A couple of pics…
Got back home a couple of hours ago, downloaded a batch of pictures from the camera. There are some nice shots, but I still need to sort them out. Either way I thought I'd share 2 of them here and now. You can click on them to go to flickr and see the description n' stuff.
Going back!
This post should be posted while I'm going back to Buenos Aires. It has been a relaxing week; no snowboarding tho.
Tons of pics and some vids are to follow as soon as I get a chance to look at all of them.
Smarter posting about all this and that shall happen upon my return.
Reading Queue: History.
Back to normal reading, which means 3 to 6 books per month, hopefully. I seem to be inclined to read history.
This is a subject that I have been wanting to read for a very long time. I have always felt some sort of fascination with the arab people and culture.
It was the Arabs who allowed Europe to rediscover the ancient knowledge of greeks and romans. It was them who took math into a whole new era.
Yet so little is known or taught about them.
Historical Novel about Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, better known as "Caligula". Author Maria Grazia Siliato is an Italian archeologists who tries to bring Caligula back to life from a more humane and less-of-a-tyrant point of view. What drove the man to become a blood thirsty ruler? What lead to his assasination?
The emperor was surrounded by plots and plans to overthrow him. starting from his rise to power to his assassination at age 29, Caligula's history is rich in all sorts of plans within plans.
Crusades have been a passion of mine since I can remember. As a kid I remember regarding them with a certain romanticism. As I grew up and went from a naive and romantic vission of what they were to a more realistic and crude oppinion that passion grew.
One of my "dreams" is to write a historic novel that takes place in Istambul at the time of the second crusade.
This books ought to keep me entertained for a while.
Out and Away
I'm starting my vacation tomorrow morning. Timing couldn't be more perfect. Although there are still a couple fo days left till the Olympics close on Sunday I think the program can survive without me.
There has been a certain ammount of turmoil and unrest lately; time off is more than welcome.
I'll try to post every once in a while, maybe upload some pictures as well.
Refreshing Voices
What on earth led me to believe this week was going to be somewhat quieter? The exact oposite is true; it has been a crazy week, with little sleep, lots of things to do and some fire drills.
We have just made a minor face lift to the "Voices of the Olympic Games" site.
Odd timing, you might think, since we're only 1 week into the games and with one more week to go. Well, we realized he had an overflow of content coming in, and felt that our visitors might loose a lot of the action.
What has happened is that most of the page is absolutely dynamic and ever changing. There are only 2 elements that remain static, and I might "fix" that soon...
We have such an overflow of cool video, pics and posts coming in from where the action is happening that there might be some sort of information overload!
Now visitors will be able to see 5 featured stories, the latest 4 youtube videos, the twitter feed, the latest pictures and the latest athlete posts on a single glimpse.
Go ahead and pay "voices" a visit; then let me know what you think!
So it begins (and it ends)
Since I didn't make it to China, I spent the morning watching the most amazing Olympic openning ceremony ever. It had quite a bunch of breath taking moments, but you'll probably watch that yourself if you haven't already.
This marks a sort of culmination of a lot of work. Not that I can sit back and relax, quite on the contrary, the next couple of weeks will be crazy, but I can't help but get a feeling of culmination this day, 08-08-08.
Although I already know what I will be doing after the games end there is a certain sense of "what's next?" lurking somewhere in my mind.
First thing will be to regroup my ideas. I have neglected many things in this time, both personally and profesionally; so straigting the wrongs is a top priority.
Some acknowledgments are due, I'd say. David, thanks for the inspiring ideas and Challenges; Rohit and Kaitlyn I've been honored to work with you on this. Alan, as I usually say: I speak more with you than I do with my wife! It has been a blast. Tim, we'll keep on a close loop, but thanks for everything-Olympically-delivered.
Let the games begin and enjoy the show!
August
This shall prove to be a busy month!
For starters, there is a certain sports events happening. But I have talked too much about that already.
This weekend I'm traveling to mi wife's hometown
By the end of the month: vacation; 1000 mile drive to Bariloche and, hopefully (as in "if it snows", and "if ski passes are somewhat affordable"!) some snowboarding.
The 24th, my wife's birthday, not to mention my mother-in-law's and grandmother-in-law's.
I have to thank Augustus (the Roman emperor) who decided to name a month after himself and gave it 31 days instead of the 29 it used to have when it was know as "Sextilis" under the Roman Republic's Calendar. Those 2 extra days shall prove to be quite useful to fit all events going on this month.