A couple of weeks ago, Hendrik Neumann, a colleague at my current client, BIF’ed me. Thank you for that. No, really, thank you. No sarcasm… 😉

If you don’t know the “Blog It Forward Community Challenge” by xMoshe Naveh (Old Acct) yet (isn’t true, is it?), read more here and the whole chain you can find here .

First I thought about writing about Introverts (because I think the word is invented for me), learning English the hard way (never used the language for 20 years before I became a SAP Mentor last year) or time management as IT professional (how to handle professional life, self-education, family, me, and in which order). Finally I’ve decided not to do so, because either there are already well written blogs about these topics (e.g. http://scn.sap.com/community/social-media/blog/2012/09/13/introverts-and-extroverts–who-cares ) or the topics deserve own blogs.

Home town(s)

Düsseldorf, Germany

My first 30 years I’ve lived in the beautiful small capital of North Rhine Westphalia, Düsseldorf.

License

The city is famous for its Carneval (Dusseldorf does carnival like no other), for its music (Kraftwerk, Die Toten Hosen, Propaganda and many others), home of my favorite sports clubs (Fortuna Düsseldorf [football] and http://www.deg-eishockey.de/ [icehockey]) and has of course the worlds best beer.

Fun fact: Düsseldorf is (probably) the only city in the world with a train station called “Zoo” without even having a zoo.

Neuss, Germany

Twelve years ago I’ve moved to the other side of the Rhine River in the even smaller city called Neuss, founded by the Romans in 16 BC, the home of Tempo (the inventor of paper tissues, the European version of Kleenex) and Maoam.

From “Schinderhannes, the robber of the Rhine (1833)”
http://archive.org/stream/schinderhannesro00ritcuoft#page/306/mode/2up

The band of Creveldt, or of Neuss, as it was
afterwards called, although almost as strong in num-
ber as that of Mersen, was quite different in tactics.
Force was no part of their plan when it could possibly
be avoided ; and, till they were joined by Mathew
Weber, surnamed Fetzer, the ram was never used
at all.

…

Fetzer was executed at Cologne, and would have
died, to all appearance, penitent, but for the fol-
lowing brief conversation he held with his confessor,
a few moments before the fatal ceremony.

” O that I had my liberty but for two hours !”
exclaimed the bandit-chief.

” And what would you do with it, my son ?”

” I would commit the finest robbery that ever
was heard of ! — But you do not know for what pur-
pose,” added he, his eyes glistening, and his voice
quivering. ” There is a child — a little girl — the
only being I love in the world, who will fall into
ruin and beggary when I am gone. If I could but
leave enough to secure her a good education among
the Ursulines of Cologne!”

…

The execution took place on the 21st of Novem-
ber, 1803, when twenty heads were cut off in
twenty-six minutes.

Exactly 199 years later on this date, my son was born (the goalie below).

Fun fact: everybody (at least in Germany) knows the Inbus-Key (or the wrongly pronounced shortform “Imbus”), but just a few people know what the name stands for. It is the tool which is delivered with all the Ikea furniture (in the rest of the world you know it as Hex Key or Allen Key).

The tool was patented 1936 by the Neuss based company called Bauer & Schaurte, and “Inbus” is just the Acronym for „Innensechskantschraube Bauer und Schaurte“.

BIF questions by Hendrik Neumann

If you could be a super hero (or are in your spare time) who would you be?

1. Thomas Jung : because he has the superpower to absorb all the interesting projects (and to teach us the stuff he learned the fun way)

2. Marilyn Pratt : if I would be Marilyn, I wouldn’t have to think about “What would @marilypratt do?”, I would just do it

Favorite activity that has nothing to do with SAP?

Skaterhockey (see above photo).

What gives you inspiration for your professional live?

Motorbiking. Why? The silence. No radio, no phone, no people. Just me and my mind, my thoughts, or sometimes just nothing.

Blog it forward

The question I want to ask my friends and project team mates Ivan Femia and Abdulbasit Gulsen is coming from my beloved wife Doris and has nothing to do with SAP:

What has your Mum cooked for you as a child (the everyday meals, not the special ones)?

See you at #sapteched Madrid

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