ROCKS AROUND THE WORLD

When I was in South America the idea came to me to start a new collection. I wanted a collection of some sort of object from every country that I visit. I decided that it would have to be something I could procure just about everywhere no matter what my experience in the country would be. So I decided to collect a stone from every country that I visit.

Each time we entered a new country in South America I gathered a rock and tucked it in my bag. Now that I'm in Europe I do the same thing. I try to get rocks from places of significance or interest, but that's not always possible. Some of my rocks are just "border rocks" when I've visited a country by just stepping over the border. Hopefully I will return to these countries in the future to get a rock from a more significant location. Eventually and hopefully I will someday have a large collection of rocks from all over the earth. I can then display them in some manner, with a flag or something, in my future secret lair.

So here are the stones and their respective countries:

PERU - from the foot of Machu Picchu...

BOLIVIA - from the shores of Lake Titicaca...

COLOMBIA - roadside pebbles from the jungle town of Leticia...

BRAZIL - a stick from the Amazon Rainforest (there were no rocks in the jungle)...

CHILE - from the cliffs of the Atacama Desert, the driest in the world...

ECUADOR - from the feet of Cotopaxi, the world's highest active volcano...

HONDURAS - the coral reef island of Roatan...

BELIZE - Mayan riverbed...

MEXICO - from the ground of the ancient ruins of Tulum...

USA - from the cornfield behind the houses where my family lives...

GERMANY - from the ruins of the old town wall of Putlitz where my ancestors are from...

BELGIUM - a forest trail near the Ardennes...

THE NETHERLANDS - limestone quarry below Valkenburg Castle...

AUSTRIA - from amidst the jagged Alps...

POLAND - from a forest trail in Zgorzelec...

CZECH REPUBLIC - a field just over the border...

SWITZERLAND - buried in a churchyard in the town of Rorschach...

FRANCE - from the feet of Mont Blanc...

ITALY - from ancient Roman ruins in Turin...

The countries that I've visited but don't have rocks from are: Hungary, Slovakia, Canada, Vatican City, and the UK. Someday I'll get rocks from these places as well.

Now the question is: what will the next rock be?

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BLOG UNDER RENOVATION

I'm trying to find a new template for my blog that allows for me to post larger-sized photos, so I'll be experimenting a bit over the next few weeks. If anybody knows a good template with a large post column and a separated side column let me know. I'm getting kind of frustrated with blogger in general and there's a chance that I might switch to wordpress or some other blogging site. I welcome suggestions as far as that goes also.

UPDATE: Apparently there are some problems with the pictures appearing correctly with different monitor resolutions. I need to know if the new header collage is over-extended on the right side on your monitor, and if the big pictures in this post are being clipped on the right side. You can tell if it's clipped because you won't be able to see that thin black frame on the right edge of the picture. Let me know, and if you know your monitor resolution, let me know that also. Thanks.

Meanwhile, enjoy some photos of my favorite mountain: Mt. Kessler!

Almost exactly half-way up Big Cottonwood Canyon near Salt Lake City lies Mt. Kessler.



With it's distinctive shape, the peak that you see is actually not the highest point of the mountain, that lies behind and beyond view from the above perspective.




Above is the perspective from Cardiff Fork, facing West. The knob that you see in the other pictures is on the far right.



For those who haven't heard it, someday, if you're good, I might tell you the story of the Man of Mt. Kessler.

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New Album from me...

This is really funny, all you have to do to make your own album cover is follow these instructions:

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

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WELCOME TO THE NIGHT

My Christmas present to myself last December was a Joby camera tripod. With this bad boy I can take stable pictures from just about anywhere with the adjustable legs of this tripod.
















See...


(Notice the vitamins in the lower left corner, Mom!)

So I've had a lot of fun over the past couple of months hunting for fun places around Munich to set up my tripod and take pictures. Here are some of my favorites...


The Victory Gate...




The Opera House...




Max-Joseph Platz...







The Platzl...











Odeonsplatz and the Theatiner-kirche...








Marienplatz...




I bumped this shot while taking the picture, and somehow a bunch of tuplet eighth-notes appeared...




The Viktualienmarkt...




Dusk over the Deutsches Museum...




St. Maximilian-kirche and the Isar River...












I also went up Old St. Peter's steeple for a sunset view one evening. You can even see the Alps...

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