Michael Carøe Andersen » Blogging

Bloggers in London and Twitterers in West Hampstead

michael — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:43:25 +0000

When I move to a new city I try to find local bloggers – and this time round people on Twitter – as a way to explore my new hometown.

In Copenhagen I joined a bloggers dinner and learned about BarCamp through bloggers and in Prague I made a couple of Danish friends that I found through their blogs. I also met Empty Nested Karen and Minnesotan Al in Prague.

I’m trying to do the same in London but in London everything is so much bigger which is both good and bad. Good because you can find literally everything and all sorts of people, groups and activities. Bad because it easily becomes overwhelming and places and people are far apart. Nevertheless I’ve embarked on the London blogosphere and twittersphere.

Ann and I went to the Christmas gathering of a group called London Bloggers Meetup (#LBM) that organizes a monthly event for people who blog to meetup and chat.

The group was started two years ago by Andy and has gone from having a handful participants to having upwards of 100 now with the events getting booked out days or weeks before they take place. Here Andy is presenting one of the nights three speakers.

First speaker was a security expert from Symantec (who sponsored the bar tab), then followed one of the girls of Domestic Sluttery (they brought cookies!) talked about tips for bloggers and last was Arvind talking about Kiva – a microfinance project.

A great night and I got round to speak to a couple of bloggers like Jorgen, The Undercover Recruiter and Too Geeky Chris (and a couple I forgot, ups).

A few weeks later I went to West Hampstead a neighborhood 30 min walk away from here. There is an active and growing online community in West Hampstead that mainly engage on Twitter. Jonathan is the man behind the blog West Hampstead Life and he is also very active on Twitter where he has been the anchorman for a lot of events. I went to a meetup called a #WHampGather at Alice House a very cool pub/restaurant.

There were loads of people who turned up for the event, our corner was completely packed and the group was very divers. Again I met a lot of interesting people and had a good evening.

At both events there were prizes and gifts so from the bloggers meetup I came away with a copy of Symantics new anti virus program and the day after I won a lampshade and from the twitter event I won a cool Dot To Date calendar.

New theme on the blog – DePo Square

michael — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:55:43 +0000

I’m trying out a new theme here on the blog called DePo Square by Derek Powazek.

— Michael

Living as a Dane in Czech Republic

michael — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 00:01:56 +0000

This blog post is part ofÂ World Blog Surf DayÂ - where 24 bloggers not living in their native country around the world writes about the experience of living in a different country. At the end of my post you will find a link to the next blog in the circle.

I have been living in Prague since theÂ summer of 2007Â when Femi and IÂ decidedÂ to move here for a period while growingÂ our company. The initial plan of staying for 6 months has so far turned out to last for 22 months.Â

Prague has a big (huge?) expat community of people from all over the world but Europe and US in particular. Whatever brought these people here in the first place most start out from scratch with building a social circle so it’s been easy for me to make new friends.

As a Dane I’m use to communicating in English whenever I’m not dealing with Danes because Danish is a terrible language to learn and we’re a small nation. When I came here in the first place I had little intention of learning the Czech language because of my short stay and because it sounded as complex as Danish to grasp. As I realized that my stay would last more than 6 months I started thinking and talking about taking Czech lessons – but it stayed that way. There was too little incentive, too many other interesting things to do and I was too lazy.

The Czechs are usually not that good at English unless they have a degree or have been abroad. Â So with almost all my friends being foreigners and no language to communicate with regular Czech’s it feels to me like I live in this parallel society of Prague. In this parallel are we that work in companies where the language is English, our friends are English and the media we follow are English.

I have realized that whenever I return to Prague from being abroad (usually from counties where I speak the language) the first think that strikes me that I am back in my parallel world of not speaking the local language.

But apart from my inability to speak the lingo I am having a very good time in Prague, there are still plenty of reasons why this is a great place to live and why we’ve stayed here for this long.Â

The city itself has a great atmosphere, I can still spend a whole day looking up at the marvelous buildings that are everywhere in Prague. Danes sometimes ask me about how dangerous it is in Prague and I must say that it is very safe – there are not the knives/guns problems of Copenhagen or the drunken crowds of London.Â

The prices for food and beer are very reasonable compared to most places in Europe, it still puts a smile on my face when I can go to for a meal in a restaurant and have a beer or two and a meal for less than 6 Euros.

I’ve got lots of good friends who I have the time and opportunity to see several times a week and plenty of place to go to do stuff be it sports or other activities or clubs, pubs or concerts.Â

One of the topics that has come up quite often in conversations over the last couple of months is that a lot of my friends in Prague are starting to move elsewhere.Â

For many people like me Prague is a place of transit, a place to enjoy life and the good times before moving on.Â

I doubt that many of the people I hang out with today will be in Prague in a year. In a way it’s sad to think about but on the other hand it’s a nice reminder to enjoy the people and the place every day – it’s not going to last forever.

Some people go to Prague for a couple of months, some for a couple of years. The next blogger in theÂ World Blog Surf DayÂ moved to Prague from USA to be with her Czech husband and start a new life in The Old World. I wish Sher the very best of luck in her adventure and hope you, the reader, will read Sher’sÂ Living as an American in the Czech RepublicÂ and the others stories.

Have a nice Saturday!Â

Happy B-day to Blogging.Gelle.dk

michael — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:05:00 +0000

24th of April 2005 – 3 years ago – I started blogging here. Back then I started blogging and did it in Danish because I was going to do an internship in US for one year and wanted an easy way to keep a travel journey and keep friends and family updated. About August 2006 I switched to English since I was moving back to Denmark and I decided to leave it at that. Check the archive if you want to see previous posts.

I have made 207 posts so thats 1.3 post per week. My stats only go back to 15th November 2005 but since then the site has had 29,323 visits. 10,810 of these were on the post about running a company using free office products online. It ended up on the frontpage of digg.com and sent my server to its knees. Apart from that spike I average about 20-30 visits per day – which I am very satisfied with

I started using Flickr at the same time. Above is the first picture there which is from my graduation from Aalborg University June 2005. Since then I have uploaded 5,226 pictures or 33.5 picture per week. My most viewed picture on Flickr is the guy with the grillz. My most interestingnessed picture is a panorama of the Big House in Ann Arbor.

(check out the original)

Update 29th: Ulrik just pointed me towards this nifty timeline tool

Prague beer prices

michael — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:05:00 +0000

The good guys of the Prague search site Nelso has made an invaluable resource for people on the hunt cheap beer in Prague. The beer price heatmap shows the prices on beer at more than 250 bars in Prague. As I understand the underlying technology they have used a meteorological predictions based on the points to create the map – very cool. I guess that is also why all of Letna Park is expensive because of the 90czk beer at Hanavsky pavilion.

By the way – the sweaty beer on the picture is a 0,5L Staropramen at 59czk from Cafe Savoy which puts it in the red.

There is also a Danish edition for Ã˜l i Prag.

Expat blog of the month

michael — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:05:00 +0000

Julien from expat-blogs.com asked me if I she could make an interview with me because I had been chosen as the blog of the month for her site

Expat Blogs is a site that lists blogs from expatriates in different countries. Go check out the site and the blogs that are listed there. You will find a lot of interesting stories.

Click here to read the interview with me.

Hawaii Travel update from Twitter

michael — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 12:05:00 +0000

I will be away from my computer the next three weeks but if you want to hear how the Hawaii trip is going check back here. I will be sending SMS to this post as I travel.

Home in prague. Finally5:30 PM Aug 23rd, 2007
Its 2 am in warsaw – dont really know what time my brain think it is. We hope to get on a train at 7am so another 5 to go. Out drinking…2:07 AM Aug 23rd, 2007
In warsaw now after going through LA and paris. Last leg of the trip is a train to prague. Luggage still in paris – that sucks!10:08 PM Aug 22nd, 2007
Our trip is over and we are on the way back to prague. The total travel time will probably be 40 hours. Damn. We’ve reached LA so far.3:10 AM Aug 22nd, 2007
Yesterday we went to Volcanoes National Park and saw how the Big Island is still growing as the lava continues to pour out.8:20 PM Aug 18th, 2007
We made it to Big Island picked up a car and have just arrived at our camp ground.6:54 AM Aug 16th, 2007
Just got up. Its raining this morning. We are on our way to the Big Island today.7:14 PM Aug 15th, 2007
Category 2 hurricane flossie is heading to hawaii. Most likely it will stay 50 miles off so we should be safe.10:56 AM Aug 15th, 2007
Sunset beach all day. Chilled. Got drunk. Swam. Chilled. Life’s good.7:16 AM Aug 15th, 2007
Yesterday ivan arrived from minneapolis. Good to see him and now we are five 7:46 AM Aug 14th, 2007
Kalalua beach is a paradise. A big beach, camping in the shade of trees and a waterfall for fresh water and shover. Mountains surround tÂ …7:29 AM Aug 14th, 2007
The hike was awesome. Hard but awesome. After 11 miles of walking up and down valleys along the shore we came to the kalalua beach.7:19 AM Aug 14th, 2007
Back on oahu after four days on kauai hiking. Gotta sleep10:55 AM Aug 13th, 2007
Found an Internet cafe today – lovely!2:08 AM Aug 10th, 2007
Went to pearl harbour today to see the Arizona battleship. The ship got a direct hit and sunk with more than 1100 of its sailors7:02 AM Aug 9th, 2007
Went to kaulai today and rented sea kayaks. Sailed not to some islands. Nice day.10:07 AM Aug 8th, 2007
Spend the day yesterday at waikiki beach. Beautiful place.8:04 PM Aug 7th, 2007
I bought a new camera today. Its another canon – those guys seems to work for me. Look out for pictures when i get online (that could beÂ …6:42 AM Aug 6th, 2007
Yesterday we went to waimea beach on the north shore of Oahu. During winter this is one of the best surfing spots oh the world.5:13 AM Aug 6th, 2007
Today has been chilled. We went into chinatown for breakfast and went to the market to get some fish and seafood for tonight.4:49 AM Aug 6th, 2007
Jetlag got me us at 5.30. After breakfast we took a trip around oahu and ended up at a beach were we hung out the rest of the day.8:54 AM Aug 5th, 2007
Finally we got out of the airport. Of course our suit cases was not there. But fuck that we are hitting the bars now B-)10:20 AM Aug 4th, 2007
After 24 hours, 11 time zones and maybe 2600 miles we are in hawaii. Aloha!8:37 AM Aug 4th, 2007
Oh Its great to be back in US. We are still only in seattle airport but still its great to be back in The Land Of The Free.1:33 AM Aug 4th, 2007
Chasing the sun around the world. Left paris at 13 in seattle at 15. Hope they got good coffee here12:02 AM Aug 4th, 2007
Oui oui we are in paris. Airport food is robbery.12:00 PM Aug 3rd, 2007
Two days ago was the anniversary of the warsaw rising. The citizen stood up and fought the nazis. Intersting history6:41 AM Aug 3rd, 2007
Yesterday gosja gave us a tour of the town. First on foot and them driving at night. The city grew on me. Like to check it out again.6:39 AM Aug 3rd, 2007
I meet gosja a couple of weeks ago on the canoe trip. She is a graphical designer studying tv production.6:33 AM Aug 3rd, 2007
Rise and shine. Its 4.30. After a couple of hours sleep we are back up ready for the big travel day.4:37 AM Aug 3rd, 2007
Cruzing warsaw. Cool place but not much different vibe than prague/cntr europe.10:18 PM Aug 2nd, 2007
We are staying im warsaw for the night. Flighing out tomorrow at 7Â 5:27 PM Aug 2nd, 2007
We arrived im Warsaw. Gosja picked us up from the station and we are on the way to her place.5:19 PM Aug 2nd, 2007
Hunter s. Thompson: The Rum Diary is my literature for the ride as we cross the border to poland1:21 PM Aug 2nd, 2007
Yesterday i went with the IAESTE gang. A couple of them are leaving prague and will not be there when i get back. Goodbyes are always a Â 8:37 AM Aug 2nd, 2007
First leg of the travel is from Prague, Czech Republic to Warsaw, Poland. An 8Â½ hour train ride.6:40 AM Aug 2nd, 2007
The bags are packed. Tomorrow (Thursday) morning at 8 we are taking the train to Warsaw and the day after (Friday) we jump on the plane.11:36 PM Aug 1st, 2007
Hawaii is approaching way too fast. I’m not ready! Leaving for Warsaw in 30 hours!12:44 AM Aug 1st, 2007

Danish bloggers in Prague

michael — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 12:05:00 +0000

Rasmus from the Danish BlogMagasinet asked in one of the recent podcasts, how we use blogs to meet people. So I figured I’d tell about how I’ve used it here in Prague.

Before I moved down here I search on google.com, technorati.com, blogbot.dk or overskrift.dk for people blogging about Prague in either Danish or English and I found two Danes.

The first one is Laus SÃ¸rensen. Laus runs the vacation agency Prag Eksperten and has made a business from renting apartments and giving tours to Danes. He is blogging at prag.urbanblog.dk were he writes about the city, his business and his friends. As a newcomer in town there is definitely some good information about the city and his company site has the most comprehensive site about Prague in Danish.
A couple of weeks ago I went to dinner with Laus at U Maleho Glena (picture above) a very cool jazz spot in Prague. We talked about the city, running businesses and realized that we both have parents in Jylland so maybe we can carpool to Denmark sometime.

The second Dane is Holme but he is actually not in town yet. He is going to stay in Prague for a year with his Czech girl friend while studying. I think he is moving down here sometime in August so I’ll try and see if I can catch him over a pivo sometime.

In my daily life I only speak English – apart from when I’m calling home – so it’s nice that there is a few Danes in town.

There is of course also a number of English blogs about life in Prague. The ones that I am keeping a tap on these days are:

[Update 18/9 '07] Just came across another Dane in Prague called Pavel-Helge – he has a lot of updated info in Danish about what’s going on in Prague.

[Update 14/1 '08] Just came across another Danish blog about Prague called Prag HotSpots by Jens Gregersen.

Writing at Børsen Mikro Blogs

michael — Thu, 10 May 2007 12:05:00 +0000

This blog has been very quiet lately. One of the reasons is that Ive been blogging elsewhere. About two months ago Børsens Forlag contacted Femi and me and invited us to blog as a company at Børsen Mikro their new portal about micro businesses.

Børsens Forlag is Denmarks leading publisher when it comes to books for the business world. The publishing company has decided to focus on the area of micro-businesses with a series of books, a web portal with blogs and tools specifically aimed at micro-businesses, independents and freelancers. The first couple of books have been released and they aredeffinetly worth a read.

At the launch event for the site and the book series they brought all bloggers and authors together for an afternoon.

Here we are with the other bloggers, from left;

Ulla-Lisa author of Sæt Pris På Dig Selv the first book in the series
Femi
Trine from Tid & Tanke an expert in time management
Me
Nicolai from Startup Company – entrepreneurship guru
Abelone recently published her new book Dit Virtuelle Håndtryk

In my opinion there are some really interesting post coming out on these blogs. If you want to follow all of them there is a collected RSS feed.

Arb Design is blogging

michael — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:05:00 +0000

In the last year or so in Denmark blogging has changed from being something the established media and companies would talk about to be something they read and used. (Links in this post will be to Danish sites)

I find it very interesting what is going on right now as people in companies are blogging. There are some great benefits from communicating in the form of a blog:

Informal way of communicating passion
Gain information about costumers through a dialog
It can underline and enhance your brand
Let the company have a human face and voice

On the other hand there are some drawbacks or pittfalls as well. Blogging as a private person is different than blogging as part of an organization or a company. Andreas Johansen, former Synkron blogger wrote about some of the difficulties about blogging for his company.

Finding the proper voice – not too personal and geeky, not too corporate and marketing-speak
Its difficult to get comments so the costumer interaction stays one-way
It can be difficult to find the ressources to blog
Your boss, colleague, cotumer does not understand the blog format

All this said we have decided to start Arblog, the blog of Arb Design. Right now it is easy to find stuff to write about because Rotaboard is getting started and getting attention from interesting places.

Now go read, subscribe and comment and I will be happy