It was my longest break from blogging since my trip to the States but I had some reasons. The first reason would be Windows 7. Stupid me had to get the 64-bit version and since then the WiFi doesn't work properly. Then the second reason would be this week...

My week started Monday with staying at home because I was still on sick leave since Saturday. In the afternoon I was reading articles about 'The Fall of the Berlin Wall' as it was the 20th anniversary that day and in the evening I decided to skip my softball practice because I sprained my finger last practice and it was still hurting. I couldn't sleep for a while so I was watching the party in Berlin on TV until I finally passed out. A blog about the fall of the wall was one of my thoughts that night but after I started over and over again I think it's enough to direct you to my entry from last year. There are bunch of people looking that up from time to time.
With not much sleep I went to work, had an alright day, came back home, watched some TV instead of going running and fell asleep on the couch at some point. Woke up in the night and went to bed. What happened during my nap time was something that shocked me.
Tuesday Robert Enke, one of Germany's national team goalies, committed suicide.
One of my German coworkers who is also a big football fan (btw, I refuse to say 'soccer' - it's 'football' and 'American football' from now on) told me what happened and first I didn't believe him until I looked it up a bit later.

Now I could be one of thousand people mourning his dead, reading the comments of every person he knew and so on but I don't. In fact I didn't like the way his death got promoted in the media. Press-conferences, reports on TV, in the internet and of course everyone was an expert and knew him and his secrets. His death almost came close to Michael Jackson's death.
I'm speaking as a football fan. Not as a Hannover 96 fan, because I'm a 1. FC Köln fan but in general good football players who don't act like rock stars, who are down-to-earth but wild on the field and don't talk crap on the media are my favorites. The players that have a good family life and not get married and divorced every other year.
He was that guy and that's why he had my respect. He was a great goalkeeper, you didn't hear much from him and he was still married with the girl he met in high school. A couple years ago he lost his two year-old daughter and when he got back on the field I was very impressed.
After his suicide it's been made public that he was suffering from depressions for a long time and that it apparently got too much for him. So Tuesday he jumped in front of a train...



A day later the match Germany vs Chile got canceled because of Enke's suicide and I was supposed to go to that game. Didn't do anything Wednesday and Thursday. Friday I was supposed to go to Amsterdam with friends but I first wanted to go to the blood drive in Dudeldorf. Planned 30 minutes for that but there was an unusual large amount of people there and in the end it took more than an hour although it only took me 3:57 minutes to fill a 500ml bag with blood. Amsterdam was canceled for me then and I went to Wittlich to meet up in the Treibhaus with John, Heather, Seth, Darren and Donna. Went back early and had a quite joyful cab ride back, haha.
The next day we all (except Darren) met up again and went to the bazar on base and then went to John's house to have a nice little BBQ. Some pictures were taken and I will have them online later.

Well, I'm back home and waiting for the Modern Warfare 2 download to finish. Earlier I found an interesting report about Enke back in 2004 on the "Zeit" (a German newspaper) homepage. It's in German though. -> "Enkes Reflexe" - Ronald Reng

As I wrote on facebook couple days ago: "sad day for German football..." We definitely lost a great personality.

- Martin

Nope, not a fan of the American football team but last Friday I was a viking. Friday was Bill's Going Away Party and it was a costume party. First I didn't know it was a costume party but later on I went home, got dressed and went back on base to continue partying. First it was in the dorms and later on we moved the party to Speicher where we had a great time. But I'm really gonna miss you, buddy.



Saturday my father and I watched Cologne vs Mönchengladbach in our garage and the game was crap. It ended 0-0 but the game was just boring. A few hours later Susi and I met up and went to Luxembourg to watch a movie in the Utopolis. I recall being back at 2am, staying up for a while because I had to get ready for work later but then noticed the change to wintertime. So I went to bed to take a quick nap, got up later and went to work where I had a fun day.
With the huge lack of sleep I had in the past few days I got home and was semi-tired. That condition that makes you be tired enough for doing nothing but awake enough to not fall asleep. Then the time change made everything worse since it gets dark earlier now. But finally I fell asleep around 9pm.
So today I woke up prepared everything for the application and relaxed until now. Finished watching Drag me to Hell, then I watched Angels & Demons - twice (in English and German) - and Into the Wild, which is an awesome movie, by the way. An impressing movie and it's based on a true story. I recommend watching this movie. Of course the actions of the main character are in some way stupid, for example living somewhere in Alaska but his traveling is fascinating and he did what he always wanted to do. Live free. I'm amazed by Christopher “Alexander Supertramp” McCandless and his story. I wanna do something similar, except being that extreme and live in the wild, I mean a really dangerous wild. But there are other things coming up first and maybe some more that won't allow me to do something like this if I want to continue the responsible person I am right now. Right now traveling is my thing. There's nothing better to do in life than visiting places. When I watched that movie I found the line that I was looking for in my past years of traveling on my own or with a few friends: "The world is amazing." There's so much to see and experience.

In the next five months I hope I can see many things before I go and see lots of things in uniform. New Years is Ghent, Belgium and I dunno what else comes until March 31st, 2010.

- Martin

Another week is over and I'm in my second day of my break. Right now I'm watching The Rookie with Dennis Quaid and maybe I'll go watch a movie later on.
So the highlight of the past week was definitely the game in Cologne yesterday and basically the whole day. Friday was my last day of the working cycle and Bill and I went to see friends in Bitburg before we left for Trier. Later on Rudy, his wife Wendy, Bill and I went to the pub in Speicher for a while where I also made new friends.
Saturday it all started with finding out that we would have to take the car to Cologne because there is a construction side somewhere at the train tracks between Bitburg and Cologne. In Cologne I got reminded again why I love soccer so much. No other sport is played that much and no other sport brings people together, no matter where they come from. No matter if they are rich, poor, old, young or which ethnic group they belong to because everyone is rooting for the same 11 guys down there. Bill and I were on the way to the parking lot, the car roaring Mer Stonn Zo Dir, the most awesome soccer anthem which happens to be the anthem of the 1. FC Köln and me throwing the Cologne scarf around while random people in the other cars partied with us and did the same thing. Fathers and their sons, old men and their grandchildren or just all three generations together. Sometimes the whole family or the soccer fanatic with the annoyed girlfriend (because her partner acts like an idiot cursing around and pissing off other people... yes I talk from experience). Personally I'm really excited about the day in many years when I take my children or even grandchildren to Cologne, just as my father did 16-17 years ago. Everybody loves to go to the stadium, especially the stadium in Cologne. 50000 crazy people, an awesome atmosphere, Kölsch, the goat and of course THE ANTHEM. It gives me the creeps every time they play it and I see the whole stadium holding up their scarves, waving their flags and show their dedication to the team. After the song was over and the match was about to begin the fans continued singing the anthem and it was unbelievable. I uploaded the video to youtube. This version is kinda funny because Bill is going crazy but if you check out my other videos on youtube you'll find a good version of the anthem when I went to see Cologne vs Karlsruhe. So Cologne won their first homegame this season and they played good, really good. A deserved win and Novakovic scored.
We went into the city after that to grab something to eat before we went back. Later on that night TJ, Luci, Susi and I went to Trier to the A1. Whoever told me that the A1 sucks was wrong. Not really my type of music but I can't deny that it was fun.

Oh, I almost forgot my appointment with the German Armed Forces recruiter. Apparently some things changed and I kinda like it. Had a good talk and I will probably do it. If everything goes well I'll be in from April 2010 on. For 13 years. I will meet the recruiter again in two weeks and I will give him my application package.

Meanwhile The Rookie is over and I'm debatting which movie to watch next as I won't go to the movies in Luxembourg or at least it doesn't look like it but the other flight is about to get off and maybe someone gets ahold of me.

- Martin

And it's been a week again... Had to work until Wednesday and pretty much everyday I felt like crap. The last two days I tried to force myself to be in a good mood but failed. Sorry if I was super grumpy or mean to anyone but that's just me being the real me.
My days off were Thursday, Friday and today. My break kinda got messed up with receiving a letter from the Polizei telling me I'm not gonna be one of their candidates and the best thing is I knew it's gonna happen and I knew the reason a long time before I received their letter. I'm kinda pissed. Not really at the Polizei, more at the people that told me to apply at the Polizei although I told them my GPA isn't good enough and even more at myself for listening. Now I can't really dislike those people so I will have that unreasonable hate against the police. That dislike you have at the guy who is together with the girl you like or the person with the most retarded face although there is absolutely no good reason. This morning I had a nice conversation about the school I went to and why I think it sucks but I think I mentioned that so often that there's no reason to write all that crap again.
Friday I just looked forward to the Oktoberfest in Wittlich. Police was already a closed chapter and in the evening my buddy Benjamin came over. Because there was nobody else with us I had to drive which was ok. Too much alcohol with a relatively bad mood never ends up good. In Wittlich I had two beers anyways. Later on some of my American coworkers joined us and I partied for the rest of the evening. I'm wondering when that video will be uploaded of me dancing to the "Cowboy & Indianer" song. They closed at around 1 am so we stopped by at the McDonald's before we attempted to play a World Cup in FIFA 10. As usual we failed. Then I watched the Red Sox lose and I called it a night... morning?
Today I fixed my computer or the computer fixed itself because I was just checking up on it and more or less cleaning my disk up and right now it works perfectly fine. Then Germany played Russia for the World Cup qualification and Miroslav Klose scored the only goal. Germany won 1-0 and I enjoyed that game although Germany played kinda bad in the second half. Thumbs up for René Adler!

A while ago I was thinking about flying to Glasgow over New Years and watching Glasgow Rangers vs Celtic Glasgow on January 2nd but the flights are expensive so I was looking for an alternative. First I though of Cologne where I celebrated New Years two years ago. Then Berlin, then Stockholm, then Barcelona and my last thought was Ghent. And it will probably gonna be Ghent. It's an awesome city in Belgium with lots to see and many places to go and party. I'm not sure how many people are going to be there as the college students there will have holidays but it might be worth the trip. Accessible via car and not as popular as the big cities so there's some money to save. I just want to go up there, stay a few days, maybe a week, depending on how many WW1 sites are open during these days. Been there in 11th grade but it was a group and I want to take my time. Langemarck, Ypern and the whole area in general is perfect to learn about WW1.

And I will probably go there alone. I seriously need a break. My home, people, family, friends, people I can and can't stand, TV or whatever. It all seems to get too close and surrounding right now. Got disappointed lately in a few different ways and I should have known better. I was listening to some Staind songs the other day and "Raining Again" pretty much describes it:

"A Piece Of Glass
In The Sand Under Your Feet
It Cuts You Deep
And Makes You Hate The Beauty
That You See
And You Wonder Where You Are
How You Ever Got So Far
Now You Question What Went Wrong
It's Your Heart"

Well, it's time to go to bed. Another crappy six days ahead.

- Martin

It's German Unity Day and nobody in Germany celebrates but me because I actually care about this day and history. In last year's blog entry I wrote a little bit about this day so I won't do it this time.

My week basically started with the last day of the working cycle. After softball practice I went to the pub with Brian where we had some fun for a few hours. Tuesday my BlueRay version of Live Free or Die Hard arrived so I watched it twice. For my second break day I planned to take the train to Cologne - just for fun - but Pitsch was being Pitsch again and I was lacking the mood. I delayed this trip to the next day but I totally forgot I pre-ordered FIFA Soccer 2010. It occupied me for a while. In the afternoon I went to Wittlich with Crystal to check out the carnival store. There I bought my new costume for next carnival. I decided to become a viking, yeeaa!
Except for the start of another working cycle Friday was very chill. My new RAM blocks arrived and I built them into the computer. The reason why I bought new ones is ridiculous. The PC manufacturer built in RAM that wasn't on the compatibility list for the mainboard. The new one works good so far andf that piece of shit computer didn't give me any BSOD's. Today work was boring and after work I met up with Kristin and then we drove to Luxembourg to visit the military cemeteries and to watch a movie at the cinema. We ended up having food at the Coyote Cafe and then watching The Ugly Truth a movie I will definitely buy when it's released on DVD. It's just hilarious!

That's all for now. I'm finally tired and I need rest for a little bit. Had to write everything again because I hit some button and the page went back.

- Martin

Today is election day for the German parliament, the Bundestag. As of 10pm it looks like the Christian Democratic Union is gonna be the strongest party and form a coalition with the Free Democratic Party. I might be in bed when the final results are up but there shouldn't be a big change. Compared to 2005 the smaller parties (FDP, The Left, The Greens) got the votes the SPD, the socialists, lost. In 2005 the CDU and SPD formed a big coalition. I'm disappointed though. So many fall for the The Left. In Eastern Germany The Lefts have almost as many votes as the CDU has. Some of the Eastern German parliaments have the NPD (some kind of NSDAP follow-up) involved as well. In Rheinland-Pfalz, the state I live in apparently only 68% voted. I dunno how this country will look like in 20 years. But I don't really want to be here.
Now that would mean there will be no retreat of German troops out of Afghanistan. Last week the Al-Qaeda threatened Germany for the second time if there shouldn't be a change after the elections. The guy in the video is German and I'd like to kick his butt. I'm a bit excited about what's gonna happen...

The week was alright so far. Tuesday Trier played against Bielefeld for the DFB-Cup and won after extra-time with 4-2. It was awesome. They were behind 0-2 against a second division team but they came back, tied the game and won it. In the first round they kicked out Hannover wit 3-1, a first division team. Cologne played a day later against the German Champion VfL Wolfsburg and Cologne won 3-2. It was a great game as well. Now Trier will face Cologne for the round of sixteen and I'm not sure who I'm gonna root for. I also dunno if I go and watch the game because Trier only lost once so far when I was in the stadium.
Cologne wasn't able to keep up the momentum though and lost their regular match against Bayer 04 Leverkusen. It was an even game and a tie would have been deserved but Leverkusen scored, Cologne didn't and Cologne lost 0-1. Right now Cologne is on rank 17 - out of 18. They're finally starting to play good but now they need some wins!

My break will begin tomorrow afternoon after I get off from work. Not sure what I'm gonna do. Maybe heading to Cologne for a day just to walk around, buy some stuff and whatever. Camping was brought up and maybe even pub.

- Martin

And it's been more than a week again since my last blog. Main reason was my computer pissing me off and making me format and reinstall Windows on it. Stupid me forgot to save that neat file where I stored all my passwords and account information so I had to use an old outdated version of the file. And that file had to be found first. Anyways, it's working fine and I have almost all files back at their old places.
Let's do a quick review of what happened since the last time.
The Sunday right after I blogged the last time was soccer time. But before that I went running with Amie. I just checked how many kilometers we ran but I think Google Maps is a bit off I think. Had breakfast and then we left Spangdahlem in the afternoon to drive to one of my favorite places on earth: The Cologne Soccer Stadium, aka RheinEnergie Stadion, aka Müngersdorfer Stadion. I was happy we left a bit earlier because we got stuck in a traffic jam for a little bit. Finally in Cologne things weren't bad. The traffic at the parking lot wasn't as bad as it usually is. We were able to park relatively close to the exit which helped a lot after the game. The game was good although Cologne lost. At least they played well for the whole game except the few minutes they slept and Schalke scored.
Monday my six days of work began. I don't have to comment much on that, huh? During the week I bought Microsoft Office with the Home Use Program. Office 2007 for 13 Euros? Heck yea! Friday I visited one of my friends in the hospital and later on I had dinner with Jeremy, Tim and Crystal at the Chinese restaurant in Bitburg I almost got kicked out for eating too much at a All-You-Can-Eat, haha. Good food though.
Saturday was the last day of work and also the sixth matchday for the German Soccer League. AND COLOGNE FINALLY WON! 2-0 in and against Stuttgart. I didn't really expect it but I somehow I knew it's gonna happen. Cologne has a great record for away games against Stuttgart. Last time Stuttgart won against Cologne was in 1996.
After the game Jeremy and I went to see TJ in the hospital and then I pretty much did nothing for the rest of the night.
Yesterday I did absolutely nothing except stopping by at Rudy's in the evening. Yea, that's it.
I dunno what I'm going to do today. There's softball practice at 6pm but before that I will probably head to Luxembourg to get gas again. I'm not sure if I'm going to the pub because I have to get my eyes checked tomorrow morning for my police application and I need to save some money. This months expenses were definitely too much although most of it was worth it. Some came unexpected (like that phone bill) though. Ah well, I'm going to have a Cappuccino now and enjoy the rest of the day.

- Martin

It happened again! After 2003, 2005, 2006 and after 2007 the team I'm playing for became South-West German Softball Mixed Champions! First we won our last season game against Karlsruhe 10-8 and then for the final match we knocked out Mainz 11-2. I wish the SWBSV had the stats ready but if I remember right I ended up with two or three RBI's, one single and one double. So 2009 was a very successful year for my team. German and South-West German Champion!
After the tournament my friends and I went to the Weinfest in Bernkastel-Kues. Had lots of fun there although I only bought one bottle of wine. This had a few reasons. I gave blood the day before and a few hours later I had to get up for the hockey game in Cologne.

Pictures of the softball tournament and the Weinfest are in my gallery!

Sunday started off not that cool. I got up at 7am so I had lots of time to get ready, eat and do whatever I had to do. I had three tickets and one of these tickets was for give away an hour before I wanted to leave to the train station because that person didn't answer my call. And since Amie was being the caretaker this weekend and also the days after I almost ended up driving up to Cologne alone but we figured out a way for her to go. After a quick stop in Bitburg we moved on to Cologne and we arrived in time. I got rid of the ticket I had left and we went into the LANXESS Arena. I was there before for the Staind/ Nickelback concert last year. Awesome place. Game attendance was somewhere around 10,000 people I think. The game was great though. The Cologne Sharks won against the Kassel Huskies 5-1. I had lots of fun that day.

Monday work began for me again but only for four days because Saturday and Sunday I took leave. At work I had quite good days. Alright posting with fun people. Wednesday I went for a run. Ran to Pickließem using the longer backroad and then half around Spangdahlem. Did the same yesterday (Friday) but I skipped Pickließem this time. During my run I was singing to the song on my iPod and I didn't notice that for a while until people gave me some weird looks.

Today was also the big day for the German baseball team in the Baseball World Cup (not the World Baseball Classic). They played against the USA. Of course they lost. 9-1 was the score and Germany had two hits. Wednesday Germany played China and knocked them out 14-1 after seven innings (mercy rule, lol). Now this afternoon Germany is going to play Venezuela, the team that won against the USA yesterday while the USA play China. It's gonna be an important game for Germany but it's probably going to be Venezuela and USA entering round two.
My plans for today, after I got some sleep, is going to get gas in Luxembourg and just have a fun rest of the day. Probably going to watch some soccer. I think my dad got the German soccer subscription so I can finally watch games again. The last weeks it was live-ticker on the cell phone or radio.
Then Sunday it will be soccer! Cologne vs Schalke! Big game! Sold out! Because it's a top game the tickets cost 10 Euros more. Rip-off but I don't really care. It will be awesome and HOPEFULLY Cologne's first win this season. Right now Cologne is the worst team in the league :S

Anyways, I'm going to bed. It's 3:15am and I just watched "Family Man", a wonderful movie with Nicholas Cage and I could watch it 12 times a day. Actually I wanted to watch "3:10 To Yuma" but I was afraid I will asleep again like I always do at "The Fast And The Furious". Fun movies but I didn't finish neither of them yet. I'm le tired.

- Martin

Right now I'm getting ready for this year's last softball tournament. Yesterday I noticed that this could be my last tournament for a very long time. It depends on if I go to the military or the German police. It looks like I'm going to the military which means that I could be gone for the next 12 years. Now I'm even more motivated than before. Whoever is coming to see me play expect two great games...
My actual break wasn't as awesome as I thought it would be. The title of Jack Johnson's song "Sitting, Waiting, Wishing" explains it all. Anyways, yesterday was probably the day of the week. First I was waiting again the whole afternoon because there was something planned. I skipped many productive ideas I had and then it was 6pm already and time to head out to the blood drive in Dudeldorf. My 10th time giving blood and it was the worst time. The lady rammed the needle in my arm and didn't hit it right. There wasn't enough blood coming out so she was about to pull the needle out but she pushed the needle down a bit which did hurt but the blood was running now and she didn't have to pull the needle out. Usually I'm done within a few minutes. I think my pumping record was 4:30 minutes. This time it almost took 8 minutes. One of the reasons was that they forgot the sticks for the hand so you can pump better. I don't like needles, I don't like doctors, I don't like people taking blood from me but I know it's for a good thing - STILL I don't feel that comfortable with a needle in my arm for 8 minutes!! At one point the lady told me to stop pumping so the blood could run better. I only told her that I'm a baseball player and my arm can take that, hah! Back home I wrote an email to T-Mobile and asked for an explanation why my bill is so high and told them their Webmail package is a rip-off. Let's see what happens...
Ok, I need to finish getting ready now. A shower, packing my bag and a quick snack and then heading out to my favorite place on earth... If you want to see it but don't know where it is just drive into Trier coming from Trier-Quint or the B51. Try to stay on the less-populated side of the river and then just get on the B49 in direction to Saarbrücken or Luxembourg. At a Mini Cooper/ BMW dealership turn left (Diedenhofener Str.) and follow the road until you see a "Trier Cardinals" sign to your left side.
Tomorrow I'm going to see my first ice hockey game! The idea came out of nowhere. At 2:30pm I'm going to see the Cologne Sharks play against the Kassel Huskies in the LANXESS Arena. Going to be great, will be there with fun people.

Pictures will be up tomorrow morning or tomorrow night. After the game I will head out to the Weinfest in Bernkastel so I won't have that much time.

- Martin

First of all: 5 more days until the last softball tournament for this season. I'm really excited and motivated. In about an hour I will head to Trier for the last practice. If anyone wants to come see the tournament on Saturday please send me an email, call me. get me on facebook, myspace or whatever. I will give you directions, etc. The tournament starts at 9:30am. My first game will be at 12:30pm against Karlsruhe. Then we play again at 5pm. After that I'm going to party with friends at the Weinfest in Bernkastel. I'm glad I got leave for this!

Last week was alright. There was a BBQ involved, some beer, good bye's but the weekend was great although I had to work. Friday right after work Crystal, Amie, Tyler and I went to Oostende, a city right at the Belgian coast. It wasn't my idea and it sounded quite retarded when I heard it first, especially I was working the day we went and the day after - but why not? After a long drive we walked along the beach for a while and then we had dinner at a restaurant. We were back very late but I had a good time although I was a bit grumpy because I forgot my camera in my car before we left to Belgium.



The next day the plan was to drive to the medieval festival at the Manderscheid Castle. I had lots of fun. Because I wasn't driving I was able to drink some beer and wine. Stupid me forgot to set the alarm for the next morning after I was back home but whatever. So the next day was another good day at work, I'm glad I get posted on the posts that other people consider as crappy because I actually enjoy my time there. After work and after I uploaded all the pictures of the previous day I drove to Bill who had a BBQ which was also fun. I definitely have to upload some pics of that party.

Now it's Monday and the day was great so far. Not sure what I'm gonna do tomorrow. Actually I wanted to drive to Luxembourg - gas and movies but I might do that Wednesday or Thursday instead. Friday is blood drive in Dudeldorf and then the tournament which I WANT TO WIN! I totally forgot to mention that a bunch of my friends said they'll show up so I'm really excited and even more motivated.

I'm really looking forward to every day of this week. Not only because tomorrow is my last day of the working cycle and I'm off for the rest of the week. I actually didn't think of how many things will fail this week, I thought of how many things are going to be awesome. Positive thinking. Doesn't happen to often.

Anyways, have a great week and wish me luck!

- Martin