The Power Of Baden

A Storm Rolls Through Baden

We had a huge storm roll through Baden on Thursday evening. In the part of Switzerland where we are living such storms are rare. The entire apartment was shaking from the lightning and thunder. It was so loud we actually unplugged our computers for fear that there was a possibility of a power surge if something was struck. Of course all the commotion didn't stop me from taking out the camera and setting up shop in the living room.

We have a covered section of balcony right outside our balcony door so I opened up the door and setup my camera and tripod just inside the door to keep myself and my camera gear dry.

Lighting can be a tricky thing to capture on film if you aren't using a lighting trigger. The lightning itself also needs to be clear and unobstructed by clouds to get a nice crisp defined edge. Although camera settings are one thing, I think it is more luck than anything to get a good shot.

For my attempts I had dialed in the settings as follows

• Exposure: 20 sec at f/10
• ISO Speed: ISO 100
• Exposure Compensation -2 EV

I think the trick to getting a decent exposure in a situation like the one I was shooting with the castle in the foreground is setting the exposure compensation to -2 stops. By setting for -2 you are telling the camera to underexpose, meaning that the picture will turn out a little too dark if this were a normal exposure. However, with lightning and clouds the bright light and clouds act light a huge light box flash, lighting the entire scene.

If you leave your exposure compensation at 0.0 the foreground will be washed out by the flash of the lightning. Getting it right takes a few test shots and a lot of luck.

The shot above of the lightning over the Stein Castle in Baden was just 1 of about 60 exposures I made all between 10 seconds and 30 seconds while I tried to find the best settings for the evening. Its also a question of pressing the shutter and hoping that sometime during the exposure a bolt of lightning will strike. It is really a guessing game. To get such a great picture takes patience and perseverance. And a little help from above.

Another Slow Up Ride in Switzerland

Slow Up Ride in Schaffhausen

I just wanted to post a picture from last weeks Slow Up ride through Switzerland and Germany. The ride started in Schaffhausen which is a town along the Rhine river. We crossed the border several times. I believe this section of the ride was actually in Germany. Don't tell anyone, but I didn't have my passport with me.

I always hear a lot of English at these Slow Up rides. It seems to be fairly popular with the expats. Well, either that, or its just the fact that something like 20% of the population here is foreigners.

Alergies

This week is allergy week for me. I was reading a friends blog the other day and he was complaining too so it must be the season back in the US as well.

Actually I know it is the season in the US because the worst week for me was always the week of Memorial Day. Every Memorial Day weekend the cotton wood tree next door would unleash its wrath and I would be sicker than a dog.

Although there isn't much cotton wood in Switzerland there is surely still a lot of pollen in the air.

I have a horrible sore throat. My eyes are watering constantly and at times I feel like I have two little rubber super balls jammed up my nose. It is no fun. I've been drinking warm drinks, tea and coffee at excessive levels to try to ease the pain in the back of my throat. I've also been taking alergy medication but for whatever reason it doesn't seem to give much relief.

I think the worst is over. This past Monday was really bad. Usually by mid June I return to normal. I just have to wait it out like every year.

Vielen Dank, Bis Bald

Personal triumph today. I was at work and received a phone call from my local IT staff about a new laptop I had ordered for my team. Only issue was the speaker on the other end started off in German. I decided to play along for fun.

I don't get a lot of opportunity to practice my German at work since most people prefer to practice their English with me.

The conversation was only a few minutes and I didn't say to much but I did cover a few things that even impressed myself.

• I asked for confirmation that the call was for a specific piece of hardware I requested
• I confirmed that I would be available in the afternoon to receive a delivery
• I gave directions to my working place.
• I scheduled a meeting for 3:00 pm.

It is somehow pathetic that a simple 3 minute conversation in a foreign language can bring so much personal satisfaction. Hey, two years, 3 hours a week and I finally get a laptop when I want it!

I celebrated with a beer after work at the beer garden, and I even ordered in German!

Ich denke dass, jeden Woche meinen Deutsh besser ist. Ich werde in September wissen. In September werde ich eine Goethe insitute prüfung machen. Bis nächstes mal meinen fruende. Tschüss.

American Car Buffs in Switerland

Final Version of Plymouth Grill

When I was out on a bike ride near Schaffhausen this weekend I came across a car buff with a garage. At the time he was pulling out is fleet for display. He had what looked like an ancient Volvo, a strange looking tractor, and to my surprise a Plymouth. With the vehicles all lined up and Swiss clean it looked like a photo opportunity in the making.

I hopped of the bike and got out my gear for a couple of shots. Once I got home the shots didn't really look that great but I had just gotten the full version of Photoshop and had read a recent article about a couple of good tricks to bring out polished metal on layersmagazine.com. The photos and a couple of minutes of play time seemed like an opportunity not to be wasted.

A few minutes in Photoshop really made the difference. I have also posted the original picture here for comparison. The original is straight out of the camera with no correction.

Sewing Beets

Feat of German Engineering

Over the weekend we rode our bikes in another Slow-Up event. One of the many weekend events where cities close their streets to traffic and allow bikers and rollerbladers to enjoy the open road.

This weeks route wound through towns in both Germany and Switzerland along the Rhine river. At one stop in Germany we found a nice festival going and decided to stop for lunch. One of the highlights, besides the Drum and Bugle core was the man sewing his beets.

No, I did not misspell sewing. This ingenious German engineer/inventor hadobviously not yet been introduced to some of the wonders of the modern world. Particularly the food processor. He had somehow rigged a sewing machine with a knife blade so that it would cut vegetables for the food they were preparing. The contraption definitely drew a crowd as I was not the only one taking pictures.

This one is a tough one to explain so I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

A Deutsch Meal

Very German Looking Dinner

Last weekend we raided German to take advantage of some of the lower food costs. We usually tend to interlace the lower cost German foods in our meals, not to use it all at once. Saturday night was a different story. We went full on Deutschland.

The first course started with a nice Fürstenberg Weizen beer. Which of course had to be enjoyed while I was preparing the second course.

The second course being various grilled sausages, chicken and boiled potatoes. I widened my horizons this time and choose a nice paprika wurst. I had hoped the flavor would match well with the weizen beer, I was not disappointed.

The other sausage that has been growing on me is käsewurst, cheese sausage. I remember this being introduced in the US just around the time I left. In the US it was billed as Brats with Cheese. The European version actually tastes somewhat like a US cheese dog with the cheese on the inside.

All in all, it was a satisfying meal. I'll definitely have to pick up a few more bottles of Fürstenberg next time I'm in Waldshut.

MAYDAY, MAYDAY, We're Low on Macaroni

I came home from work yesterday to some horrendous news. In fact, are American food stuffs are dwindling and we are reaching critical levels of Kraft Mac & Cheese. With inventory shrinking and an increase in demand expected between Memorial Day and Labor day this may be one of the worst summers yet.

Fortunately my parents are scheduled for a visit shortly after Labor day. I expect a surge in inventories sometime in early September. With co-workers traveling back and forth to the US on regular occasions I am sure I can find someone to put an extra box or two in a carry on for me as well. I'll just have to start lobbying around the office next week I suppose.

Yes, I am an adult, and yes I do like Mac & Cheese. And yes I can do more than boil water in the kitchen. It's just that Mac & Cheese is so Americana. It is everything that the Swiss aren't. It is processed, fast, lacks any fresh vegetables, and keeps for months. Besides the cheese part, it stands for everything anti Swiss. Don't take me wrong, I really enjoy Switzerland. Since moving here it is nice to get a taste of home once in a while and my Mac & Cheese is a sure way to do it.

Zürich Main Station

Thursday was a public holiday in canton Arrgau, however people who work in canton Zürich still had to work. That means I was off, and my wife was headed to the office. I took advantage of the free time and did some things I had been meaning to do.

In the morning I took the train to Zürich to take some photographs in the main station. I was not very fortunate and spent most of the time just scoping out different angles. The photos I got were for the most part subpar. Although I did get one good one of the train sign as the departures where changing. I love watching these kind of signs as the cities and times manually scroll through their options. It's really fun to watch.

For lunch I met my wife for Chinese food close to the train station. We went to a small place called Beyond that actually had some of the best Chinese food I have had in Switzerland. I would highly recommend it. The fact that most of the clients had Asian features was a give away that I was in for something good.

After lunch I headed back to Baden and got on my bike for a training ride. I finally made it to Egelsee which had been a long time goal for me. There and back was about 2 hours and 15 minutes with a lot of climbing. I was really wiped out after that.

View Larger Map

Egelsee looked like a really nice spot for a summer picnic and a swim. On the edge of the lake was a tall wooden platform that looked like a makeshift 3 meter platform dive. I'm sure the kids love it in the summer. The lake itself was small and as smooth as glass. I was a little disappointed I didn't have my camera but now at least I know where it is. This was the third time I had tried to find it.

Under Construction

Baden Clock Tower Renovation

Our beloved neighbor across the street has been neglected. Years of acid rain and pigeon poop have done there deed and our friend the clock tower is now getting his much needed face lift. The worked started several weeks back with quite a display of scaffolding expertise.

The Baden clock tower itself has been wrapped on four sides with scaffolding from the base all the way the to the roof line. Over the scaffolding the construction company has draped a large canvas that has a picture of the clock tower on it. I suppose the thought is to hide the ugliness of the construction.

I have seen these picture canvases at other construction and renovation sites throughout Europe. There are particularly popular with cathedral renovations to hide the scaffolding and allow the tourists to still get their picture with a little less obvious crew of jack hammer toting workers in the background.

The tower is set to be worked on until the fall, so unfortunately I will have to look at it like this all summer.

Swiss Fusionman

Swiss Fusionman as he is known has made a successful flight with his home brew rocket wings here near the Alps. The swiss inventor/pilot is regularly in the local press here but now he seems to have gone global. There is a full story on wired.com for details.

Shopping in Germany

We made a quick trip to Germany to do some grocery shopping today. It had been a while since we went and we had a craving for tortilla chips. Here was the final list

• beer
• tortilla chips
• onions
• green peppers
• Sausage for grilling
• Spare ribs for grilling
• ice cream
  
• garbage bags
• liquid soap
• Q-tips
• turkey fillets
• chocolate chip cookies
• a loaf of nut bread

We generally stick to things that are either a lot cheaper, or just not available in Switzerland. On the way back on the train I was listening in on the conversation in the next seat. I am getting to a point with the German now where I don't just tune out others. I actually pick up on things that are being said. Anyway, the two old women in the next seat were commenting on how something things were 50% cheaper in Germany. Very true, very true indeed.

Boobies Make Me Smile

As the weather gets warmer the outfits are getting strange again. There are major cultural differences between European dress, and North American dress. One of the biggest differences is what one wears in the office.

Usually Europeans dress better than your average American office. Shirts and ties are the norm rather than the exception I find. Ratty polo shirts, and crinkled kakis are definitely a no-no.

Today, however, I saw something at the office that wouldn't even pass in America. As I was walking out, I saw a familiar face walking in, dressed a little more casual in a bright red long sleeve T-shirt. Scrawled across the front was the phrase 'Boobies Make Me Smile.'

Yes indeed that may be true, but do you really want to let the entire office know that's how you feel? Hmmmmm... I could go on and on on this topic, but I'll just leave it there.

Man Wears Liederhosen...To Work

I usually don't blog about work, but this time I have to. I was in an all day workshop in a meeting room with about 10 people discussing some topics that we needed to move forward on.

Right outside of the conference room there was a large open area that includes a small smoking area. Yes some offices in Europe have indoor smoking areas. I don't like it , but I deal with it.

Anyway, at one point someone was going out of the room to take a call. As the door opened I caught sight of a man smoking, wearing liederhosen and knee high green socks. That was so awesome. Part of me was hoping he would pull out his Alp Horn and serenade us. Although we are an international company I think I would have to suggest to HR that they should implement a no liederhosen policy.

I am not sure what that was all about, but it was weird.

The Demise Of The National Sausage

This is terrible news. The one Swiss sausage that I like is as risk of extinction because of a ban on Brazilian beef intestine imports that are used to make the casings.

What will I ever do with out my Cervelat.

Full story here.

Summer, Now I Remember

A few short weeks ago I was thinking to myself, why the heck am I in Switzerland. The skies are gray, its cold and dark and people can be pushy. But the last week or so reminded me. It is the phenominal summer weather.

All weekend I was outsite on the terrace or biking around. It was a very comfortable 75 degrees. Not to hot, not to cold. Just perfect.

These types of days are what makes this a nice place to live. I have heard that upper Michigan and New England have similar summers.

Time to enjoy the summer, after all, this might be the last one I have in Switzerland. We'll just have to wait and see I guess, it's too early to tell.

Celebrate With a Little Schwingen

Nearing the End of a Swiss Schwingen Match

I thought today I would take the bike at on a leisurely ride with my camera gear in hopes that I would find something that inspired me. I was not disappointed. During my ride I ran across one my favorite Swiss spectator sports., Schwingen. I had seen schwingen before so I knew I was in for some great sports action shots, and its just entertaining as heck.

For those that arenät familiar with this sport is is similar to traditional wrestling, with one exception, you are allowed to grab your opponent by his funny looking burlap pants. I think they really look like diapers. Itäs just so funny to see these big guys walking around in mid evil depends.

The match is played on a saw dust surface so the entire area around the arena has a pleasant pine smell to it. Beer, bratwurst, and watered down apple juice known ans Apfelschorle are always served.

The lifts and throws can be quite impressive and like the dolphin show at the zoo, if you sit in the front row you are likely to get a little bit extra. Instead of water, you tend to go home with a little sawdust in your hair. But it's well worth it.

I enjoyed the show sitting ring side with a nice local brew from Müllerbrau. A perfect end to a holiday weekend.

I Can Finally Sleep At Night....

I can finally sleep at night knowing the cows have come home, to my QNAP T-209, 750 Gig , Raid 1, linux based network attached storage device. And gosh do I feel better.

As my photography consumes a large part of my free time I am always worried about where to store my digital photos. First I just need a lot of space. Second, I would never want to lose anything should a hard drive crash, or a DVD melt away in the sun.

When I started in digital photography around 2001 Network Attached Storage (NAS) units for home use did not really exist or if they did they were über expensive. But today the prices have dropped and it finally made sense to me to pony up a little extra cash for an extra photo insurance policy.

If you don't know what a NAS is, it is essentially a very large hard drive that is attached to you home network. Any computer on your home network can store and retrieve files from the device. They are often used to backup files in case of a 'disaster' on the primary PC.

In my case, since my PC disk space is limited compared to the volume of digital photos I have, I can no longer store one copy of photos on my PC and one on a external hard drive so I looked for a 'Raid 1' NAS device. This is just a fancy way of saying that the NAS actually doesn't have a single hard drive, but two hard drives. As data is put on one hard drive it is simultaneously copied to the second. So if..... no let me correct, when one drive fails I'll still have my data and a little bit of time to move the data before it is lost forever.

The QNAP has some nice extra features that make it a handy little toy. It has an iTunes webservice that is pretty neat. If my wife and I post all of your music to the QNAP iTunes can detect the library on the network and let us browser our joint collection from any of the computers in the house. I go that running pretty quickly with no problems at all. And my music is already loaded. I'll just have to see if my wife wants to share with me ;)

It also has a built in webserver that is PHP/MySQL based. This means there are web interfaces for loading you digital images to the device, playing music from the device, or it will actually run photo slide shows that are available to any web browser on the network. It also means I have a nice little test server to try out some changes to the Twisstedswisster.com website before I publish them to the world.

There is a bit torent tool that will manage your bit torrent downloads if you are into that. I tested that and it seems to work pretty well too.

So since the wife was out of town this weekend it was a techie couple of days getting things up and running. But now, the hard drives are installed, the NAS is running, my photo archives are moved and all my cow photos have come home to a new redundant system.

Ahhhhh tonight will be a restful night.

Don't Play With Your Food

This is just strange. The guy has a whole series of videos on youtube if this peaks your interest.

Inspired to Bike

I got my bike back from the mechanic today. The broken crank arm was fixed so of course I had to take it on a test ride this afternoon.

I was out and riding through the hills for a little over an hour. The bike rides great. I can tell the mechanic adjusted the derailleurs as well. The shifts are smoooooth as ice. A very nice feeling when you are riding uphill.

Speaking of uphill I now take a totally different training tactic that I did last summer. Any time I see a chance to go up, I take it. I am always climbing up. Up, Up Up. It makes for a very strenuous ride but that is what I need to prepare myself for, for this race.

Speaking of the race, I registered online today. I am officially a race participant. Our flights are booked, are hotels are booked (thanks to my wife) and I am ready to go. I am really getting excited. I need to keep up the training this weekend. I am in the last month before the race and this becomes a critical period.

I have to push myself just enough to keep improving but not too much to get hurt.

Death By Door Knob

Yesterday I was walking around with great pains in my forearms.

Swiss door knobs, or should I call them levers, are not like door knobs I have seen elsewhere. They are clearly blunt weapons of destruction. The levers run parallel to the ground. If one should be walking through an open bedroom or kitchen door and is not careful there is a very strong possibility that you can hit your arm squarely against the protruding blunt end.

Lets just say I know this from expereince and I have two bruises, one on each fore arm to prove it.

Unplanned Outage Notice

Oops.

Should have taken a lesson from my own IT management book. I had a few minor troubles the the last days with my switch but I think everything is good now. I can't blame anybody else, I messed up a couple of things but now I am back online again.

It has been a while since I have done any techie stuff like moving a domainname, porting files around with FTP tools, firing up web development tools (Dreamweaver). I tend to get pulled into such things for hours on end when I get back to them and it short of has a therapeutic feeling to it. Grinding away combing through HTML or CSS stylesheets or what not.

I did something else that was kind of new for me. I have also been playing with phpbb a php powered forum tool. It is the first time I have done anything with php. phpbb is an open source bulletin board so it was total free.

I was amazed how quickly and easily it installed on my web host. The last open source thing I installed was DotNetNuke about 4 years ago and that was a bit of a pain at the time. phpBB had a really nice install procedure and it was up and running in about 30 minutes.

Welcome to TwisstedSwisster.com

Well, well, if you are reading this then I have successfully moved my web hosting service. I was having a terrible time with my previous hosting service. Although my website has been up and running I have not had access to my e-mail since about the 22nd of May.

Over the past year or so I have noticed a slow degradation of services and support from my provider mavweb.net and ASPNOW.com. I joined mavweb back in the late 90's and was always very happy with the support and fast turn around. I don't really know what happened but they no longer seem to be able to answer a phone or return an e-mail.

I have been trying to get through via e-mail for the last week and today my e-mails started bouncing back saying the support mailbox was full.

If I call their support number I get a message that there servers crashed and there are trying to fix it. It is the same message that had been playing every day for a week with no update. I checked around on the web and saw that a lot of other people have been having problems too. That was the last straw.

Being in IT I see some massive room for some Continuous Improvement Projects. I would highly recommend that the mavweb.net folks get some ITIL v3 training to learn how to run a support organization. I might suggest that someone over there get a copy of the 'Service Operation' manual and read it. That might give them a bit of a clue on what customer service means.

I speak from experience. I do this for a living, and most of what mavweb is doing right now seems to be a perfect example of what not to do.

Here is a typical post from the web about mavweb's services.....

Service was horrible. After days of my website being down, i finally managed to get through to the on support number which was forwarded to a cell phone. Shawn on the other end told me they were too busy shopping and to call back in a few hours... then hung up. HUH?!?!? I called back and he asked me to stop calling..... then he proceeded to tell me that everything is ok with the servers, and i must be typing in the website address wrong. The customer support was HORRIBLE!!! i canceled immediately.

So to my personal benefit this mishap on mavweb's part has finally pushed me to relaunch the site branded as Twisstedswisster.com. I had bought the domain name several months ago thinking at some point I would make the transition and today is the day.

If you are a repeat visitor to my site, please be sure to update your saved bookmarks and I hope to see you visiting again real soon.

One Legged Lunch in Leichtenstein

Small Village near Buchs, Switzerland.

This morning we set out for a Slowup bike ride on the western border of Switzerland. Slowup events are organized every couple of weeks during the summer and offer a chance to enjoy roads traffic free. Municipalities shut down a trail of main streets for many kilometers and open the roads only to bikes, rollerbladers, joggers, anything except cars.

This weekend the Slowup was a 53 Km (32 Mile) course through the cities of Vaduz and Buchs. Vaduz is of course not in Switzerland but in the tiny country of Leichtenstein. At 62 square miles Lichtenstein is actually just about the same geographic area as the city of Richmond, Virginia. The population of Richmond however far exceeds Liechtenstein.

If you haven't heard of Leichtenstein I wouldn't be surprised. It seems to only be known to people that live in Switzerland and stamp collectors. Leichtenstein seems to just be an extension of Switzerland really. They use the Swiss Franc for currency, my swiss train pass is good there, and there are no borderguards at the crossing.

During our trip we rode about 15 km through Leichtenstein and stopped at a nice spot along the way to have a little lunch. Which brings me to another strange swiss culturalism. The Swiss have a hard time not saying 'En Guete' around lunch time. 'En Guete' translates to enjoy your meal. If you are leaving the office around lunch time everyone you pass will say 'En Guete' even if you aren't anywhere near any food. So why am I thinking about this today? As we were sitting by the side of the trail, a passing cyclist saw us with our picnic and yelled out 'En Guete,' what a strange place this can be at times.

So after our lunch and about 40 km into the ride we get to a small town and I notice there is something going terribly wrong with my left pedal. I have felt this feeling before and know it immediately as being related to stripped threads. I take a deep breath, and my wife suggests we stop for some ice cream. I agree and figure I can use the break to figure out what I am going to do next.

Taking a closer look I see that the pedal is all but shot and I am going to have to find a different way home. But wait, what would coach Troy do? Coach Troy, my cycling coach (By way of DVD stationary bike training videos) would be so disapointed if I let a simple broken pedal get in the way of a good work out. Coach Troy would start barking, one leg drill. 'Come on here we go. 1 minute on for each leg and then switch. We are going to do 6 sets, 5, 4,3,2,1..GO!'

At that was that, I would try to do the rest of the course, 13 km with one leg. Not really the 1 minute reps that coach Troy would have preferred but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Along the way I kept hearing people mubbling in German about the crazy guy biking with one leg. At one point some guy turned to me and said I better work out my left leg when I get home. I was riding with my right.

At another point, A guy rides up to me in a recumbent bike and asks if my bike is broken in German. I wasn't really paying too much attention to him because I was climbing a slight hill and I was really working hard. I respond in German, yes, and 1 leg is better than no legs. I take a second glance at the guy and notice he is a paraplegic in a recumbent bike and he is pedaling with is arms, boy do I feel like an ass. Talk about a Jerry Sienfield moment.

In the end, I made it the 13 km (8 miles) back to the Buchs train station on one leg. We had some time to waste before the next train so I celebrated with a beer. Boy I'm glad that is over. Now, tomorrow I've got to get my bike to the shop to get if fixed. But I figure 13 km on one leg means I'm in pretty good shape for that race in June.

Some Hair With Your Espresso Sir?

I made a trip to the hairdresser today to get my haircut. I use the word hairdresser because as they don't really have walk in barbershops. Regardless I refuse to make appointments.

Between trips earlier this week I had about 2 hours of time during regular business hours to get a cut. I walked into 3 different shops and none of them had time, despite the fact that there was 2 hours left in the work day and all the hairdressers were sitting around chatting with nothing else to do. Customer server here, as I have said before, is appalling.

So today I went back to my normal place, again, nobody there except the two hairdressers, but this time they were able to squeeze me in. I got my regular 20 minutes of German practice talking about work and the weather with the hairdresser. That was nice.

At the start of the cut they always ask if you want a coffee or an espresso. I could never figure out why in the world you would want a coffee while you are getting your haircut. It seems ridiculous.

As I was getting my haircut, an older Swiss gentlemen walked in to get his haircut. He sat next to me and when asked the coffee question he replied in the affirmative. The hairdresser prepared the small espresso in a cup with a saucer and placed in on the counter in front of the guy. Now, I was ready for the show. How in the world was this guy going to reach for the cup while having is top cropped without causing all sorts of mayhem.

Well a a natural break in his haircut when the hairdresser was changing scissors he leaned forward and grabbed the cup. She started cutting and again and there he was sipping on his Espresso. I can't help but think the hair was probably flying into the cup as he as drinking. Thanks but no thanks, that just seems like a bad idea.

Photoshop Can Do Wonders

I don't spend too much time using Photoshop to edit my photographs. I spend most of my time using Adobe's Lightroom application which is a faster, organizational tool with some minor retouching features. However, once in a while I find a need to fire up Photoshop (in my case elements 4.0) and do some editing. This the images below were a perfect example of where a little Photoshop expertise goes a long way.

I loved the composition of the first photograph. But something was a little distracting to me.

Before a Quick Edit

Looking at the photo there is a distracting straight line down the side of the monument. This is actually a electrical ground wire running from the top of the monument in Trafalgar Square. I wanted to see if I could get ride of it to improve the composition a bit. Below is the retouched image.

After 5 minutes in Photoshop elements using the clone tool.

With a short 5 minutes in Photoshop elements I was able to remove the line using the clone tool. I think it looks much better now.

Photoshop Elements is currently on Version 6 and I am still using version 4. I am about 7 years behind in. I was considering upgrading but I am too cheap to spend the 100 USD. I keep telling myself I might by the full version of Photoshop. Since I am such an avid photographer and know how to use the tool, it would surely be something I would use quite a bit. But if I have trouble spending the 100 USD for elements I don't know how I could ever convince myself to spend the 600 USD for the full Photoshop suite.

My online stock photo sales are going well lately. Maybe I can allocate the money I make from that towards Photoshop. That may be a good incentive for me to keep selling my work on the internet. If I did that my own hobby would be feeding my hobby and that is a lot easier to justify than just dropping 600 USD on some software.

Another Airport Kielbasa

It has been a long week and a half. After my trip to the UK for training I had one night at home and then turned around to the airport for another business trip to Poland. I had to move a previously planned trip and the only place to fit it in the schedule was this week. So for the last week and a half I've been living out of hotels.

Every time I go to Poland I tell myself I'll get a good Kielbasa (Sausage) but every time I go I forget about it until I'm in the airport ready to go home. At which time I go to the 70's style cafeteria restaurant in Fredric Chopin airport and get my sausage from a round looking Polish woman with an hair net and and an Angelska name tag.

This time I didn't have might time to sitesee although I did go to a traditional evening business meal. Now what is a traditional Polish business meal? Lets just say after the 3 obligatory shots of Vodka, a couple of beers and about 3 pounds of meet each I had a bit of trouble wobbling home from the restaurant. The dinner was over the course over a couple of hours so I don't think it was the alcohol as much as it was the brick of food in my stomach that was giving me trouble.

When I got back I could not of course go to sleep with the medicine ball sized lump of pork knuckle in my stomach so I watched the 2nd to last episode of 24 season 1 before trying to drift off to sleep.

Luckily today is a public holiday in Switzerland and most of Europe so I am going to use today to sit around and do nothing. Ahh, to be at home again.