amedyr

Oh yeah, I almost forgot!
Last wednesday was my birthday and it was loads of fun. We ate at Outback (oh I'm such a dweeb) and I had a great time with Luana and Carla.

Once again, my Italian blood makes itself noticed by equaling food and fun.

Wow, I've been neglecting this place! So as I was sitting here, trying to think of something to write, I notice there's an empty plastic bottle on the street and the cars keep going over it, making a noise that is mostly drowned by all the other noises around it (cars, buses and trucks going by, people talking downstairs, etc). And sure enough, here comes my dog (which is female, but I only call her a bitch either when she makes me mad or in the plural, when I'm talking about both my female dogs), panting and drooling and staring at me.

Yes, my dog thinks that the noise of plastic bottles being run over by cars is one of the signs of the Apocalypse. She throws a fit every time she hears that cracking sound. Maybe she used to be friends with a plastic bottle? Maybe she thinks plastic bottles have feelings? Maybe plastic bottles crack at the same sound frequency as the bugles of dog doom? I will never know.

Renovations are still going on chez moi, and one of the architect ladies (remember them?) gave us the idea of hanging up some black and white photos in one of the rooms. 'Hey', I thought, 'I have a big bunch of those, from college!'

So I pick a bunch of negatives and head to the photo shop. I talk to this dude and ask for a contact sheet, for which I only get a blank stare in return.

Then I explain what a contact sheet is ('you get a sheet of photography paper and place the negatives on top of it, and then you expose it and develop, just like a regular photo... only you get a bunch of tiny photos, instead of one big one').

Still nothing.

Dude goes to the back of the store and brings out another dude, presumably smarter than him. New dude explains that you don't have to do that sort of thing anymore, because they have special scanners that scan negatives and make them digital and you don't have to choose from tiny images on paper anymore.

Guess I should have thanked him for not calling me grandma.
(not that he wouldn't have had to worry for his physical integrity, had he called me that)

You know things are bad when your MOM asks if you want to have breast implants.

Wow. Just... wow.

( Spoilers )

So after watching it the 1st time, my verdict is: I really liked it!

As expected, I believe Snape had more screen time now than the rest of the movies, and he was yummy! Looked even better this time and sounded heavenly as always.

The other characters were great, too. The girl who did Lavender did a very good job.

OK, so I was a bit depressed for the rest of the day, but that's what you expect after book 5, considering how it ends.

I'd really like to watch it again, but because of the whole swine flu thing I don't see another trip to the movie theater going as smoothly chez moi. Maybe after a month, if it's still showing, and the theater will be empty.

Yeah sorry, grandpa, I'm not going to pursue a carrier in civil law.

My faith in trashy novels is restored! The heroes responsible for this miracle are Ms. Patricia Briggs and her lovely werewolves. I'm not even sure the book falls in the trashy category, because it is pretty well written and so far there's no sign of smuttage (I'm on page 180 and the steamiest scene involved an exchange of hard [har!] looks).

I'm having a good time, in spite of everything, and my journey into the trashy novel realms has made me realize something: text books (like the ones I've been forced to devour, to keep up with my daily study schedule) are not enough to keep my writing engine running smoothly. I'd been having trouble with long essays and couldn't realize why, until I started reading novels again. Last night's exam showed me how fluently I can write, after reading just a few volumes.

And today I've told all this to one of my professors (who's shaping up to be more of a pal than just an academic counterpart) but he laughed and laughed and, well, I would have thought it was a joke, a couple of weeks ago, as well.

...so the series I just posted about isn't any good at all. It's actually bad, in a bad way.

I can take the Tru Blood-like universe even though the whole 'yeah, everyone knows about vampires, yawn' thing isn't my favorite, but why the hell would people go to a strip club, expecting to see handsome men to strut their stuff and watching a horror show instead, complete with guys shrieking in agony and being drained half to death? How can people coexist in relative peace with an entire species that can completely eliminate their willpower and make them their slaves with just a thought?

Problems with the ambiance aside, the thing is just poorly written, with lots of repeated lines and descriptions (apparently ALL tongues in the world look like a cat's). I hit page 50 and I still haven't decided whether I like the main character or not. Also, there are no likeable people, this far into the story. Ancient vampires are completely out of control, flying into a rampant rage with the slightest provocation.

Interestingly, this first novel is called "Guilty Pleasures". Hello, it only makes you guilty if you actually get any pleasure from it!

Remember those trashy novels I was talking about?

Yeah, I found a HUGE series with a main character that has MY name.

And I've downloaded all SEVENTEEN volumes. Started reading 5 minutes ago. This'll be good (you know, in a bad way).

- Hi, my name is Ann and I'm addicted to trashy novels. 
- Hi, Ann!


So... yeah, thanks to this site, I'm now addicted to those trashy novels that lots of people read but none will ever admit it.

At first, I'd just read the reviews on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books for a laugh. The Smart Bitches write snarky reviews just the way I like them! And then one of the ever-present banners caught my attention. One thing led to another... And here I am, in the middle of Book 4 of the Cassandra Palmer series. "But it's a trashy novel, dude, how could you?" I KNOW!! But it has vampires, and mages and werewolves and fairies and it's so deliciously smutty....

Talk about guilty pleasure! Well, at least I'm practicing my English, so nyeh.

It's a personal thing, so don't take it as offense if you do it, yourself: I don't like to post news or general feelings regarding great tragedies. But I knew one of the people in the AirFrance plane crash and I feel I need to say something about him.

I knew him since he was a little kid. As he grew up, he never lost that child-like air of innocence. He had an aura of kindness. He was a in a blood line of great men and was shaping up to follow his family's tradition.

Pedro, I'll be one of the people missing you.

- Ok, so you're a decorator and you have no idea what Art Nouveau is.

- Actually, I'm an architect.

- Geesh.


=====


- Ok, so you're an architect who works as a decorator and a furniture designer and you don't know what vectors are or even what Corel Draw is.

- Oh, is that how you open that .cdr file you sent me?

- Yeah... So did you manage to print the .gif I sent you afterwards?

- Yeah, but it wasn't to scale. *shows a picture printed in portrait mode*

- Uhm, you were supposed to print that the other way around. As in... tell the printer to turn the paper sideways?

- Huh? *turns paper upside down*

*a vein pops in my head, leading to massive hemorrage, everyone drowns*

So I flunked this year again. You know what's funny? I wasn't the littlest bit nervous, this time around. I was calm and collected... and ignorant. I guess I got what I deserved, for slacking and drawing and doing all sorts of stuff instead of studying.

You know what's even funnier, though? The following week, I was psyched to start studying again! Can you imagine that? 

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I've decided that this is what I want to do. All the previous years I took the exam thinking  yeah well, if I don't make it, I'll just try and get some other job or whatever . But this year I had an epiphany. I finally get what it means to have an objective.

So watch me get it on 2010!

Hey guuuuys

Yeah, I've been away from LJ for a while... The exam is driving me nuts. I've been able to keep my cool until about a week ago, but I've been freaking out, lately.  That same nagging feeling in the back of my head that I had last year. Remember, when I didn't make it past phase 1? Yeah. That "I could have studied more", "I should have studied more", "omg, what am I doing, I'm going to fail HARD" kind of thing.

WHAT IF I don't succeed? I'll get a hard time at home. I'll spend another year studying, going to college, doing my kung fu. It's not like I'm going to be guillotined, right?

And yet, every day there's this moment when my heart races for no reason (well I know the reason, but only after I'm feeling the ba-bump in my chest).

I feel like doing something really bad in my kung fu class so that my teacher kicks my ass and land me in a hospital for the next month, thus missing the exam.


A pretty accurate depiction of my stomach.

Hey there land dwellers, I'm back! Spending Christmas and New Year's Eve on a ship was excellent! No need to attend interminable family parties, no need to endure that holiday glum of the city... I recommend it! And it's not even that insanely expensive. We could afford the 2 cruises on 2 cabins with a balcony... The internal cabins are much cheaper and the only reason we didn't take them is that grandpa wouldn't have to leave the cabin every time he wanted some fresh air.

Grandpa sleeps in front of the TV.

The Christmas cruise would stop at Buenos Aires, Punta del Este and Ilhabela, and the New Year's at Salvador, Ilheus, Copacabana (for the fireworks), Buzios and Ilha Grande. Quite a journey!

The cons
This year we went on the MSC Sinfonia. The overall feeling is that last year's cruise aboard the Armonia was better, mostly because the Sinfonia's maintenance was a bit poor. We spent almost the entire cruise without TV! No news, no series, only the same movies playing on the internal chanels over and over and over again - and they were DUBBED. In Portuguese and in Spanish. I called to complain and they said not only that they had no idea when the signal would be fixed but also that they could not play any other movies because the signal for the internal channels CAME ALL THE WAY FROM ITALY.  ...Right.

The pros
Anyway.  The weather was quite to my advantage (this summer, by the way, is the best EVER! Now you sun lovers know how I feel when it doesn't rain for months on end. Let there be raaaainnn!!). The only hot days were on Salvador and Ilheus - even the Buenos Aires weather was nice and cool.



Internet connection was mediocre at best, even when we were on port, and inexistent at sea. I still could play some Travian and even work (working aboard a cruise ship is quite an interesting experience).

Things were so hectic before the trip that I barely had time to pack. Rushed packing = insecurity = overpacking.

That's right. Nearly 1/4 of my suitcase was occupied by socks.

At least it wasn't like last year, when I forgot some small but much needed things, like a nail clipper (I was gnawing at a chipped fingernail until the last day of the cruise).


Cruise #1


Baía de Guanabara = dirty water. I had forgotten how much I love the sound of the water against the ship's hull.


Leaving Rio - cloudyyyy! :D


Attempt at a crazy camera effect


I was planning on spending like crazy on Buenos Aires because I love buying different stuff and everyone says that the Real/dolar ratio is smaller than the Peso/dolar one. Before anyone accuses me of being shallow, let me just say that I already know the city, I've been there more than a couple of times, I've seen the views, I've heard the history; and the one thing I hadn't done there yet was shopping. Moving on.

We hired a van service with a tour guide, who would indicate the best shopping spots and I was looking forward to buying some different fabrics, crafts materials and maybe some clothes. We went to the first spot I was dying to visit, Papelera Palermo... and it was closed. There were other cool supply stores around... and they were all closed as well. There's no life in the Palermo area on Monday mornings!!

Then we went to a mall, Paseo Alcorta. Hadn't things been written in Spanish, I'd think we were back in Rio. The merchandise was the same. Prices were the same. Nothing seemed to inspire me.

At last, we reached the fabric sector of the city, right next to the music area (I had never seen so many music stores in one place). The fabric stores looked very much the same as the ones here, there was no glamour to them at all. To top things off, there was a bit of a riot going on just one block away, with firecrackers going off and drums and people yelling in protest... Maybe it was the fear that the riot might reach us, none of the fabric inspired me, really. I passed the opportunity to bring this beautiful silk organza, because I couldn't think of any uses for it and it was a bit expensive... oh well. This is my final loot:


I ended up with 10 Pesos, and the bit of red lace cost that exact amount. 10 Pesos... red lace... I guess red lace had slightly more use to me, so I decided "what the heck, it could be fun to add some tartness to my life".


Cruise #2

New Year's Eve was beautiful!


There were a bunch of other ships close by.


Ooh! Aaah!

The people


Dinners on the ship had a fixed time and place. Our waiter was this very cute Italian guy and my mom was about to make our wedding plans when she met his girlfriend. She worked in the same restaurant (there were 3 on the ship) and I don't know, but I feel that she's insanely jealous. Suffice to say that she greeted everyone with lots of enthusiasm and always gave me a lukewarm 'ciao'. And I wasn't even hitting on him!
(the photo confirms my suspicion, hehe)


These two are a couple of the people who saw me the most, throughout the trip. The food was so great and I ate so much that my conscience wouldn't rest until I worked myself out into a puddle of sweat, every day. I love Body Systems, their programs fit my exercising style very well (especially Body Combat).


The entertainment team was basically the same as last year's, aboard Armonia, which was great news. Love you guys!

AIDS has affected my life because it broke up my favorite band of all time: Queen. Freddie, wherever you are, we sang for you, on Saturday! Our voices and our tears were all yours. Thank you for the beautiful songs!

Saturday was the big day! Queen in Rio!!

The group I went with was great: from the 9 concert goers, 4 were over 40, 2 were sons of 2 of them and all 9 were avid fans. The trip was full of rock stories, with the older guys (and one of the sons) showing great knowledge of the bands in the 60s and 70s. I took the CD with the new Queen songs and people were impressed (and it was a last moment thing, I thought everybody would take a bunch of CD's, but it turned out nobody even knew we could have the driver play them - even though the tour guide said we could do so, in the confirmation e-mail).

<-- that's the golden ticket! :D

We got there and the place was beautiful. The stadium was built for the Pan-american games, so everything was neat, new and organized. Only 3 other people in the group had bought pit tickets and I was the only one with a VIP ticket... so I was gonna be all by myself, and the butterflies flew even harder in my stomach. I went into the pit... and it was almost empty! 1 hour to go and not even half of the pit was occupied, which meant that I could stay right behind the people who were lining the front fence. Everyone was saying "oh, man, that's embarrassing... First time they come after 23 years and the place is this empty..." But the pit had filled up, by the time the lights went down. Whew!

Everyone around me was friendly. There was a group in particular with a bunch of very cool people, and I stood closer to them. Turned out one of them was from my home town!


The stage looked very cool and it went nicely with the Cosmos theme (hmmm you think Mr. Doctor of Astronomy had anything to do with it?).

As the time grew closer, the thought that I was going to actually see Brian May and Roger Taylor in person began to sink in. The lights went down... people started screaming... and an animation began to play on the center screen. A rain of stars... a trip through space... then the planets in the Solar system began to pass by... and Earth was the final destination. As the planet got closer, I saw Roger's silhouette coming up and sitting behind the drums... then Paul and Brian showed up and everybody went crazy.

Yes. I was that close.

Paul actually surprised me. He was SO cool, great stage presence. And I like his voice. I kinda felt sorry for him, at times, because people were screaming "Brian May!" a lot - myself included, hehe. But the concert was named "QUEEN and Paul Rodgers", so I guess he saw it coming and came to terms with it a long time ago (or so I hope).


Their chemistry was good, there were quite a few moments of Paul and Brian teasing each other... Too bad I couldn't catch any of them with my camera (I need a new digital one, it takes the poor thing for EVER to adjust the focus and it won't let me do it manually...)


I tried shooting Roger, but the angle I was in was crap to do so, the drums were all in the way and he had his back to me, when he went down the bit of stage that advanced into the crowd, where he played I'm In Love With My Car and his solo...

At some point, Brian went down the stage, right in the middle of the crowd, sat down with his 12-string guitar and started talking about the last time they were in Rio and how much he wished he could speak Portuguese, at which we all laughed... and everyone knew what was coming. He asked us to sing in memory of absent friends... and played Love of My Life. EVERYONE was singing. He was crying with us, in the end.

Each one of them played a solo. Paul played one of his old songs, just him and an acoustic guitar. Roger banged his sticks on the strings of a bass, with the help of the bass player (Danny Miranda, who was great, btw). Very cool.

And Brian played Last Horizon. It was the first song that made me recognize the player just by listening to it. It was playing in a store in Miami, over 10 years ago, and it was the song that told me that Brian had a solo career. I cried rivers when he started playing it in the concert. I never thought I'd see him play that song, let alone that he would play it right in front of me. I still feel tears coming to my eyes, when I remember that moment.

Oh and he LOOKED AT ME. Brian May. looked. at. moi. 
I think it was during Crazy Little Thing Called Love, when people were more busy dancing and clapping and I was singing very loudly. It was after Last Horizon, too, so the fact that my eyes were a bit red might have had something to do with it, as well.
I also have the people around me to thank. There was this dude right beside me who took a big piece of paper saying something like "Queen: Brazil loves you". Brian saw it and closed his fist in a "yes!" gesture.



Everyone did the clapping thing when they played Radio Gaga. I have no photo of it because I was obviously clapping along. I've always wanted to do that in a crowd!!


Set list:

Hammer to Fall
Tie Your Mother Down
Fat Bottomed Girls
Another One Bites the Dust
I Want It All
I Want to Break Free
C-Lebrity
Surf's Up… School's Out
Seagull
Love of My Life
39
I'm In Love With My Car
A Kind of Magic
Say It's Not True
Bad Company
We Believe
Bijou
Last horizon
Under Pressure
Radio Ga Ga
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
The Show Must Go On
Bohemian Rhapsody

Bis
Cosmos Rockin
All Right Now
We Will Rock You
We Are the Champions

A few random photos:

Haha, I didn't even know I had caught him scratching his nose, until I uploaded the photos into my PC. XD

Nice one of the trio. Too bad it's blurry...



They changed shirts 3 times. Couldn't catch the last 2 sets because my camera started complaining... But in the end, Brian came up wearing a green shirt with "Brasil" written in yellow. :)

I was so happy that I didn't even feel the 60 bucks I paid for the concert shirt. And I'm not taking it off.

Saturday was the best day of my life.

QUEEN IS COMING TO RIO!!!!!!!!! AND I'M F****ING GOING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm freaking out, man!!!!!!!! I had given up, honestly. Paying around 500 bucks, counting concert and airplane tickets, food, etc.... And I wouldn't even get close to the stage.... I was depressed.

And then, last Monday, the tour guide I had contacted, who specializes in taking people to these out-of-town events, called me. She had gotten the minimum number of passengers to form the group! How much would it cost? 230 bucks!!  That's tickets, transport and everything! The reason it's so much cheaper is the Rio / São Paulo differences (things are more expensive, over there) and the fact that I have a student discount. Well, I will, once I get my student ID, tomorrow.

I still can't believe it.

And I'll probably fail NaNo.
I only have 2 workable days to write: tomorrow I go to Rio, then straight to kung fu (I have to practice for my exam, next March, and I'm interviewing my master, a Buddhist monk, for a college assignment - that is if I don't miss my bus home, because I'll have a giant-ass composition to write and then I have to get my student ID) and then to class. Maybe I'll be able to write when I get home, if I'm not utterly exhausted.
On Saturday, there'll be an exam but I might be able to write during one of the other classes. It'll be pen on paper, though, which slows things down (hmmmm maybe I'll take my laptop!). Then I'll rush to work, after which I'll have virtually no time to doll-up for the concert.
I'll return home on Sunday, which is the deadline, and I also have to finish 1 college assignment due Monday.

...aaaand I just wasted 10 minutes and 300 words writing this. Bye!


PS: about The Question Song - you can (and should) hear it on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwY5o2fsG7Y
(yep, that's Biff, from Back to the Future - sorry Tom, but that's how people instantly know who you are!)

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I've been insanely busy with NaNo, as you may have imagined...

I don't have much news other than I recorded a piece for the Mil Casmurros project*. I love Machado de Assis and it just made sense. So, when I uploaded the video to my PC, I found out that there still were a bunch of photos left from the cruise I took last year:


The Rio-Niteroi bridge


That's another ship that was close to ours, in Ilha Bela.


And that's just a random photo I took in my house, hehe


*Oh yeah, here's the website:
Projeto Mil Casmurros
And here's the bit that I recorded. I'm such a bad actress! lol!
http://www.milcasmurros.com.br/#capitulos/67

Don't know how to edit the LJ layout and the list of links doesn't allow pictures, so here it is, because I have to WRITE 5 THOUSAND FREAKING WORDS TODAY and I have no time to loose: