just in glancing through my email, i seem to have a disproportionate number of friends whose names begin with the letter 'E'.

so, i've created a new template for my picture pages. i just need to convert the old ones over to the new design. the pictures from skye are done, but won't be online until i can transition everything at once. this web work is prepping me to do the work for the online mag over the next couple months--that sounds good, doesn't it?

i saw the movie rain tonight. it was really good, i would really recommend seeing it, the acting is stellar. just be sure to take your prozac with you.

i went to see the oyster wars with several of others from my course last night. alan helped coordinate the script writing for play, so we all came out to see the end result. the oyster wars was a community theatre project at the north edinburgh arts center, which is in muirhouse (yes, the actual murihouse from the movie trainspotting). it was the first community theatre i've seen; and it was pretty good for people who may never have been a part of a production like this before. and it was interesting to see if i could understand everything that was being said, which i did...mostly.

valerie gillies is my advisor for this term. she has been very encouraging and helpful in helping me find my voice in my writing, esp when it is related to nature. not to mention that she's extremely nice and generous--she's leant or given me books to read and took me out for tea after out last meeting. i feel it's kind of a shame that i'm leaving after this summer; i really feel like i've started to become a part of the 'scene' here in edinburgh.

i had the strangest dream last night. i was back in 6th grade, but my class consisted of people from either my creative writing course here, or other people i've met while in europe. it was like making everyone your currently know act as immature and insecure as possible, and forced to stay in the same room together. so on second thought, perhaps it was more of a nightmare.

ok, so my year isn't quite over, but i'm working on a new design for the blog. step one, name change.

the other night i watched "shallow grave". i think it claims to be set in glasgow, but all the opening scenes when they are driving around are of edinburgh.

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quite a productive day for me. have a good weekend...

a drunk definition of cricket for an american

take baseball and bowling, mix in a martini glass, and that's cricket.
     -Leo

as i should have expected, a software package licensed under GNU (i.e. free) works better than windows media player. go download the videolan player for all your video streaming.

it's no wonder people get fustrated with microsoft. i can't play a home made digital video using windows media player on my machine, but my frien erin can. so i watched the video jeff sent me on her computer. can anyone tell me how to import the proper codec into WMP so i can watch it on my machine? the 'automatic download' doesn't work, even after changing (and screwing up my custom) security levels.

this evening we had a goodbye picnic for marcus on calton hill. he's leaving to live down in kent.

sometimes when i walk around, i get the feeling that a lot of the people i see are trying to convince either the public (i.e. me), themselves, or both, that they are happy and enjoying themselves. i'm not sure if it's just my pessimistic outlook, or an astute ability to see through people's facades, or something altogether different, but that's my impression when walking the streets.

for myself, i feel i know when i'm content, when i'm really happy, and when i'm self-conscious, upset, or generally not pleased. i was happier when i was sharing and exploring the streets of edinburgh; i am simply content in walking them alone again.

when i first saw the picture, i thought maybe he just saw a fiver on the ground. apparently he just lost his balance.

if you think watching grass grow is fun, then you'll love this.

as if this morning wasn't bad enough with another goodbye and being friday the 13th, the church across the street has decided to take up its 'driveway'. that means they were out this morning at around 8am with masonary saws and jackhammers.

sometimes i all in favor of the rain here, because it makes the bagpipers and construction workers go away to leave me in peace for at least a few minutes.

i'm headed to linlithgow for the day. it's the birthplace of mary queen of scots. should have pictures from that as well...of course, it all depends on when i get around to posting all these.

blogger had some troubles over the weekend, so i couldn't post anything, and now i forget what i wanted to say. ok, one of the things was that i wanted say was that my nephew's name is Caleb Michael. i wanted to make sure my sister got to call people she wanted to tell personally before i posted it here. and i got some pictures, he's a pretty big healthy boy.

yesterday was a very cool day. i went to the rosslyn chapel that is covered with stone carvings. the weather was ideal. then last night a bunch of us went out to prince balti, an indian restaurant in portobello. ran (the guy is from india, so i trust his opinion) knows the owner, so he gets us a 'student discount'. we all over ate; it was hard not to with such good food. then we went down to the beach to walk off some of that food.

i'm an uncle as of this morning

last night was eva's birthday party. it was fun and included (as seems always here) quite an international bunch. hopefully she enjoyed herself in between running around being hostess.

sam also left this morning. strange to think i may never see him again. strange to think i may never see many of the people here again after this year. these end-of-the-year times are always so bitter sweet.