Status update

I'm way too hooked on Fb. Not that I'm one of those people who update their status every few minutes, but I can't concentrate on anything because I need to check my friendship requests and other people's statuses all the time. I'm not really a big fan of the Fb user interface, which makes being a slave to the system even more infuriating. I can't seem to find anything I need on my profile page and all in all I don't find the different functions very intuitive. But a promise is a promise - getting into Humboldt came together with signing in to Facebook. And I do find the service to be a nice way to be in contact with a lot of people (with minimum effort I might add if I were a cynical bastard. Lucky I'm not.)

As is customary, I turned to my blog when I had more pressing things to do. Like my Gee-whizz, which is coming together painfully slowly. However, I have made breakthroughs despite my sluggish pace. Yesterday, I was able to further define my analysis section when I realised it would perfectly fine to concentrate on structural metaphors and leave ontological and orientational metaphors outside the main focus. I will content myself with writing only one paragraph on each of the other metaphor types and be a happy monkey. During the last days I have been writing down ALL of the metaphors I have been able to find in my selected material. So far, I have gathered 370 metaphorical expressions and about 50 conceptual metaphors (which in the end will overlap, so total will be smaller) and I'm about halfway through. I'm really hoping I get to concentrate on actual writing at the weekend and thereafter - first I just need to tread across this swamp of mechanical analysis.

S came over, saved the day and promised to take all my bookshelves and drawers home to her and Donald. I have packed six boxes of books and all of my jazz records, and now my bookshelves look more or less empty. Next I need to tackle my clothes and kitchenware. I have promised to leave this flat sometime in the middle of August, so I'm hoping my parents will accommodate me for a few days while I wait for my plane to leave for Berlin. I'm flying on the 22nd August at 14.15 (if my memory serves) but before that I have a poopile of things I need to do. People of former dwellers of countries foreign, hear me, hear ye, and give me your invaluable insight regarding what I should remember to do and perhaps take with me and so on. Much appreciated.

I have tried to look for grants but no one wants to support the postgraduate studies (in the European sense) of some Finn. More problems arise from the fact that I'm off to a German speaking country but going to undertake a British course, which doesn't make me a very desirable candidate for either the Germans or the British. And as luck would have it, the one grant I would've been eligible for (one of the DAADs) I should've applied for a year ago, when the whole MBS thing looked more like a pipe dream than a real option. Fortunately, I'm not in a personal economic slump because of the short leg as Mr. Assistant Sir (said in the voice of Anna) but it would be nice to be able to actually enjoy the time I'm going to spend in Berlin rather than merely eke out an existence there.

My farewell party will probably take place in the first half of August (tentatively on the 8th). I still haven't asked the folks if their residence is available then but I still have time to sort things out.

Wait, no I haven't.

*panic*