Michael At Netscape, there was recently a small introductory event for the new AOL employees--a so-called "Beer Bash." On such occasions, delicious food is served, and a beer keg is tapped. To help people get to know each other more quickly, each newcomer was given a so-called Nerf Gun, which, we were told, is part of the traditional equipment of a Netscape hacker. "Nerf" is the name of the company that manufactures the device. It is a fairly large toy gun, which you pump to pressurize the chamber and then shoot small foam darts with suction cups. The long-time employees also brought their equipment--and the battle began. I managed to land some good hits. Everything raged for an hour!

Michael The championships in rock climbing, snowboarding, skateboarding, rollerblading, and cycling took place this year in San Francisco. At an event called the "X-Games," people keep riding back and forth in so-called half-pipes. These are half-open tubes with a diameter of about 15 feet and a length of 30 feet, where you can speed down on one side and up on the other. The cyclists, rollerbladers, and skateboarders perform all sorts of tricks, flipping and spinning, sliding along the edges, shooting over the rim, and jumping two or three meters into the air -- and whoever performs the best tricks wins. On Saturday, I went there early with a friend from AOL, and the line at the entrance was about a mile long, all people in their twenties. I think we were the only ones not wearing a baseball cap backward. I felt like a grandpa; at 34, you're not the youngest anymore, cough, cough. With the camera I brought, I was able to take some snapshots: Here you go, images 1 and 2 show the whirling bike masters -- live at the X-Games 1999! Once in a lifetime, baby.

Michael A topic that will likely become relevant in Germany soon, because everything eventually crosses over, is the business practices of American retailers. Everything always has to be cheap; that's very important in America. While in Germany people somewhat look down on you if you visit several stores for a small price difference, here someone who pays more than absolutely necessary is considered crazy. At a party, you can certainly brag about having bought a particular product at a very low price.

Michael Or, when you want to rent a car: The newspaper says that the rental car costs $19.95 per day. Man, that's really cheap, you think, and call the number provided, but when you reach the call center, which is usually staffed by people from parts of the USA where no one else ventures (like Iowa, for example), and who speak with a terrible dialect, you might find out that the offer is only valid in Florida, or only if you pick up the car from a specific airport.

Michael A kind of love-hate relationship has developed between me and the computer superstore "Fry's Electronics." This is a chain of stores that offer computer products on sales floors the size of football fields and regularly place six-page color ads in the "San Jose Mercury," the newspaper in Silicon Valley. On one hand, their prices are quite low, but on the other hand, everyone knows that they operate with dubious business practices, such as repackaging returned goods in the original plastic wrap and selling them as new, among other tricks.

Michael I have another story: About two and a half years ago, when I moved into our current apartment in San Francisco -- Angelika was still in Germany -- there was a bit of a musty smell in the space. Later, we found out from our neighbors that the previous tenant had cats that had probably peed on the carpet. After I signed the lease, I asked the real estate agent if I could have a carpet cleaning company come in, and he said yes. He had just read in the newspaper that the company Sears (a large department store chain in the USA, similar to Karstadt in Germany) had run an ad that promised they would clean any apartment for $19.95.

Michael Angelika recently completed her earthquake course with the fire department and, like a responsible firefighter, immediately put everything into practice. She packed two earthquake boxes (as she calls them) and included old shoes (in case you're surprised in your sleep, you need to quickly put on shoes to walk through broken glass), water for three days, some food, clothing, and emergency sleeping bags made of aluminum foil. If there is no earthquake, the boxes are also good for the turn of the millennium, as many people fear that electricity or water, or even worse, my internet connection, could fail--or everything at once--because everything is controlled by computers, which, as is well known, could have difficulties entering the new millennium due to potential programming errors. Experts call it the Year-2000 or Y2K bug. A colleague told me that he bought barrels of mineral water--along with a gun to defend his supplies if necessary.

Michael Angelika spends day and night at the darkroom of the photo lab, indulging in her hobby. The lady has already gone through several phases of her photography career: First, she photographed the children in the Tenderloin kindergarten, then came what I call the vegetable period: still lifes of radishes, cauliflower, and similar subjects, arranged in hours-long sessions with changing lighting conditions, captured according to the latest insights in photography technology -- unfortunately, I can't say much more about it, as I'm just a dumb software engineer.

Michael The new Austin Powers movie "The Spy Who Shagged Me" (the German translation will certainly be interesting) is out, and Angelika and I watched it one weekend at a theater in Japantown. We laughed so hard, and afterwards, we treated ourselves to some Japanese soup with Udon noodles, delicious! The film is full of references to American society; for instance, the center of evil in the movie is the headquarters of the coffeehouse chain "Starbucks," which is hated by all San Franciscans and originates from Seattle, a city that no one from San Francisco can stand.

Michael My book "Perl Power," which has been lingering in the bookstores of English-speaking countries since January, is enjoying increasing popularity. More and more often, people at Netscape pass by my cubicle and want me to sign their copy, which I am, of course, happy to do. Whenever we pass by a bookstore on our weekend outings, I naturally have to take a look inside -- and check if they have "Perl Power." Usually, there are two or three copies somewhere, which I quickly place in the "Book of the Week" shelves when no one is looking. If you don't take care of everything yourself... Recently, I received, no kidding, an email from a Mr. McKenzie from Reykjavik, Iceland, who complained that one of the programs printed in the book wasn't working for him. Probably a power outage in the igloo... no, he just hadn't installed a module correctly.

Michael I also enjoy biking and taking the train to the Netscape office in Mountain View, as it allows me to read all the computer magazines and books that pile up at home. And that's one hour each way! Plus, there's always something to laugh about on the train ride.