… something to write home about.

After we left the airport, we drove up the Promenade des Anglais, looking at the stormy weather and rough seas.  Since it was raining, we drove up to the apartment where we would be staying for the next couple of days and dropped off our bags.

We then opted to go to the center of Nice (I think) and take in the flower shops and soak in a little ambience.

It was still raining at this point but we thought it might ease up a bit.  Not a lot of photo opportunities from the car window and it didn’t seem to be a good idea to stop in the damp on a busy street.  We drove back along the Promenade des Anglais and Andre dropped us off and parked the car while we wandered about a bit.

We had a little bit of a snack, a chick pea crepe type of dish cooked on an outdoor oven made from a 50 gallon drum.  It was delicious!

There were lots of murals and frescos in the square, but most of them hadn’t been looked after so they had faded at the bottom so that only the tops remained with any color or detail.

We walked around and down some alleyways, but the rain was getting stronger as we went and we were expected back for lunch at the apartment.

We drove back, had a wonderful lunch prepared by Andre’s wife Jeanette and discussed genealogy and the reunion coming up on Sunday.  Jim opted for a nap and Andre, Mom and myself drove to pick up Mel from the airport.

After we left the airport, we decided to go on a driving tour of Nice. We headed down the Promenade des Anglais again, past the War Memorial and up the side of Mount Boron.

I took quite a few pictures as we stopped at different overlooks, using both still and video.  I have no idea how much of these media I’ll use when I put together a travelogue, but it is better to have more material than you need than less than you need.

When we got to the top of Mount Boron, Andre drove us to a medieval fort at the top, Fort du MontAlban.  It is quite an impressive structure and it over looks the southern coast.

I wish I could say that I got up early as I prepared for my trip to Italy, but I’d be lying - I didn’t sleep at all.  Instead, I packed my back pack, did laundry I would need and then built a playlist or two for my MP3 player.  Oh, and watched a bunch of crappy, late night television.

So, as the time approached, I showered, left and drove up to my mom’s where I joined her and my brother to drive to the airport.

Some highlights of the morning:

• My (other) brother forgot that I go by my middle name so when I checked in, my passport didn’t match my ticket and I had to get a live person to assist me in getting a boarding pass.
• I forget that other people don’t fly very often and with electronics (such as a laptop).  I was through security and ready to go while my brother was still trying to pack his laptop back up and get everything put back together.
• I’m traveling on a Delta ‘buddy pass’ for this trip.  My brothers both work for Delta Airlines and as such, he and my mom were third and fourth on the standby list.  However, buddy passes aren’t put in as a high priority so I was last on the standby list. Not a big deal for the flight to JFK, but it ended up that they both ended up in first class from JFK to Nice, France, while I ended up in coach.  However, I had a whole row to myself and with the assistance of no sleep and Ambien, I slept most of the way.

We arrived with no problems and met my mom’s cousin, Andre, just as we came out of arrival area.  He speaks French and Italian  and quite passable English, even though he apologized for not being very fluent.

We’ve picked up our rental car, so it is time to go - more later!

Chris Pirillo is an uber-geek and proud of it.

It isn’t a bad thing, far from it.  He is smart, personable, passionate about technology. These are all good things.

He also annoys me on a regular basis.  Allow me to explain.

Mr. Pirillo (we haven’t met that I know of) runs a web site or two and provides lots of commentary and insight into things technical, computer, and the Internet.  One of my favorite geek shows of the past, Call For Help from TechTV, used to have him as a host for a while and the occasional guest host on The Screen Savers. He also sends out a intermittent email filled with links with cryptic titles about all things tech.  It is a great resource and I really quite enjoy the articles.

Which is why he annoys me.

On every web page on his web site he has a little flash applet that shows his office in streaming, live video.  This is neat. Unfortunately, this is not an ‘opt in’ service.  You load the page and it is running.  You do have the option to pause the video, but I shouldn’t have to; I should opt in to his content not be forced to view it.

Annoying, but not the worst part.

No, the worst part is that if I pause the video or turn the audio all of the way down, there is NO WAY TO SAVE THESE PREFERENCES.  That’s right, I have to do it every time.  Couple that with the fact that in one of his email newsletters there are 20 to 25 links to different stories and I might click on three or four of those links. This means that for every page, I have to find the page and either turn down the audio or pause it.

It isn’t horrid, it isn’t life threatening but it is really annoying.  I have the habit of going through my email, clicking on the links of interest and then during the day going back to a link or two at a time while I work.  I can’t do that with Mr. Pirillo’s email so I have to wait until I can pay attention to it, which means that often I leave it for a few days and then end up deleting it, unread.

I haven’t unsubscribed yet; I really do get a lot of value out of it and have bought software and services based partially on his recommendations.

Still, he annoys me.  A few minor changes to a very nice flash app that almost every other major web site does would turn this from an amateur night to a professional gig.

But, hey, what do I know; I just use this stuff.

Once upon a time, many long years ago, there was a television channel. It was one of the first cable television channels and as such it took the responsibility to heart and it was good. It was dedicated to music and news about music and musicians. It showcased Rap, Metal, Alternative, long before these genre became the mainstream claptrap that they are today.

It was MTV.

Music TeleVision.

As has been much lamented, MTV no longer plays music and it may just be that it has not played music longer than it ever played music. To appease the masses, the started up another channel, VH1, that played music where MTV did not; it too died a slow reality show death. CMT, VH1 Classic, MTV2, all were the new home of music videos and all have succumbed to the allure of selling their time to reality shows.

Such is life and I’ve resigned myself to only watching visual representations of the songs I love in the wee hours of the morning or on YouTube.

Until I realized that it is happening to other channels, better channels.

I scanned through the guide for TLC, supposedly The Learning Channel, to find:

• A ‘documentary’ on Bigfoot.
• Several episodes of the reality show, A Baby Story
• Several episodes of the reality show, A Wedding Story
• Several episodes of the reality show, Bringing Home Baby
• The reality show, Little People, Big World
• What Not To Wear (definitely educational, for the fashion impaired such as myself)
• Several episodes of the reality show, 10 Years Younger
• Several episodes of the reality show, Take Home Chef

And so on into the night. Add to that the ‘Paid Programming’ items and there was ONE quasi-documentary and ONE quasi-educational show.

The Discovery Channel fared better:

• How’s It’s Made, documents how common and not so common things are manufactured
• How Do They Do It? which is basically the same premise.
• Several episodes of the reality show, Deadliest Catch
• Several episodes of the reality show, A Haunting
• Several episodes of the reality show, Cash Cab
• Several episodes of the reality show, Man vs. Wild

I’m not complaining that some of these aren’t good television. I enjoy Man vs. Wild in small doses and I’ve heard from friends that they really enjoy Deadliest Catch and Cash Cab. I really get off on Dirty Jobs and Mythbusters, both of which I find to be very educational.

I’m quite certain this is because I’m old and cantankerous. Damned kids won’t stay off of my lawn either.