Back in Sacramento and starting to settle in.... and Netflix is still trying to kill their DVD business.

I have been back in Sacramento for 3 weeks now.  After hunting for cars the first two weekends, I finally found a car I was willing to buy on Monday the 12th.  I found a 2013 Toyota Venza as an internet special at the Toyota dealer in Placerville, CA.  Only my 2nd brand new car ever.  :)

I am still hunting for a place to live, without much luck.  The places I would happily move into are out of my budget, and the places that I can comfortably afford are so far not place I really want to live.  So I'm down to hoping I can find a place I like that is only slightly above my budget.

I also received the shipment of my household goods from Poland this last Friday. 

I figured now that I have my nice 27" monitor, I would give the Netflix site a look to see if I wanted to re-start my membership and start catching up on movies.  But I was never a big fan of the streaming services.  I prefer Blu-Ray quality and the "extras" that come on a lot of disks.  And neither of those used to be present on streaming. 

But apparently Netflix is not interested in marketing their DVD plan(s) to anyone.  To even find out they still have on you have to go to the Frequently Asked Questions section of their web site.  And there they only mention a $7.99/mo plan for 1 DVD out at a time.  No mention of Blu-Ray.  No mention of more options than that. 

So I tried logging into my old account, which still works.  There is an option to "Add a DVD plan", which when you click it on it takes to a screen where your only option is to start a free 30-day trial of the 1 DVD at a time plan.  Again, no mention of Blu-Ray.  No mention of other options.

They really seem to not want any business other than their streaming business.  And while they apparently offer a DVD plan still, they seem to be doing nearly everything possible to not offer any information on it short of simply refusing to disclose its existence.

The problem though is why should I pay Netflix $90 a year for streaming when I can it from Amazon Prime, in addition to free 2-day shipping on any orders I place with Amazon?  And since I want blu-ray discs, I might as well try Redbox and Blockbuster.

So to sum up.  Yay, I have a car! Boo, I don't my own place yet.  And an "Epic Fail" to Netflix for actively trying to prevent customers from giving them business.  Way to take the Qwikster debacle and continue to alienate those customers for years into the future.  :)

My time in Poland is over, back to the U.S.

After 22 and a half months in Poznan, I moved back to the U.S. on Friday July 26th.  It wasn't an easy decision as I had really grown to love Poland and the people I met in Poznan, but it made the most sense at the time. 

I will miss my friends there a great deal, especially Kasia and Bartek, Pawel and Iga, Agnieszka, Kate, the two Chris's, and the whole gang at Starbucks.  I guess the question now is how soon do I want to move back. :)

I have been back in the U.S. for a bit over a week now and here is a quick status update for anyone that cares:

• The jet lag is starting to go away, although I have slept a LOT this week.  
• I haven't spoken to or seen hardly anyone I know outside of work, although now that my brain is starting to catch up to the time zone, I will be hoping to see my cousins soon.
• My work schedule has not been fun since many of the people I still need to work with are in Europe.  This has made for 6am (or earlier) meetings, and that is with declining the 3am ones.  This might also be part of the reason why I have been sleeping so much.  :)
• I have not bought a car yet, and am still driving the rental car I got.  Because of my back issues, finding a good car for me is rather difficult.  And unfortunately, the prices of the cars I have found that seem pretty good so far are very high.
• I haven't even seriously started looking for a new place to live yet.  I need to buy a car first, and get my first U.S. paycheck so that I know what my new take-home pay is and how much any car payment may impact it.

Now the question is, what do I do with this blog?  Do I keep it running?  Or do I end it here?  Feel free to comment with your answer.

Thanks

The Japanes Garden in Wrocaw (10 pictures)

On our last day in Wrocaw (Sunday June 24th) we went to the Japanese Garden in Wrocław.  The park was prepared for the 1913 World's Fair.

There isn't a lot of info about the garden other than that one fact that I could come across online, so this post will mostly be made up of pictures.

Wandering around Wrocław (19 pictures)

Wrocław is a city with an interesting background.  At various times in the past it has been part of Poland, Bohemia, Prussia, Germany, and the Austrian Empire.  The city is built on both sides of the River Oder, as well as on some islands in the river.  It is known for a large number of bridges.

Under German rule, the city was known as Breslau and it was a stronghold of the Nazi's during the war, with the city's population of 10,000 Jews being nearly entirely wiped out.  Speaking Polish in public was made a crime and there were nearly 10,000 Allied prisoners and 51,000 slave laborers (mostly Polish) based around the city in forced labor camps. 

The city was besieged by the Soviets towards the end of World War II and nearly half of it was destroyed.  In August 1945 the city had a German population of 189,500, and a Polish population of 17,000.  Almost all of the German inhabitants fled or were forcibly expelled between 1945 and 1949 and were settled in Allied Occupation Zones in Germany.

Now the city is becoming fairly international again, with large presences by companies like IBM, HP, Google, 3M, Microsoft, and a large number of other firms as well (such as Siemens, SAP, Cargill, and Dolby Labs to name a few).  It's not the hotbed for young people that Warsaw and Krakow are, but it's probably 3rd on the list. 

I rode down from Poznań in my friend Paweł's car with his wife Iga gracing us with her presence (thank you again Iga for letting me take the passenger seat).  :)

Once we got to the city we met up with our friend Kryz and spent the rest of that Saturday and the first half of Sunday wandering around.

The picture below is of the Sky Tower (either currently, or recently was the largest residential tower in the EU, although it only partially residential) looking down a canal.

If Snow White lived in Wrocław, she would hang out with a lot more than 7 Dwarves...... (28 pictures)

My weekends for a while have been a bit bonkers as I prepare for my move back to the United States.  It's hard to believe it's now only 2 weeks away.  So I decided I need to catch up on some of blog posts I haven't gotten around to.

First up are a couple of posts from my trip to Wrocław (that's sort of "vrots-wav" to my non-Polish-speaking readers from my non-Polish-speaking self) with my friends Paweł and Iga Macko, to see our friend Kryz Ptak who moved there after he left Franklin.

Wrocław was a very neat city that I liked a lot.  But I'll start off first with the Dwarves of Wrocław.  Or Krasnale, as I believe they called in Polish.  There are around 250 of them in the city, mostly in near the city center, and each one is unique.  Not just every emplacement, but every dwarf throughout the city is unique.

There aren't prominent signs or anything pointing them out.  They are just present.  Sometimes just on the sidewalk near a building, statue, or fountain.  Sometimes on a ledge outside a shop.  So you have to keep an eye out for them.

Their placement is strictly controlled by city hall and you have to petition to have one placed.  What's cool is that all of them have been created and placed just since 2009.

Anyway, the rest of this post is just pictures of the dwarves.  The next post on Wrocław will show pictures of the rest of the city and a bit about what we did.

Have a great day!

Helsinki - Part 3: Oddities and a far from perfect ending (6 pictures)

Closing out my series of posts on my trip, I thought I would include a few random pictures from Helsinki.  These are things that caught my eye or that didn't fit elsewhere.

One of the things that caught my eye was this young woman walking her cat like a dog.  You can't really tell from this picture, but the cat below is on a leash.  And it strolled right by me next to it's owner just a dog would.  I was so surprised I had to snatch out my camera, turn around, and take a picture.

Helsinki - Part 2: Suomenlinna (11 pictures)

On my second day in Helsinki I went to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Suomenlinaa (which means Castle of Finland).  This fortress, built across 6 islands, was built by the Swedes to guard against Russian Expansionism, but was captured by the Russians in 1808.  The capture paved the way for the occupation and annexation of Finland by the Russians in 1809.

It's a popular site for both visitors to Helsinki and natives, and is only about a 15-20 minute ferry ride from the harbor.

As you come into the dock, this is one of the views.

Helsinki - Part 1 (8 pictures)

The last city I visited on this trip was Helsinki, Finland.  Helsinki is a bit of an odd city to me in that it felt like it belonged in a former Communist country in some ways.  The city is not dirty (unlike Copenhagen), but for the most part it is quite drab and nondescript.  I don't think there are any buildings over 10 stories tall, and most seem to be 8 stories or less in the downtown area. 

On the other hand the people are incredibly nice and in many ways it felt like "home".  Maybe that's because so many people I saw looked like me or like family members.  I saw one old woman on the bus who if she was about 70 lbs heavier would have been a spitting image of my grandmother.  The exact same hair (some color, same curls, etc) and a very similar face.  Just a lot lighter.  :)

So despite having to take a bus from the airport (a train into the main train station downtown should finish sometime in 2014) and the general lack fantastic old buildings (with a few exceptions below) to take pictures of, I actually enjoyed my stay.  It also helped that I was there for the beginning of the 2013 IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) World Championships and managed to get a ticket to the USA vs. Austria game on the Saturday before I left.  It was my first taste of live hockey in several years and was fun to go see.

However, when I arrived, this was the view out my hotel window, which isn't exactly inviting.

However, in this post I am mostly going to focus on some pictures of the "big 3" (my term) churches in Helsinki.  Two of which dominate the skyline, and one of which dominates the tourist crowd.  :)

Stockholm - Part 2 (10 pictures)

One important thing to realize about Stockholm is that it is an expensive city to be in, but this can be a bit deceptive given the exchange rate between the Swedish Krone and the US Dollar.  When I was there it was around 7 Krone to the Dollar.  So when the equivalent of a medium Starbucks latte (no Starbucks that I could see unfortunately) costs 40-50 Krone, it doesn't immediately strike you that you are paying $6-8 for a drink that costs $4 or less (if I remember right) in the U.S. 

Why do I bring this up?  Because museum prices in Stockholm are just as high.  Expect to pay at least $15 to visit a museum in Stockholm, and possibly $20 or more.  So my main piece of advice is to buy the Stockholm Card.  A 3-day card will cost you a bit over $100, but not only does it include free admission (one time only) to nearly every museum in the city, it also includes free use of all of the mass-transit options (metro, tram, bus, and even some of the ferries). 

Unfortunately for me, I bought just the 3-day transit pass which was much cheaper, thinking I would want to visit many museums (I usually don't).  But Stockholm has a number of museums that looked quite interesting and if you are going to be there and like museums, the Stockholm Card is a massive bargain.

There was one museum that I HAD to go to though, and that was the Vasa Museum on Djurgarden island.  It is the most-visited museum in all Scandinavia and displays the only 17th-century ship that is almost fully preserved.  The Vasa was a Swedish warship that finished construction in 1628, and due a faulty design sunk barely a nautical mile into its maiden voyage.  It lay lost in the harbor for 333 years before being found and recovered.  The Wikipedia article makes for interesting reading on the loss, sinking, re-discovery, raising, and preservation of the ship.

Like a lot of folks, I found the museum fascinating and spent a couple hours there (maybe more).  Unfortunately, the museum is a bit dark and the flash on my little camera wasn't up to lighting that much space, so I didn't get a lot of great pictures.  But some of the better ones are in this post.

 This is looking down the hull from the front of the ship towards the rear.

Stockholm - Part 1 (11 pictures)

I left Copenhagen by train, going over the Oresund bridge to Sweden and up the coast to Stockholm.  The trip took about 5 hours, but the ticket was very cheap (about $30 for a non-refundable 2nd class ticket) and it gave me the chance to see a bit of Swedish countryside on the way.

Stockholm was an absolute delight, and my 2 and half days there weren't nearly enough.  It's a large city of around 2 million residents (in the greater metro area), with the main city area spread out over 14 islands connected by over 50 bridges.  Of the 5 main districts in the inner city area I only managed to see Gamla Stan (the old town), most of Norrmalm, and part of Ostermalm.  I also made a visit to the eastern end of the Djurgarden island on my last day.  However, the city is huge and I think I could easily spend a month or more exploring.

One interesting way of getting an idea of the scale and layout of the city is to check out the Stockholm scale model that is in the cultural building in Norrmalm.  Here is a picture of part of the model.  It's built at a scale of 1cm of the model equals 10 meters in reality.  It's very cool in that it not only shows current buildings, but is many places shows future developments (the white buildings).

Copenhagen - Part 3, "Graffiti Time" (6 pictures)

One of the things I noticed about Copenhagen is that there is a pretty large amount of graffiti.  Most of it is of the tagging variety and sucks both artistically and in it's presence.  But in some places you come across some really cool graffiti artwork.  The main place I saw a bunch of really cool stuff was in the "Free City of Christiania".  Unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures of a lot of the good artwork because it was on buildings located in the "green zone", which is where all the hash sellers have their stalls and where people come to smoke marijuana.  And in that area they have a strict no camera's policy (no surprise, as it's illegal).

I'll include pictures of a half-dozen of the cooler graffiti I came across in this post, both in Christiania and in the city.  Eventually (this weekend sometime probably) I will create a Copenhagen section on my photo site.  But for now, this will be the last of Copenhagen photos.

 This was in Christiania.

Copenhagen - Part 2 (8 pictures)

I normally don't go to a lot of museums when I travel, but luckily I decided to go to the Thorvaldsen Museum when I was done visiting the palace, as it's right next door.  Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844) was a Danish sculptor who lived in Rome for over 40 years, who gifted his entire art collection to the city of his birth before he died.  This included not just his own artwork, but that of many of his friends and students, as well as a few antiquities he had collected.  When it was opened in 1848, it was the first public art museum in Denmark.

I have to say, I was blown away by how good the sculptures that Thorvaldsen did are.  There are plaster copies of his "drafts" (used to finalize the design of a sculpture before creating it in hard stone) which are usually bright white.  And then there are the actual final sculptures which are usually darker.  The level of detail he put into his work is really incredible and you can't get the full effect via pictures.

However, I hope some of the examples below give you an idea of how good the sculpture is and convince you that if you ever go to Copenhagen, to put a visit to the museum on your list of places to go.

This lion is one example.  I have a full body picture that I will throw on my photo site later.

Copenhagen - Part 1 (10 pictures)

I took what will probably be my last extended vacation trip in Europe before returning to the U.S. from April 27th though May 5th.  I had looked at a number of options and decided to do a Scandinavian capitols trip and go to Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Helsinki before returning to Poznań.

The first city was Copenhagen.  I had a 6am flight from Poznań that arrived at 7am, which unfortunately meant getting up around 2am.  Transportation into the city was easy, as there are both a train line and a metro line that run from the airport to the Central Train station downtown.  From there it was a 2-block walk to my hotel.

One thing you notice very quickly about Copenhagen is that they love their bikes.  I got my first clue of this when I walked out of the Central Train station and saw this.

This is just part of the bike racks in front of the Central station.  There are dedicated bike lanes that run next to the sidewalks throughout most of the city (that I saw), and a dedicated bike line through the center of the old town.  The local English-language paper even had an article while I was there on a plan to build two "bicycle highways" that would improve bike usage from the suburbs by building dedicated routes that avoided the roads where possible so that bike riders would not need to stop at lights and stop signs.

A Quick Trip back to the U.S. (12 pictures)

I made a quick trip for work back to the U.S. from March 2nd to March 10th.  I was on kind of short notice so I didn't have a chance to set up some vacation time, and I was going to be in project meetings most of the time I was there and wouldn't have much time to socialize much.  I was also travelling with my co-worker Paweł Macko and sharing a rental car, so I couldn't run off in the evenings to visit family around the Bay Area.  Luckily, some of my family came to see me.

We stayed at the Hyatt SFO just south of the airport, and as usual on my first day back in the U.S., the jet lag had me up at the ungodly hour of 4 a.m. or so.  By the time the sun had started coming out, I was out and walking around.  I managed to grab this picture before Paweł and I headed out for our one day shopping extravaganza on the only full day we didn't have to travel or work. :)

He had a shopping list from his wife, and I was looking mostly for some snacks and goodies to take back with me.  The only other thing I was looking for was a Google Nexus 7 to use as an e-reader since my iPad is too heavy most of the time (I've found).

St. Anthony's Church - Poznań (14 images)

There are quite a few churches and cathedrals around Poznań, many of which I haven't even poked my head into and some which I have visited in the past and either didn't have a camera with me or there was something going on in the church and I didn't want to interrupt.  Saturday while out for a walk I ended up at the old town square (Stary Rynek) which is very close to the main city cathedral (The Sanctuary of the Mother of God of Perpetual Succor, see previous photos on this blog or see my photo site). 

It's also close to another Church (St. Anthony's Church and the Conventual Franciscan Monestary) that I have poked my head into a couple of times but which has always had something going on.  But on Saturday I lucked out and the church was empty for at least a bit.  As an introduction, here is the English text on the plaque outside the front door (with a few translation errors and all):

St. Anthony's Church and the Conventual Franciscan Monestary

The Franciscan monks arrived in Poznan in 1639.  The Boaroque church was built in 1668-1698, originally by Giorgio Catenazzi from Switzerland, and since 1675 by Jan Konski.  Stuccowork in the eastern cupola-shaped Chapel of Our Lady was made in 1701 by Alberto Bianco from Italy.  The church features the following work by the Swach (Svach) brothers from Dacice in Moraiva: frescos by Adam Swach and the main altar, Marian alter and stalls by Anthony Swach.  The Marian altar features the paining of the Mother of Jesus Miraculous Lady of Poznan crowned in 1968 with papal crowns.

Construction of the monestary took place in 1671-1674 and in 1743-1749 (the northern wing is preserved).  In 1757-1758, the following chapels were added: cupola-shaped St. Francis Chapel on the west and St. Theodore Chapel (today Sacred Heart of Jesus Chapel).

Unfortunately, all I had with me was my Canon pocket camera, but I got a good enough look to know that I want to go back with my DSLR later in the year when the light will be better.  Hopefully, I'll luck out again when I go to take pictures with my better camera. 


In the meantime, here are some pictures from Saturday's visit.

Looking down the center aisle of the church.  It is much smaller than the nearby cathedral.

 

Winter Cooking with Coconut Milk

There hasn't been an update on this blog in a bit, because I haven't been doing much.  Unless you count writing a 47-page user manual and other similar "fun" stuff as worth hearing about.  :)

That is has been mostly cold should come as no surprise.  Temperatures have generally ranged from just above 0C down to -16C or so.  But mostly in the -4C to -9C range.  So given that, I haven't been doing much on the weekends that would be worth showing, unless you like lots of pictures of snow.  And if you do, there are bunch of those from last winter on this blog.

So I have been doing a bit of experimental cooking in order to find new hot dishes that I might like, and that would be easy to make.  And honestly, I'm getting tired of the same places for my take-out lunch, so some left-overs would be welcome.  So with that in mind, I present two of my recipe experiments below for your consideration.


Coconut Beans and Rice Recipe

2 Cups Red or Black Rice (I had red)
1 Can Black Beans
1 Can Pineapple Chunks
1/2 tsp (or less) Sambal Olek (Indonesian Chili Paste)
2 Bananas (sliced into small pieces)
Coconut Milk (I had a 1 liter box)
Curry Powder

Wash and rinse the rice and add to a small pot.  Open can of pineapple chunks, drain juice into rice pot.  Add additional water as necessary, then cook.  When rice is cooked, place in a medium pot.  Drain can of beans, rinse off separately, then add to pot with rice.  Add the small amount of chili paste and curry powder to the mixture, then add coconut milk until pot is filled to a level just below the combined rice and beans.  Stir, put over medium heat, and let simmer.

Heat until the coconut milk is about half absorbed / dissipated.  Add pineapple chunks from can and 2 sliced bananas and continue to cook, stirring occasionally.  Once the coconut milk is nearly absorbed, the meal is done.  Set aside for a bit, stirring occasionally, to let the remaining coconut milk absorb or solidify a bit.

While still hot / warm, serve in a bowl.  It's a combination of sweet and spicy that is very good.  If you don't want the spicy bit, you can leave the Sambal Olek out entirely and it should still be good.

Coconut Oatmeal 

This is just regular oatmeal (not the instant or Quaker Oats stuff) cooked in coconut milk instead of water.  I had some coconut milk left over from the recipe above and tried this.  It was fantastic.  If you have some fresh fruit like blueberries or strawberries, it would probably be even better.  I didn't have those, so I went with banana and a very small amount of brown sugar. 


So that is what I have been up to this winter so far.  Nothing exciting.  I'll add a new post when something actually happens or if I get another random idea that I feel like inflicting you with.  :)

Have fun!
 

Revisiting a prior post + Florence and the Machine

In June of 2012 I had a post about Poznan's attempt to set a Guinness record for the number of paper lanterns launched.  I had a few pictures, but no video.  However, I recently stumbled across an video on YouTube where someone took video footage from the launching of the lanterns and overlaid the song Cosmic Love from Florence and the Machine.  I thought the video footage was very cool, so I thought I would add this post with a pointer to the video.

If you aren't familiar with the band Florence and the Machine, you should give them a listen.  I'll post a few more videos from YouTube below from the band.  The lead singer, Florence Welch, is this generation's Annie Lennox in my opinion, in that she just has an incredible voice.

Happy New Year! (7 pictures)

As I found out last year, New Year's Eve (known locally as Sylwester because it is Saint Silvester's Day) ends with a bang in Poland.  The fireworks that you can legally buy here as a civilian is shocking compared to what we are used to in most (if not all) of the United States.

I managed to grab some pictures this year that came out (unlike last year).  Unfortunately they all have the power lines for the tram running across the picture because the pictures that came out were of fireworks on the other side other side of the bridge I was standing on.  I also have a video, but I need to figure out how to reduce the size because it's around 275MB and I can't upload it here when it's that big.  If I figure out how I will update this post.

Remember, these are all personal fireworks.  And there are so many of them that people have bought that they get set off for hours.  I was able to see some going off not long after it got dark around 5pm.


Anyway, enjoy the pictures.  I hope you had a safe and happy New Year.