CC by-sa licensed by twicepics on flickr

Hi. I just noticed that your site looks like it has a few code problems at the very bottom of your site’s page. I’m not sure if everybody is getting this same problem when browsing your blog? I am employing a totally different browser than most people, referred to as Opera, so that is what might be causing it? I just wanted to make sure you know. Thanks for posting some great postings and I’ll try to return back with a completely different browser to check things out!

(emphasis: mine)

Not only does my blog display just fine in Opera (yes, I checked), I get even more bogus comments at times claiming that my blog looks horrible in Firefox, of all browsers. Dear spammers, now you’re just making fools of yourselves.

The main thing identifying this kind of comment as spam (other than the bogus claim that my blog doesn’t render correctly in non-Internet-Explorer browsers) is the URL these comments come with. Usually, they promise a “free” iPod, MacBook, car, house, airplane or ride to the moon (exaggeration: mine).

I wonder how many bloggers actually publish these, thinking it’s well-meant advice.

Photo credit: “Spam” CC by-sa licensed by twicepics on flickr

Just recently, my fiancée Tara joined the blogging community with her first own blog called “Domaine de Tara”.

She started off with a nice little article on the hunt for American-style brown sugar in Germany. It also includes a yummy recipe for baking Oatmeal Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies which — in spite of the sugar-related difficulties — turned out more than delicious.

Her future posts are likely going to be about food (both her passion and profession) and German strangeness she’s just bound to stumble across every once in awhile…

Feel free to visit her blog, say hello, and maybe even subscribe to the RSS feed. Have fun!

The photo is from a trip we took to Provence, where a winery coincidentally carries my fiancée’s name.

Das Internet hat viele Vorteile. Zum Beispiel, dass jedermann ganz einfach veröffentlichen kann, was er gerade so denkt. Natürlich hat es auch Nachteile. Zum Beispiel, dass jedermann ganz einfach veröffentlichen kann, was er gerade so denkt.

Und so gibt es ab und an Kommentare wie diesen hier, unter einem meiner Artikel über Paris Hilton, der sich aufgrund seines provokativen Titels dauerhaft zu den meistbesuchten Artikeln dieses Blogs zählen darf:

hey peris ich finde dich toll aber wen du deine nackt bilder fileicht mir schigen würdest das were schön danke ich libe dich

Ich weiß, was ihr jetzt sagen wollt: Wer nach einer entblätterten Hilton googelt, schaut auch RTL… — und angesichts der tadellosen Rechtschreibung ist das vielleicht gar nicht so weit hergeholt. Aber seht es einmal von der positiven Seite: Die medizinische Sensation, dass ein Reiz auf dem Weg vom Schritt zur Tastatur nicht im Gehirn vorbeikommen muss, liefert einem handelsüblichen Medizinstudenten bestimmt genügend Material für eine Doktorarbeit. Und das ist doch auch schon mal etwas.

An unfortunate typo in a configuration file left this blog completely without images for a little while. Apologies to the readers who may have been confused by that.

Now, fredericiana is back in all it’s glory

On a side note, I am actually glad how nice my blog still looks with images “disabled”. Still, I am glad everything is back to normal now.