http://uwmike.com Hacker, Engineer, Dancer, Gentleman Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:54:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 http://uwmike.com/articles/2009/01/05/dancing-feet/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2009/01/05/dancing-feet/#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:11:11 +0000 Mike Purvis http://uwmike.com/?p=502 http://uwmike.com/articles/2009/01/05/dancing-feet/feed/ 3 http://uwmike.com/articles/2008/07/08/in-three/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2008/07/08/in-three/#comments Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:57:25 +0000 Mike Purvis http://uwmike.com/?p=423 http://uwmike.com/articles/2008/07/08/in-three/feed/ 5 http://uwmike.com/articles/2008/04/03/swing-geeks/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2008/04/03/swing-geeks/#comments Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:58:43 +0000 Mike Purvis http://uwmike.com/?p=391 http://uwmike.com/articles/2008/04/03/swing-geeks/feed/ 6 http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/10/23/small-world/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/10/23/small-world/#comments Mon, 23 Oct 2006 04:57:54 +0000 Mike Purvis http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/10/23/small-world/ When I changed my banner image for the fall, it was more an act of defiance than as some sort of genuine reflection of the reality outside. We've now had several dustings of snow, and there was the small issue of my bicycle brakes being encased in ice, fused to the wheel. Anyhow, I ran into [Matthias Wandel](http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/) at [Swing Club](http://swing.uwaterloo.ca/) this afternoon---he's a UW grad, and has a number of really neat project writeups on his site. It was just funny that I was half-heartedly studying some circuits in the studio, and when I asked him about an [op-amp](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operational_amplifier) question, his response was more about what a useless circuit it was, than what exactly the filter behaviour would be. In other news, I seem to be getting the hang of [Tango](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_Tango) a bit more. It's a far simpler dance than [Lindy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_Hop), and certainly less flexible, but fun enough in its high-heeled, strutting sort of way. Like any of the more intimate dances, it's more about the subtle communication between partners than big showy spins and tricks.]]> http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/10/23/small-world/feed/ 2 http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/09/18/national-post-writer-learns-to-lindy/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/09/18/national-post-writer-learns-to-lindy/#comments Mon, 18 Sep 2006 18:32:00 +0000 Mike Purvis http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/09/18/national-post-writer-learns-to-lindy/ As they chatted while waiting for the dance to begin, one elderly gentleman in colourful shorts and mismatched knee socks was dancing up a storm with a partner half his age. With his right arm wrapped around his partner's back and his left hand gently holding her right hand, the man twirled her around the dance floor, unfurling the woman gracefully, then pulling her back into his embrace. It was a beautiful sight, but an anxiety-inducing one for me. I had reluctantly made my way to Lithuanian House because I wanted to learn how to move like that elderly gentleman. I hadn't always known I wanted to dance. In fact, I had lived my entire life unaware that I had such a desire. Catch the whole article [here](http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/artslife/torontomag/story.html?id=59ef8704-6c76-44b5-909e-d542bec0273e&p=1). (Alana is presently on sabbatical in Ottawa, but she was my teacher over the summer, and I fully second Karastamatis' review of her personality and instruction.)]]> http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/09/18/national-post-writer-learns-to-lindy/feed/ 0 http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/07/27/palais-royale/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/07/27/palais-royale/#comments Fri, 28 Jul 2006 01:44:51 +0000 Mike Purvis http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/07/27/palais-royale/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2006/07/27/palais-royale/feed/ 1 http://uwmike.com/articles/2005/05/15/ceili/ http://uwmike.com/articles/2005/05/15/ceili/#comments Sun, 15 May 2005 21:26:00 +0000 Mike Purvis http://dev.uwmike.com/articles/2005/05/15/ceili http://uwmike.com/articles/2005/05/15/ceili/feed/ 0