Seems like the tortoises are going to get outside real early this year. I hope the parade weather is awesome. It would suck if we had three beautiful days and then it got crappy out.

We headed down to little rock city to enjoy the sun and some climbing. I really need to get back to the gym. Its amazing how much less secure I felt since I lost all the muscle I had gained at the gym. Unfortunately, this was the worst winter ever for exercise. There wasn't really enough snow for winter fun and the gym closed down. That plus I worked too much.

The picture of (e:terry) is so funny. He is so damn white right now. Its like the polar opposite (pun intended) of when you when take a picture of (e:flacidness) in a dimly lit environment.

I am fascinated at the speed at which web apps are surplanting desktop apps. At some point it won't matter which OS you are using as long as the browser works. It also makes me thing Chrome OS has potential for a lot of people.

Here are two chrome apps I tried and liked.

[link=pixlr.com]pixlr[/com] which acts as an online photoshop. Its brought to you by autodesk which are the same people behind Maya and 3D studio max. Basically where all video games and movies are made ,as well as, software that drives auto and industrial design. They even have a firefox and chrome plugin which lets you click on any picture and load it right into pixlr for editing


and audiosauna which can be used to make music. I love the way both of them let you save to your computer.

I am not a big fan of skinny ties. They have come and gone more than once in my own lifetime and I road both times out with the fatter ties. I was looking through some old pics today and saw this picture of my father and uncle (twins) with skinny ties back in his early teens sometime back in the 50s I think. I didn't realize skinny ties went back that far.



I guess the pendulum kept going back and forth. I would be happy if it stayed at around 3.5-4" wide. I researched a bit and found skinny-neckties.com which explains a little about it. The wikipedia article on neckties goes into a lot more detail.

I decided to spend a little non-programming time addressing the issue of me becoming an official Italian. I thought I qualify for it, sadly I now don't think (e:Milke) and I qualified anymore. It seems like the process is pretty well listed out on a couple of websites italiancitizenship.info and myitaliancitizenship.com and italiandualcitizenship.com and progenealogists.com

Most of them offer services to get the documents and get them translated.

If you are an american and had italian parents, grandparent or even great grandparents you may qualify. I don't unfortunately because all of my ancestors effectively renounced their right to citizenship when their parents were naturalized and they were under 18. Seems unfair as a child cannot really make such decisions, but that's how the dice roll. If only my mother was born here and my grandparents waited until after she was 18 to become citizens.

Q. My Italian parent/grandparent/great grandparent was born in Italy, but was naturalized along with his or her parents as a minor. Does it still count as renouncing one's right to Italian citizenship if the child was too young to make a conscious choice?

A.     Yes. If your parent/grandparent/great grandparent was naturalized as a minor, he or she effectively renounced his or her right to Italian citizenship. This means that your ancestor was unable to pass Italian citizenship jure sanguinis to his or her children as an adult. Unfortunately, no exceptions are made in these cases.

Here are the qualifying credentials as per progenealogists.com

1. Your father was born in Italy and was an Italian citizen at the time of your birth, and you never renounced your right to Italian citizenship.
   
2. Your mother was born in Italy and was an Italian citizen at the time of your birth, you were born after January 1st, 1948 and you never renounced your right to Italian citizenship.
   
3. Your father was born in the United States, your paternal grandfather was born in Italy and was an Italian citizen at the time of your father’s birth, neither you nor your father ever renounced your right to Italian citizenship.
   
4. Your mother was born in the United States, your maternal grandfather was born in Italy and was an Italian citizen at the time of your mother’s birth, you were born after January 1, 1948 and neither you nor your mother ever renounced your right to Italian citizenship.
   
5. Your paternal or maternal grandfather was born in the United States, your paternal or maternal great grandfather was born in Italy and was an Italian citizen at the time of your paternal or maternal grandfather’s birth, neither you nor your father/mother nor your grandfather/grandmother ever renounced your right to Italian citizenship.

The consulate itself would have the most up to date information: This is the current link to their info page on this topic which includes a summary and links to the forms required

One of the best parts of being italian citizen is that you can also live and work in other countries of the EU. As noted on Sadly, I won't qualify.

Having an Italian passport is like having a passport to any EU country, allowing you to live and work anywhere. Under the terms of Article 17 (ex Article 8) of the Treaty on European Union, any person holding the nationality of a member state is a citizen of the Union. EU citizenship, which supplements national citizenship without replacing it, grants citizens the right to move freely and to reside on the territory of the member states (Article 18).