CSI: Freiburg, Teil I

Sie sind drei Leute.
Sie wohnen in Freiburg.
Sie haben zumindest ein Fahrrad.
Sie haben einander am Pfingstmontag zufällig getroffen.

Sie. ESSen. Ei.
» C.S.I.: Freiburg [ˈsiːesˌaɪ Fry-burg].

Sie sind (1) Eric ,,Marius`` Delektorsky, (2) Frau Dr. Moni Woodska, und (3) Lt. Horatio Kai.

In diesem Episode müssen die C.S.I.-Abteilung des Freiburg-Dade Police Department ein Rätsel losen:
,,Wo sind die vermisste Stücken dem Erdbeerekuchen?``

Am früher diese Woche hat Frau Dr. Moni ihre Crime-Fighting Kollegen für ein Stück Kuchen und Torte und einem Tässchen Kaffee eingeladen. Natürlich... Moni ist die besten Chefköchin untereinander und die hat einer selbst gebackener köstlicher und leckerer Erdbeerekuchen gemacht.

Unglücklicherweise für Marius und Kai, sie kamen zu spät an. Irgendjemand hattet irgendwie gelangte an den Kuchen esrt! ,,Keine Panik!`` sagt Marius. ,,Lt. Kai ist unser Sprengstoffexperte, und er kann diesen Tatort ausdiffundiert!`` ,,Ja! Keine Panik!`` sagt Kai. ,,Marius, du bist der Fingerabdruck- und Drogenspeziallist. Weißt du was den Kuchen zusammengesetzt aus ist?`` ,,Err... Erdbeeren und Rahm?`` ,,Stimmt!`` sagt Moni. ,,Und einige Eier, natürlich.``

Glücklicherweise hat Kai keine Sprengbombe gefunden, und hat Marius seiner Fingerprint an den Kuchen nicht geblieben. Außerdem hat Moni zwei frischen Tässchen Kaffee für sie wartend.

Problem gelöst, die drei Leute aß der Kuchen auf wie ein Scheunendrescher :)

Found something I didn't lose: NLC West Video

I decided to tidy up my C: drive today after (finally) managing to move all the necessary contents from the old computer to this new one. Tidying up, apparently, takes a considerable amount of time -- what with all the reorganisations and the creation of new folder-names-that-make-sense. Previously, I have had quite a mountaineous pile of discontentedly messy data, which didnt bother me because I had Google desktop running, and Google seems to be advocating to us to be as messy as possible so that they can show off their trusty search engine. But a bit of control among the chaos should turn out something good, I hope. All these activities led me to discover a copy of the NLC West corporate video, which amazingly runs on Flash, sitting at some weird location in the forest of my disorganised directories. "Erhh... this NLC West... what's that Kai?", you say...

Well, 'NLC' -- that's short for National Liaison Committee. And 'West' refers to its branch in Western Australia. NLC is a not-for-profit organisation for international students studying in Australia. Among the many things it does, the NLC contributes to Federal and State Government inquiries and processes into changing and improving international education in Australia, on behalf of all the international students it represents. "NLC Australia (Inc.)" is the main body with national office bearers running the show, and there are other NLC executive affiliations which include the branches from NSW (New South Wales), ACT (Australia Capital Territory), VIC (Victoria), SA (South Australia), QLD (Queensland), and TAS (Tasmania).

I played a rather active role in NLC during my undergraduate days while at The University of Western Australia (UWA). That was quite some time ago; 1999 to 2001. People who know me then would remember that I was Director of the International Students Services at UWA, and then moved on to take up the state executive position as NLC West's Secretary of State (for 3 weeks), before being elected as NLC West's State Convenor (that's the chair position of the state branch). By virtue of being 'convenor', I automatically get a seat on several committees on both state and national levels. And while it was really, really hectic and exhaustive throughout my stint (eg. NSW and WA has a time-difference of 3 hours, and people in the east like to call people in the west at 6am just because its already 9am there...), I did manage to have an enjoyable time with this experience and made so many friends. Amazingly, I didn't fail in any of my exams at uni too, thank God.

>> Now, back to that corporate video:
It was during my term in 2000-2001 that I commissioned and authorized a 'corporate-video' specifically for NLC West (I had a hand in its production too). It was fundamentally meant to raise awareness of the what the organisation does, and to introduce my fellow office bearers. Go on and view it if you can spare 5 minutes (clicking the picture will open up a new window and run the flash-video):



PS: (UPDATED) The soundtrack is originally a Solo Violin piece entitled 'Partita No. 3 in E, BWV 1006/I. Preludio'. Venessa Mae reorganised the same piece, which was also recomposed in 'Scottish Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 46/1st Movement', and called it 'I'm A-Doun for Lack O'Johnnie'. Sounds like a mouthful, I know, Jean, so dont laugh :P It has been quite awhile since I last immersed myself in such haute couture of the classics. "Indeed, denouements like Te Deum and Coriolanus can sapid and match the likes of La Sanadora and Pax Deorum (played in F#-major-allegretto-AND-appoggiatura)"... don’t you think?

PPS: The website indicated in the video no longer exists (dont really know what my successors did to its original contents), but the new national and state sites are still up... see above links.

Es funktioniert!

Woo hoo! Nie mehr Werbung in meinen sauberen Briefkasten. Nie mehr unerwünschte Post. Nie mehr Postwurfsendungen und Werbebriefe. Nie mehr Reklamesendungen... guck mal:



Hahaha... Der gestiefelte Kater (that's Puss in Boots my non-German speaking friends) hat seine hervorragende Zauberkunst geklappt. Man sieht die Briefkästen meiner Nachbarn sind Zeitungen- und Werbungensvoll. Nur meine authentische Postsendungen und Magazine-Abbonements o.ä. liegen in meinen Kasten seit frühes des Monats, und das bedeutet habe ich viel weniger hitziges Temperament allabendlich wenn ich zurück von Arbeit gekommt. Das gefällt mir.


Kater. Kater von der Film 'Shrek'. Der ist meine Lösung (mit Adobe Photoshop, natürlich).
"Wie man sich bettet, so liegt man."

Le Maillon Faible

Bonjour Paris!

Such a welcome relief after Friday night's forgettable debacle...

Mom was certainly cheerful and happy to see me again after all these whiles. I was somewhat surprised to find her waiting for me at Charles De Gaulle with one of my French second-cousin twice-removed (heh heh... go figure that one). Claude seemed to be delighted to chauffeur us around town, and he drove us straight to our hotel at the Le Méridien Etoile, after passing by Champs-Elysées and Arc de Triomphe on a nice and bright Saturday afternoon. And all the while I was cursing myself under my breath because I was missing such an incredible opportunity to take snapshots of Paris, as I had forgetfully and regrettably left BOTH my camera and my phone in Freiburg. *sigh* Some things were just not meant to be.

And here's another funny thing: It wasn't until I looked at my itinerary during check-in that I realised I had booked myself into Le Méridien Montparnasse -- wrong hotel, but same management, on the other side of the Seine river! Well, to cut the story short, I'd say that the staff at Le Méridien Etoile were indeed very professional and well-trained to handle guests with such situations like mine, and happily arranged to have me checked-in to the adjoining room next to mom's suite without so much as a hassle (and they didn't charge me extra to cancel my reservations at Montparnasse, cool huh?). On another thought, it was definitely a blessing in disguise that mom and Claude turned up at the airport to pick me up :P

Oh... and guess what? On Sunday morning, the concierge, Jacques, thoughtfully got me to pass mom a 'Fête des Mères' card (that's Happy Mother's Day). I had earlier asked him to purchase some nice white Calla Lilies and to put them in a crystal vase for mom on our breakfast table, but I completely forgot about getting her a card to go with the flowers. What made it really nice was that Jacques personally hand-wrote the words "Le Jour De la Maman Heureuse". Haha... I have never learnt to speak French, but my attempt to pronouce those words after learning what they meant (and after a quick articulation-tip from Jacques who animatedly showed where to place my tongue and when to curve my lips) drew some delightful smiles from the tables around us.


OK... by now you must be wondering what have all these got to do with tonight's blog title 'Le Maillon Faible'? Well... it's another one of my Deutschlandserfahrung that I wanted to experience (which this time, by the way, ironically happened in France): When mom and I returned from the pre-wedding reception on Saturday evening, we sat together on a very comfortable sofa in her drawing room, sipped some nice lemon tea, and turned on the TV to France 3 to watch Eurovision Song Contest, Helsinki, 2007! Mom predicted that the group from Serbia would win -- they did, they are this year's champion. Mom was just dissappointed that Madame Royal didn't become France's next president -- a statement mom made that I (still) couldn't connect with what it's got to do with the Eurovision Song Contest. Anyway, I, on the other hand, was hoping for Finland's Hanna Pakarinen, because she reminded me of Evanescence, but that was not to be.

So what about Le Maillon Faible? Haha... well, after the complete rounds of votings from all of Europe, Turkey, and Israel, all 24 finalists last night got points -- that is, all except for Ireland and the United Kingdom which totals remained at 0 points. And thus, they are... The Weakest Links!

Durch die Nacht und das dichteste Geäst

Du meine Güte! Never have I felt so uncontrollably angry at someone to the point of blowing my top! Such a startling episode I have had this evening... and in the middle of London, of all places, really... *sigh*

It makes me wonder if stark stubborness, 'face' credibility, and particularly, old age are reasons enough to cloud an unrestrained view of obvious sense and logic from one whom I gather (all my life growing up knowing) would have incredible knowledge and intelligence, vast life experiences, and stern, disciplined caution.

It makes me wonder what else besides facts, evidences, and proofs will it take before one realises that his current course of action is detrimental and indeed adulteratedly faulty, inaccurately wrong, and fellaciously erroneous, based simply on some benign and untrustworthy external opinions; an action that would inevitably require major refurbishments immediately in order to save what I already fear is a brittle and fragile familial situation.

It makes me wonder if I will see eye to eye with my old man ever again :(

'Filial piety', an ancient tradition quite unlike primogeniture... now THAT certainly didn't happen tonight. I have become so numb now, just looking back at the audacity of it all, and worse still, I am powerless to stop it. This blog seems to be the only outlet I can think of at the moment.

*sigh* Suminasen, kokoro ga tsuyoi, michi ni mayoi mashita desu. Linkin Park has a nice way of putting this crazy preoccupation in my head:

...
I've become so numb I can't feel you there
Become so tired so much more aware
I'm becoming this all I want to do
Is be more like me and be less like you
...
I'm tired of being what you want me to be
Feeling so faithless lost under the surface
Don't know what you're expecting of me
Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes
...
Every step that I take is another mistake to you
...
And I know
I may end up failing too
But I know
You were just like me with someone disappointed in you
...

Damit ich keine Ängste mehr kenne? God help.

Orkestra Melayu Singapura Tiba di Belanda

Terperanjat bila aku terdengar adanya kumpulan musik melayu tanahair tersendiri, bukan sahaja bermain dengan musik asli, bahkan Orkestra Melayu Singapura (OMS) digabungi pelbagai alat-alat musik lain daripada kaum Cina, India, dan Mat-Salleh. Didalam sebuah artikel Berita Harian ada menyebut juga alat-alat dari Jepun dan Korea Selatan... hmm... ini harus cepat-cepat dilihat.

Rupa-rupanya Dr. Yaacob Ibrahim (kitorang punyer Menteri Bertanggungjawab bagi Ehwal Masyarakat Islam) yang telah melancarkan badan tersebut, dan untuk badan ini bermain di negeri Belanda, di Eropah adalah amatlah sangat 'choon' :) Hai... pakkal sahaja aku nih tak tahu main zabur, kalau tidak, dah lama dah aku jadi 'terer' dengan alat musik tu.

Ni Xi Huan De You Ji Ke?

Wei shen me lao shi ba kong qi quan dou xi guang le? Wo ye bu je tau, ker she qing tian wo gei da ta tianhua Time-Magazine's Top 100. Zai ni mian, na ge Terence Tan shi wo de hao peng you, qian hu xi ji cu xu yao jiao jiu hu che *sigh*. Tang ren la, wen me ban gan jue tian you suan tou tou ai ni kuai le you gu dan zen me ban ai que bu neng jiang... Karen shuo, "Mingdian wo yao jiao kei ni la" :)

Hai you liang ge, (i) "Ren de yi sheng, juan gao 'fen tou'. Wei you 'fen tou', cai neng zheng gong!", ken (ii) "Lao Wang mai gua, cher mai cher gua".

Der ein und einziger Deutschlands Superstar

Was könnte besser sein? Gestern hat Deutschland seines neues Superstar gekrönt, der heißt Mark Medlock (die Endziffer 02) mit 78,02% direkte Stimmen. Die Entscheidung kommt ungefähr 23:38 Uhr. Der anderer Kandidat im Finale war Martin Stosch (die Endziffer 01). Die beide sind nicht meine Lieblingsfinaliste, trotzdem habe ich gestern abend meine Abstimmung nicht angerufen. Aber OK... ich fand die haben gut gesungen seit ihres "DSDS-Recall-Session" für die top vierzig Kandidaten (von fast 30.000 'Superstar-Bewerber' in der Castings des Jahres 2007). Die Juroren Dieter Bohlen, Anja Lukaseder, und Heinz Henn haben auch gleich gedacht, aber wichtiger aller Deutschland denkt Mark und Martin viel Talent haben. Immer noch mehrerer Leute hat am gestern um zwischen 20:30 und 23:30 Uhr 01379-1001-02 abgestimmen, und Mark hat endlich gewonnen. Mach schon... Dieter hat einen ähnlichen Bart Aussehen als Marks getragen weil Mark seiner Günstlingskandidat ist!

Meine personal Top-Favoritin war die wunderschöne Francisca Urio. Sie hat eine herrliche, unglaubliche, und fantastische Melodie in ihre starke und mächtige Stimme. Sie hat auch eine kreative, tolle, und erstaunliche 'Showmanship' (geschickte Zurschaustellung?). Aber, es ist sehr Schade, dass sie ihre Abstimmungen der vierte Motto-Show am 31. März nicht genug gesammelt hätte. Das bedeutet sie gehen musst. Seitdem habe ich nicht sehr viele Lust mit DSDS, aber Lisa Bund und Mark Buskohl waren noch da. Die sind meine zweite und dritte Personalfavoriten.

Naja, ich weiß was du frag wird: Warum habe ich dieses Reality-Show sehr interresant gefunden, wenn ich nieman hier am Institut (und in Freiburg) hat dieses Show immer am Samstagsabend bei RTL fern gesehen kenne? Haha... ich habe eine gute Antwort. Hmm... das ist mein vierte Jahr in Deustchland und ich möchte eine komplette Deutschlandserfahrung haben sein muss :) Ich habe die WM2006, der Freiburgmarathon, die Rieselfeldmeile, usw. schon erfahren. Ich glaube DSDS ist eine einzigartige Erfahrung und jetzt habe ich diese zusätzliche Erfahrung erreicht! Das gefällt mir.

Ich habe mit Karen gesagt, dass ich mein Geld an der Mark Medlock aufgesteckt für diese DSDS-Saison (weil er sehr viele Anhängern und Fans hat). Aber ich noch werde gerne für Francisca angerufen -- ich liebe Francisca *sigh*. Auf sparsame Weise, hatte ich Recht. Mark hat gewonnen und Deutschland hat seiner Superstar gefunden. Aufgezeichnet. Deutschland sucht den Superstar ist jetzt vorbei. Was geht's weiter für mich? Vielleicht "Let's Dance, Again" oder? Man kann ja nie wissen.

Aussie Promises

Achtung Leute: Jetzt muss ich auf Englisch schreiben, aber nur für diesen Artikel.

G'day mates (yeah, you guys: Aaron, Colum, Andrew, Ben -- G'day, G'day!), I did promise to put up our pictures on my blog for, well, about some time now. Its better late than never, eh? And also because Colum and Aaron wrote to me just today -- yes, yes, I have decided to become a bit more active with this blog (a promise I made to a friend of which I intend to keep :P )

But really, next time after more beach-BBQs, I will load whatever snippets I think is appropriate on to these pages, like, immediately. For now though, here are are a few I'd like to share:





And since I am on a roll, I might as well put on the pictures for you too Louisa, Sharon, TJ, Gloria, Sri, and Antonio. You guys were the most hospitable hosts/hostesses in Melbourne and in Perth!




You know, come to think of it after reviewing the pictures, it does seem like you guys enjoyed my room. I should ask for the same suite at the Grand Hyatt next time I visit Melbourne -- I think there is enough place to entertain, the suites are bigger than the Westin's, and better sweeping views too (especially up on the Club Floor)... we should have a party, or something like that. (Although the services they offer on eConcierge was a bit of a disappointment.) But remember, the bedroom will STILL be out of bounds for you guys... heh heh heh.

Ein Versprechen halten

Erstens, habe ich Ann-Kathrin versprochen, dass ich meine Blogentries öfter aktualisieren und auf Deutsch schreiben werde. Oh mein Gott! Jederman weiß, dass meine Grammatik in dieser Sprache unglaublich schlecht ist. Aber, keine sorge, ich werde das Problem so bald wie beheben.

Zweitens, Tobi ist jetzt in Bangkok, und hat seinen Blog endlich instaliert. Kuck mal hier: blogs.nightlabs.net/tobias. Apropos Tobi, wir eine fantastische Dinnernight am Donnerstag letzte woche (26. April) gehabt. Elli (Tobis freundin) und Marius waren auch da, aber ich habe der Restaurantname vergessen *sigh*. Oh ja, Tobi hat seines neues Digitalkamera (Canon IXUS 900Ti?) mit gebracht, und das ist unser Foto zusammen:



Schlussendlich hat Marius gestern seine Bachelorarbeitdissertation schon erledigt, Gott sei dank. Woo hoo! Der kann endlich relaxen, aber nur für eine Woche. Wir müssen seine Präsentation vorbereiten.


<(((º>•`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸.•´¯`•..> <(((º>•`•.¸¸.•´¯`•.¸.•´¯`•..>

ps: wir haben gestern ca. 15 Uhr eine große, schwarze Rauchwolke zu sehen. Die kommt von die Südrichtung in der Nähe der Institut -- groß Feuer! Man kann mehr informationen in Fudderartikel zu lesen:
http://fudder.de/artikel/2007/05/02/rauchwolke-ueber-dem-mooswald-fenster-zu/.