5 days HH again

So, I have to go to HH next week again. As you all now from my various rantings, I work on a detector which is more or less broken, together with colleagues, some of which I don't think that they are, let's say, competent...

We will install the detector next week after some repairs and after some changes (which won't help, because they did not remove the origin of the failures but only will weaken the symptoms, if at all). As it seems, I am one of the very few who actually know how to do things I have to go there.

Just right now I got the schedule. A 6 page PDF, generated by MS Project. And a textfile with a list of manpower associated with the tasks. I got it twice. The sender sent it again, because in the first version he forgot the subject. Opening the PDF, you get a fancy Gantt-Chart, which shows which tasks follows which and how long it does take. Unfortunately nobody in management has any idea what these charts normally are used for and complain that Project does stupid things when they have a person with 500% workload working 24 hours on 5 different tasks in parallel. So they leave out the association of tasks with people and do an extra list in their favourite text-editor, there nothing turns red or changes the timeline...

My tasks (which not only I will do, but also two to three others...) will be: after 6 hours of driving to HH, be at some meetings around lunchtime probably, remove very sensitive equipment around midnight. Then on the next day at 1500 start a 24h shift installing the very sensitive detector again. Third day: around midnight cable everything up on the sensitive inside, cable up the outside, test everything, remove cables again. Fourth day, around 8 am, cable up the outside.

Just to get me right here: I don't complain about working at odd hours (although I will stay at a friend's house, who will be very delighted about this schedule...), I don't complain about working a lot of hours once in a while. What I just want to say is: nobody seems to have taken any care about organising this. It's just the naive way of this follows that. No thinking about if it makes sense to have people doing stuff under pressure, no way of possible error. If something goes wrong, this schedule is gone. There are no buffers, no checkpoints, nothing. I would expect that people who reach management start buying a book about project management and at least get some ideas... But we are physicist. We can do everthing, we don't need to learn...

Endlich mal was los...

Oranges

Today I went to a concert to collect money for restauration of the Erlangen Orangerie. The Orangerie was built sometime in the 18th century, when it got fashionable to grow citrus fruits in places where they don't usually grow... Already in the 19th century it was required for the Erlangen citizens to save the Orangerie, as it should be destroyed to make way for a hospital wing. Today the Orangerie is in a very bad state, especially the roof needs to be replaced urgently. The university, to whom it belongs, has not enough money, so they did some concerts and expositions to collect money. If you want to participate, you'll finde more information (in german) on http://www.rettet-die-orangerie.de/

Morgan Super Sport

Morgan Super Sport
Originally uploaded by stormbear.

I want one of these :-)

Cricket

Batsman
Originally uploaded by perreira.

Yesterday I went with Martin to a Cricket Match between England and Trinidad and Tobago Fans in Nünberg. Unfortunatly Phil could not join us, so we missed most of the score. But it was fun anyway. Pictures are in the usual places...

Cycling

Did some cycling after work: 17km, average speed 19.8 km/h. The drawn path looks much more oriented than I have been when I was going around, just having a vague idea where I was... (I had the map with me, but I was never sure). I also ordered a step counter today, so be prepared to much more boring stuff like "I walked 10.000 steps today..."

Politics...

University elections are coming. You can tell by the liberals spamming my blog and conservatives having ugly posters with spelling errors plastered all around university. Sometimes I am quite happy to be no student anymore.

GMT and a bit...

Found this on the World-Cup page of RTP, the portuguese public broadcast service. Seems that Portugal is in different times than the rest of europe would have thought...

A short look at the Wikipedia:
The portuguese Wikipedia is amazingly short on GMT, only saying that it was substituted in 1972 by UTC. The german wikipedia is more extense, but does not include summer times. The most concise entry is in the english one, from where we learn that Portugal is indeed in the UTC timezone (formerly GMT), but when in Summertime has UTC+1. Germany has one hour later than Portugal, so it is in UTC+1 (and UTC+2 in summer).

And for those who find that too much to read, there is also pretty pictures on Wikipedia:

Berch

Drinking
Originally uploaded by perreira.

As usual: fun.

Whose fault is it...?

Contrary to Kryptikmo's theories it's all feminism's fault.

Berch Bernd

Berch Bernd
Originally uploaded by perreira.

Memories of the times passed.

Berch

Berch
Originally uploaded by perreira.

Just went to a short visit to the Bergkirchweih. After three beers I went home. They were closing anyway...

As this was a nice quiet evening, the weekend will be hard...

Sharpness

One of the signs I have not spent sufficient time in my Erlangen Flat the last couple of months: the kitchen knives are blunt. They still are sharper than the knives found in most kitchens, but not sharp enough to be of real use. The idal sharpness is reached when a silk cloth falling on the blade gets cut in half by it's own weight. I have not yet reached this, but usually my knives are sharp enough that you only notice that you have cut yourself when you count your fingers or are standing knee deep in blood. The advantages of sharp knives are not only that cutting is much easier, it is also that wounds don't hurt and heal much faster.

So, off from the keyboard and hands on the sharpening steel. (Another word were the german is nicer: Wetzstahl)

At Home

So, I am more or less finally back in Erlangen. Again. And I will never ever go to work at the experiment again. Again. At least I don't have a flat anymore in HH. If you wonder why I prefer the small province town to the big rambling city full of oportunities and interesting and good stuff:

Today I started with breakfast at a friend's place, together with a couple of other friends, having white sausages and beer. Then I went with a really nice and good looking girl to a beer garden with a beautiful view, where I spent the afternoon (we went there with my DKW). The evening I spent with another friend in another beer garden. I did not get anything done today of the stuff I wanted to do (taxes are due, I should clean up my flat, I should prepare something for the tutorials tomorrow...)

In HH, I might have gone to a Cafe and sat there for some hours reading a book or so, but probably would have spent the day watching bad TV series. (Just for the files: I do have a few friends in HH, but I most probably would not be able to get my ass up and do something with them. I usually vegetated through the weekends, not being able to speak or move.)

Tschüss, HH

Since yesterday I don't have a flat in Hamburg anymore. So, from now on, I will have to stay in the guest house or at some friends to be in HH. It feels actually quite relieving, now that I am 100% back to Erlangen and only will go to the north in case of an emergency.

The detector seems to be quite dead now, we set up a test-stand, where we will try to heal some of the radiation damage (as if this would help...). Some modules will be repaired, it will then be installed again in about 4 weeks and then we will discover it did not change anything. So, time to start writing up and leave the sinking ship. Women and children first.

Critics

It seem's that there is intelligent movie critique sometimes:

There has been much debate over Dan Brown’s novel ever since it was published, in 2003, but no question has been more contentious than this: if a person of sound mind begins reading the book at ten o’clock in the morning, at what time will he or she come to the realization that it is unmitigated junk? The answer, in my case, was 10:00.03, shortly after I read the opening sentence: “Renowned curator Jacques Saunière staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum’s Grand Gallery.” With that one word, “renowned,” Brown proves that he hails from the school of elbow-joggers—nervy, worrisome authors who can’t stop shoving us along with jabs of information and opinion that we don’t yet require.

Found in The NewYorker

Hell?

Hell?
Originally uploaded by perreira.

Yes. I did enjoy it :-)

Most searched tags...?

Most searched tags...
Originally uploaded by perreira.

Uploaded not even an hour ago and already 33 views :-) Quite simple to get your pictures popular on Flickr.


EDIT: at 148 views 24 hours later... :-)

Photos

Portrait
Originally uploaded by perreira.

The Scotland Photos are on flickr now... Have fun

The international JetSet Life of PhD Students

Just arrived back from a weekend trip to Glasgow and Edinburgh, will leave tomorrow for Hamburg, then Thursday off to Lund. After that, I might need a holiday and stay a couple of days home...

Pictures of Scotland available soon...