A few more days to go

I haven't been doing all that much at work today. I've been cleaning the lab and my office mostly. I've also cleaned up files on my computer. Tomorrow I just have this one thing to write and then I'll haul my computer to the lab office along with all my office stuff. I don't really have much stuff so I'm not expecting it to take long. I think I'll leave for home sometime after lunch. I mean it is my last day here for a while so taking the afternoon off to pack and such is most likely ok.

Yesterday me and the bnd went climbing at Hutunki. They had the all new routes we've been attempting for a few times now. I'm glad to say that I got this one hard move on this one route I hadn't gotten before and noticed that perhaps me and the bnd are not as bad climbers as we sometimes think when seeing the pros climbing. It's nice to be on the same level as some other people that go climbing often. Like with the new routes it's fun to see how other people accomplish them and then notice that in some things I even do better. The bnd is actually as good as me or better right now or at least when looking at the routes we get up. I, of course, can always blame my height.

Today, I'm going to be packing and just hanging out at home for a change, tomorrow I'm going to the Christmas party of the chemistry department and Saturday I have to finish packing and then make an appearance at this party. On Sunday my train leaves after eight and I just noticed that I have a four hour wait in Tampere. I could have taken the later train but it's sort of too late now since the ticket is non-refundable and not exchangeable. It sort of such since I have like nothing to do there. But at least it won't matter to me if the train is late. They've been promising snow and rain for Sunday so it might actually be late. But I'll get to read a book for the whole day and visit Taco House so it's not all that bad maybe.

Busy relaxing

So I'm back from the romantic weekend getaway with the boy next door. It was grand. The trip there was sort of scary since we went by bus and it was one of those buses that takes all these people that live in the middle of nowhere home and we had no idea when to get off. I mean we knew that it would take approximately forty minutes and that's about it. It was also dark outside. Then the bnd finally asked the driver about it and the driver was like "we're gonna go right to the front of the hotel" and then we were there. So it turns out we were worried for nothing. Smart people of course would have asked the driver right in the beginning to just stop there and inform him that we didn't know where we were going, but not us. But it turned out all right and we had totally forgotten about it by the time we got back from having a dip in the pool there.

It was like a spa resort so first thing we of course did was get in the pool. It was a bit weird since it was like a swimming hall with like lockers and then showers and saunas and then the pool. Like in public swimming pools. Of course there is nothing weird about that unless you haven't been to such a place in like 8 years. I was like "wait a second - this seems familiar...". I was sort of disoriented and of course the fact that I had to take my glasses off emphasized it. And then I decided to try out the steam sauna. I hadn't been to one in ages. So I step in and there is tons of steam - surprising I'm sure. And then once I start seeing something (I just stand still for a while) I realize that the men are in the same sauna with only this rope sort of splitting the territory. And I'm like "no wonder there's no other women here and those men are looking at me weird". So I'm like "well so I care and those men at least get to see a pretty body" and sit down once I locate the bench. But the steam sauna is actually not so nice. It was too cold so I head for the normal sauna and then to the pool. I tried to come out of the steam sauna so no women would spot that I'd been in there so as not to get embarrassed all the while trying to look like I was meant to go in there knowing it was for both sexes. I think I did fine. I didn't go back in there again during the weekend though.

We also had quite a nice dinner on Friday. We were in the a la carte side of the restaurant which was connected to the buffet side by a glass wall. There was this big group having a Christmas party there so we were quite satisfied with having some privacy. But alas, the "fun and humorous" Christmas show starts before desert. It was these two people doing musical impressions of famous Finnish people. I was ok since we had a laugh at how bad it was but it was even more funny the next day at dinner when the same show started up. Hearing a bad show is sort of fun but hearing it again and knowing the jokes is even funnier. At least I thought so. We had the same waiter both nights and it was quite nice since he also had a sense of humor and was quite a good waiter (no monocles fell at dinner). The food was also good and especially the deserts.

All in all the weekend was a success. I had fun and felt relaxed and still had enough to do so as not to get bored. We got home on Sunday afternoon and spent the night inside enjoying the snow storm. Reading the news, it is quite nice to notice that one snow storm doesn't really affect me as much as people who drive cars and the like. I left my bicycle home today since it is easier to walk than to struggle with the snowdrifts on the bicycle. I think getting loads of show is great. I get to experience a bit of winter before heading south.

In two weeks

In two weeks I'll be in Germany. I've been trying to prepare for it but I haven't really done much. Luckily I don't have to like move from my flat so it's not that much work. I do have to see what all I'll be taking with me. I was supposed to do that on Saturday but then I got into cleaning my balcony and didn't have time or the energy to go through my closet any more. The thing I should do is go through my clothes, you see. I have to figure out what I need. The problem is that I think I'm just going to pack everything in my big backpack (rinkka) and well that isn't all that big. I've no figured that I have to take my climbing gear, of course the important stuff first, and work clothes. But then I have all these other clothes and a few pairs of shoes I want to take with me. Like my hiking boots. Then I also want to take other outside gear. I don't think I can fit it all. I need to go trough my closet since I have to give away most the stuff I'm not taking with me since when I come back I'll have forgotten they exist and won't wear most of it anyway. And I'll have bought new stuff too. I think I may have to do that tomorrow.

I haven't got that much time since I want to do fun stuff like climbing instead of packing and cleaning. I'm going climbing today and maybe on Wednesday. They've put up all new routes so it should be fun seeing if I can climb up the walls anymore. I saw this dream that all the routes were way too easy and I was complaining about it and people were just climbing up without ropes since they were so easy that you just "could not fall". In reality I'm quite sure that the routes will be quite difficult. I couldn't get up most the one's they used to have so there should be no big change. The most fun thing was that last Wednesday I finally did this one move on this route I've been working on since they changed the routes a year ago. And of course as always it seemed to go so naturally once I got it. It is a shame that I didn't have time to try it again but at least I got it before they changed the route. In two weeks I'm not sure who I'll be climbing with but if there's no-one to go with then I'll just have to go alone on the bouldering walls.

Next weekend I'll be going for a "romantic weekend getaway" with the boy next door. It should be fun. We're just going to this spa hotel not far away. The great thing about it being quite near is that there's no stress involved in actually getting there. We'll bet to lounge around in warm water and go hiking in the surroundings.

I'm not organizing a goodbye party. I just don't really feel like it. It would involve actually organizing stuff and inviting people and I just don't have the time. Besides, with next weekend being booked and the Friday (and Saturday) of next week and then me leaving on Sunday there just isn't any time for a party. I'll of course be coming back for Christmas and New Year's celebrations so that's enough parties. So if you want to see me before I go, you best give me a call or contact me otherwise. We can have coffee, tea or some other refreshments and talk about stuff. There isn't really any time to talk properly in parties anyways.

Free energy of salvation

I'm trying to write an essay about supramolecular selectivity of cations binding to macrocycles. One of the factors governing the selectivity of these hosts and guest is their solubility characteristics. With a small spelling mistake it has nothing to do with the solubility but everything to do with the molecules' chances for salvation. Now what is the free energy of salvation? The amount of energy released when someone/something is saved? I think maybe some believers in combining faith and science have already used this concept in their sermons. It maybe has something to do with no energy disappearing. Maybe one could combine this with charges, saying that heaven has a positive charge and hell a minus charge or conversely the other way around since hell is loads hotter. And then the people have charges as well. Maybe it's the same principle as with positive cations going to a negative cathode. Or I can never remember how that one goes. I do like how the free energy of salvation sounds like. Obviously, from google searches, people have made this mistake before but it did not turn up in any religious context.

Anyways. I've not had lunch today since the cabbage casserole thing they had just was really uninviting and paying for something I could and would not eat did not seem worthwhile. I think I've got a sugar-high from all the candy I've been eating instead.

Post #220: Crash, boom ,bang, logout

So I was doing these database searches of crystal structures because it seemed like a handy thing to do on a Monday afternoon since nothing else really awoke my interest. But oh no. The stupid programs kept crashing every time I was about to get things like in good enough shape to save. And it's not like they crashed in the windows sort of way that you sort of just have too much going on and thus nothing works. I totally did not have too much going on and the program would just disappear. And to top this all off the computer also logged me off with no warning right in the middle of it. It was this quite old Linux computer. I think I am cursed when it comes to Linux. I mean windows machines are supposed to crash once in a while but it has only ever happened to me like a few times with my old computer like five years ago. But to count the number of times a Linux machine has just crashed on me is almost the same as dividing the times I've used them by two. Now I've been told that "they don't crash" but I just don't buy it. Granted the machine I was using did not crash in a windows sort of way but by logging me out it might as well have. And I have gotten what I call "the white screen of death" on that computer a number of times when logging out and had to manually restart it. So to sum it all up - no database searches successfully acquired.

Little less than a month till I leave for Germany. No new news about that I guess. It may still not have really hit me what going there will mean like evening-wise. Like what the heck am I going to do with all the time I have no-one to hang out with. Read more books I guess. Or work more.