leisures books to-do list, originally uploaded by floho.

I was thinking about writing a nice little piece on motivation, on the small and big things in life that you don’t really pay attention to until you almost fall over them because they become milestones, stepstones or road blocks all of a sudden. I discarded that idea – about half a minute ago. Instead, today I’ll give you a glimpse at my literary To-Do lists. There are two – one with “leisure” books, one with “business” books. Please understand that both terms are applied in a very broad sense. Still, they are on two different bookshelves, hence they get separate mentions. As both lines are quite long, I’ll deal with them in a single post each.

The leisure books (left to right):

• “Das Streiflichtbuch”: Collected columns of the S?ºddeutsche Zeitung (German newspaper). Got that as a gift when I finished my civil service in 2003.
• “Das Rätsel der Menschwerdung” (Josef H. Reichhoff): A book about the genesis of the human race in relation to nature. A gift from a very important friend of the family, he sent it to me in 1999. It was a bit much for me at that time, but I’m looking forward to it now.
• “Wie zerstört man eine Demokratie” (Naomi Wolf): How to destroy a democracy. A friend of mine thought that I need that book and gave it to me last year, be it only for the title, or in case I changed careers
• “Warum und wohin” (Harald Schmidt): Columns of Harald Schmidt, one of the people who shaped the German TV landscape and copied the likes of Letterman etc. for the first time here.
• “The Gum Thief” (Douglas Coupland): I liked his “Microserfs” to death, but I can’t get to grips with this one, it is just too meta for me. Still, I’ll try to bite through.
• “The Rules of The Game” (Neil Strauss): Fun book that allegedly teaches a man how to charm the ladies of the world. Bought it after I had enjoyed his original book, “The Game”, but quickly realized that I’m not really willing to change how I interact with women based on that book, not even for a trial period. Don’t know why it is still on the reading list after all – maybe for desperate times?
• “Wien”: A travel guide to Vienna. Must be sorted into the travel book section.
• “The Bounce Back Book” (Karen Salmansohn): Got it in a bad time, and apparently my life got better before I finished it. Maybe just keep it there for the time when I start reading that Neil Strauss book and utterly fail…
• “Der seltsame Fall des Benjamin Button” (F. Scott Fitzgerald): The curious case of Benjamin Button – interesting how they made quite a long movie out of quite a small novel!
• “Todesspiel” (Jon Sandford):A hacker dies, data gets in wrong hands, thriller ensues.
• “The Ridiculous Race” (Steve Hely & Vali Chandrasekaran): Stole it from my sister. Hilarious read.
• “The Bro Code” (Barney Stinson): If I have to explain to you why this is legen-wait for it!-dary, then you have to get to know me better. Really. I mean – really really.
• “Smorebrod in Napoli” (Sebastian Schnoy): It says “an enjoyable stroll through Europe”. He’s a comedian. I have no clue how that will turn out…
• “Die Täuschung” (Caleb Carr): I loved the first 2 thirds of it, then it drags a bit. About something like the league of extraordinary gentlemen, but in a different setting, with different personas. You know?!
• “Skal, Admiral von Schneider!”: Scandinavian stories about christmas, drinking, and drinking at christmas. (Yeah, I bought this last christmas season. So what?)
• “Fatal Error” (Michael Ridpath): Start Up, hackers, deadly revelations.
• “The No Plot? No Problem! Novel-writing kit” (Chris Baty): I’ll use this in November, when I try to write the rough first draft of my first novel in 30 days, jumping on the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) bandwagon.
• “Yes, i bounce!” an advertising booklet from California Sunbounce. Needs to be trashed.
• “The Art of War” (Sun Tzu): An original with “psychological comments”. Well, this is gonna be interesting. Or mightily boring…
• “I love you!” A small book, actually a “gift” by Thalia bookstore I got a while back. It has an ad on the back of the cover, so it is very unuseable, even if the content was good, which it is not really. So it’ll stay there, as I can’t throw away books, and this is close enough to a real book to trigger my instincts.
• “Alles” (Herberg Grönemeyer): A Songbook with most of Grönemeyer’s songs. From the two weeks last year where I thought I’d pick up and improve my guitar game. Which I… didn’t really.
• “1000 Tipps für die Gitarre” (Mike Eulner, Jacky Dreksler): See above.
• “Mavericks at work” (William C. Taylor, Polly Labarre): Great book, but it belongs in the “business” section. Also, I finished it, so it doesn’t belong in the To-Do section there, either.
• “Eternal” (Craig Russell): Crime, set up in Hamburg, following a very nicely done first one. It is still very irritating to read all the German inbetween the English text, but still I refuse to buy books in German when they were written in English wherever I can. Bites me big time in this case.
• “Traffic” (Tom Vanderbilt): Everything you ever wanted to know about traffic. If you are, like me, someone who actually gives a damn. I can fully subscribe to the slogan on the cover: “Will appeal to fans of Top Gear and readers of Blink and Freakonomics”. (I bought this, really, because all three things apply to me, and I was not disappointed!)
• “Zweierlei Glück” (Bert Hellinger): Hellinger invented his own kind of psychotherapy, which I find appaling and interesting at the same time, so I try to get some more background info on him and his work.

singled out, originally uploaded by floho.

I will remember June 21st 2010 in a weird way. That day, a little over three weeks ago, I was battered, without much reason at all, by some soccer fans.
On the way to the supermarket with my girlfriend and her dog, we had just made it 50 meters from her apartment, when a “happy” group of soccer fans, all dressed up to celebrate their team (it was the world cup, mind you), came our way on the pavement.

Shoulders brushed – not really accidentally on the other side. I apologized anyways, to be on the safe side. Don’t argue with drunken people, I have learnt. Their logic does not compare to yours. “It’s all good, just walk on” I said.
“What if I don’t want to walk on?” was the reply, yelled at me from behind.
The next moment the shoulder-brusher grabbed me so hard it caused bruises through the leather jacket I was wearing. First I was yelling back at him to stop and at his friends to get him to order. Soon enough I was just screaming for help, of the top of my lungs, for the first time in my life. In a matter of seconds the situation had gone out of hand – I realized that I was not strong enough to get that man off me, I lost control. Moments later he pushed me against a parked car and choked me with both hands, so that I couldn’t scream anymore. Then the setting changed, I was thrown to the street and with the help of one other guy I got some kicks in the stomach as well.
It all lasted all but a minute, then my attackers were convinced by their entourage that it would be wise to get away before my calls for help were answered.
They got on their way, I got on my feet. My girlfriend, who had ran for help, returned with the most worried look on her face you can imagine. I looked battered – I was, but I wasn’t bleeding, I was walking by myself – by all counts, I was good.

For a moment I considered to just let it be. They would be gone anyways, long before the cops arrived – and I sure as hell would not run after them, asking for seconds. But it did not ring right… for the first time in my life I had screamed for help, because I feared for my life. That could not be let go like this. So I called the cops.

They arrived ten minutes later, the attackers long gone, and looked disappointed to just see me there, with my leather jacket in my hand, and a ripped-apart t-shirt underneath. Still, they called an ambulance to make sure I am OK. By the time the ambulance arrived, I had started shaking, the adrenaline wearing off. To be on the safe side, they drove me to the hospital for a complete checkover.

We waited. And waited. Of course, the “polytrauma” in the other room had a higher priority than me. I had walked into the emergency room myself, so by definition I wasn’t an emergency. When the doctor came, he ordered an ultrasound and an x-ray scan of my abdomen to make sure my internal organs were OK. Luckily, they were. I had officially come away with bruises – on my neck and on my arm.

The next day: More doctors. First the forensic medicine department of another hospital, to get an official report on my injuries as evidence, should the thing go to court (I had filed against my attackers, regardless of them being gone). Then the “normal” doctors for a sick certificate.

And some time to think.
Nothing really happened. And a lot. I had never gotten into a real fight in my life. Somehow my world had been shaken a little bit, and I needed some time to deal with that. A lot of talking. This blog post. Realizing and accepting that although my body was left quite intact (thank god!), it still had an effect on me, and it is OK for me to not be over it immediately.

A week later, somebody bumped into me from behind – just ever so slightly. I got pale, and my heart started racing…. apart from that, it seems that the way I dealt with it helped. I’m just a bit more cautious now when coming across drunk people. Their logic does not compare to mine, at all.

Before you raise your hands to the heavens and cry out in the face of too much unfairness in the world… this picture was taken in France a few weeks ago during our vacation. Matter of fact, it did not rain _once_ during that week. Sometimes you get lucky, I suppose…
Today it is raining where I am (Netherlands) and I expect it to rain all the way back to Hamburg. Bah!
But that’s exactly the reason for posting this: Be reminded of a warm, colorful and happy day (and it has two pieces of Flan cake on it… come on! CAKE!), and all of a sudden the day is not so grey anymore.
Let’s hope that the heat wave that is suggested to hit Germany is accompanied by lots of sunshine. I miss it!

20100529-P1020081.jpg, originally uploaded by floho.

The weekend felt really short – but that was mainly due to the long list of great things that happened!

After a relaxed morning, my girl and I dropped off her dog at a friend and got on our way to Berlin. Why Berlin? Because my birthday present were two tickets to go see the old dogs of the Scorpions (which, even if you are not into rock, know by their all-time classic “Wind of Change”). They are currently on their final tour around the world – which made it even more special to get to see them!

The long road to my birthday present
I had known about the trip since my birthday in March – but I only knew that we would be going somewhere to do something. To actually find out what my present was, I had to play, and win, multiple (read: Over 20) games of Rommy and a few of Halma (in which I get regularly beaten like there is no tomorrow by my girl). Winning a game of Rommy gave me a question, which I needed to fill in a crossword puzzle. Winning a game of Halma gave me a piece of a solution sheet, where I could fill in the letters I got out of parts of the crossword puzzle. You see… it took me a while. Actually, it took me until Friday, when my girl finally loosened the rules a little bit to get me towards the last letter that I needed to solve the puzzle. So, Berlin it was – and the Scorpions!

Camping in the middle of Berlin
Taking the 3h drive home after the concert did not seem too desirable, so we looked into fun alternatives. We ended up booking a place with the Tentstation – a few inventive people have made the area of a public bath that is up for renovation into a campsite, right in the heart of Berlin (5min walk from the Hauptbahnhof). We got there early in the evening, pitched our tent, checked in, and went on our way to the O2 Arena to see the concert.

Old boys rockin’ Berlin – a bit.
We came when the Scorpions were already playing, but apparently the supporting band had not gotten to the crowd… the mood was a bit mellow, to say the least. It took until the final three songs to get the crowd really moving, but I couldn’t care less. We had a good time, the music was great – I loved my birthday present!
After the concert we rounded off the evening in Kreuzberg with a cocktail during the final voting of the Eurovision Song Contest (there the crowd was MUCH more energetic, although the music was MUCH worse… could the cocktails for 3,9 EUR have influenced that somehow? We then moved on to an Indian/Singapore style restaurant with nice outdoor seating (heated, I have to admit, it was quite chilly) – great way to end the day.

Cake for breakfast
Before leaving town on Sunday, we hopped over to the Hamburger Bahnhof (which is an art gallery these days) – to be exact, to the café of chef Sarah Wiener next to the gallery – for breakfast. The cakes caught our attention good, so that was it: Afternoon coffee + cake for breakfast. Meanwhile the weather changed from “alright” to “nightmare rain”, which was our call to head back home. Needless to stay that it kept raining in Hamburg – and since I got to Utrecht on Monday for work, it rained there, too. I want my vacation’s weather back!!! (Scrap that, I want all of my vacation back! )

20100515-P1010786.jpg, originally uploaded by floho.

I can hardly believe it, but since Friday, I am officially on vacation! This is, apart from a few single days, the first time that I have gone on vacation (in terms of “I planned it beforehand, and I left home). Good times! My girl and I packed the car with everything you could possibly need on our roadtrip that will eventually lead us to the Loire valley in France, where we plan on having the most relaxed time inbetween castles, wineyards and scenic landscapes.

Of course there also needs to be some action in every vacation, this is why we start it with the federal party convent (Bundesparteitag) of the Pirate Party Germany in Bingen am Rhein over the weekend. Lovely little city, and for two days now, it is filled with 1000 Pirates!

While the first day was filled mainly with the election of the national chairman (stayed the same) and his deputy (stayed the same), but the second day now sees a lot more real activity. For example, the Pirate Party Germany now is the first and only party in Germany that is going to introduce Liquid Feedback (http://liquidfeedback.org/), a Liquid Democracy tool, nationwide! That really is a breakthrough in terms of grassroots democracy, and it is exciting to be a part of it.

The picture I posted here is a view from the middle of the hall where the convent takes place. Great organization, and also: working internet for everybody… a charm!

Alright, gotta go now, and make my vote count!
You can see the rest of the pictures I took of the convention here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hollender/sets/72157623946214823/show/

Getting to Munich takes a good 6 hours under normal circumstances.
We had no normal circumstances. It was snowing, it was cold, and it was the last day of the holidays for many parts of the country… so the trip took 10:30 hours, which puts our average speed at something like 75 km/h. Not that satisfying, but as you can see from the picture, we were still in a good mood after arrival!
Had great dinner that day and a good nights sleep. Yesterday I went to Munich's center to do some shopping while Gwendy was at work. Found the most unbelievably crammed, narrow and downright stupidly planned underground parking ever. Survived it without damage to the car somehow. The day was beautiful – not too cold, sunny all over… so I took some halfway nice pics with the big camera, but the upload will have to wait until I am back at decent bandwith.
In the evening we went to two cool bars ("die Bank" and "Ksar") and finished the day with a "le Üwe" at the 'Bergwolf". If you know what that is, you know we had a good time

Today I drove over to Augsburg to visit Brandi. She already gave me a thorough tour of the city – I had totally forgotten that Augsburg is the town of the Fuggers! On a sidenote – I bought a book that I THOUGHT was about Consulting. Well, it is. But the German "Beratung" has, as the english equivalent, a very broad meaning…. the book is about counseling people with personal issues, not about management consulting. But hey, it was discounted, and one can always broaden the horizon, right?!

Now we're off to grab some mexican food, and then we'll hit the bowling alley. Tomorrow: Frankfurt!

Start of the trip, originally uploaded by floho.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, long time no see, etc.!

In a few minutes I’m starting a week-long trip throughout Germany to visit some of my dearest friends. First stop: Munich. I plan on blogging some pictures from every location.

Cool twist #1: I’m taking my new car (Bizzie, she’s called), which is sweeeet!
Cool twist #2: For the long trip to Munich, I’m taking Gwen, so it’s gonna be fun from the getgo. Also, she lives there, and I’m visiting her, so it makes some good sense.
Cool twist #3: Instead of delayed christmas presents, I’ll be taking some cool photos of everyone I visit. Which they don’t know yet. The car is stuffed with all my photo equipment, and It’ll be fun for sure!

Now off we go – come and ride along!

big moon, originally uploaded by floho.

It is time to get back to blogging and open floho.com up again.
After so many months of not writing anything here, it was really difficult to decide what to say… the amateur’s form of writers’ block, I suppose.
Luckily, this picture gives me a short story to tell that might even convey some sort of meaning.

I took this picture in the early morning hours of January 11th. Although I had heard before that there was a grand photo opportunity of the moon coming up – it being the closest to earth for a long time – it had not crossed my mind to really act on it. As luck has it, I had a nightmare that night, and thus woke up really early. Before going back to sleep, I walked around in my room, and saw the big moon. I mean… the BIG moon. It was incredibly present in the sky, and brighter than I could have imagined. So I scratched my head and decided to take that opportunity right there and then. On came some clothes, the tele-zoom on my camera, the tripod on the balcony and the camera on top. as I started shooting away, switching hands in operating the trigger and warming the other one up – it was bloody cold – my next idea was to take an HDR to capture the whole beauty of the moon as it was. An HDR requires shots being taken at different exposures (I spare you the details), so I set the camera for it, pulled all screws tight on the tripod and took those exposure rows to then later put them together into one, hopefully pretty, picture.

The next day, I opened up the images on the computer and tried to combine them for that HDR I planned to create. What did I find? Bollocks. The head of the tripod must have slowly sagged under the weight of the camera – the position of the moon was shifting between the three images. So I cursed and went to the tripod – not to give the metal a good beating, although I felt like it, but would have lost – but to see what my error had been. I couldn’t find it. All screws were still in position, and no tugging and pushing could move the camera position.

This is when it dawned on my. There had been nothing wrong with the setup. The camera had not moved. The moon had, or rather: I had, because the world kept turning while I took those pictures.

Some things you cannot control. Sometimes, doing everything you can does not change things the slightest bit. That’s nothing to be bitter about – it is something to learn from.

So what did I do? I forgot about the HDR idea, looked at all pictures I had taken, and selected my favorite. The one you are seeing here. And now, it is not only a picture of the big moon anymore – it is the symbol of a little lesson that it taught me.

(from the “Sunscreen Speech“)

It was off by a day and a few hours, but these lyrics are ringing in my head constantly right now. I guess I won’t be posting much in the next days, weeks, months, who knows.

IMGP0772, originally uploaded by floho.

This little budda has been watching me sleep in my hotel this week – I could swear he gave me peace of mind.
After sunny days in Berlin and finishing my current project, I am off to Garmisch Patenkirchen, from where we’ll conquer the Zugspitze tomorrow for an all-day Meeting. I am SO looking forward to this, hopefully the weather is good – I sure brought my camera