In case you see me the next days and wonder why my right arm is looking strange: there is a reason why they teach you not to put burnable liquids on a barbecue... I tried and my right lower arm got serious burns (first degree, so cooling and desinfecting it with vodka should be sufficient, at least I hope...)
Ah, and by the way, we won the golden pineapple, the city is blocked with football fans celebrating the 3:1 against portugal.
I'll stop typing now because it hurts like hell...
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
So, we lost...
...what's the problem? We went further than anyone would have thought, the world cup has been and still is one big party where people from all over the world are in germany and have fun. For a couple of weeks we were a nice and cheerful nation, showing hospitality and being generally nice and cool. Now we lost. In the last minute of a good and equal game. People started frowning again. People shouted at us "How can you have fun now?". We will turn german again...
I think we lost because Xavier Naidoo was singing before the game. He can kill any heroes with his depressive whining about pseudo religious stuff. But it was a nice game anyway, if you understand german, read more here.
And, by the way, the one who tried to cheer most at the beergarden where we watched the game was an englishman.
Friday, June 30, 2006
Philosophical Aspects of Football
"Se pensamos no título? O nosso principal objectivo é ganhar o próximo jogo, pois não podemos pensar em ser campeões se não conseguirmos bater a Inglaterra", afirmou Luís Figo...
Found in Publico Online. Yes, you can't win the final if you loose the quarter final. What a strange coincidence that is...
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Shutdown
So, back in HH again for the last try to install our detector. The broken modules have been replaced or repaired, additional shielding has been put everywhere and some stuff, which was put together wrongly will be put together correctly. Today was especially boring, coming in around noon, waiting for a task to do, watching a bit of football, some more waiting, then going home. Tomorrow will be either the same or complete stress.
I think I could have stayed in Erlangen, but from the political point of view I need to be here. I just feel a bit misplaced, got some confuse ideas about how many hours people in physics should work, do work and just wait... This stay here will get me more confused than I want to be. I need a holiday, no, I need to finish and leave as soon as possible.
I think I could have stayed in Erlangen, but from the political point of view I need to be here. I just feel a bit misplaced, got some confuse ideas about how many hours people in physics should work, do work and just wait... This stay here will get me more confused than I want to be. I need a holiday, no, I need to finish and leave as soon as possible.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Best Photo Evva!
This photo just broke the 5000 views barrier...
Most of my pictures have 20 views at most. Even the swedish girl in stockings did not get above 800. I have no clue what makes this one special... Is it somebody famous and I am not aware of it? Victoria Beckham, maybe?
Most of my pictures have 20 views at most. Even the swedish girl in stockings did not get above 800. I have no clue what makes this one special... Is it somebody famous and I am not aware of it? Victoria Beckham, maybe?
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...
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...
Monday, June 19, 2006
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/
Friday, June 16, 2006
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Cricket
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...
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
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..."
Monday, June 12, 2006
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.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
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:
Monday, June 05, 2006
Friday, June 02, 2006
Berch
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...
As this was a nice quiet evening, the weekend will be hard...
Monday, May 29, 2006
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)
So, off from the keyboard and hands on the sharpening steel. (Another word were the german is nicer: Wetzstahl)
Sunday, May 28, 2006
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.)
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.)
Saturday, May 27, 2006
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.
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.
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