Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Bowling Blogging is Funny



I have been at work for a few months now as an web consultant in downtown Stockholm. Basically they need a webmaster guru to build a gambling website as quickly as possible and that is me. I am being paid pretty well for this and it is both fun and challenging. It's about $75 per hour and I can work 40 plus hours so it's pretty great... because otherwise if I were at home I would basically be doing the same thing for a fourth of that.

One of the perks of this place is that everyone works with headphones on and there is a whole i-Tunes network full of free music. Everything from Jose Gonzales (the strangely named Swede) to Kaiser Chiefs to AC/DC. I admit that coding goes rather well with harder music, so I have been listening to a lot more Metallica and Rage Against the Machine than I normally would. Heavy metal is really funny. It's like a a grown man with the IQ and taste of a 13 year old from rural Ohio. And I don't mean 'funny' in the way that most Swedes use the word, such as:

"Bowling is funny."

"Why?"

"Because I like it."

"No, bowling shoes are funny. Bowling is fun," I say.

"What?" they say.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

France's Chirac is Out of Whack



I am an American who loves France. I love the language, the music, the food, the people, the art, the architecture, the atheism, just about everything.

But France is sick right now. There are riots in the streets, there is increasing poverty, and there is a growing feeling of despondancy. I haven't been there in a couple years, mostly because of my growing love for London, but also because it does quite feel 'the same' as it did when I lived there in the 90's.

Why? Well there is frustration in the air. And when people feel frustrated they grow desperate, and when they are desperate they act irrationally. And since French people are not as a whole that much smarter than other people, they tend to vote for dumbasses. And I know a thing or two about people voting for dumbasses. My President's middle initial stands for Dumbass.

Mr. Chirac, you are not as bad as Bush, and you did a wonderful job as Mayor of Paris when I lived there. But you need to go. Now. Resign. Isn't it obvious you are hated? The whole country is falling apart.

As a fiscal conservative, I feel that your idea of being able to fire people for the first two years of work is a good idea. No company is ever going to hire somebody they cannot fire. That's what the government jobs are for. Losers. Private business has to be competitive and forcing companies to retain people will only make them leave France for good.

But as a social liberal I feel you have nothing to offer. You have not instituted any much needed affirmative action policies and you are doing nothing for the people who need it the most. The immigrants in France have no identity and no hope and that has to end. And you are not the solution to the problem. You are part of it. You could say, "I hate EuroDisney", right now and the youth would still get upset.

Basically, it's time to make like Gerard and Depardieu the hell out of there. If you love France as much as you say you do then you would understand.