D-day -154 (-38)

Today I found something crucial – Ze Flow. This precious, sparkling, shiny thing that makes me not wanna go home until I’ve written just this part too… and this part… and a few words here… and maybe this figure… hmmm, just a few hours on this interesting table at home…

Hope Ze Flow is still there next week, then I might dare move on to the daunting task of Aim, Research questions and Grande Theme.

Today’s Achievements
Status: drinking wine while writing. Good thing drunk writing is not an offence in Austria
Progress: biomass gasification section: gasifiers, cleaning+upgrading, biofuel production, BIGCC, table of my stuff
Hours in Schloss: 10 (+2 hours home work)
Words written: 1924 (160 words/h)
Figures included: 2
Tables included: 1
Administrative issues solved: 1 (gym key claimed from dragon)
Administrative issues remaining to be solved: 1
Exercise equipment left at home when going to work: 92% (brought towel)

Overall Quest Stats
Sections down: thesis outline, included papers, not included papers, research journey, paper overview, co-author statement, terminology&definitions, gasification technology, biofuel synthesis, gasification based electricity production, efficiencies, appended papers
Sections not down: STILL pretty much everything
Hours in Schloss: 40:30 (only real Schloss hours counted)
Words written: 4754 (117 words/h)
Figures included: 3
Tables included: 1
Döner kebabs: 1
Aperol gespritzt: 2
Schnitzels: 0
Other Schnitzelized food: 0
Quest level: 4 - Apprentice

D-day -155 (-39)

Turned out that the LaTeX sub-boss I thought I had downed yesterday was still up and lurking, and he turned out to be pretty tough to finish off. He today spawned a minion, the BibTeX mini-boss, and together they gave me a really hard time. I now believe they are gone, at least for the moment. But I suspect that the BibTeX dude will be back again, further into the Quest. I heard him mutter something about "..bibliographystyle.... makebst.... mumblemumble..." when he hobbled away. I received a minor award in the form of Colombian coffee, which is what makes me believe I'm done for now.

.....Soooo, only 588 words and one figure, you now may wonder. Too many Aperol gespritzt last night eeeh...? I here however would like to blame not only the above mentioned LaTeX nasties, but also the very unnecessary side quest of getting registered with Austrian authorities - the Meldezettel task. Very time consuming, all for no apparent reason.
 
Today’s Achievements
Status: can now also include references
Progress: LaTeX project formatted even more, BibTeX sorted out, biomass gasification section started, terminology&definitions written, appended papers section finished(!)
Hours in Schloss: 9:45
Words written: 588 (60 words/h)
Figures included: 1 
Austrian authorities visited: 1

Administrative issues solved: 1

Administrative issues remaining to be solved: 2

Overall Quest Stats
Sections down: thesis outline, included papers, not included papers, research journey, paper overview, co-author statement, terminology&definitions, appended papers
Sections still up and running around being elusive and playing hard-to-get: pretty much everything

Hours in Schloss: 30:30
Words written: 2830 (93 words/h)

Figures included: 1 

Quest level: 4* - Apprentice

D-day -156 (-40)

First proper sit-down-and-just-work-goddammit-day. Since the knee-height fruits were picked yesterday (included papers, not included papers and rough thesis outline - see picture below) I moved on to the waist-height fruits: research journey, paper overview and co-author statement. Which was btw merged into a nice cozy sit-down-and-listen-kids-to-my-oh-not-so-interesting-story chapter about five minutes into the work. 

I also encountered what can only be defined as the first sub-boss of this Quest - setting up the LaTeX project and making everything work. As is customary I was killed a few times (multiple compilation errors, missing files, missing packages etc) and had to start over, but now it seems to be working. My reward turned out to be nothing but a warm fuzzy feeling of accomplishment. Bah, and here I was expecting at least a sword or a piece of armour.

NEW!! Today’s Achievements NEW!!
Status: writers block seems gone – don’t dare ropa hej just yet though, migrated from word to LaTeX
Progress: paper lists, research journey, paper overview, co-author statement written, LaTeX project created and formatted, gym still almost but not quite found
Hours in Schloss: 10:45
Words written: 1650 (153 words/h)

Administrative issues solved: 0

Administrative issues remaining to be solved: 3

Number of beers drinks downed at after-work: TBA ----Update: 3, feels like 5

NEW!! Overall Quest Stats NEW!!
Sections down: thesis outline, included papers, not included papers, research journey, paper overview, co-author statement
Sections still up and running around being elusive and playing hard-to-get: pretty much everything

Hours in Schloss: 20:45
Words written: 2242 (108 words/h)

Quest level: 4* - Apprentice




* The first level-ups are always ridiculously easy. Passed level 1, New-spawned, by creating the folder named "The Thesis", level 2, Greenhorn, by creating a draft word document for the thesis outline and level 3, Novice, by actually writing the outline (see picture above)

D-day -157 (-41)

Full out new-at-work-day. Meaning paper work, endless walks to the administrative office, obligatory (and nice, I should probably add) small talk with old and new acquaintances and of course computer-human interface compatibility issues. 

Status: installed in Schloss, slightly overheated

Progress: administrative issues almost settled, gym almost found, CV and bio for IIASA webpage almost updated

Hours in Schloss: 10 
Words written: 1415 (160 words/h, not counting the lunch hour)

...of which in Thesis: 592 (489 being the extremely low-hanging fruits "list of included papers" and "list of not included papers")

Would-have-been-good-to-have-items forgotten in Sweden: 1

Go-out-for-drinks-invitations received (for this week): 2
Temperature outside at 19.34: 21°C

D-day -158 (-42)

Last year, I hid in the murky quarters of Wien under the cover of mysterious Marie. This year, I'm back. And this time, I'm on a mostly unholy Quest – to pursue the ever elusive Thesis. But the sands of time are running low… 

D-day has been determined – March 2 will be the official Day of Reckoning. But before that, the Minor Day of Reckoning (aka the day of the final seminar) of November 15 must be passed. Which pretty much means that some form of product needs be delivered on November 7 already, hence the double count-down in the title.

Due to popular demand after last year's massive blog success (eeeeerr, well....), featuring extraordinary events such as the Energy Island lecture for dummies, the funneling and don't-go-low experience as well as the saltmine wonderland tour, I decided to once again go cruising down blogger's lane. This year, the blog will however mainly be used for keeping track of the Quest's progress, and less as a contemporary record of the differences between Austria and Sweden.

Status: arrived at the scene where the deed will must be accomplished, severely pinkified
Progress: bags unpacked, internet connection established (3 hours later), certain depinkification accomplished 
Hours in Schloss: 0


Words written: 0
Pictures of pinkness posted: 2