Climate Change

It amuses me how no one seems to care much about this... It's more important to spend 30mins of the newscast every day talking about soccer summer transfers...

Because...

The only thing worse than a hater... Is a secret one.

A secret hater will be all confused and thinking he's your friend. Pretending to be nice and shit...

And we don't need any of that.

We like our haters up front!

We like to watch their faces change fucking color when we do shit we know will piss them the fuck off.

I LOVE HATERS. They are a basic necessity in life.

Help me explain this Katt....

Haters

Sometimes I forget how much I push people's buttons...

What can I do?

A hater job is to hate. Mine is to make them realize this.

Cool webbie

10 Historical Moments caught on tape:

http://mashable.com/2010/08/29/inspirational-youtube-videos/

My favorite:

Let me introduce to you... Marilyn Manson

A great song:

And an interview:

I don't like everything he does, but I do have a lot of respect for him.

A fervent wish

Weekly Challenges 26/06 to 02/07

• Wear perfume (fun)
• Plan my life for 3 months/6months/1 year/3 years (must-do)

I know, I said planning it's completely meaningless, but it's necessary. Even if the plans stop making sense in 2 weeks, I'll redraw some new ones. Gotta have at least an idea of where I want to go.

3 months will be very specific, 6 a bit less, 1 year just some guidelines, and 3 years completely generic, just an utopic idea of where I'd like to be.

Manning Brothers Spoof - Football Cops

Hahaha! Really cool.

And today we close with a reminder...

Two Simple Messages

Unemployment

RIP Ryan Dunn

We need to spill a drink for a fallen comrade.

And a song...

A Portuguese one: "Sandro G - Eu não vou chorar"

Ok, Azorian-Portuguese you'd barely understand, but still Portuguese...

Edit: A better version:

Some epic pictures...

Cartoons...

Let's take a break from text

With some dark humor...

My Novels (II)

• 'The Yellow Adder' - Obviously, a tribute to Rowan Atkinson's 'The Black Adder'. The story of a royal adviser that is appointed to help build the Portuguese Duchy.

Excerpt:

Long time ago, when there was no Internet, where there was no porn, a time so ancient there was no TV, that when people weren’t working they were making babies, not for fun, but to have more manpower to conquer lands and to shepherd the goats… There was an entity that specialized to teach little young boys into becoming the best advisors a king could have – you know, to make wars interesting - this entity was so secret it had no name, but for history sake, people called it Krome Funny Counselors or, KFC.

Krome – Some say the name of the city this entity was hidden was encrypted in this first word, but no man ever discovered it. (Some women did, but nobody really cared what they think at that time – if they listened to them, maybe KFC wasn’t necessary)

Funny – To disguise its true evil purpose – to dominate the world!!! They tried to be funny anyway, although nobody but them ever really understood their sense of humor, it was hearing one of their jokes a healer once started the rumor that there was a weird disease called schizophrenia that made people hear voices and say weird things – later when the Inquisition was touring Europe, they were called possessed by a strange funny demon and burned at the cross.

Counselors – They gave counsel.

KFC profited from war, from disease, from problems, from young ambitious kings, you can say they were the lawyers of ancient times.

In this story we will tell the adventures of codename Yellow Adder - a brilliant student of KFC, a brilliant silver tongue, Midas touched brilliant man, a mind so brilliant nobody in his time could understand him, a brilliant peasant-born man, brilliantly taught since the day he was born to be the best advisor ever taught by KFC - since the day he had his assignment to the day he heroically died in battle with an arrow...

We start when Yellow Adder had to choose his sidekick...

(More can be found here)

• 'The Merchant of Lubeck' - Set in the 17th century rich merchant town of Lubeck, this is the story of a man blinded by his thirst to find and avenge the death of his father. Old story-line, right? Well, I have my twists to it. A bit of a tribute to Alexandre Dumas' 'The Count of Monte Cristo'.

Excerpt: (laptop - to be added later)

• 'O Sapo Sopas' - A Portuguese children's book with the intent to teach cultural diversity and the danger of climate change. I'll probably write it in English later.
• 'Artur & family' - 'Calvin and Hobbes' meets 'Cyanide and Happiness'.
• 'The Internet Cop' - Hero cop, comic book. The stories of a cop fighting cyber-criminality. A lot of strong language and mature content.

These last three only make sense to present when my illustrator draws a bit for me. This is what it looks like without illustration:

(Desenho da evolução do Sopas de ovo-girino-sapo, com fases tipo: comer algas; numa “sala de aula”; numa corrida com outros girinos; a aprender a caçar insectos)

Narrador: “Com a ajuda dos seus pais e professores, Sopas cresceu depressa, e depressa aprendeu tudo o que um sapo precisa aprender”

---

Anyway, I know it may seem a lot and here exposed it seems like a big mess. I thought of placing some pictures here and there so it isn't just a huge wall of text, but it would be an even worse mess...

When I talk about tributes, I'm just trying to give a bigger general idea that maybe a small excerpt alone can't do, of the story. I don't copy anything from anyone, and every story I'm writing has so much influences from so many writers and movies, it would be impossible to identify them all.

My Novels (I)

Keep in mind, some of these I'll probably never finish, some have only a couple of chapters, some are only an idea, but I have a great story and willpower to develop them all.

Also, some of the excerpts I'll post here were written quite a long time ago, give me a break if there are some grammatical errors.

Here it goes:

• 'The Faceless Brotherhood' - Crime. In the 21st century a group of 20 year-olds create the biggest organized crime organization their country ever knew. A mix of '25th hour' with 'The Goodfellas'.

Excerpt:

I stop for a moment thinking on how the hell did this culture began. Was it television? Marketing and advertising? Globalization? Even fucking athletes don’t care about their athletic success anymore; all they care about is bigger paychecks and sponsors, so they can spend huge amounts of valueless paper on things they don’t need. Consumption generates more consumption.

“Anyway… The funniest thing about drones is the transition from student to worker, when they start looking for a job. This is the time they realize they’ve spent their whole life studying and they don’t know how to do anything! Some of these guys spent more than 15 years studying!! This is also the time they try to find the person they wouldn’t mind to screw, and to screw with, for the rest of their lives. It’s nice to notice the resemblance between looking for a job and looking for a partner: they’ll do anything to get it, and the moment after they have it, they get lax and test every possible limit to lose it. Fucking genius...”

I look at my cigarette and notice it’s ruined. Blood and filters don’t match. I take a mental note and throw the thing away to get a new one. It’s the last one on this pack. I throw the pack away too. I still don’t want to light it.

(More can be found here)

• 'Rodrigo Biaggi - Rise to Made Man' - Crime. Mafia in the 30's. A bit of a tribute to Mario Puzo's books.

Excerpt: (It's on my laptop, I'll log in there later and add it)

• 'Rodrigo Biaggi - War of the Three Cities' - Crime. Mafia in the 30's. (optional follow-up to the above)
  
• 'Rodrigo Biaggi - The New Godfather' - Crime. Mafia in the 30's. (another optional follow-up)
• 'A Tale of Kings and Merchants' - War epic, set in the classical era. A tribute to George RR Martin's 'A song of ice and fire'. I'm writing this one in Portuguese (don't know why anymore, but here it is)

Excerpt:

A dor agonizava.

Era preciso todo o autocontrolo que tinha para não agarrar o peito com a mão, para apertá-lo, bater-lhe, qualquer coisa... Mas se o fizesse era sinal de fraqueza, e hoje não podia haver algum: hoje precisava de ser o líder histórico e forte que viam nele, que esperavam que ele ainda fosse...Que não sabiam que ele já não era.

A dor era insuportável... E o suor... O suor era o pior. Sentia-se constantemente a escorrer, escorria como um animal no matadouro, tanto por dentro da roupa, como pela cara. Esse suor na cara atraiçoava-o: revelava o imenso desconforto que a tanto custo tentava esconder. A sua esperança é que os seus longos cabelos brancos lhe escondessem o suficiente a cara, para que pelo menos os mais novos e menos perspicazes não se apercebessem do estado em que ele estava. Pior que isso, mais importante que a sua figura, era a sua voz: há dias que não falava, das últimas vezes que o tinha feito, revelara-se um esforço muito grande, pois tomava todo o seu ar, e ficava a respirar em dificuldade durante imenso tempo a seguir a esse esforço. E se a voz lhe faltasse? Ou se fosse demasiado baixa ou fraca para que todos o ouvissem? Como esconderia a dificuldade de respirar depois de falar? Todo este sacrifício podia estar a ser em vão...

(I actually started to write this one in English, and you can find it here)

• 'A Tale of Kings and Merchants II' - Set in the world created by the above, but in the Medieval era, the characters will be much more flawed, better constructed and unpredictable.

Excerpt:

Man-in-the-middle: And I’ll tell ya’ somthin’ else: Mereen was in my bed mo’ times than in yours… I’d say that boy is meh son, but he’s a worthless piss, so he must really be yours. (He laughed then) Look at that, if the wind blows any harder I believe he’ll wet his undies. Do you wear women undies son? I bet ya’ do. Ya’ have some nice woman hair; I bet you have nice woman undies. (He laughed again).

Eadgyth saw the kid they were talking about: tall, skinny, with long black hair that the wind insisted on shoving on his face. He seemed no older than sixteen, not the youngest aboard, but surely seemed the one with less experience, at least. He was trying for some time, without much success, to roll a ballista that had broken from its place, right to where it belonged, on the right side of the ship. The slimy deck and the movement of the ship as it sailed through the rough, tempestuous sea, were making his job impossible, making him crawl, and fight with the ballista not to roll to the opposite side he wanted.

Man-in-the-middle: Son, d’ya need help? Trade with ya’ father. (Another deep laugh) Even that old cock without a leg might be stronger on one leg than ya’ in ya’ both.

The boy seemed not to be listening, but was coughing hard as he fought to pull the ballista.

The-man-far-away: You ugly son-of-a-whore, the kid’s sick; get him down before he is thrown off the ship!

• 'The (other) History of Portugal' - A humorous, satirical viewpoint of the history of Portugal, it's written in Portuguese and this is actually the only one I'll never translate to English (because it doesn't really make sense). Something like Jon Stewart's 'America - The Book'.

Excerpt:

Prefácio

D. Henri de Borgonha, é com um enorme prazer que conseguimos que participasse no nosso livro, com uma pequena entrevista no prefácio.

- Oui.

Ainda bem que toca nesse assunto, comecemos por aí, muita gente não faz ideia, ou esquece-se que o senhor era um nobre borgonhês, antes de lhe ser atribuído o condado portucalense. Neste livro explicamos as suas raízes e algumas das dificuldades que enfrentou na mudança de cultura.

- Oui, oui.

Não quer elaborar quanto à veracidade dos factos apresentados?

- Non, non.

Ok. E o que o fez querer mudar de ares? Porquê viver aqui?

- Bien… Portucale já na altura tinha um… je-ne-sais-quoi.

Ok, podemos largar as expressões em Francês? Não sei quem está a querer impressionar…

- Oui, pardon.

(A discussão que se seguiu após esta resposta foi editada, por não contribuir para o desenvolver do prefácio. Um pôr do sol mais tarde conseguimos retomar…)

(Continues in the next post...)

Life Planning

Is utter meaningless, at least in my case.

Sorry for the delay, I had a crazy fucking weekend. I mean literally crazy... I felt me or someone else was going to die at least 2 times...

The bad makes the good feel much better, right? I don't know...

Let's just get back on track.

Finally, update on weekly challenges

Look people in the eye while talking to them: done. It's pretty cool.

'Meresin: Rise to Made Man' plan: failed. I did a lot on building the story, but couldn't finish it.

New challenges until Sunday?

• Create and post here a short presentation of all my writing projects.
• Start a new activity.

First one is already done in paper, I just need to find the time, and work on the way to present it here.

Second is because I'm addicted to doing new stuff. Here's the background: since I really can't count on anyone else to new activities outside, and/or in groups, I mainly try new activities alone, and/or at home. So... I noticed my last attempt at a project with other people was already about a month ago when I started going to a weekly meeting of group debate over faith - which is really cool, usually christian people run away from atheists, and other atheists are angry uninteresting fucking dicks - I decided I needed to give it a shot at some other new group project. At least, try, you know?

And that project is... Creating a local online magazine.

Rad, hu? Even if it just makes me look like an idiot to my friends and family, at least I can scratch it off my bucket list.

I mean, I've created and maintained an online newsletter before, to a small group of friends, but this time it's a really big community project. (Which I think will fail miserably, lol... Still...)

Oh, I should say, it's a Portuguese magazine... Sorry if you don't understand what's written there, but hey, I'll make it up to you... Here's an exclusive sneak-peak at how it's shaping up to be: http://issuu.com/ribeiroraf/docs/revista-1

I'll try to solve some problems that occurred when I placed it online (specially the fucking cover), and publicize it on Facebook tonight, or tomorrow morning.

And just plain hilarious...

Educational...ish

Cartoonish

Educational first

Holy shoot!

A lot of videos and text posts, we need some cartoons in this... And actual educational stuff...

Music that helped these last few days

I'm not lying...

Crappy, pop-commercial music helped me out during these trying times...

Quick reflection about sickness

I seriously hate being sick (who doesn't?), but I think these stinking flu's actually help placing things in perspective. I mean, we are really spoiled in the 21st century, we have everything and we still bitch and feel sad over bullshit stuff.

Think how life was, just a few centuries ago...

But I'll tell you this too... Medication? It's not all that is cracked to be. Maybe except painkillers, you always have to weight if you rather feel the effects of your disease, or the side-effects of the pill for it...

And it's really funny, there's always a soft pill that could help but really does nothing, and a stronger, effective pill that gives all sorts of nasty side-effects.

I think I'm getting better now

My quarantine seems to be working. My throat barely aches anymore, and I feel good enough to drop all medication.

This is very good, because I have important shit to do tomorrow, and a grill and poker night on Saturday.

Now, I just have to find a way to get rid of my niece and try to get something done at home...

Man... I feel like shit...

Fucking flu...

One more WoW post

Screw it, it's not like I'll ever post about this again...

There are some more, but I think these are the funniest.

Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeroy Jenkins

Anyway, this was really funny back when I was a nerd.

A bit of dark humor

(Sick) Update

So, I have my niece staying with me and my parents for a couple of weeks, we have a 4 days break, in which I could catch up on the shit I have to do...

Of course... I get sick with a fucking flu.

Awesome!

I hate this shitty feeling. My throat, my head, every fucking joint hurts annoyingly. I can't eat anything. I can't focus enough to do anything. Fuck.

I'll still try... Anyway...

So... Weekly Challenges? I decided to extend the ones from last week for one extra week, and I'll talk about them tomorrow.

What else? Writings. Right. I will now post a couple of funny shit then I'll try to write that.

Let's take a break from all this seriousness...

(Although I've built quite a momentum and have some other things I'm eager to write about... I'll leave them for some other time)

Here's my remedy to cut into the seriousness:

(I actually kinda like the music, lol :s)

Regarding heroes... (Conclusion)

Where did I want to go with that post?

Look, most people will rise and fall. I know it. And believing in heroes seems... childish. I know that too.

Thing is... I need that hope, that innocence, that dream, that ambition, I feel that if I lose that, I'll become another one of these dissatisfied, spoiled, bitter "citizens" I see all around me.

I want to become one of those heroes too, those who prevail... I want to be that to my family, to my friends, to complete strangers, to my future lover, to my future kids. More than that, I want to be a hero to myself!

I think that's my big dream! You know? There are those who want to be president, policeman, CEO, rich, priest, bum... Well, mine is to be a hero.

Even if I know how hard it is, and it's my own, lone, quest, it feels reassuring to have some role models to follow, that it's not impossible.

And it's saddening when one who seemed so promising fall like this...

(Then again, you grieve, you reflect about it, you get up and you move on....)

Meanwhile, a cool remix

Regarding heroes...

This may turn out to be a long post... And I'm not going to go back and try to simplify anything, so I'll probably ramble and lose the chain of thought quite a while. Be patient, or just ignore this post altogether...

This is why I've been talking about and looking through some footage of my "heroes"...

I... Took a big hit after the Anthony Weiner scandal broke out last week. I know it's ridiculous, I'm just a fan of his US Senate interventions. Example1. Example2. Pretty cool, right? It gives me chills to watch politicians like him and Bernie Sanders actually fighting passionately in the Senate for the American People.

Anyway, last week in Mr. Weiner's Twitter account, a very strange picture was posted, and he started to lie about the whole thing. Come on... "I don't know if it's me in the picture, but I didn't post it!" You don't know if it's you...? Seriously...? Well, he went on with these stupid lies for a week until Monday he finally called a press conference and came out with the truth. Here if you wanna see it. I'll give you the short version: "Yes, I've been in inappropriate contact with some women for several months, even after I married with my beautiful wife, that I've hurt, it was so wrong, and I'm so sorry, I'm really sorry".

Fuck you.

You're sorry you were caught. Don't insult our intelligence. You'd still be happily doing it now if you hadn't been caught... You knew it was wrong before, and you kept doing it.

...

I said I would ramble...

I don't think he's a bad person because he cheated on his wife. I don't think good people always do the right thing, just as I don't think bad people only do bad things. I won't judge him, I have no idea what the life of a politician is like.

But I'm disappointed. I feel sad. If you truly believe in ideals and in a moral compass that guides you through your life, that even through the most adverse environment, you will fight and stand up for what is right, you can't do things like that, you can't be a dishonest person in your private life... You just can't...

There will always be temptation: sex, money, conformism, the easy-way-out. You have to fight it almost every day, it's not easy.

It's fucking hard. I know that.

Fuck. I know very little about life, but I do know that.

I know how hard it is to fight every day to have the body I want to have, the informed decisions I want to make, the right things to say to people I care about, to become the writer I want to become... To be a better and better human being every day. And sometimes I take a step back. Sometimes I fail in little things. Sometimes I say the wrong things. Sometimes I judge people before putting myself in their position.

Fuck...! It's hard...! And nobody's perfect, but there's a line. Even if I can't say where exactly that line is, cheating on your girlfriend, and then your wife, for months and months, is way beyond that line. How do you come back from that when you stopped not because you realized it was wrong, but because you were caught?

Look, I'm a freak. I know that. Not a three-legged circus kind of freak, but, a freak nonetheless. I expect way too much of myself, of the people I surround myself with, and apparently from people I don't even know too much about...

I... take refuge in fucking imaginary worlds I create, where the heroes may not always win, but they are strong enough to always stand for what they believe in.

I... test myself in interesting, other times, just plain ridiculous ways, every day.

I... play American Football because I think taking a beating once in a while is actually necessary to put things in perspective.

I get chocked up if my niece gives me a hug, if someone says my opinion on something is really honest and/or pure, if people I like say they miss me, stuff like that.

I'm not weak, in any stretch of the imagination, I'll proudly talk about any of it. I think being a freak gives you that bulk, that strength, you know? That's the good part. Even if something brings you down, you grieve, you reflect about it, you get up, and you move on.

It gives me the freedom to be who I want to be, how I want to be, every day.

But I admit, I do need to see a light at the end of the tunnel, even if I was the one who painted it. I need reminders once in a while, that even if I don't know anything about life yet, other people went through life and made it, they were tested in ways I have no idea and they passed every time. They had integrity from start to finish. That it's not impossible...

Shit... This was not where I planned to go with this post...

Lemme take a breather and try to post a conclusion to all this.

Hero

Yesterday I mentioned Kurt Vonnegut, here's one that's still breathing:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-september-20-2001/september-11--2001

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-april-18-2007/ali-a--allawi-pt--2

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-10-2011/arizona-shootings-reaction

(Sorry, Comedy Central doesn't give me the embed for those)

2001, 2007, 2011. Still the same amazing human being.

You know, it's very easy to make jokes. If you have talent, a great crew of writers and a bit of luck, you can have your own show, and make millions of it.

But putting that aside and giving your humanist, sincere opinion on matters so important as these, that's character.

Other completely random thought

On my birthday, I'm going to do something special and throw my cell phone to the fucking ocean.

Then I'm going to laugh my ass off while I drink a beer.

Completely random thought of the day

Even huge nerds can have super-hot sisters.

Kurt Vonnegut

One of my heroes.

Worth at least a thousand words

Election Day in Portugal

Who to vote?

None of the big parties seems appealing.

PS (Center-left) - Liars, fear-mongers.

PSD (Center-right) - Disconnected from reality, too many people there have no clue what's going on with the country, they just want to get to power, they have no fucking idea what to do when they get it.

PP (Right) - Populist, thinks the solution is the country should be even more conservative instead of progressive, moving forward.

BE (Left) - Egotistical, elitist left.

PCP (Extreme-Left) - Same old communist tape.

Small parties? Some good ideas here and there, but I don't know enough about them to vote on.

If we had a decent investigative journalistic community in this country that thoroughly investigated where this people come from, what they actually stand for, maybe I would, you know? But we don't, every semi-aggressive politician we ever had since '74 was caught at least once saying our journalists are soft. Even every small scandal that reaches the papers, are 10 years after it happened, 2 years after the politician was elected... Come on...

So, voting in white? Null the vote?

Not even voting?

You know what? There will probably never be something as progressive and reformist as I'd like, but there is something that pisses me off in this whole process.

IMF

Look: austerity doesn't work. It's been proven time and time again.

I have no authority on the matter, but who does? Economists? Most economists failed to alert to the situation we're at. I'll still link you to one though: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/opinion/25krugman.html?_r=1

Paul Krugman is not enough? Here's ANOTHER Nobel Prize Winner Economist Joseph Stiglitz: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-13/nobel-winner-stiglitz-warns-job-killing-austerity-measures-hurt-economies.html

IMF is not only bad, it's counter-producent, it'll give these idiots a blank check for them to apply austerity all they want.

So I'll vote on BE. Through all their flaws, they refused to work with the IMF, and the more (even if little, in comparison) power they have, the more they'll annoy those other assholes who change chairs every 4 years in power.

That'll be enough for me.

Disclaimer: I'm going to work on the elections through a contact I have in BE, but that doesn't really matter, I've worked in election days through them 3 or 4 more times and this is the first I'll be voting on them.

One more video I just saw and that seems important today:

Another great song

Japanese pensionists

Japan pensioners volunteer to tackle nuclear crisis

A group of more than 200 Japanese pensioners are volunteering to tackle the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima power station.

The Skilled Veterans Corps, as they call themselves, is made up of retired engineers and other professionals, all over the age of 60.

They say they should be facing the dangers of radiation, not the young.

It was while watching the television news that Yasuteru Yamada decided it was time for his generation to stand up.

No longer could he be just an observer of the struggle to stabilise the Fukushima nuclear plant.

The retired engineer is reporting back for duty at the age of 72, and he is organising a team of pensioners to go with him.

For weeks now Mr Yamada has been getting back in touch with old friends, sending out e-mails and even messages on Twitter.

Volunteering to take the place of younger workers at the power station is not brave, Mr Yamada says, but logical.

"I am 72 and on average I probably have 13 to 15 years left to live," he says.

"Even if I were exposed to radiation, cancer could take 20 or 30 years or longer to develop. Therefore us older ones have less chance of getting cancer."

Mr Yamada is lobbying the government hard for his volunteers to be allowed into the power station. The government has expressed gratitude for the offer but is cautious.

Certainly a couple of MPs are supporting Mr Yamada.

"At this moment I can say that I am talking with many key government and Tepco people. But I am sorry I can't say any more at this moment. It is on the way but it is a very, very sensitive issue politically," he said.

Full Story here

This is fucking amazing...

Another thing very much on the news...

Dr Kevorkian

Rest in peace old man.

Edit: Too bad I couldn't find the rest of that interview, I think he was going to say some more really interesting stuff.

Blogger

I don't know what the fuck is wrong, and I can't see my blog 4 out of 5 refreshes... I hope this is temporary.

I'ma letchu think about this

Damn!