Our map of Europe shows one big highway that goes all the way down to Maastricht, and then another big highway that goes straight from Maastricht to Cologne (FYI. In Europe it's Koln and has nothing at all to do with fragrances). So you think no problem... just take one highway and more than likely there'll be signs on the exits pointing us to the next big highway. And you think Danelle as navigator... no problem... "Brendan, at Maastricht all we have to do is cross this big river here and we'll be in Cologne..." "Ummm... Danelle, I think that's the German border." "Oh... well why is it in blue? That's stupid..." "... I don't know..."
First big problem is similar to Regina and Calgary, there is no major highway that goes AROUND each city and not through it. Instead every little town or city, that doesn't even exist on our crappy map with blue borders for countries, has us slowing down to 50, making 3 different turns and going through 2 other roundabouts, just to get back on the highway towards destination Cologne.
And second big problem was leaving at 2 to get there. Because a couple detours later and we're stuck in the middle of rush hour traffic (which seems to begin at 3:30 in Europe). So we decide to pull over for supper and wait out the traffic... we see a Mcdonalds.. no onions please.. sorry but you'll have to wait till we make a whole new burger.. uhhh, that was the plan all along Mcdonald's lady.. eat.. the map of the city shows that there's a castle not too far away.. bring the frisbee and maybe we'll throw it.. walk.. looks more like a house surrounded by a moat than anything else.. it's too windy for the frisbee.. lose motivation.. drive to Heerlen.. not even on our map.. no I'm not getting another map.. more traffic.. Heerlen you are a nemesis.. think of all the things we need to get done back home.. Danelle gets bored and starts singing Disney tunes at the top of her lungs... and suddenly we're home making Sweet and Sour Meatballs and rice and watching America's Toughest Prisons and Life and Times of Pablo Escobar and Medillin...
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Refs 1 Tilburg 0
8 minutes left in the game we have a powerplay, tie game 3-3, and their D-man blatantly shoots the puck over the glass in his own end. Should mean that he has a penalty, we have a 5 on 3 for 50 seconds, and the faceoff in their zone. Instead the ref refuses to make the call, fakes that the puck went off one of our players (even though no one was within 5 feet of the guy), and makes the draw outside of their zone. Just one of a whole lot of missed calls that the refs refused to give us... but weren't afraid to put us on the penalty kill or two men down for pretty much half of the game. It almost feels like the league is trying very hard to have the series go all the way to 5 games... and maybe make the teams some money? I wonder...
Darude - My Game
This is the greatest music video ever made... How did I possibly write a 50-page thesis on this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MaO7gj_hZg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MaO7gj_hZg
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Get Over Yourself
If ignorance is bliss, this lesson would appear to be a deliberate attempt to deprive me of happiness, the pursuit of which is my inalienable right according to the declaration of independence. I therefore assert my patriotic perogative to not know this material. I'll be out in the playground. -calvin and hobbes
MTV has been my only friend for the past few days on account of being relegated to the couch, and secondly, that it is the only channel in English other than BBC news (by the way about 1000 times better than North American news I might add mostly because it's actual news and not 'let's talk about Britney Spears as our top story again today') But, yes, MTV... in particular Super Sweet 16. Which highlights the great tragedy that is growing up and maturing between 14 and... say 30... it's always been a problem, and Whitman can say it a lot better than I can... "Beginners… How all times mischoose the objects of their adulation and reward, And how the same inexorable price must still be paid for the same great purchase."
Price to be paid? Too often and To most everywhere... Cases in point, pretty much anyone not living in a retirement home... but especially college freshmen... wide-eyed, hopeful, scared, naive, seeking, curious, courageous, arrogant, and humble. The world is their box of chocolates... failing a whole lot more than they're succeeding, hurting themselves and others all the time... and then coming back around and doing it all over again. It's like success is simply that one good decision you made in the succession of 10 really bad decisions. But no worries... nothing all that serious is put on the shoulder's of a beginner... (right Barack?) So you can't screw too much up anyways... “Overnight success usually takes 15 years. Be patient.”
And forget faith and hope for a second. It's arrogance and humility that are the only survival tools you have in this life. How many times could you look back at your life and think that you would never have even tried, let alone succeeded, if you knew how hard something was gonna be. Fortune favors the bold... Favors the arrogant one's that act like they somehow have the secret that no-one else knows and that makes them better than everyone else... You can't tiptoe around in this life not knowing if you have what it takes... cause "Them as asks, shan’t have."
And humility... humility in the exact opposite meaning of arrogance... humility that takes over the second that arrogance fails, only to fade out once arrogance starts back up... humility that for some reason you think you're missing out on some great secret. That you haven't experienced all you need to. That you have to complete some inner checklist of what you think it takes to graduate into an adult. And it's not "smart people learn from other's mistakes..."... it's not even about that anymore... it's experience... it's you make the mistake just so you have it as a story. And thus every time the price gets paid again... And do you come to some new place of knowledge that hasn't been found before? Your arrogance says yes... but I doubt it... as Chesterton wrote: "I am the man who with the utmost daring discovered what had been discovered before. I worked with elephantine efforts to discover the obvious… I did try to found a heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy."
- Edited by Danelle
MTV has been my only friend for the past few days on account of being relegated to the couch, and secondly, that it is the only channel in English other than BBC news (by the way about 1000 times better than North American news I might add mostly because it's actual news and not 'let's talk about Britney Spears as our top story again today') But, yes, MTV... in particular Super Sweet 16. Which highlights the great tragedy that is growing up and maturing between 14 and... say 30... it's always been a problem, and Whitman can say it a lot better than I can... "Beginners… How all times mischoose the objects of their adulation and reward, And how the same inexorable price must still be paid for the same great purchase."
Price to be paid? Too often and To most everywhere... Cases in point, pretty much anyone not living in a retirement home... but especially college freshmen... wide-eyed, hopeful, scared, naive, seeking, curious, courageous, arrogant, and humble. The world is their box of chocolates... failing a whole lot more than they're succeeding, hurting themselves and others all the time... and then coming back around and doing it all over again. It's like success is simply that one good decision you made in the succession of 10 really bad decisions. But no worries... nothing all that serious is put on the shoulder's of a beginner... (right Barack?) So you can't screw too much up anyways... “Overnight success usually takes 15 years. Be patient.”
And forget faith and hope for a second. It's arrogance and humility that are the only survival tools you have in this life. How many times could you look back at your life and think that you would never have even tried, let alone succeeded, if you knew how hard something was gonna be. Fortune favors the bold... Favors the arrogant one's that act like they somehow have the secret that no-one else knows and that makes them better than everyone else... You can't tiptoe around in this life not knowing if you have what it takes... cause "Them as asks, shan’t have."
And humility... humility in the exact opposite meaning of arrogance... humility that takes over the second that arrogance fails, only to fade out once arrogance starts back up... humility that for some reason you think you're missing out on some great secret. That you haven't experienced all you need to. That you have to complete some inner checklist of what you think it takes to graduate into an adult. And it's not "smart people learn from other's mistakes..."... it's not even about that anymore... it's experience... it's you make the mistake just so you have it as a story. And thus every time the price gets paid again... And do you come to some new place of knowledge that hasn't been found before? Your arrogance says yes... but I doubt it... as Chesterton wrote: "I am the man who with the utmost daring discovered what had been discovered before. I worked with elephantine efforts to discover the obvious… I did try to found a heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy."
- Edited by Danelle
Sunday, March 9, 2008
First Round
So after the slashes and spears, the cheap shots and fights in warmups... after pucks being shot at our heads or at our feet... after the game ending bench brawl and fights breaking out every game in the stands... after pennies and beer being thrown at us every game, and coaches sending out his players to injure ours... after cat-calls and racist slurs and threats of all sorts... after big hits and big plays... after shot blocks and paying the price in front of the net... and teammates filling roles after injuries... after all that and more the series ends in a handshake and we somehow salvage respect between our two teams. I have to wonder if it would be the same class act if they won instead... I would hope so because even through all the battles hockey players have a way of coming back to meet their opponent looking at them in their eye... but I guess that's one thing we'll never find out. Incredible respect to the whole team for battling through all of it and pulling out a win. My utmost respect. Finals start Wednesday...
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Happiness is a Plate of Ribs
With essentially nothing to do until, say 9:45 PM the next night because Wednesday is late practice, going out becomes mandatory on account of staying inside doing nothing all day will drive you insane. Going out ranges anywhere from a workout/sauna/tan at the gym, to meeting up for lunch with the guys, to an all afternoon card game, to an all day NHL Sega 93 tournament. And considering the amount of time spent together on a daily basis the conversation topics go anywhere and everywhere... it's a regular Greek Pantheon going on most days. Today just so happened to be all-you-can-eat ribs and shrimp night in Goirle... and also just so happened to be the second time in as many weeks that we've hit up the place. I'd like to think that we eat some sort of Takeru Kobayashi record number of plates and the owner starts to get all worried about his business, but the fact that he has also already offered us a free all-you-can-eat meal tells me a different story...
And next to the serious time spent hanging out with the guys, no true hockey player can live without getting things for free. Back in Manchester things for free consisted of Red Bulls, hair cuts, and cable TV. Most everywhere things for free consists of housing, bills, and food on the road. But nothing says free quite as much as when your teammates end up paying for your meal... The "credit card game", as an example, is a game where each person puts in their credit card to the waitress, and either the first or last card picked (depending on said agreed upon rules heretoforth) has to pay for the whole meal. The "price is right game", as another example, has every player write out on a piece of paper what they think the price of the entire bill is going to be, and the person closest to the price, without going over, gets their meal paid for by everyone else. NHL players do this over $10,000 meals... I do this moreso with coffee... but you get the idea...
And next to the serious time spent hanging out with the guys, no true hockey player can live without getting things for free. Back in Manchester things for free consisted of Red Bulls, hair cuts, and cable TV. Most everywhere things for free consists of housing, bills, and food on the road. But nothing says free quite as much as when your teammates end up paying for your meal... The "credit card game", as an example, is a game where each person puts in their credit card to the waitress, and either the first or last card picked (depending on said agreed upon rules heretoforth) has to pay for the whole meal. The "price is right game", as another example, has every player write out on a piece of paper what they think the price of the entire bill is going to be, and the person closest to the price, without going over, gets their meal paid for by everyone else. NHL players do this over $10,000 meals... I do this moreso with coffee... but you get the idea...
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Translator
If anyone... ahem... ever came... ahem cough... to visit me... cough cough... these are the words that I think they would have to know:
Rechts, Links - Right and left... important for directions obviously... consequently from my house to Mcdonalds is two links, a rechts, a links, and two rechts.
Mak ik - Can I have... This is usually followed by a number.. like, "Mak ik drie (three)cheeseburgers, twee (two - pronounsed tway) apple pies, en een grote(and one large) cokes."
Alsjeblieft (Ash-ya-bleef to a younger person OR Alls-ta-bleef to an older person) - This word has two different meanings. It can mean "please", or it can mean "there you go." The slightly amusing part of this is when the person is talking English to you and after they give you something says "please", thinking they're saying "there you go."
Smakelijk (Smack-e-lick) - Literally it means "tasty" but it actually means "enjoy your meal" (Is "smack your lips" a saying about enjoying your food or am I just making that up?) . It's what servers (or Mcdonald's workers) say to you right after they give you your food, right after they say alsjeblieft or "please." Also you should know that Mcdonald's is not open late, but instead closes at 11... which is so unfortunate.
Hoe zeg ik (Hoo zeckhe ick) - How do you say? You wouldn't believe the trouble I had to go through getting an answer to the question "how do you say "how do you say?"
Koken in de keuken - Cooking in the kitchen. I don't know why really... I think it sounds cool and try to use it as much as possible... And also I cook now... My specialties include eggo waffles, ready-made-pizza, and microwave dinners..
Vader - Father
Darth - From babynames.com, means Dark.
Darth Vader is thus Dark Father. So if you knew Dutch you could have skipped the whole first half of the trilogy, and wouldn't even have to search your feelings at all, to know that Darth Vader is probably Luke's father... All about subtlety there George... And you would think that with all of the references to Germany and their stormtroopers in Star Wars it would be the German translation of father, but the German translation of father is Vater... which is way less intimidating than Vader and probably why it wasn't used.
Rechts, Links - Right and left... important for directions obviously... consequently from my house to Mcdonalds is two links, a rechts, a links, and two rechts.
Mak ik - Can I have... This is usually followed by a number.. like, "Mak ik drie (three)cheeseburgers, twee (two - pronounsed tway) apple pies, en een grote(and one large) cokes."
Alsjeblieft (Ash-ya-bleef to a younger person OR Alls-ta-bleef to an older person) - This word has two different meanings. It can mean "please", or it can mean "there you go." The slightly amusing part of this is when the person is talking English to you and after they give you something says "please", thinking they're saying "there you go."
Smakelijk (Smack-e-lick) - Literally it means "tasty" but it actually means "enjoy your meal" (Is "smack your lips" a saying about enjoying your food or am I just making that up?) . It's what servers (or Mcdonald's workers) say to you right after they give you your food, right after they say alsjeblieft or "please." Also you should know that Mcdonald's is not open late, but instead closes at 11... which is so unfortunate.
Hoe zeg ik (Hoo zeckhe ick) - How do you say? You wouldn't believe the trouble I had to go through getting an answer to the question "how do you say "how do you say?"
Koken in de keuken - Cooking in the kitchen. I don't know why really... I think it sounds cool and try to use it as much as possible... And also I cook now... My specialties include eggo waffles, ready-made-pizza, and microwave dinners..
Vader - Father
Darth - From babynames.com, means Dark.
Darth Vader is thus Dark Father. So if you knew Dutch you could have skipped the whole first half of the trilogy, and wouldn't even have to search your feelings at all, to know that Darth Vader is probably Luke's father... All about subtlety there George... And you would think that with all of the references to Germany and their stormtroopers in Star Wars it would be the German translation of father, but the German translation of father is Vater... which is way less intimidating than Vader and probably why it wasn't used.
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