Opstaan

Ik werd vanochtend wakker, vroeg me af of de wekker niet allang had moeten gaan, zag dat t half 8 was en dat ik dus nog 'n uur kon slapen en ben weer gaan liggen,
werd weer wakker, vroeg me af of de wekker niet allang had moeten gaan, zag dat t 10 uur was en begon te vloeken (in 't duits trouwens. heel grappig te merken dat ik vanuit slaap blijkbaar direct duits vloek en niet nederlands)

Strange, strange, strange

So yesterday evening I was happy and quite content to have finished my essay. Went to bed early (22.00h) and got up early this morning (6.30h). I felt fine, not too motivated to study on a saturday morning, but nevertheless got some work done. Everything normal.
But then after lunch I was caught at unawares by a sudden energy dip. I often have a dip after eating. Sometimes I even sleep for 15 to 30 minutes, although that's usually after dinner, not lunch. But today I slept for almost 3 hours! And I'm still tired!
I had the same kind of experience earlier this week, on Monday. The fatigue lasted two days. It's so strange to not see it coming. Just feeling worn out all of a sudden.
I suppose it has something to do with the fact that I was overworked last year, and now I'm back to full-time studying again (or trying at least). But still, it feels strange, strange, strange.

Running goals

Before everyone is going to ask about it and I have to repeat my answer, I'll admit that I didn't walk the 10 km run I intended to do two weeks back :( I just didn't train enough so about a month ago I decided to give up and set a new goal. This time I didn't set an end date, but I'm training to be able to run 10 km by the end of this summer. I got myself a free training scheme at hardloopschema.nl, which I would finish in 10 weeks if I'd train 3 to 4 times a week. That's a bit too much to squeeze into my study schedule, so I'll spread it out and just go running whenever I find the time.
Next training will be tomorrow: 25 min without losing my breath, directly followed by 10 min at a faster pace. Looking forward to it :)
Oh, now that we're on the subject, does anyone have tips on how to keep a training log? I'd like to keep track of my running speeds, running distances, and get an overview of my training progress, but without putting too much effort in it.

Makes me feel good

Yeah! Finished my essay! At last! :D
Deadlines like these are always a struggle for me. But I'm very proud that I past this one without panicking :) Won't say it was easy, or without stress, but I definitly did better than before.
And there will be a lot of opportunities to further improve myself in the near future:

• On Monday I have to give a presentation (15 min) about the Euregio Maas-Rhein (yes, in German, wenn ich das schaffe),
  
• and on Tuesday I have to give a presentation (5 min) about examples of infrastructure improvements as a market-oriented urban policy instrument in Berlin (das heißt, Berliner Beispiele der Schaffung von Infrastruktur als marktorientiertes Instrument der Stadtpolitik).
  
• Then on Friday at 12, I'll have to have a proposal finished for an appraisal of economic forecasting in an urban policy document of my own choice.
• And that's only next week ;)

So, it's Feierabend!
Just wanna share one more thing with you that also made me feel good today:

Welterusten!

vraag van de dag: waarom blijf ik altijd te lang op als ik moe ben?
antwoord: omdat ik niet meer in staat ben beslissingen te nemen als ik moe ben (dus ook niet de beslissing om naar bed te gaan)

Sta je daar, in je high-tech pak...

Wat is er irritant aan accuboor/schroefmachines?
Juist, dat de accu leeg is op 't moment dat 't jou slecht uitkomt.
Maar de volgende keer dat je weer staat te balen, kun je je bedenken dat 't lang zo slecht nog niet is als deze situatie:

Bovendien vertraagde een lege accu in een schroefmachine de reparatie. De accu moest terug naar de shuttle om vervangen te worden.

O, en heeft u de tweets uit de ruimte al gehoord? Ze kwamen van Astro_Mike

I <3 wikipedia!

In most dictionaries, you can't look up the translation of concepts that are described by more than one word. Wikipedia however, is a great help. You just look up the concept in the language you know, and click on the language you wish to find the translation for. Advantage is that you also learn the translations for related words by reading the article. Love it!

Example:
Nachhaltigkeit (Drei-Säulen-Modell) [DE]
People Planet Profit [NL]
Triple bottom line [EN]

Link dump

With thanks to Christiaan: link

An American tourist in Amsterdam took 82 pictures of bicycles during a 73 minute period. He comments on the typical "Amsterdam Bicycle Trends" that are remarkably different from what he's used to at home, San Francisco area, California, USA.
Made me laugh :D

With thanks to Gustavo:

Thanks to someone, but I don't remember who: link

This bot is so cute! And a very nice experiment :)

And thanks to clicking around on the interwebz: link

Same kind of experiment, but not as simple and way less cute!

Star Trek influences?

Is it because of the release of the new Star Trek, or is it just coincidence that

• we found out the creation of life was not that improbable after all,
• we learned that warp drive is theoretically possible,
• ESA put two new space observatories in orbit, Herschel and Planck,
  
• and Hubble got an upgrade?
  

Travel of a lifetime: very impressive video!

As one commenter put it: "There is no substitute for the direct experience of reality."
I wonder if there is a substitute for the direct experience of travel.


via

Yay!

Great news! A friend of mine is coming to work in Berlin for 3 months, starting May 25th! That's in 10 days time already :)
I'm very excited to welcome her here and enjoy Berlin together! (Although of course I will still be very busy studying...) Also, some mutual friends of ours are planning to visit us, which I really like :D (Ow yeah, I'm a happy guppy ;D)

So much to tell you guys, so little time to write...

I'm currently very busy studying. That's what I came to Berlin for, so that's all ok :) I'm very content with the courses I chose. They are all very interesting :) (Although I haven't made my mind up about one: exam or presentation + paper?)

Today I have finally started studying in teams with German students. And yes, that's different from studying with international students. Now I'm the only one that doesn't master German as well as the others. On the other hand, I master English better than many of my colleagues, so I might be of some help explaining the academic papers we need to read.

As I wrote last week (in Dutch), I'm trying to find my way in full-time study without losing my head (which I did last year). I've decided to try a new discipline: studying 8.00 to 18.00 and not think of anything study-related in the evenings.
As always, a new discipline means trouble. It means failing, trying to get back on track, and failing again. Fortunately I had foreseen some problems, so I could anticipate and, after failure, put into perspective.
Problem #1 was/is for me to get up early. When my alarm goes off, my mind needs a very simple, concrete reason to get up. Not something complicated and abstract like: "I have to study." (My mind would counterargue: "I can study an hour later.") So I came up with: "I have to say hello to someone, that will no longer be online to say hello to if I don't get up in time." And it worked! That is, it worked, until that someone went abroad for a week... But than I came up with something different that also worked but which I'm not gonna bore you with.
Problem #2 is keeping myself motivated, even when not everything goes according to plan. This one is harder to tackle. I implemented a few safeguards for this.
- Take the evenings off to divert, relax and refuel for the next study day;
- Promise myself a day off after I finish the goals I have for the next weeks;
- Make studying as enjoyable as possible (in the sun, with a cup of coffee or tea, ...);
- Set challenging, but achievable medium term goals (the achievable part was harder than the challenging part). Remind myself how proud I'll be if I manage to achieve my goals;
- SMART goals for each day;
- Put buffer time into my schedule to avoid stressing out;
- Remind myself that the plan is just a plan, not a prophecy. I can change it. Whenever I like;
- Keep the plan updated.
Problem #3 I encountered the second day I started my new discipline. I haven't really found a solution for this. It's actually the not thinking of anything study-related in the evenings that I found out to be very hard. (And I only just realized that even now, on my Friday evening off, I'm writing about study planning...)

So... at the moment I'm very tired from trying to learn this new discipline. But I'm motivated to put through. I do feel that I'm being more productive.

Enough about study for now.

Sneller dan het licht / faster than light

(English version below)
Ik moet mijn natuurkundekennis maar eens gaan afstoffen geloof ik. Of eigenlijk aanvullen. Want over zwarte energie heb ik nog nooit wat geleerd, laat staan begrepen.
In ieder geval beweren twee wetenschappers dat sneller reizen dan het licht in theorie mogelijk is zonder Einsteins relativiteitstheorie te breken, die zegt dat je niet sneller dan het licht kunt bewegen. Logisch? Ja, want je zou in plaats van zelf te bewegen je omgeving kunnen laten bewegen. Daarvoor moet je de tijd-ruimtedimensie zien te veranderen. En daarvoor zou je zwarte energie kunnen gebruiken. Klinkt logisch. Toch?
Zelf lezen? Hier in 't Nederlands, hier in 't Engels, en ik ga in de tijdschriftencollectie van de TU-bib eens op zoek naar het wetenschappelijke artikel. Als iemand me dan een spoedcursus snaartheorie kan geven, snap ik er misschien ook wat van...

English summary:
Two scientists say that travelling faster than light is theoretically possible without violating relativity theory (which says you can't move faster than light). Read about it here.
I'm gonna try and find the journal article in the library. Can someone give me a crash course in string theory so that I'll be able to read it?

Yesterday I went to see a very nice little jazz band. Well actually, the band wasn't little (6 heads), but the stage was (4 sqm max!). And so was the room (in a pub in Kreuzberg) where too many people tried to fit in. We had to wait for others to move out (to get drinks) to be able to push in a little. But when we found ourselves in the middle of the 'crowd' at last, we had great fun.
They had electric megaphones they used as microphones, a guy who could play two saxophones at the same time, and some other humourous tricks to play. But these didn't need to make up for any lacking musical talent. It was just very nice :)
Afterwards at the bar I heard the gituarist/saxophonist ask the guy who sung/rapped when they did the encore what his name was. The guy introduced himself and gave his business card, adding that he'd love to play with the band some time. What the peep? I didn't even notice they improvised the whole thing! Really amazing.
I found their website. I like their museum :)

Allet jut!

Mama:

"Ik denk maar steeds: Geen nieuws is goed nieuws. Je zal het wel druk hebben."

Inderdaad. Al die leuke vakken, waarover ik écht nog 'n keer wat wil vertellen hier, vragen aardig wat arbeid. Dus jullie mogen het ff doen met 'n gekopieerd stukje mail:

"Hier is het hartstikke druk, dus mijn blog houd ik wat minder vlijtig bij. Ik moet er wel ff aan wennen weer volle bak aan de slag te gaan. Er zitten nog wel wat oude (stress)gewoontes in, die er vorig jaar voor zorgden dat het niet goed ging. Maar ik merk ook dat ik ze nu eerder herken en mezelf kan verbeteren. Heb er dus wel vertrouwen in dat het goed komt :)"

Iedereen die productiveitstips heeft, is uitgenodigd ze hier te spuien!

Credit card abuse

This book allegedly explains what its title says: how the receivers credit card was used to pay for the book online. I like the way this project is set up. I wonder how long it will take before the first copies appear on the internet though...

Plannen, hoe deed ik dat ook alweer?

Een paar weken op weg in het nieuwe semester wordt het toch wel dringend om weer eens goed te gaan plannen. Maar hoe ging dat ook alweer?
Hieronder een lijstje dat ik alweer 'n tijdje geleden voor mezelf genoteerd had. Het is niet helemaal compleet. Routinezaken staan er niet in. Die stop ik meestal vooraf in een kleurig weektijdplan, waar ik dan later de projectmatige tedoendingen aan toe voeg. Helaas is het planningsproces bij mij meestal niet zo lineair als omschreven, en ik vermoed dat dat ook niet kan. Het lijstje is een goede reminder voor als ik weer eens de draad kwijt ben.

1. Vakken en overige 'projecten' opschrijven
   
2. Per vak/project lijst van tedoendingen maken
3. Deadlines noteren
4. Werk voor deadlines over weken verdelen
5. Overige tedoendingen over weken verdelen
6. Voor komende week tedoendingen over dagen verdelen en te verwachten uren per taak noteren
7. Bijhouden wat ik doe. Kloppen het aantal uren per taak? Besteed ik voldoende / de verwachte uren per dag?