One Day Late, But All the Better For It

Howdy.

I couldn't update yesterday, because there was a power outage at one of the school buildings (not mine) that knocked out the ResNet for a while, and then I dozed off for a while, and then I went to karaoke, so I wasn't able to update like I normally would.

School continues to go well. I'm in the process of doing the first draft of my 'history of scholarship' chapter. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this, it's the chapter where I list all the previous, important works of scholars in this field, their contributions, and what I perceive as their shortcomings, and then I explain how my work will address some of these shortcomings. Basically, it's a big 'You didn't talk about this, and I'm going to, 'cause I'm awesome' chapter. So, that's a lot of reading (about 20 articles last week, and several books this week), which means I'm not doing much else during the day except reading and taking notes, but that's okay, because I'm pretty good at both of those things.

Karaoke was horrible last night. I know there are some who will say that I shouldn't make such judgements when I'm not willing to get up and sing (I'm not, by the way, I don't sing karaoke...I'll perform a song with my guitar for anyone who wants to listen, but not karaoke), but, having been a singer, I feel I have some ground on which to stand. And given that I know almost all the songs that get done at karaoke, I know what they originally sounded like, and I know when they sound nothing like that. And last night, oh man...one guy was good, and every other person was awful. But we then went to see Acoustic David (some guy who plays in various pubs every week and does some awesome acoustic covers...he's amazing), so that was awesome.

I have a bunch of pictures I've been snapping lately, but I haven't uploaded them yet. So here are some that I've seen online lately:

I believe this is King Albert Bridge...or maybe just Albert Bridge...I don't know if 'King' goes with it or not. But it's a bridge over the Thames in, I believe, London (don't quote me on that). Now, note that this is a very large bridge, as the Thames is a pretty wide river. However, also not that this bridge is very low to the water, comparatively. I could cross this bridge with no trouble, because it's not high. And someday I'll prove it.

Here's some lightning, which is just a cool shot. This is somewhere over the American Midwest, if I remember correctly (I probably don't). Pictures of lightning are always cool.

This is a fire-eater in southeast Asia somewhere. Just a really amazing photo.

And sunset, again in southeast Asia (I want to say Indonesia), during the eclipse last week. Simply beautiful.

In noteworthy news, Neil Gaiman's novel The Graveyard Book has won the Newberry Award! The Newberry is given out by the American Library Association (ALA) for outstanding Children's literature and, while I don't know if I'd call this book 'children's' literature, it certainly would be fantastic for kids to read; this book has quickly become, possibly, my absolute favourite book, and Gaiman himself is easily my favourite author. I have yet to pick up a book by him that I didn't like. For those of you in the USA, be sure to check out Coraline, the film based on his book of the same title. It opens the first week of February, which I think is the 5th, in the States, though not here in the UK until May. Watch a trailer for the film here, and you won't be sorry. There are several others that give more a sense of the plot, but that one is the only one I've seen so far that captures just how very creepy the story is.

Today's vocab, before I go off to meet some friends for dinner, is High Street. This seems to be the British equivalent of America's Main Street; as most towns in the USA have a Main Street, so most towns in the UK seem to have a High Street. For those of you Yanks (ooh, another vocab word, British/Australian slang for Americans) who are Harry Potter devotees, reread Prisoner of Azkaban, or any of the others that involve trips to the village of Hogsmeade, and you'll come across lines that reference the High Street.

Word.