I Need My Space

When I was a kid I wanted to be an astronaut, but then my 4th grade teacher quickly dispelled me of that ridiculous illusion by pointing out the cruel realities of my bad eyesight and even worse grades.

Watching that video above has just reignited that childhood dream of one day going into space. Sure it's insanely expensive, but over time it'll become more affordable and much more common place. To put things into perspective, in 1903 the Wright brothers were the first to fly in a plane and by the 1950s airports and airplanes were totally ordinary.

So it may take fifty years to get there, but at least the notion doesn't seem so absurd anymore.

Take that, Mrs. Prem!

My Holiday

Now that I’ve had a day to readjust to the “real world” I can reflect a bit on the last two weeks. So what did I do for the holidays? First I finally got married to my beautiful and patient girlfriend (wife), Marjorie, and then we went to Italy for our honeymoon. Lots of pics ahead so I’m going to post them as links so as not to clog up this post.

The wedding is something of a blur. I remember Marge looking beautiful as she walked down the aisle and when I opened my mouth to tell her so I said something like, “You look awesome,” instead. Aren’t I the articulate one? Another brief flash of memory is the dreaded dance, which turned out really well despite me having the grace of a newborn giraffe. All in all, I have to admit it was pretty wonderful.

Wedding:

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Italy was just fantastic. The ancient ruins of Rome, the museums of Florence, the waterways of Venice… I loved every minute of it. I'm still a bit groggy from the return flight so I'm going to let the photos do most of the talking.

Rome:

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Florence:

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Venice:

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I'm sure you all enjoyed seeing me in one of those newsboy hats.

Prince and the Pauper

No, this handsome devil isn't me in a wig. This isn't a photoshopped illusion or some other kind of gag. This is in fact a 1387 portrait of Pietro Morosini of Venice, Italy. He wasn't really a prince, but he was part of the noble Morosini family. Actually, he was a Senator as well as Venice's ambassador.

When I visited the Correr Museum I was completely taken aback by the resemblance between us, which is why I took a picture despite the strict “No Photos” rule. I mean give me a fancy wig and golden sash I could totally pass as Mr. Morosini.

As a librarian, another cool thing about this guy is that he convinced Cardinal Bessarion not to bequeath his considerable collection of books to some stuffy old Benedictine monks, but instead to donate them to the Republic of Venice, which was the beginning of the Library of San Marco.