I am NOT SWISS and I DON'T SOUND SWISS either!

i'm fixing the last of my code for my masters project. except i'm spending a lot more tie surfing the internet than doing anything else. nothing new there...

right now i've got an excuse, i'm waiting to find out whether the upgrades i've made to my testbench actually work, or if i've just screwed the whole thing up again.

i've just spent ages trying to find this fun blog i stumbled across while i was meant to be working myself to death two weeks ago, called have you met me?. google refused to find it, even when i did a blog search for 'have you met me'. stupid search machines, they haven't got a clue! eventually i remembered that i'd found it via indie bloggers. Finally!

grace (from have you met me?) links to garfield minus garfield. how superb is that! garfield without garfield there. utter genius! :-D

Labels: blogs, fun, links, random

during the fun and games with the free dictionary last week, dani remembered this wonderful collection of the most obscure and rare words in the english language:
the grandiloquent dictionary

never having heard of 'grandiloquence' before, i promptly tried to look it up in it's own dictionary only to find it's not in there! is there a gaping hole in my vocabulary?! or does the word not exist...

i asked the free dictionary:
gran·dil·o·quence

huh, i guess you learn something new every day :-)

Labels: links, random, words

our utter knackeredness has degenerated into childishness:

out of boredom i followed the link for booby,
from there to boob,
which lead to a discussion of the word tit (it's a type of bird!)
and then from there to whether you can call someone a tit or if it's always twit,
and from there finally to a search on git

time to go home yet?javascript:void(0)

[edit: ooh look, a random addition to my post! i like it. brain:void(-1) ]

Labels: bizarre, childishness, links, not working, random, sleep deprived

dani, (the guy sitting across from me finishing his master thesis) just ran a search on synonyms for 'simple'. he was a bit surprised at the results. it's such a great list of insults that i just had to check it out:


dimwit, doofus, nitwit, half-wit - a stupid incompetent person

dingbat - a silly empty-headed person; "you would be a dingbat even to try it"; "yet here he was with an upper class dingbat who just happened to be married to his sister"

boob, booby, pinhead, dope, dumbbell, dummy - an ignorant or foolish person

fool, muggins, saphead, tomfool, sap - a person who lacks good judgment

changeling, cretin, half-wit, idiot, imbecile, moron, retard - a person of subnormal intelligence


i particularly like the second example usage for dingbat. wtf?

check out the full list at the free dictionary :-)

Labels: chuckles, links, uni, words

ok, ok, i'll get back to work in a mo! but these posts on presentations caught my eye. i have to present my master thesis the day after tomorrow, you know...

i started off on brazen careerist: presentations 101: its about you not the powerpoint

which lead to guy kawasaki: the 10/20/30 rule

and presentation zen which seems to be a blog all about presentations. i haven't really looked at it yet. maybe before my next presentation ;-)

Labels: blogs, links, presentations, uni

... i've been here since 8.30 am (the train was delayed cause of the snow, i'd have been here earlier otherwise) and working hard. but everyone needs a break now and again. it's lunchtime...

i found this fun blog the lisa show, which has a link to this really weird but fascinating page We Feel Fine. It collects feelings from blog entries around the world and and kind of sorts them by location, age and gender of author, weather at time of post... how bizarre.

well, lunch time is over, but i'll probably go back to it again some time

Labels: bizarre, blogs, links, random

Behold, thou shalt become as popular as a boil on the king's backside, thou offspring of a squashed cockroach!

looky: biblical curse generator at ship of fools

:-)

Labels: fun, links, procrastinating

i've survived the ten year old aspirin, surely that proves i have super powers ;-) or maybe the guardian angel of all morons spends just spends such a lot of time rescuing me from myself, that a bit of rotten aspirin's a doddle ;-)

i'm not completely better, but i didn't get a headache today (even without any aspirin) and i'm hoping to be miles better on monday and back to my usual perfect self on tuesday, ready for the first match of the week...

anyway, here're my results for which superhero are you?. it's weird, i'm sure it never asked whether i was male or female :-S maybe i am a bit like a female, eh pij? :-)

Your results:
You are Supergirl
Lean, muscular and feminine.
Honest and a defender of the innocent.

Supergirl		82%
Robin		80%
Spider-Man		80%
Iron Man		75%
Superman		65%
Hulk		60%
The Flash		60%
Green Lantern		55%
Catwoman		55%
Batman		55%
Wonder Woman		52%

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz


----------------------

part 2:

i just made tim take the superhero test and thought i'd realised how it worked out it should make me female as i saw the questions again: my answers to the two questions 'do you sometimes wear a pushup bra?' and 'do you often wear thongs' clearly branded me as either female or a man who'd be happy to be called superwoman ;-)

BUT... tim's results appeared...

You are Supergirl
Lean, muscular and feminine.
Honest and a defender of the innocent.

Supergirl		73%
Hulk		70%
Superman		70%
Green Lantern		70%
Robin		67%
The Flash		65%
Batman		55%
Wonder Woman		53%
Iron Man		40%
Spider-Man		35%
Catwoman		35%

*falls off chair laughing*
"i'd rather be cat woman than supergirl!" mutters a highly offended tim... [he would like it to be added that he has never worn and doesn't intend to ever wear a bra or a thong!!!]

what fun :-D

Labels: bizarre, chuckles, family, fun, links, random, sicky vicky

i'm not well, i think i've got the flu or something. it's horrid, everything aches. i went home early after making myself concentrate hard until 5 o'clock, at which point i gave up and stumbled my way home...

while i was at lunch (before going home half dead. i had a bowl of soup and a cup of tea, my poor throat was most grateful) some guy from this international recruitment agency (based in the UK but specialising in placing people in switzerland :-s) sent me an email saying he'd seen my impressive (no kidding *g*) profile on monster.ch and was looking forward to hearing from me.

the last time i got a message like that i freaked and didn't go back on xing for over a month. in fact, i only went back on again properly this week, and i got the message in november... i'm a very special individual. the reason i freaked was that it sounded like the guy had a a job to fill that would really suit me. if it had been some random thing i really didn't want to do, i'd just have ignored it or written back 'thanks, but no thanks' or whatever. but because it sounds like a real opportunity, i go nuts and bury my head in the sand... well done vicky!

so this time i resolved to answer it like the normal, sensible adult that i refuse to be. but cause i was feeling so awfully icky i thought i'd put it off till tomorrow. that's not too late to answer, 24 hours later, is it?

after brewing myself another cuppa and escaping from stephie (she was bored, i'd've been happy to play with her, but since any sound was causing the jack-hammers in my head to rev up another level, and i just wanted to be horizontal, i couldn't take it for long) i crawled into bed. heaven! but of course i got bored quite quickly and thought it might be a good idea to send ouot a text to the girsl in my small group asking what time they want to come round next monday, since only one of them has answered the email i sent. got out my phone and saw 'new voice-mail' flashing. :-s who could that be? it's the guy, calling from the uk! he's eager! is that normal?

of course i couldn't relax after that (i did try, lay there for another quarter of an hour, but it just wouldn't work), so i got up to draft my reply. as usual, i'm stuck. on the first line. meh. what's the form, eh? he wrote 'Hello Ms G'. do i answer 'Hello Mr S'?

so i've been researching it badly. i haven't yet found anything to help me with this specific question. but have got bogged down in loads of great (-looking) sites with helpful tips on interviewing and general looking for jobs.

here they are:

• i got most of the starting links from brazen careerist. she's written a load of great posts on loads of work- and life-related subjects :-)


• hr world interviewing cheat sheet 100 resources for interviewers and candidates


• 64 interview questions with explanations of hidden traps, and how best to answer


• tips for job seekers tips on interviewing


• monster career advice


• wetfeet.com haven't really looked at this one properly yet, but at first glance it looks good :)


• careeronestop.org


• about.com: job searching

my head is killing me. i'm gonna have a whack at that stupid letter and then go back to bed. thanks for the tips, pij! oh yes, thomas too :-)

Labels: i'm special, job search, links, sicky vicky

... as far as i know, but if i were...

	I'd be part Michelangelo. I am laid back and all about having a good time. Cowabunga!
	I'd also be part Donatello. I am reserved and intelligent. I favor the use of brains instead of brawn.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

what a shame i'm not a turtle, i'd get to switch between orange and purple headbands. and i wouldn't have to worry about bad hair days. now, wouldn't that be great :-) of course, being the coward that i am, i think i prefer battling hair to battling shredder... maybe i can yell cowabunga! next time i'm in front of the mirror. wonder if that'll scare my hair into behaving. it might do, anyone who'll yell cowabunga! at the mirror could be capable of any kind of random behaviour, including chopping at misbehaving hair with a pair of kitchen scissors... not that i'm likely to do that, it would only make things worse. just don't tell my hair... ;-)

ps: since i'm now trying to link properly, brainfall.com turned up on facebook cause bex posted her results to her profile. hmm, not sure whether i should link to her blog, the last post is from 2005. so i'm not gonna. ah well

Labels: facebook, i'm special, links, random

another wonderfully productive afternoon for me (watch out: sarcasm!!!). at least this morning was ok. and btw, i managed to fix the division by zero without losing the ability to divide by one. no nobel prize after all, i guess...

anyway, spent the afternoon bloghopping (don't tell my tutor!) (or my mum...) *g*
came across quite a few interesting links. among others the brazen careerist blog, which looks fascinating and has told me (well not just me, all bloggers) to link properly. so here goes ;-)

the coolest link i found is
   www.freerice.com
(which i found on the “blog” of “unnecessary” quotation marks) it's a word-gamey thing (so of course i got hooked at once) where each time you get it right, they donate 20 grains of rice through the united nations. so, obviously, you have to play it lots and lots to make a difference ;-)

my vocab level is 47. what's yours?

Labels: blogs, charity, fun, links, uni

cooool :-)

i've just gone online on one of the general EE students computers and remembered that the crappy system screwed up my bookmarks when they migrated it :-(

however, this time a friend was at the computer next to me and she's introduced me to del.icio.us. what a great idea!!! you can save and organise all your bookmarks online, and import them to whatever browser whenever you want hurrah! :-)

another addictive thingy for me to get stuck on. i know, i know, it's not actually a game, but i'm having fun with it anyway ;-)

only thing i wish is that i'd found out about it before i started looking for jobs: i've got about fifty semiconductor company websites bookmarked that'll have to be transferred. although, come to think about it, it's such a clever thingy, i'm sure it'll have some function for importing bookmarks from browsers :-)

Labels: i'm special, links

hurrayyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! no more exams at uni!!!!
ok, if i've failed i have to retake the last 7 of them, but i don't think i've failed since i only have to pass on average and all the grade i already know are above pass and out of the three i don't know i think only one went badly. really badly in fact, but as long as i actually did pass the other two i can afford to get a 1.25 so really there's absolutely nothing to worry about. of course i'm worried anyway ;-) hope i find out quickly. just checked: crap, the conference isn't until the 5th of october :-( buggrit.

well anyway, it's definitely something of a miracle i did so well (passing is doing well!) given that i studied for an average of a day and a half before each of the 5 exams, had the lecture a year ago (except compiler design, the one i did really badly in) and never paid attetion in the lectures (if i bothered to go)... before the last exam (yesterday) i didn't even start studying until 3 o'clock the afternoon before and then i went off to practice driving for two hours in the evening...

and the fact that i've found a great new link for online puzzles says a lot about my behaviour during stressful times... www.hitoriconquest.com
oh yes, and i'm up to 92 tangerines

had a driving lesson today. went on the motorway for the first time. scary!!! it's terrifying having to go that fast, just so that you can get on *shudders* but we (my instructor and i) survived :-)

Labels: driving, i'm special, links, uni

i'm completely hooked on facebook! and now it's showing me even more ways of wasting my time:
flying hamsters and tangerines
oh dear...

so far my top score is 46 tangerines...
and the hamster thing isn't working anyway, cause i'm not managing to hit the hamsters and they just go thud without flying anywhere at all cause my browser hasn't got the right flash player or something? maybe if i try it with opera...

Labels: links

i love this sunday's comic :-D

the hyenas are a cleverer version of the crocs :) (ok, and they don't want to eat 'zeeba') but the crocs are really cute :-D so pathetically useless at being cunning :-D

Labels: chuckles, links

pinched this link off scott adams' blog. check out the logo in the top right (i think it's right anyway) corner. dontcha just love it?! :D

www.basicinstructions.net

Labels: links

i'm completely hooked on these online puzzles:

www.puzzle-nonograms.com
www.puzzle-loop.com
www.puzzle-bridges.com

Labels: links