Homepage of Someone

I have no idea where I'm going, but I try my best to get there!

Common Wealth Club - proud to be a club member since 2003

Private items (These pages mostly are a "logbook" for myself)
Letexa (Last Modified: 7 July, 2007)	My latest and most ambitious project: Letexa There is nothing else to say.
Learning Russian (again) (Last Modified: 7 Oct, 2006)	From 10 August (2006) until 11 October I am/was (at the time of writing this entry I'm still there) in a language school in Odessa, Ukraine, to improve my Russian. School: OLSC, I can recommend it, small, nice, good. Here is my Odessa photo gallery! It's part of a technical demo, ignore the other tabs and enjoy the 185 Odessa photos!
Web Design (Last Modified: 7 Oct, 2006)	This half belongs into the "tech" section, not here, but since there's the other half... Well, I have designed a webpage FOR FOOD NOT MONEY for some friends of mine who happen to own a very nice (and modern looking) restaurant and a discotheque. It is in German, but look at the links to none-text content below. What is special: I HAND-coded everything to achieve a truly unique design; I developed everything from scratch and did not use copy&paste of code from other sites on the Internet (only because I was not satisfied with what I saw there); and I'm especially proud of my photo gallery. Here are the links: The homepage itself: Hacienda Mexicana The photo gallery: Photos The Google Maps integration page: Location of the Hacienda (click button) I don't think they actually need a homepage, but they wanted... anyway, seems they realized they're a pure "bricks & mortar" business, since they hardly update the event data. I don't care, I did this as an exercise in modern web coding, in preparation for a larger, more serious project...!
Horse Riding! (Last Modified: 1 Dec, 2002)	In March 2002 I started learning to ride, taking 4-5 lessons per week. As of December 2002, I still average that many and will continue to do so for the forseeable future. I also spend a considerable amount of time with horses I don't even ride and "on the ground" with those I do ride, it's about much more than just the physical activity of "riding". Working with those animals is character-building (well, can be, you must WANT it!). You (can) learn how to control your negative emotions when things don't work and you get angry at the (innocent!!!) horse - which WILL and DOES happen, the question is just how you deal with it (which always means changing something in you, not the horse). On the "physical" side, riding forces you (again: only if you really WANT to do it right) to deal with how YOUR body works (bones, movement, how to move, how to sit, how to balance yourself) and in the process can help you in your daily life. For example, I sit in my car in a slightly different way than before, and it works much better now, no problems even over long distances. So riding is for both the body and the mind. I started on a farm in Milpitas, a one hour drive each way... The pictures are all old, still from Milpitas, I've improved significantly since ;-) Phoenix As of 1 August I ride at Fox Ridge Farm (Redwood Rd., Oakland Hills), a small and very well-kept place just 3.5 miles down the road from where I live. Newer pictures: Kate My instructor - Sarah 3 weeks vacation in Germany (visiting my parents), Oct 2002, I was riding almost every day at this nice place. Best books I found (by far) on "horses" are all books by Mark Rashid. They do not provide any detailed how-to instructions, instead, they provide an attitude.
I'm a Pilot! (Last Modified: 26 Oct, 2002)	During my US assigment (see "US-Homepage" below) I didn't have a very fulfilling job (but I was in the Silicon Valley, which was why I took that job), and was in need of a challenge. Today (15. November, 1998) I have ~160 hours in: Cessna-172, Cessna-172RG, Piper Warrior, Piper Archer, Piper Arrow, Citabria, Grob 115C Acro, Pitts (1 hour, and my CFI was a former U2-pilot) and one hour in a Blanik (glider). I have had lots of aerobatic instruction (Grob, Citabria, Pitts) and have been signed off for (and done) solo-aerobatics in the Grob (aerobatics trainer, very nice aircraft - until you fly a Pitts...). My solo maneuvers so far: barrel rolls, aileron rolls, spins (5+ turns), loops, cuban eight, ½ cuban eight, (wingover, not really acro), split-S. Pages about my flying (part of the US-Homepage linked to below) New: Some more exciting pictures about my aerobatic flying! (see grob3.jpg!) New: Some very old pictures (b&w) from my skydiving days (East Germany, pre-military education for special forces; military style training with LOTS of physical education and other stuff like shooting and climbing - but it was free... ;-) ) My (former & first) flying club: WVFC Attitude Aviation Ahart, where I rent a Cessna occasionally.
I'm a Diver (Last Modified: 26 Oct, 2002)	No pictures, I don't have a waterproof camera ;-) I got my certification in March 2002, in 42 degree (F, it's 6 degrees Celsius) cold water in Monterey, California, which is one of the most spectacular places for diving on earth - special: underwater kelp forests! These are the guys I got my certification from.
I'm a Sailor (Last Modified: 11 Aug, 2003)	No pictures, I don't have a waterproof camera ;-) I just finished the practical checkout for the ASA (American Sailing Association) sailing certificate (11 August, 2003). Location: Santa Cruz. Who: Pacific Yachting. Boats: The boats I used were between 27 and 34 feet, see URL above. I got to experience 4 different ones during the various classes. Wind today for the checkout was ca. 28 knots!!! We had 2 reefs in and were still overpowered at times... we had to go almost 2 miles out for this kind of wind, though, closer to shore it was only 5-10 knots.
Old US-Homepage (only for the Siemens time) (Last Modified: 31 Mar, 1999)	9/97-10/98: pages for friends at home about my live in Silicon Valley. I had been in the US before several times, altogether for ~6 months, see my old homepage (the item below). US-Homepage (97/98) Previous US trips
Old (first) Homepage (Last Modified: 12 Feb, 1997)	My very first homepage. I wrote it in 1994 or 1995, don't remember. Last update was in 1997, but I only added my new email address when I left the university. My very first homepage
Misc. trips (Last Modified: 26 Sep, 2002)	Collection of pictures I took during some of my trips. Sometimes I travel without any camera - too big, too expensive, no one ever looks at the pictures, and I don't want to concentrate on taking pictures but on just being there. To the trips mentioned here add a few short European trips (e.g. Italy) and my extensive US trips described above. United Arab Emirates, 1 week summer of 2001: no pictures. I knew it would be hot, the season for the UAE is in the winter, but I didn't care (I'm pretty heat resistant and really enjoyed the humid heat - which was worse than New Jersey in August sometimes, which itself is bad enough), I had time and I WANTED to see an Arab country. It was well worth it!!! (Anecdote: The hotel pool was COOLED, really! The ocean - Persian Gulf - was so HOT it took me several minutes to get in, and then I could stand it for only a few more. I like the country and the arab culture, though, very interesting! Tip: Definitely try some desert driving, done by experienced drivers, it's a lot like flying (power management, exchange movement for altitude and vice versa, and if you get it wrong you fall and roll over on the very steep dunes...). Brasil, October 2001, business trip to a trade show in Sao Paulo (but I had to work for only 30 minutes, total...) and then I added 3 days in Rio de Janeiro. For pictures see below under "unsorted", it will be obvious. Brasil is beautiful and dangerous. I had a very bad minute in Rio (I always insist on walking everywhere - you should NEVER do that in Rio!) but managed to escape, barely. Food and drinks are good and cheap! Well, and then there're a few Chicago pictures. Nothing special, it's just that I happened to have the dig. camera with me on that business trip, which is RARE, so I decided to keep and collect these otherwise unexciting pictures. See below under "unsorted". Pictures: all, unsorted
Grandpa's Paintings (Last Modified: 8 Nov, 2002)	Something completely different: Some photos of paintings my grandfather created. Definitely NOT for sale. Pictures opa1-3 are of Rudolstadt-Schwarza, my (now former) hometown. They depict the area how it looked like 50 years ago. Typical landscapes of my former homestate Thuringia are shown in opa12 and opa13. The latter and opa14 are two of my favorite Grandpa paintings... These pictures show only 2% of what he painted, and he also did wood carving and he was a learned church painter who renovated several very old local churches, put beautiful sundials at houses, had a greenhouse filled with a thousand different catuses (the tallest one went all the way to the ceiling), practiced photography (he left several thousand high-quality slides, e.g. of cactuses ;-) ), and read A LOT. He had the title "Meister" (master craftsman). He died in 1995 (at the age of 74).
Thuringian Recipes in Pictures (Last Modified: 4 Feb, 2003)	This is work in progress and it is meant for myself. Living in the culinary development country "USA" (I'm not talking about the many Bay Area restaurants, that's all fine, but the "regular" food is OVERPROCESSED) I have become VERY interested in my mothers and grandmothers good old Thuringian recipes (Thuringia: that's my homestate in Germany). Here is the Recipe section. It's only the pictures right now, I have yet to add the (necessary) comments. Here is my very first attempt (Vanille Kipferl). What you see is only 2/3 of the cookies I had in the oven, the other 1/3 burned - I had a pretty good fire going in the (electric!) oven and there was lots of smoke in the kitchen... well, it was the first attempt, right? Here is my second attempt. No comment.