Memorable Books of 2013

I originally wanted to call this post "The 10 Best Books I read in 2013" but then I realized that I can barely remember 10 books which I read front-to-back (or "highest to lowest bit, for eBooks" as Igor puts it). So without further ado I present you a list of books which I do remember having read in the past 12 months:

projekt@party (Beqë Cufaj)

I stumbled across this book via an online book-review one night, got the Kindle version, and promptly forgot about it again until I re-discovered it sitting on my Kindle at the beginning of the year. The center of the book is a German professor who leaves his messed-up home turf to work in international development for the United Nations in a country and society torn apart by (civil-)war. The country is vaguely set in the Balkans region which comes as no surprise given that the author Beqë Cufaj is from Pristina. In many ways projekt@party reminded me of Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures (Heidi Postlewait, Kenneth Cain and Andrew Thomson) (which I previously wrote about in February 2010) with a slightly more European tone and focus. The core themes in both books are the challenges encountered by people working in environments and cultures they don't really understand and the debauchery resulting from having too much money, too much spare time, and little local social fabric beyond an expat crowd. This may now sound a little shallow but projekt@party is a good and thought-provoking read and it will certainly have an additional appeal to people who often find themselves in environments similar to the one described in the book.

Water Music (T.C. Boyle)

On the back cover of this book you'll find this spot-on endorsement by Salman Rushdie which says: "Water Music goes over the top and also round the bend. It is a book in the worst possible taste, serves no useful purpose and is crammed with disgusting, filthy ideas. Its title will make Handel turn in his grave. It stinks of gin and Africa. It also bubbles, or should I says Boyles, with life, language, comedy, energy and other forms of weirdness." There's not much I can add to that except to say that I read the book while I was in Zambia and Laos at the beginning of the year and it was the perfect travel companion for all the places between Lusaka, Livingstone, Dubai, Luang Prabang, and Si Phan Don. Best enjoyed with a bottle of Mosi or Beerlao!

Learning to Change the World: The Social Impact of One Laptop Per Child (Charles Kane, Walter Bender, Jody Cornish, Neal Donahue)

I really should have done a longer book review after I reading it for OLPC News but unfortunately I never got around to doing it. The best way I've found to capture my thoughts and feelings while reading the book is the following: It's like spending an evening with a close friend you haven't seen in a while and three bottles of red wine. You'll hear things you haven't heard or see perspective you hadn't considered before, sometimes it's deeply reflective and thoughtful, at other times you'll have to stop yourself from laughing out loud because you'll hear absurd notions and remarks that will make you want to pull your hair out... And the next morning you'll wake up understanding your friend a little better and knowing that you had a good time. However you'll still not be able to decide whether it was worth the hangover which will overshadow the rest of your day.

Wie die Tiere (Wolf Haas)

The main reason why I read this detective story is because it's set in and around Vienna's 20th district where I currently live. Wolf Haas is a famous Austrian writer of such detective stories and crime fiction but somehow I had never gotten around to reading any of his books yet. However after reading this enjoyable story I'll definitely dive into some of his other books in the future.

Atlas eines ängstlichen Mannes (Christoph Ransmayr)

This book was a present from my parents for Christmas 2012 and for some reason I lost track of it until I found it amongst a stack of unread books in one of my shelves this summer. The book consists of several dozen short stories and impressions as experienced by the author during his extensive travels all around the world. To me reading the book felt like sitting down with a close friend and a glass of red wine and listening to his/her travel adventures and experiences for many hours. Simply put: I loved every minute of it!

Die Schrecken des Eises und der Finsternis (Christoph Ransmayr)

I had been meaning to read Ransmayr's famous book focused on the Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition from 1872-1874 for many years and after I was blown away by the aforementioned Atlas eines ängstlichen Mannes this was a no-brainer. And I wasn't disappointed because the depiction of the hardships endured by the crew during their 2-year journey but also everything that happened before and afterwards was simply breathtaking. Initially I wasn't entirely happy about the second storyline which is set in the present but towards the end I realized that it did have its merritts.

Burmese Days (George Orwell)

As Wikipedia puts it: "It is a tale from the waning days of British colonialism, when Burma was ruled as part of the Indian empire – "a portrait of the dark side of the British Raj." At its centre is John Flory, "the lone and lacking individual trapped within a bigger system that is undermining the better side of human nature."" Orwell is definitely one of my favorite 20th century authors. I particularly like his uncanny ability to accurately portrait seemingly out-of-the-ordinary societies and individuals in seemingly out-of-the-ordinary circumstances, regardless of whether it's in the famous 1984, Animal Farm or the lesser known Homage to Catalonia (Orwell's account of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War). Burmese Days is no exception and reading it while in Malaysia made it all the more powerful.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (William Kamkwamba, Bryan Mealer)

Of all the books I read in 2013 this is the one I've been meaning to read for the longest time. It was probably in mid-2010 when I first heard about William Kamkwamba's now famous TED talk in which he describes how the built a windmill in his Malawi hometown using scraps and knowledge learned from old science books he borrowed from a local library. The 6-minute TED talk is well worth watching but of course it doesn't really do his challenges, efforts, failures, and ultimate success any justice. To me the most memorable take-aways from the book were his chilling descriptions of the effects of extreme poverty and starvation on himself, the people around him, and Malawi society in general. His endurance and ultimate success is what made William TED-worthy so to say but that's really only half (or actually a quarter) of his powerful story.

The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)

I had initially filed this book under "guilty pleasure" but after finishing it in 3 or 4 days straight I'll say that it was just a pleasure. Admittedly I have a thing for dystopian young adult fiction (e.g. last year I read Little Brother and Homeland by Cory Doctorow and loved both of them) but besides that Suzanne's Collins' book is simply a well-paced story, with an interesting heroine, and set in an interesting world. A perfect page-turner!

The Given Day (Dennis Lehane)

At just north of 700 pages this is certainly the longest book I read this year. And I read it in 4 short days around Christmas last week. Yes, it really is that good! The early 20th century setting, the extremely well developed characters, the detailed descriptions of Boston's streets and society, the interwoven story lines, etc. all make for an extremely compelling book. Oh, and if you like Boardwalk Empire you'll very likely also enjoy The Given Day as much as I did.

Now looking back at this list I realize that I read the majority of these books in the second half of the year. Or maybe I simply forgot about the ones I read in the first six months of 2013;-)

Anyway, last week I started reading The Yellow Birds (Kevin Powers) which Amazon describes as an "unforgettable depiction of the psychological impact of war, by a young Iraq veteran and poet" and I'm liking it so far. Sticking with the war theme I'll then probably dive into Die letzten Tage der Menschheit (Karl Kraus) which is set in World War I before deciding which of the many other books on my Kindle and shelf I'll tackle next.

Oh, and Happy New Year everyone! :-)

Recently read (February 2010)

I haven't been too good when it comes to tackling the large number of unread books that are strewn all over my room. I did however read three of them in the recent months that I'd briefly like to talk about here:

I originally stumbled across "Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures" by Heidi Postlewait, Kenneth Cain and Andrew Thomson while wandering through a small bookstore in Kathmandu's Thamel area during my first week in Nepal last summer. Not being quite sure what to make of the title and the cover (see below) I forgot about it again until the book came up during a discussion with some Australian friends a couple of days later. Hearing that it was supposed to be an interesting read I put it on my Amazon wishlist and ordered it upon my return to Austria.

The book is basically a collective memoir by the three authors who met as recently joined and idealistic United Nations employees in Cambodia in the 1990s. Their accounts detail their involvement in various UN missions from Cambodia to Somalia, Rwanda, Haiti and Bosnia. The mood of the book changes dramatically as they describe their experiences ranging from the good life they often had in Cambodia, to personal losses and the nerve-wrecking experience of excavating the victims of massacres in Rwanda and Bosnia. Some of the descriptions, especially the ones related to the massacres, are indeed haunting. Overall the book provides an interesting insight into the lives and experiences of three dedicated individuals who each in their own way tries to make the world a better place. It was really hard for me to put the book down and so I finished it within two or three days.

I can't recall where or how I originally heard about Thomas Pynchon's "Inherent Vice". However when I was hanging out at the Thalia book store in Hamburg on my way home from Stockholm I saw the cover and remembered that the book was on my "to-be-read" list. After diving into the book for 30min I knew that it would make for a great holiday read. Turns out I was right because I really had a great time reading this novel which one comment on Amazon perfectly describes as:

"A hilarious cross between The Big Lebowski and Illuminatus! (the trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson & Robert Shea -- not to be confused with the similarly-titled bestseller), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Raymond Chandler novels."

BTW, this book isn't recommend for people who get annoyed by the word "groovy"!

Last but not least, the book that kept me up until 4AM last Monday was "The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders" by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefevre and Frederic Lemercier. The book is a beautifully designed mixture of a graphic novel and photos taken by Didier Lefevre when he accompanied a team from Médecins sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) into northern Afghanistan in 1986. To say that the book is powerful would be quite the understatement. Its content and visual presentation combined with Lefevre's great photos are literally mind-blowing. For me this was also the first time I've seen such a mixture of illustrated and photographed panels and this makes it all the more memorable an experience. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who even has the faintest interest in travel photography, the work of MSF, Afghanistan and/or the account of a traveler on the journey of his life.

Next up on my reading list are Junot Díaz's "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" and "The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World" by John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan. I had started reading both books last year but never got around to finishing them.

Mmm, on the other hand William Gibson’s “Spook Country” and the famous “Freakonomics” by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner have also been on my list for quite some time…

Different country, different lifestyle

One of the things that always strikes me when spending some extended period in another country is how quickly one’s lifestyle changes and adapts to the local environment. Interestingly this includes many areas of life such as sleep patterns, nutrition, communication, etc. which are normally seen as being very ingrained and hard to change.

Anyway, below is a list of areas where I consider my Vienna and Kathmandu lives to be (radically) different.

Sleep: Back home I generally average between 4.5 and 6 hours of sleep per night during the week. Here in Nepal I normally manage to get 6 to 7 hours of sleep which really does make quite a difference in terms of how quickly I manage to get out of bed in the morning.

Food: While I could write a whole weekly column just on the topic of food I’m going to keep it short by saying that my diet here is radically different. Instead of starting into my day with a huge cup of black tea, bread with whatever the fridge offers and yoghurt my Nepali breakfast consists of bottled water and some crackers, a chocolate bar or (if we’ve been to the awesome local German bakery down the street the day before) some croissants or something. Lunch at the office is always daal bhaat (Nepali national meal which consists of rice with various vegetables with quite a bit of curry and chilies) which is served at 11:30AM. In Vienna on the other hand I tend to go out for lunch at 12:30PM or 1PM. Sometimes I buy a snack at the supermarket but most often I eat at university or one of the many eateries close to home or work. In the evenings I almost always eat at home whereas here we always go out to eat something.

Caffeine: I don’t think my caffeine intake has ever been this low in the past 6 years or so. While I’m not much of a coffee drinker - I normally might have 3 or 4 cups a week (and twice that during crunch-periods) - I do drink quite a lot of black tea, ice tea and Coca Cola back home. Around here I only drink two small cups of Chya (tea with milk and some sort of spices) a day and the occasional glass of Coca Cola. I guess it’s really the increased amount of sleep that allows me to stay productive without my regular caffeine fix.

Mobile phone: While I’m not reachable on my mobile phone 24/7 (I turn it off when I sleep) it certainly is a key communication tool for me to stay in touch with family, friends and colleagues. I also use it extensively to check my e-mails when I’m out and about and to manage my schedule, to-do lists and notes. However since my Austrian phone doesn’t work here I bought a cheap €20 Nokia phone (which comes with a very useful flashlight!) and got a local SIM last week. Now except for my daily use of that flashlight and the alarm clock I’ve maybe made and received less than half a dozen short phone calls. Which is interesting because that’s also the way I used my first mobile phone (in late 2001) before these things became mandatory and ubiquitous.

iPod touch: There’s hardly a waking hour in Austria when I don’t have my iPod touch on me or at least within an arm’s length of wherever I’m sitting. I use it to listen to podcasts from/to work or when riding the metro, check  my e-mails and tweets all throughout the day, surf the Web while sitting in lectures or cafés, etc. So I definitely use it *a lot*. In Nepal on the other hand I’ve yet to use the iPod even once. The walk to work is too short to merit listening to a podcast, when I’m out in the evenings or on weekends I prefer to take in the environment around me rather than listen to music and at home I now actually spend more time reading books and articles instead of keeping constant tabs on what’s going on in the depths of the Internet.

Books: As mentioned both above and in a previously blog entry I tend to be quite bad when it comes to reading books while I’m Vienna. However here I’ve already read two books in the 3 weeks since I arrived.

Language: Even when I’m in Austria I tend to spend a lot of time reading, writing and listening to things in English which naturally also leads to quite  a bit of my thinking seemingly being in English. However since I got here I’ve barely written a dozen German e-mails and, what’s more important, have maybe spent a total of 30min talking in German with various people. This is certainly quite an interesting experience which I haven’t really had since my exchange year in Peru in 2000-2001.

Barry Eisler – Killing Rain

One of the things I’m generally pretty bad at when I’m at home in Vienna is reading books. While I have half a dozen books sitting on the shelf right next to my bed there never seem to be enough in the hours in the day to actually open and read them. I didn’t even manage to read more than 20 pages in my Lonely Planet Nepal guide before getting on the plane even though the book was actually lying next to my cushion for several weeks.

Anyway, when I’m travelling or just generally abroad I’m normally quite good when it comes to reading and over the last few days I had quite a good time with Barry Eisler’s Killing Rain. In general it’s hardly more than your average assassin thriller with relatively predictable characters, twists and turns. However the lively and detailed descriptions of the various Asian capitals the story takes place in made it a really enjoyable read. Plus it’s a classic page-turner and I really couldn't put it down. (In both of these regards it also reminded me of William Gibson’s Patter Recognition which I had read some months ago.)

So if you’re looking for an enjoyable and not-too-deep distraction I can certainly recommend this book.

“Ethical living”

I’m currently reading A Life Stripped Bare: My Year Trying to Live Ethically by The Guardian journalist Leo Hickman. The title basically says what it’s all about and while I’m only on page 60 or so I’m certainly finding it an interesting read.

Similarly an upcoming documentary will focus on the efforts of Colin Beavan aka No Impact Man to live in New York City with his wife and daughter without having any net impact on the environment. Having seen the trailer I’ll definitely try and see the film (if it even hits the Austrian cinemas that is).

Both efforts are quite obviously insane on oh-so-many levels but I do think they provide some good food-for-thought and inspiration to start thinking about your own way of life and impact on the environment.

William Gibson Quote

I had previously mentioned reading William Gibson’s “Pattern Recognition” during the Christmas holidays and today I finally managed to take a closer look at his Wikipedia entry. From there I was lead to his Web site where I stumbled across one of the greatest  quotes I’ve seen in quite some time:

“I suspect I have spent just about exactly as much time actually writing as the average person my age has spent watching television, and that, as much as anything, may be the real secret here.”

William Gibson – Pattern Recognition

Occasionally, most often at airports and train-stations, I randomly browse through a book-store and buy something that sounds interesting. Seeing that I’m really bad when it comes to actually reading books - I spend way too much time reading stuff online and in magazines -  I tend to have piles of unread books sitting next to my bed, on my desk and in my shelves.

The other day, while I was thinking about which books I wanted to read over the Christmas holidays, I stumbled across William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition which I bought at one point or another but never got around to reading. In fact I had totally forgotten that I even owned it. Anyway, between Christmas and New Year’s I finally managed to read it, in fact finishing the last 130-pages in one sitting during a train-ride to Berlin.

Admittedly it took me awhile to get into it but after the first 50-pages or so I really got into the swing of things. The story takes some time to unfold but once it does it the things going on in London, Tokyo and other places quickly become exciting. Especially the descriptions of various lives and streets in London are outstanding and worth a read in itself. As is the way experiencing jet-lag is illustrated as the soul being leagues behind when it comes to travelling and having to be awaited, upon arrival, like lost luggage.

It’s these thoughts and the portrays of cities, characters and especially moments in time that make the book such a good and entertaining read. Plus it’s got that quality where you simply don’t want to put it down and keep telling yourself to read one more chapter a couple of times before you realize it’s 5AM.

P.S. It was only while selecting some tags for this post that I found this old entry where I mentioned buying the book while I was in San Francisco. In this case it’s good that the Internet never forgets because obviously I do… ;-)

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

I just got back from seeing Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson and the documentary was everything I expected. And then some more.

As the title suggests it's a film about Hunter S. Thompson, the inventor of Gonzo journalism and the author of many articles and books, most famously Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas which was later turned into a movie with Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro. Having been originally fascinated by the movie I later decided to read the book and then subsequently also read Rum Island and Hell's Angels. It's hard to put it in words but there's something unique about how Thompson describes whatever story he's telling. And boy, the stories he tells! The great thing about them is that they are this perfect mixture of fact and fiction, combined by the genius that is Hunter S. Thompson. I really recommend reading at least one of his books, they're great reads and it's no surprise that I always ended up reading them while on the road myself.

With regard to the documentary it sheds light on Thompson's life, both through original footage and comments by people who accompanied him in his life-time. One of my favorite episodes, and a part of his life that I had never heard about, was his campaign for sheriff in Aspen, Colorado. The whole thing is just plain hilarious!

In the end the film also shows how Thompson got caught by his own fame and therefore turned into somewhat of a tragic figure himself. However both his suicide and funeral come off as being part of a larger plan and also the logic result of his previous life.

What remains is the realization that Hunter S. Thompson was a great and unique personality with a strong spirit and remarkable writing skills. Definitely the kind of person that the world could have more of...

John Burdett - Bangkok Tattoo

I had previously mentioned that Mike got me hooked on John Burdett's book Bangkok Tattoo when I stayed with him in Vancouver. So much in fact that I left with his book in my backpack as I absolutely wanted to read the whole story. Now.

Last night, during dinner, I finally managed to read the last page of the book. And what can I say, I really liked it, despite the ending being a little weak in my opinion. But the first 2/3 of the book are simply outstanding and a truly excellent read. Most of all I like the descriptions of Thai culture, thinking and living as compared to Western or rather Westerners-in-Asia () mentality. The best quote from the book in that respect reads

The advantage of a culture of shame as opposed to one of guilt is that you don't start to fell bad until the shit hits the fan.

Writing hardly gets better than this!

It's certainly been quite some time since I've been sucked into a story as as much with this one. It has many twists and turns and especially the descriptions of the various characters is just superb. I especially like Ishy and Colonel Vikon, with especially the first one being a perfect role for someone like Takeshi Kitano in case the book were to be made into a movie.

Overall a definitely well-recommended read which also made me realize that I really should be reading more books and novels. To that end I bought John Bardett's Bangkok 8, Bangkok Tattoo's predecessor today. Plus I stumbled across William Gibson's Pattern Recognition which I've also wanted to read for quite awhile. I certainly hope I can read one of these books before I fly back to Europe in 2 weeks. The second book will then probably keep me busy in August and September, hopefully while lying in the sun next to a lake or something. It's good to be back into reading books!

A look back at 2007...

It's a weird feeling sitting here in front of my notebook after basically not using the machine during the past few days. The last time I checked my e-mails was 2 or 3 days ago and overall I've probably spent less than an hour on the computer since Christmas. And you know what? It's been an extremely relaxing week! :-)

I spent most of my time sleeping, meeting friends, going to the movies (saw Gus van Sant's "Paranoid Park" yesterday and David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises" today, both well recommended) and reading (I finished Cormac McCarthy's "No County For Old Men" in less than 24h). All in all it's certainly been a very relaxing week and I guess the only one who's had an even more relaxing week is our cat, who spent most of the last 2 days lying next to me and sleeping all day long.

Anyway, tomorrow I'll be heading to Vienna to celebrate New Year's with some friends and once I sober up (which will probably take until Jan. 2nd;-) I'll get back into the swing of things and start being productive again. I've lots and lots of things on my to-do list, the most important items being: studying for university as I've got lots of exams coming up over the next few weeks, preparing my bachelor thesis, finally sorting through my TransSib photos and also uploading the ones which I took on the recent trip to the USA, getting OLPC-related stuff done, getting work done for EPIACENTER, etc. So I certainly won't be bored...

While hangin' around these past few days I also spent some time thinking about 2007 and as ever so often I was amazed at just how quickly it went by. I tried coming up with some core things I did this year but too much has happened to really be able to compile that into something short'n'sweet. So here's a slightly chaotic look back at 2007:

Travel: If there's one thing that certainly kept me busy this year than it was travelling. All in all I spent about 9 weeks outside of Austria, a pretty decent amount I dare say. Starting with the family trip to Barcelona in February, continuing with my standard CeBIT visit in March, to be followed by visiting one of my closest friends in Granada. In June I flew out to Taiwan to attend Computex, in mid-July I spent a weekend in Paris and at the end of August I took off on one of the finest journeys I've ever made, the one along the Transsiberian Railway from Beijing, through Mongolia to Moscow. And now the last-minute decision to head to Washington and Boston which made for a very nice end-of-the-year in terms of my travels. I'm not quite sure what 2008 will bring but at the moment I know that I'll certainly be at CeBIT again, plus I'm very likely to head back to South America (with a focus on Brazil and Argentina) come August. Plus I'm pretty sure some other opportunities will present themselves and knowing myself I'll probably jump on every one of them.

Concerts: While certainly not having been to as many concerts as my dear friend Patrick I did see a couple of very good shows. Off the top of my head I'd probably say that the recent Ennio Morricone concert in Vienna was amongst my favourite ones. The best one however was the Nine Inch Nails concert back in March, I've never seen that kind of jump-start energy as when Trent Reznor hit the stage on March, 29th. Again it remains to be seen what 2008 will bring, at the moment I'm trying to get tickets to the Korn show in February and the tickets for the Smashing Pumpkins concert in January have already been bought. The interesting decision will be which festival to attend, at the moment the first band-announcements for the ones close by haven't been too exciting so we might head to Southside in Germany this time 'round.

Movies: I haven't had a chance to count my movie-stubs (I collect those) for 2007 but I'm guessing I saw about >50 movies in the cinema this year. Most of them during my two favourite film-festivals around here: the Crossing Europe in Linz and the Viennale in Vienna. It's certainly been a very good year when it came to great movies!

OLPC: The single biggest theme that makes this year different to previous ones is my involvement in the One Laptop per Child project and more specifically OLPC Austria. I can't even begin to count all the great people I've meet within and thanks to OLPC Austria, the countless hours I've spent on that project, the many lessons I learned about myself, ICT, education, project-management, collaboration, etc. This is probably the single best thing that happened to me in 2007 and I'm thankful for being able to work on this project because it's really an amazing experience.

University: I'm very happy with the progress I've made these past 12 months and if all goes well I'll finish my bachelor degree no later than autumn 2008. As mentioned above I'm currently in the brainstorming- and planning-stage for my bachelor thesis (surprise, surprise, it's something in the OLPC context) and that will definitely keep me busy during my semester-holidays in February. Looking back it's really quite amazing to see how much I've learned during this past year, both in terms of actual technical skills (especially thanks to two lectures about object-orientated programming and software engineering) and more general skills that I now find to be applicable in a variety of settings and projects. With regards to the future of my studies I'm not to happy with the stock Master programs offered at my university so I'll probably go for a custom-tailored one with a focus on ICT and its correlation with society. Plus even though I absolutely love living in Vienna it's definitely time to pack my bags and study abroad for at least half-a-year in the not-so-distant future. No clue about when, where or what but again I'm sure I'll figure it out along the way.

Blog: I have to say that I'm also quite happy that I managed to keep this blog alive after my TransSib journey and at the moment I'm up to around 80 posts with some of them remaining unfinished and sitting in the background. This highlights an issue that most bloggers are likely to encounter: Not having the time to update the blog as much as one would want to. It really does take a lot of discipline to keep posting and I hope to be able to do better in that regard in 2008.

Well, what's left for me to say at this point? All I can say that 2007 has been an outstanding year and just looking back at this mini-summary above I'm extremely happy with how it went. Now bring it on 2008!!! :-)

I wish all of you a Happy New Year and a great start into 2008 (at least once that hangover goes by)!