Patents sure take a long time. I originally came up with my idea for a new down hole tool back in 2005, and the application has now officially been published! If you're at all interested, you can view it here. There is a view Images button to see the pictures, but you'll have to download some software to do it. If you want, click on the Images button, and then click on Help. Then you'll have to click on the first link, and then read the instuctions from there.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Roadtrip to Kristiansand, Norway
What a crazy couply of weeks. Last night I drove from Stavanger to Krisitiansand. My first roadrip in Norway, and I didn't get lost. The drive was absolutely beautiful. It took about 3.5 hours to get here. The road wound along the coast. It's not that far in distance, but the road was so windy that I was struggling to maintain 60 KPH. Yes, kilometers/hour which is around 37 MPH. It was a blast trying! I stopped to take the first photo in the set, which is me standing in the middle of a walking path. Then I realized how long it would take if I stopped to take photos as often as I wanted, so I just started taking them from the car. This tunnel picture turned out pretty cool.
When I arrived in Kristiansand and checked into my hotel, they only had one room left, so I got the Honeymoon Suite! Sweet!!! It's the size of an apartment. I love the view as it overlooks the harbor and town on the pretty side. The other side overlooks the shipping container business.
Here are all the photos.
When I arrived in Kristiansand and checked into my hotel, they only had one room left, so I got the Honeymoon Suite! Sweet!!! It's the size of an apartment. I love the view as it overlooks the harbor and town on the pretty side. The other side overlooks the shipping container business.
Here are all the photos.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
YouTube videos
My previous post got my mind running in a bunch of directions. I ended up registering on YouTube and up loading an old FSAE video of me driving after returning from our 2004 competition.
It's still being processed at the time of this post, but here's the VIDEO
And then, due to having Legos on the brain, I seached for Lego on YouTube. There are some funny videos. Here's one that caught my eye. I like the ending.
Copenhagen, Denmark is awesome!
I flew to Copenhagen on Friday to visit with a customer. On the taxi ride to the office, I quickly fell in love with the city. The variety of architecture was just stunning! There are so many more colors and variety of buildings compared to Aberdeen. My hotel reservatation was right the part of the city center called "the Square", which was also the name of my hotel.
View Larger Map Fit me just perfect. The room was very modern and European, for lack of a better term. I do have to appoligize for the pictures. Dena's away on her own little vacation with a friend of her's, and they took the Sony digital camera to Nice, France, so I was trying to do my best with my camera phone. No zoom, no auto-focus, no flash, and I had to stop breathing as I snapped the pictures, so they wouldn't come out fuzzy. The pictures are better than my last phone, but still not up to par with my 5 year old Sony digital camera.
The first couple pictures (other than the one of me) were snapped from my hotel room window. I then took a little walk down one of the walk streets leading away from the Square. Walk streets are a bit like a mall in the states, with shops and food on both sides, and about the same width, except that you are outside, and when it's raining you get wet. I stepped into a toy store after passing a huge Lego window display. I guess it was a bit of habit from when I was younger. They now have remote controlled and robotic Lego kits. Hmm, seems the Legos have grown up too. The good thing is, I no longer have to wait for my birthday or Christmas to get a set. Luckily, I didn't have a large suitcase along, so I left the store and continued walking.
I walked for 8-10 blocks before finally stopping at a cafe for supper. I had a wonderful open-faced smoked tuna sandwich with fresh greens and scrammbled eggs on top. The sun came out as I was eating, and some of the pictures were taken on the way back. I liked all the statues and fountains in just a small area of town. A few other things that stood out during my visit were the wind turbines that were along the shore and easily seen from the customer's office. I really like that some countries are moving forward on clean energy generation. Wind energy is growing in the US also, but we are trailing the world, and will hopefully have some big offshore wind farms going up soon offshore Texas and somewhere on the east coast of the US. It was also really great to see Copenhagen having a fairly massive public transportantion system. I saw buses and trains, along with plenty of taxis. What really shocked me was how many bicycles there were. It was like I was on some massive college campus. There were bikes everywhere, and lot of places to park them, AND lot of people of all ages riding them. When I returned to the airport to fly back home, there was a Lego display for Vestas wind turbines. I was a Lego Maniac when I was younger, so it was expecially appealing to me having both interests.
I was only in Copenhagen for one afternoon/evening, but I sure enjoyed it, and hope I have reason to spend more time there.
View Larger Map Fit me just perfect. The room was very modern and European, for lack of a better term. I do have to appoligize for the pictures. Dena's away on her own little vacation with a friend of her's, and they took the Sony digital camera to Nice, France, so I was trying to do my best with my camera phone. No zoom, no auto-focus, no flash, and I had to stop breathing as I snapped the pictures, so they wouldn't come out fuzzy. The pictures are better than my last phone, but still not up to par with my 5 year old Sony digital camera.
The first couple pictures (other than the one of me) were snapped from my hotel room window. I then took a little walk down one of the walk streets leading away from the Square. Walk streets are a bit like a mall in the states, with shops and food on both sides, and about the same width, except that you are outside, and when it's raining you get wet. I stepped into a toy store after passing a huge Lego window display. I guess it was a bit of habit from when I was younger. They now have remote controlled and robotic Lego kits. Hmm, seems the Legos have grown up too. The good thing is, I no longer have to wait for my birthday or Christmas to get a set. Luckily, I didn't have a large suitcase along, so I left the store and continued walking.
I walked for 8-10 blocks before finally stopping at a cafe for supper. I had a wonderful open-faced smoked tuna sandwich with fresh greens and scrammbled eggs on top. The sun came out as I was eating, and some of the pictures were taken on the way back. I liked all the statues and fountains in just a small area of town. A few other things that stood out during my visit were the wind turbines that were along the shore and easily seen from the customer's office. I really like that some countries are moving forward on clean energy generation. Wind energy is growing in the US also, but we are trailing the world, and will hopefully have some big offshore wind farms going up soon offshore Texas and somewhere on the east coast of the US. It was also really great to see Copenhagen having a fairly massive public transportantion system. I saw buses and trains, along with plenty of taxis. What really shocked me was how many bicycles there were. It was like I was on some massive college campus. There were bikes everywhere, and lot of places to park them, AND lot of people of all ages riding them. When I returned to the airport to fly back home, there was a Lego display for Vestas wind turbines. I was a Lego Maniac when I was younger, so it was expecially appealing to me having both interests.
I was only in Copenhagen for one afternoon/evening, but I sure enjoyed it, and hope I have reason to spend more time there.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Jet settin'
Been working lots. I'll be going to Copenhagen, Denmark on Friday for a meeting, flying home Saturday morning, then Stavanger, Norway on Sunday for some internal training, then driving to Kristiansand, Norway on Tuesday night to give a presentation on Wednesday, then flying to Bukarest, Romania on Thursday for a meeting on Friday, and then flying home. Yep, I'm officially a jet setter.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
My new drink of choice
I'm addicted to caffeine. It's not a bad thing, unless you move to a foreign country where they don't sell your favorite caffeinated beverage that you've been addicted to since high school. You become like a junkie, trying new products to get your "fix". Yeah, not having Mountain Dew over here troubled me for about the first 2 months. I was trying to like coffee, then tried tea. I could get Pepsi and Coke, but they have so much carbonation I was burping all the time. I tried the soft drink of Scotland called Irn Bru, but it just wasn't quite right. They have Red Bull here, and that worked for a while, but those little 8 ounces go down so quickly. Then I tried Lucazade Energy and I liked it. It was a happy balance of a soft drink in a bottle with a nice selection of flavors, but I still wanted something with a little more caffeine. I did get a fix of Mountain Dew for about a week, when Dena found that there is a Baskin Robbins Ice Cream shop in town that sells it. She bought me a 12 pack. I love her! It wasn't cheap though, and it was the only place in town to get it. Then one day while I was at a gas station about ready to grab a Lucazade Energy, I noticed a new fancy bottle with "Caffeine Boost" on it. So, I bought 2 and just about instantly fell in love. The only flavor is Lemon Plus, and it tastes just right. It's in a bottle, so it doesn't spill in the car, and there are 80 mg of caffeine in a 500 mL bottle, which is just about what Mountain Dew has in a 16 oz bottle. The stuff is lovely and makes me happy!
The combination of walking around town more, and not drinking so many liquid calories had made me loose almost 15 lbs. When I left the US, I was around 223, and now I'm around 208. We'll see how long I stay at this new weight.
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