Twelve Things About This Blog (Collection of Essays)

On various occasion, I've contemplated an explanation of things, so this is it:

1.  Going back to 2001/2002, I had this military associate of mine come up and ask how such-and-such German thing that had come to be.  I said I'd get back to him, and ended up writing a simple 10-line explanation (an e-mail).  He wrote me back and thanked me making it 'dirt-simple'.  Over the course of the next month....it got passed around (maybe a dozen folks read it).  One of them came to me and said....'you ought to write a blog'.  I laughed over the idea, but about a year later, I started blog #1.  I figured I'd write two a month and that would be it.  Over the first three months, I probably wrote thirty pieces.  It was a general all-in-one (US, German, politics, history, business, etc).  That was off the Yahoo-blog platform.

It's safe to say (like all things Yahoo), that they eventually screwed it up enough, then announced that in six months....they were taking the platform down.  They would invent an export tool to allow the user to download and take the blog somewhere else.  Well....that failed as well.  So I cut and pasted over four weeks, and took my blog elsewhere.

About a year later, I decided to split this up....two blogs. The new creation? Schnitzel Republic was to be Germany and Europe only.

2.  My general topic line for Schnitzel Republic?  Anything German related (business, TV, history, inventions, government, politics, etc).  On Europe, it had to be something of an interest to me (BREXIT, the EU, stability-related, crime, etc).

3.  Around eight years ago, I read a collection of Greek essays and came to realize essays were my product....not a blog.  I might use a blog platform, but I've read enough on Greek essays to have the vision of a 'story to be told', and later discussed by folks. Personally, I think the blog-hype doesn't really sustain what is being produced by most people.

4.  My platform is not monetized.  I  have zero interest in making an income off of this.  It's strictly a hobby.  If I write one essay per month or thirty a month.....it makes no difference.

5.  My base of readers?  My base is mostly Americans who were GI's at some point, and spent time in Germany.  They have a fondness for subjects related to places they visited or viewed in their tour.  I have a handful of Germans who packed up (some in the 1970s), and left Germany.  They've found my platform and have an interest on topics I pick up.  Germans actually living in Germany?  I doubt if there's more than five or six per month who might come in and catch on my writings.  So my slant on things is often driven by these people who were here....observed things, and still like to stay somewhat connected.

6.  Trying to get some answer to your ethnic background (your crazy Uncle Huns, or your dictator-like Grandmother)?  You might as well go elsewhere because my writings pertain to the Germans who stayed in Germany....not the ones who left (and probably changed their character).

7.  I emphasize to a great extent 'tolerance'.  But my brand of tolerance is a two-way street, and it means you really need to accept people having personal opinions and perceptions being widely different than your own.  People who married Germans.....have an absolutely biased opinion.  One might shocked to find that they aren't exactly pro-German.  People who've spent four years in Germany and asked a lot of questions.....might often lay down negative cards on German society or explain how things work in a different light than a German might.  Tolerance means that they can have their opinion and I can just accept that, while having my own view of things.

8.  A few of my readers are people who've had issues with German relatives and it's turned into a dramatic problem later in life.  While they might see my writings as some avenue to understand German people....it's just not the right platform for their issues.

9.  If someone asks my view or historical perspective....I have to view the comment in two ways.  There is the modern-day landscape, which people can easily fit into and understand.  Then there's the past (historical) landscape, which means you have to be tolerant and open-minded.  There's often confusion going on in the mind of some folks because they can only see the present-day landscape of life, and trying to imagine the historical perspective is difficult.

10.  In a normal day, I probably read through or watch forty different platforms (TV networks, newspapers, magazines, web sites, etc).  I might go through 200 stories in a day.  Some matter....some don't.  Some of these I can see a decent introduction, and will do an hour or two of research to explain the whole story in detail.  Present journalism, in my humble opinion, is lacking.   So I really don't respect journalism like I did twenty years ago.  And no, it doesn't matter if it's British, American or German journalists....they are all lacking.

11.  Early on, I might have opened up and had an email for readers.  Spam issues caused me to rethink that idea.  Sadly, there are a fair number of folks who are simply looking for avenues or ways, that one can get a visa into Germany.....with their entire conversation centered on that.  Or you end up with people who feel I've insulted the greatest civilization upon this Earth, and they'd like to persuade me that I'm just not tolerant enough.....to which I generally ask what's their tolerance level of accepting other opinions.  I did go back and review Mark Twain's writings on Germans, and noted that he did offer an occasional critical review or cynical viewpoint of German culture (always positive though on beer).  I figured if I just stay within the Twain-circle, I'll be safe on criticism.

12.  Finally, just for the record....about 90-percent of my essays reference back to a German, Brit, or European-type journalism piece.  I might occasionally open up an essay to expression some humble opinion of my own.  But the rest are referenced.  I've probably been doing that for at least four to five years, and thus avoiding the fake news routine.  I have zero interest in being a journalist, and much prefer the title of essayist.  If you want just plain regular news, then this platform is probably not what you desire.