Hotel review

Back in April I stayed at the Max Hotel in Belgium as a part of the International Week for the MBA program. The Max Hotel is a new hotel business model where there is minimal staff and everything is done through kiosk computers. Even the kitchen area is all vending machines and no actual cooking staff. It's a new concept, but one that didn't bother me too much. What did bother me was that, since it was new, one of their computer kiosks double charged me for the room (530 EU or sg like that). That's quite a lot of change. As soon as I saw my bank statement, I notified the hotel management about it. They said they would take care of it. Fast forward 1 month later and they finally refunded the money (530 EU), BUT the euro has since devalued. I wrote back to them stating that they forgot about $60 USD on the refund and they replied by telling me they'd look into it. This was back in June 2010, it's now August! and I still have not received anything.
They refunded the correct amount in EUROs, but my account is in USD. The Max Hotel stole money from me. It wasn't my fault they double charged me. I never signed a credit card authorization to charge me twice for the room. Nor is it my fault that the euro devalued at that time. If they didn't charge me the second time this never would've happened.
As I said, as of today they still have not refunded the money. To me it isn't about the money so much as it is about good service. Own up to your mistake and make the customer whole. The Max Hotel, a part of 3 Stars Hotels (www.3starshotels.be), STOLE MONEY from a customer.

....This just in. I just wrote an email asking where my money is and they replied,

"You should be refunded in a few days."

I'm not holding my breath.

regarding World Cup post

I just saw this article while waiting for my eye appointment to begin...(my right contact lens tore and I'm all out).

http://www.mensjournal.com/taibbi-world-cup

Titled, "Why the World Cup sucks". After professing my newfound love for the World Cup, I can still agree with some of the points brought up here. In particular #4. Diving. Long story short it addresses the "no crying in baseball" analogy I used before. :)

Ötkert

Night out w/ some new friends. Party began at friends flat then moved to the newest kert (garden) in the city, Ötkert. There was a line to get in, as if I was back in LA or Vegas, but no cover. :) There was one annoying swiss f*ck that was with our group. The most arrogant ass I've met in a while. Literally looking down on me and the other american friends of mine there. I swear I was this close to punching this prick. I had a cigar, he takes it from me, sniffs it, rolls it in his fingers (as if he's a cigar aficionado) and then tells me, "oh that's no good...it's not a real cuban." I wanted to put my cigar out on his smug face right then and there.

Aside from him, the night was good. It was a "costume" party, but you only had to have one item that came from a movie character. I chose to wear a "satchel". Gabi wore her Minnie ears.

Now its time to pack. Gabi and I are heading out to Lake Balaton for the weekend.

World Cup

Here's my take on the whole event now that its done. Which, by the way, ended with Spain winning 1-0 against the Dutch much like I had hoped. So here are my likes, dislikes, etc.

Liked: the overall experience of watching the games outdoors at Szabadsag ter on the big screen, or at Legends sports bar, or just out having a drink and catching the games. Kinda reminded me of the World Series or playoffs (football or baseball or basketball).
I was really trying to figure out the little intricacies of the game, why a specific formation, why pass it to this player, why attack the opposition at a particular time, etc. In baseball/football/basketball, I understand these things b/c I grew up watching/playing them. But soccer is still new to me and I tried to keep an open mind about it and actually learn about it. Prior to the World Cups (2006 and 2010), my only experience was playing in jr. high and getting kicked in the nuts while trying to kick the ball. So soccer never was at the top of my to do list growing up. However, its growing on me.

Disliked: whining. Soccer players are the biggest floppers (compared to the 3 other major sports in the US). Look at the replays and all it shows is the "whining" player got tripped up or didn't even get touched and they're on the ground grabbing their foot or ankle and "wincing" in pain. Yet once the referee comes over the pain just suddenly goes away and they're just yapping away trying to explain how the opposing player viciously fouled them.
I wish I could remember the details of this one particular play, but it happened last night Spain v. Ned. A dutch player falls to the ground and (replays back me up on this, but was never actually touched by the opposing player) grabs his ankle in "pain". When the referee doesn't give a Yellow card to the opposing player, the Ned player jumps right up and begins to argue his case. All of a sudden, the pain just went away. I mean, I'm not the toughest guy in the world, but seriously?!?! They're the biggest pansies. I'm sure it has everything to do with the way the other sports are played. You know, "...there's no crying in baseball?!?..."

Overall I'm becoming more and more of a fan. It'll be a while before I am consistently watching regular season soccer (FIFA, UEFA, BFF, KIT, SSS, etc.) but I am interested enough to want to start playing. Damn my jr. high memories! I'm afraid I'd get yellowcarded b/c I'd actually foul a guy....like elbow them :D

Sports

I wanted to jot some thoughts down regarding a couple of topics involving sports.

Basketball: Kobe the "greatest" to ever play the game...

Really?!?! I read a post about how Kobe today, plays against much better competition than MJ ever did during the 90's. WOW! Kids today don't know jack sh*t about the history of any sport. All they know is whoever is on the cover of Wheaties this year, that's the greatest of all time. Now I've never been a real fan of Kobe or his Lakers, but I do acknowledge he is by far the greatest of his era and the "Showtime Lakers" were a better team. To go so far as being greater than MJ...not even close. If I'm building a team and I had to pick 1 player to start with, that's an easy choice...MJ all the way.

Football (not soccer): Haynesworth complaining about having to switch from a 4-3 to a 3-4 after getting paid $100 Million dollars of which he collected something like $32 million already.

I agree with Sapp....you agreed to the contract to play football for the team for that money, now honor your commitment and DO IT!!! Stop whining like a little b*tch. Like Sapp said, you're not a dominant defender. I don't understand why you were so "sought after" during free agency last year. You haven't done anything that wow's me, except maybe step on Gurode head. You've never had more than 8.5 sacks, and you only got that in your last year w/ the Titans (contract year). You average 38.5 tackles (combined) and 3.5 sacks per year! and only 0.75 FF per year. How does stats like that warrant a $100 MILLION contract?!?! You can get production like that from a undrafted free agent.

World Cup: Sad to see the US team get knocked out, but really enjoying the games more. Becoming more and more a fan of the game. Still think soccer players are the sporting worlds biggest primadonna's though. You tap them while running and they scream and whine as if "dominant" fat albert knocked them down.

Baseball: Padres are still #1 in the NL.

There are 2 things the Padres need right now to make a serious run at the World Series. Chris Young to come back from the DL and be dominant in the second half of the season and to get another bat to hit for average. I think if they get those two things, the pitching staff will be in a good position to win each game. The batting for average gets the hitter on base and with the way SD's been stealing bases it's a good way to manufacture more runs, especially in Petco. I think they'll have enough power from the Hairstons, Hundley and Headley to get that occasional HR, but they need a guy like Eck or (cross fingers) Gwynn Jr. to hit like his old man.
Oh yeah, they also need about an extra $40M in payroll!!!!! Perhaps they can have some money from Albert "Ain't" worth it?

As you can see, I'm all done w/ the MBA and have some free time to think about the real issues going on in the world right now. :)

still here...

so i'm still alive and kicking. working on the thesis, class projects, website redesign for CSM and e&h. busy man these days.

good news though, finally got a new camera. canon 550d. bought it right before i left for athens. took lots of pics in athens and when i got back to bp. still figuring things out, but having fun doing it. call it my new hobby. will post pics up as soon as the hectic schedule dies down...which it will soon. just finished up one of my classes and wrapping up all the others within the next 3-4 wks...basically only 2 classes for each subject left. then its finals and THEN...the thesis defense on june 3rd (cue music...dun dun duh!!!).

alright, back to the thesis.

Still here...

quick update...i'm still alive. just been busy the last month or so. STUPID THESIS!

anyways, so far so good. got a trip to Athens coming up in 2 weeks. i was invited to attend a business week seminar there at the american college of business. i'm excited b/c i've never been to greece. should be a good trip. although i'm going solo b/c gabi can't get time off....she's saving her vacation days for when my parents come to visit (possibly sometime in sept).

also, there's an opportunity for me to go to brussels for the international week at corvinus. we'll see about that. depends on the money situation.

oh, still no new camera so i have to beg friends to send over pics. sorry for that....it's just electronics are waaaayyyy overpriced here.

so that's all for now... :)