swordBeatsPaper

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 visitors I’m getting compared to late last year. Various people I know have told me that they read my blog once in a while. But how are they supposed to continue if I only post once a month?

In addition to daily posts, I want to start encouraging you, the reader, to comment on my blogs. It helps me know I’m being read, and can help me improve my writing or come up with more things to blog about. I’m going to try to write about more things that are comment-able, rather than just my daily life. I might ask questions for you to answer. I hope that all of this will also inspire you to blog–at least those who have blogs that are just sitting there, you know who you are. I’ll aim to comment back on your posts as well. And if you have a blog that you don’t think I know about, comment below!

Perhaps I’ll throw this question out there, which will hopefully help more people than just me: What makes you want to comment on a blog?

How To Comment
On a technical note, I know a few of you might not have been aware you could comment on my posts, or are unsure how. There are two ways:

1. When you are looking at my homepage (where all of my recent posts are visible), at the bottom of each post is the number of comments that have been left. If you click on this, you will see a pop-up with all the comments and a space for you to write your own.
2. When you are looking at a specific post (where there is only one post visible on the page), all of the comments on that post are listed at the bottom of the page. Below them is a link that says “Post A Comment.” Again, when you click, a pop-up will appear in which you can leave your own comment.

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 over information that may or may not be on the exam, and usually doesn’t sink in as well. Overall though, my exams are going alright, and that’s all I can realistically hope for.

When I’m not thinking about exams, I’m either playing League of Legends (probably a bad idea to get into a new game while studying for exams, but it does help me unwind), being with my boyfriend or friends from class, or dreaming about reading and writing more often. I have two weeks after exams set aside to visit my mom, and while I’m there I plan to use that time–that sweet, wonderful time at the beginning of summer when there’s nothing pressing to worry about–to read and write. I have The Girl Who Played with Fire to finish, I want to read another book by Neil Gaiman that I haven’t read yet called Neverwhere, and I’d like to get the sequel to an amazing book I read recently by Patrick Rothfuss, called The Wise Man’s Fear (the first one was The Name of the Wind). I likely won’t get to read them all in those two weeks but I’ll get them on my kindle, sit in the sun, and enjoy what I can.

The fact that the thought of writing is itching at me means it’s really time to start another revision of my book. Even thinking about my manuscript gets me excited. Its potential both astounds and frightens me. I could be completely shot down by agent after editor after publisher, but I’m still prepared to try my best to get it out there. So, it will be a summer project of mine. On days of my internship that I have off, I’ll go to coffee shops perhaps, like I did last summer. Or maybe after work. Or perhaps I’ll just write at home. Regardless, I want to give it a second revision. Maybe then it’ll feel finished enough to start networking, finding agents, editors, publishers, and make my dreams for it a reality. It’ll get torn apart, I know, but I’m prepared for that. It could be many years before a publisher even looks at it. But I have a dream that I want to make reality, and I’m going to do my best to make it so.

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 single beds, a leather couch and small table overlooking the harbor, all very beautifully decorated, almost Victorian-style. We then went into town and walked along the shops on the waterfront, and stopped in an ice cream shop that a friend recommended that sold Top Hats, a specialty in this town: a vanilla ice cream cone with a snowball on top (round coconut flake-covered chocolate-coated fluff-filled treat things that they have everywhere in Scotland). We then got chippies (fish and chips for me, pizza crunch and chips for him) and ate them by the water, where seagulls proceeded to flock around us very expectantly. One of them, clearly the alpha male, flapped its wings at the others to show them who would get the first bite. Just to spite him, we gave a seagull further away a bite of pizza. After this, we went to a local pub called The Golfers Bar and got hard cider and soda water & lime, and chilled for a while watching the sports news and observing the locals. It was too late to visit the castle by now, so afterward we went back to our room and proceeded to watch parts of three movies that happened to be on our tiny television: Transporter 3, Burn After Reading, and The Untouchables.

The breakfast the next morning was amazing, my first real Scottish breakfast. Bacon, sausage, potato scone (like a flat cake), egg, tomatoes, and mushrooms, all fried. Toast and tea on the side, of course. Perfect thing to eat before a day of biking around the island. Before that though, we visited Rothesay Castle, which is right in town, just a couple minutes’ walk from the B&B. It might be the first real castle I’ve ever visited, apart from one that didn’t really count in London a few years ago. Most of Rothesay Castle is in ruins, but there are quite a few rooms and areas that are intact, even the “Prison Pit,” and there’s also a video set up in a side room off the Great Hall, depicting the Viking raids on the island in the past.

Bute is much too large to bike in a day, so we went around the coast a bit, rode past two lochs, and came back. The entire trip was gorgeous, and I was so glad my boyfriend talked me into it (I hadn’t ridden a bike in so long, and it took me a couple minutes to get used to it again). Along the waterfront we saw mansion after mansion. After we left the coast, rolling green hills and sheep greeted us, and the ups and downs in the road were intense at times. We arrived back at the harbor about three or four hours later, and after another hour or so at the pub to relax, we took the ferry back.

I definitely want to do trips like this again. And again. During the summer, hopefully.

Edit: Turns out it’s my 100th post. Awesome.

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 about the site.

Japan’s struggling hits home for me. I have relatives that travel there, family friends who have moved there, and a few of my mom’s friends from her childhood who she’s still in touch with live there. As far as I know they’re all faring decently, but it chills me that people I know are so close to such devastation. I’ll be hoping and praying Japan makes it through this all right. From what I know about their culture, though, if any country could fully recover after this sort of disaster, it would be Japan.

I’ve also learned more than I ever expected about nuclear power today, through Wikipedia. These are certainly interesting times.

In completely other news, I have almost all my coursework done except for a group dissertation about our instant messenger project (GIM) and one other class where we’re making a mock Twitter+Tumblr site. Can’t wait till the next week and a half are over. Then a month break until exams…

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 into editing my novel. I’m not sure when the internship I hope to get will begin, but I’ll definitely have more time for my hobbies. Two writing classes ago, it was my turn to be critiqued. I decided to submit the last half of my first chapter, which may or may not have been a good idea. I still don’t like the very beginning, so that’s partly why I skipped it, but my peers missed the introduction of my main character’s personality a bit. I was aiming to get my writing itself critiqued I suppose, instead of the plot. That’s what point my story is at anyway. In my next revision, I’ll be focusing on details like that. I probably won’t go over people’s suggestions until I start my revising.

I’ve found that I miss blogging more often. It’s a good way for me to keep up the practice of writing, apart from when I’m writing reports for class. Which isn’t the same anyway. I hope I can find time to do this more often, and perhaps have pictures to include as well.

Also, don’t be alarmed at the change of background. Thought it needed a new look.

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 a large-scale project, mostly about diagrams and how to organize a team so we don’t mess up in the long run (a continuation of the same course I took in first term)

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 praise ready for you. It feels like a lot of work to add onto all the classes I already have, but if I can manage to do it, I think it’ll be good for me.

At the moment, I don’t seem to be scheduled to any particular week to share my writing; it’s possible that we have too many people in the class to read everyone’s work. I don’t really care, I think, if my writing is critiqued. My novel really needs a full critique, the whole thing. I’m not sure how helpful having the first chapter torn apart (again) will be. The first chapter always seems to be the one most critiqued, since submitting later chapters would leave out a lot of possibly crucial backstory. I could work around that, maybe writing a short summary for people to read before an excerpt, but we’ll see if I even get put in the timetable.

On another note, I’ve decided I’m too busy to continue with the 50 book challenge… for now. I’m sure I’ll read once I have time, perhaps this summer, maybe before. Once I manage to finish another book, I’ll put up another review.

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 “Irish Whisky Macaroni & Cheese.”

I ordered their corned beef and cabbage dinner (with mashed potatoes), which came with soup or salad, and I chose to have the “Irish Clam Chowder.” Again, not quite sure what made it Irish but it was all delicious. It also came with a side of Irish Soda Bread, which is not quite cake, not quite bread, but something better, inbetween. Dad got the fish & chips, which was also good but was different from what I’ve had in the UK, perhaps a different sort of fish or batter.

As for drinks, I was sad to see they didn’t carry any cider, that I could see on the menu anyway. Hard cider, for those Americans reading this. There’s a favorite among my Scottish friends called Magners Irish Cider, which I think would be worth them carrying, if only because it’s Irish. They do have Guinness though, which they over-advertise, and my dad got a pint, which I tried a bit of. A little too strong for my taste, but I guess it usually is for people.

I’ve come here in the morning before, and their scramble with corned beef is delicious as well. So it’s worth a stop, but don’t expect anything too “authentically” Irish.