damn

So... I wanted to take this 5 minute stretch to upload some pictures, but uploading pictures is taking waaaaay too long. My appologies. When I get another chance, I'll write again.

Okay...

Okay. First post. And I'm sorry to say that this is going to be short and cryptic for now. European key boards are quite different from American ones, and I'm desperatealy trying to get used to them, so bear with me.
We arrive in Italy, rent a car, and immidately proceed to drive, yes, drive to the Amalfi Coast. The driving wasn't bad. I was appointed navagator for some strange reason (strange because I can get lost in my own home town...), but much to my chagrin everything turns out fine, and the motto "Trust the navagator. The navagator, she is good, the navagator, she is wise" pops right into existence. The italian country side is breathtaking. Mountains pop out of the horizon much like paper out of a pop up book. A few hours after leaving Rome, we're passing right by Naples, and under the looming presence of Mount Vesuvius. It's huge. Thats all I can say for now. Passing through the town of Meta, we almost get lost, but reach some very high mountains of which Arlo Gutherie's "Pickle Song" describes perfectly ("On one side of the mountain, there was a mountain. On the other side there was nothing, just a cliff in the air"). After about half an hour of winding around the hills, there lies Positano, little buildings rivering their way down the mountain side to the sea.
Eddie Izzard was right about the motor scooters. To paraphrase, "the italians are groovy, mostly scotting around on a motor scooter saying, "Ciiaooo". He's compeltely right, because if I had a euro for every time mom flinched and dad slammed on the brakes a little each time someone on a scooter passed us in the car, Id have rnough euros not to come home for a while. The roads, though windy and small, are in great condition, and its actually quite teeth gnashing to see how on earth one dude pnas to creep his bus around a corner at the same time a fruit cart comes by, but after a while, it's no big deal.
The Positano art festival was going on the week we were there, so every night there'd be music on the beach.
While we were in Positano, we got the chance to take day trips to Capri, Paestum, and Pompeii, of which I'll write more about when I can get some pictures up.
Long story short, POsitano is pretty much the perfect little getaway.
I will tak ethis time now to say that Naples is not the nicest or friendliest city, and we found out just waht it was like to be discriminatied against for being American. I'm damn sure there are parts of teh city worth seeing, but the cental city is not something I'd want to spend more than five minutes in.


We arrive in Rome after a very pleasant train ride (squeee!!), and the city is a-buzz with helicopters, armored cars, armed police, and so forth. Bushie, just so happens to be in town and the protests are crowding up the city. I really honestly couldn't say that I blamed them. I really didn't want him around either. Not to mention the fact that we were a little apprehenive about going back out after being warned that there were theives around that were specifically looking out for Americans. But, we chilled and went out a bit latedr after everything had died down.
So far Rome has been amazing, hot, but amazing..


And my time is up. So, I will try to post some more tomorrow, with pictures. Yay!

I can write anything I want about Patti. ANYTHING!!

Just because I can.

(Note: this post comes about because my wonderfully bright and very nice co-worker, Patti, said that now that she had the link that I "couldn't write anything about [her]" when in reality I can. Note also that she didn't specify. And I don't have anything bad or mediocre to say about her... So.. )


Take that. :D

Tonight's endeavor: Checking out the heavens.

I was watching a public broadcasting channel with other day with my mom. They were showing a video taped version of "The Barber of Seville", so we watched. Very well done performance. Afterwards was a little piece with some nerdy-lookin' dude in it, which I was about to turn off until he started talking about what was going to be in the sky that weekend. I was immediately intrigued because I hadn't been keeping track as of late and was just plain curious. I took note of what he said would be out this weekend and the beginning of this week. First, to the west an hour after sunset, right along the elipsis (orbit lines) at about a 45 degree angle from the horizon up to the left would be Mercury, Venus, and Saturn. At 11 PM, Jupiter in the South, and Mars more towards the center of the sky, I think. I must confess that I wasn't really paying that much attention when he got to Mars, cause... Well.. It's Mars. Its big. Its red. Its big and red. Not really too much else to say.
So just about after sunset, I hauled out the telescope, propped it up in the backyard and surveyed the heavens.
I dragged my brother and my mother out to the backyard, and when i asked if dad wanted to take a peek, he suggested hooking up my camera to the telescope. Its great idea. But there's just one problem. On this particular scope, it does have a camera port, but you need a special attachment. I could just stick the lens in the hole, which I tried, but a small digital camera does not have the capability to 'see' the whole way down the barrel (of which I got a lot of shots of until I realized I was doing). Needless to say... I was a little peeved. I could have grabbed the Nikon, but I still didn't have the right attachment, and I didn't have any film. Boo.
All was lost-- until I realized that I could probably just stick the lens in the viewfinder eye piece. I did. And even though some of the planets didn't come out so well, I got some great pictures.


I know this is a bit of a stretch, but what is actually in this picture is Saturn. The eliptical nature of it kinda gives it away, but in the telescope, you can see the division between the planet and the rings. On a really clear night, it's even possible to see the Cassini Division between section A and B of the rings. Not tonight, but still very nice.


Next, Venus the blob. There is really only one word to describe this picture: crappy. Venus, though pretty and bright as all get out doesn't really have too much definition to it unless you've got a larger scope. The barrel of mine is about 5 inches in diameter, so an 8 inch telescope would probably do much better.


Jupiter is probably one of my favorite planets to look at for three reasons: 1) Size. Very easy to spot. 2) On a good evening, and the right night, you can just barely catch the Great Red Spot. 3) Moons. Every night the four largest of Jupiter's moons, Io, Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa, appear in different spots as they rotate around their orbits. Callisto is not in the picture. And I can't be sure, but I think Europa and Io are on the left and Ganymede is on the right.
I couldn't get pictures of Mercury, being close to the horizon to get a decent exposure, or Mars, being too near to the 90 degree angle at which I cannot bend my telescope for fear of screwing up the machinery.

After seeing all this, and trying to get the best possible pictures, I got a little bit carried away maybe. If anyone saw the moon tonight, yes, it was bright, but not quite full. Still, though, one big reccomendation is to NEVER look at the moon full through a telescope. Burn a hole right through your retinas, you will. I know this. Buuuuuut, I reasoned with myself saying, "Hey, its not completely full."


Needless to say, I almost went blind. Just kidding (Don't try this at home, kids). Of course, this also looked much better through the scope, but I was very impressed with how well these came out. I have a whole bunch in time-lapse (thank you Canon for custom timers), which I won't put up cause I've got to go through them and do a little editing, and it would have much more of an "Ooooo" factor when placed in a slideshow or something. Still, I was "Ooo"-ing at the detail. The pole crater Tycho is easily seen, and up to the right from that is the largest of the moons maria, Oceanus Procellarum or the Ocean of Storms. Directly up from the pole is Mare Serenitatis, and down to its left, slightly darker, is Mare Tranquilitatis; the Sea of Tranquility. (I'm not sure, but the first moon landing was right around there.I know they were there and in the Ocean of Storms.)
I love this stuff. I don't know why exactly. It's just a hobby, but could it appeal to the side of me that longs to know what else is out there? Am I dying to know if we're alone in this huge thing we call the universe? Does it provoke me ponder the meaning of life? Probably not. I would love to know more about what's out there. Apparently the universe expands and has been expanding years before we even knew what it was or what to call it. I don't really think that we're alone in the universe simply for the reason that Jodi Foster put so eloquently, ". . . seems like an awful waste of space." Do I believe that we're here for some larger reason? I don't know, but I do believe that anyone not willing to take five minutes to see something as spectacular as this is seriously depriving themselves of something. That something being not just the experience of seeing something usually only read about in a grade school science book. Mankind has gazed at the heavens for centuries for navigation, for religion, for explanations, and so on. For myself, it is not only enthralling to see science and nature come to life in the eye piece of my telescope; it is a reminder of (like Ms. Foster said in Contact) how small, insignificant, and invaluable we are, as corny as it sounds.

Sometimes I wish my weekends were more eventful, but I think this weekend kind of took the cake in comparison to others.

And they do merit some more creative explanation, but I think that will be for a later post, cause I really have to think about where I want to take it.

Long story short-- Every friday night we ( my family ) invite over a very good friend of ours in addition to either my step-grandmother, whom most of you have heard a bunch about- and thats an understatement, and another old friend of my father's. So schematics: My mother, my father, my brother, me, Jane, Dick, and Sander if the whole group is together. . And during those evenings, no matter the company present, there are usually some very interesting discussions that go on that I think most people might have trouble swallowing. Not from me or my immdiate family, mind you... but from the three extra members present at such a dinner party. This friday though it was just the four of us, Dick, and Sander making roll call of six people; five jews, one catholic, each person varying in age, temperment, and social and political views.
This friday evening was nothing out of the ordinary concerning topics of discussion: town, politics, education, popular culture, sex, drugs, and maybe a little rock and roll. The out of ordinary thing that happened was that I had the urge to write creatively and seriously for the first time since high school. I don't know how well thats going to go, but I can say there will be at least some interesting dictation on the subject of cannonballs and time release kreplach, the last of which had to be explained to Dick. So keep a look out. I might post what I eventually write. I might not. It will be dragged over the coals a whole bunch, though, cause well... I'm anal about my writing.

Not at the moment though if you're reading this cause I'm not feeling well. In fact, I'm not even sure why I'm putting this down now. But it does have a sort of fly-by-the-seat-of-my-yoga-pants kinda feeling.

So I guess this'll just be kinda garbled garbage then, but while I'm going...

The rest of my weekend- Took a trip to Medina to see a friend of mine from college who was not in town, but then again Medina is not that far from here. And I must say that her family has a penchant for living out in the middle of nowhere to which she laughingly agreed. I will say this about that house, though.. they have one hole of golf on their front lawn.. Picture it. Theres a tee off point... And a little pond.. And of course a little flat piece with a flag. Just one- but it's there. We ate, we drank, and drank some more... And I didn't drink much, but I will say that considering how I feel today, shiraz is out of the question for a very long time. Needless to say though, we had a ball.

this tickles me

(Stephan Pastis, May 9th, 2007 http://www.comics.com/comics/pearls/archive/pearls-20070509.html)
(I had to cite it, of course... like the good student of English. Don't make fun.)

'the knee bone's connected to the something. the something's connected to the red thing. the red thing's connected to my wristwatch...'

Okay so here's where I put down some stuff that I just thought would go perfect in a blog.

Or something to that effect. Not to mention that I want to try out this whole picture dealy.

So on Saturday, the whole family's home, apparently we have nothing to do, whats the first thing on the adgenda of preparing for things to come. Yes, shopping. So that's exactly what we do. Nothing like a family shopping trip to get your gears going. We buzz on out to the Grove. Now, the person that we're focusing on mainly is my little brother. He needs something that does not scream, "HEY! I'M AN AMERICAN COLLEGE FRATERNITY BOY. LOOK AT MY AMERICAN-NESS!" This should not be hard to do, and it isn't, unless you're banking on the fact that my father may have been forty years old coming out of the womb.

......

We ARE banking on this, and as expected, the first place we walk into is a slightly upscale men's/women's outfitters; the type that you see the country club mothers and dress down business executives in. NOT for my brother, but moving on.

Let me deviate for just a second and delve into a little backstory. My father, as conservative as he is, had this shirt. He does not have it anymore because he got rid of it. Why? Well, lets just say that it incurred just a little bit more teasing than he liked. So, when he threw it out, unbeknownst to him at the time, I grabbed it before it could make its journey to the Salvation Army. You know, black mail, or something. I will now show you why this shirt got its laughs at my father's expense...


As you can see, there is quite a motley of disaster going on here. And after a few wears around the house the shirt was affectionately dubbed, "The Clown Shirt", mainly because every emergence solicited a choral, "Ya da da-da-da da da-da-da" much like music of clowns hopping out of a clown car. Needless to say, he was not amused, and decided to put it to rest even though he loves that shirt. Little does he know, I'm taking it with me to Italy and unearthing it from my suitcase on Father's day. Heh.

Anyway, back to the original story. We walk into this store, which shall remain nameless because... well, I don't know. But it looked as though this shirt had come in and duplicated itself all over this store. It was EVERYWHERE. Some of the pieces were even worse, if you can imagine that. A blind gay man would be able to see them for miles away, moaning to himself, "Oh, dear Christ, what ARE you wearing?" ( I would post a picture of the pants/jackets/and skirts that were almost identical to that shirt, but unfortunately I didn't have a camera... and the brand is apparently smart enough NOT to put this stuff on its website.) My mother and I immediately get hysterical, snickering and poking fun at my dad. The sales ladies, however, seem to have a different opinion about the checkered mostrosities. Long story short, when my mother says that she would not be caught dead in something like that she is immediately shunned by the sales women. Josh has no clue what's going on, so I walk over to the other side of the store where I'm accosted by a flustered employee, "So, now your mother wants to try on a pair, huh?"

I throw the woman for a loop when I say, "No, I want to try them on." "That's right. Proove your mother wrong." Suuuuuuuure, lady. I pick out my size, throw them on, and strut to the other side of the store with an entourage of giddy women following me. I strike my best "VOUGE" pose in front of my mother and father, who are trying their best to keep their laughter and embarassment under wraps, when Josh walks out of the dressing room and exclaims, "Jezuz Christ, Megan! What are you wearing?!?"

I swear to G-d above that if words could kill about 3 or 4 sales reps died at that moment.

My mother and I are further shunned for the rest of the time we're in the store. Josh and Dad, on the other hand, are treated nicely because they're buying stuff.

I guess you had to be there to get the full effect, but if you have a vivid imagination-- that's all you really need.


Moral of the story: We may be assholes, but your clown pants/jackets/skirts are fucking ugly.


the rest of my weekend comes later.

Ta

At some point I'm actually going to have to sit down and actually write about a few things that happened this weekend and so forth. But in the meantime....


They say you learn something new everyday.


Here's what I learned today:


0101 0100 0110 1000 0110 1001 0111 0011 0111 1111 0110 0111 0011 0111 1111 0011 0001 0011 0110 0111 1111 0110 0010 0110 1001 0111 0100 0111 1111 0100 0001 0101 0011 0100 0011 0100 1001 0100 1001 0111 1111 0110 0011 0110 1111 0110 0100 0110 0101 0111 1111 0101 0100 0111 0010 0110 0001 0110 1110 0111 0011 0110 1100 0110 0001 0111 0100 0110 0101 0111 1111 0111 0100 0110 1000 0110 1001 0111 0011 0111 1111 0110 0001 0110 1110 0110 0100 0111 1111 0110 0001 0111 1111 0110 0011 0110 1111 0110 1111 0110 1011 0110 1001 0110 0101 0010 1110


(hopefully the computer doesn't screw that up).

(oh, and yes... it does mean something ;) )
Have a nice day!

First blog post. Yay!! And I guess I should preface this with a few things first:
I don't know why I started a blog. Well.. Scratch that. I do know why I started a blog, but I don't know which reason was the biggest. I haven't written anything in a while, and I know that I should, because my brain, since graduation, has turned to mush and I need the freaking practice. So there's one. In a few weeks I'll be traveling out of the country for a month and I don't think I'll be buying a phone card or anything unless I absolutely have to. I will have internet access though, for the most part, and so this would be a great way for people to keep up with what's going on (if anyone cares). And lastly, I deleted my livejournal cause I never used it.
And the second thing... 18 skipping stones. I don't know why that's the name. Skipping stones does not really mean too much to me at the moment. However, 18 is kinda shoved in there for substance. 18- because for some strange reason 18 is my number of choice when I am obviously exaggerating about something. For instance, "There were about 18 million people buying 18 thousand tacos at Taco bell today. It took 18 freaking hours for me just to get a burrito." Now-- that may not be something I would say, cause I don't usually eat at Taco Bell. What?

And there you have it. Questions, comments, concerns, expressions of angst, general anger? No? Sweet.
And now that I have made a pseudo-introductory post to distract myself from some homework I should be doing.... I should get to that.