Heading from North to South - Viva Italia!

Today I'll be flying to the German North, to Bremen. I have to organize a visit of customers to a plant of my company.
Tomorrow I'm going home and we are leaving to Italy by car in the evening. To our beloved Tuscany I have written about it the last years.

Our "academic circle" is on the agenda. Holiday coverage will be on my mind.

I'm in a good mood:

• No responsibilities there, well besides fetching beer sometimes
• Good weather forecast
• The "Club" 1.FC Nürnberg has won the German league cup. A myth is back from 40 years of sleep. I have to take off my hat! And I will write about it more. I promise.
• Only five GOOD people starting tomorrow, we will have enough space in our two cars. The BAD people will arrive on Tuesday by plane to Rome with small luggage (gay handbags?). Noblesse oblige.

A little reflection would be not that bad - at the G8 summit in Germany

In the Süddeutsche Zeitung Jens Bisky writes that he has been mixing with anti-globalisation activists to find out more about their preparations for the G8 summit.

"The majority of the left-wing anti-globalisation movement does not want to and will not take up the sword. At the very most they might practise a little 'civil disobedience' as it is called today. And this is what they are rehearsing now. Last Saturday in Berlin Kreuzberg, a group of mostly young people met for blockade training. There was plenty of useful stuff to learn. How to communicate under stress. Which make-up is tear-gas proof. How best to be carried off by the police."

Why do they have to build this fence? If they ever think total security is possible this is not true. What kind of life is this to live for a politician?

Stop showing fear as common political reflex. Isn't this what they wanted?
I would like this on the agenda of discussion.

To Everything There Is A Season: Konrad is turning 38

I'm turning 38 today, 40 is getting near but not too close yet.

To everything there is a season. What's on my mind:

• To enlarge our family
• To enjoy our house and garden
• To cultivate friendships
• To improve my guitar abilities
• To build character
• To learn, learn, learn and never stop
• To work less and earn more, wouldn't it be good?
• To stay in shape
• To laugh as much as possible, well sometimes crying is not that bad, too
• To not get oversexed and underfucked, hehehehe
• To prepare to become 40 soon

Have a drink on me! I don't care about tomorrow but today I'll be there.

Everything you could ever want to know- about me

Now I have decided it. Friends, family and assorted....

Now you will have the chance. For reality. I swear I will try to be honest. I have a new linked part of my blog (Question and Answer) where I will answer all kind of questions you want to ask me. Private questions, interests, opinions, weird stuff, sins, shoe size whatsoever......

Just send me a comment whenever you feel like there is anything you would like to know.

Or you can write me an E-Mail to:

caballito-del-diablo@freenet.de

I hope there will be something on your mind!

Famous Germans: Dirk Nowitzki (NBA MVP 2007)

And so he did it: Dirk Nowitzki has won the MVP throphy of the regular NBA Season 2006/2007.

He has won with 1.183 points including 83(!) first place votes, from a panel of 129 sports writers and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. Players were awarded 10 points for each first-place vote, seven points for each second-place vote, five for third, three for fourth and one for each fifth-place vote received.

Dirk Nowitzki is the first European Player and the fourth international player to be awarded with the so called Maurice Podoloff Trophy.

He led the Dallas Mavericks to the best-record (67-15, .817) in the NBA, tying for the sixth-best single-season winning percentage in NBA history. Nowitzki averaged team highs of 24.6 points, 8.9 rebounds and a career-best 3.4 assists while setting career-highs in field goal percentage (.502), three-point field goal percentage (.416) and free throw percentage (.904). No other player could keep up with this figures.

Dirk said that he is overwhelmed with the honor of the MVP award. Typical for him in his modest and likeable way. He never demanded to be elected. He proved the right on the play ground.

Now he and his best friend Steve Nash have won all of the MVP trophies of the last three years. Inconceivable what would have happened if the had remained and improved in the same team! Probably a winning streak of NBA titles. Maybe fate will bring them together again.....

It would be a great Canadian-German-axis. No axis of evil by the way.

I'm so happy for him. The award will help him to forget the desaster of the first playoff round against the Warriors. I hope he will come back even stronger next year. And if he will never win a title and championship ring, so what? There have been others with great great names in basketball history like: Karl "Mailman" Malone, Kevin "The kid" Garnett, Allen "The Answer" Iverson, Charles "Sir Charles or the round mound of rebound" Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Grant Hill or Anfernee Hardaway.

The dream of a championship will stay alive! MVP, MVP, MVP! Dirkules!

History repeating - Canada is ice hockey World Champion 2007

Give three cheers for Canada! The Canadian ice hockey stars have wiped out the Olympic disgrace of Turino 2006 (they have lost in the quarter finals there) and won their 24th World Championship in Moscow of all cities!

The Maple Leafs beat Finland 4:2 (2:0, 1:0, 1:2) with two goals of tournament MVP Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets and without many of the great NHL stars. Coach Andy Murray did a good job.
Finland lost its 5th final game after their World Championship 1995: At the world championships 1998, 1999 and 2001 and at the Olympic Games 2006. Poor Suomi!

That NHL stars do not mean a team and a guranteed World Champion, well that is the story of the Russian Team. They swept through all the games before the semi finals with a young hungry team where they were stopped by the Finnish Team. The curse of all hosts of World Championships since 1986 did not come to an end: None of them could win the title at home!

Canada will have the next chance next year! If not then, then when?

Caballito del diablo - Year Two

It is the second anniversary of my blog today. Two years have passed since my very first post appeared here on Caballito del diablo, May 9th 2005.

A lot of things have changed since then.
I was 35, now I'm 37. I'm still working at the same company, May 1 st I had my 10th anniversary there. My daughter has grown rapidly and is heading to kindergarden. Our second baby is on its way. We have bought and renovated a house and moved in last Christmas.

I thought again I'd guide you through some of my favorite moments and highlights from the second year of CDD because I'm complacent and high-handed like that.

Data of the last two years

246 posts
10974 unique visitors (average 438 visitors per month, 104 per week and 15 per day). The numbers have almost doubled compared with the first year.
Coming mainly from:

Germany	6636	60.47%
United States	1477	13.46%
Canada	562	5.12%
United Kingdom	374	3.41%
Switzerland	287	2.62%
Austria	186	1.69%
Spain	139	1.27%
Philippines	132	1.20%
Australia	90	0.82%
Mexico	84	0.77%
France	79	0.72%
Hungary	71	0.65%
Japan	46	0.42%
Netherlands	43	0.39%
Singapore	42	0.38%
Belgium	39	0.36%
Italy	38	0.35%
India	37	0.34%
Sweden	32	0.29%
Poland	27	0.25%
Argentina	26	0.24%
Norway	25	0.23%
New Zealand	24	0.22%
Europe	22	0.20%
Malaysia	21	0.19%
Ireland	20	0.18%
Colombia	19	0.17%
Turkey	19	0.17%
Finland	17	0.15%
Venezuela	17	0.15%
Peru	16	0.15%
Chile	16	0.15%
Israel	15	0.14%
Brazil	14	0.13%
Denmark	13	0.12%
Russian Federation	12	0.11%
Vietnam	12	0.11%
Korea, Republic of	12	0.11%
Portugal	10	0.09%
China	10	0.09%
Romania	10	0.09%

Still not many people from China!

Red Letter Day

The noted German satirical magazine Titanic linked to my blog on July 11th, 2006 and referred to my post with a translation of some of Robert Gernhardt's poems.

This lead to more than 1.250 (!) visitors of my blog on that day, about 25% of the total number of visitors since the coming into existence of my blog.
Amazing enough for me. The Blogger system must have been close before a breakdown.

Unfortunately nobody left a comment, but that seems to be a trend of my readers anyway.
Anyway, a special day for me. All my statistics have exploded. The Gaussian distribution was overridden that day. Caballio del diablo flew through choppy seas and dodged the iceberg.

Is there anybody out there?

Hardly anybody leaves a comment anymore. Heys buddies what's going on? Please let me know if my blog is of any interest still, okay?

It ain't over till it's over

The Mavericks have lost in the first round of the Playoffs 2007. What a huge upset. And Dirk Nowitzki is probably going to me MVP. What an irony of fate.

Soccer Worldchampionship 2006 in Germany

It feels like this is so long ago but it is not yet one year. We had a great time!!

It's my life


My blogging world hasn't changed very much. So feel welcome to join us.
Canada is still on my mind. Well my sister-in-law Catrin lives there (we miss you!) and some other fellow bloggers: Steve, Erika and Samantha.
Other bloggers come from all over the world: Lonnie, Hippy Monkey, Tuna Girl, Joe, Cindy-Lou and Sara-Beth from the U.S.
But also Jo from Singapore, Pillepalle from Hungary, Patroclus from the U.K., Jayred of Switzerland and Kathy from Germany.

Finally

I would like to thank all my "non-virtual" friends as well, who read the blog enthusiastically and often and then still mess me up by knowing all kinds of weird, intimate stuff about my life.

What is it good for? Absolutely nothing