I'm about the head down to the cities to do some last minute shopping for the trip, stuff I can't get in Duluth. Got a ton of stuff done yesterday, ordered my Eurail Pass, got a International Youth Travel Card, bought some guidebooks, suspended my YMCA membership for the summer, got on a volleyball team, and designed a draft and placeholder for streetjam industries, among other things.

I'd put up the latest experimental pics from my new life as a photographer but the camera is in the trunk of my car and I'm kinda of in a time crunch, got to get to the cities by noon or so, it's a two and a half hour drive so that means I have to be on the road by 9:30 or so.

It's also my sister's birthday today so I'm going to meet up with her tonight in the cities, Happy Birthday Laura!

Well...gotta run so bon boyage...
- posted by mark @ 9:00 AM

 
Just got off the phone with Kirsten, she had some news about our trip, we are going to meet at Pizza Luce tonight to discuss whether we need a 21 day Eurail pass or a month one. Depends on how much time we are planning to spend in Greece and Italy I think... Kirsten had an unfortunate accident a few days ago and broke her collarbone, could of been disastrous but the doctor seems to think she won't have any problems carrying a pack.

She is goin to check out ISIC cards and IYT cards for Dave and me, then get back to me tonight over spaghetti at Luce.
- posted by mark @ 2:51 PM

 
Work is crawling along, it's too nice out. I can't seem to find the motivation to open up the Bong Heritage Center Folder and get working on that, got distracted by an ad for Troy and spent half an hour perusing the site, it's pretty cool, all flash based, and the movie looks awesome too. I'm going to go see it with Dave Tilden before we leave for Europe. We both thought it would be cool to see the flick then see the ruins, I hope it's not too much of a letdown though, Hollywood seems to make everything greater and grander, 'Gladiator' anyone?

I'm going to try to chronicle my journeys in this weblog from the internet cafe's along the way through Europe, don't know how that will work out though. I'll still keep a journal, but my typing is faster than my writing and a whole lot neater too...
- posted by mark @ 11:22 AM

 
At work right now, listening to Bill Joel, work has been just about a complete waste today, spent most of the day updating a cookie cutter site for a retired dentist. He sent cut out (literally) clip art in black and white then asked me to "color it" for him. The sigh says it all :)

Anyways, it pays the bills anyhow and is getting me a plane ticket out of here in just under 3 weeks! I might try to meet up with my sister in Pompei now since she's going to be over there at almost the exact same time, weird...we didn't even plan this.
- posted by mark @ 3:33 PM

 
Another week gone by...only three more till Europe! Worked as usual today, it was a slow night, got to meet a hottie though. The aunt of a girl I work with, sounds kind of weird... but she's only 27, smokin' too. We'll see how things go.

I got off early tonight to practice a bit with my new camera, trying to get comfortable with it before I need to take some pics that really matter. Here are the results, tried using wide angle of the lens for the picture of my car, shutter speed priority on the second, and the third is a night shot using the Sony Nightshot function. I cloned out some nasty artifacts from light sources that were too bright in the shutter speed priority one, can you see where?






- posted by mark @ 9:44 PM