Yesterday I went to have a look at a vacant room in Leiden. The housing corporation told me it would be 25 m2 for 340 euro a month, which sounded like a sweet deal to me. In my mind I was already moving around furniture in my "new" room.

Ever since the exam on wednesday I've been ill, my head hurts, my shoulders hurt, my ribs hurt, my stomach and belly are upset, my legs are tired and in general there is pain everywhere. Still I hoped this room would make my life a better place so I went anyway.

When I got there, heavily drugged with painkillers, it turned out to be a bit smaller than expected, there was no way my bookcase would fit in there. That was of course a dealbreaker for me, so I lost interest as soon as I entered the room.
Unfortunately I couldn't just leave, because someone poored me tea and asked me to sit down in a circle with a dozen insippid, clueless, giggling girls. Most of them were there, because they were interested in the room, the rest already lived in the ramshackle house. They all loved baking pies, shopping and doing "fun stuff".
We were told that the landlord was a bit "weird" and the facilities quite poor. The "view on the ancient keep" turned out to be a view on an ancient wall right in front of the window, blocking out all light. Still most of the visiting girls kept smiling, convinced it would be a brilliant place to live.
When I pointed out that the room was not 25 m2, something blonde argued that a friend of hers had a room of 25 m2 too, and that one was even smaller than this one. I decided to just shut up...

That worked only for a small measure of time though, for I was soon asked to tell something about myself. I would rather have left the building, but it didn't seem like the right time to walk out, what with them all staring at me expectantly, so I just gave them a small description of myself.
It all went wrong when something curly made the clever remark: "So you must be really good with computers". To give her a fair indication I replied with: "At least more than you".
I quietly left when the visitors got a tour through the house. I would rather travel 4 hours a day, than live in that room.

My first conclusion was that if that is what girls are like (giggling, soulless creatures) I would rather not be one! But then I realized that if I were a man, I would have to marry a girl, which made me appreciate my gender all over again.
Another thing I appreciate more now, are the few clever girls I know. They are a rare treasure.

(In general people seem more stupid when I'm suffering. I guess I'm just a spiteful person.)

posted by Marian @ 1:25 PM 4 comments

It didn't go so well. I might have a 6/10 though.

posted by Marian @ 10:39 PM 1 comments

Less than 4 hours left.
Can't sleep so I'm just studying.

posted by Marian @ 5:05 AM 2 comments

Roughly 13 hours untill the exam... The moment of truth...

Set me free!

posted by Marian @ 7:19 PM 0 comments

All week last week I studied for databases as much as possible. As a reward I took the weekend off. I went to visit friends, relaxed in front of the tv, walked along the beach and watched a movie.
Monday and Tuesday will be spent reading books and doing assignments again, but for now everything is perfectly fluffy and comfortable...
Blue, brown and dark orange, with warm purple linings...
Soothing low sounds, like purring, but with little sparkles of highpitched melodies...
(If you don't understand these interpretations, there's a fun course in Sense Interference I can recommend.)

Spending some time away from the books really worked against the stress.

posted by Marian @ 12:16 AM 2 comments

Hurray!!!!
I passed Introduction to Programming with a whooping 8.5 as final grade!
Take out your cymbals and flutes, and celebrate! For Sappie has (single-handedly) passed a programming course!

Hah! I pwn!

Yes this post does need this many exclamation marks!!!!

posted by Marian @ 2:11 PM 7 comments

Commence countdown, in 10 days I will have to make an exam in Databases. It is of the utmost importance that I pass it, else I don't get my Bachelor, I don't pass Start and I don't get 200 guilders. Such a momentous event usually makes me sick with stress, I want to pass so badly...

I try to keep the overall stresslevel down by studying a few hours every day, and relaxing in the evening. Fortunately I'm sleeping well and my stomach has not complained about anything as of yet, I sure hope it will stay that way.

Also a constant vexation is tying together loose ends of the course Human Computer Interaction. The project is still not finished, the final paper was not approved and apparently some documents are missing. I've lost all hope of passing this course this year.

Back to the books: it's crunch-time.

posted by Marian @ 12:43 PM 0 comments

Recently, during an introductory course in AI, I was reminded of a movie I saw many times when I was a kid. It's about a little boy with amnesia who turns out to be a robot! All I could remember was the name of his little friend: Turtle. I couldn't think of the title or any other usefull information on the subject so I forgot about it.
In my study-break this afternoon, I turned on the TV out of boredom. Immediately I recognized the movie and it turned out to be called "D.A.R.Y.L." which stands for Data Analyzing Robot Youth Lifeform.
Lovely how "a machine becomes human when you can't tell the difference anymore" refers to the well-known Turingtest. Inspiring how one of the scientists sais they built a human-like robot because the five senses and a human body are much better input and output devices than those of any computer.
How wonderful the eighties must have been, when people still believed this kind of technology was within reach.

RTL7, the channel which broadcasted the movie has "If you don't want to miss anything" as their motto. They chopped off the end of the movie though. Daryl and his friend Turtle were reunited and started running towards eachother, but RTL7 skipped to the commercials before they got the chance to hug.
RTL7: "If you want to miss the happy endings".

posted by Marian @ 4:41 PM 3 comments

Databases is a really hard course. To force myself to study the theory I went to the library today. The coffee-corner there is a nice quiet place, where different kinds of coffee are served. It is also happily void of distractions for my already fluttery mind.

The library is not what it used to be.
I had been studying relational algebra for an hour, finding it hard to get a grip on the boring subject, when the coffee-bartender approached me with a double latte saying: "From the gentleman over there." A strange chap in the corner of the room smiled at me, showing a wobbly row of brown teeth.
Do I have a sign saying "single" or "wanting" on my forehead? Do I maybe look just pretty enough to approach yet not too pretty to seem out of reach? It should be flattering maybe, to get attention like this from men, but to be quite frank it pisses me off, tremendously!
Men... bah!

And now I still didn't study enough.

posted by Marian @ 4:53 PM 1 comments

Yesterday Sophie was born, the daughter of my elder sister. I'm short on words, she's just so tiny and cute... :'D


My first meet and greet with Sophie.

posted by Marian @ 9:35 PM 2 comments

Even though I had a lecture on thursday already it still felt like vacation, this week. Sadly I have to report that I did not do anything usefull. I had a terrible cold at first, but also when that cleared up I couldn't motivate myself to study.
Right now I feel exceedingly guilty for my laziness, especially because there's so much I should have done, so the next few hours will be dedicated solely to Databases!
Fear strikes me that a slip up like this could cost me another year.

posted by Marian @ 7:20 PM 0 comments

Finally it is clear to me what my resolutions for 2007 should be. No new clothing, no new hobbies, not even a new place to live. Those things are just not important. It all boils down to one simple plan: to be the best possible version of myself.
This includes studying and being social, but also drinking wine, reading books and playing games. Of course there's always room for improvement, but I decided to accept some of my intrinsic qualities instead of putting effort in changing them.

Back to work now, I'm cleaning my room because I'm changing the configuration of my furniture. It's important that I do this once in a while, because next to having people visit me, it's the only thing that motivates me enough to clean up.

posted by Marian @ 11:00 PM 0 comments