About this Blog

Already a long time ago, when I first had access to the internet and set up a web server in 1994, I thought that it would be great to use this medium to post reflection, comments, and opinions, to share with others. At that time, nobody knew the term "blog", but people were setting up personal web pages. And so did I, just providing a few bits about myself and my interests. But I never came around to transforming my web site into an opinion page. It was just too much hassle, to set this up, keep it updated, and write all the HTML code for it from scratch. I even had the title "My two cents" in mind for this, but never found the time to implement this.

Nowadays, there is a great variety of blog software, allowing exactly that kind of opinionated publishing that I envisioned in the mid 90s. As I tried to find a place for posting and sharing pictures online, I found the Picasa / Hello tool from Google. From there, I was led to the Blogger site, which is what I use now for my blogs. The easy to use interface and the general well designed operation prompted me to give this a try. My first blog here, which I set up in summer 2005, was devoted to my many travels which I did as a part of my job or for leasure (Reinhold's Musings). I felt that it may be interesting to some people, friends, colleagues, or just anyone else, to read a bit about different impressions and events. In that blog, I generally kept a quite "low profile", trying not to offend anyone, not so display too personal thoughts and descriptions, and not to post on possibly controversial topics. Now, this blog here is my second blog. I feel more comfortable to be a bit more direct and open, writing about my opinions and thoughts about issues. This blog should be taken as such - as a personal account and a set of reflections on current or general issues.

I hope you enjoy this blog - you are very welcome to post your replies and participate in possible discussions. I may not post regularly nor reply to comments, so please do not expect much interaction, as my profession does not leave me very much time for this. However, I find that blogging is a valuable tool for engaging with a world-wide audience. As the world is growing closer together, blogging provides a way of bridging cultures through sharing experiences and opinions, across all boundaries.