Das wollte ich doch die ganze Zeit schon machen: Da ich hier so viele neue Worte lerne, wollte ich Euch an meinen Favoriten teilhaben lassen.
Coffee Worries
Ladies and gentlemen,
may I have your attention for a second. As the founder of the task force agains the shameless raping of coffee products, I demand to abolish and forbid by law the so-called Espresso Americano.
Putting two shots of Espresso into a 12oz cup and filling it up with hot water is just cruel :(
Thanks for feeling with me ;)
Die Lage der Nation
"Von Zeit zu Zeit soll (der Präsident) dem Kongress Bericht erstatten über die Lage der Nation und ihm diejenigen Maßnahmen unterbreiten, die er für notwendig oder ratsam hält." -- Verfassung der Vereinigten Staaten, Artikel II, Abschnitt III
Regen-Rekord
Wenn mich Daheimgebliebene nach dem Wetter fragen, schwingt da schon manchmal ein ironischer Unterton mit. Im Winter ist das in Oregon nämlich eher eine rhethorische Frage: So zeigt das typische Klimadiagramm aus dem Pacific Northwest nicht unbedingt mehr Regen über das Jahr wie in Deutschlands Südwesten, nur leider ist das Ganze weitaus schlechter verteilt.
Oregons Sterbehilfe-Gesetz
Obwohl es international gar nicht so hohe Wellen geschlagen zu haben scheint, war gestern in den Oregonischen Zeitungen nur von einem Thema die Rede:
Boise im Bilde
Wie versprochen, habe ich ein paar Fotos von meinem Trip nach Boise hochgeladen. (Die Stadt spricht man übrigens "Boißi" aus ;) )
Page me!
In den guten alten Zeiten, als das SMS-Schreiben in Deutschland noch günstig war und es überall im Internet kostenlose SMS-Services gab, erinnern wir uns daran, dass es auch einige E-Mail to SMS Gateways gab. Da sendete man eine E-Mail an eine bestimmte Adresse und flugs kams beim Empfänger als SMS auf dem Handy an.
Verschollen im Gem State
Good evening and greetings from Boise Airport. Sicher habt ihr mich vermisst. Falls nicht, macht auch nichts.
Bad, bad internet routing
Seen from my home country, I am currently pretty much on the opposite side of the earth. Still, the internet keeps me connected as if I was just around the corner.
It has never been so easy to stay in touch: I use Skype and SIP for telephone calls home, and SSH to talk to servers back home.
On the other hand, due to the large distance, I am subject to many internet routing problems. It is, for example, never really sure that I my packages are routed on a "good connection". Therefore, for example, today my voice on Skype sounded like crap because the packages visited Taiwan, Slovakia, Danmark and France before they finally reached their destinations in the northeastern and western parts of Germany.
Minutes later, I am routed over San Francisco, San Jose directly to Düsseldorf again.
Sometimes the internet is hard to understand... and sorry people for my voice sounding robot-like from time to time ;)
P.S.: Today I set up my internet connection to do quality of service, meaning VoIP traffic should be prioritized higher than anything else. Hope it helps :)
The second, good Espresso I found
Yeah! The second, good espresso I found here in the U.S. was... - imagine that - the one at Starbucks coffee (downtown Corvallis).
Usually, these coffee chains really suck at making good coffee. For example, Seattle's Best Coffee that's sold all over Portland (ridiculously, a Washington coffee in an Oregon city), was really not much of an enlightenment.
However, a German friend of mine (who usually knows what he is talking about when it comes to coffee) told me that Starbucks really makes a difference. Not having a Starbucks in my home city in Germany, I was quite excited: A coffee shop chain that doesn't suck?
And, ya, what can I say: The one-shot espresso at Starbucks rocks - even though it is served in a way too big paper cup and the clerk looks kind of strangely when you say, yes, I really only want a one-shot espresso. The price of 1,35 is still at least twice as much as in Italy, but considering that Italy is quite a few miles away, it is certainly worth the money.
Starbucks++ :)