Reuters withdraws Photoshopped photo.

Haloscan comments have been in use on this blog for 2 years.Recently, comments have disappeared. I’m done with Haloscan. Sure, I could pay to retrieve all my Haloscan comments but, is this really the point? I guess “free” comes with a price and that price is no comments for the blogposts I created in the last 2 years. Arrghhh…
Starting today all posts have Blogger comments enabled. We’ll see how long this works.

It’s been a week since my return from Deutchland. Now that my circadian clock is no longer cuckoo some reminiscences follows…

Being on a business trip there wasn’t much time for sightseeing. In fact, there was only what I call time for “one day German immersion training.”

Right off the 9.5 hour plane flight (with ~ 4 hours for sleep for me) in Stuggart my host collected us and we were off to the southern region of Germany to the City of Nagold. We had breakfast where my host asked us if we wanted to go for a 6K hike in the Black Forest. We settled these plans and then, checked in at the hotel. I don’t know what I was thinking… wether this was the rush of my first trip to Europe or what but, I was looking forward to seeing some trees after the overnight plane trip from Atlanta, GA.

The Black Forest & Beer

Wow, the beauty and majesty of all those trees! We were among giants! The trail we were following traced a stream that once carried logs downriver. It was a beautiful day. Clear, sunny and a nice breeze.

Our host and his friends were gracious and generous. Language was not an issue especially when someone is offering you a drink of water. Small talk was sporadic and I was in awe of the beauty of the area.

We walked and walked and walked… I think we hiked more like 10 – 12 K than 6 but, I really didn’t notice. There was so much to see.

Our next stop was for a pils. This was some really good beer brewed right on site of Alpirsbacher an ancient monastery. We took the train back to our point of origin and met later for dinner.

The rest of the trip was business during the day with graciously hosted dinners in the evenings at several local establishments.

A week of German language TV was interesting. My one saving grace was CNN World. One curiosity I saw on TV: Why does McDonalds sell a bacon, jalepeno burger “Los Wochos” in Germany but, not here? Also suprising was the taste of Coke – apparently the recipe is localized in many nations.

I read in a Sci-Fi book once that traversing time zones you feel like you leave a piece of you behind. Well, I’d agree with that sentiment… especially the return trip. If it wasn’t for some perscription sleeping pills, good beer a shower and a place to sleep. I would have been a lot worse for the wear.

For the last few months I’ve tracked a ficticious stock portfolio with Yahoo! Finance’s portfolio tool using the Magic Formula for investing methodology (see my Magic Formula Investing Blog). So far the stock portfolio is outperforming blog ads. I’m not some world famous blogger but, this is something to ponder: Is it a better use of time to play the stockmarket and keep the blogs as hobbies? Or, can enough dollars be derived from ads on blogs to pay for my coffee habit?

I recently discovered SketchUp an easy to use (and addicting) 3-D drawing program from your friends at Google. Talk about bringing incredible, 3-D software to the masses! After going through three brief tutorials I “drew” this..