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

the place could be anywhere.. very chic and design savy

the city is a bit grey today.. cool and rainy.. but went for a great run through the old city

Hey.. who DOESN”T want free tekno ?

here’s the old town center and cathederal

I climbed up the 297 steps up to the tower.. what a view !!!!

then back to give my talk

my colleagues from the meeting.. here is the HR team that’s running the meeting

and my colleagues from czech republic, puland and russia sitting at my table

ok.. gotta sleep now.. more tomorrow !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Tuesday night – in between

October 11, 2011 johncohn 1 Comment

I’m in the Luton airport now, just north of London on my way to I’ve never been to Luton.. but it’s a bright and shiny place. planes take off for lots of interesting places.. Many of them in eastern europe I notice.. My flight to Prague is only 25 pounds (about $40) .People here are speaking different languages.. interesting languages.. the kind you hear on obscure foreign films.. The whole place gives me that feeling of being ‘in between’.. everyones eager to be elsewhere.. me included When I’m in a place like this I i feel truly alone.. not in a bad way.. but in kind of a liberating way.. No one here cares what I did today for work.. no one cares about where I’m heading.. anymore than I care abotu their days.. everyone is sliding past one another like ghosts.. smiling ghosts. . but still ghosts.

I wonder if my great granparents, the Lithuanian rabbi and his family came through a place like this on the way to the fewer food choices billboards.. but probably the same type of ‘in-between’..

well it’s almost time for me to go from nowhere to somewhere . so.. more later…

nite all, nite sam

-me

ps. Just came across the following quote from Steve Jobs.. it really struck me as important

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

monday night – Sheffield !

October 10, 2011 johncohn Leave a comment

Greetings from Sheffield England.. It’s been years since I really visited the IK.. though it still feels homey. Diane and I lived in the south of England from 1984-86 while she was in grad school and I was working at IBM Hursley.. Folks still drive on the wrong side of the rode, talk strangely and eat strange things.. .. and they are still, funny, warm, friendly and nice

Sheffield back then was known as a steel and coal town. It was racked by terrible labor disputes.. the miners were represented by a guy name Scargill.. I still remember the news reports, the violence.. the pictures of a burned out city .. Things were grim back then.. no jobs, no money.. The whole thing was memorialized in the movie ‘The Full Monty’

You’d never know that now.> Sheffield today is a very pretty and welcoming place. the mills are all closed.. and now it’s ind of a high tech mecca for the northern UK..