all about myself

Legal Philosophy conference in Halle

2010-12-07T19:43:00.003+01:00

In September of this year I have been to Halle (Saale) for two nights at a conference of the Young Forum for Legal Philosophy. On the official website you can see me on the last two photos. Actually all the photos were made with my camera, that is why I am not on one of the other pictures...

http://renzikowski.jura.uni-halle.de/junges_forum/

Holiday in the Netherlands

2010-12-05T18:08:00.004+01:00

In July of this year my girlfriend Bettina and me went to Hindeloopen in the Netherlands on holiday for about two weeks.
We stayed in a caravan on a camping site, which is usually frequented by surfers. So I did learn some surfing as well. It was a lot of fun as you can see:

Since I don't really like camping that much it took a lot of time for Bettina to convince me to try it. I have to admit it was quite all right after all. I mean, the toilets where rather disgusting, but well... it was all right.
Despite that we had quite a good time. The weather was good on most days and if not, I did some reading, while Bettina watched some tv. But the most interesting part for me was that we went on a lot of trips around various places of the Netherlands. Since I had my car with me and the infrastructure there is incredibly good, it was easy to go around. So, of course we went to Amsterdam:

Amsterdam is really great. I enjoyed the day we went there very much, though it was very exhausting.
We also went to Leuwarden, which was rather boring and we found this amazing small city Sneek, very near to our location. We went two or three times there and I can really suggest it to anybody who is around there. A lot of small and big shops, nice restaurants and in general a very lively and beautiful place.

Despite that, we saw a lot of sheep

and a train, which crashed into a house.

Well, that's it for this trip. Stay tuned for my post on London/Cambridge in the next days. Oh, and a few more photos can seen here.

Something I stumbled upon

2010-02-28T21:46:00.008+01:00

Hello to all believers out there surfing the internet.

This time I'd love to share another nice little comic piece of atheist propaganda with you. Maybe it starts some of you thinking a little bit. (Never give up hope...)

A friend of mine introduced me to the not so long ago deceased, American comedian George Carlin. Having watched a few videos on youtube I find it hard to recommend one of them in particular, so just try a search on youtube and lough your lungs out.

Just some stuff in between

2010-02-05T20:28:00.005+01:00

Hey Ho!

Haven't posted a lot lately, so I thought I might. I just wanted to share this nice picture with you guys out there, who are not reading my blog anyway.
Some of you know that I have a pretty small apartment and though it is the best one I lived in so far, it has one flaw. There is no water in my kitchen! So, if I wanna wash my dishes I use a huge box. I put water in it and then carry it from my bathroom to the kitchen, wash the dishes and then carry it back. And since I am to lazy to dry all the stuff, this is what happens:

You can't see my rice cooker, which is sitting just behind this piece of art.

Kyoto and Nara

2009-09-08T09:14:00.004+02:00

All right! Last week I went to Kyoto and Nara (well I was sent there by my boss here in Utsunomiya, which is really awesome). I visited several famous sightseeing spots there, like the Kinkaku-ji.

It was my first time to go there, so I was rather excited. The next day we went to Nara to see the huge Buddha in his huge house.

But most fun were all the deer running around Nara. They really are everywhere and not a bit afraid of humans.

Can you tell from the picture that I had fun? Well well, the temple has a hole in one of his pillars, its size is supposed to be the same size as the entrance to paradise. As you can see I will have no trouble in going to paradise. I only guess it will be a bit lonely there...

So, of course you can find more pictures on my picasa album here.
And this time I had to write a travel report for my boss. It's written in German, but feel free to read or download the pdf from my publications site here.

Again in Japan

2009-08-30T12:22:00.004+02:00

After two years in Germany I finally managed to go back to Japan for six weeks. Half a year ago I probably would have said that this is the most amazing thing in the world, but as some of you know some things have changed in my life. So right now I wish I were in Muenster or even better that somebody special would be here with me in Japan. Anyway, it is half time this weekend. I will go back on September 21st and I am really looking forward to it.

Nevertheless I am here right now and I do a lot of things. I learned that one can survive with just 5 hours sleep per night. This is the first weekend I could sleep a little longer and it feels so good.
I came here as a participant of the German-Japanese Youth Summit and stayed for ten days in Tokyo.
Right now I am in Utsunomiya and do an internship at a Japanese law firm for three weeks. I went to the Ministry of Justice, to some symposium on legal assistance, to the Diet of Japan, the German Embassy and lots of other places where you meet powerful people. It's an experience and I only wish it wouldn't be that hot here. But it gets better...

Mostly I look forward to the last week of my trip, because then I will go to Niigata again and meet my friends there and go to all the great restaurants I love so much there.
Then I go back home and have a lot to do if I want to pass my exams next year. But I have the greatest supporter one can have and I really look forward to our reunion.
So, I don't wanna bore you anymore and just show you some pictures.
The album with the photos from my first ten days can be found here
and the pictures afterwards here (Iwill post more in the next three weeks).

Yes, that's the mayor of Utsunomiya. We are now friends of the city! Officially!!!

Magdeburg

2009-04-07T11:14:00.003+02:00

Last week I have been to Magdeburg to visit my friend Roland whom I met two years ago in Niigata. That's him:

I stayed just two nights at his place but it was really fun. And believe it or not he is standing right in front of the Hundertwasserhaus of Magdeburg. You know I just visited the one in Vienna half a year ago.

We explored the city a little. One of the spring highlights would be the parks in Magdeburg which have these nice little blue flowers all over them.

On Friday we had a brilliant meal at a local steakhouse and in the evening we went to see the show of German comedian Jürgen von der Lippe. I didn't know him too well, but I really enjoyed the show.

Besides Roland and me had a few great philosophical conversations and I met some of his friends who are really nice. All in all it was a great trip (except for the damn trains...) and some more photos are here.

2009-03-26T19:46:00.005+01:00

Atheist Bus Campaign is coming to Germany

2009-03-10T13:08:00.004+01:00

Hello everybody,

I just found out that the by now quite famous Atheist Bus Campaign, which started in the UK (where else?), is coming to Germany. I immediately donated 10€ from my incredibly tiny little bit of money I own right now. But I think it's worth it. So check out the Campaign at:

It was about time. So many countries already had it. Now it is coming over here.

Go watch the WATCHMEN

2009-03-05T22:39:00.005+01:00

All right. It's opening night for Watchmen in Germany and after checking out if it is censored in this dumb country (seems not) I went to the movies this afternoon.

And oh my, what should I say. Go and watch it. I don't even know where to start in explaining what a great movie it is. Well first I am a great fan of the comic (of Alan Moore in general) and so far I liked the movies they made out of Alan Moore's comics (though he doesn't).

The movie is really very true to the comic and if you liked the comic then you will enjoy the movie. The cast is great, although I didn't really know anyone of the actors yet. And most of all: The Soundtrack is just amazing. Being a fan of older rock/pop and folk music the intro with Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A'Changing" already brought a huge smile over my face and I was totally captured by all the details displayed on the screen. The graveyard scene with Simon and Garfunkels "Sounds of Silence", hell I loved it so much.

It is such a great movie that I will go and watch it again if this damn cinema here in Muenster shows the original English version. Oh yeah and that is the point where I turn to the complaining part of this post. Screw dubbed movies. What's the point? Why can't we be like other countries where you get the original voices and subtitles? I hate this so much. As far as I can say the dubbing was pretty good, but I don't know the original yet. But I don't want German voice acting in cinema. I want the original, no matter if I speak the language or not. At least have both versions. Dammit!
And the next big issue is an evil moneymakers thing. Just like the Lord of the Rings movies (which I think suck btw), we don't see the whole movie on the big screen. No, we have to wait till the DVD release (which I did with LotR - never seen the short version). Since this is something which catches more and more on around the production companies I think movie enthusiast all over the world should unite and boykott studios which do this kind of thing. Write letters and don't go to the movies unless they promise to show you the whole film.

Well, in a world where people were this considerate it would be possible, but I'm dreaming here. But even if we are not able to unite, I foresee that in a few years people will be more and more frustrated with this policy and they will go less and less to the cinema. It is debated about a crisis of cinema. Well studios, it's YOUR damn own fault.

So to recap:

Watchmen - awesome
dubbing - sucks
film studios - evil

See ya'

Court strikes down California's violent video game law

2009-02-22T23:16:00.004+01:00

Oh yeah it's true. I might reconsider some opinions I have on the United States. What is not possible in Germany was so easily done by three judges of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California. They abandoned a stupid law that would censor video games.

They ruled it is against free speech and the government could not provide any evidence that violent video games cause violence in the real world. It is so easy and so reasonable. Why can't we have such rational thinking judges in this country.

Well, the Terminator again is going to appeal to the Supreme Court. So the war isn't won, but this fight is. How come that a guy whose success is built on brutal action now tries to abandon his own work (as a logical, not legal consequence)... Don't understand!

Anyway, a great day for freedom

Read the article

Day trip to Bruges

2009-02-15T17:59:00.003+01:00

Hello! Yesterday I went on a little daytrip to Bruges (or Brugge) in Belgium with a few friends.
At first we always talked about going to Rotterdam, but I didn't mind where we go. I am always up for a trip to a place I haven't been before. We went by car (fortunately I didn't have to drive) and arrived around lunchtime in Bruges. The town was totally overflowing with tourists, which probably is very normal for a saturday afternoon.

Here is a picture from the inner city's Grote Markt:

As you can see we had really amazing weather. This was very surprising, because on Friday it was still snowing, raining and very windy.
So we walked around the city the whole afternoon while I was slowly starving and finally the best part of the day for me was our dinner around half past six in a cosy little restaurant. I had a great fish dish with fries and salad.

Afterwards we looked around the nicely illuminated city again

and around half past eight left for Muenster. While everybody bought some Belgian chocolate and pralinés to take home, I bought some bottles of great Belgian beer.

It was a nice little trip and all the photos I took can be found here.

Happy Birthday Charles!

2009-02-13T11:55:00.003+01:00

Yes, I know that I am a bit too late. But yesterday I was way too busy doing nothing. So here I am congratulating one of the greatest geniuses of science to his 200th Birhtday: Charles Darwin!

Well, I hope that there will be still people out there sending his greetings when he turns 300. With the ongoing decline of reason and scientific understanding in todays so called free societies (especially among the leaders) you really can't be sure. It might be possible that some dumb creationists go totally nuts at one point in the future and start burning all evidence of his mere existence.

By the way. Time to make a general comment about governments. Isn't it sad to see people in power who don't have a clue about what they are doing? This might be a general problem of what the rich want us to make belief is democracy, but think about it. You have people in your parliaments all over the world (well other forms of government probably aren't much better) who don't know a thing about the things they have to legislate about. I mean, how many politicians are scientist (yeah I know that Mrs Merkel is a physicist - doesn't seem to help)? How many politicians are there who know something about information technology? Just look at Germanys minister of family affairs or our minister of the interior. They obviously never bothered to think about how the internet works (or computers in general), otherwise they wouldn't make such dumb attempts to censor everything.

Well, seems I am drifting away from my original idea. I just wanted to thank Mr Charles Darwin for his great findings and hope it will still be taught in schools in the future and not banished - even in the US.

BPjM censors Blog - What the fuck is going on in this country?

2009-01-23T21:23:00.003+01:00

All right. It happened again. But this time the dimension is way darker than ever.

As it happens to be, there is a group of people out there who have a certain mental illness named anorexia and some of them think it's really cool. They call themselves Pro Ana. Some so called celebrities belong to this circle and try to spread the message. But even people from your neighbourhood want to be part of it and convince other people that it is cool to throw up your food once in a while. Best way to do this nowadays is a blog, just like this one (probably more professional). And why not? Just because I don't like it, doesn't mean they should not do this. I bet a lot of people think the same way. Well, not the German government in the form of the BPjM.

As I told you in an older post this dumb ministry wants to be the watchdog of german households and tries with every possible means to prevent people from using their fundamental right of freedom of art and expression. They say it is for the good of our children (yeah right - shouldn't that be the parents choice?), but truth is they prevent grown up people like me from watching uncensored Rambo movies.

And now private organizations help them out. There was this Blog of some german Pro Ana kid and they put this blog on their dreaded index list. Normally I'd say this won't have any effect at all, but unfortunately she had her blog hosted on google, which probably means on here, on Blogger. So, just like in good old China, google backed down and deleted the blog, because this damn ministry didn't like it. Well, fuck them! Fuck them all! Just like they closed one of my favourite blogs - Bizarre Japan. Well, you can close mine too if you like. I'm actually considering changing to wordpress for a while already - we'll see.

You know what? I want stuff on the internet from Al Kaida, Scientology, churches...
I want Nazi stuff and disgusting porn on the web. I want to read about the Scorpions Album Virgin Killer on Wikipedia even when I am in Britain. Yeah - I heard about that shit too. Poor people on the island, but you see it is not better on the continent.

And I definitely want Pro Ana websites - who cares!?! So, here is a little advice for the blogging girl, go to a blog host outside of Germany and put up your stuff again, I hope you got a backup. I even help you with it if you read this.

And all that because I truly believe that even a dumb and shitty opinion is still an opinion and we should sherish free speech.

So, till the next post and this is were I got the news from.

And because it is so much fun I have a sick, crappy video for you! And yes - they are serious! So don't watch it if you can't take it!

Beer!

2009-01-13T12:07:00.002+01:00

I hereby promise to reduce my beer consumption to one bottle a day!

Back to Muenster

2009-01-09T22:03:00.003+01:00

Hello people,

just a rather short one today. I don't feel like posting recently. So, first thing: I am back to Muenster!

Why? Because Trier really sucked! And when I say it sucked, I mean it sucked!
And that's all there is to say about it. Well, maybe I should mention that I was just really annoyed by Trier University. They didn't put any limitations on any subject this term, which means they took everybody in, which means it was totally overcrowded. Imagine rush-hour on any metropolitan subway line (e.g. the Yamanote Line in Tokyo) and you know what the lectures looked like. I mean, just what were they thinking?

So I put all my stuff back into huge boxes and went straight back to Muenster. Of course I lost some time and obviously some confidence as well, but what the hell. I am back and I am gonna stay till I graduated, which should be sometime around spring 2010.

But to tell you something nice as well. Five days after I did move into my new appartment I had my first visitor. Catherine from Swansea came over the last weekend before Christmas. You might remeber my post from April, when I went to Britain to visit her.

And on Sunday another visitor came by. Dennis from Braunschweig to visit both of us. Awesome weekend. And here a photo Dennis made with his new fish eye lens.

Four Days in Vienna

2008-11-09T18:50:00.004+01:00

Hello good people,

let me tell you about my latest journey to the capital of Austria. A friend of mine, Azusa's her name and we met in Niigata, came to Vienna last week. At first I just thought that it might be possible to go there and meet her. And so I did.

It was a really cool time. Since she was busy the whole day with the World Conference of the ILGA, we normally could meet in the afternoon at around 5 or 6 p.m.
So I spent the whole day sightseeing. A lot of walking around Vienna. But the weather was nice and there was a lot to see.

Best shots:

I went to the Sigmund Freud Museum:

From Wien (Vienna) November 2008

That's the waiting room for his patients. Unfortunately his famous red couch is not there anymore, but in London.

The Hundertwasser - House:

From Wien (Vienna) November 2008

It looked much nicer than the sourrounding buildings.

The parliament:

From Wien (Vienna) November 2008

That's my friend Azusa by the way.

And my absolute favorite was the park at castle Schoenbrunn:

From Wien (Vienna) November 2008

It was so beautiful and the weather was soooo nice. I really enjoyed walking around the park. And you could also get a real good view of the city when you climbed up the hill:

From Wien (Vienna) November 2008

I finished Thursday with a visit to the Natural History Museum, which has one of the largest collections in Europe. I couldn't really see everything. I guess I could spent a whole day there, maybe more. It's amazing.

From Wien (Vienna) November 2008

So, other photos can be seen here. And next time I'll tell you why I am gonna return to Muenster.

A Sad Anniversary

2008-09-17T12:03:00.003+02:00

Well well, today exactly one year ago I came back from Japan to Germany. An event bringing lots of joy to my family and friends but not necessarily to me. I mean, of course it was nice to get back for a while and meet everybody here after being one year away, as well as meeting a bunch of new people whom I really appreciate having gotten to know.
But then again, I miss all the people I met over there. Some are still there, some also returned to their home countries. And I miss a lot of other things as well. It would be useless trying to write them all down.

Instead I am going to recapitulate the last year. Well I met up with lots of people I met in Japan, some of these events are mentioned in this blog.
And I finished my specialization in Criminology here at Muenster University, at least I hope I did - still waiting for the results. But all in all I have to say it was a rather boring year compared to the one before. This might be normal, but it shouldn't be.

So what's next? Next week I am going to move to another city. From Muenster to Trier:

Trier is much smaller, so I hope I won't be annoyed by this fact. I prefer larger cities normally. I will go on studying law there since I am not finished. But I also will start with Japanese Studies. Yes I know that I am kinda crazy, but it is something I need to do. After being so disappointed with law and realizing that the existing legal system is just made to support/protect the people with money or to push through political agendas, I just need to go into another direction.

If everything works out I will be going back to Japan for another year in 2010. That's a pretty long time, but then again it's not if you consider that I will already have to apply for it in a few months.
But my next real goal is to find a new part time job down there and save up some money to visit my friends in Japan next year.

So, tonight I am going to play some pool billiard with a few friends and celebrate this sad anniversary.

DON'T watch Hulk in Germany!

2008-08-21T13:51:00.003+02:00

Hey good people out there!

I already mentioned my disappointment after watching the new Hulk movie with Edward Norton here in the Cineplex in Muenster. Well, first thing: It's really cool. I love this movie. But it is censored. Despite that article even the 16 rated version is cut so bad that you really notice it.
But this time not the governmental agency is to blame, but the rental company Concorde Film.

I tried to phone them and was told to write an email, which i did of course. But they didn't answer my mail. I will try to phone once more and will write about the outcome.

The saddest think is, that from the same company came Iron Man, which again was great. Now, after having researched the Hulk movie on the net I found out that Iron Man was cut as well. I didn't notice when I saw it. Well, I just can ask any reader to write a protest mail to
Concorde Film at: info@concorde-film.de as well as to Marvel, to give their license to somebody else. On their website you can also find their telephone number in Munich.

So, the new Batman started today. I think it isn't published by Concorde Film and so I can go and watch it.

A short trip to the East

2008-08-02T11:56:00.003+02:00

So, finally after more than a year I went to see my friends Christine and Martin last weekend in Wernigerode. We met in Japan, but unfortunately they had to leave already in March 2007 after half a year. As you may notice on the photo, by now they have a little son named Constantine, who just happened to turn one year last month.

Together we went up the Brocken, which is the highest mountain in northern Germany with 1141m and under the name of Blocksberg supposed to be one of the main meeting points for witches. Lovely, isn't it?

We had amazing Sushi for dinner, which I didn't eat since I left Japan. I always thought it can't be as good here.

Well, it was a short stay and on Sunday evening I went to the next location of my journey: Braunschweig. There I met another friend from Japan, Dennis and his girlfriend Andrea, whom I have also met in Niigata last year when she came for visit. (I might edit this post when I get the photos from everybody.)

Dennis and I went to Wolfsburg on Monday, to visit the famous Autostadt. I thought it was more of a big commercial from Volkswagen and you have to pay quite a lot to see it (12€ for students). So I cannot really suggest it. It is mostly boring.

But since I am really into Oldtimers, at leat they have some in their showroom which look like this one:

What I found mostly interesting was the actual Volkswagen factory. Just to show you my amazement while looking at it. I think it looks like the Pink Floyd cover of the album Animals. Well, hail to industrialization!

The next day I had to head home again, to pick up a friend and then we went to Neuss to the annual Shakespeare Festival to see Hamlet. It was great!

All the photos can be found here

Now I am back home and trying to find out why the fucking movie rental company which licensed the new Hulk movie did censor it although it has a 16 rating. Wait till my next post for that.

Thoughts about LOVE - Part I

2008-07-10T15:55:00.003+02:00

Hey there everybody (I wonder if actually anybody is reading this blog from time to time - if so, please write a comment - I'm curious),

anyway I thought I'd share a short, but incredibly funny movie with you. A friend showed this to me a while ago and I looked it up for you on youtube and here it is:

It seems that this piece of art is already quite popular according to wikipedia. I think it's hilarious and therefore worth sharing.

If you think about it for a while it kinda stops being funny. I think it is more a mere sarcastic reflection of reality. At least in my experience. I bet there are some happy people out there.
Feel free to write me.

Do NOT buy American Pie for SingStar on PS3!!!

2008-06-05T19:56:00.004+02:00

Today I am going to tell you a story about a big company cheating on its customers. Last Saturday I was on the birthday party of my friend Robert. After a nice BBQ and a few beer we decided it might be funny to play some SingStar on the Playstation 3 (yeah I'd like to have one too). After a while we sang all interesting songs (not many anyway) and 'cause I was the one with the VISA Card, we thought why not download a song. It's 1,49€ per song. I think that's really expensive, because you can't do anything with it but use it in this shitty game, which itself costs a lot of money. Anyway, one song for a Saturday night is OK. Of course you can't pay just this one song, no you have to charge your stupid Playstation online account with at least 5€. OK, did this. Then after just 20 minutes I finally decided to buy Don McLean's superb classic "American Pie". I did this one at karaoke in Japan, which was really fun.

Well, unfortunately after like 4 minutes the song was over (yes I know that you can choose between a long and a short version - I took the long one at the beginning). Weird isn't it? Actually the song is more than twice as long in real life, just not in the Sony store. Proof? here comes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_pie
It says 8:30. Well 4:11 for single PART ONE. What the hell, so I bought PART ONE from Sony. For bloody 1,49€??????

Yeah I know it is unbelievable, but that must be the explanation.

Of course I e-mailed Sony, and surprisingly even got an answer. Well - just forget it. It was something like: "Oh yeah, we always sell the radio versions of the song blah blah blah... Hope we could help you blah."
No, you couldn't help me. You could fucking give me my money back and shove this god damn half of a song up your #@!*µ if you are not able (willing I guess) to put a big note in the online shop which says: "Well if you wanna buy this song we have to disappoint you. We wanted to save the money for licensing the whole song, but you can get half of it for the same price. And what radio version?!? My radio station plays 8:30min if they play "American Pie". Do they think I'm a complete idiot? Do they care?

Thanks no, never buy this song on SingStar and be careful with all the others in the shop. I don't know about them, but beware of the big company.

Six Days In Britain

2008-04-10T16:32:00.005+02:00

Last week (from Monday to Saturday, for the first time in my life) I visited the beautiful island to the north. Great Britain. Well, I just made it to England and Wales, but that's something for this brief visit, isn't it?

I started early in the morning with my easyjet flight from Dortmund to London. Having a little spare time before my bus to Bristol I went off and visited Buckingham Palace.

Off I go to Bristol on a two hours bus tour, where I got picked up by my friend Cathy, whom I know from our stay in Niigata, Japan. She showed me a little around the city

In the evening we visited a nice Jazz bar and met up with another friend from Japan: Yoshie.

The next day the three of us went to Bathby bike (some old city around Bristol, with Romans - well they were everywhere). It was rather hard since I am not really used to riding a bike (yeah I live in Muenster right now, but you know what - just living in Germany's No. 1 bike city doesn't mean I have to ride my bike, I got a student bus ticket), but still a lot of fun. Anyway here are the two wonderful ladies in Bath:

The same evening Cathy and me went to her home-town Swansea in Wales. The next day was Exploring-Swansea-Day. Unfortunately it was really foggy, so the most beautiful beach of whole Britain (I was told) looked more like the end of the world. You know, if you fall you never gonna hit ground.

Back to Bristol. Pub time!

On Thursday then I went to London alone and stayed there at some Youth hostel. Was OK there, I met a funny English guy. Neil, a glass-blower who claimed to have made the rum bottles from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Well, he seemed nice and honest so I believe him.

I walked around London a lot. I mean A LOT!!! I didn't have much time, but it was way cool. All week long was great weather by the way, nothing like the winter feeling I experienced when I got back on Saturday. I was quite impressed by the dinosaurs in the Natural History Museum. When you go to London check it out, it's free. No entry charge! (A special note to all creationists - Look at the dinosaurs. They didn't get extinct recently because they didn't fit Noah's Arc. Just look at them! They are hundreds of thousands of years old. This one's supposed to be 150 million years old.)

So that's it. All the photos right here

Changing standards in a society

2008-03-29T13:56:00.004+01:00

After having already told you how ridiculous this country I live in can be on the example of Rambo 4 I give you an even better one today. Maybe for a better understanding on how censorship is done in Germany you can read the wikipedia article on this great institution of the "Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons". Share my frustration while reading that Germany is the only so called western democracy with such an institution (although there are some similar censorship mechanism in other countries).

Anyway, my example for today is the story of an old 1982 video game called River Raid. Again there is this great wikipedia article. Note that the section titled "German controversy" is larger than the description of the game.

This game way indexed (means banned) for amazing purposes: "Minors are intended to delve into the role of an uncompromising fighter and agent of annihilation (...). It provides children with a paramilitaristic education (...). With older minors, playing leads (...) to physical cramps, anger, aggressiveness, erratic thinking (...) and headaches." (BPjS-Aktuell Heft 2/84), as you can read in the article.
"...playing leads to (...) headaches." Great, this was seriously mentioned as one of the reasons for banning this game? I can't believe this shit. Well, some of my teachers in high school gave me incredibly painful headaches. How about banning them from school?

Well, and the best part is that in 2002 this game was re released as part of the Activision Anthology for the PS2, rated free for all ages.
So if you wanna have a look you might be able to buy it from amazon.

Have fun with a forbidden game. And if anybody still gets headaches, please write me a mail.

Tibet

2008-03-27T15:48:00.004+01:00

Hey Everybody!

I guess everybody who heard the news the last two weeks knows about the newest violent events in the still by China occupied Tibet. If there is anybody asking him/herself what to do please take a look at the ICT Website at

http://www.savetibet.org

Even a small gesture of support, for example by writing to one of your politicians or whatever else, will probably help.

Let your politicians know that international relations means more than just commerce.

John Rambo or why I hate Germany

2008-02-27T17:28:00.005+01:00

Let me tell a little story about this damn country I live in. We have such strong censorship concerning everything with a bit of violence, that it is very hard for a grown up person to get the movies or video games he wants in an uncut version (or at all).

A nice example is the new Rambo movie “John Rambo” or call it Rambo IV if you like. Well you see, the movie has an 18 rating now. So if you are an adult in Germany, which you are according to the laws of this ridiculous country, when you turn 18 years, you are allowed into the cinema to watch it. But what you will see then is not the whole movie. NO! An 18 rating is not enough, they had to cut out one minute, otherwise there was no chance of screening it at all in theatres around the country. And the reason for this is, because the movie is harmful to children. (Who are not allowed to watch it) Does anybody see my problem?!?

Well, rational people might say: “If it is adult rated anyway and adults are allowed to decide for themselves how much stupid violence they want to see, then there wouldn't be any need of censoring this movie!” And they are absolutely right! But since we have stupid politicians and even more stupid laws made by them, a grown up person is treated like a child by this country and his decisions are taken away from him.

What can I say about so much idiocy? Not much, just that I am glad to live in Muenster, which is pretty near to the Dutch city Enschede, where I will be able to see an uncensored version of the movie. And even if it is rubbish, I will watch it. Because I want to and because it should be my damn right in a so called free country to watch it.

And hopefully one day either they will change something here and respect free speech and freedom of art again or I hopefully get the chance to leave.

Strasbourg

2008-02-18T18:39:00.014+01:00

After my last exam on Thursday morning it was a great relief to know that the next morning I would go to Strasbourg and meet my friend Richard there.

No better way to start your holidays, right?

After a long journey on the train I arrived around half past four in the afternoon and met Richard at around half past five. Being in total agreement (R: What we gonna do tonight? Me: We go for drinks Both: Beer!), we went to a cool bar which was part of a brewery in Strasbourg. They had really great beer there.

The next day going for some sightseeing in the city. We saw the Cathedral, the European Parliament (it is interesting to visit the places where they waste our money) and other places of this really beautiful city. I'd like to live there for a few months I think. Most people speak both French and German (although with this southern accent).

But one of the best things was our culinary experiences that day. At lunch we ate crêpes which where absolutely revolting and dinner we had "all you can eat" Flammekueche (Tarte Flambée). Amazing! Went to some bar in the evening and the next morning we had time for a small breakfast near the station and back home again.
More photos here!

All in all a really great weekend!

A New Hope

2008-02-09T14:49:00.000+01:00

All right good people. There we are. After months of lazyness I am back with a new blog. It will be something like a Part II of my Japan Blog and is basically designed for friends to show them whatever is going on in my life.
Anyway, don't expect too much. I might feel lazy again. Oh right and if you didn't notice yet, this time I will write in English.