Evening Cruise

On the way to house group this evening, this scene popped up.

It's nice to see the last few days of this Summer wrapping up nicely. Along the Rhine, it can get warm as well, though the humidity isn't altogether that bad. Signs of the impending Autumn abound,

Still, one can hold out hope that the day after will be better than this one, though there really isn't much to complain about as far as Tuesday went.

And so one retires indoors for an easy wind-down. Along the way came this:

It's a Tap and Random XS Co-op. A simple toast, for the crew to complete their mission and head home. Zum Wohl!

Operation Dinner Out: Aftermath

The Operation was a success. The pièce de résistance of it all - the giant Puten (turkey) steaks the crew got, in plate, pan and any other receptacle. Portions were enough to feed a Battlion. The team took no prisoner. Here's a quick recap, before the Op:

After a three-pronged attack and a couple of finishing strokes with stragetically placed surgical strikes (hmmm....so much for strategic...and surgical), this was all that was left:

Not much at all. And so, the evening wrapped up with the Random XS running into a fair, long lost acquaintance...

Tools Of The Trade II

After more than 18000 shots, the good ol' trusty IXUS 400 has finally earned some well deserved vacation in the tropics, somewhere near an Island along the Equator. Running the next lap - The IXUS 40, already clocking close to 3000 shots. Credit must be given to the superb engineering from the folks at Canon Inc. This gem:

... has been serving up some of the finest pixels there are. This gem:

... has been serving some of the finest shots on court. Kudos to the marketing division...but here, we'd like to call it the IXUS.

Travel, A While Back...

It is with great fondness, that the motley crew here think back of the times spent doing tours of duty with another Urban Hero: Lakopi.
Lakopi and the team goes back a long way. Going through the Baptism of Fire on a mission in Prague:

Street fighting, house to house. The JackRabbit and the Lakopi fighting side by side, taking shots in the streets, behind cover.
Here's another view of Lakopi, with his other half, scoping out for their next target. In the far end of the picture is a glimpse of things to come...father and son.

This is Prague from a while ago:

Moving forth in time, things nowadays are much quieter. Take five, atop the one of the hills overlooking the city, with a cup of Illy, nothing less.

J.A.M.I.S

Just. Another. MTB. In. Service. That's what Dr. Titan has been up to of late. Meet his trusty new steed:

Make no mistake though. When Dr. Ti says this is a utility bike, it means it's a utility bike - heavily used and pressed into service, this ride will cut it's teeth in the months to come together with it's owner. This is Man-Machine-Interface in motion.

The S-man Speaketh

Joining the ranks of D-SLR users, the S-man gives his two cents worth regarding this new gem.

Read what he has to say here amongst his other musings.

Operation: Dinner Out

Today marks the return of the motley crew. Back in Free City right here at the University, we meet together with Dr. AutoFocus, MC Ticino, Dr. RedBull are back in full force, and we head out for a catch up dinner. Weather here is fab, with the Summer winding down, and hopefully Autumn will at least be kind and forgiving, not some farcical Winter early-arrival. But first of all, we need to assemble at our meeting place and set off to a yet-to-be-determined dinner menu. Nonetheless, Operation Dinner Out is a go! Let's see how it works out.

Test Drive

And so, The Tap, and the "whines-until-the-players-want-to-club-his-fancy-paws" JackRabbit finally returned to Wurstland. Elph headed off towards the Land of the Rising Sun...and The Random XS made his way to Free City. It was a night drive. The Good - Practically no traffic. The Bad - You pull up at every rest stop and doze off. Some trucks decide to leave their engines running, and you've lost your whole night's rest. Coffee has no effect...it makes you pull up along these rest stops even more....those diuretics.
Thereafter, the Random XS had to report for duty. He ran into this:

Step on it. Advanced flushing systems. Comes in kid size too.
The highlight of the day was the test drive of this recent release:

The new B-Class, 1.8 litre.

Handled like a fly-by-wire plane more than a....er....tractor.

Working on 2 hours of sleep ain't fun. Time out for now. Be back later.

Tech-no-Logic

Dr. Titanium just got some tech from the equator courtesy of Master Chief.
It comes decked out with features....

• Shoot 1.3 megapixel (software interpolated) photos
• Create high-quality, 640x480 videos with the advanced VGA CCD sensor
• Add live video to your favorite instant messenger: MSN® Messenger, AOL® Instant Messenger™ (AIM®), Yahoo!® Messenger, and Windows® Messenger
• Attach it to any notebook with universal mounting bracket
• Store it in carrying case with cable management
• Make live video calls
• Edit movies with studio-quality software
• Email video and photos easily
• Get closer with digital zoom
• Conduct online video conferences and calls using Windows® Messenger or Microsoft® NetMeeting
• Speak your mind with the built-in microphone
• Add video to your eBay® auctions with SpotLife™ VideoSnap
• Create fun animated films
• Create web albums, broadcast live video and audio, and set up a web cam
• Stylish and rugged aluminum body
• 2-year limited hardware warranty

Looks really slick, comes with TWO, yes TWO installation CD-ROMs as well...and requires you reboot your system enough times to cancel your conversations and restart the whole system again for it to be fully operational. Whatever happened to good old Plug-n-Play?
Funny thing is, Dr. Titanium's friend from overseas messaged him and he had to decline the conversation cos' he had to restart his PC after having gone through TWO installation CDs worth of software...his friend asked "Was it a Logitech Quickcam?". Guess you can't fault the manufacturer for a worldwide guarantee to work the same way wherever you are.

Return of the (Jack)Rabbit and The Tap

The (Jack)Rabbit returns together with The Tap today for their last tour of duty in Sausage Land. Inward bound on Equator Airlines, they should arrive round noon. Wonder what goodies they have brought with them this time round? The Random XS has spent the last few days depleting their food supplies with glee...Well, one has to eat to defend the fort, no?

Before Sunset

The weekend called for a little bit of travelling. Not that the Random XS minds, but it's about 400 km up north along the Rhine river. The day started off like this:

Summer this year was definitely wierd. It definitely does not feel like summer. But then again, the greens that pop up all around are definitely welcome. The drive across the Rhine was fine. Drive into the sunset (yes, those are minute bug-splats):

The Random XS has become increasingly reliant on this:

An interesting caffeine light dose. An experiment done by EvanGelica (EvG)...both the XS and EvG did pause for a mo to look at the curious brew. The caffeine extraction must have been thorough...this is another Random post. Call it the late night effect.

The Elph Cooketh

Today was the baptism of fire for the Elph. Sushi was her game. The results in various progressive stages. Here's how it started:

and it continued, and there was more progress:

and until eventually, you get an entire army of them:

Hai. Itadakimase.

Cold, Wet and Almost No Food

This is turning out to be one warped summer. It's been pouring for the whole morning (so much for drizzle...) and it's freezing indoors (fabulous insulation...keeps the cold from last night in....). Under such circumstances....one dreams of a hot plate of this:

RevS cooked up this fantastic King Prawns sautéed in red wine and finely chopped onions with rice and red peppers on a whim...when he found out that the Random XS was visiting late one evening on an empty stomach. "I'll cook when I get home." Random XS said. But RevS would have none of that. "You're not going home on an empty stomach!" he quipped, and whipped up that spicy seafood cuisine. It was the best stuff the Random XS had tasted in ages.
The evening continued with a conversation that inevitatbly led the topic of Schwarzwald, which at this time of the year, is supposed to look like this:

But having witnessed what appears to be a migration of the Monsoon season to Central Europe, one tends to stay indoors and watch DVDs on devices such as this:

And rely on loads of that thick black brew squeezed out of a warehouse load, of these:

So as it continues to pour out there into those misty hills up yonder, let's just sit back, and be thankful, that a giant can of Maggi mozzarella and tomato Penne was ready at hand to help stave off what would almost certainly have turned into another episode of missed lunch.

Drizzle

The Summer had barely come and gone and it looks almost like Autumn will be skipped. Temperature variations are going totally Random. Fingers freeze as the typing continues. This week looks set to be marked with meetings, coordinating a couple of parties here and there (to meet) and cruising along the Autobahn once more. It's easy to tell when it's a Monday. Even the sky is grey and the mists tease the canopy that hides the thick foliage of the Black Forest.

Coffee-Industry & Electric Bumblebee

Been a while since the last entry. Was out in the Black Forest a bit back. Coffee stain art fascinates the Random XS...precisely because it's so Random. Look at the above image for example...Coffee (stain) -Industry...smoking chimneys...an imaginary old industrial city skyline by the riverside. Art in all it's spontaneous goodness. This was after some serious carbo-loading with fat-laden Blackforest Cherry Cake...all in good measure as preparation for a 12 km hike. Pace was ok, view was fab...weekend worked out well.
One can't quite get away from civilisation though...with signs like this:


Bar code and price/inventory tag behind..."corporate designed" warning any potential hapless hiker who might just zap him or herself against this electric fence.

This fella' however, hadn't the foggiest idea...or just plain simply didn't give a hoot about what was going on around him...not even the fact that there was a lens staring down at it for the longest time and the close proximity of a perilous electric fence. No, he figures sporting the same colour scheme (well, almost) as that electric-fence warning sign grants him the same degree of immunity. To a certain extent...he may be right.

40 Years since

So today is the day. All those fireworks, mobile column displays and aerobatics, coloured smoke screens and cheering crowds. It's happy independence/birth-of-the-nation day. Would be interesting to see the bash that is to be in 10 years time when the Nation celebrates it's 50th. Am just wondering how they are going to up the ante with all the previous accomplishments that they have been having with all those sychronised parade drills and stuff....well, Happy National Day Singapura.

Late nights and Quarter life crisis

A couple of years back, it was often to have night vigils. Late night suppers and all...study marathons and even chats. It is funny that as a student, one thinks about life after exams, then when that finally comes, one reminisces about life of a student.
Nowadays however, it gets increasingly difficult to stay up late. Quarter life crisis. But time moves forward. So what next? When can one take the present, as a present?