new external hard drive

It’s my latest gadget!

Met up with “J” yesterday (one of the ladies who do more than lunch) and we ended up over at my place. After a bit of vino and chatting she not only showed me how to organise my new iPod but she also convinced me that getting an external hard drive was much better than trying to back stuff up on CDs.

I mean, remember this post? I have not even attempted backing anything up since then. Just the thought of faffing about trying to find the right CD somewhere within the various boxes and then updating it, and repeating this painfully tedious process over and over again … well, nuff said.

And so after a very late lunch Nog and I went out for a walk to Fnac and I found this baby on special offer - 160 GBs for 70€. And it’s so small, just 12cm x 8 cm x 1.5cm. So I could actually carry around all of SB’s data in my handbag or jacket pocket if I wanted to. This is seriously cool.

Gosh, I just get more geeky every day.

new speakers

I’m all set now!

Love the groovy zip-up carrying case too (that came as a surprise when I opened the box). It has a 10-hour battery and comes with European and UK slide-on plug options - very cool. I have it on “shuffle” now and it’s great! At 34 x 9 x 4 cm it would have easily slipped into my suitcase for the Tavira trip so we could have had music in our room. Ah well, next trip …

Am now going to hide my credit card before it melts.

 

ipod nero

Look what I found!

I’m very glad I bought my cute little 1 GB shuffle because it’s not only perfect for the gym (and only cost 45€) but it also helped me realise that the 8 GB nano I’d been considering (which costs 180€) would have never been big enough. Once I started copying some old music files from the Jag, as well as getting some tunes from my friend Agustín last week, I found I already had 3 GBs of music - and I ‘ve barely got started.

So I cruised by Fnac after work last night and found a couple of these nero babies hanging around on a top shelf, reduced to 170€. Turns out it’s a somewhat older model ipod that’s about the same size as the snazzy new touchpad model … and it has 30 GBs! (the 32 GB touchpad model costs about 450€)

Has anybody ever had one of these or know anything about them?

Would I be totally nuts not to buy one?

ipod nano

This is my latest gadget obsession . . .

wine cooler

Unlike these idiotic inventions, this wine cooler thingy is quite clever. No doubt they’ve been around for years but I only came across this one today by accident - someone had left it at the cashier’s stand where I was paying for something else. And so I had to buy one and try it out (it’s in the freezer as I type). I wonder why restaurants don’t use them instead of ice buckets - they’re much handier.

Anyone else got one?

things I miss…

I came across this old post from last year on Letters Home the other day. Oh how I wish everyone had a ‘recent comments’ widget for people just passing through or for when I’m just having a quick look around a few blogs without using my feedreader. In fact, I probably would have just read the comment to this post on my feedreader without clicking on the post itself. But seeing it on ian’s sidebar I clicked on the comment and saw the original post. Anyhoodle … it was all about things ian misses from the places he used to live after having moved on to somewhere else.

Like ian, I’ve lived in a few different places since leaving my birthplace Winnipeg, Canada (aka Winterpeg) at age 25. Since then I’ve lived in Toronto, Bristol in England, and Salamanca & Seville in Spain. Here is my list of things I miss …

crackberry

 

Remember when I went to the AWC lunch?

Well, since then I’ve been staying in touch with Susan and Traci - two of the women who were sitting at my table. I’m going to be meeting Traci and her husband for tapas tonight at the new second location of Las Golondrinas (which I didn’t know existed until Traci told me), so stay tuned for some new photos soon.

And last Friday Susan and I met up early evening-ish for a few vinitos at Catalina. We had a great time and talked and laughed a lot … then what I thought was a mobile phone rang, but it ended up being Susan’s Blackberry. I’d never seen one in person before so of course Susan started showing me all the cool tricks she could do with it and, man, I’ve been hooked ever since and will start doing some research to see if I can justify getting one. Apparently these are also known as crackberries because of their addictive qualities.

But at least Susan is about to help out with another addiction. She is leaving for a ten-day trip to the States today and has agreed to be my popcorn mule and bring me back lots of Orville’s. There was talk of duct-taping packets to her 4-year-old daughter to elude customs and we’ve also got code names now. It’s been awhile since I’ve had RL girlfriends - I’d forgotten how fun it could be. Especially little things like sending each other silly emails and having a laugh over a glass or two of wine. I’m so glad I went to that lunch!

my latest heart’s desire

 

Gee, good thing I didn’t buy this one …

It’s Toshiba’s newest small notebook, “the world’s thinnest notebook series with an integrated optical drive”, which so far hasn’t made it to any of the shops here in Sevilla. Isn’t it gorgeous???

The 0.77-inches thin 2.4-pound Toshiba Portege R500 has 64-bit Intel Core 2 Duo U7600 ultra-low voltage processor with 1.20GHz clock speed, 2MB L2 cache, and 533MHz front-side bus. This ultra-portable is based on Mobile Intel 945GMS Express chipset with the integrated Graphic Media Accelerator 950, which manages a 12.1-inch 1280×800 LED backlight “highbrightness” display. The R500 supports up to 2GB of DDR2 system memory and comes with 120GB 5400rpm SATA hard disk drive. A mentioned ultra-thin 7mm optical drive is a DVD burner.

Toshiba Portege R500 has Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (802.11a/g/n), Gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth, but it doesn’t include a 56k modem. Toshiba’s new ultra-portable has PCMCIA card slot, Secure Digital slot, three USB ports, VGA output, Firewire, and a fingerprint reader.

Hmmm … not sure I’d ever need a fingerprint reader, but you never know. So as soon as I get that fab new job happening (c’mon guys, I’m counting on you) , the one that requires me to have an ultra-portable super-sleek notebook with me at all times, I’m calling up Toshiba.

back to the market …

. . . for some last minute prezzies

This weekend (January 5th) is Los Reyes Magos, which is traditionally the day that gifts are exchanged in Spain. As I still had a couple of people to get a little something for I popped back to the Christmas Market this afternoon and bought two very pretty wooden boxes with mosaic lids (blue with yellow stars - similar to the pic above but without the black outlining and ‘face’).

And so I’ve updated the Christmas market post, adding a photo of Fernando wrapping up one of my boxes and posting his website link. There are also a couple of new pics there showing the other side of the Belén and the big tree in front of city hall at night.  Check them out . . .

Christmas Market update

christmas market

Went to the Christmas market this afternoon.

We were quite lucky because it was supposed to be raining today (and also for the next 3-4 days) but it turned out to be quite a pleasant day, just a bit cloudy and even sometimes sunny.

I was very pleased to see our friend Norberto there. We met him one magical night when our friend zoomer was visiting and later I got some nice pics of Norberto in his workshop with the façade nicely redone.

To be honest, most of the stalls at the market had a lot of the same-old rather useless hippy-dippy ‘artesan’ stuff, but there were a few I rather liked. I am presently coveting one of Norberto’s serigraphs, especially one with the new matte silver frames he has started using. And I would also love to have one of the carved wooden book lamps. But I know where to find both of these guys should I ever have some extra cashola and feel like treating myself.

Anyhow, here are some photos taken during today’s visit to the Christmas market. It really was a pleasant way to spend the early afternoon. On the way home we stopped off at Fnac and bought a dvd of The Jungle Book … so now off to make a snack, open some wine and curl up on the sofa with Nog to watch it. I’m now ‘on holiday’ until next Thursday and plan on enjoying every minute of it.

[update: returned to the market here]

Click below to check out the photos . . .