Melanie and I have returned from France. What a great trip! I learned much more about Melanie and her life. The trip highlight was having dinner the family she lived with for a year while studying in Aix en Provence.
The trip started off rough. The plane leaving JKF was packed and with 45+ stand-by passengers waiting, we were wondering on the way to the airport if we would make the flight. But this would be the less of our worries. We made the flight to from New York to Paris and that’s when fun really began. All flights from Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport to Nice were full.
Melanie was confused by this knowing that this time of the year is an ideal time to travel stand-by to France. I noticed two people checking in heading to Nice with bicycles. We were sitting with one of Melanie’s co-worker’s boyfriend who mention that Nice was hosting a triathlon. We later learned how big this event is when Melanie was asked by another American if we were there to career Team USA. Turns out this event is part of the 2002 ITU World Cup Series. We were not going to Nice from Charles de Gaulle.
Based on a suggestion we decided to take a bus ride to the other side of Paris and try one of the Air France shuttle flights from Orly. We knew Melanie would have no problems flying out of Orly but we were not sure if I could on a companion pass. However, we had hope after learning that the French do not necessarily follow all the rules. And we learned this to be true.
We got to Orly in time to catch the next flight to Nice. Racing through the airport we make it to the gate. We got checked in. Yes! Air France honored my companion pass and put both of us on the stand-by list. Minutes later our names are called and we are going on the next flight to Nice. But Melanie’s boarding pass says she is sitting in JPS. In other words, the jump seat. The of course is not common. Nor was it common for the pilot to ask us if we were flying to together and if so to wait at the front of the plane.
We boarded the flight without a problem. Not knowing if we heard the pilot correctly, I kissed Melanie bye and headed for my seat in the back of the plane. Happy that we would be in Nice soon, I settled in for what would be the second worse flight in my life. I will spare you the details. Of course throughout the flight I was wondering how Melanie was doing. Little did I know she was having a unique experience of riding in the cockpit. Yes, that’s right. She was chillin’ in the cockpit.
I am having the second worse flight in my life and Melanie is living it up in the cockpit. This would not happen in the U.S. these days. Melanie was one of three riding in the cockpit. And the funny part was one person was just sitting on a box; no seat belt, just a box. I think next time I will wait at the front of the plane.
After the interesting flight experiences, we were finally able to begin enjoying our vacation. Nice is a beautiful city and the water is blue. We walked all over the center village, Old Town, and along the pebble beach shore. We climbed to the top of a hill where a park oversees both sides of Nice, Old Town and the harbor. And we enjoyed good food, which got better and better as the week went on. Believe it or not, the region is known for its pizza.
We ended our visit of Nice by watching the triathlon. This was cool to watch and was an added bonus even with the travel problems to Nice. After watching the cycling and running for a few hours, we boarded a train and headed to Aix en Provence via a very scenic route. The rock mountains were glorious and the coastal cities were beautiful.
Melanie lived in Aix en Provence for a year while studying French so I was very excited to see this cozy town rich with history. Melanie took me to school she attended and to various cafe she frequently visited. The family she lived with invited us over for dinner, which was an awesome experience for me. We walked all over town and we visited Cezanne’s studio. Of course we did more but as this posting is getting long…
We left Aix for a day to visit Arles. Another scenic train ride delivered us to this quaint French villa with ancient Roman ruins. We walked through a Roman colosseum that is still in use today for bull fights and saw an outdoor theater. We also saw the cafe painted by Van Gogh who lived in Arles for a year.
We return to Aix for a short visit and back to Nice for one last night. We boarded a direct flight from Nice to JFK. Eight hours later we were back in a very rainy New York City already missing the streets of south France.
It’s been two weeks since Melanie and my last getaway so it is definitely time for another one. Our last getaway was a weekend at Camp Murphy in Lake George. What a blast that was!
For this getaway, Melanie and I are heading to the southern part of France. We are starting and ending the trip in Nice but we also plan to visit the town where she studied for a year. The town is pronounced “X” but I am sure there are more letters in the town’s name. If we come back it will be the end of next week. And that is if we come back.
I will not be reachable during this getaway. My mobile will not work in France and I have no plans to check e-mail. So no emergencies over the next week. Everyone say safe and enjoy life. And dream about the upcoming winter and SNOWBOARDING!
Within Avanade we are asked to maintain skills self-assessments. This allows Avanade to identify appropriate individuals for a particular job. One area we are asked to evaluate is OOP techniques. This led a co-worker to ask me “What does it take to be considered advanced in OOP techniques?” Here was my initial reply:
Recently I was asked to recommend some books for computer geeks, software developer and engineers, etc moving into management. Here is the list I came up with. The books on this list have definitely helped my career over time.
It was only a matter of time before the stories of my adventures made their way to the TV screen. Look for the tough cream puff on Fox beginning September 14 (9 a.m. and 11 a.m. EDT).
Karsten Januszewski recently published a white paper on Registering and Discovering RSS Feed in UDDI. I personally think this is a great idea. My only problem with the idea is that registering services in UDDI can be a bit cumbersome for some folks. But Karsten solves this problem by providing a sample Windows application that makes registering RSS v.9x feeds as simple as specifying the URL to the feed and clicking a button.
So why do I like the idea of registering and discovering RSS feeds in UDDI? It exploits the power of UDDI. Many people assume UDDI is only about Web services but that is not true. Any services can be registered in UDDI and discovered by the masses. For example, if you were to search one of the UBR for the provider “Kirby” you will find that I offer two services.
One service is a Web service for reporting statistics for WCAV Radio. But the other is the RSS feed for this weblog. And by leveraging UDDI, people can discovery all the services I offer whether the service is a Web service or not.
Those using Visual Studio.NET’s Add Web Reference will notice a search on the provider “Kirby” will return only Web service I offer. The reason is that Add Web Reference was implemented to search for Web services only. The same idea can be applied to weblog tools that wish to discover RSS feeds. Those tools only need to search for services in UDDI based on the practices outlined in Karsten’s white paper.
From Burton’s 2003 web site:
We stand sideways.
We sleep on floors in cramped resort hotel rooms.
We get up early and go to sleep late.
We’ve been mocked.
We’ve been turned away from resorts that won’t have us.
We are relentless.
We dream it, we make it, we break it, we fix it.
We create.
We destroy.
We wreck ourselves day in and day out and yet we stomp that one trick or find that one line that keeps us coming back.
We progress.
I used Windows Explorer all the time to navigate my hard drive. Many times throughout the day I need to drop to MS-DOS within a specific directory. I’m too lazy to drop to DOS and navigate using the command line so I created a registry entry that will launch a CMD window from Windows Explorer and place me in the selected directory. You can run the following VBScript to do the same for yourself.
After posting the VBScript below I realized I could have simply created .reg file that has the registry entries to import. Oh well. The VBScript approach gave me a reason to play with VBScript.
Get this crap…Daily news from Louisville, Kentucky and Southern Indiana from courier-journal.com The Jim Beam bourbon-making plant in Bullitt County is disputing a Kentucky Labor Cabinet citation involving toilet breaks for the plant’s bottlingline workers.
Under a policy implemented in October, line workers at the Jim Beam Brands Co. plant may use the restroom only during lunch and two other scheduled daily breaks, one before lunch and one after. They also are allowed one unscheduled toilet break per day, and can be disciplined for taking more, starting with a warning and escalating to dismissal after six incidents.