Miscellaneous on October 14th, 2009

It seems like I’m finally – slowly, but steady – finding the right line of thought for some parts of the dreaded termpaper. I don’t know if it takes that long and only progresses in snail pace, because I didn’t work on it for so long. Or because I just didn’t quite understand what the questions I had to answer were all about. Probably the later, because that was the reason I willingly failed this assignment in May. Yes, I know I should have spend the summer working on it, but there was so much other stuff to do like ampaigning for three different elections. But now I’m back in the scholarly mood. Well, sort of. I’m getting there… :-)

It’s a good thing I’m not swamped with work assignment at the moment as well, which means I can use some of my time at work for termpaper related research and stuff. I probably should spend much more of my spare time working on it as well, but other things keep distracting me. But I’m rather confident I’ll be able to hand in a decent termpaper this time. Not much earlier than on the last possible date, but still…

Miscellaneous, 2009/09/14

I’m seriously considering to turn on the heating, which I am reluctant to do every September, because it means summer is finally over. I’ll be leaving my apartment in 45 minutes, so I’ll refrain from turning the heating on, but I already now I will turn it on tomorrow afternoon, because that’s the first weekday afternoon / evening in a while, which I will be spending at home. Cleaning and (probably most of all) just relaxing. I have to take my DVR back to the shop to have it send back to Panasonic and I hope they still can fix what’s broken with the DVD player unit for a reasonable price. I don’t want to imagine the future weeks without my DVR. Maybe one of my brothers has got a spare DVD player so I can finally start to watch West Wing again. Not to talk about all the other stuff I prefer to watch on the TV and not on my computer screen. It’s just not the same…

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There is not really much to write about at the moment (well, has there ever been during the last few months *sigh*)? I had a busy week last week, but part of that was a wonderful meeting with some old friends on Saturday and going to my first regular game of the Cologne Sharks this season. I had some trouble getting there (stupid train company. And stupid me for not checking in advance if there were some delays / interruptions). The game was ok, but they played against the weakest team of the whole league, so they actually should have won it easily. But they didn’t. They had to have a shoot out in the end. Which they won at least. Anyway, it was great to be back at the arena, watching the guys play and they did so much better than last season, which was the worst season I have experienced since I became a fan 10 years ago.

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.

Lots and lots of Yay-ness

Yay! My four days of work are over. Weekend! Yay! I still got some work to do (job#2, home office and all), but I might not do all of that before Monday. Some things have to be done, but some can also wait. There are a few other stuff that needs to be done (Greens, grad school, chores) but I hope I can still do that on my own schedule. Sleep in. Spend my evenings at home.

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My coworker invited me for lunch today. We usually don’t do lunch, but bring some sandwich or stuff from home. Today we had a meeting in the late afternoon and I thought about getting a salad from a nearby dinner, when he suggested to get some real lunch somewhere. And I really appreciated that. It made up for all those times I was annoyed about him for some stuff he did. Or didn’t do…

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A few very short updates on parts of my life…

My mom: Is doing ok, so far. She is already on the normal cardio floor. Still very sore and tired, but that’s to be expected after having the chest cracked open and all that.

Work: I should have remembered that mailing the xmas cards is a lot of work. A LOT of work. Stupid work. It sucks and we haven’t even really started yet.

Greens / Politics: I missed a few meetings and am soo behind with some assignments. I feel so guilty. But I can’t bring myself to work on that stuff more than necessary at the moment. I feel inadequate too often. I sometimes do so in job #2 by the way. So, yes, inadequate and partially paranoid. I try to ignore the pile of folders, documents and stuff I have to work on or to just sort. It’s all postponed until my xmas vacation, which will be a very busy vacation with doing all the things I already have postponed for these two weeks.

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, 2008/11/04

My mom is already doing much better. The arrhythmia stopped, either on its own or due to some meds. Now the doctors have to figure out a way to prevent these severe kinds of arrhythmia in the future. She will get a thorough checkup now and then we’ll see.

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I checked the fourth (unkown to me until now) Starbucks location in Essen, which I found in the yellow pages. And it’s not a coffee house at all, but company offices. It actually would have surprised me if there really had been a coffee house in that part of the town. Although it’s lively neighbourhood I wasn’t sure there actually were enough people around for a Starbucks to make enough business. I will have to adjust the map and route now and update my public transport timetable.

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I’ve got a new keyboard… *squee* A few days ago I just couldn’t stand to look at the worn out and filthy keyboard I had. Yes, of course I could have cleaned it diligently , but I just didn’t feel like doing so :-) I should think about getting some cover for this one though to keep some of the dust and filth out for as long as possible.
This new one is neat and slim and stylish but still has got the old traditional layout with extra arrow keys and lock keys and a numeric keypad on the right Most of the availabe keyboards in the store came with the usual laptop layout without numeric keypad and the arrow keys integrated into general keypad and everything. The keys on these board look so huddled and my stubby fingers need more room to roam on a keyboard. Plus this new one feels just good and easy to type on.

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I finished reading “White Teeth” and I loved it. Zadie Smith is such an amazingly talented writer. I’m at lack of words to praise her adequately (and that’s why she is a bestselling novelist and I’m just a ordinary blogger). I’ll retreat to quoting some of the critics on the cover: “epic tale” “scope and vision” and “savour every sentence…”,  It was a great pleasure to read and I will buy her third novel (actually her second, but I read the third first and now her debut) soon. And I will read it just as soon. This debut stayed on my shelf for almost 18 months. Why didn’t I read it earlier?

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It was all over the Grey’s sites this morning: Brooke Smith (Dr. Hahn) is leaving the show. Already at the end of the next episode. I definitely didn’t see that coming. According to her and Shonda Rhimes it was a sole decision of ABC, because ABC either didn’t like the development of her character (well, I agree with that) or that they didn’t wanted to persue the lesbian storyline, which I think is a rather pathetic excuse. Why start it in the first place, if you don’t want to go through with it? I won’t miss Dr. Hahn much as a character (the hospital got too crowed anyway *g*), but the whole situation leaves me baffled. Probably because it happens so all of a sudden.

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, 2008/10/03

It took me 38 hours to finish “New Moon”. Not reading for 38 hours of course, on the contrary. Besides so ordinarly things like grocery shopping, cooking some dinner, taking a shower, spend some time onlineand all that, these 38 hours also included a 7 hour work day, being out dancing for 4,5 hours, sleeping for about 7 hours and spending 4 wonderful hours celebrating a very special 10th birthday with some wonderful friends. So all in all I really didn’t read that long. And I’m so tempted to continue with “Eclipse” right away, because I’m dying to know how the deal between Edward and Bella turns out. This story is addictive, that it’s scary :-) But I really have some other things to work on so I’ll try my best to not go back to Forks first thing tomorrow morning but instead postpone that until at least late afternoon. To make some more time for reading I even didn’t buy my weekly newspaper, because reading that paper always takes a couple of hours of my week. Talking about addiction…

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I watched the first new episode of Private Practice tonight (one of the things I had to “work” on and my attempt to not let vampires take over my life as well) and I’m glad that the Oceanside Wellness Center is back. I like these guys, some more than the others, but it’s nice to watch them at their jobs and their struggles in their personal and especially romantic life. The ratings for this episode have been disastrous and I’m afraid we might not even get to see a full season. I’ll keep my fingers crossed though. I want to get to know more about Pete…

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A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I would write a post about how running a fan-website for 10 years can change your life and even though today was the 10th birthday I don’t feel to inclined to actually do so. What does that say about me *wonders*? I’m still baffeled that it’s lasted for this long and that it’s been such a success. I’ve met a lot of nice folks, found some great friends (who threw me the forementioned little birthday party today), experienced so many awesome moments and definitely grew as a person. And I’m extremly grateful for all of that. More than I probably could ever express here, so what’s the point :-)?

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There isn’t even a fourth thing to write about now. I lead such a boring life. Or maybe I’m just too tired.

Miscellaneous, 2008/08/28

A long time ago (in my german blog) I already wrote about that song and how much it helps me to unwind. It’s time to mention it again…

[....]

There’s a light at each end of this tunnel,
You shout ’cause you’re just as far in as you’ll ever be out
And these mistakes you’ve made, you’ll just make them again
If you only try turning around.

[....]

But you can’t jump the track, we’re like cars on a cable,
And life’s like an hourglass, glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button now
Sing it if you understand.
and breathe, just breathe

Breathe (2AM) – Anna Nalick

I try and have to just breathe more often than I’d like to recently…

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Today is the first night in eight days that I’m home before 9 PM. I don’t know what to do with all these hours before bedtime :-) But then I look around my dusty and messy apartement and see the stacks of laundy which has to be ironed and I think about all the mails or papers I have to write. And then I just want to curl up and try to block out all that stuff and just be. Not do anything. Just breathe :-)
Unfortunately I can’t afford that luxury, not unless some leprechauns turn up and do the work for me. ALL the work. At least it’s not too stressful at the office at the moment so I can’t complain too much. Still some of the things I have to do (not at work but on the local politics and postgraduate side of my life) seem to ask too much of my time. I don’t know if it’s really too much work or if I just have to work on my time-management. I’m afraid the latter…