Whatever Enters My Head

A man who insists on hearing bad news immediately.:

After the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, we spent some time in the Bazaar, shopping for silver jewelry and for candid shots of the locals. :P

This gentleman looked like a Mafioso a bit, but in fact owned a tiny restauraunt where we enjoyed some very tasty sandwhiches. I saw him collecting and counting his days money, and new I had to get the shot. He was under a sort of tent, and all the light was bouncing off a nearby stone wall, which lead to the splendid light setup I enjoyed. I was very lucky.

I want this noooow.

Almost done with all the unit tests from www.rubykoans.com! Highly recommended if you want to learn nearly *everything* about ruby.

Devotion:

While making my way around the dome for the previous shot, I came upon this little scene: Several nuns, lighting their tapers from a priest’s candle. I stepped in, took the shot, and left. There were many little acts of worship going on, but this one seemed most picturesque and somber. The dark tones and little specks of candlelight pretty much summed the whole mood of the building. It was a quite place, a place of sadness if nothing else. It was only afterward I noticed the Canon strap around the priest’s neck. :-P

Glory in the Rotunda:

After the dramatic facade, you are ushered by the press of humanity to the massive rotunda. There, I was greeted by this immense shrine, contained inside a still more colossal dome. I was incredibly fortunate that at precisely at that moment the sun was pouring in the hole in the roof. I fought my way around the ring to get the correct angle, stepped up on a column’s base, and snapped away furiously until the light went away. It’s still one of my favorite memories from the trip, and one of my favorite pictures I’ve ever taken.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre:

It’s hard to describe how huge this building is. There are at least three floors in the main atrium, all be-gilded and ornately decorated. There isn’t a square inch that hasn’t been carefully decorated by some artisan so long ago. It’s pretty impressive, and even more so with the amount of people pressing through it at all times. Even though it’s packed with people of all nations, almost unable to move, the air is still fresh and doesn’t feel close. It also remains quite cool. However, the golden dome and gothic arches were nothing compared to my favorite room, (which will be revealed on Monday!)

Incensed:

As with all the churches we visited, the visitor is somewhat overwhelmed by the detail and ornateness of the decoration. It was very useful and quite enjoyable to try and look at small portions of the scene, looking at all the handmade traditional art, mosaics, and specially made lanterns like this. Of course, with the lines in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, you had plenty of time to examine everything. :P

I scribble a lot in class. :)

How many shelves does this shelf have?

I really want one of these.

A handful of hedgehogs [adorable warning]

minimal:

I learned a little more about the rooftop for the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. There is a status quo, an agreement between the rival churches that control the top about where people can go and sit and where things move and when.

Under the status quo, no part of what is designated as common territory may be so much as rearranged without consent from all communities. This often leads to the neglect of badly needed repairs when the communities cannot come to an agreement among themselves about the final shape of a project. Just such a disagreement has delayed the renovation of the edicule, where the need is now dire, but also where any change in the structure might result in a change to the status quo disagreeable to one or more of the communities.

A less grave sign of this state of affairs is located on a window ledge over the church’s entrance. Someone placed a wooden ladder there sometime before 1852, when the status quo defined both the doors and the window ledges as common ground. The ladder remains there to this day, in almost exactly the same position it can be seen to occupy in century-old photographs and engravings.