Wait, wha?? and a litany of complaints

alaina will have to write:

I will not keep applying for marriage with my pet sheep

'What will you have to write on the chalk board?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Mortimer? Is that you??

*****

Crisis of the moment: in answer to my hubris, a washing machine is holding my underwear hostage. I'm contemplating the very real possibility that I will have to go commando in Berlin. Sigh... I was soooooooo happy when I poked my head in the laundry room earlier this evening to find only one out-of-order ("Defekt") sign and one other machine in use, of the six provided for all 36 buildings in Studentendorf. And I'll admit it, I got cocky. After the internet failed all day Sunday (I know! I barely survived!) I thought things were finally turning around and running in my favor... (yes, internet is back too... possibly why so few people are doing the wash tonight?)

I'm going to go see if some gentle coaxing or bribery (in the form of a 50-cent-stück) will get me anywhere. So much for choir tonight.

In other news, my cell phone has finally stopped turning itself on and off again for no reason. I blame the Dorfnetz. Had I been able to suitably distract myself during the day Sunday (and it had to be a Sunday, too, when all the shops are closed and there's nothing to do in town) I never would have taken it apart and put it back together again just to see if I could. Well, I could. Or so I thought... but as I said, it seems to be back to normal now.

If only my bike would fix itself in the same fashion. Flora's currently playing this game where on every fifth application of a pedal the chain seems to skip, allowing the foot with which I'm applying force to suddenly drop six inches against no resistance. It's fine downhill or on flat stretches because I can count and go through the motion lightly on the "bad" stroke, thus avoiding knocking myself over, but it's a real bugger on even the slightest climbs. Readers who know anything about bikes at all... should I organize an exorcism, or does she just need more fresh air and vitamin C?

Update: Bribery works. Albeit not very well... yes, my clothing has been relenquished, but the dratted machine withheld the final spin cycle. I think everything is clean, but it's so wet it's hard to tell. And of course, there is no such thing as a dryer here, so I hauled the whole heavy dripping load back all the way across the 'Dorf. I'm lucky my laundry bag survived the strain. My clean pants, on the other hand, got completely soaked up and down the backside in the process. Did I mention that current temps are hanging out just around freezing this week? And that's during the day.

I think I'm going to have to wring everything out in the sink before I can even hang it on the drying rack, so as to avoid waking up tomorrow morning in a swamp. Which may happen anyway, but I can always hope...

Goodnight, moon...

I swore up and down last year that I'd never do this again... and yet, here I am at the end of a quasi-all-nighter, gazing happily at my poster and powerpoint for the Berlin meetings a little over a week from now. At 4:30 in the morning. When I have to be in lab early tomorrow. My body has gotten to the trembly stage I learned to recognize during my college career as a cry for sleep, but for whatever reason I'm still here, tweaking and editing.

I must be a masochist. I'm happy right now in a way I haven't been in months. Maybe it's Wir Sind Helden's Nur Ein Wort jamming away on iTunes... maybe it's the subconscious realization that I'm almost done for the night... maybe I've finally hit delusion. Some wierd part of me really gets off on skimming through well-read articles, typing away, getting my words and my work in a form fit for the world to see. And somehow the fact that it's night makes it better; it's quiet and dark and I can almost imagine that the rest of the world doesn't exist, just me and my writing.

Ironically, everyone I know at home is probably awake and in the middle of their day. The lights may be low but I fill the silence with music. And I wouldn't be writing a post at all if I were the only person in the world... but the contradictions make it more interesting and more fun, somehow.

I think I've hit rambling, if not completely delusional. Probably should sleep, and let the amyloid beta theory of Alzheimers pathology write my dreams...

Possibly a bad idea

But I've followed Nayrb onto both bandwagons.

Seriously, I should be working right now.

Good intentions...

Good thing I'm off work tomorrow, because the major weekend progress I had in mind for my conference presentations rather... didn't. Eh. As a recent liberal arts college grad, all I can say is that my procrastination abilities have been practiced to a finely honed art form (see just about any post from last year.) If I can't slap together a 5-minute powerpoint and decent poster - for a general audience, mind you - in under a day, then I'll eat my fancy latin-inscribed diploma.

I should admit that I had multiple procrastinational outlets this weekend... last night there was a dinner party for Martin, one of my housemates. I enjoyed (and contributed brownies for) his birthday "coffee and cakes" get-together last weekend, but this time there were twice as many people and huge amounts delicious food. (So much, in fact, that half the party came back this afternoon to help with the leftovers.) I ended up staying, mooching, occasionally contributing to conversation, until well past my bedtime... skipping out on the opportunity to meet Claire and Laura in town, which was unfortunate. Seriously, since when do I have a social life?

Well. Ahem... as for the main use of my time this weekend, I read a book. Or rather, finished a book that I started a little while ago. Das Wunder von Narnia, the first of the series chronologically speaking, was a gift from Laura after she got the whole set and didn't need extra copies floating around. Amazingly, I managed to get through what seemed like vast tracts of it with only minimal Deutsch-Englisch dictionary usage.

The exercise was very good, although sometimes wildly frustrating. In English, I'd devour such a book for breakfast and start wondering what was on menu for tea. In German, I read sooooooooo sloooooooowly. And I need to take breaks, often a couple per chapter. I can't get lost in the story and spend a whole day, pajama-clad, curled up on my bed/hunched at a table/lying on the floor/lounging on the stairs/half hanging off the sofa upside-down, simply living the characters cover-to-cover.

When I mentioned to Mike that I was reading a book, he asked some interesting questions. We've read together before and although he's no slouch, I read really fast. My brain is wired in such a way that I don't read words, per se. As in: ideas register, phonemes be damned. I don't hear an internal narrator, neither my own voice nor that of characters in the story, unless I take the time to consciously add one. When I was young, sometimes the easiest way to do so was to read aloud to myself... it slowed things down, but I liked creating funny voices and mentally playacting stories. (I still remember a primary school teacher complimenting my "expressive" reading in class... I stopped stumbling over words early and liked to let loose a bit when given the opportunity to read in front of an audience.) Usually, I don't bother to visualize scenes, except for the occasional flash of an evocative image or, again, by dint of will when I want to keep track of things. Maybe I don't have the "director's eye" as I know some of my friends do, but I don't particularly worry that I miss out. I've always been an avid reader, and my childhood favorites are dear and cherished friends.

But on to the wichtige Frage: how do I read in German? The simple answer is... pretty much the same. Like I mentioned, verrry slooowly, and with the occasional vocab issue (though my context-reading skills are getting a decent workout and proving useful) but by and large it feels no different. I tried to induce internal narration, and then I read aloud a bit. My pronunciation is notably better in my head than when I have to press the vocal apparatus to the task. Actually, reading aloud was more of a distraction and hindered comprehension enough that I dropped that idea pretty quickly. As for the overall, I'm pleased. It feels like a bit of an accomplishment to finish a book auf Deutsch... and I'm glad to note that, even if it's not up to native-speaker levels, my reading comprehension has come a zillion miles since we slogged through Dürrenmatt's Der Richter und sein Henker in intermediate German at Kenyon.

I've got a couple of other books on my shelf waiting around for my leisure, so I think I'm going to make it a goal to read a little bit every night. I'm almost done with my first nonfiction, Dr. H's Biologie der Angst, which has been living in my purse for the past few months and received passing attention on train rides and the like. Then I have Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod, a collection of Bastian Sick's amusing "Zweibelfisch" columns about awkward German grammar from Der Spiegel. I read the preface and a few paragraphs a couple of months ago, and I'd like to finish it before the end of the year so I can buy the sequel. At Christmas I grabbed a small volume on loan from Mike's mom: a translation of P.G. Wodehouse's Money for Nothing, entitled Große Liebe, kliene Diebe. I'm not familiar with the English version, so this could be an adventure. Finally, my albatross... the Terry Pratchett single volume four-novel set, Rincewind, der Zauberer. I have the advantage of solid familiarity with the originals, but the thing is a mammoth 1,068 pages. Not only intimidating, but a little unwieldy. Not gonna fit, even in my purse.

*****

So, tomorrow... I'll get work done, right? I already have evening plans for the second meeting of the Ferienchor ("vacation choir") so I guess I'd better make good use of my time!

News

I suppose it's pretty ironic that I was in the middle of extracting cerebrospinal fluid from a 10-day-old chicken embryo when I heard the radio news this morning: Vogelgrippe in Deutschland... Bird flu in Germany. The linked article is the first English translation of the news I've seen, and it's already out of date... German media outlets now indicate that three of the four swans found dead Friday on the Baltic island of Rügen have tested positive for H5N1.

Rügen, as it turns out, is probably about 200km from Kiel, where I spent 6 weeks of my summer. I have pictures of a family of swans bobbing around on the Kieler Fjord, and I remember watching them drift like ghostly shadows in the moonlight after any number of lovely water's-edge dinners with my friends.


Gladly, the current batch of eggs in our incubator comprises the last go, and will be finished by the end of the week. It's also fairly lucky, as I'm anticipating new EU regulations that would likely make obtaining fertile eggs much more difficult. Despite science's penchant for sending one back to the drawing board whenever surprising results come in, I supect we'll completely finish the current analyses before pursuing interesting tangents that might require additional samples. Well, there's plenty left to be done as far as the current analyses are concerned. Hmm... I wonder if there's any info out there about virus presence in ovo...

I have one more chicken breast filet in my fridge, and sufficient eggs for two more batches of brownies. After that, I suspect that I'll be taking one more step towards full-on vegetarianism. Well, at least I can still have fish.

I guess I'll also be keeping a warier eye on aggressive city pigeons...

Beschäftigt

Suddenly I have so much stuff to do! This strikes me as somewhat odd considering the fact that I'm on semester break at the moment. In addition to working on my presentation and poster for the Berlin conferences, I've somehow developed a busy social life as well. I attended a Birthday dinner for one of the guys in my dorm last night. Tonight some of the choir kids are getting together to hang out and possibly have some kind of choral jam session?? Tuesday night I've got a Valentine's day get together with Laura, Claire, and Arul, our Sri Lankan restauranteur friend. Next weekend there's yet another Studentendorf celebration/dinner...

And of course I'm eagerly anticipating Berlin not just for the chance to talk about my work, but also for the opportunity to once again see folks from this summer, take in some fascinating tours and workshops, hear awesome presentations and world-class musical performances, and attend a big giant fancy hotel party with Fulbrighters from all over the world. Seriously, this could be the highlight of my year...

Well, maybe next to family-oriented vacation adventures in May.

Just how gosh darn lucky am I?

The wonderful web-world

Oooooooh! It's finally here! The new online format for Cerebrum, not to mention the complete searchable archives for the print edition! It's a fabulous journal from Dana Press, geared toward an educated audience that is interested in neuroscience (rather than jargon-fluent experts.) I was heartbroken earlier this year when I learned that I couldn't renew my subscription, but this is really, really cool. I can finally read all the back issues! My personal recommendation is the entire Fall 2004 special on the burgeoning field of Neuroethics, Vol.6 No.4.

And now for something completely different: I think I'm in love. Sorry Mike... I'm leaving you for the Brawny Man. Mmmm... Paper towels...

Not to mention flannel and a toolbelt...

Happy monologuing...

So unfortunately Kola couldn't make it this weekend. She called yesterday morning to let me know she's been under the weather and wasn't able to make the trip, but I was in the middle of a prep in lab and didn't really have too much of a chance to talk... It's actually better for me, since it turns out I am needed in lab this weekend. Only a couple of hours a day, but it would still put a crimp in our potential adventurning. But I'll have more free time in the next couple of months, so hopefully we'll be able to reschedule sooner rather than later!

I baked a double batch of brownies Thursday night for the Lektorat Semesterabschlussfeier. There were like 200 people there and less than a third brought food for the buffet, so I didn't get to try them myself, but I heard they were enjoyable. I have all the ingredients for another batch, but there is an unfortunate lack of smallish baking pans in our kitchen, so I'll either have to buy more stuff and make another double batch or buy an appropriate pan. I'm sure I can convince the folks in my dorm to help me eat them!

I had a fabulous time last night hanging out with Claire and Laura and watching the first two disks of Arrested Development season 1... I know I watched the first two seasons when I was home for Christmas, but poor Claire hadn't ever heard of the show so we absolutely had to introduce her to it. Laura and I had fun laughing preemptively at good jokes and quoting lines at each other. We're meeting up tonight to finish season 1 and probably take a nice chunk out of season 2 while we're at it. Yay!

I'm also attempting to do my laundry today, which so far isn't really getting anywhere. It's been a while, so I have three full loads to take care of. The problem is the washer situation in Studentendorf... for 36 buildings (a few of which are significantly larger than my 12-person Wohnheim) there are a grand total of 6 washers. That's pretty darn bad, even for the needs of college students. But it gets better... for the past month or so, three of the six have been out of order. I've gotten accustomed to the complete lack of dryers... I spent too much money on a drying rack and have to keep my window open with the heat on for a couple days, but I have a functional system. The washer problem, however, is completely ridiculous. Luckily I have way too many clothes, so it's not desperate yet... but if I have to haul all my stuff to the other side of the complex one more time to find alles besetzt, I'm going to be peeved. I'm considering camping out in the laundry room with a book until one frees up, but there are no chairs and the floor is wet. Oh well.

It's not so bad, in the end. Now that courses at the Lektorat are over for the semester, I have weeknights free again, so maybe I'll have a better chance later this week. Oh, I wound up with A's in my Wortschatzübungen and Schrieben courses, which was very good. I may be good enought to get bumped in to Oberstufe for conversation or writing next semester. The Grammatik final, on the other hand, was not as nice as I originally thought. I'll still get credit for attending the class, and I learned a few important and useful things on the way, but I think I'll actually have to repeat this one next semester. Ahem... and maybe study for the tests a little more. I have some things down really pretty well now: complex sentence structure, adjective endings, articles... but other stuff is still giving me fits. Who knows, maybe the fifth time is the charm and Konjunktiv and Passiv will finally click.

Other important things on my to-do list at the moment include figuring out my presentations for the Berlin conference(s) in March. I've signed up for poster space at FAST, and a 10-minute talk/powerpoint for the Fulbright Germany mid-year meeting thingamabob. Yikes, that's coming up fast!