A couple of weeks ago we went to Heidelberg for a Stag night. Me and Rory took our video cameras with us and did about 3 hours of footage. Last week Me, Rory and Joerg got together again to edit a video about it. After 3 nights, a lot of beer and “vinho verde” the result is this.. I think it’s pretty good :-)

Dan’s Germany Stag Do from Nuno Morgadinho on Vimeo.

I have a friend named John. I hope he doesn’t mind if I write here what I think is happening with him.

I think he is very demotivated, partly because he isn’t enjoying his work and also because he is going through a complicated phase. He seems himself being at a pretty dull phase of his life. Work is boredom; tedious; uninteresting. He doesn’t have the energy to carry it out.

Outside work he does appreciate life, especially when he gets together with his friends and the girlfriend he loves. But he doesn’t have any plans or anything to look forward in the next months/years and especially he feels a bit imprisoned where he is now.

I think he is going through a rough time. He used to do a lot of sports and be very energetic and zen but nowadays he isn’t practising anything any more and he feels himself being dragged down, more and more.

John: I want you to know I’m not going to let you go down friend. Life is the most wonderful bliss someone can have and although all the beings out there are trying to influence you, there is a light that will guide you if you search for it.

12 Things I Like About StackOverflow:

– You can edit questions posed by other people (e.g to correct spelling, add links, etc.)
– You get points as reputation that are given out according to the votes you get on your answers/questions.
– You can select a piece of your own reputation and attach it to the question as a bounty.
– You receive badges for things like “Completed all user profile fields”, “Asked first question with at least one up vote”, etc.
– Slick UI and responsive site.
– Tagging is meaningful and you get a “Organizer” badge for your first retag.
– Some actions are only available after a certain reputation is attained.
– I’ve posed a question and 3 answers came in within the hour.
– No number 9.
– You can browse through the users and see their profile and reputation, acting as a social media site.
– It’s actually a programmer’s community.
– For every question or search you can get a RSS feed.

Taking the risk of being called a copycat by not being totally original, I want to talk a bit about VoRtEx.

I meet him back in the University days and he was already very passionate about the things he would do. Be it playing with kites, or hacking away at his laptop, he just loved every minute of it. We grew up together a bit during that time and I’m glad we did all the things we did together. I’m sure the future is bright for you young fella, and I’ll be waiting for a visit here in Germany. Continue to be young in mind and passionate about you do, those are my wishes ;) Happy birthday!

We’re back in Darmstadt after 3 days and a big car trip from Portugal.  Apparently we were extremely lucky considering we got dry weather and roads along our route and a winter storm brought blankets of snow across Europe today. The Eiffel tower in Paris was closed today because of the heavy snow and even yesterday we were there on the second floor taking pictures and having a hot chocolate :)

Anyway Darmstadt is no exception and packed with snow!