Category Archives: Personal

Snow and cookies

Yay, we’ve got snow! It’s been snowing during the last three days and has gotten really cold. Now we’ve got about 10 cm (4 inches) of snow. It was very cold during the last few days, down to -12°C (10°F) at night and barely warmer during the day.

I love the snow, especially when I don’t have to go out and drive in it, so it was good timing that it started on my last day of school before the Christmas holidays.

I’ve been busy sewing some presents, but if you’d rather spend your time baking cookies, I found Gourmet magazine’s favorite cookie recipes from 1941 to 2008 on MetaFilter. They all look yummy! Aside from these almost 70 recipes I’ve been intrigued by these crisp salted oatmeal white chocolate cookies from smitten kitchen, which I’ve been meaning to try for a while. They look and sound just delicious! Also from smitten kitchen: salted brown butter crispy treats, which are fancy rice krispies treats, I guess.

Wrong number

On my way home from work today I stopped at the bank to get some money at the ATM. I entered my pin code and the amount, but the display said “Wrong pin code”. Tried again, this time really making sure I don’t mistype. Wrong again. Huh?

Then it finally dawned on me: My pin code for the copy machine at school isn’t going to be accepted by the ATM no matter how much attention I pay while entering it… duh.

Do you think I need a holiday?! Only 18 days of school to go, not counting the weekends.

Migräne – Migraines

“Laut einem Bericht der Weltgesundheitsorganisation zählt unter den chronischen Krankheiten, die das Leben stark beeinträchtigen, Migräne zu den ersten vier. Die Volkswirtschaft kostet das Leiden Unsummen – von den Arbeitsausfällen bis hin zur Frühinvalidität. Allein die Behandlung verschlingt in Deutschland jährlich 500 Millionen Euro, die Folgekosten schätzungsweise das Zehnfache. Nach einer anderen Berechnung kostet Migräne in der EU im Jahr mindestens 27 Milliarden Euro und gilt als die teuerste neurologische Störung.”

Diese Aussage fand ich in einem Artikel der letzten Ausgabe von Spektrum der Wissenschaft: Migräne – leider keine Einbildung von David W. Dodick und J. Jay Gargus.

Zum Glück sind meine Migräneattacken meistens relativ milde, und Naratriptan wirkt ganz gut dagegen. Frustrierend finde ich allerdings, dass die Krankheit bzw. ihre Auslöser bisher so wenig verstanden werden und es daher schwierig ist, sie medikamentös zu behandeln. Wünschenswert wäre ja eine Prophylaxe statt einer Tablette, die man erst nehmen darf, wenn die Schmerzen bereits begonnn haben.

By the way, if you prefer to read the article in the original version (in English), you can find it in Scientific American: Why Migraines Strike. The illustrations seem to be missing, but you can get the whole article by clicking on “Print”. You can buy the full version here or as an audio book.

So you wanna play the ukulele

I’m still working on my ukulele skills when I’ve got the time. André and I went to see the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain in concert last night, and that motivated me to try some new chords today. (Nebenbei, deutschsprechenden Fans des UOGB empfehle ich UOGB Fans. The site also has an English version.)

I have found that two things are hindering my progress: one, I used to play the guitar as a teenager and remember the guitar chords from then, confusing them with the uke chords, and two, soprano ukuleles come in two tunings, either g c e a or a d f# b. The first seems to be a bit more widespread, but the latter is used in the beginner’s book I’ve got. I know I should just stick to one of the tunings and memorize the chords in that tuning, but which one to pick?

In any case, I’ve found two websites that come in very handy if you’re a beginner on the uke:

The Ukulele Boogaloo Chord Charts show how to play all the chords, including which finger to put on which string, and they’re available for both tunings of the soprano uke and the baritone uke as well.

Sheep Entertainment’s Ukulele Chordfinder does not only offer different versions of each chord (for soprano, tenor, baritone uke), but also has a play-along feature. Pick one of the many songs available, listen to it, read the text and the chords and play along! The chords are also shown on a ukulele so you know how to play them. (Of course, you can pick which tuning to use.) Excellent!

Previous uke postings on Serendipita: one, two, three.