Coping with public and private transport since 2001
If all goes well today, I’m due to hand in my thesis this afternoon, around 3pm. About 4 to 6 weeks after that, I will graduate after a graduation-session, where my supervisors will try to ask all kinds of tough questions.
I’m looking forward to it! 🙂
Until then, I’ll be working at Ordina. My first week is also nearing completion, the Clio is great!
Whoa, that feels nice!
I’m (finally) done waiting for the approval for my graduation! I’ve set up an appointment to deal with all the bureaucratic hassle that has to be dealt with at the university, but I’m not going to change a single letter of my thesis anymore.
Done! yay!
*celebrates*
Update (2008-04-07): I’ve had to reschedule the appointment to Thursday April 10th. I hope this will be the final appointment!
This kind of sums up the last week. I asked my supervisors at the university to accept the semi-final version to be the final version, for me to hand the thesis in officially and to finally graduate.
It now is over a week since I received any communication from my first supervisor, so I’m getting anxious. Trust me, I’ve tried to contact him. 😉
The second is the constructive or constructive assessment of our to-be-home. The appointment has been postponed once, and delayed the second day. The tester has confirmed the report was to be delivered Tuesday (third day of Easter) or at least before the end of Wednesday. We are a mere 2 hours away from that, and I haven’t heard of the report ever since. That sums up the days so far. Blegh.
As of today, your most favorited blogger is back.
I went AWOL last week, to rest a bit and generally do a whole lot of nothing.
So I did, and today I returned to the daily business of travelling to and from Nieuwegein. I’m really nearing completion of the thesis, so I’ll be posting updates soon!
Since this monday, we’ve been forced to vacate the flexplekken that have been my workspace ever since I started working on my thesis.
Now, we have moved to the first floor in the buidling, and have taken up residency in what is called a ‘loungespot’. Yes, productivity is as high as usual. 😉
Take a look, and be amazed at the layout of the place. Newly created and very likely really trendy: my new space.
Also in the pics: Arjen van Oostrum and Gde Hardjosumarto; my fellow graduate students.
Sometimes, or so it seems, politicians in our government not only serve the goal to manage our country through the inevitable rough times which are neigh, but also try to magically let a smile appear on all of our faces.
This latter is accomplished by saying something really silly, under the disguise of a "proefballonnetje". Such a weird proposal is, again, stipulated by our minister of Justice, Hirsch Ballin.
This minister saw the issues surrounding the ownership of small arms amongst high-school children, and wanted to solve these. Fact is that many more children are carrying knives such as balisongs (Butterfly knives) and are committing crimes with them. Last year, at least 5 kids have died due to stabbings at school: both the offenders and victims often did not exceed 16 years in age.
The simple solution as proposed by Hirsch Ballin: abolish knives in the entire country.
I will try to explain what went wrong here.
First of all: banishing or prohibiting the ownership of a certain item does not solve issues surrounding the use of the object. For instance: the ownership of firearms is prohibited in our country, and yet there still are crimes committed with guns and pistols. Why? Because these are still pretty easily available, despite the prohibition. It is estimated that only three steps separate any Dutch resident from getting a firearm. A friend of a friend of yours has access to a gun. Is it that easy I can hear you ask? Yes it is.
Secondly, the selling of balisongs and such is already regulated with an age-restriction: only mature buyers can get one. You have to be over 18 to acquire one in a shop. Registration is not yet required, nor is a certificate (like firearms), but these requirements can easily be established. To make matters worse, the second-hand market can not be regulated, due to the decentralised nature of the market. Trying to do so is wasted effort, and plain stupid.
Concluding: yet again a politician claims prohibiting something will solve issues surrounding the item. Yet again it can be proven this hypothesis does not hold water. Yet again, a minister made a fool of himself by expressing such a naive vision.
When will they ever learn?
Since it already is the 18th of December, I’m telling you, my precious readers, the thesis is nearing completion.
There still are major loads of work to do, and since my thesis coordinator at the university (again) is away for some time next week it’ll be a mad dash to the end.
Wish me luck here, at least I’ve rested well last weekend during a short break. 😉
Wow, with Sinterklaas on our doorsteps, it cannot be long before the merry days at the end of the year will commence.
I’m already getting hammered with Christmas advertisements, and it will only intensify over the next few weeks. Over here, a gentleman’s agreement has been made amongst store-holders to only start advertising Christmas inside their stores and in the leaflets after the 5th of December, to give Sinterklaas a chance to profit from the copious amounts of money we tend to spend on gifts this month.
Aside: due to (late) feedback of my supervisor at the university I’m forced to postpone my graduation date by about half a month. It’ll be mid-January for me to have completed the thesis.
I’ll keep you all posted!
The first of November is a milestone date for me.
It’s only 2 short months away from the deadline for my master thesis, and I’m kind of shaky acknowledging this.
So far, I’m still going as planned, with my thesis progressing as scheduled.
My portal quality framework is taking shape real quick and the validation stage is near. I’ll be keeping you posted when need be!
And I mean it!
Especially if you’re a good-sounding as I am now, with my clogged nose and lovely nasal voice. 😉
However, considering the above, I’m currently doing my job well.
At least, according to my supervisor(s) and co-workers here at Ordina. To underline this, they’ve tried to make my thesis better by handing me some more theoretical frameworks and research methodologies.
Thanks guys for making me read even more! 🙂
No, I mean it 😉