From the monthly archives:

March 2007

Our Restaurant in Google Maps

30 March 2007

We can’t tell you where it is yet, but we can show it to you, thanks to Google Maps.

Update: I guess we can paint a logo on the roof, then wait a couple years for Google to update their images… although a Target store has somewhat more roof space than we will. (Seriously, we will [...]

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All McDonald’s in Germany Smoke-Free

30 March 2007

Starting tomorrow all 1270 McDonald’s in Germany will be non-smoking.

Zum 31. März werden die rund 1.270 deutschen Restaurants von McDonald’s rauchfrei sein. Mit dieser freiwilligen Selbstverpflichtung leistet McDonald’s einen aktiven Beitrag zum Gesundheitsschutz. Durch die Umstellung sollen insbesondere Familien und Kinder vor den schädlichen Folgen des Passivrauchens geschützt werden.

McDonald’s is the first German [...]

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Animalistic

30 March 2007

[]((http://vanityfair.de/)In the States we have Anna Nicole and Brittney, in Germany we have bears! Last year it was Problem Bear Bruno, and currently it’s Cute Knut in the Berlin Zoo. He even made it on the cover of the Vanity Fair. I guess it’s OK as long as the bears don’t shave off all their [...]

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Fried Fish

29 March 2007

Thanks to Shelley for pointing to this combination goldfish tank and fast food fryer. But I doubt that our field consultant would approve it.

Because oil floats on water, despite the massive heat (163 degrees Celsius) the goldfish simply stay away from the surface and all is well. They eat the crumbs of croquettes [...]

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Hamburg Sunny Day

28 March 2007

Despite the excitement of our upcoming business venture, we still have our usual everyday events. Right now Christopher has two weeks off school for Easter vacation, and I’ve taken the time off work. MamaMaus works this week, but we’ll all three be taking off to Oslo and Denmark for a few days next week.

Today Christopher [...]

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Plus Twenty Years

27 March 2007

We were able to announce our big change today because MamaMaus broke the news to her staff today. One of her team members told her on the phone this evening, “I guess you’ll only be around for a couple more days… plus twenty years”.

That’s true. The franchise contract for McDonald’s runs for twenty years. By [...]

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Bricks and Mortar

27 March 2007

Some big changes are coming to the PapaScott household.

After 23 years with McDonald’s, 16 years in Germany, MamaMaus will be leaving McDonald’s Deutschland Inc. She has been Regional Manager for Northern Germany since 2001.

This summer, she will fulfill her long-time dream and become a McDonald’s licensee. She will be given the opportunity to purchase an [...]

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McDonald’s seeks to redefine ‘McJob’

20 March 2007

From The Financial Times:

The UK arm of the fast food chain is starting a campaign to get British dictionary publishers to revise their definitions of the word “McJob”, a term the Oxford English Dictionary describes as “an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, esp. one created by the expansion of the service sector”… [...]

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links for 2007-03-20

20 March 2007

LVM Snapshots with MySQL – Running Systems (tags: LVM Snapshots MySQL)

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Internet Operator

19 March 2007

Michael Glos is Germany’s Economics and Technology Minister. He doesn’t really understand the internet, but then he doesn’t need to:

Thankfully I have people who operate the internet for me (Ich habe Gott sei Dank Leute, die für mich das Internet bedienen)

I guess that means his secretary prints out his email for him.

He [...]

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Samsung Q35 Red

19 March 2007

We’re looking at a new notebook for MamaMaus. Since I don’t think I can talk her into an Apple (“I don’t want to learn anything new!”), I asked her what features she needed. “It needs to be small,” she said, “and powerful.” That wasn’t a big help.

Then she added, “I saw a red notebook from [...]

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Dante’s CeBIT

19 March 2007

I’m proud to say that for the 9th consecutive year, I will not be attending the CeBIT in Hannover, and that if you want to meet me, I won’t be there.

Back before I worked I worked in IT, I used to go every year. These days I have no interest. I think that if Dante [...]

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CrossTouran

18 March 2007

We’re looking at new cars. Something roomy and practical but not too plain. The new CrossTouran from Volkswagen has caught our eye. It’s kind of a cross between a SUV and a van, but the TDI still gets 6.2 l per 100 km (that’s 38 mpg). The deep black with anthracite interior looks sharp. But [...]

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Travel Insurance

17 March 2007

We’re looking at the cancellation insurance on the trips we’ve planned this year. The policy for our Icelandair flight is pretty basic. It covers illness or property crimes, and that’s it. However, the policy for our Easter vacation ferry trip to Oslo has several clauses. Not only is our vacation protected against illness and crime, [...]

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links for 2007-03-16

16 March 2007

Thinks Big About the Little Guy – New York Times The day to day challenges of low-wage fast food workers, and how one McDonald franchisee in Colorado decided to do something about it. [...]

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The Smell of Sweetness

15 March 2007

Spring may not begin for another week, but here in the country spring has already sprung. The first “honey wagon” has appeared in the fields, and we’ve been basking in the sweet smell of Gülle all day.

The German Wikipedia describes Gülle as “organic fertilizer comprised mostly of urine and excrement”, which is somewhat more revealing [...]

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Redubbing Cartoons

15 March 2007

Here’s a crazy and fun way to waste cycles on your MacBook… redub cartoons with your kids! We have a bunch of Lilo and Stitch episodes on our HD recorder, and after second or third time Christopher starts saying the lines along with the TV. “If this keeps up we can just turn off the [...]

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Irritable and Distracted

13 March 2007

Sorry for the lack of subtance here lately. (Actually, that’s just a phrase. I’m not really sorry at all.) There are a couple of explanations.

I’m irritable. I’m losing weight (again). I can lose weight like other people can stop smoking. It’s so easy, I’ve done it dozens of times. However, this time I’ve just finished [...]

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Twitter

13 March 2007

On the new latest thing…

In an age where style easily trumps content, Twitter has neither.

Seth Ladd (via Burningbird)

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Kids Marketing

8 March 2007

This may look like leftover spaghetti. But it’s really volcano noodles with lava sauce with stone pieces.

Marketing is everything.

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This Time Nationwide

6 March 2007

MamaMaus has once again graced the pages of the Bild Zeitung, this time not just the Hamburg edition, but nationwide on Page 2: Jobwunder Mittelstand (online edition, click through the Mehr zum Thema box, or look here for just her), although I’m not sure her employer, an American DJIA-listed corporation, really qualifies as German Mittelstand. [...]

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Fifty States in Ten Minutes

5 March 2007

Fifty States in Ten Minutes is a cute quiz to see how many states you can name in 10 minutes. I got the first 47 in three minutes, but could only add Idaho a couple of minutes later. Not bad for an expat, but I’m sure there are deep psychological reasons for forgetting New Jersey [...]

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Mickey Mouse Outfit

4 March 2007

Today John Gruber linked to a profile of John Lasseter, the director of Toy Story and Cars and now chief creative officer at Disney Feature Animation. The undertone of the friction of the Pixar and Disney corporate cultres is interesting, as well as the mention that Chris Sanders, the writer and director of Lilo and [...]

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links for 2007-03-01

1 March 2007

Hivelogic – Building Ruby, Rails, Subversion, Mongrel, and MySQL on Mac OS X (tags: ruby rails osx the_usual_stuff)

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