Tiger here too. Dragons.. well there's Fuchur from Ende's Neverending Story. Watching the movie as a kid both traumatized me because the book was so much more vivid and my imagination so very different from what I saw on the screen. Then again, Fuchur looks like a flying dog which i did not understand at the time. Not the look I expected, but the one character they got right. The 10yo me learned to distinguish between stories in a book and the concept of a movie adaptation.

Nevertheless I got hooked to the screen for quite a while. And I went to see this film a few times on my own to get over the initial shock and disappointment.

The funniest dragon I met was in a kid's book I read to my son. Super cute dragon kid Der kleine Drache Kokonuss who goes to school and experiments with things chemistry and whatnot, and asks very many questions, with troubles ahead.

The plain can opener I bought decades ago in England at pound stretcher still does the job. No complaints.

For fun I have a Koziol slicer tool to cleanly peel oranges. Less messy fingers when using this:

By accident I watched the first two episodes of Star Trek Voyager yesterday. Rewatched actually, but so much in that I had already forgotten. Neelix hasn't changed, has he.

A snow storm is brewing, as are temperatures clearly below -10C the next few days. I like it, but doggo more frequently complains last few days because grit and ice lumps stick to his paws. I hope colder means this happens less often now.

Also, I modded my Das Keyboard with pudding type keycaps I had bought in an HP yard sale ages ago. Fun! Typing on it now. If you have no idea what this means, it means this:

Went to Munich 1999 to see the total eclipse. It was a treat, but the place we picked the Hill right near the Olympic Stadium - the sky was was overcast. Anyhow, the Hill was high enough to get a good view of the surroundings.

Seeing everything in sight darken as the 100% totality approached was quite something, shadow everywhere except on the far horizon where the sky looked as normal, blue. The sun was easy enough to see through the cloud cover though, i.e. it wasn't and at the same time in sync with when birds had stopped chirping and all traffic had stopped for a couple minutes. Kinda quiet and surreal.

Except I had Pink Floyd playing in my head the whole time, the tone of Eclipse matched the exhilaration we felt.

All that you touch
And all that you see
All that you taste
All you feel
And all that you loved
And all that you hate
All you distrust
All you save
...

The song lasts around 2:13 or so, around the time the phenomenon lasts and a dense time of everything condensed.

Funnily, or not, the blokes that sat in a beer garden in the middle of the city had the best view for the few minutes it lasted. Cloudless sky, 3km from where we were, lucky b*stards.

Hope Moki is fine again! #maltethedog went through handful of days of something, but is back to his cheerful and sneaky self, giving love and wanting you to be friends.

When you go to a midsized town's square at oddball time of the day you might see this. Hardly any people. On the other upside, all shops are closed. :))

My former boss was on the Aloha Air flight 243, the one where the top came off mid-flight. (I could not find the right photo, there is one where you can see him sitting in open air class.)

Other than that I've been spared all those compelling mild horror stories you can tell. Thankfully. @Karl Auerbach @Jodi @Muse what the actual... =)

The only time I've felt unsafe, retroactively, was an abrupt jerking course correction miles over the clouds over Siberia heading East that woke me up. A long handful seconds later another China Airlines (Taiwan national carrier) flight came into view at the same height as we were. Gulp.

Mild surprises happened, such as a border guard looking up confused in Turkiye when I greeted saying Merhaba and my passport not matching the expectation whom he would see. Or the border guard at Taoyuan airport who, while I was attuning to all-Mandarin in my head gave context-free instructions "Zeigefinger bitte" in flawless German about which finger to place in the pad for immigration control.

Small talk, I got better at that over the years. The more nerds I met the clearer it became I needed to. This book helped:

Still, breaking the ice can be daunting, since you know they are experts in something, spectrum or not, but what exactly is that. Those early shifts at CCC congress and camp can be real life changers when you discover they felt the same, uneasy and happy to be asked about what exactly it is that you know about.

Heck, but small talk itself is not a very German thing. Many encounters in New York were pleasant, in that people seemed to take the extra 2 seconds or so and try and understand what i wanted or replied. Here, they'd brush you over much quicker and stick to an initial, brusque misunderstanding.

Private calendar, Etar is the Android app of choice, works and syncs. Road to selfhosting this is slow and has been for a while.

In other news, Ralph the all purpose animal was at one point touchy-feely with a giant grandfather clock's inner workings. To help save the world, I gathered. That is quite something. Not having to endure nightmares because of deadlines and things.

Oh btw its silent sunday hashtag day. This is from a walk in just above zero walk along the Baltic sea, days after a massive storm had passed.

https://pixelfed.automat.click/i/portfolio/carstenraddatz/880358690580651109

I heard Lab testing? Can confirm, strong and durable. Even if different brand.

in an earlier version of internet, in a literature and creative writing forum people had assembled and planned an RL meet-up in Berlin. However organizer got cold feet, weeks before it started, and asked around, so I ended up having a bunch of teenagers around me for a week. Very much to my own surprise.

Since I had just returned from England myself my head was full of ideas for all the things too, some culture clash involved there too. It was productive and The Group went to poetry slams, a concert, a swim in the lake, and we grew together. Good times.

Rubber ducking is common among IT people and knowledge workers. Same effect as entering a room with experts, beginning to ask them a question.. then stopping, because the answer, an idea, a second round of brain cycles came the second you talked about it. But with a ducky sitting on your desk to talk to aloud in your head.

This classic Werner cartoon shows a version it. Technique works with dogs too. And probably with other cats.

The computer minded people I hang out with oftentimes are, in their entirety, called The Chaos. The term is used as a term of honour. No particular sense of order or orderliness is implied. When mingling, chaos is less suit and tie and more cargo pants and t-shirts. And fishnet see through and all the rainbow too.

A hacker called sushee summarized that nicely in a blog post ca. 2005. if you're a hacker and use chaos as the reason to be unorganized you're holding it wrong.

Me, Id be the more chaotic person in this relationship, in an episodic way. . When recently transitioning from one job to the next, getting an IT equipment zoo in order and sent back was due.
.

Boxes, filling material and laptops everywhere. This mildly infuriating state was temporary, fortunately, but too good to not share

Have I got something for you Wiley E Coyote fans... just one year to go :P

Among Donald Duck and his extended family, Snoopy and Der Superpiep, Garfield was a favourite. The German long title included the phrase "fat, lazy and philosophical". Also, Lasagna! (I noticed I could look up that word I had not heard before, 4th grader me found something related in a dictionary, but adults were sorta out of their wits to explain what it really meant. More reasons to peruse the library. I owe Garfield.)

Today, very Japanese/Taiwanese characters get the spot. Bugcat capoo, Jian Tu (the rabbit), Cony and Brown are a favourite, kawaii to the get no even when they are crying. They live here as two hand-sized plushies, and measure the space that being friends, lovers and the full range of togetherness can fill.

German style belegte Brötchen pales in comparison to most everything similar. You often get no mayonnaise or mustard, butter it is, and 1 other ingredient, ham or salami. Either or. The bare minimalist kind, dry-ish. Parsley on it only if you're lucky.

BMT was unknown as a concept or a placeholder for composition until Subways showed up.

Then again, on the coast you may get Fischbrötchen like the one shown. Fresh from the boat or its sales booth. Raw, or cured fish (herring, mackerel, flatfish, what they caught that morning), onions, mayonnaise, pickled cucumber. This I will recommend.

I have a chile lime salt spread that I will use when attempting my own.

Ein buntes Chaos erwartet Euch, aber das ist nicht exakt wo ihr wohnt. Auf der Karte ist das nicht mehr drauf, Ihr seid also etwas westlich davon untergebracht, und das Theater ist auch gerade außerhalb der Route (großer Stern etwas nach "links oben"). Das wird schon, es dürfte nah genug sein umwas mitzubekommen mit kurzem Fußweg.

Zum Hotel am besten über Franklinstraße und Salzufer, also nördlich der Spree bleiben. Das sollte ohne große Beeinträchtigung gehen.

We have Aldi here, but what Trader Joe's they have is sub par quality. My wife brought the Everything but the Bagel sesame blended with salt jar from New York. Kind of addictively good on many things. Unavailable here.

My other favourite spice is a blend, Harissa. Chili, salt, paprika, cumin, dried tomato (I think) and whatnot. Elevates most tomato sauces, a pinch of it loves to be on a plate of Hummus bi tahina.

@Lisa Stranger Yes, i know:tm:

The admin/podmin/maintainer of pixelfed.automat.click (@billyidl) ran into technical trouble, the server's TLSv1 asks for but does not receive a known name. Nothing I can do to fix it, I offered help which may not have reached them, so only they can. Fedi dynamics!

It will be fine soon. I sure hope I can add more photos later when automat.click is up again.

Until @billyidl makes that happen here's more Chacha for you:

I'd almost be leaning towards the bottom of a glass, but am not that type.

Samsung? I just heard the founder once went to Sanyo, the Japanese giant, as an apprentice. Only when competition took up did the partnership split, in 1974, and Samsung was on its own. Asianometry has the details.

Dog story? Years before Malte came along this little fella named Chacha introduced us to the idea of maybe possibly one day having a dog of our own. Our holiday dog. What that could be like we learned from him. Chacha the dog did dog things: run around, demand we play with him, cunningly open doors to the pantry, eat all the things when we weren't looking, and rest together with his favourite humans when the time had come. Zzzz... such a cutie. #dogsusingpillows #dogs #hunde #dogsofmastodon #dogsofpixelfed #dogsofthefediverse #fedidogs #dogsoffriendica

Days after this post I had a first-time encounter, the constellation was new and very exciting for me. Why? Because doggo was off leash, very much out of reach and a sounder of boar crossed the path in front of him.

Here's details if you haz can Pixelfed pixelfed.automat.click/p/carst…

Three photos in that post - on the first you can see a very happy Golden dashing of towards the background, into the kinda dark part of the forest, because his favourite lake is there. Like excited, flying ears and all. Then he stopped, I saw why.

So story time. Forest lake trip one early morning. An unleashed #MalteTheDog runs ahead, bubbling with excitement; the lake waits where this path ends. But. Next photos, something stepped onto the same path. Being two leash lengths ahead of me, there was no good way of stopping him. To my relief he stopped by himself, some 15-20m or so away from their path, fascinated by the alpha boar and the sounder that followed, around two dozen piggies and piglets overall. Was I relieved nothing else happened! Once they had crossed doggo ran off for lake time. Good boy!

#goldenretriever #dogsofmastodon #dogsofpixelfed #dogsoffriendica #fedidogs #黃金拾獵犬 #黃金尋回犬 #狗 #hunde #hundi #dogs #boar #野豬 #intheforest

This city's official mascot is the Bear, not often in the LGBTQ style but all over the place as Buddy Bears. Friendly, colourful bears in about life size, either upright or on all fours, adorned with a local motif, kid's art, by a paid artists or embassy emblems because often the bears grace their entrance.

Other than that, an icon is the East Berlin TV tower. Not an animal, but it is ev-ery-whe-re in logos, silhouettes, and whatnot.

The other chapter to Berlin is, when the current airport was being planned 3 effing decades ago, it had not yet spawned its own genre of jokes, but the initial plan was to extend a given subway line first (handful of km extra, no big deal, connectivity for cheap) so it would be ready when the thing opened.

Part of the joke is the construction companies deliberately delayed getting the airport right so the subway could acually be ready in time for the opening, but... ummm no. Instead we have ride dealers convincing clueless tourists inside the terminal to book an all inclusive 60€ private minivan ride into the city when the common train service is just two storey below the main terminal and one journey would be 4,20€. Sigh.

The new head of our local transportation authority just last week said "service reliability and network stability above all else. Oh, and we are indeed still planning for the subway extension to the airport" - ask me again in a couple years if there was progress. Normal trains will do in the meantime and new connections are up very soon, for real.

Just not this dotted blue line one.

There was a local storm and that also brought about advance warnings yesterday. I noticed since the dog came in from the balcony, looking unexpectedly excited, and moments later diagonal rain and storm started, slamming windows in the neighbourhood and displacing stuff on balconies and window sills.

Reports say gusts were up to 100km/h (around 60mph). Where I was that storm lasted around 10-15 minutes, bringing summer street life to a standstill as everybody out tried to get out of the way. There was minor damage from fallen trees, a couple cars were hit, and overground transportation networks were stopped.

So last night and today weather is much cooler, around 20C only, down from 35C yesterday. The streets are being cleared from fallen branches and debris from flower pots. Public transportation has restarted mostly, but I think there were more people on bikes than usual.

Dog walkers we met this morning had wild stories to tell about how their dogs reacted to the situation. Ours was fine.

Happy place is in movement, I think. Sure the garden I had around the house as a kid was huuuge and the lake and all, but.. they meant exploring the hidden corners, bushes, old walls, crumbling bricks. It never got boring until maybe I was 16 years old and other activites were more promising. :)

So a garden, yeah, but a German proverb says resting is rusting. So happy place implies moving about the space, which can be as big as a city, as playground for #ingress. Or it might be a fun walk watching doggo interacting, exploring and getting wet in instantaneous friendships.

As a kid I wanted to be like a Chameleon. You know, perfectly adapting to any environment. Unsure about a spirit animal though.

Some days like those last few and then some to come I'd just identify with the simple life we are able to provide to #maltethedog - a select few hours of demanding activity per day, training, happy to work and with the walkies, and snuggle up when you wanna.

@'s Portfolio Photo

The favourite local small shop is this, Chili and Paprika, run by Mexican enthusiasts. Where else to get handfuls of poblano or a jar of mole! The usual queue shows up on those two days of the week when fresh tortillas are brought in.

My next chili sauce cooking coming up I'll be sure to go. Or beans for chili. Shop has been around for more than 5 years, which is a good sign (it has been that long, just checked my Google Maps review).

Happily using our office for work about once a week, why, I may have mentioned being there may feel like a mini holiday. Since it sits adjacent to Park Sanssouci, our local and less formal version of Versailles You might like this one more @Karl Auerbach !

The photo hints at why holiday is an applicable category. I get to walk the dog in the Unesco world heritage site all afternoon, with castles, artfully designed paths, canals and quite some kitsch too. Views such as this get me every time. @Muse this is a few minutes walking from the tea pavillon you went to see, in the north west corner.

So since the park is huge (lol, well Europe, not America) and gardeners must work there all year to keep it beautiful a voluntary entry fee was established a decade ago, with near zero success.

The newest initiative was to make tickets mandatory, and tier them along "use once", "multiple entry" and "annual ticket". Given the choice I'd get the annual ticket, possibly in the price range of 30€. But I doubt that change will ever come to pass. The city of Potsdam will insist on being miserable and keep complaining.

Since the city depends on tourists spending money making ticket purchase compulsory was discussed many time over but never politically enforced since that would cost your seat in parliament from angry locals' reaction. We'll see how that goes this round. =)

Do any of the parks or gardens you mention have entry fees?

National Public Garden Day, i didn't know that exists. Very nice photo there @Christoph S looks like a fine place to be!

Being an inner city dweller the parks available near here are heavily used every day, and most show it. Only the early mornings belong to dog owners. But then I mildly complain about luxury problems, since there are a handful in easy walking the dog distance. This is not a given for many places.

The Mauerpark is probably the most famous. The Mauer part is from The Wall, which ran its deadly duty near here. So almost a mile long, shaped like a towel long and kinda narrow, it offers views such as this:

The hill that photo is taken from borders on the old Sports stadium which is being torn down these days, and the area is undergoing change. Slow for change, things are moving forward eradicating part of East Berlin heritage.

When I went to the city of Kiel the other day for family business I had to go to Laboe, a nearby town that is home to the national memorial site for lives lost in the marine corps.
Having gone there as a kid many moons ago I found it hasn't changed much at all. The original U-boat is still there, this time I went to see the other place nearby.

Carsten Raddatz (@carstenraddatz@pixelfed.automat.click)

Carsten Raddatz

2025-04-12 20:00:51

Reasons to go to Laboe. Re-live the constrained space of the U-boat, uh no. Watch it from the outside, yeah sorta but that is enough. #kiel #laboe #uboat #memorialsite #beautifulweather #förde #randomholidayphoto

I'm not the oldest in the group of friends, or with coworkers. Or here, hah. :))

FORTRAN is what was in the magazines when I got interested, so I had heard of it early on, for some definitions of early ≈ period of 1985-1989. It had zero practical relevance for me tho.

However my first baby steps were BASIC as that came with the C128 family got, and the freaking ringbinder manual detailing all the commands was good enough to build a two-joystick two-sprite and collision logic minigame. That was the start.

(The manual is an approximation too, as I can't seem to find a photo the BASIC 7.0 one I think I used.)

After primary school a version of PASCAL ca. 1991 that was taught on something mainframe in the teacher's room and multiplex terminals in another.

When I revisited the place in 2004 for a local Python users meetup that was all gone, except for one teacher who felt old, he told me that.

Should you ever make it to the Netherlands, a similar thing in the shape of fist-sized chunks is available as Olibollen. Inevitably you'll make a mess of your coat because powder sugar will go everywhere when you eat in on the go.

Cinnamonroll? I cannot help but think of this cute guy.

But @deanc yours sound attractive too!

I was a fond Motorola phone user at one point. I still receive their offers via email. They remind me of a time long gone when "setting up an outgoing email server" worked by way of bash-scripting and no one cared, or knew about security, however implicit.
I myself may or may not have b0rked up a mass email campaign sent via our hacky tool on the first job. "Dear $fristname," ... lol. Long ago. Product quality focus at Moto may have changed too.

The relative attention to detail too warrants some cynicism: they too seem to have low safeguards agains eff-ups in the marketing domain. In emails they address me as %%=v(@firstname) at times and have funny, wacky autotranslations on the landing or product pages. Oh please.

FWIW, I would maybe still use my Moto X Style of 2015 had the battery not gone down to about two minutes of use in the end, after 3 years. Or my DIY replacement efforts would have worked out, which didn't happen, because the screws they used are both tiny and their head would wear out on attempt to unscrew. Sigh.
I still applaud the excellent cameras, hardly any oversharpening, and overall smooth evenly lit pictures. The Moto gestures. And perfect proportions, good grip and weight distribution. They just don't make them like that anymore. In contrast, sometimes the current Moto product policy makes me shake my head a little, they sure cram very many models into the mid-to-low-tier range.

#marketing #motorola #variables #blastfromthepast #bash #ballsup #oopsie