January 2012
1 post
Of ebooks and bookstores
In 2011 I got an ebook reader. I also moved from a European capital city to a small place in a different country, and now seem to be more attentive to the institutions that make a difference to one’s quality of life. (*) Two of the places I care about are Gulliver’s Books up here in Fairbanks, and Burlingham Books, the bookstore my friend Ann Burlingham opened a few years ago in her...
December 2011
1 post
Risks and side effects
This very well-done banner comes to me from Facebook, via my friend Bernhard Rohrer, but just sharing it there would have left my predominantly non-German-speaking friends in the lurch or required a descriptive text too long for that platform.
The reference is this: When it became legal for over-the-counter drugs to be be advertised on TV and the radio in Germany, any ad had to come with a...
August 2011
5 posts
On GRE prep books and standardized tests
Last Friday’s jaunt into town included a stop at the Fairbanks Barnes & Noble store for browsing and (mediocre) Starbucks coffee. This is a large store that, unlike the independent Gulliver’s Books, looms next to a Sportsman’s Warehouse in a strip mall at the edge of town. Next to it: Home Depot and Walmart.
I’ve often been to Gulliver’s: the coffee’s not...
More Alaskan fauna & flora
A quick continuation of my previous post on the animals that I see on my walks and rides through the neighbourhood.
The vegetation is dominated by boreal forest (taiga), and late summer and autumn bring out the mushrooms and berries. Of the former there is a confusing variety, which either deserves a post of its own or a lot more study, or both. Suffice it to say that early in the season,...
Europe to Alaska: roads
This is one of the promised instalments of my impressions moving to the Alaskan Interior after 15 years living in European capitals. Today: Roads.
Roads were on my mind on my very first visit to Alaska. The last leg of my long itinerary left Anchorage and its agglomeration (population approx. 375,000) on a night of October 2009. I had a window seat, looked down, and saw nothing. Occasionally, a...
London riots from afar
Now 6 months and more than 6000 km away from London, I still feel as if I should be competent to have something intelligent to offer to those of my friends who ask the question what to think of the events. Thing is, after being away for the weekend, I only found the news this morning and haven’t managed to put together my own completely coherent narrative yet. So I’m offering some...
This blog has moved to the Subarctic. Plus, there...
It’s coming up to six months that I’ve left Europe and moved to Fairbanks, Alaska. The times have been frantic, though it feels as if I’ve lived here for much longer already. I have a car, a job, a commute, two bikes, neighbours and colleagues. Melinda and I have taken up fishing and gardening. We share the place with her team of Siberian Huskies, live around moose and foxes and...
January 2011
1 post
At the embassy
So the visa interview at the US embassy in London is behind me.
Short version: Everything went smoothly and my visa was granted - yay! I’ll get my passport (with visa inside) and paperwork back via courier service within a week or so.
Long version: I found it good to read of other people’s experiences, so here is mine.
My appointment was for the late morning (10:30 am), and the...
December 2010
1 post
Calling all London/UK friends
2010 was a year heavy in travelling for me, which is likely the main reason for my complete lack of planning any trips over the end-of-year holidays. There’s also a lot going on in the background, which may have contributed as well. Originally I thought of the Continent, or at least an attractive place within the British Isles, but with the current travel chaos, even the latter plan sounds...
August 2008
1 post
Translation gone awry. I think.
So I was watching The Buggles’ 2004 performance of Video Killed the Radio Star on Youtube, and wanted to translate one of the comments, which is in Japanese:
これだと「前橋が見えてきたら自慰」とは聞こえないな。 「今井毎年2枚か」は聞こえるけど。
Google Translate suggests:
This said, “If you begin to see Maebashi masturbation” can not hear. “Imai every year or two” is sound, though.
I expected something...
January 2008
1 post
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Anonymous says:
Calme-toi :D J’ai un vague souvenir de l’explication. J’en suis pas sûr du tout mais bon c’est une piste si tu veux chercher un peu… Je crois qu’ aux USA on ne peut pas ajouter de nouvelles fonctionnalités à un produit gratuitement. Il faut demander quelques dollars pour ça :D Bon ça explique pas pourquoi c’est si élevé ^^
December 2007
1 post
“Verizon Says It Will Support Google’s Android”
– Erick Schonfeld [Doesn’t Google have the cash to support one measly android all by themselves?]
November 2007
2 posts
2 tags
R.I.P. Les Rita Mitsuko →
Fred Chichin dies, and there’s hardly anything in the English-speaking press.
“Yesterday, a meeting involving participants from Canada and France did not take...”
October 2007
4 posts
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chrys says: I am actually seeing some beginnings of acceptability of some SMS-style short forms in business writing. Both my manager (late thirties, French, title of VP) and his manager (late fourties, American, title of SVP & GM for Europe) use “u” and “ur” in internal email, even of a serious nature. It’ll be interesting to see where this all goes. (via...
Contemporary living
: is that a screenshot?
: heh, no :) it's outside my apartement :)
Keywords (No AIDS Love Only)
chrys says: As a child growing up in Northern Bavaria, I learned about föhn in elementary school. I wasn’t very attuned to atmospheric phenomena, but the adults around me regularly attributed bouts of headache to föhn. Also, for a German-speaking child it’s an intriguing word: it also designates a hand-held hair-dryer. (via coComments related to chrys)
“The main newspapers, Le Soir and De Standaard, have almost no readers outside...”
– Far Outliers, Judt on Belgian Identity Politics.
March 2007
1 post
wow, listen to that cello! (thanks, cameo) →