Hurricane

Or so it seemed today. Took the ol' bike out for a spin and was dissapointed to find me and my bike being swept into the street every 30 seconds or so.

But I made my way down to the ATP 500 Tennis Open. Tickets for the semis today and finals tomorrow were sold out by the time I got there but it was still worth the ride. The party was outside. There were 3 seperate "zones" outside of the Agora, each equiped with their own bar, lounge, and dj. Hundreds of people just soakin up the sun. There were of course all the freebies and swag and advertising at the tents around the building as well.

And now I'm watching the always anticipated Real Madrid-Athletico derby with some pizza. Gonna get to bed soon cuz we've got a big game tomorrow! Goodnight all.

Interesting bits

411

New Scientist

US SKIES are clearer than usual after the switch in June from analogue to digital TV freed up a chunk of the radio spectrum. Astronomers are now rushing to see what they can find before transmissions from cellphone companies and others fill the space.

Prior to the switch-over, naturally occurring radio waves at frequencies between 700 and 800 megahertz were obscured by analogue TV signals, preventing astronomers from investigating the universe using this band. Now a receiver has been installed at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico to take advantage of the new-found clarity.

The window is giving astronomers their first radio views of galaxies that thrived when the universe was about half its present age. They hope to measure how much hydrogen - the raw material for new stars - the galaxies had. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see galaxies in that range," says Arecibo researcher Chris Salter. "We're able to see an epoch that hasn't been observed before with radio eyes."

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/11/06/us/1106-FORTHOOD-ready_index.html

Hope everyone is having a good day!

Well let's see whats up.
My body is hurtin. But the good hurt. I've been working hard.
Went grocery shopping yesterday so I actually have food in the house now. Although most of it is canned beans and vegetables cuz its takes about 10 seconds to prepare, is delicious, and is packed with protein.
I went and trained this morning and now am just resting my legs before training tonight.
Oh and yesterday I watched the movie The Darjeeling Limited. It was suprisingly great. The soundtrack was the best part. That and Adrien Brody's glasses. "This Time Tomorrow"-The Kinks.

It think this blog is going to get a whole lot more random because I constantly find cool stuff online and I'm just gonna start posting on here.

Well I was going to wash dishes and do laundry but theres no running water for some reason. Oh well.

Hope everybody is having a good day!

Oh and reading some exerpts from a recent Obama speech regarding Iran I was impressed. I think he realizes that the percentage of the population in Iran that is educated is growing and these people realize that it is in their economic and political interests to cooperate with the U.S. While the government has this image of recklessness that they perpetuate through the media by launching missles after we accuse them of enriching uranium they are, as all governments are, somewhat accountable to the people.

It's been a while....

As I'm anxiously awaiting the Arsenal game to start I decided I could write a little.

I hope there are people reading my posts out there but more than anything I find writing almost therapuetic. There are days when the words come easy and I ramble and then there are days like today where I don't know where to direct my thoughts.

I've had good days and bad days just like anybody else. I've learned to take it all in stride and keep emotions in check.

Futbol has been frustrating lately. My hip flexor was pulled and I continued to train with hopes of expediting improvement and instead I damaged it further. I've had this injury numerous times but never has it taken so long to heal. I haven't been on the pitch for about 2 wks. I'm sure this will be a recurring injury for the rest of my life which is dissapointing but I'm glad I decided to take this time to rest it instead of playing at half speed. So, in the meantime I'm working on keeping my fitness up so that when I have the opportunity to play I'll be ready.

The weather has been beautiful. I went to Alicante on a whim a couple days ago and returned yesterday. It really rejuvenated me and I'm so glad I made the trip. Photos are on my facebook.

And thats about all the news I have. I've been going out with some people at night lately but just can't keep up with them. I've bailed a lot because the night starts at midnight in Spain. Last night for instance we were going to the Discoteca at 12:30 and my body and mind just can't keep that schedule so I cancelled.

Excited to see family this month! It can get a little loney and I'm really looking forward to it. Talk to you all soon.

Jardi Botanic de la Universitat de Valencia

Well.....the title pretty much sums it up.
I felt like today would be a good day to hop on the underground metro and get off on a stop I don't know anything about. Or for that matter have ever heard of. I stumbled upon the University Botanical Gardens. I was pleasantly suprised.
Everybody in Valencia should check this place out. Never have I been more relaxed in my surrounding.
The gardens contain plant species from all different parts of the world. Many are able to survive side by side while others are kept in impressive greenhouses to immitate their climate. Theres some really cool pics if you click on this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/michaeljbarkman. I also took a couple pics of my metro station, and the Torres Serrano. And a couple random things that I found intersting. I seem to take pictures of the streep lamps. I think all cities should havet hese cuz they really are beautiful.

Dia del Comunidad de Valencia

Most things are closed today except for the businesses downtown that have great views of the parade and the other events. They have doubled their prices today haha. King James the First of Aragon reclaimed Valencia for Christianity on October 9th, 1238. At 12 this afternoon the flag was lowered from a decorated balcony.

Thousands of people gathered in the historic square of Valencia while music was played, flags were waved, and protesters yelled. All in all very exciting. Valencian pride was running rampant as people draped in flags and paint followed the procession throughout the city. It turned out that navigating through the crowd on my bike was very difficult.

There were a bunch of really cool pictures that I took. If your interested I will be posting all of my photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/michaeljbarkman

I watched Bowling for Columbine today and as much as Michael Moore angers me, I kinda liked the movie. My thoughts have always been that there really is no need for guns but there are many people that have grown up in a different culture emphasizing protecting one's life, liberty, and property without relying on the government whatsover. So, with restrictions, I was fine with people boasting about the ability to excercise a right. For some reason that movie personalized the affects of guns for me in a way that I haven't experienced. Seeing the people gun murders have affected, other than the person shot obviously, was dramatic and while my life may not have been directly affected by guns, it is not fair that millions of people suffer irreperable damage so that nra members can flaunt their 2nd amendment. Another hesitation I had was, of course, our changing of the Constitution. But I think that the second amendment was written for a time when slavery was accepted as well. Maybe we should have abolished both.


On another note I am very against all of Moore's accusations of media and government. Its a broken record and nobody liked the song in the first place.

Then today I met up with Mattias before training, a friend I haven't seen in a while. It was at a cafe where his wife works next to the field so it was very convenient. Spent a couple hours with him. He's a great guy and is always offering help and i dont just mean advice but he continually is willing to dedicate time to help me. Not a whole lot of people here that sacrifice their time to help other people. His wife and baby are awesome as well. He speaks english too so that helps. He lived in NC for a long time. And now he's banned from the U.S. for five years but thats a different story. Actually, he helped his brother across the border illegally and served a couple months in jail. He was in the U.S. army and loves his country so its a shame. He's always praising the United States and says that its his home and he cant wait to return. If anybody reading this has any legal advice on how he could expedite his return I would really appreciate it and I of course he would too. He has three years left before he is allowed to return.
Then, training tonight was good. I was feeling really well and thinked I showed well. Wish I could start scoring more but every game I get closer and I'm finding more and more opportunities in practice so I'm optimistic. Rode my bike home in the gorgeous temperature. 10:00 and its like 75 degrees. Took a pic of my daily ride if your interested:

GOODNIGHT!

Early run this morning!
Yesterday we won our first game. we are now 1-1-1. 4 pts after 3 games is less than we want but its a step in the right direction. I finally bought a new camera today which im excited about. I went to the Bancaja Cultural Center today because they have an exhibit by Joaquín Sorolla. His work was in the Prada Museum in Madrid for a while and was very succesful so now, dead for almost a century, he's on tour. But not too say he wasn't recognized in his time. He won multiple awards at the World Fair in Paris. I was really impressed though. All of his work is oil paintings and he differs from many not only in his intricate detail and realistic portrayls but also by the size of his masterpieces. His most famous works are about 10x20 yrds. With the amount of detail and size I was suprised at how prolific he was.

I thought that there was some guy at the counter adding a number everytime someone walked in but it was cool. When somebody entered there was some kind of screen on the floor that would beep and then the number on the sign would go up. Entrance was free too which was really cool. The government supports the arts out here like crazy so even though nobody can find a job they can always find a free art exhibition.

I bought this poster because it was his painting of Valencia. And the actual one is a lot more impressive than this picture. I was interested though because it was obvious he portrayed his perspective of all the different cities in his paintings and compared with his others I saw Valencia shown as very proud with bright colors.

Sevilla did not make a good impression on him. It just involved the Easter celebrations which sounds harmless but if you look up pictures of easter in Spain you'll know what I'm talking about. Ill provide one.

Sunday

Woke up at 9 this morning. Put on some pants and went downstairs for some breakfast. Had my usual coffee and crossaint. Alex, the goalie, picked me up at 10:15 for the game today. We drove to a pueblo about 30 min away. Not a great team but we went down early 0-1. Then we had a penalty and Marcos hit the post. With 20 min remaining Jordan volleyed a cross out of the air into the corner. Quite beautiful and we salvaged a point. I started and subbed out 15 min into the second half. I played pretty well but I could improve. We really needed to get the whole 3 pts from that game cuz the team was weak but we'll regroup this week and work towards our next game.
Now I'm in a cafe near my house with internet. Something about this cafe always gives me a headache. Lotta smoke. Maybe thats it. Just catching up on the cyber world. It is amazing. When I go on my computer I have like 20 things to check. Its fun. Twitter, Digg, Facebook, Gmail, Espn, various sports and music blogs. Talk to yall soon

Weekend

Just got back from the Apple desk in a department store dtown. There is no repairing the ol ipod. And according to them its so old that there is no trade in value. So looks like im in the market for a new mp3 player. I did see something cool while I was there. It had music video and internet. Anyone have any advice on this subject? Im gonna look into that.
 But it was a beautiful day for biking. Cant wait till i get my next camera so that I can show you guys what I see every day. My bike ride to and from soccer is unbelievable.

Im excited for the game tomorrow. Ive started working out every day in the morning and then go to soccer at night. First week of this so my body is quite sore but Im sure itll get better quick. Team we play tomorrow won their first  game easily. I guess they have a impressive history. I hope we can get it together and play more maturely than last week. The guy who got the red card hasnt been at practice. If i was the coach I would have cut him there on the spot. Last night was a tough practice. And from now on I end my blogs with the music Ive been listening to:

Ive been having a good day. I woke up at 8:30. Well that wasnt a great part. I'm convinced Ariel was determined to wake me up with all the noise he was making. Then I spent two hours making calls looking for various opportunities. While I didn't find much I spoke with some nice people who have assured me that they will keep me in mind when opportunities arise. Its also good practice speaking on the phone in spanish. I've decided that when I speak with someone face to face we communicate visually a lot so the phone is a challenge. Then I went to La Rosa Negra, a bar/cafe/resteraunt thing to check on a little venture going on over there. The owner was supposed to be there but wasn't. The people there were wondering where he was at as well. So i read the newspaper with my dictionary in the 90 degree sun. I was gettin a little pale. Came back for La Comida. Ariel was planning on making a fish soup stew thing and he taught me and I wrote everything down so hopefully one day I can impress some girl. I went and got a bottle of wine for our meal with Mary Jose and met a cool Italian guy there who turns out lives in the same building. I think I might go to an Erasmus part with him and some friends tonight after soccer. Well thats all for now. The meal was delicious and now I am tired.

Forgive my sports/hockey rants but i just get all riled up and gotta let it out!
Let me say that I am psyched for the Avs season. I haven't been this excited for an Avs season since '01. No thats a lie. I still remember summer 2003. where I was when I heard not only would Peter Forsberg be playing with us but we had also aquired Paul Kariya and Teammu Selanne. In case you were interested I was at Victoria Beach. That was the beginning of the end for the dominant Avs. Expectations were high, and we the fans were gravely dissapointed with the results. For the pathetic years after, the organization has been giving their followers false hope time after time as they try to piece back together a championship team. And every year, expectations are failed. The people of Denver were living in a high that came from winning the Cup the first season we had a team. We expected nothing less.
Well this year is different. The many mistakes of the front office are behind us and instead of reminiscing about the glory days lets find pride in our new young Avs.
This year we play with the lowest expectations an Avalanche team has ever had and I for one am elated. No more dissapointments. I dont believe that any players on this Avalanche team are fit to be playing in the NHL but that kinda makes it fun. When you have nothing, there is nothing to lose. These young players have already proved in preseason and camp that they will work harder than their opposition. Their futures in the NHL depend on it. I hope Foote can teach his disciples a thing or two this year so that they will have the experience neccessary to carry on without tested veterans in the future. Stastny and Wolski had huge amounts of pressure put on them to save the organization and they failed miserably. I hope that they can find their places on this new team without all the pressure to win. Finally, I hope the loyal fans of Denver can have patcience with our newcomers and with results. Lets accept that we are the underdogs for once. That we most likely wont have a winning record. But lets watch our team develop and let us be a part of these development years instead of turning our noses up.

Just a thought as i was reading adrian daters article in the dp about footer. I see the decision of appointin foote captain less of an honor and more of a slap in the face to stastny. everybody thought that after stastnys rookie season he would take the role of leader and the face of the new young avalanche. well, after a mediocre injury plagued season last year it is obvious he did not live up to the organization's expectations. But Foote is temporary. How many years does the 38 yr old touch guy have in him? He is simply filling the void until Stastny matures to the point where he was supposed to be last year. While Adam may not be an NHL star any more, he is less of a dissapointment than the rest of our team last year.

So today I got my bike. It needs a new tire which im gonna get on Monday but besides that it gets me from A to B. I dont know how i lived without a bike though. I am really relient on. I think I was startin to get lazy cuz it was hard to get stuff done without transportation. Im still working at Picasso in the mornings but i dont know how long that will last because three people really is overboard for the amount of work we have to do. The other two guys have worked there for like 20 yrs and are close friends of the owner so ill be cut if needed. Im also doing some work at Ben's Inn now. Its a great situation because cuz im working PR and promotional stuff. I have a lot of liberty in the job so thats really nice. I can give certain discounts and I essentially create insentives to go there. Im also in the process of talking to nearby restaurants that would benefit from a realtionship with Ben's Inn. Thats keeping me pretty busy along with picasso and soccer. Till next time...

Worked this morning and then had a coffee and read the newspaper for a while. I was reading about how the gov is selling madoffs house for 6 million or so. If I was a journalist I think I would write a piece on Madoff with a different slant just for the heck of it.
i mean, i comprehend that he took a lot of money but it seems that thats as far as the media likes to go. then everybody gets all up in arms demanding punishment. this is my article's title:
MADOFF STEALS MILLIONS from people that will be recompensated by investment insurers who were responsible for checking the validity of the investments in the first place.
Its not like he beat up children and stole their money. The investors that sought him out had heard that they could make a lot of money if they disregarded the possibility that it was an illegal enterprise. The people that lost their money had no interest in checking the legality of their investments and didnt ask questions because they knew that they wouldnt like the answers. But back to my title, they are going to be repaid anyways because all of the investments were insured by companies who also knew that the validity of madoffs investments were questionable. and then the government profits by seizing his assets and selling them to the same people that were already compensated for their losses.
Oh and the article about the guy that killed the kid is on page 26 under the car advertisements.

i think i left off satudray when i had to leave for my game. game saturday. lost....3-0.....but we had a bunch of players just trying out cuz its still preseason and the coach told me that they would not be making the team. no vale. i played the whole 90 min in i think the second hottest game ive ever experienced. the first being real salt lake. after the game, body hurting, coach says that i have to meet him at the corner of blasco ibanez and manuel candela at 8 am cuz im gonna play with the top team in the club. so woke up early (again) but i was still pretty excited. wow. they were good. i played the second half because the coach knew i had played the day before but this field was unforgiving. might as well played on concrete. and that was one of the fastest games i ever played in. first two times i get the ball i lost it. i improved significantly after i got the feel for the game but i didnt play great. then again nobody played great. we lost 3-2 but we played Crack's cf which is probably the most famous soccer school in Europe. Theyve produced dozens of professional players. Cracks has actually become an accepted term in europa that means superstar. Training tomorrow with the a team.
Today was the first day of work in Picasso-Cafe. I worked from 10-12 in the morning. Quite the experience. To get the job Mary Jose told the boss that i was experienced and there was actually a bidding war for me among the bars in the area. So I was trying to live up to that while attempting to understand what people wanted. I started to get the hang of it. I think there has been worse first days so im satisfied.
im thankful we have no soccer today so my legs can try to heal and i think im gonna study some spanish and probably go to the beach at some point. goodbye for now.

Game day.... we've started out 0-3 but if we could score we would win every game. But we also have new jerseys so we'll for sure win.

sittin on my bed listening to some Marvin Gaye CDs that a friend gave me.

I dont think I'm very good with blogging. I've never been one to share all my thoughts. whats the fun of everyone knowing what your thinking and doing. I do enjoy writing though. or rambling. a fine line with me.

I can't really imagine what else I could ask for out here. I get to play soccer in the mornings. Eat/drink with friends. Watch all the soccer games in a bar right next to my place that has a huge projector and good people. I also start working there along with another bar in a couple of weeks. Everybody says that all the people come during September so I'm excited to see what that looks like. I think its pretty busy right now. But I'm looking forward to there being more students out here and especially English speaking ones.

Yesterday i bought the book Oh Jerusalem by Dominique Lapiere and Larry Collins. Has anybody read it? I spent two hours yesterday reading it. Its in spanish and this is not the conversational spanish that i have been learning so i got through 2 pages. I'm proud to say I understand everything on those two pages. It is good practice though.

I'm likin this Starstrukk remix with katy Perry.

oh gotta go. check in soon. me.

Hey! So got back yesterday all dandy. Train ride was really relaxing and i was just watching south park on my laptop so it went really quickly. Sad i had to leave Barcelona so quickly but I had tons of fun there and it is nice to be home. I went to soccer at 9 this morning. Then after went to the grocery store with Jose, player on Don Bosco, and one of 10,000 Joses ive met. The names that are saved in my phone really aren't helpful cuz i have some joses and some hectors and its kinda hard to remember whos who. and im doin some laundry now. and i cleaned my room and my bathroom. First time ive ever really scrubbed a bathroom with gloves and chemicals and all. not very fun but ihad never cleaned it so the grossness had accumulated. now im gonna eat. its like 1:20 here and then i may go to the beach for a while. might go see the movie public enemies later cuz it just came out here and it looks really cool. anyone seen it? Before that though i need to go and play some piano. its been a while and its no fun playin when your rusty. Oh and im also working on a sudoku samurai that i tore from the paper yesterday. its like 5 sudokus that are all interlinked. its crazy. and its taking me forever. alright well hope all is well back home.

Im in Barcelona! I decided Friday night because if i join this team, Don Bosco, which it looks like i will, im not gonna have a whole lot of free weekends so i thought it would be the perfect time. i came by train yesterday. we watched slumdog millionare on the train so that was fun. it was in spanish but it also had spanish subtitles so that makes it easier. i had decided that when i got in i was going to do a bike tour of the city that i had found on the internet. i had to print of the ticket when i got there. oh ya but i did miss my train yesterday morning cuz i left my passport so i took the later one and had to reschedule to the night tour. anyways it took the whole afternoon but it wasnt too bad. finally got it and was killing some time before it started when all of a sudden i smell smoke. then i see smoke so i decide i should leave. as i stood up the cops rush upstairs and yell at me to get out of the hotel. i was like the last one out cuz im on the top floor. when i get outside they had taped off the street. there were probably 1000 people watching and taking pictures along with the news cameras watching the fire. turns out burger king next door is to blame. so i was outside for like 5 hrs with no money or anything but we finally got back in and the hotel was all good. unfortunately i missed my bike tour...again. but i had really good salad and calamari for dinner and then got to sleep as i had been awake for like 40 hrs.
this morning i changed the bike tour to this afternoon. before i went to camp nou-the barca soccer stadium. i took a tour of it and it was awesome. i also took a lot of pictures that we will never see cuz guy swiped my camera on the metro. im done stressing though and am just gonna enjoy the rest of my stay cameraless. anyways, the stadium was awesome and quite elaborate. there was even a chapel inside the stadium for the players. we got to walk next to the field and it was unbelievable. the stadium holds 100,000 people. it also had the biggest merchandise store ive ever seen. the ccheapest thing there was a t shirt for around 50 bucks but it was packed so i think they were doing alright. then i came back. bought myself a huge water bottle and am currently working on that and watching simpsons before 4 30 when i go on my tour. its been really fun here. im really glad i came. i think tomorrow before i leave imgonna check out the modern art museum next to the hotel. oh and the hotel is a really cool deal. it is practically the middle of downtown but is pretty small. it shares an entrance with a watch store and a dentists office. my room consists of a single bed and a tv. the bed is pushed up against one wall and there it is impossible to walk in the space between the opposite wall and the bed. its like a little box. there is a bathroom though. so im paying like a third of the price of all the other hotels next to me and im right downtown. alright, check in soon

just got back from soccer- its 10:49 here- and am eating a delicious ham and cheese sandwhich. today, i hung out most of the day. did all my laundry. i went to the beach for a while to find a place to use my internet and hang out but ended up hangin out with this argentinian guy and this other guy that lived in the puerto rico and the US for a while. they were really cool and im gonna go hang out with them tomorrow at the beach. i couldnt today cuz i had to figure out how i was gonna get to my tryout. anyways that was fun today. then for the tryout. geez these guys were annoying. the coach would call a foul when we were playing everytime this one guy would fall down. i was getting so annoyed. we both went up in the air and he just fell and started whining. i decided to give him a real foul. it was worth it. coach said to me and the other c mid after the practice that we were both good enough for the team but he had already signed 5 c mids. im thinking you could have mentioned that earlier and saved a lot of time. well the other good just takes it. hes like oh i know i know, thank you, and then just walks away. the coach had said earlier that he was just looking for forwards. so i made up a nice little story that sounded even better in broken spanish saying how ive played forward all my life and am actually better at it then c mid but i just prefer c mid cuz its more fun. sooooooooo tomorrow im going back to try out as a forward. well that was pretty much my day. im gonna eat my sandwhich and go to bed. have a good rest of the day everybody!