nah. in Germany you can go to either "middle school" (realschule/hauptschule) or "gymnasium" after elemantary. (there are a few mixed forms but let's keep it easy). middle school is 6 years gymnasium is 8 or 9 years.

if you finish middle school you can either get an apprenticeship or go to a 2nd "secondary school" like I did. if you finish the Gymnasium you can go to university right away.

I kinda fucked up in regular school 'cos I didn't care so that's why that was kind of my last chance to do something worthwhile. I went there for 2 years and now I am able to study at most universities/colleges. not medicine or astrophysics but quite a lot.

so after US standards I guess I went to a community college. but it was a private school. now I can get a bachelor etc. if I hadn't done it I'd be on a level of a sophomore high school student lol. at least on the paper.

I think the main difference between the German and US school system is the fact that classes are usually permanent over here. so you're in a class with the same guys from 1-4 and 5-10/12 and the fact that you're separated on terms of abilities.

if you're dumb you'll never get into Gymnasium and you're not be able to go to a university. tough luck. that's why there are schools like mine that provide you with the chance of getting a degree that allows you to still do that on a certain level. I could've done it from the start. I skipped first grade, went to Gymnasium at first but my punk attitude when I was ~15 was in my way haha. I didn't give a shit.

but I guess I've been wiser lately so I'm glad I did this. now I'm looking at 7 semesters for my bachelor. and 3 more for a master.

e: I couldn't say what system is better. I'm kind of intrigued by the image of a typical high school through media. it's really quite different from the experience you have in Germany.

Germany sounds complicated. I've recently realized that my graduating from a university has meant jack shit, because both jobs I've work didn't care about my degree, just my experience (which was all hobbyist).

School is gay. I don't regret going too much as I've had good experiences and gotten a lot done, but I can't help but think as I prepare to enter my last year (undergrad year at least) that it was a colossal fucking waste of money. Practically everything I've learned I owe to the fact that I work in the studio a lot and take advantage of the library.

Been going over some late-90s earlier 2000s movies I hadn't seen in a while lately. Watched Requiem for a Dream today, American Beauty yesterday and before that Magnolia. Tom Cruise is great in Magnolia; it's maybe his best performance. He's one of those actors who is very adept at playing a certain type of character - strong and confident but with some crippling fundamental weakness lurking underneath it all (probably has to do with him as a person what with his being blackmailed by the CoS). My DVD copy has a whole Frank TJ Mackey seminar on it that I've yet to watch, need to get on that.

RESPECT THE COCK, TAME THE CUNT

the team i support won the brazilian cup last night after twelve years
i plan to stay drunk until sunday. fuck it, until monday!

Woher aus D kommste, kurt?

Summer vacation has started, 4 weeks of PAID fucking vacation.

So: Carnivore and beer

Why is Maverick getting nigmailed by the Church of Scientology? (I assume that is what you meant by CoS?)

There have been rumors about his sexuality dogging him for his entire career. One popular rumor is that the Scientologists blackmailed him into membership on threat of revealing his secret homosexuality. Could be an urban legend, but I like to believe it's true and I suspect CoS wouldn't be above such a tactic. Supposedly the reason Katie Holmes got the divorce finalized so quickly in exchange for her keeping her mouth shut about it. I don't care about celebrity gossip but I'm a sucker for Scientology stuff, especially the Sea Org child indoctrination program.

I've met some people who came out of that program and they are severely fucked, way too strange to operate in normal society. I used to get Scientology mail sent to my house by mistake, definitely kept all of it, though I don't know where it is now.

Ah yea I have heard of "Sea Org". Some guy was trying to tell me how bad Crowley is, thinking he knew everything not knowing that I have been a Thelemite for 10 years, and was saying that Crowley brainwashed kids on a ship and molested them which is when I found out that rumor was actually about Hubbard and Scientology. I want to go on that ship just to see what the fuck happens during the whole thing. On a similar note I would love to attend a Bohemian Grove gathering.

I love it when people are talking about something they know fuck-all about and don't know that someone who does know about it is sitting there silently listening to them. About a year ago at my old Methadone clinic there was this 25-26 years old kid talking to like 6 people about how he was injured in Iraq and that is how he got addicted to painkillers, going on and on about protecting the border of Iraq and being in firefights "like everyday for hours" and how he watched groups of terrorists just walk over the border of Pakistan and Iraq and he couldn't even fire at them because of their Rules of Engagement (which he called "reason to shoot" lawlz) at which point I asked "did you guys patrol that border between Iraq and Pakistan everyday?" and he said "yea pretty much every day because our base was right on that border" and I then said "that's crazy because Iraq doesn't border Pakistan, there is an entire, gigantic country called Iran in-between them." Some people laughed a few others were visibly mad at him since they were actual vet's. I thought he was going to cry his face was so red. It was great.

I would really like to see the Cremation of Care ceremony at Bohemian Grove in person. I haven't seen any good (i.e. useful for navigating on foot) maps of the grove and it's a very large property so it could be hard to find the owl statue. I wonder if the area is surveilled by cameras. Probably not since the members wouldn't want to have their actions caught on video, opening them to potential blackmail.

You can get into serious legal trouble for impersonating an officer. I've heard stories of bootcamp dropouts doing it to avoid going back to their hometowns in shame. Trouble is most of them are too stupid to do the research.