Archive for June, 2008
Protected: bad news and how to keep your staff motivated
Monday, June 30th, 2008Where is home?
Thursday, June 19th, 2008After being now over 1 year here in the US I find myself sometimes asking the question: Where is home?
As a child it’s easy to say that home is where your parents are. But where is home once you’re getting older? Is it still where your family and friends are? Is it where you’ve grown up? Sure, you can find yourself a “home” meaning a nice furnished room/house anywhere on this planet. And you also might be able to find new friends wherever you are. But do you feel home?
Well, I would say home is where your heart is. Sometimes you take your heart out into the world and sometimes you have to leave it back somewhere. So where is your home?
Austria vs. Germany 0:1
Monday, June 16th, 2008So there was no miracle happening today in Vienna at the game against Germany where everyone was hoping for another Cordoba ‘78. After a very desperate game of the Austrians the where defeated by a nice free kick in the 49th minute by the best German player Michael Ballack. Even some enthusiastic supporters like my Austrian colleague Gerald (see the picture below taken at the Austrian “fanmeile” in Linz) didn’t help. But for winning the game you have to score goals and that was the main problem of the Austrian team. The scored one goal in 3 games and that was from a penalty shot…. Now Austria is out and we can hope for the time where Austria is hosting the Championships again and doesn’t have to qualify 
Sunday mornings
Sunday, June 15th, 2008What could be a better way to start a Sunday than having coffee and doughnuts ?
The doughnuts come (my favorite ones that you can also see in this picture are “Tres Leches” and the “Coconut Creme) from the “Doughnut Plant” and the coffee is from a small coffee shop in the Lower East Side called “Roasting Plant“. Why not Starbucks? Simply because their coffee is better than the one from the Seattle giant and it’s also closer to my place 
That’s a lot of calories to start a day? Yes, I agree, it’s actually about 500 calories (only because the Latte is with non-fat milk, haha). But after a nice long morning run I think I deserve it
Austria vs. Poland 1:1
Thursday, June 12th, 2008What a bad game of Austria today even if they were lucky and got the penalty in the overtime and scored for the 1:1:. In the beginning they missed a couple of very good chances, then Poland scored and after that they were pretty much out of the game. But there is still hope for Austria if they can win against Germany but I really doubt that after the way they presented themselves today
Btw, Ivica Vastic is now the oldest goalscorer in EC history
Disappointing Keynote at the Apple WWDC
Monday, June 9th, 2008Today all Apple fans were looking forward to seeing the announcement of the new IPhone and after talking around 1 hours and 30 minutes about the new SDK 2.0 for the IPhone Steve Jobs showed the new 3G version of the IPhone. Beside the new applications and mobile me (the new push functionality) that is considered to be the competitor to RIM’s blackberry, the IPhone has now a longer lasting battery and GPS on board. But it has still the old 2 mega pixel camera and not more than 16 GB storage and it won’t be released before 11th July.
Apple’s share were slipping after the keynote as there was not anything new or surprising announced which is the really disappointing part of this keynote….
Euro 2008: Austria vs Croatia 0-1
Sunday, June 8th, 2008As expected Austria lost again in a soccer game…But this time they really deserved to have at least a draw. After the first shock of getting a goal by a silly penalty they played a really good game and put the Croatian defense under a lot of pressure. Only the goals were missing. Anyways, we had a good time at our all-time favorite German place “Zum Schneider” which was really packed which German fans waiting on the game that followed afterwards. Also Mike made it to the game after he forgot to bring his ID and had to go back to the hotel to get it. Germany won 2-0 against Poland. So no sensation in Group B. Since some of you have asked me in the past: Yes, I can watch the Euro 2008 here on cable TV. ESPN is showing all the games in High Definition
Btw, we are melting here in NYC. The temperature outside is now getting nearly 100 F (37 C) and without the air condition inside I wouldn’t be able to stand this.
Here are some pics:
Massbeer and Weisswuascht
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008Yesterday we were at the German place “Zum Schneider” in East Village again and had some good beers and sausages. Michael a colleague from Austria who is visiting this week was also there and some friends from the city. All of us had a great night and lots of fun as you can see on the following pictures….
It’s getting summer in the city
Sunday, June 1st, 2008This weekend we had really nice weather. Although there were some thunderstorms on Saturday we enjoyed the sunny warm days here in Manhattan. Saturday I went with an Austrian colleague to an Malaysian restaurant where he tried out frog that he seemed to really like
Today I met another Austrian colleague and we went to a French bakery where we had some proper coffee and some nice pain au chocolat. Seems like most of my Austrian colleagues as most of the other Europeans on the streets out there in the city are enjoying the actual currency exchange rate.
Since it is really getting warm now I’m happy that I got a AC in my room which is on most of the day. Summer is here
Another nice weekend in Boston
Sunday, June 1st, 2008It’s about time to write about the trip last weekend to Boston. We had amazing weather and a nice road trip in our convertible going up to Boston doing a short stop in Portland, CT. I have to say that it was lots of fun doing the sight seeing while cruising around in a convertible.
Here are some pictures of Charles River, the best burger place in Boston (which was closed), blueberry beer and sweet potato fries, riding in the convertible through town, standing in line in front of an Italian restaurant for over 1 hour,….
