Monthly Archives: March 2001

March 16 2001

Springtime

It smells like spring outside. Today it has been quite warm, though not sunny, but I still enjoyed riding my bike around town. I collected my thesis from the copyshop and went to the Prüfungsamt to hand it in. The Prüfungsamt is near the Rhine, so I went down to the Rhine. The water is very high at the moment, though not as high as I have seen it a couple of years ago. You can still use the roads and paths next to the river in many places. Unfortunately, I didn’t take my camera, so I can’t present any pictures.

It’s hard to tell how I feel right now. I guess I’m relieved that I finally finished the thesis, but mostly, I’m exhausted. I didnt realize how stressful the past months really were until yesterday or today. I’ve spent the afternoon reading, then went shopping and cooked a delicious dinner: pasta with salmon and leek. We didn’t have any champagne, Craig, but some dry white wine (which is pretty special since we rarely drink alcohol).

And tonight, André and I are going to watch a romantic movie – um, not quite, we’re watching Men in Black. We’ve seen the movie a couple of years ago, and I thought it was great fun. The DVD has lots of extra stuff on it: extended scenes, lots of photos, explanations about how the aliens were created and so on.

Jay: “You do know that Elvis is dead, don’t you?”

Kay: “No he’s not. He just went back home.”

And thanks for the congratulations, Helena, Jeff, John, Hal, Al, and Jörg, too!

Hope your day is as nice as mine! facehappy:

March 15 2001

We now resume our normal weblogging program.

Thanks for all your congratulations!

Craig asked: ”
What’s the first thing you are going to do with your freedom?

May I suggest that you and André go out for a romantic dinner, with champagne, of course. ”

Well, the first thing I did today was to go for a walk and run some errands – at a leasurely pace. I spent the rest of the afternoon on the sofa, reading – my first book in weeks that didn’t have any of the words Elliptic Functions, Theory of Functions, or Algebraic Topology on it.

There will be some sports tomorrow: Ride my bike to the copyshop, get my thesis, and ride my bike to the Prüfungsamt to hand it in; and some weight-lifting. I have about 20 books from different libraries sitting on my desk that need to be returned.

And as for the suggested dinner, we might go out for dinner on the weekend, but I doubt there will be champagne. True, I finished writing, but I won’t know the grade for another three months. Depending on the news I get in June, we might celebrate then.

Wheeeeeeeeeeee!

I am freeeee!

I’m quoting Susan here – and no other words would be more appropriate.

I finally finished my thesis. I worked till past 5 am last night, then slept for three hours and got the rest done. Then I went to the copyshop to have it bound, and tomorrow I’m going to hand it in. Finally!

Susan, I can so understand how you must have felt during working on that book of yours. My thesis has only about 50 pages, so I know you must have felt about 20 times as exhausted as I am now.

Only one problem remains: What am I going to do today? And tomorrow?

facehappy:

March 14 2001

Math Quotes

I like both Jeff’s and Garret’s suggestions, but I’m afraid it would not be a good idea to put them on my thesis.

Imke suggested this one:

“Wer die Geometrie begreift, vermag in dieser Welt alles zu verstehen.” – Galileo Galilei

“The person who understands Geometry is able to understand everything in this world.” – Galileo Galilei

I like it!

Auch schön, aber weniger passend:

“Das Buch der Natur ist mit mathematischen Symbolen geschrieben”. – Galileo Galilei

Das wäre eigentlich was für meine Hausarbeit über Mathematik und Bildung letztes Jahr gewesen… so als provokante Eröffnung.

Thesis

I shall finish my thesis tomorrow. However, I’m still looking for a quote to go on the first page. It should have something to do with geometry, and it would be even cooler if it is by one of the mathematicians that appear in my thesis, e.g. Euklid, Felix Klein, Poincaré, Riemann, Schwarz, Liouville, Hilbert, Carathéodory, Hurwitz, Courant, or Siegel.

Meanwhile, I’ve found the Mathematical Quotations Server of Furman University. (I thought I linked to it before, but the search engine doesn’t find it.)

I searched for quotes on geometry here, and found this one:

“Out of nothing I have created a strange new universe.” – János Bolyai (1802 – 1860)

[A reference to the creation of a non-euclidean geometry.]

How do you like it?

Community

Happy wedding anniversary, Tina and John!

Reading online

Bookvalley is a collection of books that are available online.

Link via Garret.

Dritte Bonner Museumsnacht

Aha, Museumsnächte gibt’s also auch hier in Bonn. Aus dem aktuellen Newsletter der Uni:

“Zur 3. Bonner Museumsnacht am Samstag, 31. März, werden die Bonner Musentempel bis zur Geisterstunde geöffnet sein. Auch die Uni beteiligt sich: Von 19.30 Uhr bis zirka 24 Uhr ist beispielsweise eine Keltennacht im Akademischen Kunstmuseum angekündigt, das neue Ägyptologische Museum [Fotos dazu] lädt ein und im Arithmeum geht es alles andere als diskret und geheim zu. Im Deutschen Museum Bonn tragen Rechtsmediziner und die Bonn University Shakespeare Company zu einer spannenden Kriminacht bei.”

March 12 2001

Peope do have crazy ideas!

What a cool idea! Let-me-stay-for-a-day.com – Ramon Stoppelberg, a 24-year-old student from the Netherlands, asks people around the world for a place to stay for a day. He is going to hitch-hike whereever these offers take him, and will be covering the trip on his website.

Link via MetaFilter.

Springtime is here!

Today, I worked in the garden. Okay, not really. But I bought some Italian herbs and planted them in a box. Now we can use our own home-grown fresh herbs for cooking!

I proudly present, from left to right: thyme, rosemary, and oregano. We also have parsley, which is visible in the bottom left corner. Ah, the fragrance of those herbs! Makes me hungry…

(There’s some ivy in the background, which we do not intend to eat.)

krauetergarten:
Thymian, Rosmarin und Oregano

Reading

Yay, there’s an excerpt of Otherland: Sea of Silver Light by Tad Williams on Amazon.com! And the book is going to be published in April – I can hardly wait to read the last part of the series. The timing is perfect – in April I’ll have to start preparing for my written exams, and I always need good books to read while learning.

Fast zwei Milliarden Mark bis 2005 für zusätzliche Lehrerstellen

Seite 1: Bessere Besoldung soll Nordrhein-Westfalen im Wettbewerb mit anderen Ländern helfen.

Na, das sind doch mal gute Nachrichten für Lehrer und solche, die es werden wollen.

Kleine Weisheiten…

Sean zu einer Frage der Charaktermaschine:

“Selbstgepräche? – Wer von uns beiden?”

Sunset – or sunrise?

Beautiful photo, Jeff!