[delocalized mind]

Trust me, I'm a Doctor ;)

lokuro — Tue, 29 May 2018 17:44:05 GMT

So, about my PhD...

The road was long and stony and, as some of you might know, I had a lot of issues with my supervisor along the way~ (like A LOT, up to a point where I started to have real nightmares ... makes one wonder if the whole thing is worth it, ne?)

Anyway. I actually wanted to make it sound a lot more joyous than that :'D
Because - last week I had my thesis defense!! (which went astonishingly well, if I may say so myself! I am really proud for knowing all the answers! Well, except that really tricky one that's still haunting me, but that's still a good percentage...). All the sleepless nights finally paid off! :'D

So now I officially have the title of Doctor rerum naturalium (Dr. rer. nat. if you want to keep it personal ;D), as awarded within the program of "Physics of Biological and Complex Systems"!

(Figure 1: Bachelor, Master and Doctor theses, all lined up in a tasteful display of complimentary binding colours)

I'm back~

lokuro — Fri, 13 Oct 2017 20:12:44 GMT

I've survived the long journey!

The logistics of our trip were a bit challenging; we went cruising around Portugal and were constantly packing/unpacking, checking maps and hoping to manage everything in time, so it was a tiny bit more stressful than my usual vacation. Also, on the second to last day I've got smashed against a beach full of seashell fragments and was profoundly bleeding on my way home (the train ride from the airport to my hometown should have lasted 2 hours, but due to a hurricane Xavier it took the DB almost 8 hours x_x Thanks for a nice welcome, Germany? :'D)

But it was totally worth it *_*

As soon as I catch up on sleep and adjust to the harsh weather change from 30°C to 12°C (86F --> 53F) with constant train and gale-force wind, I'll probably write more, but you can have a spoiler: I can totally recommend Portugal at this time of year. It was awesome ♥

P.S.: I've got a (very) belated B-Day present from M: Killing Time by Della Van Hise. He found that one edition of this legendary book that still has all the slashy bits >:)

too much socializing

lokuro — Wed, 18 May 2016 14:38:50 GMT

Lately, my weekends were rather busy:

1) Last week I was attending the Bunsentagung in Rostock, presenting my poster, talking to my friends¹, not talking to and trying to avoid my supervisor, sampling free wine at the evening, listening to some nice British speakers, learning what you should never say during woman networking lunch meeting² and generally enjoying the view. Rostock is a nice, big city, with broad streets and bright buildings. I've only missed people on the streets, so maybe the city is haunted? Anyway. Here on tumblr (smaller, better organazied collection) or here on instagram (bigger, more chaotic one) are some pictures - enjoy Hafenstadt Rostock :D

¹the same friend has celebrated her thesis defense yesterday evening! Many good wishes to her! :D
(we were a bit nostalgic and when someone asked her how we met [7 years ago], she said anime was to blame. And I added 'yeah, an anime about psychic contract killers'... being part of the tiny Weiß Kreuz fandom is probably the best way to find a friend for life :3)

²do net ever mention that you are thinking about leaving the academia and giving industry a try. Every firm outside the academia is evil111!! Seriously, it was a similar experience as if someone would mention that he sometimes doubts the existence of the God Almighty, while speaking to his fellow cult members...

2) Next weekend my partner and I are attending a wedding :3 Relax, we are not the lucky pair :D (While I'd love to hear 'the marry me'-proposal - I admit, I love compliments of all kind - I just can't imagine saying 'yes', because... why should I? Why do people do this? Maybe I'll see it differently in 20 years? Who knows o.O")
Anyway, the journey starts on Friday morning and the wedding will take place in Nürnberg, so there will be even more photos of German cities next week :3

P.S.: There are several LJ entries, where I'd like to comment but somehow I am always too tired in the evening... next next weekend? ._."

La Fille du Pharaon

lokuro — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 19:14:04 GMT

So, I watched the record of La Fille du Pharaon from Bolshoi-theater (by Pierre Lacotte, Cast & further information)

And while the choreography was rather standard, I won’t dream of complaining because the show was such a beautiful spectacle! I mean - when you merge the famous Bolshoi ballet and the Ancient Egypt it simply has to look gorgeous. And yes, men in short skirts and with a lot of jewelry upon them (as well as women in business suits and with authoritative looks on their faces :3) are my kind of aesthetics~ (Skvortsov made a few mistakes, I admit, but he looks very good in really short skirts and pretty white dresses, so that’s okay I guess~) and Zakharova is always lovely, charming, bewitching and absolutely flawless ♥

Also, 10/10 for the sets, decorations and costumes (yes, I am superficial like that, but I can also cite wikipedia for my defense: "sets and costumes were reinvented with a minimum of realism and a maximum of grandeur.")

(here are a few more screen-caps. Understandably, in most cases I was too distracted to think of it. Also, everybody just kept on moving and swirling around, making capturing them rather hard..)

Some small happy things?

lokuro — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 12:42:42 GMT

Happy Easter to those celebrating :3

As for me, I must benefit from that holiday despite being a convinced atheist. On Friday M. & I were in the swimming pool (with some awesome water slides!) and yesterday my Dad visited me and we went for a long, nice walk in the nearby forest for about 4 hours or so (yes, our legs were complaining the next day, very much so, but it'd be a shame to waste the only sunny day!)

And today M. left to visit his parents and I can finally have some time for myself... Nobody’s home and I can act like an adult by making faces to my mirror reflection :P

Chemistry & Creativity

lokuro — Wed, 09 Mar 2016 21:19:09 GMT

The absolute highlight of all the experimental protocols I had to correct during my tutoring phase.

The students had to make a linear regression. To put it simple (if not very scientific): they had to join the dots into a line in the most sensible way. The result was very creative.

P.S.: and don’t even let me get started on the deep philosophy of a negative dissociation constant Kd ...

Some other news!

lokuro — Sun, 06 Mar 2016 13:10:09 GMT

On the bright side: I rediscovered my love for YGO. That ridiculous show I watched ... um, good 12 years ago? My first anime love <3 Do any of my followers know this silly anime?

As for the professional side of my life: I feel a bit lost. My motivation is hiding in a deep, deep cage and I just can not lure that ~~bitch~~ sensitive creature out. May be I'm just tired because of all the other things happening, maybe the dislike of my supervisor is finally hitting the bottom, or maybe I am just lazy. (I am truly not a very hard-working person, I admit). Anyway. Instead of being productive I've registered for the new course "Chemistry & Philosophy" for the upcoming summer term. Actually, it was the motto of the lecture/seminar that got me hooked "Wer nichts als Chemie versteht, versteht auch die nicht recht" - by Lichtenberg (trans. "Those who know nothing but chemistry don't know that very well either").

I am also considering visiting CeBit or Hannover Messe (curious of seeing Obama life? Come to Hannover! :D) and generally doing something adult and important just outside of the university. Because working does not seem to work for me anymore? (ouch, that's one terrible pun x_x) Maybe visiting the annual meeting for the shareholders of BASF? Sounds just pretentious enough to give me the feeling that I am doing something productive. (M. tries to teach me investing in stock market but I still feel rather insecure about it. But curious. In a few years, when I hopefully don't have all of those other problems to deal with, I'd like to learn it properly. ~~Don't tell me that later I'll have another problems. Just different kind.~~)

Side note: Today was the first time ever that I bought a kindle edition instead of a real book o_o But apparently it is easier to find "The Josephus Trilogy" by Feuchtwanger as a kindle rather than the paper version? At least if you don't want to buy a slightly used paper version. Shame on you, Germany, really ._.

(below is one of the benefits of paper books. Shame on me, I guess? ._.)

Other work groups are always more fun

lokuro — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 15:56:23 GMT

Today was so sunny (finally!) and I felt ~~really lazy~~ like I deserved a break. Therefore, I visited my friend (inorganic chemistry, X-ray diffraction), we were drinking coffee and I was admiring their wall of fame~

After the Ph.D. students are done, the prof. will cut their ties and hang it like a damn trophy :D

/approves!

To be like Crawford or not to be like Crawford

lokuro — Sun, 24 Jan 2016 21:21:24 GMT

I actually wanted to make a long, elaborated entry with some updates on my life and well-being (and pretty pictures of the scarf!), but suddenly the weekend was over. And I still haven't accomplished anything. This happens a lot lately...

Anyway, have a silly repost from my tumblr instead (hence the format... and because I am lazy). While browsing I stumbled upon this link. And of cause I had to try it out on Weiß Kreuz Characters.

Crawford is not polite, he just foresees the future messages :D So, basically, he is cheating. Another example why he is not a good role model (unlike Schuldig who is smart):

P.S.: Really sorry for the senseless spam. Don’t be like lokuro. Be a good a person.

Take home message: Don’t be like Crawford either.

How the Steel Was Tempered

lokuro — Sat, 09 Jan 2016 21:57:50 GMT

This happend during Christmas (which we don't celebrate) and the New Year's Eve (which we celebrate as if it was the Christmas, with lots of food, presents and of cause a huge Tannenbaum (fir tree). At least we don't celebrate Yom Kippour, otherwise I'd be too confusing even for my crazy family.)
Anyway. My parents have a huge library of old Russian Classics and this novel was so endearing, I had to take it with me. The primary school presented this book to my mother when she was a kid. It's even 'signed' :3

(Translation: For excellent school achievement and exemplary behavior. Signed by the class teacher of the third grade of 502nd Moscow school. 26 May 1967.)

How the Steel Was Tempered by Nikolai Ostrovsky. While I absoultely don't approve of his belief in Communism, I am quite impressed by his ability to write such a touching novel despite his paralysis, illness and blindness...

Also - I love finding small pieces of family history in old books :3

Il Capitale Umano

lokuro — Sun, 20 Dec 2015 21:02:57 GMT

From time to time we skip the big cinema and visit a small local movie theater instead: Lumieré - a Göttinger specialty with a bit of hipster flavor to it :3 This year they’ve aired several good movies, such as: the gorgeous, grunting “Mr. Turner” (so far my favourite from the 'smaller movies'), “How the wind changes” and now “Il Capitale Umano” (translated to German as “Süße Gier”/“Sweet greed”- Why?!).

In view of these great movies I’m a bit ashamed to bother you with some low-quality smartphone-photos of the interior decoration instead of a sharp-tongued critique of the films themselves. But you see, I really approve the design of their restroom…

Christmas postcards anyone?

lokuro — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 22:21:22 GMT

I was just preparing a small parcel for a friend of mine and it occurred to me - I might as well send a few more postcards this year? So, if anyone would like to receive a postcard or some Göttingen's sweets or something like that, let me know!

Crash it!

lokuro — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 20:18:13 GMT

Sorry, for the silly reblog from tumblr but I wanted to post something funny and not only do all the complaining on my main blog :3 So, here we go, one of the older photos of my glorious days as a chemistry student. I miss the fun :D (not the exames thought...)

(I was about to smash some dry ice for one of the innumerable inorganic practice we had. Hammer and secateurs are our favourite tools! :D)

lokuro — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 19:59:55 GMT

I have a distinct feeling that my English is getting worse with the time... That seems a bit inconsistent since I'm mostly consuming books/movies in English language (except for some old Russian movies on the weekends with my parents or the short German series "Im Angesichts des Verbrechens" which was surprisingly thrilling! [would definitely recommend, it restored my faith in modern German cinema]).

Maybe it's part of me being tired and thus not so focused in the evening? Anyway, sorry for all the silly mistakes. Ugh. I guess, my capacities are a bit overstrained ._."

Spy movies! Thieves movies! Old Movies!

lokuro — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 20:44:51 GMT

The remaining days of this year's vacation were spent rather quite at my parents home~ Aside from doing other things we watched a lot of old Soviet films - such a curious experience! And I really ought to confess - the older the films, the dumber I felt watching it. Normally, I would not complain that the plot was too high for me (even the most charming films have a rather plain plot nowadays, with character's motivations written all over their behavior, mostly in cap-locks), but the old movies were quite subtle. The Soviet cinema brought interlining to an odd perfectionism. At one point while watching some old espionage thrillers (like "Variant Omega" or "The man in the areaway") I was tempted to take notes of my observations to keep with the plot and all the sub-motives of the characters. Impressive.

Also, we finally watched the last Poirot season (yes, I speak about the only true series with David Suchet). By that I mean we watched all episodes expect for the last one. We just couldn't bring ourselves to see him dying ._. Has anyone already seen it? Is the subject at least dealt with properly? Or will it just break my heart? ._.

Speaking of obsessions and old films - I have cultivated a habit of watching an episode of Raffles, the gentleman thief, for the evening supper. Or hearing the audiobooks on my way to work for the last past weeks. It is just marvelous. Like Sherlock Holmes except with inverse morals, better writing, funnier jokes and more loveable characters <3 Well, maybe with the exception of Raffles himself, who is a real devil ~~worst boyfriend ever~~. Also, I have this ridiculous feeling that in comparison with the great detective duo, the unfortunate thieves are not quite as successful as their law-abiding opponents...

(I know, I am unforgivable late to the party - but in rare case that anyone else had missed it: 1970s series, audiobooks, annotated books)

Be still my heart, I don't need another tiny fandom where the last fanfic was written about a year ago... still, are there any fans out there? Maybe even some German-speaking fans? For I am dying for some RPlaying about those two dorks, even if my reason tell me to stop and forget the idea, unless I want to reduce my sleep to 5 hours a day. And there is no way I am doing that - because currently sleep is my favourite hobby.

"A physicist, a pharmacist and a chemist walk into a bar...."

lokuro — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 10:09:43 GMT

The last few weeks were a bit stressful, so I neglected all the internet and switched to a numb autopilot-program. My mind tends do go blissfully blank, when I have reached a certain level of tiredness. Thank you, evolution, for keeping me sane (if utterly boring) during the hard times :D

(sorry in particularity to the dear otter; I will resume our Christmas preparation this evening!)

Anyway. Among other things I attended a conference! I even presented my research within a 3-minutes talk, which is apparently a new thing in science. 3-minutes, enough time for advertising!
...
Despite the bitter undertone, I was actually quite relieved that the nightmare only lasted for a few minutes, I am embarrassingly bad at presentation of any kind. Like, pathetically bad.

But otherwise it was a nice conference. For example, I talked to an amazing Indian postdoc, who suggested adding a video to any paper, and in that video there will be the truth behind the -as always-positive results. Also, small pleasantries, such as things to avoid while trying to reproduce the results. Neat!

Again, I liked the conference, really, and I do not want to focus only on the negative aspects, but this subject just hits a nerve. But, apparently, not only my nerves are badly damaged by the current (life) science politics. On the second day, there was a panel discussion and this year's topic was "Problems of the scientist in 21th century". Guess what was the first question raised by almost everyone in the audience? Papers. The sheer, insane amount on papers. One could spend the whole day just reading those related to your specifically field (again, the problem is most urgent in life science fields, I hear the mathematicians are a bit more relaxed). And the worst thing is that the most papers do not strive for a better world, but are just single currency for getting a better job.
Sorry for the outburst, it just frustrates me from time to time :/

Also job-related: I am no longer alone in the office~ I am now sharing the tiny room with a physicist-guy. He dislikes Linux, which is a minus, and pops up around 11 a.m. to stay till the late evening, which is a plus. So far it could have been worse... and together with our pharmacist-girl (who also works for my boss, if only half-time) we are now quite a diverse lot :D
Definitely, positive.

Run, lokuro, run

lokuro — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 20:04:17 GMT

My scales keep telling me, I am getting fatter, so the destiny arranged a workout. So very thoughtful of her. Running up and down and around the Chemistry faculty all day long - for free! Or if I considered that I was still doing my job, I was even paid for it. Unfortunately, I wasn't informed about my destiny's plans and thought today would be a nice opportunity to don some pretty attire and act like I own the lab instead of just working in it. (Even though, my mother's earrings and that awe-inspiring shoes of hers look silly on me...)
And then I just ran from one part of the building to another part of the building, all pretty and classy. Take some measurements, fetch a small parcel containing a few samples and up you go 20 minutes in one direction, than again take some measurements, and up you go 20 minutes in another direction. Repeat until your head is spinning.
That's what you get, when you are (surprisingly!) working with two different devices in two labs on the opposite sides of a huge building o_o"

Pharmacy and Connichi

lokuro — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 19:57:05 GMT

It's been almost a year since I started doing the doctorate and so far I have been the one and only Ph.D student in the work-group of my supervisor. With all the benefits and side-effects of him asking me ten times a day, if I already have some new results to show him, or if I already did that one thing, or if I mind doing this another thing (just this instant, please) and if will give this new side-project a try ... I know, it sounds great and I am a bad person for complaining, some other students can't even get their bosses to proof-read the thesis, and I should be grateful... but instead I am just glad, there is another poor soul joining our lab. She's actually a pharmacist and she talks a lot. How can a human being produce so much noise without taking a break? Maybe she's an alien.

(also, it is scary to hear about the flip side of the health industry.)

In other news: Last weekend I visited the near-by convention for a few hours and was told, I am too tall to play 2p!England; even though I am a tad shorter than his canon height. One of those phenomena, when a characters is considered smaller to pair him off more easily? Ouch :(

(And for Crawford I'm too short. Damn my average height.)

P.S.: it always feels strange to be back home from a convention. Everybody seems so plain and dull ;)

Planed boot trip and some disorganized movie impressions?

lokuro — Thu, 27 Aug 2015 19:15:22 GMT

Action time! Tomorrow my co-workers and I are going to have a canoe tour! Near Kassel there are some nice routes for paddling and we spontaneously decided to give it a try. While I am an okay swimmer (no technique whatsoever but a lot of love for swimming and a useless ability to stay in water up to 5 hours), I have never, ever in my life tried canoe paddling… We’ll see, if I will survive this experiment? The weather isn’t as sunny and warm as we have anticipated but it should suffice ( 20°C/68 F).

Still not sure if I should take my smart phone and risk it falling into water in the case of the canoe overturning? Hm… There may or may not be photos of that trip :D

And since its almost weekend, it’s time to type out my idle and disorganized, fan-ish musings.

A few weeks ago I watched “The man from U.N.C.L.E.”. With a cocktail and a friend by your side (essential for making fun of the story!) the film is a real eye-catcher. Despite my previous concern, I actually liked the Russian spy! Even though the usual “he-had-a-difficult-childhood” trope was a bit annoying. But chess playing and “No, I don’t want a drink” won me over :P One thing I didn’t get though - why was his name written with a double l? Illya? Илья... Ильюша?

The American spy looked like Neal Caffrey, acted like Neal Caffrey and had the same background story as Neal Caffrey. Which is not a bad thing because I liked “White Collars” quite a bit. (does Guy Ritchie aimed for a fanfiction?)

Overall, I enjoyed the scenery and the interaction between the two ~~three~~ spies but there was one major drawback: there was no real thrill in the story. Which is kind of sad for an espionage movie? (John le Carré is not amused?). But still, don’t let it dissuade you from watching it! The film was amusing, pretty, 60s-stylish; and the actors were likable. Absolutely worth its time!~

Side-note: I have always envied those Russian ~~villains~~ guys - for they speak such perfect English with this funny, heavy accent. I’ve never managed to pull that off :D There are just some words that I get completely wrong but no real accent, argh!

Preliminary conclusions: Does anyone else has this feeling, that none of the new fandoms/movies/animes/... have achieved the same emotional connection as those old, silly, bad-animated series you watched earlier? Either the drugs is getting softer or it’s me who’s getting more difficult to impress? ._.

Anyway, yay, canoe! :D

Trinity

lokuro — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 18:39:55 GMT

Tomorrow I am going to attend my very first conference!
[nervous and excited]

It's called Third Infinity and all the talks and panels sounds utterly amazing. I'm afraid, my own poster is going to be a bit pale in comparison with all the others, but I'm still just a master student and, truth to be told, I'm quite proud to be invited there at all :)

Gosh, is there some sort of science etiquette?
Will all the amazing people understand my sorry accent?
Is there too much text on my poster?
Will the coffee be good?
...

Keep your hair on, dear!

P.S.: After all the hell with the poster production and printing it was such a relief to spent the whole workday taking macro-pictures of water drops on PDMS. Depending on the hydrophobicity degree the drops were flat or pretty roundish :) Now, that's fun! Why can't science be nice like that all the time?

P².S.: And when my soul is free from the forthcoming fear of conferences Awesomeness I shall be fighting for my fandom. For the both of them. Argh! (@ Weiß vs. Saiyuki. Place your bets!)

(c) Me

Also, ...

lokuro — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 20:26:23 GMT

Quite ill ._." Again. Why can't we just skip the same procedure every year when it gets colder?
(Why on Connichi? Why in the week, when I've got some measurements time? Why is our planet that far from the sun?)

Black tea with yellow citrus to cure ~~cancer~~ fever and a sore throat. New art (c)

Also, my Master Thesis project gets really weird. The few things that worked in the past didn't do so any-more (my pretty membrane has holes and none of them come from stretching!), other things that never worked seems to do their job for now... weird.

Also², I've got a new computer at work and (of cause!) decided to go for Linux on it. Ubuntu 13.04 because I love/hate their unity desktop. But - and this one is really-really weird - there are a bunch of science programs that doesn't work with that operation system. Which doesn't make any sense at all since linux is very popular within the science community while the "normal" people, who don't need to program or analyse spectra for their living, prefer windows (which is expensive and insecure! :D). Such a perverse world.
It was real "fun", though, to install IGOR (graphs and data analysis prog) trough wine and add self-written extensions (coded ages ago by some Ph.D student from our group) just to find out it doesn't work...
ARGH!!
Actually, there was one line in the code, that doesn't seem to work - and guess what, after erasing the line the program functions perfectly. I hate you, Igor.

Also³, this one great thing for all the Saiyuki/Weiß Kreuz fans:
http://weissvsaiyuki.livejournal.com/
Because battles are great! ♥

P.S.: And a bit non-sense to complete the senseless day... Especially "know Crawford future" and "sherlock shoot" amuse me ;)
(Do I really use so many filler words? Shame on me.)

http://wordcloud.pagemon.net/ (c)

Segelflug!!

lokuro — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 19:08:23 GMT

My weekends get curiouser and curiouser ;) This time I was visiting M.'s family and flew with a sail-plane! Almost everyone in M.'s family is involved in a glider club near Bremen (he himself has a glider licence!), so it was almost obligatory for me to try it at least once. Of cause not on my own, his step father flew me, but nevertheless - it was amazing.

First - I was surprised to learn how light a sail-plane is. Two men can push it along the airfield easily and some of the planes used for flying lessons were made only of tarpaulin (Persenningstoff?), stretched on a metal framework. And how small the whole thing is!

Second - apparently it is quite safe to fly a sail-plane, the legal age for a licence is 15! Or was so a few decades ago...

Third - the best part was the acceleration as the plane rose in the height! Like a run on a roller coaster but cooler. Somewhere around 2.5 g, I guess, for the acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h. To get this high, we used a ground-bases winch, which is a heavy, stable rope, that is engaged to a ring on the bottom side of the plane. In about 1 km height the cable is released and the plane can start gliding and circling in thermal air.
The view was picturesque, but a bit foggy due to an almost-rainy weather.

M.'s step father in the front seat, me in the second one with M. on my side. After attaching a parachute on me (a damn heavy thing!) and reassuring me with "Don't worry about that, though, if anything happens you won’t have time to blow it anyway. You'll be flying too low." Thanks, dear!

Excited :D

Ready to go!

After landing I was a bit shaky on my feet but unharmed and happy :) Also, really proud of M.! He also flew a round with his step father and managed to land the plane despite a 11 years pause.

(He probably won't like the photo but who cares, the main point is that I do XD)

And next weekend it's already Connichi! Lately, my life was so interesting, I sometimes can't keep up with it @_@
(Dear fate, it was not a complain.)

.

In the corner of the dream was the man with the blue guitar ...

lokuro — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 16:20:20 GMT

Instead of thousand and one thing I should be doing, I'll just relax after a stressful day and enjoy a bit of Weiß Kreuz :)
(nostalgic!)

Russian fandom is still alive, it seems. This time of year there is a famous fandom battle going on, covering almost all of the existing fandoms. Such an exiting battle of creativity. Different teams, different fandoms, several levels from PG to R, from fanfiction to music videos. May I introduce: 2013 fandom battle, an entry from the Weiß Kreuz team!

I strongly assume this work (titled: "Colorful Dreams") is from the fabulous junajull. The picture itself is taken from here: fk-2013.diary.ru, click on the top image to open other contributions.
Still, my favorite is the apocalypse team, their works are so... fatalistic and funny?

And a song to emphasizes the atmosphere: The Dream Song ;)

EDIT: PN me for the "public password"to diary, if you don't have one!

.

Owwwwl

lokuro — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 21:34:58 GMT

Yesterday I've petted an owl! ♥
Actually - several owls. And an eagle.

Later you'll get spamed by owl photos. But later. 'Cause at Wednesday I have an important meeting with boss - you see, the thing I'm trying to achieve since two months suddenly works. Maybe it was just a lucky shoot, though. We'll have to discuss.

But: Owls are awesome!

(on the left is a totally overexposed Frau, who takes care of all the birds there. Some hundred birds of prey in a park in Lüneburger Heide, a compound which she inherited from her Dad. Great place!)

(c) Photo by me, owls sponsored by der Greifvogel-Gehege Bispingen.

Silicon, tin and fat.

lokuro — Sun, 26 May 2013 16:16:46 GMT

Oh my, I should have written the report from Prague and Dresden ages ago... But then life happened. Next time, okay? Right now I'm too busy ~~banging my head against the wall~~ with university. It seems almost unbelievable that I was on holiday only a few weeks ago.

However, due to progressive slothfulness this entry will mostly consist of photos instead of descriptions...

So, after some struggling (it only took me several months and lots of nerves to decide) I've started my Master Thesis at the Biophysical Chemistry Department.

As the main theme of my thesis I shall create and test a device for stretching artificial membranes. Which I also have to create first. (Let that membrane grow and then put it on the rack! Yeah!) I'm already working on the project for about three weeks but so far there were no positive results (on the contrary - there were plenty of results screaming: this idea isn't going to work, HAHA!). Hence, I'm pretty much relieved at least something had worked, even so it was only the first step.

So far my favourite part is to cut out pieces from the shiny new silicon wafers and coat it with viscous transparent gel. Like dripping honey on the morning waffle~
(I'm waiting for the Revenge day when some of the silicon wafers will rebel against the treatment and cut me instead...)

Aren't those first pictures beautiful? Might as well be some modern art. Instead it's just some lipid monolayers mixed with Texas Red as fluorescence agent.

Sunshine!

Lipid pellets from my supervisors work.

Also, last week I had a basic course in electronics! As little as you can learn in two days at least we managed to practice some soldering (auf Deutsch heißt's Löten XD). I'm still a green newbie but really proud to have created something that actually works!

As messy and clumsy...

... as the whole set-up it...

... it still works! It's a ~~totally useless~~ chain of LEDs, flashing up one after the other. (ein Lauflicht)

Other useless stuff we did:

Enough boasting with my beginners enthusiasm. The rain is busy killing my cacti and in an hour I must be at poetry slam (as a bystander only) - if only I can force myself out in that uncomfortable autumn-cold weather >_<"