Miscellaneous, 2008/11/16
Over the last few days I realized that the Opera Mini on my cellphone actually works pretty well. Of course the layout of most sites is a bit messed up and the cell's display is too small to really make going online comfortable. But it works and I'm happy to know that.
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My mom is still doing ok and is starting to get bored in the hospital, especially as there are no examinatons over the weekend and the next one needs some preperation, so it will not take place until Tuesday and two more are scheduled after that. Which means that she most probably has to stay in the hospital for another week. Which sucks for her of course.
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I spent a interesting, motivating and inspiringly weekend on a grad school seminar. I already passed the according course, but attendence at the seminar is mandatory, and that was ok for me. I'm getting my Master's degree (or at least I hope I will one day) from the ony distant education university in Germany, which means I don't meet my fellow students much. Not at all actually, except for those seminars. And it's always nice to share stories on courses, papers, seminars, lectures as well as generell stuff, like professional backgrounds and new job possibilities. After two very communicative days I'm happy to be in the solitude of my own apartement though.
Can anyone explain to me how you can plan to attend a course seminar without having read the course study material and according literature? The curriculum of this master program is very flexible and the students are even flexible when to actually start studying a course. But shouldn't it be common sense to take the course a few months before the seminar will take place and to read all the course literature and be prepared? It doesn't really help the discussion or the work in smaller groups if one just doesn't really know what we're all talking about?
Anyway I'm back with renewed motivation, which I definitely need to work on assignments for the last two courses I took. And after that I might start writing the one bigger term paper we also have to write during the program. We were adviced to not put that off until the time before we actually have to start writing our thesis, so we can get enough experience how to actually write a big scientific paper in this field. And we were also adviced to write that bigger term paper on something we can relate to from our previous education or work and not on something completely new. The topic / field of this term paper can be part of the thesis later on, but of course has to be explored from a different and wider angle. I think I might write the term paper on some mobilty / traffic issue, because that's actually the only distinct connection to my previous education (urban and regional planning). And for the thesis I might want to write about some enviromental education / psychology topic. I think there are quite a few ways to combine this with a mobilty topic. At least I think there might be, but the thesis is still such a long way ahead...
° ° ° ° ° ° ° °
When I entered my hotelroom's bathroom I thought it's about time for another entried with a "left-handed" tag. I guess I have to be grateful that the cord was long enough so that I could actually use the hair dryer with the left hand anyway. But living lefthanded has it's challenges...
° ° ° ° ° ° ° °
And now I'm off to watch Grey's for a second time to come up with some sort of decent review. Although I doubt that I will like episode a little more than I did on Friday. Maybe the latest episode of "Raising the Bar" will cheer me up aftwards.
° ° ° ° ° ° ° °
My mom is still doing ok and is starting to get bored in the hospital, especially as there are no examinatons over the weekend and the next one needs some preperation, so it will not take place until Tuesday and two more are scheduled after that. Which means that she most probably has to stay in the hospital for another week. Which sucks for her of course.
° ° ° ° ° ° ° °
I spent a interesting, motivating and inspiringly weekend on a grad school seminar. I already passed the according course, but attendence at the seminar is mandatory, and that was ok for me. I'm getting my Master's degree (or at least I hope I will one day) from the ony distant education university in Germany, which means I don't meet my fellow students much. Not at all actually, except for those seminars. And it's always nice to share stories on courses, papers, seminars, lectures as well as generell stuff, like professional backgrounds and new job possibilities. After two very communicative days I'm happy to be in the solitude of my own apartement though.
Can anyone explain to me how you can plan to attend a course seminar without having read the course study material and according literature? The curriculum of this master program is very flexible and the students are even flexible when to actually start studying a course. But shouldn't it be common sense to take the course a few months before the seminar will take place and to read all the course literature and be prepared? It doesn't really help the discussion or the work in smaller groups if one just doesn't really know what we're all talking about?
Anyway I'm back with renewed motivation, which I definitely need to work on assignments for the last two courses I took. And after that I might start writing the one bigger term paper we also have to write during the program. We were adviced to not put that off until the time before we actually have to start writing our thesis, so we can get enough experience how to actually write a big scientific paper in this field. And we were also adviced to write that bigger term paper on something we can relate to from our previous education or work and not on something completely new. The topic / field of this term paper can be part of the thesis later on, but of course has to be explored from a different and wider angle. I think I might write the term paper on some mobilty / traffic issue, because that's actually the only distinct connection to my previous education (urban and regional planning). And for the thesis I might want to write about some enviromental education / psychology topic. I think there are quite a few ways to combine this with a mobilty topic. At least I think there might be, but the thesis is still such a long way ahead...
° ° ° ° ° ° ° °
When I entered my hotelroom's bathroom I thought it's about time for another entried with a "left-handed" tag. I guess I have to be grateful that the cord was long enough so that I could actually use the hair dryer with the left hand anyway. But living lefthanded has it's challenges...
° ° ° ° ° ° ° °
And now I'm off to watch Grey's for a second time to come up with some sort of decent review. Although I doubt that I will like episode a little more than I did on Friday. Maybe the latest episode of "Raising the Bar" will cheer me up aftwards.