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

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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, 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!

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!

Women's International Day

Congratulations to all my girl friends for today. I don't care that much about those days, but if you manage to get a present, wow, let's celebrate! I must tell you that this year I will celebrate, thanks to my bank HSBC. Many days ago I participate of a research or something like that (I usually participate on researchs, even if they don't give anything in return, as I do believe the companies are trying to have a feedback for their clients, especially in this country), and today I receive an e-mail from HSBC saying that I won a digital camera! Not bad, huh?

I thought today was going to be those days that you think "damn, why I left my bed anyway?". I had to wake up early because I had an appointment with my tutor at 10.30h (I need 2 hours to understand what is happening, have a bath, prepare my bag...), it's raining and the tutor got stuck on traffic and appeared after 11h. I left the meeting really annoyed, sure that the essays will be even wworse than last term and with the thought I mentioned before. For my surprise: it's raining but it's warm; waiting for the tutor outside, under the rain, wasn't that bad as I was reading; I had the impression that all the students are a bit lost. Add to that a nice phone call I had this morning, a nice walk to College (I usually go by bus), Japanese cookies as a gift from a friend and a new digital camera, and, voilá, you have a happy Christina!

Today is the Wednesday's movie night and we are going to see "Syriana". I don't know who is going for sure, but I bet I'll have fun.

Ops, fresh news for us: I've just received an e-mail for the Portuguese consulate saying that I can request the citizenship here in London. Sounds good.

You know, I was thinking about this thing of having your fotoblog indicated as a "cool fotoblog" by UOL (the internet provider). Now everybody - strangers mainly - thinks it is about London. It's not! It's about whatever I want it to be. Did I make myself clear?

For the gringos: "London, London" is a song written by Caetano Veloso. He was exhiled in London during brazilian's dictatorship. Here is a sample:

(...) I know I know no one here to say hello
I know they keep the way clear
I am lonely in London without fear
I'm wandering round and round nowhere to go
While my eyes go looking for flying saucers in the sky
Oh sunday, monday, autumn pass by me
And people hurry on so pacefully (...)

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence

Did I tell you that I'm paranoid? I love making plans, I love when I can accomplish them and tick them of my TO DO list, but I get so anxious to start working in a new plan that it is also a torture when I have one. It's that love-hate relationship and sometimes I enjoy it, sometimes it makes me sick. As it was making me sick, I postponed some plans: 1) Roller skates: no money, no time until May. The weather is horrible too, but I'm sure spring will be a lovely time for roller skating in the park (p.s.: I don't skate, I'll have to learn first) ; 2) Gym: same as above. I might give up gym for good if I can make roller skating a habit (huahuahuahuahuahuahuahua); 3) Traveling: guess what?! Same problems! In fact this is a bit worse, as I want to focus on this masters and being away doesn't help at all. My "plan" now is to finish it and after September I can relax and have some fun. I miss making plans already.

************

One other thing I want to focus this year: my Portuguese citizenship. As my grandfather was Portuguese, I can request the citizenship right after my mother gets hers. I regret not taking care of this before, as it seems to be last complicated than I was told it would be, but there's no time to cry over spilt milk; so we (my mom mostly) are trying to rush with this. The lady at the consulate said that, once you have all the correct documents, the whole process takes around three months; if she didn't lie to us, my mom will be a Portuguese citizen by July. Today I am the proverb girl, so I must say that I don't like to count with the egg inside the chicken's ass (hahahaha, I don't think there's a similar in English, but I love this one in Portuguese; it's poorly translated, but anyways...), but this kind of thing really makes me happy. :-)

************

Oh my God. I have just realized that I have nothing to say and I'm just making up stories to keep this blog working! Boring... Just to finish and keep some friends posted:
- I'm attending a MAX/MSP course on Saturdays (from 10 am to 5 pm). It's ok, I hope it get's better and it will be useful to my practical projects;
- I'll have classes until March 24th, then one month holidays, then tutorials for my practical projects and dissertation;
- I have to write two 6,000-word essays for April 27th;
- It's raining.

Back in business

Here I am again, after a very weird week. I'm much better now, after taking a powerful medication on Thurday, but I still don't know exactly what has happened. Anyway, let's not waste too much time with that.

Yesterday I saw Good night and good luck. I confess that I didn't undertand a lot of the film. I don't think I even understand the aim of it. I mean, for me, it seems to be a good history very poorly told. My reaction when it endend was "ahm". I think I need to see it again, with subtitles, when I am less tired. I also saw The weather man, which was surprisingly good! In some scenes I laughed so much that I thought that I would never stop laughing. Thank God those scenes where followed by some depressed/serious/sad moments. Camel toe. My life will never be same after this!

Talking about weather, the weather was so great this weekend that we decided to go to Greenwich on Sunday. I've never been there and it is so close to where I live... shame on me. The place is really attractive. Many bookshops selling all books for 2 pounds, the park is lovely, the museums are nice (nothing special, but they have some interesting things and they are warm) and the Royal Observatory (that "little" house on top of the hill) worth the visit. From the top of the hill, we have a cute view from London and its main spots, like St. Paul's Cathedral, the Millenium Dome, Tower Bridge, etc, etc, etc. Besides, it is a pleasant walk too. I bet in summer the place is packed of locals taking their kids for sun bathing and a picnic. I'll be there this summer!

This is the line that divides the east and west hemispheres. Me on the west side, where Brazil is; Cipri on the east side, where Romania is.

I don't know what this is (I was too lazy to look for a guide sign)... but as there was a queue to take picture with it, I assumed that it must be important/useful.

Me happy during photosynthesis. Can you see how beautiful the day was? Behind is Greenwich Park, where the Observatory is.

Well, this was it. No big events on the Sunday, but it was one of my best since I got in London. I can't wait to be able to sleep on the grass on summer time.

I will survive

Before people think that I gave up this blog, I just want to say that I might be away for more two or three days due to illness. I think it might have been either all that talk about becoming vegetable or the eXperienZ below. Or both. Tomorrow I'm gonna try to see the GP and hopelly she will say that I just need to rest for a couple of days and I will be brand new again. I wish I had a scale to check if I lost some weight; I think everything has a dark and a bright sides.