Don't Think Again

I don't like getting caught in arguments about the "reasons" to celebrate anything. So focusing on what a specific date means is also out of the question. Let's just assume that it's not about reasons, dates or anything like that. Why, then, is it that a calendar flipping from 2009 to 2010 is cool? Because people allow themselves to be happy about it. That's awesome. And here's the worst part about it: if you only allow yourself to be happy during those specific dates, if you're not living up to those expectations, it's just so depressing. Of course. We don't allow ourselves to be happy everyday, do we?

One cool thing about my life is that I've been moving around between cities for quite some time now. It means changing jobs, having to make new friends and getting away from whatever life you had built for yourself. Specially in the holiday season, I can't help but to think how things were, how they should be or, rather, how things are going. Sounds weird, and it probably is, and I certainly don't care. I care about the silliest things, some of which I will now enumerate: 1) the kind of glasses I'm drinking from, specially when I'm eating a sandwich my mom made me or having coffee my dad poured me. 2) where, in the house, people put their mirrors. 3) what kind of "tell"s my ex-girlfriends have for when they're coming (yes, it changes over time). 4) what kind of work my friends are doing, how are their lives... Or, more importantly, how are they doing after all these years? 5) (...) I really care about the silliest things. I'm weird. Fuck it. Those ...

Before I can talk about whatever it is that Whatever Works (2009) has bestowed upon me, there is an issue to be addressed: it's a Woody Allen movie. So, I'm not apologizing for really enjoying this Woody Allen movie. I'm glad to get that off my shoulders. Personally, I've always found the "social experiment" approach on storytelling really funny. Not interesting, but funny. And in spite of this, I enjoyed watching Whatever Works for different reasons. The story is pretty much the narration of a sequence of hillbillies coming over to the big city and... uh... blooming into their real self. So this is fun, while slightly uninteresting. What must have pushed my buttons here is the main character. Not only is he amazingly pessimistic, he's also enjoying life to whatever fullest he can make it work.

As far as I can remember, this movie was never talked about by anyone in Brazil. I was silently ignored. It did play on theaters for a short while, during which I recall taking my girlfriend at the time (or soon to become) to what was supposed to be a cool mystery film. Watching it again a couple of days ago messed me up, just as it did seven years ago. I remember being pissed off at that girl and taking it all out on my girlfriend who was just so in love with that Femme Fatale on the screen. Is it just me or is it really hard to be a man nowadays? Focusing on the movie: I do really enjoy the way that the Femme Fatale cliches are used to facilitate the audience projecting into the movie. Most of the movie (both times I watched it) just seemed to flash almost incomprehensibly in front of my eyes, and then this huge cut shakes everything along. It feels less like watching a movie and more like having someone lecture on what a movie should and shouldn't be like.

And there I was, comfortably on my Gmail account, reading my feeds on Google Reader, checking the thousands of comments I get on my Youtube videos. Never will I use Microsoft's Bing, for I know that the results are terribly messed up in favor of Microsoft itself. And now, I'm reconsidering allowing most of my data to be handled by Google. Why? Google's CEO made a very disturbing statement, and then did something bad to people that disagreed: Google CEO says privacy doesn't matter Google CEO: Secrets are for filthy people CNET: We've been blackballed by Google I wonder if they have a bot taking down blogs that disagree with their point of view. If they don't, I suggest we use their services to complain about having our privacy disrespected. Also make sure to get the Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt-Out plugin for Firefox. Be safe.

I must confess I wasn't the least inclined to watch this movie when I first heard of it. Simply put, it sounded like yet another 3D movie based on a silly storyline and lots of cute characters. I was dead wrong. It reminds me of The Straight Story , by David Lynch for many reasons, but mainly because it's the story of an old geezer that for whatever reason finally decided to settle something important for him, but that had long been forgotten. One thing to beware of is that the first part of this movie relies heavily on our American/European cultural obsession with love and marriage. I don't mean we don't have those here in the East side of the world, but it is historically very different from today's westernized wedding culture. That said, I loved it. It made think not only of all the girlfriends I've lost (and some that lost me), but also of important people who are simply not around anymore. In one word: death. This is awesome in and on itself. Think abou...

I'm not gonna hype this man's work, because there is no need to do so. In case you are wondering who I'm talking about, that would be Davis Fleetwood, the Hermit . He stays in so that you can go out. And he just put up a series of ten videos in which he reviews his Top Ten Movies of The Decade. Here's how I'm gonna honor and praise his work, that I consider to be not only representative of what the Internet is capable, but also tremendously powerful and inspiring to myself, the author: I will watch all of these movies again, and post about them, one at a time. I'm sorry, but I'm gonna oblige myself to a time schedule, which I would most likely fail to follow. Here is the list and links to all of these videos: The Royal Tenenbaums No Country of Old Men Half Nelson The Fog of War Borat Inglorious Basterds Redacted Whatever Works Femme Fatale UP

Even though I am not currently working as a teacher at the moment, but this is certainly one of my favorite activities. The reason for that is that it always made me realize how much people are influenced by those around them, and I wanted to see just how much I could help people. Notice I'm using help and influence interchangeably. As a teacher, not trying to force my own viewpoints on students is an ethical concern. On the other hand, being able to lend a hand to people (students, if you will) who want it - explicitly or not - is awesome. In my feeble experience as a human being, people choose whose opinion they'll listen to almost unconsciously. On top of that, I'll add that most of what goes into deciding that, is probably related to resonating past experiences, present situations or hopes for the future. You must have figured out the big picture by now: I don't think a teacher has neither the right to try nor the actual power to enforce his/her own viewpoints and...

最近、私自身では二度と無駄な瞬間を過ごすつもりはないと決めた。例えば、今。ブログに投稿だけではなくて、日本語作文練習もやってるではないだろうか。これは、もちろん、この著者の価値観に合う行動なので、自分の欲しい生活や人生向き行動を探すしかない。 しかし、この決定は夢の未来を手に入れる為の生き方ではない。未来はおろか、現在の生活こそ、この態度で良いと考えなくちゃ。

A partir de agora, este blogue se auto-declara poliglota: Português do Brasil, Inglês e Japonês. Embora eu já tenha postado alguns artigos em Japonês e em Português, essa proporção deve aumentar drasticamente. Percebam, no entanto, que os artigos em Inglês devem permanecer como maioria, já que o meu princípio pra escolha da linguagem em que um artigo será escrito é o seu público-alvo. Assim como meu canal Youtubêsco, se o conteúdo em questão foi de interesse, digamos, intercultural, eu pretendo usar Inglês. Quando esse não for o caso, você recebe o conteúdo que te interessa, na sua língua materna. Para os outros casos, eu sugiro as ferramentas de tradução automática que se encontram na rede.

I definitely spent a tremendous amount of time on school: elementary, high school and then college. My family, of course, wanted me to go to college so badly that I didn't even think of questioning that. It was always a given. This is not my personal tale, even though I made it sound like it. This is the tale of the contemporary young man or woman. Here's what I think our parents had in mind: you need to go to college to get anything better than a hamburger-flipping job. You wanna know what? They're probably right. But that doesn't mean an important part of what we are hasn't been butchered in the process.

...and I say that in deep regret. As sxephil described already, here's how the movie goes: Vampire dumps chick; Chick gets depressed; Werewolf gets turned down again and again by chick; Chick gets depressed; Chick finds vampire; The End. If I may say a couple of words in my defense, I was expecting some cool sex scenes and a lot of werewolf vs vampire action. I know it's a lame excuse, and no, there were no such scenes. The dudes who designed the visual identity for the vampires must really like sprinkling bright stuff, whereas the werewolf designers should have a little read at Werewolf: The Apocalypse . On a related note, the depression part was really well depicted in this movie. I myself felt very depressed while watching it.