idonthaveacoolname

I woke up early and refreshed! I packed my camera gear and set out to get some sunrise images! Here are a few, including a panorama. It was incredibly breathtaking!

There is a beautiful sliver of a moon out tonight. Here is the Duomo in Pienza with the moon in the background.

I had forgotten that I had taken photos of my dinner. The wine menu should be enough explanation! Both the wine menu and the photo of the glass of wine were taken prior to my going to eat dinner. I can’t remember the name of this beautiful little wine bar but it is right next to a church 😉

Thank you all for your wonderful birthday wishes! I am here in Pienza eating a lunch of pecorino cheese and wild boar looking out over the beautiful Val D’Orcia. I’m really tired and the multiple cups of espresso aren’t working. I had a great stay in Montipulciano. Here is a shot of my room and the private garden.

Montipulciano is a wonderful town filled with wineries. I had dinner at the Borgo Buio, across the street from my B&B. The food was spectacular starting with a collection of local pecorino cheese and jam, I then ate Pici pasta, hand made by the chef, Richard. He came to my table frequently to drop off samples of his best Grappa, wine, and aperativos. I was well taken care of. I then had the most tender cheek as my main, followed by a chocolate dessert that I fell in love with. My hosts were the best and, to be frank, I expected (and was quite willing) to pay a lot more than what my bill was. Kudoes to the chef!

Luckily I was across the street from my B&B because I would have definitely gotten lost being in the state I was! I slept sparingly hence my dismal state today. It was the best dinner that I have ever had!

I wandered to Pienza and fell in love, again. Where Montipulciano was short streets and narrow alleys, Pienza is open and, while small, quite spacious. Here are a few from along my stroll. Note that all of these from my posts are from my iPhone to make it easy to update. I have given both cameras quite the workout and I am up over 1000 images thus far!

I arrived at Montipulciano in Tuscany today and will write a more fulsome review later. For now, here is an image or two from early this morning in Rome before I left.

Rome is the most beautiful noisy cacophony of cigarette smoke and petrol fumes that I have ever experienced. It is an amazing place!

I am tired. Dog tired after 12 hours of flight and layovers. The Zurich layover was almost non-existent since I literally got off one plane then walked to another terminal where the plane was waiting for me and one other person.

I took a few pictures from the plane over Switzerland and then Tuscany but tough to take photos from a plane.

Just as we were about to land at Fiumicino I could have sworn that I saw the dome of St.Peters!

I found the train quite fast by following the yellow train signs. I bought my ticket (stamped it on the left side of the machine) at the kiosk and off to Rome I went.

I immediately went to the 2nd floor to the TIM store at the train station. The guy at the store was very helpful! I was up and running in minutes. I went to er Burchetto and inhaled a pork sandwich. I was really tired since I don’t sleep much on the plane but Here are a few images from today

It is 5:38am and today is day 0 of my Italian adventure. I am fully packed, well, re-packed since I have abandoned my recently purchased Thule bag in favour of my tried and true Osprey 33 liter backpack that has served me quite well in the past, especially for the series of 10-15k hikes in Tuscany that I have planned this week in the Val D’Orcia.

My friends DK and KL are driving me to the airport this afternoon and my flight is 4 to Montreal, 6 this evening to Zurich, then onto Rome arriving, Rome time, at 9 in the morning, giving me a full first day to wander and survey the hills of Rome before heading out to Tuscan hills the morning after.

Thanks to LL for her hotel tip as well as all of the information on TIM cards. I should be fully connected throughout my trip and allow me to post photos daily. Bracelets and photos of Medici on horseback, check!

And a special thanks to SM for taking care of my plants.

My next update will be from the Eternal City!

I needed to upgrade my iPhone 4s and decided to get the iPhone 6. I think this hardware upgrade is significant. I was really impressed with the camera feature and the sweet slo-mo 240fps video. I grabbed some test videos but was peeved that the m4v files created by my iPhone were unavailable to upload using the WordPress app. I would love to have the ability to take a video, upload to my server, link it to my mobile wordpress app for internet consumption.

Since there was no free app to do it I decided to see what sort of a work around I could come up with.

I downloaded iTransfer (free) to upload the video from my phone to my server (idonthaveacoolname.com) and then ftp them (free) to the remote server into their secured video location for access. Once I had them on my server I found that I could simply link them to the html page. The problem then was the player, a few tweaks to the server has led me to these series of experiments. I activated a few plugins on my server that should allow for both audio and video to be rendered by the server, not using a flash container that is inaccessible on my iOS devices.

First a link to a .mov file that I expect to render in its own player using HTML 5. This means all newer browers would use HTML5 while mobile devices would consume an mp4 stream. There should be player controls.

This .mov was uploaded from my iPad (an older Paris one with Lana del Rey :). I needed to work from my iPad first since typing html code into an iPhone is tortuous. I do not have any m4v on my iPad but I will start here.

20140426-071531.mov

success. so uploading from my ipad worked.

The next experiment will be to link a movie from my server, the ones that I uploaded from my iPhone earlier.

IMG_0703

success. next I need to use an m4v meaning that I have to switch to my phone and write code using that mini screen. ugh. the pains of scientific curiosity 😉

But this doesn’t work????? 8mg limit? What the?
Fountain.mov

Hardlinked .mov file

nope 🙁
hmmm….

The vote was to remain part of the UK. 56/44, or something like that. A very large turnout as well. This article uses the historical analogy of Ireland in 1914 and their aspiration for independence with the rise of Scottish independence that culminated with this vote. It wisely speaks to the deep connections between Scotland and England within the last three centuries of Constitutional accord but highlights a cultural divide akin to Ireland a century ago.

As a Canadian I didn’t see the Scottish referendum itself as all that analogous to the Quebec one two decades ago: there are better analogies, Ireland in 1914 is probably the most historically useful as the author employs. But there are other similarites.

What did strike me was the immediate reaction of the British PM to recognize that certain economic polices were a casus belli of this independence movement and these sentiments were felt elsewhere as well. Brown noted that these economic polices were misaligned with the cultural sentiments of a large segment of the citizenry. What the constitutional changes will be (if any) are yet unknown but I think that one of the reasons why Canada is so divided today is that this issue was never addressed by the government of the time here or since. I think that most people were just happy that Quebec remained part of Canada. I know I was. And because it wasn’t addressed, it simmers to this day. Much like the treatment of aboriginal people in Canada. The land is still haunted.

The author notes that one reason Scots were unhappy with the Union was attitudes towards compassion and social welfare. I note this same difference between French and English Canada and many other communities in Canada. In this analogy, the communitarian ethos is stronger in Quebec culture as evidenced by public policy choices and that focusing simply on linguistic rights obscures the deeper identity and socio-cultural issues.

I think that this desire to negotiate may be the best lesson for Canadians to take from the Scottish referendum. Searching for a stronger and better way to achieve your goals, in this case a united Kingdom, in and of itself may reward all citizens.

Tomorrow the voting begins in Scotland. The vote seems split down the middle and the fear mongering has been ongoing, even a royal baby didn’t seem to help all that much. One piece of crucial information is oil and gas revenues that would accrue to an independent Scotland who, by all accounts, have linked the “yes” vote to a more social democratic society. The linked article outlines the enormity of this wealth. The desire is to use this wealth to fund investments in education and social welfare. Corporatist policies of austerity are at the centre of this demand for independence. I wish the Yes side well since this may be the only way to restore public control over community regulations. I think of this situation much as I think of a smaller scale issue of urban incorporation in Canada (rather than Quebec sovereignty since the parallel is less applicable ): as cities amalgamate the local neighbourhood character radically transforms and many, myself included, abhor this situation since it tends to lead to less community ethos and the rise of corporate control that monopolizes all decision making, squeezing out options such as co op housing and renewable communities. More strip malls, police, and condos are not my vision of where I want to live. A smaller, more agile socially responsible Scotland that is responsive to its population and not to corporate London is what the Yes side desires.