3 posts tagged “rant”

I just took a test over on spiegel.de which was entitled, "Are You Smart Enough to Be German?".

While the overall "format" of the test on spiegel.de is pretty annoying - 33 questions, equal to roughly 66 pages and 66 clicks (if you never make a mistake) - something else struck me more.

Overall I question the usefulness of this test. Point taken, this is not the real deal but it's a sample of the kind of questions you have to answer on a test if you apply for citizenship in Germany. For example, there is a question which presents you with four choices (names of landmarks/districts) and you have to select the one located in Bavaria.  I only guessed that one "correct" and had never heard of it before.

Another question of relevance - what are the colours in the flag/seal of the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg? I guessed that one correct as well. Point is, why is that important in being German? Or my favorite question - the state capital of Hessen? Guessed that one correct as well, but why would anyone care?

Another thing I noticed was, that on 33 questions roughly a third or maybe half of all questions were about the West-Germany. Only a single question on East-Germany. Let's hope that the questions rotate, but how do they raise awareness for the former East-Germany? I don't want to be a nay-sayer nor am I one of those people who claims that the East was better than the West (not by far), but I still think people should be aware of the history - just like Hitler and the 3rd Reich. It's an integral part of German history and also part of our identity and who we are.

The score:

You scored 33 out of a possible 33 points.
Well done! You would have no problem getting a German passport.

Gee thanks, spiegel.de. I am really glad, especially because I was born in Germany and have a German passport already! For full disclosure I will have to admit that I actually made two mistakes (31/33) - I misread a question and then clicked the wrong answer on another. But I sure hope I would still have no issues getting a German passport.

Regardless of my own score, I seriously doubt the effectiveness of such a test. Be it online, or in reality. After all, this is more in the trivia-category than anything else.

Eine neue Kampagne - Sei Berlin, und wir sind wieder Meckerweltmeister.

Das geht mir langsam schwer auf's Glied. Es gibt selten Kampagnen die irgendeine Chance auf Akzeptanz haben, weil die Blogger A-List so lange meckern muss, will und darf, bis es die dumme Herde auch scheisse findet. Ich fand diese Gebahren das letzte Mal verdammt nervig, da wurde die "Du bist Deutschland"-Kampagne in Grund und Boden geredet, an statt daran teilzunehmen war's nur scheisse und nicht richtig, und uncool, verpasste Chance, und blah, blah, blah.

Ja, die verpasste Chance war's vor allem, weil lieber jeder sagt, "blöd". An Stelle teilzunehmen.

Genau das selbe passiert gerade bei "Sei Berlin". Vorallem meckern dann immer Werbeprofis in ihren tollen Blogs die wahrscheinlich nur sauer sind, dass sie den Pitch verloren haben, oder gar nicht eingeladen wurden.

Und am Ende werden Geek-Argumente wie, "OH MEIN GOTT, DIE WEBSITE BENUTZT FLASH", rausgeholt um das Projekt zu verunglimpfen - Hauptsache erstmal dagegen. Oder so tolle Argumente, dass das alles crowd-sourcing sei und man keinen iPod-Nano gewinnen kann.

Selten so gelacht.

Den iPod-Nano sponsor ich für ein gutes Gegenkonzept.

Und Design ist sowieso Geschmackssache.
Über Flash kann höchstens aus Barrieregründen gestritten werden, aber sonst kann die FUD-Keule auch im Keller bleiben.

Keine Frage - alles kann man anders machen.
Vielleicht sogar besser, aber dann mach doch mal etwas.
Meckern ist immer einfacher als produzieren.

Sunday morning, my heating failed - just in time for the winter to come back, or maybe to finally come? I told the caretaker yesterday (in the afternoon) when I got back in and noticed the heating was still not working. She said she supposedly reported it.

I called my landlord this morning to notify her in advance that I am going to call someone on my own if her guy doesn't fix it - she didn't know a thing. Well, now she knows.

I got a call from the service guy at 3 PM today and he told me that he could maybe (!!!) come about at around 5 PM, maybe. Which is almost a direct quote. He has to write down a model number and probably needs to replace a part.

Jesus fucking christ, Einstein. I figured out that much on my own through searching on the Internet (no joke).

Then he actually wanted to (maybe) come tomorrow at 2 PM, but I denied that. I pretty much stressed that he has to fix it today because this place is a fucking gigantic freezer. But he says he doesn't know if he can.

I feel like it's warmer outside, so I will go outside for an hour or two until he comes by.

Update, 3:30 PM
Just got a call from another guy who fixes stuff around the apartment building. He troubleshooted it over the phone and said that my heating's water tank needs to be refilled. He went on to say that there are hooks for a water hose (I have no idea where those hooks are, neither do I own a water hose!) and that it is my responsibility to refill the fucker?! Yeah, he said: "I can't come around for every little thing!".

Update, 4:00 PM
Landlord says I don't need to refill anything. That's what she pays them for.

Update, 5:00 PM
The guy came - right on time. We searched all my apartment for an outlet to refill the heating. Found none. Now he's in the bathroom tearing down one tile at the time trying to find the outlet. He's way obnoxious. I told him that I want it fixed today.

In the process I also discovered that my caretaker didn't call anyone on Sunday. She called everyone this morning.

Update, 5:30 PM
To show my good will, I made him coffee. >:(

Update, 20:20 PM
He left about 45 minutes ago, but got the job done.

In the search process he had to remove four tiles until he discovered the outlet. The bathroom doesn't look too pretty now. And I am glad that he at least seemed to be someone in the know with plumper background to some degress - despite the person who did the job in the beginning.

All in all, it took like him 20 minutes to slowly but surely remove the tiles (without breaking too much) and then he had to fetch said water hose and a connector to go from 0.5 inches to 1.25 inches (or something like that) someone else to refill and test the heating. Which makes it seem even more outrageous when they wrongfully claim that I have to take care of this refill process - even if the outlet had not been hidden by tiles.

To confirm I double checked my info with my grandpa who is a landlord too, and someone who is a lawyer. ;-)

Operation bathroom took like almost two hours in the end. Now I need to clean up the place and wait for them to come back on Friday when they fix my tiles. I also voiced my general concerns (I'm a bitch!) to the landlord about the quality of work provided and the kindness of the people involved here, which I did in hope to speed things up significantly.