A day in Schönbrunn

Last Saturday I took a break of my intensive learning for my diplom exam, to meet Esther and Robert in Vienna/Schönbrunn. Esther and Robert also attended an exchange semester in Finland.

It was very nice to see them and the trip through Schönbrunn was even better, even when the weather was bad. Some impressions of our day at Schönbrunn.

The castle:


In the cafeteria, when some guest left some cake or whatever to eat, the birds are quite fast to get it ;) It just took some seconds until the cake was gone and it seems that it tasted.



Esther and Robert



and again in the tropic house:


Some Animals, I have to mention that the zoo is really nice renovated and a must see !!













It took us some hours to walk through and we didn't even see everything. It was very very nice and thanks Robert and Esther for the day and hopefully we see us again soon.

Some Updates

Hi guys!

It's again a long time since writing.
At the moment I do not have any internet during the week,
so this situation does not make it any easier.

But here's now the update:
The idea of moving to Zwettl
(in the beginning only during the workdays)
was never my favourite one.
So I tried to find another job next to
my current one. So finally I would have found
one in Linz (near my hometown).
But in the end, today I decided, after a long
discussion and a lot of thinking, that I will
stay in my current company and will not take the new job.

Why?
The main reason for this choice was my job
and the topic I'm working on. I always wanted to
work on Security-Management and Business Continuity Management
and at the Security Competence Center I am the one
who is responsible for this.
The risk to have to do a job I do not like,
in the other company was to high, and I was not willing
to take this risk.

So I have to find a way to put
the private issues in correct order, the
job things are already.
I know it will not be easy to find a new
personal environment, but now I am motivated to
try it. If it will work, the future will tell us.

So long!

My new job, my new town, my news

So, finally I'm willing to write some news, sorry for the long break, can't promise a frequently update at the moment.

After some days relaxing in carinthia, including biking, hiking, farming mushrooms and so on, I started working on 1st of August.

Here is the proof for the mushrooms:


So, as I told you, I started working on 1st of August.
Therefore I have looked for a flat in Zwettl, my worktown. I found a place in a three-side farmhouse. The first look it was nice and I loved it. But after spending three days in it, the good mood changed into bad one. The rooms stank, a lot of different kind of insects where living in it and last but not least, I had no good internet connection. So all together, it was horrible and I really felt bad there. I even felt so bad, that I thought about quiting my job there and left the town behind to leave back to my hometown.

However, I left this flat after four days and quit the "contract". I fled into a private guest room, and I can tell you, this one is really nice and I love it. So everything is getting better since then. Most of the doubts are gone and now I can enjoy my job.

So, about my job. I started my job at Raiffeisen Informatik at the Security Competence Center in the CERT-Team. My job there is Security-Management. My job is to implement Security-Management with customers (risk management, business continuity management) and that is what I really like and enjoy. As far as I can say after one week, the job is perfect, the colleagues are nice, the company is ideal, .. the only thing I need know, is a flat and a social life in Zwettl.
At the moment the best thing is the job, I hope the social and the living part will be better soon.

Some pictures from my worktown and the surroundings:

Short trip to Gmunden

Actually we planned last Saturday to go to my future hometown Zwettl, to check some appartments and houses, but last minute we decided to make a short trip to Gmunden at the lake Traunsee.

It was very nice, we (Rainer, Birgit and me) enjoyed it a lot, even when the weather was not the best, here are some impressions of the beautiful lake and town:





I do not have more, sorry. But I guess it is enough to get a bit of an impression.
Greetings!!

Work - Life Balance

Hei folks,

sorry that I didn't write for so long, but I'm kind of busy right now and when I have free time, I'm not always motivated to write ;).
However, today I have some posts for you.

Some days ago I updated my CV and therefor I needed a better photo. Before that I used a private photo from the Koli trip in Finland.
Ok, so I put on my business suit and made a photo. As result from the photo shooting, there was also a funny photo, which I call "Work - Life Balance". You wanna know why, take a look on your own...



In my opinion, it is art *ggg*

Discovery Career Fair

After two years I visited yesterday again the career fair discover at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz.
I went there with Hannes, who joined me. He was a bit uncertain if it will make sense. In the end he was convinced.

We visited nearly every stall at this fair and asked "it security jobs available??". *gg* Some said things like "it-security is in our firm not a topic"..... no comment from me ;)

But mostly the reaction was very friendly and nice, even with no actual open vacancy they gave us addresses and contacts to ask for it.

Some other seemed very interested, because they have jobs in that area. Names like Accenture, Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst and Young, PricewaterHouseCoopers and other big players in the consulting and auditing area do have positions in some kind of the it-security area. But also "normal" industrial firms do have positions or think about positions, so keep your eyes open.

In the end I can say that it was worth it, we left with good contacts and some nice presents ;)

News from my flatmate

As I mentioned earlier in a blog entry, I have a new flatmate *g*
However, living with me must be very satisfying, because my new flatmate seems to enjoy it a lot.

Here is how "she" looks like after the last couple of days:



Nice isn't it? It's not even finished yet. Damn, living with me must be a pleasure *ggg*

Some News

Hei my friends!

It's been a long time since I wrote my last blog entry. Sorry for that. But there is not that much to tell at the moment. I guess you don't wanna hear about my master-thesis anymore, so I start with some other news.

News Nr. 1. - my new flatmate

Yes, I have a new flatmate. *gg* No not that kind of flatmate. It's a new plant *gg*. I got it from the easter bunny. So have a look, it is the one on the left side, at the moment it gets its blossom. Looking forward to that, should be really nice.



Actually, the one in the middle is the part I could save from one of my Finland-Plants. They died on the way back to Austria in the car, because of the cold. But fortunately one had a little sapling I could use to plant it. I'm proud of it *gg*

News Nr. 2. - job interviews

At the moment there is not much to tell about jobs. I have some job application out, of course not only one. I guess every company knows that a candidate does not only have one application a time. However, some get positive answers, some got negative answers, some got so far no answers.

My study colleagues aren't in that hurry to get a job. Some have one or more applications running, other's don't have any so far. The reason why I have already some applications out is simple. Because there are some jobs, I would really like to work in, therefore I sent my applications now, because I don't know, if this kind of jobs are on the market in six month.

Whatever, some are perfect for me, and I hope I get a chance to show that I'm the best to have for the job ;)

News Nr. 3 - car needed money

Blablub.... I had to repair my car, because I wouldn't have got the "test badge". In the garage it would have cost 1600€ (!). So I had to do it on my own. Of course not me, but a friend of mine did it for me. In the end it cost 480€, I guess that is cheaper ^^

Ok, I would say that's it for the moment. Tonight we have Alumni-Meeting, looking forward to it.

Paintball and other kind of painful things

Hey my friends!

Last Saturday some friends and I where playing some Paintball at this field.
It's a really nice field in an old four-edge-farmhouse. They will expand it soon with the inner side of the farmhouse and one part to simulate house-fights.
We were 11 people, some I didn't know, but in war there are no friends anyway ;)

The field has everything you need, from a tunneling-system to a tower, everything there. Our opponents were some kind of campers, so they always hide behind the wall and wait for the others to come. I didn't care, so maybe that was the reason that we lost most of the time. It was really funny and it didn't hurt that much (except next day, but this was the "sport" not the bullets).

Ok, what other painful things.... hmmmm
Actually I over reacted, maybe my master-thesis could be a painful thing *gg*. Or let's say Latex is a painful thing, it will not do what I want it to do. I work now for days to get the document in the shape I want it, but it won't work. Hopefully it will work soon, because I'm already one step behind.

Last Friday there was also open doors day at my university. It was also a nice day, because I like to show people around and the things we do. Most of the time I spent in the biometrics lab, where I showed people how to use iris scan, fingerprint scan and face scan devices. The funny part at the face scan was, we used some pictures of celebrities to compare with our users. The result was sometimes really funny, for example a couple, both compared with Paris Hilton, ... the guy was more Paris Hilton than his girlfriend *ggg*
My result, I do not really look like George Clooney, neither Bill Gates..... ;( *g*

Yeah, I had also a job interview on Friday. But more on that in another entry.

Exhibitions and job interviews

This week is fully planned. Not only because of my master thesis, but also because of the additional program.

First of all there are a lot of exhibitions this week, which are quite interesting. The first one I visited yesterday, was the "B.e.s.t" exhibition. It's about continuing education, work and studying. Maybe you ask yourself why I have been there when I'm nearly finished with studying.

Actually I wanted to inform myself about possibilities to join a phd-program. Therefore I visited a lot of universities, Austrian but also universities from abroad. I wanted to know something about making a phd next to a job or how it works if you do it full-time. As expected, the Austrian universitites are still a bit snobbish when it comes to students from universities of applied sciences (Fachhochschulen). Except the Johannes Kepler university in Linz. The people from the technical university of Vienna, who I spoke to, were friendly at the beginning, but when I asked how difficult it will be for Applied Sciences students, there was this acknowledgeable change in the face and she said, maaah you have to do a lot lot lot of additional courses to get even a chance to be affiliate at the phd program.
I can only say, wake up girl!! I studied 5 years (not 4 as some still believe). I have no problem to make the one or other additional course, but lot lot lot to get a chance, hahaha.
The girl at the JKU stall was quite more relaxed. She said that probably will be some additional courses, but that it is possible to do it next to the phd program. I know that there is still a problem to get a free place, because universities prefer there own students, but they should think if a healthy mix of university and applied science students wouldn't be better. However, thanks to JKU to be not that small-minded as other Austrian universities.

Actually, at the moment I haven't really decided if I start working or continue studying. But at the moment working is the favorite choice, because there are some nice job offers available.

Which brings me to the next point, the job interview. Of course I send my resume to more than one job, but I guess every human resource person will know that. However, yesterday I had my first job interview. In my opinion it wasn't that bad, but the problem is you never know what the other side thinks. People who know me know that I'm a truthful person, so maybe some other people can't handle that fact. For example, I mentioned clearly that a job as programmer is not what I will do in the future.

The company makes a very nice impression and the job sounded also very interesting. Of course it is in my field IT-Security and as far as I can see right now, it will be cover the whole field. I hope I made a good impression and get an invitation to the next round of interviews.

For the other jobs I didn't get an answer yet, but I will inform you when I get one.

Let's get back to the exhibitions. We also planned to drive to the Cebit exhibition. But the schedule was changed to 23o'clock yesterday and that would have been to much stress for us, because we already were tired. So we cancelled that one, but instead we will go to the energy saving exhibition in Wels tomorrow. We have been there also last year and it was really interesting. This year I want to find out what my "dream"-house would cost, *lol*, I'm looking forward to this shock.

Storm over Europe

I guess a lot of people recognized the storm we had a few days ago.
Also Austria had some places which were hit hard.
But I guess one of the most famous scenes is the one you can see on the following video. It is about a airplane who tried to land at an airport and was hit by a blast, but just look for yourself. It happened in Germany.



I guess they were quite lucky ;)
Good luck also to all people who experienced damages or worse losses, keep your head up.

Nightwish Concert

After skipping the concert in Helsinki, what I regret later on, I finally made it to a Nightwish concert.

First of all, why did I regret skipping the concert in Helsinki? Because I would have loved to see Indica ;( But at that time I didn't know that Indica is not the support band for the European tour.

However, on 28.2 I have been to the concert in Vienna (Gasometer). The supporting Band was Pain. Fortunately the band was not a "Pain in the ass". They are a Swedish metal band and they were quite good. To get an impression, here is a video of one of their song at the concert (thx to kampfjogurt who made this video):



That was actually the last song before the Nightwish show. I can not say a lot about the show, only that it really was great. I had my concerns about Anette (the new singer), because I loved Tarja's voice, but Anette is a very nice (and good looking) woman. She is Swedish, but actually in my opinion she looks perfectly Finnish.

There are yet not really good videos available, but I'm sure there will be some soon. Therefore I give you some impressions with some photos. Unfortunately Günther forgot his camera (bravo günther!) and mine was too big, so I searched for pictures and found a good source in the German Nightwish Fanclub homepage, where raven_arkadon put some really nice pictures.

Here are some impressions:




Thanks for the nice photos, you can find the rest of the gallery in the above mentioned link.

It was a great evening and I enjoyed it a lot !!!

How is it going?!

That is a question I hear a lot in the last few days. Thanks, I'm doing fine. Even when I have hell lot of work to do and Finland still is in my mind.

How is it going?
That what I ask you now. How are you doing? Tell me.

Some also asked me if the blog ends now, after my study abroad. I have this blog since 1,5 year now. My study abroad was just a part of it and the blog will therefore not end !!! The frequent of posting entries will be a bit bigger, so I recommend you using RSS-Feed. And yes, the blog continues in English.

Would be nice if some of my friends out there continue reading and sharing there thoughts with me.

So what I'm doing right now. As I already mentioned, I have a lot of work to do. First of all I have to finish my work for the project, which I have to finish in one week. I also have an exam at the end of this month.

But work for the university is not all. I have to visit a lot of friends since my return, ok maybe that is not work,... but it is time. (well spent)
I also have to support a lot of friends and relatives with their PCs and Internet. That is work!! Believe me!! Questions like "How do I make uppercase letters" are common. And last but not least, yesterday I had to renew my parents aquarium, because the old one was leaking.....

I hope you all doing fine, let me know!