| Quick update. |
[ Monday, December 5th 2005 | 21:02 ] |
I am still amazed at the spectacle of a public transport system that works. Not only you don't have to fear for your life every time you take the bus, you have some free time to listen to music, kill some ghouls in your DS, read a book or whatever... so far living in Barcelona has its perks. Which is a good thing, since work around here is so hectic that I barely have any free time at all. You know, my employers weren't kidding when they told me there was so much work I wouldn't have an idle hour.
One thing that is not so fun is apartment hunting. I had gotten used to the idea that living space is at at premium here, but I've seen apartments the size of my room in Mexico going at insane prices. I'm still looking for a good place, but things have been so insane I don't have much time to spend looking at places. Anyway, I have until January to fix this... Something is bound to come up soon. To be honest, I can't wait until I live on my own instead of the apartment of one of the senior partners of the company I'm working for. For some weird psychological reason I can't bring myself to cook on somebody else's kitchen and I can't wait until I can experiment with all these varieties of bread and meat they have around here....
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| Back Again. |
[ Thursday, November 24th 2005 | 11:53 ] |
So. Back in Barcelona, this time in a more permanent basis. I hope I'll get used to live in this strange land where the public transport system actually works and electrical sockets are round. Weird.
And jet lag from America to Europe is much, much easier to bear.
As a brief aside, anybody knows of a good webpage where I can get information about upcoming european DS and GBA releases? I hope I can get FFIV Advance and Phoenix Wright without having to import them, even if they are released months after their American counterparts - which reminds me, does anybody know of a good european webstore in Europe I can use to import games from the US?
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| You know... |
[ Saturday, November 12th 2005 | 13:43 ] |
...jetlag is a bitch.
That is all.
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| Update |
[ Thursday, October 13th 2005 | 02:29 ] |
Hey, look, I am back at Barcelona!
(yeah, many things have happened since the last post).
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| ^_^ |
[ Tuesday, September 27th 2005 | 23:46 ] |
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I have an eleven-pound cat purring on my lap. Everything is right with the world.
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| ^_^ |
[ Sunday, September 11th 2005 | 02:29 ] |
Yeah, yeah, I know I've been neglecting this journal. You know how real life can get in the way...
But first, I'd like to offer my sincere sympathy to everybody who suffered one way or another the impact of Katrina. I'm still flabbergasted by the magnitude of the catastrophe... There are tons of things I could add, but there'll be no talk of politics tonight. I'm in a good mood.
You see, everything's fine in this side of the monitor. For the first time since I moved back into my hometown I can feel my life having sense and going smoothly. There are still a few wrinkles I could do without, but I am not complaining!
Random bits:
- Cupid is, definitively, one of the best TV series I've ever found. A strong premise, even stronger scripts and very charismatic leads with a very believable sexual tension between them that actually made sense in the context of the show. I can't believe they canceled it midway during its first season - what were those TV executives smoking when they signed this series death warrant? At least we latinoamericans got one more episode than you guys.
- I've also found myself attracted to an Australian TV show for kids, Wicked Science. Extremely well developed characters and a reasonable story arc that, unfortunately, derailed midway during the first season - you can spot the exact moment where the producers realized that their show was actually good and decided to do something about it. A lot of potential, all of it wasted. I will do a more detailed entry about this show later.
- The other TV show I've become addicted to is Numbers. It appeals to the math nerd inside of me. Plus, Sabrina Lloyd.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) dra_terrores got me Isabel Allende's "Zorro" for my birthday, assuming I would enjoy it for what it promised to be: the ultimate fanfiction. Reading it is kinda bizarre, because it does feel like fanfiction, but a well polished one. Very enjoyable. You can tell that Isabel Allende's hand was behind it because of the sheer number of strong female characters that appear in the book - Zorro has always been a male dominated universe, so its femenization feels weird at first. But I guess it was time the Zorro got female sidekicks.
- And I haven't forgotten the Top 5 lists. I will post the rest of them soon.
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| Harry Potter and the New Canon |
[ Wednesday, July 27th 2005 | 20:06 ] |
Well, I just finished Half-Blood Prince. I am sure I will be babbling non-stop about this book for weeks to come, and leaving all my wild theories and notes in my friend's LJs, but here are my firsts impressions/mini-review...
( Spoilers. Duh! )
Now, off to read your reviews...
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| Coming Late to the Party... |
[ Monday, July 25th 2005 | 18:09 ] |
Well, this may help combat the boredom...
Ask me for "top five" lists of pretty much anything, and I will list you my top five of that thing or things.
Copy and give your own top fives.
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| Pet Trouble |
[ Monday, July 18th 2005 | 18:45 ] |
My mother gave my father a 3 old month chihuahua as a gift for father's day. My 10 year old cat, who has always been kinda grumpy and antisocial and who was used to being king of the house, is not thrilled.
Any suggestion on how could we make them get along? Or at least keep the chihuahua from becoming my cat's next meal? My mother told me the cat already tried to beat him up a few weeks ago (well, the chihuahua was peeing near my cat's sandbox...) I already am planning on separating them and giving them individual territories, and reintroduce them to each other gradually...
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| Quick Update |
[ Saturday, July 16th 2005 | 16:37 ] |
1. Still alive
2. Not on Europe anymore - I'm logging in from mexico City.
3. Reading the american edition of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and taking notes. I'm on Chapter 6 right now.
4. Jet lag sucks.
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| On the Musical Front |
[ Wednesday, July 6th 2005 | 20:54 ] |
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mood |
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 tired |
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I really like the new Moby album. Have I committed some kind of musical sin?
(and if so, does the fact that I've recently discovered The Pretenders balance my karma?)
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| Hoy No Me Puedo Levantar |
[ Saturday, June 18th 2005 | 00:19 ] |
Right now I'm in Madrid... Business trip, mind you - but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy my weekend here!
I spent this afternoon at this musical: "Hoy No Me Puedo Levantar" ("I Can't Get Up Today"). This is a musical where all the songs come from the Spaniard pop group Mecano, which took the Latin world by storm in the 80's - in other words, this musical is the Latin equivalent to" Mamma Mia"!. Some of my English speaking friends probably have heard some of Mecano's hits - Sarah Brightman has recorded two of their songs, "Hijo de la Luna" and "Naturaleza Muerta".
Mecano's songs have aged up remarkably well and it was a thrill to see them performed live, even if it wasn't by the original group (and it is no secret that I love covers and arranged works from original songs, so listening to Mecano's songs being performed in different tempos and by male singers was a real thrill). The script was merely decent, and they shoehorned a couple of songs here and there, but who goes to a musical like this for the script? I do think that the love story was nicely done, with a couple of really heartbreaking moments, and one thing I do like about the script is that the writers knew who is the target audience of the play - people who love 80's pop and/or Mecano songs - and they had no shame in exploiting that fact, dropping a ton of references. Seeing the play is to a Mecano fan what League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is to a fan of Victorian literature: a very entertaining, very satisfying game of "spot that reference". They also know that the audience knows the songs and play a little with foreshadowing; for example - and this is 100% hypothetical and not a spoiler, codehead - read this translation of "Naturaleza Muerta" and then imagine that you are watching the musical and this guy named "Miguel" decides to become a fisherman... it gives you the chills.
So, yeah, I had a great afternoon, but I think it was product of karmic balance, since my morning was awful for lots of reasons, the most noticeable of them all is that the airline that brought me to Madrid lost my luggage. At least I got it back in a relatively short time, around 12 hours. I've heard these horror stories about suitcases that go around the world on their own and take a week or so to come back to their owners...
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| Live from Barcelona |
[ Monday, May 30th 2005 | 09:16 ] |
So, I survived my first weekend in Spain. It's been a neat experience, although there are a couple of things that have really confused me... For example, everything is closed on Sundays - including, go figure, Ikea and Pizza Hut. Just a percentage of restaurants and the tourist attractions are open (and even then, many of those close after 3 o'clock). Weird. And for some reason my brain, knowing we are exploring a foreign country, defaults to English - for example, when asking for a ticket today at La Pedrera, I asked for it in English instead of Spanish. Bad brain, bad!
Oh, and I need to get a bigger memory card for my camera. Apparently, 32MB is not enough when exploring an European city.
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