Well I'm off to Russia tomorrow, actually tomorrow night I leave for the airport and arrive in St. Petersburg on Wednesday morning, but for all intensive purposes I'm outtie from Pforzheim tomorrow. As you can imagine things are pretty crazy getting everything done before going, and it's not easy now that I'm riding the pine of public transit until the car gets out of the shop (please god by tomorrow night!).

So until next week here's some org stuff to take care of:

Newey party tix will be available starting next week, you can pick them up from me personally in person or on Tuesday or Wednesday (as long as you signed up on the sheet), 6 euros each. I'll be at:

Tues 3 PM Library
Tues 5 PM W4.2.05
Wed 1:30 PM K08
Wed 5 PM K09

I guess this makes it pretty easy for any of you hot stalkers to find me, uggo's no thank you. There's going to be a preparty for this (usually at kepler or Ruff) so peeps let me know.

The MBA trip will be to Amsterdam, train tickets have to be purchased on Nov. 1 to get the cheap price, leaving on the all nighter Dec 10th, return Sunday Dec 12th at night, 29 euros each way, plus the hostel price for Sat night (which we'll know after everyone has signed up but is usually about 20 euros). For those who made it out the pubcrawl Sat night you'll know this is another don't miss event! Contact info from Anette (who is organising sign-ups) will be e-mailed to you soon.

The students exec has a meeting with the faculty heads tomorrow afternoon and I'll try and post highlights tomorrow before leaving, otherwise when I get back, don't sweat it man :-)

Gossip for the pub crawl from my side include minimal total recall Sunday with the exception of a big smile. After arriving in Pforzheim around 7 AM and taking a small foray, I think I finally got to bed at 10 AM. Ouch! Totally worth it... take a look here (pick Stuttgart, thanks to Marta who got these online). Three cheers for the new Steiffel champ, now she's got stones!!

The Sitch:
Blown up engine on the AutoBahn : Yes
150 Euro Tow : Yes
15 Euro Cab Ride : Yes
40 Euros in Oil : Yes
7 hours wasted : Yes

The Qualifications:
Mathematics Degree : Yes
Maters Degree : Shortly

The Result:
Realizing you had already PAID for Allianz emergency roadside assistance over a year ago which would have covered all the above costs after having already paid and arrived home : Yes

The Conclusion:
Common Sense : No
Retard : Yes

Anyways, the Vitara unceremoniously blew up on the autobahn last night. I'm temporarily relegated to the bus crowd, waking up one hour earlier in the morning etc... Life kicks you in the nads sometimes :-)

Anyways, some more notes from in and around the FH:

Tim brought to my attention an interesting class also taught in English (for the keeners out there); Int. Marketing, Wed, 13.45, W1.502 / Theoretical Background Thurs, 12.00, K04 / Case. Thanks T-O!

I need submissions for the November 6th international food night (being held at Kepler), please e-mail or catch me at school to notify of your participation and what you will be preparing food-wise.

International Economics notes are ready, please e-mail if you want a copy of the textbook pages, 10 euros.

Details of the December 10-12 MBA getaway weekend will be out sometime next week or the week after, Amsterdam, Rome and Dublin are the three front runners by votes so far.

Newey Party ticket list is now CLOSED, everyone who has not signed the list or sent me an e-mail has to wait in line and hope for tickets when they become available, for everyone on the list I will have information on cost (6, 7 or 8 euros) and pickup date/time/place next week.

Who's interested in MBA t-shirts? Shoot me an e-mail by Nov 1st and we'll see if we have enough people.

We're soon going to be doing preliminary course evaluations. Details cuming soon but your feedback is always welcome and usually finds its way up the academic value chain. Just to let you know, my classes have been going ok so far with no complaints, but that's mostly because I finished all Big W's classes last year :-)

Thanks to Alex for getting a bunch of pics in, please PLEASE send in any others that you people might have, especially the group photos in which I personally took about 10 pictures from different cameras). I'll eventually put them all somewhere on the site where everyone can download them, but until then enjoy!




UPDATE:

Hockey Night In Pforzheim is BACK!!! I wasn't sure if we'd have enough time to set it up again before I rock out to Utah but do to popular demand we'll be having one more. Set your alarm clocks for Friday November 19th, 9:30 (puck drops at 10PM but you'll need time to get your skates and have a couple practice skating laps). The deets are basically the same (10 euros, which includes ice rental fee, skates and use of a stick) however we will be limiting the game to 18 skaters this time so everyone gets a stick (except the goalies) and therefor there will be no substitutions from the bench (so everyone plays the whole game). Registration, like Frank on a Saturday night, is FIRST CUM FIRST SERVE so the first 18 people who can catch me at school or during my office hours on Wednesday night from 10 PM - 2 AM at Irish Pub with 10 euros are in, the rest can watch like broken legged gimps from the bench (any resemblance of this remark to the one we loveingly refer to as Jenny R is purely intentional). This is an OPEN event, which means MBA's, IMP's, MIFA, friends, family and pets are all welcome to join.

Another pic from last time, can I ask what dope Russia was not sharing with the rest of the group? Just joking, see ya on the other side of the Iron Curtain next week Maria :-)

I've made some great friends while here in Pforzheim, tonight was one of those nights that really show it. Thanks to Timmy and G. Peter for helping me out after my Vitara exploded. Next round on me.



Fucking Vitara piece of shit!...

Some other notes and such from around the web:

This is cool, slide the "heat map" scroll bar to show where the majority of "eye time" by readers are for this particular New York Times web article. Interesting to also see which advertisements got the most "eye time".

A great idea, Timex (the watch company) put on a competition for conceptual ideas on their products. The resulting entries can be seen here, the results however, customer participation, awareness and promotion are priceless.

For my geek peeps back in Waterloo Mathematics, the 20 "greatest" formula's.

---

From a news article:

"Italian politician Rocco Buttiglione, who angered European MPs with his comments on homosexuals, has inflamed the already bitter fight over his appointment as Europe's next Security and Justice Commissioner with his criticism of single mothers. Mr. Buttiglione told a conference on the role of the family that children who had only a mother and no father were "the children of a not very good mother." Equally, children who had only a father and no mother could only be "robots." Mr. Buttiglione has already been blackballed by the European Parliament's civil liberties committee, of which he was once briefly a member, for saying homosexuals are sinners and women should stay at home and breed"

How is this guy still in power?? It's almost humourous how ignorant this guy is.

---

A new form of alcohol awareness?

"A British firm will next month become the first major brewer in the world to put general health warnings on beer bottles." ... "The warnings will be headed "UK Alcohol Units'' and contain a message saying: "Responsible drinkers don't exceed three to four units a day for men, two to three for women.'' The warnings will be prominent, and also say how many units of alcohol the can or bottle contains, typically about two units for a can of lager."

Is it only me, but I see a whole new sport emerging, on Monday I scored about 32 beer points, did anyone else beat me? :-)

And finally a great quote from Ida Scott Taylor:

"One day at a time — this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering."

Updates:

Newey Party - Sign-ups for Newey party tickets has begun and will end Thursday October 21st at 1PM (right after Financial Analysis class), after that you'll have to get tickets from UASTA which in years past have always sold out early (although I've heard the new rules to only allow people to buy one ticket for themselves and one extra should help solve this problem). Price per ticket is 6-8 euros, not 68 euros :-) , I'll let you know Friday online and payment is due by the following Friday.

Stuttgart Pub Crawl - The VFB game is on Sunday, not Saturday, and since most of the MBA's have Financial Accounting until 5PM anyways, we've moved the train to Stuttgart pub crawl this Saturday at 6:20 PM (train leaves at 6:26) arriving in Stuttgart at 7. Cum one cum all!

MBA Trip - Details for the Dec 10 - 12 th weekend getaway (the leading candidates are Amsterdam, Rome and Ireland) are cuming soon, stay tuned!

And finally it was someone's b-day today in class, happy b-day!

I've been wondering if learning English is as hard for a German as learning German is for me. With all the detail specific words for objects etc that the German language has that we use a single word for in English, I wonder if a German percieves the English language as some kind of doublespeak :-)

Bumin' around the net on a Sunday afternoon waiting for the 67's game to start... this is what I found:

This post is absolutely hilarious (click on "audio clip" at the end of the October 11th post). I'll take ho's for 300 Alex!

Where landing on the moon was the previous generations amazing wonder of space exploration, ours will be the colonisation of the moon, landing on Mars and beyond. We're getting closer to an interconnected interstellar highway.

Hilarious that people can write crap like this and actually have people believe them and make money off it. Every answer is "the guy is an asshole and totally doesn't want you". It seems the author won't be happy until every female reader turns lesbo. Although some of these situations are possible and do occur sometimes, they certainly don't paint the picture of all guys. Just like in professional life, if you want it, go get it, whether you're male or female.

Hilarious, the most flaming promo video I've ever seen (click on the movie link and suffer through the first three quarters to see the ending).

For those of you who recently bought laptops, head on over to Microsoft's quasi-official Power Tools website. The cleartype utility and "Alt Tab Replacement" are especially good. (note: still looking for someone with a copy of English Windows XP for Carlos and King of Rohan, thanks in advance).

Looks like Darth Vader and the rest of the Star Wars gang have been hitting the gym... HARD. I should get on whatever workout plan they're on! (how does a robot get muscles?? A retrofit perhaps?)

See you all around this week on campus...

Well it took 2 full days but I've finally recovered from a relatively quiet (due to the Plus party going on at the same time) but great Wednesday at Irish. I made it to all my classes, meetings and even a late lunch date but by 11:30 PM after hockey practice I was totally done in. Just in time for the weekend :-)

Some notes, announcements and links from the past couple days:

Does anyone have a copy of English Microsoft XP for share with Carlos and King of Rohan? Thanks.

We're still waiting for hockey picks from many of you. PLEASE e-mail them to me as soon as you can so I can share with the group. Thanks!

Newey party is a little later this year (Nov 4th is the rumoured date) and we have inside access to getting tickets. Shoot me an e-mail or cum see me at school to get your name on the list for tickets (6-8 euros, not announced yet) starting Monday so you don't have to wait in the HUGE first day line or get screwed into waiting in the 6+ hours line at the door on the night. Newey party is of course one of the best nights of the year where all the students at the school set up a party right inside the school itself. There's multiple rooms playing all types/styles of music and beverage stands throughout. The MBA's usually have a student's committee meeting earlier that night and reserve a pre-drinking room beforehand, we'll let you know. This years party is even more important because of the CANCELLATION of herbsfest, the fall party. The school basically put the screws to herbsfest and will eventually stop newey party as well do to city complaints. So get your tickets to this years Newey party while you still can!

The Biz leadership course notes have now been completed (thank you King of Rohan) and can be picked up from the library main desk. The book copies (for the 6 people who requested them) will also be available there sometime after Saturday afternoon. Biz ethics notes have been e-mailed out to everyone but many of you will not be able to recieve the 6+ megabyte attachment and can get a digital copy from myself anytime on Monday - Wednesday (also in class on WEd although you'll probably want to read it before) or can photocopy the hard copy available in the library, again available sometime Sat afternoon.

Our Stuttgart pubcrawl is fast approaching. If your one of the people who want to check out the Stuttgarter Kulturnacht beforehand you'll need to contact JR for deets. Of course you can save the 13 euros and hook up with us at the Irish Pub for some pre- pub crawl drinks while watching the VFB-Frieburg game, we meet at haupbahnhof Pforzheim at 14:20 to take the 14:26 train to Stuttgart (25 euros for 5 people with the wochenende ticket, including the trip there and back). Either way we'll all be meeting up afterwards for the pub crawl.

Are you looking for a creative way to distinguish your resume from the mountain of other applicants? Well this might be taking it a little too far (quote taken from a registration required news site): "The man was arrested after he placed a ticking package in a men's washroom last month. He had included his resume. It was his way of drawing attention to the application, as he was among 400 contenders vying for six paid internships." The receptionist called the police and the bomb squad evacuated the building. Well at least he got noticed!

Intel has announced that they will not release higher clock speed processors in 2005 as previously stated. Instead they will now focus on dual core processors which improve computational performance by means other than processor clock speed. Although at first glance this announcement looks unimpressive, we must wonder about this new strategic approach as Intel is the market leader and sets the benchmark for the industry. After over a decade of marketing and teachning consumers that processor speed is the single most important issue when buying a processor, they now will try and focus on a new differentiating trait. The transition has not occured overnight, Intel's "hyperthreading" technology as well as the "Centrino" brand processors where an initial step in this direction, although processor speed was also promoted in tandem. After several clock speed "space races" between Intel and AMD in which Intel seems to have cum out on top, will they be able to repeat that success in the next round of processor marketing wars? Note: Many of my friends have recently purchased computers and it was quite difficult for me as a resident computer geek to convice some of my less knowledgeable friends that paying extra for a slightly faster processor is money best used to upgrade RAM and other facets of their new laptop. When dealing with users that require only e-mail, web, movies/music and office applications it's hard to convince them that they will not recieve any noticable improvement in performance from say a 2.x - 3.x speed processor because of all the marketing that's been pounded into the average consumers head. This experience tells me that chip makers have got a long road ahead of them to convince consumers to buy technologically more advanced processors with lower overall click speeds. Of course their multi-billion dollar marketing budgets might just do the trick :-)

Kermit the Frog is cool and his renditions of "It's Not Easy Being Green" and "The Rainbow Connection" are da bomb. Do yourself a favour and Kazaa them. Here's MBA Kermit:



Remember the hype surrounding the Segway? Well they've just released a promo on their new 4-wheeled version called "Centaur" (check out the movie link at the bottom). Looks like a fun toy, a very expensive fun toy.

I love Mark Cuban. Not only is he a dot-com multi-billionaire, but he bought the Dallas Mavericks just because he loves basketball and wanted a championship team (still in progress). On his blog he talks about the cool stuff going on in his life and his thoughts on technology and the market. It's not often that he oposses new innovations so I found his comments in this article a little surprising. Is he trying to suggest that having the ability to watch multiply replays, get radio feeds, have seat specific ordering are not killer apps to enhance the spectator experience? I have to disagree with him on this one.

An article on the growing popularity of blogging and its possible/current use/effectiveness as a marketing tool.

A very cool... er hot map of the highest carbon emissions in the world (click on the small picture to get the full map).

And that's all for now folks, MBA students committee notes etc from last week will be posted soon. Hopefully I'll see some of you on the other side of the bar this weekend :-)

Updates:

Biz Leadership - We will be (hopefully) finishing photocopying the class notes and first two books tomorrow. I will bring copies of the two books for everyone who requested them for next class (price yet to be determined, cost of photocopies) unless you want them before (we DO have readings due for this week) in which case I will be at Innovation Management at 5PM Thurday night, otherwise you're out of luck and will have to wait until class on Monday. Don't forget to order the third book "Now Discover Your Strengths" from Amazon.de or your choice book dealer.

Newey Party - This is the HUGE party inside the school at the start of the September semester, to be honest I had expected it to be this Friday but I haven't seen anything about it yet. Tickets can be bought from the students committee for the school (UASTA) but usually sell out in the first day or two and you're only allowed 2 tickets per person (to limit outsiders). I would like to get a block of tickets for the MBA's/IMP's so we don't have to go through that crap but I'll have to talk with them first. If anyone sees a sign for when tix will go on sale e-mail me ASAP!

Hockey Night Photos - I've only gotten a few pics from the "Hockey Night in Pforzheim" game, and considering that I had permenant blinding for two days following that event from all the camera flashes I know that there's alot more photos out there. Please send a scanned copy of them all in so I can diseminate them to the group. Thanks!

MBA Students Committee - Meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) at 2:30PM, front of library. Agenda includes elections, MBA excursion weekend, alumni preparations, idea generation, social events and of course your idea brainstorming. If you can't make it please be sure to check the meeting minutes to keep up to date, we'll also be putting future meetings at a specific time so everyone can make it (currently there are few desireable time blocks with everyone free).

Hotel Ruff - What the hell has happened to you guys? Last year by this time there was weekly week-ender benders with at least one or two mid-week bashes for b-days and whatever other excuse! I hope this year's crop of IMP Ruff residents are just slow starters and saving the best for later in the semester!

Stuttgart PubCrawl - That's right, next weekend (Saturday October 23rd) is the Stuttgart pubcrawl. Starts at the pub at 3:30 - 5:30 for earlybirds (to watch the game on TV and have some prep-beers) and the full thing starts off at Jenny Robb's place at 8PM. Don't miss out! Contact JR at jenny.robb@web.de for deets, directions etc.

Workout Wednesday's - Last term the old timers realized that we're fat and out of shape (except for beer drinking shape, in which case we're Olympians!) so we started playing weekly sports. This semester the weekly workout is on Wednesday... hmmm the WWW, Weekly Wednesday Workout, not bad. Anyways it's Wednesday's at 5:15PM at the tennis court at the university, right beside the bus stop. Not sure about tomorrow since short notice and possible rain but we're scheduled for Wednesday October 20th for road hockey (start practicing those skills for the next ice hockey game!). Best part is that it's totally free and it's hilarious watching the old timers knee over in gasping pain after only 10 minutes :-)

Announcements - Anyone else have special announcements (a Ruff opening party bash perhaps?) then just shoot me an e-mail for posting. Upcuming info on the DEL hockey game trip, the Bundesliga game trip, the Kirchberg/Swabish Hall traditional German diner and pub crawl, the brewery and wine field tours and so much more!

First classes should now be complete, how's your schedule look? Don't even ask about mine!

Dobe dobe do...

An interesting look at the world of ketchup and mustard. He ends the piece with "ketchup is ketchup" which is true, Heinz, there's no other keinz!



Ukranian Ice Cream with drug names?:

"A court in southern Russia has banned the sale of Ukrainian ice cream that hit the shelves under names alluding to drugs, such as "Your Hemp Dose" and "Poppy Fun"

Lawful crackdown on a preditory product or suppression of entrepreneurial freedom? It reminds me of the old Popeye Candy Cigarettes that used to be sold in stores that my mom would never let me buy.



When I was a kid (hint: I still am) I loved Star Wars. I had alot of the action figures and toys but there was always one thing I wanted that you couldn't buy (besides a real millenium falcon), the space chess game that chewy and R2D2 played. Well it looks like some geeks out there have even developed rules for the game!

Not a very informative post, but it provides food for thought for those of us entering the work force again (or for the first time in some cases).

Are you "Getting Things Done"? A surface review and rsources list on the famous book and philosphy. I'm certainly getting alot of procrastination done :-)

Another great optical illusion, if anyone finds more of these online please shoot me an e-mail.

MTV's version of the "real" O.C., I doubt this will hit german MTV before next semester but I'm still going to try and eMule a few episodes. If you're suffering from O.C. withdrawl until the season premiere in Nov, check out "North Shore", it starts slow but picks up steam near the middle of season 1.

First these big Internet companies killed off competition within their market space (Amazon for Books, Google for search, Ebay for electronic markets etc) and now they seem to be attacking each others markets.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently got into a little hot water over basically calling Apple iPod users pirates, but this post explains what I feel is the overblown story. Here's Sun President and COO Jonathon Schwartz getting slapped with a cease and desist from rival HP over remarks he made on his blog.

Dobe dobe do...

I've been meaning to get around to reading Eric Sink's "Comments on the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" in which he adds commentary from the point of view of a small software developer. Well sitting in my room on this rainy Sunday afternoon procrastinating I finally got to it and was not disappointed. It's definatly worth a read, it summarizes the book and adds valuable commentary. I especially liked his takes on taking the energy you would have spent on long term planning and use it to make sure your company is flexible (adaptability to change) due to the unpredictability of the future.

I wish all books had "coles notes" type reviews like this, it's much better for my chocolate deficient attention span. :-) I'd like to read the book now which fleshes out these ideas and provides many examples but I doubt I'll ever get to it and doubt I would derive an commesurate amount of value from it.

Getting your hair cut in a foreign country is always an adventure. Not only do you not speak their language but their concept of "style" might be completely different from your own (whether individually or culturally). On Friday I had to get my hair cut and it pretty much went as it always does, I ask them to just trim and they end up giving me a hardcore army buzz cut. It looks like I got into a bad fight with a lawnmower... and lost.

Oh well I guess I won't have to go back for a while :-)

Well the first hockey night in Pforzheim has cum and gone. Thanks to all (great turnout) who were able to make it either to the game or to Irish Pub afterwards (official IP count was 57!). It took most of Saturday to recover but it was totally worth it (anyone who took pics please e-mail them to me so I can diseminate them to the entire group). I heard some of you were able to drag yourselves out of bed long enough to hit the last night of the Stuttgart Volksfest, how'd that go?

Some places I've been buming around this morning on the net:

I've been waiting for this service for a while, wireless internet access on trans-continental flights. Well congrats to Luftansa for being the first that I've heard about that offers this (scroll to bottom). A bit pricey at $29.95 US but for a 7 hour flight from Frankfurt to Toronto it would totally be worth it (just being able to keep up with my X-wars moves would be worth it!). :-)

Sometimes it just has to be done (takes a second or two to load).

I've always wanted to check out a game of cricket, something big like Australia vs. India, alas it will have to wait until after my forways to Russia, Italy and next fall Antartica.

Ok, what the hell am I doing up on Sunday morning anyways? Back to bed...

So tonight's the big night! Don't forget to have a vote for the MBA vacation destination for the Dec weekend as well as any other ideas for the students committee. See you all at the rink!

Here's what EuroRoss is looking at on this rainy Friday afternoon:

If you're interested in what's going on over at Microsoft, Channel 9 (the new interactive social site for Microsoft) gives a good indication and insights into wassup.

For those girl's (and guys' I guess) that left someone back home to cum to Pforzheim MBA: a pillow with a "cuddle" arm mimicing the sleeping with boyfriend experience. Apparently pretty popular in Japan right now... hilarious.

I couldn't put it better myself.

It has been brought to our attention that the three books for biz leadership are available for about 35 euros on Amazon.de, so with exception to the couple people who have already requested photocopies of two previous books, you'll have to go there or to the bookstore to get them. Either way you'll have to buy the third book "Now Discover Your Strengths" because of the unique internet code you'll need.

PS> Can someone bring a digital camera for tonight? Here's last years team:

I recently signed up for Marketing Sherpa's newsletter and recieved "Top 10 B-B Lead Generation Marketing Mistakes". An interesting read (shoot me an e-mail if you want a copy) and I liked her idea's on treating new sign-ups differently from established list users since they are much more excited and eager to learn as well as probably needing a little more structural information and hand holding until they get into the site.

When I bought a Disneyland package from the Luftansa travel agency here in Pforzheim this past summer, they not only sent a hand written "well wishes" letter with my tickets in the mail, but also sent a "welcome home" postcard upon return. I realize that they do this with all their customers and has next to nil sincerity, but the gesture was surprising and impressive. It certainly put an additional smile on my face after having one of the best vacations ever!

Which brings me to my final point. I liked Sherpa's suggestions of a "best of" list, questionaire and resource maps (indicators) but adding personal touch is the most important and undervalued action item of all.

Great times last night at Irish, can't wait for Round 2 and 3 on the first Wednesday Irish of the semester (it's going to be packed!) and Friday after hockey (the first MBA students committee meeting will be held there, have your vote for the Dec 5th MBA weekend retreat as well as any other ideas ready!).

Time to go nurse the hangover that's dogged me all day, worth every second of it :-)

And for the record, Chicks and Dicks both won a game of darts, we'll have to have the rubber match Wednesday!

VFB Stuttgart finished their opening round of the UEFA cup in style beating Budapest 4-0 in Stutgart on Thursday, 7-1 aggregate. What an amazing game! VFB was all over them the whole game and the score could have easily been 10-0, definately worth the price of admission. We'll be planning a MBA VFB game trip sometime this semester (possibly the Bochum game or Breman if we can get tickets). It's a great deal since tickets can go for less than 12 euros and the train ride to Stuttgart and back is totally free with the ticket! Stay tuned!

There's a bunch of other stuff we're planning for this semester, here's a brief list of some of the highlights:

We start it off with the official annoucement (which most of you will get tomorrow at the welcomeing meeting) of the first "MBA Hockey Night in Pforzheim" of the 2004 Fall semester!! This is THE best night of the year where a bunch of MBA's, many who can't even skate, get together to try out their on-ice scoreing skills. The deets:

- Friday October 8th 9:30 PM
- Pforzheim rink, directions (or ask), 15 minute walk down karl-friedrick from Irish Pub, 60 second (free with student card) bus ride (bus stop across from Irish pub)
- 10 euros all inclusive (skates, rink fee, use of stick etc)
- reservations at Irish Pub right after the game
- anyone with extra knee, elbow, helmets or sticks please bring them
- space is LIMITED and on a first cum first serve basis, you can reserve your place by talking to me in person or sending me an e-mail
- Hope to see you all there!

The Volksfest (in Stuttgart Cannstatter) runs this year from Sept 25th to Oct 10th. I think there's a Gemini travel event there this weekend (the last weekend) ans the MBA's will probably be heading that way anyways since it's a great time (for confirmation just check out the hangover levels from the last couple weekends when people went).

Ryanair, German Wings and sometimes Easyjet usually have free or very cheap tickets (around 40 euros after taxes) to destinations around europe. We're going to be takeing a vote tomorrow on desired destinations and it looks like the Dec 2nd weekend.

The MBA students committee meeting will also be announced tomorrow. The students committee is there to help improve the program, plan social events (such as the above) and also provides a link to professors, faculty and administration. All MBA students are able to join (the more help the merrier!). The first meeting is important as we'll be having elections, voting on social events, discussing the alumni weekend and setting an agenda for the semester. We meet tomorrow after the 12 noon meeting.

Finally, tomorrow night is the annual "pub crawl" where the entire university meets at 8PM at the HBF (main train station) to split into groups and tour the various pubs and hot spots around Pforzheim. We'll be starting the MBA group at Irish Pub, which is the centre of the universe on Wednesday nights as you will soon find out, and working our way around from there.

More to cum later, but for now a warm welcome to all the new MBA's/IMP's as well as a hearty cheers to all the old timers :-)

Some quips from around the net and from inside my noggin':

I've moved this post to the top even though it was written after most of the others because of it's applicability (is that even a word?) to all of us starting tomorrow as well as my increasing interest and belief in its value lately. Thoughts on developing a 4 month plan. Anyone else have some good procrastination/planning links?

The shaggin' wagin'. We totally have to get one of these to cruise around Europe in!

Has anyone seen or used the Archos portable media player? I'm wondering how durable it is as well as the screen quality. Certainly it looks like a better value than the Creative and other models, although the Creative model looks pretty slick.

More on the human capacity to read (I have a previous post on this), an interesting post since I could undertand it at regular reading speed but I wonder if our non-English native speakers have the same level of comprehension?

Here's an interesting post on "7 Reasons Why Businesses Should Blog Now". I think the list should be condesed to 4 points:

1 Feedback - Direct link to customers
2 Leadership - Become the expert AND medium for intelligent idea exchange within your business sector
3 Marketing - It's a quality mechanism for attracting and retaining customers
4 No Holds Barred - (from the "don't do list) Let frank discussion and opinions be heard, it's the only way you can successfully defend your companies unique strategic position on issues in the market

Need to get up the steep hill to FH-Pforzheim but can't afford a car or even a babe-magnet jeep like I own? Maybe you should get a solar powered scooter because I don't think a flying car is too pheasable yet :-)

Want to convince your city to go wireless? Here's a discussion and references on "how-to". How bout' we start by just getting the FH going! (although we do have crappy access in *some* parts of the library and campus).

India has launched the first education dedicated satelite for remote classroom programming. An interesting idea that might be applicable to Canada due to our many low-population areas spread across our HUGE country (#2 biggest in size in the world, Russia takes the crown with China, USA and Brazil taking three through five).

Another service I'm looking at is Skype, IP telephony. Does anyone have experience with this or another Internet based phone service? My Vodaphone bills get delivered by a dump truck they're so big, if you're thinking about getting a cell phone plan here in Germany, definatly go with O2, they're the cheapest, offer monthly free sms packages and can even let you assume to call from your local home number within a kilometer of your home (which includes the school since Pforzheim is built in a valley. Vodaphone you suck.

Hilarious. The new Tim Horton's in SLC seems to be exceeding expectations and should top a million in sales this year. It's hilarious (in a sarcastic, dark vengence type of way) because in 1997 I started researching the franchising process to try and bring a Tim Horton's to the SLC only to run into a roadblock with the name Mark Murdock because as the head of Waterloo U food services he had a veto block on any food oriented business that wanted to go into SLC. His words at the time "I am saving you from yourself, a Tim Horton's in SLC will never survive with cheaper coffee available at both Turnkey Desk and Brewbakers". He also got into our bad books by basically serving shit food in Village 2 at rapeage prices. He even cut off weekend service at V2 for a couple months, fantastic. Asshole. I'm not sure who was the bigger prick, him or that bitch that was in charge of V1 and V2.

These posts are turning decidedly negative, which probably has alot to do with the fact that I'm listening over Internet to my favorite junior hockey team get their asses kicked 4-1 right now... I'm grumpy.

I still haven't posted about last weekend's Munich extravaganza and I'm too lazy to write it out so here's a point form play by play:

Left 6AM Sat morning
Arrived 10AM
Dropped off stuff, picked up friend
Drinking by noon
Lunch at Scheider, the best meal in Munich hands down
Watched the game, VFB 2-0
Off to the beergardens, masse of Paulaner
Multiple tries to hook up with Aussie with disasterous results
Back to Scheider for sweet beer and round 2 on the meal
Off to Irish pub #1
Off to Irish pub #2
Back to Irish pub #1 (which is actually a club with an irish name)
Home in bed by 5:30AM
10:30 AM pukeing best meal in Munich #1 and #2
Afternoon snacks, pizza, ice cream
8PM Avril Lavigne tour opening concert, Bowling for Soup opening act
11:30 PM leave Munich
2:30 AM arrive Pforzheim
3:00 AM watch Monday Night Football live
4:30 pass out from a great 48 hours

O'fest 2004, done and done!

I had no idea that prostitution was actually legal in some parts of Germany until this article about how American soldiers stationed here in Germany are raising their voices in protest over possible punishment for engaging in such practices (I tried to think of some witty pun defining thier "rules of engagement" or "engaging the enemy" but realized I was too lazy to keep thinking about it).

Clearly this has risen my admiration for this country :-) And in the words of William Wallace:

"Aye, fight and you may die, run, and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade all of that from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take away our lives, but they'll never take our prostitutesssss!!!.