WikiMore

Glenn Greenwald on Salon sums up the WikiLeaks broohaha far better than I could ever manage.

WikiPosturing

Looks like the Administration is considering WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange under the Espionage Act.

I'm confused.

Last I checked online, Assange is an Australian citizen, not U.S. citizen. Under what grounds does the U.S. have juristiction to prosecute Assange?

Oh, I could see arguments of the U.S. going after whatever source leaked the millions of documents to WikiLeaks, but it seems to me that going after WikiLeaks or Assange is indicative of "shoot-the-messenger" thinking.

It's exactly the kind of ass-backwards, reactionary, idiotic posturing that makes for jokes across the world. And what irritates me more than anything is how the media outlets choose to focus on the story at hand.

Broadcast news especially bugs me. Could just be the samplings I've viewed, but instead of covering the content of the leaks (such as Saudi encouragement for the U.S. to hit Iran with nuclear strikes, or alleged plans for North Korea's regime collapse) the media is making more of a big deal out of WikiLeaks getting, and distributing the information.

Oh, that's a story, but is that the right story to focus on? News sources have relied on "leaks" for pretty much as long as there's been news media. Is it just that WikiLeaks is actually doing a good job and releasing information that's probably in the public's interest, as opposed to most mainstream media banal idiocy?

The reactions from the Right bother me, but they don't surprise me. Lately the far-Right's talking heads have sounded more and more Nazi-esque in their dialog. What bothers me is that there's not much in the way of sane counter-points coming from positions of authority.

Really? WikiLeaks reports news from sources available to thousands of people, and Tea-baggers want the WikiLeaks founder assassinated? That's their solution for this stuff? Don't fix the policy problems (and, God forbid, look at internal security leaks) but literally shoot the messenger?

The world gets scarier and scarier every single day. I'm glad I don't have kids. I'd hate to see them grow up in what's looking to be a creepy future.

Three bits of Profane Online Wisdom (Offensive to some)

SMBC

Sinfest

Digital Pimp

Developments

My younger sibling loaned me the entire set of "Arrested Development" for my education and viewing pleasure.

And now "The Final Countdown" is running through my head.

I look forward to my next family gathering. I suspect I may channel some Buster when I greet my siblings.

Frozen Turkey

It's one of the coldest Thanksgivings on record, so of course my pilot light refuses to light up.

Good times.

Happy Turkey Day!

Heh

Saw this on a friend's Facebook: What the fuck has Obama done so far? (pardon the language)

It's not what you think.

heh

It's ridiculously-difficult to motivate one's self to exit one's warm bed when rain taps against the window in the darkness outside. Add to that the fact that it's just (relatively) chilly outside the warm cocoon of the bed and waking up gets an extra helping of unappealing.

Earning my paycheck is a bit more appealing, alas.

I'm enjoying all the news over the TSA security protests. While I hope my friends traveling for the holidaze don't get too inconvenienced, I hope there's a general uprising against the TSA's stupid procedures and this institutes some changes.

I mean really: patting down a man with a bladder problem, causing him to be covered in his own urine should be indicative of a need for changes in process.

There's good arguments that a lot of this is just whining, but there's also the fact that the TSA is just handling all this poorly.

I feel bad for the rank-and-file TSA employees in all of this. I know how it feels to be the messenger of a crappy, unpopular message. I have to say, with the exception of one jackass, I've had nothing but positive interactions with the TSA or other countries' equivalents over the last twelve years or so.

Then again, most of the flying I do is international. I've found that international terminals are better-run, less-chaotic, and overall seem to have more competent staffing. Domestic flights tend to be lower-quality, in my experience (and was where I encountered my only brush with a TSA-uniformed jackass).

Röyksopp - Remind me

Only Two Days?

I'm still not used to these "only two days off" things we call "weekends".

I think it's 'cause mine was so packed. In-between the raindrops, I found myself spending an unexpected chunk of the weekend in the hospital, visiting an ailing relative.

I am not a fan of hospitals, but I have to say that I've always found hospital staff to be incredibly pleasant people.

Helps take the edge off.

I took a break from time there to brave a moderately-horrific rainstorm (complete with thunder and lightning) to drive a good hour or so to visit some friends and their toddler.

The child isn't quite a year old and she's already walking and dancing.

Yes, dancing. The kid dances to "Remind Me" by Röyksopp and it's cute beyond words.

So naturally we re-played the song a half-dozen times and it's now lodged in my brain.

Argh.

Jon Stewart uncovers the MASTER PLAN!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
George Soros Plans to Overthrow America
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

The Grind

Wow. This week feels like it's taken a year to conclude.

It's hard to return to work after a three-week break.

It's hard to adjust to "live as usual" after that period of time.

I love that I'm whining about this.

"Your Highness" Trailer (NSFW)

More Your Highness Videos

This could be really funny or this could be insanely stupid.

I don't see a lot of middle ground here.

I hear a Who

My DVD set for series five of "Dr Who" arrived yesterday.

I'm told by some unreliable sources that my cries of joy could be heard in different time zones.

I'm savoring the irony.

I have to say, it's been a good week. Well, it was a good Tuesday, anyway. Today's off to an iffy start as my face is a bloody mess from cutting myself shaving multiple times, but such is life.

Ahem... *SQUEE!!!!*

Jazzed. I am jazzed.

"It gets worse"

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
It Gets Worse PSA
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

I love "The Daily Show"

Back to Normal

Yesterday saw the return to my normal schedule as I returned to the office and blearily tried to remember all the things I've managed to purge from my mind over the last three weeks.

Longest. Day. Ever.

It was punctuated nicely by my lingering chest cough (made all the better by the dry, crappy, office air). So I decided to make matters even more complicated by jaunting off to my martial arts class for the first time in three weeks.

Yeah. That was good, clean fun.

There were a few points where folks seemed worried I was about to expire in a fit of coughing, but that's pretty much par for the course with me and that class. If it's not one thing, it's another.

At least I didn't leave bleeding. That's always a plus.

I'm being a bit melodramatic, of course. It was nice to see my friends at work and in class. I issued forth souvenirs to some folks and enjoyed sharing my photos and a few stories.

I suppose I should be more productive today. *sigh*

Munich, Germany

Our final stop on our trip was Munich. From Munich, we would take a couple of day trips to the Andechs and to see "Mad" King Ludwig the Second's castles. We met up with a friend of mine and his husband on our first day and got to see the famous Glockenspiel do its thing (once you've seen it, you're pretty much done and can move on) as well as got to go to the famous Hof Brau Haus (with its liter beers and massive pretzels).

It was in the fabulous Munich central train station that I finally found the famous Bavarian pretzels. These things were huge. I could easily wear one around my neck (and considered it, but I was really hungry). Lived off of the giant pretzels and Dunkel (dark) beer, for the most part.

Munich is, first and foremost, a city. Parts of it are pretty. Parts of it are not. It was a bit underwhelming after all the touristy kitch of Prague and Rothenburg, but it was still a nice enough place. It certainly helped to know people there.

And it was nice that it's a hub for pretty much all of Bavaria.

We spent a day exploring Munich with my friend Alex. We walked to a gorgeous park on a beautiful and clear Autumn day, then drank in a beer garden before parting ways for the evening.

We spent a day on a bus tour to see Ludwig's castles nestled in the mountains.

We spent a day taking a train out to the Andechs, a monastic brewery about an hour or so outside of Munich and along a gorgeous lake.

We saw Nymphenburg Palace (and found a relative's painting on the walls within).

Up to this point, we'd had fabulous luck with weather. It was occasionally gray and overcast, but we never had any real rain, from Prague to Munich.

Our luck ran out the last day when the rains it and it got cold.

Oh did it get cold.

But that didn't matter, as we then flew from Munich to London and then from London home.

It was a delightful trip. I'm glad I waited a couple of days to get a head cold.

Time for drugs...

Rothenburg Ob der Tauber, Germany

From Bamburg, we set out to our next destination: Rothenburg Ob der Tauber.

Rothenburg is a delightful little walled village that still largely resembles an old-style German village. According to a guide we had (the entertaining "Night Watchman"), the village fell on hard-times during the Thirty Years War when it was sacked and left in poverty for the next century or so. In the early 20th Century, it was "rediscovered" and became a tourist spot until World War II when it received its share of shelling that destroyed parts of the outer ends of the town.

Not ones to let their tourist destination mojo go awry, the folks of Rothenburg managed to get donors from all over the world to help pay to rebuild their walls and buildings after the war. The town is now... just cute as hell.

I have to admit I found Rothenburg to be the most attractive destination we visited, and that includes our visit to Schloss Neuschwanstein. It's got cobblestones pretty much everywhere (which loses its charm when you're lugging bags from the train station, but I digress again). It's got tourist shops, restaurants, and little pubs galore. One end of the village has a fair-sized park set up against a cliff. As we were there in autumn, the park was covered in leaves of red-and-gold, giving it the appearance of something out of a C.S. Lewis novel.

It was a town that prided itself on pastries. We saw pastries of all sorts all over the place, including pretzels (though not the super-sized pretzels I'd heard Germany was famous for... we found those later in Munich).

And these folks love their Xmas stuff. There's a few shops dedicated purely to Xmas decorations. My traveling companions lost themselves in those shops for hours while I set off to explore the other touristy-stuff the town had to offer (Xmas decorations give me seizures).

In all honesty, I can't describe Rothenburg accurately. It's just too neat. No words I have can do it justice. We lucked out in that we had clear (albeit cold) weather. It's a fun place and I'd cheerfully return if the chance manifests in the future.

Bamburg, Germany

From Prague we took a bus to Nuremberg, Germany. Honestly, I think it was the most comfortable bus ride I've ever taken in my life. From Nuremberg, we caught a train to our destination: Bamburg.

Bamburg is a delightful and picturesque town that's famous for its smoked beer. This was my first exposure to Germany and I must say it set the tone for the rest of my stay in that country.

Bamburg is first and foremost a very cute and safe little town. It's a tourist destination, so its clean and has tons of places to eat as well as shop and all that. We had the added treat of getting to see a medieval feast go on in the restaurant adjoining our hotel as we tasted our first beer, so that was a hoot.

Yes, it was the smoked beer. My father had told me a great deal of his experiences of the Bamburg beer from his visit to this town, so I felt obligated to give it a try. Everyone and their cousins seemed to cautiously warn us that the smoked beer was pretty much an acquired (meaning largely local) taste.

We had it anyway.

I dunno how other people feel about it, but I thought the smoked beer was one of the best beers I've ever had. I consistently drank solely that when possible. It was delightful.

The people were nice, of course. While still a bit reserved (from an American standpoint), they were pleasant and polite. I found them a bit less... intense... than the Czechs, but that may have been a big-city vs. small-town thing.

We learned one important thing while staying in Bamburg: everything in Germany closes on Sundays except museums and restaurants. Need a drug store on Sunday? You're out of luck. Want to buy non-edible souvenirs on a Sunday? Too bad.

From an American standpoint, it was a trifle annoying, but that was the only thing "wrong".

Oh, that and the lack of pretzels. More on that later.

The Czech Republic

Prague was a gorgeous city. Gorgeous and very tourist-friendly. The Czechs clearly have gone out of their way to make it a tourist destination and we had added luck with our choice of residences.

We stayed at Arcadia Residence on the edge of downtown Prague near the river tram that ran downtown. It was about four or five stops from the Charles Bridge in Prague (one of the main tourist destinations). The manager, a man named Max, was easily the best person one could know in Prague.

Max set us up with maps, lists of things to see, and offered various train tickets to purchase from within the comfortable confines of the Arcadia Residence itself. The Residence also offered comforts such as a huge breakfast delivered to the door and delightful rooms. Max also recommended various wonderful restaurants and charted out which train lines to take to get to our specific sightseeing goals.

Truthfully, Max had such a strong positive impact that I can't imagine returning to Prague without booking a place at the Arcadia Residence. He was that good.

That reminds me... I should send a thank you card. But I digress.

Prague was gorgeous, clean, affordable, safe, and cold. The city has a reputation for pickpockets, but they're apparently more active in the summer months and not so much in the cold autumn months. We had no problems with crime of any sort. Most people seemed multi-lingual (including English, thank goodness) so we were able to negotiate meals and souvenirs without any trouble.

We saw fantastic clock towers, the Jewish quarter that gave rise to the Golem legend, the castle, the cathedral, and various other sights.

The food was pretty meat-and-potatoes, for the most part. Hearty and pretty good.

For The most part, the Czechs pride themselves on their beer. Urquell Pilsner is the big beer that gets pushed on folks everywhere we went. As pilsners go, it's not bad. It's certainly miles better than the Bud or Miller "beers" sold in the U.S., but pilsner isn't really my favorite.

To pay proper homage to the Czech beer, we did a day trip to the city of Pilsn (where pilsner gets its name) and toured the brewery there. And that's where we found the good stuff. As part of the tour, we were led deep into the catacombs of the brewery where they opened oak barrels and poured us unfiltered, unpasteurized, pilsner.

And that, my friends, was good stuff.

The Pilsn tour beer set the standard for beer on our tour until we hit Bamburg later, but I'm jumping ahead a bit.

The Czechs were fairly polite and nice enough, if a bit reserved from the standpoint of an American. The one thing that got to me was the heat. Every room was set to 80+ (Fahrenheit) inside and if you had outdoor seating, you were under a heat lamp that put you in danger of having your clothes lit on fire. It was kind of crazy.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't particularly warm outside, but it wasn't that cold. Honestly, I felt colder in Germany a few days later and the Germans didn't go crazy with heat lamps set to "bbq", so I found the Czechs a bit odd in that respect.

All said, the Czech Republic was a lovely country and quite nice I'd go back again in a heartbeat.

Especially now that I know Max can direct me to bars that sell the unfiltered pilsner on-tap...

Travels

Now that I've had a couple of days to digest being home (and contract a lovely head cold) I thought I'd share a bit more details on my recent travels to the Czech Republic and Germany.

I departed from San Francisco International Airport via British Airways. Much to my surprise, I wasn't asked to step through the "naked scanner" in SFO, nor did I see anyone asked to do such.

I'm not sure if I'm relieved or not. I was all set to ask for dinner first. Ah well.

British Airways was a bit of a concern. They have a reputation for losing luggage and we had a bit of a layover in Heathrow before headed on to Prague. My worries proved unfounded as my checked luggage did indeed make it to my destination with me.

I do like one thing about BA. They don't do that stupid nickle-and-dime b.s. that American air carriers do with weighing carry-ons. They pretty much say you can take on a carry-on that one must be able to lift into the overhead compartment and can carry an extra briefcase or laptop bag that can fit under the seat in front of you.

Simple enough. It helped me prep by packing some of my garments in my carry-on for the off-chance that BA might misplace my checked luggage.

My one snag I hit was in Heathrow's security. The TSA in the States is apparently a bit more liberal about liquids than the Brits. They made me toss my TSA-approved container of contact lens cleaning solution.

Good times.

I can't say much about the flight from SFO to Heathrow. I was asleep for most of it thanks to the joys of Nyquil. The flight from Heathrow to Prague seemed eternal despite being only two hours. The last hour had my various decongestant drugs wear off, so the descent to Prague was rather painful for me as the pressure change threatened to crush my brain via my sinuses.

That was a hoot.

And then we were in Prague.

"Mad" King Ludwig II's Fairy-tale Castle

This might be one of my favorite shots I've taken.

A few images of Prague

Not bad for a point-and-click camera.

EuroBeer 2010

That's what I've been calling it.

I should back up.

On October 26, I boarded a plane with two traveling companions to the Czech Republic. I spent time in Prague for the most part with a day trip to Pilsn before hopping a bus to Bamberg, Germany shortly before Halloween.

After Bamberg, we went to Rothenburg Ob der Tauber, a lovely town that may well be the cutest place I've ever seen.

We left Rothenburg and headed to the hub of Bavaria: Munich, where we rendezvoused with a friend of mine and his husband.

Throughout this trek, I sampled much of the native beers and ate stuff that's probably got me on a fast-track to a stroke or heart attack.

I climbed towers and castle walls. I saw fantastic clockwork contraptions. I visited old-style breweries. I listened to a night watchman tell his tale. I saw autumn colors one does not see in my part of the world.

I loved every moment.

I'm pretty much exhausted and wiped out now. Loooooong flight.