Tvindy

Brazilian Blogs

Ever since I started blogging, I've been hoping to find some good Brazilian blogs to read. I've logged more than three years living in Brazil, so this would give me a great opportunity to practice my Portuguese and keep up with the goings on there. Occasionally I would check out a few Brazilian blogs to see if I could find any gems, but I never did. Finding the blogs was never hard. Brazil is overflowing with them. And Blogger even has an entire section set up just for Brazilians.

Last night I decided that I would devote as much time as necessary to finding at least one excellent blog to make a regular read. I started combing through them one-by-one, but there just wasn't anything. The blogging phenomenon may have taken Brazil by storm, but it's just something done by kids. There is no real content, at least not in anything I found. Mostly it's just teenagers trying to have a cool-looking site rather than something unique or informative. The actual content is nothing more than day-to-day ramblings about school and friends, and sometimes there is bad poetry.

There is however, something to be said for cool. kittyss world has the most spectacular template I have ever seen in my entire life! I mean, holy poop!!! American blogs never look like that. I did some investigating and discovered that the template was designed by a fellow named Bruno Maximus, who is also Brazilian. Check out some of his designs. (It's too bad snowball already found someone to redesign her template; otherwise I'd be sending her over to Bruno for a Hello Kitty makeover.)

One interesting thing about Brazilian blogs is the abbreviated writing style. I know we American bloggers often take shortcuts. (For example, receptionista usually doesn't capitalize the first letter of each sentence.) But some Brazilian blog entries read like instant messenger conversations. I find this phenomenon really interesting because of my interest in language. Here is an entry taken from Blig: Meninas:

21/05/2004 00:31
oieeeeeee!!!!!!genteeeeee!!!
nossaa faix mó cara q eu 
naum escrevo aki neh???
eh a merda du meu mouse 
quebro....maix agora
ja comprei otro....
bom....
meu niver passo.....
ahhh tenhu 13 aninhus agora!!!!
rsrsrsrsrs....
bom naum aconteceu nada...de bom!!!
eh neh faze oq....

Now here's what it would like like in regular Portuguese:

Oi, gente!
Nossa. Faz a maior cara [???] que eu
não escrevo aqui, né?
É que a merda do meu mouse
quebrou, mas agora
já comprei outro.
Bom,
meu aniversário passou.
Ah, tenho 13 aninhos agora!
risos
Bom, não aconteceu nada. . . de bom!
É, né. Fazer o que?

It's practically a different language. And if you're curious, here is what it would be in English:

Hi, people!
Wow. I Haven't written here
for the longest time, right?
It's that my shitty mouse
broke, but now
I've bought a new one.
Well,
I had my birthday.
Ah, I'm 13 little years old now!
laughs
Well, nothing has happened. . . nothing good!
Yeah, right. Whatcha gonna do?

I'm still hoping to eventually find a few good Brazilian blogs, but the situation looks pretty bleak. Receptionista e-mailed me about dandrums, which is the only Brazilian blog I've come across with real content, but the Brazilian is blogging from London. If anyone out there knows of any others, please let me know.

Time for a New Camera

The camera I have now is a Fujifilm FinePix A303. I bought it from Amazon.com for $298 on December 9, 2002. Back then TechTV was running a special show counting down the top 20 technology gifts of 2002. My camera was listed at number seven. After a quick bit of research, I decided to buy it. It was a great purchase. I've taken more than 3500 pictures, and some of them are fantastic. Today you can get it on Amazon for $129, so it's still a great deal.

My original plan was to wait until December 2003 to purchase my next camera for about the same price. I figured that, by then, the technology would have improved substantially, and I could just buy whatever TechTV said was best. Unfortunately, their choice for low-end digital camera was not what I wanted. The list is no longer available, and I no longer remember the name of their choice, but all it had going for it was a two-inch viewscreen. I read a bunch of user reviews and articles to try to find a good camera, but there really wasn't anything available at the time that was clearly superior. So I waited.

In the past few weeks, I've started to become disenchanted with my camera. I'm not sure if it has deteriorated from overuse and wear and tear or if I am just becoming more aware of its limitations. Certainly it has had its share of falls, one of which was so severe that some of the corners were dented (as was my face). As a result, the retractable lensecap doesn't always retract without help. Lately I am often disappointed by the lack of vibrancy in the colors of my pictures and by the slight blurriness, which is often present. Indoor flash photography is also somewhat problematic.

Orionoir has done much to make me lose faith in my camera. Whenever he posts a photo, my first reaction is "wow, I wish my camera could take pictures like that!" I mean, look at this, and this, and fricken THIS. I've lived with my camera long enough to know intuitively that, under the same circumstances, it would not have captured the same images at anywhere near that level of quality. (Or it could be that Orionoir is simply a master photographer, and I am not.)

What ultimately pushed me over the edge and made me purchase a new camera was an incident last week. I was cleaning the lense with rubbing alcohol, and somehow some of the fluid got inside the camera behind the lense. All the camera could see was a big blur. About ten minutes later, it had evaporated, and the camera had its vision back, but who knows what subtle damage may have occurred.

PC Magazine recommends the Olympus Camedia C-5060 5.1 MP Digital Camera. It's a bit pricey, but it looks like exactly what I want. It even works with xD cards, so I don't have to buy new media. With this camera, I shall rule the world!

Dream

I had a weird and vivid dream a couple nights ago. (This often happens when I sleep for more than twelve hours.) I considered blogging it, but since it reminds me of another much more interesting dream I had several years ago, I will describe that one instead.

I dreamt that I was Jesus. I was up on the cross being crucified. It was extremely unpleasant and just went on and on. I suppose it's a good thing I'm not really Jesus, because I got to the point where I couldn't stand it anymore. In a moment of carelessness, I lost my resolve and found myself coming down from the cross, quickly and effortlessly. Of course, then I had to face the Romans. I made myself an AK-47, dove for cover, and started shooting. The Romans shot back. Fortunately I had my apostles, and they made fairly good soldiers. We waged a trench/guerilla war against the Romans. There was a lot of shooting and explosions going on all over. I sent small groups of apostles against the enemy. Some died, and some came back. We had small victories and small defeats. People on both sides were occasionally killed, but my twelve apostles never seemed to run out. They were like the loaves and fishes. (Although only now do I see the analogy.) This went on for quite some time, and we never got anywhere near victory or defeat. The whole thing became repetitive, pointless, and tedious. The tedium was by far the worst. It was like being forced to sit through several awful war movies. Eventually, I stopped paying attention. I mean, what was the point; we weren't going to lose, and we couldn't win. It's not like I was shirking my responsibility to the apostles by not leading them. It's amazing how long a dream can continue after the dreamer has stopped paying attention. Eventually I awoke. In retrospect, I really should have stayed up on the cross.

Weekly Links

Look, a real life Rube Goldberg type machine! (from orionoir)

One of the most famous countdowns of all time is winding down. Receptionista has a link to this article on the subject. (Just think, in about two weeks I'll be able to. . . well, perhaps I shouldn't finish that thought.)

Andy Kaufman turns out to be alive. His death twenty years ago was just a hoax. It's true. He talks about it in his blog, so there can be no doubt.

Bloggers, take note. If the right person reads your blog, you may get a book deal. (from leo)

But if landing an acting gig in a major motion picture is more your thing, you need to hang out at eBay. (from mikeslist)

The Museum of Photo Hoaxes appears to contain all the famous hoax photos of the internet as well as many that preceded it. There is also a quiz to see how well you can spot hoax photos. (from zannah)

Did you know that if you play Stairway to Heaven backwards, you can hear satanic lyrics. All I can say is Satan needs to hire a better lyricist.

Shockwave is offering a free ten-day trial. That's about enough time to fully enjoy Feeding Frenzy and Platypus, which are the only two really good games they offer.

Annoyances

Jenny is inviting everyone in blogdom to share ten things in their lives that annoyed them this week. Usually I try to keep my complaining to a minimum as a courtesy to my readers, but I guess I should be willing to give the public what it wants. Here goes:

10 Things That Have Irritated Me This Week

1. My digital camera is giving me trouble.


2. The RA in my dorm is never around and, as far as I can tell, never actually does anything, even when he is supposed to.


3. My mail is delivered to a box in another building. The people who sort the mail are supposed to put up a sign that says when the mail has arrived and is being sorted and another sign that says the mail is all out. Usually they forget about the sign. Often there is a sign up saying that the mail has not arrived when, in fact, it has already arrived and been sorted. As a result, whenever I check my box, and it is empty, I have no way of knowing whether or not the mail has been sorted. Perhaps I got no mail, or perhaps it just hasn't come yet. It is annoying to have to make several unnecessary trips to another building. If they would just manage their signs correctly, I would be spared so much time and trouble.


4. Receptionista seriously hurt her coccyx and would not go see a doctor, despite the urgings of many people. We were all terribly worried, but she finally went, so yay.


5. My Portuguese teacher just got back from Brazil. She had promised to bring me back twenty kilos of this cheese, and then she didn't. Needless to say, I was devastated.


6. Actually, quite a few of this week's irritations have to do with Portuguese class. One of them is that it is time for us students to plan our year-end presentation to the other language groups. My feeling is that we should present something that draws on what we have been learning in class or that would supply useful or interesting information to the other groups, two of which are comprised of less advanced Portuguese students. One suggestion I had was that we could each select one aspect of the grammar that we found particularly interesting and briefly present it to the group. Instead, we are doing a Portuguese version of some show on the comedy channel. I can't even begin to tell you how much that sucks.


7. Also in Portuguese class, we got into the subject of headlice. I was telling the teacher (who is Brazilian) about the interesting cultural phenomenon that occurs in the US when young boys start making a big fuss about girls having cooties. One of the students interrupted me and said that cooties are not lice; they are completely made up and do not actually exist. Well, that's not what the dictionary says.


8. Anyway, from there the teacher explained how in Brazil the big parasitic infection that children tease each other about is worms. She seemed to think that worm infections were just a tropical problem. I started to explain that we have them here in the US. Then one of the students (a different one from annoyance #7) disagreed with me. When I started to cite evidence to the contrary, he shouted "MAS NÃO É MUITO COMUM!" He won the argument by virtue of having a louder voice. But he is wrong. I know for a fact that worm infections are very common in the US. According to this article, up to one in three American children will get pinworm, and that is only one species of infectious worm.


9. I am annoyed with myself for not budgeting my time as well as I could, especially in view of the fact that the year is coming to an end. If I don't get completely on the ball soon, some of my final grades may end in disaster.


10. Someone told me that I complain too much.

So there you have it -- a good healthy dose of ugly negativity.

Audio Meme Conclusion

Well, it looks as though this round of the audio meme is over, although I'm not sure it can properly be called a meme if only three people participated. Here's what we've got:

Tim from Reality Sandwich

Alicia from TwilightCafé

me

(Also, Receptionista from hammer and peg was inspired to make a short audio post.)

That was great! I'm definitely up for another round. Perhaps this is something that could be done monthly. How many people want to have a go in June?

Art That Makes You Go WTF???

On my way to class this morning, I saw something really strange. There must be some things about Oregon culture that I have yet to assimilate. Anyway, who was it who said something about how man is destined to photograph all that he cannot comprehend?

The Revelation

As promised, I will now reveal the source of yesterday's audio post. It was read from an old entry on Receptionista's blog entitled lost. That post stuck with me for a long time, and it is one of the few pieces of Receptionista writing that I have read multiple times. Unfortunately, it never seemed to get the attention it deserved, so temporarily raising it up out of archival obscurity was an added benefit of this activity. I am much relieved that Receptionista was not offended or creeped out by my choice of one of her entries.

I really enjoyed this, and I'm tempted to do it with other entries in other blogs. Now that I have an Audblog subscription, not doing so would be kind of a waste. But I'd like it if other bloggers were doing it as well. It's so cool to hear someone read a piece of writing which is in some way special to them.

So once again I invite you to take part. Think back to that one blog entry which still stands out vividly in your memory, because it made such an impression on you when you read it. It may have been sad or deep or just uproariously funny. Perhaps it even frightened you. Read it out loud for us

Audio Meme

Mostly due to Alicia's encouragement, I've decided to go ahead with my audio blogging meme. Just to review, here are the rules:

Go to Audblog and set up a free trial account. This will allow you to make one free four-minute audio post to your blog. Select an interesting entry from another blog. It can't be something that was written by you or which is quoted in your blog. There is no limit on the age of the entry, but it must be from a blog that is still online and active. The entry you select must be short enough for you to be able to read it out loud in its entirety in the allotted four minutes. Make an audio post of yourself reading the selected entry. Do not make any additional comments. The only words you speak are those written in the entry. (Funny voices and sound effects are still allowed.) Do not reveal the source blog. If there is identifying information in the entry (like the name of the blog or blogger), omit or disguise it. Also, do not publish the text of the entry. Wait at least 24 hours, and then identify the source blog and provide a link to the entry.

I later discovered that the trial version only gives you one minute, so I bought a subscription in order to be able to read a fairly lengthy entry. But you don't have to.

Using a cell phone was probably not the best idea. There are at least two incidents of the sound cutting out and erasing a few words, but the rest of it is still intelligible. I wish there was some way to filter out the nasal quality of my voice, though.

As per the rules, in tomorrow's entry I will reveal the origin of the source material and provide a link to it. In the meantime, would anyone care to venture a guess as to what blogger wrote this?

audio post powered by audblog

Seeds

This is just me playing around with my image editor. Someone brought some seeds to class, and I took a picture of them. I was playing around with the image. Since it ended up looking fairly interesting, I thought I would post it.