An eventful several days. But first, for my conscience... links!

In a nod to the famous Lore of The Brunching Shuttlecocks, three people have compiled the the Japanese Geek Hierarchy.

I ganked this from Neil Gaiman's
webjournal. Dianna Wynne Jones, an author I like (writer of The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, and editor of a book of fantasy short stories I recently read) once wrote a book called Howl's Moving Castle. This book is being turned into a movie. By Hayao Miyazaki. You may know him - he made Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away.

Yesterday I joined my parents in their trip to Lexington - my dad was getting a checkup in the VA hospital. We left at seven that morning - I hadn't slept since four the afternoon previous. I got no sleep until I returned home, at around two. Ugh.

Anyway. After the interminable wait at the hospital, we found a very nice Irish import store: Failte. A very nice woman named Liza (pronounced "Lisa") owns it, and was running it then. We spent nearly an hour there, browsing, but mostly talking to her. She's from Dublin. She also helps out with a local Celtic music organization. She ended up inviting me to play, as I bought a bodhran.

All EKU people: once school starts I mean to try going to this meeting - it is the first Monday of each month, at eight in the evening. They meet at McCarthy's Irish Pub. So one needs to be twenty-one to get in. If you've access to Lexington but I don't know you from EKU, by all means, come as well. I'll get to hear music at least, and maybe learn from people, which is good.

The bodhran playing is going rather well, actually. I'm fairly good at the triplets, which involve a unique sort of backhand whip that gives people trouble. I have bruises on my pointer fingertip and the top of my left ring finger, though...

Today I drove to Richmond for to take the UWR, which is the University Writing Requirement. I visited with a friend for a bit beforehand, then took the test. It is utterly asinine. I've no idea if I'm supposed to avoid discussing the prompt, so I won't repeat it here. Then I bought some books at Hastings, and proceeded to lock myself out of my car while back on campus. Cost me twenty dollars to get a locksmith to open it, which I'm told is very cheap indeed. The guy was pretty nice, too. (Of course I tried to open it myself, but the lock on a Cavalier is curved and smoothed - very difficult. I did get my trunk open...)

Then I raced the storm back to my house. Halfway through the drive it let up, except for quite distant lightning. The wind forced my car about worse than I have ever experienced, and the lightning was terrifying. And I'm not usually afraid of lightning.