My interests

Well, my interests... hmm... it's mostly computers, but that should be obvious by now, so lets see what's else there.

Martial arts

I started with Judo when I was seven, but I didn't really like it. It was more, like I was being used to it. Then I started learning Shotokan-Karate when I was 14. I was good - 6th in Kata on the German championship in the kids class - but then I got problems with my back, and my parents made me stop.

Since I started learning Karate, I was beaten up in school on a regular basis, but suddenly that stopped. It's not that I could defend myself better or so. It just stopped. I'm sure it had something to do with how that training formed me. I wasn't afraid anymore, and just nothing ever happened again.

Karate also had a good influence on my temper - really useful for programmers :-) I guess nowadays, there are only few things that make me angry anyway. Telling other people how they have to live their lifes, or what they have to do or say is one of the few things that make me totally stubborn :-]

When I moved away from home, at 20ish age, I started with Wing-Chun and Karate again, and again had to stop when I did my time at the army. Then my left knee went cronch, then I got a slipped disk in my back, so I started with Tai-Chi, which did really good to my bones. However, no other martial art besides of karate really played a role.

Ah, water!

During my school-time, I learned scuba-diving, but, due to a lack of lakes in this part of Germany, I don't practice that anymore - even if I still think it's one of the most fantastic things to breath underwater. During the summer, I try to go as much swimming as I can - nope, not laying in the sun, getting myself fried, I said swimming!

Take a ride?

I always had good bikes, and when they came up here in Germany, I was one of the first people that bought a mountain-bike. It's mostly city here, and there are only few rural places that are fun to ride, but speeding down a single-track always reminds me of the tunnel-scenes in Star Wars and always provides me with a way cool adrenaline-rush.

Living right in the city, they stole three of my bikes: First a house-model of the dealer where I bought it, then a Panasonic, which was way too large to do cross-country. My third bike, which I still think was a great one, was a Fisher HK-II. They stole it right after I put all the expensive equipment (you know, new wheels, new groups, ...) on it :-(

Since over 5 years now, I'm the proud owner of a Rocky-Mountain Cirrus. Perhaps it's not the most hip bike around anymore, but it hasn't been stolen, has served me well, and IMHO is still a real eye-candy. It also was the bike that made me stop fearing steep downs.

Or a slide!

Last year, I have started inline-skating. I got my first roller-skates when I was 12, and spent many summers on the big plazas in front of the cologne-cathedral , but I never could do ice-skating, and had real doubts that this would work out. I got myself a pair of K2 (warning, this is a German page) Z-Extremes and once I learned how to keep my feet upwards everything was cool. When the weather is fine, I skate about 30 Kilometers daily, on my way to work, and back home.

I'd love to do some tricks, like skating down stairs, but that has to wait until I have some more solid skates, because I'm just too heavy for extreme-riding those poor K2s.

Shock your parents, Read A Book!

Besides of sports, I read a lot - if I have the time!

I never felt much like reading as a kid, but at the railway-station before my 14th birthday, I bought a SF novel by S.R. Delaney called Nova - mostly because of the cool picture in front (yawn) - and since then was hooked on SF. My favorite authors are S.R. Delaney, Norman Spinrad, Alfred Bester and last-but-not-least Bruce Sterling. I also enjoy reading non-new-wave SF like Heinlein, but Fantasy just makes me sick. I even tried Tolkien, and, sorry folks, I found it booooring.

It took me a long time to start reading non-SF books, and one of my favorites here is Andrew Vachss. He writes hardcorish Crime-stories mostly about a kind-of underground detective named Burke, but there's much more to his books than cool action-stories. So, if you really want to learn something about how sick child molesters really are - and be prepared, that this journey won't be that much fun - I suggest you visit his website.

And listen...

The topic child molesters leads us to music, more exactly to Tori Amos, which can be found about everywhere on the net, for example here. Tori has brought an organization named R.A.I.N.N. (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) to life, but according to some news that I heard lately, it has been shutdown, because it was too expensive. To quote Jay Leno about Tori's music: "This is serious stuff"

I really love music, but I just can't stand it, if it is stupid music. I admire Kate Bush - no, Tori definitely does NOT sound like KT - and Peter Gabriel. I found the first Rage against the machine to be really impressive - I just never heard so much anger in a singer's voice. Despite of what all others say, I think David Bowie's 1 Outside is great. I love The Police, and I hate Sting for what he does now. Björk is really innovative, and I always have to mention that I already admired her way of singing when she was still with the Sugar Cubes. I sometimes like it loud, and then, it's time for some Pixies, Pearl Jam, or Faith No More.

If you're into Avant-garde-Jazz, you could sneak into John Lurie's Lounge Lizards, but actually, I'm the only one I know who likes them. The concert they did in cologne a few years ago was way cool. They left the stage with a piece that drew a perfect final line to the concert, so they had much applause, but nobody called them out again, just not to mess up the mood we were all in. The lights went on, and all people started leaving the hall, silently. Then the whole band came in right thru' the main entrance, playing acoustic instruments, and jamming right inbetween the crowd.

Brainfried after a good day's work...

I mentioned Jay Leno? In that case, I also have to mention the absolutely hysterical Conan O'Brian and his pal Andy. This is quite about everything that I watch on TV during weekdays.

One weekends, things look quite different: I'm ER hooked, I love Babylon 5, I'm an XPhile and NYPD Blue is great too IMHO. I miss Northern Exposure, Due South, and - although nobody else seems to share my opinion here - Space 2063. I don't have to mention that I'm a Startrek fan, have I - no, I don't visit cons though? (none of the above is linked, because there are just too many fan-sites out there. Jump onto a search-engine of your choice if you like to know more)

This stuff is couloured...and nasty!

Back to reading: Do you like comics ? You can find loads of stuff about that on the net. Personally, I started with the Dark Knight. My favorites are the Sandman , V for Vendetta and of course The Watchmen.

Here's what you'll currently find in my abo-box: The Books of Magic, Seekers into the Mystery, Spawn, The Invisibles, and everything Neil Gaiman , Alan Moore, Frank Miller and Jim DeMatheis (sp.?) come up with.

The Spawn may not actually fit inbetween the others, but I really like it. It's nasty, quite a bit brutal, and IMO really powerful drawn.