Winter has arrived in Poznan.....

All right, it's not officially winter yet.  But when there is actual snow falling, that is winter as far as I'm concerned.

New Foods #7 - Filo Dough

It's sad to say that after over a year in Poland, this will be only the 7th "New Foods" posting I have done.  It's not that my diet has been quite that unimaginative, it's just that I've forgotten to take pictures, or I didn't think it would be terribly interesting.  After all, you've seen candy bars, beans, and fruit juice before, even if they are in different packaging.  And when I have gone out to eat, I almost always seem to forget my camera. 

I've gone to a restaurant called Manikin that serves naleshniki (sort of like a crepe) a bunch of times.  It's probably my favorite place for a good meal that is not too expensive.  But for some reason, I always forget to take my camera.  I really need to, because they make all sorts of options besides the standard naleshniki.  They also make versions that are similar to a burrito, to lasagne, to spaghetti, in addition to the standard crepe-like creation (which can have meat and vegetables, or sweeter fillings).

But I don't eat out much so the opportunities are limited (unless you want to see pictures of the Subway, salads, or Starbuck's I usually get for lunch).  I mostly cook at home, and for simplicities sake, I don't experiment too much.  One thing I have tried a few times recently though is filo dough (like this picture).

I wouldn't be surprised if you can get this stuff in the US, but I don't remember seeing it there.  From what I can tell, it's mostly used here for making torts and something that is quiche-like.  But being me, I had to experiment.

Pictures Galore.....

Long before I set this blog up, I had a picture site that I used to show pictures that I took during my hikes or of family get-together's.  It wasn't intended as a picture showcase, rather as a large-scale photo dump.  So the images weren't heavily edited and I didn't put too much effort into just selecting the best pictures, rather I just tried to get rid of the worst ones.  Unfortunately, the database got corrupted at one point and I lost all the pictures on the site, and I never got around to re-building it.

Well, not too long ago my Mom asked why I didn't put up all (or more) of the pictures from my trips that weren't showing up on this blog on that site.  So I reinstalled the original software from scratch, and uploaded a bunch of my trip pictures.  But after playing around with it, I decided I didn't like that software that much.  So I spent a good chunk of this weekend installing a different software package and uploading all of the photos I have taken since I arrived in Europe that I thought anyone might be interested in.  Like before, I just went through and tried to get rid of the bad pictures, or near duplicates.

If you want to see the full photo dump, you can go to this site: www.theartofdave.com


With the new software you can:

• See how many images are in each Album
• I can add keywords to the images, so that you can see virtual albums based on keyword (such as "Churches"). Click the "Tags" link in the left menu (not all images are tagged yet).
• Rate images (1-5 stars and you have to be viewing a single image) and see which images are the highest rated (if people rate them). Click the "Best Rated" link in the left menu.
• See just the recently added photos, even if they are added to an existing Album. Click the "Recent Photos" link on the left menu. (Warning, I added around 800 photo's today, so this won't be useful until later)
• See photos by the date I added them, or the date they were taken. Click the "Calendar" link in the left menu. Not all photos tagged with their creation date yet.
• Add comments to photos (they will be flagged for moderation and review by me, so they won't show up immediately).  You need to create an account and log in to add comments (to keep the spam-bots down).
• Search for photos by combinations of Tags, Creation Date, Post Date, and specific Albums. Click the "Search" link in the left menu.
• If you use RSS feeds, you can subscribe to an RSS feed of this site, choosing either just the photo's or any blog comments as well. Click the "Notifications" link in the left menu.
• Although there is an effect to show a larger version of a thumbnail when you move your mouse cursor over it, you can also change the size of the images displayed on the page (including thumbnails). When you are in an album there are several icons on the top-right, the icon that looks like a box with an arrow diagonally in it will let you change the size of the image on the screen. These icons show on the top-left when viewing a single image.
• If you don't want to click through the images in an Album, you can start a slideshow by clicking the movie camera icon.
• You can register with the site to create your own user ID and password.

 I even added a small album with some pictures from one of my hikes, and will add the others as I get a chance.  And I'll probably eventually add a "People" set of albums to show some of the pictures I have taken from various parties and get-togethers.

So anyway, I knew there were at least a few folks who might be interested in seeing all of the photos, since there are way more than it would be practical to show here.  So feel free to check out the site at the link above if you are interested.

Thanks!

Warning: Political Content (2012)

For every election my Mom asks for info on all of the California ballot Propositions, because she knows I actually sit down and read through the full text of the ballots.  And we usually talk about the different candidates for office too.  

Since I am not back in California, this post will contain my thoughts on the Propositions and Candidates for the November 2012 election.  So if you are not interested in my thoughts on this issue, please skip on by.  I promise you will only see stuff like this once an election.  :)

Content after the break.