All the virtues so necessary
Love to live well in the moment
Hope & Faith to spur me on to something more
and constantly Patience
knowing that waiting
even restlessly
is better than settling for now
simply for the sake of permanence
which my immortal self already has
and my mortal self never will.

August, September and Photography

I just had a look and it was January when I posted my last bonafide blog entry. I am now back from Spain, it was hard work but I got through it with a 77.73 average which I reckon will convert to a 2.i so happy days!

I am currently trying to sort through all the stuff I own (it seems to have multiplied while I was living overseas), storing, throwing out and finding place to put it all. I am also working on my dissertation. Currently, I'm writing my academic context chapter although I haven't got very far just yet! I will be looking into the creation of 'local' food brands, using a specific case study. I like to tell people I'm writing my dissertation on ice cream. So August is looking promising; working on my dissertation, organising all my stuff and seeing friends (not to mention a wedding or two and maybe even a camping trip in there somewhere).

As for September, I have been really, really blessed! I am travelling to New York to stay with a friend, visit galleries and take photographs (I got a gift of some unwanted travel vouchers and a grant from my university to do this). Later in the month I am heading to Iceland on a physical geography field course which I am not being assessed for, so I get to do all the field work and seeing Iceland with none of the worrying about my grades.

I am so looking forward to the photos I will take on both trips and trying to figure out just how much photography equipment I a) need b) can afford and c) can fit in my luggage (who needs more than 1 change of clothes for a week anyway?!) Both these trips should give me opportunities to take some great photos and I'm hoping to have a portfolio that allows me to really contrast these two very different landscapes.

In other photography news, I did my first photoshoot a few weeks ago. I took some engagement pictures for my roommate and her fiancé and I've put some of the best on Facebook. Hopefully I'll be doing a shoot for another friend and her fiancé sometime soon. Portrait photography is a little nerve-wracking for me, but good fun!

I [heart] cameras!

I'll see your photo of Ladybower reservoir



...and raise you two inches of snow

I know it's not easy for you...

"I know it's not easy for you to study in another language..."

Now just why is it that my first response when my friend said that to me was a twinge of hurt pride? I have got to get over this so here it goes,

No, it is not easy for me to study in another language.

I'm not looking for sympathy (I chose to come here and it's a brilliant opportunity and learning experience), I just think that maybe saying public that yes, I'm struggling, would be a good thing right now.

I'm used to being the person who understands everything in class and just knows what to write in essays etc. I'm also used to being the person who gets their work done, with an amount of natural motivation.

Here though, I don't understand everything in lectures (although I understand a lot more now than I did at first), I am regularly unsure of what is expected of my work and I seem to spend more time trying to motivate myself than actually doing any work.

But...I am learning new things. I'm not convinced that situations like this, where you are stretched to the point of being unable to measure up, are necessary for growth, but I am convinced that such situations are catalysts.

This year was never meant to be easy and no, I am not finding it easy. But I will continue trying knowing that the success will be in my attitude far more than in my grades.

Escape!

I quite like action movies and tv series. Especially if they have little comedy thrown in. Chuck is a current favourite. Anyhow, a couple of months ago I was thinking about how, in such shows, people often escape by climbing out of the trap door at the top of a lift/elevator.

So, I have made a habit looking at the tops of lifts I go in (what else is there to do in a lift anyway?) and so far, I have only found one that lifts up when you push it. Sadly, I was only going down one floor and was in an airport, so couldn't invistigate it further.

Please let me know if you have ever successfully escaped from the bad guys/the police (depending which side you're on) by climbing out the roof of a lift and how you did it. Thanks very much.

Oh, and happy new year!

A pinprick of light

A pinprick of light. You flew millions of years, avoiding asteroids and planets, meteors and black holes. Racing, racing to be here at precicely the moment where, in the shadow of my sun, I will glance so briefly and you appear in the corner of my view and fill my soul with awe. The purpose of another planet's renegade sunbeam.

Wordle

Click on the Wordle to make it big!

I just found this cool website, www.wordle.net (via www.twitter.com/therebelution) that'll make a cool graphic (like the one above) from a block of text or link that you give it. I made this by putting in the link to my blog.

I actually made one from my twitter first, but didn't like the words it came up with, and figured since the bulk of my blog is from my time on DTS, I might get something that looked a little more meaningful.

In fact, these 'wordles' challenge me. Do these words reflect my life? If they do reflect my life is that a good thing? It's great that 'God' appears as the biggest word here, but His name didn't appear at all on my twitter one. A lot of these words define themes that resonate with me (as I would hope coming from my blog!) it's interesting to see that concepts like 'time', 'want', 'witnessing', 'nervous' and 'encouraged' all appear. I don't think this goes by exactly how many times you use a word (there's a typo in there that I'm sure I haven't made that many times!). Anyway, I thought it was fun and looked cool.