Last Day in Europe

This week has been a learning experience for me, both culturally and personally. Kind of put things into perspective a bit.

That's about all I'm going to say about that. I have a very long flight to think. So, I'll think then.

One thing is for sure though -- one more croissant for breakfast and I'm going to hurt someone. The food here has been pretty good overall, however. Lunch has been pure Danish each day. Breakfast has been at the hotel and very European. For dinner, we've been hitting different cultural restaurants. First it was Chinese, then Greek, and tonight we tried an Italian restaurant. All very good.

I've got a pocket full of coins (kroners). I need to find a vending machine or somewhere to spend them, there's too damn many to take with me and the enchange places usually won't let you exchange coins.

My flight leaves somewhere in the 9:15 AM area, so I really should consider going to bed here sometime soon. I'm just too damn wired to sleep right now.

I purchased a disposable camera today, before Jeff and I embarked on our walk through the city. Most of the day was quite nice, so the pictures should look great. It rained on two different occasions today, once we were near a kiosk and it wasn't bad. The second time, however, we were out at the harbor and there was no where to go except under two trees. We're were thoroughly soaked by the time that one passed.

The funny thing about the weather here is that it will be sunny for an hour, rain for 10 minutes, then be sunny again. Then repeat. Welcome to a port city, I guess.

We took one of those boat tours today as well, that was really cool. Traversed all the canals, went out into the harbor, etc. Fun stuff.

Well, I guess I'll piss away some more time online, then try to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a very, very long day. Not looking forward to that 9 hour flight in the morning. I'm half tempted to sleep deprive myself completely tonight so that it's possible I'll sleep on the plane, but that's certainly not a guarantee. I should have been completely exhausted on the FIRST 9 hour flight getting here, but I didn't sleep at all during that one. Ah well.

Since I forgot my digital camera, and purchased a disposable one, you will have to wait until I get these developed before you see them. Patience!

Greetings from Europe

So here I am in Copenhagen. Beautiful city, even if it has been overcast and/or rainy since I've been here so far. There's a pretty nice view outside my hotel room window -- a large clock tower to the right and a row of very old, very European buildings straight out.

I haven't had much opportunity to see the city yet, given we lost pretty much a whole day because of our delayed flight out of Pittsburgh to Newark. Did some walking around today, down to the bank, over to an Irish pub, and across to a Chinese restaurant.

I'll probably have more to say after Saturday. In the meantime, I'll be avoiding public bathrooms...

Gaming Goodness

The official release date for Quake Wars has been August 1st for a while now, so I'm hoping this will finally be it. I've heard all the hype and I've seen all the progress. I'm really for the finished product, and I'm sure a hell of a lot of other people are too. Exactly two weeks from now, it could finally happen.

If you have no idea what Quake Wars is, I suggest you check out just about any gaming news blog on the planet. Chances are you'll find an article about it. It's the next generation Quake...where deathmatch is thrown to the side and replaced by tactical, strategic-themed outdoor levels, massive in scale and quality. This isn't your Quake from the 1990's where you run around looking for the rail gun. It's 32 vs. 32 chaos, with airstrikes, ground vehicles, and advanced weaponry.

Here's hoping it lives up to all the hype. Here's a link to the trailer, for the curious:

Quake Wars Trailer

Copenhagen Trip

I'll be leaving on Monday, July 23rd for Copenhagen, Denmark. It's not a vacation, but a business trip. I'm being sent to perform some initial training to a customer we have there. (A pretty big customer at that, I should be nervous. But meh.)

I'll be coming back the following Sunday. Should be an interesting trip, I think, I've never been to Europe. I'll pack my camera and post pictures when I return

Thank goodness the slots are unaffected...

So here in Pennsylvania, the government is in a stale-mate on the budget for the new year. What this means is that 25,000 state employees were told not to report to work this morning. Without pay.

I was reading an article about it this morning, and the following piece struck me as funny:

Among the facilities closed due to the budget standoff include state parks. But, thanks to a late-night ruling, slots casinos will be open.

Priorities?

And they call me an addict...

PaStatDude (6:00:51 PM): i was just at the most boring party

Rippled Edge (6:01:06 PM): even worse than ep?

PaStatDude (6:01:10 PM): ep?

Rippled Edge (6:01:45 PM): -_-

Rippled Edge (6:01:49 PM): extreme pred

Rippled Edge (6:02:02 PM): i know the worst run ever?

Rippled Edge (6:02:04 PM): *u

PaStatDude (6:02:10 PM): oh...my...god

PaStatDude (6:02:14 PM): i mean a REAL party

PaStatDude (6:02:27 PM): as in with drinking and stuff?

Rippled Edge (6:02:48 PM): oh, when i read ur text i was like worse than ep... that is impossible

PaStatDude (6:02:52 PM): LOL, oh that is golden

Busy

Lots of stuff going on for me this month at work, so there may be a lack of entries for a while. We'll see.

First off starting next Monday, I have to conduct 2 days of training in office for some senior management of a new customer. The week after that another customer is coming to the office. And, after that, one person from India will be here for a few week of training in preparation for me to go over there possibly in the next month or so.

And, naturally, all the preparation for this crap will keep me gainfully occupied throughout.