2002-04-15 Mondag: Applying to Swedish universities

``You can't do everything. But you should damn well try.'' — Bookmark Eric and Holly sent me for my birthday last year

What a hectic day. Firstly, I don't think I'm capable of waking up at 07:00 on a Monday. I slept through my 8-12 classes again, making this something like the fourth consecutive time. I think this pretty much means I have to give up on taking these classes (ie, Radio), which is really pretty sad. Of course, I could just read the book and learn it all on my own.

I sent off applications to Göteborgs Universitet, Uppsalas Universitet, and Lunds Universitet today. Of Lund I requested to be a third level Mathematics student (including such courses as algebra, analytic functions, differential geometry, differential equations, number theory, and topology, depending on the schedule). I also asked for theoretical particle physics, accelerator engineering (held at the MaxLab), with `jewish humor and cultural identity' (JDK107 Judisk humor och kulturell identitet) and `introduction to icelandic' (NOI325 Inledningskurs i islänska) thrown in on the side, and `nordic music history' as a backup. (There's also a class `Zionism: from Utopia to Ideology' that sounds interesting, but it's during vt03.) Sounds fun, no? The kind of weird thing is that I can't find the working copy of the anmälan. Did I enclose it in the application by mistake? Oh well, just another sign that I'm going crazy.

I hve observed that I ``lack direction.'' By this I mean that I don't really have a specific goal in my education. I've always known that, but I only now identified it as a possible problem. I don't really know what I actually want to do. (Yes, I do know what I want: a hardcore liberal education. And no, that's not a contradiction in terms.)

I'd really like to get involved in some cool project, and to be able to work on it without being distracted by other obligations. I suppose that's an indication that it's time to move into a Master's program or something. On the subject of Master's programs: I ran into Nareet today, who came here from Thailand to do a master's thesis in solid state physics, and he told me some of the secrets of getting a master's degree here. I think I'll begin shoping around for a good master's project. I think I will also take a field trip to Uppsala to talk to people there. Maybe if I do a nice master's project somewhere I could actually get into a good gradschool. Hm.

Of course, all I really want to do, is work at the Carlsberg Brewery.

The TISUS exam is on Monday and I'm thinking of moving to the May date since I'm hopelessly unprepared.

• Federico Mena-Quintero has a really nice activity log on his website.. I mean, I like the formatting and visual appearance.

• Project: I want to make an Apache module that serves as a web interface to RCS ",v" files. I started by just making a simple CGI script that does some of what I want: rcs.cgi. You can even apply it reflexively.

• I also want to make a little project tracking thing, to keep track of all these proposed projects. Note that this is itself a proposed project.