Want to earn money? Become a politician

Most of us have studied for years, we went through high school, through college and maybe through grad school. We have studied English so we could reach a level good enough to be able to write long texts in English, maybe we have learned other languages too: French, German, Chinese. We have been abroad to improve a language or to do an internship. Then we work 40 hours a week or more, 'til we are 65-67 when we get retired getting a miserable monthly pay.

But there's another option, you can become a politician work half of the days of the week, get payed reasonably well and if you're lucky and you get to be in the government you get a life-long pay and you can even work again. And the bonus is that you don't even need to have studied that much or know any language!

After knowing all this I feel as if they were laughing at me. Specially now that they're asking the people for efforts and they are still getting the same pay-check or even higher! When people in Spain are getting evicted from their homes because they cannot pay! When lots of youngsters are looking for their first job and they cannot find anything! When hospitals have to close some sections because of health budget cuts! And I know that even after college, after a MSc, after all these years studying English I'll never make as much as they do just for sitting on a chair and messing around with the country, because it's all they do, but that's something that I rather explain another day.

Plaça Catalunya

You might now that there is a concentration in Plaça Catalunya in Barcelona to show the discontent about democracy in Spain. Until today people has been in the square for almost 15 days.

As you might now there is the big Champions League Final in Wembley this weekend.

What's the relation between these two independent events? Well usually FC Barcelona wins are celebrated close to Plaça Catalunya and the government was afraid that something bad could happen. So what did they do?

Evict them, forcefully and violently from the square. They said that they wanted to tidy up the square and take out the dangerous things (tables, chairs, computers,...) so, in case there was some celebration, football fans wouldn't be able to hurt the demonstrators. There were to kind of police involved, the Barcelona's local police and the autonomic police known as Mossos d'Esquadra. The last ones weren't all cool about it, so when people decided that they wouldn't leave the place they started pulling them and hitting them and shooting some kind of balls that are supposed to be used agains angry crowds, except demonstrators weren't offering violent resistance, they were only sitting on the floor.



You can see what happened in the video. Right now Plaça Catalunya it's full again, because we need politicians to listen to us!

Spanish revolution

I guess that right now most of you already know what's going on in Spain, maybe there is people camped in your city claiming for a real democracy. It's a historic moment and I very proud of being a little part of it. I still haven't been to Barcelona in Plaça Catalunya camp, I wanted to go this afternoon, but maybe instead I'll be going to the one in the city close to my town. Anyways I wanted to explain a bit what's it all about.

As you know Spain has some difficulties in getting out of the economic crisis and some of its politicians aren't, how can I say that, completely honest, also lots of youngsters who have just finished their degree cannot find a job. The general feeling is that only the working class is paying for the crisis since all the former ministers are getting their "retirement" pays and the active ones keep getting the same money for the same job even if they don't go to the parliament half of the days they ought to.

So on May 15 there were demonstrations against the political system which tends to favor the biggest parties and against the corruption, this demonstrations ended as a camp in Puerta del Sol in Madrid, and then in Barcelona and shortly after in many other cities in Spain, and then in other countries.

And what are they asking for? Mainly a change in the politic system making sure that politics work for the people and not the other way round, also a change on work conditions so more work places are created, better conditions to rent/buy a flat, better and more efficient public services (health, education), more control on banks and finances (I guess that's straight from Iceland) and more things that you can find in here, I can't get in the English Manifesto but it ought be working.

As I said I'm really proud this started in here, I used to complain because no one asked for their rights, but now seeing this and the magnitude it has got... I feel proud and I'll be going this afternoon to give support to the people who is going to stay in Granollers.

Here you can see a world map of the camps... http://pastebin.com/wEthj72Z

So the only thing I can add now is: #spanishrevolution #yeswecamp

Midnight in Paris, literature and lottery

Yesterday I went to see "Midnight in Paris" with some friends, and I have to say that I loved it. It's not that I'm a fan of Woody Allen's films, I've only seen Match Point and Scoop, but I guess that it's because I'm completely in love with Paris. So yeah, I really liked it, I would watch it again, my friends enjoyed it but they didn't love it mainly because of the fantasy part of it, but for me that was one of the best parts. If you've seen the film I have to tell you that I completely fell in love with the Hemingway in the film, even if he talked a bit too much. Also I really liked the message of the film, it makes you think that we might not be enjoying the present as much as we should do. 

As I said I fell in love with Hemingway and I soundly regret I haven't read any of his books, so that might be the next thing I'll do. Actually I realized that in here we are not taught real literature, most of us haven't read the classics or anything decent when we finish high school, actually I know I've read lots of books but a few universal classics, I've read Huckleberry Finn, Dorian Gray, some Poe, Lord of the Flies, The Catcher in the Rye, and some spanish classics like Miguel Delibes, but I haven't read Hemingway, I haven't read Kafka, Dostoyevsky or Tolstoi, and I definitely should. I've read plenty of new literature, but not everything was really good, and most of the people I know will never think of reading anything that is not light literature if they get to read anything at all. 

This takes us to lottery, last Wednesday at English Class we were talking about what would we do if we got to win lots of money on the lottery, most of the people said thinks like travelling, buying a house and other things like that. But I think I wouldn't do anything like that, of course I would travel, but not like for a year long, maybe a couple of weeks every year. What I was thinking about was setting up a bookshop, not a normal bookshop but one on which you could find the best books of all times and also incredibly underrated authors, a place that would look like grandma's library in her big house in the countryside, with sofas to sit down and have a coffee while reading the book you've just bought and where you could find the original versions of some of these books, in hardcover. I can imagine shelves full of the best names of literature, the air smelling a mix of new and old books, soft carpets on the wooden floor and a shop attendant who would actually have read all them. Of course I wouldn't give up my work in research because I love it, but the shop would be mine and I would be able to go there on Saturdays or at late afternoons just to check how is it going and enjoy the atmosphere. 

e-books and I aren't made for each other

My mom got an e-book not long ago and, since she's not using it right now, I've been using it lately. When I say lately it's a few days short of a week. And from my experience I can say that it's not my favorite piece of technology, sure it's good to have hundreds of books in a tiny gadget, but you can only read one book at a time, so what's the point on having all those books at your fingertips?

Let me explain myself, I know that many of you like your e-books and you will tell me that I'll get used to it, eventually I will but it's not the same. I love going book-shopping somedays I just go into the bookshop and look at all those books imagining what will be inside of them, most of those days I just don't buy anything but the days I do I just can't wait to start it. And then the smell of a new book and the sound while passing the new pages, it's one of the best things there are in the world. Also, if you're using a normal book other people can see what you're reading and you can see what other people is reading which is kinda difficult with an e-book. And finally reading on an e-book is much more slower!

I think that as soon as I'm done with a couple of books I've got in there I'll go back to average books (I miss them already)

Things I don't like about myself...

...but I don't know how to change them

I've been thinking a lot lately and I came to the conclusion that I'm a difficult person, also that there are lots of things that I do and they're not really nice, so here's the list. 

1) I have this kind of OCD-like behavior sometimes, like when I'm walking in the train station and I cannot touch the lines between the floor tiles or I have to step only once in some tiles, I know it sounds funny but I end up walking weird. I also do it at work, and the other day I was on the street and I was doing it. I tend to do it when I'm walking alone and I actually feel bad if I step on a line, when I'm with someone else I guess it's not so bad because I'm not focused on what I step on. It didn't use to be so bad, I only did it in a place where there are some different colored tiles, but now... I do it everywhere. I do some other things but none of them are this bad (like setting the volume ALWAYS on a even number and things like this).

2) I have an overdeveloped sense of guilt and believe me it's not good. I feel guilty about things I do, I feel guilty about things I don't do, I feel guilty about things I did a long time ago, I felt guilty about feeling guilty. It's horrible really, it's like carrying something and it only weights more and more, the burden of responsibility or something. And I guess I'll feel guilty about writing this post too. 

3) I get upset when things don't go the way I planned, only that when I say upset it means really upset and when I say things it means silly things. Still don't get it? I get upset if my iPod runs out of battery or if I wanted to go home and watch a TV show and I have to go somewhere else because someone of my family needs me to pick something. This kind of things, or I should say this kind of insane things?

4) I don't like people. I really hate it when on a empty train someone sits next to me it makes me feel uncomfortable, there are times that I really hate getting on the metro because it is so full of people that I get anxious (luckily it's only one stop), I hate it when people talk on the train, when people listen to music and I can hear it, when babies cry (everywhere), I hate it when people won't let you out of the metro because they want to get in. I don't think I could ever stop saying the things I don't like. I know that most of you might not like most of the things I said, but really... they make me mad.

And I think that's pretty everything I wanted to say for today. Next on the story of how my precious MacBook came back home... wait for it!