Category: General

general things to talk about

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On my way to Philly….. another colloquium

4:00am my alarm went off less than four hours after Peyton Manning’s defeat in his first game hosted by his ex team the Colts. As usual the cab to the airport is pleasantly punctual and off it goes to Logan with a very chatty cabby. High point of the conversation is his observation that if they predict a tough winter it is going to be mild and vice versa 🙂

The flight was uneventful and the airport is still well oganized and I found my way quickly to the cabs. I got in and a young man picked me up already initially troubled with my directions…. corner North Broad Street and Polett Walk at Temple University. When we arrived at Temple he wanted to know the address and I gave it to him again and he did not understand and got very upset with me and started to scream but we continued along Broad Street and while we were arguing we just hit Polett Walk…. apologies followed and I was out to my Hotel the Conwell Inn, which my cabby of course did not know either. Amazing!

In the Conwell Inn people were very friendly and let me use the room when I arrived well before 8am. I went through my talk once and thought it was fine and then took care of some email and my squash courts before Bernd came and picked me up. I spent a very enjoyable day with peoe from Temple and the colloquium went very well. Dinner was in Brauhaus Schmitz with a Nuernberger Bratwurst, Schwarzwaelder Kirschtorte und einem Kirschwaesserchen. Ausgezeichnet!

Going back to my hotel room later that night I found that all of my luggage (a pyjama and some fresh underwear) had been cleaned from the room, but it was right at the reception. They probably thought it was from the person before and prepared the room after I had already been in there. The night was uneventful until my alarm woke me up at 4:30am. The cab at 4:40am took me to the airport not without the driver claiming his credit card machine was broken and I had to pay cash. Jamba juice at the airport not to wake up too much :-). Slept like a baby on the flight and got back to the office around 8am.

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Getting to Philedalphia

Deleware Valley MIT Alumni Club Visit
In my hotel room in Philly in front of the mirror.

In a weak moment of last year I somehow agreed to speak to the MIT Alumni Club in Philadelphia. Not that I do not usually very much enjoy such events, but I am usually that busy that it really always comes at a moment where I should be doing something else. And as usual even knowing long before I was not really prepared for it and it gets worse, when the day came bad weather hit the east coast and now I am sitting at Logan waiting for my departure. The 12:00 flight is leaving now at around 14:15 and the 12:30 is scheduled for 14:40… I am not even standby on the 12:00 flight and on a huge list for the 12:30 flight that is supposed to leave soon afterwards. The plane of the 12:00 flight is already at the gate. If the captain gives permission (assuming Philadelphia is open enough) we might be boarding soon….

It turns out all went perfectly well. The captain gave permission, there were spots even beyond the standby list and I got out on the first flight pretty much at the time of my original flight and I arrived at 15:58 in Philadelphia, even a few minutes before planned. Once arrived I figured that the Marriot and the Renaissance Hotels are not the same and that nobody had made a reservation. I had assumed the Wilkens (my hosts) had done it and they assumed I had taken care of the reservation myself as I did for the flight. Anyway, of course there was room and I am sitting here, using the expensive network and will soon take a shower and review my talk to be ready for tonight. I think it will be fun.

The talk went very well, I had a ton of questions and only few people blinking with sleepy eyes. It was fun and time and again the lesson is, you need to do this more often.

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FN Event Berlin – Angekommen

The flight to Berlin, via Zurich, went very smoothly and the public transportation to my Hotel at Check Point Charly was very effective and easy to find.

I checked in but of course was much to early to get my room. I left my luggage at the hotel and took a stroll along Charlottenstrasse over the Gendarmenmarkt and along the Humboldt university to the Neue Wache Unter den Linden. This reminds me very strongly about my visit to East Berlin in the early eighties where there was demonstration of military presence in this spot. I watched the ‘Wachabloesung’, where I saw for the first time soldiers march in ‘Stechschritt’. The pictures left an impression on me and not sure why I connected them with Nazi Germany. At the time it was completely unthinkable that Germany at any point soon could be one again, but of course you know the story it happened practically overnight in 1989.

I walked along the alley towards the Brandenburger Tor and enjoyed snooping through the books being offered second or third hand along the side of the road. I found a whole bunch of von Doderer books which I had to buy and added a nice version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from the Insel Buecherei. Then I had to taste an ice coffee from thr local DD, which was as bad as in the US, and finally found the restaurant we are going to meet at tonight, Im Tucher am Tor. I got myself a Currywurst and enjoyed reading my new book. Wireless was also provided and I checked e-mail and wrote this post.

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Berlin – FN Event

This weekend there is going to be an FN event in Berlin. Hmmm FN … I have heard that before but could it really be. Yes it is after 26 years the Front Nachrichten Zug of 1985-87 meets for the first time. Twelve of the total 30 are scheduled to arrive. Marko Pietruck my best buddy from the army days has organized the weekend with a starting evening in ‘Am Tuschel’ very close to the Brandenburg Gate. On Sunday we will meet at 10am for a boat trip. I booked an unholy early flight to Berlin on Saturday and hope to spend a nice Saturday in the city. My return is booked for the last hour on Sunday. I am sure it is going to be an adventurous trip.

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Pine Wood Derby — 2013 Installment — Raceday

Today is raceday (Saturday, February 16, 1-3pm). Our last two cars, Gisele’s ‘Fire’ and Blake ‘Blue Racer’, the open category were registered on Wednesday. Ivan’s car was registered even earlier the week before on Thursday because it was ready and fit the requirements. The open class I did not realize until that Thursday was not set at a maximum of 5 ounces but rather at 7 ounces, so we took Gisele’s car back to get it to the precise limit, and Blake’s car was not even started at the time.

Our Pine Wood Derby Racers
Our racers right after the race,
no trophies were yet announced.

Raceday was quite an event. We arrived around 1:05pm and the entire room was already nicely setup. Some people had brought some food and drinks and that kept most of the kids busy. They had put up the racetrack in the middle of the room and it was barred from direct access to avoid interference with the race. Spectators were sitting at the track. The setup was quite professional with laser trigger and a proper readout system, a computer to setup and record the races and determine the winners. Quite an amazing thing. After a number of years the Pine Wood Derby has been done all over the US it is of course not that surprising anymore to have such a sophisticated setup. Anyway, the kids and I dove into the crowd and got some food, checked our cars were all in their place and in good shape and watched the first race as it started. We had three cars so we had a number of different models but seeing about 100 cars of all different makes was amazing.


The Racetrack.

The Racer Field – 1.

The Racer Field – 2.

The Spectators.

Our 7 ounces Racers.
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It’s Has been Cold last Week

minus fourteen C
Minus fourteen Celsius, looking up our driveway.

You can have cold weeks in Boston in particular during January and February. Last week while I was in Seattle it has been particularly cold and quite consistently throughout the week. Ana reported me a -23 C read off from the thermometer in our car in the early morning (was it Wednesday) and I immediately felt toasty warm in Seattle at 5 C in the morning hours. Unfortunately we do not have a photographic record of minus twenty three Celsius. On the other hand we have a photo showing a whopping -14 C in our car while I am steering the car down our driveway without properly wearing my seatbelt. Arlington can be cold in the Winter, of course Minnesota is much worse 😉

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Chicago ORD early Morning

Just arrived here in this wonderful airport, btw ORD is derived from ORcarD field, from Seattle on the red eye. I had an excellent flight but somehow my eyes and nose do not agree. It is only now that the effects of the air conditioning and the early morning hours slowly wear off.
Last night I spent with Mike Miller and LJ in a very nice Seattle style restaurant…. we had a very nice conversation about life, children, houses, projects etc. etc. They seem to be in a good spot and are working on setting up a family. I hope they come over and visit some day soon.
Anyway meanwhile here in Chicago I realize they do not have the 6am flight to Boston anymore. I am shocked, the first flight out really is at 8:55am, really! I arrived at 5am and already planned how I was going to do standby on the 6am flight but noooo, there is no such flight.

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Plane about to board and me having slept a little more.
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My Morning Walk in Seattle to the Workshop

After ironing my shirt and my pants, very odd habit I have started to develop here in Seattle, and after catching up with Ana and the kids I am on my way through the fresh morning here to the physics building at the university of Seattle just a few blocks from my hotel, the Watertown. This morning I take some time and take a few photographs to leave a little bit of an impression of my visit here.

I am wondering about what Bernd Surrow, one of my ex-colleagues from MIT, told me that he took his oldest son with him to workshops as early as his son turned eight years old. I should take Ivan with me for my next trip. The next trip I will go as it seems to Aspen 😉 Ivan needs to start learning how to ski.

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Workshop in Seattle

Convenership transitions are not really step functions. The effects taper off with some time constant. I am now on my trip to a workshop I had agreed on being at well before the end of the year. I have never been to Seattle but from a number of Facebook friends I know that the area is gorgeous. Maybe almost as nice as Boston. I guess the mountains are more impressive over there.
In the past I have been several times in Vancouver which is very close and said to be quite similar. Let’s see how it is over in the west this time of a year.
My flight goes through Newark and the flight is overbooked. I am writing this all from my comfortable 10A seat using the new mobile wordpress app. They tried to rebook some people to the direct flight, but that would have brought me into Seattle later (1hr20mins) and implied also a long wait at Logan. I decided to stick with my flight…. it seems to be going fine. This week in Seattle I have to use to get ahead workwise so I can make good use of the last week with the family. It is called a workshop, so working is somehow implied. Lots of house projects lined up so good to have a free back when coming back to Boston.

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WordPress Mobile App Installed on my Phone

mobile location
Location of first mobile wordpress post.

Woooohooo…. this is my first post from my phone. If this is working well enough be prepared to see much more blogging from me soon. Well I will have to edit each post on a proper computer it seems because my spelling sucks on the mobile phone even more than on the desktop computer.

This is where I am right now…. 🙂 …. Waiting at the elevator which is right beside the womens’ rest room. Proof of the mobility.