July 2017

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astridv: (Default)
Friday, December 30th, 2016 06:03 pm
Today I finally took a bath from my paddleboard. Well, I've taken baths in the river before but usually they're more voluntary.
Things I learned:
Don't stuff your shirt inside your dry pants or they won't seal 100%.
Bring a spare pair of pants anyway, just in case.
Actually bring a second set of spares so you can keep paddling and don't have to cut the trip short.

Other than the lack of extra spare clothes and my pants being, while not sopping wet, uncomfortably moist during the trip home, it was fine. I did get wet but I didn't get cold at any point, so the clothes did their job. I still consider investing in a dry jacket so I can stay completely dry when I fall in. I mean, half the year the water is uncomfortably cold, so I think it would be a good investment.

I actually took a picture of the spot right before (which I can't post as my poor Nokia is currently taken apart and drying out, fingers crossed yo.) It's that damned fallen tree that's been blocking the way for years. The risen water level made is impossible to get out and drag the board around like I did in the summer.

Next time, buddy. You, me, and a chainsaw. (kidding. Where would I get a chainsaw.)

Next time I'll have to get out well before and walk around that part. I hope to go again next week, I really hated to cut my trip short and miss the last mile. It was particularly gorgeous today; I hope the photos at least can be salvaged.

So yeah, that was my day. They say you should try a new thing every day, right? lol

eta: super glad I wore my vest. No matter how unnecessary it seems, always wear that vest.

Here's a pic from today, taken further upstream before the dam. Had uploaded it before my swim.


Really hope the Nokia will recover, I love that phone... it takes the BEST pictures!
astridv: (Default)
Friday, August 22nd, 2014 09:27 pm
Weather in Germany sucks. >_<

I didn’t sleep a wink last night; too tired to post anything coherent, but here’s a pic of my favorite little hot spring in Yellowstone. :) The little geyser in the back apparently spits out these pretty pebbles and deposits them into the pool. Tell me that’s not totally precious.


Think I'll go to bed now...
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Friday, March 14th, 2014 05:50 pm
It's amazing how you can have a whole big futon full of furs and cushions and blankets, and the cat will pick the one spot you planned to sit on. How does she even know?
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astridv: (skye)
Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013 07:42 pm
I'm enjoying Agents of Shield a lot. I mean, a LOT. This latest episode... feelings, so many feelings. ^^

Looking for fic feels a little like waiting for a pot of water to boil. Normally I get into shows that have been on the air for years, when there's already a pool of fic to fall back on. Not that 300+ after one month is shabby... but I have this craving for a long action-adventure...

In hedgehog news, our house guest is eating and growing. We also try to provide environmental enrichment for his development ever day, and yesterday he got a mummified rabbit's foot to play with. He was pretty ecstatic about it. When little hedgehogs find a new smell they don't know, they have the habit of spitting saliva on their spikes (to cleanse the palate). That's why he's doing these strange calisthenics here:


and two more )
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Sunday, October 20th, 2013 12:09 am
Wow, apparently ffn is aiming to become completey useless and obsolete with their new anti-copy protection. It seems like they're actively blocking FLAG, I can't create kindle docs right now. According to the FLAG website: "FLAG is currently unable to connect to ffnet / fictionpress, and it now appears that they are deliberately blocking FLAG's infrastructure, including the new infrastructure which was provisioned this week to work around the issue until it could be sorted on their end."

Way to inconvenience your readers. It's almost as good as Disney producing DVDs that don't run on a computer.
Grmph.
Well, here's something nicer: photo of our latest baby hedgehog.

He's still tiny (that plate is cappuccino saucer size) and he was almost dead when we found him, but it looks like he's recovering nicely and you can practically watch him grow. Still way too light for hibernation but winter is still far away (hopefully).
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Wednesday, August 7th, 2013 12:52 pm
Yesterday I did a little bike tour to the other side of town where the canal crosses the river. The historical stone bride became obsolete a few decades ago when a modern, wider bridge was built. Instead it became a favorite swimming spot. Unfortunately they had to let the water out for structural reasons a few years ago and now it's just another industrial monument.
I heard the wall is good for toproping so I went to check it out... The wall looks interesting indeed, but I wasn't prepared for the jungle that has grown there in the meantime. Might be something to keep in mind for the winter, when it's not too cold to climb.
more pics )
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Tuesday, July 2nd, 2013 07:12 pm
I was visiting my parents in the Rhein Ruhr area for a few days. It was good to get out of town for a little while. We did a few tourist things, and there was even time for a spot of buildering. My dad (who rocks rather a lot) drove me to this spot on the river Ruhr I heard about, and took a couple pictures with his iphone while I checked it out. They turned out quite nice, too.

My stepmom suggested I should edit out the ground at the bottom so they look real daring but hey, I'm trying to show people that this sport is *not* dangerous. lol
(The aim here is to traverse the wall, not go up high.)
Read more... )
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Tuesday, December 11th, 2012 12:02 am
18 Homes That Belong In A Fairytale

I could lose myself in those pictures. I believe at least some of these are actual homes people live in.
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Sunday, November 11th, 2012 06:03 pm
I went on a bike tour today, and thankfully remembered to bring my camera. Now, these are the fall pictures I was going for last time, when everything was still way green!
lots of photos under the cut )
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Sunday, October 14th, 2012 06:26 pm
This is the time of year where people are posting amazing pumpkin pics. I'm almost getting pumpkin envy.

I was in the mood to do a pic spam. No pumpkins, though... ours are nice but not that spectacular. I took my camera on our walk today, I was hoping for some golden October photos. Alas, a lot of the trees are still green. Is it me or is fall coming rather late to Northern Germany this year?
Anyway, so here are some photos of Münster. )
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Wednesday, February 8th, 2012 12:08 am
A clear and concise article about piracy and the future of media distrubition:
You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy Will Never Kill You
All of that is really just common sense - but of course that's exactly what the studios so far have demonstrated a sad lack of. This piece was written for Forbes.com so it stands to hope that some of the people who should read it actually will?
(I notice he didn't touch on one big problem, which is the clear need for a global distribution system so viewers overseas will actually have that legal alternative to pirating, other than waiting for a year or longer which, seriously, isn't gonna happen.)

Speaking of media, I finally got to watch The King's Speech just now. Brilliant acting. A really good movie, not overhyped for once.

Something I can't say for Thor, which we watched two weeks ago. I'd expected at least an entertaining popcorn flick with a charismatic villain but I couldn't find a single remotely interesting character in the entire movie. Well, scientist woman and her friend had a few good moments, but man, that wasn't enough. [eta: And this also ties neatly into the piracy issue because the DVD was a Marvel release and Marvel was swallowed by Disney, ergo the bloody rental DVD refused to run on my computer. Same as every other Disney DVD and CD I've tried over the last few years. Which is why I will no longer buy or rent Disney DVDs/CDs. I won't support a company that has so little regard for customer service.]

Winter has finally arrived for real (-15 last night) and here are a few photos I took when I was iceskating on lake Aa downtown on Sunday. It wasn't too crowded; I suppose many people didn't expect the ice to be stable already. By Monday word got around and the first people were having a barbecue on the ice.Read more... )
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Friday, January 13th, 2012 03:01 pm
I'm calling this one... Lonely Bicycle in the Wintery Woods. ;)
Read more... )

Hopefully it'll start freezing in a few days so I can get a few proper winter photos! (I don't even dare hope for enough snow or ice to have some fun with.)
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Sunday, October 16th, 2011 11:01 pm
Thought I'd follow up last year's hedgehog post with Hedgehog: the Next Generation.
There are currently three hedgehogs living in our tiny yard; two little ones and a bigger one. We don't actually know if the bigger one is last year's foster hedgehog but it's possible. They're eating spectacular amounts of cat food and hedgehog food each night and we hope they'll all make it through the winter. Fortunately the little ones are already so big that they don't have to be raised inside like last year's.

I took some pics when they came to feed (which isn't hard; they make a lot of noise for such a small animal, and they rarely run away when you go near them.)
photos behind the cut )
preview:
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Friday, August 26th, 2011 03:12 pm
We were camped only a few miles away from Arches National Park. One of the most beautiful parks I've seen - the view changes around every corner you take; the variety of the geological formations seems to be infinite. The photos can't really show the sheer scale so, you know, imagine all of this is BIG.

Under the cut: many many photos. I trimmed them down a lot so each is less than 100K and they should load quickly )

Atlanta, Georgia )

preview:
astridv: (Default)
Sunday, December 26th, 2010 12:13 am
Happy holidays everyone. And a belated happy solstice!
My parents sent me the link to this Youtube clip - it's really worth watching: Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus

The roommate and I went for a long walk through the freshly fallen ((sigh)) snow today, and I brought my camera. And for once the photos turned out nice, yay.
Preview:
"<-- close-up detail
photos behind the cut )

more winter photos: [livejournal.com profile] naye has posted beautiful pictures of the snowy Swedish landscape: link
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Saturday, December 18th, 2010 01:55 am
a long and kind of rambling post about snow, mostly. With pics. )

Anyway, bouldering was fun. I was a bit dismayed when I found that a fave route I'd been working on has been taken down - they periodically change the holds so it won't get boring for the regulars. But at least I'd already managed that baby once. And in exchange I got two new routes now that are difficult but probably doable at my level with a bit of practice, so I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into those problems.
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Monday, October 25th, 2010 11:27 pm
Hey! Today is my day off! And only three more pages to go, there's a reason to rejoice! I read fic and goofed around and did not do much else, then I went to Japanese class which is so much cooler than last semester, what with the actually speaking Japanese and all. And now it's almost midnight, don't go by so fast, free day!

First, a link. Via cofax, who somehow always finds the best links: [livejournal.com profile] kroki_refur has written up a funny and picturesque travel report about their hike in New Zealand. (link)

Maybe this isn't the best moment to post my own pictures, after seeing this... wah. But tonight I finally have time... okay, so pretend you forgot the stunning New Zealand pics you just saw, okay?
When [livejournal.com profile] megatexas mentioned that he had never seen a Westphalian castle, we decided we couldn't let him return to the States without showing him one.
under the cut: pics of 2 castles (with moats), 2 housemates, 1 American traveller,1 hedgehog and 1 tiny frog )
Hedgehog & Megatexas


My first idea was to name the hedghog 'Spike' but the name doesn't suit him at all. He's quite sleepy and weirdly shy, even after three weeks of being pampered and fed. Not at all like the triplet of rambunctiuos brothers we raised a few years ago. (Those we called 'Little Hedgehog', 'Little Hedgehog', and 'Little Biter'. We couldn't tell the first two apart, but to find Little Biter all you had to do was put your finger anywhere near them, and he'd come racing trying to bite it. He was like that right from the beginning. It was cute when he was still tiny. But hedgehog teeth get really sharp...)

Alright, now I'm gonna start typing up my fic recs for real before my free day is over (three more pages and a cover. I can do it!)
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Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 04:30 pm
It has snowed again overnight and it was lovely and sunny today, so I grabbed my camera and managed to take some decent pictures for once. A few pics of the snow-covered Westphalian landscape. )
... and this is one of our climbing spots in the park :) )
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