Then, the security line was held up because the X-ray machine needed to be rebooted. It was a Windows XP-based system by L-3 Security and Detection Systems. The reason I know who made it is because they actually had the scrolling marquee screensaver announcing it. I have no idea why you would use something as complex and insecure as windows to run an X-ray machine. That’s the kind of place you should be using something like VxWorks or an embedded UNIX-based system.

My friend Danny rented a car, so he was nice enough to pick me up at the airport. We’re staying with a guy from couchsurfing. He was really nice; he showed us around the place and then took us on a driving tour to Playa de Pinedo, one of the beaches near Valencia and then drove us out to Bruño so we’d know how to get there Wednesday. The only slightly weird thing is that he gave us the keys to this apartment, and then took off until tomorrow afternoon. We had assumed that he lived here too, but the evidence suggests otherwise. The kitchen was completely empty, and there’s no clothes in the master bedroom. No idea what the real story with the apartment is (usually rented out, kept for mistress, something else?), but it’s a nice enough place. There’s good wifi, and digital TV (with English sound). Plus, Spain is about 15 degrees warmer and 70% sunnier than the Netherlands, so that’s always good.

There are like forty pictures here (and I think some of them are good), so apologies for my photographic overexuberance, but I was really blown away by this architecture.

The majority of the first floor was given over to a big exhibit on the science of superheros. It was clear they were trying to do something fun that would appeal to children, but the superhero exhibit included a pretty minimal amount of science. It was much heavier on just fun zaniness: screaming at a sentinel like Banshee ( ostensibly to learn about the properties of sound), controlling Doc Oc’s arms with a joystick (to learn about prosthetics!), shining a light on Bruce Banner’s amygdala to turn him into the Hulk (to learn about the role the amygdala plays in regulating emotion).

Download Link Moving Doc Oc’s claws.

Ouch! My spider sense is tingling!

The first floor also had an exhibit sponsored by the Valencia Institute of Biomechanics (or something like that) that looked like it might have had more science content. Unfortunately, they were only allowing a certain number of people in at a time, and the line was enormous. They also had an exhibit on sailing that was interesting, but somewhat cursory. Yes, it’s cool that mariners used an astrolabe to navigate, but I’d like to know how they used it.

The second floor had a nice section on space exploration that included a bunch of stuff about the Russian and European space programs that you wouldn’t see at the average museum in the United States.

I did bring a waterproof one-time use camera with me, but it’s a film camera so I’ll need to get it developed before I can post those photos. In the meantime, I did get one shot of me with my digital camera after I got back to the car. I was actually hosed off several times by neighborhood residents on the walk back, so this picture is cleaned-up from what I looked like right after the tomato fight.

Post-Tomatina

I took a 20 minute shower, and I still smell faintly of stale tomatoes. I’ll try to get photos up in the next few days. In the meantime, the Guardian has some great video of the event. Everyone cheered like crazy when the news helicopters flew overhead. The ground footage in that video is mostly from the aftermath.

I stayed up to watch Obama’s acceptance speech along with an Irish guy from Cork. Bizarrely, the desk clerk guy was nice later, he gave us several free beers and actually cooked us a Spanish omlette (?!). He kept talking about how he was “just doing his job” by yelling at people. Then during Obama’s speech he went on a long rant that I didn’t entirely follow about how bullshit politics is and how I shouldn’t care about politics but should spend more time worrying about fast motorcycles and girls. Not that I don’t think motorcycles and girls are awesome, but there’s no reason that should preclude an interest in politics.

Anyway, I got a tip from one of the Dutch hackers about a hacklab that’s here in Barcelona, so I think I’m going to try to check that out today, and also try find a better place to stay. I think I’m getting sick, too. My nose has been kind of stuffy and I’ve felt dried out with a sore throat for a day or so.

As near as I can make out from talking to a few of the protesters and searching online, Amadeu Casellas is an anarchist who robbed banks in the 70s and 80s in order to finance labor demonstrations. He was sent to prison and has been there for 22 years. Some of the sites claim that 20 years is the maximum allowed sentence for his crime. In any case, Casellas has apparently been on a hunger strike for the last 70 days and this demonstration was in support of him/his freedom.

On the one hand, a convicted bank robber seems like a lousy choice to rally around. On the other hand, 70 days is a freaking long time to be on a hunger strike. I’d be curious to learn more about the situation, but all the information online seems to be pro-Casellas propaganda, so it’s hard to know what’s really the truth.

Oh, also, this hostel has free internet terminals that run Linux, which is pretty sweet. I haven’t been able to figure out which distro, but the window manager looks like maybe a modified blackbox.

The terminals are connected to a wifi network which is locked (WPA encryption), and “not ready” for guests to use until October, so they won’t give us the key, which is very strange. BUT, there are wired ethernet jacks underneath each terminal. I’m assuming there used to be computers connected with ethernet here, but the jacks are still live so I pushed the keyboard and mouse from the non-functional terminal out of the way and set up my laptop. Since setting up here, I’ve loaned my laptop to like 5 different people to check their email or banking stuff.

Also, I am apparently the only person in the world who carries an ethernet cable along with my wireless-capable laptop. Maybe it’s just because I’m kind of a geek, but that seems very strange to me. There are still plenty of places where there’s no wireless, and carrying a patch cable just seems like carrying the power cord  to me.

But about 3 people have seen me with the laptop and been like, “Oh, is there wifi?” and I go, “No, but you can plug in right here.” and they’re like, “Oh, I don’t have a cable.”

Anyway, this XKCD is incredibly resonant.

It was somewhat strange for me to be in the position of the wizened elder imparting advice about Europe/study abroad, but I tried to be helpful. My biggest piece of advice is to suckle at the teat of Rich Uncle Pomona as long and as hard as possible. Also, the Louvre is free on Fridays from 6-9 pm if you’re under 26.

So yeah, if any Pomona kids happen to wind up any of the same places that I’m staying and want to meet up for drinks or hang out, feel free to drop me a line.

Me with the Pomona kids

Officially, the festival isn’t supposed to start until somebody climbs a greased pole and retrieves a ham hock. But, as you can see in the last photo, by the time the tomato fight ended, the ham was still securely on the pole. Later, a group of guys knocked the whole pole over to get the ham.