How do you describe downtown Tilburg on New Year's Eve?

New Year's in Tilburg is unlike anything I've ever seen before. Everyone loads up on fireworks and firecrackers and sets them off all day long all around the city. Then at midnight they all bring their trees downtown and have a huge bonfire. Then it's down to the business of fireworks. The city does not provide the fireworks. Every household around the city buys their own and sets them off all at the same time. The guys we were with spent around $500 on fireworks. It was absolute chaos for a good 30 minutes...




Danelle: "It brings back childhood memories. It doesn't even phaze me at all. I'm a military brat and so this is just normal. When I was in Camp Pendelton bombs used to shake the house and knock things off the shelves. Don't ever use the bathroom when the military is in the field."

Wayne: "I keep turning to war, and my impressions of what urban warefar must be like. With explosions and small bursts going off all around you. You can picture yourself as it would be back in World War 2 if you were fighting in Tilburg. Grenades going off and machine gun fire. Tanks rolling through the streets and firing on buildings. And you're just a young 18 year old kid from small town Saskatchewan, taken out of everything you could ever imagine put into the line of fire. Fighting against someone that you would have to kill or they will kill you."

Lindsay: "A huge firecracker went off about 5 feet behind me and I went down like I was shot. So did about 10 other people all around me. Stupid kids running away laughing. But I bet if I was younger I think it'd be the funniest thing in the world to scare people."

Marj: "They're very loud, and very close, and very obnoxious. All these young hooligans running around with firecrackers... Nothing seems to be illegal here."

Adrienne: "I don't know Brendan, I don't think anything about the fireworks. I was accomplishing other important missions. It's not fair that I have to go so late because everyone's already said everything that I would say."

Brendan: "Imagine 4 teenagers dressed all in black with blonde spiked hair. Imagine an incredible complex to show off, and the confidence you get to do stupid things when you're with your friends. Imagine the drinking age around here is 16 and that marijuana is legal. Imagine that they're all carrying bags of firecrackers. Imagine using the cigarettes you're smoking to light the firecrackers and dropping them by unsuspecting people as they walk by. And imagine the scared thrill you get running away in 'ring and run' but times that by the closeness and loudness of a firecracker."

Jill: "Just so irresponsible. If they were my schoolchildren..."

(This is the aftermath. The smoke was over the whole city afterwards, no word of a lie.)

A Good Old Fashioned Family Christmas

The structure of this day is that we got up early, went to Ieper and Flanders Fields, then went to Brugge, then had a nice meal at a fancy French restaurant, then came home. The story, though, has a lot more in common with a Salvadore Dali painting than any of the simpleness of the so-called supposedly gives. The beginning is simple in that we got up early and left early. (Early meaning actually early, meaning 6:30 AM. Early usually referring to anything before lunch. How lazy have I become? Well... Sometimes I like to set my alarm early for example at 10. The alarm goes off... I get up, I laugh to myself a little, I turn it off and go to sleep... It's kind of like a little pick me up in the morning. AND to be honest, 6:30 is a lot more closely related to what I consider as late, as in late the night before. BUT yes, I will one day be responsible and get up early, and be in a desk and drink lots of coffee... but did you know that Winston Churchill also didn't get out of bed until late each day? The guy would sit till all hours dictating to people and ordering them around from his bed.)

But the story. The story of jumbled confusion begins at Flander's Fields. We all thought that Flander's Field is the big place with all the crosses and poppies not unlike the poem of the same name. We all thought that it's all about Canadian things considering a Canadian wrote the poem. The true story is it's a small American memorial where two American divisions pushed the Germans back on the last few days of the Great War. The real memorial is about 30 minutes away near a town called Ieper. But in honor of Danelle and my mom's parents we stayed and had a guide take us through the memorial. Who, in his British accent, couldn't believe we didn't know the history of this place. ummm... Haven't we all learned by now about the death of the individual? Names, dates, and places don't matter... Don't we know that the official version is usually the wrong version? And that if you really need to know anything, ask Jeeves... And most importantly, that the only really important thing in history is to learn how not to repeat our past mistakes? Such as don't ever tell anyone ever that you went to Harvard if you've just been wrong about something people are supposed to know...

... 30 minutes later we're in Ieper. With a museum about Flander's Fields and a map to the big memorial. Interesting fact: It was also one of the cities in Europe that was completely destroyed in the war and has a list of all the other cities that were destroyed as well on a large stone slab... Berlin, Beirut, Coventry, Dresden, Hiroshima, Ieper, Leningrad, Nagasaki, Rotterdam, Sarajevo, Stalingrad, Verdun, and Warsaw. It was rebuilt with modern tools to look old, if that makes sense? Ieper also was a foreshadow of bigger problems to come. Once we parked in Ieper everyone Instantly got out of the car and went in a different direction. Washrooms, food, shopping, maps to the cemetary, and coffee. (I think a lesson from this experience is that the less plan you have, and the more you're able to just go wherever the flow seems to take you, the more joyful and the less annoyed you'll be in big groups.) Luckily it actually worked out really well, surprisingly, and half an hour later everyone had coffee and food, and we had a map to the memorial. The real Flanders Fields...

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/inflanders.htm

From Flanders Fields we went to Brugge and again everyone went off in every direction. But this cannot for a second be mistaken for the teamwork of Ieper. Our meeting place was a huge area, our time to meet was uncertain at best, and the crowds separating us were in the thousands. We possibly set a record for how quickly we lost Mom, Adrienne and Danelle, on the very first street in Brugge, while going to see some Michaelangelo statue in a church. Shopping is more important than history apparently. Then I split off from Lindsay, Jill, and Dad when I went to climb the tower in the middle of town. Then escalation. I guess Danelle lost Mom and Adrienne in hopes of meeting up with the rest of us, and Dad got separated from Lindsay and Jill for similar reasons the other way. Danelle and I ended up waiting around the same meeting point separately on opposite sides of the building for the same 40 minute time span in hopes that we'd find someone else. She busy feeling sorry for herself and me busy taking random pictures with my camera. A full 3 hours after we all split up we got back together in the same place once again. Successful, depending on your definition, as only 3 of us didn't want to talk about the afternoon ever again. Nobodys and everybodies fault. The fighting through crowds, the awesome shops, the beautiful town, the nothing enough to eat or drink, the sleepiness from an early morning, the highs and lows of family time, and possibly a headache... overall I'd say a great and terrible day. But, just like Disney movies, this trip came back together at an amazing French restaurant with a great beef stew and an even better Salmon in white wine sauce. Enya was playing, there was a fire in the fireplace, it was a long day, we literally all fell asleep between ordering our food and getting it brought out to us. Similar experience actually to my last time in Brugge when I fell asleep not 10 steps from the restaurant in the middle of the church service. Danelle was so embarrassed, but I reminded her that Jesus himself said, "Come to me all who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest." Needless to say I win more arguments than I lose. But ya, that was our day, great day, tonight is New Year's and I think I've heard about 400 firecrackers, fireworks, and I don't even know what going off around here, so I better get gone and start celebrating.

Nice People are Idiots... Merry Christmas!!

Brugge is the happening place in Europe over the holidays. Maybe 20,000 people showed up at its winter festival to see the ice sculptures and shop. This story revolves around the 1000 or so that made their way up the huge castle tower to get a bird's eye view of the whole town. More specifically it's about all the nice feelings and inclinations one might have in the spirit of the holidays... about a really nice guy that I was stuck behind on my way down the steps of the tower. Now, THE RULE, as far as unmentioned but socially acceptable rules of climbing towers goes, is that for ever time you pass someone on your way down (making them wait on the side), you let the next person pass you on their way up (by waiting off to the side). 1 for 1. The nice thing obviously then must be to let everyone pass and wait off to the side every time, isn't it? The nice guy, spirit of the holidays and all, a so-called manifestation of all that is best about Christmas, blah blah blah, was far and away the nicest and most patient of anyone on the stairs that day. The problem with nice though, is that every quote I've ever heard about it says it's not the way to go... "Nice guys finish last" comes to mind... "Nice only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades" is another off the top of my head... and this guy was definitely not playing hand grenades... no, no, no, being nice did not work for him today... because the line going down always, always, always waited, backing up all the way to the top of the tower... and the line going up always, always, always went, logjamming people half way up the tower. In summary, the whole top half of this tower, with stairs big enough for only one person to walk up comfortably, suddenly had two people on each stair, one wanting to go up, one wanting to go down. And all waiting on this nice guy who revelled in his own niceness and was still waiting on people to pass him, even though those people had nowhere to go. On par with the similar idiots on a two lane street that nicely stop to let a car or pedestrian cross the street only to be hit by the car in the second lane.

Moral... sometimes the worst results come from the best intentions...

Top 10

Top 10 list of the most crazy things I've seen so far this year in hockey...

10) Fans throwing pennies at us whenever we got into the o-zone, then throwing beer all over everyone sitting on our bench, and then again throwing beer on us after we win... haha... suckers
9) Fans trying to get through the cages around our dressing room to fight us after the game. Guy on our team thinking it would be a good idea to invite them out after the game for a couple of beers to settle differences.
8) Flying elbow by a guy on my team to an opposing D trying to step up for an open ice hit. Then the very next shift another elbow to the head, but this time straight from behind. (1 game)
7) A guy going full speed from the blueline, not even a slow up, to hit a player directly from behind about 3 feet away from the boards. Quote, "ya, maybe I shouldn't have done that." (0 games)
6) Our goalie going after the ref after he didn't blow the play down and the other team scored. Hit the ref with a blocker to the face. Ref literally waiting at the other end of the ice until our goalie left the ice. (10 games)
5) A guy on our team gets the puck, stops at center, fires a slap shot at the other teams bench and then calls on the whole bench. (preseason so 0 games)
4) A guy on our team trying to slash someone over the glass from inside the penalty box. (preseason)
3) A fight during the end of game handshake. The guy wouldn't let go of our players hand. (2 games each)
2) A guy on the other team trying to fight our coach. Picked our coach off the ground and slammed him against the wall, but didn't get any punches away before some guys stepped in and stopped him. (no games)
1) A guy on our team dumping the puck on the other teams' goalie and then running him from the blueline, knocking the goalie (in the air) from the goal line into the end boards. Literally 3 guys were lined up to fight this guy after he did it. On account that the goalie faked to fall and drew a penalty on him the shift before. He told the goalie, "I'll see you in 2 minutes," came right out of the penalty box and ran him. Oh ya, and of course flipped off the other teams bench on his way off the ice. (7 games)

The colour is in the words, not the pictures...

So these are all my thoughts about the holidays so far...

1) We have 6 days of Christmas with the family in Holland, which by happy coincidence is the same number of days I remember in the 12 days of Christmas song (6 geese a laying) that's playing right now in the background... That's not a whole lot of time considering 2 of those days are a write off on account of the jet lag. My first plan is, stop time, race around everywhere, recreate all the old, good memories I have of Christmas past, and try to create the most bestest Christmas ever for us.. Cause how can you fit everything in to so few days without some effort? And how can you try to connect with a family that you unfortunately only get to see a few times a year without so deliberate -ness? But there's this great poet that in paraphrase says if you try to force/control things you end up destroying them, all you can do is just enjoy the ride wherever it takes you. Can I learn to be up for anything and just go with the flow? Well, right now the flow is taking me to an all-night techno rave party tonight with DJ Diablo..

2) So this repetitive song that's playing in the background... does anyone really know all of the 12 days of Christmas? Survey says of course not because nobody cares about birds in fruit trees these days... I figure... And plus this is 2007... so if it's a bird of some sort and not a computer and an ipod, r a wallet with a money clip, I'd rather not get it for Christmas anyways... in light of the new spirit of Christmas, and in light of everyone doing their own version of this song, here is 12 days of Christmas Bernakevitch style...


"On the 12th day of Christmas yadda yadda yadda...

...12 hours spent on layover in an airport and a free plane ticket voucher,

...11 scented candles with real christmas tree smell cause the one we have is fake,

...10 batches of pistachio nut cookies, ginger bread men, and fudge

...9 dollar starbucks coffees (based on dollar to euro conversion rate and no Splenda)

...an 8 thousand piece puzzle

...7 games of cards

...6 Christmas movies that we have to watch every year on constant replay

...5 new amazing memories

...4 different dishes + egg rolls + won ton soup

...3 screaming babies on the plane ride from Boston

...2 of the same John Grisham book from barnes and noble

...and 1 New Year's Resolution that we will never keep...

... and 1 time a year we get out whole family together in the same place

3) So here is my problem with New Year's Resolutions. It's too much about striving and not enough about being satisfied. Isn't the secret of life about being happy with yourself and content with what you have, or you will always be looking into the future and never enjoy the present? I think maybe it should be both, to be content and still be striving. Why can't you be perfect how you are, and yet trying to improve yourself? And why can't you tell a girl she looks great but it still wouldn't hurt her to go to the gym or spend a couple hours a week on the treadmill? You know, step on the scale and take that weight and then subtract it by 20, and then, like, be that number? Is that really so bad? I don't think so. And I don't think we even have a word in the English language that means content but striving... Paul writes about it all the time about how you strive to be that which you already are. The yogis have an idea in their practice about giving total effort yet having no concern for the results... but I'm looking for 1 word, and I might have to make it up. Any ideas? Seratent maybe?

4) And a little bit about travel... travel sucks... especially during the holidays... especially when it makes you miss time with loved ones on account of an airline pilot not showing up to make a flight from Charleston to Memphis. But in the midst of this small crisis I got to thinking... How many people are there out there that have to work over the holidays and be away from hearth and home, friends and family? Pilots, Bus Drivers, Hotel workers, Policemen, Firemen, Paramedics, Doctors, Nurses, People fighting in the war, Santa, the elves (actually I think the elves might get Christmas off). We don't even realize the difficulty people go through to bring us our little time of joy as a family. So I think my point in all this is that all the time spent in the airport around Christmas made it so I couldn't possibly feel sorry for myself. Most especially after seeing the lonely bus driver that drove us to our hotel room. Therefore I did the only thing I could do, I wished him a very strong heart felt Merry Christmas as we got off the bus. And I think he felt better. Cause that's what I do, I make Christmas miracles.

4) And ya, Christmas miracles. How easy is it to go through the whole Christmas season and forget the real reason of Christmas. As the cast of scrubs puts it in it's remake of "A Charlie Brown Christmas"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Of_mna-Rs

"(It's not about the presents)... ... it's about friendship, family and devotion.. ... and most importantly it's about love... you can't live without other peoples love. So spend time with people. And if they laugh at you, laugh with them. And if they laugh at you again... hit 'em. And then go find some other friends. But remember this, you have to give love to get love, so start giving... now!"

But to go even deeper...

Friends and family are so important, but not most important. The second you look to others to find your own value or depend on others to create a feeling in you, that very second I think you're settling for second best. It's not like you shouldn't leave yourself vulnerable, or pursue to love and be loved, but like Erwin Lutzer says... You need to put God at the top, and look to him first, and then everything else in your life falls into its proper place. Your image of yourself, your image of others and how you treat them, and most importantly your ability to step outside your own selfishness and actually love other people. Without God at the center of our lives there is a hole that we simply cannot fill, and we'll spend the rest of our lives restless and not content seeking a million different ways to fill it.
And what if you don't believe in God you say? I've read enough to know a paragraph will not change your mind. I will say to people that believe in science as much as I do that although we've figured out certain laws that seem to be true, it's not like we can make any claim on being the source and creator of these laws. Something holds this universe together... And what about if you haven't thought about any of this at all and really don't think you will? Well... death is the only certainty we have in this life, so it's probably pretty important to at least try to figure out how death fits into the picture of your life. Maybe look into some sort of meaning for your life. I don't know... Either way though, because of its importance to me you will have to hear it.

6) The Christmas Story... This holidays is at the very top about an all-powerful yet all-merciful being, perfect, the source of all goodness and life, that wants to connect with His own creation. He made us in his image, and just as we are social beings God is a social God (Think trinity). And just as we would rather have someone choose to like us and not force them to like us, He similarily gives us the free choice to choose Him or to choose our own way. Who although He wants to commune with us cannot because of every persons own choice to reject Him. This same God taking the first step in the process by actually coming to earth to be like one of us, to talk to us on our level, point us in the right direction, and finally to give us the ability to choose to be in a relationship with Him again. When I say God I mean when God actually came down onto the earth as the man named Jesus. And when I say Jesus I don't mean the Talladega nights style 8 pound, 6 ounce, cute, cuddly, but still fully omnipotent "Dear baby Lord Jesus, thankyou for powerade" Jesus... I mean moreso how he describes himself.

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

The one that gives people the ability to be free from whatever it is they struggle with. From their traps, their compulsions, their habits, their situations, their vices. And not always physical freedom, but most importantly spiritual, mental, and emotional freedom (There's a big difference between being in a prison and being a prisoner.)

And yes, a lot of deepness just happened here, but I was just trying to give a small taste of the difference between the kids version and the adults version of the Christmas story.

Lucky Charms

So allow me to introduce you to a string of mildly unfortunate circumstances that all seemed to pile up on one particular day. It starts on a bus trip to play Heerveen to decide who's first place going into Christmas Break. It ends up with us losing 7-3 and me down 17 Euros. So the bus trip is 3 1/2 hours to get to Heerveen, and in my opinion is the most extreme high range of hours one should travel on game day if you expect the team to have any chance of winning the game. Moral of the story is that we're down 2-0 after about 5 minutes into the game. We get it as close as 2-1 before a series of incredibly unfortunate bounces decide to win the game for the other team. One is a pass from the corner off a players skate right top corner. Another is a shot from the point off our own players' stick, off a player from their teams stick, top corner. Another is a pass across on a 2 on 1 off our D-man's skate, back to the guy that passed it for a shot and a goal. Another is a point shot through traffic off their players skate five-hole. And I keep using the word 'another' here because it's probably gotten more and more annoying each time you have to read it... and that's exactly what all those goals were in the game, more and more annoying... because they mean we're down 3-1, then we're losing 4-1, then we're down and out at 5-1, and then we were never in it at all at 6-2, and then we are completely demoralized at 7-3... Needless to say the bounces did not go our way and that sucks. On the plus side we outshot them and worked really hard so chalk one up in the moral victories column I say.
And so on the way home the downward spiral continues. Our post game meal spilled on the floor so it ended up as us going to a McDonalds for post game. Do we realize that we have another game tomorrow? And then I end up at the back of the line, so thought it would be genius to offer to pay for someone's meal if they, being at the front of the line, could order for me. Last second tho, how could I forget, I realize that I don't have money or my bank card n me . I gave it to my sister in case she needed money seeing how she's here and all and wants to go shopping... Serious walk of shame all the way back to the back of the line... And fortunately a teammate lends me some money.... I'll have a litre of cola please...
And ya, so then cards happen... and I'm tired and I play terrible. And I called one guy out a few days ago as being the worst card player of the group and he wins everything today. And takes amazing pleasure rubbing it in my face. My back up is that the games we play have more to do with the luck of what cards you get and less about playing well, but it just builds on the momentum of 'make fun of Bernakevitch day' so I drop it. And almost redemption... I have 2 chances to win games and screw both chances up completely. First I don't call high enough to get to pick my suit, and second, when I do call high enough I by accident call the wrong suit. And after 10 minutes of arguing everyone decides that I can't change my call to the suit I wanted to play. They say that the "a card laid is a card played" rule is the one that applies to this situation. I say it's a good thing not many hockey players become lawyers or judges. I'm real close to throwing the cards in, throwing punches, and quitting the game, maybe for life, when I realize that life is too short to sit and sulk in a bus over things that are about 96% out of my control. And the stuff that I screwed up that was in my control will have to make me a better person in learning from it. And I can always throw punches my pillow at home anyways.

Game Theory

Speaking of expectations, first impressions and judgment calls... and of college... this has to be said about game... Game being the thing guys try to do/run to get a girl. Here is the contradiction. The guys with the best game are the guys that seem like they're not throwing game at all. They're also the guys that have worked years to develop their game to have no game, and are skeezy. The guys with the worst game, where you know they're throwing game, are the guys new to the field altogether, and possibly the most genuine. That's why it's so hard and why girls get so confused. Bad game = awkward, creepy, see through = genuine guy. Good game = laid back, comfortable, seemless = skeezeball.
Adrienne says sometimes guys are lucky enough not to have game, and not even to pretend to have game, and somehow get away with coming across genuine and as being genuine. But I say no. It's the first impression and the first meeting that a n%b just can't overcome. And unless you've worked at it, everything you say, no matter how harmless, ("Hey", "Hello", "What's up?", "How's it going?") comes out as awkward, non confident skizziness, and ends up somewhere in the middle of... "you come here often?" and somehow buying the girl a drink.
So who do you trust? How can you tell? If you're hot enough they'll stay with you... haha, but seriously you really can't tell. It has something to do with instinct and conscience I think. I say go with your first impression cause it's usually right.

Extreme Makeover Edition

So returning home for Christmas? Remember one very important thing... You will not ever be able to show how much older, cooler, or more mature you think you've become while you've been away to anyone back in your home town. You will not be older than 8 years old to your mom. You will not get past that first impression you gave to most people you kind of know back home. Your best friends will always see you as the whatever person you were in high school. Your sister will still think you're a bully and your brother will still be a bully... maybe... Your mom hopes your still 8 and your Dad hopes you're already 30. Your mom wants you always to stay home, and your Dad wants you to get out of the house and stop using his money and stuff and will look really hard for any signs of the new you that maybe, possibly, hopefully, mean can support yourself by the time you're 30.
The reason? Pride. It's because people like to think they're really smart and never wrong, so after they've formed an impression of you they intentionally look for signs and clues in your character to back up that impression. It doesn't matter what you do, you could do 100 new things that would never fit into a person's impression of you, but if you do one thing that fits into it then the impression is re-inforced. Congratulations, you're stuck. It's true, it's science, first impressions are very important. Take that all you angry emo kids that say don't judge by looks. Is there any hope you ask? Get a haircut, get glasses, change your style and maybe you'll look so different people will think you had to have changed.
But second problem... A Bernak says we can't help but live up to others expectations of us. With high school friends you get fit back into the mold of the person you were in high school. With sports buddies you're the jock. With people that find out you went to Harvard you're... smart? With siblings you fall into old routines and old habits. You act how you think you're supposed to act. Wait, no? You're different? You don't fall into herd mentality? You're the rebel that's true to yourself and keeps it real...? Sure you are...

I Talked About Wings, You Just Flew

I have just gone through 7 full days without my/a computer. I have to say I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. It's just like Cinderella (the singer, not the fairytale character) says just before she says "they paved paradise, and put up a parking lot." Think about it. And speaking of references to pop-culture, am I the only one that no longer gets any of Family Guy's references anymore? Am I not cool, or is it because the references now go back into the 70s and 80s and the extent of my 80s knowledge is Mr Dressup and Fraggle Rock? And on further tangent... Did you know joox.net has all the old fraggle rock episodes!!? I just found that out... And ya, the big monster guy in the intro of the show still kinda scares me... Serious Nightmares as a kid !1one (And if you don't get the one there you're a n%b). Scary dude there plus scary book "Where the Wild Things Are" pretty much ruined a whole year of sleep for me...
like...
Who was the guy that thought big monsters in kids books was the way to go? Big hairy monsters with huge faces that pick up harmless fraggles... Or how about a cartoon where a wizard is all about trying to capture, possibly kill, little bears... all they do is care too much... Or a cat and an old man trying to kill and eat a whole bunch of little blue people?.. Do we want our kids to be afraid? Are we trying to give them nightmares? Is it a right of passage or something? Is this the reason that I hate cats so much or is it because I know that if they were bigger they'd probably try to kill me?
... but Joox tho... has tonnes (Canadian spelling) of other older in colour (Canadian spelling) shows if you ever want to re-live childhood. Couple that might take you back are Inspector Gadget, 21 Jump Street, Airwolf, Smurfs, Freaks and Geeks, Home Improvement, X-men, and Xena: Warrior Princess.
And we're dancing... and we're back. (Liz this means the tangent is over)
So, things I did sans computer for 7 days...
1) Watched the UK Snooker Championship - Ronnie O-Sullivan got a max in the biggest game of the tournament. Huge deal. Won $25,000 just for doing it. I really suggest going on Youtube and seeing if you can't find it. It's big. And yes, it's possible that was reverse psychology.
2) Played a game of snooker. Only took us an hour and a half to finish. The green ball itself I think took 20 minutes. It's way harder than it looks, and don't even think I suck at pool cause I don't and could kill any of you at pool... except maybe dad and bro...
3) Almost got beat up by soccer hooligans that can't go to soccer games any more so go to hockey games to fight. But instead only got beer thrown on us... Didn't help so much that one of our players ran the other teams goalie from the blueline... 8 cop cars later, protection by wire mesh around our dressing room and we're fine...
4) Watched a whole lot of TV, and discovered in the process that not only does Ashkan talk and act like the dog from Family Guy, he also sounds like the dog from Family Guy.
5) Became and expert Sudoku player. 3 stars are a joke and I sleep through 4 stars, I'm all the way up to the 5 star Sudokus.
6) Lastly, I was called a very moral person by a teammate a few days ago. Is this an insult? Is this code for 'I live my life by a set of archaic rules and I have no idea why I follow them and I miss out on a lot of fun and on life in general because of this'? Cause if that's the case I have to say that in no way am I moral, maybe you just haven't heard of a little psychological term I like to call 'being smart'... haha... no, it's 'delayed gratification' and it's all the rave these days in some circles.

Kay, later skaters

Remember "Keep your stick on the ice..."

Let's Play Darts

Long story short, we were lucky enough to befriend the manager of 2 pro dart players, and they came to our Heerveen game where we had a line brawl and won 7-2, and now the dart players love us. So we got free tickets and VIP access to a dart tournament over the weekend.

BUT the biggest part of this story is mostly about three guys in the dart world that are just all around good guys. I've never seen it before, but it's awesome. The first guy is At, who is the manager of Gary Robson (#8 in the BDO) and Gary Anderson (#1 in the BDO). At does everything for them, organizes their travel, gets them sponsors (Petrikonov alcohol), trains them, and asks for nothing... "because you can't charge money to friends" he says. Great guy, gave me my darts for half price when I bought them at his store. The other two, Gary Robson and Gary Anderson, are best friends, play together, travel together, and split the money of whoever wins. So when Anderson made $40,000 in his last tournament, he gave $20,000 to Robson. That is absolutely crazy to me, but it was decided when they were first coming into darts, and for a long time Robson supported Anderson when Anderson wasn't playing well.

Gary Robson is just an all around good guy. He had a huge come from behind game to make it through to the quarterfinals. He had to win 5-2 and was down 1-0 after the first set. He threw unconscious for the rest of the game, and had to go out on 88 to win. He missed his first dart at triple 20, and hit triple 1 instead. And then nailed triple 19, then double 14 to win. The place went crazy. And you wouldn't think so cause it's darts, but the tension, coupled with the ridiculous amount of alcohol, means craziness.

I have Ted Hankey on here because of the hard-coreness of this guy. First of all he's worked long and hard to get the perfect body for a dart player. Second, he's used the same darts for 25 years. They're so worn that they all weigh differently. One dart weighs 28 grams, one 21 grams, one is 12 grams. The 12 gram one the shaft of his dart is actually skinnier than the point. And the coolest thing is that it doesn't phaze him at all. He throws the darts in any order, no worries, but he won't throw if the ground under the board is cement, because if his 12 gram dart falls on cement it'll probably break.

Gary Anderson could care less if he wins or loses. Which is probably the reason why he does so well. He has no game plan going into a game, so it's hard for him to get thrown off no matter what happens. It's just always... "Oh, good game" and then get back to drinking. He was one of the 4 players invited to the other league's, the PDC's big tournament, and lost in the semi-finals to Phil Taylor, probably the best player as it goes right now. But, from the way At (yes At) tells it, the crowd was hostile to Anderson and would hiss and boo when he was throwing, and yell when he was going for his doubles. Anderson's good at overcoming it and actually using it to play better, but it has to affect you a little bit. I was most impressed by Anderson because his temperment is never to get rattled, try his absolute hardest, and if he loses, just forget about it and move on. Every other dart player I watched missed at least 4 or 5 throws because they were rattled for whatever reason.

I have this stupid 4 line song stuck in my head...

This is an anthem for the one that got away,

The biggest fish I almost ever caught was fishing with my Grandpa when I was really young. All the sudden the line goes tight and snaps, just in an instant. I was so close!!! And for 15 years I was telling the story of the ginormous fish that just got away, and all that time my Grandpa never had the heart to tell me my line actually got caught in the motor.

This is an anthem for the girl of yesterday,

I think the girl of yesterday is probably a girl that sat behind me in science class in grade 3, and when she moved away to Toronto I cried. But more recently, the girl of yesterday was a girl ref that we had a couple games ago. She didn't make a call on any trips or hooks or slashes, but any hit at all she called boarding. She wasn't very good. A guy got interviewed about the whole situation and why she would want to ref... he said it's because girls want to do everything that guys do... Ummm... Is that appropriate?

This is an anthem for the rebel of my youth,

This is a promise to those of you this may matter to... I really don't want to get old an boring, and people are already telling me I am, but honestly, how many of you would want to go to the dark scary part of a city to bet on illegal, no-rules, cage matched hamster racing. It's just not my thing really. But, in the spirit of staying a half-hearted harmless rebel, I've decided to jump off Weekes bridge on the 25th anniversary, and if there's a 35th probably on that one too, and again on the 50th if I'm around that long, but I'd probably wear a life jacket for that one.

This is an anthem for the risk of loving you.

You want to know what true love is... this is what true love is. It's one part the walking on the grass scene from Pretty Woman. One part The Last Samurai when he talks about "knowing life in every breathe". One part Rocky screaming out for Adrienne at the end of the fight. It's every single Die Hard. It's Harry Potter; the book not the movie. It's Jurassic Park; the movie not the book. And it's parts of Lethal Weapon 3. So to recap, True love is magic. You have to fight for it. It develops through trials and hardships and knowing you can trust your partner. It has something to do with scientology and prostitution. And you won't really know what you have until the world almost ends... but then you save it. And the only thing that might take it away is a Tyrannosaurus Rex, until a helicopter comes and saves you.

Happy Christmas?

For those that don't know, Holland celebrates Christmas on December the 5th not the 25th. Remember remember the 5th of December... ummmm... So ya, this Christmas that they celebrate involves, as far as I can tell, a Santa (Sinter Claus actually) in a pope's hat and a pope cane and thousands of cheerful 'little black helpers'. And instead of presents coming down the chimney and put under the tree in the middle of the night, the presents come just after supper with a knock on the door delivered by one of these 'little black helpers'. Santa is never actually seen, obviously because white people don't do any of the work at all when black helpers are around obviously... And who are they you ask? Why nothing but a harmless, cheerful little bunch of white people dressed up as elves wearing black mask... Oh for the days of European colonialism. So ya, the presents are all waiting for the youngest person in the family to bring them all inside and give them to the people they're for. This youngest person, let's call her a 'she'... being a girl... name of A. Bernakevitch... or maybe, Adrienne B. also has another sorta pretty cool task to do. She has the pleasant task of reading aloud all of the poems and 'roasts' that people make for each other as they're all sitting around after supper drinking eggnog. Cool huh? Cause after you're about 18 and no longer believe in Sinter Claus, or in deficit spending, the presents become little poems and jokes that people make for each other to get a few laughs from them. Ahem...

'There once was a guy from Boston,
Had a big temper and at all times lost it,
He wanted to quit,
He pitched up a fit,
When in IM basketball he was accosted.'

'There once was a lady from Saskatchewan,
knew I liked cookies and made me a batch of 'em,
She moved to BC,
She's far older than me (and my Dad for that matter),
Wants revenge, but has nothing to catch me on.'

Kay that's it for now. later...

And Today?

Today is a day off... 2 days off a week in Holland, usually Monday and Saturday, and we play Friday and Sunday. So the big thing for today is I'm walking into the gym and this fan of our team comes walking out. Doesn't just say "hey" but says "Hey Brendan", knows my name, so I've probably met him and forgotten his name. This is probably about the 1000th time I've been in this situation. We talk... yadda yadda yadda... he's sore, I'm sore... ya from hockey... ya the games went good... ya it's a Patriots hat cause they rock... what's my other hat? Sox hat of course... So anyways, he tells me that he was just in to see some mystic that 'miraculously'? healed his back and all this. Tells me the guy is here every day from 9-11 at the gym, it's free, all he asks for is a small donation of $1-$2. Comes back into the gym with me and takes me to the guy. There's chairs all around the outside of the room and he calls people up to the middle, treats them, and then they go on and he calls the next person. This guy... this treatment... like, he calls me up, I tell him it's my back and shoulder, so he puts pressure on my wrist.. "breathe in breathe out"... then he puts pressure on my elbow... "breathe in breathe out"... then he puts pressure on my lower back... "breathe in breathe out"... and then he's like, "RAISE YOUR ARM" and he starts dancing around and smiling for the people like he's a miracle worker. Meanwhile my shoulder is just as sore as ever. (and don't worry mom, it's not sore like bad sore, it's just sore like give me a day to rest it sore) He's done nothing for me whatsoever, and everyone around is hooting and hollering and clapping for this guy like he's just beat Super Mario Brothers 3 in 20 minutes with only one life; no continues. It was ridiculous. It was laughable. And I still gave the guy $2 because he's the best actor I've seen in a really long time. And yes I did see Matt Damon in The Bourne Ultimatum, Oceans' 13, and The Departed.. And yes I did hear Leonardo Dicaprio was good in Blood Diamond, but no, I haven't seen it.

3 Months in 3 paragraphs

So for starters everything on this page that should help me make this thing is in Dutch since I'm in Holland, and more importantly, I'm computer illiterate and can't figure out how to change it into English. Second, this blog is about 3 months late in coming. I actually had this blog set up, I think I maybe even did some sort of a test to see if it actually works, but then never did quite get around to doing anything about it. So, in quick recap...

First I flew into Amsterdam..

And I'm living in Tilburg... (My Apartment)

Then I went to Prague...

Then to Paris...

Then to Grenoble... (Rink's on the right, mall's on the left, hotel's straight ahead)



Then to Delft, the ocean, and back to Amsterdam...

Then to Brugge...

Then back to Amsterdam...

And that's it...

And if you're curious, these are the things I'm doing. First, darts is the big thing to do in Holland. The way I see it if I put all this free time to good use I might improve myself a way too much, and then possibly get all snobby and uppity and nobody wants that. So I figure why not use this time to get really good at things that have no real value but might possibly come in handy at some point in my life, in a bar... if someone challenged me to darts. A thorough command of useless skills.

(This is us with Gary Anderson and Gary Robson getting schooled, the #1 and #5 dart players in the world)

And within the same theme I'm also developing my thorough command of useless information. If I can add one interesting fact to every conversation, about any possible subject, then... maybe I haven't won per se, but I'm pretty sure I'll at least be winning by a lot. So, the BEST books I've read...

1) Velvet Elvis (Or as I like to call it, CS Lewis rewritten in 100 pages for people too lazy to read 1000 pages), but still good stuff. The matters of contention:

a) Progressive Revelation: God has given people a better understanding of him as they themselves increase in knowledge.

b) All truth is God's truth/all good comes from God no matter where it is to be found, even other religions. Check out a Hindu prayer for example:

O Lord, forgive three sins that are due to my human limitations:
Thou art everywhere, but I worship you here;
Thou art without form, but I worship you in these forms;
Thou needest no praise, yet I offer you these prayers and salutations,
Lord, forgive three sins that are due to my human limitations.

c) Following God does not mean a simple conversion, it's about every choice we make every day

2) The Language of God: A Christian who was in charge of the Human Genome Project. Pretty much says that the evidence for evolution is overwhelming, but at the same time doesn't leave God out of the picture. Compares it to when the church thought that if the Earth wasn't the center of the universe that God couldn't exist.

3) Generation X: Kinda about how our generation doesn't have to work 100 hour work weeks like our parents and so has the time to ask questions about life... and so far have gotten nowhere.

4) A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: The guy lost both his parents to cancer and pretty much writes out his life, his thoughts, and his daydreams...

5) God: A Biography: It won the Pullitzer so I figured I'd read it. The guy goes through the Old Testament looking at God as the main character in it all, and then tries to figure out what kind of God this is?

6) Life of Pi: A guy survives on a life raft for a long time alongside a zebra, a tiger, a hyena, a gorilla, and a ptarmagin if I remember correctly...

So also cause I have so much time I've been thinking about writing something myself, just to see if I could do it. I have a few thoughts but I can never get past the first paragraph before thinking that it absolutely sucks. So I've decided to make a book of a thousand paragraphs, maybe of ones that make the reader have to think, have to feel, have to stand up and take notice... I don't have time for a book and I won't take the time for a story. Give me a situation, make it powerful, make it compromising, make it drastic, and make it real. An example of such a situation? Something that gets me is thinking about a family burying their son who has just died in the war, and in the midst of it all pull up some people denouncing your brother and ridiculing everything he stood for... their form of protesting the war...

Lastly, hockey has been going pretty good. The team has done well and so I have done well. We made it to the 3rd round of the Continental Cup, which Tilburg has never done before. (A tournament where the best teams from each country the year before play in) We're in the finals for the first of the two seasons that we play in Holland which is a one game thing in January, and we've just started the second season out with 2 wins. So pretty not bad.

Kay, hope everyone else is doing great,

And remember: "To go against conscience is neither right nor safe."

Brendan