Oops! He didn't do it again

While I totally adore "Donnie Darko", Richard Kelly's "Southland Tales" is a bad movie. Not quite sure why it went so wrong. It is still visually stunning, even though he repeats himself with the picture of the running clouds. The use of popular songs, once original and refreshing in "Donnie", starts to seem outdated. As it was probably meant as a criticism of a totalitarian state, I have to admit that the "V for Vendetta" movie was light years ahead.

Chamberí

In the morning, I went to a pharmacy to get a topical antibiotic for acne. I bought one bottle last month and it is working well. The pharmacist told me that it looked really much better now. I was quite shocked that she remembered me! Then I visited a newly opened museum of Madrid Metro in the old station of Chamberí, my neighbourhood, that was closed in the 1960's. There was a lot of old people who still remembered it operational so it was quite interesting to hear their stories. Madrid is a big city, but these little moments are priceless.

(!) No More

Panic! At the Disco is now just Panic at the Disco. Duh! I am listening to their new album and it's another addition to that ridiculous revival wave. My Chemical Romance sounds like Queen, the Killers sound like Bruce Springsteen and the P!ATD now sounds like the Beatles. What a disappointment.

Done

The forms are completed, translated and I am going to take them the government office tomorrow. The thanks for the fact that I am not in a mental institution go to El Pintor.

Cribaje

To further deepen my struggle with the RyC forms, I have to translate everything that I wrote so far into Spanish, including my trayectoria científica, which brings many challenges. I spent some time on drug discovery where the crucial assay is called "high-throughput screening". The regular dictionaries don't help, obviously, so I tried wikipedia. I found a site in English, no Spanish version, but fortunately, there was also a version in català available. In Catalan, the term is "cribratge d'alt rendiment" and because castellano and català are like twins, after a little approximation game using the on-line Spanish dictionary, I got to the term "cribaje de alto rendimiento". What a journey!
Update: These forms are driving me insane. I went for a little coffee with Carlitos to refresh myself and we ended up having it in the CaixaForum! There is a wonderful exposition of paintings from the Uffizi Gallery, called "El pan de los Ángeles", related perfectly to this time of the year.

Jueves Santo & Viernes Santo

I am having a wonderful Easter. While I am working on the Ramón y Cajal application forms during the day (and they slowly drive me crazy), I try to relax a little bit in the afternoon. Yesterday we met with Carlitos for couple of beers and then Tonito joined us for some more and we ended up having a dinner with Rubén and Jesús in a Japanese restaurant. Carlos haven't eaten sushi and tempura before so it was funny to explain him the wasabi stuff, soy sauce and the miso soup. Today we met again for a torrija from the famous San Onofre pastelería, later for some montaditos and then we went to see the oldest tree in Madrid in the Retiro park. I haven't been there before in the night and I have to admit it's quite spectacular, especially in the full moon. Tomorrow back to my forms, sigh.

Temptation

Wet Wet Wet - Temptation (Live, 1987).
Marti Pellow smiles through the whole song. Incredible.

Grammar

Last week I let myself to immerse in the world of English grammar once again. I realized that I normally used many words and expressions that were not correct. In a postmodern world I shouldn't care too much, but take the amount/number case. I am afraid that I said many times something like this: "There was a huge amount of people on that square". The signs in the supermarket usually say: "Express line. 10 items or less". In the first case, it should have been "a number of people", in the second one, "or fewer". Why am I posting it? Reading some "Lost" related discussion groups, I have realized that many Americans cannot spell properly. Couple of examples: "reckage/wreckage" or "intence/intense". These are not typos, they appear frequently. Is it worth the thought or it's just me, being picky and "germanish"?

Destender la ropa

Regarding the RAE and its online dictionary, I have to agree with Sergio. I've tried today to find an expression that I heard yesterday, "destender la ropa", in English it may be "to take clothes from a clothesline". Unfortunately, nothing could be found. Using a simple Google search, I found many links to that term, including the following video of a dog who está ayudando a destender la ropa.

Wet Wet Wet - Morning

Marti was so charming and cute 13 years ago. At that time, I believed that world can be a better place. The 3:04 moment is priceless. What difference does the heroin make.

A Day Out

It's their first day on the sun!

Thank You!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes: Carlitos, Mama & Papa, Marco, Paskaloo, Tonito, Manu, Mikel, the 316 Gang, Gabriel, Cristihan, Marc, Eric, Aingeru, Jackie, Clair, Mien & Ton and Steph! I love you truly.

New sins

Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti, who heads the Apostolic Penitentiary, described what Catholic church newly considers as mortal sins: "certain violations of the fundamental rights of human nature through experiments and genetic manipulations." He also mentioned drugs, which "weaken the mind and obscure intelligence".
To be a biologist is a mortal sin now. Bravo!

What I want

for my birthday.


I meant the coat, of course.
Update: The Socialists defeated the conservative party in Spanish general elections. It's good enough as a present.

Borovsko Bridge

If the mankind is ever wiped out from the surface of the Earth, the Nature may take over:

A never-used highway bridge near Borovsko, Czech Republic. The construction began shortly before the WWII as a part of a transeuropean corridor, the 100m tall bridge was formally finished in 1950 but never used and later flooded by the drinking water reservoir built in 1976. The entry is strictly prohibited due to the water protection.

Emma

While I enjoy the warm weather in Madrid, Central Europe suffered a heavy storm named Emma. A video showing an unsuccessful landing attempt of a Lufthansa craft in Hamburg, Germany.

Magnolias