just to let you know

linkable

• Show me the money! 25 years after its recording the kids who sang the background vocals in Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" ask for their royalties.

The beauty of dialup

"Is he now going completely mad?" you might ask, when you read the title. Maybe, but I've just re-discovered a beauty of dialup, as I was checking out 24in48.org, a website of 24 New Yorkers who document their steps over 48 hours with cameraphones. The slowness of the load of the pictures just made me linger that little bit longer and look at each of the images. Nice one!

Maybe I should cancel that broadband order for coming Monday after all.

Espresso Galore !

Espresso coffee - you just can't beat it. Other than some newly Starbucks groupies, I have always been a fan of the beans. People sometimes gave me a weird glance when they saw me grinding beans for my italian pressure coffee cooker and storing them carefully and sealed in the fridge.

It's all in the preparation and since this week I am the proud owner of a fabolous Espresso maker that will catapult my coffee drinking into the outer stratosphere. Thanks again, Sal !

lost in translation

It recently occured to me that there could be more that I can do as a german father to teach Milly german. I thought that I could really speak more in my native tongue to her.

Basically, I had become lazy and preferred english when talking to Sal or Milly. When I was tired and exhausted, I chose english over german as it was simply easier for me to converse to Sal and Milly at the same time. I resorted to german songs from Milly's favourite german songbooks and that was that. Now I do rate the singing in german quite high as well. In my opinion, it can teach you a lot about the phonetics and the "sing-song" (that's what I call it) of a language.

"But there should be more.", I thought and decided to speak more of the day-to-day talk with Milly again in german. Somewhere along the parental path of the last months I lost my german touch, I found. So it was just about time I go back into german "yik-yak" again.

It was harder than I thought! It almost feels like I have to learn this sort of german again. Which is funny really, as years back I tried desperately to get rid of any german traces in my english, whereas now I almost have to go back and think and act more german again.

Maybe I should start with some sunbeds and towels...

SymMobile screen protector for P900

I have been using the P900 screen protector from SymMobile for about 4 weeks now and must admit that it was a good investment. I was getting worried about dirt and scratches on the screen and the protector does a good job in keeping dust, dirt and grease at bay.

The ordered item arrived after only 5 days straight from Hong Kong - very impressive. As far as screen brightness is concerned, I must say that I can hardly see a difference. Same goes for screen sensitivity - all within acceptable bandwidths, I think.

cheap excuses

Many readers contacted me (even though in vain, I must admit) and asked me why there has so little been going on round here in recent weeks.

Well those in the know might have realised that the Koch Clan has left Scotland and does now reside in the Midlands.

More soon,
Michael

Linkable

• very soon the Scots will realise whom they've lost - Berti Vogts' resignation speech.