Lifeless is online

Gleinkersee

2008-06-13T07:43:00.001-07:00

After a hard day of work

Where people's morals are shades of gray

We like to hear our families

See if our boundaries have changed

Refresh

And just look around us

Sometime we found things worth remembering.

Visit: www.gleinkersee.at

Institut Fuer Maschinelles Sehen und Darstellen

2008-06-02T10:38:00.001-07:00

Daniel

Ernst

Eduardo

Gerhard

Alessandro

Christian

Albert

And Mark

Nikon D50, Nikkor 50mm, Aperture forced wide (in some).

Tobia and Simone

2008-06-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

In Rosenhain

We visit Buda but we eat in Pest

2008-03-23T15:31:00.000-07:00

Oh wow, once again I have not been able to post anything for quite some time. Although by no means I should see this as an obligation, I still feel I should start with an apologetic note. But I wont.

So, it was Budapest this time. Doris and I decided we would take one long weekend off, in particular after a rush of paper writing I had, and the ending of her studies. So we headed east towards what they say is one of the most beautiful cities of the eastern block, together with Prague and Vienna.

My first impression was that it is not that different to Vienna. In fact, was it not for the language I wouldnt be able to tell the two cities apart. Yet, there was one thing that really captured me from both Buda and Pest: The baths. Oh delightful little places, I would go back there just so I could enjoy the hours outdoors in hot steaming water.

So, we arrived and we didnt have a place to stay, so we hunted a hostel from our dear guidebook, and we endedup staying at this gorgeous hostel, the beds werent that good but the building was worth a snapshot,

Then we walked to Heldenplatz. I have to say I really liked it, mainly because there was a lot of wind I guess. I know, silly thing but then again, I shouldnt worry about being silly.

Neverheless, the weather wasnt showing his better face so we decided to crash one of the many famous bathhouses. The only one open on that saturday afternoon (till 10pm or so) was one called Szechenyi or something. We adored it. So much that we actually stayed for 5 hours there and then we came back the day after.

On Sunday we decided to have a look at Buda, this is a classic postcard,

But the real highlight was the Fischerbastei. The following was taken by Doris,

On the way upstairs,

I like fog, I wonder why most people dont,

That day we had lunch at a great restaurant called "Menza" (spanish speakers please refrain from giggling). The food was nothing but superb, and the place itself quite well decorated,

On our last day, we took care of going to a different bath yet no less famous. The gellert baths,

The day itself was a lot sunnier. Like if Budapest was trying to make it up for pouring water constantly over our heads for two days.

This was also taken by Doris,

Although the weather had its ups,

And its downs,

we enjoyed it all the same.

Kyoto

2007-12-06T08:50:00.000-08:00

Die Aufzeichnung eines Touristen

2007-10-25T09:38:00.000-07:00

Saw it at the store.

Waited two hours. Couldnt stand it. Went back to the store. Bought it.

Opened it.

Admired it.

Ate it.

I am such a foreigner.

Housewarming party, Slovenian style

2007-10-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

How you guys doin? ............ <- Cheesy line, I know.
Well, here I am again, trying to update some recent pics on this blog. Last weekend I was invited to Gregor+Katja's house warming party. They moved recently to Riegersburg, right behind the castle to a Villa. So we ended up having a small BBQ style party on their backyard. And here are the pics:

Vanja and Katja were the main cooks. We had some gulasch style food. Quite tasty actually.

Matej and Maya also came to visit all the way from Vienna and Corinthia. It is cool to see these two even if its for a short time.

Those smile cant get any better,

Oh wait, they can. This is Mara, the daughter of Luisa (boss of Gregor). She's about 1 year old and extremely cute,

Vanja having some apfelstrudel

with Katja,

Mother

And Daughter,

And grega,

Silly Slovenes,

Silly Mexican for that matter,

The Barbaras arrived later, it was cool to see them both after quite some time,

The Krevs,

The Mexican talking up the Lawyer

They are the funny ones :D

Liza!

And Rolland, whom I met the other day in Graz by the way,

Maya,

Paki,

This guy,

This other one,

Next day we climbed the Riegersburg castle in the morning after a coffee. It was quite a pleasant walk.

Until she did this,

The other Barbara and I got yelled at for this pic,

And I leave you with this postcard,

You guys should seriously visit Riegersburg. It's fun.

Innsbruck

2007-10-05T08:48:00.000-07:00

Alright, I guess I am going to take a few more mins to provide another update. I will be quick with the text tho.

About 3 weeks ago I went to Innsbruck. City in west Austria right in the middle of the alps. I went to present a demonstration and conduct some testing with a colleague of mine, Gerhard Schall. Well, it turns out that Tyrol (region whose capital is Innsbruck itself) is gorgeous!. Is one of the very few places where I've said: I wouldnt mind if I had grown up here (I can hear the Mexicans gasping). So to the point, the place is quite beautiful and I will show you a few snapshots right now.

This is Tyrol,

Sorry about the reflections, all of these pics were taken from the train.

Cyclist

That day we explored the city of Innsbruck a bit. This is I believe, the hofburg.

And the river Inn. Look at that backdrop!

I was there, I swear, I can prove it!,

Right ...

We got there earlier so we could test the stuff. It was nice to have such view as background.

The city itself is also beautiful, and I dont say that about every city I visit.

At night, we had some dinner, I had a speck knodel, and Gerhard beer,

After that, the way home was a bit scary because theres not a lot of light on the street,

But our hotel was in a very nice area

We had to walk a bit up the mountain, but the quiet and the view was worth it

Ok, this one was more scary than impressive,

The last day was a bit rainy, but that just made the landscape even prettier :)

Hope you enjoyed the pics,

Zinzendorfgasse

2007-10-05T07:55:00.000-07:00

You know?, lately I have been so ridiculously busy at the institute that I havent had time for either taking pictures or uploading them. Ok, thats not entirely true, I have taken a few pics on reunions at home, etc. Anyhow, I seem to be in a permanent state of exhaustation, but today I will put some stuff here just to cheer my self up a bit.

Now I will just show you some pics of my place in Graz, the Zinzendorfgasse.

This is the view out of my balcony

And this too!, That tower all the way at the back is Graz' main landmark

Thats Simone,

...

Graz is a rather small place and almost in the woods. You notice that from the fact that I have to get vaccines against ticks and on the ocasional visitors we get.

One of the best things about this place is that I have the best cafe in town right across the street. The name of which might entertain some: The Beanery.

I do not live in a real Altbau (old construction) building, but it has its charm.

Thats my room :)

And thats Simone showing a pan she burnt about 2 weeks ago.

Alright, thats it for now. I hope some of you feel encouraged to visit me now :P

Contemporary Adult Commandments: Tread softly because you tread on my memes

2007-08-10T00:36:00.000-07:00

Alright, so Titab is following one of those chains you get on the internet (chain, spam, crap-thread, or whatever you want to call it), although it has now been renamed to meme (term coined by R. Dawkins). Anyhow, I found this one fun so I will reply it, tho I wont nominate anyone to do it from now on.

"Instructions: If you got this meme it means you are a contemporary adult (a thirty-something) or soon you will be one (I am even including 25ish in here!). If this is not the case, it only means the person that passed you the meme can't read, thus you are allowed to skip it.

The general idea is to give out 10 things you *must* do before you become and old bore. Commandments should be based on your *broad* experience of life, that is, a collection of wise-men DOs (but not DONTs!). After you finish the commandments, nominate at least 5 fellows who should share their knowledge of life (ha!).

A kind note for the reader: Please don't be a child and take offense from any of the items. If you do, lock your self in the toilet and scream for a while, nobody wants your shit in the comments."

Before you turn 30, thou shouldest have read an "intellectual book" even if you hate it, just so you can brag about it (Note: DaVinci Code does not count)
Before you turn 30, thou shouldest have slept with a (girl) friend of yours
Before you turn 30, thou shouldest have slept with the girlfriend of a friend of yours
Before you turn 30, thou shouldest have realized what is wrong with your country, be able to say it aloud but love it nevertheless
Before you turn 30, thou shouldest have a big fart in a public place by "accident"
Before you turn 30, thou shouldest have at least one of each of the following: Blog, Email acocunt, private website, myspace website, deviantart website, flickr account, facebook account, comic in your rss reader, rss reader.
Before you turn 30, thou shouldest have lived alone at least once
Before you turn 30, thou shouldest have stop getting money from your parents
Before you turn 30, thou shouldest have fallen in love with the wrong person, and REALLY learn about this mistake (Note: falling for the wrong one and then making the same mistake over and over does not count)
Before you turn 30, thou shouldest have had a broken condom and panicked yourself hornyless (dont know if this word even exists)

England: Stonehenge

2007-08-01T08:25:00.000-07:00

So, I have a few minutes rest and I decided to give a small update on this blog (since I forgot the pics of LaStrada at home). Anyhow, I went to England about to months ago. On my way there I stopped by to visit a few friends of mine, Rocio, Omar and Berna. Rocio and Omar live in Southampton with their daughter, Natalia. It was really cool to see them after almost two years. Rocio has been my friend since pretty much the beginning of my undergrad and she helped me a lot everytime I went back to Mexico to visit after I moved out. Well, she is now doing her PhD in the university of Southampton, I believe in Computer Security. When I arrived there she and her husband waited for me with home made pasta (proudly cooked by Omar) and mexican beer. After a few hours of just making fun of the pictures of a wedding of two dear friends of ours (Sergio and Gwendy), and a lot of talking we went to bed rather early since we would went to Stonehenge the day after,

This is Natalia, their daughter, cheerful little girl who causes havoc and mayhem wherever she goes, oh! and whom speaks english with a perfect british accent, go figure!,

And these are my friends on our way to Stonehenge,

Soon after we arrived we got ourselves some audio guides which thankfully were for free (well, sort of since there was an entrance fee)

And thank heavens that they were for free because they didnt have a lot of information to be honest. They kept saying stuff like "why the stones are here?, we do not know", "who brought them?, will always be a mistery", "why were they laid out like this? has been lost in history" and crap like that. So I am thankful I didnt have to pay for it.

The following image might be disturbing for some. This is one of those mexican weirdities, it's El Santo. He is like the Elvis Presley of the US, the Godzilla of Japan, the Schwarzenegger of Austria .... well not exactly but a very famous wrestling figure of the 60's

This is how El Santo sees things,

Oh right, I forgot, Stonehenge, here you go, on the right has been filtered with a polarizer, hence the effect,

And this is me with my dear friend. She said they will try to come visit me some time soon, I hope they do as it was a lot of fun to meet them again,

Oh right, another Mexican weirdity,

And finally, we all said goodbye to Stonehenge,

After that we headed to a nice little town not far from there, but which name I already forgot, damn! I'm old.

This is a classic,

The Wait is always the hard part,

And of course we couldnt miss the cathedral,

Oh yeah, but the brits also have their share of weirdness, check the following pics,

7,

And finally a few snapshots of the funny Natalia, I hope you like them,

And a last one from my dear friend,

Hope you liked the pics.

LaStrada 2007 begins

2007-07-28T05:34:00.000-07:00

Hey, this week LaStrada 2007 is on, so I wont be updating this blog (not that I religiously do it). Anyhow, I have another blag where I was updating last year's event. I actually have the intention to put the 2005 year's pics also ... eventually. Well, just go and have a look at it:

http://mylastradablog.blogspot.com/

Me in Southpark

2007-07-27T06:24:00.000-07:00

In a closely related subject ...

Me in Southpark

Me as a Simpson

2007-07-19T02:54:00.001-07:00

I would portray myself like this as a Simpson.

Riegersburg - Back to our monkey roots

2007-07-08T13:28:00.000-07:00

WARNING: This will be a long, long, long post.

Alright, so Gregor (slovene ex roommate tall as hell) is working now at a rock climbing park in Riegersburg http://www.naturbursch.at/. He organized some of us so that we could enjoy the park at some very affordable prices. We were about 12 people, most were slovenes, some austrians and a couple of auslaendern (including me). It was quite a fun place and as soon as my arms and my ass recover from the pain, I would do it again. So, here we go:

Starring: Maya, Matej, Dido, Katja, David and The Mexican.... alright there were more but these are the only pics I got.

So we all climbed up to an 8 meters tall platform, some by pure strength and some with a little help ;)

I was the first to climb, then the girls came leaving their boyfriends on the ground ;)

And so, off we went, I will only show a few snapshots of some of the things we got to do. David is doing ... i dont know what. Michael iss hanging from three ropes, check how high that is. And Lisa is panicking

I like these snapshots a lot. Check out Maya with the Riegersburg castle on the background. And Dido (who reportedly was afraid of the heights) showing some muscle to get pass those ropes

These two are the coolest of the set. David and meself

On the left I am crossing a "bridge" made only on ropes while Nina and Elvis cross the wooden bridge (though granted with nothing to hang on to)

Matej showing some balance in the single wood pass, Dido struggling on one of the longest paths and a little scene with a bunch of us.

Look mom!, I can do a 4 with my legs!!. Then Michael and Katja and Maya laugh

At the end we were exhausted. After a couple of hours of working out your arms and back you feel like just lying on the grass and passing out

In spanish, we call this "El muertito", Matej, Maya and me.

Alright, this one deserves mentioning: There was one "dare" were you had to jump from one platform to the next, no hands, nothing to hang on to, nothing. I was scare shitless. Check out the perspective from Katja, and Michael doing the thing.

But we all did it. Matej, Katja, Elvis, Me, and Maya. Most of us agree this was one of the worst.

I like this scene a lot. Maya fumbling with the three-ropes pass.

Oh, this one was hard. It required a lot of strength in your arms. Me and Michael in this pic.

Check out how the thing looked:

Look mom!, I can do a 4 with my legs!!. Then Michael and Katja and Maya laugh

At the end we were exhausted. After a couple of hours of working out your arms and back you feel like just lying on the grass and passing out

But then ... what we all were fearing. You had to get down somehow, and a ladder was not an option. .... Solution: You jump from the 8 meter tall platform (three girls holding you by your rope). And you have to do that all by yourself. Matej was the first:

Katja,

Michael did a great jump,

Then I crossed to the other side. Check out how Elvis did:

An Maya, actually, this look is scarier

And then me. I almost peed in my pants,

But the truly horrifying thing was this. A 6 meter tall post. Nothing holding hit, absolutely nothing. Weak enough that it moves with the wind. You have to climb up. Stand on a little tiny platform of about 10cm radius. Stand up straight, count to three, and jump!!

And this is me:

I chose Matej to be the next,

Then Maya,

Dido,

Lisa had a hard time (as did I) on the top. But in the end, she stood up and jumped. I think for those of us whom it is the most difficult appreciate it the best. Respect Lisa,

Michael did again a great jump,

And so did David,

Katja,

And then, our very own Dr. G, let himself go,

Next we did some rock climbing. Which was piece of cake after the jump. This is me on level 5 (out of 8 if im not mistaken)

Dido, Michael, Katja and Elvis. It was actually quite fun and we all tried it. Katja had a 30.6 secs record on level 5.

Katja again in level 5+, Nina, Matej and David who was unbelievably good. Check out that pose!

Then we all had dinner, with music and food. But I wont show pictures of that because theyre too dark. In the morning I woke up early just to see the sunrise,

And then I tried again, this time level 5+. But I couldnt finish the thing, my arms were just too tired. I am confident next time I will do it however.

The beautiful castle of Riegersburg was a perfect background. We went to visit it afterwards, and there I got a pic of Matej and Maya on a perfect European snapshot.

We had a nice view of the Suedsteirermark,

But ok, this is long enough. I leave you all with this funny pic,

Tchuess!

Usilauf 2007

2007-06-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

A little break from the family pics ....

Well, Paki got me convinced to do the Usilauf this year. This an annual event organized by the Sports department of the KFU (the other big university in Graz). People of all ages (I saw an old man who could not be younger than 8o) run around a hill with the only goal of finishing the lap. Every team has four members, men run 2600 meters, women 2200 and seniors 1800. All has to be done in less than 90 minutes. Afterwards there is a big party on the same grounds (reportedly with 22,000 people, tho I would say there werent more than 10,000).

And this is our team. From right to left, Eduardo and Analia the Gaucho power. Paki, the Catalugna representative and on the left the Mexican Latino man.

Die Maedels

The argentinians getting ready for the battle.

I know, i know i choped his head, but I still like this pic a lot.

Look, how determined Analia looks,

We met some of my neighbors in Zinzendorf teaming up with two pretty Vienese girls. Andreas, Sabine, Andrea and Pavlin from left to right.

And this is Sabine being "enhanced" by her coach, Iris.

The Paki wanted to go first because they run less (since its way too crowded)

Follow the leader,

Sabine took this one :) Die zinzendorfgasse-dreizehn-zweite-stock-mannschaft

And off they go!

What was funny about this race is that people got in all sorts of costumes. Some original, some bizarre, Borat for example,

And the paki arrives alive,

Which sets Analia off,

This was funny, but dumb. It was about 30 degrees and these guys were running in a bear costume (the last one wearing the sweat of the former three, ew!)

All the estafetas were quite creative,

And Andy arrives!,

These guys were exchanging the whole Cow costume,

Oh, check this old dude, he was one of those who got the loudest cheers. No wonder.

And Analia arrives!,

This sets Eduardo off,

Closely followed by one of the Sausage team,

Eduardo was our quickest,

And then I had to do my lap, but I took my camera with me. Check this snapshots I got,

One of the balloon men was faster than me,

I also found this girls enjoying the sun and the people running,

These guys were making fun of me because at the end of the lap, I fell down from a trot to a pace, they even offered me beer :)

Eduardo bathed me in water when I arrived (we did it in about 58mins). And this is the team afterwards :)

And the other team also finished in about the same time,

Finally, a pic for my american friends,

I hope you liked the pics.

Con la familia de visita: Vienna

2007-06-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

Actually, the last post was for two days of Raquel and Jose's visit. This is for the third day.

So, I took them to the Schoenbrunn. This is a very impressive Palace, but to be honest I kinda like the Hofburg and the Belvedere more (not that I have ever lived in any of them).

They had a Labyrinth were we had a lot of fun.

And these are the two of them just playing silly with some supposedly healing rocks.

They had a kinderplatz where we had lots of fun :)

We spent like half of an hour in that sandpit. And then, we went to play with Mirrors =]

Oh!, this is another classic.

This is for the Mexicans ....

A happy family =]

At the end of that day we were exhausted, and my sister couldnt help but smile when the food arrived.

And that was it for Vienna ;)

Con la familia de visita: Vienna

2007-06-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

Alright, I have tons and tons of photos to show. It would at least make 10 posts. But, I do not have the time nor the energy to do it, so I will just post a few today. And since I dont feel any creative I wont write much.

So, my sister came to Austria about two months ago. She and her husband spent some time in Prague and they I met them in Vienna. It was not their first time in Europe but it was in Austria so I had to actually prepare in order to be a good guide. Anyhow, lets just go to the pics. They were set to arrive at 6 in the morning in Vienna's Suedbahnhof, which they punctually did.

We just dropped the bags at Matej and Maya's place and we set up to explore Vienna (those two slovene's kindly allowed us to crash at their place, unfortunately we didnt meet them while there).

Look how that horse was standing!. Hahhahaha, my sister Raquel spotted that.

This is my sis and her husband at the Hofburg.

And the Bibliothek

Look, two Mendez at the Rathaus =]

This was taken by a funny Italian. .... tho I cant remember why he was funny.

And this by a funny Mexican ...

I really like this pic. I mean, pay attention to it for a few secs, maybe you'll see what I see.

And this is a classic. The Belvedere.

Du bist sehr blut!

Ha!, this little beach balls were fun to sit on.

Oh!, and another classic (tho, in essence is forbidden to take this pic). The Kiss, from Gustav Klimt.

That day we also went to the Kunsthistoriches museum. But only this pic came out worth showing.

I think I will do another post right away.

Ostferien

2007-05-10T15:21:00.000-07:00

Im sooooo behind with the posting of pictures. You have no idea. I still need to post the pictures of when my sis and her husband came to visit, and then the pictures from the UK. Well, but today I will show you how I spent my Easter. This was the weekend my sis arrived in Europe.

Will you look at that!!!. Im such a lumberjack!. I mean seriously dont I look like a professional .... errr ... wood carrier?. Well, whatever, Katja took these pics and I like them.

She also took these, which, even though the White Balance is fucked up they look quite ok. Dont they? Here Gregor and Matej.

Well, what we were actually doing was starting up a fire. Look at me feeding it :)

It was a raging pretty happy fire ... (those of you who have seen Howls Moving Castle ...)

And my 5 mins of creativity yielded:

Three slovenes and a mexican with too much camera space:

We were exhausted afterwards, and Maya was making fun of us:

The day after we painted easter eggs. That was my first time actually. I still dont grasp the idea of a bunny hiding colored eggs on the day our lord savior and redeemer your holiness jesus christ died, but is still fun.

Look, a happy family

This is the one I made,

This one was taken by Matej I believe. It came out quite well,

This is Josef, Gregor's father,

And the last one before I go,

Im unbelievably tired. 'night.

La Fonda de Zinzendorf: BBQ

2007-05-08T10:21:00.000-07:00

Holy crap!, its been ages since I last posted. Sorry about that but I've been quite busy this whole time. But here I am back again with a few pics to share with you.

About 2 weekends ago Beate, Pavlin, Andy, Maria (neighbours and flatmate) and me decided to make a small BBQ here at Zinzendorf, so we invited a bunch of friends to stop by, bring something to eat and just enjoy the beautiful weather that we had those days. So, here you go:

Paki was one of the first to come (unbelievable!), she just wanted to take some sun :)

Like I said, we were not that many, we're very well behaved people actually.

Hey!, I finally got to see Lavi after her 6 month trip to Brazil. It was really cool to talk to her again.

Katja and Grega were also there. They were probably coming from a 30 kilometer bike tour or something. They love that stuff.

This is Maria for those of you who do not know her. She's one of my neighbours.

Pavlin invited these two Bulgarian girls, Alexandra and Svety.... is that how you write her name?

This is Lavi, me and the schu. I finally got to wear that shirt, it was sent to me by my sis from Cancun I believe.

Sun shades.

Unfortunately the Lavinias couldnt stay long. But I got to capture a kiss goodbye ;)

I should seriously do another session with this girl.

This is the shoe stuffing his face with vegetables. He didnt want to come down because he had to work, but I managed to convince him :)

Then more people came ...

These two are ... I have no idea, but I think the girl works in Propeller, our bar next door.

And this is almost at the end of the BBQ.

At the very end the Argentinians came (Eduardo and Analia, far right). We finished everything before midnight. Wow!, who wants us as neighbours?

Alright, I am ridiculously tired so I am off to bed.

Faschingdienstag

2007-03-08T12:53:00.000-08:00

Listening: Royksopp - The Understanding
Reading: Goedel Escher Bach - Douglas Hofstadter

About two weeks ago we had fasching here in Graz. Dont ask me what it means because I dont know, anyhow, this is like the halloween of austrians. People pull out their costumes and parade on the street, after that at night is party time. Drunken boys and girls dressed up as dwarfs , spiders, and princess. Of course this was a fantastic time for a freak with a camera like me, so without further ado here are some of the best pics I got:

This is Chris, he is one of my co-workers, as a good austrian he didnt miss the chance to get "dressed up",

This is one of the first fairies we saw downtown,

Ok, I dont know the name of these characters in english, but you guys know them, dont you?. I'm actually quite happy with this pic.

Fairies, clowns and co.

I feel creative,

Now, this is like the coolest photo of that day,

I have no idea what they were supposed to be,

But her eyes captured me for a sec,

Liebe - Love,

Ok, now you make your own interpretation on this one,

I'm serious that head was the brightest spot on the horizon,

No parade is complete without a band,

Der koenig ist zueruck!,

Young Atlas,

This is the saddest mushroom (clown or whatever he is suposed to mean) I have ever seen,

Errrr..... right,

Cute and scary,

Oh this is a traditional styrian family,

This reminds me of something but i'm not sure what,

Another creative girl who got fed up of jumping up and down trying to watch something,

This guy should've won a price or something, for courage,

And the last one,

That day was the last day of Alejandra and Ileana in Graz [insert here story on how she got deported] so we spent that night in Posaune (a bar next door) saying goodbye. I actually miss those two girls since they were the only other mexicans I know here. They are way cool, and I still keep hope that they will come back here one day.

Thats all for today folks.

Mexike-ska (the sequel)

2007-02-11T14:58:00.000-08:00

Listening: Beady Belle - Ghosts album
Reading: Wikipedia's definition of fruits and vegetables

[ for the beginning of this story go here ]

Alright, I want to finish this little story. So, I was telling you about Sergio's ludicrous idea of climbing the Hill of the Tepozteco, which in the end we did all in company of Gregor and Katja, so this is how we looked all the way up:

I was ridiculously tired so we just sat down to enjoy a bit the weather and the conversation

Grega

Katja

Sergio

On the way down (they kicked us out), the slovenes found out that the stone was quite warm,

Well, after that we headed back to Cuernavaca and from then on to Taxco,

Me with my self-indulged creativity (ha!),

This shouldnt be difficult to grasp,

That day we had to wake up rather early, so we could only have breakfast in Taxco, thankfully we found a good terrace where we enjoyed fruits, eggs, juices and so on,

Check out the view we had,

After breakfast we toured a bit and climbed to the top of a hill where a statue of Jesus was (reminiscent of that of Brazil), granted we took a taxi to get there,

Errr.... right,

How cool do I look?, dont I just look like another cowboy coming out of one of so many western movies?

We were tired,

Taxco is quite famous in Mexico for all its silver, they have a bunch of harvesting mines and stuff like that, so you can buy it pretty cheap. I hate myself for having this pic out of focus, but this is Katja after she bought quite a few pieces and spent less than 20 euros.

And this is a scene that I found out right outside the shop where Katja had just bought. You get my point, dont you?

Oh yeah, the Mexicans and their smelly feet,

Gregor was actually quite lucky, he bought this hat for 50 pesos (about 3.5 euros) in El Parian Market in Puebla,

That day we had dinner at my brother's. Here my brother in law with a mug of hot chocolate, my brother, Katja and Grega,

Then we flew back to Austria, it was an exhausting trip but of course more than worth it. As soon as I got home I pulled a bottle of Tequila for my roommates and neighbours. Checkout how longingly Georg looks at the bottle,

Simone doesnt like pictures of her (still dont know why), which means everybody loves doing it,

Thats my "what the fuck is that?" face,

Cheers!, I like this pic a lot, dont know who took it tho,

So then we emptied the bottle in like 5 minutes but Georg just couldnt get enough,

Ok, so thats it, of course I have lots of pictures, but I guess its already enough. I might post some of them later in a Retazos Episode. Alright, you guys keep having a good weekend.

Retazos: Episode I

2007-02-05T13:55:00.000-08:00

Listening: Servant - Servant album

Me and my stupid grouping of topics. Anyhow, this time just pictures.

Guerrilla advertising.

Senseless mexican with a one gig card in his camera.

I expect very few people to understand this pic.

Teatro Principal

Bla, bla.

Christmas present

La Fonda de Zinzendorf: The Wok

2007-02-04T07:51:00.000-08:00

Listening: Asian Dub Foundation - Community Music

Alright, well, we do have lost of "abendessen" here at zinzendorf (dinners), so from now on I will just wrap it all around the title "La Fonda de Zinzendorf". It's funny how my need of some sort of order kicks-in in the weakest places. Well, whatever, this time Pavlin and Tobia (I think) [ update: it was bought by Simone ] bought a Wok, one of those big frying sauce pans, and so to celebrate it we invited a few friends over for dinner. Elisabeth and The Schu did the dessert, and I invited the cute mexican girls (codeword for 'I didnt do shit').

So, here are two of the cooks of the day. Inevitably, Tobia had to do something: Spring Rolls, one of the best I have tasted I must say.

This time we even ate at the living room, because the Wok deserved it

These are the pretty Ileana and Doris. The former studies cinematography and the latter likes to sing "Killing me softly" in the cemetery

The multi-tasking of our resident Italian

Thats me, hehe.

This is Alejandra, she is from Guadalajara. I heard once that she could end wars only with her smile. I totally agree. (actually, this was said by a drunk Austrian after she brought him some tequila, BUT, that doesnt make it less true).

Anyhow, after some bottles of wine Ale started this card game, these are some of the punished people

The result of this one was HILARIOUS!, but Simone took my camera and deleted the best pic. [ update: she says she didnt delete it (i dont believe her) ]

But the best picture of all is this. Check out how cute Elisabeth looks.

That expression is Mastercard (you know, priceless ... duh!, I'm such a dork). I still have more pics of yet more dinners at La Fonda de Zinzendorf, but I will post them later.

Mexike-ska

2007-01-28T08:37:00.001-08:00

Listening to: Kaskade - Love Mysterious album.

Mexike-ska (mĕk'sĭ-kĕ's-kă): Mexico with the Slovenes.

So, this will be a bit more like a couple of blogs because there are quite a number of good pictures. To summarize, Katja and Gregor came to Mexico for their holidays during christmas time, they had the chance to go to quite a number of states, including Puebla, Veracruz, Morelos, Chiapas, so on and so forth. I met them on the last week of their trip and took them to see a bit more which included time with my friends and family. It was quite a lot of fun to hear the remarks from their point of view.

So of course they had a kick with Tequila. We first stayed at Jazmin&Eduardo's a couple of friends from the university. It was great to see my friends from those days, and though some things have changed, we can still get people drunk:

Eduardo, Katja and Gregor.

Well, my dear friend was much too big for the door frames from Mexico, he had quite some trouble once in Taxco actually, that was the first time I heard him swear in slovene, ha!. Anyhow, this is at Jaz's

Eduardo crashed with a parked trailer (really, how the fuck did he do that?), and ended up with one of those neck thingies, which of course was the prop of the night.

Katja had a bit of trouble with sun burns. She had her hand all burnt unevenly, but it was temporal, I think she's ok already.

Gregor was excited about hats during the whole trip, he brought back like 3 of them.

Actually this should've been the first picture. I met K&J on the 3rd of January in San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas. That day Gregor was sick (it was too cold for him, go figure), and so Katja and I toured the town and did some shopping.

The day after we went to Tuxtla Gutierrez and droped our bags there, then we headed to Chiapa de Corzo were we visited the Cañon del Sumidero

These were definitely foreigners (or just drunk, pick your choice), they decided to swim in the waters of Rio Grijalva, source for the biggest power plant of the region, of warm temperature and infested with crocodiles.

After Chiapas we went to Puebla were we visited my Bro and Sis. They took us to a bar in Los Sapos which featured Trova music.

We also went to Taxco after we were in Puebla. There we visited my friends Sergio and Gwendy. Sergio had the "great" idea of taking us to "El cerro del Tepozteco" which is a decently high hill (about 1.5 km, almost straight up), to which of course I was unprepared, my shoes almost ripped apart and I was exhausted. First we actually went for lunch to a quite nice restaurant.

And this is the Tepozteco

Alright this post is long enough, I will stop here and put more pictures later.

Deutschland ... where the deutscher live

2007-01-23T13:15:00.000-08:00

Listening to: Camille, Le Fil album.
Reading: The God Delusion.
Watching: 24's 6th season (yeah baby!)
----------------------

Very creative name, I know.

Anyhow, today in lifeless' biography, we have a glimpse to what our hero did at the land of the germans, otherwise known as 'germany'.

It all happened in the summer of 2005 when, as a young blooming researcher, lifeless headed north from his austrian reisdence, to the land of the Rhein. It is there where he had the chance to meet -once again-, his friend, Mira, who allowed him to spend a few days at her cottage.

Wait, writting like this is difficult .... er..., this triggers a memory, maybe Kirsten could help .... well, whatever ...

So, long story short, I went to germany (for the first time) to a conference in Bonn, but since it is not so far from Saarbruecken, I decided to visit Mira. This was in July 2005 if I remember correctly. Small anecdote: I first went to Cologne, then I realized I couldnt get money out of my bankcard; I phoned Mira asking her for some cash (she didnt like that); I took a train from Cologne to Saarbruecken; took the money; 1 hour later took a train from Saarbruecken to Bonn; attended the conference; took a train to Saarbruecken; paid her the money back (yes I did pay her back); and then I had some time to enjoy with her and her friends.

She called some of her friends so we could have a small BBQ by the river, they were cool people, also Bulgarians by the way,

And this is Mira preparing some Sausages,

Well, it turned out that Saarbruecken was a bit, eerrrr......, boring, so we headed to Trier where a festival was going on and Mira had some friends, place was really crowded.

We found a spanish group playing spanish music with spanish flavor. There I saw this girl (on the left, seems dancing). She was quite cute and a good dancer so she deserved a click.

So, we headed to one of the concerts, there we found these "cool" guys (please, please, notice the quotation marks)

Oh, this is me and Mira, she has posed a couple of times for me, go check her at my dA Website

Well, it turned out that her friends had a band, so we went to see them. There a bunch of Portuguese kids were partying alright. It was funny because one of my friend's friends jumped and smiled like a bunny, hehhehe, he was the bass player (do bunnies smile?)

Holy Mother of Jesuschrist our Savior and Redeemer check out the size of my head!! Anyway, that's Mira driving me to Koeln's airport, she's way cool and nice (or she wanted to get rid of me as soon as possible).

This was her car, and inside the airport I found a Paisano.

So, thats it, I wont post pics from Koeln and Bonn cause they're boring.

Express summer break in croatia to go please (the sequel)

2007-01-15T12:53:00.000-08:00

Alright, I will finish posting the pics of my break to Croatia. Wait, where was I last time?, oh yeah!, in Zagreb, so we continue there

Question: What is the thing with Europeans and dogs?, I thought this was only a bizarrity (no idea if this word even exists) of the Austrians, but no, it seems that the Spaniards are no exception.

And these are the girls enjoying their last day in Zagreb, they didnt want to leave; they loved the city. However, I forced them to go to the beach with me ...

So we headed to Krk, on a bus leaving from door 402, another few hours on our butts, just to see a bit of coast.

And then we arrived in Krk, a city that in its own way reminded me of Piran in Slovenia. Now, in this picture I want to bring to your attention the size of the bag. We went for three days and two nights to Croatia, and that BIG red bag is what Paki needed. Of course, she made Mercedes and me carry it for her. I will never travel with women again ... *shakes head and scowls*

No pictures please!. That night we went to the harbor and had a few coctails outdoors. It was indeed quite nice, half drunk we went back to the hotel which was not far away.

Then, the day after we went finally to the beach, this is me and Mercedes playing freezby in the cool croatian waters.

I know Paki will kill me for posting this pic, but look how clear the water is!

After buying souvenirs, the one thing we all had to buy were shoes since these beaches do not have sand but only rocks (I actually already owned these shoes).

And with this pic I finish this story, it was a cool summer break with my friends, one like very few i've had, hopefully it will repeat again somehow. Hope you guys liked the pics, take care o' ya selfs.

Now thats what I call having some free time

2006-12-05T10:16:00.001-08:00

Express summer break in croatia to go please

2006-12-01T15:43:00.000-08:00

First of all, this will be a long long long post, with lots of pictures so I recommend you to be patient, because the pictures are quite nice.

Ok, the thing was this: Back in the summer I had no plans on doing anything nor going anywhere because I usually take all my vacations in Mexico with my family, however, this year Eno (Paki's boyfriend) was going to Albania and he told Paki and Mercedes that he could drop them anywhere they wanted if it was on his way home. So, these girls told me if I wanted to spend an express vacation of 3 days at the beach in Croatia, to which of course I agreed =]. So I contacted Martha, a girl that was doing her Erasmus here last year (her topic was something in the lines of "Social implications of Electronic Music in todays Culture", how cool is that?), so she gaves us some advice of what to do and where to go. In the end we settled for this island called Krk (no idea how to pronounce that), but I told the girls that it was worth going to Zagreb at least for one day, as that city is also quite beautiful. So, here we go:

Eno of course was driving as he is the only one with a license

And thats the pakistran.

I have no idea why but this pic makes me laugh a lot

Once we arrived in Zagreb we settled ourselves in this small youth hostel more or less downtown, buzzpackers or something like that, quite decent and clean I must say. Plus, the owners shared some beer with me, one of them was Japanese, we had some nice talks, too bad I dont have pictures of them. Among the other guests were a couple, a Canadian and an Austrian and some others from the US

Once we were settled we went for a night tour in downtown Zagreb, that city is just way cool. This is Mercedes and me.

And this is me being silly

They liked the tram so they asked for a picture with it (which you can barely see by the way)

So then we went to a sort of "drinking quarter" more like a street actually. It was extremely lively with lots of people, singing, drinking, and eating, so of course we joined in :)

Then Martha joined us! it was so cool to see her again, plus we were quite thankful for all her help.

The day after I found this, extra points if you tell me why is it important.

Silly Spaniards

That morning we had coffee downtown in a place called "The square of the roses" or something like that. There we found the Volkswagen Cafe :)

For some reason they wanted a pic with this Coca Cola truck

And this is the Opera house of Zagreb, isnt this building impressive?

You know? the girls kept asking me for pictures of every little stupid building that came accross them. And I sheepishly kept taking them.

Ok, this was my idea actually

Paki kept snatching my camera from my hands and took a million pictures in a matter of secs, some of them were of course doomed to be good, this is one of them.

What is funny about Croatia (at least to me), is that I dont understand shit of the language. Hence I giggle like a 5 year old girl everytime I see one of those words with 20 consonants and no vowel anywhere near.

This church is quite cool, but was under construction unfortunately :(

I dont know a lot about law, but im sure doing this in some other countries is definitely forbidden

Ok, this post is getting ridiculously long, so I will continue tomorrow cause im sleepy. Night!

I'm a Wii and I'm a PS3

2006-11-30T04:56:00.000-08:00

Too good!

Jede WG sollte einen Italiener haben

2006-11-27T15:18:00.000-08:00

Every flat share should have an italian. They cook, clean and are funny, and ours, had his birthday last week, so he made a cake over the weekend.

This time it was an apfel struedel, and cake with with peaches, pineapple and kiwi.

A few people came to savage our kitchen, mainly architects, they are like a plague in Graz.

But they can be somewhat nice people, here Christina, Rosa and Karl. They didnt want pictures, but I think they came out nicely, oder?

These people I dont know. The girls stayed for like five seconds, smoke a cigarrette and left. The guy is cool, tho I cant remember his name.

Dido was also here

Simone doesnt like pictures of her, but I think she looks pretty on this one. Hope she likes it or she will beat me till I put it down, seriously, shes a bit ... err ... untamed for lack of a better word.

Grega and Katja stopped by after they came from the Opera. Somehow I always manage to get the wrong subject on focus

Hahahah, this couple was really nice. They know each other since kindergarten!!!. If I had to title this pic it would be:

WTF and Laugh

Anyway, since this blog is about the birthday man, I might just as well put a couple more pics.

Here preparing a gefuellte hendl.

And of course, Die Heilige couldnt resist herself

Whats funny its how longingly he looks at the chicken once its done

But in the end it looked quite ok

And tasted also good. Hence the title of this post.

Pissed off

2006-11-24T15:36:00.000-08:00

You know?, I am really not a person easy to get mad at anything or anyone. I guess I have a thick layer of tolerance against others. There are two things, however, that anybody who knows me for some time should know about me. I hate waiting. And I hate incompetence. This week it was nicely flavored by both from people linked to me from all around the globe.

Thank the fucking heaven it is fucking friday.

Anyhow, just go and look at my latest dA submition. It actually made me laugh for a couple of secs.

As of November 2006

2006-11-24T07:46:00.000-08:00

This is the status

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Semana Santa 2006

2006-11-23T11:50:00.000-08:00

Katja and Gregor invited me to go with them to Slovenia to spend my easter with them. We went to Bled, and ... to ..., alright slovene names are quite hard to remember, point is we went to a few places and it was a lot of fun.

For some reason Katja likes to clean windshields. I gave her one euro after she was done

Slovenia is fuckin beautiful

They took me first to this place called Vintgar Gorje or whatever. Funny thing is that I have been looking for this place for like 3 years. First time I came I met a couple of guys (Alejandro, Canadian and Humi, Japanese) and together we tried to find this thing, but we got lost in the woods. Too bad they were one of those "backpacking friends" you meet only for a couple of days in your life. It would be nice to show them how the place was like

After that, they took me to have some pizza in a reeeeeaaaaallllyyy nice place, unbelievable view, look.

Then we went to Bled and we rowed to the middle island. This is the Gregor who did the first rowing.

Oh!, thats when I met Barbara by the way. I should call her or something, she kept my lonely planet guide to slovenia.

Damn! check out this view

Funny thing is that this picture has a meaning to me. Which I wont explain.

This is the Katja rowing on the way back

I just realized that I took a bunch of nice pics of Gregor on this trip. I have loads of them. Here he is with the "Captain" that lent us the boat. =P

What was that phrase? "Is never to dark to look cool" or something like that.

Here with the Katja
Here is where we slept that night

I was sooooooooooooo tired. I fell asleep almost instantly, tho I managed to give a peace sign just in time.

These kids were playing something regarding easter, but I never understood the rules of the game

Then we went to this sort of canyon with a water fall and everything (including snow to which I was unprepared)

The classic

My feet were all soaked

Check out these landscapes

Then we climbed a tree =P

And in the end we went to Kaernten to the house of Gregor's father. It was one of those visits where everything is just so cool. We even have geese!

Then I went back by train

Hope you guys liked the pics. There are actually quite a few other pics worth seeing, but this blog is just way to long already. I better go home, night.

Fuenf

2006-11-23T06:02:00.000-08:00

Go watch it. I know some of you dont like it, but I dont give a shit. Cant wait till July the 13th.

Check out my room!

2006-11-22T04:20:00.000-08:00

After Tobia and I painted it, I organized it and cleaned it a bit.

Hope it plays.

Birthday Party

2006-11-19T08:49:00.000-08:00

Three leos were living in this WG. Georg, 11th of August, Gregor, 28th of July, Me, 6th of August. Katja was actually surprised that we didnt tear ourselves apart. Anyway, we made a party together I believe it was on the 10th of August. Of course I never posted the pictures, but here they go.

This is how our fridge looked that day

This is the Elisabeth making Pole and the Gregor just being silly. That day I made a Guacamole and Spanish Sangria (go figure)

Alles gut Leoben

These are some of my colleagues from work
And these are some random people I dont know
No wait, I do know them =P

And these are Hildergard, Daniel and his girlfriend

The argentinian reseaarcher, the Albanian DJ and the Austrian Globetrekker
Die Maedels!

The Chu and his buddy, whos name I forgot already

And these are the cakes. One made by Katja and the other made by Hildegard, I am actually still pissed at this last one cause she didnt even say "alles gut" *dignified*

Akiko-chan

2006-11-17T09:01:00.000-08:00

Here I continue posting (old) pictures. Akiko came to Europe last summer. She was staying in the Czech republic but decided to come visit me for a weekend. It was cool to see her again. I met her like 2 years ago back when I was in GWU. She's at the moment studying medicine in the Caribbean, how cool is that?

I had actually forgotten how tiny she was
But in the end we found a suitable vehicle for her

I swear I wasnt trying to photograph her butt

We spent some time on the Kunsthaus and the Neue Gallery, that was fun.

We also went to Vienna, I like that city a lot.

There was something about this book, but I cant remember what ...
I should send her this link.

Weinstrasse

2006-11-16T10:01:00.000-08:00

Well, now that I have a few mins, I will some post the pictures of this year's Weinstrasse. Last year it was only Gerhard and me. This year also his nephew and the Argentinians came (Eduardo and Analia).

The vineyards were actually quite nice. Thankfully we had a pretty nice weather.

It would be nice to live here

Thats the Gerhard and the Jause

And those are the Argentinians and Gerhard's nephew.
They were collecting grapes

At the end, unfortunately, we couldnt stay because they didnt have any available rooms anywhere. We received the advice, next time to make a reservation with one year in advance.

A couple of girls were hiding yelling "Ihr stoert meinem schlaf" or something like that, which means "You disturb mein sleep". It was close to Halloween.

Herbst

2006-11-16T09:40:00.000-08:00

El otogno llego y se fue.

"Fall? I hate the fall! bu-bu-bullshit!, Oh the Leaves change colours ..., they change colours for two days, then a big wind comes and you've got nothing but sticks for the rest of the year." [ Lewis Black ]

I took a few pictures while seated on the Stadtpark, just 2 minutes on foot to my place.

Red in love

You know? I have so many pictures!, gigs and gigs of them (actually I should probably buy a new harddrive). Well, thing is that I would like to post so many of them, but I dont have the energy nor the time. Oh well.

Ausmalen

2006-11-14T15:56:00.000-08:00

Tobia and I paainted my room over the weekend, that was cool.

Actually it was a lot of fun, in the morning Katja and Grega (slovene exroommate) came over for breakfast then we went to IKEA and OBI to get our painting supplies (they had to their own at the Slovene Club)
Oz doesnt like my new moustache, she says is pathetic and she laughed when I told her it took me 6 months to grow it. (and so did Beate, Pavlin, Paki and others).

Anyhow, as usual we had some wine during the painting and afterwards we had pizza.

Silly italians

Well, in the end the room turned out alright, that night I had Tobia and Beate as guests :)

Ich mit dem!

I was cold (((o o)))
I actually did a pretty cool video of the "transformation" of my room from yellow to white (yes, it was yellow). Though, now that I think about it you cant see the difference cause i didnt use Tungsten white balance for the pics. Crap!. Anyhow, I have to find out a way to upload the video yet, so I'll post that later. I'm off to bed.

The Croatians come and we have wine

2006-11-06T09:40:00.000-08:00

A couple of friends of the Shoe (one of my roommates) came from Croatia on friday and we had dinner with them. Thats one of the advantages of having an Italian in house (the Tobia, or Spaghetti-man, another of my roommates), he can spring a nice dinner pretty much with only garlic and cheese in the house.

Anyhow, I took a bunch of pictures as usual, here they go. Let me introduce you to Chu (or Shoe, or Schu)
Der Pavlin, our resident Bulgarian,

The italian,

This is what was in our fridge and what we ended up having

Coolest neighbor ever

Anyhow, just some random snapshots

Die ElisabethDie Dora
Die Dora and Leoben
Die Beate and Der Simone
Oh! and these are the croatians. Dora and ... and ... shit, I forgot his name. Gus? something like that. They were cool.

Santa Barbara

2006-11-02T09:02:00.000-08:00

Yet another blog .... this is my third. I hope I can actually keep this updated. Anyhow, here I go ...

Well, it turns out that I got a publication in a conference called ISMAR last week, and we went to Santa Barbara, California to present it. I had my article presentation and also a Demo just to show off our gadgets and some of the techniques we're working on here in Austria. I'm such a geek. But!, i'm not the only geek, check out these guys:

They're actually cool people, some work with me, others did at some point and others were just there. Anyhow, I kinda liked how these pics came out.

Of course we also did some actual work ...

Santa Barbara itself and the UCSB campus were also nice.

I will keep posting more stuff later, actually the airport was interesting, checkout my deviantart website if you're interested.