Ever since May of 2012, I found myself drawn to a certain "sub-culture" usually referred to as "outlaw-bikers". Because some TV and newspaper reports on the German Hells Angels just didn't add up for me. After going all the way back to look at the history of not only the Hells Angels, but also of other motorcycle clubs, and watching plenty of movies and documentaries of and about (and some even with) them, I figured the Angels and others aren't always as bad as the media makes them out to be.
They are the opposite really.
Good, friendly, down-to-earth people who live their lives the way they choose to, who love freedom, and who get things done.
And still do.
I'm very thankful to Sonny & Zorana Barger, to the people of the Cave Creek Chapter and to the people of Sharpfinger Films - all books and t-shirts I ordered arrived here fast and in perfect condition.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
September When It Comes
It's that dreaded month called September again. Most people associate "September 11th, 2001" with it, the day that changed the skyline of Manhattan forever. (Not going into who or what made the towers go down, fact is that they were indeed built to withstand a Boeing 707, which is of similar size and weight as a new 767).
While September 11th is a dreaful day to rember, I think personally, September 12th is even more devastating (eventhough it got a lot less media coverage).
September 12th, 2003, the day the *real* music died. No American Pie sort of bullshit, but a real American legend: Johnny Cash.
There are no words to describe the loss of him.
I miss you Johnny.
R.I.P.
While September 11th is a dreaful day to rember, I think personally, September 12th is even more devastating (eventhough it got a lot less media coverage).
September 12th, 2003, the day the *real* music died. No American Pie sort of bullshit, but a real American legend: Johnny Cash.
There are no words to describe the loss of him.
I miss you Johnny.
R.I.P.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
The Mysterious Voyage of a Hidden One
Yesterday started like every other day in the life of a Hidden One.
After moving my ass out of bed, I decided to check my "special" websites if there's anything new. I found a new episode of the RT-Assange interview segments (http://assange.rt.com/) which made me wonder how he recorded it, seeing as a couple of days earlier, he decided to "flee" into the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. (And no, I have no clue what an embassy looks like from the inside, what if they have no showers, washing machines, etc? And do they?)
Nevertheless, atleast Julian does something to fill the summer slump, since nothing really exciting is happening anywhere (apart from cops around the world that REALLY seem to hate dogs; man, they should have become mailmen instead).
At 10:00 am I had a job interview, which didn't go as planned, but atleast the people at that place adviced me a specific direction that I should pursue, if the job-center allows it.
Back home I decided to sleep, as I didn't do it the night before, so after I had eaten my lunch, asleep I fell, til around 16:00 or so. Barely awake, I decided to log onto my guild's forums, (World of Warcraft guild, for that matter) just to find out that I was apparently kicked due to complaints of people about me.
Now, I am usually a very nice and friendly person, sometimes maybe too nice and too friendly. So people should have no problem at all to approach me normally and talk to me if they have a problem with me. But no one did. If people ever said anything, it were depreciating things, which I just ignore.
The guild I was in is one of the few 25 man guilds that try to keep on keeping on, but not doing too great at that. (I can count to potato, but guild can't count to 25, atleast, if you checked signups most days, which were varying between 18-23 people mostly).
I was told I got kicked because an officer had plans of leaving because of me. (An officer, that, believe it or not, literally ignored every whisper, be it on real-id or normal ingame whispers, that I sent out the past couple of months). Maybe he should have opened his mouth about what his issue is.
Apparently though, the reasons for wanting to leave are quite different. As found in 2 different applications, he wanted to leave because he was "Not getting the progression or quality of raiding I want for the effort I put in."
So saying he would leave because of me, is a blatant lie, seeing as I am usually in the top5 dps on any given fight in our guild. I also tried to put in suggestions for fights that I have already done, but my suggestions were mostly overheard, and people rather wiped 13 more times before even giving it a chance.
Now, the guild has some sort of communistic ways. Officers and guild leaders are above all, be it for mount or legendary drops. Anyone below officer rank is seen as inferior and "not trustworthy" because of what other members who were long gone did something in the past. Same goes for replying to new applications which we are not allowed to, due to someone spamming those in the past. (I mean come on, if another person of my class applies, and I see that jerk does not even use gems and enchants on his items, then heck, I have to point it out).
And then you have one of them rats (officers) applying to other guilds, just like that. Nice proof of trustworthyness.
So I packed my things and off I went to a friends' 10 man guild on another faction and realm. Maybe I should stick with 10 man. 25 man guilds are a dying breed, good ones particularly. (On a positive note, we defeated one of the hardest encounters in the 10 man guild today, after only a handful of wipes). While the 25 man guild that wanted me no more, kept wiping on the 3rd boss.
Later the evening, I decided to try and find the lyrics to a specific song that I heard a few days ago for the first time. Lyrics were nowhere to be found, so I tried to get them off http://www.tubelyrics.org/ (a site that visualizes the lyrics in the way their speech recognition program hears them) which, however, turned out WORSE than Google Translate. (out of the line "get back" they made "gym bag", just to mention an example of how silly that is, seeing as "get" is spoken with a hard "g" while "gym" is spoken with a soft "g" (dʒ)). But then again, who could possibly say no to a 'salad bar'.
In closing of the day (45 Euros poorer due to the World of Warcraft related faction and server change, and at an account balance of around 2 Euros now) I decided that it is time for a new month. But I'll have to wait a few more days for that.
Before passing out into bed, I'll check my e-mail and the RT site of Julian Assange aswell as the Youtube site of Santo Films (http://www.youtube.com/user/SantoFilms10) for possible updates on the DI5H movie (an independant movie, based on a novel by Sonny Barger).
After moving my ass out of bed, I decided to check my "special" websites if there's anything new. I found a new episode of the RT-Assange interview segments (http://assange.rt.com/) which made me wonder how he recorded it, seeing as a couple of days earlier, he decided to "flee" into the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. (And no, I have no clue what an embassy looks like from the inside, what if they have no showers, washing machines, etc? And do they?)
Nevertheless, atleast Julian does something to fill the summer slump, since nothing really exciting is happening anywhere (apart from cops around the world that REALLY seem to hate dogs; man, they should have become mailmen instead).
At 10:00 am I had a job interview, which didn't go as planned, but atleast the people at that place adviced me a specific direction that I should pursue, if the job-center allows it.
Back home I decided to sleep, as I didn't do it the night before, so after I had eaten my lunch, asleep I fell, til around 16:00 or so. Barely awake, I decided to log onto my guild's forums, (World of Warcraft guild, for that matter) just to find out that I was apparently kicked due to complaints of people about me.
Now, I am usually a very nice and friendly person, sometimes maybe too nice and too friendly. So people should have no problem at all to approach me normally and talk to me if they have a problem with me. But no one did. If people ever said anything, it were depreciating things, which I just ignore.
The guild I was in is one of the few 25 man guilds that try to keep on keeping on, but not doing too great at that. (I can count to potato, but guild can't count to 25, atleast, if you checked signups most days, which were varying between 18-23 people mostly).
I was told I got kicked because an officer had plans of leaving because of me. (An officer, that, believe it or not, literally ignored every whisper, be it on real-id or normal ingame whispers, that I sent out the past couple of months). Maybe he should have opened his mouth about what his issue is.
Apparently though, the reasons for wanting to leave are quite different. As found in 2 different applications, he wanted to leave because he was "Not getting the progression or quality of raiding I want for the effort I put in."
So saying he would leave because of me, is a blatant lie, seeing as I am usually in the top5 dps on any given fight in our guild. I also tried to put in suggestions for fights that I have already done, but my suggestions were mostly overheard, and people rather wiped 13 more times before even giving it a chance.
Now, the guild has some sort of communistic ways. Officers and guild leaders are above all, be it for mount or legendary drops. Anyone below officer rank is seen as inferior and "not trustworthy" because of what other members who were long gone did something in the past. Same goes for replying to new applications which we are not allowed to, due to someone spamming those in the past. (I mean come on, if another person of my class applies, and I see that jerk does not even use gems and enchants on his items, then heck, I have to point it out).
And then you have one of them rats (officers) applying to other guilds, just like that. Nice proof of trustworthyness.
So I packed my things and off I went to a friends' 10 man guild on another faction and realm. Maybe I should stick with 10 man. 25 man guilds are a dying breed, good ones particularly. (On a positive note, we defeated one of the hardest encounters in the 10 man guild today, after only a handful of wipes). While the 25 man guild that wanted me no more, kept wiping on the 3rd boss.
Later the evening, I decided to try and find the lyrics to a specific song that I heard a few days ago for the first time. Lyrics were nowhere to be found, so I tried to get them off http://www.tubelyrics.org/ (a site that visualizes the lyrics in the way their speech recognition program hears them) which, however, turned out WORSE than Google Translate. (out of the line "get back" they made "gym bag", just to mention an example of how silly that is, seeing as "get" is spoken with a hard "g" while "gym" is spoken with a soft "g" (dʒ)). But then again, who could possibly say no to a 'salad bar'.
In closing of the day (45 Euros poorer due to the World of Warcraft related faction and server change, and at an account balance of around 2 Euros now) I decided that it is time for a new month. But I'll have to wait a few more days for that.
Before passing out into bed, I'll check my e-mail and the RT site of Julian Assange aswell as the Youtube site of Santo Films (http://www.youtube.com/user/SantoFilms10) for possible updates on the DI5H movie (an independant movie, based on a novel by Sonny Barger).
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Rebels, Outlaws and Inventors
Lately, I have been in all sort of different "moods".
One time, I picked up half a documentary about Nikola Tesla while cleaning for one of the elderly people that we look after from our Care Organisation.
Back at home after work, I really wanted to figure out who that guy was. Because what was said in the documentary movie, made me wonder. I used to give Edison credit for electricity and light bulbs and stuff, but here I was finding out that this very computer I write on, this very light bulb that lits my room and basically anything that runs on electric current, is running on Nikola Tesla's ALTERNATING current, which is a more stable (over long distances) and cheaper current than the DIRECT current of Edison (which would have required a power station every mile).
After a couple more documentaries, I really got into it. And found out that Tesla also invented many other things (x-rays around the same time as Roentgen, radio transmission before Marconi but lack of financing stopped the completion of the Wardenclyffe Tower, with which Tesla not only had the plan of wireless communication overseas, but also to generate and distribute electricity for the entire country), some of which were forgotten, some of which still flourish to this day. Despite all the innovations he brought in his time, he died poor in the Hotel New Yorker in 1943.
Long time forgotten by most, yet still fascinating to me.
---
Another day, another story.
A little less than a month ago, I picked up some other stuff in our local newspaper, which immidiately got my attention. The paper had a report about cops searching the house of a German member of the Hells Angels, and not only confiscating his stuff, but also shooting his Kangal dog whelp.
I was like... what the fuck.
So that made me wonder, why would they do such a thing, and what kind of people are the Hells Angels actually. (This time I did not make the usual mistake by youtube-ing info, because most videos there make them look way worse than they essentially are).
I decided to go back to the basics, back to where it all started, and read up on the American Hells Angels, since after all, San Bernardino, California (also known as Berdoo) is where it all started back in 1948. Jumping a few years forward, 1957 brought up one of the most famous chapters of the Hells Angels to this day -the Oakland Chapter-, initiated by, amongst others, Ralph Hubert "Sonny" Barger.
I started reading the e-book "Hell's Angel, the life and times of Sonny Barger and the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club". A very honest auto-biography, that shows both the good and the bad sides, he talks about drugs, prisons, and most of all about motorcycling and having fun with a great group of friends. (The book seemed familiar to me, after reading it, I checked in my other room, and sure enough I found the German hardcover edition on my shelf).
I started watching movies regarding motorcycle clubs around that time, and prior to that, basically everything from "The Wild One" to "Easy Rider". Inbetween ofcourse the proper biker movies with actual Hells Angels in them, like Hells Angels 69, and the movie "Gimme Shelter" about the incident at the free Rolling Stones concert at the Altamont Speedway, in which the Hells Angels were hired as security.
Now, I don't know how it was back in those days, because I haven't lived then, but firstly the place was PACKED, after all, it was a FREE concert, and approximately 300,000 people attended it. According to Sonny Barger, the stage was built pretty low, so that anyone could have literally jumped on the stage and done something to the bands that were playing there that night. So keeping people away from the stage (which was what the Hells Angels were supposed to do) seemed like a tough job, and who knows what would have happened if Meredith Curly Hunter would have made it to the stage with his gun. Better be safe than sorry.
As comparison -they can be extremely lucky to only have had a total of 4 deaths in a concert such as that (and 4 births aswell, according to wikipedia!) - seeing as there were a total of 21 people killed and over 500 injured at the 2010 "Love Parade" in Duisburg, Germany (People died in a panic, there was no proper way to exit the festival grounds, however, the area which had been approved for 250,000 people was not even filled at the time of the incident).
But back to the bikers.
I went forward and watched a couple of episodes of Sons of Anarchy, and am also following the youtube progress of a novel-to-be-movie called Dead in 5 Heartbeats.
I think, after watching some of the movies and reading the books "Hell's Angel" and "Freedom - Credos from the Road" there is atleast one Hells Angel who gets my full respect - Sonny Barger.
Despite a shady past full of sex, drugs and rock-n-roll (if we count the Rolling Stones as that) and various other incidents that put him into prison at one time or another, Sonny Barger tells the whole truth about his life, his beliefs and the way he sees and experiences freedom. I like his honesty, a lot of people would try to hide those things, but not someone who stays true to himself, his family and his readers.
Closing this I'll add the motto of this so-called "outlaw-biker-gang": "When we do right, nobody remembers. When we do wrong, nobody forgets." This seems to be true a lot of times, not only regarding bikers. (Even in my 28-year young life, it seems to be a recurring part, the good things I do are easily overlooked, whereas my mistakes are pointed out to me at any given chance).
One time, I picked up half a documentary about Nikola Tesla while cleaning for one of the elderly people that we look after from our Care Organisation.
Back at home after work, I really wanted to figure out who that guy was. Because what was said in the documentary movie, made me wonder. I used to give Edison credit for electricity and light bulbs and stuff, but here I was finding out that this very computer I write on, this very light bulb that lits my room and basically anything that runs on electric current, is running on Nikola Tesla's ALTERNATING current, which is a more stable (over long distances) and cheaper current than the DIRECT current of Edison (which would have required a power station every mile).
After a couple more documentaries, I really got into it. And found out that Tesla also invented many other things (x-rays around the same time as Roentgen, radio transmission before Marconi but lack of financing stopped the completion of the Wardenclyffe Tower, with which Tesla not only had the plan of wireless communication overseas, but also to generate and distribute electricity for the entire country), some of which were forgotten, some of which still flourish to this day. Despite all the innovations he brought in his time, he died poor in the Hotel New Yorker in 1943.
Long time forgotten by most, yet still fascinating to me.
---
Another day, another story.
A little less than a month ago, I picked up some other stuff in our local newspaper, which immidiately got my attention. The paper had a report about cops searching the house of a German member of the Hells Angels, and not only confiscating his stuff, but also shooting his Kangal dog whelp.
I was like... what the fuck.
So that made me wonder, why would they do such a thing, and what kind of people are the Hells Angels actually. (This time I did not make the usual mistake by youtube-ing info, because most videos there make them look way worse than they essentially are).
I decided to go back to the basics, back to where it all started, and read up on the American Hells Angels, since after all, San Bernardino, California (also known as Berdoo) is where it all started back in 1948. Jumping a few years forward, 1957 brought up one of the most famous chapters of the Hells Angels to this day -the Oakland Chapter-, initiated by, amongst others, Ralph Hubert "Sonny" Barger.
I started reading the e-book "Hell's Angel, the life and times of Sonny Barger and the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club". A very honest auto-biography, that shows both the good and the bad sides, he talks about drugs, prisons, and most of all about motorcycling and having fun with a great group of friends. (The book seemed familiar to me, after reading it, I checked in my other room, and sure enough I found the German hardcover edition on my shelf).
I started watching movies regarding motorcycle clubs around that time, and prior to that, basically everything from "The Wild One" to "Easy Rider". Inbetween ofcourse the proper biker movies with actual Hells Angels in them, like Hells Angels 69, and the movie "Gimme Shelter" about the incident at the free Rolling Stones concert at the Altamont Speedway, in which the Hells Angels were hired as security.
Now, I don't know how it was back in those days, because I haven't lived then, but firstly the place was PACKED, after all, it was a FREE concert, and approximately 300,000 people attended it. According to Sonny Barger, the stage was built pretty low, so that anyone could have literally jumped on the stage and done something to the bands that were playing there that night. So keeping people away from the stage (which was what the Hells Angels were supposed to do) seemed like a tough job, and who knows what would have happened if Meredith Curly Hunter would have made it to the stage with his gun. Better be safe than sorry.
As comparison -they can be extremely lucky to only have had a total of 4 deaths in a concert such as that (and 4 births aswell, according to wikipedia!) - seeing as there were a total of 21 people killed and over 500 injured at the 2010 "Love Parade" in Duisburg, Germany (People died in a panic, there was no proper way to exit the festival grounds, however, the area which had been approved for 250,000 people was not even filled at the time of the incident).
But back to the bikers.
I went forward and watched a couple of episodes of Sons of Anarchy, and am also following the youtube progress of a novel-to-be-movie called Dead in 5 Heartbeats.
I think, after watching some of the movies and reading the books "Hell's Angel" and "Freedom - Credos from the Road" there is atleast one Hells Angel who gets my full respect - Sonny Barger.
Despite a shady past full of sex, drugs and rock-n-roll (if we count the Rolling Stones as that) and various other incidents that put him into prison at one time or another, Sonny Barger tells the whole truth about his life, his beliefs and the way he sees and experiences freedom. I like his honesty, a lot of people would try to hide those things, but not someone who stays true to himself, his family and his readers.
Closing this I'll add the motto of this so-called "outlaw-biker-gang": "When we do right, nobody remembers. When we do wrong, nobody forgets." This seems to be true a lot of times, not only regarding bikers. (Even in my 28-year young life, it seems to be a recurring part, the good things I do are easily overlooked, whereas my mistakes are pointed out to me at any given chance).
Saturday, June 9, 2012
High Tech & Low Tech
Technology of all sorts has always fascinated the people on our planet. Some Technologies are rated as High-Tech (most modern, best), while I actually found something really Looooooooow-Tech the other day.
Everyone has a doorbell. Simple thing. You push a button - it rings.
Normally.
The most low-tech construction I found in an old person's apartment was the following:
A doorbell that does indeed ring when it is pushed, but it expects the inhabitant of the apartment to actually use the door opening button inside their apartment, to respond to the ringing, so the doorbell can be rung again later.
If you don't touch the opening button, it makes a tiny lamp go on, that shows that someone rung. But then you still have to push the button for the system to be able to ring the bell again. So if the person is not at home and someone rings, and they oversee the tiny lamp when they come back and leave the ring "unanswered" in that way, the next person who tries to use the doorbell will not have much success, since the bell simply won't ring until the old ring has been answered. (Which they don't know about unless they check that tiny lamp which can be easily overseen, especially for elderly people).
So that construction of a door-bell-mechanism gets from me the lowest-low-tech-award-in-history.
Second place for low-tech goes to Thomas Alva Edison's Direct Current. Which was too unstable when transmitted over long distances, so for it to be stable it would have required a power station ever mile. (Feel free to look at 19th century New York photographs, they looked more packed than even nowadays, despite the fact they had a lot less people back then, but a LOT more wires, power stations and stuff.
Lesson from today:
Door Bells that need to be answered before they can ring again are bad, mkaaaay.
Direct Current was bad, mkaaay.
Long live Alternating Current and proper door bells.
Everyone has a doorbell. Simple thing. You push a button - it rings.
Normally.
The most low-tech construction I found in an old person's apartment was the following:
A doorbell that does indeed ring when it is pushed, but it expects the inhabitant of the apartment to actually use the door opening button inside their apartment, to respond to the ringing, so the doorbell can be rung again later.
If you don't touch the opening button, it makes a tiny lamp go on, that shows that someone rung. But then you still have to push the button for the system to be able to ring the bell again. So if the person is not at home and someone rings, and they oversee the tiny lamp when they come back and leave the ring "unanswered" in that way, the next person who tries to use the doorbell will not have much success, since the bell simply won't ring until the old ring has been answered. (Which they don't know about unless they check that tiny lamp which can be easily overseen, especially for elderly people).
So that construction of a door-bell-mechanism gets from me the lowest-low-tech-award-in-history.
Second place for low-tech goes to Thomas Alva Edison's Direct Current. Which was too unstable when transmitted over long distances, so for it to be stable it would have required a power station ever mile. (Feel free to look at 19th century New York photographs, they looked more packed than even nowadays, despite the fact they had a lot less people back then, but a LOT more wires, power stations and stuff.
Lesson from today:
Door Bells that need to be answered before they can ring again are bad, mkaaaay.
Direct Current was bad, mkaaay.
Long live Alternating Current and proper door bells.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
TF:BW
It's me again, and this time I'll reveal my special plan for 2012.
Everyone seems to have a taskforce for something, be it killing Osama Bin Laden, be it about Wikileaks and trying to find out how to get them.
My taskforce, however, shall focus on something that's exactly opposite to the taskforces of the American government. Mine is created to make a BETTER WORLD. Which, when looking at it, is a heck of a lot harder than what the Ameircans do, but I'll do my best. :)
To make this our world a better world, we all have to help. That can be done in any way possible. Be it by helping your family/friends, helping people you know, helping anyone you can help - and with help I don't only mean moving mountains for them, but do even the smallest of things that make them happy. (Through my work I do this quite a lot, you'd be surprised what a hug or some nice words can mean to someone who is otherwise all alone!)
You could also improve this, our world, by inventing useful things. You don't have to invent an iPhone or stuff like that - but how about something like "anti-shock" (like they had for portable CD players back in the day) - just for mobile phones or other portables that use SD/microSD memory.
(Hey... one can dream!)
And now off you go, do a good deed, help someone, hug someone. Join TaskForce:BetterWorld today!
Everyone seems to have a taskforce for something, be it killing Osama Bin Laden, be it about Wikileaks and trying to find out how to get them.
My taskforce, however, shall focus on something that's exactly opposite to the taskforces of the American government. Mine is created to make a BETTER WORLD. Which, when looking at it, is a heck of a lot harder than what the Ameircans do, but I'll do my best. :)
To make this our world a better world, we all have to help. That can be done in any way possible. Be it by helping your family/friends, helping people you know, helping anyone you can help - and with help I don't only mean moving mountains for them, but do even the smallest of things that make them happy. (Through my work I do this quite a lot, you'd be surprised what a hug or some nice words can mean to someone who is otherwise all alone!)
You could also improve this, our world, by inventing useful things. You don't have to invent an iPhone or stuff like that - but how about something like "anti-shock" (like they had for portable CD players back in the day) - just for mobile phones or other portables that use SD/microSD memory.
(Hey... one can dream!)
And now off you go, do a good deed, help someone, hug someone. Join TaskForce:BetterWorld today!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Welcome to the Future...or in other words; Happy New Year 2012!
The new year started with colorful fireworks, which are sadly extremely hard to capture on video, unless you have professional equipment. Which I don't.
Now, the world is still here, and so is my 1 year old food and drink.Well, technically 1 year old. (In fact only a little over 24 hours).
The year started great, and I got to talk to someone special. <3
For the rest, I'll let the prayers I shot up into the air with my fireworks do their job.
May 2012 be a successful and happy year for everyone who is reading this, and ofcourse for the writer of this blog.
Special greetings & new year wishes to....JLL, ROA, YA, BS, FJK, FG, SC, WK, RGT, JPA, JGJ, PS, SPMC (you guys rock!)
Greetings to heaven for those who are no longer with us....JRC, JCC, RMKF, OBL
Now, the world is still here, and so is my 1 year old food and drink.Well, technically 1 year old. (In fact only a little over 24 hours).
The year started great, and I got to talk to someone special. <3
For the rest, I'll let the prayers I shot up into the air with my fireworks do their job.
May 2012 be a successful and happy year for everyone who is reading this, and ofcourse for the writer of this blog.
Special greetings & new year wishes to....JLL, ROA, YA, BS, FJK, FG, SC, WK, RGT, JPA, JGJ, PS, SPMC (you guys rock!)
Greetings to heaven for those who are no longer with us....JRC, JCC, RMKF, OBL
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