Roni’s Interview with youcanteachenglish.com

Teaching English in Taiwan

The good folks over at youcanteachenglish.com recently interviewed me about my past and current experiences teaching English overseas.

Check it out here.

Roni’s Personal Year in Review (2009)

January 1, 2009 - Buenos Aires, Argentina

I started and ended this year in the middle of trips while based in another country, teaching English.

On January 1, 2009, I was in Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Obelisk.  It was fairly lackluster, with not a big turnout and mild excitement from the minimal crowd, followed by a fairly good night hanging out with a variety of people.

After my trip to Argentina, the Iguazu Falls 3-country border area (Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil) and Uruguay, I returned back to Santiago, Chile to work for a bit before what was going to be an ill-advised idea.

Listen to the Decade Recap Episode of DWATG

Check out the latest episode, #61: Worst Decade Ever (also on iTunes).

I don’t usually pimp out DWATG, as it’s one of my running projects.  That being said, this is a special episode.  The decade-end episode gives you the chance to find out Roni’s picks for:

• Most important and most embarrassing personal moments of the past decade
• Best/worst movie
• Best scandal
• Worst person
• Most important moment
• Most influential person
• And more

And, of course, political commentary from the week.

Check it out, it’s a good episode all around.  Even if you’re not politically-inclined, this episode will inch you into our world.

Vote for Roni On Location for the Streamy Awards!

The Streamys are web TV awards.

Please vote for “Roni On Location” for “Best Reality or Documentary Web Series.”

1) Go to http://www.streamys.org/submit/public-submissions/

2) Category: Best Reality or Documentary Web Series

3) Series Name: Roni On Location

Series URL: http://www.youtube.com/roniweiss

4) Click Submit.

5) Receive my thanks.

Remember, you can vote once per day. So feel free to keep voting as the days go on. But I’d be fairly happy if you got at least the one vote in.

And if you want to pass it on to other people, hey, that’d be cool, too.

Thanks,

Roni

http://www.youtube.com/roniweiss

Awww, Poor Auschwitz

"Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Makes Freedom) Oswiecem, Poland - September 2007

At least I got the sign before the vandals did…

What does one do with such a sign?  I shudder at the thought, until I just hope and assume that it was done by stupid kids, like the ones on the Metro.

Update: Polish police found the sign.   5 men, ages 20-39 are in custody.  No details on why they took it.

Roni Responds: ATM card for South America?

Roni Responds is a new feature on TORWB, consisting of questions asked to Roni about travel, politics or anything else the public wants to know.  All questions are anonymous, unless permission is given to use the petitioner’s name.  Please say if you want your first name, first and last name or user name used.

All questions can be sent to roni@dontworry.tv.

Question: what is the most common bank in south america? I currently have bank of america, but im not sure if i should change to Chase or something due to access or lack thereof, in south america.

my other question is what do you think is the best way to get a phone? Should i keep verizon and pay the extra to have a working phone in south america, or should i get different pre paids from city to city?

Roni Responds: Can’t look at South America like it’s a country…  The banks and cell phone companies are all going to be different.  Even when you find the same bank internationally, it isn’t connected.  I have HSBC as one of my many ATM cards.  I cannot deposit money anywhere outside of the US with that account.  Not only that, with their fees, it is actually cheaper for me to use other ATM cards at an HSBC ATM abroad than to use my actual HSBC card.

My best advice…

Roni First, then the Iranian Cyber Army

Really?

I’ve been on Twitter for a while.  Just yesterday, I actually started really getting involved.  I go in to check this morning and lo and behold, some bigass green flag.

At least I beat the hackers to the punch by a few hours.

My favorite part: The Iranian Cyber Army has a Gmail address.  At least they have good taste in e-mail providers.

More info, as I’m scouting the web:

• Quite possible, the Twitter servers weren’t even affected.
• Pretty good updates over on TechCrunch.
• As much as it destroys me, FoxNews has the fullest translation of the Farsi (accurate, one hopes, as well).  Still trying to find someone else that matches it.

The Case of The Metro Hooligans

Villeurbanne, France

This blog entry corresponds to ROL Special: The Case of The Metro Hooligans.

Today was one of my lucky days.  I didn’t have classes with one of the teachers, allowing me the chance to go back to the dorm, cook lunch and have a nap.  That is, until the hooligans entered the Metro.

ROL Road Trip 2009: #2 – Canada

Muncho Lake, BC

This blog entry corresponds to Episode #2 of my road trip, found here on YouTube.

When I was younger, playing hockey back in the pre-9/11 days, we would go up to Canada and normally have little to no trouble crossing the border.

Guard:  Why are you coming to Canada?

Roni’s dad:  For hockey.

Guard:  Ok.

Waved into country.

No ID checks, no hassle, no drama.  Coming back to the States, it wasn’t much different.

Things have changed considerably.

“Iran Agrees to Try to Stall International Community”

The headline of this post is what I read, when I read headlines like this one:

Iran Agrees to Nuclear Fuel Swap, With Caveats