Not all reading is the same If you’re like me, you spend a lot of your day reading. But how much of that time do you spend on pleasure reading versus task-oriented reading? When I was a kid, the majority of my reading time was pleasure reading. Now, however, the majority of my reading time is task-oriented. Seems like I’m always troubleshooting programs or hunting down specific information rather than kicking back with a great story, or leisurely reading other people’s blogs. Don’t get me wrong; task-oriented reading can be a lot of fun. I especially enjoy researching travel articles…
Tag: Italy
Welcome to the February 18, 2012 edition of Traveler’s Show and Tell. It’s photo essays galore on this week’s Traveler’s Show and Tell blog carnival. Cruise through the links below for fascinating tales and fabulous photos on an array of travel topics, including: … a shamanistic ritual in Kazakhstan involving goat’s blood. … a life-changing trip to Muir Woods National Park. … travel photo tips from a professional photo tour guide. …which country hosts the largest New Year’s street party. … and much, much more! This Week’s Travelers Tui Snider (yup, it’s me!) presents a photo essay entitled Venice Italy’s…
Welcome to the February 4, 2012 edition of Traveler’s Show and Tell. This week’s Traveler’s Show and Tell blog carnival features ten travelers from all across the blogosphere. Read on to find out: … which parts of Mexico are safest for tourists. … why a card deck makes a great souvenir from Naples, Italy. …why it’s still worthwhile to toss coins into Rome’s Trevi Fountain. … and much, much more! This Week’s Travelers Tui Snider (Yup, that’s me!) presents It’s Different in Naples, Italy – The Neapolitan Playing Card Deck posted right here at Mental Mosaic: Even Home is a…
Differences Between the Neapolitan and American Card Deck Did you know that in Naples, Italy people play cards with a completely different deck than we do in the USA? Unlike the American 52 card deck, southern Italians use a 40 card deck. Also, Neapolitan cards are not numbered, so you need to count how many of that particular suit are on the card. The two of swords, for instance, has two swords drawn on it, but no numbers. This type of card goes up to seven. After that, for the eight, nine and ten, there are face cards. The entire…
Judging from the tremendous amount of submissions I received for this week’s blog carnival, I’m not the only one who was off exploring the world recently! Read on to learn about: a fascinating hostel dedicated to the music of Gram Parsons, where to eat and what to order in Singapore, why Venice, Italy reminded me of playing with model trains, cooking classes in Italy, and much more!
A recent visit to Venice, Italy got me thinking about the model train set I had as a kid, and how it taught me the meaning of scale. For those who have never played with model trains, they come in two different scale sizes: N and HO. HO is the larger of the two, with a ratio of 1:87.1, while N gauge ranges from 1:148 to 1:160. Because of this difference in scale, an HO caboose seriously dwarfs an N caboose when sitting side by side. Serious model train aficionados (i.e. adults) would never dream of mixing HO with N.…