Coping with someone being far away

My friend Daniel has gone to Australia today for 5 weeks to see his sister, I am here in snowy and cold Austria, and it is indeed a big challenge for me not to think about his surroundings, the sea, hot weather, amazing animals, plants, a completely different world. But on the other hand it says, the decision is left with me, actually I dont have to be sad about this, I could take the plane to Australia tomorrow if this is my decision. So there is no need to be sad about a certain circumstance, it all lies within your possibilities to change your presence if you are not satisfied with it. So I have decided to be happy for Daniel, as he deserves to have a great time, and for my part, I am looking forward to the pictures and stories to be a small part of it.. 

Tony Takitani by Haruki Murakami

Murakami is one of my favourite writers. Last night I saw a movie by him in the cinema, a very special one.
Based on a Haruki Murakami short story, Tony Takitani is a dreamlike and evocative meditation on loneliness. Left to bring himself up by his touring musician father, Tony's solitude lasts well into middle age, when he suddenly falls for and marries the fashion-obsessed Eiko. When she dies in a car accident, however, her roomful of clothes become a mausoleum for his shortlived happiness. Muted and idiosyncratic, Jun Ichikawa's film is nonetheless an exquisite work.
It feels captivatingly like a short story, and very much a Murakami one. The camera flows relentlessly from left to right, changing scene and season, echoing turning pages as Tony's life story plays out. The stately photography in neutral colours, the plaintive piano theme; almost everything about this film is minimalist. Only two actors fill the four main roles; Issei Ogata shines as both Tony and his father, while Rie Miyazawa plays both Eiko and Hisako, the girl that Tony, in his grief, hires to impersonate his wife after her death. There is barely a word of dialogue - the carefully chosen details are delivered instead via a low-key narrator (Hidetoshi Nishijima) whose sentences are occasionally left to the characters to finish.
"CURIOUS RHYTHMS"
Tony Takitani's 75-minute running time is far from packed, and its revelations and satires are subtle sometimes to the point of invisibility. But allow yourself to be absorbed into its curious rhythms and it will move and reward you long after the lights come up. 

Ramsgate South Africa-a beautiful spot

Ramsgate has a quaint village atmosphere and beach front holiday cottages nestling amongst the indigenous coastal bush, which is so typical of this subtropical region. The beaches, lagoons and glorious walks along the sandy shore are enjoyed by visitors that prefer a quieter place. You will also find a modern apartment block here and there, which bear testimony to Ramsgate's increasing development potential and popularity.Restaurants, art galleries, antique shops, ethnic crafts, homemade jams and preserves are all to be found in Ramsgate. The fishing is good - the birdlife fantastic - and the living is easy. Ramsgate is a wonderful part of the world to live in - or visit for a while.During winter, starting in June, more often than not there is a spectacular display of large migrating pilchard and sardine shoals. They appear close to the shore between Port Edward and Umkomaas. They are usually accompanied by many predators, including dolphins, birds, large game-fish and a variety of sharks.Sometimes millions of these small fish are beached by the incoming tides and that is when the "sardine fever" grips the local fisherman and visitors alike, as they scramble to catch a bucketful of sardines. Shad-fishing off the rocks and piers is extremely active during the sardine run and for those who love the taste of ``fresh from the sea", shad has no equal.Nature puts on a wonderful display - with birds diving into the ocean from lofty heights - dolphins wave-jumping and surfing in the translucent waves - and you may enven spot a whale basking off-shore. Generally the safe-bathing nets are lifted to avoid the unnecessary capture of dolphins - but are reinstated the moment the shoals have passed.ActivitiesRiverbend Crocodile Farm Home to more than 200 Nile crocodiles, ranging in size from hatchlings to 50-year old monsters. Ramsgate Lagoon The top spot in the region for boardsailers, and the tidal pool is refreshed every morning at the morning tide. Ski boats are launched from Ski Boat Bay and charters are available at the various information centres. Barn Owl Arts and Crafts centre Offers traditional Zulu dancing on Sundays. Find Accommodation inMargate Location: Margate, KwaZulu Natal


 

The Queen - with Helen Mirren

Last night I watched this movie:Dryly funny and unexpectedly poignant, Stephen Frears' restrained comedy of manners weaves together decorous gossip and a fascinating look beneath the facade of pomp and ritual to capture Britain's royal family — particularly Helen Mirren's vivid Queen Elizabeth II — enmeshed in a crisis they're blithely unaware is unfolding around them. Frears and screenwriter Peter Morgan could have skewered them for their eccentricities — all those fusty, fabulously wealthy aristocrats clomping around their Scottish summer estate in Balmoral in sensible shoes and kilts, more concerned with stag hunting and Welsh corgis than the popular outpouring of grief for "People's Princess" Diana Spencer. But their subtle dissection of the complex relationship between the queen, the living embodiment of the traditional English virtues of restraint, propriety and stoicism, and brash new prime minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen), whose populist, media-savvy government represents the exact opposite, produces a much richer result than slashing satire ever could. August, 1997: Blair, who campaigned on a promise to modernize Britain, has barely taken office when news comes from Paris that the former Princess of Wales has died in a car accident. Blair recognizes a media circus in the making, and, with the help of chief spokesman Alastair Campbell (Mark Bazeley), who coins the term "People's Princess," promptly comes down on the right side of it. The queen and her family, cocooned by staffers, blinkered by old-fashioned notions of rigid decorum and prejudiced by their long-standing distaste for celebrity in general and Diana in particular, land themselves squarely on the wrong side. As weeping crowds gather outside Buckingham Palace, lighting candles and laying an ocean of flowers at the gate, the royals remain silent, insisting that Diana's death is a private matter and sniffing among themselves that she wasn't even a member of the family anymore. Days pass, public sentiment becomes increasingly ugly, and it falls to Blair — whose own wife (Helen McCrory) is an outspoken antiroyalist — to delicately steer the queen in the right direction, despite the splenetic harrumphing of her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh (James Cromwell), and the wrongheaded insistence of her own mother (Sylvia Syms) that the British people will rediscover their stiff upper lips if only the queen leads the way. Mirren, who's played her share of queens in the past, is hypnotic, but it's her prickly rapport with the slick, smiling Sheen that makes the movie crackle — not in a vulgar way, mind you, but with such brilliant control that a slightly arched eyebrow speaks louder than a dozen cackling commentators with microphones. --Maitland McDonagh 

Waiting for snow

This year, most of the winter sport ressorts in Austria are still waiting for the snow to arrive. Because of the mild conditions this has not happened yet. These are images of last years snow condition taken in Furx, Vorarlberg..

Ever wondered which celebrity you look like?

There is a great tool which is free, that tells you, with the latest technique of biometrical face analysis, which celebrity looks similar to you, who you are most likely to be compared with..
Here is the link: http://www.myheritage.com.. try it it is fun!
the description:

MyHeritage Face Recognition runs in 3 steps:
The digital photo (or scanned photo print) that you provide, is loaded
Face detection technology is applied to automatically detect human faces in your photo ( * )
Face recognition technology is applied to recognize the faces detected in the previous step
( * )
If faces are missed out in step 2, you can mark them manually using the Marker.
Recognizing faces is done by algorithms that compare the faces in your photo, with all faces previously known to MyHeritage Face Recognition, through photos and meta-data contributed by yourself and other users. So the more photos added to the system, the more powerful it becomes. If people in your photos are not recognized well, it is likely that MyHeritage.com has never encountered them before. By adding these photos to MyHeritage.com and annotating the people in the photo manually, MyHeritage.com will "learn" these faces and will be able to recognize them in future photos, even in different ages of the same person's life.
Note: the algorithms used by MyHeritage Face Recognition are likely to find relatives of people in your photo, due to the genetic-based facial similarities that exist between relatives. You can use this to form connections between people whom you never even knew were related.

Photo Impact 8

In the sales I bought a Photoeditor and organizer for a ridiculous price.. and I have to say I am impressed. Although it is an older version, it still has got a lot of content and useful tool for an amateur photohraph. Here the description of the publisher:
Organize and edit your photos, and share them online or on CD with PhotoImpact 8. This version offers a huge range of tools for tidying up images, adding a little extra oomph, and then getting your creations where they need to go.
While the workspace may seem rather cluttered when you have all the toolbars, option bars, and palettes open, the Palette Manager lets you dock and hide palettes easily. You can also record a set of editing steps to reuse later.
Tools like the Post-processing wizard (to fix problems like redeye) and the EasyPalette (which lets you browse fills, effects, shapes, text styles, and templates) help you get great results without being an expert.
Combining several images is easier with the Match Background and Defringe features, which prevent your additions from sticking out like sore thumbs. The selection tools let you select several areas in one image at once, and you use control points to get your selection to cover exactly the area you need. Effects range from subtle to dramatic, including animated Particle Effects like rain and fire and the eye-catching Star Filter that adds some sparkle.
PhotoImpact 8 doesn't just convert your pictures to the right format for Web pages; it builds the Web pages for you, including JavaScript effects to create an album with controls to move from picture to picture. You can also burn an album onto CD. The printing controls are excellent for printing several photos in a range of sizes and shaped, from thumbnails to CD labels.
With this many features, you'll need to take the time to find out where everything is to make the most of it, so it's good to see that PhotoImpact 8 comes with the kind of comprehensive printed manual that's becoming all too rare. You also get GIF Animator--the definitive program for creating Web animations--and PhotoImpact Album for organizing your images.
Instead of features for professional graphics designers, PhotoImpact 8 sticks to tools for photo enthusiasts, including some innovative options you won't find elsewhere.

Giraffes in South Africa Hluhluwe Reserve

 

A day in ZĂĽrich Zoo

A collection of pictures taken today..

ZĂĽrich Zoo part 3

Voyage of discovery through Zoo ZĂĽrich
A green oasis filled with tropical scents, warm and humid all year round - the Masoala Rainforest at Zoo ZĂĽrich is there for you to discover at close quarters. Explore a piece of Madagascar on 11,000 square meters. More than 100 plant and animal species make for an unforgettable experience that is unique in the world. Can you spot one of the lemurs, tortoises, tomato frogs, geckos or flying foxes that inhabit this exotic world?

ZĂĽrich Zoo

Some more impressions from ZĂĽrich Zoo..


 

ZĂĽrich Zoo

Zurich Zoo is a great place to see a big variety of animals from all over the world.. The park is kind of a theme park, where the continents in which the animals originally live are kept together.. There also is a big hall which is called "Masuala Regenwald" a tropical, artifically done rainforest, where the temperature constantly lies between 20 and 25 degrees, and the humidity level is 100% . The proof of that was that all camera lenses and glasses got covered with humidity within a few minutes.. Walking around in the zoo takes quite a time as there are so many things to see. some animals live in special rooms, like the frogs, monkeys.. would be too cold for them outside Switzerland at that time of the year..we enjoyed a coffee in the Masuala Bar, where you could take a seat at the big windows showing towards the rainforest, and watch some exotic animals while having a coffee or snack.. All in all: 5 stars out of 5


 

Google Earth - A new version available

One of my favourite tools in the net is Google Earth which has developed a new , enhanced download with new 3 d features and many other facilities. Enjoy a journey around the world with a few mouse clicks..
http://earth.google.com/index.html


Google hat Version 4 von Google Earth um die Fähigkeit zum Anzeigen und Erstellen von Rich-3D-Inhalten erweitert. Mit dem zugehörigen Layer können nun berühmte Bauwerke in einer dreidimensionalen Ansicht dargestellt werden.



"Dies ist ein weiterer Schritt auf unserem Weg, ein realistisches 3D-Modell unseres Planeten zu erstellen", sagte Google am Montag. Um dieses Ziel zu erreichen, ermöglicht die aktuelle Version von Google Sketchup das Rendern von 3D-Objekten als KML- oder KMZ-Dateien. 3D-Modelle können direkt auf den Satellitenbildern erstellt werden, die als Ausgangspunkt für das Modell dienen. Keyhole-Markup-Language-Dateien (KML) sind XML-Dateien, in denen 3D-Ansichten für Google Earth und Google Maps abgespeichert werden.
Mit dem 3D Warehouse hat Google eine Sammlung von Objekten zusammengestellt, die auch ohne Google Earth 4 dort betrachtet werden können. Viele architektonische Meisterwerke müssen aber noch erstellt werden. So ist zum Beispiel der Louvre in Paris nur als Aufsicht verfügbar. Nur die Glaspyramide vor dem Louvre wurde bereits gerendert.

Oribi Gorge South Africa

Oribi Gorge is a great piece of nature in South Africa, with an overhanging rock, and the chance to jump down on a slide, similar to bungee jumping, and beautiful views..


 

Jarvis- the new Album by Jarvis Cocker

Jarvis Cocker: Jarvis Jarvis is the debut album from Jarvis Cocker, after his self-imposed exile in Paris following the downfall and split of Pulp, one of the defining bands of the Britpop era. There isn't a single person in the music industry who hasn't anticipated, with a certain amount of curiosity, the first solo offering from Jarvis. With the emergence of Relaxed Muscle (a band Jarvis fronted dressed as a skeleton) some people argue that he's never been away. But the man who made possibly the most reticent yet highly poignant observations of Thatcherite Britain disappeared completely. Pulp was dead and it would never be revived until the real Jarvis made a welcome return. Well this is that return and it is indeed very welcome.
With tracks like Don't Let Him Waste Your Time and Black Magic, Jarvis nails the witty lyricism of Pulp's finest pop songs. With Fat Children and the strangely hidden Running The World, the father of Sheffield is scathing and angry. At times it can be a tough listen, but it's never far away from brilliance. Who's it by? Jarvis Cocker was the talented and quirky frontman of Pulp, one of the seminal bands of the Britpop era. Oasis had the swagger, the lads' vote and the attitude, with Blur skulking around attempting to be witty. Pulp managed to combine the two and even Noel spent the late nineties humming Common People, but then who didn't?Their greatest hits album peaked outside of the top 40 and people soon forgot the awkward looking bespectacled one.
Oasis trundled on and Damon Albarn turned into a cartoon, but Jarvis retired to France and hopped over the channel very briefly, dressed in a skeleton suit and singing about sexy women.
The great man is still fairly absent, gone are the topical references and in their place are general observations of British society.
"If you don't like it then leave/Or use your right to protest on the streets/Yeah use your right but don't expect to be heard" Running The World contains some of the most aggressive lyrics Jarvis has ever written and the chorus contains angry lambastes that are perhaps a little too strong for InTheNews. Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys If the man can storm the Brits stage while Jacko is on it, then why not.
What the others say "Feel grateful that such a unique voice has returned at full power." The Guardian "The central theme is his utter disgust at modern Britain's stagnation." NME So is it any good? When the chords on Don't Let Them Waste Your Time conclude, the rip roaring distortion of Black Magic come in and Jarvis lays down a fantastic vocal that seems disorganised and roughly recorded. It's a great sound and still manages to retain the crisp sounding lyrics that defined Pulp. This tempo isn't maintained throughout the record, it comes and goes, with the odd journey into country-folk and acoustic driven songs full of agony and heartache. Baby's Coming Back To Me portrays this perfectly before 'the Jarv' launches into Fat Children, his attack on the overweight, hoodie-wearing 'yobs' that attack other kids. Disney Time is another depressing journey, with a piano beat backing Jarvis' quiet, yet deep and concerned vocal. "Now it's Disney time," is delivered with the kind of tone that would give any kid nightmares, but that's always been the way with Jarvis. In Don't Let Waste Your Time he lays into cocky blokes, skinny b*****s in hot pants and pretty much anyone else he's got a bone to pick with. When he performed the Jarvcasts earlier this summer, the Icelandic folk tales and stories of changing light bulbs didn't really do a lot to inspire, but they certainly made you feel uneasy.
Jarvis – the album – is a worthy return by the true frontman of Britpop. It's not a record that will instantly appeal to the record buying public, but it will satisfy every critic and consolidates Jarvis's position as the man who's better than the doubters.

Safari in South Africa / SĂĽdafrika

One of the greatest experiences in South Africa is to visit a co called Game Reserve, a Safari park.. animals live there naturally, and you are asked to spot them by driving around in your car. But dont get out of the car, even if you think it is just for a nice picture. You can never tell I for example a lion is hiding somewhere and might hit you.. It is so overwhelming if you sit in the catr and all of a sudden there is a zebra, or a giraffe in front of you..Safari , A great thing to do!