Voice of Consciousness

This has to be one of the coolest things I've ever seen in...yes, in my life. I am staying at The Circus Hostel in Berlin-Mitte (the center of Berlin) for the duration of my stay. These people are on it! Check out the website. There is a thing such as the Cheap Man's Bus Tour . You can basically run the stops that the major tour bus run on public transit for 4 Euros ( a day fare). You get the "tour" part free, from a guy named Jimbo (Jim Hadfield) who will explain to you all the sights that are shown in the buses, plus more. You only have to download the mp3 files to you phone or other music player. And then, what the kicker for me is...video directions from the airport (in my case, Schoenfield) right to the door of The Circus Hostel. It is only two minutes long, and it is on youtube. Isn't it cool?! Wish me luck! AAS

So, in loving memory of my beautiful Beagle, Luther X. Sewell (LXS; pictured below), I am starting a dog blog. Here, I will post pix of all the cute lil dogs I see during my stay and travels. I have such a penchant to snap a picture of a dog every time I see one that this blog may get long. With no further adieu, I introduce you to my first two friends "Acorn" (left) and "Brad" (right), If anyone wants to take a shot at identifying breeds, be my guess It is as if they knew I was looking at them...because they looked back just in time for the flash. Until next time... AAS

Updates: So, I am super excited to report that I have bought my tickets for Rihanna's The Last Girl on Earth Tour. She will be coming to The Color Line Arena in Hamburg, Germany on May 1st, 2010 @ 20:00 (8:00pm). I am a bit afraid of being swamped by teeny-boppers, so I bought tickets in an area where you can sit. Pray for me. While I will be screaming-crooning the words with everyone else (and RiRi), I will not be jumping up and down, drunk, or in any other way out of my mind. Ok, ... I might be out of my mind with excitement, but I should have all physiological functions operating. But seriously, the Germans party hard, and I just want to come out alive. lol I am also super excited to report to you that I will be digging up my ROOTS. Yes! My father has family who lives in Hamburg from his mother's side that most of us have never met. I spoke with my cousin on the phone and got even more excited. He speaks pretty good English and has a noticeable Caribbean accent. Him and his ...

Yes, I have caved to the great powers of Apple. I've had iTunes downloaded on my computer for a long time, but rarely, if ever, have I used it. Until Germany. A friend of mine came and blessed me with some music. Thus, began my tour into the world of iTunes. See, I'm a CD person. I figure if you're that excited about someone, you should support them. Mp3s, for me, had always come from Napster or Limewire, and thus, were for previewing something. Not supporting someone. But it seems as if iTunes has changed all of this. Even still, there are some things I just should not have easy access to...for my own good. A GAP, Inc. credit card is one of those things. Purchasable music at the click of a button is another. As I have moved into the world of fixed incomes (i.e., graduate student for life), I have purchased less music. The positive result of this is that I have a much smaller collection of music that I am very enthusiastic about. The negative result of this is that I do not...

So, this post needs a bit of an introduction (short, I promise). Last summer, I went to Berkeley, CA for an internship at The Warren Institute (UCB School of Law). As a typical nerd and book lover, I bought a box of books with me. It costs me about $30 to ship in there, and another $30 to ship it back. Many of these books were on topics for my dissertation idea at the time. I brought so many books that I swore I wouldn't buy any there. That plan failed. I bought 15 or so books from local used bookstores. I couldn't help it. And I was angry at myself as I bought the books, because I knew I didn't really have the space for more books. But I just couldn't pass up on these deals. Much of these books were also for my dissertation topic at the time. I also couldn't pass up some old Talcott Parsons and Marx books, which have nothing to do with my dissertation. Anyways, I say all this to say that I learned my lesson: Don't bring books on long trips. On this trip, I brou...

The Milan trip was memorable for many reasons. Most of them having to do with traveling arrangements. Six Things I Learned While Traveling To and From Milan 1. Don't fall asleep on the plane during short legs of the journey. If you have to fall asleep, make sure you set a watch to a time five minutes before you're suppose to arrive. Be sure to put it in militiary time if your clock is European. Otherwise, you may miss your journal. This almost happened a couple times as I tried to figure out, why are we already there? why didn't my alarm go off?!?! When you do finally realize that you have to get off the train before you miss your next connection, be sure to: 2. (Do) Not listen to directions from people who are not employees of the train system. Guys like this... are cool. Note he has a red and blue tie on. Sometimes, a guy or lady may wear a red hat or a red blazer. Basically, the employees do not look like passenger. If a passenger is saying to you in broken English, ...

So, recently I went to Milano, Italy (Milan, for us Americans) with a friend of mine. Pictures seen here are courtesy of her (Shameka), since I, not having packed the night before our 4am departure, forgot to bring my camera. The two-night, three day trip (March 26-28) was highly entertaining, primarily because of transportation issues (we'll leave that for another post). I was so impressed with Italy that I will be returning to tour Rome and Naples later in May. Though the trip was short in length, there is much to discuss about it. For now, I will focus on some major points. Later, I will provide a more detail review of our night in Naviglio , a major party district for youngsters of the city. Pictured above is an Italian sign pointing to Milano taken from Domodossola (below), a town in north Italy where we made a connection to Milano from Switzerland (Basel). Upon arriving in Milano, my friend and I were astonished by the heavy police and militiary presence. Below I show you som...