Parisian Paradise - Part IV: The Orsay Museum

Since out Versailles day trip was cut short, we ventured back into Paris and visited two museums during the afternoon and evening. First was the Orsay Museum, which is housed in an old train station, complete with a large, awesome clock:

The Orsay Museum is filled with art from multiple eras, from a number of great artists. Having downloaded Rick Steve's audio guide for a few of the sites (including Versailles, the Orsay Museum and the Louvre Museum), we spent a lot of the time with earbuds in, learning about the artwork.

We saw Van Gogh's self-portrait (I promise it's behind me):

Along with the classic paintings, there were various other displays - including an Art Nouveau exibit, that included the following:

And, apparently, these Metro signs are famous, too. Deidra learned all about them in her History of Furniture and Architecture class.

Here were a few of Deidra's favorites that she took pictures of:

I'm pretty sure that the last painting there made her laugh really hard at the ridiculousness of the scene. It's like the whole "You'll get a dozen virgins in heaven if you die doing battle as a soldier in this holy war" idea.

Parisian Paradise - Part III: Versailles

We woke up early Saturday morning and headed downstairs for the first of our continental breakfasts. I don't know if it was because on the long flight or what, but I could not get enough food in me. Deidra, Whit, and Brian were all amazed as I downed four croissants, a hard-boiled egg, a chunk of baguette, a pain au chocolat, a brioche au sucre, toast with cheese and sliced meat (ham and salami), applesauce and a bowl of mixed fruit (along with a few glasses of orange juice). I was pretty amazed myself, actually!

After they pried me away from the breakfast table, we took the metro and a train out to make a day trip to Versailles - about a 30-minute train ride from Paris.

Versailles turned out to be one of most exciting - and disappointing - parts of the entire trip.

The palace at Versailles was HUGE and just amazing to look at. How did they create such vast and ornate structures back then?

Before Versailles, the royal palace was inside Paris (where the Louvre Museum is now - more to come on that in a later post). Louis XIV built this palace in Versailles so that he would could be apart from everyday people. Basically, they would have to travel to him in Versailles if they had an issue, which would be much more difficult than just walking down the street in Paris.

But Versailles was also the place where the king invited national and international leaders to come and hang out, basically. So it was a way to show off and impress them with all the colorful paintings and murals, ornate architecture, detailed sculptures, etc.

A lot of history has come out of Versailles. Louis the XVI reigned from here with his wife, Marie-Antoinette, before they were overthrown during the French Revolution and eventually beheaded.

The famous Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I, was signed in the Hall of Mirrors:

So, seeing all of that was pretty darn cool. That was the exciting part.

The dissappointing part? Well, Versailles has an amazing garden and grounds, along with another residence, which was basically Marie-Antoinette's estate. But because of the weather, those sites were closed. This is the most we saw of the grounds - from out the palace window:

So our "day trip" to Versailles was over well before lunch, and we headed back on the train to Paris.

The other thing that was frustrating was that Versailles is covered in the cost of a Museum Pass - a pass you can buy that gets you into quite a few Paris museums and other sites. Whit and Brian had purchased their Museum Pass at the airport when they arrived. We didn't, and figured we could buy the pass at Versailles. Unfortunately we were wrong - they didn't sell the passes there. So we had to swallow the cost of Versailles separately, and then buy our Museum Pass later. Argh! There's an extra $45 down the drain!

But, I think we were pretty good with our money throughout the trip and made our Museum Pass well worth it anyway (as you'll see in future posts).

So the excitement of Versailles far outweighed the disappointment and frustration - especially looking back on it now. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Parisian Paradise - Part II: The Eiffel Tower

Upon arriving at our hotel Friday afternoon at 5pm, after way too long in transit than I ever care to calculate, we were extremely tired. And did I mention that it was absolutely FREEZING in Paris? Even the locals we talked to said that is was colder than they remember it ever being. Our guide books all said that winters in Paris mean a lot of rain, but never snow. But there was snow on the ground when we got there and snow on the ground when we left.

Yeah - it was cold.

Anyway, we decided that we had to brave the weather and do something that evening, in order to stay awake until a reasonable bedtime and get our bodies on track for the rest of the trip. So the four of us hopped on the metro and headed to Trocadero to get a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower. Our first glimpse was actually while we were on the metro, and we were like giddy little school children - oohing and aahing (ahhing? awing?). I think it was that moment when all four of us realized that we were really in Paris! Anyway, the other metro passengers just rolled their eyes at us. But I'm sure it's not the first time they've seen tourists act like that.

We got off the metro and walked through the frigid chill and bitter cold wind to get to the Eiffel Tower, and it was definitely worth it.

We even caught the tower at the top of the hour, which meant that we got to see it sparkle:


After walking all around and through the tower, we decided it was time for dinner. (And since you're probably wondering - no, we didn't go up to the top of the tower. Like I said, it was FREEZING and the wind was howling - definitely not the right weather to be at the top of a tall tower.) We walked around and found a Rick Steeves recommendation for our first dining experience. We started our meal with an appetizer of melted goat cheese over bread. Then, Deidra and I shared some beef bourguignon over rice, while Whit and Brian shared a dish of chicken and mashed potatoes. Then we all shared some chocolate cake for dessert.

And, as if that wasn't enough, we stopped at a grocery market on the way home and got a couple of chocolate bars to share:


After returning to the hotel and sampling our new chocolates (the Lindt Creme Brulee was the hands-down winner), we quickly settled down for a much-needed good night's rest.

Parisian Paradise - Part I: The Journey

After receiving "exclusive rights" from Deidra to blog about our Paris trip, I took a look back at the recap from my previous international trip. I've decided a serial blog about Paris is in order as well.

We started our journey on Wednesday night (1/6). After a full day of work and a full night of church meetings, I picked up Deidra and we headed to Farmington, where we stayed the night with Daron, Lisa and Austin. They were excellent hosts. Lisa gave us a ride to and from the airport, and they took care of Nelly while we were gone.

From Salt Lake, we flew into JFK airport in New York. Deidra's cousin and her husband (Whit & Brian) were also joining us for this Paris excursion, but they had different flights than we did. We tried to meet up with them while we were both laying over in New York, but that caused more of a hassle than it was worth. We arrived in terminal 2 at JFK, we received word from Whit and Brian that they were awaiting their flight to Paris in terminal 1. Figuring that we would most likely be in the same terminal for our flight out, we exited terminal 2 and proceeded to terminal 1. However, upon close examination of our tickets, we realized that our departure was back in terminal 2. We went to the ticket counter and unsuccessfully tried changing flights from ours (through Dublin to Paris) to Whit & Brian's (straight to Paris). We then called our trip companions to let them know that we couldn't meet them in their terminal and would see them in Paris.

Then we turned back to terminal two and realized that we had made a definite mistake in exiting the terminal. That meant that we had to go back through the crazy security mob, which consisted of an enormous line (loosely termed) proceeding to two metal detector machines . . . one of which was broken. Luckily, we were in no hurry, as our flight was hours away. But it was still frustrating to proceed at a snail's pace for over an hour.

As we approached the metal detector, Deidra turned to me with nervous astonishment.

"Our water bottles aren't empty!"

We quickly pulled our water bottles from our respective bags and proceed to chug down their content before reaching security. This was somewhat easy for Deidra, with a half-filled half-liter container. It was significantly more difficult for me, with a full one-liter container. But I am happy to report that I was able to drink that full liter of water in about a minute's time, and we successfully made it through security. (I did, however, have to use the restroom three times before our flight.)

Our red-eye flight to Dublin was fairly uneventful. The movies were boring and I was less successful than Deidra in actually getting some sleep.

We quickly made it through customs in Dublin (our first passport stamp of the trip!). Our layover in Dublin found us waiting in a cold terminal for a few hours, which was only made better because of the UK family waiting near us, consisting of a mother an three sons (ages 14, 13 and 9, probably). It probably won't be as entertaining to you, but just imagine us being low on sleep and the boys talking in their Irish accents and it makes it funnier, I promise.

The boys starting betting on the toss of a 5-cent coin. At first, they tried "heads and tails," but it was quickly determined that "there are no heads and tails - only the 5 side and the not-5 side." So then they started betting pennies on the "5 side" or the "other side."

The youngest of the three soon lost his loose change, but was undeterred. He and one of the older brothers opened up their respective packs of Starbursts and began betting pieces of candy, which they referred to as "lollies."At one point, the youngest brother lost a toss and the older brother demanded two "lollies" instead of one. This started a brotherly argument that I, the second of four boys, could certainly appreciate.

Finally, toward the end of the betting, the youngest brother had lost about half of his "lollies." The mom finally recognized what was going on, and admonished the older brother to "give your brother back his lollies. Those are for the flight!" At which, the youngest brother pleaded: "But mum . . . I lost them fair and square!"

Like I said, probably not funny to anyone but Deidra and I, but it certainly helped pass the time.

We finally landed in Paris at about 3pm Friday afternoon (1/8), where we purchased train tickets and commenced to navigate the train and Paris streets to Le Royal Hotel. We were expected to meet Whit and Brian at the hotel at 5pm, and we rolled in there right on time.

----------------------------------------------

(P.S. Sorry for the length of this first post and the lack of pictures. I promise more pictures and shorter posts going forward.)

Top 9 of 2009

I was just thinking of everything that has happened this past year, and came up with what I think are the my top 9 accomplishments of 2009:

9. Paying off one of my student loans: It's not the first, and definitely not the last, but each one that gets paid off makes me feel a little bit better.

8. Celebrating my 4th wedding anniversary: Definitely the easiest and funnest accomplish on this list, and I look forward to many more.

7. Getting over 100 universities aligned with SHRM's curriculum template: This is a goal I helped accomplish while working remotely as a research consultant for SHRM. Our initial goal was 25, which we met in February or March. Our goal got upped to 50, 75 and 100 and we were able to successively meet all of those goals successfully.

6. Receiving my PHR (Professional in Human Resources) Certification: After successfully passing the test, proving my MS in HR degree and verifying my prior HR employment, I became certified as of January 2009.

5. Reading 50 books: In the past, I have read probably about one book a month, so to do more than four times that amount in 2009 was truly an accomplishment for me. I think I'll cut it back in 2010, and focus on longer and more classic books.

4. Getting a job offer as Instructor at Trocaire College in Buffalo: This gave my the confidence and motivation to pursue my PhD and hopefully be a tenured university professor in the future.

3. Accepting a job offer as Instructor at Brigderland Applied Technical College: This allowed my the opportunity to stay in Logan (and not move to Buffalo), develop and deliver teaching and training, and prepare for a potential PhD programs in 2010.

2. Finally releasing Racing & Retracing: Eight year after releasing my first CD, and five years after recording the initial tracks for this CD, Racing & Retracing was finally released on October 28, 2009, after the final instrumentation and artwork were completed.

1. Running the Top of Utah marathon: Easily the most physically and mentally challenging goal I have ever accomplished, from day 1 of training through the finish line of the marathon itself.

What would you say are your biggest accomplishments of 2009?

December books

I did it - read 50 books in 2009! The final books for December were as follows:

Blink

Malcolm Gladwell

An interesting look at snap decisions. Not quite as good as Outliers (which Gladwell wrote later), but better than what I finished of The Tipping Point (which he wrote

earlier). I guess that means he keeps getting better! I'll have to pick up his new book, "What the

Dog Saw."

Ozma of Oz

L. Frank Baum

This books introduces some other characters and story lines that ended up in the movie "Return to Oz." It is basically similar to the other Oz books thus far. But they are entertaining and easy reads. So I'll probably read one more at least to help me

reach my 50 book goal for the year.

The Road to Oz

L. Frank Baum

This was very similar to the other Oz books. But the new characters and story still seemed fresh.

A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens

I think I'll have to make this one a Christmas tradition. It's a fairly quick read with great imagery and storytelling. There's just some things that can't be captured in a

movie - no matter how many times it's remade.

Deception Point

Dan Brown

I actually liked this book more than Dan Brown's other books, because it wasn't as wildly over the top, though it was still rather unbelievable at points.

The Power of Full Engagement

Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

This book talked a lot about forming positive and healthy habits, and emphasizes the importance of managing your energy (instead of managing your time). It had some great ideas and advice on finding success at work and at home.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Census

Dear Civil Rights/Census people,

Thank you for capitalizing on this holiday season. It makes me just want to hop on my donkey and get all censified.

November books

Getting close to the end of the year, here is the book list for November:


Marriage: Love and Logic
Dr. Foster W. Cline

My wife and I read this book together. It had some good advice and sparked some great conversation between my wife and me. But a lot of the "love and logic experiences" seemed very redundant after a while. Maybe the fact that we were reading it on a strict time schedule (we had to get it back to the library) lessened its impact. And, finally, whoever edited the book missed quite a few misspellings and format errors that made focusing on the content a challenge.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Stephen R. Covey

This book took me about six months to read. There was a lot of good advice, sound principles and memorable ideas, but I thought that the book went on and on repeating ideas over and over with stories, examples and explanations. I think it would have been more powerful had it been more concise.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
Jeff Kinney

These books are extremely quick, but are just a lot fun to read. The author continues to find new experiences to keep the books interesting.

GMAT
Kaplan

This book was a good reference in preparing for the GMAT. I was focused mainly on the quantitative portion, and their "100 rules to know" was very helpful in preparing.

GMAT 800
Kaplan

What I liked most about this book was that you had 2-4 questions to answer and then it took you step-by-step on how to find the right answer to each of those questions. So instead of having to take full tests or full sections before checking answers, I could understand where I went wrong almost immediately.

With one month to go, I think I have 6 books left to read to meet my goal of reading 50 books for the year. Definitely doable.

The Studio

Some of you may remember my christmas wish post from a few years ago. Well, Deidra gave me an inch and I took over our spare bedroom closet and, with a newly-made shelf from my mother-in-law* recently added, here is the finished product:

* In my mother-in-law's defense, the shelf was given to us unpainted. The bright green came from a can of paint that Deidra got for free. But I kind of dig the color and the contrast it adds to the otherwise black instruments/cables/etc.

Pawning my soul

Over Thanksgiving weekend, I went to a pawn shop with my father-in-law and brother-in-law. While they perused the power tools, saddles and firearms, I spent most of my time looking at musical instruments, amplifiers and electronics. As I didn't find anything that caught my fancy, I decided to look through the rack of CDs. I saw some old CDs that brought back fond memories (Real McCoy, Boyz II Men, etc.), as well as some Christmas CDs that I was trying to remember if my wife already owned or not.

Then all of a sudden a CD caught my full attention. I looked at the familiar spine with skepticism and carefully pulled it off the shelf from under the stack resting above it. This was the image on the front cover:

That's right - I found All I Fear, my own CD from 2001 sitting the EZ Money pawn shop in Burley, ID. I'm still not sure if I should be flattered or offended. But if you're in the money for a $2 Chris Hartwell album, now you'll know where to go.

Live, from Anchorage . . . it's Saturday Night!

What is it with Alaska that makes their constituents choose Saturday Night Live lookalikes as the head of their state government? I mean we all know the whole former Gov. Sarah Palin/Tina Fey comparison:
















Well, the other day, I got an email from Alaska's tourism department telling me that I should come visit the state. In that email was a message from the current Alaskan Governor, Sean Parnell, along with the following photo:













First off, he shares a surname with SNL alum Chris Parnell. But what struck me was the uncanny resemblance that he has to another former SNL cast member, Phil Hartman:














So, in a highly scientific study, I decided to take a look at a few other former governors of Alaska and see how they stack up with SNL alumni:

Frank Murkowski and Dana Carvey














Walter Hickel and Jon Lovitz














But one I have yet to place is Tony Knowles:














Any ideas for his SNL doppelganger?

GMAT Report

So, I took the GMAT yesterday. The main reason was to try and best the Quantitative Section score on my previously-taken GRE. So I barely even studied the Verbal Section and spent weeks studying the Quantitative Section. Come test day, I was still not feeling up-to-snuff on all of the theorems, formulas, and equations that are out there, but my brain was full and I was out of time.

First in the test were two 30 minute essay responses. Then I took a five minute break before going head-on into the 75-minute Quantitative Section. By the end of that section, I was fried, and I didn't even think I had really done too well. But I didn't want to take a break and dwell on it, so I went straight into the 75-minute Verbal Section. Almost four hours after starting the test, I finished and was given my scores on the way out.

The first thing I did was check the Quantitative Score. And the funny thing is that I scored at exactly the same percentile as I did on the GRE. So much for all that wasted effort!

Then I saw my Verbal Score. Somehow, my score was eight percentile points higher than my GRE score. And my overall percentile (Quantitative and Verbal together) was significantly higher than my GRE scores. So I guess taking the test was worth it after all.

I wonder what would have happened if I would have focused my studying on the Verbal Section instead. Then my Quantitative Section score might have improved, right? :-)

"Racing & Retracing" available on iTunes and CDBaby

My new album, Racing & Retracing, is now available at the following locations:

ChrisHartwell.com

(click on any of the above for the direct link to the album)

Happy 40th, Sesame Street!

My favorite character as a kid was definitely Count Von Count. In fact, he taught me how to count. 1 ah, ah, ah . . . 2 ah, ah, ah . . . 3 ah, ah, ah . . .

And then my parents had to teach me that I didn't have to say "ah, ah, ah" after every number.

(P.S. Snuffleupagus will always be Big Bird's imaginary friend to me)

And the winner is . . . (drumroll, please)

Brooke S.! Congratulations, you have won the Racing & Retracing CD giveaway! I will be in contact with you to get the information needed to send you the CD.

Thanks to everyone who entered.

Physical CDs are now available directly from me for $10 (cash/check/PayPal). CDs will also be available at CDBaby.com ($12.95) within the next week, and Apple iTunes ($9.99 full album or $0.99 per track) within the next couple of months. I will give you all an update when those services are available.

Feel free to contact me or leave a comment on this post with any questions.

(contest winner selected using random.org)

October books

Ender in Exile

Orson Scott Card

Being a fan of Ender's Game, I have read through all of the sequels and concurrent novels. This one just adds another layer to an already confusing landscape of stories that intertwine. I feel the same way about this novel as I felt about the latest Alvin Maker novel from the same author; I don't get to know the characters any more than I already do, which makes the entire book predictable. It's almost as if the author is trying to squeeze every penny out of a series that has been lucrative in the past, rather than coming up with something new.

Mafia to Mormon: My Conversion Story

Mario Facione

It was an fascinating read to learn about this conversion story and the complete change of heart and lifestyle that accompanied the conversion.

The Wednesday Letters

Jason F. Wright

An interesting premise (unfolding information written in weekly letters from a husband to his wife over the course of their decades-long relationship) is overshadowed by a dramatic soap opera story lines that makes it border on unbelievable.

Outliers

Malcolm Gladwell

This book delves into some of the anomalies that produced outliers like the Beatles and Bill Gates. From birth dates, to cultures, to practice time, etc., it is interesting to see how there's always more to a rags to riches story than initially meets the eye.

The Wizard of Oz

L. Frank Baum

This was a quick read, as it was meant to be a book for children. However, there are great descriptions and underpinnings of the book that adults can draw from as well. While none of the adventures of Dorothy and her friends is very inventive (for example, a giant spider-like beast that has long been terrorizing the forest is killed in its sleep by the lion in about two sentences), the imagery and fast pace make the book enjoyable.

For One More Day

Mitch Albom

Fitting that I finished this "ghost story" on Halloween night. Having read a couple of Albom's other books, this one seemed to fall right in line with The Five People You Meet in Heaven. That was both good and bad. It was still enjoyable to read and Ablom creates a good narrative, but the book didn't seem to break much new ground or be particularly thought-provoking.

Nov. 9 (Monday) - Closing date for drawing

I received the "Racing & Retracing" CDs in the mail today, and it made me realize that I had not stated a closing date for the drawing I had previously posted. So I have set next Monday, Nov. 9th, as the closing date. Add your comment to this post before midnight on Nov. 9th to be included in the drawing. Good luck!