Thanks!

Just a quick re-cap from Blogtoberfest: It was awesome! Many thanks to everyone who checked out the posts. I actually got up to 31, which is one more than last year. We'll have to see what I can get done next year!

I'll also include the Pictures of the Day from October if you'd like to check them out. You can see larger versions of them and the October Leftovers on flickr, or you can just check out the slideshow here:

Swissta Rican Quiz Answers!

I meant to post the answers to the quiz last night but our power went out a couple times over a few hours. If you've not checked out the quiz, it's easy: all you have to do is decide whether 9 pictures were taken in Costa Rica or Switzerland. Go here if you still want to try it.

So, here are the answers:

1. Switzerland

 2. Switzerland

3. Switzerland

4. Costa Rica 

5. Costa Rica 

6. Costa Rica 

7. Costa Rica 

 8. Costa Rica

9. Costa Rica

So, how'd you do? Thanks for reading, and check back later today for more Blogtoberfest fun --it's our last day of Blogtoberfest, after all! 

Swissta Rican Picture Quiztravaganza!

After the post from the other day talking about the similarities between Costa Rica and Bosnia-Herzegovina, I felt like I should mention that at least on the surface, there are some similarities between Costa Rica and Switzerland. So let's have a little quiz, shall we? I'll put up some pictures, and you decide if I took them in Costa Rica or Switzerland --it's just that easy! But remember that looks can sometimes be deceiving! Check back tomorrow evening for the answers. Good luck!

1. 

 2.

3.

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

 8.

9.

So, do you have your answers ready? If so, great! If you want you can leave a comment with your guesses, or you can just check back tomorrow (Sunday) night for the answers.

Thanks for reading and guessing! Have a good one!

Nice Weather...

When I was a kid, I think I must have seen a T-shirt, Happy Meal joke, billboard, or TV commercial that said, 

"Nice Weather... if you're a DUCK!"

Because every time the weather gets as crappy as it's been the last few days, that phrase always pops into my mind. It's been raining so much it's hard to be motivated to do anything except sit around inside. I guess that's bad (and really boring and repetitive) for my Pictures of the Day, but it's probably just as well for Blogtoberfest!

So for today's post I'm gonna put up some duck pictures. I was looking for a picture to illustrate this post and I came across a couple that I liked. Plus, ducks are pretty cool and funny. Additionally, it's 10:20 PM as I type this and I want to get this posted by midnight.

So first we have the picture above. I took it on a trip to Stockholm in 2005. It's not as nice as the next picture, but it's more reflective of the weather and the mood here today. Next!

I took this picture in the outside garden area at Domo restaurant in Denver on a recent trip to Colorado. It's a great place to eat. I guess technically this isn't a duck, but rather a "ducky," but oh well.

Finally, we have my favorite duck picture, taken of a statue in a fountain in Regensburg, Germany:

You can sort of see from this picture that the front of the statue is a priest, preaching to a flock of ducks. But it turns out he's really just a wolf in priest's clothing. That's how I feel about Costa Rica's weather this time of year. When you think "Central America," you think, "Ooh, nice, warm, sunny, etc.," and that's true for a few months of the year, but once it's got your interest, it grabs you by the neck and rains for months on end.

Anyhow, it's not that bad, but I had to blog about something, since it's Blogtoberfest, after all! Stay tuned tomorrow for another Blogtoberfest duck post!

What's In Your Bag?

I recently found a picture contest on Photobucket, a website where people dump their pictures. The contest had expired, but I liked the topic: "What's in your purse?" The winning photo can be seen by following this link, but the premise of the photos are simple: arrange all the stuff you've got in your bag for a picture. So, I decided to do it for a Picture of the Day about a month ago. I'd meant write a blog post commenting about it, but I never had the time... until BLOGTOBERFEST, that is!

So, here's my bag, all packed up and ready to go (I don't have a man-purse, let alone a woman-purse, so I just used my backpack instead):

...and here's my "neatly-exploded-bag" picture:

If you're some kind of a creep or something, you can check out a larger version here.

Remember that this is the backpack that I take to work, so there are obviously a lot of job-related things. Let's have a look, generally from left to right, top to bottom (just pretend you're reading my junk like a cheap romance novel you picked up for a dollar in the checkout line at Rite-Aid):

1. Mini tripod, small camera, regular camera, and plastic bag: Because you never know when you'll find a Picture of the Day, and the plastic bag is because you never know where you'll find mold in this Godforsaken country.

2. Ipod and charging cable: Because music is important.

3. Cell phone: I should probably also have a charger for this, since it's usually dead. I think there's one in my car, but in any case, it's really only for emergencies.

4. Flash drive: That's how things get done around here.

5. Re-filled bottle of water: Small enough to carry easily and look cheap.

6. Folders and books: I do teach, after all.

7. Paperclip: Like free-range prairie dogs, they seem to be ubiquitous in my bag unless I'm trying to find one, in which case there's not a single one to be found.

8. Pens and whiteboard markers: More tools of the trade.

9. Two of those little "do not eat this" packets: I think they're supposedly made to keep moisture out of packages, and I'm crossing my fingers that they'll do the same for my bag.

10. Earphones

11. Medicines: Hand sanitizer (the water goes out here more than you'd imagine), generic "anti-diarrheal," "pink bismuth," "ibuprofen," and "gas relief" pills (to counteract traveling classes or horrible food).

12. Toothbrush and toothpaste: I was surprised that everyone here brushes their teeth after lunch, just like they say you're supposed to. When in Rome...

13. Gum, mint, and more gum: For when the water goes out and I can't brush my teeth.

14. Belt: I have no idea how I manage to forget a belt so often--maybe I don't think I'll need one when I get dressed, and my pants stretch out throughout the day?--but it's good to have one on hand.

15. Mini-notebook: Old school solution for carrying phone numbers, and allows me to avoid learning how to program numbers into my phone.

16. The Book of Questions: For use when I need a fast warm-up in class.

So, what's in your bag? Have you ever shot a picture like this? It seems like I've come across quite a few of them, most of them nicer than mine, but oh well. By the way, here's the set-up for this picture:

...which made it by far the most complicated Picture of the Day I've shot in these nearly two years. 

So, that's it for now, but stay tuned for more Blogtoberfest fun, coming soon to a Sitzblog near you!

Pictures of the Day: September 2011

Blogtoberfest continues! The Pictures of the Day from September admittedly start off a bit dull, but they get better as the month goes along. It was a pretty long, boring month with lots of rain and fog and lots of hanging out inside. That seems to translate into taking lots of random pictures of crap around the house:

Thanks for reading, and be sure to stay tuned for more Blogtoberfest fun!

7 Big Ones... If A "Big One" Is A "Thousand"

My 7,000th flickr picture. Angela was working in the flowerbed the other day
so I took a picture of this hand shovel.

I realized tonight that my flickr account now has 7,000 pictures, which is pretty ridiculous by most any standard. Then again, I can sort of justify it because I've got about 7 years of pictures, plus a pretty questionable infrastructure down here in Costa Rica (I try to have an online backup of everything in case of earthquake, landslide, fire, theft, hurricane, and/or cat vomit). 

In any case, I mainly keep the flickr account updated for me and my mom, since I think we're the two people who seem to be most interested in it. But if you'd like to see some pictures, you're welcome to go check them out. You may find the following sets or collections to be interesting:

Various Trips

Life in Costa Rica (including Traditional Costa Rican Food, Coffee, and the Formerly Crappy Casita)

My Current "365" Set (where I take a picture a day... this one is less complicated than looking for each month or its "Leftovers")

So, there is obviously a lot more, and you don't have to check out any pictures if you don't want to. But I just thought I'd mention it...

My 7,001st picture. If I had known I was nearing a round number, I would have uploaded this as #7,000.
Some cats are quite a bit more interesting than a hand shovel.

Thanks for reading, and have a good one!

Pictures of the Day - August 2011

If you're interested in checking out last month's Pictures of the Day, have a look at this slideshow. You can click on any picture to go to a larger resolution on flickr, and if you want to see the description, just click on "info." Enjoy!

Slideshow from Colorado Trip

I was going to put up some individual pictures of our recent trip to Colorado. That's a bit of work, though. Since no one mentioned any problems with viewing the recent slideshows of Pictures of the Day from June and July, I just decided to put up another slideshow of Colorado pictures, from the beginning to the end. Feel free to check them out, and hopefully there's something interesting in there for you!

Thanks for reading, and have a good day!

Pictures of the Day - June and July 2011

Well, I got really behind on posting Pictures of the Day, and that made me think: "There must be a better way." And by "better way," I of course mean "an easier way for a lazy person." It's a surprising amount of work to organize these Pictures of the Day, upload each picture, link the picture to its Flickr page, and then copy the description. If I did it one time, it'd be nothing, but I don't want to do it over 60 times. So, I'll try to use an embedded Flickr slideshow for each month. If you don't like this, can't see it, or have any comments, I'd appreciate them. I'm not even sure if anyone looks at or cares about these pictures, anyhow...

Here's June (click here to see in Flickr):

And here's July (click here to see in Flickr):

Once you click the "play" button, it's got all the standard controls, and if you want to see a description of any picture, click "show info" at the top. If you want to see any picture in more detail or check it out on Flickr, click on "show info" and then click on the picture's title.

So please, tell me what you think about this format. But so far, I'm liking it quite a bit! Thanks for reading. Have a good day!