i found these quotes the other day in a guide to beer drinking, enjoy...

"I feel wonderful drinking beer; in a blissful mood, with joy in my heart and a happy liver." - Sumerian Poem, 3000 B.C.E.

"Those who drink beer will think beer." - Washington Irving

"When the beer is in the man, Is the wisdom in the can?" - Old Dutch Saying

"The mouth of a perfectly content man is filled with beer." - Ancient Egyptian Inscription

"Give a man a beer and he'll waste an hour. Teach a man to brew and he'll waste a lifetime." - The Home Brew Company

"Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer." - Dave Barry

"Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer the world." - Kaiser Wilhelm

"I would give all my fame for a pot of ale..." - Shakespeare, Henry V

"Beauty lies in the hands of the beer holder." - Anonymous

10.5

no one ought to spend 10.5 hours in a plane unless flying business/1st class...that is just retarded...what else is retarded is flying to portland from frankfurt to get to denver...but add to that the flight to denver being delayed by 3 hours due to weather in LA and you have more than just a tired brendon, you have a zombie typing a blog from the portland airport which is smaller than expected but at least has free WIFI and that rocks...so thats it, im sitting here, wasting time, but at least i have my trusty old piece of shit laptop to pass the time before i fall over dead from this more than exhausting day...ill see U, in denver.

insulting injuries

im not a "big" soccer fan but ive always been an interested party due to the influence of my dad, sister and friends back in texas...id have to say this world cup in germany is the most fussball ive seen in my life and so there are many things im noticing for perhaps the first time...one of such things is the number of pussies out there on the field...these players work their asses off, dont get me wrong, they are tough, strong, physical athletes who would beat the shit out of each other if it werent for a referee handing out red cards left and right (usa vs. italy, i wont go into that)...but this falling down and grabing your ankle thing has got to stop...how much time is wasted during these antics i do not know but everytime someone tackles you doesnt give you permission to audition for an acting role on international television...suck it up, you got beat, dont play dead, dont encourage the ref who didnt really see the whole thing go down to give you a free kick, just play, play on...im not sure which team is the worst, last night it appeared to be italy...i know im not alone in this opinion, its been a constant theme amongst us watching these games every night downtown, but maybe ive been outta the loop too long on this sport and its acceptable, who knows, but please, dont cry wolf and dont add further insult to real injury.

today i called my dad. its fathers day. i wished him a happy one. yet on his mind was more than just a day. it was that father thing that was more important. ive been blessed with a great father. a father who loves, cares, and wants to see the best for his children. for this i am greatful as a son.

and there is another Father i have that too often I do not show my appriciation for. on this Fathers Day i give my thanks to God, the Father, for his forgiveness and understanding and who i would be nothing without. who also wants to see the best for his children and for this i am also greatful as a son.

roots

as we all know germany won against poland in the last few seconds of play two days ago and it took me a whole day to recover...because germans are awesome...why? germans love number one their country, they are proud and show it, ive never really seen such a display of patriotism as ive seen these past few months, anywhere...i cant even say ive shown my love for being an american as much as they do for deutschland. being german by heritage i appriciate this even more. when i first learned of coming to germany i didnt really know what it meant to be german. all i knew was that everyones been to germany and i wanted to go somewhere else. i now know why everyone has been to germany, these people are truely passionate about who they are, even if they are not natives. the german population is a melting pot of european cultures yet most claim germany as home even if they were not born here. mom might be serbian, dad turkish, grandma peruvian, grandpa japanese but they are german and are proud. nor was i ever interested in learning about my german heritage, irish id always wanted to learn more a bout, but never german, yet after the game, as we were partying in the streets, literally, cars full of fans forming their own parade, honking and shouting and waving the black, red and gold flags a desire ignited inside of me to learn my family history. and it culminated when a fellow german placed his flag around my shoulders and said, "how does this make u feel" and i felt honored that some random dude so proud of his flag and his country and his team would embrace me as a friend and a countyman.

childhood

the way the mind works is amazing...i wanted to write a blog, but not about the world cup or partying or germany but i couldnt find an idea and then, then it came to me...

my dad was in florida with my mom a few weeks ago and it dawned on me id actually like to go back now and see the "old stomping grounds"...and sometime in the last few days i was thinking about this and realized who id never looked up on myspace, my childhood best friends...i've moved around quite a bit in life, i tell people i grew up in texas, but thats only because i went through adolesence there, my childhood really started in florida...

it was there i learned to play football, swim at the ymca, run races on the beach and win run-a-thons, ride a bike around the neighborhood for hours, play 4-square and tetherball, build forts and clubhouses, boogy board and tube, drink large amounts of salt water, climb trees, stay up to all hours of the night terrorising dads office building, build sand castles, experience my first "crush", play hide-n-seek in the church, play pirates in the city park, throw rocks at aligators from the edge of the swamp bank, sing the words to la bamba, read the entire collection of hardy boys books, climb on the roof of the house, talkback to teachers, and the list of course could go on...

and in these thoughts of mine i often wonder how different my life would be today had i not moved away...i doubt the swamps are there anymore, i never became that big football star, im not a big fan of the ocean anymore nor the heat, i still love watersports but i prefer lakes, im too big to climb trees anymore, and being a mystery detective still sounds like an awesome job...but of course it is the sum of our life experiences that makes us who we are now and this person, this person who i am i like, i enjoy, not every-single moment of the existance i wont lie because im not perfect, but i cannot imagine a life any different now and therefore cannot even imagine whats next...

3.000

if anything sums up my college education more than anything its my gpa...just posted today, my official csu gpa is a 3.000, not a 3.01 or 3.001, but a 3.zerozerozero, no more, no less, and that how i played the game of college, no more, no less than required...i wasnt always a "B" student, but somewhere half way through colllege i gave up and didnt care anymore and its only irony and truth my new gpa reflects those feelings...and thats it. im done, i received my final grades for student teaching and i dont plan on taking another college course for years to come...at which point i might get one of those master degrees everyone talks about, which one, i have no idea yet but why think about it, its sooo far off...so as this chapter in my life officially ends its just another chance to think about what i really wanna do in life...

disappointed

well i went out with a guy from work and his friends downtown to watch the world cup games...the first game ill have to admit i didnt get to watch most of because the location they selected to hangout at didnt have "big" tvs so it was difficult to see much of anything...the next game i watched the majority of but i wasnt really into the two teams playing, ecuador and poland...

we were not in the big celebration area with the big screen so i cannot comment on the activities there but we were in the middle of downtown and id have to say i was rather disappointed with the turnout...i expected way more people to be out watching the game, drinking beer, cheering, etc...there were many but i had high expectations i suppose...however im not surprised...because this is little america...and the people eventually came out from the woodwork, after the games were over and it was 11 at night, typical party time, typical americans...

so im headed downtown again tomorrow perhaps and for sure on monday to catch the first game being hosted here, i expect more people during then but im not going to hype myself up over it again, not until tuesday when i return to stuttgart for their first game...from my friend down there i understand it was a great time so im going to be excited to stay downtown and get to see every game...here im restricted by a 13 EUR cab ride each way which adds up so ill just to have to wait to entertain my world cup excitement...until then cheers!

4 hours...

in exactly 4 hours the world cup will begin with germany playing costa rica in munich at 6pm...although i have no clue about team strengths nor their players i will be supporting whoever i feel like at the moment...since ive been living in germany i think im obligated to root for the home team during the first game...other favorites of mine include brazil and the united states of course, but not for reasons people might think...back in the day when i played computer games i was addicted and surprisingly good at FIFA '97...my team was brazil and i rarely lost a game...the united states is a more obvious reason, im at heart an american and want to see my country do well, if not win...teams i wont be rooting for include france, italy, and poland...why not? well france is just that, france, and italy because they play USA in the first round of matches...poland because USA defeated them during a pre-cup game i saw here in kaiserslautern a few months ago...so thats my soccer picks before this party gets started, im sure i have new picks as the game are underway, but for now ill just roast my beer with the random person next too me watching these games playout on the big screens in the city-centre...good luck to all...cheers!

books...

so in my rush to leave early from the hospital yesterday i forgot to get the key and for the second time in a week i was locked out...i ended up at the post exchange (think walmart for military) and found myself in the bookstore...and i realized there are too many books in this world to read...but see, i dont read books, in fact, the last time i read a whole book was over a year ago and before that i have no idea...why dont i read books? well, i used to, back in "school", not college, high school, but even then id only read if interested/ing, but that doesnt count because those we mandatory...last time i read for pleasure was before i got the internet...all the reading i do these days is on the internet and it usually consists of news articles and lately, the occassional random blog or two (not counting myspace blogs)...but in this bookstore i found so many book that "looked" interesting, then id read the back cover and think, heard the story, seen the movie, etc...this was the fiction isle...in the travel isle i was of course really intrigued, opened up a few to browse and really it was all common sense about how to do europe on a budget, and the things im already doing, but it did reaffirm a few things i knew and perhaps might be worth picking up a book or two next trip out here...the most interesting isle however was the non-fiction which well, might as well have been fiction too, but its all based on "real facts" and shit like that...i refer mainly to the political books that everyone writes these days...politics are more important to people these days than (i would say ever but i doubt thats true)...the point is everyone wants to have an opinion and have people agree with them and read their book...or someone wants to pick up a book that thinks like they do so they can support their political viewpoint with someone elses because well, we dont know how to argue "ourside" half the time anyways...i figure i could pick up any of those books and perhaps it might change or support my view but i dont want to so im not going to read any of them...and my final point, if i even have one in all this random reading writing, goes back to my lack of desire to read books...its mainly because i know i wont finish it and i hate that idea, because most books bore me afterawhile and i fail to give the good ones the chance...so the million dollar question then is...if i dont read books, how can i expect to write one and have people read it? or maybe my book is just for me, maybe others will read it, but just like my blog, if people happen to enjoy it, cool, if not, who cares....

shutup already

its 6am in the morning...ive been getting up earlier this week for work and therefore check email earlier in the morning...which brings me to my quick topic...annoying people at 6am.

there is a internet cafe in the hospital i do most of my internet from these days and apparantly people think that its okay to have video conferencing, loud telephone calls, and the like at this time of day...okay i know you miss your wife and kid or whatever but i dont wanna hear you talking in that little baby gay ass voice for 30 minutes on end about your entire day...and to the other guy, i dont wanna hear you explain world of warcraft to someone over the phone while you sit and check your stats at 6am in the morning...i want peace and quiet, the rest of the hospital is, why cant you, go away, go home, go buy your own internet access, do something but dont live your live in the cafe while i sit painfully restraining myself from smacking you...

thats my rant and now its time to go to work, oh boy, this shit rocks or not.

blogs

blogs are wonderful and well, im sure they are evil too...i think just about everything in life can be complete opposites if you really think about it...

i like blogs...many blogs have turned into books for people...but while mine may not become a book someday, perhaps i will write one...it wasnt until i started blogging that i ever wanted to write a book but a few 6 months ago or so i really wanted to, even started one, but it fell by the wayside just like everything else in life always does...i need a good topic though and it needs to be one of those fictional based on true events type of books...and itll start as a blog im sure...not sure what the word is for that but someone does...

evil?! perhaps because you share the world, your world with everyone...as whoever my readers are know i spill all the beans in my blog and i do not edit and i do not always spell check or grammer check or whatever check my work...and so it makes for some interesting stories...and this is what a blog is, random shit falling from my memory (or whatevers left of it) onto the keyboard onto a screen for someone to read...someone, who is that? anyone, including perhaps my grandma...only she really knows because i cannot track visitors that easily, but she seems to have an inside scoop on things lately, or is just damn good at guessing about my habits...either way it might freak people out if mom or dad or grandma found their blog but i perfer to take the approach of ignorance and not really care because well, what does it matter...

my life is nearly an open book...and for those hidden chapters, all u really have to do if liquor me up anyways or maybe just ask...so until i write my book, here is my blog, as it always has been, for you and you and grandma to read, enjoy!

blackout

its been awhile but i finally done it...met up with a guy from work last night and hit up two of the three bars in landstuhl...after that well, no idea...it was one of those nights but a few things im told i did included drop kicking a beer bottle inside the barracks, but somehow i made it inside a cab, onto post, past the id check and into the barracks.

so of course i have a fabulous hangover this morning and i woke up on someones couch...i need to find that couch again because its about time for that afternoon nap. a shower should also be in order along with a gatorade, more drugs (the pain killing type) and perhaps food after that, but not before, stomach cannot handle any input at the moment.

was considering going to a beer festival today but yeah, thats not going to happen so ill probably spend the rest of the weekend watching movies and law and order...

4 days

i love four day weeks...you know those ones where you get a monday or a friday off? i think life should contain 4 day work weeks, like who ever decided we'd work 5 or 6 days a week...i know God rested on the 7th day, but that day is for Him...i think we need 2 days just for not working...someone out there works a full/semi-fulltime job and only works 4 days a week and to whoever you are i am jealous...

speaking of jealous, jaque, my blonde headed big boobed chick friend informed me she got a job bartending for the summer...where is mine jackoff? i wanna bartending job too...i mean really, i have blonde hair too, doesnt 1 out of 3 count for something? can i come be your bar bitch/back?
the day i return is coming ever so close and in all truthfulness i am looking forward to returning to my what do you call them? stomping grounds? i prefer "drinking grounds"...that day i get to sit on my barstool at conor oneils or old chicagos, lucky joes or sundance...i really cant wait now because europe is awesome, but missing...missing is the wrong word...i just havent found a few of those things yet i was looking for that i left back home: my barstool, my bartender, my barmates (read drinking buddies)...

i have it planned out...sorta...the first world cup game in k-town, that would be where im living currently...is on a monday, specifically the monday after im done playing army...party in the streets...the next day, tuesday, is a game in stuttgart...party in the streets...until the next friday, i hope to make it to munich for a game...party in the streets...i have no tickets, but none are required, itll be cheaper to drunk outside the game anyways, watching the madness unfold in the streets on the large big screens...

and thats a wrap, im happy, and i have a bottle of jack daniels, and a few movies for that hangover tomorrow, and perhaps even a night out on the town ahead of me...ciao