xray_beachy

 I know, I promised Seals picture, and I took me only two weeks to publish them ;-) 
Work was really frustrating the last few weeks, although maybe we are up to something, but we still have to see. 

And why are the 4 day passes for comic con already sold out. It is end of March, that is like 4 months in advance: 
This really sucks. i was hoping to buy my passes for next month. Now I am not sure if I should wait and see if I  can get some at craigslist,
or just buy 2 one day passes for Thursday and Friday. Well, I thought maybe to skip it whole this year, but on the other hand, there is so much cool stuff and so cool panels that it is general worth it. We will see. 


But now to something more positiv: 
Seals: 
Here are some promised pictures from the childrens pool in San Diego, a few weeks back. It is puppy season right now, and there are many young and cute seals out there: 
For more information check out the homepage: www.savesandiegoseals.com

Yesterday I finally found a new roommate. 
Unfortunately only for 3 months, but that is fine with me, at least I get someone partially in there and parts of the rent is covered.
It was much harder than I expected. Well, one limitation was, that I was only looking for someone until beginning of August. Then my parents are coming and I need the second room for them. And most people where just looking for long term rooms. 

What I really hated were people, who contacted me, I wrote them back, and never heard anything again. At least say that you are no more interested. 

So, my new roommate is a 25 year old Korean guy who goes to language school in Old Town, only a 20 minutes walking away. 
I met him yesterday and he seems really nice, although his english is still a little bit broken. Let's hope he will improve it over the time. 
I already said that he should read more books and watch more english movies and TV-shows. 

He stays until mid of June and I will be gone for most of June anyway. If I am super lucky I can find somebody for 1 Month in July, but I don't really count on it. But on the other hand I really enjoy time in my own apartment. :-) 

Well, let's see how it will work out. He is moving in next friday. I will keep you posted. 

And please, comment if you read it. You can write comments even if you are not a member of livejournal.
At least I know then that more people than only  pax are reading it. 

I am looking for a roommate right now, after the woman who wanted to move in, changed her mind 3 weeks ago. (no bad feelings there, because she said it early enough).

Anyway, a few days ago I received this e-mail:
Hi,
How are you today??I saw your ad on craigslist.com that you have a room available for rent.I will want you to confirm the availability and utilities,i will really appreciate to know more about you, the neighborhood and utilities as I'll need to have a place as soon as possible.

I am a pediatric nurse and a single lady of 27,Australian by birth..I'm 5"7' straight.I swim for fun and sometimes play tennis.I will let you know more about me in my next mail,i will also want to know more about you too.

Let me know if you have anything available for mid March move in....

Kind Regards,
Lucia Jenna.
(+61) 321-779-3945

So, as I always do, I googled the name, and tried to find something on the person. Well, name didn't popped up, but I figured, that's possible, why not. So I contacted "her" to get more details and gave her details about the apartment.

The next day, I got this e-mail:

Thanks so much for the mail,i really do appreciate the introductory email.

More about me..I have been a humanitarian officer that involved in projects that includes orphans,orphanages and heart related diseases in children between the ages of 4-10yrs for the past 8 months.I have now decided to leave here and come over there to invest and pursue my initial discipline which is being a pediatric nurse.I have thought of it and i understand that moving to a more civilized area will help...

Reference...I worked under my uncle for eight months and he is still running the non governmental organization,which involves in projects that includes orphans,orphanages and heart related diseases...And before that i schooled in United Kingdom before moving down to Australia after the death of my dad....I live in Australia presently.

Am 27 years old female Australian from Queensland.I don't drink nor smoke but i'm cool living with people that do,i have no pets and also don't have a boyfriend presently.I like honest,responsible,trustworthy and hardworking people while I dislike lazy,messy,uncaring people and I love pets so much,i am quiet,clean,straight forward and easy going person to live with. I always love to go on date but seldom party.

I'll be happy if you can rent out the place to me as i'd love to get a place before my arrival and i must confess that i am comfortable with the price and I will like to secure the place down before my arrival so i will want you tell me everything about the place and send me some pictures as well.

I also will want you to know that i have my car that i will be coming over with,and little of my furniture too,please let me know if there will be room for them..

Moreover,Let me also know how i can go about securing the place down before my arrival as i will also be busy from next week preparing to come over as i plan to arrive by the 18th of March.I will also attach my picture in the next email.

Feel free to ask me any more question via email cos my phone is bad for now but you can leave a message via voicemail on (+61) 321-779-3945.

Thanks..
Lucia.

This made me a little bit suspicious. The way it was written sounds really strange. And the thing with the car sounded more than strange. Well, I still answered "her". To get some more information. But then I had the idea, lets google the phone number and see what pops up.
And, low and behold, see here. 
These posted e-mails look really familiar. I am really pissed about the whole thing. 
Apparently, these people would send you a money order which is fake. And over an way to much amount. 
They would then ask you to send the to high amount back via wire transfer. The bank would need a few days/weeks to find out that the original money order was not real, and I would have gotten in trouble. 

The reason why I am so pissed is. If people are stupid enough to thing, that some random guy in Nigeria left you 15000000$, that's one thing. 
( I feel bad for these people but in general I call this Internet Darwinism). But if they now start to scam poor students, who are in desperate need for a roommate. This is just mean. I just would wish that these people could get somehow catched and prosecuted.

Well, I am glad that I got lucky enough not to fall for it. And that I did not release any personal information.

This time with a new userpic. 

A few weeks ago, I started to work on my other laptop a few weeks ago. I had some problems with the power support, 
so that the battery got not charged at all. 

So I decided to buy a new power jack for a few bucks on ebay and install it myself. 
Which means taking the whole laptop, and I mean really the whole thing, apart. 

I had the laptop earlier apart, but in this case I had to advance to the next step. 
Taking out all electronic parts, including the  Motherboard


(Laptop Motherboard, the yellow top square is the replaced power jack)

 

All the parts of my laptop taken appart



Me, tinkering on my laptop. 



Almost back together again. 

The surprising part was, no screws were left over. And only one small rubber part, I have no clue were it belonged :-). 

So, today, after a few days, I finally connected it to the power to see if it really worked again. At the beginning I had to reset 
the time in the BIOS because I had to disconnect the tiny batterie. But after a nice reset it actually really started up again. 

Now I just should get a proper OS on it :-). But I will probably stick with XP, just because I am to lazy

First the technical stuff:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me!"

2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.

3. You will post the answers to the questions (and the questions themselves) on your blog or journal.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. And thus the endless cycle of the meme goes on and on and on and on...

 

 

I love the questions pax gave me for this interview. 

 

1. You are given the possibility to spend a year travelling, a month in 12 different countries. Which ones would you choose and why?

 

I love to travel, and I would do it much more if I could afford it. So here are the top 12 countries.

 

1.1 Japan: Definitely my top location to spend some time. I love the culture, love the language (just wished I would have studied more), love the food, love the diversity. So yes definitely one location to go to.

 

1.2 Australia: Although almost every animal in Australia is on the top ten list of deadliest creature in their category, it is an amazing country.

 

1.3 Iceland: I am not sure if a whole month is necessary for Iceland. And it is definitely something for the summer, when there is 24 hours light. So maybe 2 weeks (taking the 24 hours into account) :-)

 

1.4 India: Although India is such a diverse country. The culture, the food ( I know I repeat myself, but still, the food is a really important factor). Everytime I see a move about India, I wished to go there for a vacation.

 

1.5 China: Gorgeous Landscapes, amazing eastern culture. One of the oldest known cultures, so there is plenty to see and learn.

 

1.6 Brazil: Probably best time to go is Carnival, but also a Trip to the Amazonas jungle is definitely worth it.

 

1.7 Arabic Emirates: I once spent 2 weeks in Dubai, and it was a fascinating city. Having the opportunity to see how the city changed would be awesome.

 

1.8 Some of the small nations in the south pacific: I think that is just a really nice and relaxing place to be and spent a month

 

1.9 Spain/Portugal: Never spent some time in Spain or Portugal, I know so many people there that I really would like to visit them and spent some time there.

 

1.10 Scotland/Wales/Ireland: I don't think they are big enough to spent 1 month individual in one of them, but 6 weeks altogether (taking 2 weeks from the iceland trip :-) ).

 

1.11 Africa: I know, it's a continent and not a country. But I would really love to spent some time in the Savannah south of the equator. Be it in Kenya, Congo or Namibia.

 

1.12 Antarctica or Greenland, preferable Antarctica. Although it is mostly just ice, I think this would be a real nice adventure.

 

And as a bonus: One great adventure I would really love to do, but probably will never have the time, money or health for it. A survival training either in the canadian wilderness, or

on an exotic island in the south pacific or in the Caribbean a la Robinson Crusoe.

 

Well, that's it for my top 12 locations to go.

 

2. Is there a book that has changed your life in some way - which and how?

 

This is a tough one. Normally I am not easily influenced by books. Because I know that they are normally not based on real stories. But sometimes I just think about what would happen if I took some inspiration from one of the characters. As an example, the "Sword of Truth" Series by Terry Goodkind. I really loved how the main character, Richard, just did whatever he seemed to be right. Even if his friends and family often disagreed (well in the end he was mostly right). And sometimes I just wished I could be a little bit like some characters tumbling into an amazing adventure. But then, knowing my conservatism, I would just walk away and live my life on. I am not a really big risk taker in such things.

 

3. Are there some little things different between Germany and the USA, the ones that people usually do not think about, that you have noticed since living in SD?

 

One thing I noticed is, that people are much more open in the US than in Germany. It happens sometimes that people just start to talk to you without knowing you much, be it about football (and I mean american football), or just something what happens on the trolley. I did never encountered something like that in Germany, but maybe this is something specific from south germany, compared to the north.

 

4. If not physics (and all the related subjects), what would you have studied and why?

 

I am not sure if I would have studied at all. Recently I discovered my love for cooking, and maybe I would have gone to culinary school and become a great chef. But then if you have to do it every day, maybe it will loose the charm. 
 

Another option would have been Archeology, I really like to old Greeks and the Egyptians, so this would have been definitely another option, although you have to learn so many languages for that and I am not sure if I would have been up to that.

 

5. Is there something you would never ever eat - what is it and why?

 

Well, there is lot of food I would really like to try, but then it is either really difficult to get the hands on, or it is just to expensive, e.g. Blowfish, where, when wrong prepared you could die from. But I think, what I wouldn't want to try is living food. i don't know. I just can't imagine to eat something which still wiggles in your mouth. But otherwise I would try at least everything at least once. One other factor is probably also the smell, if something smells way to bed, it is possible that I wouldn't eat it.

 

And I think I need a few more icons to bring out my mood more :-) 

As most of you already know, I had problems with my knee since a while.

It all happens 2 years ago, when I broke my leg during a stupid accident. I twisted my knee, and had a clear break in my lower Fibula bone. The recovering was tedious, because I was not allowed to put any weight on my leg for 6 weeks. Well ,it seemed like during this accident I not only broke my leg, but I apparently also teared my ACL (Kreuzband for the germans).

After recovering of the break, I still had some issues with my knee, it was still swollen, and sometimes hurt, especially after exercise. So, I got an MRI appointment to get it checked out.
First problem was, the original hospital had a weight restriction I was slightly above it.

So it dragged the whole problem along, until we found a hospital with a higher weight restriction. The results from the MRI were the torn ACL, but also a loss of cartilage at the bone.

So finally I got scheduled for an operation on my knee last tuesday.

Tuesday morning I went at 5 am to the hospital, to get prepared for the operation. Everything went like a charm, operation started around 7 am, and I went to sleep like a baby. The next thing I know they were dressing my leg and told me that everything went fine. Then I woke up in the recovery room around 11 am and had plenty of time to get the anastasia out of my system. It was kind of a miscommunication between my roommate and me about the pick up. But I was not that angry about it, because it gave me enough time to really get the medication out of my system. But they said that I am not supposed to put any weight on my leg for the next 6 weeks (again).

The really surprising part was that I almost had no pain. I had a pain pump, which provided me with a small dose of medication every few minutes. So there was really no pain at all. I got some pain killers prescribed, but almost hasn't used any yet.
On Wednesday I had the first follow up appointment with my doctor and he said that everything went really good. They repaired my meniscus, witch was also injured. They replaced my torn ACL with one from a "donor" (actually from a dead person) and they cleaned out the cartilage and drilled holes into the bone to get scar tissue to grow. Apparently I also had an inflammation which they got rid of. I have pictures, so if you want to see some, let me know, I will find a way to scan them in.

Yesterday, on Thursday, I pulled out the pain pump by myself. It is actually intended that you pull it out by yourself. And the worst pain throughout the whole thing was the time, when the tape got stucked to my body hair and I had to rip it off. But now, that it is over I feel much more released.

Next week I have my first appointment with the rehabilitation people, and then we will see how my workout will be. I will still stay at home next week, and hope to come back first week in February. But at least I can catch up with some Movies, TV shows and papers.

I know it is a few ways back since I came back from New York but there was just so much to catch up in the last few evenings, and the motivation was just not there to post. But here is description of the days I spent in NY.
So, this is rather a lengthly entry, but a specific friend wanted a detailed description :-).

I described already the flight and all the perks in having an upgrade. So I don't want to brag more about it.

First think, pictures, I tried to upload them to flickr, but it did not really work properly. Half of the pictures were not correctly uploaded, and when I tried to upload them again, I hit the upload limit. I got pretty pissed on flickr and now I want to find another possibility, so I will edit a link as soon as I find a solution.

First day: Philadelphia:
Philadelphia is a really cute city with a lot of great history. First capitol of the US, the town were the declaration of independence was discussed and signed. And all the historical buildings are still there and are open to public. Well, coming from Europe, the stuff americans call historic can be found in every center of a medium sized village or town in Germany. But still, it is a place where important history was made. And all the tours were for free. And of course, once in Philadelphia, one has to try a Philly Cheesestake sandwich. Delicious. The best is one from a street vendor, prepared to order and eaten on the streets. So in all it was a really great day.

Second day: Our Third party member from Germany arrived, and on the way back from the airport we actually stopped by at an Aldi grocery store. It really looked like a typical german store. Only the groceries were more adjusted for the american market.

Third day: First day to Manhattan. The train from Jersey arrived right at Madison Square garden in the middle of the city, and the first steps out of the train station was already impressive. All these people, all these Skyscrapers. Of course we outed ourself as tourist, when we stand there with our heads back and just took the impressions in. First trip went to Ground Zero, where we met some friends from Germany who we spent most of the day. Ground Zero is a big construction site, and actually there is nothing really to see, no memorial, or museum, or anything. Then we went to Trinity Church at the corner Wall Str. and Broadway. Unfortunately there was no possibility to visit the church from inside, but it was a strange view, seeing this old church surrounded by big buildings. Then we took the free ferry from Manhattan to Staten Island passing by the Statue of Liberty and with a nice view of the Manhattan Skyline. After returning to Manhattan we had a nice dinner in China Town, and strolled through Little Italy back to our train.

Fourth day: This can be summarized as the Tourist Nap day. We met again our friends, and then went to go up to the empire state building. It was a really gorgeous day. Blue sky, no clouds. And of course there were plenty of other people with the same idea. The line was winding around the block at the empire state, and after one hour we finally got into the building. Only to stand for 2 more hours in line. After 3 hours waiting, we managed to get into the elevator which went up to the 80th floor. And there was another line for another 30 minutes waiting. I assume, something went wrong with the elevators, because they opened up the stairs to climb up the last 6 floors. So at least I can say, I WALKED UP THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING :-). The view from up there was really awesome and breathtaking. But I don't think that the total time of 4 hours was really worth the effort. After the empire state we briefly went to the Central Park for a Coffee, and went to the Time Square for an overprized dinner. Totally exhausted we then went back home.

Fifth day: This day was planned for the UN, which was an interesting experience. The building in general was rather old and is a little bit run down, not as fancy as you would expect from such an organization. The tour was OK and the highlight was definitely the chamber of the General Assembly. After that we went to a mall shopping and met some friends for indian dinner.

Sixth day: New Years eve: After a brunch at Dennys, we went to Manhattan for a bar tour through East Village. Some locals and people I know told me not to go to Time Square. You had to be there like 6 to 7 hours earlier, and this evening it was especially cold ( -5 Celsius with a really icy wind from the south). Even pub crawling was kind of an challenge. Every time we went out on the street, after 1 block we had to go into the next best bar because it was so cold outside. But right at Midnight we had a really nice one to spent new years. We came back around 5 am in the morning, so of course the next day was spent totally with recovery and lazyness.

8th and 9th day: These days were totally in the sign of culture. 8th day: Central Park and few hours at the Museum of Modern Art. MoMA was really fascinating, especially the paintings. There is a free audio tour available, talking about the different artists. The other day was the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met), The Met was also really great, an awesome exhibition from all different fields. I really enjoyed the exhibition about the ancient egypt, and also the Eastern cultures. Magnificent drawings and art. But way to much for a single day.

10th day: Return to the warm San Diego. Again one upgrade for the shorter lag between New York and Atlanta, and a coach sit from Atlanta to San Diego. And I have to admit, flying coach after the taste of first class is much more difficult. Suddenly the seats are so small, and the service is so much worse.

And now, coming back to San Diego, with the new year and new challenges, it is back to work on the bad bad thesis and on the bad bad Crab paper.

So, flight was really nice. I can get used to first/business class.
You get your first drink even before you start.
(I had one cocktail to my dinner, so yes, it was mostly Orange juice).
Then they call you by name and ask you what you want for breakfast, I had a pretty good
omelet. And the inseat entertainment had all movies free :-). (I watched 1 1/2 movies, before I had to leave the airplane).

second lag was also nice, there was a greek salad for dinner, and I tried a Manhatten (the cocktail, i thought this is only appropriate) which was brought and shaken right next to the seat. Unfortunately no inseat entertainment, so I couldn't finish my movie, but I will live.

But last night I didn't sleep that well. It looks like the air mattress I brought with me is loosing air, so I am sleeping on the couch which is slightly to small for me.
But I will live. Tomorrow we have to go and buy a new one. After going to Philadelphia for sightseeing.

I just received the e-mail from Delta that i will have an upgrade on both flights to New York on Wednesday.
Finally the Silver Medallion Status paid of. I am so excited. It's the first time I got upgraded. And now on both lags.
I hope everything will be fine.

On another note. I finally got my appointment for my knee surgery. From Jan 20th on I will be again on crouches.
But hopefully this will get rid of the pain I have in my knee. In the last few weeks the pain got worse and worse. I still don't need painkillers or so, but I don't think that's a good sign either.

So, next post definitely from New York (or to be more precise, New Jersey :-) )

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New year to everybody

Thanksgiving came and past.
Stomaches were filled. And wine was consumed. I am very thankful of a special delivery of Mezzo Mix from Germany. It was delicious.
As promised, here are some pictures of my Turkey and from our Table:

The turkey:

I know, the skin looked kind of peeled. I cooked it for 3 hours, and then turned it around to get it crispy on the other side. Unfortunately some of the skin got stucked to the baking form. But it was still very delicious.


And the whole table:



And the aftermath:


It took me a whole day to do all the dishes. (Of course with breaks for shopping :-) )

And talking about shopping. Black Friday was good for me.
Have a new small external harddrive (320 GB). After my old backup harddrive died 2 weeks ago or at least it does not react anymore i really needed a new one. And the new one is a small one, so I don't need a special power plug.

Many, many news since my last entry. (I know i have been a bad boy).

One of the most important one was: I finally passed my RPC talk.
(RPC = Research Progress Comittee). It is one of the many hoops you
have to jump through on the steep road to PhD. I was really nervous for the talk, especially it
god shredded to pieces by my boss and another friend, 3 weeks earlier. I was really close
to give up everything again. But I think this feelings are coming up every few weeks.
Anyway, the Exam was an A. (with an Excellent in the comments).
So, now I am super happy, but exhausted.

The other big thing: I have a new car. Well still a used car. But 5 years newer then my old one.
But, it is a convertible. Which means, I am ready for the summer. Also was a pretty good deal.
And I was lucky selling my old car.

And finally, turkey day. I am doing again my own turkey. This time I put it in a brine (kind of a marinade) over night. So I am really excited how it will come out. Camera is ready for taking pictures.

So, next post in the next few days with turkey pictures.

This week was really long, at I still have the feeling I haven't accomplished anything.
The whole week my boss came and asked me to work on plots for him. And everything i showed him
an update he came up with new ideas. Well, I guess this is his job, but still, it was just a long week, and I am still not really finished. (which means, it will be also a long weekend :-) )

But at least I finished the 4th Book in the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer (I just love Irish names). I saw him first time at comic con, and he is really great. AND, freshly edited: I just saw on his homepage that he was asked to write part 6 of the "Hitchhikers Guide Through The Galaxy". This is really cool.

Also, I found a link on you tube for Dr. Horrible's Sing along Blog. Unfortunately, if you are not in the US, this is the only way to my knowledge to see it for free: Dr. Horrible's . It is a little bit trashy, but if you have 45 minutes, then it is definitely worth it.

So, I finally managed to upload my MRI pictures.
Although one can not see really a lot on them because they are kind of grainy. (It is a stupid windows software and to my knowledge there is no really easy way to make screenshots in windows). Although it is somehow cool, skipping through the pictures and looking at your own bones in different depths. And somehow I don't fully understand how to read these things. I mean, I can distinguish between bones and muscles, but I couldn't figure out where the torn acl is. Anyway, here are 2 screenshots I pulled from the set I have

This picture shows the front view of my knee. You see the upper and lower leg bones. I assume the white spot on the right side of the upper bone is my grinded down area. That's where they will drill small holes in and where the scar tissue will make a new layer of cartilage, hopefully improving my leg:




This is a sideview of the my knee. On the left side, the oblate thing should be my knee cap. The numbers where already in the file and show a displacement between the bones.



Well, let's hope that i will have significant improvement after the operation. And as for the ACL, the doc said, that I have to get an ACL from a donor, meaning from a dead person. Normally they take some muscle from your ham string, but because I am so big, the don't want to take so much muscle, and so I am getting parts from someone else. How cool is that.

And on other notice, I got weak and ordered DirecTV (meaning, Satelite TV). So this morning I spent 4 hours waiting for the guy, and he still didn't show up. What a great start. Now I have to call the company and have to see what's going on.

So, another trip to the Zoo today, and this time we were lucky to see the tiger cubs. And a few really nice pictures from the pandas. Unfortunately my camera battery died halfway through. My neighbors took a few more pictures, I will post the next time.

And now on some other notice. I talked with my Doctor last week, and I got the results from my knee MRI from a few weeks ago. So it seems like I have a torn ACL, and some cartilage loss in the knee. So I probably will get an operation on my knee. I will talk with a surgeon in a few days and get more informed. If I get the MRI pictures, I will post them here.

But now, here are the promised pictures:

Mommy Tiger



And here is the whole happy family











And here are a few swamp monkeys looking directly in the camera





Also Daddy Panda climbing down a tree



And now the bonus pictures, ubercute:





And some polar bears, right before my camera battery died :-(

Yes,
I know, it has been a while since my last post.
I feel guilty about it, but I told you at the beginning that I am not good with it.
So lets try it again, shall we?

So, what happened in the last few weeks:
One of the biggest events was the Comic Con end of July. For all of you who don't know what the comic con is:
It is one of the biggest Convention about comics, fantasy and tv/movie shows in the US. And it is here in San Diego, meaning, no travel is involved. For 4 days, the San Diego Convention center is changed into the "Kingdom of Geek" or "Nerdvana".
Here are some pictures from a few of the really great costumes at Comic Con:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24990555@N04/
Since Comic Con I had almost weekly people visiting me, so most of the weekends were kind of full with sightseeing.
Last weekend I finally had some time for myself, and I decided to go to the San Diego Zoo.
My Plan was to take my new Camera for a trip, and hopefully get some nice pictures of the new Tiger cubs they have there. Unfortunately the cubs where not outside, but I took a few pictures of their daddy. But see for yourself:



Bonobo hitching a ride



I am not sure what these two birds are exactly, but I just thought they are really cute


Daddy Tiger, unfortunately no cubs around. Maybe next time


The 1 year old Panda Zhen Zhen (Meaning "Precious" in Chinese) resting in a tree


And on the way down of the tree


Again a cute bird posing for a photo shoot


A whole family of meerkat is taking an afternoon nap


And one poor soul is standing watch


2 Week old baby giraffe, born August, 19th 2008. Was born already 6ft 2in. (approx 1.85m) tall. (And I thought I was big at my birth)


A cool turtle at one of the ponds in the Zoo


I will try my best to bring more updates, and if I fail, just send me reminder e-mails.

So, it is a while since my last post.
Somehow I am still not really used to post weekly. It is a new concept, and most of the time I am just to lazy.

Right now I am sitting in a Coffee House on Adams Avenue and wait that the mechanic calls me and tells me
what's wrong with my car. I am kind of afraid that it will be really expensive. My engine is making strange noises for a while now, and my break leaks a little bit. And taking advantage that my boss is on vacation, I finally decided to bring it to a mechanic. So, now I am waiting that he calls me and tells me that it will cost me a fortune to fix it.

Last weekend was cool, On Saturday I went to see the new 'Incredible Hulk' in the movie theatre, and I have to admit, it was much better than expected. It is still a Hulk movie, and so the story was still kind of lame, but the special effects where much better. So, it the movie is worth the money.

On Sunday I watched of course soccer with my Neighbors at the Rock Bottom, a Brewery close to UCSD. After the game we had a Carrot Cake to mourn our loss. (Hey, every reason is good to have a RB Carrot Cake). Afterwards we went to the beach for surfing. YES, with my board, and I went into the water. (Although I did not catch a wave :-( ). But the water was great, and the whole day was really nice. I definitely should go more to the beach this summer.

The following Weekend will be 4th of July. So Friday is BBQ day. Now I can finally try some great recipes from my Food & Wine magazine I always read. The next post will be next weekend, hopefully with pictures, and maybe a few recipes.

So finally a new post. I know I am already behind my weekly schedule, and this after a little bit more than a week.
Work is just really pushing hard. To many projects at the same time, and it is kind of hard to get organized. But I am getting there, with tiny steps and small progress.

I just came from the movie theatre. I had free tickets for the preview of Mongol, a movie about the rise of Dschingis Khan. It was really interesting with beautiful nature and not that many fighting scenes. One really amazing thing, a coworker was pointing it out to me a few days ago, was the mongolian throat singing, which was shown throughout the movie. It sounds like a mixture of a didgeridoo with whistles, and all without any instruments. Here is a link to a youtube video, presented on Letterman: Tuvan or Mongolian Throat singing.

And now to something completely different:
Promised pictures from Washington. Although I lost my camera, my friend who lives there took also a few pictures on our sightseeing tour.




St. Patricks Church, in the hearth of Washington. Surprisingly no entrance in Wikipedia could be found. I think this church was established 1794, but the picture who showed it was on my camera.





The White House. It is actually much smaller than it looks on TV. Luckily we could eavesdrop on some german sightseeing tours, so we learned that there are 3 more floors underground containing all other offices.




The Washington Monument. To say it with the words of Jeff Dunham, a famous ventriloquist: "It looks nothing like the guy. It looks more like a tribute to Bill Clinton".




Lincoln Monument at the end of the Washington Mall, the Park with all the War memorials.





View from the Lincoln Memorial over the Pool of reflection to the Washington Monument, and the Capitol in the back.





One of the cute residents of the Mall. They were really posing for our cameras.


So that's it for now. I hope my next post will be more frequent

So, why can we only choose one mood because I probably need a whole bunch.
I think angry, frustrated, pissed and sad would only cover a few I had since my last post.
(Oh, and don't forget tired).

Yesterday I came back from Washington, where the temperature was 95 F (something like 30 C), with a humidity of 200% (Ok, maybe this was a little bit streched, but I have to admit, there were not many times where I was sweating more.
This was definitely the wrong time to do sightseeing

After 2 hours we had enough and headed back to Greenbelt, where we stopped by the mall and watched Kung Fu Panda. (That's where my new picture comes from).
The movie was really great, and it is a lot of fun to watch. (Especially if you liked the old Bruce Lee movies from the 80s).

So, Movie recommendation of the week: Kung Fu Panda

The only really bad thing was that after the movie my digital camera was missing.
I was pretty sure that I had it when I went into the movie. I am really pissed because I had not only the pictures from Washington on it, but also some really nice pictures from San Diego when I took of. I am not sure if somebody from the cleaning crew just took it, or if they just scooped it away. I am happy that at least my friend has some pictures I can post in the next week.

My car seems to be in better shape than it sounds at the beginning. I have only a few small scratches on my front and rear bumbers. I am getting it estimated this morning and I already talked with the guy who did it.
he sounded very reasonable.

Pictures will be posted during the week, when I have some more time out figure out how that works.

Here we go,
First time on LiveJournal.
I have to admit, I am not sure if this is really something for me. (I am normally not a big fan of these kind of sites). But a good friend convinced me, So we will see.

As you can see I am a real noob. No userpic yet, and no special them (at least I can not see anything :-) ). So please be patient with. (If you have any tips and suggestions, they are highly appreciated). I will try to make a post at least once a week, maybe more often if something interesting/unusual/strange happens.

This week I am Visiting a good friend in Greenbelt,MD who works at NASA, and we had a really productive week. But today I got the message that somebody bumped yesterday into my car back home in San Diego. Fortunately my neighbors have all the contact information of the guy. But of course I was shocked. Now I am really afraid to see my car on Sunday. My neighbor said it looks OK, a few small scratches. But this is really annoying.

After a hard week of work, I am really looking forward for tomorrows sightseeing tour in Washington. (Beware, probably the first picture posts :-) ).

I will stop here before it gets to boring and I already scare the people away. :-)