ICQ and Blog Comments and other Writing

Have you ever been contacted by a stranger on ICQ? Usually those a women with strange entries in their profiles like "Town: !§=E)!RF"O§"!=)"$1" or similarly strange combinations of signs, numbers and letters (sometimes also in Hebraic, Chinese, Kyrillic etc.). I usually deny the contact without any reasons - yes, I am selective ;-)

Well, recently, I was contacted by someone with - surprisingly - decently normal entries. Therefore, I accept the contact (still not knowing the sex) and it turned out to be a nice conversation. Even better. I was in German, so did not have to think before writing ;-)

And I had been thinking about uninstalling ICQ, because my friends now turn to Skype and MSN Messanger. But now I will keep it.

Today, I also received my first comment from someone, I do not know, who regularly reads these lines. This was also surprising. I still cannot believe that anybody might be interested in the strange thoughts of an overweighted, technical gadgets loving, single (but not searching - have I found yet?...) middle-aged man, who is in a kind of quarter-life crisis (shall I enter the humanitarian aid world...) and who is not sure whether the decision to move into a house was a wise one (no worries, dear colleague, I will move in on Saturday and I will enjoy it. I just hate moving.) So, where was I stuck? Yes. I have unknown readers.

I also hope that my Doktorvater will like what I have edited. I am far behind my schedule for my Ph.D. and I am not sure, whether I will can allocate more time to it. Yesterday, I wanted to update my bibliography and I ended up being taken out by a neighbour because she wanted company and a reason for not working too late. Today, I wanted to start early on the bibliography update and the editing of the letter/email to my Ph.D. supervisor (German: Doktorvater). But guess what? Yes, I had dinner with one of my American colleagues. Okay, I asked him for a reference letter before, so I could not turn down his invitation to dinner. I just think, I will have to learn to say "No".

Speaking of saying "No": I did clearly signal a "No" recently, and I am still proud of it - but I will not mention the occasion here. Just so much it was just a completely inappropriate offer, which still causes me some headaches. Those who speak German or know someone who speaks German, may check out the respective attempt of a logic decision making process in a previous blog.