The end of a wonderful summer.

The sun comes up later than it did just two weeks ago. The nights are getting longer, the days shorter, and I even see some leaves out my window at work that are changing color. Getting up in the morning is slowly becoming more difficult (though that might partly be a side effect of this horrid cold that I caught just before the weekend...). Holland is beautiful in the fall, romantic. But after fall comes winter and Dutch winters are rarely beautiful. I dread Dutch winters. They are cold, wet, windy, grey, dreary, dark. Morning light starts at 8, and night begins to creep in at 4. Just thinking about it depresses me.

so, shisha/hookah/waterpipe, not so good for you...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8214097.stm

morning glory

everymorning i share a tram with the same people. the cute, wonderfully-smelling guy with a blonde ponytail. the lady who always wears pink flowered gloves, no matter how hot it is outside. the guy with Down's who sits in the back burping occasionaly, grining and muttering to himself, and loudly repeating "Ssssex winkel" every time we pass the sex-shop around the corner from the grocery store, all to the shock and embarassment of the old ladies who board at the rest home just down the street. the tall girl with long hair who for some reason always wears her belt on top of her clothes and never through the belt-loops of her pants. sometimes i manage to get the tram with the only woman driver on line 1, who never smiles when you say "goedemorgen" but grunts in reply before clanging the bell and lurching the tram forward.
the tram is scheduled to arrive at 8:19 but i risk missing it if i am not there by 8:15, and even then i'm really pushing it. why public transport in this country manages to always be early or late but never on time so that no matter what time you get there you end up waiting 10min is beyond me. and of course, i regularly miss the bus i mean to catch in Delft. i either arrive too early and he comes to late or i arrive late and he left early. either way, i end up waiting 20min before i can board my connecting form of transport.
at my stop, i get out, followed by a guy with dark hair who immediately lights up a cigarette and proceeds to walk 10 feet behind me till we reach the gate where i swipe my pass and open the door for both of us, at which point he offers the only word i have ever heard him speak, "dankje", and we part ways. sometimes i forget my pass and he has to step in front of me to open the door, then i say "dankje", smile, he nods, and we part ways.
then i work, go home, have a nice quiet evening at home with luuk (whooped his ass at Settlers last night...he got me back though), go to bed, wake up, and do it all again.
ah, mornings...

found in an old social psych book:

Innocent victims tigger more compassion if personalized. In a week when a soon-forgotten earthquake in Iran kills 3000 people, a lone boy dies, trapped in a well-shaft in Italy, and the whole world grieves. The projected death statistics of a nuclear war are impersonal to the point of being incomprehensible. So international law professor Roger Fisher proposed a way to personalize the victims:

"It so happens that a young man, usually a navy officer, accompanies the President wherever he goes. This young man has a black attache case which contains the codes that are needed to fire nuclear weapons.
I can see the President at a staff meeting considering nuclear was as an abstract question. He might conclude, 'On SIOP Plan One, the decision is affirmative. Communicate te Alpha line XYZ.' Such jargon keeps what is involved at a distance.
My suggestion, then, is quite simple. Put that needed code number in a little capsule and implant that capsule right next to he heart of a volunteer. The volunteer will carry with him a big, heavy butcher knife as he accompanies the President. If ever the President wants to fire nuclear weapons, the only way he can do so is by first, with his own hands, killing one human being.
'George,' the President would say, 'I'm sorry, but tens of millions must die.' The President then would have to look at someone and realize what death is - what an innocent death is. Blood on the White House carpet: it's reality brought home.
When I suggested this to frinds in the Pentagon, they said, 'My God, that's terrible. Having to kill someone would distrot the President's judgement. He might never push the button.' "

(Fisher, R. (1981) Preventing nuclear war. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March, 11-17.)

check this picture out...

http://www.safetyphoto.co.uk/photo1/electrical_socket/death_by_electrocution.htm

weekends are too short.

i have a serious case of the monday's. really not in the mood to do any sort of work. the computer is not on my side, either. slow bastard. not really sure what i need to do, anyway. tomorrow i am meeting with my supervisor(s) to discuss what i have written up so far for Part 1 of the workshop. I suppose I could read some more about risk theories to add to Part 2... but I am pretty much done with Part 2 already. And Part 3 is a group activity section, which involves very little research on my part...so that's done already too.
on a more interesting note, a friend got married this weekend. don't really know her new husband that well, but he's a good guy. it was good. a meaningful ceremony. smiles, tears, yummy reception food, good fun and friends. i like these kinds of weddings. when you know they have a good start to a (very likely) long journey. just plain good.
yes, i realize i just used the word good five times. it just fit the day.
anyway.
back to monday.

Daydreaming

I noticed this morning one of life's little pleasures that I hadn't really ever realized how much I enjoy: getting lost in my thoughts. For the 45 min travel time to the office, I usually take a book (right now I am reading "Nudge", which I recommend to all you politically-minded psychological's out there) but sometimes I don't feel like focusing and I let my mind wander. Occasionally I will stop to notice where I have let myself wander into, but for the most I just roam through the random parts of my mind that normally go unexplored. Somehow, this exercise is very relaxing. Maybe there's something in the early morning sunlight on the canals and green fields....

mini-update.

today, i got a tour of some of the work that the company where i am interning does. including at two shell refinaries. pretty interesting. probably boring once you are actually doing the work. its slow and time consuming and not pleasant. the only thing different about yesterdays work might be the location and the outcome of the tests they run. they use magnetic, ultrasound, and x-ray machines to test pipes and connecting parts. sometimes they just test loose parts on the ground before the parts are sent of to where ever they will be used. some times they climb ten stories of scaffolding to test a piece of metal. occasionally they have to hang off the sides of pipes and towers to get to that one piece they couldn't reach. crazy stuff. i can see why safety management is important. so now i feel a little more important. (in case you didn't know, i'm developing a safety workshop for the 'health, safety, quality, and environment' department). and now i have a better (albeit still incomplete) picture of what it is that they actually do. all these technical terms... a bit much for me. seeing it does more for me than reading it or getting an explanation from a well-meaning but confusing dutchman with a heavy accent.
still trying to figure out if this is for me. still wondering if i choose the wrong direction with this masters. still feel slightly unsettled.
guess i'll just have to wait and see.
i'm hoping for some writing on the wall.