Italian Pizzeria

Moses with horns

View from Delphi

Still getting through pictures. I love the effect that a circular polarizer has on the sky =o)

Sitting in Pompeii

Well, as most of you know, we made it back from Europe and we had a great time. I know I’m slow getting this first blog entry out, but things have been crazy since we’ve been back. I’m going to try to get through it all though and get to posting pictures. I took a TON of photos and I won’t bore you with all of them. I’ll post a few here and there and then when I’m through all of them I’ll update my flickr page with a better selection. For now though, here is a shot of Krista and I in Pompeii.

Pompeii was incredible. Acres and acres of ruins. It was crazy walking down the stone roads, preserved incredibly for nearly 2000 years. It was a little like walking through a ghost town. I’ll post more “traditional” photos of Pompeii, but I thought this one was cute.

Flickr Update!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/englishw/

Update from Rome

Flickr page updated!

10:00 PM Sunday night

Well, we arrived safely in Rome, Italy and have been enjoying our stay very much. A few people in our group have been sick (my mom, our tour leader, included). We are very tired, but are having a lot of fun.

Thursday was entirely a travel day. We left Portland airport at 7am and arrived in Rome at about 6:30am Rome time. We stopped at the hotel to drop off our luggage and then boarded the bus. We saw the catacombs first (no photography allowed). It was absolutely amazing. After that, we toured a few churches right around our hotel. It is so amazing how old these buildings are. The "new church" as they call it here is 500 years old. They call it "new" because the "old church" is 1500 years old. Amazing.

There are street vendors everywhere trying to sell everything imaginable. It is fun to see them pack up and run with a sheet filled with their goods on their back. It must be illegal and they must have a scout that whistles or something when policia are coming, because in 2 seconds flat they go from trying to sell you a purse to having everything collected up in a sheet on their back and running to a nearby ally.

Saturday we got to tour the Vatican. It was incredible. I took lots of pictures, but due to limited internet, I am only posting a few on my flickr page at a very low resolution. When I get back I'll be posting high resolution photos and lots of them I'm sure.

Today we were able to see the coliseum and the roman forum. We also got to see the jail where it is believed that Paul was held right before he died (the place he wrote II Timothy). That was incredible to see. The coliseum was surreal. It is so massive it is hard to really appreciate it. I took some shots to combine into a panorama, we'll see how that works out when I get home.

I am very tired and very very sore after walking all day for several days now. Tomorrow is a travel day, we will spend from 7am to noon on a bus going to another town in Italy. I will post again with more photos as I can. We have very full days and I have to give up coveted sleep to make these posts. Krista is sleeping right now :)

Bill out.

PongOut

Ok, there is this flash game called PongOut...you play Pong and Breakout at the SAME TIME. I had a blast with it for about 25-30 minutes and then realized I got the top score of all time. The oldest score is a week old, so it probably hasn't been out much longer than that. But still, there is a certain satisfaction with getting #1.

Odd perspective: Movie to book

I just finished reading 'Stardust' by Neil Gaiman. I really enjoyed it. However, after reading nothing but graphic novels for a few months, there weren't enough pictures ;) Anyway, it was very weird reading a book after I saw the movie. I think this is the only time that has happened for me. I have read books and seen the movie later on several occasions. Almost without fail the movies are a disappointment. But, it has always been watching the 90 minute movie after reading the 8+ hour book. Now that I have experienced reading the book after watching the movie, I think it's terrible thing. You should always read the book first, or just skip it entirely. I had a hard time enjoying Stardust...without thinking about the movie the whole time. I could never really get into Neil Gaiman's story as it "drifted from the movie." Maybe in a few years I'll be able to go back and enjoy the novel. It was a good book, don't get me wrong, but I knew what was going to happen. Or, I thought I knew what was going to happen. When events didn't happen like the movie, I was more distracted by that and thinking about that than I was the actual story I was reading.

I dunno...anyone else have a similar experience?

Heroes and comics and a cool online download thingie

I really enjoy the TV show 'Heroes'. The first season was wonderful. The second season ended a little less wonderfully because of the writers' strike, but now that that's over, I look forward to season 3 of 'Heroes'!

I was just turned on to WOWIO.com. It is a site that lets you download up to 3 books or comic books a day for free as PDFs. Very cool site for people looking for PDFs to read.

WOWIO has a parody comic of the TV show 'Heroes' called 'Hewoes'. It is hilarious! If you are a fan of the TV show, I highly recommend making a free WOWIO account and downloading 'Hewoes #1'. I couldn't stop laughing - great stuff!

Eclipse photos

I shot a few photos of the eclipse last night and posted them on my flickr gallery. CLICK HERE.