I booked my Norway flights over the weekend. I'll be going in early July. I'll first fly to Oslo and hang out for a couple of days. I'll then fly to Tromso, which is north of the Arctic Circle. ("Only 2000 kilometers from North Pole!" the Tromso website tells me breathlessly. Since Las Vegas is about 2000 kilometers away from the Twin Cities, I'm finding it hard to get that excited about the proximity.) I'll then fly back to Zurich. If I were to drive those distances, it would take me a total of 81 hours in the car.
I'm excited. In Tromso, I'm going to run out of my hotel at 2 a.m. to see the sun above the horizon.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Not too bad
Take this for what it's worth, but according to the annual Worldwide Quality of Living Survey, Zurich is the second-best place to live in the world. (Vienna took first place by a whisker.) Here are some funny quotes from the report:
"The Swiss cities are very pleasant, the natural environment is clean, and we weigh heavily the presence of hostilities, and Switzerland is neutral. . . . . If you can't be safe in Switzerland, you can't be safe anywhere."
Also, "There's probably a little bit more to do in Austria than in Switzerland." Ouch.
"The Swiss cities are very pleasant, the natural environment is clean, and we weigh heavily the presence of hostilities, and Switzerland is neutral. . . . . If you can't be safe in Switzerland, you can't be safe anywhere."
Also, "There's probably a little bit more to do in Austria than in Switzerland." Ouch.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Math stories
We were in the car on the way back from church on Sunday, and Lindsey made up her own math problem. Here it is, as close to her own words as I can remember:
There are two people biking around a lake. There's a shark in the lake. The shark eats the two people. How many people are left?
(Answer: zero. I suspected at first that it was some sort of a trick question, but it's actually pretty straightforward. And we didn't really get into a discussion of how a shark got into a freshwater lake, nor did we discuss how this freshwater shark managed to eat two people on bikes.)
There are two people biking around a lake. There's a shark in the lake. The shark eats the two people. How many people are left?
(Answer: zero. I suspected at first that it was some sort of a trick question, but it's actually pretty straightforward. And we didn't really get into a discussion of how a shark got into a freshwater lake, nor did we discuss how this freshwater shark managed to eat two people on bikes.)
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Back from Germany
It was a quick trip, but fun. The Passion Play is quite an experience. There were points where it was obvious that it was not a professional Broadway production, but it's an amazing bit of work for a village of 4,000 people. And I'd forgotten how beautiful that part of Germany (known as "Bavaria") is. It was also fun to catch up with Stuart.
I took a few pictures that didn't turn out great, but here are a couple. (You can't take pictures during the show, so all I have is the stage.)
I took a few pictures that didn't turn out great, but here are a couple. (You can't take pictures during the show, so all I have is the stage.)
More info about the Passion Play here.
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Thursday, May 20, 2010
Off to Oberammergau
Tomorrow morning, I'm off for a quick trip to the small German village of Oberammergau to see the Passion Play. This is a play that the village puts on every ten years as a result of a promise the villagers made to God back in the 1600s that they'd do a Passion Play every ten years if they were spared from the plague. Of course, I imagine that it's now more of a tourist thing than a religious experience, but I'm looking forward to it.
It's about a four-hour drive across part of Austria. I don't actually get very far into Germany (so I don't get to go nuts on the German autobahn, darn it). I'll be meeting my friend Stuart, who's doing his annual teaching gig in the Netherlands right now. The package includes lunch on Friday at our hotel, then the first half of the play in the afternoon, then dinner at a hotel in town, then the second half of the play Friday night, and then breakfast Saturday morning. Like everything else around here, it's not cheap, but as I tell people, it's not very often that I find myself living in Europe in a year that's divisible by ten, so I have to take advantage of the opportunity.
It's about a four-hour drive across part of Austria. I don't actually get very far into Germany (so I don't get to go nuts on the German autobahn, darn it). I'll be meeting my friend Stuart, who's doing his annual teaching gig in the Netherlands right now. The package includes lunch on Friday at our hotel, then the first half of the play in the afternoon, then dinner at a hotel in town, then the second half of the play Friday night, and then breakfast Saturday morning. Like everything else around here, it's not cheap, but as I tell people, it's not very often that I find myself living in Europe in a year that's divisible by ten, so I have to take advantage of the opportunity.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Don't be such a tightwad
Everything went fine with the presentation yesterday. It was quite an ordeal. I stayed up late Tuesday night getting ready, got up Wednesday morning and went to my seminar, left my seminar after an hour, rode the Tube (subway) to the expensive shopping district and bought a tie (thanks for the new tie, Thomson Reuters!), rode the Tube to the other side of London, gave my presentation, rode the Tube back to my seminar, stayed out late at the dinner they had for the attendees last night, and then collapsed.
My valuable lesson was this: sometimes, fork over the cash. My boss told me to take a cab if I felt I needed to, but it was an easy Tube ride from the seminar to the presentation. There were no transfers required, and it was just a short walk to and from the station on both ends of the trip. The price difference was $10 versus about $100. Why not save the company some money, right? So I just took the Tube.
I got there on time with no trouble. On the way back, though, there was a problem at one of the stations, so we were stuck on on the Tube for about fifteen minutes without being able to exit. There's no cell phone signal down there. If that had occurred on my way to the presentation, I would have been late to the presentation and stuck underground with no way to tell anyone what was going on. The lesson for me is that next time I have an important presentation, I'll spend the extra money to make darned sure I show up when I'm supposed to. No harm done, but it could have been scary.
My valuable lesson was this: sometimes, fork over the cash. My boss told me to take a cab if I felt I needed to, but it was an easy Tube ride from the seminar to the presentation. There were no transfers required, and it was just a short walk to and from the station on both ends of the trip. The price difference was $10 versus about $100. Why not save the company some money, right? So I just took the Tube.
I got there on time with no trouble. On the way back, though, there was a problem at one of the stations, so we were stuck on on the Tube for about fifteen minutes without being able to exit. There's no cell phone signal down there. If that had occurred on my way to the presentation, I would have been late to the presentation and stuck underground with no way to tell anyone what was going on. The lesson for me is that next time I have an important presentation, I'll spend the extra money to make darned sure I show up when I'm supposed to. No harm done, but it could have been scary.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
An unexpected twist
It's been an interesting day. My class has been fun. We've got class members from Sweden (currently stationed in Dubai), South Africa, Germany, Australia, Israel, and England, and probably more. There are two token Americans. Also, most of them are from the Reuters part of Thomson Reuters. I haven't gotten to know many people from the Reuters side.
The twist came late in the afternoon as I was checking messages on my BlackBerry. I had ten messages waiting for me during the afternoon break, which always means that something is up. I just don't get that many messages in the space of two hours in my current job. Turns out that the vice chairman of the Thomson Reuters board of directors needs a demonstration of WestlawNext, our big project, in London tomorrow. It also turns out that there's only one person in London right now who's qualified to give a demonstration of WestlawNext. So I'll be cutting class for part of the day to demonstrate our baby to the vice chairman. Unfortunately, my wardrobe isn't prepared for such an exigency; I'm dressed for sitting in a training class all day. I packed about as lightly as a person can pack for a four-day trip. My boss told me to buy a tie on the way and to charge it to the company. This should be interesting.
I'm looking forward to the opportunity. I like giving presentations like this one.
The twist came late in the afternoon as I was checking messages on my BlackBerry. I had ten messages waiting for me during the afternoon break, which always means that something is up. I just don't get that many messages in the space of two hours in my current job. Turns out that the vice chairman of the Thomson Reuters board of directors needs a demonstration of WestlawNext, our big project, in London tomorrow. It also turns out that there's only one person in London right now who's qualified to give a demonstration of WestlawNext. So I'll be cutting class for part of the day to demonstrate our baby to the vice chairman. Unfortunately, my wardrobe isn't prepared for such an exigency; I'm dressed for sitting in a training class all day. I packed about as lightly as a person can pack for a four-day trip. My boss told me to buy a tie on the way and to charge it to the company. This should be interesting.
I'm looking forward to the opportunity. I like giving presentations like this one.
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