General

Life, the universe, and everything.

16 January 2024

Fear of the personal

This sounds silly from someone having a personal blog, but I’m sometimes having a hard time writing personal things on my blog. How ironic, right? I think this fear stems from having written a mountain of incredibly cringey personal things in the first incarnations of my blog, having made very complicated social experiences in the past, and to some degree, from where I’m from. I used to write literally just what I was thinking in my blog between 2005 and 2008 (and also before that, but on a web 1.0 website rather than a blog). This was a completely disorganized […]

sankey diagram of job search
9 July 2023

The search is over: The journey to my new job

I’m happy to report that my job search is finally over! As of July 2023, I am employed again! I’m now working as a developer in the field of conversational AI for Germany’s biggest railway company, Deutsche Bahn. This job is a really great fit for me because it combines so many of my skills and experiences – my far-away past as a web developer and media designer with my more recent past doing a PhD in linguistics. I’m also quite happy to be working for Deutsche Bahn, not only because they play a vital role in Germany’s transformation to […]

29 March 2023

Disconnected

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

2 March 2023

Back to Work

Today is my second day of re-entering the workforce, and it’s been challenging for me – mentally and physically. Yesterday I started to work in an agency for UX, branding and conversation design, and will continue to do so full time for the next three months. My focus will be on conversation design, chatbot user experience, and related topics. I believe that this will be an interesting and educational time for me, and is a good fit for my experience in linguistics and research, as well as for my background in design. However, on a mental and personal level, going […]

31 December 2019

2019 and other numbers

We’re heading straight into the roaring twenties. Time to take a look back at the past year, and since my life in fully quantified, I’m just gonna list some numbers. 🏃‍♀️ 550 km: The distance I ran this year. I spent 79h 35m running this year over 115 runs. I only started running in 2018, so 2019 was my first ‘full’ year of running. I’m pretty happy with this development and I feel that running is great for my body and my mind. 🚲 2,084.4 km: The distance I spent riding my bicycle. I spent 150h 20m on my bike […]

21 September 2018

Frequently Asked Questions about changing my first name

Why do you want to be called [new name]? It’s my second name and my now preferred name. I’ve been using it abroad for many years (since my first name is unpronounceable for many non-Germans), and the longer I used it, the more it became my preferred name. Since I have hated my first name all my life, I’ve now reached a point where I would like to get rid of it and be addressed by my second name. Why do you hate your first name (old name)? I have hated my first name ever since I became consciously aware […]

1 January 2018

Personal Achievements of Awesomeness in 2017

2017 is over, and it was one of the most eventful and life-changing years I have lived through. A ton of things happened, all of which took my life into positive new directions. I received the result of my master’s thesis and graduated as “Master of Arts” with an excellent grade. The supervisor of my master’s thesis asked me whether I want to do a PhD, which is an amazing accomplishment and a show of confidence and trust in me. I said yes, and I started working on my PhD project in April. I ended an 8-year relationship. I started […]