[delocalized mind]

I've survived the long journey!

The logistics of our trip were a bit challenging; we went cruising around Portugal and were constantly packing/unpacking, checking maps and hoping to manage everything in time, so it was a tiny bit more stressful than my usual vacation. Also, on the second to last day I've got smashed against a beach full of seashell fragments and was profoundly bleeding on my way home (the train ride from the airport to my hometown should have lasted 2 hours, but due to a hurricane Xavier it took the DB almost 8 hours x_x Thanks for a nice welcome, Germany? :'D)

But it was totally worth it *_*

As soon as I catch up on sleep and adjust to the harsh weather change from 30°C to 12°C (86F --> 53F) with constant train and gale-force wind, I'll probably write more, but you can have a spoiler: I can totally recommend Portugal at this time of year. It was awesome ♥






P.S.: I've got a (very) belated B-Day present from M: Killing Time by Della Van Hise. He found that one edition of this legendary book that still has all the slashy bits >:)

The week has barely started and it's already stressful. The apartment-hunting was so far quite unsuccessful, and thus, rather depressing :(
And it's raining. It's been raining for days now and does not look like it will ever stop.

Summer rain is actually quite nice but it also brings a certain lazy, sluggish feeling with it. The light outside seems creamy and grey, the raindrop melody is soothing and sleepy, and I'd like to stay in bed forever. Curled up with a hot cup of Earl Grey tea and one of Zola's touching novels. 

Except, I can't. Or at least - I shouldn't because the original planing for the evening featured:

1) homework for tomorrow: electric properties of a neuron, which is actually one of my favourite biophysic topics, but my own neurons are way too slowly today to wrap themselves around the exercises and lectures.

2) tiding up: which I always procrastinate till the final state, so that I can't even find my mobile phone, when it's buzzing. Whoever it was, who tried to reach me, he should have been more patient than that.

3) If I did find my needle in the chaos, I still have to make the two plushy stuffed atoms (Gold and Hydrogen) for my friend, who is celebrating her Master of Science this week. Yay, her!  :)

Or to say it the Hergé style:



The photo is not the best, but my trusty scanner exists only in my imagination (together with a nice, old-fashioned house with a cryptic garden) and the bitchy but real one from the university keeps on drawing annoying strings into the picture. I'm sure, I could have solved the problem, but you don't want to spent too much time on a public scanner, fumbling with an eye-catching bright comic book, while all the people around you look so serious with their black-white documents and homework sheets.
Maybe next time.

It's from the this treasure I found in one of our libraries last week. It contains musings about Hergé's archive and some background infos, which are quite fascinating.

For example:

In Hergé's head!canon Alcazar met his bossy wife (who is the daughter of the arms dealer B. Bazaroff from The Broken Ear) in a music hall in New York ;) One day I'd love to read a fanfiction dealing with the two sweethearts ♥

Also, the godfather for the professor (Auguste Piccard) was quite a nice-looking chap and had indeed set records on both altitude flight and deep-sea dive. Except, the real prof was extraordinary tall. Hergé had to make him smaller so that he would fit into the picture square just fine ;)



(Dialogue: 'Why?.. No doubt your name happens to be Red Rackham?' 'Yes?')

Some more photos from the same page because I find the random postcard, which was the inspiration for Haddocks apartment, absolutely endearing ;)( Read more... )

Okay, now back to sleep, drinking tea, tiding up while searching for a needle in the haystack, learning more about neurons. There are already excited. Oh my,  am I really going to end the entry with such a lame line? Yes, I am.

Merry Christmas a là Sherlock, with a small touch of horror and black humor ;)

(Can't wait for the second season *_* Dominatrix Iren, creepy Moriarty behind bars, worried British Government and MI6, naked Sherlock in the slipping blanket of Doom, John punching his not-a-friend Sherlock in the face and much more to come!)


(c) twitter@mcguigan

Despite the morbid picture I'm in high spirits ever since last Thursday, for it was the last lab-day this year!

Sure, there is a lot of homework planed for the winter holidays: 4 experiment protocols, an overview of the current articles in all kind of scientific Journals for our assistance professor (concerning one special reaction type I've first heard a week ago) and a Power Point presentation for my speech in January
(if you have something to say about "through-space spin-spin coupling" you may rise and give me a helping hand), but still - I feel quite light headed and free.
(and it has nothing to do with the champagne bottle on the table: It's not even opened yet.)

Being lazy is fun :) spending the whole days relaxing in bed with Jeeves & Wooster >3 Well, figuratively. The two of them are just dead lovely (especially Jeeves *_*). Yes, I fancy the series with Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie rather keenly, it's really a shame they don't act together anymore ._."
A fan-vid to cheer up a bit? Jeeves - Gentleman´s Personal Penguin
(Stephen Fry is not as good as Oscar Wilde - despite playing him marvelously in 1997 -  but I do enjoy his writings quite well. The protagonist in "The Liar" is such a naughty boy and only a tiny little bit pathetic.)

And now for the bad news: I'm afraid, my apartment house is now known pretty well within the Göttingen police department. Some month ago a student gone missing (my neighbour) and now there is a dead body on the six' floor. The police says, it was definitely a murder, which's quite an uncomfortable idea. welt.de News quote (German). And I've always thought Göttingen were such a quite, small student city, where nothing happens. Oh my...

Er... I don't want my Christmas Entry to end on such a remark ._."
Therefore, smile, my dears, carry on and take good care of yourselves ♥


Katzenjammer by (c) goro79@DevArt

Since yesterday I'm back in Germany.
Grey, rainy sky. Thunderstorms. High wind and yellow-orange leaves drowning in almost endless puddles. Someone had already switched the weather from summer to autumn and I had totally missed the moment.

(Don't mind the grumping, I still love Göttingen. The town is my soulmate and either Moscow nor Paris could have moved me more~ And autumn weather suits Göttingen really well, it's just the abrupt change, that's getting to me.)

The holidays were ... fun. Not exactly what I was expecting, but my mind really is a bit clearer now. Or at least I hope so. The two weeks seamed somehow dream-like now. Unreal.



Oh, and I first tried playing golf - never thought it would be that great. Want more! :) And I'm still not good in billiard. But I can swim for over two hours and in some creepy boxing machine I've got the second highest ranking XD (Superman!)

Also, I've sprained my ankle really bad. Right, now, I'm at home, reading (John le Carré & Sergej Lukjanenko, shaken, not stirred - I always read two books at a time; one for waiting+eating, another for the evening, a 'go-to-be-story') and - unfortunately - learning for the last of my Bachelor exams.

Indeed, the change from sun & relaxing to raining & learning was quite abrupt. A good chance to learn some discipline? Thank you, dear Universe, for this great opportunity for self-improvement. Damn.

Lukjanenko describes in his novels quite often the concept of a "Dream Line": some kind of a 'navigation system', which will find you a perfect 'verse out of millions upon millions different 'verses. Perfect just for you. Finding it according to the information from the depth' of your mind, your hidden angst and wishes, your true needs. Would you like to leave our universe and live in your own world? At the risk of knowing perfectly well, just who you are and that this place with its strange morals is just exactly what you really deserves? (It can be quite a cruel realization, you know?..)

Well, I shall switch to le Carré again. (Yes, I was brought to it by the film "Tailor, Tinker, Solder, Spy" - officiall trailer looking forward to it! *_*;)

P.S. During the holidays (thanks to that one particular landscape on our way to the beach - giant cactus) I found another hobby: cacti (cactuses? Lots of small, cute cactus-bastards?) I always thought my talent with plants was about Zero. Bad karma, I suppose. I either forget about them completely or start caring way too intense for them to survive. But I want to start this one last experiment.
6 of a kind:



Close-Ups:
basket (there'll be more earth soon)
violet (this one is shy)
red-yellow (the yellow one is Alexander and the red one is Beatrice <3)

Okay, back to my favorite peppermint-tea and learning, yay!

"The thing Jayne loves about zombies is that they're easy [...]
Sure, it'd get boring if they hung around too long – the things are so slow they're like a target for bitty babies holding their very first guns – but sometimes, a man just likes kick back, relax, and shoot holes in a few heads. "

Can you imagine a better working day then hearing this fabulous audio!fic about Firefly (space cowboys!) and Zombies and malicious politics ... and working on your bachelor thesis in an empty lab, feeling like a king of your own slightly insane empire?~
Half of my research group is on holiday, so the lab's mine to rule! *muhrhr*

If only the computer wasn't telling me in the middle of an experiment that he can't find the microscope anymore. My first thought was, that a cable was detached, so I went down on my knees searching the cable-salad for some loose connections. Half an hour and a shiny tidy floor later I was at the end of my nerves and just shut the whole damn thing down. And then... a miracle! All of sudden the program seems to recognize the microscope again... I hate that thing and it's lunatic sense of humour.
So, if only the whole adjustment wouldn't take so long - the last two weeks I was getting home about 8 p.m. and so damn hungry and tired as if I was pushing heavy rocks up some steeply mountain, the whole work could be quite ... relaxing >D
(Yeah, good bye Taekwondo! My teacher will kill me the next time he'll see me. If he ever see me again.. lucky me, the last weeks had quite a few public holidays in Germany and on those days I only stepped by in the labs for a few hours, curious about the results of the last night...)

But, well, instead of ranting, I'd rather show off a bit - I got an A+ (1,0) for my presentation! ^__^ (shiny!)

Well, I was good, I just never expected being that good. But if they insists, I sure won't complain. In fact, I was feeling rather disappointed after I finished, I had so much more to tell the auditorium, but the questions were all dull (why the hell they asked me about the construction of some boring neutron reactor if they could have seen the very long derivation of the Fourier transformation instead?)

And on Wednesday I had an oral examination in the subject I always hated the most, so I probably should have been learning the last weekend real hard.
Expect that I was visiting that Doctor!girl I met at the shooting club... It was a warm and pleasantly odd evening on her balcony with some strange medicine students [those people are really, really creepy, but funny to chat with >3) and a guy who danced tango like a professional seducer. Just perfect. Finally I found someone who's taller than me! I only hope the next time won't be in a dark hallway but on the dance floor.
(Also, he's an American, reminds me a bit of Crawford >3 are people from oversea really that tall or is it just it just me, who's so lucky?)

... and I still got over with that oral examination. I'm not sure, which grade I'll get, but I had definitely not failed - otherwise the Prof would have told me so; he's someone who really enjoys telling students they failed the topic and have to come in a few weeks to see him again.

Strangely, I don't fell overworked lately. Not too much at least.
Sure, I'm spending all my free time working on that programming stuff, or lingering in the lab, but it's still interesting and I'm feeling so alive.

Also, have found myself great colleagues. And some friends too. And that tall medicine student to dance with <3
(Damn, he was just gorgeous!)

Especially unusual is having people around, who share more than two interests of yours.
You know that one cute girl from the university I was talking about lately?
Not only I can invite her over in my office and we'll chat about Weiß Kreuz over coffee (we're both schwarz fans <3), and science, and Profs. And... the world domination? But we can also go hiking in a beautiful forest nearby or having our Sunday film-nights with lots of Sci-Fi & Sherlock and laughing, and... I never had a friend to share all the interests at once; always had to split them to three or four people to bear, so I'm a bit suspicious - the girl is way too matching me to be real. (Well, not too perfect after all - we have totally different eating habits. How on earth doesn't she like spinach and paprika and aubergine? o.o) But It's a great feeling finding a friend like this.
... Oh, and the guys at the labs are quite interesting as colleagues too - and yes, I do find that quite abnormal unusual.
(btw, except from one exchange-student from China - I'm the only girl there. Now, that's fine with me <3)

Back to my actual thesis (I know, my f-list is probably already sick and tired of hearing about amoebas and so... but I'm afraid it won't change till I'm done with this subject ^^" Can you bear with it till August?)

Wanna see some creepy, bacteria contaminated data? <3



And my cool microscope with it's golden electrode? ^.^
(the poor cam quality doesn't do him justice, I'm afraid)



( a few more shiny close up's )

Just one more thing...
On Wednesday-evening I had a quite revealing conversation with some of the technical assistants from the labs. She asked me if could turned off one of the apparatus downstairs for it's her finishing time and she don't want to wait a few more hours for the machine to cool down.

me: Sure, no problem! I'll stay here till late anyway~ *sigh*
TA: As usual, um? You sure want to make the best of you. Me on the other hand... Well, I already have my house, kids and a dog, but when you want a career, you sure have to stay till late and work hard. I'd rather have my family.

Some of those old women who likes to patronized you. Fine and all. But I just can't agree with her.

Sure, I want success, and, yeah, I deserve acknowledgement (who don't?) and I sure as hell want to make a Doctor Degree afterwards, but someday I want my house as well. And a child and a partner whom I can trust (expert for the dog. I'm a cat type <3) and free time to travel around the world and going out with friends and ... is it the bitter really, that you can't have everything you want, or is it just her way to excuse herself?

Then on the other hand, I was sure willing to turn the apparatus off since I spend the last few weeks almost living there.
So may be she has a point after all.

But.
We have those two Profs in our working group. A. & B. (it's their real names shortcuts <3)
And did I ever mention how really handsome my Prof. A. is? And how absolutely sweet his wife is? She taught us Biomolecular Chemistry in the fifth semester...And how cute the two little boys of the Prof. B are?

So, yeah, they don't look like they are suffering from loneliness. I guess, I'll manage it too. Somehow.



And if not... well, my amobeas still love me <3
('cause I have the glucose which makes them happy and the caffeine which calm them down~ xD)

A short time-out to celebrate I've passed at least 2 of 4 exams :3 (the results were announcement via the ad board a few hours ago)

My dear sweeties, my upcoming tests, you can terrorize me with the threat of failing as much as you like, but in the end each and every one of you will end in my infernal hot cup of coffee  :3




P.S.:  shameless showing-off (German only, sorry, but I really like this one, even so it's just a short lunatic thing :3 Die lokale Apokalypse)

and off again~ :3

I hope you all are enjoying the X-Mas holidays! (and are going to celebrate the New Year's Eve till the morning light?) And everybody had find their special wish to whisper when the the dark tower rings the bells at the turn of the year~
(dramatic pause)

And now for the News.

For the next 5 months I'll have to take quite a dubious medicine. The list of the possible adverse reactions is so long, I even got an extra little book for thoughtful reading. One of the most fatal warnings promises depressions to the point of the suicide. Well, I already take the pills for one and a half months and I feel strangely happy all the time :3 Since it was clearly verified, that the meds lowers the level of the serotonin in the brain, I shouldn't even try to think how happy I'll be without that side-effect. Maybe I'm just glad to see my family once again (it's nearly two months since I visited them last). Or maybe I'm in love. Or I just had eaten way to much sweet honey this morning. Or the depressions are just not my thing? >D

Okay, back to the serious issues. The Christmas Eve always means stress and I'm not a great fan of that period. But I had visited two wonderful people, who made this time bearable for me ♥
Now I'm at my parents, which means - food. Lots of delicious food. Oh, and presents. And old films.... okay, the winter can be nice.

The next year is going to be even more stressful then 2010. Yet interesting. My bachelor theses theme is clear now - I'm going to work on research of oscillation-like behavior of protozoa, using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and impedance analyzer. (doesn't it sound so very cool and adult and scientific and... yes, I do know what it means. Well, at least I have quite a good idea. In a few months I can tell you more. After all, it will be really a research work, which means the methods or the direction could change any time. Also, it means that  the result of my thesis can end in a set of conclusions like: "As we just demonstrated, it doesn't work this, that and the other way." But I can still starve the bacteria, till I have the results I want... Yes, as a child I really wanted to became a mad scientist. Who didn't?)

The other New Year resolution will be learning saxophone. I'm afraid, I still haven't enough money to afford the lessons. It's gross how expensive the tuition is ._.", so the most realistic scenario is, that it' still be a dream for the next year. Or the year after next... but after visiting a musician for Christmas I can't get rid of the idea. (Also, does someone from my f-list like jazz? I'd like to fangirl :3)
My Christmas host is to blame for even more strange ideas. Cosplay-plans (Weiß Kreuz - Hetalia crossover? Yes, please. Oh, and a special Halloween surprise *tehe*) And this strong desire to travel. (Dear Santa, I only wish for money and health. Anything else I can procure myself just fine. Thanks.)

And it's snowing all the time. So my New Year's Wishes will be all about sun and warmth and all the pretty summer-colors of Spain~ summerwine



(Those were the sangría tinta (for my mum) and blanca (for myself), my dad had a cocktail, but I'm afraid, I don't know the name anymore ^^")

And a few more photos for my Christmas' musician. The room kind of reminds me of Chopin >3~

( click )

Oh, and a fanart one from a great Russian artist junajull (copyright). Saxophone-love >3



P.S.: Wanny play? You know the famous DeviantArt drinking-game memo, when the person who caught the kiriban can call out for a photo of their wish? Catch the 10,000 pageview on my flagcounter, send me a PN with the pagescreen and I'll write an entry with the theme of you choice >3

Well, now I'm off for a while - family time.

Happy Next Year everybody! ☆

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What does a workaholic do when he's back home from great holidays? Right - he works overtime. The anoganic synthesis labs started a few weeks ago and since it's almost over, I'm up to my eyes in project reports. It's a love-hate relationship [♥]
(we even have poetry among the lines - "Continue to stir the reaction until all of the AgNO3 has reacted to form a fluffy white precipitate." (c) Robert A. Stockland Jr. and others)

Today should be the last day of the practical curses but the plan is a bit out of date now - there was a little accident this morning. So the rooms are closed till... Well, nobody knows when it's possible again to enter the laboratory... and not to pass out the very second. It stinks to high heaven. And this time it wasn't me, who is to blame. (it's enough that I had nearly build a bomb last week. Incidental. I just forgot to retrofit a ventilation before heating up. I'm sorry?)

And it's always great to have some breaks once a while, whether it's an exhilarating distraction or not:

By the way, I'm still jobbing at the inter-cultural centre as the tutor for chemistry. So I have to show the exchange students around - it only takes a week during the semester break but each time after talking to them I'm plagued by an incurable yearning for distant places. I want my Erasmus-year too! But, well, maybe during the master-program?
And it's funny to learn the differences between the countries: Here we only have two tries to pass an examination, afterwards you have an oral with the prof. Then maybe you're allowed to try the very last time. You fail this too and it's over - you never may study chemistry again. Well, at least not in Germany.
In Italy you may try as often as you want, if only you pay. And the UK-student only said, he never failed that much to find out, what happens XD

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And to mention some anime-fun too:
Two weeks ago I had the pleasure to welcome the Lord of Hell at my place... and she has the most fascinating eyes I've ever seen @.@" Some silly US-UK-posing follows: (it's so weird not to be the one wearing glasses xD)



We can act IC. Kind of. The Pissed and The Happy One.



And at the evening I also had a cocktail called: "The Pirate" >3
(Brat, why didn't you remind me of teaching you proper 'Poker'? Now you have to visit me once more! ♥ )
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And since I promised to report about holidays a while ago, I can mix the dull labs-picspam with candy-striped holiday photos.. And wax lyrical about the sea. And the both lighthouses guarding our bay... dreaming is the only way not to drawn in the sea of the despair, 'cause it's raining and raining and raining all the day long. And the weather forecast promise rain for the whole week. Great.

Laboratory vs. Holidays memories.




( click-click )

And now the colourful Holiday-part for the comparison:



( cklic-click once again for all the colourful dreams please )

Loki on the rocks. Ha ha.




Okay, it's useless try to force two weeks of exhausting sweet nothing into one single post, so let's call it a day now.

(away for the last dinner - the Hokkaido pumpkin topped with melted cheese~ The autumn won't last long and afterwards it'll be no pumpkin for me, so it's okay eating that late, isn't it?..)



EDIT: A few are corrected but the embarrassments just doesn't end... beware: most mistakes are sill remain covert ^^"

Back to the routine. Even through my head is still full of fresh impressions, new people, weird thoughts & crazy plans. And I'm already a bit tired of my filled holidays xD

But first things first:

Animagic was less stressful I thought it would be - meeting old & new friends, relaxing down by the Rhine, eating fabulous ice cream (mine was the one with the funny yellow helicopter wings - it was also sponsored by Kuku. I'm officially vow to repay the debt in the currency of choice. Whether ice cream or cocktails or some other delicacy or wishes >3)



"Unfortunately", it felt more like chilling in the circle of friends then like a real Convention to me - so there was quite a meagre gain of photos. I ought to have known better - afterwards it's always maddening when thinking about  missed opportunities *kick myself hard* But I'll hope for a next reunion then? ^.~

There were still a few really nice shoots, thanks to our Photograph and my dear past-time Schuldig XD - aoinagaru_kuran and shy but malicious kurukii as future-time Schuldig >3



-> high resolution on DeviantART.

A few more small resolution photos for LJ:

( bang-bang )

And, well, just a normal photo as an answer to the meme, which by the way is still active >3



More train & private photos will follow the days - I just want to keep the both entries separate.. and need a bit time to make me a few cups of tea. And crispbread with honey. And phone with my Dad about our journey. And read tons of books I brought home last week (Sapowski, Lukjanenko,  Virginia Wood and Remark: reading was my first love and it will be my last ♥) And cure my cold. And when  it's gone, dancing in the rain one more time. And... damn, I love having holidays *__*"