Talking About Stuff, with Mike and Christiana

Well, a while back I saw this post over at Kevin's blog, where he put up an excerpt of a story that he had written many years ago. That just got me thinking about some of the stuff I'd written back in the day.

In particular, I still have a Geography Report from tenth grade. The assignment was to write a report of an imaginary trip that we had taken to the assigned region.

Mine was probably the only one where the trip included witnessing a Russian mafia hit.

Anyway, check it out. (I've even replicated all the typos and spelling errors.)

In truth, despite the fact that it's immature and amateurish in very many respects, I'm actually fairly proud of it. It even netted me ten extra credit points.

Unfortunately, I spent a lot of time and effort putting together this great collage map of the trip featuring an Indiana Jones style red line. Why is that unfortunate? Well, apparently, the teacher wanted us to hand-draw the map, (even though the assignment just said "make a map"), so the guy docks me 15 points from the map, meaning that I end up with a 95/100! It took me twice as long to make the map that I handed in than it would have to just draw it.

...

Not that I'm bitter...

I mean, it's been eleven years for crying out loud...

I'm totally over it...

.

So, look, there's ads up there.

Why? Well, not because I have any delusions of making significant money with them per se, but mostly because I'm just curious about how they work.

Also, because they scan your site and target the ads based on some algorithmic analysis of my readership. So, the ads are not just random. They'll change (supposedly) based on content.

So go ahead and click 'em. Free for you, and makes money for me. You don't want me to be poor do you? So hop to it. I'll wait.

.

Outcast Genius 69 % Nerd, 65% Geek, 52% Dork

For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. You scored better than half in all three, earning you the title of: Outcast Genius. Outcast geniuses usually are bright enough to understand what society wants of them, and they just don't care! They are highly intelligent and passionate about the things they know are *truly* important in the world. Typically, this does not include sports, cars or make-up, but it can on occassion (and if it does then they know more than all of their friends combined in that subject). Outcast geniuses can be very lonely, due to their being outcast from most normal groups and too smart for the room among many other types of dorks and geeks, but they can also be the types to eventually rule the world, ala Bill Gates, the prototypical Outcast Genius. Congratulations!

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 73% on nerdiness You scored higher than 90% on geekosity You scored higher than 89% on dork points

Link: The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos on Ok Cupid

found at Kevin's place

As we left Edinburgh Castle, we proceeded down The Royal Mile, which contains a lot of historic/tourist-trap stuff. Sure is pretty though.





Along the way, we stopped and had lunch at the Scotch Whisky Heritage Center, and then took the tour.









Then, the tour actually included a ride! Seriously, we got into little cars shaped like whisky casks and rode past life-size dioramas about whisky history! I don't have any pictures, because photography wasn't allowed inside, but if you don't believe me, have a listen to this: Scotch Whisky Tour Clip

After our whisky tour, we proceeded further down the Royal Mile.







Where were we headed? Well, our Frommer's Guidebook made a big point of suggesting that we make the climb to Arthur's Seat in Hollyrood park, which supposedly had the best view to be had anywhere in the city. We got a little sneak preview of what that "climb" would mean when we were at Edinburgh Castle. This picture is a close-up of the right-most portion of the panorama shot from the last post.



You see the top of that huge hill in the distance? Yep, that's where we were going. Here's a shot of the base of the park as we were walking up.



Part of the problem we had was that it wasn't clear exactly which way we were supposed to go. We knew we were going to the "top" but actually finding the path is another matter entirely. This is the way we climbed up the first part.



This is the way we could have come, if we'd had any idea what we were doing.



It was a long, hard hike, but it was really pretty.



It took us about an hour and a half to reach the top, but just as Frommer had assured us, it was totally worth it.





Note the tiny, tiny Edinburgh Castle in the center of this one.



And here's me. It was so windy up there, that I literally had to hold on to that monument to avoid being blown over.



Then, from the top, we were exhausted, and therefore found an easier way down, even though it meant a bit more of a walk when we reached the bottom, but one of the nice things about that route is that it took us right by a peaceful little loch, that we sat by for a while.





From there, we made our way back to the train station, and back to Glasgow. We hit the sack, so that in the morning, we'd be ready for our first day of Worldcon!

.

All right, it's been taking a long time, but I'm going to try and barrel through and get the rest of these updates up in a more timely manner.

So, anyway, on our second day in Scotland, we had decided to take a train to Edinburgh, which is about an hour away from Glasgow.

But first, we walked down to find our second hotel that we would be transferring to the next morning when the convention started. On our way there, we happened across something pretty interesting, and I think, meaningful. Near our hotel, we found, on a street corner, a building with a prominant street address of 42. Now, as most sf fans will know, "42" is a very important number.

(With all pictures, click for a larger version)


Now the discovery that this number 42 represented a pub, suggests to me that the real answer, to life, the universe and everything is in fact, alcohol. I had always suspected this of course, but it is nice to have confirmation.

Anyway, from there we went to catch our train. The ride to Edinburgh was really beautiful, passing through wonderfully green hills and farmlands.





Edinburgh felt a bit more historical than Glasgow, just in that the architecture and monuments had an older feel to them, even though many of the buildings aren't necessarily that old. Still, it's a beautiful city.





This is the Sir Walter Scott memorial. Yes, another one. George Square in Glasgow had a big statue of him too. I asked a local about all the memorials to this guy, and she told me it was essentially personality worship. "He was bigger than Mel Gibson," she said.



Here is a picture across the Princes Street Gardens, which used to be a lake before it was drained and made into a park.



The most prominent feature of the park, of course, is Edinburgh castle, which towers above it on a massive rocky bluff.





We ended up walking all the way around the park before we made our way up to the front gate of the castle. The castle was really neat, but frankly, it was a bit touristy, though of course, we did visit at the height of the tourist season. Entering the castle was, however, our first real discovery of that. I call this picture: "Storming the Gates"



Despite the crowds, it was still pretty cool.





I'm kinda small, but this one has me standing to the right of the massive portcullis gate.



This is Mons Meg, a huge 5-ton cannon. It was big enough that I could have climbed inside the barrel. (Not that it would have been comfy, mind you.)



Here is something special. The picture is larger, but it's a panorama shot of Edinburgh seen from the wall walk of the castle. I used my camera's photo-stitch mode to connect multiple shots into one big picture. I'm really pleased with how it came out.



This is the interior of Saint Margaret's Chapel. The oldest structure in the castle, dating all the way back to the 1100's.



Here are a few shots from the inside of the Royal Palace at the heart of the castle.





This is inside the Great Hall, at a sword and tartan demonstration.



This is the Scottish National War Memorial, also in the part of the castle known as "Crown Square", along with the Royal Palace and the Great Hall.



So I'm going to break up the post again here, just to keep each post from being too big, but stay tuned for Day 2, part 2!

.

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the dearth of posts recently, but I can attribute that to two factors.

The first, I have moved cubes at work, and no longer have an analog phone line. I had been using that line to connect my laptop to the Internet at work, which I actually need to do my job more efficiently, but which also enabled me to make a post here and there when things got slow for a while. Now I don't have it, and thus, working on posts during the day is much harder.

The second reason is fundamentally positive, because I'm writing again. Not a lot of volume so far, but I'm getting back into it.

I've gotten some work done on a supernatural short story based on the song: "Hotel California", but I'm not sure how much time I want to put into it, because I'm not sure it would be publishable without getting the rights to reproduce the lyrics, which are woven directly into the prose. Since its a short though, it may be worth completing just for my own satisfaction.

My other active project is a reworked chapter one of "Call It A Gift" a near-future scifi piece about a girl with a mysterious "anatomical abnormality" in her brain. I'd gotten maybe a third of the way through the story when I kind of ran out of momentum and kept getting distracted by other projects.

But I'm rewriting from scratch now, because I wanted to make Ginny's condition more relevant to her day-to-day life. Before, the only real impact it seemed to have, (other than making her a fascinating reseaoch subject for every doctor that sees her,) was essentially to make her feel different and sad. Now, the effects/symptoms are a little more dramatic.

Basically inspired by a couple of sections from "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" by Oliver Sacks, Ginny's passion for music is now more than just something that makes her happy, she literally needs it, as it provides a sort of continuity that keeps her from fixating on tiny details and allows her to actually put facts together in sequence.

I don't know if that makes any sense, but I'm still sort of feeling it out for myself. So far, it's been harder to write than the last version, because I'm really having to strech and search for her new voice, but I'm hoping that it will result in something really interesting. I think I'll have a rough version of the first chapter done soon, so maybe I'll get it up on the OWW workshop and see if it's all just a garbled mess.

.

Okay, so clearly I'm not getting these up in a timely fashion. It's taking longer to post about it than I actually spent on the trip.

I think that this and the following posts will be scaled back just a little, because the amount of work I put into the last one has been a big part of my procrastination with the rest of them.

Anyway, let's get on with it here. (By the way, is anyone actually listening to the sound clips? I don't think I'll bother putting them up if there isn't any interest. I've got a few more that I'll put up if anyone wants them.)

So where were we? That's right, we'd just left George Square and were on our way to the Cathedral of Saint Kentigern, also known as St. Mungo's Cathedral. Why is that? Read all about it here.

On our way there, we took in a few more examples of interesting Glasgow architecture.





Ever wonder what Doctor Who did for money?



Here's the Cathedral as we first walked up.



But before we went in, we first crossed the Bridge of Sighs.



This bridge took us to the Glasgow Necropolis, an ornate, elaborate cemetary with some really amazing monuments and tombstones.





At the top, it was really nice and peaceful. The weather was sunny and mild, with a nice breeze and there was a really wonderful sense of calm there.





When we came down from the necropolis, we saw a little marker that we'd passed on the way in, but it seemed a little more meaningful the second time.



Then we went into the Cathedral.



I took a couple of photos inside, and it was really beautiful, but I felt a little bit tacky taking the photos, so these two are all there are from inside. (I had a similar problem at the convention actually.)





Then we went to the nearby St. Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art, which had artworks on display from a variety of different religions. Outside, they have what is, according to my Frommer's, "the U.K.'s only Japanese Zen Garden." Frankly, I find that claim a trifle implausible, but anyway, here it is.



I also completely botched my attempt to take a picture of the famous portrait of Jesus on the Cross as envisioned by Salvador Dali, and ended up with an excellent photo of my camera strap. However, if you'd like to see it, you can see it here. Christ of Saint John of the Cross. It's controversial because of the downward facing angle, but I kind of like it.

When walking back to the train station, it was just starting to sprinkle rain on us, but we heard the sound of bagpipes carrying on the air, so we followed the music and found a private school's bagpipe band having practice.



From there, our plan was to ride the train to see the Burrell collection, which, by all accounts, is pretty impressive. Unfortunately, it was already getting late in the day, and the museum closed at 5. We knew that even if we really hurried, we would only get about half an hour.

Let me tell you something about Glasgow trains. When the train is approaching your station, get up and ready to go, because if you wait until the train stops completely to stand up, the doors will close and the train will leave the station before you can get out. We learned this the hard way, pretty much eliminating any chance of seeing the museum at all, but that was okay, because we got to sit for a while at a nice peaceful rainy train station.



And a nice quiet ride back to our hotel.







Stay tuned for the next post, in which we take the train to Edinburgh, see a castle, drink some scotch, and hike up a big fookin' hill. (Thankfully, the view was worth it!)

.

Hey everyone,

Well, I'm back now. Got in last night, got a good night's sleep, and now I'm ready to get back into my normal routine. (By ready, of course I mean procrastinating like all get out and generally being a lazy slacker.)

That said, I decided to go ahead and put together the first post of what will be a multi-part report of my trip to Scotland and the Worldcon.

Here's basically how it's going to work. In addition to just my own commentary, I've got pictures and sound recordings. Click the picture thumbnails for a larger version and right click and save to save the sound files. (Unfortunately, the sound recordings only cover the first three days of the trip, as after that, my power adapter burned out and I was unable to recharge my iPod.)

When the trip progresses to the days I spent at Worldcon, I'll include notes about the panels I attended. I've even got sound recordings of all the panels I saw on the first day of the convention, though since those files are pretty big, I probably won't put the files on my blog. I could, however, send them to anyone who is interested.

So, all of that clear? Well then... On to Part 1 of Day 1 of my trip: Glasgow.

Coming into Glasgow on the plane was an interesting experience. We'd been flying all night, and even though we were arriving at 8AM or so local time, that's still 3AM as far as our bodies were concerned. So as the sun rose, we greeted it with happy, but bleary eyes, and were treated to some really interesting cloud formations out the window.





So here we are, the worse for wear, just getting off the plane, me...



And my traveling companion, Lee Burdette...



Sound Clip: Getting Off the Plane (Right click to save)

From the airport, we took a bus to the city center...





and dropped off our luggage at the hotel. From there, we walked down the street a few blocks, just enjoying the morning air. It was a nice morning, sunny and mid-sixties. Traffic sounds and double-decker buses and all. We headed for a pub that did breakfast, recommended by the hotel clerk. The Sir John Moore...



Inside, we had the Scottish version of a healthy breakfast.



Sound Clip: After Breakfast

Next up, sightseeing, beginning with George Square. We consulted our handy guide book, Frommer's, of course. If you don't know why I chose that particular book, see this movie.

So we walked past Central Station...



And through the city center...







to George Square, complete with a number of cool statues and the City Chambers building.

Sound Clip: George Square







While there, I was taking a photo of one of the statue plaques and found this particular angle amusing. The plaque reads: "In rememberence of Her Majesty's Visit to Glasgow"



Also, a prize-winning highland cow, or "aylan coo" to the locals, was on display in the square. Here is a picture of a man traumatizing his daughter by forcing her to stand right next to a giant slobbering cow for minutes on end, constantly telling her: "Closer! Move in closer!"



Here's me in front of the Great War Memorial and the City Chambers Building



To be continued in Day 1, part 2, where we visit St. Mungo's Cathedral, a Necropolis and much much more!

.

Hey everyone, my access to the Internet has been even spottier than I'd expected, but I did get the chance to pop on briefly.

Having a blast, both in Scotland and Worldcon. I don't have much time now, but there will definitely be detailed reports when I get home, featuring pictures, panel reports and even a few sound recordings.

Briefly...

Yes, the following have all happened on this trip:

Castles (1 big one and a surprise bonus one too)
Alcohol (incl. scotch, wine, hard cider, and beer)
Non-alcocolic beverages
Panels
BNA's
Parties
Games
Souveniers
A hike that took 3x as long as expected, but was worth it.

Probably won't get to post again before I get back, but I'll update you all when I'm home! Having a bonny time! Cheers!

Well, it's finally here. I'm getting all packed and ready for my trip to Glasgow and to Worldcon 2005.

I will, by the end of the trip, have accumulated many pictures, sound recordings, and notes that I will be passing on to all of you in the form of trip and con reports, but I may be too busy to keep regular updates during the trip itself, so you may or may not have to wait until the 9th when I return, or later, for the reports that I'm sure all of you are craving.

Anyway, I'm sure it will be a blast, so I'll talk to all of you again when I return!

.