Ribfest Update

Ok so in the rush of getting ready for Ribfest this weekend I put the wrong dates in the last blog. Its actually from Thursday til Monday 11am-8pm.

Sorry for the mistake!

Today

One year! Can you believe it. Me and Dani have been married for one whole year as of yesterday. Its gone super fast it seems but I'm happy and its all good! We spent the day just hanging out, had a nice picknic in Springbank, got my butt kicked in a game of Scrabble and went for Brushetta with Feta at kelseys. Over all a good day!


So it is festival time for me again! I'm going to have a tent in the Ribfest in London to sell my art (or try to)! They have an 'Artist Alley' which i'm assuming is a couple artists put into one area of the park for the ribfest. I've never been in this before and have no idea what to expect. The Sunfest a few weeks ago is the largest festival in London for my kinda thing, so ribfest could be good or bad. Either way it'll be interesting. My lovely wife dani will be helping out for the week as well. So if you're in the area, come see me! I think its running Wed-Sunday, 11am-8pm.


This video is just gross if you don't like to see things decomposing. Yet its very informative. This guy took one of each main sandwiches from McD's plus a pack of fries and let them sit in jars for 10 weeks to see what happens. The results of the sandwiches are slightly normal, but the fries are just weird. It just shows you what they could do to your body.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh2bvL7YNts

------------------

Back from the cottage!

Well we just got back from a week up north cottaging, and I'm proud to say that I'm about 5 shades darker (tanned). We had a great week of 24/7 relaxing (like i need it), but it gave me a chance to rest and read and think and plan (and also to fish! but not catch fist...i'm not good at that i found out...). I got some interesting ideas from reading Richard Branson's Autobiography 'Losing My Virginity'. Its a very interesting look into his life, how he came about to create one of the world's foremost companies. It is for sure a must read for anyone getting into business or interested in entrepreneurship.

So this week I've got a few things planned out, hopefully getting some work going with something. Its also my anniversary tomorrow!!! One year! Wow!

Today's awesomeness

Now to selflessly promote a website. This has got to be the most awesome website i've seen in a while.
Its call Picnik.
Basically its a image editor online. You can edit contrast, colors, apply a vignette, add effects, crop and more! And the best part is that its hooked into facebook and flickr, so you can just take your own photos from there and edit them online!
Now i know this isn't as good as photoshop, but imagine that you can edit a photo from a internet cafe and have it available to see on flickr.
Its free for now, but they are going to start charging soon, so check it out while you can!!!

http://picnik.com

Christian shopping!

I may be stepping on some feet here but the topic of today's blog(rant) is 'Exclusive Christian marketing'. I just recieved a business guide in the mail that markets only Christian businesses. That means if you arn't a church-goer, then you don't get to be in the guide. Now i can see how some people could see this as good: "yahh now I can deal with only christian businesses and not have to worry about getting screwed over!" But i think the people behind the guide missed a certain few sunday school lessons. I personally thought that as christians we were NOT supposed to push others away, NOT think we were better than other people. John 13:34: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." Hmmm now does detaching the 'non-Christian' businesses from the Christian world sound like love? I don't think so.

Do people really think that advertising as a christian business is going to get them more business? Well i guess some shoppers would concider that business more righteous, but I personally wouldn't change my shopping plan because of that. As bad as it sounds I sometimes dont' even like dealing with other 'religious' business people and would rather go to someone who doesn't flaunt church in your face.

I remember once hearing a conversation between a business owner friend who was talking to a customer:

Customer: Hey Jack, with me and you both being christian, how about you give me a better deal on this $20 item??
Owner: Sure, for you, being christian and all, i can sell it for $25.
Customer: (confused) But that's more money!!??
Owner: Well yah, because now its a christian item!

haha

Smoke

I just got back from a nice drive over to UWO to shoot some inter-mural soccer, had the windows down enjoying the evening air when I had the joy of getting a face full of smoke. No it wasn't from my engine. It was from this car infront of me whos passengers were blowing cigar-smelling smoke out of their windows. I'd never imagined that I would get bombarded with secondhand smoke in my own truck.
Now i don't really care if these people are out to kill themselves with the smoke, but I myself don't want to breathe it in. I've never experienced this before. I mean i have seen lots of poeple smoking in their cars, looking all hip with their windows down an inch to let out the smoke (i guess they don't like the smoke themselves eh...), but the people tonight must of had a smoke machine or something. I'm talking clouds coming out of the windows while driving.
So it brings to mind the question, can something like this be allowed to happen? I mean you can't smoke in any buildings now, and i'm sure its going to happen to most public places (outdoors) as well, but can we stop people from smoking in cars? I know tonight was a weird situation, but it was like i couldn't breathe while behind this car.
And then, to make things worse, i watch the driver just toss his cigarette butt out the window. That just adds to the hate. But that is another rant for another time.

How to end world poverty :: Theory One

While in Europe last month we made sure we saw as many 'tourist' sights that we could. This included statues, old buildings and churches. It was during visits of the latter when I had this brilliant idea on how to end world hunger/poverty. You see, there are thousands of old catholic-based churches in europe. And by experience, I've come to two conclusions about catholics. 1.Their faith is so shallow that they must build and decorate elaborate churches to 'house' God, and 2.They are greedy. I know this doesn't extend to the worshipers there, its just church itself.

In almost every large church that we visited, there were countless historic paintings, gold idols...er...statues, relics and more. Now i know that it says in the bible that God loves the wealthy more than the poor...wait no it doesn't...yet these churches hoard these relics like there is no tomorrow.

So here is my proposition. I would bet anything that if the catholic church sold off even 50% of their treasure they could pretty much buy half of Africa and maybe bring a better life for those who need help.

Now i know you say giving money doesn't stop poverty, but I'm not suggesting that. What i mean is that the church could then fund enough programs of irrigation, drinking water, crop stabilization, etc to let those in poverty build themselves out.
So what if you can't worship or pray to the painting of mary on the wall of the church. Do you think that God would be hurt if you didn't have that statue of a naked cherub greeting everyone as they entered the church? I mean they can say that these are priceless peices of history and art, but really, is it seriously worth more than helping people live better?

Take another example that I saw: the Vatican. Biggest tourist trap ever. Come see where the pope lives! Yah!! As if the catholic church didn't make enough with collection plates, they charge you to get in to see the world's famous Bastilia. And I'm sure there are hundreds of people every day paying $75 for private tours. They even charged us just to walk to the top of the church. I really thought that God didn't like people using the church for profit. hmmm

So here is the challange Catholic Church! How about you realize that God doesn't care if the church looks rich and pretty. He doesn't care if it is a work of art. I'm sure whoever buys it will cherish it just the same. God wants you to care about others, his people, the poor who Jesus treasured above others. Does the vatican think they can bring that wealth when they die?

Ok enough ranting.
Send any death threats via comments.

Cheers.

Stuff for today.

Something i just got hooked on is the iGoogle page. I've had a custom homepage with yahoo for a while, giving me updates on news stories, science, comics etc, but with the iGoogle it is just so much more advanced and user friendly its crazy. Check it out when you have time to spare:: http://igoogle.com

--------

Apparently according to the roman catholic church, if you're not catholic then you're not really a real church. Pope whatshisname issued a document stating that if you don't see him as your ruler than your church is 'defective':

"It follows that these separated churches and communities, though we believe they suffer from defects, are deprived neither of significance nor importance in the mystery of salvation," it said.

The document adds that Protestant denominations — called Christian Communities born out of the Reformation — are not true churches, but ecclesial communities.

I think this is the first step in the Pope's plan to take over the world. Seriously.

Sunfest

Currently in the middle of this year's Sunfest, I'm about as tired and sore as i was after a few weeks of backpacking. I've found that sandels give you zero support while standing all day, yet i keep wearing them because with the heat shoes suck.

Sunfest has been great so far being busier than the past few years already. I've met some interesting people, some who liked my art, one who educated me in an overall view of the middle easy conflicts and others that are artists as well. What i've noticed tho is that generally people are just not friendly. My Sunfest neighbour stated how much he hates londoners because they are the least friendly of any other festival he goes in. I've noticed that as well now, how poeple don't even want to talk to others, even when one of the said parties tries to be nice and friendly. are we so scared to open ourselves to the idea that someone wants to genuinely talk to you that we can't even try? i know that as a vendor i'm tagged as 'only wanting to sell my product', but do you have to be that rude that you'll ignore any attempt to strike a conversation.

Ok enough rant. Its from working for 14 hours today and not having enough sleep.

Good night.

Europe Day 31 - 32:: Edited July 1

Day 31.
Brugge. Trained from antwerp and bussed to the hostel which is in the old city area. The hostel is one of the more known ones in all of Belgium and was pretty big, even having its own bar and restaurant. We walked around town to check it out. It was pretty cold and no sun. Got some frenchfries from one of two "competeing" stands in the main square. I guess these are famous fry stands that get auctioned off every 7 years to a new company...no idea why. We shopped for a bit and found this random art exhibit with an amazing artist (probably one of my most favourite artists ever now), named Arthure. I love his type of paintings, really abstract yet brings feeling. We headed back to the hostel for supper and watched a belgium soccer game in the pub as i tried some belgium beers. They have this cherry beer that is really good.

Day 32.
We wandered around brugge today, walked to the top of the Belfry (big bell tower), which was about 300 stairs. It had a great view but sucked when the bells started ringing as we were beside them...very loud.
We found a candy store that actually stretched the candy infront of you, and was quite amazing to watch. Got some great kiwi candy there (that actually looks like slices of kiwi!) We then headed to this church that supposedly has a vial of Christ's blood that was brought over from the middle east by the crusading knights. People can actually pay to pray with the blood (which is watched over by two creepy looking women).

Europe Days 29- ::Edited June 30

Day 29
Antwerp. Caught an expensive train from Rouen to paris, then to brussels then to antwerp. Walked a decent distance to the hostel, but we had a map from a nice tourist office, so it went easily. Antwerp is the diamond capitol of europe and also has a good number of jewish communities. It must be a hair stylist's nightmare for sure since most of the guys seemed to have the same partly shaved head haircut. Fun to see anyway. We walked around town a bit, hit up some stores then went to bed. Our hostel is one of those 12 beds in a room ones, but we lucked out with having only a few people in there.
Since its belgium people smoke everywhere, and our hostel's kitchen and main room were just filled with smoke making us not want to stay down there. But the room was decent.

Day 30
Antwerp. Went to the zoo!! Saw Penguins!

Europe Days 25 - 28 :: Edited June 29

Day 25
Paris. Woke up after the day of hell and switched hotels to our original hotel. We then metroed over to the catacombs, a really cool place, lots of bones (millions!). Definetly one of my favourite places. Then we walked over to the eiffel tower and up to the second level of it (700 steps!). We then walked to the Arc de Triumph, but wern't allowed to go up to it due to some armed guards and a memorial service. I also got to try my first BigMac (who knew i'd eat that), then we headed back to the hotel in the pouring rain.

Day 26
Paris again. Wandered around, saw NotreDame, ate crepes, hit up tourist shops. Went to the Louvre that evening to get in free (Free for students friday nights!), saw the mona lisa and other cool art. Then walked to the Eiffel tower, got some supper and at 11pm watched the Eiffel tower sparkle. really. sparkle.

Day 27.
Trained north to Rouen where we read that Joan of Arc was killed. Got out of the train station and were surrounded by bagpipe players. Quite confusing, but we found out that we happened to get there on the weekend that Joan of Arc was killed, so it was a huge festival in the entire town. So basically the main old-town areas were converted into festival areas with medevel costumes, cooking, blacksmiths, crafts and more. We bought this fresh fire oven bread that was still hot and tasted amazing. That night there were firebreathers, dancing and more. I got to hold the flaming torch as one firebreather blew, really cool.

Day 28.
Went to the 'Grand Picnic', got a plate of amazing stew that had 3 kinds of meat in it. Watched some sweet funk bands playing. We went to the memorial service for Joan that evening, which was kinda cool and weird. I mean shes been dead for so long...haha

Europe days 21-24 :: Updated June 29

Days 21-23
Barcelona. One of my favourite european towns. We got in around 12 and made our way to a hotel I stayed in before, which is located in a mall (fun!). Its a great cheap place right by the Rambla, the main walking road in the south of the city by the beach. We walked around the area, found a cool antique market, saw the harbor and got some dinner before heading to bed. Our second day was spend first touring around the city, saw the Sagrata Familia, the huge gaudi designed church, plus a few other cool landmarks and parks before heading to the beach to relax for the afternoon. The next day was the same, some touring of ancient runes and churches then heading to the beach for the afternoon. Went out to 'Sinatra's' for dinner of Tapas, our most expensive meal.

Day 24 (aka day of hell #1)
Trip to paris. We headed for the airport really early to catch our plane to paris. got to the airport, couldn't find the ryanair area and were told that we were at teh wrong airport. ok so not the happiest news, but we had 3 hours to make it to the other airport, so lots of time right? We find out that its a 1.5 hour drive to teh other airport. too bad we didn't have a car. so we took a train back into town, and tried to get a train out to the other airport, but the only train we could get would get us there 5 minutes before our flight. so that was bad news. we checked out how much a taxi would cost, and didn't think that 140 euros was worth making it a few minutes earlier. so after trying to call ryanair and getting nowhere, we accepted our fate and knew we would get there late. so we caught the train, which was painfully slow and finally got to the Girona train station hoping the airport was right there. turned out that it wasnt. go figure. it was an extra 20 minute taxi ride to get to the airport. on the plus side we found another guy who missed the flight as well, so we didn't feel so dumb. then going to the ryanair desk we tried to get a flight later that day and coudn't get one until 10pm and they charged us an extra 150 euros just to rebook it. not nice ryanair, not nice. after waiting 10 hours in the airport, we got into 'paris' only to find that it wasn't paris but an hour bus ride away from paris. so at 12am we are stuck on this bus for an hour getting to paris. we were then dropped off in paris where we had no idea where to go. we just followed people who seemed to know where the metro was, and made our way to the station closest to our hotel. after walking for at least 15 mins we finally found our hotel. after ringing the bell we finally got someone to come and although she didn't speak english we understood enough that she had already given our room away since we were late. so now we were homeless in paris at 1am and it was raining. we were not happy. it took us at elast 30 minutes more of wandering around the dark streets of paris before we found a really creepy hotel that was open and had rooms free. We FINALLY got to sleep at about 2-3am.

Europe days 16-20 :: Updated June 22

Day 16
Nice. (The city, not the exclamation.)
Left florence at about 8am to train to Nice, france. Got to Nice around 4pm and found our hostel. The hostel people seem pretty dence, but we got in a room with two girls from Guelph, so that was fun. We headed down to the beach/shopping area to get food and check out the town. Lots of really expensive cars around; fararis and such. Would be a fun place to live if you had money to throw away. A one bedroom apartment downtown is about 450 000 euros to buy.

Day 17
Hiked up the side of a small mountain to check out an archeology museum. Turns out that romans left some buildings there a long time ago. Who knew. We then hiked back down to the beach to relax. For a really expensive resort town, the beach sucks. No sand, just large pebbles. Not too comfy unless you can afford a beach chair. Walking along the beach later in the day to a point that jets into the water, we saw a huge school of dolphins swimming and jumping from one horizon to the other.

Day 18
Monaco. Headed from nice to monaco for the day. Its only a 20 min train ride and costs almost nothing. We also found out that the Monaco Grand Prix was on that week too which was cool, but it made the city busy and loud. We walked over to the palace which overlooks the whole area and gives you a good view of the racing as well. We also headed to the Oceanographic museum which is world renound. Had some sweet looking fish and old relecs. We also walked up right to the races but couldn't get in. Was a great walking day until my $7 walmart sandels decided to completely fall appart (shoulda known), but besides that it was great!

Day 19
Marseille. We trained to marseille and tried to find the hostel that we booked. After taking a metro and a bus, we started walking and walking and walking and finally found our hostel, which turned out to be this couple's house (awkward) and whats worse (and funny for me) is that we were sharing a room with two guys from holland who spent all night drinking and listening to the most random music, and then to make the stay more fun, the "free internet" turned out to be their own home computer in their living room, so when we tried to search for a room for the next day with 5 random people sitting in the room with us was most awkward. Anyway, we did get the chance to boat over to the Chateau d'If (the location for the Count of Monte Cristo), which was really cool. A nice old prison island. Had warning signs about seagulls who attack people...and one happened to divebomb Dani. Really fun! haha

Day 20
Beizers. Found this little town on the coast between marseille and Barcelona. Big mistake. We trained here and planned to get info about our hotel at the train station. Turned out that the station was too small for info...so going with my memory of the general direction of the hotel, we started hiking. After walking for a while, we founda bus stop with a map, which didn't help. We then had a gang of teens throw fruit at the bus stop and start following us while we walked. It was just pure luck when we finally stumbled upon a tourist info building with nice ladies who informed us that the hotel we wanted was not a good place and like 7km out of town. They then got us a hotel right next to the train station, where we spent the res of the day and night in because i'm pretty sure the town was run by gangs. Not happy day. We were glad to leave.

Europe days 9 -15 :: Edited June 22

So this may be the biggest sets of blog posts ever when i'm done with it. Since internet here has been iffy at best, and can cost as much as a good meal for an hour, i could not keep up as much as i would have liked. so what i'm doing now, nearing the end of our trip is i'll condense it into short blurbs for each day/event with the help of Dani's well written notes in her conventional journal and enlarge them when possible. so this post should keep getting bigger until i have filled in all the details. so here we go:

Day 9
heading to the train station to go to rome we met some fellow londoners (what are the odds!)They gave us some advice on things to see in rome, which turned out very helpful even tho i've been there 3 other times...
We arrived in rome late, as all trains it italy are late, and after metros and busses we made it to our hostel which was a campground just on the outskirts of the city. The place was pretty nice, we got our own room and bathroom. It even had a pool and 'jaccuzies'which to them are round tubs with cold water jets...not my idea of a good hot tub...oh well cant complain.

Day 10
ROME! We bussed and metro-ed downtown to check out the old sites, including the Trevi fountain, old ruins, tomb of the unknown soldier and the collesium. My fav part was thanks to the Londoners we met the day before. As they told us to do, we followed the buildings to the left of the unknown soldiers tomb and eventually found a small door that led downstairs into an old cell. turns out this cell is where the apostle Paul was supposedly held. The cell is small and very few people seemed to know about it since it was pretty empty when we were there. Rumor has it that Paul baptised fellow prisoners with a small stream that went through the cell and that the water actually glowed. There's a small mural in the cell showing this event, but besides that it doesn't tell anything except a list of names of who was in the cell, including Paul.
Cool eh!

Day 11
The Vatican. Bussing into the city, we walked into see the vatican's huge walls that surround the city. We didn't know where to go there, so we saw this huge line (as in thousands of people), and decided our best bet would be to join the line and hope we get somewhere. Thankfully it went really fast and we got into St.Peter's Bastilia. Well actually it went UNDER the bastilia to the tombes of the popes. YOu'd think with all the money that the vatican has it wouldn't have to bury the popes in the basement eh! haha. What was really weird was that when we went past the most recient tomb (John Paul?) people were actually praying to the dead pope, leaving gifts and more. NOw i'm not big into catholic things, but thats just weird people. We also saw the tomb for St.Peter (from a distance, since no one is allowed in). We then went into the church itself, which is amazing in terms of architecture and design. I also think that if they auctioned off everything in there they could pretty much end world poverty. But they're too greedy i guess. God only likes really expensive churches, right?
We then decided to get in another huge line and climbed up to the top of the bastilia which was about 550 stairs, some that led through tunnels that were slanted on an angle, so that you had to walk crooked. Came with a great view of the upper roof of the church (painted by michelangelo) and a good overview of the whole city.

Our plan then was to go see the sistine chapel, but after walking all the way to it, we found that it just randomly closed for the day (sign said it closed one day a month and it just happened to be our day there...blah). On the plus side we found this amazing gelato place were we got 6 scoops of the icecream. not bad.

Day 12 and 13
We took a train to our next town, a place called Filgine or something like that. We had booked this campground place that we knew nothing about but it was in the Tuscan area, so we figured it would be good. We got there at about 2:30 and got a shuttle to the campgrounds, on top of a mountain, which we found out happened to be a resort. (but we only payed $13 per night!) IT had 6 pools, tennis, soccer, restaurants, market and more. It was basically like a 4 star camping resort. we decided it would be a good place to relax for a few days (by the pool of course). We also noticed that it just happened to be the weekend that the European chapter of the H.O.G. Club (Harley-Davidon Owners Group), got together at that resort, meaning lots of bikes and noise! Was very interesting.

Day 14
Florence. Took an early train to florence where we left our bags and took another train to Pisa. Walking through the town we found the leaning tower (very cool) and the historic area. After taking the normal 'holding up the leaning tower' photos and wandered around for a bit, we then headed back to the train and back to Florence and a bus to our hostel.

Day 15
Walked through florence. Our hostel is on top of a hill overlooking the city and is right beside a lookout with a huge statue of David on it. We wandered around the streets and churches for about 8 hours. Didn't see the original David...most museums were closed that day. oh well.

Europe day 7-9

I appologise for the lond delay bettween posts. Internet was hard to get in italy for cheap, so we only used it when needed.

Rimini was a fun resort town right on the beach. the hostel was cool; probably used to be a hotel and kept a 60s feel with the colors and furniture.
We mainly layed on the beach which looked to be fully set up for the upcoming tourist season with rows and rows of beach umbrella holders. would be quite a site to see in full season. we also tried to get a bus to the nearby city/state/country of San Marino, which is the oldest country in the world; but the busses ran too sparatically for us and we had to ditch the idea. so we just put in more beach time.

we met some people from london there on our last morning, and it was good to talk about things we knew!! plus got some info about other towns from them.

Then after two days in rimini, we hopped a train and started for Rome.

Europe Day 4, 5, 6

To start off, Venice is definetly one of the most visually astounding cities i have seen, if you take away the crowds. We started day 3 (after sleeping in) with a boat ride right into venice. my last experience here was not a good one, so it was great to finally see the city in good light. I liked the 15 min boat ride in along a 'water highway', it lets you into the city in the most fun way, and its a great buildup of anticipation as you see it coming closer. The boat drivers are amazing here. they just cruise into these little spots with such grace, where i am sure i would have rammed straight into the walkway. its like they can control the boat within inches.

getting around venice is not an easy task. there are no straight roads, most zigzag around and end in either big squares, sudden dead ends or into the water.
it makes for an interesting walk, but is hard to follow on a map. so for the most part you just try to head ina general direction and you should be good.

we got to see some pretty cool old churches with amazing paintings on the walls that have to be hundreds of years old. we also went to the top of a 100 meter tower that looks out over all of venice, pretty cool. its fun seeing all the red brick roofs and all the rooftop patios.

I think my favourite part of the city are the small streets and bridges that are deserted. its just a wonderful place to see.

on day 6 we headed out by train to Rimini, a costal town on the east side of italy. Trains are hot, stuffy and hot here. Did i mention they are hot?

We got to the town at about 6 and after catching rides on multiple busses (a few that ended) we found our hostel.

Europe Day 1, 2, 3

Starting out with a flight to London england at 9:50pm, we began our 48 hours of no sleep travel. We landed in england at 9:30 am after a night of not sleeping on the plane and enduring 2 children crying right next to us during the last hour of flight. We trained into london and left our bags at a train station locker and wandered around for a few hours. We made our way to the KLondon tower and the Tower bridge, which were great if we wern,t so dead. The weather kinda sucked, it was cool and rainy, which ruined our plans to sleep in a sunny park somewhere. Having enough by about 4pm we headed back to our bags (nearly forgetting them) and hopped on a train to the next airport, waited in the airport over night for a 7am flight (airport floors suck to sleep on), then flew to Bologna Italy. Taking a bus then a train then a bus, we made it to our current hostel and crashed in our beds for a nice 3 hour nap followed by food and a 12 hour sleep.
The hostel here is one of the best iàve been at, with nice showers, private trailer rooms, a restaurant, market and you can see the city of venice right from the hostel. a boat goes right from the front gate into venice. a very nice setup.

Coming next: day 3 and 4 in Venice!!!

Europe Trip 2007 - Day One

Well its been quite a busy week here. This past weekend I got to enjoy my sister-in-law Rachel's wedding to Nathan (see link to the right). It was a great wedding, as well as the few days before and after. I got to hang out with Nathan's friends for two nights, met some cool people there, won $80 at a casino and got to watch nathan get dressed up like a girl. All in all an eventful time! The wedding was like nothing i've been to before. The cerimony was nice and short (thanks Joe!) and the reception was a pot-luck, which was a great idea by Rach and Nathan. Definetly came with a sense of community; everyone coming together, providing food for each other, enjoying the night. It was great! I'll link some photos with this post later today.

But on to more exciting news. Today we leave for europe!!!!!!
Me and Danielle are going to be flying out to europe tonight for 6 weeks. Staying in England for a day, we then get to hang out in an airport all night and grab an early flight to Bologna, Italy and train over to Venice to start our adventure. From there we have no plans, no itinary, no clue. I think this is the best way to travel! This way you're never late for your plans, you don't have to rush and you will probably see things you didn't even think about!!

So watch this blog for updates (as many as I can when I get to a internet cafe). This is going to allow me to update more of you faster than emails, which bodes well in 6 euros-an-hour cafes.

Photos::

Time to die Yellow Signs

I have come to forcast the downfall of what was the "big thing" in advertising a few years ago: Yellow Signs (or any version of them!)
A few years ago the idea of yellow signs (and their flourescent counterparts) surged around the area as a great way to advertise your business, attract attention, and make people read a bright sign in hopes of making them crash their moving cars. Ok so i may have made that last one up. But needless to say, peeople loved this bright way of diverting attention from on-coming cars and other businesses.
I am stating now that this form of advertising has reached and passed its peak. In a country where we are trying to clean up our cities and make them more green, natural is the new yellow. I was reminded of this just the other day when driving downtown I saw three yellow and one black/ugly/flourescent signs on ONE business' property. FOUR SIGNS!!!! It was more than hard to look at. It was just plain ugly. Have these businesses sunk so far into the idea that people want to see advertising that they've decided to hide their buildings with the yellow signs? I do believe that there was a garden under the signs, but you wouldn't notice it at all due to the glare of yellow. Plus it can't be good to have cement blocks in a garden!
Its time for a change. I LIKE seeing oncoming traffic as I drive or try to pull out of parking lots. I LIKE being able to see buildings and not have to look at big yellow boards taunting me with their messages of what I 'need'. I don't want a new watch. I don't need half price shredders. I don't care if I get one can of tuna for the price of two, or something like that.
I look forward to seeing less of these signs as people realize that direct, in your face advertising is coming to an end. I hope that people can voice this opinion to see less yellow and more green (and i don't mean green signs, you geeks). How about you take a minute and think, ponder, pull hair about a prettier way of letting people know that they should buy that arm chair they can't live without.
Just watch this blog. I'll tell you how in the future. Until then, let's take down the yellow signs. We could probably build a house for a needy family with all that wasted materials.