Kara’s Blog

Oddly enough, transatlantic travel has started to become somewhat ordinary for me. The first time it was new and exotic and somewhat terrifying. The second time it was a relief (to be going home, particularly because I hate travelling). The third time, with a different airline, was another adventure. But now, having done it a few more times and developed a routine for getting to and from the various airports, it is starting to feel…

Those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook have probably heard the story of my epic journey to return to England. I’ll record it for posterity in a later blog post, when I have the time.

For now, I simply wanted to note that I’ve published my annual list of best books I read in 2013.

For the first time since I started making these lists, I’m not doing a companion “worst…

(Title shamelessly adapted from Peeta as portrayed in How the Hunger Games Should Have Ended.)

Last Friday I had the privilege of accompanying my roommate and her ten-year-old daughter to a pantomime performance of Aladdin. After a delightful dinner out of pizza, we walked down to the Theatre Royal in Bury. We found our box in the upper circle and settled in to await the beginning of the show, marked by the arrival…

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, marked by an anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor. This special was simulcast in 94 countries and 15 languages, setting a new Guinness world record in the process. In many countries, including the UK, it was also shown in theatres in 3D. My roommate, her daughter, and I bought our tickets as soon as they went on sale. Last night we queued up to…

It has been suggested I need to write another blog post this weekend. Fortunately, I have an appropriate subject, because LoadingReadyRun’s seventh annual charity marathon for Child’s Play starts today.

Desert Bus for Hope is a livestream of the LoadingReadyRun members, family, friends, and various other dedicated individuals. One of them—the driver—plays the most pointless real-time video game in existence, the eponymous Desert Bus. In this game, you drive a bus from Las…

It’s Halloween, and it’s the half-term, and I realized I haven’t actually updated my blog in over a month.

I’m sitting here with my head feel like a trainwreck for the second time this autumn. Colds are not my friend this year. Stress has run down my immune system to an unacceptable level, and between that and Twitter’s decision to stick large images in my feed, I am not happy.

Having a week off to…

I’m 24 now.

It’s not much different from being 23. I think I’ve changed a lot in a year. Last year I felt far too young to be a teacher. Now I’m jaded and cynical about the world of work!

It’s weird to think I’m a quarter of the way through my likely life-span. I’ve still got so much left to learn.

My birthday was actually on Friday. Another math teacher shares the same birthday…

I’ve been using Ubuntu Linux as my primary operating system for several years now. Ever since I first tried Linux, I’ve dual-booted it alongside a Windows installation—this means that when I turn on the computer, I can choose whether to start Windows or Linux. Once upon a time, Windows was the default. No longer!

Ubuntu has steadily improved over the years, as has my familiarity and proficiency with Linux. Indeed, much of what I do…

I feel like I haven’t been doing much in the way of online consuming lately. I’ve been creating a lot, mostly writing; and most of my consumption has been in the form of good, old-fashioned literature. Still, here’s a few things that caught my eye!

• It’s ridiculously easy to expose saved passwords in Chrome. Other browsers aren’t much better, mind you. Use a password manager—I use LastPass and am very happy with it.
• The
…

I originally wrote this in March and have only now gotten around to publishing it. Go me.

I’ve already discussed my mad love for the Mass Effect series, so now let’s talk about another series that captured my fairweather gaming heart: Assassin’s Creed. I can’t remember whether I got the original before or after I tried Mass Effect, but those were the first two games I played all the way through when…