Photo Selection: Intelligence Question Time

E no longer lectures at Aberdeen. I think he's at the University of Bath, the University of Nottingham, or splitting his time between the two. When he was in Aberdeen - and I think he continues to do this wherever he's teaching at the moment - E would host an annual Intelligence Question Time, modeled after Question Time on BBC One. E had hoped to get CN Odin for the 2013 IQT, but CN Odin was otherwise occupied; however, he invited me as well, the head of our department, and The Director. (The Director's the guy with the greying hair.) I don't remember most of the questions, but I do remember someone asking about the most likely points in which nuclear war could have happened after the Cuban Missile Crisis, another guy who wanted to know about enhanced interrogation techniques, and at least one question about the justification for the Iraq War. I enjoyed it, and I think most of the rest in attendance did as well. It's unfortunate that E is no longer in Aberdeen, because he threw down some pretty interesting content in his lectures. Oh, well, it's a gain for Bath... Or Nottingham?

Photo Selection: The Director at Graduation

This is a picture of me with The Director, at graduation. Of the two pictures of the two of us together at that event, it's not my favorite, but the other one has CN Chatti photobombing right between us, so I'm posting this one instead. The Director was very good to me - still is - from all the way back in late 2010, when I first E-mailed him to inquire about the program, all the way up to the present. I have nothing but fond things to say about him, and he's one of the five or six folks whom I can say, without question, that they unequivocally changed my life.

Speaking of, I'm long overdue to send him an E-mail...

Photo Selection: Marischal College Selfie

In early August, I was sitting on a bench outside Marischal College for Gin Afficionado to finish her shift at Starbucks so that we could go out for a drink. I decided to screw around with my mobile's camera and try to take a unique selfie. Marischal's Gothic spires and the puffy white clouds overhead made for a perfect backdrop. I frequently use this picture as my Facebook profile picture with the caption "Go boldly forth." (Gray 1 asked the obvious question: "Towards the next split infinitive?") This is definitely one of my favorite pictures of myself from my time in Scotland (though, to be fair, most of my favorite pictures aren't of myself).

Photo Selection: CN Vlad versus Shite Piper

In July, CN GBU-16 sent me a picture that had been posted on Facebook by some random denizen of Aberdeen. What's noteworthy about this picture is that it features a woman wearing a sort of ridiculous pink outfit, right next to her (then-)boyfriend, CN Vlad. For those of you who are new or rusty, CN Vlad was my Romanian coursemate who first introduced himself as being "from Transylvania, the same as Dracula!"

There's something else in the picture that's worth mentioning. See that sort of broad guy behind the pedestrian signal pole? That, dear friends, is Shite Piper. Shite Piper is a guy from Georgia - like, the American state of Georgia - who stands there on the corner of Union Street and Union Terrace Gardens, at the base of the statue of King Edward VII. Why is he called "Shite Piper"? Because he's absolutely awful. Behold, a Facebook post and ensuing conversation from August...

To the guy from Georgia who plays the bagpipes daily on the corner of Union Street and Union Terrace: please stop. You're awful, you're embarrassing yourself, the locals call you a "shite piper", and your "music" makes everyone uncomfortable. Your piping makes angry cats sound melodic by comparison. I'm begging you: please desist immediately.

KH: Might have more impact if you said this to his face...
Tom: I've learned to avoid people from Georgia.
CS: He's American? Bloody immigrants coming over here and destroying our music. That's our job. Wearing skirts and being overweight. That's our fucking job!
JF: Tom, will this persuade you to stop wearing skirts?
HM: He plays really stereotypical music and even then can get the notes right. He never shuts up even late at night which makes me feel for the people staying around that area
Tom: JF: No.
HM: I put one of my friends up in the Caledonian Hotel, and his rubbish piping was my only concern.
DD: Shite Piper is a GREAT name for a band!
DD: JF, Tom, SW and DD, AKA, Shite Piper! Let's get the band back together!
KM: He could nae join with Guitar wifey the famous musician frae Aberdeen and be called Wifey N shitey! .x.
LM: no that is an insult to the legend that is wifey

Just to clarify: KH is a girl I dated briefly in college, CS was one of my coursemates, JF and DD (and SW) are former co-workers from when I worked in Virginia, and HM, LM, and KM are two sisters and their father whom I met in Aberdeen. The "wifey" is Aberdeen's Guitar Wifey, a popular busker who plays a guitar (maybe a ukelele?) on Aberdeen's sidewalks.

I have to agree with DD, though - "Shite Piper" is a great name for a band.

Photo Selection: Wideford Hill Sunset

A few weeks before I left Orkney, Rock Sniffer and I rented a car for a day and did some geocaching. December featured some gorgeous sunsets in Orkney, and Rock Sniffer and I headed to the top of Wideford Hill. We weren't disappointed, and the sunset pictures I took from the Orkney Mainland's highest point are some of my favorite images from Operation Highlander.

Photo Selection: Ear-ly in the Morning

I still have a lot of pictures from my time in Scotland, so in an effort to keep this blog interesting for a bit longer, I'll try to post one or two each week. Today's selection is a mini-tripod-assisted selfie that I took aboard the MV Pentalina early in my final week in Scotland. I can't remember what time I actually got up, but it was earlier than usual, and I'd had to pack a bag to take down to Aberdeen with me. I made the bus from Kirkwall to The Hope with a couple of minutes to spare, and I think that was the occasion when the moon had yet to set on a clear Orcadian night, lighting up Scapa Flow and the silhouette of Orkney's landscape as the bus approached and crossed the Barriers. Once aboard the Pentalina, I took a couple of selfies before sitting there for the hour-long journey and listening to one podcast or another - BBC Global News, if I remember correctly.

One item of note, which may have actually shown up in a prior post, is that Poppy Scotland badge on the collar of my jacket. It was a gift from the curator of the Gordon Highlanders Museum during my initial in-briefing, and I have yet to take it off of my jacket.