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June 28th, 2008
09:06 pm - Oh yeah...
I had a bit more left over on my Flickr upload quota, so I put up five pictures from ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) swan_tower's and my trip from Indiana to California.
The luchador car is a guilty pleasure, though I'm most pleased with the picture of the Nevada desert twilight.
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June 12th, 2008
10:50 pm - Stars!
So, at my lovely wife's request, we pulled off the highway at about 9:30pm local time about thirty miles east of Elko, Nevada. The exit sign read:Deeth
Starr Valley
Next Right (Someone else took a picture of one of the signs for your enjoyment.) Of course, both of us read this slightly differently at first, and swan_tower has decided that it is the Elizabethan spelling of Palpatine's battle station. Clearly. Regardless, we pulled off the road onto a dirt parking area and hung out while the desert twilight died down and we could see the stars a bit better. We managed to largely ignore the darkened truck parked a bit away from us that had clearly stopped so its driver could get some sleep, though it was hard to avoid the feeling that we were fifteen seconds away from a bad slasher flick plotline.
So ... desert twilight? It lasts for a helluva long time. By the time we pulled back onto I-80 to head toward Elko, it was still a bit light in the west, though the moon's light dwarfed that of the western horizon.
Regardless, we saw a sky full of stars, and we both realized that our childhood lessons about constellations were exceedingly rusty. We picked out the Big Dipper, but beyond that, we were somewhat lost. I'll try to post a picture or three when I get to San Mateo, but the short version of it is that the pictures you see of Nevada's desert and Utah's salt flats really don't do them justice. The same could be said, I suppose, for Colorado's Rockies and any stretch of the Mississippi.
While we might not be seeing all of the touristy sights, we're certainly getting an eyeful of the land.
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June 11th, 2008
09:48 am - Westward Ho! (Day 2)
Quick update: We ended up staying at a Best Western in Columbia, Missouri last night that has free WiFi. Today, we drive into the teeth of Kansas thunderstorms and try to make Denver this evening.
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June 10th, 2008
09:42 am - Heading West
With some luck and hard work, swan_tower and I will be heading west today. I'm packing as much as will fit into the Prius, and then we're en route west as rapidly as is reasonable, shooting to be in San Mateo some time late Friday or early Saturday so that I'll be around in time for our rental tour on Sunday and my work start-date on Monday. If you need to reach either of us, cell phones are probably the most reliable method, at least until this weekend.
To those Indiana folks I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to, I'll be coming back to help my lovely wife pack our worldly possessions in advance of her move, which probably will be occurring some time around August or so. Otherwise, if you're ever in the Bay Area, drop me a line.
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May 31st, 2008
02:20 pm - Home!
We arrived back in Bloomington this morning, as our Chicago to Indianapolis flight was canceled due to the nutty Midwestern storm system. ...but I'm back, and I'm hoping to have some actual content that isn't related to my honeymoon soon. Likewise, if you're expecting an email back from me, please give me a few days to go through my backlog.
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May 29th, 2008
10:36 pm - Quick Post
Last post for me from the Med. We're docking at Civitavecchia tomorrow, and from there, it's a short hope to the Roman airport. Then, a long flight, a short stop in Chicago, and a short flight to Indy. Then, Bloomington again.
Today? Pompeii and the Naples National Archaeological Museum. More on that tomorrow, as well. ...but whoa. There were some damn well-preserved things there, weren't there?
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May 28th, 2008
10:13 pm - Cruisin'
A relatively brief entry, as it was a fairly low-key day. Today was an at-sea day, meaning that we slept in, did some pleasure reading, lazed about the stateroom, ate, and not much else. As I'm composing this, we're about to go to a show in the theater - Dance Around The World - but that's about it.
Tomorrow is Naples and Pompeii. The day after, we get up at the crack of dawn to disembark and head to the airport for a day of travel, culminating in a return to Bloomington at about 8pm local, and unless things have changed, transport will be provided by moonandserpent.
Aside: Did you know that, on this cruise ship, which houses about 1,800 guests and 900 crew, their stores for an average cruise include just shy of twelve tons of beef? They included a little facts and figures column in today's flyer, and the sheer amount of cattle that died for this cruise astounds me. Then there are the 8,650 dozen eggs, and don't get me talking about the fruits and vegetables....
I share the sentiments that swan_tower expressed at dinner this evening; I'm both sad and glad that the cruise is wrapping up. Much longer, and I'd have started to get stir crazy, though I really have only really unwound in the last couple days. Anyhow, until tomorrow, I suppose.
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May 27th, 2008
11:00 pm - Athens Report
Today was Athens. It suffered from the "OMG! We have five hours here! What do we do?" problem. We ended up hitting the Acropolis, which was impressive as hell, covered with tourists, and rather encased in scaffolding, and the Archaeological Museum, which one really needs a solid day or two to tour appropriately. As it was, we ended up having to do the highlights, including the bronze statue of Poseidon, the death mask of Agamemnon, some nifty Attic black ceramics, and some of the more famous marbles. The Antikythera Mechanism was a welcome surprise, as I'd forgotten it was in the Athens Museum, and we were somewhat distressed to not have found the famous Ephesian Artemis that I alluded to in my previous post.
Our excursion was "Athens on Your Own," which meant it was entirely self-directed. I'm sure we could have busied ourselves in the Agora alone for a day, rather than skirting it, as we did, and seeing the Temple to Olympian Zeus and the Temple to Hephaestus from a distance. Otherwise, we had a lazy afternoon and a relaxing evening to ourselves after our Roman power-walk archaeo-tourism redux in Athens. Tomorrow is a Sea Day, which means that we'll have some more relaxation before Pompeii and our extended travel day home. Thank god.
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12:05 am - Turkish Tourism
Another burst transmission from the Aegean, with my cut-and-paste posting. Today was our trip to Kusadasi / Ephesus, which I'm sure will be of interest to moonartemis76 for obvious reasons, even if you know nothing of her beyond her LiveJournal username.
The tour company that handled Celebrity's shore excursions in Turkey appears to be the same one that handles Royal Caribbean's shore excursions: Tura Turizm. It's a slick outfit, to be sure. They are well organized, and their tour guides certainly know a goodly amount about the sites on their scheduled tour itinerary, in addition to having a phenomenally good grasp of the English language. Unfortunately, they also seem to fall into the trap of relying heavily on corporate partnerships and cater to the - granted, significant - segment of cruise-guests who want to shop at each and every port of call. This means that the people who are going on the "Classical Istanbul" excursion for Roman, Byzantine, and early Ottoman architecture, culture, and archaeology are left at loose ends when they are left at the Grand Bazaar to shop for three out of the ten hours allotted to the tour. ...or when the ship is in port at Kusadasi for about eight hours and the "Ancient Ephesus" tour only lasts three hours, leaving off in a carpet weaving seminar in the shopping district without having visited the Archaeological Museum? We get a bit perturbed.
As I write this entry, swan_tower is composing comment forms on the two Turkish shore excursions so that the Celebrity corporate offices in Miami might be more likely to offer slightly more hardcore archaeophiles a shore excursion they'd enjoy. After all, on a cruise that departs from and returns to Rome and hits Mykonos / Delos, Rhodes, Santorini, Istanbul, Kusadasi / Ephesus, Athens, and Pompeii, you'd expect that the Classics geek quotient will be high.
I fear, however, that I'm sounding too bitchy. I am, after all, with my lovely wife on a cruise of the Mediterranean that visits a number of ports of call that I never thought I'd ever have occasion to see with my own eyes. The weather has been lovely, with partly cloudy skies on the worst day. These complaints are annoyances at most when compared to what we've gotten to see and do.
That said, a tour of Ancient Ephesus should at least plan to drive by the site of the Temple to Artemis, should it not? It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Or perhaps you should get to see the famous Ephesian statue of Artemis that has all the twenty-some-odd breasts (that I keep referring to the triple-breasted whore of Eroticon Six, due to mental poisoning by Douglas Adams)? That is in the Museum of Ephesus, which isn't on Tura Turizm's itinerary.
All that said, Ephesus was gorgeous. The archaeologists have the unenviable task of excavating an ancient city that was continuously occupied for nearly three millenia and housed nearly a quarter of a million inhabitants in its heyday; consequently, after a century of work, they're a little more than one tenth done with their work. Some of the reconstruction is wonderful, particularly the Library of Celsus, which has a gorgeous two-story façade with statues of Sophia, Arete, Ennoia, and Episteme (the originals of which live in Vienna). That they actually use the theater that could once seat 25,000 for modern concerts also warms the cockles of my heart, despite the giant ugly blue crane that lives stage right. I've got about a hundred and fifty photographs, a 250 page guidebook, and about thirty postcards to relate the experience to just about anyone who cares to hear about it.
On a somewhat related, more personal note, we've sent out a ton of postcards at various ports of call that should arrive some time between now and Doomsday, given the vagaries of postcard delivery. If you don't receive one, it's more likely either that we are dunces and forgot or that it got lost in international mail than we purposefully ignored you. It's a common occurrence for me to ask swan_tower if we've sent a card to someone and for her to remind me that yes, indeed, it went out in Mykonos or even in Rome before we boarded the cruise ship. I'm also keeping a journal of our trip like I did with Ireland back in 2001, though I'm not sure how much of that will make its way onto LiveJournal. I do, however, have a decent record of what we did and what we ate. (Tonight, for instance, fillet of wahoo with a creamy pineapple sauce, though I remember that mainly because it is a fish called a "wahoo," and that's funny.)
OK. I have gotten to the point where I have to resist the urge to type "wahoo" a lot, so it's clearly time to finish off this entry. See you all in another four or five days.
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May 25th, 2008
11:00 pm - Cruise News
At present, swan_tower and I are cruising the seas, having exited the Dardanelles and turned south along the coast of Turkey toward Kusadasi (once Ephesus), where we will visit the archaeological sites associated with the ancient city, including the Temple to Artemis. Yesterday afternoon and this morning were Istanbul, where we saw Topkapi Palace, the site of the Hippodrome, the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sofia, and the Grand Bazaar. For the record, my old friend Nazim appears to have been correct; traffic in Istanbul is probably the worst I've seen anywhere in the world.
Life on the cruise ship is odd, to say the least. The average age of guests on the ship is approximately 45; we're easily in the lowest tenth percentile in age, not counting crew. Food is included in the price of the cruise, so buffets are open all over the ship at all hours of the day, and the temptation to snack is nearly overpowering. You must pay for alcohol and soft drinks, but the ship happily provides you with an onboard account to which you may charge your drinks, 15% gratuity automatically added. Regardless, I expect to return home ten pounds heavier than when I left.
The service is top-notch, however. We've been in awe of our "room ninja," who constantly fold our clothes, make our bed, empty our trash, vacuum the carpet, and clean the bathroom, all apparently while we're eating our meals. The crew are all uniformly positive and engaging, and they are among the most multi-national bunch you'll ever see. There are significant contingents from the Philippines and India, but we've met citizens of nations representing all six inhabited continents, all of whom appear to know a minimum of three languages a piece, of which English is the commonality across the board.
There are only a few more ports of call - Kusadasi, Athens, and Naples - and a few more days on the cruise, but we're well and truly feeling as if we've had a solid honeymoon at this stage. The soreness our feet acquired while forced-marching all around Rome, trying to pack in as many sites as possible has long since given way to a rested feeling and an honest anticipation of the next day's outing, hoping that this one might be a bit longer, paced a bit faster than the older set on the ship would probably be willing or able to manage.
I'm actually pre-writing this entry, as the Internet access onboard is prohibitively expensive, since it's a satellite uplink. Actual online time is still fairly limited, though I'm still sporadically checking Gmail. Expect responses to any pending communications on May 31 or June 1.
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May 23rd, 2008
11:10 am - Santorini!
Today, I have slightly more time. We're on the lovely island of Santorini, which has the distiction of probably having been the site of the volcanic eruption that caused the tsunami that wiped out Minoan civilization. It's almost entirely built on the lip of the volcanic caldera, and our cruise ship is anchored in the bay above the mouth of the dormant volcano. We took donkeys up the several-hundred foot cliff to Fira, the largest settlement on the island.
swan_tower and I will probably shop for a bit, hit the archaeological museum here (apparently magma and ash don't entirely wipe out ancient sites; they just cover them up), and head back to the ship around 2 or 3pm. The ship then sails at 4pm for Istanbul, where we'll be for two days, tromping around historic Byzantine buildings and such. Then, Athens and Naples / Pompeii, though I may be forgetting a spot or two.
As a note, if you're trying to contact me, send an email to my LJ username at gmail [dot] com. That's the only address I'm checking at present, since I don't entirely trust the various Internet cafe terminals I'm using. Access is sporadic, however, so don't expect a reply before the first of June, when we return.
Note that I've largely managed to locate requested touristy items, though I'm still searching for a native who might be willing to return with us for Tony.
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May 22nd, 2008
02:01 pm - Also, Hello from Rhodes!
I promise to have fuller posts later, but at the moment, you get the 30-second Internet Cafe versions. We're in Rhodes today, exploring the Medieval town here. Yesterday was Mykonos (and more compelling for us, Delos), and tomorrow is Santorini. Whee!
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01:58 pm - Addresses!
Please post your mailing address here if you have any doubt if we have your address, particularly if you've moved recently. We make no promises, but those who post here might get a postcard from somewhere in the Aegean. I've also screened comments, so only I should be able to see these. Knightridge residents please post apartment numbers; I can locate you physically, but I only remember who #42 belongs to.
Thanks!
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May 18th, 2008
09:33 pm - Rome Today in Two Minutes
Wandering in the rain, finally finding the Basilica Maria Maggiore, where I left a donation in memory of my grandparents. Then, hitting the Imperial Forum and the associate museum, which was perhaps one of the worst designed museums I've seen. Then, the Appian Way and the Catacomb of San Callisto. Then wandering until we found the bit of the Appian Way that had ancient stones. Then Capitoline Hill. Then dinner.
Tomorrow? Not much. We leave for the cruise at a little after noon. Gotta run.
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May 17th, 2008
09:59 pm - Rome Today
Vatican tour, including the Sistine Chapel, a stupid number of Classical busts and treasures of antiquity. Apparently John Paul II's tomb requires three guards, and yes, for the record, the Swiss Guard look as silly as you might believe them to. We also hit Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Pantheon, and the Piazza Navona (which was under some renovations). The Mausoleum of Augustus was closed off for renovation, and we didn't really see Castel San'Angelo from the inside, but we got to wander around outside and avoid vendors who wanted to sell us D&G and Gucci knock-offs. Due to a bit of miscommunication, I also tried lamb brains, which was unexpected but interesting.
Tomorrow? I'm not quite sure. swan_tower is the keeper of the schedule, though I think we're cleaning up some of the stuff in the ancient city that we didn't see yesterday. The following day, we depart on the cruise. Yay!
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May 16th, 2008
09:50 pm - Brief update
Today: Palatine Hill, the Forum, the Coliseum, Circus Maxiumus.
Tomorrow: The Vatican and a bunch of stuff between there and our hotel (which is near Termini).
Longer updates when I have more than 60 seconds at the Internet place.
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May 15th, 2008
12:16 pm - Live, From Rome!
I'm posting from Rome, where "Internet Points" are a dime a dozen (well, a euro a half hour, but you know), particularly in conjunct with laundromats. ...at least in the vicinity of the major train station here, where swan_tower and I are staying.
After sleeping off the jet lag tonight, we will likely be hitting some of the major ancient sites tomorrow.
Also, the sewer covers all have "SPQR" on them, which is teh awesome.
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May 12th, 2008
01:30 pm - Preparing for Departure
Wednesday, I depart for Rome to begin my somewhat-delayed honeymoon with the lovely swan_tower. Today and tomorrow are largely devoted to getting last-minute purchases, calling credit cards, and confirming reservations.
It should be cool. Four days in Rome, followed by an eleven-day cruise around the Mediterranean, hitting Athens, Rhodes, Ephesus, Delos, and Istanbul. Should anyone want anything from this trip - souvenir, postcard, symbolic pilgrimage, or what have you - you should comment or email me soon, as I don't know how frequent my Internet access will be once I'm in Europe.
Also, I'm currently looking for a ride to the airport on Wednesday. My flight leaves at 2pm, and it's the domestic leg, so I will only need to be there in the 12:30 to 12:45 range, but the only offer I have at present (thanks to moonartemis) would get me there four hours early. I have a fallback offer if all else fails (thanks to drydem), but if it wouldn't be a bother for someone to drive me up in the late morning / very early afternoon, I'd be very grateful.
N.B.: We have the ride back on the evening of the 30th planned, thanks to moonandserpent.
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May 6th, 2008
10:35 am - Bachelorhood Revisited!
Today, I drive swan_tower to the airport. She's off to London for a week, after which she'll be meeting up with me in Rome, where we'll be doing the tourist thing for four days before going on a cruise to Athens, Delos, and Istanbul for another ten days. ...but while she's off in London, I'll be around and about, doing the bachelor thing again before I take off for Europe.
Drop me a line if you're free, in Indiana, and bored as well. :)
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November 18th, 2007
12:28 pm - Mid-November in Texas
So ... the last month has been a rather jam-packed one. A brief update on what I'm doing and where I'm doing it seems in order.
This last week, I've been at the Large Installation System Administration Conference (LISA) in Dallas. I loaded up on tutorials, focusing on Solaris 10 administration and performance tuning, Cfengine, shell scripting practices, and OpenLDAP. By the end of the week, my brain was pouring out my ears, as these classes are very much akin to drinking from an informational firehose. While at the conference, I reintroduced myself to a few people, got to know a large number of very interesting folk, joined the League of Professional Systems Administrators (LOPSA), and got far too little sleep. The vendors also gave me nifty toys, including bar towels from Google, a half dozen T-shirts, a rubik's cube, two bags, and a handful of nick-knacks. All in all, a definite win.
In order to save on lodgings, I stayed with my in-laws, who live only about a half hour away on the DART, and my boss said that it would be acceptable to VPN in to work remotely the first few days of this coming week. Consequently, since my lovely wife and I were intending to spend Thanksgiving with her family, I arrived in Dallas on the 10th, to return to Indiana on the 25th. Apologies to those who weren't aware and had hoped to do something with me during that time.
After a lazy Saturday and a (perhaps excessively) brisk workout this morning, I'm feeling far more human. The conference had started to wear on me, and I hadn't even been drinking that much with the LOPSA folks. ...not that this was any fault of theirs; they made every effort to make it easy for me to do so.
I've also had some stressors of late; good friends of mine have had some really rough times, and there has been some drama surrounding my grandmother being put in a nursing home. ...but I've got my heath, a pretty good job, and a lovely and talented wife. Overall, I really can't complain.
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