Wenzel's Blog http://wazlaf.org/blog Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:41:33 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Motte http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=355 http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=355#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:41:10 +0000 Wenzel Jakob http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=355 Since being a pup, my family’s dog Motte (German for “moth”) has had the most peculiar way of sitting down:

Motte split-style sitting


She seems to enjoy it very much though it looks tiresome!

]]> http://wazlaf.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=355 0 Netherlands and Belgium (Part 5: Amsterdam) http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=314 http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=314#comments Sat, 24 Mar 2012 23:03:21 +0000 Wenzel Jakob http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=314 Today was the last day of my vacation, which I spent in Amsterdam. I only had a little bit of time to walk through the Grachtengordel (canals) past the Bloemenmarkt (flower market). One can buy all sorts of specialty flower bulbs there.

On the way, I came across a specialized store which basically just sells three different types of gouda: young, medium, and extra-old. What a great idea! Of course I immediately fell for it and left with a noticeably heavier bag.

I finally ended up in Amsterdam’s shady corner, which was certainly interesting. As predicted by Olesya, I saw several school classes exploring the area. Crazy!

IMG_6812 IMG_6814 IMG_6820 IMG_6853 IMG_6854 IMG_6858 IMG_6871 IMG_6877 IMG_6887 ]]> http://wazlaf.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=314 0 Netherlands and Belgium (Part 4: Bruges) http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=312 http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=312#comments Sat, 24 Mar 2012 23:02:34 +0000 Wenzel Jakob http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=312 On Thursday, I took the train to Bruges in the topmost corner of Belgium. This gem of a city was once a very rich and thriving trade outpost. Almost all of the medieval architecture in Bruges is intact to this day, which seems unbelievable. It is truly gorgeous — I had trouble deciding where to point my camera.

This place of course attracts many visitors. I would not recommend going there on the weekend.
IMG_6648 IMG_6658 IMG_6659 IMG_6663 IMG_6669 IMG_6671 IMG_6685 IMG_6689 IMG_6711 IMG_6715 IMG_6730 IMG_6736 IMG_6738 IMG_6739 IMG_6668 IMG_6758 IMG_6761 IMG_6772

]]> http://wazlaf.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=312 0 Netherlands and Belgium (Part 3: Brussels) http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=283 http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=283#comments Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:32:48 +0000 Wenzel Jakob http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=283 I did a quick day-trip to Brussels on Monday. It was unfortunately quite rainy, but I still took some pictures. The square with the pretty buildings is the famous “Grote Markt”, whose current architecture is from around 1400. Nearby, there was an shop with beautifully arranged arabic sweets.

IMG_6606 IMG_6593 IMG_6626 IMG_6632 IMG_6608 IMG_6609 ]]> http://wazlaf.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=283 0 Netherlands and Belgium (Part 2: Maastricht) http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=295 http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=295#comments Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:28:37 +0000 Wenzel Jakob http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=295 Over the weekend, I had some time to walk around in Maastricht (where the fair is located). It’s a cute little town with a well-preserved old city core and many churches. There are so many of them, that two were repurposed: Maastricht has a famous church bookstore and a church hotel. Some pictures:

IMG_6520 IMG_6522 IMG_6525 IMG_6537 IMG_6549 IMG_6541 IMG_6565 IMG_6556 IMG_6563 IMG_6575 ]]> http://wazlaf.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=295 0 Netherlands and Belgium (Part 1: TEFAF Maastricht) http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=228 http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=228#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:26:06 +0000 Wenzel Jakob http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=228 It’s currently spring break at Cornell, and I decided to take some time off to visit my fiancée and family in Europe. The timing was meticulous, since the break coincides with TEFAF, a great art fair in Maastricht, Netherlands. My parents have a stand to showcase their jewelry at the fair, and Olesya is also there to help.

Though it’s not required for admission, one should better dress up for such an event, and as you can see I was ready to go :)

Me!

Thursday was the official opening day, which was by invitation only. I was luckily able to get in and captured some impressions of this first day:
Entrace hall Closeup of the rose arrangement A typical hallway inside of the fair The fair is in NL, so there are lots of tulips everywhere.. Hallways are named after well-known streets The opening day is very crowded!
Some of the best art galleries in the world are represented here, who invite their very expecting customers — hence much work is done to ensure that this is an absolutely top-notch event. There is lots of free food and wine; towards the afternoon, one starts to notice people who might have had a little too much of the latter. Coincidentally this is also where some of the really big purchases happen..
Opening extravaganza 1 Opening extravaganza 2 Opening extravaganza 3
My father is one of only a few jewelers on this fair, which has its main focus on paintings (classic and modern), sculptures, and antiques. I took a few photographs from the stand during the course of the day.
The stand from outside Otto filling the display cases Olesya Olesya and Veronika Otto in discussion with visitors Stand_6473
There were many other exciting things to see. If you ever wanted that Picasso or Warhol, you can probably get it here :) . The fair is like a big museum with an odd mixture of old and new. Everything can theoretically be bought, though for “normal people” most is unfortunately well out of reach.. Below is an unordered list of some things I liked or found crazy:
Sights_6330 Sights_6332 Sights_6485 Sights_6486 Sights_6487 Sights_6492 Sights_6496 Sights_6500 Sights_6501 Sights_6503 Sights_6505

]]> http://wazlaf.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=228 0 Particle collider http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=214 http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=214#comments Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:34:54 +0000 Wenzel Jakob http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=214 At the beginning of this month, I was visiting Cornell’s former synchrotron CHESS (a particle collider). Having been replaced by the LHC and other projects days, it’s not used for high-energy particle physics these days. However, other projects involving the creation of very pure x-ray sources still use the existing machinery. Some obligatory pictures:

The entrance .. looks inviting :) Operating room View from the top Superconducting magnets A section of the beam pipe Another section An x-ray source that is currently in development ]]> http://wazlaf.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=214 0 Still alive http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=139 http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=139#comments Thu, 24 Mar 2011 23:54:35 +0000 Wenzel Jakob http://wazlaf.org/wordpress/?p=139

Is anybody there?

To say that it’s been pretty quiet on this blog would be a severe understatement, the latest post being from almost a year ago!  A small portion of the blame can be put on the software that used to run this blog, which made it extremely tedious to post an article containing many images.

Well, no more excuses — I switched to a much nicer software (WordPress) and managed to move all of the old articles. I also decided to write future posts in English, since all of my friends and family can all read that, which is less when I write in German.

]]> http://wazlaf.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=139 0 Mitsuba Renderer http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=134 http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=134#comments Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:25:20 +0000 Wenzel Jakob http://wazlaf.org/wordpress/?p=134 Nach langem Basteln habe ich nun beschlossen, meinen Renderer Mitsuba als Open Source freizugeben.

Hier ist die Seite des Projektes: http://www.mitsuba-renderer.org.

Ein kurzes Video dazu gibts hier:



]]> http://wazlaf.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=134 1 Compiler http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=133 http://wazlaf.org/blog/?p=133#comments Wed, 19 May 2010 15:20:37 +0000 Wenzel Jakob http://wazlaf.org/wordpress/?p=133 :-D




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