Saturday night – past peak

October 15, 2011 johncohn 3 Comments

I got 10 hours of sleep last night.. which is about the same amount of sleep I’d gotten in the previous 4 days combined.. it was wonderful. I awoke refresh and empty headed.. thinking of nothing.. with nothing to do for the day.. I can’t even remember the last time that happened. It isn’t like I don’t have a ‘todo’ list.. it was just that I didn’t wake up thinking about it.. a minor breakthrough.. I guess..
I did have one major goal today.. aside from relaxing.. and that was to finish paining the bell tower.. the tiny room at the top of our house that I use as an office. It’s a small space.. but a tricky one to paint.. i think the ceiling is about 18 feet tall at the peak.. Diane did a fantastic job finishing up the walls and ceiling trim.. all that remained was the final trim on the ceiling.> So I spent most of the day on a tiny platform about 10 feet in the air with a tiny artist’s brush filling in all the tiny nooks and cranys of where the beaded ceiling meets the arched supports that support the cupola .. It was painstakingly mindless work.. just the thing to decelerate after a whirlwind week..
One treat was the view from the tower windows as I painted.. The fall colors are past peak.. .. but then.. so am I ..

nite all.. nite sam
-me

Friday night – jet lead

October 14, 2011 johncohn 2 Comments

home again, home again.. after about 20 hours of travel.. I left the hotel this morning at 5:30 AM Prague time.. and got home at 7:30 PM on the same day.. I always find a travel day like this helpful for catching up on work.. Even the three hour delay getting out of JFK was OK.. my email inbox is caught up, i wrote notes from my trip, caught up with some work thinking and even got a little sleep on the plane.. I needed it.. I think I got less than 3 hours of sleep last night after my walk and then working before going to sleep at 2 . Actually I feel pretty good.all things considered.. I have that funny jet lag feeling.. I guess. this is more ‘jet lead’.. my body thinks it’s later.. so as long as I can stay awake unitl a respectable hour (it’s almost 10PM now) I shoudl be able to get back on rythm.

Travel like this week is hard work.. but I find it so valuable. It’s so recharging for me to meet other folks in our company.. and see what they’re working on. I really enjoyed meeting all the folks from central europe.. (russia, poland, croatia, slovenia, czech republic, slovakia, bulgaria, hungary, turkie, romania, serbia) .. all such different cultures. I had so many great technical and personal talks.. I also handed out many samstones. I appreciate everyone’s help in spreading them through central Europe.

I alo really loved our host country of Czech Republic.. the folks there were so kind and helpful

right now.. all i can think about though is sleeping.. more tomorrow !

ntite all, nite sam

-me

Thursday night – Prague at night

October 13, 2011 johncohn Leave a comment

Folks.. it’s 1AM.. and I need to be up for a plane in 4 hours.. but I wanted to post some pics of this beautiful city. i had a really, really busy and productive day.. I gave a talk in the morning and got to spend more time talking to the fine IBM folks from Central Europe. It’s such a great group of people.. smart and motivated.. .. After meetings with them, I gave a talk at the University of West Bohemia.in Pilsen. . . I got to talk to a bunch of students there.. again.. really smart and fun people. I was really impressed with the university.. From there we headed back to Prague.. after a quick dinner we headed to the Czech TV station. I had a 50 minute (!) interview on prime time Czech TV. it was a cool format.. folks could ask questions b phone. Facebook, twitter, sms or chat.. Interesting questions about IBM.. about engineering careers.. even religion.. te time passed so quickly.. Around 10 I met up with my friends the Young for a beer. After saying goodbye to them.. I grabbed a cab to my hotel. Even though it was about 11:30.. it was my one night in Prague.. I just had to see this city after hearing so much about it.. I took a 2 mile or so walk by myself through the old town and back along the river.. it was well worth it.. it’s such a beautiful place..

Now I need to sleep.. more explanations tomorrow

my freind tony

cheese is the only veggie option here..

karolina..and I presented together

the event crew ! (great folks !)

at West Bohemia U

saying bye to Jana

at the TV station (ugh.. makeup !)

the young s (and the restless)

prague by night

my cool hotel !

Nite all ! Nite sam

-me

Wednesday night late – Czech it out !

October 12, 2011 johncohn Leave a comment

Folks,
Greetings from Pilsen Czech republic.. Home of Pilsen beers and Skoda cars.. it’s abotu 2 AM.. I’ve had about 4 hours of work meetings after a very full day and I am beat. It’s a beautiful place here.. the city is lovely.. the people are so nice.. I’m at a meeting with folks from all over eastern Europe.. I’m loving getting to know them and talking about our work. It’s too late to write much.. just wanted to get these pics out there.

flew into Prague last night