Pat on Deustch

Final totals for money left over. Back in the day this was a much larger deal, as there were many more currencies back then. However, I still managed to have quite a bit. And yeah, fuck you pounds sterling. I have no need for that many of them.

18 pounds, 13 pence = 29 US
3.82 Euros = 4 US
80.50 Krone = 3 US
1 Swiss Franc = 1.50 US
72 stontinky = 80 cents
5 Pesos? I dunno, it may not have even have come from Europe.
50 Something = I don't even know what country this is, but its not the same as the one that claims to be from Mexicanos.

So there you have it folks, I now have about 37 dollars tied up in foreign currency. What a waste of good beer money. And yes, I am posting over at the other blog quite abit. Nope, not in the least a family blog over there. But its funny! Well, for the most part. Really, its funny so long as you like seeing awful, awful things happen to me. Which is pretty common, and most people laugh, so it should be a great source of humor for ya.

Back to the 'ole daily grind of music, dew and plaid pants.

Later.

New comic up in the hizouse.

So I've got a lot of free time on my hands. I will continue to update the comic links as I find high quality new comics.

Well, after I find them and spend 20 hours reading through the archive.

fixed the link. It actually points to the new thing. Its gonna be a little crazy. Prolly won't be suitable for children. I dunno. I'm not managing all the content. Oh, and I think someone is gonna write a sports column for it. Or something.

This is something that's gonna be real silly. It should be fun. Should be real fun. The only questions that remains is, which one of us will not make it? There's always one. Three people is almost too many. Or something.

I'm not really sure. What I do know is that its 3 am and I really ought to be in bed.

And I got a spiffy new suit. Yes, I look damn fine and damn odd in a suit.

Later.

So I'm starting something else. Its just another blog. It may seem like its the same except the difference is I'll be posting stuff again.

And I'm not alone on this. I've got backup. Or wait, this is his idea. I suppose I'm the backup. Sonofa...

Long story short, this blog is gonna continue with its rapid decline into quietness like all blogs do. New blog here -> go.

There ain't much there yet, and its kinda boring to look at, but I got a feeling a certain someone is gonna go all html crazy on it.

Later.

NEWSBREAK:
this just in, new story with quotes:

While I, pat, was bitching about not having a job I made the following joke:

Bink189: here comes my new life of selling my ass for internet access

And then brian said:

TwilightBurning: then i dont expect to see you online much

To which I have to formally say:

ouch.

Later.

The job search streches on.

I am anxious to start new projects. I am trying things, feeling people out. Unfortuanetly, everyone I ask is totally down for it, but has no ideas. I am an idea man, but I need help. I'm not P.T. Barnum. I am not particularly witty or clever. However, I know good ideas when I see them, so I steal them. That's really what I'm operating on here. Thieved ideas that will work multiple times so I don't feel bad for janking them. However, I have not the creative juice to keep them afloat. I barely had the juice to keep this going while I was running around completely foreign countries.

So I continue and hope that I will get a challenging job. One that sparks my creativity, or my anger. Either will give me the energy to rock the house.

Until next time...

Later.

Alright, I've only been home a week, it just feels like two. Dunno why. Maybe I am enjoying each day more. Maybe I need to find a job. Maybe a lot of stuff. But I do know one thing. The last thing I want is to have to repeat this exchange ever again:

Bink189: so, the water is out in half my house
crimsonbriarrose: ?
Bink189: I dunno how
Bink189: but it is
Bink189: I just went to the bathroom
Bink189: I need to grab a bucket, fill it up and manually flush the toilet
Bink189: back in a bit
crimsonbriarrose: ok then
Bink189: attempt 1
Bink189: failure: insufficient water
Bink189: now, for attempt 2
crimsonbriarrose: lol
Bink189: attempt 2
Bink189: success: I even got the sweet whooshing noise
Bink189: does this kind of shit happen to anyone else?

I'm Bink189, crimsonbriarrose is a good friend in St. Louis. But yeah, that blew.

So I talked with Steve. His excuses, "Oh, I got a bunch of teeth pulled and I'm on percoset." and then "I lost all my power during the blackout and it killed my power supply so even when the power came back I couldn't use my 'puter." Huh, I'll bet that's true.

So I've actually started to set myself up for rejection on a massive scale. Its called the job market and I'm plunging in at full force. I'm like a tsunami crashing into your databases with my poorly written and mostly unedited resume that contains much that is wrong or at least highly inaccurate. So beware all you job offering types, I'm coming. And you're gonna see my resume and think,"This guy must be foreign, look how good his English skills are!" Thats what I'm counting on. Being thought I'm foreign.

And now, back to my fruitless pursuits of sitting on my ass and eating doritos. God love the Doritos.

Later.

So I'm back in the states, as I've said before. So really, this blog should be done. This isn't tricky, I'm no longer on Deustch. I've kicked that habit. I've been clean for two weeks now. I'm a little twitchy, but I'm strong.

So I don't want to fall off the web again. And I have made plans for what I want to do next. I have to wait because I currently lack things like a job or a certain piece of hardware necessary for the next project. I also need a certain Steve Stetak to get off his ass and start sending me something. He knows. He knows I'm not good with the writing of the funny. Hell, you all know that too.

So let's see it steve, show some love.

Later.

Yeah, I've been not posting, but I've also not been travelling around Europe, so I'd say this is a fair thing to happen. However, I just finished my other webpage. The one with pictures. Its a little dopey, but I like it. And its on the right and its also right here!

And there will be another site that is just pictures, but I'm too tired to do that right now. Prolly tomorrow. Err... make that later today.

Its 4.00 am. Bed for me.

Later.

Due to popular demand, Pat is back. I am now in my parents home on the south side of chicago. I'll be here for awhile, unless anyone out there has need of a computer engineer?

And now, I believe I have successfully reset my clock, and its bedtime.

Later.

Okey dokey. Hoo boy, this is gonna take awhile.

Since I've been gone I've been in four countries, five airports, two bus stations and three train stations. Its been interesting. But, wait, that's not right. Make that five countries, seven airports, four bus stations and still only three train stations. My memory is not what it used to be.

So I got to England and it was pretty cool when my Aunt Vanessa and I walked around London Gatwick airport for about twenty minutes and couldn't find each other. It wasn't because one of us was hiding or something, it was just that we didn't recognize each other. Very humurous when she then had me paged on the intercom thing and I walked over there and still didn't recognize her. Very funny indeed.

I had a big party at my Aunt Vanessa's house, bunch of family I haven't seen in awhile. Very cool. And my Great Aunt Winifred confused me with my cousin Patrick Carney. It took a solid 45 minutes of conversation to straighten that out. Then some drinking at a local pub with the cousins.

I did a lot of touring around London and finally took my first sightseeing tour bus of any city. It was cool, but there was so much of it I forgot it all immediatly. Then the london dungeons. Its a whole lot of people who jump out, say "boo" and then happily inform you about how they used to rip male things off and then feed them back to their prior owner. Really creepy. Kinda like when dinosaurs jump in through the window. It just really isn't scary anymore. And yes, my stomach did turn a little bit when I was going through the jack the ripper part, but unless you like that kind of thing, seeing any model that so acurately depicts what it looks like when someone's intestines have fallen on the ground that you have to touch them to make sure they are fake and then it still takes a second to make sure, I think you too will be a little bit on the gaggy side.

Next day was wandering around London, saw some stuff, went on a boat. Day after was the science museum. One universal truth about my relationship to a science museum anywhere, when I come out, I will want to be an astronaut. I still kinda do. I figure, give it time and it will pass, but its odd how quickly I get these crazy thoughts about becoming the first man on Jupiter or some nonsense like that. Jupiter is a gaseous planet and to actually touch the ground I would be crushed by the weight of the atmosphere. Now saturn is another matter entirely, if I can withstand the gravity, of course.

Then some shopping, I got daft punk, homework finally, and then the local Cheers bar. These things are effing everywhere in Europe. There was even one in my little tiny town in Germany. Just silly. And then it was even better when this thing turned into a Night club. I was just sitting there with Chris, my cousin, and suddenly its a dance club. So dance we did. Then the assholes of the British bus system shat on us and got us home an hour late. Bastards.

Then I came to sophia for a night after I had to make a mental note to actually go and find the people who own and run travelselect.com and have them all killed. And now that I'm with my sister everything is good. Saturday night I watched Lilo and Stich for the first time with Meghan(my sister) and Meghan(her friend). It was so awesome I watched it again last night. Hehe, go disney.

Today I believe I am helping meghan repot some plants. Should be good times. And yes, I am taking it very easy here because I can. Its a vacation, and now, I am vacationing. And yes I took it easy in Ireland and England too. And yes, this is why there aren't any good stories in this post. Sorry mates, I may be done with the crazy times until I get back stateside. And then, who knows?

Later.

So here's the deal, when I was in England, I didn't have a good way to get online. And it was always late at night or something. But rest assured, I am alive and once again demonstrating why I will never be a travel agent. Only a massochistic bastard does what I do. Leave My Aunt's house at 4 am, get into Franfurt Hahn at 9. Leave Hahn for the main Frankfurt Airport. Leave here at 4pm for Bulgaria, make a little stop off in Vienna, I didn't get enough of it the first time, and be in Bulgaria by 8.25. Yeah, I'm a tard. And the best part is, those are all in GMT. Not local times, so I'll actually be getting into Bulgaria at 10.25. Ugh.

But this place is 2.50 euros for 15 minutes. Jack that.

More when I have the chance, in Bulgaria. And yes, future posts include french girls, family and the rest of my travels today.

Later.

So its Friday. My last night here in, currently sunny, Dublin. I expect to get overcast and drizzle any minute now. That's just how its been going. So I never took the tour of Trinity College. It was rather costly and I decided my money could be better spent on other tours. Namely, the Guiness museum and the Jameson Distellery. I went to the Guiness Museum yesterday. It was sevev floors of bars, memorablia and a step by step process of how they make Guiness. Very cool. And I had to run from the Guiness giftshop because I really wanted everything they had. Kinda sad really. If you just slap the Guiness label on something, I will want it.

The Jameson distellery tour was today. Again, a step by step tour of how they make Jameson. I was not aware, but all Irish Whiskeys are distilled three times for extra smoothness. But when I had my free Jameson I still shivered. Whiskey and I don't get along too well.

And I've been going on that pub crawl everynight. I keep wanting to do something else, but I haven't meet anyone because my freaking hostel is full of people who are all like forty years old. Garbage. They should have a sign out front that says,"old people only." It would have made this trip more enjoyable. But I'm still having a great time getting lost here and trying the read the Irish. All the signs are in English and Irish. I have no idea, for the most part, how to pronounce Irish. Its funny in my head as I experiment with different ways to pronounce letters.

So tonight its the last night of the pubcrawl, then I go to London. All in all, this place fucking rocks. I wish I had more time here.

And I still haven't met a park I didn't like.

Later.

I'm in Ireland. One night here and already its awesome. Oh, and a tip of the hat to let's go for being competely wrong. But in a good way. See, the "Let's Go" guide is kinda like an overprotective parent. It always tells you to make reservations and never to hitchhike, after it tells you the best places to hitch, and it also gives you pricing guides to stay on some semblance of a budget. Its like a little parent I can carry around with me and ignore most of its advice and it doesn't get mad at me for it. Thanks Let's Go, you're my new hero.

After mike got back from breaking even in Monte Carlo we hit the beach. It was nice this time. It wasn't pebbly, it was just big honking boulders. We chilled, I listened to some pot heads play guitar. Good times. Then at night we met some dudes who we shared the room with. Cool guys. The four of us went out, and just walked along the beach and bought beer from the beer vendors who have nothing more than a cooler and a bag of ice. Then we went to bed. After a, literaly, 1.5 hour walk.

The next morning, I dump my shit at the station and go wandering. Mike and I run into the dudes from the night before who also didn't stay at that place with the creepy french dude. We went hotel hunting with them, then some beaching. Then I got an awesome sun burn. It really wouldn't be a trip to the beach for me though if I didn't get a burn. Then a night train to paris. Then the super fast bullet train to London then a plane to dublin. And yes, when planning trips at the last minute, that was the cheapest. I think. I think I did all my conversions correctly. I found a place for 21 euros a night, a little pricey and I have to leave on friday because they are already booked for friday, and then I found a pub crawl. I got smashed, went to bed.

After this I'm going over to Trinity College to check out the museum and the book of Kells. More on that when I get back.

And its cloudy. I love it. God love the green.

Later.

So the lqck of proofreading will continue. Sorry, these french keyboards are officially messed.

Yes, all of Italy was 100 degrees and stinky. Florence was beautiful. mike and i hiked all over that crazy town. We saw the big Duomo, declined to pay the 4 euros to climb to the top, although that would have been awesome. Then we went to the museum with the david. the david is amazing. its perfection is rivaled only by the lack of anything else in that museum. Its some acadmy of the arts or something. Go to the uffizi. We didn't go in because we had spent our museum budget for the day, but its supposed to be great. and there is a great replica of the david right in front of the uffizi. which is where the david was originally meant to be. then we went hiking around florence, got lost trying to get a castle after we hiked up a 45 degree incline of a hill to find out the place was like 12000 euros to get in. f that. then as we were trying to get to the train station to get to cinque terra ands its beutiful beaches we got lost on this little windy road and got stuck behind a dumptruck that was almost too big for the road. just silly.

cinque terra and sleeping ont he beach. what a godawfully executed plan. if you ever go to cinque terra don't go to riomajorre like Rick Fucking Steve tells you to. we ran into a couple of guys who said they were going to riomajorre because that is where the younger crowd is. if by younger they meant, less than 80, then they were correct. But hanging out with 40 to 50 year olds doesn't seem like a good plan for guys looking to have a crazy beach adventure. So we go Moterosso like we had planned and the baggage check is closed. So we have to hunp our bags around all night. We go to a bar, get some cheap big bottles of italian beer and proceed to get rocked as we sat there angry. THen we found another hopping bar, drank until 4 in the morn and then went down to this rocky outcrop that wasn't all light up an slept. Mike just passed out on the rocks and I curled up with the bags in what appeared to be a mini ravine.

We woke up? had some food and went to the beach. I nearly melted. It was that hot. I was laying there for about five minutes then some dude comes up to me and says the piece of beach I had staked out, with a lawn chair, was 18 euros. I quickly walked to the tiny free beach, sweated for a bit, went int he water, realized I hate salt water and went back to melting. Then I said fuck it, got changed and found a tree to sit under. We got some food and headed to Nice on the slowest rain known to man. I swear, if I had been siting on a roller skate and only lighting my farts for propulsion, I would have gone faster.

We get to our stop to transfer for the train to Nice. No train. We eventually find out that there is a blocked tunnel and take a complimentary bus. At the train station in Nice, some dude accosts us and tells us he has beds for 20 euros a night. He even says we can shower that night. something we hadn't done since rome. So he says its 45 minutes by foot away. He failded to mention its minutes if you are power walking. Mike and I have our bags, so this forced march, a lot uphill, was just godawful. but it was the best shower ever. And then some pizza and a beer and bed.

Today Mike is in Monte Carlo losing all his money and I have been online for most of the afternoon planning my trip to Eire. This is awesome. I am sick of the heat and the damn pebble beaches of the riviera. I want some fog. Someplace that isn't rocking a two month drought. I want to see GREEN! And I will. I was actually crying with joy earlier today when I got my ticket to france. Crying with joy. This trip has been no fun for a couple of days and I am tired. I want to go somewhere I speak the language. Somewhere I can get a good Guiness, someplace like Ireland.

Can you tell I'm excited about this?

One more night here and then the night train to Paris tomorrow. I'm gonna go parade my great attitude around town for awhile.

Later.

Alright, posts are gonna get sketchy until I can find an internet hookup that isn't four thousand dollars a minute.

After leaving Vienna, we went to Venice. When I attempted to get my ticket to Venice, I asked the guy in Vienna for a ticket to Vienna. He just looked at me crosseyed and pointed at the ground. I felt the fool. But eventually mike corrected me and I got a ticket. The train to Venice was almost all Japanese types. I have no problem with them, it was just odd that on this train car of about 60 people, 50 of them were Japanese. Now, if we were in Japan fine. I expect it there. Not on the overnight from Vienna to Venice.

We got into Venice and promptly got lost. It was good times. We're wandering Venice and we come up to a square. I got some oranges and Mike got an apple. It was some tasty fruit. And then when we turned to look at the whole square, we saw about six people being hazed by family members. One was a girl about 12 years old who was just gulping down this bottle of wine. Nothing was happening to her, but she was still 12 and boozing. Then we saw some dude wearing a thong. And a lot of plastic. And he was covered in shaving cream. And then they made him run around the square. There was a girl who had knee high boots on that were filled with shaving cream. And she had a shaving cream hat. And then there was one poor dude who was being pelted with eggs and being given a beer shower. And and one point, he's trying to read this sheet and the lady with the eggs just nails him in the forehead with an egg. Just hilarious. And they all had these sheets of paper about 3 feet wide by five feet high that they had to read. Mike and think it was some kind of University graduation celebration, but we're not sure. If anyone knows, please toss it in the comments.

Then at about 12.30 we decide to head back to the train station so we can get in line for our bags and make our train at 2.30. We started off the right way, then we got some Italian Ice, just delicous, and we promptly started heading the exact wrong way. Of course we didn't know this because we were too busy eating ice cream. Then we had to truck across the whole city, which we did in 25 minutes. Its a small town, and we know how to navigate by the sun and clear out other tourists.

We get into Rome. The first five places we try to stay at are full. The last one is on the sixth effing floor. I ask the lady if she knows of anywhere that might have a room. She says no. Then as we're leaving, she calls out to us and says,"Hey, try the place one floor down". So we do. And it was good.

The next day, yesterday, we spent running around the ruins. Yipee! Ruins are fun. Especially Roman ones. They are extra ruiny. Or something. Over the four hours we were out clomping around in the Coloseum, the Forum and the Palatine hill I had somewhere around 8-10 bottles of water. I did not even feel a twinge of needing to go to the bathroom. Why is that? Oh yes, its about 100 degrees here. Constantly. At night it cools off to 80. Ugh. At night we hit this power hour thing. It was five euros a cup and all the beer you could drink for an hour. I was weak, I only had 4. Oh well. I didn't want to die.

Today was Vatican CIty and heat stroke. See, guys have to wear pants to get into the Vatican stuff. The only pants I have are jeans. I fried. Literaly. I had to go lay down afterwards for about 2 hours just to stop being all heat strokey. And the Metro here is god awful. I have never seen someplace more packed, stinky and horrible in all my life. Just wretched. Yes, it was worse than freshman in line for a keg at u of i. And the Sistine chapel is no where near as impressive as I hoped it would be. That may have partly been that I had heat stroke or that I had to crane my neck painfully to see anything. But regardless, I was not anywhere near as impressed as I hoped I would be. Poop. And the other Vatican musuems blow. They're all like, sheep, go this way. We don't care if you want to walk through this room. You will go this way. A lot of the fun of musuems is getting lost and seeing everything in your own order. That is not an option here. We gotta be sheep.

Next up, tomorrow, is Florence during the day and LaSpezia or Quinca Terra at night. That's right. It finally beach time. For awhile. Nothing real until I get to Nice in a couple of days. I am going to laze around and try, despretaly try, to get some energy back. I'm not too hopeful, but I'm gonna try. Even if means sleeping on that beach all night. Hehehehehe. I'm prolly gonna do that anyway. It just sounds fun.

And now, a taste of things to come,
"holy fuck, all of Italy isn't 100 degrees and stinky?"

At least I hope that's on deck. Ugh.

ps sorry about the lack of proofreading, this internet place is expensive.

Later.

I'm in Vienna! For a couple more hours. Then on to Venice for a bit, then Rome for awhile.

The Love Parade in Berlin on Saturday was amazing. Steve, Mike and I just wandered around the party/costume show for about 6 hours. Then passed out in the train station for two hours until our trains left. There were so many people in crazy outfits. Just nutty. I don't even know what a lot of the stuff they were wearing is called. I guess they would be booty covering things. As in shoes. But I'm not sure. But I did see a lot of people in fur. Green fur, yellow fur pink fur. Head to toe. Fur. Just nutty.

Vienna is beutiful. I wish I had more time here. And I wish I had brought my camera with me. Stupid me leaving it in my bag. Grr.... Vienesse coffee is amazing. Just great. The whole coffee shop atmosphere was cool. We went to a museum. Lots of paintings. Very pretty. And I had this little audio guide thing. You walk around and certain paintings have numbers next to them. You put in the number and hit play. You then get about 4 days worth of information about the painting. It was really cool. And then when I put in 666 because I was bored, I got information about a painting that depicted Jesus's baptism. Just odd that the sign of the beast would give me info on Jesus.

And then Mike and I went on a three hour death march through Vienna. Just looking at buildings and occasionally going into a church. And parks continue to do me nothing but good. Get free music, a calm atmosphere and a sit down. Very nice.

The general atmosphere of this town is laid back. Which is exactly what we needed after the Love Parade. I like this town.

The next update will be when I'm in Rome, so prolly thursday. I'm gonna see if I can use the few scraps of Latin I remember that don't involve me saying I wish to kill someone from above with a spear. Its amazing that four years later, the main thing I can talk about is death. Just odd.

Later.

So here's the deal, sparky:
I will be here until the 7th of August. YEAH! Its both better than the 22nd, my old departure date, or the 28th, the other date I thought I could get. So I'm pumped about that.

Repeat after me: The sox did not get swept by the '69 Mets. They did not get swept by the '69 Mets. If we say this, together, enough times it will mean that the sox didn't get swept by the fscking Tigers, also known as the '69 Mets. Err.. Or is the the '62 Mets? I'm not sure. All this time spent in a culture without baseball has made my trivia go weak.

So Tommorrow is the Love Parade. Its gonna be crazy. Its gonna be wild. No, Mike, Steve and I aren't getting a room for the night. We're just gonna party all day and night then leave the next morning for a different country. Its gonna be great.

Time for me to pack.

Later.

business first:
This trip may be ending on the 22nd after all. I have been dragging my heals on moving my ticket back because I didn't know when I wanted to leave. Yesterday, mike tried to move his ticket back and the only option he got was the 28th, of August! I'm not down with staying over here until then. This is just a heads up, and yes, dad, this is why I haven't called yet. That phone call should be happening tomorrow.

So last night I went out with a bunch of people. We had some beer, had some potatoes and then after some light teasing of Steve he throws down with this piece of majesty,
"I wish girls liked me as much as gay guys"

Now to me, that isn't so much of a problem, because it means you're sensitive and stuff. Chicks dig that, or so I'm told. I don't really know. The only downside to me going out and getting loaded last night is that I was unavailable to leave my house in the morning to go to Linuxtag. No linux swag for me. Damn. But here is a recipe for distaster:
1 plate of potatoes, all the food for the day
3-5 cups of coffee
3 liters of beer

Danger Will Robinson, danger.

Ugh, its still 4000 degrees over here, and now I'm getting an awesome heat headache. Go me.

Oh, more comics on the right, you may already know of them, you may not. But I just met someone in an online comic forum who had never heard of Megatokyo, so I no longer make any assumptions.

Later.

Arrghh mateys.

Work is mad boring. Apparently, they thought it was going to take me two weeks to write that app I did. They were wrong. Its great. They have nothing for me to do, and my boss doesn't even show up anymore. He got in today at about 3, stayed for five minutes and walked out. I don't get it.

And contrary to what I said, the other site will not be up this week. Yeah, I'm lazy. But it will be up at some point. I'll let you know.

You may have noticed my email link. That's a new email account that won't die when I graduate. Yeah, I'm smart like that. New email account.

This is my last week in Darmstadt area. Yeah. This friday I hope to be going to Linuxtag. That should be fun. And after that its the loveparade in Berlin then running around the continent. It should be lots of fun.

Later.