i'm back! feeling pretty rough right now, thanks to nine hours time difference and that great 18 hour flight via dallas, texas. guess i'll be nicely jet-lagged these next days, which will make working tomorrow even more fun :-). but it was so worth it! i had so many great experiences in these past four weeks that i will have to post multiple updates in the coming week(s), including lots of photos. siggraph turned out to be well worth the trip, even more than i had expected it to be, thanks to a very special person (yes, i mean you), some wicked nightlife and lots of newly gained friends from all over the planet. more details will follow soon (yes, with pictures!).

but first i need a few hours of sleep. then i have to catch up with some friends, later today in the beergarden :-) the weather here is tropical! need to get out as soon as my body has partially regenerated. until then, take care.

i'm back and it's all good. slowly but surely over the jetlag and already strolled around town, bought cd's, relaxed on the beach, been to a few movies, read a few books and chatted for hours with eddy, eric, hendrik, diana and paula. now i'm off to town again to finally purchase a digital camera of my own so i can get some nice shots up on this site. it's about time.

more to come as the days in slacker-country pass. this is so relaxing and fun! surely i will have to come back more often!

last day at the faculty for about four full weeks. finally! i've been so strung-out lately that i can honestly say i have never felt as much in need of a time-out than now. tomorrow around this time i'll be in the plane to vancouver, where i'll be staying with my friends in the kommune der 23. strasse, the place we renovated together in april and may 2002. i'll be off to san diego from july 26th-31st for the siggraph conference (and some more beach fun if we find the time) and also have the plan to rent a car and travel the country around vancouver a bit, possibly even make it to the rockies. other than that it'll be all r&r: friends, beach, sushi, jam-sessions, concerts and the likes. time to chill-out...

i wish you all a very fun and relaxing summer 2003. for me, the real thing starts right now! cheers.

my thesis and some matlab code is now (finally) online.

Just a short one. I started my PhD job right after handing in my thesis (2nd june) and it has been quite overwhelming, to say the least: new people, new environment, new lifestyle and some heavy partying :) Very cool, yet it's slowly but surely getting to me and i am in serious need of vacation. soon. my flight to vancouver leaves on july 12th. until then i get to travel to leuven, belgium to present my paper (next week), set up my work environment so i can get serious after the vacation, and celebrate my dads 70th birthday (july 10th).

i'll try for one more update before i head out west, but i wouldn't bet on it. i'm guessing there'll be much to write about when i'm back ;-) until then, you all take care...

last friday we submitted our paper (yes, it's done!), and it turned out much better than i thought it would, we might actually have a chance of getting into the conference. anyway, that same evening, kalli and i left for munich, where we met with loni (and some others) to indulge in four days of powdery bliss! we hit obertauern in the alps for some boarding/skiing and partying. it dumped for three days straight, creating acres of untouched terrain, so i think it's safe to say i spent more time in deep powder than on the prepared slopes. i'm incredibly exhausted right now, but will describe some of the off-piste craziness we pulled off soon. lets just say it's time i bought a helmet! the partying was fun too :)

i have a final exam in a week, so expect more after that. i'll be writing up my thesis by then and hopefully have more time on my hands. and in some other (not yet fully official) news, marc (my thesis supervisor) is taking me on as his PhD student and i gladly accepted the offer! research again, finally. i can't wait to get started, which tells me that i'm doing the right thing this time around.

later, dudes.

greetings fellow readers! i have to keep up with my monthly updates, and i have postponed this one for two weeks now, so it's about time i get to it! it'll be a mixed bag, so bear with me. the past weekend was actually the first in about two months, during which i took it slow. i need more energy for the workload ahead, so it's just the way to go for the time being, and it's all good. my thesis/paper is progressing mostly as planned and i'm nicely tied up in the tasks involved. but enough about work: on to the stuff before i kicked into thesis-only-mode. first off, some recent (and not so recent) pictures of note.

the first one shows a good friend, matthias, who is currently spending time in australia, where i guess he's leading the good life. this is what happens when you loose control in the vicinity of jesters. i dug up that 'great' picture of me wearing that beanie in mid-summer 2002. it's a while back, but i'm sure it was in the aftermath of something late ;-) the third image is oeli, presenting our new standard drink here, havana club + coke + lemon juice = cuba libre, which started ever since we had that cocktail night here in our apartment.

which leaves us with the fourth and last picture of this update: the no-sleep-weekend, and this was just the start. stef, jens and i were invited to sharon's going away party on the 21st of february. at that point i already knew i'd be picked up the next morning at 10am to drive down to munich for loni's housewarming. well, i didn't manage to take it slow, and therefore got to bed at 6am, with three hours of 'sleep' to go. a long drive later, kalli and i arrived in munich later that day, and a shower was enough to get me going again, temporarily at least. loni's party started off quite relaxed, but got completely out of hand in the later hours. the result: bedtime = 6am, again. only five hours later, we got up for a bavarian breakfast: weizen-beer and wurst. so after a total of eight hours of sleep from friday morning on, we drove back home, into a beautiful sunset i might add, extremely weary and noticeably exhausted. i paid the price for pushing my body so hard in the following days, as it took me a while to get my sleep/wake cycles back to normal, but it's all good again and i needed something to remind me of the good life when deeply involved in academia.

i'd still love to hit the alps at least one more time this season (anybody have specific plans after april 4th?). or better yet, fly over to vancouver and hit whistler, eh? wishful thinking. but after i got an email from eddy, eloquently stating the benefits of nelson-powder, i'm almost inclined to to the ski-bum thing with him next season ;-) that is, spend an entire boarding season near good terrain (such as in nelson, canada) and work on the side as necessary. again, wishful thinking. we'll see what's in store. my plan to catch a plane to vancouver this summer for a few weeks is far more realistic and i'm making sure it'll happen! i still have some trips i didn't get around to last time over, and eddy made windsurfing sound like a very good idea as well ;-) i simply still owe myself a summer there.

man, this got longer than i thought! but that's good: as i don't have plans for the next months, i guess this site will be sort of abandoned for a while (unless i hit the alps of course). so i hope you all are exactly where you want to be, or working on getting there! good luck and take care.

other than that, (a) i'm getting ahead with work and (b), socials aren't neglected either :) i'm gettin' around, to say the least. and there's more to come. the following two weekends are jam packed with events. next weekend will be spent in munich where loni is giving a housewarming, after which some of the guests will be hitting the alps. no, sadly i will probably not be part of that, as i have truckloads of work to do. the next paper deadlines are coming up fast and i'm not going to miss them this time around!

but i'm not complaining, life is good! too good, sometimes :) hehe. take care.

being a media junkie is taking its toll these days, but man is it ever worth it! i just browsed by the matrix website and found a new trailer, a very large version of the older trailer, and the new animatrix series. obviously, the wachowski brothers got together some of the most talented anime directors/artists/writers of our time to create some shorts set in the matrix universe. looks like the feature films (matrix reloaded and matrix revolutions) will be out in may and november. ah yes, it's looking good :). anyway, to get some more color going on this site and lacking new pictures, here are two great links i urge you to follow. have fun!

i finally managed to split the personal/professional pages into two separate areas and also recycled some of the old artwork in the process. no new content though, not yet. it will grow within the next few days. i missed the eurographics paper deadline, mostly due to the simple fact, that my current implementation just didn't live up to my expectations. at least not yet, but i'm very sure i can get a much better paper out for the eurographics symposium on rendering, which has an april 2nd deadline. gives me a good two months to work hard on my thesis and flesh out the (very theoretical) details.

in any case, expect more to come these days. now, i'm really tired. g'night!

i've been taking a brief time-out this morning (after a very productive weekend full of thesis/publication work) and stumbled across some kevin smith stuff i hadn't previously been aware of! he has a short film of dante and randal from clerks online, titled the flying car. but see for yourself by clicking the image below (it's a 9MB download).

only a little more than a month and i'm updating again. good on me! :) things have become rather turbulent, but more (not really more) on that later. i'm still pursuing my degree, still working regularly, but i also got back to more of 'the good life' and also the (utterly fun) consequences. ah well, see for yourself.

this update has no consistent timeline (i just didn't feel like caring :), but who cares anyway? the first week of the new year was incredibly cold (minus 10 degrees celsius and less, brrr!). no more christmas market to go to, so we tried to get some atmosphere going on our balcony :) just heat up my beloved apfelwein and some gluehwein, get some friends together, light wunderkerzen and there you have it! here's the best shot of the evening.

on to the biggest recent event: eddy visited from canada! he was only here for about 40 hours, but we surely made the best of the time. hanging out, jamming, wandering around town, getting some german beer fresh from the tap, having katja, mona, frank, stefan, connie and some of my friends (stef, rupert and anand) over for wine/cheese/tunes. i was a bit exhausted after he left, but i would have loved to have him over longer. here some shots frank took.

good times. while not jamming/singing we were chatting away, mostly on life as such and all the stuff that happened in the time after i left vancouver to finish my studies back home and see what else 'home' had in store for me. lets just say that both of us had quite interesting times, and that's what it's all about, at least from my point of view. thanks for dropping by, man! and know that you're always more than welcome. but first, it's my turn to visit, and that's what i'm aiming for this coming summer. if all works out well, i'll be in for a three week visit some time after mid july. theses all done by then? hm? just kidding. i'll be done though, thats for sure.

on to the 'to be mentioned below' stuff. my life took a (private) tumble recently and (oeli and my) tradition calls for 'bacardi limon' night, ranting about certain 'things' and preparing for the transitional phase of chaos. 'nuff said. anyway, even though the theme of the night is still titled 'bacardi limon', i can't stand that stuff anymore (and i'm sure oeli is of the same opinion on that :), so we switched to better stuff, cooked a great meal, played good nofx, radiohead, nin and the likes, and chatted away till the wee hours. we postponed this evening for so long that it took us hours just to catch up an all noteworthy that had happened in the past two years! we just don't get around to that much anymore, even though we live together. times change. and we got back to it now, which is all that counts to me. and it was fun!

we shot a great video of oeli trying some jackass-like stunts with his chest hair :) he censored it. damn! if i can still get him to say 'yes' i'll post it here. too much! oh well, enough of that. on to even more nonsense! alex recently bought a wig on ebay and simpleton nealen just had to goof around with it. without further comments, the shots.

yeah, i've been having fun. as mentioned above, i'm still heavily involved in the thesis stuff, still working, but the fun is also a big part of everyday life, as you can see above :)

thesis: siggraph didn't work, i guessed that much. motivation wasn't too high in december either, too much other turbulence and distraction. now i'm trying for eurographics, but the deadline is also closing in on me and my implementation isn't up to par just yet. the coming weekend will tell, much work ahead. but it's still interesting, so i'm sure i'm doing the right thing. in any case, my official deadline for the thesis is now mid june, but i'm going to try to get it done by mid may. back in '99 when i started computer science i wanted to be through by my 33rd birthday. i still plan to do so. after that i'll be pursuing a PhD (if all goes well). otherwise, who knows? the world is big and i still have quite a bit to do this time around...

update completed. and finally some new pictures online. hope all of you out there are just fine, are just where you want to be, and have good friends to comfort you along the way. i am grateful that i have the friends, and thanks to you all! concerning the 'being where i want to be' part, well, lets just say i'm gonna have to think about that one. but not tonight.

take care.
- a.

ok. beautiful sunshine outside, got my christmas shopping done, have a fresh cup of coffee next to me and am finally in the mood to get something going on this site again. here we go...

fun stuff first: we absolutely and completely lucked out with the snow conditions in the alps! the resort was no way close to the size of whistler (or red mountain for that matter), but we had great snow, great nightlife and a fun crowd of 15 people scattered over 5 apartments on the same floor. ok, i simply have to break with the myth: no, the snow in british columbia is not sooooo much better than in the alps. at least not as far as i could tell. we had some excellent, deep powdery fun in the pitztal region of the alps. only on 1-2 slopes, but hey, better than nothin'! four days also seem just right for sleep deprivation and physical activity. i remember how powered out i was after the week at red mountain ;-) concerning alp nightlife or apres ski as it is lovingly called: the music absolutely BITES and makes buckets of drinks absolutely necessary to numb the brain section responsible for music taste. but then it's quite alright ;-) getting up early the next day sucks though. i'll be getting some photos from the others these days and will post them, along with some stories of note. stay tuned.

fun stuff two: when not involved in my thesis work (see below), i have actually managed to catch up on some gaming i had badly neglected in the past years. i actually got around buying and finishing grand theft auto III, and it was surely worth the time. our video game from the games course in vancouver was loosely based on GTA III and now i know why. for any game-freak out there: get it, play it. it's FUN all the way! after that i went retro and got myself a cheap copy of super metroid for the super nintendo and finished that as well. old, but very well crafted. now it's only a question of time till i get my teeth into the zelda series of games. time, isn't that always the problem? damn. anyway, for all you non-photorealistic rendering freaks out there, you simply have to check out the videos of the new zelda game for the nintendo gamecube. i find its visual appearance nothing less than stunning. cool stuff. check it out.

fun stuff three: me, frank and conny finally got around to meeting up. just for reminders: conny had arrived in vancouver the day i left and stayed there for six months. we all hopped a car and drove down to heidelberg to katja's house party. frank lost the driving game and i suffered the next day ;-) anyway, it was good fun and nice to meet conny and also see katja again. she spent all summer in vancouver and made me aware that maybe i should have tried harder when looking for a job to finance a summer stay. oh well, next time. the four of us met up again last week to have some warm red wine (gluehwein = glowing wine) at the darmstadt christmas market. it was incredibly cold, so we only managed two hours outside before hitting a local pub for a few more drinks and laughs. as far as i understand, katja will be in vancouver for two months in spring, but none of us others have any specific plans. i'll try to be back before all of my cs buddies are graduated. but first, eddy will drop by here mid january (unless the airlines go on strike) and i am really looking forward to that visit! surely katja, frank and conny (and my other friends) will give him a warm welcome! you readin' this, mr. boxerman? get ready for some fun ;-)

ok, now to work and studies: i've still been working a lot, mainly because i recently purchased a new computer, a big bed, that little gamecube thing and some sweet snowboarding. i just love spending. quite dangerous while working on your thesis, as i had already guessed and now know. duh ;-) but it's all good. now i'm getting back into the swing of things, things being my thesis work, which is has no title yet, but will make use of planar tesselations and image processing operations to generate geometry and texture. if it all works as my intuition suggests that is. my supervisor likes the idea and therefore suggested i implement a basic prototype and submit a short paper to the 2003 siggraph conference (for all non-geeks: the largest computer graphics conference on this planet). this leaves me with little to no time for all necessary work, but i will try to get something useful out the door for the deadline on january 22nd. tight, but perhaps possible. i do not think that the material will have a great chance of getting accepted, but it's worth a try. and surely a great experience. we shall see. needless to say, chistmas will not be a relaxed as last year. then again, i had a relaxed time before christmas this year, which was surely not the case last year!

pffff. there you go. no more landmark material i can think of right now. oh wait, in just four more hours i'll get to see lord of the rings part two! cool. i must admit that i'm already quite excited! so let me finish this update by wishing all of you a merry chistmas! i'll save the 'happy new year' part for the next update ;-) hehe, not even i believe that's going to happen! so a happy new year to all of you as well!

cheers!