small changes for your convenience!

;-)

I just changed the blog, so that you will only see the last 7 POSTS and not the last 7 DAYS, as all the pictures take terribly long to load when you just want to see what's new. But they are still here! Just klick at the Archive of the current week, and -kazoom- everything as usual.

Enron

Yippiieh!
Tomorrow is the last class of "international finance". Hm, the downside is, that as I was failing to hand in enough papers (today I did that the first time), I have to do some extra work to hand in tomorrow - but at least I was given the chance to make up for that!

I should upload some of the Pics from Hansjörgs birthday party on tuesday... that was a hard night, but a lot of fun. The Mexicans learned "Zum Geburtstag viel Glück" (and were pretty good at it!), and although it was a weekday and some people left quite early, we had a very good time. And then... well, let's just say that we started playing some drinking games at 1:30am with those who were still there, and when I finally got in my bed, I could not close my eyes because then the whole world (and my stomach) started rolling and turning and all that nasty ship movements. So I held my eyes open until I fell asleep, which was at least 20 seconds :-)

I also took some short video sequences of the party, but I guess they are a bit too big to have them as a download here. What a shame! But at least I have some specials then to show you when I come home! A little preview:
- Mexicans singing "Zum Geburtstag viel Glück"
- Henning and Hansjörg dancing
- Henning and Hansjörg doing some "Becherexen"
- Hansjörg banging with the Mexicans

Yesterday a collegue set up a MSN account for me, because they are all chatting with MSN here... guess what my nick is? Right: bonner_ipade. Gosh! Now its official! I still have to meet professor Bonner and see if he really looks so much like me... but there has to be some truth in it, because really everybody here agrees on that.

Oh - why did I call that post "Enron"? We talked about the bankcrupt of Enron today. Well, these guys messed up big time. It is so crazy: A BILLION dollar firm, and they set up some nifty firms to reduce their debt (about 2000), and give them names like "Obi Invest" and "Kenobi blabl" and "JEDI" - all that names from star wars... Crazy. Unfortunateley, it did not work in the end, but it worked long enough to fool the shareholders, the banks and the employees and make the managers quite rich. Bastards. Weaselish bastards - but at least with a sense for good movies :-)

Mac Keynote 1984

Maybe you think I am a strange guy for that... but I felt such an enthusiasm watching this video that I was still smiling over and over an hour after I watched it. It is a recording from the Keynote Speech of Steve Jobs in 1984, where he presented the new Macintosh to the publich the first time. That was a tremendous brakethrough for the computer industry, one of the most important ones I guess. Download it (quite big file, attention Modem users!) and feel that spirit!Apple Keynote 1984

the cleanest war ever

Just let Google do the work!
Insert two Words, Names, Cities, Phrases, Sentences, whatever, into this site, and via searching google for them the site will tell you who won! (I did it with Florian and Christine - and the undisputed champion is...
1. Christine (3,220,000)
2. Florian (989,000) )
Do it yourself!

Reading people's minds...

Simon Hoegsberg did not do that, but he came close. He stopped people on the street and asked them, what they thought about in the moment he stopped them, and took a photo of them. Have a look, I found that very interesting.
THE THOUGHT PROJECT // BY SIMON HOEGSBERG

My desire (when it comes to computers)

See this:
MY MAC!

At least - that is the mac that I would love to get.
It sure is more expensive than a Windows Machine, but considering that the devaluation is much less than on a Windows Computer and you can actually use a Mac longer, as it stays longer capable to keep up with System Updates, runs more stable, has the more intelligent Operating System, never catches on viruses - well, then I think that is something to think about. Don't you, dad? Let's figure some financing out :-) The crack in the case of my computer gets bigger every day, the loudspeaker only whistle, I recently have more and more "severe errors" that crash the system... I think it's time.

Shocking!

Folks, this is shocking!
Amazon.com: Health & Personal Care: Philips HeartStart Home Automated External Defibrillator (AED)
OK, not really funny, the topic is obviously too serious. But it is amazing what advances health technology makes. Don't miss out the movie provided on the page.

Smile and the world is yours!

Smile! That's the key!
(well, a bit worn off, I guess)
Shopping at WalMart with Hansjörg is a two hour-session each time... but is is a lot of fun. We are both the type of spontaneous shopper, which means that we have no clue what to buy and end up with a lot of stuff that you would normally buy at the seven-eleven at 2am - like chips, tacos, marshmellows, chocolate, beer... good to have stocked up again, I ran out of "out-of-the-can-tuna-salad" today! What a pity :-)

Maybe I will go to Singapore with Tine when she does her internship there in April. I'm not yet completely positive about it, just because there are a lot of factors to consider (like money, time, stuff), but I would really like to be there again. I could keep my Singapore blog running!!! OK, odd reason. Better reason: The city is great, I have yet to see some clubs, and the weather is great. But wait: Isn't it rain season there then? Who cares, the rain is warm. I got quite a nice response from the office in Singapore where I did the internship last year - I asked the girl who does all the administration if she had an idea for a flat for Tine and how I could get a summer job there. She is eager to help with the flat AND she said that normal student jobs are not really for foreigners due to working visa procedures, BUT her boss seems to like the work I did and so why not ask him?
Phew - cool to hear that. Just the right thing after all that selfpity some posts ago. I will consider that, because the team there is especially good to work with, and maybe I could get into "my" project again, this time less basic research but more operational work. (OK, I'm starting to daydream here) We'll see. I will apply for my summer internship in Germany as soon as I have my prediploma, and if the dates fit - that would be cool. Let's see, let's see.
I should be working right now - exam tomorrow, Socialism, Capitalism, stuff inbetween - in Spanish. As always here. CU!

Observations

Just came back from a short trip to the seven-eleven. This city is definiteley different to every other place I have ever been to - except Manila, possibly, but my stay in Manila was too short to even get a grip of the reality there. (See FloHo Singapore for the Manila story)
Walking down the streets of "my" part of Mexico, I felt real fear for the first time while just walking down somewhere. I mean, it is day, but you rarely see someone passing by, and the people in the cars seem to believe that driving fast is driving secure - which might be true here. Alejandro said that some people once pulled him out of his car on the open road, argumenting with a gun - so he was quite responsive. The part of Mexico where the IPADE is can't be considered of a better one, it is one of the more wrecked, unsecure, instable, dirty, whatever ones, and you feel it. Most of the houses are surrounded by high walls - by high I mean some 3 meters minimum - and I even saw an electric fence topping a wall. Scary. Maybe it's the amount of stories the Mexicans told me about being robbed (yeah, they got me some months ago, and him, and his sister, and some of my friends, but normally they just take everything you have and leave), maybe it is this mysterious atmosphere of old houses, closed curtains, locked doors and high walls that sums up to the feeling of fear. I came across three young gals, and I was highly alert to what they did, if they came near, etc - I felt fear and I felt guilty for feeling this fear, because they had given me no reason for believing they did anything else than just walking somewhere. But I couldn't help it.
The next days I have to take my cam with me and make some pictures of the area - maybe that could give you an idea of what I just described.

QDB: Top 100 Quotes

Just came across this site - the top 100 chat quotes. Gosh!
QDB: Top 100 Quotes
Enjoy, folks!

And by the way: I just opened up the comments for everybody, not just Blogger-User, and added that "mail to a friend"-button. Craving for publicity, you know ;-)

The team I rocked the simulation with: (left to right): Luiz, Izrael, Lorena, me

On special request: These are the IPADE bags. The one on the left is mine (=new), the other one belongs to Luiz (= 18 months old). Quite cool, they give every student his own leather bag with his name on it - WHU could do that, too!

As Luis Paul put it: "The Teutones": Henning, Hansjörg and me

The crowd getting wild

People, having some fun

... and looks like that afterwards :-)

... and in Mexico the birthday child has to take the first bite of the cake...

The birthday pics: It was her birthday...

geee...

Well, folks,
i had posted something longer before - say, I wanted to post it, but my lovely machine broke down and I don't have the nerve right now to write it all again. That is like warming up fast food - just doesn't taste good anymore.

Right now something funny happened. I am sitting here in the living room, which is situated between the rooms and the stairs - so everybode comes through it, it's like a meeting place with sofas, TV, kitchen, table, stuff. However, I watch Sony Channel (something in English, god bless) and surf the net when a girl with her boyfriend comes in, sneaks through and they both get into the first of the 9 or so rooms in a row - which I thought was not occupied. I guess she is the daughter of the landlord here or so, because she had a key, maybe she rent the room, I have no idea. If I saw her before I don't remember. Guess what they did in there? I heard nothing, but I wouldn't bet on playing cards or so. As I closed the connecting door of the living room, I saw that they had not closed the door completely - so maybe they were just smoking they shouldn't smoke, or they just were to eager to get it on to care. Well, they came out half an hour later, looking quite happy. Good for them, whatever they did.
Oh wait - she just came in to get a pan. Heh? Oh well, maybe she is the girl that lives in one of the larger flats on the other side of the stairs. Hm. Why would she have used another room then? Does she have a child she doesn't want to disturb? Or another boyfriend? But then she wouldn't have come here with another guy and cook for him. Confusing. It's so much fun to guess what's the matter with what people do, and I hope I never stop being curious and creative - I hope I will not become someone who just does not care what happens around him.

Regarding the comment my dear sister left me on my post earlier: I think she is right on a lot, but not everything. Good to know that she reads my blog, somehow I feel honoured by that. For sure, being the first child entitles me for some roles, wanted or not, but I am damn sure that you will go your way, Sis, be it Yale (for which I would certainly hate you in a loving way) or anything else you desire. I am not as far ahead as you think, this few years will melt down fast. Enjoy your internship, although it is not as exciting as you would like it to be - for sure, you get to know a lot of people, you get your first idea of what people do in a job that is at least related to your interests, and you have two weeks off from school. Nice tradeoff, hm?

An hour ago I finished reading the Anonymous Lawyer. What a shame - this guy should publish hourly. I so got into the character that I actually couldn't get the image he creates of law firms out of my head when I discussed possible jobs and career-paths with Tine yesterday. I am so easy to influence - but mainly because the AL draws a picture that I vaguely already had, so he only strenghtened my opinion, and it always feels good when someone tells you something that makes your own thoughts seems reasonable, doesn't it?

We've been to a colleague's birthday party friday night (that is part of the warmed up fast food), which was pretty cool. In the beginning it was really stiff with the parents and relatives and all the guests sitting around in the living room, but with the help of a lot of guests and some booz we turned the living room into a damping mexican dancehall. I'm exaggerating, but not too much. Pics to come, but I'm afraid the machine will crash again when I try to download them now. Adding to the fact that the battery is dead and my notebook is just plain old by now, it also has an interesting and frightening looking crack in the case... scary. Maybe I can get a new one when I come home im March, my Dad gave me some "that might be in the budget" signs. It is awful to pull the money out of his pocket, but I just have no chance to earn my own right now - as long as I don't have THE idea for the self-selling super internet-business-whatever-exclusive-unimitable-product, for which I am hoping long time now, maybe it won't happen. But looking at Michael Dell (we had a case about DELL last week), chances still are. He started his business while studying, too :-)
When possible, I might go for a Apple PowerBook. They are nice, the operating system is great and it seems to have nicer workflows and less of these "I don't know why, this doesn't work, but a restart might help" Windows Problems, like Hansjörg has right now: His internet connection went nuts for no reason. He is on it now for two days. Waste of time, but what can he do? By the way, he now has a spanish XP and a swedish Office on his computer, as he had to reinstall his system some days after he came her. Weird mixture, the menus in Word read like the menu of the restaurant at IKEA.