I found a link to this video on CougarBoard, that great bastion of Internet hope.

I really only agree with about half of what Glenn Beck professes in the political realm, but I'm amazed by him as a person. This video shows him discussing his overcoming of alcoholism through a testimony of Jesus Christ and conversion to a faith-filled life.

I'm home. Got back last night. Talked with eSteve and Tiffanie a bit, unpacked, slept a few hours. I'm sure it'll take me a few days to get back in the swing of things. But I'm home.

I'm watching the game over the internet. It's past midnight now, but the game's in the fourth quarter.

I've been really having a great time. A lot of walking, a lot of good food. Definitely a lot of fun times. I love it here so much. I would live here.

Tim

For one nutshell cannot contain it. Nutshell #1: Arise at 11:00. Shower until 11:15. Relax until 12:00. Walk across Vilafranca until 1:00, getting the Gomiz's mail from their post office box. Sit on a chair on the back patio until 2:00, trying to finish "The Baron In The Trees", but only falling asleep every 60 seconds. Eating until 3:00. Riding with Francisco to Barcelona until 4:00. Walking to the Museum of Contemporary Art until 4:30. Partaking of the Museum of Contemporary Art until 7:00. Walking around the Gothic Quarter until 7:20, looking at shoes. Viewing the Metropolitan Strategic Plan dome/bubble/thing that they've got set up in the middle of Plaza Catalunya until 7:45. Sitting on a bench and writing until 8:10. Reading more of this book, which I can't... seem... to... just... finish... already... until 8:30.

Nutshell #2: Hanging out with Ana and Judith in Portal del'Angel, eating and laughing, until 9:30. Walking around in El Corte Ingles until 9:45. Going down into the Plaza Catalunya RENFE Cercanias station until 9:50, realizing that I'd just missed a train and would have to wait another hour for the next one. Walking around Plaza Catalunya and talking about movies with Ana until 10:30. Waiting in that same train station until 10:40. Sitting on the train until 11:50, the poor train having broken down 10 minutes into its 40 minute journey, me and the other passengers having to sit there for 30 minutes while they fixed it. Walking home, getting lost a bit, until 12:10 AM. Eating a bit, relaxing, talking until 12:30. Sleeping until the next day, today, Friday.

Today I slept until 11:00. Then I showered, dressed, ate some pan tostado with jamon serrano, and took a walk around the town. I was trying to figure out if there was a way to get the SIM unlocked to work in Spain -- no luck. Then I came back here (to the Gomiz house) and ate paella... one of the best paellas I've ever had. Francisco really knows how to make a good paella. Then I sat on the couch with the goal of reading the rest of "The Baron In The Trees" by Italo Calvino, which I brought with me, but I only ended up reading ten pages before I was caught up in fantastic coverage of Spanish Parliament (Congreso de los Diputados) on some channel. For an hour I sat there captivated by how excited they get -- it's the same as when you watch British Parliament on CSPAN late at night. Very animated and energetic, these European lawmakers. I will say this: For the past 2 years Spain has been run by the left, but the right is still very active and could see a resurgence of power by the next elections. Zapatero and his PSOE ilk are disgusting; I much preferred Aznar.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuut I digress.

So I ended up reading ten pages of the book. I only brought two books with me: "Little Children" by Tom Perotta, which I had barely started before the trip and I finished by the time I got to Zaragoza; and "The Baron In The Trees." By tomorrow I will have finished this book, though, and I didn't want to be without any reading material, so I went with Francisco and Montse tonight to Barcelona. They were heading to El Corte Ingles (big department store in Plaza Catalunya in Barcelona) to pick up some shirts for Francisco, so I tagged along and walked down to the other Corte Ingles location just 100 meters away (the Portal del'Angel location), where I was told there was a decent stash of English-language books for sale. I went there and found about 400 books in one shelf, mostly of the John Grisham variety. Nothing literary -- just popular fiction. So I asked a fellow patron if he knew of any places in the city that had a better selection, and he told me FNAC would be my best bet.

So I left El Corte Ingles and headed for FNAC. By now it was 8:00 at night and stores were beginning to close, but there were people everywhere. In the Barri Gotic in Barcelona there are always people, even until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning there are people walking the streets. I headed through the Barri Gotic one block and hit the Ramblas, not far from Plaza Catalunya. I noticed one of the buildings was the Hotel Continental, one of the buildings that Orwell focuses on in his book "Homage To Catalonia". Having enjoyed that book, and feeling quite a bit of history when I saw the building, I had to take a photo of the hotel. Orwell spent a week -- 1936, beginnings of the Spanish Civil War -- on top of the building across the street after the National Workers Confederation had taken over the Continental, where he and other members of the National Party of Marxist Unification had been staying, their guards in his gun sights, waiting and waiting until the mini-uprising between Republicans in Barcelona had died down. The photo didn't turn out, though, so I'll go back during the day some time this week and do a better job at getting a good view of it.

On to FNAC: I went up that last little rambla and crossed into El Triangle, where FNAC is found. Books were on the third floor, so I rode the escalators up and found a healthy selection of books in both Spanish and in English. There were roughly 2000 books in English to choose from. I decided to just get one, even though I will probably have time to read two, because paperbacks were in the $20 range, and I didn't want to spend that kind of money on a book I wasn't going to read here when I could likely get it for $3 + shipping on half.com when I get back. So I was picking one. My first choice was Capote's "Breakfast at Tiffanies", and I was about to walk away when I saw "Please Don't Come Back from the Moon" by Dean Bakopoulos, which looked promising from the reviews and the introduction. So I chose that one and headed out after paying for it.

I was going to kill some time by the Universitat de Barcelona campus while I was waiting for Francisco and Montse to call me (on her phone -- she had loaned it to me -- I've yet to get Kari's mobile to work here -- $25 down the tube -- oh well!) and tell me where they would pick me up. They had stayed at the first Corte Ingles, then had gone to her sister's house somewhere in Barcelona to drop something off, and they were going to call me when they were ready. So I was walking toward the campus and I didn't even make it 50 meters before I got the call from Francisco. They wanted to meet in front of KFC, just next to Plaza Catalunya.

The rest of the night: They picked me up in front of KFC, we drove back to Vilafranca, we (Francisco, Montse, Tamar, Dani, cousin Ruben, and I) ate leftover paella (even better several hours later), then we (Tamar, Dani, and I) talked about politics/culture/education/academia/restaurants/political correctness in America/people dying of hunger in Darfur but even still probably not interested in eating our leftovers/Spain's Vice President and how much she looks like Crocodile Dundee/other stuff for a good hour before the two of them decided to pack it in for the evening, then I sat here downstairs talking to Francisco about the Spanish Civil War and my long-standing desire to someday go to the trenches up by Huesca (which are still there, forever frozen in time), which he says is a real possibility the next time I come here, then I wrote this blog post.

And now I'm going to bed. Tomorrow I'm going to Barcelona to check out a couple of museums that I didn't get to when I was here two years ago.

Happy Thanksgiving, Americans. Happy Thursday, everyone else.

I arrived on Sunday morning in Barcelona, then took a train out to Zaragoza, then came to Barcelona today (Tuesday) in the afternoon. Now I'm in Vilafranca del Penedes, just southwest of the city.

Videos first:

In the plane, somewhere over the Atlantic:


The view out of the train about 30 kilometers east of Zaragoza:


The view of Zaragoza as the train was pulling into the city. You can see the towers of the Pilar in the background toward the end of the video.


A protest in the Plaza del Pilar:


San Mateo de Gallegos, the pueblo where I stayed for two nights, just north of Zaragoza. This is the canal running through the town:


Zaragoza's new train station, Estacion de Delicias:


The train I took from Zaragoza back to Barcelona:


Inside that train, somewhere between Zaragoza and Lleida:


Now, for some pictures:

Paseo de Independencia de Zaragoza, plus some other little street between there and the Pilar:


Approaching La Basilica del Pilar:


Zaragoza Ayuntamiento (City Hall) and La Seo Cathedral:


Looking back at the Plaza del Pilar:


La Basilica del Pilar from the Puente de Piedras (Stone Bridge):


Views from the tower of La Basilica del Pilar:


An old, old building at the end of the Plaza del Pilar and adjacent to the old Roman walls:


Part of the old Roman wall:


My little nature hike up to the Catholic church on the hill above San Mateo de Gallegos on Tuesday morning:


The Catholic church in the pueblo of San Mateo de Gallegos, the Ayuntamiento, and a street that was shiny from the rain:


Some quick and dirty pictures of the Aljaferia castle in Zaragoza, taken as we were driving to the Zaragoza train station (Delicias) on Tuesday afternoon. We would've stopped to take pictures, but I was running late for the train.


The new train station in Zaragoza, Estacion de Delicias, including a couple shots of the ceiling:


A bullet train sitting in the station:


I'll post more pictures and videos in a couple of days.

When I was here there was this great little shop off the beaten path where we´d go for Tortilla de Patata sandwiches. I wanted to go there this morning, but I couldn´t remember where it was nor what it was called. Thanks to barca1 on CougarBoard and Miguel Sala, the father of the family I´m staying with, I know now know where it is (behind the Telefonica building) and what it´s called (El Calomar Brava). Sadly, I´m not going back into the city until tomorrow afternoon, when I catch my train back to Barcelona. Oh well!

This morning I rode into the city with Miguel -- he was on his way to work -- and then spent a few hours walking around downtown Zaragoza. So many memories flooded into my head. I took pictures that I´m sure I´ve taken before of things I´m sure I´ve seen before, and I loved every nostalgic minute of it. I also did something I never did when I was here as a missionary: I rode the elevator up one of the towers of the Pilar and saw the whole city. VERY cool.

I took a bunch of pictures today, but I can´t get them off of my camera until tomorrow when I´m in Vilafranca. I´ll make sure to post some when I get them.

Labels: Barcelona, Zaragoza

I´m in Zaragoza. I got here yesterday in the afternoon. My flight arrived in Barcelona and I made my way on the RENFE Aeropuerto line to Sants Estacion, where I bought my train ticket to Zaragoza. I hadn´t slept much on the flight -- maybe 2 hours in total -- but I had managed to read almost all of the book Little Children. Very good book. After I got on the train I wasn´t able to keep my eyes open for very long, and I slept for about three hours of the four-hour trip.

I´m in the home of the Sala family in San Mateo de Gállego, just north of Zaragoza. Right now it´s Monday morning and I´m about to head out to walk around Zaragoza for the morning. The old stomping grounds, you know? El Pilar, El Seo, Plaza Aragon, Paseo de la Independencia... I´ll take pictures.

I'll try and post while I'm there. I might not, though. Mostly I'll be eating pastries and riding on trains. I'll be in Barcelona, Zaragoza, and possibly down near Almeria.

In reverse order:

3) Lately I've been somewhat obsessed with starting sentences with "When a man" when I'm attempting to sarcastically pretend I'm being serious. Hypothetical examples: "When a man sees a pretty woman, he wants to make out with her", "When a man tells his friends he's going to rob a bank, he follows through with it, no matter the consequences", or "When a man steps on the gas pedal, he expects his auto to proceed forward with increasing speed". It's not even funny to anyone except me, but for some reason I can't stop doing it.

2) I saw "Stranger Than Fiction" two nights ago. VERY good. I would've enjoyed it more if I hadn't been in a theater full of people who continually laughed during non-funny/tragic scenes. I can only assume that most people going to see the film were under the impression that it was a comedy, but the fact that the trailer showed some light-hearted scenes doesn't mean the movie should've been expected to be a comedy. Will Ferrell is a gifted actor, and he should be taken at face value in each movie he's in, just like all actors should be, not pre-judged on his resume. I guess some people were expecting that Will Farrell == "Anchorman", and nothing else. If they hadn't, they wouldn't have laughed through most of this movie. As the resident film snob of this site, I can tell you that "Stranger Than Fiction" was very beautifully-written and constructed, sharply photographed, and perfectly paced. I recommend it to anyone. If you consider yourself a "film" person, and not just a person who goes to the movies to be entertained, I recommend going by yourself and in the middle of the day. You'll enjoy it more if you don't have to deal with idiots who don't understand context.

1) I'm going to Spain on Saturday. I expect this week to pass... like... molasses... But soon enough I'll be on my way to the beloved land that I love. My plan for Sunday (I leave Saturday and arrive on Sunday) goes as follows: Arrive at El Prat airport in Barcelona -> pick up luggage -> proceed through customs -> take bus to Sants Estacion and purchase train ticket to Zaragoza -> (now, for the most important item) go to Mercadona and get a three-pack of chocolate napolitanas -> whatever else... I don't care what happens after that... I just want the napolitanas. Those of you who've eaten pastries in Spain will know exactly what I'm talking about. More to come about my Spain trip...

Labels: movies, Spain

I just got off a phone call in which I did the most embarrassing thing I've ever done. Here's a transcript:

*RING RING* "Hello, this is Tim. "
"Hi, is Jon in?"
"No, he's working from home today"
"Oh."
"Is there anything I can help you with?"
"I'm trying to process claims on the Oracle server and it just waits and waits, then cuts me off."
"I know he was having some issues with the Oracle machine yesterday, so I don't know what's changed. He's available on his cell phone, though."
"Oh, ok."
"Is this Kevin?"
"No, it's Phyllis."
"Uh, oh, uh, uh I have a cold, I'm not hearing too well today."
"No, don't worry, I have a man voice."
...

During every election period we are read a statement from the First Presidency in sacrament meeting regarding the Church's stance on politics. We've continually been reminded that it is our duty to study the issues and candidates and to make informed decisions.

"In this election year, we urge Church members to register to vote, to study the issues and candidates carefully and prayerfully, and then vote for those they believe will most nearly carry out their ideas of good government. Latter-day Saints are under special obligation to seek out and then uphold leaders who will act with integrity and are ‘wise,’ ‘good,’ and ‘honest,’ (see Doctrine and Covenants 98:10). (http://www.lds.org/newsroom/is...2,00.html)

Additionally, a statement is always made that indicates that while the church often encourages a particular vote on individual issues, it doesn't endorse any specific party, platform, or candidate. This is a pretty standard statement by the church; we've been hearing it for as long as I can remember.

Lately, however, I've noticed an increasing number of statements by members of the church who claim that the church only maintains this neutral stance as a means of protecting its tax-exempt status in the United States. They imply that the church's support for neutrality is merely superficial and that if tax status weren't an issue, it would come out in favor of the Republican party. I have seen this statement on several different sites on the internet, and I've heard it face-to-face from other members of the church here in Utah County.

There is another sentence that is regularly repeated in these same statements from the First Presidency, though:

Church leaders and members should avoid statements or conduct that may be interpreted as Church endorsement of any political party, political platform, or candidate.

I suggest that such comments and beliefs directly violate the counsel of the First Presidency. The mere suggestion that the Church only claims neutrality because of a desire to preserve tax-exempt status runs contrary to the Church's counsel that members should not make any statements implying support by the Church of any particular party or platform.

The church's counsel is simple: Vote for the party or candidate that you feel best represents your personal view on the best kind of governance. Do not state, even through implication, that the Church has any preference.

Last night I went with Keri, Steve, and Tiffanie to the Anathallo concert at Kilby Court in Salt Lake City. Anathallo is one of my favorite bands of late, and this is the second time I've seen them.


Opening the show was a Salt Lake local named Brinton Jones. His set was solo and acoustic, and he played some of his own songs as well as songs from his band Palomino. I'm interested in checking them out and seeing what they're like. I wrote down their MySpace (ugh) address and I'll listen this week. His solo stuff was really good, though, so I anticipate that Palomino's stuff will be good as well.

Up next was Page France, who I'd heard of but had never heard, and I have to say that they knocked my socks off from the very first song, "Chariot". I really liked virtually every song I heard from them, so I went and bought their CD after the show. REALLY GOOD. Check them out on iTunes.



Finally we got to Anathallo, who I would say have become one of my favorite bands over the past few months. The band has 7 people who played (at best count) 21 different instruments. We stood right near the front -- although at Kilby Court EVERYTHING is "right near the front" -- and they sounded great.

I recommend all three of them. Page France's "Hello, Dear Wind" album is really unique, and Anathallo's "Floating World" is one of the most beautiful pieces of musical art I've ever heard.

Whatever it is they're doing, they should stop. Only in America do we consider wrapping one entree inside another. Tacos wrapped in other tacos? Burritos wrapped in other burritos? Tostadas wrapped in burritos? What's next? Quesadillas wrapped in tacos?

And also only in America do we use meat as a topping on other meat. Hot dog? Here's some chili! Burger? Add some pastrami! Steak? Wrap it in bacon!

Out of control.

Michael Jackson's "Thriller" remains one of the greatest and most timeless songs in the history of music. MJ is a freak, it's true, but his talent is unquestionable.