Frankly, I'm quite horrified by the UK Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorism Campaign.



Click on the image to go to my original.

Because I've had a couple of people comment that they want to see more people in my photos, I'm trying to add some to my photo sets, but frankly, taking pictures of crowds invariably seems to be crowds of tourists (who cares?) and taking pictures of individuals makes me feel awkward.

Another photo of people in Pisa trying to "hold up" the tower.



( One of the following photos is NOT SAFE FOR WORK! )

As usual, you can go directly to the photo set, if you prefer.

This cat keeps coming to the manor and begging for food. It's a bit skittish and won't come too close to us, but it begs loudly.



( A few more )

Update: Seems the lady in the photo is Romanian, not Italian. Later when she spoke to me (in English), she asked if I could email the photos I took of her. I gave her my card and she dropped me an email today, which is how I know her nationality.

We've finally arrived at the manor. Once we got to Olmi-Cappella, despite it being a town with only a few streets, it still took us two hours to follow the instructions to the manor. Once we found it, it took us another 20 minutes or so to find the safe which hid the key to the manor.

( Photos! )

Finally we understand. This should sink the McCain campaign completely.

( The Recently Discovered Photo )

A couple of weeks ago, I was in Copenhagen. The photos aren't as well organized as they could be, but hey, this is a lot of work :)



( Full Set )

And for those who've forgotten where I live :)

Interesting to note how no one has made an issue of this photo of Barack Obama. If you look at it full scale, you'll notice a tell-tale ring around the face -- a sure sign of photo editing. Of course. that was a publicity shot, but I'm surprised that some McCain supporters didn't think it was somehow relevant. By the same token, I'm surprised that more hay hasn't been made of John McCain's comb over, a common cause of derision in men worried about their advancing years.

As you may know, I took a trip to Idstein, Germany in July. I went with my brother, Greg, and our friend Tom to visit Jim, the father of Greg and myself. Below are a few photos from my Flickr stream. Clicking on any photo will take you to Flickr and once there, you can click on the 'all sizes' link to see the large size of the photo. Going to the Flickr stream directly will let you view all of the almost 200 photos.

---

One of the lovely ladies to wait on us at the Brauhaus.



( Many more photos of Germany behind the cut )

If you live in London, you're pretty much dependent on the Tube map.



(Original Here}

However, recently I found myself at BlackFriars Station (southeast Circle (yellow) Line) and discovered it was closed. Knowing there are Tube stations scattered all over the city, I started walking north, only to find myself at Farringdons Station (northeast Circle Line). They don't to look to me to be that close on the Tube map, but a fried pointed me a geographically accurate Tube map. Those stations, despite being on opposite sides of the Circle Line, are actually quite close together.



(Original here)

What a fun city.

As some of you know, I recently took a cruise to Bermuda with 150 of my closest friends. What you probably didn't know is that a Goth Cruise documentary was being filmed at the same time. It made for a fascinating trip.

And the gang waits for a taxi to take them to the ship. From left to right, Joe, Lil, Annabelle and Sean.



( HUGE number of photos follow. Click at your peril! )

I need to do two things. First is to get a better camera. Second is learn how to use it. The following photos do a lousy job of showing off the beauty of Vienna. It's a lovely city which made me think "if only".

There are 39 photos behind the cut, so they'll take a bit to load. When photos were clearly featuring people, I made sure to explain that I was going to be posting said photos, but I can think of at least one individual I may not have mentioned it to. If you see your photo an would like it removed, please drop me a note. I'll happily do that.

Also, the writing's lousy. I'm busy catching up from a week off and can't be bothered :)

( Vienna )

This may very well be the last time I get connectivity from home for a while, so this will be a very quick post with my house photos. I picked up the keys this morning and snapped a few pics. The quality is fairly low as I need to leave the hotel and needed a lower bandwidth to upload these with. This also might be my last post for a few days.

( Ealing House Photos )

It's easy to underestimate the importance of images. Take, for example, this 2003 image of George Bush on the USS Lincoln (from www.kwhitaker.com). He's clearly the leader. He's clearly the man in charge. He clearly has a suspiciously large crotch, perfectly designed for photo opportunities, but abysmally situated for a flight harness. Guys, do you really want tight straps yanking against your testicals like that? I didn't think so. (no comment about the crotch of the guy in the right of the photo)

The fact is, appearance is an extremely powerful psychological tool. I remember back when I sold cars and we were reminded repeatedly that some customers simply can't be sold to because we look like an ex-husband or a hated neighbor. Appearance is important. Appearance can prejudice you in so many ways. News sources repeatedly pick images that make a story more powerful, but those images can be misleading. It can be very difficult to choose a "fair" image, particularly when one is biased.

So let's consider Conservapedia. They state that they are without the liberal and anti-Christian bias of other online sources like Wikipedia. Now I believe it's quite possible to be a devout conservative Christian and yet still believe it's only honest to try and present a fair viewpoint of the opinions of others. Is this true of Conservapedia? Let's take a look at their images.

Note that unless otherwise stated, all images are from Conservapedia as of May 3, 2007. I have not altered them aside from attempting to resize them to match a corresponding "liberal" image (the image of the "conservative" individual is usually much larger for some reason ...)

What's interesting is that I didn't have to search around for "good" images for this. I just looked for famous liberals and was horrified by what I saw. I haven't seen a bad image of a conservative icon yet.

( Conservapedia images )

(Note that I didn't have much free time, so I don't have great photos for this trip)

I left early Friday morning for the Nordic Perl Workshoop and got to Heathrow in plenty of time. As I was buying 1000 Danish Kroner (roughly £91 or $180), for the weekend, I happened to notice some American bills in the gentleman's cash drawer. I've been gone so long that I didn't even recognize the money. That was very strange.

The flight to Copenhagen was uneventful and in landing at the airport, passport control only took a minute or two. I walked up, handed over my passport, the guard took it, glanced at me, stamped it, and handed it back. All of this without saying a word.

From there I took the bus to Central Station.





( More photos of Copenhagen )

Last night's sky was fabulous, so I've decided to experiment a bit more with taking photos at night. It's difficult as my camera isn't great and I have to be very careful to ensure that the photos come out clear, but here they are.

( 6 Photos )

I've just gotten back from my trip to Dublin and I must say that the Irish people are incredibly friendly. I had a great time meeting them. The rest of Dublin, however, was a different story. I've been to a number of major European cities such as London, Paris and Amsterdam, and I must say that Dublin was a bit of a disappointment compared to them. Ireland has a booming economy and is an economic powerhouse in Europe, but it's economy languished for a long time and the city of Dublin, in many ways, appears to reflect this. Even though I tried to be circumspect in my views, the Irish picked up on my hesitancy to answer the "what do you think of Dublin" question and more than once said "Dublin is not Ireland". I was urged to check out Cork, Galway and the country side to get a better perspective. The Irish were so friendly that I'll have to go back and take them up on this.

The Irish population today is just over 4 million (one estimate I read puts it just below 6 million), which is rather surprising given that in 1841, a census recorded their population as being over 8 million! The reason, of course, is largely due to the Irish Potato Famine of the mid-1800s. A fungus wiped out their main source of food, turning potatos into a black sludge. Many Irish starved to death and others fled the country. This led to the beginning of the Irish diaspora. The diaspora may have started with the famine, but joblessness, religious oppression and political difficulties continued to drive the diaspora, though it appears to have slowed down and possibly ended by the late 20th century.

Turning away from the history lesson, here are the photos!

( 25 photos )

Probably the most memorable thing said to me in my weekend trip to Scotland was a gentleman saying "I like your cock". He was instantly horrified by what he said, but in the context of the conversation, it was a perfectly innocent comment. However, it's so delicious that I refuse to explain the circumstances. Don't ask because I won't tell.

When my friend Paul invited me along to his weekend trip to Scotland, I was only too happy to accept. However, I confess that I felt a bit odd about it. You see, though I was born in Texas, I was conceived in Scotland. Had my mother not had to leave the country under circumstances I've heard at least three contradictory versions of, I would have been born there. I'm not the sort to attach any mystical import to such an event, but it weighs on my mind all the same. I felt like I was going home, in some nonsensical fashion.

The drive, not surprisingly, was beautiful. This is a rather common sight in the English midlands.

( Many more pictures )

As some of you know, my full name is Curtis Allen Poe (note the middle name is spelled differently than the famous Edgar). I was named after my great-grandfather, Curtis Allen Tom. Naturally, given the last name, I'm constantly asked if I'm any relation. I've always answered "no" because Poe was adopted as a child, never fathered children (that anyone knows of) and died with no known living relatives.

Cut to my paternal great-grandparent's tombstone:

Great grandmother Birdie Poe apparently claimed that we were related to "the" Poe. I knew this was preposterous, but in doing a little digging around, it appears that Poe's mother gave birth to three children and if that's true, my understanding of the situation was wrong. I doubt I'll be able to find anything out over the Web and since Birdie Poe is dead, I can't ask why she thought we were related, but it's interesting nonetheless (in a "trivia" sort of way. It's pretty damned useless).

Well, I've finally moved into my new flat and I temporarily have an internet connection. As promised, photos of my flat.

( Numerous photos )