Archiv der Kategorie: almost a diary

almost a diary, media, photoblogging

Maillot Jaune

Alright, it was a strange thing to do on a Sunday – get up at seven in the morning only to make a fool of oneself in a strangely popular “family oriented” tv programme – the “ZDF Fernsehgarten” (literally “tv garden”).

The Fernsehgarten is a show that has been running for 19 years, essentially without any format changes, and it is thus one of the very few programmes to weather the effect of audience fragmentation. They still show it all: In today’s show there was the latest German Idol, Dante Thomas (Miss California), Luka, a Brazilian singer who had a surprise hit single last year, and whose manager and I somehow thought we attended the same party on New Year’s Eve 1999, as well as Kristina Bach, a German Schlager singer, Riverdance, and an army big band. Maybe that is all just fine – given that Sunday morning may well be the only time that families are having a relaxed breakfast together. Therefore, on any given Sunday between May and September about two million people switch the telly on to watch Andrea Kiewel announce a line up very similar to the one above.

The key to understanding today’s show’s theme was the current major sports event on this continent, Le Tour de France. Given the now epic struggle between Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich for the Maillot Jaune, the show’s producers deemed it appropriate to organise a tribute by having their very own “Tour de Fernsehgarten”.

As usual with these things, the casting process was a bit more more random than anyone would imagine, and so it came that I wound up as part of the “Team Ullrich” in this Sunday’s show.

Maybe it bodes well for Mr Ullrich that we beat the team Armstrong by a margin of 300m over a distance of almost 55km. So, courtesy of the ZDF web site, I present you with a few photos of my Sunday morning effort…

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almost a diary

Miss Piggy in the Box.

Recently, my mother acquired a reprint of an old pre world-war two primary education book as a present for her mother, who learned reading and writing using a similar one. Browsing through the pages printed in 1935, I was not surprised to find nationalism being fed into kids through little stories about heroic soldiers, technologically advanced battle ships, and the like. But there was something that somehow surprised me:

Should you have ever wondered what a pig-drawing looked like in a 1930s Prussian schoolbook, take a look at my careful reproduction.

I am not sure if Miss Piggy in the box is in any way indicative of the mindset of the teachers or the educational system in Germany at the time. It may simply be one abstaction too much. But somehow I can’t help but assume the first alternative is at least partly correct…

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almost a diary

Me – a Grammar God?

I’m not sure this English grammar test is using appropriate categories. But who would be a better judge than you, my gentle readers. And as it’s always nice to be complemented, I had to post this here…

Grammar God!
You are a GRAMMAR GOD!

If your mission in life is not already to
preserve the English tongue, it should be.
Congratulations and thank you!

How grammatically sound are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

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almost a diary, Economics, web 2.0

Blogging the GDR.

About two weeks ago I had dinner with my parents and one of their oldest friends who was in town for a day. Like my mother, he hails from the eastern part of Germany, the part formerly known as German Democratic Republic. Unlike my mother, he stayed there until the bitter end.

I was inclined to think that someone like him would be most confident when it comes to Schumpeterian processes, the creative destruction and recreation of social and economic governance mechanisms. Well, I was wrong.
Weiterlesen →

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almost a diary

Only 20%…

Hmm… maybe this Inner Geek Test is more culture-bound than I thought, or maybe – I am really only 20.31558% – Geek (despite the fact that I have indeed read an Amiga OS manual cover to cover when I was twelve).

The odd thing is, I suspect that had I taken some “Inner Coolness Test”, I had also scored in this percentage range (despite the fact that I once rapped in German in front of a club in New York City and later convinced some Carioca friends I could dance Samba when I in fact I don’t know a single step).

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advertisement, almost a diary, self-referential

My two cents.

Last week, I read somewhere that google-ad clickthrough rates are to increase significantly if the ads are placed between the posts as opposed to being placed alongside.

Well, from my experience, whoever claimed this correlation was probably just lucky. Personally, I can’t really see any change in the clickthrough rates – it’s still in the 0.1 % range, although other google ad users claim to have far better rates.

So I can confidently announce that this is not a money making blog, as opposed to the ones mentioned in this cyberjournalist report. But then again, it is also true that my little proto-diary has not yet shredded the career of any prominent politician…

For the moment, the average daily “turnover” of this blog reflects what it means to me – my very own two cents (well, Dollar cents…).

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almost a diary, music

(barely) aLive and (rather) Acoustic

Cindy AlexanderGentle readers, it’s a shame.

The very talented Californian singer/songwriter Cindy Alexander is touring Germany for the second time in only two years and I won’t be able to attend any of her concerts for I am not in a state to leave my bed for much more than brief stops at the trusted pharmacy and, of course, the videostore around the corner.

Even if I could leave the house for longer I suppose I would immediately be sent home by a police officer for disorderly conduct – sure it’s getting better, but sometimes I am still coughing in a way that would most certainly make late 19th century tuberculosis patients pale in comparison. Of course, spreading cold germs is not yet a crime. But there’s a reason it’s frowned upon…

So, much to my dismay, once again I will have to turn to Ms Alexander’s recordings instaead of “the real thing”. However, all of you who are not confined to your beds tonight and live not too far from Marburg, Hessen, Germany, should leave right now and attend “The Acoustic Meeting” in the Waggonhalle at 8pm.

Unfortunately none of Cindy’s songs are legally available online since c|net has shut down the mp3.com servers in January. Well, not quite – there are at least some samples at amazon.com, even including my favorite song of hers, “Better Than I Am“.

So listen quickly, and then get going.

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