Great Polish music

I don't like people complaining: "nowadays Polish music is bad, nowadays there are no great artists"... If you think like this, you are completely wrong, because there are plenty of them.

Power of Trinity
My favourite Polish band from Łódź. In the previous month PoT released a new CD, Ultramagnetic.

My favourite track is the last one, "Prywatny raj" ("The Private Paradise"). It is powerful, yet so sad. I would say this song is bitter-sweet. You can not forget about their most recognizable song from Ultramagnetic, "Telefon" ("Telephone"), which promote the album. You can see it here:

Ocean (OCN)
I also like Ocean. Such a pity OCN broke up the band in 2016... The lyrics are meaningful and thought-provoking - you can hear it in the song "Dom". What is more, it is quite unique to see a Polish band very popular outside Poland. That is the case :) A few songs are in English (for example, "Waterfall").

Riverside
Have I said a Polish band very popular outside Poland? Riverside is an extreme example of it - literally no one in Poland knows it. For comparison, whenever they put on a concert abroad, there is always a big crowd.
Unfortunately, one of their guitarist, Piotr Grudziński, died in February 2016 :(
As far as I know, all the songs are in English - and that is the reason why it is so popular abroad.
Just see how professional, beautiful and heart-warming its songs are:
(Plus, look at the breathtaking Polish scenery in the clip!)

LemON

It is a band that made its debut in a talent show at the initiative of Igor Herbut. A very interesting is the fact that the band's name, "lemon", does not refer to the fruit, but it consists of two words: Lemkivshchyna, a place of singer's origins ("lem" also means "only"), and English word on.
My favourite songs: "Będę z tobą" ("I Will Be With You") and "Scarlett"

Bracia

I think you've heard about Krzysztof Cugowski. His sons, Wojciech Cugowski and Piotr Cugowski, formed a band in 1997. Bracia has four albums so far.

Nowadays there are a lot of great bands. That is why you should not generalise and say they are nonexistent - they are here, but you should look for them very well ;)

Baseball

Today I want to tell you a little about the sport discipline which soon will be in the Olympic Games: baseball!

It is definitely underappreciated in Poland. For example: there are about 600k habitants in Poznań and there are still any baseball stadium… That is why the matches are played in Cytadela with its uneven terrain… However, most of Polish cities has a baseball stadium.

Fun fact: you can find a stadium in some small Polish villages, like Miejska Górka - a village with mere 4k habitants ;) I was personally only in Osielsko, which is close to Bydgoszcz. Some photos you can see below:

Now, a little about rules. I am not going to lie to you: the rules are very complicated. In general, there are two teams who play by turns without time limit. Fortunately, you can find some tutorials on the Internet, like this one:

The interesting is the case of terminology. In Polish, there are only the most important words translated into Polish, like hitter/batter - pałkarz, pitcher - miotacz, catcher - łapacz, mound - górka, to pitch - narzucać. Even the name of this sport, baseball, is not translated. The same goes with the rest: strikes, fouls, balls, home runs, etc. That is why you can read/watch an English tutorial and understand it without problems ;)

I played in baseball for a few years and it gave me so much fun :) Such a pity this sport is not more popular in Poland… You can’t forget that Polish game palant gave rise to American baseball! ;)

Touch typing

Touch typing is, according to Wikipedia, "typing without using the sense of sight to find the keys". In other words, it is an ability to use a computer and write without looking at your fingers.

There are many positive effects of touch typing. For me, the most important are:
- You can rewrite a text from a book, tracking the sentences all the time (I mean, you don't have to move your head up and down),
- You can connect the computer to the TV and look at the big screen without worrying about looking down at the keyboard,
- Looking only at the screen, you can keep track of whether mistakes/typos you are making.

Some other advantages you can see in this video:

https://videos.typing.com/student/en/1-welcome.webm

My opinion about touch typing? When I started doing it, it was very frustrating. Writing just one word took me forever, because at first I had to think, where a key is and which finger I have to use to press it.

Do you want to start touch typing? I have two advice for you:
1. Try exercises on the Internet
Typing.com is a useful website where you can practice your typing skill. There are a few lessons, divided into levels of difficulty. In the first lesson, you learn how to use the most basic keys: F, J and space, and end up learning Z and Q.
You can do it here:

https://www.typing.com/student/start

2. I can also recommend you rewriting any text you like, especially in your native language. In your mother language you will probably write the most, that is why it is SO important. What is more, I trained with words like szczekać or chrząszcz: you have to use your ring fingers and small fingers a lot, which are the weakest ones.

As for me, I still can't write smoothly without looking at the keys, but I do exercise and I hope one day I'll achieve a good level in it :)
For everyone who wants to start touch typing, I wish you good luck!

PS. If you can't do it no matter what, you can try these amazing keyboards. Unfortunately, the price is also amazing...