Story # 2

I skip the 'sick in Vienna' part because there is not really much to tell but it is added to the April joke.
So the story:
There will be a conference in Vancouver in July and since my abstract got accepted recently, I decided to book a flight as soon as possible so that it will not get too expensive. Of course I do not have to pay for it myself since it is connected to my work but I don't want to waste the money in my fund so I was looking for a flight with a reasonable price and not too many stops - I found a nice offer of a quite known online travel agency. So, I book the flight and even during the booking procedure I have to verfy my credit card with a bank-ID (that is something they do here in Norway quite often - which also means that I need a security code and this works only in combination with my card). Anyway, the booking was done and I think that the Bank-ID was enough verification. The next day, I get an e-mail that I have to send a copy of both sides of my credit card via fax in order to get the flight otherwise the it will be cancelled. Ye right - they want to prevent the misuse of creadit cards and then they are asking me to send a copy of my card - they must be joking. I wrote them an e-mail that I will definitely not send any copy of my credit card and that I think that a bank-ID verification should be enough. The answer was something like - it is written in their general information (ye they right - sometime we might ask you for a verification - should I really think that is valid for me?). At least I don't have to pay for the cancellation. But I have to book another flight.

It's not alright...

... to take the title of a song of Widscreen Mode (I am kind of addicted to their music at the moment).
Anyway it is really not alright - it is not even funny.
It's nothing bad in general but the whole of April was April's fools day or something like that. Luckily April is over soon ;)
You wanna know why?
Story # 1:
The city of Oslo has this 'special' service of cleaning the roads from all the rocks and dirt of winter. Since most people have their cars parked on the road and the cars are in the way, they have to be removed. If you are luckiy you see the signs which are supposed to be on the road 24h before - if you are not so lucky you are on vacation during that time or don't even know that they are cleaning the road. And by the way they remove the cars at your costs - something over 2000 NOK.
Anyway until this moment I was lucky - I saw the signs and I made a note to myself: park the car somewhere else (which is a difficult task in itself). So it's quite late in the evening I start the car and 'klick' - nothing. Luck left - first idea: battery. What to do - it is half past 10 pm ... going back into the appartment and luckily I am not alone living here so I am talking to two of my flatmates and we decide that we will try to push the car and start it then. So we try that - by that time we are 4 - we push and push but the car does not start. We decide that we don't want to go further since we have to push the car back anyway so we are looking for a spot to park the car - no spot. People with cars passing - looking stupidly but not even asking if they might be able to help. At last, we decide to push the car into the backyard of the building where we live - there are several parking spots but obviously reserved for some people. I leave a note asking for mercy since the car is not working and cannot stay on the road. The next day I asked a Norwegian friend if he could help me to get the car started - so he was very nice to stop by in the evening (rain pouring down like hell). There is this special screw which is supposed to serve as a device for pulling the car with another one - so we attach the screw and after the first curve, the screw pops out. Second try - same result but this time the car is on the road and people cannot pass by so they have to turn around. The only comment of my friend: this is such a nice construction, why does it not work (suggestion: because it's French (?)). So we decide that pulling the car is not an option and we put it back into the backyard and take out the battery and charge it. It was the battery - I put it in the next day and the car was running.

Strange

When it is getting brighter and brighter outside and especially when there is sun outside I have this urgent feeling of staying in bed all day and I sleep fantastic during daytime and then get productive when the sun is down - never happens to me that much in winter...

Inactivity due to sickness

Yeah - cold is going round and I wasn't spared. Although taking all the medication available I just could not get rid of the sore throat and coughing and the annoying headache. Well, maybe it would have been worse without taking anything - who knows.
That was not really a good week - two abstracts to be submitted and one talk to be prepared - the abstracts are luckily written the talk still has to be prepared but well it is just a student conference and I can take something from a presentation i have done before since the audience is not the same.

Seven reasons ...

... why I hate mobile phones. Usually I like technical devices although some might not really be needed. I am a computer junkie and I am also addicted to the internet. I love my digital camera and my usb radio. In addition I am thinking about getting a portable mp3 player. But one thing I really really hate: mobile phones. And that is not because I cannot handle them that is because those damn little things became more important than all the rest which is going on around the people using them.
- I hate sitting in a train or subway with 10 people around me screaming into their mobiles while I would like to read a book or just relax (and I don't feel like listening to music all the time).
- I hate it when you are talking to a person and that person is constantly busy with the phone because someone might have written an sms or might call just in that minute.
- I hate these things going off during a lecture or even during a PhD defense (happened here recently). People - can you not live without that damn thing for 45 minutes? And I regard it also extremely unpolite to play around with a mobile during a lecture even if it is not ringing.
- I hate it when I am in a supermarket and the shopping cart is pushed into me because the person behind me is (of course) on the phone. If you would not shout at the person he/she would not even realize that they push the cart into your ass.
- It is also extremely impolite to hang on the phone while paying at the counter and realizing that the wallet is on the bottom of the bag - it takes double the usual time but who cares about other people waiting behind you.
- Even worse is crossing the street while on the phone or standing in the middle of the road because the phone rings or stopping while going over a pedestrian crossing (I saw all this here).
- And what I think is really annoying - there you are out skiing and enjoying nature and silence just to realize that some people are standing somewhere and talking on a mobile phone.

And yeah I have a mobile phone ... I use it approximately twice a month - when my mum sends me an sms because she wants me to call her (we don't have a phone here).
My friends want me to get a Norwegian provider because they think it is hard to reach me - I tell them: it will not be better because the phone is at home and I will not bother taking it with me - period.

Maybe it was not a good idea...

... to plan a huge birthday party but on the other hand it will probably be great and I really felt like giving a party myself since I was always invited but my room in the student dorm was not really big enough for a decent party. It will just be a lot of work because I invited my whole institute and including partners I expect easily up to 30 people. I also want to provide food for all of them so we will see how this works out - especially since I have a meeting on thurday and friday. I guess I just have to be very organized and after thursday (when I have to give a short presentation) the main work of the week is done, so I can concentrate on the party ;)
Hopefully then you will see some pictures. Still have some skiing pictures somewhere. Maybe I should upload them.

Left stranded

Tomorrow, they will do some repair on the water tubes and shut off the water from 8 to 12. This puts me in a very critical position because it either means to get up before (which will result in a lost day for me since I cannot work before 12 am *g*) or getting up after 12 although I would doubt that they will be done at 12 sharp (kind of having in mind the Norwegian work attitude). Anyway 12 will also be too late since I really have to finish some work for a presentation on Thursday so I decided to fill a few pots and bowls with water which should get me through the morning with some tea and the shower will be shifted to the evening ;).

Annoying or the Sisyphus feeling ...

... these hundreds of postmaster and mailer daemon mails I get every day saying that some mails I obviously didn't send could not be delivered. I thought this catastrophic spam chapter was over but it seems not - at least if you expect your e-mail account to be for free. So every day I have the additional job of sending a few hundreds of mails to the spam folder - not that I really think that this will help but I always wanted to feel like Sisyphus. And for those of you who are too young to still have had Greek mythology in school (that is mean I know) here you can find something about that guy.

The new new year

Happy New Year to you all - I know that I am quite late but first of all I was at home in Germany during that time and I didn't really feel like blogging - I just wanted to spend some time without computer. When I came back I had a new home as well as a new office so this is a perfectly new start into the new year. And funnily enough most of the year is busy already ... I have approximately three (whole) months without any conferences or meetings but I am quite looking forward to that. In addition I had the great priviledge to join two field trips - one in Finnish/Russian Karelia and the other one in Norway. With a bit of luck I might also make it to Vancoucer for a conference - at least I will really try to go there.

It's been a while...

...since my last post but there was almost no time left in between trying to finish our project at work in 2007 (this failed by the way but we are quite close), PhD defenses and parties and a Christmas party at the institute. In addition I am moving once again but this time hopefully for longer - it will be an appartment with 3 other people I already know - two of them work with me and one is not at the same institute but also a geologist - at least we have all have an education in geoscience ;). The appartment is quite big and significantly more quiet than it is here in the dorms - surprise, surprise. Pictures will follow next year because I cannot really move into my room right now since one guy still has to leave.

Mein letzter Eintrag ist schon eine Weile her aber es gab einfach kaum Zeit zwischen dem Versuch, unser Arbeitsprojekt noch 2007 zu beenden (hat natürlich nicht geklappt aber wir sind nah dran), Doktorarbeitsverteidigungen und - feiern und einer Weihnachtsfeier am Institut. Außerdem werde ich nochmal umziehen aber dieses Mal hoffentlich dann für länger - in eine Wohnung mit 3 anderen, die ich schon kenne - zwei arbeiten mit mir und eine ist nicht an unserem Institut aber eine Geologin - zumindest haben wir alle eine Ausbildung in Geowissenschaften ;). Die Wohnung ist ziemlich groß und - oh Wunder- viel ruhiger als das Wohnheim. Nächstes Jahr werde ich wohl ein paar Bilder haben, die ich jetzt noch nicht richtig in mein Zimmer einziehen kann, da einer noch ausziehen muss.

5 to 10 perfect minutes a day...

...should be enough - don't you think? I mean others have not even 5 perfect minutes in their life - so what am I complaining about? And the weather is so perfect. Very nice to sit in front of the computer the whole day and to know that at least the weather is nice. Of course when you go outside it is already dark for more than 5 hours. Reducing your meals to only two a day is not only saving money it is also perfect for the ideal weight. This is even more effective when biking uphill for 20 minutes after not eating for 10 to 11 hours. Coming home after the shops are closed also reduces your daily menu to rice, rice, nudles, nudles, rice ....well and then you have a weekend to go shopping, do the dishes, laundry, cleaning and the weather will be shitty anyway so perfect for doing all the neccessities which you were incabable of doing during the week. But back to my 5 perfect minutes : those are actually when I am biking downhill to work and it is so nice to think absolutely nothing, to be almost blown away by the wind, to have a nice view on the Olso fjord.

sorry .. gerade echt keine Lust das ins Deutsche zu übersetzen.

One more because it is so much fun !

What do you do when your computer does connect to the internet but not to the network (although it was connected to it on Friday)?
a) change the network cable
b) remove the laptop from the dockingstation
c) format the whole(!) computer and reinstall windows
d) all three

And now you probably think none of the above but the answer is d) and I could have almost killed that person. I was already sorry that I asked but I need the network and it is not my job to fix that. So I am going there, telling the lady that I cannot connect to the network she looks at it - I will get another internet cable to make sure that it is not a crossed one. I said(quite confused how one could have this idea): but it worked on Friday what should have happend to the cable until Monday? ... didn't help she wanted to get a cable so let her get the cable ... then she is trying her account, my accounts and had the glorious idea .. yeah! it is the docking station (by that time I was getting quite annoyed but still trying not to show it) ... OF COURSE it did not work after undocking the computer so she had (for the first time) a good idea and wanted to check if everything with the IP is correct so she took the computer and had it for maybe 1 hour (it felt like the whole afternoon). When she came back .. you have some data on partition E can you make a backup I have to reformat and reinstall windows. My first reaction was WHAT THE FUCK but still I tried to swallow that and asked what would actually be the reason to have partitions if the data is lost anyway since she is going to format all? She didn't get what I said instead she told me that partition C has to be 30GB and it is not and so she has to reshape ... well maybe I am too stupid but can somebody explain to me why C has to have 30 GB? Why can you not just format C and reinstall windows? Well it is ok - I have all the data elsewhere but I JUST SPENT TWO DAYS TO 1) install all the things she forgot to or wasn't capable to install (including making a nice partition of the unallocated 80GB) 2)install the programs she wouldn't even dream about installing (including such simple progs as firefox (yeah it was NOT on there) or irfanview 3) put my data on the new E partition BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT IT TO BE LOST WHEN THE SYSTEM CRASHES. In addition she didn't finish today .. nice working attitude which I could do that, too. So tomorrow when I get the computer back I can spent THE NEXT TWO DAYS ON CONFIGURATING THE COMUTER THE WAY I WANT IT AGAIN!
And she actually has the courage to ask me why I am kind of angry.

And after the party?

Be so kind and puke right into the elevator (and DO NOT CLEAN IT UP). The neighbor is very happy to smell this right after breakfast and since the other elevator is not working the neighbor is also happiliy carrying done the bike 6 floors (yeah workour is fun). Why put my bike into my appartment? I don't want to have it stolen and I don't really trust people here.

Why only party on weekends?

When you can party every day of the week and annoy your neighbor with loud techno music, high screaming (girls), clouds of smoke and conversations in the hall (exactly in front of the neighbor's door). The neighbor is also very happy to be kept awake until the middle of the night since she is for sure not paid for not doing any work. But luckily the neighbor is used to the noise by now and has ear plugs. AND most important the neighbor is moving soon (already counting days).

Sometimes...

... I really wonder why a toddler who is still capable of screaming for half an hour during the day (so estimated age 2?)is AWAKE at 1 o'clock in the morning. I can hear the kid talking, jumping, running as well as the parents talking back and they are in the apparment above me. Well, I thought I could stay here for a little while but since people living here are regardless of other's people privacy and are not only loud all day (which is not affecting me since I am not there most of the time) but also almost all of the night (very strange that I want to sleep at 1 am when I am working 9 hours a day)I'll have to find a new place quite soon. I thought I could have at least a little bit of peace. Damn!

4 km airline distance ...

... and I need more than an hour by bike because I have to go partly down the hill, up another hill, completely down that one and then going up again. In between the road, I wanted to take, is turning to be gravel and there is complete darkness by now so I don't see even much with my light. In addition there is suddenly a 2m tall guy full of muscles showing up in the darkness and a few seconds later I am losing the contact lens of my left eye. So I decide that it is not a good idea to continue the gravel road with the limited sight of just one contact lense and an insufficient light and turn around to find another road. I should have passed by the tall guy again but he mysteriously vanished somewhere so I am better riding in the middle of the road that he is not jumping out of the bushes ;). Anyway I am trying to find a road which leads at least to the major road leading to my dorm but soon I am lost in a labyrinth of pedestrian roads only - many of which are dead ends (even for pedestrians and bikers). After a few dead ends I finally find a path which is going straight down. Everything I climbed up before is lost but at least it leads to the road I wanted to find. So eventually I have to do the same hill again but just on another road. Eventually I reach the dorm and manage to get into the lift - which decided to get stuck in the middle - furiously pressing the button for my floor then helped to convince it to move on.
Usually I love to bike and I also love to bike at night and I really like Oslo at night and I don't mind biking for an hour at night IF the distance is accordingly but is it really so hard to build just one single road connecting the hills?
In addition my break is not going smoothly .. making some noise and I am really afraid that I am destroying more if I don't go to a biker's shop and have a control but I cannot afford that next week timewise. Maybe it is better to liveaccording to a minimalistic philosophy since for every single thing you own you have to put in so much more effort and additional problems to care about ;).
Well stay tuned when there is a new story about (half)crazy Ju trying to bike 4 km of airline distance since I obviously haven't found the perfect way this time ;)

My new bike *jump*

So in between the pictures one personal note - I managed to buy my first mountainbike in Germany and I am really happy. It is so light and easy going - biking uphill is so much more fun (except for the bad shape I am still in ;)). At the moment it is sharing my room with me because I am too afraid that it will be stolen outside the dorm area.
Thanks to Father T for coming with me when I bought the bike ;) and also for taking the picture you can see now:

Le Tour de Ju...

... is about 3 km long but feels like 10 when going home. In addition I feel as if I need hours for going up that hill and that I have to drag about 150 kg with me. And although I do this for quite a while my shape is not really improving - the only things which improved are that I recover more easily after biking and that my ass doesn't hurt so much because of the saddle.
Well since I didn't manage to hike here some pictures from work ...
So let's start with my working place. It is already a mess ;) No wonder, I am printing out something between 10 and 20 papers a week so they lie around everywhere and wait to be read (some of them are kind of "used" and their condition is accordingly). The small fish on the computer was brought today by my office mate - she was in Genova for a conference.



Well, we continue with my door and I still think that it is quite empty - any suggestions what to put there? I didn't take a picture of the nameplate to proof that this is actually my office because I thought it is quite clear that I am sitting there:



We are "living" on the 4th floor of the physics building and from out balcony we have a really nice view of Oslo and the fjord:



Daily I pass by the huge pendulum in the hall of the physics building:



The university area in Blindern is quite green and looks like this:



And last but not least the physics building from the outside:

My own place

Unfortunately, there are no new pictures since there was no hike on the weekend. It was planned but the rain was so heavy most of the time that it was not really a good idea to walk on slippery rocks.
But I moved to a studio: so now I have my own kitchen with my own fridge and freezer! I am still living in the same building I used to live before but now on the 7th floor (instead of the ground floor) and I have a nice view on the hills around. In addition I have also a balcony where I can sit and watch all the soccer games below me ;) (there is a huge sport area next to the dorms). I chose this place because it was completely furnished and for the start this is good until I can save enough to buy my own furniture and maybe move to an appartment (we will see...;). There is a lot of space here but the only problem is the couchbed which is quite small (I know I am too but for some reason I need a lot of space when I sleep) - maybe I'll buy at least a bed soon.

Add on

I attached a note to the fridge saying that it is not very nice to take my things ... in the evening Samo knocked at my door and said that he thought it was his milk and he was really embarassed - I told him that he shouldn't worry since I thought that somebody took it intentionally knowing that it was not his/hers ...since it was a mistake everything is quite fine - I think he was not convinced ;)