Just found an awesome site. But first, let me explain. No, that would take too long. Let me sum up (100 points for anyone who got that movie reference).

A lot of you know I try to use the geeky GTD system for stayinggetting organized - if you, like me, happen to have a problem with being organized, check out "Getting Things Done" by David Allen, it's a lifesaver for me. The main points that help me the most are:

Have a trusted "in box" where you simply dump anything and everything you think needs an action from you at any point in time. This makes sure I never forget a great idea I have - yes, it does happen about once a year.

Divide your to-do list not into days when you want to do them but into contexts, in other words, have an "Email" to do list, a "Talk to Stephi about this" to do list, etc. etc. That way, whenever you're in that context, you can check the things you need to be doing in that context and not worry about the other contexts.

Have your to do list only consist of actual "Next Actions", not big plans, so that you know exactly the next physical thing you need to do, so don't have "Fix car" as your todo, rather "Call car repair place - (232) 424-1555".

Anyways, the main reason for my blog post is that I found a great online way to do this system. It's a web service called TiddlySpot which hosts your own personal Wiki for free. I'm using a Wiki called d3 which is basically a GTD version of TiddlyWiki, which is a free and simple personal wiki. Phew. Wild and wooly Web 2.0, I'll tell ya.

So anyways, it rocks, and it's free, and it's online and it keeps me organized. If I remember to use it. :)

The Wii comes out in Germany today. And guess what?

Yay! After two failed pre-order attempts, my wonderful, beautiful, loving (and very pregnant!) wife stood in front of Saturn, our big electronics store here in Berlin, for a half an hour this morning, together with about 60 other people, then stormed the store once it opened and bought one of only a couple hundred Wiis plus Zelda plus a controller! The Wiis sold out within less than a half hour, and now the Wii is going to be out of stock for another couple of weeks, but thanks to my AWESOME wife, we have one and don't have to worry about whether we'll get one before Christmas! Stephi, you ROCK, babe!

Pictures and videos will surely follow. :)

I'm really looking forward to my newest toy which I'm planning on getting in roughly a month, the Nintendo Wii (pronounced "we"). Its controller has a motion sensor in it which enables the console to know where in space the controller is, and at which angle. Kind of hard to explain, but really easy to understand when you watch these videos. Warning: These may cause you to want to buy a Wii yourself.

Fishing


Tennis


Boxing


Baseball


My family is coming for Christmas to our place, and by then I'll have 4 controllers. I'm REALLY looking forward to playing a round of doubles' tennis with my bros (and sis' of course), and a round of golf with my dad. :)

We just got back last Friday from our vacation at the North Sea, which was awesome...more later on that.

Now I need to get the "I usually don't do memes, but..." out of the way before I post this:

I usually don't do memes, but...my brother Timothy tagged me, so I really have no choice. :) Note my answers are not at all going to be as impressive as his are (Henry David Who?) Here we go, my answers to the book meme:

1. One book that changed your life:

Well, sorry, but the only book I can think of that actually deserves that description would also be the most obvious answer: the Bible. No other book I've read (so far!) has impacted me strongly enough that I'd say it actually changed my life.

2. One book that you've read more than once:

Radical Reformissionary by Mark Driscoll. I read it on my own, then also our church read it together. I found myself thinking "That is EXACTLY what I've always thought, just never had words to describe it like that." more than once reading it.

3. One book you'd want on a desert island:

Other than the Bible and "Practical raft-building", I can't think of anything better than a good deep novel: Lord of the Rings for example.

4. One book that made you laugh:

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. I don't know exactly why, but he hit my funny bone very often in that book, I think my humor is similar to his. I found myself laughing out loud on the tram, people staring at me out of the corner of their eyes. :)

5. One book that made you cry:

This is kind of embarrassing, but Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala. There is just story after unbelievable story of God answering desperate prayers, and one story of parents and the church crying out to God for the parents' runaway daughter, only to have her completely turn her life around and come back home brought me to tears.

6. One book you wish had been written:

The Gospel of James with stories about Jesus' teenage and young adult life as remembered by his brother.

7. One book you wish had never been written:

The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: NOT because I disagree with the science in the book (though I do), but because of what happened philosophically in society as a (direct and indirect) result of Darwinism.

8. One book you're currently reading:

Walking from East to West by Ravi Zacharias. Great book so far, it's a very intriguing account of his life - growing up in India, then moving to Canada, then the States. His insights and memoirs in there are so inspiring and challenging.

9. One book you've been meaning to read:

Missionary Methods: St. Paul's or ours? by Roland Allen. This book was written in 1912, but is seemingly becoming more and more relevant as time goes by.

10. Tag someone else:

Hmmm...I tag my wife. *evil grin*

Stephi and I now have two 2GB iPod Nanos, plus two new cell phones. Both came for free (!) with our new cell phone contracts (which really aren't that expensive).

And I am now going to blast you with Apple propaganda, you might want to hold on to something. I know I'm a little late in noticing it - seeing as how iPod's been out for a few years now.

iPod Nano is my favorite toy of all times. Yes, even "more favorite" than my favorite computer game (Half-Life 2), my favorite board game (Siedler), or my currently favorite video game (Mario Kart DS). Nano is hawesome-with-an-h.

I now have like 350 songs on there, plus 15 teachings and all the Psalms and Proverbs as read by Mr. S.L. Ovoice. I also have like around 500 photos, including a bunch of fun "scrub" animations (to be found here).

It's perfect for waking up in the morning: I simply turn on its alarm and turn up the volume and place the headphones on my nightstand. They're loud enough to easily wake me up the next morning, so then I turn down the volume a bit, listen to a few Switchfoot songs and I'm awake!

It's perfect for listening to books or teachings (like JR Woodward or Mark Darling), because you can easily fast-forward through the entire teaching with the click-wheel, plus Nano remembers where you left off last, even if you listen to other stuff.

It's perfect for listening to new stuff: Buy a new song on iTunes for $1, put it on your iPod, listen - instant gratification. Woohoo.

It's perfect for using as a "little" USB stick - I have roughly 500MB left on mine for anything I want to transport around. That's a nice size, you can get a whole bunch into 500 MB.

It's perfect for listening to podcasts, little mini radio shows that everyone seems to be doing - hey, even I'm thinking about doing a little podcast some day.

Plus, Nano is so small it easily fits anywhere. And I mean small. I can hide it inside my hand, it's smaller and thinner than a deck of cards.

Only real downer so far:
Battery life is maybe 4-6 hours if you play around with it a lot (as I have). If all you do is listen to music with using the backlight, it's probably more like 8-10 hours. But it recharges super-quick.

So, would I pay $200 to buy one? Uh...no. But I'd pay $150 maybe, which is a LOT for a music toy. :)

Hi...
My thesis is pretty much finished. I'll be sending it in by email to my professor for a bit of proof-reading, and I'll add a thing or two here or there, but other than that, I'm finished!!! Another week or so and I'm home free.
On another note...every now and then I get a creative streak. :) Just wrote a poem. Check it out (underneath the German)!
--------------------
Hi...
Meine Bachelorarbeit ist so gut wie fertig. Ich werd sie heute per Email meinem Prof schicken zum Korrekturlesen, werde hier und da noch ein paar Sachen ändern, aber ansonsten bin ich fertig!!! Noch etwa ne Woche oder so und ich bin GANZ fertig.
Was anderes...ab und zu trifft mich eine leicht kreative Ader. :) Hab gerade ein Gedicht geschrieben. Schaut's euch an!
--------------------
eyes

"keep your eyes on me"
he said
"keep your eyes on mine"

as we climbed down this
Ravine, this
path Crooked, Broken, Steep

My hand in his
his eyes on Mine

"keep your eyes on me"

so high up,
ground so far down
path Slippery, path Unstabile

i slip and
fall
too free
and
no hand holds mine

WHERE is He?

not here

WHY?



falling


fall



Caught
in the arms of Him
Who is above me
yet amazingly
below me

i look through His eyes
and know
Peace

"Keep your eyes on Me"

Well, the contract came in the mail, I just signed it and am sending it back to them today!
Also - SEK (the game company) wrote and said they took someone else, which is fine to me - makes it very clear from God this is the right decision! One other funny thing is that a third company I had sent a resumee to also wanted to speak with me about it! I heard about this after I had already accepted the one at i-Net, so too late, but still encouraging all the same!
I'm now studying like crazy for my "Computer Architecture" exam tomorrow. I have to pass this one - if I don't, I won't get my degree for another few months, which would majorly suck. And this one will clearly be the hardest of all four exams I've had.
By the way, I passed my oral exam on Monday nicely...it was a little more challenging than I had thought, but then they gave me a better grade than I was expecting so it came out even. :)
-------------------
Der Arbeitsvertrag ist mit der Post gekommen, ich hab ihn gerade unterzeichnet und schick ihn heute zurück!
SEK (die Spielefirma) hat übrigens geschrieben und gesagt, dass sie jemand anderes genommen haben, was für mich kein Problem darstellt - das macht es halt super deutlich, dass die Entscheidung für i-Net wirklich von Gott auch so gewollt ist. Eine andere witzige Sache ist dass eine dritte Firma (Jamba) mir gesagt hat, dass sie sich mit mir über meine Bewerbung unterhalten wollen! Ich habe erst davon gehört, nachdem ich den Job bei i-Net angenommen hatte, also waren die zu spät, trotzdem war das total ermutigend!
Jetzt üb' ich wie verrückt für die Rechner-Architektur Klausur morgen. Ich muss die bestehen - wenn nicht, werd' ich meinen Abschluss erst in ein paar Monaten machen können, was deutlich beknackt wäre. Außerdem wird diese Klausur auf jeden Fall die schwierigste von allen 4 die ich schreibe.
Übrigens hab ich die mündliche Prüfung am Montag gut bestanden. Es war ein wenig schwieriger als erwartet, dafür haben sie mir eine bessere Note gegeben als ich dachte, von daher waren wir dann quitt. :)

Well, I decided to take the job! I sent them an email this morning accepting the offer. It was funny, they called me back literally 10 minutes later. These people are really quick. :)
They'll be sending me my contract here within the next day or two, I need to get all the burocracy out of the way (insurance membership, "Lohnsteuerkarte", etc.), and then simply show up on the 16th of August! Whoop, whoop! :)
So, job world, here I come!
-----------------
Ich hab den Job angenommen. Hab ihnen heute morgen eine Email geschrieben und das Angebot angenommen. War total witzig, die haben mich 10 Minuten später angerufen. Die sind echt schnell. :)
Sie werden mir den Arbeitsvertrag zusenden innerhalb der nächsten paar Tage, ich muss halt die ganze Bürokratie erledigen (versicherungsmitgliedschaftsnachweis, lohnsteuerkarte, lauter langer Worte halt ;), und dann halt am 16.8. auftauchen! Juhuu! :)
Arbeitswelt, ich komme!

Hi zusammen!
HAB' EINEN JOB!
:-) Habe soeben vor einer halben Stunden ein Jobangebot bekommen für den zweiten Job (wo ich gestern zum Vorstellungsgespräch war, siehe den vorherigen Post.) bei i-Net Software, und soll mich bis Ende nächster Woche melden. Ich gehe eigentlich auf jeden Fall davonaus, dass ich ihn nehmen werde, denn er zahlt zwar weniger als ich vorher erwartet hatte (Berlin ist wohl was Gehalt angeht Schlusslicht), trotzdem gut ein Viertel mehr als die Spielefirma zahlen würde (falls ich den überhaupt bekäme, das steht erst Mitte nächster Woche fest), er hat eine absolut geregelte 40 Stunden-Woche - Überstunden gibt es nicht. Punkt. Außerdem scheint er mir sehr komplex und anspruchsvoll - werde mich also nicht langweilen, und er ist wohl sehr stabil, zumindest wenn die übliche 6-monatige Probezeit irgendwann vorbei ist ;) - die haben Hunderte von Großkunden auf der ganzen Welt, und die meisten, die da arbeiten, arbeiten schon mehrere Jahre da. Ich kann zum 15. August dort anfangen, so hab ich nachm Studium noch zwei Wochen freie Zeit.
Jedenfalls vielen Dank für's Beten, jetzt könnt ihr ja einen kurzen Dank Richtung Himmel schicken....genau....JETZT. ;)

-----------------
Hi everyone!
I HAVE A JOB!
:-) Just a half an hour ago, I was offered a job at the second place (where I had the interview yesterday, see the last post), i-Net Software. I'm definetly planning on taking it - they're paying less than I had hoped for (Berlin's not the place to be looking for high pay), but still a fourth more than the game company would (if I got the job which I won't hear for another half a week), they have a very comfortable 40 hour week - no overtime ever. Period. Also it sounds like it's a pretty complex project, so I won't be bored - and the job seems very stabile - they have hundreds of huge customers all over the place, and the most people working there have had their job for a few years now. I can start on August 15th, so I'll have two weeks free time after my studies are over.
Anyways, thanks so much for praying, now you can shoot up a quick thanks to God...right.....NOW. ;)

Well, I'm going to make this my diary for this week, hopefully writing in here every day to say how I'm doing and how the week has been going.
Right now, I really have no idea what to expect from this week other than what I'll be doing - interview at SEK on Tuesday, exam on AI class Wednesday morning, interview at i-Net Software in the afternoon, exam in C++ class on Friday morning, meeting with Mark Darling, Joe Dunn, Dave Lennander, Mike and Gene Friday afternoon, retreat time Saturday the whole day... phew, will I be pooped when I fall into bed Saturday. And who knows - maybe I'll have easily passed two exams, and been offered two great jobs by then! Or...maybe I'll have failed two exams and been turned down twice for both interviews. Either way, I know that God is in control, and that's a good feeling. Although I still am kind of nervous. Who knows what kind of questions the interview guys will ask? :-)
*yawn* Well, good night, John boy!