End of the year.

The year will be over in a few hours and as in past years I would like to finish it with a quote.

This years quote is a special one.

It does reflect my "modus operandi" as I also find the biography of the man, Eric Hoffer, who said this to be interesting.

Values, fears and hopes are things deeply inside a person and trying to be oneself and realizing self defined goals for none is easy. Sometimes it seems that just very different point of views collide and things meant and things perceived differ drastically.

And sometimes not wanting to compromise ones principles lead to difficulties.

I wish all those who have been part of my last year all the best.

I wish you, that you may realise your goals.

"In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists."

Eric Hoffer

Christmas impressions

Christmas impressions

Hope Christmas time was pleasent for all. It was a relaxing time for me. A good time to read some books and just walk around the beach.

And now..

..something completely different.

The morning

The morning

The morning was arriving and I although some time ago I immediately would have joined them today I preferred to watch the familiar scene from a certain distance. Nipping slowly on my drink was a good start for a Sunday morning.

@Fabric

@Fabric

The lady was taller than me. She ordered a double Gin Tonic and a shot. After drinking the shot she turned around and walked to a man. There she stand. She began to smile, danced and after a while she looked him in the eyes and gave him a short kiss. The voice of the bartender suddenly disturbed my observation of the scene. I ordered a Whiskey-Coke and a shot of Vodka for me. The lady was too young for drinking shots alone.

Man at work

Man at work

Underneath the turntables was the crowd. On the right side there were also people dancing but he did not take notice of them since the moment, he was mixing the two songs, was critical for him. He did not care whether the kids noticed the details, he did, and that was important for him and although it seems not obvious, he took his proud out of doing this good for them.

room.three

room.three

The crowd was young and enthusiastic. A little bit too enthusiastic for my taste right now. They were all looking in the same direction and the disco lights in different colors was moving above them in circles and waves. One young lady was making a picture with her camera. She was neither smiling nor looking as she were enjoing herself like the others. She took the photo to not forget the evening.

Boogy Woogy?

Boogy Woogy

I seemed to be dressed a little bit too "posh" for this location. Nevertheless the music was housy and the over the different floors people were having a good time. Maybe the advice of the lady had been a joke?

A club´s name

The phone call woke me up in the morning. A lady told me the name of a club and hang up. She didn´t even bother to tell me her name. But I knew the voice and although I usually don´t talk too much I would have asked her how she was going.

Sushi and Coke

Sushi and Coke

As a preparation I decided to take a private "Finest Sushi" for 3.49 and a Diet Coke Lime for 0,84 pence. I was happy that I could pay with some coins I always used to have with me. Maybe it was also a bit of relief, that I still could mantain the illusion that I had some notes in my pocket. The Lime Coke would be my Caipirinha substitute, and knowing that in Rio they would give me a whole bottle of the real stuff for that price didn´t make it taste much better. But I was not in Rio, I was in the city. And I had a job to do.

The Champagne

Champagner

The Champagne was great but it was still too early to even think of getting a bottle. I made a mental note and decided to come back to consider it after my local problems had been clarified.

A walk in the park

A walk in the park

The wind was cold and although it had been a very warm winter up until now in Frankfurt and London I sensed that thinks began to change. And it was happening quicker than I thought. Here no one would give me answers. But to settle away from my day time activities and focus on my tasks it was pretty good.

Folk music

Folk music

The man was playing his music and distracted me for a while. I was thinking that maybe I should have put my coat on but then maybe it was better to get accustomed to it. Maybe he had seen something but I wanted not to disturb him....more.
This approach wasn´t really working to well. It was time to get some Sushi and visit a Bar.

Afternoon, the next day

Afternoon, the next day

Too early for dinner and already too late for espresso. The cappuccino was good; the shortbread was suspicious. Eating too much makes me tired.

In the evening.

In the evening.

It was late and I was hungry. It was too late for Falafel but it tasted great. The idea of having choosen the wrong box irritated me. The day had been long and it was time to go to bed.

"Custom" order

"Custom" order

Later in the office I looked at the manual and noted a slighty changed option. Tomorrow maybe some more milk would be good. I never have been a friend of the syrups but it´s never too late to try some new tastes.

The bitter taste of espresso..

The bitter taste of espresso..

The sugar looked strange and the taste wasn´t typical either. Maybe the espresso was too strong for me today. I hope so..

In the Lasagne?

In the Lasagne?

The food looked great but I could not really relax. Too much had been going on and my thoughts were spinning through my head.

Hidden in the dessert?

Hidden in the dessert?

The first desert that day was difficult to chose. The idea of making the wrong decision paralised me. I considered taking the fruit but settled for the cake.

Missing service?

Missing service?

After landing I noticed immediately that there was a possibility to declare the Polonium but no one would have been there to attend the guest. Was it a problem of bad customer service?
The breakfast had been gone and I was thinking were I could get some juice to satisfy my quench.

Usability issue?

Usability issue?

In the morning I noticed how the way the rules on the backside of the ticket were described were not really user friendly. The sentence was too long and the picture more an invitation than a statement which forbides something. Maybe the word "not" should have been written in capital letters or the whole phrase should have said "Don´t even think about it". It was before breakfast and I knew it was going to be a long day.

And now..

..something completely different.

"Transnationaler sozialer Raum"

Einen Artikel den ich in Telepolis über einen lesenswerter Aufsatz entdeckt habe, handelt über Transnationalisierung (Transnationalisierung von unten). Der Begriff war mir neu; es geht um die Individualvernetzung über Landesgrenzen hinweg.

Die Primärliteratur schliest mit dem Fazit:

"In kosmopolitischer Perspektive geht es auch
darum, eine ironische Distanz zur eigenen
Kultur zu entwickeln und anderen Kulturen
und Menschen mit Respekt und Toleranz
zu begegnen. Ein weltbürgerliches Bewusstsein
überwindet die nationale Grammatik,
die sich an der Leitunterscheidung zwischen
nationaler Zugehörigkeit und Nicht-Zugehörigkeit
ausrichtet, und orientiert sich trotz
Verschiedenheit an den Prinzipien der Gleichbehandlung."

Die kursive Hervorhebung stammt von mir.
Einen schönen Zweiten Advent.

Reading too much.

On my journey through interesting books and those already in my appartment which want to be read I came across and interesting author some time ago, Heinrich Popitz, whose books unfortunately seem to be available only in german (librarything list expanded). He was an sociologist publishing on phenomena of society. I don´t have much knowledge in this area so there are no links to other blogs. His texts are very compact and also a pleasure to read from the way he uses language.

Blogentries which called my atention this weekend:
Spirale des Todes (german only).
The world worst disease.
Both focus on the dilemma of zero sum thinking and their misrepresentation of reality.

This saturday Christmas shopping has begun (to avoid any surprise on my side on the 24th of december about still missing presents)
Best phrase heart on Saturday:
"Ich habe einen Job für dich; du gehst jetzt in den O2 Shop und nervst dort die Leute." (nerven = annoy)

15:30 Lunch

http://www.porcao.com.br

Conbrai is finished

Yesterday the Conbrai event (meeting of internal auditors from all over Brazil) I was visiting here in Rio finished. I will post some photos next week with a funny anecdote .)

#update 18.12.2006: Final day picture of Tom Wargas and me; two professionals @work)

Today I came back from São Paulo and there are just two days left to finish my business here and come back to Frankfurt. There is an airlift between the two cities so that you can go to the airport whenever you want and pretty fast have a flight to the other city. Flying time between both cities is approx. 45 minutes.

Tomorrow a short Trip to Niteroi is planned, let´s see if the plan does fit my schedule.
Cu

Beach Soccer World Cup

Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup


Hope to see some nice games tomorrow.

Arrival

For all those who care:
I have arrived at my destination the weather is not so hot as expected and pictures can be posted after my return.

On tenacity

Via Cem Basmans blog I found a nice to read article on ´What it takes to be great´. A theme that has also been covered in some magazines stating that approximate a timeframe of 10 years of practice was found to be relevant to show outstanding results in an area. It is interesting that talent itself could maybe be overrated when measured against pure will power and some kind of stubbornness.
The main question here is not ´What have you done in the last 10 years´ rather than ´What do you want to do in the next 10 years?´
Since my perspective seems to be for outsiders always a strange mixture of nostalgia and (maybe) absurd forward thinking for me this question is extremely attractive, since it gives me the chance to answer the question myself.
So ... where do we want to be in 2016? :)

Are Your Lights On?

A book I recently read and can recommend is "Are Your Lights On?" from Gerald M. Weinberg.
It is divided into six parts which are:

1.What is the problem?
2.What is the problem?
3.What is the problem, really?
4.Whose problem is it?
5.Where does it come from?
6.Do we really want to solve it?

It´s easy to read, contains some interesting (but not necessarily new) concepts and can maybe be part of your consultant tool box when trying to get things accomplished.
Weinberg has published various books which emphasizes, that problem solving is not a technical issue but has to do with how you think and which point of view you take into consideration.

Thought Moments

Don´t try this at home

Don´t try this at home
Originally uploaded by Lui.Z.

B-)

Frankfurt Fotoblogging

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Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

Club Location Award

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Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

We here in Dietzenbach do not have many places to have a drink. One of those places is the "Club 33".

Post-it

Post-it
Originally uploaded by sloganmaker.

Found on sloganmaker.net.

Ryanair-"feeling"

DSC00514
Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

Music @the beach

„Who dares wins“ and „Ghostbusters“

„Who dares wins“ is the name of a jump and run computer game which was released in the 80s.One of the reasons I remember the game is because it´s one of those I finished, I played it through, every level of the game without a cheat and without modifiying a lousy savegame.It think it took me two weeks to do this and the day I accomplished the last level was in the morning of a regular school day.
In those days school did not have the priority it maybe should have had.
My mother went to her half-day job and I was expected to go to school with the other kids when they were ringing at the door to take me with them.What happened is that since I already was sitting in front of the computer I told them just to wait a few minutes until I showed up. Pretty soon they realised that if they would wait until that moment we all would arrive too late at school and they decided to go without me.So I was playing that game every day in the morning before going to school and soon I mastered one level after the other.
As far as I remember the last two levels were pretty hard. From todays point of view it was a simple shooting game where a soldier had to fight his way through a playingfield upwards by shooting other soldiers or throwing granates near where they were standing or hiding.So finally one day I mastered to reach the last level and you can imagine my nervousness after having played it again and again to finally reach that last stage. I knew it was the last because they were numbered and somehow it was obvious how many levels the game would have.The only problem was, that the last level did not display the playingfield right. There were ugly pixel everywhere and the „sprites“ (the technical term for those user defined graphical objects which in this case were supposed to be soldiers) were displayed as boxes and everything was awkward and barely identifiable. I suppose it was an error that happened when cracking the game or just an error in the copy.
So there I was sitting and playing that last level that took me so much time to reach. And to make a long story short; I did it.It was overhelming; there I was alone in my room having played through the whole game; smiling and happy.
That day I also arrived late at school and I think I can remember saying to the others that „I did it!“ when entering the class room.
I sure can´t remember what we learned at school that weeks or even that year, but I can remember the game and that it was an successful effort.
I learned more by playing that game through than I learned in some school class.

„Ghostbusters“ is the name of the game of the computer game corresponding to the movie.It was also a game I used to play but I never finished it. The aim of the game was to hunt ghosts. The game was not organised in levels but the speed in which the ghosts appeared on the screen was becoming faster and when the player could not hunt them down one by one fast enough the remaining ones would accumulate in a house in the center of the city were finally they would sum up to a really big ghost.
So that last task consisted in somehow trick that last big ghost, or to be fast enough to run by its side and to not be caught, I can´t really remember it to well. One day I stopped playing it. I did not look for cheats or how-to´s on how to make it. I just stopped playing it. It was not longer important for me to play that game for whatever reason.

Currently I am reading „Weinberg on Writing“ and since he states that writing about something one cares about is a preliminary for writing itself I write about those two games.

Ergonomics

Usability

Mobile devices empower their users to adapt their global working style to nearly every circumstance. Nevertheless those technical tools still could be improved to take into consideration "user posture" and "limited bandwith after thunderstorms".

www.LaTraviesa.es


A short video from a bar where usually on Sundays concerts from different bands are held.

Arrival

Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

As you can see on the upper left the passengers for the next flight are already waiting to enter the plane. We call it here "ir con el pito al culo" :-)
Ok, the flight was already 40 minutes late..

Airtaxi

Airtaxi
Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

"luisfolchspeaking"

Looks like a new toy for the blog. Voice recording is indeed nothing new; the nice feature of Evoca is that it provides also a german telephone number which you can call to record your postings(030 Berlin). It recognizes the user by the registered phone number you call from (caller id) so that no further pin is required and you can start recording imediately after the tone.
Perfect to call from a mobile phone. Posting requires an additional publishing step on their site.
The free account offers a 60 minute hosting service.
Try it for yourself at Evoca.

Fotoblog London Airport

On time
Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

No comment

Hotel lobby-ing

Lobby
Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

flickr badget

flickr badget
Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

tbd: read a manual :)

NYC Fotoblogging

DSC00445
Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

Central Park

NYC Fotoblogging

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Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

NYC Fotoblogging

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Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

Empire State Building

NYC Fotoblogging

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Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

NYC Fotoblogging

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Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

NYC Fotoblogging

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Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

NYC Fotoblogging

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Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

NYC Fotoblogging

DSC00298
Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

Fotoblog NYC

DSC00275
Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

Fotoblog NYC

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Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

Fotoblog NYC

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Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

"test test test"

Just a small test post from the Apple store in New York (and bothering Michis girlfriend with the obvious benefits of owning an Ipod)... :)

The desaster begins.

DSC00236
Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

Samba on the streets of Frankfurt

DSC00235
Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

Flying back to Frankfurt

Sometimes the best you can do in a plane is
just to sit there and watch out of the window.

Last impressions from the city

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Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

Presenting yourself @work

Person A: "Hello, I am the Sox man."
Person B (making a move like pulling of his shirt to reveal a fancy t-shirt with a cool logo on it): "Sounds like a kind of super hero!"
Person A: "No, it´s not."

The best sense of humor still is found in IT departments.

"Plazes"

Playing around with Plazes:

http://beta.plazes.com/whereis/luiz

Sunday@Hyde Park

Guess who is going to see Depeche Mode and Thomas "She blinded me with science" Dolby tomorrow :)

Event: O2 Wireless Festival

Here are some pictures.

"How to" of the day

How to safe half of the time you need for laundry:
Wash black & white together.

Pics of the weekend

Two picture sets coming up for the weekend.
One with a few impressions on the Rose and Light Festival at the Frankfurt Palmengarten which was pretty full at Saturday. Usually being a more empty place it had three stages and the visitors laid pictures from tea lights.
Sunday I saw the Brasil - Australia game at the MainArena. Pretty good idea to put a gigantic screen on the Main! (Wait for the pictures..)

##Update:
Only one pictureset: "Guckst Du hier"

Nevertheless I am in London right now and the next set is going to have some city impressions. Nothing big like pictures from buildings which all know from the tourists guide but from my daily walk to work which surprisingly to me is nearly different every day. Not that it has something to do with my fab sense of orientation but maybe with my taste of risky adventures like crossing the street on red.

If someone has a recomendation for Saturday night: walkingaround(at)luisfolch.com

Tuna Fish Sandwich

Tuna Fish Sandwich
Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

Hey Hobbes, maybe it´s time to learn to cook by yourself ;)

Tube-City

DSC00072
Originally uploaded by aquarius72.

Trying to make some pictures with a new cam.

Skyarena

Skyarena was the name of the show that could be seen in Frankfurt this weekend and today. Upond the skyscrapers scenes and pictures standing for the "11 EMOTIONS OF SOCCER" are being displayed and you can listen to comments from former comentators. Does not sound spectacular, but is better than it sounds.
Nicer pictures can be found on the official site(or later here :) ).