Thomas E. Kraus

Jürgen Klopp rallies support for Borussia Dortmund

2013-05-24T18:44:00.005-07:00

An hour after the first of Jürgen Klopp's many jokes, interspersed with his worldly insights into football and life, he returns to a more personal memory. It is fitting and evocative because the tumultuous journey that Klopp and Borussia Dortmund have taken to the Champions League final at Wembley, where they play Bayern Munich on Saturday, has been this season's most memorable story. A passionate club's exhilarating play and outrageous drama, painful transfer intrigue and riotous joy, validates Klopp's claim that "this is the most interesting football project in the world".

It was strangely similar for Klopp at Mainz, the first love of his sporting life. Klopp, who eventually became their coach, used to be a lumbering striker-turned-defender in the German second division, and he suggests that: "Just like every person who works for Dortmund is a fan of the club, it was the same at Mainz. When I was a player there we had 800 supporters on rainy Saturday afternoons and if we died no one would notice or come to our funeral. But we loved the club and we have this same feeling at Dortmund. It's a very special club – a workers' club."
Klopp is canny enough to evoke these romantic roots when, speaking in English with real fervour, he says: "I left Mainz after 18 years and thought: 'Next time I will work with a little less of my heart.' I said that because we all cried for a week. The city gave us a goodbye party and it lasted a week. For a normal person that emotion is too much. I thought it's not healthy to work like this. But after one week at Dortmund it was the same situation. To find this twice, to be hit by good fortune, is very unusual."
Read the whole story at the Guardian here...

Samsung rocks!!

2013-05-21T04:45:00.002-07:00

Best commercial video I seen in a while. And yes ladies - it's a video and commercial - in other words: a phantasy - dont hold your breath. It want happen roflmao....

Coronado Bridge at night

2013-03-03T18:22:00.001-08:00

The Coronado Bridge in San Diego at night. Picture was taken from Tidelands Park; a.k.a. Coronado Bridge Park. The bridge looks impressive during daytime. To me that impression somewhat changes during night....
If you're visiting San Diego, must come to the Coronado Island to visit.

If you end up visiting Hotel Del Coronado, from the beach, you can totally see Mexico from across the sea, which is pretty awesome.
Visit at night time, you'll see the beautiful city of SD and it'll make you want to come back again.
Thanks to the folks at Sprinter Rentals USA to show us that park for the video shot we needed to do.
Perfect location!! (No, it was not a Harlem Shake...)
Great vans as well from that company, very recommendable if you need a van.
At exact same tour as with a Ford Ecoline Van we used almost 35% less on fuel $'s.
Well fuel for the car that is. We converted the funds into our human fuel budget (Bloody Mary's etc.) ;-)

Dolphins surfing waves

2013-01-30T01:13:00.002-08:00

Dolphins surfing waves in San Diego, CA. This pod of dolphins was surfing waves at Blacks Beach, located just below the world famous Torrey Pines Golf Course. Blacks is known for many things, great waves, dolphins, scenic beauty, dangerous sandstone cliffs and of course, that it is a nude beach.

Merry Xmas - Frohe Weihnacht - ¡Feliz Navidad - Gelukkig Kerstfeest - Geseënde Kersfees

2012-12-23T19:15:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, Frohe Weihnacht, ¡Feliz Navidad, Gelukkig Kerstfeest, Geseënde Kersfees....
Did I cover everybody??? I hope so, if not you may not stay in touch enough... ;-)

And keep in mind, it's the time of the year that is followed by the time of the next year.... The Dakar is coming!! Dakar 2013 starting 5th of January in Lima, Peru and finish 21st of January 2013 in Santiago de Chile. It will be a off-road racing festival!! You know where to find me....
Updates on the rally daily at www.dakarrallyraid.com

Extremely scary ghost elevator prank

2012-12-07T01:34:00.002-08:00

Now this is funny... scary ghost elevator prank from Brazil. Having 48,766,558 views I guess one can say this is a viral YouTube clip.

Dogs in Slow Motion

2012-11-02T07:48:00.003-07:00

Dogs in Slow Motion - insight to a dogs mind: anything for a ball!! ;-) Enjoy!!

It's Probably Me

2012-10-05T15:01:00.001-07:00

Great clip/song to get into the weekend. "It's Probably Me" (Feat. Eric Clapton) Taken from his fourth studio album "Ten Summoner's Tales" & featuring guitar legend "Eric Clapton" this is "The Police" lead singer "Sting"

Released in 1992 The single reached #30 on the UK singles chart & also featured in the opening titles of the motion picture Lethal Weapon 3.

Video from the King of Raooooop Cro

2012-09-18T05:01:00.000-07:00

Video from the King of Raooooop Cro - "DU" (Official Version)

Special day

2012-07-25T09:53:00.003-07:00

We all have some days a year that are special. I kinda needed to be reminded that there is one coming up. Despite the unpleasant and extreme challenging times I'm facing I try to be positive. Watch the sun rise over the bay, observe somethings peaceful and let me carry from it into the day. Forget all the other challenges, extreme health issues for a few moments.....

It's difficult to stay positive if it ends like the picture show.... 3 hours later, I forgot the house key (all 100% my fault), try to climb the wall and slip, fall back down and hurt myself pretty good on arm, hip, leg and foot, rip a nail of on top at my "bad" DVT leg.... Screw special days....

Happy Birthday to me.....

What to do with your death cat

2012-06-05T19:41:00.002-07:00

It's a tribute to the cat Orville, that was named after the famous aviator Orville Wright. After the cat was killed by a car, and followed by a period of mourning, visual artist Bart Jansen transformed him into the Orvillecopter: Now he is finally flying with the birds. The greatest goal a cat could ever reach!

The artist debuted the unusual work at the KunstRai ArtFair in Amsterdam over the past weekend. While images and video of the Orvillecopter have gone bonkers on the Internet, not everyone is laughing.
On Friday, anonymous animal rights activists wrote "Kill the animal killers" and "Shame" in graffiti letters on the side of the RAI convention center, which hosted the fair.
Now the Dutch Party for the Animals, a political party that runs on an animal rights platform, has announced that it will send a letter of complaint to the festival organizers, as well as to the RAI convention center.

Your cell phone runs on blood

2012-05-24T19:09:00.000-07:00

Warlords, soldiers, and child laborers all toil over a mineral you've never even heard of. Coltan is a conflict mineral in nearly every cell phone, laptop, and electronic device. It's also tied to the deaths of over 5 million people in Congo since 1990.
The video is about 37 minutes. Worth to watch!

Are floating marijuana bales impacting sea life?

2012-05-24T19:01:00.000-07:00

Are floating marijuana bales impacting sea life? Conan investigates the side effects of the four tons of marijuana found floating off the coast of California.

Adaptive athlete Mike Schultz

2012-05-14T12:22:00.000-07:00

Mike Schultz shares his inspiring story about living life to its fullest after losing his left leg above the knee. Mike's always been one to tinker, so designing and building his own leg to continue pinning it, came natural.
Mike continues to find ways to try new sports and help others get back in the saddle, too.

Learn more about Mike at: http://ridefox.com/schultz

Baboons recognise words on a screen

2012-04-14T04:04:00.001-07:00

Baboons can recognize four-letter words on a computer screen, according to scientists in France. Researchers found the monkeys could tell the difference between actual words and nonsense letter combinations.
After being trained, the baboons were able to make this distinction, despite not being capable of reading. The results suggest the ability to recognize words could more closely relate to object identification than linguistic skill.
The study, completed by Dr John Grainger and Dr Joel Fagot from the Aix-Marseille University was published in the journal Science.
"It was by no means a foregone conclusion that the baboons would be able to master our word-non-word discrimination task, so we were quite excited about the simple fact that they did succeed," said Dr Grainger.
The researchers tested a group of Guinea baboons in a specially built facility at the university.
"In this research, the animals are completely free to participate, and are automatically identified by the test computers when they quit their social group to voluntarily enter one of the 10 possible test systems," explained Dr Fagot who designed the system.
Inside the test booths the baboons were presented with a computer screen that displayed either a four-letter word or a nonsensical jumble of letters.
To earn a treat from the automated system, they had to correctly touch either a plus sign to signify a non-word or an oval for a word.
Find the whole report here...

Now reading all of that I am wondering.... I do know people that could N O T tell the difference between actual words and nonsense letter combinations.

Everybody is a genius

2012-02-25T11:52:00.000-08:00

Found that on the net and think it's cool. Little reminder on daily life and judging people....

Everybody is a genius.
But if you judge a fish
by it's ability to climb a tree,
it will live its whole life
believing that it is stupid.
{Albert Einstein}

Kindsight and Karma

2012-02-13T13:06:00.000-08:00

Kindsight and Karma, 2 internet finds I thought I share with the 1.35 visitors per month here... ;-)

Frohe Weihnachten - Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T18:03:00.001-08:00

Frohe Weihnachten 2011 - and for the ones that take an extensive "time-out" (vacation) a happy upcoming new year. May you stay healthy and alll your goals in reach,

Slow Motion Video of Dogs In Cars

2011-12-13T08:47:00.000-08:00

Slow Motion Video of Dogs In Cars Is Five Minutes of Pure Happiness. I love dogs. They are so happy when they get their heads out of the window and enjoy the wind, the smells and the view. That's why this video made me so happy this morning. Filmed by Keith Hopkin with two great tracks by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: "Anne With An E" and "Heaven's Gonna Happen Now." Someone should really do some research paper about why dogs love to take their heads out of cars so much. Or perhaps we should leave some mysteries alone.

Military men and women mime All I Want For Christmas Is You

2011-12-09T18:20:00.001-08:00

A video made by the crew of the Royal Navy assault ship HMS Ocean has delighted pop star Mariah Carey. The military men and women mime to the singer's 1994 hit "All I Want For Christmas Is You". The video was made after the crew found out the ship would be back in its home port for Christmas after seven months at sea. After watching it, the singer tweeted: "This is the best thing I've ever seen, you guys just made my day! Happy Happy Christmas!!! x0x0 to the troops."

2011 is a very special year

2011-10-26T18:02:00.000-07:00

Did you know that the year 2011 is a very special year?
This phenomenon repeats only once every 823 years.
Firstly, the month of October has 5 Mondays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays
Then we have the dates of 01/01/11, 1/11/11 then the then the 11/11/11 (if you use it in date/month/year order)
And what is even more interesting if you ad up your birth year and the years of age you become this year the result is 111

For example, you're born in 1970 then 70 plus 41 equals 111

This number is the same for all people this year.
Try it once with the data of your friends, it is always the 111 as a result.

Spelling and grammar errors that make you look dumb

2011-10-11T09:15:00.000-07:00

Many brilliant people have some communication weak spots. Unfortunately, the reality is that written communication is a big part of business, and how you write reflects on you. Poor spelling and grammar can destroy a professional image in an instant. Even if your job doesn't require much business writing, you'll still have emails to send and notes to write. And if you're looking for a job, your cover letters and resumes will likely mean the difference between getting the interview or not. Bad grammar and spelling make a bad impression. Don't let yourself lose an opportunity over a simple spelling or grammar mistake.
Here are seven simple grammatical errors that I see consistently in emails, cover letters and resumes.

Tip: Make yourself a little card cheat sheet and keep it in your wallet for easy reference.

You're / Your

The apostrophe means it's a contraction of two words; "you're" is the short version of "you are" (the "a" is dropped), so if your sentence makes sense if you say "you are," then you're good to use you're. "Your" means it belongs to you, it's yours.

You're = if you mean "you are" then use the apostrophe
Your = belonging to you

You're going to love your new job!

It's / Its

This one is confusing, because generally, in addition to being used in contractions, an apostrophe indicates ownership, as in "Dad's new car." But, "it's" is actually the short version of "it is" or "it has." "Its" with no apostrophe means belonging to it.

It's = it is
Its = belonging to it

It's important to remember to bring your telephone and its extra battery.

They're / Their / There

"They're" is a contraction of "they are." "Their" means belonging to them. "There" refers to a place (notice that the word "here" is part of it, which is also a place – so if it says here and there, it's a place). There = a place

They're = they are
Their = belonging to them

They're going to miss their teachers when they leave there.

Loose / Lose

These spellings really don't make much sense, so you just have to remember them. "Loose" is the opposite of tight, and rhymes with goose. "Lose" is the opposite of win, and rhymes with booze. (To show how unpredictable English is, compare another pair of words, "choose" and "chose," which are spelled the same except the initial sound, but pronounced differently. No wonder so many people get it wrong!)

Loose = it's not tight, it's loosey goosey
Lose= "don't lose the hose for the rose" is a way to remember the same spelling but a different pronunciation

I never thought I could lose so much weight; now my pants are all loose!

Lead / Led

Another common but glaring error. "Lead" means you're doing it in the present, and rhymes with deed. "Led" is the past tense of lead, and rhymes with sled. So you can "lead" your current organization, but you "led" the people in your previous job.

Lead = present tense, rhymes with deed
Led = past tense, rhymes with sled

My goal is to lead this team to success, just as I led my past teams into winning award after award.

A lot / Alot / Allot

First the bad news: there is no such word as "alot." "A lot" refers to quantity, and "allot" means to distribute or parcel out.

There is a lot of confusion about this one, so I'm going to allot ten minutes to review these rules of grammar.

Between you and I

This one is widely misused, even by TV news anchors who should know better.

In English, we use a different pronoun depending on whether it's the subject or the object of the sentence: I/me, she/her, he/him, they/them. This becomes second nature for us and we rarely make mistakes with the glaring exception of when we have to choose between "you and I" or "you and me."

Grammar Girl does a far better job of explaining this than I, but suffice to say that "between you and I" is never correct, and although it is becoming more common, it's kind of like saying "him did a great job." It is glaringly incorrect.

The easy rule of thumb is to replace the "you and I" or "you and me" with either "we" or "us" and you'll quickly see which form is right. If "us" works, then use "you and me" and if "we" works, then use "you and I."

Between you and me (us), here are the secrets to how you and I (we) can learn to write better.

Master these common errors and you'll remove some of the mistakes and red flags that make you look like you have no idea how to speak.

Content credits / source: http://work.lifegoesstrong.com/7-spelling-and-grammar-errors-make-you-look-dumb

A Life Underwater

2011-09-01T06:24:00.000-07:00

I found this video on Vimeo and like it a lot, maybe you enjoy it also. A rogue with an eye for salvage - and the ladies - Ray: A Life Underwater is an affectionate portrait of one man's deep sea diving career, told through his extraordinary collection of marine artefacts.
Like a modern-day pirate, 75-year-old Ray Ives has been scouring the seabed for treasure his whole life.
The former commercial diver has plundered the deep for over fifty years, bringing to the surface anything that glittered -- even gold.
In a shipping container near the water, Ray tends his museum of cannon, bottles, bells, swords, portholes and diving gear.
He even still takes to the water in a 1900s diving suit.

What are friends for?

2011-07-31T08:49:00.000-07:00

You choose your friends, not your family - and for many today, the former have become the most important people in their lives. But are you sure your friends really like you as much as you like them? And how do you know they will still be around in five years' time?

Friendship has been given a special status in our society. It is contrasted with all those relationships over which we have so little control; the families we can't change, the neighbors who irritate us, the colleagues we have to put up with. Friends are thought of as the joyous, freely chosen part of our lives, and it's assumed that those relationships are always pleasurable. If asked how you're spending the weekend and you say staying in or seeing your family or your colleagues, people may think you're a little sad. Say you're seeing friends and there's an assumption that you too are desirable, connected.

On one level, friendships are very simple. They are the bonds between people who enjoy one another's company. But probe deeper and it's evident that there is no consensus about what it means. Start talking to people about friendship and it becomes clear that while people value it and seek it, there is also much confusion, hesitancy and disappointment about friends in many people's lives. Friendship is one of those areas full of hidden assumptions and unspoken rules. We only discover that our friendship doesn't mean what we think it does when those assumptions clash.

There is no agreement about what friendship involves, or what to do if it goes sour. No one would dream of suggesting to a friend that they start seeing a friends' guidance counselor to talk about the dynamics of their failing relationship. When things go wrong, we very rarely challenge our friends. That's because friendship is often a delicate affair and we don't want to tax it with too many demands. It's more common to absorb the hurt, and retreat. After all, there is no contract. The terms are unwritten, and nobody ever makes them explicit.

Ask people about friendship and what's startling is that they hold such a wide range of views, often accompanied by an absolute conviction that they are expressing an obvious truth. Some think it demands total loyalty; others that it carries no obligations at all. One man says long friendships have transformed his life, and been in some ways more important than his marriage; another thinks the great thing about friends is that you can always drop the old ones, because there are new ones around every corner. One woman says she would die for her friends; a younger woman says that all her friendships are ruthlessly practical, and designed to make her life easier in the here and now.

And what's intriguing about those attitudes is that they aren't obvious from the way people lead their lives. Everyone I talked to above has a large number of acquaintances and a social life. All but one assumes that most people think as they do.

Most of us feel a certain pride about our friends, pleased that they have chosen us, and that we have chosen them. We tend to believe that they reflect some important truths about who we are. Yet making friends isn't an exercise in free choice, any more than buying a house is. We buy houses according to what we can afford, what happens to be on the market when we're looking, and whether a capricious owner decides to accept our offer. Friendship is rather similar. We can only choose our friends from among the people we meet, in circumstances where making a friendly overture would be appropriate, and who show a reciprocal interest in knowing us.

All of that and more is nice and good, has it's good and bad site. When it boils down to the wire, when you are real deep in doo-doo. I mean like R E A L deep, when it's about your existential well being, that's when you see your real friends.

Or in other words - when you realize that the, oh so cherished friendship, has limits and conditions and nobody goes the last mile with/for you. This are the moments you realize: real friends are seldom to none.....

Why I like off-road

2011-07-18T03:30:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons why I like off-road: one see so much places you would normally miss since you never make it to that areas. The picture below is just such an example..... Enjoy!!

Double D Ranch Red Butte Arizona, USA