That’s the name of this cartoon from Dario Katz.
It came on the back of the latest Jayway brochure – to my mind a perfect summary of worklife versus holidays. 😉
Business as usual
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Category Archives: Current Affairs
Offline Comfort for Onliners
Like everyone in the Twitter-Community I suffered a bit from the outage yesterday. But well, there are other things to do, especially now in that great summer weather and especially when this happens close to home- time.
Anyway, this morning I found out via a Skype chat from last night between my colleagues, that there is special comfort available for these cases when Twitter, Facebook etc. go offline for whichever reason.
One can get pillows !!
This is great. So if one has one of these, one could place it right next to the keyboard, have a nap during the downtime and then continue browsing etc. once everything is up and running again. Or simply take it to bed and have some sweet “treams”.
Well, the colleagues didn’t test it (yet) and so didn’t I (yet) – but who knows, it is good to know where to get comfort from when one needs it, especially when there is nobody left to turn to in the real world as a result of too much time spent in front of the computer. Okay, that was a sarcastic comment.
Admittedly, the pillow-idea is great and they look quite cute…. and my birthday is coming up, too…… .
Bahamas Ministry of Tourism
When one travels to Bahamas one has to fill in quite a few details at the immigration desk. Including ones birthday. Once home again, one gets a few times per year some information from Bahamas Ministry of Tourism – of course only if one ticked the box that one wants to receive this information. Like I did.
This is what I got in my inbox today: an invite to stay on Bahamas during my birthday (which is coming up soon) at special hotel rates.
“How nice!” you might think. In general, yes, I would agree. But neither the Ministry of Tourism nor you know the story about my stay on Bahamas.
Together with my old colleagues at Vibrant Media (now Vibrant) I went there for three days in December 2007. All offices of Vibrant went there in order to have a big Christmas party and to finally meet each other after having spoken only on phone or in video conferences. An extremely generous offer of my old company at that time, definitely.
The party was great and so it was meeting everyone, talking to colleagues you work with as well as usually don’t work with.
So far so good.
We stayed in the posh Atlantis Resort where also parts of the Casino Royal James Bond movie took place. Excellent for hanging out, especially their unique waterworld and the beach, even if it is far too americanised for my liking. Almost everything is directed at American tourists in Bahamas, by the way.
Anyway, great stay, great party – but the days after the party were some of the worst in my live. I came down with a severe stomach bug the day after. So while everyone was out in the pools again, I managed to secure a deckchair in the shadow and kindly got provided regularly with camomile tea my room mate. Just so that I would be able to fly back to London that night. Which I managed, equipped with a good range of emergency paper bags, if you know what I mean.
What I really want to come to talk about is the way I got treated in Bahamas while being that sick. The hotel staff was most unhelpful, sending me on my shaky legs from one end of the resort to the other in search for a doctor or a nurse – both not being available at all in the end. The staff maybe thought I only had just a severe hangover… Great.
Next stop: airport when flying out. Again, super unfriendly staff. I got asked to empty the contents of my pockets into one of the plastic bins. In my situation, desperately trying to keep the contents of my stomach inside, I did not at first get what the lady looking at me in anger meant. When I finally did, I emptied everything into the bin – including quite a good range of used tissues. The face of the lady officer got even angrier when seeing that, but did not say anything. My face had by then a similar expression, meeting her eyes in the same way, while carrying the sweet feeling of the used-tissue-revenge inside. Well, she said everything, didn’t she? And treated not just me like the shit under her heels.
Anyway, I made it home. Never will I forget the trip on the Piccadilly line from Heathrow to Wood Green. And never will I forget the landing in Heathrow. You only know the forces that press onto your stomach while landing when not feeling well at all. Some of you might know what I am talking about. No accident there, though.
So all that special “Bahamian Service” makes that I never ever will go back to these Islands – even if you would pay me. And every email like the one above will make me think “yeah, right…”.
I really hope for them that they will improve in the future and not just concentrate on US-tourists, who often really do treat folks there arrogantly while waving with packs of dollars. And I guess this is why some people there are just giving it straight back with a no-care-attitude to other people.
Let’s hope the good peeps of both parts meet as well and may they share much more positive experiences.
Usually I am quite grateful for all kinds of experiences, cos you always learn from everything. But I definitely could have done without this one.
P.S.: Here is a picture from the very nice part of the trip – the big party with the Team and everyone being really smartly dressed and in a great mood:
…and here myself about 24hours later. 😉 Taken by my Swedish colleague by the way.
Summerholidays 2009
One entire month without a single blog post, tweet or dent. Other people are only announcing their summer-offline-phase but I was really living it. And I must say that I feel somehow very relaxed, no feeling that I missed out on something etc. .
So what on earth did I do during the last 4 weeks?
– Moving boxes and a few furniture up from the parents base camp in Germany into the new (gorgeous!) flat
– one day spent in all different kinds of “Baumarkt” that Norrköping has to offer (I have a pretty good knowledge now about prices and ranges at i.e. Bauhaus and K-Rauta)
– another day was spent at Linköping IKEA – resulting in buying one of these small espresso brewers for the oven, knowing which BILLY-combination we want (oak with glass doors so that we do not have to dedust all our books anymore)
– some days spent in (rainy) Grythyttan – on the only sunny day we had, we did not go motorcycling but mowed the lawn (boyfriend) and picked gooseberries and blackcurrant and made jam (me).
– Making jam! Funnily enough I gave away all my good empty jam glass collection to my mum and my sister, not knowing at that time that they would have come in handy at my end as well…. Murphy again. Thank goodness there is the mother-in-law’s collection that I was allowed to plunder.
My first jam ever was simple Blackcurrant one. Followed by a slightly more sophisticated Gooseberry jam with 10 year old Whiskey from the Isle of Jura in Scotland. The next jam was with Blackcurrant again, this time with Grappa that ripened in Madeira barrels (in other words: the expensive Grappa, not the one that one can also use to clean motorcycle parts). Comment of the boyfriend when coming into the kitchen after I poured the Grappa into the jam: “It smells quite strong when the berries get cooked”. I told him later that 4cl of his favourite Grappa went in there and caused the smell. Since he loves jam he didn’t seem to mind. Luckily.
The next range was Redcurrant jam with Black Seal Rum from Bermuda, and yesterday was the last shift for this year. Gooseberries again, with Cassis this time. Quite decent as well, if one can judge it by the taste of the fresh and still warm jam.
Making jam is quite job-intensive, especially cleaning the (bloody!!) berries, but also very satisfying when the results are unexpectedly good. So I will do it again. Next year.
Anyway – now it is back to work and normal life again. That means retraining the late-breakfast-stomach to normal eating times, less jam cooking (but maybe sewing curtains instead, yay) – and surely taking part in all the exciting things “cooking” at work 🙂
– Motorcycling – last but not least! As previously said, there is a certain shortcoming in that this summer, though, mainly due to work with the new flat. But – we managed to watch the 44th Classic Race on Sviesta which was great as usual. One can see motorcycles from the 30’s in action – the ones you otherwise only see in Motala’s Motormuseum, which we also visited when my sister and her husband were over for a week.
We also met Kjelle from the Guzzi club on the way from Grythyttan to Norrköping. Together with three other club members (including Il Presidente Nicke) he is now on the way down to Mandello Del Lario, the hometown of all Guzzis. Needless to stress that I envy them???!!! Right now they are in Prague – and a really great diary they have. I just don’t know why on earth they chose Bloggagratis.se over WordPress.com… But never mind.
So – what have you done during summer?
There is by the way a nice saying “A weekend would not be a weekend if it would not be spent doing something totally pointless.” I reckon that applies to a certain degree to holidays as well, doesn’t it?
So far so good!
May I just say….
Enjoy the summer. It is as always far too short!
Update – a picture from a beautiful afternoon in Stegeborg, a place with quite some history.
I saw my first elk!
Yes, I am going to be really German in this post. Why? Because Germans are simply crazy about elks. Why that is I do not understand myself. Seems we simply think that they are cool, cute and maybe because they incorporate this calm, almost phlegmatic character that we sometimes wish to have but somehow lost in our modern, busy lives, often dominated by job and having less and less time for ourselves.
Last summer I even saw German tourists, stopping at the most inappropriate place at the road side for – taking a picture of the typical Swedish elk warning sign… That behaviour is a bit too much, if you ask me. And also this. Definitely too much.
Anyway. I lived in Sweden for over a year now and one cannot say that I haven’t been out in the woods here, rather on the contrary. But I never saw one of these animals. Now yesterday, almost dozing off in the evening summer heat on the train between Linköping and Norrköping – there he was! A young male elk that apparently attempted to cross the rail when the train arrived. It was a funny picture, because he went really fast out of reach of the train, but only as much as necessary, then looking back rather annoyed at the big wheeled steel monster that interrupted his evening potter. Cute picture. And a really shiny brown fur he had, slightly glowing in the late afternoon sun. I am not totally crazy about them, but this one was truly beautiful.
Did you know that elks apparently always let the first car or motorcycle pass? So the first driver is always save, but the second one might have a hard time avoiding quite a few kilos of elk attempting to cross the road?
The second driver might even have such a distance to the first driver that he is not aware of being the second one to the elk’s mind…
Being a motorcyclist, I am therefore not that eager to encounter any of these lovely animals on the road…
I do like the Hälge, though.
Midsummer, Sickbed and… Moving Diary Chapter III
Last Friday I came back very early (2.40am) from a business trip. Despite being annoyed that travelling back took so much longer than expected, the way back home offered a new experience. Originally I wanted to sleep on the bus – but then I saw that the sun was kind of going down at one end of the horizon while already coming up again at the other end – so even here in almost South Sweden one can see something like “white nights“, at least close around midsummer. First time for me to see this since last year at this time I was out of the country. Of course sleeping on the way home was not on anymore then at all.
From Friday midday the airconditioned environments I spent most of my time in during the three previous days took their toll. Since I do not tend to go very well with air con, this trip was again one of the worse examples for that. Proper cold with fever (and that in summer… grrrrhhh) and all the usual niceties. Strictly bed for two and a half days. Today the first day up again – which consisted of watching the boyfriend moving the next batallion of boxes to the new flat and holding doors open whenever required. Not leaving the old flat that is. But being responsible for lunch catering; definitely the easier task than carrying and packing boxes, although I also packed a few for the kitchen. But that led to me being in an extreme need of a Siesta after lunch. However, the neighbours of course then decided that it would be necessary to play a bit of Death Metal…. .
So how will this be in the new flat? Well, all neighbours on our floor are all pensioners as we figured out already. The direct lady-neighbour is dependend of a rollator, the one “en face” is an older gentleman that cannot really take care of himself anymore. He needs a push chair and sometimes when coming into the entrance area one has the pleasure to notice that he was not quite able to make it to the toilet. To spare you more details at this point. The third lady-neighbour seems to be of similar age as the two others, but she is still able to take her bicycle, even if not uphills anymore.
It looks like us lowering the age average at least on our floor. And who knows, maybe we will be the loud ones? When playing Jazz or some other nice music? As a contra-program for our current neighbours we copied a nice selection of military march music from my parents and surprised them with that on a Sunday morning at a decent volume after they came home hungover the night before. They then woke us up for the first time at 2am with loud music accompanied by “singing” and then at 4amwith noises from a rather very private business… But who knows, maybe our current neighbours would love the march music selection and even ask us for a copy??
Exciting times ahead, I’d say.
Now it is time for the next round of thyme-tea with honey to sooth my throat – yay 😀
Moving Diary – Chapter II
The weekend was a really good mix of laziness and being busy at the same time.
It started with us having a look at the new flat and most of all the newly decorated sleeping room – veeeery nice indeed, a good job they did. We will now order some more wallpaper for the living room, but that one we’ll have to deal with ourselves. Or better saying the boyfriend’s brother-in-law, who is one of the skilled painters in our family and who will probably start his own company during summertime. Let’s see if we will be his first customers 🙂
Anyway – despite the super nice and warm summer weather we started to pack a little bit now. One begins to realise that all going well, we will wake up in a different room in four weeks time!
The task tonight will be the hunt for moving boxes at Clas Ohlson – hopefully the shop has them in stock as well!
(Picture from Clas Ohlson’s website)
The laziness part of last weekend consisted of me having finished another Henning Mankell (“Danslärarens Återkomst”) – means around 200 pages in Swedish. Great reading experience and beautiful language. From my perspective, everyone learning the Swedish language and being halfway interested in good stories (not necessarily crime stories), should read Mankell.
The boyfriend on the other hand, unexpectedly found a new mobile phone with Expert Norrköping. His old phone went on strike last week and we were browsing a few mobile shops. Last station was Expert. Last but not least one could say , bevcause Expert was probably the best customer experience ever that I/we ever had when buying a mobile phone. It was Expert in “Varuhuset Linden” and the incredibly competent guy’s name is Robin Ulm. Thanks so much for this great sales experience, Robin – and I can tell you, my lovely man was very excited and most of all happy to get the new gear working. Despite having to transfer over 100 numbers manually from the over a decade old phone to the new one ;).
Twingly turns 3
Twingly turns 3 and despite of being on the verge of leaving the toddler age, it shows quite some talent – and ideas. I cannot say anything specific here apart from that there is still a lot to come in 2009. Stay tuned.
This is how we celebrated today – with CC (Cake and Champagne) – and Coffee. So triple-C in fact.
To the next 3 years to come, may the force be with us 😉
P.S.: Trust me, the cake now does not look half as beautiful anymore. In fact it is less than half left. And it gets less and less very rapidly #delicious #cream #marsipan #strawberry-filling …. OK, I better stop here then.
7th of May 2009
P.P.S.: …and here the link to the official birthday post on the Twingly Blog – learn what we did and what there is to come!
365 days. And so much happened. Again!
It has been almost a year now since I left London for Sweden! I realised it when having travelled to London on a short business trip last week and today again when I recommended a friend my old dentist in North London.
Last year at this time I sold Erwin with whom my scooter/motorcycle “career” started in early October 2006. He got a nice new home not far from his old one with a nice Italian guy whose initials were actually on Erwin’s number plate. If that is not fate then I don’t know.
This is him, by the way (Honda SH125i) – I saw quite a few of his cousins in London last week!
On the first of May last year I flew back to my parents in Germany and on the third I went back with my Dad in the big family car in order to get all my boxes down to “basecamp parents”. It was going out on the 3rd via Dover Calais and back the next day on the same way. Gorgeous weather we had and I can remember my Dad first looking suspiciously at the road where I was driving on the “wrong” side. Last week it by the way took not even a day to get me trained back from the “right” to the “wrong” side, still keeping that behaviour of walking the first day back in Sweden. That tells you that one cannot wipe out five years abroad within one year. And I quite enjoyed being a fish in familiar waters again – even if for less than two days!
Despite loving Sweden and the great human being that motivated me moving here and starting a new life together with him, it took me longer than I thought with settling into my new surroundings. I’d say that really only happened around now-ish. Life here, even if you really enjoy it, is slightly different – most of all a lot more quiet and a lot slower. Which is great, which gives you the thinking space I was craving for such a long time. Then again, one also has to get accustomed to it, not to mention to learn a new language, learning to understand what people say around you. Even if that still sometimes is an issue, it is by far not as stark anymore and I mastered the language to a god degree. And knowing Swedish or simply the language of the country you live in defines so much how well you connect with people. Outside of work and collesgues I have family and friends of my beloved, the guys and girls from the Guzzi and Ducati clubs and also the running group at Friskis & Svettis. All of them helped hugely with settling in so that I now really feel home.
That is another thing by the way. Going to the gym. Doing sports with a GROUP. OK, I did Wing Chun before in Germany and in England for quite some years which was great, but it was lightyears away from going to the gym. “The gym = rat race after work” I thought when living in London. Never ever would I be part of something like THAT! Well, but here firstly people are going a bit crazy about sports – but then again in a very fun way and not in the London-stressed-out- “I pretend that it is fun but then again I really think it is utter rubbish”-office-worker-way. People doing sports here in their spare time do really enjoy it. Please correct me if I am wrong. And since I did not find any martial art style and club in close proximity I started running last summer. Now this happens at least once a week on the 7 kilometer level plus a few shorter additional joggs. And today I subscribed to my first proper run, the so-called 5 km long “Vårruset”. Not a long distance, but I know that I will manage it in a decent time – and I also know that if you would have told me in London I would take part in a run like this, I would have laughed at you and called you a nutter.
That’s how things can change within almost 365 days – and really, never say never. Ever. There are lots more things to tell, but these are maybe the most significant ones.
Oh yes. And just so that life does not get too boring and one does not settle in too much – we found a bigger flat! So we will be moving during summer and there might be the one or the other story about it on this blog. Personally, I look forward to watching the boyfriend packing and going through his collection of things of the last years. And I do not quite that much look forward to my own packing during summer hols in July in a supposedly hot summer… All my moves except one were in summer – and it was always hot. Murphy? Most likely 🙂 But what would life be without him?
Anyway, I’ll keep you updated.
Motorcycle Season 2009 officially started!
Last weekend, at Easter, the season for two-wheels officially started in Southern Sweden. Many motorcycles where out and about enjoying the first warm days and being surrounded by nice fresh air in a way that only motorcycling offers.
We spent the weekend with the family in Grythyttan. That involved changing from winter tyres to summer tyres on the two family cars, fixing the old Russian foldable bicycle that one of the young ladies found in the garage stash and of course some severe fettling with the motorcycles. It took me about three hours to get the old rusty mufflers off Elisa (you may admire the shiny new ones on the picture below). At last a metal saw was the only way out since patience and cautious working with screw driver and hammer did not loosen the tight grip rust had formed between the exhaust pipe and the old mufflers. Putting on the new mufflers was then a very simple task. Elisa also got a new Bagster tank cover, and now I am in the pursuit of a fitting tank bag and some luggage that fits the rear part of the bike. Up to now a top box was sitting there, but as you can imagine it not only destroys the nice line of the bike but is not very suitable at higher travelling speeds which may include sidewinds – unless one fancies a bit of an extra challenge. Ebay, here I come! Any advice from the dear readers of this post are of course much appreciated. It is a shame that modern luggage mostly never seems to suit older bikes.
On Easter Monday Elisa and I made the two hundred kilometres back to Norrköping where she happily arrived at the new garage. Did I mention that on Easter Sunday she started on first attempt and without any complaints whatsoever? She clearly enjoyed the first spin of the season around town, showing off her new equipment and telling everyone in her way “it is springtime and here I come again!”.
On the way back to Norrköping one could not only experience the crappy (and faaaar too fast) driving of some cars but also the fact that Elisa’s indicators decided themselves when they wanted to work – which was usually not when I wanted them to function… Yesterday therefore involved some severe checking and cleaning of contacts and now I would say we no longer pose a danger to the traffic around us. After all, mid of May it is MOT time and one really does not want to do that twice… Never mind the costs that is.
Right now this blog post gets written while in the background the Le Mans 24 hours race finished. This year it was won by team Yamaha Austria who managed to hold their first place for quite some time despite the rain in the morning and the wet race track. Congratulations to them – tell me, can the season start any better? 🙂
Easter Eggs
Just wanted to share this
with everyone and wish you all some nice and enjoyable Easter holidays!
“Påskris” (see picture below) you find everywhere here in Sweden. It is twiggs decorated with feathers and I like it a lot because it is so colourful.
We are still waiting for the first flowers to emerge the surface. This will actually be my first Easter without any typical Easter flowers like daffodils or even tulips. Instead we now merely have crocusses peaking out of the earth and enjoying the first warmer days of the year.
But anyhow, it is very beautiful and one can follow day by day the nature’s waking up process.
(Photo by SVT.se)
Happy Easter Everyone! 🙂
Berlusconi wie er leibt und lebt…
Wenn es nicht so schrecklich und so ein ernster Hintergrund wäre, hätte dies ja schon wieder einen komischen Charakter. So fragt man sich aber manchmal wirklich, wie es sein kann, dass Leute dieser Art in einem geeinten Europa immer noch an der Spitze eines Volkes stehen können. Und das Volk entsprechend, wenn es kann, auswandert wie ich aus Gesprächen mit italienischen Kollegen bzw. selbst gewählten “Exil-Italienern” in London weiß.
Also nicht komisch, sondern ziemlich traurig. Und vielleicht sollte Silvio einmal selber “Camping-Urlaub” machen. Wobei er gleich zwischen mindestens zwei Varianten wählen könnte. Entweder campen wie die Erdbebenopfer oder, wahrscheinlich höherer Vergnügungsgrad für den Herrn, wie Roma in Italien – die wohl am schlechtesten behandelte Minderheit dort. Hier ein richtig guter Artikel aus DN.se dazu, und hier die Google-Übersetzung. Nicht fehlerfrei, wie immer, aber es gibt dennoch einen Eindruck.
Schade, dass ein Land so reich an Kultur und schönen Dingen auf der anderen Seite auch so viele schamvolle Seiten vorzuweisen hat.
Vielleicht ist an dieser Animation mehr dran als man denkt? 😉
re:publica, rickrolling und poken
Meine erste re:publica – das war sie also. In den ersten beiden Tagen habe ich wie erwartet viele nette Leute wieder getroffen, einige getroffen die ich noch nicht persönlich kannte sondern nur vom Twittern oder Bloggen. Dies war für mich der Hauptzweck der Konferenz, und der wurde damit voll erfüllt. Dank Jens bin ich nun auch mit einem Poken ausgerüstet, er und Nicole erklärten netterweise die Basics. Ich finde es klasse und freue mich schon auf die nächste Konferenz – man braucht dann also bald keine Papier-Visitenkarten mehr 🙂
Wieder bei Twingly angekommen, habe ich das Ding gleich mal meinen Kollegen vorgestellt und vorgeschlagen, einen 12er-Pack zu ordern. In Schweden sind die Dinger nämlich noch nicht angekommen, aber das ist wohl nur eine Frage der Zeit. Die Reaktionen reichten von “Boah, sind die häßlich”, “Haben die sich den Namen gut überlegt?” und “Coooool!” zu “Kann ich den mal auseinanderschrauben? Ich baue ihn dann auch wieder zusammen.” Da war es dann doch an der Zeit mein neues Gadget in den Tiefen meiner Handtasche in Sicherheit zu bringen.
Der erste Konferenztag war etwas langsam, was mir einerseits entgegen kam, da ich mit diesem unchristlich frühen Flug in Berlin ankam und um 3.30 MEZ aufstehen durfte. Andererseits hätte ich mir ein paar kontroversere Diskussionen gewünscht, beispielsweise bei “Blogs in Deutschland” und “Großstadtnomaden”. Das war bestimmt informativ für alle, die nicht so im Thema drin stecken, aber nicht so sehr für mich. Dennoch insgesamt war alles sehr gut gemacht und der Friedrichsstadtpalast gab für den ersten Tag eine sehr gute Bühne, wenn auch nicht immer mit WLAN – was aber irgendwie normal ist. Habe noch keine Konferenz erlebt, bei der sich einige hundert Leute gleichzeitig problemlos in dasselbe Netz einloggen konnten.
Hier ein Bild von der Bühne mit John Kelly von Morningside Analytics. Dies war nach der Keynote der erste Beitrag, dem ich zuhörte.
Er stellte mit “Mapping the global blogosphere” eine sehr interessante Analyse hinsichtlich der Zusammensetzung und Verknüpfung verschiedener Blogsphären vor. Darunter war die US-amerikanische, die iranische, die russische und auch die deutsche zu finden. Es wurde gezeigt, mit welchen Themen sich Blogger in den einzelnen Kreisen auseinandersetzen und auch wie sie sich untereinander vernetzen. Kellys Aussage zur deutschsprachigen Blogsphäre war, dass wir uns in einem Stadium befinden, in welchem sich auch die US-amerikanische befand, bevor sie sich zu der riesigen, diversen Blogwelt von heute entwickelte. In Deutschland dominieren dabei momentan eher noch technisch und politisch orientierte Blogs, wie man auch in Deutsche Blogcharts oder Twingly Top 100 sehen kann. Laut Kelly wird sich dies jedoch schnell weiterentwickeln, so dass in Deutschland heute noch kleinere Bereiche wie beispielsweise Crafts und Kunst oder andere persönliche Interessen zunehmend vertreten sein werden. Diese sind beispielsweise in Frankreich stark , wenn man Twingly Top 100 French glauben darf. Kellys Analyse basierte ausschließlich auf Daten, ohne weiteres Hintergrundwissen mit einzubeziehen. Dies war für einige Zuhörer ein Kritikpunkt. Ich finde dennoch, dass dies ein sehr interessanter Ansatz ist und werde versuchen, John Kelly noch einmal zu kontaktieren, beispielsweise um herauszufinden, welche Datenquellen dem Ganzen zu Grunde liegen. Vielleicht rückt er ja sogar seine Präsentation heraus 😉
Am Nachmittag des 1. Tages ging es mit @50hz, @pottblog und @Katti Eis essen – Tipp von Pottblogger Jens. Wunderbar, erstes Eis in diesem Jahr, und das bei Sonne und ganz ohne Jacke. Zurück in Schweden sah das noch etwas anders aus. Kein Eis (Speiseeis, sonst schon) und wesentlich kälter.
Das Programm des 1. Tages schloss mit “re:search – Deutschland sucht”, einer Live-Gameshow, unter anderem präsentiert von Organisator @spreeblick . Hier wurde Rickrolling vom Feinsten im Karaokestil geboten, und das Nominieren der Kandidaten per Zuruf, ganz ohne Internet oder SMS zeigte, dass es auch immer noch ohne die modernen Hilfsmittel geht – auch wenn das nun wieder so nicht geplant war. Aber witzig wars :-).
Während einige sich dann noch zur Party mit Fettes Brot aufmachten, habe ich dann mal “Tschüß” gesagt, auf dem Weg ins Hotel noch etwas gegessen, noch etwas geguckt wie Deutschland mal wieder mit mehr Glück als Können gegen Wales gewann – und bin dann ins Bett geplumpst.
Tag 2 begann mit ausgiebigem Frühstück im Hotel und danach dem erstem re:publica Vortrag von Peter Schaar, dem Bundesdatenschutzbeauftragten. Spannender Vortrag, und der kann richtig reden, der Mann!
Da ich noch einen anderen Termin in Berlin hatte, war mein nächster Vortrag am Nachmittag – “Blogging in Africa – between powercut and political protest”. Kurz, knackig und informativ in englischer Sprache, präsentiert von Andrea Goetzke und Geraldine de Bastion. Hier ging es darum, dass in Afrika Mobilephones eine wesentlich größere Rolle spielen als Computer. Mobile Blogging, Microblogging und Facebook spielen eine große Rolle, um sich zu organisieren. Sei es um die Wahrheit über die Wahlen in Kenia zu verbreiten (Blogger als Kontra zu traditionellen, stattlich gesteuerten Medien) oder Facebook Groups in Ägypten, um gegen diverse Dinge zu protestieren. Blogger sind keineswegs machtlos. Die Menschen nutzen die neuen Wege gezielt um auf Mißstände aufmerksam zu machen und diese somit zu ändern. Gesetze gegen solche Bewegungen gibt es zwar, aber sie wurden bislang nicht angewandt, da keiner genau weiß, wie man dies angehen sollte. Es gibt also wider Erwarten große Freiheit für Blogger dort – und somit die Möglichkeit Einfluss zu nehmen. (Nachtrag 6. April: Mehr dazu auf Medienlese im Interview mit Geraldine de Bastion.)
Am Nachmittag zogen wir komplett in die Kalkscheune um. Das bedeutete, dass der Friedrichstadtpalast geschlossen wurde. Komplett, mit Garderobe, für die Abendveranstaltung. Da ich den größten Teil des Tages nicht dort war, wurde mein Köfferchen mit eingeschlossen. Nur dem Team der re:publica ist es zu verdanken, dass ich zusammen mit ein paar anderen mein Gepäck über den Bühneneingang wiederbekam. Puhh. Schwein gehabt, und nochmals großen Dank für den Einsatz!
Ansonsten hat es mich sehr gefreut, endlich einmal @myxococcus persönlich kennenzulernen, und nicht nur über Twingly sondern auch über seine Motorradtour in Italien zu schnacken. @sachark habe ich nach der OMD auch endlich einmal wiedergesehen, ebenso wie @oliverg und @tknuewer und viele andere. Wunderbar, einfach mal wieder mitten drin zu sein und nicht “irgendwo da oben im hohen Norden”.
Am Abend ging es dann doch wieder zurück nach Schweden – nach 2 wunderbaren, sonnigen Tagen in Berlin. Freue mich schon aufs nächste Mal – auf Berlin und auf die re:publica10.
Signs of Springtime
One of the first springtime signs is that since last week we are the proud owners (rental better saying) of a new garage for our four two-wheelers! Finally a proper home for them, and for us another additional hangout, livingroom or whatever you want to call it. The ladies that need some extra TLC (means they are not rideable at the moment) already moved in. We spent the weekend putting up some hooks and shelves on the wall and doing necessity-shopping at Clas Ohlsson.
In addition we made friends with one of the owners of the big neighbour-garage in that complex. It is five guys with custom bikes that rent that one – and they do have a loo… Could come in extremely handy if there is a certain need after a day out on the bike and home is far away… I think you know what I mean. Also, the guy we met gave us some tips of where to get a couple of sturdy shelves for all our stuff. Parts, tools and manuals for four different bikes do take some space and the storage we have right now is not really sufficient.
The poor one we spoke to returned btw to the garage in snow showers on his Kawasaki. Why that? Well, over the weekend springtime made an attempt to beat winter. And succeeded partly. Means on Saturday I sat outside on the balcony, in short sleeves and enjoyed the morning sun – without freezing. The entire Saturday it was (for the first time in 2009) gorgeous jeans-jacket-weather. Like our new-won friend we thought it would continue like that during Sunday. So we went for a short bicycle tour wearing the same outfit as on the day before. And it became a very short tour – because it started snowing. Therefore, quickly back inside, winter jacket, cap and gloves on- and walking to the shops instead of cycling. It is supposed to be like that the entire week. But then again it cannot take very long anymore till springtime finally wins. The days are longer than the nights now! And in this country you can really see and feel the difference from week to week.
How much I look forward to us getting the other two bikes ready for rolling and down to the new garage… and then go to work by two wheels instead of train… nice.
Twingly Accelerators für IE8
Da haben wir mal wieder eine richtig gute Chance mitgenommen – Twingly liefert einen Link- und einen Search-Accelerator für den gestern releasten Internet Explorer 8 (tolles “Denglisch”, ich weiß).
Also habe ich mir heute früh erstmal die Windows-Updates angetan, die mein Computer für mich bereit hielt, und anschließend endlich, was ich eigentlich installieren wollte – den neuen IE8. Ich bin ansonsten ja eher der Firefox-Liebhaber, aber IE8 ist auch ein schönes Spielzeug. Vor allem, wenn man sich dann tatsächlich mit den Acceleratoren beschäftigt, die Björn unser CTO mal eben so in einer lockeren Wochenend-Session hingelegt hat.
Wie das Ganze funktioniert? Ganz einfach. Zu IE8 upgraden (da, schon wieder, Denglisch!), zu Twingly.com gehen und auf “Install Search Accelerator” bzw. “Install Link Accelerator” klicken und somit beide als Add-Ons zum Browser installieren. Diese beiden Links sieht man übrigens lediglich in IE8 und keiner anderen IE-Version bzw. einem anderen Browser.
Als nächstes bin ich dann einfach mal zur TAZ gegangen, habe mir den neuen Obama-Artikel geschnappt – und Rechtsklick, und dann Mauszeiger über Twingly Bloglinks halten, und dann – nichts. Hmmmmmm. Da hat wohl noch keiner drüber gebloggt. Schade. Nächster Artikel – Google-Books. Gleiche Prozedur – und yes! Das hat dann schon ein paar mehr Leute beschäftigt! Bislang 5 Resultate! 3 davon werden angezeigt. Um den Rest zu sehen und zu allen Ergebnissen zu gelangen, muss ich direkt auf “Twingly Bloglinks” klicken. Ich kann aber auch direkt über den kleinen Tooltip zu einem der 3 gelisteten Blogposts gehen, indem ich einfach auf den Link klicke. Dann öffnet sich genau der Blogpost in einem neuen Explorer-Tab.
Als Blogger wiederum sieht man in seinen Statistiken nicht, dass in diesem Beispiel ein Leser der Taz über den Link-Accelerator zu seinem Blog gekommen ist. Es wird in diesem Fall in den Statistiken angezeigt, dass Besucher über TAZ.de zum Blog gefunden haben. Ist ja auch mal ganz interessant zu wissen.
Wie Anton, finde ich dieses Tool genial – man kann einfach mal eben schnell checken, welche Blogposts exakt zu diesem Artikel verlinkt haben. Nicht nur für Online-Redakteure ein ideales Tool um zu sehen, welches Feedback über Blogs hereinkommt, sondern ideal für alle, die Zusatzmaterial recherchieren.
Bei Recherche zu einem bestimmten Thema hilft aber auch der zweite Accelerator, ein allgemeiner Search-Accelerator. Und der funktioniert etwas anders. Bleiben wir beim gleichen Artikel. Wenn ich dann also wissen will, wer zum Stichwort “GoogleBooks” etwas geschrieben hat, dann gehe ich in die Überschrift (oder irgendwo sonst in den Text, wo das Wort vorkommt), markiere mit der Maus “GoogleBooks”, Rechtsklick und setze den Mauszeiger auf “Twingly Blog Search” – und da sind sie, die ersten 3 aller Ergebnisse zum Stichwort “GoogleBooks”. Wie beim Link-Accelerator kann man sich entweder alle Ergebnisse auf Twingly.com anzeigen lassen, oder aber man geht direkt über den Tooltip zu einem der angezeigten Blogposts.
Feines Spielzeug 🙂 Hilft mir übrigens bei der Arbeit.
Wie es dazu kam, dass wir unsere Accelerators beim IE8 von Anfang an dabei sind, kann man in Antons Blogpost nachlesen. Weitere Infos zur installation und Funktionsweise auf Englisch gibt es dort auch!
Wha'ever! 