Every corner of this city yeilds a new surpise and I'm infinitely lejos de aburrido ya. From a distance, I'm definitely starting to miss London, but I have to say, that city's cuisine has hardly left me wanting. Just got back from the deli with a couple of phenomenal ham and cheese baguettes, a jar of white asparagus and a couple bags of fresh olives... and two bottles of wine, which by the way cost 12 euros in total. Man, you can't brush your teeth for that kind of money in the UK.

Travelocity boasts what should be a brilliant tool: The ability to search for the best priced airfare between two cities, assuming your dates are flexible. Trouble is, after getting a nice long list of what appear to be great fares, the system gives you an error 95% of the time when you click on one.

"Sorry, that fare is no longer available". Well, then why did you tell me about it? I would happily wait a few seconds longer for my query to process if it meant I didn't have to click on 9 consecutive false leads. Bah.

The Ostrich Guy is really going nuts today. Literally every 10 second I hear him him scream. I'm starting to laugh every time he does it too. It's quite entertaining to sit on the balcony and watch this guy. Anyway, as it turns out, he's the spitting image of Manuel from "Fawlty Towers". And according to reliable sources, this is a deliberate impersonation. Where the ostrich comes in I have no idea. He also apparantly get's paid by the city to perform his act! This must be the case because he never holds out his hand for change.

Let's review the new Wisconsin State Quarter. Done? OK. 2 out of 4 stars. Pretty boring. Low on inspiration. Mildly embarrassing. In a word, forgettable.

The problem is the amateurish attempt to use too many symbols at the same time. A good looking coin should be relatively simple as well as thoughtfully designed. If Wisconsin wanted the cow, they should have had just a big smiling cow on the quarter. That would have looked great in a kitschy sort of way, and it would have been hilarious opposite the stoic Washington.

Too bad for WI. But it's still not the worst designed quarter out there. That honor goes to Ohio who's quarter looks like it was designed by a team of 5 year-olds with a clip art program. Not to mention the fact that no matter how hard Ohio numatasists try, North Carolina will always be more associated with the Wright Brothers. Plus the NC quarter actually looks nice.

Even more so - the Ohio quarter came out a year after NC, which makes it even lamer that they decided to use the Wright Flyer design long after is was circulating. How lame are people in Ohio? Have I used the word "lame" enough?

That brings me to my point - the people in Ohio are probably nice folks, but their quarter, circulating amongst millions does not do them justice. These silly little coins actually do make a statement. A nice looking quarter makes a good impression, a forgettable one is forgotten, a lame one does worse.

If Mississippi can design a good looking coin, surely anyone can.

[the master list]

Post script - Though totally predictable, the proposed Texas quarter looks damn cool.

No sooner was I blessed with DSL here in Barcalona, than I found out the ISP here apparantly caches pages to improve speed. The problem with this is that when I'm working on a website and make changes to a page via FTP, I don't see the changes for hours. This is especially infuriating when working out the kinks in a new stylesheet. Damn. Anyone know a way around this? Funny thing is, new Moveable Type entries show up fine. Perhaps the ISP notices a ping or something. Arrrrrgh.

Well, speaking of projects I do when underemployed, here's the latest. Outdoor Escapade is going to be a collaborative weblog featuring primarly product reviews for outdoor gadgets, but also trip ideas, and trail reviews. There are a few other authors involved and it may actually make money, which goes straight into a trip fund of some kind. There are a few more things up my sleave, then I'm going to stop working for a week and go to the Pyranees, or maybe Ibiza or something... we'll see.

Odd things happen when you´re semi-employed. I have started an airline review section of this website to satiate my enthusiasm for aviation and writing. Feel free to contibute. If you´re really interested I´ll give you a log in.

Also, I had to turn comments off for a while because of constant spam. Another chapter in the cat and mouse game against spammers emerges...

This is the view from my new bedroom window onto Las Ramblas. I knew it was going to be a bit loud, but i didn't count on the Ostrich Guy. Every 30 seconds this man let's out a blood curdling shriek over the shoulder of some hapless tourist who then screams. It's starting to drive me insane. Other than that, Barcelona is great. Come and visit!

Clearly the only reason 11,000+ people voted for Gary Coleman was out of boredom and amusement. I think a huge percentage of Shwarzenegger supporters did so for the same reason. Maybe all of them. Is politics really that much of a joke these days?

Despite my general apprehension towards having a republican governor, I'm not personally annoyed by Arnold. I don't think he's a bad guy and I think he's a million times better than Bush for that matter, but I also don't think the man has the faintest clue what he's doing. I expect a few months of strangeness, then he'll get quiet and eventually slip away... we'll see. I don't usually talk about politics. Bah.

Oh man. I should have gone back and voted. The real question is, how did Gary Coleman get over 11,000 votes? Hell, I should have gone back and run!

Thank you Carlos, whoever you are. It's so great when internet resources work. www.nodedb.com led me to two false alarms and then I found a wifi network out here on Belen Street. I'm sitting on the sidewalk between two motorcycles typing in this entry. It's not exactly comfy, but at least I was able to send and recieve my emails. This may force me to evolve a new super efficient work ethic where everything is done offline, at home, then organized and sent during a few minutes sitting here. Although I'd rather find a proper cafe.

I´m about to go on an extended hunt for free WiFi in Barcelona, which is surprisingly lacking in cafes that offer the service. However, there are a number of allegedly free nodes I discovered on a website. We'll see if they actually exisit.

In further news - I´m done with the easyEmpire. After being skunked with extra charges by easyCar, sitting in filth at the easyInternet cafe and most recently charged an insane 68 pounds for one extra piece of luggage on EasyJet, tripleing my airfare, I´m through. They're tacky, dirty and obnoxious. Bah.