my 2 cents

I called in sick today. i'm not acutally sick. I'm sickened. I found that counts too.

Thank God it's not my own thesis but yesterday I realized what I should have known one and a half months ago. Mr. Advisor is not qualified to be an advisor.
The Vienna University, where I'm still enrolled because I haven't yet done my last to term papers, one of which is due today (do I really need to mention that I'm not done?) - bach to the point - the Vienna University is a chaotic and unorganized lot of people who usually don't have an idea what they are talking about. I was lucky enough to have found some professors who know their trade and therefore taught me at least a little bit of scientific knowledge.

Mr. A* (insert *dvisor or *sshole here) told the gf that she wouldn't be able to write thesis one and a half months back. fair enough, it seemed undoable. But when the gf came home from the meeting without any real input from A* I should've known something was fishy. I have someone stepping on my toes with every term paper I have to write. that unnerves me but it at least makes me finish the papers sooner or later.
Mr. A* was never heard of again until gf handed in a first version of the thesis last week. Back came the famous e-mail in which he elaborates that it's a little late, isn't it. Hmm. let me think a bit, who set the deadline again?
Well, some hours ago he sent another e-mail claiming he read the thesis and had some things to critisize. I was shocked, literally.
I knew that the University gf went to is organized differently from mine, but her kind of Universities are rumored to be less unprofessional and yet it was possible for that A* to send gf a completely useless piece of shit called feedback. where he claimed that the thesis lacked structrure while his own feedback didn't even have so much as a thread to work by. If I hand in on time I get back my hard copy of the paper with comments, or I get an e-mail sticking to the structure of my paper explaining in the last bit of detail what was problematic and what was good. Not doing the corrections for me, but at least so that I know what the problem was. The mail of Mr. A* was a guessing game, mixing layout with content and much worse stuff too. I read the mail and while gf was shocked because it said that the work wasn't good enough (which I strongly disagree with), I was shocked because of the way it was written. I honestly thought there was some sort of attachment that I hadn't seen yet, something to work with.
Well, acutally I wanted to leave the ranting to the gf but after staying up almost all night to correct the whole thing with her, I have a right to rant too.
And bless my good Dr. P, who's organized ways are valued even more now.

that also means I'll go work on my paper now, so I might even hand it in today or tomorrow.

opening hours

surfing the net I just found this:
the uppers sign says "Republic of Austria" and below it reads "open from 6 a.m to 9 p.m"
I love these kind of things.

christmas meme

LG and Shazza both had it on their blog and with nothing really happening to blog about, I thought about taking on this meme. Everyone who knows me that I'm not the biggest fan of christmas and try to avoid the fuss that is made...

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Neither. Even as a child I would use newspaper pages to wrap the gifts and I was pissed as hell if my own presents weren't wrapped in newspaper as well. I don't like supporting the whole useless business of wrapping something in paper and then throwing it out. Too green for that.

2. Real tree or artificial? I love real trees...My parents switched to a fake one a couple of years before I moved out. Before that we always had big real trees that smelled like it. One year we had one in a pot and planted it in our garden. then the artificial one came and I do see why my parents went for it but I can assure you they really don't make more or less mess than real ones. in fact the one gf and I had last year made no mess at all and as surprised as we were there were no needles under it even two weeks after christmas!

3. When do you put up the tree? on christmas day, very traditional.

4. When do you take the tree down? Jan 6th. also very traditional.

5. Do you like eggnog? not so much, but a sip or two is ok.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I was spoiled with gifts but my LEGO was probably my fav. or my snowboard (although I wasn't a child then anymore) or my first pair of skis or my mini-car racing track,...I was spoiled.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? My parents have one, but gf and I don't. I don't put much thought into it though.

8. Hardest person to buy for? I'm not good with presents. although I have a complete list this year. I don't know how, really but somehow the ideas just came to me.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Usually mom or my little sis.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? neither. I don't like them via mail because it's another thing that just goes into the trash and via mail they just fill up my inbox. so no thanks. call if you will please.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? most probably something one of my grans got me without asking my parents or me first if I even like that...probably music or clothes.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? gf convinced me to watch "love actually" every year. it's very sweet movie.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? As early as I can, which usually is too late because of my lack of gift idea skills.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don't remember. so I guess not.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Vanillekipferl. google for yourself.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? I'd never in a million years use colored ones.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Have yourself a merry little christmas. I love the Tori amos version very much. it has that sort of sadness to it that would reflect my christmas mood so well.

17b. Christmas Song That, When You Hear It, Makes Your Eyes Bleed And Your Brains Start To Leak Out Your Ears, Because That Is Less Painful Than Having To Listen To That *&%^&$# Song One More Time! That would be Wham! - Last Christmas. I do so hate the song that I get aggressive when hearing it. even if I am in a shop and can't properly hear it and it works its way into my subconscious being...grrrrr.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? I would like to stay at home but that wouldn't work out with my parents and grandparents and also not with the in-laws...

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeers? I know blitzen and rudolph. but then again it's an american thing to watch christmas movies when it's not even cold and put up lights that use more power than the local hospital...Did I mention that I like my christmas without all the fuss?

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? none. before my dad broke it we used to have some sort of pointy tree top thingy that I don't know how to describe. them mom went and bought the most tasteless angel I've ever seen. but she's a bit kitchy that time of the year.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? traditionally on christmas eve. but gf and I tried to adapt that whole business of opening presents in the morning. so we celebrate with our parents on christmas eve and open the presents there and the next morning we open the presents that we have for each other.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? the way people think they need to buy everything they find and the way christmas becomes the most expensive, wasteful and hectic time of the year.

24. Favorite Christmas Tradition? I don't know really. probably the whole dinner thing but I wouldn't say that I enjoyed that a lot except for the last 2 years.

25. Outdoor decorations? No.

Now, if you want you can go ahead and do the thing yourself. I won't tag anyone...

song of the day: ani d. - grey

yes, it snows. it's mid-november and it snows. it's not that unusual to happen - a couple of years back. We didn't have snowy winters the last few years thanks to global warming.
this year it seems global warming was turned off, because not only did it snow it also didn't melt away instantly.
I took a couple of pictures out of the living room window and put it into my flickr account. here's one of them.

I love snow - to snowboard, to build snowmans, to throw snowballs at the other kids...BUT, I hate snow in the city. it always turns into this grey to black-ish color dirty cold mass or it just half-way melts away and when cars drive by they spray you with wet, dirty mud that once was snow. Also public transport isn't able to be on time for a couple of days and I don't even wanna start ranting about all the car owners who pretend never to have heard of snow and drive like it. also it usually hits them that summer tires might not be appropriate anymore the very first morning they see it snows, but who has the kind of time to change tires...!?...and they drive like that until the snow goes away, it seems.
I know this is an utter pessimistic view on snow in the city but hailing from a rather rural area and having spent all my childhood holidays in a region that still uses oil stoves to heat up their houses, I just can't get over the fact that people here in the city like their snow experience.
I'm used to walk knee deep through the snow to get to the next house because snow plows would only be used on the main roads. I'm used to building snowmans and having snowball fights where we would be wet only afterwards and not dirty and wet. I'm used to picking up a hand full of snow when thirsty and "drinking" snow that actually tastes like fresh spring water and not like pollution and unhealthy.
I know I sound like the next environmentalist here, but I miss those days. Maybe because I was a child back then, but I don't believe it's the only reason.
the house I spent my childhood holidays in was torn down (that story is too long for now) but this is actually not too far away and the only picture I could find that was half-way decent was this one.

I have to say thought, that gf brought me a snowball when she came home from getting breakfast...isn't she cute? I put the snowball into the freezing compartment in our fridge that sadly isn't freezing fast enough for the snow not to melt, so I took a picture and then let it melt in the sink...

for a more positive view on city snow try gf's blog...she hasn't yet, but I assume that she will blog about the first snow too...

problems are cowards...

...they always come in a crowd.

first, our electric bread cutter pushed up the daisies, was autopsied and is now gone.
second, the emergency operation on our toaster was successless.
now, our heating is not working anymore. we've had a couple of problems with it over the summer, but we thought we'd had some time still to get a new one in time.
Saturday night we were taught that it's now a rather pressing matter and I now wish we would live in Russia, where you just get a new heating and don't have to bother with regulations and stuff.

I hate it when that happens. everything at once.

well, at least mom is visiting tomorrow noon. any suggestions for a nice but quick dish that is not much work and vegetarian?

end game

finally, I'm done with all the crap it seems and my work is all normal again. no porn today.
basically it was an amazingly boring day. the police came twice, then we had the special forces over and finally a military general came visiting. the latter only on private matters but still, he fitted well into the scheme of today.
I won't bore you with work anymore.
because I was just hit in the face (by means of pay day) that the month is over and I have only one month to finish 3 essays. for which I have done nothing really and at least two of them should be profound 40 pages long.
thank god I'm a lazy b*** all summer, only to realize that there is no time left.
so if someone is an expert on EZLN raise your hand now.
experts on UN Peacekeeping operations are welcome too.

I'm outnumb3r3d

oh my god. please kill the guy who found that statistics is worth of being discovered. and then go on killing all the people maintaining the art of how to count. for fucks sake whoever made a start with all these numbers saying something about how students think the EU is great or not - I really don't know what I wanna do with the person.
my brain is going down the drain. I feel my mind stuttering and not even the music is helping a lot.
great. thanks again.

sorry for cursing, tho.

bed & breakfast

gf and I are, as it seems, a bed and breakfast for dogs.

usually we take care of her dog who normally lives with her parents and sometimes needs to stay with us.
this time we too care of very cute but in the middle of puberty french besset D'artagnan.
He's got it all the hush puppy eyes and feet and the same couldn't hurt a fly look. and the next minute he goes and tries to eat the furniture.
And what's most stunning about him is actually how long he is. He looks like an outstreched version of a normal size dog like my own. Very fascinating indeed. Gf kept commenting on the dog's length all weekend completely amazed by it.
We had a fun weekend though, the little one kept us on our feet. Photos can be found at my flickr.

The sofa has landed

I won't comment on the fight with gf yesterday because it's just too stupid.
Instead I have story about IKEA.
Usually IKEA is fun. Sometimes they entertain me to tears.
On saturday we bought ektorp, a white and very comfortable sofa that is also a bed, nice. It was ok to get it onto my dad's tiny trailer, also getting it out of there wasn't the greatest problem...
So the couch held by two people is standing on the street not quite on the sidewalk, two meters tall waiting to be carried into our living room, but noone can. We tried to heave it, but we couldn't. We had gotten it all the way from one end of the town to another but now we were gonna fail the last few meters. We were already calling up the traditionally stronger male friends we knew, who all had good reasons not to get out of the house and help us. With a bit of help from a neighbor we finally managed to get it into the second floor. Everything was fine again. but this is an old story that you maybe read in my last posting with less details due to exhaustion.
We are still talking about an IKEA product so of course something was missing. A small cover/cap thing that keeps the feet of the bed - that our sofa can be if needed - from scratching our wooden floor.
I decided to call IKEA today and have them send something like that over. haha.
I called and the nice lady on the receiver told me to bring back the ektorp for them to see that something is missing (even if I would bring it back, could I not just leave the "missing" part at home?) and not to forget the receit. so that's when I started to laugh. I had thought that this might happen, but I didn't really believe it until it did.
I kindly (or maybe not so kindly) asked her if she missed any of her marbles lately and if she could please just send such a cover/cap thingie over. She said that this wasn't policy (reeeaaallly?) and that I at least would need to bring the receit.
After telling her that she had the very same receit in her computer and she would just have to look it up I canceled the conversation and asked her to put me through to a person at storage. She managed to do that and the guy who talked to me then kindly asked if I had been so unlucky as to call the useless customer service girl. He told me he'd go up to the shop and get the thing off one of their sofas and have it sent to me in no time. I talked to the woman for about 10 minutes and I talked to the storage guy for about 2.
Now here's the prize question: Does IKEA work efficently?