I really should know better than this. I know it is late again but I was helping a friend who has a paper due later today (and she is not very far in it. To be fair, she helped me out with mine, which is also due later today, as well so it was a fair exchange. It is just amazing that she did not get started earlier but I was working on this paper weeks ago, which has its own problems as well. So we have been sitting in her kitchen with our laptops trying desperately to get done with these papers.

Anyway, I should get around to telling about what I did today. I got up really late as you could have probably guessed. I then went down to have lunch with a friend. I came back and whacked out another 500 words on my 6000 word essay. I am just getting to the finishing part of describing all the evidence I have found and some insights into it and I am at 4100 words. That leaves 2000 words to talk about what is important and the implications of the annal entries. That is not much space really. I am glad that my supervisor liked the way it was going. For my final paper I am going to put the entries themselves in the paper in a tabular format from a suggestion by the supervisor. I think that way the reader can get a better sense of what I am doing. I am getting concerned about the discrepancies in the dates between the annals. For instance, there are entries which are exactly the same between the annals of Ulster and the cronicon scottorum but they are five or more years apart. You can say that these were just scribal errors when copying the text but I am getting more skeptical of this statement.

Tomorrow I have a bunch of stuff to do. There are sorts of parties for the end of the term, which are put on by the different departments. I then have a private party for end of term and I was supposed to get the times for a movie that just came out for my Japanese roommate. I have been putting it off because of my paper commitments but I think I put it off too long. I will have to either get up really early tomorrow and run down there or find some way to call or find them by internet. I think I will just leg it down there and find it myself. I feel really badly since I promised him that I would get it.

Many people are going home to see their families. I am kind of glad that I am not going home. I get to have the full experience of being in Scotland for all of their major festivals. For instance, since I live within the coordinate off area for new year's, I get two free passes to the party in the center of the city. 500,000 drunken people on the royal mile. It is going to be interesting at least. From what I have heard, there are a huge number of austrailians who fly up to be here and all the women want a snog on new year's. I think I will be down on prince's street this year. The fringe festival is in August and I should be nearly done with my disseration by that point.

posted by Chris  #2:50 AM | 0 comments |