.: What’s Bruin :.

San Diego Airport: What a crazy week this has been. I don’t even feel like I’m on vacation, even though I’m waiting for a plane that will take us to Atlanta, and then on to Zurich, Switzerland.

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind tornado. First the hard drive on my MacBook crashed a little over two weeks ago… and I had no backup of some very important data. Attempts to recover the lost data were unsuccessful since the drive was physically damager beyond recovery. On that hard drive was all the work from my current Master’s degree in progress and the past year’s finances and spreadsheets.

Needless to say that was very stressful on top of my already full work week. Replacing the hard drive and reinstalling the software was my second top priority behind working out at the gym. I finally got my financial records in a state that is usable. But after this trip, I need to rebuild all the documentation for 2007 income taxes.

I didn’t even pack until after midnight today, as I spent three hours uploading photos for work to our photo repository. I forgot how long it takes to upload.

Maria and I saw three people that we knew at the airport. I saw Gary Jacobs waiting for his order at McDonalds and was immediately reminded of the nightmare of working at the really crappy school called High Tech High. We also ran into our friend David Drinkwater who was flying out of town on business. And then Maria saw her friend, Pam, from work who was on the same flight as us to Atlanta.

Delta Flight 12 to Atlanta: I’m pretty exhausted right now from not sleeping last night. This flight is about four hours long and I did take a short nap at the beginning o the flight, but the seats are uncomfortable on my tailbone.

I’m starting to look forward to this trip now finally. No worries from work. School can wait since there are no set deadlines for my school projects, which allows me time to catch up due my hard drive failure.

This is the first trip where I checked two bags and Maria only checked one. I have one bag devoted just for work out clothing and tennis. My 10-year old nephew wants to play tennis. Since it will be freezing cold, we’ll have to play indoors. I have not played on an indoor court before so I’m looking forward to doing that for the first time. I’m curious about what my daily exercise routine will be. I am afraid of gaining weight / fat back. But during the trip, I hope to do my ab routine daily and jump rope to burn some calories. Unfortunately, I won’t have access to a gym so there won’t be any weight lifting.

Delta Flight 66 to Zurich: Exhausted most definitely. Hungry for sure. Had to connect our connecting flight to Zurich right away at another concourse. The Atlanta Airport is gigantic. I heard someone say it’s the largest in the world. So it required a train ride to our connecting departure gate. We boarded the plane right away, so no time to get a bite to eat. Then our flight was delayed two hours because the altitude meter (altimeter?) was damaged and needed to be replaced. Tried to catch some sleep while waiting to take off. Airplane flights are very boring. This nine-hour one was no exception. I didn’t feel like reading anything or watching either of the on-flight movies. So there wasn’t much to do except try to get some sleep. Slept in fits and bits only. Airline food… yum yum. Just kidding.

Tags: Travels

Obey the law: Interesting parking scene in downtown Minneapolis
photo • teknis | Flickr’s Friday Foto

Bubba Gump: Cool table (restaurant inside the Mall of America in Minneapolis
photo • teknis | Flickr’s Friday Foto

Tags: Bubba-Gump, CoolPix , downtown, Friday_Foto, Mall-of-America, Minneapolis, parking, Photography, Travels

I’ve finished tagging all my photos from the trip. I’ll try to pre-date some of my thoughts from the conference in the next few days, which will include some reflections on what I experienced and learned.

But in the meantime, enjoy the pics:

Mall of America
Desiring God National Conference

Tags: Announcements, Blogging, conference, Desiring-God, Life, Minneapolis, Spiritual, Travels

Since I was in Minneapolis a day early, I decided to visit the famous Mall of America, the largest shopping mall in the United States. After a nice breakfast downstairs, John and I boarded the LRT at about 9:00 AM. It only cost $2 one way for the 25-minute ride.

Me on the LRT

The weather was okay, a little overcast, but not totally freezing. To keep my ears warm, I wore my cool beanie for the first time.

Not really knowing what to expect at this mall, I was anticipating this huge amusement park thing. And as you enter the mall from the parking/transit center, you enter the amusement park area.

Amusement Park inside the Mall of America

There’s a couple of other attractions like a shark aquarium, Lego play area, and an AMC movie theater. Soon after arriving, John and I had some coffee at Starbucks. Unfortunately, part of our conversation irritated me severely. But I tried to just ignore it the rest of the day.

It would be very difficult to walk around to all the shops in this gigantic mall. The most interesting store that we visited was a Halloween Express. There were all kinds of cool costumes and masks, as well as other interesting and strange get ups like fake boobs. I won’t put the picture here in the post, but you can see it in my Flickr set. I thought this ugly, scary clown was the best masked thing in the store.

I’d like this for the kids back in my neighborhood

(more…)

Tags: Apple, Bubba-Gump, conference, Desiring-God, downtown, Life, Light-Rail-Transit, Mall-of-America, Minneapolis, shopping, train, transit, transportation, Travels

NOTE; As I write about the conference, there will be two kinds of posts, personal and session summary. The following post is a personal one. I apologize in advance for all my grumbling, but I was exhausted when I left for this trip.

What a whacked up day it was. Last night after taking my exam, I procrastinated on my packing for the trip for several hours. The test was the culmination of the past few weeks of being busy at work and at school while trying to work ahead at both so I can go away to this conference without worrying about stuff that I’ve left behind. So with that said, I finished packing at about 3:00 AM and went to bed, then woke up at 3:45 AM. Josephine and I were out the door by 4:00 AM.

The relatively short flight from San Diego to Chicago was so uncomfortable. But I really think it was more because I was dog tired. Sleeping on airplanes is not one of my abilities. I was sure glad to get off the plane in Chicago for a two-hour layover. The last time I was in the Chicago airport was seven years ago for our honeymoon. Josephine and I were on our way to Miami for our Caribbean cruise. I remember how cool-looking the Chicago airport seemed to me and how vast.

Chicago Airport

After lunch at Chili’s, I just waited for my last leg to Minneapolis. I tried to relax and take a short nap while lying down on an uncomfortable, hard chair in the gate area. But the constant announcements over the loudspeakers disturbed what little dozing off I could get.

The flight to Minneapolis was worse than the first. Sorry for all my complaining. It’s a little “foreshadowing” of something I’ll write about later. Though only one hour long, I had a window seat, which normally would not have been so bad. But the sun was beating down on the side of the plane and making me hot. Plus, the ventilation system was not turned on until shortly before take off, so by takeoff time, I was burning up. On top of it all was a little girl talking out loud during the whole trip.

Grumble grumble. But yes! I finally landed, though still not feeling quite like I’m getting away for an uplifting weekend.

My buddy, John, arrived about a half hour later on a different airline. And now we were finally on our way. We rode the Light Rail Transit to downtown Minneapolis. The train terminal at the airport reminded me a lot of the Athens subway. That part of the train route was in an underground tunnel.

The ride on the train was very cool. I could feel myself starting to relax a little, though still extremely exhausted. I need sleep!

Minneapolis’ Light Rail Transit (LRT)

On the train ride, John must have taken about three or four calls on his cell phone. Little did I know then that he would spend quite a deal of time on the phone this weekend since it was a “working” trip for him with his national sales conference immediately after the conference.

The phone was attached to John for most of the weekend

After a brief look at a map of downtown Minneapolis, we started the short walk to our hotel at the Embassy Suites. I was very impressed with downtown Minneapolis. It is extremely clean and quiet, unlike Los Angeles or even San Diego. The architecture of the downtown buildings are fantastic, along with the layouts of the streets.

Fantastic architecture of downtown Minneapolis

Not a whole lot of traffic for rush hour

When we finally made it to the hotel room, I was relieved to see that it was very nice, though obviously older. Surprisingly, the Internet is not included in the cost of the hotel room. And the talk of the hotel prior to this trip was about how there was going to be free breakfast and dinner. So when we got to the downstairs reception area for the free “Happy Hour”, I saw that they were just serving chips, popcorn, and pretzels. But you could get alcoholic beverages for free. Kinda lame.

I think the evening with John got off on the wrong foot when he started talking to me about his Amway Quixtar Network 21 business … again. And despite my other efforts in the past to gently let him know that Josephine and I are not interested, I had to listen to a spiel again. So as gently, but forcefully as I could, I plainly let him know that I was not interested in building an Amway business. After that, I could tell he was slightly irritated and possibly his feelings were hurt. But the plain truth is: I don’t particularly like Amway and we’re just not interested in adding an additional business onto what we are already doing with Sunrider. So quite possibly, this encounter set the tone between us for the entire weekend. But I was determined to get the most out of this weekend conference for myself. After all, I came because of the inspiration I find daily in listening to the teaching of John Piper. And I’m here to be encouraged spiritually in my walk with Jesus Christ.

So we ordered an awesome pizza that was delivered to our room. The pizza was homemade Italian sausage, extra cheese, and lots of garlic. I watched the season premiere of Smallville, which was totally awesome. I will have to watch it again when I get home because the reception of it faded out in some key parts.

After unsuccessfully trying to write this article and upload my pictures to Flickr because of the lame Internet service (not worth the $20 I paid), I gave up and went to bed, totally spent and exhausted.

I promise I’ll be in a better mood tomorrow!

Tags: airport, Chicago, conference, Desiring-God, downtown, Life, Light-Rail-Transit, Minneapolis, ORD, Spiritual, train, transit, transportation, Travels

In about an hour and a half Josephine will be bringing me to the airport for my 6:30 AM flight to the Twin Cities in Minnesota. I’m attending the Desiring God Conference with my best friend my high school. Not sure about Internet access during the conference, but if there is, I’ll try to live blog it. If not, then I’ll just blog when I get back to the hotel room.

Tags: absolutes, Announcements, Blogging, conference, culture, Desiring-God, postmodern, Spiritual, Travels, truth

Kikí: Greek dinner
photo • teknis | Flickr’s Friday Foto

Farmer: Andonis in Pyrgí, Chíos Greece
photo • teknis | Flickr’s Friday Foto

Tags: Chíos, CoolPix , dolmades, farming, Food, Friday_Foto, Greece, Photography, Pyrgí, spanacopita, Travels

Greek column in the Stoa of Attalos, Acropolis

Tags: CoolPix , Greece, Photography, Travels

Abandoned: The unwanted two-wheelers in front of Flounders in Pensacola, Florida
photo • teknis | Flickr’s Friday Foto

Lonely: Barren tree at the San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve in Solana Beach, California
photo • teknis | Flickr’s Friday Foto

Tags: bikes, CoolPix , Friday_Foto, lagoon, landscape, Pensacola, Photography, Travels, tree

Boats in the Port of Mykonos

Tags: CoolPix , Greece, Photography, Travels

It’s difficult for me to sleep on planes. The seats are very uncomfortable. Fortunately, the flight home was about 2 hours and 10 minutes long, arriving in San Diego about 10 minutes earlier at 10:35 PM. Josephine picked me up at the airport. Yeah Josephine. I’m happy to see you again!

Airport traffic was horrible. I guess whenever flights arrive, the traffic worsens. Imagine if it were during the day when there are also departing passengers leaving. So we made it out of the airport and headed home northbound on the 15. But because of freeway construction, there was a several mile detour…

My head was spinning when we got home a little after midnight. Thankfully, I’m able to take today off and recover, letting life get back to normal where I don’t have to live out of my suitcase or in a strange hotel room. Yes.

Tags: airport, Career, Josephine_Bruin, Travels, work

2:09 PM CST

After packing all my things, eating a “Deluxe Continental Breakfast”, and checking out of the hotel, I still had 30 minutes left to spare before I was due to arrive at the schoolhouse to finish the training session. To kill time, I thought I would just hang out in McDonald’s with a drink or something, but as soon as I parked, a black transient on a bicycle came up to my car talking to me, probably asking for money. But I could not hear anything he was saying, nor did I want to hear. So I just drove off and went next door to the gas station to fill up, but I had some trouble finding where the gas tank was located on the car. So I decided to just fill up after the training.

I arrived at the schoolhouse, again entering with no glitches past security. The training started on time and lasted for about two hours. Again the session went very well. I had the instructors engaged in the content. I had a gut feeling that despite them telling me that they knew this product, I just knew they did not have a realistic grasp of how difficult it would be to use this product without experience. So I had them try to set up a communications circuit. That activity lasted about 45 minutes. And I think only two or three of them were able to successfully complete it. I was not surprised by that result and I think it had the desired effect: they realized that they need more time in the virtual learning environment practicing so that they are comfortable with the virtual gear.

I wrapped up the training with a discussion about scoring and assessment, as well as future revisions to the product.

All in all, I received very positive feedback; they told me my training was helpful and useful to their needs.

I had lunch at Popeye’s chicken for the first time ever. I tried it because one of the Navy guys that I work with swears by its chicken. I didn’t think it was that good. KFC still rulz.

So I’m here early at the Pensacola Airport trying to fly standby early. There’s some room on a couple of early flights to Dallas, but the flight that I have a seat on right now has some maintenance problems. They’re checking it out and hopefully everything will be okay. I don’t expect that this will be my final post or something. I’ll write more once I get to Dallas.

3:07 PM CST

So I was listening to one of the pilots of this flight with the maintenance problem. He was telling another passenger that there was a computer glitch and they had turned the power off, then reset the computer and turned everything back on. So now they were waiting for maintenance to sign off on the computer. My problem with the whole thing is that the pilot says that this particular computer monitors the status of one of the engines. I don’t have a problem with computers that start working properly again, unless of course they are the computer that monitors the status of the engine on a jet! So I decided to give up my standby seat and just wait for the next plane, which should be arriving in a few minutes anyways. One of the agents was telling me that it’s okay to board the plane. But I insisted: “I’m not getting on that plane.” And so they are assigning me to a new plane. They even had a final boarding call for me over the airport intercom. I heard my name twice. “Passenger JoeBruin88 this is your final boarding call for Flight 3888 to Dallas.” I said, “Go ahead and take off without me.”
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Tags: airport, Career, Dallas, Navy, Pensacola, Skylink, train, Travels, work

My feet on the white sands of Pensacola Beach

Tags: beach, CoolPix , feet, Pensacola, Photography, sand, Travels

After returning to my hotel room, I relaxed for a little bit and chatted online. One of my buddies said:

So let me get this straight. You’re in Florida, and you’re IMing instead of at the beach.

So I decided to be adventurous instead of being a hermit at the hotel; I actually drove myself to Pensacola Beach. Even with Googling directions I stil got lost because I missed one turn due to not seeing the sign. The street signs and street lights in Florida are kinda lame. The lights are weird: each lane appears to have its own stoplight.

Weird Stoplights in Florida

I decided to eat at the same place as the last time I was here– at Flounders. Dinner was great. I had Shrimp Po’ Boy sandwich, fries, and a drink called a Bushwacker. It tasted like a Starbucks frapuccino with alcohol.

Shrimp Po’ Boy and Fries

Beach in front of Flounders Restaurant

After dinner I walked around a little bit, but then I decided just to head back to the hotel. In case I get lost on the way, I would be able to navigate while there was still sunlight.

Flounders Restaurant in the background

I wish Josephine was here to have eaten dinner on the beach with me and appreciate this view with me. I miss her and can’t wait to come home tomorrow!

Tags: Career, Flounders, Josephine_Bruin, Navy, Pensacola, Travels, work

9:00 PM CST

First the clock radio in my hotel room went off followed by my cell phone alarm at 0600 hrs. I wanted to sleep in for a few minutes, but the annoying tada.mid sound from the cell phone would not shut off by itself so I had to get up and “acknowledge” the alarm. The day also welcomed me with a headache. I went to the hotel’s “Deluxe Continental Breakfast”, which totally stunk. Wow. I’ve just been writing a bunch of complaints. Switch gears.

Off to Corry Station, which is just down the road from the hotel. I could actually walk if I wanted to, but it was already 85 - 90 degrees Fahrenheit at 7:30 in the morning. So I drove in the comfort of my air-conditioned rental car. At the security gate, I was not even asked for some kind of verification or authorization. They took a look at my CAC card and just let me through. Good. I was slightly nervous, not about my presentation content or delivery, but whether or not the technical/computer gear would work. That’s why I planned for an extra hour to check out the classroom and get the glitches worked out.

And I’m glad I did because the image projected on the screen was upside down! It took some time for it to get worked. Then the next problem was that the presentation slide show would appear on the primary monitor but not on the computer screen. And that took another chunk of time to work out. The Navy instructors rolled in around 8:45 AM and I think we started at 9:00 AM. Today was also the first day of students starting their IT classes so they also had students to manage.

I felt good now that the equipment was working and began my talk. I find it interesting that once I got started I diverted from what I planned to say in my written-out notes and just decided to go impromptu based on what I had on the slides. I felt like the audience was tracking with me, nodding their heads. But after maybe fifteen minutes, I could tell that they were b-o-r-e-d. I mean blank stares. I surmised that they already knew what I was talking about.

After about an hour and finishing my second topic, I sent them on break. I then talked with one of the instructors I knew and he confirmed that they had been playing around, exploring the product on their own for about a week. One of the chiefs also confirmed this and so I planned to switch gears before the whole thing turned out to be a wash. I was able to touch base with my manager by phone and she confirmed that I was on the right track by wanting to shorten the training to one day, condensing the info since many of them already knew it.

After the break it went much better. I got the instructors to log in and go into our product. We worked on a few learning activities; they also had the opportunity to ask me questions on how to do things as they were in the middle of the activity. I thought this was going much better. They were engaged, no more blank stares. They had good questions. And I was still going through all the content I had planned, in a faster and more engaging way.

For lunch I went to the Chinese buffet place that I’d been to the last time I went to Pensacola. The place had changed ownership so now it was Japanese, called “Osaka Buffet”. At first I thought it tasted good, but then towards the end of lunch I started not to like it, very salty.

After lunch there was a Ribbon Cutting ceremony since today was the first day the schoolhouse had students. So I planned to continue after the ceremony and wrap everything today instead of having a second day of training, but only four or five instructors returned for the afternoon session! So I just suggested we continue tomorrow morning since what is left to go over is the most important part of the training.

Tags: Career, Navy, Pensacola, Travels, work