The atmosphere you created for our game vs. FSU on Tuesday was as good as any in the ACC. Despite the 9 PM start, you came out early, stayed LATE and celebrated a hard fought win against the Seminoles. Saturday UVa comes to the Cassell for a 1 PM tip-off. The early starting time is this week’s second challenge. I am counting on you to not only be there but be there early and ready to make a DIFFERENCE! I need you to be participant and not just a spectator. Our players are counting on you! The Hoos might have John Paul Jones Arena, but we have the best and most passionate fans in the Commonwealth. Let’s rock the Cassell!!! As Nikki Giovanni said, “We Are The Hokies, We Are Virginia Tech.” Let’s show our Hokie pride and respect, for its not about anything but the HOKIES!

Coach Greenberg

So we were supposed to register with the city (I think…could be the police…?) within our first week in Berlin. I think that everyone except those of us who are from (or have lived in) The Americas took care of this right away. Draw whatever conclusions you want, but we’ve been busy and Berlin’s version of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles has some pretty limited hours of operation. Imagine that.

Erica and I finally caved in and got it done yesterday. First, we followed VLB’s directions to the Rathaus Wedding (city hall). Once inside, we found it very…not open and rather confusing. After an initial failed attempt in locating the appropriate room, I decided that we would wait for a human and ask directions. My human of choice was a very old German woman with a hunched back. I asked her where we were supposed to go in my best, bad German, and from her response I gathered that we were in the wrong building, we had to go outside, and to the right. I’m pretty sure that she said more than that, but that’s what I got and it was a start. We started down the side walk and when I turned to look back, I could see the old woman waving me on like it was 1st and 10 in Lane Stadium. Guess we should keep walking. A few more steps and then Erica and I paused to contemplate whether or not the next building could be the right place. I figured the old woman was gone by now, but glanced back anyway, where I immediately saw her vigorous 1st down signal was now perpendicular, indicating that we had found the right spot. I waved back and we went inside.

Once inside we went to the information booth. I explained to the lady behind the window that my German was bad, but that we both needed Anmeldebestatigungs. She said that my German wasn’t THAT bad and that we should get a WAITING NUMBER from the ROOM with the LINE COMING OUT OF IT. Erica asked me what the info lady had just said and once I told her she replied, “You mean we have to wait in line to get a waiting number?” Yep, just like DMV. An hour later, we were on our way and now Berlin knows where to find us if it needs us.

Ahem. So the Talibans have been ousted. Wasn’t it quite sometime ago? They were BAD. The new government is democratic, moderate, friendly.

Umm, not so sure about that second one right about now.

The upper house of the Afghan parliament has supported a death sentence issued against a journalist for blasphemy in northern Afghanistan.

What went wrong?

@

The Florida State Seminoles are in Blacksburg this evening to take on the home-standing Hokies. Tech is a 3.5-point favorite with the game’s over/under set at 131 points. Bet the Hokies to cover and the over .

If you’re a gambler, here’s the other bets I like:

Tennessee to cover (-4.5) @ Alabama. Betting the over on the 141 total points sounds even safer. GO ROCKY TOP!

I’ve been in Berlin for 25 days and have somehow managed to see almost none of the city until today. School has kept us pretty busy, and the last few weekends have been cold and/or rainy. But after the practical malting work today, I talked John and Erica into accompanying me on what ended up being a really awesome tour. Our tour guide, Barnaby, was hilarious and extremely informative. If you ever go to Berlin, be sure to go on his tour.

We saw (and learned a lot about) The Wall, Checkpoint Charlie (which is a joke and is not worth seeing), Brandenburg Gate, The Reichstag, Hitler’s bunker/grave (which frequently gets urinated on), an awesome memorial to Jews killed in the Holocaust, and more. I took too many pictures to display them all here, so I’ll just cover the highlights…
1. West side v.s. East side. 2. Lola ran out of this bank. 3. Looking down into the World W/O Books reminder. 4. The Linden trees are all numbered (seriously). 5. Holocaust memorial. 6. Balcony where Michael Jackson dangled his kid, Blanket.

There has been a spate of articles on the law of unintended consequences in the most popular econ blogs. Amidst all that, there was the news about California farmers planning to sell the water they get for irrigation.

Because farmers get their water at subsidized rates, some of them see financial opportunity this year in selling their allotments to Los Angeles and other desperately thirsty cities across Southern California, as well as to other farms.

Hmm. Could there by any more disconnect?