Category Archives: schadenfreude

The willful enjoyment of another’s pain or suffering.

Scariest Church Building Ever

A while back I was wandering down to the Museumsufer (museum district) of Frankfurt when I came across a most peculiar church. As John Q. Potentialnewbeliever walking down the street, how inviting does this look to you?

Scientology

This is the heart of Scientology in Frankfurt. I’m really not suprised that their main street-level door would be sheet metal with an ominous camera hole. The Bundesregierung (government) does not officially recognize Scientology as a religion for good reason. They have all the markings of a highly organized totalitarian cult. Scientology is a religion founded by L. Ron Hubbard in which members have to pay to advance to the highest level. Tom Cruise and John Travolta are the to two most famous celebrities involved in the religion. Obviously for everyone else without the clout the financial hurdle makes it a bit difficult to obtain the highest level.

Not only does Scientology sqeeze money out of its followers, but it also harasses anyone who attempts to investigate the cult. The BBC recently ran a controversial piece on the program Panorama. The Church also has been waging an ongoing crusade against internet websites such as Operation Clambake. This site regularly gets DMCA take-down notices sent to major search engines, which temporarily block access to anyone looking to brush up on Scientology facts. If you are looking for an entertaining way to find out just what Scientologists believe, I highly recommend the South Park episode entitled “Trapped in the Closet.” If you live the L.A. area you can wander on over to the Scientology Museum installation called Psychiatry: An Industry of Death, where they claim that Psychiatry is nothing but Nazi science. I would need a steel door on my church too if I made such ridiculous claims.

Mellingen ≠ Weimar

Between 1919 until 1933 the seat of government in Germany was located in Weimar, Thüringen until the Nazis took power. I spent three days in this beautiful historic city. But before I can even write about it, I have to talk about one of Weimar’s neighbors called Mellingen.

When planning any weekend trip in Germany it is pretty handy to use hostelworld.com. So far their services have been spot on in locating open rooms at a great price. Typing in “Weimar” in their search field resulted in what appeared to be a great deal. Hotel Ilmtal had great facilities, a fair price, and was the only place available with what we were looking for. That is about all this location had going for it. Unfortunately these positives were negated by one nagging factor. Remember that we were looking for a hostel in Weimar.

whereisweimar_1.jpg

Hotel Ilmtal is not in Weimar. Hotel Ilmtal is not where the bus we took dropped us off. Hotel Ilmtal is not even located near a bus line that runs regularly. Hotel Ilmtal is located about a half hour away on foot from the nearest train station that runs into Weimar. This train station is also on the top of a tall hill with no signs other than the small “Bahnhofstraße” street sign at the base. Trying to find these locals meant hours of walking, getting lost, and asking the locals where we were. Every single one of them looked like they had never seen backpackers in their neck of the woods. I understand their perspective fully.

i hate you mellingen

This place was located in Mellingen, a small community without any significant establishments other than the local grocery Nahkauf and the Volksbank. This hotel that we stayed at was probably the largest building in the community. So just for clarification if you are ever planning to look for a place to lay your head in Weimar, beware of Hotel Ilmtal.

Plagiarism Schadenfreude

nataliedee.com

The above image is actually a parody by Natalie Dee of the well known “Boys are Stupid” image by Todd Goldman. Todd has gone on to spawn an empire of clothing based on similar designs. It seems his empire of sardonic humor is beginning to crumble.

It seems that Todd Goldman copied an image almost verbatim from another artist named Shmorky and began selling it in his catalog. Being familiar with Shmorky’s work I was interested in the story when I first read it a week ago. However, this thing has snowballed into something huge. The website chronicling Todd’s plagiarism is filling up with more examples of stolen work every day. I decided to post something about this when I discovered that he also had stolen work from Bill Waterson, creator of the most brilliant daily comic ever, Calvin & Hobbes.

How someone can go on for so long without being called out for blatent intellectual theft is pretty amazing. What is even more astounding is how quickly one internet meme can destroy an entire reputation. Andy Warhol once stated that in the future everyone would have their fifteen minutes of fame. With the advent of the internet though, that fifteen minutes of fame can be cut off short.

It is also interesting to note that this story would most likely never be covered by major news media outlets. Bloggers are more adept at fact checking these types of stories. They are not burdened by the advertisers and management of big media. They serve a function that would be absolutely impracticable. Todd Goldman just got a smack down on a grand scale from a source I highly doubt he ever suspected. Had big media covered this event, he could have his PR department issue a statement and that would be that. Issuing that same style of PR statement on the internet would be the same as throwing yourself to the wolves. You will get torn apart. I am willing to bet that because his target demographic is mostly internet-savy his sales for the upcoming quarters will be down.

Full Disclosure: One time in the Oshkosh Advance-Titan newspaper I was accused in the Gripe Line of stealing work from explodingdog.com. Typically when you draw stick people though they are going to look similar. Truth be told I am a much bigger fan of the afformentioned Natalie Dee. I have also never profited from any drawings I have done, nor do I plan on ever doing so. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, unless there is money involved. Then its just theft.

Festival Foods Exit Interview

Awhile back I received a letter here in Germany from my former employer Festival Foods. In order to “properly mail your W-2 and close your employment file” you have to send back the form included properly filled out. I highly suspect that it may be illegal to withhold a W-2, but I decided to fill out the form tonight anyway.

Nowhere on the form does it say that I have to use English. Hence for question two I answered.:

Q: While working at our stores, did you feel appreciated?

A: Ich war eine bedeutungslose Kogge in einer großen infernalischen Maschine. (I was a meaningless cog in a huge infernal machine.)

Apparently my supervisor thought that I was good enough to rehire. Perhaps this may come back to bite me. We shall see.

Into the Void

boo

There comes a time in every man’s life where the fire dims to but glowing embers. Genesis 3:19 states “…from dust you are and unto dust you shall return.” It is my wish after I shed my mortal coil that my ashen remains be placed in the care of loving family members. In their undying love for me they will distribute my ashes in pepper shakers secretly placed in restaurants throughout the greater Green Bay area.

Operation Übertaco Software

I picked up a Palm Tungsten C to handle all of my day to day organization and translation needs. It has an ultra fast 400Mhz Xscale processor, keyboard, Wi-Fi, and the best part is it is not a cell phone. It was cheap on eBay and does what I need it to do. Operation Übertaco operatives should consider installing the following apps.

Docs to Go

Documents to Go can handle all my Word, Powerpoint, and Excel documents. Comes in handy when editing this presentation on Homosexuality and High School Education. I got an A+ on this assignment.

Easy Tour

Easy Tour is the Swiss Army Knife of travel programs. It has everything from currency conversion, size charts, English to Metric conversion, timers, clocks, and all sorts of alarms. Saves a lot of time and hassle.

LingvoSoft

Lingvosoft for quick language translation. Simple yet effective. Contains a lot of colloquialisms.
MD Dict

MS Dict is a better dictionary despite its slower interface.

NES

NesEm for all my Nintendo ROMS. Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A B A Select Start.

MunduIM

MunduIM for all my messaging needs. Works with Yahoo!, MSN, AIM, and ICQ.

TV

NoviiRemote has about 500 remote codes for various consumer electronics. TVs are thine enemy. Smite them with this.

Wi-Fi Where

Wi-Fi Where handles all your Wi-Fi signal locating needs. Notice all the open networks. Notice how dumb people are in labeling them. Gee… I wonder what someone could do with an open network?

ZTA pwnd

I’m in ur networkz, pwnin ur bandwidthz.

no

This is the reason you lock your network. The above image was censored for the good of humanity.

Shining Force III

The great eBay purge of my storage closet continues on and with it goes on of my prized possessions. Shining Force III for Sega Saturn, one of the system’s rarest games, is available for auction now. Though I am sad to depart with this gem I am even more depressed at what it reminds me of.

The death knell was pretty much sealed in 1995 with the release of the Sony Playstation. By late 1997 the Sega Saturn was sputtering, but Sega didn’t let their system go without a fight. Three of the system’s greatest games were final releases. Burning Rangers, Panzer Dragoon Saga, and Shining Force III. There I stood in the videogame aisle of Toys R Us with $20 dollars in my pocket on that cold December day. Panzer Dragoon Saga in my left hand and Shining Force III in the other. I knew that both titles were extremely rare, but had no conception of how rare. I was a big fan of Panzer Dragoon I and II, but for some reason I chose Shining Force III.

It was only later that I found out the horrible truth about both of those titles. Panzer Dragoon Saga had only 2000 copies released stateside while Shining Force III was only chapter one of a trilogy. The latter two chapters would only be released in Japan. Now Panzer Dragoon Saga sells on eBay for $150-200. I had it in my hand and if I had purchased it, I would have never EVER sold it. Shining Force III was an amazing RPG, but every single time I think about it Panzer Dragoon Saga comes to mind. I cry a little bit knowing that I held perhaps the most sought after RPG by collectors in my naïve hands.

Network Neutrality and You

SaveTheInternet.com

Let’s pretend that you pay for internet service just to view this website. Yes, I’m that interesting. You check up on my site daily, so much so that your internet provider (AT&T, Comcast, AOL Time Warner, et al) notice. So they call me up and say, “Hey Ken of kenfager.com. We connect a lot of people to your free website. How about you pay us money. If you don’t we’ll slow your site down so that it takes a long time to load or we may even just block it. We’ll also charge your visitors more for their internet just for the privilege of seeing your content.” Large ISPs and Telcos are lobbying Congress to make this sort of extortion legal. It is happening to personal blogs, major businesses such as Google, small businesses too, and even political movement websites. STOP THEM.

Please take the time to call, email, anything to prevent a serious violation of our most valuable freedom, the Freedom of Speech. Information should remain free. It only takes two minutes of your time. There has been a huge grass roots movement behind this legislation. Please inform yourself by visiting one of the following sites. AskaNinja.com on Network Neutrality, Rocketboom on Network Neutrality, ItsOurNet.com, and even the C.E.O of Google asks for your help.

I called Senator Feingold (D-WI) and Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) with the help of? SaveTheInternet.com. Even if you do not know what to say, they have a short script to help. Every bit helps.