mojito time!

Ultimate power of TAG

2010-03-15T23:56:00.005+01:00

I propose the idea that everything could be assigned a TAG. Let's stereotype, idealize and for most of all, simplify to the bone. Because "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication", not just by mine, but also by Leonardo da Vinci's opinion.

Let's start tagging people too. How would I be tagged?

Yuppie? Puppy?

Dreamer? Sinner?

Aspiring? Despairing?

Pretending? Neverending?

Healer? Harmer?

Colder? Warmer?

Spring? Summer?

I can't decide. I want to be everything at the same time.

I want to be a Surprising rhyme!

Prague is one thing first: ....

2010-03-15T23:52:00.001+01:00

Prague needs a new slogan to attract tourists. What about this one?

"Beer is so cheap in Prague. The more you drink, the more you save!"

cry-sis

2009-08-31T14:32:00.008+02:00

Now we feel the recession

Together we created this obsession

Since of our foolishness

Nobody was concerned making a confession

Look around for yourself and see:

Weak dollar economies
Unemployment on the rise
Starving kids and daddy's fired
People living in the dumps
Worthless stocks for coming times

We've climbed up with too much hope
Now we're going down the slope

But my heart is not crying out

and my eyes still see the light

Since I know one for sure

No matter how deep we fall

We're all still going to die

If we're Rich or if we're Poor

No big difference at all.

(written some few months ago when people were hit unexpectedly by the effects of financial crisis and every company suddenly acted weird and unsupportive)

MyThai 6: Perhentians

2009-07-23T17:25:00.001+02:00

Posledne 3 dni som stravil na ostrove Perhentian Kecil. Je sucastou morskej (marine) prirodne rezervacie a je to preto uplne takmer nedotknute miesto. Potapal som sa... uzasne vela ryb je pod vodou ako nikde! Snad vsetky druhy plus blacktip shark, turtles, stingrays, squid, eels.. okrem toho som jeden ponor dal pri 60m dlhom vraku. Vecer som travil na Coral Beach kde je vzdy barbecue, cerstve rybky. Je to tu mozno drahsie ako vo vnutrozemi ale ajtak uplne super lacne v porovnani s Chorvatskom a inymi destinaciami!! Lacnejsie ako doma dokonca :) Stretol som tu vela ludi, vlastne dne blondave holandanky som sem aj dopravil. Na ostrov sa ide na speed boate - rychlo clne a uz len to je zazitok! Zajtra rano odchadzal - idem do Cameron Highlands s Jannikom a jeho priatelkou, to je kamarat z Erasmu, ktoreho som nevidel 3 roky a stretli sme sa tu na druhom ostrove :)

MyThai 5: Koh Tao - Krabi - Hat Yai

2009-07-20T19:14:00.001+02:00

Uaaaaaaaaa! Dnes aky den! Ale poporade. Posledny den ma ostrove KohTao, vecera s Jankou, thajska polievka Tom Yum Goong s velkymi shrimpami (zatial moje najdrahsie jedlo v Thajsku, lebo to bola taka fancy restika).

Potom Jankina rozluckova Drum n Bass party v Dragon bare - za pultom dj Monk alias Erik u ktoreho som spal v bungalowe po party den predtym. Pohodak typek! A zase prisla ta prijemne afektovana mulatka Katarina, ta bola fakt na kazdej party - vlastne to kazdy :)

V noci z party utekam do pristavu, ide mi spoj na pevninu... nakladna lod!!! Aka husta vec, ist na lodi s tromi autocisternami a par autami, ale uplne super spanie v miestnosti s matracami a AC.

V Chumpone idem na minibuse do mesta, tam beriem bus do Krabi.. divni tito Thajci nikdy neviete ci vam chcu pomoct alebo zase len predat nejaku hlupost taxi, tuk tuk alebo minivan.

Dnes bol inak den ked som siel 7 druhmi transportu - lod, bus (mini aj regular), vlak, motorka (2x), pickup(2x), minivan a peso :)

V Krabi idem na Ao Nang, znama plaz kde z mora vidite vyrastat vysoke strme vapencove ostrovy. Nadherne. Ale inak uplna nuda, o nicom to tu je, na Koh Tao pohodicku sa to nehrabe. Idem prec, po nejakej chvili na benzinke a v 7/11 chytim minivan do Hat Yai.

Crazy jazda... na DVD hraju koncerty nejakych thajskych superstar, chlapi mi nieco hovoria este ze mam slovnik a viem povedat vlakova stanica. Na konci kupia lychee (1 kilo stoji 5 korun) a ze mozem u nich spat vsetci su my friends. Vravim ze nemozem lebo idem skoro rano o piatej prec. Tak ma vylozia na stanici, tam ma nejaky typek na motorke zoberie do hostela.. maju izbu za 200B. Ja mam poslednych 400 a preto volim moznost ist nocnym busom ktory ani neviem kedy ide.

Idem na bus stanicu peso.. je to kusok. Cestou vidim neonove dvere tak vstupujem. Aha.... vo vyklade desat sympatickych mladych thajskych dievcat. Staci si vybrat, 600 bahtov (12 eur, ci 330 Kc) a je vasa na hodinu. Velmi velmi VELMI silne pokusenie! Urychlene opustam priestor!! O blok dalej je internetova kaviaren kde teraz sedim za 8 korun na hodinu a pisem toto. Musim zistit kedy mi ide ten bus.. kam vlastne? No predsa na hranicu s MALAYSIA!!!

MyThai 4: Koh Tao

2009-07-18T08:19:00.001+02:00

Tak a som oficialne PADI Advanced Open Water Diver! Vcera som urobil 3 ponory, z toho jeden v noci za uplnej tmy :) Rybky spali a my sme im svietili baterkami do spalne :) Boli sme dole cca 40 minut. Dnes zase deep dive do 30 metrov, kde sme urobili nejake matematicke testy a zjedli cokoladovy cukrik. Po chvili sa mi zacala tocit hlava, najprv som si myslel ze to vsetci plavaju okolo mna ale potom mi doslo, ze to mi hrabe z nitrogenu - tzv. nitrogen narcosis. Kazdopadne to bolo super.

Vcera vecer som siel na Sai Ree beach, kde je najviac barov na tomto ostrove.. bolo tam ale dost prazdno, az na jeden bar - Lotus bar kde bolo narvane. Tam sme aj boli :) Janka, Marek (slovak co tu je uz 6 rokov a ma firmu co robi reklamy a nataca pod vodou, ked mi povedal ze uz ma 3000 ponorov ostali mi otvorene usta:) a este Erik z NY a nejaka mala ruska. Dal som si mieste pivko Chang so slonikmi, ktore sa nemoze predavat mimo Thajska lebo ho nemozu navarit tak aby malo oficialne percento alkoholu - ako sa ktore podari ma od 5 % do 9 %, na flasi je 6.4%. To moje bolo pekne silne a velke... este sme k tomu pili Hrusku Spis co som priniesol ako pristupne. Pili ju aj Thajky na bare, tu sa vypije fakt vsetko :) Inak to tu poriadne fici, vsade kopa mladych bab atd. no pocas sezony tu musi byt este hustejsia zabava. Thajsko je proste jedna velka europska party!

Teraz si idem dat obed a planovat dalsiu destinaciu, asi ostov Koh Phanghang alebo west coast - Krabi.

MyThai 3: Bangkok done, Koh Tao

2009-07-16T13:37:00.001+02:00

Neni moc chut pisat predchadzajuce dva dni, lebo sedim v dive shope na Koh Tao a okolo mna sa vykladaju vzduchove bomby a vsetci preberaju co dnes pod vodou videli. Kazdopadne som sem dosiel nocnym busom a trajektom priamo z Khao San Road. Khao San Road!!! Uzasne miesto v Bangkoku v stvrti Baglampoo, kde to fakt ZIJE. Bary, poulicni predavaci vsetkeho od jedla po fake clothes, thajske masaze, hostely, mladi europania, ked nim prechadzam citim ze vsetko sa to miesa do jednej vysoko explozivnej zmesi plnej energie.

Vcera som bol cely den v Ayuthaya. Tam sa da dostat 80km vlakom za 15b (8 korun). Na bikoch sme so Slavkou (slovenka ktoru som tu stretol) obehli vsetky ruiny a este aj sochu sediaceho Budhu a hned vzali spiatocny vlak naspat. Rychlovka. Moj bike bol znacky Hello Kitty, vratane pneumatik na ktorych boli macicky, velmi cool. Fotiek chramov mam tolko, ze ich budem musiet nejak vytriedit..

Ok uz sa ale tesim na zajtrajsie dives. Za 7800 baht (165eur) som dostal Advanced open water diver kurz, 2 noci ubytovania v bungalowe na plazi a nejake free meals. Teraz idem dostudovat ucebnicu lebo naposledy som potapal fakt davno. BTW dnes som este stretol na Koh Tao Janku, pekna haluz.. hadam este vecer dame na plazi privitacie beer, ale som fakt dost unaveny.

MyThai 2: Bangkok

2009-07-16T13:34:00.001+02:00

Bangkok je presne taky, aky som si ho predstavoval: krasne thajocky (v niektorych pripadoch asi thajockovia), vela hluku, aut, motoriek, autobusov, budhov, na ulici kupite COKOLVEK, vsetci sa usmievaju a hlavne je VELKY. 16 milionov ludi v jednom meste, tri Slovenska, este ze su ti thajcania taki mali inak by sa don nepomestili. Organizovany chaos, ale taky ktory vas ochromi az mate pocit, ze svet bez poriadku vlastne funguje lepsie ako ten s pravidlami, v ktorom zijete. A vobec - zijete?

MyThai Day 0-1: Vienna, Doha, Bangkok!

2009-07-14T16:59:00.006+02:00

Tak kedze nemam vela casu lebo som stale vonku a okrem toho pri internete sa dost nasedim aj doma, tak budem texty pisat na minimum-alebo nie?:)
Prvy den bol preletovy, z nudnej Viedne plnej sachrtort a gulasov a klobas a Rakusakov (alebo co je pre Vieden typicke?) letim do Dohy v Katare.. zaujimave, uz len preto ze to bol moj prvy kontakt s Aziou. Kapitan pri odlete hlasil, ze v Dohe je 46 stupnov, nastastie pri prilete o siestej vecer len 36... po vystupeni z lietadla sa vsetci tvarili ako uvareni. Vsade naokolo je vsetko len hnede, bledohnede a tmavohnede (heh), vsetky auta biele a rovina. Tu by som nechcel zit, iba ak v oaze v palaci ako sejk.
Letisko ale bolo AC vychladene a zaujimave.. okrem sleeping room maju praying room (chcel som sa tam ist pomodlit otcenas, ale neodvazil som sa), dokonca aj mesitu.. Ked som si takuto vtipnu cedulku vyfotil bolo to prave pri panoch v uniformach, ktorym sa to nepacilo, tak ma chvilu natahovali.
Nakoniec sa ale ukazalo ze su srandisti, typek sa ma frajersky spytal "How are you?" ja frajersky vravim "Ok sir, great country!", vymazal som si fotku a siel prec. Duty free fajn.. velmi lacny tabak, Marlobora za 27Kc a dokonca sa mozete zapojit do tomboly o Aston Martin. Cestou spat v Dohe stravim 9hodin v noci, nastasie ta maju Al Maha lounge za $40 kde je sprcha, net, lehatka, jedlo a dokonca aj alcohol beverages included! Tak sa ozerem v moslimskej krajine, ked si ju nepozriem, haha.
Ok som sa rozkecal o hlupostiach. Prvy let bol sice super co sa tyka jedla a pitia (heinekeny a furt mi ich nosily aj s cheese crackers) a nemozem zabudnut na letusku tmavej pleti a sikmych oci, asi najkrajsie dievca ake som kedy videl! Na konci letu dokonca vsetky letusky vyzliekly saka len do bluzky a to sa mi pacilo. No ale klud. Druhy let bol uplne popici! Boeing 777, kazdy pred sebou obrazovku a v nej 173 filmov vratane premier, asi 500 music albumov (vratane Beastie Boys, RATM, Red Hot, proste vsetko), okrem toho Live TV, multiplayer hry a ja neviem co este.. aj napriek free ponozkam a setu na spanie som som sa moc nevyspal :) Vecera opat super labuznicka, potom cheese crackers teraz s vinom:)
Ale som riadne nadseny ked moj posledny let bol s SkyEurope Praha-Bratislava:))
Pristavame v Bangkoku! Letisko mega huste, zamestnane tety si nasadili na papulky masky, je to v tomto meste velmi trendy, na letisku kvoli chripke, v meste kvoli vyfuckom. Menim nejake prachy za 1E = 47 Bahtov. Bahty su plne thaiskeho krala a nemozete na ne preto stupit lebo tu kraluje uz velmi dlho dokonca najdlshie na svete (viac ako Alzbeta v UK). Bacha na to!
Immigration v pohode, viza som dostal uz v Prahe v akcii zadarmo pre podporu turismu pocas krizy (az do 2010). Vidim nejake osamele blond dievca tak sa s nou zarozpravam a je to Elise z Holland, je tu tiez sama, tak sa davame dokopy a ideme do centra. Ako uvedomely traveller neberem taxik ani ziadny blud, ale pekne public bus za 34B. Dostat sa k nemu zabralo dost komunikacie s lokalnymi - najst zastavku fakt neni lahke. Cestou vidim ze to tu je celkom vyspele, cesty su perfektne, auta na dobrej urovni, jazdi sa vlavo (asi zvyk, lebo Thajsko nikdy nebolo britska kolonia, dokonca ziadna kolonia a na to su tu chlapi hrdi). Vidim v zapche jednu Skodu Octaviu a moja falosna hrdost zaplesa. Apropos - zapchy. Mesto ako Bangkok s cca 15mil total population ich ma fakt stale. Zapchy fuj!
Vystupujeme asi za hodku v centre pri Victory Monument je velky pomnik, na ktorom su vojaci a vlajka - slubujem ze si precitam o ktoru vojnu sa jedna:) Vystupujeme a hladam cestu do Bangalumpoo, stvrt kde chcem byvat ktora je plna backpackerov a ma neopakovatelnu atmosku. Mapu poriadne ani nemam, napisy neprecitam lebo su to len namalovane ciarky a nie abeceda, ked sa niekoho spytam, tak asi nevyslovujem tie ich nazvy spravne lebo su mimo. Inak ked su Thajcania mimo ked sa ich na nieco opytate, vzdy vam ukazu jednym a tym istym smerom. Pozor na to!
Ale teraz idem na pivo a dopisem to neskor! Loooooooooool!

Changing jobs, shaking

2008-07-10T13:56:00.002+02:00

The day has come and today I am quitting my job at Accenture. I have been working here for 6 months only.

Deciding to quit was very hard.... but I guess it was a good decision after all. I feel that the things would not change if I stayed here longer. I would be stuck here only for more time. I would change. But not the way I wanted. I did not find the growth I was looking for.

Though, leaving is not that easy as I thought it will be. I am not feeling any relief or happiness. Have I got stuck here already? Do I still believe in that dream I had when I came here?

Leaving is never easy. It's all risky business taking the future into your hands. Especially when they are shaking.... You might drop it and it will shatter into pieces. Hold your hands, hold your hands firm... it is the best thing you can do right here, right now.

The Story of Stuff

2008-03-17T22:55:00.002+01:00

Amazing presentation...

Parallel Worlds

2008-02-05T15:13:00.001+01:00

Ever felt like you are not in the right place
not in the right time?
Ever wandered, "if I don't belong here
then where do I belong?"

There are galaxies parallel to this in which we live
places on the opposite side of universe
in which we are sad when we joy here.
and we are cheerful when we grieve here.

So come on now, give those guys a break....

Flying like a bird...

2008-01-25T13:07:00.000+01:00

Geez, I was a bird in a previous life. I fell in love with this bird eye views on Live Search... see for yourself! Example... welcome to Union Square, New York or a Space Needle in Seattle. Since I did not become a Superman in this life, I want to be a bird in next life again :)

Live from 421 Broome Street

2008-01-24T11:25:00.000+01:00

My friend Byba, which I mentioned yesterday has sent me some pics from NYC. They are from 421 Broome Street, the place where Heath Ledger was found dead on Tuesday.

This photo is featuring big guy, a woman that looks like a reporter and a book from Denise Mina. But I am sure the important detail is number on the door.

You can see a lot of press coverage on the spot.

These pictures were taken with mobile phone. Byba has a brand new EOS 40D so I expect that I will post a link to her quality pictures soon :) Anyway, I would love to see any other photographs from the city of blinding lights!

Thanks Byba!

For what is life - just a few seconds we were given to spend the best we possibly can

2008-01-23T14:52:00.000+01:00

I've just read some sad news. The actor Heath Ledger was found dead yesterday in the apartment at 421 Broome Street, Manhattan. Read it at NY Times.

My friend works at Getty Images which is also in SoHo. Just 3 months ago, on my last day in New York, she told me to wait on the corner of Broome and West Broadway so we meet and take a lunch together. We went to a local sushi place. Of course I invited her, she has been very nice to me and let me stay at her apartment for over a week. I had a perfect day with perfect sushi and great friend at Broome street, the moment I willl remember. Then I walked away probably right around the house in which Heath was living and going out with his dog everyday.

Heath was 28 and you might know him from the movie Brokeback Mountain. I haven't seen this one yet, but I remember him from his first appearance in 10 Things I Hate About You. This is one of my favorite movies which I have seen a lot of times times. Heath is the main character that leads the story, influences the movie and you personally. I know it is just a silly teenage comedy, but it puts me into a mood in which I feel good. I feel like being free and happy like I was teenage again, without big problems and worries.

I particularly connect this movie with short one year at technical university in Prague, which sucked a lot and I decided to attend a different university instead (Economics). Works like this - when I have worries - I escape to a story of a book or a movie, to good old song or to remote part of the world where they don't exist anymore.

I feel my existence is a little useless, sitting in office at Accenture and looking into papers about computer systems calculating money for big companies. This does not give me joy and I certainly do not give joy to others. Yes, I think life should be filled with work most part of it, but with it you must be contributing to a better world at least a bit. That is the only way you can live your life and spend your given time on Earth usefully, happily.

Rest in peace, Heath, for even your short time here, you made a lot of people feeling happy and smile.

Doing things

2008-01-08T16:16:00.000+01:00

If I ever feel that I am doing something worthless to me, I am suddenly so unmotivated that I cannot even continue in this activity. I cannot spend a single minute doing it. I am feeling like this right now!

Is something wrong with me? Or I just completely need to change my life? Like I never did before (even though I wanted).

What will I become then?

How can I work for a large international company then?

The reason why blogs will die.

2007-11-09T11:57:00.000+01:00

If you have ever this blog you might have wondered - why have I suddenly stopped posting? Have my life been boring and I had nothing to write about? Have I lost my arms in an accident and could not write? Have I moved to country without internet connection? Does such a country even exist?

Well none of these is true. The reason is simply PRIVACY. I always thought that Internet is a safe place where you could write about your life and no one will care that much about you. Well that was all true until my last posts.

Believe me, when someone starts STALKING you throughout all day, you don't want to give out any of your private life to that person. This happened to me and it was one the most disagreeable thing. I felt I could not post on the blog anymore or I will never get rid of this person - the stalker.

I guess that this will sooner or later become more of a danger on a large scale. I foretell that blogs will vanish as a result of natural progression. New generation will rely on social networks such as Facebook or Orkut to communicate about their private life only with people they accept to know about those information.

If you don't think I am right, just research on the problem. You will ne surprised how many children, women or teenagers have been contacted by someone over the Internet who has then abused them or tried to lure them out to take advantage of them. I have seen one documentary about a team of adults that go to chat rooms and pretend to be kids so they catch all the psychos and sickos looking there for their victims.

Kids for multicultural tolerance

2007-04-21T23:36:00.000+02:00

Czechs kids are going to be taught to respect and be tolerant to multicultural and national differences of social groups living in their country. Schools will benefit from internet flash presentation called CzechKid which features virtual characters with different backgrounds.

I have tried the site and laughed terribly when I have found that one virtual buddy is actually Slovak boy Jožo whose parents came to work in Czech Republic because of better economic conditions :)
However, the young generation of Czech university students, at least the majority of those studying at University of Economics in Prague, might stop being racist against Slovak students (about 10%).

Okay I am having fun but I appreciate this kind of effort and wish it success. Personally, my piece of advice towards promoting tolerance would be to send EVERY student/politician/person to study abroad program like Erasmus - the opportunity to drink together with multiple national, religious, ethnic, language-speaking groups totally makes you forget stupid xenophobia!

PS1: Respect to facebook which I have been surfin' often recently. I have discovered many of friends from my Erasmus stay last year in France. It just feels good knowing that they are doing well + keeping in touch a little!

PS2 for Empty, Satankay, Vjerka: Check out Pavla virtual character at CzechKid. Notice the resemblance to one particular person ;) When you finish laughing, check Hassles "Trable - Občas se mi smějou, že jsem socka..." ;) After you finish laughing, check this pic I made like 4 years ago and compare. I guess I had an epiphany...

But behold of my great Photoshop skills! 2003 Wallpaper which resembles a condom in time spiral ;)

Free stuff in NYC

2007-04-16T02:41:00.000+02:00

Everybody loves free stuff. I love free stuff only when it is useful. Like this initiative of NYC. What a cool souvenir!

http://nyccondom.org

Actually, the initiative is fighting against the HIV/AIDS in the city. According to my sources, NYC has one of the highest AIDS cases rates in the country, "with more AIDS cases than Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, and Washington DC combined.". So remember to wear one of those when you are sightseeing there. NYC themed condoms are a hit, the city has given away 5 millions of packages in a month (compared to 1,5 million usually). Posters on the streets are both in English and Spanish.

The letters on the packet are type using NYC subway lines, I guess everybody noticed. In Prague, all they can do is teach us the alphabet. So unfair!

Principles of economics, translated

2007-04-15T00:42:00.001+02:00

If economics was taught this way at my university, I would love it!

Did You Know; Shift Happens - Globalization; Information Age

2007-04-14T01:12:00.001+02:00

Another video, this time much more serious. Worth watching though :)

I would just change the phrase in the end, for me it is "Shit happens"! :)

Guys Skis Down Tube Escalator

2007-04-14T00:52:00.001+02:00

Hehey this is great, the title says it all.
Can you believe someone placed a sticker to that escalator later on, saying "No skiing"?

Brilliant. Happy Easter!

2007-04-08T23:47:00.001+02:00

By indexed

How to remember

2007-04-07T22:16:00.001+02:00

I found amazing site called MNEMONICS GUIDE which will help you to remember a lot of common things you always forget!

Like how many days a month has, names of tropics, wonders of world etc. Also many more interesting things. Did you know that:

February has a smaller "leftover" amount of 28 or 29 days because pre-45 B.C. it was the last month of the Roman calendar year which started every March.

Or that weekdays are named after sky objects? SUNday, MOONday, and then 5 bright Roman
planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. This works for French and Spanish while English used the Norse gods/godesses.

The site has amazing stuff, just see it for yourself!

Progress

2007-04-04T14:21:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I finally quit my job so I have time to finish my thesis. Multitasking ain't working, you know? When you do 2 things at once, you don't do either of them perfectly.

So select the thing you really have to do now and focus on it until it's done. Just like me.

Nice deed was that I got three free tickets for evening concert of teenage german rock band Tokio Hotel. Nothing special, just the tickets were for VIP skybox lounge in huge Sazka Arena stadium. What can I say - room comfortable sofas, bar with chilled Stella Artois beer (on my boss, of course!) frequently replenished by a hostess, LCD screens, private bathroom. .

It was like a flat which I could live in! ;D

Google offers Google Paper Service!

2007-04-02T12:47:00.001+02:00

1st April 2007 will be the day in history when Google introduced off-line archive version of Google Mail.

Just select mail which you want to be printed out by Google and delivered to you, including photos which are printed on glossy photo paper. There is no limit in number of emails and the whole service is very environmentaly friendly. Follow the link below.

About Gmail Paper

Very helpful web "things"!

2007-03-29T23:42:00.000+02:00

These days I've become really addicted to these Google tools:

Google Reader - web application of the year!!! Dangerously addictive. Add RSS feeds of your favorite blogs and save your time just using the mighty Reader which shows the updates. Any post that you read and like, just "star" it and you don't have to bookmark it or lose it. Reading in this perfectly designed app is what I am doing all day instead of writing my thesis!
I recommend subscribing to "photography" blogs combo and my dosmojitos RSS since I don't post really often.
Google Notebook - has received new fancy look just yesterday. I have created few notebooks like Music, Quotes, Travel, Personal etc. in which I keep things for which I don't have time now but definitely don't want to forget.
Install Firefox add-on and just select anything on a web page and send it to your Notebook instatly!
Google Calendar - all time favorite. Organize your life so you can use your time more effectively. Share your calendar with your friends and family so they know what you're up to.
If you want to synchronize your calendar and use it offline-online, download Calgoo.
Google Documents - the spreadsheets are just cool to share information with your friends. I use them for sharing data online, for example phone numbers of my friends who play squash. I also keep track of friendly squash tournaments I've just started to organize every weekend!
Picasa Web Albums has 1GB of free web space and very convenient upload directly from Picasa, the greatest and easiest photo software ever.

This is the Google world, if you are interested in this stuff, have a look at Zoho Notebook or Scrybe... and wait patiently until Christmas :)

Computer Virus Mafia

2007-03-17T15:21:00.001+01:00

I have just spent half of Saturday locating and removing a nasty virus on my laptop. It is called Winfixer or Vundo and randomly opens Internet Explorer with a link to buy some anti-virus software. Also, I was not able to put my laptop to hibernation, which really really sucks.

So I have downloaded some 10 different utilities, spyware removers, anti-virus applications and read at least 10 forum posts to fix the problem. I was offered to buy some premium software but since I am principled I have used just freeware. Fortunately the infection is gone and I can hibernate again (even thought the winter is gone:)

I still think that there must be a hidden conspiracy - programmers who develop computer viruses are own employees of anti-virus software producers. The system works like Italian mafia - you have to pay for their "protection" but the threat originates, surprisingly, from themselves.

technorati tags:virus, conspiracy

Creativity killers

2007-02-28T18:02:00.000+01:00

Yes, they exist.

When I come to the office of the PR agency in the morning, switch on the PC, my creativity is rapidly starting to fade away. When I run ANY program from Microsoft Office - word, powerpoint and of course, excel, the creativity which has been left in me from my yesterday's dreams is gone for good.

I wonder if you also perceive the same phenomenon? Is it the sterility of office environment, sitting on a chair in front of a computer with all this ergonomics, typing instead od drawing which is causing this? If you work in banking, there is absolutely no problem, but in marketing and PR, it is really a huge one.

The solution I would propose is to have one kind of room in EVERY company - a living room! One with nice comfy couch, table where you can put your legs, magazines, TV, stereo, table football.... Anything that helps employees to reduce the focus from time to time, to see new horizons, to think outside the box.

Funny story today

2007-02-21T12:53:00.000+01:00

These days I am spending my time in PR agency titled PR Point doing my short-term internship. The work is interesting and people nice and there is just one man employee in the PR office besides CEO. He is Account Director and sometimes he is making a delivery boy for my lunch, I am getting used to this service too much... I even don't mind that when I press a "w" key on the PC I got here for work, it types letter "p" instead. Sometimes this causes comic mistypings... like: I don't work too much - because I pork, my last will - my last pill, I'm not weak - but at peak, you don't wander - better ponder, I don't waste time - I (copy) paste, etc. :)

The funny thing that has happened today is that I have ordered a chilli-con-carne for lunch from the restaurant with golf theme in the local district. It is called Magic Green, nothing special, but they have a hole in the carpet where you can play until your meal is ready. The specialty of the place is called "Putting game". If you "put" the golf ball into the hole on your very first attempt, you get a free bottle of wine! Second and third successful attempts are rewarded with a drink.

The story goes, today, in my lunch box from Magic Green, delivered to me by Account Director of course, I have mistakenly received gnochi with spinach and mozzarella! But I have accepted it with gratitude and finished eating the gnochi in less than 3 minutes :)

Ten minutes later, another colleague from the agency has returned from the restaurant and has brought a heavy lunch box. Handing a box to me, she has said: "This is the chilli-con-carne you have ordered, chef says he is terribly sorry. Bon appetite."

Yeah I know this is a stupid story but it feels like that the restaurant chef is doing PR internship too. Yummy... and he is doing well! Good pork!

14th February in History

2007-02-14T14:15:00.000+01:00

Every year people celebrate today for the same reasons - feelings of love, hurt feelings, They buy the same red roses, red hearts and sweets wrapped in red tin-foil.
This year, since I am single although really happier than ever, I am not going to write boring stories about unfulfilled eternal love, cruel loneliness etc... I am going to educate you what else could you understand about today and smile wide because of the small silly things you know!

Ingenuous Wikipedia will help me greatly in the trip through history.

Today, but in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray each filed a patent for the telephone. Which of them was more successful we know already, but thanks to both you can -now- pick up your phone and call somebody really really far away and tell him/her something nice. If you pick up your mobile phone, then let me tell you a small story about Jozef Murgaš, a Slovak inventor who contributed to wireless telegraphy and thus helped to "develop mobile communications and wireless transmission of information and human voice." Don't worry, this was the only boring sentence part.

This guy, who was originally a Roman catholic priest, was born in a small village Tajov in Slovakia, right next to the city I live. It was already in 1905 when he achieved a radio transmission over 30 kilometers in Pennsylvania. Imagine that the American president Theodore Roosevelt visited his lab in Wilkes-Barre, PA and T.A.Edison paid great attention to his experiments. What a honor it must have been!

Jozef Murgaš was also a painter and you can still see his painting in the church in Wilkes-Barre and also in Tajov, Slovakia. I think this is a very great way how to leave a small mark of your existence in history and ensure immortality. When anyone is looking at those paintings, he must be certainly thinking about the remarkable life this man lived 100 years ago!

Another Wikipedia entry says that today in 1989 the first of 24 Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) was launched into orbit. Valentine's effects? You will never get lost anymore while on a trip with your partner and you can also use this topic for romantic babel on stars up in the sky.

More:
Today but in 1989 a fatwa was issued on Salman Rushdie for his book Satanic Verses. - Does Islam recognize Valentine or not?

Today but in 1924 IBM has been founded. Probably the founders were single geeks and had nothing to do and no date. But they made a lot of cash and now they can buy any girl for a wife. Different approach to getting things, I would say.

Today but in 1779 James Cook, my favorite explorer and a noble man, was killed by the natives on Hawaiian Sandwich Islands. - Since then the Hawaiians became peaceful so they give you flowers and condoms when you land on their land.

The final and funniest article is about Ballantine's Day. In Norway, single persons buy a bottle of Ballantine's whiskey and drink it with other singles while discussing how ridiculous Valentine's Day is.

Happy today! :]

Happy new Bond's year 007

2007-01-02T21:27:00.000+01:00

Yeeee, so there it is, we all get another chance to have fresh new resolutions! Another chance to be more self-confident, successful, friendly, meaningful, affectionate, fair etc. Aim high this year, because the power of magical numbers will make you succeed like you are a movie star in that action movie who dodges all the bullets (and even if the bullet hits him/her, he/she is bulletproof). Yeah, in 007 you are like a James Bond!!!

Just keep this in mind and eventually every challenge you take will have a bigger rate of success. If you are a guy, you get Bond girls, if you are a girl you get Bond. You just have to believe it. Now go since this year of miracles has 364 days left and you still won't get nothing for free.

BTW good that 1st January is over, I always have in mind that what you do on that day will happen during the whole year. So this is the day of the year when I am trying to be that good that it is not me anymore :)

After a while...

2006-12-28T23:13:00.000+01:00

It is finally snowing in Slovakia. Almost one week after Christmas, we might get some white powder and go hit the ski slopes this season. It all started all of sudden while I went to see my friend's appartement.

The fun is that it is the first time I took out old car I used to drive - Renault Megane. It was parked in the garage for two months and it still has summer tires on... and there I am, on the fresh snow with these tires feeling like Santa on the sledge.

But fortunately everything ended well and the car is again in the garage and I am next to the fireplace. Wish you all that just nice memories of 2006 will remain.

Life in big city is lonely...

2006-09-25T20:49:00.000+02:00

Sometimes it gets so lonely that you are desperate. Today, at the bus stop, I have seen one gypsy guy talking to a girl on a city-light poster :)))
This one:)

Revolutionary HRM tactics

2006-08-29T16:58:00.003+02:00

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.

For marketing you need a marketing personality

2006-08-25T14:11:00.000+02:00

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?

My today's workout

2006-08-20T23:08:00.000+02:00

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!

Weekend Music

2006-08-13T16:36:00.000+02:00

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!

www.flickr.com

Live and Direct... LOVE PLANET PRAGUE!

2006-08-11T19:48:00.000+02:00

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

Once I will be a new Warren Buffet...

2006-08-10T11:46:00.000+02:00

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 don't hate cars but cars hate me

2006-07-14T15:48:00.000+02:00

Guess in what absurd situation I have found myself today. I am in Prague, doing an internship for a company that deals with car starters and alternators. Yes you are right, I am not really valuable so far, because I have no idea how these things distinguish not even how to sell them. And absolutely no idea how to sell them to France :)

But today I had a small task in which I could be excellent. Deliver some samples to an English speaking manager in Avia on one side of the city and then pickup some repaired computers on the other side of the city. I got a company car and headed for the first one. Oh what a nice car, silver body, black leather interior. All mine! The delivery went smooth, the manager liked the service, I think I did a good first impression as a professional because he asked me for my name and was pleased. That is always worth it because I could give him a call just to ask for a piece of advice concerning sales development which I am supposed to do on my internship

Then I left the company and headed back. Right opposite to main entrance to TESCO hypermarket, right at the lights, in the middle of an intersection, the engine of the car went off. I tried to start the engine but without success. Another few attempts, but no cooperation from the car. I am calling the company manager Vladimir to ask what is wrong with the car? He says it could be the immobilization system which rarely has some kind of problem and I should just wait a few minutes. Imagine my situation. I am stuck in the middle of the lights, I could not start the car which I am using for the first time in my life, this is the first helpful thing I could have done on my internship. Plus it is the internship for company that works with things that start the car. A lot of cars passed around me, I had only blinking lights and of course I was looking like the most stupid guy in Prague. Then the same police car went around twice but they must have been eating donuts because they have not stopped by.

Then one cool guy with nice blond chick stopped next to me, he jumped out, pushed me in the car to the side of the road. After few minutes he turned the key and engine started! Hooray I am saved, thank you czech man. I leave. After 10 minutes of driving, the engine just... stops. At least this time it was not in the middle of the lights or intersection, but right after the curve in the hill. I look like stupid again to all cars that pass me, sitting in the car. I was lucky that I was there only for another 10 minutes. This time Vladimir called me, then I waited for him at Tesco for half an hour and he came, we drove to car repair. Hehe, he got the same problem on the way there :)

We left the car there until the service finds the matter. Oh it is so bad that next Monday guy from company were supposed to use the car for a business trip! Now they have to drive in Kokot's Audi (to my Slovak and Czech speaking friends, it is really a surname of one guy in the work) which he sais has consumption of 14 litres per 100km. Hahaha.

Monsoon, come soon

2006-06-17T02:49:00.000+02:00

Almost same as Vierka wrote at her blog. I sit in Edo's house in Prague and outside it's raining like hell. I don't have any idea where all this water falling from the sky could come from but I am glad that the house is on the hill. It might turn to island if the rain won't stop!

Two hours ago I drove Caro and Blanca, two Mexicans that have also been in Lyon, to the bus station and they left to Vienna. Because I tried to be helpful and was guiding them through Prague for two days, only now I can say that just now my Erasmus stay is finally over.

I am trying to avoid writing about the "comeback shock" to Prague, about the way I perceive everything here to be worse than in France... I knew that this would happen :) But I probably should give Prague one more chance! Tomorrow Empty arrives so we will share our opinions on French - Czech cultural differences. And also he will have to help me changing tires on my car for summer ones, haha.

Also today, The lighting strikes above the Tatras (name of Slovak national anthem) since the parlamental elections take place. I have already sent my vote by mail. The result might cause that I will not continue driving my car over Czech-Slovakian borders, because either I stay and maybe sometime work in Slovakia (the improbable good elections scenario) or I will have to stay in Prague (the probable bad elections result). Come on, Slovaks, decide....

AU REVOIR, LYON!

2006-06-14T19:23:00.000+02:00

Time has come and I am leaving France... in about two hours. Some people already left, everybody was sad to leave.
It always feels so melancholic when things are in the end. Memories will remain forever. I hope.

Now I would like to use my favorite quote. "Everything is okay in the end, if it's not okay, it's not the end." This sentence is normally used when things are bad to think positive about future. It's funny because now I see the other meaning. Now I feel everything is allright. This must be the end.

THANKS TO EVERYBODY I MET HERE, I WILL NOT FORGET THESE TIMES WITH YOU!

PS: Why do I always have to have so many things???

Zizou, Henry, Barthez and my other new friends

2006-06-08T17:16:00.003+02:00

Yesterday evening we went to Saint Etienne, about 50km far from Lyon to see the friendly match between France - China. It was a good opportunity to see the French national football team before World Cup 2006, especially with €15 tickets from Jeff, our American friend but also honorable football referee.

What to say... game was quite okay, finally France won 3:1. But how much effort would you expect to put into a friendly match, three days before World Cup? Concerning me, I still prefer to watch tennis... or ice hockey... or swimming... or even women beach voleyball (after seeing one game of Brazilian women beach volleyball team, who will ever care about Brazilian men football team?).
The bad thing I noticed when observing crowded grandstand is that football attracts only men, juveniles and boys. Women usually say that they admire football players but I think they only watch their pictures in magazines and are not really attracted by their play. Which is the same situation when men like all nice and young actresses and in principle are not really concerned about their acting skills ;) But tell me, will women ever understand men's desire to play "games" at any age?
The good thing about football is that 90 minutes of match pass more quickly than I expect :)

So today I was in school in the afternoon and I watched Roland Garros which was on bar's TV. Czech player Nicole Vaidisova lost to some Russian... merde! In the tornameny she has already beated Amelie Mauresmo and Venus Williams. She was so close to winning again, only two balls and she would be in Grand Slam finals! I have wished this so much to her. Well she is only seventeen now, she really needs more experience. (I wonder about my life when I was seventeen:) This is how it works in tennis - Performance creates Confidence and Confidence results in Performance. The mystical combination, never let anybody to intefer into this cycle, because both also decrease at the same time. Nicole, see you again!

Sprained Ankle

2006-06-04T15:38:00.000+02:00

Live from Lyon, France... I have just sprained my beloved ankle.

I went to the nearby park to practice my tennis hits against the wall. WOW I was in such a good form that I was looking for the afternoon when I will play with Radi and kick ass!!! YOu know when you just hold the racquet and pam-pam all the hits are good. Just one of the backhands kinda sucked and ended stuck in the net above the wall. I tried to get it. I placed my racket against the wall, put my left foot on it and tried to use it as a higher, slow rebound. Not high enough. Unfortunately, as my right foot touch-downed the surface again, it stepped directly on a nasty rock. I lay on the ground in pain, hurting my right wrist as well. In this moment, I flashbacked all those ugly videos I have seen when somebody gets hurt and sprains his ankle or brokes a leg. AAA!

In a few minutes I got up and get it to the tree, hid under the shadow and drank some water. I was thinking how I will get out of here, I was losing consciousness a bit when walking and I had a bike with me. It was actually the bike that helped me a lot. The left foot was pedalling and right one could rest because there was no body weight burdening it like it would be if I was walking.

So now I am in my room, I am cooling down my ankle with ice, I got something good to drink, some chocolate... I deserve those! "Physical pain is killing you (Psychological pain destroys you)" - that's what I realized when I was walking. I did not have any accident like this for a long time so I almost forgot how bad it is, to feel something physically hurts. There are so many diseases and harms that causes pain human body so I must say "Respect to all the people in hospitals, without health we are nothing". Don't you also feel it when you are in a hospital, from time to time? All the people there deserve to be visited by their families and friends and not to stay alone. (On the picture - the right "phat" ankle in comparison to left "tiny" ankle - Monday afternoon)

Okay, this is one of my characteristics - when something small happens I always seek the big picture :) I am sorry for that. Now I am lying in my bed and thinking that I would need to have a small application to turn everything on laptop screen by 90 degrees so my head can rest horizontally on the pillow. I am going to watch some Discovery Channel documents and eat cookies which are the only joys that an accident can give you :)

PS: Let's make some grammar clear.

Infinitive	Definition	Simple Present	Simple Past	Past Participle	Present Participle
to lay	to put or place something down	lay(s)	laid	laid	laying
to lie	to rest or recline	lie(s)	lay	lain	lying

Lie is an intrasitive veb (it cannot take direct object).
Lay is a transitive verb (it is incomplete without a direct object).
Lay is the past tense of lie.

If you want to ensure that you learn this, click for a small story about lie and lay. And I wish for everyone to get laid! ;)

Fashion fades. Style is eternal. (YSL)

2006-06-02T01:06:00.000+02:00

In the meanwhile, have a look at this new (well, February 2006) campaign for French connection more famous under their marketing acronym fcuk - Fashion v Style. The advertisement was done by Duncan Jones, son of David Bowie and received 127 complaints the first week.

I would love to have his job! (even though I would become a yuppie metrosexual)

Head spinning

2006-05-31T00:23:00.000+02:00

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.

$100 laptop prototypes

2006-05-23T21:06:00.000+02:00

$100 laptop prototypes
Originally uploaded by Pete Barr-Watson.

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.

School school school

2006-05-22T20:19:00.000+02:00

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 :)

Photos from Ardeche and BubbleShare

2006-05-14T16:16:00.000+02:00

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!

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Ardeche River Kayaking

2006-05-14T12:17:00.000+02:00

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)

Weekend in Paris

2006-05-09T13:42:00.000+02:00

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 :)

www.flickr.com

Why I would never want to live in France

2006-05-02T01:15:00.000+02:00

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.

Parties again...

2006-03-20T02:23:00.001+01:00

Ok the week with many exams is gone, and a big positive thing were the numerous parties after - a reward :) First, the famous "Tous burre ensamble!" (Everybody drinks together) party here at our dorm, was very fine. On Saturday, another party at the school next to us. Three stages, one with Dj, one with bands, one with student orchestra :) Everybody drunk more than me (well I did not even drink because of the cool atmospehere). More than 1000 people I guess. Some of theme really crazy. Just look at the pictures...

Vieux Lyon

2006-03-16T11:06:00.000+01:00

Such a nice day yesterday! I went to my "french class" to St. Georges, Old Lyon. It is not a real class in school, I am just speaking french with Maria and she has to correct me all the time. I hope this will help to pull up my poor french!

When I was there, I took some photos of this ancient part of Lyon which is a mixture of the last 20 centuries and so an Unesco heritage, as the guide says. It has really nice atmosphere with cobblestone streets, historic renaissance houses, steep narrow alleys and of course quiet large churches. The sheltered passages that lead through blocks of houses can be found between the streets, they have served as a protection during WWII bombings. Two retro-looking funiculars climb the slopes of Fourviere mountain on which the quarter is built. One of them goes to Roman ruins, the other one to Basilique de Fourviere. Especially the Roman amphitheatre from 19AD is a great place! While standing on the stage at the bottom, I wondered how it was like to give the Powerpoint presentations in there? ;)

Exams have arrived

2006-03-13T23:16:00.000+01:00

So I had the first exam today. It was Business Policy and we had a case study of 20 pages, 5 questions and 3 hours. All of the students finished after those 3 hours... I personally spend 1 hour reading, 1 hour writing and 1 hour just thinking what the hell is everybody writing?! Well not my best performace, for sure.

When we were going back to dorm, we noticed a small rabbit sitting in the middle of road. We started to chase him so he gets lost but he was still running in circles. Probably he was too shocked or... it reminded me of a book of drawings, called The Bunny Suicides. Some samples:

Ok tomorrow morning I have another exam that will last 3 hours and now I am totally dead from today's gym. I need to see the slides, at least...

Le Palais de la Biére

2006-03-10T21:26:00.000+01:00

There is a place in Lyon called "The Beer Palace" and their advertisement says that they offer 300 different kinds of beers. We went out to check it out.
We arrived in "happy hour" which is until 9pm. The friendly waiter sat us to a table and then we ordered or I better should say "then we were ordering". He asked each of us what kind of beer we like, what beer we haven't tried before and brought us samples of what he recommended to us. Quite nice job, he devoted to us maybe 20 minutes for one order! So this was auite a drawback, we were dying of thirst until we could finally order. And also he said to me that I should not taste the sample he gave to Lucy because then neither of us will get the taste right. So I brainstormed with her and came to the conclusion that if we want to try the beer of the other we need to keep it in our mouth and kiss... okay I am just provoking you ;)

The beer was of course good - as always is. The only thing that prevents me from beiing a returning customer (besides time-consuming ordering process) is the price - 4-6€ for small, 8-10€ for large?? This was definitely the most expensive beer in my life :) Luckily I am going to see Prague in two weeks so I will visit numerous real palaces of beer that are there! Because for me, being a king of beer means that I can get more than two glasses in one evening ;)

Nourriture... or what do I eat here

2006-03-08T23:18:00.000+01:00

French cuisine... famous in the world!

First week I arrived I was eating in canteen of Ecole Centrale which is in the same campus. A menu for 2.8€, that was not bad for entree, main dish, desert and bread. I have to say that the dishes vere usually quite good tasting. But the steaks! Bloody hell! If you like your steak RARE then this canteen is the right place for you to eat. But I like mine MEDIUM WELL so I don't eat in canteen anymore. Am I really that principled person that if I experience once something I don't like, I don't come back trying again?

So now I more or less cook for myself because other places where to eat are quite far and more expensive. Well sometimes Jannik cooks for me his special and famous Spaghetti Carbonara (very near and absolutely the cheapest option :) and sometimes I have something small in schools cafe. But most of time, Carrefour is my ingredients supplier and I am the main chef.

My most favourite thing to cook is STEAK HACHE. Frozen steak, 1kg package, 10 pieces, quick easy, cheap and it's red meat! Everytime I come back from Fitness I want to eat this source of proteins. Plus mixed vegetables, broccoli, cous-cous or just bread, 15 minutes to prepare and finish eating.

Then it's PASTA. Million of variations - pasta carbonara, napolitana, bolognese, with pesto, with corn, with chicken meat and cream, with olive oil and olives, with mushrooms, with everything previously mentioned...

And SALADS. With tomatoes, olives, mozzarella (48 cents:), tuna chunks, boiled eggs and bacon strips, add vinagrette and olive oil and its done. Last time I also bough some norwegian SALMON + fresh dark french baguette and had it with the salad. This was the best thing ever!

I cannot forget small chocolate+vanilla cream desserts from whole milk, chocolate croissants, perfect muesli and fruit youghurts. I have to admit that Carrefour brand makes really good products! (Hidden advertising in here. Unfortunately without remuneration.)

All of these things are pretty basic and quite cheap because they are sold in larger or multiple piece packages. But they still taste very nice. When I recall my troubles while being in USA with food from stores that had no taste (or everything tasted the same), contained a excessive amount of sugar or salt, everything was sweet (meat, milk, bread) France comes as a much more better country to live. That's why "French women don't get fat" (name of quite famous book) - because they don't need to eat expensive organic high-tech low-calories natural-grown trendy food and they still eat much more healtier than American women. Well from what I see in my school, French girls are quite okay, you-know-what-I-mean ;)

At last, don't forget you eat to live and not live to eat!

Presentation... f**k it!

2006-03-06T18:04:00.000+01:00

So today we finally had the last presentations for the most important subject this term - the mighty BUSINESS POLICY.

The course was very good (not like us :). It covered the basics for any businessman - Industry analysis, Porter's five forces and value chain, GE or Boston Consulting Groups matrixes. I think every student of "economics" should know about these things. For every manager or consultant, they represent the same as a Bible for a priest or Kamasutra for a lover. ( I don't know these books :)

But in Prague, University of Economics, we have no idea what these things are! I mean we have subjects on finance, accounting, management... but actually no one teaches us how to look at the company we work for, our competitors, our environment to survive, to make money, to profit! How to make business! Which is our future job, I suppose.

This is still a very wide difference between "the western world" and our "transition country", at least in school. We are not taught how to analyse the sitation we are in, to be creative, to make decisions, to be entrepreneurial, to exploit our capabilities, to be successful. We learn "how to know things". I hope that this is gonna change a we will also be able to develop and progress economically thanks to persons that are not just "studying so they are wise" but persons that study "to find a way how to put the ideas into existence".

Okay that's it. The big credit for today's presentation goes to Jannik. When presenting, he forgot his vocabulary for a while and while unable to finish the explanation, after 30 seconds he desperately said: "fuck it. sorry!". I was in tears :)
Jannik. Of course, in the bowl there is wine!

Happy Hour Today

2006-03-01T21:45:00.000+01:00

What a cool idea to do happy hour evenings every Wednesday in the school's bar! We might have two bars in my university in Prague, but they usually don't serve as a place for parties. They are boooooring!

Here in EM Lyon, the bar is run by students that have been elected to do this function. The team changes every year or so, I think. So when the bar begins to us ("students"), active and creative people, doing something more than just serving beer is quite understandable. So that's the reason for the happy hours :)

The elections for many of the school clubs take place every year and are preceded by pre-election campaign. Basically, the guys in charge for this year give some rules to follow to competing teams to embarass them in the school. At least I think it's like this. It has been almost two weeks since the those students are running in school with plastic dicks or red girl underwear on their heads and doing funny dances during the breaks....

Okay, this is not very interesting! Right now I went to TV room to see football game between France and Slovakia. What a coincidence :) The French were very sad that thay have lost 1:2! This is quite lucky for me that Slovakia beats France maybe for the first time ever... and it brings me into a good mood when I am here!

Week of skiing drinking in the Alps

2006-02-27T18:19:00.000+01:00

I'm back from a week of "skiing" in French Alps, accurately from "skiing" in Val Thorens. Of course I was not alone! A typical Erasmus group - Germany, USA, Slovakia, Czech, Mexico, Spain, France, Finland, Lebanon - rented a very nice "gite" (mountain house in France), brought several cases of beer (and everyday needed to buy another few), put the sauna on and was enjoying one week of university holidays.

On "skiing":
The resort was heaven! I did snowboarding as always and enjoyed it a lot. Back-country snowboarding (going off slopes) proved again to be one of the best things on Earth, when you float on the snow like a surfer on the ocean wave. Only bad thing - the victim of the week was Mike (the American) who has been stolen second snowboard in this season - at least it wasn't Burton this time!
On Torino Olympics:
Been there - nothing special. We passed 14km tunnel de Frejus between France and Italy (40€ return ticket!) and parked a car in Bardonecchia where snowboarding events took place. Regular tickets for the day were sold, we have been offered better seating for 90€ (oh sure) or to go and see curling finals (oh sure). So we better took train to Torino. City was quite nice, but I think Firenze or Venice have much more to offer. Nobody besides tourists spoke English (I wonder how could they organize Olympics there?), people were eating icecream and life passes as usually in Italy - no problemo. In the evening, Lou Reed ("Perfect Day", Velvet Underground etc.) throw in a concert and the atmosphere became much more appealing to me!

On "other activities":
I mean drinking of course! So many drinking games we played and they all worked out. One of the highlights would be "Night of Marco", the mexican boy. When we went asleep, he woke up, and stepped on Martin sleeping on the floor, not because he was drunk but because we were 15 instead of 7 in the house. Then he dropped a wooden ladder on him, Martin cursing in English-Czech already. Suddently, I hear Jeff shouting: "Stop it Marco, you cannot piss here, stop pissing!!!". Hehe, Marco, drunk as he was, went to the neigbouring room and started to piss on the floor next to sleeping German boy. In the morning, he couldn't remember anything, but he was for sure the first Mexican to piss on a German!

For this, he was punished by Lebanese commando everynigh since that by becoming their "charmutta" (a bitch) ie. been attacked by guys in bed, sauna, everywhere :)

Karantena

2005-10-06T22:28:00.000+02:00

Uz dva dni prakticky sedim na kolajnici (intraku) a cakam kedy mi odpuchne polovica tvare (zase ten zasrany zub). Popritom premyslam, ci by sa mi stratila moja batozina aj ked by som letel z NYC o styri dni neskor - uz na nu cakam od soboty. Takze to teda zhrniem - bez veci a s ksichtom ako z Mrazika pozeram cely den filmy, zerem zmrzlinu a strasne sa tesim na to kedy zase budem moct ist s kamaratmi na pivo.

Okej aspon vo mne skrsla myslienka po 100 pokusoch pravidelne pisat blog zalozit dalsi s celkom funky menom (aspon teda dufam, moj oblubeny drink 2x) a pozvat do neho co najviac ludi co za to stoja. Skonci aj tento pokus preslapom za ciaru alebo vznikne konecne nieco hodnotne a nasledovania hodne?

Je tu este jedna vec. Nebudem ju tajit a poviem to na plnu hubu - chcem si dokazat, ze dokazem pisat nieco lepsie ako je obsah polovice blogov na sme.sk - a jediny sposob ako to urobit je zacat pisat!