Continuing the series, this is the church,
Author: kenritley
Belfort building – 3
Continuing the series, I think this may be the justice department building but I’m not sure and wasn’t bothered to walk over and find out:
Belfort building – 2
This is the main city hall in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté village of Belfort,
Belfort building
As artistic a snap as I thought I could take of a building in the French village of Belfort, in the region known as Bourgogne-Franche-Comté,
Yes, if Bourgogne sounds familiar then it probably is: it’s the original French word that is translated as Burgundy, and it’s where the French wine of the same name comes. Belfort itself is an interesting place with many historical sights and an often-flipped past; at times it belonged to Germany.
Trees at Huningue
Continuing the series, it is just amazing how the colors looked in the winter sunlight,
Pond at Huningue
Continuing the series, I thought this snap of a pond near the juncture of the Huninque Canal and the Rhein River in Alsace was quite pretty in the winter sunlight:
Winterthur tracks
I’m taking a self-learning training on LinkedIn about photography – I thought it was high time I dived in and learned from the professionals!
In this course they want you to photograph subjects in black-and-white, so you can focus exclusively on things like form, layers, perspective, etc.
For me, I like the way that the tracks and platform draw the observers attention to the skyscraper in the background.
Tourist restaurant in Ingenbohl
Continuing the series, here is a nice snap of a restaurant for tourists in the Swiss village of Ingenbohl,
The screws at Landquart – 2
Continuing the series, just across the outlet mall in Landquart there is a pumping station that is open to the air but protected by a fence:
Interestingly, there is a small creek just behind this installation, but the screws go down much, much lower (probably a good 15 m) lower than the level of the river:
Things like this really confuse me. It smelled a bit like sewage, so I assume it was somehow for dealing with sewage water. But only one of the huge screws was turning, and in fact the tiniest one. Does it receive a higher volume in the rain? Does it pump more than just sewer water? Sadly, these things are never documented anywhere that the public can easily read about them!
The stores at Landquart – 1
About an hour south of Zürich there is something usual. Very unusual. Well, very unusual for Switzerland, at any rate: an outlet mall! As a rule, Switzerland doesn’t have many of them; I know of one other in the very south of Switzerland, near Italy. And I know of two in Germany and one in France – but they are much less common than in the US.
And here’s what it looks like when you park your car:
Winterthur Building Statue
Not sure what this is – it doesn’t look old – but there are a number of them scattered throughout the north central Swiss city of Winterthur – and I find it a bit frustrating that they have these things with no plaques or explanations!
Anyway, I liked this snap, in this light, because I thought that all the colors were somehow related. I don’t know anything about colors, but I understand there are collections of them that are related.
Schwabentor at Schaffhausen – unstretched
I used Microsoft Lens to unstretch this gate, a surviving artifact of the walled city of Schaffhausen – or, in the Alemanic language, Schaffhuuse:
Seeing this up close, it makes me wonder why the skin tones of some of the people in the painting are dark? This might not seem interesting, but only about 300 m from this tower is the famous Schaffhausen Moor-fountain that portrays an Arab.
Could it be that Schaffhausen has a history involving the Arabs? It would not surprise me, since Schaffhause is easily reached from the south of France via a long series of rivers.
It’s a mystery I have to come back and clear up some day!
Helical doorway in Arles
This is something you don’t see everyday – in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this at all. It’s a medieval doorway in the southern French city of Arles, but one that is framed with helical columns on both sides:
Arles Barber
Barbershop poles are interesting things. They have them in the US, of course. Germany doesn’t seem to have them – at least, I’ve never seen one in Germany. They are quite common in Switzerland.
And you can find them in France, but not everywhere.
I took this snap in Arles:
Of course it is probably more at home here in Europe, originally deriving from a sign used for shops that had doctors and leaches and were willing to bleed you with them.
But that begs the question: what else do we see in our daily lives and take for granted, but that we would have also seen hundreds of years ago? Probably if we could travel back in time there are more than a few things that we would instantly recognize.
Swiss house
I took this snap in the Canton of Schwyz, but it is a common sight anywhere in the German speaking region of Switzerland:
In the western part of Switzerland, also called Romandie, the architecture tends to be more similar to what might be called a French style, with buildings mostly made from stone.
Quiller in German – or, are those Germans impolite and stiff, or soft-spoken and friendly?
The Quiller Memorandum is a film from 1966, starring George Segal and based on a espionage novel of the same name. Many people such as Quentin Tarrentino himself consider it the finest film in the spy genre. I fully agree.
There are two great things about the film.
First, my favorite scene takes place coincidentally at exactly the street and corner where I stayed on my first trip to Berlin! The shop in the center background is today a Müller Drogerie.
Second, there is an interesting scene involving the German language. Since I am not a native speaker, it has long confused me. In this scene, the American spy Quiller – until now denying that he spoke German – suddenly confronts his followers and speaks to them in very fluent German, even involving some local Berlinerisms that have confused me, such as sometimes exchanging dative and accusative pronouns. Even today when I visit Berlin and talk to real Berliners it can trip me up.
However, the same movie dubbed into German uses the German language throughout – and the bit where Quiller suddenly starts speaking German is overdubbed with an entirely different set of words. I’ve always found this fascinating: although the language in both cases is spoken German, my American ears find the American version to be much less polite.
You be the judge!
The scene begins as Quiller decides to confront someone who is clandestinely following him.
| Who | American version | German version |
| Quiller | Are you following me? Ich frage Sie, ob Sie mir folgen! | Sagen Sie mal, beschatten Sie mich? Ich habe Sie gefragt, ob Sie mich beschatten! |
| Short guy | Ich? Nein. | Ich? Nein. |
| Quiller | Warum folgen Sie mir? | Warum gehen Sie mir dann hinterher? |
| Short guy | Ich folge Sie gar nicht. Sie müssen sich irren. | Aber ich gehe dann nicht hinterher. Sie haben sich geirrt. |
| Quiller | Wohin gehen Sie dann? | So, wo gehen Sie denn dann hin? |
| Short guy | Ich bin mit einem Bekannten verabretet. Bitte entschuldigen Sie mir | Sie machen mir Spass. Ich bin mit einem Bekannten verabredet. Lassen Sie mich los! |
| Quiller | Wo bitte? | Ja, und wo sind Sie verabredet? |
Just as Quiller steps up his pressure, they are joined by another clandestine colleague of the follower,
| Who | American version | German version |
| Fat guy | Dieter? Was ist denn los? | Dieter? Was ist denn los? |
| Short guy | Der Herr behauptet, dass ich ihn folge | Ach, der bildet sich ich gehe ihn hinterher. |
| Fat guy | Wer Du? Warum? | Wer, Du? Warum denn? |
| Short guy | Ich weiss es nicht | Möchte ich auch gerne wissen. |
| Fat guy | Sagen Sie mal, wie kommen Sie darauf? | Wie kommen Sie darauf? Ist hier irgendwas? |
The final discourse is interesting for two reasons. First, I find the German version to be a bit more diplomatic and polite than the American version – at least to my non-native ears it sounds this way.
But . . . here is where the nuances of the German language come in! When Quiller says “Perhaps you have not been following me” then he is looking at the entire group, not just the original follower, thus sneakily and cleverly changing the case of the formal pronoun Sie from first person formal to second person formal!
| Who | American version | German version |
| Quiller, looking at everyone | Vielleicht habe ich mich geirrt? Vielleicht sind Sie mir nicht gefolgt? Wenn das so ist, werde ich gehen! | Ach schön. Vielleicht habe ich mich geirrt, es kann auch ja sein. Vielleicht sind Sie mir wirklich nicht hinterher gegangen? Entschuldigen Sie! Dann darf ich wohl jetzt. |
| Quiller, looking at the short guy | Sie sind mir im Weg! | Sie stehen mir leider nur etwas im Wege. |
In other words – and this is only known to people who can speak German! – Quiller was telegraphing to the entire group of three people that he knew he was being followed!
“The Truck”
This is a snap of my 1990 Ford Ranger pickup truck, that didn’t actually need a name because I thought “The Truck” was name enough. It was the second vehicle that ever entered my personal fleet, way back in 1991, following a 1981 Chevy Chevette that was a terrific first car for me but I had to junk due to rust and general decay.
Couple of interesting points:
1) I bought the truck used for USD $2000 from the owner of a local music store in Champaign, it had around 5000 miles on it. This was back in the days when nobody really knew what a pickup truck was or wanted one. In the ensuring 8 years the popularity of these trucks exploded, and I told the truck in 1998 for USD $5500. So after 8 years I actually made a tidy profit that more than paid for my repairs, insurance, and upkeep during those 8 years!
2) This was before I got shot at. While driving in Kentucky someone tried to shoot me with a 22-caliber rifle. Thankfully it missed me, but it left a nice little bullet hole directly next to the gas flap that you can see in the shot above.
3) All Ford Ranger trucks are known for their short engine lives, usually the engine dies at around 150’000 mi. In my case at very nearly 150’000 I had a head valve crack, which is an interesting story: I took the truck to a number of supposedly “good” repair garages, nearly all of them told me I had a cracked block. Now, nobody is pulling the wool over my eyes – I know the difference between a cracked valve and a cracked block! So . . . when you need a good repair in the US, where do you take your car? Easy: to the least affluent part of town. Which I did. Repair job took around 6-7 hours, but I only paid around USD 500 for the repair. Reason: people who live in the poorer areas don’t have a lot of money, so the garages in these places need to offer a top service at a low price in order to win any business.
When industry overgrows history
The town of Schlieren in Switzerland, just outside of Zürich, has to be one of the niftiest little towns I know. There is a very old area that has been overgrown with a slightly-less-old industrial area, and that has been overgrown with a modern industrial area. You have to really go on a weekend and drive around on the roads marked private, but if you do you see a lot of interesting sites like this, a very old church next to a slightly newer but also old industrial building, while all the while I am surrounded (off camera) by very modern industries:
Here’s a slightly different view from a different angle:
Building art
I caught this snap just outside of Zürich,
Michelin test facility in the sunlight – 2
Continuing the series, here is another snap of what I thought looked magnificent in the winter sunlight:
The power people’s personalities provide!
Continuing the series, the following link was sent to me by my good friend Ertan yesterday, and I found it too good to resist.
The power people’s personalities provide – gosh that sounds nice and a way to reap important benefits!
But in fact the title of the website sounds negative and an approach for solving a problem: How to deal with difficult people.
Be that as it may, this website gives a nice overview of different personality types, and you can click on the personality type and you’ll find useful advice about how to work with people with that type.
It’s nothing new, of course – I just don’t know when it begun. The earliest such approach in my recollection was a terrific book from 2001 by J. Hank Rainwater entitled “Herding Cats: A primer for programmers who lead programmers.” You can find a PDF version on the Internet if you look hard enough. Surprisingly, I discovered it at exactly the right time, when I was new in the role of IT project manager and struggling with my first real project.
And it was followed by a wonderful chapter in a book by Patrick Schmid entitled Turbo “Turbo Projektmanagement: Mit einfachen Mittel schneller zum Projekterfolg.”
And this in turn was followed by a less complete but – without doubt – much more useful approach by my ex-colleague and good friend Mario Neumann in his book Projekt-Safari.
Thanks, Ertan, great catch!
1981 Chevy Chevette
Continuing the series, I’m trying now to document all the vehicles that are now or ever have been in my personal fleet, so with this publication of my 1981 Chevy Chevette that I bought used in 1988 for USD $1200, the list is almost complete. The photograph was taken one winter at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, just across the street from the nuclear waste dump – I hoped that extra little boost of radiation would help enhance my photograph:
This was before I started naming my vehicles, but it was a trusty workhorse for me for my jaunts around New York and the East Coast, from 1988 until I junked it in 1991. Cars in New England don’t lead long lives, for obvious reasons that you can see here.
Alsacian sprinkler
OK, more formally known as a lateral move irrigation machine, these things are just amazing. They have an astonishing amount of electronics, including servo motors that move the wheels.
I took this snap in the winter, in Alsace. This seems to be a so-called two wheel model, since there are two wheels per assembly.
I tried to look up how much one of these babies cost (capital costs, not operating costs), and I was surprised to find a few things. First, the costs are usually reported per hectare or acre. Second, there is a huge range in the costs, from USD 300 per acre to USD 6’000 per acre, depending on the features and functionality.
Tree at the lock in the sun
This is an unretouched snap of a tree in the winter sunlight at the first lock that opens from the Huningue Canal in France to the Rhine River in Germany. I thought the colors and light was wonderful!
Church mystery
Capt. Kirk once said, “I hate mysteries. They give me a belly-ache, and right now I’ve got a beaute.” Same with me.
Here’s the mystery. Why is a modern church located in Winterthur, Switzerland almost identical to an old church located in Bodega Bay, California? You’ll notice the major design elements such as the pointed doorway, four windows, and even the proportions are nearly identical. Is this co-incidence?
Here’s the church at Bodega Bay, photographed by Ansel Adams,
And here is the church in Winterthur, photographed by me:
