Bi jetzt chlei spöter i dr Schwiiz… Die nöii Date si:
12. – 27. Juni
I bi wieder mou i dr Schwiiz 
. Um genau ds si vom 6. Р20. Juni. I bi uf jede Fau dr bi mou eis (oder zw̦i) go ds trinke.
Cheers und bis glii,
Chris
With a delay of about 2 months I finally uploaded all pictures from our trip to New Zealand. It was a very good trip to places I haven’t seen before. Mainly to Northland (where mosquitoes roam) and South Island (West Coast) where the Sandflies are at home. Apart from those two little, blood sucking creatures, actually massive armies of those, New Zealand is definitely a great place for outdoor action.
This way to the gallery…
It was a long overdue dream of mine to build a solar oven that will work on solar power alone. Finally having some time and a lot of sun I decided to build one according to a plan found on the internet (The Heaven’s Flame Cooker). Since it is the first solar oven I built I decided to follow the plan as closely as possible so I’ll have something that should work and I’m not disappointed. And I have to say I wasn’t… using just cardboard boxes, glue, some black paint, a piece of glass and some aluminium foil the oven is a success (at least in my eyes ). On the first day I used it the outside temperature was around 25 deg Celsius, but inside the inner box the thermometer went up to 120-150 deg Celsius, enough to bake a bread in about 3-3.5 hours. So far I only used it twice to bake bread, but I’m looking forward to test it on a really hot day (40 deg Celsius) and also cook some other things in it. I also got a couple ideas how to improve the design (hopefully) and make it work even better. If I happen to find a good improvement I’ll of course post it here so everyone else can try it too.
Here some pictures while building the oven…
I just finished uploading all the latest pictures into my gallery. Now all pictures from my trip in the Western States plus a few few from Australia should be there.
Once I get back from my camping trip here in New Zealand (I’m still waiting for my work visa in Australia) I’ll also upload a few selected ones to kreegoo.com where they can be watched in higher resolution. But most likely you will have to wait until end of January 2010. This is because I prefer to select the pictures on a larger screen to see if the details are good enough. Sorry for the long wait!
I uploaded a whole lot of pictures in the last few days. And guess what, that’s not even all of them. So once you have gone through the new ones you can look forward for more. Those should also include some pictures from Australia.
Hi guys,
After a long time of hibernation my website finally wakes up with some activity.
Since the last post plenty of things happened. To give you a short overview….
After enjoying the summer in Santa Cruz I stopped working at CodeGear/Embarcadero at the end of August. The reason for this was that I planned to move in with Sue who is living in Adelaide, Australia. But before the big move I wanted to travel the Western States of the US. So with my friend Lüku already in Maui for some awesome kite boarding I started out in the most western state of the US (Hawaii). Enjoying the warm water, the tropical climate and white sanded beaches Maui was the perfect entry point of my further travels. To let the curious ones of you no longer wait I just uploaded some pictures to the gallery.
After the relaxing 2 weeks Lüku and I went back to SC where he took the plane back to Switzerland a few days later. Myself was busy preparing for my next trip on the main land which would lead me through California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana and Arizona. So I couple days later I started my 6600 mile road trip, heading towards Salt Lake City where my friend Ändu was scheduled to arrive. After picking him up we went to the Jackson Hole area where we spent two weeks visiting Yellowstone and the surrounding area. Those days were filled with hiking, mountain biking, canoing, driving, sightseeing, camping and a lot more. Like always when you are having a great time time flies by quickly. So it was already time to drop Ändu off at the airport again and continuing my journey by myself. This led me to Bryce Canyon, Zion, slot canyons off the road, Arches NP, Canyonlands, Moab, Glen Canyon area (including “The Wave“), Grand Canyon, Havasu Falls, Joshua Tree NP, LA and many other places. The best probably is to check my gallery once in a while where I’ll upload more pictures from my trip. But it will take some time go through the roughly 12’000 pictures I shot during this time and selecting the best ones.
For now I have started my adventures here in Adelaide, Australia where I currently sweat in the hot (39 Celsius) weather.
Cheers,
Chris
I finally got some time to go through my many pictures and select a few to be uploaded to the gallery. The first set is composed of pictures taken over the whole stay fro my Christmas break in Switzerland. The second set is specifically from the snow shoe hike Lüku, Christa and I did over New Year’s.
Enjoy!
I like airports with free wifi . After a busy time before Christmas I finally found some time to upload the pictures from my short trip to New Zealand in November.
You can check them out here:
New Zealand in November
Have fun and a good time over the holidays!
My roommate Jon just recently subscribed to the National Geographic Magazine. the first issue he got contained something that just made my jaw drop. Something I first didn’t believe that it’s true. It looked more like it has been done in Photoshop. It was the Crystal Cave in Mexico.
Here a picture of this amazing cave. After looking at it for a while I was thinking… there is probably stuff down there that even puts that into the shadow, stuff that we can’t even imagine yet.
Here some links to other sites with photos:
Crazy, he?
Für aui die wos no nid wüsse… am 20. Dezämber betritti wieder mou schwiizer Bode. De wirdi bis ca. afangs oder mitti Jänner ir Schwiiz si bevor i de wieder zrügg uf Santa Cruz gange. Faus mou eis wotsch go trink oder süsch öppis mache so schriib mir doch es Mail, de chöi mir öppis abmache.
Bis glii!
I just saw that comic online today for at http://xkcd.com and I really liked it. Not just for the fact that it’s funny, but because in a deeper sense it really shows that where one stands is how one perceives the world and the environment around themselves. Everybody has his own landscape and they don’t always match. That’s why we have variety and conflicts.
After a long, long time of waiting I finally got my custom shaped longboard. It’s a 9’4” nose rider shaped by Doug Haut. He is a local Santa Cruz shaper that is in business for many years now. Go check out his website at http://www.hautsurfboards.com . On his MySpace page I read something that inspired me:
“He’s an unsung hero in my life,” says Richard Novak, Haut’s onetime business partner and longtime friend. “A friend of ours died of leukemia in 1979. I asked him before he died, whose life he admired most? And he said Doug’s. Because Doug would get up in the morning and check the surf. And if the surf wasn’t happening, he’d check the fishing. And if that wasn’t happening, he’d check the sailing. And if that wasn’t happening, he’d go to work.
So far I have been enjoying my board a lot. Now I have to work on my style
Check out some pictures of the board and me surfing it…
Wie dir jo sicher aui wüsst, fiirt me hie i de Staate Halloween chlei me aus ir Schwiiz. Isch fasch wie Fastnacht, mit zwe grosse Unterschiede… esch isch nid so chaut und mi darf ke Bier uf dr Stross trinke. Yep, wenn me mit em ne Open Container verwütscht wird gits e saftigi Buess vo $500.-! Na ja, wenn me richtige Ort isch cha me gliich no chlei Party ha .
Do no es paar wenigi Föteli vo mim Koschtüm
Ok, finally I uploaded some new pictures into my gallery. Currently my problem is not that I don’t have any good pictures, it’s actually that I have too many of them (ok, not all are good ones). So recently spent a lot of time going through the ones I shot to figure out which ones I think are worth keeping and which ones will be deleted to safe diskspace and not to have to do the same just later on. My mom is probably now saying… “You see those digital cameras don’t actually make you save time… you need a lot more of it.” Well, that’s true since you also shoot a lot more pictures than in the analog days. On a good weekend I’ll take about 500-1000 pictures and have the peace of mind that I still can delete the ones that look similar or are just not good. With a file size of 16 MB per picture I really want to do that since otherwise with hard disk will be full pretty soon. But it’s hard to delete some of the pictures since I think… “ahh this one is good… but this is the same shot as before… but I really like it…” so I usually have an ongoing discussion in my head wheter to delete or not.
Anyway, enough bla, bla… I hope you will enjoy the pictures.
P.S. I ordered a new wide angle lens and I’m thinking about buying also a good zoom lens so you can be sure to see some more nice pictures here
After a long absence I’ve finally some time again to write some blog posts and upload some pictures I shot recently (I’m still working on the selection of the pics, done and uploaded). I have been busy with our release of Delphi & C++Builder 2009 recently so that’s the biggest reason for my laziness for my website.
Anyway, for this post I got inspired by some of the funny comments on slashdot regarding the “Going live of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider)” found here:
http://science.slashdot.org/science/08/09/09/2142259.shtml
The comment that made me laugh the most was this one
“I need to hurry up and finish work on my black-hole shelter…”
I find it funny because I really can imagine some people actually seriously trying to build one… that brings me to the point about the whole discussion about the little black holes that will destroy the world. In one Swiss newspaper they were asking people what they would do before the end of the world. Of course the people asked gave various things that they like to do, the usual answers. I personally find it wired that some people are worried about the LHC experiment for following reasons:
1. If a black hole would destroy the earth it would probably be the quickest way you can ever imagine to die. Probably so quick that you won’t even realize it.
2. And, has anybody told those people that they have to die sometimes anyway?
I think we are currently on schedule to destroy our world very slowly and probably more painfully for us anyway (that’s the pessimist in me 
). Do those people also care about that? I don’t think so. Just because the LHC will be the largest machine ever used some and the destruction will be done in a matter of a fraction of a second people are scarred shitless. If it takes a looong time, how cares? *ironic on* We will be all death anyway when humans can’t live on earth anymore, so why should WE care. *ironic off*
The whole thing amuses me. And let me just say that as a geek and engineer I find it a very interesting experiment and am excited that I was born in a time to be old enough to understand it at least a little bit .
Happy Big Bang everyone!
Yes, I’m still alive… no shark ate me. Sorry for the long waiting time with no posts, there are a lot of things going on right now, so be patient.
Anyway, I wanted to share that I bought a new Canon EOS 40D to be able to learn more about photography and hopefully take a few very cool shots. At least now I don’t have any excuse that it’s the camera .
So stay tuned and check out the gallery once in a while. I added some test shots for you… Most of them are about surfing. Some taken of me by my sister while she was visiting and some others. But my favorites are the ones from the cat.
I would like to congratulate my car for having surpassed 200’000 miles and still going strong. It is crazy to see all those number turn at once. It’s a bit magical but it’s over pretty fast. Good thing it happened on our trip to Lake Tahoe right around Emerald Bay, so I had enough time to take some pictures.
Here some statistics for those who are interested:
Miles driven: 200’000 (321’868.8 km)
Distance to the moon done: 83.73% (38’856.95 miles to go)
Gasoline used: 7’407.4 gallons (28’040 liter; with an avg. of 27 mi/gal)
Of course I’ll do another post once I have reached to moon (distance), I still own the car and it still works. Until then I’ll need to do about 5 oil changes .
Just uploaded about 200 new pictures…
Sit geschter brönnts ir nöchi vo Santa Cruz. Aber ke Angscht ds Füür isch gnue wiit wäg so dass es sicher nid zu üs chunt. Und süsch nimi de haut ds Surfboard und gnage uf ds Wasser .
Für aui die wos interessiert hie es paar Links:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com
http://www.santacruzlive.com/blogs/video/2008/05/22/sentinel-slide-show-fire-photos/
So wieder mou e Itrag i mim Blog, jedoch nume e churze…
Für die wos no nid wüsse… vom 16. Juni bis 7. Juli bini zrügg ir Schwiiz. Natürlich bini für nes Bierli immer ds ha, eifach es Mail schriibe. I fröiie mi wiedermou aui ds gseh, e richtigi Bratwurscht ds ässe und wieder mou is Solheure es Bierli go trinke.
I probiere de natürlich chlei schöns Wätter vo hie mitdsnäh.
Bis glii!
The weather report tells it all…
P.S. Sorry für au die ir Schwiiz, ha mir das eifach nid chönne verkneife
I was never a big fan of any type of radio show, but recently when I got home from work I was listening “Nights with Alice Cooper” and became kind of a later fan of him. I always like his music but I had a way different imagination of who he would be. Just hearing him on the radio is actually a lot of fun.
So if you like his music or even if you find it ok, it’s worth to check the show’s website at http://nightswithalicecooper.com
For everybody in Europe I think this would be a good way to start your day. I mean where else do you hear directly from him that he watched cartoons after his 60′s Birthday Party?
Rock on…
Last week I was part of an American experience. I was in court. A real court with judge and everything. I was there to help a friend translate since he would not have been able to understand all of the English they spoke there. So I actually got to sit on one of those tables in front of the judge and being asked questions. Like in TV.
Since we were last we watched all the other cases of which some were somewhat interesting. At least it gave some insight how to prepare for a defense (or as plaintiff).
My friend was there because he sued a couple which had taken his $4000.- from a rental agreement and after he was not able to move in (because of them) they did not return it. So now he is working on it to get it back through court. Let’s hope he will succeed!
Vor ca. 2 Wuche si dr Bäschtu (e Schwiizer Praktikant bi CodeGear) und ig gemütlich in e re Bar in Santa Cruz Downtown eis am trinke gsi, wo üs plötzlich e Hippi gfrogt het öb mir de vor Schwiiz sigi. Klar hei mir gseit, wieso är das usegfunde het? Naja het är (dr Toni) gmeint, är het 1969 mou es zytli ir Schwiiz gwohnt. Ds Konolfingen. Ok, är kennt d’Schwiiz, hei mir üs dänkt. Schleisslich isch das jo nid würklich es Turi-Dorf. Nach chlei nöcherem Froge, hei mir de usegfunde, dass är dazumou aus Stroosemusikant unterwägs isch gsi und so sis tägliche Brot verdient het. Chlei wiiter im Gspräch het är de no verzöut, dass är d’Patent Ochsner u dr Polo Hofer kennt. Klar, auso jetzt isch absolut ke Zwifu me gsi das är würklich dört isch gsi. Dr Toni het de verzöut, dass är mit jewile em Drummer vo Patent Ochsner (Andi Hug) und däm vom Polo Hofer es Album het ufgnoh (sowit mir verstande hei). Und jetzt chunts beschte… är het scho uf em Gurte gschpüut. Aber das isch vorem ne Zytli gsi, dazumau hets nume so um die 50 Lüt gha, auso es grössers Familiebrätle. Är het gemeint dases würklich e gueti Zyt isch gsi denn. Cha me guet vorstöue, schliesslich isch es jo zur Blüetezyt gsi vo de Hippis.
Die ganzi Sache het üs scho ziehmlich erstuhnt und het wieder mou zeigt wie chlii die Wäut isch. So am ne unschuldige Abe erwartet me nid grad so öppis. Anyway, faus mou öpper bi Patent Ochsner oder bim Polo verbiluegt, de bitte e Gruess vom Toni vo Santa Cruz usrichte!
Peace!
P.S. Solothurn isch nach ihm übrigens die beschti Stadt für Stroosemusikante. Ömu dazumal .
Nachtrag: Bitte dr Comment vom Andi Hug läse, sehr wahrschiinlich hani scho es Bierli z’vüu gha .
Finally uploaded some pictures of my new place here in Santa Cruz. For me this place seems more like a surfcamp than a real home. But hey, that is part of why I’m here… To good thing is that I can easily walk to go surfing at one of the better places here in Santa Cruz. If you check out this webcam you might see me surfing .
Here is a link to a theory “A possible reason why we are dreaming“. Quite interesting. At least makes sense to me.
This morning when I woke up (always to radio), I heard an advertisement about an easy, painless way for “Divorce for less”. For only $450.-! Who wants to pay more anyway . I think it’s crazy. Do a Google Search if you don’t believe it, there are actually even cheaper offers…
P.S. It’s not a New Year’s resolution that I will write more to my blog, I just felt like posting today
Hi,
As promised I uploaded some new pictures to my gallery. They are from our trip down from Tahoe to Lone Pine with a stop at Mono Lake. And some very interesting ones from Death Valley. If you were not sure that there are aliens on our planet then here is the proof . So much for that…
Today I was just browsing the internet a bit and found the there is actually a Swiss German word that made it into English . It’s probably the only one. Guess which one it is??? Schlepping. Ok, some German folks may argue that it is also used in Germany, but I think its sound is truly Swiss German. If you know any other ones please let me know.
Happy New Year to all!
Hello everyone!
I’ve just uploaded a few new pictures through our super slow motel internet connection. It felt almost like back in time when you had to use those modems . Well maybe they expect people not to surf around the internet so much, but go skiing. As you see in the pictures we of course did that. Yesterday we were enjoying the slopes Heavenly. Today it was Kirkwood. I have to say that the ticket prices here are massive… with $81/day it’s nothing for the money safers. And with 14 lifts it’s also not that big. But never the less it was still a lot of fun to be back and play in the snow. That even for Christmas . With having the Swiss feeling brought back to our minds we decided to have a Fondue at the Swiss Chalet here in Tahoe. Hmmm… looks like I’ll eat as much Fondue here in California as in Switzerland. I actually also found a very good cheese shop in Carmel. So my world is safe .
After Tahoe we (ah I forgot to say who is we… Bastian and Michael who are two Swiss interns or Swinterns at CodeGear and me) will drive down to Death Valley and check out this dry salt-lake where the stones slide over the ground like magic. Nobody so far has seen them moving but there are a lot of trails behind them. If we are not stuck somewhere in the Death Valley you should be able to check out the pictures in a few days.
CHEERS!
Last week I have posted a few pictures of the trip Pat, Bastian (swiss intern at CodeGear) and I did. We traded the 4 days Thanksgiving weekend from a Turkey-Feast to a road trip down to Mexico with a lot of cerveza and tacos. Unfortunately the surf wasn’t that good. But was nice to see how it looks like down there anyway.
Check out the gallery…
Ha wieder mou es paar Föteli i mini Gallery glade. Wie dir sicher wüsset wird hie Halloween chlei me gfiiret aus ir Schwiiz, drum hani ou es entsprächends Kostüm brucht (sicher wirdis de mou ar Fastnacht recycle). Grundsätzlich isch es wie d’Fastnacht eifach mit em Unterschied das me dusse ke Alkohol cha drinke (oder mi zaut läppischi $500) und das es chlei wärmer isch (aber nid vüu). Ah und es het ou nid würklich Musig uf dr Stross. D’Privat-Parties si natürlich chlei anders…
Öppis woni ou no ha wöue säge… do hei si sogar im Radio “Wärbig” usgstrahlt, wievüu z.B. ds drinke ir Öffentlichkeit choschtet, etc. und wievüu Polizei es de in Downtown wird ha, dass me de joh nid irgend öppis verbotnigs macht…
Jo und apropo Cops… woni geschter ds Nacht bi heigfahre hani plötlich e Wiehnachtboum hinter mir gseh nochfahre, woni de bi aghaute si zwe mit em ne guete Kostüm usgschitge . Nach em zeige vo de Uswiise (bi chlei ds schnäu gfahre) han i de ou no müesse usstige und no es paar Turnüebige am Strosserand mache (Roadside Olympics). Da i fasch nüt gha ha, hani de aber scho glii wieder chönne abtuckere. Na ja wie chunt ächt das use wenn si mi scho nach 2.5 Wuche ds erschte mou ahaute…
Just had a nice shaker today. It was nothing bad, just a couple of seconds that made me think if my legs are getting weak. But after seeing the signs shaking in the super market I knew this would be my first earth quake that I felt since I moved here. It was a 5.6 . For more info check out:
http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.html
Angekommen in Santa Cruz (English see below)
Nach langem hin und her bin ich nun endlich hier in Santa Cruz angekommen, in einem Stück und mit allen Surfboards . Natürlich hats nicht lange gedauert, bis ich die ersten Wellen surfte. Und so wie es aussieht wird es diese Woche noch etwas grösser… Ah, dann ist ja noch die Arbeit… . Mit der habe ich heute angefangen. Viel Produktives habe ich noch nicht machen können, da wie immer zuerst alles installiert werden muss. Jedoch hatte ich ein Smile nachdem ich die Spezifikationen von meinen Compi sah, mehr dazu in den Facts unten.
Wetter mässig war das Weekend super (vorher war es scheinbar nicht so gut). Jetzt aber hats auch wieder abgenommen und leicht zu regnen angefangen. Sehrwahrscheinlich habe ich den Super-Weekend-Rhythums aus der Schweiz mitgenommen .
Was ich noch sagen wollte: Alle die mich besuchen wollen sind herzlich willkommen! Kurz ein Mail schreiben, dann sollte alles klappen. Ich werde hier sein .
Hier ein paar Facts für die Techniker…
- Car: 3.5 Liter Engine
- Compi: 64-bit AMD Quad-Core, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HD
- Laptop: nur 4 GB RAM….
English:
Well first of I have to say that this blog will be mixed language, sometimes English, sometimes German and when I’m lazy then it will be Swiss-German. So you better start to learn all of them (since I won’t translate the posts unless requested by a few people).
Ok now down to business… I got back to Santa Cruz the last weekend. Already enjoyed a couple of waves and the salty water on my skin. And even the weather made me feel welcome. Well it changed a bit now, but I hope the California-Weather will return soon.
If you were thinking in visiting me in Santa Cruz then I would like to let you know that you are always very welcome! Just drop me a mail so we can arrange something…
I de letschte Täg isch die Zyt ou cheibe schnäu verbi gange… no ungefär 1.5 Täg bis i übere Teich richtig Santa Cruz flüüge. Ha no grad d’Föteli vo dr Bye Bye Party ufeglade…
Sobaud i de däne bi wirdi de hoffentlich ab und zue e Itrag mache. Verspräche chani aber nüt, ha hüt grad es eMail bercho, dass es Momentan super zum Surfe isch .
Auso, aui wo ig nüme gseh vorem abflüge säge jetzt scho mou kollektiv: Tschou zäme!
Welcome to my updated webpage. It’s been a while since I did anything on this site, but since I’ll be moving to Santa Cruz in 2 weeks I felt like I should do some work.
Click here to access the old news…
