This week’s entry is dedicate to Esbjerg’s annual party dedicated to Bladets Person of the Year in Esbjerg. This year’s recipient was Erling Petersson for his contribution to the work he’s done at Esbjerg Gymnasium. As his contributions are already covered in the Bladet I’ll not rehash them here (LINK). Nor will I cover the speeches in the party or go in depth to the menu. I’d rather talk about why we attend and what we get out of it.

My wife Gitta is a former Danish Olympic Swimmer and World Cup winner. She was recognized for her swimming accomplishments and recognized as an Esbjerg Person of the Year in 1991. She was not able to attend until we moved to Denmark in 1998, 1999 to be exact and we’ve only missed a couple of years. And I get to go along as spouses are invited. Yay! Free dinner!

The event was held at Hotel Britannia in downtown Esbjerg where it is usually held. The guest of honor gets to choose the menu and this year was a pleasant delight. The dinner was perfect a lovely selection of wine and the dinner menu was fantastic, and we relished the chance to eat fine food in fine company.

My wife and I don’t treat ourselves to fine dining enough, nor do we allow ourselves enough evenings out. More often than not we find our fancy dinners are eaten on very rare family occasions or on vacations out of the country. We look forward to the Esbjerg Person of the Year party each year as it is a chance for us to get out of the house and enjoy fine dining in our backyard. A rare treat.

Yes Germany, we spent the day Saturday in Germany.

This will be a 2 parter of sorts, it’s a One Night a Weeker since this was the big family event this week. Germany as topic really deserves a spot in The Most Unlikely of Places and I’ll get there.  But today, Germany deserves an entry in the Most Unlikely of places.

This deserves an entry since we ate at the local grocery store cafe. While the food is by no means high class I did enjoy a bite of my wife’s pizza thingy, my youngest son’s bratwurst and sharing a schnitzel menu with my oldest son.

While many of you are rolling your eyes thinking this is a waste of time reading, I need to preface this with a little story. When my oldest Patrick was about 2-3 years old he flat out stopped eating potatoes. It is customary to feed babies potatoes in Denmark and, well, after 3 years of life he’d had enough. One night at the dinner table the little stinker decided he’d had enough. Gitta and I thought this was just another display of stubborness from our headstrong son, and being good headstrong parents we decided that he would stay at the table until he’d eaten his potatoes.

After an hour I was excused while my headstrong wife and my headstrong son participated in a stalemate  to end all stalemates. After another 2 or 3 or I’m not certain how many hours, Patrick was sent upstairs, told to brush his teeth and go to bed. He never touched another potato after that. We were shocked and disappointed, uncertain what to do, I’m guessing we punished him, took away his toys or something for being stubborn.

And Denmark also revoked his “true blood dane” license.

Until this weekend when our now 10 year old requested the schnitzel menu which came with brazed potatoes. I chose not to order lunch thinking that neither son (or wife) would finish the food in front of them. And with the heaping pile of potatoes on the plate I was ensured a meal.

I was wrong, not only did both schnitzels go down but so did the potatoes. Seeing this amazing act, I quickly turned to my youngest who had wolfed down his bratwurst and was working on his fries.  I was left with a bite of pizza, a slice of cheesecake and a coffee.

This one night a week is dedicated to Patrick for rekindling love for the ever popular potato.

The first installment of One Night a Week is nothing fancy. Yesterday I went out and bought some cheap blu rays and 5th Element landed in the stack. My wife and I decided that we hadn’t see the movie in forever and our oldest son has interest in scifi and fantasy films. This little film fit the bill perfectly.

It’s a joy to watch plenty of good action, cheesy lines and some fantastic imagery. the scifi fantasy aspects are wonderful and one almost wishes they would spoil us with some kind of follow up. Great characters led by Bruce Willis and Gary Oldman.

Stayed tuned for next week.

Since I’m less than halfway there I’ve decided its time to kick into gear. Not that is hasn’t been in gear but now is the time to make that lasting impression. I’ve got my professional career which pays my bills, I’ve got the fwoosh which should do more than it is and I’ve got my customizing. All of this needs to result in something.

There is no midlife crisis to this, since I’ve been on my professional path there has been constant change and evolution. Starting out as a part time CSR at Blockbuster Video to being a Store Manager to wanting more and seeking employment at Office Max. After moving to Denmark I started part time on a migration project at Mobile Telecoms provider Sonofon, a chaotic time to join any company. The different roles and hats led to my work at another mobile provider where I learned more about defect management and release management. An amazing time where I learned an incredible amount. And finally my career is at Vestas where I continued my career as a Release Manager and Release Process Architect, leading me to my current role as a Service Architect for lack of better term.

Each step in my career has been a building one and continues to build knowledge and skill. And none of these positions are static, each are dynamic, intense, risky and temporary. I’ll never have a professional job that is static, operational, a 20 year position, they will always lead to change.

And throughout this there is customizing and fwoosh. Both have followed my career in the same way, except they’ve been more constant. I’ve been customizing action figures all my life and this skill continues to grow and improve. And the fwoosh has been a part of my life the last 10 years, celebrating its 10 year success this April. The past 10 years has been fantastic and challenging and I learn more and more each day but 10 years is gone. Technology and social media have changed and the focus of fwoosh has changed. It’s time to make the next leap.

I’m looking at the next 1 to 5 to 10 to 15 to 20 to 25 years, that’s what is left. Denmark is telling I have until age 64/65 and then I’m caput professionally. The next 25 years are going to whiz by, with my wife, kids, career, customizing, fwoosh; all 25 will go by in a heartbeat. Its time to do more than watch it go by, sit idly back and watch the back and forth. Its time to make a difference, 25 years is more than enough to reach my goals.

This is a custom that I am completed of a MOTU 200X Tri-clops.

The recipe of parts for this figure are:
DCSH Superman
MOTU 200X Tri-clops
Apoxie Fixit for sculpt

Paint apps were completed by my son.

This is a custom that I am completed of a MOTU 200X Faker.

The recipe of parts for this figure are:
DCSH Superman chest
DCSH Bizarro legs, arms and head
MOTU 200X He-man
MOTU 200x Skeletor
Apoxie Fixit for sculpt

Paint apps were completed by me.

This is a custom that I am completed of a MOTU 200X Trap-jaw.

The recipe of parts for this figure are:
DCUC Lex Luther knees/thighs
DCSH Superman Chest  and Arm
MOTU 200X Trap-jaw
Apoxie Fixit for sculpt

Paint apps were completed by my son and I.