Skynyrd in Wettingen

It's true, it's confirmed.  Lynyrd Skynyrd is playing in Wettingen, Switzerland.  What you say, how could that be possible?  I too was a bit skeptical knowing that Wettingen has the same type of prominence on the music scene as Palos Park, Illnois, or Brandermill subdivision in the greater Richmond Virginia area.  To put that in terms for the rest of the world, it is analogous to a huge band playing warm up act at the municipal band shell in a country town of 1000 people.

As my wife has never been to a 'rock concert'  this is one that I think would be a perfect first.  What other kind of weird juxtaposition of American music and Swiss culture could be more fitting.

I've already been online trying to buy tickets but I don't think they are on sale yet.  I'll have to keep checking back to see when they are available.

Searching for a New PC

Thank you to all of you that have sent me personal e-mails touting the advances and benefits of a Mac. Needless to say, your suggestions are futile. We have a mac at home already, and I really don't care for it.

As my current PC is at a little over 3 years of age, I am not suprised that it is failing. I usually coun't on hardware lasting about 3 years. I think my last laptop lasted about 5 years, which really suprised me.

So now I find myself shopping for a new PC. I've been spending most of my time on the Dell Switzerland site. I am pretty sure I will be purchasing from an online store like the Dell site for one single reason. I can order an English version of the operating system.

So after battling through the Dell Switzerland site, presented in either German or French, I have finally settled on the machine. I am pretty sure I will be going with a XPS 430 with 4GB ram. I want all the ram because of all of the photography work I do.

The only remaining question I have is should I get a 64 bit or a 32 bit operating system. The benefit of 64 bit is better handling of large quantities of data. Large photos as an example. I have checked compatibility of a few of my favorite programs and both Adobe Lightroom, and iTunes of course, are 64 bit compatible. One program that might be a bit of a problem is my QNAP 209 NAS device. The QNAP 209 is a large network storage device where I keep all of my photos. If I can find proof that that will work I might go with 64 bit. If not I think I will stick with 32 bit.

Looks like I need a couple more days to investigate before I am ready to make a purchase.

Battling the PC Again

A few months back I had a problem with my PC. It was blue screening regularly. About once a day. I decided to restore using the Dell restore partition F12 trick. That seems to have bought be some extra time but alas, it is happening again.

After about 5 attempts to reboot, I finally got her up and running in safe mode. My PC is about 3 years old and it gets pretty heavy usage. I am worried that it is quickly approaching end of life.

The good thing was during the most recent mishap I wasn't really too concerned because I've been pretty good about backing up my files onto an external storage device. I figured that this time, if it really was the end, I would have lost a couple of hours of work on my photos, but really not much else.

Fingers crossed that she keeps ticking. Otherwise I'll be doing some online shopping for a replacement real soon.

Kaiserstuhl, Switzerland

Kaiserstuhl, Switzerland

Last weekend we took a trip to Kaiserstuhl Switzerland on a whim. We wanted to get out for a hike and do somewhere within a short trip. We found that Kaiserstuhl fit the bill. It was about 45 minutes from Baden and was touted as having a great old town center right on the Rhine river.

The town was small, You could walk from one end of the town to the other in about 10 to 15 minutes, but it was still a nice little town. The bridge along the Rhine takes you right into Germany. We strolled across the bridge and no one even seemed to notice. The boarder crossing was unmanned, the staff probably had Sunday off I supposed.

On the German side we walked along the river along a nice path, occasionally met by a group of walkers muttering their 'Gutten Tages' and 'Hallos' as opposed to our usual Swiss 'Gruezis'.

Go to Kasierstuhl for a walk along the Rhine, and only if you are in the area. It probably isn't worth much more than that.

Street Performers - Time Lapse of a Native American Flute Band

I had some free time on Saturday and there was a group of street performers outside of my apartment so thanks to the advice of my wife I decided to try to make a time lapse movie of the event.

She wanted to know how many people actually put money in the music case of the musicians. This video depicts about 1 hour of real time in a 2 minute video.

If somebody wants to watch and count the number of times people drop change in the case be my guest.

New Rice Cooker

Way back in the day we had a rice cooker. We used it all the time but decided to sell it before we moved to Switzerland thinking we would get another when we got here. The entire 110 volt to 220 volt thing was what motivated us to sell it.

To our surprise when we looked for a rice cooker in Switzerland they were priced around 80 CHF ($67) which seemed a bit extreme for something we could get in The States for about $15 at a Walmart. So for the past 2 and a half years we have really limited our rice intake and our Asian cooking has dwindled.

Last weekend we made am emergency trip to Media Markt (a.k.a. Best Buy) to check out some things and while we were out in Silbern we also stopped at the Otto store. An Otto is a strange mix between an Aldi and a Walmart. Really cheap stuff, piled up, sitting around in a warehouse. They are really small places compared to U.S. stores, maybe about the size of a typcial Walgreens or CVS drugstore.

So while we were in the Otto we spotted a reasonably priced rice cooker, on sale for 29 CHF ($24). This seemed like the best price we were likely to get so we went ahead and bought it. I think it was probably on sale because it was huge. It was not like the little one that we had back in the U.S. that would work perfectly well for 2-4 people. This is enormous, It is probably resturant size in Europe. I have a feeling that because it was so big, nobody was buying them, thus they ended up in the Otto at a great price.

On another note I haven't been writing as much as normal because of a lot of things going on at work lately. I just haven't had the free time that I usually have to sit down and write a post. I hope it will change, but I think I will be pretty busy the next couple of weeks.

How to Dress Like a 14 Year-Old Swiss Boy

It seems that U.S. jeans sizes are changing. Last time I was in the U.S. I bought a pair of Jeans that should have fit, in fact they did fit, in the U.S. Yes, they fit in the U.S. where one walks no more than from one's sofa to the car, from the car to the mart-cart.

After I got back to Europe I noticed that the length of the jeans I had bought were just a little too long. A little to long for any amount of walking. A belt wasn't helping as I was walking all over the bottoms. I know that back in the U.S. walking all over your pants and tearing them to shreds is somehow cool but I just can't stand that feeling.



So as I was riding the train trying to think of a quick fix other than hiking my pants up like a WWII army officer I had a bright idea. A solution I had seen a hundred times, always wondering why anybody would do it. Tucking the bottom of my pants in my socks. Yes this sounds completely stupid, and yes at times it does look completely as stupid as it sounds.

The only time this can pass as acceptable in my mind it when one is riding his bike and has no other option but to get a nice pair of dress pants covered in grease.

The only other acceptable use of this practice is when you are a 14 year-old Swiss Boy trying to imitate an L.A. rapper. I admit, I felt a little foolish, but after tucking in only the front part of my jeans into my socks, I had temporarily solved my problem for the walk home.

Basel Fasnacht 2009

Lanterns On Display at Basel Fasnacht

On Tuesday evening we made a trip to Basel to experience the Basel Fasnacht (Carnival) celebration. We were lucky enough to be able to go with a work colleague of mine that is native to the Basel area so he gave us a personal tour of the city.

The big celebration on Tuesday starts at 4:00 AM in the morning with a procession of lanterns that are carried through the streets while musicians beat drums and play flutes. The lanterns were traditionally lit with candles but today are lit with candles, propane burners, LED lights are even florescent lights. The lanterns themselves often carry messages or commentary on local or national political issues.

The musicians that accompany the lanterns dress in elaborate costumes that aour guide was telling us can cost upwards of 2000 Swiss francs. the Big headed creations are amazing displays of craft and ingenuity.

One of the traditions of the event is to wear a pin on your lapel representing the celebration. If you do not have a pin the creatures have the right to attack you and stuff confetti down your shirt and into your hair. The costumes and the music groups are judged by a festival committee and the winning group receives a prize that is based on money collected during the sale of the festival pins.

As I am used to traditional Guggen Music, loud blaring brass bands not playing together, the small 4 to 6 person drum and fife groups that wander the streets in perfect step serenading the revelers was a nice departure to the music I am used to in Baden.

I liken the drum and flute music to something one were hear on the parade grounds in Williamsburg, Virgina. A lot of the songs that were played were familiar too me. While I didn't know the names of the pieces I found myself humming along and having a good time.

If you have the chance to visit the Basel version of Fasnacht it is really a unique experience. I would love to go again next year. The best part about it is I can enjoy the music, the calamity, and then go home. A nice departure from the normal Guggen Music displays under my balcony.

Provisional Tax Bill: Here Comes the Tax Man

One thing I had to get used to upon arriving to Switzerland were the provisional tax bills. I never pay very close attention to how often they arrive. I'm not proud of that because I feel like I should be in good control of my finances but it is not something I ever wanted to stress over.

Regardless, I think they come about two or three times a year. Since the company doesn't take taxes out of my pay check, I instead get these enormously large bills in the mail. The first couple of times I was in total shock, thinking who could pay that. Well, I could I guess. And I did.

Now, when I see the envelops come, while I am not as surprised as I used to be I still get a little sticker shock.

Another exciting event this weekend was tax preparation. I use a large accounting firm in the US to prepare my US taxes. And every year I have to fill out an online questionnaire along with this massive 4 Mb excel file with so many built in marcos that the thing takes about 45 seconds to save.

I usually like online tools and files but this particular website is terrible for data entry. As an example there is a form that is essentially an online W2 (a W2 is a form provided by U.S. employers with all of your information about taxible income). This form has an exact copy of the 40 or so fields of the W2 form in a column. In the online form if you are employed by more than one employer, you simply click a button to 'add new employer' and an additional set of 40 fields, one on top of the other are added to the bottom of the list.

Now, imagine this, I have to list my primary employer, my wifes primary employer, as well as the 3 or 4 other companies that my wife does small jobs for on a free lancebasis. As a result I now have 40 X 5 = 200 fields all stacked neatly on top of each other. With now way to colapse sections, or hyperlink down the page to the section I am interested in. No, ease of use is not a consideration here. It is a finger of steel work out. Using that scroll wheel...., come on,.....roll it,.....roll it,....and two,.....and three,....were almost there......Yes.

The good news is the data entry is done. The bad news is I'll have to do the same process again when it is time to prepare my Swiss returns.

Visit To The Art Museum: Street Art In Switzerland

Gaffiti Near Neuenhof, Switzerland.

Today we went to the art museum. Not a traditional museum, but rather what I would call at street art exhibition. Not far from Baden is a long concrete bridge. The upper level is for vehicle traffic and underneath is a pedestrian path. The walk way under the Schwimmbadstrasse bridge has become a sort of gallery for street artists.

On any given weekend a walk down the paths reveals two or three artists at work in plain day light. Buckets of paint, large paint rollers, and backpacks full of spray paint cans are carefully laid out in front of the concrete canvas.

Rollers are put to work painting over a old work clearing the way for a new installment. Being Swiss and concerned with safety dusk masks are donned shortly after the base layer drys. A sure sign that the real creation is about to start. The Swiss seem to accept graffiti in some areas like this underpass. Artists seem to be allowed, and even encouraged to use the space to express themselves.

Although the bridge is only a couple of hundred meters long the art is really amazing. We spent about an hour walking the path and admiring the work. As artists come and go, so do the works. A constantly changing canvas of concrete. We'll surely be back in a couple of months time to see the new installments.