Kaffee Magic

We have our own coffee machine in our office at work, literally in the same room I work in, with a cabinet full of various coffee mugs in the kitchen at the end of the hall.  Generally one of the first guys in will grab a bunch of mugs and bring them in the office.  Almost all of us have a mug that always go for, but occasionally an orphan mug will show up in the office.  I've gotten the same one a few times when my mug wasn't there.  Each time I've gotten this cup I swore it was black, but when I was drinking out of it I noticed there was some picture on it.  I always thought that it was too early to really remember which color coffee mug I grabbed.  Until today.  I grabbed the same black mug this morning and filled it up with the hot caffeinated magic and settled in at my desk.  I waited a minute or two for it to cool off and then noticed a picture of a city wrapping around the mug.  Wait, what the fuck?  I know I grabbed a black mug, don't fuck with me.  But there was this damn picture again.  After about the third sip I noticed the black returning from the top and down to about where I had drank.  That's when my Sherlock Holmes skills kicked in.  Holy shit it's one of those mood rings but in my mug!  Fascinated I drank some more and watched night fall over the city on my mug.  When the whole thing was black again I went back to the coffee machine and watched the picture reappear as it filled up with the hot caffeinated magic again.  Another case solved.

 I knew that damn thing was black

In more exciting news, I drove on the Autobahn for the first time last week.  Another guy from work and I had to drive 4 hours to a paper plant to help a customer with a busted pump, and we got to take a company car.  It wasn't a Porsche or a Beamer, but we had a turbo diesel VW Passat.  It's clearly no race car but I still got it up to 210 km/h (130mph).  Even though I was on the Autobahn I was still checkin my mirror for 5-0.  While on the infamous Autobahn, I became aware of a few things.  First, there are parts of the Autobahn where you DO have a speed limit.  They generally don't last long though.  The second thing is that when you're in a section with no limit, people haul major ass.  Cruising speed is about 180 km/h (110mph) for the middle lane.  If you're in the left lane, your last name better be Andrette.  No joke.  I had to keep an eye on my mirror for people coming up behind me.  It's not like the US where people will weave in and out of traffic like it's Nascar to get around the slow pokes.  That shit is illegal here.  You have to pass on the left.  The amazing thing is that people here actually do it.  There aren't too many jackwagons snailing it in the left lane.  You might find a few in the middle lanes and definitely in the right lane, but the left lane is a legitimate fast lane.

Last thing I wanted to mention was that this I'm changing the name of this blog to "The Vertical Mind."  I've been wanting to change it to something that relates more to what I write about, which mainly consists of my outdoor pursuits and what I'm getting into here in Germany.  I also wanted to wait until I came up with the new design.  I chose the name "The Vertical Mind" because most of my so-called "outdoor pursuits" consist of going up and then eventually down mountains.  It also touches on the 'moving forward' (or upward) mindset that I try to live by.  For me that means training for a race, climbing 5.13, or finding that dream job.  Anyone that knows me has surely seen my competitiveness.  That's what I'm talking about.  The desire to never 'settle for anything less than your best.'  Some people are content with what's put in front of them but I want to keep moving forward, or upward

I won't be posting on this blog anymore but I'll keep the site alive for another month or so in case anyone loses the link to the new blog.

New blog link:  http://theverticalmind.blogspot.com/

Time's a wasting!

When the hell am I going to start training? Or writing on this blog? Or go somewhere exciting?  Time's a wasting. I'm living in Germany and I have yet to ski in the Alps.  Or climb.  What the hell is wrong with me?  I got comfortable, that's what.  Lazy is more like it.  I've started to settle for whatever was put in front of me instead of going after the things I wanted.  It's about time to put that hat back in the closet, or burn it, and put my game face back on.  I've got marathon training to do!

I've been extremely lucky with meeting such an awesome group of friends.  They showed zero hesitation in adopting a crazy American into their crew (what were they thinking?!).  I'll never forget the kindness they've shown me since the day I arrived.  But they are some lazy ass Germans!  I thought everyone would be an athletic phenomena.  So much for that idea.  No one (in my group of friends here) has the slightest desire to get outside and DO something.  OK so one of my friends is really into mountain biking but he's been playing the "it's too cold" card since early November.  Fine, it's cold.  Now pull on a pair of spandex and let's ride dammit!

It's not fair to put all the blame on my friends.  I'm generally pretty active and rarely depend on anyone else to join me.  I almost always run by myself and when I can't find a climbing partner I take no shame in going to the gym for a boulder session.  So why haven't I done that here?  Because I'm full of excuses.  No running partner, no climbing partner, no car, too cold, raining, blah blah blah.  I let myself get lazy and get away with it.  Well I've just put a stop to that.  I forced myself to man up and go for a run every day this week; except yesterday but I did core training instead.  Gotta keep those abs looking nice.  I haven't done any climbing yet but past weekend my hangboard finally came in.  All I need to do now is build a stand and get it mounted.  And hope I don't step on any nails in the process.

Your Representative

The other day I caught myself wandering in the depths of my own thoughts and realized something that I never knew about myself.  I wear a pretty heavy facade when I first meet someone.  In fact I wear that bitch half off my face like the Phantom of the Opera until I'm really comfortable around someone.  Of course this all depends on the situation and the type of person.  If I meet a really outgoing person, chances are I'll let my guard down a lot quicker.  Why?  Because that person is being genuine.  They're being themselves and no one else.  It eliminates that initial sense of unnecessary competition, that need to prove yourself to them.  If they can be themselves then I can too.  Instead I usually keep a serious tone until I have a feeling for the other person, until I have a sense of how they'll react to my characteristic sarcasm.  On second thought, I don't think anyone's ready for that.

I think it's OK to feel someone out when you first meet them but we should be careful of how much of a facade we wear.  Like Chris Rock said, when you first meet someone you're meeting their representative.  Well guess what?  No one wants to meet your representative.  They're stuck up, too quiet or too damn loud.  Drop the charades and just be yourself.  Chances are people will like you better.  If not, at least you won't have to wonder if you should have just acted like yourself instead of putting on a show.  Ditch the mask and tell your representative to take a hike.

Incandescent Rebellion!

I came home and turned the lights on in my apartment today to witness another bulb burst into light bulb shrapnel.  The only lights in my living room are the overhead lights which have, had, 4 bulbs.  I'm down to one.  When the first one blew out I thought psssh, there's still 3 left.  Missing one bulb isn't going to kill me.  A few months later the second one blew out.  Mother fucker.  Whatever, it doesn't need to be that bright in here.  I've got a skylight window anyway.  Today the fourth one shattered into a million pieces of light bulb shrapnel when I hit the switch and scared the shit out of me.  One bulb ain't gonna cut it.  It's dark.  But there is still hope.  There lies the untapped resource of the overhead stove light.  At 18 inches long and 72 inches high (yes, that is 6 feet, thanks for doing the math) is a fluorescent to rescue me from the dark.  That thing by the way, works like a champ.  I can almost turn off the overhead lights and just run on the stove light.  Almost.  That wouldn't do anything about the two light bulbs that blew out in my bedroom.  Otherwise I'd probably put off buying light bulbs until the stove light eventually went out.  I'll probably end up buying a box of CFL's this weekend, or perhaps tomorrow after work if I'm feeling really ambitious.

A few days ago I decided to give this blog a facelift.  Before now I was using a template that someone made.  With those things your creativity is kinda limited to picking from a pool of pictures and swapping some color schemes around.  It kinda felt like borrowing a hoody from somone and telling all your friends it's yours.  Since I'm not a programmer or web designer, I'm kinda stuck with those templates.  What you can do though is upload your own picture.  So I got creative with powerpoint and paint and came up with the header that's now at the top of the page.  My pixelated work of art is far from perfect but it's my p.o.s. and I'm diggin' it for now.  Eventually I'll get crafty with my camera and make a more stylish background with my own hardware.  Until then enjoy the pixels.