4.2.2003 the state of the airspace
so, before i go off into my latest rant, a little background info... ok, i haven't gone travelling anywhere as of
late... that trip to antwerpen to watch movies don't count. but in the next little while, i'm gonna be hitting
up a whole bunch of places...
easter (april 18-22) in barcelona, german labour day weekend (may 1-4) in copenhagen, back to the t-dot for a
week (may 15-24), and another long weekend in london after that (june 19-22)... and i still have 2 long weekends,
a 3-day and a 4-day, within that time where i probably will go somewhere else too...
anyways, so i'm not really ranting, but just making an observation really... the war, the economy, sars... blame
what you want, but the airline industry is hurting. i had 2 of my flights rescheduled this week... 3 of the 4
legs for my toronto trip on BA, and my outgoing flight to london on lufthansa got cancelled, so i got moved to
other flights, all of them earlier than originally booked... not so bad i suppose, but still not something i
expected, you know?
on the bright side... 2 weeks until barcelona! deadly... i hadn't even realized it until today... sweet!
oh, for those who can speak chinglish and enjoy hilarious hip-hop, check out these links...
round ruckus and 524...
great stuff...
well, i'm back. no, i didn't fall into a ditch, ŕ la the infamous
superfatconball... somehow, a week ago, the router we were using here went kaput. it was already semi-kaput
since only one port was working on the router... so we were using a hub, connected to this one working port on
the router...
anyways, we first tried to figure out if it was the router or the dsl modem... couldn't figure it out. we were
thinking it was the modem, cuz marko, an old roommate who used to live here, was able to connect by using the
isdn link as a modem... i'm not really sure how he made that work, but we said we'd try to fix the router first,
before we do anything else...
so finally yesterday, i set up the new router, which took a while, cuz there were some issues to installing the
darn thing... i got it in canada actually, so of course the ac adapter doesn't have the right plug. ok, i get
an adapter, and then i check the specs. doh. only takes 120v. so now i have to get this crazy chunk of a
transformer. i can't use the adapter from the old router cuz it outputs 9v @ 0.9 amps, whereas the new one uses
12v @ 1.2amps. so dumb.
well, when that was all said and done, we set up the router... and nothing. called the t-online helpdesk, and
not only can they not help us, they also tell us the account's been cancelled. say what? i call again, and find
out that the account we're trying to setup is actually one from when marko used to live here, like 2 years ago!
doh.
ok, so me and angie spent the better part of this evening searching for this piece of paper that has our info...
we call thomas twice, who's down in switzerland teaching at a ski school... we call t-online help again... find
out we actually do have our own account... and then, after what seems like searching this flat up and down and
all around, we find the stupid paper and the info.
not so fast... after reconfiguring everything, it still wasn't working... even more puzzling was that the sync
light on the dsl modem was still red. hmmm. i tried unplugging the modem and the router... no dice. call
t-online helpdesk again. the dude says to disconnect the ethernet cable between the two. er, ok... not sure why
but lo and behold... we have internet again!
moral of the story? i sleep a lot earlier when i don't have internet access. angie gets real frustrated without
internet access at home. i go to jason's place a lot more when i don't have internet access to reach my hotmail.
angie and me jump around and shriek like girls (ok, she has a good reason to) when we finally get it back.
seriously, how did i live 8 years ago, before i had any internet at all? scary. oh, btw, if you thought i
would've taken the spare time to update the rest of my site... well, i started, but i was better off doing my
german homework and sleeping earlier. bleh. more updates later.
4.15.2003 rollin', rollin', rollin'...
some ppl wanna know my travel plans. seems like i'm always travelling, huh? well, fyi, i actually haven't gone
anywhere since i came back for new years. so take that! that's 3.5 months of just chilling at home. ok, if
you count going to köln for church, or going to antwerpen for movies, as travelling, then fine, i have, but not
in the real sense.
at least, not until this friday... then we're kicking off a 2 month period where i'm off to someplace new like
every other weekend! woohoo! deadly. so, this friday, for the Easter long weekend, i'm off to barcelona...
then for german labour day long weekend (may 1-4), i'm in copenhagen... then i'm in toronto for mark's wedding,
from may 15-24... then there's another long weekend (may 29-june 1) where i'll likely be in hamburg... and then
finally, yet another long weekend (june 19-22) spent away, this time visiting vince and claire in london... not
to mention the short (only 3-day) long weekend on june 6-8...
you're all wondering why you don't live in germany now, right? heheheh... :oP actually, not all is peachy keen
though, cuz after that mid-june long weekend, there aren't any holidays until october. eh. no summer days off,
unless you actually take them off. boo.
oh, the copenhagen trip almost fell apart actually... long story really, but basically, jason needs surgery on
his right knee, scheduled for april 24, needed an excuse to cancel, got one when ryanair cancelled our flight
(why does this keep happening to me?) and moved us almost 5 hours earlier... so jason bailed. and the new
flight times are just horrible. but i decided to go anyways, and today i picked up tickets for the night train
there... cost me about 20 more euros, but it's better than no trip at all.
lotsa pics and various explanations, before i take off for the easter long weekend to barcelona.
the ericsson building, from the back
so this is the place where i work. from the outside, it's actually not a bad looking place. my office is
technically within the field of view, but it's obscured behind the curving roof of the canteen... a place i won't
see for the next 5 days, cuz i'll be in barcelona! woohoo!
juan, me, pastor david, richard and rené
this pic is a bit dated... it's from the time a few weeks back where pastor david invited the men of the
fellowship out for bowling... sorta a men's night out. we're hoping to make it a monthly event, to be able to
talk about guy stuff and such... it was good, heh, and predictably, the issue of relationships came up... it
somehow always seems to. :oP
a scene from the outdoor outreach in köln
in this pic, you can see what it was like during our outdoor outreach in the main shopping district of köln,
schildergasse, early last saturday... it was bustling with tons of ppl, strolling back and forth, some shopping,
some not... some stopped to see what we were doing, others just ignored us... the interesting thing about this
pic is something i didn't even plan... but you can see that the store in the background is actually called
christ... heheh, coinkidink? maybe divine intervention...?
singing p&w songs
there were quite a few ppl there, not just from ibc, but from other churches as well... german churches, turkish
churches, iranian churches... it was coolz to hear the iranian preacher go at it in a public forum... us ibc ppl
stuck mostly to singing, though a small group led by damaris did this skit thing too...
anyways, i had other pics to post, but i guess they'll have to wait until after barcelona... cheers!
looking for the barcelona updates? here they are:
day 1 recap (april 18)
day 2 recap (april 19)
day 3 recap (april 20)
day 4/5 recap (april 21/22)
wow, barcelona was fun. top-notch fun. i think it's such a great place... amazing architecture, beaches and
mountains... so much to see and do... it's the first city i've been to in europe that i actually want to go back
to again, cuz i didn't get enough of it... i mean, i could totally live here... and i'm seriously thinking about
how to make it happen... hehehe... lotsa stories and pics to post, but it'll take a bit of time for that,
unfortunately.
and speaking of places to call home... toronto got slapped with a travel advisory from the
who, the first place outside of asia to have that distinction... they say
the advisory will last 3 weeks, until may 14... well, hey, look at that, my trip back to toronto starts may 15!
grrr... talk about having your plans thrown for a loop...
4.26.2003 no more 416/905... :(
so if you haven't heard by now, i ain't going back to toronto anymore... and yes, it's partially cuz of sars.
basically, mark and minh have postponed their wedding... so many ppl were coming from out-of-town, including the
whole bridal party, so they didn't feel it was right for them to have it now, since many ppl were concerned about
the whole sars thing...
so anyways, i'm not going back to TO unless british airways doesn't let me refund or at least change my ticket...
not that it would really be a "worst-case scenario", but if necessary, then i'll go back... it'll be like, a
forced vacation... but i've been looking into alternatives... i think i might go visit clara in japan, if i can
get it changed without any major fees (aside from the ticket price diff), cuz i've got the vacation booked
anyways... but we'll see.
oh, the palm is about to be retired... the calibration of the digitizer (how the palm senses where i press the
touchscreen) is so out of wack that i can't even recalibrate the thing... so i'm left with a basically inoperable
palm... so i'm starting to look into what i can get now... i'm leaning to the new palm zire 71, since it'll make
the switch pretty seamless, and it's got a lot of nice features without being super expensive...
i got tons of pics from barcelona to post, and i've photoshopped them all, but i just have to write up stuff to
go with it, so it'll probably be the next couple days before they get posted... stay tuned! and now, back to
angie's bday party... cheers!
4.28.2003 barcelona recap day 1
so lemme tell you all about barcelona...
the cool escalator at the airport
ok, you've heard me rave about barcelona and how it's so coolz... well, here's just the first example. this is
an escalator at the airport. now i've seen regular escalators, see-through escalators (into the mechanics and
such), curving escalators, and all other sorts, but this is the first time i've seen a split-level escalator...
neat, eh? hmmm... did i just prove how much of a geek i am by getting excited by an escalator?
the mirador de colom, near the port of barcelona
so anyways, after checking into my hostel, which was called ideal youth hostel (more on that later), i decided to
walk around the nearby area, and do the bus tour thing later. the hostel was right off of la
rambla, the main place to go in barcelona... it's a 2km long street, mostly for pedestrians, and busy at all
times of the day, every day of the week... street vendors, peddlers, buskers, beggars, etc. you name it, they
were there.
anyways, so i walked down towards the port, and snapped pics of this mirador de colom... i
have no idea what it is, or who it's supposed to be, but it looked neat... it's in the middle of this roundabout
along this seaside road... this is one of the few things i remember from my first trip to barcelona, back in
1998, on a family vacation... i also remember taking pics of this back then too... hahaha... the more things
change, the more they stay the same...
placa del rei, i think
walked around the port a bit, then made my way back up la rambla, and started looking for
placa reial... wandering back and forth through the back streets east of la
rambla, stopping to take pics of some jazz buskers (who were really good, actually), i happened upon this
building, in the pic to the right... i think it's a church of some kind, but really i don't know, and i don't
remember exactly where i was, but looking generally at the map, i think it's near placa del
rei... i don't think it's the same as placa reial, but then, what do i know about
spanish? :oP
i just think the building is nice cuz of the bridge thingy above the street, and the gryphons or whatever they
are, hanging off the side of the building... not to say that other cities don't have such ornamental decorations
on their buildings too, but it almost seems like a way of life in barcelona, you know?
looking out the cathedral's courtyard
anyways, i stumbled into the old main cathedral at some point along the way, and it was beautiful... i think i
slipped into a back area, cuz this part had a covered corridor, which was flanked by smaller chapels around an
open courtyard, where they kept swans inside... it was so nice! so peaceful and tranquil... i dunno if it was
just cuz of the swans or whatever, but it was nice...
i walked into the main sanctuary area of the cathedral and then realized that they had an easter service going
on... of course, i didn't understand anything, cuz it was in spanish, but interestingly enough, it wasn't quite
full inside the church... lotsa seats unfilled, even though there were lots of tourists milling about, inspite of
the signs saying that tourists shouldn't be inside the cathedral during a service... heheh, oops! well, lemme
say that i wasn't the only one... at least i had the presence of mind to turn off my flash!
easter procession, outside the cathedral
well, then i walked out the front doors of the cathedral, where the bishop and some other guy were reading from
the Bible... and then i noticed the huge crowd in the plaza in front of the cathedral, so i walked down to see
what was going on...
it turns out that they do this easter procession thing every year, with these priests or monks or whoever,
taking turn to carry the cross around the plaza... it's like a reenactment of the crucifixion or something, and
there were tons of ppl around, following the cross...
buskers, and the old dancing guy
in the midst of all this, around the corner from the plaza, there were these buskers... jamming some real good
tunes, totally oblivious to the events going on just a few metres away... that old guy on the left, he was really
gettin' down, shakin' that thang, and cutting some tile... and the buskers, of course, gladly obliged...
honestly though, i think there's some good money to be made on these streets...
more of the easter procession
anyways, i decided to keep walking around, but i just kept running into more crowds, and of course, i'm naturally
curious... so i hang around, and there's even more of this easter procession... these guys in the awfully
suspicious-looking hats were escorting this (for lack of a better term) parade float-thingy of Jesus bearing His
cross... and when it came close, there were some ppl who would sing out something, again in spanish, and i guess
it was about how Jesus died and saved us from sin and all that, cuz after each song, the crowd would go nuts and
cheer and applaud... it was coolz.
well, i didn't do much walking around after that... went back to the hostel, tried to find some other ppl around
who wanted to get something to eat, but i ended up eating by myself... went to this place on la
rambla for paella, but it sucked... i've had way better...
so the next barcelona recaps will have to wait... wanted to write about a couple other things before my trip to
copenhagen this weekend (i leave tomorrow night)...
to start, ericsson's 1Q report came out and let's
just say that i'm probably not gonna visit clara in tokyo or euming in taiwan anymore... need to save up some
dough, and that's not just for a round-the-world trip anymore...
anyways, to give the numbers some perspective, ericsson's worldwide headcount on 1.1.2001 was 115,000. the
target established last year, for 12.31.2003, was to be "under 60,000". the actual projection for 12.31.2003 is
54,000... but that's still not enough, according to carl-henric. so that means, to meet his numbers, we have to
cut 2000 more ppl this year (than already planned), plus another 5000 next year, to hit 47,000 by 12.31.2004.
sometimes i wonder how we're gonna be able to do anything right, when you see a headcount reduction of almost
60% in 3 years.
am i worried? yeah, of course, to a certain extent. but i can't really control what happens... cuts will be
made, and i'm not really in an indispensable position, so i'm just gonna start preparing for the worst. no harm
in that, right? maybe i will get to live in barcelona soon... :oP
in other, happier news, my bro sent me some links... one is about
a guy wearing name tags,
and the other is about a professional
backpacker... really neat and quirky... i'm game! are you? hahaha... maybe only for the name tag thing
though...
anyways, see you all next week!