pax_athena

Because I'm bored and spent far too much time debugging just to find out that it was all about forgotten quotation marks:

( poll )

And if you feel like, you might want to tell me what programming languages you can use and with which proficiency. Or which real languages. I am curious today.

Photo meme, part I

For ellie1928 who asked for some photos from my way to work and dooropener who asked for a photo from the observatory:








( Read more... )

Insight of the day:

Literature, as opposed to light/pulp literature (Trivialliteratur, for the Germans), is something that happens in your head.

I will not define ‘something’, since this something is literature and there is nothing to define about it the same way there is nothing to define about the something that is love once you feel it. It is highly subjective, reader-dependent and will be a different experience for different people. And, the same way that love is something different and more than the simple falling in love, literature is more that the simple infatuation with a book, a character, a world.

This was, for the greatest part, an awesome day. I was finally allowed to look into some packages I got:

( squee 1 )

Then I backed for the observatory yesterday evening:

( squee 2 )

And I took a random photo of my teas:

( squee 3 )

By the way, if somebody feels like swapping, let me know :D I love trying out new (fruit) teas!


Then however, after my wonderful pilates course during which I found out that I will certainly have the possibility to continue, I git reminded that not all in this world is nice and peachy. Somebody has stolen things of mine from the laundry. We have this common room once can hang up stuff at for drying. I wanted to pick things I hung up on Monday and there were gaps between my clothes, which made me suspicious. Indeed: a jacket, a t-shirt, two pairs of tights and certainly something else I can't remember right now. Who needs used tights? WTF? I put up signs all around the house, that I miss stuff and that perhaps somebody could have mixed it up with theirs, so they should just give it back. But honestly? I don't believe in it. Things were missing from the middle of the lines.

Well, I'll try to ignore it and see it as a chance to buy something new. It's just - I'm not going to use the laundry again, I guess, not even in this super posh house.

Somebody posted excerpts from "The Sound of Her Wings", the Sandman story I was praising a few post earlier over at Scans Daily. Finally I can spread some love for it adding some of the great art to my constant rumbling! Unfortunately, one cannot leave out even a single page if the story is to keep it's full impact, but at least it's something (though missing the "idiot"-scene my icon is from :/).
There is also an excerpts from an other great Death-Story, "The Time of Your Life". I guess, ‘Absolute Death’ will be one of the things I'll be saving for.

Anyway, when re-arranging all of my books I came along some which I feel like giving away. Reasons? Either I loved them so much that I bought a better edition, e.g. one in the original language, or I'm just not interested in them anymore (that goes for the Star Trek books) or I just got the at some point when buying packages on ebay or a flea market and was never actually interested in them ...
I don't want any money for them except if you feel like paying some, that you can buy some inexpensive (Reclam or Penguin ^^") book for me, I just want them in good hands, knowing that they will not be thrown away. What I want, however, are the postage costs - preferable transferred, in the worst case as stamps.
I give no guarantees on the state of the books. Many of them were bought as "Mängelexemplare", so they have a little stamp on the side, but they all are in an OK condition. Just take a look, OK?

( German: Books & Mangas )

( English: Books and Audiobooks )

( German: Star Trek & X-Files Novels )

------------------

Take as many books as you like, I want to get rid of all of them. Whoever comes first will be served first, as far as people from my fl come. Feel free to tell others about the books. And you can also ask for the books when you are not from Germany, we will figure a way to get the books to you and the postage costs to me somehow.
The Star Trek books are currently in Munich, therefore allow for a delay of two to three weeks till I will be able to send them to you.

Pelevin is always so much worth reading. One might know what to expect from his books: the cynicism, the absurdity, the corruption, the lack of any sense or happy end (if there is an end at all). But still, they are mixed up in the most enjoyable cocktail of a book which is going to leave you with the feeling that somebody spat into your very soul. Not a pleasant feeling, but the hallmark of a good book. What he writes are not so much stories, as snapshots of a society, masterly packed into modern world, old Egyptian myths and stories from 1001 Nights - with comments of a Sufi, a historian, a cultural scientist, a jurist and a narcologist trying to explain the reader what the story was really about.

Some little gems from ‘P5’

( 2x )

This is also the book which has one of the ugliest covers ever:

( cover )

Indeed, this is real gold glitter. And the backside is even uglier. I was glad nobody was sitting next to me on the train, because otherwise I would have constantly felt the urge to explain that this was the books of one of the best (and very extravagant) Russian writers who felt like making his book look like it does, making the cover part of the book (it's his own design idea, at least as far as the editorial states).
I love it how his books have layers and layers of meaning, both intended and specific to the single reader. And how he is never taking the reader serious and forcing him to be part of the book, something, admittedly, every author does, but most seem unaware of it, while Pelevin makes you a very conscious co-player in a game you can only guess the rules of - because even knowing what to expect every book of his still has the unexpected just two pages from you.

(Also, those ‘Silent Empire’ books by Steven Harper I recommended? They are available as ebooks over at the Book View Cafe now. Which is good, since they are out of print and I'm not giving the ones I have away, it was hard enough to get hold of some copies in the first place.)

Given that today is Sunday and I've been to the observatory yesterday and am here right now, I was going to write a rambling post about what working in science really means and how I get upset about people working normal jobs complaining that life in science is so easy and that we travel so much and don't have fixed working hours and don't have to work shifts or do physical work and forget about the fact that work is never over here. You go home and you continue working. And than the latest PhD comic has once again, beaten me on it and summed it all up perfectly:



This is so me. And it is so much fun, no matter how much I complain sometimes!

I managed most of the things planned to the last week and actually had a pretty free weekend. So yay for me? Well, I still feel like I'm behind on everything: work, letters, things promised ... And at the same time all I want is to procrastinate more and either read some more ‘Superman & Batman’ comics or to buy the first season of ‘Lois & Clark’ (*coughs*). And that while I don't even like watching TV.

Anyway, as some better and perhaps more productive way of procrastination, I thought that I might write something about some awesome blogs, communities and feeds I have on my reading list:


( Astronomy and Science )

( Literature and Writing (and a bit of politics) )

( Comics )

( Others )

Didn't I say that? It's Monday and things are a lot of better. Well, no, they are good.

A misunderstanding is cleared, a sorry said and therefore one major disaster is cleared from our memory. I did not get the friend back, she is still missing on my list. But we have to let go, don't we? And I feel pretty mellow. And far too full - yummy home-made pesto with spelt pasta. I'm usually not a fan of pasta, but spelt pasta is great, so sweet and somehow with more structure to it than the usual one.

Anyway, if there ever was a sign that I'm at the right place, than it's that Mondays actually make me feel better, not worse. In spite of my usual problems to get out of the bed in the morning. But I'm feeling a lot of more useful and my inferiority complex is under control for a while. At least I do something instead of moping.

Wanna know what my schedule for this week looks like?

• Monday aka today: Erlangen (lecture), Observatory, grocery shopping (which is a bigger thing, since I don't have a supermarket next to where I live)

• Tuesday: Erlangen (lecture + work), mensa with friends, a Greek place with a friend

• Wednesday: work, taccos all ‘you can eat’ with the observatory-guys (no pilates this week due to school holidays)

• Thursday: waiting (I hope very much that he will come) for the phone company guy to install my Internet and telephone, work, Sherlock-Holmes-Seminar, packing

• Friday: work, train to Munich.

And in between I need to get to the post office for some packages, bring two pair of shoes to a shoemaker, cook, manage a website, continue writing a paper, finish plots, read, phone some friends, phone my parents, read like 5 papers, extract a lot of lightcurves, start organizing a proper coffee machine for the observatory, write a few work-related e-mails and perhaps a letter and do some sports since I don't have my pilates course this week. And perhaps do some photos ;) Sleep? Who needs sleep?

But I'm going to bed now nevertheless. Had hardly 4 hours of sleep this night and my coffeine rush is wearing out.

It is time again - a meme!

1.Comment to this entry saying 'ICONS!' and I will pick 6 of your icons.

2.Make an entry in your own journal and talk about the icons I picked!

( 6 from chija )


( 6 from dooropener plus a comic recommendation and a movie )

And for those of you who made it through the text this far or just skipped it - sometimes I feel this urge to do things with my hands. And even if it's just threading some beads, it's nice to see a quick result:

( bracelets )

I seem to lost the old ones I had - one of wooden beads A.'s (the Berlin-A.'s) father gave to us when we were 15 or 16 and the red coral one I bought together with my mum - or at least I've put them down somewhere at my parents or ♥'s place and can't find them any more. But I had this owl pearl I bough in the USA, to be exact in San Diego's Balboa Park. So now I had to combine it with some wooden pearls.
Forgot to put on my usual ring on the right thumb for the photo. But oh well ... The goodies in the background are Selina, of course, and the newest Batman collection by Neil Gaiman - just because it was the nearest fully black book to grab, I did not think that one would see the bat-sign. Have to write a review on this one.

And yes, my camera is terrible. And it gets worse the older it gets. Nevertheless, I think I want to strain it even more, so one more meme:

Photo Meme

Ask me to take a picture of any aspect of my life that you're interested in - it can be anything from the house I live in to my favourite shoes. Leave your choice here as a comment, and I will reciprocate by taking the pictures and posting them as an LJ entry. Ask as for as many as you want. That way you get to know a little bit about my life, if you're remotely interested in it.

(Usual reasonable limits apply - but everyone can play :D ).

P.S. Jup, again a citation as the entry-title. And it should be pretty obvious from where.

I. I usually love my wholefood products. But advertising organic flour by stating that you use homoeopathic manuring with admittedly natural fertilizers? Nothing against cow manure, it works. But something against ‘homoeopathic’ ... Why, oh why, can't we just stick to organic farming without the esoteric aftertaste? I will gladly pay double or triple price for my tomatoes if they look like this:

( yummy tomatoes )

-- but I will not if they are advertised as being harvested on the day indicated by the moon calender. This is not what I spend my money for. Not that this happened with the tomatoes. But I wanted to show you the pretties ;)

II. Health insurance reform? They call it fair? WTF? There is a very fitting word describing what is happening: "Entsolidarisierung". The weak ones are left behind and we close our eyes, we just forget that tomorrow it can be us who are the weak.

III. Open Day was amazing. There were at least 500 visitors if not more. Some were so nice, telling us how much they liked it and how interesting it was even though it was too cloudy to actually use the telescope. It was also amazing how many of them read the posters and asked questions regarding them. I usually feel like the only one who read (almost) everything written when in a museum or an exhibition.
Others ... Every time the topic of asteroids hitting the Earth comes up. Come on, guys - you read something about it in the teletext? And you believe it?
And what is it that people will not believe you or think that you are competent when you are female? Happened to a friend of mine - on of the guys just turned away from her and told the male colleague that he did not believe that ‘the cute lady’ there knew what she was talking about. And that given that she is a lot of a better physicist (and better in explaining) than he is. And people who are always going to ask the guys when they have a question, sometimes waiting to place their question till he finished explaining something to others and absolutely ignoring the woman standing next to him who has the very same kind of a name-tag. And of course we had some of the obligatory ‘Isn't physics terribly hard for a woman?’ Well, not harder or easier than for a man! Grrrr!

So, a group failed the lab. We did not fail them, they failed. It's a strange feeling from the other side. Not a nice one. We talked a lot yesterday, partly because we had a small party going on anyway, partly because it was a bit of a self-therapy - and it continued today, I needed to talk about this to someone with a lot of more teaching experience. We did not fail them, we extended the deadline again and again and they failed. Others did not. Still, I would have preferred them to work a bit (or a lot) harder, a bit better and to pass.

Anyway, there is a paper to work on, a lecture tutorial - including an actual peer review panel! - to prepare for and plots to make. So no time for worries over people who are not worth it.

Oh, and continued with the party topic [what a wonderful transition from one topic to the other, isn't it?] - did I mention that while being in Amsterdam I made a little detour to LaRochelle, courtesy of the famous API whiskey break?

And I got a box of chocolate with a thank you note from a guy who did a two-week-intership here and was my office mate for that time. Sooo sweet! Not that I expected or earned it. But it was such a nice gesture. Something to make my day :) Now I guess I have to go out and do something nice myself, to make someone else happy, too.

This was not my day. Had a nightmare, because I have this one group in the lab which is really bad - spend half the night hunting for them through the observatory trying to make them listen and understand; their lab report was the worst one you could ever imagine. Than my newspaper did not arrive or got stolen. And ♥ left for his parents to help his father finish the barn they started renovating. Did not get any proper work done. Stayed at home instead of going out with friends due to migraine, bad mood and tummy ache. You see - this was so not my day :(

And I lost my language. The writing one. Not the voice, the language. Hard to explain - the voice is still there, I know the rhythm, I'm just lacking the words. No coffee this time. And I have slept enough. Strange state right now. Will become better, just now today.

To spare you the whining, some of the scenes I have written for the prompts I asked for a while ago during the last two month. I have more, from a different world, written. But those will be posted at a different time. So far these three [only in German, sry]:

Wie immer - es sind Szenen, Gedankeneindrücke. Nichts abgeschlossenes. Ich bin mir zu 80% sicher, dass es im "Paradies" um Ian geht. Aber es könnte auch Mark sein. Sie sind sich da ähnlich, in ihren wilden Zeiten, Vater und Sohn - und auch darin, dass sie sonst sehr ernsthafte, verantwortungsvolle Menschen sind. Jeder auf seine Art.

Die Texte sind diesmal nicht betagelesen, ich stelle sie aus einer Laune online, ich wollte eigentlich warten, bis ich mindestens einen mehr aus dieser Welt in einem halbwegs präsentablen Zustand habe. Nun ja, den eigenen Launen sollte man folgen, zumindest solange sie anderen nicht schaden. Kritik und Fehlerhinweise (ja, auch Tippfehler) werden wie immer dankbar angenommen.




( Abschied )
( Paradies )
( Schlaflos )


Alle bisherigen Texte in der richtigen zeitlichen Reihenfolge:

Paradies - Erste Begegnug - Zu dritt - Wie ein Schmetterlingsleben - Wenn ich du wäre - Schlaflos - Kommandeurin - Unter den Wolken - Geschwisterliebe - Familienjuwelen - Abschied

( Einige wirre Gedanken zu den Texten )

I will post something that makes more sense, promised. Just not now.

We have this open day on 24th October - and guess who volunteered to do the talk on stars? - Exactly, the same person who drank her last coffee at 9 p.m. today to finish some work in the evening and, before that, spent hours walking through the rain in search of a suit outlet store for her ♥. But the talk - or rather the talks, since it will be given three times - will be fun. And if I'm lucky I'll write it on my new Mac. Btw., you are of course cordially invited to drop by :) More information to come.

Yes, I'm pushing my boundaries right now - in many different regards. It's fun, though still scary like nothing else. You should do it more often, too :)

[Coffee, by the way, is most wonderful for my concentration when it comes to work - but it seems to numb my language. But perhaps it's not an effect of the coffee, but of the overfatigue that makes me drink too much of it.]

Oh, and we indeed are stardust.

Done.
The talk I promised to give? Over and done. And it was good, got some nice feedback on it, that always makes me happy. The students did not look too confused, asking questions that made me clear that they - at least some of them - understood the topic. So, when am I going to give the next one? ;) I like talks. And I think it was cool to give one without slides, but just talking and using a blackboard instead. Speaking (almost) without notes is fun.
Jup, I still need to calm down, too much adrenaline surging through my body.

I also have realized that I don't have a ‘who is who’ post or any other introduction to me myself. So here is a compilation of some posts which might answer some basic questions:

How I fell in love with Neil Gaiman's Sandman.
Why Bamberg and where I want to go from here on.
Why a certain giant alien robot is still my hero.
A list of books I would recommend, though a bit of old.
101 things to do in 1001 days.
Sleeping patterns.
A really old (pre-blog) photo of me and ♥.
25 facts about me.
Shadows and writing: Justin.
My babies(=books)!

I hope that does not appear too self-centered. This is not a ‘go and read’-kind of thing. But more a ‘if you want to read, you can skip all the fangirling and everyday entries; these are the few which will tell you, say, 80% of what there is to know’.
And I like this sort of self-reflection, trying to find out which things I said were the most relevant ones.

I hoped that moving away from Munich will save me the Oktoberfest trouble. I was wrong. The train was full of Oktorberfest-visitors when I went to A. on Saturday in the morning, at that though I took the train at half past eight in the morning. The trains were full of them on the way back yesterday night, which was even worse, since most of them were pretty drunk. I'm happy that I will not be going to Munich was the next two week, since ♥ can stay with me till his university starts again.

If you think Ikea-furniture is hard to build up, just try it with some of the ‘grown up’ furniture houses. ♥ decided to help my parents and we spent the whole Sunday drilling (no, you were not supposed to drill, but half of the pre-done holes were at the wrong place) and cursing. And that though we never had any trouble with any other furniture we got, whether Ikea or Poco or just random second hand stuff ♥ changed to make it fit into our flat(s).
Than I bumped into him when he was pouring boiling water into his cup. Ouch! (For him, not for me). But than he has not seen me standing behind him and I ended with his elbow on my eyebrow. At least we can laugh about things like that.

Elections --> no comment :( At least no substantial one. I think I took it pretty emotionally, like seeing a friend you still like, in spite of all the rows you had, being in trouble - perhaps not totally undeserved, but also not that much. And honestly - over one quarter of the Germans not voting? Hello people? I know, that sometimes things come in between and I don't mean those people. But for the rest? These are federal elections, they decide about what will happen in the next four years! I don't want to hear a word of whining during the next four years if you have not voted! And even less in some other cases!

Amsterdam was ... incredible. Not that I did expect anything else, but still, I can't stop being amazed how good it feels to have the guys there around. Scientists and astronomers especially are a breed of their own. Special, wonderful people.

There was the birthday party of D., D., J. and L., the one I helped D. to make sushi for:

( sushi )

And I finally learned how to cook the perfect sushi rice, not too sticky and overcooked and not too dry. The last guests left at 4 a.m., after we already managed to clean up almost everything in the attempt to make them realize that it was a bit too late and they were a bit too drunk.

There also were two evening with friends, one with raclette and brownies and the other with sushi (the ‘rehearsal’ for the party) and a yummy fruit salad with the pinkest dragon fruit I've ever seen:

( a very pink dragon fruit )

And while shopping for the fruit salad and the sushi, we walked through the Java Straat with all the exotic shops with strange food, I could hardly stop myself from buying. But at least I went for some handmade cups:

( colour, more colour! )

We talked so much, we laughed so much, we've seen a bad movie and a lot of funny youtube videos. We've been to Den Haag and to the beach [photos to come].

I miss this city. I miss my friends there ...

My labs, at least the beginners' ones, were different than those we have at the observatory: They were two weeks and 10 experiments each. That meant 10 lab instructions plus the theory, since we did not have most of the topics during the lectures yet, to be read, 10 protocols to be written and two or three theory colloquiums to be passed. Sounds OK, but only as long as you don't know the actual schedule.

The experiments started at 9 a.m. (  ... click for my lab experience  )

Why am I telling you all of this? Because teaching a lab myself, it all comes up again. The arrangement of the labs is different, without those awful colloquiums in the beginning; instead with introductory lectures on every lab (something I think to be great - a book can neither explain as good as a real teacher, nor answer specific questions). There are no marks for the protocols; instead they are corrected over and over again till they are OK (something with the advantage that the students have to work on it till they have really understood the experiment and the results and the disadvantage of them handing in half-finished work and not thinking hard enough).

I feel with the students - still being one myself -, understand their problems, especially since they are among the guinea pigs of the Bologna reform. But on the other hand, reading their protocols I want to tell them that my lab assistants would have sent me home and let me fail the lab for a work like this one. And I'm happy, even being on the other side, that there is no theoretical colloquium before the lab. Honestly, would I dare it to send one of them home if they were not prepared enough? What would weight more on my conscience, the fact that they had to repeat the experiment, though they perhaps already tried hard, or the fact, that I let them slip through though they perhaps had not done enough if something at all? All hypothetical questions, luckily. And luckily, I'm not a teacher, I don't have to teach them how to learn, I'm not responsible for them, even though I'm trying my best. They are grown up and should know better themselves. At least I'm trying to convince myself of it. I can reach out to them and explain, if they still decide to ignore it - well, that it's not my fault. Not that I have had this problem yet.