truer words

From a well-timed post on Wil Wheaton's blog:

Some days, you just have to accept that you're not destined to do the things you want to do. You just have to say, "I did my best, but it's just not going to happen."

Amen, brother.

Barça, Barça, Barça!

More photos in this Flickr set.

Last night Barcelona won the European championship for the first time since 1992, and the city went wild. As soon as the game was a foregone conclusion, I jumped into a cab and headed to the restaurant to meet Amy, Jordi, and Roser. The cab driver was visibly nervous as people began to pour out into the street, first behind us and then all around us; it was almost like surfing a wave of ecstatic people. He told me that as soon as he dropped me off at the restaurant, he was headed straight out of the city to wait out the pandemonium.
The restaurant was nearly empty, and all of the clients were out-of-towners who seemed baffled by all of the excitement. As soon as the last table paid and left, we headed out into the street and joined in the river of people walking down toward Plaça Catalunya and the Ramblas. The din was incredible; anyone who had anything to make noise was using it: car horns, motos, and air horns. The rest just shouted at the top of their lungs. As we headed down toward the Ramblas, the crowd got thicker and more excited, until we got to Plaça Catalunya and couldn't go any further. People there were lighting flares, waving giant banners, and climbing street lights and newspaper kiosks. A few guys started to take off their clothes and moon the crowd, but most people just chanted Barça cheers, toasted each other, and waved their flags like mad.
By the time we threaded our way back out of the crowd, nearly all of the taxis had left the city center, so we ended up walking the 45 minutes or so back home. With each block, the crowd got thinner and less rowdy, until finally only the occasional banner-waving moto riders were zipping by. Back in Les Corts things were pretty calm, but given that the victory parade route passes right by our street to Camp Nou, tonight could be a different story. 

The waiting is the hardest part

"So I'm waiting by a phone for the blessed ring
like a holy grail for a fisher king"
- "I've Been Waiting", Sixpence None The Richer

"I'm standing in my basement, making my arrangements
And waiting for the telphone to ring, to ring, to ring..."
- "Barely Out of Tuesday", Counting Crows

A hui hou, Kahiki

When I was a kid growing up in Ohio, we would make a trip to the big city (i.e., Columbus) every few months. Once every few trips we would drive past a huge Polynesian restaurant called The Kahiki, complete with giant flaming tiki gods flanking the entrance. For a kid who thought of going to Columbus as a glimpse into an exciting metropolitan world, this was pretty much the most exotic thing you could imagine, and I always wondered what kind of mysteries lurked inside.

Today I found out (via a Boing Boing post) that the Kahiki is no more, having been demolished in 2000 to make room for a Walgreen's. Luckily someone documented the salvage operation for posterity just before the final demolition, but honestly, what kid is going to have his curiosity piqued by the mysterious goings-on inside a Walgreen's?

p.s.: FWIW, the Kahiki lives on (sort of) at the Kahiki website, where they offer recipies and information about their frozen foods, but no flaming tiki gods.

One down, two to go...

Well, it only took a month, but I got the first part of the photos from our Japan trip online. The first set is from the three days we spent in Tokyo; next up will be the two days in Shuzenji and the four days in Kyoto. As always, though, work and other things are competing for time, so we'll see how soon the rest are done; if you're impatient, send me a note to spur me into action.

Looking back on the trip now, I think I'd spend more time in Tokyo, maybe even at the cost of a day in Kyoto or in the countryside. Tokyo is such an enormous city that just getting from place to place takes a long time, and I don't feel like we even scratched the surface in three days. (Not that we really expected to, of course.)

Who knows, maybe one day when the urge to pick up and move again gets strong enough I'll be spending a lot more time there. Better brush up on my japanese first, though...

If you're going...

Open road
Originally uploaded by Greg Gladman.

Last weekend I took a quick three-day trip to San Francisco, for reasons I won't go into here. This means that within the space of three weeks I visited both sides of the Pacific, but never crossed it. It also means that I logged a total of 48 hours of flying time, so I've seen pretty much all of the bad in-flight movies that are out right now.

Despite being such a short trip, it was good to be back...I got to see a few good friends, visit some old haunts, stock up at Fry's, and fill a suitcase with cereal, peanut butter, and other things that are hard to find in Spain. There's nothing like a 19,000 km trip to the supermarket for some english muffins.