Goethe, originally uploaded by D.B. Blas.

Still in Frankfurt, Germany. I ate Vietnamese for lunch.

the village of Spabrücken, originally uploaded by D.B. Blas.

I'm currently in Germany, the runners-up in this year's Euro2008 Football Championships. In particular, I'm hanging with an American buddy in the small town of Spabrücken, which is located about an hour southwest of Frankfurt.

You can view a photographic update of my trip here.

Yesterday I was in Maastricht, Holland, another football-intense country. If Amsterdam is NYC, Maastricht is Chicago, a smaller, international in flavor, and way more pleasant in demeanor and manner.

Today I'm going to Bad Kreuznach and then Frankfurt. I'll have more to report on those two cities after the weekend.

The last time I was in Europe was in 2001, immediately after the attacks of September 11th. The people, when told of my country of origin, expressed a lot of sympathy for me and my fellow citizens. It's a different environment now on which I'll be better able to elaborate afterwards.

With the new currency, the Euro, it's so much easier to travel around to different countries. No more thinking: "I better spend all this money or I won't be able to receive a fair conversion."

Okay, it's off for more fun and adventure.

C-Span's broadcast of the conference for Young America's Foundation, a conservative organization believing that "young Americans understand and are inspired by the ideas of individual freedom, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values," had David Brooks as their speaker yesterday.

Brooks, a NY Times conservative columnist, discussed the decline of the conservative brand in American politics. Watch video here in Real format.

Brooks speech is toward the end.

Does the next president need to be computer savvy in order to better understand the lives of Americans? The NY Times asked that question and received many opinions.

The Chicago White Sox now have Ken Griffey, Jim Thome, Paul Konerko, Nick Swisher, Carlos Quentin and Jermaine Dye in their lineup after picking up Griffey from the Cincinnati Reds yesterday. That's a formidable order for any pitcher to face during a potential World Series run. Let's hope the pitching can do the job as it did in 2004's championship year.

Griffey is a future Hall of Famer, with over 600 home runs, but has never won a championship. This is what he needs to rejuvenate his career after a few dismal years spent with the Reds. Thus far this season, Griffey is batting .245 with 15 home runs and 51 runs batted in. I hope to see those numbers explode with his new uniform and world class city in which he'll play his home games.