Jörg Reuter

Does anyone remember the shoulder unicycle? It used to be just an aluminum bracket to rest against the shoulder. Very simple and very effective.

In the meantime, I have added an L-bracket with a hot shoe mount for a microphone holder and purchased a Swit LED camera light which comes with an adapter for Sony L series batteries that has to go somewhere. Time for some improvements. Now it's a pimped shoulder unicycle:



In retro-perspective I just could have bought a rail support. But where's the fun in that?

After three years I went to Anthrocon again. And what can I say? I had a blast!
( Long report is long... )

I'm fed up with the posting about the urinal mat being the most recent entry here, so let me post something new. I finally finished editing the photos from our January vacation through California, Arizona and Utah.


Roadtrip 2010

Dear nanny, contrary to popular belief us men usually do. Even without stupid reminders.

Ich wollte schon länger einen Text darüber schreiben, wie bigotte deutsche Journalisten und Politiker gegen Google hetzen — und was vermutlich tatsächlich auf ihrer Agenda steht. Freundlicherweise hat dies mspr0 unter dem Titel "Ein Persönlichkeitsrecht für Jägerzäune" übernommen. Dem bleibt kaum etwas hinzuzfügen.

(via BILDblog)

With all the talk about how bad the current 3D boom in cinema supposedly is, doesn't anybody remember how the demise of silent movies practically inhibited all creativity? How adding colour killed off artistic expression? And how CGI made everything artificial and bland? Oh, it didn't and the cinema is very much still alive, with countless multi-million revenue productions and artistically low-budget movies each year?

Nay-sayers like Mr. Ebert may be right in some regards for now, but the third dimension, with all its limitations we currently have, is not just another hyped technology. It is a new tool supporting artistic expression, a new language to tell a story in a never-before-seen way. Of course the language has to be learned, its limits and its unique possibilities have to be discovered. And sure enough we'll have to endure a huge amount of mediocre and even bad 3D movies now. Like we have in 2D. But we're also going to see some beautiful excellently staged stories that are best told using this means of expression becoming widely available. Or that even couldn't be told otherwise.

If the audience accepts this new way, technology and artistic expression will evolve further. If it doesn't, it will remain a short interlude in the rich history of cinema. Either way, it's good that people are getting creative with it and add another dimension to storytelling, hopefully not only in a geometric way.

As I came home Thursday night I couldn't open the door to my flat anymore: the dead bolt snapped back, but the latch didn't. Luckily I was able to remove the escutcheon plates and turn the axis of the spring bolt with the Leatherman. Now quickly to the hardware store before it closes and buy a new cylinder lock. And new escutcheon plates. I didn't take into account, though, that not only the cylinder lock was non-standard, but also the mortice lock. I had to google how to remove the cylinder, and the mortice lock does not take a standard cylinder lock. Dismantled, the system looks like this:


Old proprietary BKS locking system

Also, the special system made it impossible to measure the required lengths correctly. The plates were the wrong ones, the hardware store closed already, I had to somehow keep the door shut for the night.


There, I fixed it

Later that night it dawned on me that it was the mortice lock and not the cylinder which was broken, and that I might as well could have saved myself the trip to the store.

The next morning I went to the hardware store again, exchanged the plates for the correctly sized ones and bought a new mortice lock. At least the cylinder lock had the right length. After some adjustments to the door for the new system I was able to mount the new lock and finally have a correctly opening and lockable door again.


New lock, inside the flat

The new plates even match the ones on the door across the corridor.

Lessons learned:

• German door locks are as over-engineered as American ones¹ are crappy.
• Locksmiths take measures of things no sane engineer would even think of.
• When renting the next flat I'm going to insist on DIN standardized locks.

(For German readers: mortice lock = Einsteckschloss, cylinder lock = Schließzylinder, escutcheon plate = Schutzbeschlag, latch = Falle, dead bolt = Riegel.)

¹ Ironically, the bored cylindrical lock was invented by a German locksmith.

After a long time, here's a selection of what I purchased recently:

Poets of the Fall — Twilight Theater

What kind of genre is that music anyway? The English Wikipedia classifies the "Poets" as an Alternative Rock band, which is a bit... broad. The German edition lists them under Post Grunge, which doesn't seem right. Especially as their new album Twilight Theater is much closer to 80th Pop Rock with a slight folk influence — after the second track, at least. There seems to be a little bit of influence by the Simple Minds, as far as I can tell. Needless to say, that's exactly the music I want to hear. Great album, go and get it, if you haven't already!

Gorillaz — Plastic Beach

The (rightfully) much acclaimed third album by the Gorillaz. A mix between Brit Pop, Hip Hop, orchestral arrangements probably best described as urban world music (if that label hasn't been used for something else already). I like the track Sweepstakes best, which starts as minimalistic Hip Hop (Mos Def) and slowly turns into some strange but beautiful brass band trip hop music. Think Fleetwood Mac's song Tusk thirty years later. Or with regard to the album, The Beach Boys' Smile fourty years later. Plastic Beach is without doubt a masterpiece.

Schiller — Atemlos

The Limited Super Deluxe Edition of Christopher von Deylen's new album comes as DVD case sized hardcover book in a cardboard slipcase. The book contains some excellent photography, two CDs (the second one currently only available with the deluxe edition) and a DVD. I haven't watched the DVD yet. The first CD is a concept album (mainly) about a cruise to the Arctic Ocean. The critique at the German Amazon product page is quite interesting to read: long-time fans complain about the perceived simplicity of the album. They do have a point: the effects thrown in for no apparent reason von Deylen used to play with are completely missing. I hated those. Compared to his previous works this album is much more consistent and better produced. He is stylistically and musically confident, at last. And he doesn't need those overdone effects anymore to hide the quite obvious lack of ideas on some previous albums. The influence of contemporary Scandinavian Electronica and Alternative Pop music is a nice bonus. The only complaint I have is the sound logo on track one. How childish.

CD2, in comparison, is closer to previous works and doesn't quite fit the theme, but it still is a notable improvement. Nice to have, certainly not a disappointment, but not a must-have either.

Surprisingly, all three albums are in the same league, quality-wise, even though musically they couldn't be more different. It's all great music and well produced. Nice additions to my CD shelf.

Es schneit, die Fahrbahn ist frei, der Radweg lebensgefährlich weil wieder einmal seit Tagen nicht geräumt. Ich steh an der Ampel, vor mir ein PKW. Steigt eine ältere Frau aus: Sagense mal, warum fahren Sie nicht auf dem Radweg?!" — "Weil da nicht geräumt ist." — "Was Sie machen ist gefährlich! Sie müssen auf dem Radweg fahren!" — Nein, da ist nicht geräumt, da fliege ich auf die Fresse. — "Völlig unmöglich was Sie hier machen!". Steigt ein, fährt los.

Und dafür liebe ich dieses elende Provinzkaff hier mit seinen Bewohnern, die wirklich alles, was man an Deutschland hassen kann, mit Hingabe pflegen und leben.

We checked out Tuesday morning, went to Fry's and then to the Hotel Bijou in San Francisco again. Spent some time at Barnes & Nobles and had dinner at Lori's Diner. More cable car riding and shopping on Wednesday. The choice in DVDs (or Bluray disks) even got smaller, and apparently nobody sells any CDs except new releases and best-of albums anymore...


Err, what?

Thursday was time for some hiking in Muir Woods National Monument, and we actually found space at the parking lot... It was a pleasant not too difficult hike through the woods, even though the trail was described as strenuous. Sort of like the Black Forrest with large conifers instead of spruces. Afterwards, we tried to visit the Point Bonita lighthouse, but it was closed. At night we were invited by Morani and Shimaron to the Pyramid Alehouse. It was a pleasure to talk to them in person again after a long time. The food at the restaurant was also excellent and the beer is surprisingly good when it comes from the tap.


At Muir Woods NM

Friday was the last day in San Francisco. We visited Coit tower and tried again to get to the Pt Bonita lighthouse. Open Saturdays and Sundays only. Hey, that sign wasn't there the first time!


St. Peter & Paul seen from Telegraph Hill

Next stop: Folkmanis factory outlet. Got puppets with only slight flaws for a bargain. By the way, if you want to know where Pixar is: across the street from Folkmanis. We then went to an electronics surplus warehouse in San Jose and finally went shopping for some missing items at the mall again.


Lionel and Lynard at Folkmanis HQ

The flight to Frankfurt on Saturday was uneventful. The folks in the row in front of us never flew before, which meant they had to be educated about the backrest etiquette... It took ages for our luggage to arrive on the belt in Frankfurt, but eventually it all appeared undamaged. I said goodbye to Furvan, Kayjay and Tioh and took the next train heading for Nürnberg with Lynard. Lynard departed in Würzburg and I arrived at my home at 3 pm, tired but satisfied. What a great vacation!