Sitting in class, typing a paper, I'm yearning to be home right now so I can get on with some important projects of mine but what the hell I guess I can sit here for eight hours. How about you ladies and gentlemen?
I just arrived home from a friend's house, she was quite sad and I just helped her vent from the bad day she had, she is fine now! I had the best day in months! Today I decided to be a person who I was long ago, so smiling is a good start. I'll start with my CSS/HTML learning on teamtreehouse, it's an amazing website!
Laying in bed. My boyfriend just woke me up as he was leaving. I asked him to because I need to get my shot together and be at work at 7:30. But I'm regretting that decision now. I start class today. Mon/wed 3-6. Hense the early work start time. It's cold outside bed though. I can tell. And I don't want to get up.
I'm on a regional call with my peers from across the country. But as you can see, I'm hubskiing too. I just finished getting my daughter ready to go off to day-care for the first time this morning. Spent the early morning talking with her about how exciting "school" is. I plan on getting some reading of "2666" done today for the #hubskibookclub.
Cooking cassoulet. Contemplating posting an idea on Hubski. Preparing to visit the Dali museum by night. Sitting at my desk. Sitting at my desk. Sitting at my desk. Do not allow the distractions flitting past your back like ghosts in a draughty castle to erode your concentration. Sitting at my desk.
Wrote #todayswritingprompt a minute ago, marking the final papers from the course that ended last April. Promised these marks to be in by Friday (everybody got a four-month extension, long story). EDIT: And listening to thunder as it rains and rains across the province.
I'm chatting to my friend on Skype, who is over in Italy and who I'll be joining in a couple of weeks. At the moment, though, I need to finish the last 40% or so of my MA thesis.
I'm just going over to join here in a little village somewhere near Aulla where she's staying with a family she once au paired for. We don't have any real concrete plans other than going on a long walk to some mountain or other. I'm only over for a week and we'll be in a pretty rural area, so I don't think we'll be "seeing" much.
That sounds fun nonetheless. I've never been to Italy. The food sounds like it's worth visiting alone.
I've been to Italy several times and it is worth visiting for the food alone.
OOH. Do tell. What were your favorite dishes? Forever ago, I found a site listing the world's best tiramisu, and I remember that a tiny little place in Sicily was given the highest rating. I've been wanting to try that out.
I tried to do this when I was in Tuscany and I ended up in some rich person's driveway because it turns out Italy doesn't have any public space left. But the views from the rich houses are really nice.We don't have any real concrete plans other than going on a long walk to some mountain or other.
Yeah, there's a private castle up there, but apparently the views are really nice and both of us just really enjoy long walks (it's about 15k each way).
Hubskiing, listening music and researching which subjects to take when my classes start again next week.
I am starting my master in Electrical Engineering next week, thinking about all things low level electronic. Power electronics, microelectronics etc. Currently I am looking at subjects with names like 'Complex Analysis', 'Dynamical Systems', 'Classical Physics', 'Modern Physics and Optics' and 'Energy Degradation'.
No, not really. I just happen to find the possibilities of electricity and electronics amazing. Computers, factories and pretty much all of modern society cannot exist without this magic called electricity. And electronics are the things that harness that power on the most fundamental level. Quite a lot is possible if you know how these things work. That, and I want to be a modern day wizard :P
Just woke up in a foriegn country and the water is shut off. Wouldn't mind a shower and some hot tea.
Writing up a LinkedIn page. I have been writing a few notes for my BSc dissertation (CS) but it is not all that easy to find the motivation, given that it is due in May. I want to have made enough progress to impress any schools I apply to for Master's programmes. Getting into a good school for my MSc is pretty much the priority for me. I am sort of excited about going back to university this September.
Is it really that hard to get into a master program in the UK? In the Netherlands you just need to have the appropriate BSc degree.
No, it's not that hard but I want to apply somewhere other than my current university which may or may not have stricter entry requirements. So I feel like I have to do a little extra to look good to the admissions departments. Also, I hope it will encourage me to start my project earlier.
Ah, ok. I was wondering since a friend of mine who studied in the UK for a semester told me that higher education there does not have the same distinction as the in the Netherlands. Here we have so called "Hogeschool", ofer translated as University of applied science, and "Universiteit", which litterally means university. People coming from a hogeschool cannot enter university (and thus master programs) without doing additional coursework. So, I thought since you lack a distinction for the bachelor, it might be harder to enter master programs. Anyway, good luck with the dissertation (I know your pain, just finished it myself) and finding the appropriate school. Maybe look abroad? I hear that Dutch universities are quite liked with students from the UK at the moment :P
We used to have something like Hogeschool, they were called Polytechnics but they were all converted to universities in 1992. There are a few technical colleges around but I think they're something else again. It's complicated. Thanks for the good luck. What was your dissertation about? Mine involves natural language processing, trying to find a method of determining what language a given piece of text is in. I am looking forward to getting stuck in on it, basically the field is a combination of machine learning, linguistics (in moderation) and dealing with large sets of data. I have considered looking at Continental Europe, the fact that they don't charge astronomical tuition fees is a real advantage (universities in the UK can charge up to £10,000 for a one year MSc)! Are there any in the Netherlands that you could recommend? I have a friend who is doing a gap year at the University of Amsterdam so I think I will ask her to show me around the campus and the city when I visit. I studied German at secondary school and I am planning to do an evening class this year so there is a real possibility of me moving to Germany to do my MSc. Hell, the more I think about it the dumber the idea of studying in England seems...
My dissertation was about the building and optimally controlling an energy management system. I don't know how much you know about electronics, but there was a triple active bridge (a device which enables you to force energy in towards an output point) at the heart of the system, a solar panel as a source, battery as buffer and a fridge as the sink. This had to be controlled optimally, but I spend a great deal of time on figuring out what optimal meant in this context. Long live engineering. If you are looking at something in information science, you might want to consider Utrecht University. It is the second largest university in the Netherlands. Leiden is also quite good I hear (top university here according to Elsevier). If you are looking for a more technical/low level approach you can also look at Eindhoven or Delft. Both have technical universities and thus focus more on the low level stuff. Be warned though, in Delft the people from building engineering burned down their own building a while ago :P 10.000 pound is a LOT. And I'm complaining about 3.500 euro...
It's a stupid amount of money, really. There was a fucking massive protest in London when undergraduate fees were increased from £3,000 per year to £9,000. Typical Tory twattery. Can't wait til 2015. Those universities look pretty good. I'll have a closer look at them. The more I think about university in the UK the worse an idea it seems.
Wow, they raised the fees that much in one year? Insane. If you want some more information about anything, feel free to ask and good luck.
I'm sitting at home, trying not to eat the entire box of cut-up pineapple in the fridge, lol. I'm listening to music right now (Ohnoetrix Point Never - Americans) and um, I dunno. I don't have any plans today. It's just a chilled-out summer day for me!
I had to resist because I knew I'd eat it all and it'd be gone. Update, btw: I DID END UP DEVOURING THE WHOLE BOX
. . . you got Father's Favourite on there though, right? I'm American, but I lived with an Aussie dude for years. He couldn't understand why Americans like pickles so much. Getting used to beetroot on burgers was a trip, but now I like it. He was big on Father's Favorite, though when he explained it to me, I could not imagine why anyone would want to eat it, but after visiting an Aussie owned pie shop near our house, I feel like I understand Aussie food ways a little better. I wish I'd never discovered Tim Tams though . . . so, so good.
Not familiar with Father's Favourite; but I'll generally throw a smoky BBQ sauce on for sure!
Must admit I love pickles served on and as a side with burgers, can't get enough of them. Pies are amazing, and there's a multitude of flavoured Tim-Tams as well; Honeycomb, dark chocolate, double coated, caramel, mint.. And they'll do limited run flavours as well every now and then. Hope I haven't sparked any cravings now :)
I wonder if you've heard this Duke Ellington tune. My favorite is Ella Fitzgerald's version. It uses a great colloquialism in the lyrics: "lower than a snake in a wagon track." That's the way I feel about people that mention Tim Tams when they aren't available in country! :)
At work, putting a Playstation 3 back together.
Sitting at my desk. I don't have any more classes until three. I'll do some studying, a little homework, answer some emails, and head on out.
Sitting on a "scrum call" going over all the server maintenance that was performed this weekend. There was a handful of pieces my team had to perform, so I'm just listening until my objectives come up to speak to them. That, browsing the internet, making a list of all the shit I need to get done today, and getting caffeinated.