new layout

I'm experimenting a new layout here. If you read this blog every once in a while, would you be so kind as to leave a comment saying whether you like this better than the other (or that you don't care)?

changes

Gondolin was converted to English, since Renato, André and I were already writing in English. If you see reminiscences of Portuguese somewhere in the template, please let us know. No, we're not translating old posts to English - arbitrary estimates say that only about 7.2 people read this blog regularly.

We also got rid of the Haloscan comments. They started to put ads even in the RSS feeds and I finally got sick of them.

On the Radio

Regina Spektor, proving simple can be very good:

No, this is how it works
You peer inside yourself
You take the things you like
And try to love the things you took
And then you take that love you made
And stick it into some
Someone else's heart
Pumping someone else's blood
And walking arm in arm
You hope it don't get harmed
But even if it does
You'll just do it all again

Coachella

From Wikipedia:

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (also commonly referred to as simply Coachella) is now a three-day annual music festival (2-day until its 2007 edition) held at the Empire Polo Fields in Indio, California. The event features many genres of music including alternative rock, hip hop, and electronica.

I already got my concert tickets, airplane tickets and a tent. Yay!

Carioca

I've just bought Chico Buarque's latest album Carioca and I must confess I'm kinda disappointed with both the lyrics and the music. Anyway, I know that may change as I get more used to the new stuff --- that's what happened with As Cidades, for example.

Below, the lyrics of my favourite song from the new album:

Ela Faz Cinema
(Chico Buarque, 2006)

Quando ela chora
Não sei se é dos olhos para fora
Não sei do que ri
Eu não sei se ela agora
Está fora de si
Ou se é o estilo de uma grande dama
Quando me encara e desata os cabelos
Não sei se ela está mesmo aqui
Quando se joga na minha cama
Ela faz cinema
Ela faz cinema
Ela é a tal
Sei que ela pode ser mil
Mas não existe outra igual

Quando ela mente
Não sei se ela deveras sente
O que mente para mim
Serei eu meramente
Mais um personagem efêmero
Da sua trama
Quando vestida de preto
Dá-me um beijo seco
Prevejo meu fim
E a cada vez que o perdão
Me clama
Ela faz cinema
Ela faz cinema
Ela é demais
Talvez nem me queira bem
Porém faz um bem que ninguém
Me faz

Eu não sei
Se ela sabe o que fez
Quando fez o meu peito
Cantar outra vez
Quando ela jura
Não sei por que deus ela jura
Que tem coração
E quando o meu coração
Se inflama
Ela faz cinema
Ela faz cinema
Ela é assim
Nunca será de ninguém
Porém eu não sei viver sem
E fim


PS: I've decided to post to this weblog in English too, so I can practice my writing a little bit... Corrections and suggestions are welcome.

etc

Long Islands are not your friends, specially if they come in groups.

The Pan's Labyrinth is finally being shown here. I liked it a lot, even though I feel I may have missed some of the references.

Children of Men is also pretty good. It's specially interesting to see how our projected fears are now leading to a quite different dystopia then what we saw in the last century in 1984 or Brave New World.

cold

Back to Seattle (coming from two warm weeks in Brazil), having fun with the snow and ice:

1) After one of the worst days of snow here, traffic to get back home is awful. To take advantage of the carpool lane, two friends come to my office so we can go together in my car. On their way out, someone asks:
"Does your friend have a 4x4?"
"No, he has courage"

2) In the morning, the radio plays the weather forecast music; the DJ starts the program yelling:
"Global warming my ASS!"

3) http://youtube.com/watch?v=BQuwyURdymc

Tic

It's not just because she's my sister that I loved her voice. Text by Rodrigo Vianna.

updates

• I moved from Redmond to Seattle. Commute is worse, but every other aspect of my life is better. I wasn't born to live in the country; I need skyscrapers, people on the sidewalks and night life.
  
  
• Snowboarding is fun, but painful.
  
  
• Babel, Iñárritu's latest movie, deserves all the attention it's getting at the Golden Globe. Two words: intense and intelligent.

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

Dreamfall can hardly be called a game: it's an interactive story. I spent more time watching the cutscenes than actually taking any actions. That said, the story is truly amazing. It talks of a beautiful girl who can move between two worlds (a somewhat futuristic Earth and a fantasy world, Arcadia) through dreams. The art and the soundtrack are also quite impressive.

The game is the first part of a duology. I can't wait for the second part.

And what do you think of the climate around here?

Yay for rain records.

Update: Oh, and for those who think we're still far from that 15-inch absolute record... We're taking care of that.

Windows Vista viral campaign

This is the best Microsoft ad I've ever seen.

quickies

Ha, probably I need a better translation for the Portuguese "rápidas".

Full Metal Alchemist - After a long time away from the Japanese Animes, I found out a quite amazing one. The 51 episodes are addictive and the final movie is a wonderful piece of fantasy. Thumbs up.

The Name of the Rose - Either my expectations were too high or the English translation wasn't that good. It's an "ok" book. Raquel (who loves that book) now can kill me.

iWoz - Steve Wozniak's (first PC's engineer and Apple's co-founder) autobiography. It's interesting to see how he struggles to explain "what it takes to change the world" and fails at that. In the end I felt it's all about talent (genes, education?), timing (sheer luck?) and passion ("The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing"). I liked the book, though. Wozniak seems to be a happy dude.

I want to be extraordinary.

The Dresden Dolls

Yesterday I randomly ended up in their concert here in Seattle. Randomness is my friend.

They are original.

Qui-Gon Jinn

It will be a hard life. One without remorse, without regret, without reward. A path will be placed before you - the choice is yours alone. Do what you think you cannot do. It will be a hard life, but you will find out who you are.

The Departed

This movie is excellent. IMHO, the best of 2006 so far.

I had a weird dream

If I believed in dreams, I would think someone is trying to tell me something here.

I was walking on the sidewalks of my old university after having dropped a friend somewhere in the campus. It was a sunny day. I was heading towards my office and there was a steep hill on my way. I went for it with great energy and after three or four steps couldn't go any further. I took a deep breath and tried to continue walking. I fell. I tried to stand up and fell again. I couldn't figure out what was going on, and sat there on the ground, puzzled. An old car came by, and as it approached I recognized three Microsoft coworkers in it. They asked me:

- Where are you going?
- To the office.
- But that's not the right direction. You should go the opposite way.
- Ahn... Oh yeah, you're right. I was just going back the way I came, I wasn't thinking.
- We can give you a ride.
- That's very convenient, thanks.
Then a Chinese girl in the car asked me what I was doing there.
- I don't know, I just fell there.
- Oh, I thought you were enjoying the sun, taking the right kind of light for your skin.
- Huh?
- You know, the one that matches your bathroom color. Or the color of your sword.
- The color of my sword? I don't even have a sword!

And then I woke up.

If I believed in dreams, I would probably buy a sword.

parallel blog

http://vistaonamacbook.spaces.live.com/blog/

Sugestão de filme

Uma sugestão de filme bacana, a meu ver sem grandes pretensões: Valentín. Meio drama, quase comédia, de tão simpático me lembrou um pouco O Fabuloso Destino de Amélie Poulain -- este, um dos meus filmes favoritos. Vale a pena. :c)