I'm done with Gespensterweb

I'm just fed up with the admins at Gespensterweb and I'm not going to visit this site ever again. Why, you ask? I'll tell you:

Last Tuesday (that was February 6th), I got an e-mail with a new password, and ever since then I wasn't able to log in under my nick there. (I guess I've already written about this, but I'll retell it to make a point.) In the chat - where I could still log in at that time - the admin just told me I had been sacked as an admin and mod. He also told me they hoped I would "continue to participate in the discussions on the site", which I would happily have done - had I ever gotten the chance to.

What first made me suspicious was that I got kicked out of the chat for good soon after my little (on my side private on his side public) talk with the admin. I've not been able to log into the chat ever since - and I know I wasn't listed as an admin before I got kicked, so it can't just have been to change my account in the chat.

What angers me most now isn't that I'm not an admin any longer. I've started working again - even though I'm home sick at the moment ... great timing - and I probably would have asked to leave this job this weekend anyway. So I'm perfectly alright with it and would just have continued to post as a regular user.

No, what angers me is the way they told me about it. I mean, I just get an e-mail with a new password, that can mean anything (they hacked my password, something has gone wrong at the site, it's just a security-measure because they're in trouble at the moment and so on). Both the technical admin and the owner of the site and the forum have my phone number. Both have an e-mail-address. They could have written about it in the same mail I got the new password in, they could have called me. RUPPU (that's the technical admin there) even has my ICQ-number. Instead I have to log into the chat (luckily RUPPU was there) to ask about my new password. There I don't get a private message via whispering (which just I and he could read), I just get told publicly "you're out". That's no great style - and especially doesn't show a lot of ability in working with other humans. Then I write them "I need a new password, so please tell me per e-mail, cause I can't log into the forum or the chat". I even ask them to tell me whether or not they've banned me for some reason. No answer to this mail, either. They just play dead.

So now Gespensterweb has died for me. It's over, I'm going to post in other forums from now on, I'm not even going to visit the site again. It's dead for me.

I doubt anybody there will ever read this - although I gave my blog address as my homepage, because my two websites link to it as well -, but I feel a bit better after writing this post. I'll continue posting on MangaSzene and I've started taking more of an interest in TV.com, where they have a very good forum, too.

A new "Killerspiele" update

Because of recent events (a law that's to be passed by the Bundestag sometimes in the future), I have reawakened the "Killerspiele" crusade. Wallow in fear, all ye politicians and journalists...

The Bavarian CSU - one of the two conservative parties in Germany (actually, everywhere outside Bavaria CSU and her 'big brother' CDU are one party) - has filed in the draft of a new law that will prohibit the sale, purchase and possession of games defined as "Killerspiele". In addition - and that's a new twist to it - real-life games like 'paintball' will also be prohibited.

In essence, a grown-up person who owns a game considered a "Killerspiel" will face a longer stay in jail than a child-molester. And every game - digital or in real life - that is supposed to show "violence against other human or humanoid beings" (and in real life features something vaguely gun-like) will be considered such a prohibited game. But, and that's one of the things that make me want to throw up, those who actually practice shooting in a club are not among those who will be criminalized. Not really a surprise...

I wonder whom the politicians picture as the 'typical' gamer.

It surely isn't the grown-up, rather successful young man who works at a bank, dresses in suits during the day, speaks various languages, maybe even has spent some time at university and - in his meagre spare-time - likes to play "Counterstrike" with his friends over the internet. It probably isn't the thirty-something woman working as a telemarketer, who has spent some time at university as well, is fluent in German and English, currently learns in order to become a web-master once and sometimes enjoys a shooter or role-playing game - those would, as a sword is a very crude form of weapon and most adversaries are either human or humanoid (like an Orc, for example), also be prohibited - after work, either. (You might guess whom I'm describing here - yup, it's me.)

I rather would bet all my money that they still think only retarded kids of 14, who will not even pass the lowest form of secondary school in Germany and will never, ever in their lives vote, play such games. Well, they're wrong (not completely, though, as there are such gamers).

I think it's time for us, the grown-up gamers who quite often are 'valuable members of society' (whatever that means, I've never completely figured it out), to come out in force, write to our representatives or gather signatures to bring this case before the European Court. We can - and should now - show the politicians that it's their current and futures voters whom they discriminate against. After all, in about thirty years the majority of those who play computer games will probably also be the majority of voters - while those who vote for the conservatives today will mostly be gone ... or so senile that they will no longer be allowed to vote.

In other words: In a time not so far away those who are supposedly too immature to decide what game to play or to distinguish between real life and virtual reality will be the ones who decide about the major parties' fates.

We are the People, in a democracy we have the Power - it's high time to make use of this fact. The politicians owe us - we have elected them, we pay their salaries (which come from taxes we pay, after all), it's us they serve, not the other way around.

I'll tell you about a secret: After reading the comments to an article about the new law and reading about the law itself, I'm that close to find out about how to found your own party - and go and kick those politicians' big asses all over the country.

I might even be good at it - there's nobody more able to speak at great length to people who don't really want to listen than a telemarketer (except maybe, these days, a teacher...).

Fear all ye who have awoken the Wrath of Cay Reet! The consequences of your mistake will be too terrible to bear!

My first day

... of the new job is now behind me.

We - my two new colleagues and I - didn't get to do any 'real' work as we first had to learn about the job we'll really be doing from tomorrow on.

For those of you who've been lucky enough to avoid working in telemarketing, the main job of a telemarketer is, of course, talking to people over a telephone. My new job will mean talking to businessmen (of businesses that have need of tires and rims) and get them to register on the page of an online company selling tires and rims over the internet. The whole thing is sound, there's no price to be paid (unless for the tires or rims when ordered, of course) and there's no cheating. I'm quite confident that, after a couple of days to get into the whole thing, I'll be able to do quite well.

This job will keep me out of unemployment until the end of April, at least. What will happen afterwards? I've got no idea, but nor do I care right now. I will see it when it is time for it - and then I'll deal with whatever life will be throwing at me.

I'm no longer an admin

As I can't spent that much time online - especially now, as I'm going back to working fulltime again -, I'm no longer an admin at Gespensterweb.

I just wish they manage to get my account there working again, currently I can't even log in as a simple user ... and I'd hate to leave the forum and chat completely.

I have to admit I'm not worried a lot about not being an admin any longer, especially this afternoon it was very stressing and with my work, learning to be a web-master and this blog, I've got more than enough to do. Writing in forums when I've got the time, is great, but having to spent time in the chat or the forum and look for a lot of things was quite stressing. I just would have liked it if they'd written me something instead of just sending me an e-mail with a new password which doesn't work - and then tell me in the chat "Sorry, we've decided you're not fit for an admin". I won't argue with my fitness for this job - I really couldn't spent as much time online as I probably should have. I just think it would have been fair to tell me directly, not just after I'd logged into the chat to tell the webmaster there - because there was no other way I could reach him, as he's not online with ICQ a lot these days.

If they get my accounts working again, I can go online whenever I've got the time and write whenever I feel the need, not because I'm responsible for something. If they don't manage to ... well, to be honest, currently I'm not sure whether or not I'd register again under another name - I'm not sure whether it would be worth it. I've still got another forum to follow (MangaSzene, where I'm just a user anyway) and I don't see the point in living with the consequences of other people's failures.

That's what you get

... when I don't have the time to regularly post in my blog. As I've been occupied with getting a new job (see below), I didn't have a lot of time for this blog during the last week - and so you get eight new posts all at the same time (this short one and seven more).

I'll continue writing this blog, that much is for sure. I will maybe have to 'optimize' my spare time a little, because I've got a job for eight hours a day now and still work on my web-master. But I'm quite good at multitasking and I see blogging as something relaxing, so I'll have enough time to write more - whenever I feel the need for it.

About my web-master: I'll learn about css-files soon, so maybe I'll then change the look of my blog and create my own style. It will surely take a few more weeks - maybe even months, but I'll do it when I'm ready.

It's still a weakness

When I was a kid, about 10 years old, I was absolutely set on crime stories. I even sneaked into the sections for older kids and grown-ups in the public library in order to find more things to read. And one of the basics for me was everything about Sherlock Holmes I could find.

Years have passed and even though I still like to read crime stories and thrillers, I thought I was over this classic. I'm wrong, obviously, as I have a 'digital book' with all "Sherlock Holmes" short stories and novels on my hard disk - and a couple of the movies as well. Currently it's "Das Halsband des Todes", a German-British production from the late sixties with Christopher Lee as Sherlock Holmes. And the first volume of a collection of very old movies (the ones with Basil Rathbone), which I bought today. There are twelve movies altogether, so I guess there's going to be three volumes.

I always tried to get them on video while they were shown on TV, but unfortunately they're usually shown at the ZDF and that's not a very reliable broadcasting station. I usually ended up with having about 15 to 20 minutes of something different and about 15 to 20 minutes missing at the end of the movies - and that's annoying. This way I've not only gotten the whole movie in high quality, I also get both the German and the English version. That's great.

I'm not sure why I'm so fascinated by Sherlock Holmes, as I'm more some kind of 'empathic' Miss Maple when it comes to solving crimes. I like to get into the mind of a criminal and solve the crime from this point of view, the "I can see from your movements that you've been a sailor"-style of Sherlock Holmes is not my cup of tea. I'm not that logical myself and I doubt anybody else really is - except for Mr. Spock and Data from "Star Trek", of course. (It surely isn't a coincidence that Data likes to play Sherlock Holmes on the holodeck of the Enterprise ... as an android with a perfectly logical computer brain he's absolutely suited for this role.)

But somehow the way Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has created the character and written the stories (which are much, much, much better than his historical novels - they're dreadful) makes them timeless. They may be set in the Victorian age, but that doesn't mean that in the times of cell phones and the internet they're no longer interesting.

I think I'll always have a weak point for Sherlock Holmes; the stories, the movies, the character as a such. It's one of the essential things I've ever read (like the novels to the first "Star Wars"-movies - episode 4-6 - or "Dracula"). I don't write my crime stories the way Doyle would write them, as I like the psychological side of crime, but that doesn't mean Sherlock Holmes didn't teach me anything about solving a crime. The ideal detective for me is someone with a sharp intellect and a strong empathy. That's the kind of character I try to write whenever I pin down a story myself.

I don't always succeed, but then, who does? Even Sherlock Holmes couldn't solve all problems...

Women are machines

... or at least that's what a Japanese politician claims, calling grown-up women "birthing machines" and demanding that they all should have more children to ensure the society does not "grow old". Well, Mr. Politician: Welcome to Germany.

I read about this man while browsing the 'news'-section of one of my favourite forums (MangaSzene). Obviously the Japanese have the same problem we have in Germany: There are only a few children born. The discussion of the thread did soon leave the Japanese situation far behind, anyway. It's been mostly about "why women don't want to have children" and "what to do against it". I've participated a lot in the discussion as well, because it's one of those things I've been thinking (and getting angry about) a lot.

A lot of older people claim that it's solely the fault of the women. We are too egocentric to give up our own career in order to have children as we're supposed to. But I know a lot of women who would like to have children if only they had a little more security while raising them.

What older people seem to forget is how insecure the situation of their children and grandchildren is today. When they were the right age to have children, there was plenty of work and most people spent their whole working life with the same company. You could be sure you'd always have a job. In a situation like this it's easy for a woman to stop working (at least for a couple of years), have children and raise them. There weren't as many divorces either (in the western part of Germany, but the East had it's own security, thanks to socialism and communism).

Would they have as many children today as well? That's what I often wonder about. Would they take all the risks having children means today, especially for women?

But back to the discussion in the forum. Interestingly the women usually had one point of view and the men had the other one (as far as you can guess the gender from the names, as not everyone freely gives it). The women quite often said "I would have children (or at least 'most women would have children') if it wouldn't mean the end of my career (meaning: the danger of becoming a poor single mother living on social support) and if society were a little more supportive" while the men said "women should just have children and forget about their careers". That's easy to say if you're a member of that gender which will not have to stop working because of a child.

There is a way to combine children and career, but it's not open to women in Germany. In the Scandinavian countries women are supported much better, they can go to work again after a couple of weeks and their children are well cared for. This is something women in Germany can only dream of (mostly, I think, because of our conservative party which was in control right after the war and never designed a sufficient system to build up enough kindergartens for all children).

In Germany the society wants children, because they'll be needed for our pension system (see the last post), but it doesn't want the children to behave like children. Admittedly, sometimes I curse the neighbours above me as well (the family has two teenagers - with a stereo nearby), but I do it softly and think "I wasn't any better when I was that age, let them soon find something better - and more silent - than Heavy Metal". Children are loud - or at least louder than most adults - and that's it. It is like that and it can't be changed. But people in Germany - especially old people (yes, the same who claim women these days are too egocentric to have children) - expect, it seems, children to be born, to hang around in stasis until they're about twenty and then go to work straight away to earn money for the older people's pensions.

I can fully understand why women these days don't want children - and as long as society doesn't change, there's not as many children as necessary born.