ommadawn.dk - Events

Tulsa pictures!

Wed, 05 May 2010 00:00:00 +0200

Tags: Events, Me, Pictures, Tulsa, Vacation

All the preceding Tulsa-posts have pictures now. And below are a few more pictures.

If passes is a verb, then ...

Trinity Episcopal Church:

Why were these in side walks everywhere?

Denven Avenue Station:

From Tulsa Air and Space Museum. Note that the shuttle is mounted on a cloud.

You combine 5 nouns and get ...

Tulsa TV

Wed, 05 May 2010 00:00:00 +0200

Tags: Events, Me, Movies, Tulsa, Vacation

More business yesterday. But in the evening a few of us settled down to watch the movie When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story. I know a little of what this movie is about, and it seemed mostly accurate. It was also very well played, and at moments moving. I had one worry though. The beginning of the movie showed Lois, first as a victim of circomstance, then as a witness to someone else pulling himself together. This is not how you make good drama. The protagonist has to act, has to choose etc. So, while this story is based on true events, it also has to stay true to the rules of good drama. But it surprised me, and had a fine ending. I did not see the ending coming, but it stayed true to everything that went before it. Well done! And it certainly deserves the 8.0 it has at IMDB right now.

Tulsa steak

Wed, 05 May 2010 00:00:00 +0200

Tags: Events, Me, Tulsa, Vacation

Okay. So, business, business, business. Most of the day was spent doing business. But in the evening, we made time for pleasure, for playing. And we started out at Caz's Chowhouse. Since I landed in the US, I had been longing for a steak, and this evening I got it. Rib-eye steak (12 oz, hand-cut), mashed red potatoes and fire roasted corn and peppers. The steak was juicy (didn't need the extra gravy I ordered), the mash was delicious, and the corn, while nice, could not compete with this feast. For dessert: triple chocolate truffle cheesecake. Perfect texture, and plenty of chocolate. All in all, a perfect meal!

Then we went through Tulsa a bit, and visited The center of the universe. A fun place, where the echo does something extraordinary. 3 different circles, that sound differently.

And because one of us worked there, we were able to visit the offices of Tulsa World, a news paper. I could have stayed there much longer! Historic front pages, a look at the presses (not running) etc. Fascinating stuff!

Very, very good day.

Tulsa, baby!

Wed, 05 May 2010 00:00:00 +0200

Tags: Events, Me, Movies, Tulsa, Vacation

Okay, I know I am mixing my quotes here. It is either "London, baby!" or "Tulsa, the Paris of Oklahoma". But hey, this is my blog, I will mix whatever I want to, if that is my pleasure.

And I do feel kind of happy at the moment. After days of checking the news every 8 hours, to figure out whether Copenhagen Airport would be open on the crucial day, and after making preparations for plan B, I was able to go, on my planned flight and with only 1 hour of delay on the first leg of the journey. Yeah, ash cloud!

This time I was able to get to my destination only changing planes once. So I sat in planes 10 + 2 hours. My butt hurt a lot at the end. What is that? I know the seats are hard, but I seemed to be the only one that effected. Do I have a bad posture? Weak muscles around my stomach? Is my weight really dragging me down so much? Hm ...

On the first plane I saw 2 movies, My life in ruins and some of The blind side. Both kind of predictable (yes, she does loosen up and fall in love with the guy she initially hates; yes, all works out for the underprivileged boy), but also with interesting environments (tourism in Greece, football in a Christian family). So, both sort of good movies. And as Delta didn't have any choice (other that watch the movie or don't watch the movie) I am satisfied.

The 3rd movie I skipped, because I fell into an interesting conversation with Rick, sitting to my left. We talked about our jobs (he works with biomass briquette systems) among other things), where we stand on unemployment, education, small businesses, abortion, health care and lots of other stuff. We didn't agree on everything, but it didn't matter that much.

I had a few hours in Atlanta, before moving on to Tulsa. I really wanted a steak, and ended up at a steakery. Where I could buy a sub with steak ... Don't get me wrong, it was a nice sub, with good meat, grilled onion and melted cheese. But steak it wasn't.

So. All in all a much more successful start to my trip to Tulsa than I feared. Yeah!

Tulsa town

Tue, 04 May 2010 00:00:00 +0200

Tags: Events, Me, Pictures, Tulsa, Vacation

Rested and ready for some more adventures. And this day the adventure was: to conquer the Tulsa bus system. Which I did! I succesfully rode from my hotel to the center of town, wandered around a little, and came back. Yeah!

Tall square building: BOK Tower, a cousin to the World Trade Center

I also saw a little of Tulsa, and I am very satisfied. Neat skyscrapers, wonderful churches, cute little homes etc. Everything seems green, fresh, well kept and very hospitable.

Tulsa art

Tue, 04 May 2010 00:00:00 +0200

Tags: Events, Me, Pictures, Tulsa, Vacation

The most exciting touristy part of the day was to visit Gilcrease museum. There were some wonderful paintings, that attempted to show both sides of the relationship between native Americans and cowboys. I really liked, that the paintings seemed sympathetic to both points of view, as well as doing beautiful sunsets, huge panoramas etc. A good day in my "I like my art naturalistic" life.

By Charles M. Russell,
Left: Self portrait, 1900
Right: Meat's not meat 'till it's in the pan, 1915

Tulsa Chinese

Tue, 04 May 2010 00:00:00 +0200

Tags: Events, Me, Pictures, Tulsa, Vacation

Okay, so not much to report from yesterday. I adjusted from jet lag, watched TV etc. The most excitement I got was from a Chinese meal.

Now I know what egg foo young is! (Apparently some sort of omelet with chicken, in my case.)
Fortune #1: The love of your life is right in front of your eyes. (I was standing in front of a mirror ...)
Fortune #2: You have only begun to scratch the surface of your real potential. (Fits in with my life philosophy, and probably something you always feel comfortable with?)

My hotel is right next to the Golden driller

Tulsa space

Sun, 02 May 2010 00:00:00 +0200

Tags: Events, Me, Pictures, Tulsa, Vacation

So. After browsing in Tulsa yesterday, today was supposed to be more organized. Didn't quite work out that way.

I went to Tulsa Air and Space museum. Good bits: some interesting toys, model shuttle robot arm, model shuttle launch and model jet pack. Bad bits: museum much smaller than I thought it would be, and next to impossible to get there with public transportation. And the planetarium was closed.

Jet pack simulator

Then I happened upon Living Arts. Good bits: interesting use of color. Bad bits: again, much smaller than I thought it would be.

By Rodney Pratz,
part of the exhibition "Anonymity"

Finally I wanted to see the Oral Roberts University, because of the futuristic architecture. I gave up on doing it, because the public transportation wasn't as flexible as I had hoped for.

Star Trek

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Tags: Events, Imagicon2, Science fiction, Star Trek

I know a lot of good gossip. But as we have a tape recorder on, let me just say: George Takei is an honorable man: he comes on time, knows his lines, and welcomes guest actors. He is obliging, so the episode finishes on time and within budget. Yes, he is a joy, a God!

David Lally

I imagine you can't go to big SF-con like Imagicon 2, wihtout Stat Trek being mentioned here and there and everythere. That's what happened this time anyway. So let me give you a few quotes.

Classically a story needs a conflict. As the federation is perfect, Enterprise has to travel to some other, non-perfect place, and find some fools to have a conflict with.

Hard SF is to have a certain relationship to science. Technobabble isn't enough, therefore ST isn't hard SF.

What if you've never seen SF on TV before? Where to begin? Star Trek! In part because this series inspired so many others, in part because it's not so complicated.

(Karolina Bj�llerstedt Mickos brought some toys along.)

Żywiec, baby!

Sun, 17 May 2009 00:00:00 +0200

Tags: Events, Me, Pictures, Vacation, Zywiec

(And if you don't get the reference in the headline above: watch more Friends!)

Last week I was fortunate enough to take a bus trip in the Żywiec area of Poland. And I saw some stuff!

First we arrived at a high point, from which we could see a lot of stuff. The stone, at this high point:

And the view:

Then we drove to the summer residence of the president, or something. Big disapointment -- he was not there to great us in person. But the residence looked nice:

As did the security:

Then one more very high point. But I was mainly fascinated by the dog, who didn't care about people going by all the time:

Then it was time for lunch. We didn't eat here, we just tried to imagine what a Mexican/Russian/Greek/Polish pizza would be like. Would it have jalapenos, vodka, feta and cabbage?

Then on to a brewery/museum. With a painting outside:

And a model inside:

And a time machine!

Finally, all through the day, I liked looking at these purple flowers.

Krakow, baby?

Fri, 15 May 2009 00:00:00 +0200

Tags: Events, Krakow, Me, Pictures, Vacation

After endangering people and places in Żywiec for a while, we moved on to Krakow.

One of the top experiences here was The Dominican Church. There's a gorgeous altar (seriously, click on that link, and be awed by the roof-to-floor altar) there. Words cannot describe it.

Then we took in Wavel Castle. Not being in the mood for tours of the castle or walks in a museum, we simply tried to decipher the latin on the cathedral. E.g.: "NON NOBIS, DOMINE, NON NOBIS, SED TUO NOMINI DA GLORIAM". "Give Glory, not for us, God, not for us, but for your name".

Apparently Krakow had a close brush with a dragon. But these days the dragon just looks cute and eats bread:

Finally, Krakow is the kind of city, where everything is in the center:

So we were lucky to get an apartment very close to that.

Trip 2 Texas, part 5

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0200

Tags: Events, Fort Worth, Me, Pictures, Vacation

Home again! So let me finish off by describing the way home.

First of all, I had a nice stay at Quality Inn & Suites East. This, by the way, was the view from the window:

Though I have been warned, that the neighbourhood is kind of dangerous. So you may choose to stay somewhere else, if you are traveling on your own.

Then I took the Supershuttle from hotel to air port. Very smooth ride, as it was on the way from the air port to the hotel.

Then a burger at Fudds. The nice American burger, where you get a good bun, a good burger, and get to choose and combine the rest on your own. Well done! Oh yeah, and they also had this at the air port:

Some piece of art, called "Circling".

Checking in online, and later changing the seat at the air port. Both worked marvelously. Yeah!

So, as I said, home again. And I've had time to spruce up the preceding chapters with pictures, and a video.

Trip 2 Texas, part 4

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0200

Tags: Events, Fort Worth, Me, Pictures, Vacation

Business, business, business. But Saturday night, it was time to party a little again.

First we went to H3 Ranch, for some food.

I chose a ribeye steak, because I felt like meat with fat in it. Tasted fine, and I got all my special wishes seen to. But there was way too much food on my plate. And the place was very noisy. Still, a good start to the evening.

Then we went to a rodeo at the stockyards.

Where they had small horses.

Odd. People competing in bull riding and tie down (of a calf), well that seems familiar. But I didn't know about barrel racing, and certainly not the calf/mutton scramble for kids. And some of them tiny kids! The trick for the last bit seemed easy: the calf/mutton will head for the exit and then stop running, so the kids can catch it. I don't know how I feel about the animals -- but it seemed fair, that the animals weren't just taking their treatment, they fought back! And though no people got hurt, it was a real possibility.

Trip 2 Texas, part 3

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0200

Tags: Events, Fort Worth, Me, Movies, Vacation

Yesterday I had all to myself. So I decided to take in downtown Fort Worth. I ended up in the cultural district first, because I wanted to see an IMAX movie, and check out the cowgirl museum.

The movie, Deep sea, was of course beautiful. And not too many scary moments for a person like me with fright for heights. And, surprise, there was a lesson built in. Because you can't talk about nature these days, without a little lesson. So the movie stressed how the animals live in relationships and balances. And how humans ignore that balance, with worrying results.

I breezed through the cowgirl exhibit, and the neighboring Living in space exhibit.

Nothing seemed momentous. But it's an interesting idea, to praise the women who helped colonize the US, not by feeding the children, but by herding cows etc. And an animated character (Jesse from Toy Story 2) chosen as cowgirl of the year. And it was fun, riding a wild horse.

And then into downtown FW. Really wanted a steak. Ended up at 610 grille.

Was given permission to eat from the dinner menu, even though it was kind of early. Chose something basic: salad, steak (and by "steak" I mean "beef tenderloin") with mashed (opps, I mean whipped) potatoes, and cheese, fruit and crackers for dessert. Very good! They must use some very fresh ingredients. And even though I ate a 3 course meal, I wasn't all that heavy and full afterwards. Good stuff!

Trip 2 Texas, part 2

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0200

Tags: Events, Fort Worth, Me, Pictures, Vacation

After a very nice night (slept all the way through, woke up fresh and ready to take on the world--take that, jet lag!), surprise, I was invited on a trip to the zoo! Haven't tried that in a long time, so off we go.

Fort Worth Zoo seemed huge to me. The U.S. family Travel Guide selects this zoo as the top family attraction in Dallas/Fort Worth, and one of the best zoos in the US. Finally, #19 overall in the US among attractions. Wow! Didn't know that.

I was able to take some very good pictures. It was great to be so close to the animals. Seeing tiger "babies" playing. Being very close to flying mini-parrots.

Feeding them, feeling how they pick the seeds from the stick in my hand.

Hearing the eagle "shout". Even getting wet in a simulated storm. But, alas, the penguins didn't sing or dance ...

The tiger was relaxed.

As was the lion.

And the bear was stretching.

And then the challenge of dinner. My hotel is in a neighbourhood not overflowing with restaurants. But with some help I was able to find "Mexican Inn Cafe".

Studying the menu, I wanted something not in an "envelope" and ended up choosing Arroz con pollo, simply chicken on rice. Yum!