http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7526743.stm
RIP Randy Pausch
I did not know Professor Pausch, but I did see his famous lecture that he shared over his personal webpage and over youtube. Look for it...its called "last lecture" and it is an amazing piece of broadcasting that touched my life.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=nwO7EnM0zWM
Randy was an incredible man who lead a nice life but was sadly killed by cancer today, July 25th, 2008. He was only 47. He did nothing except for help people and teach not only computer science, but good moral ethnics and life lessons. It is people like Randy that remind me to stay up all night working for the Relay for Life, and do my part to stop cancer once for good.
Otherwise, I am in a pretty good mood from having a nice relaxing weekend. I saw another technical museum and seeing a very nice town called Speyer, and also see the castel of Heidelberg. More english than german there...
I have the worst luck when it comes to social gathering planning. There have been so many times here in Germany, and even a few times in the USA when friends have a party or something planned for an evening then I try to come along and it NEVER happens. Something weird happens that prevents such party from taking place, or prevents me or my friends from joining. Tried to go out tonight, and of course, I was on my way home before I could even hear the dance music...
Anyways, Party on!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
My office, Alps, Italy
Hey look...its my office! Nice the nice window view, the 2 L water bottle, the excellent organizational system and the double monitors! w00t Okay, so thats what I stare at all...more the window and not my colleague Hanspeter! I have two more weeks left as of next week and I cannot believe it! Time has flown by but I finally have some closure to my project...and I get to start that on Monday!
As for this weekend, my plans for the Alps have been cancelled because the weather is too unpredicible and I want to hang around here to help the Nardini's move. I get to hang out with Marc-Andre again, so that should be fun! We are going to another technik museum and then Heidelberg to the day on saturday. Should be fun!
Nice and relaxing weekending is just what I need. After this weekend, I am going to see some friends in Stuttgart (both from OSU and my other European travels) then see the Mercedes museum and a castle. Then the last weekend probably just say goodbye to friends and lounge...
But THEN I am going to Italy! August 12-17 I will be in Rome, Florance, Cinque Terre, and Venice. Then I fly straight to Amsterdam to meet with Don and Jenny then to Tanzania...w00t
Good day all!
Monday, July 21, 2008
Daily routine and pictures!
Hey again...
So I finally have a daily routine that is keeping me busy through these days here in Germany:
630-wake up
730-drive to work
800-start work
1215-lunch
1540-drive home
1800-go on at least 5km run through the hills
1930-dinner
2100-top gear
2300-sleep
then do it all over again!
I would like to make a shout out to Eric Lider and his coaching skills helping me to keep in good running shape for all these years. Ran a really hilly 5k today in just over 20:00...not bad for an old timer like me :-)
And here is a link to pictures on my facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2134545&l=369e8&id=19711067
or just click here
Enjoy!
Stephen
So I finally have a daily routine that is keeping me busy through these days here in Germany:
630-wake up
730-drive to work
800-start work
1215-lunch
1540-drive home
1800-go on at least 5km run through the hills
1930-dinner
2100-top gear
2300-sleep
then do it all over again!
I would like to make a shout out to Eric Lider and his coaching skills helping me to keep in good running shape for all these years. Ran a really hilly 5k today in just over 20:00...not bad for an old timer like me :-)
And here is a link to pictures on my facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2134545&l=369e8&id=19711067
or just click here
Enjoy!
Stephen
Sunday, July 20, 2008
A very nice weekend...
I had a most excellent weekend! Last week of work almost killed me with all the interviews I had to conduct and the start of writing my report...geeze...this week is not going to be as hard but still lots of work because I have more interviews and a large section of my propsal is due Friday.
..but I am going camping in the Alps starting Thursday :-)
Anyways, this weekend!
Marc-Andre went to OSU as an exchange student in BA 260 this term. We kept in contact and he picked me up from Frankfurt on saturday morning. After a night of partying at "Das Fest" in Karlsruhe, it was nice to just walk around and just relax with Marc-Andre since Das Fest was nuts! I saw Marc's univeristy and his wonderful hometown before having an excellent dinner with his family. Before dinner though, we went to a HUGE museum that has thousands of cars, tanks, planes, and anything else technical! Highlights of the museum were seeing the Concorde Jet and its CCCP counterpart, seeing a bunch of creepy old Nazi tanks and metals, viewing TWO Ferrari F40's, seeing one of MAN's first diesel motors (24 cylinders!) and seeing Hitler's personal Mercedes. Yeah, Creepy....but seeing some old trains from the 1910's made up for the creepiness of seeing that old black Mercedes...
That night, a hurricane (not really) decided to come to our town. In two minutes, lightning and thunder came and I ran from the car into the bar in only 50 minutes and I felt as if I had been on a disneyland boating ride.
That night in the bar was susposed to be quiet....but we combined our forces with a bachelorette party and then most of the attention was focused on me and my terrible German. I spoke it almost all night! Highlights of the evening include me singing "Quit playing games" to the Bachelorette, having awesome dark german beer (dunkelschwarzbier!) then dancing the night away in a party in the middle of this field with my new friends...it was the best night I have had in a while!
Today I went and say Frankfurt. Very old and very new at the same time! There is a Starbucks located at the stock exchange....nice product placement...I also went to an American Bar for nice burgers for lunch *mmm!* and yeah! It was awesome!
Don't party too much everyone....
..but I am going camping in the Alps starting Thursday :-)
Anyways, this weekend!
Marc-Andre went to OSU as an exchange student in BA 260 this term. We kept in contact and he picked me up from Frankfurt on saturday morning. After a night of partying at "Das Fest" in Karlsruhe, it was nice to just walk around and just relax with Marc-Andre since Das Fest was nuts! I saw Marc's univeristy and his wonderful hometown before having an excellent dinner with his family. Before dinner though, we went to a HUGE museum that has thousands of cars, tanks, planes, and anything else technical! Highlights of the museum were seeing the Concorde Jet and its CCCP counterpart, seeing a bunch of creepy old Nazi tanks and metals, viewing TWO Ferrari F40's, seeing one of MAN's first diesel motors (24 cylinders!) and seeing Hitler's personal Mercedes. Yeah, Creepy....but seeing some old trains from the 1910's made up for the creepiness of seeing that old black Mercedes...
That night, a hurricane (not really) decided to come to our town. In two minutes, lightning and thunder came and I ran from the car into the bar in only 50 minutes and I felt as if I had been on a disneyland boating ride.
That night in the bar was susposed to be quiet....but we combined our forces with a bachelorette party and then most of the attention was focused on me and my terrible German. I spoke it almost all night! Highlights of the evening include me singing "Quit playing games" to the Bachelorette, having awesome dark german beer (dunkelschwarzbier!) then dancing the night away in a party in the middle of this field with my new friends...it was the best night I have had in a while!
Today I went and say Frankfurt. Very old and very new at the same time! There is a Starbucks located at the stock exchange....nice product placement...I also went to an American Bar for nice burgers for lunch *mmm!* and yeah! It was awesome!
Don't party too much everyone....
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Sunshine, daily life, 260 km/h
After battling some weird health things, I have finally gotten set into a nice running plan up and down the hills around here and I FINALLY have seen the sun. Tomorrow should be nice too so I might tour around the Black Forest with my neighbor and his Alfa Romeo :-)
The rest of London was cool. I saw everything I needed and somewhat regret not going inside Westminister and seeing the Parliament, but it was nice to have my friend James there and it really is a nice city. Coming back was just fine, I kept falling asleep and I got woken up by the plane hitting the ground in Germany, man that was a strange awakening!
This week is strange. I have worked at home twice, talked to people in German, French, and Spanish (along with English of course) and I have two intense days of interviewing on Thursday and Friday to figure out why communications are not satisfactory amongst IT workers. Once I start to write my master plan to fix this problem next week, my work is almost going to be done. I only have 3.5 weeks left...
This weekend is going to be wet (of course) but there is a huge party I am going to go to here in Karlsruhe that apparently the entire city goes to. Then Frankfurt on Saturday and Sunday to hang out with Marc-Andre who was in my BA 260 class at OSU. We are going to go see his university and also the Audi R8 production line! I hope I get to see the new turbo diesel R8!
Then the weekend after that, I am going to go camp in the Alps, and go to another country of some sort. It might be Poland, Czech Republic, Hungry, etc. Something close...not Greece or Finland as I had imagined earlier. I am going to wait until the Nardini's come back because they might want to come on a trip with me...maybe drive or something to Poland! Who knows how crazy I want to get :-)
As for the 260 km/h...thats the top speed of the CLS. Found that out last night! The dashboard told me so hehe If you don't know how fast that is, look up the conversion!
Thats my life, bye!
Stephen
The rest of London was cool. I saw everything I needed and somewhat regret not going inside Westminister and seeing the Parliament, but it was nice to have my friend James there and it really is a nice city. Coming back was just fine, I kept falling asleep and I got woken up by the plane hitting the ground in Germany, man that was a strange awakening!
This week is strange. I have worked at home twice, talked to people in German, French, and Spanish (along with English of course) and I have two intense days of interviewing on Thursday and Friday to figure out why communications are not satisfactory amongst IT workers. Once I start to write my master plan to fix this problem next week, my work is almost going to be done. I only have 3.5 weeks left...
This weekend is going to be wet (of course) but there is a huge party I am going to go to here in Karlsruhe that apparently the entire city goes to. Then Frankfurt on Saturday and Sunday to hang out with Marc-Andre who was in my BA 260 class at OSU. We are going to go see his university and also the Audi R8 production line! I hope I get to see the new turbo diesel R8!
Then the weekend after that, I am going to go camp in the Alps, and go to another country of some sort. It might be Poland, Czech Republic, Hungry, etc. Something close...not Greece or Finland as I had imagined earlier. I am going to wait until the Nardini's come back because they might want to come on a trip with me...maybe drive or something to Poland! Who knows how crazy I want to get :-)
As for the 260 km/h...thats the top speed of the CLS. Found that out last night! The dashboard told me so hehe If you don't know how fast that is, look up the conversion!
Thats my life, bye!
Stephen
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Hello from London!
Hey all,
So first, London is an amazing city that is nothing like I have ever seen. SO unique, and such. Just seemed like it would be greater than it actually was...but after walking for 12 miles and spending 13 hours around the city; I am DONE and ready for some awesome sleep :-)
It was really awesome and I saw everything I felt like I needed to see, but I was limited to certain places because the really popular places cost around 10-15£ to get in!
I went and saw all the typical sights. Check my snapfish site of facebook soon if you want to see some pictures. By tomorrow some will be up.
I am so tired that I will let the pictures tomorrow do the talking. I took pictures of everything! I saw my friends James and Sion! I met them back when I was in Spain and they made time to come visit me...they are cool friends for sure!
Time to go to sleep, I am going to go to Buckingham Palace in the morning, and in to Westminister Abby before I go back home. Actually go in this time instead of just viewing the outside.
W00t, I miss german, but It is nice to have signs in english...even though I have heard more spanish than any language here in London.
Peace and Love,
Mr. S Hodge
So first, London is an amazing city that is nothing like I have ever seen. SO unique, and such. Just seemed like it would be greater than it actually was...but after walking for 12 miles and spending 13 hours around the city; I am DONE and ready for some awesome sleep :-)
It was really awesome and I saw everything I felt like I needed to see, but I was limited to certain places because the really popular places cost around 10-15£ to get in!
I went and saw all the typical sights. Check my snapfish site of facebook soon if you want to see some pictures. By tomorrow some will be up.
I am so tired that I will let the pictures tomorrow do the talking. I took pictures of everything! I saw my friends James and Sion! I met them back when I was in Spain and they made time to come visit me...they are cool friends for sure!
Time to go to sleep, I am going to go to Buckingham Palace in the morning, and in to Westminister Abby before I go back home. Actually go in this time instead of just viewing the outside.
W00t, I miss german, but It is nice to have signs in english...even though I have heard more spanish than any language here in London.
Peace and Love,
Mr. S Hodge
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Top Gear, London, missing my sunshine
As I sit here watching Top Gear analyze a new Porsche, looking out into the clouded German sky, I can't help but miss the perfect Oregon summer. Here, it is going to be 70 and cloudy for the next few weeks, and it will be perfect at home. It is amazing how much the sun can make the difference. I have so much here, an amazing car, a nice house and a cool job but I really miss my sunshine.
See you Mr. sun in probably about a month.
I thought I would try to find the sun in London? Nope! Rain there...
Dang!
In other news, I am excited to go to London even though its going to be rainy there. I have some friends there that are going to meet me so that is going to be great! I need to get some pounds before I go though....
And I found that I am terrified of talking on the phone...emails and texts are okay. Long story.
Laters!
See you Mr. sun in probably about a month.
I thought I would try to find the sun in London? Nope! Rain there...
Dang!
In other news, I am excited to go to London even though its going to be rainy there. I have some friends there that are going to meet me so that is going to be great! I need to get some pounds before I go though....
And I found that I am terrified of talking on the phone...emails and texts are okay. Long story.
Laters!
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