Journal Entries
Family Jewels
Posted Jan 18, 2009
I've just gotten a late Sinterklaas package from my father.
Nothing can beat the goat clock, and this time, he didn't make it himself. He sent me a pretty silver medallion necklace and a shawl, both from Afghanistan, according to the accompanying letter. I can't complain, it was a nice gift.
But.
There's a but.
He also wrote that he wanted me to have something of his mother's. Jewellery. An heirloom.
I opened the smaller package and beheld...
Well, um. It's dry corn kernels. Onna string. Painted orange. 
Discuss this Journal entry [60]
Latest reply: Jan 18, 2009
Aaargh!
Posted Jan 14, 2009
Ok, all you innocent hootooers, time to grab your 
and hitchhike out of here, because today, I plan to kick the world in the bum. 
It looks like I'm going to have to add a semester - for the sole purpose of spending the alloted two weeks writing my thesis.
The registrar's office just handed down the dates where it's meant to be written this semester - which I won't be able to do because the professor (and the rest of the institute) will be on a field trip! 
That's provided I manage to finish this semester at all. Because the prof with whom I have my main subject (designing a building, which is due in two weeks) has just decided to cancel tomorrow's appointment to talk about it and move it to....today, when I didn't have my things with me, of course... No notice, either, he just informed me when I happened to pass his door.
That means going into finals with only one discussion of what I'm doing before, since he ordered me to start over last month (along with half the rest of the class).
Discuss this Journal entry [64]
Latest reply: Jan 14, 2009
De-Keyed
Posted Jan 12, 2009
That's it. Today, quite unceremoniously, while the secretary was putting on her coat, I relinquished my keys.
Now my first ever "real" job is officially over, after about four years. 
Can't say that's all bad - I'll have more time to do other things now, and it's the season where the tasks I'd have had were all boring.
But it's demonstrated to me just how much I'd like to be through - not just with that institute (where I'm still taking a seminar and probably writing my thesis, so it's not a permanent goodbye) but with the entire University. I've just grown tired of it - it's the same thing over and over, with nothing really interesting coming my way. I'd like to learn something new for a change!
I thought the new prof would help, this semester, but he's as bad as the rest - joined right in with the stupid petty power struggles and doing anything to avoid losing face while treating the students like they're a nuisance
Oh, well. Hopefully soon...
Discuss this Journal entry [17]
Latest reply: Jan 12, 2009
Visions of the Future
Posted Nov 9, 2008
Right. Since this is hopefully the last semester until I have my BSc and need to decide what kind of a Master's to go for, I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do with myself.
I've come to the conclusion that in ten years I'd like to be:
- Working in a small architectural office, with maybe up to five or six people. I'd like to be doing residential planning - not villas and luxurious high-rises for the super-rich, but plain old everyday houses that work and can stay within a budget. Preferably in the general direction of re-using/renovating old houses. (Which makes most fellow architecture students look down their noses at me. No ambition!) I have no desire to become a "star architect", though.
- At the same time - maybe two days per week - I'd like to either:
a) Work as a lecturer at a university somewhere, preferably teaching architectural history and/or theory.
or
b) Write for an (architectural?) magazine or work for a publisher. Or perhaps at a museuem, or writing (children's) non-fiction.
Now, the question is how to get there... I have to pick a direction for my Master's. And a location. So, the questions to be answered are:
- What area should my Master's be in? Architecture? Architectural Theory? Art History? Journalism? Something totally different that I've not thought of?
- Where shall I do it?
I'd like to get out of Germany, but stay in Europe. I believe that I'd be happier in Northern or Eastern Europe, both climate-wise and people-wise.
Since, for various reasons, by Bachelor's has taken more than the regulation time, I'd prefer not to spend a year learning a new language first, so I'm looking for somewhere that offers courses in English, or perhaps German or Dutch, but I'd prefer the "everyday" language of the country to be one I don't know yet, so I can learn it through immersion.
Because of the ongoing health issues and the probable outcome of that, I also have to be somewhere with a good and affordable medical system, in or near a city with a fairly large hospital. And I'd prefer not to finish my education in debt, so unless it's *really* worth it, or there's a good chance of getting a scholarship, countries that charge exorbitant tuition are out.
So, any ideas or advice from this varied and international bunch of Researchers? 
Discuss this Journal entry [118]
Latest reply: Nov 9, 2008
Battling Halloween Demons
Posted Oct 30, 2008
...or whatever that was last night. It was scary! 
I sort of lost control over myself - my hand kept doing things I didn't want it to, and I was obsessively repeating gestures faster and faster without wanting to - brushing my hair out of my face, shaking my hand, tapping my foot... And typing. I'd reach the end of the sentence and just keep on pounding on the keys at random! Not to mention rolling the scroll wheel on the mouse back and forth, making the very page that I was trying to read jiggle up and down. 
I'd take deep breaths in order to stop it and end up hyperventilating. There was also something odd going on with my internal graphics processor, everything kind of lacked depth, but the colours were oversaturated.
I've only had that once, when I was totally sleep-deprived after working too long on a Uni project. But I have been sleeping lately...
I still appear to have been thinking clearly, though. I did the only sensible thing and went to bed. The heater and the computer were turned off this morning, and I did take the phone with me in case it got worse. The things I wrote late last night still made sense content-wise, but the spelling was abysmal. Sorry to anyone who was on the receiving end of one of those posts!
It seems to be gone now. But I'll mention it to my doctor this evening, maybe that will finally hurry them up.
Discuss this Journal entry [281]
Latest reply: Oct 30, 2008
Back to Malabarista - now with added pony's Personal Space Home
Malabarista - now with added pony
Researcher U1528154
Write an Entry
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."