Mercator Blog

Heartiest congratulations to the graduating Mercator Class of 2010. Enjoy the last few days of your Mercator life.

P.S. This blog is dead, this is my last post here. Creating this page was a lot of work but sometimes it is better to let go.

It's my first ever blog and my last semester at Jacobs. So, I am finally going to write something here leaving my shyness behind :p Like most of us, Mercator College has also become a second home for me over the past years. It's going to be so difficult leaving this place...but i don't want to think about that. I want to make the most of the remaining time here and at the same time finish my undergraduate studies successfully. I spent my last summer interning in the southern hemisphere, so winter has been pretty long for me...like the one in Narnia ;) Can't wait for the spring to come.

Looking forward to the upcoming CIDs, Spirit days and the best Cheer Ups on campus!!

Cheers
CJ

Just wondering ... it seems that blogging is not popular amongst the current residents of Mercator College. So why not discontinue this blog?

It's almost been a month since I last saw Mercator. On a clammy morning I left, it was less than a month ago, though it feels ages have gone by.

Few things though haven't changed. This blog is as dead as it was back then, as dead as it has been since its inception. Why, I ask you all? Isn't there any in Mercator who would be willing to share his/her thoughts with us all, and with those outside the bubble? Maybe not.  All human wisdom though is summed up in two words - wait and hope and I shall try to do the same. Wait in the hope that a worthy blogger shall feel inclined to say something on this blog.

As for me, Zurich ain't bad. Taking a seilbahn (cable car) to get home each day is exciting enough in itself. And as for ETH - damn it is big. Though why there are so few girls here, I don't know! :P The University of Zurich seems to attract all the girls somehow. I will have to solve this mystery soon, for my  own good. :D

And Zurich, it is indeed a nice city. Nay it is beautiful, all hilly as I like it. It could be a little cheaper though. Oh, and a lot of people seem to speak English here. Just today I was in the mall wondering out aloud where to find garlic bread when a girl behind me told where exactly to find them. Not bad! And as for the Swiss German, I will have to wait for a reincarnation to understand them. :) Seriously speaking, it would be nice to understand what they are saying.

And in another news, someone I know recently spend a couple of months in the jungles of Namibia. How he managed to survive the ferocious lions and the venemous snakes, I do not know. He tells me he is safe and sound, but I will wait for my assessment till I meet him.

As for Mercator, I sure miss the college office. I probably spent more time there than in my room over the two last years - and definitely more that I spent in my lectures. :P Here's hoping that it remains as refreshing a place as it has always has been.

Tired of the Mercator website not matching up to the "lofty" standards set by our red and green cousins (the yellow ones have also done fairly well) I decided to revamp the Mercator Website. Actually, redo it from scratch. So for those of you who are somehow not aware of this, here is the website:
http://www.mercator-college.org

And here are some testimonials which make me feel rather happy :)

It looks MUCH better now with the more opaque menus! Great!
-Ivan M, former webmaster and the man responsible for the great content

congratulations to the new website, it looks great!
-Mandy, former college master and honorary member, Mercator

sweet! Great job!
- Warren, webmaster Jacobs University

Amazing work ... but loads too slow ... love the gallery and colours ...
- Ivan St., another in a long line of amazing webmasters at Mercator

Rahul!!! I've just checked the new website! Amazing work! I just love the new gallery and the little weather box. The colours as well... My only critique is that it's somewhat slower to render, but I guess this should go to the flash developers and not to you...

Simply marvellous! Now all you need is someone to fill it with (new) content and maintain it *consistently* (I know you guys in the office love the word ;-)).

Anyway! A lot of greetings from hot summer Munich and the even hotter, summerier office in which I have to spend around 4 more melting hours... I have to plan another visit to Bremen some time soon, I miss you all :)

Servus!

Ivan

Hi again,

this time from the Cherry Street - or, as the name of the street where my new flat is goes in original, Kirschstrasse. What a romantic name, don't you think. And as irony goes, you would probably find it amusing that on a street with such a name, which brings (associations with early movies/memories of childhood days long gone/sweet aroma of an onstarting summer), there is exactly one cherry tree. And at least ten warehouses of different sorts, which inevitably means sometimes quite persistent roar of heavy trucks. Man, do I like irony. But more on this - later.

I have actually taken the time to check when my last post on this blog was - not counting Rahul's copy of my "suggestion box" note, it was good 4 months back... How fast time flies never stops to amaze me. But looking back, recounting memories, experiences, and events, it didn't actually pass so unremarkably. I deduced my student loan with almost 1000 Euros. I have a new place to live. I have written, tested and released probably hundreds if not thousands lines of Java code. It is quite possible that I met and just passed by at least 10 women who could have been The Love Of My Life (tm). The world discovered its new fashionable hysteria - the swine flu. My beloved Manchester United lost a Champions League final. Real Madrid killed all that was left pure and clean in football. Scientists discovered a way to create almost perfect, almost eternal artificial human hamstrings. Hell, a whole new batch of Jacobs University graduates spilled into the big world of opportunities, which lurks After. You should have seen me, grinning wide, happy and proud and satisfied, while watching, at my workplace, on the stream broadcast, all those people, whom I knew, many of whom still close friends, passing by President Treusch, receiving their diplomas... Completely inexplicable why I did it, but I guess I was right that it is really not that easy, if not impossible, to tear this place (Jacobs U.) out of your system. Oh, and by the way, Niky (Hi, Niky!), I'm quite impressed how perfectly you pronounced the names of the Mercator graduates! Simply great!

So before I get really boring, I'm quickly reaching my point. Which is, basically, to give out some signals of my ongoing existence and to check on yours. Hi guys! I miss you! You know what, lately I've been thinking that even though the Mercator College Office is probably not the best job in the world in terms of pay or working hours (late night office cleaning, anyone? :D), or of some of the duties present (I still remember spending a weekend trying to introduce some "order" in the chaos that were the B and C basements, only for Sammy to actually get lost in my new "order" :)), it could well turn out to be the best job I'll ever have in terms of actual satisfaction and fulfillment... Just the feeling that you're doing something which is rudimentary nice, which is appreciated and actually, really makes people feel good - not, as it is with most jobs out in the world, simply hacking the day away, making money, taking part in a social system which is built around money and greed... I loved it.

Ah, anyway - I would not be getting that anti-uthopical just yet :) Have fun, you guys, you all who are reading this blog, and I'll try to write again soon! From the pivot of what I am trying to mould in a new home for myself - the Cherry Street...