Scotland

As you may or may not know, I went to Scotland this past weekend and it rocked my world. Basic summary is as follows: London. Sick. 3:00 A.M. Plane. Glasgow-Prestwick airport. Train. Bus. Glasgow Airport. Rental car. Highlands. Inverness. Loch Ness. Crap food. Safeway parking lot in small car (see pictures below) for night. 3:30 A.M. St. Andrews. Edinburgh. Salisbury Crags. Scottish Coast. English border/Hadrian's wall. Pizza Hut. Glasgow airport. Bus. Train. Glasgow-Prestwick airport for night. 4:30 A.M. Plane. London.

I decided to shrink all the details down for the sake of, a) me, b) you, c) well, I guess there is no "c" but if there were it would be that trying to actually tell all the details without my three travel partners wouldn't even come close to doing the trip justice. (If you want to see someone attempt it, go check out Elliot's blog. I will certainly tell you all about it on a personal basis next time I see or talk to you (as long as it isn't in electronically written form) and share all the tales. All I can say is that if you get the chance to go to Scotland, go to Scotland. If you never get the chance, make the chance and go to Scotland. The countryside is absolutely beautiful and people are a lot of fun to listen to (though all the Goth kids in Scotland seem to descend upon the Glasgow Central train station at night). I would recommend renting a car like we did and just road-tripping it the whole time. One funny story I have to share is about our trip to Loch Ness. We drove for about 2 or 3 hours up to Loch Ness from Glasgow and checked out the area. Loch Ness is huge and really cool. I wanted to just sit there and take it in but alas, we kinda had a schedule to keep. The first leg of the drive around the Loch is really nice with a full view most of the time. But, when you get about halfway around the Loch, to what amounts to its southern tip, you hit a really sketchy, really spooky (at night) one-lane, two-way road. We were cruising along carefully trying to avoid the few oncoming cars we encountered when I saw something move at the edge of the road about 20-30 yards away and told Ethan that an animal had just crossed ahead of us so he could be on the look out for more. Well, it was a good thing I did because if he hadn't slowed down, we would have hit this thing:



Well, okay so it wasn't that particular one but it was a Sika (which, if you click on the word will come to find out is a species of deer). The sika we almost made into a hood ornament was a male and after the face it made before spazzing out and running back into the woods, it lost its male card, its mammal card, and its invertebrate card all in one spectacularly pathetic move. I have almost hit deer in Mississippi before and they usually react one of two ways, they freeze with the natural wide-eyed yet somewhat stoic look on their little deer faces and then bolt away, or in an absolute fraction of a nanosecond they re-route all electrical impulses in their body to shift direction instantly in one fluid, graceful Barry Sanders-esque movement. This particular deer was more Professor Frink than Sweetness. He came to an awkward, bumbling halt at the edge of our car and stood there with a horribly pathetic "lemon face." After standing there in continual awkwardness for a second or two, this crap-deer jerkily contorted itself and stumbled away in what almost appeared to be shame. Below are my impressions of how deer in Mississippi respond to the threat of death by car, and how the sika reponded, respectively:

Your average Mississippi deer


Crap-deer


As you can see, the Mississippi white-tailed deer is obviously the winner.

Go to Scotland. See a crap-deer. Below are some of the highlight shots from the trip. For more just head over to my photo site.

Scottish Highlands on the way to Loch Ness


Me and Nessie takin' a pit stop


NEW! HEINZ BAKED BEANZ! THEY'RE NOT JUST BEANS, THEY'RE BEANZ--TO THE EXTREEEEEEEEME!!!!!!


The crew at Loch Ness


Urquhart Castle at dusk


Beach at St. Andrew's


Me at said beach


Pretty sweet, huh?


Man, I loved the Scottish countryside


Edinburgh Castle


The crew on the Salisbury Crags overlooking Edinburgh


Hadrian's wall. Owned.


Best sign ever


Me in both Scotland and England at the same time.


This is the map of our travels. The red line represents the first day, the blue line represents the second.

Future Plans

By the way, I am going to Scotland this weekend (cold and rain and me all sick) and then leaving for Ireland on our academic field trip on Wednesday morning (I think). So, I will have plenty to write about when all of that is over but I apologize in advance for the lack of activity that will occur in the next week and a half. I will also be posting those pictures on my website. I love you all. Keep comin' back for more. PEACE.

Eww

I'm sick. More posts later. Sorry guys.

London Weather: Don't Believe the Hype

I am living here in London for the academic year. I started my time here in early September 2004 and was immediately surprised by the heat. I stress this word because when we got off the plane, we were not greeted by cold weather, not by cool temperatures, not even by warmth, but heat. It was as hot and humid as it was in South Mississippi when I left. Needless to say we were all pretty surprised to be wearing shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops (or slippahs, if you're so inclined), and actually sweating. We were assured by the locals that we would get our fair share of frigid temperatures and would be begging for the heat by the time it was all over. We were told that November and December would chill us to the bone, it was sworn up and down that January would leave us bundled up in warm clothes like Randy in "A Christmas Story". I must say that thus far, I am thoroughly unimpressed. Sure, we had some cold nights; it dipped below freezing a few times, but so did the temperature in South Mississippi. When I brought this up with those locals who originally promised Arctic weather, they talked of an unholy cold that settles upon the city of London every year; words like "icy", and "frost" were evoked. This deep freeze, I was warned, appears in that short but dreaded month of February. "I hate February. February is the coooooldest month of the year! Sometimes it is so cold it hurts to walk outside.", one of them stated. "You just wait until February; you'll get your cold weather.", another warned. I say:



Bollocks to that.

Above is a picture of me walking down Exhibition Road in London, on February 7, 2005. As you can see, I am wearing shorts and a t-shirt (if they weren't falling apart I would have worn my flip-flops) and sweat is beginning to collect on my brow. You'll also notice that I am squinting due to the sunlight shining in my eyes. Where is the ice, where is the freezing rain and Arctic cold? Do I look like a man whose bones ache? I came over here with the expectation that we would be subject to lots of rain and lots of cold. Both have been in short supply. I may sound crazy for complaining about the lack of inclement weather, but I mean come on! I'm a big guy, I like cold weather when it should be cold and warm weather when it should be warm. We are a little over a week into the "coooooldest month of the year" and I am only wearing long pants because three days of shorts has drained my supply. Yesterday the temperature was over 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and today it is supposed to be just below that. I was lied to. Bring on the icy chill of my birthmonth!

The Death of an American Institution

ZZZZZZZZZ....





Soooo....let me be the first to say that I respect Paul McCartney as an artist and as a human being. I feel compelled to express my appreciation for his contributions to music and popular culture as a whole. That being said, I just witnessed the WORST halftime show ever. What the hell? In an attempt to avoid even the slightest bit of controversy--scratch that--entertainment, FOX called in Sir Paul to bore the audience to death. I can't believe that the execs at FOX lacked the balls to put even one scantily clad female within 100-ft of the stage. Millions of people watched, in a nearly comatose state of supreme listlessness, as the former Beatle--get this--stood there and played guitar, before, in the raciest moment of the whole performance, taking off his jacket and sat at his keyboard. WOW. I stand around all the time. Hell, I have been known to take off my jacket and sit at my keyboard too. That is what I am doing right now actually. I think it was the first time in recorded history that millions of people around the world simultaneously sighed in complete indifference. I just want to express my distaste for the over-sensitivity on the part of the FOX bigwigs that led to this terrible incident. Shame on you FOX! You are supposed to be a bastion of smut and filth in this sea of decency. I didn't think that the cancer that is FOX News would ever actually spread to infect your envelope-pushing heart. You let the "values police" get to you. Rupert Murdoch, you disgust me. I call on everyone who had their hopes for softcore dance-porn dashed by Sir Paul and the people at FOX to write angry letters of protest, much like those written by the hundreds of thousands of morons who threw a fit over *yawn* Janet Jackson's exposed right breast. The only difference is that this will be a worthy cause. With all due respect to good ol' Paul, I want my MTV-inspired, not-suitable-for-children, hip-hop influenced halftime peepshow back. Who's comin' with me?!

Food

Now, I might be crazy but just the other day I ate a bowl of Cheerios that tasted absolutely amazing. I don't know if I was really craving Cheerios at the time and so the bowl just hit the spot but I man they were good. It has happened to me once or twice before that regular food tasted gourmet. Now that I have your attention, the real meat of this post has nothing to do with Cheerios, and to be quite honest, nothing to do with food at all. This is a Super Bowl post. Didn't see that one coming did you? I figure that everyone else who writes a post about this particular subject will start off with a prediction or a declaration of their favorite team, or maybe a rant about why the Patriots are overrated and don't deserve to win again because Donovan McNabb and the Eagles are much scrappier and hardworking and have shown that they are the most deserving, if not superior, team in this game. I personally don't have deep-rooted feelings about this game. I do have my reasons for wanting both teams to win. On one hand, I kinda like McNabb and I have always sort of had a thing for the Eagles (perhaps because in high school we were the Eagles). I would like McNabb to retire with a ring and I am not sure how many more chances he is going to get. Also, in the Eagles favor, I loathe my ex-roommate and he is from Connecticut so seeing the Patriots lose to spite him would be pretty sweet. On the other hand, I am a huge Notre Dame fan and it would probably be a huge boost to recruiting if Weis could stroll into his office wearing three shiny Super Bowl rings. I must say that I think my love for the Irish far outweighs my distaste for my New England acquaintance. So I guess in the end I want the Patriots to go ahead and win one for the Gipper.

No matter who wins, one team will be crowned World Champions. I used to hear people talk about how it is a bit conceited to call it the "World Championship" when only teams from the US play for the Lombardi Trophy. I hate to be completely and totally unoriginal in saying this but it's true. When you live in another country and realize that this game simply isn't as important to the rest of this big blue ball is it is to you, it is tough to justify this label. Funny that I say this as I watch the buildup to the game from the comfort of a couch in my residence in London, but most people outside of the US tune in out of curiosity or for the same reason they watch Olympic events their countries aren't participating in--it's an entertaining athletic event. This said, I am really impressed by those non-Americans who sit through the crap programming that ITV and all the other international networks carrying the game put in place of the NFL Pregame show and the multi-million dollar commercials. Yes, that's right, THEY DON'T EVEN SHOW THE COMMERCIALS. Well, it's kick-off time. Gotta bolt. Go Pats....I guess.

Random Funny

I think I might just go ahead and make this a regular (or as regular as possible) installment on this here little blog. My friend Joel had a link to this really funny video on his AIM profile and I felt the need to share it with the world. If you want to have a good laugh then you should look at this.

Iraqi Police

This is the photo The Guardian posted on their front page on Friday:



And this is the photo that my buddy Taylor Williams posted on his site today:



I'd say we pulled it off fairly well. Big ups to us--and Brooklyn.

Social Security "Crisis"

I just read a very good article on Social Security from the non-partisan (no, seriously) site Factcheck.org. Man, it is a good thing President Bush is doing something about this crisis.

Update: You should also check out this site for an interesting take on the situation.

Random funny

I just thought this was funny; it's my brother Todd reflecting on the impact of his new replay tv service:

"man, moka's sister kitty gave us replay tv and my bonds with chronological earth time have been completely sundered."

Ah, the beauty of technology.

Follow up:

Me: I think I have developed a new obsession for pimp my ride since coming back here
Me: it is on MTV all the time here and MTV is about all people ever watch
Todd: yeah. I mostly end up watching sports and comedies. I haven't seen pimp my ride in a couple of weeks.
Todd: I'm obsessed with the mainstreaming of the word pimp. well, not obsessed but it blows my mind. [...]
Todd: 'pimp' used to be an insult. A fight-starting insult. Now everybody wants to be a pimp.
Me: thank you xzibit for your contribution to society
Todd: i mean think about it-- a pimp is a man who (usually) forces women to have sex for money and then takes most of that money as payment for not beating the shit out of them (too badly).
Me: I want my car to have THAT!
Todd: If people think that feminist political correctness is really a driving force in
Todd: Hahahaha

Good times, good times.

Monday

This is my designated post for Monday, even though today is Saturday, no one will know in the long run. So, enjoy:

There’s nothing in my mind that really compels me to write a journal today. I went through this whole day thinking about how much I dislike Monday and why. It was almost Garfieldian or Office Space-esque. Why is Monday so abhorred by so many people? What did Monday ever do to anyone? It wasn’t Monday that stole your lunch money in third grade. Monday isn’t responsible for the frighteningly steady slide in the US dollar, the Holocaust, the fall of the Roman Empire, or the Spanish Inquisition—in fact, in the case of the latter, it is entirely impossible given that everyone knows that Monday, a scheduled and infinitely reoccurring event, is coming, and the Spanish Inquisition, well, no one expects that. Monday is that day that forces the vast majority of us to shake off the fuzzy slippers that are the weekend and suit up for the coming week. Monday has the responsibility of setting the pace for the rest of the days of the week and making sure that everything is on track. Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue if Monday let us all down and failed to show up to work? There would be absolute anarchy. Whole governments would come tumbling down, corporations would grind to a halt—the world would never be able to cope. The anti-Monday crowd would have you believe that Tuesday or Wednesday could just as easily handle that task, but it is a simple fact that the other days lack the necessary fortitude required to handle such a responsibility. Monday has been loyally and successfully performing its duties for millennia. To borrow some rhetoric from the GOP, Monday has shown strength and resolve through hard times as well as good—we must stay the course. Perhaps we should question Sunday’s performance in getting us to cool down and prepare for the coming week. I don’t think Monday is the one to blame here. In a way, I can relate to Monday more than the rest of the days of the week. I feel that I would prefer to be a Friday or Saturday if anything, but, I think given my current position as RA, I can see where Monday is coming from. Monday has to be the responsible one even when it doesn’t want to be. Monday has to take the flack from all of us who don’t want to buckle down and do what we should but it keeps doing its job no matter what. So it isn’t the favorite day of the week or the most glamorous event in your planner; it doesn’t care. It knows that it has a job to do and it understands the importance of that job and it is willing to stand up and take the heat for what it does. I think we should cut Monday some slack, not because it wants us to or because it needs us to or even because it deserves it (though it does). Cut Monday some slack because it has us in mind when it shows up to work and when it punches out at midnight. Without Monday, we wouldn’t be where we are today—no pun intended.

D-day plus one

Man, this blog thing is kind of ridiculous. I mean, I woke up this morning thinking of, well thinking of a beautiful Hawaiian I know as per usual, but also of what I was going to say in this here little slot of "the internets". And I've decided that, at least for the moment, I have nothing of importance to say. In fact, I am purposely taking up space for the sake of exercising my brain. The idea is, like my brother Edgar said on his blog, to get that "flow" going. Much like him, I too sometimes get on a roll with things and the witty comments just pour forth like so much milk and honey. This of course, is not one of those cases. Here I am more just testing out my skills of hyperlink usage. So far I think I am doing fairly well, though I feel much like a little kid with a shiny new toy. As is usually the case with that toy, this nifty little tool will probably get tossed aside only to be forgotten in the depths of that great big toy box in the closet. Hopefully, though, I will include useful or interesting little tidbits on a regular basis in hopes to add a little flavor to my blog and maybe to convince Google to hook me up with their AdSense program (hey, I'm a college student, I am trying to get money any legal way I can [I stress "legal" because I am afraid that Alberto Gonzales will torture me if I do something wrong]). Ok, that last one was a stretch, I admit it, but this is just so much fun. Now I can feel like I am writing for Slate.com or something (I could have done it again there, you saw that right? But I didn't; I spared you guys--'cuz I love you.). Ok, well I am done for now. I am sure I will come back later today and do this all over again--probably without all the hyperlinks (but I wouldn't hold your breath). PEACE!

Rookie

I'm new at this whole blogging thing and I figured since everyone who has ever created a blog has started their career with a similar post, I should be boring and unoriginal as well. For that reason, I am posting the obligatory "rookie" installment in which I ramble on about how I will try to post as frequently as possible, how I hope everyone enjoys what I put here, and how I'm just trying to carve out my own little niche' in this big, crazy blogosphere. All of this is crap, of course, except for that last part--I really am just trying to settle in and start something fun. We'll see what happens.