./may 2024

watched Madonna's concert for 5 minutes through a YouTube live of a guy filming the jumbotron all shaky
met a Brazilian who lived in Argentina for a few years, and failed to enter Brazil with a snail fossil and a handful of Falklands War bullets
walked in circles
accompanied my spouse to a work barbecue

acquired frames to put on the wall, allowing the papers to be admired more easily
shed some tears after being taxed by the merciless customs officials
acquired, through the magic of international shipping, papers with figures that please me

went back to doing pilates 3 times a week

visited my mom in the hospital after finding out she fell and broke her wrist

we had a pleasant afternoon
watched the movie Civil War starring Wagner Moura
had lunch at Spoleto
went to the mall with my parents on Mother's Day

mastered the sweet and sour chicken recipe, traditional in my family
cooked mashed potatoes for the first time in my life
cooked cornmeal porridge for the first time in years

had one of the worst medical appointments of my life with a cardiologist who stated, among other things, that he "had no idea what pilates is"

ate a cornmeal cake and one of the worst ham and cheese pastries I've ever eaten in my life
discovered that Petrobras rented a ship to drill for oil for 5 billion reais
was conquered by the seductive view of the Panorama hotel, a huge construction in ruins that can be seen from the entire waterfront, and promised myself I would visit it one day
took advantage of the trip and visited the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) in Niterói
observed a pair of newlyweds walking toward the island, and after much tension, being stopped for the same mysterious reason
we were stopped from entering because the island was having "technical problems" (I can only imagine that the island is deposited on top of the shell of a giant turtle that woke up sick that day)
went to Niterói on a Saturday with impeccable weather to visit the church of Our Lady of the Good Voyage, a church that sits atop a small island

got a haircut and shaved

returned to Rio with approximately 116 CDs
found a Machado de Assis book with an AI-generated cover
confused Starfield with Star Citizen
watched the play "Tarsila, a Brasileira" starring Claudia Raia
had dinner at a fancy restaurant and was still hungry
spent an incredibly pleasant afternoon dumpster diving at a used bookstore and chatting
met a fellow appreciator of old CD-ROM games and Spyro 2
had the most relaxing hour of my life watching wolves lying down and trees swaying
upon boarding the plane, was pleasantly surprised by the fact that on all seats there was a small television showing the same program: a sequence of images of animals doing absolutely nothing; as soon as an animal started doing something, the image would cut to another motionless animal
went to São Paulo

put several games on my shopping list and am excited to see enough of them as well
played 6 hours of Fallout: New Vegas, and decided I had seen enough
played 4 hours of Venineth, and decided I had seen enough
spent approximately 20 hours watching silvia play Mass Effect 3
in contrast, spent 25 minutes on a Stephen's Sausage Roll level that she solved in 3 minutes, once again establishing her superiority in this game
played 7 Wonders Duel with silvia and won 2 out of 3 games, once again establishing my superiority in this game

watched Earthbound, USA (2023), which you need to see NOW
watched the series Severance (2022), which only served to make me angry at Netflix's addictive series model
watched A Woman Under The Influence (1974), which was an Experience
watched Past Lives (2023), which made me want to rewatch Crash Landing on You (2019)
watched Kirikou et la Sorcière (1998), an incredible film that made me revive my interest in watching animated films

started preparing the ground to do my qualification exam

spent dozens of hours working on my newest site, https://nomesdobrasil.net
spent dozens of hours working on the Tokimeki Memorial translation, and am about to launch a first open version of the project

First, the white elephant: I didn't write anything about April!!! It turns out that in April I did practically NOTHING interesting, I sat down to write the bullet list and realized that damn, I barely left the house the whole month -- I spent practically the whole month sitting in front of the computer... and I couldn't even say doing exactly what. That made me sad and I ended up not writing anything. But I'm alive, and I'm well!!

The month of May was a bit more lively, as you can see above. Finally my efforts bore fruit and I finished one of the projects I've been working on since last year: a site with all the names of Brazil, called... "names of Brazil". It may seem like something simple, that could clearly have been done in less time, but it turns out I spent a lot of time collecting the data (since IBGE doesn't release this stuff in a decent way), and I also spent a lot of time undecided about what format the project would take (one of my initial ideas, which didn't work out well but which I might restart again someday, involved creating a YouTube video with dozens of hours simply listing all the names that exist in Brazil). It also didn't help that I went on several tangents during the site development process, such as creating a dataset with all the soap opera characters -- a dataset whose analysis and exploration could be the seed of a completely different project (which actors worked together the most? Which actresses have been working together the longest? How does Globo's acting network compare to Hollywood's acting network? etc). That said, at some point you have to stop, and I feel like I need to get rid of these projects as soon as possible -- I like finishing things, and it's been a long time since I finished anything, and that makes me a bit unsatisfied. Well, here's something finished!! Soon I want to "finish" the Tokimeki Memorial one too and get rid of another specter haunting me.

The forecast for June is to focus completely on my qualification, which should happen in July. After that, I'll be a freer elf and can take advantage to enter another of my goals for this year: start GMing an RPG. And I also want to go back to recording CD-ROM videos. And I want to go back to working on my biggest video about CD-ROM games, whose script is halfway done.

And then I want to go back to making games. And who knows, start a newsletter curating itch games. There's simply so much I want to do in this life, I don't know if you all feel this too. I NEED paid vacation for at least a year, preferably for all the years

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