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Many of the pictures are cool, but many of you, my faithful legion of minions, weren’t there and may not appreciate them immediately upon viewing. For this reason, and because of my compulsive drive to never actually get any schoolwork done, I have taken the time to add a few nuggets of ridiculousness and some Wikipedia links in the descriptions for albums and individual photos. However, there are also plenty of bland, informative descriptions, so beware.

I wish I had the time and the memory to say something clever or interesting about each of the photographs I put up. And I wish I knew more about the history of each of the places I visited. But I also wish I had more time to see each of the things I saw, and to see other places, and I kind of just wish I was back over there right now. The moral of the story is: going places is cool, and part of the coolness is just being there. You can’t capture it all and take it home with you.

Lessons from Scotland

1. Nature is awesome.
2. Scotland is awesome.
3. Movie mode is a tricky beast.
4. Granola is a volatile substance.
5. Do not let go of drainage pipes you have climbed while intoxicated until you are securely back on the ground.
6. (corollary to above 3 lessons) I am an idiot.
7. Painting takes time – both to make a single painting, and to develop painting abilities. These are somewhat different from superpowers, which typically set on suddenly after exposure to radioactive substances.
8. Meeting new people can be pretty cool.
9. The world is generally a pretty cool place.

That is all.

So in an earlier post, I mentioned that there was no address bar in the incarnation of IE in the school library where I was taking classes for the past two weeks in Scotland. Or at least alluded to this fact[. But I was okay with that, because it was better than nothing, free, and I found a workaround quick enough. But now I am in a hostel in London, paying for time, and this thing… it’s ridiculous. The keyboard is like buttons instead of keys, with quarter-inch spaces between them, and requiring substantially more pressure and concentrated effort to type with any semblance of normal speed. But worse than that is the browser… there’s an address bar this time, but it doesn’t seem to “support” multiple or popup windows. Or Java. And there’s no AIM client… it’s ridiculous. Here I am trying to waste a little time in London and I can’t even do it successfully.

So if any of the my comrades read this and you guys haven’t forgotten that I exist and would be kind enough to pick me up from the airport, I should be getting in on Tuesday at 4:40pm on Virgin Atlantic Flight 15.

I have so many stories to tell. Well, one, really. Here’s the gist of it: my foot hurts, and I am an idiot. Let’s all cross our fingers and hope that I didn’t fracture my right calcaneus. Or talus. Or any of them really.

In case anyone is curious, I am still alive.

And here is a link so I can access my email

Done.

I am tempted to just go to sleep and not do much in London before I fly to Edinburgh tomorrow afternoon. I’m fairly tired from the time difference and walking with luggage, and kind of dehydrated, or at least less hydrated than I’m used to. I will be back in London for three days in two weeks, so I don’t think I’ll feel too bad if I don’t do much during this shorter stint. But it’s only 1:20pm, so there’s probably plenty of time to get some sleep and do something… British.

On the plane, I wondered how much flight attendants get paid, what kind of benefits they get, and how much control they have over their schedules and selecting destinations. The point is, I want to see a lot of different places in the world. And assuming I would make enough money as a flight attendant to maintain a home base so I wouldn’t have to get rid of all my stuff, that might be a convenient way to see the world for a year or three. Theoretically, my dream job would facilitate travel (either by paying me a lot and giving me long vacations, or by having me work in a variety of locations) and also be something I love, probably relating to art and learning cool stuff. I don’t think serving people tiny drinks on an airplane quite meets all these requirements.

It will be interesting if I can figure out how to attend grad school in Scotland. Or somewhere else in Europe. More on that later.

Lastly, the flight over here was the best flying experience I’ve ever had. There’s an episode of Family Guy where Peter convinces Lois to be a flight attendant so he can get free flights. On one flight, he uses all the pillows on the plane to make a fort. It was kind of like that. I had three contiguous seats to myself and away from other humans. I made a pile out of the pillows and blankets that weren’t being used. And then I lay down and slept like a baby. An evil baby who inwardly mocks the poor saps in the vicinity who don’t have as much ridiculous space as him.

Additionally, the food was good, and the flight attendants were foxy. Cheers to you, Virgin Atlantic.