National Symbol

Don't piss off your neighbors in Kranj

Pic says it all!!

Smarjetna Gora

A view from a little mountain in Jure's backyard.
I think the height is roughly 400m at the summit.
Not bad for an after dinner walk.

Happy Holidays from Slovenia

I spent Christmas in a town called Slovenj Gradec. Quite near Austria, it is in the north middle of the country.

The weather is cold and snowy and reminds me of Cleveland. However, much warmth is felt indoors where friends and family gather to spend these moments with people they care about. This Christmas George got me to a church in Slovenj Gradec exactly at 00:00, he is like a proven package delivery service, just on time, all the time.
As we walked up to the church, there were young people gathered around the doorway. The entrance hymn had just finished and there was more or less a line to get inside. Amazing, I have never witnessed anything quite like this in all my years of attending mass. George and I stood just outside the doorway in silence while some of the youth carryed on conversations, but inside, only the Priest spoke. I stood there until just after the homily, then leaned to George and said, "I'm going in!" He nodded in agreement, and I made my way. Silently and peacefully I squeezed past fellows in attendence. I got in just past the doorway, not that far. I removed my hat, but I could still feel the cold air pressed up against the back of my legs.
With one more good push, I could be up to the middle of the main aisle. It took me until communion, but I made it. I didn't mind, I was there, and the sight was awesome. So many in attendance and such a good feeling in that cold stone church.
After mass, checked out the nativity scene and then headed out. Ironically, I was the last one out of the church, really, aside from the priest and clergy. When I exited, I found Jure and also Davor, he had just arrived. He wondered what happened to me, how come I was the last one out, I said, "man, I was praying for you, and that takes time!!" So, we headed off to Jure's friend's flat in the crisp cold night.
From there, we had a nice evening/morning drinking shots and eating. We headed to a pub around 3 or so... now that is a Christmas tradition to hold onto.
Best wishes to all.
Check the photo Gallery for some updated pics from the evening and Christmas day!!

36 hours until slovenia....and Merry Christmas!!

OH yeah, going to see my buddy George! In roughly a day and half, will be in Slovenia. This is going to be an epic voyage, should I get a montage playing?? I am travelling by train. It is a long one, to fly it would have been 100 euro more, and why take the easy route??? Travelling by train is like a saga, it just keeps on going, never seems to end..... i am ready to endure!!
The funny thing is going to be when I arrive, it will be like 05 30 in the morning.... it will be at this small "communistic" times train station on the edge of town. And I will most likely be the only one getting off at the stop.... it is funny, really... but George will be there, if he isn't... oh man, I am going to be pissed!!! He will yell... Lep paz drav Slovenia!!! It will be awesome!! I am trying very hard to put the experience to words, it is a bit difficult at the moment, because I am laughing thinking about it... not that it is funny appearence of the town or it's characteristics, simply the experience in itself... is quite ridiculous... and of course, I am doing it!!! Anyone who knows George, well, he and I are like mad max characters when we are together. Like, just real men. Drinking Beer, Telling stupid jokes, And yelling phrases for no apparent reason in public... we carry on..
All in good fun of course.
So, tomorrow, leave and travel to the snow of the Julian Alpes... Christmas time.
I wish you all the best and Merry Christmas!! Enjoy and read you all later.

great meal!

Tonight, I had probabaly the best meal for the money I have spent here. I finally braved the dutch language menu, and wandered into the Wok. I ordered chicken with noodles and thai sauce, oh man, for 3.50 euro, that is definitely the best deal in town. Anyone who visits, should check this place out for a quick decent meal, don't worry about the dutch language, just ask first, spreek je engles?? The dude will be able to fumble through enough english sounds to get your order right. It is a university student hang out, so you eat out of a carton and can either eat with chop sticks or a plastic fork, I know you all are going to slam me, but I went with the plastic fork, I was hungry!!! No time to fanangle with chop sticks tonight.
Oh yeah and as I walked back to my spot, I passed a holiday ice rink, open air, and an outdoor christmas market pub on the main square of Eindhoven. Very nice atmosphere for Christmas! As a comparrison, I just thought of Public Square... oh man, sorry I did that... I will keep my mind here....why do I want come back to cleveland????
All in all, a great night for a tuesday! Hope you all are having as much fun.
One more thing, I am waiting for the "newness" of all the beautiful women to wear off. It hasn't yet. I will say, the women here are on average much more fit. It must be the lack of automotive transport and the walking everywhere..... funny how the plus' and minus' of all the choices we make have the effects on our bodies. What are your priorities? Convience in mobility or a fit body?
Yeah, it is difficult to buy all the stuff , BEER, at the grocery store and then carry it ,BLUE CASE, with you down the street, but it works.
So now, I can within a reasonable amount of time, walk to the store, bike, or if I really want to have hassle, drive.
The city isn't planned solely for the auto, the auto just exists as part of the puzzle of life. I like that. I like cars, don't get me wrong, I would love to own a BMW with some real horse power, rear wheel posi-traction, maybe I can find one here for a good price.. I just like the choice to not have to depend on it for everyplace I go..
I also like windmills.....

great article from american history

Article is titled: But—I'm a Conservative!


"Our job is to prove right here in America that democracy means, not destructive wrangling, but effective cooperation in solving our spiritual and economic problems. Can this be too much to hope from American youth?"
.....

'Men too often, in their revenge, set the example of doing away with those general laws to which all alike can look for salvation in adversity.'
—Thucydides, 426 B.C.

And is found in The Atlantic, circa 1939...
To all of those who thought I was a just a liberal-goof, "Tom"!! Labels really suck, don't they???

Article Found at: "http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/194004/peter-viereck"

If you can't bear to read this, just skip to the last pharagraph. Pretty insightful.

I would ask this question to the head shrub in charge, also!!! Especially the part about "destructive wrangling".

oh yeah, and here is a photo....

..long weekend.. tired..lack of sunlight..

internet browsing

http://www.endhomelessness.org/pub/tenyear/10yearplan.pdf

don't know what to think of this? has anyone heard of this?

alot of rhetoric though....the clock is ticking...

dutch sunrise

This is about 8:40 in the morning.
I took today, PTO, hahahahaa... and I am going to the city hall to get immigration papers finalized.
And to do some shopping for christmas gifts.

It's been awhile...

I was thinking about a thesis for this site. I thought, who is my audience? I initially thought, only I and some close friends. But now, I think many eyes check this spot out on the net, just for a minute or two. So, with that in mind, I was thinking to tweak the content a bit, stick to just telling stories that happen to "me". My struggle with the site initially as I saw it develop was that with each post, I began to see just photos and verbage describing a fun, happy experience to some regular guy from northeastern ohio, and I thought, the world is anything but happy and fun at the moment. With each story that was told around me, it seemed to be the 180 degree opposite of everything that I was posting. I thought, what is the point of telling a cheery happy story at this time?? Each of my posts tell a bit about me, my ideas, my angst, my politics, my general persception, warped as it may, of the world.. but what story do I really want to tell? So, what the heck, I will just stick to the journey that unfolds before me.

So what do I notice about living in the Netherlands??
Living here in December. I can't believe the less one hour daylight makes on your bio rhythms. The sun finally comes up around 8 or a little after, especially dark with all the cloud cover, and goes down, hmmm, usually I am working, but I think it goes down around 4:30...
With no snow, to reflect any ambient light, it is really dark all of the time. So now I work out and run, to combat this, we'll see if I can stay positive or succumb to the prevailing darkness???

This last weekend, went to Hassalt on Saturday and Brussels on Sunday. Both cities are in Belgium. I really like Belgium! One of the pics was taken in Hassalt, the one with the Christmas Tree in the town square, and the Donkeys as well, those were taken for Dale!! They just hang out in the stable, part of the "manger" nativity scene that is setup next to them.
Near them also, is a outdoor Christmas market, equipped with a pub. Tiny wooden structures with a bar and heat lamps and garlin, and cool crisp december air, perfect for Christmas spirit.

The market place, or Winkelstraat, was packed with people! It was great to see everyone strolling from shop to shop in the open air, even on such a chilly day. The sun was out, but it was so low on the horizon that you have to side step and shuffle across the cobblestones to catch a bit of the fleeting rays.

I bought some gifts, for some lucky people in the States. Now just have to get them into the Post ASAP!

Saturday Night, went to the discoteque next to my building called "de effenaar", no idea what that means, but it is a pretty sweet place in Eindhoven, anyone that comes, here, whether for business or to see me, you should pay a visit to this place, if you like to dance...even if you don't there is a pub inside as well.
Somehow managed to rise early the next morning, to catch what I consider the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen. I was too tired, "hung over", to get my camera and snap a shot, but it was beautiful. The orange color was so bold, and because of the small angle on the horizon the color remained for quite awhile...
Managed to get out of bed, sometime after the sun, passed the first layer of low hanging clouds, and made it down to the car, and powered my way onward to Brussels, with water bottle in hand! Water always makes you feel better!
Anyway, it only took about an hour and half to get there. This city is big. Very much the capital of European Union. Anyone driving into Brussels from the north, I suggest parking at the North Railway station, as I did, and walk down to the city center. This route was flawless and very easy to navigate.
Met up with my friend Debbie, from Cleveland! We had lunch in what I would think reminded me of a Latin Quarter section of town, but not sure of the name, but it was near Rue d' Adolf Max and the main plaza of the city center. I had mussels and frites. Belgian Fries, and yes they were Prima!!
After "midday chow" , tom g, we wandered through city, stopping at stores, to window shop but for others, like the small chocolate shop, purchased some damn good chocolate. Also for the record, in the candy shop, I saw the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, I just smiled. And said, "thanks... Au re voir!!" Lame... but i was frozen in shock...
We found the Mennekin Pis, a statue of a boy taking a piss.. boy, that was exciting, let me tell you...
Then we wandered up to the cathedral, where we popped in on "revival' type of prayer service. Around the side aisles were nativity scenes from different cultures that represent the Catholic church in Brussels. It was neat to see the cultural nuances on the scene.
As we exited, noticed that the shadows were getting long on the streets... so, had to bounce. Said ciao in front of the hotel, and made my way back to Holland. Sweet day, sweet weekend. Wish you all were here, to hang out and cruise with me, it really is cool, but you know me, I dig this kind of stuff.

Oh yeah, one of the pics, is Jim Morrison's grave and the other is Paris taken from Montemarte(Sacre Cour).

textiles

http://www.konarka.com/

solar

http://www.nanosolar.com/investors.htm

police state

Why did they kill that man in Miami???
Was it absolutely necessary? Yeah, these situations are tense and hine site is always 20 20, but really?
Aren't the officials in charge of "homeland security" professionals?
So they killed a dude, that freaked out... don't you get so pissed sometimes when you sit on those planes, the tarmac, they just keep you there... don't you just want to get up and say, "I'm leaving this plane"?
Yeah, ok, normal sane folks don't just get up and bail out of the plane, but shoot the dude?
That is really lame, and I am pissed.
I am sad for the family.
The right wing conservatives just lauding this as a model of "your tax dollars at work"....
Man, that sucks! Isn't that ironic, this guy if the stories I read are correct, was a resident in florida, had his papers, probably paid taxes, and those taxes funded the organization that was trained, and killed him....
damn...

down hard on that one.
This recycling bag, was in Luxembourg... can we recycle the government in Washington too?

..blogging drunk?

Ok, so I woke this morning, the sun was up, clothes from the night before still on, the smell of cigarettes and the pub life still sending signals to my brain....looked at the clock, oh, sh$%!! I am late to work!! So hurry down foregoing breakfast and off to work I go.
All was good, I thought, then I checked my blog this afternoon and I see that I posted last night, or this morning rather.

I heard when I was in school that some students at Case often joked that it was fun on a Friday night, that instead of going out it was just as fun to drink some beers and write software code, "coding drunk". Ok, a bit odd, I suppose, but to each is own. Posting on a blog is no where near writing code, but I think I had an experience this A.M. similar to what these Case guy's referred too.

Yeah, I was hammered!!!! Really drunk!! Wow, those Palm's caught up to me and slammed me down on the ground... at least it wasn't as bad as the guy in my fourier. Upon entering the first security door of my building there was a guy laying on floor!!!!! He was just resting i suppose.

But the content of my thoughts in the previous post, I can not take credit for...
For as my friend Jim Eastman posted on his blog, bloggers have a code, or ethics standards of a sort, that always should remain in place. One of which is, to always give credit to the source for whatever you post.
So, I was saying, I the content of the post last night, are a bit odd for my site, no? Well yeah, but i have not determined a focus or even if I should have a focus for this blog other than just random thoughts or experiences of the day, maybe that will be the spirit of the blog after all??
Nevertheless, on to the story. I met this guy in a pub last night, he was a craggy desholved sort, chain smoking and periodically yelling in the pub, "yeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaa!" . He told me that he had been in the Dutch Army and had served in Bosnia. I don't know if he made it up, or if he really served but he told me of many experiences there, and in his opinion that The Netherlands is a very heavily armed nation for a nation of it's size and population.(~17mil) One of the stories he told was about a battle that took place and the Dutch army, being a peace army, was in place to hold this specific post and position, the Canadian army had report to the main general, some French guy from NATO, that this position was not defendable! So the Dutch Army went in to hold position. Those Canadians!!! Always getting out of a fight.
The opposing army began to advance, the Dutch army had to battle. It was agreed before the Dutch went in, that if the Dutch army felt it was going to loose control and be over taken, it could call in as a last resort for air support. Well, as the position was threatened and the chance of loosing control increased, they began calling for air support. But, nothing....no air support came.
For 7 or 6 days, nothing. 7 days of intense battle.
Well, they held their position. And apparently survived the siege.
but this guy in the pub told me that the general, the French guy, is to this day a marked man, not only from this particular incident, but apparently he made many more poor decisions in his commanding NATO career.
So thus comes the content of the post, this guy told me that "Europe is the Misery of the world." He focused on the negatives and in his opinion all that is wrong with European colonialism. He implicitly expressed to me as well, that while Europeans are paying for their past, America has taken over as colonial empire and the same misery that Europe brought about, is now be continued by American involvement in the middle east.
Well, that is a strong claim, but one that many, i believe here, hold as their opinion. it is tough to discuss this point but I am merely sharing it, because I thought it to be very interesting and it was an unusual experience that I had, with this Dutch Army character.
Yeah, it is focusing only on the negatives, but we do live in a time on the edge, The Boundary Conditions are known, and we are moving into them now. That is when all the turmoil and rules that seemed to have made so much sense in the middle of the spectrum no longer hold true with absolute certainty.

Europe

Europe is the misery of the world.
In europe begins the confrontatioin, the wars, the difference in opinion to lead to war.

It was in Europe that the slave trade began.
It was in Europe where the religious crusades began.
It was in Europe that, boundraries were drawn.
.......

interesting clip

don't know if this was well exposed in states, but it was shown frequently on the international news here.

St. Nick's Day Surprise

Yesterday was St. Nick's day. The final hoooorah of the Sinterklaas activities, that began in mid-november when Sinterklaas arrived by steam ship from Spain, took place yesterday in The Netherlands. Even my foreigner status did not allow me to be missed by good "ole" Saint Nick. Somehow he new I had been a good boy this year. As a gift, I received not only some chocolate, but a poem specifically written for me and my new experiences here in this country.

I stepped out of my office for a bit, and upon my return I was greeted by this fine character sitting at my desk.
I love the hat!! Oh my!!!

Paris?

Hello!
Have you tried a Kebab?
Also, a look at the tour d'eiffel from the trocadero.
And the green thing, is glass recycling truck and recycling bin.

meeting of the minds

This pic is a couple weeks old, but wanted to post it, for the trip report. This was a night out with our colleagues from the three sites, Best, Helsinki, and Cleveland.