Panoramas

I'm in one of those periods when I don't feel like writing very much. They usually end with one of those very long posts. Lucky readers! :-p

So tonight I spent some time at ArtServe. Most of the pictures on the site seem to still be missing. They've been doing maintenance on the site for a couple of months. I think it is run by one guy and a couple of trained monkeys. Anyway, one part of the site that wasn't shut down was a section with some dandy panoramic photographs of buildings, townscapes, landscapes and such, mostly in the Mediterranean, and a few in Japan. They have "small" panoramas (about four times the width of Sluggo's 17" inch monitor) and "large" files, running to several Mb. Naturally, being on dial-up, I went for the smaller ones. Still, they took Sluggo four or five minutes each to download.

From the main index of panoramas you will find all sorts of interesting things, but I would recommend a nice collection of four (there are five thumbnails, but two of them are duplicates) pictures from the Parc des Volcans in France. In particular, check out the fourth picture in the series (the tallest one), which has some truly splendid scenery of mountains and green fields. There is also a nice panorama of the castle at Carcassonne which is worth a look. If you have anything faster than dial-up, you might want to take a shot at the large pictures, too, which are listed on the main index page. Oh, yeah- there are some panoramas of Japanese palaces and their gardens in Kyoto and Nara, and some of the hills of Rome, and the Roman Forum, but I didn't get the URL's for those. They are on the index page, too.

The Day Before Thursday

It must be raining, because the outdoors is all wet. Yet, I have not felt a single drop falling. Every time I go out, it stops. The rain fears me! My cats are sitting on widow sills, gazing at the dampness with irritation. They have been spoiled by the mild weather of late, when they have been able to spend the lengthening afternoons in their favorite patches of sunlight on the lawn. Now they are forced to watch through glass as the birds congregate to peck in the newly moistened soil. Poor cats. Life is tough.

Rumor has it that tomorrow (or is it Friday?-- these things have no grasp on my mind) is a Hallmark (tm) Holiday. Valentines Day has always seemed an odd sort of celebration to me. Many years ago, when I was in elementary school, we had Valentine-themed crafts projects. Everyone in the class would make Valentine cards for everyone else in the class. There would be construction paper, and that crusty-feeling paper lace, and some of that thick white library paste with the odd smell. Scissors would be passed out, and we would spend the afternoon making crude cards, then exchange them, and everyone would go home with a bag full of these clumsy, smelly things from people they barely knew. Even at the time, I thought the whole thing surpassingly weird-- so much so, that I've had nothing to do with the holiday since. I think we ought to change it to Ballantines Day, and everyone should consume a quart or so of one or another of their beverages. That would be a holiday worth celebrating.