2019h
2037h
2043h
2057h
[pictures taken 15th August 2009]
2019h
2037h
2043h
2057h
During a one-week school-trip to Paris I, as a 16 year old, stood below the Eiffel-Tower. I saw the line and decided, I would not need to go up with everybody else and preferred to stay below. I think this attitude stemmed from my dad, who is an elitist snob. (Hey dad!)
In 2006 in Rome, my travel companion and Rome guide, a very nice and decent guy, but nonetheless a cultural snob voted against ascending up the St. Peter's cathedral. Luckily on our free-for-oneself-day I decided to go up to la cupola myself.
Summer 2009: up until now, I have never been to the Starnberger See (Lake Starnberg) before. From what I was told, among others by my dad, it is supposed to be crowed, big parts of the waterside are in private property and the hole region is supposedly infested by rich, spoiled people.
All of that is true. Most all of those stereotypes deliver, some to a smaller, some to an even greater degree.
For this reasons a lot of people stay away from the Starnberger See. However, beside all those before mentioned points, the Starnberger See is also one of the most beautiful places in our region. The setting of the lake, surrounded by forests and hills, some settlements on its shores, the sails and masts of the boats in the sea, everything in front of the glorious scenery of the Alps in the south is nearly perfect. At the same time all this just 30 minutes away from Munich.
There are several other lakes in Upper Bavaria with glorious mountain- panorama and the same great recreational value, but Lake Starnberg combines everything archetypical.
So Florian, what is the message?
I opened two cans of worms which are somehow connected. First it is usually not worth staying away from beautiful places because of the masses. Second, it is a bad idea to leave certain beautiful places to the rich. It is just like giving some nice parts of inner cities, often parks, up to punks or tramps who like to hang out there and get drunk. We must not give up public space neither to the rich nor the tramps. I shall not open up the can of the problem with the privatization of the public room. That´s another whole story.
Of course it is always a good idea to visit tourist hotspots anti-cyclic. I have fond memories of wandering more or less alone through the forum romanum in the early hours of the morning. I also remember strolling through Berlin Mitte very early on some holiday - quite bizarre, the tourists not yet up, and the working people staying home on their free day.
So here we got another reason to leave the comfort zone, to go to bed early in your vacations, and to get up early. It can be rewarding from time to time.
.., but when they come, I still hang in front of some stupid computer screen or something. Shame on you Florian, big red light!
I got some nice Sennheiser HD180 headphones back in 2000 or so for about 180 DM. One of the headphones got blind and, as Sennheiser always advertised their devices as repairable I checked the site to find an replacement service. They the required replacement part. It cost something like 17EUR + 8EUR shipping. They delivered promptley and everthing is working again. Kind of a tought decision in these days: investing money in something to repair it, or spend the money in a new gadget? Well, as I got a faible for sustainability and the environment, I went for repairing.
While inspecting the inner parts of the earphones I came to the conclusion that there is a minor design flaw in the phones. There is this single conductor shown in the picture above, and on one of its sides there is a little slackness, meaning the thin conductor is moving a little bit all the time and it seems to me, that it was just a question of time till it broke. Well this time I fixed with some adhasive tape hoping for the best.
If you want to catch flowers blossom in the mountains, you got go in spring. Well 'duh' again. Of course this kind of contradicts the general consensus, that late summer / early fall is the ideal time for the mountains.
I do not actually care too much about the aesthetics of flowers. I choose the title of this site for its metaphorical meaning.
The quality of the accessories on my bicycle was lacking ever since. The adjustment of the lightbulbs in the front was a total failure. In the two years I owned the bike, I burned at least five light bulbs. So I invested 68€ in a LED-based light by Busch & Müller. A crazy amount of money but worth it. The light is focused and bright as hell - it is a joy to blind other road user. It got a buffer and the vertical angle is easily adjusted.
Last fall I finally replaced my tires with "unflatable"-bicycle tires from Schwalbe. When I got the bike two years ago I made the mistake of not getting those right on from the beginning. Those tires are worth every penny as I usually had to fix a flat three to five times from fall to spring, compared to ZERO flats this season. There is progress, people, there is progress! However be reminded: Your bicycle will get heavy. Mine does not feel like a sporting device (it never did) but more like a sturdy workhorse.
Last fall before my morocco trip I got myself a new pair of hiking boots by Meindl. For the last eleven years I have been using the two pairs of combat boots given to me during my military service. But all the maintenance was in vain, as the glue holding the sole dissolved and the shoemaker was unable to permanently fix it - even the nails he used failed. The Ortler is definitely quite robust and more comfortable as my army boots. But only time can say whether they are worth their price. I will tell you in ten years of so.
This was definitely the greatest, most unbelievable April in my memories. It reminded me of the October 2005.
In November 2008 I returned from a Morocco trip and promised some more about it here on this site - go check it out.
From time to time I attend some public lecture staged here in the lower bavarian province. Here a benchmark of the lectures I attended in the last 13 month. The contestants were:
Sind wir noch ein/das Land der Dichter und Denker? -
Hat der Geist noch Zukunft?
11.12.2007 Stadtsäle Bernlochner
Virtuelle Wahrheit - verdoppelte Realität
26.05.2008 FH Landshut
Wenn Kinder arm sind - Familienarmut und ihre Folgen
24.11.2008 FH Landshut
Grenzen der Berechnbarkeit
01.12.2008 FH Landshut
Zukunkftsgestalltung als Schicksalsfrage: Welche Herausforderungen
liegen vor uns?
12.01.2008 VHS Landshut
The disciplines were:
Here are the results without any verbose justification:
You might also check out May of 2006 for a similar comparision between Mr. Hipp and Mr. Geissler.
I would love to do a review of my movie-year 2008, like one sentence about each movie, but I am afraid I would not be able to recall all of them. Maybe I should start to write down thought right now for 2009. Got to think about that. Na, probably will not happen, I would be ashamed of all the trash I watch.
In December 2005 I started adding a signature to my emails. Below each email a link to this website and a new quote with each update of the site. I compiled all those sigs together as a reference document for future generations. Enjoy.