art : Church of the Light

Of course, I don’t know much about architecture but I found the existence of this church at a book shop and it caught my attention. Well this is second church in a month. Maybe I should call this blog like Midnight Church…（*ﾟーﾟ）


The architect is Tadao Ando, from Osaka. I didn’t know but it seems like he’s quite famous and won many important prizes. It’s known that Ando studied architecture himself, travelling around the world with the money he won playing boxing matches. The Church of the Light was built in 1989 is in Osaka. The use of concrete is Ando’s sign but what makes it special is that cross. There is not any cross but that cross of light. I don’t remember exactly the words, but he thinks that places where people go to pray have to be in touch with the nature (in this case the light works like that). I completely agree. I’ve read interesting things to tell about this church, the meanings of every single part of the place, but it’s a church, the most important thing is feeling the spirituality.

sound : M.I.A.

I really think that Maya Arulpragasam a.k.a. M.I.A. (stands for Missing in Action) has been a real threat for the whole music world when she appeared. She supposed to be a begginer but then she created a school, M.I.A.’s Old School. And she’s hot. I bought her first major album Arular when I listened Bucky Done Gun and Sunshowers (her easiest song to listen). It was a shock. Σ（ﾟдﾟ；）

She’s a singer from U.K. There were weird and savage sounds before, such like Kelis, Timbaland or that kind of artists. And for the instance I thought M.I.A. was kind of Nelly Furtado (non frontier singer) but she was specially original and creative. Σ（ﾟдﾟ；）

Her background is from Sri Lanka. She’s often referred to as the daughter of Arul Pragasam, who was active in Tamil independence movement. He also received training from the PLO in Lebanon. She got involved in a controversy when she released the single called Sunshowers because its lyrics inluded “Like PLO, I don’t surrendo”. MTV refused to play her music video and US thought she was expressing support for the terrorists. Σ（ﾟдﾟ；）

It’s absolutely interesting to read her life. Maybe there’s something wrong as it is not her official biography, though. Read also her funny interview. Official site.

We can expect to listen her new album Power, Power this year (she collaborates with Timbaland!). The first single is Bird Flu Σ（ﾟдﾟ；）:

travel : the Church of St Michael at Cefnllys

This small Church of St Michael is so charming. I don’t know how I didn’t go back again there while I was living in Wales.

You all know that I lived in Wales for a while, and we “Spanish” boys (and whoever joined us) enjoyed walkings through beautiful hills and rivers. Someone had heard that there was a small church near Shaky Bridge, two miles away from Llandrindod Wells, so we tried to get there. We were desperate to see something near that small town. Desperate to find something else to see. And it was worthy indeed.

I’m ashamed that I didn’t know what Cefnllys was until today. OK, I still don’t know its pronunciation. Cefnllys was a town in Powys, county of Wales. And this church is there, in a remote corner of green landscape. Several peaceful graves with graceful tablets welcomed us as we entered to the place. The inside was very cozy. I only knew Catholic churches with those long chairs where ten people can sit together. But this church had some individual (and possibly artisanal) chairs. The church of St Michael is basically a medieval structure, some elements are believed to date to the 13^th Century, followed by substantial post-medieval restoration (drastic rebuilding at the end of the 19^th Century). -link for more information about this church-

There was also a notebook for visitors and you can get a gift of pretty painted stone. People from Llandrindod Wells/Powys were really kind.

Next to the chuch there were high hills and on the top we found some stones. I wondered what were those stones and rocks in the middle of the grass. Well, we walked above them, we sat there, we threw few stones… to find out, a year later, that those stones are likely rests of Cefnllys Castle. Please tell me that you (people who are or were in Llandrindod) neither knew it.

Anyway, all I want to say is that Wales is relaxing and has little trasures like this church.

goods : minesweeper

These two months I have been working on it. On minesweeper. Instead of writing here? No, I was busy, too. But what a simple and addictive game! Now I don’t need to play that much but somehow it became a kind of therapy for my emotional unbalances, to get away from my problems. I guess it’s not good, but that’s a fact. But now I got tired, so I play when I really want.

I believe every user of Windows know this game. Before I was Mac user, so minesweeper was something new and something to conquer. I like taxing my poor brain. You know that it’s about time to write about my dear sudoku.

The rule is simple: the game consists of a rectangular field of squares. If a square that contains a mine is clicked, the game is over. If not, the player has a number between 1 and 8, which indicates the number of mines in the eights sorrounding squares. The player can put a flag any square believed to contain a mine by right-clicking. When the player clears all squares that don’t contain a mine, the player wins. The score is the time taken to do so.

Here is an excellent example:

Outstanding. How the hell can he do that?!

I’ve also tried the Vista version of minesweeper. It has a futuristic sound and the upgrade is obvious but I have to say that the game screen isn’t clear enough because of the color.