Working with the Gremlins...

I have solved my printing/viewing problems with some very simple moves. If the problematic application that seems to be gumming up the works does not load on the first round, then re-boot and go from there. So far that is working.

I was also having some minor problems with the printing of the pictures. I have invested in some high quality gloss photo paper and the accompanying ink and I must say the pictures look great at 8x10 inches. They are clear, crisp, and the color is super. Printing through the Microsoft photo software is a bit up and down, however and has already cost me a waste of 6 sheets of paper...not cheap. But the good news is that I can use this software to tweak and save the pictures, then just print using the desktop printing applications and adjust my preferences. So far not a single error.

I am going to a BBQ today at an AA friend's home. It should be fun and I have invited another AA (a woman!) to go along with me. I have been anting to ask her on a kind-of-sort-of date/do for a while and only after my more recent adventures have I realized that if I don't, I never will.
Anyway, she ha to work on some Step Work with her sponsor today, so I doubt she will come. She has to call me soon, as in 15 minutes from now. The thing is at 12:30 and I was hoping to run some errands first. No worries.


Johnnyboy

More (still!) troubles...

Microsoft Digital Image Pro 10 was working, and then it wasn't. Then it was again. I thought it had something to do with the file sizes (3+MB) but that isn't it. I don't know anymore...Maybe it only works late at night...

Harrumph!

OK, now it is working and I think I know why. There is a file managing application on my desktop that is part of the Averatec laptop I am using. If it does not load completely, the Microsoft program does not work. But if it does, voilà, no problems. At this point it has disappeared, and good riddance, nasty little thing...

Johnnyboy

Academic progress, and picture troubles...

I met with two of my professors yesterday and all is well. This fall I will be working on and presenting my photo journal/photo workshop/public presentation which is due by October 1st as well as working on my degree planning class which doesn't begin until November. So the only new class is a basic historiography class, which is held, for the most part, on-line, although it is not an on-line course. The instructor is way out in Niagara (Jamestown), so to actually meet up is quite an ordeal. This type of class teaches me how to think, research, and write like an historian. This manner of thinking is essential to my major and my future when I go for my Master's Degree and can only help me now.

I have a new wrinkle on my PC...Microsoft Digital ImagePro 10 has ceased being able to upload my pictures. This is odd, because I was using it the other day with some of the new shots. Now the program is not responding. I have uninstalled and re-installed the software to no avail. This is a drag because I will need this program to work with and complete the above digital photography project.

I have also received word that my old Toshiba laptop is not worth fixing. The overheating problems cannot be repaired easily or cheaply since the CPU is part of the motherboard and to replace the whole unit would cost $500 to $600 dollars. So I have purchased a new tower from Dell with a new keyboard and mouse. I already have a kickin' monitor and my friendly techy will make sure the new PC has XP and not Vista loaded. So, in a few weeks I will have a new PC, a desktop, and many of my worries should be over. That Toshiba is, after all, three years old and I have used it in ways that a laptop should not be used, I think. I'll have it wiped and recycle it.

I have heard that the Picasa link below is not working for some folks, actually only one person, and so I sent him a disc instead. Let me know if there are any other problems, please.


Johhnyboy

Some pictures, I hope, of my trip....

I have summarized a few pictures on Picasa of my trip to the Balkans. I am going to try to embed the link below...

Of course this may not work, but if it does, you should all have a pretty good idea of the trip, some of the sights, and the different terrain I encountered.

My jet-lag is all gone, and I have a meeting tomorrow with my faculty mentor and my history professor. I hope to hammer out some details concerning next semester, work I still need to accomplish, and my future at that particular academic institution. I think it may be up to me to design and finish the next two years, with assistance. There seems to be a dearth of study groups offered that either appeal to me or will challenge me intellectually.

Oh well...I hope the link works.

Nope. Didn't work.

Now it does...scroll down and click on the picture...Have fun!


Johnnyboy

Lagged out....

I am lagged out pretty bad. I have never felt it like this. I'm fine during the AM and early PM, but around 6PM I become light headed, dizzy, and nauseated. These are all symptoms of jet-lag, and I've never felt them like this before.

I'll continue to take it easy. Eventually I'll post some pictures...

Johnnyboy

Home gain...

I arrived at JFK around 12:30 yesterday afternoon and after having my passport cleared by the TSA I walked right through the immigration zone with nary a glance. It's hit or miss, I guess. Sometimes they search me to no end and sometimes not. It is because of my swift re-entry that I was able to be home by 4PM. As I drove up my leafy green driveway I felt as if a circle had been completed. I had returned after a long, wonderful, and life expanding trip abroad with many stories to tell and almost 2000 large format pictures to show for it.

I was able to stay awake until about 9:30 and then hit the sack, sleeping soundly until 7:30 this morning. I'll be wiped out this afternoon, so I'll need a nap, but for now I am playing catch-up on some errands and some odds and ends. I'll start work on the pictures and papers on Monday.

Nice to be home and find the world much as it has always been.


Johnnyboy

Zagreb--Rain and Shine...

I left Slovenia satisfied that much of my work was finished for the time being. I have numerous contacts now both in and out of the rooms, a plan for next summer that involves academics and not just wafting about, and a sense that it is time to go back to where I started this journey and close the circle once more on this experience.

It has been a long trip, but not so strange. There have been moments of quiet and peace as well as frustrating moments when I was dealing with the co-dependent aspects of friendship. I have fallen in and out of love, experienced theft, slept in the worst and best of beds, and have managed to take almost 6 gigs worth of pictures. Yes, that is six gigabytes.

Out of the 2000 or so shots I have accrued I need to pick about 25 to use in my presentation this fall. I have looked at some of the shots and there are some real dogs, but even those have value from a technical point of view.

My train ride from Ljubljana to Zagreb yesterday was interesting. Pretty, uneventful, and until we reached the border, relaxed. As we approached the Croatian border it was obvious that we were leaving the EU and entering into foreign lands. The police were very efficient and I had nothing to worry about, of course, but still the mood was very serious. I arrived in Zagreb around 5PM and went straight to my hotel, which is the posh Hotel Dubrovnik. At the end of a trip spent sleeping in 2-Star hotels or less, I like to treat myself to something nice, with AC, CNN, BBC, laundry, and fitted sheets. Plus the bathroom is a real bathroom, with a real shower, etc...not a 'water closet'.

The weather this morning was rainy, but nice and I walked around a little with my umbrella. After lunch the skies cleared and the place has been transformed into a sunny, cafe-laden, European city. After all the small towns, remote forests, and mountains Zagreb is a big place, and carries itself much the way it always has---a bridge between east and west, old and new. Traditional music blends with Croatian and Bosnian rap on the street and the food is distinctly central European which is a change. I have been eating more traditional Balkan food so far which can only be described as rustic. Very tasty, but not the finer stuff of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.

I went to English speaking AA meeting last night and will attend the Croatian language meeting tonight to see friends and so forth. They will probably translate for me, which is very kind. Someday they will not need to do so. That's the plan anyway.

The next update will come from Somewheresville, where my American friends, English car, crazy cat, and loving family await. I'll be home in time for dinner on Thursday.


Johnnyboy

A super day in Ljubljana...

The sun is shining, the tourists are out, and the locals have the ease and peace of a fat and happy cat after it has eaten the mouse. The Slovenes really know how to combine work, relaxation, and new ideas. Their language on the other hand, is something else entirely. It is not really like Serbo-Croat, except in a vague resemblance, and it is by far more difficult. Their quantitative descriptors are a tough one, for example. 'One fish' is 'ena riba' (reeba); 'two fish' is 'dve ribi'; and 'three (or more) fish' is 'tre ribe' (reebay). That rule applies to every noun, based on gender, type of thing or place, or what context the noun is used. Serbo-Croat is like a juvenile version of this language. Plus there are many words which are just different. In Croatian 'po malo' means 'slow down', or 'Easy Does It'. The same phrase in Slovene is 'po časi' (po chasi).

I bring this up because I have discovered that the University of Ljubljana has a summer course in immersive Slovene every June for four weeks. That's 4 classes a day for 6 days a week for four weeks. Plus activities, lectures, etc...and no English is spoken. I think I'm going to look into that for next summer. I'm sure I can transfer credits easily to SUNY.

Tomorrow morning we head to the alps (yes, THE Alps) for the roundup. BTW, it's only an hour's drive...

I'm off to the last of my museums for the week, this time the National Gallery to look at some art.


Johnnyboy

Ljubljana and beyond...

Well my trip is winding down and I will be leaving for the US next week. I am currently in Ljubljana, Slovenia and loving this small city and country. In many ways the geography is similar to Somewheresville and the surrounding environs, but with the Julian Alps thrown in for good measure--green, rolling hills, farms, and small towns with very friendly people.

The AA meetings here are numerous and very welcoming. There is also a ˝convention˝ of sorts in the mountains this weekend that I will attend...actually it's more of a Slovenian Roundup than anything else, but it should be a fun time. On Monday I scoot back to Croatia and Zagreb for a three night stay and then back to the US on Thursday. I fly into AN airport that has recently been on the news, so I am hoping for no problems other that the usual cavity search from the TSA. Just kidding! There is no cavity search, but it feels like it sometimes.

I'll post again from Zagreb!

Johnnyboy

Finally, back in the saddle...

I left Split on Monday with my friend at the helm of his sturdy SEAT two-door sedan. SEAT is a Spanish Volkswagen, kind of...

We arrived in Plitvice (pleet-vee-chay) National Park around 5:30pm and I checked into my simple, clean room while he continued on to Zagreb. The next two days were lovely for me...alone except for a few other tourists (the season hasn't yet begun) and some of the most spectacular waterfalls I have ever seen. It also rained off and on for the time that I was there, giving the mountains and lakes a dramatic cast. I managed to squeeze off about 170 pictures while I was there.

(On Thursday morning, I waited in the early hours on the side of the road in order to flag down the regular Zagreb bus for a lift to Karlovac (kar-low-vatch) where I would change for Pulapoola), where I am currently sitting here at Enigma Internet updating for all the faithful readers who have become disillusioned with my absence over the past 4-5 days.

There is a lovely Roman amphitheater here, as well as some splendid temples. The city museum awaits tomorrow, but today was great fun. I decided to take a trip just north 15km and then take a boat out to Brijuni (or Brioni, in Italian) which was Tito's private island retreat for many years...1946-1980, actually, six months out of the year. The place is a real Hollywood paradise, complete with a wildlife sanctuary, exotic flora, and Roman, Byzantine, Frankish, and medieval Christian archaeological sites. On the bus to the dock, however, I ran into a new pal, a woman named Lottie, a Briton currently living on Okinawa with her Japanese husband. She is a few months pregnant, but was active enough and traveling alone, so we hooked up platonically for a fun afternoon. We will meet up again tomorrow evening for a free classical music concert in a Franciscan monastery at 8PM.

Guess what? Both her parents are recovering alcoholics...coincidence?

I leave for Slovenia on Sunday, and will spend the rest of the week there. My friend Marko has told me that there is another AA convention next weekend in Slovenia, in the mountains. It will most likely be in the Slovenian language, which isn't much like Croatian, but what the hey, the message is the same...

Next update...Ljubljana, Slovenia!


Johhnyboy