We recently moved office, and I’ve gone from a facing-the-wall position on the smaller desk to the left to a “real” desk with room for all my gadgets and papers and even a cup of coffee. Now I can even rest my arms when typing, woot. Will have to get that power cord spaghetti fixed, though.

I am between laptops - now that I’ve finally gotten a desktop computer at work, I’ve convinced my significant other to take over the “monster” laptop that I purchased a couple of years ago in order to actually get that job (small company, we’ve grown since then). I want a smaller one to use at home and out-and-about, I really really want a Macbook but will probably end up with something similar to the one on this photo.

Tonight I’ve been installing and modifying a “hidden” version of Flock on my kid’s laptop (no shortcut icons anywhere, you have to get into the program files folder to start it up). As it’s a pc granted to him for use in school, I don’t want to set up an extra user for it, nor do I want to keep switching bookmarks etc. for his default browser (although Foxmarks made that task a _lot_ easier). Plus, now I can autosave the passwords. ;)

Anyway, Flock is the perfect browser for my social butterfly evenings on the couch, using kiddo’s laptop until I get one of my own! A few glasses of nice, chilled, white wine goes well with it.

According to The Big Read, the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on their list. Let’s see where I stand.. Meme snagged from Meaghan!

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve read 6 and force books upon them..!

Hi, my name is: Birgit

The “getting to know me” meme:

Home from a lovely weekend in Germany. On Friday, arriving in the evening, we just checked in to a hotel, had a schnitzel, then walked downtown Cochem to check out the ongoing wine festival. Saturday was spent at the Nürburgring race track, and on Sunday I was on my own photowalking in Cochem. I even have a nice sunburn as proof. My s.o., btw, got slightly lost in the forest surrounding the Ring during his want-to-see-the-race-from-every-angle-mission, and has a neat blister as _his_ proof. I think I prefer the redness any time..! At one point that day, the local accordion group on the town square actually played “The Happy Wanderer”; that was when I - comfortably sitting in the shadow, sipping to a chilled Bitburger - called the lost and bewildered Dag up just to mock. I am nice like that. (For the record: he laughed with me, he’s not really any fun mocking.)

Inbetween photography, motor race spectating and forest exploring, we had a few beers between us, each day a schnitzel dinner “Wiener Art”, and of course a few sips of Mosel wine. Oh, and freshly baked German pretzels, yum!

Looking through my photos, there’s a few things that become embarassingly clear to me - I still don’t have enough courage to take the time to make sure the photos turn out like the images I really “see”, and also: I need to work on creativity and technique alike. I brought a tripod and a speedlight - didn’t use any of them… Especially the photos from the Reichsburg castle would’ve been massively improved had I been bothered to whip out that speedlight. With blending sunlight, a flash is often not what you think of using, but for close-ups especially it’s probably one of the most important accessories. Worst thing is, I was actually good at using fill-in flash ten-twenty years ago when I did film photos… Tsk, tsk.

I know, I know, Johanna - why even bother with a blog when I don’t write anything..? I am in the middle of a process of gathering enough guts and carelessness to actually start using my blog - it’s not like I don’t have anything to write about, it’s just that, well, working in the web design business with all my colleagues browsing the web for a living, it’s easy to become a little paranoid. I don’t want to upset anyone at work who might come across my space on the web, you know? I mean, it’s not like it’s a hard domain to find. Perhaps I will use “that other domain” in a while; I’ve set the registration hidden and there’s nothing there that really reveals me as me (except myself, that is - I have a hard time believing that I will be able to stay “anonymous” even on a project like that). We’ll see…

In the meantime, someone please bring me the moon? It’s not _that_ far away, financial problems seem to be taken care of from next month (huuuge raise), and I’ve managed to de-clutter not only my house but also my many online distractions that for a while kept me from being the good mother that I want to be. Please?

My partner and I are leaving for Germany on Friday, four days without the kids. Woot for that! Hopefully some nice photos to follow.

But as for now: final four eps of House M.D. season 4 just arrived! :D

Moving my blog over to birgits.net, forgot to deactivate the LJ-crosspost plugin before cleaning out at the other domain - managed to delete several LJ posts before I noticed. Apologies to anyone who’d commented at LJ (I guess I shouldn’t be working on script stuff at 4 in the morning, huh?).

Other than that, this is really just a test post to see of the plugin works at the new location.

Anna! has been in a real crafty mood lately, and here’s my response entry (YouTube, anyone?). I am actually quite the gifted girl when it comes to creating with my hands - problem is, however: I don’t enjoy it, not the least bit. I can knit, halfway crochet, sew, cross stitch etc. Since school, meaning mandatory crafts classes, I’ve never spent time on any of it. I did some kind of scrapbooking for a while, back when I still made paper copies of my photos… - and I enjoy doodling and sketching, but I never create anything that’s worth showing off (or even keeping). All of my creative juices have been focused on web design, and - for a few months now - photography. My constant search for the perfect pair of bead ear dangles has however made me consider giving jewelry making a try, and I guess if I am to pick up any kind of crafts, this will be it. That is, if I don’t start cross stitching. Julie Jackson has some really tempting patterns! (click image below for more - or don’t, if you’re easily offended ;) ) :

It’s been a long time since I’ve longed this much for a few days off. Typically, the last two-and-a-half days before I’m let off the hook have turned out to be some of the most stressful days, work wise, so far this year. Note to self: Next time I’m asked to prep a mockup web for one of the designers, make sure to let him/her know that .ai-files plus a bunch of extra photos are not a-ok. Oh, well - only a couple of hours work tonight and an hour or so tomorrow, and then we’re off to Denmark! Just have to tidy (and clean..) the house, wash a bunch of clothes, and then get packed.

On a totally unrelated note: wtf??

(found through Iva’s Twitter feed)

My dashboard (I am blogging this by means of Wordpress) tells me that a new generation of WP is just about ready to go public. I am mightily tempted to give it a whirl, but with going away for several days, leaving a beta version of a script on the server might not be such a great idea. Will have to see how long the work I need to get done tonight will take.. There’s also 12 brand spanking new (to me) eps of House (season 4) waiting in the bedroom DVD player..! How much of a jerk was he at the end of season 3?? Amazing that his friends still are there for him..!

I’ve spent most of the day cleaning out my laptop; I finally (after three months) got a pc at work and don’t have to drag mine along every day. While at it, I sorted my latest photos, edited a bunch and uploaded a few of them to flickr. This was taken a couple of weeks ago at our local zoo:

I got a new game for DS last week; I don’t have my own console, but my oldest doesn’t mind sharing his. The game is “My Word Coach” - and I am learning new words every day. I am not too impressed by the handwriting recognition, though. Today an O was mistaken for a Z - how is that even possible? I don’t like the short spans of the game either - when you’ve acchieved your daily goal (150 correct answers) it’s my understanding that you don’t earn more points that day (you’re supposed to digest the new words). That ususally takes me less than half an hour. :/ Anyway, among the words I’ve learned today are pontoon, onerous, and reforest. I am playing the brit-english version.

Next game up will be Scrabble, then CrossworDS and/or most probably The Sun Crossword Challenge.

I do really want a console of my own too… I’ve been scouting eBay for bargains, and will most probably get one from there before long. I just can’t make up my mind whether I want an ice blue, a golden Zelda version (expensive!!), or a white one. Or perhaps the silver version?

It’s been a great weekend for photography - the amazingly crisp air makes the colours so clear. Not that it’s actually bursting with colour everywhere; it’s still winter and the grass is brownish, the trees lack their leaves, and not many flowers are seen (some confused ones are spotted, though - snowless winters is still something new up here). I do however love brown and beige - add to that a backdrop made up by a clear blue sky or an amazingly turquoise and/or blue ocean, and you get a happy me.

- they (the country this time) do have some pretty decent music! Caroline recently made me aware of the brilliant Brazilian singer who was Elis Regina. The last couple of days I’ve enjoyed listening to her - and today I discovered that her daughter too has a career as a singer. Although a bit more commercially, latino-popish, sounding than her jazz based mother, Maria Rita has some really catching songs! Mum still has the reign, though. Listen to “Waters of March” (Águas de Março) and be convinced.

Other than that, today has been a day of serious shopping. My partner splurged out on a Nikon D40 for himself, now we are really becoming a family of photographers! Upon returning home from work, I found that my new DS game, “My Word Coach”, had arrived. Finally, I took the kids for the usual Friday afternoon routine of getting a small toy/figure (they’ve traded their weekend sweets for toys, not that I mind..!).

The camera is awesome, btw! They say it’s a beginners’ camera, but I found it really good, with intuitive menus and - most importantly, of course - great photos coming from it. I can’t wait to start photowalking, the whole family out looking like tourists..! ;)