My world, my rules, my reality

Back from Russia

2011-03-14T07:44:00.001-05:00

Rico and I went for the move of the Mocsow office to Russia. Was some good fun and an interessting experiance.

Math is not my topic

2010-11-03T13:22:00.000-05:00

Having math in my studies was not my choice, but thanks its only for 2 semester.

Statistics i suspected to be kinda cool, but reality striked back too quickly! So back to it then.

Mexico

2009-10-22T17:24:00.001-05:00

So I've been to Mexico to fix the PBX in our location. It was a lot of work for just one week and I learned a lot about the Mexican phone infrasructure and protocoll's.

It also was good to see Travis again over there, and to realize not much changed between us. You know, sometimes people evolve and the connection is gone. It doesn't matter how hard you try, it wouldn't come back.
To bad he left the company shortly after that week.
But I can totaly understand it. In his position I would have done the same thing. I just hope he can make it to Germany next year or the year after, we would have a blast.

Hotline

2009-08-11T15:19:00.001-05:00

Isn't it weird, that some days start out quite well. And then, all a sutton someone has the great idea to give out funny pills. That is when the day starts circling the drain and from second to second the circal is gaining speed.

It all started off with a colleage, who thought he might help me a bit by internationally promoting test versions of software as the new standard and asks me for documentation for our international admins.
Hmm, don't you think there would be documentation if the software would be released! Use your brain, take a fucking chance, will ya.
We also decided to save some money and do our phone hotline ourselfs for some time. I totally forgot how users can be... Here greatest highlights:

User: "My notebook hung up and it wouldn't turn off. I removed the battery and then all cables, but the power light is still burning."
Me:"Hmm, did you remove both at the same time?"
User: Oh thats the hint of the day, now its off"

but, like Malcom Young of AC/DC sings "... i will be back in the ring for a nother swing!"

Hickory smoked Burgers yummy

2009-05-09T12:45:00.001-05:00

I got myself a char cole chimney and for the weber grill, and the indirect grilling cages.
I got the cheap chimney from Amazon for 12€ but it works great. I just burned the black color off. But who needs color when the burgers are waiting.

Today was the day to try'em out! hmmmm... is all i can say!

Next, try to slow smoke ribs and upgrade my famous bullseye ribs to version 2.0!

Vacation posponed, swine flue and other crap ....

2009-04-28T00:05:00.001-05:00

Out of family reasons we had to pospone our Ireland vacation for 3 weeks.We leave on the 16th of May.
So back to work !!!

About that mass media scare swine flue...

in my opinion its way over cooked. Ok the swine flu is stronger than the regular flu, but whats the symptoms? Chills, fever, pharyngitis, muscle pain, headache, coughin and weakness. Many people have it over the year all over the world.
Oh, ok you say the swine flu killed already around 200 people and the bird flu killed around 800 people.
Just for the scared ones, the regular flu kills around 1000 people EVERY year. Mostly older people.

My bigger fear is, don't you think its weard how often such mutated flu's occour by now?
And how convenient that only on company (rouche) worked a cure ...

Before the bird flu the pandemic flu's occured around every 10 to 30 years.

Name of pandemic	Date	Deaths	Subtype involved	Pandemic Severity Index
Asiatic (Russian) Flu	1889–1890	1 million	possibly H2N2	?
Spanish Flu	1918–1920	40 to 100 million	H1N1	5
Asian Flu	1957–1958	1 to 1.5 million	H2N2	2
Hong Kong Flu	1968–1969	0.75 to 1 million	H3N2	2

And when was the bird flu? Ok it wasn't pandemic.
For how wants to know more : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flu

I just think it's weird that the media makes such a big deal out of it.
Also i have easy talking, the swine flu did't arrive yet in Germany.

By the way i think it's more scary that there where over 21000 AIDS death world wide than 1000 to 5000 flu deaths. But the media doesn't jump on that anymore.

I know ....

2009-04-22T13:36:00.001-05:00

St. Paddy is over, but on Saturday we are leaving for Ireland.
So i will blog from there for 2 Weeks, and knowing that there is more vacation days left.

Strange feeling after 3 years with 10 days of vacation.

Thanks to Daniel for the idea with the blog head.

In Memory of Josef Sommer

2009-04-09T15:13:00.001-05:00

Josef Sommer

2nd of January 1919 - 9th of April 2009

The Cat got a Tree

2009-02-09T07:54:00.001-05:00

We wanted to give our furniture a break and decided to build the cat a cutom scratch tree.
The ones you can buy, are not looking nice and didn't fit to our furniture.

The work was worth it, because the cat adopted the tree instantly.

Small Staubi on Trip

2009-02-09T07:29:00.004-05:00

On January 16th i dropped him off at the airport in Frankfurt Germany. To make sure he is realy gone.
He will spend the next year, touring through New Zeeland. Having fun and discover the country.
How wants to follow can look here on his blog.
At the moment is he tingeling over the south island.

Rewind

2009-01-16T01:42:00.005-05:00

Ok, Ok, i know i didn't post a lot, but here we go.
Lets recapture big 08.

It started quite well for Kat and me. In May we packed all our stuff waved goodby and left the US of A.
Back in Germany it got interesting.
We didn't even move in our house, when we moved my grandparents into assisted liveing.
Not enough, we had to make plans to remodel thier home, to rent it out. Only to find out that the building substance is not remodelable for cheap. So we did some house cleaning to be able to sell the house.
Than we bought our house from the inlaws. And while we where doing the house cleaning we remodeled and moved into our home.
When we sold the house from my grandparents, my grandma had a asthma attack and is still in the hospital after a cardiac valve replacement. But she is quite well so its ok.

Now its january and we both hope 2009 will be better then last year.

Over all it wasn't a really bad year it was just very busy.

Merry Christmas to all of you

2008-12-24T10:03:00.002-05:00

Happy Birthday Travis !!!

2008-11-10T03:28:00.001-05:00

First Snow

2008-10-30T05:16:00.001-05:00

Ok, it was more like slush, but it was white, wet and cold. And it sucked.

Bush Warriors

2008-10-28T03:33:00.004-05:00

This is the Cover of the Spiegel magazine in Germany somewhere in 2006 with the Headline (translated)

"The Bush Warriors"

. The funny part is, the USA embassy ordered 33 poster print of this Cover for the White House in Washington.

So, Georgy loved that cover a lot.

Fast forward...
At the moment all German magazines are publishing the balance of the Bush presidency.
I'll not starting a rant now about his presidency. You can cover this part with on simple phrase:

HE SUCKED!!!

I just want to show you the cover of the Spiegel magazine of this month:

Translation: The Bush warriors - End of the show!

Hmm, do you think the embassy ordered already again???

A new family member...

2008-10-20T10:33:00.003-05:00

Kasimir \k(a)-si-mir\ is pronounced KAZ-e-meer. It is of Slavic origin, and its meaning is "famous destroyer (of peace)". Variant of Casimir (Slavic) "bring peace". The name of the patron saint of Poland; also a favored name of Polish royalty.

Is 10 Weeks old and a Tomcat, also new to our household. Let's see if he can grow in his name. I'll think he will.

Life gets good again

2008-10-16T10:53:00.003-05:00

Slowly life returns to normality. Remodeling is close to an end. We
even start hanging curtains and pictures.

Cats dad retired and is helping us while we work during the day.
Everyday, we get home from work, something else is magically completed.
Not that i would mind his help. Its just that i think that he worked
his whole life for a company and now when he could do what ever he
wants to, he is working in our house. I'm really grade full, it just feels
awkward.

Update / Reminder

2008-09-17T08:51:00.005-05:00

Long time no post...

Ok here is a quick update what happened... or the way TV series episodes usually start:

... previously!

We moved in our house and did some remodeling.
Pictures of the finished kitchen have to be taken and posted separately.
Started remodel planing process of Grandparents house.
Jörg got married.
Sanded our hardwood floors.
Tryed to get a kitten. (no luck yet - strange people)
Staubi is in the final stages.
Need to post some pics

Detailed posts will follow.

Welcome to the DELL hell

2008-08-18T03:46:00.003-05:00

Ok, partly it was my Owen fault. But still, Dell Sucks!

When we moved back to Germany i just forgot to switch the power supply in cats computer to 220V. So when i plugged in the power cord the breaker just went all out on me. And i ended up standing in the dark. The power supply was smoking at me goodbye and I remember thinking - FUCK!

So now i called Dell in Germany, to buy a spare part, but hey, apparently the Dell techs are not able to make a diagnose without a European Service Tag and i have only a USA one. Not that telling them, that smoke is rising from my power supply is diagnose enough.

Okay then, so i fill out the "Service tag transfer form". One week, two weeks, three weeks and still not even a confirmation email that my case is handled. So i called again and the hole spiel started over. In that time they need to transfer a service tag i can order a power supply in the states and send it by ship over to me.

Let's say the transcontinental processes have some improvement potential.

Net Findings :: ROFLAMAO ;-)

2008-08-08T01:30:00.001-05:00

Oh yes, just spread the love!!!

Kitchen Remoddeling

2008-07-31T09:52:00.003-05:00

So we decided one wall side isn't enough kitchen for us, since we love to cook.
So lets make it bigger!!!
The side with the stove and fridge was the original Kitchen, plus the the cabinet on the left.
We just added the corner cabinets and tonight we pickup the tabletops. Lets see how it looks finished.

to be continued ...

I feel the need, the need for speed

2008-07-25T21:16:00.000-05:00

Internet speeds are critical to all IT dude's so i decided i'll make a direct comparison USA and Germany as long i still have a US internet connection.

Especially since back in the day in Europe everybody was wishing to have an US internet connection.

2 different test websites. May the best win.

USA (Charter.com Kalamazoom, Mi)
Site:dslreports.com	Site: speedtest.net

Germany (Leonberg, Kabel BW)

Germany

2008-07-03T09:50:00.002-05:00

So we moved into our new house and there are just 150 cartons of the 350 left.

I'm so close to lite it all up!!!
Kat and i are exhausted from remodeling the kitchen buying closets and kitchen furniture, unpacking cartons and if we are not doing that we go working.

The funny thing is we have space wise more space as in the US but less space to put stuff. The weirdest part is with all the cartons in the house it looks smaller as the US house with the cartons in it.

In the last for weeks i attended more meetings as in the las three years and hell i didn't miss it.

VISA Enjoy life's opportunities

2008-06-13T15:03:00.003-05:00

Thats how VISA is advertising - but not valid for Germany.

I went out to buy some stuff i needed and decided to stop at the bank and get some cash.

so i used some money on my cafeteria card and went to IKEA to discover some possibilities.
So first of all IKEA was remodeling and was one big mess. Second i was standing at the register and ask the clerk if i could pay with VISA, but she told me that this is not one of life's opportunities and i could only pay with cash or Eurocard. Sweet i went earlier to the bank so i had some Cash. My Eurocard wouldn't have worked either because i didn't had the correct pin and the card got locked.

So at OBI i got the same problem they only take cash or eurocard. Sweet. Also back to the bank and get cash.

What the hell do i have a VISA card for when i'am not able to use it in my own country?

Basics

2008-05-28T09:49:00.003-05:00

Ok we are in the zone and start battling the usual crap like:

Register at town hall, apply for tax card, get a rental car (what a piece of sh*** ... work), get working allergies medicine , get haircuts, catch up with the family.

About this Blog:
I'll keep it in English so don't worry guys and i still will post irregularly ... so no changes there.

Temperatures are around 30 C / 75 F and humid.

Welcome to our company Headquater

2008-05-28T08:35:00.002-05:00

global relocation

2008-05-24T18:20:00.004-05:00

so, the time has finally come!

Kat & i are sitting in the Newark airport and waiting for our final flight to germany (for now ).
It is just a weird feeling to leave all the great (& some what great) people, we met over the last three years behind again. The house we loved so much, the friends and experiences we made, the challenges we faced.

Now i have to get along again with the German way of doing work. It will be a though challenge for me in the first weeks and i will definitely miss my fellow colleagues.

On the other hand i am looking forward to catch up with friends have some favorite foods and dishes.

Tennessee

2008-05-05T09:32:00.008-05:00

We had our last trip in the US this weekend.
Destination: Tennessee

So we visited Jack Daniels and the Smokey mountains National Park.
It was a very nice weekend, the weather wasn't that good but good enough. A lot of driving for a weekend (690 miles) but ok.

Here some Pics.

Net Findings : Great Deal

2008-05-01T16:13:00.001-05:00

First round of Golf this year

2008-04-28T09:53:00.002-05:00

Travis and I went to Heritage Glen for some smooth 18 holes of golf. We ended up playing 19 holes and needed over 5 1/2 hours due to some drunk dudes in bad arranged groups (6 somes, 4 somes, 6 somes).
It was good to have the chance to play again this year with Travis, even when i ended up with 113 but it was the first round of golf this year.
The front was a lot of snowman action and on the back i got a hold of my game and was beating the crap out of the balls with my wood ("no Tom, not in that kind of way").

Over all it was a bit chilly but great.

New Toy

2008-04-25T08:24:00.002-05:00

Our New Baby: Tamron 18-250mm
I can't wait to go out and play with it.

Gentelman, please start your grill's

2008-04-20T20:19:00.003-05:00

Kat and i had the first self grilled food of the season.

Cajun white jumbo bay shrimp with garlic mayo.
Filet Mignon and Sweet corn on the crop.

yummy...

Flushed Away

2008-04-19T20:16:00.000-05:00

The Anual Sprinkler flushing in our street, last week. We happend to just come home that moment.

Great, free car wash and great pictures! ;-P

Flowers

2008-04-19T14:23:00.003-05:00

When i was little, i sure brought my mom some flowers. I picked them on a public heath or bought them from my pocket money. But i absolutely didn't pick'em in neighbors yards.

The winter in Michigan is so freaking long that you are happy when finally the yard starts blooming, and then there is a little girl which didn't had a wupp'n in a long time picking your flowers.
So i told her off but she didn't seem very impressed. If I would have brought my mom flowers which are not wild, she would have made me go to the owners and apologize. But so far our door bell didn't ring.

Hey parents teach you kids some manners!!!

No way Staubi got a blog

2008-04-11T13:47:00.003-05:00

Life 'n' dream

and he blogs english

Allllrighhht!! ;-P

Old but good

2008-04-11T11:02:00.004-05:00

http://files.liquidlight.co.uk/rightmix/loader01.swf

Hints

To get the highest scores, you need to try and mix a classic cosmopolitan (there are many recipes online). Quantities can make all the difference. Don't forget the lemon garnish! Highest points are often in the 9,000 range although true professionals have been known to get over 10,000!

Happy Birthday to me

2008-04-06T00:01:00.000-05:00

So 31 from now on i start counting backward ;-P

Net Findings: Are you surprized about server problems?

2008-04-04T18:04:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Tom

2008-04-04T09:43:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday to YYYOOOOUUUUOOUUUUU!

Enjoy your flight and vacation big guy.

Quote of the Day

2008-04-03T10:18:00.003-05:00

Programming today is a race
between software engineers striving to build bigger and
better idiot-proof programs,
and the Universe trying to
produce bigger and better idiots.

So far, the Universe is winning.

Bush's War

2008-04-03T08:37:00.002-05:00

It is nothing new, that the American president isn't pretty bright, but that he is not able to reign his county was a bit surprising.

PBS.org made a docu about his presidency and the Iraq war. Starting at 9/11.

here the link:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/bushswar/

Net Findings : 5 Aprils fools day jokes for the office

2008-04-01T15:49:00.001-05:00

http://view.break.com/480012 - Watch more free videos

Happy Easter

2008-03-24T00:12:00.001-05:00

by the way the left one is the bunny ;-)

National Parks & miles miles miles

2008-03-19T00:20:00.002-05:00

OK so far we traveled 1100 miles and visited 2 national parks.
Somehow i didn't like yosemite, i never saw a park so commercialized than this one. The features nature has in stock are great, but the dirty campgrounds which give you the feeling that you are not in a national park more like in a mud race fan camp sucked badly.

So we just spend today in there and leave for tahoe tomorrow.

Braindead Service

2008-03-15T11:11:00.002-05:00

Staubi and I went to the local steak joint of choice for dinner.

We both where real hungry and ordered both the 18oz NY strip steak.
With the loaded baked potato and the house salad.

After the salad the waitress delivered to plates with each a perfect
grilled steak, and that's it. So we asked for the potatoes and where
surprised to hear that they where out and it would take a view
minutes.

So after five minutes or so we checked again and she had the nerve to ask if
there would be a problem.

No there is no problem, we just ordered the potato for fun.

Happy B-Day Chris

2008-03-09T15:39:00.002-05:00

Hey Chris, we wish you all the best!
Kat & Daniel

Crazy Weather

2008-03-03T16:01:00.002-05:00

Ok, whats up with the freak'in weather???
Cold, Cold, Warm, Cold, Warm, Warm Cold ! That sucks!!!!

Make up your freak'in mind!

And Tonight we get snow again SWEET!
Have a nice day.

Life in a model home

2008-02-28T13:14:00.003-05:00

Kat and I put our house on the market for sale. Since the season started and we have 3 month left. What sucks is, that you have to clean every thing when you leave the house, because you never know when you have the next showing.

Addicting

2008-02-25T08:53:00.002-05:00

Cool Phone

2008-02-10T21:34:00.000-05:00

I was checking my account infos on my German sip account and while i was doing so, i tripped of this fine little sucker.

Siemens Gigaset C470IP.

It's an analog Phone with SIP ability. 2 Simultaneous SIP calls and 1 PSTN call possible. Up to 6 handsets connectible, also 6 SIP accounts which are assignable to specific handsets. Pop3, SMS, Instant messaging. and so goes the list on. Sadly not available in the US.

@ Chris: I'll check if the power supply works with 120V i'll organize one for you.

please wait

2008-02-07T12:21:00.000-05:00

It is just crazy the last view weeks. Preparing the house for sale, finding a job back in Germany, getting the last projects wrapped up and so goes the list on.

Thats maybe the usual relocation madness.

I'll try to keep updating.

I add today the return counter for our relocation.
The ETA for us will probably be the the 1st of June 2008:

New Toy

2008-01-25T11:49:00.000-05:00

I got us a new data grave for home. Since Kat and i where not be able to share data properly, i decided on a "little" NAS (Network Attached Storage). Little, is in fact 750GB mirrored. Ok it is huge but it rocks!

It has a nice design, a great management interface (Web) and is absolutely loaded!

Here the technical facts:

Application:

One or two 3.5" SATA-I or SATA-II Hard Drives (1.5Gb/s)
20GB -1TB per HDD (maximum of 2TB in total)
RAID (EXT2, EXT3), non RAID (FAT32, EXT2, EXT3)
For RAID 0 & 1, two hard drives of identical capacity and make are required

Interface /Ports:

10/100/1000Mbps Base-TX Auto MDI/MDI-X, 1 port (RJ-45)
USB 2.0 High Speed (USB1.1), 2 upstream ports (Type A)

Web Based Configuration:

System:
User & Group Management, FTP & SMB Server, Printer Server, Share Management, System Time (NTP with real time clock), Disk Usage
Network Services
DHCP Server, UPnP, Bonjour, BitTorrent Client
System Tools:
Disk Utility, RAID Management, System & Network Log, Firmware Upgrade, Configuration Management

NET FINDINGS: Bill's last day

2008-01-08T15:16:00.000-05:00

Le dernier jour de Bill Gates (Bill Gates last day)
Uploaded by Nellio

XMAS & Happy new year

2007-12-28T10:56:00.000-05:00

Since Kat had some issues with the accounting department about the last rental car cost, is this the one we rented for our Germany xmas break.

85 HP 160hm/h - 100mi/h and drives like a go cart.

So we almost completed our food to do list. Met the most part of our families and friends. (Sorry for those we didn't make it, but in 5 - 6 month we are back anyway)

We both had meetings the first week for job applications and business stuff. Which where interesting and annoying or frustrating.

Christmas was great, we spend some quality time with the family. Had some appointments with different banks for future projects.

So far we wish all of you a happy new year and look forward to see you guys next year.

Welcome to the Orange Box

2007-12-15T10:24:00.000-05:00

That is what i call Detroit Airport at the moment. The Department of Homeland Security has raised the Terror level to Ernie (Orange).

And we had probably 20 Arabs and Saudis on board. Don't get me wrong those people are nice and every race has it nuts. My German heritage is not clean ether, but for the American officials it has some kind of funny taste when people from Arabic countries board a plane.

So we had a security check in Kalamazoo, then when we boarded the plane in Detroit, we had another one. For Kat and me it wasn't a real problem, when the homeland officer saw our E-Visa he waved us through, but all Arabic looking people with American Passports and Cash Dollars in there pocket had some fun with the officials. They also asked for there jobs what made absolutely no sense to me.

In the end we arrived in Germany on time but the flight was just nuts, too. Many little kids screaming 7 hours straight. Hey thats the way they are.

Spy Satalite

2007-12-13T07:54:00.000-05:00

I ordered at B&h a T-Mount adapter for my old PORST lenses. So i would be able to use them with my Minolta Digital SLR cam.
Some how B&H has to much stuff in there Warehouse and not trained enough workers so i got a correct labeled wrong part.

But i remembered that i order another adapter ring from them and i found a way to connect it to my 500mm lense.

So took a picture from our neighbors house across the street...
With my vanilla 18-70mm.

and the mother of all lenses (at least in my collection) 500mm.

Woohaa!

T Minus . . .

2007-12-07T17:07:00.000-05:00

I just realized that next week at this Time (5:10pm EST) Kat & I will be ready for take off from Detroit to good ol Germany.

Hell it's a lot to do till then!

gotta go

NET FINDINGS: But wait, there is more

2007-12-06T16:18:00.000-05:00

NET FINDINGS: Blond

2007-12-06T16:09:00.000-05:00

I don't know whats going on, but today is Net Findings day.

NET FINDINGS: Where does father christmas come from

2007-12-06T15:22:00.001-05:00

and another Net Finding

NET FINDINGS: Biene Maya

2007-12-04T16:17:00.000-05:00

An 70ies European kids show resynced with 300

There is a bigger enemy then the Iraq...

2007-12-03T00:13:00.000-05:00

...GERMS!!!!

Today I lost my believe as i saw a tv ad for an "AIR SANITIZER" to kill germs in the Air!
Ok i know for Americans, every thing has to be sterile, so you will be be able to transplant a heart on your kitchen counter!
This surgery was proudly sponsored by Clorox and Febreeze .

No wonder they need here medications that knock out a horse. There immune system lost already before the battle started. And kids should not come in contact with bacteria or germs.
How are they supposed to build up a immune system?

Oh what do i know.

Happy Birthday Hywell

2007-11-29T20:42:00.000-05:00

We wish you all the best and thx for the cheese cake today!

Tobi

2007-11-28T17:33:00.001-05:00

I had a nice little chat with Tobi today.
I didn't speak to him in a very long time.

Was great taking to you brotha.

Fall

2007-11-20T08:06:00.001-05:00

I really do love fall in Michigan, but blowing leaves sucks!
Spend, yesterday 2 hours in the mist with it.

American drivers

2007-11-13T08:07:00.001-05:00

What really ticks me off, are drivers who start get pushy in a one
lane construction side!
So I just tapped the breaks quick and hard.
Damn it was fun to see her eyes grow in panic, in my rear view mirror.

Road Trip Part Two

2007-11-11T22:22:00.000-05:00

So we finished our second road trip this year.
We started in Las Vegas, because Kat was on an exhibition. So while Kat was working i had some time on the SEMA show. On the flight to Las Vegas, i had over 30 miles visibility so i tryed a night shot on Chicago. Not perfectly sharp but turned out pretty well.

From there we drove to the Hoover Dam. But some how i missed the All Spark.
Next Stop was the Grand Canyon, but some how i didn't think its that amazing. It's just extremely big.

The Monument Valley was stunning, we just arrived a bit late (4pm) so we had a beautiful sunset but not the hole park in sun.
On the next Day we drove to Page to have a tour in the Antelope Canyons. We hoped for some light shots but sadly they only happen in April and May. But i think the Pictures turned out very well.
We stopped for the sunset on the Horseshoe Bend.

The next day i thought lets have some luck. And stop at The Wave. (a Sandstone formation where only 20 visitors are allowed per day). We didn't had luck but a guy there told us to take a dust road to Bryce Canyon. So we got shaken pretty well for 46 Miles on the Cottonwood Road.

Bryce Canyon was just great with his crazy Stone formations. Last on the list was the Zion Park, we've stayed in the Zion Mountain Resort with very nice cabins.
The Park it self was nice but i think after a rain storm the park is much nicer with all the waterfalls. So enough here some pictures.

Happy Birthday Trav and back from the Desert

2007-11-10T11:32:00.000-05:00

Congraz Trav! We wish you all the best brotha!

We arrived yesterday night from our trip to Las Vegas and the National Parks.
We've been to Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Antelope Canyons, Horseshoe Bend, Grand Staircase National Park, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park, all in all enough sand and rocks for the next view months.

Pictures will follow later.

Busy Weekend

2007-10-22T13:47:00.000-05:00

Last week i hat 45 hours on my time sheet and i didn't fill anything in for Friday because i was at home.
Kat came back from Germany on Saturday with a nice cold.
Sunday a colleague from Germany arrived as well.
So not much time for us. I think i have to stick Kat in a bed to get well.

Evil Genius

2007-10-17T10:40:00.001-05:00

Oh by the way that is what my cube looks like. ;-)

Hey, lets migrate a file server during the week ...

2007-10-16T23:45:00.000-05:00

... what can go wrong?!?

So i started this morning with a good feeling about my day. Prepare the migration of our file server in SB to a new server with more space.
so i thought to myself:

"At 5pm copy the 250+ GB to the new server and around midnight are you done."

No i'am not disillusioned, no definitely not! Just very optimistic.

As usual i forgot in my equation the undefined variable DU*.
Since 5pm i try now to copy the data from one computer to another. Usually not a big deal, just 5 little steps:

Download Microsoft File Server migration tool.
Install FSM on new server.
Create new migration Profile.
Add server and shares you want to migrate to your new server.
Hit start and wait.

So much to the theory. Now the praxis!
Since i migrated that server before with the FSM. It or I screwed up the shares. Which can't be read by the FSM anymore. I have no other alternative then back to the roots, or as Hywell would say -

back in the old days ...

- write a robocopy script. Write a vbscript to create user shares*1. Write a vbscript to set permissions*1.

And so far the theory, again.

Then you trip over small issues which make your DU a mess. Here a view things which can make you a instant killer!

Path structures with more the 255 characters (because folder names can't be shortened)
Files like: "Copy of Copy of Copy of Copy of Copy of XYZ.jpg"
XYZ.PST sizy 700MB, XYZ.BAK size 700MB, XYZ1.BAK size 700MB.

So here i'am 11:45pm another 50GB to go an no shares setup yet.

Nope i don't have a private life ... I have to wait till all security copy's of files are copied and then i don't have any time left.

------3:18AM ------- Update

All done. Habe fertig!!!
Elvis has left the building, I repeat Elvis has left the building!

* DU = Damned User or Doomed Undertaking.
*1 Staubi you are THE MAN, big thanks!

Cedars Point

2007-10-08T09:32:00.001-05:00

Millennium Force, originally uploaded by bellzatk.

Kat, Jochen and i went over to Cedars Point on the weekend. The coasters in that park are so cool! i think i won't ride a coaster in Germany anymore.

This Picture, i found on flickr.com. Funny part is the guy who took it, is from Kalamazoo, MI. I think its brave to unpack your camera at 310ft / 94m.

The rides there are cool but the wait time kills you. We waited for Millennium Force (picture) 1 hour 15 minutes and we got lucky because they had a problem so many people bailed out of the line. They fixed the coaster in 20 minutes so we saved around 30 minutes wait time.
We thought we go in off season where the park has only open on the weekends. Hywell just told me the best time is during the week, they only waited 30 minutes on Millennium Force.

Over all it was fun.

Sputnik 50th anniversary

2007-10-04T08:17:00.001-05:00

Today fifty years ago the Sputnik satellite had its first flight.

Trixbox HDLC, PRI, TE110P and other curiosities

2007-10-03T10:18:00.000-05:00

It all started very nicely after Chris came back from our company IT meeting in Germany.

I only remember hearing his famous words:

I want that!

Since than the downfall started. I passed almost all states from astonishment to sadness and madness over frustration to just plain hate and back to delight. I never had to work on a system which triggered so many feelings in so less time.

When the system works, it is great. No worries or pain, it just plan works. Trixbox & Sipgate is the possibility for me to have German phone number in the USA.

At work on the other hand, i'am in hell.
We switch our phone system in SB from a Nortel Meridian to a Trixbox with a Digium TE110P T1 card. That is when the pain started. I setup the Trixbox 1.2.3 updated it, got a test T1 PRI line and test. It worked great after i figured out that you have to update the Zaptel drivers. So i gave 10 test users a phone and let them test.
It was a blast, everything worked great. So we decided to go live, mostly AT&T made us wait for almost 3 Month to get it done.

Then finally the D-Day came. A Friday and not the 13th. The cut over worked incredibly great, no problems, phone down for 30 minutes. After that everything was perfect.
So i went straight to the state of astonishment.

I just thought what a hell of a system.

Fast forward ... 1 week later ... call droppings started. The phone calls lasted from between 30 sec to 3 minutes.
So ok no big deal. Lets consult the spring of all wisdom: www.google.com
Since we have a Digium TE110P in our system and the error was the usual HDLC Error Abort 8 & 6, I started to do all sorts of ways to get it fixed. Disable on board network cards, hard assign IRQs, check for interrupt shearing and DMA problems. I updated Zaptel drivers searched for firmware updates and so on...

In an act of resignation i posted in the forum from Digium on a post from someone who had exact the similar problems. To my surprise answered someone else, that he had the same problem with that card and Digium would exchange it to the next model (TE120p).

So i called Digium and after explaining my frustration he wanted some configs. He send me a RMA and they exchange the card.

Lets see how that will work out.

to be continued ...

Guest

2007-10-02T12:25:00.000-05:00

unbelievable but true. we have our first visitor (non family) from Germany.

Jochen touched down yesterday at 7:40pm. He had a nice 5 hours wait in Chicago. Thanks to the well organized airport.

To bad that i don't have vacation left to spend time with him. So after work then.

But the question is ...

2007-09-30T11:58:00.001-05:00

... will it blend?

Joecartoon.com came out with the 2008 Blender Poll. Check it out.

Users are a funny breed

2007-09-28T08:19:00.001-05:00

I don't know if I'm just not patented enough or are users sometimes brain dead?

I installed in the company a trixbox on a T1 line - I will talk about
my excitation about that in a own post - so, like every new system there
occurred some little flaws. Those flaws introduced them self in call
droppings, echo's and dial plan problems.

So while the most users complained about dropped Calls there are some
users who think it is more importend to get the echo's or the dial plan
fixed.
In my oppinion I give a flying hoot about echo's and dial plan
problems as long the system drops calls.

Talk like a Pirate Day

2007-09-19T15:41:00.000-05:00

It's talk like a pirate day again. Therefore:

"Arrrrrr!"

Any given sunday

2007-09-17T09:09:00.001-05:00

Kat & me went yesterday to the Detroit Lions game with Sarah & Mario. It was a great experience in the stadium and how a game feels. After 2 hours i was able to kinda understand the rules.

You need money? You have a daughter? Then you're all set!

2007-09-10T12:48:00.000-05:00

I knew that slavery and human trafficking have been a part of the American history, but i didn't know that it is still daily business.

I tripped over a American web site on a netherland funsite.
www.marryourdaughter.com There you can propose to the girls listed on that site.

But be carefull! The Prizes are between $10.000 and $100.000 and the age of the girls is between 13 and 18 Years.

If you need a religions justification to sell your daughter just look here.

But the outrageous part of the web site, are the testimonials of parents and daughters (but prostitution is illegal).

“I was SO scared getting married so young, but my husband is an okay guy and I am SO proud that because of me my parents were able to get their first brand-new car and take the trip they always wanted to. I couldn’t have done it without your site!"

—Katrina K., married at 14

Have fun proposing!

German food at meijer's

2007-08-31T09:57:00.000-05:00

Maijer's is the equal to the German grocery stores like Kaufland or EDEKA in the US.
Usually it is a good store with good priced food. If you can over look that the fruits are GEN manipulated and the vegetables are drowned every 15 minutes.

In the last 2 years even the international food stock grew. What was only Nutella in the beginning is now full grown international aisles, filled with goods from French Perrier water to Polish food up to Spree Wald cucumbers.

But in the Freezer aisle i got struck as i spotted a "German" dish.
Spätzle with green beans bacon and garlic. With Savory Bavarian Sauce.

Alrightiy then!!!

Net findings: Reggie

2007-08-30T12:48:00.000-05:00

That's a line i would give the boyfriend of my daughter if i had one. Just for fun.

Fear of the dark

2007-08-26T21:03:00.000-05:00

After 75 hours we have finally power again. On Thursday evening the power went out.
Power Outages are common here, at least onces a week. The Power grid in the US is not as over engineered as in Germany, actually they service their network under power, because no one wants to take lines out of service.
It is funny how dependent we are on power. Except Travis - he just needs internet ;-).

The first 20 hours are no big deal. All your devices like MP3 player and notebook can cover that by efficient use. Your cell phone will cover too. Ok cooking gets hard with an electric stove.

After 30 hours even the cell phone started to give up, i don't mention the notebook or iPOD.
You go out for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even for coffee.

After 40 hours you just want to beat up every power company worker, it doesn't really matter to you if it his fault, or if he could fix it.

After 60 hours you just want to shoot at the neighbors power generator.

After 70 hours you just live with it. You rescue a hole chicken out of your freezer and fire up the grill. ( Back to the roots, the only difference is we have real clothes and hot running water in the cave because the water heater works with gas)

And after 75 hours you are surprised when the lights go on and switch them of because its bed time.

I used the chance to make some long exposure night shots in our street.

Virus detected ... Scan initated ... please wait

2007-08-21T16:19:00.000-05:00

My once a year flu coughed up with me today. So ill work from home for the next view days.

Chicago Air Show

2007-08-20T15:33:00.000-05:00

Kat, Uwe and i where on the Chicago Air show. It was actually my first air show ever. My parents where planing to go with me to one in Ramstein Germany when i was little. The lucky thing for us was that they didn't get out of bed that day.

I have to say its pretty amazing to see the Planes so up close. We did see a F22 Raptor, F18, B52, B2, F16 and some non military planes. And that all above the North Beach in Chicago.

Here some Pictures.

A "Blood" Diamond lasts forever

2007-08-17T09:11:00.000-05:00

Kat and i where watching History Channel this week, a documentation about the origin of blood / conflict diamonds.
I knew before that those diamonds where used to finance some revolutions, and civil wars. But i wouldn't have dreamed about how bloody that conflicts where.

The documentation was about Sierra Leone and the kind of Blood bathes the RUF produced in that country. And how big companies like deBeers helped to finance that bloodshed just to keep the diamond market prizes stable.

When Kat and i had our first anniversary i went on a journey throw the mall here in Portage. I think i was in 10 jewelery stores and in all the stores the same question. I think they went all to the same training paid by deBeers.
Here the questions:

What is the occasion?

(Danger, Danger, Danger) When you say 1st anniversary then they guide you directly to the diamonds.
Because the average American woman expects a Diamond for the first anniversary and on the wedding ring. When you propose to a average American woman you better show up with a diamond ring and as more carat as more you love her. If you can't afford it, you better get a loan.

When we came over here 90% of the woman in the company wanted to see Kats wedding ring. (it is a white gold ring very classic) At the moment they saw the ring they where disappointed. because its not the American way.

An now you still wonder why 65% of the diamonds on the market are conflict diamonds, do you really?

I'm looking forward to our anniversary just to ask the 20 year old lady in the jewelry store how many people had to die for that diamond.

Net findings : Joe Cartoon

2007-08-13T10:21:00.002-05:00

I rediscoverd joe cartoon.

here a little taste of it:

omish joe and froggy funwheel

Quote:

why don't you run out to seven eleven and get me a half gallon of kiss my ass

V - Dub in da house !

2007-08-01T16:07:00.000-05:00

Kat and I picked up our new V-Dub today.
Passat 2007 Station Wagon in silver 2.0 Turbo 200hp.

wrumm, wrummm ....

Net findings : Lifted

2007-07-21T20:02:00.000-05:00

One of the best Pixar short films ever!!!!

Lifted
Uploaded by TiSmAnia

Another Day in lovely paradise

2007-07-19T17:57:00.001-05:00

All started with a call from the company at 7:30h. Somehow they had 3
power outages tonight. Yes you read right 3.
I won't say we have non in Germany, but not as often as here.

Actually it is ridiculous how often it happens here. You had a crappy
day at work, you come home and all your digital clocks at home, welcome
you with a nice and steady 12:00 blinking. Its nice when you have
someone at home waiting for you, and when it is only to push some
buttons.

Anyway, 3 computer took a dump, so it was time for some CPR and as Tom
would say:

some Frankenstein action.

Then I took on my personal enemy of state "AT&T".
Actually that's not funny anymore!
It took them almost 8 weeks to get me a requested information. Today I
finally got the info and it turned out to be wrong.

The high light of the day so far was, riding with the electric hand
lift. I had to prepare the pallets for the IT trash, which gets picked
up next week.

On the way home, to round up my day, a prude mum tryed to shoot me
down with her mini van.

To say it the American way:

"Stop talkn to ya mother f*cking. daughter, and open ya f*cking eyes, before ya
change lanes bitch!"

And a turn light would be great as well.

Net findings : GetStringFromObj()

2007-07-13T10:06:00.000-05:00

I found one of my favorite pictures in the net again. I thought i share.

Kamasutra: In the Past and Today

2007-07-13T08:42:00.000-05:00

Past:

Today:

Gore & bloodshed are good! Boobies & nudity are joining the axis of evil!

2007-07-12T07:54:00.001-05:00

I think this would be funny, if it wouldn't be so sad! Or it is just a
crazy thought of a "pervert" German.

Kat brought from Germany the calender for the Asian campaign, which was
successful there and in Europe!
She brought two of them, one for Chris and one for me. So Chris and
went to HR to ask for permission to hang it up in the company!
And who guessed, we where not allowed, because of sexual harassment!

Now everybody thinks - ah it was a nude photo calender! - ah, no!
On the calender are typically Asian, manga's (comics) in (ok) more or
less erotic position and the focus is on the female parts.

But everything was covered, no nudity in the hole calender. Some wear a to small bikini, but no thongs, nipples or more private parts.

Yeah, everybody knows that Americans are prude, on the outside and
kinky on the inside!

One of there biggest industries beside automotive and weapons, is porn!
Which "NOBODY" watches in the US. There is a strip club in every mid sized town. We in KZOO have 2 of them. Most of the Americans have heared of Amsterdam and wants to go there because they think its Sodom and Gomorrah!

On the other hand you have splatter and horror movies in TV at noon and the only cut in the movie is, if there is a bare breasted girl running for here life.

Here also opens a new horror movie in the cinema every two weeks.

But don't dare going topless on the beach!

The kids around you could get a psychic issues. I tell you what those endangered little kids
think when the see bare boobs:

"yummy, breakfast"

With Travis's words:

done bitch'n

Oil Imperium

2007-07-10T07:10:00.000-05:00

My favorite topic AGAIN.
As i was driving to work yesterday, the prize for the unleaded gas at the Speedway gas station was at $2.98. On my way home it was $3.25!!!

Did i miss something today at work??? Did a refinery burst in flames today, or did some Eskimos in collaboration with Greenpeace destroy some pipelines? Hmm, no it must be a drunk Tanker Capitan who set his ship on ground.

Today after lunch it's now $3.39 so some thing bad must be gonna happened!
My A**!!!

Underwater Rugby

2007-07-09T17:28:00.000-05:00

Chris (my best buddy Staubi not my boss) send me this week his schedule for the Underwater Rugby World Cup.

He worked some numbers of years to be able to join the German National team and this year he made it and is going to the WC.

So we will keep our fingers crossed that they have a great success.

For all of you who have no clue what Underwater Rugby is, here a small video:

For all of you who think only some crazy vikings play such a game, here the link to the Underwater Society of America!

Connection Loss

2007-07-05T13:09:00.000-05:00

My web space provider moved my domain to a new server. So i have to face some FTP problems.
They moved from a Linux to Windows Server and the Firewall is a bit picky about the FTP protocol.

So now i can't blog from Blogger to my own web space. Let's see if i can figure it out on the weekend.

Damn i need a smoke...

2007-07-01T15:28:00.000-05:00

... today a year ago i smoked my last cigarette.

STFU Awards of the week

2007-06-29T17:00:00.000-05:00

This week: How to use a memory card reader!

Ok here we go, i was minding my work this week as a user called my cell. Thanks to caller id i knew right away who it was. So i didn't pick up to give him some time to figure it out by himself.

- Don't get me wrong, i'am not mean, i just know my users and some are just calling because it's easier then useing your own brain. That is probably the reason why we have a email and not a phone hotline.-

Anyway he could not reach me so he paged me over the intercom, which is only for emergency purposes.
To spare him a butt kicking for that i called him back.

He was so frustrated about a card reader that would not work on his laptop, but worked before and when he plugged it into one of the servers it would be recognized but the card would not work, mouse stopped working, damn Windows XP, blah, blah, blah.

So i took a walk threw the hole plant to his office. Ok first thing ... reboot. Brought the mouse back to life. Second plug in the card reader again. Nothing.
Then i tryed the card reader on my notebook. Nothing.
So i looked at the card reader and what did my eye see? a bend pin.
So i opened it and what i saw produced a sudden urge to choke some one.

Here is what i saw:

The card reader was a CF Card reader. What means the, the way you can plug in the card is keyed. So you can't plug the card in the wrong way.

But to quote Hywell:

"retared is stronger then keyed"

He not just plugged the card in the wrong way, he forced it - i think with a hammer - into it that hard that he pushed a pin all the way out of the holder. The pin broke of by the way, so i ended upbuying a new one.

Hey look what the cat draged in!

2007-06-23T17:05:00.001-05:00

I just finished my social study at marcy's in Chicago.
Its fantastic what unique people are around there. From style victims
to style senseless, from hetero to diva gay, from well chosen to
stuffed sausage.
Just plain fun to watch. The best place is right at the escalators,
there you have a kind of surprise effect, its also a good place to
train your poker face.
But the very best place to be is the fitting room. You can see there a
lot of well chosen fashion and occasionally you just think please don't
wear those! I guess that's the way of life. Without those people I
might not know what to write about. Kidding!
So Kat and me had a fun time on the magnificent mile.

Prost

2007-06-18T10:16:00.000-05:00

Kat was baking a cake on Sunday as we realized that we have not enough sugar.

So i went of to the sunny mart to get a pack. The pack costs $2.75 and i had no cash with me. So i thought take a six pack of Corona so it would be worth to use the credit card.

The salesclerk just smiled at me and told me he wouldn't be able to sell me the beer. So i thought what is so hard with selling beer, type the price in the register, swipe my card and i'am good to go. But hey that would be too easy.

He explained to me, that it was not a lack of knowledge from his side, more a law issue in Michigan where it is not allowed to sell alcohol on Sunday's before high noon.

Too bad that it was just 11:15 am. 45 min later i would be good to go. So i bought the beer 6 Hours later just to make sure i won't get trouble with the law again.