MGS RADAR

Well, to begin the story I need a fucking laser pointer! I’m a training officer and I also have many presentations in my nursing school and a laser pointer + a portable usb presenter with next page function is the best thing on earth for the lazy presenter! Well I borrowed a RED laser pointer from a friend of mine and tested it. It sucked on daylight. It really sucked especially on a bright backround. And I tend to use bright and light backrounds!

Then I took a look in the internet and there it is, a GREEN Laser pointer. I found this video:

I was impressed and took a look on the website which stated for the given laserpointer

Caution! This laserpointer is not suitable for presentations! It produces a high energy beam with 200mw. It will burn presentation walls in seconds and poses a danger to persons in reach (1500m) of the laserpointer. Be aware of reflections since exposure even for seconds to the bare eye can cause permanent danger. Do not use in zones of frequent aviation - It will distract aviation personnel !

Then I found the following video of a FREE to purchase laserpointer from the internet with 600mw

Well, why do you need this? I don’t know so I started to search and I found the following uses for this

• Watching the stars and pointing several pictures with it (Don’t know shit about stars, but who says I can’t learn this?)
• Scaring away birds and bird swarms (Nice in case I have the problem)
• Popping balloons (Could be fun)
• Lighting cigarettes and matches (Not interesting to me, but it could be!)
• Emergency Signaling (Yeah, just burn the eye of the helicopter pilot or potentional rescuer)
• Burn CD cases (I have enough of them ready to puncture)
• Attachment to guns (Don’t own one, but times getting tough)
• Burn the eyes of your enemy (Potential!)
• Architectural use on high rise buildings (Brings out the ART VANDELY in me)

EXPLANATION ABOUT ART VANDELEY

So anyway I NEED THIS so……..I ordered it and I ordered a real one for presentations!

Next thing in line, if you really need to do things fixed, the movie great tourino teaches you some things but not everything about fixing things. A guy needs to fix things, or he needs to know guys who can fix but anyway if you fix it yourself IT’d be much cheaper.

First thing you need is MULTITOOL, in detail the SWISSTOOL CLASSIC

Thx to NutnFancy for this great review

This tool is really heavy BUT I got several things fixed with it alone

• Cut down a fence in my garden because I catched with the fucking wire.
• Breaking into my own safe because I was too lazy to get the key
• Fix my girlfriends door which was kind of open-door
• Fix my license plate which was on his way to get lost
• Cut several things
• Cut NAILS which I couldn’t pull out

Second thing you need is WD 40!

Why? Because it fixes, is cleans and its getting things done. The best use was as I was kickboarding with my girlfiend during rain. We sprayed the wheels to have no rain around the wheels which is not a good time doing that (they will get stuck). Also very useful if screws are not easy to turn and well, it won’t do many harm if you spray it to something!
Third Thing:

A GOOD, SHARP and QUALITATIVE Knife

Well, I don’t have such a knife but you know what I mean!It’ll scare away the bum from the block and it serves many purposes since you cut many things.

Stephan

["If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear!"]

Next month I’ll be commuting again, thanks to an internship in Munich. Mental note to myself and others:

• Lads! Don’t forget to put on your trousers in the morning!
• And dudes: Don’t forget your pants either!

This could be quite emberassing, nevertheless brilliant fun!

More on the ImprovEverwyhere website!

Daniel

I always was a wearer of scarves…I really recognized early that you loose much warmth in winter over your neck area. After I saw a commercial in England way back in 2005 (Brighton) I was amazed by the easy principle of BUFF HEADWEAR which is explained in this old, but very explaining video

I use the Original Buff even today in “not so cold” conditions or “very warm” conditions because I don’t like the sun screening on my head. It was VERY good in Greece for example
(Look here HERE or HEEERE for some excerpts)

If you look at this site you can see the function of the Cyclone Buff, which is the better-suited version of the WINTER-Buff because it has windstopper membranes and well it is thicker than the WINTER-Buff shown in this video.

The original Buff will cost about 14€ and the Cyclone Buff with 37€ is a bigger, but VALUABLE investment…I don’t recommend you the HAT/HAD - copies or the cheap ones, they SUCK!

I have to say I don’t like the options of wearing a Polar Buff in the head, because in THIS case you don’t have something around your neck. It makes sense if you have MULTIPLE Buffs around but in this case you just can pull it up and wear a beanie…

Stephan

["If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear!"]

Today I had the pleasure of watching my bank account grew to an ammont, which I actually never had in my past career, in Germany it’s called Weihnachtsgeld and no matter how you call it, I think it is time for some good investments!

500 GB Seagate portable HDD 

50€ for 500GB is a very good deal, despite the fact that I fell in a little love with the smaller version (with a size as big as a bigger wallet) I thought that I need something to back up my data in case of something hazardous (Police raid, summer or winter storm) and also as always IM RUNNING OUT OF MEMORY on my HDD drives. But 500GB, still enough for backing up and also for decrypt the whole drive with a 25+ password and you have a save and valuable device.

Goodyear Vector 5+ All Seasons Tires

Winter Tires, Summer Tires, two times a year you have to change them in order to withstand the elements. I don’t like changing tires a lot so I decided to add the all seasons tires to my buying cart. My philosophy behind this is simple, we don’t have much snow here and our winters are very british, not this cold and very wet so the really need for winter tires is not present FOR ME. In case we have deep snow here my opportunity is to buckle up the chains so I can go forward but I don’t see this coming with global warming in these days. Haven’t bought them yet, but I’m looking forward to this next week!

Stephan

["If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear!"]

http://www.google.com/chrome/?hl=de

Yesterday I installed the newest version of Google Earth and this included Google Chrome.

I’m very confident with this browser without any unessesary attachments….easy and fast..give it a try!

Stephan

["If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear!"]

There is a lot of free time left during the summer hollidays so…let’s put out some classics

Duke Nukem 3D

Tomb Raider III

(I never beat this level, I hated this game because I never finished it…you needed pistols to cheat to next level and during one level you are arrested and without any handguns and I freaked out!)

GTA III

(The funny thing about GTA is, that you are familliar with the virtual city like nothing else…by viewing the video I would hardly know how to drive to my garage or where the airport is…even in Vice City it is great, because you know the city!)

Stephan

["If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear!"]

I usually (with some exception) don’t write about the things going on in my fire department, but this time it is about myself and a little bit about the daily struggle.

I’m in my department for nearly 5 years (11 years if you count the junior firefighters brigade). I was promoted this year and got my SCBA permission, I got all my trainings and recieved most of the trainings one can archieve in my actual position. I’m the vice leader of the junior firefighters brigade and was the leader for over one year. My next goal is to get the squad leader permission next year and in some time I want to get group-leader. I spent at most 2 evenings at our station, sometimes just for nice talkings with my comrades, sometimes for hard work. I’m now responsible for the emergency medical equipment , which isn’t quite a deal but I have to train my comrades for it.

Last week was the first time where I put my “life in danger”, I went into a burning, over-smoked barn under respiratory protective equipment and sweated like a fucking hog. Normal people wouldn’t spent 20 minutes in a barn full of smoke and room temperature way over 40 degress celsius, but I’m not normal at all - I’m a fucking firefighter.

I don’t like the hero aspect of my work. Many people think that firefighters are heroes, and in fact many firefighters ARE heros but I’m not. I saved some people from disasters, I rescued a few guys from trucks or cars and took care of them. You can say I saved their lives, but that doesn’t make me necessarily a hero. A hero is somebody who goes into a unpredictable and dangerous situation and doesn’t give a shit about his life and maybe the other guys who have to rescue your ass. A hero is somebody who plays russian roulette with his luck and some coincidence.

We are fucking crazy mates in the fire department. Everybody is nuts, sometimes we shit about some procedures and sometimes we push our luck far beyond the protocol. On our last job we normally had to wait until we have a rescue squad manned in our truck, but we just had one squad with none of us as a squad-leader, the machinist and the group-leader. We took a deep shit at the protocol, because we saw smoke in the air and everybody silently agreed to the verbal contract about “Let’s just do this !”

This isn’t heroic, it is stupid but we know any aspect of this. We now that our stupidity will be compensated in some manner which we can’t define exactly, but let’s celebrate it worked!

As I came home and told my girlfriend about it she wasn’t happy, she wasn’t happy about the fact that I went into a burning barn. It was heavy, but it was in some way very cool and a fucking great thing to do, but she did not share my enthusiasm. A day later I checked the weather frequently because some storm came over Mönchengladbach. She declared me fucking crazy. “Stop checking the weather!”

Today I had to pump some basements because of a second storm and I was out from 16:00 to 21:00. I exchanged my chilly afternoon with an afternoon in wet boots and pants down in hot and sweaty basements with lots of dirty water and sitting around hours staring at wet floors and pumped water. I hate it, but I was a part of it.

For over 5 years from now on, I went up in the middle of the night to put out fires at paper-containers. I spent nights loading out collided trucks to turn them over. I stood on the street in pouring rain and waved away cars. On my rare free weekends I went up at 8:00 to go to the firefighters school and get my trainings. After my work where I was tired like fuck, I went to the evening firefighter classes until 11pm. I skipped parties and exchanged it to sweating my ass of in big fires or traffic accidents. Then I did something for fire-department festivals and spent hours in decorating or renovating the halls or cleaning the cars. Besides this I train the junior firefighters and do classes for them until I have no voice.

I cannot do this second work very good without interfering my private life. Everybody in the department knows this, and also the people affected knew this. But their understandment sometimes just lasts three times and after the fourth time it is over. And there is no solution to this point. Nothing but cancelling the whole thing.

This just for beeing a part of it. But this point (beeing a part of it) is the thing that holds our department and firefighters together.

Stephan

["If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear!"]

Friday, 19th of June

I thought I knew the enemy! I came on Wednesday, when there was of course nobody working in the Regional Administration for the Voivodeship of Mazowsze, I came too late on Thursday (because it is inhume to bother a civil servant after 3pm!) and now I stood in front of entrance F, keen to find the office that would be able to confirm that I am a Polish citizen. Why you may ask? I COULD own a Polish ID card, I never had one though. Now I am in Warsaw for quite a bit so why the heck not try to get one?

Friday was actually already level 2. The week before I had visited the downtown city hall to file for an ID card without registered place of living (everybody who wants to get an ID card, but is not announcing a place of living within Poland has to go there). A friendly clerk told me there at the information desk that I need

• A) written confirmation from the regional administration that I am a rightful Polish citizen as my Polish passport lost validity last year and
• B) I need to have my birth certificate translated from German into Polish and
• C) possibly – I am not sure anymore – that I need to get my civil status (single/married) confirmed.

I am not that far anyways, so I’ll ask them again at some point later. But the certificate is already translated, time to get that acknowledgement of citizenship! This is my sport now, having finished my last exams last week I now have the time and nerves for the tango with the public administration. Let’s see how long these nerves are going to last. The first test happened right after entering the administrative office via entrance F.

I have been told by the guy from city hall information that I need to take this entrance. This information was correct. However, the corresponding telephone and office number wasn’t. Everywhere where room 38 could have been were offices of the city’s infrastructure administration. Down to the porter, he sends me to entrance B. There I actually find a room 38. I knock, a fat lady sits alone at her desk and smokes heavily. The room’s air is so thick you could cut it with a knive. I explain my cause. She doesn’t understand. I explain yet another time, again she is not following. After the third time she says: “You need to go to another office! On Długa Street! Ask the doorwoman!” Which I do and then I march. After 15min I am there, it’s ten to 3’o clock, meaning the week-end will start soon for the clerks. The entrance is of course wrong, the doorman sends me to the next one. Room 38 proves to be well hidden and not directly pointed out by arrows in the hallway. I pass all the offices where mostly students and workers seem to wait to get some kind of permits for temporary residence. Finally arriving at room 38 I knock – no answer. Knock again – quite. So I just open the door just to see two women being on their respective phones and receiving a harsh: “Can you wait outside?!” So I do - for another five minutes, then finally get in. “Hello, I need to get validation of my status as a Polish citizen”. Upon which the previously harh lady answers: “You need to go to the office at Plac Bankowy, entrance F for that!” And I just wanna scream, but calmly I say that that is where I’ve just been. I learn that I ended up at the city’s administration, that I need to go to the respective office of the voivodeship, and that unfortunately everything has been reorganized. Seems like both offices used to have their seat here. At least I get the info that it’s not room 38 but 415… and actually some understanding, cheering up words.

So to sum it up: Achievements last Friday - None. Apart from the info “room 415”.

The journey to the unknown lands of entrane F continues tomorrow!

First time I hear the English translation of my childhood heroes

Daniel

Das Heben eines Baseballschlägers gegen einen Polizeibeamten, der seine Waffe gezogen und durchgeladen hat ist ausgesprochene Dummheit.

In anderen Ländern (Und ich spreche hier nicht von den USA) hätte dies einen Schuss gegen einen dieser Faschisten zur Folge gehabt (Volkommen zurecht!)

Nazis raus!

Stephan

["If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear!"]

With somebody around my side who has another, more objective point of view and actually percieve what goes around in my everyday family life I  see much more of the usual differences with people living together. It’s much more than that and during the last 17 minutes of pure ignorance I’m filled up with that.

The trigger point was just nothing but staying on principle…Today I moved my drumset out of our reharshall space and within the same time I asked my mother if it is okay if I set it up in the basement and use it to play during acceptable times.

There was enough unused space, I interfere with nobody and I tested the noise level. It is acceptable and with a few modifications of the room I will be able to reduce it to barely noticeable.These modifications will go on my own bill and I will make them by myself (From now on I have enough time to do this)

At 0:00 o’clock I went down to get something to drink and there was my mothers boyfriend or whatever in his usual military style…”Tomorrow evening at 20pm the drumset will be set off, or I will set it off with my method!”

And I just said that this was part of a conversation my mother held with me this day and she said it is okay if HE is not a home. I accepted that…I’m far enough at this point that I accept several “quirks” of somebody I use to live with.

But this time, no…this time I’m not the one backing off. I’m not the one setting back things which are part of my life. I’m not the one letting myself treat in a way nobody deserves to be treated. But I see it coming that I have no choice of doing it over and over again. And the biggest shame of this is the fact that I have options left which I don’t use…I can move out. It will not be easy, it will not be very good but everybody needs some time at the lo-line of society.

Last weekend was my and his (bf of my mother’s) birthday celebration with the last remaining part of our family. My brother and his wife for coffee and cake. It was so fucking boring, my mind was sleeping while my body was awake. Even at my birthday celebration, I play the assistant role of my family. The young , blood-headed, over-talented prick who never will be sucessfull because of his attitude towards everything blabla shit. I could be the fucking manager of General Motors, and I still will have this role written for myself.

I don’t know why, but allmost any member of my family thinks that I’m a complete hack at my nursing program. I’m not perfect, I’m not the uber-nurse and sometimes I even think that I’m not a good nurse at all. It is pretty sure that I’ll at least try to apply for medical school next year so I can begin my 7 year journey at 2011. It is pretty sure for me that I want to sit behind an anaestesia machine, that I want to write orders in a blue scrub on an intensive care ward. I imagine myself with less hair and more beard standing around a cardiac arrest of a patient intubating him and yelling commands like “360 biphasic shock, pull up 3 ampulls of epinephrine, get an IV!” and I even see myself introducing to experienced and old nurses with the short by-phrase: “Well I worked as a registered nurse for some time…!” So the nursing study is no time-filler for me, it is the first phase in my entry into the medical world. So much everybody thinks that I’ll be a good doctor, I’ll always be a nurse in my heart because beeing a nurse taught me how things happen in every part of patients life. I explained this to my family…they mocked about it. They have no respect for my work, they have no clue what I’m actually doing in my 7 hours of hell. No respect for me no respect for them , simple as that.

When I take a look at the life of people who raised me up I feel disgust. I cannot imagine a life like this…total meaningless, brainwashing- hiding behind a curtain of false security. Your life, determined by fear…fear about opening the abandoned files that remain semi-deep, surfacing everytime the order of stupidity and ignorance is broken or questioned.

Sometimes life just sucks, no matter who your are,no matter what you are and no matter what you do
- [ Mick Thompson - Lead guitarist and songwriter of Slipknot]

Stephan

["If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear!"]