Airport BSOD

I forgot to post this image ages ago when I took it.

In Frankfurt Airport, the famous Microsoft Windows Blue Screen of Death on the arrivals board.

I Finally Saw Avatar - Good, but it's no Star Wars

I finally saw Avatar yesterday and it was alright.

The tech and special effects we just beyond anything else I had seen before, and the story was OK for what it was. Lots of comparisons are being of course made to Star Wars, a film I think is still better than Avatar, at least for me...

I think where this movie was a miss for me was with the characters it created. When I saw the original Star Wars in the theatre it was a near religious experience. I came out of there wanting to BE Luke Skywalker.

Avatar created a world that really impressive and beautiful and I could feel a part of me wishing I could go there and experience the world. However, I would want to do it on my own and never as one of the characters from the film. I did not relate to, nor want to be any of the Avatar heroes or villains.

The greatness in Star Wars was in having these Iconic Characters and personalities that touched the audience in a personal way. Sure the world was amazing, but what really made it transcend the setting and (frankly not great) story was that it gave people a fantasy they could dream of living in. I don't how many hours in the playground I spent as Luke, Han or even Vader, but I have yet to hear one kid in my neighbourhood yelling out "LOOK AT ME, I'M JAKE SCULLY!"

German Warning sign..

I took the train in to work this morning and I walked by a construction site. I thought this warning sign was quite German in its tremendously un-subtle way of advising people to stay out.
The screaming mouth is my favorite part.

Car News – A Volkswagen Caddy for the Andersons

A few weeks ago, tragedy struck yet again in the form of an icy uncleared road while Claudia was going to pick up Liam from kindergarten.  Sadly, in the war between our blue car and the concrete wall, our car did not come out on top.

Claudia was totally unharmed, just annoyed, but our beloved BMW compact sustained damages far in excess of its value.  Luckily we still had the 2nd car to keep us mobile, but we did not want to trust a 16 year old 230 thousand km vehicle as our only source of transport.  Also, the inspection is coming up in June and it is very likely that big car does not pass this time. 

So, the car search was on with big time pressure.  Claudia wanted to be involved in the decision, but with 8 months of pregnancy decreasing her mobility somewhat, we needed to look fast.

I heavily favoured a German car, both from a quality point of view and a political one.  This brought down the range of choices a lot and we were at first considering another BMW, but the fact is that newer models are more expensive than I am willing to pay and we did not really want to buy a 6 year old car.

After research, pricing comparison, and quite some car lot viewings, we settled on a Volkswagen Caddy.  This is an interesting vehicle which started out as a commercial truck model that was adapted to life as a family vehicle.

The first Caddy was the Polo (Rabbit) pick up truck:A cab was added to the truck bed to make the first odd looking vehicle.  This was actually pretty successful, so the next version introduced a family concept with seats and windows, but still keeping a pretty freaky look to the overall package. In the most recent revision, the VW Polo (rabbit) shared parts have been replaced with VW Golf versions and the overall shape refined a bit more.

That is basically it.  It is a little 1.9 litre diesel engine, lots of space for 2 kids + 2 adults and all our stuff.  It is as close to a mini-van I could stomach, and its relative odd style is somewhat appealing.

The one we bought is not quite one year old and had only 7500km on it, so it will now be the newest car I have ever owned.  Here is what it looks like again.

We will only go and pick up the new Anderson-mobile next week, so I will be sure to share some more photos when it is brought home to Entringen.

Liam’s New Room – Finishing touches

With the room all painted, we just had to put the finishing touches on the details.  After thinking about the many interests of Liam, we decided on some dinosaurs for the wall.  Claudia found some nice dinosaur shapes and then made stencils that I could use for a nice parade.

Liam chose the order of the dinosaurs marching around his walls…I have done this a few times now.  Liam’s baby room had a nice border of teddy bear heads, in both our old flat and the house, and the new baby room will get bear heads again.  So I have the technique pretty much down on this.

With all the painting done, I moved the freshly built furniture in and we attached the curtains (which Claudia had spent the last week sewing.)  Thankfully the room was a big hit with Liam, especially the exciting Hochbett that gave him a whole new area to play.  Under the bed has already been a fort, pirate ship, dragon cave, bear cave, firehouse, and garage.  That was all on the first day. It was a lot of work, but I think the room looks pretty great, very satisfied with the results and now I am moving on to the baby room as the next project on the list.

Liam's New Room - Part 4

So, this is the last piece of furniture to be built.

Not many posts this week, things have been very busy with the dramatics of early March.

Liam's New room - Part 3

I enjoyed the last time lapse film so much I have done another, this time building the more complex dresser...

Liam's New Room - Part 2

Now that the room is all painted, the building of the furniture can begin. I did his bed on Monday night and I thought it would be fun to do a nice time lapse film of it. I think it turned out rather well and I may need do more of these.

Liam had a big interest in the whole bed building, so he is popping up all through the process.

Update to the Office

So the office is now complete, all the devices connected and books on the shelves. Here is how it looks. You can see my little computer niche in the corner there.

Click on the image for an enlargement.

Mike P will notice my dancing Domo-kun alarm clock on the shelf over the computer. I still love Domo-kun soooo much. Perhaps I will need to make a film of his sweet sweet moves.

Liam”s New Room – Part 1

As baby time comes ever nearer, the house preparations continue. I recently showed the building of the office downstairs, now I have moved on to the conversion of the old office to Liam’s new room. With the old office furniture all moved out, I could start on the next phase of the plan. they repainting of the room.

Liam has long told us that green is his “best” colour, and he really wanted a green bedroom.

First step was to fill in all the cracks in the wall. Our house is still only a couple of years old and is still settling, making some cracks show up over time. I filled all these in as best I can to have a nice looking wall to paint.

Once I had all the cracks and holed filled in, I did the taping and covering of all the areas I did not want to get painted. Removed all the outlet covers and light switches, and generally wrapped up the room in all the spots I wanted to keep clear of green mess.

For the next step, I used a brush to do all the fiddly bits in the corners and edges, as well as around all the outlets. The first taste of green on the walls. It is very bright and minty looking.

Finally, the big work of filling in all the large areas with the roller. This took me most of the afternoon, and by the time the paint was dry and I could clean up, it was well into the evening. Then it was a matter of replacing all the switches, pulling down all the masking tape and plastic, and cleaning up any other mess I had made.

I know that I am not a particularly skilled labourer, so pretty much every job takes me twice as long as someone who really knows what they are doing. I think the results are OK though, it looks not too bad and Liam is happy with it.

Here is the reverse angle, looking back into the room.

Gold!

Well, I can finally get some sleep now…

Oh, and I also won the bet with my Swedish team mate/work colleague and he has to wear my Team Canada hockey sweater all day in the office.