A1

An article from Harvard News discusses how our image of classical sculpture and architecture is based on a mistaken understanding. Basically, all those white marble statues and white marble pillars, and white other stuff, would have been colorfully painted back in the day. The article even suggests that Michaelangelo would have painted his sculpture David. Kind of hard to picture that...

Screen shot to the right is of a Portable Application called "System Information for Windows" or SIW for short. If you've ever wondered what CPU you're using or what version of a driver, or for suitably equipped computers even what the temp is, this program is for you.

I like it because since it's a Portable App, I have it on my USB stick and can take a look at things at work or at home without having to install it all over the place. I'm using it for personal stuff, but if you're a technician or someone using it professionally the author does require a license (though it's pretty cheap).

Worth trying if you want to look at the innards of your machine without having to actually open it up :-)

To the right you can see the map for the eighth and last day of my road trip around the Rocky Mountains.

Click Here to view a larger version of the map

The actual driving time for this has to take into account the time change as I head east, and so ends up being about 16 hours when all is said and done. Which means the final day is just a real long drive with few opportunities to stop - though I may try and do something since I pass through Santa Fe on the way home :-)

As I've alluded to in previous posts, my intention is to do a full trip report next year after I've done the trip, and let y'all know how it turned out. Did I plan appropriately? Did Google Maps give me any bum steers for direction or time? Did weather, construction, or other issues cause me to make last minute changes? And so forth.

As I've also indicated, I am looking for sponsors. Ideally I need a sponsor for a nice digital camera (preferably something better than my current Canon S2 IS), one for gas and/or food, and one for lodging (anyone from KOA here?). Sponsors will get mentioned in posts, will get a free one month square ad (similar to the ones I currently run) and my gratitude. I'm also willing to link to the sponsor's site with appropriate links if desired.

If you want to check out any of the past days I've planned, here are the links below:

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 7

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 6

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 5

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 4

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 3

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 2

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 1

I'll be updating the previous posts as well to make it easier to navigate through the trip posts if you want to.

As always, comments and email to let me know what you think of this road trip around the Rocky Mountains are appreciated!

Take a look at the picture to the left. This should answer any questions you might have had about whether this had a happy ending.

Nope, they didn't go with any of the game endings. They also didn't go with a happy ending. In fact, they seem to have watched Shuffle, and decided there weren't enough crazy female anime characters, and that they had to add more than one to the list.

To the extent you want the spoiler (and by now you should realize I'm going to give it to you), Sekai kills Makoto after seeing him betray her by being with Kotonoha. Koto then finds Makoto's dead body, slices off the head (now you can see why this was postponed due to the beheading case), and then goes after Sekai. She then kills Sekai, and slices her open to prove whether Sekai was actually pregnant.

Then, in the most ironic twist of all, Kotonoha goes off on the family yacht with Makoto's head. Nice Boat indeed. Did the folks who showed the travel video know just what they were doing?

Color me happy that this one is over. It was suspenseful, but I doubt I'll ever watch it again...

To the right you can see the map for the seventh day of my road trip around the Rocky Mountains.

Click Here to view a larger version of the map

The actual driving time for this is about 5 and 1/4 hours. That's important because that gives me some flexibility for this day. Up to now I've assumed that I manage to get good weather - or at least good enough weather to do what I want to do. If on Day 5 or 6 I get bad weather, I would be able to make up the hiking I had planned on this day, and still be closer to Texas for the final day's drive. Obviously if I ended up having to do Longs Peak on this day and then drive it will be a pain, and that would mean I probably would stop short of the summit. But I would get to do the majority of the hike without missing out.


However, assuming that things are basically dry, then the short drive means I have time to first check in at the KOA in Alamosa, Colorado and then make the drive over to Great Sand Dunes National Park for enough time to do some major hiking around the dunes.

The photo on the left shows the unique environment at this park. There's a fairly broad and shallow river that runs along the eastern boundary of the park, with Mountains to the north (and some to the east as well) and the dunes to the west. A day there allows you to hike along the river, as well as get onto the dunes themselves.

I've been to this National Park once before, although it was still a National Monument then. So I'd like to go back and spend some time doing more than taking a quick look before heading off for a camping trip. I'll just have to see how my schedule for this part of my road trip around the Rocky Mountains works out. Hopefully the weather is typical for July, and is sunny and just warm enough to make it easy to get around outside.

Links to other Road Trip Posts:

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 1

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 2

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 3

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 4

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 5

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 6

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 8

As always, feel free to drop me an email or leave a comment about your thoughts on this road trip around the Rocky Mountains.

This is THE day of this road trip around the Rocky Mountains. As you can probably tell from the map to the right, the plan is to make the 15 mile roundtrip hike to the summit of Longs Peak and back on this date (July 9, 2008).

This is a hike I've only done once before, and that was before I started college - which should give you and idea of just how long ago that was.

First off, the image to the left shows Longs Peak from within the Park with the characteristic notch in the side. Fortunately, the actual start of the trail is a little closer to the summit.

Notice the elevation marker. Longs Peak is the highest peak I've been on. Pikes Peak comes in second, but you can drive to the summit of Pikes. Though my preference there is to take the Cog Railroad. I digress...

Finally, on the right is an image of the summit taken a little closer to the mountain. You'll notice the barren landscape and the lichen covered rocks.

Personally, I'm looking forward to having a good camera for this trip, and getting some images from the trail and the summit itself. Of course if there's anyone interested in sponsoring me for the camera, I'm sure I could work out a deal for some advertising on here :-)

This will take most of the day to do the hike, and it's the one portion of the trip I'm a little nervous about since it will require the most from me.

Links to other Road Trip Posts:

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 1

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 2

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 3

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 4

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 5

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 7

My Trip Plan for 2008 - Day 8

As always, feel free to drop me an email or leave a comment about your thoughts on this road trip around the Rocky Mountains.