"Internationally published photographer" sounds nice.

A few years ago, IEEE Spectrum published a photo of mine in an article on wind power. Now, AIR International (published in the UK) has run one of my photos as the lead in an article on Northwest Airlines' retirement of the DC-10. The 2-page article appears on pages 62-63 of the March 2007 issue, and also includes 2 other photos, 1 by the article's author and 1 by a third photographer.

So that's two countries (on or near two different continents, even) where I've had photo credits in print. Yay, me. Photos I've taken as part of the whole conference coverage process have also turned up in reports in at least Europe and Asia, but I don't count it unless it's something people subscribe to for a price, and I get a printed photo credit with my name in it.

Oh, and I have to note that taking photos for magazines isn't something I do.  At least, not deliberately.  I take photos because I like to take photos, and every now and then, it seems, magazines come calling.  I don't mind that.

One of Britain's best lunar eclipses in decades.

I was not far from Mills Observatory for what the BBC said would be one of the best lunar eclipses visible from Great Britain in decades.

They were, of course, quite right.

All together now... "Non parlo Italiano. Parlate Inglese?"

After a fair bit of discussion and a little indecision, it has been decided that my daughter and her mom will accompany me to Rome on the weekend prior to my upcoming conference there, then fly back to Scotland the day the conference starts. They'll be flying on award tickets, of course - a small fraction of my accumulated frequent flyer miles reduced their fares to zero, so for each of them to fly from Edinburgh to Amsterdam to Rome and back only costs $84.24 in taxes and fees. :)

Of course, we'll have to add onto that the cost of the train and bus to Edinburgh and back, and the cost of the train from the airport in Fiumicino into Rome and back, and whatever increase in cost there is for having them in my hotel room for the first few nights, but even so, it's what they call a "cheap break" here.

This will also mark a few firsts, since neither of them has ever flown to continental Europe, nor have they flown on KLM, which we'll be doing. I'm looking forward to showing them Amsterdam Schipol Airport (voted best in Europe 23 of the last 25 years), and lots of real Italian food. :)