Illustration: November 4, 2008

By Manuel Martensen | Published: November 4, 2008

Made by illustrator Patrick Moberg.

I also love this short video, illustrated by Patrick as well.

Posted in Æsthetics & Design | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Scottish: the Isle of Sylt

By Manuel Martensen | Published: November 3, 2008

Found this old vid about “Beach Replenishment”, a technique used since the '70s on the Isle of Sylt, by which sand lost through longshore drift or severe storms is replaced on a beach.

It was produced in 1995 by my good friend Jochen Neumann and was narrated by some Scottish lad which he met at the University of Flensburg (Germany).

It gets pretty technical sometimes, but it also shows some rather cool pictures/views of the island and explains some — to strangers — interesting facts about the “Frisian Riviera”. And you just gotta love the scottish accent!

 
Jan de Nul, the belgium company which did the contract work in ’95 (and the following years) and to which Jochen sold the vid in 1995 is the same company that did the famous Palm Island II in Dubai and is now in the process pumping up the Dubai Waterfront islands.

Actually that video should rather be called “a gift” — I can not tell you for how much it was sold to JDN, but believe me, selling an iPod to a teen is a bigger deal. But what do the Scots say, “a puir man is fain o little”. ;)

  • Copyright/produced by JFN Video
  • Narrated by Gavin Hodgkinson
  • Happy Birthday Client: Jan De Nul

 
Btw: Watching “the show” every year is why & how i came up with the word “Beachlevel” — one of my year-round hibernating projects.

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Thank you, Apple Inc.

By Manuel Martensen | Published: October 28, 2008

Returned home from a week of vacation to find out that the logic board of my iMac died on me while i was away. Nothing beats a warm welcome, eh?

Usually that's no big deal if your warranty is still alive and kicking, but I had two deaths to mourn for; not only the logic board passed away, but also the warranty looked terribly cold and stiff — and I could not find any replacement programs covering my ass either.

So I called the local Apple Solution Expert store (ASE) hoping they could help me somehow, but they had no Apple policy handy to help me out but charge me €700 for a fix.

Invest €700 into a five year old iMac? I beg your pardon, but that sounds riscy, even to a hobo-style real life approacher like me.

After calling ASE again to find out that I am eligible for education discount I was spending the rest of my shift browsing the magnificent new unibody options I had if I would risc another visa card deal-with-the-devil.

But something felt wrong. Something was missing. I had the weirdest feeling that placing an order right now would be not right. One of those moments, you know.

When I returned home I thought “give it at least another shot, you little winer” — so I called Apple directly, not the folks at my ASE store. After about 20 minutes on hold I was catapulted back onto my floor, heads first: “Thank you for your patience, but I'm sorry to say that my supervisor won't give his okay for a replacement...”

Oh fuck! Well, at least I've tried everything I could. God-fucking-damnit!

“...but I can offer you a repair ticket free of charge, Mr. Martensen.”

Wait. A. Minute. What? — “What does that mean? You will repair it free of charge but I have to pay for the logic board? That would still charge me €600 though, that's too much.”

“I’m sorry, no: The logic board would be free as well, I just can't give you a new replacement iMac.”

You probably won't believe this, but I had tears of joy rolling down my cheeks. A free repair! For an old iMac who had his logic board replaced two times already and is totally way off the warranty coast! A free repair was all I hoping for and that support girl even tried to get me a new replacement iMac — sometimes you just gotta be lucky.

Thank you Apple.

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Alfred E. Obama

By Manuel Martensen | Published: October 18, 2008

Oh my, it has been a long time since i heard anything about Mad Magazine. Last time i thought about it was when I asked the German editor in chief Herbert Feuerstein for an autograph on the beach where I was working in 1999. He gave me his holiday-tax ID card. :D

Anyway, this cracked me up:

Posted in Random Diary | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Life sucks since 3 years…

By Manuel Martensen | Published: October 13, 2008

EDIT: The comments made it less ugly to look at. Cheers mates!

As soon as i started to work as a janitor at my current job 3 years ago, life went downhill. My skills are not appreciated, i am totally underpayed and my boss acts like a effin’ nutcase — most of the time.

I don’t really know why i am still working here, probably because the job in general is not too bad: Most of the time i am my own boss and the job never gets boring. I do have a lot of freedom, working with kids in our hostel is fun and sometimes i can work from my own appartement when i do network and website stuff. And it is a job here on the island, the place i love more than anything in the world.

But since i am so motherfucking underpayed for what i do, i collected a good amount of debt on my credit cards. Actually i do not have a problem with debt, well — if the debt is worth the hassle of giving up a little bit freedom. For instance, i went to Canada two times for two seasons of snowboarding without a penny in cash. Of cause i gave up a huge chunk of freedom for that, because it took years to pay that back to the credit card company. But believe me, it was worth it!

But now i am in the same debt like i was after 2 seasons in Canada, but for what? I tell you, for having a bloody job! So here’s what i did: I abused my cc’s for what i have earned less than before every month: I used to work at the beach for 10 years where i’ve earned about 1500 € in cash, now i do work even more as before and i only earn about 1000 € in cash every month. Splendid.

And since i am in debt again, i feel like i am not free do to and go where i want. Bad timing, because i feel like life is yelling for some actions by me, loud as the fog horn on the Queen Elisabeth II. So what are my chances? Should i try and win the lottery? Should i try to rob a bank? I am usually full of great ideas when it comes to solve those problems for other people, but right now i feel empty like a belly full of water. If you got 5000 euros you urgently want to get rid of, I am your man — and besides, my “Rich Journey” deal is still up for grabs as well! :D

It felt good to write this down though.

Maybe i should not listen to my parents and stop worrying about those few thousands i owe the bank. It‘s just money i don’t have, right? Just stuff i owe some corporation. It’s not that i made anyone suffer because of that, right? It’s just a deal. Riiight?

Posted in Random Diary | Tagged | 14 Comments