The scientific ego-boost

It's been a while since I had something to blog...but finally I have something to share!!

Some of you know that I'm almost done with University and the only thing I still have to do is wait for beaurocracy to work out and then go fetch that piece of paper saying I'm now officially done with University. For a while, I played with the thought of a carreer at University only to realise that it's all nepotism and a tipped scale of power, ergo very hard to get a job there - plus the downside of getting paid virtually nothing...
So a couple of months ago, I agreed with myself to find a job elsewhere.

Today, I got an e-mail from one of my teachers there asking if I might be interested in a tutoring position. It's not decided if the position will be offered at all (beaurocracy again) but she was asked to go find potential tutors and thought of me - YAY!!!

This might not sound so astonishing to you but it is and here's why: In Austria there is a student-teacher-ratio of about 300:1. At least last time I checked - I have to admit, it's been a while. This means that teachers don't know their students, they don't know their names, grades or faces. For students it's hard to get noticed and find some sort of mentor or whatever, especially because one hardly has more than one class with the same teacher throughout one's years at Uni.
So now, after I was in her class last summer, this teacher actually remembers me and wants me to tutor her extra class (insert complicated course system here) about Philosophy and Critique of Social Science.

I'm so psyched, I can't even begin to tell you. I really hope this works out. I would still have to get another job, but the thought of not having studied for "nothing" but acutally using the knowledge I gathered is enticing...

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.

Today I met Thomas J. Brown

If I am completely honest I have to say that I hardly ever read his blog, but when I do I enjoy it.
And no, we've never met, but it came quite close to that today.

I was waiting on the tram to arrive and past me walks Elder Thomas J. Brown and his buddy Steven to join me and the other people waiting for the tram to come.
I tried not to but I had to grin - a lot. And Elder Brown taps me on the shoulder and asks me what's so funny.
He was very friendly and understanding after I explained myself, even though in the end I didn't want to join his church.

Sometimes I like coincidences.

I hope I'm just paranoid

I'm at work and I don't really have time to blog...but what can I do.

When I got up (which is a euphemism, it should read dragged myself out of bed) this morning I had puffy eyes and my finger and wrist joints were all swollen. I didn't think about it much. I haven't slept a lot, that's what I get for it.

Now being at work my puffy eyes are more or less gone, my fingers are back to normal but my wrists are still a bit swollen and hurt. Even when I don't move them.
It's been quite a while since I last felt that, but I do remember it vividly because it didn't go away for ages. Tenosynovitis.
I hope I'm just paranoid.

blame it on the weatherman...

The sun was out today and I refused to wear my winter jacket to pick up a book from the library. I didn't even feel the slightest chill at all. I then went shopping and everything was fine. I picked up some carnival decorations and when I came home I redecorated the apartment. I'm not exactly a big fan of carnival but I like that it's colorful and since I'm doomed because of my papers I thought I might as well have a cheerful apartment.
As soon as I had finished and started to get ready for studying the weather changed. The sun was gone and the sky was one thick blanket of yellowish gray and a couple of seconds after I turned on my laptop it started hailing.
Do you believe in coincidences? Does the weather reflect my mood? Did I cause the weather to change?...very freaky.
But at least the apartment is all colorful now...

cleaning up with feminism

I do consider myself a feminist. not radical or activist, but a women with a sense for the feminist cause.
I don't support role clichés and I don't like the inequality that still exists between men and women, and so on and so forth...

Yesterday, I got a vacuum cleaner for my birthday. I asked for one, so it's not the typical "I-give-that-woman-a-household-device-for-her-birthday" kind of thing. BUT...the whole evening I was crazily happy about having a new vac-cleaner and finally being able to throw the old one out. I became my great grandmother's grandmom! I put the whole thing together like a child builds a house with LEGO and was happy as a clam when the thing worked and acutally sucked in the dirt instead of spreading it throughout the apartment, like my old and broken one does. I felt horribly like a TV ad of the 40ies or 50ies.

Then I figured, feminists have to clean too!

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.

being sick sucks

I fell ill. headache, sore throat...
but i got some chinese herbs from my boss and everything is a lot of fun now. no, not really. but they seem to help.
and the best thing is - they're capsules not tea. which means they don't taste gross forever in my mouth.
but i still feel a little ill and I still don't wanna work but have to...

only two more days and then there's a weekend.
the bunny weekend...

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?

a new era

watching some aol sessions with tori amos, especially the Q&A I eventually figured out, why some poeple always get to answer the same questions over and over again.
They are not interesting. Tori gets asked about her opinion on stuff, politics and so on. She hardly ever comes to the point of having to draw a line for her privacy's sake.
Then watching Avril L.'s session I was just so bored. The ever same questions with the ever same answers. I know I'm talking pianos and guitars here but I needed that to enlighten me. yes, sometimes I'm slow.

aaanyway. tori did it again. this time not gf, she bewitched my friend d. who i tried to convince of tori's genius for quite some while. she went to a concert yesterday and was blown away. calling me afterwards almost tongue tied. and if you knew her, then you'd know that almost tongue tied with her is silent for a couple of years for somebody else.

I feel strangely approved (if that is the correct term), content in any way.

plus it's my last day of uni for summer. tomorrow we'll do some serious cleaning and then summer is officially here. I can start catching up on tv-shows, listen to music, commence my jodie-foster-summer-sessions, refurbish, read, play computer games, maybe take up on playing the guitar since i don't have a piano anymore...oh the possibilities!

substitute acts

ok, I admit sometimes I don't care about trojans, viruses and other bacteria that my computer could get infected with and go here. but only to see if there is a new submachine game online. I discovered them a while ago and it took gf and me (playing at the same time facing each other on our living room table) quite a while to solve the 3 or 4 games.
So when I coincidentally checked I was quite delighted to see that there is a new one. but being at work I thought, no, I'm a good employee I'm not gonna start playing now.
So I went home and as regular reader know I got quite a bit to do for uni, well...I was a bad student. I got myself a nectarine and thought to myself, well I'm only gonna play until I finished the nectarine. Guess what, the game was done long before I had eaten up.
What a hoax! It was not only easy it was also the shortest submachine ever. I'm very mad at that guy who made it. He should've taken more time and do something good with it. grrrrr. not even procrastination works these days.

ASL

ok, maybe I can overcome my aversion concerning sign language. Maybe I do like it a bit. just imagine...I could be in an underground and sign bad about a guy that I see there, provided that i have someone with me who knows asl too.

And maybe it's not so bad starting to learn some basics now, cuz then it'll be a lot easier learning sign language when I'm deaf. cuz lip reading is ok, but it's impossible in English, at least for me.
whatever.

I like ASL and I might even be good at it cuz it's a language after all.