I had heard good things about the movie memento so I decided to check it out. It's one of those movies where you can't really explain what it's about without giving away the whole plot, but I highly recommend it.

If you don't know what this means:

"oh man, that's as brown as Knotch's klingon!"

then you need to go back to cool school.

A german joke my friend sent to me:

Ein elefant trifft ein kamel und meint: "ihhh, was ist das denn? du trägst deine brüste auf dem rücken?"
"oh mann," meint das kamel, "ziemlich gewagt von jemandem, der seinen schwanz im gesicht trägt."

I have no idea what it means or what it's trying to say :-)

My phone bill (just for my cell phone) for the month of October is 230 euros ($370 canadian dollars). I hate cell phones.

Happy birthday to everyone that I've forgotten over the past year, I want to put all your birthdays into my new online reminder calender so shoot me an e-mail with your birthday (even if you think I know it, or you think I SHOULD know it)... gifts may follow :-)

Here's a quote from a recent Wired article interview of Mark Cuban, someone who I admire as being truly entrepreneurial:

"My strength is being able to recognize the obvious in a digital world and turn it into a business."

Priceless.

We didn't have an assignment due in Biz Leadership class Thursday (it was optional) so Wed night was subsequently free for the first time in a month which meant... Irish Pub! What a night! It had all the makings of a classic Irish Pub Wednesday, a birthday, bad kareokie, dancing, alcohol flowing (massive amounts of alcohol), friends and good spirit. Shout out to everyone who made it, see you all next time for those that didn't.

Who's the idiot who keeps hitting my brain with a sledgehammer this morning? Stop. Stop it now.

Inspiration for us all, I quite nearly pee'd my pants when I saw this!

If you were one of the tens of people on the planet that missed the NHL heritage game between the Edmonton Oiler and the Montreal Canadian Megastars, do your soul a favour and go check it out! (free no hassle registration required)

You will never forgive yourself for missing Gretzky's last time on televised hockey!

Got this from a friend, supposedly if you see a difference between the two dolphins then you're under stress and should go straight home to bed... I've stared at it for 30 minutes without any luck :-)

Rain rain go away, cum back another day.

The new trend in beer marketing/sales is low-carb beers geared towards the "health-concious" beer drinker. No thanks, I'll take an "original" Ex and Hefe thanks.

If you ever go to Canada, try visiting the small country beside it called "Quebec". Montreal is cool and although Quebec city doesn't have an NHL team anymore, the ice hotel is pretty cool.

Basically I already know the Bucs are out of the playoff picture, but mathematically they still have a chance which is why I'm staying up until 3AM tonight bumping around the Internet waiting for Monday Night Football to cum on (once again, I love you Premiere!!). A loss would confirm mathematically what logic tells me already.

Go Bucs Go!!

In yet another example of why Premiere is the best girlfriend I've ever had (this is my pay tv cable box), they had the outdoor game live last saturday, have the leafs - detroit "Hockey Night in Canada" game next sat live and the leafs - rangers (Messier is the man!) HNIC game the following saturday... so sweet!

I'll be setting up a party here for one of those games, stay tuned!

It would be cool to go fox hunting without actually killing the fox. I once heard of a company that did this (years ago) and I wonder what ever happened to it. In cub scouts we used to play this game where the old leader would start out into the forest dropping corn or bread crums etc, breaking twigs and leaving other track signs for all the cubscouts to chase after like a pack of dogs... I've never had so much fun as running around in the forest, barking like a dog with all my close buddies close at hand (I was like 8 so cut me some slack! :-)

I wonder if I would be able to set this game up here in Pforzheim... any takers? :-)

Belated congrats to Miao on the first ever (to my knowledge) Pforzhiem International Invitational Table Tennis Tournament Challenge
hosted at Kepler. Here's an exerpt from the mailing list with an entertaining recount of the event, and before you even start e-mailing yes
I am the loser canadian stuck at home doing a paper getting sms updates from the cronic gambler :-)

---

After an exciting build up to a great tournament, we would like to
thank everyone that participated in the Table Tennis Tournament
yesterday !

After three hours of nail-biting play, the playoffs had seen the
elimination of some great talent from both the men and women alike.

Late entrants from Poland suprised the crowd with drowsy "spins" and
eastern PowerPlay. India were consistently strong and entertaining
(Rohan !). The Chinese remained concentrated and calm throughout the
tournament, while the Australians were placing bets with the locals
(Stefan) at the net. Petra had also proven that only Slovakian women
have what it takes to take on the two handed striker from India
(Mohit) while once again Lithuania fought for independance from the
U.S.S.R.

Canada was writing his paper for class but remotely tuned into the
game by sms for frequent score updates. Tim... well he was sleeping...

And for the Final Result, if you havent already heard ... A battle
between the Spicy Mohit from India and the SpeedyCat from China (Max
Miao) saw China take the Gold in an event that had all the students
on their toes. Congratulations to both players for a superb
performance and to SpeedyCat Miao for taking FIRST place !

Rumours are already spreading about a possible rematch...
India would like another crack at the top spot... since we heard that
Som got lost that evening looking for the tournament but ended up in
Düsseldorf !! Whats that all about ??

---

ed - can someone shoot me some pics of this event so I can post them online?

Here's an article of the "re-branding" of Germany and another with a list of german companies and celebrities.

ok

Has anyone checked the Bundesliga standings lately? VFB Stuttgart first overall without a single loss to blemish their record... sweet!

PS> Can someone remind Bremen that they suck and please return to relegation-ish zone like usual... thanks.

Anyone done the third "optional" assignment for business leadership? Liar...

Went to Wal-mart today, Walmart in Deutschland is like a little slice of home, and today more than usual.

Now we all know how I buy almost everything I own here at Wal-mart, it's just too convienient (the Wal-mart's here have grocery stores attached), too cheap and too accomidating (stay tuned for a soon to be posted list of the good and bad of Germany, top of the list: paying for frigging bags at stores!, but not at Wal-mart!). Today was a great day for Wal-mart because this week is "american product week". Every week they pick a different country and ship in country-specific product brands, and although I staunchly correct anyone here calling me american (if you speak English here, you're "american"), I think this is close as I'm going to get for some home cooking as I don't anticipate a "canadian product week" anytime soon. Here's a rundown of some of my totally overpriced homesteads I was able to pick up:

Kraft Dinner (can you believe they don't have this here!?!?) - 2.39 euros, that's almost 4 bucks canadian a box, a box that goes for rouphly 10 cents in Canada :-)

Beatty Crocker Icing and brownie mix - 6 euroes icing (10 Canadian bucks) and 3 euros (5 bucks) for the mix, actually the mix isn't that much of a markup I guess. Mmmm borwnies... :-)

There was some other things there like cracker jacks, marshmellows, cookies etc etc etc, but after the 6 euro icing who really cares? :-)

I have the worst self-indused hangover/sickness ever... totally worth it. If you missed the outdoor NHL hockey match between Edmonton and Montreal (I taped the Alumni game and will be watching it this week) then you missed out on history, good times and great friends. As much pain as I'm in right now I can't stop smiling from how good last night was... wow!! :-) :-) :-)

Word of the day: cronyism - Favoritism shown to old friends without regard for their qualifications, as in political appointments to office.

After two straight nights of staying up until 5AM to finish papers my body is grateful to be hitting the sac at 2:18 AM :-)

Still waiting for the skating pics to roll in, but news of the success of this event has spread to Gemini and they're planning their own skating event. I don't post details for copiers :-)

Stay tuned for the upcuming hockey game, this will be even better! (playing hockey should have been added to my "ways I wanna die" list)

This is for my Russian comrade. Makes me think of how I want to go:

1 - Having Sex
2 - Drinking with my boys
3 - Watching Hockey
4 - Having sex while drinking beer and watching hockey... sweet then I won't even notice the transition to heaven!!

A big happy birthday to my buddy Greg... keep pounding those marketing chicks buddy!

(I had to dig long and hard for this one buddy!)

The cheap train ticket for 5 people rumour as been solved. The ticket is 30.80 euros and is only valid on one Saturday or Sunday for IRE, RB or RE trains. There is also a Baden Wuerttemberg ticket (28 euros), a similar deal but for any day of the week. Peace!

Never, under any circumstances take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night...

This is a little vulgar but I just couldn't stop laughing... thinking of you guys Stevie J and Dutchman!

Man of the year awards... hilarious!

3rd Place:



2nd Place:



1st Place:

I think that skating last night turned out a success. Thanks to all who showed up, good times! I'll be posting pics from the event as soon as I get them from broken finger guy.

On a related note, at the arena I had my first ever "gluwine" which is a german wine and spice drink heated up for the holidays. The first cup was interesting, the second quite enjoyable and by the third I was dreaming of the days before I knew what gluwine was. Next on the alcoholic list is some kind of burning sugar rum punch drink that I forget the name of... bring it on!

We are also planning a "hockey night" which will probably be scheduled for the beginning of the Christmas break for all those not going home, for the confort and safety of my knees and shinbones I will be playing on the same team as Aussie :-)

I have been avoiding the realization that I am getting old with the white-eyed clawing panic of a dog being dragged into a bathtub, but when everyone you know is getting hitched (married), buying houses and don't even head out for an occasional beer anymore, you know your time is cuming... congrats Stace on the engagement, shame Roddy on the missed opportunity! :-)

An interesting article that you might be able to pull something out of. I've posted it to the e-learning environment for business leadership as it relates nicely to some of the things we're talking about.

This sign is hilarious and pretty sums up the gateway to my life.



* I scammed this picture from www.starkdavingmad.com, and although I'm pretty sure that you're supposed to shoot them an e-mail letting them know that you've linked to them and/or scammed something, I'm just going to add his blog to my links listing (done and done) and give an electronic "thanks buddy" as I'm sure the massive amounts of traffic that this link will shoot his way will not cripple his servers... maybe.

I've heard nothing but bad reviews about the new matrix movie... so we're going Monday night to see it in Stuttgard :-) Drop me an e-mail if you want in.

I'm tired, it's late, class seminar starts early tomorrow morning (saturday, yes I am still bitter!) and I still have a thousand things on my "bitchwork" list yet to do... oh yeah I'm a bit grumpy too :-)

Sometimes for no reason you hurt the ones you love... sometimes they hurt you.

If you do a google search (dependant on IP location of course) for "vodaphone helsinki", apparently my site is the 8th most informational... hello helsinki vodaphone users!

In Germany "Mr. Clean" floor cleaner is called "Mr. Proper"... that doesn't sound so "proper" to me!

Added some new links:

MTV - This is where I get my "Real World" show updates since MTV germany has the Real World Chicago on now which is like 3 seasons ago... malorey is hot!

VentureBlog - Updates on the venture capital community and industry analysis, very cool site.

UW Bulletin - My previous university (University of Waterloo) daily updates (monday - friday).

More to cum...

I am very proud of my undergrad university. While there are many things that could use improvement (as the case for any university), I think they did I pretty good job... take a look at how we did this year, and keep in mind that it's the first time in 12 years that we did not place 1st overall comprehensive (we placed 2nd... those bastards!!):


UW again tops in reputation in Maclean's survey

The University of Waterloo has swept all four of the reputation rankings in its Comprehensive Universities category in Maclean's magazine's annual universities issue.

Waterloo ranked #1 in reputation in these four categories: Highest Quality, Most Innovative, Leaders of Tomorrow and Best Overall.

As well, for the 12th year, Waterloo did exceedingly well in the national reputation rankings which measures all universities against each other. Waterloo came first in Most Innovative, 2nd in Leaders of Tomorrow, 2nd in Best Overall, and 4th in Highest Quality.

The reputation rankings are arrived at by surveying thousands of people across Canada, including high school guidance counselors and principals from every province and territory, chief executive officers of companies, heads of organizations and university officials across the country. This year the survey was much larger: over 11,600 were surveyed compared to just over 7,000 last year.

As well, UW ranked second in the "Comprehensive" category of universities, just behind Guelph.

"We're very pleased with the results this year," said UW president David Johnston. "It's great to see that Guelph and UW are once again so highly thought of and ranked, and we're especially gratified to see that we placed #1 in each of the reputational categories in our group."

"As well, we are highly ranked in national reputation, #1 in Most Innovative, #2 in Best Overall, and this is up against some of the oldest and most esteemed, centuries-old universities in Canada . . . an excellent showing for a university that was founded less than 50 years ago," he said.

Waterloo placed first in seven of the 23 measuring categories used by Maclean's to arrive at the overall standings in each grouping of universities. The individual measures where Waterloo placed #1 include: average entering grade; student retention; student awards; classes taught by tenured faculty; alumni support; and reputational survey.


Written by Martin Van Nierop, Director, Communications and Public Affairs

The deets on another Gemini event:

On December 2nd U/AStA will organize Running Dinner Night for second time. Running Dinner means get to know other Students and having a great time eating self made meals. That´s the way Runnig Dinner works: Two of you are one team or pair, each team has to cook one course
(appetizer, main course or dessert ). The organizing team from U/AStA will tell you which course you´ll have to prepare.
If you have for example to prepare the appetizer, two other teams will come to you at your home and eat with you. After your appetizer, you´ll
have to go to another team, which will make the main course and so on. After all of you are well-fed, Party is going on at StuWo Bar in Keppler -
Wohnheim. Each team has to pay 8 Euros for registration.This money is invested in the drinks for the party. Registration will be at AStA -office till 19.11.03.

Good idea, sounds interesting, can I sign up for a hottie though?

It's cool when you stumble across the website's of some pretty prominant companies that you see everyday in real life but rarely think about checking out in cyberworld (Mcdonalds, Disney). Yes I am bored of staring at my strategic marketing assignment...

"Newey" party absolutely rocked the house. The partner party in crime is next Friday (November 21st) and is called "Herbfest"... tickets are already sold out (when the f*ck did they go on sale??). So it looks like I have to hoar myself out to get some tix for the pose (how do you charge for something normally free?).

I used to be called "Herb" by a little cutie from grade 5 to OAC... Holly if you're out there, this kiss is for you! :-*

I remember.

I learned today that 80% of all male american's have the favourite colour blue... I don't conciously have a favorite colour, but when I look in my closet I notice that I own 7 blue sweaters and 3 "other." Weird.

Go take a look, the weightlifting one is absolutely hilarious!

There's no bigger star in Canada than Don Cherry. Love him or hate him this guy is an icon of hockey and canadiana. His ten minute segment in between the first and second periods on saturday night's "Hockey Night in Canada" game is priceless, check it out!

Is is humanly possible to consume 34 full Ritter sport chocolate bars in 3 days? The answer is a qualitative yes.

Anyone I know have iTunes? I've heard good things, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to give my "life of crime" (Kazaa) up just yet...

Al stop lying about how much work you have and frigging answer my e-mails already! Schedule a traditional "Friday afternoon meeting" if you have too! :-)

When you're away from home (or school, or anywhere) for a long period of time, and you always call back and ask "what's new" and they always say "nothing". You then return home months later to find out that there was a TON of things that they totally never told you... so I'm geeking it up on MSN tonight and I learn that "nothing" is going on in Canada:

- One of my good buddies is now engaged
- Another friend is moving to Prague (big ups to all the MBA/IMM 'ers that are partying it up there this weekend!) with his girlfriend from Australia
- A buddy wants to move permanatly to the Netherlands

There's more but I'm kinda in a state of total shock!

If you want to see english movies (denoted as "OV" original version) in Germany, you can either wait for an infuriating long time for one to show up in Pforzheim, or go here to see one in Stuttgart. I will be organising a roadie to go see Matrix Revolutions and Lord of the Rings #3 soon...

The website needs a little sprucing up... anyone got some time or skill lying around they can lend me? :-)

Here's a site for all you gambling addicts that also happen to be geeks... and on a related note, the Gemeni trip to Baden Baden (cool place, see previous post and review) Casino is on Friday, 14th November 2003.

The deets:

Meetingpoint: Bus-Station at University Of Applied Sciences at 7.00 pm.
Entrance about 3,-- €
Please note you need to be almost 21 years old.

Also cuming up is thier trip to Munich:

November the 28th - November the 30th
Price: 74€

Registration dates:

Tuesday (11.11.03):
11:15h - 14:00h

Wednesday (12.11.03):
11:15h - 14:00h

e-mail gemini@fh-pforzheim.de if you're interested

You know your hair is getting long when you have to buy your first ever hairbrush. Long live the darkness!

These last two weeks have been killer... killer assignements, killer presentations, killer papers... KILLER!

I'm slowly working my way through my inbox tonight, it's amazing how big that thing grows when you don't answer everything pronto!

Don't forget that this Thursday night is the "Neuey Party" at the university. This is the party that all the first year students have to plan for the school (and it's held right inside the school!)... I've heard nothing but AMAZING stories about this party (best of the year) so make sure you check it out!

Note: Tickets are totally sold out (hottest ticket of the year), but doors open at 8 with an extra 1000 tickets, but go early as I'm told the line for those tickets starts around 7PM!

See you on top of the bar!

Go vote for your favorite NHL player All Stars! Messier is the man :-)