As a result of some email correspondence with the Facebook people, I am proud to announce that the major Austrian universities are now on Facebook! You may thank me below.
August 2006 Archives
I just love when someone gets something wrong, isn't made aware of it, and then everyone does the exact same thing.
Take phrases such as "Vienna goes Tennis" for example. While still grammatically correct, they are ugly, bad, English. This kind of phrase structure has been popping up all over Austria and it's really ridiculous that it hasn't been stopped. What makes this usage even more ridiculous is that the comparable sentence in German would be "Wien geht Tennis", which is just as incorrect in that language. I really want to know what genius first started the "Goes [Noun]" trend.
"Vienna goes Tennis" is currently being used as a new marketing phrase for the city's annual tennis tournament, called BA/CA TennisTrophy, that's going to take place in October. The poster attached to this entry is presently posted all across town. The organizers of the tournament might draw a few additional younger attendees, but it's also dumbing down the entire population of Vienna, which is now increasingly being taught that phrases such as "Vienna goes Tennis" are acceptable English.
As if this tournament doesn't already use enough bad English, why spell the name using CamelCase!? It would be one word in German, true, but it's two in English. Is it supposed to be some sort of compromise!?
After a long day of work yesterday (9:30am to 5pm), I went to see Miami Vice with Kerstin, Oliver, and Thorsten. The movie was pretty good, although the ending was kind of sub-par. This might be attributed to what I read on Wikipedia, namely that Jamie Foxx walked off the set before the movie was finished filming.
Afterwards we went to Sparky's, then to Billy's Bones. I hadn't been to Billy's since two spring breaks ago. It's insane how much the atmosphere has changed from its insanity heyday a couple years ago, when it was packed every weekend. Last night it was virtually empty, but that's not a complaint, as it's a pretty cool place to go to, I have decided. The bartenders were nice, Starobrno was on tap, a couple girls at the bar asked me where I was from, we could play darts, and there was a random rugby game beaming out of the projector. I will definitely go there again sometime soon.
Wednesday night we ended up coming in third place at Merry Monk's trivia night. We won the "Booby Prize", which was four double-shot bottles of Jameson, a Jameson pen, lanyard, CD holder, etc. Second place received €30, and first an insane €80 and a full-sized bottle of Jameson. I should mention that we partly owe our third place to Kathi and her friend Isabella's knowledge. We have to come in first some time again though... I know it's possible.
After trivia night nearly everyone went home, but Kerstin was nice enough to stay out with me until three or so.
This week always causes flashbacks in my head as it is the week when school started for me the last seven years. This year it's especially awkward since I'm not currently in any educational program... The first time in two decades.
My dad's apartment here in Vienna is full of history, mostly because I never throw anything away. The other day I found my day planner from 2000-2001, aka 11th Grade. I always loved the first week or two of school, because I had absolutely nothing to do. Look at the planner page I attached to this entry. It's from Friday in the second week of school... And I had absolutely nothing to do!
Ironically, it'd be the first Friday of school today, and I still have nothing to do!
I see so many ridiculously hilarious signs and posters in Vienna on a daily basis that I've decided to start a series on this very topic right here on my weblog.
My first sign is this sticker that was posted in nearly every metro car here in Vienna, as well as many buses and trams that would be affected by the subject of this sticker.
Basically, Gumpendorfer Straße, a stop on the U6 metro line is closed all summer for renovations. This message in German was translated into English as "Closed of U6 Station Gumpendorfer Straße"! Apparently the Wiener Linien (Vienna Transit Lines) didn't consult a native speaker or expert of the English language to translate this message!
After a nearly-full rollout, corrected stickers began showing up, that, didn't simply change 'closed' to 'closure', but rather rephrased the entire sentence to "U6 Gumpendorfer Straße Station will be closed..."
Almost all of the original stickers have been replaced, but I occasionally still encounter them.
I'm looking forward to two events this week: Trivia Night on Wednesday and my self-proclaimed start to fall this Friday.
Trivia Night at Merry Monk has expanded quickly since the first time Chris, Oliver, Stani, and I participated (and won) the first time in June. After a four-week hiatus due to the World Cup, it has really started to gain momentum. Last week we had about 14 people from our high school alumni base participating in two teams. It's becoming pretty crazy.
I can't believe the summer is already nearing its end. That's simply insane. Since I am constantly being reminded by people having their "last night" parties and what-not, I decided to simply try to put it in a positive light and simply kick off fall this Friday night. That'll be at Lukas, the perennial favorite bar of my historical core group here in Vienna.
If you have Facebook access you can check out the event listings of these two events and add yourself if you are in Vienna:
Facebook added a "Notes" feature today that functions just like a weblog. Other friends networks have done this as well, but they often aren't used much because it would require the user to switch weblog hosts. Facebook fortunately has an import feature that allows users to continue posting on their usual blog. Entries are then automatically imported into the Facebook "Notes" feature. Furthermore, entries can be tagged on Facebook just like photos.
The advantage this has for me is that more people will undoubtedly read my entries. First there's a "Friends' Notes" feature, which shows all recent posts of a users friends. Second, my friends will be interested if they are attached to a post through tagging, which shows up, just like photo tagging, in the top left corner of a user's profile.
More people reading my post might also inspire me to post more...
I finally figured out why my PowerBook's CD drive was jammed... I had screwed a too-long screw when I had reassembled it, which blocked the drive!
Since that problem is solved now, I was able to import and upload the pictures Oliver took during the Rolling Stones concert here in Vienna in July. Many of them came out pretty amazing. Check them out!
In the 1960s Houston, like many U.S. cities, decided to abandon its streetcar network. Thirty years later it decided it wanted it back, in its modern form, light rail. On January 1, 2004, its new METRORail system began operation... And then everybody crashed into it.
Houston's light rail crash rate was 25 times the national average during its first quarter of operations. And what makes this figure even more ridiculous is that the system is almost idiot-proof.
Anybody who has ever been to a European city with a tram network will most likely have experienced how cars often share roadway with rail vehicles and cross separated track like it's no big deal. Every time I drive to work, for example, I have to turn and cross dedicated tram trackage onto a small side road, which has no traffic light or even a warning light to warn me of an incoming tram, many of which are the new ULF trams which apart from a quiet electric hum, make virtually no noise what so ever. It's simply no big deal.
Here's some of the safety features Houston's METRORail has:
- Apart from left turn lanes on a couple blocks on a medical campus, cars never share the road with the light rail system. On the medical campus there's overhead signaling that bans cars from these lanes when a train is close.
- Pedestrians are only allowed to cross the track at designated points, which, get this, force them to walk a zig-zag pattern, so that they are "forced" to look both ways.
- Cars can only cross the track at full-blown intersections. Crossings like that part of my work commute don't exist.
You can check out the ridiculous safety video below. It'd be virtually impossible to count the number of intersections that Vienna has that are identical to the one featured in this clip. Yet somehow, barely anyone ever manages to collide with a rail-bound vehicle. There's also a historic Vienna tram safety video, which is also quite hilarious. Simply click on the screenshots to see the videos.
