I miss you Red Sox.

I don't know what to think about this years World Series, probably because I didn't get to watch it. Not a single play. I haven't seen any baseball in over 8 weeks. I miss it. Baseball is the only sport I watch regularly. Sure I like watching football, but I've been able to watch that here. I missed last nights Patriots game, but I saw them play the Cowboys and Dolphins. I really feel for Baseball. The Red Sox are in my blood. And something doesn't feel right.

The Red Sox don't win two World Series in four years. They just don't. I know it happened, but how? This is a team for the poets in all of us. This is a team for the losers, and the outcasts. This is a team for people with a chip on their shoulder. This is not supposed to be a team with the leagues second highest payroll. And most certainly this is not supposed to be a team that wins.

At the same time I'm glad they won. I don't want to live the life my grandparents lived. I don't want to fight a world war, I don't want to live in fear of MAD, I don't want to watch the Red Sox become losers again. This team is no longer the team that we all hate as much as we love. This is a team for all of us to love. A team that did its time, and can now win with dominating results. This will be a good century. This will be a Red Sox century.

Good news from the music biz.

This week has seen, what I believe to be, two very important stories from the music biz. First there was the new Radiohead album, In Rainbows, which came out on Wednesday at an unspecified price. Now there is national outrage over ticket brokers ripping off little girls all across America.

First Radiohead: if you haven't heard about this yet you haven't been paying attention. Radiohead have put out a new album. It is called In Rainbows. You can pay whatever price you want for it. Or not at all. Radiohead currently do not have a record deal, and decided that they would release their new album on their own over the Internet. I could have paid nothing, but I was generous and paid 20 pence. I've seen people on the Internet claiming to have paid in excess of $20USD, for low quality digital files. This is could be another step in tearing down the machine of major record labels.

Second Hannah Montana: she is touring right now, and no one can get tickets. I know my sisters would love to go see HM on tour, but my parents being the Luddite concert goers they are, never had a shot at getting tickets. I've been to enough concerts that I've been able to figure out how to get tickets without paying broker fees. Most people are not so fortunate, and they are now stuck paying hundreds of dollars to make their children happy, or they could just complain to the authorities. (Why didn't we think of this earlier? We're not angry moms, that's why!) According to CNN Missouri and Arkansas are suing ticket brokers over selling Hannah Montana tickets illegally. That combined with a lawsuit from Ticketmaster against ticket brokers could be good news for those of us that have come to live with ticket brokers.

Homesick

Psych!

I love this place. BUT, there are a few things I miss. Like the MFing Red Sox. They are int he ALCS and looking like they have a chance to go all the way. I truly miss baseball, and American football. Soccer is like hockey, it needs to be seen live to be enjoyed. I just cannot watch these sports on TV. Fortunatly the Rugby World Cup is currently in action and Rugby is great to watch on TV. I've managed to catch a few matches so far. As fun as it is to watch I would prefer to be watching the Pats destroy the NFL with their supreme awesomeness. If the Sox make the WS I may be headed down to Zürich to see if I can find a bar playing the games, which will be expensive, it costs 26CHF for a one way ticket.

Other than American sports ther isn't much I miss. Beer is cheap, coffee is delicious (I'll never enjoy Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks again), food is cheap, water is oddly expensive and always carbonated, and the people are all extremely nice.

Cargasm Weekend.

My dorm has the worst Internet connection I've ever experienced. It has failed to work at least half the time I've been here. That's close to 15 days of inactivity. I promise to try and update when my Internet works.

Tomorrow I'm taking a train up to Stuttgart to visit the Mercedes-Benz museum. I cannot wait, I came to Germany, more or less, to look at car pr0n every time I walk out the door. I'll be spending the night, and then on Friday I'll be checking out the Porsche museum. I'm not sure, but there maybe also be a factory tour involved with the Porsche museum, I'll let you know the next time my Internet works. I'm sure I'll be taking a boatload of photos there. I have two 2GB memory cards, if any museum could give me cause to fill these, it would be these museums.

As I've now told you twice, my Internet sucks. That isn't all that sucks around this place. I live in a place that is most often described as a prison, although Gulag and Soviet apartment block are thrown around almost as frequently. It is a 40ish year old concrete building with failing kitchens and bathrooms. The university had intended to raze the places a few years ago, but they haven't yet found a replacement plan that was economical. My shower constantly is emanating a scent more often associated with a septic tanks than showers. I share a kitchen with 11 other people, two of which happen to be African (Cameroon to be exact). And although they are really nice people, they cook constantly, and it stinks. Yesterday the kitchen smelled like someone had spilt around 3 gallons of sardine juices all over the place, and then defecated on it. The laundry room doesn't really work. The washing machines wash, but they don't rinse. After a 50 minutes wash cycle you have soaking wet, soapy clothes. Then it comes time to dry them, and the dryers don't work. Well, they work, just not properly. One of the dryers spins, but doesn't heat up. The other dryer heats up, but doesn't spin. Either way your clothes are f•cked. You can see the method I used for drying my clothes right here. Sonnenbühl OST Ghetto Laundry. There are two things that I love about my residence.
1: Is the Vag-ball; it is a piece of modern art that looks like a giant ball of metal vaginas. This picture isn't the greatest. It was taken from 7 stories up, I'll try to get a better photo for a future blog post.
2: Look at this view.
Those are the alps if you were wondering. I have more photos, some that are better, but I'm saving those for a possible dedicated post.

Despite the dismal living conditions I love it here in Konstanz. The city is beautiful, and full of history. If you do a quick query on wikipedia you can read all about the city for yourself.

After my Cargasmic trip to Stuttgart I hope to post more. Tschüß