Author: paperbackdragon

Given this surge of inspiration I have to write, I think it’s time for me to challenge myself. Last September I wrote a blog a day for a month, and it seemed to go well. It’s true that I had all the new stuff about Scotland to write about to keep things interesting, but I know I can do it again. I haven’t written daily since then, and honestly since last summer when I kept a journal. It’d be a good exercise for me.

Not only that, but I feel like my blog is failing a little with how few …

As of now I’ve completed four out of the nine exams I must take this spring. The other five are to be done over the next two weeks. I’m constantly between two minds. After a bit of studying (or more than a bit, depending on the subject) I start out feeling like I’ve done enough and I give up trying to soak up any more information on that topic. As soon as the exam draws near, the rest of my friends from class start worrying and telling everyone they’re worried, and that shakes my confidence, and I waste days going …

So it’s been far too long, yet again, but what else can you do during a month of studying? Other things tend to seem less important.

A couple of weeks ago, my boyfriend and I went to Rothesay (Ross-ey or Roth-say, depending on where you’re from in Scotland), on the Isle of Bute. It was the most amazing trip, for it being only two days and one night. The first day we arrived and checked into our B&B, which was empty except for us. This means that they gave us their best room, which had a double bed plus two …

So much has happened in the world in the past few months I can hardly comprehend it. Massive protests in the middle east, a devastating earthquake in New Zealand, and massive devastation in Japan from earthquakes, tsunamis, and nuclear crises. I don’t go out of my way to read or watch news generally, but lately I’ve been following more news sites on Twitter and am regularly visiting BBC News and Al Jazeera for their more major stories. I wouldn’t have even known about Al Jazeera if it weren’t for their coverage of the Egypt protests, and my friend telling me …

Ah, I feel ashamed It’s been almost a month since I last posted. I’ve been doing one a week since September, when I did almost 20 in one month. It’s true that I’m in a new relationship, which tends to make time disappear… but it’s also true that it’s crunch time with my courses, and I still have a couple weeks of this craziness left. Then a month of break, which will mostly be spent studying for my 9 exams that are worth quite a substantial amount of my grade. Oh, joy.

After that though, I think I’ll get back …

I suppose missing last week’s post is proof that life is quite busy for me these days. The courses I’m taking this term (which I realize I haven’t listed yet) are:

• Databases (DB), mainly using SQL and learning how to combine it with other languages like C and Java
• Distributed Information Management (DIM), or how to make complex web apps, like Twitter and Facebook
• Networked Systems (NS), the nitty-gritty details on how computers talk to each other
• Operating Systems (OS), more nitty-gritty details, instead about how computers work from a very low level
• Professional Software Development (PSD), how to plan

…

This creative writing workshop. It’s interesting, twenty or thirty of us crammed in a tiny room around a table. All of us looking for a reason for our madness, seeking other people who share our big dreams. Many of us can’t finish a story. Some of us are writing novels. Some haven’t written much English at all.

Each week we have a short story or a novel excerpt to read and discuss, and then we “workshop” three peoples’ work. You submit your work a couple days before, so people can read it ahead of time and have constructive criticism and …

The other night, I went to an American Grill/Irish Pub called Shawn O’Donnells and thought it was worth comparing to the pubs I’ve been to in Scotland. Not that I’ve been to an Irish one, but there must be similarities.

It’s a pretty Americanized place, for all its advertisement as an “Irish Pub.” I don’t think it’s typical to have shamrocks everywhere, and a countdown to St. Patrick’s day by the bar. American football was on TV. They had mac & cheese on the menu, which I’ve come to understand is an American thing, despite the fact the menu says …