Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
Cool Site
Check this out, it's a cool way to see some of the top stories of the day, based on traffic. (Re-posted from "From the Sidelines".)
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Podcast Update
So the last time I said this, it was October, but I really mean it this time. We're going to have a podcast recorded as early as this weekend. The only reason it was derailed last time was due to the mugging incident and I didn't have the best equipment either.
Right now we have a couple of blog posts up concerning the recent Memphis allegations, check those out at From the Sidelines.
Right now we have a couple of blog posts up concerning the recent Memphis allegations, check those out at From the Sidelines.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Working Hard
The last couple of days have been a whirlwind. Between the jet lag and sheer amount of work I'm doing, there hasnt been much time to think. I apologize for all of the typos in my last post; since I'm working through a German isp, Google thinks I'm German and the spell check isnt so awesome. Yesterday we did a lot of work on pricing, I didnt feel well, and I didnt take any pictures. I was in bed by 8:00, woke up a ton of times in the middle of the night and so there's nothing to report.
Today we had a little more interesting subject matter and I felt a lot better. I still havent gotten a picture of the hotel, but I will eventually because it's very nice. I talked about the size of the whole Krone compound in my last post, here's a picture of one of the show rooms:
This is off to the side of one of the large meeting rooms. I'm kind of bummed that I cant get a good pictuere of the size of this place; it's very impressive. We worked on quite a few things in the morning, but got a lot of stuff done. (And I only almost fell asleep twice!) This afternoon we met with out brokerage firm, Kuehne and Nagel, and then they took us to dinner at a place I cant type or pronounce, so I took a picture of the entrance:
I think I mentioned it in a previous post, but right now is the season for asparagus in Germany. It's very short, and everyone is crazy for it. So again we had asparagus and pork. The asparagus is actually really good. Warsteiner is the beer of the region so I had a couple of those. It tastes completelt different than the version that is exported to the states. The K&H guys were incredibly funny, especially the one to my left in this picture:
This guy, Helmut, goes to the US every now and then and he is obssessed with Bush's Baked Beans. You cannot buy them in Germany, and you cannot order them from here and have them shipped. They have to be brought by someone in their luggage. Right now he has one small can for each month until he goes to St Louis on business, and one of those massive "family size" cans that he's saving. This is literally what he's saving it for: this summer his mother in law and aunt will be 65 and 70 respectively, in addition to his neighborhood being around for 100 years. That's what he's busting the Bush's out for. To each his own....
Like I said, today was much better only because I've felt much better. Headed to bed in an hour or so, because it's up bright and early once again. I've given up on the tv, since I cant understand anything. Although, there was a show on last night titled "Sexy Sports Academy". Yeah, it's exactly what you think it is.
Yall be safe and send me some emails!!
Today we had a little more interesting subject matter and I felt a lot better. I still havent gotten a picture of the hotel, but I will eventually because it's very nice. I talked about the size of the whole Krone compound in my last post, here's a picture of one of the show rooms:
This is off to the side of one of the large meeting rooms. I'm kind of bummed that I cant get a good pictuere of the size of this place; it's very impressive. We worked on quite a few things in the morning, but got a lot of stuff done. (And I only almost fell asleep twice!) This afternoon we met with out brokerage firm, Kuehne and Nagel, and then they took us to dinner at a place I cant type or pronounce, so I took a picture of the entrance:
I think I mentioned it in a previous post, but right now is the season for asparagus in Germany. It's very short, and everyone is crazy for it. So again we had asparagus and pork. The asparagus is actually really good. Warsteiner is the beer of the region so I had a couple of those. It tastes completelt different than the version that is exported to the states. The K&H guys were incredibly funny, especially the one to my left in this picture:
This guy, Helmut, goes to the US every now and then and he is obssessed with Bush's Baked Beans. You cannot buy them in Germany, and you cannot order them from here and have them shipped. They have to be brought by someone in their luggage. Right now he has one small can for each month until he goes to St Louis on business, and one of those massive "family size" cans that he's saving. This is literally what he's saving it for: this summer his mother in law and aunt will be 65 and 70 respectively, in addition to his neighborhood being around for 100 years. That's what he's busting the Bush's out for. To each his own....
Like I said, today was much better only because I've felt much better. Headed to bed in an hour or so, because it's up bright and early once again. I've given up on the tv, since I cant understand anything. Although, there was a show on last night titled "Sexy Sports Academy". Yeah, it's exactly what you think it is.
Yall be safe and send me some emails!!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Maybe I Should Have Learned Some German...
I am currently in Spelle, Germany at the Krone Hotel right across the street from the Krone compound. The size of this operation is really impressive, and it's safe to say that if Krone wasn't here, Spelle wouldnt exist.
Today is the first time that I've had internet access so there's a fair amount to catch up on. The flight over wasnt bad at all, but it was over eight hours. (I had originally thought it was around seven.) So I did what anyone in my situation would do, I watched four movies. The first was Yes Man: entertaining, funny, and good movie all around. The second was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: it was good, but long and I almost cried about six times. The third was Role Models, and then Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. We landed in Amsterdam at 7:30 am local time and got on a train to Rheine by 8:30. I hear that the train ride was very pretty, but I slept the whole time. The only time I woke up was when a conductor got mad at me for having my feet in the seat.
In Rheine we stayed at the City Club Hotel, which is right on the ems canal/river/water thing. Rheine is a very cool city, it's not huge or anything, but large enough that there are a fair amount of things to do. I took a few pictures of the landscape, but I'll only post one since those arent that cool.
After dinner, we went to a bar near the hotel and ended up making some friends. The people who ran the place kept it open for us, and we scored some free beer because I "fixed" their ice cream machine. And by "fixed", I mean I just plugged it in and they went nuts. The picture below is of us celebrating the small victory.
The German beers are very good, and very thick, but I feel in love with the random Mexican tequila beer called Salitos. It sounds pretty disgusting, but it tasted delicious. The funniest part of the night for me was an interaction with a female bartender at the place. She was from Czeckosolvakia, and did not speak any English. I do not speak any German. There was a good thirty seconds of both of us talking non stop to no avail. Another interesting sidenote: when I'm drunk and I'm talking to someone that cant understand me, I automatically start speaking Spanish. There were countless times last night that I would just answer questions in Spanish for no reason. We closed that place down, and one of the bartenders (the guy on the left in the picture above), knew of some after hours club down the street. I'm only in Rheine once, so I thought "what the hell?"
The place was packed when we got there, but they were playing AC/DC so I knew everything would be ok. For some reason, I started trying to talk to every single person that I passed. Most of them would just laugh and say something in German, but some would actually talk back and ask what I was doing in Rheine. I made more than a few friends and didn't pay for a drink all night. There are a ton of random pictures on my camera from the club, in fact, I think someone else had it at one point. But here's a good one of me a one group of peopole I talked to for a while.
All in all, everyone was incredibly nice. They tolerated my English/Spanish and probably put up with me being more than a little annoying. I had no problem finding the hotel (thank God), but I could not find any where that was selling food, so I woke up with a wicked hangover this morning. Lunch was great, but I couldn't eat much of it. We took a cab to Spelle and I got to sleep for a few hours and felt fine for dinner.
It's almost 10:00 here right now, so I'm going to finish it up and try to find something to watch on one of the 13 German tv channels. Real work starts tomorrow, beginning with a five hour meeting bright and early!
More to come.
Today is the first time that I've had internet access so there's a fair amount to catch up on. The flight over wasnt bad at all, but it was over eight hours. (I had originally thought it was around seven.) So I did what anyone in my situation would do, I watched four movies. The first was Yes Man: entertaining, funny, and good movie all around. The second was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: it was good, but long and I almost cried about six times. The third was Role Models, and then Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. We landed in Amsterdam at 7:30 am local time and got on a train to Rheine by 8:30. I hear that the train ride was very pretty, but I slept the whole time. The only time I woke up was when a conductor got mad at me for having my feet in the seat.
In Rheine we stayed at the City Club Hotel, which is right on the ems canal/river/water thing. Rheine is a very cool city, it's not huge or anything, but large enough that there are a fair amount of things to do. I took a few pictures of the landscape, but I'll only post one since those arent that cool.
After dinner, we went to a bar near the hotel and ended up making some friends. The people who ran the place kept it open for us, and we scored some free beer because I "fixed" their ice cream machine. And by "fixed", I mean I just plugged it in and they went nuts. The picture below is of us celebrating the small victory.
The German beers are very good, and very thick, but I feel in love with the random Mexican tequila beer called Salitos. It sounds pretty disgusting, but it tasted delicious. The funniest part of the night for me was an interaction with a female bartender at the place. She was from Czeckosolvakia, and did not speak any English. I do not speak any German. There was a good thirty seconds of both of us talking non stop to no avail. Another interesting sidenote: when I'm drunk and I'm talking to someone that cant understand me, I automatically start speaking Spanish. There were countless times last night that I would just answer questions in Spanish for no reason. We closed that place down, and one of the bartenders (the guy on the left in the picture above), knew of some after hours club down the street. I'm only in Rheine once, so I thought "what the hell?"
The place was packed when we got there, but they were playing AC/DC so I knew everything would be ok. For some reason, I started trying to talk to every single person that I passed. Most of them would just laugh and say something in German, but some would actually talk back and ask what I was doing in Rheine. I made more than a few friends and didn't pay for a drink all night. There are a ton of random pictures on my camera from the club, in fact, I think someone else had it at one point. But here's a good one of me a one group of peopole I talked to for a while.
It's almost 10:00 here right now, so I'm going to finish it up and try to find something to watch on one of the 13 German tv channels. Real work starts tomorrow, beginning with a five hour meeting bright and early!
More to come.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Off to Germany
So I'm leaving for Germany in a couple of hours, and I'm pretty anxious about it. I know it'll be a lot of fun, and a great experience, but at the same time I am going for work. We got our agenda yesterday and it's pretty full. (Of the fourteen scheduled meetings, I get to skip out on one, maybe two.)
The plane ride is long and it'll probably be uneventful. I have an ipod, my computer, and some other things to keep me entertained. I should probably pick up a book at the airport since the only unread book I have is Twilight. I did not purchase the book, it was left at my apartment. Still, I may or may not have packed it...
I'll be landing in Amsterdam around midnight tonight (7:30 am local time!) and immediately getting on a train for Rheine. We're in Rheine until Sunday, then we'll be in Spelle, Veulta, and Papenburg. My apologies to anyone who actually knows how to spell German city names because I'm sure I just butchered at least half of those.
The plan is to post some pictures during the trip and update this periodically only because my internet access will be a little spotty. I obviously won't have my cell phone, which will be very odd in itself. When was the last time you went without your phone for over a week? When I was in DC a few weeks ago, mine was broken for two days and it felt odd.
That's enough for now - more to come...
The plane ride is long and it'll probably be uneventful. I have an ipod, my computer, and some other things to keep me entertained. I should probably pick up a book at the airport since the only unread book I have is Twilight. I did not purchase the book, it was left at my apartment. Still, I may or may not have packed it...
I'll be landing in Amsterdam around midnight tonight (7:30 am local time!) and immediately getting on a train for Rheine. We're in Rheine until Sunday, then we'll be in Spelle, Veulta, and Papenburg. My apologies to anyone who actually knows how to spell German city names because I'm sure I just butchered at least half of those.
The plan is to post some pictures during the trip and update this periodically only because my internet access will be a little spotty. I obviously won't have my cell phone, which will be very odd in itself. When was the last time you went without your phone for over a week? When I was in DC a few weeks ago, mine was broken for two days and it felt odd.
That's enough for now - more to come...
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Story to Share
I might get a longer post in later today, but it'll probably be tomorrow because I'm a little busy at work. Either way, I wanted to pass along this story from Rick Reilly. It's really uplifting.
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