"Lady Madonna"

"Lady Madonna, children at your feet

Wonder how you manage to make ends meet

Who finds the money when you pay the rent

Did you think that money was heaven sent

Friday night arrives without a suitcase

Sunday morning creeping like a nun

Monday's child has learned to tie his bootlace

See how they run

Lady Madonna, baby at your breast

Wonders how you manage to feed the rest

Pa pa pa pa...

See how they run

Lady Madonna lying on the bed

Listen to the music playing in your head

Tuesday afternoon is never ending

Wednesday morning papers didn't come

Thursday night you stockings needed mending

See how they run

Lady Madonna, children at your feet

Wonder how you manage to make ends meet ..."

Whew, what a week! It really seemed just like the Beatles' song above! My department is starting to prepare for a seminar we'll be holding from February 5th thru the 7th, and that means a lot of extra work hours for me and others from now until then. I went into the office for a couple of hours before church today, and will need to be there early again tomorrow if I want to make it to the gym after work.

My busy schedule didn't stop me from attending the lecture on the Big Bang at the Volkshochschule, though! It was very interesting and I liked the teacher, Dr. Steigenberger, a lot. He covered several topics that I had heard about before on Alpha Centauri, a German scientific show I of which I have several episodes on DVD, and it was nice to get some more depth on them. He also suggested several books by Dr. Harald Lesch, the presenter for Alpha Centauri, which I definitely want to read. There are two more lectures in the series, and I am really looking forward to them!

Plugging ahead in "Gödel, Einstein und die Folgen ...", I find it fascinating to compare the histories and personalities of these two men. I must admit I really struggled through chapter 4, describing the prevalent theories in Mathematical Logic at the time that Gödel formulated his Incompleteness Theorems. But this much I understood: his theories seem to have affected mathematics, logic and philosophy in much the same way as Einstein's Theory of Relativity cut the "Gordian knots" in physics and astronomy. (... To be continued...)

Happy New Year!

Well, the first week of 2007 is almost over. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to keep my blog more up to date, so this will be the first of many more entries this year than last. This Christmas I had two weeks vacation, which was really great. I enjoyed time to be with friends, get some much needed work done around the apartment, and also put together some VCDs of last year’s vacation for my family back home. For a look at some of the photos, surf on over to my Webshots photo albums. I got lots of books for Christmas. Right now I’m reading Astronomy Today (thanxxx, Dad!), and Gödel, Einstein und die Folgen: Vermächtnis einer ungewöhnlichen Freundschaft (A World Without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Gödel and Einstein in German translation). I also spent some time migrating and revamping my website. What used to be www.aslan4u.info is now http://www.aslan4all.de/. Stop by and have a look!

Recently I started keeping a dream diary. Though I don’t believe in any set pattern of dream symbolism that applies to everyone (such as Freudian interpretation), writing down my dreams helps me take a look at what issues I may be dealing with deep down in my subconscious. It’s interesting to note recurring themes and consider what they might mean for me. Keeping this diary has also had the reciprocal effect of intensifying my dream experiences. I have dreamed about everything from walking in an open field in the warm sunshine, feeling the breeze, smelling the grass and hearing the birds chirping, to having a philosophical discussion on eugenics or attending a conference on social and ecological issues. Now I go to bed curious about what I will dream next! Maybe I’ll post some of them sometime, in a generalized form.

Something else I have purposed is to make more time for my hobbies. Recently Susanne (a work colleague) and I drove to Holzmaden (near Stuttgart) to see the small but famous Hauff Museum of the Prehistoric World with its exquisite preparations of local fossil finds. This year we’re planning to go to the Bürgermeister-Müller-Museum in Solnhofen and the Natural History & Mammoth Museum in Siegsdorf, and possibly even to the Senckenberg Museum near Frankfurt, if we get the chance. She loves paleontology like I do, and she has the great advantage of having a car ;-). I also want to spend more time at the planetarium and go to more evening lectures at the Volkshochschule (something like a community college). Next week there’s one on the Big Bang that I’m really looking forward to! Well, my tummy’s telling me it’s time for lunch, and my to-do list is telling me it’s time to get moving, so I’ll close for now.

Have a great week!

Ciao, Renee