Yeah, I’m not homeless anymore!!!! I moved yesterday into my new place in Maxwell Terrace! It is sooo great, my room is amazing, it’s very close to campus (6 blocks, 7 mins by bike), very close to Kroger (also 6 blocks) and even closer to Brian Park (4 blocks, 3 mins by bike). Here are some pictures of my room:

My bed. Yes, I’m sleeping under a German flag! I was so sick of seeing all those American flags at every corner that I just had to buy a German one. But I’m still not tough enough to hang it to the balcony :-). Next year for sure!

My working space directly next to the window with a nice green view *aaaaahhhhhh*.

The decorative wall, my bow, one of my Katanas and some cool license plates.

More Katanas and some sports stuff on the ground :-)!

The view out of my window – great! Okok, ignore those weird cables … yeah, it’s America!

Our Kitchen …. nothing to say, bright and clean! Yes, clean!!!!

The living room …

View from our balcony to the remaining complex. It’s a great place to live in!

AND: we have a WINDOW in the bathroom. Yes, a WINDOW! That’s so cool … and at the same time so non-American :-). I love it!

That’s it for today, more to come!

The US army uses the first tactical robots in Iraq – moving the war to a new technological level. Those little beasts seem pretty efficient (see video). But being in the Army and coming from an information security background, I’m wondering how the data-transmission works. I think it would be fun to hijack those thingies on a battlefield. And even if they are not easily hijackable (what I hope for the US troops), who prevents the bad guys from jamming the whole battlefield with strong signals? I could build a wireless jammer in a week … this would render their iron friends pretty useless. As a starting point for the bad guys, the manufacturer pus the datasheets online :-). I’m getting a 404 when I try to download one though ;-). They’ll need supercomputers on the battlefields soon … ah, my job is secured forever!

From the ‘Bicycle Neglect Series‘: “In fact, young Cascadians don’t even match the bicycling levels of Germans over the age of 75. That’s right: Germans in their late seventies and eighties bike more—on 7 percent of all trips—than Cascadian teens and twenty-somethings.” … “Cascadia, especially its populous heartland stretching from the Willamette Valley through Puget Sound to the lower Fraser Valley, has a superb climate for cycling. There are neither icy roads in winter nor swampish humidity in summer. The famous rain is more often a drippy ambience than measurable precipitation. Northern Europe’s climate is worse for cycling than ours: it snows. Besides, the nights are much longer in winter there.”. So what’s wrong? Read the articles and you’ll see! Very interesting! Here is another nice article …

Yeah, after a very very very nice independence day last year, I’m trying to repeat this experience :). We’ll see. I’m right in the middle of it – and the parade is over. It was as bad as last year (actually slightly worse). But I have some pictures this time for you to enjoy (or not):

The Bloomington firefighters and sheriffs :).

Ambulance (BHAS) and the beginning of the Veteran trailer (one of the central themes …)

More Veterans and the Harley Club (????).

Of course our nice National Guards :).

This may be boring for most of you but interesting for some (including me :)). The Kroger buy-groceries for $100 and receive 10c/gallon off at a Kroger gas station works! I tested it yesterday! Yeah, I thought that the regular gas price would just be higher, but it was in fact already cheaper than all stations in Bton – and I got an additional 10c off. How exciting, huh? It was pretty exciting until I realized that I pumped only 10 gallons … that’s $1 saving :-(. And I had to drive down to the South-Kroger. Anyway, I paid exactly $25 (18 EUR) for a full tank of gas. I think I can hear some Germans crying over there ;-). But hey, my freaking stupid American car eats 9l/100km :-(.

Yeah, I threw my first party in America yesterday. Jungjin, a Korean friend and me organized a houseparty under the theme “rock da yellow house”. And we did! We made German Potato salad and Korean (special secret :)) Noodles.

And we bought the best booze ever: Kamtschatka Vodka – nearly two liters 40% (80 proof) for $9 :-):

Here some random party pictures:

I partied with the hard core and the Kamtschatka till 7:30am and was completely drunk until the next evening. But I don’t have a hangover *yeah*. Just feeling tired. Anyway, the day after:

It was great! I think I’ll throw more house parties over the summer! Bton beging to be nice again – slowly.

Ohohoh … I ate too much pizza in the last days. Tuesday, Wednesday and today … free pizza all around. I’m feeling as I become fat. Sounds like running a bit longer tonight ;).

And I drink tapped water! And i had some fun with programming languages ;).

An excerpt from the newspaper:

– Police can confront you on your own property if they see you drinking in plain view and suspect you are underage.

-It is illegal to consume alcohol on city sidewalks, alleys, city parks, city streets and other public areas.

– Police can arrest you if you are carrying IDs with two different names, even if it’s to “hold it for a friend”.

– Underage drivers can be arrested for transporting alcohol, even if it is for friends who are of age.

Hilarious!

This is getting better and better :). Not even that IU is amongst the top party schools, there are also amazing events going on here (I missed it last year because I was in Europe *argh*)!

I “attended” the little 500 (wikipedia) this weekend. This is amazing, forget about the “Oktoberfest”, it’s like the whole town turns into a party zone (okok, Loveparade is bigger – but still). The weather was just amazing, and I hung out with friends.

Lance Armstrong said that the race was “the coolest event I ever attended.” He must have been at one of the parties. It’s funny though, nearly everything alcohol related is illegal in this country, but I’ve never seen so many drunk people.
It’s plain cool. And I bought a subwoofer for nearly nothing! Yeah, all the chinese people graduate, move and sell their stuff way under value 🙂 (I bought a mountainbike, the subwoofer, 4 wine glasses and a pan today for only $37).

The funny thing is that our house is so waggly that my walls shake to the sound of Talla2XLC right now ;).

… is funny, it’s obviously designed by comedians. I’m just sitting next to my buddy who tries (since hours) to file his state tax. It’s all online (like the German Elster, but it works with FIrefox). Following questions are hilarious:

First Page:

Enter Your Name: ___”Max Mueller”___

Second Page:

Did “Max Mueller” die in the tax year 2006? [ ] yes [ ] no

Isn’t this hilarious!