2nd (and last) post from Norderney

I just blinked and my vacation is already almost over. Well, I still got until the ferry back to the mainland leaves at 3.30 PM tomorrow afternoon. I have to leave my room until 11 AM, which means I could still have the laptop plugged to the outletand charged, so I might be able to use it at one of the cafés around here. There even is one with a t-mobile hotspot. Yes, I did use the simple internet functions of my phone to look for that, when I couldn’t get online at the hotel and none of the staff felt inclined to feel responsible for at least trying to find out what might be the problem. I didn’t really expected them to fix it, but at least it would have been polite to offer to look into it. And not a “I don’t use the t-mobile hotspot to go online, so I don’t know what might be the problem” answer. There were a few other tiny details why this hotel and it’s staff wouldn’t get glowing reviews from me, but as it is not too expensive and really ok for the small amount I’m only paying per night, I shouldn’t complain. And I won’t. Not anymore, now that the WLAN is working again *g* It’s terrifying how easily I let myself get sucked back into the online world, once there is the possibility. Because I really really didn’t bring the laptop to be able to go online. I needed it to write my termpaper. And I did use it for that mostly. I can and did go online with my phone even though that’s basically restricted to view sites and not even all of them. It’s an old phone :-)
Anyway, I wasn’t really online that much during this vacation. A couple of minutes at the public internet terminal and 70 minutes so far via WLAN. Which sounds like a lot, but trust me it’s not. I only checked my replies at twitter, quickly browsed through some blogs and journals, checked the weather forecast, and the train schedules for my departure. And saved the updates on some of my favourite Grey’s fanfics, so I could read them offline. I only checked my yahoo mails, because that’s basically all the fandom and blogosphere related stuff and not once checked my offical or even work-related mails. Because I am officially on vacation :-)

Another Hockey Post…

I’m feeling weird today. Maybe it’s the weather, which is weird around here as well. It was wonderfully sunny yesterday and now we’re back to cloudy :-( Which doesn’t really motivate me to do anything useful. Well, I did clean my dishes, finally updated the fansite I’m running. I should also sort some Greens stuff and work on my revising my parts for our electoral program. I might do that later today. “Might” is the key word of that sentence :-)
I’m also planning to revise all my work for the willingly failed paper for the Education course. And to sort out which of the dozens of books I got from various libraries, I can already return. In the desperate attempt to write this paper within a couple of days, I got so many books without having a real plan which books I really need. And because I couldn’t get some of the books I wanted / needed within the time I only had to write the paper. So with the additional time I have now to write the paper again, I can spend more time and serious thoughts about which book I need and should get.

I might be doing doing this tonight while watching the Detroit – Anaheim game tonight at 8 PM, because I actually don’t care which team wins this one. I don’t care about these teams / series at all. 2009 is the first year I really follow the NHL playoffs, because I can watch some of the games, thanks to my new digital cable. I was actually mainly rooting for all three Canadian teams, because they are… Canadian! :-) After watching the Washington Capitals for the first time, the Caps at once slipped into one of my top spots. So here is my current of favourite NHL teams (of the teams still participating in the playoffs). This list and reasons behind my ranking are totally totally subjective, but every like/dislike has to start with something, right :-)?

My Academic Career (So Far…)

I mentioned my graduate studies so often in the blog now, especially during the last few weeks, when my posts mostly consisted of “OMG I won’t manage to write a decent paper” thoughts. Which made me think that maybe I should finally write a post what this is all about. Or maybe I shouldn’t, but I will anyway, because I just feel like doing it. If you’r not interested in my academic career (and the current status of it), you should skip reading further… :-)

My Day Off…

I think it was the right decision to voluntarily fail this one course by not handing in the paper. Or planning to not hand it in on Sunday. I literally feel like it’s not dragging me down anymore and I just realize how much it did drag me down during the past few weeks. I was so busy with studying among all other kinds of work and activities. I didn’t have the time or ease to read a magazine or a book or to watch more TV than just the 2 hours of LOST and Grey’s. I haven’t been to the west Wing since… well too long!

I still have to figure out how to get better organized in the next couple of weeks, because there is still a lot going on and the repeat exam (paper) will take some time and thought as well. But at least I don’t have to rush it anymore and I can do it properly. I also still feel bad that I let it get that far, but I’m trying to not beat me up too much about it. Because I could spend the time more useful and beating myself up isn’t useful. I’m not trying to make light of my laziness, just trying to move forward. Which meant for today that I for once didn’t worry about that course or the assignment. It meant sleeping in, spending some time with my mom (and where I still am at the moment, waiting for Bro3 to come home and to talk hockey with him). I got another Greens meeting tonight, and already so many chores lined up for tomorrow, that I actually should probably start working on those already today. But I want to spent the day doing… nothing!

I will start working (on all kinds of stuff) tomorrorow on the International Worker’s Day.:-) Later today I’m also planning to write a longer post about my graduate program and the up- and downsides of distant education. Because I’ve been writing and complaing so much about it lately. And I have to catch up on LOST. But now I first of all have to talk hockey with Bro3.

Flunking Papers & Hockey Games

I used the time on the train on my way to work and back to read parts of a textbook and also parts of what I wrote for my term paper. Around 4.10 PM a realization hit me. I still haven’t understood some of this course’s content. In at least one part of the paper I got way off track from the correct line of argument. So so way off track. And I had no idea how to get back on track and furthermore get a hang of the contents which I still haven’t understood yet. After a couple of minutes, some pondering and a look at the examination regulations I decided to not hand in the paper and thus flunk this exam. I feel a bit bad about it and mostly I’m mad at myself that I let it get this far, by starting to work on this paper much too late. But I didn’t want to pass this with an only “sufficient” grade and I wouldn’t have been able to do more than sufficient.

This all means I will have to repeat the exam (get a new assignment and write the paper within a year after failing this first one). The course content have changed during the last year which means I now might get assignments which I will be able to understand :-) It also means I have to pay an extra 100 EUR fee for doing this assignment again. And it also means that I might have to change the course schedule I drew up for myself. But it might also means that I can be a bit more relaxed and maybe don’t have so much troubles falling asleep at night. I slept rather badly during the last couple of nights and I’m sure worrying about this paper and all that stuff might have been the reason for that. Because the lack of sleep couldn’t have been caused by nightly hockey games, which I haven’t watched for a while now :-)

Of course I still have to check with my school and program staff, if flunking and repeating this assignment really is a possible option. I gather it is, but I’d better make sure. If it isn’t, expect a very panicky post the day after tomorrow.

Talking about flunking: Team Germany lost against France at the hockey world championship and now has to play in the relegation round. Against France! Oh, this is so so bad. And embarrasing and just sad. I was only able to watch the last period and have to admit that France was the better team. France!

I hope (but actually am sure) to see some much better hockey tonight in game 7 of the Caps vs. Rangers. Yes, I probably will watch parts of the second or maybe just third period later tonight. I just can’t help it, it’s so so much fun to watch. I will have to work till the evening tomorrow, so I can head into work a bit later than usual. (I will always find something to justify watching hockey in the middle of the night).

The Past Week of My Life…

The lack of blog posts might have given you the impression that I’m insanely busy. And that impression would be right. My schedule for today gives me about 15 minutes to write this and post my first week of project365. Because I want to work on my termpaper from 10 – 2 (at least) before I spend some time with my family and then will meet Hai_di and go to Cologne together to see 5vor12 in concert. And I spent too much time away from the computer and the termpaper already yesterday. So just a few random thoughts of this week:

I watched “Slumdog Millionaire” and I liked it. It was different than I expected, it should much more of the ugly and horrible side of lifes in the slums than I expected. I also watched the new LOST and I liked that as well. We got some answers and even more questions and I’m still not quite sure about the way the story is going. But I think I will at least still enjoy watching it. Even if it’s just for the wonderful Ben/Locke dialogues.

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Staying up to watch hockey on ESPN clearly messes up any schedule you might have had for the next day. I watched the Canadiens @ Boston game on Thursday night. Well Friday morning actually, from 1 am til about 3.30 am. It was a great game and I enjoyed watching it, because it was fast and exciting and all a hockey game should be. I have to admit I dozed off every once in a while and missed most of the 2nd period. I should have gone to bed then, but I just couldn’t leave my armchair and the TV. Friday morning I got up around 10.30 am, needed at least another hour until I was really awake and then the first half of the day was already over. The thing is, I’ll probably do it again some time soon, because watching NHL hockey is quite the experience.

Miscellaneous, 2008/11/16

Over the last few days I realized that the Opera Mini on my cellphone actually works pretty well. Of course the layout of most sites is a bit messed up and the cell’s display is too small to really make going online comfortable. But it works and I’m happy to know that.

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My mom is still doing ok and is starting to get bored in the hospital, especially as there are no examinatons over the weekend and the next one needs some preperation, so it will not take place until Tuesday and two more are scheduled after that. Which means that she most probably has to stay in the hospital for another week. Which sucks for her of course.

Miscellaneous, 2008/11/13

I don’t have much time and thus shouldn’t be posting at all, but I’m offline from tomorrow morning until Sunday evening and at least wanted to let you know about that :-) I’ll be attending a seminar from my postgraduate studies on the weekend. I still haven’t read all the papers, I guess I’ll read the last ones on the train. The seminar takes places in Münster and the only three people I know there are not in town on Sunday. I thought about meeting some of them for coffee or something, but… too bad

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My mom is still in the hospital, still doing sort of ok, but not perfectly good. The doctors still haven’t figured out what causes the cardiac arrythmia and how to fix it. And her kidney may have some problems too. We’ll just have to wait and see what the series of test will show. At least she doesn’t have to watch the mess her garden turned in to. It looks so so different with the huge pit and the huge mounds of earth next to the pit. But I guess she’d prefer to be home soon anyway and so do I, because the view of the construction sight is something to get used to very quickly.

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Is it just me or did the temperature drop significantly over the last few days? When I walked home tonight I was shivering. Ok, maybe I should have put on my gloves :-)

Miscellaneous, 2008/10/10

I’ve watched Grey’s 5.03 tonight and I’m feeling not much inclination to watch it again tomorrow to write a decent review. That should tell me something, right? Even though the episode had some character development and gave us some character insight, it still left me extremly underwhelmed. (a word which I just learned recently and finally can put to use). Or maybe I just don’t like episodes in which I dislike Derek … :-)

Miscellaneous, 2008/09/25

I called in sick today. Well, sent an email to my coworker and bosses, to be exact. I already felt bad yesterday, headache, sore throat and the usual symptoms of a cold. My coworker was scheduled to be in the office today as well, so the office wasn’t unmanned. And I even offered to work on some stuff from home, because honestly I could do most of my work from home, if I’ve got access to a computer with internet, word processing software and a telephone.
But no one called or wrote to give me a immediate assignment, so I spent most of my time in bed or in my comfy armchair, drinking tea and getting vitamine C. I also started watching Chicago Hope again, still got two seasons to go, although the sixth one isn’t supposed to be that good. I’ll wait and see. And my back / shoulder is bugging me as well at the moment. That sucks… . But I guess I’m complaining more than necessary, because I’m not really that sick, or sick at all. Just feeling off and blah.

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My lecturers sent back my term paper, because the list of bibliography and references is lacking. Ouch! I have to admit I already knew that it might not meet the conditions even when I handed in the paper, but I so desperately wanted to just have it done. Now I have to revise it again. But on the hand I have to be grateful that I get the chance to revise it. They could have just let me fail because of that, I guess. I’ve got half of the revision done today and am planning to get the rest done tomorrow. I really have to start reading and working on the stuff for the next class.

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It’s Grey’s Day! Yay! It will still take about 12 hours till I can see the season premiere, but that’s nothing compared to the four months I’ve waited for that. It didn’t feel that long by the way, not like it did the years before. Maybe because I wasn’t too worried about what the new season will bring for Meredith and Derek. I knew they will be together for good this time, so I didn’t have to worry a bit during the summer break. But now they are back and the spoilers and sneak peek got me really excited. If the writers will continue with the great writing of the second half of season for I’m sure it’s going to be a great premiere.

And I’ve got a new wallpaper. I found a high-res version of one of the cutest behind the scenes pictures and I just had to use it. The “story” behind it supposedely is, that Ellen was doing an interview and Paddy just walked by, smooched her and continued walking. *squee* I don’t know if the story is true, but the pic is cut either way.