/tacanderson

Random Pictures in London

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 05:20:06 -0700

Here's a handful of pictures from my week in London. I took some pictures from the top of a building I was speaking at. There are also a few pictures from the window of our house and of course a few from some family outings.

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The Anderson's Go To Battle

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 09:59:00 -0700

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in 1066 William, the French Duke of Normandy, who was promised the crown of England, landed 500 ships on the coast of England near Hastings with something like 5,000 troops to forcebly claim the crown which was being denied to him. At least that's his side of the story. William the Conqurer defeated an equally large English army at the place now, aptly enough, called Battle. King William had an Abbey built there to commemorate his victory.

Almost 1,000 years later the Anderson children think the ruins of Battle Abbey is one of the coolest places on the planet. We spent the whole day hiking around the battle field and climbing on and walking through the ruins of the Abbey.

If you ever get the chance to go to Battle England we highly recomend it. It makes a great day trip from London.

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Lego Moleskine. Two addictions in one.

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 06:26:37 -0700

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First there were Star Wars Moleskine's. Now we have Lego Moleskine's. I'm getting the feeling that Moleskine is spying on my soul.

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Pictures of London

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:44:56 -0700

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Most of these pictures were taken around Covent Garden, where I work. The train ones were taken at the various stations I spend (what seems like) several hours a week standing at waiting for the correct train.

The weird/cool steampunk ship thing is actually in a fountain and the oars actually row. The Adelphi theatre where Jen and I saw Sweeney Todd is actually the only theatre we've been to and was a favorite of Charles Dickens.

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If you want your children to be intelligent...

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 10:17:00 -0800

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” ― Albert Einstein

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Pictures From Cape Town

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:10:19 -0800

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Reading a book a week update.

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 06:37:00 -0800

I committed myself to reading a book a week back in early January, based on Julien Smith's tips on how he did it. The end of this week will be week 10 of the year and I will have finished 8 books and will finish at least one more by the end of my long flight home tonight and I have one more at home I'm almost done with. You can see all my book reviews on my Goodreads profile. I still have a few more to add there but so far so good. I'm a little behind but only barely. All that travel recently really helped out.

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I'm Stuck in Cape Town. I don't have good luck flying Virgin.

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:39:00 -0800

Virgin Megastore closing (Photo credit: Digiart2001 | jason.kuffer)

Living in the Western United States most of my life, I haven't had many opportunities to fly Virgin. I constantly have heard glowing reviews from my friends who do fly Virgin, some saying they'd never fly anything other than business class on Virgin. I have only tried to fly Virgin 3 times. The first time I was flying from Seattle to NY, I checked in online the night before, printed off my pass, had no bags to check and went straight to the gate the next morning only to discover the flight was cancelled and no one was even at the gate. Apparently it was cancelled sometime in the night and I failed to check again when I woke up.

When I flew from London to Johannesburg, my client, who booked my flight, booked me on Virgin (I usually fly BA). I flew economy and while it was fine, it wasn't any better than any flight on British Airways. I guess all the hypes in business class. The downside was that my flight was delayed 30 minutes but on a 10+ hour flight they made up the 30 minutes easily, so no big deal.

Then tonight, when I was supposed to fly back from Cape Town to London after being in South Africa for over a week, my flight was cancelled. After waiting around in the airport with very little information, we were shuttled off to some hotel in Cape Town somehwere (where I've had to pay for wifi) with only a vague promise that they will be in touch with us threw the hotel. Great.

Not only am I delayed in seeing my wife and kids another day, which sucks, I'm also going to miss a special pre-event for the London Web Summit, that I was looking forward to, At this point I'm just hoping I get back tomorrow sometime.

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Dear Hotels, About Your WiFi...

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 06:21:00 -0800

Dear hotels,

Not having wifi is unacceptable. Period. If you don't offer wifi, please kill yourself. If my airplane can give me wifi, surely a hotel can manage it.

Wifi should be free but making me pay for wifi that sucks should be a criminal offense punishable by public flogging.

Single-device wifi access is a joke. It makes you look out of touch and irrelevant.

I will gladly pay more for a hotel room with good, free multi-device wifi. I don't even need cable or the movie channel.

I'll tell you what? Give me free wifi and you can keep the shower caps. Deal?

(Who uses those shower caps anyway?)

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Three Continents in One Month

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 03:38:00 -0800

Today, I make my last trip of the month (which also happens to be the first trip of March). From London, I've been to Brussels, Seattle and San Francisco and now I'm heading back to South Africa where I'll visit Johannesburg (also called Joburg or Jozi, by the locals) but this time I get to continue on to Cape Town.

That's a lot of travel, especially when you consider that I went to Helsinki in January and will probably make one more trip to Munich before March is over. I'll continue to share pictures and posts here but if I'm a little slower to respond to emails and comments over the next 10 days, you'll know why.

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A Working House Made with 3.3 Million Lego Bricks

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 02:00:00 -0800

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Made with 3.3 Million Lego's and now they have no where to put it because Legoland doesn't want it anymore. What a shame.

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The worst part about living in the UK is that no one else gets why Ron Swanson is the man.

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 02:10:00 -0800

We still manage to get our Parks and Recreation fix over here in the UK, via Hulu thanks to TunnelBear, but most people don't watch it, although there are a few expats or US TV junkies who get the DVDs. Theres a great interview of Nick Offerman (the man behind Ron Swanson).

“Testing for roles,” he recalls, “I would hear, ‘You seem like you’re a good actor, but you’re a little scary, you talk too slow and you’re a little weird.’ But the stars aligned with ‘Parks and Recreation.’ They found this guy who’s scary, who talks too slow, and he’s golden.”

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A Beautiful Day in San Francisco.

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:13:00 -0800

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I'm impressed. I never get this nice of a view when staying at hotels. But today - a beautiful day in San Francisco - I got a nice view.

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Retouched Photos

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:32:53 -0800

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I downloaded the Magic Hour app, which I highly recommend if you like Instagram. Here's a few older photos you may have already seen but they've been retouched.

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I present my father of the year application: Just bought all 3 kids their first guitars - in London.

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 08:56:30 -0800

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I present my father of the year application: Just bought all 3 kids their first guitars - in London.

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 08:56:29 -0800

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Brussels: I love old European cities like this

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:11:00 -0800

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My last trip to Brussels was as eventful as my last trip to Atlanta: Airport/train station, hotel, client meeting, back to airport/ train station. The only real difference being the cab drivers are much worse in Brussels.

This time we had time to go see the old part of Brussels. This old architecture is one of my favorite things about Europe.

Here's a scenic view of a bunch of buildings and streets. Then the Manneken Pis is a huge tourist attraction and he has over 800 outfits they dress him up in, although he was au naturel, while I was there. Translated it means Little man pee. It's supposed to be an emblem of Brussels rebellious spirit. There is a tavern and multiple chocolate shops dedicated to the little rebellious man.

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First snow! Supposed to keep snowing all night.

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 12:40:58 -0800

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I'm Huge in Finland

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:50:00 -0800

On our recent trip to Helsinki Finland, Jon Silk and I were interviewed by Kauppalehti, the "leading business daily in Finland," or so I'm told. I have no idea what the paper says, but I'm assured that it's very good.

I’m actually surprised they didn’t use the pictures of Jon and I reading the Finnish, Zorro comic books. (long story)

/tacanderson

Random Pictures in London

The Anderson's Go To Battle

Lego Moleskine. Two addictions in one.

Pictures of London

If you want your children to be intelligent...

Pictures From Cape Town

Reading a book a week update.

I'm Stuck in Cape Town. I don't have good luck flying Virgin.

Dear Hotels, About Your WiFi...

Three Continents in One Month

A Working House Made with 3.3 Million Lego Bricks

The worst part about living in the UK is that no one else gets why Ron Swanson is the man.

A Beautiful Day in San Francisco.

Retouched Photos

I present my father of the year application: Just bought all 3 kids their first guitars - in London.

I present my father of the year application: Just bought all 3 kids their first guitars - in London.

Brussels: I love old European cities like this

First snow! Supposed to keep snowing all night.

I'm Huge in Finland

I'm working. Honest I am.