"I want to play an evening of Stellaris! The future is a great way to escape" (Creates pacifist jellyfish) As we explore space, I discover we're surrounded by one species who wants to exterminate us all, and another who wants to *eat* us all. Both declare war almost simultaneously. Ouch.

Whale size may vary:

I love working at a job where posting this image alongside my pull request (new code to add to our system) is appropriate.

Some kind of fire towards Queensborough/Richmond? Getting really smokey in Downtown New West.

Patrick Stewart with a wig on I, Claudius in 1976. His acting, impeccable. His character, despicable.

Uh, guys? I think the planet broke again...

Hello New Westminster!!! Glad to be home.

The difference between airports in Canada vs Europe. Our flight in Rome is in 2 hours, no gate yet assigned. Our flight in Calgary is in 13 hours and already has its gate. At least it's not Heathrow where your gate is assigned 47 seconds before boarding starts.

Day 26: Last full day in Rome, and a final visit to the Colluseum. It was quite busy outside today!

Day 25: The Pantheon. The dome is so large it defies photography. This picture gives a sense of it. The beam of bright sunlight shooting into the dome gives a surreal quality. (Let's not get into the irony of an ancient Roman temple converted into a Christian church being called "Pantheon")

Bonus picture from the Etruscan Museum: "HI HO KERMIT THE FROG HERE!". Absolute nightmare fuel.

Day 24: "The Truth Unveiled By Time", in the Borghese Gallery. This sculpture by Bernini captivated me. She holds a representation of the sun in her right hand. To my naive eye it sure as hell looks like the mask of a man, cast away. My own perceived 🏳️‍⚧️ allegory might be false, but it's beautiful.

Bonus picture. Kind of stunned this still exists. So the Roman opera theatre was built in 1880, but was run down and purchased by the city for restoration in 1928-1936... And there's a commemorative plaque commemorating the leaders during the restoration. So... Thanks Il Duce??!

Day 23: Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Tancredi was incredible. Never heard a note so pure in my life.

Day 22: Hallway ceiling in Vatican City. Near to, but not the Sistine Chapel, which was awesome, forbids photography, and we got to sit in for 25 minutes.

Day 21: Not much to report. We've left Malta and returned to Rome under a 29C heat dome which makes it difficult to explore outside and take cool pictures.

Day 20: Malta's "Sleeping Lady", Neolithic artwork currently on display at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta, Malta. Well over 5000 years old, makes the Egyptian pyramids look young.

Wild that that fortress is filled with busy city streets, shops and restaurants.

Day 19: Valletta, Malta. An absolute fortress. No wonder the Axis was unable to invade. The city is beautiful, and the buildings link old, but then you realize most everything was built after 1950 because the island was completely flattened.

Day 18: Sunset at Sanap Cliffs, Gozo, Malta

Day 17: Ġgantija, Gozo, Malta. The remains of a 5600 year old temple, sadly in poor shape because of all the colonial adventurers who decided digging up an ancient building with no context and leaving graffiti on it was a cool thing to do in the 1800s.

Bonus picture of a sign above the beach that brought us here when we were researching where to go.

Day 16: Għajn Tuffieħa Beach The closest I get to spiritual joy is bobbing in the octagonal for about 2.5 hours. (I swore I posted this yesterday, but I apparently did not. Silly bluesky...)

Day 15. Ħaġar Qim Archaeological Site. Perhaps the oldest standing site on the planet. About 5500 years old. Note the Filfla Nature reserve island in the background.

Day 14. From the Archaeological Museum in Naples. Close up of a painting recovered from Pompei.

Day 13: Herculaneum from above. I've looked at so many 2000 year old homes in the past 2 days I feel like I'm house hunting all over again. Though if everyone in the neighbourhood died horrifically all at once you start to worry about the resale value.

Day 12. A "slow" day in Naples. Mt. Vesuvius, with boat in foreground. Draw on what you think should be a mountain top above that crater. That's all gone now. Volcanoes are beautiful and terrifying.

Pompeii itself felt like an eerie post-liminal space. A 2000 year old city and its people near perfectly preserved in a mountain of ash, 6 metres deep. Walking into people's homes setting nothing left but some plaster and flowers.

Our day ended with a hallway of victims. Some collapsed on the initial explosion. But the number of people shown dying with their hands to their mouths from either ash or toxic gas from pyroclastic flow was just harrowing. Thousands died in that apocalypse. It was too much to take photograps of.