Spain - Germany

I am back in Vienna again - after flying to FFM on Tuesday evening and flying back yesterday. Wednesday evening we watched Germany - Turkey from our living room stadium. I really need to brainstorm on this idea of turning the living room into a stadium for such events by using the beamer and the TV and potentially my TFT. We are only missing one sofa and then there shouldn't be an issue. Well, we will see...

It was my mum's birthday yesterday so we will celebrate that with a fantastic BBQ today for lunch (well, there go my diet plans...) and I will most likely meet up with some people in the city tonight. Tomorrow I would like to spend some time at the beach, and by beach I mean the "Alte Donau" and then watch the game somewhere.

I just got another email from facebook with another personality hint. This time I feel that I will probably have to start inviting my friends more for dinner and also start making more public speeches:

This email was sent by Compare People. You can disable emails here.
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Your friends have voted on your strengths and weaknesses:

STRENGTHS:

most organized
best catch
most creative

WEAKNESSES:

best public speaker
best dinner companion



So, what else happened recently? It is very funny how people in different cultures have a different way of queuing up. I remember learning about queuing in my English class in Hungary. The first thing we learned was that it was not called queuing all around the world. Of course I don't really remember any more all that stuff so I had to look it up in Wikipedia:

The term "queue" is used more in British English, while the word "line" is used mostly in American English. Most of the United States "get in line," whereas New Yorkers tend to "get on line." Canadians use the term "line up." In the United Kingdom the expressions "form a queue" or "queue up" are most common.

The first queue related incident happened about two weeks ago when Estelle and I were shopping and we did the infamous "queue in two lines at the same time" cheat. Of course a guy behind Estelle felt totally offended by the concept and I couldn't be bothered to explain him that if he was standing behind one of us, he must have arrived after us at the counter so that he should have just shut his big mouth and let us pay first, but anyway. Maybe I learn karate or kickboxing and then go back with Estelle to repeat the experiment.

Then yesterday I noticed there were two cash machines at the airport and both were busy so I decided to form a single line in the middle. Of course the next 2-3 people who followed didn't get my idea and when I went to the next machine, the fight started on who was here first at the other machine and who was queuing properly and so on. People can be such fantastic guinea pigs ...

Hmmm...

I just finished reading "Flowers for Algernon" - it shocked me twofold. First because the whole story takes place in New York (is this a sign or something?) and secondly because I knew I read part of the book when I was in school but I only remembered at the last chapter that I have read the whole book once.

Please if you get a chanse put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard.

the power of facebook

Just recieved an update from facebook from the "Compare People" application:

This email was sent by Compare People. You can disable emails here.
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Changes in your ranks:

#6 person who can drink the most (lost 1 place)
#7 most famous (gained 4 places)
#8 most studious (gained 10 places)
#10 nicest smelling (lost 2 places)
#12 most powerful (lost 1 place)

So what does this mean? According to my friends I need to drink more (no surprise there), I am getting more famous (very good) and I study too much (don't know what this means). I also stink and am not as powerful as I could be. I go take a shower now and will then brainstorm on my masterplan to become ruler of the universe. All of them. Good night!

over

out of order

just a quick update again. When I came back from Barcelona I realised that my vista pc won't boot and now there is a message saying that the hard disk is more or less kaputto. So the nice little dwarfs will send me a new one in about 10 days. Oh, and because I never created those system recovery DVDs, I have to purchase them for 40 Euros. Another lesson learned ...


So I am afraid there won't be an update in the next couple of days. No tales of my New York trip, or the weekend visit of Preeti and Sameer in Antwerp. The story of the extremely cool trip to Barcelona last weekend will have to wait a bit as well.

Ok, I admit. The real reason is that instead of blogging I am travelling again (I am in Vienna and will stay here until Tuesday) plus there is the football cup that I am kind of getting addicted to. I want to see Germany vs. Italy in the finals. So there it is, I said it. Good night!

Ouch but I like it

Barcelona is great. A fantastic city with great people, amazing food, fantastic shops and a nice beach to top it off. the last days have been great. The radiohead concert, seeing Mario, meeting Leire and Jorge, getting sunburned on the playa, eating pulpo and more. Now that we are packed, we will go for desayuno and after that I have to find a nice way to spend the remaining day. I am pretty sure something will come up..

Thank you for checking

The real reason i travel so much is that this way i have a better chance of having my camera checked regularly for explosives. So i am happy to report that my digital camera does not contain any explosives. Thanks for checking, dear security people in frankfurt!

The only thing that makes me wonder a bit is that i shaved and still they picked me?

Now i will switch off my mobile because i dont want them to check me in any similar way than what the did to my camera:-)

stuff

just finished watching the game. italy lost big time - holland played really well I must say. Until now Portugal, Germany and Holland performed really well - Holland & Germany were the best. Also I am pretty happy with the Austrian team, which did surprisingly well in their first game. Go Austria!!!

One more thing: a new iPhone has been announced. It has GPS, UMTS, it can fly and is going to be much cheaper than the current models (199$ for the 8GB one, 299$ for the 16 GB one). It will be available from July 11th. So I need to plan my next trip to the US I suppose.


The hostel for Barcelona is booked - we are flying on Wednesday. As usual, I will be sitting at the back of the plane I hope - because I always suspected this was true. Good night!!!

NIM'S ISLAND

Another sneak preview - another shitty movie. shame on you, Jodie Foster and Gerard Butler (I didn't realize it was him until I saw the poster - even though the stupid accent was in front of my face all the time!!!)