Ridiculous Ramblings, Really

For reasons I've not yet ascertained my life is one panic-inducing thing after the other right now. After the 'waiting for reply on application' panic, follows the 'omfg interview' panic, which will in turn be followed by the 'waiting for an answer again' panic.
Sprinkle a bit of 'thesis nearly ready to be officially turned in' panic and the following 'waiting for defence' panic and once I've reached the defence date (I can't quite believe I ever will) I'm not quite sure I'll able to panic any more.

*Is determinedly not thinking about leaving her friends and instead concentrating on making contingency plans*

So, everyone told us we were lunatics to go camping in the cold. And you know what? They didn't even come close to the real problem. The problem lies in skiing for hours with a rucksack (and kind of getting lost for a while) and then realizing that no matter the cold, if you sleep on the floor with your muscles aching like this, you'll not be able to get up in the morning, let alone move.

Hence us skipping the camping bit. Which annoys my inner child a little bit ("But I WANT to") but is really the most reasonable decision. Especially since colleague M is the one of us both who will freeze more easily and I have to consider that as well. I don't want my go-to-guy for crazy stuff like this to come to harm after all *g*.

No matter, I still loved every second of the whole thing. Even when we got lost and realized that we were actually walking through a bit of swamp. Which was barely frozen over. In the dark.

I need to do something like that again soon!

One of the universal problems of life:

How do you write a letter of intent without sounding like a pompous arse?

I'm at my parents. Arrived on one of the last flights before they decided to shut down Europe's second largest airport because of the weather.
I wasn't very happy about my flight being delayed about 1.5 hours when I had a friend drop me off at 2:30am, because waiting for 5:30 at the airport wouldn't be as bad as getting up at 3:30 to go there, anyway.

Aside from the usual craziness, my family is grumpy that I leave again very early on the 25th even though I've told them about that before I even booked my flights. But that's just how my family works.
I'm quite happy with only four days here. I love my family very much. I just can't stand all of them for very long. I *like* living on my own.

Seeing how I have to work the night shifts on the 26th and 27th and promised M and F to help them (day shift on the 25th and night shift on the 25th respectively) I don't see much relaxation in the next few days.
And I could need some. I'm going slowly mad here (well, mad-er). I'm fed up with my job, I want to work in the UK next, but I've not yet made any more concrete plans. And that's not good for my 'need to plan everything carefully' mind.
Also, I want to apply in London. Question is, do I go for the 'completely unattainable and no-way I'll get it' job, or the 'chances are still slim, but it might just work' job? Just to make it clear, the point is not to get a job as a vet in the UK, that, I'm pretty sure, even I can manage. The question is, do I make the my falling down on my face as spectacular as possible before settling for something passable or do I only stretch a bit and see if I can reach?
Applying for both is not really an option, getting even two references will be a bit of a problem, thanks to Prof. Blub's insanity.

And since this is going round and 'round and 'round in my brain while I'm in a babbling mood anyway, you get an entry that even I am not quite sure what it's about.

I just love Merlin.

I don't know how to describe this week's episode but SQUEEEEE!
I've never been very coherent but this is an all time low. And I don't care. My love and squee aren't rational. They just are *g*

Need more Merlin icons. Also need to make a Waily!Feegle icon. Most of all need to talk normal again.

I started the first weekend in a month that I did not have to drive 300+km somewhere with sleeping 18 hours.
That's what you get after working the day and the night shift at the clinic and than half a day at a congress as well. Would have been a whole day at the congress but Mme Organizer was everything but and won't notice I wasn't there the afternoon, seeing how she didn't know what I should do over 90% of the time I was there.

I plan to spend the weekend with lots of Criminal Minds, Merlin and other fanish things.
I'm also supposed to meet M. to advise him on which media server and associated appliances to buy.
Maybe the weekend will also include a useful entry here. Stranger things have happened.

Off to be busy!

First of all, thanks to everyone for the conga rats!

While I'm not finished with the diss by far, waiting for Prof. Blub to read it, is something completely different to not having written it yet. It feels good.

After my very frazzled entry, I had a very nice birthday. Boring, but nice. Long bath with silly book (reread Pope Joan, still not particularly good but enjoyable nonetheless), which I hadn't allowed myself until I finished either (books, not the baths) sleeping for a few hours in a freshly made bed, more reading, dinner with M. (no one else could make time to come, such are the joys of our place of work) - on our own our conversation tends to the awkward, live was easier in Kindergarten when it was still possible to say "I like you, can I be your friend?" without having to justify it - and did a clean install of Karmic Koala on Lachesis.

Today I avoided killing the Bitch Queen From Hell once again (barely), saw a Boa throw up 70cm of carpet and a dead rat and our head surgeon fix his trousers with Backhaus clamps.
I live a surreal live at the best of times.

Now to finish setting up the computer with everything I want, start on the case report, maybe read the articles for the journal club tomorrow and most importantly acquire all the TV series I did not watch in the last six months (or maybe I'll wait until the weekend, I might get pimped something new at the Querstrich meeting...)
Oh! I nearly forgot. I need to play around on Google Wave for a bit as well. Most of it sounds so cool, I've wanted to try it out for a few months already.

At kriski's. dirtyzucchini's also here.

There was pimping of The Mentalist and Sherlock Holmes and I've been told there will be Leverage later on.
Also watched Star Trek and Iron Man, though I slept through the beginning of the later one.

Meeting fellow fans directly after the forth night-shift in ten days might not be the best thing for my sleep patterns, but it sure is fun.
Now back to trying to understand that Hunter-Gatherer extension for Carcassonne and later watch Wall-E and whatever else catches our fancy.

I have one notebook updating to SP2 in my hall (originally here because Endnote tried to eat my colleague's dissertation), another notebook next to my desk, waiting for its data to be salvaged (its pretty dead otherwise) and a netbook that I'm supposed to set up with any OS that's not Linpus or Windows.
All this in addition to my own lot of computery things.

I thought I decided against IT when I went for veterinary medicine.

No wonder my diss is moving at glacial speed.

Only crossposting to DW for now. I've not yet figured out for myself what I want to be my main account. Or how to handle the logistics.

These Hochrechnungen are ... interesting.

All of the SPD's predicted losses more or less evenly distributed between Grüne and FDP? Sure, why not.

Having voted three weeks ago, I didn't pay much attention to the news in the last few weeks (that's about the only way I can cope with having to vote only one year after the last election, in addition to the other two elections this year) but that's certainly ... fascinating.

ETA: Difference SPD:FDP in my hometown? 1.9%
I did not expect that.

All right. It's Saturday, 9:45 am, and my plane leaves Monday at 12:15 pm.
In between now and then, I have to:

• Buy presents for my father, my uncle and about five friends
• Do the laundry (five loads, give or take)
• Move from my current flat to the new one

This, of course, is not only completely doable, but not at all stressful. At least that's what I tell myself.

In between I also should pack my bags for the week at the parents and figure out a way to get 26 GBP to London.
This might just prove to be the most complicated item on the to do list. I can pay the membership fee of the RCVS via credit card without any troubles, but paying this registration fee for a continuing education course can only be done via cheque (which no bank in Germany provides any more) or direct debit (which is only possible from the UK). I think I'll resort to just putting cash into an envelope and hoping they'll accept it.

Why, reading five years worth of daily webcomics of course.

That and working/helping the night shift on four days in addition to the daily grind.
No, I no longer wonder why I'm behind on my flist, my diss and life in general.

But it's fun! I may need to stop doing it ever two months or so with a new comic though.

Amazingly enough, I'm not just thinking about writing an entry, no, I'm actually doing it. It's slightly worrying.

Because it's been a while, I think it's time again for my usual spiel: I am not a big commenter. I'm very OC about reading all the personal journals on my flist. I just never comment. It's just the way I do things. I'm not good with the whole social interaction thing so I only read. I doubt that's going to change any time soon. Just for everyone's information.

So, with this once again out of the way, what's new (or old as the case may be)?

• I caved and am now the sheepish owner of one iPhone. And it's much too fun a toy to be allowed.
• Like half of my flist I'm really happy with Merlin (It sneaks up on you! First it's only amusing and suddenly you're sqeeing without knowing why!)
• I've developed an obsession for underweight, pointy-faced guys and can't seem to shake it. Of course there are worse things to be obsessed about. But no obsession would be a nice thing too.
• I'm not talking about my dissertation. Talking, thinking, acknowledging...
• I've managed to get Prof. Bitch from more or less tolerating me to flat out *hating* me again. Understandable and worthwhile, but not very sensible.
• I'm probably moving next month. I hope. I've heard nothing since signing the contract but they said they'd be on holiday until December,...
• I've once again run into the problem of where to get references for applications. I'm aware that this will happen as long as I've not left that clinic, but leaving the clinic is kind of the point of sending out applications.
• I still like lists. Obviously.
• Saw the Rocky Horror Show yesterday. Riff Raff isn't supposed to have that hot a voice, I'm quite sure.
• The more I'm working on ignoring my diss, the less coherent I get (I know I've been saying that for years, but I feel it's really true). And I have to write quite a lot of essays in the next year to (hopefully) earn a CertAVP at some point. This doesn't bode well.
• I don't know what else to write, even though my head is full of stuff. I just can't make it make sense when put on paper.

Still alive, still pretty dead because of cold and second night shift in three days, still endlessly behind diss (don't ask about flist).
STOP
Behind on thanks for birthday wishes (am very grateful if slightly overwhelmed) as well as wishing happy birthdays to others (mea culpa kriski :( )
STOP
Cautiously happy about results of USian election even though wary of charismatic politicians.
STOP
Emphatically not happy about having to vote in state elections in addition to federal elections next year (thanks a lot Ms Ypsilanti).
STOP
Waiting for new Merlin and very close to buying an iPhone (The /-Meeting connection)
STOP
Beyond coherent thought, off to read now.

Am somewhere in the vicinity of Frankfurt. Had the car serviced, met with one insurance drone, will meet with the second at 5. After that? I'm off to Mainz and the anual slasher-meeting.

At some point I'll write down my thoughts on my arsehole of a landlord, whom I can than for the nice task of having to find a flat in Berlin *again*.

Since I'm at work right now, I didn't get a chance to upload my WITL photos in time. Won't, until I get home sometime around noon today either, so instead I give you a photo of myself right now:

I'm at work, it's the middle of the night and my shift doesn't end for another 6,5 hours. I wouldn't have cared about my looks even if the instructions hadn't forbidden it.

Since this journal has been lacking content lately, I've decided to try to revive it with a meme. (Or maybe I just like running around with a camera)
As last seen on fyrie's journal, the 7 day photomeme.

I only realize how finely tuned my online reading habits are when I loose about a week completely due to computers deciding to die. Now, after I've forsaken Windows and figured out how to do most of what I want and need to do on Linux, I'm stuck with a backlog of 800 flist posts, about 250 articles in my feeds and about five How-Tos to work out the remaining problems.
Of course this would be the moment for me to start on another fantasy trilogy of about a thousand pages.

Good Prof. Blub decided to forget that he explicitly asked me to stay at the clinic to cover anything anaesthesia. Apparently even the fact that one week later he tried to convince me to try for an alternate residency, because I said I didn't want to stay too long because I want to do a residency at some point, slipped his mind.
I told him I thought it was logistically impossible for me to only do anaesthesia, but he didn't beleive me when I told him. And now? He'd probably claim to not remember that as well.
And of course he doesn't remember telling me that he'll somehow pay me. Why would he?

So, what did he say yesterday? Oh, after his question if I intended to stay longer his first question was how I was going to pay for my living. Of course I couldn't answer that because it wasn't exactly the question I was expecting. Which gave him the opportunity to generously offer to pay me via one of the stipends he's promised us for over a year now. For that he wants me to go back on the generally duty roster.

Did I say "Hell no!"? No I didn't because I can't speak up for myself in situations like this.
One of these days I'l learn to stand up for myself and not just for others. This is really a very annoying character trait.
But at least my frank answer why I work only one type of emergency shifts and not all of them, ("Because Prof. Bitch doesn't want me to") resulted in an argument between the both of them and now I'm allowed to work them all.

No matter, since I really don't want to go back on the rotation system (not because I don't like it, but because it would give Prof. Bitch too much of a hold on me), I'm just going to ignore that he told me I should have myself put back on the roster. That's the advantage of working in such an unorganized place.
I'm just going to do my thing, come in every day and see how long this works. I think it might work for a pretty long time, as long as I'm seen working (and he hasn't told the Bitch about that plan).

I'm looking forward on how much Prof. Blub won't like my "Oh, did I say I was going to stay? Must have forgotten that." once I find a better place to work.
Of course this is kind of dependent on actually finding a place that will take me on and finishing the diss so he doesn't have that much control over me any more, but I'll worry about that when I come to it.

Unrelated: I cut my hair. Or rather, I tried to and it turned out just slightly too short. Oh well, I'll live and it will grow back again.