Around the Interwebs

Santa Cruz, CA

This town is beautiful. It's located approx. half an hour away from Silicon Valley, on the beach with nice little houses. I could get used to live there :) The beach is like a mini Venice Beach. The amusement park on the beach is packed up with shabby rides but the view is spectacular. Here're some pictures:

And the first time in my life I could see some sea lions outside a zoo

A lady dropped her sunglasses from the pier while watching these sea creatures. She didn't seem to be upset at all.

Like baby, baby, baby ohh

Yesterday we were watching Glee at home. It was the Bieber Fiever episode. And now I've found this on the net, epic.

When was the last time you read the Mercury News, Sir?

I received like 5 phone calls with this question in the last 2 days. The reason? My subscription ended. Why did I have a subscription? Because the night of thanksgiving a black foster kid was knocking on our door selling subscriptions and he received college credits for each subscription he sold. So I got one, it was only $20 and I could also help him. The receipt from the subscription was my proof for living in the address what I told when I bought the car. So it was useful by the time. How much paper we read? Maybe 10% of all what we received. Who has time to read newspapers in the morning any more? And why would you read it in the evening when you already read everything online during the day? And yes there's the online access, but why should I pay for news when I can get it for free on other internet sites or by watching the news on TV? Oh, I'd still get the Sunday edition with lots of coupons? Well we used about 5 coupons during the 2 months we received the paper, and we did save $5 using them. But still to me it doesn't sound like the deal of the century.

- Could you please remove my phone number from the list you guys are using?
- Certainly, sir!

I hope they really did.

Search engines are fun

Reviewing the search terms used in Google to find my blog is fun. For the term below my blog is no. 7 on the result list :)

Disrespecting coffee

At my first workplace they ordered coffee beans from Brasil via post. My second workplace was an American company so we had mostly vending-machine coffee but next to that there was an option to drink Douwe Egberts Omnia. It's Hungarian blend, ant not too bad. In Germany one of my workplace ordered coffee roasted according to their taste directly, the other one imported Java beans (the coffee, even though the connection might have been trough the programming language). Even the company was named after a coffee plantation in Java.

The espresso machine in all these offices worth €2000-€4000...

In America we have Starbucks which turned coffee into a multi-hundred-calorie beverage with all kinds of flavourings. Yuck! In shops you can find Folger's and Maxwell House. Both suck. Not to forget the awful filter coffee these people are drinking. But god bless the organic farmer's markets where you have a wide selection (at least 20) of blends and you can even grind them yourself (so you can select the really fine level for espresso).

In the office we have Nescafe...

Americans say the coffee we're drinking in Europe is like mud. Well what could you expect from people drinking sugary soda even at home instead of water :)

Haircut

Getting a good haircut is one of the most difficult things here. There are some good salons, what you get for $70 that they do a precise job. No tuft is longer as it is supposed, length is consistent everywhere. Well, the bad thing that it is not even close enough what you explained you want to have... Your other option is the $25 haircut, what you need to finish at home fixing the mess they made (on the right the length is ok, on the left is almost twice as long). Regardless the price the technique they're using is the same my hairdresser used in the 80s in my small home town. If you explain how you want it they just don't get it.

I think American's are simply modest in everything. They're 20 years behind all the trends. The most modern furniture is IKEA the rest looks like a home in the late 80s in an apartment in a housing estate (értsd panellakás):

From clothing the only brand that is up-to-date is Abercrombie and its co-brands. And of course the European brands like Diesel or Superdry, but they're even more expensive than back at home. Or maybe you can spot the difference easier (Levi's jeans $50, Diesel jeans $180). Many people look like they're dressing from Walmart and/or Target.

Also bitte Lena hast du schon daran gedacht, dass Du nach die Vereinigte Staaten bzw. California umziehst? Ich wuerde mich sehr freuen!!!

Lena was my hairdresser in Munich. She's working in the local Toni and Guy saloon, and she is the best hairdresser ever! Free advertisement from a satisfied customer :)

Or please open a Toni an Guy salon in San Francisco. This supposed to be the capital of gayness (eq. stylish people AFAIK). But according to their website I should either go to Los Angeles or Japan.