Mailbox knife?
Posted on July 11, 2009 - Filed Under Uncategorized
So, I’m a new homeowner and all, but I have lived in a house for a good deal of my life. So you can imagine my surprise when I went to check the mail today and discovered a knife on the mailbox. I can’t say I’ve ever seen anything like this before. Do the neighbors not like us? Are they trying to send a message? What would such a message be?
- Get out of town!
- I’ll cut you if you don’t cut the grass often!
- Have us over for dinner…steaks would be awesome.
Does anyone have any wisdom to share on knives placed atop one’s mailbox?
Live video…from my phone…?
Posted on April 19, 2009 - Filed Under Life, The Web
Yes indeed. If you will scroll down and look at the bottom right of this page, you will see an area that is powered by qik.com, a free service that streams live video from your cellphone to the web. If I am ever streaming live video from my phone, the video will automatically show in that area. I know it’s small, but come on, it’s from my cell phone…I don’t think it would look better any bigger.
Greece: Day 5
Posted on February 15, 2009 - Filed Under Life
Our final day in Greece 
Something we’ve been meaning to talk about for awhile now are french fries. Now there is nothing wholly remarkable about them, except for the fact that they’ve been included in almost every meal we’ve had while in Greece. Our first dinner in Thessaloniki? Souvlaki…with a side of fries. On Thursday night…more fries. Friday night in Athens…sausage with tomatoes…and fries. And what appears to be a crucial ingredient in a street-side gyro…you guessed it. I should also point out that in all cases, said french fries were not mentioned as a side item. I guess the Greeks like their fried potatoes.On to today’s activities. Our only goal for today was to see the Acropolis, in which we were successful. For those that don’t know, the Acropolis is actually atop a massive hill in the middle of Athens, upon which sits the Parthenon. All the way up to the top, there are many ancient sights to take in, including several theatres. Of course, the big pay off once you reach the top is the Parthenon and the fantastic view of the city.
We have alot more pictures, so look for them on Facebook soon.
After the Acropolis, we headed back to the shopping/flea market area to pick up some last minute gifts and souvenirs. It will likely be an early evening for us, as our flight leaves at 6:00am tomorrow. We’re sad to be leaving so soon, but alas, the real world is calling us back.
Greece: Day 4
Posted on February 14, 2009 - Filed Under Life, Music
Today was museum day, as we walked to the National Archeological Museum to get things going. I think Lindsey and I were both impressed with the level of craftsmanship displayed by 16th-century people in Greece, both in their intricate gold work and impressive pottery. As you might expect, the museum is home to many statues and sculptures from many different ages. Many of statues, known as kouros, from around 600 B.C. looked like this:
It wasn’t until after 500 B.C. that the statues started taking more natural forms, as displayed in this famous statue (PS – it’s freakin’ huge):
After several hours in the museum, we were headed towards the Acropolis, but we got side tracked at the flea market and by the time were finished there, we felt we wouldn’t have time to fully appreciate everything at the Acropolis. So we decided to head towards the National Historical Museum, only to find out it has abbreviated hours during the winter and had already closed. After a quick gyro, we headed back to the hotel to regroup and plan our evening, which would include our first trip on the metro.
Based on some quick Googling, we found one of the “hip” areas in Athens and decided to check it out for dinner and drinks. After negotiating the first train change on the metro, we realized we are suddenly going away from our intended goal. We know we got on he right train and only later discovered that the stop we ultimately wanted to get to was closed for renovations, so no trains could go through the station. After a quick reroute, we were back on track and arrived at a section of the city that was filled with 20-somethings out for a Valentine’s dinner. Unfortunately, this included many face gropings throughout the cafe (admittedly, we did pick a place called Chocolat Cafe, so I guess we should have expected a more lovey-dovey crowd).
The other big thing at dinner were the complimentary items. For those of you who may not have traveled much in Europe, nothing is typically complimentary. This includes bread and water, even if they bring them to you without asking. Much to our surprise, we were offered unlimited water and even a free after-dinner drink to help, as our waiter tried to explain in broken English, “the food go down.” This drink was some kind of chocolate liquor and was quite tasty.
That was it for today. One day to go.
Greece: Day 3
Posted on February 13, 2009 - Filed Under Life, Music
So we finally get to the last day of the conference…11 papers (a short day by comparison) and probably the best day of the conference. This is party due to the quality of the papers being, on the whole, better than the previous days, and mostly due to our bodies finally deciding that Greek time (7 hours ahead of EST) is okay.
Today was also my day to present. (Lindsey snapped this as I was answering a question)
I think it went fairly well, although most of the comments I received afterwards were in amazement of not the paper, but the Keynote slideshow I used. One problem with the projector, however, was that it was not very bright and the room had alot of sunlight coming in, so the darkish videos I was showing were alittle hard to see. I was also bummed that Raymond Monelle had to leave the conference before my session, so I didn’t get a chance to hear his feedback (which, unfortunately, was one of the main reasons I applied to this conference). Overall, it was a good conference and I encourage my music theory and musicology friends to apply next year, which will take place in Edinburgh.
Lindsey and I are now in Athens after a quick trip over the Aegean Sea on Aegean Airlines, and are looking forward to 2 full days of sightseeing and more Greek-food eating.
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