Snail Mail

We are in the middle of what can be considered a heat wave here in Franconia. It's one thing if you have AC or can sit around in the shade but quite another if a major part of your job is running around all the time and carrying huge amounts of heavy stuff. So I am reminding myself of the mantra from the Army days: "drink water!".

Kati and the kids are off to the swimming pool but I'm on call for about 40 hotel guests who will be arriving (probably all afternoon and well into the evening). I am saving the harder chores for when it cools off a little more but the cakes will be arriving for tomorrow's wedding shortly and I'll have to carry them off to the walk-in fridge.

Just a little insight into a non-interesting but typical Friday in my life.

Funky Spider

I found this funky spider in the castle garden yesterdy. The markings on its thorax are really cool and look like a scary face. Check it out in large at flickr!

Testing MarsEdit for blogging from my Mac desktop

Wedding party is fully underway and I am on call in the wee hours of the night so I have some time to muck about on the web.

A recommendation on lifehacker or web worker daily turned me onto MarsEdit which allows you to blog from your Mac desktop without having to login through the web and use the tedious browser interface. I'm on the first day of my 30-day free trial and I'm especially interested in the flickr integration.

We'll see if this new tool will enhance my blogging habits!

Living in a German Village

Yes, what you see in the picture actually occurred today right here in Zeilitzheim. Farmer Plempel took his cow out on a walk (I don't think it was headed for the slaughterhouse because the Animal GESTAPO come with trucks for that). Perhaps they went to visit a friend? (or a bull).

Living in a country village is quaint at times (except for the smell). The sweet smell of cow isn't actually all that bad. It's the neighbor's pigs that get me. It all depends on the weather. Weeks can go by without so much as a whiff and then: BLAM! Holy shit.

Live Bullfight - thanks to Skype

Foto by siyublog (flickr)

Last night I got a behind-the-scenes look at a bullfight in Madrid - live out of a TV truck. Thanks to a good friend who was mixing the input from 28 TV cameras for Spanish TV and thanks to skype I got a short but highly interesting look at what goes on - at a bullfight and in highest tech TV. Very cool. Too bad for the poor bulls, though, whose fate is sealed. I got to witness one of the bulls taking a part of his adversary with him, though.

Most awesome thing about this experience is how easy it is becoming to share information and video throughout the world. I know that isn't so new anymore and I've been using skype for a while now. Getting moderated and commented input and the possibility to see through the eyes of 28 different cameras put a new dimension on that experience for me, though.

Summertime...

Awesome weather today. It's time to head out on the annual "Weinbergswanderung" through Zeilitzheims vineyards, fields and along the lakes toward Obervolkach. Of course the best thing about all that is relaxing in the shade at the "Gänsewasen" with a cold glass of Frankenwein at the end of the day.

web2.0

I've been using FriendFeed and twitter for a few weeks now and both have become a - short - routine of each day. I find it it very difficult to convince my friends, who ought to be on there for these networks to have their full benefit for me, to join.

The guys at commoncraft.com have made a great video of explaining twitter in plain english, though.

(news)paper

I have been without the daily newspaper now for over a month and I can't say that I miss it. I now get my news on the web through blogs and rss, google alerts and the grapevine (followed up by the web...).

I find that the noise-to-content ratio was actually higher in the paper filled with its local ads in colorful spreads of advertising graveyards.

As far as advertising value for myself is concerned: I have found the daily newspaper to be less and less successful in reaching the folks I want to be reaching.

So where are the newspapers heading? Sure, we've been talking about this for years now and the papers aren't dead yet. It is interesting to note, though, that the company which owns our local newspaper, is also the owner of StudiVZ - Germany's wannabe facebook replacement. At least I found that very interesting.

A Day on the Town

Last day without the wife and kids, so probably last chance to try to write something meaningful or at least coherent on my blog with being interrupted constantly. Mind you, I'd rather have the kids around and not get around to blogging.

Isa and Katharina must have made quite some progress / growth in the nine days they will have been gone. Isa can apparently stand on her own for longer periods and Katharina is talking up a storm. I can't wait to see them all in person rather than just on Skype.

I actually took a bus to the big city today and managed to meet up with my friends at the "aktive Gastronomen" breakfast of restaurant- and hotel owners. I then went on a very long walk around the city before visiting my friend Uwe Speil who just opened a new restaurant in the heart of Schweinfurt's centre. He gave me a tour of the whole building including kitchen and apartment up above. I wish him and his family success!

Now I'm trying to enjoy the last few hours of my day off, perhaps with a visit to the cats in the castle garden. Then I'll have to start thinking about what to cook for dinner...

Push on through

The weather is awesome and is prmising to stay that way for tomorrow's market / fair at the castle. We can really use some good weather after it was so cold and rainy at our last fair (Easter Market) in early March.

I'm gradually catching the cold the rest of the family is already curing in Hungary right now. I'm starting to lose my voice so it's going to be an interesting marathon of work w/o a voice. A lot of good the super techy walkie talkies will do us then if "6" can't respond to the sitreps he gets...