A taste of spring

Helvetica is a fine font, wouldn't you say? It's so fine, in fact, that I make use of it in nearly every post on this here web log. Don't get too caught up on it, though, or you might end up as a person who loves Helvetica so much that they make a movie about it. That movie -- called Helvetica, of course -- was released in 2007 and apparently (I haven't seen it) is so good that it currently has a Tomatometer score of 88% (!) on Rotten Tomatoes. The mind boggles, does it not? But before you go falling too in love with this font, let me note one important thing: if you're reading this on a stock (i.e. no specially purchased additional licensed fonts pack installed) Windows machine, you're probably defaulting to the knock-off and far-inferior (and super lame) Arial. If you're on a Mac, however, and (I think) an iPhone or iPad, you're most likely experiencing this drivel in a beautifully flowing sans-serif wonderland of Helvetica. But enough about that and let's talk about the weather.

Today we had our first real taste of Bavarian spring for 2017. In fact, the mercury reached all the way up to 20 degrees Celsius at one point in the early afternoon. Not bad for February 23rd. I sincerely hope it's a preview of what is soon to come. Especially as we have some nice trips lined up in the pipeline for the coming months. In April we will spend a week in the northern Italian autonomous province of Südtirol. On the off-chance that Helga isn't super sick and we are forced to cancel the whole thing, we will experience mountain relaxation at its not-finest because Helga wouldn't allow that. Hopefully we'll have some nice weather though. Immediately upon our return I will head to the sunny South coast of France and spend a week on the Côte d'Azur as we once-upon-a-time often did back in the early 2010's. First I will be based in the resort town of Toulon where I will mix and mingle with the deep learning celebrities of 2017 at the International Conference on Learning Representations. I'll then most likely drift East-ward to visit friends in Antibes. If all goes according to plan, Joelle and Helga will join at this point for a family vacation.

What happens between then and late August is anyone's guess, but everyone knows that at some point during those intervening months we will have to find a way to do a little bit (actually a lot) of bicycling so that we don't embarrass ourselves too profoundly when we get to Copenhagen. I've heard rumours now that not only has Thony been performing daily 5AM trail runs around the shores of the Gothenburg peninsula, but he's also used his ill-gotten lawyer money to purchase carbon wheels (tubulars no doubt) and a Garmin Vector pedal-based power meter is on the way. He is playing a strong game of intimidation and at this point is winning. But we are early yet!

I better get to bed now. It's late and tomorrow morning Helga auditions for the Munich symphony baby orchestra. Cross your fingers for her!