Eurocup

Even in America, a lot of people were aware that Spain got into the final of the Eurocup, and today, at long last, won.

Yesterday I went for a long walk looking for a bar that would show the final, but nothing convinced me too much. As I was getting home, I decided to check the bar closest to my house, which is just one block away. It’s a small place that I can see from my terrace. Yesterday, it had a sign saying they would be showing the game. There were three tv’s in the place, so the decision was made.

Today I went there fifteen minutes before the start of the game, and the place was already packed, mainly with Americans, most of them cheering for Spain. Only a German couple were sad when Torres scored his goal. The place was noisy, and every time Spain was near scoring, the people would get up from the stools and give loud shouts.
I don’t often drink beer, but today was special and I watched the game with a pint of Stella. It was great, I only wish I could have been in Madrid to celebrate.

My office has a great view

Just wanted to break the monotony of my all-text posts, and make you envious.

Fire with fire, Apple with Apple

In the last couple of years I’ve become more and more dependent on my laptop (a beautiful MacBook Pro). Before, I used it to program, do email and surf the web. Now, in addition, I keep all my music in it. I don’t even buy CD’s any more, I buy directly in electronic format. I also use it as my photo lab and database (with Aperture), as my video-conferencing tool, and of course, to write this blog and keep track of other blogs.

This is fine with me. Every now and then I hear people talking about “getting away from technology”, or looking down on the internet as a medium that dumbs us down and shortens our attention span. Nonsense, I tell you, nonsense.
I do have one problem with my dependence on my mac. When I come home, exhausted, after a long day writing code and battling compilers, I want to just sink into my sofa, take my shoes off and listen to some music. Of course, this means opening the mac and firing up iTunes. Before I know it, I’m checking email, viewing my friends’s status in facebook, and catching up on my article and blog reading.
Yes, a whole day spent looking at a laptop screen.

That all is changing. This weekend I bought an Apple TV. The Apple TV is basically a storage device that synchronizes with your mac over your home network, and connects to your tv and hi-fi set. Now I don’t need the laptop to listen to music, and I can also watch all my photos in the big screen. The little box can also be used to watch films, some of them in High Definition (HD). I decided to try this with Juno, and the quality really is noticeably better than DVD.
As I type this, I’m half way into Into the Wild in HD, and I’m liking it much much better than the book. I may be buying the soundtrack and the film. Good job, Sean Penn!
And all through the weekend, I’ve opened up the mac much less. Good stuff.

You may think that I’m now too dependent on Apple, though. Nonsense, I tell you, nonsense. There are some products that Apple makes that I don’t own, like the iPhone (but we’ll see about that). In any case, mom is a stock holder, so all stays in the family. There.

Green fatigue

It goes like this:
Someone: I see you drive a Prius, that’s great!
Me: Thanks!
Someone: You will find that people in Seattle are very concerned with the environment, unlike in other places.
Me: I found there was a high degree of environmentalism in New York.
Someone: Oh, really?

And sometimes I read stupid things like these:

• You should never eat meat, and become a vegetarian. Do it for the environment.
• Bottled water is evil. Filtered tap water tastes great, anyway.
• The problem is India and China becoming wealthier. We must tutor them.
• Don’t eat mammals, they have souls. Mollusks are OK, they’re too small to have souls.

The last item comes from Michael Pollan’s famous Omnivore’s Dilemma – yes, really.
I like to think I’m pretty green, but I’m getting tired of all the sanctimony I get fed. I will continue to eat red meat. I will continue to eat fish. I tried the water filter, and Seattle tap water still tastes nasty. I don’t know why nobody worries about plants’s souls, or killing plants. And I continue to be surprised that over-population is rarely mentioned as an environmental threat.

Here is a cartoon from the wonderful xkcd that got a laugh out of me:

Yay for Spain!

If you don’t know, and no matter if you don’t care about football (soccer, for Americans): Spain beat Italy, to advance to semi-finals in the Eurocup. This is historical: we hadn’t made it this far in over 20 years. Next, Russia. I’ll definitely find a place to watch!

Growing pains

Lately I’ve been very busy, working like a dog. Unlike other times of overwork, I do see the purpose here, and it’s helping me learn, and encouraging me to work smarter – an expression I don’t like, but it fits.

Some times I get into a pattern of small failings: nothing spectacular, just a steady stream of tiny disappointments with myself. It’s very frustrating, but I tend to find these episodes useful. When I haven’t had one in a while, I start to think I’m going stale. These days I’m finally getting irked into action, into organizing myself better at work and out of it, and into doing the things I’ve been postponing.

Also, a couple of weeks ago I went running for the first time with the Seattle Runners Club, which is a 10 min. walk from my house. They run at a faster pace than I’m used to, and so far I’ve had to leave the group after 15 min. of running, and go back home at my own pace.
I thought I would be preparing for the New York marathon, but I wasn’t admitted, so now I’m lacking a goal. I prefer it that way. I think I’m still going to run with these guys, although, at the moment, not being able to finish a run with them is bruising my ego.

Ah, the pain. I just remembered a quote from Keanu Reeves, in The Replacements:

Pain heals. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars.

Too much for the body

It was a storm of a weekend. I went to Buffalo for Andrea’s wedding, saw Niagara Falls, and put up with the airlines…

My flight was supposed to get to Buffalo on Friday at midnight, but got delayed a couple of hours. I ended up getting to my hotel room at 2:30am, was restless for a long while, then crashed. It had been a hard week at work and I was already falling behind on sleep.

I wanted to visit Niagara Falls before the wedding, so after waking up, checking email and looking at the maps, I drove there. It’s a short journey, about half an hour, but I didn’t have a lot of time to be there. I took a walk, then decided to get on the world-famous (in Niagara) boat tour Maid of the Mist, which has carried presidents, kings, and now me.

There is a saying that Niagara Falls is the second disappointment of newlyweds in America. I’m not sure I would cross the country just to see Niagara, but it makes a fantastic side trip.

I went back to Buffalo very satisfied, and got ready. It was great to see Andrea, and her husband Rob, and it was great to catch up with old friends like Emily and Jolie. The ceremony was tastefully short, the minister was funny, and Andrea’s little niece added entertainment with her screams.

The dinner was fun. The three of us from I-House had a table with some of Rob’s friends, and we tried to be the loudest table but nobody payed much attention. For the first time ever in an official event, I gave the American scream a try. You know the one, you say Weeeeu! with the highest pitch you can manage. It’s one of those things about America that we expats don’t get. Anyway, I have to report that I didn’t mind trying, but it’s painful for the throat, and I still don’t get it.

The speeches were very good, and Jolie got up to give an impromptu closing one about marriage being a radical act of love, which I thought was very original. After that, as often happens in weddings, there was toasting, drinking, slight intoxication, dancing and mingling.

The next day we were all going home. After eating breakfast with Sylvia and Jolie, it was back to Seattle. Again I had delay on the leg of the trip to Philadelphia, but the leg to Seattle was a different story. There was a big thunderstorm across all the midwest, and our flight got rerouted through Texas, and had to make circles in the air to leave space for all the other rerouted flights. So many circles, that the plane ran out of gas and we had to stop in Salt Lake City to refuel. The crew were very apologetic and got us to land in the cargo area, rather than the runway, to make refueling quicker. Great idea, but the crew in Salt Lake City forgot to bring the ladder that adjusts the gas pipe to the plane, so we had to go to the runway, and wait for our turn, after all.
In short, I ended up getting home at 2am, and yes, I spent Monday walking like a zombie and wishing for a nap.

Ah, the pleasures of travel. But don’t get me wrong. Often, a weekend of fun and sleep deprivation is just what was needed, and that was the case here. Besides, all those delays allowed me to finish Kite Runner, at long long last.

Lunchbox hippie

Last week I started bringing my own lunch to the office. I’m using a funny little lunchbox they sell at Whole Foods.

It all started after my office-mate Jon brought his own utensils to the cafeteria. I thought it was a good idea, and started bringing my own too. We wondered whether they would serve us if we brought our own porcelain plates. The answer was no. Fairly typical in America that cafeterias use disposable plastic plates, cups and utensils.
Fairly typical, too, that the food is not good. The decision to pack lunch was only a question of time. The thing is, I want to eat properly, nothing like making a sandwich, or a … salad (boring!).

In recent times I’ve been trying to learn how to cook. I’ve been making my own yogurt for over a year; I started doing that because of a recommendation in the book Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschal, which I found to help a lot with my Crohn’s disease. Now of course, I’m used to home made yogurt, and like it better than store bought, except White Cow Dairy from back in New York, which is the best I’ve ever had.

But back to subject: last month I bought How to Cook Everythig by Mark Bittman, who writes the Minimalist column in the New York Times. I like him because he uses simple methods, but doesn’t compromise on quality. There is a section, for instance, on why you should whip your own cream, never buy whipped.
I’m finding Bittman’s claim that you can, without experience, make something better than 90% of restaurants, to be true. As he says, making things from raw ingredients gives better taste. It’s also fun. Last summer I learned how to churn my own butter. Not something I do often, but playing with food and equipment is turning out to be fun.

So far, for my lunches, I’ve had asparagus parmesan, crustless quiche, and pisto (Spanish ratatouille, mom’s recipe), and I’ve been surprised by the big improvement of lunch break.
We shall see if I have the discipline to keep this up.