arrrrrrrrr indeed I think the best way o' survivin' a PhD is talk like a pirate! Ye've got to have a bottle of rum w' ye at all tymes, and yndyd ye've got to start spellyng lyk a pyryt as wyll! Y wuz gyng to wysh my sypyvyvysr a Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day but he had vanished. Y cyn only think of 2 rysyns for this---one, he knew what day it was and wanted to avoid me at all costs because he knew I would be celebrating the day! or two, he knew what day it was, and took off so he could talk like a pirate but didn't want anyone else to know? Arrrrrrrrrr tis a fine mystery! Avast, when Y ahoy him on Monday, 'll be makin me enquiries.

( sometimes if I open my window I think I hear people talking like pirates.....but no, its just the way they talk. Or maybe they ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR pirates.)

What do we get at the end of the PhD? A treasure chest full of gold? A map with the spot marked X? arrrrrrrrr

Why are pirates, pirate? Because they ARrrrrrrrrrr.

Why are pirates studying for PhDs? Because they Arrrrrrrrrrrrr. 8-)

Note to Adm: We need pirate smileys. Would go with the tropical fish.

Dyr Sypyvysr

Happye International Talk Like a Pirates Daye!!!!!!!!!!!! Seems I started a day early!!!!!!!!!! Arggghhhhhhhhhh dont bye expyctyn anye PhD worke todayye...avast!!!!!!!!! ahoy!!!!!!!!!! arggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/

LOL who knew!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could feel it coming on the wind yesterday, perhaps thats made me go pleasantly insane. Today I am feeling vindicated!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy International Talk like a Pirates Day All, argghhhhhhhh(up)

No you dont sound snarky Chris, and I agree with you, and this is generally why I shun meat as much as I can manage. I am not entirely consistent in action following belief, but I try.

The impossible has happened. I have a CHEESEBURGER ( Chrisrolinski, close your eyes and insert the word....soya burger...) AND FRIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOT CHIPS BUT FRIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is scary...my alternative reality is coming true.

Around the corner from me, a small greasy cafe had a sign " Lunch Special, £2.50, CHEESEBURGER AND FRIES".

I mean, the price! and CHEESEburgers and FRIES, good ole American French fries!!!!!!!!!! Not British chips, but FRENCH FRIES. This meant this place could do a real CHEESEBurger. I went in and ordered, drooling as I went, and they confirmed, " You want cheese?"

Oh, music to my ears. A miracle.

Only improved by having the meal itself........ohhhhh........

Another note to my supervisor

Dyr Sypyvysyr

Plyz do nyot dystyrb or eyn expcyt any myre wyrk frym meye todaye. Y ym yn burger paradise.

Sined: X

and its working........the university email system has apparently gone into some sort of bizarre failure, with messages not being delivered for four or five days ( which begs the question of why not just walk to find someone, it would take less than 5 minutes.....but whatever!) bringing life as we know it to a thundering halt, and my supervisor is gone and ...its all GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!

no wonder I wonder if I have gone (pleasantly) insane...now it seems I am going to the South Sea Islands!!!!!!!

Knowing you don't eat meat, ( and me fairly close to being veggie) Chris, please excuse the following post! :$:$:$
but having listened to the Jimmy Buffet song of Cheeseburger in Paradise, I am having the inevitably reaction, with stomach growling, mouth drooling for a nice big fat cheeseburger, American style, the likes of which I have yet to see in the UK!!!!!!!!!! =((( I am so hungry now..........and nothing is going to do but to find a cheeseburger in the next few hours.

Unless I managed to be taken by pirates, which can happen...and no offense meant to anyone's spelling with the following, its just the way that pirates spell. The following note is being left for my supervisor:

"Dyr Sypyrvysyr:

Olyvya hyz byn takyn byey pyrytz n takyn 2 theye South C Iylyndz. Plyz do NOYT synd ransum. Sined: X"

Some years ago when I worked in a city with a horribly long and grey winter, to combat it, I turned my cubicle into a tropical island! I put a giant poster of a beach with a palm tree over my window, so you could no longer look out and see smog and dirty snow, a sunlamp, and got a recording of ocean sounds, which I would plug into, and just sit quite pleasantly all day! People used to ask if they could come into my cube at lunch when I was gone, and listen to the ocean and sit under the warm sun lamp!

Thanks, Chris for the post! I know just what you mean about wandering through a particular section of a city or town, and just sort of losing yourself in the imagining of what has gone before--whatever time frame you want to think about! Its amazingly easy to block out the modern if you want! 8-)8-)8-)

Now as I wrestling with how to write about some boringly difficult concepts, I am blissing out to Jimmy Buffet, and thinking of the Florida Keys, and warm sunny beaches, and margaritas, and salt breezes in the palms, and the most beautiful sunset I ever saw....:-)(up)

Try the song "One Particular Harbour" I mean "Harbor" if you need to get to that nice "manana" feeling.

which, if I have, well, its just fine!

Things are well. I cannot wait to get out of bed in the morning, and come to the university and get to my computer and go to work. The writing is going along fine, the writing is fun again, that feeling of almost playing and being able to be creative, and challenge myself at the same time is back, I am happy, smiling, feeling peaceful inside. Today I took a slightly longer walk to the university, going past my favourite Norman era--Medieval era tiny little church, paused to check when services were because its practically the only way to get inside, and thought that it would be nice to attend the Evensong mass, just to sit inside the cold stone church and hear singing, and sit there and think of the ages...

What is it? Where has this come from? I don't know!!!

But its great.