Present Perfect

After not having been to London for over 5 years, I'll be going not once.... not twice... but three times this month! First stop is tomorrow morning, to go see Spiritualized perform their seminal 'Ladies and Gentlemen we are floating in space' with choir and horns. I think I listened to that disc for a full 9 months when I got it.

So, recommendation time - give me your best record stores in London please!

After not having been to London for over 5 years, I'll be going not once.... not twice... but three times this month! First stop is tomorrow morning, to go see...

8 years ago I had a lot of fun at, I think, Hacking in Progress. This year it's
Hacking At Random, again in Holland. I was actually planning to go there (for one thing, I really want to learn how to pick locks), but with all my travel plans for this summer already it was just getting too much. Since this is a 4-year event, I'll probably regret not going two years from now...

I still remember the first time I was lying in my sleeping bag in a tent, with an ethernet cable running to it, and being in the bag and online with the laptop.

Anyway, it's a small consolation that there are
live streams up and running from over there using Flumotion, set up by Raphaël.

8 years ago I had a lot of fun at, I think, Hacking in Progress. This year it's Hacking At Random, again in Holland. I was actually planning to go...

Just noticed, while planning holidays with Kristien, that this year's GUADEC/Desktop Summit actually has its core days on the weekend. In the past I always remember them being during the week, in the center, with the fringe stuff before and after.

Bummer - I have two weddings, one on the starting weekend and one on the ending weekend, so while I was looking forward to going, maybe it doesn't make so much sense after all to go if I'll have to miss half of the core stuff already...

Just noticed, while planning holidays with Kristien, that this year's GUADEC/Desktop Summit actually has its core days on the weekend. In the past I always remember them being during the...

Tomorrow I'm leaving on an 8 day snowboarding trip. This time however, after some people dropped out for various reasons (weddings are a reason these days, go figure), we end up being just two. My best friend and me. It took us all of 10 seconds to decide whether we should still go or not.

How often does one get the chance to be 10 years younger again for just one week ? And how often do you get that chance having the experience and resources of someone 10 year older ?

I've been thinking about things I want to do that week. My current plan is that we should go up the mountain at the end of the day with sleeping bags and plastic, make an iglo, sleep in the iglo, and ride down first thing in the morning, before the lifts are open. And then go up the lifts again together with the first people, and have first slope - again.

I realize 80% of the readers have checked out by now. For those still here, please send in your tips, suggestions and comments. I don't even know if what I want to do is legal, let alone safe, and Google isn't helping me much. Anyone ever built an iglo at a ski resort to sleep in ?

Suggestions I've already had from friends:

• don't
• if you have to, do it in an area with trees (so the dozers don't flatten you)
• if you die I'll hate you forever
• I don't want to read about you in the paper
• make holes in the iglo to not get snowed in and die of asphyxiation (actually that one's from the net)
• seriously, don't

I should actually call up my dad - he actually builds an iglo and sleeps in it at night in his garden here in Belgium any time there is enough snow. I have bad memories of being forced as a child to go out there in the snow with bad gloves rolling up blocks for his iglo.

Tomorrow I'm leaving on an 8 day snowboarding trip. This time however, after some people dropped out for various reasons (weddings are a reason these days, go figure), we end...

1) I run into Jan in the bathroom (we used to work together). After a subdued 'Hi, how are you?' we finish our business, and go outside. Jan says 'OK, now we can hug!' Hugging ensues. I ask 'so you couldn't hug me in the bathroom just before ?' 'Nah, that would just have been awkward.'

2) Lennart, after he makes the obligatory inapropriate Belgian/children jokes, tells us the only joke he knows, then messes up the ending. If you meet him, ask him about crocodiles and male appendages. He tried to make up for it by telling his mother's favourite joke but I'm not sure I got it.

3)
Me: "Hey Jan, I have this patch I want you to look at before commiting to gst-plugins-good."
Jan: "Well, that's too bad, we're frozen for release for good."
Me: "Frozen for good ? You bastard, so I'll never get to commit my patch ?"
Maintaining GStreamer has gone to his head, I tell you.

1) I run into Jan in the bathroom (we used to work together). After a subdued 'Hi, how are you?' we finish our business, and go outside. Jan says 'OK,...