Monkey Droppings

Okey doke. sorry about the long delay. i’ve been totally busy trying to cram as much chemistry as possible into the short amount of time i have before the conference in portugal and i just haven’t taken the time to update the website. my bad. anyways, i had to delete and reinstall the blog functions again. too much confusion with directories. now i’ve tossed wordpress into it’s own directory and i’ve got to learn some SQL to have a cool rant that actively updates on the front page. woohoo. it may take a bit, but i’ll see what i can get done before i leave for portugal!

so i’ve been busy. chemistry is going well. we just got a sweet microwave! now i can do twice as many reactions in half the time. i’m not sure if this is good or bad. ^_^; it’s unlikely that the rings will be finished before i leave, but i’ll have something cool to show people.

as for photos… in a further attempt to defeat the call of my blankets, i’ve decided to update my photo gallery and add some shots of the street parade. not as shacking as last year, but definitely eye-opening. go check it out. that’s all for now.

-jeremy

so i lied about the pictures today. oops. anyways, still chugging away the chemistry, so it’ll be a bit before i can get the live update going. in the mean time, i’m adding some filler so that i have enough posts to test out the updater code. i’m going to bed. if anyone is reading this (which i doubt) go check out http://www.talklikeapirate.com.

-jeremy

Yeah portugal! I had a wonderful time. when i got on the plane in Lisboa, it was 26 º and sunny and when i got off in Zürich, it was 18º and raining. hmm…. why did i come back? anyways, the conference was a great success. I had a great time and learned lots. I wish i had had more time to wander through Portugal. it’s a great country, the climate and culture don’t lend themselves to a rushed tour. you need to slow down and take your time. Lisboa was an awesome city. so much to see and do. Every building had a story. the history was just leaking through the faded and peeling facades. Everything was in a sorry state of repair, but had an elegant feel to the decay. very interesting. too much to take in in one go. i’ll need to go back and visit again. it helps that portugal is incredibly affordable. I paid eights euros to sleep on th beach and 12 to sleep in the center of the city. amazing! quite shocking after living in Zurich.

i tried to do some major overhauls on the site today, but i had problems installing the new gallery so i just added photos to the old one. I’ll try and work on the front page in the next day or so. until then, i’m going to bed. goodnight!!

-jeremy

P.S. I need to get into the habit of using this journal more often, otherwise, what’s the point?

well, the title says it all. i’m all tuckered out. i think i’ve got a little cold and it’s really annoying. i hope i get better before friday, because i’m going to München!! quite excited about it. But i’ve got to work really hard before i take off. We’ve been given a six week deadline to finish the rings and it’s not quite there yet. we’re pushing hard and hoping for the best. i tried to fiddle around with the site a little more today, but all my feeble attempts at php failed miserably. so i added some new quotes and photos to the random generators on the front page. i hope you enjoy.

-jeremy

Man, i still can’t figure out how to write a php script to snag a quick update from my weblog. it can’t be that hard, but i really haven’t taken the time to figure. still slaving away in the lab only one month left until i come home from christmas! yeah!! i’m pretty excited about heading back to the states and seeing everybody. so many people to see and things to do! the fall here has been incredibly beautiful. the clear crisp air, the gorgeous fall colors, the cold. ooh, the cold. i like the cold. it’s so nice. yesterday, i went to luzern, froze my assests off, and took lots of pictures. check out the gallery. today i had a great time playing frisbee by the lake. delightfully cold and drizzling sometimes i think i’m a little strange, but the fall is definitely my favorite season of the year. now if only europe did thanksgiving day football…

well, shite. i got hit by spambots. somehow the gomers found my site and have started posting dumas comments. i just don’t get it. it’s not cool. who clicks on the links anyways? is there really enough feedback to make it worthwhile? so i altered my filters a little bit, added some new key words. i hope that it works. i’ll leave the spamcomments up for a little while, just so you can see what they are. but if anyone clicks on one of them, i will send my italian friend guido, over to your house to have a little “conversation” about internet courtesy. if i can’t filter off enough off the spammers, i’ll have to work out something new. maybe removing comments and forcing people to register before posting. not that it really matters, nobody else has written a comment yet
-jeremy

why? that’s my only question, why? how do they sleep at night

I keep my son in supply of Peets coffee

do you like bunnys ?

Sometimes the swiss are silly. actually, it occurs on a daily basis. things happen that make you tilt your head to one side and say, “hunh?” and “why?” that latter response often generates more confusion as the swiss will then be confused as to why you would ask “why?” Nobody asks why, because everybody knows that that is the way to do it. nur in der schweiz.

so here’s my funny story for this week. last sunday i was playing frisbee in the mud (very fun by the way) and my cleats were a leettle bit wet, so i left them in the hall by the door overnight to dry. i forgot about them in the morning and when i arrived home that evening there was a nice typed note waiting for me in the shoes. it read as follows:

Schuhe dürfen aus feuerpolizeilichen Gründen nicht auf dem Korrider stehen.
Bitte Schuhe ins Zimmer oder in Ihr Schuhkästen im Ausguss stellen.
Danke!
-Leitung Quartierwesen

so i can understand that you shouldn’t leave your shoes in the corridor, but what’s with the fire hazard excuse? everyday i come home and the place reeks of ASS (ASS=cigarettes)! smoking is forbidden, but i’ve never seen any of these nice notes left out for our resident arsons. and yet within 12 hours of my shoes sitting in the hall, by my door, i receive a pre-typed letter warning me of the dangers of sponatenous shoe combustion! nur in der schweiz!

-jeremy