Just a short post before I finish the work on tomorrow's presentation and finally go to bed.
Today, my Marketing des activites culturels class took place in Lyon, at Ecole de Danse which was founded in 1977. There was some talking in the beginning, I understood that culture needs to be subsidized heavily so the prices are kept low hence it stays accesible to a broader public. That makes sense - for a moment I was thinking if all museums should be made free because the more people visit them the more cultivated they become. Wouldn't it be good for our society?
Then we saw a rehearsal of dance performance. It was a modern dance (scenic?). One guy was actually singing with a deep voice and there were 3+3 dancers performing, nothing else. I think it is one of the most difficult arts to understand - what people want to express by their movements. But somehow it was really soothing and what they did felt to be so synchronized and aesthetic. The one thing they did was without any music or singing, the melody was just made from the sounds of their steps on the platform. I cannot understand how can the guys remember they choreography so well.
So I am going to work some more right now. Next time I would like to write about the my last weekend which was really great, but I need to find a little bit more time to do it.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
$100 laptop prototypes
Have a look at those first prototypes of a notebook computer that would have a price tag of $100 and still would work. They are meant to be spread to poor countries like Slovakia and assist in education. It sounds sweet to run open source software and put some great products on them - especially Wikipedia comes to my mind! Well this might work but I think that all the school books that covered my basic studies were less than $100...
PS: Actually I just thought that it would be okay to use something similar to these let's say at High Schools (in Slovakia, od course) - students can use them to read many e-books (esp. in foreign laguages to improve!), use them for math calculations&graphs and the best - write homeworks which they then upload to teacher's computer. Internet could be a threat because of viruses and "internet surfing addiction" but on the other hand it could serve well for collaborative work. In conclusion, $100 those laptops would be perfectly affordable and the basic configuration should be enough to everything needed for education. Now the suppliers must only provide a new design for the product, so you would not ruin your social status - especially important when at High School. And if it looks at least a bit trendy - the better the chance it would be fond of and used everyday.
PS: Actually I just thought that it would be okay to use something similar to these let's say at High Schools (in Slovakia, od course) - students can use them to read many e-books (esp. in foreign laguages to improve!), use them for math calculations&graphs and the best - write homeworks which they then upload to teacher's computer. Internet could be a threat because of viruses and "internet surfing addiction" but on the other hand it could serve well for collaborative work. In conclusion, $100 those laptops would be perfectly affordable and the basic configuration should be enough to everything needed for education. Now the suppliers must only provide a new design for the product, so you would not ruin your social status - especially important when at High School. And if it looks at least a bit trendy - the better the chance it would be fond of and used everyday.
Monday, May 22, 2006
School school school
Sorry for no posts! I am quite busy with my school - at least for next two more weeks ;( From all 5 subjects I have chosen this term only one proved to be any good - International Marketing. I have this class for 2 weeks every day, the exam is on Wednesday (not to mention 2 case studies to hand out). The professor Atilla Yaprak is really a great guy.
Today we came to a nice topic about ALLIANCES - why are they formed? I learnt about 2 contradictory theories and I like them because they resemble the man-woman relationship :) The first one - Competitive Collaboration or Learning Raise Theory by Hamel says that the alliances are created only for learning and as soon as you have learnt enough and exploited the knowledge of your partner - you leave. Conditions to succeed are: intent, transparency and absorbency. How nicely it fits the first kind of relationships - when one is a "bastard" and only wants "something"! ;)
The other theory is Resource Based Theory (Barney) or Social Exchange (Das and Tang) and says the opposite. Alliances are meant to exchange resources of firms and they are dependent on each other. To succeed there is a need of reciprocity, trust, forbearance and commitment. This is when the couple complement each other (like the example: the wife cooks, the husband eats - kiddin' ;)
So this post was educational and even I, after the explananation, have a bit less to study for the exam :) Now I would like to declare that I also made a theory. Well of course I made a lot of them but this one fits here. It is called "Why I am stupid" or "The theory of infinite initiations" The answer is memory. If I for god's sake could remember things for more than one week maximum, then I could become a president (that used to be my dream).
I am glad that Schumpeter already said in Creative Distraction that "for innovation to take root, the most important thing to happen is that the current must be destroyed". For every learning to take place, you must unlearn what you know from before.
So my dears, this is the reason why I am so very creative - and also why the outcome is never really complex :)
Today we came to a nice topic about ALLIANCES - why are they formed? I learnt about 2 contradictory theories and I like them because they resemble the man-woman relationship :) The first one - Competitive Collaboration or Learning Raise Theory by Hamel says that the alliances are created only for learning and as soon as you have learnt enough and exploited the knowledge of your partner - you leave. Conditions to succeed are: intent, transparency and absorbency. How nicely it fits the first kind of relationships - when one is a "bastard" and only wants "something"! ;)
The other theory is Resource Based Theory (Barney) or Social Exchange (Das and Tang) and says the opposite. Alliances are meant to exchange resources of firms and they are dependent on each other. To succeed there is a need of reciprocity, trust, forbearance and commitment. This is when the couple complement each other (like the example: the wife cooks, the husband eats - kiddin' ;)
So this post was educational and even I, after the explananation, have a bit less to study for the exam :) Now I would like to declare that I also made a theory. Well of course I made a lot of them but this one fits here. It is called "Why I am stupid" or "The theory of infinite initiations" The answer is memory. If I for god's sake could remember things for more than one week maximum, then I could become a president (that used to be my dream).
I am glad that Schumpeter already said in Creative Distraction that "for innovation to take root, the most important thing to happen is that the current must be destroyed". For every learning to take place, you must unlearn what you know from before.
So my dears, this is the reason why I am so very creative - and also why the outcome is never really complex :)
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Photos from Ardeche and BubbleShare
So, the pictures are here. I am glad that I can show them using www.BubbleShare.com
It's probably the best service of sharing pictures from parties or other occasions on the net, at least the best I know. You can create albums without registration, add audio or bubble captions and of course also guest can post comments. All the pictures can be downloaded in one zip with one click and the interface is really intuitive and fast. Recommended!
This album is powered by
BubbleShare
- Add to my blog
It's probably the best service of sharing pictures from parties or other occasions on the net, at least the best I know. You can create albums without registration, add audio or bubble captions and of course also guest can post comments. All the pictures can be downloaded in one zip with one click and the interface is really intuitive and fast. Recommended!
This album is powered by
BubbleShare
- Add to my blog
Ardeche River Kayaking
This weekend we made a great action trip to south of France to Gorges de l'Ardeche. We started paddling on Friday afternoon, slept in the camping under the stars and on Saturday finished the Ardeche river experience totalling 30km in two days.
Our group counted 16 people with 8 girls and 8 boys - perfect ratio for two-crew kayaks. I have to mention that thanks to Jeffrey Davis who organized the whole thing, we got a super save for rental of equipment. We put all our things into plastic barrels and mounted them to the boats. Everybody practiced the steering of the kayak and 8 crews set sail.
Girls as captains in the front, boys as engines in the rear - the first-day paddling took us almost 5 hours. Everybody was getting a little bit desperate because the way to our camping seemed to be endless. Water was cold, everybody was wet, sun was on vacations - only Jeff and few beer-drinking guys were keeping the group spirit. One of the boats capsized in the rapids and the crew became so cold and hopeless that they called 112 emergency and got rescued. They got a ride to the camp in a van.
Showers in the camp were just a bit warmer than the river, but putting dry clothes on made a very positive sensation that nobody was feeling for a few hours. In the evening, we did a barbecue and opened few more beers to celebrate the first day without any losses. The legendary characters have beed born on this occasion - Beer Beast (Martin) and Beer Fairy (Maxime?). There were still some bottles full but everybody was quite tired and fell asleep in their sleeping bags. The night was warm, even that we slept outside.
The next day only 6 of 8 boats continued, the crew of remaining 2 hiked instead. This day was much more better than the previous one, everybody was already familiar with the steering basics and what made us much more faster. This time, it was our kayak that sank :))
In the wildest rapids on the river, I had a moment to choose the direction to continue - left or right - in the middle a huge boulder. I chose right because it looked more difficult, but unfortunately too late - we crashed to the boulder by the side of the kayak.
I remember seeing the boat turning over and Lucy falling to the river at the same moment as I. For a few seconds I was underwater being pushed by the current to the face of the rock. I managed to escape and then swiftly crawl-stroked to the floating upset boat. I was glad that I found Lucy at the side of the boat! I braked the boat, inverted it, got in. I pulled Lucy by her life jacket. Our guys that were below managed to save everything that left the kayak and floating down. I was excited, I jumped to the river once again, then opened a beer.
We enjoyed more of the beatiful landscape, the canyons high cliffs made me feel really like if I was in prehistoric ages. Even if it rained a little bit, also the sun showed ocasionally. In about one and half hour, we have finished our river cruise. Congratulations to every one of us that had the endurance to fight with the permanent chill, I bet that this will not prevent anybody to keep nice memories.
(Pictures later today)
Our group counted 16 people with 8 girls and 8 boys - perfect ratio for two-crew kayaks. I have to mention that thanks to Jeffrey Davis who organized the whole thing, we got a super save for rental of equipment. We put all our things into plastic barrels and mounted them to the boats. Everybody practiced the steering of the kayak and 8 crews set sail.
Girls as captains in the front, boys as engines in the rear - the first-day paddling took us almost 5 hours. Everybody was getting a little bit desperate because the way to our camping seemed to be endless. Water was cold, everybody was wet, sun was on vacations - only Jeff and few beer-drinking guys were keeping the group spirit. One of the boats capsized in the rapids and the crew became so cold and hopeless that they called 112 emergency and got rescued. They got a ride to the camp in a van.
Showers in the camp were just a bit warmer than the river, but putting dry clothes on made a very positive sensation that nobody was feeling for a few hours. In the evening, we did a barbecue and opened few more beers to celebrate the first day without any losses. The legendary characters have beed born on this occasion - Beer Beast (Martin) and Beer Fairy (Maxime?). There were still some bottles full but everybody was quite tired and fell asleep in their sleeping bags. The night was warm, even that we slept outside.
The next day only 6 of 8 boats continued, the crew of remaining 2 hiked instead. This day was much more better than the previous one, everybody was already familiar with the steering basics and what made us much more faster. This time, it was our kayak that sank :))
In the wildest rapids on the river, I had a moment to choose the direction to continue - left or right - in the middle a huge boulder. I chose right because it looked more difficult, but unfortunately too late - we crashed to the boulder by the side of the kayak.
I remember seeing the boat turning over and Lucy falling to the river at the same moment as I. For a few seconds I was underwater being pushed by the current to the face of the rock. I managed to escape and then swiftly crawl-stroked to the floating upset boat. I was glad that I found Lucy at the side of the boat! I braked the boat, inverted it, got in. I pulled Lucy by her life jacket. Our guys that were below managed to save everything that left the kayak and floating down. I was excited, I jumped to the river once again, then opened a beer.
We enjoyed more of the beatiful landscape, the canyons high cliffs made me feel really like if I was in prehistoric ages. Even if it rained a little bit, also the sun showed ocasionally. In about one and half hour, we have finished our river cruise. Congratulations to every one of us that had the endurance to fight with the permanent chill, I bet that this will not prevent anybody to keep nice memories.
(Pictures later today)
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Weekend in Paris
Well, almost everything was said by empty, I put some pictures on flickr if you want to check that Paris is still beautiful :)
Some tips&tricks:
It's really easy to navigate yourself in Paris, maps are at every bus/metro stop so I didn't even need a map to find anything.
Public toilets are free!
If you want to rest from the cars&people in the streets , have a walk in the riverbank, it's really wide and presence of river is refreshing.
If you want to have a public bus sightseeing for one 1€ ticket, hop on bus no.69 and enjoy the view. For other European capitals, see article at TIME.
If you are a student, enter any school to get cheap coffee and croissant - a rather short student exchange stay :)
French really have problems with african immigrants, beware of your belongings in metro and tourist places!
The Eiffel Tower trick done by me and Juraj can be done only by Slovaks, maybe Czechs :)
Some tips&tricks:
It's really easy to navigate yourself in Paris, maps are at every bus/metro stop so I didn't even need a map to find anything.
Public toilets are free!
If you want to rest from the cars&people in the streets , have a walk in the riverbank, it's really wide and presence of river is refreshing.
If you want to have a public bus sightseeing for one 1€ ticket, hop on bus no.69 and enjoy the view. For other European capitals, see article at TIME.
If you are a student, enter any school to get cheap coffee and croissant - a rather short student exchange stay :)
French really have problems with african immigrants, beware of your belongings in metro and tourist places!
The Eiffel Tower trick done by me and Juraj can be done only by Slovaks, maybe Czechs :)
| www.flickr.com |
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Why I would never want to live in France
Hello again! Here is my new experience with "french culture". Let's start with very interesting and recent survey - 50% of French totally disagree to following statement - "The free enterprise system and free market economy is the best system on which to base the future of the world." Only 36% of French agree. The numbers are even worse that in Russia! The average values from various countries in the world (including USA, China, Canada, Mexico, India, Russia, Nigeria...) is agreement 65% and disagreement 25%. Nice results, French comrades! See for yourself at GlobeScan Report, page 3.
For yesterday we planned a small trip to Parc du Pilat which is close to Lyon. Nothing special, but at least the spare day would be used for something. So in the morning (11am) we get into the car and I headed to Carrefour gas station to get some gas. Oops, it's Sunday, so it's closed. So I tried another one, the small station with higher prices (I thought that they might be open so they can make some profit!). Oops, nobody there, come on who would work on Sunday! In France, only Arabs do in their shops where you buy things from Carrefour at triple price. And also machines do work. The last gas station was equipped only with stands with credit card payment, so we got our gas. Oh by the way, the credit card could be only French Carte Bancaire, a regular international one does not work. Well they can close their shops, I don't care, but gas stations?? What a great progressive country!
In the evening yesterday, we had a small party to celebrate David's (Spanish) birthday. In the party atmosphere, Maria which is living in Lyon asked me, if I could give her a ride next morning back to city. I asked her&myself why, she can take the bus, can't she? I was quite surprised when she answered that on 1st May - Fete du Travail (Labor Day) there are no buses and no subway. Not just Sunday regime with one bus per hour, but absolutely no connection. You cannot get anywhere! (Well you can just call taxi or have a french bank card to get some gas.) Funny thing is, that Lyon's subway is even not human-operated but the driver is a computer - so it's nice that the machines also get some rest to relax and celebrate!
Today we made a small trip as well. Passing Carrefour, we saw something that really made all of us laugh. We came back to take a picture so I can share it here. Let's name the situation "Stupid French." and make it finish this post in which I have explained why I would never like to live in developed Western European but truly Socialist country called France.
For yesterday we planned a small trip to Parc du Pilat which is close to Lyon. Nothing special, but at least the spare day would be used for something. So in the morning (11am) we get into the car and I headed to Carrefour gas station to get some gas. Oops, it's Sunday, so it's closed. So I tried another one, the small station with higher prices (I thought that they might be open so they can make some profit!). Oops, nobody there, come on who would work on Sunday! In France, only Arabs do in their shops where you buy things from Carrefour at triple price. And also machines do work. The last gas station was equipped only with stands with credit card payment, so we got our gas. Oh by the way, the credit card could be only French Carte Bancaire, a regular international one does not work. Well they can close their shops, I don't care, but gas stations?? What a great progressive country!
In the evening yesterday, we had a small party to celebrate David's (Spanish) birthday. In the party atmosphere, Maria which is living in Lyon asked me, if I could give her a ride next morning back to city. I asked her&myself why, she can take the bus, can't she? I was quite surprised when she answered that on 1st May - Fete du Travail (Labor Day) there are no buses and no subway. Not just Sunday regime with one bus per hour, but absolutely no connection. You cannot get anywhere! (Well you can just call taxi or have a french bank card to get some gas.) Funny thing is, that Lyon's subway is even not human-operated but the driver is a computer - so it's nice that the machines also get some rest to relax and celebrate!
Today we made a small trip as well. Passing Carrefour, we saw something that really made all of us laugh. We came back to take a picture so I can share it here. Let's name the situation "Stupid French." and make it finish this post in which I have explained why I would never like to live in developed Western European but truly Socialist country called France.
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