But not only the aesthetical side of this site changed, the same is true of the technical side, by means of a complete new system. Terhech.de 1 and 2 were based on my own piece of software. It served its purpose well, and was, in a way, my own foray into unknown territory, learning about the technical basics behind blogging, like for example rss. However, the progress of time played against my little application, and now, almost for years after I wrote it, it’s old, hard-to-use, buggy, not expandable and very insecure. I had long been playing with the idea of switching to WordPress, but during previous usages in various of different projects, I’d always found annoying tidbits which kept me from switching. However, the new WordPress 2.5 changed all that, and finally offers everything I’d like my blog to do (and much more). So some of the new features one can see now are based on the switch to WordPress.

There is another very important change, one that can partly be traced back to the WordPress switch. My old software only allowed to write posts by means of a sidebar-plugin for Mozilla-Browsers, which enforced the necessity to use Firefox for blogging. Back in 2004 and 2005, when I was still heavily using Firefox on Linux, that seemed to be the right idea. I could leave the sidebar open all the time, and blog whenever I stumbled upon something vaguely interesting. However, since I started to use MacOSX, my Firefox usage diminished rapidly. Firefox on Mac OS X is rather slow (Firefox 3 changed this, though) and earlier versions lacked native integration. Thus Safari (and in between Camino) became my browser of choice. This led to the problem, that everytime I wanted to blog, I had to fire up FireFox and wait for it to boot. This annoyance was one of the reasons why I stopped to blog regulary. The other reason was, that I could not find a good topic to write about. I learned so many interesting things in the past two years, but most of them could not be reduced to a small posting, and wouldn’t be understandable without the bigger context. However my above-mentioned transition wouldn’t allow for more Beach-Party, Kindergarten or Vacation-Postings. I didn’t want to do that anymore. I wanted to write about serious, interesting topics, in a witty and thoughtfull way. But the old terhech.de didn’t allow for that.

So with the change of topic, and the change of software, chances are that I will revive this blog in a new and more meaningfull way. Thanks to my friends and fellow readers, for staying with me so long. I’ll try to add more value from now on.

Roundabout 2 years after my last serious visit to Hamburg I finally found some time to start another vacation to this fabulous city. Mind you, of course living less then 3 hours from Hamburg it would actually be easy for me to go there just for a weekend, but tight schedule and a lack of interest in taking on this journey for less than 2 days of actual staying kept me from doing so. Now still being on my university summer break I thought this would be my best shot at another rather lenghty vacation before study and thus the tight schedule comes back haunting me.
So last weeks thursday I drove off to Hamburg with the main intent of visiting my cousin, who has since my last visited moved to a new location which i accordingly hadn’t seen yet, and with the secondary intent of meeting many of my friends from the university who, just out of a rather lucky coincident, happened to be in Hamburg just the same weekend.

The other important point on my agenda was to visit my good friend Raphael, who’s been living in Hamburg for some months now, but that didn’t work out as he was busy moving.
So after I arrived, I went and took a glance at my cousins new flat which is very nice, rather big and located right in the middle of the centre. Can’t think of a better place to live, just that it’s extremely difficult finding a place for your car. After we had a nice chat about everything which happened over the past weeks we drove off into town. We went to Saturn in order to look for new digital cameras (they had a Canon EOS 350D + 18mm-55mm for 399€, which is *really* cheap, however I decided against buying it, having just bought a new Camera in San Francisco) and from there went on to stroll through some clothing stores where I bought a new jacked. Later that evening, after way too much red vine, we went out. There’s a very well-known Street in Hamburg which is called the “Kiez” (or Reeperbahn) and it’s always the host to many parties (as well as being filled with legal and illegal prostitution, much like the red areas in Amsterdam). We went there, and had tons of fun in a small club called “China Lounge”.
On Friday Christoph had to work, and I used the time to sleep, visit friends, and stroll through Hamburg on my own. We spend the evening watching DVD’s (Lucky Slevin is a MUST-See for those who haven’t) and went to bed early.
On Saturday we got up early, went for american breakfast at the Alster (a River / Lake in the middle of Hamburg) where we had the chance to see the new Airbus A380 that was just arriving at Hamburg Airport. After the breakfast we went to a rather big shopping mall with the serious intent of spending some money on clothes. Sadly I didn’t find too much stuff, while my Cousin had more luck.
In the evening I went and met with my friends from the university. We drank a lot, had a (mostly) good time and continued to the Reeperbahn. On Sunday there was a American Car meeting in town which we attended with great pleasure. There were a lot of interesting vintage cars, like Dodge, Buick, Mustang as well as new ones like the Hummer, the Hummer H2 and others. I even spotted a DeLorean which I found plain ugly (I’d never seen one in reallife, just in the Back To The Future Movies).
All in All it was a relaxing, and very welcome vacation. I hope I’ll be able to go on another Hamburg-Vacation within the next year, though I doubt it a bit thinking about my current track record of visiting Hamburg. Anyway, good times

Ich erreichte das Event auf Einladung von Red Bull, die wirklich ein tolles Hotel, einen guten Flug und eine hevorragende Location für die Presse gewählt hatten.
Der Flug führte mich mittels eines Umstiegs in Palma de Mallorca auch kurz nochmals auf die Lieblingsinsel der deutschen Stammtischalkoholiker, einen Ort den ich seit 2001 nicht mehr gesehen hatte, weshalb ich nur zu gern etwas länger als 2 Stunden geblieben wäre.
Das Hotel bestach durch seine 5 Sterne und den sich daraus ergebenden Möglichkeiten der Entspannung (Jacuzi, Türkische Sauna, Pool, …), die nur noch durch den beim Frühstück erhältlichen Champagner überboten wurden. Leider hatte ich aufgrund des engen Zeitrahmens nicht die Chance diese Angebote zu nutzen.

Die Presse-Area an der Flugstrecke lag so Zentral, dass man die komplette Strecke sehr gut sehen konnte. Es gab leckere Frei-Getränke (natürlich u.A. Red Bull), Snacks, Obst, Internet und sogar Liegestühle.
In der Presse-Area fühlte ich mich dann allerdings mit meiner kleinen Fujifilm FinePix S5700 Digitalkamera so ein wenig wie Gulliver im Land der Riesen. Da traten aus den Rucksäcken der anderen Presseleute gewaltige EOS’s, Sony Alpha’s, Nikon D90’s usw. der Extraklasse hervor. Gefolgt von Großspurgen 28-200+ Objektiven, die unter Laien vermutlich schon als Militärwaffen missinterpretiert werden könnten. Das unangenehme Gefühl, dass sich dadurch bei mir entwickelte hat auch dazu geführt, dass ich seither über eine Kameraneuanschaffung nachdenke, mir jedoch in diesem Zusammenhang wirklich unschlüssig bin.

Nachdem wir nun also das Qualifying des Air Race gesehen hatten, wurden wir mit einem Bus zum Air Race Airport geschleppt, und konnten dort Interviews mit den Piloten führen. Ich habe die Chance genutzt, um ein nettes Gespräch mit dem deutschen Piloten, Klaus Schrodt zu halten. Da dieses Flugfeld direkt am Strand lag, war das auch die einzige Gelegenheit, bei der ich die Möglichkeit hatte, den portugiesischen Strand kurzzeitige zu begutachten. Leider ergab sich im Nachhinein nicht mehr die Option.

Das Wetter war die ganze Zeit mehr als Gut. Immer zwischen 33 und 38 Grad wankend, kein Wölkchen am Himmel, konnte ich so innerhalb von Sekunden das grießgrämmige Deutsche Wetter vergessen.
Am Samstagabend dann gab es noch eine ausgezeichnete Party von Red Bull, die mit einer für “Red Bull Friends” deklarierten VIP-Area glänzte. Unter Zuhilfenahme von nicht unbedingt wenig Alkohol hatte ich hier wirklich viel Spaß :).
Alles in allem ein tolles Erlebnis, das auch ein wenig meine Augen für einen ganz neuen Sport geöffnet hat. Unabhängig davon gefiel mir Portugal auch so gut, dass ich es bei zukünftigen Urlauben auch eher mal in Erwägung ziehen würde.

Mehr Bilder und Fotos sowie einen exklusiven Bericht könnt ihr auf Sport-News.de finden. Weitere Bilder gibts auch in meinem Flickr-Account

So, I created a Twitter and a Jaiku account, to aid me in mini blogging for I often have things to say but I hardly have the time to write a fullfeatured blog-post.
I’ll integrate the Twitter/Jaiku data into this blog as soon as possible (in fact, I already integrated it, it’s just not in the rss yet and the stylesheet currently hide’s the div elements). But I’m working on that. So: new hope.

Apart from that I always tried to understand this blog as a part of lifejournal, too; Helping to remember, someday in the future, what I’ve been up to. So I’ll give – once again – a short hint on what happened in the past months;

Mostly for me, maybe for you as well.

* I had to fly to switzerland to visit a customer. I enjoyed it and bought quite a lot of swiss chocolate
* I’m concentrating more on work and less on my studies as work currently demands way more attention – and my studies somehow feel as they don’t
* Another failed relationship in my book of dud’s. But well, every failure is a chance to grow.
* I got an Apple-TV to play around with. Surely sexy as hell. I grant apple that.
* I’m going to visit the Apple WorldWide Developers conference 2007 in San Francisco next week. So looking forward to that. Imagine – I’ll manage to see his Steveness. Live!.

That’s about it, I need to catch my train.

“The tree’s look different. He hasn’t been to this part of the forrest before. Fresh air fills his lungs and makes him feel comfortable – even though he went astray days ago. He sets for the direction of the sun, as he seems to know that each path implies a similar level of insecurity.

Pounding through wet moss, his feets feel as if they’ve been preparing since ages for the task ahead”

Light forms pictures and makes me wonder how I will feel after the next breath. My past unravels before me time after time again, with a rising confidence of having gone for the right decisions.

The impressions come and go. And every impression ignites my imagination, drop-dead gorgeous pictures appear. I question my reasons less and less.

One can’t expect to disassemble the devastatements that have been building up for years, in weeks. One can’t expect to immediately gain concrete feedback on large-scale actions. But while the purple haze flickers again, I feel a first herald of the implications of _the_ decisions.

It’s 3am, I’m strolling through Münster and feel the lowering weight of my burden disappear for a second. I seem to float free. I seem to be free. A good path hopefully lies ahead – I’m heading for the sun.

Wish me luck.

* I had a serious illnes which resulted in my ears not working anymore and was close to a ’stroke of paralysis’ (I’m mostly better now, tho)

* Our dog, Corrie, died due to rat poison

* A rather big transition phase (which started about 1.5 months ago and will continue until January) keeps me from having almost any free time at all; I’m always busy, always on the run, and way too nervous. If I don’t manage to calm down here, the above-mentioned Illness might very well come back

* I lost quite some money due to a stupid error

That’s it; As mentioned above, I’m kinda on track, currently moving back into what some people would refer to as ‘normality’, that’s why I have high expectations for 2007. There’s a ton of other (lets call them ‘neutral’ news right now) things which I’d like to adress here, before I leave for study-preparations: I moved to Münster, a nice, quaint (god I love that word) town not too far from here;  I got that MacBook Pro I sought after (DE); Meaning I switched from a 4-Computer workflow to a 1-Computer one. It feels so much better. I managed to go to some extraordinary good parties in between, met a lot of interesting people and generally feel well thinking about my social life (although I know that I desperately need to call some of my closer friends again because they, just like Roger, will suspect death otherwise – and I don’t want them condolence cards to arrive right now ) I’ve read a crazy ton of books this year (I kinda just realized that last week when I cleaned my shelf) All those books I read on the airplanes to Stuttgart as well as what I read while I had to stay in the hospital really adds up to some crazy number.

Ok, I hope that the above text was somehow understandable; My current lack of english communication (no icq, no blog, no aim, no phone calls, the friends from argentina went back home till next year) reveal via this blog entry that my english tongue has been degenerated down to a new level, but I hope that future blog posts (as well as an added emphasis on icq communication) will help me train it again, so that those future postings might be a tad more understandable and or readable.

I’m back – still choking – but alive; and the wet clothes are beginning to dry.
Thanks for reading, Benedikt

After 6months of hard work, after 6 months of extremly busy schedules and a almost non-existant private life (read, no spare time either), after all this I had a week of vacation. This week really helped me, it was my first vacation in about 9 months and I spend most of my time refreshing, relaxing and regenerating.
Next week will be my (hopefully) last week in Stuttgart, another really busy time but afterwards the whole project should be done. I’ll write about the project, the impacts and more at another time, and switch topic to this week’s beach party now:

Our local club had a Beachparty going on this week, from Wednesday to Saturday. It was a really really good Party, lots of people, beautifull women, great overall atmosphere, and it felt so good celebrating after all these busy weeks. I needed this party so bad, and thus I really enjoyed it – although the next day was always followed by some serious headdaches, but hey, that’s life

I uploaded some pictures:

just like phoenix out of the ashes, mutilation led to a unexpected renaissance, something I’ve been dying to happen for over the past 2 years.
You don’t know that I’m talking about you here, but thanks for being a reason.