Spreadsheets, Fairy Wings and Progressives

After months of largely cloudy weather and subzero temperatures, we've had a few glimpses of sunshine. Today it was warm enough, at around 6°C when I checked my phone, that the snow caps on parked cars have melted away. A wave of days up to over 10°C is impending. So I've felt encouraged to bed out the sprouted flower bulbs from our pantry in plastic pots with fresh soil, and put them into my south-facing window.

I've had my first week of the holiday career preparation course, which will largely be about Excel. Since I use spreadsheets and calendars a lot e.g. to track how expensive groceries are at different times of year, and want to round out the knowledge of spreadsheets from my last job for my c.v., it is interesting and rewarding. That said, I still feel battered from the semester itself, as well as the job search, budgeting, and the weight of international politics. The room where the Excel classes take place is also a little stifling, although the instructor airs it during the 15-minute break half-way through the 3.5 hour class. So perhaps it's not surprising that Tuesday through Thursday I routinely developed a migraine headache after the first hour or so, trotting home in faintly nauseated misery in the equally airless U-Bahn — except during the minutes where I walked between stations to get fresh air and exercise, and felt marginally better.

In Germany's national news: Our Chancellor recently claimed that we Germans of working age have been picking up part-time work as a 'lifestyle,' depriving our Nation of the good ol' 40-hour week that we should invest instead (unless we are caretakers for children). Statistically I think that Germany's job productivity is fairly high if one compares other EU countries, but 'mine not to question why' our dear CDU has decided that the German economy needs to kill our work-life balance, rather than make a concerted effort to remove bureaucratic hurdles or attract foreign skilled workers. Anyway, it's still being debated. There was some equally charming critique with which our Chancellor was trying to drill the delinquent German workforce into renewed Prussian virtue, but I've forgotten it.

The CDU is generally full of ideas lately. Their pension reform I haven't read about in detail, although the pitched battles between the CDU party proper and the CDU party youth organization sound dramatic.

The happiest development, at the same CDU party conference where these issues are being hashed out,  was that Angela Merkel appeared for the first time since she stopped being Chancellor. My cold, pessimistic soul thawed a little when the Tagesschau showed her in the hall.

I'm wondering when the tide in Germany will turn in the direction of Spain's recent pragmatic acceptance when it comes to immigration. Given that the CDU has just decided (in the first days of the holy month of Ramadan) that they want to ban full-body veils, which I suspect are worn by such an infinitesimal percentage of Germany's population that this ban is even more of a mere racist dog-whistle than it would otherwise be, I'm guessing it will not turn yet.

And Merz's oscillation between firm criticism of wilder trans-Atlantic policy announcements, and wide-eyed Peter Pan insistence that the US federal government will grow fairy wings again if we clap our hands and believe, is also making me dizzy. To be fair, judging by the two dignitaries from Germany's business community who commented in the Tagesschau news on US tariffs today, he's not the only one oscillating in that fashion.

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Anyway, I become especially dogged, cynical and resentful about politics if I don't make little positive changes where possible, so I've been trying to nudge ahead my Detrumpification programme.

A main part is tech independence. A former colleague posted a website that lists online services based in the European Union that can be counterparts to US products. Disenchanted with Google's leadership and not eager to send my data into the claws of the Mar a Lago regime, I've been trying out the French video platform Dailymotion instead of YouTube. So far, the content seems to be different, so a 1:1 comparison is impossible. But news organizations like Deutsche Welle do upload worthwhile reports and I am sure there is more to explore. Dailymotion's videos also offer an 'eco' setting, which is even easier than checking for low-resolution 144 or 240 pixel settings; I usually do that so that I don't waste resources streaming high-resolution video that I don't need. ... Aside from video platforms: If I can figure out how the coding works, I'm planning to migrate my Wordpress blogging to Typo3.

In terms of other aspects of my programme, I've also found that Ms. Magazine's website is a motherlode of leftwing intellectual property. Almost every line of every article would probably make the current administration cringe, so I've been reading the articles regularly.

I also visit other US websites because they are doing good work: e.g. the New York Times, the New Yorker, and (admittedly) the YouTube presence of PBS NewsHour. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Daily Show, and Jimmy Kimmel too, but late night comedy feels more like a Job's comfort than the press's reporting, and — despite their fact-checking — I think the shows' writers do get a few details wrong.

Besides I watched the recent livestream of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's discussion at the Technical University here in Berlin. It was interesting — revealing, too, about German politics, even if Germany wasn't the focus. For what it's worth, I didn't watch video of AOC's panel from the World Economic Forum so I can't speak to how she 'did' there in terms of expertly answering foreign policy questions. Regardless, I've considered her clever and quick on her feet ever since she was first elected to Congress. And her point, made in Berlin, was valid: it is more important to discuss progressive politics in general, also as a way to expound future alternatives to the 47th President, than to speculate if she wants to be a progressive presidential candidate in particular.... Also, I was amused as the university president and the former Mayor of Berlin giggled their way through their introductory speeches — dedicated AOC fans.

My campaign to read Canadian books to support Canada's economy is progressing. I'm reading an audiobook memoir and a contemporary fiction ebook. As both books have a depressing subject matter, I'd say that watching episodes of the comedy show This Hour Has 22 Minutes (especially the one where the production travelled to Greenland and interviewed Greenlandic parliamentarians, the mayor of Nuuk, and other citizens) has been the happier choice.

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Lastly, not related to Detrumpification, but just to mention Berlin news: this evening the Berlinale film festival ended. I watched livestreams of film press conferences, but didn't take any photos this year.

In other news, the escalators at Berlin's main train station are operational again!

Between the Scylla of the Semester and the Charybdis of the Holiday Course

The second-last week before the holidays is winding down:

Monday's Spanish class was online due to the BVG city transit strike and the icy conditions on the sidewalks. It really was quite dangerous until snow fell in the early morning hours on Wednesday, and laid a layer of soft powder over the ossified ice.

Tuesday we discussed El celoso extremeño by Miguel de Cervantes in the Spanish literature seminar. The subject matter — people exploiting power differentials to oppress women — was not very edifying (even if it was timely). Besides I like Cervantes's arch humour better when it's used on different topics, which sounds a bit worldly and learned so I should mention at once that I never finished reading Don Quijote.

Then, Wednesday, the Spanish class held a debate. Our topic: tourism in Berlin. The discussion ended up delving into the problems or advantages of AirBnBs, whether we should be attracting wealthy tourists or not, the responsibilities of local government and of tourists, and lastly the historical and sociopolitical importance of having people visit Berlin and understand what really happened especially in the 20th century.

Besides I found out that I received a 2,7 mark for my second Spanish essay. — That's not excellent, but it is a relief considering that I felt I was 'getting too big for my britches' after getting a 1,0 on the last assignment. It was awkward when I received the feedback sheet, however... I'd gotten top marks ... except that it was a classmate's sheet that the professor had given me by accident! So a classmate knows that I had a far worse mark than he did, my brief optimism withered, and the professor apologized to him but not also to me for the mix-up! Anyway, the mark should not have been high. Finishing writing the essay in the early morning hours, not proofreading it after a good night's sleep, and disabling spell check on my word processing app had led to spectacular grammatical and orthographical errors.

The essay's topic was cheerful, at least. I wrote about the economic effects of immigration.. and I started off my essay by mentioning the news that the Spanish government intends to 'legalize' around 500,000 undocumented migrants.

In the afternoon, in a different class, we discussed an early 20th-century Ukrainian novel, a Bildungsroman, which I prefer to forget about although the class itself was nice.

Today I had an online Greek grammar class. We struggled with when to use the present, imperfect, aorist, or pluperfect, in the subjunctive mood. The English equivalent would be e.g. 'If he had found a telephone, he would have reported his car breakdown.'

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I haven't had luck with the job search yet. Most recently, I sent off one application to a conversation research study that offered a chance to win a gift certificate, and another application to a law firm that needs help in their office. I'm also wondering whether to try to earn small sums here and there by writing, an idea that I'm sure will inspire a hollow laugh in many a person who has tried to do the same on a larger and more serious scale.

That said, I'd kind of prefer to dive into irresponsibility and have lots of time for journalistic outings. Finally visit the Danish embassy to write a piece about its cultural offerings and the contrast to the geopolitical storms surrounding it. Contact Canadian filmmakers who will be at the Berlinale film festival in order to write up their work. Attend a political protest again. Watch local winter sports and gain a little background knowledge instead of feeding the capitalist monster of the Olympics. Find out more about the Washington Post staff who were laid off in the Berlin bureau. Etc. Unfortunately, I don't think it's looking practical right now due to university commitments — not just the last tasks for this semester, but also the 'Allgemeine Berufsvorbereitung' technology course that I will take into mid-March.

In the meantime, I'm trying to lose some of my anxiety about life by revisiting TV shows about life in the 1950s, 'unplugging' to read print media, and doing more housework. Having already watched the Fifties episodes of Back in Time for the Weekend and Back in Time for Dinner, I've moved on to "The Supersizers Eat... The 1950s". Today I cooked a celery, carrot, turnip, onion and chicken soup from a 1900 recipe, as well as green peas, and baked a jam-carrot sponge with apricot jam for dessert. And, less thrillingly, I cleaned one of our bathroom sinks with baking soda, citric acid, hot water and a little muscle-power; took care of personal accounting tasks; and handwashed a load of dishes...

The pension fund windfall I'm expecting didn't arrive in January and I may be in a sticky situation in a year. But I think the worst part is just not having had a mini-job or part-time job since September; it is cracking my sense of self-sufficient independence. This might also not be so bad, however, if I weren't still uselessly self-flagellating about 'failing' at my previous full-time job.

Fortunately, brother Ge. lent his services to one of our aunts for a technical problem recently ... and she sent him chocolate truffles as a thank-you, and he shared the chocolate with us today!