Samstag, Januar 28, 2006

Why an exploding Space Shuttle changed my early youth.

Today, 20 years ago, my little brother celebrated his 9th birthday while my best friend of that time celebrated her 10th the same day - and the Challenger detonated live in tv, aired all over the planet at least in the western world (remember the cold war?!). For my early and innocent enthusiasm for technology that was a major downer - and a fact I couldn't simply take that way with my 10 years. So already on the late evening of Tina's birthday we set the plan to form a spy club. Thanx god agents 'stoolboxes were the fahion toy of the year and my mother had gifted me one for christmas. Of course we had no real connection with the NASA, no real clue what was going on and the anxiety and play fun of the first conspiracy and spying around soon became a downer in itself as it was pointless. But what was planted in that time was my compassion in newspaper research and carefully reading, in archiving any nonsense and knowing about it later. I think this was the first starting for me wanting to become a journalist later. Crazy date.

Mittwoch, Januar 25, 2006

"All you need is love!" auf Altsprachler-Bildungsgehubere

In the Vatican latin is still the official spoken language, so don't complain about dead languages if they tortured you with Caesar and Cicero in school. Right in time for the release of "Deus caritas est" the German Der Spiegel released an online game so you can see how sufficient your latin is when you wanna read Benedict XVI. in the official language. I'm not really keen on it, but I scored though:

:-)

Dienstag, Januar 24, 2006

If the Alster freezes over...

The Alster is what most people get first of Hamburg, quicker than the river Elbe. Because the Alster is the lake/river in the heart of the city. The Elbe marks a southern border between the places where people work the dirty jobs in the harbour or live the simple life on small farms, and the city in the North. The Alster is always beautiful, and for recreation purposes only. Even in the winter. It has to be -10 C for almost two weeks or even colder for at least a week to let the Alster freeze over. Last time that happened in the winter 1997/98. So while most of the people in Germany are cold and miserable (maybe except of their kids) most people in Hamburg wait whether the Alster will now freeze over or not. Last time half of the population of the city were on the ice - a spontaneous fun fair spread out, little cabins for sausages and mulled wine were build up over night - and I had a cold and was forbidden to go out. So - if we already have to suffer from a russian cold - this time I'm hoping for the thick ice on the alster...

Labels: ,

Dienstag, Januar 10, 2006

Middle Earth Font Fascination

I don't know why I didn't come across it for the past 10 years: Dan Smith created font sets out of Tolkien's scriptures. So thanks to Shrike for providing the good link! But rather than in writing Tengwar I was interested in how my name looks in runes:

 . Here's the description how to write Your Name in Runes.

Montag, Januar 09, 2006

Crime series: Beck

... but now I'm logging off because one episode of the Beck series is in German television right now, starring Mikael Persbrandt as Gunvald Larsson. Good night!

Sonntag, Januar 08, 2006

My first Google Earth placemark

Funny enough, but there was no placemark on the European Capital of Culture 2006 Patras in Google Earth Community, so I created one. My first placemark.

Samstag, Januar 07, 2006

2005 Best-of Polls, Pt. II

Now this is my English Poll, and as the questions are slightly different the answers differ as well. The questionaire popped up on the Dark Tranquillity board. Here we go:

Best band - Green Day
Worst band - Tokio Hotel
Best album - System Of A Down - Mezmerize
Worst album - no comment
Best song - Moneybrother - They're Building Walls Around Us
Worst song - Stratovarius - Maniac Dance - well, compared to my expectations. The REALLY worst song of 2005: Gwen Stefani - Cool
Best tour - Disfear
Best live act - Bloodbath @ Wacken 2005
Most overhyped band - Avenged Sevenfold
Most underrated band - Powerwolf
Best band dvd - dunno. Does Bam Magera count? Then: HIM - Love Metal Archives
Best comeback - Emperor
Band you miss the most - Sentenced already
Band you want to go away - there are too many
Best movie - Star Wars III? umm. It didn't really blow me away.
Best web site - www.bloglines.com
Best game - Sudoku
Best drink - Salmiakki Kossu

Cheers!

Freitag, Januar 06, 2006

2005 Best-of Polls, Pt. I

I already took part in 3 evaluations in the year past, but I'll post two more here - one German, one English. The funny thing is how the results differ if you just differ the question a tiny bit. But see yourself, first my German poll:

(Ab hier geht es deutsch weiter)

Wörter des Jahres: Wir sind Pokal!
Stadt des Jahres: Helsinki (endlich wieder!) nicht mehr: Hannover, die Ex-Kanzlerstadt
Alkoholexzesse: Geiselwind. War hart, da nüchtern zu bleiben. M-I-Festival
Gekotzt von Alk: nope
Friseurbesuche: Verena rult! Endlich weniger langes Haar
Höchste Handyrechnung: 185,57 EUR. Aber das kann nicht stimmen.
Handys: verloren in Wacken! Schnüff. Alle Nummern perdu.
Beste VideoDVD/Film: ALIAS-3-Box-Set
Krankenhausbesuche: gar keinen
Blutabnahmen: abgebrochen.
Verliebt: und entliebt und zurück, das volle Programm.
Geraucht: Nope.
Getränk: Vitamalz wiederentdeckt. Außerdem Bionade Orange-Ingwer
Essen: Sushi, kappa maki vs. California Roll inside out
Gefundene Freunde: Edward
Most-called person: Bea
Most-visited person: Christine
SMS: Über nackte Fullapuppen und betrunkene Schweden.
Entdeckung: Moneybrother
Song: Maximo Park: „Apply Some Pressure“; Sentenced: „Despair-ridden hearts“
CD: Foo Fighters. One loud, one not so loud. Brilliant.
Beste Zeit: Sommer in Helsinki, April in Kortrijk – ich im Urlaub und der Papst stirbt.
Erkenntnis: In der größten Idylle kann es einen umhauen und in der schlimmsten Situation wird man wundervoll aufgefangen. What a Helter Skelter!
Hassobjekt des Jahres: Schwarzenegger, Dräger, 4 von 6 Mitgliedern der finnischen Grünen Vihreä Liitto
Nachbarn des Jahres:Benni, Basti und Christian in der Rostocker 18.
Schatzi des Jahres: Rachel
Chatter des Jahres: Bobo
Blog-Schreiberling des Jahres: Shrike of the Timetombs
Sucht des Jahres: Sudoku
Begegnung das Jahres: Warrel Dane 15 kg schlanker
Job des Jahres: TM Nevermore
Konzert des Jahres: Disfear: „Beatiful People of Hamburg“ im Hafenklang
Reise des Jahres: COB Festival-Trip Geiselwind-Berlin
Schlimmstes Ereignis des Jahres: Schluss machen

via Cynx

Dienstag, Januar 03, 2006

This Date in Medieval History - January 03

A happy new year, everyone!

Everybody's looking back and forth on New Year's eve, so here's the extreme to it. Test this calendar:
This Date in Medieval History. Today 485 years ago Martin Luther was excommunicated by Pope Leo X. which marks the break between Luther's followers and the catholic church. The calendar is only like a short reminder of events - if your not really familiar with them you have to look them up, f.e. at Wikipedia. Well - it can be just an informative excursion if you look up the German Version of Wikipedia. But if you wanna have an exhausting evening full of historic, theologic and sociologic arguments, then lookup the article in the English edition. Wow! Now "the wikis" are really starting to get a scientific medium, not only a small lexicon.

So back to beginning. And if you wanna look up something really romantic then follow January 05 and the story of Shah Jahan.

Have a great 2006!