Stop, hey what's that sound?

I'm hiding in the bathroom. It's outside. The dizziness is still there.

I'm fully dressed - more than, actually. In particular, I'm wearing a sweater, my winter-coat and a hat. I've opened every window and door in the house. I'm writing this with my laptop on my lap. I'm waiting for it to go away.

[Approx. nine minutes before.]

*Pfhhhht. Pfhhhhhht... Pfhhhhhhht.*

Working in my cellar (in my new house - more on that another time). There's a sound somewhere in the cellar.

*Pfhhhhhhhhht. Pfhhhhhhhhht... Pfhhhhhhhhhhht.* *SLAM*

*[The sound of running]*

Lena and her friend, Stine, run past my cellar-room. Seconds later the smell hits me, choking me. They've been spray-painting something in the other room. They slammed the door shut to keep the smell inside. To no avail. The smell sieves through every crack and crevice in the old cellar, and permeates the room. In half a minute, I have to go upstairs. When I open the door to the main cellar, I can't breathe. It's not a smell. It's the sweet churning sensation of choking ... burning through the throat towards the stomach.

Lena and Stine smile somewhat perplexedly when I make it up the stairs. I slam the door shut to the cellar. "Eh... It's surprising how the smell drifts everywhere, right? Whoops..." "Yeah, well - you couldn't really know. It's ok. I'll just sit up here for a bit", I say. I storm down the stairs; disconnect my laptop and storm upstairs again.

Lena and Stine planned to go for a walk, so they do that. Just after they've left, I can feel the sensation. The cellar-door is by no means a tight-locking seal, and how is it with gas that is lighter than air? It tends to drift upwards... In a few minutes, it's a done deal. I have to open every window and door upstairs. I do it. Then I take a few deep breaths outside, leap downstairs, and open everything that can be opened downstairs, as well as setting the ventilation-system to ludicrous speed. I sprint upstairs again. It's freezing outside, so I have to put on extra clothes, my winter-coat and a hat. For a moment, I consider to also turn on the vacuum-cleaner, and put it in the door-way. After a moment, I decide not to. Having just moved to the place, this would prematurely condemn me to be viewed as a mad hatter amongst the neighbours.

Resignating, I take my laptop under the arm, and search for the room least permeated by the smell - the bathroom, it turns out - and try to seat myself comfortably on the loo. Before putting my fingers to the keyboard again, on a whim, I decide to set the little occupied-sign.

Talk on staying abroad

I gave a talk today on planning your stay abroad as a PhD student for an audience of mostly new PhD students at the ITU.

I basically tried to collect a set of questions and issues that I considered, or didn't consider before visiting Jean Krivine and Robin Milner at the École Polytechnique near Paris for seven months. Here are my slides, if you're interested.

Let me underline that I had a very nice stay abroad - not least thanks to Jean and Robin; but there were still a lot of practical things, that I wish I had thought of earlier on.

Some of you, my readers, have had experiences in living abroad as well. Do you have any good advice to PhD students that are going to plan their stay abroad?

Aah, nothing like jazz

Just tripped over this little soothing tune. Herbie Hancock is an old favorite of mine, and Corinne Bailey Rae has popped up on my Last.fm suggestions more than once.

Denmark is a city in Russia

"Denmark is a city in Russia"; so far the latest comment in a fascinating multi-threaded debate on YouTube, spawned by the crazy, danceable, and highly addictive Alphabeat smash hit "Fascination". The debate weaves a nimble narrative around such difficult subjects as anti-americanism, racism, love, and hatred, as well as commercialization, and homophobia. In short, it tackles head-on the weltschmerz of a young disenchanted generation.

But enough with the academics. Go on. Listen to it. You know you want to. It's pop and, yes, I love it.

Here's something for you to read

Ah, so you've noticed? These months, my blog is fast approaching a state of torpor, in a trajectory that suspiciously follows the decline of the western civilization. (I am, of course, thinking about the state of the financial markets, not the choice of running mate of the republican presidentially hopeful.) As you may or may not know, right now, I'm in the final race to finish my PhD; as well as handling a few hundred other things at the same time.

To amuse, you while I'm labouring, here's a few blogs, which I can heartily recommend (does it show, that I'm an old gamer, who only has time to read about games, now-a-days?):

• Teahouse on the Tracks, personal blog of sci-fi novellist, Alastair Reynolds.
  


• supertroels.dk, personal blog of Troels Abrahamsen, singer in Veto (who I have ranted about before elsewhere), and independent musician and producer.
  


• Opinionated techie, personal blog of Brad Wardell, nerd, famed (in computer game-circles) owner of Stardock, creator of several critically acclaimed games, such as the Galactic Civilizations series, and glowing republican, it seems.
  


• Flash of Steel, personal blog of Troy S. Goodfellow (fantastic name!), a most eloquent games journalist, with a particular interest in historical strategy games.
  


• Rock, Paper, Shotgun, the combined blog (clog?) of four splendid British games journalists, Jim Rossignol, Kieron Gillen, John Walker, and Alec Meer. This blog alone, has induced more laugh-aloud moments, than any other website. I recommend it, if you have even a passing interest in computer games.
  


• Bodil Bierings blog at Version2 (in Danish), friend and self-proclaimed IT-provocateuse.
  

That should be enough for a few days. Now run along.