Howard’s Blog

yes they can.

haven’t posted in a long while - I’ve been keeping busy with flag-football and…
learning Italian

I know, it’s tomorrow…but I’m not going to post tomorrow, so there.
To me, St. Patrick personifies religion - he is given credit for having drivin all of the snakes out of Ireland, when in fact there never were any snakes in Ireland(at least not after the glaciers)…this makes me a candidate for sainthood…having driven all of the blue whales out of Austria…and if my middle name wasn’t Patrick I’m sure I would have been granted sainthood by now…that damned Irish bastard stole the show…(My mother’s an O’Toole, for those that think I may be anti-Irish)
anyway…have a good one, and drink a Guiness - it’s good for you.

One of my all-time favorite traditional Irish songs:

- ist gestern gestorben.
Hier ein Beispiel, aber für diejenigen die ihn nicht kennen(und deswegen ist dieser Beitrag auf Deutsch - die kanadischen LeserInnen kennen ihn schon), es lohnt sich einiges von ihm anzuhören.
Hier ist mehr Info

Kent is an incredible group from Sweden - here’s one of my favorite tunes from their English CD - Isola

10 years ago today one of Austria’s all-time great musicians died. An incredible talent.
Falco.

Spent last weekend in Graz, and managed to take a few pics before the hurricane came…and they’re here

just to keep the search engines busy….more Canadian music…this time it’s K.D. Lang, who didn’t cause much of a stir in ultra-conservative Alberta when it was revealed she was gay, but her support of vegetarianism resulted in being blacklisted by western radio stations…power of the buck.

Although I know from experience that a New Year’s Eve party isn’t a sure cure for jetlag, it seems I never learn the lesson :-). I did manage to take a few pics, but when you’re in Georgefield, Nova Scotia, there just isn’t much to photograph other than snow and trees…I did get a few pics of those incredible Nova Scotia storm sunrises. I also am breaking the post-Greece rule of no people pictures, but when you’ve got nieces as beautiful as mine sometimes you have to break the rules - I just wish the pics of my other nieces had turned out :-(.
Anyway - here are the pics - and as a special bonus, the incredible Rye, who spends his free time on Cruise Ships in the Antarctic when he isn’t rescuing damsels in distress, solving global warming, or picking me up at the airport gave me a video of a trip to the Antarctic on the ms Prinsendam when they unexpectedly ran into a bit of a storm - causing millions in damage to the ship, and resulting in more than a few injuries - when you watch this video, keep in mind this a 200+ meter long ship weighing in excess of 37,000 tons…
Have a great 2008!

Well it’s the 19 of December, and I doubt if I’ll get a post in before Christmas, so I’ll take this opportunity to wish everyone a Frohe Weihnachten, Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noël, or whatever name you may use to describe the Winter Solstice.
Sometimes I wonder what a celebration it must have been in the times when short, cold, dark days brought death and starvation, and the day after the shortest brought promise. Hardly surprising that the solstice has been celebrated by just about every northern culture for thousands and thousands of years.
For those of you who have won in 2007, share the success. To those who have lost, take heart in the knowledge that for every day that the burden doesn’t crush you, it strengthens you.
Thanks to everyone who made my 2007 full.
Howard