Armed Forces Week

Every year in Spain there is an armed forces expo for about a week. This year it happens to be in Sevilla. Our bridge (the best bridge) gets closed to vehicle traffic often, but this is the first time I'd ever seen it closed to pedestrian traffic too:

Turns out there was a sound reason:


This helicopter flew up and a bunch of soldiers rappelled out of it onto the bridge deck. Our bridge has the best activities.

The pontoon bridge extended entirely across the river along the base of the bridge. A long line of civilians waited to walk across:

Later in the day, there was a mounted exhibition in the bull ring. This team was lined up on the street waiting for their cue to go in:

Turns out their cue was a bunch of paratroopers dropping into the open air bull ring to kick things off:

***

In other news, I read another chapter of Algorithms to Live By on Networking. I continue to be impressed at the authors' abilities to relate CS to real life. Today they discussed the problem of communication and how computers confirm the receipt of information. It's similar to how we say "ok" and "uh-huh" and "what?" as a matter of course in a conversation. We confirm that we're receiving the information or let the speaker know that something got lost.

They also discussed the problem of two computers needing a network connection at the same time. Typically computers ramp up network speed gradually as long as no other computer wants the same connection. As soon as a second computer wants the connection, the speed is cut in half. If it happens again, it's cut in half again. The speed climbs linearly, but is cut exponentially. Turns out this is what's needed to keep our networks from bogging down. We do something similar in conversation when both parties speak simultaneously. We wait for the other person go. If it happens again, we wait longer.

I also continued working on my cellular automata visualizer.

And, continued prepping for my calculus class in the fall.

Finally, I've been collaborating on ideas about a first-year course via email and did a bit more of that today.

Yet another bridge (YAB)

There's a celebration/exhibition of Spanish military going on here this week. Apparently, the engineer corps is going to build a bridge next to the Triana bridge (the best bridge):

These floating pontoons are staged and ready to be extended across the river.

***

I did a little more recreational coding this morning on my one-dimensional cellular automata visualization tool. Once I'm dong, I'll post a link here.

I also started prepping my classes for the Fall 2019 semester. It's a bit early, but I'm worried that once I get back to WW it might be challenging to find the time in the 6 weeks before the semester starts. I'll feel better if I have them mostly ready to go before I leave Spain.

Space Invaders

I spent a bit of time writing a one-dimensional cellular automaton generator in P5JS. We're signed up to do a tile painting class when my sister gets here the week after next. I thought it might be interesting to paint a one-dimensional cellular automaton on mine:

Admittedly, it looks a bit like a space invader, but I have some time to tweak it a bit. This is actually just the very tip of this fuller 1DCA:

which is definitely more interesting, but I'm not sure I could paint something like this on a 10cm x 10cm tile.

***

Another hot day here in Sevilla. I took a picture of the Corpus Christi gate again:

not as ornate (or as large as the feria gate), but coming along nicely. They have until June 20th to get it worked out, so I think they'll be fine.

Bilbao to Sevilla

We had an early afternoon flight back to Sevilla today from Bilbao. It was grey, cold and rainy in Bilbao as we lifted off. In Sevilla about 90 mins later, it was clear sunny and 35C-a remarkable climate change. Bilbao and northern Spain are beautiful. If I had another year here, I might think about living up there. Everything is so green, hilly and forested.

We took the bus from the aiport. Laura got off early to go to class. I went home, emptied the suitcase, cleaned the house a bit, and went to the gym.

I also made a much-needed trip to the trashcan, but was rewarded with a lovely sunset view of the downtown:

***

With only a month left here, I need to prioritize some of my projects and see what kind of progress I can make in the next few weeks here.

San Sebastian to Pasajes

This morning we took a bus (1.5 hrs) to the town of San Sebastian about 100km east of Bilbao. We found an article about a hike from there to the next town, Pasajes, about 5km further to the east. Other than the damp weather which made some of the trail pretty slippery, it was a beautiful hike along the coast. After a sharp initial climb, we were rewarded with a nice view of San Sebastian:

Further along the trail, we had frequent glimpses of the coast and the Bay of Biscay which lies off of the northern coast of Spain:

The area we walked had numerous intersecting trails.

Eventually, we figured out we needed to follow the white/red bars. Once we realized that, we found that the trail was pretty clearly marked the whole way:

There were a lot of nice flowers along the trail:

Dropping down into the town Pasajes, we needed to take this water taxi across the inlet:
 

 It was only .8 euro and was pretty quick:


From Pasajes, we took the bus back to San Sebastian. We had a late lunch, wandered around a bit. Visited the beach:

And headed back to the bus station for the bus back to Bilbao. At one point, Laura noted we were 5 degrees removed from home: Walla Walla, Sevilla, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Pasajes. Tomorrow we wind that back down to 1 degree with a flight back to Sevilla.