I just returned from a conference in Granada Spain on Stellar Pulsation, I took some pictures that you can see here. The conference was very interesting, discussing almost all aspects of pulsating variable stars, the city was amazing, with clear skies and 30 degree heat and no, absolutely no humidity. The only problem was getting there.
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Well, a month ago, I decided it was time to try to save a little money and live healthier... maybe only a little bit healthier. See the past post. The goal was to make a thermos of coffee every weekday morning instead of buying cups of coffee elsewhere. The cost of brewing coffee at home is less than 8€ for the month. On the weekends, I limited myself to one trip to the coffee shop spending about 3€. So for the month of August, I spent about 15€, at most, on coffee out. This is a dramatic difference from my previous habit of spending more than 50€ on coffee every month. Thus, I managed to cut my coffee expenses by 50% and there is still some room for improvement.
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Last month, I attended a conference on binary stars and planetary transits, where there was a lot of discussion about light curves, binary star physics, some great talks on planet transits and exoplanet atmospheres. The conference was hosted by the Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Science in Tatranská Lomnica, Slovakia. Granted that I had never really heard of the place beforehand, I am glad I visited. It is a beautiful place with sharp mountains surrounding expansive plains. There are not too many people so it is also pretty quiet.
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Back in May, I visited Naples for a conference, described in this post. While there I also got the chance to visit the ruined city of Pompeii. Pompeii was a Roman settlement almost 2000 years ago when the volcano Mount Vesuvius erupted and showered the city in ash, suffocating the citizens and burying the city. The eruption was so strong that some estimate that the top of the volcano was blown off and the height of Mount Vesuvius was halved.
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I love coffee. Coffee, espresso, lattes, ice coffee, americano, etc. I love coffee brewed from Italian or French roast, beans grown in Yunnan, or Columbia or shade-grown organic in Mexico, dark or light roast. I love coffee.
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