Catching Up

It’s been a while since I’ve written much.  I ended up being sent on a last-minute business trip to Huntsville the week of April 19th.  Term papers and final projects were due for my college classes last week. I just got back from a business trip to Orlando this week.  Finished the last of my final exams this morning.  Time to start being a human again.

We’ve got 40+ mph winds here today; it’s crazy.

I have tomatoes, peppers (bell, hot banana, red hot cherry, and cubanelle), sweet onions, green onions, carrots, radishes, green and yellow squash, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, brussels sprouts, oregano, parsley, mint, basil, cilantro, green beans and rhubarb in the ground.  Wow, that’s a lot of stuff.  I still have one more variety of tomatoes to get down and then I think I’m done.

I’m also happy to report that I’m almost famous.

In March and April I was working on a magazine article on software assurance.  After responding to some comments that the editors had, I was informed this week that they’ve accepted it and sent it in as part of the package for the September/October issue.  This certainly doesn’t mean that it will get published; apparently the decision about what gets published and what doesn’t in this magazine is made by Department of Homeland Security.  For those of you who are in the Defense industry, keep an eye out for the September/October issue of CrossTalk.  If DHS liked it, my article will be in there; if not then it will be held by the editors for a future issue.  It’s not a paid thing, but it is very exciting … at least for me.

Also in the area of exciting:  one of my major clients, Xerox, has asked me to participate in a webinar that they will be doing this month about security features of multifunction devices (copiers, for you laymen).  I will be speaking about the Common Criteria during the webinar.  An announcement was emailed out to their customers, but nothing is on the website yet.  I’ll link it here when it does go live.  Again, not life changing but very exciting for me.  These small opportunities give me a sense of validation that I am an expert in my field.

In general, March and April brought me amazing highs (me, famous?  Mamma Mia! on Broadway?) and insane lows (how many people get rejected by Korea for adoption, exactly?).  I’ve been looking forward to some downtime this month to get my classes finished, my veggies in the ground, and back to being a human being….. before classes start again on June 1st.  *ugh*

Norway Wrap Up

So, finally getting to my Norway wrap-up.

After the conference ended on Thursday, I walked around Tromso checking things out (about 6 miles, according to my pedometer).  In the process, I visited the Polaria (aquarium) where they have Bearded Seals, the Polar Museet (museum), shopped for a few souvenirs, and bumped into conference attendees from other labs who were sight-seeing too.

The airport taxi arrived at my hotel at 4:20am — entirely too early to be getting up, but the early time afforded me the chance to finally see the Northern Lights.  I had been trying to see the Lights the whole time I was there, but it was always too cloudy; on the ride to the airport, the sky opened enough for me to see the faint shades of green over the island.  The flights home were long and tiring.  I think I started to hit the brick wall somewhere around hour 5 of 9 on the last leg home.  I seriously couldn’t get on the ground soon enough at Dulles.

But I’m home now. All in all, it was an adventure.

Norway Pictures

All of my pictures from Norway are up now at : http://photos.nothingnoteworthy.com/v/travel/2009_norway. I’ll probably post an update tomorrow about my sight-seeing on Thursday afternoon and the trip home.

Ack! No Communications!

Ok, this is the part that sucks.  I just got off the phone with John (who I pulled out of a class to talk to) and feel like hearing a little more “voices from home”.  But Skype is hating me tonight (keeps dropping my calls), everyone whose number I have memorized is still at work right now, and all of my other numbers are in my personal cell phone which I left in my car because I knew it wouldn’t work here.  *grumble*

More Norway

Ok, it’s 9pm here and I’ve finally finished attending the ICCC for the day, given my presentation to SSCI via webcast, caught up on work, and had dinner.  If you read my post from this morning, you got quite the jumbled list of subjects.  Here’s what I was talking about.

(Oh, and before I forget, I’ve got pictures HERE:  http://photos.nothingnoteworthy.com/v/travel/2009_norway/ )

Toilets, toilets, toilets

The bathrooms here in Europe are pretty interesting.  I did the tour de potty in Copenhagen, Oslo and Tromso.  In the Copenhagen airport, the restroom stall walls were floor-to-ceiling, including the door.  It was a very robust door; I liked it – very private feeling.  And then I went to flush — no handle, and no auto-potties…. I was presented with two buttons, one larger than the other.  Being a righty, I picked the one on the right, and the toilet flushed.  But what did the other button do?  Super-flush.  Wow, that was cool – -there were two different buttons depending on how much flush you wanted.  I found the same thing in the Oslo airport.  Here in my hotel room, the buttons aren’t small — they are a good 6-inches across.  But same thing; large button for large flush, small button for small flush.  Why can’t we have this in America?  And why can’t we have floor-to-ceiling stall walls?  We need to protest.

Internet

Internet service here is interesting.  It could be normal, or maybe it’s just an artifact of staying in a hotel.  Instead of giving me unlimited internet usage (even for a flat fee), they give me scratch-off cards that are good for 4 hours at a time.  After four hours, I have to scratch off another one and log in again.  This is a pain in circumstances like this morning when I have to blow a whole 4-hour card just to check my email.  But there seems to be an unlimited supply if you ask nicely at the front desk.  Download speed is ok (almost as fast as our cellular modem at home), but upload is via carrier pidgeon.

Copenhagen Shopping Mall

I stepped off the airplane in Copenhagen and had to go through security and Passport Control.  The nice lady at the “Transfer Station” told me I should go through Passport Control and then follow the signs to the B gates.  So, I did.  I was not prepared for what I found on the other side of Passport Control.  The Copenhagen airport isn’t an airport — it’s a shopping mall with some gates.  There are more stores there than some of my local malls have, and I swear the airport must have been an afterthought.  It was simply amazing.

Being Green

My hotel has quite a few “Green” features; in fact, it seems to be a lifestyle over here.  When you open the door, there is a little plastic thing that says “Card Here” on the wall.  It took me a little while to figure it out — actually, it took until I realized that I had no power in my hotel room.  You cannot turn the lights on or use outlets (except the bathroom) until you put your hotel keycard in there.  My guess is that it is a way to force you to turn off the lights before you leave.

The hairdryer also seems a bit green.  You can’t just turn it on and leave it on.  There is an on/off switch on the base unit, but on the hand-held part, you have to press down a button with your thumb to keep it running.  And there are no little soaps and things here — just soap and shampoo dispensers on the wall; much like what you’d find at the sink in a public restroom.  I can’t complain though; these little differences aren’t inconvenient and I’m sure they save quite a lot of cash and resources when you amortize them across all of the people who must stay at this hotel in a year.

Reindeer

I had reindeer for dinner last night.  Actually, it wasn’t just reindeer; it was reindeer medallions over vegetable salad with a cranberry and congnac sauce.  I’ve eaten venison quite a few times, and this was much milder than the standard deer entree.  It had a slightly peppery flavor — not gamey at all, but slightly more flavorful than beef.  The sauce was perfect with it.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Tonight I had a pasta with pesto sauce and bacon.  Not bacon flakes in the pesto, but the whole thing was topped with 6 strips of bacon.  I know, you’re cringing.  Apparently it’s very popular over here, and it is very good.  I was surprised at how well the salty bacon went with the peppery basil, but it did.  I definitely need to try this at home.

Taxi Ride

Just one more thing before I go to bed.  I have no clue where we were, but on the taxi ride from the airport we ended up going through an underground tunnel.  It was probably to get us through the mountains on the airport side of the island.  But this wasn’t just a tunnel; this tunnel had traffic circles, turns, and stop lights.  No kidding, it was amazing.  And there was construction going on, too — while we were cruising along, there were work crews down there boring out other areas of the tunnel for future traffic.  Crazy.

Ok, Ok — I’m Up!

Not exactly bright-eyed and bush-tailed, but I’m up.  It’s 8am here and 2am at home.  I was worried about being able to sleep through the night, but that wasn’t an issue.  I was asleep before my head hit the very wonderful pillow and snoozed my alarm for an extra 1.5 hours.  DOH.  But I feel better than I did last night, which is good.  Here’s your Norway teaser for the morning… well, actually it’s a reminder to me about things I want to talk about when I have time later:

• Toilets, toilets, toilets
• Internet
• Copenhagen shopping mall
• Style
• Being Green
• Reindeer
• Taxi Ride

American Life in Norway

I was surprised at how much English is available at the airports and hotel.  Almost everyone I spoke to at these two places spoke English, and every sign at the airports I went through today was translated into English.  Every announcement was done in the native language and then English.  But the buck stops there.  The streets of Tromso are a totally different story — nothing in English, and no English speakers that I could hear as I walked around.

I have three English-language stations on my television.  One of them is QVC.  The other two are re-running old American TV shows.  Only thing that beats McGyver with Norwegian subtitles?  Southpark with Norwegian subtitles.  LOL

Arriving in Norway

It’s been a very long day, but I’m finally here.  My plane left Dulles about 20 minutes late, but we were really cruising once we were in the air.  We flew all the way up the coast(beyond Nova Scotia) before heading over the Atlantic toward Copenhagen.  I have never liked Airbus because of their fly-by-wire stuff, but this A330 was a pretty nice plane.  We all had a video monitor above our tray table, with movies, television shows, games and music on demand.  And there was a fold out cup holder below the tray table so you could keep your drink safe without having to have the tray down.  That came in very handy.  Got to hand it to SAS — they sure know how to feed you on a trans-atlantic flight.  Dinner was: smoked almonds, roast pork and chicken (yes, both) with mashed potatoes, carrots, and snow peas; , a salad, 2 rolls, crackers, cheese, and dessert; plus a complementary cocktail. Way too much food, and I didn’t come close to finishing it all.

I did have wine with my dinner — figured it would knock me out so that I could sleep.  Nope.  Never underestimate the power of rude airplane occupants.  Apparently most of the people on the plane were headed for a repositioning cruise with Norwegian… and they talked about it — loudly –  All. Night. Long.  When they weren’t yapping, they were playing the Michael Jackson channel so loud I could hear it through their headphones, or watching movies or playing video games through the night.  I was lucky to get a few 15 minute bursts of sleep, but I was still miserable when I got off the plane — that is a long time to be sitting in the dark with your eyes closed hoping to sleep.

Breakfast was served at 5:30am local time; strawberry-bannana yogurt, orange juice and a salami & cheese sandwich.  No, I’m not kidding.  And that’s the last food I got today because there was no food (not even free snacks) on my other two flights and there was no time between them to get something.  I’m trying to hold out for dinner now because I want to try to normalize my schedule.

When I landed in Copenhagen, I discovered that my company cell phone which is supposed to have international service, doesn’t.  I ended up paying 199NOK ($31USD) for a headset w/ microphone for my laptop, subscribing to the international version of Skype for $12USD, and roaming the airport looking for a wireless signal just so I could wake John up at 2am EDT to let him know that I had landed safely in Europe.  Almost missed my connection to Oslo because they changed the gates while I was going through Passport Control.  Had to run to catch the connection to Tromso because it took a bit to get through Customs in Oslo — and they didn’t stamp my passport?!

But I’m here.  It’s cold, and the internet sucks, but my first thought when we peeked out of the clouds on final was

My God, it’s beautiful.

I haven’t gotten more than an hour of sleep in the last 30 or so and am trying to stay up until about 9pm so that I can try to get on a normal schedule.  Easier said than done, I’m sure.