Time-Out

My first major sports event - Euro League Basketball in the Arena in Nuremberg. It was funny, it was loud and our team from Bamberg lost. My task was to clap when all other people did and to scream “Defense, defense” whenever the team of Tau Ceramica was on the move. I was good.
They even had Cheerleaders but I have to admit that in the meantime I prefer the subtile sexappeal of adult women instead of underage Aerobic girls. Yes, I looked at them though - I’m a man, that’s simply the way nature works.

The most remarkable thing for me was the Time-Out. The game gets stopped all of a sudden and the team gathers around their trainer to receive some new strategy.
Can you think about life working this way? Just interrupt your everyday life, put your environment into pause-mode, look what’s going wrong and then continue again with a new perpective. Whow.
Maybe such Time-Outs are not only theory. As far as I understand I’m in a Time-Out at the moment. Time for analyzing what went wrong in the last few moves and time for sketching out a new strategy on a drawing board in my head. I’m not sure whether I have a new strategy now but at least I know that even life is beatable if it appears as an opponent from time to time. Oh - the referee gives me a sign - life will continue very soon.


Time-Out Instructions


Leading the Cheers

Sun

Currently every day at about 11am the sun comes around the corner of the building across. Only for a few minutes and only partly. But in these minutes the sunbeams hit me left arm. Today I was wearing a black shirt so a little bit of cosy warmth itched my senses which were supposed to be in winter sleep. A few minutes later it was gone but I remembered that clouds and darkness are only one part of the whole thing.

Railway Station

I think I already said that I like Railway Stations. Today I went to the Central Station in Nuremberg. Only to walk around and watch people pass by. I love to watch the travellers standing in the middle of the entrance hall and staring at the big display panel. In this moment most of the people look more or less lost. A few seconds later they usually switch back to Hurry-Up-Mode and ran away. I bet they don’t even know how weak they looked like 10 seconds ago.


Lost...


...or only concentrated?

In those moments I love my old digital camera with it’s 10x optical zoom.

Swedish Trash

Today I was in the mood of visiting the big blue furniture store again. This time I was on my own and it was way better than the last time.
It’s so strange to imagine that millions of apartments around the world have to look very similar because of IKEA. I can remember one scene in “Life of Brian”: A big crowd stands in front of Brian and shout simultaneously “We are all individuals and we are all completely different”. Well, I guess we are only IKEA-different.
No idea why I’m kind of negative now. I liked my day and acutally I like the IKEA stuff. Like you and you and you and you.

Underground Garage

I’m amazed at how many space we have to reserve for simply parking our cars. Sometimes the big floors in parking garages look quite meditative and remind me of ancient temples with their long rows of pillars. I wonder what aliens would think if they’d explore the remains of mankind in the far future. Maybe they would think we were a very spiritiual species because of our big temples. Well, regarding our godessess they would be right - sort of.

The F-Row


Marking the Inner Sanctuary

I came back a little bit late from a pub and was not able to post this on Friday. Please imagine the posting was made 2 hours earlier.

Muff Potter

I have to get used to the fact that in the meantime I’m older than the average audience at rock concerts. For some reason it doesn’t seem to be a problem for me. Today I went to a concert from “Muff Potter”, a small German band. Music that created good mood inside my head. But the surprise was not Muff Potter but their supporting artist from “Home of the Lame”. A deep voice, relaxed songs - a mixture of Mr. E from the Eeels, Adam Green, Bruce Springsteen and Bono. Impressing enough for me to buy his CD. Great music for driving home at night.


Felix Gebhard from “Home of the Lame”


Muff Potter


I liked the old lamps on stage

Air Guitar

Instead of fixing software bugs the guys were having a air guitar session in the office. I didn’t know what a piece of Yuka palm could be good for. It began that I simply mentioned the word air guitar. A few seconds later there was loud music from Ac/DC and two guitar players with strange instruments present.

I made a short movie from the show - you can download it here (4.2 MB). Please download it with right mouse click and “save as...”. Directly opening it doesn’t seem to work for some reason. The file is compressed so your computer has to be able to handle XVID videos. If needed you can download the XVID codec for free here. After installation you should be able to watch the movie in your Media Player.

Iron Man

Ironing is like all other manual labour - without good tools you are screwed. This wisdom I heard again only a few days ago from a colleague. Because all of my ironing equipment moved out together with my ex-girlfriend, I used the occasion to buy good tools - very good ones.
Now I’m the proud owner of a brandnew electric iron, a high-tech ironing board and an add-on for sleeves. I could not resist to test it right now. Ok, it’s still boring ironing but at least I’m feeling worthy now..

Reactivating Boxes

Some of my stuff was hibernated in boxes for several years. Now is the time to reactivate it. Wake up, you sweet little pans, you cosy bread box and you shiny cutlery. Wake up, here’s someone who needs you. Oh dear, life can be mean.

Furthermore I found more evidence about the Glove Conspiracy. This cannot be coincidence, can it?

Bayreuth

I believe that everyone has a town or a place he has strong bindings with. A town one refers to as his city. For me it’s the city of my first job and my first apartment - Bayreuth.
Bayreuth was the center of my life for many years and most of my best remaining friends live in that area. Many places there are packed with very personal memories. Today I drove there for Brunch with one of the best ones. We had Brunch for more than 4 hours in Café Ponte. I really enjoyed talking without filter. Walking through some parks in Bayreuth with another good friend of mine afterwards was the next good thing of this Sunday. Very cold air, sunshine and the noise of dead frozen leafs beneath my feet. In summary the positive things were in majority this weekend. Not a bad sign, isn’t it? Music from Kate Bush massages my soul now.

Flickr

Finally I dived into those Flickr hype and created my own account. There are quite stunning photos there. I see them and feel absolutely unworthy - well, and a little bit inspired.
I uploaded a few test images. Let’s see where this leads to. This “let’s see where it leads to” seems to be my motto for those days. Maybe the clouds will vanish soon.

Visit my Flickr account...

Breaking Ranks

• Hiking
  
• Geocaching
  
• Adventures on icy steep paths
  
• Meeting the two people by coincidence I’m most sensitive to - in a not so good way
  
• Watching harmless Hollywood movies

One of my todays activities breaks ranks. Find out, which one. Well, I have to admit - I survived.

Is this bird house in good or bad mood? I’m not sure. Same on me.

Julie and Unexpected Phone Calls

Today I printed out some of my favorite pics. They are now hanging on my office wall. One is from a vacation to Scotland last summer and the other is a photo of Julie Delpy. I shot it last year on an Open Air concert in the ruins of an old church in Nuremberg.
I find it very difficult to make good concert photos. You cannot use a flash because it would disturb the light atmosphere on stage. And because of the missing flash I produce camera shakes almost all the time.
This pic of Julie Delpy is one of my very few photos I’d grant kind of success - at least for my humble possibilities.
Apart from that I think that Julie is one of the most erotic women in Showbiz. Now that I’m Single again I’m allowed to say so and I’m even allowed to print out a DIN A3 version of that picture - which I did.

Here is the pic in larger format

While on the Autobahn I got a lecture of a poem by a friend. Unexpected and really great. Furthermore I got a call from a person I worried about a lot during the last days. He overcame a complicated surgery and I look forward to see him again. To hear that guy on the phone was by far the best moment of the day.

Over all ranking of the day: Good (Unbelievable but true)!

Safety

Climbing is really a special thing. Although it’s indoor season, it’s quite exciting. You have to concentrate very hard when you ascend the wall. You have to fight your fear when you climb ahead and the next carabiner is quite near but you cannot reach it yet. One of the most significant things is that you have to rely 100% on your buddy. He’s the one taking care about your life by securing you with the other end of the rope. I really like the synchronous motions. You move and need some rope and your buddy acts in exactly the same moment to provide some more rope. Ok, I guess I got some Adrenalin from climbing right now but it raised my mood and the world is almost human right now. Good end of a medium day.

Nuts

Stefan was stealing an adapter from me for some computer monitor. To prevent me from howling he replaced it with a chocolate bar.
Damn - this seems to became the common strategy for calming me down. Acutally he only talked about putting the Nuts on the server - for some reason he forgot to place it there. I guess I have to be load tomorrow again.

Although a sad day.

Grabbing the Fruits of Life

No good progress in the office and even more chaos in my apartment.
Highs of the day:

• A colleague brings a chocolate bar because I obviously sounded a little bit down on the phone.


• A visit from Berlin that shows that one can “grab” the fruits of life even on a bad day.


• Music from AK4711.

Empty Spaces

Only one person left living in my apartment - myself. Tonight is the first official night alone. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Actually not.
Furthermore a lot of stuff moved out, too. The remains look a little bit chaotic. But those are the days for get things sorted, anyway.

This structure hangs on my kitchen wall. A few hours ago this thing was full with cups and other kitchen things. A lot of empty spaces left now.

Many Farewells

A journey to the city of Weimar for the weekend. Sitting together with friends, going to the famous theater and observe Mary Stuart saying Good Bye to her loved ones.
Back home we had dinner (actually only a snack). It came to my mind that this was the last shared meal in our common apartment. Tommorow will be the “move-out-day”. I’m really glad when this chapter can be closed. So let’s be aware of the many little farewells of the next days and then move on to new solar systems.

Removing road blocks in my head.

Life Shaver

At the moment life feels like a beard. If I don’t trim it regurarly things begin to sprawl uncontrolled and life begins to itch. Maybe I can’t even recognize myself with those beard thing in my lifes’ face.
Day order: Mount new razor blade, load your face with an extra portion of shaving foam and start the fight.

Nightshake

Made some experiments while walking to my car after the work. Tried to create figures made of light by shaking the camera in front of illuminated objects. Although I guess I’ll have to practise a little bit more it’s at least a starting point.

The climbing session in an indoor climbing centre together with the bearded man raised the day to 6 out of 10.
[Revision of this blog 10min later: Raised the day to 7/10 because of a non-pathetic conversation that happened a few seconds ago].

Probably the next two posts to this blog will come not until sunday because I go to Weimar.

Raclette

Invitation to a dinner with Raclette. Loreena McKennitt, lots of onions and talkings about friendship maintenance strategies. Good end of a mid level day.

Kick Off

My company postponed the christmas party into the new year and called it Kickoff-Party for 2006. We went to a nice restaurants, had a fine buffet and talked and laughed a lot. On such evenings it really feels a little bit like a big family and not like a company. I know it sounds pathetic and that such feelings get lost very easy in the daily troubles but I can’t help myself: I really like those guys.

I had a good talk about the important things in life and about priorities in important phases of life. It helped to get my things sorted a little bit more. If life isn’t too cruel I think I found new friends.

“Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans” John Lennon

Moving, Part 2

My office looks like chaos after the moving. Maybe I should try to work as long as possible without unpacking the boxes.

After work I went to the big blue furniture-store from Sweden. To be honest I’m absolutely not in the mood to look for new useless stuff for new lifes in new appartments. Bad idea to go there as accompaniment. At least I was able to shoot some pics without being trapped by the staff.

I really want to know who the hell is waiting for me

Does it make sense to keep ones life wrapped?

Moving, Part 1

The season for moving places has begun. Today I moved from one office to another - fortunately in the same company, even on the same floor.
The pic is a macro from a small toy house. The macro feature of my camera is one of my favorites. No, we don’t have those toy houses in our office, it belongs to my godchild.

Vivos o Muertos

My colleague DMX is the guitar man in a band called Vivos o Muertos. They play a kind of Punk Rock. I visited their 10th aniversary concert in a small club called Zebra. Loud music and some jumping around. I liked it.

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I saw strange figures on a hike. Even lost gloves can look mysterious, can’t they? Maybe there’s a glove conspiracy going on and no one knows about it. No one? At least I am aware of it now.

The Gulf War in Bayreuth

A real bad first half of the day. Don’t wanna go into detail. Things clear up a little bit in the afternoon.

Watching the movie “Jarhead” with Rainer in Bayreuth. The story is about some soldiers in the first Gulf war back in the nineties. Was kind of ok, but I like “Full Metal Jacket” more, when it comes to Anti-War-Movies.

Having a drink prior the the movie at the “Roxy” and some afterwards at the “Borracho”.
Peter Gabriel on full volume on my journey back home. Seems like those hours on the Autobahn are my favorite times for thinking these days.

Have I mentioned that I like being in Bayreuth? Well, I do.

Lucas

A very slow breakfast at Café Lucas in Nuremberg with my colleague and boss Stefan and a good talk.

After work going to Erlangen by train. Actually I like railway stations although I always feel a little bit lost and lonesome.

Mr. ProjectLead

Worked with Mr. ProjectLead most of the day. As (almost) always he refused to implement most of my Product Manager proposals. But I guess that’s his job.

Winter Caching

Left the office quite early and had a nice hike in the forest to find a Geocache.

Get rid of the remains of Christmas

Back in the office. Lets get rid of the remains of the last weeks silent nights.

Go Ahead

So this is 2006, isn't it? That change of years was quite unspectacular.
2005 wasn't one of my top 10 years - actually not even a top 3 year.
Let's see what SADellite will trace in 2006.
At the moment I'm kind of sad but this is not necessarily a bad sign. I guess that SADellite will track more happy than sad days in my 2006.