Travel Blog
After almost 2 years of knowing I needed to switch my site to faster hosting, I’ve finally switched to a new host and redone the site using a new theme. So I’ve probably lost some pictures and broken links along the way, but at least my blog is finally usable again! So, let’s see – I’m in Moscow, Russia again and having a great time. Work’s going well and I’m getting out to a bunch of folk rock concerts and […]
I’ve taken the Moscow-Tallinn train any number of times. The scent of coal smoke, used to heat samovars for tea water on board, is indelibly printed on my brain as the scent of beckoning horizons. It’s an old Soviet train, built solid and ugly, but it stays warm and nowadays, they even usually keep it stocked […]
I like to know as much as possible about places before I visit or move to them, and as I’ve been doing a lot of travel over the last few years I’ve worked some basic online research methods. Of course books are great and I love a good travel guide – Rough Guides are my favorite, generally – but most of the time I don’t have easy access to English language books. Hence, most of my research is done online.
The last trip got to me. Just a bit, nothing too bad, only traveling two weeks around Turkey, where I’ve now lived for 5 months. It left me exhausted, though, and I’ve spent the last three days since getting back to Samsun in the house, all burned out and anti-social. I always try to go… further. Deeper into a place, to grab its pain and love and history, to wrap it up around me and get it under my skin. […]
Having some problems with my site at the moment – my apologies! I upgraded wordpress and the template I’ve been using for the last few years broke. So, trying to find a new one that displays both images and text well – so far, a lot harder than I expected. I do know some of the menu items are having difficulties and am trying to figure it out; hopefully I can can that sorted in the next day or so.
I just stopped using Zenfolio’s photo hosting and now some of my older image links are broken. I’ve switched to self-hosted Gallery2 software and am in the process of uploading photos and updating broken links, but it might take a couple days. Hopefully I’ll be able to get it all cleaned up over the weekend. Also, I’m considering a major site redesign – maybe working on creating a custom wordpress template for this site. I’m not very happy with Gallery2’s […]
I’ve just been reading up on mycoremediation, or cleaning soil with beneficial fungi, at Fungi Perfecti. Here’s an exerpt: What can you do? Delineate your garbage into categories. Not only compost all organic debris, but segregate the refuse into piles appropriate for a variety of desired mushroom species. Inoculate cardboard and paper products, coffee grounds, and wood debris with mushroom spawn. Teach children about the role of fungi, especially mushrooms, in the forests and their critical role in building soils. […]
“Terra Preta”, or “dark earth”, is an Amazonian Indian technology which can vastly improve soil fertility and pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, potentially keeping it out for thousands of years. Biomass – plant and animal waste such as manure, waste wood, and crop leftovers – can be turned into charcoal (or “biochar”) and then buried in agricultural soil, making rich black earth that plants grow very, very well in. Charcoal is extremely porous, and provides a perfect environment for beneficial soil microorganisms that help plants grow. It also holds water, and can greatly help crops to survive drought conditions.
I’ve been playing with a big site redesign – I’m thinking about switching to the “Options” theme and using Gallery2 for my photos, since google can index it and I can still set up print ordering. Anyway, just testing some things out. I feel like I’m staring up a very steep learning curve, again. Original here for pinged sites.
It’s the shortest night of the year. I’d much rather be out at a bonfire than here at the digital hearth, but at least Tony and I went out to the Friedricshain Folkpark and climbed the big hill out there. We had some good bread with local goat cheese on top, and split a bottle of “Odin’s Drink” honey ale. Very lovely. Getting up and down the hill is a bit like walking a labyrinth on a cone; lots of […]