…but traveling is a lot of work, ya know?

At least it has been this trip–but the tide is turning. (Kinda literally–I’m writing this from a boat. A big ferry that’s headed from southern Italy to Greece.) We’ve come to the point in the tour where we ditch our previous, Mussolini-esque tour guide. Now we are led by an older Greek lady who seems not only imminently competent, but also someone you can drink with in the hotel bar. She’s already planned more free time for us today and tomorrow than we’ve had practically the whole trip. It finally feels like a vacation. With three days to go. :-/ Hey, better late than never.

But there is SO much to tell, and even more to show, but I haven’t been successful in uploading by pictures to Flickr lately for some reason. And the ones that are up don’t have captions, which I plan to change. So when I get home and actually become conscious again (probably Wednesday sometime) I’ll begin captioning things, and then begin blogging one vacation day at a time, and tell you all about it. How’s that?

(Unfortunately, if you don’t agree…there’s nothing you can do, really, as I am the boss of this blog. Heh.)

“How do you care after 200 years??”
My mother, after learning it took over 200 years to build Notre Dame.

“My ass just went numb.”
A kid on our tour, from the back of the bus during a perfectly-timed moment of silence.

“Okay, ‘Swissness’ is not a word.”
Kid in our group reading an Alpine tour brochure.

I’m having fun, but dear GOD I’m tired. I really want to blog here about everything, but I swear my brain won’t work, and I have to get to bed early enough that our 6:30 am wake-up time won’t completely kill me. I’ve taken a bunch of pictures and if you want to skip right to them, click here. (They don’t have explanatory captions yet, though, but I hope to add them soon. And click any photo below to go to its Flickr photo page.)

Click “more” to read the full story! (more…)

Calling all readers (both of you): I’m fixin’ to go to Europe for a little over two weeks. Here are some facts about this:

• I’m leaving at an ungodly hour Tuesday morning (aka, day after tomorrow).
• My mom is accompanying me. She’s never been off the North American continent before.
• I will be experiencing my first big-company-concocted bus-type trip, in a group of about 45 people.
• I will also be keeping track of six recently graduated high-schoolers. Good kids, I’m told, but they are nonetheless recently graduated, farther away from home and their parents than they’ve ever been, and in Europe, able to drink.
• Because of agreeing to do this, my trip is free (aside from some other incidental expenses which were, admittedly, taken care of by my mom).
• We’ll see, after it’s over, whether this was a fair trade.
• The trip hits a city a day (at least).
• Said cities will include Paris, Rome, Venice, Florence, one other Italian one I can’t remember, Lucerne (Switzerland), Capri, Athens, and some other places in Greece.
• Someone I don’t really know very well–a friend of a friend–is staying in my house to watch my cats and other things.
• I found out today I’ll be paying him to do so, which I didn’t expect.
• I hope he doesn’t go through my stuff.
• Many pictures will be taken. And my laptop, as previously, will accompany me.
• I’ll try to post as I go along, and only write small novels to accompany the pix, so that I can actually get through all the information I’d like to share.
• It should be awesome.
• Nevertheless, pray for me.

Cooler than cool.

A Craigslist Wedding

Teaser:

“Brah,” said the panhandler as I handed him a loonie, “…you gonna do someone else a favour reeeeeal soon, and it’ll be mad good karma fo’ yo’ ass. I see mad karma in your fyoo-chah! MAD KARMA!”“

Forwarded by the enigmatic Viktor Von Riesling.

Okay, because I obviously don’t have ENOUGH self-concocted projects or ENOUGH blogs already gathering dust (I mean, this blog is so neglected. The categories are meaningless and need to be re-jiggered, the links list hasn’t been properly updated since roughly 1985. This blog is like the one kid a couple already had before they took fertility drugs and popped out octuplets. They might as well rename that kid “In A Minute”), I’ve started two others. (Blogger can be addictive. All the blogs you want, easy to customize and redesign, jeez.) So I present to you the following:

• But Wait, There’s More!, a podcast. My best friend Kennedy and I have decided to make short videos wherein we test out and/or generally fuck with those “As Seen On TV!”-type products that are secretly intriguing but on which you would never actually spend the money. We’ve got one ep up so far, and are planning another. In related news, a day after seeing the first video I went back to the gym for the first time in months. Coincidence??
• Winged Insect Alighting On Horizontal Surface (a picture a day while no one is looking). Pretty much just what it says. I saw a suggestion on Lifehacker.com to challenge yourself to take a picture a day for a year. So far, it’s been more like several pictures every few days (and I’ve even cheated and posted one I already had), but I at least post one every day. And my picture-taking has stepped up in frequency. Plus, it’s the only blog I’ve EVER had on my own that managed to have a theme AND stick to it! The mind boggles!

Please go, and make your presence known by commenting. While you’re at it, why not bookmark, subscribe to the feeds, write your congressman, eat your vegetables, and be home before the streetlights come on.

Must.
Have.
LAMP!

It’s “currently at the concept stage,” which = “can’t have it now” which = “BOO.”

But when it’s ready, “A light bulb inside the metal UFO lights up the beam and the windows. The glass of the beam is frosted to distribute light in all directions.” You’ll also be able to switch the thing getting abducted.

::covets:::

via Geekologie.com