20040529

Being sick also sucks, possibly as much as jet lag. and the scottish weather doesn't really help... in glasgow, it feels a lot like seattle. big, and rainy.

one more to add to the good drinks category... smirnoff ice. i really like that stuff. it feels really weird being able to buy alcohol over here, and it'll probably feel weird when i get back home and can't buy it again/any more. oh well. that just means i'll have more money to spend on mountain dew.

that's really about it for now. hopefully sometime soon (read "probably in the fall") i'll get a webpage of my own to put this on, so i can include pictures and stuff.

20040526

well, i broke down and paid at an internet cafe. in my defense, i just wanted to email my family and let them know i was still alive. i'd like to write more about what's going on, but i'm running out of time, so i'm just gonna make a few quick updates.

1) it would really suck to attack edinburgh castle
2) if it's not already there, vodka with lemonade goes into the "good" category, and mead should be added to the "decent" category. tastes a bit too much like wine, but with a very nice honey aftertaste.
3) walking is not as much fun as it sounds. i have walked a ridiculous amount of miles on this trip, and my feet/legs are starting to get rather pissed at me.
4) alcohol travels through your system way too fast, so my bladder is also pissed at me. which means it's time for me to leave and pee. farewell all.

20040522

Good Drinks/Bad Drinks, pt. 1

It feels really weird being able to have alcohol over here. So far, though, i've stuck to having it with meals. Here's a list of the good and the bad so far. This list will be updated occasionally.

Good Bad Decent
Strongbow (hard apple cider) Jack Daniel's Guiness (though i've heard
Smirnoff Ice it's only good in ireland)
Kaluah (or however you spell that)

haven't tried the mead yet, so that'll be added later. i probably won't be able to try as many things as i'd like, cause i'm pretty much just having them with meals. farewell for now. remember, drink responsibly.

20040520

ok, i lied. they've got decently priced internet access here in the bed and breakfast, so i figured what the heck. first off, i'd just like to state that jet lag sucks horribly. i didn't think it would be that bad... keep myself up till about 10 the first night, sleep thorugh till the next morning, and be fine. it started out fine... then i woke up about 1:15 in the morning, and couldn't get back to sleep till sometime around 5:30. i think... i was asleep when my alarm went off at 6:45.

the day itself was really fun, though. got to visit westminster abbey and the tower of london, and lunch and dinner in pubs (guiness isn't all it's cracked up to be, but strongbow--a brand of hard cider--is pretty good). though i don't plan on making a habit of it, it is kinda nice to be able to try different types of alcohol. i also split the cost of a bottle of mead with one of the girls in the group... we'll see how that is.

but my intorweb time is running out, and i really don't want to put more money in. london is awesome. the only way i could be having more fun is if i was actually fully awake for it.

later all. don't expect any more updates for awhile.

20040517

well, this'll be the last post for awhile. tomorrow i fly out for england, and i'll be there till june 6th. i'm too cheap to use an internet cafe, so if there are any updates between 11 am tomorrow morning and sometime on the 6th or 7th, it's an imposter. the one thing that i am definitely going to try is a guiness, though i've also been told to try a cuban cigar... i'll have to look for one of those also. that's one of england's many benefits, i guess... they're not within swimming distance of cuba. if there's anything else that i absolutely need to try, feel free to email me, menoichius@hotmail.com. i'm running out of stuff to say, so i'm going to play some farcry--amazing game, even on my horribly inadequate computer--and get killed a few times. farewell all. to any college students who haven't taken finals yet... hahahaha!

20040514

well, i'm finally finished. it was pretty crazy, but my fairly large research paper--the biggest i've done, at least--is done. 16 pages on the sons of liberty... it was actually kinda fun learning about them. writing, on the other hand.... so originally, i thought the paper was due today; last day of finals, it made sense. i found out on wednesday, however, that it was actually due on tuesday. luckily the prof was really cool about it, and i was able to turn it in this morning. there was another kinda freaky moment in the typing though. i also originally thought that it had to be 18 pages, and was a little worried when i ran out of notes about half way through page 15. but then i turned to the syllabus again (a friend was trying to talk me into using the font "courier new" to take up more space, and i wanted to see if that would work). the syllabus didn't say, but while i was looking, i noticed that the paper only had to be 15 pages. i turned off the bull-sh*t-o-meter, wrote a conclusion, and spent the rest of the night playing lord of the rings RISK and watching independence day. now, all that remains is to clean my room.

20040512

mad props to president bush: "It really gets me when the critics say I haven't done enough for the economy. I mean, look what I've done for the book publishing industry. You've heard some of the titles. 'Big Lies,' 'The Lies of George W. Bush,' 'The Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.' I'd like to tell you I've read each of these books, but that'd be a lie." --President Bush

that just rules in so many ways.

in the not-so-mad-props category, i just found out that the 18 pape paper that i thought was due on friday was actually due yesterday. bad stuff man.

20040507

yeah. so i was pretty excited about only one final. and believe it or not, it gets better... that final is now optional. although i think i may take it anyways, cause my grade is about 0.5% away from an A. Or, i may rewrite one of my papers for the class (only got an 85 on it)... if i can pull off a 90, i'll have an A. and that would just be great, cause it would give me more time to type my 20 page paper thats due next friday. and now, i'm off to either read or procrastinate. or maybe a little of both.

20040503

if it hasn't already been done, i want to invent a new word: heterophobe. it's in response to the word "homophobe", which is thrown around way too often. first, a phobia implies an irrational fear. arguing against homosexuality is not irrational; and i am most definitely not afraid of gays. unless they're incredibly muscular... but any incredibly muscular person is kinda scary. but back to the whole fear thing. this report--"They Look Silly Anyway"--seems to me to be an argument against the whole fear thing. personally, if i were afraid of gay police officers, i would want them to keep their earrings in: that way i could tell who they were and stay away from them. this is not, however, to imply that earrings make a guy gay--i know plenty of perfectly straight guys with earrings. also in the chief's defense, he asked female officers to avoid "all but the most innocuous studs." he's targeting both sexes... how is that homophobic? but then again, this just seems to fit with the liberal mode of thinking: be tolerant of other people's views, as long as they agree with you. there are sevearl other stories on the site that are pretty ridiculous... i would recommend checking them out.

also, if you are a politically conservative--or at least not raging liberal--college student, you should go here. i'm currently trying to get a branch of the Collegiate Patriot Project started here at whitworth... we'll see how that goes.

and now i'm off. i need to procrastinate some more so i can start doing homework.