The perfect drummer

If I ever learn to play the guitar like [THIS] guy, I will need a drummer to match. I've found the perfect drummer. When this video was recorded, the kid was only 12 years old. I don't know if he has improved much since... I really can't see where he could improve...

Marco Antonio... Get your arse in gear and start learning! THIS is what I call a real drum solo!!

Then there is, [THE COIN MASTER],[BAND WARS],[PAINTING WITH MS PAINT],[PAINTING WITH SAND]

A stag night with a difference... or two

Last saturday and due to celebrating the stag night (yeah, another braindead...) of our good friend Chuss, we got together in the italian restaurant "Tagliatelle", here in Madrid. There was quite a few of us.

This is all of us, on a "before" pic:

The poor waitress (see pic below) had lots of patience with us and was very pleasant. As we sat down she treated us like gentlemen. This treatment lasted untill we told her we were out on a stag night, when she threw her arms up and said something along the lines of "Dear God!" and trated us like youths the rest of the evening.

We had a major feast of all kinds of pasta an pizza, all doused with beer and Lambrusco wine. Due to this dousing was this... watch...

Naturally, that wasn't the end of it, but the peculiarities begun. We were only just finishing our second course and beginning our deserts (some of us didn't even get to try them!) a small fire was declared in the kitchen and smoke filled the place. We were promptly ushered out. Naturally, to this day, we all deny any involvement in the fire...

Once outside, naturally, some people left straight away and others left shortly afterwards. A few minutes later someone came out and announced that if we gave them a few minutes they would sort out our bills. This was taken as a cue for half the people to remember about their business elsewhere. Shortly after that, the guy came out again and announced that due to the disturbance we were all invited. Round of applause and Rade and Edu, who are most diplomatic, collected a few bucks to give to the waiters who had actually worked quite hard.

Once this resolved itself and relishing on the experience, we crossed the street and began the first of the night's entretainment: NEGONE - Escape from Mazzinia.

Here, a game takes place in which we all play convicts trying to escape from a hi-tec prison. You are given a wrist-strapped console in which you have to accumulate weapons and items to that effect. In each room you are presented with a logic problem you have to solve to get the item. The console is used to acces the screens with the enigmas. Also, you can score points with hidden extra access points.

The scenarios are quake-like (ok, so no shots and no lava, but...) and get you right into the storyline. The ambience includes lasers, smoke, floors that move, strobic lights, artifacts and varied attrezzo, nets, ladders, ramps, access tubes and loads of things to jump over, climb, crawl under, etc.

Of course, when you get out, there is a bar!

The night was filled with good moments, laughter and curious experiences. Truly, a night to remember.

Lombarda powerrrr!!

As most of you know, I have a bike, my dear Honda VFR800i (my pride and joy, my dearest). As any other vehicle, she needs a good mechanic to take good care of her and I found him some time ago.

His name is Jose Lombarda, from Navalcarnero (Madrid). This mechanic has spent most of his life between engines. He has often worked in professional racing teams with both cars and motorbikes. 30 minutes with him and he will give you more famous names than you coud possibly store in memory! Even his own son, Luis, under his toutelage, was racing for several years as a professional with his CBR900RR.

Now, Jose has embarked in a new adventure (actually, he's been at it for sometime now), racing with ultra-light cars, with steel chassis, motorbike engine (in his case, a Suzuki GSX-r1000, I think). He was recently declared Champion of Castilla Leon in this new type of racing. Here are some pics of his buggy.

My Workspace (a random piece of me)

Ok, so I have nothing to write today (well, actually, plenty, but not really much time...), so I've decided to share a little of my daily life with the world (So who cares, yeah yeah, I know...).

This is my workplace:
Here I spend around 8 hours every day. The screen will be changed for a slightly larger one soon. And on the little yellow couch is where I usually lay my Qtek (which was used to take the picture), but other than that, this is it!

On the back you can see my boss (blurred since I hae no right to distribute her pic...).

So, there.

War!

When I first thought to do my own blog, I decided I should write in it all those things that suddently occur to me and I never get the chance to discuss or expose because the appropiate forum isn't at hand. Usually on fridays (probably due to tiredness), I feel specially philosophical and this place allows me to give all this an escape valve.

First and foremost, I would like to apologize to anyone who might feel offended by my words as my only intention is to offer my thoughts which, because of my social upbringing, obviously lack the experience that may otherwise make me view things with a different eyeglass. I do not wish to offend anyone nor any collective opinion.

Today I want to discuss a matter that has been in my mind for some time: war. Meaning war as a concept, not war in Irak, nor any other real example of war, but war in general and concepts arising from it and so on.

I am currently reading the second book of the Legends of Dune by Brian Herbert (son of the original creator of the Dune saga, Frank Herbert) and Kevin J. Anderson. This trilogy of books (comprising "the butlerian Jihad", "The machine crusade" and "The battle of Corrin") tell the epic story of the struggle between humankind in the galaxy and a society of inteligent machines born from the hand of man himself. The firs question that arises to me is why are we still so fascinated by stories of wars, fightings and death? It must be something in our own nature.

Today's discussion arises from a DeviantArt image exposed by my own cousin Glen. In it we are shown a legend of a memorial for those fallen in war (from the WWII, I think) where we are encouraged to remember those who died for us. Analyzing the concept of war memorials I am forced down two main lines of thought to justify these reminders.

On one side are those people close to those fallen in combat who wish to give meaning to something that cannot have meaning for them. Have all those who fight suffered direct greviance from the enemy they are fighting? In such case, why do both sides lift memorials to their fallen warriors? Are we not all taught that our own side was the right one? Which one is true?

On the other side is the blade of the political weapon represented by these memorials, that attempt to remain timeless and justify something that may have had its sense in its time... or not... In Spain we all know the greatest monument to fascism (and I use the term as a political thought designation): El valle de los caídos (The valley of the fallen, built in the time of Francisco Franco, the fascist dictator, by the hands of a large number of political prisoners, many of which died in the process). It's own name indicates it should be a memorial built in honour of fallen warriors in a fight for high morals that justified the sacrifice of those who died. We only have to set out in the streets of Madrid and ask anyone about it. The opinions are as opposed as they are passioate in both senses.

However, what I ask myself is the real need for these deaths and others occurred in war times, as I also question the moral validity of these monuments. Do they give meaning to the deaths? In my humble opinion, they don't. Did ever a loved one of one of these fallen ones (wether warrior or innocent bystander) think "Thank God! I feel so comforted now they have built this huge thing as a memorial to my loved one. I feel so much better!". I may be naive, but however big the monument was, I wouldn't feel comforted for the loss of someone close to me. Further, I would feel more offended the bigger the monument was.

One could even say these memorials can justify new war actions against those who offended us and who tainted our memory by "murdering" our loved ones (If you are on the side that started the conflict, does that mean you cannot lift memorials?), reminding us of the offense and who fought to defend us. If we remember that many of these monuments are lifted for political reasons, doesn't that rather remind us of the futility of their deaths?


Going back to the stories by the Herbert family, and thinking also of those written by George Orwell in his famous novels 1984 and Animal farm, human beings can find means to justify the most inhuman actions with the highest moral values that define us as beings above animals. This contradiction in terms can be seen every day in the news.

I will refer to present day situations. I frequently see in the news (which is why I decide every day I will watch the news no more....) that jews have launched a new offense that ended with the lives of X people murdered (reducing people to a mere number... How horrifying!!!). Still now a days we are shown feature films (such as Schindler's list, etc) which reminds us how millions of jews were massacred for reasons that, for the murdering side, were justified!! Y GODD!! HOW CAN THEY JUSTIFY TO KILL SO MANY?!?!? Err... I actually think the very same thought every time a bomb explodes in Palestina!

Isn't there any other way to resolve the conflict?

(On a more national point of view) How is it possible that a political party can critisize another because they are TALKING in order to solve an armed conflict? If we want the problem with E.T.A. to be resolved is there really any other way?. Didn't the irish only ever get to solve their problems when they put their weapons aside and sat down to talk about it?

So, as Glen's picture says, whenever you find yourselves in front of a memorial that remembers those fallen in an act of war, and I include those fallen victims of terrorist acts, which are the SAME kind of victims as honorable warrior killed in action, do yourselves and humankind a favour: stop and think of them and how they died...


... for you...

... even if you never asked them to die for you...

... even if they died for something you think is a just cause...

... because their lives ended in a day such as today, in a moment such as right now, in a life very much like your own... Was it really worth it? Did it give them honour? Woudln't have they prefered to live a little longer? Who decided they should die for you?

A nice wallpaper

Some of you may have noticed a link I have somewhere to my own gallery at [deviantART]. Many of you probably haven't.

Today, I would like to take you to a picture by my cousin, Glen(Pinkster). I often take a walk through his gallery, searching for new wallpapers and to feast my eyes. Yesterday, I came upon this image and I decided it was the perfect wallpaper for this week (it's gray and drizzly and rainy, here).

I invite you to take a stroll through his gallery and, if it suits you, through the galleries of his friends and others. This site has much quality to offer to the eye. Have a look.

The day of all saints

the day for all saints (I forget the name in english), independently from religion, is a day dedicated to those loved ones who are no longer with us. Each culture has derived this celebration in some form or another (lots are not even celebrated today). In Mexico (I think) they take to the streets with skeletons of all sizes made of paper-maché, in a kind of rite to celebrate the figure of Death.

Here, in Spain, it seems that anyone who cares about what the Jones think has to be at the cementery and play the act, shed a little tear, clean up the statutory grave, place the flowers (which of course will be more expensive than the rest of the year) and let everybody see just how sad they are about the loss of that person whose grave, memory and name they have not visited since last year (as proven by the amount of dust and cobwebs in our citie's cementeries).

I don't want to be a part of such hipocresy.

The cementeries I would like to visit regularly are far from me. One is in Barcelona and the other two are in England.

What I do wish to do, in the same way I often think of my loved ones, is to try and make everyone think of those loved ones they have lost.

My feelings go out to my father, my nanna, Tory, Uncle Colin, Auntie Roma, Montse and Manel. I don't forget you.

My thoughts also go out to those loved ones of the people I have near me. To name them would be to renew their pain. It isn't necessary. I think of you.

Finally got a permanent contract!!!

After working for 5 years for the same company with a project contract (it means you're contracted for a project only. When it's finished you're fired. Basically, it means they contract you untill they no longer want you, at which time they decide the project is finished and they have to pay you nothing to let you go), today they called me to ask me to go in and sign the new (permanent) contract. This new contract means I'm hired for the company indefinitely. If they want to fire me they have to pay me an ammount proportional to the time I've worked for the company (the salary equivalent to 45 days per each year I've worked for them).

There was a law by which after 3 years working under this type of contract, you were immediately considered as permanently contracted. However, a loophole also allowed them to pay you an amount (which, of course was taken off the bonus part of my salary) and pay off this law (they didn't change the type of contract).

This way, they kept workers in a precarious situation by which they could fire anyone anytime they pleased to do wo without having to pay a penny. They only had to say "well, sorry, but the project is finished", no matter what you were working on at the time.

Thanks to a new law (brought on by our 3-year-old left-winged government), the loophole has been eliminated and this type of contract MUST be transformed into permanent after a year and a half in the company. Companies are now forced to contract us decently and assure us at least a compensation ammount if they want to get rid of us (which they can still do whenever they please... but paying up!).

... and they still ask me why I want a left-winged government. I have no further questions, your honor.

Boredom

Boredom is bad, specially for the soul... And since I had never tried, I started to build up a ball made ONLY of rubber bands. It's still going on, so check on updates! (as if...)
Enjoy!

Mother Nature is pissed

If you ask me, the reason behing the flooding in my town (plus all other nature disasters happening around the world) is simple: Mother Nature is seriously pissed off with mankind. Wouldn't you be?

Here's a cuple of reasons:

Iceland has started whale hunting again. First piece? an endangered species: the fin whale. Greenpeace says this [LINK]

Korea joins the Nuclear Community. They have started testing (that is, EXPLODING) nuclear devices. Didn't we already have enough nukes to blow ourselves up to kingdom come!?

... I give up. Humankind really sucks!! If you ask me, we deserve everything Nature has to throw us...

A few drops

This is the result of a few sparse showers that may have fallen in my community. It rained torrentially for about 5 to 10 minutes. I have no idea how many liters per square meter fell, but the water reached halfway to the step of the front door. Those of you who know my neighbouthood you know of the houses down from me. There was almost a meter high of water flooding the garages there. The firemen finally left at around 10pm, after spending hours baleing water out.

As you can see, in my garage, the flooding was less important, and, thanks to the pumps we're supposed to have, it didn't go over 7 or 8cm deep.

Thank God for the weathermen who always warn us of these contingencies... or not...

New header

Thanks to by good pal Alberto, A.K.A. El Prenda, I have a new header image for this blog. Those of you with high brightness monitors will see it has a blue background. The rest of us will just see it as black...

THANK YOU PRENDAAA!!!!

CAAAAATSSS!!!!

This goes out to all of us, cat lovers out there. Enjoy!!!

When I grow younger...

When I grow younger I want to have the time to practice and reach this level...

Pandora's box

I'm positive you all know the concept of Internet Radio (those of you who don't, it is exactly that: Radio you can hear through your Internet connection, it's that simple). Well, then. What I bring to you today is a step forward from that, in a very simple way. It's a website where you can select all your favourite bands and it will not only play music from those bands, but it will also play music from similar bands it thinks you will like. And not unknown bands at that (welll, some less known bands, too, of course).

The best part? It's FREE, and you don't have to download anything. If your browser (IE, Firefox(hint hint), Netscape,...) can play Flash, your're sorted! (worry not, it's almost automatic).

Check it out at [PANDORA]

Stylish clothing

This is classy clothing. I'm gonna have to renew my wardrobe and get me some of these clothes. A must!!

(sorry... spanish website...)
[CLOTHES]



(there was an english equivalent... ah, yes!)
[THINKGEEK]

Micro ATX built!

My batchelor week is proving very fruitful, but it's wearing me out.

Well, I finally have my Micro ATX home theater machine built. Components?


- CPU AMD Athlon 64 3000+
- K8 Saphire motherboard with Ati Radeon X200i
- RAM 512Mb
- Hard disks 10Gb + 80Gb
- DVD rw LG

- Windows XP with [IMedian] to watch all my DVDs and movies.

And all in this precious box (see above)



Nice, huh? Well... I had to put something nice next to my pretty TV set.

Finally got it!!!

Finally my [Iwata] airbrush has arrived!! What with holidays and all that it took almost 3 weeks to get here.



Info [LINK]

This very same airbrush sells for about €350 in Spain. I bought it for $99 in e-bay (new). Total, including P&P and customs tax, €120!! DEAL!!

I tried it. It works great. Needs a little more paint, but it's a little easier to handle and gives better results than the Chaves one I already had. Can't wait to do something good with it!!

For the moment: Practice, practice, practice, practice, practice !!