There Are People Who Have it Worse Than You

At the end of a grueling week, I figured out the meaning of this sentence.

Is it supposed to make you feel better? No.

Is it supposed to help you pick yourself up and carry on? It may help you do that, but that's not the real meaning.


It is supposed to give you perspective.

You are alone. And in that, you are not alone.

Faux pas

From my correspondence with a Japanese acquaintance:

Me: Do a lot of people ski in Japan? Do you have any mountains in Japan?

Him: Do you remember "Nagano"? 1998? Winter Olympics?

orz.

I feel stupid.

Family

I'm sitting at my girlfriend's family's breakfast table. We are talking about automobile insurance.

Girlfriend:	So, what's your insurance percentage*?
Me:	Eighty-five.
Girlfriend:	What?
Mom:	What?
Dad:	What?

Everyone looks at me as if I had just confessed to strangling babies in my free time.




* German automobile liability insurance premiems are calculated as a precentage of some base value. Percentages start out at a little above 100%, and drop about 5% annually as long as you remain accident-free. At my age, your insurance should be at about 40-45%.

Kommunikation

Ich (in meiner Tim Mälzer - Stimme): So, die Zwiebeln lassen wir jetzt ganz kurz anbraten, damit wir auch wunderbar die feinen Röstaromen mit reinkriegen.
Sie: Is Dir was angebrannt?

Build Numbers and Errors

The probability of completely idiotic stupid errors is directly proportional to the amount of ending zeroes in the build number.

Also known as "Wouldn't it be cool if our shipping release was build two thousand?" - syndrome.

Wocoa 2006: The Evening

At the Bar Celona. They must have thought they were being invaded by aliens.
[Photo by Axel Rau, with kind permission]



Later, on to the "Fünftes Element" for some evil coding with Matze and Martin.

There were about 35-40 people altogether, 30 of which were present at any given time. This time round, no 'dances', that is, presentations, were held, but nobody seemed to object particularly.

All in all, a slightly chaotic, but highly enjoyable Wocoa.

Wocoa 2006 Frankfurt

Change of venue: the bar where we were supposed to meet, with notice "WOCOA across the street"



Across the street.

Right now we're sitting in a cafeteria where we're spread out across something like five tables. More later.