vicgrinberg

vicgrinberg, 22 hours ago to random

Repotted some plants. Have now two of the hedgehog aloe; once the baby has good roots, I'll start looking into finding it a new home.

#AboutToday

vicgrinberg, 1 day ago to random

Fuuuuck... Not unexpected by now, but fuck:

[German] https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/ausland/entsetzen-ueber-schuesse-auf-juedische-grundschule-in-toronto-19744287.html

[English] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/police-suspects-gunfire-jewish-girls-school-1.7215118

vicgrinberg, 1 day ago to random

The terrible thing about home improvement stores is that you go in to get one thing (in this case: paper nursery pots) and end up with a ton more. And I on purpose did not go to a garden centre, which would have turned worse 😬

#AboutToday

vicgrinberg, 2 days ago to random

Took the pretty hard decision to step back from the steering group of Astronomers for Planet Earth this week - I've, realistically seen, not been able to put in my weight for the last two years or so. And I don't see it becoming better as much as I hoped it would. Hard to let go - it grew up from an idea some of us had on twitter (during an in person conference!) and look at how much folks do now with it! But it's time to give it to folks who will actually invest more time than I.

vicgrinberg, 2 days ago to random

Ufff, no astro here (Dutch Summit grants):

▶️ https://www.nwo.nl/nieuws/van-quantum-tot-klimaat-vijf-teams-van-topwetenschappers-ontvangen-summit-grant

(Obviously, I'm not involved - can't as working for an intergovernmental organisation; but I would have wished it for the folks in NL...)

vicgrinberg, 2 days ago (edited 2 days ago) to random

Guter Artikel mit spannenden Denkansätzen woher das antisemitische Denken kommt:

▶️ https://www.zeit.de/kultur/2024-05/israelkritik-pro-palaestina-proteste-universitaeten-lehrende-unterstuetzung

"Will man das Gemeinsame der unterschiedlichen Spielarten des Antisemitismus herausarbeiten, stößt man fast immer auf ein merkwürdig verunsichertes Selbstverhältnis. Ich möchte versuchsweise die These entwickeln, dass jegliche Form des Antisemitismus in seinen unterschiedlichen Varianten stets etwas mit einem ungeklärten Selbstverhältnis zu tun hat ... "

vicgrinberg, 3 days ago (edited 3 days ago) to random

Work from home breakfast: homemade bagel chips (American-Ashkenazi-Jewish) with gorgonzola cheese (Italian), mango (I guess originally from Southern/Eastern Asia), Georgian coffee (brought to me via a Tatar friend in London who lived in Georgia for a long time) and a paper (American, Dutch, British, German and Italian) I am late submitting my referee report for.

#AboutToday

vicgrinberg, 3 days ago to Bloomscrolling

Still struggling today, but hey, look at how happy my plants are. Aren't they total beauties?

The aloe flowers a second time this year (I missed the peak of the flower last time but collected the seeds that I'll try to plant in fall, when the worst of the work travel is over.)

#bloomscrolling #cactus #kaktus

A flowering red and green aloe on front of a large bookshelf.
Flower buds of a dark green and purple plant.
A small pot with three cactii with white flowers.

vicgrinberg, 4 days ago to random

Ugh, visas are so much fun. So a colleague was supposed to support me at the IAU in South Africa.

But they are from a country requiring a visa. Fine. Only for the visa you need a stamped bank statement. The consulate does not accept a digital signature. And the Dutch bank - the colleague lives in the Netherlands - does not give out physical stamps only digital signatures. So their visa got rejected.

And now I'm stuck without support.

vicgrinberg, 4 days ago to random

Blood donation done!

And the usual plea: if you can, please donate! If you are an immigrant in NL, you can do it in English and I'm glad to go with you if you don't want to go alone!

(Also fingers crossed they don't kick me from the donation programme, my ferritin was low last time 😭)

#AboutToday #sanquin #BloodDonation

vicgrinberg, 4 days ago to random

Voted! Don't forget to do so, too!

#AboutToday #EuropaWahl

vicgrinberg, 5 days ago (edited 4 days ago) to random

"Es gibt eine transgenerationale Traumatradierung über mehrere Generationen. [...] Es hat nicht mit der zweiten Generation aufgehört."

"Nun würden all diese Dynamiken noch verstärkt. Denn am 7. Oktober sei etwas Wesentliches geschehen. Davor hätten die Nachfahren Holocaustüberlebender in dem Bewusstsein gelebt, dass sich das kollektive jüdische Trauma vor ihrer Geburt ereignet habe. Jetzt sei das anders."

▶️ https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/steigender-antisemitismus-juden-ziehen-sich-zurueck-19733512.html

(noch frei, bald vermutlich 🔒, siehe auch Kommentare)

vicgrinberg, 5 days ago to random

Have found out today that (not very close) relatives (and their kids - and the kids they took care of at that moment, they run a childcare thing) in Canada have been victims of a hate crime (a while ago, it took a while to reach me), prompting them to give up on the childcare business thing.

I just feel freaking empty.

vicgrinberg, 5 days ago (edited 5 days ago) to random

Oh, how great! #JennyErpenbeck has won the international booker prize:

▶️ https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/may/21/jenny-erpenbeck-michael-hofmann-win-2024-international-booker-prize-kairos

I haven't read this particular novel of hers (but I bought it as a present for my partner and now asked him to bring it to NL so I can do so on our upcoming vacation 😅), but her "Visitation" and "The End of Days" are books I keep recommending. I've also heard the translations are amazing!

(Yes, I'm distracting myself but Erpenbeck is seriously an absolutely stand out writer!)

vicgrinberg, 5 days ago (edited 5 days ago) to random

Today I learned that in Greece you celebrate your name day by giving other people cake!

#AboutToday

vicgrinberg, 6 days ago to random

My current master student has a PhD offer 🎉🎉🎉

(I don't have many master students since we are not a teaching institution...)

vicgrinberg, 7 days ago to animals

Being an adult means realizing that while you love cat-sitting, having an actual cat will not work for you, because OMG, a week and there is so much cat hair! Everywhere!

#AboutToday #CatsOfMastodon

A black and white cat licking my hand.

vicgrinberg, 7 days ago (edited 7 days ago) to random

Liebe Leute, lasst den Sarkasmus in den Kommentaren, kommt nicht an (außer sehr selten und klar gekennzeichnet als solcher, zB mit "/Sarkasmus" oder ähnlichem - und selbst dann ist es bei manchen Themen absolut nicht angebracht).

Und versucht es nicht, in sozialen Medien, mit Ironie oder Witzen, die irgendwie missverstanden werden können, bei Leuten, die ihr nicht (gegenseitig und am besten lange!) sehr gut kennt.

vicgrinberg, 7 days ago (edited 7 days ago) to cooking

Did I mention how much I love Fuchsia Dunlop's "Every Grain of Rice"? I'm pretty sure I did, but I want to repeat it. By far my favorite cookbook at the moment. Such flavourful recipes, so easy to make (the subtitle of the book is "simple chinese home cooking") and I'm learning so much!

Today, I tried two new to me ingredients: tofu skin and fermented tofu making tofu bamboo with spring onion flavoured oil (yum!) and spinach with fermented tofu (yum! yum!).

#cooking #kochen

vicgrinberg, 8 days ago (edited 1 day ago) to random

Harten Lesestoff sollte mensch nicht für dunkle Tage lassen - daher ist heute ein guter Tag für "Terror gegen Juden" von #RonenSteinke.

Das Buch ist 250 Seiten lang: 140 Seiten Text, 100 Seiten Chronik - eine Auflistung der einzelnen Taten (manche werden zusammengefasst, wie die 36 Friedhofsschändungen '99), Quellen.

Mal gucken, wie lange ich dafür brauche.

1/n

#VicisBooks #2024Reads

vicgrinberg, 7 days ago (edited 7 days ago) to random

The Japanese market was a lot fuller than expected and I managed not to buy a used kimono (even though they were very pretty)

#AboutToday #Leiden

vicgrinberg, 8 days ago to til

#TIL I learned about Ireland during WWII:

▶️ https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/culture-shock-in-saving-jews-from-the-nazis-hubert-butler-saved-ireland-from-shame-1.2076949

(And Wikipedia for some more background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_neutrality_during_World_War_II)

vicgrinberg, 9 days ago (edited 9 days ago) to random

The world is pretty shitty right now and I have a long weekend, so let me try to make the world a bit better: who wants a hand made aquarelle postcard and a book recommendation?

You don't get to choose the card (and I don't yet know what I feel like painting) but you can tell me what kind of book and in which language you want 😊

I'll be happy when I make the card and you when you received it so we get a net win in happiness together 💚

vicgrinberg, 9 days ago to random

Very happy that the okonomiyaki stand is now a fixture at the Leiden market 😊

#AboutToday #Leiden

vicgrinberg, 8 days ago to random

Somewhere between last weekend and this weekend I've lost the brush attachment for the hand vacuum cleaner. Somewhere in the 80 square meters of this house. I've been searching for hours now. And yes, this is causing me a significant amount of distress. (yay brains, why can't they just let stuff like this go?)