Activity Lull (Music Monday added)

To all of you that tune in,

Sorry for the lack of real activity on here out side of the match analyses. It has been a long couple of week as I have started thinking of life after university and applying for jobs while keeping up with classes and activities. It feels good to be busy again though.

Joe Biden was on campus Friday and I saw his speech (as shown in the caption). Being someone interested in science and in education, I was happy with the large focus of the speech being on these topics. It should be worrying that Romney/Ryan rarely talk about plans for future generations to an even remotely productive level. We will see, given an Obama/Biden win, if America can rise above 16th in the world in education as stated by Biden.

As far as Music Monday, I have three pretty chill albums to look at. One is An Awesome Wave by alt-J because it's quite an adventure of an album. The intro (titled "Intro") is a very good and eclectic one. The second album is I Bet On Sky by Dinosaur Jr. The third album is Allah-Las by Allah-Las in what appears to be their first album. Give these three a try because their definitely worth at least a listen if you're into somewhat calm or alternative music.

Daniel

Blues In Prague

This is just a quick update and I will tweet about this but if you happen to live in or around Prague or know someone who does and is a Chelsea fan then like this page:

http://www.facebook.com/ChelseaFCPragueBlues

It was started by my friend Jorge who I met funny enough in the Allianz Arena while he was sporting the "Champions of Europe 12" shirt. Great guy who is enthusiastic about the club so give the page a like.

Daniel

A Big Year In The Works

Hey readers,

So I know I have been horrible about keeping up the blog (and the viewing over the past week has shown this) but it has been a long week of travel with my internship across Bavaria and into Salzburg, Austria. It has been rewarding because (being a Cognitive Science/Psychology major) I generally don't have work weeks where I travel. It was tiring but I learned quite a bit about first impressions and organizing travel for work and actually being on a schedule of some sort. The language learning scene is an interesting one. I will go more into that in another post. Here I will just outline things to come for me and the blog.

Background

I started out school as a Material Science major because I like applied science and problem solving.After a year of doing the prerequisites and really thinking about it I felt it wasn't really my interest academically. So I switched to Cognitive/Brain Science. One thing that will always interest me is people and how they work. So far it has been an interesting ride. Now it is my last year in College/University and I'm starting to think about careers. Many alumni and working people have told me to study what you like and then try and pursue a career not just a job. I would say my top interests are people, technology, music and sports. So as a profession I would want to try and do as many of these in one. My goal is to incorporate Psychology and Football/Soccer into a career. So far the end goals would be to be a manager/coach or a sports psychologist. Both are paths that require a lot of work and sometimes really knowing the right people. As I am just building my work experience now the next couple years will be crucial.

What This Means For The Blog
Once the fall, classes, research, and sports seasons start, I will try to make the most and get involved in as much as possible. This blog will most likely become the template I use to organize this. I have decided that I will get more serious about my football involvement by trying to watch and analyze every Chelsea match I can watch. I will not get to all of them but if I can start really dissecting the matches and each player and have it documented it could help later on when I'm trying to work into the industry. I have also started a fantasy league with a friend so that will get me more involved. I will also try to start developing an idea of the role of cognitive science and understanding the brain in both managing/coaching and possibly in recovery from things such as brain damage. This will hopefully become something I can develop into a research project or thesis.

So expect my blog to be much more active in the fall and if all goes well it should be a good follow is I begin these tasks. If anyone reading has any info or contacts (especially in the USA or London) relating to psychology please let me know in some manner whether it be on here, by email or on my Twitter.

I will try and do more music reviews in the future too.

Thanks for reading,
Daniel

Updating...

Hey there readers,

Sorry I have posted next to nothing in the last week. There have been a multitude of reasons:

First and foremost, I just haven't found a lot to post or talk about. Preseason for football is just about over. I haven't even bothered to go into this week's games. Team GB gets knocked out on PK's in Olympic Soccer which was tragic. Team GB as a whole is doing rather well. I have not been watching any Olympics really but Twitter keeps me updated.

Second, my week of travel is coming up. I will be going around Bavaria talking to language schools about purchasing Verbwheels which will be quite an experience. Til then, I've been a bit lazier and adjust my sleep too to wake up on time for the trains.

Third, I've been doing a lot of looking into and deciding on what my focuses will be for the yea ror two to come. I have to start deciding soon about job/profession and which country I will be in for this. I have recently started looking into job offerings in the MLS for next year. There is still a lot open but I may need a year or two more of work experience to do the sort of things I'd like.

*Related to this I have decided I may start analyzing Chelsea matches this season and putting them up. I started doing this preseason but more just for the sake of summing it up into an article. It will probably be a good skill to develop if I can put the time into it.

Also not a lot of music has come out this week so I won't really have a Music Monday per say. Maybe I'll throw a recommendation or a few of albums that have been out. We'll see how much time I have.

Time, time, time.

Well that's all for now

Good day,
Daniel

Just Checking In

Hey everyone,

I am still alive. Just not a lot going on. I have been setting up a database of Sprachschulen (language schools) that I will be visiting to market the Verbwheels and just generally not being very outdoorsy. That will change next weekend since it is already almost August. In two and a half weeks my internship will already be over and I will be back in jolly old London. Time really has gone past. I am literally almost halfway done. I still need to put effort into going to some of the places like Museums and the Allianz Stadium tour. It is always weird though when you are time zones away from people you know. I find myself just not having a morning which is bad I guess.

Olympics have been mildly entertaining but outside of watching some football matches I haven't been tremendously bothered since the Opening Ceremony. So it goes.

Weather has also justified me staying in. Quite a bit of rain.

Lastly, I love cooking for myself and will miss it on my last year of being on a dining plan at school. I fully understand why some try super hard to get off the dining plan. It really is only for convenience that I stay on it. Well looks like time to watch Brazil play in the Olympics.

Tchuss,
Daniel

The First Week In Munich

As some of you may know, I have been in Munich for just over a week. I have been extremely lazy about updating here because sorting out work, doing the work, Chelsea Blog, and yes just plain not doing it. But with a bit of down time now, I am forcing myself to make this post. Here it goes:

Munich is a wonderful looking city. The public transport is very convenient (though some parts of the Metro are closed) There are ticket buying machines at stations and on the trams themselves. As with a lot of other cities, you aren't regularly checked on tram (especially for short rides). I just walk mostly because I am literally never in a hurry. The first few days I really only sorted out going to LiDL (on a budget here) for groceries, the slightly aggressive efficiency in this process, and the outlay of my general surroundings. After this and my trip to Nuremberg, my employer was gone to visit his kids in Cologne which meant basically a week off for me minus the tedious excel sheet making I chipped at each day. Admitedly, I did not do much last week but that is also because I don't really know people here and I had to make the money stretch a bit until I could withdraw more. I did got out with a friend from Munich on Saturday who had just gotten back to Munich last week. It was not what either of us expected but at least I was out and met another person who I can hang out with around here.

Today, after withdrawing money and realizing I had walked half way to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), I decided I might as well check the city center out. I have made it a tradition since Barcelona that for any place I spend a decent amount of time, I will get their discount football jersey/shirts. Valencia was the exception (I got the official) because I like them and it was maybe 40-50 Euro, not the 80+ I have to pay for the other official shirts.  So being in Munich, I was in search for a Bayern Munich and Germany discount shirt. My hope was to get Schweinesteiger Bayern and Oezil Germany. In Barcelona, this search took 20 min tops. The stores by Sagrada Familia had these for giv ore take 20 Euro. Palermo, I went to a market and it took again maybe 20 minutes to find the shirt: 10 Euro. here in Munich, no-one even knew where you would find unofficial shirts. It wasn't like anyone even knew that there is a place where these are available. It really is official or bust here. I hope maybe by the stadium but I'm starting to doubt I'll find the Munich one but I did find a Germany one for 20 Euro (shown above). Unfortunately no name on it... Ah well.

But yes this is basically my week. I have become accustomed to this place and hopefully this coming week I will start being a bit more touristy and check out all the must-see sites and such.

gute Nacht,
Daniel

Good News Regarding My Chelsea Posts

Hey faithful readers,

Just posting to let you know that now I will be contributing to a Chelsea blog:

http://thechelseablog.org/

in place of my Chelsea posts on this one. There are some good posters at that level but it will be a fun opportunity to reach more people. I will still post about football in general and about travels and all the other usual but my Chelsea specific posts will more often than not end up there if they are taken. I will have the link at the top of my page to the blog. You should start to see a few things from me on there relatively soon (a few of my old posts included). I will notify you all when that is the case.

Stay tuned,
Daniel

London At Last

First of all, I have tabbed all my posts so you can read the one's relevant to why you came to the blog. This one is just an update (me being me if you will). Just got back home to London. Should have slept on the plane but watched 21 Jump Street and The Woman in Black. Watched TWIB first and it did give me the heeby jeebies (spell check). 21 Jump Street though was funny as hell. But yes, as expected, things are changing for the Olympics and banners and construction are everywhere. So it goes.

Also, super excited to take my first step into Germany on Saturday. Excited about meeting all these other people interested in interning in Germany. Hopefully will meet some cool people and get some good references for my eventual return. More on the Frankfurt trip is sure to come.

Daniel

Last Post on American Soil

Until late August that is. Hope you all will stay tuned as there is a lot more to come. Thanks to all who have already checked this out.
Daniel