Why are you happy today?

[eMTe]

Hm, yesterday this article was open. You can count on good old Huffington Post fortunately.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/2 ... 30170.html

Anyway, victory and oppression are not contradictory in this case.

[eMTe]

Well, I am happy, because during last days I produced a couple of very productive (imo) posts on a certain philosophy forum which I frequent. I'm not fully convinced that somebody really treats this seriously (except one guy who keeps arguing with me, proving thatself that he's in fact fascinated with the topic ), but I think I am onto something. Still hard to say if this output will ever find its way into my book, but at least I am happy.

[eMTe]

What a match!

[Railwaymodeler]

Maria and I took a trip North this past Thursday, came back Sunday evening. Just the two of us. Skoda was with her grandma - Maria's mother. Skoda was very happy to see her mom and dad, though Maria's mother said she was very well behaved. Frankly I am surprised to an extent, as Skoda often cries at night, most often when our cat does not sleep near her.

Maria and I needed some time to ourselves and just catch up with everything. A lot of our energy has been devoted to Skoda lately. We try to feed her mind a bit; rather than let her sleep and do nothing all day, we take her places with us, and Maria often holds her in her arms when the trains are running. Working on train restoration projects, Maria often holds Skoda so she can watch too. All in all, we were getting a bit worn out and needed a few days break!

Felt very happy Sunday. We got a break from the rain that day. We woke early, about 4 AM (Funny how our bodies are almost used to waking up in the middle of the night!), and decided to sit on the porch of the cabin, and watch the sun rise over the lake and forest on the other side. That magic is still there!

Now I can't sleep! Skoda is sleeping peacefully, Maria is sleeping soundly, but I have energy now!

Past few days were pure bliss, though!

[eMTe]

Reading your posts is pure bliss!

[eMTe]

I am happy, because I created a new name for Internet: "Online Pub".

[Tormuse]

New pet baby ball python! So cute!

You're all welcome to help me name him. (her?)

[eMTe]

I am happy, because I returned from a mountain trip with a fellow who worked fulltime with us for a couple of years (and still works from time to when it's possible to take some vacant hours). I always considered him strange and never really liked to talk with him, but now he appeared as an amiable guy and I even agreed for another trip(s). Funny how people who we don't really know gain in our eyes with time, only because we know them better.

[Chroelle]

I always liked that observation as it supports the theory that there is good in all of us, but sometimes you have to dig a little to find it.

Think of it like this: You could be good friends with everyone if only you know them well enough. Now consider that you might have liked Adolf Hitler if you ahd only known him better as a private person. Funny thought right?

[eMTe]

I like when people mention old Adolf and feel obliged to quickly add "oh, but it's just the funny thought", like they were afraid of being investigated by FBI. Nazi leaders were people just like us and some had great taste in art, not to mention literature, philosophy etc. Actually probably most of them, since you can't reach high position in society without being intelligent and subtle and these qualities sometimes come with certain outside-the-box predispositions. If somebody ever gave me opportunity to erase 5 billions of humans with a single push of a red button I'd do it without blink of an eye, since I think there's too many people living on Earth. And that doesnt change the fact that I play old computer games, hike in mountains and am unable to harm an animal.

[Scythe]

I'm sure Adelwolf was a great guy to his friends.

We do put people in boxes based on first hand impressions, most of the time unjustly so. I certainly know some people that I have labeled "avoid at all costs" that are probably not as bad as all that.

Then of course there are people that continue to reaffirm your negative opinion of them. I know I have one or two of those at work. Well, I'm thinking of one in particular, I can't stand that stupid bint. Maybe we'll be best friends in two years... if I haven't snapped her fat neck before then.

[Railwaymodeler]

Hitler was a brilliant man, no doubt about that, and frankly, had a good chance of winning World War II had he not been so stubborn about retreating from battle.

I, personally, have had the honor of getting a closer gimpse into his life than most other Americans. A good friend of mine who is nearly 90 years old, and still works at a Boy Scout camp in Northern Wisconsin, was in the war. He worked with a military group that protected the media. He worked closely with many big names in news.

Towards the end of the war when the Russians had arrived in Berlin, he and a partner were in Berlin, and an older gentleman came up to them and asked "Want to see where the fueher died?" He led them into Hitler's bunker, and my friend took his own photos of the bunker, including some of Hitler's blood on the furniture.

Shortly after, when the allies were looting everything they could find, he was on Hitler's yacht. While others were taking art and other fancy things, he headed to the control room, and took a bunch of shellac 78RPM records. I've had the honor of listening to them a number of times at his house, and they are in his will to be mine when he passes on, along with NBC Voice of America recordings (16" 33-1/3 RPM discs containing recordings of radio shows minus the commercials, and his voiceovers before and after the show - he worked for NBC after WWII in New York).

Closer to my generation, my dad grew up in a rich Italian neighborhood near Chicago, which had many mob names of the day residing there. His Cub Scout leader was a mob man, and my grandpa was a machinist and gunsmith for the mob through the 1950s. Poor German/ Polish family in a rich Italian neighborhood! My dad even dated, for a while, a girl closely related to Joey "The Clown" Lombardo, who was an infamous mob hitman.

Listening to my dad, and my grandpa before he died, I got the idea that these were overall good men, very good to their friends and family, but engaged in a high-stake career that amounted to "Kill or be killed", and one that amounted to supply and demand, though they were hounded by police for it.

Of course, to most, they were evil murders, but my dad remembers being an altar boy in the 1960s, at a Catholic church built with mob money, and being handed $20 bills by the mob men after service and being told "Don't spend it all today, kid. Put it in the bank and save it!"


Back to the thread topic, Maria and I have Skoda back home. Skoda had fun at her grandma's, but she seems happy home again. She went straight to the cat and was giggling happy seeing her four legged furry friend and playmate!

[eMTe]

her

There's nothing worse than working with woman. Maybe except living with one.

[Zyx]

I, personally, have had the honor of getting a closer gimpse into his life than most other Americans. A good friend of mine who is nearly 90 years old, and still works at a Boy Scout camp in Northern Wisconsin, was in the war. He worked with a military group that protected the media. He worked closely with many big names in news.

My grandfather (an air force pilot at the time) was on the tarmac when Hitler landed to visit Finland during the WWII and also took some pics of him. He died before I was born, so I only became aware of these and other photos when my grandmother died and my father told he donated the pics to the war museum.... before scanning them or even showing them to me or my siblings. Now they are gathering dust somewhere in the war archives...

My grandmother was an audio engineer for the Finnish broadcasting company during (and after) the war as well, so she told stories about being protected by guys like your friend. For example, she told a story how one day a guy in a black leather jacket came to the recording studio and just sat there. He didn't talk and no-one asked who he was and what he did there. In the evening when my grandmother was leaving home, the gentleman escorted her home. She could pry out of him that yes, he was armed and that something could have happened on that day. She never saw him after that. It would be interesting to know what was actually going on that day.

The other story she told more often was how she would arrange the mics so that the loud clanking noise of the President's fake teeth were not audible during his speeches....

[Scythe]

My grandfather was almost caught under curfew (during the German occupation of Denmark), but he rode his bicycle hard and fast... until he unfortunately crashed into a fountain, and even fell into it. He did still manage to hide and even bring the goods he was smuggling home. Certain people were asking around about the owner of that bicycle the next day, but nobody squealed. Anyway, he hated Germans to the very end of his life and didn't accept that any of them could have redeeming qualities.

This topic is now about WW2 stories.

Also, I'm very pleased that I finally got a good night's sleep. That psychotic resident upstairs finished smashing his furniture around one, which is two hours earlier than usual when he gets one of his episodes.

[Pater Alf]

Hitler was a brilliant man, no doubt about that...

Sorry, but I doubt that very much. From all we know and can read in history books and biographies, he wasn't very intelligent at all. He had some "good" people who helped him to make the "right" decisions in the first years of the war, but when he stopped listening to them, his pretended brilliance ended very quickly.

[eMTe]

I will always be the last man standing.

[Chroelle]

I am taking this back to topic as today the HUGE project I have been waiting to get to work on finally got started. We have had consultants visiting us about an IT-solution that we will be the spearheads using in our area - and I will be the tip of the spear as I will be the one implementing it and controlling it. We contacted the IT-responsible office in the town hall 3 ½ month ago and they toldus they would take over ordering, purchasing equipment, installing and negotiating with the solutions provider. Today we contacted their department to ask if we could please take over, as the only headway they had gotten was getting a touchscreen bought and hooked up to their online support system. They had then brought the screen to my workplace and when installing it on the wall, found out that there was not enough room for the wires behind the screen due to ...well the WALL BEING THERE!!!
We took over, me and my boss, and got the product ordered and setup to go in 3 hours - and after spending some hours on it this evening I got the whole thing totally adapted to my workplace. So I went from panicky this morning, because I hadn't heard anything and knew it would destroy the 2 days getaway me and Tanja have planned tomorrow if I didn't know more before checking out tomorrow at 11 - and now I am more or less exstatic - tired and cant wait to get started. I am somewhat sure that this will AT LEAST look good on my resume.

[eMTe]

My eyes and brain get tired when I read lengthy posts, so to put it simply: you install huge wall touchscreen in kindergarten you work in, right?

Btw, my previous post should go to "random sentences" thread, but an unknown evil force from space opened too many tabs in my browser and it landed here.

[Zyx]

the tip of the spear

Spearhead.