A German Post: My Once Upon a Time Review

This is a post in German in which I review the new TV show „Once Upon a Time“. I signed up for a group blog thing organized by Isabella where I agreed to review both „Once Upon a Time“ and „Grimm“. Other people have signed up to review other new shows starting this fall. I’ve tried to decide where to post this, since it doesn’t really fit with any of my usual platforms, but I ultimately decided that it should go here. It’s not development related and it’s not in English, but this is the place where I also write about the other things (i.e. books, games, gadgets) I like. The only issue here is the language and I’m sorry for that. If I find the time I will try to translate it into English. Until then, please bear with me. The next posts will be in English again. Promise. (Well, apart from the „Grimm“ review. That will be in German, too.)

For those of you who came here for this review or who happen to understand German. Enjoy.

Once Upon a Time

Gestern „Once Upon a Time“ geguckt. Die erste von zwei irgendwie im Märchenbereich angesiedelten Serien, die diesen Herbst starten. Die andere ist „Grimm“ und beginnt Ende nächster Woche – aber soweit sind wir noch nicht.

Von Once Upon a Time hab ich eher so am Rande erfahren, da stand meine To-Watch-Liste für den Herbst (dank The Futon Critic) eigentlich schon. Aber man ist da ja flexibel und da ich sowieso schon die ganze Zeit Serien hin- und herschubse, wanderte dann auch Once Upon a Time auf die Liste. Klang ja auch ganz gut, jedenfalls wenn man ich ist.

Dazu muss ich zugeben, dass ich bei geschätzten 70 Prozent aller Serien, die so auf meiner Liste sind, nur kurz die Zusammenfassung lese, denke „Klingt ja ganz nett, kann man mal reingucken“ und dann auch relativ schnell das meiste darüber wieder vergesse. Das einzige, was ich zum Serienstart noch von Once Upon a Time erinnerte war: a) Jennifer Morrison und b) irgendwas mit Märchen.

So weit, so gut. Gegen Jennifer Morrison hab ich nichts. Bei House fand ich sie gut, bei How I Met Your Mother war’s zwar okay, aber die Storyline half leider nicht wirklich. Insofern ist es nett, dass sie jetzt ihre eigene Serie kriegt. Gegen Märchen hab ich – wie bereits erwähnt – auch nichts. Und im Gegenteil, das gab’s immerhin die letzten Jahre noch nicht. (Wobei man sich jetzt fragen kann, warum’s das dann dieses Jahr zweimal gibt und ob das so die besten Voraussetzungen sind, aber dem Problem müssen sich wohl beide Serien jede für sich stellen.)

Nach der ersten Folge kann ich jetzt schon einiges erzählen, aber so wirklich viel auch noch nicht. Eventuell müsste ich den Piloten noch mal gucken, aber dazu hatte ich dann bislang doch noch nicht ausreichend Zeit.

Hier folgt dann noch schnell die Warnung, dass ab hier ungefähr im Zweifelsfall GANZ SCHLIMME SPOILER kommen. Oder zumindest so schlimm, dass man danach im Zweifelsfall die wesentlichen Überraschungen der ersten Folge kennt. Es ist nicht dramatisch, aber wer da empfindlich ist (wie z.B. yours truly) braucht eigentlich schon nicht weiterlesen. Der kann warten, bis er oder sie die Folge selber geguckt hat und dann gucken, ob das, was ich schreibe stimmt bzw. der eigenen Meinung entspricht oder nicht. Ansonsten macht leider die Zusammenfassung nicht viel Sinn, dann kann ich’s auch gleich lassen.

Aaaaalso.

Wir beginnen in der Märchenwelt, wo Schneewittchen ganz standesgemäß von Prince Charming wachgeküsst wird. Geheiratet wird in einer hübschen sehr bunten Kirche, wo dann auch ganz mädchenhaft bei mir ein „das sieht aber wirklich alles sehr hübsch aus hier“ durchkommt. Wer ein bisschen kitschig nicht kann, der ist vermutlich hier eh falsch. Weil die böse Stiefmutter aber nicht eingeladen war, ist sie ein wenig sauer und verflucht gleich mal locker das gesamte Märchenreich. Also, wenn schon, dann richtig. Und nur das Kind des Paares kann den Fluch brechen oder so. Das muss aber noch geboren werden.

Während der ganzen Folge wechselt man zwischen der Märchenwelt und der realen Welt hin und her, was am Anfang ein bisschen irritierend ist, wenn man die ersten Zusammenhänge aber verstanden hat (und das ist nicht wirklich schwer, selbst bei so Leuten wie mir, die in Filmen und Serien gewöhnlich immer alles als Letzter raffen), kommt man damit doch ganz gut klar.

In der Realität ist Emma (gespielt von Jennifer Morrison) eine – wie nennt man das denn jetzt? – Kopfgeldjägerin? Bounty hunter wäre wohl die richtige englische Bezeichnung, jedenfalls die Sorte Beruf, in der mal viel allein unterwegs ist und abends dann auch allein in die Wohnung kommt, wo niemand auf einen wartet und ebenso alleine sein einziges Geburtstagskerzchen ausbläst. Und dann steht der zehnjährige Henry in der Tür und erzählt ihr, dass er ihr leiblicher Sohn ist und sie jetzt bitte schön mit ihm nach Storybrooke fahren soll.

Das tut sie dann auch, zumindest, um den Knirps bei seiner Adoptiv-Mutter abzuliefern, die – wie sollte es anders sein – mal genauso aussieht wie die böse Märchen-Stiefmutter und auch nicht sonderlich freundlich daherkommt.

In der Märchenwelt erfahren wir in der Zwischenzeit, dass der Name des (immer noch) ungeborenen Kindes Emma ist (haha, merkt ihr was?) und das Kind nur gerettet werden kann, in dem es durch einen verzauberten Kleiderschrank in eine andere Welt gebracht wird. Und wie es so kommt, das Kind wird geboren, der Prinz saust mit Kind unterm Arm an der Schergen der bösen Stiefmutter vorbei, packt das Kind in den Kleiderschrank, macht die Tür zu und liegt dann nach kurzem Kampf mit anscheinend recht schweren Verletzungen auf dem Boden.

Um es kurz zu machen. Emma ist natürlich die Emma, glaubt, dass sie vor 28 Jahren von ihren Eltern an einer Autobahn abgelegt wurde, und soll jetzt den Fluch brechen. Der Fluch hat nämlich das gesamte Märchenreich ins Städtchen Storybrooke verwandelt. Die böse Stiefmutter ist Henrys Adoptiv-Mutter, Schneewittchen die nette Lehrerin (nur mit kürzeren Haaren), Rumpelstilzchen hat mal gleich die ganze Stadt unter der Knute und der Prinz liegt an diverse Maschinen angeschlossen im Krankenhaus.

Der Pilot endet damit, dass Emma im B&B des Ortes eincheckt, um sich mal für eine Woche anzugucken, was das hier alles soll.

Zum Casting kann man zunächst mal sagen, dass es nichts groß zu meckern gibt. Ein kleines Manko ist vielleicht, dass sich die drei weiblichen Hauptcharaktere optisch zumindest so ähneln, dass ich zwischendurch leicht verwirrt war, ob mir das irgendwas sagen soll. Soll es aber glaub ich nicht. Ansonsten aufgefallen ist mir lediglich Robert Carlyle als Rumpelstilskin bzw. Mr. Gold, und das positiv. Man erhascht noch einen Ausblick auf weitere Charaktere, allerdings nur so kurz, dass es dazu nicht viel zu sagen gibt.

Die Story ist soweit schlüssig und die Übergänge zwischen Märchenwelt und „Realität“ nach einer kurzen Gewöhnungsphase recht gelungen. Tatsächlich fällt es mir schwer, hieraus irgendwelche Empfehlungen abzuleiten, da die Story nach dem Ende der ersten Folge in diverse Richtungen gehen könnte. Ich weiß nicht, ob es mehr Rückblicke in die Geschichten aus dem Märchenreich geben wird, oder ob das ganze nur der Exposition diente und sich die Story jetzt eher auf das Städtchen Storybrooke und seine Bewohner konzentriert.

Der große Überraschungscoup ist nicht gelungen, aber ich fand den Piloten schon mal sehr „guckbar“. Man muss sich auf das Thema einlassen, aber da merkt man ja schnell, ob das war für einen ist oder nicht. Rein handwerklich ist es kein großes Kino, aber ordentlich und ohne gröbere Fehler. Und der „Cliffhanger“, oder wie man’s auch nennen mag, am Ende der ersten Folge reicht für mich völlig aus, weitergucken zu wollen. Zumal die Serie an der Stelle tatsächlich noch nicht so richtig verrät, wohin sie eigentlich will und was da noch kommen könnte.

Zusammengefasst also: Nicht die Sensation des neuen Serienherbstes, aber solide und ohne Bedenken zu empfehlen. Wie das bei Serien halt meistens ist: Man muss selbst reinschauen, um entscheiden zu können, ob’s was ist. In Punkte gefasst würde ich mal großzügig 7 von 10 Punkten vergeben, in der Hoffnung, dass der Pilot ein guter Auftakt war und es so oder ähnlich gut weiter geht.

Lean Kanban Central Europe 2011 – A Sort of Introduction

P1010777I was lucky enough to be able to attend the first Lean Kanban Central Europe Conference in Munich this week.

Being new both to these kind of conferences (whatever that means) and Kanban (but not Agile) there were a lot of great first experiences and it was definitely a small adventure. If you follow me on Twitter you might have noticed the mass of tweets all with the hashtag #lkce11 that I sent out on Monday and Tuesday. Yes, I approached the whole thing in a way that seems to work well for me, by immediately making myself visible to whoever might be interested. But I’ll be writing more about Twitter and conferences in the next days (hopefully), because I realized it is an interesting topic and definitely worth a blog post.
Ever since I got back I’ve been suffering from a cold. It actually started on Tuesday and got worse in the afternoon, then definitely worse on the train ride home. So I spent most of today on my new sofabed (which was just delivered this morning as well) trying to get better as soon as possible. (I also now own more tea than I will ever be able to consume, because I shouldn’t be allowed to shop for tea when my throat hurts. Makes me all cravy and then stupid things are bought.)
When recapping the event for my team lead this morning (I went to work for a whole of 90 minutes) I realized that I learned so much that it felt like the double amount of sessions than I actually attended. There was a moment when I went through the program trying to find the sessions that I didn’t already mention and finding that nope, that was really it. My memory is still convinced that it just had to be more than that.
I would like to recap the event and the session in more detail but my current cold-affected brain won’t let me do that with the concentration that it deserves.
So, let me just say this:
First of all, thanks again to all the people organizing this event. It was great fun, I saw very interesting sessions with awesome speakers.
Thanks also for the variety of sessions and speakers. As a Kanban newbie I was glad to get an introduction to Kanban as well as sitting in some rather challenging sessions. The mixture of theory, interactive sessions, experience reports and of course the keynotes worked pretty well for me.
I would also like to thank all the great, funny, interesting, smart and a least mildly geeky people who put up with me during and between sessions. I hope I did say something smart or mildly interesting at times, too.
As a short teaser for upcoming blog posts, I would like to mention my personal top two of the sessions I attended, which was an immensely interesting session about complexity thinking by Jurgen Appelo(@jurgenappelo on Twitter) – who, if you don’t know him yet, seems to be mostly awesome in general – and the funny and captivating keynote by Stephen Bungay in which he went back all the way to tell us what management lessons we can learn from 19th century military.
Sounds interesting? Believe me, it was.
So, stay tuned for more stories and recaps from this event. And just in case you wanted to know. Yes. There was also cake.

I Have a New Blog

foodblogTo be more precise: I have another blog. And it’s new. There are no plans to abandon this blog, so don’t worry.

It’s also in German and it deals mainly with food stuff. I had the urge to get back into cooking and writing about food and restaurants and other foodie topics, but I didn’t want to mix these things into this blog. This blog will remain the place for all the developer, technology and geeky topics in my life.

The reason why it’s in German is that I felt that it was easier for me. Also, since I plan to write about the local foodie scene where I live I want it to be easily approachable for anyone who needs some tips and suggestions and it’s likely that they speak German, too.

I admit though that mostly it was a gut decision.

You can visit it here: blog.anneschuessler.com

It has no fancy name so far (and probably never will have, but you never know) and a custom theme that I haven’t really personalized but which I love a whole lot.

So, go check it out. If you are a non-German speaker and see something you would like to know more about, just tell me and I can see whether I can add some kind of English summary or provide you with a recipe in English or whatever it is you need.

And for all the other things I do on the internet, there’s always my about.me page at anneschuessler.com.

Favorite Tweets September 2011

Found a plugin that works for me. Unfortunately most of my favorite tweets are in German. But I hope you can enjoy it a little bit at least. (Or a lot if you speak German.)

The Obligatory Google+ Blog Post

googleplus

There have been enough articles about Google+ on the net, so I’m not sure how much more you can possibly take, especially since I don’t think I can add anything sensationally new to the story.

Basically the fact that I’ve been pretty active on Google+ should tell you enough to know that I’m liking it a lot.
What does it for me is the simplicity of the design. Facebook confuses me to no end with all the different status updates coming from all kinds of sources and now that I have Google+ as an excuse the only real reason to log in there is to play Farmville (So what? I can’t have a guilty pleasure?). Basically half of the time I don’t understand why Facebook is doing what it’s doing and I never had the motivation to find out.
However, it is only fair to say that I don’t believe that you really should compare Facebook with Google+. What I can do with Google+ is pretty different from what I can do with Facebook, it just happens that Google+ tends to my needs a lot more than Facebook – which I mostly signed up for because it was the one place that all our Vietnamese developers were and which I mostly stayed on because I got hooked on Farmville.
Since I also have a blog as well as use Tunblr and Twitter I already had everything I needed to share whatever I feel like sharing with the rest of the internet.
Facebook in that way is really more a place where I connect and interact with people I personally know. For me it never was and probably never will be the primary place to share information or exchange opinions.
Therefore since most of my activities on the web are in one way or another interest driven, I never really took to Facebook. Apart from commenting on others‘ posts and pictures, adding a status update every now and then and harvesting watermelons, most of the content comes from add-ons that cross-post whatever I initially have posted on other services.
With Google+ though, I start to see my Tumblr account in danger. I use Tumblr mostly to quickly share funny or cool stuff I find on the internet. This is also something that Google+ is insanely good at. I’ve heard people saying that they think Tumblr is still way more powerful in its options. While this might be true, this is not really an issue the way I use it, so for me switching to Google+ would probably just make my life easier.
I also noticed that I use Twitter a lot less since I have Google+, but I would guess that it’s not in the same kind of danger that my Tumblr account might be in.
The simple reason why I prefer Google+ is that interaction and feedback there is extremely good. On most posts I get at least one +1, a share or comment. It feels so rewarding to know that people read and like what you say and little attention seeker that I am this makes me happy. After less than two months I already am in more circles than I ever had followers on Twitter or Tumblr. I don’t want to define myself by the number of people who claim to be interested in what I say, but it helps to stay motivated.
Mostly the concept of circles works better for me than the bidirectional relationships of Facebook, which to me always felt like making some kind of friendship commitment that I’m not always completely happy to make. The sad truth is that a lot of the status updates of my friends are of no relevance to me. Google+ at least at the moment is a lot more about content and information which I enjoy a lot more than reading about one of my high school friends heading off to their vacation.
There are a couple of other things that work extremely well, like the automatical photo upload from Android phones. I had turned it off initially because I was unsure but now I use it all the time and love it. Nothing like getting home, logging on to Google+ and having all the pictures I took right there to share.
I hope Google+ stays as focused as it seems right now. Since I can control the content of my stream I’m hopeful that this will be the case. I also hope that they stay true to their idea of simplicity and ease of use. I tinkered around with Google Games for about 30 minutes last night and was amazed how well it worked with the integrated social aspect. Angry Birds does a terrifically well job there – try it and you’ll know what I mean.
And in case you want to find me… here I am on Google+.

 

Language Decisions in a Connected World

Sometimes I get the feeling that the world is growing bilingual. What I mean by this is that I constantly live in two languages alternating between the two all the time and without really spending a lot of thought about it.

I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one and I notice that for a lot of people in and from Germany who spend their time on the internet it probably is the same. Ever since the rise of the DVD and the internet we have access to media in foreign languages that we didn’t have before. I remember the thrill of being able to watch a movie in English back in the nineties or actually finding the book you wanted in English at a bookstore.
 
Now it’s normal to have the original audio for any movie you watch on DVD or BluRay and you can order pretty much any book you like in the original language from amazon or other online retailers.

But most of all there’s the internet. With the pages I visit regularly, the discussions I have and the online media I consume via YouTube and podcasts I would guess that I spent at least 50% of my time consuming content in English – a language that I didn’t start to learn until I was nine years old. I actually think it’s more than 50%, but I don’t really have a way to measure it.

This also means that I constantly have to make decisions about in which language I write whatever I choose to share on the internet – and it’s not always an easy decision.

In short, decision about which language to use boils down to a few simple parameters:

a) How many people to I want to reach?
b) Where are these people?
c) Is there a specific group of people I want to reach?

And finally there’s gut feeling or the simple case of something sounding better in either German or English.

I think I tend to write in English more often for the simple reason that I assume that most anyone who is interested in what I write is capable of understanding English, so I don’t run the risk of somebody not understanding what I’m writing about.

The only place where I stick to one language exclusively and by my own decision is this blog. Since I put more effort in these articles than for most anything else I publish on the web, I want my posts to be available for as many people as possible and not put up any language barriers.

The other place where I use English only is on goodreads, but this is due to the fact that in the forum I’m active in discussions are in English. I’m pretty sure there are discussion boards where people write in German, I’m just not a part of them.

As for the other places I write and publish stuff, tumblr I think is 99 to 100% English because it’s mostly reposting of things I found.

Twitter and Google+ though are both. These are incidentally also the sites where I actually interact with other people so sometimes the language choice is easy, since I’m reacting to something and naturally use the same language. Here though I sometimes deliberately decide to use German instead of English.

Sometimes it really is a question of what I think sounds better… especially with Twitter where I have to shove content into the space of 140 characters, this is really comes into play. Sometimes I use German because I really think what I write about will be mostly interesting to people from Germany, since they can relate better to what I write.

And here’s another thing: Sometimes it feels like I’m drifting away from my own language. I notice that since I read and write so much in English I start to think in English, too. Which I think is totally weird, since I’ve never even lived in any English speaking country. But I guess I expose myself to this language so often and on such a regular base that it just becomes second nature to me.

As a consequence I might decide to use German, because it still is the one language where I have next to no doubts at what sounds right and what does not and where I am still most confident in making puns and playing word games. This also might mean that not all of you understand what I’m writing about, but I’m okay with that.

What I would like to know is how other people who grew up with English as their second language only handle their language decisions on the web? Do you make conscious choices or does it come naturally? Do you have your own native language pockets which are unaccessible to people who do not speak that language?

Also, for the native English speakers, are you aware that a lot of people out there are deliberately shoving their native language aside and actually using a second language to communicate on the web? Because sometimes I forget myself that this is technically a foreign language for me, I’m just so used to using it that I don’t think about it anymore.

Three New Things (More Applicable Wisdom from George R.R. Martin)

2011-07-30_16-15-39_415„Learn three new things before you come back to us,“ the kindly man had commanded Cat, when he sent her forth into the city. She always did. Sometimes it was no more than three new words of the Bravoosi tongue. Sometimes she brought backsailor’s tales, of strange and wondrous happenings from the wide wet world beyond the isles of Braavos, wars and rains of toads and dragons hatching. Sometimes she learned three new japes or three new riddles, or tricks of the trade or the other. And every so often, she would learn some secret.

On Saturday I learned that there’s something called the Lorenzian Waterwheel which due to how it’s constructed will change its direction in a completely chaotic and therefore unpredictable manner. I learned that microfiche has a durability of about 500 years (compared to the meagre 30 years CDs are expected to last). And I learned that the reconstruction of a finial of the Cologne Cathedral that serves as an example of how big the finials actually are has info panels in a lot of different languages including the Cologne dialect.

 2011-07-30_18-48-24_884_Cologne

This Saturday we went to a children’s science museum in Cologne called Odysseum. Without any children, naturally. People who know me might already be aware of the fact that I love going to the zoo, or better even, the aquarium. I also love any science museum with hands-on experiments – and the only reason why I wasn’t disappointed not to go to the Exploratorium in San Franciscos was because we went to see Where the Wild Things Are instead. So, yeah. I’m only an adult by appearance. And by the fact that I earn my own money and pay taxes, I guess.
But leaving behind the whole thing about how I think there should be way more museums where you can touch stuff and push buttons and turn handles and make things move or change or whatnot, and going back to the original quote from A Feast of Crows by George R.R. Martin.
The girl in this quote is asked to go out each day and come back with three new things that she knows now that she didn’t know yesterday. It’s such a simple rule that I think we all need to add this little rule to our lives. Each evening I should ask myself what I learned today. And make sure that I don’t cheat.
Just like in the book, there should be two simple rules.
1. It’s gotta be something new, something I didn’t know when I woke up that morning.
2. Only facts count. No guesses or something somebody told somebody else without having confirmation.
The second rule is kind of interesting, because the nature of facts are tackled in the book as well and the rule can be bent a bit to accomodate for a grey area of not-quite-facts.
„Tormo Fregar will be the new sealord.“
„Is that what they are saying at the Inn of the Green Eel?“
„Yes.“
[…] He swallowed and said, „Some men say there is wisdom in wine. Such men are fools. At other inns other names are being bruited about, never doubt.“ He took another bite of egg, chewed, swallowed. „What three things do you know, that you did not know before?“
„I know that some men are saying that Tormo Fregar will surely be the new sealord,“ she answered. „Some drunken men.“
Learning three new things each day might not sound like a real challenge, but making it a daily ritual might help being a bit more attentive in your daily life and paying attention to what you stumble upon in terms of little bits of facts and new knowledge and actually remembering what you learned at the end of the day.
In fact when writing this article I actually had problems coming up with three things that I really didn’t know before that seemed worthy enough to count. So, maybe it is a challenge after all.
So, if you read this at the end of the day, what three things did you learn today, that you didn’t know before?

Technology Knowledge Discrepancy and Frustration All Around

Picture-1191I decided to write this article when a small dispute started over a humorous tech support note I shared on Google+ in which a customer asked how it could be that when she added a shortcut to a movie to her USB-stick the movie would only play on her computer, but not on anyone else’s.

The reply used an analogy with fur coats saying that while the coat itself won’t fit in your purse, a note saying that the coat is in the wardrobe would fit. But then again, the note would only be helpful in your own home, but not for anybody else’s home or wardrobe.
Now, I mostly thought the question and reply was funny, and didn’t think too much about it. The dispute that started revolved around the question whether the joke was mysogynistic, how it’s probably the same people complaining about the lack of women in some tech circles while at the same time being condescending and patronizing when it comes to a perceived tech-unsaviness as well as how the question asked really isn’t a dumb question and whether we can assume that knowing how a shortcut works is actually something we can consider basic knowledge.
In my experience the main problem we have here is the discrepancy between the technically savvy and those that are not – and this is a problem I see all the time.
As a software developer you are automatically the computer wizard of your family, circle of friends and probably the workplace (depending on where you work).
The simple truth is that about 80% or more of the problems people ask me to fix are stuff that I have only a vague idea about. I just google it. There’s no wizardry involved, nor do I use some secret knowledge I learned in my training or work experience.
The main problem is that I’m so used to computers and the way they work, that it seems all so natural and unquestionable to me that I simple can’t imagine how you would *not* know it. I just used shortcuts so often that I can’t even imagine that you don’t know what they are and how they work. And this is true for a lot of problems that other people are having.
And since the knowledge difference is so great at times it’s hard to find the common language denominator of asking and explaining that both parties can work with. When supporting someone on the phone sometimes it takes me a long time to find out what the actual problem is because the other person and me use a completely different language to describe what’s happening. The difference between „Is the computer running?“, „Has Windows booted?“ and „Did the application start?“ is clear to me, but it sometimes is not to someone who just uses a computer when they have to.
This is frustrating at times. I’m not blaming the other person, I’m just saying. It is frustrating, because I want to help, but it can be hard getting there.
Sometimes it’s really frustrating though and that’s when people start coming to me for more or less *all* the questions that are somehow computer related just because they know what I do for a living. This ranges from converting CDs to MP3s, questions about setting up their wireless network, formatting in Excel and Word and what computer they should buy.
I guess this is where some of the passive-aggressive humor is coming from. I’m glad to help anybody who has a problem, but I’d also like you to listen to what I explain to you and remember it. I can’t remember how often I tried to explain to someone at an old job what the difference between the internet and the intranet was, just to be cut off short each time with something along the lines of „This is too technical for me.“ This person was in no way stupid, she just didn’t want to know. She’d rather call me once in a month or so to say that „you need to reboot the internet“. And no attempt to try to explain to her that while I appreciated the confidence she put in me to have the power to reboot the internet, that was nothing I could really do.
We’re living in a split society where one half is so used to technology and how it works that they simply can’t imagine that the other half doesn’t know how to do the things that we do. And that leads to misunderstanding, miscommunication and frustration on both sides. When my mother or my mother-in-law look at a computer they see something completely different from what I see. They see the internet when I see Firefox. One time we had to explain to my father-in-law that the password he used for his mail account was not the same as the password for his wireless network and that when he told us his wireless password we really wouldn’t have any access to his mail. While this was so completely clear to us, it wasn’t to him. For him it was just passwords.
In the end this is not a technology problem. It’s a general problem that you notice when you’re so used to something and move smoothly within a system without any problems that you lose sight of the many small things that are not immediately clear to someone who doesn’t live in the system the way that we do.
What I always try to do is to explain to someone that computers are in no way magical. I didn’t learn what I know by learning it, but by using it. The truth is that unless you go into your system settings and screw around with them chances are unlikely that you can break something. The first thing to teach to people is to not be scared to break something and encourage them to play around hoping that this will make them more confident to try to solve problems themselves first and only come to ask for help if that didn’t work out.
And that is all.

Culinary Weekend – Gourmet Fair in Essen – 17th to 19th June

We’re doing a little fast forward here to the awesome culinary weekend I had last weekend. Right now there are a lot of gourmet fairs around where we live. The way they work is that for three to five days a number of restaurants of the area put up tents and sell a selection of their food to sample for a very reasonable price. Which means that you get to walk around and get your starters from that restaurant and your main course from another and then the dessert from yet another and then when you’re done start over again until you are full. Basically.

One of the biggest of these fairs takes place in Essen right in the heart of the city with 25 local restaurants presenting what they have to offer. Since I had to work I couldn’t start my little feast until Friday evening when I came there with a friend. On Saturday I went there for a five course lunch and came back for a four course dinner. And on Sunday my husband and I returned or another nice four and a half course dinner.

All in all I managed to cover 12 of the 25 restaurants which is pretty impressive I’d say. I won’t go into details about all the dishes I tried, so I’m just gonna show you.