thinkoholic.com - a blog by markus nolf

Archive for July, 2009

[posted: Sunday, 2009-07-26] [category: twitter]
  • today's lunch break in a walnut plantation near saint-marcellin FR. now enjoying cold sprite and free wifi at macdo http://twitpic.com/azxsg #
  • testing gps service. we're here now: #
  • current gps info: N 45*02.287, E 05*03.335 #
  • anton's attempt at a 'we're eating tarte des fruits' self portrait. http://twitpic.com/azyv5 #
  • btw, team A passed through monaco a few hours ago. #
  • arrived in saulce FR at 8pm today, after a 150 km journey. also, we hit the 1000 km mark in the afternoon. celebrating w/ gummibears. #
  • seems like i've finally managed to dig out the dusty little cardboard box labelled 'vocabulaire francais' from the far back of my mind. oui! #
  • the only constant in life is change. the only constant today was headwind. strong headwind. 75 km, now in orange, FR. #
  • more headwind today, so strong that we had to get off the bike a few times. still, completed 75 km to arles FR. #
  • team A went an incredible 149 km to salon-de-provence FR today. no campground there, so an old lady lets them stay in her garden. #
  • going to meet up with team A tomorrow near montpellier FR. they must have been cheating. ;) #
  • arles, france. old town center. http://twitpic.com/b8sv2 #
  • 'und wir fahrn auch über wasser wenn da brücken sind. hey der typ hat ne meise aber rückenwind.' scenic detour to st-maries-de-la-mer. n … #
  • dinner w/ team A, just south of montpellier. they did 250km in 2 days to meet up! it's only been 12 days, but so many stories to tell. #
  • teams A & B this morning, ready to start. http://twitpic.com/bfj2t #
  • parted w/ team A around noon. now in valras-plage FR (108 km). team A (they enjoy extensive lunch-breaks) now in vias (93 km). #
  • today's title in our journal: flat tire and torn wire. just changed a bike tire and improvised (quite well) on anton's gear switch mechanism #
  • got as far as st cyprien FR. that's 125 km, albeit our emergency repair stop. team A in bompas FR. last phase starts tomorrow. #
  • buenas tardes de figueres ES! crossed the spanish border with team A at 4 pm today (more tire problems), now preparing pasta for 4. #
[posted: Sunday, 2009-07-19] [category: twitter]
  • just reached the arlbergpass near st christoph. coordinates: N 47©0 #
  • 7.788' EO 10©12.624 altitude: 1802 m #
  • just arrived at walenstadt, switzerland. 117 km today, and we crossed ALL OF liechtenstein. team A now in trento, italy. #
  • arrived in zug, CH at 6pm. 90 km. rainy morning, then sunny. beautiful scenery. drove across the long pedestrian boardwalk in rapperswil. #
  • made it to burgdorf. 114 km today. the swiss will only greet back if you use the magic word 'gruezi' (n=78, p=0.028). team A: brescia, IT. #
  • now in neuchatel CH. everything's french. across the street from a creperie, so tempting. team A in piacenza IT. andi: thanks #
  • crap. heavy thunderstorm w/ lots of lightning&rain. stuck under motorway-bridge outside of morges CH. hope we'll at least get to geneve. #
  • rain didn't stop, so we ended up in saint-prex today. still raining, hoping for better weather tomorrow. animal sacrifice, maybe? ;-) #
  • two days ago: little brother and i in rapperswil CH. http://twitpic.com/ao609 #
  • in case i didn't mention it yet: our final destination is denia, spain. 621 km so far, ~1400 km to go. team A now in alessandria, IT. #
  • today's weather: wet, cold, windy. now double-waterproofing all our stuff. leaving soon. http://twitpic.com/aqs8w #
  • weather still hasn't improved, so we're off. about 12 deg celsius, feels like -20. bye-bye wifi. http://twitpic.com/aqx9h #
  • crossed all of CH in 6 days, now in neydens FR. sky cleared up in late afternoon. tomorrow we're heading south. #
  • bonjour from whatever the lake at montferrat FR is called. 119 km up-down-u-d-u-d. had to retighten my sunglasses twice. head shrinking? #
  • watching microbats hunting at the lake. they keep touching the surface, either drinking water or fishing. amazing in both cases. #
[posted: Sunday, 2009-07-12] [category: twitter]
  • one typo > new insight: in microsoft word, [crtl]+[shift]+[space] will create a space that is immune to word-wrapping. very useful! #
  • RT @FailBlog: google maps #fail http://bit.ly/hctCz #
  • "people are DNA's way to create more DNA" in richard dawkin's words: http://is.gd/1pdPC #
  • bbc news: stoned wallabies make crop circles. http://is.gd/1qmCG #
  • is that …sunlight? never mind, the clouds are coming up again. #
  • full throttle from 10 am until now. i'm not going to do that any longer. *after* tomorrow. #
  • nuclear reactor fail: http://is.gd/1qizMnuclear reactor fail: http://is.gd/1qizM #
  • done for today! departure day is closing in. there's a lot more to do until then. #
  • alex peemoeller's distorted carpark direction signs. very cool. http://is.gd/1sLyu #
  • icanhascheezburger: i iz in ur space-time-continuum http://is.gd/1uwpA #
  • i want some choco kiddo balls for breakfast! http://is.gd/1uwtz #fail #
  • i'm about to jump from europabrücke (europe's 2nd highest bridge, 192 m). now fastening rubber rope. #
  • adrenaline rush! #
  • …back to packing. #
  • as usual: last bits of work just finished, about 3 hours before i leave for vacation. #bike09 #
  • 24 minutes to departure. current temperature: 8 degrees celsius. feels like 2. at least it's gonna be sunny. #bike09 #
  • http://twitpic.com/a3bg7 – wait a second… ok, now i'm ready to start. ;) #bike09 #
  • we've already covered one hundreth of the total distance. this is gonna be easy. ;-) #bike09 #
  • arrived at accommodation in st. anton, austria around 6:30 pm. first day: 8 hours of biking, 117 km, alt.diff. 850 m. tired.
    #bike09 #
[posted: Saturday, 2009-07-11] [category: general, photo]

today i jumped from europabrücke (europe’s 2nd highest bridge, and – apparently – one of the highest bungee-places in the world).
key data: 192 m (bridge height), 40 m (normal rope length), 170 m (maximum rope length when stretched), 120 km/h (maximum velocity)

i had completely forgotten i could actually release that much adrenaline. :)
 

big thanks to stefan for taking pictures.

[posted: Sunday, 2009-07-05] [category: twitter]
  • this assignment is going to kill me. :-\ #
  • thank you, twitterfox, for that much-needed update! #
  • post-it love: http://is.gd/1ho96 #
  • RT @vomessen (transl): new blog post: the special barbecue simulator http://bit.ly/rzodc #
  • hahaha, stephen fry talking german. :) RT: @stephenfry: AudioBoo: Mein Handy_Boo http://boo.fm/b34574 #
  • cool t-shirt: "things meat loaf would do for love" http://is.gd/1ifAN #
  • just saw @echeng in whale wars ep 4. …erm, i mean, i heard about it. very cool! #
  • http://twitpic.com/8s76g – cursor #fail #
  • short notice people: what's so terrible about making an unimportant decision 3 days in advance, esp.if it helps getting together w/ friends? #
  • note to self: always check if there's enough antacid in the house. ALWAYS! #
  • how can anybody write three books (400-500 pages each) and NOT include an index NOR structure it alphabetically? #botany #assignment #meusel #
  • wow: bill shannon crutch dancing. http://bit.ly/ZrbeL #
  • RT: @serafinowicz: Anyone know where I can find transcripts of audiobooks? #
  • wtf picture: something funny is going on here… http://is.gd/1lMBs #
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