Jonathan Field - Maker of Random Stuff

Well, after a week back I’m finally caught up again. Meaning I’m no more behind than usual.

Sophie put up a nice collection of pictures from our trip. There’s four photo albums total, broken down by locale, with links at the top.

Glasgow was nice, though it’s a combination college/industrial town. I was a little disappointed that there weren’t street vendors with kilts the moment we got out of the taxi in the city center. I didn’t get the sense that they were trying to exploit me as a tourist… it was really unsettling. I was all ready to buy one immediately so I’d have the maximum amount of time to make an ass of myself. But all we saw for kilts in Glasgow were in a tuxedo shop, and they were as expensive as they were handsome. I put it off and hoped to find something later in the trip…

We only had one full day there, so we didn’t get to see everything we were interested in. The main site we checked out was the Glasgow Cathedral. The cathedral is huge, and despite my lack of personal faith, it is humbling to see such an effort to symbolize the divine. Plus, there’s just something about buildings with dead people in the walls.

Speaking of dead people, the Glasgow Necropolis was immediately behind the cathedral; literally a mountain of graves. As we approached it was raining, and the sight of a foggy old wooded cemetery towering behind the spires was chilling. We hiked up top anyways, and as soon as we made it the sun popped out, making for a bright and jolly old time on the sacred ground. I did a happy little dance to secure myself a place in hell.

We also hit a couple restaurants, the botanical garden (amidst some kind of street festival) and the museum of modern art. Oh: at the street festival I learned that white people in Scotland can’t dance either.

Then we slept like fish to make up for our long travel and the time zone switch, and flew up to the Orkney islands…

More hard hitting reports to come.

Scotland was incredible. There was so much stuff packed into the past 10 days that I’ll have to elaborate later, but I think the following picture sums up the trip nicely:

I’ve been traveling for the past 20 hours and will now collapse.

So I’m off to Scotland today… in just a few hours, actually. Sophie and I should be in Glasgow at 6:50 PM tomorrow evening. A day in the city there, then four days in the Orkney Islands up north. At a friggin’ castle! I plan to look out over the top wall and do my best John Cleese in the Holy Grail impersonation, which I’m sure will go over really well with the locals. The Orkney Islands also have some impressive ancient ruins and much natural beauty. Then it’s off to Edinburgh for the last few days. We’re back in Las Vegas the night of June 20th.

Yes, I will be wearing a kilt.

No, I won’t be eating haggis.

At the risk of turning this into another fan-boy journal where I just post lame reviews about TV shows, movies, and the girl that won’t sleep with me, I’ll go right ahead and mention that Firefly was a damn fine sci-fi show.

Okay, finally saw Hitchhiker’s Guide, the movie I alluded to earlier with the head-bumping action. It was exactly as bad as I’d feared. Which is a bit sad, too, as it was obviously made with care. I watched the film in complete silence. I may have smiled once or twice, but that was it. Sophie fell asleep, and she just doesn’t do that at the movies. A bad taste in my mouth, I came home, grabbed the book, and read the scene where they talk to Deep Thought. It had been a while and I wanted to see if the book was actually as enjoyable as I remember. It was. And it was amazing how every single funny and clever line was cut out of that scene in the movie. It’s not that the book would ever work that well as a movie anyways, but can’t they at least keep the things that work in place? If only Terry Gilliam had directed…

Speaking of Gilliam, I’m looking forward to The Brothers Grimm.

Revenge of the Sith was surprisingly good. By that I mean it wasn’t exactly as bad as I’d feared.

Though the TV show is still in the editing room, pictures have been posted. Several even feature yours truly quite prominently.

Until recently I thought I had no taste in movies — meaning that I pretty much liked them all. But I just realized I hate movies where someone bumping their head is a joke. Once that happens, it’s pretty much over.

Why do I call it a “man pillow”? I guess because a friend called it that once. I don’t know why it stuck for me. Anyways, once I started calling it my “man pillow” I realized that adding the word “man” in front of something tends to make it seem less manly. What’s up with that? The only other common usage I can think of this late at night is “love” and “man love”. But you can do it with almost anything. Think about dance. Then think about a “man dance”. Think of a melon, and then if you dare, consider a “man melon”.

No, I don’t have a point. Good night.

Anyone else out there have a full length body pillow?

I admit, I can’t even get a good night’s sleep without mine any more. It’s actually caused me relationship problems… women get jealous of the pillow. But I can’t help it, it’s just so comfy to snuggle up with. Snuggling with a woman is cool and all, but there’s just certain things you can do with a pillow that would be uncomfortable with a woman. The reverse might be true as well in other situations, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about sleep. Real sleep. Hardcore sleep. Me and my man pillow.