Wednesday, November 30, 2005

I'm not really sure why but since I've been here my memory has improved. Not necessarily being able to remember things from day to day but remembering things that happened years ago. A few days ago I helped to carry some old furniture out of an office that's being refurbished. There were two heavy desks and a few book shelves that had to go down two flights of stairs. The next day we loaded a truck for Armenia and now I'm sore. It brought back memories of past injuries. There came sweet memories of home and bitter memories of pain.

I remember one fateful winter evening when I was four years old. Mom was in the barn milking and, in my excitement of a new discovery (I have forgotten what it was), I went running in to tell her all about it. As I ran, I slipped on one of the icy concrete steps and gashed my chin. I remember some time later as we drove into the parking lot of the doctor's office, my mom had to pull me from the car screaming. I don't know why I was scared of the doctor but my eagerness to hold onto the seat of the car probablly came from the fact that I had a good idea that a needle was headed my direction once inside the building. I got my first, and only, four stiches. I still have the scar and, to this day, it gives me fits if I try to shave. Thus, I have a beard.

I remember eight years later when I was in junior high. I was playing football at the time and one evening at practice we were running tackling drills. By some turn of fate, i got paired up with the biggest, strongest player on the team. The worst injury I can claim from the ordeal was a cut on my left arm, it didn't even bleed much at the time. The next week during the game, however, it made up for lost time. Shortly into the first quarter the ref yanked me out of the huddle and sent me to the sideline to clean my arm, there was blood from my elbow to wrist.

I remember some time later, after my first year at Hesston. I was at home for the summer and helping out on the farm. As I climbed out of one of our chicken pens I tripped and dove head first into the car that I had driven there. Blood came streaming from the cut across the bridge of my nose and, for a while, I couldn't remember much. Eventually I found some water and washed my face. I drove home and let dad finish feeding the chickens. I spent the rest of the day in the house with ice on my nose.

I remember last spring. I had just graduated from Hesston and was working at home until I left to come here. For two years I had been in school and physical labor had been far from my list of daily activities. Early on that summer I sprained my right shoulder and rendered that arm quite useless until it had time (and help) to heal. I remember trying to work and trying to simply live with your dominate arm injured. It is this injury that I remember most. Not only because it was most recent, but because it seems to have not fully healed. Or perhaps it's been, to some small degree, reinjured. My right arm is always the first to get weak and it stayes sore the longest. When this happens, the memories come. Lately, they've been comming a lot.

Rest and strength
David

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

For those of you who use a rss reader (Google personalized homepage, myYahoo, etc.) I recently added a feed for my blog. The address is on the right side of the page or here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Germany

enjoy
David
So I must appologize for my last post. There were a few factual errors (one of which I have clarified) but for the rest, realize it's not news, it's oppinion. Don't use this blog for evidence in a court of law (or anywhere else). I also forgot to include the entire purpose of the post (it's there now) so if you haven't done so already, go back and read it.

Time has been good to me lately. Last saturday evening Duane and Martha Conrad (two Americans that work here) celebrated Thanksgiving and invited me and several Germans over to their house. I ate myself silly and had a grand ol' time. What else are you supposed to do at Thanksgiving? It would have been nice to be with my own family but it did satisify that holiday for the year.

I also found out last weekend that there was going to be a conference of American voulenteers working for Campus für Christus Deutchland on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Now, technically, I'm not a CfC voulenteer but they invited me to go anyway, somewhat late notice but still nice. I went and spent two days with other Americans learning about how to deal with German culture, or that's what they learned. I learned how American I'm not and some ways of dealing with American culture. German culture comes fairly naturally for me and I find that somewhat odd. Odd but nice. The fellowship was nice as well. I learned how to actually play foosball with strategy and I played my first game of Settlers of Catán(sp?). Good times were had by all, well....the one girl was sick but I think she still enjoyed it.

Spontaneity and truth
David

Friday, November 18, 2005

So this post doesn't really relate much to what I've been doing here. Life is pretty much like normal. I wanted, instead, to comment on a news story I've been following and enjoying these past few days. If you've been following the stories on this there will be nothing new except my random insertion.

I'm a strong believer that downloading music from free peer to peer services like so many people do, even if it is legal and/or moral, is dangerous. MP3 files (the most common type of downloaded music file) are incredibally easy to infect with bad things (viruses, spyware.....). Since 1999 when all this file sharing started the big music companies have been fighting it as hard as they can. One way they do this is to make it harder to copy music off of a cd and onto a computer, or at least limit how many times you can do that and what you can do with the music afterwards. Sony, God bless their "copyright-protecting" souls, just committed suicide.

It seems that Sony contracted with a Brittish company to provide some software to ensure this protection for them. A few days ago, some chap discovered that this protection software was installing things on his computer that he didn't like. The software Sony was using was, by definition, a form of malware known as rootkit (definition of malware and rootkit) it seems that free downloads aren't the only dangerous place to get music anymore. Sony has since been brought to task by class-action suits in LA and NY for not ever mentioning anything about this software that they install. They've released a patch for damaged computers and recalled all the cd's that use the rootkit software but the patch opens up just as many security holes as it fixes. Sony is backpedaling....hard.

But the story gets better. Yesterday some briliant scandanavians made another discovery, Sony's rootkit software uses copyrighted software in an illegal manner. The software that they used was copyrighted as "open source" which means it's free for anyone to copy, modify, and use, with one requirment: the source code of the software must be published alongside the actual program and due credit must be given the original author. (--added 23NOV2005 --) One clarification, only the code used from an open source project must be published, not the entire program(--end of addition--) Sony did neither and now is in European courts fighting a copy-right infringement suit. A bit of a double standard, don't you think?

(--added 23NOV2005--) So I wrote this to let you all know my thoughts on the issue. When I wrote it, however, I forgot to include that part. Sorry. Basically I find it funny. I don't think it impacts any music I've bought recently but I have to wonder what this will do to the market in the future especially since a lot of artists are mad about digital rights management. Eventually there would have to be enough singers sick of the big corporations to start an independent record label together, one would think. I would be really excited if that would happen but for some reason I kinda don't think it will. It is really good that Sony had a reality check though, hopefully they learn from it. That's all I had to say. I enjoy the story. I laugh. And then I go do something else and don't worry about it. (--end of addition--)

Love and legality
David

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

I had my first run-in with the German authority yesterday. Well, not really, it wasn't yesterday and I didn't meet any authorities but I did get a speeding ticket in the mail. It was about a month ago on a trip I took way up north. One of the many roadside cameras thought I was going a bit fast and took my picture. It's a really good shot, too bad it's only b&w.

The tickets aren't as bad as they are in the US. Before I left KS, I got one for going 70 in a 55 and had to pay $100+. This one was for going 62 in a 50 and all I had to do was send in 25€ and it doesn't go on any permanent record.

To be honest, I think it was worth it just to be able to say I've gotten a German speeding ticket. Good times were had by all.

God's love and God speed
David

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

The weather here is cold and dark. They say it will get worse before it gets better...that's not encouraging news. I don't have any travel plans for the next few weeks and it feels somewhat like I'm slipping back into the empty lonely days I had towards the begining of my time here when I prayed more, drank less, and understood what was going on in my deutchkurz. It that's what's happening, let the lonliness come!

I had a little excitment today. I received a letter from Dora Schmidt who is on the Intermenno Committee. It seems that they recently met at her house and decided what they should do with us once our first placement ends. They decided to send me to Weierhof to live with Ortwin Galle and his children. Ortwin has an organic farm where he raises pigs, cows, and a variety of grains. My responsibilities include farm work as well as some simple cleaning and cooking. There are two other trainees in Weierhof and one more a few kilometers away. It was one of my top picks that I requested and I'm really excited to get it.

Joy and solitude
David