Curls as promised

I promised curly head photo shots and here they are. I hope everyone is recovering nicely from their tryptophan overdose enough to have hit the big Christmas sales. The big shopping day here is the day after Christmas, so I have another month before I buy any Christmas gifts.

From the back #1:


From the back #2:


From the front #1:


From the front #2:


I invested in a blow dryer, straightener, and a curling iron today. Short hair, so much easier to take care with those items than long hair.

Before and After

I decided to get a hair to cut. After growing it out for a year and a half I finally reached the point where I wanted it off my neck. I cut off about 5 or 6 inches (maybe more?), hard to know since it was curly and hard to get an accurate measurement.

Here are some before and after pictures. I'll post more pictures of me with curly hair, because as you will see below, I again had a stylists that took it upon herself to conquer the curliness of my hair.

You will have to excuse my photography skills. I could have asked my roommate to take the pictures, but she has been ill the past couple of days and quite honestly, I didn't want her to touch my camera and I didn't want to run the chance that she would cough on me. I don't need any sickness right now. Amazing what you can do with a camera and a mirror.

Before from the back #1:
Before from the back #2


Before from the front #1: two thoughts on this one. 1) I don't like self portraits, and 2) my eyebrows are unbalanced, or my entire face is lopsided, which I already new, but this photo reminds me once again


Before from the front #2: its big, its curly!

After from the back #1:
After from the back #2:

After from the front #1:
From the front #2: comment on this one, I think I could have very evil looking eyebrows if I wanted.

Check back after Friday for the curly look. I am hoping I can make the straight look last until at least then. Cross your fingers that it doesn't rain.

The Campbells and the MacDonalds - Video 2

***before reading this post read the one below it***

And in the second, my friend Geoff comments on my affiliation with the Communist party to which I say, there is good Communism and there is bad Communism, and I affiliate with the good Communism. This video was shot at road level.



Here is a picture of my friend Brittany and I mending the errors of the past.

The Campbells and the MacDonalds - Video 1

So the last place we stopped in the Highlands was a valley called Glencoe (no reason why I can't go backwards in telling you about my trip to the Highlands). This valley also has a historical meaning to me than the other places we visited This valley is known in Scottish history as the "Glen of Weeping" (contrary to what Wikipedia says I think this is really what the glen was named) because it was here that the Campbell Clan, under orders by the King William of Orange, massacred the MacDonald Clan.

King William demanded allegiance from all of the Clans we he came to the throne, and all of the clans did just that. But William hope was that at least one of the clans would refuse to swear their allegiance so that he could make an example of that clan by killing them. When it was discovered that the head of the MacDonald Clan was late in signing the allegiance petition because he was delayed by weather, King William decided that the MacDonalds would be the clan he would use as an example.

The Campbell Clan asked for "Highland hospitality" with the MacDonald Clan, and ended up staying with the MacDonalds for seven days before receiving the signal that they should kill the members of the MacDonald Clan. Thirty-eight men died in the massacre and another forty women and children died from exposure after their houses were burned.

I would like to think that relations between the Campbells and the MacDonalds are slowly being mended by the marriage of my brother (a Campbell) to my sister-in-law (a MacDonald) who now have a little girl (a Campbell-MacDonald). Also, one of my good friends here is Edinburgh is a MacDonald and we get along great. However, I don't think the Scots here would think these two things are quite enough to bury the feelings between the clans.

I took a couple of videos while there and thought I would post them since that is an easy thing to do. I can't promise that it is a great video because I am not a professional. In the first one Brittany, my friend who is a MacDonald near the end of the video. This video was taken down in the valley.

To tide you over

I am going to the highlands tomorrow with a trip planned by the international student center on campus. We are leaving early tomorrow morning, spending Saturday night in a castle, and then coming back sometime Sunday.

Once I get back there of course will be a blogpost about the whole event, unless I meet a Scot in a kilt in the mists of the highlands (one of my librarian friends recently weeded the romance novels at her library and this type of event was the most frequently used plot line.)

But until then, I thought I would post some random pictures I took this week from the roof of the National Museum of Scotland.

How many chimney's do you count?

This is a street I walk down practically every day to get to campus.

The ever famous Edinburgh Castle. I have not yet been in because it costs money, but supposedly at the end of the month you can get in for free because it is St. Andrew's Day. I will be the first person in line.

This is me looking at you kid.

The Problem with Reading other Blogs

Is that you find things to waste away the time. My friend has a post on what her chances were of surviving a zombie apocalypse and when I clicked on the image posted on her blog, it took me to a whole other set of quizzes which is where I found this one:

$5425.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth.

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Dating Sites

Note to family: when you sell my body (after I am dead of course), make sure you get at least this much for it. I took a quiz that said I could fight up to 11 5-year olds at one time, but I didn't think that was appropriate for a blog, because violence is never the answer.

Being part of history

Today I am thankful to be part of history. Am I happy that history went the direction I wanted it to, yes.

I think this election will become one of those "where were you when..." moments. I am excited by the prospect of change, anything has to be better than what America is currently experiencing, and while the change Barak Obama promises is different from the change John McCain promised, I am looking forward to change.

At the beginning of Obama's campaign I was pessimistic about his talk of change, because it felt a lot like rhetoric. While Obama's ideas of change have been developed as his campaign has progressed, what I have come to realize even more is that I need to change.

I need to change so that I find opportunities to help those around me. I need to change so that I can find the good in every situation. I need to change so that I can influence for the positive. I need to change so that I can become more patient and long-suffering. I need to change so that I can respect all mankind, and not just those with whom I agree or have common ground. I hope I never reach a point where I no longer need to change, because if I do, that is one more thing I need to change.

For those who may not be as excited about the outcome of yesterday's presidential election, I hope you will be excited about the prospect of change, whether it is on the national level, the international level, or if it is just inside of you. Because I am.