There's a mean and nasty virus running around, BadTrans.b. I hate false virus warnings more than anyone, but I've checked around, and this one's for real. More information in English and German.
··· 14:27 (GMT + 1)

Busy day. Might write something later. Try out the new Boogie Search. It's fun!
··· 12:52 (GMT + 1)
 
 

· Australia investigates refugee children's rights >>
· Fire in Cambodia leaves 12,000 homeless >>
· US narrows focus in Afghanistan >>
· War crimes charges filed against Arafat >>
· Ground Zero flag to fly in Afghanistan >>

Just found some very interesting photos: what's going on in Afghanistan now that the Taliban aren't terrorising the populace? Women are taking their sheets off, for one thing. Have a look. ··· 16:42 (GMT + 1)

It's a whole new world of Boogie Church! Bunches of people (okay, a couple) have told me they didn't even see the navigation, so now I brought it down out of the header, and surrounded it with dotty little lines, for those of you who're hard of seeing. Do you like it?
··· 11:09 (GMT + 1)
 
 

· Prison revolt continues; Taliban takes tower >>
· N. Alliance shoot wounded prisoners in the streets >>
· Nepalese army ordered to crush resurgent rebels >>
· Shifts in Afghanistan casting doubt on talks >>

There was a guy on the bus this morning. There were lots of guys, but this guy was worthy of note. He was dressed well - typical office casual - clean cut, nice coat, with a newspaper under his arm. The first noteworthy thing was a half litre can of beer in his hand. Germans like their beer, but beer's not something you expect someone on their way to work to have in their hand, even in Germany. The second noteworthy thing was that he was a bit nuts. He got on behind me, sat down across from an older lady and started chatting excitedly with her, as you would if you coincidentally got on the same bus as a friend you hadn't seen in a while. At first that didin't strike me as odd, but as their conversation continued, I reelised he was talking non-stop, and she not at all. The whole time she had a politely amused but vaguely frightened expression on her face. He got off the bus at my stop, and was still talking to her as we crossed the street together and the bus, which she was still riding in, drove away. I wonder where he was going.
··· 11:07 (GMT + 1)
 
 

· US company clones human embryo >>
· Afghanistan prison breakout ends in bloodbath >>
· Australia seeks refugee repository >>
· Israelis assassinate Hamas military commander >>
· Santa's “ho, ho, ho” frightens children >>

Maybe you've got a web site. And maybe at some point you decided your provider wasn't very good - not enough space, too much server downtime, whatever. And you decided to change providers. And maybe it was easy - just a matter of filling out an online form or two, maybe a couple of e-mails, and that was that. If so, you weren't in Germany.

I've made the mistake of initiating the process of moving Boogie Church from a German ISP to one in the U.S. After filling out, signing and faxing my almost ex-provider a form, they told me they must receive a signed "KK-Antrag" from my future provider. I wrote back to very politely tell them I have no idea what that is, my future provider, being American, surely doesn't either, and I like to have a little help and advice. They write back and tell me they don't care where my provider is, they need the KK-Antrag regardless. That's it. I wrote to my future provider to explain all of this and ask if it's possible for them to do this for me. They wrote back to say the old provider just needs the DNS Name Server number, completely ignoring everything I'd told them. After sitting there stunned at how similarly unhelpful two completely unrelated companies could be, I found a sample KK-Antrag online. Today I sent it to my hopefully future provider, in English and German, and asked them to fax it to my hopefully soon to be ex-provider here. Keep your fingers crossed.
··· 17:55 (GMT + 1)

Someone out there really, really dislikes cats.
··· 17:42 (GMT + 1)

What a weekend. I'm exhausted. It was the last weekend of a seminar I started almost a year ago. When described briefly, the seminar summons images of one of those touchy-feely vaguely therapeutic things, where everyone sits in a circle, discusses what assholes their parents were, then has a good cry and a group hug. Luckily, that's not even vaguely what it was like. There was a lot of talking about things normally left hidden under the blankets of politeness, discomfort and fear of rejection. There was also a fair bit of crying. But I'm extremely pleased that I overcame the typical knee-jerk "what a wank" reaction that I and many people have to such things, and was brave enough to actually learn some very interesting things about myself and my fellow humans. It's very clear to me now how rarely we are truly honest with one another in our daily lives, how we generally skim along on a layer of habit and avoidance, and how truly difficult it is to remain aware, authentic and honest. But that is now the direction I'm headed in, which is far more than I can say for myself a year ago. Thank you Hila, and all the people involved.
··· 15:14 (GMT + 1)