Yesterday evening I went to pay a visit to my friends living in another Prague apartment.
I took a tram at about 9pm at the square where I live now. I went to the second train because those are usually less crowded and I wanted to sit down. Haha, I tried hard to hide my smile when I got on. Inside there were exactly 20 dirty gypsy construction workers occupying all the seats on both sides of the tram. I don’t need to mention the unbearable smell of dust and sweat everywhere the train :-) But I was doing everything to prevent laughing seeing this “crew” :-)
I was lucky and did not suffocate because at the next stop, their leader said “Hajdu!” and they all got off, leaving 20 seats what means an empty train. Plus, warmly welcomed space for fresh oxygen.
Later that evening with my friends we were laughing at this scene and talking about it in terms we all know really good. The team of 20 gypsies was actually on the teambuilding, to be more accurate they were teambuilding a building. This is a new trend in HR, you know. Funny and useless activities like bowling or other bullshit that HR agencies organize are obsolete. People now spend and enjoy together 12 hours of hard physical work, preferably on the lowest level in construction with no decision making powers – because this is what they will do in their jobs! They will arrive home exhausted and dirty because they just meet with dirty people doing dirty things (so it’s easiest to comprehend this while working in mud and dust). Of course that these guys I have seen in the tram were not gypsies but refined and educated Indian youths and all were hired for some IT implementation BPR SAP WTF DICK office job in Czech Republic. Every evening they go back to the slum on the outskirts of Prague, they have a bath in the river, then drink cheap rum. When they go to bed they all know this teambuilding event will finish soon and again they start to wear their suits and ties – but now in their career, they will be unstoppable ;-)
But my evening was niiiiiiiiiice (respect to Borat!). I took a bottle of wine, Zolo had already cooked lasagna... and we enjoyed a peaceful evening thanks to locally illegal substance :-) Zolo is not only a great cook, a great masseur and a great seducer but also a great football player and has some health problems with his knee. So Zolo, we all wish you'll be good soon, cheer up! Plus I want to have a beer with you :-)
PS: I have to say that I nothing against Indians; I met a few during my studies and they were all smart and in some way, funny too.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Friday, August 25, 2006
For marketing you need a marketing personality
Yesterday evening I went out with my colleagues to do some teambuilding. The bowling sucked because of the lanes and no bowling shoes… but the evening was even funnier than I had expected. I was crying of the things my colleagues have been doing and saying. Rule number one is that if you go out with people from MARKETING departement they will do even funnier and sicker thinghs than they do in the office everyday.
Last time they only sent the email with topic “How to introduce yourself on the company line phone” which was just light fun. According to “the rules” you always have to say: “Media group MAFRA, Ctirad Svoboda speaking at the telephone. How can I help you today?”, loudly and clearly and change the name for yours. But anytime you notice somebody from marketing picking up the the phone, you hear them say “Kriz.” (a name) or just “Uhm?” They also wrote in the mail that you should not speak in higher voice depending on the distance of the caller (some people in the office tend to shout when they talk with somebody from another continent or any further than Prague). Their whole email was a joke. There is a woman in the office, about 50 yrs old called Mary, Head of sales, who believes them everything they tell her. She forwarded the message immediatelly to all her subordinates – poor girls and asked them if she really has to say “How can I help you today” ?
Back to the evening. After we finished with bowling (team of marketing departement guys won the prize, shit – they are going to be proud all next week for sure) we went to another pub called Backdoors. Petr (head of Mlada Fronta newspaper marketing and biggest clown) was unstoppable. Two girls ordered coffee with milk and he drank one of the milks from the shot glass just as the waitress was putting in on the table ? He was pippeting her coffee with his drinking straw and showing everybody around that he is not even touching it with his tongue – arguing that he got this skill when he was working with HIV bacteria in the same way. Then he was demonstrating “a mill” with his food (a disgusting trick when you pretend to mill the food in your mouth and it’s coming out). When the waitres brought him his drink and asked “Cuba Libre?” he just said “No, I just wanted a coke with white rum”.
All of these things might sound stupid and not that amusing but if you knew Petr with his sparkling eyes and rascal smile you would be in tears as I was. You might imagine my situation – being unusually silent at the table and asking myself all over again – Are these the same people who I work with in the office?
Last time they only sent the email with topic “How to introduce yourself on the company line phone” which was just light fun. According to “the rules” you always have to say: “Media group MAFRA, Ctirad Svoboda speaking at the telephone. How can I help you today?”, loudly and clearly and change the name for yours. But anytime you notice somebody from marketing picking up the the phone, you hear them say “Kriz.” (a name) or just “Uhm?” They also wrote in the mail that you should not speak in higher voice depending on the distance of the caller (some people in the office tend to shout when they talk with somebody from another continent or any further than Prague). Their whole email was a joke. There is a woman in the office, about 50 yrs old called Mary, Head of sales, who believes them everything they tell her. She forwarded the message immediatelly to all her subordinates – poor girls and asked them if she really has to say “How can I help you today” ?
Back to the evening. After we finished with bowling (team of marketing departement guys won the prize, shit – they are going to be proud all next week for sure) we went to another pub called Backdoors. Petr (head of Mlada Fronta newspaper marketing and biggest clown) was unstoppable. Two girls ordered coffee with milk and he drank one of the milks from the shot glass just as the waitress was putting in on the table ? He was pippeting her coffee with his drinking straw and showing everybody around that he is not even touching it with his tongue – arguing that he got this skill when he was working with HIV bacteria in the same way. Then he was demonstrating “a mill” with his food (a disgusting trick when you pretend to mill the food in your mouth and it’s coming out). When the waitres brought him his drink and asked “Cuba Libre?” he just said “No, I just wanted a coke with white rum”.
All of these things might sound stupid and not that amusing but if you knew Petr with his sparkling eyes and rascal smile you would be in tears as I was. You might imagine my situation – being unusually silent at the table and asking myself all over again – Are these the same people who I work with in the office?
Sunday, August 20, 2006
My today's workout
Weekend is for sports! I so wanted to play squash but could not find anybody... and I was bored to do push-ups (not the bras!) or sit-ups at home. I thought about some running in a nearby park but then I noticed a friend's bike. YEA! Let's go on a bike trip!
I set my journey by the riverside to a nearby village. I thought it will be nice - you know, the river is nice, the name of the village (Krallupy) also sounds ok, and I had a cycloroute all the way.. shit I was wrong!
The cycloroute began okay in the park, then it was just worse and worse. Imagine, one section was looking like this - a narrow path for one bike right next to the river - but the river was 3 metres below! One fault and you are done. This looked like a Czech version of the Dead Road from La Paz to Coroico which I did last year. The Bolivian one was right next to abyss of 100-200 metres :) But still I did not expect this today!
I arrived to the dreamy village and already had enough of biking for a week. I never thought that only 25 kilometres from Prague you can find such an ugly village!!! La Paz in Bolivia seemed hundread times nicer to me. I took a different route on a way back - at least I tried to, I had no map so I relied on indigenous peoples' advice. The return was neverending but so much nicer, a normal road with almost no cars, going through small villages and fields with sunflowers. Totally PEACE, brother.
When I arrived to Prague, I was ready to be buried alive. I checked my cyclocomputer for the result of today's trip - 70.05km!!! For the rest of the evening I am eating bananas and watching U TURN movie. And I guess I am going to buy Lance Armstrong's book because now I know again how it feels to be tough on bike!
I set my journey by the riverside to a nearby village. I thought it will be nice - you know, the river is nice, the name of the village (Krallupy) also sounds ok, and I had a cycloroute all the way.. shit I was wrong!
The cycloroute began okay in the park, then it was just worse and worse. Imagine, one section was looking like this - a narrow path for one bike right next to the river - but the river was 3 metres below! One fault and you are done. This looked like a Czech version of the Dead Road from La Paz to Coroico which I did last year. The Bolivian one was right next to abyss of 100-200 metres :) But still I did not expect this today!
I arrived to the dreamy village and already had enough of biking for a week. I never thought that only 25 kilometres from Prague you can find such an ugly village!!! La Paz in Bolivia seemed hundread times nicer to me. I took a different route on a way back - at least I tried to, I had no map so I relied on indigenous peoples' advice. The return was neverending but so much nicer, a normal road with almost no cars, going through small villages and fields with sunflowers. Totally PEACE, brother.
When I arrived to Prague, I was ready to be buried alive. I checked my cyclocomputer for the result of today's trip - 70.05km!!! For the rest of the evening I am eating bananas and watching U TURN movie. And I guess I am going to buy Lance Armstrong's book because now I know again how it feels to be tough on bike!
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Weekend Music
Hi again, this time after the weekend music festival. I should summarize a bit...
Franz Ferdinand was great. I loved their performance, they were playing all their hits like Dark of the Matinee or Take me out, etc. In the end of their show three guys from the band together played just the drums with crazy tempo.
Pet Shop Boys concert was one of the few I will not forget. Audio-visual-dance madness, I had my mouth opened all the time and I was astonished again and again. They changed dresses quite often, once they were golden cowboys, then soldiers with medals or "big hats" (the black hat covered all body)... just the guy playing the keyboards (or sampler, I am not an expert) was standing in his flashy yellow baseball cap and sunglasses and did not care about anybody :) There were two dancers and they were doing they job really well. Once they came dressed half in half - one guy had half of the jogging suit and half of business suit, the other guy the same dressed in the opposite parts and then together they were doing a sportsman or a businessman. I almost forgot to mention "the cube". It was a dominant object on the stage in the shape of a big white cube, of course. During the show, it was flashing on the edges, had video projected on it, it was unfolded and then united again, Pet shop boys were hiding behind it, etc. The show was indeed very funny, true legends of pop!
Okay I have written a lot already, let's be short now. On Saturday I liked Bodycount and their hard rock rap or what it is. Ice-T, who founded this band and was playing as well, actually started the gangster rap movement. He was crazy motherfucker! Yeaah :) During a show, a blonde girl with big silicone tits came on the stage, he took off her black leather bra, licked her balloon and made her give him a head, then he threw her out. OF COURSE it was not real, but it was really funny :)
And after this, on another stage, I have seen Hooverphonic :) Totally different kind of music, but my favorite band. The singer Geike Arnaert was dressed in jeans and red sweater, not really attractive. It seemed to me that the sponsor of the stage (Kenvelo - a Czech-Israeli ""fashion"" brand for teenagers) also sponsored her clothes. This was quite a shock for me! In the festival leaflet I read that she usually wears nice dresses and only if the conditions are bad (like rain and mud) she will wear a sweater. Her voice was still beautiful and I liked it, I was almost in the front because there were not too many people at all.
After I left the place, I met with Matej, my friend and we went to WAKATA to have more fun. In this small pub, three not really professional DJs or just some guys from FRANCE were responsible for great FUN, almost everybody was dancing and so did we. They played some reaggae, french oldies, ska, simply they played well and made me to wake up again :) This is it for the weekend music!
Franz Ferdinand was great. I loved their performance, they were playing all their hits like Dark of the Matinee or Take me out, etc. In the end of their show three guys from the band together played just the drums with crazy tempo.
Pet Shop Boys concert was one of the few I will not forget. Audio-visual-dance madness, I had my mouth opened all the time and I was astonished again and again. They changed dresses quite often, once they were golden cowboys, then soldiers with medals or "big hats" (the black hat covered all body)... just the guy playing the keyboards (or sampler, I am not an expert) was standing in his flashy yellow baseball cap and sunglasses and did not care about anybody :) There were two dancers and they were doing they job really well. Once they came dressed half in half - one guy had half of the jogging suit and half of business suit, the other guy the same dressed in the opposite parts and then together they were doing a sportsman or a businessman. I almost forgot to mention "the cube". It was a dominant object on the stage in the shape of a big white cube, of course. During the show, it was flashing on the edges, had video projected on it, it was unfolded and then united again, Pet shop boys were hiding behind it, etc. The show was indeed very funny, true legends of pop!
Okay I have written a lot already, let's be short now. On Saturday I liked Bodycount and their hard rock rap or what it is. Ice-T, who founded this band and was playing as well, actually started the gangster rap movement. He was crazy motherfucker! Yeaah :) During a show, a blonde girl with big silicone tits came on the stage, he took off her black leather bra, licked her balloon and made her give him a head, then he threw her out. OF COURSE it was not real, but it was really funny :)
And after this, on another stage, I have seen Hooverphonic :) Totally different kind of music, but my favorite band. The singer Geike Arnaert was dressed in jeans and red sweater, not really attractive. It seemed to me that the sponsor of the stage (Kenvelo - a Czech-Israeli ""fashion"" brand for teenagers) also sponsored her clothes. This was quite a shock for me! In the festival leaflet I read that she usually wears nice dresses and only if the conditions are bad (like rain and mud) she will wear a sweater. Her voice was still beautiful and I liked it, I was almost in the front because there were not too many people at all.
After I left the place, I met with Matej, my friend and we went to WAKATA to have more fun. In this small pub, three not really professional DJs or just some guys from FRANCE were responsible for great FUN, almost everybody was dancing and so did we. They played some reaggae, french oldies, ska, simply they played well and made me to wake up again :) This is it for the weekend music!
| www.flickr.com |
Friday, August 11, 2006
Live and Direct... LOVE PLANET PRAGUE!
Hi all! I am currently at a music festival of the name above. I cannot hear anything because on the Rock Stage MINISTRY is playing. This is USA hardcore band, totally haaaaaaardcooooooore! I like this music when I am falling asleep usually or when I work, but this is too loud :) Fucking my ears off!
But what is more important - next at this stage, there it comes, FRANZ FERDINAND! Come on! Scottish or where do you come from! Waaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaa!
And then infamous Pet Shop Boys, this is gonna be A LEGEND! HAhahaha... and then I will drink and dance until the morning, hopefully. Tomorrow there is more! See yo later!
PS: Many thanks to Michal from my work that who is responsible for giving me a free ticket, neat! This is going to be the best first week in a new job ever :D
But what is more important - next at this stage, there it comes, FRANZ FERDINAND! Come on! Scottish or where do you come from! Waaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaa!
And then infamous Pet Shop Boys, this is gonna be A LEGEND! HAhahaha... and then I will drink and dance until the morning, hopefully. Tomorrow there is more! See yo later!
PS: Many thanks to Michal from my work that who is responsible for giving me a free ticket, neat! This is going to be the best first week in a new job ever :D
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Once I will be a new Warren Buffet...
The first week in my new job has almost finished. Now I am employed by Czech media group called MAFRA. The group owns three newspapers, one music magazine, two radio stations, one music channel and print production.
I work in the department of distribution and marketing of two newspaper labels MF DNES and LIDOVE NOVINY. The former is the biggest newspapers in Czech Republic which sells about 300k issues a day – I do not count BLESK newspapers which sells 500k but it is a tabloid with main focus on Czech “celebrities” and their “scandals”. The latter is the oldest newspapers in Czech Republic which sells about 75k daily and is oriented on educated people – it brings more focus on politics, culture, education and human sciences.
Two departments are not joined together but the office where I work is called SALESDESK. Physically it is a big table (about 10 people) in a spacious office which is a result of process reengineering (German owners of the company). It is quite interesting because the people sitting here are both from marketing and distribution and everyday there is a small meeting held. Telephones must be hung out and everybody who comes late has to pay a fine (just symbolic 50CZK=2€). What is the agenda of these meetings?
First we talk about last day/week sales and about new acquisitions of subscribers. There is also a topic on media planning – which medias were used for promotion and to what extent. This can be made either cash or reciprocal – they advertise our newspapers content in their TVs and radio stations and we help them to get down from screens on the physical reality of daily paper. It is funny how different media formats work in this symbiosis. Actually you can get almost anywhere because you have the ability to contact people – so you can develop partnerships with sports organizations, cultural events, even with companies. Okay, enough of imagination for now :) Then the meeting becomes more interesting with debates on future plans. There is a wide whiteboard hanging on one of the walls with content of issued newspapers until the end of September. We suggest how the distribution will work according to these opportunities.
I always dreamed of working in media sector and now I am inside. I like the modern building we have, people seems to be nice, pretty girls are common… When I was younger I remember TV series called something like “Tomorrow’s News” about a guy who everyday received the newspapers already from next day so he knew what will just happen. He was a nice guy so he helped people of course :) If I stayed in the office a bit later I could also get some fresh copies :) I realized that I did not write anything about my position! I work in controlling as a junior… so when I will get more inside the topic, I think I will be telling these guys what went wrong or well and allow them what they can do in future! Hahaha! BTW, have I mentioned that I have received my own PRESS ID?
I work in the department of distribution and marketing of two newspaper labels MF DNES and LIDOVE NOVINY. The former is the biggest newspapers in Czech Republic which sells about 300k issues a day – I do not count BLESK newspapers which sells 500k but it is a tabloid with main focus on Czech “celebrities” and their “scandals”. The latter is the oldest newspapers in Czech Republic which sells about 75k daily and is oriented on educated people – it brings more focus on politics, culture, education and human sciences.
Two departments are not joined together but the office where I work is called SALESDESK. Physically it is a big table (about 10 people) in a spacious office which is a result of process reengineering (German owners of the company). It is quite interesting because the people sitting here are both from marketing and distribution and everyday there is a small meeting held. Telephones must be hung out and everybody who comes late has to pay a fine (just symbolic 50CZK=2€). What is the agenda of these meetings?
First we talk about last day/week sales and about new acquisitions of subscribers. There is also a topic on media planning – which medias were used for promotion and to what extent. This can be made either cash or reciprocal – they advertise our newspapers content in their TVs and radio stations and we help them to get down from screens on the physical reality of daily paper. It is funny how different media formats work in this symbiosis. Actually you can get almost anywhere because you have the ability to contact people – so you can develop partnerships with sports organizations, cultural events, even with companies. Okay, enough of imagination for now :) Then the meeting becomes more interesting with debates on future plans. There is a wide whiteboard hanging on one of the walls with content of issued newspapers until the end of September. We suggest how the distribution will work according to these opportunities.
I always dreamed of working in media sector and now I am inside. I like the modern building we have, people seems to be nice, pretty girls are common… When I was younger I remember TV series called something like “Tomorrow’s News” about a guy who everyday received the newspapers already from next day so he knew what will just happen. He was a nice guy so he helped people of course :) If I stayed in the office a bit later I could also get some fresh copies :) I realized that I did not write anything about my position! I work in controlling as a junior… so when I will get more inside the topic, I think I will be telling these guys what went wrong or well and allow them what they can do in future! Hahaha! BTW, have I mentioned that I have received my own PRESS ID?
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