TV Transition: You Have Just 50 Days To Go From Analog To Digital

And now for something completely different.
(Different from the holidays, that is…)
It’s just 50 days until America’s switchover from analog to digital television.
Carrie and I don’t watch TV (just DVD’s/movies), and we don’t even have our TV connected to the cable or an antenna. But we figure we better get one of these things for our house so that whoever buys our house (and inherits the big screen that came with the house when we bought it), will be able to watch TV when they hook up an antenna to it.
If you’re wondering how this conversion thing works, take a look at this approach.
(It ought to make things a little more clear.)

No? Not more clear?
Hmmm…
Special thanks to Brian for sending this video.

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Merry Christmas

We want to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas!
We got back home to Colorado late on the 23rd, and are spending today with Jonathan’s side of the family. We’ll go to Pueblo tomorrow to spend the day with Carrie’s side of the family.
All the best to you and your family this Christmas Day, 2008.

Carrie and Jonathan at the Nymphenburg Castle, the “summer” castle (because, you know.. everyone needs a summer castle AND a winter castle) of the Wittelsbach family 1700-1914.

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Dachau: I saw Dachau today

I saw Dachau today.
The name of the place, Dachau, brings shivers, or tears, or pain, or hope, to those who know what happened there.
When you go to Dachau, you might want to take someone with you who will hold your hand. I felt like a little kid at times, and it’s helpful to have someone standing by your side in a place where such dark things happened. I was honored and so appreciative of Carrie, standing by me, holding my hand.
Congratulations and thanks must go to the Germany of today, and to the survivors of these terrible places. Their courage, and their strength, allowed them to face this truth, so that others (like me) could experience and face these harsh realities of humanity even 75 years later.
A concentration camp memorial isn’t something you want to do.
But I’m convinced after today that it’s something every human should see with their own eyes, hear with their own ears, feel with their own hands, and tread lightly upon under their own feet.

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Nighttime On The Roofs Of Munich

One of the best things about having friends all over the place, and staying with them when we travel, is that we inevitably meet some of their friends and contacts.
Here in Munich, we are staying at our friend Anne’s place, while she is in New Zealand. (The free place to stay in Munich and the cheap airfare that Carrie found are actually what brought us here this time.) Her apartment is in an exceptionally great location (thank-you again Anne!) and we’ll be posting our guide to Munich in map form (thanks to Google maps) very shortly.
As I was saying though, we get to meet our friends’ friends and contacts, and here in Munich we’ve met Gero, Anne’s boyfriend, and Christoph, Anne’s roommate. Christoph works not far (at all) from here, working with the Boston Consulting Group.
Tonight, he was nice enough to take us over to the Munich office for the Boston Consulting Group (which is literally a 1 minute walk door to door), and he took us up to the roof of the building. We got a REALLY great nighttime view of Munich.

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1 Euro Museum Entrances

On Sundays, the Pinakothek museums in Munich offer reduced admission. Only 1 Euro. Jonathan and I decided to take advantage of this today, since they were only a few minutes walk from where we’re staying.
We visited the Glyptothek Museum first (the museum that holds Greek and Roman Sculpture).
The building housing the Glyptothek is part of a squre that served as a favorite rally point for the 3rd Reich. They even put marble over all the grass so that they could march better. There was a challenge with this though. You’ll find out in our video (coming soon).
Unfortuantely, during WWII, the buiding (and the art inside it) were destroyed. So, all the sculptures that had been taken from ancient Greece and ancient Rome were demolished. It took over 30 years for art historians, sculpturists, and volunteers to put everything back together again. Needless to say, some of the pieces didn’t make it. But some of them did. It was pretty amazing to look around at the sculptures and see pictures of what they looked like before the bombing. Some of them looked drastically different, and some of them looked exactly the same.

From here we went over to the Alte Pinakothek. The Alte Pinakothek was also bombed during WWII. However, only a section was permanently damaged. The sides of the buiding are still original, even though the middle had to be rebuilt. This is the museum that is home to paintings. It houses over 800 paintings. Jonathan and I only had a little over an hour before they closed, so we only got through about half.
They definnitely make use of all their space in the Alte Pinakothek. Paintings are hung nearly to the ceiling, and even the hallways have been converted into galleries.


It was really cool to see some of the world’s most famous paintings. I got to see the self portrait of Albrecht Duerer (the leading German artist of the Renaissance). Albrecht Duerer is also famous for being one of the first artists to sign his name to his work. Before him, work was done for (and therefore owned by) the church. In Duerer’s earlier work, his signature (usually AD) is difficult to find. But it becomes more defined as time goes on.
If you ever find yourself in Munich, definitely take the time, and save the money by going on a Sunday, and visit the Pinakothek museums. You’ll be walking right through history.

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Sankt Nikolaus Tag (Saint Nicholas Day)

The tradition of Saint Nicholas Day, usually on the 6th of December, is a festival for children in many countries in Europe related to surviving legends of the saint, and particularly his reputation as a bringer of gifts.
In Germany, many children put a shoe outside the front door on the night of December 5th to December 6th. St. Nicholas fills the boot with gifts and sweets, and at the same time checks up on the children to see if they were good, polite and helpful the last year. If they were not, they will have a tree branch in their boots instead.

Keeping with tradition, Jonathan and I set our shoes outside on Sankt Nikolaus Tag. It appears that we were both very good so far this year.
Lebkuchen and chocolate for Carrie, and beer for Jonathan. Mmmmm.

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