Frühlingsfest baby! Rocking times last night in Stuttgart for the Springfest! I think there was some of us who did not sit down a single time once we got up on the benches! Rocking tunes too, even if the announcer sometimes announced a band (like AC/DC) and then would play something totally different (Dire Straights in this case). It all kicked off on the right foot starting with our pronographic word association game on the hour long train ride to Stuttgart:

Aussie: "Let's play a word association game. I'll say a word and then we'll go around the circle each saying a related word and we'll see how long it takes to get to something pronographic, ok I'll start... Kitten"

Before anyone else could even utter a sound:

Aussie: "Pussy"

Great game Oz. Ok, once we finally got the game warmed up (ie. Aussie stopped answering his own words) Ebina was not to be outdone:

Aussie: "Window"

Ebina: "Legs"

Everyone esle: "Huh??"

Ebina: "You know, legs"

Aussie: "Um... window ---> legs?"

Ebina: "Yeah legs, you know."

Um no Ebina, we don't know. What the hell are you two freaks doing out your windows in Kepler eh??

I had my own shining moments:

Aussie: "Train"

Ross: "Gangbang"

That's what we call an Ace ladies and gentlemen. If you can't figure out the association then thank your parents for not raising a total societal degenerate ;-)

Ok maybe the train ride wasn't exactly the most conventional beginning to a great night, but if it wasn't then the first stop of the day sure was... Circle Beer Place. For those of you that don't know, CBP is a cool beer shack downtown Stuttgart where everyone buys beers and sits around outside in this little area. The beer's easy on the stomack and the views even easier on the eyes :-) And for the record, although light blue made a VERY strong showing, it was Black on Black who took the prize ;-)

From CBP - What's Aussie looking for?



Ahh, must have been his spliffs, what a stoner!



The ladies enjoying a hefe... notice the dink giving himself an ass massage in the background :-)



After enjoying a beer at CBP it was time to rock to Cannstadter for the fest, we got it just before the lines started to acrue:



The guy on the right is satisfied, Slim is still experiencing some burning ;-)



The beerhall babes.



Is that Oz? ;-)



Why was I wearing shades? Cus I'm a shining star that blinds normal folks that's why!



No joke (although I had to edit the word it because the flash killed it), Stephan's cell phone was in it's home zone at the fest! Was there ever any doubt? :-)



Down the hatch Stuttgart K! Do I notice some tongue action there?? Dirty girl!



Stuttgart K happy her shirt didn't end up like mine after pouring the beer. Me... no doubts!



Either having a good time... or on speed ;-)



Mystery solved, speed.



Dude, did Oz see you at CBP for the smoke-up? ;-)



Saving a chick behind me from falling head backwards was rewarded with a half litre of beer all over my shirt. No problem though since it was hot as a frigging sauna in there and I could save the extra beer for later.



Slim thinks beer soaked losers are hot... or he's too drunk to realize it's me... or too drunk and horny to care ;-)



The beerhall bench dancing.



Retro Vancouver Canuck T's are SO in baby!



Time to rock home, good night everyone!



Thanks for Marta for getting some of these pics in, the rest of hers are posted here. Mine are all posted except the videos which are too big to post online :-( If anyone else has some pics please e-mail them in eh!

For those of you who missed out last night you've still got a chance to rock the weekend and enjoy the sun by cuming to the BBQ today. We meet at Irish pub at 5:30 (3:30 for the earlybirds who want to watch the game) and then head up the monument hill for some BBQ and Beers. BYOB - Bring your own beer/grilling food/whatever, we've got the BBQ and supplies. Everyone invited, no slackers ;-)

One of the best things about Paris is their radio stations, they absolutely rock! Somehow they're able to play songs that perfectly capture the tie between the weather and your current emotional state. Ok, maybe that's going a bit far since I was in a euphoric state on the trip (great learning and ideas at the conference, great friends to enjoy the Parisnightlife, childlike hilarity ensued). Beyond a doubt the best of the best is "Oui FM" (yes FM who's promo soundbite is the groaning of two lovers; oui, oui, oui, oui, oui!!). No less than 10 new songs have been added to my repretoire that are on their regular playlist. I'm going to post a few of them over the next couple days so you can also enjoy.

Today is another insanely sunny day, which always reminds me of someone special... do yourself a favour, pick up this tune, pick up someone special to you, pick up and head outdoors, and pick yourself up a great memory of that person whenever the sun shines bright :-) :-) :-)

Stereophonics - Dakota
(courtecy of sing365)

Thinking back thinking of you
Summertime think it was June
Yeah think it was June
Laying back, head on the grass
chewing gum, having some laughs
Yeah having some laughs.

You made me feel like the one
Made me feel like the one
The one
You made me feel like the one
Made me feel like the one
The one

Drinking back, drinking for two
Drinking with you
When drinking was new
Sleeping in the back of my car
We never went far
Didn't need to go far

You made me feel like the one
Made me feel like the one
The one
You made me feel like the one
Made me feel like the one
The one

I don't know where we are going now
I don't know where we are going now

Wake up cold coffee and juice
Remembering you
What happened to you?
I wonder if we'll meet again
Talk about life since then
Talk about why did it end

You made me feel like the one
Made me feel like the one
The one
You made me feel like the one
Made me feel like the one
The one

I don't know where we are going now
I don't know where we are going now

So take a look at me now
So take a look at me now
So take a look at me now
So take a look at me now
So take a look at me now

Thinking of you baby... enjoy the sun :-)

Wow, what a great trip, but it's sure good to be back. Lots to do, lots to post, so let's get it started! Exactly one week ago I was suffering a wee bit of a hangover from the previous nights' festivities and decided it was fine time to enjoy the bright sunshine and re-start some good hiking. The goal was the new Pforzheim memorial, erected this year in rememberance of the complete bombing of the city 60 years ago. Thousands died and the entire city was flattened (as you'll see from pics in another post). Anyways it was a great day for hiking, we hadn't seen the memorial yet and since it was located on top of a huge hill on the edge of Pforzhiem (a hill actually made out of the rubble of the war's destruction) with a great view of the city it was definatly the place to be.

The call went out to the gang but only Russia seemed to be mobile so we tagged teamed our way through the city, picking up some water and chocolate to power us on, and headed towards the hill. Let your eyes do the walking/talking -

Walking along the river through the city to get closer to the hill:



One of the bridges... SUPERSTAR!



Another bridge, another great view:



Enjoy:


A side channel from the river:



A small lagoon pooling where a bunch of swans, ducks and other birds nest, feed and tan in the sun :-)



Do they use lotion?



This pic reminds me of a great book I read in Grade 5 called "Bridge to Terabithia", basically the first book I read that had a shocking ending and made me cry. I actually bought this book a couple years ago just to re-read it, it was just as good the second time despite being written at a grammar school level, for those of you learning English, I highly recommend this book.



A duck couple enjoys the married life:



The goal:



The path continues upwards:



Soon we will leave civilization behind. It's at this point that I realize that there must be 4 gardens (small plots of land Germans own away from their house to do gardening etc, no I do not know why they don't just have a backyard instead) for every living German in Pforzheim. We litteraly walked by about 500 different gardens without having even gone to the main garden hosting area of Pforzheim!



The flowers captured within the barbed wire seemed powerful to me at the time.



Half way up the hill:



Zoomed:



The wickedist gazeebo ever, very near the top of the hill. We sat here for about a half an hour wondering why we didn't have more hiking trips up the mountain with some food, beers and good friends and resolved to start more of it very soon:



The top of the hill monument:



What a great hike, it really took the edge off and was a perfect way to enjoy the sun and afternoon! If Saturday's nice (which looks like it has a chance) we're planning to take the BBQ up there and share some good times... everyone invited.

Fuck! Did anyone else get lucky? Looks like I'll be waiting for the next round of tickets to be released to try my luck... or for tickets to fall from the sky... I wonder which gives me better odds ;-)

The e-mail bearer of bad news:

"Dear Mr. Jason Rossiter,

Due to the high demand for tickets for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany (TM), the ticket applications correctly processed and accepted had to be entered into a draw.

Unfortunately, you have not been allocated any tickets for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany (TM). You may of course reapply for tickets in one of the subsequent sales phases.

Kind regards,

Your 2006 FIFA World Cup (TM) Ticketing Center"

Screw you FIFA World Cup Ticketing Center, I never really loved you anyways!!

A great line from a very wussy post from Whil Wheaton: "To everyone else who thinks it's a good time to be cruel and heartless: a huge go fuck yourself."

No chance of that here in Paris today, the sun is a' shine'in, the skirts are out in full force and I can't get this grin off my face :-) Normally on a day like this I am attracted like a moth to a flame to the beer garden (today is definatly a SeaHaus day!!), but here in Paris I hear the call of the high traffic local cafe... yes my coffee is irish... without the coffee part ;-)

Vivre le France, Vivre le Paris!

Back tomorrow with an entire camera full of pics from Paris and last weeks excursions, back to the cafe!

Hmmm, not only did my last posts not publish from Thursday, but I've also had nothing but dial up access since getting to Paris; which is awsome by the way and the reason I've decided to extend my stay a couple days :-)

Much more to cum since I have tons of pics to post, but it'll all have to wait until the weekend as I still can't get the hang of typing on this French layout keyboard (I'm busting out the two fingered peck typing). So until then "Bonnes soiree!!"

Ok well a couple links won't hurt ;-)

I am happy, are you?

Being friends with your competitors? Probably the most effective competitor co-operation derives from trade or lobby groups where the rules of participation and exclusion are clearly defined.

The first online auction place for virtual goods is set to open by Sony in June. Now companies are going to be able to make money out of thin air by offering their own items. Amazing.

Ok folks, see you in a couple days eh!

So the new pope is a german, not overly surprising since I guess it was expected for this guy to get it, but I did like this headline: "Ich bin ein Pope" referencing the famous quote from John F. Kennedy when he was visiting West Germany: "Ich bin ein Berliner".

Just so we're clear, "ich bin ein Schwabish" ;-)

Someone told me at Irish last night that I look like a monk... do monk's take their shirts off, swing them in the air while singing out "Zeit Fur Optimism" by Silbermond?? No I didn't think so!

My e-mail to Broken Finger Guy says it all:

"...we got f%$#cked last night at Palm Beach and Irish, we were singing like retards until they kicked us out at 3AM... I'm going to post that very sentence on my geekblog. Vas ischen los for your weekend bro? We've gotta hit it hard next weekend eh! Even Karlsruhe's cuming out man!
It's going to be an awesome next couple years in Stuttgart, we're all going to figure this she-ott out and party like rock stars!!

I gotta feva... a FEVA FOR A RECEVA!!!"

Gribley... time to go rock this sunshine, shout out to all the stiffs working on their desktops inside, bleh :-)

Just remember:

Last two days have been good for the body and for getting some work done. The detox of Sunday led nicely to yesturday's completion of a thesis review for a friend and today's ass-busting work on my own. Of course there's always time for a little fun... tonight's plans include a little din-din with a friend and then off to Irish for some (non-alcoholic) quiz night (gotta save the liver for this weekends winery tour in northern France). An there's always something going on in the web:

Tiger's amazing shot from the Master's a couple weeks ago, even if you're not a golf fan this one's worth watching. Whatever Nike paid him for sponsorship was just returned tenfold with that shot/closeup. Wow!

For the record, I still think DisneyWorld is one of the best places on earth! Up until cuming to Europe for school I have been to DW every year for the past 15, good times... but not for these people. This guy took pics of all the people not having such a great time at Disney, maybe they were just sad because they were leaving? ;-)

Aiste got this one in, some crazy-ass driving, and no... my car was not involved ;-)

Ryan Air's new pay in-flight movie service doesn't seem to be doing well. I agree that some of it has to do with the short flight times as I would never buy a movie for a 1-1.5 hour flight and certainly would for a trans-atlantic flight back to Canada (7 hours), but I do think there's more to it. First of all I'm not sure about their pricing, selection and quality. Secondly I wonder if they shouldn't have first started with e-mail/internet service first?

After just having cum back from a 2-day hiking vacation at the Amalfi coast I saw this post on the greatest places to rock to alone. Notice Canada #2 :-) Although I wasn't alone in Italy it was still an amazing trip that I highly recommend, if I have more time and another opportunity I'll rock down there again before re-entering the "real world" (working full time). I can't wait to get to Antartica and Easter Island sometime next year:



(Sigh), but for now I'll have to be content with getting back to thesis work...

I use NewsGator Online as my RSS aggregator and absolutely love it. Wanna know a company that gets customer service and the benefits a company can derive from it? Take a gander at NewsGator. Not only do they provide me with a great product (free!), I sent them a utility request (I'd like a full feed post scolling option so I don't need to individually click each feed) and got a response asking for more detailed information about 15 minutes later.

NewsGator gets it.

A couple of months ago I wanted to do a long posting on Hagen-Daas ice cream but never got around to it. You see while in Utah I would have chocolate attacks where I'd absolutely require immediatly a bucket of Hagen-Daas chocolate-chocolate chip ice cream (usually in the middle of the night while working on a paper). Even though we had an on-campus store that sold H-D, they didn't ever carry the chocolate-chocolate chip flavour so I'd have to tram it down into the city to the all night Smith's Marketplace to buy a thingy of H-D (which because I'd bring a spoon with me would be finished by the time the train got back to the uni).

Anyways, one night I hoofed it all the way down there and found that they were sold out, bummer man. After waiting over a week and checking every day they still had no choc-choc chip H-D! So I shot off an e-mail to the head office to request a restock and maybe that they could offer it at the uni-store and save me the trip downtown.

The next day I get an e-mail from a rep assuring me that the info had been passed on to the local rep and that for my trouble I'd be getting some sweet coupons in the mail. Sure enough the next day I arrived at the store only to see a clerk stocking the shelves with H-D choc-choc chip ice cream. SWEET!

Hagen-Daas gets it.

Companies like this are few and far between and sets them out above the crowd. I'll be a lifelong champion of these two brands because of their customer care.

I'm hungry for some ice cream...



Update: It's spelled Häagen-Dazs :-)

System shutdown. A break from the past week was in serious order, and nothing is more relaxing then busting on over to watch some DEL hockey in Mannheim especially when it's the finals, and even more especially because my team came away with a walkoff 4-0 beat down. We should be able to sweep the series and hense win the championship on Tuesday night, Go Eisberin Go!!

Even though I woke up late and was only gone for about 5 hours I was still pooped. Of course laying in bed and listening to my favorite junior hockey team win their own 2nd round playoff series tonight at home 7-3 wasn't too shabby either. Go 67's Go!!

During the warmups and anthums at the beginning of the games the team always has a local tyke player come and skate around with the team, I can't imagine how exciting that'd be for a 8 year old kid, Go Little Buddy Go!!



Nothing helps clense the mind, body and soul like some good old town hockey (and lots and lots of water for sure!). But now it's time for bed, Go Ross Go!!

Happy Birthday Dana!



Sorry I was late coming to the party, could barely drag myself out of bed after the hard core bendering I've been doing lately but I'm glad I finally did.

The three things I learned tonight while partying in Stuttgart:

1 - The circle beer place is absolutely the best place in all of Stuttgart to have a beer... at least it is during the summer... and at least when green shirt girl is in attendence :-)

2 - Oozo is not a hard shot for professionals.

3 - The 4AM night train express from Stuttgart is sometimes late, sometimes 45 minutes late, and sometimes that's a good thing. Meeting a German, Austrian, Bulgarian, Congo-nese(?) and Frenchman in the same cabin makes for great conversation.

Ok, an extra bonus piece of advice: drinking to get rid of a hangover incured from the previous night only makes the next night's train waiting ALOT more painful. True story.

More about last nights Newey party and 8:30AM exit from Irish pub tomorrow...

Tonight is one of the best night's of the year... that's right it's NEWEY PARTY TIME!!!

Newey party is thrown once per semester, usually near the beginning, to celebrate all the new students, well not really "celebrate", more like "break them in" to the ways of Uni-life, mainly partying! Basically they open up most of the school, throw in some bars (sponsored by the local joints), some disco, dance, trance, hip-hop, alternative, oldies all playing in different rooms... etc you get the point.

It's going to be great, got all my thesis work done this morning, going to catch up with Yanger this afternoon, pre-party with the lads and the friends of their new female roomate we all met on Monday, then Irish to take us home :-)

By the way, Irish is open until 5AM tonight to cash in on all the spillover from Newey (it inevitably gets shut down because of noise complaints by the cops around 1AM). Taking the bus down to Irish tonight is going to be fun, this sign will definatly not be adhered to!

I'm still having trouble with my e-mail/computer/posting clock, seems to be out of whack. I'll have to put on my old University of Waterloo geek engineering hat to figure it out, which reminds me of a good joke:

Two Waterloo engineering students are crossing the campus when one said: "Where did you get such a great bike?"

The second Waterloo engineer replied, "Well, I was walking along yesterday minding my own business when a beautiful Wilfred University atrs major woman rode up on this bike. She threw the bike to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, "Take what you want."

The first Waterloo engineer nodded approvingly, "Good choice; the clothes probably wouldn't have fit."

Off to the Amalfi coast, be back very soon with pics, stories and experiences :-)

We're hooking up for tonights undergrad get together but my usual partner in crime is gonzo for the week so I'm in desperate need of a wingman. With a 4 or 5 to 1 ratio girls to guys it promises not to disappoint before I leave for vacation tomorrow. Calling all backup...

Some Sunday night links from the week:

A great question to ask the interviewer when they ask you if you have any questions about the company.

Looks like I'm not the only one that's been having difficulties with Blogger lately. Just for the record, Blogger is free. More than that, when I tried 2 years ago to pay to upgrade to Blogger Pro (when Blogger had just been bought out by Google) the techs there got back to me in 2 days and upgraded me for free. They still get cudos for that, but it'd still be nice to have a little more reliability out of Blogger.

If you fly alot, this site's for you. Seat Guru gives you info on which seats have more room, power outlets, everything.

A powerful post.

How to argue effectively against... smart people.

Oh Avril, will you every learn? At least I got my tickets for when she gets here to Germany, SWEET! (pic from Boing Boing)



The comment at the end of the review is priceless.

I'm not sure if this is morbid or hilarious.

Looks like the CN Tower isn't going to make the new list of the 7 Wonders of the World.

I think London's got to be the frontrunner for the Summer Olympics 2012, basically based on the fact that they haven't had the Olympics in so long as compared to the other cities that are bidding. New York would probably be a pretty controversial selection for countries outside North America, Madrid has no chance, Paris might get a good bid in there, Moscow not likely. We'll see, I think the decision comes down July 6th or 9th or something. Wierd to see the list of some of the cities that have gotten the Olympics before... and for the record Canada has hosted one summer Olympics (Montreal) and one winter (Calgary) and will host another winter in Vancouver 2010, yeah Vancouver!!

Podcasts from the jungles in Mexico. Sometimes you just want to get away from it all.

Cool idea, eBay for finance, wonder if it'll fly.

I'm outie, gotta hit the path for cruisin' and bruisin'...

Took it pretty easy last night in anticipation of today's HUGE VFB and 67's games which will be accompanied by some heavy drinking in Stutgart. We played some Risk, which was great since I haven't been able to enjoy kicking everyone's ass and making Chris cry in a long time ;-)

Next week I teach them how to play Texas holdem' Poker... then the fun really starts! :-)

Old, but worth repeating again since it's a great piece of advice (spooged from A VC Blog):

"Walking away from a deal is one of the hardest things to do"

Some other advice here. Even more here, and to answer her question, yes it's always about wanting what you can't have, whether you're a guy or a girl.

Another blast from the past, More Than Words, fitting don't ya think...
To get us ready for another night at Irish singing some more of the classics :-)

Extreme - More Than Words

Saying I love you
Is not the words I want to hear from you
It’s not that I want you
Not to say, but if you only knew
How easy it would be to show me how you feel
More than words is all you have to do to make it real
Then you wouldn’t have to say that you love me
Cos I’d already know

What would you do if my heart was torn in two
More than words to show you feel
That your love for me is real
What would you say if I took those words away
Then you couldn’t make things new
Just by saying I love you

More than words

Now I’ve tried to talk to you and make you understand
All you have to do is close your eyes
And just reach out your hands and touch me
Hold me close don’t ever let me go
More than words is all I ever needed you to show
Then you wouldn’t have to say that you love me
Cos I’d already know

What would you do if my heart was torn in two
More than words to show you feel
That your love for me is real
What would you say if I took those words away
Then you couldn’t make things new
Just by saying I love you

More than words

Ok... I was wondering what all the hype about the new satellite feature of Google Maps was so I decided to go check it out. Wondering no longer. I just spent the last half hour looking at sat photos from all over north america. I feel like a CIA spy. Very geeky cool. Oh yeah, here's where I grew up for the better part of my life, unfortunatly Google doesn't have any images yet that zoom in closer, so I can't check on how my parents cats are doing yet ;-)