tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87505922012-01-19T08:24:02.007+01:00Semi-anonymous blog of an Expat in Germany calling herself WiseWoman.WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.comBlogger7261100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-16676695878875762952012-01-17T12:22:00.002+01:002012-01-17T12:22:47.426+01:00

Where did the time go? It seems just a few years ago my little package of energy was (literally) bouncing off the walls. He turns 20 today, and has to work on his birthday. That's grown-up life, kid! But I guess I have to stop calling him a kid, he's as old (if not older) than some of my students. So all the best as you start into your Twenties, WiseYoungMan!

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-40912210299102674332012-01-16T17:30:00.000+01:002012-01-16T17:30:12.613+01:00

Last Monday I stepped down as dean. The details are messy, and I will only communicate them to people orally. Let's just say that the top administration at this school finds it more important to follow perceived protocols than to keep the place running. I was treated in such a disrespectful manner about a supposed fault on my part (I am, and have since been independently determined to be,

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-30840060454603825262011-12-30T17:56:00.000+01:002011-12-30T17:56:13.714+01:00

I decided to stay in a hotel at Newark instead of driving 2 hours on with my family and then after breakfast driving back to Newark (add an hour for rush hour). I chose a hotel a bit further away from the airport (Fairfield Inn) than the expensive in-airport hotels. But they have a bus shuttle to the airport, breakfast is included, and they have free Internet. Sure, I wasn't served at breakfast

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-49683564416837836012011-12-30T05:32:00.001+01:002011-12-30T05:32:28.006+01:00

We were to be heading back home after breakfast this morning, when the telephone rang. It was the Butler post office calling - Daddy had arrived and was on the delivery truck! But we couldn't get it, as it was addressed to the funeral home. Should be delivered by noon. A short discussion later we delayed the return trip in order to complete the burial. We headed for Starbucks, one brother taking

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-24464303820626533462011-12-29T04:36:00.001+01:002011-12-29T04:36:50.993+01:00

"I've been in the business 29 years," the funeral director said, "and I have never had this happen before." Daddy didn't make it to his own funeral. He died over 3 weeks ago in Florida and was cremated 2 weeks ago there. He was to be sent certified mail with the grand and glorious United States Postal Service to the funeral home in Butler, PA, where the funeral was held today. Apparently, the

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-79758667358915695542011-12-27T01:40:00.001+01:002011-12-27T01:40:34.549+01:00

The day after Christmas is generally a normal working day in the US, but in England it is called Boxing Day. My brother and his family attend an Episcopalian church, which is rooted in England, so their rector has a Boxing Day reception. I tagged along as sister-of. The parsonage was packed with people when we arrived. The rooms were filled with Christmas decorations and knickknacks galore. The

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-43672097815357275572011-12-25T04:48:00.000+01:002011-12-25T04:48:02.667+01:00

It is a tradition in my brother's family to spend Christmas Eve in the best city in the world - New York. So we did an early run to get fish for dinner, I stood in a long line at the French Bakery to get croissants and baguettes, and my brother got coffee at Starbucks. We gulped down breakfast and got into the car with the princesses and drove down to New York. At that hour of the morning you

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-32779410148730021132011-12-24T13:13:00.001+01:002011-12-24T13:13:56.527+01:00

For the last appearance of Elf on the Shelf we decided he needed a pool party: Yes, that's the Mermaid Barbie I gave to one of the princesses for her birthday. That elf looks pretty wasted. I wonder where Ken has been all month? Merry Christmas!

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-12242921243086897052011-12-24T13:05:00.001+01:002011-12-24T13:05:32.046+01:00

No, it is not enough that people decorate their trees, here. Nor their houses. They also decorate their cars. Antlers and a red nose. My sister-in-law says that there is an Easter version as well. Glad I'm not here for that. Most of the houses are relatively decent in their decorations. A wreath on every window, a Santa on the roof. The public decorations are prolific, but non-religious:

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-79698220273310544742011-12-24T03:34:00.002+01:002011-12-24T03:34:36.457+01:00

I've been hearing about the trials of having an "Elf on the Shelf" from my sister-in-law's Facebook page, but I really didn't understand what this was about. It seems, however, that this is all the rage here this year. The princesses were telling me excitedly about all the other kids they know with their own elves. It is a doll, dressed up like an elf. Apparently, he listens to the kids in the

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-80403336809528175312011-12-19T16:43:00.001+01:002011-12-19T16:43:22.361+01:00

I was accompanying WiseMan to a Christmas party in his department that one of the postdocs was hosting. The postdoc had also included families and kids that their kids knew from school and kindergarten, so there were quite a lot of kids milling around. After most of the kids left and we were able to enjoy the punch in relative quiet, the woman sitting next to me stood up to gather up her kids.

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-16735085459442647352011-12-18T21:02:00.000+01:002011-12-19T16:43:42.981+01:00

We had the service of lessons and carols this evening at our church. We normally have about 20-25 people at service, often 3 of them kids. This evening there were about 130 people and a dozen kids, people come for the Christmas carols. One of our regular kids, Leonie, age 5, grabbed my hand as I was collecting the offering. "Why are all these people here this evening?" She was seriously

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-23115608217612664412011-12-11T23:39:00.001+01:002011-12-11T23:46:25.846+01:00

There's a strange feeling about this evening. It's Sunday night, time to connect with the family night. For years, my mother wrote a letter to her parents every Sunday evening while watching TV after dinner. When I moved to Germany, I got a Sunday letter every time the German post office was so moved to deliver the letter. Sometimes I got them 3 days later, sometimes 8 days, sometimes 2 weeks

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-924527860148467642011-12-06T22:38:00.001+01:002011-12-06T23:04:49.272+01:00

Strange - when I got dressed this morning I somehow couldn't bear to have color on, although it was our grand foundation laying ceremony. Black was the only thing I felt comfortable wearing, with a grey and black coat. Someone remarked that I was all in black and I noted that at least the top button was in the school color. It was a rough day, for other reasons. I got home, wanted to just sit

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-79139023489258729302011-12-03T14:16:00.001+01:002011-12-03T23:34:22.993+01:00

My brother flew down to see what was up with the parents, the rehab clinic had insisted that he come, and come soon. I've been having trouble reaching him, he's been whisked off to this hospital or that rehab, but in general I've been able to track him down for our weekly call. He's dying. We've known that for years, no, decades. He spent the longest time trying to drink himself to death, but

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-56267239794758755842011-12-02T22:50:00.001+01:002011-12-03T01:14:31.207+01:00

We went to the local English-language cinema this evening to see Carnage while munching proper salted popcorn. The theater was pretty well filled, but we had good seats, i.e. the tall guy sat down just to the right of me. Oh my, what a funny play. Ingmar Bergman would be proud of all the shifting alliances, the deep-seated emotions, the allusions to deeper problems. And Christoph Waltz plays the

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-74967946988624902622011-11-15T12:10:00.001+01:002011-11-15T12:19:12.966+01:00

WiseMan reminded me that I had promised that we would still go to the theater even without a subscription and it was already November and I work far too much anyway. So we got tickets to the last performance of Kafka's "Das Schloß" at the Kammerspiele of the Deutsches Theater.  When we were let into the room, the play was already in progress. And they were fighting about how to start off. There

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-10264273916279451612011-11-12T22:19:00.001+01:002011-11-12T22:36:10.166+01:00

The past 10 days or so have been exceedingly chaotic and stressful, I've pretty much just been using the apartment as a place to sleep, change clothes, get a cup of coffee and go on to the next thing. So when the person we had invited to dinner this evening begged off at short notice, we decided to have a nice dinner on the town. WiseMan had been to Munch's Hus before, as they do the catering at

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-17953771113145561682011-11-04T15:53:00.001+01:002011-11-04T18:47:00.166+01:00

My ears are still ringing, and I had earplugs on, industrial ones. But I had a good time! Back in the summer I got an email asking me if I would participate in Professorennacht, a special disco night where professors DJ with their favorite songs. Since I normally just get asked to speak on one topic and one topic only, I thought this would be nice to try out. And I've never been a DJ before. I

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-62961262903787526902011-10-25T22:49:00.000+02:002011-10-25T22:49:37.181+02:00

I was at the Berlin Philharmonic Concert Hall Tuesday evening to hear the world premiere of John Allison Campbell's Lux Mundi. I've known John for many, many years. He's American, from the wrong side of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) and was living in Friedenau. I was American, from the right side of Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh) and was living in Friedenau. We met at the little Methodist church in

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-30611855919959667372011-10-20T23:26:00.002+02:002011-10-20T23:26:50.229+02:00

I had a strange call on my answering machine. One of my doctors wanted me to please call back when I have time, she had a private thing she wanted to discuss with me about a patient. Strange. I'm not a doctor. But whatever. She was still in her office when I got out of the dentist's chair this afternoon, and she was happy to see me. She has a patient, dying of a seldom cancer that is not

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-19768008283587214822011-10-15T11:06:00.002+02:002011-10-15T11:08:21.859+02:00

The Danish newspaper 24timer reports (http://www.e-pages.dk/24timer/3009/, page 7) on October 14, 2011 that from the first of the year you can only purchase a public transportation pass (Rejsekort) with your social security number, name, address, email, and bank account information. The transportation company is planning on registering individual travel in order to "optimize" their network. If

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-38031442463735446342011-10-03T21:48:00.000+02:002011-10-03T21:48:35.833+02:00

The German press is panning it, but we gathered the usual gang of suspects and headed out to the Hackische Höfe to see Margin Call in English with subtitles. Or rather, it was in Financialese with a lot of f-words thrown in and some really outstanding German titles that transported the essence of what was being said, not just a word-for-word translation. Okay, the movie theater is on the top

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-91345507643598456152011-09-06T22:04:00.002+02:002011-09-06T23:42:29.036+02:00

It is election time in Berlin, and the local parties are given time on the local radio and TV stations to promote their platforms. They don't have to pay for it like in the US (they can buy more, of course), so all the parties get at least one TV and one radio spot. Oh, and they are often soooo funny, as they don't really have a budget to hire professional producers. Someone writes a script (

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-3455849677779387342011-08-28T13:51:00.001+02:002011-08-28T13:51:49.368+02:00

The back cover of Roadside Crosses starts with:"On the Internet, you can never be sure who is listening. Anyone can discover your secrets, you deepest fears."Okay, another scary-internet mystery. Politicians suffer a lot from Scary Internet Syndrome (have a read at Lauren Weinstein's Why governments are afraid of social media while you are at it). But it's a Jeffery Deaver story, so I dive it.The

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-38157140793278676522011-08-21T00:12:00.001+02:002011-08-21T00:12:33.273+02:00

WiseMan found this for me at that strange little bookstore, a book by Douglas Copeland that I hadn't read yet. Oh my, I do like how he writes, I've been hooked since I got my mitts on "Microserfs". Miss Wyoming is no different. Once you get down into this zany story, you have to keep reading or you will lose all of the many threads that are flying around, still unresolved. There is the occasional

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-91358337408394829572011-08-19T00:39:00.000+02:002011-08-19T00:39:26.437+02:00

On our way to Genarp the other day our friend pointed out the Dalby church. "You've been to see that, of course." Uh, no. We've never actually been this way. Is it nice? Well, it's the oldest stone church around here and there used to be a bishop there and it has a great view and ... So picking up another friend after work in Lund today, we suggested driving out to Dalby. We had packed a picnic

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-46045253010572512422011-08-18T00:22:00.002+02:002011-08-18T00:26:32.886+02:00

We so liked Sound of Noise when we saw it last year in Lübeck and had noticed that it was being shown for one night only at different small towns around Skåne. Tuesday night finally fit into our schedule, i.e. we had time and there was not a monsoon expected. We had a great dinner with friends in Lund and one of them accompanied us to Gennarp. Genarp, pronounced strangely enough as jenarp. Never

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-75050623647336823482011-08-14T17:50:00.000+02:002011-08-14T17:50:30.050+02:00

We decided to spend the day in Lund because it was raining so hard. We split up, WiseMan taking the bookstores and the DVD collections, and me checking out the clothing situation. We met back at a book store not far from the Parkhaus. We browsed around, speaking German with each other, and then went to the cash register. I had a Douglas Copeland I had somehow missed, and WiseMan the usual

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-33057594625203571202011-08-11T23:25:00.000+02:002011-08-11T23:25:09.387+02:00

You know that you are seriously behind in film-watching when you find a film you were planning to see on the El Cheapo racks at the supermarket. Especially when it even got an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. So we popped in Juno after starting in on Mel Brookes' "History of the World" and deciding after 10 minutes that a better use of the DVD that film is on would be as a coaster. Or in the

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-25303036099385648142011-08-05T00:32:00.000+02:002011-08-05T00:32:00.928+02:00

Since so many people are talking about it, we decided to have a look at "Super 8" this evening. I don't want to give away cool things about the film, but it is sort of a mixture of "Die Drei Fragezeichen", "E.T.", and "Romeo and Juliet". Well, okay, E.T. if the kids hadn't found him and sent him home, but the military had gotten their fingers on him. There was always a kind of rumor going around

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-29104117245280735652011-07-31T22:20:00.000+02:002011-07-31T22:20:03.392+02:00

Every other year we meet up with the princesses - now 6, 8, and 10 - in some European country for a family vacation. This year, we met with them in Barcelona, and took WiseKid and WiseKidGirlfriend along. WKG was very anxious about this - she would have to speak English all week. But a week of sun in Spain together with WK was very, very promising, so she came along as well. We had a lovely

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-51705656911793668592011-07-16T23:08:00.000+02:002011-07-16T23:08:42.130+02:00

We got a monthly train pass in order to see the Women's World Cup games (that blog post is still missing....). It still has a few days left on it, so we decided to take a day trip today. Leipzig is only an hour away by high-speed train, and I've never been there. WiseMan was there once before the wall came down and once just after it came down, but that was 20 years ago, so it really was time.

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-74132451222686706342011-07-14T23:04:00.000+02:002011-07-14T23:04:32.135+02:00

Oh dear. Has it really been a month since I last wrote? Women's World Cup, WiseKid moved out, VroniPlag - I've barely had time to sleep, let alone blog. And I don't answer all my emails any more. But I had this post in my head the whole way home, so I need to get it written NOW! WiseMan picked up the notice a while back that Ringo Starr was going to be touring Europe with a new All Starr Band.

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-85785212980644531362011-06-25T20:57:00.001+02:002011-06-25T20:57:24.010+02:00

WiseMan asked the usual suspects over dinner last night if any wanted to come with him to see Incendies (in German: Die Frau die singt - the woman who sings). Since I have spent far too much time on plagiarism recently and not on being social, I agreed to join in, even if I knew exactly zero about this film which just opened in Germany and was an nominee for the best foreign film at the Oscars.As

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-22752086036947750182011-06-17T23:38:00.001+02:002011-06-17T23:38:25.563+02:00

I was getting my lunch in the Mensa. I had a large cup of water and one small salad on my tray and was getting a second. For some bizarre reason, two small salads - which have more contents - cost less than one large one, so everyone who wants a larger salad gets two. I had the tray on the counter and reached over to fill the second bowl.A male student reached over my tray to fill his bowl, and

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-80075775059138644622011-06-14T18:38:00.000+02:002011-06-14T18:38:38.278+02:00

Try googling "SAS Lost Luggage" sometime. It seems that SAS losing luggage is the norm from Kastrup, not the exception. Maybe it has something to do with their fully automated baggage handling system? No wonder people don't check stuff and try and get all their stuff into the overhead bins! I had flown up to Copenhagen and actually got my bag in time to get an earlier train over to Sweden -

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-47294222848352943322011-06-14T14:06:00.004+02:002011-06-14T16:16:29.813+02:00

I am doing an exercise with my first semester programming students today on CRC cards and we are using the Booch Method to find the candidate classes. This involves underlining nouns in a printed version of the specification in one color and underlining the verbs in another color. I have a bucked of felt pens I've used over the years for this exercise, but they have all dried up. So this

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-74704191715975852162011-06-11T14:14:00.001+02:002011-06-11T14:14:04.181+02:00

Anja C. Wagner writes "Let the Games Begin" in her edufuture blog:Mein Eindruck in Zusammenarbeit mit Studierenden ist schon lange, dass viele ihr Studium als schlechteres World of Warcraft ansehen: mit Missions (= Kurse), Tasks (= erforderliche Aufgaben für Schein), Zeitdruck (vor Abgabe oder vor Klausuren), (Credit) Points und Scheine als Badges, die mit Bachelor, Master, PhD als Bonus winken.

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-9619674628295258602011-06-07T22:56:00.000+02:002011-06-07T22:56:27.098+02:00

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir was in Berlin this evening, answering questions posed by Andrea Fischer (former Minister of Health from the Green Party and candidate for local mayor in one of the boroughs here) about her life. The occasion was the publication of the German translation of "Frau Präsident", a biography of the life of the first freely elected female president in the world.  Halldór

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-71301742404972256932011-06-04T20:46:00.000+02:002011-06-04T20:46:43.143+02:00

Brrr. The news has been full today of some restaurant in Lübeck at which 17 of the EHEC victims had eaten. One of the victims has died. It was the weekend we were in Lübeck. I scoured Twitter and the 'net, looking for the name of the restaurant. I wanted to know if I needed to worry. Of course, if they publish the name and this is not the cause, they've ruined the restaurant's reputation. But

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-56474594369482733722011-06-04T20:41:00.000+02:002011-06-04T20:41:33.882+02:00

Yes. I finally bought one. Shelled out 28 € for it. It better be good. I wonder if I can sue them for infringement of my nick. I mean, it's registered on IRC and Wikipedia and all.

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-23433126789823578892011-05-22T00:53:00.001+02:002011-05-22T00:53:27.760+02:00

WiseMan put an entry into our joint calendar that just had dates and times on it - no inkling of what it was. We're going to Lübeck, he said. We'll stay with friends. The rest is a surprise. I tried to google what was going on in Lübeck that weekend, but didn't come up with much that would interest me. And no one would tell me, so I just showed up at the train station at the appointed hour.It

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-20586346058349563202011-05-06T18:08:00.000+02:002011-05-06T18:08:18.882+02:00

WiseMan has insisted that we go to the theater more often instead of vegging out on the sofa with Tatort or Wallendar. He's right, we both actually love theater, it's just the hassle of a) finding an evening and b) deciding which one to go to, Berlin has so many theaters. We used to belong to a theater club (Freie Volksbühne), it was kind of neat. The cheapest subscription was "we give you two

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-58916086549565507032011-05-01T00:08:00.000+02:002011-05-01T00:08:14.356+02:00

I'm in Sweden over the weekend, trying to get a paper finished that was promised to a journal weeks ago. But I just don't seem to be able to write in Berlin. I have to be in Sweden, fuss around in the garden, and then write, write, write, usually with the fire going and a nice glass of red wine on my desk. I came up by train just for a longish weekend, having no appointments for some reason the

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-11848217986707506312011-04-23T17:48:00.001+02:002011-04-23T17:48:46.825+02:00

Just because I haven't blogged about them doesn't mean that I haven't been reading! I've just finished the third book that needs blogged about, so here's my take on them:Daniel Suarez, FreedomTM. I *loved* Daemon, so I was very eager to get started on the sequel. The Daemon now has control of pretty much all of the world, but it turns out, Pete isn't dead, that was part of an elaborate plot by

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-73587664441108096202011-04-19T11:11:00.000+02:002011-04-19T11:11:26.064+02:00

Yesterday and today I was trying to navigate Berlin's streets with my car. I had to drive from Oberschöneweide up to Prenzlauer Berg yesterday and today from home to Oberschöneweide. The part-time bicyclists have gotten their bicycles out of the cellar, but they forgot to get bike helmets out and they forgot to check if the lights still work. They've also forgotten how the traffic regulations

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-26510104778537630722011-04-16T15:48:00.001+02:002011-04-16T15:48:47.737+02:00

Woo-hoo, WiseKid got a job! WiseKidGirlfriend kicked his butt for months on the topic, and finally his excuses ran out. So he managed to get a cover letter written, and asked Mom to help him write a CV. I dug out the dates of starting this school, getting kicked out and going to that school, military service, etc. It looked bad. Who in their right mind would hire a kid like this? However, I

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-21340629632725527182011-04-08T08:25:00.001+02:002011-04-08T08:25:58.584+02:00

On a train trip I couldn't help listening in to the group sitting across from me, chilling from a long day doing something in Berlin.Young Turk pulls a big bottle of water out of his bag.Blonde Lady exclaims: "What? Do you carry all that water with you?"YT: "Sure, I like to drink a lot of water"BL: "But that's one and a half kilos you carry around with you all day!"YT: "What?"BL: "The bottle is

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-30581259420463378762011-04-02T14:33:00.001+02:002011-04-02T14:33:23.642+02:00

I finally had a Saturday for going grocery shopping at a normal time and not 15 minutes before the store closes. And oh my, you really see what a small town Berlin is. First up was a woman I recently did a project with, hadn't seen her since the project was over - we had a nice chat, including making a man trying to get some stuff we were standing in front of smile when we noted "Guys are so

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-5398979870394563152011-03-27T00:12:00.000+01:002011-03-27T00:12:46.570+01:00

It was a grey, drizzly morning and we had serious stiff leg muscles from all that walking. After checking out we dumped our bags at the train station and went to the national museum after getting some gifts for the ResidentTeenagers (who both actually liked what we got them). The soccer exhibition was all in Czech, so we spent an hour in the café. It was decorated in 50s style GDR-charm, with

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-67456337968104063042011-03-26T22:02:00.001+01:002011-03-27T00:04:48.849+01:00

After re-shoeing we decided to hop the next tram and look for some lunch. We first hit Kafka's haunt at the Grand Hotel Europa café - no way. The place reeks of smoke and there is no non-smoking section. We find a nice ice cream place that has great cake - but the seats are vintage plastic McDonalds and the smoking section is not divided from the non-smoking section by anything more than an

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-39258599388453610962011-03-26T21:59:00.004+01:002011-03-26T23:25:41.711+01:00

Instead of heading out to the Hrad?any with all the other tourists in Prague this morning, we climbed the Vyšehrad fortress, which is just behind our hotel. We took a shortcut that ended up being a very steep set of steps. We ended up at the foot of the fortress and were faced with a decision: left or right? We spied a hoard of young people coming up the street to the left, so we went right - and

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-43062528761154812592011-03-25T21:54:00.002+01:002011-03-26T22:18:42.919+01:00

After lunch we walked through the Kempa park and around some twisty streets to find the Lennon Wall. This is where some young people put up a commemoration graffiti about the death of John Lennon. The secret police decided this was a cover for planning terrorist plots to overthrow the government and filmed everything, then painted over the graffiti. Which reappeared. And got painted over again.

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-1295081770855141702011-03-24T21:29:00.004+01:002011-03-26T22:54:37.574+01:00

After a good breakfast - WiseMan enjoyed an English breakfast (who wants beans for breakfast?) and they even had soy milk for my cereal - we jumped on the next tram to pass our way. We had to change trains in order to get up to the Jewish part of Prague. It was cold, but the sun was shining as we walked aimlessly through the streets. The houses are often very ornamental and there are lots of nice

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-50736702688862916002011-03-24T21:03:00.007+01:002011-03-27T12:02:35.735+02:00

I had mentioned to WiseMan that it might be nice to take a short trip to some place we haven't been before, maybe Prague, as he was there on a school field trip many moons ago. He didn't let this chance slide by, 30 minutes later he had the hotel booked and the train reservations done. And so we got up early Wednesday morning and got the train just before 9am from Südkreuz. I's just around the

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-13371918322482846292011-03-21T09:56:00.001+01:002011-03-21T09:56:17.941+01:00

Even though I seemed to spend all of last week answering more or less silly emails, I was technically on vacation. I went for a walk, went swimming, visited with friends, shopped, and went to a movie (gasp!). WiseMan had announced that was having no truck with the silly Oscar-winning show, so I would have to go myself.Since I missed the English version in Berlin (and it absolutely must be seen in

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-37146716747253613762011-03-05T19:18:00.000+01:002011-03-05T19:18:49.884+01:00

Since most of the zu Guttenberg excitement has died down, we actually made it to a movie last night: Nowhere Boy. It's the story of John Lennon as a teenager, growing up in Liverpool at his Aunt Mimi's and restarting a relationship with his birthmother. It's the story of an angry young man, a rebel not willing to let himself be pressed into a particular mold. And it's a very sad story at times -

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-779960697163512992011-02-23T09:28:00.001+01:002011-02-23T09:28:11.561+01:00

Oh. My.I was just sent a link to this machine in a computer museum. It is not only similar to the machine I spent 15 months (!) of my life slaving at, it is the exact same machine I fought with, trying to shoehorn a > 64 KB (right, KILObyte) program into the 64 kB + 64 kB "extra storage" that turned out to not be directly addressable.

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-55701995977064063622011-02-12T22:08:00.000+01:002011-02-12T22:08:40.005+01:00

so I could fix the missing right parenthesis. Having spent 7 years of my life working on a dissertation in LISP, this does, indeed cause a lot of tension... :)

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-24872535270697494952011-02-09T23:23:00.002+01:002011-02-10T17:24:20.521+01:00

Ahhh, handball again, after that horrible World Cup we'll just forget quickly.... The team the Füchse were playing, DHC Rheinland, had just registered for bankruptcy yesterday, the Füchse paid for their bus so they could come to Berlin. The Füchse had already rented the hall, printed up the flyers and ordered the catering, they were not amused at the thought of missing all that income. Anyway.

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-43729659581661264052011-02-03T23:52:00.000+01:002011-02-03T23:52:01.990+01:00

I just heard a commotion in the kitchen and went to check up on WiseKid and his Girlfriend, who are cooking a late night snack. They had a pot of noodles on a high boil on the gas stove and she reached over to grab the frying pan to put the onions in. She was wearing a flowing jacket that got too close to the flame - and suddenly she was on fire. WiseKid dropped whatever it was he had in his

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-87129674212550026792011-01-22T00:34:00.001+01:002011-01-22T00:34:45.842+01:00

I received an email that I have to answer as dean. It was sent in CC to the president, the chancellor and the vice president for studies. As if triplicate helps, they all just forward this to me for answering.This guy thinks our women's program is against the law because it "discriminates". And it's idiotic, just like women's parking spaces and women's quotas.Listen up, Junior. Because women are

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-89801534629600623812011-01-21T20:56:00.000+01:002011-01-21T20:56:34.362+01:00

It was just before the fifth block Thursday afternoon, I was in the dean's office speaking with a colleague when a horn sounded. Now, they've been putting in new alarms all the time and there are alarms sounding off every now and then. But it was coming out of a thingy on the wall that I had heard spoken of as the fire alarm. I checked the door, opened it, and the alarm was louder outside and

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-45754205670715951502011-01-17T00:55:00.000+01:002011-01-17T00:55:43.557+01:00

I've always thought that Sarah Palin represented the right-wing loony fraction (that is getting frightfully large in the US). And I was so irritated about her poster with the gun sights next to 20 representatives including Gabrielle Giffords, I felt that she could not get any lower. She did. Mark Chu-Carroll from the blog Good Math, Bad Math alerted me to the exact words of her statement:

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-30367735989276516982011-01-16T13:35:00.000+01:002011-01-16T13:35:01.172+01:00

It's been 10 years since the Wikipedia was started, although according the the folklore I know it was not on the 15th but on the 16th of January in 2001 that the first article was put up on the Internet: This is not a real article, and the color suggests that the article on the United States is already there, but it is fun in that it shows some of the problems we have overcome in the Wikipedia.

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-88073843876053561422011-01-14T21:12:00.000+01:002011-01-14T21:12:02.224+01:00

We have new rules at school. Everything that cost more than 50 € has to have an inventory sticker put on it. A big sticker, printed with ink that rubs off quickly. The one on my laptop has long since worn off. I got three today. Two are for camera pens I bought. There's not enough surface area on the pens to stick the suckers, and that would rather hamper using the little buttons to turn them on

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-80450973555372199822011-01-11T00:03:00.000+01:002011-01-11T00:03:56.915+01:00

Happy New Year! I made myself take public transit again today. The light rail has not been running regularly in Berlin for weeks (Stop the presses! It snows in Europe in winter!), so I've had a grand excuse to take the car to work. But I do have a yearly pass, and I need to get some use out of it. The way to work wasn't bad, I read in a thesis and had a lovely chat with some women computing

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-19286179188332054352010-12-28T19:45:00.001+01:002010-12-28T19:45:55.368+01:00

The highlight of today's 27C3 was the world premiere of "The Concert", a disconcerting moment for free culture. Canadian violinist Corey Cerovsek, French pianist Julien Quentin and artist manager Alex Antener hacked this hacker's convention, injecting excellent classical music in a performance about the evils of non-free culture.There is a mix of projected chat, video, and visuals with some great

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-85669392294241479812010-12-27T23:48:00.001+01:002010-12-27T23:48:14.992+01:00

Brrrrr. I thought The System was scary. This book is worse, even scarier. Daniel Suarez knows what he is talking about in Daemon, in which a rich game designer dies and leaves a program running that rather takes over the world. And almost none of the technology is too far-fetched.I'm currently attending the 27C3, and there were two things spoken about at the conference today that are in the book:

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-50665014255256998162010-12-26T13:37:00.002+01:002010-12-26T13:41:44.419+01:00

I was sorting out something or other last night and knocked over the pile of business cards I have on a desk. I have exchanged business cards will all sorts of people over the years, I don't throw them away. Ones that I use get put in my Rolodex (yes, even in the digital world I use a Rolodex because I can't remember the name of the people I'm looking for, but riffling through the cards I can

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-31026836218161822662010-12-25T21:03:00.000+01:002010-12-25T21:03:58.612+01:00

We seem to be reviving old habits this year. We had friends over for dinner and decided to make cheese fondue. We haven't done that in years, no idea why not because it is delicious. But trying to find the caquelon was an exercise in frustration - where did it go? Another pot was pressured into service, and a panic call to the guests to see if they had a stand with the thing-a-ma-jig for heating

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-13035072626401720102010-12-19T22:15:00.000+01:002010-12-19T22:15:17.462+01:00

I had a nice chat with a gentleman in the know this evening about WikiLeaks. Since he was speaking to me as a private person and not in an official capacity, he shall remain nameless. He brought up the issue that has been bothering him since this whole thing broke: Why was it possible to obtain this much data - much of it marked secret - without someone knowing? Who was (still is? I would

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-88370372791520622202010-12-17T20:09:00.000+01:002010-12-17T20:09:59.921+01:00

Two weeks ago during one of our "terror warnings" I had an unexpected free morning. I got some things sorted out, and on my way to an afternoon meeting I treated myself to lunch at Salomon's Bagels. I love bagels, and there is a great little bagel store next to the Jewish bookstore in the Joachimsthaler Str. The bookstore usually has a policeman standing outside, guarding it, and this day was

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-19124078872281906912010-12-16T22:37:00.000+01:002010-12-16T22:37:53.394+01:00

Scary. I just finished a German thriller, Das System, by Karl Olsberg. Olsberg is a pseudonym for an author and entrepreneur with a doctorate in artificial intelligence. The book is about computer suddenly misbehaving - and it's not just the operating systems, it's a creature that consists only of code. Intelligent code. The story is well-written, pulls you inward and onwards, and is correct in

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-45191977208921852452010-12-12T00:36:00.000+01:002010-12-12T00:36:40.893+01:00

I've been meaning to write something about WikiLeaks for days, but I don't seem to have any time, as I spend any excess minutes I might have reading about WikiLeaks and interpreting it for others. So many people have no idea what a wiki is, what WikiLeaks is, how it differs from Wikipedia, that I feel called upon to try and educate them. The bizarreness of Sarah Palin calling for Julian

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-12712024560010188942010-11-28T11:37:00.001+01:002010-11-28T11:37:38.768+01:00

We stumble from Thanksgiving right on to Advent! I celebrated Thanksgiving as usual in Germany, a day late. Not having the day off rather cramps your style getting the foods ready, but it worked well this year. Friends did the bird and used the 15 minutes that it needs to wait before carving to drive over, I did all the fixings. I did pumpkin and apple pie, as well as the cranberry relish the

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-14519667603929027932010-11-13T15:48:00.000+01:002010-11-13T15:48:22.176+01:00

I saw the German film "Plug & Pray" (Trailer) by Jens Schanze on opening night, November 11, in Berlin. It is about Joseph Weizenbaum and his very critical discussion of the attempts of many computing researchers to create robots that are in some way human, often called humanoids. The interview scenes of Weizenbaum were done just before he died in March 2008. Weizenbaum was a German-born

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-25595553552510404572010-11-08T00:08:00.000+01:002010-11-08T00:08:50.122+01:00

And the other films I saw at the Nordic Film Festival 2010: Run Sister Run Finnish film about two teenage girls - one good, one bad. The good one turns bad, the two of them raise hell, and then the good one turns good again.  Caspar and the Forbidden Movie Finnish director Caspar Wrede made a film in 1970 about Alexandr Solzhenitsyn's "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich". The world was happy

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-20081451865105648422010-11-08T00:04:00.001+01:002010-11-07T23:21:25.556+01:00

The Polish-Swedish co-production Between Two Fires is about asylum seekers. Marta is a single mother in Belarus and lives with an older man, letting him use her, in order to have food for her girl. She works as a cleaner at the train station. One day Jurii comes by and sees her daughter, and when she comes home a few days later she finds her daughter raped by and sold to Jurii. He takes young

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-64308707903792436292010-11-07T23:05:00.002+01:002010-11-07T23:33:03.332+01:00

Ahhhhh! A Scandinavian film that does not involve alcoholic, divorced parents, juvenile deliquients, the Nazi occupation, or pedophilia! Okay, there is anarchy involved - serious anarchy. And art. Much fun is made of the musical establishment and a case made for the rhythm, the music to be found in a city. The music involved in Sound of Noise consists of four pieces of music for six drummers

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-55312002020253887442010-11-07T23:04:00.005+01:002010-11-07T23:19:10.453+01:00

It's the Nordic Film Festival in Lübeck again, an I was finally able to visit on a Friday. It is much better with fewer people queuing for the films. The only problem is that they are showing three Icelandic films at the same time! Are there so many people interested in Icelandic films? My first choice had to be Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's new film "Mamma Gógó". It is a typical FTF film with sly

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-28826970777416438392010-10-31T11:33:00.001+01:002010-10-31T11:34:24.759+01:00

I used the hour given to us this morning upon turning the clocks back to finish off Margret Drabble's The Sea Lady. It is a rather odd tale of academics and aging. Two academics in their 60s are traveling to the (presumably, I can't find it on Wikipedia) northern coastal town of Ornemouth to receive honorary doctorates at the new university there, which is desperately trying to pretend that it

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-84911700828642426802010-10-20T23:41:00.001+02:002010-10-20T23:45:05.175+02:00

We saw the Swedish comedy Farsan (Daddy) by Josef Fares this evening in a well-visited film club in Berlin - in Swedish! Fares is the director of other comedies such as Kopps and Jalla, Jalla, both family favorites. I also saw Leo, a more serious film, a few years ago at the Berlinale. Farsan features Fares father, Jan Fares, a Swedish actor of Lebanese descent as - what else? - the father. Such

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-84639009889421192462010-10-15T12:21:00.001+02:002010-10-15T12:21:45.992+02:00

Our engineering college does not have doctoral programs (none are allowed to grant doctorates in Germany). But there are some "friendly" universities that realize that a few of us actually are able to do some research, and have been reaching out to us. We even tried to get money together, but that was rejected because engineering colleges don't do Real Research (tm) by definition, so you can't be

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-16493795799284311682010-10-09T14:14:00.000+02:002010-10-09T14:14:48.032+02:00

WiseMan and his soccer buddy took me to the soccer game Germany vs. Turkey last night in the Olympia Stadium in Berlin. The game had been preceded by a lot of hype, since Berlin is the second largest Turkish city, making this an "away" game for the German team, even though it was played in Germany. The 75 000 tickets were sold out within minutes of the open selling, but WiseMan had luckily

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-862424066180090622010-10-08T14:39:00.001+02:002010-10-08T14:39:25.687+02:00

The Berlin daily Tagesspiegel has an excellent article today about being German: Man wird nie Deutscher. A German business man and politician, Ozan Ceyhun, who was born in Turkey and fled as a teenager to Germany is having coffee with former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Schröder invited people who were instrumental in getting him elected over for a visit. Schröder settles in for a chat with

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-55973768005099467452010-10-07T23:04:00.001+02:002010-10-07T23:04:28.639+02:00

Yes, it's been rather quiet around here lately. We've been getting WiseKid out of his old apartment and off to the army at the same time the semester started. Sleep? When do I have time for that?WiseKid reports on long hours at boot camp (they let them use their phones for half an hour evenings) and bad food in the mess hall. But he's in a room with a bunch of "cool guys", so that must make life

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-20775028475327464802010-09-27T00:58:00.001+02:002010-09-27T09:01:26.116+02:00

This year was a special marathon in Berlin. We've always enjoyed going out and cheering people on (and wondering what drives all these thousands of people to run 42.195 kilometers or so in just a few hours). A friend used to run and we'd try and spot him. But this year my good friend from Iceland is over with her running group - and she is running her first marathon the far side of 50. Crazy.

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-64354583161434895882010-09-24T12:17:00.000+02:002010-09-24T12:17:21.305+02:00

After an interview downtown I decided to enjoy the autumn sun and have a nice chai latte at 'Bux. I managed to score a chair at a table on the sunny side and watched the groups of school kids, the throngs of Asian tour groups, and the business people hurrying here and there with their computer cases. At nearby tables they sat with their iPhones and iPads and worked and yakked on the phone. I

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-44863321146737168522010-09-24T11:58:00.003+02:002010-09-24T12:00:17.214+02:00

I attended a {sounding code} concert last night with a good friend, her son was having a premiere of one of his pieces of computer music that evening. The concert took place in the Wave Field Auditorium at the TU Berlin. They have 832 loudspeakers in a 600+ seat auditorium that are driven by an assortment of computers in order to permit, among other things, generating the impression of sound in

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-14929004137141510922010-09-18T19:28:00.002+02:002010-09-18T23:14:50.240+02:00

The German government made a speedy decision to let our rotting atomic power plants continue to produce for another 14 years, although there is still no secure place to put the radiating garbage they produce and the "Asse" that was built to survive 100.000 years is already leaking after 40.... One assumes that the energy companies lobbied hard (= paid a lot) for this, as this is pretty much free

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-13131402245423928492010-09-11T23:29:00.000+02:002010-09-11T23:29:00.164+02:00

I suppose this is just spam search results.

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-20077905774079568902010-09-07T12:14:00.000+02:002010-09-07T12:14:22.392+02:00

I popped up to Norway Sunday evening and back Monday night on a cheap flight. I was giving a talk at a college near the airport that Ryanair calls Oslo (about 150 km south east of city hall). I've been on Easyjet and Air Berlin before, the former was strenuous, but the latter was a luxury trip compared to Ryanair. Okay, the price was right, but honestly, I was getting the flight reimbursed, so I

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-11427004779173607832010-09-03T23:38:00.000+02:002010-09-03T23:38:24.138+02:00

I was visiting someone at the university I used to work for 20 years ago today. After our lunch date I had about an hour to kill before I had to get to my next appointment. As I passed the library I decided to pop in. I had always liked sitting there, reading the current magazines and chancing on fascinating books. The lockers seem to be the same ones ... the sofas seem to be the same ones ...

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-60333057581896562782010-09-01T23:42:00.000+02:002010-09-01T23:42:37.735+02:00

I tagged along with the usual suspects to see "Vergebung" last night, the German version of "Luftslottet som sprängdes",  the last of the Stieg Larsson Millenium trilogy. The movie is sooooo interesting, that it felt like I hadn't seen it before, although it was only a few months ago. Maybe there is such a difference in the TV and the movie version. Anyway - worth it to see it twice!

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-27861952635194685792010-08-23T18:29:00.001+02:002010-08-23T18:34:07.411+02:00

Now I know what that strange scratching noise is that I hear when I am working. WiseMan was cleaning out the weeds and dead flowers from the flower bed, when he saw a prickly nose sticking out under a pile of leaves. So he left off taking those leaves away, and I've been seeing that the little fella still lives there. Today is cold and rainy, and I realize why he is there: he's right next to the

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-56447426598099601562010-08-20T12:18:00.000+02:002010-08-20T12:18:53.155+02:00

Grumble. Just got an email from the Human Resources Department. "We just figured out that you are entitled to a pay raise effective August 1. However, the guys who do payroll for us have been on vacation for a year are not finished yet with reprogramming the payroll system. We will give you the raise retroactively with your October paycheck." Oh. Like the government decided on this months ago,

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-68858976058252953422010-08-20T01:00:00.000+02:002010-08-20T01:00:48.991+02:00

And another book report! This time from Norway, read in the Swedish translation, although I have read a book of hers in Norwegian, it just takes longer. Anne Holt: 1222 över havet (Norwegian title: 1222). 2007Translated by the master thriller writer herself, Maj Sjöwall, she must be about 70. Yes, indeed, just checked the Wikipedia (and got mad that the highlights of the article are her

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750592.post-72357933750560908842010-08-20T00:39:00.000+02:002010-08-20T00:39:42.543+02:00

"A voice like an angel" - and here he is, dead as a doornail, wearing a Santa Claus suit in a Reyjkavik hote. Arnaldur Indriđason: Engelsstimme. 2002. (Icelandic title: Röddin, English title: Voices)Another Erlendur thriller, but it's rather boring. Or maybe it's me watching these Beck films while reading this. Police officers my age and a bit older are overweight, noticing their age, missing

WiseWomanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12602417509163028818noreply@blogger.com0