I'm in London England for the week with 3 of my co-workers; Jason, my boss Mark, and our head marketing guy Paul. We are here doing some work and trying to expand our relationship with our customer here. While here though we can't be all work and no play. In order to make sure our play time is maximized we took advantage of our yesterday and today to see as much as we could.

We left West Virginia on the Friday evening but didn't arrive at Heathrow until around 10am on Saturday. Our flight from Charleston was delayed getting out so we really had to hustle through Dulles to catch our flight across the pond. Both flights were pretty smooth though on the longer flight I had planned on sleeping but I kept waking up because I was so thirsty. The stewardesses pretty much ignored our section of the plane for most of the flight. Flying coach really sucks.

Once we arrived in Heathrow we bought "oyster" cards for the London Underground (the tube) and hopped a train to the Holborn district. Once leaving the station we had to figure out where our hotel was. We were already on the right road but we didn't know if we had to go right or left. So we looked across the street and saw that the building numbers were going up from 110 as you moved to the left. We needed to get to 232 so we took a left. We walked about a mile or so towing our luggage behind us until we finally came to an area where High Holborn road seemed to no longer exist. I asked for guidance from a local music shop (where the Stones recorded when they were young) and we were sent back toward the tube station we emerged from. Mark was lugging two heavy bags so we caught a cab to go back while Paul decided to keep walking. The cab picked us up and ₤ 10 later we were at the Hotel just as Paul walked up. The hotel was about 100 feet to the right of the tube station. Clearly our American logic was insufficient to understand the London numbering system.

After checking in we headed out to see the town and kept going to the right (east) and saw a bunch of interesting buildings, pubs, and small cafe's. We also ended up finding St. Paul's basilica which was really, really big. There was a couple getting married in the basement of St Pauls and they had an old white Bentley outside to take the couple away in. Later that day we saw another similar wedding car on the street (this one was brown). We didn't go into the main worship hall because it was ₤ 10.

Cheap of us? Probably. However, ₤ 1 = $1.75 and I personally didn't think it was worth $17.50 to see the inside of a church. In general our entire group is pretty frugal which, overall is good, but at times may become annoying if we don't actually spend any money to see anything. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity in general so it seems pointless to being overly cheap.

After walking around St. Paul's we headed across the River Thames via the Millennium Bridge and ended up at a huge factory looking building that is actually a massive art museum. UBS (our client) is sponsering a huge exhibit which was free to enter so we checked out the art. None of us, it appears, are big fans of "fine art" and none of the art really impressed any of us even though we saw works from Monet (Lily Pads) and Pollack. After going to the museum we wandered along a meandering path back to the hotel, changed and then headed out for drinks and dinner. We stopped at the Cittie of Yorke pub on High Holton and then moved on to the Ship Master pub near the hotel for dinner.

After dinner Paul and Mark went back to the hotel to sleep while Jason and I headed out to experience some of the London Nightlife. It was only around 8pm so the nightlife wasn't really that great yet. We went to a few different bars near Soho (Picadilly Circus) and Leicester and then, sometime around 10 we were lured into a night club called "Club 49" where we chilled out and had some drinks and watched some people dance. It wasn't very crowded when we were there though I imagine it probably gets crazy later on. Eventually we left the club and headed back to the hotel to cap off a very busy day. I wasn't particularly tired but I didn't want to sleep day 2 away as it was going to be our only full day in London.

I've uploaded a bunch of photos from day 1 you can check out.

#MyLife #General #Entertainment #Photos

As the election season progresses we get to hear all sorts of crazy allegations by both sides concerning their opponent. Thankfully, with the handiness of the internet we can quickly find out who is lying, who is stretching the truth, who is simply mistaken, and who is actually being honest and accurate. Go figure!

If you watched any of the speeches at the two national conventions you might have found yourself wondering if the claims being made were the truth. Will Barack's tax plan really help 90% of Americans? Did Palin really sell her Jet on ebay? Was McCains approach to the Georgia/Russia situation that much different from Obama's? Did McCain really think we would "muddle through" Iraq? Well it turns out none of those statements are all that accurate. Both McCain and Obama were fairly loose in their definitions and statements. Unsurprisingly, many of the republican's speaking at the convention followed a similar pattern.

#General

This past weekend Lisa and I packed up the girls and drove to Cincinnati. We left on Sunday and met up with my dad and stepmother, Patty, at the Ikea there. As we pulled into the parking lot I though, holy crap that place is huge. Patty, having shopped at the one in Portland before said, "Oh, how cute, look how small it is." I'm not kidding - the biggest store I have ever seen was described as cute and small! I have long heard of Ikea but this was the first time I had actually gone in one and it was quite an experience. Just inside the front door is a child drop-off point for a day care type facility. This place knows it is so big you will be there for so long that you need to get a babysitter once you arrive! We passed on the daycare and headed upstairs to the cafeteria. Yes, we needed sustenance and we hadn't even shopped yet. The Cafe served a variety of Swiss/Norweigen foods and Lisa and I both had Swedish Meatballs. They were OK. The price on the food was right as it cost about $22 for the whole family of four to eat and I even had a nice piece of chocolate cake for dessert. Once we were done eating we headed toward the actually shopping part of the store. Even having seen the outside of the building I didn't fully comprehend what I was getting myself into.

The store is two floors. The first floor (with the Cafe) is broken down into sections based on rooms of your house. We started out looking at living rooms and family rooms. Nested within each section of the store were little showcase's that represented entire apartments. Some were about 200 sq feet others were closer to 600 or 1000. Each showcase was broken down into entire apartments so that there were bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, and closets. The showcases were pretty neat and really got me thinking about our home and the way we have things laid out. Eventually we made it through all of the different showcases and room sections of the first floor and headed down to the second floor. This floor is half "stuff" where you can find pillows or toilet bowl cleaners or glasses and plates. The pillow section was actually really cool because they were broken out by what type of sleeper you are - there were pillows for "back sleepers" and pillows for "stomach sleepers." I've always been a stomach sleeper so I was tempted to get one of their pillows but I resisted. The second half of the floor was the large product pickup area. For instance if you had seen a desk you really liked in the home office section on the first floor you could have written down a code and then, in the pick up section, you could find it boxed and ready to go. After the pickup area were the cash registers and a little grocery area that sold Norweigen snacks and other specialties. Patty bought some odd little chocolate filled cookies. The cookie part tasted like popcorn. They were pretty good but very sweet - I could only eat two at a time. We managed to finish shopping at Ikea five hours after we entered the store. Five hours? That is rediculous - who shops in one store for five hours? Apparently a lot of people because that joint was packed. Lisa and I made it out with nothing more than a small stuffed hamster for Shannon and a toilet bowl brush for the girls bathroom. I was proud of our restraint because there were a few things there we really liked.

We had actually gone to Cincinnati so we could go to their labor day fireworks show. It is supposed to be huge, maybe the biggest in the country, and we thought the girls would really get a kick out of it. I tried to convince the family that we should head downtown early so we could get to our intended dinner place early because the crowds would be huge but I was overturned by everyone. Unfortunately, the downtown area was packed, the bridges across the river were closed, and we couldn't make it to the Haufbrau house in time for our 8pm reservation. Mysteriously, when we called them at about 7:40 our reservations had disappeared anyway so it didn't matter. Instead we drove all over the place looking for somewhere to eat and then settled on a Longhorn Steakhouse. I like the Longhorn but was a bit disappointed we were eating at a chain we can eat at anywhere. Typically Lisa and I like to go somewhere more local when we travel so we can experience something new and fresh. On the bright side though dinner was really tasty but we didn't get back to the hotel until it was pretty late and the girls were exhausted.

The next day we were going to split into two groups. My dad, Shannon, and I headed to the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson Air Force Base while Lisa, Patty, and Emily went to a 6 acre large grocery store called Jungle Jims. Lisa really wanted to go to the Museum with us but she also wanted to see Jungle Jims plus Patty was definitely not going to the museum and we weren't entirely sure how cool Emily would be with looking at old airplanes all day so she sacrificed her opportunity to hear Dad tell some stories and share his experiences.

The Air Force Museum is much larger than I remember it from 1986. It is three huge hangers full of all sorts of air planes plus a silo that contains some some huge rockets including to ICBMs (which definitely gave me chills to see; they are a scary proposition). The first hanger in the museum contains historical planes and artifacts from early flight through World War 1. My Dad, during his time in the Air Force had actually worked (lead?) a team that restored an old biplane from that period for inclusion in the museum. However, we couldn't find the plane though we did find one that looked similar. I could tell my dad was pretty disappointed to not find the plane that he and his team had spent so much time working on. It would have been really cool had it been there. The second hanger had more modern planes from WW2 to the present. Thus there were old P-51 mustangs along side a brand new F-22 Raptor. This room was really cool. It was much better lit and we were looking at planes my dad had a lot of first hand knowledge. It was great hearing him talk about each plane and explaining how different parts worked or what bits on each were a pain to work on. Plus it was great to see him sharing some of his experiences with Shannon. After we finished up in the modern hanger we were pretty hungry so we headed for the cafe. My dad was kind of bumming about his biplane not being around and wasn't really interested in going into the third hanger, the Cold War. Shannon asked why we couldn't go in that one so Dad relented and after chow we headed into the Cold War. It's a good thing we did too. The Cold War room had bunch of different planes in it including the SR-71 blackbird (my favorite plane) and the B2 stealth bomber. As we wandered around looking at all the modern day artifcats we came across an F-106 from the 49th Fighter Interceptor Squadron of Griffis Air Force Base, Rome NY. The 49th was my Dads last duty station before retiring and he knew this plane very well. He instantly recognized it's tail number and started telling us it's history. He was very very excited to have one of his old planes in there. In fact this plane was retired from the Air Force the same year he retired. It was pretty cool.

After we finished in the Cold War hanger we went into the silo and then we headed onto the actual base to see the Presidential Hanger where retired "Air Force One's" are enshrined. The presidential hanger has a sister hanger on base which is full of experimental planes. One of the planes in that hanger was the only surviving XB-70 Valkyrie supersonic bomber. It is HUGE. It dominated the hanger. All of the experimental planes were really cool - some of them were little more than rockets with small wings; it was hard to believe they could fly. Overall the whole experience at the museum was really great. We got to see a ton of cool planes, hear some neat stories, get a hint of a story my dad doesn't want to tell me, and Shannon seemed to really enjoy it. We were there for seven hours and my back and legs were worn out but it was well worth it. I've uploaded some photos of the museum - the first few are planes my dad had hands on experience with during his career.

#Family #MyLife #General #Travel #Entertainment #Photos

I really detested my last effort at designing a theme for the site. It was ugly and had no real appeal at all. Not only was it ugly it was incomplete. I kept on finding different parts of the site that didn't look quite right because I had never gotten around to really finalizing the theme. Well today that comes to an end. I found a theme I really like - one that is free and that I am allowed to reuse - and I replaced my ugly white theme with this one. So far I really like it - in fact my site now looks better than it ever has.

The sidebar with all the links point to all sorts of other things that I write or maintain online. So every other blog I have is now rolled up into that sidebars links. Beyond that there isn't much else to point out about the site. I hope it is easy for everyone, old and young alike, to read.

#General #ThisSite

Did you know I have what amounts to four blogs on the web? You probably didn't. More than likely you are only familiar with this one; the one where I plop all my family updates and stuff. Truth be told this one blog is probably sufficient and I could probably figure out a way to consolidate all my other stuff into this one - but I kind of like the other ones I have and each has its own purpose. You might even be interested in some of the others. With that in mind I am going to tell you about each of them and then, possibly, introduce you to a cool bit of technology that will help you keep up to date on each that you are interested in.

My newest blog is at bits.rawlinson.us and it is a small "tumble blog aka tumblog" where I just stick interesting stuff I find on the web. Generally you won't see big long postings like this one there. Nor will you see much origional content by me. However, I will stick all sorts of stuff there that I think are interesting or worthwhile - mostly videos and quotes of other people. Generally I will be in agreement with the content or I will at least find it highly entertaining. The tumblog format is ideal for these kind of posts and it helps me keep the focus of this blog, primarily, on my family.

In the past I have posted some observational essays about politics or whatever on this site as well. However, overtime I have also been dual posting many of these to a site called Newsvine. Newsvine gets a lot more traffic there so my opinion can reach a broad audience, and thus, I get far more feedback from people there. I won't say I like the direction Newsvine has been heading in lately (as far as the belligerent and rude crowd goes) but overall there are still a lot of bright people there who give back some great comments and criticisims of my opinions that help me figure out where I really stand on the issue. I've actually had the headlines of things I put on newsvine being shown on the homepage of this site for a long time as well.

Way back when I first started this blog I had about as many technically jaron laced posts as I did personal ones yet the majority of my audience wasn't that interested in my tech postings so I ended up starting a second blog In The Trenches that deals almost entirely with more technical stuff relating to my job. That blog is still going strong though, at times, I get as bad about posting there as I do here.

The reason I decided to write this post was because I want to find a way to share the stuff in my tumblog with the people who also read this blog - or at least give my readers a chance to opt into seeing what I've recently discovered. However, there isn't a clean cut easy way for me to integrate the tumblog with the automatic emails that get sent by this site and I really don't want to spam anyone with additional emails. In fact, I don't really like spamming your inbox with my blog updates all that much either. I'd rather help you read my blog(s) at your leisure without getting in your way at all. Fortunately there is a technology that solves this specific problem and does it well; it's called RSS. RSS is a "news feed" where each item I post on any of my blogs would be considered a news item. So, basically, you could subscribe to any of my blogs (or really any blog at all) and use that news feed to keep up with the blogs content without ever having to actually visit the blog.

Basically each blog has a unique web address for it's news feed. So, for instance, this blogs news feed is at http://feeds.feedburner.com/rawlinson-us. This address can then be used with a feed reader, like Google Reader, to organize and track all of the news feeds you are interested in. You'd be amazed at how many sites (almost everyone I go to) have a news feed. I use Google Reader to track all of the feeds I like to read (about 100). The thing is you don't have to read everything that comes through in every feed - I just skim the contents till I see an article I'm interested in then read it, and then mark the rest as "read" and move on. It is a really great system.

Some of you may already be familiar with RSS - in fact I already have five people who are subscribed to my feed and that's without me having any advertisement for it at all. However, if you aren't, even if you don't want to subscribe to any of my feeds, I'd suggest you explore it a little. The technology, in the long run, will make your life on the net a bit easier.

Here are my various news feeds.

This Site

http://feeds.feedburner.com/rawlinson-us

Tumblog

http://bits.rawlinson.us/rss

Tech Blog

http://feeds.feedburner.com/InTheTrenches

Newsvine

http://finalcut.newsvine.com/_feeds/rss2/master?articles

You can subscribe to each or all of these in your feed reader and then categorize them all as "Bills Stuff" or something and viola you have all my writings on the web in one handy place that you can go to at your leisure and read. If you need any help getting this setup please just let me know and I'll be glad to help.

#General #Geekiness #Entertainment #ThisSite

About a year ago we told the girls that once Joe moved out they could move to the third floor and share the huge room as their bedroom. This would give them plenty of room to play and their own bathroom. Little did we know that Joe would find a girlfriend he liked so much that he would move out! Well, last Saturday he moved out and so on Sunday we began the week long process of moving the girls up and all of the junk on the third floor out. It was amazing how much crap we had stored up on that floor!

We spent most of Sunday moving stuff out of the room and then painting. The walls are pink, the ceiling is blue, and the walls are further adorned with dark pink (Uniqua Pink) and blue polk-dots. It actually looks pretty good. Truth be told though we still aren't quite done with their room. We have some more polka dots to paint, a small area around one window to finish up, and we have some clothes to store.

We then went to work on Emily's old room and converted it into a guest room. Lisa really wanted it to be the office but there was just too much other work to do without moving all of that furniture as well so for the time being it is the guest room. And, if I do say so myself it looks pretty damn good. I rearranged the furniture some, put a nice quilt on the bed, cleared out all of the books and anything else of Emily's, and hung two paintings by my mother's dad. One of the paintings is in really bad shape but I think it looks kind of neat on the wall. Almost all of the furniture in the room is antique - the bed, dresser, and cedar chest were all Lisa's maternal grandparents. There are also two antique hospital screens on one wall and an old quilt rack holding a few extra blankets. Finally we added one of our nice blue chairs to the room along with an antique library ladder to create a small reading area. I'm really happy with how it all turned out.

The last step was to make sense of all the crap we had carried downstairs and loaded into Shannon's old room so we could create an office/scrapbooking/craft room for Lisa.
We managed to get about 99% of everything organized and in place by the end of yesterday and now her office is ready to go. All of my books from the third floor are dominating the two bookcases in the room. There are also two long utility tables setup in the room to facilitate Lisa's scrapbooking (plus room for a friend) and there is a small table setup for Shannon so she can participate as well. Needless to say I think both Lisa and Shannon are pretty excited about putting that room to use. I know I'll be happy to see them making progress on their crafts.

In these last two postings I'm trying a new method of sharing photos. Please let me know if you like this approach or if you'd prefer to just have a link off to the photos.

#FunStuff #MyLife #General #Photos

Gas prices are finally at a point where I agree they are high. In the past I've always tried to keep our gas prices in perspective vs our counterparts in Europe - they pay a lot - but once we hit $4 I really started to think gas was too expensive; so, with that in mind, I've been trying out a few different techniques to try and help save some money by improving my overall gas mileage while driving. So far the results have been pretty good.

Before I go into the various steps I've been using I will show you the different numbers I managed to achieve. These aren't unattainable or ridiculous claims like I've seen around the net but numbers I think most people can manage if they just pay a little more attention while they are driving.

I drive a 2003 BMW 325i. The federal govt rates it as getting 18mpg in the city and 26mpg on the highway - or an overall efficiency of 21mpg. Pretty crappy. Almost all of my driving is city driving. I live about 4 miles from the office and don't deal with a lot of traffic. However, my neighborhood has a lot of stop signs I have to deal with before I get on the main street to work. Previously I was getting approximately 19mpg for my round trip commute. My gauge currently reads 26.3mpg from city driving. Where I noticed the biggest difference, however, was on the highway. Last week I had to drive about 30 miles to take my car in for it's 30,000 mile service and managed to avg 41mpg on the trip! I was pretty stoked. To prove it was no fluke I managed another 40mpg on the way back. It was fantastic.

So, how am I seeing a 36% improvement in fuel efficiency in the city and a whopping 57% improvement on the highway? Well, honestly it is pretty easy but it does take some getting used to. I also don't know what kind of additional wear these tips may put on other systems in your car such as your engine and transmission. It may be that in the long run I'm not saving myself any money if I'm doing damage to other stuff and causing them to wear out early. However, for the sake of argument, I will assume these are good tips.

1. 
   
2. Don't race off the line - I used to be one of the people who always accellerated pretty hard off the line when a light went from red to green. I still get myself moving but I don't gun it.
   
3. Idle in neutral - When I'm at a stop light or sign I put my car in neutral. It isn't much but if you are in drive your engine and brakes are working against either other so put it in neutral and force your engine to take it easy.
   
4. Coast - Some people suggest you coast with the engine off but I don't - this not only sounds crazy to me but I hear it is unsafe as well. Instead, when I'm in the city and I know I'm going to have to stop due to traffic or a light I'll start to coast in neutral well before I reach the stoppage. It is amazing how many fewer lights I hit by doing this. The best way I've heard this described is to "drive like your riding a bike."
   
5. Don't be afraid to slow down - Our highways have a speed limit of 70 so you don't want to go too slow but you can go slower than the speed limit. I drive about 65 on the highway if the ground is level but when I'm going up hill I let my car slow down to about 55. I stay in the right most lane and watch out for other traffic to make sure I'm not causing a problem. When I'm going down hill I let gravity take over and I end up going around 75. Basically the amount my gas pedal is pushed in NEVER changes. It might cause your foot to fall asleep on a long drive but if not it works really really well. This is about all I did to get my highway miles up to 40.
   
6. Don't use cruise control - I love cruise control but gas milage doesn't. In fact it does exactly the opposite of what the last point suggest. In cruise the car gets MORE gas going up the hill and the engine fights gravity on the way down hill. The only time cruise is worthwhile is if you are on really flat ground - say traveling through Nebraska. Otherwise use it only if you want to hurt your mileage.
   
7. Avoid Red Lights - slow down if you see one coming but try to keep moving - it is easier for your car to accelerate from any moving speed than it is from idle. Figure out what speed is ideal for going down a specific road in town that lets you hit all greens on time. It might take some practice but it not only saves you money on gas but is a much more relaxing drive when you have no reds.
   
8. Pay Attention to Cross Walks - The little signs that tell pedestrians to cross and not to cross give you an early warning about an upcoming yellow/red light. If you see the walking guy flashing try to get through the light (safely).
   
9. Use parking lots - if you are at a part of town where you have to go through a bunch of red lights to get around a big building - or you can cut slowly through the parking lot - go through the lot. For instance in a town near us a major traffic lane goes around a big grocery store/shopping center. There are 5 stop signs and a red light in the process of going around that place - or 2 stop signs in the parking log. You not only save time but you save a little fuel and aggrevation.
   
10. Park Through - find a spot you can pull straight out of when you go to leave. It is more economical to maintain your direction. If you have to back into a spot that's fine - your car is more efficient when it's been running than when it's cold. There probably isn't a huge benefit here but you will end up parking further away most of the time which is good becuase now you're getting a little cardio in!
    

That is about everything I do right now to help me save on gas. I don't use my break unless I have to and I try to get every last foot out of any momentum I have. First and foremost though don't do anything that endangers you or the others around you on the road. You can still save money while being safe. That means no drafting!

#Commentary #General

In this day of social websites where nearly every site you go to has a social-networking component a new and dangerous trend is developing; websites asking their users for their email password. Jeff Atwood at Coding Horror just did a good summary of why this is bad and I can't agree more. If you are at any site that isn't your actual email account don't give out your email password. It may seem like a good convenient way for the site to help you find your friends on the site but trust me, in the long run, it isn't worth it. Email your friends separately and find out if they have an account the site. If nothing else in the Atwood article makes an impression please realize the possibly serious repercussions of sharing this password.

The best way to illustrate the problem is to consider the following scenario. If you use online banking at all and you, for some reason, can't successfully login to the online banking site what do you do? You typically need to reset your password and, in doing so, the bank would email your password. Anyone who knows your email address and password could do the same thing and bam they now have access to your online bank account. Not a pretty picture! Granted a lot of places also make you answer special questions etc in order to reset your password but not all sites do so it just isn't worth the risk simply to find your friends on a social site.

#Commentary #General #Geekiness

I had to take Big Dog to the pound over the weekend. I didn't really want to get rid of him so much as he just had to go. He was a fantastic dog while we were with him but, when we were at work, he was miserable being constrained by our yard and his misery was starting to get too expensive for me.

Over the last week he was with us he managed to destroy a few more screen panels on the screened in porch, he almost uprooted our new mailbox, and he managed to totally flip my grill and disabling it in the process. He is a very nice and companionable dog and I hated to have to take him to the pound however I knew it just wouldn't work with our lives. It just wasn't fair to him or us. Our local pound is a no kill shelter so I took him in on Saturday. Lisa is going to go back this week to see if he has been adopted yet. I can't imagine he will stay there for long.

We still have the smaller dog, Rosie. She is pretty cool and fairly quiet most of the time. She just relaxes around the house while we are home and seems to be non destructive while we are gone. She does have issues with other dogs who walk by (she likes to bark at them) and she chases any vehicle with a trailer attached if she is out of the yard. However, most of the time she just sits with us when we are out of the yard as well. Overall she seems like a good dog for the family. I'm still not thrilled that we ended up with a dog but since we did she is a pretty good one to have.

#MyLife #General

I have the "lifestream" page on this site which gives you all sorts of information about the things I'm doing online. And now, I have an even more complete picture of my activities via my "FriendFeed". This is basically a lifestream that you can have sent right to your computer via one of many applications. I use Twhirl.

Why would you want to follow me? I'm not entirely sure but if you are interested in my life it might be a good idea. If you have a friend feed account already and I actually know you I'd love to know about it so I can add you to my list of friends and I can keep up with you.

FriendFeed is currently aggregating at least the following of my online activities: twitter, amazon wishlist, google feed reader shared items, both of my blogs, last.fm, del.icio.us, digg, mag.nolia, upcoming.org, youtube, and picasaweb. So this serves as your one stop shop for my publicly shared online activity. The only thing it is missing is my newsvine writings.

#MyLife #General #Geekiness