What do New Zealand and Switzerland Have In Common

Not only is most of the Swiss sailing team from New Zealand (they are suprisingly excited about sailing over here) but much more importantly let me introduce you to the village of Lauterbrunnen:


Does that look at all familiar to you? Think about a big stream flowing though the center, an elaborately carved caslte to the right, and a lot of elves running about. Still not quite there, wel let me give you a visual guide:


Welcome to Rivendell! Allow for Tolkien's fantasy and I would say that is about as close as it gets. So Switzerland has something else to offer than cheese and chocolate, although that is already pretty good :)

ATLAS Movies

Well it appears my workplace has decided to make a few movies about ATLAS and the LHC, hopefully to raise public awareness, and maybe to debunk some of the myths that have been building up during the lengthy construction of this new accelerator. Check out the videos on the ATLAS YouTube site. They are pretty cheesy (and some of the stuff they say is actually wrong) but either way the videos are awesomely geeky, or geekely awesome.

When I got back from lunch today I saw this:



and thought it must be a sign that this afternoon my code will work. And life will be good.

It is good to be a geek

Well it looks like next year will be a celebration of awesome:

1.) You know ...
2.) Fallout 3 (I'm giddy)
3.) LHC (I work every now and then you know ;)

And talking about awesome. It's a tribute to TBS really is.

I <3 Blizzard

This is the happiest day of my life.

A Puddle of Drool is Forming on my Laptop

What could this mean? I dare not think SC2 since I would not be able to take the disappointment of being wrong ... so I will safeguard myself into thinking World of Diablo 3craft.

I need a Camera

Well I arrived in Milano yesterday for a calibration workshop for ATLAS. I took the train, reflecting on how it is probably the most civilized available mode of locomotion. Next to the Geneva train station I found a comic shop displaying Magic(TM) cards, which made come to the happy realization that there are nerd everywhere. Finally I can feel at home in Geneva.

After that pleasent experiance I had to play a bit og dodge the heroin addict at the train platform while waiting for the train. After that I was off to a very enjoyable train ride though the Swiss and then Italian countryside.

After about 4 hrs of riding the train I arrived at Milano Centrale, about 30 minutes walk from the downtown area. That walk I did with my supervisor Michel and our man at CERN Damir after locating our hotel by the train station. We found the the Duomo cathedral ... they don't build churches like that anymore. Poster that, there is one being build in Barcelona ;)

After that we went to see the Castello Sforzesco a big keep just outside the center of Milano. Sadly it was closed when we got into the keep, so we were forced to duck out to the park behind the castle. Here we found out that the reason all the shops were closed was that it was Liberation day in Italy, so everyone was in the park and nobody at work. I also had a chance to interact with a few girls who were wondering where I was from. It appears they were dissapointed to find out I am from Canada ... maybe they were hoping I was from somewhere more excotic? Norway maybe? Cause Norway is fsckin' Metal.

Anyway I better get back to listening to the workshop discussion. Apparently nobody is motivated enough to analyze testbeam data.