tvc15

What´s Hot Next That Is Not Real?

We hear that there is a book becoming rather popular fast which deals with the 101 most influential people who never lived. So what´s next? The 5000 non existent blog entries that could have changed the world? The seven wars that never happened but would have ended history? Three million faked orgasms? Four billion gallons of water that could have been wet but turned out rather dry?

Four Megs

Hearing that a 10 mega pixel camera comes up with pictures of four megabytes size I think having 10 megs of internal memory is an insane stunt. Of course they love to sell memory cards as well but why isn´t a considerable amount of internal memory already on board? And even if one has a one or two gigabyte card ready, storing some hundred pics from a holiday now is can become an adventure. Where will this all end?

Posing With Skulls

German soldiers did pose with skulls in Afghanistan. And what do I hear on television from a Bundeswehr official? "We must prepare them better for their services abroad." Beg your pardon? Prepare them better? In what way? How to find skulls more quickly? Give them better spades to dig with? Tell them not to do so? Hey, leave that skull alone comrade!

A better solution would be not sending scum equipped with guns anywhere!

Sea And Sand

Taken this September at Lamai beach, Ko Samui.

When I´m 67...

Looks like I´m going to retire at 67! If I ever live that long, that is! Germany will change pension age from 65 to 67, as from those born from 1964 onwards. Maybe they should push it to 70 in years to come, it´s easier to remember and this makes sure many more people will not see their pensions at all. Or looking behind those facts, these are just plans for lowering the pensions in advance, because people will still want to quit earlier. You want your pension sooner? Well, cope with less money. Or should we all prepare for elder police- and firemen on patrol? Doctors with shaky hands? Trash men with grey hairs? Ever young insurance salesmen? Trusty old stewardesses? Take That with hearing aids?

Even More Lyrical Spam

This message came in today, another perfect example of lyrical spam on a fluxus tip:

Gross optional is summary duties Describe athings accomplish bequipment tasks is perform task etc clients Oversee a Determine future above in chart Above None. Power Gens or Smash pc port a alsolist pros cons Adventure Classic from a platform toolssign create linkcite articlein am was modified October all in gnu is License. Robotech Clive of Cussler Anne do detect is theme tke Wwwf Fark dbc Friendly Luft in Armour am loopy cats Sinatra a Dodger Hates Cheats of bot lmr Green bay Packers!

Sunset

The sun setting over Singapore this September.

Sexy, Because It´s Not So Poor

Today the German supreme court came up with a wonderful reply to Berlins´ permanent financial difficulties. The chronically "budgetary emergency" of the capital will not be supported by any debt relief. The majors´ populist "Poor but sexy" slogan heard a witty "Sexy... because it´s not so poor" from the court. We think this is simply brilliant!

12000 And 6200

With the Dow hitting the 12000 mark and the DAX touching the 62o0 one wonders what will happen next! Especially as October is a "likely" month for stock market crashes. At least on Black Monday in 1987 I didn´t have a single share or any funds... Same for the 1997 mini-crash, as with many people that jumped on the train at the end of the 90s. Or should we be more worried about October 2007? Or buy more shares tomorrow?

Now It´s Official

The weather is changing rapidly in Germany, a new study suggests. You heard about it before, but when a study comes out the official, government sponsored way, things suddenly appear more likely. Or more factual. The magazines and newspapers feature the topic, the shows on TV are full of it.  A dynamic simulation of climate was used we read. That´s more evidence than a static one, isn´t it? Two to three degrees rise in temperature are quoted, possibly close to four.  Less rain in some places and fields running dry, tornados in other regions. 16 billion Euros of costs to cope with this, 27 billion until 2050. Hey, a new tax on the horizon? Global warming tax anyone?

Pirates

Walking along a shopping road in Thailand I could not resist and bought around 20 Playstation 2 games. The covers and the disks look nearly genuine but at 2 Euros a throw everyone knows they are pirate copies. And every DVD oder music CD one could think of was there as well. Plus PC software and all the other things one could fake. Makes looking at shops here appear quite silly, leave alone buying something for the original price.

Fascination

After the demise of my trusty camera, my favourite shot from the holidays was taken with my mobile. The scene was a night market/ funfair in Ko Samui where Thais of all ages were enjoying themselves.

New Cam

So what new camera to buy? There is a billion of cams about and many seem to serve my purposes! What I really like about the Exilim series is they are fitting into a pocket without much hassle. But they drown in medium size canoes, that´s a fact! But none of them seem to have more than a 3x optical zoom. Which would be handy for many shots, but as soon as it´s more than 3x optical, the cams are not particularly handy anymore. And who needs 10 mega pixels? Once you have them, you don´t want to miss them, I understand. As you see, it´ll take some time...

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Lion City

As promised more snapshots from Singapore are shown in this separate section now.  As you will see the town is a strange mixture of skyscrapers, signs concerning fines, temples, lots of greens and a couple of Asian cultures living along with each other. Plus some millionaires. So please do not forget to flush the toilet after use!

Architecture VI Singapore

Of course the photo section of high-rise buildings will have to continue after being in Singapore last month. The city does indeed feature some impressive buildings, as well as pretty boring ones in the suburbs all over the island. Here you can see some of the more interesting sites we saw there.

CIMG5066

CIMG5066 was the last shot produced by my Casio Exilim EX-Z4, before it fell into the canoe (which was partly filled with water) at the Angthong Marine Park in Thailand. That´s 5066 pictures taken since 2003. Bye Bye!

Thaid Up

Back from holidays it´s time to put some photos up. Let´s start with the end, as my trusty Casio Exilim fell into water during the first week in Thailand. So presented here are some of the last shots ever made with that cam. I do think it would be possible to repair it, but as it hasn´t got any image stabilizer it´s time for a change. Especially the shots at night suffered from not having a stabilizer onboard. As you may see soon in the section about Singapore.

Don´t Believe The Hype

DJ Nukem is a sad spoilt bastard from the Swiss. Maybe all the hype about him and the frequent bookings have gone to his head. He was booked for yesterdays Greenkomm afterclub in Cologne, turned up and stopped after an hour or so, because he thought the venue was not full enough and therefor was not worthy to hear him any longer. Looking miserable he stood around for a while and decided to leave and not to come back. Think this guy needs a quick reminder he is there to play and  get the dancefloor packed and not the other way round. Zero respect.

DJ Alien stepped in and saved the morning with a brilliant set, filling the floor, making everyone jump & jive. Full Respect!

Halt! Wohin?

Coming back home after three weeks in Asia one realises how often people in Germany are unfriendly and square headed. Some of the first German words we heard were a rigid "Halt! Wohin?" (Stop! Where you´re going?) by a border official when we didn´t find the right way to the luggage pickup at Frankfurt airport, because the terminal is being renovated at the moment. The sad bloke in his uniform was standing with his arms stretched out wide as if he wanted to catch two convicted murderers. The way he shouted that phrase appeared as if he had served long years on duty along the iron curtain. We´re sure it would have been a polite "Sir, may I help you?" at Changi airport in Singapore.

Next was the conductor on the train to Cologne who spend ages looking thru our tickets and started complaining one was surely not valid because the wrong voucher had been ripped out on the outward train journey. Or did he really think we sold the voucher in Thailand for enormous sums of money? In a sudden act of mildness he finally ripped the other voucher out and stamped the ticket with deadly precision. He surely wasn´t enjoying his work on Saturday. So we only could ease his sorrow with a "Have a nice day".

So we can´t recommend Germany for your next holiday...