Blog and webs back from the underworld

You might have realized that we had some issues concerning the availability of our webs, at Warp and eBox, and our blogs. You might also realize that the theme of the blog has changed to the wordpress default. You might also wonder where have all those nice pictures on the right side gone. First, let me apologize for any trouble we might have caused. We hope you did not choose last week-end to try to impress your girlfriend by downloading and installing the very latest version of eBox but found the server down. If that was the case, we are sorry and we are really doing our best to avoid it happening again. You can try again this week-end; I am sure she will be impressed this time

Let’s say we have had some problems with our (ex) hosting providers, who stopped providing service without notice. I will leave the pleasure of explaining the details for those who have been in the front line fighting to recover our data and get our pages back from the underworld. Now everything seems to be working and we can get our lives back to normal, with a different provider of course

48 hours in Zaragoza

The Independent, one of Britain’s most important media organization, has recently published a video tour of Zaragoza, the host of Expo 2008, compressing a 48-hour visit in just 15 minutes.

Spain’s hidden secret

That sums up Zaragoza, the surprising capital of the beautiful region of Aragon. But this year the secret is out, because this northern Spanish gem is host to Expo 2008.

Being a local and having shown the city a bunch of times, I must admit that the video is really good and shows the city pretty well. In fact, the landmarks and bars/restaurants displayed are the ones I am used to show to my visitors coming for such a brief time There is just one inaccuracy in the report: the stone bridge is not Roman but from the Middle Ages (15th century, to be more precise), though it is built on the basements of a previous Roman stone bridge. Moreover, most of locals do believe it is part of the Roman heritage so it is a perfectly understandable mistake

Quote of the week

This quote seems to fit perfectly this week:

Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm. Winston Churchill

Holidays with my stuff

I’ve just been a week on holidays, out of Zaragoza, and I got quite surprised when unpacking the luggage I realized the amount of hardware and electronic gadgets I took with me. I am so adicted to my toys that I could not live for a week without them:

Computers

• IBM Thinkpad
• Maxdata laptop
• Nokia 770 Internet tablet

External memory

• 200 Gb external hard disk
• 128 Mb USB pendrive

Sound

• 2.1 Sound system
• Headphones

Connectivity

• 3G Internet card

Others

• 3.2 MPixels camera
• USB connexion wire
• One charger for each device
• Battery charger
• Mobile phone charger

And I used it all

Consumada la unión

El sábado pasado se convirtió en día grande al cambiar de estado civil tanto mi mujer como un servidor. Lingüísticamente hablando, hemos dejado de poder practicar la fornicación y tener hijos bastardos entre nosotros y pasamos a poder cometer adulterio con otras personas. También tenemos un libro de familia muy bonito que habrá que empezar a rellenar, con sitio hasta para seis churumbeles.

El entorno que elegimos para celebrar todos estos cambios en nuestras vidas no podria haber sido mejor, igual que el servicio y la atención que recibimos. Y por lo que veo no somos las únicas personalidades de la sociedad aragonesa que eligen el mismo sitio para cambiar de estado civil.

Stag party at Alquezar

It’s been already 10 days since we celebrated our stag and hen party in Alquezar, sorry for the delay Our party was pretty special: both parties together, no strip tease, no rubber dicks, no stupid disguises, … but in spite of everything we had great fun.

We are planning to have a ver small, intimate wedding, so this was a kind of wedding celebration with friends, instead of a typical stag/hen party. We planned a four day long celebration at Alquezar, a medieval village in the middle of the Guara mountains with plenty of adventure sports in the area, perfect for young people like us (yes, although I saw the movie Tron in the cinema I consider myself still a youngster).

The first day, with a group, we had a quiet approach to the village, the environment and the gastronomy. We had the first experiences with flans and we felt the power of Master Nasco, the local hero. The second day in the morning, the quad team (eight people) was en route for a two hours tour in the nature, crossing rivers, going down ravines and pillaging and plundering villages. It was a really exciting experience, getting us close to what Rommel felt when defending Tunis from the Allies

The afternoon went by having a visit to Blecua winecellars, an impressive marketing product of Viñas del Vero that can sell 3500

Estrenamos cocinera

Desde ayer ya somos parte del selecto grupo de propietarios de una Thermomix, gracias a un regalito de mis tatos y cuñadas. ¡Gracias, majos!

La mejor dieta, una buena gripe

Estoy terminando de superar la gripe de este invierno, una mezcla letal entre gripe española y aviar, que me ha tenido durante varios días luchando entre la vida y la muerte, con continuos ataques de tos, altas fiebres y más delirios de los habituales. Pero no hay mal que por bien no venga, puesto que he reducido de una forma notable mi incipiente barriga y me he acostumbrado a raciones más que moderadas. Así que, para perder peso ni dieta ni gimnasio ni fitness, no hay nada como una buena gripe de vez en cuando.

Nepomuk the Great

Today, a friend of mine told me the name of his new creation (well, his and his wife’s): Nepomuk. At first, I thought he was joking, but then he explained me seriously that Nepomuk was the name of the saint who who was thrown from a bridge in Prague with a big stone towed around his feet, because he didn’t tell the king if his wife had sex with another guy. And with a quick review in wikipedia I found that he was right, John of Nepomuk:

John of Nepomuk (German: Johann von Nepomuk) or Johann Nepomucen (Czech: Jan Nepomucký) is the most popular national saint of Bohemia. By a legend that he was the confessor of the Queen of Bohemia and refused to divulge the secrets of the confessional, he has been made into the first martyr of the seal of confession and a patron against calumnies and, because of the manner of his death, against floods.

And it seems like my friend is not the only one to give the name of Nepomuk to his child. There was also Johann Nepomuk Hummel, composer and musician, who was educated first by Mozart and then by the great Salieri, and became good friend with Beethoven. And there was Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, Adolf Hitler’s maternal great-grandfather and possibly also his paternal grandfather.

Update: in Spanish, St. John of Nepomuk is San Juan Nepomuceno

Brujerías de mujeres

El otro día Heidi me hizo una prueba de estas que tanto les gustan a las mujeres, en la que uno se frota la mano con una cadena y dependiendo del modo y las veces que posteriormente oscile se adivina el número de hijos que se tendrá y su sexo. Algo sin ninguna lógica ni fundamento. Pues bien, fue curioso comprobar que por más veces que lo probábamos los resultados no cambiaban ni para Heidi ni para mí: dos niños varones. También lo ha probado con sus compañeras de trabajo, coincidiendo los resultados de cada una de ellas cada vez que repetía la prueba. Incluso aquellas personas que ya tienen niños y han decidido plantarse, la prueba les daba los resultados correctos en número y género

Personalmente me cuesta creer en cosas a las que no les encuentro una explicación razonable, pero los resultados están ahí. El que quiera creer que crea, y el que sea agnóstico que haga como yo y no le dé importancia a estas cosas

Nacho as a Sith

Following my colleagues’ trend, I also tried the Sith character test and I am the coolest one

Don’t believe how the movie depicts him. It’s historicaly inaccurate…

Southpark customization

There is an interesting site where you can customize a Southpark character with a Flash application. My babe already spent sometime playing with it and created Heidi and Nacho characters (yes, she cut her hair). And for those who did not have the chance to see us at Carnival disguissed as schoolboy & girl, here we are