City of Lights #1

I title this post 'City of Lights #1' because I'm sure there are going to be many other trips there; the next one scheduled for two weeks from now. So today I went on a 24 hour trip to Paris; I got on the bus at midnight Friday and got back at midnight Saturday. Surprisingly, if you're a good walker, you can see a lot of the sights in Paris pretty quickly. To name off some of the locations we visited today and my impression of them:

-The Eiffel Tower: didn't make it up the structure because of the line, but it really did look pretty. I've never been a fan of the various space needles/towers (Seattle, Tokyo, Seoul) but this one looked classy. I think a lot of it had to do with the iron working made to be aesthetically pleasing.

-Invalid Hospital/Napolean Tomb: My real impression of the tomb (really a church with a big coffin in the middle) was that it was very nicely lit. For a little dude Napolean's tomb is very large, and surrounding it are a bunch of carvings with Napolean dressed like a Roman, and a beautiful baroque alter and covering that rivaled Bernini's one for the Pope (left). Overall very cool and gaudy to a point where it's still decent.

-The Louvre: Wow! I thought that the Vatican Museums (not including the Sistine Chapel or St. Pete's, those are on their own plain) were the shit but the Louvre was on another level. Like in the Vatican I felt there was a lot of art there just to be there, while at the Louvre it was obvious that everything on display was there because it was big shit. The funny part of the Louvre was seeing the Mona Lisa, a normal maybe 3' x 2' painting, but it's surrounded by giant works, like an entire wall in size. It was also cool to walk through and see the statues of the chick without arms and the chick without arms but does have wings. We only got to see a little of the museum because of time constraints, but I'll definitely be returning and I grabbed some smaller prints of French paintings, including Lady Liberty!

- So, we didn't have a ton of time and to make it to Notre Dame and back to our bus. Really, Notre Dame was pretty but was really low on the wow factor. I think this has to do with having seen St. Pete's because after that, nothing can ever compare. Nothing. And the cathedral definitely wasn't baroque so there was nothing overy gaudy to pull a certain angle of interest. The place did have the wreath of thorns Jesus wore on the cross and I thought that was pretty interesting. I think my problem with visiting Paris was that I compared it to visiting the Vatican (not Rome) and while the Louvre is w/o comparison, one you start talking Sistine Chapel and St. Pete's, that's a whole different level. Notre Dame makes you think 'wow this is pretty' while St. Pete's evokes 'this could only have been done by the hand of God'

Other things:
-There really are that many cafe's in Paris, and I can't wait to chill at one during my next visit, this one was pretty much continuous walking
-The food there is pretty light, lots of sandwiches with less than Subway fixings, and they're super good
-The streets by the river are lined with 'book stars' that are really art stores and off the chain. The next time I come here, I'll be looking for some decorations for the crib.
-They definitely sell Barry books there and that's awesome.

I can't wait to return! There are more pics from the visit on my f-book album, check it:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2118482&id=2801376&l=a68346033d

Next week: The Old Empire - London

My Bad

It's been almost three months since I last wrote. Over that time I returned home to Chicago, visited my Kuwaiti Roomie in Baltimore, witnessed history in DC, ran the marathon dedicated to Mardi Gras, and made my way to Germany; in short a lot has happpend. I apologize for not writing updates more often. Even before my last post I was crapping out by not detailing the trips to Athens, Rome, and Baghdad. Once again, my bad. Lets pick things up.

So right now I'm living in Wiesbaden, Germany; the part of Deutschland where the players play, we have the most millionaires in all of Germany. What does that mean? I live in a very nice neighborhood but I'm missing out on storybook Germany, but it's only a short drive in my BMW convertible away :-) I'm trying to make the most of my time here. Chances are I'll be here for most of this year and then make my way back to Southeast Asia for another year in the big show. I've been here for a little more than a month and I've already visited some castles, been to a pro soccer game, and seen a concentration camp. Over the next two weeks I'm going to Paris and London so things are really starting to pick up steam.

I don't think I've been this satisfied with life since I arrived at Tulane before Katrina back in 2005. My neighborhood is incredible, I have a car, money is no object, my boss is nice, and I'm making friends who are pretty cool and decent people. What has the one draw back been? My job is boring. But in reality, that's a small price to pay for living this kind of life, and I'm sure I'll learn to deal with it. On a positive note there's a Signal company here and I have my eye on Commanding it eventually (unfortunately, that may not be until 2011, but you never know...).

So Germany has lived up to my every expectation; it's the good life. After the miserable tour in Korea, and all the restrictions on life in Kuwait, I'm so ready to enjoy every moment of this. The only thing I forsee making this tour difficult is trying to do too much, whether it's see every things, try every restaraunt, my worry is that I'll get wound up in trying to make to much of this tour and not relaxing and enjoying the moment. So far this hasn't been a problem, and I hope it stays that way. BTW the beer here really is that good.

So for an initial entry for the year, I feel like I should explain my visit to Dachau Concentration Camp (pictured left). For long I've had a strange interest in the Nazi's; they're so evil, hate driven, but they came to power to quickly and came about as close as anyone to ruling the world. So when I got to the camp I went through the museum and learned about how Dachau was the only concentration camp to run all 12 years of the third reich and was used to hold political dissidents and then later 'undesirables' and POWs. The museum didn't phase me too much, neither did going through the reconstructed housing, but shit hit home when we got to the crematorium. It didn't help watching two teeny bopper chicks have their picture taken next to the oven with grins; that sicked me out. But seeing the actual ovens (below) and hearing that 32k people perished at the camp and only one ever escaped (they had an electric fence, the structure behind me in the photo is an artistic interpretation of a prisoner committing suicide by intentionally grabbing hold of the fence, it's called something like perpetual pain, pretty gruesome). Then we walked into the gas chambers that never went fully online but only because they ran out of coal to burn the bodies. After that I lost my taste for the Nazi's. I'm sure I'll go to Nuremburg to see the rally stadium and Munich to see the beer halls where it all started, and I will likely force myself to see Auschwitz (which I'm definitely having second thoughts about, in 12 years Dachau killed as many people as Auschwitz did any given week), but seeing Dachau was quite the experience.

I use that experience as my first post from Europe both because it left such a strong impression, but also to kind of give a contrast. I intend on spending most of my time here seeing beautiful things, baroque architecture, the products of the renessiance, great works of art, etc. but it must be remembered that the same land that gave these great gifts to humanity also bred what I consider the greatest evil to plague humanity. I've often said the Japanese during WWII were as bad as it got (look up the rape of nanking and Korean comfort women), but after Dachau I won't be saying that any more. Plus there's the fact that the Japanese people were following an Emperor who they were trained from birth was a God while the Germans knew Hitler was a man. I could get into that stuff forever. The things is that while Dachau left a very nasty taste in my mouth, I kind of feel a commitment to learn about the Nazis; there's a reason why it is mandatory all German school children visit concentration camps, to assure this never happens again. Anyways, it's good to be posting again, and soon there will be more positive posts, starting with the City of Lights next week.

Running

To preface my story, I will refer to The Big Boss and working out:

'It's a schedule he started as a 22-year-old student at Columbia University in New York, and it immediately transformed him. In his 1995 autobiography, "Dreams From My Father," Obama said he was a casual drug user and an underachiever until he decided to start running three miles each day. He stopped staying out late, fasted on Sundays and became a voracious reader, spending most of his time alone in his apartment reading classic literature and philosophical texts.

Physical fitness yielded mental fitness, Obama decided, and the two concepts have been married in his mind ever since.'

So it's about time I've gotten around to writing about a giant part of my life: running. When I left Korea my boss and 1SG, as well as my mentor down the street, all said that I needed to get in shape. Looking in the mirror, I couldn't really debate them and when it came time of officer report cards I realized being in shape had a lot to do with how rankings worked out. I made the resolution to get myself in shape.

Once I got to Kuwait I saw the sign on the gym saying 'Open 24/7: There is no Excuse' and realized how correct that was. The only limiting factor was how much effort I was willing to put forth. So I started by trying to do the eliptical machine an hour each night, and then phasing over to the treadmill. By April things were going pretty well and I came up with the goal of running a marathon. What's the first thing you do after establishing a big goal? Figure out the coolest way to do it; style points do count in my book, and where better to do it than the original place?

Soon I moved from the oppressive Camp Virginia to Camp Arifjan where my roomie let me borrow his GPS watch and a four month training schedule. The rest is history.

The Athens marathon was incredible. The damn thing was uphill for the first 3/4 and I hadn't seen a hill in over a year, but I managed to finish it off. I can definitely say it was a gut check like none I'd ever had before; every next step was an opportunity to quit and there was no shortage of evidence showing that people had taken this route. My friends from the marathon trip said they felt bad for the fall outs, but they motivated me along the lines of 'I can do something they can't'. Yeah, probably not the most constructive mind set, but it worked. The feeling of accomplishment afterwards was overwhelming. Not since graduating college had I completed such a long term goal, and I'd been talk about doing a marathon since early in my college days. Really, it was an unparalleled high, and one that I said I'd repeat again.

I learned that I'd be in the US for the Mardi Gras marathon (February 1st) and I signed up. After 2 weeks of rest from Athens I was hitting the pavement again. Last week I ran a half marathon at Camp Buehring and last night I knocked out a 20 mile run. Tonight I had an epiphany: I think I've finally embraced running. For all of HS running was associated with punishment during football and wrestling season, and that image lasted through college while I was doing ROTC PT and Korea for unit PT. But now I find myself getting out there under only my own watchful eye. I think this has happened because:

1). running keeps me from gaining weight (and I like my Ninja Turtle diet)
2). I like being able to talk about running because in the Army its synonymous with competence (not a good thing, but I'll work it to my advantage)
3). It's really good to have a goal.

I'm hoping this becomes a habit. My moms has my pictures from the Athens marathon, and I lost my camera with the pics from the longer runs here, but I'll be sure to post something from the Mardi Gras marathon. Until then, I'll be trying to figure out how I'll handle the cold weather running in Chicago/DC!

No Longer a Thief

One of amazing things that has happened this year, and perhaps in light of the current economic crisis, I've realized that life is going pretty good these days and I should really avoid fucking it up. So I quit tobacco, definitely made sure not to get too drunk (well except for one night) during leave, and the biggest thing: I stopped pirating music.

Although you could say I'm entitled to it by citing SWPL #93, but in Greece I decided to get with itunes (also, Greece is where my parents returned my computer to me, up until then I had not possessed a personal computer for 2008). The thinking with this was that as a single officer overseas without any debt I'm making Arab Money and catching a case for music piracy would definitely ruin my life. Of course the next month the music industry said it would no longer prosecute people who download music illegally.

But the big thing from this exercise is that life is going good enough these days I'm proactively making sure not to fuck it up. Also I love itunes. While I've sworn off any affection for Apple because doing otherwise would get me laughed at in the IT community, that program is the shit. Using it is even easier than stealing music! A case in point was last week when I bought my song for stealing things (Turn It Up by Chamillionaire)!

Which leads to my worst weakness right now: The Dude Next Door. I don't think I've written enough about my roomie; his inspiration is Hunter S. Thompson and he tries his best to follow in his footsteps (except he uses Nyquill instead of LSD/Ether/etc.). While this is a helluva comparison, look at this and don't tell me it doesn't prove my point. Read the rest of his blog, it explains everything better than I ever could.

Another Letter

'The Problem for Gays with Right Warren - and Barack Obama' by John Cloud- TIME

Time~
Reading John McCloud's article on Barack Obama's selection of Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at the inauguration disappointed me as has much of the negative response from the liberal community in general. We elected Barack Obama on a platform of change, change from the incredibly bipolar political environment of the Bush presidency that was best summarized when President Bush declared, 'You're either with us or against us'. The world has more grey areas than those that are obviously black or white. We need to be able to work with people who see things differently than us instead of having a stance of zero tolerance. If we could support Barack when he said that he would have sit down conversations with the leaders of Cuba, Iran, and North Korea I'm sure we can allow him to consort with a law abiding clergyman, even if his views are different than ours. While I don't agree with Warren's stance on gay rights, I do agree with him that we can agree to disagree and be civil about our differences. Right now America is facing tough times, if we're going to get wrapped up in and divided by something this small, we might as well kiss GM good bye and throw in the towel on the other tough decisions ahead of us. When Barack campaigned he promised change would come, and it's here already.
v/r,
-Alec Kinczewski, Evanston, IL

First and foremost I misspelled the authors name, I blame adding the Highlander theme to my running playlist.

While I'm sure that I'd be pissed if Barack had selected someone who held views about the military like Warren's on gays, I think this is good sign. America needs to be weened of the 'my way or the highway' approach (and you're hearing a military officer says this) because it inevitably leads to divisions that become bitter. Karl Rove played this trait of American's like Vivaldi given a Stradivarius; he pitted the gays against the saved, the patriots versus the hippies, pro-life versus choice, etc. and he won. He won when he should have lost. He won because he made us see American's as 'others'

In the run up to Bush's re-election back in 2004 Barack got up on stage at the DNC in Boston, then an unknown, and started wylin out about 'we're not a country of red states and blue states, we're a United States of America'. Four years later he was able to ride that theme all the way to the White House.

I've always been convinced that the power of offering a better tomorrow is stronger than playing off feelings of fear. This conviction was a bit shaken when Bush defeated Kerry in an election he should have lost, but won because A. Kerry sucked and B. he scared the crap out of us on national security and people who didn't conform with the religious right. Thankfully, the victory of fear appears to be a blip on the screen. I think Obama really hit a cord with the whole hope thing because Americans by nature are arrogant, we're the leaders of the free world after all, but we lost some of our swagger during the Bush years because of our difficulties with the wars and our economy losing steam. What Barack did was sell us on the chance of being greater than ever before, Yes We Can, and we believed.

By inviting Rick Warren to do the invocation Barack has shown that he's not going to let the divisions of the past dictate his ways. Hopefully this will be the first of many olive branches to be passed across the aisle between the right and the left, because right now we're dealing with too many big issues to squable on small things. I think was a good start for Barack, it showed an effort, lets keep it going; before you know it the Right will start showing some love for us also. Who knows, maybe Barack can garener enough good will and political capital through rebuilding the economy and ending the wars that he'll eventually be able to get conservative to cross the aisle and help pass legislation giving gays the human rights they're shamefully denied. Only time will tell, but for now I believe in what Barack is doing.

All Caught Up

Well I'm finally all caught up on my homework now (I skipped an assignment while in Greece) and back in Kuwait so the blog resumes.

Lets talk some Chicago. First and foremost there's our Governor. I just watched him get in front of the camera's and say that he's going to 'fight till his last breath' the charges that have been brought against him. He actually quoted a poem was my 2nd blog post ever. I'll give the dude credit for a couple things:

1). That hair is wild
2). I got love for anyone who can make it with an ethnic Eastern European last name
3). He was on fire in front of the cameras, I mean even Don King was not capable of wylin' out like that

I also love watching Fox News hate on him, especially Shepard Smith talking about 'holding a children's hospital ransom'. Funny enough, that's the children's hospital where my sisters Godfather works. This case is not about to get any quieter and it's going to drag on forever. Mess. How is whoever gets selected to replace Barack going to have any kind of legitimacy since it sounds like our Governor is going to have to pick them? We'd need someone who's integrity is beyond raproach, and lets be real, we're the city that defended R. Kelly, integrity isn't our thing.

Now, while everyone is innocent until proven guilty, this cat is messing with Patrick Fitzgerald, and he has a pretty good record including going 18 for 18 on our last Governor. The man doesn't indict and not convict. I think the Gov's best hope is that the investigation was hurried because of the things he was saying and therefore has some gaping holes. This is just the beginning.

So I finally got a chance to listen to some new music. I'll do a post later on about reforming my ways and buying music off of itunes. So I bought a couple of songs off the new Kanye West album '808s and Heartbreak' and I love it. I've also discovered there are a lot of people who don't like it too much, but I want to atleast explain my view on it. First, I'll give credit to any artist who tries something new. Kanye didn't trying something a little new, he tried something vastly different. In the past his songs had elaborately produced beats, but this time it's just him, a voice synthesizer, and a beat machine (aka 808). Big change. Second, he's keeping it real. Kanye has never gone Cash Money ridic with his subject matter, but everyone toes the line on occassion. This entire album is dedicated to heartbreak (the man's Mom did die and he broke off an engagement in the last year), about as real as material gets, and he isn't diping his toe in the shallow end but jumping off the deep end. It's new, it's real, I like it. How many artists have put out the same thing time after time? Nickelback...... yuck, I feel dirty just writing that word.

Oh yeah, I finally made it up to Iraq last week! While I avoided all danger it was cool to actually be there and look around. The thought that resounded in my head was, 'man, if only the ghost of Christmas Future had visited Saddam before the invasion and said: better fess up to not having WMD's or else this is what your neighborhood will look like'. I think things would have worked out a little differently; too bad the supernatural characters to visit Mr. Scrooge couldn't make it. Anyways, the trip was well worth my time and I managed to do some good work that I'm sure will get me on karma's good side!

I apologize once again for falling behind on my blog, I promise I'll start updating like should once again. I'm sure I'll have something to say about celebrating Christmas and New Years here.... thank God bowl season is starting! I can't believe I won't be travelling with the family San Antonio to watch the NU-Mizzou game, but as TI says 'you gotta be thankful for what you got'.

New Level of Ridic

http://www.thankyoupresidentgeorgewbush.com/

Click view signatures, it's amazing what happens when The Politico takes action. The best part is that it updates every couple minutes with more ridic comments! My fav so far is #1026 ;-)