As I hadn't written in a while, the stuff I wanted to reply to or write about had piled up. Unfortunately I have forgot about a few things, but these are fresh enough for me to remember and comment.

So I finally got the job I had been orbiting around for some months. It's quite Debian-related and while I have been in the office for a pair of days, the first impressions are good, the workmates are friendly and the work is interesting. I'm now working for the local government's Conselleria de Cultura, for the Lliurex.net project. If you remember LinEx in Extremadura, it's more or less the same idea applied in our area. Good stuff, but it's too early to say more right now.

I'm quite shocked at Amaya's latest blog entry, where she questions that the Valencian language is in fact Catalan, or at the most, a minor variation of Catalan. Apparently during her talk in Castelló, she asked the audience if a user list for Valencian Debian users existed, when we already have debian-user-catalan, and she was amazed when people told her "no, no, no". Amaya, *I* am amazed that being a linguist you have this view on the subject. Maybe you're just not informed enough on the subject. The only social group who supports this point of view is the Valencian right-wing nationalists, which have quite fucked points of view on a variety of other subjects, and their argumentation makes no sense at all. I guess the answer is in any Iberian history book. What is clear is that this stupid debate in the Valencian society is just weakening the Valencian language a lot, and as I see it, Spanish is quickly taking over the minoritary, native language in many aspects of life. Also, what is left of Valencian use is very contaminated with Spanish barbarisms and incorrections, which only takes a language to its spiral of death. Luckily, recent reports of the use of Catalan in Catalonia are a bit more encouraging and show that the health of Catalan in that territory is getting better every year.

Yesterday, Catalunya celebrated Sant Jordi, which is also el dia del llibre. My parents have the habit of presenting me with books. This year I got yet another book by Ferran Torrent, Un negre amb un saxo, and Toni Cucarella's Quina lenta agonia la dels ametlers perduts. I'll start devouring them as soon as I finish reading Sacco & Vanzetti, which is very interesting.

jdub, I wish I had a hacker head, but I really suck at GIMP or any image manipulation program. :) I'm glad to accept help though.

These have been some busy two weeks. Our plan to train a lot during the long vacation weekend two weeks ago was a bit disrupted by the rain. We managed to swim and run (under the cold rain), but our bikes had to stay at home until Monday, when back in Valencia we could do a long 100km training session.

Without much more training during that week, last weekend was our first triathlon of the 2004 season, which starts quite early this year due to the Olympic Games in September. The first race was important -the first of three races for the Spanish Triathlon Open-, and many people from other areas of Spain came to Valencia. The weather during the week had been bad, with rain and a lot of wind, and the sea was in quite a bad condition. When we were about to enter boxes, the organizers announced that the triathlon was going to be cancelled except for the Men's Elite category, which pissed us all. We had to run a shitty duathlon instead. On Sunday, Valencia hosted the European Triathlon Championships during which I and many of my teammates helped as volunteers for the organization. Seeing all the elite triathletes competing so near to us was exciting. Both the women and men races were very interesting, and while Spain didn't manage to defend their two 1st places of last year (for Iván Raña and Ana Burgos), Eneko Llanos got in second place, while Pilar Hidalgo came in third in women.

Watching these two races helped my training motivation a lot, which I was lacking quite a bit and will come handy for our next triathlon, next week in Fuenteálamo, which is a qualifier for the Spanish Championship next summer. It's quite unlikely I'll manage to classify, but at least I have the Eneko Effect on my side. :)