two things amazed me today.

the one thing is the rainbow that was forming in front of our house today, spanning Amsterdam.

the other is the amount of time and work people put into open source / GPL software..
The software that was used to make this stitch is Hugin enhanced by autopano and enblend. (the one choses “reference points” to orientate on and the other blends the images much nicer to each other while stitching)

Once again I have to bow before the open source movement.
People that do amazing things “just for fun”. (Read the book that is called like that!)

it’s unbelievable how much excitement and energy looking for a new job offers..
I have begun advertising myself on various job boards and have since gotten a couple of interviews and lots of telephone calls.
All in all I now have a job for 2000 per month which I can start mid september .. there are better paid jobs but it can also be much worse, because they usually want someone with more experience (and if possible a diploma. pfff…) – so I will do it.

Anyway: They told me they’d allow me to get some nifty certificates on their cost that will enable me to become a real techie :P
Right now my only strength is communication (which I shamelessly use in these interviews.. talking too much? me??? never!)
But having some “real” qualifications and Cisco/HP certificates will bring me another step closer to my goal: My own IT consulting company. ;)

After having survived the incredible rainfalls at the Lowlands festival (ok, only sunday was rainy. But then it was pouring!) we returned and decided to get free friday before and monday afterwards next time.
It was such a cool event, people of all ages around, music of (almost) all sorts and a very good feeling.

The motto of lowlands is “a campingflight to lowlands paradise” and that’s exactly what you have to do there. Have a good time.
And all other worries and such could be eliminated with some self-made good food and lots of relaxing and sleeping. (isn’t it, Anna? ;) )

For the rest, I immediately went back to business. Having decided to stop or quit my studies now (I’ll have to give this a thought in a couple of years again) I am now in the process of shifting my life to Amsterdam to live with Anna and “be pregnant with her” as “the book” says. You thought only women get pregnant? Ha! ;)

Concerning Catzee, this is not such a big problem because all our activities are online (or at least internet related) anyway. I will be able to conduct the one or another project from there aswell. Considering how much he has done for me and that he is “responsible” for this motivation of mine, I want to stay his partner as long as I can! Do you hear? I owe you big deal, man! :)

Concerning the other things that have come up recently it will either involve me “dancing at two weddings” (as we say in Germany, meaning Aachen and Amsterdam) or giving up some things that I really would have liked to do. Damn decisions all the time.

The trouble with freelance work is that you cannot just “stop” doing it. It becomes a part of you and you “are” your job, be it Monday morning or be it Saturday night, it’s always “on duty” for me. (and most ideas come at the craziest times.)
But the advantage is: I can work _whenever_ I want, _whatever_ I want and for _whomever_ I want. I am my own boss and I decide. That’s just perfect!

In Amsterdam, I’ve now been offered some positions in the technical customer service environment. Not really my thing but they offer good payment for a person that has no real education besides his “Abitur” and lots of skills and qualifications but no paper to state it.
Well.. following your own nose all the time has its price.

I will definitely continue doing freelance work and try to establish my “own thing” also in the Netherlands. But it’s not ready yet to live from it. As a student I could survice with this. But as a father I need some hard cash now. If I only think about all the stuff that we are going to need next year. My..

But who knows what I might be doing next year or in 5 years. Life usually plays so many tricks on me and so many things happen unexpectedly that I should not be too worried about where I will be next year or what my profession will be. I have proven to myself that I can survive everywhere.

No worries! (or: “Hakuna Matata!”) ;)

I will never forgive you for making me remember this, you know who you are!

it turned out that Anna wasn’t sick after all…
This is the reason for it:

It’s 4,1 mm in size, its heart is beating and I am very proud of it :D

We are off to lowlands now :)
Finally we managed to get out again, pack the tent and sleeping bags and do 3 days of music, theater, performances and crappy food :D

I’m so excited.

it’s amazing how sometimes one integrates current events into dreams.

I am standing somewhere, no idea but I know where I am. I have to get to another place (Police tells me to) because my parents have been killed by terrorists in order to capture their Volkswagen Camper. With this camper, two terroristic actions have been conducted, some Libyan leader has been asassinated and some Israeli politician aswell.

As I inspect the damaged and bullet-riddled bus, I think of my parents.
I am standing on a ship and we are cruising somewhere on the ocean. All of a sudden, a strange mist comes up and we are lost in the middle of nowhere.
Strange shapes come into existence and I sonehow know that we have to be in the Bermuda-Triangle, where your wishes and dreams can manifest. So I wish for the submarine of Captain Nemo which promptly comes to existence. My parents are standing on top of it, naked.

I tell them to come onboard and explain them, what has been done with their VW camper and that they actually had died but that they have been resurrected.. (once you are in the Bermuda Triangle, what could you do…)

They are pretty confused as I ask them to step onboard but quicky walk inside to meet the others on the ship.. at this moment I realize that they are in fact still naked.

I wake up. :)

for the current week we have my sister-in-law, my two cousins and from today on also my future brother-in-law in the house. It sure feels different to have so many people here.

on the other hand, I am having thought about becoming a houseman.. Anna is so ambitious, I could never work so hard on something. And someone has to bring up the kids :P

the bad thing about it is, that I was sick for 2 weeks (no work done there) and now I am pretty much paralyzed again.. but it’s fun to have so many people here.

And I have something from my family.. when I cook for 2, there can eat four.. now I cook for 6 and it’s enough for 10. Big family left its mark :)

Saturday morning, after Anna had decided not to join me for the wedding of Jan due to some kidney or bladder disease (poor one!), I left Ansterdam to watch Annika and Jan get married in Hamm. It was a cool party and despite the fact that Jan was sick himself I had very good time and met many nice people.

I was especially happy to meet the Schwabe family and the other guys from Göttingen (sorry, Hannes, for throwing you in the box with the others) again after such a long time.. felt nicely warm to meet old friends. :)

This morning I am already in Münster, visiting my sister-in-law.
I had breakfast in the train (coffee to go, Aspirin and a croissant) and used the bathroom of the train to shave myself (that’s the third time I am doing this now.. hmmm ;) )
Now I am sitting here, hung over but happy and tomorrow morning we will be heading to the airport in Cologne to fetch my cousins from Bulgaria. Back to Amsterdam with the ICE, then.. boy, this kind of life I could get used to. Doing ~1000 km every weekend :)

Where exactly is the kick in stealing the valves of other people’s bicycles?
I mean, they have a meterial value of, well.. 10 cents?
(Ok, the guy at the toolshop sells them for 50 cents.. but that’s economy)
The intellectual value is even less.. so WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU, GUYS?

If you need to steal, steal cars, maybe the radios in cars.. but valves of bicycles? We cannot afford cars, that’s why we ride bikes.