Mostly Harmless

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Munich in May

Just returned from a one week visit from Munich. Laser World of Photonics celebrated its 40th anniversary.

That enabled me to not only see a bunch of familiar faces at the show, but also to visit my dear old friend Chris, who was kind enough to host me during my visit.

And I got to meet his girlfriend Andrea!

Believe it or not, I had never visited downtown Munich before, so Chris took it upon him to introduce me to the city:

Good times!

After playing Eclipse matches with Kristen and Rob as well as Andy and Rachel in the past, we finally got together on April 28th to play with all of them at the same time. Turns out a 6 player game is very different from a 4 (or 2!) player one.

Rachel was the only one to choose Terrans, despite having first pick. Kristen lead the artificial intelligence life form of the Mechanema while Rob chose the riches that come with the Eridani Empire. Michaela went with the Descendants of Draco which are friends with the Ancients, leaving both me and Andy with our top choices - the scientists of the Hydran Progress and the fast growing Planta, respectively.

In an early surprise move, the Descendants of Draco took advantage of their relationship with the Ancients to cut off both, the Eridani Empire and the Hydran Progress from the galactic center, crippling their development. This enabled the Planta to expand mercilessly. With both, the Terrans and the Mechanema fairly passive, the first major battles ensued between the Descendants and the Planta. Despite the support of the Ancients that the Descendants of Draco enjoy, the Planta steamrolled the Draco sectors close to the galactic center and took the center itself to boot shortly thereafter.

Now both the Terrans and Mechanema got busy securing their sectors against the growing threat of the Planta, while the Descendants of Draco developed the Wormhole generator technology to invade the isolated Eridani Empire. Hydran Progress researched the very same technology in preparation of taking on the Planta, which turned out to be too little, too late: the expansion into the Planta sector - as well as cutting through it to the Terran sector - was just a drop in the bucket for the vast Planta empire.

The Mechanema had built the largest fleet ever seen, but hardly any shots were fired at their borders. The Terrans squeezed between the Mechanema and Planta lost further ground through a small fleet of Hydran Progress ships. The Eridani Empire spent all its energy repelling the Descendants of Draco invasion, which left the Planta as the unchallenged, dominating force in the Galaxy - well done, Andy!

Monday, April 1, 2013

Easter 2013

Happy Easter!

With colored eggs,

homemade gluten-free banana bread and baguette,

and lots of sunshine!

Bayocean Peninsula

The weather is finally getting nicer. Well, who knows how long it'll last, but this weekend was GORGEOUS! A nice mid-70 and sunshine. So, we headed back to Bayocean Peninsunla near Tillamook for a nice long walk on the beach. We also had a little hat-wearing contest (*grin*):

Sunday, March 10, 2013

UFO IX Davos 2013

I was fortunate enough to attend the bi-annual UFO conference again this year. The organizers have a knack for picking nice places (e.g. Monterey in 2011 with the Banquett in the Aquarium and a tour of NIF to boot) and this year was no exception: Davos, Switzerland. And they offered short courses on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, which meant that
a) I had to arrive on Friday and
b) the opportunity to Ski on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Good stuff!

Thanks to an unusually long winter with lots of snow, skiing conditions were still excellent. Sunshine and no wind made things even better!

BMW had a marketing event for their new 'xDrive' (no, I didn't win the car...):

Overall, very beautiful scenery and great conditions:

View from my hotel room wasn't too bad either:

After the short courses we had a traditional Cheese Fondue up on the Jschalp. There I found out that Ursula Keller (the inventor of the SESAM) and her husband are not only avid skiers (as one might expect) but actually enthusiastic Windsurfers, too - who knew?? I invited them to visit us in the Gorge for some 'real' windsurfing...

Monday evening was Apero time in the Bolgen Plaza: a chance to meet old friends and new acquaintances from around the world and discuss the impact austerity has had on the various scientific communities.

Wednesday evening: Conference dinner at the Schatzalp - apparently the place that inspired Mann's 'Zauberberg' - very nice place. The sledding in the late afternoon was a bit disappointing: the snow was too wet and correspondingly slow, ah well.

Thursday afternoon's program consisted of visiting the highest beer brewery in Europe ('Monstein') and a snowshoeing excursion. I bowed out of that one - jetlag and a mountain of emails needed to be worked through...

Friday evening I had a chance to visit Nina in Zuerich, which I hadn't seen in many, many years and meet her husband Robin for the first time. Good times! We had dinner in 'Kaufleuten' and I enjoyed two rare treats: their company and a 'real' Wiener Schnitzel!

Pictures of the conference may follow (if the organizers make them available).

Oh, the actual conference? Yes, talks were great and plentiful! Next stop: China, 2015...