Look What I can do!

I went here last night to a lecture on Anarcho-Capitalism (take a wild guess who got me into that) by David Friedman.

But mostly I just wanted to show you that I have finally put up pictures!

Talk about a downer....

My blog is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

My Morning

"We cannot wake up at 10:30 and then watch Friends! That makes us bad people."

"No, if we wake up at 10:30 and then we kill someon, that makes us bad people. As it is, we are fine."

And She said...

"Sometimes when I want to laugh, I read my own blog."

-Kathy

The Problem

There is a big problem with scheduling your only important tutorial for a Wednesday. At first it seems like an ingenious plan; you get both ends of the week to work, and if you want to travel you have the option of a long weekend. At least this was my line of reasoning.

However, their are unanticipated dangers with this seemingly intelligent plan. Once you get done with the tutorial on Wednesday you think to yourself, "Yay! Done with work and time to relax." This sense of accomplishment extends into Thursday, and then it is Friday, and who wants to work on Friday night? Saturday is used to wander the city and get groceries and some tea, and then your friends will propose a once in a lifetime plan for Saturday night. This plan keeps you out way too late, and then Sunday is spent sleeping and trying to remember what it was you were supposed to be doing. Before you know it is Monday and you have a tutorial in two days and no reading done and no paper written and you think to yourself, "What in the world was I thinking?"

I would like to say...

Hello Everyone!

Bus Balancing

Never being well aquainted with American public transportation, I am learning many new skills here in Oxford. I live up a big hill to the east of town and to walk into town everyday would take over 45 minutes. With the constant threat of rain and the early sunset (it starts to get dark around 4:00 in the winter), I felt that buying a bus pass would be my best bet of getting where I needed to go dry and with all of my possesions.

Learning how to use public transportation effectively can be a challenge in the States, but here in a country where they don't believe in instructions, or even identifying labels for that matter, it becomes a test of true intellegence and capability.

The first challenge is learning how to hail a bus effectively. Unless one stands in exactly the right place, raise one's arm in a very particular manner, and then prepares oneself to be ready to leap, jump, sprint or run onto a bus that is trying very hard not to stop for you, you will find yourself standing at a lonely bus stop for hours.

After you have gotten on the bus, there are more challenges in front of you. Bus drivers do not like to just sit around, so once on the bus you must head for the seat as quickly as humanly possible. If you aren't fast, the bus will take off, throwing you down the eisle into an unsuspecting Englishman. If the seats are all full you must balance carefully on your feet while driver slams the breaks, hits the eccelerator, and winds through the many round abouts.

Figuring out where to get off the bus is very difficult because the bus driver will only stop if you demand to be let off the bus, and so you have to be pretty sure that you want to get off. No one will ever say the names of any of the streets you are nearing, so you must rely on strange landmarks to know where you are at first. While you don't want to get off too early for fear of being late to your destination, if you miss your stop you are going to be taken to the outer ends of Oxford, never to return.

I can't wait to get home to my car.

Paper Woes

It is very hard to write a paper while drowning in your own mucus.

I just thought all of you would like to know that.

Odds and Ends

I hope to write a much more informative post soon about my adventure in the Lake District (which is where I was for a few days this last week), but for now I have just a few things to say:

First of all, my cousin is getting married tomorrow and I won't be there. I am very, very sad, and wish Erin and Corbin all the luck and blessings in the world. I am so happy for you two.

Secondly, I have been tagged by Rebecca and so now I need to share five idiosyncrasies with my reading audience (all three or four of you).

1. I love to travel, but am scared to death of it. If I go to an airport to drop someone off I always wish I was getting on the plane. I love to drive across country, and I love seeing new things, but as soon as I actually set off to go somewhere new I panic and wish I was at home in my bed. This feeling never quite goes away until I do get home, and then I am so excited by the memory of my trip that I want to go out again.

2. Unlike Rebecca, I hate untidiness with a passion, but the floor of our room here in Oxford hasn't been vacuumed this whole month and I don't really care. The only time that dirt and grime gets to me is when I can see it. Dishes must be clean, sinks shiny, and mess invisible, and then the germs can have a field day for all I care. At least I can't see them.

3. The older I get the more I love all things domestic. Fabric softener and a cleaver were my big discoveries of the summer, and having to share a kitchen here in Oxford with crappy utensils and terrible pots and pans is trying. I have no problem cutting study time short to cook dinner for Kathy and myself, and I love making afternoon tea for people. Though I love these things, girls who show off their domestic skills as some sort of credential annoy me a lot, and I have a very hard time with women deciding to cut their education short to run a household. Why does it bother me? I have no good reason.

4. I wrote four post cards the first week of school, but they are still sitting on my desk because I can't ever remember to buy stamps. For some reason, I could remember to be thoughtful enough to do all of the time intensive work to send my friends and family something, but can't get around to the easy part.

5. I judge books by their cover, and I don't feel sorry about it.