NYDiscovery

Good-bye 2008, you were a good one!

With less than 8 hours to go, 2008 is clearly winding down, making room for 2009. Looking back, I'd say I particularly liked that one despite my  accident.

We were off to a rough start, 2008 and I, as it is usually the case, because I dislike January and February that much. For 2009, January is filled with already 5 concerts to hopefully ease the pain a bit, but January 2008 was the usual crappy, cold winter month with the exception that I could finally hire Ninash which still makes me happy.

In February, Oliver and I took on a gigantic project: remodeling our master bedroom! We got rid of our old sleeping sofa, painted the room ourselves - bright yellow! Bought a very nice new bed, a mattress, a new desk, chair, etc. and completely remodeled the room. It was so worth it and still is! So, February with all the yellow was already brighter than usual.

However, I didn't like my job situation too much. Jobwise okay but not the office politics and the general outlook. So I was pursuing a couple of opportunities...

In April, you can tell that Spring is in the air and by then, my mood changes and everything's getting better again.

May comes and we're going to a lot of concerts, traveling to Germany and preparing for Oliver's birthday. We had a big party on June 1st and all friends - with the exception of a few - were in New York, including his Dad, to celebrate with him.

We're digging summer. June, July, August - lots of concerts, open air dinners, some brief vacation at the beach in Montauk. Oh, not to forget our old friend Volkmar's visit who was on a business trip in New Jersey for 3 weeks, which gave us plenty of opportunities to hang out together. It felt so good to do things with an old friend!

September comes and with that not only the US Open (I've seen a Roger Federer game!!!) but some guests from Germany: Chrissi und Janina from Hamburg and Mandy and Jacko from Berlin. What fun it is to show friends our city! It's also fun to hang out with friends in Montauk, even though it's rainy. We've had a great time with Sue & Pete and Bill & Mike.

While it usually is my favorite month of the year, October turned out to be a bit too adventurous! The days up to my birthday were fantastic, then some big news, then my birthday and the day after my accident! While my head - thank the Lord! - is healed again, my right shoulder isn't yet. The comforting news however is that it's getting better. Slowly. But steadily. Yes, a lot of things happened in October and most of the events were positive like a having been promoted to Head of Community for fotolog.com, the company I am with and the community I am caring for more than 4.5 years.

November held probably the biggest highlight of 2008: our wedding anniversary cruise! 8 days on board the QM2, starting from New York City, cruising the Caribbean with final destination Fort Lauderdale. We loved it so much that we're determined to not only do this cruise every milestone anniversary but in 2009 - if in any way possible! There was another highlight of course: the election of Barrack Obama as the next US president. Let's get back the good things that America and its people stood and hopefully soon again stand for!!!

Always a fantastic month is December and this time especially with my Dad's 70th birthday surprise party! Not only did we have a great time with my family in the South of Germany but with our friends in Munich too. It felt so good to see everybody again: my sister Biggi, her boyfriend, Andrea, Elena, Fiona, Martina, Liza, Nicole, Volker, Oliver's Mom and as said my Mom and Dad.

The last couple of days in New York City could not have been any better. Oliver and I enjoyed a quiet Christmas Eve where we dressed up nicely and had a fun picture session. The next day, we were partying at Yvette's place with Melissa, Itzik and other friends. The day after that, Lani and Richard had dinner with us. Yesterday, we might with Jennifer and Bryan from Hong Kong who were on a short visit in New York and tonight we'll celebrate with Bill and Mike at Rosa Mexicano.

So, when I say that 2008 was particularly nice, then because of all of the above and so much more that I currently cannot think of.

Thanks and good-bye 2008. Welcome 2009!

Happy New Year everybody!

Another list: my Favorites 2008. Happy New Year!

Favorite NYC Bar: Bar on A

This is simply the place where we hang out the most, because we know the owners, the staff (including our gorgeous friend Yvette) and many of the guests. Runner-up: Magician, which is unfortunately not as convenient anymore since our friend Kelly changed her shifts.

Favorite Restaurant: wd-50

As this is undeniably one of the best restaurants in NYC, it just appears on this list now, because we finally made it across the street and had dinner there in 2008.

Favorite Album: Ladytron - Velocifero

I love female voices and electronic music, so how could I miss Ladytron for so long. Although, I like Velocifero much more than their previous released.

Favorite Song: Portishead - We Carry On

One of two songs I felt being worth of an iTunes 5 star rating in 2008.

Favorite Movie: None

I could go with the critics fave "Happy-go-lucky", but I've seen it only on an airplane screen and didn't completely get it. Other than that we made it to the multiplex only two times (for the so-so Sex and the City and the abysmal Body of Lies) and couldn't even summon enough enthusiasm for Quantum of Solace. We'll watch all those movies in the comfort and privacy of our own homes, courtesy to NetFlix and iTunes, but for now there's nothing I could rave about in 2008.

Favorite TV Show: Mad Men

Easy, obvious choice. Good story, good characters, excellent actors and not a single gun in two seasons.

Favorite Moment: Barack Obama elected President
If one party does a bad job, say starts and mismanages an unnecessary war and let the country slip into the worst recession since generations, then it should cease power to a different party. That's how democracy is supposed to work and that's why it was so scary that the election was seen as a close race until the very end. Fortunately it wasn't and this was a colossal relief.

Favorite Vacation: QM 2
Unfortunately I cannot say that my favorite vacation was hiking through the Amazonas, for example. No, it was the decadence of a luxurious cruise ship seemed to me as the ultimate way of spending my few free days. To my defense: I live in an urban jungle, so the greatest vacation for me is not having to care for anything and just drift over the ocean and doing next to nothing.

Favorite Gadget: iPhone 3G
Initially there were a lot of issues with the iPhone, most notably the disappointing battery life. But, but whatever magic, this has been mostly resolved by now. But even in those times when my iPhone 3G was almost unusable, I never even thought about getting some other phone. So good is it.

Favorite Local Radio Station: REXP
That's also almost the only one I listened to (other than Internet radio and podcasts). It started out great, but as it got more popular, it became very much like other radio stations, including spam-like ads and an greatest common denominator music. They still do progressive stuff, such as Radiohead and even some local bands, but mostly they prefer talking about it and then rather play a time-proven evergreen.

Playing around with the LiveScribe Pulse SmartPen on the Mac

I think the idea of a pen that remembers what it wrote is great by itself. That's why I couldn't resist to buy a LiveScribe Pulse Smartpen as soon as they announced the availability on the Mac. Basically, I want to use it for taking notes which sync with the desktop. That's a nice lower tech and cheaper alternative to a tablet PC, which are not very good at this point anyway.

The Pulse needs special paper, which can be purchased from the company. It can also be printed (currently Windows only) on a laser printer. The Pulse remembers all the written content of a notebook and syncs it with the desktop software as soon as it's connected via USB. From there you can view and print pages in the notebooks. That's basically it for the Mac version: the beta doesn't offer much more functionality. Most notably, a handwriting recognition is missing (there's one available for Windows by a third party vendor).

The other thing the Pulse can do is record sound and sync it with the writing in the notebook. Then you can tap on text in the notebook and listen to the sound that was recorded at the time the text was written. This is probably great for lectures and meetings, but so far I had no opportunity to test it. I'm not attending a lot of lectures anyway and my colleagues wouldn't appreciate it if I recorded business meetings. But I'm sure I'll find an application for this feature.

The Pulse is an open system that can be enhanced with applications. It includes a calculator and and application that allows drawing a piano and playing a tune on it. I'm sure more useful stuff is coming.

Things to do in 2009: Listening to all the songs in the iTunes library

I have around 6,000 songs in my iTunes, which probably makes up a medium sized music collection. That is means I can listen to 16 to 17 songs per day, without repeating a single over a year. In general, of course I listen only to a much smaller set of songs, new ones and those that I especially like. However, my music taste changes over time, so it makes sense to listen to songs again that I haven't touched in a long time and maybe adjust the rating. That's why I make it a project for 2009 to listen to all songs in my library. This is pretty easy to do in iTunes:

1. Create a smart playlist
2. Restrict it to all songs that haven't been played after 1/1/2009
3. Add some more restrictions, such as exclude videos, audio books or seasonal music.
4. If you have video in your library, you can exclude it by adding the clause 'Kind contains audio'

This playlist then will show me which songs I haven't heard yet in 2009. By playing this playlist randomly by song or by album I will re-discover music that I haven't heard in a long time. And it breathes life again in stale data that clogs our hard disks.

How to get my life in sync - six software solutions

I get some kick out of the idea to have all my data available wherever I go. For me this is currently a mostly theoretical exercise as I'm rarely far away from my computer at home or at least from a high-speed Internet connection, but here's what I use to keep my data available everywhere, ideally on a desktop, a laptop, the iPhone and the web.

• MobileMe for addresses and calendar. It has had its glitches, but in general it's a great tool that synchronizes its data to everywhere, usually with very little delay. For the iPhone this works wirelessly, eliminating the need for manual sync with a specific computer.
• Dropbox for files. MobileMe includes iDisk, a 20 GB virtual disk that syncs with Macs (not with Windows). But while iDisk simply does not work very well, Dropbox does. 2 GB are free, 50 GB go for $100/year. It's simple (just need to install a little software), fast and reliable (so far - it's still in beta).
• Evernote for notes of all kinds, text, pictures and other. It syncs between native clients, the iPhone (and other phones) and the web. I put everything what does not need special formatting on Evernote (for example this text). The iPhone client is workable, but still somewhat limited - for example, it is not possible to edit new notes offline.
• Google Docs for text documents and spreadsheets. This is currently web only, with very limited and experimental offline support. But this is absolutely going in the right direction and it's totally besides the point that Google Docs only supports about 10% of the MS Office functionality - I'm pretty sure that most people have no idea what the other 90% are.
• Google Reader for news. It's a great tool to quickly scan and sometimes read RSS feeds. It has full offline support and an optimized iPhone web client. Even better, with Byline (iTunes link) there's an offline reader available for the iPhone that works in the subway.
• OmniFocus for tasks. Since Apple, for whatever reason, doesn't support tasks neither on MobileMe nor on the iPhone, other applications have to jump in. OmniFocus is a luxury task manager that syncs with an iPhone application via MobileMe or directly via WiFi. A web interface is missing, though.

This is all not perfect. For example iTunes does not sync with my laptop, neither does iPhoto or Aperture. In the end, I believe, data synchronization should be a service on the OS level, rather than having each application provide its own mechanism. Maybe a Google OS will get us there.

Why do movies suck? Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

Films are pretty expensive to make, so why does it happen so often that a movie is unsatisfactory or even just bad? This is subjective, of course, but for me a good movie needs foremost a good story. So if the end product is boring, why was the script turned into a movie in the first place? I know that there's much more to the economics of a film than its artistic value, but still, sometimes I'm just puzzled.

Exhibit A: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. I'm not exactly the target demographic for this movie, but in general, I do think that women make more interesting characters and I like it most when drama and suspense are achieved without crime and violence involved. In other words, I wanted to like this movie, but I couldn't. The story is about four girls who used to be best friends, but were torn apart as the went to different colleges. Most of the time the plot deals with four independent story lines about the usual issues of young people: love, rivalry, self-confidence. Unfortunately this doesn't leave much time for depth, so it made it difficult for me to care about any of them. In fact, it made me want to shout: "Why don't you just get over with it and move on?" Complex stories can work and sum up to a greater total ("Love Actually" is an example, "Crash", I think, too), but it doesn't work here.

Also, presumably to save time, all sense of location was stripped. The characters traveled within the US, as well to Turkey and Greece as easy as double-clicking in Google Earth. For example, in order to get to the island of Santorini, you have to take a plane, then another plane or a ship, then a bus (but not a donkey, since the modern ferry harbor is accessible by car) and a lot of waiting time in between. By totally stripping out traveling from A to B the girls became detached from the hardships of routine life, able to focus solely on their little personal problems. Somebody who's able to spontaneously travel to one of the most beautiful places on Earth should just be happy, with or without a boyfriend.

The movie grossed domestically almost $45 million, which is, I guess, not that bad. But with four talented actresses, two of them with much buzz in current TV shows, and enough budget to film in beautiful locations, why hasn't it made more?

What tastes good, looks good!

It's such an easy, quick dish to prepare and it tastes as good as it looks! 

In a large pot boil water with a pinch of salt, put in thin spaghetti and cook for no longer than 6 minutes to prepare them "al dente". Remove from the stove, strain and keep them warm in the pot together with a little bit of good olive oil.

While the spaghetti are cooking, heat a pan, add about 5 table spoons of your favorite olive oil (there's no other fat on this dish, so go ahead and splurge!), add garlic slices (3 or more gloves) and small shrimp (with or without shell, depends on your likings). Season with very little salt (to be careful on your blood pressure) and lots of pepper or use cayenne pepper if you like it hot. To bring out the flavors, add a good handful of chopped fresh cilantro.

Add the cooked spaghetti to the pan, toss everything. Heat it through. If needed, add some more olive oil and finish everything up with some freshly squeezed lime juice.

Did you prepare a side salad, while the water was heating up? Bene! Now dinner is ready! Serve and enjoy :)

Queen Mary 2: Is it worth it?

 The WiFi Internet at sea is not yet reliable on the QM2: after working for a day, it shut down completely last Friday, so I could post no further stories or pictures right from the ocean. I'm sure this will have improved when we board the next time.
Yes, we're pretty sure that we're doing the QM2 again as soon as we could: may be a transatlantic crossing or another Caribbean voyage. Or the world cruise, if we manage to get our hands on 100 grand and three month off from work. So what's so great on a cruise on the QM2 (no idea how much this applies to other than Cunard ships):

• I love the sea and there's no way to be closer to the sea than in a big ship. You can't jump in, but you can fill your view with nothing than waves and sky.
• I love eating and there's hardly a place where you get constantly as much excellent food as you want. Of course, this is also a very good exercise in self-restriction.
• There's no place where guests are continuously treated so well. Hotels with that kind of standard are much more expensive and to be treated better than cattle on an airplane you have to fly business (where a single ticket for one flight costs easily more than a one week cruise for two)
• QM2 is for adults what Disneyworld is for kids. You enter a world where things are as you wish they were in reality and it gives you a fictional social status that is very difficult or even impossible to reach in real life these days.
• People are interesting on a ship. We've met a lot of people we had a great time with and none of them we would have met in New York, simply because our paths wouldn't have crossed in NYC
• I cannot remember the last time I was bored, because just hanging on to my thoughts entertains me quite well (especially when looking at the open sea), but if you need more stimulation, then QM2 may not be for you as entertainment is a little quaint (which can be exciting by itself). But there's a huge casino on board and for many people this is the pinnacle of having a good time. Of course that you can get cheaper in Vegas or AC.

So we had a great time and if you agree with all or most of the points above, you will have one, too.