.german obstruction

.second barrier on this world championship is breached! Today we beat Germany 5:1 after a bit better and more creative performance than in the last game. The best players are still getting used to a bigger ice rink and slightly different rules (in comparison with the NHL). So far their cooperation resulted in one (but beautiful) goal. Yet, Canada has to be aware of our strenght by now ;)!
Other top favourites are going through the tournament without bigger problems, I guess that the real strength will be apparent only after their mutual games...

.star birthday

.ivan is again as old as me, that means that he has crossed the line of 24 years of life :). On this occasion small birthday party was taking place today on the green grass of Hvezda dormitory. Sunny weather (relatively cold though), grilled meat, wine and friends, that's always a good combination ;).
At first there were only few people, but later as the aroma of grilled pork was starting to spread around more and more familiar faces were joining our little parade. The most original gift was brought by Sasha (as always, he is our joker ;) ), Ivan felt in love with it almost instantly :).
Even though it was sunny, the coldness started to be unbearable around 6 PM (on the other hand I've sported a nice sun burnt skin ;) ) so we have moved inside and continued the well started evening there....

What to add at the end? Another fine day in Prague is finished, good night!

.hockey fever

.one fever is receding (fortunately, maybe it was from something I've eaten on Tuesday...), another one is just starting (and this is lasting longer and a better one ;) ). World championship in hockey is starting in Moscow (April 27th - May 13th). Our team roster is still changing, some players from the NHL are only on the way.

We'll meet Norway, Germany and Canada in the preliminary group. First two rivals should be quite easy, but in hockey every team can beat everybody (sometimes :) ), so I guess we'll see. The most important game will be against Canada, I hope to see some high quality ice hockey match!

First games are already finished. We've seen some real beatings from favourites (CZE - BLR 8:2, RUS - DEN 9:1...). Our opening game against Norway was a winner but not much of a beauty (we won 3:0, the only positive performance was of goaltender Halak and forward Uram). But we have the points and that's important, maybe game with Germans will be better (this time already with all NHL players)...

.looking for a job

.time of my graduation is becoming closer and closer. That's the reason why I'm doing some research about free interesting job positions in my qualification field. Thus the part of Prague Siggraph, presentations of the companies from game, film and medicine industry was more than interesting.

It was taking part from Tuesday until today. On Tuesday mainly game companies were there. And it is important to add, that also ones that are leading the industry in Czech Republic (Illusion Softworks and Bohemia Interactive). The less positive thing was not that interesting and professional level of presentations (except for the IS). Some of the presenters filled me with impression, that they are there only because they have to and are absolutely NOT interested in finding new people... But this IS looks definitely worth it, I should try my luck applying for one of the offered positions (after my thesis is definitely finished).
I cannot refer about yesterday or today, because I'm sick and lying in bed with high temperature all day long :(...

.bike tour

.as I'm a bit bored of biking in the vicinities of Prague, we finally did some trek further away :). Together with Ivan (big thanks for willingness to do me a company) we rode through the wilderness of natural park Krivoklatsko (50km to the west from Prague).
We had taken a train to Nove Straseci station and from there followed tourist marks, criss-crossing forests of the park. Sunny, yet relatively cold weather was a gift, because riding in hot days is a nightmare (and on Thursday it should be 28 degrees...).
Region of Krivoklatsko is beautiful with its deep coniferous forests and almost untouched nature. It offers nice bike trails with all you ever wanted, challenging ascents, appealing downhills, technical passages full of roots... We did some 85kms and pleasantly tired returned back to Prague at around 8 pm. Next time we'll try some other part of Czech nature :)!

.butterfly garden

.Saturday sky was cloudless and hard labour on my thesis requires some resting and relaxing (on a regular basis ;) ). So I gladly agreed to visit botanical garden with my friend Eva (classmate from high school, now working in Prague, almost everybody I knew in Kosice is now here, unbelievable...).

There is an exhibition of exotic butterflies in the greenhouse Fatamorgana. Our steps walked right there. First thing we saw was huge queue of people. Fortunately it was moving quite fast and in a few minutes we were walking around plants from all around the world. And yeah, there were butterflies everywhere. Flying over our heads, sitting on every imaginable place, feeding, taking sun bath :), etc. All colours and sizes, it was an amazing opportunity to test camera's macro abilities ;). This exhibition end on 29th of April, so if you're in Prague, don't miss it!
Afterwards we didn't miss also other parts of the garden. It is still too early for everything to be nice and green, yet many flowers and trees are blooming right now so it was worth a walk around. The most amazing sights is offering the Japanese garden, where you can relax a bit amongst cherry-trees. If you're bored and looking for some kind of relax, don't hesitate, botanical garden in bloom is a soothing treatment for everybody living stressful life in this big city...

.freckle in Prague

.eagerly anticipated Slovak rock group has come to town! It's called Peha (freckle) and the leading role has a charismatic singer and multi instrumentalist (as we have seen, she played piano, guitar and drums) Katka. Their last album was really good and popularity of this band is rising enormously.
I was very happy to have some relax after long day of master thesis writing. Combination of good music and a group of friends can uplift the day :). The gig was taking place in Palac Akropolis, rather small club. Both two concerts were sold out long before. We have found some good places (with a great view on the stage) shortly after the show began.
There were some guest musicians at the beginning (Ready Kirken, CZE). I didn't know much about them, because I'm not listening to any radio here in Prague (as they are playing mainly rubbish). Yet their performance was pleasant and refreshing (mainly the drum part performed by all members of group :) )!
But only after them the important part of the show started. Katka full of energy burst upon the stage. She was unstoppable and so one hit came after another. Peha's performance was great and so it was only symbolic, that during the concert they got a reward for having a platinum album in Czech Republic. Maybe it would be nice to visit also today's gig and enjoy this stream of fresh energy again ;). Sadly the tickets are sold out...

.grill feast

.cloudless sky was just asking for some outdoor activity. And what is better then some picnic on a green grass? This way our traditional Sunday brunch was transformed into a grill party :). All action took place near Hvezda dormitory. I grasped the opportunity and ride there on bike (it's on the opposite side of Prague and combining this with ravishing track through Divoka Sarka valley results in beautiful 22kms).
So a lot of meat was prepared in friendly atmosphere and as you may know eating on the outskirts of nature increases appetite ;). I'm quite curious what meal wil be prepared next weekend...

.you gotta be kidding me...

.what was that comedy today? I don't know how it looked like to other spectators, but for me it was really, really sad picture of Slovak ice hockey team... It looks like our fate for this year's world championship in Moscow is quite clear, definitely no play-off. At least not with play like this. Friendly match with Czech Republic (we lost 2:5) uncovered our desperate hockey impotency, when no NHL players are around. However, this year only a very small number of the best will be available. This is a great chance for players from european leagues, but guys, not like this! Still two weeks to go, so maybe we'll see some improvement, hopefully...

.easter et al.

.my road home was quite complicated this time. Instead of taking direct route Prague - Kosice (anyway, all tickets were sold out weeks before the Easter) I did a little detour through Nove Zamky (and combined travelling by train and by bus), stopping in nearby village for 6 hours. The reason for all this commotion is prosaic. I had a chance to meet in person with my very good friend, from the days of Saarbrucken, Janka. She was back in Slovakia for a few days and that's the closest distance we'll be for some time... We have spent a very nice time together.
I arrived home around just before midnight on Friday. After a big dose of sleep, meeting all the family members, overeating with holiday meals and confronting unavoidable questions about my thesis all I wanted was to relax a bit. And because the weather was great I went for some biking :) (but that's the topic of another post). Sunday was also filled with eating, watching TV and lying in bed (there is some spring weariness in the air, because I'm sleeping enormous number of hours...).
On Monday, according to the traditions (I'm not a very big fan of these), men are drenching women with water for them to blossom in beauty (and afterwards a lot of alcohol is consumed :( ). So after decently fulfilling this "duty" at home we went (I was driving) to other relatives to spread this spring fever... The day and holidays are over, I guess, that they were OK. I've met relatives I haven't seen for a long time, I've eaten a lot of good stuff, I've been home!

And now back to work on my thesis...

.season opening

.the weather is beginning to be warm and sunny on stable basis and that means, that there is a season (mountain bike) to begin. I haven't got my bike in Prague (two weeks ago it was still really cold), but the Easter holidays were an opportunity to go home and (amongst the other things) prepare my love ;) for this year's thousands of kilometers (the goal is approx. 2.500km, which unfortunately wasn't done last year, the counter stopped at some 2.260km). As always I have plans for some intensive biking in some Czech/Slovak mountains (Jeseniky probably) and some MTB marathons (I'll try to beat my best result from last year, when I finished 29th/210 in Nizke Tatry)...

So on Thursday i'm bringing my bike to Prague (by train) and the training shall begin. First spring kilometers are already beaten, many more still awaiting. Maybe we'll meet somewhere on the track :)!

.thesis nightmare

.my bold plans to finish my thesis (called "soft shadows on GPU) before April deadline are gone :(. It's more complicated than I've thought. Mainly lack of good documentation and examples of use for Cg language and OpenGL extensions are a problem...
So now I'm working on it every day (yet without any noticeable progress). Solving some of the problems requires a bit of magic. Just swapping two lines of code can dramatically change the results. That's what I call a programmer's nightmare. I need some fresh ideas...
I'm heading home tomorrow, to have a short break and to celebrate Easter. Maybe it will help. At least I hope so.

.tasty fool's day

.Sunday is the day of friendly cooking sessions at Eva's place. Every time somebody is cooking, others bring needed stuff. The most important result is of course full stomach ;) and fun...

Today the chosen recipe was "strawberry-cheese dumplings". I was only an attendee, learning the recipe, ingredients and the way how to cook this speciality. The result was awesome (eventhough I'm not that big fan of sweet dishes) and I really recommend you to try it out!