New places...

Good morning again!

Yes, I'll hope to post more frequent in the future, which is why you're seeing a daily influx of stuff for the time being (until I grow tired of it ;-)) Today, I'd like to tell you a bit about the city I work in now:
Jena is, essentially, the figurehead of the economic success a few parts of former socialist germany achieved in the past two decades. It's got two world class corporations in the optical sector, Zeiss and Jenoptik, an advanced ceramics company, Schott, two universities, all the cultural, research and supplier facilities associated with that... it's amazing, it's got only 100,000 inhabitants, half of them students, a quarter highly qualified workforce, and the remainder normal people.
Problem is, it's in a valley. Mountains to the left, mountains to the right, with the city itself shaped like some kind of bean, with a long north-south axis. Rents are ridiculous, being in the same league as Berlin or Munich in some areas. A thousand euros per month would get you a 3-room apartment with maybe 90 or 100 m² in an average location, or a 60 m² two-room apartment in a somewhat upmarket district (still nothing fancy).
This has resulted, naturally, in considerable suburban sprawl and, further, to the outlying villages and towns. Owing to the valley location, there's a total of two roads entering the main city, also providing the main road traffic capacity within city limits. This is very few for a place of that size.
I drive to work every day. Out of being used to it, I guess - the previous two years, also in a rural setting, were dominated by cars, and the road network was good. Diesel was paid for by the company, and I used my private car only for the long-distance trips home. Driving was fun, the transportation aspect of life was good. And now, as I said, I have moved to this small town. The license plate abbreviation for the area is "SHK". If you ever happen to come across a vehicle which license plate is bearing this three letters, be weary. Not only have they been taught to drive by drunk cavemen, if at all, but in addition they are not aware of their extremely developed incompetence.
Be sure to catch on in a later post where I continue my whining about them!

A long time later....

Good morning everyone,

it's been a while (pretty exactly one year) that I have
written something into this blog... that's because a lot
of things have happened. Among them being minor things
like the hardest work season of my life in late 2011,
followed by writing a science fiction novella (not
published...yet), returning to my home province and
finally moving from a small city apartment to a huge house
in the rural backwater. Oh, I've changed jobs, too, of
course.
From my warehouse company to a small, ambitious start-up
developing a really cool electric microcar. The team is
awesome, as are the work conditions. Content-wise, it's a
dramatic shift from the rather dull daily operations stuff
as department head to the creative tasks you get as
product manager for an innovative product.
But that's not the main reason for today's entry... as I
mentioned before, I moved from the province capital to a
small town - which is a lovely change when you look solely
at the place of living itself.
At some 18 years of age, the building isn't even a fifth
of the age of our previous home. It's got floor heating, a
garden, a balcony, a big basement, all the bells and
whistles you would expect for a huge amount of money.
Well, not so huge when looking at the size you get, and
even smaller when compared to the rents in the closest
city, Jena, where I also work.
But more on that later...