GUADEC: The German embassy finally gave us an appointment time for May 17, after me outright rejecting their first recommendation of June 6 (no answer to the email, it seems that they phone system was fixed just today, and I somehow got an early bird opportunity, making my call go through). This puts the visa situation directly in the bottleneck. In the past, they have given me a visa in as short as 8 days, which would mean the visa may be ready on May 25 (we are planning to leave on the early morning of May 26). We asked the travel agency to hold alternate reservations for us, in the case we can't make it. So, there is a chance we arrive at Stuttgart in the middle of GUADEC...

South Park: Elnaz is creating South Park characters for every friend and colleague we have. The real interesting thing is that I had created a south park character for myself long ago (using the original thing from the south park studios website), when Elnaz wasn't home for a few days and I had gone back to some of my old bad habits. So, this is me according to myself nine months ago, and this is me according to Elnaz today. Compare and wonder!