my valued visitors, let me give you a recent and seemingly decent update. today -no, actually yesterday, since it is already tomorrow- was a quite exhausting, tiring, disappointing and relieving day. i wrote my last exam for this block, which could have been my last exam at maastricht university ever. after last week’s exam on „information management“, today i took this more than shitty „international finance and accounting“ exam for the sixth time, which to my great frustration is unfortunately one of the obligatory courses of the curriculum. i cannot tell whether i passed or not – i was too scared and too lazy as well to go to the university and pick up the answer key. believe it or not, doing an exam for the sixth time does not contribute to your selfconfidence at all. instead, you are more likely to forget everything you have achieved in your academic career (or whatever you wanna call it) so far but rather purely judge upon your more than evident incompetence, stupidity or unintelligence. i tried to free my mind from these thoughts, having the ultimate goal which is to pass this course before i handed in my final thesis. anyhow, i feel really bad. not mentally bad, but physically bad. i spent more than one week in a row behind my desk, and hardly went outside (people who know my place also know how far i have to go if i do shopping…). i was also experiencing a certain numb feeling in my legs – surely not a good sign at the age of 25. but this is over, for at least some time, since i will be spending the next ten days at my parent’s place, and there is no broadband-connected pc or desk i would wanna spend my precious time behind. rather, i will grab my bike and sporting gear and remind my tired bones of their true age. it’s a shame, really. one should do much more sports, that’s for sure. — after this quite relieving act of feeling alive for a long time after the exam, i decided to go to mercedes and get my employment conditions in order. to shorten up things, i am unemployed! well, to be honest, this didn’t come as a surprise. we have heard lots of this „due to the economic situation since 9-11, you know…“-bullshit, but this time it is the dutch law being against me. according to the so-called flex-wet (law for parttimers), one can be employed in three phases, each with a maximum duration of one year. ok, now you do the maths how long i had been working for mercedes? -exactly 3 years on march 6. that’s quite a long time. believe me or not, i have learned so much during these years, probably nothing what you would classify as hard skills, but more about people and organizations. plus, i know swabian ;) no, honestly, i had a good time there. my boos said he would like to keep me, if he could, but since this is not the case i have the honour to empty my shelf, hand-in my access card, take my coffee-cup and leave in two weeks. i will miss the money, the alternative occupation besides studies, and the warm athmosphere i always had with my collegues. not to speak of fantastic buffets, parties, events, merchandise and the like, and all for free. at mercedes, there used to be what is referred to as a ‚free lunch’! — when i came home, the first thing i did was switching on the tv. just in case i could have missed something spectacular during my 5 hours of absence. well, i just arrived in time to see saddam’s bronze replica falling from its pedestal. now, my congratulations to the iraqi people for being disburdened of your tyrant. however, my regards do not go to the us army, for i still believe in the wrongness of this war. period. i will stop commenting on the latest events in the middle-east and rather leave it like that, since shorty, a valued source of constructive input and member of the audience for ages reminded me of the fact that i am not writing anything personal anymore. rather, i fill my blog with endless comments on things that are basically nothing new. but allow me this remark: i do care how the world i will be living in for quite some time is made up and shaped – that’s why i simply need to speak up, especially when there is such loud silence. — basically, i will stop here for today, but i will leave you a very to-the-point quote regarding this new world order, you are kindly invited to comment on:
The Hares and the Lions
The hares harangued the assembly, and argued that all should be equal. The Lions made this reply: „Your words, O Hares! are good; but they lack both claws and teeth such as we have.“

- Aristotles