Time for Politics

Some people may just want to skip right over this, as it contains information of a political nature.  :)

And of course, the standard disclaimer.  These are my views and are not intended to represent the views of my employer, friends, family member, associated persons, professional organizations, or anyone else I happen to know or be involved with.  These are only my personal views.  Feel free to disagree and leave hateful comments if that's the sort of thing that makes you happy.

But there is nothing like spending a chunk of my Saturday researching political candidates and ballot initiatives.  But I have done my civic duty and will mail my ballot on Monday, hoping it arrives in time.  As usual, not a lot of candidates that appeal to me that much.  Other than David Alex Levitt for US Senate, most were basically the least offensive choice.

Here is the breakdown on my ballot, in case you don't feel like doing the research and trust that I have done so.  Of course, that assumes that you are also socially liberal and fiscally middle of the road.  Which means if you are a strong Republican supporter, you probably won't agree with these.  It still amazes me how I went from a Reagan Republican to a Independent who leans Democratic without changing my views much, but rather that parties themselves have changed.  The Republicans went WAY to right, and the Democrats moved to center or past it on the right, with only a few ideas left that could be called "liberal".

Anyway, my ballot choices are after the break if you care.  If you don't want to know, I'm trying to save your sensibilities by requiring you click the Read More link.  :)

Ladies and Gentlemen, Thor has left the building.....

So Spring has arrived in Poznań, and apparently Thor is a regular visitor.  In the last few weeks there have been regular rainstorms in some evenings that featured a fair amount of thunder and lightening.  But tonight, there was quite the expo.  As an evening storm moved through around 9pm or so; there was a large amount of wind, a large amount of LOUD thunder, and so much lightening that I don't think a single minute went buy without at least one flash.  And a whole lot of minutes when there was seemingly a bit of lightening once every few seconds or so.

It was so impressive that I even noticed a number of my neighbors in the building across the way stepping out on their balcony and giving the spectacle a look.  It was quite impressive.  Then, after about an hour and half, it had moved on through and things returned to calmness.

Living in Poznań in the Spring is starting to remind me of living in Denver in the summer.  Hot, humid, with frequent afternoon/evening storms that pass through like a freight train.  :)

Enjoy your weekend!

Summer has nearly arrived....

It's seems only a few weeks ago that we were still having temperatures around 0C here in Poznań and my how the times change.  In the middle of this week we moved up into the low 20's and today we got up to at least 28C.  That's in the very low 80's for those of you using the Fahrenheit scale.  Yes, I still largely think in Fahrenheit, feet, inches, and pounds; but I am trying to adapt to this strange thing called the metric system that seeming the rest of the world has adopted.  ;)

We are expecting several more days in the high-20's before we get a bit of rain, so I'm hoping to get the camera out and wander around tomorrow or Monday.  Plus, I might as well get out and enjoy myself while I can this month.  Next month the UEFA Euro 2012 Cup comes to Poland (including Poznań) so travel is likely to be an issue and it will be interesting to see if the hooligans shows up.

Have a great day!

New Food #5 - Dave's Polish Bachelor stew

My latest culinary creation is Dave's Polish Bachelor Stew


- 2 cans white beans
- 3 cans red kidney beans
- Kielbasa per preference (I used 4 hot dog sized)
- 1 bag frozen mixed vegetables (pref with Potatos)
- 1 can pineapple chunks
- 1 jar spagetti sauce
- chile con carne and other spices to taste

Combine all (including pineapple juice) in a large pot and cook slowly, stirring occasionally.  This was another random attempt to throw food together and it's actually pretty good I think.  You can leave out the meat if you want vegetarian.  I think it actually taste's pretty good.  You may disagree.  :)

Why Polish? Because red and white are the colors of Poland (and the beans are red and white).  And because Kielbasa is about as Polish as you can get (from an American's perspective).

Why bachelor?  Because I am one, and this turned out to be a really easy recipe to make, and I figure it would appeal to bachelors.  :)

Enjoy your weekend.

My Trip to Berlin - Part 5 (8 pics)

I'm going to close out this series of posts of my trip to Berlin with a few random images and things I found interesting.  I hope you enjoy them.

The site of the old Checkpoint Charlie.

As usual, don't forget to click the link below to see the rest of the images, and click an image to see a larger version of it.

My Trip to Berlin - Part 4 (9 pics)

[NOTE: I added links to the Wikipedia pages for many of the sites I visited so that you can find out more info if you want.]

Monday was a nice clear day, and not too cold. So I decided to head west, toward the Pariser Platz.  At the west end of Pariser Platz is the Brandenburg Gate, with the US Embassy on the south side, and The Kennedy's Museum and Starbucks (the other home of American's abroad) on the north side (among other things).

The Brandenburg Gate

Click the link below to see the rest of the images.  And click and image to see a larger version of it.

Enjoy!

My Trip to Berlin - Part 3 (9 pics)

[NOTE: I added links to the Wikipedia pages for many of the sites I visited so that you can find out more info if you want.]

Sunday dawned with mostly clear skies, if a bit cold.  So this was first real chance to try and do some "official" (in my mind) sight-seeing.  So I headed East from my hotel, starting with the Gendarmenmarkt, right across the street, which is the site of Der Französische Dom (The French Dome), Der Deutsche Dom, and the Konzerthaus Berlin.

See the rest of the pictures by clicking the link below, and don't forget to click on a picture if you want to see a bigger version.

Enjoy!

My Trip to Berlin - Part 2 (9 pics)

[NOTE: I added links to the Wikipedia pages for many of the sites I visited so that you can find out more info if you want.]

I arrived in Berlin late on Friday afternoon and it was overcast, rainy, and cold.  So after arriving at my hotel, I did a bit of wandering around in the immediate vicinity, looking for food and coffee (of course) and generally scouting the neighborhood around my hotel.  Saturday was also wet (as you can see from the picture below).  But since it was one of the days that shops were open, I did a lot of wandering into shopping complexes and such.

This is what the weather was like most of Friday and Saturday.

More pictures after the break, so click the link to see more and don't forget to click the actual picture if you want to see a bigger version.

Enjoy!

My Trip to Berlin - Part 1 (7 pics)

Having maxed out the amount of vacation I could accrue (again), I decided to take Good Friday and the Tuesday after Easter Monday off as vacation days and take a trip to Berlin for the first time.  And after a bit of research, I also decided to take my first train trip ever (at least that I could remember) and skip dealing with hassles of the airport.  There is a regularly scheduled train that runs from Warsaw to Berlin, through Poznań, that would deposit me at the Berlin Central Station (Hauptbahnhof) slightly more than 2.5 hours after I left.  Poznań Głowny (the main train station here) is about a 35 minute walk from my apartment, or if I catch the tram, less than a 10 minute ride.

Knowing that much of the city would be closed down 3 of the 4.5 days I was there (Good Friday, Easter, and Easter Monday are all holidays in Berlin), and that the weather forecast was for rain and cold, I decided to at least get a nice hotel in case the weather was so horrible that walking around didn't make much.  Thanks to Google Maps and some research, I settled on the Sofitel Berlin.  If you are going to Berlin, I have to recommend it.  It's in walking distance to many of the major attractions, has comfortable beds by American standards (not the hard and thin mattresses you get in most European hotels), and it's on a relatively quiet street (Charlottenstrasse) so it's not too noisy.

I ended up with over 350 pictures taken during this trip with my smaller travel camera (due to the weather predictions I left the Nikon behind) and will post a few of the decent ones here in case you are interested.  First up, pictures mostly taken from the train (so excuse the reflections and dirt from the window) on both the way there and back.

First up is this picture of the Hauptbahnhoff taken the day I left (which was nice).

Click the link below to see more pictures.  And don't forget to click on the pictures to the see the larger sized versions.

Enjoy!

The Parish Church of the City of Poznań - Part 3 (3 pics)

Here are the final few images from my first visit to  "The Sanctuary of the Mother of God of Perpetual Succour".  I definitely intend to go back and try to get more, and better, pictures.  I decided to leave this batch on a "darker" note, but I actually really like the feel of these images.


As always, make sure you click the link to see the rest of the pictures below.  And don't forget, click the pictures to see the larger-sized images.

Enjoy!

The Parish Church of the City of Poznań - Part 2 (5 pics)

Here are the second part of the pictures from my visit  "The Sanctuary of the Mother of God of Perpetual Succour".  These are mostly images of some of the artistic details.  Unfortunately, due to the dim light and the fact that I didn't want try and bring a tripod in, many of my other shots weren't usable.

As always, make sure you click the link to see the rest of the pictures below.  And don't forget, click the pictures to see the larger-sized images.

Enjoy!

The Parish Church of the City of Poznań - Part 1 (5 pics)

I took this Friday (today) off and since it was such a nice day I decided to grab my Nikon and pay a visit to the Parish Church of the City of Poznań.  Officially known as "The Sanctuary of the Mother of God of Perpetual Succour", it is a "post-Jesuit" (don't know what that means) church dedicated to St. Stanisław, and it was built from 1651-1705.

It really is a staggeringly beautiful place, and my pictures don't even remotely do it justice.  It is in continual use, and on days like today is not lit up inside, so my pictures could have been better.  But out of respect for the worshipers who are coming in an out all day I didn't want to try and use a tripod or flash.

I did have the incredible luck that as I was there a children's choir came in and sang several songs (hymn's?) in what sounded like Latin.  The acoustics are incredible (as you would expect) and they were very talented.  It was an almost surreal experience, but I feel very lucky to have been there at just the right time.  I saw them elsewhere later and they seemed to be part of student group that was visiting Poznań, not regulars.

Anyway, I think I'll spread the pictures out over 3 days or so.  So make sure you click the link to see the rest of the pictures below and then check back tomorrow and Sunday.

Don't forget, click the pictures to see the larger-sized images.

Enjoy!

Polish Lessons: #1

I decided that since I'm struggling to learn Polish, you might as well struggle with me.  :)

Actually, I thought I'd post some of the interesting words or other things that get my attention as I try to learn even a bit of this language while I'm here.  So here is the first.
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Something that sisters throughout the English-speaking world will find highly appropriate is the fact that the Polish word for "brother" is "Brat".  :)

Beware the Bunnies!!! (3 pics)

Apparently the Easter Bunnies here in Poland are a particularly militaristic bunch.  Look at how they like to line up into such regimented groups!

And given that they show a marked preference for purple and white, the colors of the local "futball" club, they may also be a particularly dangerous type of futball "hooligan".  With some of the Euro 2012 matches coming soon to Poznań, the authorities may need to look into this group with some care.  ;)

A few pictures from Saturday's wander.... (7 pictures)

So the weather this Saturday was fairly nice.  The high was around 9C (~48F), it was sunny, and like a lot of other people I saw around Poznań I decided to go for a long walk (and explore more the city in my case).  I knew there was supposed to be a gym and a large park to the south of my apartment, in the Wilda district, so I headed that direction.

For once I am actually going to list street names so that if you want to pull up a Google map, you can sort of follow along.  And here's a very high-level overview as well.

To see the pictures and more info, click the link.