general

Mon - January 29, 2007

the 2030 challenge

Ok, I know there's a lot of important stuff concerning global awareness and greenhouse initiatives, but this one surprised me a lot, and it might surprise you too:

40% of all US greenhouse gas emissions come from operating buildings.

Here's the quote from the interview posted on BLDG BLOG :

The number is actually 48% of total US energy consumption that can be attributed to the building sector, most of which – 40% of total consumption – can be attributed just to building operations. That's heating, lighting, cooling, and hot water. There are others – running pumps and things like that. But 40% of total US energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed just to building operations

Think about that. Remembering the terrible conditions regarding air quality and temperature at the last office building I worked at, I doubt that the numbers are any better here in Europe. No matter how many environmental sensitive passive houses our friends build for themselves, they're nothing compared to those huge energy-eating office complexes that we keep planting.

Posted at 01:30 PM Link here |

Wed - November 29, 2006

Bullsh*t bingo

Seriously, what is it with those waves of buzz words lately? Here's my top 3 most heard and meanwhile most annoying phrases for November, 2006:

"Mockumentary" Thanks you, Mr. Cohen. And I don't mean the movie about Leonard, either.

"Outsourcing" A new way of saying: You dig hole, I watch and comment.

"this new TV Show..." Ok, enough already! Lost, Carnivale, My Name is Earl, Heroes, Jericho. How many hours does your day have?

Oh, while you're at it: this mock DJ Documentary might be fun: It' All Gone Pete Tong

Posted at 11:06 AM Link here |

Mon - November 20, 2006

Really good games...

...sometimes still won't keep you from missing your old job, partner and the place you shared.

~~Why are there no save games or at least a simple 'quit' function in life?~~

Answer: Because that's the way it is. I just got reminded that there are quite some people far worse off, and by not being in contact with them I had forgotten how unimportant some problems are compared to serious illness and death.

As a good friend just put it, we seem to be eternally bound to our own small spectrum of emotions in the vast high dynamic range of life. I better get some perspective now....

Posted at 09:50 PM Link here |

Tue - November 14, 2006

I've turned into an asshole

Today it has finally dawned on me that I've turned into a real asshole. I've hurt somebody really close to me with stupid jokes, i've twice refused to answer the phone when Mom called and I've (get this !) purposefully blocked two cars on a shopping mall parking lot, only because they themselves used up 3 spots for their two compacts.

So, no happy news here. I will need to resolve this before the festive season sets in.

Oh, if you came for pictures: last month I took a great trip to Czech Krumlov, pics here.

Posted at 12:25 PM Link here |

Wed - October 18, 2006

The High Alp Road

If you live in central Europe, be sure to visit the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse some day. Preferably between May and October, when it is open. We're talking 2700m (that's 8850 feet guys!) altitude on fresh tarmac, in between mountains and goats and a lot of sky.

If you are crazy (and a little dumb) you can do the trip in one single day from vienna: here's a brief history of such a rushed vacation in pictures:

Run To The Hills

enjoy!

Posted at 08:47 AM Link here |

Thu - July 20, 2006

The other blog...

Since Rockstar Vienna closed it's doors, barricaded and heavily guarded them too I have been keeping busy working on several indie projects and doing some freelance work.

If you're interested in the going-ons, feel free to visit my other blog . It was created mainly because I am planning to migrate to wordpress soon, and because I needed to be able to update my work diary from different places.

Link

Posted at 08:28 AM Link here |

Sun - May 21, 2006

If every angel is terrible, why do you welcome them?

I've been sleeping well for two days now, it seems my initial shock of being ripped out of our last project has worn off. Now the time is good to re-adjust my bearings, think about what I used to be able to do well and generally unwind. Summer is kind.

Meanwhile, as acoustic background I can recommend the fabulous, if a tad melancholic, Coco Rosie to you. Here are some samples: http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=18785

Posted at 09:54 AM Link here |

Sun - March 12, 2006

eyeweiss up again

I'm not sure why, but I turned the site on again. The comments on the blog seem to serve as a medium for finding long-forgotten friends. Weird.

I started adding Moscow and Mexico to the graffiti section, not all pages are updated but I can't be bothered now.

Posted at 01:20 AM Link here |

Tue - September 20, 2005

Moscow preview

Okay, I was too fast with my promise . Since I used multiple cameras, the girls in high heels (there are no girls without high heels in Moscow) are on a different hard drive.

So you'll need to be patient and wait for my travel report until I got all the pics sorted out.

Posted at 08:49 AM Link here |

Fri - May 27, 2005

Tiger

So, after 2 weeks of fear and distrust, I finally got around to upgrading my OS to os x 10.4
Isn't it nice that it worked? I got a clean install, and so far at least my mail application and iBlog seem to have survived the trip. I haven't dared to open any other important tools yet...dashboard tells me that it is 28c, thats 82f outside. The irony! Taking a bank holiday to stay inside, and then have your new OS tell you that it's nice and sunny outside. I'll go now!

PS: Tomorrow is the 5th shooter tournament, wish me luck! The really weird lineup includes Thunderforce III, so at least one game I know ;)

Posted at 04:28 PM Link here |

Fri - May 20, 2005

Whatever

I got myself a Lomo LC-A just as they are being discontinued. The price was no where near reasonable, but it just had to be, considering this camera still takes pictures that look different to all others: Lomograhpic Society
It came in a nice little hand-packaged paper wrapped box:

Apart from that I have finally gotten around to hook my old Dreamcast to my pivot TFT by using a VGA-box, and use a PSX-converter for playing Ikaruga with the Namco Joypad. Sounds complicated? Well, it works: