Greetings form Amsterdam.. almost 2AM. back a bit ago from a really nice reunion with other good friends. Ran into friends at work. met some face to face  for the first time (RJ !) ..

around 6 my friend Bram picked me up at work and drove us to our friend Djeevins home. He recently left IBM ,, so it was really good to check in on him. t was great meeting his wife and kids and seeing his home base.  Here Djeevin and his son strap on some lights !

whats more he is an excellent thai cook.. the food he made was really amazing.. tam ka then a rice and veggie thai salad. I wish I had one more bowl right now

Got back here around 11:30.. then got into some more work calls. All done for the night..

must sleeeeeeeep !

night all, night sam

-me

 

Almost 2AM, so I will make this short.-.. But it's not a short kind of day. Today was the Last day of IFA .I woke early and took a longish run through the beautiful tear garden. My goal was to visit the Jewish Holocaust monument…

 

 

The Holocaust monument is very movie… It's thousands of concrete rectangles various sizes and shapes on uneven ground… You walk into it and you easily get lost. It's very moving

I stood in the middle of it for a while and thought

 

I spent the bulk of the rest of the day trying to catch up from things that I've missed while being here… I had about five hours worth of email and meetings… Do you like that it was time for my friends Pat and Bills talk. It went very well… I was vicariously happy for them

 

Funny thing is the speaker before Pattonville look really familiar… When I went up to congratulate you guys further talk the previous speaker stared at me and said 'I know you! 'It was my old friend Trent from Saskatchewan Canada…about 15 years ago and two careers ago. We were both in analog CAD which was about the smallest community is you could have in this industry

We had fun catching up and then he told me that our mutual friend Jeannie, whom I know from loathing Belgium… Was now working for him… (I didn't even know the two new each other)… And what's more was going to be in town this evening. Crazy !

Next though Pat, Bill, will, Martin and I headed back to the hotel to grab a beer… Then I took Martin across town to meet up with my friend Henning and his wife Paula and two beautiful kids at a small pizza place in northern berlin.

… That was also a great connection… henning he has nothing to do with the conference I'm at, but Martin and I have just started working on the same topic that Henning is an expert in… It turned out to be a very useful meeting…when half of the table was talking tech and reviewing the paper… Well my side of the table was playing with our food and throwing french fries at one another

Unfortunately I had both 10 PM and 11 PM phone calls with work… I made it home and to the hotel in time to take the 11 PM but then I arrange to meet Jimmy at midnight at the subway station… It was so great seeing him after so many years… We had a great time catching up both technically and personally

I'm in Berlin and halftime and moving and were working on very similar topics right now. It's a wonderfully small world

OK after 2 AM and I have to wake up early so I'm going to stop here

Nite all, nite sam

-me

 

Went for a run this morning and kept noticing the small brass plaques in the ground. On the way back I started looking at them they all had the word heir wohnt.. Or here lived.. These are all markers of the home address of people who died in the Holocaust. It took my breath away to think they had once lived in the same beautiful city, on this same beautiful Street and enjoyed the same beautiful weather which i was enjoying on this particular morning

 

Night all, night sam

-me

 

Look up this morning at 4 AM and had trouble going back to sleep. So I watch the rest of wings of desire. What is beautiful movie

 

I did manage to go back to sleep around six and slept for a while… Today was pretty good though

I didn't go into the confernce today . instead i worked all day long with my friend Bill. We got lots done which was very satisfying

Internet der Dinge is how you say Internet of things in German. One thing that was pretty funny… As I walked around the city I noticed how into Internet of things this place is.

For example… The hotel has this wine button You push it and someone brings you a glass of wine

 

Sweet pickle juice like I accidentally drank yesterday

Tonight we went out to a late dinner at a place called the pub… It was all Internet of things. You ordered your food at your table and you poured your own beer and it measured how much you drank. There was even a scoreboard for which table had drunk the most beer and what kind

I wasn't able to get any sightseeing in yet but I have run across some pretty amazing things. The Jewish memorial was very moving but I didn't get a picture. I will try to go back. I also found this marker of the berlin wall.

And there are many beautiful old buildings here

OK I'm going to try to sleep now.

Night all, night Sam

– Me