US government could save money by switching fonts

OMG.. have you heard about the 14-year-old boy named Suvir Mirchandani? No? Are you kidding me? He is all over the news right now. Suvir says the federal government could cut printing costs with one decision and could thereby save up to $400.000 per year. 

Everything started out with a project in his middle school. Due to the project Suvir had to think of different ways to cut waste and save money at his school. Reducing the waste of paper through recycling and dual-sided printing had been talked over a hundred time but no one really thought about the ink. "Ink is two times more expensive than French perfume by volume" Suvir says. If you trust CNN he is right because they wrote "Chanel No. 5 perfume costs $38 per ounce, while the equivalent amount of Hewlett-Packard printer ink can cost up to $75." As I read that I had to read it a second time to be sure to get it right. I mean I know that printing out is expensive because I need to print many things for university. Due to the high printing costs I'm sometimes short in money.

Suvir's idea is that by simple switching from Times New Roman to a narrower, smaller font the government would be using less of their precious printer ink. He suggested to switch from Times New Roman to Garamond. This might be just a small difference and even a small saving on each page but it would have a massive benefit in general. 

However, The Atlantic doesn't share the same opinion on this subject with Suvir. They say that the calculation cannot  be right because although printer ink is certainly expensive for consumer but mainly for consumer who are buying cartridge by cartridge. He didn't consider that large businesses as well as the government have special wholesale bulk contracts. That means that the government buys a larger amount of ink with a lower price than normal consumer.

I really think it is worth a second thought if Suvir is right with his calculation. I am not a hundred percent sure if it could really help saving money but for me it is important that a young guy started thinking about it and I am definitely impressed. As we all know printing out is very expensive therefore I think I will give it a try. Maybe I can save up some money for my next holiday.

I think I just give it a try otherwise I will never know if it is possible. :D

You want to read more about it check out these links below. 

CNN: Teen to government: Change your typeface, save millions

Can a Teen's Idea to Switch Fonts Save the Government $400 Million?

American vs. British English

Every one of us, who isn't a native English speaker, started learning English very young. I remember my first years of learning English. I was in first class. The learning process was more connected with different games and just picking up vocabulary than seriously sitting down and learning the language. As time went by and the level of English became higher also the vocabulary and grammar became more difficult. Not only the level of English transformed but also the teachers changed from now and than. With every teacher also the kind of English differentiated. Some have prefered American and others British English. For me it was and still is really hart to keep track were both have differences. There are three major differences between American and British English. 

• PRONUNCIATION
• SPELLING 
•  VOCABULARY

It doesn't matter if you prefer American or British English. You just need to be consistent and stick to one of them in your usage otherwise it will get really confusing. One important spelling differnece is that in American English words ending in -or and -er end in -our and -re in British English e.g. color/colour, center/centre. Another one is words ending in -ize in American English end in -ise in British English like realize/realise.

If you decide that you want to use Amercian English spellings then you can't write the following sentence The color of the apple is also his favourite. In this example sentence you can find both American and British English. Color is American spelling and favourite is British. This is of course not always easy but important to know.

My advice, if you are not sure about spelling and usage of vocabulary look it up in a dictionary. The dictionary can help you to be consistence that is also important for your language skills.

Starbucks in Austria

Coffee - the energy supply for many students. Some students love to drink coffee either to stay awake or to just socialize with others. During my stay in the States my friends and I loved to meet up at Starbucks for a nice coffee. My favorite one was a cappuccino with caramel flavor. The cappuccino was delicious and at the same time it was a great opportunity to meet up with friends to chit chat. Today as I got myself a cup of coffee I thought back at the good old times and  about why there are just a few Starbucks coffee shops in Austria. I couldn't think of an answer to satisfy me so I started researching and that is what I came up with: 

The Austrian coffee market is not the first choice of Starbucks if you talk about a new target market or entry strategies. However, the demand for "coffee-to-go" increased in the last couple of years. Many people especially the younger generation loves the fast coffee.The general trend can be recognized by just looking at all the small, individual coffee shops  especially in places where you can find many students like Graz or Vienna.

The first branch from Starbucks in Austria was opened in 2001 in Vienna. Since then Starbucks grow constantly throughout Vienna. Starbucks hasn't opened so many stores outside of Vienna. A reason could be that there are a high number of competitors. In Austria competitors for Starbucks are well established companies like Tchibo, Segafredo, McCafé and a number of small, regional coffee shops. All of them have a high variety of coffees with different flavors and sometimes offer a better price than Starbucks.

The city I know the best from all other cities in Austria is Graz. The number of coffee shops in Graz is really really high. Alone in the inner city of Graz you can find at least seven coffee shops. This is one reason why Starbucks isn't so present in the city of Graz. I have to admit I would love to have Starbucks coffee from now and than.  

"Kaiserschmarren" - Austrian speciality

Have you ever heard about the term “Kaiserschmarren”? It is simply chopped pancakes and an Austrian speciality.  They are definitely one of my favorite dishes in Austria. The best chopped pancakes I have ever eaten were made by my mum. She serves them with peach compote or with baked plums. It tastes so delicious that you definitely have to try it out by yourself. I will give you the recipe my mum uses so you can create your own “Kaiserschmarren”. You definetly need to try out the most legendary

Ingredients:

·         4 eggs

·         200 g finely ground flour

·         4 tbsp crystal sugar

·         1 packed vanilla sugar

·         A pinch of salt

·         250 ml milk

·         Approx. 50 g butter for frying.

How to make it:

1.       Separate the eggs and place the yolks in a mixing bowl. Pour in the milk, vanilla sugar and add the flour. Mix to form smooth dough.

2.       Beat the egg whites with the crystal sugar and a small pinch of salt until it forms a firm peak and fold into the dough mix.

3.       Let the butter and bubble up in one large heatproof dish. Pour in the mixture. Cook the underside until light brown, turn over using a spatula and bake it until golden brown.

4.       Tear the creation into small pieces, using two forks. Sprinkle with some crystal sugar and serve it with a peach compote or baked plums

Now you have the right recipe to make a delicious “Kaiserschmarrn”. You will see it will definitely be worth trying. Enjoy the cooking and of course the taste of this tasty dish.

NEW SEMESTER - NEW CHALLENGES

Semester Break is over and with a new semester new challenges come along. Do you know what I like about the start of a new semester? Maybe not every student will agree but it is my opinion.

Going in many different classes for the first time is the thing I enjoy most about the whole semsteer. Do you know the feeling when you enter a new class, all full of excitement? you don't know anybody. You don't know if the course will meet your expectations. You don't know if you will be able to handle the upcoming workload. But you know that you are interested in the subject and willing to work hard to reach your goal, which forces you to keep focused during the semester. As soon as the excitement about the new courses has gone, the reality comes back straigthaway with homework, projects and exams coming up.

As we all know, the whole workload is a challenge in every semester. Right now, looking at my schedule, I have no idea of how to handle all my courses at university But my motto is ALWAYS THINK POSITIV, then everything will somehow fall into place. One big issue I have to work on this semester is time management. This semester I will start with some kind of a study plan. That idea wasn't mine. I picked it up in our first English lesson for this semester. I am not quite sure if it is going to work out, but we will see. The reason why I thought this would be a good idea, is that I often struggle with timing before an exam. I have to admit, I prefer doing projects and homework instead of sitting down and actually studying for an exam or a class. A study plan could force me to well-organised studying and I would get a bad feeling if I fell behind.

If you have andy other ideas on how I could handle time management better, feel free to answer to this post! Otherwise wish me luck for my experiment with my study plan. :D

Chocolate - sweetest temptation on earth

"Young and old, rich and poor, he and she - everyone loves chocolate"

Well... I am kind of addicted to chocolate. The taste of chocolate when it is melting on my tongue is incredible. It makes me feel like I am in heaven.

I don't know someone who actually do not like chocolate. Or to you? With the wide range of different chocolate products it is almost impossible to not satisfy everyone. Therefore chocolate has become one of the most popular food types and flavors in the world. Not only have the flavors and types been developed over years also a number of food products involving chocolate have been created. The creation of new products also included the expansion of the flavor of chocolate. The flavor of chocolate reaches from white to milk to dark. It further includes different ingredients which are making the taste of every chocolate product unique. For instance Josef Zotter an Austrian chocolate manufacturer produces chocolate bars with ingredients like fish as well as honey or nuts. It sounds weird but the chocolates are well-known because of their different ingredients. The product variety of chocolate is also part of our commercialized world. In this world there exist chocolate products for every holiday such as Easter bunnies, and have become traditional. For me Easter or Christmas wouldn't be the same without all the chocolate products. In my opinion chocolate products are  always nice as a gift. For example if you are invited somewhere it is nice to bring some chocolate as a small gift. In addition, in my opinion chocolate makes you feel better and get you into a better mood. I always love chocolate but if I am under pressure or have many things to do I definitely need a chocolate bar. Due to the fact that many exams are coming up after Christmas break I would definitely recommend to you to enjoy chocolate from time to time to get yourself in a better mood. This is my advice to handle all the upcoming exams and still be happy.

Differences between Russian and English

Studying English and studying Russian, my second language, are different in a number of significant ways. The main difference between them is the alphabet. Whereas the alphabet in English is the same as in my mother tongue, German, the alphabet in Russian not only has different letters, it also contains letters which are used for pronunciation purposes. The purpose of pronunciation is to make a letter sound either silent or loud. the sounds make it difficult for beginners to be able to pronounce and spell the words correctly. The words in English are easier to pronounce because the sounds and the letters are more familiar. Besides the pronunciation, also the declination of a word is different in these two languages. There is no declination of a word in the English language. Only the verbs in the present tense change, for example, he goes or I go. Russian is completely opposite because every word needs to be changed to the right form. Not only words but also names need to be conjugated. The difference in declination as well as in the alphabet and the pronunciation makes both languages interesting for me. These are the reason why I study English and Russian.

I wrote this paragraph for the first progress check. I have to admit the version above is already the corrected version. In the original version I mixed up vocabulary. In other words I used words which do not even exist in the English language. These were really unnecessary mistakes. Besides the vocabulary, I used the wrong register. My paragraph was sometimes written in a very low register, for instance, I wrote kind of what is inappropriate for such a paragraph. Punctuation is also something I definitely need to work on to reduce my mistakes and get a better grade. I, however, have to say that I am satisfied with my work for the writing task in the first progress check. I now know that I have to work on vocabulary, register and punctuation to improve my writing skills.

Cultural competence

A couple of days ago I read about cultural competence in a newspaper. I think the topic is very

interesting and is in my opinion very important due to the fact that the demographics of society have been changed by globalization and have made the world seem smaller than ever before. In the past people just did not know a lot about other people, other cultures or the business of others. Off shoring, outsourcing and other business developments have broke down the wall between the different cultures. Now leaders are facing the challenge of handling cultural differences. That is one reason why people in big companies now need cultural competence.

 

Cultural competence is the ability to interact with people of all cultures, languages, classes, races, ethnic backgrounds and religions. People who have cultural competence have the knowledge of different cultures and different worldviews. With the ability of cultural competence you can understand and communicate with people across the world, while avoiding stereotypes. For example, a person who works in an international company should have cultural competence so that this person can recognize the strengths and weaknesses that exist in all cultures.

 

Leaders of global companies need cultural competence to improve their business in other countries. The interaction of different people from different cultures is very helpful to develop new markets and other products. Furthermore cultural competence is important for recognizing that some products need to be a little bit different to the same product in other countries. For example a coke from Coca Cola is a lot sweeter in the US than in Europe because the Europeans are not used to the extreme sweet taste.

 

How can cultural competence be acquired? There are different courses about other cultures and other languages you can take. Different courses are very important to better understand the world view of other people. You can also just travel to learn and understand more about other cultures and other lifestyles. Furthermore, through other people you can improve or acquire cultural competence. These people can tell you things about their own experiences.

 

Cultural competence is very important in our society and in our business lives. Cultural competence refers to the ability to recognize cultural differences in order to achieve desired performance results. This ability describes a specific skill that is increasingly required of successful employees, managers, leaders and organizations.

Austrian Ski trends

By looking through the window the only thing I can see is the bad, rainy weather. The weather in some other parts of Austria is different. In fact, I would see snowflakes falling in front of the window. This made me think about the upcoming winter. Winter is definitely my favorite season of the year in Austria. In Austria the landscapes are beautiful when they are covered in snow. You can walk around in the snow as well as build a snow man. Furthermore, I love snowball fights. Besides all these things, my favorite winter activity is to go snowboarding. I definitely love to go down the snow slopes on my board with speed.

 

A couple of weeks ago we talked about the Austria ski industry as well as the ski areas in my German

class. Austria has many skiing places. These places are now suffering from the fact that less people ski lift are ridiculously high and are still rising every year. The high prices are justified by the lift companies due to the maintenance costs containing the lifts as well as the snow cat to prepare the slopes for the ski and snowboard fans. Not only are the skiing areas in Austria suffering from the downtrend of business, but also the ski producers in Austria. The ski producers have problems competing with international competitors due to the high production cost and the shrinking willingness of people to buy skis. Most of the people today are borrowing the skis. The benefits therefore of borrowing skis are that you can always have new skis and you do not need any service on them every now and then.

 

Well, I am still a fan of having my own snowboard. Therefore I am going to help the Austrian snowboard industry and put a new snowboard on my Christmas wish list.

Guardian Angel

I am not quite sure if you have ever thought about a guardian angel. A guardian angel is an angel assigned to protect and guide a particular person. In my opinion everyone has a guardian angel, with no exceptions.

Today I got in a car accident. The accident occurred on a highway where there was heavy traffic. The traffic was one reason for it why the accident happened in first place. I was on my way to visit my aunt because it was her birthday. Since the sky was dark, the lights from the other cars were bright and annoying. I stopped at a crossing on the highway. Besides that another car stopped right behind me. The driver of a third car didn’t see us or was not focusing on the street. The consequence was that he recognized us too late. He had an excellent reaction and passed me on my left side. His car fell in a field. The good thing about the whole story is that nobody got hurt. Furthermore the cars are all in proper condition.

I think I had at least one guardian angel with me when the accident occurred. The feeling that someone was watching over me and trying to protect me when the accident occurred makes me again more believe more in guardian angels.

Guardian angels are not just in our mind. Often we give someone a guardian angel as a gift. There are made in different shapes as well as different colors and from products materials, but the thought behind this present will always be the same – that the person who receives the gift will be safe and protected.

St. Martin's Day

Who is Saint Martin? Saint Martin of Tours is one of the most revered European catholic saints. This catholic saint was born in 316 A.D. in Hungary. Almost every child knows the legend of Saint Martin. The legend is that he saved a homeless person from freezing to death by giving him half of his cloak, which he cut in two with his sword. 

 I went to the St. Martin’s Day celebration on November 11th with my little nephew. My little nephew is going to turn two in December. He is a charming little boy. I definitely love to spend time with him. He is a little bit too young for creating his own candle-lit lantern for St. Martin’s Day, therefore my cousin let him borrow his lit-candle light since he was not using it. The candle-lit lantern was made from colorful transparent paper. Normally the children build the candle-lit lanterns before November 11th. In the evening of St. Martin’s Day there is a candle-lit lantern procession, which are most of the time organized by the local kindergarten. The local kindergarten in my town did a really great job preparing an amazing evening. The evening started with the lantern procession during which all the kids carried their self-made, lighted lanterns and sang many wonderful traditional songs dedicated to St. Martin. The songs were really good and my little nephew loved listening to the songs, singing along with the kids, and watching the procession. The kids did a really great job. At the end of the procession was a buffet with sweet pastries and roasted goose, which is a traditionally served. The roasted goose is traditional on St. Martin’s Day because when Saint Martin did not want to become Bishop therefore he hid near some geese. The people searching for him heard the loudly cackling geese and found Saint Martin and ordained him Bishop of Tours.

 

 

Dinner in the dark!

Friends of mine and I had a dinner together last week. The dinner was special and can not be compared with anything I have done in my life before. For my last birthday I got this dinner in the dark as a birthday present from my friends. I have to say this is one of the best presents I got in my whole life. The dinner was organized by the charity for the blind in Graz. The reason for such events is that they want to shape the awareness of the concerns of blind and visually impaired people. Therefore the waiters were blind and the dinner took place in a dark room.

I was surprised how hard it is to get along in the darkness at the beginning. But after a while my eyes got used to the darkness and also my mind. For me it was a new experience to make conversations without seeing the expression on the face of the person you talk to. The main challenge I thought would be to eat. But I was surprised how well  it worked out. We were not informed about the menu that made the whole dinner more interesting. My friends and I were discussing about the things on our plates. It was really hard to figure out what we were actually eating. During the dinner we all got kind of used to the darkness and as time passed by we got better in eating and drinking.

In my opinion the waiters were just amazing. The name of our waitress was Moni. She did a great job during the dinner and helped us with everything. After the dinner we had a chance to talk to her about her being blind. Moni is blind since she was 24 years old. She knew that she would be blind one day since she was a little girl. I think it is remarkable how she lives her life. Moni has a wonderful husband and a lovely child and she is glad that she is able to do a lot of dailylife things by her own like groceries shopping.

This experience was incredible and I recommend to you guys to try the same one day. Everyone of us knows that there are people how are not so lucky to see but we never put ourselves in such a position. Therefore this dinner is perfect to get to understand blind people better.

REUNION of Friends

„Truly great Friends are hard to find, difficult to leave & impossible to forget.”

Just to get you guys up dated I will give you some background information before I start with the real story. Almost two years ago I studied in Albuquerque, New Mexico for half a year. My adventure in Albuquerque started in January and lasted till June 2012. I got back from my stay in the US with a lot of new experiences in my suitcase.

During my exchange semester in the States I learned more about the people, the culture and the American lifestyle. But the most important thing is I got to meet a lot of different people with different personalities and backgrounds. One thing we all had in common was that we wanted to understand and communicate with people from all over the world and therefore learn more about their cultures and so on. During my stay in Albuquerque I found some great friends. They were like my family to me. We had dinners together, went out and traveled through the country. But the important part was that we helped each other out with kind of everything. I am kind of sad that it is not possible to have this amazing people around me or at least less far away.

I am happy about the fact that a couple of the amazing people I share this experiences with are in Austria. Yesterday was one of our get together. Unfortunately they are not really frequently but we try to time them as often as possible. I always enjoy meeting everyone and just talking about what is going on in everyone’s lives as well as talk about the time we spent together in the States. And the best part of it is that I know if I have a problem I can also talk with them about it as well as they will always be there for me.

I am glad to have them. As I said in the beginning “Truly great Friends are hard to find, difficult to leave & impossible to forget.”