I ran into a guy yesterday who I went to school with. We only had a couple of minutes to talk, and although I hadn’t seen him in a few years, a suspicion I’ve always had once again proved to be dead on: People don’t change with age.
Now, there is this thing called “maturity”, but it’s all a big scam. You see, maturity is not much more than succumbing to the rules and regulations of the adult world. When as a child you were free to say what you wanted, as an adult it’s frowned upon. So once you’ve learned to shut up, you’ve matured.
The essential person behind this process doesn’t change. Sure, they may become a specialist in ForEx trading, and maybe take over a company someday, but it’s still the jackass who in high-school would badmouth people behind their backs. Which in a way is what I’m doing right now, but I’m not using any names, so it’s OK, really…at least in my frame of reference, which consists of flimsy moral standards anyway.
And I’m not actually saying that all people who are specialists in ForEx trading were pricks in high-school. I’m just hinting at it.
I know, I’m not smoking anymore, so I shouldn’t really be defending the smoking folk’s case. But hell, what can you do when you read an interview like this? Since the whole thing’s in German, here’s an attempt at a translation of the most saucy bit:
Q: Some smokers are said to be quite fanatic. In the most recent edition of your “Nonsmoker’s Newspaper”, a letter to the editor calls smokers “moral degenerates” and “anti-socials”. Do you share this opinion?
A: Smokers generally are inconsiderate people, but I wouldn’t exactly call them “moral degenerates”. Unfortunately, smokers are much more aggressive and notorious, the proportion of criminals is higher among smokers than among non-smokers.
(emphasis mine)
The man who has such an insight into the intricacies of cause and effect goes by the name of Robert Rockenbauer and, apart from being the head of the Austrian Association for the Protection of Nonsmokers, operates a Christian bookshop.
I rest my case.
After three years of being buried in a forest in Austria, the Saliera is back. I think it’s strange how unprofessional the thief acted during the last few days. I mean, he (and one or two more cat burglars) stole that piece in quite an impressive way. And now, after three years of cat and mouse chases all over the place, he turns himself in because he was filmed buying a mobile phone. Oh well, so it goes.
When you sit on a train for eight hours, you start noticing strange things. For example that woman whose hat looks like something just died on her head.
On my latest day-travel I noticed something I had totally forgotten about over the years, but which is still quite intriguing today. It’s what I lovingly call a “French Fries Machine”. See, as we passed through a train station I saw a machine which, within two minutes, will serve you hot, delicious french fries.
When I was a kid, physically, I sometimes had french fries out of a machine like that, but the machine, located near my school’s bus stop, suddenly disappeared. I was heart-broken and always wondered if maybe they had finally noticed that their way of heating the fries was a bit less than what people commonly refer to as “not poisonous”.
Apparently the machines are back, so either they changed their method or their management. Either way is fine with me. So, although people always tell you to not try and relive the past, I’ll have to taste those fries again. I’ll tell you how it went.
Well, every site and their pure HTML grandma has published best-of, worst-of, biggest-of, whatnot-of lists of 2005, conveying what I’ve been fearing for the last few weeks, but which will become gruesome reality in but a few hours: that indeed 2005 is nearing its completion. Well, congrats to you, 2005.
Many people also tend to think up new year’s resolutions, something I’ve never tried nor stooped down to. This year too, I won’t make any resolutions. You see, two of the top-ten resolutions, namely to stop smoking and pick up exercising, are already checked. I did that during the year. DURING THE YEAR! And it worked too. (By the way, in case you’re doubting my competence concerning new year’s resolutions, please be my guest and go to this very website, which will show you that I’ve indeed put quite a research effort into this final posting of the year.)
So, to all the people who think it’s really necessary to dream up a new year’s resolution, please think twice. And yes, you may send congratulation and awe emails to gib[at]stormgrass.com.
Have a great new year.
Whatever.
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