Photography – Page 114 – The Bald Heretic – Short, bald dude with a goofy beard

I love Italy

Cynthia and I have fallen in love with Venice.
Once you get past the crush of humanity in the main tourist areas you can find small streets lined with pleasant cafes and restaurants intermingled with shops.

Each turn of a corner reveals a scene more picturesque than the last.

The people here have been very kind and pleasant. You can walk the streets to all hours of the night and be completely safe. We strolled till nearly midnight last night.

The Venetian glass is truly beautiful and the masks are fantastic. As tempting as these items are, we cannot carry any souveniers back with us and the cost of shipping starts at 70 Euros and goes up. We must content ourselves with pictures and memories for the time being.

The one thing that continues to amaze me is that there are no cars, scooters, motorcycles or bicycles here. All the motorized traffice is by boat and the rest of the traffic is by foot.

Tomorrow we take the train to Florence. From all that we have heard this will prove to be equally wonderful.

Venice!

Venice Picture Gallery

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The night train from Paris to Venice was an experience to say the least.
We shared a cabin with a Nigerian man who was friendly enough but seemed out of place on a train to Venice.

We made conversation and then bedded down for the night.

As the train rolled through the darkness I dosed off and dreamed of bizarre train sequences from various WWII movies. Then, at 4:00 am I was awakened by a knocking on the cabin door. We had stopped and a uniformed Italian policeman was asking us questions. He was most interested in the man from Nigeria. The conversation was mostly in Italian (which the Nigerian man spoke fluently) and the policeman searched his luggage thoroughly. After about 45 minutes he was done and he left. I fell back asleep as the train pulled out and continued us on our journey.

We arrived in Venice around 8:30 this morning.

I found my way to St. Marks and got a picture right where my grandfather stood in 1919.

One of the sites we were anxious to see was the so-called “Bridge of Sighs.” Legend has it that this bridge received it’s name because the prisoners who passed through it on their way to the prison cells on the other side would most likely see the beautiful sight of the lagoon and the island of S.Giorgio and freedom for the last time.

This is probably an apocryphal tale but it makes a great story.

William was happy to see it.

The food here is awesome and the weather is magnificent. We leave the day after tomorrow for Florence.
Cynthia’s ability to speak Spanish is helping us in many ways since the languages are very similar.

Finally got some IO

Found a cafe that will let you connect USB devices so I am adding two pics taken yesterday.

Yes, I AM a tourist.

William the sheep is overjoyed to be in Paris and see the sights.

We stayed up late so I could use the tripod and get this shot

Oh yea, before we left Bruges, Cynthia got the hookup at the Dumon Chocolate Shop. This place is pretty amazing. It went a long way toward lifting her spirits after the “incident.”

We went to the top of the tower today and we also walked to the Arc d’Triumph. Tomorrow is the Louvre.

It’s all “Dutch” to me…

I’m using the B&B landlord’s PC. I managed to hook up the iPod successfully (even with Dutch instructions).
The plane ride was uneventful. When we arrived in Amsterdam we found out George Bush would be visiting. There were some protests. Getting “Stop Bush” fliers handed to us by the local dissidents was a hoot.

Cynthia and I hooked up with my friend Carl and his lovely lady Suzanne. We did some sight-seeing by foot on day 1 and managed to stay awake the whole day before crashing around 7:00 pm. That meant we were awake better than 24 hours and allowed us to (mostly) overcome jet lag.

The next day we went to the Van Gogh museum. Very nice. That evening was spent with Carl and Suzanne at their place. We had a lovely dinner and if I hadn’t been overcome by a hefty sinus headache we would have been up all night engaged in wonderful discussion. As it was, the evening was still mighty fine.

Today was spent taking the train to Liden and on to the Keukenhoff to check out the Tulip festival. It was spectacular!

Tomorrow is on the Bruges Belgium for chocolate and beer. I’ll update as I can.

Ow! My aching iPod…

First off, to all you Mac users, just save it. I don’t want to hear:

“It wouldn’t be a problem if you owned an Apple computer.”

All that means is that for the cost of the $600 I have invested in the iPod plus accessories I could have had a more hassle free deployment if I had gone ahead and purchased a Mac. And what that means for me is that my new iPod would have cost me over $2000 plus the cost of time and effort transferring my environment from Windows to Mac. Not really a solution, so STFU.

What brings this on, you ask? I’ll tell you.

In researching my options for media storage (I needed a way to offload my digital images while in Europe) I came to the conclusion that I would purchase a Photo iPod.

There are many options available for the price range of $200 – $600. These options include dedicated card readers capable of storing 20-40 gig of data or some type of portable media center device like an IRiver PMC-120 or the Creative Labs Zen.

Drawbacks…

DEDICATED DEVICE

It would be used on the trip and that would be that. I would have the investment in an item I probably would not use again until I went on vacation. And at the rate I take vacations that would be maybe two years from now. Plus the cost goes up for the rechargeable ones versus the ones you plug in.

PORTABLE MEDIA CENTER

These devices usually have a very poor form factor. Usually unwieldy and awkward and again, not much use for it once I am done.

As I am researching my options and time is growing shorter I have a bit of a revelation.
A host of heavenly nerd angels sang unto me! Apple Photo iPod!

Available in 40 gig and 60 gig versions. Compact, lightweight and proven technology. With the optional USB camera connector option it is a simple matter to connect your camera to the iPod and pull off your images for storage. It will hold thousands of pictures!

And the best part? At the end of it all I have an iPod! I can store my CD collection on one device that travels easily! Woo-Hoo!

And so you might well think, what’s the gripe? A solution was found that suits my needs and all is right with the world. Well, you might think that…but you would be wrong.

Step one. Go to Apple store and buy 60 gig Photo iPod along with additional camera connector accessory. Total cost right at $520.00. Suckin it up. Gonna solve my problems. It’s worth it. B-R-E-A-T-H-E.

Step two. Take it home and get it going.

Step three. Connect camera and pull off images to test the functionality. Instructions overly simplistic. Not getting response from the device that the camera is connected. Look at Apple site and see camera is NOT listed in support devices. Sinking feeling.

Step four. Bring full ability of my own nerdliness to bear on the problem. Come to the conclusion that camera must work and it is a defective adapter.

Step five. Go back to Apple store and explain problem. Apple rep suggests updating the iPod software. This fixes the problem and my hopes again soar.

Step six. Go home and connect iPod to laptop. Reading instructions it clearly states USB 2.0 is REQUIRED. All of my PC’s are USB 1.1

Step 7. Go to CompUSA to purchase USB 2.0 PCMCIA card for $39. Go ahead and grab a carrying case for the iPod for another $39.

Step 8. Install PCMCIA card in laptop. Install seems to go ok. Begin install of iPod and system crashes. iPod freezes up and I cannot even soft reset it.

Step 9. Call Apple Support. Get Sanjeet in India who verifies that I do have Service Pack 4 on my Windows 2000 and performs other useless checks on my system that have nothing to do with breathing life back into my one day old DEAD iPod. Sanjeet informs me that I will need to take it back to the Apple store for service.

Step 10. Drive to Apple store. On the way down the Westpark Toll Road I decide to try again to soft reset the iPod. This time it works. I make a u-turn after only passing two toll plazas and wasting a bit of my Easy Tag slush fund.

Step 11. Decide to use another laptop and install the USB 2.0 card on it. Perhaps since it is newer and running XP I will have better luck. Install of card goes well. Install of iPod causes exact same blue screen. Again, using my powers of dorkdom I conclude I have either got a defective iPod or a defective USB 2.0 card. Since CompUSA is closer than the Apple store I decide that the card must be defective and not the iPod.

Step 12. Fish the receipt, bag and packaging from the trash and go to CompUSA to exchange item for a Firewire card and a firwire cable for the iPod. I decided that I would avoid the USB 2.0 in favor of Firewire in hopes that it would work more smoothly.

As I am conducting the exchange/upgrade (this new solution is $100) I discover that somehow or another I have brought with me a CompUSA receipt dated March 23rd 2002 for a Canon ink-jet cartridge. As it turns out Cynthia was cleaning out her office and had just thrown some stuff away. What are the odds?

Step 13. Install Firewire card. Install goes well. Begin iPod install and it works! Huzzah! Start copying music. That works, too! Yippee! Decide to check the stats on the iPod. Total disk space 60 gig. 290 songs on device 15 gig available. WTF?!? 290 songs x 3mb each = lest than one gig. I figure something in one of the failed installs caused the drive not format properly or something. I do a total system reset and regain all my drive space.

Tune in tomorrow night when I attempt to load my songs back on and see what happens. I think I am past the worst of it but it remains to be seen.

Baa!

One of the common threads of our trip to the UK two years ago was the sheep. Cynthia thought they were sooooooooooooo cute and commented (with a smile) each time she saw them. When we were crossing the field to go to Hadrian’s Wall we had to walk through a field of sheep to get there. We got more pictures of the sheep than we did of the wall. There is even a tuft of wool in our photo album from the trip.

Being the considerate mate that I am, I made it my mission to find the definitive sheep souvenir to give to Cynthia so she would have it as a keepsake of our time there.

Cynthia hates tchotchkes so a plastic sheep figurine would not do it.
She is not a big fan of the t-shirt so that was out.

My best bet would be a stuffed animal or plushy.
Of course it couldn’t be just any stuffed sheep.
It would have to have “cute-appeal.”
Over the years I have proven myself capable of picking out a good stuffed animal.

It was at the very top of The Royal Mile right as you start the downhill trek from Edinburgh Castle that I hit pay-dirt. We had just browsed around The Edinburgh Woolen Mill and we coming out on the street to go to the next shop when I spotted a wicker basket containing some very cute (and very small) stuffed sheep.

One was quickly purchased and presented to Cynthia and she treasures it to this day.
I was tasked with naming it. We were in Scotland and before I could catch myself I blurted out William Woolace”¦an unfortunate pun. It stuck.

William will be joining us on our trip to Europe.
He will have his own Journal and I offered to capture him in still life at various locations as we travel.

Something like this:

Yes, I am a sentimental and sappy dorkus malorkus.

You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares and go…

It was an awesome day today. The weather is really fantastic. Temps are in the 70’s with lot’s of sunshine and low, low humidity. Cynthia and I decided to go downtown and shoot some pics. She is testing some different film in her camera and we wanted to see how it would do before we leave for Europe.

We headed to The Flying Saucer for some beers and then headed off down Main Street.
Tested the tripod and the timer. Worked well.

Oh, we'll drink and drink and drink and drink and...

Mostly she was just burning film and I was just snapping this and that. Still ended up with a nice one of Cynthia at the corner of Main and Texas.

Whatchoo lookin’ at?

Ain’t ya never seen a parrot eating a Cheeto? We had these all the time in Africa.