Damn electronical equipment

Long ago I was told it was not good to hate things, since they´d gain more importance than you´d want them to. Also something about this old fella who said he loved life and life loved him back. But man, do I hate electronical apparel.
Apart from being jet lagged and with a newly discovered love for eggs and good food in general, I had been living in a pretty nice shade of coolness and easiness these past few days. And then I remembered it would be good to transfer my photos to my computer. It´s okay. I love my never-let-me-down HP. But it had to be recharged. And the recharger is a three pin nightmare. And my adapter was nowhere to be found after the unautorized clean up someone did in my room. So I had to dig up some wires from the back of my desk and fish out an adapter. Mood levels getting to annoyance.
Then I had to find my celphone cable; not to worry, it was one of the few things I actually paid attention while packing. Carefully transfered the files minding the wanting-to-freeze windows. Safely Remove Hardware. Error: Hardware still in use. Huh. We can do it the hard way or the easy way. Safely Remove Hardware. Error: Hardware still in use. Hard way it is. Just plug the damn thing off fingers crossed.
Next: camera card. It´s a micro sd card, so I´ve got to find the adapter. More jungling things around in my now back to normal desk. Hooray. Plug it. Copy it. Safely remove it. Done. Throw all wires and plugs and adapters in to the Mess Box.

Ugh. I need coffee.

Sherlock Holmes

Whenever someone says "We've reinvented whatever", I cringe. Especially if originally it was a good thing. But I had heard they'd put some comedy to make it a less grave character, and it is a Jude Law movie after all - not like I was going to resist not seeing it.
So as to be prepared of some sort, I had rewatched that Chris Columbus young Sherlock Holmes movie (the cute one that looks like a 1999 Harry Potter movie). In that movie, they end up in a cript or whatever that was, trying to prevent the damsel's sacrifice, and pretty much all the killings were in the form of a drug that made people hallucinate and thus kill themselves. Everything was very dark, the streets were smokey, the whole deal.
Guess what the new Sherlock Holmes had in mind first scene? Beat up the guard and rescue the damsel. Assisted by dear Mr Watson, of course. Where were they? Some sort of cult hq in which a dark hooded creature was hypnotising the damsel as if to make her put a dagger across her chest. Ring any bells?
It's a magic versus science mystery, but nonetheless entertaining, especially when you put in to account the delightful performance of... something something Jr, the fella who played SH. Plus, you've got Rachel McAdams, playing The powerful woman, and quite amusing damsel as well. There is comedy, excentric behavior, an unmistakable House-ish mood, a great deal of fighting and destroying, ... - overall, a very entertaining picture, though not quite Sherlock-ish.
Maybe I ought to see one of the real ones some time.

(The "Christmas Day" thing doesn't remind you of The Holiday, just a bit? Freaky poster for such a non-dark movie.)

Happy 2010, So Long 2009

(whatever it is that means)

So far, so good. I´ve started to write about five posts since the Holidays started, all incomplete ill-written paragraphs. I´m bored but not as bored as usual. Read a couple of books, couple of blogs, seen a dozen movies, got back to The Mentalist, went to the movies enough times to watch everything, bought a CD, ate way too much cheese and tomatos, printed some wanna-play sheets, said the Merry Christmas, and now I´m eating homemade pizza and avoiding housework.
But here´s what I really wanted to share and was too bored to log in to Twitter: John Mayer´s New Year´s Eve Concert. In case you are also too bored to click, JM proposed to go in to 2010 looking 1970ish, meaning suits, dresses, gloves and hats. And come on, that´s so coool! It should be huge, which would make it even better... jealous, jealous, jealous.
Probably spending New Year´s in my pajamas. Again.
Traditions are traditions afterall.

The Choice [spoiler]

by Nicholas Sparks

It was a nice reading, the guy´s got style and a few books to back him up, and it´s a love story so there´s not much way to go wrong, but here´s what I didn´t like about it:
#1 Gabby is a cute, shy, non-agressive young woman, you´ve got the whole "Let´s pluck up the courage to confront the lazy neighbour about his dog getting my dog pregnant" scene to back you up on that, and suddenly the next day, when they go out on his bike, she´s a sensuous, sassy, witty full-grown woman. What the hell happened there?
#2 You know how novel language - as well as movie language - sounds different than real life? Ironically more natural and frequently to the witty/Friends type? This guy´s dialogues are UBBERLY witty - so much it makes it too heavy, too perfectly choreographed. You can see that they´ve been rewritten several times by both author and editor, they´ve been gone over and over until they looked plastic. Mostly, it feels like the characters are just standing and shooting scripted lines, no real emotion, no real nothing.
#3 But let´s not get carried away, it´s still a touching love story. It begins by implying they were getting a divorce, and all the back and forth narration makes you think that the choice was Gabby´s: between safe boring Kevin and loving exhilirating Travis - and that apparently she chose wrong. He keeps on backing up leading you to believe a huge fight will happen and all will make sense (she was too guilty from the break up; she planned the whole wedding between shifts, maybe Travis wasn´t as involved as he should; maybe he got bored with her attempts to make the perfect home; maybe they couldn´t have kids and she couldn´t cope... so many possibilities). Only to then realise that she´s either dead or dying and all had been perfect. The problem is, the expectation created by the divorce idea kind of ruined all the happy perfect-life moments. Makes you doubt they could happen.
#4 Which then brings me to: what the hell was that ending? A happy ending? By Nicholas Sparks? Was he hammered? It was a very odd thing for him to do, especially considering Travis chose to ignore her wishes, but the speed of it all left my head buzzing. And the lack of loving moments between the two of them after the coma bothered me a bit. Again, the perfect-happy-family-ending felt plastic.
#5 I think he could have written another trip to the beach with the whole "family" to really show the happiness of the thing, because it kind of seemed like they were only friends with Stephanie after the accident (which I was betting would be a parasailing one, btw).

Things I really loved and made it worth it:
#1 Travis´ friends and pseudo family are truly great. Can´t tell anyone who wouldn´t love to be a part of the group.
#2 Stephanie is a fantastic character, the insights, the talking, the everything. Joined the Favourite Characters group.
#3 Travis himself is great. Even apart from his group. He leads a good lifestyle and tops it with great upbeat attitude (at least until he meets Gabby) - the sort of fella you would want to be around.

"I´m a student. I´m thinking of making it my career" Stephanie

Overall, looking forward to reading more Nicholas Sparks. Probably won´t be as lucky as to find another non-killing one, though.

Delusional writing. Go read about the uniban nazi.

I hate to go back to same effing thing, but don't you sometimes feel like you're an expectant? You're so tired or bored you just sort of lean back and watch? Only you're not really leaning back, you're on autopilot. And that autopilot does the strangest things. And you can only be stunned by the words coming out of your mouth, or your new walk and that new way of staring at nothing every couple of sentences? And what's so weird is that you're not making any effort. You're not thinking. Or at least the thinking doesn't become words. And yet there you stand, apparently really interested in discussing food packages, saying how much you like pizza. No need to focus, no need to feel the doubt, just talking and listening and gesticulating, sort of the same way you make your heart beat, almost a reflex. And everything is so calm and... neutral. And you begin to wonder where the hell that girl came from, and why had she been away all this time. Don't you ever feel like that? Don't you have the impression that sometimes the person speaking isn't even you? And it's not even a bad thing, specially not while it's happening, it's just so weird.
Okay, maybe I'm way too bored and sleepy and my brain is on standby due to the fighting bacteria stage. Or maybe I only make sense to the little person coughing in the back of my head. But whatever. What are blogs for anyway?

Confia na idiota

Já que a oportunidade veio, lá vamos. Acho que todo mundo já ouviu aquela história de "Em você eu confio, o problema são os outros". O que embora clichezaço, faz sentido, afinal adoramos uma história cavernosa de menininhas inocentes que são drogadas e violentadas/seqüestradas/mortas/afins, além do mais é uma variável sobre a qual você não tem controle, então não dá nem pra argumentar. Mas para mim, isto soa mais como se você fosse confiável porém idiota. Como se você não fosse ficar bêbada, mas também não fosse perceber que o cretino do lado colocou alguma coisa no seu refrigerante quando você saiu para ir ao banheiro. Como se você não fosse agarrar ninguém, mas também não percebesse que a maioria é babaca bom de lábia. E aí dá vontade de falar, "Mamãe, eu já vi CSI, até demais. Papai, vocês já me fizeram tão paranoica quanto humanamente possível" eu já sei o que pode acontecer, eu já estou assumindo os riscos e tomando todas as providências para que eles não ocorram. Mesmo. Acho que isto está incluso no pacote "CARETA". Aliás, de que adianta formar uma criatura careta, law-obeying, que não sucumbe à pressão do grupo (parcialmente porque também anda com bela e careta gangue), vê resultados em suas ações, importância nos estudos, se o mundo lá fora vai continuar sendo o argumento principal para o "não" absoluto? Ouvi até um "ela nem tem perfil, não bebe, não vai a lugares cheios e barulhentos, não fica com ninguém... não tem porquê ir". Curiosamente este foi aceito como supporting argument para os meus pais. Vai entender. Vai ver que se eu fosse uma puta bêbada e surda ia fazer mais sentido e me permitiriam.
O que me incomoda mais ainda é que daqui a um pouquinho mais de um ano eu serei maior de idade, oficialmente. Quer dizer que perante a lei eu já posso andar por aí sem precisar de autorização parental. Se eu for fazer universidade fora da cidade, vou morar fora. Cara, daqui a um ano e um poquinho eu posso estar morando sozinha (ou tão sozinha quanto financeiramente possível) e eu ainda sou considerada incapaz de dar uma voltinha sozinha, ou ir a uma festinha não-tão-comum? Serei tão responsável e chata quanto sou agora, e o mundo vai ser tão problemático e assustador quanto é agora, mas, de alguma forma extraordinária, vai ficar tudo bem. Será que é só porque os meus anos contarão dezoito?

Guia Essencial de Tipografia para Professores

...(e outros profissionais que fazem/tentam fazer apresentações ppt) - já que esta capacidade parece faltar na maioria deles.

I Lei de Ouro: NUNCA, sob qualquer hipótese, use Comic Sans. EVER. Just say no. Sério. É feio. Não é profissional. Incomoda. Poupe sua audiência de uma tortura dessas.
II Lei: Títulos NÃO precisam ser em capslock. Capslock é usado para ÊNFASE, assim como itálico. Estou falando sério.
III Lei: Em geral, é bom usar fontes seriff para o texto e sans para títulos e subtítulos. (Seriff são estas bonitinhas como a Georgia, Garamond, Times New Roman, Courier New e a detestável Monotype Corsiva, com todas as voltinhas que, em teoria, facilitam a leitura. Sans-seriff são as mais básicas, como a Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, e a detestável Comic Sans, que chamam mais atenção e não ficam esquisitas em tamanho grande.)
IV Lei: Não use Monotype Corsiva. Sério. Sei que curvinhas e voltinhas te lembram de monogramas e a única fonte default do Windows Office que tem isso é a Monotype Corsiva, mas por isso mesmo ela impregna um zilhão de anúncios, plaquinhas e praticamente todo tipo de cartões. Faz parecer que você tentou fazer ficar bonitinho mas não com tanto empenho assim. Baixar uma fonte nova e bonitinha, com curvinhas, não é tão difícil assim. Olhe as de script da Dafont. Procurar fontes é divertido, dê um descanso para os clichês da microsoft, por favor. Mas, se você persistir neste HORROR favor lembrar que suas maiúsculas são para começo de frase, então o capslock dela fica deveras estranho. Não importa se você gosta das tais curvinhas.
V Lei: Não precisa colocar efeitos. Não mesmo. Já passou o boom dos olhares aturditos para as letras que de repente caem e formam títulos. Nem precisa se incomodar com eles. Mesmo. Colocar fotos, no entanto, é um exercício talvez interessante, dependendo do assunto. É só colocar uma pequenininha do lado. Tem até no modelo automático do Office. Quão difícil é isso?
VI Lei: A cor das fontes importa, e ela depende do fundo. Particularmente, gosto de fundos pretos porque acredito que a projeção fique melhor, mas tem muita gente que não gosta - e creio que a maioria dos seres que usam Comic Sans não sabem mudar o fundo de qualquer maneira - então atenha-se a fundo branco, fonte preta. Quer inovar? Coloque um vermelhinho e azul para grifar, mas ainda recomendo aquele vermelho-vinho e azul-marinho - senão fica parecendo publicidade ruim. Mas vai que é por um motivo didático de choque/marcação na retina? Porém quão difícil é usar preto, vermelho e azul, com cores NEUTRAS? Fuccia não vai muito bem. Choca. Mais que vermelho. Mesmo. Choque constante perde o efeito e meio que cansa. Só uma recomendação. Mesmo.

E acho que é só. Por hoje pelo menos.
Go Garamond, Out Comic!