Thinking blogger?

The Spanish twin of this blog, Und komisch spricht das Murmeltier... has been awarded with the Thinking Blogger Award, thanks to the most generous Gebirg. Many thanks, Gebirg, you're the best, and I love winning prizes!



Gebirg says that, even though I might not know it, I made her realize how important small details are. Well, I do care much about details, but I didn't know that this feature was so transfered to my posts. Curious...

According to the rules, I have now to give the prize to 5 bloggers that make me think. Well, I'm not very good with lists and nominations, so here are my 4 winners. The 5th spot is left freely open for anyone of my anonymous readers...

El sastre de Ulm, from El diario del sastre de Ulm (spanish), because his posts and comments not only make me think, but also make me miss my mathematical undergraduate ages.

Alexandra, from Building Bridges, because she is always really fast leaving me comments (time difference may be sometimes fun) and because we learned of each other through a glimpse to The Order.

Silencio, from Ruido (spanish), because he broke his silence and let me put a name to the mysterious red little point near Chicago.

Di, from Impossible not to, because I love her perspective, because thanks to her I am discovering a lot of little things (not only squirrels) that I wouldn't even notice. Di has been so kind to award this blog, Die Murmeltierjahre im Land des Frühschoppens, with the Thinking Blogger Award!!! :) As my two blogs are really twins, I consider myself as awarded, but I won't be tagging anymore, since I already did it from Und komisch spricht das Murmeltier... Thanks a lot Di! :)

Many thanks again to Gebirg for thinking of me, many thanks to Di for bouncing back this award to Die Murmeltierjahre, but especially thanks to all of you, readers in the shadow, readers in the light, for allowing me having some minutes of your lives and for sharing them with me.

Through my window

I have yet another meme to do. Mar did not only send me the one with the 8 things about me, but the one with the photos of your window at work, too.

Well, I work in Hallein, which is a town some 20km to the south of Salzburg. The company where I work is not really big (6 people), and it is located in a two-story country house. My workplace is on the ground floor, which was formerly the garage of a truckage company.



From the biggest window we see basically our neighbour's garden and on a very far background, and if the weather is good, some of the peaks of the Tennengebirge. They cannot be seen on this photo because I did not want the window to be too dark. And that's quite a challenge: the contrast between highlights and shadows was too big for my poor compact camera. I will try to shoot a better one, I promise!

My favourite workplace is one in the back room. We have a kind of reserve computer there to run some daily software tests and other routine tasks. I like when I have to work on that computer, because the side of the Dürrnberg begins just 20 meters away and all you can see are spruces and fir trees. And also because I can check how our little apple tree is doing on the backyard.



I am supposed to designate some other people to do this meme. But I will leave it once again to the will of everyone. If you read this, and you find it nice, and you want to do it, just take your camera to work and follow the meme!

Cheers!

* * * * EDITED on 5th July * * * *

I edit to put another photo. This one is done from the second floor, where my workplace was during my first five months working for the company.

8 things about me

I have got my first meme!

A meme is something like a "thing to do" that bloggers send to each other. I don't know if Richard Dawkins really agrees with this use of the word meme. Some time ago I read the book The Selfish Gene, and if I remember well, he coined there the term meme as a kind of cultural counterpart of a gene. Some bit of information which passes quickly from human being to human being. For example, a catchy tune would be a meme.

Anyway, Mar nominated me to follow up a meme that consists in telling 8 things about yourself. And here they are:

(i) I'm a mathematician who can't count. My abilities for mental arithmetic are comparable to those of a peach. Most of the people think I'm joking ("Yeah, sure. But you're the mathematician! Ha, ha, ha!") but it's the awful truth.

(ii) I cannot stand when a picture is askew on the wall, or when the brace of a girl's top or bra gets twisted. I normally solve the first just by putting the picture right, the second one is somewhat more difficult to deal with...



(iii) There are some secret little rituals that I must do, otherwise my day is not good: using a certain spoon or mug for breakfast, sitting on the right side of the bus, crossing a certain street exactly on the same place, etc.

(iv) I never liked sweeties or candy. Chocolate, tarts and cakes leave me cold. Some say I am very lucky because of this. I realised as well that this distaste for sweet is the reason behind most of the meals I don't like. Incidentally, I can eat the most disgusting vegetables or legumes, as long as they are served with rice.



(v) The icons on my Windows desktop follow a clear organisation, and I get very upset if someone clicks accidentally on "Automatic icon organisation". I always close applications through the menu File -> Quit, and I never use the cross on the top right. Applications that can be closed only with the X make me nervous.

(vi) I grow Saguaro cactus for fun. One friend of mine brought me Saguaro seeds from Arizona. Some 20 of them sprouted, many survived, others not. When we moved to Austria some of the Saguaros came with us, and I gave the rest to friends and family to be taken care of. The Saguaro is the slowest growing cactus species in the world. Mine are now 5 years old and around 5cm high. In 30 years they might start flourishing and in 50 to 70 years they will start developing their characteristic arms.



(vii) I am a big Lord of the Rings fan, but I never was able to finish the books. The Fellowship of the Ring was OK, with The Two Towers I started to get really lost and bored, and I read The Return of the King skipping large passages (pages and chapters) to get to the end. I became a big fan later, thanks to a Tolkien Encyclopaedia. But I really never read the whole books.

(viii) I am trying to teach myself to play the piano for 4 years now. Although the progress is not really spectacular, I am still convinced that I can do it, if only I found the energy to devote half an hour a day to play...



That's it then. The rules say that I have to pass the meme to 8 people, but I don't really know that many bloggers yet. So, if you are reading this and find it fun, just do it! And please drop me a comment here, so that I know that there's someone out there...

Cheers!