Thats me! I have been testing a lot of stuff out. I want to get into photo/micro blogging a bit more. It is super easy, and a lot more interesting to look at media rich stuff then text about things no one cares about. Soooo, tumblr is beautiful, I might be moving there. Then again, people already look at my facebook, and my iphone app is really good at uploading photos on the fly. I have an aversion to notes for some reason... Me thinks some variation of the two. Check back for updates. Until then, I'll still be looking for a job.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Experimentation!
Thats me! I have been testing a lot of stuff out. I want to get into photo/micro blogging a bit more. It is super easy, and a lot more interesting to look at media rich stuff then text about things no one cares about. Soooo, tumblr is beautiful, I might be moving there. Then again, people already look at my facebook, and my iphone app is really good at uploading photos on the fly. I have an aversion to notes for some reason... Me thinks some variation of the two. Check back for updates. Until then, I'll still be looking for a job.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
ZOMG! Did he just do that?
Purchased MarsEdit. Jobless (but looking). Graduated. Updates? Yes. Add my feed. Revamp time.
slotMusic?!
Just read about this article on ars. Sounds similar to chip-based music players in the past, but not for your four year old. I am all in favor of changing the format from CD to what looks like micro SD-would cut down on packaging, materials and transportation costs all around(yay environmentalism). But ars is right, the whole point of digital music is that its digimalz! I shouldn't have to carry anything around! CDs are big, they get scratched and are motor based... We are always going to need a physical format (or are we?), so why not?
"
Labels launch slotMusic format, miss point of digital music: "
These days, digital music is all about convenience. Despite that, SanDisk and the Big Four labels have introduced microSD cards with preloaded albums that users can just pop into their portable devices. The physical format ship has sailed and slotMusic is destined to sink.
"(Via Ars Technica.)
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Geotagging on the fly with Eye-Fi Explore
Yeah yeah, updates. Graduation is coming. I'm busy.
But I just picked up this story over at Ars, and it was just a little to cool/relevant to pass up. Eye-Fi is a company that makes SD cards for your camera, and they recently rolled out with new ones. SD cards are no big deal, so why talk about them? Well the newest ones have all kinds of tricks up their sleeve. For instance, the Eye-Fi Share gives you the ability to store 2 GB worht of photos, and then upload said photos to your computer wirelessly. Through the SD card. What?! You can also upload to Flickr and whatever site you want. Wirelessly. Through your SD card. What?!
The one I like is the Eye-Fi Explore. Which is an SD card, but basically has a functional GPS like ability to figure out where you are, and then record Geotags for each picture as it is taken. This rocks the socks right off expensive GPS cameras, and programs that you have to run your photos through in post. The little guy uses Skyhook, which is the service that uses WiFi hotspots and the like to determine location. Soooo, if you are in the Sierras... it probably won't work. But still, pretty cool considering its ALL IN YOUR SD CARD. Would be pretty cool for a suburban geocacher. Ars says it runs $130, so its not for the weak at heart.
As for me. School is almost over. Woo!
But I just picked up this story over at Ars, and it was just a little to cool/relevant to pass up. Eye-Fi is a company that makes SD cards for your camera, and they recently rolled out with new ones. SD cards are no big deal, so why talk about them? Well the newest ones have all kinds of tricks up their sleeve. For instance, the Eye-Fi Share gives you the ability to store 2 GB worht of photos, and then upload said photos to your computer wirelessly. Through the SD card. What?! You can also upload to Flickr and whatever site you want. Wirelessly. Through your SD card. What?!
The one I like is the Eye-Fi Explore. Which is an SD card, but basically has a functional GPS like ability to figure out where you are, and then record Geotags for each picture as it is taken. This rocks the socks right off expensive GPS cameras, and programs that you have to run your photos through in post. The little guy uses Skyhook, which is the service that uses WiFi hotspots and the like to determine location. Soooo, if you are in the Sierras... it probably won't work. But still, pretty cool considering its ALL IN YOUR SD CARD. Would be pretty cool for a suburban geocacher. Ars says it runs $130, so its not for the weak at heart.
As for me. School is almost over. Woo!
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Bucket List: Tacoma
We all know that Tacoma has all things that are good. But sadly, my friends and I will be turning our backs on the City of Destiny in May to take on the world! People are starting to make lists of all the things they have to do before saying goodbye. I thought about it for awhile and looked at many sites on Tacoma, and made an extensive list. There are a lot of things I haven't done. The more I think about it, the longer it gets. If you have any other suggestions, let me know in the comments. If you want to check something off the list, call me! Check back to see how it all goes!
Bucket List: Tacoma
- Visit the Thompson Observatory
- Go to the Glass Museum
- Eat at Frisko Freeze
- Go to the Freight House
- Go to Bob's Java Jive
- Visit the Pantages Theater
- Eat at JT's BBQ
- See the Rocky Horror picture Show at the Blue Mouse Theater
- Duel at Chopstix
- BBQ at Wapato Park
- Find every fish statue in Tacoma
- Find every Bronze statue in Tacoma
- More tomorrow...
Sunday, April 6, 2008
MarsEdit
OK. Serious blog rethinking time. Time to change the layout, the.. well everything... Lets start with editing. Time to give this whole MarsEdit thing a try.
First things first, HTML! Holy Guacamole! watch watch!
centered!
I'm tired of digging through layers of menus just to figure out out to center stuff. Journler has a nice feel to it, but does not work well with blogginess. MacJournal is ok, but to me, its just that, ok. iWeb is shiny, but doesn't have the text editing/RSS/email feel to it. Its a web page creator. Maybe Journler mixed with iWeb? nononono... HTML! Now just to decide if it is worth 30 buckaroos.
When it comes to any program that involves text and publishing, its really interesting how people expect it to work like MS Word. Just look at the progression of the iWork apps. Pages is picking up more and more aspects of Word. Its kinda funny, but standards are standards for a reason. Does this stifle innovation? maybe. I am a Mac user, but still, I want my toolbars!
First things first, HTML! Holy Guacamole! watch watch!
I'm tired of digging through layers of menus just to figure out out to center stuff. Journler has a nice feel to it, but does not work well with blogginess. MacJournal is ok, but to me, its just that, ok. iWeb is shiny, but doesn't have the text editing/RSS/email feel to it. Its a web page creator. Maybe Journler mixed with iWeb? nononono... HTML! Now just to decide if it is worth 30 buckaroos.
When it comes to any program that involves text and publishing, its really interesting how people expect it to work like MS Word. Just look at the progression of the iWork apps. Pages is picking up more and more aspects of Word. Its kinda funny, but standards are standards for a reason. Does this stifle innovation? maybe. I am a Mac user, but still, I want my toolbars!
Saturday, April 5, 2008
27th District Caucus...
Sitting at Jason Lee, I was outraged, I had one thing on my mind. Introducing my new tag: I’m Blogging This
iPhone: I have been at the Jason Lee middle school since 8 am (its now noon). Only now are they getting through the 4th of the 30-something prisincts... I'll be here for another several hours. Moral of the story, people are incompitent, especially en masse.. More to come
Edits:
/wrists
Holy Cow...
What a horrible process this is. They were describing how this year, the caucus would happen at break-neck speeds thanks to the wonder of technology! We weren’t done with figuring out if everyone was there until 2 PM. That is 6 hours of sitting in a hot, sweaty hall filled with a whole bunch of crazies. I had a woman sing to me. She actually sang a song. About democracy. I tried to escape, but she followed me. She had a whole repertoire about the corruption of the government, and how the democrats will save the day.
I was an alternate delegate, but was eventually seated around 12:50 because none of the real delegates actually showed up. There was then a big confusion/miss communication over what came next. This was when I realized how dumb the whole thing was.
Grass Roots?!
The whole point of a caucus is to encourage grass roots politics. You all get together, discuss and well, caucus. But in an effort to streamline the process, the modern caucus involves assembling and then listening to minute long speeches from each side. The kicker is that the campaigns pick in advance who is going to give the speeches, so there is really no grass roots anything going on. Also, 1 minute speeches? You would have to be an expert at framing to be convincing at all in that amount of time. Basically, by the end of the speeches, nothing is different except people are that much more ticked off because they are losing that much more of their Saturday.
Once speeches and registration was done, the next step involved voting on the delegates that would go on to other caucuses... But really, who cares? The division of delegates is the same for each candidate, if someone thinks they should go, let them. Suddenly I realized was duped into this. Delegates are completely symbolic. They represent a vote. In a past system, maybe their voice mattered, but not anymore. If a precinct delegate didn’t show up, minus one vote for that candidate. One is no big deal, a lot might throw things off. So once I got my arm band as a delegate, I was entered into the system. As far as the presidential race is concerned, thats all that matters. So then I ask, why am I wasting my Saturday? We didn’t sit and have a ceremonious vote for a candidate or anything, we are just a further symbolic representation of what happened in the first caucus, minus the people too lazy to show up.
Why couldn’t they just count the people who signed up? Why did they have to have us physically there in order to count us? Why did they ruin my weekend? And why did they call me when I got home and ask why I wasn’t there?! I HAVE AN ARM BAND!
Caucuses are a good idea for small things. In the current system, primaries are the only way to go.
Technology could have helped in SO many ways. Swipe ID when you show up, computer then automatically figures out who is there and who isn’t instantly. The computer then calls the alternates needed to tell them to come (or provides a list to volunteers to make the call). Hooray, we just saved 6 hours of day light! Now we can talk and discuss, forget that we are all set in our ways and bickering, there is one undecided delegate here!!! Hooray for democracy!
Anyway... back to school.
iPhone: I have been at the Jason Lee middle school since 8 am (its now noon). Only now are they getting through the 4th of the 30-something prisincts... I'll be here for another several hours. Moral of the story, people are incompitent, especially en masse.. More to come
Edits:
/wrists
Holy Cow...
What a horrible process this is. They were describing how this year, the caucus would happen at break-neck speeds thanks to the wonder of technology! We weren’t done with figuring out if everyone was there until 2 PM. That is 6 hours of sitting in a hot, sweaty hall filled with a whole bunch of crazies. I had a woman sing to me. She actually sang a song. About democracy. I tried to escape, but she followed me. She had a whole repertoire about the corruption of the government, and how the democrats will save the day.
I was an alternate delegate, but was eventually seated around 12:50 because none of the real delegates actually showed up. There was then a big confusion/miss communication over what came next. This was when I realized how dumb the whole thing was.
Grass Roots?!
The whole point of a caucus is to encourage grass roots politics. You all get together, discuss and well, caucus. But in an effort to streamline the process, the modern caucus involves assembling and then listening to minute long speeches from each side. The kicker is that the campaigns pick in advance who is going to give the speeches, so there is really no grass roots anything going on. Also, 1 minute speeches? You would have to be an expert at framing to be convincing at all in that amount of time. Basically, by the end of the speeches, nothing is different except people are that much more ticked off because they are losing that much more of their Saturday.
Once speeches and registration was done, the next step involved voting on the delegates that would go on to other caucuses... But really, who cares? The division of delegates is the same for each candidate, if someone thinks they should go, let them. Suddenly I realized was duped into this. Delegates are completely symbolic. They represent a vote. In a past system, maybe their voice mattered, but not anymore. If a precinct delegate didn’t show up, minus one vote for that candidate. One is no big deal, a lot might throw things off. So once I got my arm band as a delegate, I was entered into the system. As far as the presidential race is concerned, thats all that matters. So then I ask, why am I wasting my Saturday? We didn’t sit and have a ceremonious vote for a candidate or anything, we are just a further symbolic representation of what happened in the first caucus, minus the people too lazy to show up.
Why couldn’t they just count the people who signed up? Why did they have to have us physically there in order to count us? Why did they ruin my weekend? And why did they call me when I got home and ask why I wasn’t there?! I HAVE AN ARM BAND!
Caucuses are a good idea for small things. In the current system, primaries are the only way to go.
Technology could have helped in SO many ways. Swipe ID when you show up, computer then automatically figures out who is there and who isn’t instantly. The computer then calls the alternates needed to tell them to come (or provides a list to volunteers to make the call). Hooray, we just saved 6 hours of day light! Now we can talk and discuss, forget that we are all set in our ways and bickering, there is one undecided delegate here!!! Hooray for democracy!
Anyway... back to school.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Catch Up!
CRUD! Catch up time!
I’m in the middle of my last semester and coming up on midterms. I’ve been through new years, many boring classes, a hard drive failure, a caucus, facial hair loss, fun times with friends and am now watching the oscars! My blockbuster queue is now very large...
Hillary Clinton visited UPS!! I have to get the pictures off my friend’s laptop, but I’ll put a few up soon. The next day I got to participate in a caucus, which was horribly depressing because no one had any real knowledge of the issues. I blame the media. haha.
Anyway... time for work. More soon.
I’m in the middle of my last semester and coming up on midterms. I’ve been through new years, many boring classes, a hard drive failure, a caucus, facial hair loss, fun times with friends and am now watching the oscars! My blockbuster queue is now very large...
Hillary Clinton visited UPS!! I have to get the pictures off my friend’s laptop, but I’ll put a few up soon. The next day I got to participate in a caucus, which was horribly depressing because no one had any real knowledge of the issues. I blame the media. haha.
Anyway... time for work. More soon.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Heehee!
Well, its the day after christmas, and hooray! No more school until late late January.
In the news:
Putin just launched a bunch of satellites into space. Apparently the motherland wants something different than GPS, which is run by the US and can apparently just be switched off for certain areas. So they revived their GLONASS program Global Navigation Satellite System, from the good old Soviet Days. Might there be a future bluray/hddvd squabble between GPS or GNSS? Probably not, but it is always good to have alternatives. Soon Tom Tom will have new features, “Turn right, comrade! Head straight on to capitalist marketplace!”
An aside:
A 4th person has found our geocache! hooray! Hopefully Team Inferno will be going on hikes soon. Expect more posts!
In the news:
Putin just launched a bunch of satellites into space. Apparently the motherland wants something different than GPS, which is run by the US and can apparently just be switched off for certain areas. So they revived their GLONASS program Global Navigation Satellite System, from the good old Soviet Days. Might there be a future bluray/hddvd squabble between GPS or GNSS? Probably not, but it is always good to have alternatives. Soon Tom Tom will have new features, “Turn right, comrade! Head straight on to capitalist marketplace!”
An aside:
A 4th person has found our geocache! hooray! Hopefully Team Inferno will be going on hikes soon. Expect more posts!
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Finals...
Yeah, so I don’t update so much when I’m in school... According to my new iCal in Leopard, I’m busy:
But Navizon seems to be working on the mac now. They updated their client so it sees wifi. Will test to see if it works with the GPS soon. Marin isn’t in their database, so I might do a bet of driving around and see if I can’t make a buck or two filling in the gaps!
UPS (my school) puts off a newspaper called The Trail Its written by students and funded by the ASUPS student government. Its articles are horrible, and people didn’t really read it until they added the “Hey You!” section, a page long piece full of one sentence anonymous shout outs. Everyone is always so excited for the week’s trail to read the funny, and awkwardly personal, Hey you’s! Real Politzer winning stuff.... Well someone finally came up with a satirical newspaper, The Anti-Trail. Its crude. Its rude. It is amazing. On one page, it rips on every problem the campus has, and for some reason refuses to fix. Satire and comedy really is the way people my age find out whats up. Look for a link later! Hooray for things to distract us from our studies.
But Navizon seems to be working on the mac now. They updated their client so it sees wifi. Will test to see if it works with the GPS soon. Marin isn’t in their database, so I might do a bet of driving around and see if I can’t make a buck or two filling in the gaps!
UPS (my school) puts off a newspaper called The Trail Its written by students and funded by the ASUPS student government. Its articles are horrible, and people didn’t really read it until they added the “Hey You!” section, a page long piece full of one sentence anonymous shout outs. Everyone is always so excited for the week’s trail to read the funny, and awkwardly personal, Hey you’s! Real Politzer winning stuff.... Well someone finally came up with a satirical newspaper, The Anti-Trail. Its crude. Its rude. It is amazing. On one page, it rips on every problem the campus has, and for some reason refuses to fix. Satire and comedy really is the way people my age find out whats up. Look for a link later! Hooray for things to distract us from our studies.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Navizon + iPhone = GPS?
I am way too busy with classes... But I am taking a break this evening so that I can mess around with a few things. My super l33t hax0red iPhone loves to keep me busy when I should be doing other things. My only lament is that it lacks GPS... or does it? Via Installer.app I found a new app called Navizon. Basically, as you are walking around, it triangulates your location based on available WiFi networks AP and cellphone towers! The only catch is that someone has to have documented the coords of cell towers and WiFi spots in your area with a GPS for it to work. But, thanks to their handy app, one can drive around town with their GPS enabled laptop or smart phone, and everything will be compiled and ready to drop into their database. They will even pay you for it!
It seems to be a small venture so support is limited and bugs are plentiful, but the cleverness of the idea makes me giddy. Sadly, their app is a spindly java client that emulates a cell phone on your computer. It is having problems finding my GPS and iPhone attached to the Powerbook, so my network/tower locating days may not be coming for awhile. le sigh... It would be like a lame version of geocaching.. except you get paid! WOO! Why do they have to taunt me so?!
Hopefully everything will get worked out soon and then we could have GPS(ish) on our iPhones! *drool*
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Geotag iPhoto with HoudahGeo
So you want to geotag/geocode? I know I’m a bit late with this... I have been messing around with my iPhone, and will talk about that soon (tonight?). But for now is time to learn how to quickly Geotag photos on a Mac! If you are looking for a super fast way to do this, simply download HoudahGeo and it can be as easy as click and drag! I’ll give you a quick step by step just for help and to clear up any doubts about this cool little app! This program can work with or without a GPS, I’ll explain both!
But first, what is Geotagging? A Geotag is a bit of metadata attached to an image or even a blog/wiki article, that shows the lat/long/alt of the subject of the media. So, if I take a picture of the Grand Canyon, and geotag it, Google Earth, Flickr, and many other apps and website will be able to quickly lay the photos on the map! Here is the most famous example on flickr! http://flickr.com/map/ Basically... its super awesome if you are taking pictures of obscure locations, where other people may want to visit.
Kristin and I went on a quick bike ride around Tacoma the other day. I brought my GPS and made sure that it was set to track, and also made sure my camera matched the time of the GPS. Once I got home, I plugged my GPS in on one side of the my Powerbook, and my camera in on the other, and away I went (YES! Garmin will work on a Mac wonderfully with Google Earth, GPSBabel and HoudahGeo! Comment or email me if you want to know more about it!).
What HoudahGeo does, is compare the time of the tracks, with the timestamp of each photo. It then adds lat/long metadata to the photo. After quickly uploading picture to iPhoto, drag the pictures you want tagged directly into HoudahGeo. You can then either upload GPX info from a GPS receiver or a saved file. There is even a cool feature for people without GPS receivers! Just select the photo, then select the point on the map. Then bam! Just hit write EXIF tag and you are done! You can even export directly to flickr! Check mine out here!
http://flickr.com/photos/bentup/map/ Here is the clipping from Google Earth:
It all works really well, and will cut a lot of time off of any geo blogging experience! Im stoked! Expect more posts soon! And please comment/email if you have anything to say!
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Its About Time!
Ok, so I have been back in Tacoma for awhile and haven’t been updating. I have TONS of pictures from our trip to the UK and have yet to put any of them up. I was hoping to Geotag them, but it seems as though I am really too lazy to. Geo tagging over 2000 pictures may just be too much. With the way I have been doing it. So, I have created a flickr album, one for each day, and linked it from here and from each appropriate blog entry. I’m getting bored here, so expect geocache stuff in the near future!! Tomorrow, I am rolling out a guide on how to Geotag photos using a Mac!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Stonehenge/Glastonbury! 8/15
So Stonehenge was pretty cool. Sadly, we couldn’t get too close to it, so it was a little small. Check out the pictures, linked bellow!
We then drove over to Glastonbury, said to be the location of the Isle of Avalon, the final resting place of King Arthur. We checked out the old Abbey of Glastonbury, which was completely torn down. It is said that the Abbey is the oldest Christian Church, and that Joseph of Arimathia visited here on a few occasions (locals say that he even brought Jesus). It is even said that Joseph brought the Holy Grail here, and washed it in the well. Whether or not the stories are true, there is a lot of history here. Overlooking the abbey is a large Tor, with a small tower on top, the last remnants of a small, sister abbey. Sadly, Cromwell, had the Glastonbury Abbeys destroyed, so ruins are all that are left.
Check out the pictures here -> http://ups.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022097&l=7045e&id=17700012
and here -> http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022098&l=efea0&id=17700012
We then drove over to Glastonbury, said to be the location of the Isle of Avalon, the final resting place of King Arthur. We checked out the old Abbey of Glastonbury, which was completely torn down. It is said that the Abbey is the oldest Christian Church, and that Joseph of Arimathia visited here on a few occasions (locals say that he even brought Jesus). It is even said that Joseph brought the Holy Grail here, and washed it in the well. Whether or not the stories are true, there is a lot of history here. Overlooking the abbey is a large Tor, with a small tower on top, the last remnants of a small, sister abbey. Sadly, Cromwell, had the Glastonbury Abbeys destroyed, so ruins are all that are left.
Check out the pictures here -> http://ups.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022097&l=7045e&id=17700012
and here -> http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022098&l=efea0&id=17700012
Thursday, August 16, 2007
IM TIRED!
I’m so tired! Tonight is our last night in the UK... BUT, I have been carefully documenting the journey, and will update everything when I get home... or maybe when I get to Tacoma. But I have found new and wonderful ways to display my travels and photos! Geotagging! And iPhoto and Google Earth and HoudahGeo! Oh man, everything will be so much prettier and faster I can’t wait! I’ll be stateside tomorrow! Check back here for crazy vacation blog-ness!
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Stonehenge 8/14/07
We are stuck in traffic right now... Our engine is off, and for the first day it is raining. The channel was dark and full of white caps, it was really windy, and pretty cool. We are on the M25, south of London on the way to Stone Henge, and eventually Bristol. Annnnnd my battery is at 3%......
SO! We were stuck between junction 8 and 9 on M25 for about an hour. It was pretty humorous when Laura had to go to the bathroom. It was raining, and my Dad got out of the car in the middle of the motorway (freeway) and began scoping things out, as soon as he did, so did the rest of the freeway. It was basically a parking lot for a long time. We heard on the radio that a lourie (a big rig) had turned over and they couldn’t get it out of the way. When things finally started moving, we realized that the truck had actually turned over only a couple hundred yards in front of us. Had we been going a tiny bit faster, we possibly could have avoided the whole mess, or heaven forbid, been a part of it.
The sad thing is because of our long delay, on top of a second over turned lourie, a missed turn and other traffic, we had to skip all our attractions today, and head straight into Bristol. So we are in the hotel room, and we plan for stonehenge tomorrow! woo!
SO! We were stuck between junction 8 and 9 on M25 for about an hour. It was pretty humorous when Laura had to go to the bathroom. It was raining, and my Dad got out of the car in the middle of the motorway (freeway) and began scoping things out, as soon as he did, so did the rest of the freeway. It was basically a parking lot for a long time. We heard on the radio that a lourie (a big rig) had turned over and they couldn’t get it out of the way. When things finally started moving, we realized that the truck had actually turned over only a couple hundred yards in front of us. Had we been going a tiny bit faster, we possibly could have avoided the whole mess, or heaven forbid, been a part of it.
The sad thing is because of our long delay, on top of a second over turned lourie, a missed turn and other traffic, we had to skip all our attractions today, and head straight into Bristol. So we are in the hotel room, and we plan for stonehenge tomorrow! woo!
Bodiam Castle 8/13/07
Today is my Dad’s 50th birthday! Half a century old! dang, thats old! haha, Happy Birthday, Dad!
Today we departed hastings to visit the Castle at Bodiam. On the way we stopped off at Battle Abbey, the location of a battle between the Norman, William the conqueror and the Saxon King Herald in 1066. In the end, Herald was done through, and England was forever changed, becoming an imperial behemoth, and eventually a funny talking cousin of the colonies. The abbey was pretty cool, but it was way expensive, so we continued on our way.
I have to say that Bodiam Castle is truely amazing. When I build my castle, AND I WILL, it will be in the same style of Bodiam. It was built to protect the river from the French. It was then abandoned and had trees growing up through it and was covered in vines. There was a painting of it, which looked amazing. This castle style with moat is a later castle than what we saw a the Tower of London, which was basically a fortified keep. At Bodiam, the rooms of the castle is the fortification, with a great cortyard in the middle, and all surrounded by moat. It looks like it is just sitting in a lake, which in turn, is surrounded by rolling grassy hills, it really is beautiful!
Check out the pictures here -> http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022085&l=41fd8&id=17700012
Today we departed hastings to visit the Castle at Bodiam. On the way we stopped off at Battle Abbey, the location of a battle between the Norman, William the conqueror and the Saxon King Herald in 1066. In the end, Herald was done through, and England was forever changed, becoming an imperial behemoth, and eventually a funny talking cousin of the colonies. The abbey was pretty cool, but it was way expensive, so we continued on our way.
I have to say that Bodiam Castle is truely amazing. When I build my castle, AND I WILL, it will be in the same style of Bodiam. It was built to protect the river from the French. It was then abandoned and had trees growing up through it and was covered in vines. There was a painting of it, which looked amazing. This castle style with moat is a later castle than what we saw a the Tower of London, which was basically a fortified keep. At Bodiam, the rooms of the castle is the fortification, with a great cortyard in the middle, and all surrounded by moat. It looks like it is just sitting in a lake, which in turn, is surrounded by rolling grassy hills, it really is beautiful!
Check out the pictures here -> http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022085&l=41fd8&id=17700012
Dover Castle! 8/12/07
Today we drove over to Dover. From the tall white cliffs of Dover (which Drake said his landing sight in Marin reminded him of), you could just make out the shores of France. We drove to the highest hill in Dover, and there was a large triangular shaped fortress. Dover Castle has a pretty large history. The Romans built light houses throughout the channel in the late first century, one of which went on the hill in Dover. Then in 410, when the Romans took off, the Saxons came in and built an wooden fortified town around the light house on the hill. They built an old abbey next to the light house which still stands there today. They also surrounded the town with a trench and hilly earth work to add extra defense. Then, William the jerk face, as the Saxons called him, came in around 1066, burned everything down, took the thrown, and civilized the English. In Dover, William quickly built a keep on the hill, and then surrounded it with stone fortifications. The resulting castle was used a lot over the next thousand years, and abandoned at various times. When Napoleon started getting war happy, the started bolstering the defenses at Dover again, and continued to through the second World War. There were portraits of the Battle of London, depicting the castle set in front of mortar and flack explosions in the sky. It would have been a pretty scary place to be. Turns out that Dover Castle also has a HUGE series of secret tunnels under it, which acted as the naval headquarters during WWII, and that the evacuation of Dunkirk was planned in those tunnels. Crazy history, in that that castle was used as a military place for over 800 years. Similar to the Tower of London too.
The castle keep itself was pretty small on the inside, with tremendously thick stone walls. There were also a lot of tacky touristy things added in all the rooms to make it seem like King Henry VIII was on his way (he apparently stayed there for 2 nights once). It was cheesy and funny, especially the recordings of “workers” who were getting everything ready for the king. “Hurry up there! Hurry up! You! Stay out of the kings quarters!” hehe. funny stuff.
While we were driving back to the hotel, we noticed a strange stone thingy poking up over the hill. So we swerved off the road to check it out. After a short drive down a tiny little road we came upon a stone archway, the last remnants of what seemed to be a great wall. We drove through and immediately started photographing. Before long, we began turning around our diesel guzzling cherokee, and a grizzled old man with a cane strolled through the arch with his walking stick, and two old sheep dogs trotting in front of him. The English country side rolled out to his right, and the setting sun cast an orange hue on the stone arch. I wish I had my camera up at that second. He told us that it was the old wall of Winchelsea, and that the town was a large, old port city. He also said that he was having an argument with another man, about this very archway. He said that this was the traitor’s gate, and was left open when the French came a-knockin’ in the 1200s. The town is only a few blocks in size now. The old man said it was once much larger. Those darn French! Everything here is so cool. What a crazy history!
Check out the pictures here -> http://ups.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022044&l=ac38f&id=17700012
The castle keep itself was pretty small on the inside, with tremendously thick stone walls. There were also a lot of tacky touristy things added in all the rooms to make it seem like King Henry VIII was on his way (he apparently stayed there for 2 nights once). It was cheesy and funny, especially the recordings of “workers” who were getting everything ready for the king. “Hurry up there! Hurry up! You! Stay out of the kings quarters!” hehe. funny stuff.
While we were driving back to the hotel, we noticed a strange stone thingy poking up over the hill. So we swerved off the road to check it out. After a short drive down a tiny little road we came upon a stone archway, the last remnants of what seemed to be a great wall. We drove through and immediately started photographing. Before long, we began turning around our diesel guzzling cherokee, and a grizzled old man with a cane strolled through the arch with his walking stick, and two old sheep dogs trotting in front of him. The English country side rolled out to his right, and the setting sun cast an orange hue on the stone arch. I wish I had my camera up at that second. He told us that it was the old wall of Winchelsea, and that the town was a large, old port city. He also said that he was having an argument with another man, about this very archway. He said that this was the traitor’s gate, and was left open when the French came a-knockin’ in the 1200s. The town is only a few blocks in size now. The old man said it was once much larger. Those darn French! Everything here is so cool. What a crazy history!
Check out the pictures here -> http://ups.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022044&l=ac38f&id=17700012
Saturday, August 11, 2007
British Museum 8/12/07
Today we went to the British Museum, which is huge and filled with many interesting stolen artifacts. After a quick lunch we saw the pieces of the Parthenon which were removed. The argument is that they would have been destroyed had the British not carted them off, which I think I half believe. Next were the giant man/lion/eagles from Mesopotamia, and then the remnants of the mausoleum of King Mausolus. While there were only a few tiny pieces, it is clear why it was one of the wonders of the ancient world. Each figure was massive and really well crafted. After going through greek sculptures we hit the Egyptian section. The main attraction here was the Rosetta Stone, which is a lot larger and thicker than I expected, and equally magnetic when it comes to attracting tourists. Trying to catch a glimpse of the front, you would be lucky not to be knocked down by a swarm of history-hungry travelers.
Upstairs was the Europe and Britain section. Europe... Probably the most interesting part of the British section was about the Romans. All the trinkets in the pre-Roman era were tiny, ugly, and rather unimpressive. Suddenly the Romans came and there were fancy things like architecture nice jewelry, art and neat Roman stuff. Then Rome fell, the Romans left England for Europe, and the Anglo-Saxon tribes just kinda sacked everything, used the ruins to make huts and leantoos, and reverted back to the state they were in before the Romans even showed up (if not worse). I just don’t understand why they didn’t hang the door back up on its hinges and try to restore the Roman buildings.... oh well.
We got tired after awhile and decided to flee the city. According to the map we were on the main road, but it really didn’t seem like it. Cars were parked on this tiny street in such a way that in order to continue, we were forced completely into oncoming traffic. Driving is pretty weird here. If there is any space for your car, you take, regaurdless of direction of traffic, or the color of the stop light. I think its pretty fun, but I get a little freaked out whenever a car is comming, and we are in the left lane. “Its just not natural,” says my Dad. But we are in Hastings now, at the Royal Victoria Hotel, right off the beach. We have two bedrooms, and it is super old and kinda fancy. Hooray for McDonalds, even here, its the only thing open really late.
Check out the pictures here -> http://ups.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022043&l=16ec4&id=17700012
Upstairs was the Europe and Britain section. Europe... Probably the most interesting part of the British section was about the Romans. All the trinkets in the pre-Roman era were tiny, ugly, and rather unimpressive. Suddenly the Romans came and there were fancy things like architecture nice jewelry, art and neat Roman stuff. Then Rome fell, the Romans left England for Europe, and the Anglo-Saxon tribes just kinda sacked everything, used the ruins to make huts and leantoos, and reverted back to the state they were in before the Romans even showed up (if not worse). I just don’t understand why they didn’t hang the door back up on its hinges and try to restore the Roman buildings.... oh well.
We got tired after awhile and decided to flee the city. According to the map we were on the main road, but it really didn’t seem like it. Cars were parked on this tiny street in such a way that in order to continue, we were forced completely into oncoming traffic. Driving is pretty weird here. If there is any space for your car, you take, regaurdless of direction of traffic, or the color of the stop light. I think its pretty fun, but I get a little freaked out whenever a car is comming, and we are in the left lane. “Its just not natural,” says my Dad. But we are in Hastings now, at the Royal Victoria Hotel, right off the beach. We have two bedrooms, and it is super old and kinda fancy. Hooray for McDonalds, even here, its the only thing open really late.
Check out the pictures here -> http://ups.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022043&l=16ec4&id=17700012
Friday, August 10, 2007
The Abbey
Today we had a lot planned, and didn’t really make it to everything. We got up early and had breakfast at the breakfast club which was pretty good. We are finally confident to order tap water, so no more paying through the teeth for watery refreshment!
My Dad wanted to stroll over to an old Temple of the Knights Templar. Built waaaay back when. We got there, and sadly it was closed. But it was a very cool courtyard!
A short tube ride across the Thames took us back to Westminster Abbey where we took the tour. It is filled with many many old dead people, many of which were Kings and Queens, all of which were crazy rich. It was fascinating how much time went into the effigies and tombs, while time itself wore much of all the work away. The floor was smooth from millions of feet shuffling across it, wearing away the names of those buried beneath. On many of the inscriptions, the person’s life story, along with any rich relatives was often described. One in particular interested me because the man had lead a noble life, fighting the Moors, killing the Moroccan King, and even defending the town against an uprising partially lead by his own son! For some reason, they took the guy to the Tower and cut off his head... All thanks to that no good son... Atleast after hundreds of years, people are still learning his story! The oldest grave I could find was from the year 1080! wow! Sadly, photos weren’t allowed in the cool parts.... But check out the pictures of the flying buttresses in the map! So cool!
This experience took all day so we couldn’t make it to the British Museum, so instead we took a detour passed Buckingham Palace on our way back to Trafalgar Square. The queen was out, so there weren’t many cool guards, but it was still a pretty neat sight to see. In front of the palace is a memorial for Queen Victoria, and many gates, each labeled with a country of the commonwealth. Never before, and never again do I think I will see a giant stone kangaroo!
The Mall from the palace took us where we wanted to go. We got back in time to have fish and chips at a pub, and then ran over to the square to see an Indian dance and light show! There was a 4 piece band playing very ethereal music, while the dancers swayed back and forth. When it was dark, a crane lifted a bunch of white sacks in the air. Suddenly, they burst open, revealing angels (who in the end turned out to be men dressed as women, but that is besides the point), who threw snow and glitter on the dancers bellow. It was really a sight to see. With the lights, the dancers, the instruments, the angels, and Admiral Nelson looking down on it all, it was pretty astounding!
Anyway, tonight’s our last night in London. Make sure to click the buttons on the map bellow, and comment! yes! comment! well... when i post the map... do it! Check back for adds!!!
Check out the pictures here -> http://ups.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022038&l=a9030&id=17700012
and here! -> http://ups.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022042&l=2179c&id=17700012
My Dad wanted to stroll over to an old Temple of the Knights Templar. Built waaaay back when. We got there, and sadly it was closed. But it was a very cool courtyard!
A short tube ride across the Thames took us back to Westminster Abbey where we took the tour. It is filled with many many old dead people, many of which were Kings and Queens, all of which were crazy rich. It was fascinating how much time went into the effigies and tombs, while time itself wore much of all the work away. The floor was smooth from millions of feet shuffling across it, wearing away the names of those buried beneath. On many of the inscriptions, the person’s life story, along with any rich relatives was often described. One in particular interested me because the man had lead a noble life, fighting the Moors, killing the Moroccan King, and even defending the town against an uprising partially lead by his own son! For some reason, they took the guy to the Tower and cut off his head... All thanks to that no good son... Atleast after hundreds of years, people are still learning his story! The oldest grave I could find was from the year 1080! wow! Sadly, photos weren’t allowed in the cool parts.... But check out the pictures of the flying buttresses in the map! So cool!
This experience took all day so we couldn’t make it to the British Museum, so instead we took a detour passed Buckingham Palace on our way back to Trafalgar Square. The queen was out, so there weren’t many cool guards, but it was still a pretty neat sight to see. In front of the palace is a memorial for Queen Victoria, and many gates, each labeled with a country of the commonwealth. Never before, and never again do I think I will see a giant stone kangaroo!
The Mall from the palace took us where we wanted to go. We got back in time to have fish and chips at a pub, and then ran over to the square to see an Indian dance and light show! There was a 4 piece band playing very ethereal music, while the dancers swayed back and forth. When it was dark, a crane lifted a bunch of white sacks in the air. Suddenly, they burst open, revealing angels (who in the end turned out to be men dressed as women, but that is besides the point), who threw snow and glitter on the dancers bellow. It was really a sight to see. With the lights, the dancers, the instruments, the angels, and Admiral Nelson looking down on it all, it was pretty astounding!
Anyway, tonight’s our last night in London. Make sure to click the buttons on the map bellow, and comment! yes! comment! well... when i post the map... do it! Check back for adds!!!
Check out the pictures here -> http://ups.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022038&l=a9030&id=17700012
and here! -> http://ups.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022042&l=2179c&id=17700012
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