September 2006 Archives

I've taken a series of walks through the Lainzer Tiergarten, a huge nature reserve in Vienna. I mainly did this to get some form of exercise and to get out of the apartment during the day. On most recent wandering, on September 14, I hiked up to the highest point of the reserve, Hubertuswarte, which is about 800 meters (2625 feet) above sea level. Back in the 1920s, the city decided to build a 50-meter (164 foot) observation tower on this peak.

It apparently was the ultimate place to take your sweetheart in Vienna for the next couple decades, since nearly all the carvings into the metal paneling are from the 1930s through 1960s. Seeing that you have to walk for over an hour to the nearest gate of the preserve, I suppose it's not the coolest place to go anymore. In any case, I took a lot of photos, since 60-year-old graffiti is hard to come by.

You can see the entire collection here.

Searching for a job, and being international relations major, I have not excluded the possibility of moving to New York City in the not-so-distant future. I've received some comments about New York City crime, which has led me to do a little bit of research. Here are some tables comparing crime in New York City to that of Syracuse, Rochester, Boston, and Washington, DC:

Then I decided to find some crime rate comparisons of countries worldwide. I didn't find too much, but I found this table comparing a few countries:

What's up with Sweden!? It's pretty unfathomable to me that I'm nearly twice as likely to get murdered in Sweden than in the United States! You can read the report regarding this table here.

It's been around 33 minutes since Facebook opened the floodgates to the 6 billion or so people who haven't been able to register under one or more of the supported networks. Amazingly, I have not received any spam yet. Maybe these privacy settings really work! Now I can invite my favorite bartender to Facebook! It is indeed a great day!

I found this solute to nice guys in the A Tribute to The Nice Guys Facebook group. While it's a little harsh at times, it pretty much sums up how nice guys, like myself, often "finish last." Enjoy!

This is a tribute to the nice guys. The nice guys that finish last, that never become more than friends, that endure hours of whining and bitching about what assholes guys are, while disproving the very point. This is dedicated to those guys who always provide a shoulder to lean on but restrain themselves to tentative hugs, those guys who hold open doors and give reassuring pats on the back and sit patiently outside the changing room at department stores. This is in honor of the guys that obligingly reiterate how cute/beautiful/smart/funny /sexy their female friends are at the appropriate moment, because they know most girls need that litany of support. This is in honor of the guys with open minds, with laid-back attitudes, with honest concern. This is in honor of the guys who respect a girl’s every facet, from her privacy to her theology to her clothing style.

This is for the guys who escort their drunk, bewildered female friends back from parties and never take advantage of them once they’re at her door, for the guys who accompany girls to bars and parties as buffers against the rest of the creepy male population, for the guys who know a girl is just fishing for compliments but give them out anyway, for the guys who always play by the rules in a game where the rules favor cheaters, for the guys who are accredited as boyfriend material but somehow don’t end up being boyfriends, for all the nice guys who are overlooked, underestimated, and unappreciated, for all the nice guys who are manipulated, misled, and unjustly abandoned, this is for you.

The nice guys don’t often get credit where credit is due. And I wish I could logically explain this trend, but I can’t. Many girls claim they just want to date a nice guy, but when presented with such a specimen, they say irrational, confusing things such as “oh, he’s too nice to date” or “he would be a good boyfriend but he’s not for me” or “he already puts up with so much from me, I couldn’t possibly ask him out!” or “you’re more like a brother to me” or the most frustrating of all: “no, that could ruin our friendship.” Yet, they continue to lament the lack of datable men in the world, and they expect their too-nice-to-date male friends to sympathize and apologize for the men that are jerks. Sorry, guys, girls like that are beyond my ability to fathom. I can’t figure out why the connection breaks down between what they say (I want a nice guy!) and what they do (I’m going to sleep with this complete ass now!). But one thing I can do is say that the nice-guy-finishes-last phenomenon doesn’t last forever. There are definitely many girls who grow out of that train of thought and realize they should be dating the nice guys, not taking them for granted. The tricky part is finding those girls, and even trickier, finding the ones that are single.

So, until those girls are found, I propose a toast to all the nice guys. You know who you are, and I know you’re sick of hearing yourself described as ubiquitously nice. But the truth of the matter is, the world needs your patience in the department store, your holding open of doors, your party escorting services, and your propensity to be a sucker for a pretty smile. For all the crazy, inane, absurd things you tolerate, for all the situations where you are the faceless, nameless hero, my accolades, my acknowledgement, and my gratitude go out to you.

I believe the author of this is Mark Bluemke of the above-mentioned Facebook group.

Last weekend I was pickpocketed for the second time this summer. It happened, like the first time, on the ride home from a night out. Today I checked out the Consular Information Sheet on Austria by the U.S. Department of State. Check this out:

There has been an increase in theft and pick pocketing on public transportation lines, especially on those lines coming in and out of the city center where even the most travel-savvy and alert tourists have lost everything to gangs of thieves operating in groups, causing great personal hardship and expense.

Beautiful. This time it was my camera and cell phone. Last time it was my wallet and cell phone.

This past week hasn't been too bad, event-wise. I went out Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Monday, which were all great nights out. However, Monday was Kerstin's last night, and it's pretty depressing that she's gone now.

I've gone for several walks in the Lainzer Tiergarten, which is close to my dad's apartment. It's a 2,450 hectar (6,054 acre) wildlife park. The weird thing though, is that I never see any mammals except wild boars, and that has only happened twice as well. Maybe they're all too scared to go anywhere close to any path. However, near the main entrance, the Lainzer Tor, there are fenced-in areas where they keep a collection of the park's mammals.

Yesterday I ran into a whole family of wild boars. I took pictures until one of the parents looked straight at me and grunted. I took that as a cue to leave! I walked around 14km (8.7 miles) yesterday, which took me three hours, not including the half-hour or so I spent at a restaurant in the middle of the woods.

The weather is still supposed to be great today, before getting a little cooler tomorrow, so maybe I should go for another walk today.

Today will be the last hot day of the year in Vienna, according to whatever radio station I was listening to this morning. "Hot" means 30°C (86°F), which is by far hot enough for me. I want to make sure I get out of the apartment today, instead of staring blankly at my laptop while refreshing my Facebook feed all day, waiting for something to change.

The past couple days weren't bad at all, however. Saturday Kerstin had a pool party (no one but her brother and I went swimming), which was pretty fun. Sunday we went to go see Lady in the Water, which was mediocre. Nothing went on Monday, but Tuesday was an eventful day instead. I got a haircut with Kerstin, Kathi, Kathi's boyfriend, and Nikki at this cool salon in the 19th District. For once I wasn't asked the dumb "what do you want done" question. Instead my hair was grabbed and I was given a suggestion, which I simply agreed to. The end result turned out pretty great. Thorsten's grill party was that night, which again was pretty fun.

Tonight we're off to Passage, a fancy club under the Ringstraße. I usually don't go there, but there is always room for exceptions in my life!

Yesterday Facebook added a "Feeds" feature which shows a user's every move on the friends network to his or her friends. The addition caused an immense negative reaction by users concerned about their privacy.

A lot of the activities are a bit creepy, such as seeing when "X writes on Y's wall", when "Y breaks up with Z" and when someone joins or leaves a group. Facebook definitely needs to create line-item privacy options of what activity a user wants to show. However, I see no harm in the feeds feature itself, as it gives a great overview of what a user's friends are up to. If users had actually only added their real friends, instead of hundreds of people they've maybe met once, maybe we wouldn't have a problem!

When a user creates a photo album, they most-likely want their friends to see it. Same would go for a new note or event... At least that would be my expectation. I certainly hope Facebook keeps the general structure of the "Feeds" feature, but allows users to choose how much of their activity they'd like to share, and possibly how much of their friends' activity they'd like to see.

I switched to using Coppermine Photo Gallery today. It makes my life easier, looks better, has more features, etc.

Photos before August 31, 2006 (old gallery)

Photos starting August 25, 2006 (new gallery)