Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Clau heading to Brazil
Clau's heading home to Brazil - her sister just had a baby boy and her grandmother is having a 90th birthday party, both of which are good occasions for heading over there. Unfortunately, since I'm in the middle of a project and thought I was going to have to travel, I'm not going with her, so I get to stay in Munich by myself :( But, truthfully it's probably a good thing I can't go, since I would just be sitting miserable in Brazil working like crazy. Still, I'm awfully envious of her...
Monday, January 19, 2009
Word of the day
Philips screwdriver = Kreuzschlitzschraubendreher
Unfortunately the Germans are far too fond of making very large words.
Follow-up: upon discussing this with a colleague, it turns out that Schraubendreher is an old fogey word - the actual word is Kreuzschlitzschraubendzieher - not much easier...
Unfortunately the Germans are far too fond of making very large words.
Follow-up: upon discussing this with a colleague, it turns out that Schraubendreher is an old fogey word - the actual word is Kreuzschlitzschraubendzieher - not much easier...
Sick - and more German fun
So, I got the bug that's been going around; seems that everybody here is under the weather, and truthfully I haven't been sick in a while, so I was due. Anyway, as always, I can't get the last bit of sinus action to calm down, so I figured I'd get some aspirin. For anyone who needs to get aspirin in Germany, a few pointers:
1) Anything that could be called a drug (including aspirin, but not including, for example, vitamin C) can only be sold at a pharmacy in Germany. They actually have "drug stores" here, which are just like drug stores in the U.S., minus the actual drugs. If you need to pick up some deodorant and a birthday card, though, that's the place to go.
2) All drugs must be purchased via the pharmacist - everything is behind the counter. I don't really have a problem with this, except that for some reason the pharmacy was packed with sick people, and even though I'm hacking and sneezing just like everyone else, I still don't like people hacking and sneezing in close proximity to me; what if they have a different strain of the cold than I do, and we're just making each other sick?
3) Pharmacies have pretty limited opening hours, just like everything else. Apparently a couple stay open 24 hours and they have some kind of unpredictable schedule, so if you need to find out what pharmacy is open at night or on a Sunday, you need to check the paper for the announcement of what pharmacy is open at night right now. Generally, the central train station is a good bet when you need something at off hours, because it'll probably be there, or else you can try to go to the information folks and ask. If it's like 12am, though, you're SOL - try to get sick during the daytime if you can.
4) "Aspirin" is the brand name for Bayer aspirin. A small package of 20 tablets costs about5-7 Euro. What you want is "Acetylsalicylsaeure", which is the actual ingredient. Thankfully in my case, I was able to ask for "generic Aspirin" and I got what I needed, which cost about €2.50 for 30 tablets (still pricey but cheaper than the name brand)
5) For some reason aspirin comes in 500mg tablets. I was about to take 3 or 4 but checked the intertubes just to be safe first. Caveat emptor!
Moral of the story - when you visit from the U.S., bring lots of aspirin, and leave some at my place.
1) Anything that could be called a drug (including aspirin, but not including, for example, vitamin C) can only be sold at a pharmacy in Germany. They actually have "drug stores" here, which are just like drug stores in the U.S., minus the actual drugs. If you need to pick up some deodorant and a birthday card, though, that's the place to go.
2) All drugs must be purchased via the pharmacist - everything is behind the counter. I don't really have a problem with this, except that for some reason the pharmacy was packed with sick people, and even though I'm hacking and sneezing just like everyone else, I still don't like people hacking and sneezing in close proximity to me; what if they have a different strain of the cold than I do, and we're just making each other sick?
3) Pharmacies have pretty limited opening hours, just like everything else. Apparently a couple stay open 24 hours and they have some kind of unpredictable schedule, so if you need to find out what pharmacy is open at night or on a Sunday, you need to check the paper for the announcement of what pharmacy is open at night right now. Generally, the central train station is a good bet when you need something at off hours, because it'll probably be there, or else you can try to go to the information folks and ask. If it's like 12am, though, you're SOL - try to get sick during the daytime if you can.
4) "Aspirin" is the brand name for Bayer aspirin. A small package of 20 tablets costs about5-7 Euro. What you want is "Acetylsalicylsaeure", which is the actual ingredient. Thankfully in my case, I was able to ask for "generic Aspirin" and I got what I needed, which cost about €2.50 for 30 tablets (still pricey but cheaper than the name brand)
5) For some reason aspirin comes in 500mg tablets. I was about to take 3 or 4 but checked the intertubes just to be safe first. Caveat emptor!
Moral of the story - when you visit from the U.S., bring lots of aspirin, and leave some at my place.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
About time
I seem to have a knack for coming in 2nd place in the $3 KO battle on full tilt. Finally, I made it.
Yes, admittedly it's small, but I just don't have the time or dedication to get good enough to play with the big boys. For example, this little SNG took just over 2 hours...
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Cool article
Just saw this article on the buffalo beast, some very choice quotes here:
About John McCain: "McCain burned up all the credibility he had stored up...and he still wound up a failed Faust even the Devil didn’t want."
About Sarah Palin: "If you want to know why the rest of the world is scared of Americans, consider the fact that after two terms of disastrous rule by a small-minded ignoramus, 46% of us apparently thought the problem was that he wasn’t quite stupid enough."
On Elliot Spitzer: "Like every paragon of public ethics, he was in private a mere pervert. That he might have been a decent governor for a state that badly needed one is just one more reason to hate him."
Pretty amusing stuff - they also skewer their fair share of liberals, but of course the conservative folks get the top prizes...
About John McCain: "McCain burned up all the credibility he had stored up...and he still wound up a failed Faust even the Devil didn’t want."
About Sarah Palin: "If you want to know why the rest of the world is scared of Americans, consider the fact that after two terms of disastrous rule by a small-minded ignoramus, 46% of us apparently thought the problem was that he wasn’t quite stupid enough."
On Elliot Spitzer: "Like every paragon of public ethics, he was in private a mere pervert. That he might have been a decent governor for a state that badly needed one is just one more reason to hate him."
Pretty amusing stuff - they also skewer their fair share of liberals, but of course the conservative folks get the top prizes...
My food is too hot
I accidentally left a bowl of lentils in the microwave too long (everything in this apartment is cheapo - we have a pulse phone! - so no digital microwave, just a timer handle) and now it's ridiculously hot. Lentils, as you probably know, have a remarkably high specific heat, so now I have to wait about 20 minutes to eat them. Which makes me wonder; we've had the microwave oven for about 25 years now - why no inverse device? I mean, I understand that the physics involved in making something colder would be a lot trickier than making them hotter, but seriously - I mean, we put a man on the moon 40 years ago, and I still have to wait for the atmosphere to cool off my lentils?
Not that it takes that long - it's been below freezing for what feels like forever now. It's even too cold to store beer outside! Lat Sunday we went out with about 4 layers, and many parts of me were still freezing. I could really go for some summer right about now...
Not that it takes that long - it's been below freezing for what feels like forever now. It's even too cold to store beer outside! Lat Sunday we went out with about 4 layers, and many parts of me were still freezing. I could really go for some summer right about now...
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