Disgrace

I am not really closely following German politics lately but THIS man is a disgrace to every honest PhD student going through all the trouble and pain to write their thesis.
Finding all these excuses and playing it down as citing mistakes is one thing but being allowed to keep his post as defensive minister and even still being supported by most Germans is just too much - please Germans wake up! Whenever he opens his mouth he's lying. Show that Germany is still the country of Goethe and Schiller where degrees are not faked.

Nasty copy machine

Since I am usually teaching Friday morning and we are now dealing with really complicated diagrams, I thought it would be the best idea to use overhead projector films on which I could draw. So I went to the copy machine which has two trays with paper and just put the film into the first tray since the machine only tells you the tray it uses after it has copied ... And of course I got the copy on a normal sheet of paper because the copy machine took the paper from the second tray. Therfore I put the film into the second tray ... and the copy machine decided to take the paper from the first tray so I had another copy on a normal sheet of paper.
So I put films into both trays and almost expected that the machine would refuse to copy because it may not like film BUT it actually copied on film ... YEAH!

Where would I be ...

... without facebook. I really would have forgotten this important date without facebook reminding me. And no, I don't really like facebook that much and I usually only log in when I get a message, that's when I saw this important information: "Today is your birthday"

30

There is the new decade. It will only be celebrated after I have managed to hand in the PhD thesis - so I may end up celbrating two birthdays at once (hopefully not!). Since I have been in Germany for a few days and my actual birthday will be a normal work day, my mother insisted to have at least a few candles and a cake. It was a little earlier than the real birthday but I am not superstitious anyway. She also gave me loads of provisions - sweets, cookies, tea so that my big backpack was completely filled with good things to make the last phase of the PhD easier.
Thanks Mom, you are the best!

Snø

Finally we had some more fresh snow and skiing is now fun again because there is a small trail with lights which is mostly used by hikers, runners and people walking their dog. I really like that trail but after a while the snow is so trampled down that skiing is not that much fun on it anymore.
A really great thing here in Norway is the "lysloipe" - illuminated ski tracks so that you can go skiing even after work in the dark. The only thing I do not like so much about the main lysloipe is the amount of people - it sometimes feels like on a highway and many people also take their dogs who then just run into your path while in great speed downhill. Since I prefer to make my own tracks and less people, this small lysloipe is perfect for me - almost no people and you can ski at your preferred speed.
Here a few pictures but since it was dark and I had been doing some exercise it was rather hard to keep the camera steady which resulted in the pictures either being blurred or too dark when I changed the exposure. But they are enough to get at least an impression.

Scientists ?

Sorry this is in German and very hard to explain.

Zwei Geowissenschaftler unterhalten sich über Skype. Dabei geht es darum, die richtigen Zahlen in ein Programm einzugeben, um das gewünschte Ergebnis zu erhalten. Hierbei ist A der Fragende und J der angebliche Experte (zumindest wird J immer gefragt). Weiterhin sollte man noch wissen - A kommt aus Franken, spricht aber kein richtiges Fränkisch und J kommt aus Schwaben, kann aber auch nur ein paar Wörter Schwäbisch.

A: dees is doof
J: ja musst halt auch einfach das richtige eingeben :P
A: na freilich
J: und ned son lällabäbl
J: du musst erst 2 angeben für den denominator
A: hehe genau
A: hab ich
A: bin dran
A: jetzt der demoninator
J: und dann die beiden nummern
A: also 1 1
J: wat?
J: erst 2
A: ne falsch
A: 1
A: einfach
A: ne 2
A: oh mann

Goodbye

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;

William Shakespeare (Hamlet, 3/1)

Saying goodbye forever is never easy. Especially when the person has been a constant part of your life the past 30 years. Yet, the last few years were rather difficult and to live much longer than the (almost) 90 years would have brought more suffering with each day.
Rest in peace you will be in my memories.



It's the best one I could find on youtube ... would prefer it without the pictures but the music is what counts!

Word add on for writing articles ;)

50%...

... of the students showed up for my first lecture (or rather exercises) today. Since it is the very first time I am lecturing, I assume that this is not connected to my person ;).
Funnily enough we had only one Norwegian in the room - the other nationalities being Latvian, Czech, Polish and German (me). The rest of the Norwegian students probably thought that they wouldn't need any practise ...
I talked loads and felt like completely dried out in the end despite the liter of tea but I really liked it despite the early hour and the nicest part is to see them getting the hang of the topic :)