Is it live or is it Memorex?

Roman street performing statues. I saw a lot of groups like this but this was the most interesting lot. Kind of a fascinating way to make a living which I may explore further in a future post.

Cyber Monday

e-commerce is still retail - no matter how you slice it. At the new gig I can already see the 'nets heating up and online orders increasing steadily now that people are mostly at work. Unofficially based (or anecdotally if you prefer) on what I've seen and heard - online ordering is set to double last year's totals. Is the economy finally picking up or are we seeing really great/desperate deals?

A great weekend...

Lots of pictures to make up for not posting but you'll see why in a sec here. Starting out with massive leaf clean up on Saturday!

And it's reward on Saturday night...

Then a puppy rescue run from Newark, DE to Norristown as my leg early on Sunday morning. They were all so adorable! Support your local dog rescue!

Another Transport Hero! Support your local dog rescue!

Another Transport Hero! Support your local dog rescue!

More cute puppy pics!Support your local dog rescue!

And the big finish on Sunday night. I pulled out the smoker and smoked 4 racks of ribs, a lamb shank, a beer can chicken and even the giblets for the dogs(not shown 'cause those were kinda gross). This was all local farm fresh meat and super tasty!

NYC Marathon 2011

I forgot to post these last week but I just wanted to mention how inspiring it was to watch the runners. The (rather lousy) middle picture is of Mary Keitany - she set a blistering pace for the women for almost 2 hours and then ended up in 3rd place. It was so exciting to watch and a bit of a letdown (for me) that she didn't win as we were totally rooting for her...

Need some?

I certainly do! I may have picked the worst time of the year to start my new gig. 6 out of the 7 days I've been here so far have been fairly catastrophic as we work out the bugs before Black Friday...

City Island love

Gotta post from the phone this evening. My router blew up last night. Here are some pics of our time on City Island last week.

Italian Graffiti

I'm a huge fan of graffiti. My brother was a fairly well-known graffiti artist in NYC back in the day and I learned to appreciate the art and even threw up some tags and a few pieces myself. Anyway, I saw much more graffiti than this but wasn't camera aware about it unfortunately. Here's a piece from Venice and something from Rome - probably prescient of Oakland and directed towards them...

Moon Tryptich

I love a full moon. These shots are from a full moon back in April. I was playing with different settings and these are some of the better shots. Enjoy!

Also - having trouble finding more Lipp shots in my library - they're there - just gotta figure out where exactly...

Lipp

I'm dedicating today's post to my father-in-law, known to friends and family as Lipp. He is a Marine, a Vietnam Veteran, a dedicated father and someone who I'm proud to honor today and every day. He welcomed me in as part of the family and has shown me so much love over the past 13 years. Thanks for coming back Lipp and giving me the greatest gift of my life, your daughter! I love you and hope you get all the respect you deserve today...(I'll add more pictures this afternoon.)

Lazy post day

I'm slacking because of the new/old gig I started Monday. Here's a little more Venice love for ya.

Porta Alchemica and our disappointing results...

Prior to our trip to Rome, I bought the guidebook Secret Rome (click on it to see it on Amazon) and saw that it had some really cool stuff to see. The book failed to mention several things however... And the one esoteric thing I really wanted to see was the Magic Door (again - click on it to see it on Atlas Obscura) but I was stopped way short as you can see in the picture below. Apparently, even to see this ruin in the middle of a park now requires one to call the Commune di Roma to schedule somebody to come and open the iron gates surrounding it for you. Nowhere in this little guidebook does it tell you this and the rather timid man who opens the gates for scheduled groups is apparently the only Roman above a small bribe to get a bit closer! Seriously though, it was one of the few lowlights of the trip to be denied admission to this peculiar door :^( And as far as the guidebook goes, that wasn't the only problem we had but I'll save those stories for another time...

Smashdogs!

I think my brother would be embarrassed if I told you how long he's been playing in this league so I'll just tell you that he has a tremendous amount of fun and we had a great time watching this past Saturday!

Happy Hour Fun Time!

I should have taken more pictures but I was beyond paying attention to these things! I had a great time and it was a perfect small gathering of fantastic people. Thank you all and we'll catch up again real soon...

Bank Art

Palazzo Rondinini on the one day a year you can visit it. The Roman banks open up to the public on the 1st Saturday of October. We waited in line for a bit and got to see some really interesting artwork and received some insight from our tour guide on what really goes on in here. Apparently, this building is also rented out to the Chess Club - a group of wealthy, influential Romans who sit around and discuss how to make more money (I guess).It was an interesting counterpoint to the demonstrations happening outside and around the western world that day...

Here are a few interesting sculptures

Tomorrow I leave all this behind...

Here is my farewell email to my mates in the cubicle jungle:

As most of you are aware, tomorrow is my last day with redacted. I leave with a certain amount of excitement as I continue down my career path and a great deal of fondness for all of you. I’m not as witty as some or long-winded as others but here goes, brevity be damned: I really enjoyed my time here. I learned tons - thanks to redacted for laying the VMWare knowledge & duties on me (but I curse you for the Windows stuff). Trust me when I tell you this is fantastic for a middle-aged dude who’s donated more than his fair share of brain cells to youthful debauchery. Redacted and redacted allowed me the latitude to grow as an employee as well as to make decisions to help us move forward. I feel like I’m leaving behind a good framework for the pieces I managed and built, hopefully the next guy will see that too. I met many wonderful people as well as some not-so-wonderful (I started the same day as redacted – ‘nuff said) and as usual, made great friends along the way as well as reconnecting with some old ones. It certainly helps to know people when you start somewhere and I was quickly made to feel at home. I guess swearing like a trucker has its place after all – screw compliance! I wish you all the best of luck in your future endeavors, both personal and professional. Please keep in touch.