10 second video of Atticus in the ‘doggy park’ (7 meg download(!))

Any excuse to repost this image from two years ago of our patriotic bunnies enjoying a quiet pint. I like to think my photoshop skills have come on a bit since then, but hey ho… Other news… Mum’s commented to say she’s had a grand time in Salamanca this last week, which I already suspected. See you on the skype maana, mamá. Jose’s coming round this evening to cook a speciality shrimp dish. He’s worried though, with his usual modesty, that if we taste it we’ll end up sleeping outside his house under newspapers begging him to cook it again. Time will tell, but I’m looking forward to it… Maybe some more bloggin’ later. Cheers like.

There’s been a fair old hiatus on the film review front so what better time to start from scratch as I reckon I’ll be spending a goodly few hours a week round the local cinepolis. Old mini reviews have been banished to this page. And the new ones will pop up in the Iframe on the right as per normal. Just got back from watching Miami Vice, I was hoping to see Nacho Libre but there was only the dubbed version available. Anyroad, not bad at all once you get over Colin Farrell being in every shot.

Book and music reviews never really did take off so there’ll probably be no more of them. Feel free to ask me what I’m listening to or reading at any point if the comments are slow on an entry. Anybody out there have any recommendations for music? There was a rumour the Russians were going to stop supplying cheap MP3s some time soon and I’m up for using up my credit…

It’s worth watching the 2nd section too, where he says, this administration is soaring, not sinking… they’re not “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic¨. They’re rearranging the deckchairs on the Hindenberg.

Este guey si tiene huevos…

EDIT: May 4th, 2006: YouTube’s taken this down apparently “At the request of C-Span” I’m not convinced… more at BoingBoing

I wish this thing would go faster.

I can’t stand to watch, but shall have to. It’s a worrying start (4.50pm Pacific)

Here´s what I blogged at my temporary home, gwynunlimited.com last week… More posting to come.

So on Monday I logged in to my agaveweb site to write an entry on what I´d had for breakfast the day before and instead of the usual blue tones of the admin panel I got an assault on the eyes of video popups, paid links and all kinds of other obnoxious nonsense. “This domain expired on the 10th of November, to renew click here” I got a sinking feeling right away. Anyroad, basically it is a lot of hassle switching domain hosting companies and I´m still not sure it´s all going to be okay…

On the other hand, watching all my “work” from the last 3 years or more disappear from the internet is reassuring as even the waybackmachine couldn´t show my site. So if I ever need to delete all traces of me, it´s easier than I thought. Meanwhile, hopefully it´ll be back up by tomorrow.

So without my blog to help me, let´s see if I can piece together the events of the last week…

Monday: Phonecalls, emails, skypage, panic, a jaunt round the parque metropolitano and a fine chicken soup made by su servidor. Also watched La Reina de la Noche, all about Lucha Reyes. It was a bit too slow moving for my tastes. One of the most theatrical films I´ve seen in a while. In that there were probably 3 sets, max.

Tuesday: I went to the cabañas to hand in my photos for their postcard competition, outside there were hundreds of kids from all over mexico dressed up in their local garb, which was colourful. Then round Amour Fou´s to check they survived the weekend, then me Contemporary photography seminar and afterwards beers in el Fenix with some of the peeps from the seminar. Sita took advantage of the occasion to collect 6 interviews for her consumers of tequila chapter. Then home. And more soup.

Wednesday: Tequila, to arrange to interview some of the Sauza family and we also managed to ambush some folks from queretaro in a bar to interview them for the aforementioned chapter too.

Thursday: Finishing touches to the Belgian shopping centre site, adding all the German text, which messed up the design due to every word having 90 syllables and needed sorting. We went along for the SIT2007 press conference, but due to some other event happening there were hardly any reporters so it fell to me to film and photo the event at the last minute.

I got a bottle of me favourite tequila for my troubles though (Pueblo Viejo Reposado). Filming was the easy bit, since my computer gave up the ghost in a spectacular fashion, so I tried to install the editing software on Sita´s comp and managed to crash it and have to take it to the laptop hostpital down the road. For about 4 hours Sita harboured murderous thoughts since I might have lost her 15 audio interviews and 2 weeks´ work on her dissertation. Turned out okay in the end though. Thank Mayahuel. Ana stepped in to lend us another laptop and a desktop in the interim. It´s been a bad week on the tech front.

Yesterday: Starbucks. Though that´ll probably be the last time I go there since a large part of the reason for going there was because they had all the local papers for free. Now instead of a free selection, you have to buy El Mural. Which is a fine paper, but I like reading several. So I did the sudoku then went to Amour Fou to pick up their state-of-the-art laptop to have a play and then explain how to do stuff on it. that´ll be today. In the evening, Savora with Victor and Jana, and then round their´s along with Jose to put the world to rights and hear about José´s tribulations running the school while his mum´s been away travelling.

Today there´s lucha libre outside, so hopefully I´ll be there with me camera.

Righty, chances are this won´t be read by many folks so here´s hoping agaveweb is back in my hands by tomorrow. If not, it´ll have to be plan B. And I don´t know what plan B is yet.

I just sent in a top 10 list to the superlative podcast, Top of the Pods. Wonder if they’ll read it out…

Top 10 US-UK Linguistic Misunderstandings

10. Beverages: For some reason no matter how I pronounce coke or water in American restaurants I have to repeat it several times. Water and ‘wodder’ I get, but the Coke one puzzles me no end. Lemonade’s another, firstly there’s the pronunciation, LEMonade instead of lemonADE then there’s the fact that it’s some kind of water and squeezed lemon concoction not the ‘Every bubble’s passed its fizzical’ proper stuff. And don’t get me started on Ribena/orange squash’

9. Hair styles: Bangs- ‘I like girls with bangs’, my mate told me. I let it pass thinking well, it takes all sorts to make the world go round. I later found that across the pond, ‘bangs’ means a fringe. Somehow’

8. Food: Zucchini / Courgette, Cilantro / coriander, eggplant / aubergine, ground round/ mincemeat, ‘ If you’re buying a recipe book in the states, make sure you have a native handy to translate. Zucchini, I ask you…

7. Adjectives: Mad- If you’re mad in the States, you’re extremely angry. In the UK, you’re insane. It’s a subtle, but important difference. ‘My mate got sectioned after his wife left him’, he must be mad. Discuss’ see also ‘mean’ (evil vs. stingy) and if you’re allowed to say it on the family-friendly interweb, pissed (drunk vs. in a bad mood)

6. Carcinogens: Fags / cigarettes/ smokes- Somewhat frosty reception to the phrase ‘It’s nigh on impossible to bum fags round here (in California)’.

5. Body parts: Fanny/arse: The first time I heard the theme tune to dire 90’s US sitcom, ‘The Nanny’ and it got to the line, ‘What was she to do, where was she to go, she was out on her fanny’ I was shocked to the very core. Of course, fanny means bottom in US English.

4. Car parts: windshield/windscreen, bonnet/hood, trunk/boot, gas/petrol, bumper/fender, lorries/trucks. It’s a mystery…

3. Verbs: Fancy, as in I fancy a pint/your mate is simply not said. My (American) wife thought she understood what it meant and asked me, after I met her parents for the first time, if I fancied her mum. I answered, erm no, and she got extremely upset. She thought I didn’t get on with her mum or something. It took a dictionary and a lot of tact to rectify the situation.

2. Gender of names. Gwyn is definitely a girl’s name in the States (I’m a bloke, it’s a Welsh name and the female version is Gwynne *edit* Gwen), but there’s plenty of other names you’d expect to be girls but aren’t. There are men happily living their lives called Tracy (http://tracylawrence.musiccitynetworks.com/) and women called Charlie.

1. Sweets/ Candy. As you’ll hear on Total Podcastrophe, it’s extremely hard to hold a conversation between an American and a Brit about favourite sweets/chocolate/candy/biscuits without a lot of explanation. Some exist in both countries: Cadburys’ Creme Eggs, some don’t: Dime bars, Crunchies, some have the same name but aren’t the same: Milky Ways. It’s a minefield. Stay well clear.

At work and pretty busy. Went out last night for coffee and wine to Las Palomas and Montjuic. Sita let slip a few of her grand business plans… more of which one day. Anyway, a mere 2 episodes of Lost last night. Aren’t we good?