Cologne was one of my favorite cities in Germany. Cologne has a reputation in Germany as being the place where people live it up to the fullest, laugh the loudest and longest, and generally have a greater joy for life. It's somewhat the San Francisco of Germany because it also has the country's largest and most active gay community, plus a free and legal sex trade.Cologne also has its own beer and style of drinking beer (called "kolsch") that is unique and very different from the Bavaria style that most Americans are used to. Most Americans think of Germany beer coming in the big, lidded … [Read more...]
Archives for August 2007
Munich and Hamburg
August 25, 2007 by Leave a Comment
After a more leisurely time in Frankfurt and Berlin, I had a lot of rushing about to make it to Munich and then Hamburg on time. There wasn't much time for site seeing, unfortunately. But the people were as friendly and helpful as ever.In Munich, I joined my Quest colleagues Fabian Fulle and Dirk Muller. Then we headed out to BMW for a sales call. After that, we went to a suburb to the Microsoft offices to speak to the Bavarian SQL Server user group. We also had the pleasure of being misdirected 4 or 5 times by the navigation system in our rented BMW. (I'll never use that one, I'll tell you … [Read more...]
Berlin
August 22, 2007 by 1 Comment
The Brandenburg Gate is perhaps one of the best known architectural monuments in all of German. It's a beautiful 19th century stone structure that was built to commemorate Prussian victories over their enemies and was originally named, ironically, the Peace Gate. It was incorporated into the infamous Berlin Wall during the years of the Cold War, but is now a stand-alone structure again.Berlin was a surprisingly easy town to navigate on foot. A brief walk from the Brandenburg Gate took us to the Reichstag, Germany's new Parliament building, moved from Bonn after the Reunification of East and … [Read more...]
Tired!
August 21, 2007 by Leave a Comment
I'd been going from 6 am to midnight (and even much later) all week long at PASS. So when a meeting with a colleague on the PASS board of directors was delayed by about 10 minutes. I totally crashed. So when my friend, Rick Heiges, arrived, I was completely, totally, and deeply asleep. I can't wait to get some rest! -Kev … [Read more...]
A Day in Frankfurt
August 20, 2007 by Leave a Comment
I wish I could say that this has been an easy trip. It started off badly last Friday with my flight from Nashville to Newark circling for about 1.5 hrs before diverting to Norfolk, Virginia to get more fuel. We were only supposed to land for 20 minutes, but ended up staying almost 2 hours. Once back in the air, we circled some more and finally landed about 3 hours late. For some reason, I wasn't terribly worried about missing my flight especially since the flight attendant mentioned that everything else out of Newark was running equally late. (Pictured on the right are the Deutch Bank … [Read more...]
Aunt Mary
August 18, 2007 by Leave a Comment
I got the terrible news that my Aunt Mary Dalton passed away early this morning. Aunt Mary hadn't been very healthy for nearly as long as I could remember. She suffered from diabetes, severe arthritis, and a bad heart condition. Nevertheless, this was a very unexpected and sad shock.Aunt Mary was my dad's youngest sister. She was a vibrant and loving woman. My dad often said that she was the most normal of his generation because she'd married Uncle Scotty so young (he was 17 and she was 14) and got out of their mother's house young enough not to be incurably scarred by her emotional … [Read more...]
Just one of several reasons why I hate Larry the Cable Guy
August 15, 2007 by 2 Comments
Larry the Cable Guy is a lame comedian. Many of his jokes are very old, stolen from comedians a generation or two older than him. And, he's a total poser. Take a look at him before his "Larry" days:http://youtube.com/watch?v=VROn7ZvVoW8Kiss off, Larry - or should I say Dan? … [Read more...]
Another Quest Video and Some Book Reviews
August 6, 2007 by Leave a Comment
Well, Quest has turned around another video of me touting a new white paper. I think that I look better in this one, but sound worse. Of course, I'm horribly embarrassed by all of these videos. So, no matter how good I look, I still feel uncomfortable about them.On another note, I've read a few books in my most recent travels that are worth mentioning. First, are two books from Christopher Moore - The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove and Fluke. Moore is best known for concocting interesting characters and situations, then turning them into slightly wacky laugh-fests. BTW, the topics are rated R … [Read more...]
Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature
August 3, 2007 by Leave a Comment
[Kevin: Agree or disagree? I'd like to hear your response to this article.]Why most suicide bombers are Muslim, beautiful people have more daughters, humans are naturally polygamous, sexual harassment isn't sexist, and blonds are more attractive.By:Alan S. Miller Ph.D., Satoshi Kanazawa Ph.D.Human nature is one of those things that everybody talks about but no one can define precisely. Every time we fall in love, fight with our spouse, get upset about the influx of immigrants into our country, or go to church, we are, in part, behaving as a human animal with our own unique evolved … [Read more...]
A Giving Heart
August 1, 2007 by Leave a Comment
From AllProDad, an inspiring story about Tony Dungy. I knew he was a cool guy, but this blows me away:Coaching the Grief-strickenBy: Bryanby Rick ReillyMaybe you could use a happy story after what happened at Virginia Tech, and maybe I've got one.I have this friend, an Iowa truck driver named Mark Lemke. Last July he wrote to SI, nominating his 19-year-old son, Cory, for FACES IN THE CROWD. Said the kid set all kinds of golf records and he'd been meaning to write for a long time. Said he was finally doing it now because Cory had just died in a motorcycle wreck.Well, I wrote a column (Aug. 21, … [Read more...]
