cars, idioms, and movies of Germany

Today I borrowed dad's car and drove mom's painting to FedEx. This was the first time I've ever driven dad's car and I was really nervous because A) this is Houston, and B) It's a really really nice car made by German engineers in Germany. Made it to the FedEx five minutes away with no problems. With the car I ran a few more errands before returning to the house.

Neri asked if I enjoyed driving it. Actually, the only time I enjoy driving is when its my car and there's very few if any other drivers, and someplace beautiful or surreal. The only time I like city driving is late night in Phoenix on the wide open and mostly empty freeways which swoop around the city.

Practiced some more German, including some work on idioms. I really like idioms- they're colorful, poetic, and they betray a particular mindset behind them. There's a geography to them- there are American idioms, but there are also southern idioms, and even Oklahoman idioms.

For example, as a chronic procrastinator, I was drawn to Morgen, Morgen, nur nicht heute, sagen alles faulen Leute. (tomorrow, tomorrow, just not today, say all the lazy people).  There's a lot of internal rhyming and the syllabic beat is broken into four x four (mor-gen-mor-gen) (nur-nicht-heu-te). It's a nursery rhyme for kids on what not to say. It's also kind of group-centric, emphasizing which group of people you should or shouldn't belong to. "you don't want to be like those lazy people!" Faulen is kind of a tricky translation- its also close to "foul" or "rotten"

The American version "Don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today," seems much more dry and academic. It's a statement which considers itself self-evident- there's no punishment or penalties implied. It an axiom, not a lesson. It's a best practices reminder for a civilization which shouldn't need a reminder that laziness is bad.

Anyway, I also baked a cake today, modifying a lemon cake recipe to become a grapefruit cake including some zest and fresh-squeezed juice in the batter. It didn't rise as much as last time I made it- I think the problem was my butter was still too cold. The last time I made it, I over softened the butter to the point where it was entirely melted. I should get my eggs to room temperature too.

While the cake was cooling, I went for a long walk north, crossing the train tracks and the freeway and going beyond the end of the street to the football field wide drainage canal. The shallow wide canal is concrete only at the bottom. Both sides are wide fields of green sloping down to the culvert. The vegetation has been enjoying the spring and the rain. The weeds and grasses were past my knees and made it slow to walk. It felt like a strange secret garden running through the middle of the city.

Neri made a mushroom soup tonight for the two of us since Dad took off for a meeting in Louisiana. It was pretty good, I need to get the recipe. They will probably have quality and cheap ingredients for it in Germany.

I have a strange relationship with movies. Some days, I am filled with strange loathing of movies, like I am so far removed from movies and TV that I couldn't go back. Some days, I have a particular taste for some strange episode or esoteric movie I saw years and years ago. Some days I feel like just watching anything.

Tonight, I watched The Lives of Others, which I really enjoyed. It's a German film which really resonated with me because it follows a by-the-books, cold Stasi bureaucrat who through the fulfillment of his obligations realizes the horror which he is perpetuating.

It's also unsettling to watch post-Snowden considering the reach and lack of restraints on the NSA, and as we have lately, the CIA. What prevents either of these institutions from becoming like the Stasi with its accompanying abuses of power and corruption?

Anyway, it makes me worry what I write about. My opinions are politically leftist (for an American) and anti-capitalist (for an American). Although when I go to Germany, I'll probably come across as stumping for Ronald Reagan in comparison.  I guess it really depends what sensitivity the "ideology" knob is set to on the intelligence internet surveillance machine. Which in some ways, is spookier. You lose the human element when an algorithm decides if you've crossed the line.

This is also interesting to me, because the Germans are extremely paranoid and sensitive about their data and records being stored electronically. They still remember the Stasi, which was operating up until 1989.