Water the plants

A company specialised in installing and caring for plants in office environments did exactly that; they installed and cared for plants in our whole department. Except, they did not manage the "care" part. To some it may seem to be a bigger problem to buy and transport the plants and decide where to place them, but for these guys it seemed to be more difficult to send someone to water the plants at a regular interval.

Now we water our plants ourselves.

Illustration courtesy: homeexchangetravel.blogs.com

Quote me

"The trick to work effectively is just as much working hard as working in the right direction"
Think of a group of workers building a bridge, and you will understand what I mean.

-glyn

Back from Westerwald

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What's up?

I dunno. I am not even blogging. My head is filled with work related subjects: this paper, that paper, collaborations, writing, programming, supervising, being supervised, international travels, visiting other labs, demonstrating and explaining my work for my colleagues. Not too bad actually. Busy in the good way I would say.

Back to work

Back at work, everybody is greeting eachother with a "Happy New Year" and "Best Wishes" (actually "Beste Wensen" cause this is still Holland). Though the spirits seem high enough, most of the people by the coffee table seemed drowsy and quite a few had glassy or bloodshot eyes. Either they all went out this weekend for a final party before starting the new years work, or what I see is just the start of another cold taking its round.

Illustration courtesy: Dennis Mitchell

Comfort eating

I was complaining to Philip (again) about the frustration of not being finished with my current project before christmas. At this point it would be overly optimistic to think that I could leave for the christmas break with a clean table - which is what I always aim for before a holiday. Philip told me that there is a very easy solution: If I don't like to leave for christmas without finishing this project first - just do not leave for christmas. Isn't he fantastic? Philip can solve all the problems in the world without doing anything. :o)

Let me just have a piece of bread with my tea to cheer me up.

PS. Nola, Philip and Joanna were discussing how many times they each are mentioned on my blog. Click their names to find out.

Scooped again

It may look like my work has been scooped again, but hey - I look at it from the positive side: In order to publish my own work I have to focus on what is new, that noone else thought of doing before me. And there is plenty of it. It may even turn out to be a better paper now that the trivialities have been published already by someone else. Am I sounding too enthousiastic? Who said science would have to be easy to be fun?

Spare time

The programming project I was doing for Roskilde Festival got finished last week. After several weeks of working both at work (doing my job) and at home (working for the festival), I finally have some time left over for hobbies and friends again. So I will enjoy my spare time in the two weeks I have left before my summer holidays to do some more dancing, do some reading and watch some more movies.

Zitzakken at work

Two weeks ago I was at a party arranged by NXP where they had the brilliant idea of using sandbag chairs everywhere. Good quality I thought, so we ordered some of the same type to our department. And then what happens?




I dare to say that if a beanbag chair cannot resist the full weight of a jumping professor, the bean bag is certainly not of academic quality...

Buy your own beanbags at zitzak.org

Bright idea

Philip got struck by a bright idea during lunchtime today: He will start a lightning company. Customers can approach the company with orders of lightning to strike at specific locations at specific times. The cost of the service will depend on the charge and precision of the strike. Expected customers are fun fairs (in competition with firework events) and private people who wishes to surprise or scare a friend with teeny weeny lightening charges that make your hair stand out in a funny-looking way.

Of course, the company needs a flashy name, maybe something like Thor Inc...

Photo courtesy: Will and Guy's Favourite Lightning pictures

Back at work

For some time while dancing in New York, I did not feel so much a geek, but now...
My Logitech Marble Mouse has arrived. It is the only trackball from Logitech which was not intentionally designed for the right hand. The Marble Mouse has a smooth design, and it is easy to use and get used to. The only disadvantage I have discovered so far, is the lack of a scroll wheel.

Photo courtesy: Logitech.com

Shakes from Shakies

I have a weakness for fresh fruit shakes. Especially if I am a bit tired after a long days work or after dancing all night, I love to pass by the station and grab a fresh shake as a treat to myself. Mmmm delicious!

Visit Shakies at www.shakies.nl 

Print Queue

I must have dozed off at my desk, because I did not realise how long time had actually passed since I last sent a print job to the printer lj7... I thought it was just a few minutes ago...

Double Life

I love my job. It challenges me and I am having fun while working. I love salsa. It challenges me and I am having great fun while dancing. I need the dancing to get my mind of my work, and at the same time I need my work to give me a break from dancing. So I do a combination of both 24/7 and I love it.

Work overload

A lot of things and to-do's have been piling up at work over christmas. Actually only a few of them are really critical, but I like making deadlines for everything I do so nothing is left undone for long. As a result this week has been work overload incarnate. I even skipped my Dutch course all week to be able to finish some more work.

Illustration courtesy: On the run, Idaho