Originally from London I have been living the U.S. since 1995, which is a tad longer that the 18 month assignment I came out here for. I’m married to a wife that I don’t deserve and we have three wonderful kids.
I’m told that I am creative, irreverent, geeky and “sometimes scary”…(sic)
I have been in IT since the tender age of 16 and spend a good deal of my time playing with new gadgets and checking out new offerings, particularly in the open source world. For fun I created websites for friends and charities and that blossomed into a business creating websites for companies under the banner of “The Computer Whisperer“.
My British upbringing causes me to insult the people that I like, so any darts thrown your way are really a lame attempt at being friendly. Honest!
I like reading but tend to get most of my “reading” done these days via audio books, as I can do that while driving the car. Books that take a slightly sideways look at life (Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Notes from a Small Island and books by Scott Adams) will generally have me squirting drinks through my nose. But anything that causes me to look at life differently is engaging and I actually enjoy a well thought out argument / debate as long as everyone keeps it friendly.
I love driving and riding motorcycles but I take the art of doing that far too seriously for my own good. But that is also my favorite form of meditation and where I get most of my “good” ideas.
Other likes are Sci-Fi (my wife says “good sci-fi” is an oxymoron), Music, Food – especially cookies, Skiing, Scuba diving, and teaching. I play various sports well enough to not be an embarrassment, but not well enough to have people pick me for their teams.
Travel should be something on everyone’s agenda – it teaches you to roll with the punches and to realize that inconvenience is a misperceived adventure. And, yes, you should try those “funny” foods while you are there.
Claims to fame: Runner up in the 1974 under-12 Wittly-woods Hop-Scotch Championship.
Houldsworth's Random Ramblings 
Yo matey, bring it on , would love to see all those thoughts from all those times. Have read a few blogs that are basically written masturbation so don’t fall into the ‘who loves me?….. I do’ trap.
And yes you take driving waaay too seriously, but you haven’t crashed yet that I know about.
Best of luck buddy.
Here is another Sci-Fi fan.
Happy Weekend.
What about our mutal love of Fiscal?
Ahhh…But I’ve moved on. It’s not you…it’s me 🙂
Nice start barry, nice to have some time in your life to do things like this for once.
Reminds me a bit of the “risk homeostasis” days…
He’s baaaack!!
I haven’t yet worked back up to those levels…give me a few weeks 🙂
Hi Barry,
I myself have been hitch hiking around the galaxy. Let’s catch up and compare notes.
Les
Hey Houldsworth – my surname is “Holsworth” and I moved to the UK in early 1996 (I’m originally from Canada, but lived in the US for about 18 years as well). And we both have blogs on WordPress – how random is that? 🙂
Ah ha ha…”My British upbringing causes me to insult the people that I like.” I very much relate to that statement but I’m French Canadian.
Hi Barry:
I came over to check out your blog after your comment on Jane’s (They Call Me Jane) blog about not getting many comments…basically, generating comments is all about networking. I’ll celebrate a year of blogging on March 23rd…over the year, I’ve steadily built up a community of fellow writers whose work I admire (see my blogroll “He Said”, “She Said”, and “They Said”). I read and comment on their posts, and they often reciprocate (I also answer almost all comments on my blog). I have my blog posts linked to my Facebook account, so those friends and family who choose to read them have easy access.
I liked the posts of yours that I read, especially your Valentine’s Day tribute to your wife…very nice! As a teacher, you might enjoy my friend, EduClaytion (Clay Morgan)…he’s just launched a new site called “Pop Teacher.com” which is all about using pop culture to teach (he’s a college history professor). There are also lots of other cool people on my blogroll…check them out…I find it fun to “hook people up.”
I have subscribed…I will definitely comment!
Wendy
Wendy,
Thank you for the helpful advice – and for taking the time to comment :). I do already have my blog linked to Facebook. In fact most people then comment on FB rather than here.
Education is certainly an area that I am very interested in – in fact I have another education blog waiting in the wings (meaning I have the notes but not the blog). I definitely like the idea of using pop culture to boost education so I will check those sites out.
I do find the Twenty Ten template tends to hide the comment link somewhat – I even have to look for it myself – so I might switch to another template in the future. A shame because I actually like the look other than that.
Thanks again!
Barry
“My British upbringing causes me to insult the people that I like, so any darts thrown your way are really a lame attempt at being friendly. Honest!”
I suffer this all the time – reassuringly I also manage to insult or terrify UK natives too.
As Kermit said – “Its isnt easy being Green”