Pictures of the reception site

Here are pics of the reception set for the upcoming nuptuals, set for June 28th, 2008.

 
 
 
 

Read more!

Wedding reception site

Here are a small set of pictures of the reception site in Bremerhaven, Germany. The wedding date will be confirmed soon, but it is looking like the date will be June 28th, 2008. More details to come...

 
 
 
  Read more!

Euro Mullet Watch

This little number didnt make it on the last post...

 
 
 
 

Read more!

Christmas in Germany

Guten Tag, Merry Christmas...
I have arrived in Germany on Wednesday, four days ago. I am sorry to report that I have only taken about five pictures thus far which I have uploaded below. I will make an attempt to take more pics, its just we have been so busy with things that it has been hard to pause for picture opportunities.

I am currently in Koln, where we will be for another couple of days before we head up to Bremen, where the wedding is going to be held. We will be celebrating Christmas with family member which I have not met and then we will be meeting with the caterers for the wedding and trying to arrange a schedule for the wedding.

If you have never been to Germany during Christmas, I would have to say that it is probably one of the best times to come. The weather is cold, but bearable and somewhat refreshing. The best things are the Christmas markets, which are simply overflowing with everything that is representative of Christmas and food!!

The food really puts American fair food to shame. I was simply amazed at all of the simply delicatable offerings. There is the standard Wursts, up to half a meter long, and then there are backfisht sandwhichs, which is a western New York fish fry in a bread roll, smeared with tarter paste (a personal favorite). Then for desert is a hot waffle with whipped cream and cherries, waffle mit kirchen, (also a favorite). Then there is the gluvine, which is a hot wine, which is goes well and warms you up, whilst providing a nice buzz to carry on through the busy shopping.

Today we will be making our third trip to the city centre, in search of the perfect gifts.. Our luck has not been so good and everything is so expensive, especially with the sagging dollar the way that it is. I have literally been sickened at some of the prices I have seen for things-- but I am looking forward to the day after sales. Lili's mom works in a higher end retail store and they have been quite nervous about the sales-- the crowds are much thinner than in previous years and they are not buying with the ferocity that they normally would. I am hoping that this means better post Christmas deals on things. It still looks like a good amount of consumption is going on to me.

Anyway, thats about it for now. I will report back soon with more details.
Tschooss

--Oh and by the way, I am taking a lot of random pics on this trip of people and they horrible hairstyles. I have captured a live action mullet here for your enjoyment. I simple love the guys with their aged mullet circa Man-U Beckham grooves and the ladies with their best Amy Winehouse looks-- simply priceless...
MORE TO COME!!
 
 
 
 

Read more!

Sitting at heathrow, waiting...

I am growing tired of reading constantly about other things and not sharing my own experiences. So, here goes. I have been in the air for the last 18 hours, flying to see lili in Koln... Sigh.
This is what Christmas is all about, long layovers. The time went fast here, but I made the mistake of taking way too much with me in the carry on section, especially.
...and my gate was just called. Stay tuned. Read more!

Radiohead

The new Radiohead has now polluted my home for the last week, since it was made available via one of the bands many websites. The way that the media was delivered to the masses has the potential to really change the way that we legally access music. The new release, "In Rainbows", was made available as a digital download for whatever price the purchaser wished to contribute. The normal standards, album, cd, whatever else, will be made officially released early next year. (There is a limited box set that is available for a mere 40 pounds, which, at this point, represents 80 dollars, due to the weak dollar on the international exchange)
There are a total of 10 tracks on the album, including the previously released track, Naked, and a mellow rendition of a personal live favorite, entitled Reckoner.
All in all, it is one of the best new albums that I have discovered in the last couple of years. The only other one that I can think of which comes close is from Silversun Pickups, but that is for another article.

What makes this album so good in the simplicity in it, which at first, I hated. At first, this album sounds so much like the last handful of radiohead albums, dreamy, confused beats with lead singer Thom Yorke signing over in what has become his signiture whine. The band have come such a long way since the days when they were a simple rock band that played guitars with fevor and sang with a slight angst. The new Radiohead still have their own sound, but it is not a sound which I normally listen to.
The same thing goes with this album, but there is something there that the albums were missing specifically and that, for me, is an understanding of what Yorke is getting at and how the band follow the lyrics more than the lyrics are playing in the back of the room and Thom's exploration into break beats takes charge. In short, this album has a soul and its compassion is for all of us, trapped in this dark mess. Read more!

Dave Matthews at the Gorge to Yellowstone

Yellowstone National Park 9/2/2007

Dave Matthews at the Gorge

Read more!

Jesus, etc.

Jesus, Etc.

Wilco Live at Marymoor Park, Redmond, Washington
08.21.07

Read more!

Wilco Live at Marymoor

Read more!

Pics from the Trip

Here are some pictures from the trip we are currently on... More to come....

Seattle to Tumbler Ridge, BC, via Banff National Park and Jasper National Park

Read more!

In Tumber Ridge, BC.

We have arrived at our current destination, Tubler Ridge, located in what I would call Northern British Columbia, but there is a lot more of this province in the North that in reality, we are central.
Just to give you a bit of scale, British Columbia is the size of Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada, combined. Some of the US biggest states all fit into this one area, so yea, its huge.
Lili and I departed Seattle on Sunday morning, later than we probably should have left, but we decided that it would be a better idea to be rested than to rush out early. The only issue with that is all it led to was more time to pack more things we didn't essentially need on this trip.
We are going to be here in Tumbler Ridge for the next two weeks or so. During this time I am going to working mainly on getting the book organized and written and trying to get my life back in order before going back to the rat race of Seattle and floating my resume across the spectrum to look for a job that is more fitting to what I want to do with my life.
Some people do not ever get this chance to simply relax and look for a good paying job that is the right fit for what they want to do-- and I feel very fortunate to be in a position to do it.
Well, time for work...
More soon... Read more!

In Jaspere

Just about 1,000 miles have passed since leaving Seattle on Sunday morning. We are in Jasper, Canada after spending a few nights camping and enjoying NOT WORKING. Today, we leave the most beautiful lands I have seen in a few moons.
Lili saw her first bear this morning, a little black baby bear.
Pics in a cpouple days, kids/ Read more!

The Fray, Live, Making fun of Shakira

Read more!

Pathfinder... Recovered.

The pathfinder was recovered a few days ago, but I have been working so much that I have not had the time or the energy to write about what happened.

On Tuesday morning at about 2 am, as I was about to leave to go Microsoft for more work, my cell phone rang and I answered it, thinking that it was Lili.

It was the Seattle PD, and they asked if I had a Grey Pathfinder, which I replied that I used to have one. They said that they have recovered it and that it was located in West Seattle, near the Delridge projects. They also mentioned that I had the LOWJAC installed on the car (http://www.lojack.com), which I was not aware of because I had just purchased the car in the last couple of months.
For those of you who don't know what Lojack is, its a radio transmitter that is activated when you report your car as stolen. The police are the only ones that have access to this tranmitter and thieves can not find the Lojack on the vehicle because it is hidden in different places in each vehicle.

Once the vehicle is stolen, the car starts sending signals out of the car that are picked up by the police that have this installed in their cars. The "Auto Theft" division of the SPD was doing some casual drive through of the area when they came upon the signal, which led them to recover the car.

We arrived shortly after getting the car, the police had left the vehicle parked there-- and it was in good shape. The thief seems to have just stolen it and basically driven it home, before stopping off at a McDonalds for a cheeseburger. The next day he took the car out at noon and bought another 2 cheeseburgers, this time from Jack in the Box. (He left the wrappers in the car, with the reciepts.)
He did manage to steal a couple of things, such as my two newly purchased camping chairs, which were 6.99 each at walmart and a campstove and some other rather minor things, but all in all, I was lucky. Read more!

Pathfinder stolen during Harry Potter

Last weekend was a glorious weekend watching the wedding in the San Juans, this weekend was supposed to be nice and mellow, catch a movie or two before heading into my last two weeks of work at Microsoft before the break.
Instead, somoene decided to Steal the 1991 Pathfinder I just bought a month or so ago. It is certainly a bad time to do so, as if there is any good time to have our car stolen.

We were in Ballard, at the Bay Theatre, watching Harry Potter at the 6:55 showing. When we came out of the theatre, wholla, it was gone. Sad. We sat out in the rain for an hour waiting for the police or a cab to roll by and both happened by at the same time! We opted for the cab and filed a police report as soon as we got home.

I am now going to head out yet again and see if I can perhaps recover it somewhere around the Ballard area, but I am quite sure that it is quite feudal. I will be keeping an update here on my findings-- the whole process is quite interesting.



Last night when the police officer showed up, he basically said that it will probably be recovered within a week or so and that more than likely "the bad guys" will just drive it around to buy drugs, party in it, come down from their high and leave it somewhere with any valuables gone and damage to the vehicle.

Classy. I don't know where things change in someones life that they have to steal a car to go and buy drugs, I am just hoping that they are kind to that car-- it is in good shape and doesn't deserve some douchebag destroying it because he can!



Then the conversation with esurance, my insurance carrier was pleasant this morning. They said that there are several red flags about this incident and it will be investigated carefully. I felt like she was saying I was the criminal here...
Yes, I did just add insurance to the car, yes, I did just purchase it and recieve the title, but that does not make me a criminal!!


She also mentioned that they do not give the blue book value of the car, but moreso a percentage of the cash value of the vehicle and they wait 21 days before that process even starts. During that time, they will be investigating me to make sure that all of this is legitimate, which is total crap. They didn't investigate me all these months I have been making payments to support them!


GRRRRRR!!!!

Lessons to be learned in all of this, I am sure! I will keep updating this issue. Read more!

Megan and Fargo's Wedding...

Pictures taken from this weekends festivities....

Fargo and Megan Nelson

Read more!

...Update

...Jesus Christ, where oh where does the time go?




Again, its been awhile, but there is enough to report that I have decided to take some time out and write a bit about the past and how it relates to the future of things.
First off, I am in the process of FINALLY converting all of the photos from China to the web. Once this is complete, I will be sending a mail out and posting the link here on the blog for those of you that are interested in that. It has been a long time since I had first intended on posting the pictures, but technical changes have made it so that I can upload most of the content in an easy and straightforward manner.

With that being said, it is still a lot of work to get it to where it is actually presentable to an audience. The pictures have to be named short descriptions on some of the favorites need to be highlighted-- all of this will eventually fit together in much the same way a tresure hunt or a puzzle all comes together.

It just takes some time to build.

So, do keep patient. I am going to be done with Microsoft on the 2nd of Aug, which is one more month until I finally have some time to work on some of the things I have always needed to do, like finish the book that comes out of all this blogging I have done in the last year!!


So, keep looking from more updates..! Read more!

Update...

So, yes, its here.
Another exciting blog posting where I have the opportunity to write something about what has been going on with the book or what exciting travelling I have been doing.

The reality is that I have been too busy to do much as of late. I have been enjoying what little time I have off from work to try to keep the house clean and think about going to the gym.


The reality is that the days are getting longer and I am looking for another job which doesn't leave my mind so frazzled after a day of work. Two months left on the contract until I have the chance to have a little free time to work on the blog and give the updates on the book.


Things are actually moving along well with the first round of editing, although as you can tell, I have missed the May deadline, which I was flexable on. At this point, I am trying to get it done when I have the chance to do it.


Its Memorial Day weekend and I am again at work here at Microsoft, where it is supposed to be deathly slow, but it isn't, so its back to work I go...

In the meantime, here is something for you to enjoy...

http://athome.harvard.edu/programs/cgc03/cgc03-1.html# Read more!

China not living up to its promises for Human Rights

China not keeping its word on human rights, report says
By Maureen Fan

The Washington Post

BEIJING -- The 2008 Olympic Games have become a catalyst for more repression in China, not less, according to an Amnesty International report released Sunday and aimed at pressuring the Beijing government a year before the start of the world's premier sporting event.

The 22-page report says China's illegal detention and imprisonment of activists and other measures have overshadowed some modest reforms, including how the Chinese legal system reviews death-penalty cases and the loosening of some restrictions on the foreign press.

To win its first Olympics bid, China promised in 2001 to improve human rights, increase environmental protections and address the city's traffic problems. The Games are expected to attract 500,000 visitors, including thousands of journalists, giving China a chance to showcase itself before a huge international audience.

In recent weeks, however, various groups have begun arguing that China has not done enough.

Last Wednesday, four American tourists were detained after unfurling a banner at a base camp on Mount Everest that read, "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008," a play on the Beijing Olympics motto.

On the same day, French presidential candidate Segolene Royal said that if elected president, she would not rule out a boycott of the Olympics unless China used its influence with the government of Sudan to stop ongoing atrocities in the Darfur region. "All means must be used," she said. China, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, has major oil investments in Sudan.

Furious Chinese officials have accused critics of trying to politicize the Games.

"We believe that it's against the goodwill of the people from all over the world to boycott or oppose Beijing's hosting of the 2008 Olympics with any excuse or political reasons," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao, who promised that China would host a distinguished Olympics "with its unique characteristics."

Amnesty International and others said the Olympics provide a rare opportunity to effect change in this image-conscious nation.

"It's only about a year to go and we don't see any genuine effort by the Chinese administration to improve human rights," said T. Kumar, advocacy director for Asia and the Pacific for Amnesty International. "The efforts they're taking are stopgap -- the public statement about extra review for the death penalty, the additional movement for international journalists. It's just enough to keep the criticism at bay."

Chinese authorities have been using the Olympics to round up those they consider potential troublemakers, including human-rights defenders, housing activists, lawyers and people attempting to report on human-rights violations, the Amnesty report said.

Referring to the warnings of public-security officials that they might force drug users into yearlong rehabilitation programs, the Amnesty report said, "Fears remain that these abusive systems are being used to detain petty criminals, vagrants, drug addicts and others in order to 'clean-up' Beijing ahead of the Olympics."

The report welcomed one official reform: the restoration of Supreme Court review of death-penalty cases. But Amnesty said it worried that a "limited paper review" would not expose human-rights violations such as police use of torture to obtain confessions.

Amnesty also took the International Olympic Committee to task for not living up to its stated commitment to act if it did not see progress on security, logistics or human rights.

IOC members have said they expect Beijing to keep its word. The organization, whose top leaders just returned from two weeks of meetings with the Chinese government in Beijing, said officials needed more time before commenting on the Amnesty report. Read more!

China and the US against prevention of global warming

U.S., China team up to water down climate report
By Michael Casey

The Associated Press

BANGKOK, Thailand — The United States and China want to water down a proposed plan for fighting climate change, arguing that action to reduce greenhouse gases will be more costly and time-consuming than scientists claim.

They also play down the benefits of reducing emissions, disputing recommendations by European governments that greenhouse gases be capped at around 445 parts per million in the air. The current level of greenhouse gases is about 430 ppm.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations network of 2,000 scientists, drew up the plan. Governments have spent the last few weeks reviewing the proposals and are meeting with the scientists this week to work out their differences.

The U.S. and Chinese comments, in documents reviewed by The Associated Press, are a precursor to what delegates expect will be a fight for much of the week to preserve the key conclusions of the draft IPCC report, which says emissions can be cut below current levels if the world shifts away from carbon-heavy fuels like coal, invests in energy efficiency and reforms the agriculture sector.

The plan must be unanimously approved by the 120-plus governments that participate, and all changes must be approved by the scientists. A spokesman for the U.S. delegation declined to discuss the American position until the final report Friday.

Two previous IPCC reports this year said unabated greenhouse gas emissions could drive global temperatures up as much as 11 degrees by 2100. Even a rise of 3.6 degrees could subject up to 2 billion people to water shortages by 2050 and threaten extinction for 20 percent to 30 percent of the world's species, the U.N. panel of scientists said.

Scientists have said global warming could increase the number of hungry in the world in 2080 by between 140 million and 1 billion by contributing to widespread droughts and flooding. Diseases like malaria, diarrhea and dengue fever could spread as temperatures rise and weather becomes increasingly erratic, affecting the poorest of the world's poor.

The third report says the world must quickly embrace a basket of technological options — already available and being developed — just to keep the temperature rise to 3.6 degrees.

But the United States wants to take a longer-term approach with mitigation measures, a position that will likely anger island nations and other developing countries already feeling the effects of climate change.

The U.S. wants language inserted into the report that says the cost of available current technologies to reduce emissions "could be unacceptably high" and calls for putting greater emphasis on "advanced technologies." Many of the latter, like carbon sequestration, are aimed at extending the use of coal.

"Mitigation efforts over the next two to three decades can reduce the rate of growth of greenhouse gas concentrations," the U.S. said. "However, development and commercialization of advanced technology and implementation of advanced practices will have a large bearing on long-term greenhouse gas concentrations."

The United States and China also dispute the economics in the report, which concludes that achieving the 445-534 ppm range might cost under 3 percent of global gross domestic product over two decades.

The report's conclusion compares favorably to global economic growth that has averaged almost 3 percent annually since 2000. The damage from unabated climate change, meanwhile, might eventually cost the global economy between 5 percent and 20 percent of GDP every year, according to a British government report last year.

The United States also raises concern that switching away from coal would be "bad for energy security," questions the benefits of fuel efficient cars and attempts to minimize the economic benefits of mitigation including job creation.

"The co-benefits of balance of trade improvement, wealth creation and employment" are not substantiated," it says. "The supposed benefits are, in most cases, merely a transfer between regions and sectors rather than a general acceleration in global growth. The mitigation policies will have costs and are unlikely to result in a win-win."

Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the climate change panel, wouldn't address the U.S. comments directly. But he said "every country" would have a chance to express its views and "ultimately its a balanced assessment of the science that will prevail."

"The science certainly provides a lot of compelling reasons for action," Pachauri said. "But what action and when is what the government will have to decide." Read more!

China warned on global warming effects

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- Global warming could devastate China's development, the nation's first official survey of climate change warns, while insisting economic growth must come before greenhouse gas cuts.

Hotter average global temperatures fueled by greenhouse gases mean that different regions of China are likely to suffer spreading deserts, worsening droughts and floods, shrinking glaciers and rising seas, the National Climate Change Assessment states.

This environmental upheaval could derail the ruling Communist Party's plans for sustainable development, a copy of the report obtained by Reuters says.

"Climatic warming may have serious consequences for our environment of survival as China's economic sectors, such as agriculture and coastal regions, suffer grave negative effects," the report states.

Fast-industrializing China could overtake the United States as the world's top emitter of human-generated greenhouse gases as early as this year, and Beijing faces rising international calls to accept mandatory caps on carbon dioxide emissions from factories, fields and vehicles.

But underscoring China's commitment to achieving prosperity even as it braces for climate change, the report rejects emissions limits as unfair and economically dangerous, citing what it says are uncertainties about global warming.

"If we prematurely assume responsibilities for mandatory greenhouse gas emissions reductions, the direct consequence will be to constrain China's current energy and manufacturing industries and weaken the competitiveness of Chinese products in international and even domestic markets," it says.

The 400-page report was written over several years by experts and officials from dozens of ministries and agencies, representing China's first official response to global warming.

With its mixture of dire warnings and caveats, it bears the markings of bureaucratic bargaining.

China was one of a few countries that challenged claims about global warming presented in a draft report at a U.N. climate change meeting in Brussels earlier this month. That report was approved after some claims were softened and passages removed.

China's own national report says "uncertainties over climate change issues" justify rejecting international limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

Disasters
But other parts of the report assert that the country's brittle environment will be severely tested by climate change.

By the end of the century, glaciers on the Qinghai-Tibet highlands that feed the Yangtze river could shrink by two thirds. Further downstream, increasingly intense rainfall could "spark mud and landslides and other geological disasters" around the massive Three Gorges Dam.

Coastal cities will need to build or strengthen barriers to ward off rising sea levels.

Unless steps are taken, water scarcity and increasingly extreme weather could reduce nationwide crop production by up to 10 percent by 2030. Wheat, rice and corn growing capacity could fall by up to 37 percent in the second half of the century.

"If we do not take any actions, climate change will seriously damage China's long-term grain security," the report states.

China has repeatedly ruled out accepting mandatory international emissions limits, saying that rich countries are responsible for the accumulation of greenhouse gases and should not look to poorer countries for a way out.

"For a considerable time to come, developing the economy and improving people's lives remains the country's primary task," the report says. Read more!

China aims to further tame Web

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday launched a campaign to rid the country's sprawling Internet of "unhealthy" content and make it a springboard for Communist Party doctrine, state television reported.

With Hu presiding, the Communist Party Politburo -- its 24-member inner council -- discussed cleaning up the Internet, state television reported. The meeting promised to place the often unruly medium more firmly under propaganda controls.

"Development and administration of Internet culture must stick to the direction of socialist advanced culture, adhere to correct propaganda guidance," said a summary of the meeting read on the news broadcast.

"Internet cultural units must conscientiously take on the responsibility of encouraging development of a system of core socialist values."

The meeting was far from the first time China has sought to rein in the Internet. In January, Hu made a similar call to "purify" it, and there have been many such calls before.

But the announcement indicated that Hu wants ever tighter controls as he braces for a series of political hurdles and seeks to govern a generation of young Chinese for whom Mao Zedong's socialist revolution is a hazy history lesson.

"Consolidate the guiding status of Marxism in the ideological sphere," the party meeting urged, calling for more Marxist education on the Internet.

The Communist Party is preparing for a congress later this year that is set to give Hu another five-year term and open the way for him to choose eventual successors. In 2008, Beijing hosts the Olympic Games, when the party's economic achievements will be on display, along with its political and media controls.

In 2006, China's Internet users grew by 26 million, or 23.4 percent, year on year, to reach 137 million, Chinese authorities have estimated.

That lucrative market has attracted big investors such as Google and Yahoo. They have been criticized by some rights groups for bowing to China's censors.

The one-party government already wields a vast system of filters and censorship that blocks the majority of users from sites offering uncensored opinion and news. But even in China, news of official misdeeds and dissident opinion has been able to travel fast through online bulletin boards and blogs.

Authorities have also launched repeated crackdowns on pornography and salacious content. The latest campaign against porn and "rumor-spreading" was announced earlier this month.

The meeting also announced that schools and sports groups would be encouraged to use healthy competition as a way to shape youth, the report said.

"Sports plays an irreplaceable role in the formation of young people's thinking and character, mental development and aesthetic formation," the meeting declared. Read more!

Also, please check out

www.timhogg.blogspot.com

for more non-travel blog information. Now that the book is really underway, there will not be much posting to this site, except for new information directly related to the progress of Not So Red. Read more!

writing...

Just wanted to put out a short update.
I have been working hard on the book, the editing of the blog is finished and the entries have been cataloged and edited. Its quite a process, but I am aiming for 10 pages a day, three days a week, thats 30 pages a week at a minimum. I am trying to have the first draft completed by June 15th, with the final draft ready for the end of summer.
The initial publication will be self published and hopefully sent off to publishers, who will then set up a royalty package... :) but I will not be holding my breath for that.
The main need for publication is purely selfish. I want to be able to tell the stories of the true Chinese, not just in the places that are westernized and covered by the western media. I want the opportunity to express the views of China from my perspective before the Chinese government begin the propoganda parade for the Beijing Olympics next summer. This gives me one year.
Please stay tuned, I will be adding bits of content for review... Read more!

Update

Where do the days go?
Since arriving back in Seattle, the days have flown by. Work is work, as it always is. Long and taxing work that doesn't leave me with much energy at the end of the day. Three months or so left on the contract and although my free time is flying by, the time that I spend here do not.
In my free time I am spending a lot of it looking for something else to do, something else to occupy my time, sending lots of resumes out there and not getting much of a response.
I am working on the book, as much as I can stand it. The goal of May to have the first draft finished is still not accomplished, but the projected date of publication for next year in time for the Beijing Olympics.

In other news, Lili and I are discussing plans for the upcoming wedding, mostly trying to figure out how we are going to make it work with immigration. It would appear that it is now illegal to come to this country on a tourist visa and then get married while you are here on this Visa. Now, you have to come on a specific "fiancee Visa" which is only for three months. In that three month window, you must complete the wedding and have started on the immigration procedures for the green card.

So, its another complication from Writing.... Read more!

Back..

Its good to be home again. Not that I didnt have a great time in Europe, but the more I travel, the more I look forward to coming back home to the place where I can simply relax in my own space. Now, it would just be nice if Lili could join me. :)

First, click on the Prague engagement links again, I was finally able to upload all of those pics, but I haven't had the time to go through and edit them. I will be uploading and marking the pics in the next week, so you know what your looking at.

The trip home was shitty, and I am going to tell you that you should not fly delta internationally or across the country. They suck. I will never knowingly fly with them ever again. I was laid over in Atlanta for 8 hours, all their flights were overbooked by 10 people and they wouldnt reroute through different cities to make the pressure lessen. Stupid people who just didn't care. It was simillar going out to Germany as well.
For 545.00 roundtrip, I guess I can't really complain all that much...

More sooner than later. Read more!

Prague Engagement!!!

Prague Engagement!!!

**CLICK ON THE PIC**

The one time that I have a ton of pics to upload and send, the google tool is not working. So, here are the pictures that I was able to get loaded... As you might know, Lili and I got engaged yesterday, overlooking the beautiful skyline of Prague. Needless to say, we are enjoying our time together. This will be the last update until I get back as there is a ton of stuff to do before I leave on Sunday. We are leaving Prague today and headed back to Cologne. Just three more days on this whirlwind trip....
Crazy. Read more!

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

These pictures are a lot more somber than the other ones. They were taken at Sachensenhausen Camp, on the outskirts of Berlin. It was built by prisoners of another, more harsh concentration camp that was located in Bavaria. Prisoners were made to travel here to this camp and build it. This was the primary location of where Himmler was posted out of. There were a ton of experiments that went on here using prisoners and it was the main area where people were held that were political opponents to the third reich. They estimate that more than 50,000 people were killed here and there remains are simply scattered throughout the grounds.
The weather was quite horrible at the time, so there is a limited number of photos. Read more!

Berlin Day Two

These shots are from our second day in Berlin. Read more!

Berlin pics Part One

Berlin Day One

As per usual, click on the picture above and it will connect you to the google photos site, where you can view all of the photos from the trip.
We have arrived in Prague last night, another spectacular city in Europe. We were in Dresdan yesterday, which was the city that was hit the hardest by the allies in WWII. I will upload some great photos from there as soon as I can, but for now, enjoy all that we got to see in Berlin, which actually is only a fraction of all that there is to see in Berlin. Read more!

In Berlin

We arrived in Berlin in the afternoon yesterday, via Lili's little yellow Renault. The drive from Koln to Berlin took about six hours, two of which I drove on the famous Autobahn speedway. I was a little unnerved at the driving habits of the Germans at first, but I think most of that was directly attributed to the looseness of the steering in the car. I am not used to such flexibility in the steering, which made for a few nervous moments behind the wheel.
The cars move at a good click, and they pay attention to the policy which used to exist in the states that the far left hand side is the speeding and passing lane and the two right lanes are for more traffic volumes. This makes things much easier to handle. You really have to pay attention when moving in and out of the speed lane as cars can be traveling upwards of 200kg a hour... but even if you do seem to make a mistake, the people don't give you the finger or are aggressive in any way, they may simply give a courtesy honk and move on...
As we arrived in Berlin, our moods improved greatly. The city itself is by far the biggest that we have been in thus far. I am not even sure what part of town we are staying in, but its a hostel, which is still 50 bucks a night for a private room. The area looks a bit dodgy, but then again, most of the town looks dodgy, but its Berlin! I don't really expect to not see many parts of town that don't have a slightly rundown look to them. Graffiti is a major problem all over Germany and I wonder why they don't prosecute these people for their "art". People need to begin to speak out against this shit, but Lili tells me that they do try to do what they can, but they are sneaky fuckers!! (I should also mention that it was a problem in Holland as well, and I expect to see it in Prague.) I remember that the Berlin wall, when it was brought down years ago, it was also covered in graffiti as well.
The hostel is located inside of an old former factory it would seem, called Die Fabrik. I am not sure if I love it just yet, but it seems semi quiet, but the silence is almost a bit weird.
I have a lot of thoughts of the war these days. Faint echoes from the courtyard of men shouting in German make me think of that horrible time in European history. Today we will make our way to Checkpoint Charlie and possibly to the concentration camp where Anne Frank was murdered. We are talking about going to Auschwitz, but I think that Dresdan is a more viable option. Dresdan has always had a lot of meaning for me as it is where Slaughter Haus 5 is set...
So it goes.... Read more!

Dave and Tim Köln EWerk

Here are the pictures from last nights show with Dave and Tim. Check out www.youtube.com/hoggenstein
for the videos, which I am trying to post as time allows. Currently, there are thee great versions online and ready for your consumption.

Dave and Tim Koln EWerk

Read more!

Amsterdam

Well, Amsterdam was just awesome.
Stories and stuff are to follow...
For now, here are the pics for you to enjoy. Simply click on the pic to see all of the pics from Amsterdam.

Cheers....

Amsterdam

Read more!

Germany Part 1

Clink on this link to be taken to the picture gallery of the European vacation!!!
We are off to Amsterdam tommorow for three daze.... Read more!

The travelling is always the hardest part...

5:14pm Happy Hour, JFK
March 7, 2007
Journal entry number one.. I am here at JFK, my phone isn’t working because my sister had it shut off because she doesn’t want to have to worry about roaming charges, even though she owes me fifty bucks. Sad, really, but the last thing that I want to do it further complicate our relationship by bringing up yet another moment of disappointment. She has had a lot of them lately and yet her faults seem to be directly attributed to my faults.
As you can probably tell, I am not in the best of sprits for starting out my vacation. I always find it especially weird to be in these airports, people watching. It sort of makes me sad at the sight of the human race-the last flight was anything but pleasant… This is what airtravel is going to be like for the next yet to be determined chapter. It’s the worst—it almost seems anti travel the way that they handle things—I would love to visit so many places, but flying to the places just sucks. I can remember not so long when it wasn’t like this, when it didn’t seems like everyone in the entire world wasn’t travelling. Now, you get on and the flights are full, they feed you fucking crackers and call it good. Totally unacceptable, but what are you going to do?
But anyway, this is the thing. Its not about this part, its about the other side. Its about my arrival in Germany, its about relaxing and chilling out. It just goes to show that in reality I need to move on with my life, get the fuck out of the states and see what its like on the other side. I am crazy looking forward to seeing Lili and make things happen again, its been so tough for her, and difficult for me as well, but at the same token I have noticed that I have this ability to compartmentalize my feelings much more. A that I know is that I am a smart guy and I have had seen more success from my time abroad than my time in the states, so I am not sure.
This is a rather stressful trip as well, one that I am looking forward to the challenges, but at the same time, I am up for the challenges that lie ahead… (more on that later) FUCK, if I sit and think about it for a minute, I really start to think about how much I have on my plate for the next chapter and how I need to balance it all… but, at the same time, this latest journey is going to be one that is totally about perspective.
General vibe: Nervous and Anger. My sister has still not even acknowledged what is going on and she knows. Sad.
1:45 Business Class Air France
Fuck.
So, the flight from JFK to Paris was three hours late in taking off. Perhaps this could have been mitigated if we had not already loaded the plane to capacity and then some kid gets an allergic reaction because he ate a peanut. As a little heads up from me to you, when a passenger gets on a plane and then gets off, his luggage has to go with him (including what is checked). So, somewhere, some kid owes me 3 hours, not only that, he owes about 335 people three hours.
I am not a small man, I have come to terms with it, except when I fly. Never do a feel like I need to enter a weight loss program more than when I have to squeeze into one of those tight fitting seats. This time was a particular challenge as I seemed to have developed a pocket of fat which seemed to rub perfectly with the oncall oh shit button. Twice during my slumber I was awakened with that ever so not meant to be invasive tap, tap tap.
“Sir, did you need anything?”
No, but perhaps my fat deposit does. Do you have a deep fried twinkie? Perhaps a nice peanut butter and banana sandwich?
Friday noon.
I arrived six hours later than anticipated, due to the issues discussed in the previous entries. This turned out to be just fine as I was eventually able to reach Lili in Paris and let her know what had happened. Seeing her on the other side of the baggage claim made all the anxieties of the last weeks go.
Germany: Interesting. From the moment that we left the confines of the baggage claim and entered the autobahn, my American box that we all seem to live in began to break itself down. I looked out of the window at all of the different cars that surrounded us—a plethora of Mercedes and BMW’s that I had never seen before, along with a wide variety of science convention protypes that will more than likely never be seen in America.
Lili was nothing short of amazing, as she always is. As she was weaving in and out of the traffic, our eyes caught the occasional gaze of one another. What an exciting moment these times of my life are. Exciting things are coming for sure.
We came home and took a nap, curled tightly against each other and I passed out. Upon waking, we picked her mother up from the train station and went to dinner, which I took a pic of the pub. We had a couple of beers, breaking the ice and the language barrier at the same time. Dinner was wonderful, some of the best food I have had in quite some time—and certainly the best I have had in a bar in ages.
I want to apologize if the beginning of this journal has no flow in it—I am still very tired and a bit rushed. More to come. Read more!

Hogg is in Seattle *last night

So, my mom is out of surgery... and I am about 15 hours away from leaving for Germany. I can't begin to put down in words the kinds of things I have gone through in the last months without Lili here, there simply hasnt been enough time but to do anything and work, work, work. But the time has paid off and I am not preparing for a three week journey.
Here is the itenerary:
Arrive Thursday morning, Dusseldorph. I arrive, Lili picks me up, the love story continues. We are in Koln most of the week, hitting a football match on Friday or Saturday, then its off to Amsterdam for the weekend, heading into the week.
Then back Tuesday for Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds in Koln.
Then, by next weekend, we make our way to Berlin, Nuremburg and finally to Prague.
Stay tuned, there are some major developments being put into motion... Read more!

China locks up online "addicts" for harsh rehab

China locks up online "addicts" for harsh rehab
By Ariana Eunjung Cha

The Washington Post

He Fang, 22, says incessant online gaming hurt his grades. He says he's been changed by his stay at the military-run clinic at Daxing, one of eight such Chinese facilities to treat Internet addiction.

DAXING, China — Sun Jiting spends his days locked behind metal bars in this military-run installation, put there by his parents. The 17-year-old high-school student is not allowed to communicate with friends back home, and his only companions are psychologists, nurses and other patients. Each morning at 6:30, he is jolted awake by a soldier in fatigues shouting, "This is for your own good!"

Sun's offense: Internet addiction.

Alarmed by a survey that found nearly 14 percent of teens in China are vulnerable to becoming addicted to the Internet, the Chinese government has launched a nationwide campaign to stamp out what the Communist Youth League calls "a grave social problem" that threatens the nation.

Few countries have been as effective historically in fighting drug and alcohol addiction as China, which has been lauded for its successes, as well as criticized for harsh techniques.

Now the country is turning its attention to fighting another, supposed addiction — one that has been blamed in the state-run media for a slaying over virtual property earned in an online game, for a string of suicides and for the failure of youths in their studies.

The Chinese government in recent months has joined South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam in taking measures to try to limit the time teens spend online. It has passed regulations banning youths from Internet cafes and has implemented control programs that kick teens off networked games after five hours.

There's a global controversy over whether heavy Internet use should be defined as a mental disorder, with some psychologists, including a handful in the U.S., arguing it should be. Backers of the notion say the addiction can be crippling, leading people to neglect work, school and social lives.

But no country has gone quite as far as China in embracing the theory and mounting a public crusade against Internet addiction.

To skeptics, the campaign dovetails a bit too nicely with China's broader effort to control what its citizens can see on the Internet. The Communist government runs a massive program that limits Web access, censors sites and seeks to control online political dissent. Internet companies such as Google have come under heavy criticism abroad for going along with China's demands.

In the Internet-addiction campaign, the government is helping to pay for eight in-patient rehabilitation clinics across the country.

The clinic in Daxing, a suburb of Beijing, the capital, is the oldest and largest, with 60 patients on a normal day and as many as 280 during peak periods. Few of the patients, who range in age from 12 to 24, are here willingly. Most have been forced to come by their parents, who are paying upward of $1,300 a month — about 10 times the average salary in China — for the treatment.

Led by Tao Ran, a military researcher who built his career by treating heroin addicts, the clinic uses a tough-love approach that includes counseling, military discipline, drugs, hypnosis and mild electric shocks.

Tao said the clinic is based on the idea that there are many similarities between his current patients and those he had in the past.

In terms of withdrawal: "If you let someone go online and then he can't go online, you may see a physical reaction, just like someone coming off drugs." And in terms of resistance: "Today you go half an hour, and the next day you need 45 minutes. It's like starting with drinking one glass and then needing half a bottle to feel the same way."

Located on an army training base, the Internet-addiction clinic is distinct from the other buildings on campus because of the metal grates and padlocks on every door and the bars on every window.

On the first level are 10 locked treatment rooms geared toward treating teen patients suffering from disturbed sleep, lack of motivation, aggression, depression and other problems. Unlike the rest of the building, which is painted in blues and grays and kept cold to keep the teens alert, these rooms are sunny and warm.

Inside Room No. 8 are toys and other figurines that the teens can play with while psychologists watch. Room 10 contains rows of fake machine guns that patients use for role-play scenarios that are supposed to bridge the virtual world with the real one.

Room No. 4 is made up to look like home, with rattan furniture and fake flowers, to provide a comfortable place for counselors to talk to the teens. Before meeting with a patient, one counselor swapped her olive-hued military uniform for a motherly cardigan and plaid skirt.

Among the milder cases are those of Yu Bo, 21, from Inner Mongolia, and Li Yanjiang, 15, from Hebei province. Both said they used to spend four to five hours a week online and their daily lives weren't affected, but that their parents wanted them to cut their computer usage to zero so they could study. Yu said he agreed to come because he wanted to train himself. Li said it was because he just wanted to "get away from my parents."

Perceived as a more serious case is that of He Fang, 22, a college student from the western region of Xinjiang. The business-administration major said his grades tanked when he started playing online games several hours a night. The clinic "has mainly helped me change the way I think," he said. "It's not about getting away from pressure but facing it and dealing with it."

Before Sun, the 17-year-old, who is from the city of Cangzhou, checked into the clinic about a month ago, he said, he was sometimes online playing games for 15 hours nonstop. "My life was not routine — day and night I was messed up," he said.

Since he's been there, Sun said, he's decided to finish high school, attend college and then work at a private company. With the help of a counselor, he's mapped out a life plan from now until he's 84.

No one is comfortable talking about the third floor of the clinic, where serious cases — usually two or three at a time — are housed. Most have been addicted to the Internet for five or more years, Tao said, are severely depressed and refuse counseling. One sliced his wrists but survived. These teens are under 24-hour supervision.

Tao said he believes 70 percent of the teens, after one to three months of treatment, will go home and lead normal lives, but he's less optimistic about the third-floor patients. "Their souls are gone to the online world," he said.

Guo Tiejun, a school headmaster turned psychologist who runs an Internet-addiction research center in Shanghai, said the military-run clinic goes too far in treating Internet addicts like alcohol and drug addicts.

He said he has treated several former patients of the Daxing clinic and that one mother told him it was simply "suffering for a month" that did not help her son. Guo said he believes the root of the problem is loneliness and that the most effective treatment is to treat the teens "like friends."

"Our conclusion is that kids who get addicted in society have some kind of disability or weakness. They can't make friends, can't fulfill their desire of social communication, so they go online," Guo said.

Guo is especially critical of the use of medications — which include antidepressants, anti-psychotics and a variety of other pills and intravenous drips — for Internet addiction because, he said, that approach treats symptoms, not causes.

Tao and his team of 15 doctors and nurses defended the treatment methods. He said that while some clinics depend wholly on medications, only one out of five patients at the Daxing clinic receive prescription drugs. Tao did agree with Guo that Internet addiction is usually an expression of deeper psychological problems.

"We use these medicines to give them happiness," Tao said, "so they no longer need to go on the Internet to be happy."

Still, for all the high-tech treatments available at the clinic, the one Sun says helped him most was talking. He looks forward to returning to school and getting on with his life.

The first task on his agenda when he gets home: get online. He needs to tell his worried Internet friends where he was these past few weeks. Read more!

German Countdown

Germany Trip has been confirmed.
March 7th through the 26th.
Mostly going to see Lili, but as of right now, two side events are scheduled.
Dave Matthews live in Koln on the 12th of March
Nine Inch Nails on the 13th of March.
So, all in all, its looking to be an exciting trip just from the live concert experience.
If anyone has any ideas, please feel free to leave a comment. We are planning to go and tour the castles of the North and touring some of the Nazi sites inside of Germany. We have also planned to perhaps make a journey to either the Netherlands or perhaps Prague, but this is largely dependant upon cheap flights.

The total cost of the airline ticket is 563.00 round trip on Delta! A good price, but not the best airline. The good news is that they are partners with my mileage plan! Read more!

LONG TIME.

Again, I find myself writing to explain why I havent written.
Things are crazy right now, but I am hoping to put an end to that in the near future. Writing is very important to me and keeping this thing going is a part of that importance.
I have had to spend much more time on the computer getting it to the point where I can really start working on the materials has been a struggle, but in the end the housecleaning I have been doing will aid the process much better once that time comes.
I have upgraded to Vista and it is working quite well. There have been a few major glitches which I have now managed to fix. The other project that has been taking up a lot of my time is arranging music and other media related things in a format which is easy to catalog and access. I tend to listen to a lot of music and have so much of it that if it isnt catalouged correctly, it is a nightmare.

SO, that's where we are. Read more!

Happy new Year!! 2007

Well, another year has passed, the 33rd year of my life.
So many things happened in the last year that my mind is still reeling from all that took place.
Some notable moments:
1. Spending half of the year mostly in China, but also exploring Lao, Cambodia and Thailand.
2. Bangkok
3. Meeting the love of my life, Lilifer Behrends, of Germany in Beijing while being visited by Billy and Virgia Bryant of Yellowstone Park fame.
4. Coming back to the United States and finding a contract job with Microsoft which will hopefully allow me to get ahead in the rat race and save enough for the possibility of an upcoming wedding.
5. Lili visiting Seattle while I am starting to get everything in order.
6. Work has begun on what will be my first book. (www.notsoredchina.blogspot.com)

Most of these things are in direct relation to my time in China. I think it represented a huge turning point in the way I view certain things, but time will tell.

The plan for 2007?
For the most part-- working.
This contract is hourly based with overtime, which allows for plenty of money to be made and there are lots of bills out there that need to be paid. These two things go hand in hand.
In my sparetime, I will be working on the 1st draft of the book and saving up for my visit to Germany in March to see Lili. From there, we shall see.
So for now, a very merry new Year to you all. Read more!