For just over a year now, I’ve been unofficially officially severely handicapped. This will come as a surprise to many, especially those closest to me who have accused me of being handicapped for decades now. (Family. Sigh …) But, whereas chronic depression got me close, a little bit of prostate cancer will do the trickContinue reading “Handicapping handicapping”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
BCD 10.05.2024
The University of Not-Bielefeld, like many other institutions these days, has hopped on the environmental bandwagon (electric powered, of course) and, among other things, designed an Action Plan to guide it along its path towards becoming CO2 neutral. (Me? I’ve always been CO2 neutral, except when there’s too much of it in a room tryingContinue reading “BCD 10.05.2024”
ISO don’t understand
I have another confession to make. Like countless other individuals, I have been flying under a false name for literally decades now. (Probably another good reason for keeping this blog anonymous.) Airline reservation systems (if not many computer systems generally), you see, have a problem with hyphenated last names and, as I recently read, problemsContinue reading “ISO don’t understand”
Water boarding
It’s hardly an original observation on my part, but boarding an airplane does not rank among life’s most pleasant experiences: endless queues of aggressive people with elbows flying all jockeying for the best position. And all that before they’ve even announced that the gate is open for boarding. (The obvious exception here, of course, areContinue reading “Water boarding”
BCD 29.02.2024
Together with nearly 10 000 other people, the comedian Richard Lewis died the other day in the US. The media, of course, was gushing. About his talent. About him being a comic’s comic. About his legacy. Like him or hate him (or even wonder who he was), this piece really has nothing directly to do withContinue reading “BCD 29.02.2024”
Degenerative admin
Working right up until the last second, the admin elves at the University of Not-Bielefeld published a set of 11 recommendations shortly before the Christmas break to advise its teaching staff in how to deal with generative AI in the classroom. And then took a well deserved seven-week break before facing the even more arduousContinue reading “Degenerative admin”
Silent theocracy
Most Germans will deny it, if only because they cannot pronounce the voiceless dental fricative (/θ/, one of the two “th” sounds), but they actually live in a theocracy, making it currently only the third western country together with the Vatican and the US to do so. There are more than a few obvious signs pointing toContinue reading “Silent theocracy”
Corporate resign
Some time ago, I wrote how admin here at the University of Not-Bielefeld (if not admin types the world over) like to send chain e-mails, where some e-mail from central admin is successively forwarded down the chain of responsibility (central admin to faculty to department to …) with no one bothering to clean up allContinue reading “Corporate resign”
Motivational writing
Apart from the universal, default strategy of continually growing its customer base, another key element of WordPress’ business model must be to keep their band of bloggers happy, motivated, and writing. Having already gotten me to sign up (= growth strategy), WordPress immediately shifted to inundating me with announcements about how I could make moneyContinue reading “Motivational writing”
BCD 11.12.2023
Recently, I wrote about how the University of Not-Bielefeld had set up a centralized system for registering when you were on sick leave (i.e., sick for more than three days in a row). The general idea was that instead of simply informing your boss about being sick, you filled in a form, sent it toContinue reading “BCD 11.12.2023”
The Blog About Fog 