as i started with the most recent news, i'll continue rolling up the week from the back. we got our final exams in computational geometry back today and i am very pleased with the outcome. better than i expected it to be and even more reason to hit the slopes!

sunday till (half) tuesday was spent in a semi-comatose state after eddy talked me into doing one of his yearly rye and ginger-ale nights last saturday. we killed a bottle of canadian club in about two hours and i washed down the whiskey taste with some canadian beer off the tap. at about 2am, eddy passed out on the couch. guess it would have been a good idea to join him, but instead, i chose to fall around the apartment and knock over some things, including some chairs, which somebody placed in the middle of the room just so poor drunk me would trip over them. evil is all around me :) hihi. fun all the way! frank watched me pass out in the cab on our way home. and i was once again surprised to find my bike locked up in front of my door the next afternoon (at 5pm, when i rose from the dead).

before i decided to flush my brain with whiskey, i had a beautiful day of shopping all around vancouver. a second hand cd shop (zulu records, cool place!) closed down and sold all stock for about 1.50$ each! so i bought pearl jam, bob mould and the elastica album for almost nothing. after that i hit chapters, the local (big) bookstore where i realized, that at the rate i read books (max. 3 per year) i'd have to live quite a while to read all the stuff i am missing out on. best example: i have never read lord of the rings. what was i doing all my teenager years? answer: testing the amount of beer my body could hold, playing videogames and running after girls (not necessarily in that order :). oh yeah, the videogames: i also ran into future shop and tried the xbox and gamecube and the graphics rock! some new gadgets for me to buy, cool.

back to the present: we'll have our last videogame class today and have already handed in the technical design document, which cost me most of my sleep in the past two weeks. programming the actual game starts in january, so get ready to playtest crap! just kidding, maybe it'll turn out to be ok, given that we only have 3.5 months to do it. not to forget: this will all have to be done during snowboarding season!

and now i have to leave for a demo session of one of the groups i am teaching assistant for. they have their final exam next friday and i will have to mark that one before the 12th as well. some more work in sight, but relaxation is really close, i can feel it!

in just one more hour i have my first final exam here (in computational geometry, for all you fellow cs-geeks out there), so what better way to relax than update my homepage with some fun stuff i completely forgot to post.

as some readers might recall, the vancouverites also have the notion of an oktoberfest. This dreadful event in the heart of bavaria is not only polluting germany, but the entire earth. so no running from home in this world. anyway, just a few days ago i threw out some old magazines, only to stumble over this ad:

damn, i had completely forgotten to post the nice pictures of the band and the festivities! and after i read 'oompapa bands' i completely lost it. what the heck is an oompapa band? of course we all know, but that sure doesn't make it less laughable! i thereafter scanned franks webpage for some nice additions to my own and i found these two nice ones (sorry, i had to filter out the ones with me in it :)

pretty good stuff, eh? i will be living it up again after this friday has passed, for then i have most of the term done and can indulge in mountains, snowboarding, parties, hiking, shopping, etc, etc, etc. there's another party at the place we had the cocktails months ago and i plan to flush away the stress of the past weeks. shouldn't be much of a problem, all the other stressed people are going as well and i am sure there plan doesn't significantly differ from mine. hihi.

but first i have this exam to tackle. 7.30pm, what a time for a two hour theory exam! pffff... auf in den kampf!

the week of pure work is over. just to make way for four more weeks of even more work. but as long as the weekends are like this past one, it'll take a lot more work to break my good mood!

the sloan concert was a blast so we simply had to go out afterwards, not on campus for a change. turns out that there are a vast amount of really nice pubs much closer to campus than all the way downtown, which is a 30 minute bus ride. given that the pubs were all packed to the brim, we had to squeeze in to make room for us. that sure didn't make having a good time any harder :)

on saturday then i did nothing all day long. well, except for strumming the guitar, but that at least doesn't count as work. so i arrived at eddys place later that day, very relaxed and ready for an unplugged jamming session. to sum it up: big fun! we jammed from 9pm till 4am with about 20-25 people, all trying out various instruments and just having a good time. i was introduced to one of my new favourites: the mandolin. after getting (somewhat) used to the odd tuning (compared to a six-string) it was lots of fun and complimented almost every style of music we played. definitely something i'll get when i'm back home. but what would a good party be without the cops? so when they arrived and started threatening eddy with a 2000$ fine, we all kept quiet, until eddy came back inside the house, saying: "hey guys, i'm talking to the cops outside. keep on playing, just tone it down a little". he didn't have to say that twice and we all had a good laugh! i reverted to my habit of crashing at other peoples places and passed out on the couch in the living room around 4.30am.

so now i am fuelled with fun thoughts and ready to tackle the workload ahead, NOT! too bad i have to. so let me leave you all with some shots of eddy, dave and hendrik, while we were preparing (read: getting drunk) for the rocky horror picture show on halloween.

thanks to eddy (thanks man!), i can now play fake plastic trees and street spirit, both off the radioheads album the bends from 1995. cool stuff. i had also almost forgotten how much fun singing the old depeche mode stuff from the 80's is. i'm getting old. hihi. you all take care.

            But I can't help the feeling
            I could blow through the ceiling
            If I just turn and run
            And it wears me out 

            - Radiohead, 'fake plastic trees', 1995
    

happy halloween everybody! i'm off to the pub for now. after many long days of work, i need it! after that it'll be the 'rocky horror picture show' at the SUB theatre. also a primer for me, as i have actually never seen that movie on the big screen before (even though it was our abi-motto back in 1989, tsk tsk). work is all-consuming otherwise. great challenge though, as i try to coordinate some social events inbetween. the 'smart' trick: sleep only minimum hours. that way i forget what it's like to feel awake and think that this is the 'normal' state to be in. it works. not too healthy, but it's just crunch time. the mountains await soon! note on the side: i'm out of the dating thingy again. just didn't work out, too many differences. but i've only been here for a few months, so i'll (hopefully) have more than enough time to wreck some more havoc!

now i'm out of here. will hoist a beer on you all. cheers.

and i thought last week was a busy week. boy, was i ever wrong. it's saturday evening and i am surely not going home from the computer lab yet. the quality of the courses i am taking here is very good and the levels are all challenging, but the way this faculty crams all assignments, projects and exams into the last few weeks of the term is more than questionable. sure makes a good reason to look forward to the snowboarding season! And as my current life here is centered around studying/working, the only picture i have to post is the view out of my window in germany.

wait! thats not true. i have a nice shot of sydney, which loni sent me from aussieland. i'm sure some of you also had this one in your own mailbox. i just really liked it. she just sent another mail today, saying that it is getting warmer down there. sounds great, as the monsoon is slowly but surely starting over here. pretty cold too. brrrrr. but soon all that nice rainfall will amount in heaps of powdery snow on the local hills. nice.

i took some nice pictures of myself standing in my bedroom, all geared up for snowboarding. really cheesy shots. sadly, something busted on franks digicam and we can't get the pictures off the memory card. damn. also, there were quite a few pictures from the longboat race on there. crap. anne and briony took some shots with their cameras, so i'll just have to wait till they develop them and scan them so i can post them here. you wouldn't want to miss our costumes! i had the german flag painted all over my face! we even made it into the local newspaper. i'll cut that one out and lay it on the scanner as well. soon.

my next break will be halloween next wednesday. there's a big pub crawl going on and no matter how much work i have to do, i'm not going to miss out on that! but it's back to work for now. cheers.

man, am i tired! the past weekend was fun, but tedious. great dinner on friday with lots of beer and margheritas. longboat race on saturday and work on sunday. we actually came in third of six boats in the first heat, and second of six in the second heat. i skipped the second heat due to a severe headache. i wonder what from. as soon as we have some pictures, i'll post them. it was damn cold, but a fun event with the skyline and the mountains out around us. we all agreed, that we are already getting used to the vistas around us and don't appreciate them as much as we should. even though it was overcast, the view was gorgeous.

now i am back working on assignments, teaching stuff and finally getting my webpage updated again. browsing through my folders i stumbled across some nice pictures i hadn't posted yet. so here's us after a long day at the faculty, indulging in some coffee and a game of pool.

we haven't been doing that as much lately, due to an inflation of homework assignments and midterm exams. everybody is sighing over the workload.

this one is for oeli: so you see that your few cooking lessons you gave me are not going to waste over here! we had lasagne for about 12 people and everybody loved it. it was fun making it too, as i had two bottles of delicious cabernet sauvignon with me: one i had during cooking and one during dinner. it turned out to be a fun night (and the one that got me started on the dating thingy again :)

other news: today marks the day of white, snowy caps on the local mountains! endlich, es schneit! which is incrediblty good timing, as i bought a new snowboard, boots and binding yesterday. all i need now is (a) time, (b) open ski-lifts and (c) lots of powdery snow. this all should be fulfilled by mid-end november. on the 17th of december then, it'll be ten days of whistler mountain. words cannot describe how much i am looking forward to that trip. if anyone wants to come visit over christmas, let me know by the 16th of november, as thats the day i reserve the bunks in the UBC lodge. i don't really think anyone of you will come, but it's worth a thougt, right?

tonight is another 70's party in downtown vancouver, but as i love to miss class wednesday mornings at 9.30am, i decided to get some work done and relax thereafter. am currently working on some radiohead and silverchair songs (specifically 'paranoid android') and am going to tie them down later on. autumn has draped the city in scattered rain and colored leaves, so chilling out for an evening seems like a warm and welcome thing to do.

hope you are all sailing!

sorry for the no-show. i have been nicely busy in these past days and actually really lack the time to update this page as i have been in the past few months. and there is no light in sight. well, almost none. as soon as i have vacation, which will be around the 17th of december, i'll be on my way to whistler mountain for a ten day snowboard trip! surely i will get some photos from there, so that'll make up for any lack of extensive updates till then. but boarding season already starts on the 16th of november, so on that very day i'll be lining up for the lifts at the local mountains. i can't wait!

also, i have started dating again. first time in almost 2,5 years. so thats occupying the little time i have left outside of university work. her name is anne, she's danish and studies agriculture. she's also president of the 'happy singles club' back home in denmark, but thats another story. currently, she's trying to convince me to travel 5 hours up north on the 27th to go 'salmon watching'. obviously, the salmon up there are still completely red, and as the landscape is beautiful, it sounds worth the travel. lets see if my workload allows me to go on this tour. if yes, expect some images.

on this coming weekend, me and 13 others will participate in 'the day of the longboat' on jericho beach, where we will go against four other teams in a 2,5 kilometer longboat race. the boat holds 10 people and is really instable. whoever knows my boat tipping skills knows, that the others are possibly in for a swim. but thats no problem, as there are hot-tubs on the shore and a big party after the races. if we manage to win our race (haha) then we make it to the finals on sunday. in any case, it'll be a long weekend of fun and party!

the next story is definitely of note: we went to the 'oktoberfest' (!!!) last friday! god almighty! it started off with a good cover band and terrible but cheap canadian beer. good thing i got drunk fast, because after about two hours the band quit playing and a 'bavarian' combo took over the stage. they tried to dress up in a bavarian style, but their complete outfit was made of felt, and the 'tirolerhuete' were red instead of green! to top it off, they started with 'ja wenn wir alle englein waeren'! the canadians were thrilled and expected me to like this crap! my solution: more beer. i tried to drink enough, so that i would loose my hearing. it didn't work. end of the story: fun memories and a severe headache.

now i'm off to the grand opening of the newMIC (new media innovation centre) in downtown vancouver. They have all kinds of virtual reality research going on and the newest of the newest hardware and gadgets. not to mention the free food and drinks. bus leaves in five minutes, so you all take care.

follow up: i'm back, and the MIC was quite un-impressive. the fraunhofer institute for computer graphics in darmstadt has quite a bit more to offer. but the food was good and free, so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

stressiest week to date STOP will try an extensive update this weekend STOP am in need of a party STOP and some more sleep STOP great contradiction STOP hope you are all doing fine STOP i'm having fun along the way STOP cheers STOP

aren't they sweet? if nothing has changed in the meanwhile, they should still both be single, so go get 'em!

it's back to work for me now, on a sunday. but its raining outside, so it's ok. and it's game related work, so not 'really' work :-) so i promise to get the party pictures up as soon as possible and will leave y'all for now.

happy thanksgiving!

quick update: frank just sent me a picture from our dinner last night. now i will add some faces to the names i have been using. by far not all yet. more to come.

just split the archives into two separate months to further reduce load times of the old stuff. great news, eh? but there really isn't much to tell about the past two days except for the fact, that i am firmly wrapped up in work and have to force myself out of here at night.

but last night, verena and dave were nice enough to wake me from my workaholic slumber and remind me of a planned dinner in kitsilano, a very trendy but quite beautiful area of the city with a nice sand beach. so we went out for mexican food and it was quite delicious, as was the margherita and the beer i had. good way to relax after a long day at the faculty.

friday will be packed with lectures, office hours and presentations, but only till 7pm, after that we cook up a lasagne dinner at anne's place and indulge in drinking the wines we bought yesterday. after we're through with that, it's going to be a party at the fairview crescent dorm! as some of you know, these parties are limited to 25 people by the dormitory regulations. i'm sure it won't take long to get in to trouble. hihi, looking forward to that stunt!

in only five more hours, urte will have her absolutely final law exams and thereafter be a 'volljuristin'. cool! so no matter how it turns out, it'll be over with. that means, that she'll be partying before i get to it tomorrow night. so here's good luck to you, urte!

und ich trink ganz viele bierchen auf dich am abend! viel spass beim feiern!

ok, the old stuff is in the archive now, so if anybody is interested in the old news or wants to see the old images, click on the archive in the navigation bar.

i have been talking on the phone to many of you these past days and it makes me miss my friends and family back home. but it's great to know you all are interested in what's going on in my life. i sure as hell am interested in yours! so upon popular request, i finally got my ass in motion this morning (well, 1pm) and took some pictures of my residence. the weather here is currently beautiful again and we have a real nice autumn atmosphere now. but on to the pictures.

it's a nice place and i'm starting to feel quite comfortable. it's not my nice cozy apartment in darmstadt, but it's shaping up to be just right for my long, but temporary stay. and i'm not home that much anyway, as you might have guessed.

you might be wondering, why there are no pictures of my roommates. well, we hardly ever see each other as we all have different schedules. but i'll try to rack them up sometime so i can post them here as well. i usually don't have the digicam handy, when all are at home, but i'll try.

last night, me and a bunch of 'others' (yes, they too will be on this site soon) went to koerners pub here on campus for an acoustic guitar night, which turns out to be every monday and it's quite good! there's an hour of 'open mike' which allows every aspiring talent to perform, so perhaps dave and i will start practicing. waddaya say, dave? anyway, the evening shaping up nicely, i had a 'few' pitchers of my beloved 'pale ale' and played some rounds of pool, which i am getting better at (chris, get ready for a game in may 2002!). when frank and i finally decided to go home, he insisted on taking the bikes, whereas i thought that wouldn't be such a good idea, as i already crashed a few weeks ago. minor crash, nothing bad. so, we ended up taking the bikes and i ended up buying desinfectant cream and bandages this morning to treat my scratches and bruises from crashing once again. great. i just love the overenthusiasm i develop from a 'few' beers. so we goofed around and chased each other and i thought it would be a great idea to try and shift five gears at once to speed things up. the only thing i sped up was my trajectory towards the pavement. bad idea. but all is well, nothing to worry about. i'll try not to goof around as much the next time. kidding! i feel like a fifteen year old, bruised from trying stunts on his new bike. it's a great feeling!

you can always measure my workload for uni by the length of these updates: the longer they are, the more other stuff i would actually have to be doing. so i'll sign off for now and get back to work (at 6.30pm, great). you all take care and keep the phonecalls, emails and guestbook entries coming.

i love it! thanks.