IEEE CEuSBC 2011 in Linz

Christian M. Schmid,

Long time no hear. I was quite busy lately, but it was worth it. We, the IEEE Student Branch, JKU Linz, hosted the very first edition of the IEEE Central European Student Branch Congress (CEuSBC) in May! We had 40 participants from Austria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia. Apart from interesting talks about different engineering related topics, we also had fun social activities and the feedback we got from the participants was amazing!!! You guys rock!!!

Also thanks a lot to the people who made this possible, especially to the local IEEE Student Branch, JKU Linz executive comittee:

Norbert Eidenberger
Gregor Gerstorfer
Werner Scheiblhofer
Jochen Schrattenecker

and to the IEEE people who supported this event:

Manfred Sampl
Eva  Lang

Piotr from Poland already told me that the Opole student branch would like to host the 2nd CEuSBC in 2013! Go for it!!!!

Music and Nostalgia

Christian M. Schmid,

Not of the stuff in this post happened today, but I just realized that I’ve never really shared any of the music stuff going on in my life on my blog so far.

The first photo I took like 2 weeks ago when we performed the St. John Passion composed by Hubert Hanghofer, a local composer, with a small orchestra, a huge choir and some really good soloists (Franz Kalchmair http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kalchmair, Herbert Scheiböck, …)  While I have to admit that I don’t like all of Hubert’s compositions, I have to say that his Passion is a really great piece of art. While interesting musically it has the perfect balance between words and music.

I also met Agnes again, an old friend from junior high school (she played the chello). She is an archeologist now – wow, my first encounter with a real “Indiana Jones”-kind of person!!!

Today was another concert at our church which we played with our local wind band, here’s another photo:

The third facet of my music that I’d like to share in this post is my piano version of “If You Could Read My Mind” which I played and recorded about 2 month ago. It’s not very fancy and I did not care too much about the quality of my playing, but I still like it.

If You Could Read My Mind

Somehow it makes me miss the times when I studied piano at Anton Bruckner University. You know the kind of strange feeling you have about something beautiful that you had to let go. There is not too much regret in it but a certain form of nostalgia.

What are the things that you miss? What’s in your nostalgia closet? What are we supposed to do with these things?

Wind Power and Mailüfterl

Christian M. Schmid,
,

Another visit to Vienna. Apart from the IEEE Officiers meeting, which was quite interesting, I have two other interesting findings to share! It was a really great day with lots of sunshine, so driving was fun. What I came to realize is that we have a lot of wind power plants in Austria:

Whatever this means, I think I like it ;) Secondly, while on a short break from the meeting, I realized that we had the meeting right next to Heinz Zemaneks office (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Zemanek)!!!! Yes, the famous Mailüfterl (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail%C3%BCfterl) Zemanek ;)

All in all it was a great day!

Campus Radio

Christian M. Schmid,
,

Today I was part of another example of how much you can do with so little. I was live and online on JKU campus radio (http://radio.oeh.jku.at). Gerhard, the host of the show I was invited to, is really doing a great job every week! So here’s a photo of Mr. The-Show-Must-Go-On

He plays a lot of really cool Austrian music and his comments on politics and what is going on all over the world are hilarious. So if you feel like it, just tune in on http://radio.oeh.jku.at every Monday night at 7 pm MESZ (=5 pm UTC).

P.S. You can also download this Mondays podcast at http://radio.oeh.jku.at. Just click on the show “Der verlorene Posten”

Leave Me Alone – Earth Hour 2011

Christian M. Schmid,

Having a day off, just for myself has become a luxary these days. Today was a day where I really wanted it badly – once again impossible. Maybe I should build myself a leave-me-alone-machine like the one I found on youtube :D

It is really fascinating how many different kinds of this machine you can find on youtube! Whatever, here’s a much more important message:

I joined the celebration with a romantic bottle of leave-me-alone beer and candlelight.

Hope you had a great earth hour yourself. Post a comment to let me know how you spent it!

Commencement

Christian M. Schmid,

Today my sister had her commencement! What a cheerful day! Here’s a photo of my sister giving the commencement speech:

Congrats, she did a really good job. All in all it was a great day: great weather, lots of nice people, lots of good food.

Home Improvement – or – Welcome!

Christian M. Schmid,

Long time no see! Sorry, I was pretty busy. I still am, but hey once in a while you gotta take a break!

This week was home improvement week,  some repairs here and there, new glass walls in my kitchen, and because Andrea always reminds me that my apartment looks to much like a guy’s place (no decoration and stuff) we decided what to do with the big plain wall in the entrance area. We ended up painting the German word “Willkommen!”  and the English translation “Welcome!” onto the  wall in big, orange letters (1 m=3.5 feet length!). Here’s photo of the result

… and another one with my sister, her boyfriend, another friend of hers and Richard. Notice of the self-made fruits picture in the back!

Lots of decoration work is still to come! Hope that we can “Welcome!” some of you soon, so that you can take a real life look at our pieces of art!

Don’t mess with me, I’ve got a good lawyer now!

Christian M. Schmid,

I proudly announce: my little sister finally graduated from law school on Friday! And I am sooo proud of her! She did not allow me to take photos before the final exam, but here’s a relaxed one right after the exam with her sipping champagne.

I really enjoy having her as a sister.

I mean it was not always easy and we certainly had our share of fist fighting. I think that is just how it should be between sister and brother. However I guess we both can say that we are pretty glad we have each other! And while we both work on building our own lives we there are still bonds.

So just a kind warning: Don’t mess with me, I’ve got a good lawyer now! ;)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christian M. Schmid,

Log time no see. First of all I’d like to wish you all the best for the new year. Here’s a photo that I made to share my Christmas wishes!

Christmas, as always was about the busiest time of the year. Parties everywhere, finishing up this year’s stuff at work, all the last minute things that you could have done long before …

But then came  the long awaited Christmas holidays. Time to relax a little bit, read books, come up with good new year’s resolutions and do the things that you would usually not have time for.

There’s one holiday project in particular that I’d like to show to you:

I had a lot of fun doing that and really enjoyed the time of late night programming that the holidays allowed me to take. It would be great to hear from you what you think about it. If anyone wants such a system too, I can help you set it up, just drop me a line!

Meanwhile I wish you all the best for 2011 and keep on rocking!

Dancing, wine, beer – life is good!

Christian M. Schmid,
,

While a lot is happening at work – for those you who do care: the 77-GHz VCO and the PLL seem to lock! – spare time is fun too! Here’s a photo of the party people before we went to the dace last  Saturday:

Thank you Markus for not letting me alone, I enjoyed your company. On Monday I joined the people of my old dorm for the annual wine tasting. The vintner was there himself to present some of his best wines! And it was good to see all these great people, its amazing how we all evolve and still stay the same somehow. I had some great conversations with Rene, Severin, Martina, Lukas, Elisa, Richard …

Tonight is a little bit more calm. Just a nice glass of wheat beer with my roomie Richard!

I do work a lot right now, but it is important to save these nice moments where you give yourself a break!