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08th of April birthday parcel sent from Austria to South Africa 30th of April, first enquiry at the South African Post Office for the parcel as no collection slip has yet arrived - Answer; no parcel has arrived 08th of May, second enquiry for same reasons with same result 22th of May, third enquiry for same reasons with same result 05th of June, fourth enquiry for same reason - were told, "oh, that parcel has been sent back to Austria as no one collected it" FUUUUUUUUUUUCK

During the downtime i had with my back I put on some serious weight. The negative highlight was 113kg (249 pounds for my american friends). At that point i really felt uncomfortable and decided its time to get rid of some kilos. I was pretty strict with mostly eating fruits and vegetable. I cut out snacks and sweets completely, use no longer suger in my coffee and after 5 weeks i am now down to 99.5kg (219 pounds), which is when you are 1.86cm (6.1 ft) still too much, but i feel much much better already. Now that i realized i dont really miss those fattening stuff, i decided to go for 89kg (196 pounds), which shall be my final goal. I keep you up to date....

Long weekend getaway + 3 Airports + eleven times controlled/checked as if i am on some sort of watch list or member of an terrorist organisation = considering buying my own plane and screw that whole crappy procedure To give you an example; on my way home from Airport C to Airport B, i get controlled first at arrival (which means belt off, shoes off, all pockets emptying) in a queue of like 2 billion people (or at least it feels that way), finally its my turn and stop, somewhere it is still beeping on my body, so the thorough examination starts, back and forth about 4 times, it`s still beeping somehwere on my body but they couldnt find anything and finally give up. I move about 3 steps further to my hand luggage and i was told that i have some sort of weapon in side the bag and i must open it in front of them, so i open my hand luggage and we are searching for about 20 minutes through my bag to no avail, needless to say the queue behind me was getting reeeeaaaally long, and my patience was no longer existing. Eventually after putting that hand luggage 5!!!! times through that xray, they gave up (i would like to add that the whole time i was standing there without belt and shoes) I really feel that terrorist accomplished everything the wanted, they screwed up the lifes of millions of ordinary people.... p.s. i rather not mention any of those involved airports, because by now i start to believe they are out there to get me....

I was recently told i am one of the few male that actually enjoys watching chick flicks, now what does that say about me? Chick flick (also "chick's flick") is slang for a film designed to appeal to a female target audience.... Although many types of films may be directed toward the female gender, "chick flick" is typically used only in reference to films that are heavy with emotion or contain themes that are relationship-based (though not necessarily romantic)... ...to put it even more drastic, i would like to quote Jude Law`s Character Graham Simpkins in The Holiday, as he referred to himself as a weeper when it comes to romantic movies... ...to my testosterone`s defence, i have to say though, that i do not have problems to go, after watching (and weeping) The English Patient, out on the hockey field and body-check the hell out of the opposition... now what does that really say about me? LOL ...whats your ultimate chick flick?

I recently stumbled over Mark Twains Appendix D from Twain's 1880 book A Tramp Abroad called The Awful German Language ...being a native german speaker, i found it fascinating how Mark Twain "manages" to learn the german language and how he wrote with his usual wit about it... Now observe the Adjective. Here was a case where simplicity would have been an advantage; therefore, for no other reason, the inventor of this language complicated it all he could. When we wish to speak of our "good friend or friends," in our enlightened tongue, we stick to the one form and have no trouble or hard feeling about it; but with the German tongue it is different. When a German gets his hands on an adjective, he declines it, and keeps on declining it until the common sense is all declined out of it. It is as bad as Latin. He says, for instance: SINGULAR Nominative -- Mein guter Freund, my good friend. Genitives -- Meines guten Freundes, of my good friend. Dative -- Meinem guten Freund, to my good friend. Accusative -- Meinen guten Freund, my good friend. [*]PLURAL N. -- Meine guten Freunde, my good friends. G. -- Meiner guten Freunde, of my good friends. D. -- Meinen guten Freunden, to my good friends. A. -- Meine guten Freunde, my good friends. Now let the candidate for the asylum try to memorize those variations, and see how soon he will be elected. One might better go without friends in Germany than take all this trouble about them... My philological studies have satisfied me that a gifted person ought to learn English (barring spelling and pronouncing) in thirty hours, French in thirty days, and German in thirty years. It seems manifest, then, that the latter tongue ought to be trimmed down and repaired. If it is to remain as it is, it ought to be gently and reverently set aside among the dead languages, for only the dead have time to learn it.

The average reader manages about 160 to 250 words per minute (wpm). I was a till a week ago at around 260 wpm which is already a bit above the average but nevertheless not really satisfied. I bought a speed reading book and practising now for one week, having managed to finish about a third of the exercises i am currently at a reading speed of 620 wpm. Reading fast without understanding is of course not really useful, so i am glad my speed reading book has its focus on not only reading faster but also understanding what you reading. I would estimate that i will eventually get to 800 wpm without compromising comprehension. How fast are you reading?

...is there one? ...has anyone figured it already out? In the meantime i go with Peter Ustinov, who once said... The point of living and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come.

826 Valencia is the name and address of a nonprofit writing workshop and tutoring center in San Francisco, United States, whose aim is to help students ages 8

...so, i am now proud director of a UK Private Limited, the company is situated in Stockport near Manchester, although i have no idea what i am going to do with that, i feel important for now ...i convinced a friend of mine that it would be a good idea to have in his CV a UK Limited company hehe, and it is a rather nice Tax Shelter when it comes to personal income that you do on the side... so here it goes.... The Registrar of Companies for England and Wales hereby certifies that XXXXX is this day incorporated under the Companies Act 1985 as a private company and that the company is limited. ...but wait, uh, what about Scotland and Northern Ireland?

I am doing great, much better then expected and at a much faster rate. (Just got an 20% increase)!!! I decided that I need some extra Karma , and joined the World Vision Sponsorship, thats 30 Euro a month to support a child in need! This is such a wonderful organization and if you read up on how much my (your) 30 Euro per month can change a whole families life, it makes one really humble. I could choose the gender (I have choosen a girl) the age (below 7 years) and the country (mozambique). Soon i will get per post a folder with all the infos of the little girl i am going to support now. I keep you guys up to date!

I managed to move all my current debt into a single low interest loan at my local bank. Which means Credit Card, consumer credit and overdraft (both with high interest) are on zero (and will stay that way). This move which took me less then 60 minutes reduced my monthly payment to service all my debt by 12% and shed a good year of paying back too... I am really cruising nicely along right now, i am ahead of plan! The interesting thing is that the more i think of getting rich, the more i think of money, the more i think of how to reduce costs, the more i think of increasing income, the more of all those things are happening --> a classic case of self-fulfilling prophecy?

...after two months into my adventure becoming really wealthy, i experience side effects i did not expect... While the focus of this two months were to slash costs on not necessary stuff, something else happend, as i think, breath and act as if i already have those millions on my bank account, the following is happening... I seem to attract rich people In the last two months i had an unbelievable amount of interesting encounters with wealthy people, at the weiredest places, i think the smell of money attracts each other (even if i only have them only in my vision yet) If it wasn`t for the Euro Soccer Championships i wouldnt have turned the TV on, i don`t know if that is true, but it seems when you think of wealth, TV seems to become less attractive, i estimate i watched less then 5 hours the last two months I stopped reading my local newspaper, it wasn`t even a planned move, the subscription cancelled (fault on their site), so i had spare cash i have now the Financial Times Germany instead and read even more about wealth... Classical Music is all of a sudden really nice to listen to I get money i did not count on. unexpected tax refund, i find money on the street, a guy that owed me for years, all of a sudden paid back in full, ...so there you have it, more to come cheers viggen

Now that i got my message out that i will no longer accept the mediocre financial state of mine, i would like to share the how i will do it! First things first! One needs a goal, without a goal nothing will work, let a couple of people run in a circle without a goal or purpose, they will eventually loose interest and stop - draw a line (finish) and everything changes! The moment there is a goal, one can plan! So that was my first piece of work, having a goal. At first i was thinking of 1.000.000 million euro, but soon realized that this was not really something my little mind could grasp. I needed something more visual. So i redefined my goal. I would start treating myself as a company, Viggen Inc. if you like, and my goal is to make it a successfull company. So in order to run a company one needs a budget, so i started one, for the first time, and it was not a pretty picture. I spend way too much money on stuff that is not making Viggen Inc. productive or successful. I could locate several areas were i was spending money without thought. Crap; Basically every evening when i got home late from work, i past by the petrol station that is just a few meters away from my home, and bought sandwiches, snacks, cool drinks, etc... EVERY DAY! I cut those expenses completely, i havent been to the petrol station in over a month! Car; I go to work now with my bicycle, with the bike i only need 5 minutes to work, so please dont ask me why i havent done it before, i dont know... at work; evey day i went to a restaurant in our mall, and every day i was drinking a cool drink with it, most of the time a coffee afterwards, i cut this completely, drive with the bike home and eat at home other stuff; I do the washing, the ironing, the cleaning, myself, i bought a hair clipper to do my hairs myself (guess thats an advantage for men), no more hairdressers, i buy food once a week with a list, i visit my mother every sunday now (she really cookes good, and she is very happy to see me, she always complained i visit her not enough, low and behold the 5 miles she lives away i go by bike and not with the car, even more saving, so the sunday gets me a free meal, good karma with mum and some exercise)... ...as you can see i am not a cheap talker on this issue, i mean it! I do not accept money that could work for me wasted on stuff that gives me short time pleasures at best! ...more to follow your "soon to be" very wealthy viggen

I am tired of not beeing filthy rich, honestly i am... I finally realized that if i continuing doing what i do, i will end up with what i already had when i was in my late teens, just enough to make ends meet... I will put an end to this, I wont take no for an answer, i repeat I wont take this szenario of my life as a given fact, because it is not, I will change, Today! You may ask why i want to be filthy rich, and if that is actually a desirable thing to stride for, (apart from the question, what i understand under filthy rich) My reasons why i am going to be filthy rich! (in no particular order) . because i want to read and write on Unrv.com any time of the day . because i want my money to work; while i sleep, while i am cruising the caribbean, while i fly to the moon, where ever i am, whatever i do, i don`t want to work, my money should do that... . because i want one day, pick up the phone, fly first class to London, watching whatever sensational band is playing in the Royal Albert Hall, just because i have the time and the means to do it... . because when i am filthy rich, i can support people in need, which i can`t right now . because it feels right! I changed over night, completely, at work people stare at me, i became over night a freak - and it feels great, because every day is one step closer to my filthy richness... I figured it out, only a few things were missing in my current life, just the small tiny things that is common sense, it is actually so stupidly easy that i wonder what i was thinking the last 30something years... The things i have discovered, that are common sense, but i never did! .make myself to the center of the universe .think big .have a plan .earn more, spend less .give before you receive .surround myself with successfull people .invest any penny wisely .have disziplin sincerely your "soon to be filthy rich" Viggen

I got myself a 22" Monitor and what a pleasure it is to have that big display in front of you. I did not get rid of my old 19" Monitor though, but instead set up a Dual Monitor display. My GeForce 7950 has two DVI connections and so it is a simple plug and play procedure. Within the Nvidia Graphic Settings it is a breeze to set up the two monitors the way you like. You can have both monitors display only one area (an extension so to speak) or you can have two seperate individual Desktops, which i have choosen. So right now i have in front of me the 22" monitor were i type this blog entry and on the right i have my 19" monitor watching a youtube movie. It is just wonderful. This will also help me allot when coding too, as i can code on the one monitor and browse, chat, watch on the second. I can only recommend to anyone to go Dual Monitor, it is such a time saver!

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. Thats apparently a valid english sentence... ..as someone noted in the comments of that link, "...but even though I know better, each time I look at it, I think it is spelled incorrectly."

Something to ponder about... ...let`s say you want to leave a message to the people in the year 4000. You could write that message onto a USB Memory Stick or a DVD or on a Hard Drive or on a piece of paper. What is your guess what the chances are that (assuming the sealed box would be found and all 4 are in good condition) archaeologists would be able to identify all 4 pieces as some form of a message? I have a hunch that the archaeologists of the 5th Millenium will have a very hard time to figure out what the heck the USB Memory Stick, the HD and the DVD actually is. Maybe a "gift to the gods?" some sort of jewelry? a primitive craft device? Now assuming there is an experimental archaeologist that thinks that this could be some sort of data storage device. How will he get to the information? I mean i have some floppy disks lying around and have no way of actually getting to this information, first i dont have a floppy drive anymore and second, those operating systems of today kinda dont like old stuff, and when i talk about old stuff i am talking of 10 years maximum, nevermind 2000 years.... If the archaeologist of the year 4000 sees the piece of paper, chances are, he will grab it and starts to decipher the writing, right?

I have to admit, till a few days ago i never heard of this man. Wasn`t it for the History Channel that brought a documentary about him, i still wouldnt know what this man meant to the people of Nanking. Why was he such a special person, you may ask? Well, John Rabe played the key role in saving the lives of more than 250,000 Chinese during the incident called the Rape of Nanking, i was so fascinated by this story that i had to look up more info on him and share this with you guys... You can read his biografie here

OMG, I am a prophet! As you can see on my previous post before the world cup, i did predict that New Zealand will loose against the french and that South Africa is going to be the next World Champion, (thats what happend) you may say Nostradamus to me! What a defensive master piece of the Springboks, and what a disaster from the english site to try (first half) to make that a kicking game, when the whole world knows the line out is Springbok-Territory! A very tense, defensive game on both sites. Not a pretty game, but what the heck, the Boks are world champions again Yipeeeeeee

An addiction is a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity. By that definition i am addicted to the internet, ..due to overload at work i can not log on to the net every day and it sucks, on an emotional and practical level... ...how did we manage without it before? (yeah i know we just were more outside sniffing fresh air, engange in recreational activities under something called sunlight and were talking with humans face to face) If there is something called heaven and paradise it better have an internet connection, cause being without one for just a couple of days already seems aweful, never mind eternetiy...

Finally the Rugby World Cup has started, the most entertaining team sport (in my eyes at least) kicked of in France and the host already got beaten up by Argentina, a not so big surprise if you look at their last 5 encounters... So, everyone is talking about New Zealand and how they will be the next world champion, i tell you know it is not going to be easy, i got a hunch they have to take on France in the quarter final and will get kicked out of the tournament, leaving the door open for South Africa to reclaim their 1995 title ...ok, just a day dream, but if you want to see one very exiting amazing fast winger in action, for Bryan Habana, a rocket on the rugby field... Go Springbocks...

I was wondering about one thing for a long time, is it just me or does it feel that italians of today dont really care about their "roman" heritage? I live close to the italian border and have so lots of contact with them; Every time i mention our site and that the site is about "their" glory past, they sort of shrug shoulder, maybe a "nice" and move on, no interest whatsoever. Did i just have bad luck, or is it just the way it is, Italians dont care? cheers viggen

A once in a life time event will soon happen in the german speaking world. The special german character

Si vales bene est ego valeo... I had it all, fire in the house, crappy work-situation (and i mean crap when i say crap), one surgery followed by another surgery and voila followed by another one. To sum 2007 so far up ---> Hell I have now hopefully all surgeries done for this year (vene surgery for anyone who cares) and allowed to sit 15 minutes and then have to rest for an hour and so on... in anycase good to be finally back... Yours viggen

I had this today in my inbox, and thought its pretty funny... This was written by a guy... it's pretty damn smart. Girls -- Have a sense of humour! I never quite figured out why the sexual urge of men and women diffe so much. And I never have figured out the whole Venus and Mars thing.I have never figured out why men think with their head and women with their heart. FOR EXAMPLE: One evening last week, my girlfriend and I were getting into bed. Well, the passion starts to heat up, and she eventually says, "I don't feel like it, I just want you to hold me." I said, "WHAT??!! What was that?!" So she says the words that every boyfriend on the planet dreads to hear... "You're just not in touch with my emotional needs as a woman enough for me to satisfy your physical needs as a man." She responded to my puzzled look by saying, "Can't you just love me for who I am and not what I do for you in the bedroom?" Realizing that nothing was going to happen that night, I went to sleep. The very next day I opted to take the day off of work to spend time with her. We went out to a nice lunch and then went shopping at a big, big unnamed department store. I walked around with her while she tried on several different very expensive outfits. She couldn't decide which one to take, so I told her we'd just buy them all. She wanted new shoes to compliment her new clothes, so I said, "Lets get a pair for each outfit." We went on to the jewellery department where she picked out a pair of diamond earrings. Let me tell you... she was so excited. She must have thought I was one wave short of a shipwreck. I started to think she was testing me because she asked for a tennis bracelet when she doesn't even know how to play tennis. I think I threw her for a loop when I said, "That's fine, honey." She was almost nearing sexual satisfaction from all of the excitement. Smiling with excited anticipation, she finally said, "I think this is all dear, let's go to the cashier." I could hardly contain myself when I blurted out, "No honey, I don't feel like it." Her face just went completely blank as her jaw dropped with a baffled, "WHAT?" I then said, "Honey! I just want you to HOLD this stuff for a while. You're just not in touch with my financial needs as a man enough for me to satisfy your shopping needs as a woman." And just when she had this look like she was going to kill me, I added, "Why can't you just love me for who I am and not for the things I buy you?" Apparently I'm not having sex tonight either....but at least that girl knows I'm smarter than her. Alright girls. Repost this if you agree. Hell even if you disagree, forward it. Men, repost this because you have balls.