Raible Designs

Made it to Helsinki!

After a long couple days of flying, we finally arrived at our hotel in Helsinki this evening. It was a pretty tiring experience getting over here, but that's my own fault since I pulled an all-nighter on Friday night (trying to finish up a training course and slides for CSS). I rewarded myself with a little first-class action from Denver to Newark, but then was in the "back of the bus" from Newark to Oslo. We had a 4-hour layover in Oslo before hopping on a 2-hour flight to Helsinki. A 45-minute cab ride, a stop at the wrong hotel, a 5 minute cab ride and we arrived at the right location. I should sleep pretty good tonight after 48 hours of little to no sleep.

We haven't seen much of the city yet, but hope to tomorrow. The hotel we're staying at is pretty nice. I especially like the fact they have very nice saunas and we're staying only a few doors down from them. Our room is incredibly large and has 3 beds in it. The bathroom even has heated floors. Good thing my mom picked up the tab for this one.

Tomorrow looks like a high of 55°F, which sounds about perfect. I brought a coat and would hate to pack it around for nothing.

On the road again

I'll be in Mountain View again this week. Instead of trying to organize another tech meetup, I'm going to be attending Redmonk Evening Services on Thursday. If you're nearby, you should definitely join us - I'm sure the conversations won't disappoint.

After California, I'll be arriving back in Denver around 7 on Friday night. One night at home and then I'm off to Oslo for JavaZone at 10 a.m. on Saturday. I'm pretty pumped for the trip because 1) I really enjoyed Norway on my last trip (May 2005) and 2) my parents are traveling with me.

Hope to see you on the road!

Sidenote: It's ironic that my first "On the road again" post was written last year in September.

Going to JavaZone

I'm pleased to announce that I'll be speaking at JavaZone this year in Oslo, Norway. It's been a couple of years since I've been to Norway, but I've been wanting to go back ever since I left. Not only is Oslo itself awesome, but the people really showed me a good time.

I just bought my tickets, so it's pretty much a sure thing at this point. Even better, like my trip to ApacheCon EU, I'm bringing along some family.

Good ol' Mom and Dad will be joining me - making it my Dad's 4th international trip this year (Tanzania, Panama, Amsterdam/Germany are the previous 3). That's pretty good considering Africa was his only business trip.

Our current plan is to fly in on Sunday, visit the ancestral homeland (Finland) for a couple of days, and then spend Tuesday - Friday (September 11-14) in Oslo. If you're going to JavaZone - I hope to see you there. If you have any suggestions on what we should see in Finland or Oslo, we'd love to hear your suggestions.

Having fun in Amsterdam

My dad, Bruce and I arrived on Sunday morning in Amsterdam at the early hour of 8 a.m. I drugged myself with some Melatonin, so I didn't work as nearly as long as I would've liked. They did have an electrical plug (that required and worked with my MacBook adapter) so I was able to pull out the 15" and work for 5 hours. The flight was 9 hours and I managed to never step out of my seat (good ol' bladder of steel developed at The Cabin). Bruce said he slept 30 minutes at the end of the flight; my dad managed to get 7 hours.

The weather has been beautiful and we've been enjoying the sunshine and good beer. Queen's Day was crazy and quite a sight to see. The amount of boats in the canals and people in the streets was amazing. The only downside so far is neither my dad nor I brought our camera cords. If you're at ApacheCon EU and reading this, we could use a USB or Sony camera connector. I'll try to post some pics if I can borrow a cord.