/* Rambling comments... */

Back from Skiing... Posted by Len at 18 Mar 2008 09:12 AM
I've been away skiing for a couple of weeks in Davos and St. Anton, the snow was pretty good in both places but Davos won out as a more civilised skiing experience. St. Anton was just too busy for me,...

Another useful piece for anyone in a relationship with a nerd... Posted by Len at 12 Nov 2007 09:45 AM
Once again Rands hits the nail on the head with The Nerd Handbook......

Update Posted by Len at 25 Dec 2006 06:09 PM
I'm back in the UK briefly on 28th and 29th December and then I'm off to Davos for new year... I'm back in the UK in early Feb and then ski guiding for the Ski Club of Great Britain in...

Meanwhile... Posted by Len at 30 Nov 2006 08:14 PM
Meanwhile, I'll continue doing slalom training in Tignes in the French alps... Beware, those poles are addictive!...

I passed! Posted by Len at 26 Sep 2006 07:06 PM
Well, today I discovered that I had passed the BASI Ski Instructor course that I've been taking in Argentina, so I'm now a Ski Instructor... We fly back from Bariloche to Buenos Aires on Friday and then onwards to the...

Ok, now I'm confused Posted by Len at 1 Apr 2006 07:11 PM
I've been looking at my web server log analysis and I have three peaks in my graphs for the last few days. The first big peak, 6,000 hits per hour, was on 28th March when my relationship break-up post was...

It must be a slow news day when... Posted by Len at 29 Mar 2006 06:51 PM
My relationship break-up posting gets linked to from CNN.com... And, of course, they put their own spin on it... However, as I mentioned in a reply to one of the comments on the original posting... "Actually, I wrote a much...

Table for one Posted by Len at 22 Mar 2006 08:26 AM
Sorry about the lack of technical postings for a while, this last month or so has been rather hard for me. On 13th February I became suspicious that something wasn't quite right with Michelle, my partner for the last...

Back from Megève Posted by Len at 5 Feb 2006 03:11 PM
I've been skiing for the last couple of weeks and now I'm back in London; normal service will resume soon....

Online autism "test" Posted by Len at 10 Jan 2006 11:31 PM
I scored a 28, which is "above average", so considerably nearer to Asperger's than it is considered to be "normal". Which, to be honest, seems about right to me. If nothing else, it might make you think... Via Steve Pavlina's...

Old friends Posted by Len at 25 Oct 2005 11:30 PM
I guess it's a combination of wine, Pink Floyd and the fact that this week the world wants to remind me that I'm older than I feel. Thoughts drift back to the past. Times past and friends forgotten. A long...

Cool Posted by Len at 19 Sep 2005 12:17 PM
Sometimes I think programmers find the wrong things "cool"... This cartoon kinda sums it up ;)...

Normal service will resume, sometime Posted by Len at 31 Jan 2005 01:55 PM
I'm currently based in Megève and my blogging (over here) has tended to be more about the skiing that I've been doing than the technical stuff. I expect I'll write a technical post or two later in the week... Perhaps......

My Sister is home Posted by Len at 30 Dec 2004 11:36 PM
Today we had a second Christmas celebration. Michelle and I and my sister and her boyfriend went to my parent's house for a meal. Michelle and I had spent Christmas with Michelle's family and my sister was away over Christmas so we'd planned to have our family Christmas today. This was all fine until Boxing Day when we saw the news about Asia. My sister and her boyfriend were spending Christmas in Sri Lanka...

Because we can Posted by Len at 1 Nov 2004 11:06 PM
Our trip is now only 2 months away so I thought it was about time that the trip's blog went live... MegèveSki, because we can...

An excuse to buy new tools Posted by Len at 15 Oct 2004 08:54 AM
Preparation for the ski season continues. Yesterday my latest purchase from amazon arrived; Waxing and Care for Ski and Snowboards. As we'll be putting down a few more tracks than normal this season I thought it wise to try and avoid having to pay for servicing the skis too often and finally learn how to do it myself. Luckily I have plenty of old skis laying around to practice on... Looks like I need to buy lots of new tools; cool!

Warren Smith Ski Academy - Sep 2004 Posted by Len at 5 Oct 2004 07:44 PM
As I mentioned last week, we've just got back from a week in Saas-Fee with Warren Smith. We've did this course last year as well, but due to the way the course is structured this didn't really matter much; for us this year's course built on last year's. The aim of the course is to develop the skills required to ski the whole mountain, regardless of conditions and terrain...

Red sky in the morning Posted by Len at 10 Sep 2004 08:34 AM
Looks like it's going to rain today...

Thoughts turn to snow Posted by Len at 22 Aug 2004 10:56 PM
The 2004/05 ski season starts for us in mid September when we're off to Saas Fee with Warren Smith again. Today we got our boots out and spent some time stomping around and practicing some of the jumping exercises that Warren had us do last time. We both have different boots to the last time we skied with Warren and they're more flexible and should work better with the kind of stuff he has us do. Since the ski season is approaching we've pulled the Skier's Edge machine out and we both spent some time on it today. Miche spends much more time in pre ski training than I do and last year it paid off so well I've decided that I should follow suit or soon I won't be able to keep up. It's potentially much more important this year as we're planning quite a busy season...

Skate weekend Posted by Len at 17 May 2004 04:50 PM
We managed to get in two skate sessions this weekend, which was nice. The weather was lovely and on Saturday we spent some time at Kensington Gardens. This was our third skate this year and we finally started to feel we'd got our legs back. On Sunday we were in Ilford, visiting my family, and just happened to have the skate gear in the car... We skated in Valentines Park for an hour or so; it was good. The path surfaces were pretty reasonable, better, in general, than Victoria Park. There was quite a lot of variety in paths, with some nice up-hill sections that really made you work.

Saas Fee in September Posted by Len at 20 Mar 2004 10:40 AM
Those of you who are interested in the Warren Smith Saas Fee ski training sessions you might like to take a look at Warren's latest DVD, Warren Smith Ski Academy Lesson 2. The first two sections, carving and steeps, were filmed during our course in September 2003. As you can see, the snow was pretty good and, as I said at the time, he had us doing some pretty interesting stuff. I think the freeride and moguls sections are from the course earlier in the year. With the whole group to choose from he had quite a lot of "don't do it like this" footage to exploit; I'm the guy in the carving section with the black helmet who's dropping his inside hand too low during the turn, quite pleased with the angle of both my skis though ;) We're off again for more of the same this year; but before that, a week in Megeve...

Most interesting present Posted by Len at 1 Mar 2004 10:16 AM
My birthday lasted all week, which was good. I celebrated on the day at Strada in upper street, on Friday at the Almeida and on Saturday at Curry Special. Thanks for all the wonderful presents. Right now the most "interesting" is probably the Vew-Do balance board that Chris and Hilary bought me... I'd really noticed a big improvement in my skiing from the extra balance work that I'd done during the summer on roller blades. The balance board could take that to the next level - at present the next level appears to be laying flat on my back...

Off to Saas-Fee again... Posted by Len at 20 Feb 2004 01:36 PM
We've just booked up with the Warren Smith Ski Academy again for another week of training in Saas-Fee. Not until early next season though :( But it's the first trip booked... Now, where and when to go this season...

How times change Posted by Len at 21 Dec 2003 12:22 PM
Today's job is putting up the Christmas tree. That involves climbing around in our storage space "loft". We didn't use the tree last year, so it's now got 2 year's worth of stuff in front of it. I feel like I'm digging back through my past to get to it. I've just pulled out my previous pair of skis. 2m+ Salomon Superforce 2S. Straight as a very straight thing. Towering a good 8 inches above me (I know... but I was young, and keen, and they were wonderful at the time). How I ever skied them I don't know. How I ever came down the moguls of Gunbarrel at Heavenly on them I don't know (poorly and with no style, I think are the words I'm looking for). Even my current Salomon X-Scream Series look long now at 187 (just over head height), but it was hard to change down from 2m+ to 17xs which is what the shop recommended back then. But given that even guides and instructors are skiing skis that are below head height now, I expect that next time around I'll be buying those 170s...

Video editing Posted by Len at 24 Sep 2003 07:08 PM
I've been editing videos on a PC for far too long. It's a lot easier than it used to be, but it still feels like it's not quite ready for prime time for non professionals. At least it's now reasonable easy to find room to store the masses of data that you need to manipulate when editing DV video, and the editing programs are better, and the special hardware is cheaper or no longer special. It's still very time consuming though, and don't mention DVDs...

Back from Saas-Fee Posted by Len at 22 Sep 2003 10:22 AM
The 2003/04 ski season has started. Well, for me at least. We spent the last week in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, in the hands of the Warren Smith Ski Academy. Great fun, hard work, highly recommended.

I know it's trying to help, but.. Posted by Len at 12 Sep 2003 07:17 PM
I'm editing a wedding video at present. I'm using Pinnacle Expression to write it to DVD. I have a dual xeon 2ghz machine with hyper threading enabled and it insists on using no more than 25% of my cpu...

BenSkating Posted by Len at 8 Sep 2003 10:34 PM
Michelle and I had a skate lesson with Ben Roberts on Saturday morning. It was a group lesson that ended up being just the two of us and which was really good and great value for money.

Run away to the alps Posted by Len at 5 Sep 2003 11:11 AM
I have a dream. I've just done coding for the day and I'm sitting in a hot tub on the deck of a glass fronted chalet overlooking the slopes; glass panels around the deck so that nothing obstructs the view. Think the really expensive places in Whistler and you're on the same page.

Art - by Catherine Purves Posted by Len at 18 Aug 2003 09:09 PM
We first saw Catherine Purves' work at a Hoxton art show, both of us loved the colour and texture of the pieces. We saw more of her work whilst visiting other local art shows but none of the pieces were...

Here comes the snow... Posted by Len at 13 Aug 2003 05:40 PM
So, it's been 35c here in London for the last week and, strangely, my thoughts have turned to snow... We're off to Saas Fee in September and I'm starting to do the 'check the resort web cam daily' thing. Having...

Skate Adicts Posted by Len at 11 Aug 2003 07:09 AM
We couldn't skate last weekend as we were in Dublin at the wedding. This weekend was going to be really hot in London (35C+) which isn't ideal skating weather. We decided to get up a bit early and skate before...

The Black Stuff Posted by Len at 7 Aug 2003 10:28 PM
We had a busy weekend. Michelle's brother Chris married Hilary in Dublin. Good fun was had by all and it was a wonderful few days. The wedding was in Castleknock and the reception was at The Four Seasons in Ballsbridge....

Twenty Eight Posted by Len at 15 Jul 2003 06:25 AM
So there are 10 guys on a stag weekend in Amsterdam. A decision to place a bet on 28 black was reversed at the last minute...

My Name is Len Holgate, and I'm a workaholic Posted by Len at 7 Jul 2003 06:19 AM
Given that the work I do goes on in my head and can be done anywhere I find that it's often done everywhere. Anyone got any hints on how to switch off?

Busy weekend Posted by Len at 6 Jul 2003 09:25 PM
We tried the new Carluccios on Upper Street on Friday night. Great food and excellent service. Back to watch the final Buffy (season 6) on DVD (so sad); glass or two of Glenfiddich, bug hunting and to bed. Up early...

Sunny day in Kensington Gardens Posted by Len at 23 Jun 2003 09:35 AM
We skated on The Broad Walk in Kensington Gardens on Saturday morning. Lovely place. Much nicer than "The Beach" in Hyde Park. Much quieter, wider, smoother and with a nice little hill......

Got skates, let's go! Posted by Len at 8 Jun 2003 10:24 PM
Spent the afternoon at Decathlon in Surrey Quays. Came away with a pair of Rollerblade Lightning 03's - which are probably a little over the top considering my lack of skill ;) but they were the most comfortable and smoothest...

Evanescence Posted by Len at 7 Jun 2003 12:32 AM
Miche did the spontaneous thing this week. After hearing "Bring me to Life" on the radio once she bought the Evanescence CD. Cool stuff. Very nice sound. Kind of All about Eve meets Skin from Skunk Anansie on vocals with...

Final skate lesson Posted by Len at 4 Jun 2003 11:07 PM
We had our last inline skating lesson tonight. Lots of recap on what we've done before, and lots of practice....

Matrix Reloaded & Animatrix Posted by Len at 3 Jun 2003 08:21 AM
Finally got around to seeing Matrix Reloaded on Sunday night. Then picked up the Animatrix yesterday. Before I read any reviews or blogs on the subject I thought I'd spout off on my own... (Contains spoilers and future plot speculation...)...

Victoria Park, The Crown, Matrix Reloaded Posted by Len at 1 Jun 2003 10:50 PM
Skated in Victoria Park, lunch at The Crown, Matrix Reloaded and a pizza at Strada. Top day ;)...

Bottle of Evian == cure for RSI? Posted by Len at 31 May 2003 01:15 AM
I used to have pretty severe problems with my shoulders and right arm. Mostly mouse related; I think. When it was really bad I had a lot of shiatsu, which worked well and helped remove the residual tension in my...

Hello? Posted by Len at 31 May 2003 12:23 AM
Just watched "28 Days Later" on dvd. Very cool. Very British - very non-Hollywood. Scary film. The best bit?...

Crossover turns and going backwards Posted by Len at 30 May 2003 09:19 PM
As promised this week's lesson had us doing crossover turns and the start of skating backwards....

Skating and Skiing Posted by Len at 21 May 2003 08:03 AM
Lesson three was on Monday. We did 'going faster' and parallel turns. I got on well with both. It's just a balance thing, which is good.

New flat pictures Posted by Len at 10 May 2003 11:52 PM
In March 2002 Vincent Hart, a freelance photographer, took some pictures of our flat with the intention of getting them published. His pictures appeared in the March 2003 edition of 25 Beautiful Homes....

Sk8er boy Posted by Len at 8 May 2003 09:04 PM
Last night I had my first inline skating lesson with city skate at Spitalfields....