Photo-a-day

My friend Matt had a great idea to take a photo a day and post it online. The idea is simple, just take a photo a day. The exercise is to help you think "how can i capture this beauty, share it with others." Some people are incredibly gifted at this, I haven't thought seriously about photography since high school. I'm hoping I get some good pictures. Anyhow... My photo-a-day album is going to be online Here.

I'm also going to put a little sideshow on my webpage (which needs updating).

Also, Because I'm such a super-amateur at photography, I'd really appreciate comments on photos, what you like, what you didn't like, what I could do better (either in taking the photo, or post processing). I have a copy of Photoshop at school, so i might try to get into that a little bit...
peace!
mike

Photo Download

I made it back safely!

i just uploaded pictures HERE:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2286988&id=12702301&l=3ce8604ed5

sorry, i did not do a fantastic job of taking lots of pictures!
-mike

Last day

Today was our last day in Rome. If you find a restaurant you like, I highly reccomend returning. Todays lunch and dinner we returned to some of our favorite spots and got the VIP treatment. We spent most of the day running around town picking up souvineers and shopping which was a fun experience. I went into Armani and prada for the first time in my life and looked at some 1500$ driving shoes... Hmmm. Anyhow, Rome has been great but I'm excited to be returning home. Se everybody soon!
-mike

Spanish steps

Todays session at the conference was the best yet with a couple very interesting talks. I had my best lunch yet at a place near our hotel under some vines. It was very afforadable and I had pork, and a delicious salad plus some dried meats! (meal photos to come). This afternoon we walked to the Spanish steps and took a nap... Now we're off to the gala dinner at the palazzo brancaccio (which I underestand is a point of interest).

At some point I plan on seeing the Spanish steps? Thanks again for all the tips I've gotten via blog or facebook.

Oh, I should note that when travelling in Rome watch out for extra charges on your meal such as service charges, sitting charges, and charges for things like the bread they put out on the table. Yesterday we totally got Ripped off...

Bikes, gardens, the pope

After falling asleep in a presentation about combining the Reynolds avegeraged navier stokes equations with large Eddie simulations, I decided to get out... I went to st peters, but did not feel like standing in the huge line...
I also checked out this huge park/garden which was very nice, and found a bike shop so I could check out some sweet itiialin bikes. I sucessfuly used public transit a lot, which made me feel good but there was still quite a lot of walking today and after my run this morning my legs are pooped... Maybe I'll try fitting a nap in before dinner.

Chao!
Mike

Moses

I forgot to mention the conference is held in a building connected to the st Peter in chains church which houses michaelangeos Moses. I walked over and saw it the other day and it's pretty incredible. What's even more incredible is the .50€ machine that lights up the statue of a photo op...

I think the gala dinner tommorow is in a place of interest also, I'll have to look that up...

Ceaser shuffel

I started this morning with a run that was supposed to take me to the collesium, around the forum and old paltine hill, and back north around the panthenom, however I seemed to carry too much angular momentum around the forum, took a wrong turn, and ended up much to far south (off my map). I. Kept running untill I eventually hit the tiber and was able to get myself home. The run was great but a lot longer than I had planned for. Now time for conferencing! Chao!

Day 3

Last night we checked out this trendy restaurant about a 1 hr walk from where we were are staying. The Meal was amazing, I had a seafood salad followed by monkfish covered in purscutto finished by a piece of terrimastout (yes stout, they used beer instead of expresso). We got pretty lost on the way back but it was a good experience. The goal for tonight is to try to learn the public transit system a little more effectivly.

The conference is going well, our talk was well recieved, and there have been a few interesting talks... But overall many of the talks are poor or unrelated to my interest...

Off to dinner!

Rome: first impressions

Romans are very friendly and warm. The food is fantastic but expensive. Europians are, in general better looking than Americans. The weather is great and the city is beautiful. So far I'm not a fan of the major sites I've seen, they're all a little ruined by mobs of people with cameras and fanny packs. But I do love walking the alleys off the beaten path. Time for dinner and night life, I'll keep you posted!
Mike

So much for an early night and a morning run

After meeting some beer enthuisits, making it an early night was vetoed by a tour of Italys small but growing craft beer culture. Most of today has been filled with lectures. I've seen a couple good ones but am reminded about how bad engineers are at presenting information.

Rome, day 1

We've arrived in Rome! The trip was uneventful except when the lady next to me ordered her third glass of wine, and decided it would look great spilled all over my new pants. Rome is beautiful, I've covered a lot of the city walking (with some help from a couple shots of expresso). Our hotel is nice, a block away from the st Peter in chains church and just down the road from the collesum in a quiet alleyway. I'm pretty exausted and might make it an early night. I want to go on a mourning jog to some of the sites before they begin looking like Disney land again... Then it's conference time! The talks sound cool in the neardiest way possible, ours is on Tuesday!

Anyhow, I'll try to keep this updated but expect short posts because I'm tapping them out on my iPod.
Peace
mike