batteries, as opposed to rechargeables. You can use regular AA batteries with it, but the camera sucks them dry very quickly, so I guess I will have to buy some rechargeables.

Otherwise… I am still in the process of reading the manual (which is in German!) and learning about what all those nifty features can really do. Unfortunately, the first 5 pictures I took with it were unintentionally deleted while I was fiddling around with the menus, so until I take some more today I have none to show at the moment.

However, as I learn more about my new camera and take more photos, I will update my experiences with my new toy.

Barbie Gothic

My mom sent me an anniversary card with Barbie and Ken spoofing Grant Wood’s famous painting “American Gothic.” “American Gothic” has been interpreted as a satire “on the intolerance and rigidity that the insular nature of rural life can produce” and “the narrow-mindedness and repression that has been said to characterize Midwestern culture.” Wood denied both of these interpretations, saying that in actuality it represented “the Puritan ethic and virtues that he believed dignified the Midwestern character.”

But no matter how the painting is interpreted Midwestern stereotypes surface. Being from Iowa, which is usually seen as the core of the Midwest, I am quite familiar with the stereotypes of farm life, agricultural heritage, small towns, physical and cultural homogeneity, and pastoral and traditional values.

As all stereotypes, those about the Midwest have some basis in fact. For example, I am from a small town where society revolves around the farm. It is often said (though I don’t think ever verified by census) that there are more pigs than people in Iowa and if you entertain the idea of becoming a vegetarian you are accused of hurting the economy.

As for Midwesterners being dignified, have you ever seen the crowd at a Green Bay Packers game? How can you call people dignified who wear (fake) cheese on their heads and watch football in an outdoor stadium during a blizzard bare-chested?

As a general rule, most Midwesterners are also hospitable, down to earth, reliable, peaceful, considerate, cheerful, and easy-going. In fact, when I think about the Midwesterners I know, I think maybe the smiling Barbie-version of “American Gothic” is more representative than the sullen original.

Five Planet Panorama

Since about March 20 and for another few days, if you live in the northern latitudes and look in the evening sky about 45 minutes after sunset, you can see a rare occurrence with the naked eye: The alignment of five of the planets of our Solar System; Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, and Mercury. This is unusual because Mercury is so close to the Sun that it never gets very far above the horizon, and always only near dawn or dusk.

If you miss out seeing the five planet alignment this time around, you should be able to see it again from late December 2004 through early January 2005, but then it will be in the morning sky. (This means in order to observe the phenomenon you will have to get up before dawn!) Otherwise you will have to wait another 32 years for such an occurrence in the evening sky.

Last evening, A. and I took the opportunity to find Mercury and observe this exquisite five planet panorama and I would encourage everyone to do the same. Even if you are not normally an amateur astronomer, finding the planets isn’t too difficult. A clear sky and a pair of binoculars are the most helpful and recommended ways to locate the planets. After you find the planets in the binoculars, seeing them with the naked eye is a piece of cake.

A Wine Drinker in Beer Country

I have a confession to make: I don’t like beer.

When I imbibe in alcohol, I prefer a sweet red wine or a shot of Amaretto. Beer is bitter, I have never much liked the taste, and it gives me wicked hangovers. As a college student, where drinking is about getting drunk, I drank beer because I believed the famous, “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it” claim. But I didn’t. I was never converted and now that I am over 21 and my major drinking exercises are in accompaniment to a meal, I don’t even pause to consider beer.

But the thing is, I live in Germany. And Germany’s favorite beverage is beer. The average German drinks about 138 liters of beer per year (that’s 36 gallons), with the average Bavarian drinking 50% more than the national average. April 23 is the Day of German Beer. There is even a “German Beer Purity Law” and drinking a beer with lunch is not frowned upon, in some places the ability to have a beer with lunch is the law!

Beer is a vital part of the German culture and experience, but in the two years that I have lived in Munich I have not drunk even so much as one sip from ein Maß of Weißbier! Of course, my distaste for beer has occasionally been a bit of a predicament here. For example, social opportunities can be limited as sitting in a beer garden with no beer, while doable, feels awkward. And of course there are the social functions where the choice of beverage is beer or… beer.

Even so, I have managed to get along well enough in Munich, but I guess I will never officially be a Bavarian!