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.