Song for the trip: Coyote Kisses – S✦archaser (by mp3ye.eu)

The most interesting talks (maximum 18min) for me have been the ones of:

• Gaganomics by Jörg Reckhenrich (Artist, Management Thinker)
• A Living Man Declared Dead by Taryn Simon (Photographer)
• Amortality: Anatomy of a (New) Species by Catherine Mayer (Author)
• Where Did I Park My Car?  by Neil Burgess (Neuroscientist)

The event was summarized by Caitlin Kraft-Buchman in the TED blog and pictures can be found at the TED Flickr Stream. Now, the only thing I am waiting for are the talks as video on demand. After the conference there was the opportunity to talk to all the speakers while the after salon party in a nearby pub hosted by the Salon organizers Frog Design.

As London is a highly visited place, we had to switch hostels as there were no free spots available in they one we stayed the first night. So we packed everythhing and walked across the city center to finally check in at the Piccadilly Backpackers Hostel. While walking across the city, we checked the Tate Mondern to see the pictures by Taryn Simon - A Living Man Declared Dead. 

We saw a lot of people with little red flowers attached to their clothing - so called Poppies. They are a symbol of Remembrance Day or Poppy Day, to remember all the fallen during wars.

In the afternoon I had the chance meeting my UK colleagues and to help them out a bit. We stopped by at the BeMyApp WeekEnd London - an event were people with an application idea meet with designers and developers to pitch their story and to have this app created over the weekend – hackathon style. We pitched the Intel AppUp developer program story to interest developer to deploy their app in the Intel AppUp Center.

Then our party weekend should begin. We went to the Fabric nightclub at around 23:30 and cued 400m behind the entrance in groups of approximately 50people. After nearly 1h waiting time we moved one group in the right direction – 5 more to go … we decided to leave. We followed the advice of a promoter near Piccadilly Circus, paid 10 Pound, entered a club but left straight after entering as it was the worst 5min experience ever – which was the best decision.

Around the corner was the new W - London hotel. We didnt know, that it was a hotel, people (all Russians) cued before so we did as well. We sneaked in with a small group of Russians, entered a great lounge area but wanted to get into the club next to it. We tried to enter it the regular way – but got rejected as the minimum table expenses are 500 pounds. So we tried the same procedure as as entering the hotel – and we got it! We entered a small club 50-75 people mostly Russians dancing to Russian house music and lots expansive Vodka and Champagne, and a German and French with no money (each of us hat 5Pounds left) in the middle, talking, dancing and getting “invited” for drinks!

For getting arround the city we decided to go for a Oyster card. Which was perfect as we paid only 2,7 Pound to go from Heathrow to downtown London in 40min as we were riding Off-Peak. Defenitelly much cheaper than buying regular tickets and more convenient.

Next morning we started with a common sight seeing and shopping tour, met a friend, chilled in the city and went to Fireworks at the Themse. The last night came and we packed our stuff to go to the Fabric nightclub and straight to the airport the next morning at 6. This time we got in, had fun till 4 and then walked, rode busses and the Heathrow express to get our flight at 7 in the morning!

Thanks to Maud & Antoine!

Besides the actual conference program with many sessions and great Intel announcements, I managed to walk around Bellevue and did a small tour to all touristic places to be seen downtown Seattle.

I got there by public transportation. I was pretty impressed as I haven’t thought that US cities might have a transportation system any near a European one. We got on a bus ride – bus 550 if I recall it correctly – from Bellevue and got out downtown Seattle 40min later for $2,50 (a cab ride costs $35 and takes 25-30min). Seattle has an underground system for public busses and trains – yep, trains and busses share the same track. Seems as I have to change my opinion – and I am happy to do so!

After Elements was over, I was about to stay in Seattle but I got the generous offer from a colleague to stay with her and her family for the weekend. This decision was easy and we drove three hours South of Seattle to Battle Ground, Washington.

The city is ironically named for the absence of a battle in 1855. When some of the Klickitats Indians escaped from the Vancouver Barracks, Captain William Strong, the post commander, led a detachment of volunteers to bring them back. They overtook the Klickitats near the city, but rather than engaging them in battle, Captain Strong talked them into agreeing to return to the fort peacefully. Somehow during this episode the Klickitat leader, Chief Umtuch, was slain in battle. In any event, the Klickitats promised to return to the fort after burying their chief, a ceremony that would take several days, so Strong returned without them. The settlers had been expecting a battle, and when Strong returned empty-handed, they accused him of cowardice. The Klickitats did return as promised. And the area where the Klickitats were encountered became known as “Strong’s Battle Ground,” and later simply “Battle Ground.”

It was awesome to refresh my “American way of life” memories from my high school exchange from 1999/2000. We went to soccer practice, worked on homework, played in the yard, went out with the dogs, had breakfast & dinner as well as went on a great hike at Siouxson Creek hike.

For Sunday I got myself a car at the Portland International Airport (booked through ADAC in Germany) to head to one of the biggest outlet center in Woodburn (location) – the fact that the state of Oregon does not have a sales tax and the currency conversion of $1,36 per Euro made it even more attractive to shop there.

Monday came more quickly than expected, it was time to say “Goodbye” and head three hours North to SeaTac (Seattle & Tacoma International Airport) to return back home.

It was a great week in the US – thanks to everyone involved.

The result is shown in the pictures – a bright and welcoming atmosphere with lots of cool and useful things. Here are my favorites:

• lower and brighter cubicle walls
• automatic height adjustable desks for sitting and standing
• drawers that can be used as sitting-opportunities for casual chats
• large new monitors in collaboration areas & a Nintendo Wii on every floor
• new phone booths
• new small meeting rooms

Thanks to a colleague, I now own my own daruma doll (達磨). I have been to Japan but most likely missed the definition and use for it but certainly remember that luck bringing figure. I colored his left eye, made a wish and wait for the result.

the daruma doll – a hollow, round, Japanese traditional doll modeled after Bodhidharma, the founder of the Zen sect of Buddhism. These dolls, though typically red and depicting a bearded man (Dharma). They are seen as a symbol of perseverance and good luck.

As I brought my camera to picture that memorable moment of having a totally new workplace =) I decided with a colleague to go on a photo tour through Munich. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t as nice as we would have loved to have it – it was raining. Therefore our plans of taking pictures of unusual and non-touristic things in and around Munich turned out to be an in-vehicle sightseeing and explanation tour.

Next day started and we were looking at a full schedule:

• 2 Games of Volley-, Basket-, Handball & soccer, each = 8 Games
• 20 min playtime, each = 2h 40min
• overall 96 teams approx. 1200 player
• 12 players for the Isarpiesler team (10 male, 2 female)
• we played in Group F (16 teams in 6 Groups)

After the first day we ranked Fourth (5 wins / 3 losses) in our group that meant we would play in Group B the second day – this meant rank 32 worst & 17 best case; but now we would compete against harder teams compared to the first day. We played really well (2 wins / 2 ties / 4 losses) and finished overall 25th. – best result in the Isarpiesler history!

Right after the flower- & closing ceremony we hit the road to drive 700km north-east to the Baltic Sea island Usedom were we spend 5 days to learn windsurfing at Windsport-Usedom. We did a 3 day course. After arriving Monday morning at 3am we didn’t make it to the fist day so we jump-started on day two (skipping the theory lessons). There was nearly no wind and really nice weather so we had our first short encounters with the surf rigg- & board but due to the weather we stopped very quickly. So we went to the beach and played some mini golf.

For us the second surf day was challenging with winds up to 4 to 5 on a beaufort scale and it got even worse on day three and four with winds up to 7. It was challenging but still very nice! On the last day we did our theory test and finally got our surfing pass – now we have to practice, practice, practice.

Some equipment facts for beginners:

• our beginners board had 214l volume (a beginner should have at least 100 liter rest volume after subtracting his weight+10; in my case 214l – 71(kg) – 10 =133l > 100l)
• our rigg on the first day had 4,5 square meters and 3,5 at the last two days

Overall a nice and sportive week!

The trip started in Munich with Finnair to Helsinki and then with a propelle-aircraft to Tampere (fairly cheap – 280€ overall for at the end 4 flights).

The weather that was waiting – fairly cold with 3-10 degree Celsius but very sunny. Still Finland’s lakes were covered with thick ice (perfect view while flying with the propelle-aircraft). I was told that the spring just started and the temperatures rose above freezing point just a couple days ago.

Tampere is an fairly old manufacturing town but with its own charm. Nice old official buildings like the Renaissance Revival Raatihuon (City Hall) or large brick-build manufacturing halls. My first memorable (in this case nerdy) observation was done at the Helsinki airport (twitter/7grad):

“Charging your phone for free over induction with #powerkiss at helsinki airport http://yfrog.com/h0ns1wplj“

Others were:

• perfect 3G reception with extraordinary DL/UL data rates
• night-life starts 00:00 but not only teenagers also parents or even grandparents with kids
• sauna a must have for every house /house hold
• very friendly people with a very open mindset

Overall, a very nice trip that was very much enjoyable even if it was work-related.

In 3 days 7.870 kcal were burned in 17h30min of boarding (including lift rides, barely brakes) while constantly listening to 13 songs in my snowboard playlist.

The environmental facts state that we had 1 perfect day of sun, 2 very warm days with clouds, fog and some rain.

This trip market the end for the Winter trips in this season, thank Wulf, Tina & Una – looking forward to the next season were we go three digits slope kilometers in one day and I will fall big time while practicing 360s =)

Doing so 9.050 kcal were burned in 21h05min of boarding (including lift rides, nearly no breaks at all) while constantly listening to 15 songs in my snowboard playlist; for relaxing we entered 6 times into the sauna.

The environmental facts state that we had 1 day of sun, 3 days with massive snowfall an 20-30cm powder each day.

Doing so 10.115 kcal were burned in 28h32min of boarding (including lift rides, nearly no breaks at all) while constantly listening to 12 songs in my snowboard playlist; for relaxing we entered 10 times into the sauna.

The environmental facts state that we had 2 days of sun, 1 day with massive snowfall an 35cm powder. A mean temperature of -11 degree celcius (11,2°F) at the top of the mountain (min -17°C (1,4°F); max -9°C (15,8°F)).

Cleaning up. Waiting for the dark and lighting up a candle inside. The is how we go for the first Halloween in Munich.

The same apology I should address to pictures I have made during this time. A couple of them wait to be looked at, evaluated, brightened up and published at the end of the day. So here is a starting point – one of my first shots during a nice thunderstorm viewed from our apartment.