S. Worthen | Weblog

Less than an hour until Eurovision begins. Just as well that, the way the timezones work, we had plenty of time to run out for brunch (mmm, milkshakes). This is the third year running I won't make it to the anime convention. It's a pity, since I would like to go, especially for the masquerade and the video competition, but it's a bit of a trek crosstown to get there, Eurovision''s on, and at this rate, it's not worth the fee and transport just to attend the evening. It's a pity.

At this rate I'll be missing scads of things tomorrow as well. Several of the many conferences around campus start this weekend - so tomorrow I'll be missing at least 2 very relevant conferences, in addition to Anime, and that's not even counting the weekend-long Marco Polo event. Ever since moving to such a big city, it's frequently struck me that the things I DON'T attend are often more exciting, interesting, and important than the many things I do make it to.

Monday and Tuesday I'll spend at some of the conferences. Today's Saturday so no compulsion to do work. Hurray! Lucky me!

Had a nice chat last night at the housewarming/birthday party with some people who are also in various stages of dissertation work. I need to talk more about my work since it makes me think. I find it hard to really think sometimes when I'm not being challenged to do so in dialog.

The new computer is still a happy thing. I'll download more useful software today - there must be a mush client out there for this operating system and I could rather use one.

We couldn't get through to Radio 2. No Terry Wogan, but at least we watched it, thanks to Estonian television. Malta was my favorite, Lativa, Sweden, and France all did respectably on my list. In the end, I committed to Malta to follow and C. decisively chose Latvia. What good taste we have. Or rather, a certain proportion of the European voting public leaned our way. It was a close - and therefore exciting - race the whole way between us. Out of 24 countries to choose from, that's not bad on our part!

And afterwards, for about 15 minutes, Estonian TV left the backstage and stage feeds on, with ambient noise. The things one wouldn't normally see on TV, especially for so long, I'd think.

Speaking of Estonia, the warped fairy tales were fascinating. I started actively looking forward to them. Some very memorable ones among them, such as their take on Snow White, Pinocchio, The Princess without a smile, and Ali Baba. Good advertising selection. It obviously worked if I'm still thinking about it. And just think of all those people who'll be going back to the Baltic countries next year for Latvia's hosting.

I haven't downloaded any of the databasing software I need for my dissertation yet. Many irrelevant softwares, but not that one. On the bright side, a mush client for MacOS X was released only 6 days ago. Nice timing on my part.