Finally playing ball again!

The past 14 days were quite eventful for me. I played two games of baseball and two games of softball. Results weren’t that great: three losses and one win. Still, FINALLY playing ball!

by tornados.de

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My Kindle and I

Never thought I liked this electronic device that much. A while ago I was really skeptic about Amazon’s Kindle but things changed when I was sitting on the plane to Boston about a year ago.

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The most beautiful minor matter in the world

This is a proverb in Germany. “Die schönste Nebensache der Welt.” Football. Americans call it soccer, which is short for association football. In Germany it’s the first thing you learn before saying “Mama” or “Papa”. Football is our blood. It’s even thicker than beer and my fourth love – right after my girlfriend, my family and friends. Some Germans have the sport as their number one. The Cologne FC (1. FC Köln) has a great history. Many successful stories but nothing of the old glory remains. It’s a shame.

Hans Schäfer lifting the trophy May 12th, 1962

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The year of goodbyes

Within two weeks Red Sox fans had to lose two legends, Wakefield and Varitek, both members of the Red Sox since the mid-90′s. Both members of the teams that won the World Series in 2004 and 2007. They were my heroes.

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Back from the trip!

What a great weekend!

One day and 750 km (~ 470 miles) after I left my home I returned and I had a great time. Here’s a list of all the places we went to. We had to cut three stations because of lack of time but we found one place that we didn’t plan on going to.

February 18th:
Diekirch, Luxembourg (National Military History Museum)
St. Vith, Belgium
Baugnez, Belgium (Baugnez 44 Museum)
Bastogne, Belgium (101 Airborne Museum)
Sedan, France
Reims, France

February 19th:
Reims, France (Cathedral, Museum of the Surrender)
Épernay, France
Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, France (American Military Cemetery)
Vauquois, France
Brabant-sur-Meuse, France (German Military Cemetery)
Verdun, France (Fort Douaumont, Ossuary)
Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial, Val du Scheid, Luxembourg

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Tour d’histoire militaire

I had this idea a long time ago but never made it happen until this week: A military history tour through Belgium, Luxembourg and France.

Europe, especially the BeNeLux countries, France and Germany, is heaven for military historians. Both world wars and many other wars happened here. There are also many places you can see, visit, explore and most of these places are accompanied by museums.

Earlier this week I decided to do this trip, no matter what happens. The previous week was kinda crappy and I needed a timeout. I asked one of my best friends, who is also interested in history, to join and he was in. I’m really looking forward to this trip.

Gonna charge the cameras, pack my stuff, do some research, find out the addresses for all the places and then tomorrow morning we’ll head out.


View Larger Map

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Whitney Houston and the military

Whitney Houston is dead. Her singing career was pretty much dead before but it’s still quite shocking that she died that young. Just 48 years old. But I’m not surprised at all because she was a huge addict.

Not even a day later there were dozens of posts on facebook where people degraded her career and compared her death to the ones of military service members. Right or wrong?

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Germany just missed the hattrick…

Too bad, too bad… New England’s Sebastian Vollmer could have been the third German to win a major US-championship since June 2011.   But last Sunday wasn’t the day for the Patriots…

Barton Silverman/The New York Times

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I’m better than your kids!

Papp of the Week

While I’m watching retarded shows on TV where people embarrass themselves in front of the whole nation for 1,500 € I thought I share the latest “Papp of the Week”. I’d like to thank my former USAFE co-worker Mr. C. Murphy for this wonderful discovery.

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Sick of football… for now

Baseball season is getting closer and closer and I can’t wait! Then I have a reason to stop watching football and concentrate on following baseball. Saturday I relived most of Grantland’s Brian Phillips’ thoughts on “Soccer”. It was horrible. Tragic. A huge disappointment.

It started so good. Know the feeling when something hasn’t even begun and you know it will be great? I had that feeling. When I walked up the stands and heard the music (Bläck Fööss – Du bes die Stadt) they were playing I was getting really excited. Then the hymn of the club (Höhner – Mer Stonn zo dir) and if it didn’t happen already I get the creeps because it’s an amazing thing to hear 50,000 people chanting and waving their scarves during that song. And even after song when the game is on the fans continue and it’s even more amazing. I love it. I love to go that place. I have great memories of the RheinEnergie Stadion and I know I can’t stop returning and paying money (where I sit I usually pay 37€) for it.

The game begins and it took Cologne three minutes to score the first goal. They played excellent! At least for the first 20 minutes.

An ugly game. It’s the worst thing for a fan to see an ugly game. A 0-0 can be good, although a goal is always better but the way both teams played was an insult to football. Both teams made lots of mistakes, stupid mistakes that can easily be avoided by actually playing the game it is supposed to be. DO NOT pass the ball to the players of the other team or if there are some players waiting for you to pass the ball to them you SHOULD NOT pass the ball to the player who is covered by two defenders. Oh, and if there is a defender you SHOULD NOT try and run against him. In the first 20 minutes I thought that winning this game seems realistic, after the first half I thought that we can be happy with a tie and then when Schalke scored the equalizer I knew we will lose.

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