Friends

I know I keep talking about my friends all the time... but they're really cool. I saw Rob Rothfarb and Alan Price. Great guys, extremely talented and inspiring. Thank you!

Rob is in SF working for the Imaginarium, brilliant web developer. Alan is in Ohio State University, one of the most talented interactive 3D animators I have ever met.

Boston

Lew Harris, Doug Sutherland. We all went to Boston for Siggraph 06. I was very sick and kept caughing green and yellow things. But still, it was the first time I was going to Boston, and I was not going to miss the opportunity. Beautiful, great hotel, fun city. Free Shakespeare in the park! What a civilized mentality. Massachussetts... Great food. We celebrated Lew's bday there in a delicious Italian restaurant. We ran into Erika Matulich, another faaaabulous woman! She works in the College of Business and is an expert in Marketing and Instructional Technologies. She was going to visit MIT and their labs... COOL... She rescued 8 ferrets, 5 horses and I don't know how many puppies and cats. I can't wait to go visit her in Tampa. Restaurants: Legal Seafood, DO NOT MISS IT, also Anthony's by the pier, Liz Taylor was there. We also ran into Ray Papp and his wife! They also went to visit MIT... Hey, I just realized that Lew is smiling in on of the photos... First time ever!!

Happy Hour

I finally met Deborah. Faaaabulous. She is gorgeous, very self expressed, and a happy woman. A big support for Josh. We went to her farewell "happy hour" party and had a great time. I also met Ron, a very good friend of Josh. I was impressed with the fact that the first concert he took his niece to was Laurie Anderson !!!! Musician, very clever. The restaurant was in Rocky Point, by the water. I was not feeling very good, my nose was runnning and I had a sore throat. But still I had a good time.

Paul

Paul went back to Baltimore. The dream I had before coming to Tampa came true. Very bizare, but it had a very different twist. Interesting.

I thought I was going to miss Miss Thing - Ethel, his cat - but no, I don't.

Moving

I finally moved out of Seminole Heights.
Farewell Seminole Heights.

Ataturk Airport

The day before I took my plane to go to Turkey, there had been a fire in the airport. well, this is what happened.... It's the view from the waiting room before boarding the plane.

Heybeliada

Heybeliada is the name of an island off Istanbul's Coast where people have their summer homes. We were invited there for dinner, with Esra's family, and we had to take the ferry for 90 minutes to get there. Very interesting landscapes and people. Quite a trip. Erik, Maiko, Nicole, Tarek, Clement, Ali... great people, mostly Esra's friends. There are no cars in the island. Just charriots and horses. It was my night before last in Istanbul.
















I talked to this man on the way back in the ferry. He was from Oman, his name was Omar. A banker. He was traveling with his kids. Very nice family, happy kids. He was on vacation, far away from work.

Kariye

Go check this site for better quality pics of the Kariye Church in Istanbul. Beautiful tiles, beautiful architecture. I thought immediately about Grid Art, something I teach my students when we talk about ASCII art. It's a small church that saw all its mosaics covered in plaster when it was turned into a mosque. The plaster actually preserved most of the art work, but not all of it was saved. I cannot imagine how it used to look like in the old days. I need a better camera. My Nikon is WAY too old and it does not have an optic zoom, and my treo cam i ok for this, but that's it. Now I know what I want for xmas...







We went to the Suleymanyani Mosque, on the other side of the city. I could not take any pics inside, I had to wear a pareo because my shorts were too short.