Nope, not the blog, but the rest of chocolate dream has been revamped, as part of my major ‘make your sites match better’ project of the last few days. I hope I’m not the only one who quite likes the new look, as it was one hell of a job to make layouts for no less than eight domains… I really have to stop buying domains, really! *g*
Two friends I met online moved in together and got rid of a lot of stuff - and I could not resist the opportunity to buy some of it. So now my family has a microwave for the first time, and I’ve got TV and DVD in my room. Have yet to hook up the TV, but I really like the thought of not having to negotiate with my father every time I want to watch something during the evening. I also bought some exercise gear - we’ll see if I can make myself use it regularly… *g*
My stuffed animals had to make way for the black monster (it’s an older Sony model) - it felt really weird to pack them away in a box under my bed. As if I was betraying them, despite the fact that they’d just been sitting in a corner of my room, gathering dust anyway… Such a lot of them, too - I never realized how many I have that really mean something to me. Not all of them from when I was a kid, but also things that I got in the last couple of years from friends and family. I could never get rid of them, I’m much too sentimental…
Got my bangs shortened again and two stylishly messy braids. Although, after being rained on, riding my bike, snuggling with my comfy blanket etc., they’re more messy than stylish. Also, no bigger version of this pic, because it’s kind of blurry, despite me taking Photoshop to it. *g*
As every year my aunt Leona, my father’s youngest sister, is here for a week. My mom thought that this was a good opportunity to use the last box of cheese fondue from last winter. This was the first time I ever had this on the balcony - but really, summer is slowly disappearing, so it didn’t feel too out of place…
This is also testing out the upload and thumbnail feature of WP. Crossing fingers that it works…
That means, time for the Unconscious Mutterings…
While recuperating from that short bout of flu, I fixed thebookshelf.org, moving it over to my own webspace and abandoning the reading rec project (the database was lost and no one except for myself posted there anyway). It’s now my bookish domain, with my reading log and my book fanlistings.
I used Wordpress again and had to do some tweaking and stuff until everything was the way I wanted it to. I’ve never ran into so many problems while building a site before - but luckily it’s now all up and running…
Bad news first - I seem to be somewhat sick. That sucks, because I can’t concentrate and feel quite crappy, especially when combined with the good news:
I’ve got the internship at the Swiss Tropical Institute here in Basel. I hadn’t thought that they still had capacities on such short notice, but they do, and I’ll spend three weeks there from Sept 13, together with two uni friends. That’s what you get from your uni connections - one of my teachers (actually, the one I want to be my mentor for my Masters exams) works there and got us the jobs. Not that we get paid or anything, or that this is something I want to do later in life - but it’s an internship, which is better than having to rush around looking for one…
This of course means that suddenly I don’t have as much leisure time to finish my fieldwork paper and then write my German Lit paper as I had thought. Pity, I’d been kind of looking forward to taking it easy and just working (at my old people’s home - some extra shifts because people are on vacation) and writing for the next two months… Oh well, I’ll try and get it all done nonetheless.
Just not today, as my head is in no shape to do decent work.
Tired, tired. Had to work yesterday morning - getting up at 7am really is too early… And last night was quite cold, so despite not being in bed before 1am (because I went to see the excellent Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind with Sibylle) I was up again before eight… I think tonight, after work, I’ll try and get some sleep - I feel as if I’m getting a bit sick. Oh well, no matter - here are this week’s Unconscious Mutterings instead:
I decided to delete the PHPCurrently and PHPQuote scripts, which caused the problem with WP - might reinstall them later, but for now the move is done. Put up redirects to the new url (http://chocolatedream.net/blog) and for the old MT archives and will delete the old blog in a minute. WP just really is much ‘cleaner’, and I understand it better than MT. It’ll also make switching layouts much easier, which is nice.
There’s a bit of a glitch in the layout, which I can’t seem to fix, when viewed in Mozilla (which I do), but since it seems fine in IE and Safari, I guess I can live with that. Also, the very last comment done in the MT blog doesn’t seem to have been imported - but I’ll answer it, Manu, no worries!
I just got an email from Unesco. Apparently they did write to me, but I never received that letter. In any case, my application was denied, as I had thought.
Dear Ms. Nittnaus,
I am sorry that apparently you haven’t received our letter.
Your application could not be accepted (Decision from 16/04/2004).
Still I wish you the very best for your future career and aspirations.
Best regards,
Markus Voelker
Interim Chief HRM/Training
UNESCO
I have no clue what that decision was, but it was made either just after or even shortly before they received my application, so I’m guessing it’s some internal policy and nothing directly connected with my application. Oh well.
Now the question is whether I should email Brigit about the thing at the Tropical Institute right now, asking whether I could do it in September/October, or whether I want to concentrate on my German Lit paper and do the internship (mainly processing data - very uninteresting, but it’d get me the credit I need) either during the semester or afterwards. I guess I’ll just ask her whether they still have capacities open. *shrugs*
It’s just a pity that I haven’t got the chance to do something that I’m really interested in…
In other news: I’m currently working on the switch from MT to WP - looking quite good, except that I accidentially discovered a problem with WP, where it doesn’t call on the proper mysql database. So it might be another couple of days until the move is complete.
My parents are celebrating their 25th engagement anniversary today. They’ve gone out, to a museum and later to dinner, all dressed up and happy. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned my parents’ love story here - yet it’s definitely something that has shaped the way I see the world. They’re living proof for all my romantic notions of love at first sight and forever, much more than any movie or TV show…
You must know, they met when they were both over fourty, on 14 July 1979. And if you are quick, you already have put two and two together and realized that that means that they got engaged less than a month later - and if you know how old I am, you know that they were married and had a child on 5 January 1981, not even 1 1/2 years later… Quite impressive for a confirmed bachelor (everyone was convinced he’d stay single) and a nurse who’d come to terms with her spinsterhood when she met the man who changed it all.
They met at the wedding of the brother of a friend of my mother’s, where my father officiated (is that the word?) - in other words, he was the minister. But after the service they got talking, and both say that they knew right away that this was meant to be. Less than a month later, after exchanging letters almost daily, on 10 August 1979, my father drove down to where my mom worked in a rehab facility, and they spent the day together, going for long walks and talking. The very next day, they got engaged.
Their love today is still as strong as it was then, right from the start, despite all their differences in personality and all the ups and downs of everyday life. They have given me so much, but their greatest gift has been their love, for each other and for us children. It’s an inspiration to me, and living proof that there is such a thing as the One True Love God has destined us to find.