Don't Think Again

This Sunday, presidential elections are happening in Brazil. There are now two choices: José Serra and Dilma Roussef. The former is the rightful successor of FHC's legacy, and the latter is President Lula's choice. Right now, Dilma is ahead, and I do believe she will be the next person in office. This is awesome because most of what Lula has been doing is great, and Brazil is currently in somewhat of a Golden Age. Regardless of that, I must draw attention to the way media has been treating the whole presidential run. We have been flooded with spam attacking Dilma. By "we", I mean all brazilians with an email. Most news coverage tends to overtly shout against Dilma, and for Serra. In all honesty, I don't really care so much about what a bunch of reactionary news sources are shouting. Right now, I'm really interested in what I can do to, instead of reacting to all this insanity, bring new options to the table. How to reach people so they can judge for themsel...

... is most likely gonna be my next purchase gadget-wise. Reason being that it does every little cool thing my iPhone does and has that cool iPad-ish look while weighing less than 400g. Battery-life seem to be about right too. Cameras on the back and front. It's android, so I get to be cooler than Steve Jobs... the whole package and something extra. The extra thing that's getting me really sold on it is the opportunity to be a real geek and use that big thing as my cell phone. You have to either go for speaker, which means everyone around will hear you, or you got to put some headphones on: bluetooth or regular. I can't help but imagine myself chatting some girls up, than the whole number exchange comes up and pull out that big thing! That's gotta be fun to watch. The only downside is I'll have to carry a little man purse at all times. Bummer.

I love blogging, and I have made some money a long time ago writing blogs about sex. Sex sells. I'm gonna do that again: new personal website centralizing all or most of my web activities, regular YouTube videos, regular blog posts. Blogger and tumblr are good and dandy, but I'm gonna migrate to wordpress and host my own blogs. I'll post a notice here when I do. There's also a book on dating advice I've been writing, and it'll have its own website/blog in Portuguese too. On the more artistic side of things, there's a musical collaboration getting prepared. That'll take some several months to come out, but it's worth mentioning. All of this is made possible by the encouragement you guys have been giving me. I'm grateful, and I don't say that lightly. Thank you. Check me out on YouTube: youtube.com/furetosan

Some months ago I read an article about Japanese students eating their lunch hidden away in restroom stalls. Yeah yeah, they fit the Japanese weirdos stereotype. What I really care about is how that came to be. Simply put, I think a culture as strong and traditional as the Japanese culture has its disadvantages. Don't mistake me for a hater. I love the culture. Still, the excessive codification and terrible expectations put on social interactions make it an unwinnable game. If you are "really Japanese", social interactions will give you more pain than pleasure. Why play a game you're totally sure to lose? Better to eat at the bathroom so people won't think you don't have any friends. Check me out on YouTube: youtube.com/furetosan

The short answer is, because I know that I should. An to be perfectly honest, of course I love The Beatles. I mean, who doesn't? Maybe some douchechode who don't know zip about music. I love music, I know a bit about it, and thus I am totally aware of the bazillion reasons why I HAVE to like The Beatles. That's why I don't like them. Now let's bring this discussion back to our own era: the age of digital music being download from the Internet. Even typing that gives me a bit of a bad feeling, as if music itself as a form of art were suffering because of the technology. True fact that can't be denied: good quality music is rare, as it has always been. This shouldn't overshadow the fact that we have some amazing stuff being made by the most unlikely people! Do I have a personal bind with the record industry - or the publishing industry, for that matter? Not really. No grudges, especially because they have made it possible for me to actually get my hand...

I feel a particular fascination for stories that have old people in them. To be more precise, I like characters who start being old. Great examples: Jack Nicholson in Something's Gotta Give and As Good As It Gets, the old geezer from Up! by Pixar, Jiraiya from Naruto. Old people and old characters have a huge advantage over us young mofos: they don't have to do anything; they can just be. Sure, we live in a culture in which youngness is God and beauty is Jesus. I'm merely pointing out how interesting these characters are. This could be a way to assess someone's life: is he gonna be a cool character at old age? Check me out on YouTube: youtube.com/furetosan

...is one of my favorite catch phrases. Being a "scientist" myself, I have no illusions as to what we do. There was a video about scientific illiteracy on YouTube a while back. Good stuff, for sure. Make no mistake, I do believe in our so-called science. The problem is just that I see all of the mistification from an informed standpoint, and I thus understand just how much harm the lack of information can bring about. I gotta do something about this. Check me out on YouTube: youtube.com/furetosan

I wish I was like some of my friends' kids. An ex of mine lives in a Spanish-speaking country, another friend has a double nationality son, others live with their family in a foreign country. In short, the world is huge for them since they are born. I had to expand my world by myself. Not complaining, as I, in fact, enjoyed and still enjoy that process very much. To ilustrate, let's take language. Language shapes a one's experience of life immensely. From the get go, these kids have the resources provided by two languages to draw from. They also have to deal with a lot of confusion, so it's not like everything's roses. Expand your world. Check me out on YouTube: youtube.com/furetosan

I work with kids on occasion, and there are a thing or two they'll mercilessly remind of. The first one is called lust for life, the other I like to call fearlessness. Of course few kids actually think about fear, but that's the word I chose to use. This lust for life expression isn't too accurate either, especially because it reminds me of sex. Kids don't even care about sex, but they have a sort of Presence and curiosity that can only be described as why we adults feel for the opposite sex. Kids won't be denied. They won be ignored. They have no silly self-esteem issues preventing from saying "I wanna be an astronaut". They haven't been taught to be afraid of actually showing their simple desires and raw dreams. I can learn from this. Check me out on YouTube: youtube.com/furetosan

Charity: water . A charity so charitable that it has charity in its name.

When I was a practicing high school teacher back home in Brazil, a young girl's life dream literally shattered my heart. We were talking about future possibilities and career choices. I was expressing my vision of life as a beautifully mysterious and exuberantly fleeting thing, when she dropped the bomb. She wanted to be an accountant working for the government. I couldn't believe it. Why would a smart girl like her choose such a dull job? She said she wanted the stability of an uninspiring job with good pay. How much fear of life had to be shoved down this girl throat to bring her to such uninspiring decision? Have I been walking through life with fear or with ease? Check me out on YouTube: youtube.com/furetosan

I would definitely be utterly uncomfortable in the presence of a totally uncivilized man: no shower? I'd suppose he'd have bad breath and trouble communicating, but I gather he wouldn't have any trust issues. For all I know he my find my cologne disgusting. My point is that civilization is but certain limits within communication and exchange seem acceptable. Hell, I find myself weirded out by some Japanese dude's body language or clothes on a daily basis. Can't claim that they're not civilized, but maybe just not civilized like me . These parameters of communication are both conscious and unconsciously communicated and sub-communicated. I understand Japanese well now and I've gotten used to the average body language, but some extreme cases still freak me out. There's a scene in which a monkey uses a projector and reads off what appears to be the notes a professor - the monkey himself - prepared for his lecture. The movie is called Waking Life. Amaz...

I use to think that loss was not the worse thing that could ever happen to someone. This is what I had been taught by society, movies, love songs... anywhere I looked people were doing their best to prevent even the slightest hint of the thought of a loss to reach their minds. This was not the case with me. Not sure why, but maybe because I am the single human being who feels pure exhiliration from being inadequate. I don't fit in and I love it! The freedom I ge from it is unparalleled. "Letting go", in everyone else's vocab, was always about losing something or someone and then coping with that loss. Right now, "letting go" is but a prerequisite to enjoy the good freedom, to fight the good fight, to live the great life. I'm not holding back anymore. Check me out on YouTube: youtube.com/furetosan

The one thing I have irrevocably ingrained in my brain is the fact that the Force is strong in me. That one fact does point towards my future as either a Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker. Fuck, now I feel like watching those movies again. The point here, if there is any, is that having a lot is important. This could be seen as merely something personal, or as something that any functioning human being could potentially use in his favor. With me, whenever I'm not going over 100 mph something's wrong, so I know I gotta get myself up to speed. Life's so short. Then it's more of a matter of balancing myself on that emotional wave. I might go overboard and push things too hard, which instantly brings out Mr. Vader. And nobody likes a moody and powerful Jedi-trained tyrant, even though everyone "respects" him. Falling behind that wave is merely being a chode, but balancing myself on it is what made Skywalker get that shot on the Death Star and get the girl who was a...

Not that frightening movie, but rather kids that you have. One thing I had never thought about is the level of attention a kid requires. As parents, most people are just thinking about what they think is better for their kids, in their own judgement. Kids, of course, have a different idea of what they need. But I digress... What matters to me is how much a kid can be demanding. The thing is, I always saw demanding as equal to annoying. That has changed, so now I see demanding as a chance for developing presence. It's interesting to see how some small changes in what you value can totally shift perception. Check me out on YouTube: youtube.com/furetosan

Reality check: I am living in Japan. This simple fact has changed the way I perceive what's possible and what's not. Rewind ten years: I was trying so hard to finally graduate from high school at the age of 20 (I was the second oldest student in the whole school). Now back to the present: I went to a very high-end college, then proceeded to grab my dream jobs at the time, and finally moved away from those jobs into what I am doing now. Another change is already in motion, but in its infancy. A very important guy for me is also interested in doing some international travel and study himself. If it were 3 years ago, I would eagerly follow what he's doing, because I would be doubtful and thrilled myself. Now I am positive that he can get it, if only he'll go through what's asked of him. Sometimes I need to remember to apply the same logic to myself: yes, dude, you're more capable than you'll ever be aware of. If only you'll get that ass off your chair a...

I was not familiar with TED until about a year and a half ago, but it has existed since 1984. If you are still unfamiliar with TED, check out their website and make sure to watch a couple of talks to your taste. One thing that surprised me when I first started following TED talks is that just about all of the comments on any given video were either complimentary or constructive. Then at some point there was a YouTube channel , and then that channel got a lot of visibility. Now, YouTube is crawling with trolls and ill-mannered people - just like most of the Internet, for that matter - who don't really care for what their comments. Most of them won't even watch the whole video, and just throw themselves at a raging flame of trolling. A recent example is this talk by Melissa Gates . Notice how the effect of spreading TED videos causes trollness from YouTube to spill over to the actual TED website. This, however peeving, isn't necessarily a bad thing or something to be ...

The iPad was supposed to have killed the Kindle , because it was to take all of its functions an expand on said expansions. For me and iPad would be too much money for not enough functionality, even though all those other netbooks and tablets wouldn't make me look hipster-ishly cool. Sarcasm aside, the iPad has some advantages over most devices out there right now, namely: weight and battery life. In the Japanese market, however, there are plenty of cheaper options between the equivalent of 300-400 US dollars with a 12-hour battery life, with several choices of OS and hardware that far beats that of the iPad. The Kindle is not a competitor of the iPad, but rather can benefit from the spreading of said device, given that it is available as an application for the iOS 4 - the operational system running on iPhones, iPods and iPads. I didn't know that, but what really got me to start buying on the Kindle is the simple fact that it is not a device anymore. It has become a servi...

Having self-defined goals was the last thing you wanted to do were we living in the 50s. Today things are different, and not having said goals will hurt you tremendously. In hindsight, most of my life I spent too much energy juggling these two points of view, as if I could make it work. I can't, and I respectfully doubt anyone can. These things are opposites. It took me some decades, but the choice has been made. Living with it, contrary to my previous beliefs, had proven to be easier than not. Check me out on YouTube: youtube.com/furetosan

This is an amazing initiative, and it involves some great youtubers out there including sxephil . Check what it's all about on this address: http://ecomagination.com/tagyourgreen Now this is the video in which Phil spreads his message (sort of). And this is my video response. Don't wanna watch the video? My take on being green is simple: don't be a douchebag (short version). There are so many things you can do to help with this and not get included in the category of douchebag-who-does-nothing. The simplest of which is to retweet my video, Phil's video or this blog post. The best approach, however, would be to actually sack up and post your own video or blog post (or Facebook update, lameass!) putting some of your own ideas about green-ness out there to help the world. Don't be afraid of doing it because you'll be ridiculed. For me, being ridiculed is kind of a hobby already, and being laughed at is a small price to pay for knowing my kids will g...

I am standing at a Japanese mall-like commercial building, and the soothing music flowing to me from the speakers is no other than the Rolling Stones' Paint it Black. Of course, it's a synthesized annoying version. Can't blame the mall, after all they're merely following the formula: play music you don't gave to pay for and people will recognize. A classic. I appreciate the fuss and especially the use of a YouTube video as google's logo. Pretty neat stuff. And the image of John Lennon says a lot too. He's the epitome of the rock star that opted out of his huge band. Then he went on to pursue "peace", got murdered and became a martyr. By all means, honor the good memories. Part of doing that is being aware of how the emotional intensities linked to that image (the man is dead) can be misused. The vultures are out on the hunt. Check me out on YouTube: youtube.com/furetosan

The first and foremost being that I have been in and out of relationships for most of my adult life. That's still a personal reason, but that's simply how it started. A very close friend brought that simple fact to my attention some years ago: "you're always with someone". Sure I am. Why shouldn't I? I thought at the time. Not only do I enjoy human interaction in general, but I'm also completely taken aback by the intensity of feeling and emotion one can experience face to face with someone they can love. There's nothing that gets even close - drugs included - to that feeling of a gorgeous, HOT, intelligent, interesting and HORNY girl looking straight into your eyes as you see her lips becoming red from the flow of blood from the excitement. Can't stop thinking about what else is blushing. Having learned to be a good boy, it was always a given that horny means romantic means sex means relationship. Just like that: an automatic chain reaction ...

Working out used to be a pain in the ass for me, except for those three years doing kickboxing. That was good stuff, even though I'd get home with purple spots all over my body and cuts in my mouth. Can I be honest? It felt good to put myself through the physical punishment. Mind you, I'm not one with masochistic tendencies. Going to the gym used to be too much of a bother: lifting boring weights again and again, day after day. And yet today I couldn't find it more enjoyable: I get that good feeling of muscles being ripped and don't have to get beat up. Like the movie with Mickey Rourke, he can't give up fighting because the rest of his life is too boring/painful/disfunctional. Except I get the best of both worlds. I actually learned to make myself feel good whenever I hit the gym. Good times. Check me out on YouTube: youtube.com/furetosan

The way I dealt with it. I personally don't like cigarettes. However, if we have hanged out, you have in all likelihood seen me bring one to my mouth. Personally, I had never felt bad about smoking, especially because (except for a few months, over 10 years ago) I didn't smoke enough to reap all of the horrible consequences of smoking. On top of that, I have learned that there are quite a few interesting smokers out there. That was the biggest marketing success in the history of cigarettes: smoking became not only glamorous, but also a hint of deviance and daring. As it should be clear to every single person on the planet by now, cigarettes have nothing necessarily glamorous or deviant about them. Not only do they smell and you eventually give you cancer, they're also expensive. And tobacco or drug use are not new to our society, even though our medical science has brought us to new heights of drug abuse and VERY addictive drugs. Cigarettes are not THAT addictive,...

... is very different from that of most people. Simplistically speaking, for dudes, you can be roughly qualified as alpha or beta in any given position. For girls there is no such easy distinction. In a job, for example, usually the boss will take on alpha behaviors and simply force his employees into beta roles. Some people deal well with that, some people can't take it. Some people thrive under that sort of pressure, and end up being recognized by the boss as an equal, i.e. a fellow alpha male. For girls, the problem is that the Western society has put them in subordinate roles for so long, that is hard for women to pull themselves out of that role. A women who's actually pulled herself out of it is very valuable. A hot girl has to live in a world where everyone will be friendly to her in order to get for themselves that higher status that only being with a hot girl can provide. That little factor I call "hot girl validation" (HGV, in short) is always present ...

In 2007, a crazy phenomenon took place in Brazil. A R$ 13.5 million movie - about US$ 800,000.00 - made by Jose Padilha became a huge hit in the whole country and even in the international scene. If you're hip enough to be reading this, you probably watched it. Even before this movie hit the theaters, it was watched by over 1.7 million people. Apparently, leaked DVDs were distributed through the best system in the world: poor street sellers. In my opinion, although the quality of the movie is indisputable, this distribution system has played a huge role in the success of the Elite Squad in 2007 . The sequel is about to be release this October 8th. If you speak Portuguese, you might want to see this interview with the director himself. He makes it clear in this interview just how much work they put in against piracy. A lot of work was put in the movie, and I strongly sympathize with the effort to make money with it. I don't condemn piracy, as if it was a crime, because ...