From time to time I come across a shop or a place that deserves a photograph for some weird thing related to its name or what it shows in display.

This time, the prize goes (for now) to:

No, I don’t know what they were selling. One of these days I’ll upload a couple I took from a trip to Baiona a couple of years ago.

Sweet, sweet A.C….

(Sorry for yet another one gender-oriented joke)

(Via ElPais)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blooded Prince.

In FNAC, El Corte Inglés or other retail stores: 25,65€ (discounted). Of course, there’s no competition since EVERYWHERE the price is the same (27€, 5% off). Maybe it’s me, but I think it’s WAY too expensive.

In Amazon.co.uk, 13,55€ (VAT included, without shipping). A bit more expensive in Amazon.com, but only 1 or 2€.

Exactly the same book, the same edition. Including S&H from the U.K., the book would cost me less than 21€ from Amazon.co.uk. Is anybody else feeling as cheated as me?? Not to mention the huge difference in average income between Spain and the U.K., which should make it cost here less than half than it does.

But of course… people doesn’t read in Spain and it’s not because books are expensive. As we all know, every kid has 25+€ to spend in a HP book. (Whether they would do it or not since the book is in english, is another story; the book will cost the same when translated into Spanish, just like it happened with the previous 5).

P.D. Or maybe we just need Amazon.es. YES, please… how long until we can have one?

I’m sick of people who think that rules are not for them and they can do as they will any time. Not in any particular situation, but in general. People that throw their garbage anywhere, that do whatever they want while driving, that smoke on elevators or working places, that park their car on parking places for disabled people (or just wherever they want), etc. People that in general live according to some kind of “fuck the world” philosophy. I’m sick, really.

And now, these motherfuckers. I hope they get VERY WELL punished, as they deserve. I’m really, really upset.

P.D.:

Today I’ve come across a short story by Isaac Asimov, from the book “Buy Jupiter”. It’s *really* short, and one of my favorites. Go read.

Silly asses. (Sorry, I couldn’t find the original english version online)

I can’t think of any other term to title this post. Just take a look at this digging machine (no, it’s not a Photoshop fake)

Bitchin’. Reminds me of the terraformers in Alpha Centauri.

(Via microsiervos)

In this era of too-powerful, too-massive computing, it’s been a long time I’ve been trying to evangelize on ergonomics. After all, you interact with your computer mostly through three things; your monitor, your keyboard and your mouse. I strongly believe these are the three aspects that are most worth to put your money on, and people insist in buying too powerful computers that are mostly quite unpleasant to use. I bought a 19″ monitor almost 8 years ago that cost me around 1000€ by then and I have always bought the best mice and keyboards I could afford, and I’ve never regretted it a little bit. I have even thought that your OS is very important too… but that’s a different issue.

That is why I really, really would want one of these. Yeah, I know they are just CGI but it would be a real quantum leap in usability.

That, and a couple of Dell FP2005W monitors… and I would be golden.

Well, dreaming is free, right?

It’s been quiet lately in the DVD front. I already have most of the stuff I want. Anyway, I’ve got a few lately that I was looking for:

- One flew over the cuckoo’s nest. However, I have already regretted this one, because I thought I was purchasing the 2-DVD collector’s edition set, and it’s the single DVD edition. Doh!

- Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Yeah, I know, this one’s pretty bad; But I already have the first two and felt like completing the trilogy. Plus, it was only 5.90€ for a 2-DVD set, and I must say the extras are quite nice.

- The Pianist. I am really looking forward to see this one, and 9.90 for a 2-DVD+1CD deluxe packed edition, it was a steal.

Anyway, there’s a few titles that are looking at me persistently… like Spaceballs, Chihiro (Spirited away) or a bunch of other classics. We’ll see.

P.S. BTW, I got a pocket edition of Ender’s Game today. My history with this book is pretty curious; I’ve read it, I’ve given it as a gift several times, I have recommended it… But I never owned it. Well, since there seems to be no regular edition available, I’ve picked up the pocket edition for starters. I feel like re-reading it, actually. Maybe if I can finish The Pillars Of Earth some day…

The CTSL is over, and I can now say it was a nice experience in many ways. People were cool, and some lectures were interesting (though other were mostly crap, in my opinion). I was expecting more from Marcelo Tossatti, and I was falling asleep in the lecture about MareNostrum… not because it was uninteresting, but because I was utterly tired, which is a pity because I was really looking forward to that one…

(more…)

At very last, I’m back online.

I’m sorry for the lack of updates and silly stuff, but last week was a hellish nightmare, preparing two lectures and a nice poster for the CTSL in A Coruña. From monday to wednesday I slept less than 3 hours (including not sleeping at all on monday-tuesday), and then had an average of 5 hours of sleep a day until friday. When I arrived home on friday night I was more tired than I can remember since the good’ol days of work at a job I won’t mention here. Really terrible.

And after that, a bit of rest and every year’s race to find a place to spend a week on holidays. It’s become a tradition by this time of the year, and I HATE it. I’ve searched so much and read so many reviews that I wanted to puke. However, today I’ve finally arranged everything, so that’s something else I can forget now.

So… time for blog-updating. Yay!