weekend

I think I never appreciated a weekend that much in my life..

*goes to sleep again*

~~~ 24 hours later ~~~

It seems I really needed that :)
After sleeping the whole Saturday we went to the Thermen in Aachen and spent the whole day there doing good things to out bodies. Sauna, Thermal springs, cold water, hot water, over and over again :D

Now that there is national holiday in germany I will spend the day helping the biology-Fachschaft making posters for our next party.
Looks nice, doesn’t it?
party
It really pays off that we are not making the posters ourselves anymore but hired a graphic-designer ;)

Hopefully I can avoid doing more than that; I am not really enjoying student-partys anymore.. with 28 years you are one of the oldest there *grin*

so, let’s get busy, 500 Posters have to be put in the streets ;)

More Shards

Update: We broke a vacuum-funnel (~15 EUR) and a 3-headed distillation flask (~33 EUR) today.. I have a feeling I should have done a glass-insurance before this. ;)

Together with the petri-dish I think this is the price for the new WLAN card I was about to get.. darn! This course is really getting expensive :)

Additionally (as usual there is more) the flask was filled with the product of a looong (the whole day) synthesis when it broke. Causing hot benzil and nitric acid to spill over my partners and my hands, arms and clothes. Nice…
Luckily we could save enough of the crystals to pass this day, otherwise I would really be pissed now. I proudly carry my shoes and pants with ventilation-holes now! :D

No sleep till…

Somehow this chemistry-thing combined with two exams (Physics and Microbiology) make me sleepless. At the moment, I go to bed at around 1 a.m. and get up at 6:30 a.m. again. I mean, no problem with that but in the weekend I will just collapse and sleep 24h nonstop :P

I am getting into quite some excited state, almost manic – I wonder for how long I will be able to keep it up like that :)

Physics is done, one more to go.. I really need a break

let me at them!

my first day at the machines… setting up a destillation.

busy chemist
(damn, these protective glasses look silly ;) )

I think I lost 1000 kilocalories just being nervous there. I am so afraid of breaking some of these incredibly expensive devices.. of course I Immediately broke a petri-dish :D
Then the destillation didn’t work due to a malfunctioning thermometer.. *sigh*

but after these 2 weeks.. I will be a mad scientist ;)
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Birthdays and White Coats

Today is Anna’s birthday :)

ICQ balloon

Happy Birthday, my Love!!! I wish you were here…

The fact that we are separated on this day reminds me of the old days when our relationship was young and somehow focused on the appearance of a small green flower on the other side’s ICQ client. We fell in love with each other without having seen ourselves once. ;)

Well, you have just begun a new job in Amsterdam and I am involved with my compulsory chemical exercises so it can’t be helped but to celebrate this day on another occasion.
On the other hand, I bought a small chocolate-cake from our favourite bakery. It is a “baby version” of the special cake that is crispy on the outside and liquid in the inside. Remember? I let it melt in the sun and then ate it sitting on the wall next to the Maas where I spent the whole afternoon studying. I also ate your piece ;)
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Biotechnology and Gadgets?

Finally, the fuel-cell powered mp3-player is ready.

fuel-cell mp3-player

Toshiba has released a prototype of a mp3-player that plays 35 hours of music with 3,5ml of Methanol. It shall be released in 2006.
Now, think about Laptops and other Gadgets that finally will be operational for a reasonable amount of time!

Now, think about a colony of bacteria, yeasts and algae on your roof that will produce the neccessary (m)ethanol by the power of the sun!
Hard to believe? The department of Biotechnology (where I study, actually) has a working prototype on the roof that produces not too much ethanol yet but 3,5ml per week are definitely possible!
And making Methanol from Ethanol is a piece of cake.

Click the picture here for details:
bioreactor on the roof of the RWTH Aachen
http://www.biotec.rwth-aachen.de/english/bioenergy.htm

dreams…

Columbia_last_flight_at_Dawn.jpg

Just found this picture on my harddrive..
As beautiful as it is, these guys did not return – it’s the last lauch of the Columbia.
Poor guys, they were pursuing a dream, knowing it could cost their life.

bleh, this rain makes me gloomy! :(

But.. a nice quote from Elf Sternberg just came to my mind:

“In their Mercury missons, the Americans realized that without gravity, ink does not flow to the tip of a pen. For Apollo, NASA spent over a million developing a pen that worked in space. Russia, when confronted with the same problem, had taken a pencil.”

No idea if this is true but it definitely made my day! :)

Thanks, Elf

motivation

why can’t I motivate myself? why can’t I concentrate?
what’s the problem with me?

I mean, I have two exams coming up in less than 2 weeks and I keep distracting me like.. like a boy at school that doesn’t want to do his homework.

Somebody told me once I am afraid of not passing the exam and that’s why I try to keep diverting my attention from it. Hard to believe.. yet possible :)
My head hurts from all this, I’ll get some chocolate and coffee and get going again. I want to pass this @#$^%& exams.

silent night…

out there on the street a couple is shouting at each other for 10 minutes now.. at 00:50 in the night.
I considered throwing something down but couldn’t find anything that I would not regret afterwards.. I opened the window and yelled “Hey!” in their direction but that kept them silent only for a couple of seconds.. I don’t know enough insults in Dutch, I realized.. and as they are a man and a woman shouting I’d even have to use gender-neutral curses..
Someone remind me to ask Sander for an update in Dutch cursing ;)
Anyway: what’s the point in loudly yelling at each other like that? Last year, the girl that used to live under our appartment had similar arguments with her boyfriend.. especially at night. Wonderfully relaxing and absolutely idiotic. What’s the outcome of yelling at each other? And why do it so loud that everyone can (has to) listen?
Weirdos..

Dutch sky

Well, after a really exceptional summer in Maastricht (don’t laugh, it really had more sunny days than any summer I have witnessed here in the Netherlands) the dypical Dutch sky has returned.
outside 0800
Whatever happens and no matter how much I like it in the Netherlands, I will _never_ get used to this layer of clouds that usually stays like this for at least one day.. in the morning it looks exactly the same as in the evening and only the watch will tell you what time it is.
If you are somehow weather-sensitive you will understand what this does with me… *shivers*

I better go back to the books and make this day useful, there’s 2 exams upcoming and I still don’t feel the way I want to feel about them.