Freezing!

This morning had to be the worst in a long time. Waking up - fine. Quick and hasty (and tasty) breakfast, ok. But the weather. -20'c with 8m/s winds. I walk to school regularily, regardless of weather. That principle may have to change. For reference, go here and click on the link to see an interactive graph that depicts how much 'bite' the weather has. It shows how cold the weather feels on your skin by taking into account the wind speeds. So this morning, I was exposed for 15 minutes to approximately -32,5C. When it is cold and windy, quite often my eyes start to leak. Today, in that weather, the tips of my eyelashes developed small round bits of ice. I kid you not. The worst part of the walk was while I was crossing an approx 170m long bridge at an elevation of... hmm say 15 meters. The wind on that bridge is viciously penetrating. There was a couple of times last fall when I almost fell into the ground because of a vicious whirl! Well this time it blowing that hard, but felt cold enough. Ouch! The wind was head on. Breathing was difficult. I couldn't keep my eyes open for long periods. Suppose the breeze was 15m/s. That would be -36 in the 'bite' index. At that level, you get frostbite if exposed for ~10 minutes or longer. I believe it :P

Tomorrow morning is going to be another struggle. But have no fear - I shall be better prepared. Sidenote: as I was walking back from school (the weather relatively cozy now with the suns warming effect) I got to thinking about all the poor bastards throughout history who have had march or wage war in freezing conditions. Poor bastards indeed. Well, enough about the weather - I apologise (even though I am excused by my geographical area with 4 seasons!)

It'll be a busy spring. My final thesis is starting to take form. Did some initial research at the school library today. Apparently there has been some interest in the topic in the last couple of years. I found two somewhat similar thesises made. I'm wondering whether I should take a peek? Perhaps get some ideas for references. I have had to sign a nondisclosure agreement with the company I'm making the final thesis for. The good thing with this is that the firm will be providing me with information, guidance, and ultimately - money. Not bad. Too many of my colleague students past & present have had to do their thesises without getting financially compensated for their efforts. Anyway, as far as secrecy goes, any & all information about the topic, as far as details to the company in itself is conserned - shall be beyond the scope of this Blog. However! The final thesis after all is a public document. It will be reviewed by senior staff at my polytechnic. I will present it to public in an 'open to all' seminar. And finally, there will be a copy of it available at the school's library. It'll be a fine day indeed when I am done with this project. Cash and glory. Well, at least cash and a sense of relief.

Work front news: email frenzy back and forth. I may become a freelance technical writer. An ISO certified translation agency contacted me regarding my open application. We have exchanged several emails and it looks good. If they find something that would fit my experience and talents, they'll send me a small sample. I will process it (translate most likely) and send it back. The company will then decide if I'm up for the project or not. Naturally, I have no idea when such projects will come my way. Maybe never. But the fact that a senior staff member of the company has been willing to exchange emails with me so freely has led me to believe that perhaps there is hope. Today, around noon I got a phonecall from another company. About a position in an IT sales. I'll go to the job interview on monday 12.00. It would be part-time. Decent pay. Nice benefits (though I really shouldn't be buying hardware right now). Just what I need. Let's hope it works out! I'm also expecting a couple of responses to my summerjob applications. These would be accounting firms. The topic does not _really_ interest me, but hey - anything is better than what I've been doing for the last two summers. Well maybe it's not that bad - but still. I'd rather have a real job.


Interesting times indeed.