Dead Tired

Again. I did 7 and a half hours of studying today, most of it productive, but I can't seem to work my way up to a full 8h. On the one hand, I'm mentally exhausted, on the other, my mind craves stimuli that don't involve cells and names of long-dead doctors. When the high point in your day is a T-lymphocyte expressing CD69 on its cellular membrane, you know your life sucks.

Hell-- and not a nice cool Norse hell either

Summer finally came to Madrid to kick our collective asses. I think we hit 37ºC. I'm dying.

Jed Hartman of Strange Horizons posts about the annual fund drive and asks people to say something nice about the mag. Well, I'll start by throwing in a few links of stories that are in my top ten list:

The Women of Our Occupation by Kameron Hurley takes gender role reversion to a whole new level.

Dead. Nude. Girls by Lori Selke is a different zombie story.

Fourteen Experiments in Postal Delivery by John Shoffstall delivers just what the title promises and more.

Love Goes Begging by Bennet H. Marks. The language is simply gorgeous.

The Taste of Chicory at High Tide by Lisa Mantchev, which is the only allegory I've read so far which worked... I could go on and on.

For those who don't know it, Strange Horizons keeps archives online since it started publishing weekly 7 years ago. Do the math, that's a lot of free fiction.

I came across the mag a little over a year ago and spent many happy hours browsing the archives. I wasn't into Speculative Fiction at the time and Strange Horizons shaped my concept of Speculative and what I think it should be all about. I sold my first story to them, so they have a special place in my heart.

I hope this 2007 fund drive leaves them drowning in cash. Keep the stories coming!

Sintra

Careful, or the crazy sea monster will get you!

This pic is from the Castle of Sintra, a 19th century architect's trip in which the King of Portugal lived painting nymphs on the wall. Don't ask.

Sintra is a small city 30km from Sintra. There's an Arab castle, a Palace and a crazy masonic garden designed to be haunted.

Enjoy the pics.


The Garden of Regaleiras: Daphne's Grotto.


This is a teen-sized chapel in the middle of the garden. It's not quite child-sized but is only about ten metres tall.


Another pic from the Regaleira Gardens.

Lisboa

This is the cloister of the Sé, the Cathedral of Lisbon.



I'm back home, resting from my one week vecation in Lisbon. I had a blast and everything would have been perfect if the Lisboetas weren't reptilian humanoids trying to commit saricide. Seriously guys, if you want to join Spain (28% of Portuguese think that merging with Spain is a good idea), you have to treat Spanish tourists better than that. I would totally understand if people who know me wanted to kill me, but complete strangers?

I was spit at in Mafra, almost driven over by a scooter redesigned as ice-cream cart and stuffed nearly to death on sardines and bacalao... Eh, that last one might have been my fault.

I also fell down the stairs of a tower in Sintra, but that could have been because of the slippery steps (however, I'm still investigating the RH hipothesis in that one too). Thankfully, I didn't twist anything or hit anything too hard.

Oh well, saricide attepts figure in the job description.



A nice view over the Tejo.


I think this one was taken in Alfama



And a street in Baixa.

Going back home

It's my last day in Lisbon. The plane arrives in Madrid at 1.10 am (vueling changed the schedule, that's what you get for flying low cost). I have no idea how we're going to get back home at that time of night without spending 40e on a taxi. Wish me luck. There shall be pictures soon.

Sardine Kisses

I'm in Lisbon!

This is the first day of a one-week vecation I'm taking before attempting to start studying for my internship in earnest. I'm so tired I want to cry, but damn did I have a good time. We started at the cathedral, stopped for lunch at Alfama and ended up in the Castle.

By the way, I had sardines. God, I'd forgotten how good those are. The first bite filled me with quiet contentment. Let's all sing an ode to sardines, the staple of the coastal Mediterranean diet. Dang, are they good! Sardines taste like the sea. They were grilled, (I think that's the term in English, I said "roasted" in LH before and everyone went "wha?"), salty, fleshy... all mine.

Unlike in Madrid, people here don't walk--they stroll. If you ask a lisboeta, they'll probably say that people in Madrid don't walk--they run. Fair enough. It was nice to slow down for a change.

The views from the Castle were wonderful. Miguel took a nap sitting on a bench up there while I read the guidebook and looked out on the river. The orangutan pidgeons didn't get us. All was good.

Kisses from Lisbon. When I get back, I promise there will be pictures.