Freedom

Not my impending work-free life, but this little critter's.



Rhesus monkey that he is, he found a way out of his open-air enclosure at the Leipzig zoo and was hanging out near the bamboo.

Who can blame him?

I have had a soft spot for Rhesus's ever since my mom and I went to Cancun when I was in high school. The margarita bar/windsurf rental/scuba school had one, and we hit it off. Eventually, the owner asked if I wanted to take the Rhesus for a walk. I said yes and he unclipped the monkey's long leash.

The monkey hopped down to the sand then looked up at me, with the most human expression you can imagine, and held his right hand up, just like a kid ready to cross the street. Pretty dang cute.

Mini Games

An American colleague/friend who also owns and loves a Mini Cooper S was over for work recently, and the subject of autobahn driving came up. When asked my "top speed", I decided to cop to 190 km/h, which I achieved during my vacation last year.



This required a certain degree of honesty since 190 is, by any Teutonic standard, a crawl. I could feel my German co-workers cringe.

I found some personal redemption when I checked and found that 190 km/h = 118 mph. I had been thinking it was under 110 mph.

But I was still feeling emasculated when I headed to Leipzig, so when I found a nice, straight stretch with no scary trucks ahead and no Lamborghinis behind (that I could see) I took it to 200 km/h. 124 mph will have to do. The Mini's really meant for curves and quick sprints in the mid-range. And, as I get older, my death wish diminishes.

Returning from Leipzig, I opted for the curves. It had rained. The fields and trees lining the perfectly maintained backroads were green and glistening, so I set the navigation system to "Avoid Highways" and played a little game much better suited for the Mini.



Duck.....Duck...Geese.

The cow/turtle/ostrich in the road picture is admittedly a bit cliche, but I was amused (and happy that they were pretty easy to spot on a straightaway, rather than nestled beyond the apex of a tight corner).

They clearly didn't see the issue at hand (car+goose=mess) and there was no good reason for them to be there. I was in the land of Spargel (asparagus) not fois gras. And they didn't budge. So after a couple of oncoming cars passed, I pulled into the other lane and scooted by, then flashed my lights for the next 500 meters or so to warn oncoming cars.

You know you're getting old...

...when you let out a loud "Yes!" after accomplishing something that any 14-year old could do.

andrewsteele.com -- which I bought three years ago (also warranting a "Yes!" at the time) -- now redirects automatically to this blog.

I trust the seven visitors to the old page won't miss the one photo and list of books I used as a placeholder.

For those even older than me, what this boils down to is that you can now access this blog just by typing andrewsteele.com

Opening a celebratory beer,

Andrew

Cablegram

Found it.

Heard about this new thing called cable?

I bought a tripod last week, and have been playing around with pictures of the view of the Fernsehturm out my apartment window . But you can't see them.

Not because I don't want you to see them, but because I can't for the life of me find the one cable that is appropriately sexed to fit both my camera and my computer. Without blowing one or the other to kingdom come.

I am often amazed at the lack of "standards" when it comes to hooking up. Take that any way you want, but I'm currently discussing electronics, not humans.

I feel guilty every time I pick up a power adapter, struggle to remember what it's supposed to plug into, and, failing, throw it away. (I'm on a big declutter kick right now, since my plans will be much easier if everything fits in the Mini. I've gotten quite ruthless.)

Stop for a moment and think about how dependent we all still are on wires, even in this day and age of...well...nothing THAT great has actually been invented recently, but go along with me, please?

Sure, the Phillips' commercials show that wonderful flat screen TV on the wall...but without wires. How many of us add in the extra $500 it will cost to bore a hole in the wall, run the cables through, etc.?

And all of our laptops? Wonderfully small, if you ignore the two pound AC adapter you have to carry along with you.

In my mind, the ideal investment portfolio, from a techie perspective is:

- Laptop batteries that last more than four hours, and weigh less than a brick
- T3 speed wireless connectivity
- Flexible, paper thin displays

If anyone knows of a public company where one or all of these make up more than 50% of their revenues, please let me know.

In the meantime, I'll keep hunting for the proper cable, and my Dell XPS will keep wolfing down German electricity.