![[adognamedfish header]](/images/site/header.jpg "a dog named fish")
I had originally intended to go for a run this evening. But it's not considerably cooler than it was a couple of hours ago (still around 30°C). So I'm not sure I should go with all the ozone that's most probably still in the air. Hmmm.... I'll think about this some more...
I'm off to bake in the park again at 33°C while trying to concentrate on that book I need to read for my thesis....
We spent yesterday afternoon at one of the many lakes in Berlin with some friends. The lake had the perfect temperature to swim in. And it had many, many fish. One fish nibbled at my leg while I was standing near the shore. There were hundreds of tiny fish in the shallow water near the shore. It was fun to watch them. When we got home we checked what kind of fish those were and found out that if you catch those while fishing you are to keep them and not throw them back into the lake because there are so many :)
It felt so good to be at a lake again (I spent most of my summers since I was 15 at a lake in Virginia but my parents sold the house a year ago :(.
Today is another day with temperatures of over 30°C. Perfect for spending it at some lake. But I have to work on my thesis. So I guess I'll take that security book I ought to be reading and settle in the nearby park...
By popular request, pics of two of our sandcastles. The pictures aren't very good and it's kinda hard to see the castles on a sandy background. But I hope you get the idea. The left one is currently being besieged by Michi's evil army of sandpeople. The right one is Castle Jellyfish (with dead jellyfish zombies guarding the towers). Both eventually got destroyed by children (who generally seem to prefer destroying castles over building them).
Sorry for being away for so long. The phone line in the house we stayed in at the Baltic Sea didn't work. So I couldn't go online for the last couple of days. Instead I built sand castles. Lots of fun. But very tired now. Will write more tomorrow...
Ever since the iPod came out I have wanted one. But I forced myself to be rational and not spend that much money on a gadget (problem is I'm a gadget freak). And I managed not to think about it too often. But then they released a new model which is more durable and also cheaper and comes with more accessories. That of course shattered all my self-control. So I have been arguing with myself about wether or not I should spend the money (especially now that I won't have a job for the next couple of months).
But it takes 5-7 weeks before they can ship the new iPods. So maybe I can get myself to forget it again until then.
Saw MIB 1+2 double feature on Wednesday. Fun! And it was good I saw the first one again. I'm sure there's a lot of jokes I wouldn't have gotten had I not refreshed my memory on part one. Like the two guys on the bicycle. *snicker*
IBM kept word and sent me a new modem. It arrived the day after they told me they would send me a new one. So their service is great once you got them convinced you really need it ;)
New modem works like a charm too. w00t!
We spent a total of three hours parking on the Autobahn yesterday. It was no normal traffic jam with stop-and-go. No sir. We PARKED! And for no apparent reason. No accident. Nothing. We also spent an hour driving over cobblestone roads in eastern Germany to go round the jam. To no effect of course. Just when we had re-entered the Autobahn we had to park again in another traffic jam that hadn't even been announced on the radio yet. By then I had to pee really badly.
Well to make a long story short we did make it to Michi's parents' place in 8 hours instead of 5. But I do have enough of traffic jams for the next couple of years now.
Just rescued another butterfly. They seem to like me. This one slept on the wall above my bed.
Got a call from IBM this morning. They will send me a new modem for my laptop. It will arrive tomorrow or on Friday. Woo hoo! So I could finally persuade them that it is indeed a hardware problem. *does the happy dance*
I rescued a butterfly that had come into my room through the open window and couldn't navigate out again. Was kinda hard to do this without squishing his delicate wings. He fluttered away happily when I released him. So I guess he's alright...
Michi and I had our last real exam in university today. To celebrate we bought some fresh tuna (we found this very cool wholesaler who sells all kinds of fresh fish very close to university. It's a pity we haven't found it before) for a very good price and also everything else you need to make sushi (also found this cool asian supermarket quite close to where we live. It's a lot of fun to try to guess what all the stuff is they're selling there :). We basically spent the whole afternoon preparing everything and then made our own sushi. Our rolls looked a little strange but they tasted really good. And that tuna was SO GOOD.
Now I can barely walk because I'm so stuffed with sushi. Definitely have to do this more often...
Today for the first time in 2.5 years 1 Euro is worth 1 US$ again. Woohooo!!! Go Euro Go!!!
I have redesigned the me page a little (but just a little) and added some new stuff there. I'm in a webdesign mood currently and I really feel like I could finally make some other stuff I've neglected for so long. Like the Links page. But the sun will begin to rise in less than an hour. That is a sign that I should go to bed now.
Just added a bunch of new pictures:
Miscellaneous: One, Two, Three
Mirror: One, Two
Berlin: One
I also decided to add some more info about each picture: Location, Date and Medium (i.e. digital or analog). I might add that info to the old pictures over time also. But that's quite a lot of work so it might take a while before all the pictures have that information.
Saw Lilo & Stich yesterday. Very nice movie. At the beginning it’s really hard to believe that this is a disney movie. It looks Disneyish all right but there are aliens in it! And very cool aliens at that. Very, very cool aliens. The movie is worth your money for the aliens alone. The film is very funny and most important no cartoon opera. The music they have in the movie does not disturb the film’s flow. Which is a big plus. I also liked the new style where all the backgrounds look like they’ve been painted with watercolor and the characters are typical Disney. Blended together really well. Definitely worth seeing. Oh and have I mentioned how cool the aliens are?
Thursday evening was the MIB II premiere in Germany. Everybody was there. Wil Smith (who performed that new MIB song of his), Tommy Lee Jones. Even the dog! And I didn’t get invited AGAIN! What is wrong with those people? I bet most of the famous people they invited for this weren’t even interested in seeing the movie.
Just had another little chat with IBM's tech support about my laptop's modem. The darn thing won't connect faster than 7k (if it manages to connect in the first place that is). And it's a 56k modem. At 7k you can't even surf the net because IE thinks you're not connected or something and can't find the DNS server! I'm pretty sure it's not a software problem. I've tried EVERYTHING! It wouldn't even work on a freshly installed system. But IBM is convinced that it is a software problem. So they want me to run a couple more tests and then call them back. GAAAAHHH!
I bought a new hard drive last week (80gigs, woohoo) and I'm still not finished transfering my data to the new drive. I told myself that I'd bring more order into my data. Everything was pretty messy because it had evolved over the years and I had added new folders at random locations. I had a couple of redundant folders and I had totally forgotten about some of the stuff I had stored there just because it was hidden so well. But storing things nicely is quite a lot of work. And also pretty boring. So I guess it'll take another week or two before everything is like it should be.
Gosh this must be the most boring entry I have ever made.
5 people were slain by falling trees in Berlin tonight. 2 of them were children. The wind reached speeds of over 150 kph. At the Zoo station a weak tornado formed and had some fun there before dissolving. A tornado. A weak one but a tornado. This is ultra rare in Germany.
Our street is a total mess. There's lots of trees in my street (one every couple of meters on both sides of the road). Huge branches got chopped off some of them. There's tons of leaves and twigs on the ground. It looks like nature fought a war against us.
I'm glad I and everybody I know was safely inside.
WOW! We're currently having the evilest (is that a word?) thunderstorm I have experienced in a long time. It started with getting darker and darker outside (even though it was only 8pm. It doesn't get dark before 10 here at the moment). Then there was a strong (MIGHTY strong) wind. Thick black clouds were racing across the sky. The trash container in our backyard got blown away. Lots of leaves and even whole branches got ripped off trees and blown through the air. Then there was a flash (which was about 1km away. We counted the seconds until we heard the thunder). Even though it was that far away we could actually hear it rip apart the air. Then the rain started. But it took a long time before it reached ground because the wind decided to play with it some more.
As I was typing this the wind has gotten less. Now it's only rain and lightning. But wow. And I was wondering why I got this bad headache in the afternoon. I should've known. My head is very susceptible to weather changes.
Have you seen the Apple Switch ads? If not go over there and watch one. Then have a look at Macboy's interpretation. It seems Bill Gates is thinking about a switch too ;)
I'm back in Berlin and it's 31°C. Fortunately our appartment building has very thick walls so the temperature inside is quite nice.
On our way back on Sunday night we learned that you better not miss the exit to the city autobahn leading almost directly to your house. We missed it (chat, chat, chat, "oh that was our exit", "fck") and ended in the far south-eastern corner of Berlin. Fortunately not many people drive through Berlin at 4 in the morning so we only lost about 30 minutes.
Bought Super Smash Brothers Melee on Saturday. Just couldn't resist. Great fun! Especially in Multiplayer. But single player is surprisingly fun also.
Thought I'd do the Friday Five again
1. Where are you right now? At my parents' house in my old room (that is now my brother's room but he lets Michi and me stay in his room when we're here. That's really nice of him!), Koblenz, Germany.
2. What have you lost recently? Nothing recently I believe. I tend to grow very fond of my things so I try not to lose them. And when I do lose stuff I'm usually very sad about that....
3. What was the first CD you ever purchased? Can't really remember. But I'm sure if I could it'd be too embarrassing to write here anyway ;)
4. What is your favorite kind of writing pen? I'm a pen freak. I like all kinds of pens. To write with I prefer those that make my handwriting look nice (with some pens it looks better than with others). My parents gave me a Montblanc fountain pen a couple of years ago. I like to write with that one.
5. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Chocolate. Yoghurt ice cream with fruits. And a couple of others..
I'm visiting my parents and brother over the weekend. I'm writing this entry without glasses on (which means the distance between nose and monitor is about 10cm) because I'm currently dying my hair. Yesterday I had it cut by my mom (I let nobody except my mom cut my hair. So sometimes I have to wait rather long. This time it was 4 months. Feels really good to have short hair again). I chose a new color this time. It's called, better sit down for this, "Pure Copper Power" *g* Well I hope it turns out well cause it's kinda stingy in the eyes and it feels like it's eating through my skin. Only 5 more minutes...
Warcraft III has been released this week. Have a look at this fan site's collection of unit responses. Some of them make you fall off your chair. Lots of great Monty Python and other movie and TV references. I'm sure there's many I didn't get...
Hmm. Somehow I have the feeling I'm repeating myself. It's just that there's really nothing much of interest to tell at the moment. I am without job since Monday (i.e. they won't pay me for writing my thesis anymore). So I'll have to do the next 3 or 4 months without payment. I have put some money aside and hope it'll last that long (it might not if my monitor dies which I fear it'll do soon). Michi and I will also build a website for an agency renting summer houses. That'll yield some money. Maybe I'll be able to find some more people willing to pay me for my webdesign skills...
OMG. Just saw the Star Trek Nemesis trailer. Ooooh this is going to be good.
Oooh, the Two Towers trailer is available on the net now. Makes me want to go back and watch The Fellowship of the Ring again.
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