Vergackeiern (Pretending to Make Sense of Nonsense)

Okay, this was supposed to be a bilingual blog, so the first word we learn is "Vergackeiern." You won't find it in the dictionary, but only on Google. It's a colloquial expression, supposedly from the Ruhr area (Wanne-Eickel, Wattenscheid, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Schalke 04, Wuppertal-Elberfeld and stuff). According to googlefight, I spell it incorrectly, but, then again, I am not from the Ruhr area, but grew up in the boondocks (Dear Brits: these are the sticks, I will dedicate another post to the boondocks vs. the sticks): In a town akin to El Centro, a spa akin to Cheltenham and another one akin to, well, Spa. Anyways, I digress. Vergackeiern means in a way to pull someone's leg. But not really: It means to deceive someone in a friendly way, but not necessarily with friendly intentions. On the web, you find lots of people who vergackeier their unsuspecting audience and potential clients. My first example is a German site, I'm afraid. No need to worry, though, I am sure you can translate the entire site.

Alright, this fellow sells website design and advertises his designing skills using among others this website as a reference page for his work. Stop searching for the hidden links in the site, there are none! This is it. You saw the entire site! And here is, how he advertises it: "Please notice that the entire site requires only 13KB memory capacity. You can save up to one hundred of these sites on a single discette." Cool, with new technologies, you might carry all websites of your 300,000 businesses on a single Flash memory card in your wallet!!!! What more do want?

Congratulations, you now learnt the meaning of vergackeieren.

Blogging 101

This blogging thing really becomes interesting. My goodness, I am on my way to a real geek. After the fabulous fuggin it up, I now found Disturbing Research Requests, another great idea. I am also coercively checking my own referrer logs, but nothing as interesting there. On my professional site, it's straightforward searches for "frame analysis" or "content analysis". Duh! That's what I work on. On my miniature private site it is equally unspectcular, if less predictable: "Jasmin Tabatabei" is at least a string on my site, but "Jens Kiefer"?? Never heard.

It's more interesting to check, who shares my favorite movies and music. This should improve my taste. Good thing: Almost no Germans in the references, that means I did somewhat shed my national bias. Bad thing: Too many male East Midlanders in their 40s (screw you, Stranglers), too many Icelandic fruitcakes (strangely enough not because of 101 Rejkavik, which returns a teenager from Belgium and a comprofessional from Alborg, but through Moloko and the Frank Zappa). Too many teenagers, 30+ nostalgics,and Scandinavians, altogether. A scary fan of the Kansas City Chiefs (Go, Chargers!): Thanks for nothing, Zappa. Definitely on the cool side: Smoke City: Brazilians and French and someone from Hong Kong, all in their late 20s: There is some hope for me.