Campinas, Brazil

From Germany, to Holland, to Spain... and finally the madness stopped in Brazil. That was last Friday, and what feels like a month ago. I am creating a reservation web application for a museum on what it's like to be blind. It's called Diálogo No Escuro and it is part of the whole Dialog im Dunkeln exhibition. This pano was shot from my 'Office/Apartment' window while taking a break from coding. No doubt there will be entries following this one... to include more of The Rich and Beautiful Brazil, The Poor and Heartbreaking Brazil... and the sun kissed Brazilian Bikini Waxed Bodies. Boing!

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Enschrede, Holland - ABN

Woke up and was ready by 7.00. First time working in Holland in a few weeks, and I felt I knew what to prepare for. After a long day like this, I just want to sleep. I also want to push the ball forward in a lot of areas of my life, but I wonder if sleeping isn't the best way to achieve that. Right now Guido changes channels and wants to sleep. As he turns the light out, leaving the changing glow of the TV for a second... only to go dark and start to sleep. The last week was really a challenge for me. I was suppose to visit my father over Thanksgiving, but that did not work out. Not enough money, really. Just had to close up my Taxes for the last 3 Q and it was not a pleasant surprise. Sandra is now in Brazil, and after only one week, she has found herself established, with friends, and a full working schedule. I even was asked on Saturday if I could build a reservations program for the Brazilian Branch. Brazil must be an amazing land, and if I can, I would do it for cost, just for the experience. She is an amazing woman, and I have yet to find the drawer to categorize her in. Very special, the little Mexican / Deutsche / Italian / Brazilian monkey. Dirk has been drinking noticeably more. He comes home from the Clink and picks up a beer for the road. Spends about two hours at the office, then picks up something to eat, and a bottle of white wine. That is usually almost empty by the time I get home, and it's not always the end of the drinking for the day. I wish him the best, but It's time I focus on my own life and stop trying to help him. I have done all that I could ask a friend to do for me in the Lifeguard roll. My mother wrote me a letter. I feel for her, but still that part of my family is simply a part of the past. I miss it only in a reminiscent, sentimental sort of way. I have been having many strange dreams the last week. Very intense, and fun to recall the next day. I wish only that a machine could be invented to record dreams, it would sure be fun to watch them conscience. I have been searching for a new 'game' the last few weeks. Not having something to do when I want to play is always dangerous, so I have set out to research flight simulators. I played them quite a bit as a kid, and know from taking flying lessons that they make the theory and instrument understanding a lot of fun. Heh, the first time I flew a plane, the instructor keep telling me I spend too much time looking at the instruments and not enough time looking up and flying-- a good problem if I go for my Instrument Rating. The simulator I settled on was Orbiter - a Space Mechanics and Piloting simulator. Space Pilot, sure... why not. It's almost midnight, and I had better get some sleep, as I have a 7:00 wakeup.

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Spermcoaster - Blender 3D

Here is a wee test animation made using Blender 3D and Voodoo Camera Tracking. For the non-german speaking: 'die zwillinge' means 'the twins', a small advertising agency I work with here in lovely Sonsbeck. Twin Pictures is the production company I started as the media arm of die-zwillinge. Now shut up and watch the video already.

Utrecht, Netherlands

Night street sounds pass below the open hotel windows. Bikes rumble by, then silence for awhile. A mix of languages—some in my mothers tongue—laugh and converse in dark tones as they walk home from the bars and clubs. An in the next moments, as sleep creeps in, I wonder if this night will be recalled accurately, in all it's splender.

God made the world, but the Dutch made Holland, and Utrecht is one of the the hubs. Because of its central location, the Ultrecht hauptbanhauf makes more connections, moves more people that any where else in the country. With a film festival in town, the streets seemed amplified with mixes of students, funky film-goers, locals and stop-overs.

High above the old canals stand the winding tangle of street, bridge and alleyways connect a village for uses long abandoned. Put in the past like the stately windmills that dot Hollands dykes. What would it all look like back in action. Windmills truning with sails full of wind, canal boats delivering goods from the harbors to the wagons and stores. It must have been an amazing place—still is. map

Things I Learned Last Night > Blender 3D to NTSC Widescreen Video

I have learned a few 3D programs over the years. Learning a new one has been my obsession the last weeks. Blender is an impressively powerful 3D modeling and animation program. Blender is also open sourced. This means it is free to download, use and enhance. It is also supported by a global team of friggin cool people -- accessed via wiki and googled websites -- that help Blenders learning curves slide by a bit smoother. It is in this vein that I am collecting my findings on rendering an animation for video here. Once it is complete, I hope to join the ranks of the friggin cool.

So, Things I learned Last Night about:
I. Rendering a Blender animation for use in After Effects/Premiere
D1/DV NTSC Widescreen (1.2)
SizeX: 720, SizeY: 480 - This will render the proper (or close to it for now) screen size
AspX: 12, AspY 10 - Video pixels are not square, 12 x 10 will render the proper pixel aspect ratio, however the final footage must be interpreted manually later on
Fields on - so that the interlaced fields are rendered for video
Odd on - so that the bottom field renders first for NTSC
Output to Targa files (Extensions on) - Better than AVI in case the machine crashes during render
Save the file before rendering

Render the file from the command line like so:
blender -b <path to file><filename.blend> -a

When render completes there should be a list of .tga files in the render folder (C:/temp)

Open up After Effects / Premiere Set up Composition / Project for D1/NTSC Widescreen (1.2)
File > Import > File... > Browse to list of targas
Select first .tga file
Check Targa Sequence check box, Open

Right click on the new footage > Interpret Footage > Main...
Set Pixel Aspect Ratio to: D1/NTSC Widescreen (1.2)

There you have it.

Get Along Little Doggy

Being pulled through the mountains on a Six Dog Powered sled is unlike anything I have ever experienced. First, you have to respect the fact that they love their life. Everyday they get to run, run, run! They like running so much they don't stop... not even to poop or eat snow. The back two dogs are called wheelers. They are pretty much the power houses of the outfit. The lead dogs are called, well, leads. They are pretty much the brains, you tell them where to go and they pretty much listen. After doing this, I can't help but imagine a dog sledding team made up of 20 Jack Russel Terriers. Not only would it look friggin' awesome, but imagine all 20 of them seeing the same damn squirrel. Now that would be a ride!

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Whistler, British Columbia, Canada.

Let's call it a working vacation along the lines of work hard play hard. Currently I find my self smack-dab in the middle of the playing part. Yesterday Bill, Hunter and I went snowboarding at Blackcomb and Whistler. It's been a about four years since I have been on a board, and wow am I feeling it today. I think I will live through the day so long as I stay clear of any activity involving squatting. Today's line up: Dog Sledding.

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Anti Pope

Like a lion kills an antelope, and yes, yes, even like a hammer hits a cantaloupe Movlanian heart-throb Zladko "ZLAD!" Vladcik has declared himself as the Anti Pope. If you enjoyed the greatness of such true Europeans as Pleasureman Günther -- or even fake Europeans -- Zladko's blood-chilling video: Anti Pope is sure to please. But if speaking backwards through a hooded translator is not your thing, then check out project fast. Be sure to take a joyride and and 'Shake what your motherland gave you'. Now get back to the Internet.

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I (heart) gypse chicks

I have a wee thing for Gypsies. And the wee thing grows a bit larger when it comes to Gypsy Music. Be it gogol bordello or filthy little gypsy girls with fiddles, I just can't get enough. One such bands that I very much enjoy is Hot Club of Cow Town. Good Texas Swing, that. But I just read a great story about guitarist Django Reinhardt and his Quintet Hot Club of France, complete with vintage video download. Check it out at WFMU's Beware of the Blog.

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Death of a Disco Fly

...well it happens a lot 'round here. And if you think peace is a common goal, just wait till four or five of these nasty-ass creatures start buzzing around your ears. I wonder if the power could somehow be amp up... then maybe they would make more of an explosion when they die. Die! Die! Die! Disco Fly.

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Dark and Frantic Transatlactic Miles

Seat backs and tables to there original positions, once again it is time to brave a ride on todays commercial flying experience. Due to security restrictions, no robot pirate monkey... alas, fret not friendly American friend, for your pleasure I bring you the next best thing: a real live German wine-killer named Dirk.

So hi-yah, America! If you have a little time to get sucked up into some vacation mode fun, send me an email, adjusting the seatbelt to fit low and snug on the hips. Naturally, this is all very spontaneous, poorly planed, typical baden stuff---but what better way to have an adventure? One sketch of a plan* just might initially look something like:

-----October 2005-------
18: Fly to USA
19 - 21: San Francisco
22: Rod's wedding in Yontville
23: Sacramento
25ish: Drive motor home down to San Diego
27ish: Los Angeles
29ish: Round Mountain
-----November 2005----------
2ish: Seattle/Bellingham
5ish: Bellingham/Vancouver
8ish: Reno/Tahoe
9ish: Sacramento
12ish: San Francisco
14: Fly back to Deutschland
-------------------------------
*Everything except flights and the wedding is subject to change.

Since there is a motor home and foreign national involved, there will most likely be road-tripping in plentiful supply interspersed Chinese fire drills, visiting with friends like you... and the much needed day or three to simply chill.

All the best, and hope to see you soon!

Baden

iBad Newsy

The iPod craze is going hemeroidal again with the release of both the 'iTunsey Rokr' and the new iPod Nano. Well, since the Rokr is only available in the States, I don't have much to say on that excpet it's not as cool as it needed to be. Nanos? I just might buy one of thoes Nanos.

Also in the offering is the new iTunes. Now, iTunes, I use on a daily basis. Big fan of the, iTunes, i am -- use it all the time on my PC laptop. I now have the new version, and oh how I pine for the old iTunes. This new one, feh. What with its new 'sleaker' look, has some not-so-sleak problems. What happend to my ogg files, can't play them any more. Well they play, techically, but no sound. And once one has started, forget it... crash-bang-boom if you so much as look at the player. Just learn to enjoy the song-lenght moments of silence. Guess Apple must have either changed foulder structure or I'll have to find a new plugin. Also it seems to hog alot more resources, so I get more skipping digital arrrrg! Where I never had a problem with the old iTunes.

Typical Friday Night

What are you doing on a typical Friday night?

Is this a game-show question or what? Ok, sure, I will play along...
[Cut to me]

Me: You want the one-word answer?
(canned laughter/uncomfortable pause)

Game Show Guy: Heh-Heh, sure-sure, heh-heh, go ons and give us a little for instance.

Me: Well, I very rarely ever am home, so my for instance would be come home after a crazy week, and enjoy as much sun as I could. Then I might just chill down into my home zone with some good music, light my two Candles. Read a little, write a little, then call up some friends and see what is going on.

Game Show Guy. Wow, are you wacky or what!
(Applause! Applause!)

[fade out]

Flughaufen Diarys

Not much luck here at the CGN. This time I arrived early to pick up my e-ticket on Lufthansa. However, as it turns out, this is not possible from Köln to Florence. Therefor I needed to purchase the ticket here, not possible on account that I have no credit card. Beat down from the early wake-up, then further pummeled by spending my day sitting at this airport waiting to inform my team of the problem and start working on a solution. First thing I have learned is that I need to verify the tickets further in advance, and be sure of the particulars. Second, I need a credit card—can't seem to earn much wiggle-room without one these days.

This little mistake might end up costing me $400 in missing a day, one that can not be made up. Depressing? Yes, but what can I do at the moment but learn from this experience best I can.

Sam is informed, he is working on his own end of the problem, it sure would help to be more involved on this level of the project. I wonder who is working this? I imagine normally the travel is handled by the client. But since this project was such last-minute, Sam must have had to arrange this himself using Matinz ( ? )

Handy at my side, tick-tock... tick-tock, waiting some solution bringers to arrive at work and deal with this little issue on the Stateside. I imagine Sam will sent me a text message when he knows how I am to proceed. Until then, guess I should figure out every airline offering connections to Florence.

The enclosed spreadsheet list out every possible connection in my general area to either Munich (more connections), Rome (many connections to Florence), or as close to Florence as I can possibly get (Pisa, Tuscany in general). I even found some pretty decent prices, however I don't have the time I need to jack around with prices.

Sam text me back, the Americanos are working out what went wrong on there end, and how to do it right.

Keep getting bit by this credit card issue. Got to have one to travel on business, this is clear.

Ok, problem solved. I need to go home, press Ctrl+Alt+Del and start all over again tomorrow.

For as many beautiful women that live in Köln, they sure are not very well represented at the Airport. Come to think of it, the airport is not really known for it's display of beautiful people, don't know why I find this suprising.

Of note: I am not impressed with Lufthansa. Really, how can e-tickets not be possible to anywhere in this day and age. But then the same could be said for people without credit cards. I should have a credit card from Deutsche Postbank, but not sure what happened to that. I will make a point to check into that today when I go home.

Flowers for My Mom

Long day today. The kind of long that only flying home to the states can be. Stressful enough on it's own merit, unlike other times, mom was going to meet me at the gate. It has been a long time since mom and I have seen each other, and I was pretty nervous about meeting her after all this time. The smart Baden decided he might trump any Bad Son stories by bringing a nice bouquet of flowers. Not the plastic airport/gas station variety, but something that was truly beautiful.

That is not as easy as one might think on an International Flight to Today's US of A.

Lets say by some chance one makes it past the outgoing security. After all, many Europeans travel with flowers.

Also, with a bit of imagination, the flowers might survive transport along todays commercial flying experience.

U.S. Customs. Homeland Security. Department of Agriculture? I just hope the American people remember that once our ancestors traveled with fowers. Or at least give a son the honor of arriving with flowers for his mother.

Lord of the flyswatter

Feh. Today I am trying to kill as many flys as possible. For some reason flys have decided to create a new nation in my office. After searching for the obligatory forgotten severed head of pig stuck atop spear, the honing of my fly killing skills commenced! I purchased a highly effective electric fly killing device. It looks like a small racket, but instead of string it features electro-shock fly sparkers. Although fly killing is not exactly my lifes work--life is a string of days. Today I am a calculated killer.

Perfect day in San Sebastian

Today I made some new friends in San Sebastian, Spain. Funny enough, they both spoke German as well as English... not to mention Spanish -- sexy, eh? Conversation started with: Offering a bottle of water.

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Bang Boom Biarritz

Three days in France and one becomes convinced all french women have their noses stuck a bit to high in the air. Then, in a small cafe in Biarritz the very thing that repelled, suddenly attracts. Alle in all, Chicago just got bumped of my top-five favorite destinations list.

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Noordwijkerhout

Tuesday, May 24th (12:14 a.m. Noordwijkerhout, Netherlands)

Today started strange and just keep getting stranger. I got out of bed at 8:27, showered, packed and caught my 12:00 noon flight to Dallas, via Detroit, via Amsterdam... from Köln. After checking in, I watched the second season finally of Deadwood (damn straight great, by the way) that finished downloading the night before.

Then I waited some more.

Then the lady came.

The lady announced that the plane was late 'due to some technical difficulties' and that any missed connection issues would be dealt with in Amsterdam.

Understandably, some people did not like this situation —at all. Times like this, where unexpected monkey wrenches get tossed into the plans people make really separate the how-dare-you-mess-up my-lifers from the huh-...-wonder-how-this-turns-outers

Amsterdam Schiphol was an aggravated sea of pissed off people. At it happened, the Air Traffic Control system had a glitch, and the missed flights tumbled down like dominoes. People got bitchy and took out their fustration on the airline staff that was trying to help. In situations
like this, I -- not unlike my father -- dive right into the churning chaos.

No flights out to the States this day, so everything was rescheduled for the next day, and I was kindly put up in a nice 4 star hotel, taxied there and given a handful of other little tings to ease my travel pains and —such as being upgraded to business class. On a 13 hour flight a few extra inches makes all the difference.

To be honest I was all giddy with 'oh boy, a Amsterbaden night on the teat of KLM! Well they shipped me instead to this sleepy seaside town called Noordwijkerhout. So amongst the tulips and half excited half grumpy co-passengers, we all started to 'deal with it'.

I checked in, showered, asked for a map and headed to the sea. Weather was sloppy, but I found what I was looking for: A walk along the ocean eating oorlog frijts (french fry war).

Then a mini adventure transpired like a blur, but went something like this:
Long walk...
Asked a kite surfer dude if there where any Coffeehouses in the area.
More walking, then ran into this dude named Lodi.
He invites me to his pad where we sat around and talked.
Lodi's friend came over and we visit he backpacker hostel for Happy Hour
Meet more people
Watch an intense game of Chess
Walked home

Drink my free drink, informed my pickup buddy I will be a day late Ok, I have an ass-crack-of-dawn wakeup call I need to get ready for.

4:30 am wakeup, showered and checked out. 5:30 buss ride driven my some type of demon driver whipping through those round-a-bouts like a man possessed. Normally something I find enjoyable-- the bit-to-fast curve--just not while eating my good-morning yogurt.

Nice that KLM could get me back to the airport on time for my flight. Plenty of time. One might even say way too much time. Good thing AMS has an abundant supply of eye candy.

Punta Mita, Mexico

First time in Mexico. I have lived in LA and Dallas and driven near the border more than a few times. I know all the Spanish words needed to prevent getting oneself killed in a Mexican restaurant. I have flown over this land on my way to Guatemala, but this marks the first time I crossed the border. For the next few days I am working at the Four Seasons in Punta Mita, Mexico. Posh? Very much indeed. Satisfying work in a luxurious environment--I hope I don't get use to this as it would be hard to top. At this writing I have garnished at least two good stories, one of which entails me being pulled over by a Mexican police for 'speeding and swerving', earning me the nickname of 'Autobahn.' Gotta run, more to come.

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