Killian's Blog/Website/Whatever

There are a few things that have been taking up a lot of my brain-space lately; not the least of which are grad school applications but let's ignore that one, because it's about incessant in its pestering as the fly that seems to have teleported into your kitchen and keeps head-butting the closed window. Let's list, since I do love a good list, and then expound upon those that require expounding afterwards. - Busy Monsters , the debut novel by William Giraldi -short story revision -the Occupy movement -what makes a person "brave"? 1. To start with, we have the novel I finished reading last week (I know, I'm slow/preoccupied): Busy Monsters . I basically refuse to give a plot summary (I'd bung it up), but know that it's great. Giraldi has written a novel that made me laugh aloud at LEAST every other page without once sacrificing character, plot, or overall complexity in general. The intelligence of the work is subtle and astounding; every time yo...

(or, Another Daniel Guest-Blog) Oxford! We've been here for 1 week, today. Almost exactly, actually-- I'm writing this at 5:40, and we got in at 6:40 last Sunday, so! An hour less than a week in Oxford. For me, this week has been very busy, in a good way. The morning after we arrived, I walked down to the Future of Humanity Institute's office fairly early, arriving at about 9. Turns out that's too early to start saving the world, and most FHI people didn't show up until later (a few of them work late into the night most nights). That was fine, though; the walk was good, and it was nice to get acquainted with the office before things got too hectic. I sit at a desk in the common area of the office. Behind me is the meeting and break area, which has a table, chairs, couches, and the all-important whiteboard. The great perks of sitting in this area are that 1) I see everyone semi-regularly when they emerge from writing to get tea or food, and 2) I can eavesdrop a...

Ok. Want to see ALL OF THE PHOTOS thusfar? http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/43622799/1/EdinburghOxford?h=b051c4 This here should provide you with The Full Vicarious Edinburgh Experience, and includes at least five pictures of Catherine's cat. I realize that we fail in The Capturing of Oxford On Film (or...pixels?), but since the weekend is right before us, that will be changing! I think this link should still be good as we add more pictures, so check it again on Monday for some new ones (there will probably--hopefully--be a nice new blog post, too, so I'll be sure to remind you). As for the events of today, I bought a headband half-price at Topshop, which was peachy, and then two barrettes from a little boutique in Jericho. I also had a pint ( with lunch! ) at a place called, fantastically, Jude the Obscure. Sadly, JtO was a little bit weird with the customer service. I realize bartenders have to be on the lookout for riffraff and can't always be in the best mood, but...

My computer tells me that it's Wednesday. That hardly seems possible. Monday and Tuesday each lasted about an entire year. Last night, I thought it was Thursday night. Yep. Good times. We don't have any pictures yet--except for one of a snail we found in our flat (he was very cute)--so I will just tell you about the past few days, and you can expect pictures of the city this weekend.* Monday was a day of adjustment. Daniel was out at dinner meeting until fairly late, so I did the following things: I walked around the neighborhood, found a canal, left the canal quickly (I think the stretch of it near us is the sketchy part of town), went to two little neighborhood markets, got all caught up on Occupy Wall Street news, and must have done some other stuff I don't remember. Yesterday, I had tea in a cafe because our power was out (and then I read there for two hours), listened to last week's "Wait, Wait" + a few other podcasts, and drew some pictures I ended ...

The first leg of our trip is officially done. Yesterday was our final big day of touristing through Edinburgh's city center (we'll have a few more days up there at the end of our trip before we fly back, but we wanted to see most of the big stuff during this first go-around) and today we spent almost seven hours riding/nearly-missing/catching trains. We should have had twenty minutes to make our final connection in Sheffield, but our previous train left eight minutes late. Daniel wins 10 points for putting up with my panic. Fortunately, all of that platform navigating is (for the next few weeks, at least) done, and we are settling in to our flat in Oxford, which is where we will be hangin' out for the next few weeks. But let's jump back to yesterday for some re-capping and a few pictures: First, we walked to Leith and checked out an awesome used book store called McNaughton's*. When I say "used book store", I don't mean by West Coast standards. Ins...

Hello dear readers! This is Daniel, guest blogging from the UK. Yesterday, Catherine took us to see the Palace of Holyrood. We got lots of insider info from her, including why being painted wearing black was so posh (answer: black dye was the most expensive) and why the Stewarts commissioned big noses on all of their portraits (answer: to symbolize their lineage in Scottish royalty!). Holyrood is a "working palace", meaning that it's still in use by the Queen for state functions. It was more than a little surreal to be in a Royal Residence, with thrones and everything; I usually think of kings and queens as fictional, and as one of Catherine's British friends said, "you territorials don't really do  these things". There was some pretty serious history in there (Mary, Queen of Scots' bedroom!), really neat stuff. Here's Killian and Catherine in the courtyard (no photography inside, sadly): We also took a look at the ruins of Ho...

Ok guys. Get ready for so many pictures. Let's start with Day 1 (October 11): We spent a lot of time in airplanes, so we pretty much just took a three hour nap and then ate dinner at the Roseleaf Pub: Catherine shows us a map of the city happysleepy my first cuppa tea in the UK (Scottish Breakfast) my dinner: shepherd's pie, with a side of peas* and what I think was some kind of squash daniel's "veggie weggie welly-ton"-- which was way more delish than it sounds. After dinner, we walked home through Leith (I've thought of the Proclaimers a few times this trip), and then went to sleep. Day 2 (October 12): First, I need to mention that Daniel and I woke up around 7:30am. After quick breakfast, Catherine was off to meet with her PhD adviser and run some errands, so Daniel and I were on our own until 5:30. This is what we did: the Monymusk Reliquary! It's teeny! the Lewis chessmen! OLD COMPUTER! The pattern ...

(NOTE: my internet pooped out right as I finished this last night, so, you know, all of this stuff is still true, but minus half a day and some late-night sleep insanity. I'm only going to edit the time of departure in my first paragraph, because parents will probably be reading this, and I don't want to spark confusion ) Daniel and I are leaving in two days. --Wait, scratch that, a day and a half  ONLY A DAY.  What? You don't know what I'm talking about? That's because I've barely mentioned this trip. I'm trying to tell myself it's not some unhealthy superstition, but it might be. The weirdest part is that I'm still having a hard time trying to convince myself that this trip is even real. We'll be in Edinburgh on Tuesday morning, drinking tea and catching up with my friend Catherine (look at her tumblr, Notes from Bewilderment !). Seriously, what ? Scotland? On Tuesday ? My brain does not comprehend. But we are actually going . !!! We'...