Naturelich

Another Link of the day (found on the Amazon webservices blog): Amaztype runs a query against Amazon web services. Enter a word like U 2 and Amaztype generates the word from product images found via web service at Amazon (com, uk, ca, jp). Very cool. Click on the background to zoom in and hover the cursor over any art cover to view more details. Currently you can query books, music and DVDs. Below you can find one still image example.

While this is an extremaly cool and wonderful application of Amazon webservices, I also find it totally useless. Okay, I am not a typesetter or designer. But who else would make use of such a webpage other than out of pure fun. Don't get me wrong. It is fun! But I would really like to see the business case first...

Another cool feature is Amaztype Zeitgeist which gives us zeitgeist (->?? read wiki and re-evaluate the usage of the term zeitgeist in this context) statistics on queries run against Amaztype. As of this writing, Boa, U2, Tori Amos, Beatles, Linkin Park, Avril Lavigne etc. are the most famous musicians. Quentin Tarantino is the zeigeist director and Warren Ellis a trendy book author. Harry Potter being of course the most zeitgeist book title. You see, this is a cool gimmick, fun to play with but I lost interest once I noticed that Metallica is too long a name to look good. And Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heartclub band does not even fit in the query field. Too bad...

Oh, on a last note: the word Sex (which is certainly short enough) is ranked in the top ten of titles across all media. Interestingly enough it is the only term which is listed *twice* once with 1028 hits (rank #4) and once 607 hits (rank #6).

Questions to think about:

Posted by Naturelich at 8:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The third single Life Burns of Apocalyptica's album Apocalyptica will be released on 11th April 2005!

Here we go for the tracklist:

I have also just checked Apple's iTunes music store but the single is not yet available for download.

Posted by Naturelich at 9:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kalkriese is famous for being the place where Germania fought against the Roman occupation force. In 9 A.D. the Roman army lost three legions and more than 10,000 people died. Named after Roman leader Publius Quintilius Varus this defeat went into history as The Varus Battle.

To commemorate this tragic event, the historic site in Kalkriese becomes the venue of spectacular fireworks. This year the motto was: Tempora - Times of War, Times for Love, depciting the contrast between love and war. The fireworks symbolizing love while war was depicted by a stunning lasershow.

Another 2005 specialty were 6000 Roman Playmobil soldiers.

The legions of Playmbil soldiers impressively showed the size of the battle and the size of the army. The booth was not only surrounded by children - as we probably all can imagine ;)

The level of detail was really astonishing...

We arrived at the venue at approx. 1730 hrs witnessing the lighting of an Osterfeuer. To hinder people from getting to close to the fire, they had created a mental barrier using famous Roman heroes. In the image below you can see Caius Iulius Caesar...

We went to see the museum (see the link above - it is astonishing) and had a good old German Bratwurst. I met an old colleague from school and we chatted for a few minutes.

At about 20:30 hrs the evening show started with music, choirs and poetry about Time. This entire section seemed to be somewhat lengthy and a little bit overdone.

But finally the fireworks and lasershow started. The choreography was a perfect match to the music played. It was really really impressive and it's my total recommendation for a wonderful Easter evening. Additional impressions...

See you next year in Kalkriese 2006.

Posted by Naturelich at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I had seen this movies trailer at the cinemas but did not get around to see it on the big screen. I therefore bought the DVD and watched it today.

The Forgotten is about Telly Paretta (Julianne Moore) who lost her nine-year-old son Sam in a plance crash. The movie is set 14 months after the accident and Telly still grieves her loss. But suddenly, her husband Jim (Anthony Edwards) swears they never had a child and her psychiatrist (Gary Sinise) insists she's delusional. But worst of all, there is absolutely no evidence to prove Sam ever existed. Haunted by the memories of her son, Telly's search for the truth propels her into a dark story which involves NSA and an extra-terrestrial intelligence.

This is one of the cases where the movie trailer tells you only approximately 50% of what the movie is about. I personally like Julianne Moore a lot and thought this movie would be a good choice.

To put it in a nutshell: it was not.

And, yes, I like X-Files and Star Trek, so science fiction is something watched regularly in my living room. But I was deceived by the trailer and expected something totally different. Don't get me wrong: the acting is good, the directing is good, the story is not too bad, either. But if I had known this is an extra-terrestrial story I would probably not have bought the DVD. I was hoping to get some thriller around the conflict of a mother loosing her child. This topic is still in the movie, but the movie is making fun of it by putting the aliens at the center of attention. This makes it less believable. I would have accepted some government abduction but aliens were too far fetched.

Naturelich's recommendation: Watch it on TV if you like alien stories...

Posted by Naturelich at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Sportpark Wallenhorst was chosen as arena for the badminton match of the year. A match between giants in this sport *ahem*: Naturelich vs his sister. The court was crowded with people, the arena was filled to the last spot. Approximately 10,000 people who were shouting at each and every point...

Well, or something like that... ;)

In the end we both had a lot of fun! And we will certainly have a re-match soon!

Posted by Naturelich at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I arrived in Osnabrück yesterday for the Easter break. A badminton match is scheduled for later today at 1500 hrs. I am really looking forward to this...

We are currently working on building the fan produced map of Switzerland to Ticket to Ride. This map was created by Philipp Riedo and can be found here. More to be posted in the next few days.

We played four games of Ticket to Ride Europe (Zug um Zug Europa) yesterday. The game is a wonderful extension to a game that has been wonderful in the first place. I will post a more detailed report once I get the chance. Until then: Happy Easter to all of you...

Posted by Naturelich at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today, Naturelich had his fourth Badminton session. When it was just beginning to become a regular installation in my life, it already starts to fall apart a little bit again: next week and the next week after had to be canceled because of conflicting business schedules. It's a pity. But we'll pick this up after those two weeks. The problem being my general fitness will start to deteriorate again. Hmmmm. Anyway, my sister has booked a court on Saturday, so I'll be enjoying a good game after all...

Posted by Naturelich at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This site is now making use of Movalog's MT Blogroll 2.0 which is currently in Public Beta. I've had absolutely no problems installing the application and already created a very short list of entries in three different categories:

I hope you find this feature helpful - I certainly love it...

Posted by Naturelich at 1:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In the evening we went to Cologne's Media Park to watch a movie at the Cinedome. We arrived early for the late night show but had not eaten yet. Thus, we decided to enjoy our dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant which I had visited before during Cologne's Ringfest in 2003. The food was really good: I enjoyed a salad and half of Raven's Lasagne. While we were eating Tom Gerhardt sat at the table next to us. He was accompanied by an Asian woman which seemed to be his girl-friend as they were holding hands when they left the restaurant.

We purchased tickets for Hitch (which took precedence over Hostage starring Bruce Willis). This was a wonderful choice as Hitch is really an incredibly funny movie. Will Smith at it's best. Since I was not at all familiar with co-star Kevin James I was most surprised by his performance. We laughed ourselves to death. The story was interesting from a romance point of view but the comedic side of the cast was incredible. I have to get this movie on DVD. If you have not yet seen it, this is naturelich a high high recommendation for an extremely funny evening...

Posted by Naturelich at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

After enjoying a good cup of tea Shelak, Raven and Naturelich went to Mediterana. We had visited this sauna park before, on October 24th, 2004 to be exact. We stayed for about 5 hours and 30 minutes and enjoyed the following saunas (in German):

and the interior and exterior pools. It was sooooo extremely relaxing that I did not really want to leave. But all good things must come to an end, and our plan was to have dinner and then watch a movie.

Posted by Naturelich at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

I have changed the design of naturelich.com using a template from movablestyle.com. I prefer this design over the previous one as this one uses the full width of the screen. If you're unhappy with it or would like to see something else, let me know...

Posted by Naturelich at 2:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My game is improving each time we play. The badminton sport owes a lot of it's dynamic and fun to the agility of its players. I was not particularly good two weeks ago when I first started playing after a few years. Today, we played the second time this week and it is getting better and better as well as faster and faster. It's good fun and a very good way to reduce my stress-levels. The next match is scheduled next week's Thursday. Let's hope I'll be able to keep up the pace...

Posted by Naturelich at 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Have you ever noted a soccer player say something really funny? They are not trained like politicians and sometimes their honesty can be real fun. A German website covers all the best quotes:

http://www.ja-gut-aeh-ich-sag-mal.com/

Naturelich's favorites:
Andreas Brehme
Bedanken möchten wir uns auch bei den Fans, auf denen wir uns immer verlassen konnten.

Jürgen Klinsmann
Da sind meine Gefühle mit mir Gassi gegangen.

Posted by Naturelich at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New Zealand's Simon Janson has made an incredible Star Wars movie which is available on his site: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/. Enjoy!

Posted by Naturelich at 8:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just finished a highly enjoyable Sunday breakfast with fresh and a good pot of tea. The radio was playing music in the background and the newspaper () seemed rather interesting today. Although I am not really a political person (sometimes I see blogs that only deal with politics which I find boring) the news can frighten you. I hope German economy starts growing soon. Otherwise, I fear this country will be going to places where no one wants this country to go to (again). So let's all get a bit more optimistic and finally start spending some more money on things we wanted to buy for a long time...

Posted by Naturelich at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The movie Cold Mountain (German: Unterwegs nach Cold Mountain) was nominated for seven prestiguous Academy Awards. I always wanted to see the movie, but so far did not get around to it. I recently bought the DVD and today was the big day where I finally watched it. An illustruous group of actors starrs in Cold Mountain: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renée Zellweger.

Cold Mountain is set during the American Civil War. This Mirarmax movie tells the story of a wounded Confederate soldier named Inman (Jude Law) who struggles on a perilous journey to get back home to Cold Mountain, North Carolina. He wants to meet Ada (Nicole Kidman) again, the woman he left behind before going off to fight. Along the way, he meets a long line of interesting and colorful characters, while back at home, Ada is learning the ropes of managing her deceased father's farm with Ruby (Renee Zellweger), a scrappy drifter who assists and teaches Ada along the way.

Additional links:

The grandmasters of rock head up Cologne in the RheinEnergie stadium. My sister and I already thought about visiting the band in Hamburg, but I could not make it. Queen + Paul have now announced additional concerts throughout Europe during summer. The Open Air in Cologne will be held on July 6th and I just received the tickets a few minutes ago. Hooray, this will be a cool event!

Posted by Naturelich at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am very happy with the Now playing feature and tend to re-load my site every time the song changes. No, seriously, it really works surprisingly well and finds album covers regularly. If only I were able to get the MT-Location plugin to work. Better luck next time (maybe).

It is time to go to sleep now. Enjoy reading the rest of this blog!

Posted by Naturelich at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is today's third post in sports category. Naturelich, a novelty on this site. The 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup will be held in June. Germany is preparing for the 2006 world cup and has invited the champion of each continent.

The tournament's climax is the finale on June 29th, 2005 in Frankfurt am Main. And now guess: I was able to get two tickets today. I am totally excited! My fanclub memebership has already paid off: I received an email earlier this morning stating that some of the tickets were returned by some of the participating soccer associations. These tickets had been made available in the ticketing session of the official site.

Now, let's keep aaaaaall our fingers crossed for the German team and let them make the finale against Brazil. That would be soooo cool!!

Posted by Naturelich at 9:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After my last badminton match I had very sour muscles. Upon returning I fell flat on the floor - exhaustion. Today, I jumped the stairs went down to stuff the washing machine and two floors up again. I am wondering if this continues like this or whether I will another sour Saturday!? Let's see! If you like you can place your bets.

We've made additional badminton appointments on Tuesday and Thursday next week. This will be the true test whether there is still hope for my physical fitness... You can't bet me on this one ;)

Posted by Naturelich at 9:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is Badminton day. I am now equipped with new Badminton gear which probably won't have much effect on the sore muscles I had last time.
As Naturelich says:
The more you train, the less, the less muscle pain.

Posted by Naturelich at 5:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This site is now equipped with Now playing (an iTunes for Windows plugin) by Brandon Fuller. Together with Brandon's MT-Now Playing plugin you can see whatever I am listening to in iTunes (when I am online). I really like this little tool! It's make this page even more interactive!

Posted by Naturelich at 12:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After a while I have now updated my laptop's desktop wallpaper. I decided to use Veer's The Screenwriter. Really nice, don't you think?

Posted by Naturelich at 11:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

During the last two days I attended a conference at the Hilton Cologne. A very beautiful hotel in the city center, located close to the main railroad station and the venue hosting the Queen musical We Will Rock You. The conference was very interesting for me and I got a few new ideas for this year's tasks. Since the conference ended early (due to one of the presenters being sick) I arrived at home at 17:00 hrs and had some time to relax. A seldom but rewarding experience...

Posted by Naturelich at 7:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Phone call. Abbreviated summary:

mcl

Posted by Naturelich at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Naturelich at 6:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This question has been posted quite often and plenty of books have been published on this topic. Today I found an interesting German webpage on this. The author tries to falsify the (so-called) evidence brought forward by those who have doubts that mankind set foot on the moon. Go to mondlandung.pcdl.de for more details.

Posted by Naturelich at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby won four Academy Awards this year (Best Picture, Clint Eastwood for Best Director, Morgan Freeman for Best Supporting Actor, Hilary Swank for Best Actress). The day after the Academy Awards show I went to see the movie in Basel.

SPOILER WARNING - Do NOT continue reading only after you have seen the movie...

It is a wonderful movie even for people who normally do not like boxing (like me). (As always,) I knew almost nothing about the movie and went there spontaneously. More than the first half of the film is an interesting story about boxing. This really drew me into it: the characters are laid out nicely and the performance of the three leading characters is really outstanding.

Clint Eastwood plays Frankie Dunn who has trained and managed some incredible fighters. He has spent his whole lifetime with boxing. The most important lesson he teaches is: always protect yourself. Frankie has some darker secrets in his past: first of all his relationship to his daugther is terribly broken and he goes to chruch every day trying to redeem himself. Second of all his best friend (and probably also his only friend) Scrap (Morgan Freeman) lost his eye during his 109th fight and Frankie is feeling guilt for not having ended the fight earlier.

All of a sudden Maggie Fitzgerald (Hillary Swank) moves into Frankies gym. It is made very obvious that her life is not the best either. She is already above 30 and still a waitress - with no friends and no future. She is eager to start her boxing career but Frankie don't train no women.

From that point on, the movie is so fascinating. The characters are intriguing and while you can guess where the story arc is heading the direction and acting left me fascinated.

And then: all of a sudden the great unexpected event happens (I am not going to spoil anything more) and everything is turned upside down and the movie gets REAAALLLY good - to a point where I think the Academy Awards have been well deserved. This movie is worth every Rappen (or cent or penny) the theatre asks for it. Go, see it!!!

Posted by Naturelich at 11:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Back in Basel again. Besides work, not much is happening here, so I have to talk about the wheather. :-)

The temperature is freezing and I still need to get something to eat. Yesterday I crossed Wettstein bridge and almost froze to death. These days everyone seems to be complaining about the weather. In German we have a word for this: Waschlappen! You can read a funny piece on this by following the link below.... (in German only)

Was ist echte Kälte? ...alles eine Frage der Einstellung ...

+10°C
Die Bewohner von Mietwohnungen in Helsinki drehen die Heizung ab. Die
Lappen (Bewohner Lapplands) pflanzen Blumen.

+5°C
Die Lappen nehmen ein Sonnenbad, falls die Sonne noch über den Horizont steigt.

+2°C
Italienische Autos springen nicht mehr an.

0°C
Destilliertes Wasser gefriert.

-1°C
Der Atem wird sichtbar. Zeit, einen Mittelmeerurlaub zu planen. Die
Lappen essen Eis und trinken kaltes Bier.

-4°C
Die Katze will mit ins Bett.

-10°C
Zeit, einen Afrikaurlaub zu planen. Die Lappen gehen zum Schwimmen.

-12°C
Zu kalt zum Schneien.

-15°C
Amerikanische Autos springen nicht mehr an.

-18°C
Die Helsinkier Hausbesitzer drehen die Heizung auf.

-20°C
Der Atem wird hörbar.

-22°C
Französische Autos springen nicht mehr an. Zu kalt zum Schlittschuhlaufen.

-23°C
Politiker beginnen, die Obdachlosen zu bemitleiden.

-24°C
Deutsche Autos springen nicht mehr an.

-26°C
Aus dem Atem kann Baumaterial für Iglus geschnitten werden.

-29°C
Die Katze will unter den Schlafanzug.

-30°C
Kein richtiges Auto springt mehr an. Der Lappe flucht, tritt gegen den
Reifen und startet seinen Lada.

-31°C
Zu kalt zum Küssen, die Lippen frieren zusammen. Lapplands
Fußballmannschaft beginnt mit dem Training für den Frühling.

-35°C
Zeit, ein zweiwöchiges heißes Bad zu planen. Die Lappen schaufeln den
Schnee vom Dach.

-39°C
Quecksilber gefriert. Zu kalt zum Denken. Die Lappen schließen den
obersten Hemdknopf.

-40°C
Das Auto will mit ins Bett. Die Lappen ziehen einen Pullover an.

-44°C
Mein finnischer Kollege überlegt, evtl. das Bürofenster zu schließen.

-45°C
Die Lappen schließen das Klofenster.

-50°C
Die Seelöwen verlassen Grönland. Die Lappen tauschen die
Fingerhandschuhe gegen Fäustlinge.

-70°C
Die Eisbären verlassen den Nordpol. An der Universität Rovaniemi
(Lappland) wird ein Langlaufausflug organisiert.

-75°C
Der Weihnachtsmann verlässt den Polarkreis. Die Lappen klappen die
Ohrenklappen der Mütze runter.

-120°C
Alkohol gefriert. Folge davon: Der Lappe ist sauer.

-268°C
Helium wird flüssig.

-270°C
Die Hölle friert.

-273,15°C
Absoluter Nullpunkt. Keine Bewegung der Elementarteilchen. Die Lappen
geben zu: 'Ja, es ist etwas kühl, gib' mir noch einen Schnaps zum Lutschen!

Und jetzt kennst Du den Unterschied zwischen Lappen und Waschlappen Also stellt euch nicht so an!

Posted by Naturelich at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)