
According to my mother, my grandfather used to say:

> Grandpa \[in the morning\]: It's a good day for the race! Another person: What race? Grandpa: The _human_ race!

Yesterday, Colindres hosted its annual "Bajo Asón" 10 kilometer race. <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/986065806_738b5ffc8b_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3300.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/986065806_9080921439.jpg" alt="CIMG3300.JPG"/>
</a>

White daisies ("margaritas") take over the local park in Colindres.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/985240465_a9a67f196c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3301.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/985240465_43aa24fd37.jpg" alt="CIMG3301.JPG"/>
</a>

Belén wins an imaginary race.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/985259837_96236bd783_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3302.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/985259837_a90208c20b.jpg" alt="CIMG3302.JPG"/>
</a>

Just before the race began.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/985263085_6145fbe648_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3303.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/985263085_2d25e5de6f.jpg" alt="CIMG3303.JPG"/>
</a>

The video this guy on a quad recorded couldn't have been very steady.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/985265825_10ce4fec7a_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3304.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/985265825_d8408c1297.jpg" alt="CIMG3304.JPG"/>
</a>

I love this shot. Pistol in the air, and every participant with their finger on their watch.

And they're off! revver(251205)

Did you notice the guy at the very end with the prosthetic leg? If not, here he is on his second lap (there were four laps in total, two small and two big).

revver(251207)<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/985276853_6ecb26797f_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3306.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/985276853_5c0598352d.jpg" alt="CIMG3306.JPG"/>
</a>

The clock over the finish line.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/986132026_4b1f44ea91_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3310.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/986132026_96749ca747.jpg" alt="CIMG3310.JPG"/>
</a>

The winner, with the runner-up really trying. The winner beat the local record of 30:10 by 4 seconds, with 30:06.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/985292197_0ce17bff26_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3311.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/985292197_d867d68ba9.jpg" alt="CIMG3311.JPG"/>
</a>

There were _plenty_ of trophies!

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/985302721_4edf83b69c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3312.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/985302721_32faa8d8d9.jpg" alt="CIMG3312.JPG"/>
</a>

There are a lot of overloaded fruit trees in Colindres.

After the race, we went over to the town hall square to hear a band from Santoña, a local fishing village, sing traditional folk songs about their town, and fishing boats, and fishermen that miss their wives at home, and little kids that dream of one day becoming fisherman.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/985310301_d7665a4e78_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3314.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/985310301_79048e8c75.jpg" alt="CIMG3314.JPG"/>
</a>

The band takes the stage in the "kiosko". [Just like José said they did](/2007/03/02/town-gazebo/).

revver(251210)

Their second song was accompanied by some amateur interpretive dance...

revver(251215)

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/985328649_b21597b052_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3317.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-good-day-for-the-race/985328649_7b09e51a07.jpg" alt="CIMG3317.JPG"/>
</a>

Tired dancers.


A Good Day For The Race


Today, Marga's parents, Marga, and I walked the entire length Laredo's beach. In the morning, we walked from where we usually park to the very tip of the Laredo's sandy peninsula and back again. And then, after lunch, we parked in the same place and walked in the other direction until the end. The section of beach that we walked measures 5 kilometers, so we walked 10 km in total, just like [the race yesterday](/2007/04/29/a-good-day-for-the-race/). It was drizzly in the morning and cloudy in the afternoon, but when we finally finished, the evening skies cleared and the sun warmed our faces.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-walk-in-laredo/986061777_83afcbe10e_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3327.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-walk-in-laredo/986061777_17109b31e6.jpg" alt="CIMG3327.JPG"/>
</a>

Mother and daughter rest after a long walk.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-walk-in-laredo/986943208_366cfd28f4_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3328.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-walk-in-laredo/986943208_b5c10b690f.jpg" alt="CIMG3328.JPG"/>
</a>

Some of the palm trees are quite squat, and they look like giant pineapples.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-walk-in-laredo/986954538_d256583bdd_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3329.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-walk-in-laredo/986954538_6f3747e265.jpg" alt="CIMG3329.JPG"/>
</a>

The sun reflecting off the water.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-walk-in-laredo/986958150_adf9ece94f_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3330.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-walk-in-laredo/986958150_bf56ca5b87.jpg" alt="CIMG3330.JPG"/>
</a>

A house with a view.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-walk-in-laredo/986109381_7d9a81012f_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3331.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-walk-in-laredo/986109381_ee6c41ed7c.jpg" alt="CIMG3331.JPG"/>
</a>

This gray concrete tower is an ugly zit, high on the, otherwise attractive, face of Laredo. You can see the damn thing for miles and miles. We think it's apartments, or maybe a hotel. Anyway...we were sitting at a sidewalk cafe having a beer and complaining about the ugly tower, when Marga said, "Look, the moon is rising!"

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-walk-in-laredo/986986512_d020857dd4_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3333.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-walk-in-laredo/986986512_197d600489.jpg" alt="CIMG3333.JPG"/>
</a>

On the way back to the car, we walked through the richer section of Laredo, with towering hedges to keep out curious eyes.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-walk-in-laredo/986998992_948931a8c4_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3334.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-29-a-walk-in-laredo/986998992_f410bb68ae.jpg" alt="CIMG3334.JPG"/>
</a>

Thankfully, the town hall of Laredo thought to put these nice glowing crystal orbs to let people know when nightfall arrives.

Oh, and if you missed it, there were two important births in Spain this weekend:

- [The second daughter of the prince of Spain](http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_10180.shtml), named Sofia (after his mother, the Queen). She'll be third in line to the throne after her father and sister.
- [A two-faced cat](http://news.google.com/news?ned=es&ncl=1154350378&hl=es). (with pics!)


A Walk in Laredo


I watched the first debate in South Carolina over the internet this morning. I thought I'd post a few thoughts here. The problem with our democratic system, and why no one trusts politicians and no one likes the either of the two choices they are ultimately faced with on election day is that, in trying to appeal to voters on both sides of an important issue, the candidates have to ride the fence in the middle and say contradictory statements. Conservative voters will ultimately find the two final candidates to be too liberal, and liberal voters will ultimately find the two candidates to be too conservative.

Hillary and Barack are already shifting too close to the middle for my tastes. Dennis Kucinich, who, I'm a little embarrassed to admit, I had never seen speak until today, said almost _exactly_ what I would want my chosen candidate to say. One statement of his particularly stuck with me for its clarity and power over the other candidates:

> I think it's inconsistent to tell the American people that you oppose the war and, yet, you continue to vote to fund the war. Because every time you vote to fund the war, you're reauthorizing the war all over again.

Please re-read that at least once more. You can't say that you're upset that your child is obese, and then obey him when he tells you to bring him a bag of potato chips without getting up from his video game console. Well, you _can_, but you'd be lying. Actions don't lie. And in the case of congressmen (I'm sorry Hillary, but "congresspeople" just sounds silly), it's your votes that don't lie. The fact that Kucinich has never voted for the war, even back in 2002, when we were all duped by the "faulty intelligence". That wins him some points in my book.

One quick complaint about this chart that I found on [this article from the San Diego Tribune](http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070427/news_1n27debate.html) (it was the top on my Google News page):

[![Candidate Chart](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-27-first-donkey-debate/dems_small.jpg)](http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070427/images/dems.jpg "Click it, it'll open in a new window!")

The plus and minus rows are pretty stupid and sound unprofessional. But my real complaint is the "Celebrity donors" row. _WHO CARES!??!_ Do people really decide to vote for who Jerry Springer, Tom Hanks, or Don Henley are endorsing? That seems pretty sad to me.

Now, how much which _corporations_ are donating to each campaign would be much more interesting, mainly because it would help measure bias in news coverage.

That's all for now. Comments more than welcome.


First Donkey Debate


I honestly wasn't expecting any results from the first day of the [Cactus Cam](/projects/cactus-cam/) project. But when I went to review the first day's timelapse video, I saw this: (keep an eye on those little buds!) revver(247541)

Absolutely nothing, right? You saw those minutes and hours fly by. Nothing happened.

But if you [download the video](http://media.revver.com/qt;sharer=20700;download/247541.mov) and zing the quicktime slider back and forth to speed up the video, this is what you'll see:

revver(247487)

Crazy, huh? Keep in mind that it only grew, and then I reversed the video to make it "exhale". If you still didn't see any movement, watch it again. You can [download it](http://media.revver.com/qt;sharer=20700;download/247487.mov), if you want.

One thing that making [timelapse videos](/category/timelapse/) will teach you is that no object is inanimate on the right time scale.

Hopefully, when it starts flowering, we'll see clear movement on the "one day in 18 seconds" time scale of the first video. Stay tuned!


It Moved!!!


Sometimes I get the feeling that local governments really struggle to find things to spend money on. They are currently totally redoing the entrance to Laredo, creating a round-a-bout where there was very little need for one, and changing the sidewalk tiles to a different style.

In Colindres, they're doing the same. The town hall is dragging its feet in constructing the municipal swimming pool that residents have been begging for for years, and they've begun work on an area in the very center of downtown. <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-25-downtown-construction/542397314_728937b784_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="colindres-center-pan">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-25-downtown-construction/542397314_0f8fbc3331.jpg" alt="colindres-center-pan"/>
</a>

I recommend clicking on the picture to download the big version. It's 10051x3634 pixels and 4.4 MiB, so be patient. It should give you a nice idea of what downtown Colindres is like.

This area that you can see outlined by the newly budding trees used to be just an asphalt basketball court surrounded by a chain-link fence. It was very much like the "inner city rapper growing up in the projects playing b-ball" imagery that Hollywood and the Hip-Hop music business likes to show. It was nice to have a central place for children to play soccer and basketball without fear of the ball bouncing into the street.

It was kind of an eyesore having a big fence in the middle of downtown, but it was also the only place for children from ages 8 to 18 to meet up and get some exercise in relative safety from vehicles. From what I've heard, they are going to tear it up and build a playground aimed at a younger audience. I don't know the motivation. Perhaps there are more young parents voting for the mayor. Call me a cynic, but I suspect that it's more likely that the idea came from a construction company that took the mayor out for a few drinks and got the contract. Whatever the reason, I can't vote, and I don't care enough to rouse registered voters into action, so I'll just complain about it here.

In another part of town, I saw that someone had taken a jackhammer to this perfectly good sidewalk.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-25-downtown-construction/542453228_3ec3278320_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3294.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-25-downtown-construction/542453228_c7e97ac55c.jpg" alt="CIMG3294.JPG"/>
</a>

Either that, or we had [another hail storm](/2007/03/21/one-hail-of-a-storm/).


Downtown Construction


One way that Spain is much better than America is that they choose to censor violence more than nudity. It's quite common to see a naked breast on a television commercial for, say, body lotion. I've seen nudists interviewed on the national news with no censorship blurring. It isn't a big deal because people don't make a big deal of it.

This afternoon, I went out onto our balcony to set up the [Cactus Cam](/projects/cactus-cam/), and what do I see on a neighboring balcony, but **five young women, _completely naked_, basking in the sunshine**! So I raced into the house to grab my camera and snap these exclusive photos! <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-24-nude-sunbathers/539994061_014ee89002_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3296.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-24-nude-sunbathers/539994061_d6faff328c.jpg" alt="CIMG3296.JPG"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-24-nude-sunbathers/539992619_1b7923091f_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Nude Sunbathers!">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-24-nude-sunbathers/539992619_be293031e0.jpg" alt="Nude Sunbathers!"/>
</a>

I can't wait to see what kind of search terms people find this post with...


Nude Sunbathers!


The church where the [wedding](/wedding/) ceremony will take place in Mondragon is called San Francisco. Any Catholic veterinarians will know that [St. Francis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi) is the patron saint of animals. But apparently [there are four St. Francises](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Francis), so who the heck knows which one the church is named after.

We didn't go with the other main historic church in Mondragon because it doesn't have a center aisle. So that won't do for a wedding!<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-23-the-church/542304426_ac512ad49c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3166.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-23-the-church/542304426_8bb2adb0b9.jpg" alt="CIMG3166.JPG"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-23-the-church/542412267_52614f790b_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3168.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-23-the-church/542412267_54a5248e39.jpg" alt="CIMG3168.JPG"/>
</a>

The white building on the right is the new library [that we entered this past weekend](/2007/04/22/glass-in-mondragon/).

There shall be no jokes about throwing [Rice-A-Roni](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mricearo.html "The San Francisco Treat") at the bride and groom.


The Church


After staring for a minute or two at the seemingly disparate photos that I took this weekend while visiting the in-laws in Mondragon, I finally found the common theme: glass. The weekend started with a trip to Marga's orthodontist in Vitoria on Friday afternoon. In the two years we've been going there, they have completely renovated the place and made it quite luxurious. Luxurious in a clean line, shiny marble floor, Scandinavian furniture, sort of way. The most impressive part is this back lit glass wall of a peaceful forest scene. It's hard to capture with the camera, but, in person, it has a lot of perceived depth to it.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-22-glass-in-mondragon/539855534_f0c9e7b167_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3276.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-22-glass-in-mondragon/539855534_c8ac184ed6.jpg" alt="CIMG3276.JPG"/>
</a>

The plasma television is inset into the wall with a white border and shows calm scenes from a nature documentary DVD.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-22-glass-in-mondragon/539858990_449478a259_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3277.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-22-glass-in-mondragon/539858990_8a116af025.jpg" alt="CIMG3277.JPG"/>
</a>

The forest looks like it goes on forever. Some of the glass panels are really sliding doors, leading to other rooms. They've really put some thought into how to calm you down with interior design tricks. What better place could there be for tranquil scenes than a dentist's office?

It might suck if you were [hylophobic](http://www.answers.com/topic/hylophobia), though.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-22-glass-in-mondragon/539859986_a4d2eacfb9_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3278.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-22-glass-in-mondragon/539859986_7aaa3ff98b.jpg" alt="CIMG3278.JPG"/>
</a>

I thought these three dump trucks looked nice in the afternoon sun. They're building a major highway that will run right by Mondragon, and make it a lot easier to get there. Right now, you have to spend 20 minutes in 3rd gear going through windy mountain roads to get to the little valley town. No, it won't be complete for the wedding, and no, this picture doesn't have anything to do with glass. Good job spotting the odd one out.

While strolling around town on Saturday afternoon, we spontaneously decided to check out the new library building. It's adjacent to the church where [the wedding](/wedding/) will take place.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-22-glass-in-mondragon/539861892_5150382464_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3279.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-22-glass-in-mondragon/539861892_8d7d2eaf14.jpg" alt="CIMG3279.JPG"/>
</a>

It's got this awesome atrium with a beautiful marble floor. This architecture is _very_ Spanish.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-22-glass-in-mondragon/539862466_ba903a23b6_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3280.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-22-glass-in-mondragon/539862466_62e1e12c9c.jpg" alt="CIMG3280.JPG"/>
</a>

The outside of the square serves as an art gallery. The current exhibition seems to be of ominous, nightmare-inducing drawings for children's story books.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-22-glass-in-mondragon/539977855_ff196975bd_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3281.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-22-glass-in-mondragon/539977855_7d8690e9b0.jpg" alt="CIMG3281.JPG"/>
</a>

A security camera looks down from the glass ceiling.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-22-glass-in-mondragon/539870718_691e32b493_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3283.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-22-glass-in-mondragon/539870718_2c0470c145.jpg" alt="CIMG3283.JPG"/>
</a>

The really expensive "only shop there for really special occasions" store, that has already sold at least one outfit that will be worn at my wedding (Aunt Marga), had some nice dresses that, in Belén's opinion, "would be perfect for \[my\] mother because she's tall and slim."

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-22-glass-in-mondragon/539986731_1e5d035f53_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3285.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-22-glass-in-mondragon/539986731_3c701bf25c.jpg" alt="CIMG3285.JPG"/>
</a>

The store's name is "Troko". Those crazy Basques with their K's.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-22-glass-in-mondragon/539868268_632533e2a3_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3286.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-22-glass-in-mondragon/539868268_f9a687b36e.jpg" alt="CIMG3286.JPG"/>
</a>

Marga looks in a shop window. The graffiti really makes this shot.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-22-glass-in-mondragon/539876320_59b54eea94_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3288.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-22-glass-in-mondragon/539876320_16af673227.jpg" alt="CIMG3288.JPG"/>
</a>

I liked this beer mirror I saw on the way to the bathroom in a pub. It shows how the Budweiser bottle labels were when different events in history occurred. The events that I can read from this photo are:

- Average Basketball Center 5'9"
- First Auto Race. Top Speed 78 MPH
- First Forward Pass. First Interception.
- First Night Basketball Game
- Artificial Turf

I can't think of another way to look through decades of history that more strongly implies "America, sports, and beer" than that.


Glass in Mondragon


I'd like to continue the discussion from my [Gun Laws](/2007/04/18/gun-laws/) post. I just read [this interesting post by Paul Phillips (including the comments)](http://extempore.livejournal.com/180073.html), and I think my opinion on "What should be done to prevent these incidents?" is: Nothing. He brings up a good point about [Bayesian inference](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayesian_inference), something I re-learned a few months ago for an AI project. Read this next bit carefully: **Just because the percentage of school shooters that write disturbing material is high does not mean that the probability that someone who writes disturbing material will become a school shooter is high.** This is a common fallacy in how humans perform probabilistic reasoning. It's not immediately obvious and can seem counterintuitive. Accusingly investigating every instance of disturbing writing by a teenager is definitely _not_ the right course of action. The result would be further restriction of liberty for the illusion of more safety, something the government seems to favor.

The other good point he makes is that these school shootings are extremely rare. Fearing them is as illogical as fearing a terrorist attack or a plane crash. It's just not going to happen to you. Worrying about car crashes or heart disease or cancer is a much better use of your fretting.

I agree with [Uncle Steve](/2007/04/18/gun-laws/#comment-676) that everyone that carries a concealed firearm should go through a training course and get a permit. The problem is that, because our society is so relatively peaceful, so few people feel the need to go through that process to get firearm permission. I, luckily, have never felt so threatened that I needed to have a gun for my own protection. And I think I'm in the majority on this. So, until our society gets more violent, school shooting prevention by way of armed bystanders isn't really going to happen.

So to answer the question of, "What should we do about this?" My answer is, "Mourn the dead and remind yourself how rare these events are." And that's it.


Thoughtcrime


[![Handgun](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-18-gun-laws/2358532039_113367f598_t.jpg)](http://www.flickr.com/photos/24654589@N04/2358532039/ "Handgun by Battledog, on Flickr")I thought I'd write a little bit about how I experienced the news of the "Virginia Tech Massacre", as the media likes to call it now. It noticed that the story was topping Google News on Monday evening, and I read a little about it. On Tuesday morning, I got up early and read some of the [comments about it on Slashdot](http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/16/1954228).  One of the things that struck me as I was reading the comments was who started the argument about gun laws. It was the pro-gun side of the issue. They immediately preempted with a "If gun laws weren't so strict, and every student in the classrooms was carrying, they would have brought the shooter down immediately, thus saving many lives" argument. The naí¯veté of this viewpoint would be laughable if it weren't so frightening. The two best points that destroy this idea are:

1. If everyone had a gun, then common arguments with heated tempers would result in death. Everyone that's ever received a bloody nose from a fist would have received a bullet instead. Guns aren't powerful enough to benefit from the "assured mutual destruction" peace that nuclear weapons provide.
2. We tried that already. It was called the Wild West, and the chaos and personal security was like that of present-day Baghdad. Heroes were made of those that could instill the slightest bit of order.

A lot of the comments were along the lines of, "How could someone feel so hurt/lonely/desperate as to kill innocent people like that?" I found [one response](http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=231053&cid=18755807) to this plea particularly on target, which I will reproduce here:

> There are any number of reasons, and they are all very real.
> 
> For example, imagine that suddenly your dear and loving parents split apart violently. Your once placid and happy life is sundered apart. Instead of caring, your friends (if you're lucky enough have any) shrug it off. They might have gone through divorce and think it's much ado about nothing or perhaps they simply don't understand.
> 
> Meanwhile life only gets worse. It isn't just that no one understands, no one wants to. No one makes the effort to connect and communicate, or not enough people do. You only get to watch as everyone around them appears happy and complacent. They're having fun, playing games, living normal lives and crying about silly things like how their boyfriend dumped them. Boohoo, your soul is only tearing itself apart and no one notices.
> 
> The wound festers, and before long you hate everyone and everything. They're is so happy like sheep, ignorant and uncaring about the injustices that go on around them. They don't fucking care, so long as they get to have their stupid, superficial relationships and screw each other while others suffer. They're more than willing to spend $15 a month on some remote child in africa but to actually lift a finger themselves, too hard for the bastards.
> 
> Demons all of them. They're talking about you behind your back. They're pointing you out, you're the weirdo. The anti-social ass who chased away all those fuckers who were your "friends". No one wants anything to do with you, or doesn't know you're unclean. You practically don't even exist in the feeble minds of these bitches. Some socially disfigured leper.
> 
> Damn those fuckers to hell. You play nice, you're a "primadonna" because you had a nervous breakdown when your parents split. You play rough, and you're a lowlife scumfuck without the sophistication to breed. Fuck'em all and their social games. They'll see. You'll wake them up and they'll see. They'll see themselves for the compassionless, stupid fucks they are. Yeah, it'll be sweet.
> 
> Is that how this happened? Probably not. However, it's suprising how quickly good people can go bad when there's no one willing or able to support them.

And [this later comment](http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=231053&cid=18757481) on how to prevent such social situations:

> _No, its not "their fault" - they're nuts. Still, how do we deal with it? Lock up everyone who might be a threat? That will just alienate the already alienated, or make them hide more diligently until that fatal day when they seek revenge for imagined slights._
> 
> No. It means being nicer to people.
> 
> To friends, family and complete strangers.
> 
> Yes... I said complete strangers. We don't say please and thank you anymore. We don't hold doors for each other. We cut each other off in traffic and give each other the bird. We lie and cheat to get ahead at the work place. We gossip and ruin people's lives. We cut in line in grocery store and we try to rip off our waiter at the restaurant. We focus our lives our possessions and money and we don't give a damn to a man on the street or a kid who has had his world shattered. We say they are "crazy". We say they are "evil" and that it isn't our fault.
> 
> But it is **our** fault. Every single one of us have forgotten about all the other humans out there and we always trump "personal responsibility" on others without even thinking that we haven't even bothered ourselves.
> 
> I'm surprised more people don't go crazy in our society on a daily basis with the way we behave.
> 
> Everyone is about "ME! ME! ME!" without ever stopping to think about the fact they are hurting everyone else.
> 
> And I'm guilty as everyone else... But sometimes I think to myself "Maybe I shouldn't cut off that guy in traffic like that, he might go and snap."

Okay, here come some of my own thoughts on this issue. I'm far from convinced of my position and am just thinking aloud here. I'm assuming that the goal of our discussion is to try to assess what aspects contributed to such an event occurring and to attempt to alter the world in a way that will prevent future occurrences. First, let's take a step back from finger pointing and look at things scientifically. How would a scientist assess causality here? The truth is that causality is near impossible to determine in social matters with so many variables. We're going to have to accept correlation as the best we can get, and then discard correlated factors that we are pretty sure do not have a causal effect. One way to examine the situation would be to compare aspects of the society in which the violence occurred with those of similar societies. How about western Europe? England, Denmark, Spain, France, etc. Let's compare possible related social aspects between the US and these countries...

- Violent video games? Present in both. Discarded.
- Lonely people who feel rage towards other apparently normal happy people? Present in both. Discarded.
- Bullies who torment unpopular kids to the point where they could snap? Present in both. Discarded.
- Large vehicles and relatively cheap gas prices? Only in US. This could be it.
- Banned gay marriage? Only in US. This could definitely be it.
- Laws allowing private citizens to purchase and carry handguns? Only in US. Can't be discarded.
- A large percentage of the population that believes that a man was born to a virgin 2000 years ago, died, came back to life, flew into the sky, and can hear everyone's most private thoughts? To a greater extent in the US, but not absent in other similar societies. Should be looked at.

This is the kind of thinking that we should be doing with each new suggestion of the "why" behind such a tragedy. Then, each one of the items that is not exactly the same in other societies should be examined further to see if they have any might possibly have any relevance to the situation. Like here, SUVs, gay marriage, and religion can almost certainly be discarded as, although correlated to the rate of single-incident mass gun murder of innocents, not related causally.

It was actually the coverage of the NBC Nightly News (podcasted) that got me thinking along these lines. They mentioned similar incidents over 10 years ago in the UK and Australia which were followed immediately by legislation outlawing handguns. They even pointed out how the cops in the UK don't carry guns. On a side note, it was kind of shocking to me to see officers with holsters in Spain after living in the UK for so many years. If it wasn't certainly the top question he would have prepared to dodge, I would have thought Bush's response to Brian Williams' "So what are we going to do about all these guns?" question (damn that liberal media!), I would have thought he was a clever politician. His response was, "There will be time for political debate about policies later. Right now I want to concentrate on showing support for the victims' loved ones". Brilliant! And scripted.

And all this was before I found out that the shooter purchased his weapons completely legally.

I'm not claiming to have drawn a conclusion that lax gun laws are definitely responsible for what happened on Monday. I'm just suggesting a way to think about it rationally, and to point out that most reasons that you will hear bandied about can be discarded through rational thought, and that gun legislation is a topic that cannot directly be discarded and needs further investigation.


Gun Laws


On Saturday, I participated in the 2007 Open Golf Playa in Laredo. Yes, we really played golf in the sand. [![golfplaya](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-15-beach-golf/542264230_b3d7b60dd5_o.gif)](http://www.laredoclubdegolf.com/ "Laredo Golf Club")

This photo of Laredo is fantastic! This was the poster they advertised with. Clicking on it will take you to the Laredo Golf Club website.

The event was hosted by the Laredo Golf Club, a group dedicated to getting a golf course built in Laredo or the surrounding area. Along the north coast of Spain, we are right in the middle of a 100 km stretch from Santander to Bilbao with no golf courses at all. It would take me 30 minutes to drive from my house to the nearest courses.

Every year, they hold this event. I called the sign-up number last Tuesday and spoke to Pedro, the organizer of the event. He said that it was a tournament for members only, but that, if I came and spoke with him that afternoon, he would invite me to participate. Apparently they use the word "Open" because it sounds official, not because they know what it means. So I went to the sports complex in Laredo where the various sports clubs hav their offices. I found Pedro and another man putting on a pretty sorry little putting green that some soccer players with cleats had run all over. I told him that I had been living in Colindres for almost two years and hadn't played much golf in Spain, but that I had about a 15 handicap and strongly supported his "golf course in Laredo" cause. So he asked me for my surname, didn't write it down, and told me to show up at 9:45 on Saturday morning near the Red Cross station at Laredo beach.

I was paired with two other golfers that I liked a lot. One was a 25 handicapper, Mario, in his twenties, and another was a nice 10 handicapper, Tomás, close to 50. It was a shotgun start, and we started on the 8th hole.

There were nine holes, from 80 to 160 meters (87 to 175 yards) long, each hole with a distinct distance in multiples of 10 meters. We teed off from a slab of driving range carpet towards the water. The greens were in the super-flat area where the tide had gone out. Each green was a painted circular shape around the hole (about a 5 meter radius). You were only allowed to use your putter when you were inside the painted green. The putting was _much_ faster than on grass. And, believe it or not, all the putts curved down towards the water.

Approach shots, they were all par 3's, would land and roll a good 20-30 yards. I got on only one green in regulation, I was long on 7 of them, and short on the last hole because I was tired of going long. On the first tee, my fellow golfers and I were pretty concerned that the ball would land and dig into the sand and stay there. One guy called up The Committee (Pedro), who was all the way down the beach to ask. He said that if the ball stays in its own divot, it can be removed, but if it's in a footprint, it has to be played. It was a clearly a ruling made by a worthy Committee. At 10:00am, the bullhorn sounded, and we began play.

As I said, we started on the 8th hole. The group in front of us was a foursome of high handicappers, so we ended up playing the 8th and 9th hole, walking all the way down the beach to the 1st hole, but, seeing that they high handicappers were just starting, we played the 2nd hole first, then the 1st. And when we finished the first, they were not close to finishing the 2nd, so we played the 4th, then the 3rd, the 6th, then the 5th, etc.

I ended up with a 6-over, 33. My handicap for the tournament was exactly 6, so I matched my handicap. Mario had a 36 (with a triple bogey) and Tomás had a 31. His putting and short game on the weird surface was better than mine. Pedro, The Committee, normally an 8 handicap, shot a 1-under 26 with four birdies. He clearly knows how his trajectory behaves on the sand.

Now, some pictures...

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-15-beach-golf/539952983_6f5963313f_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3258.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-15-beach-golf/539952983_13928f7c9d.jpg" alt="CIMG3258.JPG"/>
</a>

The weather was pretty foggy. You can just barely see some flags way out there in this photo.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-15-beach-golf/539955353_8b7d86339e_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3259.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-15-beach-golf/539955353_d9ed20d2e5.jpg" alt="CIMG3259.JPG"/>
</a>

The 8th hole. My starting hole. With no objects out there to give you a sense of scale, a 90-meter hole looked like it could be 200 meters. You just couldn't tell.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-15-beach-golf/539957065_7e398754dd_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3260.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-15-beach-golf/539957065_35b4e28ca7.jpg" alt="CIMG3260.JPG"/>
</a>

My first hole was an even hectometer.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-15-beach-golf/539959369_76aebb8b58_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3261.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-15-beach-golf/539959369_126c52a1ac.jpg" alt="CIMG3261.JPG"/>
</a>

Not yet on the green (in the circle).

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-15-beach-golf/539960959_62d02367a8_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3262.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-15-beach-golf/539960959_178a122278.jpg" alt="CIMG3262.JPG"/>
</a>

This picture gives you an idea of just how smooth the surface was.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-15-beach-golf/539963489_690660b7b0_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3263.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-15-beach-golf/539963489_6afcff7540.jpg" alt="CIMG3263.JPG"/>
</a>

The flag on the first hole.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-15-beach-golf/539965525_1366a27878_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3264.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-15-beach-golf/539965525_5fcc3d418c.jpg" alt="CIMG3264.JPG"/>
</a>

The group of high handicappers hit from the elevated tee on the first hole. There were two women in that group.

Over all it was quite an unforgettable experience. I sure didn't win, but it was clear that I was a golfer. My best shots were considerably better than the best shots of my companions. Later, in August, the Laredo Golf Club organizes another event that is a putting competition on that putting green I saw on Tuesday. After that competition, they award trophies for both the Open Golf Playa and whatever they call that other competition. Hopefully, Marga and I can find the motivation to visit the practice green a few times this year.

My joke on the last hole that, "The only thing this course needs is some grass bunkers," didn't get the reception it deserved.


Beach Golf


I've just acquired the latest version of Adobe Photoshop. I've been wanting to try some frame breaking lately. So here are a few attempts... <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-14-frame-breaking/542130248_e1d47caf3d_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Signpost">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-14-frame-breaking/542145934_8eabcf2854_o.png" alt="Signpost"/>
</a>

A signpost in [Comillas](/2006/08/06/comillas/).

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-14-frame-breaking/542130240_0930210ccb_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Hungry">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-14-frame-breaking/542256341_c57e13e887_o.png" alt="Hungry"/>
</a>

A hungry 24-year-old. ([original photo](http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikrasmussen/247580778/))

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-14-frame-breaking/542130242_29ac279422_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Jacob">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-14-frame-breaking/542256329_22afb6f6b8_o.png" alt="Jacob"/>
</a>

Jacob in Scotland

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-14-frame-breaking/542130246_fc17726684_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Maggie">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-14-frame-breaking/542145932_e1f7641376_o.png" alt="Maggie"/>
</a>

My friend's dog, [Maggie](http://www.michael-ventura.com/?src=erikblog). ([original photo](http://flickr.com/photos/thepositivepoet/457092687/)).

Vote for your favorite in the comments. I know which one is my favorite.


Frame Breaking


After posting [some childhood pictures of Marga](/2007/03/20/a-pair-of-cuties/) a few weeks ago, it seems only fair to do the same for me. My mother dusted off some old albums and sent me these two pictures. Now, I know I have a large forehead. My hairline starts _way_ up there, and there's been no receding, nor is there much recession in my genetic forecast. But this first photo is just freakish! I look like how Hollywood has decided aliens should look: a really huge, super-intelligent frontal lobe and small facial features below a huge forehead.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-13-1980-was-a-good-year/542112828_55b3bb7859_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Erik">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-13-1980-was-a-good-year/542112828_527a89b353.jpg" alt="Erik"/>
</a>

February 1980 - This has to be the longest my hair has ever been. The dimple in the chin makes this child's identity undeniable.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-13-1980-was-a-good-year/542113028_4df7118e48_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Erik copy">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-13-1980-was-a-good-year/542113028_f9cd0aaf2e.jpg" alt="Erik copy"/>
</a>

October 1980 - "Hey! Don't leave me here on this rock! Thanks for the cookie, but pick me back up!"

Besides John getting shot, an event that wouldn't matter to me for more than a decade, [1980](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980) was a pretty good year for me.


1980 Was A Good Year


[![Tennis Ball](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-12-tennis-qi/241381331_c5aefa7a28_t.jpg)](http://www.flickr.com/photos/extrajection/241381331/ "Tennis Ball by David H-W (Extrajection), on Flickr")I was at the gym the other day when they were having a children's taekwondo class. As I was listening to the shouts from the little sparring five-year-olds, my mind started to wander.

**Disclaimer: Everything I know about martial arts, I learned from watching television. I apologize if I mix Chinese and Japanese terms.** As I understand it, the short burst of sound emitted by martial artists during a fight technique is called a [kiai](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiai). Obviously, one of its functions is to freak out your opponent. But there is a spiritual function as well. It serves to focus your [qi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi) (life force, personal energy or whatever) into the part of your body delivering the strike, thus adding significantly to the force of your attack. There is, of course, no scientific proof of the existence of qi, so it basically amounts to a faith-based religion.

Let's imagine, for a moment, that we truly believed in this qi hooey, and the value of the kiai to force extra energy into our attacking extremity. Ponder with me here...

Anyone who has been observing professional tennis for the past twenty years, from [Connors](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Connors) to [Sampras](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Sampras) to [Federer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Federer), from [Evert](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Evert) to [Seles](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monica_Seles) to the [Williams sisters](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_sisters), will notice one big non-technological difference between the tennis of the present and the tennis of the past: Where did all this shouting come from?

None of the top players in the 1980's shouted when they hit the ball. [McEnroe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_mcenroe) shouted a lot, but never when hitting the ball. If you watch a professional tennis match today, they _all_ do! Something clearly happened to change the way the game is played.

[Monica Seles](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monica_Seles) was the first one I remember. Like a roommate with an annoying habit, I hated her for it. What if... just what if... Monica's trainer was into martial arts and took a trip to the orient to see if there were any ancient secrets that could help Monica become the best, as she did. Monica's kiai's definitely had the proven psychological effects of martial arts kiais. Her opponents found it extremely intimidating. And if you believed that kiais could focus extra life energy into an attack, it would make a whole lot of sense to shout one when striking a tennis ball.

I just wanted to throw that out there. This one definitely goes in the [Musings](/category/musings/) category.

I'll leave you on a humorous note. If kiais really could focus qi, it would make perfect sense to apply it to other sports....like golf. Can you imagine Tiger shouting "KYAAHHH!!" on every drive? Perhaps the youngster that takes his place will...


Tennis Qi


I've just started noticing websites (maybe it's just Wikipedia?) referring to computer storage capacity in GiB and MiB. For example, a DVD holds 4.7 GiB of data. Today, I finally got around to investigating what those abbreviations mean. They're gibibytes and mebibytes, of course! Some time after 3.5-in. floppies existed and before I ever heard the word "gigabyte", I became aware of the awkward inaccuracy of the whole kilobyte and megabyte counting scheme, something that most web surfers are oblivious to: that a kilobyte is 1,024 bytes, not 1,000 bytes!

It's not really that big of a deal. So what if 5,678,901 bytes is really 5.5 MB instead of 5.6 MB? It either fits on the disk or doesn't.

But this is where the mebibytes and gibibytes come in. According to Wikipedia, this, so called, [binary prefixing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix) scheme has been in use in the geekiest computer circles since 1964. Did they even have a thousand bytes of digital storage in 1964? It works like this:

Because the metric system prefixes require the use of base-10 multiples, we define a megabyte as what everyone already thinks it is: 1,000 kilobytes (1,000,000 bytes). Then, we create this alternative base-2 prefixing scheme that accurately describes the quantities in the way that computers prefer to think about them: 1 MiB = 1,024 KiB = 1,048,576 bytes. This way, we can avoid any "why are my 5,678,901 bytes only 5.5 MB?" confusion.

I love it. This naming scheme appeals to the geeky programmer/scientist in me. I'm going to try to adopt this prefixing system when writing. I'm not sure I can bring myself to actually say the word "gibibyte" aloud, though.


WTF is a Gibibyte?


It may be narcissistic of me, but a few times a day, I check the recent referrers for my blog to see who is linking to me and what they searched for to find me. Sometimes I find really interesting websites. Yesterday, I found a truly mind-blowing website. It might be the single weirdest thing I've seen on the internet. You _have_ to check this out!

[wefeelfine.org](http://www.wefeelfine.org/)

### Data Harvesting

They've written this program that searches the web for new blog posts, and searches each post for a sentence containing the phrase "I feel...". It then parses that sentence and categorizes how the poster is feeling. For some public blogging services, it will read the poster's profile to find out their age, gender, and location. And it cross references the location with the current weather at the time of the post.

So what you get is a huge database full of how different bloggers are feeling, where they are, how old they are, and what the weather is like where they are. So you can search for "women who are 30-39 years old, who feel alone where it's raining".

### The Interface

The interface is a little overwhelming at first. There are thousands of little colored dots floating around. When you click on one, it will display the sentence containing the emotion and any picture that was with the blog post. Each color for the dots matches up to an emotion, and the shapes are whether or not there is a picture (pictures are rectangles).

But make sure you check out the other data views in the bottom left. I found the "Mounds" and "Mobs" views particularly interesting.

I tried a few times to find myself by filtering by Spain and my age and gender, but with no luck. Then, I removed the filters and started clicking on random dots, and somehow I actually found [my post](/2007/04/09/crumbling-sand-art/) with the sentence, "I didn't feel like going for a walk in Laredo on Sunday afternoon." Amazing.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-10-we-feel-fine/542220535_0a86c69044_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="montage">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-10-we-feel-fine/542220535_d67db899ed.jpg" alt="montage"/>
</a>

See how it knows me only as "someone". If I was blogging with blogspot or myspace, it would show my age and location, etc.

The cleverness of this system amazes me. It's a great idea, and it's really well done, with a superb user interface...even if it serves no useful purpose...


We Feel Fine


I didn't really feel like going for a walk in Laredo on Sunday afternoon. But it was 16°C and sunny and Marga really wanted to. So I slipped my camera in my pocket and we headed out the door. These are the opportunities that make having a pocket-sized camera so valuable. There must have been some sort of sand sculpturing competition that day. What we saw were the abandoned, crumbling sculptures, still cordoned off, but quickly losing the moisture they needed to maintain their shape.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-09-crumbling-sand-art/539936167_1badb093b6_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3251.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-09-crumbling-sand-art/539936167_307c4fc555.jpg" alt="CIMG3251.JPG"/>
</a>

As with most sculpture, I was amazed by the attention to detail, like the sagging skin on this elephant. I wonder what this solemn lumberjack and his elephant friend were doing making cones before his face fell off?

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-09-crumbling-sand-art/539938781_e732360449_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3252.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-09-crumbling-sand-art/539938781_c24886c89e.jpg" alt="CIMG3252.JPG"/>
</a>

I didn't like this one very much. What's the deal with those holes? The curls of hair that you can see right through were pretty impressive, though.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-09-crumbling-sand-art/539827926_95a7420c96_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3253.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-09-crumbling-sand-art/539827926_b0dec0c5d9.jpg" alt="CIMG3253.JPG"/>
</a>

Ah, the hardest thing to sculpt: the human form. It must be the hardest thing because we are so familiar with it, and therefore can sense when even the smallest detail is out of place. The muscles on this man's arm and the ribs and abs of both figures really stood out as fine details. The sexuality of this piece is unmistakable: the bull's face, the exaggerated feminine curves... If it's not clear yet, this was my favorite sculpture.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-09-crumbling-sand-art/539943923_da046ee5e2_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3254.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-09-crumbling-sand-art/539943923_71b8994715.jpg" alt="CIMG3254.JPG"/>
</a>

This one was a little too Bladerunner/Tron for my tastes.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-09-crumbling-sand-art/539946861_3deea62bd1_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3255.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-09-crumbling-sand-art/539946861_8f087d1e67.jpg" alt="CIMG3255.JPG"/>
</a>

This maiden on a pedestal was probably pretty cute before her face fell off.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-09-crumbling-sand-art/539836642_1006d8a5f8_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3256.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-09-crumbling-sand-art/539836642_b74765499f.jpg" alt="CIMG3256.JPG"/>
</a>

I'm pretty sure I couldn't even make this simple structure at the end of her spiral platform. Perfect straight ridges, and yet a gentle curving slope. How do they do that?

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-09-crumbling-sand-art/539837328_df7b2b0416_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3257.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-09-crumbling-sand-art/539837328_72a884228f.jpg" alt="CIMG3257.JPG"/>
</a>

The maiden's mouth and chin were clearly visible on the ground below. How sad that something so beautiful can be so transient.

"It happens to us all," I said, as I took Marga's hand and walked into the setting sun.


Crumbling Sand Art


Several people have found my blog lately searching for a countdown widget for Wordpress. I briefly considered writing one with a nice back-end interface for entering the date, etc., but in the end, I think it's going to take less time and be more flexible if I just explain how I have mine done.

### 1) Download

First download these two files and put them in your blog directory. I have mine in my blog root.

[prototype.js](/downloads/235/prototype.js)

[duration.js](/downloads/235/duration.js)

The latter is does the countdown magic.

### 2) Include

Now include them in your header.php:

`<script type="text/javascript" src="/blog/prototype.js"> // tag has to be open because of stupid IE </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/blog/duration.js"> // tag has to be open because of stupid IE </script>`

### 3) Create Text Widget

Then, create a text widget and fill it with the proper code. Mine looks like this:

`<div class="countdown">   <span id="weddingCountdown">     enable javascript to see the countdown   </span>   until the wedding </div> <script type="text/javascript">   Duration.countdown("weddingCountdown",                      Date.UTC(2007, 9, 13, 11, 30, 00)); </script>`

The important thing here is that the id on the destination span and the id passed to the countdown function (both shown in red) have to match. And if you have more than one countdown on your page at the same time, the id for each one has to be unique.

The content of the span will be replaced with the countdown. That's why it has a message informing people without javascript that they won't see it until they enable javascript.

You can put any text you want before and after the countdown span. For example:

`There are only <span id="graduationCountdown">     enable javascript to see the countdown </span> until graduation!`

### 4) Setting the Date

Now for the hard part: the javascript UTC date. You have to figure out the date of your event in [Coordinated Universal Time](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time). It's basically Greenwich Mean Time without Daylight Savings Time. So if your event was at 9:30 AM today (April 8, 2007), in New York City, then we would remove the effect of daylight savings time, giving us 8:30, and then add five hours (the difference between EST and GMT), giving us 13:30. So if your event was at 9:30 this morning, you would put the time parameters as 13:30. Make sense? Here is a [conversion table](http://www.spacearchive.info/utc.htm) that might help.

The other important thing to remember is that the javascript Date.UTC() function requires that the month be zero-indexed, so January is 0, February is 1, ... December is 11.

So if you wanted to set a countdown to 9:00 AM Christmas morning, 2007, in Los Angeles your date parameters would be:

`Date.UTC(2007, 11, 25, 17, 00, 00)`

The parameters are year, month (zero indexed!), day, hour, minute, and second, respectively.

### 5) Choosing a display method

You may optionally choose an abbreviated display. For example:

Normal: 3 days, 4 hours, 10 minutes, 45 seconds Abbreviated: 3d, 04:10:45

To use abbreviated mode, pass a "true" to the Duration.countdown() function, like so:

`Duration.countdown("myCountdown",                    Date.UTC(2007, 9, 13, 11, 30, 00), true);`

### 6) Internationalization

Changing the language is simple. Simply change the first few lines of duration.js. So for Spanish, it would be:

`units: {   day: 'dí­a',   days: 'dí­as',   d: 'd',   hour: 'hora',   hours: 'horas',   minute: 'minuto',   minutes: 'minutos',   second: 'segundo',   seconds: 'segundos' },`

And that's all there is to it!

### Questions or Comments

Feel free to email me about this at erikwordpressplugins -at- gmail. May your countdowns be merry!


Wordpress Countdown Widget


With 1337 hits at the time of this writing1, my most popular post for the month of March was [one that I made on December 5, 2006](/2006/12/05/whois-spam/), with almost all of the content being pasted from my clipboard. Quite a few of my blog posts start out as emails. I've found something or had a thought about something, and I want to share it with some friends and family. But if my recipients list gets longer than about 4 or 5 people, I usually decide to just make it a blog entry and stop spamming my friends. Such was the case with [Whois Spam](/2006/12/05/whois-spam/). It was an interesting (in an entirely geeky way) discovery that a coworker made, and I thought it interesting enough to pass along. But so did other people...

What happened was that someone found my post by [googling "whois spam"](http://www.google.com/search?q=whois+spam). He wasn't the first. But he was the first to save my post to his del.icio.us bookmarks. For those of you that are still living in a pre-RSS internet world, [del.icio.us](http://del.icio.us/) is a web service that lets you save bookmarks to pages that you find interesting on the web. But it's more than that. It lets your friends keep up to date with the links that you find interesting. And if they like the link and save it to their bookmarks, _their_ friends will see it, and if their friends save it, then....you see how it's a self-replicating recursive wave that will propagate out in all directions until interest for the given link has faded.

Although only [6 people saved my post](http://del.icio.us/url/7352b646a082522ff2d2181dfd4ec0f2) on del.icio.us (after all, it wasn't _that_ interesting!), several of them had blogs that displayed all their recent del.icio.us links. The main heavyweight, it seems, was a "blog" called [A Whole Lotta Nothing](http://a.wholelottanothing.org/). I put quotes around the word "blog" because pretty much all the content is made up of the guy's del.icio.us links. But enough people subscribe to AWLN such that any link posted there will get quite a few hits.

I just thought it was funny how such an old post that took me less than 5 minutes to write could become such a hit overnight. And it's all due to the power of social bookmarking and viral internet memes.

1If you got any significance out of the fact (I swear it's true) that there were 1337 hits, then you truly are a geek.


Social Bookmarking and Viral Internet Memes


Some of you might recall [a rather intriguing comment I received a few weeks ago](/2007/03/21/one-hail-of-a-storm/#comment-645) from a man named Ã–rn in Iceland. He was inquiring about places to stay in and around Colindres. The reason for his visit was to support the Iceland team in the Junior World Handball Championship qualifier this weekend. I know very little about [handball](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_handball). I first saw it when I ventured to Scandinavia in 1999. The easiest way to describe it to an American is to say that it's a mix between basketball and soccer. It takes the fast paced, high scoring, quick turnovers that make basketball so fun to watch and injects them into soccer, a game that can get boring sometimes because of its lack of those exact elements. I don't really know anything about handball, but it sounded like an interesting thing to experience, and the chance of meeting a blog commenter in person was enough to get me out of bed and headed down to the local municipal gym.

The three-day round robin event started this morning with two games: Iceland vs. Austria and Spain vs. Switzerland. By Sunday, these teams will all have played each other once.<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539897723_3f837abe15_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3225.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539897723_a464077d34.jpg" alt="CIMG3225.JPG"/>
</a>

These posters were put up all around town about a week ago. "Balonmano" is "Handball" in Spanish.

When I got to the local municipal sports center, I saw a guy in a red shirt standing outside talking in accented English into his cellphone. When he finished, I told him that I was looking for a guy named Ã–rn on the Iceland team. He said, "I don't know. I'm from Switzerland." Duh! The red shirt should have made that obvious. I paid my three euros to enter and sat down to watch the Iceland-Austria game that had just started.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539902563_7180a77819_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3228.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539902563_fae409757b.jpg" alt="CIMG3228.JPG"/>
</a>

It's an extremely physical game. I'm surprised there weren't more bloody noses.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539793224_df9cc08082_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3229.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539793224_388437f337.jpg" alt="CIMG3229.JPG"/>
</a>

Boredom, the goalie's worst enemy.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539911323_998bc426b5_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3230.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539911323_4c7ffab040.jpg" alt="CIMG3230.JPG"/>
</a>

The Iceland bench.

revver(227103)

revver(227126)<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539914447_3cf28535af_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3231.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539914447_10b573111c.jpg" alt="CIMG3231.JPG"/>
</a>

The local organizers even went to the trouble to put up the flags of the four participating countries.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539802726_3036c61220_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3232.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539802726_23604443fb.jpg" alt="CIMG3232.JPG"/>
</a>

 The Olympic, Cantabrian, and Colindres flags.

revver(227142)<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539806248_135eac205c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3238.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539806248_c812f4ad81.jpg" alt="CIMG3238.JPG"/>
</a>

Blond #10 from Iceland seemed to be the best player in the first game.

Right after the first match (2 30-min halves), Marga showed up to watch the Spain game with me. Iceland beat Austria pretty soundly, 38 to 25 or something similar. For the Spain vs. Switzerland game, the stands were packed and the Swiss section had a big bass drum and were making more noise than all of the Spaniards. I don't know if it was the enthusiasm of the crowd or what, but the second game was a lot more energized than the first had been.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539812042_f641d680e8_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3241.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539812042_1918bf688b.jpg" alt="CIMG3241.JPG"/>
</a>

The Spanish and Swiss teams line up for role call.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539928087_1b12e787ae_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3242.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539928087_ec9588c6fd.jpg" alt="CIMG3242.JPG"/>
</a>

revver(227147)

By half-time, Spain was way ahead, and I was a little disappointed that I hadn't found Ã–rn yet. Of course, I didn't have any idea what he looked like. But then I noticed that the Iceland team had showered and were coming back into the gym to watch the Spain-Swiss match, so I went up to one of them and asked if they had someone travelling with them named Ã–rn. He said, in perfect Scandinavian English, that he didn't see Ã–rn at the moment, but that he'd tell me when he did. I went to the bathroom, and when I came out, the player I'd spoken to introduced me to Ã–rn.

Ã–rn and I had a good handshake and exchanged It's-good-to-meet-you's. That's when he pulled off his backpack and said that he had a present for me! He pulled out two packs of dried Icelandic fish and gave them to me. He said that he also brought some schnapps (a favorite Scandinavian beverage), but that the authorities in Heathrow took it from him. I know how that feels.

I haven't tried the fish yet. I must say that it doesn't look all that appealing, but I'll put anything in my mouth once. The gesture was much appreciated. To think that he brought something all that way just for a guy who sent him some local hotel phone numbers really reminded me of just how polite the Scandis are.<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539931473_fd12d5b21f_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3246.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539931473_6be6e2648e.jpg" alt="CIMG3246.JPG"/>
</a>

Ã–rn, me, and the dried fish.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539933687_206f85f71f_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3247.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-06-junior-world-handball-championship/539933687_848f071594.jpg" alt="CIMG3247.JPG"/>
</a>

The stands were packed.

Check out all the noise made by the Swiss fans... revver(227153)

With about 10 minutes to go, Spain was up by 12 points. That's when the Swiss really turned on the heat and dominated the last ten minutes. However, when Spain found themselves with possession, a 3 point lead, and 60 seconds left, everyone knew that'd won it. They casually passed the ball around, scoring one extra goal before the time ran out. If there had been two more minutes in the half, they would have lost. It wasn't the kind of victory you feel that proud of after the game, despite their excellent first half play.

All in all, it was a pretty nice morning of international sports. Very different, but different is good.


Junior World Handball Championship


Nothing interesting to report lately, so I'm going with a Flickr post for today. Marga has had the week off work since she's being forced to either use or lose her vacation time. Being employed in the capitalist, live-to-work United States, I have three weeks less annual vacation that she does. This week is Semana Santa (Holy Week), and all the shops are closed from today through Monday.

On to the curvy pics!

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-05-spanish-curves/447140864_1c202b4d7a_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Winding Spanish Road">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-05-spanish-curves/447140864_d00268c7ed.jpg" alt="Winding Spanish Road"/>
</a>

**Winding Spanish Road** - A road near Higuera de la Serena in Extremadura, Spain.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-05-spanish-curves/447156065_31d3a0c8a1_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Aluminum Siding">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-05-spanish-curves/447156065_cafa3bf74c.jpg" alt="Aluminum Siding"/>
</a>

**Aluminum Siding** - A cloudy day at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.


Spanish Curves


On Sunday, we took a leisurely walk around Colindres. The weather had been miserable for a full week, and at the first break of sunshine through the clouds, the entire town came out to enjoy it. Although it was barely 10°C, the tables in the streets in front of bars were packed with customers, desperate for some fresh air and sunshine. <a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-02-sunday-afternoon-stroll/539764852_07ba06e1aa_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3215.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-02-sunday-afternoon-stroll/539764852_98d8699774.jpg" alt="CIMG3215.JPG"/>
</a>

This is the big hole that has become of [the house they tore down in my neighborhood](/2007/02/22/nothing-lasts-forever/). Once a property is bought, they waste no time in building anew.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-02-sunday-afternoon-stroll/539880705_8d4fc1d39f_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3216.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-02-sunday-afternoon-stroll/539880705_606022c576.jpg" alt="CIMG3216.JPG"/>
</a>

All the fishing boats were in for the weekend.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-02-sunday-afternoon-stroll/539767400_f598cdf48f_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3217.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-02-sunday-afternoon-stroll/539767400_027f1c3c40.jpg" alt="CIMG3217.JPG"/>
</a>

That stick man looks like he regrets entering the water and could actually use some help.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-02-sunday-afternoon-stroll/539768186_da48c0b9b2_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3218.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-02-sunday-afternoon-stroll/539768186_c4a0af193d.jpg" alt="CIMG3218.JPG"/>
</a>

The coat of arms is that of Colindres. No doubt the four-petal rose symbol holds religious meaning. Where's Robert Langdon when you need him?

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-02-sunday-afternoon-stroll/539884109_deff80db8c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3219.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-02-sunday-afternoon-stroll/539884109_1962d5d715.jpg" alt="CIMG3219.JPG"/>
</a>

The first few times I saw this long (it extends another 50-70 meters to the right of the picture) elevated conveyor belt going out to the boats, I had no idea what it was. But then one day it hit me, what they'd need to be filling the boats with: ice. To put the fresh fish on ice immediately after capture.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-02-sunday-afternoon-stroll/539773514_2a7e5f05b4_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3220.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-02-sunday-afternoon-stroll/539773514_3e066a0d87.jpg" alt="CIMG3220.JPG"/>
</a>

The long walk out to the Colindres lighthouse. You can see it from the side in [José's picture](http://flickr.com/photos/jav/108435218/).

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-02-sunday-afternoon-stroll/539775460_2927c04c43_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3221.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-02-sunday-afternoon-stroll/539775460_9c42673f17.jpg" alt="CIMG3221.JPG"/>
</a>

The bridge between Colindres and Treto. Again, [a better photo](http://flickr.com/photos/tabernilla/366970693/) exists on Flickr.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-02-sunday-afternoon-stroll/539890791_88326c9cd4_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3222.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-02-sunday-afternoon-stroll/539890791_732a13fbb9.jpg" alt="CIMG3222.JPG"/>
</a>

Looking back from the lighthouse to the mountain that looks protectively over our little village.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-02-sunday-afternoon-stroll/443416297_965c21ede5_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Colindres Park">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-02-sunday-afternoon-stroll/443416297_c6d2b0807e.jpg" alt="Colindres Park"/>
</a>

I love this picture. I told Marga, "Hold on a second, there's a beautiful photograph waiting to be taken over here." This is the park. I'm sure it has a name, but I don't know it.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-02-sunday-afternoon-stroll/542082496_00584395ea_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="CIMG3224.JPG">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2007-04-02-sunday-afternoon-stroll/542082496_bf773bc94f.jpg" alt="CIMG3224.JPG"/>
</a>

I thought I'd make the previous picture better by looking a little more to the left to lose the curb, but I lost the glare of the sun, and I think I like the former better.

I hope you enjoyed your afternoon walk around our little Cantabrian town.


22 posts from April, 2007