At the curling match I think I caught a glimpse of the bottom rung of the zamboni hierarchy. Is there some kind of promotion track this guy is on? If so, what’s the next step in the hierarchy?
I can just imagine this guy biding his time, dreaming of a zamboni opening at the local skating rink. Or maybe he gets a big break and lands a job at a hockey rink. Does he put “Curling Zamboni” on his resume? These are the kinds of questions we need answers to.
What do you guys think?
So my roommate John and I decided we needed to go to the Olympics. After all Italy borders Austria, so it’s relatively close, right? And I have the brilliant idea that we need to see Olympic curling. Among the many advantages of curling are that it’s indoors and it’s the cheapest ticket at the games. Also, for some reason I have an odd fascination with the game. I blame this on the Canadian channel during the 1998 Winter Games.
So last weekend we rent a car, and along with the 3rd grade teacher and a friend from church, and set off for a weekend whirlwind tour of Torino and the Olympics.
So the drive took a bit longer than anticipated due to construction and a dense fog from about Venice on, and we got to our hotel in Milan at 3:30 in the morning.
The next morning we drive 2+ hours to Torino, check out the sites, get as close to the Olympic Flame as we can without buying a hockey ticket for Czech Republic vs. Latvia(see picture above), and peer over the fence at Olympic village. Then we take the train out to the curling venue, take in 3 exhilerating matches, drive back to our hotel in Milan(arriving at 3 am due to a dense fog and an unintentional detour).
The next morning we take the subway into downtown Milan, check out a few sites, and then head back to good old Vienna. I am very happy to have had the foresight to take Monday off.
All in all, a great trip. Even though I did have to eat peanut butter sandwiches for about a month so that I could afford it, and drive 2200 kilometers in a weekend.
I will be blogging more about Olympic trip 2006 in the days to come, so be sure to check back often.
It’s always nice to know you’re loved, even if it is by a bunch of freshmen and middle schoolers. I received many baseball valentines(see below), and here is a smattering of reasons why my students (claim to) love me:
1. He tells us about his cat every time he turns on the projector. (I have a picture of my former cat eating a lizard as my background).
2. He tells cheesy jokes.
3. He asks us to guess what he ate last night for dinner.
4. He has cool orange/red hair
5. He’s such a cute geek!
6. He is the smartest, funniest and coolest teacher in computer class.
7. He gives me A’s.
8. I can always use the computer after school and he’s fun to hang out with.
9. He is nice.
10. He lets me pass Computers even though I don’t listen.
One of my friends at school put up a list in my room to help my students show their appreciation for me on Valentine’s Day. Here’s the list in no particular order:
- Buy him something sweet from the Senior Store
- Chase him down the hall to help him train for the marathon
- Give him food – any kind – he’s not picky
- Write a poem about him (Bonus points for using similies or metaphors to compare him to computers)
- Recite the Phillies starting lineup in alphabetical order
- Tell him 5 things he does that make you smile
- Snort everytime hes say the words “computer” or “technology”
- Write a note on one of the [provided] baseballs and place it in the heart [on the wall].
- Raise your hand. When called on say, “I love you.”
- Explain to him why the term “Fighting Quaker” is an oxymoron.
So I’m training for a marathon, and Sundays are my long run days. Today I got a bit of a late start because I decided to watch the Third Man at the Burg Kino with a new friend of mine. If you’ve never seen an old movie on the big screen, I highly recommend it.
Anyway, as I was chugging through my 10 miles along the Donaukanal Sunday night I had a completely random memory dating back 3 years ago. I remember foolishly deciding to run up to Kahlenburg in the snow with Sonja Gassett and Dave Jacobsen. I say foolishly because I ended up tearing a tendon in my foot and could barely walk for a few weeks.
At a specific spot along my run(the exact spot I had this conversation 3 years ago), I had a very vivid memory of telling Sonja that I had found pinto beans in Vienna and that they were called Wachtelbohnen. Literally “quail beans.”
Then I read on the news today that Dick Cheney shot a guy while he was quail hunting…
Coincidence?
I came across this article about a simulated cyber attack carried out by various US government agencies.
“Cyber security is critical to protecting our nation’s infrastructure because information systems connect so many aspects of our economy and society,” George Foresman, DHS undersecretary for preparedness, said in a statement.
“‘Cyber Storm’ provides an excellent opportunity to enhance our nation’s cyber preparedness and better manage risk,” he said.
I think this concern is very valid, and I wonder how prepared the US really is for an attack of this nature. With the proliferation of viruses and spyware, it seems like a tall task to ensure the security of government infrastructures. It also seems that the “war on terror” is counting on overt military action to protect us from future attacks.
This is just speculation since the full report for this exercise isn’t due out until the summer, but I would guess that a coordinated cyber attack would be largely successful at this moment. I really don’t think we’re prepared, and that’s a scary thought.
I came across this story via Yahoo!News which smacks of the type of reactionary thinking I rarely come across outside a classroom filled with 12 year olds.
Hamshahri, a prominent Iranian newspaper, is sponsoring a contest for cartoons about the Holocaust in response to the recent publication of cartoons depicting Muhammad in a Danish newspaper.
The paper asks:
Does the West extend freedom of expression to the crimes committed by the United States and Israel, or an event such as the Holocaust? Or is its freedom only for insulting religious sanctities?” Hamshahri wrote, referring to the Prophet Muhammad cartoons.
This is a very childish response and, I think, unecessary. How many publications have satirized Judaism or Christianity in the past? I submit that via cartoon, editorial, or inflamatory statement, the free press has often satirized and/or denounced these religions. How often have these events spawned the kind of violent protests that we are seeing around the Muslim world right now?
Muslims are right to be offended by the cartoons, but there are more productive methods to voice their outrage. This Holocaust cartoon exercise will backfire on them. And even if it did provide the kind of response they are trying to provoke, it in no way justifies the needless vandalism and death that has taken place over the past few days.
Picured is one of several cartoons published in a Danish paper. I’m not sure what the coverage has been like in the US, but at least a third of the news coverage on CNN International over here has been about the Danish cartoon and the Islamic reaction. Throughout the coverage CNN will show what we can only assume are the actual cartoons because they scramble the actual images. I haven’t figured out why they show a close-up of the cartoon if they are just going to make it uninteligible.
Muslims seem to be upset because the cartoons are offensive to them. And I don’t think many would argue that. Though I suppose “upset” is stating it a bit mildly. They are shutting down Danish embassies and threatening bloodshed if Denmark does not apologize.
I have been puzzling over the extreme Muslim response to these cartoons, and have a few thoughts.
1. Islam, being iconoclastic, is forbidden from making images of Mohammad or any other religious icons. So, making a satirical image of Mohammad is doubly offensive to them.
2. The whole debate seems to be about Free Speech, yet I think Muslims on the whole do not understand the concept. Most Islamic countries are repressive and their citizens do not enjoy the basic rights of Western countries. Making such a cartoon in Iran or Indonesia would get you arrested or worse.
3. Furthermore, though Muslims are growing population in Europe, they have not done a good job of assimilating into their respective countries. I wonder to what extent this has complicated their problems. They seek refuge in Europe, and then seem to set themselves against their new country of residence. I realize that is an oversimplification, and that there are many other factors at work, but their presense as a foreign community within a Western society appears to breed many problems.
All of this discussion doesn’t even touch upon the fact that this cartoon could be interpreted differently. Perhaps instead of meaning to say that Islam is a religion of violence, it could mean that extremists use Islam as an excuse for violence.
Is the cartoon is poor taste? Probably. But that’s not really the point.
Though I find it ironic that the Muslim response to these cartoons is a violent one. I just saw a Danish embassy on fire on CNN.
Why has Islam pitted itself against the West instead of trying to cooperate with them?
