so, i got up to go to church this morning, the 11:30 mass. good thing i booted my computer, b/c it was clock changing day, which means it was already noon when i got out of the shower, not 11. looks like i'll be going tonight instead.

a blog straight from iraq

"'He held it to his ear, shook it, and put it carefull down saying, 'The hands have ceased to go round and round, and no trust whatever can be placed in it.' He closed his eyes, opened his mouth, lay back on the pillow and at last said definitely, 'We are in the region of midnight." (Lanark, Alasdair Gray)

i'm back from firbush. it was a good weekend. the highlight of the trip was the mountain biking we did. they have tons of equipment for outdoor activities at the center; the bikes were pretty nice. it was the first time i had been riding in years, and the first bike with front suspension that i've experienced. we did mabye 10 or 12 miles. there were some really good long downhill sections.

yesterday i went off for a hike on my own. it was just a taste of what i hope to do and see when dave comes out to visit. i went up to about 640m (2100 ft), which was the highest point for a day hike from the center, and probably about a total of 7 or 8 miles. it turned out to be a fantastic day weather wise, dispite some morning fog. the only bad part was that i didn't have my camera, the batteries had died just before i left for the weekend.

then last night we had a fire along the shore of loch tay. i love camp fires. i'll be letting my body recover from so much physical activity in such concentration tonight and tomorrow.

i'm leaving for a weekend with some other creative writers to firbush, on loch tay, today.

this article really shows what good vs bad foreign policy can do. even if the US is the only world power, and wants to stay that way, then it can't afford to destroy all its traditional alliances.

this disturbs and upsets me

i noticed i got some of scott's readers the last couple days. i hope they're repeat readers...and maybe some of you will appreciate scott's writing.

pictures from my trip to bath last month are now up...and things should now be mozilla friendly as well. let me know if you encounter strangities.

last night i went to an acoustic event at a pub/bar. there turned out to be a lot of cool bands playing. so i bought the cd that was on sale for 3 quid. it reminded me slightly of going to see lowercase pete in my undergrad days.

a man needs to fix his knowledge
but he also needs an emptiness
in which to move

from The Blue Road,Kenneth White

there's already a line outside of finnegan's wake, one of the largest and best irish pubs in city centre. happy st. patrick's day!

today around noon, there was a small anti-war demonstration. it looked pretty much like a school outing. and most likely, the chants of "1,2,3,4, we don't want no fucking war" were more of a chance for youths to swear publicly.

there are a multitude of other interesting hypotheses that you could make from this as well. questions like: "do they realize that a double negative really makes a positive?", "does the silly behaviour of adults (who were chanting the same thing at the larger rally a week or so ago) just encourage and perpetuate youth?", and "does telling a class they have to go out and demonstrate really make anyone thing these kids understand the situation and really believe the war is wrong; or is it just another example of instilling anti-american sentiment into the coming generation?"

you see, i've yet to see a demonstration that has moved me to believe that the peoplel were really sincere about their cause. if you are marching against war in iraq, don't start about a free palestine, or socialism. stick to the issue; not everyone that is anti-war is an extreme leftist on every issue. that's why i have a hard time demonstrating. these days it becomes a reason for every activist to start beating his or her drum. so i'm not apathetic, but i am careful in what i decide to support.

i think i need a better schedule other than 11:30am-3:30am. altho, it tends to be easiest to get reading done between 10 and 1 (then there are the drunks outside for an hour), and between 2-3 (when the clubs close, more drunks. eventually they lull me to sleep)

wooooo! i handed everything in today. it feels kinda strange to have nothing to do but write for the next six months.

we had our last drama workshop today with zinnie harris. she's really cool; i've really enjoyed the workshops she's led. hopefully i'll get a chance to see her and/or her work some time again before i leave scotland. we also took her out to the pub, but she had a quick OJ and then had to run to pick up her son (who is almos 1 year old).

i downloaded mozilla to see what the latest build was like. i read some comments about it being better than IE in performance and that it held to stricter standards. it does seem to load the pages faster, but some pages that use non-standard tags and script look really bad...including my own picture pages as i discovered. conclusion, i'll probably be sticking with IE, but i will try to rewrite my pages to be standard compliant. ah, when i can get around to it.

well, the essay is done...or as done as it's going to get. it's not going to wow and scholars, or non-scholars for that matter, but it should be enough to pass. hopefully ronnie appreciates the effort. i probably spent some 36 hours of writing/editing time on it, that doesn't include any of the time for doing background reading. after tomorrow, i'll have my life back.

so i'm really busy until friday. my prof told me the draft of my essay sucked on monday; it's due friday...along with my portfolio for the term, which is serverely lacking in quality and quantity...so i'm trying to work on at least one of those issues.

for all the long outstanding emails from folks, you'll just have to sit tight.

thanks to all those that sent birthday wishes. even tho i'm no big fan of birthdays, i think i appreciate it more when i'm on another continent.

been playing tourist along with the parents the last couple days. went to the castle the other day; today we went to Holyrood Palace and the botanical gardens. and we're about to go out to dinner and then some drinks. then tomorrow its back to some serious work as my essay is technically due a week from tomorrow.

making friends....yes, the fire alarm goes off at just after 4am this morning. all of milnes court has to get out of the building. we're all joking about what to do with the person who set off the alarm. then the firemen come and ask for the key to my room number. sweet. of course, i was sleeping, have no candles or anything of any sort. so they say that 'it must have been a flaw in the system.' well, i'm sure i made some new friends this morning.

the 'rents made it to edinburgh this evening. they were tired, of course. anyone that has been in 4 cities in 10 days is bound to be. i got them settled into their room at the Castle View and then we had a pint in new town. then i came back and did a few more hours of work. woohoo.