I asked for a performance review from my boss a while ago, and I got it on Tuesday. It was all good news. There is something clear that I need to work on, which is much, much better than having nowhere to improve :)

My manager said that he is happy with my work and that I have been quite innovative.

I've been getting up around 7:00 in the morning, showering, shaving, dressing, and getting to the MySQL offices around 7:45 - 8:30 (depending on whether I have breakfast at the hotel.)

When I get to the offices, I try to get all of the internet-related work (grabbing libraries, header files I'll need, programs I need to work on, etc) on to my system.

I also try to call hannahadams and remind her how much I miss her. I tell her good night (It's around 11:00 pm there at this point in the morning), and let her get back to sleep.

After the most important emails have been addressed, I pack my office (two computers, power cables, network cables, mouse, mousepad, headphones, reading material, water) into my backpack and head off to the SAP offices.

I go to the U-bahn around the corner and get on one of the trains. Until recently, this was often followed by realizing that I was heading the wrong direction, getting off the train and getting on the one going the other way.

Once, I even got distracted by my book and didn't notice that everyone else had gotten off the train. I was there sitting by myself while the train backed into the end of the tracks and turned around. I was quite distraught, since I didn't know what was happening until everything stopped and there was nothing but tunnel and the dank air of a subway around.

Eventually, the driver walked by and noticed me in the car. He tried in vain to assure me that everything was going okay (at least, I assume that's what he was doing). But alas, he spoke no english, and I no german, so he suggested that I return to the car and wait.

Everything turned out okay, of course. :)

Anyway. After the u-bahn takes me to Zoologischer garten, I get off and take the stairs to the s-bahn stop. It's a rather long ride, so I read.

Eventually, we arrive at Hackescher Markt and I disembark. I walk about seven blocks to the SAP building, pass through security, and go to my offices.

I spend the days asking questions and having meetings. I'll publish some of the answers to my questions and notes from my meetings when I get back to the states.

And now... off to the SAP offices.

Tags: berlin, mysql, performance review, sap

nothing is resolving colliertech.org these days, so here's my gallery using the IP address instead of gallery.colliertech.org

http://216.39.139.201/gallery/2/main.php?g2_view=core:ShowItem&g2_itemId=2950

ydna, can you see what's up with the name resolution problem? My hands are pretty much tied while I'm here in Berlin.

Tags: berlin, gallery, server downtime, ydna

It's the 11th of September. And there are no bombs going off. No craziness here.

Just thought I'd let you all know I'm okay.

Tags: !anarchy, !bombs, !terrorism, berlin, peace

I'm in Germany. Crazy.

I'm putting images up on my gallery page now, but it's slow going. It seems that I keep bringing down my co-worker's network whenever I push a lot of bandwidth over it.

I have not asked my co-worker if I can mention him on my blog yet, so I will not mention his name; But, I would like to publicly share my gratitude. He has been very kind and helped me find my way around his country very adeptly.

He suggested a very nice hotel for me, only moments from his office and home, was kind enough to invite me on an outing last weekend with his children to a local lake, keeps me hydrated (Have I mentioned how uhm... different Berlin water is than Washingtonian water?), lets me invade his network, and keeps me very well informed about MySQL, SAP and MaxDB.

I miss you all. Please comment so I have some sort of tenuous grip with home. I'm getting a little homesick.

And I miss hannahadams and scarletwilde very very much.

Tags: berlin, germany, homesick, maxdb, mysql, sap