Running into the Horizon

Last night I got a tour of Aberdeen by car, from a student at the other University in Aberdeen (Robert Gordon University or RGU), a Frenchman in a kilt. From the edge of the port and along the beach road at night you can see all the lights of Aberdeen blurring together under the rain. And past them darkness, plunging into the stars. Its incredible. The lights of LA and NY seem to glow, throb and expand beyond all lights, they're almost intimidating. They make you seem small and lost in a sea of other people rushing around. But here I feel like I matter, like I'm big enough to do something on my own.
Maybe people are like moths, attracted to the light that eventually causes their lost flutterings until they die.

Enough silly poetic ramblings.

Scotticism #2

muckle (adj.)

This is a word commonly used by Scottish characters in movies not by Scottish writers. So you've probably heard it before, even if you didn't know what it meant. No, it is not a blending of the phrase 'monkey's uncle', but who could construct a sentence which rhymed it with 'buckle' and have that sentence actually make sense.

It means big.

To review:

'He no can gie me a hurl in his muckle lorry.'

-lorry is an Englishism for for the Americanism truck.
-Scots uses a different negation, as exampled above.
-gie Scots for give.

A Note on Scots:
-Scots is not necessarily a Scottish dialect of English, unless you believe the difference between a language and a dialect is that a language has an army. Scots developed independently, but along side, English. Scots has much more influence from Danish, Dutch, Old Norse and Gaelic (which at the time had seperated from Irish Gaelic, due to a Pictish influence), among a few others. Scots borrowings from French are dated to different times that English borrows and they were pulled from different areas of life. Scots was less influenced by Norman-French of the Norman Conquest. Also, English and Scots started from different dialects of the language spoken by the Anglo-Saxon invaders of the 9th Century. Scots was the language of the Scottish Court, after it was moved to Edinburgh. Although when James the VI and I (6th James of Scottish crown and 1st of the English crown) moved to London and joined the Crowns, Scots began its slow decline, because he adopted English as the language of his London court and stop patronizing Scots poets (like, stopped giving them money, not annoying comments). Maybe Scottish Nationalist believe that Scots should be recognized as an official language of Scotland, along side Gaelic or Welsh in Wales.

Sadly, I can't claim this as my own

The following was forwarded to me by a certain parental figure who will not be name.


The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington Chemistry mid-term. The answer by one student was so "profound" that theprofessor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course,why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well:

Bonus Question:
Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

"First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave.

Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell,let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added. This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which soulsenter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls inHell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, "It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct......leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh my God."

Third Time's the Charm

The following was published in the 27 Oct 2008 edition of the Gaudie

U.S. Politics: Turncoat Endorsement

In a surprise twist to the constantly shifting U.S. presidential race, former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Senator Barack Obama.

Powell’s long time service in the Republican administrations of the last twenty five years makes his recent support for Obama, a Democrat a 360-degree turn around. Powell is considered a middle of the road Republican. Conservative agitators are already attributing his endorsement to race, as Powell is the son of Jamaican immigrants. His opinion, however, is very respected among moderately conservative white women, a demographic some say Palin has stolen from Obama.

Powell served as National Security Advisor under Ronald Reagan between 1987 and 1989, and then as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest military position at the Department of Defence. Under the first George Bush, Powell was Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army’s Forces Command, making him the head of the Army, Army Reserve and National Guard of all fifty states and the territory of Puerto Rico. Powell served as Secretary of State for the current George Bush from 2001-2005.

In the wake of Powell’s endorsement the McCain campaign has stepped up their attacks questioning Obama’s character and his ability lead.

In an accusation strangely similar to that levelled against George Osborne for soliciting money for the Tories from a Russian millionaire, a letter from John McCain arrived at the Russian embassy to the U.S. asking for a donation to his campaign. The McCain campaign maintained the letter was sent due to an error on the computer mailing list. The Russian mission to the UN responded by saying they “do not finance political activity in foreign countries”. Under U.S. campaign law it is illegal to accept donations from foreign nationals. The only question left; why the Russians?

Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice Presidential nominee, also surprised Democrats, her opponents, by appearing on Saturday Night Live on 19 Oct. Tina Fey, a dead-ringer for Palin, has been making weekly appearances on her former show ridiculing the candidate’s policy positions and goof-ups. Palin took the appearance in good humour and did not appear upset about being poked fun at. She gave as good as she got from Alec Baldwin, who also made an appearance on the show.

Obama took a break from the campaign trail this past weekend to visit his Grandmother in Hawai’i. Madelyn Dunham, who turned 86 on Sunday, has been in failing health recently. Dunham helped raise Obama for most of his adolescence.

A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released Wed 21 Oct gave Obama a 10-point lead over McCain.

Finally Figuring it out.

I had an epiphany last night. I figured out why I suddenly feel like the loud, annoying, outrageous over-expressive stereotype that large parts of the world feel Americans are. And its not because I'm from the States. Trust their are plenity of people from the States here, in fact I'm actually friends with one (and no he's not that imaginary friend I brought with me).

I realized that for the last 8 years of my life, maybe more, I have been friends with and only with people in theatre. Ok, there were some people not in theatre, but for the most part they're in entertainment. Non-theatre people are strange. They're quiet and reserved and don't accompany all their speaking with facial expressions. And might I venture to say that I find that boring. There lack of expression makes me want to scream. I feel like they've locked themselves inside their bodies, or their brains and they can't get out. It makes me feel trapped inside myself.

And I know that they are probably thinking exactly the same thing but in reverse. I probably make them want to crawl deeper inside themselves and hide. I just didn't realize theater people were SO different until I left them.

Yes, theatre people are weird and crazy and outrageous. But I love them and I can't picture spending the rest of my life without them. And I don't care if "normal" people will never understand. They make me happy. And I probably never had a choice about it anyway. Right from the start I was cursed (can you be cursed in a good way?) to need people like this. That's what you get when you're mom's an actress and your dad's a director.

And now, a tribute:

IF THEATRE PEOPLE RULED THE WORLD

If theatre people ruled the world, all policemen would be dancing policemen
Street lights would be blue colored and come from above and below,
so you don't get ugly face shadows.
There would always be free snacks where ever you went, even the bank
Singing telegrams would actually exist.
Political speeches would have back up vocals.
All trains would always be 5 minutes late, but you could always expect them to be so.
Talking to yourself in the street would not be a sign of insanity.
and you could get a second rehearsal after awkward introductions.

An Update on Callan's journalistic endevours

This article was published in the 20 Oct 2008 edition of the Gaudie.

US ELECTION UPDATE
Callan Stout

Senators John McCain and Barack Obama met for the final Presidential debate on Wed 15 Oct at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY, Bob Schieffer of CBS news moderating.

McCain vowed to step up his attack on Obama in the previous debate, but failed to keep his promise. This time McCain’s sword was ready from question one.

Obama responded to McCain’s jabs by explaining his policies. Obama’s economic plan focuses on job creation and tax breaks for companies who create U.S. jobs. McCain, preferring to criticize Obama than explain himself, pins his economic plan on baling out individual homeowner mortgages. Which Obama says will only dump more taxpayer money into failing banks.

Schieffer questioned the candidates about their negative attack ads. McCain sought sympathy by discussing the pain caused by negative remarks about him and vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin. McCain then accused Obama of spending more money on negative ads “than any political campaign in history”, but failed to cite any specific figures.

Obama argued 100 percent of McCain’s ads are negative character attacks. Obama hopes the campaign’s remaining two weeks will revolve around economic policy. The failing economy has given Obama’s poll numbers a boost.

In a 16 Oct poll on RealClearPolitics.com Obama had a 6.8 point lead over McCain. The average poll spread, based on multiple national polls, favours Obama by 5.2 points. In swing states (states not leaning either way) Obama is leading by 4 points on average.

Bad things to waste your time doing

a) watching videos of ferrets on youtube

b) eating cookies, really yummy cookies. hobnobs with chocolate between them cookies

c) reading you friends' blogs while eating cookies

d) ferrets on youtube while eating cookies
e) anything that is not homework and involves cookies

ENOUGH SILLINESS, here are some pictures of my recent class field trip to Adan (pronounce Aa-dan) Country Park.

This is a rainbow that lasted ALL DAY (and some cows. I'm not sure how long they lasted). We were able to see the ENTIRE rainbow. Both sides. That's good luck in Hawai'i.

This is a wee farm hoose (that's Scot's for house) that the museum bought and then moved every single wee wobbly stone to be on the museum proprty(that's Scot's for callan can't spell). I like the teal windows and door.

That's Achie(that's not the spelling, but that's how it sounded) Brae stone circle and Callan's classmate's kid offering herself as a virgin sacrifice.

This is Callan trying to break into the house of a brownie (its like a Scottish leprachaun, or a hobbit or a menehune. A small man like thing, essentially. I think they are legended to have powers. Now look at all that good folklore I'm learning. I could also teach you how to fry oatmeal. yes, seriously. This is a really long parenthetical).

This is a really blurry picture of the article I wrote for the University Paper. Which I have included below (because I don't have any more interesting pictures). This is mostly what it looked like in print. I was too lazy to double check all of what the editor cut out (mostly the interesting part. No, I'm kidding. I think my original was more bias. Fancy that, me being biased. The editor did a good job making it more fair.)

US Politics: The Presidential Debate

ON 7 OCTOBER, Presidential nominees Senator Barack Obama (Democrat) and Senator John McCain (Republican) met to debate for the second time on Tuesday, moderated by network news anchor Tom Brokaw.

This debate used the town hall format, where questions were taken from pre-selected audience members and email requests. John McCain favours this town hall style format and has been unsuccessfully trying to structure the entire campaign as a series of town hall style debates with Obama in each state.

The debate focused heavily on the current economic crisis. Obama stressed helping “ordinary families”, while also coordinating US economic efforts with international efforts to help stabilize the world economy along with the U.S. economy. McCain focuses on fixing the “cronyism” of Wall Street and allowing US citizens the chance to work without the interference of the national government.

The escalation of the U.S. economic crisis has seen McCain’s poll numbers fall steadily, despite the time he took off from actively campaigning to help on the bail out, which was signed into effect by Bush on 3 Oct. Other Senators said his aid did not have any significant impact.

Noticeably absent from the debate was any reference to the Bush administration’s possible move to take ownership positions in U.S. banks following the European model, in an attempt to stabilize the economy. Such a move would contradict the Republican Party policy of less government. A similar plan was proposed by British officials.

Tom Brokaw asked both candidates what their equivalent of the Bush Doctrine on foreign policy would be when they take office. The Bush Doctrine describes the policy of U.S. pre-emptive military action against any group that poses a threat to U.S. security.

McCain described his Doctrine as doing whatever possible to prevent “terrible calamities”, McCain added that U.S. actions must also “be tempered with our ability to beneficially affect the situation”. McCain did not elaborate on how he would assess the benefits prior to taking action. McCain’s judgment has been challenged after he sang the suggestion that the U.S. bomb Iran to the tune of a Beach Boys song.

Obama outlines his own Doctrine as being influenced by a “moral obligation” to intervene in world situations such as genocide. However, Obama realizes the US will not always be able to affect a situation and “that's why it's so important for us to be able to work in concert with our allies”.

The U.S. is the only industrialized western nation without a national health care system. Despite the common complaints about the efficiency of the Canadian or the British NHS by their citizens, they give all legal residence access to free or affordable health care.

Obama proposes offering all taxpayers a health care plan similar to the one U.S. Senators have. Those people who like their current health plan can keep it, while reducing the cost by as much as 2,500 U.S. dollars a year.

McCain, who is opposed to any form of “socialized medicine”, proposes giving families a 5,000 US dollar (2,500 for individuals) tax refund to purchase private health insurance of their choice.

Jerry Burris, a political writer with the Honolulu Advertiser for forty years and co-author of the book A Dream Begins: How Hawaii Shaped Barack Obama, commented “the debate was a draw”, explaining “you get what you want to see in these debates. The real issue is who Americans see as most ‘authentic’ and true to their own nature”.

Obama and McCain are scheduled to face off only once more on 14 October before elections on 4 November.

THE FOLLOWING PICTURES WERE NOT PUBLISHED IN CONJECTION WITH THE ARTICLE, but they need to be seen by all none-the-less.

Third and Final Debate

I'm not sure how many of you have watched the final debate and aside from the obvious complaints that I have already ranted about in previous posts. Now I would like to discuss other points.

NUCLEAR POWER IS NOT AN OPTION. Despite how safe we can make a nuclear reactor, even if its safe enough to put on a boat (which is a silly yard stick to measure this by), the point of contestation is storage of nuclear waste. Currently we are dumping our nuclear waste into caves in the American Southwest. Now why McCain isn't upset about his, because his state is being environmentally impacted by this, is absolutely rediculous. The earth is simply not able to contain nuclear waste. END OF STORY.

Ya know how they say "the pen is mightier", I think this debate is a perfect example. McCain has a sword and Obama the pen. McCain keeps trying to cut up McCain, while Obama simply keeps writing out his policy and expanding it and refining it. And you can tell when he explains in detail his proposals. McCain just jabs and slices at Obama's words, which isn't getting his anywhere.

Scottish-ism #1

a hurl (n.)

No, it does not have anything to do with the American definition that we all hold near and dear, until a friend does it all over our shoes.

It means a lift, and not the elevator. Like giving someone a ride in their car or on a train or something?

Ok, but can you use it in a sentence?

"Christine has kindly (been) volunteered tae gie Dustin an Callan a hurl."

What?!? .

"tae gie" glosses as 'to give'. Christine is giving Dustin and Callan a lift up to Aden park tomorrow.

Ok, I suppose that works. But you confused me with that other bit of funny language. Why isn't 'tae gie' a Scottish-ism?

I don't think is qualifies as any kind of -ism.

Ok then.

Darn skippy.

Happy Thanksgiving Grandma, Gordie, Kathleen and Kerry!!!

"And I see the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land."
- Martin Luther King Jr

And I think we're so close.

Things I...

...HATE
Job interviews where the first interview is a you pretending to do the job they will potentially hire and then train to for. What's the point of that being the first interview, especially if they train you. I can understand it being the second interview, after they have deemed that you are probably a decent fit for the company.

...LIKE
Being handed opportunities without too much work going in to getting them. I prefer putting all my time and energy into doing the work, not trying to find it.

New Develpoments

In a rather bizarre turn of events, Miss Callan Stout of Los Angeles CA is now writing an American Politics article for the Aberdeen University newspaper, The Gaudie. When asked to comment Callan said "words escape me". Callan was asked to the post after sending an email asking to be considered to write reviews for the Arts section. However, the rather industrious Arts editor after reading Callan's blog passed her name along to the News/Features editor. Callan's previous experience is limited to short articles for the Stout family christmas letter, which meet its unfortunate demise last year because of laziness and the mildly satrical writing of her own blog, the quality of which is questionable. Callan hopes that the faithful readers of her blog will not start taking her too seriously because of this new appointment.

Things I learned today

I met a boy/man who lived in a house built by the Glenfiddich distillery. He also worked there for two years. I found it very interesting that the company built houses for employees at some point and now they are still lived in. I don't think you need to be an employee to live there though.

I feel much more inclined to get involved in school things here than I did at NYU. There might be multiple reasons for this: 1) there isn't really anything else to do, 2) I'm used to being super busy and I'm not here yet, so school things is a solution, 3) I'm more interested in the school opportunities, like Scottish barn dancing, or 4) I'm trying to have the "college experience" that I didn't get at NYU. In addition to joining the Scottish Dance Society, I just emailed the school paper saying that I'd like to write for their arts section (they were advertising for arts writers and I think I qualify).

In Scotland you can go from high school (or their equivelant) directly into studying for your law degree, which will only take you 5 years of school and then a year or two of working as a "trainee" in a law firm/company.

Lawyers dress well, and since a lot of them are young, they are attractive. I like when men wear suits.

People here don't ask what your parents do. They don't seem to care. Which is good, because that shocked stare is really annoying.

Anyway... off to the dancing!

More Politics: International Perspective

I can only imagine that some of you are getting sick of my political blog entries, so stop reading this one now if you are.

As an international student in Aberdeen I am mingling with a lot of other international students from all over the world: Kenya, Canada, Malaysia, Nigeria, India, Italy, France, Germany, Sweden, the list goes on. Of the few who I have briefly talked US politics with agree that we have to elect Barack Obama. He's good for the US, he's good for the world.

Believe it or not, there are still non-US citizen's who think the US is an amazing place, full of opportunity and the American dream. But still they do not think that McCain is going to help preserve this.

Now many of you might be thinking, why does it matter what the internationals think? Despite the ignorance of foreign politics by average US citizens. Other countries actually follow our politics quite readily because what we do affects them. Can you believe it? The choice of the US president actually affects the WORLD political scene? Well it does! And, although, the average US citizen might not even know that our sister country, Canada, is also having elections and those elections have also been quiet uproarious.

I leave you with this thought:
Expand your horizons, your decision affects the world. Pick who's good for the world. Obama.

An Update

Just an update regarding the other day's post.

Apparently McCain is such a "maverick" that he doesn't even feel the need to tell his VP about how he's running their campaign. But I suppose it doesn't matter all that much, since, like, she doesn't really have any thoughts in her head.

note: this is in reference to McCain's decision regard his campaign strategy in Michigan, which is to stop running, basically. So he's giving up in Michigan. One down!

The Debate

As I am in Scotland I missed the opportunity to watch the Vice Presidential debate live full of a room of yelling people. And since I don't want to scare my roommates, I'm going to subject you, my blogger audience, to my yelling. And like the advice given to Elle Woods in Legally Blonde: The Musical "Get angry".

Direct quotation from Sarah Palin:
"And may not answer the questions the way that either the moderator or you wanna hear, but I'm gonna take straight to the American people and let them know my track record also."

Doesn't that defeat the point of a debate? Why doesn't she just hold a private press conference and rant? Then I wont feel any obligation to watch her. But I think the truth is that since McCain & Co are keeping the pit bull penned in she's getting bored and this single opportunity she's getting to be out of her cage, she's going to bark as loud as possible about whatever she wants. If she was my pit bull I'd put her down due to rabies. (note: Palin quotations will always be in red, Biden in blue)

Question about tax policy:
If a small business is making more than $42, 00o a year doesn't that get taxed as a business not as the personal income tax of the owner? Isn't that why small business owners are supposed to incorporate or become an LLC, that way when the business fails they don't go into personal bankruptcy?

Here's a good one, in response to being asked AGAIN what policy promises she would rescind in response to the financial crisis:
"No there is not. And how long have I been at this? What, like, five weeks? So there hasn't been a whole lot I've promised except to do what it right for the American people."

I like that she is referring to her own inexperience. She basically says, 'I've only been on the national political scene for five weeks, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing'. (please pardon the swearing, I'm really mad). I also think that its strange that she doesn't think she can go back on any of her words, does she think it makes her look weak? I think it makes her look stupid. Or insane. Mark Twain defined insanity as: "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Which seems to be what she's doing. Same joke, same question ducking, same memorized responses that don't fit the question, and her opinion poll numbers keep dropping. She's insane.

Hold Up, I think she just blamed the Wall Street mess on Main Street. OOPS!!
"It is a crisis. Its a toxic mess, really, on Main Street that's affecting Wall Street. And now we have to be ever vigilant and also...."

If you analyse her speech patterns she kind of reminds me of how a teenage girl would speak. And not a teenage girl on her best behaviour. She sounds like a teenage girl at lunch with her girlfriends and they're yakking about which boys they think are cute or which teachers they hate. I really wish she would use language that was a little closer to the news anchor standard that Gwen Ifill is setting.

I don't think Palin was paying attention to Biden's response about gay marriage. Shame on her.

I like how Biden is not scared to call out Palin for not answering the question, or making actual plan proposals. Good for him! Biden quoted Shakespeare: "What's past is prologue." I also think that you have hear Biden exhale loudly when Palin makes uniformed statements.

Palin is calling herself a maverick, has anyone given her an ego test? I think the word "maverick" has lost all meaning because the GOP says it way too much.

So Palin is telling everyone what she thinks the job of the VP is and in doing so she says that she wishes the Constitution would grant the VP more power in dealing with the Senate. Doesn't she want the government to generally have less power? Isn't that a complete contradiction?

"When the Republicans were in charge you didn't see a whole lot of progress there either..."

Biden is a much better speaker than Palin, he's so charismatic. I feel like she wants to eat me when she's speaking.

To finish off with another Mark Twain Quotation:
"...we all know that in all matters of mere opinion that [every] man is insane--just as insane as we are...we know exactly where to put our finger upon his insanity: it is where his opinion differs from ours....All Democrats are insane, but not one of them knows it. None but the Republicans. All the Republicans are insane, but only the Democrats can perceive it. The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane."
- Christian Science

Oh Aberdeen

Where the sun is always in your eyes.
Due to the Northern-ness of Aberdeen the sun is always low in the sky, even at noon, and therefore is always in your eyes. However, on the up side, it is never beating down directly over head and making your forehead sweat.

I don't think I've quite yet come to terms with the fact that I'm going to be here for a year. I think it mostly has to do with the fact that I've never lived anywhere so small, and compared to the places I have lived, so rural. If you stipulate that anywhere you have been for longer than 4 weeks as somewhere you have lived, I can count (in order of longest to shortest time):

1) Los Angeles
2) New York
3) London
4) Honolulu
5) Orlando

All of this places, in my opinion, qualify as big cities. Although I don't remember much about Orlando, except our apartment complex and Disneyland. Comparatively Aberdeen is tiny, you could probably fit all of it below Houston (the street in NYC) with room to spare. Except that things are a bit more spread out here. They have the silly idea that people shouldn't be all jammed up on top of each other. I don't know what that's about. I like being about to live on the 26th floor, above a butcher and baker and a candle stick maker and 25 floors of other apartments. The University library only has a total of 6 floors, and one of them is a basement, but it has full length windows and isn't really underground. Silly architects and their desire for natural light, don't they know that vampires need somewhere to hide during the day?

What all of this means is that I've having trouble focusing on things like school work and trying to find myself a regular hang out.

My Life in Pictures

I will now fulfill all previous promises made in many numbered lists.

PICTURES

This is my bedroom. Why are there butterflies on the wall you might ask. A very good question. I put up the butterfly wrapping paper (other choices included "happy birthday", "merry christmas" and disney princesses; I couldn't do that to myself) because underneath the wall is very grey/beige, which is very depressing. Butterflies might be lots of this, particularly when they are on your wall, but the one thing they are not is depressing.

Below is a picture of the exterior of the front door to my building. Their are many front doors to the building, but only this one leads up the stairs, through another door and then to a door labeled "3" where you find me.



















Below is where the Elphinstone Institute used to be located. The piece of paper in the right hand window informed me of this. Cute isn't it?

However, the Elphinstone Institute is now housed in this building. Which, sadly, is not as cute as the former location. Mind you the Institute does not be any means take up this entire building. It has its own wee set of offices and a library, which is a wee room absolutely stuffed full of books. Stuffed, I say, stuffed.
AND not even all the books I need for classes are there, I often have to go to the Queen's Mum Library (no, its really the Queen's Mother Library). A lot of my folklore books are in the basement in closed stacks, which does not mean I need a library to retrieve them. It does mean all the shelves are on wheels and you have to crank them open to get to the books you need, which moves all the other shelves. SO you have to be careful there isn't anyone standing in the gap between the shelves that you are going to close. Otherwise they shout, which isn't an inside voice. They shout "Oi! Careful with them shelves!" Ok, I made that part up, but people do actually say "Oi!".

Above is New King's Hall, which apparently is younger than the King's College (not pictured). I don't have any classes or anything in here, but am including under that premise that it will make you jealous, which is one of the enumerated points I made in an earlier blog. For reference, click here.

Below is another part of my University. The tall building on the right is part of King's College. The rooms in King's are labeled all cockeyed.

So where am I on that list. Pictures? Check. Jealousy? Check. No complaining? Check. Scottish-ism? Could do better. Using camera for Skype? Failed. No more lists? Ummmm...debatable.