You are Germany

You are Germany is a motivation campaign:
http://www.du-bist-deutschland.de/

It is supported by 20 German Media companies.
A number of artists give their voice, too.

The essence of the campaign is:

You are Germany =
You can build and design Germany.


You are Albert Einstein =
You can become a new Albert Einstein.

I think it's a great campaign.

Heavy summer rain

This afternoon there was a heavy summer rain in town. It also gave my neighbourhood a visit. I was pretty incompetent freezing it on the photo. Well, you must use your imagination. Look at the roof of the other house... The rain drops looked like half transparent pieces of a big rope.

Pretty neat, as long as you're inside, of course.

Münster Shopping Arcade opened

Today the new Shopping Mall in the heart of Münster - called Münster Arcades - opened its doors. Maybe you remember the short blog notices of March, 9th and March, 20th.

If you should know Potsdamer Platz Arcades in the German capital Berlin, it will remind you of it as its look is somehow similar.

Meeting Impressions

more...
Meeting Impressions
Meeting Impressions

City Magazine NA DANN

The city I live in is called Münster and is located in North-Rhine-Westphalia, Germany (this link's function is non-functional). It's one of the big student cities in Germany as I described earlier.

When you want to...
* greet someone,
* send some longing messages publicly
* sell stuff
* look for a room
* look for a vacation or mini job
* and much more
...Münster's city magazine Na Dann is the address for you.

Na dann can be translated as Well then!

People arriving in Münster for studying or due to other jobs usually have some problems recognizing the utmost importance of the Na Dann. However, sooner or later, everyone gets it.

Certainly one reason for not grasping its meaning at first, is based in its name Well then!
Just imagine some senior student talking to a newbie and mentioning the Well then!:

I read today in the Well then! that someone was looking for a canary.

As you'll realize, most newbies fail to understand this somewhat cryptic sentence.

At best they understand something like...
I read today in the well, then that someone was looking for a canary ?!


...to be completed

Münster Movie Brochure Art

In Münster, the city I live in, they publish a pretty artful movie news brochure each week. It's called Kino aktuell.

It contains lot's of belittled movie posters. So actually it's kind of an art brochure. Besides the nice poster printings there are lots of infos in there, too, about the upcoming and already running movies.



...to be completed

A lottery ticket - Part 1

The most popular German lottery is called 6 out of 49. You simply have to choose 6 numbers out of 49. Pretty easy, ain't it ?! Well, you have a chance of 1:14,000,000 to do it properly. (To win the jackpot you have a chance of 1:140,000,000).

At first, there's the need for finding the right numbers. No easy job.
Secondly, you have to fill in the blank lottery ticket: Above is a picture of the online formular, taken from www.westlotto.de.

Westlotto belongs to the German lottery block and is responsible for the Federal State of North-Rhine Westfalia. That's the German State I live in.

The hardware style paper formular looks very similar. You usually fill in your paper ticket with your local kiosk. The filled ticket can be discarded after having been fed into the lottery computer.

The numbers are fed into the computer by inserting the filled in ticket into the slot of the machine. You'll get your receipt. Don't loose it as your name is not written down on it. So, in case your ticket wins, it's the only way to claim your gains.


A lottery receipt for the first prize usually looks like this:









As you can see, the ticket is still valid.

Sparkassen Arcade

Sparkassen Arcade - Shopping Mall, Münster

German Public TV and a trailer

Once upon a time, before Private TV started, there were just two TV stations in Germany. Nowadays, they still exist alongside Private TV.

The two public TV stations are called:
ARD (First German public TV station) and its affiliated radio stations.
ZDF (Second German public TV station)

The ARD actually consists of statewide residing TV stations (often referred to as 'third channels') which are affiliated by a kind of holding structure. Each statewide transmitting station also contributes to the Federal wide transmitting ARD channel.
- NDR (North German TV and radio station)
- RB (Bremen German TV and radio station)
- HR (Hesse German TV and radio station)
- SR (Saarland German TV and radio station)
- MDR (Middle German TV and radio station)
- WDR (West German TV and radio station)
- RBB (Berlin and Brandenburg TV and radio station)
- SWR (South Western TV and radio station)
- BR (Bavarian TV and radio station)

This evening I watched a nice trailer on WDR.

It showed selected sights of North Rhine-Westfalia at night. Some highways got lightened by the front lights of the approaching cars, Dortmund soccer stadium came into view and Centro Oberhausen Shopping Mall with its center glass hall.

You could see the people in the glass hall of Centro Oberhausen from above. I assume that the camera was located below one of those Blimps (little airships).

It was a very thoughtful, silent and touching scenery.

Accompanied by the moving pictures there was a relaxing music, just consisting in soothing chord music and very few notes. It seemed to me that the author of the little intermezzo movie intended to show his feelings and solidarity to his State.

...to be completed

Germany and its Federal States

"Germania est omnis divisa in partes XVI., quarum unam incolunt Hesse, aliam..."

Germany altogether consists in 16 Federal States. Each State owns a Parliament and State Government. State Governments are settled in their respective State Capitals. Cognizances are devided between the Federal Government and the States. Education matters, e.g., mainly belong to the cognizance of each State.

Germany has a Federal Parliament (about 603 seats), a Federal Council (representing the 16 States) and a Federal Government. All of these three institutions are located in the German capital Berlin.

The German Chancellor presides the Federal Cabinet. His political and military power can be compared to that of the American President. The Federal Cabinet is synonymous with the Federal Government.

Germany also has a Federal President but his duties are mainly representative. His residence is loacted in Berlin, too. The representative location is called Castle Belle-Vue (Schloss Belle-Vue).

The 16 Federal States are:
01. Schleswig-Holstein (Schleswig-Holstein) - State capital: Kiel
02. Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen) - State capital: Hannover
03. Bremen (Bremen) - State capital: Bremen
04. Hamburg (Hamburg) - State Capital: Hamburg
05. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)*
06. North Rhine-Westfalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen) - SC: Duesseldorf
07. Brandenburg (Brandenburg) - State Capital: Potsdam
08. Berlin (Berlin) - State Capital/Federal Capital: Berlin
09. Hesse (Hessen) - State Capital: Wiesbaden
10. Saarland (Saarland) - State Capital: Saarbruecken
11. Thuringia (Thueringen) - State Capital: Erfurt
12. Saxony-Anhalt (Sachsen-Anhalt) - State Capital: Magdeburg
13. Saxonia (Sachsen) - State Capital: Dresden
14. Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland Pfalz) - State Capital: Mainz
15. Baden-Wuerttemberg (Baden Wuerttemberg) - SC: Stuttgart
16. Bavaria (Bayern) - State Capital: Munich

*this State is very poor. That's because all money was spent on a long State name. It has a State capital though called: Schwerin

I'm living in that green State.

My favorite Late Night Show

My favorite German Late Night Show is called Harald Schmidt.

It's also the name of the guy to the left who's running it.

I don't know exactly why I usually enjoy watching it. Well, I guess you'd learn a lot about my way of thinking if you'd understand his way of thinking.

Harald Schmidt has a certain way of looking at things. And I recognize some analogies with me. Some people say he's mean and sarcastic. Guess he is. But what's refreshing about him is that he doesn't pretend or lie.

Why ? Because it's his rhetorical style turning something negative into something positive and vice versa. Therefore there is no need to lie 'cause he can always level very negative and very positive things to a more realistic level. Doing this he can make things shine brighter or less bright. He usually achieves this by the means of exaggeration.

Thereby he gives you a second way of looking at it so that your very own brain can generate a new differentiated view. 'Cause most things are not what they seem to be at first sight, right ? Everything and everyone has its/his faults - and it's a good thing to awake.

A little but significant example shows another aspect of his style: To self-deprecatingly look at your own faults:

When he envies a colleague named Pete for getting a TV prize he himself had won the previous years he'd tell it somehow like this: Oh well, Pete is a great colleague, very skillful, great actor and a friend of mine. Congratulations Pete !! We cherish your work !

Then turning to the audience: Folks... I know, I shouldn't have done this... sniff... feel so guilty... but I have to confess that I told the prize jury: I'm broke... no donation this year.

And finally, he's a minimalist: Minimum input. Maximum output.

Another spring day

Today it's the second spring day - in a row.
19°C (66°F), subjective: 35°C (95°F)
Humidity 52%, subjective: 150%

Think I'm getting hot flushes. No joke.

Spring feeling - again

Today it's blue sky time - again. Some cirrus clouds. First time since Thursday. Yepeeh !!

Well, to be honest just now it's getting cloudy again. But some blue color behind the white potage is still visible.

With good will.

How poverty appeared on stage

First signs of poverty appeared in Münster about two years ago.

One of these so-called quality shops in the main pedestrian shopping street closed and no equal quality shop moved in.

Instead one of those 1,00 EUR shops (where all articles just cost 1,00 EUR) appeared on stage. Actually, it was said to just fill in the space until the next quality shop would follow. But no other quality shop turned up as months passed by.

Another shop closed, I think it was a clothes shop, and a discount bakery opened up.

Today, there are numerous discount bakeries spread all over town.

Spring on March 10th 2005

Weather today was excellent [x-cell-ant].
No more snow on the streets or in the urban nature.
Blue blue sky. Terrific contrast between houses and sky.
Lush deep blue.

Birds started singing today at sunbreak sharp as I heard from hearsay.
Kind of spring feeling. Well... apart from the temperatures:

About 7°C. Maybe -7°C.

Can't tell for sure 'cause the Watch-Temperature-Alternating-Combi-Display-Panel at the local Deutsche Bank branch is broken: Minus letter doesn't work.

By the way... you know the Deutsche Bank ?
You also know the Sparkasse ? - No ?
It's a local bank. Pretty independent. Each town in Germany has 'em.
Most people here in Münster have an account with the Sparkasse.
More branches. More ATM.

The new shopping arcade is being build and owned by the Sparkasse.

New Shopping Arcade

Münster's new shopping arcade is to be opened in May 2005. You probably say that's nothing special. Well, as you know, Münster is a pretty small town, so this is probably the biggest building project around.

The haircutter

Today I decided it was a good idea to visit a haircutter.

Getting my hair cut is always a question of believe for me as I have to remove my glasses when the cutting part starts.

I'm shortsighted so I don't really see what's going on. My eyes may be looking critical from the haircutters' perspective but in fact I don't really see what the doc is about to operate.

Well, maybe it's better this way !

So, no difference in the routine today.

She asked me how to cut it and I gave her my basic ideas. Afterall... you can't do much wrong about a man's haircut, can you ??

When I think about it: Haircutters only take things away from you: Your hair and your money.

But I digress: Snippety snip... I hear the scissors work... and down falls the poets mane.

Thanks Miss... could I please get back my glasses ?

Wintriness of March 4th

It's around 0°C (32°F) in Münster.
Relative Humidity 62%.
Streets clear. Snow on leafless trees, bushes and grasslands.

Good to bear, no problems due to the pretty low humidity. Without high humidity, the human body heat is not sucked off from the body as it happened often in the past few weeks.

You don't realize that wintriness can be that good to bear until humidity drops like today.

-30°C (-22°F) could come.... piece of cake.

The Pink Panther Strikes Again

Allright, this is gonna be a fairy tale. Any similarities with reality are merely accidental and by no means intentional.

Once there was a major German company... - let's assume out of the telecommunications branch - calling itself The Pink Panther. It was market leader and by far the biggest competitor in the market.

As the internet became more and more important, there was a huge internet bubble building up. Nobody knew exactly that it was a bubble at that time, however... it was.

So, one fine day the managers of The Pink Panther sat all together, warming themselves at the big open fireplace in their huge conference hall and the idea came up: "Why not go public with our internet activities... let's collect some money. "

"Oh yeah... great idea boy !! Let's collect some big big mo mo moneeeey !!!" the fellow managers joined in.

All eyes were glowing, gleaming and beaming happily.

Having said is having done. Short time later, let's say in the magical year 2000, Little Panther was released into life. Stocks of Little Panther were sold for, well... let's say 27 EUR.

Ok... you guys out there certainly wonna hear something motivating, something emotionally positive here now, don't you ?? Something like: "Little Panther was developing great", or such ?

However, the continuation of this story is a sad one: Stocks developed pretty bad in the time that followed. Little Panther was the market leader but stocks dropped to - let's say - about 9 EUR. Everyone at The Pink Panther was pretty sad about this development. Some people at headquarters even feared that they could be held responsible for this unsuccessful business development of Little Panther.

At least, some years later (without gains), suddenly there was light at the end of the tunnel: Gains were showing up. All little stockholders didn't know and also didn't realize this too well as it was not communicated loudly in the news. Maybe Little Panther was afraid of his own shadow ?

At least it was communicated in a way that nobody seemed to trust Little Panther well enough for to invest his money into his stocks.

And then - on a cold and sunny day - a bright young manager of The Pink Panther had a great idea. Shyly he uttered to his older collegues:

"What... if we just buy back the stocks of Little Panther now. Would be a great deal, wouldn't it ?? Shares are still very low now and gains are showing up too, finally. Wouldn't it be a nice thing to kick out all small stock suckers and get the full monty... cheap stocks, present gains and future gains ? I mean: After all, we know that Little Panther will do good now.... ?!"

His collegues looked at him arcanely and their faces lit up: "Boy... you've earned your wings today. Gosh... that's it !! YOU MAYBE SAVED OUR ASSES BOY !!" And one slightly unfriendly looking guy added: "Fooling those dumb stock suckers of Little Panther gives me a real kick, our stock holders will be pretty happy about that deal."

All cheered at their young collegue benevolently and faces were beaming happily.

After thought: It seems that nobody - especially not the little stockholders - found anything strange about the sudden trust of The Pink Panther into Little Panther.

In other words: I think this fairy tale is a total crap as it is just unbelievable. Am I right or what?

Beginning of spring

Since yesterday night it's pretty cold in good old Germany.

Streets were free this morning. It was just cold as usual.

But later this afternoon it started snowing. Actually It didn't finish until Mother Holle had dispersed a snow layer of about 10-15 cm.

Pretty nice.

Apart from the fact that the snow on the ground damps down loud noises, it's enjoyable to see the flakes falling.

Well, hope all you guys and gals out there have a warm room to spend those cold days.