The Hangover - Part 1

Well today I finally watched the 'The Hangover - Part 1'. It's one of those movies I never got around to watching when it was out at the movies. For a synopsis and more info check out the IMDB Page of "The Hangover".
Well the movie starts pretty conventional: A few guys going to Vegas for a bachelor party. Yes there are a couple of funny scenes in that: A teacher that steals from his kids and another guy obviously violating his restraining order. Up to the drinking party on the roof of Caesar's Palace, there's not much of the ordinary. Then the fun part starts.
The guys find themselves in a pretty messed up $ 4.200 suite with a tiger, a baby, a chicken and missing a tooth and the groom. The reason for the existence of the chicken in the room is never being questioned and so we never find out where it came from or what happened to it in the end. Then the search for their missing memory begins. It has almost the making of a criminal investigation conducted few entirely inept guys. This part is absolutely hilarious. Their search leads them to a wedding chapel, a sweet hooker, a chinese Mobster, a emergency room doctor and finally to Mike Tyson. The absurdity of the situations keep on increasing. It's one of those movies, where you think you've seen it all...well, but you haven't. The thing about this movie is that you almost find yourself caring about the characters and the fact that you realize that you almost do, makes this movie even funnier.
Zach Galifianakis performance of Alan is truly outstanding! Ken Jeong plays the chinese mobster very well. Of course he plays it completely over the top, but that's what makes it funny. The fact that he finds anything what a fat man does funny adds to his role. Of course we have an added twist, that they get the wrong Doug. That really didn't come as a big surprise. Finally a mattress impaled on one of the statues of Caesar's Palace gives the final clue and they find the missing groom and head back to LA.
The end of the movie is both: A little too over the top and a little too conventional. Well I've lived 8 years in LA and I've never ever seen a mobile tux rental service throw the clothes into their customers car on the freeway. Btw. I've never ever seen anyone change into a tux on a freeway either. Yes it makes a good visual effect, but it's just too over the top, especially when you're already winding the movie down back the the conventional layer. They had to end the movie conventional, since the movie started out that way. But the transition between hilarious part and the conventional part is not what I would call a happy solution. It's just too abrupt and seems to come out of nowhere.
All in all a very funny movie and I definitely was quite entertained all the way through. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it a 6.5!!

Source Code

Well I finally got around to watching 'Source Code'. Not entirely sure why I never got around to watching  when it was out at the moves, but for some reason it never happened. If you have no idea what movie I am talking about, check out the IMDB Page of 'Source Code'.
Well 'Source Code' starts out great. Loved the SFX and loved the fact that the viewer is kept quite confused at the beginning. That's definitely great storytelling. After Colter Stevens goes through the first 2 rotations, it reminded me about watching TNG episode 'Cause and Effect'. As a Star Trek enthusiast I loved that idea. Well, that love was certainly short lived. As they did way too many rotations and gaining way too much information.
That's the exact point where the story becomes actually quite slow. All the rotations and all the special effects can't mask that. Although Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan do an excellent acting job, the entire story just doesn't seem to make much progress. While I do like the fact that the actor becomes self aware of his surroundings, the lack of explanation how that came to happen is definitely a major disappointment.
What happens next is something that has become typical for American Main-Stream Cinema. Instead of playing off on all the drama that surrounds this story, we get another clone made in Hollywood: Evil terrorist tries to blow up city. Terrorist is dumb enough to warn everyone. Army starts a most questionable experiment to stop the terrorist. We had that concept way too often before, it's brainless and boring! This part of the movie is absolutely awful!!
The could have played off the drama of the morality of the entire experiment. They could have used the inner fight of Colter Stevens between his personal choice and his duty. The could played off the drama that Goodwinn goes through during the experiment. They even could have played off the entire Frankenstein theme. But no, they only scratch the surface. If they had cut out the entire Terrorist vs Army plot and used all the drama, that is contained within the experiment itself, it would have been an amazing movie.
The end of the movie has an interesting twist. Apparently they created an alternate timeline after all. Really love that twist. The fact that Goodwinn finally listens to her conscience is a really great touch. I really would have loved to be given a further explanation for the alternate timeline, but that of course never happens.
All in all a good movie, except for the middle part of course. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would probably give it a 6!!

Jack and Jill

Watching 'Jack and Jill' was certainly an experience of the special kind. If you have no clue what movie I'm talking about check out the IMDB Page of 'Jack and Jill'.
Well there's only 1 way to describe this movie: It's absolutely awful!! It's definitely one of the 2 worst movie I've seen in 2011 and shares that top spot with Apollo 18. If i could say that I was entertained, well that would be something. The sad truth is, that I wasn't.
The movie doesn't start out that bad, but it goes downhill from there. It lines up situation after situation, that are supposed to be funny...but they ain't. They're going way over they top with the allegedly funny situations, that they just don't come of as funny at all. It's just one truly dumb situation after another. If I haven't miscounted, then there are 3 funny situation in there, that actually make you laugh.
With that being said, Sandler really tries to safe this move and his craft shows while he's making an complete fool out of himself. It is sad that they choose to have Sandler portray his sister as a drag queen character, but this situation is actually quite funny.
Of course the real reason to see this movie is to see Al Pacino as a horror -show version of himself. That part of the movie is quite entertaining.
If they had kept the beginning, the 'drag queen' scene and Al Pacino's scene...well it would have been a short movie, but at least it would have been funny.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give this movie a 1.5!!

Friends with Benefits

I finally got around to watching 'Friends with Benefits'. If you don't have a clue what movie I'm talking about, check out the IMDB Page of 'Friends with Benefits'.
Here are my thoughts on the movie:
It's a romantic comedy and I did enjoy it. For most part it was funny and the chemistry between Kunis and Timberlake really helps the movie quite a bit. Luckily the script is good enough that we don't have to solely rely and Kunis' and Timberlake's charm. The story itself is hardly new or creative: Hollywood hot shot meets NY headhunter and a physical 'relationship' ensues.
I like the fact that this romantic comedy is a little more on spicy/raunchy side and comparable movies. This truly gives it a pep to stand out. The intimate scenes are tastefully done and definitely way more as we usually get to see, but not quite 'Sex in the City' style. Personally I think they could have even spiced it up a little more, but all in all it's a good compromise.
The purely physical relationship undergoes an interesting journey, since both main actors seem to start caring for each other. But we don't see enough of that, and that's the main reason why the big fight just seems way too artificial. It just doesn't work for me. As visually pleasing and as funny as the make up scene at the end is, it just doesn't work for me. It's just too artificial. I know they try to explain it, but even with that explanation it just feels like a big pink elephant, that absolutely doesn't belong into that movie.
I know that with romantic comedies we expect to see an happy ending. And the movie becomes predictable. We get to see exactly that. At least the producers didn't get for a 'Happily Ever After' style and stopped with the 2 main characters going on a first date.
I really would have hoped that the producers would have had the courage to take it one step further and write a romantic comedy that doesn't go down the way we expect it to. Not necessarily a break up, but the relationship staying purely physical. That would have been something outstanding and something we've never seen before!
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give this movie a 6!!

The XMAS-Day Disaster

Well that title pretty much says it all and there is just no way to make that anything else but an entire disaster. On the other hand it's not that unusual. Thinking back it has always been that way, as long as I can think. Christmas in this family has always been a very stressful time and on one of the XMAS holidays it always ends in a yelling and screaming match. The dynamic is always the same. It's an argument about something (it really doesn't matter what it is), no compromise to my Dad's liking can be found right away, and once 1 party runs out of arguments the underhanded, personal attacks and the yelling match starts...and usually my Dad is the one who starts with the personal attacks and with the yelling.
So far that's nothing really new and it pretty much has always been that way. But something just felt different this time, things just seem to get worse. And then there of course is Daisy and she's a very good indicator for negative energy...as she can't stand it. I was watching her she was pacing from one place to the next and made sure to avoid my Dad at all costs. As soon there were only 2 or 3 steps between him and her, she tried to find a new spot further away from him. In case that wasn't possible she pressed her butt against my legs and looked to me for protection. I guess seeing my dog that uncomfortable made a huge impact on me.
Later that day I was talking to one of my friends online and I answered his question how was your Christmas with: "Let me put it that way, I don't think that the Spanish Inquisition could have been much more painful than this Christmas". That sentence is exactly what got a lot of things rolling.
It suddenly occurred to me, that this is a terrible thing to say. Furthermore it is a terrible place to spend your holidays and free time. On top of that I really don't want to have to wake up my dog 7 times during one night, because she's having nightmares. I haven't had to deal with a negative family dynamic like that for the past 8 years, and that's one of the reason why it felt so terrible. In those 8 years I've learned that there is another way to treat each other during family events.
There is something positive about that entire incident as well: It really forced me to make a decision. I made a clear cut decision on Christmas Day. I am not going to play that game anymore. I made it quite clear, that I won't be attending any family events if my Dad is part of the group as well. I refuse to deal with that negativity.
Being a gay man is here quite helpful. From the time of my Coming Out I've learned that we gay man choose our families. Some of those people we're related to, others are our friends and we come to think of them as family. Some come temporarily into our life as family and fade away later on, while others come to stay. And of course there are those parts of our families who we choose to exclude from m our lives, because they're just too exhausting and draining. Apparently my Dad belongs to the latest category!
I'm not quite sure where I will be spending Christmas 2012. Spending XMAS with my dog on long distance hiking trail in southern Europe, where the weather is way more comfy than in Austria, sounds like a fun thing to do. Another idea would be renting a remote cabin in the mountains and spending XMAS there. Just me and the dog!! I might consider letting a few people come along as long as they bring lots of positive energy, are laid back and fun to be around with!

XMAS-Eve

It has been tradition in my family to celebrate Christmas on XMAS-Eve. This year was no different. This is the first time in 8 years that I was a part of this celebration again. Joining us were my brother, my sister, my 2 nephews, my brother-in-law and his grandmother.
The entire celebration started around 6 pm. There was some singing on Christmas songs...my sis, brother-in-law and one of my nephews were playing on the guitar...and then of course there was the unpacking of the XMAS presents. It's always lots of fun to watch the kids unwrap their presents and they're so excited!!
After that we got the Fondue started. It was delicious as always. My brother had done an amazing job with all the sauces. Around midnight we called it a night.
All in all a good XMAS-Eve celebration!!

Dating Game

Having to go back into the Dating Game after more than 8 years can be both... frightening and fun. For me personally it has actually been quite fun. I've been on several dates and I can only say that I did enjoy myself. Maybe the difference is the focus. Currently my focus is not so much of finding a new husband, mate or whatever you want to call it, but go on dates, hangout with guys that are laid back and fun to be around with and of course enjoy myself.
Of course I do have fun along the way and some dates are better than others. That's just the way this game is played. There is definitely a benefit to being 40. You know exactly what you want, and you know exactly what you don't want. You know how much compromises you're willing to make and you know the things that you're not willing to compromise on. That makes dating much more easy and actually a fun experience.
With that being said there is also some quite different nowadays. It seems as if the gay "community" has become as crazy as the "Hetero's". "Hetero's" always used to be kinda obsessed with finding the right mate/partner/husband. And they were always in a crazy rush. When I was dating the first time I thought, that this was incredible funny. Nowadays a large part of the gay "community" has become that way as well. It's like they've all become crazy. And it seems as they've completely forgotten, that there are certain dating rules:
Don't ask me on a second date, if I want to date exclusively. The answer will always be No! At that time of the dating game I want to enjoy myself, have fun and see where things are going.
Expecting from me, that I only date 1 person at a time is pretty ridiculous. It's a date and not a marriage!
If the Tag-Line reads: "Must Love Dogs", going on a date with me and telling me, that you "tolerate dogs", well it's not really helping your case.
In general I've found that people nowadays read less and less of the text on an online dating ad. If they did read dating ads properly, many bad dates could be avoided. On the other hand I would have never experienced a lot of very funny situations!

At the current stage of my life I'm not necessarily looking for a husband. I'm looking for guys that are laid back, bring lots of positive energy and are fun to be around with. If someone who is husband material comes along...Great!...if not I'm certainly not going to worry about that.
Right now it's all about living life to the fullest, enjoying myself and doing the things that make me happy. It's not a time where career advances and increase in salary are the main-focus, but a time where it is all about quality of life!!

Other than that, the dating game has been quite a lot of fun so far!!

First Snow Dusting

Tonight we got our first snow dusting of the season. I certainly wasn't much, but the first snow is always fun!!

Hall Pass

Today I finally watched the movie 'Hall Pass'. If you don't know what movie I am talking about, just check out the IMDB Site of 'Hall Pass".
Here are my thoughts on that movie:
Yep it's funny, no question about it. It's a lot of situation and slapstick comedy. There are situations where there is way too much slapstick and very little action. In these parts I would have liked to see a little more story.
The movie deals with an interesting story, that men and women are apparently from different planets. Nothing really new about that. Men are hunters and they just help themselves, regardless if they're married or not. Some of them make it a little more obvious that other ones. That's the basic story, that they could have used a little more in a very funny way, but for some reason the writers chose to completely ignore that angle.
The chose the show the guys as clumsy wannabe lovers, who make a few inapt attempts to get a girl and of course they don't get anywhere. They show their wives having a good time. Both is way too far from reality, for me to actually care. If they hadn't tried to make men and women so likable it would have significantly improved the movie. For a successful comedy you need a couple of shady characters and 1 or 2 quite bad ones. Without those you get a movie like 'Hall Pass'. You get quite a good laugh here and there but that movie could have been an awesome comedy.
The character of Brent is the only actual bad guy in the entire movie. In the beginning he's a great addition to the plot. But then, for no apparent reason, someone thought it would be beneficial to have Brent go berserk. While there are some comedy elements in that, the entire thing is way over the top and does almost more harm to the movie then it does good.
All in all a funny movie and I did enjoy it. On a scale of 1 to 10 I probably would give it a 4.5!!

Our Idiot Brother

Finally got around to watching the movie 'Our Idiot Brother'. If you don't have the slightest idea what movie I'm talking about, check out the IMDB Site of 'Our Idiot Brother'.
Here are my thoughts: I absolutely loved that movie. It's one of those fun & feel good movies, that come along every now and then. This movie does what very few do: It deals with family values, acceptance and tolerance.
Paul Rudd plays the naive, idealistic 'simpleton' perfectly. The term simpleton is here not used in a negative way, i just couldn't come up with a better analogy. The character feels always real, there is nothing artificial about him. He understands things literally and that leads to a lot of absolutely hilarious situations. Of course there are several situation, where you think: "Come on, nobody can be that naive". But that is a very minor issue, that I can overlook very easily. What I really liked about the movie, is that the character stays the same. It's not like so many of the Hollywood movies, who force the character of the naive simpleton to grow up in the end. The end of the movie is fun, since we're left with a little of a guessing game about the sexuality of Paul Rudd's character: Is he straight, is he gay or is he bisexual ? We don't find out for sure. 
The dynamic between Ned and his sisters is an interesting one. Of course he's an inconvenience for them and therefore he moves from sister to sister. But in the end he changes the behavior of his sisters to the better. The anger scene was pure entertainment to watch! Even a easy going, naive 'Hippie' can blow up. You don't see many Hollywood movies that deal with family values and use the F-word that much. Absolutely loved it!!
The character of Janet is an interesting one: It shows that there actually is such a thing as a really evil "Hippie" woman...and Kathryn Hahn portrays that character perfectly. It's one of those characters that you just love to hate. 
The outtake and bloopers reel during the credits is just fun to watch.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give this movie a 9.5!!

XMAS Cookies

Usually I bake every XMAS at least one or two batches of cookies. This year I really fell behind on that. Not entirely sure what was the reason for that. Today I finally got around to dealing with the cookies. I set up my KitchenAid Mixer and started preparing the the dough. Didn't expect any issues at all, since I've used that recipe lots of times before. Boy, was I wrong! The dough never got the consistence that it was supposed to have. I knew that I couldn't have screwed up the recipe, since I stuck to it line by line. But then it dawned on me, that this was a recipe for regular flower and the flower I had at my disposal was Whole Wheat Flower. So I ended up adding some more milk to it and finally the dough became a 'workable' thing. It still didn't have the perfect consistency, but it was better than what I had before.
After the dough had rested I hit hurdle number 2. That dough was just really sticking to the rolling pin. No amount of flour did fix that issue. After a couple of failed attempts, I was left with 2 options: I could either throw the dough away or I could become creative. So I chose the latter one. Instead of rolling the dough out I just flattened it by hand and then pounded it out. That actually worked surprisingly well. After that the baking adventure was pretty uneventful.

Just Go With It

I finally watched the movie 'Just Go With It'. If you want to know more about it check out then 'Just Go With It' IMDB Page.
Well I knew it was a romantic comedy. Do I really didn't expect any insightful dialogues, character development or action sequences. If I wanted those I should better watch a different movie. That's why I don't get all the negative reviews. Yes the material was weak and pretty diluted to begin with. I mean the broadway piece 'Cactus Flower' was already very weak and making that into a movie is not going to help with the material.
There are some things that are a little bothersome. The entire scene that is supposed to be in Beverly Hills,is clearly a movie set. Nothing could be more obvious. The passerby's are clearly extras. I don't recall any movies where that were that apparent. 
The scene at the beach...Having lived in SoCal for 8 years myself, I know exactly where that was shot. This particular location has been way overused and they really should think about new and different locations for the future. 
The characters are of your average romantic comedy Hollywood boilerplate. So there is not much surprise here. Yes the characters have no depth and neither of the actors really tries to give them any. What I would have loved to see is that someone had tried to put a little conflict into the interaction with the characters. We wait all the way tom the end of the movie to see something like that, but it never happens. 
Nicole Kidman could have done something to make a convincing  adversary, but even she comes off as a rather sweet wannabe enemy. 
If they had tried on the dialogues a little harder they could have made those quite funny and therefore making that a way more enjoyable experience. The writers only managed to do that in a few isolated situations. Other than that the dialogue is pretty flat.
With all that bring said, I still think that it was a entertaining movie. It certainly not one of my favorite ones, but to be fair I've seen worse.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it a 4!!

Super 8

Finally got around to watching Super 8. If you don't have a clue what movie I'm talking about check out the IMDB Site of Super 8.
Overall I really enjoyed it. The entire train crash scene was absolutely amazing. Really loved the SFX. The kids are portrayed very well. They feel real and act the way kids are supposed to act. I love the movie in the movie. It's just fun to watch. All the preoccupation with production procedures gave me several laughs. 
The adult characters come a little short for my feeling. The lack somewhat in depth. Maybe adding a little more of their background story would have improved their depth. 
I really liked all the supernatural elements. And as soon as the Air Force showed up I knew, that they wouldn't be leaving soon. The entire revelation of the alien life form was fun to watch, but I think it went by a little too quick. Up to that point it was fine. The entire 180 degree turnaround in the behavior of the Sheriff and Alice' father is just a little to quick, to come off as even remotely believable. If you want to do something like that you have to come up with a more plausible explanation as the one we were given in the movie.
The entire encounter with the alien life form at the end couldn't have been any more ET. 
When I was watching the very last scene of the movie, I couldn't help myself but thinking that someone tried to copy the final scene of the TNG episode 'Encounter at Farpoint', but didn't quite manage to get it right.
All in all a very good action / scifi movie. There are a few minor issue, that have mostly to do with continuity, that I can easily overlook. 
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it a 7!!

World Aids Day

Thanksgiving

Well this is the first year that I didn't celebrate Thanksgiving. Firs I thought it wouldn't matter at all. Turns out that I was actually quite missing it. Never thought that living for 8 years in the States had changed me that much.
That got me thinking, that there are a ton of things that are typical Austrian & European and I think they're entirely ludicrous! Apparently living in the States has changed me way more than I initially thought. Some of those things I can't change...i will just have to learn to live with them. But there are other things that I can change...for example Thanksgiving.
From the year where I will have my new place set up I will be celebrating Thanksgiving as well.

Rio

Today I finally got around to watching Rio. For those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about, check out the IMDB Page of Rio.
The story in itself isn't something particularly new. It's a story about friendship, love and courage and does an adequate job to carry the plot along.
In an animated feature I really don't expect sophisticated character development or excellent dialogue. I expect a pretty straight forward story with a few twists and turns. And here the movie delivered all I was expecting. On top of that there are times when the dialogue is quite funny actually. The fact that Blu, one of the main characters, is a bit of a brainiac and nerd leads to lot of slapstick moments. There are times when Blu comes off as a little bit of a coward, but in the end he redeems himself by freeing Jewel and using his 'nerd power' to accomplish that.
The only way to describe the animation is amazing. The effects are crisp, clear and outstanding. Some of the flying scenes are absolutely incredible and very well planned through. The color scheme is vibrant and alive and the music does an awesome job supporting the animation. That taken all together make for a great audio-visual experience.
On a scale of 1 to 10' I would give this movie a 9!!

Pirates of the Caribbean 4

Today I finally got around the watch the fourth installment of the pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
For those of you who don't have a clue what I'm talking about check out the IMDB Page of Pirates of the Caribbean 4 for a synopsis!
It's a typical 'Pirates' movie. Funny, compelling story and lots of great action scenes. Right at the beginning Johnny Depp impersonating a british judgen is definitely quite funny. Shortly after that we learn that someone is trying to recruit a crew by impersonating Captain Jack Sparrow. Turns out this one is Penelope Cruz in disguise.  Really thought that this twist was a cool idea.
This time there is no epic sea battle. Blackbeard is an ok character but his role is definitely being outplayed by Depp and Cruz. The fight scenes on board are fun to watch and they're very well planned out. Personally I would have loved to see more great sword fight scenes.
The entire battle is with the mermaids is very well planned and just fun to watch. A hot, shirtless cleric was a bit a surprise and definitely down my alley! That in the end the cleric was going to fall for the mermaid was pretty much a given.
The scene of infiltrating the Spanish camp was quite comical actually. Johnny Depp's quite inventive escape from the camp, was just a fun action scene to watch. The entire scene with the fountain of youth was ok and Johnny Depp gave another great performance as a goofball of a pirate. That Blackbeard dies in the end doesn't come really as a surprise and neither does that Penelope Cruz survives. During the credits we had the setup for the next installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, and everyone who did watch the previous movies did expect exactly that.
So all in all it's a very entertaining 'Pirates' movie. Loved the well planned action scenes. The SFX were outstanding, the story consistent and fairly fast paced. The general plot is exactly what we have gotten used to, when watching a 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movie. Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz give an outstanding performance. It's your typical fun, action packed popcorn movie.
In a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best, I would give it a solid 9!!

A Fall Hike to Aggstein Castle

Today I decided to take Daisy for fall hike. Since it was pretty foggy in the valleys, there was a chance that in the lower foothills you are already out of the fog. So I chose a fairly short hike, about 2 1/2 hours total. We hike from Maria Langegg to Ruine Aggstein (Aggstein Castle).
This is a fairly easy hike and there really isn't much difference in elevation. But it definitely is a great hike through the forest and especially in fall the forest make for beautiful hikes. I just love the fall colors of the forest. Daisy was doing very well during the hike and had a tons of fun with all the different smells and scents.
When we finally made it to Aggstein we could have had a great view of the Danube Valley, but there was still a lot of lingering fog and so the view wasn't that impressive. On the other hand, that really wasn't the main reason for the hike. I chose not to visit the castle, since I didn't feel like paying 5 bucks entrance fee and I've been to that castle several times already.
So Daisy and I just hung out for some time in the sun and then headed back to Maria Langegg. After a fairly late lunch, it was already 3 pm, we headed back to my parents.

A Visit to Sto'Vo'Kor

Today my parents re going to Styria to visit the graves of some family members on my Mom's side of the family. They had asked me to join them since my Dad didn't want to drive back home at night. I agreed to join them, not because I particularly care about the custom of visiting graves on November 1st, but it also provided the possibility to meet some of my relatives that I haven't seen in about 10 years.
We left at my parents around 10 am and picked up my aunt Erna in Mürzzuschlag at about 11.30 am. After some catching up we continued to pick up my aunt Lisl at Krieglach and headed to the nursing home in Mitterdorf to visit my aunt Mizzi. After that we had lunch at a restaurant. Took quite some time for the food to get ready, but early enough to make it in time to the cemetery. And that bring us to the title of the post. In the Klingon belief system Sto'Vo'Kor is the place of the honored dead. If you were to ask an Austrian kid in Elementary school where the honored dead are, you probably get as answer: on the cemetery.
We went to he grave of my uncle and met up with my uncle Adi and my cousins Resi, Dorli and Stefan. I haven't seen my cousin Stefan in at least 25 years...if not longer. Then the 'fun' thing with the service on the cemetery started. I really had to pay close attention not to start laughing. I haven't heard anyone trying to convince himself with of his faith with pseudo arguments in a very long time. Of course the Vernon was entirely ludicrous, but actually quite entertaining. After the priest had finished we visited the graves of my uncles Willi and Otto, before heading over to my cousins house for some coffee. We spent about 2 hours there catching up.
While hanging out with my relatives it occurred to me how different the guys on my Mom's side of the family are compared to those of the guys on my Dad's side if the family. The first one are laid back, easygoing and fun to be around with...the latter one not so much, they're kinda stuffy and always tend to look for the needle in the haystack. When I look at myself I do realize that I definitely have both traits and I think that I manage to keep a reasonable balance between the 2 sides. So having been away for over 8 years has definitely its benefits, as you get completely new insights into your own family.
Around 6 pm we said our good byes and dropped of my 2 aunts before heading back home. Halfway through the drive home we stopped at a restaurant to have dinner and by about 9.30 pm we were back at my parents.
So all in all it was a quite enjoyable day and catching up with relatives was quite fun.

Road Trip..

Today I had to get up early...around 6 am to get ready to head out for a road trip. The entire thing started to shape up on Thursday. My brother-in-law called to ask me if I could do him the favor of picking up his grandparents from their hotel in Filzmoos and drive them with their car back to Vienna. The reason was that his grandparents didn't feel so hot and didn't think they could manage to that themselves. Bernd couldn't do it himself either since he, my sis and her family were leaving for a vacation on Friday morning. So I agreed to the entire thing.
On Saturday I had figured out which train to take and had arranged for the hotel to pick my up at the train station in Bischofshofen. The first part of the train ride, from St. Poelten to Salzburg went by in no time at all. Took only 2 hours. The weather wasn't particularly fun. Fog and nothing but fog...a typical thing in Austria during fall. Once we got the city of Salzburg the fog disappeared and it was a sunny and beautiful fall day. I had a 15 minute layover, then me connecting train arrived. The second part took about 45 minutes for 50 miles...and that's rather slow. I got off the train and found my ride to the hotel and arrived there around 11.45 am.
I met up with Bernd's grandparents and we left right away. I couldn't find an open gas station at their vacation destination, so I chose to fill up the car at a gas station on the freeway. The first option to do that was 1 mile after I had gotten onto the freeway. We then continued on the freeway towards Vienna. There really wasn't much traffic at all. Halfway through the trip we tok a lunch break Nd then continued towards Vienna. We got there around 4 pm. I helped them with their stuff and then we sId our good byes. I headed over to Central Station. When I got there I got my ticket right away and was prepared to wait for 1 hour for the next train. Turns out that the next train was about to leave in 15 minutes. So I got onto the train and headed back to my parents.
After 11 hours and 550 miles this road trip came to an end. The grandparents of my brother-in-law are back at their apartment safe and sound and I had a quite enjoyable road trip.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

I finally got around to watching Transformers 3. I'm not going to write a synopsis or a plot description. There are people out there that do that for a living. For those of you who don't hive a clue what movie I am talking about, check out the IMDB Page of Transformers 3.
Here are my thoughts about this movie:
Let's start with the good stuff. It's another typical Michael Bay film. The action scenes are well planned through and quite amazing. Love all the great SFX...and there are a ton of those. Those effects satisfy a lot what I expect from a SiFi inspired Action Movie.
Let's move onto the things that just don't work for me. Whoever chose to replace Megan Fox with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley had to be entirely out of his mind. I'm not saying she's a bad actress, but she and Shia LaBeouf have absolutely no chemistry at all. That pretty much kills that part of the plot. There 'love story' comes of as completely artificial, fake and cheesy. Of all the movies I have seen in my entire life, that has to be the worst chemistry between 2 actors!
The next thing that is quite bothersome is the need to anchor the plot by using real historical events in order to kinda rationalize the existence of the movie. That really seems to be a trend lately and it is quite annoying. I don't need to rationally set up the plot of an action movie by using historical events. After all it's a action movie and not and documentary. The Transformers crashed on the moon. Good...let's start from there. There would have been absolutely no need to sprinkle lots of conspiracy theory over it.
The entire subplot with the job search is kinda insulting my intelligence. Michael Bay needs to get a grip of reality. Someone saves the entire planet from destruction, gets awarded a 'hero medal' and has a problem of finding a job? People get back to reality..that's just not the way it works in real life. I do realize that it was just done to set up the coming events...but there had to be a better way to do that.
The dialogue has no particular style or whit except when Malkovich adds his own spin. But other than that I had the feeling with the dialogues throughout the movie, that nobody really took the time to pay close attention to them and actually  tried to develop them. A little less SFX and a little more time spent on dialogue would have quite been an improvement.
Beings as technologically advance as the Decepticons not realizing that the Autobots haven't left...well, I'm just not buying it. That they need visual confirmation of the Autobots leaving by Sam, well that's just bad writing.
I did love the battle scenes, as they're well planned out and quite fun to watch. A Transformer cutting a building in half and it's slowly tilting over, while the humans try to escape. Please people get real. Transformers or not, on this planet the laws of physics still apply. A building cut in half doesn't just slowly tilt over on land on another building creating a 'fairly stable' bridge, while allowing the humans to escape fairly easy. In the future Michael Bay would be well advised to not entirely negate the laws of physics. Another very funny thing is the lowering on the bridges. Here Michael Bay really should have done his research. You can't remotely lower the bridges by using the Internet. That's just not the way it works. If it did, every hacker would constantly be doing that.
The entire Optimus 'love story' for America is so fake and so cheesy, that it should have never ever been in the movie to begin with and it doesn't do anything to the plot at all!
Moving on to the final battle scene...Absolutely loved it!! I would have loved to have gotten an explanation why the  chose Chicago as their hub to bring Cybertron to Earth. They subplot of Sentinel's exact reasoning for betraying Optimus and how he intends to control the Decepticons isn't being not explored at all. Exploring that subplot would have given the movie way more depth.
Sam's girlfriend has one job in the movie: to look pretty. Here on line towards the end of the last beetle scene comes off as particularly fake and cheesy. Maybe it's just me but for being a superhero Shia certainly doesn't play much of a roll for the first 2/3's of the movie.
In general there was a disconnect between the action parts of the movie and those parts that should set up the action scenes. While the action scenes move along almost at the speed of light, the scenes setting up the action scenes stand out as being particularly slow. In my opinion that was quite annoying throughout the entire movie. A little less speed during the action scenes and a little more speed during the scenes setting up the action sequences would have made this a more enjoyable movie experience. In my personal opinion this the the weakest movie of the Transformer Franchise so far.
With all that being said, I still think it's a great action movie with stunning visual effects. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it a 6.8!!

Green Lantern

Today I finally got around to watch 'Green Lantern'. I'm not going to write a synopsis about it, since there are people out there that are doing a way better job with that. For the synopsis check out the IMDB Page of the Green Lantern.
Here are my thoughts on that movie:
I really enjoyed it a lot. It was an equally great superhero movie as Thor. The story is easy, straight forward and there ares no surprising twists and turns in the plot. The movie moves along at a quite fast paste. They don't spend too much time trying to explain how e.g. flying in space works. And that's actually a good thing. They explain it exactly as  and in easy to understand terms, as it is necessary for the plot. You put a ring on your finger, you imagine what's supposed to happen and Bam...there you have the effect. Very easy but also very effective explained and exactly the way every kid would imagine it. I really did enjoy that explanation.
What maybe is a little too easy is the way people are used to aliens, as if the alien itself and its implications were no big deal at all. Considering that this is a superhero movie and not about humans coming to terms, that there are aliens out there, it does a pretty decent job.
Absolutely loved all the SFX. they were just amazing. It was a fast paced 'lightening show' of effects. Absolutely loved how crisp the colors looked. Especially the hue of the green was very impressive! Parallax is not only very well imagined but also a perfect representation of a pure evil villain. The seven where Parallax chases after people and the people flee in pure panic towards the camera, while skyscrapers are toppling in the background is action movie making at its finest and I really didn't expect seeing anything like that in a US movie that soon.
Peter Sarsgaard plays the scientist Hector Hammond brilliantly. The sub-plot about Hectors mind reading ability is not developed very well and I would have loved to see it explored in more depth.
That in the end good triumphs over evil is not really a big surprise. Neither is the fact that the superhero gets to kiss the girl. There is something here that did bother me a little. It's the fact, that Hal doesn't even remotely try to conceal his true identity. As far as I understand superheroes that should be one of their most important tasks. The scene where Hal gets the girl and is surprised that she immediately realizes who he is, is kinda goofy.
I really liked the scene at the end where they're already setting up a sequel. All in all it is a fun, fast paced action movie and I enjoyed it a lot. It has all what I expect from an action movie: Easy story, great action scenes and amazing special effects. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it a 8!!

A relaxing Saturday

Today I decided to have one of those relaxing Saturday's. My parents were gone hiking. Sine my shoulder was hurting I didn't think it would have been a smart move to join them. On the other hand mi enjoy those relaxing Saturdays and having the entire house to myself...that's always a great 'Harry Time'. It also gave me time to catch up and some reading that I had fallen behind on. Next up was Ep. 'Revisited No. 1' of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. Once I had finished it was time to get some lunch started.  Had Porcini Noodles with Green Beans and Carrots in 'my special' light Veggie Sauce. After lunch I took Daisy for an extended walk. After we got back I watched Ep.'Air Apparent' of CSI New York and then sneak peak of 'Grimm', which will be premiering next Saturday on NBC. Absolutely loved the sneak peak. Definitely looking forward the Ep. 1. Shortly after I finished watching the sneak peak my parents got back from their hike and it was time for dinner.  Next up was Ep. 'Luigi's' of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. After that I headed out to the local bar. Since they were having a special event the next day..it wasn't that entertaining. So after 1 had finished with my large beer I headed back home. It was still fairly early in the evening, so I started watching the Green Lantern on my iPad. I'll be talking a little more about this movie in a separate Blog Post.

Moving Abroad ???

That title and it's implications may come to some as a surprise. Those who really know me, they shouldn't be shocked at all.
When I decided to move back to Austria in March, it certainly wasn't my first choice. I would have much rather moved to the UK or Germany instead. But planning a full-scale move, preparing the move for the dog, having a new version of certain government documents issued, looking for work and a place to live...and all of that at the same time, well that was a task I didn't particularly want to take on. So moving back to Austria just seemed to be the easier and more practical thing to do.
I like my "home country", it's a fun place to spend your vacation...but living there is an entirely different thing. Maybe I've really lived too long abroad, but Austria and I are not exactly what you would call a match made in heaven. You could make it work by forth, but it will never ever be a really good fit. It's almost like putting square tires on a pickup truck! For me this country is just too small and I'm not talking about its size. I'm talking about the points of view of its citizens. They think of things within a framework that is way too small and way too confiningfor my taste. They just can't think outside the box. Many things are way too over regulated for my taste. Too much governmental interference and too little individualism. And things move quite slowly here...that doesn't mean that people are lazy, it's just the mentality of the people...and it drives me crazy at times!! It just doesn't work on so many levels for me! On the other hand it has always been that way. Apparently I've been way too much Americanized, to continue dealing with that!
Of course there is a personal side to that as well. Starting over in a city like Vienna is not exactly what I would call a clean slate and a new beginning. Besides that Vienna has kinda lost it's appeal for me. That city just isn't exciting anymore. It has become rather dull and boring. Trying to make that work doesn't seem like the right decision...after all I'm no longer the same person that left Vienna over 8 years ago.
What I need is a clean slate and a fresh start in a world city. Currently I'm leaning much more towards moving to the UK. London busy and exciting, it's a world city and one major financial center in Europe. This is exactly what makes it interesting to me from a professional point of view. Of course I'm not hang up on London, I use it as a synonym for all larger meteropolean areas. Right now I'm looking mostly for work in the UK and Germany as well. Of course I'm also keeping my eyes out for temp jobs in Austria, since that move might not happen that quickly. My current timeframe is roughly summer 2012 for that to happen. On the other hand it could be that this is going to happen way quicker than anyone expects. You just never know!! It's definitely something that I'm looking forward to. It would be a new beginning, a different culture and a different experience. Nothing is set in stone yet, but stay tuned on how things are going with that endeavor!

iOS5

This weekend I got the chance to play around with iOS5 on the iPad. Here are my thoughts about it: It's definitely a shiny packaging and a sleek look. Some of the added features I did already have via Thrid-Party Apps. Therefore they're not impressing me that much.

• What is a nice plus is the improved Notifications, as the old system of pop-ups was really annoying.  
• iMessage is overall an improvement, but that it only works on iOS devices is definitely a big disappointment! 
• The Camera App has been improved, but overall doesn't do too much for my taste. 
• The Newsstand is an entirely pointless feature for me and I really could live without it! 
• The Twitter Integration is nice an overall improvement.  
• The revamp of Safari is OK. They added a couple of nice and quite helpful features. The Tabs in the browser are not one of them. They're absolutely terrible and make the way I work way more difficult! 
• The News Reminder App is definitely a very helpful, great new feature. 
• I really couldn't care less about the Mail App, since I don't use it to begin with! 
• That no longer a PC is required to set up the device is one of the biggest improvements of the entire software update. 
• The new Game Center doesn't do anything for me, while synchronizing iTunes via wifi is a nice feature. 
• One of the core issues of iCal still hasn't been addressed. The way you set up recurring events is as ridiculous as in the previous version.  

This software update brought some improvements. On the other hand there are still some core issues that have mot been addressed at all. Considering the hype they built up for the software update and what it actually turned out to be, I would have to say that it is rather a disappointment. On a scale of 1 to 5 - with one being the worst and 5 being the best - I probably would give it a 2.5!

End of an Era...

This Blog Post is not about the introduction of the IOS5 or the death of Steve Jobs...this here is way mor personal. 
I used to be an absolute fan of Apple products. The important words in this sentence are 'used to'. But lately Apple products just seems to loose their appeal. They just don't make me that excited as when I got my first Apple device. It was a used iPod. For me that was the coolest thing ever. In 2005 I got my first iMac and was absolutely in love with that thing. It looked amazing and it's performance was absolutely outstanding. It let me work the way I wanted to work on a computer without having to follow the strict guidelines that some programmer thought I should follow. The working surface and the interface was clean and intuitive. The applications ran fast, without any bugs and were just fun to work with. A system crash was a very rare occasion. Very rarely you had to deal with system updates. That iMac made me the creative guy that I'm today. It let me do what I wanted to do: Create content without having to worry about what the thing was doing in the background. I enjoyed every minute of it. That way I got into creating websites, telling photo-stories and finally editing amateur video of semi-professional quality. Whatever I threw at the iMac and OS Tiger they could handle it all. I never ever had any regrets of having paid 2 Grand for my iMac.
So far that almost sounds like a love letter to Apple. Then came that faithful day in 2007 when all started to change. It was the release of OSX Leopard. At first everything seemed to be cool and awesome. That was my first impression as well. But something in the coding of the OS was definitely wrong. It started with minor system hiccups. I really didn't worry too much about that. The system hiccups continued and Apple started to release system update after system update. Well it didn't really improve the performance. Looking at it in retrospect the iMac running OS Leopard was getting more and more like a computer running Windows: in the beginning a computer running windows is fast and has no issues. But depending on the length of time and intensity you use the computer the OS accumulates lots of 'dead program trash' and that makes the computer sluggish and starts driving you out of your mind. 
As long as my iMac was running Tiger I never experienced that. But Leopard was definitely leaning into that direction. I had hoped that OS Snowleopard would address that issue...but it doesn't. I use my computer quite extensively and I throw at it lots of things...and of course I expect from the machine to deal with the requests in a timely fashion and not to drive my out of my mind. So I finally decided to wipe the iMac clean and start from scratch. Well the in the beginning it worked quite nicely with a clean installation of OS Leopard. But very soon the thing became quite sluggish again...and that can drive me crazy. Just for the fun of it I wiped OS Leopard and installed my old OS Tiger and the iMac was again in perfect working condition without ever experiencing the issues I had with Leopard. The easiest thing would have been to runTiger, but my editing software and Tiger are not exactly what you would call BFF's. My editing software runs on Tiger but gets kinda sluggish at times and that's terrible when you're edition video. So back to Leopard I went...and I really wasn't a happy camper.
I talked to friends of mine who were running OS Lion, the predecessor of Leopard. Turns out that the issues of Leopard still exist in Lion. That exactly was the point when I started to change the way I see Apple products. Macs are way more expensive than PC's running windows. I always justified that with the fact, that with a Mac I don't have the aggravation that I have with PC's. Looking at the last few OS releases, that's no longer true. The last 2 OSX cause me almost the same aggrevation, that I get from a PC running Windows, while costing me a lot more money. 
When I got my iPad I used to love that thing and I have to say it's a great piece of hardware. It really let's me do a lot of things that came especially in handy during the relocation while my iMac was traveling across the Atlantic in a container-ship. With that being said, there are quite some things that really drive me nuts when it comes to the iPad. That the iPad doesn't support Flash is absolutely laughable! The user really don't gives a rats ass if a few boys in Cupertino are sitting in their 'we hate Flash' Ivory-Tower and have entirely lost any connection with the real world. If I would have to buy a new iPad somewhere down the line and it doesn't support Flash...well then I won't be buying it! The other issues are pretty much minor ones. Like that I can't create albums in my own Photo-App or that I can't mount the iPad as storage device when connected to my computer is entirely ridiculous. After all it's my device and I should be able to do with it whatever I choose to.
I certainly not going to get rid of all my Apple products. They have just become part of my daily life. I'm definitely keeping my iMac as well and just do those things on it where the iMac does a really superb job. As long as Apple doesn't get back to coding and testing their software the way they used to, I really don't see myself buying any Apple Software any time soon. When it comes to hardware the decision is even easier. I just can't justify to spend about 1100 bucks every 2 or 3 years on a new MacBook. That's just too much money. If a buy a laptop of comparable quality it costs me 1/2 of it and I know that it will be so messed up in 3 years at the latest, that I have to toss it out. But that would be happening regardless.
If Apple should return to building outstanding and superb hardware and software again, then I will change my position again. Since I don't see any signs of that happening...well it looks like as if that journey is going to come to an end!

Hiking 'Upper Ötschergräben'

According to the weather forecast today was going to be the last warm the before a cold front is going to move in. So I decided to take advantage of that beautiful fall day and took Daisy for a hike into the 'Upper Oetschergraeben'.
It took me about 1 hour to get to the trailhead in 'Erlaufklause'. We started along a logging road and I had decided to hike in the entire logging road until it reaches the mountain hut 'SH Vorderoetscher'. What I didn't expect was, that the mountain hut was closed on that day. But that didn't stop me from doing that hike anyway. The hike is pretty easy and it takes you about 2 1/2 hours to reach 'SH Vorderoetscher'. You get some great views of 'Oetscher' and you get to experience the fall colors of the forest.
When we got to the mountain hut, we took a short rest. Daisy got something to drink and to chill out in the shade for about 1/2 hour. It was a nice surprise to find some cans of beer cooled in a kind of a animal trough. I took advantage of the offer and paid gladly the 2€ for the beer. Up till here we had only met 4 other hikers. I really didn't expect many, since this was a weekday and fairly late into the hiking season.
After the relaxing for about 1/2 hour we started with the descend into the 'Upper Oetschergraeben'. You have to hike down for about 1/2 hour through one of the side-canyons. Since there were that few hikers I decided to let Daisy hike off leash. She really enjoyed that quite a lot and it wasn't a problem since I know that Daisy doesn't go running of and she doesn't chase wildlife either. About halfway down the side-canyon we met 2 more hikers, but Daisy didn't pay any attention to them..she was busy drinking out of s creek. We continued down the side-canyon and pretty soon reached to main-canyon.
The main canyon is a quite narrow trail, sometimes high above the river, but absolutely beautiful to hike. I didn't expect Daisy to have any issues, but I did watch her in the beginning, just in case she should be a little unsure about the trail. For her that was no big deal, she acted as if she had done that her entire life. The further downriver you get, the broader the trail gets. We passed 'Mira Fall' that almost had no water at all and about 1/2 later we reached a snack place called 'Oetscherhias'. By the time we got there the snack place had already closed for the day. So we just stopped to have something to drink, before starting to hike out of the canyon. By about 6 pm we were back at the car.
It was s great and beautiful fall hike and it took us about 5 1/2 hours to complete the entire hike. Daisy has been hiking exceptionally well the past few weeks and she definitely had a blast checking out all the different smells and scents. And of course she got to do here new favorite thing: walking through creeks and drinking out of them. That's something she picked up when she got to Austria!
You can check out more pix of that hike in the photo-album 'Upper Ötschergräben' on my FaceBook Page!!

Hiking 'Unterberg'

Today was another beautiful fall day and I chose to take advantage of it before this high pressure ridge collapses. I decided to take Daisy for a hike to 'Unterberg'. I chose one of the longer hiking trails and started from a place called 'Dürrholzer Kreuz'. You start at an elevation of 2395 feet.
First the trail follows one of the logging roads. The forest was showing its beautiful fall colors and the air was fresh and cool...someone might even call it chilly. I really enjoy the weather in fall for hikes. After probably 15 minutes the trail leaves the logging road and leads slowly uphill in a mountain flank. There are no steep ascends, it's all very moderate. After about 30 minutes the trail starts to get steeper and you hike through a fairly steep wooded mountain flank. Then follows again a more moderate part. The last part is then fairly steep again where the trail goes through the rocky part of the mountain flank. After about 2 hours you reach a place called 'Blochboden'.
From here you could hike over to the 'Unterberg Haus' in about 30 minutes. But I chose to hike over the summit. The trail leads mostly over grassy hills and is mostly very moderate. Only once you reach the top part of the summit it gets steeper. The summit is about 4402 feet. Certainly not the most impressive mountain, but you have a great view of the surrounding foothills. Daisy and I spent about 20 minutes up there before heading down to 'Unterberg Haus'. The trail leads pretty much in an almost straight line down a fairly steep grassy slope. I certainly won't add the trail from the summit to 'Unterberg Haus' to my top 100 favorite trails.
We took a lunch break at 'Unterberg Haus' and Daisy got to socialize with dog of the mountain hut. Those two guys really hit it off!!  After about 1 hour we had to leave and made our way back to 'Blochboden'. Daisy didn't have any problems at all in the steep parts. It's like as if she had been doing that her entire life. By about 6 pm we had it made back to the car.   The hiking time of 5 1/2 hours were absolutely no problem for my 'cowdog'.
All in all it was a great Fall Hike and Daisy had tons of fun!!
You can check out more pix of this hike in the photo-album 'Unterberg, 2011' on my Facebook Page!!

Hiking 'Treffling Fall'

Today was another beautiful fall day. Since I did have the time I decided to take Daisy for hike to 'Trefflingfall' in the foothills. My parents decided to join me as well.
The trailhead is about a 1 hour drive from my parents and we made it to the trail by 11.30 am. It's a fairly easy trail and a great choice for a fall hike. The trail starts out along the river 'Erlauf' and leads for about 30 minutes through mostly forest. This is just fun to hike and Daisy especially had a blast in the forest. You continue to walk quite close along the river. Suddenly you reach a formation called 'Teufekskirche' (Devils Church), a place of worship for Satanists....LOL, I'm just kidding!! It's just an interesting rock formation. Shortly thereafter we reached a bridge and had to cross to the other side of the river. Daisy didn't have any issues with that. Now you hike continuously along the river. Sometimes the trail is quite narrow and right next to the river and sometimes it leads for a little while Thoth the forest. Suddenly you see a few houses in the middle of the forest. They seem entirely out of place. You continue for quite a while to a rock formation call 'Toreck', where the river hike changes a canyon hike. You continue to walk high above the river and suddenly you reach the beginning of 'Trefflingfall'. Well it might not be the most impressive waterfall, but it's definitely a very beautiful one. I got several great pix of the waterfall and the started to hike up pretty much next to the waterfall. At one spot you can literally stand right next to the waterfall. Daisy didn't seem to impressed by that at all. She was way more interested in the smells of the forest. The trail loops back and forth in a flank next the waterfall and Daisy got a couple of times get a little confused which direction to go.
Shortly after that you have to cross the a bridge to the other side of the valley. You get an impressive view of the waterfall. Again Daisy wasn't particularly impressed by that either. On the other side of the valley you have to hike up in step rock flank. It's not technically difficult since it is secured with a handrail and the steps in the rock, which creates a staircase, are quite helpful as well. It takes you about 1/2 hour to get to the steep part of the flank, followed by another 1/2 hour hike through the upper 'Treffling Valley' until you get to 'Trefflingtaler Haus', where the hike ends. We had lunch there and relaxed for about 1 hour before heading back. Before we left Daisy socialized a little with a small Maltese and they seemed to get along well with each other. We started to hike the same trail that we came and Daisy didn't have any issues with going down the stairs.  She seems to be a natural when it comes to that. Never even looked at me for advice, just was doing her thing as if she had been doing that all her life long. By about 6 pm we had made it back go the car.
All in all it was a beautiful and great fall hike and Daisy enjoyed herself a lot!
You can check out more pix of that hike in the Photo-Album 'Trefflingfall, 2011' on my Facebook Page!!

Google Plus iPad App

Today I downloaded the App for GooglePlus, that had been added to the App Store on Sept. 23 and supports now iPad's as well. Here are my thoughts about this App:
Once you open the App you're greeted by the sign-in screen. The one thing that did bother my right from the beginning is the fact the change between landscape and portrait orientation doesn't work. It's not a big deal but definitely annoying. 
After you have signed in you're greeted by the G+ Overview Screen, that gives you access to your Settings, Stream, Messenger, Photos, Profile and Circles. On the bottom you have a status bar letting you you if you have any notifications. So far this screen looks exactly the same way as the Android App.

Let's take a closer look at the settings tab:

This is the place to go if you want to sign out of the App. 

The next tab are Push Notifications. In essence it let's you decide when you what to be notified about mentions, shares & comments. You can also set when you want to be notified if someone added you to their circles, tags and comments on photos of you. It allows you to specify if you want be notified if someone comments on post after you've already commented. The default settings seem to do here a good job...not quite sure if you end up with a notification overload if you were to turn on all notifications. I guess only future will tell.

The next tab are Streams. Circles, Incoming and Nearby are selected by default. Here you can change the views around. 

The Messenger tab let's you choose who can IM you. You have the choice between Everyone, Extended Circles and Your Circles.

The last tab gives you access to Help, Feedback, Privacy Policy and TOS.

All in all the Settings Interface is clear, uncluttered and straight forward.

In the Stream you can side swipe through all the Views that you have selected in the Settings. Quite a nice feature. Here you can also check into Places and write your Posts. The Post-Tab is straight forward. It let's you add your current location to the post and gives the choice between taking a pic with your iPad camera or choose one stored on your iPad  and of course it let's you choose which of your circles you want to share it with. It doesn't allow you however to record a video status update and post it right away. This is a feature I would love to see in a future release of this App. 
The fact that you still don't have a reasonable good way of posting Links besides 'copy and paste' is a big disappointment!! I'm not talking about adding a 'text link', I'm talking about pulling the link feed and adding top Pic, Avatar or Icon with a small excerpt of the Article automatically to the post.

The Messenger tab contains the Instant Messenger. It is pretty straight forward and that's all there is to that tab.

The Photo-Tab is exactly what one expects. It houses all your Photos,  all your pix, if you have a Blog with Blogspot, all the photos from your Circles and if you have a Google Phone (like the Nexus S) it also holds all the pix that have automatically been added via instant upload from your phone. The top tab let's you take new pix with your iPad camera and gives you access to the pix stored on your iPad.

The Profile-Tab gives you the option to change your Profile Pic with a pic associated with your G+ Account, take a new one with your iPad camera or choose a pic stored on your iPad. This is a huge improvement compared to the mobile version of G+, that didn't give you that option.
The About-Tab in the bottom status bar contains your personal Info and let's someone send an email to the owner of the Profile. Is the same as in the mobile version of G+.
The next 2 Tabs give access to your Posts and Photos.

Once you open the Circles you find 2 top Tabs. 'People' view shows everyone in your circles in alphabetical order. If you tab on a name you can change which circle this person is associated with and it gives you access to that users profile. The 'Circles' view shows your contacts sorted by circles and gives you access the the same information as in 'People' view. In 'People' view you have an additional tab at the bottom that offers you a list of suggested people.

All in all a great App and a huge improvement over the mobile version of G+!! If I had to rate that App I would give it a 3.8 on a scale of 1 to 5.  My main complaints are that the Link Sharing needs to be optimized in order to pull the Link Feed automatically and that this App still doesn't give me the option to share certain G+ content with other social networks. Fixing the page orientation issue and integrating the iPad video cam into the App would be nice, but isn't essential for me.

Hiking 'Hegerberg'

Today was other beautiful fall day and I decided to take Daisy for a hike. My parents chose to join me. I wanted to hike from 'Stollberg' to 'Hegerberg'. The way I remembered it is, that it was about 2 hour hike along a ridge in the foothills.
Well memory is s funny thing. I remembered the hiking time right, but the trail that's an e entirely different story. First of all the trail only follows the ridge line at the end of the hike. You have to hike actually quite far down into the valley and then hike back up to the ridge. Well, that's nothing unusual in the foothills but having to hike the first hour completely on a paved, rural road that's just no fun. It's not the traffic as there was barely any, but hiking on a paved road is just no fun. Once you get of the road it's a fun hike through the forest and along the ridge line and Daisy really enjoyed it. After about 2 hours we reached the 'Johann Enzinger Haus' and had lunch there.
After relaxing for about 1 hour we headed back to the car. All was fine until we hit the paved road again. While hiking down it didn't even realize how far down that was. You do realize that, once you have to hike it all back up again. Having to do that on paved road no fun at all. While hiking back it occurred to me, that I could have parked the car where the trail leaves the road. OK, that reduces the hiking time by a out 1 hour, but it least you don't have to hike the paved road and the forest and ridge line hike are a fun hike.
Once o got home I checked with one of the older trail maps and it turns out that the trail always went that far down. Can't really say that I remember that. The only reason why I thought that you only hike on paved road for about 15 minutes is, that the last time I hiked that trail the road hadn't been paved..and that of course makes a hike feel quite differently.
Besides the paved road it was a fun fall hike!!
You can check out more pix of that hike in the photo-album 'Hiking 'Hegerberg' on my Facebook Page!!

Apollo 18

Today I finally got around to watching Apollo 18. Well I didn't read any of the reviews on purpose. Hadn't heard anything positive or negative either...and that's something that rarely happens. In retrospect I wish I had read those reviews before.
If you have no clue what I'm talking about, here is the synopsis of 'Apollo 18'.
Holy crap...where do I start? Well by the time the movie had ended I was happy about 1 thing...that the movie had finally ended. That was definitely a major relief! It was one of the absolute worst movies that I have seen in a very long time. On the positive side I only wasted 86 minutes!
This is one of the slowest and most boring movies I have ever seen. The characters are dull, boring and lifeless. Nobody found it worthwhile to spend even a little time to develop the characters. I can live with characters that I don't like. I never even got the chance to either like or dislike the characters, I just didn't care for them. If something bad or good happened to them it would have been of no importance.
The story really doesn't go anywhere. It moves around in circles for 86 minutes and by the time the movie ends no story has been told. You could have taken the storyline on so many different directions or shed light on it in so many different angles, but nothing of at kind ever happens. Once the movie is over you're left with the question what the point of the entire story was to begin with.
The dialogue isn't any better than the the storyline. It's dull, boring and uninteresting. Those characters have not a single interesting line. In 86 minutes that's certainly an accomplishment! Even with the the dull dialogue, giving the characters a little personality would have improved this movie immensely.
The only slightly positive feel about the movie is the static camera work and the way the surface of the moon looks like. The wannabe SFX are a bad joke and by saying so I'm trying to be nice. They're trying to do a handy cam style. That's all well and good, but it's way too much. It's too grainy, it's way too jumpy, quite distracting and annoying! Less of the handy cam style would have improved the movie!
If a were to write a recipe for that disastrous movie it probably sound something like that: Take 80 minutes of story that goes nowhere, add some dull and lifeless characters, add boring dialogue really bad SFX, season with a little 'Alien' and 'Paranormal Activity' and in the end sprinkle some Stanley Kubrick over it and hope that something remotely tolerable emerges.
By the time the movie was over I was relieved it had finally ended. I was thinking that I haven't seen anything that bad in a very long time. Even cheesy Saturday SyFy movies are way better than this movie. How anyone could believe that a movie this bad belongs in a movie theatre is beyond my comprehension. I came very close to shut the movie of on several occasions. Luckily I watched it as a torrent. If I had seen that in a movie theatre I would have been pissed that I spent 10+ bucks on a movie like that and I might have even walked out. In order for that to happen a movie has to be exceptionally bad!! On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best, I would have to give it a -5!!
Definitely a absolute DISLIKE!!