School is out so I have a bit more time on my hands now. I've been slacking in my own field as my time has been consumed by random mexican studies and other stuff. To make up for that I started experimenting with Equalizer, and today I managed to get a simple OpenGL-thing rolling.

See the video. It's dead simple and currently running on my Asus eee 1000HE (hence the slowness!), but it could easily be running on 4 separate computers connected to projectors (for instance).

Last weekend we took a quick trip to the second (or third?) largest city in Mexico: Guadalajara. Very nice. Much easier for the passing tourist than D.F. as the city centre area is walkable and easily navigable (although my impeccable sense of direction led us astray once). Missed the Orozco murals which pains me. Perhaps I'll return one day.

Also we took a day tour to Tequila - an area famous for guess what.. it was wild (hostel provided the tour, so only youngsters), fun and educative! We visited three distilleries, the village of Tequila, fields of Blue Agave and got to experience and learn the process first hand. Of course we also tasted a Lot of different tequila - all 100% agave of course. Even the silver variety beats pretty much anything I've found in Finland.. not to mention the añejo or even extra añejo, of which I have one bottle awaiting my upcoming guests.

That was a week ago and I'm still feeling the consequences. This week has been spent mostly indoors. Working on stuff for uni. All the deadlines are now approaching fast.. fortunately I'm almost done with all the work now. Should perhaps focus on more important things like WELP..

... I still don't envy people staying back in Finland :). During late nights and early mornings it can get down to 10c or even below, but most days are still sunny. This also makes me appreciate the sun more.. that's why I'm writing this on the roof of our house!

Need to get back to the politics study on Maras..

A week spent in the U.S has been very relaxing. Weekend started in San Francisco from where we did excursions around the area with Mikko's BMW. On Sunday we arrived to the Silicon Valley and I've been hanging out here while Mikko goes to work. Every day a bit of swimming in the community pool, some work on projects and school presentations, etc.. Very, very relaxing.. could do this for weeks.

SF is a great city. I could envision myself living there. Not so much here in Silicon Valley. Services are great but there's no culture, no town center, no plaza, not that many bars, i.e. not much life. You need a car for everything. There's a train that connects some parts, but it's mostly a ghost train as nobody is using it.

Tomorrow we'll head out to Napa/Sonoma valley to taste a bit of wine. On Sunday I'll have to return to the developing world. Last month of lectures before the big trip..

Hmm.. kinda feel like grabbing a beer now after lunch.. why not.

Just a quick note on what I've been up to since the past weeks.

• Bought a plane ticket to San Francisco to visit Mikko in Santa Clara. This will unfortunately mean I'll miss Day of the Dead (a BIG minus), but at least I'll have a reason to return to México one day

• Climbed a mountain. Personal best is now 4660m. Incredible headache, sunburns and other pains followed, but it was worth it. See pics below.

• Visited Oaxaca again. This time with the photography class. Saw some of the same places again, but also a few new ones, like the tree of Tule, which was quite amazing.