kern f

catching up

Let's see:

We went to Europe in October for three weeks. We let my parents enjoy Nadia, while we first went to my x number of years (where x is the smallest abundant number that is not a multiple of 3) high school reunion. Was kind of weird to see vaguely familiar faces. Made me feel like an amnesia patient slowly regaining his memory. We then drove around Germany and Switzerland (some pictures of Zuerich here). We were supposed to go to Italy too but I was too lazy driving so we stayed at my parents place in Karlsruhe most of the time, swimming and doing bicycle tours.

I have to mention one little anecdote here from our trip (my wife insists): we went to the movies one night in Karlsruhe. We picked a newish movie theater in a fancy modern building that hosts the center for arts too. The movies were mostly mainstream american and at that time of night the selection wasn't that great. So we chose The Guardian. First surprise: tickets had seat assignments. We go to our seats and it's fancy, comfortable love chairs. They serve beer. Cool. Then the commercials start. It goes for a while. Pretty blend commercials that you see on TV too. Interesting they have cigarette commercials too. Didn't think I would see the Marlboro man again. So commercials still playing. We're hitting 30 min since we sat down. We both show signs of impatience. Then finally movie starts. First scene: a man and a woman have an argument in the kitchen. He insults her verbally and she hits him over the head with a frying pan. Hm. The Guardian ? Well, turns out we're in the wrong movie. The guy at the register misunderstood me. We had to walk out because both of us cannot stomach horror movies. So our night out in Karlsruhe was 45 min of commercials followed by a guy smacked by his wife with a frying pan.

What else ?

For some reason I haven't mentioned my 5 min of geek fame yet. I was the original author of a tool that became open source a while back. Cool stuff. I probably peaked back then. These days I do little puzzle snacks.

Oh, and one more thing: sometimes babies have it hard too .

chongqing

Back from our trip to Chongqing, China. Our first trip with Nadia, who is now almost 7 months old. I was paranoid and feared the worst but it was great. Nadia enjoyed it, there were lots of new things to see, lots of people smiling and waving at her. She met my wife's relatives and friends and we got to play the role of proud parents of a cute baby.

Chongqing is amazing. I'm ashamed to confess that I didn't know much about it before the trip. I got to learn and experience it, the sheer size of it (pop. 31 million), the density, everything. It's located at the point where the Yangtze and the Jialing rivers meet and it's a very hilly city with steep streets, endless stairs, funiculars and elevators that get you on streets thirty stories above ground level. There isn't much left of old Chongqing, it's a sea of skyscrapers these days (there's a saying that whenever you turn your back the city has changed). It's an economic powerhouse, expanding and changing like crazy, fueled by the electricity from the Three Gorges Dam (a pretty good documentary is coming up on Discovery Channel about Chongqing and the dam). People, people everywhere. Here are some pictures from our trip.

The last two days of the trip we relaxed in Shanghai, getting spoiled in the highest 5 star hotel in the world, the Jinmao tower. We stayed on the 77th floor.

banff

We just got back from our vacation trip to the national parks in Alberta, Canada: Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper. One day before our trip the weather forecast said rain, rain, rain for the whole week. In the end it wasn't that bad, we had some moments of sunshine. The parks are unbelievable with stunning wilderness beauty, pine forests, snow covered mountain tops, lakes, canyons, rivers, glaciers and ice fields. We had brief encounters with two black bears, some deer, elk, mountain sheep. We did some hiking carefully choosing the easiest trails (if you're an out of shape software engineer with pregnant wife you don't want to overdue it). The rain was a disguised blessing. We realized that when the sun came out and the mosquitoes started swarming all over us.

Pictures here.

hamburg

I spent the Thanksgiving week in Germany, a few days of it in Hamburg at my brother's place. Hamburg is an interesting and pleasant experience, a city that draws its energy and vitality from the huge harbor (second largest in Europe after Rotterdam I think).

I took some pictures and also stole some pictures from my brother's large collection. I let you guess which ones are which.

vancouver

We took a trip to Vancouver on the Labor Day weekend. We went because my wife has family there and we haven't seen them in a while. Even if you don't have family ties it is worth checking out the region. It is beautiful with its bays, islands, calm seas ideal for kayaking, surrounding mountains and forests. Excellent restaurants too. We are sooo tempted to move there. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be many cs jobs available and I don't think I can convince my current employer to allow complete tele-commuting. Oh well.

Here are pictures of the trip. My wife took the pretty flower ones (Butchart Gardens near Victoria on Vancouver Island). She used an Olympus C-750 Ultra Zoom camera she bought on eBay recently.

And since we're on this topic I thought I'll post some more flower pictures taken by my wife with the new camera, this time in our backyard.

golf cart parade

We spent the Fourth of July on Catalina Island, a mediterranean paradise off the coast of Los Angeles, about an hour away with a ferry from Long Beach. There are very few cars on the island, everybody uses golf carts, so the Fourth of July parade was a parade of golf carts.

Here are some snapshots.

kauai

Just came back from a vacation on Kaua'i. It was our first time on the island and we're still dazed by its beauty. It has the most amazing assortment of picture-perfect sceneries: ocean beaches, mountains, forests, rivers, waterfalls, plains, canyons. 70% of the island is untouched and unreachable and can only be experienced by helicopter.

Here are some snapshots.

back from vacation

We're back from our trip to Europe. It was very nice, the trip had a lot of variety ranging from lazily enjoying the beach in Lido di Jesolo to visiting cultural sites in Venice, Verona and Munich to seeing birds of prey and free-ranging monkeys in France. Food was excellent too with nice dining in Italy to Doener Kebaps and Mum's food in Karlsruhe, Weisswurst and Schweinsbraten in Munich, Flammkuchen in Alsace, France, Neuer Wein and Pferdewurst in Speyer, Pfalz. We visited the beautiful old village of Meersburg where I did my last year of high school a decade ago and I ran into a teacher there who recognized me. What memory ! We saw the Rhine waterfalls in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, and we relaxed in my hometown, Karlsruhe, with family and friends.

Pictures of the trip are here.

getty center

We spent the 4th of July weekend in LA and we got to visit the Getty Center. It was great. The building complex is impressive. It is actually even more impressive than the art on display inside. Apparently it was a dream project for architect Richard Meier. A good description can be found here. I can only describe it as Ancient Greece meets Bauhaus style. We took some photos of our visit.

flash forward

Check out this year's flash film festival nominees at the flash forward conference. There is some really cool stuff in there. I had the chance to sneak in and watch last year's festival when my wife attended the conference and I happily tagged along for the trip. Flash has this wonderful quality of uniting the artist crowd with the hacker crowd and the results are very creative. And NY is the perfect setting for this conference, very streamlined, energetic, awake, fast. I miss that city. The company (my wife and I both work for the same shop) didn't send her this year. Oh well.