The Starbucks Surprise 24/1/2008

It’s a strange life for someone who’s never been in the United States, someone like me. All the time you hear all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff about the American way of life. Not everything is positive, but we tend to ignore the news of school shootings, wars in the Orient and instead focus on the positive side of things. About how cheap cars are in America, about American fashion, about how American girls dig Europeans…

And of course, Americans and people who’ve been to America never forget to mention Starbucks. The name itself is so wonderfully mysterious. And the names of the beverages : ‘double skimmed hazelnut cappuccino’ among others. Wow.

OK, I admit, Starbucks has been making its way into Europe, mainly the UK (or at least London as far as I know), but I’ve never seen it here in Holland. I was surprised that there were actually two Starbucks establishments at the Schiphol Airport terminal. Why there are two, I do not know, but I noticed that three years ago in London, there was a Starbucks cafe every ten metres or so, which probably means this is how they usually conduct business.

Well, I was so curious that I had to go there and see (and taste) for myself. The hot chocolate was quite good, even if it wasn’t ll that hot. I mean, the cup says: ‘the beverage you are about to enjoy is extremely hot’. Extremely hot is supposed to mean I burn my tongue, which didn’t happen. The hot chocolate in itself was OK. The cappucino was a different story. Although the foam was rather nice, the drink itself tasted a bit like smoked cheese, which in itself is rather pleasant, apart from the fact that it’s your coffee.

A bit of a disappointment really. Neither the hot chocolate nor the cappuccino was worth the money (about 3.4o EUR I think).  I suppose I’ve become another  victim of clever marketing.

But let’s think, they can make you a tall double triple low-fat soy decaf frappuccino. Is this the point of drinking coffee? Isn’t the point of having coffee either to wake up or have a pleasnant chat with someone. Can paper cups with fancy logos be good enough substitute for porcelain?

I don’t know, maybe it’s just this one branch at the airport that let me down, but next time, I’ll have my hot chocolate without the fancy logo.

Peter

In Vino Veritas

Bradley was ill and I was busy, which should explain why this piece comes so late. But as Bradley’s health improves, so do the chances of seeing another article next week.

My head aches. Terribly. It feels like I have tiny, infinitely sharp glass splinters working their way into my brain. I am ill, and have to stay in bed most of the time. But I have to sweat out an article, as I promised, and although I am shamelessly late, I hope you will like it.

Many people, are familiar with a similar sensation, which in some cases is self-induced. Yes, I’m talking about a hangover. I am not an uptight conservative and will not lecture anyone about the evils of drinking. Drinking alcohol is a personal choice, and as long as these choices do not have an adverse effects (for example: drinking and driving) on the society, I cannot condemn them. But why do people drink?

Let’s be completely honest and frank. Booze isn’t even that tasty. It’s either too sour (wine), too bitter (beer) or too ‘hot’ (tequila). In time many people find their preference and stick with it, but nobody, unless this person is a total addict, will drink only booze. The point is that most people drink only occasionally (Friday nights), while some people don’t drink at all. The people who don’t drink are usually considered nerds, at least, that’s how our generation sees it (somehow, I don’t want to belong to this generation).

OK, so after establishing that alcoholic drinks are quite nasty and that people don’t need them for survival. But whenever a group of students decides to go out, they always end up drinking. They claim it’s for fun, but I think we all know better. The Ancient Romans used to say: ‘In Vino Veritas’ (truth in wine). I suppose we could apply this formula to any type of booze. In order to reveal the human nature, one must rid oneself of society-imposed boundaries. Some people can do this without mind altering substances. They just sit down and spill their hearts out, because as another Ancient Roman pointed out, ‘nothing human is alien to them’. Everything is human, there is no shame, no fear, no abnormality.

And unless all people become ’shame-less’ wine is probably one of the ways to seek the truth. Unfortunately, those who seek truth in this manner too intensively, find them selves in rehab. That’s easy, anyone can do that. As for me, I hope to find the truth without wine.

BSJ

The author is not encouraging excessive consumption of spirits for recreational purposes.

iDentity

How do we present ourselves? How do we make the choice of what we want the others to know. How do we select what we want, and why do we reject (or hide) parts of ourselves that are the base of who we actually are.

The modern European and North American (I’m quite ignorant of the other parts of the world and do not have the knowledge to write about them) is very likely a mixture of many different nationalities. Some people claim to be half-half. Many of my friends from high school are half British-half Dutch. But even that can be elaborated upon, whether the British side of the family is from Scotland, Wales or England, etc, etc…

But when we first meet someone, and fall into casual conversation, we say Hi, I’m British/American/Dutch. I have the impression, which might not be the right one, that the Americans usually elaborate just a little further, saying things like: I’m Italian-American or Irish-American and such things, mainly because USA is… USA (I mean that in a good way). But I truly doubt, that unless these people are total snobs or have had arranged marriages, that they really are ‘pure’ Italian-American (just an example), because it is very probable, in a melting pot of cultures that the USA used to be, that every once in a while a person with non-Italian heritage is in the family (this is also untrue if you family is the mafia).

Nevertheless, how do we make a choice about what we call ourselves? Do we consider all the options. I mean sure, some people say they’re half-half, but most of them append it to the sentence like this: ‘I’m *whatever*…[pause]… but I’m also half *something else* actually. Why does our preference go to one and not the other?

I personally believe that no matter what ethnicity or nationality you are, the thing that matters mostly is how you grow up. So if you lived your whole life in the UK, and feel British, then you most likely are. It wouldn’t matter if one of your parents was American Italian and the other Japanese, you are where you grow up. Or rather, where you remember growing up. Because if a person born into a country, let’s say, Switzerland, and six months later, the family moves to the US and stays there until their child is in their teens, it’s more likely he/she will feel like very American despite their family and despite their upbringing. Of course, they’ll claim to be Swiss, but I would say Swiss-American. The amount of time a person spends with his parents and (shall we say) indigenous (?) friends also determines the setup of one’s mind.

I’m also half-half, but I incline to one side, because that is where I grew up. Not that I know nothing about the other, I just always say: ‘My name is Peter and I am Slovakian’. Now that I know how I make this choice to classify myself as something I’m partially not, I must ask: why do we classify ourselves?

I think it’s really just for the convenience. Nobody wants to hear when you meet a person for the first time how your great-grandparents’ ancestors are from Germany and that on your father’s side…. whatever. In my view, when we first see people, it’s not unlike reading a book. First the character is flat, sketchy, even stereotypical. If we continue to read the book, or indeed, get to know someone a little better, we start to see that just like everyone, that person is an individual, with his/her own good and bad traits. So be friendly to people to let them see what a great individual you are (unless you’re not a great individual, in which case I apologize for misleading you).

So what was this piece about? Nothing really, consider it like listening to me thinking out loud. So it’s been quite useless and a complete waste of your time, but hey, that’s what they invented blogging for.

Peter

is this a statement?

Got this just after midnight, apparently. I suppose in the US it was still Sunday, although it was already Monday here. Well, I can’t argue with time zones, so without any further ado: Bradley’s second article. 

ranting is not something i do very well, but the time has come. everywhere i turn, i see people using lower-case letters to write everything. i cannot condemn writing an sms or an msn message in lower case letters. these things are meant to be done fast, and one cannot bother holding down the shift button every other second.

it is when people around you use lower case letters as if capital letters did not exist that really gets me. why do that? your msn name, for example, people have all the time in the world to think of a witty something, and yet they write everything in lower case letters. what is that, some kind of statement? does it make one hip, sophisticated, worldly, upscale or better when you refuse to capitalize? why not take the time to do things right, the way that they are supposed to be done, the way people wrote for hundreds of years.

it just seems so fake, to use lower case letters all the time. like these people care more about the cover than the essence. as if, in order to make things look cool, the lower case letters are essential. not so long ago, there was a un climate meeting somewhere (bali, i think). when they released statements for the press, the screen behind them (you know how every press conference has this backdrop thingy with the name of it, and stuff) read ‘un climate conference’ in lower case letters. why? is the un not important enough to be capitalized. or is this just a way to make everyone think: ‘wow, lower-case letters, un must be so cool, we should support them.’

it is really strange, and it bothers me. one would think that the more developed a country, the better the level of education, and therefore more people should be aware of when to write capital letters. i guess it’s the damn cell phones that teach us to be lazy, while thinking how awesome we are, not capitalizing ‘i’, the beginning of sentence or names like harry potter. but beware, cell phones and instant messaging also kill punctuation. so you should be glad i’m not ranting about that, ’cause man, that would be pretty hard to read.

bsj

Pooh Bear: Why Is It A Compliment?

Althought I have never had a chance to see an real life couple call each other stupid-meant-to-be-cute names (such as: ’sweety-pie’ or ’sugar-puff’), I do have access to television and I do enjoy the odd American film now and then; I still ask myself: why do the script writers allow lovers to call each other ‘Pooh Bear’?

I am no linguist myself and I know very little about etymology, I would guess that Pooh Bear is a reference to Winnie The Pooh. Having said that, I lived the past 18 years without actually having read the book or seen the film, and I was happy to assume that Pooh was just another cuddly bear. My opinion could not be more far from the truth. Having watched a bit of Winnie The Pooh (a really long story, which is not for children’s eyes and/or ears) I concluded that if you actually call your girlfriend/boyfriend Pooh Bear, you deserve to be smacked. Hard. Into the most painful of places.

So what is wrong with Winnie The Pooh. Nothing, except that he is egocentric, fat, always-hungry and rather stupid. These traits are not really worth a compliment. The only redeeming feature of Winnie the Pooh is that he likes honey, which is rather healthier than sugar.

I conclusion, unless your life partner at the moment is fat, always-hungry, stupid and a little self-centred, don’t call them ‘Pooh Bear’; after reading this piece it might seem more of an offense, rather than you tryiong to be gentle.

Oh, and by the way, Happy New Year. May 2008 be better than 2007, bla bla bla (you know the rest).

Peter

Peter Sucks

Bradley refused to make a WordPress account, so I’ll just be publishing this under me, but as you’ll see, I wouldn’t be so keen on writing the next few lines…

Peter sucks. Not too hard, but a little bit, yes. Just like one of the first comments on this blog, his writing is ‘a particular brand of musing’. Naturally, there’s nothing wrong with that, but if you actually look just beneath the surface, you can see that most of the things he comes up with are not very original. Let us take an example from not-so-bygone ages.

I believe it was one of his Top 10 entries which was called ‘Baby’s Got A Secret (Society)’. With a little research, it is not too difficult to find out that the words outside the parentheses are actually taken from a 1994 Madonna song (Secret). I myself would have surely been able to come up with a better title, and I don’t consider myself quite a poor writer. And if you bother to check up other titles, you’ll see that Peter really doesn’t try to hide obvious references to Madonna and her work.

In addition, many of Peter’s politically-themed articles are quite superficial. I admit they have a point, but the reason for oversimplification is unclear, it might be his unwillingness to do thorough research or just a way to reinforce his standpoint (which seems very Micheal Moore like, and we should expect more from someone who pretends to have an open mind). I believe that Peter even said that he does not want to comment on politics, because he’s aware of his lack of insight, so why begin?

But then again, not all he writes is so bad. Sure, the pieces are mostly rather short and often not all that well written, but most of them are fun, and some might even make you think. Not making any further statements about quality, one must admit that blog, as a medium, cannot be taken too seriously. It would destroy its quirkiness and personality. So even if you are as bad a Peter (no offense meant), keep on writing and enjoying the ride.

BSJ