philipp.log - das Weblog von Philipp Krebs - Grafton, WI

Last entry from America

nospam@example.com (Philipp Krebs) — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 23:16:41 -0700

My flight back to Zurich, CH is scheduled to leave at 7 pm, my 3 suitcases are ready and I just closed my bank account. Except from some final cleanup and throwing-away in the appartment, I'm ready.

It's sad to leave this great country, I really enjoyed my stay and met some very special people here. Thanks everybody for everything!

But it's also time to look forward and get ready to meet the folks I left behind! I really missed every single one of you and I'll be glad to see you again!

Starbucks popular belief and truth

nospam@example.com (Philipp Krebs) — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 12:56:52 -0700

Popular belief, at least in Germany: Every Starbucks has free Wireless Lan.
Reality: The one in Grafton doesn't have any, the one is Mequon is run by T-Mobile and costs $10/day
Even more frustrating: As it turned out, there's an open one right in front of my door. It's too weak to be used in my appartment, but works inside the van

Imperial units of measurement in Europe

nospam@example.com (Philipp Krebs) — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 12:12:46 -0700

As everybody knows, Europeans like to slander about the usage of imperial units of measurement in the UK and the United States. And it's quite hard, whereas I learned to estimate how much miles (~1.5km), foot (30cm) and fluid ounces (12 floz = one soda can) are, I still simply say "oh wow!", when someone tells me how many square feet a certain area is, simply because I usually have no clue how much it is.
But on the other hand, there are some imperial units that are in heavy use in European countries. Just read AutoBild or any other popular car magazine, and you'll always find the engine power specified in "Pferdestaerken"/Horsepower.

Shop for an LCD screen and choose between 17", 19" and 21", as you would in America. And if you prefer fresh and locally farmed vegetables over the stuff sold at grocery stores, you'll find a lot of people ordering a certain amount of pounds of potatoes, though a pound is usually simplified as 500 Grams.

Getting poetic...

nospam@example.com (Philipp Krebs) — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 11:53:02 -0700

Good luck that the report about my internship is almost complete, since I'm starting to get poetic in the conclusion

My internship at SKF Grafton as a junior quality manager gave me a deep insight into quality management and was the ideal sequel to my first internship at SKF in Maulburg, Germany as the developer of their quality management software MaQMa. Whereas that assignment was centered on its technical aspect and its architecture, MaQMa was only the tool in my hands this time when crafting SKF Grafton’s quality management system.

Isn't that a nice conclusion for the report about a wonderful time?

Thank you, America!

Source

An old problem in the US for the rest of the world

nospam@example.com (Philipp Krebs) — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 09:56:51 -0700

The imperial units of measurement. This wikipedia article seems cover the subject pretty well!

A Baseball game by the milwaukee brewers

nospam@example.com (Philipp Krebs) — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 09:27:10 -0700

I didn't expect baseball games to be so much fun!

The Stadium...

Thanks to SKF for inviting me to this integral part of the American culture I would have missed otherwise!

Nice license plate

nospam@example.com (Philipp Krebs) — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 12:07:02 -0700

You know you're doing too much QM if....

nospam@example.com (Philipp Krebs) — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 13:35:14 -0700

According to the quite popular "you know you're using the computer too much when...", I could meanwhile start a collection of "You know you're doing too much quality management if....". The first one would be

...when you tell your friends "Did you know that Pick-n-Save does not have a process for handling damaged shopping carts?"

Selective Service: Unsubscribing successfull

nospam@example.com (Philipp Krebs) — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 12:12:32 -0700

My request to be removed from the selective service database, a file of all American males that would be able to perform military service in case of a requirement, has been approved. I received a semi-personal letter including some remiders that I have to register once my legal status changes.

Oh and by the way: The brochure the military sends registrered citizens is quite nice - looks like a good role model for the Bundeswehr.

"Hurricanes"	"Floods"	"Fires"
"Terrorists"	"Todays Military"	The last page shown on the left has another 3 paragraphs about the importance of the military and, of course, where to get more information.

Basically, I like the brochure because of the way it's made, unfolding the American flag at every page turn. Of course, in reality the military's missions aren't shared in quarts between these areas of occupation, but this fact should be obvious to anybody ever reading a newspaper or watching TV news.
If I remember correctly, the Bundeswehr advertises way more. My invitation to the army physical contained a full issue of "ypsilon - the Bundeswehr magazine" - though I was only invited because I sent them my request of clearance from service in advance.

Attorney General elections

nospam@example.com (Philipp Krebs) — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 12:29:19 -0700

It's quite interesting to see all the advertising for the attorney general (AG) candidates. Unlike in Germany, this position is not simply filled by the person the secretary of justice selects, but it's a political office with a candidate elected by the people of Wisconsin. And apparently, in America, primaries are not only held for the president of the United States, but also for other positions, like the AG.
The next AG election is going to be in November, so advertising for the particular candidates for the primaries is displayed everywhere. This article in the Journal Sentinel gives a nice overview of the candidates. In short, two male republican candidates compete against two female democrats: the incumbent Peg Lautenschlager and another female candidate from Madison.
I didn't manage to get into the details of the race, but it's interesting to see how hard the competition for this office is here in Wisconsin. And since the candidates are all party members and elected by the general public, the political issues that are not quite connected to fighting crime also play a role in the race.

Why is the US Postal service so friendly?

nospam@example.com (Philipp Krebs) — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 08:58:08 -0700

When buying some stamps at the post office today, the service was extremely friendly for the second time I've been there. Why isn't that possible in Germany? Other than I thought, the US postal service is fully government-owned. And they even have a monopoly on first-class mail, more or less like in Germany and other european countries. In Germany, the Bundespost has always been unfriendly and queues usually reach out the front door in peak times.
Maybe, it's simply the awareness that, even in a government-owned company, the wages are finally paid for by the customer. An altitude that is way more common over here than in Germany, as it seems to me.

No more Postings?

nospam@example.com (Philipp Krebs) — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 03:35:00 -0700

It's been quiet here, since there were a lot of things going on here in Grafton in the last two weeks. First, we had a supplier audit two weeks ago, in which I was involved a lot. Then my mom arrived to visit me for one week. Additionally, we had our regular ISO9001 Certification audit, which kept me quite busy for another three days.
I hope that I'll find more time to update my page this week!

Deutschland schwitzt

nospam@example.com (Philipp Krebs) — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 05:19:53 -0700

Gerade im ICQ:

Christian Stoll Sunday, July 30, 2006
2:18 PM Ich will endlich Herbst. Habe 29 Grad in meinem Zimmer.

Philipp Sunday, July 30, 2006
2:18 PM Mir ist die Aussentemperatur egal, da sowohl mein Appartment als auch mein Auto klimatisiert sind

Boring night-programme in German Webradios

nospam@example.com (Philipp Krebs) — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 13:00:04 -0700

It's 10 o'clock in the evening, and as punctual as the mason (as we say in Germany), Techno4ever starts playing a mix by the Hardstyle DJ Zani. The mix isn't bad at all if you like this kind of music, but it's played virtually every night. There's little reason for them to change that, since "normal" Germans don't listen to webradio at 5 o'clock in the morning. But I do, since the local time here is 7 hours behind. I already asked in their forum whether they could change that and they promised to do so, but unfortunately, they didn't. Hopefully, I'll find a different Internet Radio with current European Techno Music once in a while.

The selective service system

nospam@example.com (Philipp Krebs) — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 07:18:38 -0700

One of the most surprising letters I've had in my mailbox while being there in Grafton, WI arrived yesterday: A "Registration Acknowledgement Card" of the "Selective Service System". Having never heard of anything like this, I started asking co-workers and did some research on the internet to find out what's the deal behind all this.
Apparently, the US maintains a database of all males between 18 and 25 to be able to perform a military draft in case this is needed. In Germany, every male usually gets a similar letter at the age of 17 where he's asked to confirm his personal information, so that the government can invite him to the army physical as soon as he's out of school. The difference is that whereas the data is submitted automatically in Germany, US citizen are required by law to register manually. However, the data is automatically submitted when a male citizen applies for a Social Security Number or a driver's license - I did both.
Theoretically, non-immigrant aliens like me are not required to register and should not be in the database. So apparently, somebody wasn't paying attention at some agency I dealt with. Luckily, there's also a possibility to unregister by sending some proof to the SSS. I think I'll do that, although there shouldn't be any trouble arising from being in the database, as long as there's no draft.