Pick-A-Day

September 2024
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Archives

Whatchamacallit 161: bamboo toothbrushes

A year or two ago, I used the bathroom at a friend’s place – noticing the non-plastic toothbrushes. I asked about them – learning about bamboo toothbrushes that are entirely biodegradable, no plastic involved, no plastic consequences for the planet, especially since I go through 4-5 toothbrushes in a year; sometimes more if I […]

Whatchamacallit 25: оберег (obereg)

When I moved into my apartment, back in August 2010, my first guest was a Ukrainian friend – who presented me this pair of shoes that were to be hung by my front door.

And so it was, directly inside the front door, one of the first things you see upon opening the door.

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I had to have my hole cleaned :(

The first time I saw an iPhone in person, I fell in love. It was PapaScott’s iPhone 3, it was a meet-up, and I… well, I ended up getting the iPhone 3G. Eventually it was replaced with an iPhone 4, and now an iPhone 5.

The iPhone 5 actually rocks – and I have no […]

A Satisfactory Saturday

After spending the Tag der Deutschen Einheit, a day off, getting stuff done—I’m happy to report that I’ve also spent my Saturday getting stuff done.

In addition to a bit of freelancing, Wednesday included mundane chores like changing the filter on my bathroom fan. Honestly, this is not a complicated chore, but it does require […]

What a fantastic week – and it’s only going to get better.

This week I’ve accomplished a lot of things on my personal to-do list, including tackling a mountain of paperwork. I’d put off some of it – partially due to a linguistic barrier, partially due to intimidation.

On that front, I’ve reached that point in my life where I take retirement planning really seriously, and I’ve […]

More fun than I expected…

Last night I kind of nerded out and started sorting through a massive stack of paperwork that’s accumulated over the past month – there’s something cathartic about sorting through all of it, punching holes in documents and putting them in binders.

Maybe that’s not nerding, per se, but a sign of being too German.

I […]

Friday evening I paid 199€ for something and it sucks!! And no, it wasn’t a blow job from a rent boy…

It is a Philips Marathon Floor Pro… and boy does this vacuum suck. I think my living room rug is clean for the first time – ever.

If I said a vacuum didn't suck, that would be an insult, right?

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My feet are up, and I wish you einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!

It’s almost 9 pm and I think I am done with everything I needed to do today: work, two loads of laundry (one air drying, one machine dried), 71 minutes of spinning at the gym (gotta work off the Christmas chocolate that I bought at the supermarket, 50% off the original price), grocery shopping, and, […]

Three weeks from today… my next houseguests arrive.

One of the great things about Berlin versus Weimar is that it is a whole lot easier to convince people to visit me here in Berlin than it ever was in Weimar.

In three weeks, my next guests arrive, joining me for Christmas and New Year’s – we even, already, have a plan for New […]

Working from home…

My final long-distance guest of the Spring 2011 Guest Season has left the house.

It’s been quite a whirlwind few months and I am looking forward to the next month of relative quietness—I do have a guest spending one or two nights in mid-May, but she’s from Weimar and knows Berlin better than I do.

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