Another mercifully slow summer as admin seems to be serially estivating until the autumn. However, there is always the watchful eye of the Office of Dataprotection and Informationsafetymanagement here at the University of Not-Bielefeld, ready to leap selflessly into the void … … only to fill it with a vacuum. Their latest missive warns usContinue reading “BCD 15.09.2022”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
BCD 01.09.2022
The latest bonehead comment of the day comes to you from Ryanair, with whom I flew with a couple times in the past few weeks. For those fortunate few not familiar with Ryanair, it’s basically an infomercial at 30.000 feet. The tickets tend to be dirt cheap, but then you have to pay for everythingContinue reading “BCD 01.09.2022”
Return to sender
I learned a new word in German the other day … In and of itself, that’s probably not too surprising. After all, I’ve only been learning German for about half my life and, like any language, there are lots of words to learn. Even when you get past the swear words. And, depending on whoContinue reading “Return to sender”
Masking disappointment
Has anyone else noticed this? Although the corona pandemic actually remains in full swing (and, thanks to omicron, swinging higher in terms of numbers than ever before), most countries including Germany are quickly shedding most of their corona-related restrictions. For instance, the train station here in Not-Bielfeld recently removed the signs indicating which side ofContinue reading “Masking disappointment”
BCD 13.06.2022
Like most Canadians, I’ve long wondered why the US has stubbornly refused to adopt the metric system. (Which is apparently a myth: they have, but they just don’t use it. So, like Canada, except that we use it a lot more even if not always all of the time.) In a society obsessed with convenience,Continue reading “BCD 13.06.2022”
Killing time
I’ve mentioned before how time in Academia doesn’t really flow the way it does in the rest of the world. And not just for students in the middle of a death-defyingly boring lecture either. It gets worse … At a recent meeting of the profs in my department, it was revealed to us that, onContinue reading “Killing time”
BCD 09.05.2022
Part of the University of Not-Bielefeld’s justification in opening up fully for teaching this semester was that the incidence of corona among students earlier this year was far lower than in Not Bielefeld generally, meaning that the University was neither a corona hotspot nor a spreader event. And, as part of its meticulously thought outContinue reading “BCD 09.05.2022”
BCD 07.04.2022
The perfect, unintentional one-liner that comes from putting style above substance: the English acronym of the University of Not Bielefeld’s swishy moniker to justify opening up for teaching, and which becomes especially relevant for the coming semester where we will be fully open despite continuing record numbers of infections in Germany, works out to RIP.
From danger-assessment forms to “Danger! Assessment forms”
I know. Another corona entry. It just seems there is nothing like a good pandemic and the associated fevers to really stir up the admin creative juices until all those clever new ideas just bubble up out of the froth. And another form this time around too: danger-assessment forms. (Or, in German, Gefährdungsbeurteilungen. Only slightlyContinue reading “From danger-assessment forms to “Danger! Assessment forms””
To serve and reject
Since Gutenberg, the single, greatest invention to further the nefarious causes of admin has undoubtedly been e-mail. (Now spelled increasingly frequently without the hyphen for greater efficiency.) Whereas before the printing, folding, and stuffing of countless pieces of paper into countless numbers of envelopes meant time, effort, and the omnipresent threat of paper cut relatedContinue reading “To serve and reject”
The Blog About Fog 