No longer am I just a web-geek. I’m now a techie-geek, having installed my first ever stick of RAM without having ANYONE watching over my shoulder to make sure I do it right.

And guess what? I did it right! Increased my computing power by 400%, got me a little hot-rod computer at work now. Well, kinda. Photoshop still takes a whole 18 seconds to start up, and I clocked Outlook at 11 seconds. But with any luck, no more having to wait those few extra seconds that feel like an eternity.

Get me, techie-geek-girl. Will take autographs now.

I’m also about to set up my first vBulletin board, for work. I’m a bit excited about the prospect of a web community for the young people who come through our programmes – I’ve started emailing one group of them who are a group of little web-geeks themselves. It’s so amazing that in my day (gawd, that makes me sound old!), kids who fiddled about with the internet were nerds, geeks, loners, dweebs, whatever, but certainly anything but mainstream. But within 10 years, Geek-Chic has changed all that, and now every kid has an online presence, several email addresses, god knows how many people in their IM list, AND their own website on MySpace. And each and everyone one of them knows not only how to wield smilies to lethal effect, but how to use upper and lower case in the most creative ways I have EVER seen.

Check out this site – it was set up by some of the young folk who went on one of our programmes, and it’s as good an example as any, not only of some enchanting Scottish accents given written form, but of how young folk these days are embracing their geek from a tender age.

Brings a tear to mine eye.

My favorite bit was “hamepage” – these kids are from Glasgow, and I usually have to ask Glaswegians to repeat everything they say, sometimes several times, cause their accents are so broad. So. Very. Cool.

Oh, but did I mention – still smug.
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5500 miles along the Road to Mandelay. I’m coming third in my gym, and the other two have finished.

Obsessed? Me?

I’m sorry, I don’t usually quote from other blogs, but this one just needed to be quoted for its sheer genius. Read more

Alas, this story is not as exciting as the title might suggest. I’m not planning another trip to the far east – at least, not yet. Nor have I joined a band which sings golden oldie tunes.

No siree, this is just about the latest fitness challenge at the gym which has me all a-flutter. The competition itself is pretty run of the mill – the route taken to Mandelay has been divided up into 41 legs, each one “250 miles” long, 10250 miles altogether on the road to Mandelay. Then a given amount of exercise is deemed to be equivalent to one leg – for example, 4 miles on the cross trainer equals 250 miles, or one leg of the journey. Make it to Bombay, and you win a tee-shirt. Make it all the way to Mandelay, and go into a prize draw for possibly the best prize I can think of right now – trip for two to Amsterdam, and VIP tickets to a Robbie Williams concert!!!

I know, I know, this matters little to anyone but me, but hey – whatever gets ya through the door of the gym, right? So from now on, I shall give you a running tally of how far long I am on the Road to Mandelay:

1,750 miles down, 8500 to go.

So y’all know I have this list, a list of Things Which I Must Do Before Leaving This Amazing City. On it are various things, such as Arthurs Seat, Edinburgh Castle, Roslin Chapel, and amongst many others, the Greyfriar’s Graveyard Tour. Anyway, I’ve been slowly working my way through this here list, and when the Edinburgh Browncoats (core group being myself, ThursdayWeld, EricaLea, ErnieMay, for those keeping count) discovered that a much loved Finnish Browncoat (BlueSkiesMine) was coming to this magnificent burgh, we just had to celebrate in some way. Read more