Things that I got lately

I've been really busy lately and that's why my posts are so scarce and so serious, but I wanted to show you what I bought myself earlier this month. 

From left to right and from top to bottom: Hunting High And Low - a-ha, United - Phoenix, Ode to Ochrasy - Mando Diao, Give Me Fire - Mando Diao and It's Never Been Like That - Phoenix.

I had some money from my name day or whatever you call it and decided to spend it on music as I've got a really long iTunes wishlist (38 CDs worth around 372 €). As you can see these are not CDs from iTunes but real ones, because there was this amazing offer from Fnac and I got all of them home for 33€ which is a bargain. I've got all of them in my car as since my iPod is broken it's one of the only places I can listen to music and I love all of them, at first I was kinda overexcited with Mando Diao's ones since I had been to their concert in Barcelona (by the way that was the most AWESOME concert I've ever been even if it was raining, and the best thing? It was for free!), but I have to admit that right now I try to listen to them all the same amount of time, not much because I don't get to drive for large distances.

It's a pity I can't get to buy all the music I want when I want, but I'm really looking forward to my birthday (this means more money to buy music! Hahaha).

I would ask you about suggestions, but I think my iTunes wishlist is large enough already.

Violence leads nowhere

This week has been a "special" week, on Thursday two things happened, first: ETA (the terrorist group) announced that they were stopping their armed activity, second: Gaddafi was caught and killed. I just want to reflect on both topics.

ETA has been a huge problem here, in Spain, they would kill politicians, policemen and civils, because they thought that they would get the independence for the Basque Country like this. They have killed more than 800 people, and now that they are supposed to end they don't even show remorse about it, they just remembered their dead and their prisoners, I guess because they don't think they've done anything wrong. Let me ask you something, how can you be part of a group who kills people and not feel guilty about it? Anyways, it's a good thing they're stopping though it would be even better if they handed out their weapons and apologized for all the harm they've done.

As for Gaddafi we all know how he ended up, but I think they shouldn't have killed him. I know it's difficult to hold a crowd after everything that happened in Libia, but killing him was not the right thing to do. I'm against death penalty because I think that people who have done harm need to live all their lives knowing that they are imprisoned because of what they've done, killing them doesn't solve the problem. Well, back to what I was saying, Gaddafi had to be judged for everything he had done, because killing him has converted him in a martyr, his followers will think that he was murdered for fighting for a good cause and this will lead to more violence, maybe not now, but maybe in some years.

To end, I find it startling that we, humans, have such a need of killing each other for stupid things, I don't know maybe I'm too naïve or something, but I still don't see the point on it.  

Hispanity day or why I don't feel Spanish

If more people visited this blog or I wrote in Spanish I would be expecting lots of negative comments in here, luckily none of the previous statements are true.

Today is the Hispanity day, something that is supposed to commemorate the day Columbus got to America and the "hispanity" of Spanish speaking countries, or something like this. Furthermore is "el Pilar" in Zaragoza.

This month a man in a die-hard pro-Spanish TV channel said "Catalonia is Spain! If they don't feel Spanish that's another thing! Madhouses are full of people who feel they're Napoleon and that's why they're in madhouses!". First this is disrespectful for anyone with a mental illness, it's a last century view and it's not helping people who is fighting against this to get integrated in the society. Second, he feels Spanish right? Why should everyone feel as him? Everyone has the right to chose.

I'm one of this people who don't feel Spanish. Why is that? First of all, I was born in a Catalan family, I don't mean a die-hard Catalan family or anything, just a family where everyone is Catalan. I was taught in Catalan, I speak in Catalan and I feel the Catalan traditions (not like I'm going to take part in Castellers or anything, but I like Catalan traditions). Spain is just not part of my background, but rather it was introduced afterwards because I had to learn Spanish at school. But I don't have the feeling of being Spanish. And yes, I'm kinda pro-independence, but not because I want to mess with Spain, but because I want the best for my country and this country is Catalonia.

I get that lots of you might not understand this, maybe you were taught to have a very strong national feeling for your country whichever it is (States, Canada, Netherlands, Germany,...), and you just cannot understand why someone can't feel Spanish but from a different region. Maybe you're from some region like Catalonia, that has a culture appart from the country's one. Anyway, imagine this, you live in a place where you do certain things and you speak a certain language and then someone comes and tells you that even if you feel part of this community you've to feel part of another bigger one. You have two options feel it or not. I don't feel Spanish, but I do respect people who is Catalan and feels Spanish, I'm not going to say they are wrong, just that I don't share their views. First I feel Catalan and then I feel European, there is nothing from Spain that I feel represented in.

I had to say all this, I just want people to understand that you cannot force a nationalist feeling on someone, it's something that it's given to you by your upbringing.

Lovers by the sea

I haven't written anything for so long that I don't even know how did I end up writing this, it's not my best, but it's a restart. Also it's the first time I write something from a scratch in English (I promise I didn't write it in Catalan and then I translated it). I need to practice a lot to get to write something decent, and also for me it depends on my emotional mood sometimes it flows, sometimes it doesn't. Well yes... I hope someone actually can stand my impoverished writing, and I'm not being modest here, I just needed to post it somewhere.


They danced next to the sea shore, on the beach, the water licking their feet. They danced as if they were the last couple left on earth and they wouldn't have minded. They were stealing hours, they were using until the very last second, because they know they wouldn't see each other again. 


It had been intense, it had been crazy and it had been wildly irresponsible, that was why they shouldn't see each other again. And even if they knew that, and even after their experience, they couldn't believe they had to say goodbye. Once more. 


There are love stories so passionate that they end up exploding from the inside. That was what had happened to them. They meet in college, she was majoring in Chemistry, he was majoring in Arts. One day she was sitting on a bench under a tree trying not to think about anything and he approached her to ask wether he could make a drawing of her, she was flattered. After that she started modeling for him regularly and they ended up dating. They looked like the perfect couple, although they were the biggest narcissists in the campus. 


After few months dating their enormous egos lead to a big fight that ended up with some paintings thrown from a window. She was jealous and he couldn't understand anything else but his art. She promised to never see him again and transferred to an another college. After some time each of them married someone and forgot about what happened that time when they were both young and drunk during half of the week. 


But life has surprisses and they meet each other at that city by the sea, she was close to not going there, didn't feel like wasting a whole weekend doing things for her job, he was there because he said he needed inspiration, though it had long left him. And just like this, in a small café they meet again. She looked almost the same, her hair was a shade lighter but her brown eyes were the same chocolate eyes that he had painted so long ago. He looked much older, scarred after his fight with painting, with himself to get the magic back to the brushes, but she still knew who he was. He approached her and took her hand, saying nothing, she rose from her chair and followed him. 


-I need you- he confesed. 
-Well, that's a change, you didn't seem to need anyone the last time I saw you. 
-I shouldn't have said anything...- he muttered, then he started to head somewhere else.
-Ok! Stop! I'm being stupid here, we're both grown ups, and I must accept that that happened a long time ago.- she said embarrassed, then they sat on a bench facing the sea. 


-I want you to forgive me, I was being selfish, I should have thought about your feelings.- he said.
-We both know it wouldn't have worked, we were both too passionate and I would have ended pushing you to do something you didn't want to do, I'm not the most selfless person around, you know.- she looked at him in the eye, his eyes hadn't changed a bit either. 


She took a deep breath and realized that she had to go to her hotel for dinner, but he insisted on inviting her to a small restaurant he knew. She didn't return to her hotel that night, neither did her return for the following seven nights. 


On the seventh night she sat on his bed wrapped in a sheet and stared at him while he was waking up. 


-We have to stop this nonsense.-she said. 
-Which nonsense?
-You know what I'm talking about, this is going nowhere. We both have families and we both know that once the first month passes by we won't stand each other. 
-"We're both grown ups" that's what you said, we could make it work.- he told her. 
-No. I'm leaving tomorrow morning.- she was determined. 
-There's one thing I want to do.


And they went to the beach, where they danced in the shore, the water licking their feet while tears streamed down their faces. And they danced until the dawn came when they said waved goodbye afraid of touching each other for the last time. They said goodbye the only way they could do it, looking at each other eyes and turning away, trying to convince themselves that it was the right thing to do.

Yet another genius leaves us. Thank you Steve Jobs.

You might like Apple or not, but you have to admit that Steve Jobs was a visionary, he did awesome things and revolutionized informatics. This cannot be denied. That's why today is a sad day, even if everyone knew that his death was close (he didn't look any good on his last appearance) no one expected it to be so soon. Steve was fighting one of the most mortal cancers there are, and he clinched to live for a long time, longer than anyone would have expected him to. But unfortunately his time has come and there's nothing we can do to bring him back. We can only remember his words and what he did for everyone (even if you're not using a Mac you owe him some things, and also Pixar).

I know that this video I'm about to post will be posted everywhere, but I cannot resist posting it again.




I'm using a Mac and actually my story with Apple starts a long time ago. The first computer I used as a kid was a Black & White MacIntosh Classic, I didn't know about Mac and Windows back then, I was 8, but I knew I liked it, it was easy to use and it had that awesome drawing program that I loved (I'm actually planning on using it again, just to remember how it felt). At school we used Windows and it never worked properly for me, it was not what I had learned. More than three years ago I got myself a white MacBook, it was love at first sight, and I still got it, running as smoothly as the first day. It's not that I'm an Apple fangirl or anything it's just that its products work for me. That's why I thank Steve, I may not be using it for anything elaborate, but I appreciate it when things work as they should.

I would like to finish with a song, is not the kind of song you would expect, but Steve did put a part of him on each of his products. And he will remain, he will be remembered.





Once again, thanks Steve.

I'm getting grumpier every day

This weekend I went out with some friends to a place that wants to be kinda posh but actually everyone who goes there is just a rich wannabe. The place itself is not bad, but going there made me realize that I'm grumpy and I talk like my grandma in a way.

I was looking at people dancing at songs that I didn't even recognize and that sounded the same to me, and this made me think. I didn't know if the songs were bad because the music is crappier every day or its just my perception that has changed. The fact is that I was there complaining about how crappy the music was and how music used to be much better and I'm not talking about music from when I was younger (holy crap I'm 23 and I'm already speaking of a younger me?) I'm talking about music that was being played before I was even born (I'm waiting for Hunting High and Low to get home any day this week).

I don't know it's kinda depressing that I'm talking on this terms when I'm still young, apart from the fact that I can no longer stand going partying two days in a row or that I never go out on Fridays any more because I've worked all week and then I've got English class on Friday afternoon. Plus as I said I'm getting grumpier every day, I'm grumpy because the train runs late, because people plays music on the train or they talk way too loud, or a hundred of silly things... I'm not getting old gracefully, though I hope it's just a period of my life that I need to adjust to, otherwise no one will be able to stand me when I'm younger than 40!