Something About Me
Hey, I'm a Father!
Well, before he gets his own server, at least he deserves his own page.
Read more about Robin, the kid Michelle and I have,
here.
Things I like, Things I Do
Photos
I have taken a lot of photos over the years, some artistic,
most of them rather documentary. Now that I have server space
and time, they find their way onto my web page, bit by bit. Check out
my photo section. (That link
should give you a complete, bookmarkable window, in contrast to the link
in the navigation bar).
Juggling
Juggling was my major hobby before I moved to Hamburg
and may return to this status now that
I have come back.
The Berlin jugglers form a jolly, creative group of friends. Many of
them gather completely informally in
Statthaus Böcklerpark every Tuesday
past 7.30 pm. (It's located
here.)
Some of them even juggle before they drink a beer!
You can just drop in and watch, learn 3 balls or take part
in the regular 5 clubs endurance if you feel like it (I don't).
The Berlin jugglers have organized a couple of
conventions so far, each one attracting several
hundred people. They are always great fun. The location is
a dream, the
FEZ
gives us permission to use the beach at the bathing lake exclusively
for 4 days. Exclusive access is important because it allows
people to leave their stuff unattended.
The last convention was 2006 shortly after
Robin was born, and we only attended the Gala show which
was even better than usual.
There is also a (not so) formal club called
"Circulum". On their
page, you can find more training opportunities and contact infos.
By the way, one of the jugglers,
Michelle,
is the reason I've come back to Berlin! A good decision. :-).
Doppelkopf
Another location in Berlin which I like a lot is the
Café Cralle in my Berlin
home district
Wedding,
a small, charming
place being run by a group of women, one of the
reasons why it's so attractive. I play the German card game of
Doppelkopf there regularly, but with the pure aim of
socializing (that's different from backgammon, which I play
a little bit more ambitious). You can find the specific rules
of our little group here.
In Hamburg I used to play in a more competitive group called
Hanse-Doko,
very nice and friendly people (hi Michael, hi Rainer, hi all!).
If you play Doko and are in Hamburg on a Tuesday night, check
out the link and join them as a guest.
Backgammon was my major hobby during the last years,
right after making my tax declaration.
I'm playing mostly online on the
First International Backgammon Server
FIBS
as the juggler.
FIBS started as early as 1992, in the pre-web era.
It's an interesting place for anyone interested in backgammon,
have a look. There are players of all skills up to
world class (the server is funded mainly by Kit Woolsey and his wife).
Although one would probably find more strong players on GamesGrid,
there is some serious backgammon played on FIBS. I like that it is
a free, pretty anarchist, working community (the sysop
Patti
only bans the most abusive characters). Btw, this reminded me that
I stole the "Playground" title from Patti's page! I liked
it.
I have analyzed and
archived some matches, among them many that
I have played in the league and tournament
set up by Franck del Rio,
FibsLeaGammon.
Sometimes I also participate in
life tournaments in Berlin.
Thinking
I have recently added a
page with my opinions about different
matters, that I thought (see, again!) could interest people
who want to know something about me.
Last updated Nov 2nd, 2007