John Paul II (Jan Pawel II)

On my last trip to Poland in October the Polish National Bank came out with their first ever Polish Collectors Note depicting Pope John Paul II. This is a 50 zloty note which actually cost 90 zloty ($30). It was officially released on September 18, 2006. I thought their would be a massive line at the Polish National Bank, but luckily there was no one at the bank. I figured it would be a good collectors piece and souvenir from Poland. My plan is to actually get it framed. Of course, I could always sell it on eBay.



When I go back to Krakow in December, I might have to pick up the Silver collectors coin with John Paul II.

Ribbit 2

This weekend I was getting ready to change the light bulb in the garage. I grabbed the step ladder and almost jumped off as soon as I climbed on it. I saw a little green frog that I have seen before back in May. My guess is that this little guy was hibernating or at least trying to hibernate. Believe it or not he is still sitting in the same spot. I will try to keep an eye on him and make sure no one moves the step ladder until spring.

I took a few photos and place them at Flickr. Below is the best one I had in the set.

Leason learned

As most of you know, I just returned from Krakow, Poland very recently and took many photos. I believe I had over 200 photos of Krakow, Nico, and other random photos. Well not any more. The other day I was getting ready to take a picture and my camera screen says "Poweroff" or "Format", meaning that I just lost all my photos.

I normally upload all my photos to Flickr and/or to my computer. This time I do not belive I did that. I will have to search really hard to see if I did.

So from now on, if I take photos on a particular day I am going to upload them to Flickr and/or to my computer right away.

Google going Solar

It seems Google is going solar powered. They are installing 9,200 solar panels on a high-tech mecca nicknamed the "Googleplex." They are stating that this will save them over 30% on energy alone and completely paid for in 10 years. Google is hoping that their move will spark other major corporations to follow them. Of course that will probably not happen in my lifetime.

It would be nice if solar companies would make solar power more affordable. My guess is that more people would go solar if it did not cost them an arm and a leg.

Read this for the full story.

Healthy Cap

While I was laid over in Milan on my way to Krakow, Poland I noticed something on the soda cans in the restaurant. It is actually a little protection to prevent the cans from getting all nasty. You know, from all the rat poo and cockroach droppings. It is called the "Healthy Cap". It would be nice to see something like this on all cans. Wonder when we will see something like this on cans here in the states.

Babysitter for a night

Last night I was given the honor of babysitting my nephew Nico. It was only for a few hours, but it was babysitting. While I was driving there my sister called and said, "there is nothing to eat in the house." That is where I answered with a question, "what would you do if it was a real babysitter." And that is when I heard silence on the other end of the line.

I arrived after picking up a bite to eat and a few Mountain Dews. After a little time there I fed little Nico his bottle. I burped him a few times and put him to sleep. Lucky part about it all is that I did not have to change a dirty diaper. Of course, it will happen one day.

Back in town

I am officially back from Krakow, Poland. I arrived late on Thursday night. This past trip made trip number 8 and soon to follow will be trip number 9. I have pretty much been in Krakow for every season of the year and have to say that it has been very enjoyable. My next trip will actually be the same time of year as my first trip.

As always, I will keep everyone posted on my trips.

Sick as a Dog

Sunday Morning I woke up at 5 am hacking it up from both ends, which is about as much detail as I will give at this time. This went on and off for a few hours. I then proceeded to sleep all day Sunday. It seems I either ate something that did not agree with my belly or someone passed on a bug to me. Either way, I am much better now.

Poland to Slovakia and back

Saturday morning, Brian and I headed to the mountains in the Poland Slovakia border. The drive down took much longer than expected due to detours and a crafts fair in the city of Nowy Targ. The return only took half the time. We arrived at Szazawnica where we rented some bicycles and road the gravel trail to the Slovakian border. Once we got our passports stamped at the boarder we continued our ride down the gravel road. We road for about 1:30 -2:00 hours of rolling hills following the Dunajec River down the Dunajec Gorge. If we did not have all the detours we would have kept riding to find a new wooden bridge that crosses the river. We headed back as it was getting late and missed the bridge and the monastery located in the park. Once the ride was done we grabbed a bite to eat. I had some frytki, sausage and grilled chicken. (more to follow on the next posting) Below are some photos and more will be posted at Flickr when I return.

In Krakow.

I have officially made it back to Krakow, Poland. It was an interesting flight. I will be sure to post more about it later tonight. Right now I am about to go to the Square to get a bite to eat and shop around.

It pays to travel

As most of you know, I have been traveling to Krakow, Poland and have been doing so for the past year. Well, it has finally paid off. Delta sent me a letter and in that letter was a nice tiny gift. They sent me a $10 iTunes giftcard. What 10 songs should I download?

Me and Nico

Camera

It seems my camera is not as good as I thought it was based on the latest photos. I have to take about 3 pictures of one object to get a good shot. True it is probably the fact that it is a digital photo. I am going to start to look for a replacement camera and am looking for some good suggestions. I know Sony is good, but I would prefer not to use it as I already have many SD memory cards.

Have any suggestions??

Cocoon

I am guessing this is a cocoon. I saw this over by the air conditioner a few days ago. I am not sure what kind of cocoon it is. I will have to check it out online. If you know what this is a cocoon to, please let me know.

Nico

Nico stopped by with my sister yesterday. This means he is now 1 month old. I did take a few photos with me holding him but they did not come out that good. I guess I need one of those new motion free cameras.

Nuts

I came across a certain web page yesterday. Though the name sounds like you might get in trouble it does have some serious information. Notice Your Nuts is the web page. It is a little funny when you first see it, but it does have a serious message. When you watch the little clip on the page it will direct you to Everyman when it if over. Though it is a link in the UK, it can be useful for the USA or any country for that matter.

I though about this because this month is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it is a good time for us guys to think about how it can affect us.

Crazy Indian Movies

It seems more and more people are posting bits and pieces from Indian movies and TV shows. I found these at YouTube.com. If you work for a corporatation, these are probably blocked. If blocked be sure to catch them at home.

Little Superstar Breakdancer
Indian Thriller (Michael Jackson Style)
Little Superstar
Little Superstar Fight

S-Video

I just paid attention to the back of my laptop and noticed that it had an S-Video plug. Yes, I had my laptop for over a year, but just didn't pay attention to it. This weekend I went out and purchased a S-Video Cable to do a little test. I plugged it into the TV and into the Laptop and Bam the picture appeared on my tv.

Yeah, yeah, yeah I guess I should have known that it would work, but you never know. So I gave it a shot and viewed a few things to see if it was really worth it. Videos and pictures show up crystal clear which is great. The bad part is that any text on the screen is a little bit harder to read.

How often would I actually do this or why? The only reason I would probably do this would be to see an online movie. Now if I can only figure out how to get my laptop sound to play out of surround sound speakers.

Big Burger

The Memphis Flyer recently came out with the Best of Memphis issue. It list the best food & drink, good & services, nightlife, art & entertainment and much more. I don't normally pick up the Memphis Flyer , but this issue caught my eye. While reading it I saw that Bigfoot Lodge won the Readers Choice for Best Restaurant. They have this huge burger that probably has over 5000 calories and could feed 3 people. They will even give you the burger for free if you can eat it in 60 minutes or less.

Scan

Like me, I know most of you have boxes and boxes of photos and don't know what to do with them. Well, I have boxes and boxes of photos and am looking for a company that is willing to scan all my photos for a decent price. I would be willing to divide them up into categories to keep it easy.

So if anyone has any suggestions for a business that is capable of doing this locally, please let me know. If I have to send the photo out, I would use that option as a last resort. I could scan them all myself but who really wants to sit there and scan thousands of pictures.