
Yep, it's time for some new Flickr pics! The topic today: framing. <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-31-framing/374789306_d4f5b82a42_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Framed Virgin">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-31-framing/374789306_d4f5b82a42.jpg" alt="Framed Virgin"/>
</a>

**Virgin in a Chalice** - A statue of the Virgin Mary in Biarritz, France, framed in a chalice, the ancient symbol of the female goddess (for all 7 of you that have avoided The Da Vinci Code).

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-31-framing/374799546_294430dceb_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Gray Window">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-31-framing/374799546_294430dceb.jpg" alt="Gray Window"/>
</a>

**Gray Window** - Marga stands in the ruin of a house in the Ruta de Cares in Spain.

Have you ever seen a sky that blue?

And finally, I've saved the best for last....

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-31-framing/374802626_589b71136b_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Castle Window">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-31-framing/374802626_589b71136b.jpg" alt="Castle Window"/>
</a>

**Castle Window** - The view out a castle window in Extremadura, Spain, in 2004.


Framing


My buddy [Hubbers](http://www.hubbers.com/blog/?src=erikblog) directed me to this link at the New York Times.

[The State of the Union in Words: A Look at the 34,000 State of the Union Words Delivered of George W. Bush](http://www.nytimes.com/ref/washington/20070123_STATEOFUNION.html) It's only mildly interesting to me politically. I'm not surprised by any of the results I've found in a few minutes playing with it. What _is_ impressive to me, however, is the unique user interface to showing search results. I've never seen anything like it.

I love both the circles on the right to visualize hit counts and the way you can click on the highlighted words in the "text" of the speech and see the whole context surrounding the match at the bottom. Very clever and innovative if you ask me.

Play around with it for a bit. The "choose a word here" dropdown at the top is handy for search ideas.


Bush Speech Word Frequency


About a week ago, we started hearing noises from a neighboring apartment that, up until now, was completely silent. The noises were in the form of voices at 2:00 AM (from the wall that our bed is up against), some loud music, and recently some coughing and nose blowing consistent with someone with a cold. On Sunday morning, at 4:00 AM, we were awakened by some shouting. The "dialog" went something like this:

> \[man shouting angrily\]
> 
> \[whack!\] \[WHACK!\]
> 
> \[woman sobbing\]
> 
> \[some shuffling around the room\]
> 
> \[whack\]
> 
> \[woman sobbing louder\] Please no! Oh my god, stop! Don't hit me again! Please, god no! NOO!!
> 
> \[WHACK!\] \[WHACK!!\]
> 
> \[sobbing more quietly\]
> 
> \[more shuffling\]
> 
> \[silence\]

Marga and I were paralyzed with horror. Do you have any idea what it's like to be two meters from someone who is desperately pleading for their life? It's one thing if you're in prison, maybe, but we were in our own home!

Clearly, we can't just do nothing and pretend it didn't happen. We have a moral obligation to society to, at the very least, report such violence to the authorities.

And here we have entered into the moral labyrinth that is Domestic Violence. Do we tell the police? What will the police do? From what I understand of the issue, there is a very high probability that the woman will deny that such violence occurs. Do the police tell a special domestic violence agency about it and they go to confront the woman? Or both of them? Marga's pretty sure that she heard a small child enter the room and start crying during all the commotion. So we don't have just the woman's well-being to weigh upon us (not that that shouldn't be enough).

Domestic violence is the second most advertised deadly societal problem on Spanish television (the first being highway deaths due to excessive speed). There are all kinds of commercials about centers to call and statistics about how many women have died each month from spousal abuse.

We haven't yet reported this first incident. I think we're definitely going to call the police every time it happens in the future. That's as far as I think we should get ourselves into the situation. In the end, it's the woman's problem to overcome, not ours. We can't fight that battle for her. She might need some counseling to overcome it, and I'm happy for my tax money to pay for that counseling, but I'm not about to go ring their doorbell thinking that I can solve things myself.

At the same time, I'm both annoyed and grateful for this. It's annoying to be jerked from your ignorant bliss to have your empathetic heart suffer a vicarious beating and be morally obliged to take action. But I'm also grateful to be reminded what a great relationship we've got, where home is a peaceful sanctuary shielding us from the problems in the outside world, not a place to be afraid to enter.

Having thankfully never experienced this social phenomenon before, I don't really understand all the psychological dynamics of the situation. Does anybody have any ideas or advice about how to handle this?


Domestic Violence


One year ago, it snowed in Colindres. That was the only snow I've ever seen in our little town. All this past week, it's been trying to snow, and you can see snowy mountain peaks on the horizon, but the snow hasn't quite made it down to our sea-level elevation. These are some photos I took on January 28, 2006.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-28-the-great-snow-of-2006/538978178_c6866ed29e_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG1253">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-28-the-great-snow-of-2006/538978178_90356f1d87.jpg" alt="CIMG1253"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-28-the-great-snow-of-2006/538980614_cbb406cb98_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG1254">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-28-the-great-snow-of-2006/538980614_2de4559a43.jpg" alt="CIMG1254"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-28-the-great-snow-of-2006/538983456_ec1bd1c975_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG1255">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-28-the-great-snow-of-2006/538983456_73c35b2aa5.jpg" alt="CIMG1255"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-28-the-great-snow-of-2006/539103843_e134f92645_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG1256">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-28-the-great-snow-of-2006/539103843_489c339c51.jpg" alt="CIMG1256"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-28-the-great-snow-of-2006/538989148_63591036e1_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG1257">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-28-the-great-snow-of-2006/538989148_fead7bae1e.jpg" alt="CIMG1257"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-28-the-great-snow-of-2006/539109335_a60e84dd00_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG1258">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-28-the-great-snow-of-2006/539109335_40e4c53fc1.jpg" alt="CIMG1258"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-28-the-great-snow-of-2006/538994802_49a039bdc1_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG1259">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-28-the-great-snow-of-2006/538994802_259a9f5b09.jpg" alt="CIMG1259"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-28-the-great-snow-of-2006/539114903_96d3455586_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG1260">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-28-the-great-snow-of-2006/539114903_741792b2cf.jpg" alt="CIMG1260"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-28-the-great-snow-of-2006/539118051_1050e2428e_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG1261">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-28-the-great-snow-of-2006/539118051_19a4c3152e.jpg" alt="CIMG1261"/>
</a>

revver(44029)


The Great Snow of 2006


I just stumbled upon [this form](http://forge.objectweb.org/users/rasman1978/) for rating users of a developer's forum. I'll reproduce it here for those of you who are lazy and in case it goes away in the future.

**Teamwork / Attitude:**

Unrated 0 - Q 1 2 - Ferengi 3 4 - Federation 5 6 - Borg

**Code (Code-Fu):**

Unrated 0 - White Belt 1 2 - Orange Belt 3 4 - Green Belt 5 6 - Black Belt

**Design / Architecture:**

Unrated 0 - Block-Stacker 1 2 - Lego (r) Maniac 3 4 - Frank Lloyd Wright 5 6 - Leonardo Da Vinci

**Follow-Through / Reliability:**

Unrated 0 - None 1 2 - Politician 3 4 - Firefighter 5 6 - Robot

**Leadership / Management:**

Unrated 0 - Dr. Evil 1 2 - Monty Burns 3 4 - Don Corleone 5 6 - Muad'Dib

I was confused when I first opened the "Teamwork" dropdown, because I always kinda liked Q and hated the Borg.

I have to admit that I did not know who [Muad'Dib](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muad%27Dib) was. I'm not _that_ geeky!


Geektastic Rating Form


Two days ago, I thought I'd run a quick internet experiment to see if I could get [a fake article](/2007/01/22/makers-of-iphone-sue-apple/), clearly marked as a hoax, into the mainstream [blogosphere](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogosphere). It received [7 diggs](http://digg.com/apple/Makers_of_ipHone_sue_Apple_The_law_is_not_case_sensitive), and for a while this morning was the first result on a [google search for "iphone sue"](http://www.google.com/search?q=iphone+sue), outranking valid articles about the Cisco lawsuit from the BBC and other legitimate sources.

Unfortunately, no one felt compelled to pass my story along as legit. Oh well. It was a nice experiment.


Failed Hoax


We went to Mondragon this past weekend to arrange some wedding details. We didn't actually accomplish anything, but we are slightly more informed about photographers and priests. On Sunday, we went to a bar that specializes in grilled mushrooms, or "champiñones" in Spanish. At the bar, you order a few drinks and some orders of mushrooms ("champis"). The bartender shouts just the number (e.g. "cuatro!") back towards the kitchen. The kitchen doesn't need to know what you want four of, because it's only preparing one item.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-23-los-champis/539087207_62ef1cf092_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG2971.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-23-los-champis/539087207_24ec2c6e7b.jpg" alt="CIMG2971.JPG"/>
</a>

I took this picture from the bar. The bartender saw me and said, "What are you doing?" I thought, "Uh oh, he's upset." I said, "It's just such a beautiful sight...all those mushrooms on the grill." He said, "Well, then come around behind the bar and take a proper picture!"

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-23-los-champis/539090639_804f681584_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG2972.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-23-los-champis/539090639_0e69c16ea8.jpg" alt="CIMG2972.JPG"/>
</a>

They do a nice job of rotating the grills to always have freshly cooked mushrooms.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-23-los-champis/539092093_21fb14e4fd_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG2973.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-23-los-champis/539092093_3f339c7f91.jpg" alt="CIMG2973.JPG"/>
</a>

Juan delivers a full plate to the table. He sure is a fungi! (sorry, had to)

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-23-los-champis/538976764_5bc864be71_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG2974.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-23-los-champis/538976764_156138b8d4.jpg" alt="CIMG2974.JPG"/>
</a>

Marga's happy!

The previous times I've been to this bar, we've ordered one wine and one order (a piece of bread and a stack of 'shrooms on a toothpick) of mushrooms per person. But this time, Grandpa Ramón felt like ordering 18 orders of mushrooms for the eight of us. I delightfully volunteered to be one of the people to eat three. They're fantastic!


Los Champis


Back in 2001, a small start-up in North Carolina, called Mage Web Development, began developing an algorithm, similar to that of [traceroute](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traceroute), to locate the fastest path across the internet between two IP addresses. They called it "IP Hone" and they registered the trademark "ipHone". Legal experts say that this lawsuit could be much more devastating for Apple than that of Cisco. Ted Thomas, the attorney leading the case for Mage, explains that "Apple's big mistake here was to assume that the trademark search functionality at the US Patent Office was case insensitive. They searched for 'iPhone' and only found Cisco's expired trademark. But if they had searched for 'ipHone', they would have found Mage's trademark." Unfortunately for Apple, even if the trademark search engine is case sensitive, the law is not. According to US trademark law, Mage holds all rights to any case combination of these six letters (e.g. "IphOnE").

What Steve Jobs might not know is that Ted Thomas has won all 423 of his 423 trademark and patent cases, an astounding record. The patent clerk we interviewed, told us that Thomas, for his perfect litigation record, is known as the "Trademark Tycoon" around the US Patent Office.

Legal analysts on Wall St. have been unable to find a way out for Apple. Apple's stock has already begun falling since the Mage vs. Apple case has been officially filed. When we contacted Apple directly, the only comment they made about the case is, "We are very concerned."

This article is a hoax. Nothing about it is remotely true.


Makers of "ipHone" sue Apple


Whenever someone links to my blog, they get a "pingback" comment on my site that points back to their blog. I also get notified via email. Today, it was [spondicious.com](http://spondicious.com/revver-test-posting/), acknowledging me for creating my [Revver Plugin for Wordpress](/2006/10/24/revver-wordpress-plugin/). The video he used my plugin to post is pretty fascinating. It looks like software to place bets on horses in the middle of a horse race. It's definitely worth checking out.

revver(144534)

Crazy, huh?


Real-Time Horse Race Betting


In honor of my future father-in-law's 57th birthday yesterday, I thought I'd post my two favorite pictures of him. Danger Juan sounds kind of like a superhero. The theme song could go something like this. Sing it with me..

> He's Danger Juan, Danger Juan. Nothing scares him, he's got no fear. Danger Juan, Danger Juan. Wherever there's danger, he'll be near. Danger Juan, Danger Juan.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-18-danger-juan/361403933_e91f79096c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="What Peligro?">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-18-danger-juan/361403933_e91f79096c.jpg" alt="What Peligro?"/>
</a>

**What Peligro?** - Fearless Juan ventures to the cliff edge in Laredo, Cantabria, Spain.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-18-danger-juan/361408218_7e06d8002e_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Ancient Roman Latrine">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-18-danger-juan/361408218_7e06d8002e.jpg" alt="Ancient Roman Latrine"/>
</a>

**Ancient Roman Latrine** - Juan falls into an ancient Roman latrine in Mérida, Extremadura, Spain.


Danger Juan


Several weeks ago, Marga's employer invited all the employees out to a Christmas dinner. Somehow, Marga ended up managing the pool of money that was collected to pay for after-dinner drinks. When the night was over, there were 30€ left in the pool. It was decided that the remaining funds would be used to purchase lottery tickets. Due to the opening hours of the lottery ticket booth, I'm the one that has been going down there to buy the tickets. The first week, I bought three different numbers, with four tickets for each number. They have cleverly made each ticket cost 2.50€, which almost guarantees that no one will every buy an odd number of them. So I spent all 30€ on the 12 tickets.

Two of the numbers resulted in nothing at all. But the third matched the last two digits of the number drawn that week (a 1% chance), resulting in each of the four tickets I'd spent 2.50€ on being worth 6.00€, so we won 24€! Of course we didn't really win 24€, what really happened is that we _lost_ 6€ of our original 30€!

So the second week, I had to go back to the lottery booth and buy more tickets. This time, I bought two numbers, four tickets each, and ended up with 4€ extra. I didn't feel like buying an odd number of tickets and dealing with the extra sub-euro change.

Keep in mind that our goal here is to get rid of the money. The second week, one of the numbers matched the last digit (a 10% chance), resulting in each of those four tickets being worth 2.50€ (the purchase price). So I bought four more tickets for this Friday. Hopefully, we'll lose the rest of the money (a 90% chance)...

I'm buying the tickets with [ONCE](http://www.once.es/), one of the many lottery systems available here in Spain. ONCE, pronounced "own-they", from what I can tell, stands for the "Organización Nacional de Ciegos" (National Organization of Blind People). It's an organization that _only_ hires disabled people. So, by purchasing lottery tickets, you're helping employ disabled people.

What a perfect way to combine the probability-blind, lazy, human greed for free money with the desire to make an altruistic donation to a charitable organization. It almost makes playing the lottery not such an idiotic thing to do.

And what a great way to get rid of surplus common funds from a night out...except for the poor schmuck who didn't even get to go out and that has to go buy tickets every week when you keep winning.

"once" is also the Spanish word for "eleven".


Once - Greedy Altruism


A couple years ago, I was strumming along randomly to a G-C-D pattern (in this case it's really A-D-E) when I noticed that I was playing [Wild Thing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Thing_%28The_Troggs_song%29). I learned the dozen words that make up the lyrics and was jamming along, when my brain switched songs on me, and I started singing [Louie Louie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louie_Louie). revver(141340)

[Download here](http://media.revver.com/qt;sharer=20700;download/141340.mov). (10.6 MB)

It seems like there are [round](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_%28music%29) possibilities here.


Wild Louie


Yesterday, I received an email from a Hollywood actor. His name is Miguel Pérez, and he has [a pretty impressive IMDB page](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0702296/) full of small parts in big name television shows and movies, including Seinfeld, 24, ER, Ocean's Eleven, and Million Dollar Baby.

He's working on the website for [French Maid TV](http://frenchmaidtv.com/), the sexiest technical instruction video blog on the internet. It was one of the first video blogs available on iTunes, as I recall, back when the term video blog was being invented about a year ago. For a geeky, twenty-something, heterosexual male such as myself, could there be anything better than a group of pretty women with French accents in French maid costumes giving technical advice? I don't think so. I was a fan from episode #1.

Anyway, Miguel contacted me because he had a question about my [Revver Plugin for Wordpress](/2006/10/24/revver-wordpress-plugin/). The popularity of both [Wordpress](http://wordpress.org/) and [Revver](http://www.revver.com/) are growing rapidly, and, so far, the only plugin that makes them work well together is mine.

Miguel's company, [Perez Creative Assignments](http://www.pcatoday.com/), seems to specialize in doing headshot photography for aspiring young Californians.

It's just weird to communicate with someone who, although not incredibly famous himself, has been a part of some of my favorite movies and television shows. I watched his episode of 24 that I have on DVD. He had about 4 or 5 lines and his scene involved [Elisha Cuthbert](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0193846/), an actress who was completely unknown before being cast for 24.


Email From Hollywood


When I [predicted](/2006/11/09/the-black-box/), on November 9, 2006, that the future of mobile phones would be a device that also played MP3's, took pictures, played games, organized contacts and email, and, most importantly, _be only a screen with no physical buttons_, I was expecting it to take several more years before such a product really existed. Yesterday, Apple announced the [iPhone](http://www.apple.com/iphone/). No buttons. No moving parts. Sheer technological beauty. Available in June 2007 for $499.

Tech geeks around the world are drooling over the gadgetry goodness of this device.


I Told You So


In response to my [Night Pics From Around Town](/2007/01/03/night-pics-from-around-town/) post a few days ago, my Uncle Neil sent me this email and picture...

> Good Morning Erik, I took the attached picture just a few minutes ago. This Underwood typewriter belongs to your grandmother. This is the first typewriter your father touched when he was a boy. Do you think he said, "Wow! Look at that! It's an analog word processor!" Actually he used to pound the keys, pretending it was his baby brother, until several of the letters were jammed together.
> 
> Erik do you believe in genetic memory? Why is it that a black lab will retrieve every tennis ball? Husky sled dogs love to travel. Are computers basically digital word and photo processors?
> 
> I wrote all my undergraduate and graduate papers with this machine. If you would like to have it you can but I don't know how to crate it and it weighs close to 40 pounds. I would have to be inspired to do that. It still works as good as it ever did. Carol and the whole family will tell you that it built great strength in the little finger of your left hand trying to make a firm "a". If it was an important paper you usually emphasized the "a" using another finger.
> 
> Thanks for keeping up your blog. I never go anywhere on the weekends myself.
> 
> Feel free to use any part or all of this message. In fact I would like to see the photo on your blog.
> 
> Neil Rasmussen

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-08-typewriter-heirloom/539199960_6fcc2d17ff_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Underwood">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-08-typewriter-heirloom/539199960_8ac26ffccc.jpg" alt="Underwood"/>
</a>

Thanks for the heirloom offer. If I lived a thousand miles closer, I might accept it. It might look cool in my office next to all my high tech equipment.

Do I believe in genetic memory? Well, unfortunately [genetic memory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_memory) is not a politically correct term these days, but I understand what you mean. All the cool kids these days call it [evolutionary psychology](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_psychology) or EP.

Of course I believe that certain species instinctively _know_ how to do things. It's a scientific fact. Bird and fish migration comes to mind as the most obvious example. Specifically explaining the mechanisms behind it is another thing. Presumably hundreds of PhD students are working on EP studies right now.

As for your extension of EP to suggest that I was predisposed from the womb to end up typing on a keyboard right now, I think that's stretching it too far. My parents are intelligent and were interested immediately in the mechanics of the first early personal computers, but I don't think that has anything to do with typewriters or an innate desire to produce legible documents. My interest in computers is almost entirely environmental, in my opinion. But then, I'm also the son of a [Skinner](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burrhus_Frederic_Skinner) Behaviorist. Any genetic predisposition to my profession came in the form of a logical, organized mind with a love of solving problems with creative, elegant solutions. With these traits, if I had been adopted by other parents, I could just has well have been an architect or an auto mechanic or a detective or a lawyer or a doctor. Okay, maybe not the last two. I have a distaste for rote memorization.

Thanks for contributing, Uncle Neil!


Typewriter Heirloom


For the [Epiphany](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphany_(Christian)) yesterday, Marga's parents, Uncle Antonio and Aunt Manoli came to visit us. We went for a walk around town, and then had lunch in a local restaurant. <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-07-epiphany-in-colindres/539067759_6913c9ca58_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG2955.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-07-epiphany-in-colindres/539067759_f5f66b2e32.jpg" alt="CIMG2955.JPG"/>
</a>

The Christmas decorations in Laredo have been particularly lame this year. We think that it's some kind of political statement about municipal funding from the town hall. Parachuting stars?

In contrast, the town hall of Colindres, yesterday, was roasting an entire cow. It was split in two and put on a rotisserie. They had just started cooking it at 1:00 PM when we were on our way to lunch, and they began serving people at 8:45 PM. It takes a long time to cook a whole bovine carcass.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-07-epiphany-in-colindres/538953086_cdc35f4a3a_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG2957.JPG">
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For one euro ($1.31), they gave you a piece of a bread, a slice of beef worth about four bites, and a plastic cup of wine.

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We went through the line twice. All six of us had dinner for 12€ ($15).

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Manoli, Marce, and Marga waiting in line.

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A good view of the rotisserie mechanism.

Inside a big tent, they were showcasing food and drink from various regions of Spain. I took a video of this guy pouring some apple cider the traditional Asturian way.

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Epiphany In Colindres


A few pictures I took last week around Colindres. <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-03-night-pics-from-around-town/536751527_d0ced81aed_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG2932.JPG">
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What a beautiful gradient color change in a cloudless sunset.

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Zoomed out showing the whole horizon, as seen from our house.

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For Christmas 2005, this street had lights representing the three wise men. This year, they went with a more secular myth. Although it looks like Santa has fallen out somewhere along the way and the reindeer have free rein.

The Spanish, you see, are very confused about Christmas. As [this article](http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_8020.shtml) from my favorite online Spanish news site explains, the invasion of American culture and icons has the Spanish children expecting presents from Santa (they call him Papa Noel) on Christmas morning and then again from the more traditional "some guy broke into the house and left you a present" three wise men on January 6th.

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I liked this typewriter in a local shop window. If you look carefully, you'll notice the "í‘" key to the right of the "L" (to type that character, I switched keyboard layouts and hit the semi-colon key).

Of course now I have to tell The Typewriter Story...

When I was in first or second grade, my father, in an attempt to promote the local computer store he'd recently opened, offered to give a demonstration about computers to the local elementary school teachers. I was enlisted to help, and he and I gave a presentation in the school library to the teachers. While in the library, I saw the first typewriter I'd ever seen (or noticed), and I told my father, "Wow! Look at that! It's a keyboard connected directly to a printer! You don't even need the computer!"

Of course, I remember nothing of the incident and am telling what I recall my father telling me. Perhaps if I've made an error, he can correct in the comments. But it definitely sounds like something I'd say.

Occasionally, during one of the half dozen times I use a pen or pencil every year, my brain will flash through the mechanics of how my input could be digitally read and the written via printer. Crazy, isn't it?


Night Pics From Around Town


New Year's Eve is called "Noche Vieja" ("old night") in Spanish. The wisest thing my driving instructor told me a couple weeks ago during my relicensing was, "The holiday season is great when you have everybody, but it really sucks when you're missing someone." This year's New Year's celebrations were somewhat dampened by the fact that one of Marga's uncles died in February 2006. His widow, Aunt Marga, was understandably sad all weekend, not wanting to say adios to the last year she began with her husband.

On Saturday morning, I went with Juan to "milk the chickens", as he says.<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-02-noche-vieja/536644916_6ba8cbf483_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG2937.JPG">
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The roosters are kept in the far pen, separate from the hens.

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I took this picture for wascawy-wabbit-cwaving [Uncle Neil](/2006/12/28/the-best-christmas-gift/#comment-307).

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I have a lot of pictures of this mountain, taken from where Juan has his chickens, but the sun was hitting it so nicely, that I couldn't resist another shot.

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Chicken feed, chicken wire, and some hungry roosters.

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One white one and about six red ones.

After lunch on Sunday, Grandpa Ramón said he wanted to walk up to the cemetery. They go up there pretty often these days. The Spanish are gravestone mourners. Some genius decided to put the cemetery halfway up a mountain. Everyone looked at Grandpa with a "you're too old to walk all the way up there!" expression. With a full tummy and a big feast coming that night, I offered to walk with him up to the cemetery. It did turn out to be a lot of steps and walking up a long steep road, but at an octogenarian's pace, it was a pretty trivial climb for my 28-year-old cardiovascular system. With the exception of wanting to warm a bench about 200 yards from the finish line, Grandpa made it just fine the whole way. He really is an ox. When we got to Uncle Jose Luis' grave, Ramón thanked me for coming with him. Those "you're too old" stares annoy him.

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I took this in the cemetery parking lot. I'm not sure what the sign means. I'm pretty sure it's not pointing you to some restrooms a third of a mile away. Loo might be a place, [like Poo is](http://maps.google.com/maps?q=poo%20spain). \[snigger!\]

The traditional staple of the New Year's Eve feast is shrimp. Lots of shrimp. Uncle Antonio brought this great electric pan for cooking them.

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Mmmm!! Steaming arthropods!

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Chef Antonio.

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The family awaits.

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Belén and Grandpa Ramón.

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Juan and Uncle Ramón.

Once, in the middle of the meal, out of nowhere, Juan said, "I wonder what Paul and Betsy are doing now. They're probably out with the dogs, since it's still early evening there." This prompted Uncle Ramón to say, "Wow, you even know the names of their dogs!" I jumped in with a, "No, those are the names of my parents," embarrassing Uncle Ramón. I went on to explain that it was a pretty simple mistake to make, and I pointed out that the names of the women across the table from me, Manoli, Marga, Marcelina, and Inés, are all weird enough to the American ear to be pet names, especially since they have no real translation to an English name, unlike Juan (John) or Ramón (Raymond). I said that my parents' names _do_ actually translate to Spanish equivalents: Pablo and Isabel.

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Aunt Marga helps her brother Antonio make a lemon-champagne sorbet.

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Lemon ice cream and champagne.

We went out to some bars after dinner and the midnight grape consumption ritual, but we weren't much in the mood for loud music and alcohol, so we walked home and were asleep by 4:00 AM.

Somewhere in the conversation, Uncle Ramón started telling me about a cucumber liqueur that he has. So on Monday, before we left, he brought some over for me to try. It was pretty good. I leave it to you to figure out how they get the cucumber in the bottle...<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-01-02-noche-vieja/538786464_df28591d21_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG2954.JPG">
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Yes, there really is a cucumber in the bottle.

¡Feliz año nuevo!


Noche Vieja


We've finally reached the Year of Bond. I encourage everyone to avoid saying, "two thousand seven", and instead, say, "two double-oh seven". Doesn't that just sound cooler?


19 posts from January, 2007