Jakob & Emil

Jakob & Emil in Wien, Weihnachten 2008

Ceramic Knife

I discovered something new in Austria. What looked like a plastic knife, turned out to be the latest trend: ceramic knives. Made from zirconia, it's harder than steel, chemically inert (no odours, no allergenics), and gives your cooking experience and new flavour with an ergonomic handle and smooth cut. It doesn't rust and wikipedia tells me it's also used by bomb disposal squads, because it's neither conductive nor magnetic. You never know, maybe one day I will need some McGuyver skills, then this kitchen knife might come in handy.

It's super-strong, but brittle, so no dropping, or cutting on glass.

3/4 Moon - Ski Lake Louise

For many animals wintertime, when the air is cold and it gets dark in the middle of the day, means time to relax and recharge the batteries (aka hibernation). I too experience that requires slightly more effort to get motivated and get outside.

Next weekend I will wrestle with my inner pig dog and get my act together: I will drive out to the mountains to explore the Rocky Mountain Winter Wonderland at night:


Details:
January 19 2008 - Evening

Lake Louise - Tram Trail: 4km slight uphill to Lake Louise; Classic or Light Touring ski equipment required; downhill fun and faster: here some skiing skills are required (in other words: you need to know how to snowplow, otherwise this part would be a shitshow).

Email me or comment here, if you are interested in joining, and I fill you in on the details.

Posing

Me and Suresh

My job is becoming more diverse. Not only do I teach a yoga class at work on Monday's, I also modelled for a photo shoot for Haworth Olympic Gear. Of course, I felt smitten, when they approached me. But then I overheard the selection criteria for the male model, which put my model career into perspective as well: "Who is not too slim? We need someone with a little bit of a belly, so that the chubby people want to get those jackets too."

I wonder what my selection criterion was...

Wien (mostly) bei Nacht

Vienna (mostly) at night

Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Art History)

No clue who this is, but he must be a hero

Am Graben

BOKU - where I spent my years as a student

7th district

again, somewhere in the 7th district

Museumsquartier

Sylvia aka Cosmic Syv

Christmas 2007 - Austria

I am back in the blogger world! No, I was not eaten by a polar bear, but busy with preparations for my trip to Europe. Once in Europe I had no desire to sit in front of the computer to communicate or to get informed. Instead I chatted with real people or read newspapers and magazines like in the good old days.

In Austria, real candles are on the christmas tree, and baby Jesus (aka Christkind) brings the presents on Christmas Eve.

Some of us still believe in the Christkind.

Some of us even read poems to the Christkind.


And what would Christmas be without "Oh Tannenbaum" and "Stille Nacht"?


Miez's Clan

I also met the youngest mini wexi (#8 of the new generation): Ida on the right in the picture.


Me and Flora

Antonia


Tin Tin


Konstantin


Stefan

Lukas

Roeschen

Papa Miez & Rosa

Toenchen

Vinci (a few times I beat him in table tennis)

Maeri & Klausmaus

My parents when they found out that grandchild #9 is on his or her way. No end in sight regarding their baby sitter duties!

Emil

Karl & Claudia's family

What else did I do? Not much. Mostly I hung out with the mini wexis. One of my christmas presents was a virus that kept me in the house for the most part. It even attacked my kidneys. That was painful, but thankfully I had lots of caring people around. I got a holopathic treatment from Miez, which made the kidney pain go away. Thanks Miez!


Weatherwise, it sucked. 90% of the the time, it was grey and miserable where I was. Everyone coming back from ski trips told me how wonderful it was in the mountains (e.g picture above from Muckenkogel towards Oetscher), but having been sick, going to the mountains was not an option for me. But that's okay: the grey weather made me feel less guilty staying inside, eating cookies and doing nothing.

A few more pics from Vienna will follow soon...

Bali

I have been a little disorganised lately (lately might be redundant). I haven't been able to find my I-pod charger cable, so instead of listening to music I tuned into CBC radio on my commute to work.

In the past few years I have been avoiding listening to politicians on the radio. I find their communication style is too much based on blaming and finding excuses instead of collaboration and finding solutions.

But last week the news were filled with reports from the UN climate change conference in Bali and I must say it has been interesting. As you probably know, agreement on a global climate policy was finally reached on Saturday. Bravo!

Canada only grudgingly agreed. But a grudging agreement is better than no agreement at all. The environmental crisis can only be effectively dealt with on a global level. Emissions don't stop at the border. Every country has to be on board.

Climate policy analyst Eliot Diringer sums up the outcome of the conference:
''It puts no one on the hook right now for emissions reductions,'' he said. ''What's important, though, is that it lets no one off the hook either.''

So what was agreed at Bali?

The Telegraph reports that the 187 nations agreed on "deep" emission cuts, as well as plans for "clean" technology transfer to developing countries to help them reduce pollution levels, and plans for financial support to halt deforestation.

Sounds like the right thing to do.

What's next?

Now it's time to turn talk into action and be innovative.

And I might listen to the news on the radio more often.

Earth Boots

I treated myself to some winter boots last weekend. That's what -20 degrees do to you.


Earth boots were designed by a Danish yogini named Anne Kalso and have a negative heel. So far: two thumbs up! They keep my feet warm, and walking feels good - it almost feels like walking barefoot.



Not sure if party guest doggie mc doggerten loves his negative heel rubber boots though...

Ed Burtynsky

Beautiful Photography with a Message. Canadian born Ed Burtynsky made nature transformed by industry his lens focus.

Tire Pile, Westley, California, 1999

Deda Chicken Processing Plant, Dehui City, Jilin Province, 2005

Ship Breaking, Chittagong, Bangladesh 2000

Nickel Tailing, Sudbury, Ontario 1996

Check out his TED talk for more info.

ENFP

For those of you, who don't know: I l o v e personality tests.

One of them is the Myers Briggs personality test, which is based on Jung's Psychological types.
I did the test a few days ago (for about the 5th time in the last five years - yes, I am an addict) and I have observed that I moved from an ENTJ to an ENFP.

E stands for Extrovert and means I draw my energy from some sort of action rather than reflection.
N stands for intuitive, meaning the abstract or theory are more important than facts. Facts support theory, but facts don't make a theory. There is always an exception.
F stands for feeling instead of thinking. It means I base my decision making on feelings rather than thoughts.
P is for perceiving the outside world rather than judging it.

Here you can take a free test, and tell me who you are!

I can definitely feel that I am not an ENTJ anymore. See, I said feel! I am so F! Back in the J-days, I would judge a lot. I would walk by a house and I judge: good or bad. Pretty or ugly. And unfortunately there are many ugly houses, so that in turn made me feel bad. Now I am a lot more relaxed about things, that I can't change. I made peace with vinyl siding (well, not quite: PVC is on the high priority list of plastics to avoid), and I just notice/perceive the house. It must be the yoga.

Foreign Country

"All of life is like a foreign country." - Jack Kerouac

Couldn't agree more, Jack Kerouac. Especially in the last decade, it felt like that on a regular basis! I am going to reverse that feeling in a few weeks though, time to visit home again...

Learn Words & Give Rice

Especially for fellow ESL-ers - learn some words and the UN will donate rice on your behalf. I just "earned" 1000 grains and now I also know that Jenny is a female donkey!