We in Germany just got visited by Santa Clause or the “Weihnachtsmann” and right now I’m enjoying my presents. (I need to figure out what I can do with my 500GB external HDD…). I’m aware that some of you have to wait until tomorrow, but I’m also aware that there are people in the world who are not celebrate Christmas as we do.

So let’s hold on for a minute and think about those people. People who are homeless, poor, sick, alone, far away from home…the list goes on. While people like you and I are enjoying their holidays those people would give everything to have the opportunities we have. I bet you also have/had a hard time to find a gift for a loved one because we have everything you actually need. The people I’m talking about…well, those are not able to bother with such a problem. They are happy if they got enough food/water/money to live another day.

And there are other people.

Some of them suffer from an illness which can’t be cured. They are glad that they got the chance to enjoy another Christmas with their loved ones…and what are their wishes? Most likely that either a cure is found or they won’t have to suffer much longer.

And there are other people.

Some of them are celebrating their Christmas being a soldier in a war zone. They are kept far away from their loved ones, hoping that they won’t get killed until they are due for heading back home some time next year…

I hope this article makes some sense to you as I’m just writing down my thoughts.
Be merry, but also think of other people. People not so lucky to enjoy Christmas like you do.

I‘m trying my best but school takes up a lot of time right now. I just thought I let you know before you start to worry…

Anyway, here are my plans for future articles:

• Continuing the Tutorials
• Adding JavaScript and CSS to the Tutorials, maybe even some MySQL stuff
• Adding code snipplets to the Tutorial sections. These are for public use and are not a real tutorial although I may explain a few things of the code…
• Revamping the Review Category. I will stick with Games, Music and Software for now, but I will present a better review system soon.
• Starting the Review series with some details about my computer and how I will test and review Games and Software.
• I’ll continue stumbling around on the Net to find interesting YouTube videos or other “StumbleUpon” stuff

On a side note:
I finally had the time to get rid of the ugly YouTube (and other) “embed” code and turn it into the nice “object” version.
Special thanks to A List Apart as they have an article about the “embed to object” conversion.

Update:
I forgot to mention it above: I switched from blog.ruelicke.net to www.ruelicke.net as I don’t need extra domains for the blog and for my main page anymore. As of today the blog is my main page.

A friend is still working on creating a logo for me, but I couldn’t resist any longer because I really love this template. Right now I need to do some minor adjustments, please don’t worry if something doesn’t work as intended

It is one of the many changes which will follow this week, so stay tuned for more news.

Oh, there is another poll after the jump. If you select any of the negative options, please write a comment and explain what you don’t like. Maybe I will edit it for you

[poll=4]

I’m already working on a new design, which will be based on www.ruelicke.net and the same colors I’m using right now. At the moment I’m wondering which content I should drop although I will keep the tutorials for sure.

I think I will wait for your opinions, because whatever I decide to do, I will also need to change my “Randomness at its finest” except I stick to my current blog setup…

[poll=2]

Update:
The template is done, I’m just waiting for a friend who promised to create me a logo…or at least to give it a try.
I also installed a bunch of nice and usefull features/plugins for my blog:

• Captcha for the comments
• Contact Form
• Search powered by Google
• Subscribe to Newsletter Form
• Tag Cloud

I’m also planning to re-design my blog a bit, starting by the layout and ending by the content. Stay tuned for news about the re-design

Meanwhile…

[poll=1]

Well, let’s start at the beginning. On that day my parents drove to Lübeck which is at the Baltic Sea in the northern parts of Germany as they spent their vacations there, traveling by tandem bicycle to Bansin, that’s about 455km away. I traveled with them to Lübeck as I had to drive the car back home and pick them up again a week later after they reached Bansin.

So my parents went off for their vacation trip and I drove home. Everything was cool and I had quite some fun. It was my first time that I made such a long trip alone

I made a stop in Marienborn to have a short look at the memorial of the division of Germany because Marienborn was one of the crossings one could travel to the “German Democratic Republic” (DDR) and the “Federal Republic of Germany” (BRD) back before 1990.

I continued my way home as it was about one hour away from there. Unfortunately, or depending on the point of view fortunately, things got…uhm…bad after I passed the exit to Alleringersleben.

The car in front on me came to an emergency halt, so I had to hit the brakes. Luckily I got to a halt on time, same for the cars behind me. Since I was on the middle lane of the three lane highway, I pulled over to the left lane because it was free. I parked my car, grabbed my mobile phone as I saw smoke about 100m in front of me. I jumped out of the car, had a short look and saw fire. Without thinking I called 112 which is the German equivalent for 911 and reported the accident. I then grabbed the first aid box, locked the car and rushed for the accident to provide first aid.

As I arrived at the scene I saw already other people providing first aid. There were two unconscious persons on the ground, with two burning cars in the background. I approached the helpers trying to revive the unconscious persons and helped with the Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on one of the unconscious persons.

Meanwhile the cars kept burning and you could hear how the tires explode. I also learned some details about the accident and it turned out that the other helpers were quick enough to evacuate both cars before it was too late.

Soon paramedics, fire department, police and an emergency doctor arrived, taking over while we helper kept some distance, hanging on our own thoughts and talking with each other to make sure that everyone is fine. After maybe 20 minutes or so we were sure that the person I helped with the CPR didn’t survive. The other person was transported to a hospital by helicopter.

By then I also saw the other involved persons who had only minor injuries. They were also transported to a hospital.

I then asked a police officer if he needs me for something, like for a report or so. As I didn’t see how the accident happened, I could leave. The police officer said “thank you” before I could turn around and had for my car. After what just happened it cheered me up a little bit.
The police allowed us to turn around and drive the wrong direction to the previous (or “next”) exit and I headed home.

Back home I called my parents, telling them more detailed about what happened because I called them earlier so they won’t wonder why I’m later than expected at home. I also called my grandparents…which I regret a bit because my grandpa didn’t really listen to me and 5 minutes later he called me again just to tell me that the accident was on TV and they reported that one person died….hello? I know about it. I was there. Please, I don’t need to know about it, I have to deal with myself now…

As you can imagine I was a bit shocked after this and it took me a week to get over it. The first night I couldn’t sleep much, the next night was better, but it took me a bit to fall asleep as I still saw the scene in front of me.
Today I’m fine, although I “smell” the accident every now and then, like as I write this article, other than that…of course I think about it every now and then, but most of the time I forget about it and continue my life. After all I’m happy that I was able to provide help, even if it was unsuccessful in one case. I’m also glad that my reactions were fast enough that I didn’t crash into the car in front of me and that the driver behind me was as quick.

After thinking about what happened, I’m glad that every owner of a driver license in Germany must provide first aid. That’s why you have to attend a first aid course before you can get your license. Also, all cars must have a first aid box and I can tell it is a good thing. I just wish it was mandatory that all cars have a fire extinguisher. Unfortunately only some cars have them and only certain cars are forced to have one.

As I had to buy a new first aid box on Monday, I also bought a fire extinguisher. I think, after what I saw, it is not a mistake to have one in the car. Although chances are low that this happens to me again, I like the idea to be prepared.

What do you think? Did something like that happen to you? How are the regulations on first aid and fire extinguishers in your country, or what is your opinion? I think talking about this and sharing the thoughts and feelings helps a lot to deal with it.

In my humble opinion I can say that he is another great addition to this blog

*hugs Viky*

Together with the re-design and re-coding of www.ruelicke.net I also adjusted the design of my blog. I hope you like it