Rome for IEEE-IUS 2009

Finally, the pictures from the Rome conference trip together with my little boss.



As usual, hit the link for the actual slideshow.

America Through The Lens Of

Recently I travelled a bit, got a very cheap close-up lens, and met people.



As usual, click through the link to the original post/pictures.

Triple Woes

First, I canceled one of my two German bank accounts, the one that had a VISA card going with it.

Then, a late charge came in for this account, resulting in an overdraft. I was sent an overdraft notice, which got lost at my Germany place in a stack of mail.

Third, I got wind of that and duly paid the overdraft fee from my other German bank account.

Soon after, I got another overdraft notice, claiming that I still have to pay the amount, now with twice the fees.

At the same time, my Skype account suddenly got blocked, preventing me from calling Germany or any other place. Skype doesn't react to Customer Service Requests.

I suspect they tried to draft some $$$ from a PayPal account that had been linked with the now-defunct VISA card (as mentioned above), so I tried to change the way of payment to my American VISA card. However, PayPal claims that card is already associated with another account (which I can't understand, since there is no other account). PayPal similarly doesn't react to customer requests.

Thus, I am left with:
- a German bank threatening to call in the SCHUFA credit history agency,
- a dysfunctional Skype account and no phone calls,
and
- a dysfunctional PayPal account.

I cannot call the German bank to clarify the issue, because Skype doesn't work.
I cannot get Skype to work, because the account pages are completely locked up and tell me to file a Customer Service Request.
And I cannot get PayPal to work, because it tells me I can't use my credit card.

**** ***, Skype.
**** ***, PayPal.
And **** *** ***, U.S.!

Oh, and I finally reached the bank hotline. However, they are closed and don't offer any clue as to when they'll reopen. **** ***, Postbank!

Boston & ISBI 2009

The other week, I've been to Boston, MA to attend the ISBI 2009 conference together with Matthias of Fraunhofer.

Lancaster, PA (Party like it's 1899!)

On Saturday, we went to Lancaster, PA, the center of the Amish population (maybe in the U.S., but definitely on the East Coast), also known as Dutch County (even though they are originally of German origin).
Following a conservative religious lifestyle, they usually forfeit all modern amenities like cars, electricity, and telecommunications. However, they can adapt, and in particular they can party (like it's 1899)!

Discover Centralia, PA!

We're going to Centralia, PA!

Mostly colleagues from LCSR and DMIP went to Centralia, PA last Sunday: http://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/Visiting-Centralia.htm and here: http://maps.google.com/maps?daddr=Centralia,+PA&geocode=&dirflg=&saddr=baltimore,+md&f=d&sll=40.804503,-76.340883&sspn=0.008917,0.019312&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=8.

In a nutshell, this city sat atop a coal mine that was accidentally set ablaze. The fire migrated underground, where it has now been burning for forty years, stubbornly thwarting any efforts to put it out and slowly consuming the city's foundations. As a consequence, the city had to be given up and was abandoned. Nowadays, the ground is hot, is spewing steam and smoke, and on and off caves in (in what is technically called "subsidences").

Of course, we couldn't resist the temptation to see this hellish place first-hand.

Baltimore in Technicolor

Old and new impressions of Baltimore in Technicolor.
(See this also at Picasa Web Albums.)



More recent impressions:

Fait Accompli

After the first trip to Canada in August 2005, I decided to spend some time there.

Given the time frame at my disposal, a feasible approach seemed to be to apply for permanent residency there. Today, the procedure was finished. The last step was to land with the PR immigrant visa in Canada.




Naturellement, everything has changed since then. My dentist friend recently mentioned he envies me for the adventure, but franchement, the excitement subsides with time.

Still, bienvenue au Canada!




Three places were shortlisted as candidates for me to go and cross the border there this weekend... and finally I chose Montréal, to get some European feeling that is missing so much in Baltimore. And really, it is so great to be in a place where you can walk at your own leisure, without fear of being in the wrong neighborhood and get robbed at the next corner. Why can't every place in North America be like this?

In Canadian cities, what one often sees are directly neighboring, little compatible buildings. Often industrial constructions right next to housing, but sometimes just vaguely clashing styles.




In genereal, it's cold.




Still, there is life on the streets.




Inuit art from the (small) collection of the Montréal Musée des Beaux Arts.



Although flying to the North was with a proper jetliner, the return flights were with a turboprop machine. Small plane, really bumpy flight.

Paris

As promised, MC and I made a trip to Paris. It was not without its difficulties even to get there, but these were not exactly related to the trip itself. Bad omens were ShabuShabu's astute refusal to start the engine (the ADAC had to jumpstart the car, and the battery had to be replaced) and several hours ineffectively spent around the Kaiserslautern post office.

But then, we arrived in Paris alright and determined to have a happy new year.




And so it was. It was incredibly cold, windy, rainy at times, and outrageously expensive, but Paris is great any time of year. The last time I've been there was probably in 7th grade as a language exchange student, so freshing up on all the sights, museums, and churches was (American colloquialism ahead) all da hoot. More or less according the vague draft as follows, it were some foot-hurt-filled days.

Dezember
29. Pont Neuf 桥
29. Schiffahrt auf der Seine 赛那河
29. Pantheon 先贤祠 (offen?)
29. Tour d'Eiffel 爱飞尔铁塔 (9h30 à 23h45*; Dernière montée 23h00 (pour le sommet 22h30))


30. Louvre 卢浮宫



30. Place de la Concorde 协和广场
30. Galeries Lafayette



30. Printemps


31. Centre Georges Pompidou 蓬碧度 (December 24 and 31, the Centre Pompidou will be closed at 7pm. Tickets available until 6pm. The Pompidou Center is open every day, except Tuesdays and May 1, 11am-10pm.)

31. Musee d'Orsay 奥赛博物馆 (9.30-18 Uhr; 21.45 Uhr donnerstags; Montags Geschlossen)



Januar
1. Sacre Coeur 圣心教堂
1. Notre Dame 巴黎圣母院




1. La Defense 拉迪芳斯新城


1. Arc de Triomphe 凯旋门

The plan turned out to be slightly too ambitious, it turned out that (as heard before) France is no North America (and thus has no Internet anywhere), so lugging Oolong along was a weird idea, but still, with the tourist guide book in hand, it proved to be successful.

Fireworks on New Year were disappointing (basically nonexistent), but throngs of people were still trying to get to the Tour d'Eiffel on time.



Praying for no rain one day resulted in snow the next.

Parking was an adventure, but ultimately rewarding.

Stupidly enough, I forgot all but one of my credit and debit card PINs - so I had to pay for everything Euro-ish with my American account, in dollars.

I saw a guy in front of Notre-Dame who had an R1. I approached him, we nodded to each other, and we each went our ways.



The last day, desparate over still not having been to the Tour Eiffel, on the way back I drove straight to the tower. Against all expectations, we found a parking spot not even 50m away from the base, the ticket booth line was short (due to extreme cold, sure), and the view at Paris at dusk was spectacular. But frosty.



And although it has nothing to do with Paris, today I gave a short presentation about RONAF's 3D ultrasound to the surgical robotics winter school audience here at JHU. The faculty attending are to a large extent old acquaintances from 2003's Montpellier summer school. Although that "acquaintance" is rather unidirectional, I believe.

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More pictures of Paris will follow. Today I am too exhausted from the last few days of Matthias (our Fraunhofer project partner) being here, doing experiments, and yesterday attending an extremely long kidney operation until very late at night that was far from successful in the end. But more to come.

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More pictures of Paris have been added. Gosh, doing this in Blogger is incredibly time-consuming.

New Year

After a long new year hiatus, a wrapup.

Lots of things were blogworthy, but time was short. My own Christmas present (christened "Oolong") arrived just in time before I left for Germany. (The term "home" is slowly blurring.) The trip there went almost ok, but a large part of the trip to the plane was thwarted by NYC's total lack of luggage lockers. At the Manhattan Penn Station, I asked the tourist information for the locker locations, I was given a flyer with the address of a commercial locker facility (!), and upon walking the three blocks (!) with all my back-breaking luggage, it turned out this place was closed. To drive the point home: There is no place in Manhattan (maybe in New York City) where one can live his luggage for one afternoon. Probably this country has already completely succumbed to terrorism paranoia. In fact, after I reluctantly decided to forgo my planned sightseeing afternoon in Manhattan and took the metro to JFK (in fact, there is no direct connection, one has to change not only metro lines, but metro operators to get there), it turned out there is no place to leave your luggage at JFK, either. The check-in counters don't open until three hours before boarding. This meant staying at JFK for six hours, an international, major airport which nonetheless has no power sockets, no Internet, and only was seemed like three luggage carts for all of the millions of passengers to drive their suitcases around. Finally, it could be noted (although the point is obvious after having been here for four months) that the few luggage carts that are actually present cannot be used on escalators, unlike the ones anywhere in Germany.

Enough complaints! I arrived at Frankfurt alright (Iceland Air still existed, although food and drinks were visibly cheaper than a few months ago), and Germany immediately felt like... a part of the modern, industrialized World.

Travel

Everything went very smooth so far.

Yesterday's kidney scans (the "Christmas Kidneys") at the hospital went smooth. The kidneys looked good, the image data too, they were not rotten, and the last-minute fiducial insertion went alright too. Dropped them off in the lab fridge, cleaned up my desk, left office as last person on Christmas Eve.
There are only two groups of people still on campus these days - Asians, and lost individuals like me.

Then I drove home, the parcel I've been expecting arrived a few hours later, and of course immediately I commenced a heart transplant between QiLin and the new, still nameless arrival. Not very surprisingly, the backplanting of the OS X 10.5 from the new guy into QiLin worked immediately, like a charm, like a Mac. Somewhat more surprisingly, the forwardplanting of the old OS X 10.4 into the new guy worked less smoothly, but 30min and an install DVD later everything was green again. Awesome - same desktop, all my data, old bigger and badder.

Packing - although NP-complete - was surprisingly simple too.

Getting up, calling a cab worked too. I start understanding the black fellows' language.

Found the bus stop, one bus (at the right time) left without me after informing me that this is not the right one. Which is a bit disconcerting, when everybody at the busstop enters and leaves, only you stay there. Even more when everybody else is Chinese, and you're the only Westerner.
Luckily, it was not raining, it is comparatively warm at 45degF, and my little Chinese ("bu tai leng le; mei you ren; wo zhu zai deguo") was enough to stay friendly with the ticket seller who stayed behind.

The bus came, lots of space, smooth ride, and phone has reception. So I thought, yes, let's try Internet tethering to my new toy. It worked! 3G to WiFi-hotspot to Mac worked immediately. The connection was not too great, but it worked... until I found the bus itself has WiFi onboard. Woot! Internet on the ride. This is America, and 好好 共产党的 客车!

Paris in Winter

So, it is winter again! And again, I'm going home for Christmas, after three months in the New World. Christmas here doesn't feel like Christmas, actually. It is cold, there are some decorations... but there is no Christmas life. Maybe just not for an outsider, but still. Let's see whether my romantic idea of the Old World is really true, or whether I already suffer from nostalgia after this short time.

And! I had to promise MC that we're going to Paris for New Year's Eve. Not Paris, Texas, but Paris, France. So I googled what is this "Paris, France"... and look here. How confusing. Poor Frenchwomen!


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PS: Ha! One wouldn't believe what a problem the above post created. So... "Paris in Winter, Take 2":

And! I promised my gf recently that we'd be going to Paris together for New Year's Eve. Paris, France! With Eiffel Tower and all. The last time I've been there is so long ago... and it was with my school class. So this time will probably be nicer! Anyways, I'm looking forward to going there together.

Gasoline

I am not driving around enough. In this way, I cannot make full use of my rights as an American resident, one of which is the right to waste.

Today, I filled up Sandwich again. There was enough space for 17 gallons (some 68 liters) of Super Premium (which is the high-end gas variety, although at a mere 93 octanes), and it cost the outrageous price of 35$. This is only because I did not choose the cheapest station, where one gallon would have clocked in at less than two bucks.

Phallus Land

Probably everybody has heard of the conspiracy theory that the United States are built on a Freemasons' scheme to take over the world, with proof being the pyramid with the All-Seeing Eye on the dollar notes, the George Washington Monument being what it is, and lots of other easily uncovered issues (just read any Dan Brown novels).

As everybody knows just as well, this is complete and utter nonsense. There is no such conspiracy. The United States are not a plot to propel some obscure lodge to world dominance, they are not God's Own Country, they are just like any other country.

However, there is something else, something noteworthy but usually well-hidden. In spite of it prudish appearance, the U.S. are surprisingly lewd. The U.S. are a boiling cauldron of hot, unadulterated, barely-veiled -- sex. Its often-discussed affection for violence is just a ploy to divert the world's eyes from its real sinful addiction -- the phallus.

The phallus is actually everywhere in contemporary America. Probably it is even hidden to the eyes of its own population, but to an open-eyed, open-minded foreigner treading the soil of the New World for some time now, it is all but covert. In fact, one cannot turn without being blatantly, constantly being reminded of the true fetish, the one object of affection, the very culmination of American spirit: The Phallus.

What follows is a gallery of the obvious, a presentation of the unavoidable, a scrupulous uncovering of that which lies in the shadow of the public unconscious.


The George Washington Monument -- probably the longest stone Phallus of a Nation in the world.


The Capitol -- the Phallus of Democracy.


Leftovers from Halloween -- probably a phallo-pagan festival.


Cars in the driveway, the ultimate American phallus.


An American Squirrel, nibbling away at phallic corn.


One of the house's cats (a free pet, so to speak), lewdly looking out of the window.


And: A kendo session (which I am planning to attend in the future), probably a crypto-celebration of the phallus (plus, look at the porn-bar moustache of the guy at the right!).

And finally, the pinnacle of phallic dominance over day-to-day life, the porn-movie-industry foray into the housewife's drab existence, the vacuum cleaner -- the name of a vacuum cleaner in the house (with a 1950's look of "electricity makes the American housewife's life joyful!", incredibly massive, electrically driven - it really moves its heavy vacuum head back and forth, automatically, in a rocking, almost sensual vacuuming motion, back and forth, back and forth, with an integrated headlight), the Name to end all other household names, the Name which could not have been imagined by any marketing director's mind with a straight face, the monstrous Name of this American vacuum cleaner:

"The 14-inch Agitator".

Mom's Visit

As QiLin is busy filevaulting my personal account data (and probably will be doing so all night), these blogs are straight from the phone. All hail Nokia! However, the take much longer to write...

My mom had been here for a two weeks visit. This time was naturally filled with a lot of tours and sights, but unfortunately not quite as many as I had wished for - nor my mom. Somehow, the work here had suddenly become frantic at around the time she arrived here; Taylor had found we were running short on kidneys and MATLAB licenses, both of which conditions were unacceptable.

Still, we've had a lot of time together - more than in many many years; probably even never before. In fact, although it was exhausting at times to juggle all those incompatible requests, it was very nice. I got very much used to her being around... so much that now I feel that nobody cares any more whether I come home in the evening or not, go shopping or not, am anywhere - or not. The room where she had stayed has undergone a strange transformation - it is not the room next door any more, but my mom's room. Only now it is empty, which is very sad.

Nevertheless, the time we were able to spend together (in contrast to her walking around in Baltimore, which she now knows better than I do) was very well invested. More photos e.g. of Washington DC will follow, of course. Baltimore itself is quite worthwhile, too, which I haven't known before.




The Baltimore Cathedral; from what I understand the first Catholic church in the New World, designed and built by Henry(?) Latrobe, known for having a hall at the Johns Hopkins Homewood Campus named in his honour and famous as the architect of the Washington DC Capitol building.