Sebastian Hebenstreit

BIG NEWS – roadmap for 2011-2014 successfully rolled out

SEBI — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:59:30 +0000

Every once in a while big news come along that changes everything …
Today I’m proud to announce two big milestones, which will keep me busy during the next years. Introducing my personal roadmap form 2011 to 2014.

1) going to study extra occupational entrepreneurship at the FH-Wien – starting 12th of September

2) signed today the contract for my new flat – going to live in the 3rd district of Vienna between the Belvedere and Stadtpark

This is the start of something big – and new – and awesome! =)
More news and a couple of photos from my new home will follow soon.

Filed under: SEBI's life

WWF on the dark side?

SEBI — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 21:04:41 +0000

I just tripped over the following YouTube report (sorry only available in German) about the WWF researched by the ARD and want to share with everyone.
Goes hand in hand with my call to carefully review any institutes you might want to buy yourself clean conscience. ;)
Personally I prefer to help through the direct work of my hands (e.g. participate at a voluntary program) rather than sending money, which ways you wont be able to track down the road.

Filed under: SEBI's life

Grand Launch: Recycled Plastic Bottle Ecological Art Island

SEBI — Sun, 15 May 2011 14:44:58 +0000

Hi everyone,
today I like to highlight a call for donations for my friend Rishi (Richart), who is building a plastic bottle island called Joysxee in the bay of Isla Mujeres, Mexico.
After a few years of construction work Rishi’s island Joysxee is now close to its grand launch into the ocean.

A little more about Richart: The construction of Joysxee is fascinating; Richart (who also goes by the nickname Rishi) collects plastic bottles from all around Isla Mujeres and he puts them into recycled fruit sacks to create a floating platform. Palettes are put on top of the full fruit sacks, then plywood and carpeting on top of that, and then a covering of sand, dirt, and rocks. On top of all this sits his house which is made from reused wood framing and contains a composting toilet, rain catcher, conch shell intercom system, and so much more. The baby mangroves which he plants on the edges of the island serve as an additional locking system as the roots take hold of the bottles below. In a few months time the new bags of bottles will host barnacles and even corals and lock into place underneath to provide more support to the entire island. The bottles are sealed and remain in darkness under the island which prevents them from deteriorating in the sun’s UV rays. The result is a floating island, created with approximately 70% recycled material which undulates with the waves. Rishi is continuously adding more bags of plastic bottles to the island so it can continue to grow and expand. He has numerous plants which grow on the island including; palm trees, sea grapes, mangroves, cactus, spinach, tomatoes, melons, lemons, herbs and flowering shrubs.
- Scott Mader on Kickstarter.com

As I’ve visited Rishi two times during my world tour 2009 on Joysxee island and we have had some very good talks, I do strongly believe that he and his wonderful island will make their way into the ocean.
Still, help is always welcome! Many tourists who stop by the island donate some money, Rishi uses for new construction material and technology like solar panels. Some travellers and friends give whatever they can afford or makes their packbags unnecessarily heavy. When I’ve visited Rishi, I brought with me some delicious food, one plastic bottle and some tools like a scissors.

For the grand launch of the wonderful plastic bottle island Rishi is now listed on Kickstarter.com.
Check out the Kickstarter.com website, see the following links below and read through the articles I have written during my stay on Isla Mujeres, to get more information about Rishi (Richart Sowa) and his plastic bottle island Joysxee.
If you do like the ecologic idea of creating new land for trees and a new environment for animals and human with the plastic trash our society produces – become part of the movement and help by supporting my friend Richart!

All money raised will be used to grow Joysxee Island and make it more robust for the launch into the bay of Isla Mujeres, Mexico.
- Kickstarter.com

Donations can be made from USD 1,- through Kickstarter.com, using your Amazon account.
If enough people do believe in this idea and the goal of USD 18.000,- is reached within two weeks, your donation will be transferred. In case the set goal of USD 18.000,- is missed, no money will change hands and Amazon will not debit your bank account for your set donation.
As you donate, you will receive (in case the project reaches its goal) some gifts from Rishi – depending on how much you like to donate – check out Kickstarter.com ;-)

Even you might only donate USD 1,- (that are only 0,71 Euro), your donation will be USD 1,- of shown hope for this project! =)

Here are some more information about this great project

- my written stories during my stay on Isla Mujeres, Mexico

- my photos or Rishi’s island

Isla Mujeres 2009

- future links

- YouTube video

Filed under: Fun, Worldtour 2009

back from the invest fair (Anlegermesse) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany

SEBI — Tue, 10 May 2011 20:36:29 +0000

From Thursday 5th to Saturday 7th of May my chief and I travelled to the investment fair (Anlegermesse) in Frankfurt am Main (Germany) to join our colleagues from Germany and London by presenting our new platform. While Thursday was all about building up our exhibition stand and fix some WLan issues, it has been very interesting for me to meet on Friday our costumer for the first time.
We did not only got the biggest and highest exhibition stand (almost twice as high as all other ones), we also were unique by giving the visitors the availability to try out, play with and touch our new platform on 9 Mac’s, 4 iPad’s and 2 iPhone’s.
It’s been a pleasure to talk with many visitors, receive there very positive feedback, but also take up there wishes and ideas to improve our platform in the future even more for there needs.
Just after a great party night with my colleagues we already had to get back home. It’s been a few days of really good fun, but also quite exhausting. Right after I got home I laid down “just for five minutes”, which turned out to become a total of 6 hours. =P
More information and a few photos of our exhibition stand can be seen at the CMC blog.

Filed under: SEBI's life, Traveling

Laugh

SEBI — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 17:24:30 +0000

… no future comment needed, when you watch the video below! =P
=D =D =D

Filed under: Fun, SEBI's life

Christmas in Guatemala

SEBI — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 15:40:57 +0000

It has been a wonderful Christmas this year – I have been celebrated Christmas all three evenings before the actual Christmas day.
On the 23rd of December I started celebrating on the afternoon with Luis in his restaurant together with Jeremia, who own a good Sushi restaurant on 6th Avenue. After three Cuba libres at Luis restaurant we enjoyed an amazing dinner at Jeremia’s restaurant. Sushi prepared by the chief and main chef of the restaurant for us. I’ve already enjoyed a lot of Sushi in my life – but with no doubt this Sushi won my personal first price for the best Sushi ever! =)
After many more Cuba libres, Luis and I stopped by the grand opening of the new Riley’s bar and I finally got back home around 2 am in the morning. ;)
As that night has been awesome, we decided to repeat it on the following night, celebrating the official Christmas party for all restaurant workers. Again we enjoyed the world’s best Sushi and laughed much by drinking many Cuba libres. At that point I have to mention that the Cuba libres in the Caribbean are way better than anywhere I’ve been so far. Might help to know some good chefs over there, who know everything about food and drinks combined with their personal secret formulas ;)
24th of December, the actual Christmas evening in Austria, I celebrated together with my sweet girlfriend. After a busy day of sightseeing and shopping, we visited the family of her sister and enjoyed eating the traditional Christmas food “Tamales”. It’s kind of sweet or a little bit salty stuff with chicken, rice and corn covered in banana leafs and cooked. I more preferred the salty version, as chocolate and chicken isn’t a usual thing to mix for me. Still I have to say honest, chocolate and chicken taste much better than it sounds at first. =P
And later on my girlfriend and I enjoyed spending our Christmas evening privately together. =)

Filed under: Guatemala 2010

MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR !!! =)

SEBI — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 19:03:44 +0000

From the heart of Central America – Antigua, Guatemala – I wish everybody wonderful Christmas holiday’s and send my wishes for the upcoming new year 2011!

I’m already sadly counting the days until I have to start my way back to Europa on 1st of January next year.

A lot happened here during the past days, but as I haven’t been online much, the delay of this website will be worked off during the following days. Look forward to interesting stories! ;-)

BIG HUG from both of us! =)
(two photos are attached – for all Facebook users: please visit my website http://www.sebisoft.eu – thanks! ;)

Filed under: Guatemala 2010, SEBI's life

visiting all Guatemala’s tumulos

SEBI — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 03:41:16 +0000

My girlfriend and I just returned back to Antigua after a very interesting round trip for the past days.
It took us actually quite a time to start on Saturday 18th of December off to Panajachel. When we reached the Lago Atitlan, it has already been night. Close our goal we had to depressingly find out that the last road has been closed due to road constructions. Facing the fact that we won’t make our way this night to Panajachel, we drove back to Tecpan were we enjoyed the night in our favourite hotel. On the next morning we enjoyed breakfast in the secret hidden restaurant El Pedregal close Tecpan in Santa Apolonia.
When we entered the restaurant I’ve been amazed as suddenly somebody jumped up and called me by my name. First I couldn’t trust my eyes – it’s been my friend Javier I’ve couch surfed at, about one year ago in San Salvador, El Salvador. He has been born in Guatemala and told me, that he is now working again as architect in Guatemala.
After a very delicious breakfast we continued our way. Our goal was to reach Xetulul in the evening.
As I met my new friend Jorge in the airplane on my way to Guatemala, I used the chance to convince my girlfriend to stop by at his town in Huehuetenango. Well, we didn’t know at that point that his town is off the road for a total of 4 hours … =P
We gave him a call and after a loooooong drive, we finally ended up in Huehuetenango, were we met my friend to talk with him for about 20 minutes. He offered us a hotel room and it would have been great to spend more time with him, but in order to fulfil our time schedule we had to move on. Well, moving in Guatemala is quite a challenge. On the big streets you can still only go a maximum of 60 km/h, as people living and walking right on the street all along the way. As it’s already a challenge to not hit some people or get hit by any of the other crazy driving cars, another big trap are the many tumulos – in English: bumps on the road. Many of them are unmarked and very hard to see in the night. I would say at present my most spoken Spanish phrase is: “¡ten cuidado – tumulo!”
So we drove another 2 hours through the black night to get back to Quetzaltenango (Xela) where we stopped at Pizza Hut for a nice dinner. We decided to keep going from there and 1000 tumulos later reached IRTRA by 1 o’clock am.
We planned to stay in a very special hotel, my girlfriend already got good experience with. But badly we had to find out that the hotel was overbooked and so we had to stop by a different hotel.
IRTRA is kind of a DISNEY-land, separated in a water- (Xocomil) and an entertainment park (Xetulul).
On the next morning we enjoyed the Xocomil water park, which got amazing water slides. To get a picture of the fun in Xocomil I recommend to follow this link. In the night we enjoyed a big dinner at Pollo Campero in Mazatenango and spent the night in the Hotel del Sol.
On the way between our hotel and IRTRA we passed a few times a big sugar factory. It’s been amazing to see, how the big trucks bring the sugar-cane to the factory. Around that place you can taste it in the aroma of the air, that they are producing sugar. And of course the Coca-Cola factory isn’t far from their too. ;-)
On the next morning we enjoyed the entertainment park of Xetulul, offering many roller coasters.
We finished our fun tour around 5 pm and started our way back to Antigua, Guatemala. After a looooong drive back and many tumulos more, we arrived glad in Antigua on Tuesday 21st of December around 10 o’clock pm.
It’s been a very adventurously and interesting round trip, which clearly showed me a new picture of Guatemala and it’s many tumulos! =)
Check the following Google Map, to see where we’ve been around.

View Larger Map

Filed under: Guatemala 2010

3rd day in Antigua

SEBI — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 18:56:41 +0000

Actually we were thinking about leaving on our third day for a small round trip in Guatemala. But as we got up very late again, we decided to postpone our round tripe to the next day.
We enjoyed lunch in a small restaurant and decided to walk to Santa La Cruz where we’ve taken some amazing photos.
On this day a palace opened ceremonially at the central park, after they have renovated it for many years. It’s been destroyed in the past trough a big earthquake and now forms a new tourist attraction in Antigua. We decided to listen a few minutes to the vice president talking about this building and decided to take dinner at Cafe Condesa, which is located as well right at the central park.
Later on we enjoyed a sweet chocolate-banana Crepa at a new place also located at the central park and made our way back home.

Filed under: Guatemala 2010

2nd day in Antigua

SEBI — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 18:42:46 +0000

Again we got up very late and enjoyed breakfast at home. Before lunch I tried to fix my girlfriends notebook and took it totally apart. I found the problem and glad fully could still make it running after building it together again. =b
Still her notebook is broken and only works by performing a special trick.
As crazy as it sounds, because the thermal conductance paste got a problem and you can’t change it as the central processing unit is fix integrated in the motherboard, you can only turn the computer on, after you put him for 15 minutes in the fridge. Do never try this trick at home – and definitely make sure to take off the battery ;)
Later we enjoyed lunch in a small restaurant for Crepa and been walking a lot around in Antigua for the rest of the day. We’ve enjoyed a wonderful tea break at Cafe Condesa combined with “the best” tres-leches cake ever! =)

Filed under: Guatemala 2010