A sunny day in Aberdeen

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Originally uploaded by mechanicaldan1

Dena and I took a walk around our neighborhood and down Union St. to blow off some steam. The temporary accomodations are starting to get to us. We're expected as much, knowing that it was going to be stressful completely uprooting and moving to a foreign country. I'm sure glad that we have less than two weeks until we get to move into our house. It'll be really nice to see our stuff. I'm tired of the shower curtain that is so close it touches me constantly. I'm tired of having to close the kitchen door so that we can open the refrigerator. I'm tired of the nasty couch pillows that blow feathers out when you lean on them. I'm annoyed by the noisy kitchen and bathroom fans that seem to make more noise than move air. Yeah, this is an honest post. I love being here, but just like home, there are days that suck. Today, for whatever reason the alarm sounded at it's set time, but refused to shut off. I pushed every button on it, turned the switch on/off/whatever, and it just kept blaring. I finally turned the volumn down to nothing. I'm about to go to bed, and it wouldn't surprise me if it's still ringing. It's not always sunny, and lately it hasn't been sunny often, but when it is, it's very lovely as you can see in the pictures.

Looking forward to our BMW 1-series

I'm really looking forward to getting our BMW 1-series. I've been in contact with a couple dealers, and have been trying to figure out where to go on the internet to get the dealer cost for a car. Well after brousing the forum on babybmw.net I found someone refering people to broadspeed.com to find out how much they could have saved. I checked it out, and yep, it's what I was looking for. Cost on the vehicle and every individual option. I spec'ed a car, and will follow up on the email tomorrow.
I went back to babybmw.com to surf a little more and came across this great video. Reminds me of my days with my Lightning. The car in the video is a 130i. Very sweet! They are supposed to be bringing the BMW 1-series to the US as a coupe, so maybe when I get back? Enjoy the video. I sure did.

A drive along the coast

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Originally uploaded by mechanicaldan1

Dena and I took another short road trip. This time we headed south out of town on A92. We decided to take a trip along the coast. It was overcast, but still beautiful. We stopped a few times to enjoy the scenery and take some pictures. Enjoy.

What a great week for being a techie! Wireless Electricity

Yep, wireless electricity, being dubbed "WiTricity" by the MIT scientists. Very cool stuff.

MIT Team Powers Light Bulb Without Wires

MIT WiTricity Press Release

iPhone vs HTC Touch (aka P3450)

The techie in me is really excited. Yesterday, HTC, maker of many mobile phones and PDAs for numerous mobile phone services announced a direct competitor to the Apple iPhone, and it's available NOW. Well, it's available in the UK and Europe now, and will be available in the US later this year. Apple's iPhone is set to be released at the very end of June in the US, and then become available in the UK and Europe later this year. The Touch has a "touch" interface just like Apple's iPhone, except it runs Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 software. So, it's going to be really intersting to see how the two devices battle it out. I'll give the iPhone a few points for coolness, but it has been announced that it will probably be locked down, so you won't be able to add 3rd party programs. For user friendliness, the Touch is a clear winner. It's very tiny, and will allow you to add games, videos, music, pictures, programs, whatever to your heart's content, and it'll sync very nicely with Outlook. You'll also be able to open, view, and edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files and view PDF files as you're checking your email on the go.

As cool as the Touch and iPhone are, I've had my eye on the HTC S710 aka the Vox. It's a perfectly pocketable candybar phone with a HUGE screen, slide out keyboard, and runs Mobile 6 software. I love all the features like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and is a quad band phone so I can use it anywhere in the world. It's going to be a great upgrade from my Audiovox SMT5600, which is kind of a great-grandfather to the S710. In just 2 short years, mobile phones and PDAs have come such a long way. The only thing really missing from the Vox is GPS, and HTC is rumored to have a phone like the Vox with GPS that will probably be released later this year. Dena and I went mobile phone shopping two weeks ago, and Vodafone had one in stock, so the sales rep let me play with it for a few minutes in the store. Mmm, candy!

Dena's point of view

I just had to post my wife's comments from a recent email, as they are pretty damn funny. Enjoy.

"Life for the most part has been business as usual, with Dan working and fantasizing over the BMW catalogues and me being awe-struck by some-or-other British behavior that tickles me. I refuse to write another yawning epic like last week (you’re welcome!); instead, here are the things I found interesting lately in a bite-sized, easy to digest format:

- Legal smoking age in the UK : 16
- Number of hotel employees to take a dump in my toilet: 2 – the electrician and the housekeeper. While I was there.
- Number of cathedrals converted into bars: 3, so far – the big one on Union is called “Soul”
- Local electronica hits: “This is My Church and God is the D.J.”
- Accepted unit of measurement for distance: miles (thank God), inches, etc – the Imperial System
- Accepted unit of measurement for weight/volume: grams, liters, etc – the Metric System
- Number of Brits who think this is wacky – 0
- How to say “zero”, “nothing”, or “none” in Brit: naught or nil
- How to say “pee”, like, “you can pee in my toilet, but please don’t poo”: wee
- How to say “a little” or “some”: wee or tad
- Number of Brits who don’t think “pee” and “a little” should get the same word: nil
- Name of Domino Pizza’s “Meat Extravaganza”: Mighty Meaty
- Number of pepperoni slices on said Mighty Meaty: 7
- Number of disappointed Cajuns: 2
- Latest exhumed hit from the 80’s to play in a commercial: “What a Feeling” for a laxative (!)
- How to say “cookie” in Brit: biscuit
- Availability of canned biscuits (like Pillsbury): naught!!
- Description of the mysterious “crumpet”, as in tea and crumpets: English muffin (go figure…)

That’s all I have for today! I hope y’all are doing well – I miss you!!"

Love and Cheers –
Dena

First trip to Norway

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Originally uploaded by mechanicaldan1

It seemed a little bit like home in Wisconsin. While flying in, I was able to look out the window because the weather was really nice. After landing, I was quite surprised to find out it that was 28°C, which translates to 82°F. In addition to a lot of water and the rolling hills, I noticed that there is a lot more color with the buildings compared to Scotland. They use a more familiar method of construction on the residential houses, which is a wooden construction with siding, but the roofs had either slate or clay tiles. There are a lot more tall, blonde haired people just like me, so I’m pretty normal here. Many of the people have a similar “look” to my relatives in Wisconsin, but I definitely know I’m in a different county as soon as I see anything with letters on it, as they aren’t in English, and many are considerably longer than English words.

I stayed at the Quality Hotel in Stavanger, and after giving my hotel a once over, I was pleasantly surprised to find a mini frig stocked with beer and wine! So, the first thing I did was to open one of the Troika candy bars and a Ringnes beer. Cold beer and chocolate was just what I needed. The hotel just happens to be less than a mile from a beach. My coworker pointed this out when he dropped me off, so after dinner, I took a walk down to the beach. It was really pretty, and I snapped some pictures with my phone because I forgot my camera in Aberdeen. The pictures are a little on the crappy side. Mobile phone cameras aren’t quite up to the task yet, but they are getting close.

I’m not sure if it was a common site, but on the way to the hotel, we ended up following an electric car. To me it was fairly obvious because it was a little on the square and ugly side, with just a little bit of kit car flavor. It was really neat to see, and as we got close to it, the license plate did identify it as an electric car. Speaking of cars, I had some additional proof that boys are pretty much the same everywhere. As I left the beach, I bent down to tie my shoelace, and suddenly a beat up station wagon with a couple of teenage boys comes sliding across the gravel parking lot. The windows were down, some music was blasting, and they were smiling as they slid and stopped in a parking spot. I had to smile too. Norway seems to be my kind of place.

A History of the World in 6 Glasses

I've got a growing interest in world history and religion. I'm not sure really where the two interests come from, but I can point to a few things. Regarding my religious interest is the fact that I haven't been to church in quite a while, but still pray regularly. Another fact is that living in Louisiana brought me in contact with lots of Catholics, a few Buddhists, and I just had a diverse Christian background growing up Reformed, Methodist, Baptist, and Souther Baptist. It's just interesting when you open your mind and try to get the big picture. The fact that so many Christian religions all worship the same God. You could even argue that some of the world religions worship the same God, or did a one time, and then split and starting making their own differnt rules. It's weird to see pictures of Jesus as a white man. Anyone that knows anything about geology knows that Jesus was born in the Middle East, and thus would have had darker skin. Things like this get twisted throughout history. I think the same thing goes for the Bible itself. How many times has it been translated? How many pages or chapters were edited or removed due to beliefs at different centuries throughout time? It just makes one curious. Regarding my interest in history is just that so much can be learned from history. A favorite verse of mine is "those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." It's so true. Even in my job. We learn things, and try to write them down and pass them on. It's upfortunate when they don't get passed on, and I read about the same thing happening.
So, just before I left, I spent a few hours with my friend Joey at Books-A-Million trying to find a couple interesting books on religion and history. I actually bought three. One of them is titled, "A History of the World in 6 Glasses." It's a really great book. It's easy reading and very interesting, as to how world events can be linked to different beverages. If you are curious, the six beverages are beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola. It's also interesting that the first three are alcoholic and the last three are not. One history fact that we all know about was the Boston Tea Party of 1773, which was just the first of more "tea parties" where the American colonists were not happy about having to pay a tax to Britian. Chapter 12 opens with, "A billion hours ago, human life appeared on earth. A billion minutes ago, Christianity emerged. A billion seconds ago, the Beatles changed music. A billion Coca-Colas ago was yesterday morning." Anyway, it's a good book to read if your interested in a slightly different view of history.
And, while we're talking about sodas, I'd LOVE a Mountain Dew. I've gone so far as to email Pepsico in the UK and asked them if there is anyplace I can get one. If you're coming to visit, bring some Mountain Dew. Thanks! :)