Today was a fun day! I headed into the office around 9 and got to work. Got my timelines working in a window and made some movies showing them working for the boss.
Lunch was fish fillet with peas and then was more work, printing out bus schedules and the like.
Michael dropped me off down the street for shopping. I found the bookstore and bought a map of the city and a very good translation book, organized not only as a dictionary, but by situations, such as travel, health, etc. I now know how to ask someone if they have a Vaginal infection.
There was also a carnival going on downtown, with stereotypical “Crepe Haus” kind of places, a little roller coast, a mechanical bull, a carousel with Disney characters on it and even German Country Music. Yes, I’ve had country and hard industrial in one day. I’ll try and go back tomorrow with my camera.
The McDonalds has the only public bathroom so they have a valet who charges 50 cents to hand you one (one) paper towel.
I went into Millers Dept Store which had a floor of perfume, a floor of housewares and a floor of toys and movies. Wow they have realistic looking toy guns! Winnie the Pooh, My Little Pony and Polly Pocket were all big. I saw a Da Vinci Code game I will have to look into. I know it is for 2-4 players and 10 years and older.
The cool toy was “Tips” Essentially 15 euro for a box of colored packing foam cylinders, which went wetted glue to each other. So you can make lego like sculptures, shape them with tools, etc. Oh they had some really neat medieval figurines too as well as lots of smaller plastic toy animals (farm animals) in bins you don’t really see in the States anymore.
Michael picked up food and took me to his friends Ralph and Claudia place for dinner. We had good conversation (between German and English) and nice potatoes with garlic, great steak, wine and beans.
Ralph was teasing me, asking if I wanted Ketchup on my steak (ick) so I think I’ll take pictures of every ketchup bottle I see and send them to him.
It was nice meeting all 6 of michael’s friends. Getting views of the world from outside sources is very enriching. More on that later.
Michael dropped me off around 11pm and there were oh, 15 goth hanging out on the street. There is a pretty hefty party going on next door, with a live band, lots of bottles around (I guess tossed over the fence) etc. Must be at least 50+ people there.
So tomorrow I think I am having breakfast with Martin and Jeanette again, then Sunday they are taking me to Potsdam! Plenty of pictures are coming up, I assure you!
Well it is actually the start of Day 5, but I worked late last night so I didn’t get around to blogging.
I’ve decided the bus is perfect fine for getting to work. I found the ATM Martin pointed me to and after checking out the hours, I decided to get cash now. They have a card reader for the door, but I don’t know if my bank card will work with it.
Lunch was pork with potatoes and a really tall coke (not large in volume, just tall) Actually was maybe 20oz. My first soda since last week!
I was able to get a rudimentary channel player working so work is going well. Today is documentation day I think.
The stores all close early here, around 7 or 8 pm. The ATM, for example, closes at 5 on MWF and 7 on T-TH. Most places are closed on Sunday.
I skipped dinner last night as I wasn’t very hungry. Grapes and juice were enough. I spent the evening with Martin and his GF Jeanette (sp?) who is leaving for 4 months to work in Munich.
Martin was installing XP onto Jeanette’s laptop and it is interesting to see it is just as bad in German. The machine has no wifi so he bought a USB WiFi adaptor. When he went to install the drivers, it said it needed SP2, but he has no wifi of course. They actually included SP2 on the CD (luckily) so he went to install that, but after 30 mins of checking the hardware, he cancelled. I suggested removing the USB device as the drivers are not working yet, so he did, and it continued on. I have no idea how well it worked or not, as I left for bed.
I ended staying up and getting my code to work as I had designed on the bus.
Jeanette suggested that Martin and I go to Potsdam, which is a very historical, small city here in East Germany, home of one of the early kings. They said it is similar to Versailles. So maybe that can happen this weekend! I’m not quite sure.
On the list of things to buy are: A Map of the city, of Germany and of France. A translation book. A sweater. I think that is all I need for now.
It appears as if there is one theater in town. Martin’s friend had to go to a different city to see a new movie.
They have a DVD rental service here where you get an account at a store, then you can reserve a DVD online. You go to a kiosk, use your thumbprint and it spits the DVD out. The cost of the rental depends on how long you have it. As little as three hours even, which only costs you about 1 euro. ($1.23 or so US)
I’m tying hard to learn pronunciation of words - I am sure everyone is getting tired of me asking how to say this or that, but it is interesting at least.
I need to get a full bus schedule - I learned there are many less modes of transportation overnight.
I have learned that ß is called “es-zett” “scharfes s”
Oh well, I am going to nap a bit before starting out today!
Day 3 was much much better. Martin came up and asked if I’d like breakfast, which of course I said YES! So he went to the store while I showered (see the pics) and we had a nice meal of oj, bread and lots of different spreads, some dark sugar spread and oh yeah a lovely margarine with a hint of yogurt flavor, was very good. Hard boiled eggs topped off the meal.
Then I caught the bus 73 down the street and paying very close attention to the signs, found my exit. It was only 2 blocks from the office and martin passed me on his bike. He left the bus stop the same time I got on the bus. LOL.
The work day was productive as I worked with a class Bernd had done and began the basis for my timeline widget. I even got some stuff checked into the repository and put up a simple draft of the documentation I am working on.
Lunch was at the cafeteria and I had a nice conversation with Grit, whose name I thought was Brit, sigh. Dantino (sp?) has a most interesting name. He said to not even bother with his last name.
After work I went outside the office to catch the 5 tram home, as Martin had emailed me to let me know we were going for a walk at 7. I was waiting for the tram where here came the 73 bus. It seems it makes 2 more stops past the theater and then around right in front of Impara it comes. So that is easy as cake.
I think I know where a bank is now and will look for that tomorrow morning on the way to work. I’m going to learn where the hot spots in town are for all of the socializing.
Today I leaned to say “Wo is der Abfall?” so I now know where to take my garbage. I worked a little on the days of the week but I still have much to learn.
I can now order gulashe and spaghetti and even margaritas, so all is coming together nicely. Bert was able to get my monthly tram/bus pass, so at 36 euro, is much cheaper than paying 1.20e each time you step onto a vehicle.
Whether I make it to France or not is unknown. This weekend is a holiday weekend, Monday is reunification day. I’m told there will be custom drink and food to be had.
Thank you to everyone for the emails and IMs - They helped a lot!
Slept pretty well, didn’t wake up until 10am or so. The sit down shower was quite interesting, and slow to be sure. No curtain, and wood over my head, had to make sure I didn’t splash anything.
Michael picked me up and I spent the next 90 mins working on getting my code up to day, networking stuff going on. Am using a German Windows machine for my main work, which makes things very interesting indeed. Just means I go slower when I need to step out of smalltalk.
I spent the afternoon with a colleague learning how his part of the system works. I I had to take notes because there was no way I was remembering any of that in this condition. But we now have a plan for tomorrow and I’m excited to see if we can get some of the first sophie UI up and running.
I now have a pass for tomorrow morning and I think I know where I am going. I have grapes and bananas and sandwich stuff here at the apt now but really, I’m not all that hungry. The stress has my stomach in knots still. So water it is for awhile
Well it is actually day 2. I left Portland at 8:30am to Seattle. Had a 4 hour layover there. Left Seattle at 1:30, arrived in Amsterdam around 8:00 in the morning.
Got through customs and the security check in about 35 mins, then boarded and left AMS around 9:30am Monday. Arrived in Berlin around 10:50am.
My t-mobile sim chip doesn’t work here at all, so had no phone. Caught the bus to the train station. Waited in line 30-40 mins for a ticket, headed up stairs. The train had just pulled in (whew) so boarded but it was already full in class 2, so I hauled my bags upstairs to class 1. Nearly empty up there and plenty of luggage space. Had to pay an extra 7 euro when the conductor came through
Go to Magdeburg but had no way of contacting Michael. Phone # didn’t work, neither did SMS. Information gladly took my euro to tell me that they didn’t speak English. Twice.
Finally after 3 hours of asking people (one whom spoke English), and 7 people who told me the number was correct, I found one who told me to drop the leading 49 and add a 0. I felt dumb for not having this information ahead of time, but I got a workout hauling my bags for 3 hours around the station.
So I finally got ahold of Michael and he picked me up. Went to the office, met people and went to the apt I am staying at. It is a third floor attic like space with a bathroom and “shower” I’ll have to show you pics heh, it is a sit down and remember this is an attic, so slanted ceilings everywhere. Interesting. The price is right (free) and the host, Martin, is most kind and hospitable. I even have 1mbps wifi, so maybe I’ll settle in.
Today Michael picks me up, but tomorrow I am on my own with the busses and trams to get to the office. That will be interesting, too!
Alright so we have some Christians (labeled as anti-abortionists) saying God inflicted Katrina on the south for their abortion like ways and the storm path even looked like an embryo.
Now I hear some Christian extremists say Katrina battered Nawlins for their sexually deviant and drinking ways. I guess Mississippi got it for the gambling.
When asked why God would do this to innocents as well, I am told that God must release the winds unto Satan so that he might have dominion over Earth before the second coming. Nice. I guess those in the south picked a bad time to be born.
I started Googling this and discovered something fascinating, something amazing, something that makes the Da Vinci Code look like fiction. Yes, a missing book from the Bible - The Book of Vague. An excerpt:
Vague 1:1 “Thou shalt do that which I have commanded unless I have reprimanded for that which I have commanded then thou must do that which I have spoken but heed my warning, do not take false statements to heart for I shall enforce my commandments upon thee, unless thy have given thine heart until me, shed thy oppressor, which shall remain nameless, but do only if thy are true to my commandments”
Alright this isn’t an attack on Christians. I was raised Christian, so I saw the back biting, the fighting that goes on in Church for power, etc. I have plenty of wonderful friends of faith and I don’t judge them nor rebuke their faith.
What I do have challenges for is this notion that we’re all under one God yet we’ve fractured so much, there are so many Christian groups, each taking what is convenient to their belief and making it a corner stone. Do I really want to believe that only 144,000 are going to heaven? Oh wait, that is not a short sighted number based on the times the verse was written, it is symbol.
I often muse over the Bible and I’ve come down to this. Either there is a God and he has one sick sense of humor, or the Bible is the single, greatest mind control experiment ever devised, preying on people’s insecurities and fears. Kind of like the Republicans, only much more elegant about it.
After all, we’ve fractured because God didn’t want us building a tower to him. As if we’d of succeeded. Couldn’t he have just let them get 100 stories or so, have the whole thing tumble and then say “I’ll break you up when you build rockets that can reach me.”
Really - Anything in the Bible that makes us challenge God’s actions has a counter - Oh he has to let Satan do that, or well he can’t show himself as that would make it impossible for us to have true faith, or…….
It is quite fascinating to me. We live in a world with a huge information network and yet some still believe that God makes Hurricane’s look like a fetus while he’s bringing floods and hell upon innocent people, because, well, he is a loving God who gets pissed off from time to time after one too many water to wine incidents.
And if God strikes me down for exploring and expressing my thoughts, well then, I guess that is not a God I’d want to serve anyway. I believe in good karma, trying to make myself and those around me better through growth, thought and exploration. Lend a helping hand, be honest with people, be true to myself and above all, don’t make decisions based on my fears and insecurities. It is not always easy.
Maybe I am a clueless child. I’ll keep trying to grow and not blame a God I can’t see nor use that same God as a weapon to mentally abuse people in time of need.
I had a dream that I was in Paris and my tibook was on a tote cart and the line broke and the tote cart fell into the Seine river but I thought no problem, I’ll buy one of the new PowerBooks. Then they didn’t announce anything and I was freaking out. The water was all green, slimey and polluted and some kids told me it was only 2 feet deep so I waded in and got the laptop back and rinsed it off with Parisian distilled water.
If you use dot mac, get Backup 3 from mac.com and fill up that new gb of iDisk!
One nice thing is the easy to add backup of your itunes purchased music to DVD or CDs monthly. I’m doing a backup to DVD-RW right now and it even asked to erase the DVD-RW. This will be a nice monthly reminder.
I’m not sure how to keep the daily incremental backups from filling my iDisk - There are no preferences I can find!
Salon, the highly democratic/liberal news site ran a personals service in which you paid for credits at roughly $1 each and you could contact a person for 1 credit. The site featured full search, etc.
Recently they sold out to friendfinder.com and totally changed the service. It took them weeks to get the pts from 200 (200 is what it takes to email someone) to 9600.
Then I realized that they total bait and switched customers. Now you don’t have full search, just basic search. Want full search? Subscribe monthly. Sounds like just the crap Salon.com rags on the republicans do. Is good to know liberals can support screwing customers also.
So I demanded a refund and got it, to friendfinder’s credit. But still, this should not have happened in the first place.
A friend asked me to post about Saving Angela’s Ass and while I have not researched it, I can be empathetic to insurance co issues, so take a gander if you like and decide if you’d like to support this person.
Alright I had already posted on how to get the Express talking to Sveasoft’s firmware using WDS and WEP. This allows the Express to connect wirelessly to the Linksys and let me play my music, etc.
Since then I had upgraded my WRT to the Linksys 4.70.6 firmware which supports WPA2 and Apple had released Airport 4.2 (Express 6.2) which supports WPA2 so I decided to try and get this all working.
Short story: it works! Here are the steps to save you a bunch of time.
First off, forget “WDS” with the express. Don’t need it. They hide it from you now. So you are best off using the reset button on the express to totally clear it’s settings. I had to do this to get this working.
On the Linksys go to the Wireless tab, then click the Wireless Security sub-tab. Set the security mode to WPA2 personal and the algorithm to TKIP+AES. Enter your password. Update the linksys.
If you have any laptops, re-connect them to the network with the new WPA2 password and make sure all of that is working.
Now plug the Express into your Mac using Ethernet (or into your Linksys via Ethernet). Open Airport Admin Utility found in /Applications/Utilities/
Your Express will have default settings. Double click it in the list to open it up.
Set the name to something like My Express
Click “Change Passeword…” and set your express password. This is NOT the WPA2 password
Now comes the new, easy part. For Wireless Mode, choose “Join an Existing Wireless Network(Wireless Client)
In the Wireless Network section click the popup and choose your Linksys Wireless network (or type in the exact SSID if you have it hidden)
Click on Security Options and set the Security to WPA2 Personal and enter the same WPA password as you did on your linksys.
Click Update in the bottom right corner.
Click OK and you’re done!
I did find one interesting bug. After the Express has rebooted and you open the Express up again with Airport Admin Utility, clicking Security Options will show that it has connected via WEP. Now maybe it has fallen back to WEP and WPA2 allows this, I don’t know, but all I do know is the Linksys and Express were orginally set to WPA2 and they connected. The summary page lists WPA2 though.
Also notice that once you choose “Join an Existing Network…” most of your option tabs go away (as they should) and you are left with just Airport, Internet and Music.
It appears that in this non-WDS mode printer sharing is not an option, or maybe it “just works” if you plug a printer in. I don’t know.
This also might not be using the Express as an extension to the network, just a simple client. But it was easy to set up and allows me to use the better WPA2 security so I’m not complaining yet.
