Entries from September 2007 ↓

Kiat Huang is leaving. One of the good things that happen when you leave a company, is that a co-worker becomes a friend. I know he will have a bright future, and I would like to be there to watch.

Os caras teimam em dizer que são os melhores em tudo, e fazem qualquer coisa pra levar a mensagem. Agora a Nike inventou uma campanha chamada “The greatest team you’ve never heard of” (veja também “The WNT bus“), onde basicamente eles tentam levar ao público a idéia de que o time de futebol feminino dos EUA é o melhor de todos os tempos. Vá lá, eu posso não entender nada de futebol, mas isso é ridículo.

Pelo menos eles conseguem produzir alguns comerciais interessantes.

Ps.: Vou até fingir que não quero dizer que eles também exploram a beleza das jogadoras.

I’m watching Brazil x Australia, women’s soccer, on ESPN here in the US. The narration is lame, you can clearly see that he knows very little about soccer, and needs an ex-player (woman) to help him out.

But the worst part is the goal narration. In Brazil when someone scores the narrator demonstrates a part of the feeling of being there, and yells a very strong and long “goooooooooal” when playing a party jingle. Here, nothing, just silence. “There she comes, she kicks, and scores”, then he shuts up and you hear people screaming like crazy on the stadium, but he keeps shut while the players celebrate. No emotion at all.

I wonder why Americans don’t like soccer… Lame transmission, lame narration… Someone, please, hire a Brazilian for the narration.

Last Friday I’ve been to The Flying Saucer. It’s a very interesting bar in Raleigh, with more than 200 different brands of beer. They also have the “U.F.O Club“. Every time you try a new beer, they’ll mark it down in their system. You can check on your status at the kiosk in the store, or online. Once you drink all of the beers they’ve got on tap, they’ll put your name on a golden plate and stick it on the wall (”The Ring of Honor“).

Se alguém sabe onde vende Mountain Dew no Brasil, me avise. Acho que tomei mais isso (e Guinness) do que água na última semana.

If someone know where I can get Mountain Dew in Brasil, let me know. I think I drink it (and Guinness) more than water during this week.

Me, George and Joe. We were walking through the NC State campus looking for a coffee shop and get something to eat. Obviously, since none of us are from here, we got lost. George saw two ladies, and he walked by them saying “excuse me, m’am, excuse me, m’am excuse me” with a very creepy voice, and she didn’t turn around. When we got really close, she put her hand in her purse and turn around in our direction while immediately George asked “where’s the coffee shop?”. Me and Joe got amazed that she was about to pull out a pepper spray can, and she almost pwned George! Ouch man! Do we look so wasted like that?

I found this silly add today in the Outback parking lot (real numbers and website address blurred so you don’t spam him saying how stupid he is).

Usually I don’t give big comments on my meals, but this one was interesting. We went to the Outback, and I ordered an Outback Special medium rare. For some unknown reason, they got me medium well. Of course I didn’t accept it, so I called the waitress and threw a silly excuse: “I think you misunderstood me, probably because of my accent, but I asked medium rare, not medium well“.

She said she was sorry, and she ran back to the kitchen. The manager came to our table right away and asked if everything was good. The other guys, which were already eating, all said “yes”, and I said too, but he looked at me and we had this brief conversation:

(Mgr) No, I know about your problem, don’t worry. Can I get you something, like a soup, fries, onions, etc?
(Me) No, never mind, I’ll just wait here.
(Mgr) What about a beer?
(Me) No, I’m good.
(Mgr) It’s on the house.
(Me) Magic words!

So he brought me another can of Guinness. Very good beer, by the way.

I can tell you for sure: in some restaurants they would only look at you and say “sorry sir, we’ll try to get it right next time”. Well, Outback’s kind of attitude is what I expect in a decent restaurant. I hope they also do it in their restaurants in Brazil.

A terra do Tio Sam tem algumas comidas bem esquisitas. Hoje eu provei um tal de “Slim Jim” ([Wikipedia]). Essencialmente é carne de porco e de frango processados, comprimidos em um tubo estreito e longo que parece um salame bem fino (sem trocadilhos, por favor). O gosto é forte e apimentado, o pessoal aqui diz que é a comida mais artificial que você pode comer. Parece que vai bem com uma cerveja, vou levar alguns pra experimentar mais tarde.

Acabei de saber que a Polícia Federal está fechando o cerco sobre os contrabandistas. Agora para sair do país com produto importado, parece que agora você precisa apresentar nota fiscal. Apesar de não haver fiscalizacão na saída, a coisa pode complicar na entrada, já que você vai tentar entrar com um equipamento sem ter como provar que saiu com ele (ou seja, vai ter que pagar imposto, se te pegarem).

Bom, da última vez que eu chequei no balcão da Receita no aeroporto de Guarulhos, o agente disse que não eu não ia precisar pois meu laptop mostra claros sinais de estar (bem) usado (tem uma lasca quebrada no case, do lado do teclado, além das manchas onde se apóia as mãos). Vamos ver como vou me sair na entrada quando voltar ao país.