Appeal

Seriously, guys. Stop being cowards! This sounds harsh, but it's actually true. Many people these days are simply gutless, and I am sick of it. You might be wondering, what is this all about? Let me tell you. We're not talking about jumping off cliffs or out of airplanes (although I can highly recommend particularly the latter). No, we're talking about everyday things, things that you and I have to do; things that have to be said, dealt with, problems that have to be solved. I find it surprising and sad, how many people simply avoid these tasks. I'm not a saint myself, that's for sure, but I want to believe that at least I am trying. Avoiding doesn't make things better - never! On different occasions in the recent past I've had to realise how hard - basically impossible - it is for most people to simply face what has to be done (Yet: I do want to mention that I've witnessed the opposite end of the spectrum too - just not that often...). Instead everyone just runs away. So please, listen to me, think about it and maybe reconsider your actions - or the lack of action! It may be inconvenient, it may hurt someone in that very moment, it may be painful for yourself, but on the long run it's for the better. I believe that so much could be improved if communication between people was improved. Not just communication in general, but between the very people affected. It's nice telling your friends about what's going on, but even the best friend might get sick of constant whining without actual action. More important, the people concerned by whatever it is need to know if things are supposed to change. If a problem needs solving: do it, things don't usually fix themselves! If some serious conversation has to be done: don't postpone it, do it now! If you feel in a certain way, good or bad: tell whoever it is! Procrastination at work/uni might be successful - procrastination in life won't be.
Apologies for the rant, but I urgently needed to spit this one out.
Accompanied by: Thirteen Senses - Call someone -

Party and more

My last day in NZ is approaching fast, so this weekend it was time for my combined birthday/farewell party. The theme "red socks/stockings" was a huge success, and (hopefully) everyone had a great time celebrating. (Even though Karsten, Aiko and I showed up slightly late - for our own party, yep, doesn't get any better...)
Sunday was mainly for recovery purposes, including ice cream, some great movies and going out for pizza. Now I'm putting all my efforts into making the most of those last days here, now in two weeks I will be hanging out in Melbourne, getting ready for my 1-month Aussie adventure. I still have 17 days from mid June to early July unplanned in Oz - any suggestions for things to do, see, enjoy are much appreciated!
Below something I put together really quickly last week in one of the very few quiet moments I have these days.

- Heatstroke -

Lazy Saturday 2

- smoke on my lips -

- Studie: move -

Lazy Saturday

playing with light effects, digital and with acrylic.

- move -

- friend and enemy-

PS: I had a great week with my 3rd and for now last Kiwi-birthday! Thanks to everyone for good times!

A beautiful morning in Wellington

Wellington surprised us this morning with a fantastic "after-the-storm"-atmosphere. With some fog still hanging between the hills and the trees dripping wet from last night's rain the sun made its way through the steaming streets, creating amazing light patterns and a beautiful rainbow. This must be the day to put up a piece from last week, "Winter in Kabul - After the Storm". Of course accompanied by: Mumford and Sons - After the storm.

A great weekend playing and having fun

Here I am again, enjoying the last hours of an awesome Easter weekend. Good Friday after my post turned into a day full of fun: Aiko and I spend a few hours baking easter buns and playing with the photo booth on the Mac. Went to town, had burgers for dinner and beers on the roof with the extended Team Awesome (aka fellow SAGE people from last year) later. Saturday was an early morning, but I still managed to make crêpes for breakfast for Martin, Ben and Aiko. Met up with Karsten and Markus and drove out to Cape Palliser. Cute lighthouse, great little walk to the Pinnacles and beers in the sun. Had dinner at Markus' and Karsten's place, watched two movies (although there was really no way I could have not fallen asleep during the second one) and felt like back in primary school having a sleep over with a bunch of friends ;)
Today we started a bit later, had awesome breakfast again and drove over to Days Bay. The weather was amazing in my eyes, although some people might dislike the wind, the clouds and the occasional drizzle. Walked yet to another lighthouse, this time at Pencarrow Head and hung out there for a bit. Back in Welly now, and after my long awaited shower I'm warm and dry again. Expecting Martin, Karsten and Aiko for dinner, and then heading to town, hopefully catching up with a bunch of people for a Ska gig at San Francisco Bathhouse.
Just being able to play outside for a bit and hang out with some of the most important people for me here in NZ make this weekend truly amazing! Thanks guys :)
Pics on https://picasaweb.google.com/kathiunglert/EasterWeekend#

Only 5 weeks left.

Here we go, I'm slowly starting to realise that my time in Welly is gonna be over soon. Getting into the "I'm-leaving-the-country-I-don't-give-a-f***-anymore - mood". Including all the consequences... If any of you have ever relocated to another country (or if you knew me last time I moved) I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
It's tough. Not only am I moving to a new country, but yet another new continent. But this time (I think) I'm better prepared. Some things I've learned:

1. I have too much stuff.
2. I have to get rid of things.
3. Getting rid of things slowly instead of all at once makes it less painful.
4. I still have too much stuff.

At least I can make Aiko happy with some of my clothes, and feel good about giving the rest to charity. So much for saving the world.
Saving myself seems to be more difficult. I've been tidying and cleaning my room, but somehow the outside and the inside don't wanna match up. Seems like some of the lessons learned from a materialistic perspective also apply to another level: I have too much stuff. My mental procrastination works pretty well though, and has drastically increased my creative output (as you can see in previous posts). Good.
Off to play outside for the Easter weekend. Will be good and may help to tidy up the inside. If not, there's always the silver lining of a great weekend with friends, beers, and outdoors. What else does anyone really need.
Listen to: Calexico - Bisbee Blue.

Stuff from last year

some stuff from last year, more specifically from the time during the OBS cruise on the RV Roger Revelle in January/February 2010. Night shifts are awesome :)

Listen to: Linkin Park - New Divide.

"places"

untitled

"reach"

More...

...work from a cold, wintery evening in Wellington. "second thoughts"

One of my latest favs: Thirteen Senses - Into the fire.

return

After last week's design update and a not-quite-serious easter egg painting session I have decided it's time to increase productiviy again. My artistic output of the last half year or so is sadly confined to a single painting for my thesis - more an act of procrastination than anything else. As a start to get back to more serious work I think I can use this as a platform - be curious, enjoy if you want, or don't bother if you don't give a damn. I will have to play around a little with formatting etc, so for today just a quick start: "Fight Do". Music: Snow Patrol - Run.

Little update on really nothing

Time to have another update, even though nothing actually happened. I've been hanging out in Welly and enjoying "The return of life - or what happens after you hand your thesis". Naturally there is a lot of relaxing, socialising and drinking involved, so I can't complain! Even though we had a few cold, rainy days in anticipation of winter during the last few weeks, overall it has been quite summery. Thanks to that I can still hang out at the waterfront, having more or less occasional "Russn" in varying company, or spend some time in the sun on my balcony with good books. Speaking of which, it only took me two years to discover that the Wellington City Library has a nice little collection of German books. While my focus was more on old school stuff such as "Ein Doppelgaenger" bei Theodor Storm or "Die Taube" bei Patrick Sueskind, I also found the first two books of the Kluftinger-Series. Gosh, I miss Kaesspatzn!
This past weekend turned out pretty awesome: Martin, my favourite Nutella-loving Sunday breakfast companion, made his way back to Welly from Austria, so now our little group is complete again. We arranged a dinner at my place to surprise everyone, and even though Sherlock Holmes and Watson (aka Markus and Noelle) figured out what was happening a few hours before the dinner we still managed to completely surprise Andrew and Anne. Happy reunion!
Also a bunch people from the SAGE field programme (see post about US trip last June/July) arrived in Welly to do some fieldwork with GNS. We went out for dinner (thanks NSF/US taxpayers!) and pool, and I'm particularly happy to announce the reunion of 2/3 of Team Awesome: Jason is going to stay until the end of May, and then we're gonna head over to Oz for a ten day trip from Melbourne to Alice Springs. We're looking forward to the Great Ocean Road and Uluru among other awesomeness. I will have another two weeks or so by myself after Jason has to go back home, during which I'll hopefully make it as far north as the Great Barrier Reef. IUGG (huge and long meeting where too many geeks discuss their potentially crazy thoughts about fire, water, earth, air and life in general - hopefully at least there will be a lot of beer involved) marks the end of my Oz trip, and after another 2 days in Welly I will be back on way to the homeland. I expect to have a great time in July and August, including obligatory Biergarten time, a lot of BBQing, a bit more than a week in Sweden with my girls, a couple of days in Alsace with the family and hopefully also a visit to Leeds :)
After that I will be horribly broke and exhausted by an amazing summer, perfect conditions to throw myself into four years of PhD research! Can't wait to catch up with everyone at home first (people, make time in July!) and to explore Canada and hopefully some other cool places in the world afterwards! Cheerio.

USA, Germany, NZ and Canada

Kurze Zusammenfassung der letzten paar Monate:
Dez 2010. AGU in San Francisco
Dez 2010-Jan 2011. Weihnachten und Silvester in der Heimat.
Jan-Feb 2011. Masterarbeit fertig schreiben.
Feb 2011. Unibesuche in Vancouver (BC), Seattle (WA) und Eugene (OR).
Ab Maerz 2011. Paper schreiben in Wellington bis Mai, Australien bis Anfang Juli, Heimat und Schweden Juli-August, und dann geht's auf nach Vancouver, PhD fuer die naechsten 4+ Jahre :)
noch Fragen? Pics as always auf Picasa

Schon wieder ein Vierteljahr

So, langsam hab ich mich dran gewoehnt, dass ich immer erschreckt feststellen muss, wieviel Zeit seit meinem letzten Eintrag vergangen ist. Seit ich aus Amerika wieder da bin ist so einiges los gewesen. Neben Forschung in der Uni, die ich inzwischen so einigermassen abgeschlossen hab, hat uns natuerlich das Erdbeben in Christchurch keine Ruhe gelassen! Gluecklicherweise ist ja alles verhaeltnismaessig glimpflich ausgegangen, sodass wir - ohne ein schlechtes Gewissen haben zu muessen - Teams runterschicken konnten, um Daten zu sammeln. War selber fuer 5 Tage dort und es war wirklich interessant, die Geschichten der einzelnen Leute zu hoeren. Haben ca. 180 "strong motion seismometer" in den Haeusern von Leuten installiert, sofern diese sich freiwillig gemeldet haben. Die Daten werden hauptsaechlich von einer Doktorandin aus Stanford analysiert werden, zum Teil aber vielleicht auch hier vom geologischen Dienst, GNS Science.
Nebenbei hab ich angefangen fuer den GRE zu lernen, ein Test, den man als Zulassungsbedingung fuer praktisch alle US-amerikanischen Unis braucht. Bin immer noch laengst nicht sicher, wo ich promoviern will, aber irgendwas wird sich schon ergeben. Auf jeden Fall Daumen druecken, am Samstag ist mein Testtermin und wenn ich gut bin werden mir dadurch zumindest einige Tueren offen gehalten.
In der Uni hier bin ich gerade dabei meine Masterarbeit zusammen zu schreiben. Es naehert sich dem Ende - wenn auch langsam, ich rechne nicht damit vor Maerz naechsten Jahres fertig zu sein ;) Aber wie wir ja an meiner Blog-Schreibfrequenz (schoenes Wort, fast Bild-Zeitungswuerdig...) sehen - time flies! Bis dahin steht auch noch einiges an: Geosciences-Konferenz hier in Neuseeland in Auckland im November, American Geophysical Union Tagung im Dezember, und - natuerlich, und fuer alle die's immer noch nicht wissen - Heimatbesuch ueber Weihnachten bis 11.Januar :) Wuerd mich freun moeglichst viele Gesichter mal wieder zu sehn, sei's in Muenchen oder LL. Ein paar Leute ham's ja immerhin geschafft hier in NZ mal vorbeizuschaun, aktuell gerade meine Tante Babsi. Sind eine Woche lang von Wellington nach Auckland geroadtripped, war wirklich cool! Neben sights, die ich schon kannte (das obligatorische Tongariro-Crossing, wenn auch im Nebel und bei Schnee, Lake Taupo, Cathedral Cove) gab's auch Neues (Wai-O-Tapu geothermal valley mit dem etwas enttaeuschenden Waschmittel-Lady Knox Geysir, und endlich Hot Water Beach bei Ebbe, einfach super!) und es hat insgesamt total gut getan mal raus aus dem ganzen Unistress zu kommen! Fotos folgen unter der ueblichen Adresse! Jetzt heisst es wieder arbeiten, seit einer Woche, aber mit neuer Power. Hatten hier die Tage unsere M.Sc. part II Vortraege, ging insgesamt ganz gut. Speaking of which, hab heute erfahren, dass ich auf der Tagung in San Francisco im Dezember nicht wie angenommen ein Poster vorstelle, sondern einen Vortrag halten muss. Ahhh! Haette ich des gewusst, dann haette ich mich bei der Praesentation letzte Woche bissl mehr angestrengt, als Uebung. Naja, was soll's. Ausserdem hab ich mich heut mit ner Bekannten hier in Wellington getroffen, und es stellt sich heraus, dass bei ihr im Januar in der WG ein Zimmer frei wird, perfektes Timing! Eine Sorge weniger, wenigstens bin ich nich obdachlos naechstes Jahr.
Ein trauriges Ereignis in den letzten Wochen war, dass wir uns vom Martin verabschieden mussten: Nachdem er praktisch zeitgleich mit dem Markus und mir hier angekommen ist, war er jetzt der erste aus unserm Team, der sich wieder zurueck in die Heimat, nach Oesterreich begeben hat. Vermissen ihn natuerlich total, aber ich hab Glueck, im Dezember oder Januar kommt er mich hoffentlich in LL besuchen *freu*. In diesem Sinne, ich freu mich auch viele andere dann wieder zusehn, bis zu meinem naechsten Eintrag (der wahrscheinlich erst naechstes Jahr kommt, wenn ich so weitermache wie bisher zumindest...) oder dann mal "in person" in der Heimat!

The big adventure or how summer is so much nicer than winter!

Gosh, 3 months since my last entry?? Time seems to fly by faster and faster... Where do I start? Let's do the quick and dirty summary of what happened since April.
May: Highlight was my and Michael's awesome birthday party. Definitely one of the best parties Waiteata has seen in ages. Heaps of people and just a really great night! Thanks everybody!
Otherwise not much going on, mainly getting stuff at uni ready so I could leave in June without having to stop in the middle of my work.
So here we go (pictures as usual on http://picasaweb.google.com/kathiunglert): June 13, heading towards San Francisco. After a pretty exhausting flight squeezed in between some fat dude whose alcohol consumption made him snore like 10 elefants and some chick who decided skiing pants are appropriate gear for a 12-13 hours flight, I was happy to spend an hour or more to get through US customs...
Finally done with all that, Danny and I spent the afternoon driving through SF, stopping at the Golden Gate Bridge of course, getting some food and beer and having some relax time walking around Berkely and the UCB campus.
Monday, June 14: Jason arrives and the 3 of us make the drive down to San Diego. One of the professors of the geophysics program we were going to welcomes us at his house, drives us to the hotel he booked for us, we enjoy some time in the pool there and he invites us for dinner. When we come home around 9, I experience what I hoped for so much: a 5.7 earthquake, close to Ocotillo at the Mexican border, felt widely in the San Diego area. Yay!!
Tuesday, June 15: We meet Chris, so the 4 of us who are going to drive to Santa Fe are there. Along the mexican border, through amazing desert, passing by Phoenix, Arizona, we make it to Flagstaff, Arizona. From our motel there it's "only" two hours to the Grand Canyon. We make it just in time for sunset, sooo cool!
Wednesday, June 16: After a relatively short drive (6 hours...) through Arizona and New Mexico, we arrive at the Santa Fe Indian School, our home for the next 3.5 weeks. The weather is sunny and warm, and we don't have anything to do except for meeting everybody, going to town for a few drinks and party.
Thursday, June 17 - Sunday, July 11:
Work work work and fun fun fun! While the lectures are ok, the talks of people from industry, oil companies, USGS etc are super interesting. Even better, we have 3 field trips to get to see the area of the Rio Grande Rift including some pretty awesome rock formations and the super impressive Valles caldera. Fieldwork is divided into two parts, an archeology site where we are looking for near-surface features like buried building structures etc and the Santo Domingo Basin, were we apply different geophysical techniques to find faults, groundwater etc. The whole area is just amazing, relatively rocky desert with heaps of cacti and almost no shade, wide areas where you can suffer from heat and sun the first half of the day, while you can see thunderstorms building up in the distance, rain that never reaches the ground, awesome lightning and finally super strong rain that turns dry arroyos into flooded rivers. Of course I have to mention, we got 2 days of during these weeks, the first one was used by most of us to go swimming at a reservoir a bit further north, the second one was July 4, pretty lazy with just a bit of walking around Santa Fe during the day and fireworks in the evening. The last week was all about data processing, our tan from the fieldwork before turned into computer tan aka white as we barely got to see daylight during this week ;) Although pretty intense, all of us managed to give good presentations on the last weekend and to finish our reports without too much stress.
Monday, July 12: And in no time (at least that's what it felt like...), the 4 of us are back on the road, on the way to California. The only stop we make on the first day is a meteorite impact crater along the way in Arizona, smaller than e.g. the Ries crater, but a lot more impressive, as it is well preserved.
Tuesday, July 13: Getting up early and driving over the Hoover Dam is pretty cool! Continuing into Nevada and arriving into Las Vegas is even cooler!! A city that doesn't seem real, fascinating and ridiculous at the same time. We get a really good hotel room for basically no money and enjoy the day having drinks, swimming in the pool and walking along the strip in the vicinity of our hotel. At night time it gets even better: Just going through all the casinos, shopping malls etc is just crazy. The Eiffel tower, the Statue of Liberty, Caesar's Palace, the Bellagio with its fountain, the Luxor with the Pyramid and the Sphinx are just some examples of the craziness over there.
Wednesday, July 14: We make the drive from Las Vegas back to San Diego. After stopping at George's house to drop off all the equipment and the rental car, we pay Scripps institute of Oceanography a visit. Really cool campus, right on the cliff next to the beach, I am tempted to go there for my PhD... Meeting up for dinner and some beers with some of Danny's friends, we end the day on the beach.
Thursday, July 15: From San Diego we're headed to the eastern Sierra Nevada. Highlights are the Bishop tuff (ok, I know I'm a geek, but I HAD to see it!) and Mammoth Lakes, a mountain village similar to the ones in the European Alps. Long Valley Caldera, another big one in my list!
Friday, July 16: Last day on the road. Main point: Yosemite! One of the coolest places I've ever seen, definitely one of my favourite spots, in the world!! Driving through was amazing, although there were so many tourists on the main roads and attractions like waterfalls etc, it was totally worth it. Will definitely have to come back and do some hiking!
From there we're on the way back to Berkely, spend the rest of Friday there, pay a last visit to the beach in San Francisco on Saturday and I get back to the airport late afternoon.
Via LA and Auckland, I make it back to Wellington after an amazing 5 weeks that I will never forget. Since then there's not much excitement, mainly work work work and gym, the usual :)
Check out the pics, they're totally worth it (btw thanks to Jessie, Ben and Jason for some of the awesome pictures)!