Friday, March 31, 2006

I don't need the keys, I'll break in (*)

I'm not very inspired today. We've had a meeting this afternoon to decide on the name for the MA Interactive Media's final show (we are going to exhibit our practical projects in a room during a weekend in July. This is the "show"). It's the second meeting and again we didn't come up with an appropriate name for it. The options are Feel Me, Felt Again, Senz-Us, Feel Us, X-machina, SuperFeel (huh?), SuperHyper (huh?), The Feelies (huh?) and other pearls that I won't remember now. In the end even Fish&Chips was suggested. Out of this list my suggestion was Senz-Us, but I don't even like it that much. To be honest, I don't care at all, it could be "Nameless", "I Don't Care", "Whatever" that would be fine to me, I just want to show my piece of art (well, art is what some people say is art, and some people are calling it art, so I'm an artist, I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do about it, no, no autographs, excuse me) and start my dissertation.

I have no news to tell, so I will invent some, ok? News I would like to deliver you:

1) The Master is finished! =D
2) As a prize I'm going for a 3-week vacation in Australia! :oD
3) I'm Portuguese! No jokes, please, this is serious. :-P
4) I won the lottery! And sweethearts, the lottery here pays many, many, many millions euros/pounds; it's not the alms paid in Brazil. :]
5) Johnny Depp asked me to marry him, but I said "babe, you are late, my heart belongs to another man and he makes me happy like you never will. I'm sorry. No, I'm not going to give you my phone number and no, we can't be friends!".

Yeah, just that, nothing special. Maybe on the next post I will be able to write something cool! :-P

I will still see you tomorrow. After that, who knows?!

Cheers,
Chris

FootNotes:
(*) "Know your enemy" - Rage Against The Machine

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

I feel like writing

Now that my most faithful reader is back from Disneyworld (guys, you MUST see the pictures at Eriquinha's fotolog, she is on t-shirts and shorts! Ok, with Minie ears too, but this is just a tiny detail) and she can comment of this blog, I feel like writing more! :-D

Now, I need to do more interesting stuff so I can have interesting things to write, huh? Let me see if I have anything cool to tell. Hmmmm, I do, but I can't! hahahaha Sorry for that! Soon, very soon I will have breaking news to post here. With pictures! Wait and see.

I'm listening to Radiohead now, for two reasons: 1) I can't stand anymore Bee Gees and 'hair-in-the-wind' (I so prefer my own language) kind of music playing inside my head and 2) I'm so depressed I've missed tickets for Radiohead show on May (sick people in this country, they bought everything in 10 minutes, at 9 am in a Saturday! Kill 'em all). I'm thinking about going to the V Festival. 100 quid, quite a lot of money, but it seems to be interesting... Should I stay or should I go?

"He (sic) looks like the real thing, he (sic) tastes like the real thing, my fake Plastic Love (...). If I could be who you want to, all the time". (Fake Plastic Tree) I always want to cry with this music. Not always, only when I am on my pre-period period and thinking bullshit.

I should be depressed here, but I'm talking to Lilian (I don't know why I say Lilian in English and Lili in Portuguese) at MSN and talking so many bullshit (to avoid thinking other kinds of bullshit) that I have to control the volume of the laughter. Two women together, the first topic is men, right? And when you are angry and frustrated it can be even worse. No, we love men, we will never become lesbians, yerk, but it's so funny to put our frustrations out. We have a friend in common that has this habit of exagerating things. For example: if you tell her "well, I don't want to suffer anymore, I want to kiss random people to forget the past", she will transform into "she is so happy now having sex with all those gorgeous guys, big guys, sexy guys, don't want no short dick men, don't, don't, don't...(*)". So, we - Lilian and I - have a plan... It's a secret plan! hahahaha

(*) This is a song from the early 90's, do you remember? "Iny weeny teeny weeny shriveled little short dick man (...) isn't that cute an extra belly button?"! huahuahuahuahua (*sigh* jump from Radiohead to this, what an involution...)

Geez, if I would write everything we talk in this blog...

How deep is your love

Nobody deserves (in Portuguese this expression is so much nicer) to read Baudrillard and simulation-simulacro theories with Bee Gees playing inside the head. I'm at the library now; I've brought my laptop, we have a good internet conection down here. These trips to the library are part of my plan to study and write my essays as soon as possible, but I have to confess that I have a concentration problem, especially when I have to focus on something I don't like or that irritates me.

The topics of my essays are quite easy. One is about what happens to the distinction between art and entertainment with ambivalent interactive media such as video games. Honestly, I think that this question has no purpose, as I do believe that there is a very thin line between art and entertainment despite ambivalent interactive media. Go to the Tate Modern. Is that crap art? What is art and who decides what is art anyway? The other essay is about Brazilian soap operas and its influence in different cultures. This is not so simple, as by different cultures I mean other countries. Well done, Flipper, where are you going to get this information?

The sun is gorgeous outside, no clouds on the sky (it was black about 10 minutes ago), although is windy and cold. Nothing like between November and February though. The College is desert. We were supposed to be on easter holidays. I like it that way. I like people around, but not too many people. A few. The world population could be reduced to half that I wouldn't mind. Starting with London. Let's reduce all the ungly people here. Hmmm, this would be more than half of the population, especially if we use my aesthetics parameters. Ok, let's stop with that, otherwise I'll be accused of prejudice (hey, I would eliminate Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt of the world, as they don't fit on my aesthetic pattern, but would keep Thom Yorke and Robert Smith).

Yes, I am trying to avoid the texts. Unfortunately I can't use my own ideas on my art vs. entertainment essay and say that all that modern art is rubbish, so I need to find a philosopher/theorist that say that and quote him (yeah, "him", usually well-known philosophers are men; they have this capability of thinking and writing non-senses and getting money out of it).

Whatever.

Monday, March 27, 2006

Back to life, back to reality!

After three months stressed with school, finally I'll have a break and I'll be able to relax and have some fun again! Next Saturday I'm going to the first meet up of 2006 with people I've met last year. I'm not a very sociable person, but I can't stand being totally away of real life either. I'll have a 20-day vacation before the summer term, but no more classes, only tutorials from now on! Hurray!

The folks of my class are organizing a trip to Austria in June - an event of something and somewhere. I'm not really interested on the event, but very interested on the trip, as we might be able to get group tickets. Cheap trips are always welcome, especially with academic excuses.

I'm gonna sleep early tonight, it's going to be a long week.

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Too busy, mate

Yeah, I know, I am like this. I get tired of routine very easy. Besides, I don't like to sound repetitive and lately I don't feel creative to make up stories. My Forrest Gump side is asleep.

It seems that winter is slowly going away. Friday was a wonderful warm gray day, with no wind at all; a walk was needed. Of course I got late at school, but it was absolutely necessary that I felt that mild weather (the first this year) and make sure that life in London is more than this endless winter.

This week I've been thinking a lot. I've been thinking that we are what we experience through the path of our lives. I started wearing glasses at 9 years old, really young. And I was 2.5 degrees (or whatever it's called); I have friends that wear glasses for ages and they are less than 2! Talking about this to a friend as school I realized that I had a blury image of the world until my mother (or whoever) found out that I had sight problems. I popped from at least 4 different cities (not to mention houses) in my 5 first years, changed school as much as that (more than that), my room was my favourite place on Earth, my parents were divorced when I was 7, I was studiply myope at 9 and I am a damn cancerian. How could I be any different from what I am now?

I've just cleaned my room. Oh, dear, it was SO dirty! No wonder why I've been having this allergy crisis. I miss Francisca and the floor of my apartment.

Today the British summer time starts, which means that the difference between Brazil and UK will be 4 hours. This is awful; sometimes my mom appears online at 10 pm (2 am here!).

Ok, enough of being a victim of this terrible world. Gonna take a bath and feed Mr. Cookie.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Fool around

Nothing special to say. Just that I had one of the worse food ever last Saturday. Mixed barbecue, or something like that, which was supposed to be 5 or 6 types of meat. When I saw those black chunks on the plate I was a bit confused and frustrated, but I was too tired to complain to the waiter. So I ate it like that. Awful, totally burned. Could be human flesh that I wouldn't recognize.

Besides trying to study, I went to the cinema and saw... The Proposition, a film with a bunch of really dirty men and flies. This film is part of a conspiration to make me change my mind of going to Australia. But I will go, one day. Mark my words!

I'm talking to two Brazilian friends on MSN now and I just found out that Indaiá is going to live in Madrid from September on. This is so amasingly great, because I so want to travel in September, when I finish my course, and I was looking for company. Cipri will probably be working and Lilian too and Mariana too. Too busy friends. I hope Cris can manage to save some money and come along too. So far we've talked about Venice, Florence, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece. Gonna have to sell my body to pay for all the trips I'm planning. I don't even know if it's going to happen, but planning it so cool!

There's another travelling plan in December and I might go to Brazil in February. I wonder when I will start working...

Friday, March 17, 2006

Bizarrely broken-hearted...

A 'couple of 5-6' friends said they can't post comments here. :-( Not fair. I wonder if it is something to do with system/internet security, such as this damn firewall I have in my laptop that sometimes doesn't allow me to install, or open a website. Oh, well, at least I'm not talking to the walls here.

Mari and Laine are posting a 'game' at their blogs that it's all about telling everybody 5 peculiar things you usually do that make you unique among human beings. Here are mine: 1) make weird faces in front of the mirrow trying to find out wrinkles and other anomalies; 2) pray mentally everytime I peel an egg to not find a dead chick inside - of part of it; 3) feel guilty when I eat something I shouldn't hidden from the rest of the world; I also beg to God to punish me by taking my appetite away, which He never did; 4) I spend too much time thinking, even about stupid things like "why do I think 'with' and write 'if' all the time?" ; 5) I pretend to be patient when I'm not and lose patience when I shouldn't. Yeap, gonna burn in Hell! Better than freeze in Antartica, I must say.

To my friend Laine and all the UOL Fotolog users: I've tried to copy/paste the instructions to include links to your fotologs, but it's annoying to put them here. I'm gonna try to include it on my fotolog and explain in portuguese, which I think will be easier.

Just a last think I wanna share. This morning I've been woken by a group of noisy French teenagers. No, not 10 am, at 8 am. This should be illegal. I wonder the smell dowstairs.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Delayed

Long time no see. I gotta a good excuse: too busy being stressed.


This thingy on my mouth is the physical reaction of my body to these last days. Honestly I think it was an overraction, as I had no big reason to be like this, but who am I to judge how my body - and with what intensity - reacts to something. The only problem is that I'm sure from now on will be a stressful life. Oh, boy!

Did I mention that I wouldn't plan anything else until I graduate in September? It was a promise, as I was mentally uncapable to focus on anything else except the course. Well, I didn't break the promise. It's just happen to be a person to think about these things for me. Yeah, sometimes it's good to leave your life on the hands of the others - if you trust them enough. You really take a weight off of your back without needing to avoid good moments in life. Why am I saying this? Oh! Ok, now is official: I'm going to Dublin in May. I've always wanted to go to Ireland; it was one for my Top 5 short trips when I got here, but for some reasons I've postponed it. So, yeah, on May 27th I'm flying to Dublin.

Some other plans are in their way. Gotta focus on two essays for the end of April though. I'll have loads of nightmares, herpes, stomach pains and heart speeding until July 13th. I might have some good news inbetween this period, but nothing to tell now.

This is the present HSBC gave to me; it arrived this morning. Nice, isn't it? Now I have a dilema: I don't know if I sell this one or the old Sony one. I think both are good and I don't like the idea of selling something I won, especially because I don't get presents that often and I think it might bring me bad luck (toc, toc, toc). I need to compare both and see which one is better. A cherry camera is not my profile though.

Yesterday I saw Tsotsi. Good film. Some people said it is South Africa's "City of God"; maybe because of the international projection South Africa got with it. Not because of the story. There are some similarity between South Africa and Brazil, but in the film it resumes to the huge slums. City of God is violent, with some stupidly cruel and real scenes, while Tsotsi has some violent, some "shocking" stuff, but it is a fairy tale when compared with the Brazilian film. I recommend both, but Tsotsi is a more digestive option for sensitive stomaches.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Monday, 13th!

Another week. I gotta tell you how bizarre yesterday was. The morning was good, really good, and I wasn't sleeping, so this is weird per se - a good Sunday morning. On the afternoon, we headed to the HTTP Gallery, in Manor House. We had to wait for 20 minutes at the station until a voice annouces that there was no service at Hammersmith & City line! OK, let's try to get there through a different route. The gallery closes at 5 pm; we arrived at Picadilly Circus around 4 pm, probably 30-45 minutes to get to the place. Nah, not enough time. So we decided to eat, because I was starving. Shakespeare's Head, here we go.

The food is not great, but it's fair. Plus, we got a nice table and we chatted a bit. After the cineworld unlimited card, these moments became a little rare. Talking about the card, we decided to go to the movies. The only option: The hills have eyes. Yeap, horror movie. I hate those "boo" films; you jump on the chair all the time, but nothing really happens. Almost in the end of the film, when we thought all the blood and killings would finally stop, the lights went on and a guy shouts "we have to evacuate the theatre, everybody must leave". Huh? I thought it was part of the film. hehehe We left, we stood outside on the freezing cold of a while, we followed the Cineworld's employers to their meeting point - MacDonald's, just to find out later that they didn't know what happened, and we went back to the cinema. All the entrances to the building were closed, so the only choice was go back home with all our uncertainties: what has happened at the building, how does the film end and where the hell is my travelcard?! Damn it!

Friday, March 10, 2006

Me lazy!

* I didn't "understand" Syriana completely. I'll have to see it again, with subtitles.

* My jukebox arrived yesterday. I'm not going to mention that it went to a deposit at 9 am, while I was sitting outside the lab until 10.30 waiting for it. Should I mention that the plug is the European one, not the British, and I couldn't see it working?

* Yesterday I also ate some vegetarian sushi. Rieko, my Japanese friend, made them and I gave it to me. There was a egg thing quite good. I think I would prefer the sushis hot and with soy sauce. It was kind of her, I was hungry, so I couldn't say "no, thanks".

* I bought another book to help me with the essays. Next step: read it!

* The prints I ordered arrived. Out of 20, 3 are really crap (I think I sent the low res file), 1 was the wrong pic, and 16 are good. I need to find a place to put them. By the way, printing digital photos here is really cheap (comparing to Brazil): 0.10p each + 0.99 of shipping. I just paid the shipping because I got 20 prints for free.

* I can't believe that today is the 10th already!