Urmel on the ice…

Nowadays every big sport event needs a mascot. Most of these mascots are rather boring and neither cute nor funny and most of all lack originality. Imagine my surprise and elation, when I first read about the mascot for next year’s icehockey worldchampionship, which will take place in Germany. I just liked the mere idea, without even having seen what the mascot looks like. Because the mascot will be “Urmel auf dem Eis” (= Urmel on the ice) and of course it originates from “Urmel aus dem Eis” (=Urmel from/out of the ice). Most Germans my age will remember Urmel at least by name. I have to admit I never watched it on TV myself. “Urmel aus dem Eis” was a very popular and successful TV program, first aired in the early 1970ies and in reruns later on. It’s a puppet play based on a children book and there are also other cartoon versions of the book, but the puppet play is probably the most known. Urmel is something between dinosaur and mamal and it was found (still in it’s egg, waiting to hatch) within a block of ice. Hence the name.

I was just happy that someone obviously had enough sense to look for a mascot that has some kind of tie to the “ice”. During the international hockey tournament in Munich last weekend, I finally saw and met Urmel for the first time. What can I say? It was love on first sight ;-) Which was most probably due to the fact, that the guy(s) in the costume know how to work a crowd in a sport arena. He was doing everything right, dancing, partying with the fans, starting the wave and basically just goofying around. It didn’t hurt that Urmel itself was cute, with it’s oversized jersey with the number (20)10 on its back. It seems like two mascots will be touring the German hockey league venues in the next few weeks. At least one was in Iserlohn on Friday, from where Bro3 reported back to me ;-) Some of our hockey friends talked to the guy in the costume and was told that there are basically just these two guys being Urmel at the moment. The second one was at the game in Nürnberg last night. So maybe Urmel also will be joining us in Cologne some day. Would be fun, I think.

How I Became A Hockey Fan

I’m in Munich over the weekend, watching the German national hockey team compete in the Deutschland-Cup tournament. Hockey is of course ice hockey, for any German reader who might be wondering. But as it’s the only kind of hockey that matters to me, I’ll stick with the english distinctiion between hockey and field hockey.

Robert Müller lost his last fight :-(

I read it on twitter a few minutes ago, I checked the news sites and I’m still in shock. We knew it would happen, we hoped for a miracle, but… Robert Müller, hockey goalie of Cologne and Team Germany lost his battle against a brain tumor. He died yesterday at home in Rosenheim. He was onl 28 years old, married with two little kids. I really don’t know what to say, except… I’m so so sad. Rest in peace, Robert. #80

Ramblings – Part 1

I started writing a blog post on Tuesday during my lunch break. I continued writing it during some idle time at the office yesterday. Today I have quite a few more (more or less insignificant) things I could and want to write about. And some things I wanted to write about have changed dramatically. But I’m trying to post all this stuff tonight anyway, because I will be very busy again tomorrow and probably on Saturday as well. Does that ever stop? Anyway … I will not put all the stuff in one post, because that could bore some of you to death. Even seperate post might still do that just as well *g*, but here is the hockey post.

Another Hockey Post…

I’m feeling weird today. Maybe it’s the weather, which is weird around here as well. It was wonderfully sunny yesterday and now we’re back to cloudy :-( Which doesn’t really motivate me to do anything useful. Well, I did clean my dishes, finally updated the fansite I’m running. I should also sort some Greens stuff and work on my revising my parts for our electoral program. I might do that later today. “Might” is the key word of that sentence :-)
I’m also planning to revise all my work for the willingly failed paper for the Education course. And to sort out which of the dozens of books I got from various libraries, I can already return. In the desperate attempt to write this paper within a couple of days, I got so many books without having a real plan which books I really need. And because I couldn’t get some of the books I wanted / needed within the time I only had to write the paper. So with the additional time I have now to write the paper again, I can spend more time and serious thoughts about which book I need and should get.

I might be doing doing this tonight while watching the Detroit – Anaheim game tonight at 8 PM, because I actually don’t care which team wins this one. I don’t care about these teams / series at all. 2009 is the first year I really follow the NHL playoffs, because I can watch some of the games, thanks to my new digital cable. I was actually mainly rooting for all three Canadian teams, because they are… Canadian! :-) After watching the Washington Capitals for the first time, the Caps at once slipped into one of my top spots. So here is my current of favourite NHL teams (of the teams still participating in the playoffs). This list and reasons behind my ranking are totally totally subjective, but every like/dislike has to start with something, right :-)?

Flunking Papers & Hockey Games

I used the time on the train on my way to work and back to read parts of a textbook and also parts of what I wrote for my term paper. Around 4.10 PM a realization hit me. I still haven’t understood some of this course’s content. In at least one part of the paper I got way off track from the correct line of argument. So so way off track. And I had no idea how to get back on track and furthermore get a hang of the contents which I still haven’t understood yet. After a couple of minutes, some pondering and a look at the examination regulations I decided to not hand in the paper and thus flunk this exam. I feel a bit bad about it and mostly I’m mad at myself that I let it get this far, by starting to work on this paper much too late. But I didn’t want to pass this with an only “sufficient” grade and I wouldn’t have been able to do more than sufficient.

This all means I will have to repeat the exam (get a new assignment and write the paper within a year after failing this first one). The course content have changed during the last year which means I now might get assignments which I will be able to understand :-) It also means I have to pay an extra 100 EUR fee for doing this assignment again. And it also means that I might have to change the course schedule I drew up for myself. But it might also means that I can be a bit more relaxed and maybe don’t have so much troubles falling asleep at night. I slept rather badly during the last couple of nights and I’m sure worrying about this paper and all that stuff might have been the reason for that. Because the lack of sleep couldn’t have been caused by nightly hockey games, which I haven’t watched for a while now :-)

Of course I still have to check with my school and program staff, if flunking and repeating this assignment really is a possible option. I gather it is, but I’d better make sure. If it isn’t, expect a very panicky post the day after tomorrow.

Talking about flunking: Team Germany lost against France at the hockey world championship and now has to play in the relegation round. Against France! Oh, this is so so bad. And embarrasing and just sad. I was only able to watch the last period and have to admit that France was the better team. France!

I hope (but actually am sure) to see some much better hockey tonight in game 7 of the Caps vs. Rangers. Yes, I probably will watch parts of the second or maybe just third period later tonight. I just can’t help it, it’s so so much fun to watch. I will have to work till the evening tomorrow, so I can head into work a bit later than usual. (I will always find something to justify watching hockey in the middle of the night).

Hockey & School Keep Me Busy…

I almost forgot to post my project365 photos of this week, which I will do in an extra post. There is nothing much more to write about at the moment. My term paper is giving me a headache, because I’ve got the discouraging feeling that I don’t get the hang of some parts. I’m booked with meetings (Greens, Work) for every evening Monday till Thursday, so I have no idea when I should really work on the paper again. Maybe I can squeeze in some time at the office. At least to look up some stuff on the internet?

Oh, and then there is hockey of course. Germany lost the first two games at the World Championship, which was to be expected. They lost 0:5 to the current world champion Russia and 2:3 in OT against host Switzerland. They played rather well for the first and second period of the game against Switzerland, the third was ok, but that wasn’t enough. At least they’ve already got one point (from the 2:2 after the regular time).

I also watched the first two periods of game 5 of the NY Rangers – Washington Capitals series of the NHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Playoffs. Saturday morning at 1.00 AM. But I used the time till then working on my paper, so I was still awake anyway. The Rangers led 3:1 in the series and would only have to win this game as well to win the series. But they didn’t, they were run over by the Caps, which won 4:0. Yay. I went to bed after the 2nd period at the 4:0, which was a beautiful goal by Alexander Ovechkin. I was and still am rooting for the Capitals, mainly because I’m rooting against the Rangers. For the mere fact that they’ve got Avery on their roster. And rather ugly jerseys *g*. And since game 5 and the stuff happening after it, a third reason is their unbelievable rude coach. His behaviour got him banned from the bench for game 6 . Yay. Serves them right.

Game 6 is on TV right now and the Caps are leading 3:1. In New York and it’s a great game. Beautiful goals from the Caps and a very intense game. Nobody’s hiding from a fight, but that’s playoff hockey, right? And I will return to watching it with full attention in a minute. And have to squeeze in some study time after that, I’m afraid…

My Busy Life & Grey’s Anatomy 5.20 – “Sweet Surrender”

I’m so busy at the moment it’s not even funny. I go to work, I take care of some stuff for my local Greens and I’m working on my termpaper(s). So there is not much to write about, which wouldn’t turn into a long and whiney “OMG I don’t know how to deal with all that” post. I was trying to squeeze in some hockey on TV somwhere on the busy schedule, which might be another reason why my schedule is so packed. Staying up late to watch NHL playoffs or to wake up early (not to mention in the middle of the night) to watch some NHL playoff, messes with your sleeping schedule. But it’s fun to watch it. Well, most of the time.
I was/am rooting mostly for all three Candian teams, because… well, they are Canadian teams :-)! My favourite – the Montreal Canadiens – lost their series 0:4 to Boston. The Vancouver Canucks won their series 4:0, the Flames lost the first two games, won the third and fourth, so this series is tied. I don’t have a favourite team among the US teams, I’m rooting a bit for the San Jose Sharks, because they’ve got some German players and also for the Carolina Hurricanes because they’ve got another German player – Dennis Seidenberg – who was one of the nicest and best looking players on Team Germany at the world championship in Halifax last year. We met him at the Scotia Square mall once and had a chance to talk and take a picture and all… Oh, well good old times (a year ago *g*).
Talking about the world championship: This year’s started today and Germany lost the first game against world champion Russia. It was to be expected and Germany wasn’t playing that bad (even though the result 0:5 seems to indicate otherwise). But Russia was just a league of it’s own. We have to beat France on Tuesday and it can’t hurt to get a point or more on Sunday against Switzerland. We’ll just have to wait and see.

I haven’t watched much TV during the last two weeks, being busy and all. But of course I had to watch the latest Grey’s this morning. And I knew I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on my termpaper, if I didn’t write my review first….

How To Pronounce a Name

I’ll be watching my first live NHL game on ESPN in a couple of minutes NY Rangers @ Boston Bruins. I’m rooting for the Bruins, because they’ve got Marco Sturm and because I don’t know anyone on the Rangers team. Well there is Sean Avery, which should be reason enough to be against the Rangers, I guess. Well, I don’t know much about Avery, but what I know is not good. Marco Sturm isn’t even playing, because he’s injured, I’ll be for the Bruins anyway.
To confirm if  Sturm is on the roster or not I checked the Bruins website and one thing really made me giggly. In the players section, there are not just stats but for the Non-US / Canadien players, there also is the phonetic of the name. How to pronounce it properly. I’ve never seen anything like that before and it’s definitely useful. And kind of cute :-)

Lots and Lots of Fangirly Flip Outs

To be exact: Flip Outs about Paddy, Hockey and LOST 5.11…

I’m kind of feeling better today. Good enough for two entries in fact. I actually wanted to post this one yesterday but then I felt pretty sick-ish in the evening and didn’t get around to it. So this is the first and consists of fangirly flip out only.

If you want to understand why I like Patrick Dempsey so much, you might want to listen to a 10 minute radio interview he did last week. He is just such a down-to-earth guy, humble, nice and funny. I don’t share his love for racing, not at all, but I love that he can get so enthusiastic about it,. That he is a person who still can get enthusiastic about something other than fame and being a hot-shot and all. I had to smile when he said, that he’d love to meet Eric Bana. I’m sure they would have a lot to talk about. Paddy also confirmed that he’s got the movie rights to “The Art of Racing in the Rain”. Cool! And I also loved this part of the interview [Yes, I was kind of bored yesterday but still not fit enough to do some real work. Transcribing was all I could handle]