Ronda, Spain, Spanish, Themes, and Everything Else

I've had a disturbing email from some idiot who thinks I'm sending referral spam to his site just because the site in question uses a template I designed for Serendipity. Similarly I regularly receive harassing emails from people who don't agree with the politics of Ralph Nader.

Please understand that I design or port templates for fun, I do not do this to cause any concern on the part of other Internet users. Please understand that my template being used on another blog is not an endorsement of that site, nor does it imply that I own that site.

I'm going to update my contact form with this message, but if any of my regular readers have other suggestions short of contacting the authorities, then please email me.

Life is great when you become a tourist, and yesterday was a great day for us. The day started with heavy rain that only cleared after sunrise, but once the skies cleared we decided to take a drive and get some photographs. She's been practicing with her EOS, and regularly takes 500 pictures in a single session, lucky for us we got her a tripod and one of those clicker things so she doesn't get too tired. Of course muggins here has to carry the gear for her, but its worth it to see what she's looking at when she takes pictures, I'm sure my own photography is going to get better by just watching her.

Now at this point I could bore you to tears with links to poorly framed out of focus photos of ceejay taking great photos, but I won't, the girl has an image to uphold and my unflattering shots don't cut it, instead, see that picture in the top left of this entry? That thing, the rock I mean, is 153m tall, and there's a walking track on it that is described as hard, you need good footwear, don't attempt it if you have a heart condition etc, but me being the hero that I am decided pfff, that thing needs to be climbed.

Ooh, today I don't feel so good, every muscle is screaming every time I move, I swear I lost a few kilo's from sweating my way to top of it. The first half has a nice path with stairs, you'd think that would be easy, except its very deceptive, the stairs are extremely steep, and by the time you're halfway up your calf muscles are ready to explode from heat buildup, the second half of the track is all rock climbing. Sure they stuck a length of wire with posts into the rock so you have something to hold onto, but it gets even steeper, and by the time you're 10m from the top your thigh muscles have exploded, then you're using your arm and chest muscles to pull yourself up the to the summit. [swearing] at the top I was so exhausted I had to just sit for a few minutes before I could even contemplate admiring the view, and yes, my arm muscles had exploded at this point.

We're going to sort through some photos today, and my hope is that ceejay will upload some more, I might do the same myself.

Ceejay, my beloved other half, has finally got her own blog. She is of course using Serendipity and she's working on a new template for her site which she tells me is going to feature a cartoon character she's developing.

For Christmas we got her a Canon Eos 400D, she's always wanted to be a photographer, and whilst this isn't a professional's camera, we figured she needs to learn about SLR photography somehow. So, as a treat I also bought her a pro account on flickr, and she's put a small selection of photos up already.

Ceejay is really keen to start developing her own online friendships, so please feel free to comment on her blog or flickr account.

A few days ago I complained that the sound from my iPod seemed a little disappointing. I played around with the settings and still couldn't get a reasonably high enough quality for my liking. Today I finally had the chance to do something about it.

My local electronics store has a small selection of earphones and headphones, I actually thought I was going to have to make do with the Apple original earbuds until I could head into town, but would you believe they stock Sennheiser. I haven't been very impressed with the Philips headphones I've got and I didn't want to settle for Sony which is the other main brand they stock. Then my eye dropped to the bottom shelf and there smiling up at me was this little blister pack so bland most people would probably not even notice it. And blow me down if it didn't didn't have the Sennheiser logo proudly printed on the front.

Try to imagine how a lone survivor in the desert must feel when they finally glimpse water. That is how I felt. If you're interested they're the Sennheiser CX300. Oh man they are fantastic. They fit directly into the ear canal and block out all external sound, the bass response is a joy to behold. I tested them with some Bert Kaempfert, a track with a good Double Bass and drum combo, then with some Van Halen. Oh my god, throbbing guitar base on earbuds, I never in my wildest dreams thought these could sound so good.

Restores all my faith in the iPod, now its almost perfect.