I wanted to share a couple of things about my expat life.Our bank used to have this bothersome method of doing online money transfers/payments where you pull up a list of codes and use them one by one.
This year they came out with something a little bit more advanced than the paper and pencil method of crossing out codes.
They sent us a device that reads a pattern off your computer screen. It looks like a little calculator but you stick your debit card into it and some sort of technical wizardry ensues.
Here is my man showing with his body language how annoying my laptop is. It's kaputt. I shopped online today and really would like to have another IBM Thinkpad - such a reliable thing. But IBM doesn't make them anymore: ( I must be honest, I've never bought myself a computer. I've always... acquired them. I hate to have to do this, comparing brands, reading consumer reports, wondering if Windows 7 really does take 1 gig of memory.And what is up with Bing? I've been using IE this week and Bing makes me want to go back to Seattle and start picking fights with people who step out of Microsoft cars (you can always tell - they have a particular parking chip on their cars.) Bing's first results are always advertisements.
Back to this device. Black and white bars flash on the screen in odd patterns and this little calculator thing sends a message through.Weird huh?
***
The second thing is just another part of country living, but something new for me this year.
I saw a bee as big as my little finger (in length and width). I had no idea what it was but it was right out of a horror film.
Then the hippy, Ingo, next door came over and told us they had one of these "Hornisse" in their Yurt, where they sleep.
Ingo wanted to borrow a lidded jar to capture the queen, who was building a bee nest above the human nest. (I will try again to spare you the details of the hippy lifestyle next door.)
He had already borrowed a bee net/hat thingy from a local beekeeper. He planned on relocating the queen (5 km away so she won't return) due to the fact they are a protected species.
I checked out the nest-to-be and saw the queen busily building. Imagine her - the size of a double A battery.We went about our business and it wasn't long before Ingo showed up wearing some sort of skiing outfit in 90 degree weather, holding the jar with the queen+nest inside.
I stupidly wondered why he felt cold enough to dress like that.
Duh, bees.
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14 comments:
holy crap that bee is HUGE! *shudder* yuck! I hate bugs.
Who needs TV with fun neighbors like that! Your bill calculator thingy is interesting. I hated paying bills in Germany. I always needed help and than the next month I would forget and need help again. Have a great day!
Now that you've abandoned Seattle, perhaps it's time to abandon Microsoft and get a Mac? ;)
Yes, I would get the heebie jeebies from a bee that big. In local bee news - a bee truck overturned on I-80 and the interstate was shut down for a couple hours. I guess it's bee season!
Cool bee! I would love to be a bee-keeper, which is a very strange desire for a pre-diabetic, but >shrug<. I think bees are neat.
Bing = nastiness. Give into the Borg and just Google like the rest of civilization, whydoncha?
YIkes that is one huge bee!!!!
my laptop has ie vista, wich crashes all the time now :o( I use google chrome to run the games I play and have much better luck, but still do mail and my blog with ie, except for responding in other peoples blogs, ie wont let me all of a sudden.
I am starting to hate ie!!! I have a little Toshiba laptop, that has never given me any problems until lately, it is 2 years old now.
I am NOT fond of computers! I think they are big timeboxes a lot of the time- using up my valuable time. However, I would certainly miss having one.
That bill calculator is quite the gadget.
One word.
Mac.
Stop feeding the beast. :)
Oh, wait. They're all beasts. >:(
Cool bee. Where's her friends?
Quick answer to your question on correcting an outside (or butt to me) turn
First I make sure it wasn't my fault. Did I have my shoulder out of position or set my horse up inadvertently?
If it wasn't then I :
Make a disapproving noise,
Speed them up in gait,
Pop the whip so it makes noise,
Move toward the horse to increase pressure.
The next turn, which I call for within that first run around, if it's the right, then I really pull down the pressure.
I learned in the clinic with Kathleen that I was being too cautious about raising my reaction/ energy that way.
good time - wish i had a better photo to show the length but i guess the face gives the idea.
frau, you did bills? i have never! in fact my man just wrote a long letter to the social security agency and told me to sign it. i said "i bet my german is perfect in this letter!"i love that i don't have to do that crap but i realize if we ever move to the states, i will be taking care of everything for him: )
funder, refurbished macs are still over a thousand euros here : ( crying shame cuz i really would.
aarene, i just experienced our neighbors' (w/ chickens) beekeeping hours. i loved the patterned wax, i'd only seen that in candles!
it was my first time using bing and i couldn't believe how stupid it is - i entered the exact name of our local bus service and it was the 4th link down - the top three results were for casinos with names that did not approximate at all - junk!
reddunappy - i'm old fashioned and i think laptops should last several years. is that too much to ask? and to have to shut down and restart every day? lame!
fv, i was watching buffy the vampire slayer last night and giles said, "See if you can wrest information from that dread machine" and the kids all looked at him, confused, and he said, "Too British for you? I meant to say 'Use the Internet!'" *lol*
Breathe, i guess i could afford a
p-p-p-powerbook, but that's all. since you're a mac user i think you already know that story. like i told funder, even refurbished macs go for over a thousand euros: (
the bee was alone, isn't that odd?
thanks for the info about the outside turn. i think i'd need to see you do it though. but i understand the concept so i'll give it a try sometime.
Are you kidding me? I would still be running across a field screaming and batting myself sideways if I had encountered a bee such as that! Now - I want to hear ALL about the hippies! Spill.
PNW, first of all i want to point out that so far no one has called me a hating hater for this mention of my feelings about microsoft.
perhaps i wasn't hateful enough.
.
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chirp.wav
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i have a lot of knowledge now about burning pastures in oklahoma (i think i got my answer!) but i also was scolded for voicing my opinion.
weblogs: if you can't say someting nice......you're a hater.
i've talked about the hippies - the naked parties, one of which we were asked to leave due to not stripping too (indian sweat lodge party - but in general in germany clothing is not as valued so when we returned to the party, we witnessed the ladelling of the icy water over the overheated skin ritual). the prayers to the mother and the tea of life, the flower mandala ritual, the indian chanting/drumming that goes on for hours at night by the fire that is too close to my horse's stall. all stuff i would have loved in my 20s. (except for the prayer...and the nakedness)
but they are good people - i am grateful to have them considering how much worse some people have it - and it makes me appreciate that they camp next door, making my home sort of a campground. but i don't have to deal with bugs, and i can use a toilet, not a hole they've dug in the ground (with a cut-out wicker chair above, and a shovel for burying what you produce).
now i have to post about what is coming up on their wooded lot (#72) this month!
What a life you have! And I always used to imagine Germany to be a serious country.
I get in trouble for wanting to use paper maps and paper cheques. But somehow I always get there.
As for the hippies - their sweat lodge parties seem a bit, ahem, lightweight. I say this after having being married to a Blackfoot Indian. I still apply some of what she taught me, and usually that involves heat to the point of hallucination and near-unconsciousness.
The huge bees seem a little disconcerting. But I guess that you will see something that big as it approaches. Or does it make a circuit and turn finals like a plane?
I love the techie thing - but I'm like that!
I also don't like researching computers(or anything else)... but my hubby does. He really is very thorough and after my suggestion that he check into X, Y or Z we know all of the good and bad points of whatever it is.
We just bought my son's Apple laptop. (Don't ask what flavor... I don't know). It is on it's way, some place between NV and here, according to UPS tracking. Apple will be a new challenge for me - but it will help me when I have to help my dad with his machines.
The Thinkpad is still made. Lenovo acquired the former IBM PC Company Division, which marketed the ThinkPad line of notebook PCs, in 2005. They now sell Thinkpads themselves. Same systems - Same people building them - Just a name change :)
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/thinkpad
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