Currently, residents of the Canary Islands receive significant discounts for travel between islands and the mainland (Spain), but ONLY if they are members of the European Union (have a passport form an EU country). This means that in my case, every time I want to travel with my wife and child, they both get the discount but I have to pay the full fare, and to complicate matters, most web-based flight reservation systems don’t account for this possibility so we always run the risk of not being able to fly together.

According to an article in today’s Canarias7, the Spanish government has recognized this might be a problem for some of us and appears to be on their way to approving the discount for non-EU members. Hooray!!!

I’m Working Freelance, Again!

After 3.5 years as a partner at Clevernet, I’ve decided it’s time to get back to my roots and go back to working for myself. This change will allow me to to focus on my family and other aspects of life that are genuinely important to me. Ulrich Schlegel and I continue to talk and probably collaborate and I wish him well going forward.

Open Source Sewing Patterns

This is a web site with hundreds (or thousands) of sewing patterns available for you to use, for free, and modify if you like. I believe that projects like this really are going to change the world for the better and would be interested in learning of other non-software open source projects.

Open Source Sewing

I hope to start blogging again in June!

Where do I begin???

I’ve never been a big fan of Eurovision, but I do find it somewhat fascinating from a socio-cultural perspective. A couple years ago, a goth band named Lordi wearing elaborate costumes shocked Europe by winning Eurovision and possibly signaling an end to the festival (after nearly 50 years).

Well… this year Spain decided to try to build support for Eurovision. The singer/song selection process was named “Salvemos Eurovision” (Save Eurovision) in an attempt to build interest and get back to the roots of the type of music Eurovision is known for (ABBA won Eurovision in 1974). The Salvemos organizers decided to let the Spanish population decide who should represent Spain in this year’s edition and set up a myspace.com page where users could vote for their favorite act. A few minutes ago, in the grand finale televised on Spain’s national television channel, La Primera, we learned that the whole campaign may have backfired, and that Spaniards, in general, have a really great sense of humor!

The winner this year, as selected by the public, is a parody of a Reggaeton rapper. The character’s name is Rodolfo Chikilicuatre, a character created by some well-known comics here in Spain. His triumph left us speechless, mostly because we couldn’t stop laughing. This was supposed to be a joke, for Christ’s sake, but here he is, Chikilicuatre, representing Spain in one of Europe’s most, er, prestigious? contests. If the win by Lordi a couple years ago is any indication of the changing musical tastes, and attitudes, of Europeans, then Chikilicuatre may actually have a chance at winning and put a definitive nail in the coffin of syrupy euro-disco that we’ve all come to know and, er, love?

Stay tuned to the Eurovision home page to see how Chikilicuatre fares…