Entries from September 2007 ↓

Yes, I’m here again. Waiting for a connection flight in the JFK airport. The last time I traveled I didn’t write anything about it, but I think something will show up in this blog this time. So let’s start with the interesting stuff about the travel from Brazil to USA.

My original flight was supposed to be from Sao Paulo to Atlanta, but when I was in the check-in line, they informed me about overbooking, and proposed to switch flights to New York. The proposal was interesting, since I would be arriving my final destination (Raleigh) about 3 hours earlier. But they didn’t have alley sits, so I turned down the offer (I don’t like 9h flight on a window sit, it’s not good for the legs). So I just checked in, like going to Atlanta.

When I was on the x-ray line, they called me through the airport speaker (never heard my name so loud).. I came back to the Delta desk, and they said they had a cancellation, and I got my corridor sit. “Ok, do what you need to do”. Tickets changed, let’s go.

I got lucky! The cancellation was for two, so I got two seats all for me (I could even lay down!). The flight was very good. Not as good as my flight to the UK by Air France (and returning by KLM), but much better than my last trip to US by American Airlines. Airplane clean, acceptable noise level, well educated and courteous crew, and good food. Except for the fact that both companies use a big screen in the wall that is shared with everyone in the business class (while Air France and KLM provide individual screens), the movie was good (Ocean’s Thirteen).

And since nothing can be perfect, when I arrived JFK I got a delayed flight. My connection to Raleigh has been postponed from 8:30am to 11:30am, and now I’m sitting at the airport browsing around the internet (nothing interesting to do, and I can’t leave the boarding area). At least they gave me a breakfast voucher.

Now you know why I was messing with my backpack yesterday.

Well, that’s it for now. More to come during this week. Stay tuned.

I was reviewing my backpack contents today, and I found bunch of things from all my trips in the last 12 months:

- Taxi cards from Uberaba/MG.
- Hotel bills from São Paulo (when I didn’t live here).
- Maps from Guildford/UK.
- Maps and receipts from Buenos Aires/AR.
- Money from Argentina (ARS).
- A “Teach Yourself Spanish” book.
- Receipts from Raleigh/US.
- Entry documents from when I was coming back to Brazil.
-  My passport (that I could not find anywhere at home).

That’s what you get when you keep stashing stuff in your bag.

I’ll make another post later to tell you what I carry every day.

The main bank in Brazil (coincidently called Banco do Brasil [Bank of Brazil]) will migrate all it’s ATMs into Linux. That would be 15 thousand machines migrated by the end of the year. Nobody commented which distribution they will use. Currently the bank already have Linux in all their servers, OpenOffice on the workstations, and they have a plan to migrate workstations into Linux too.

Sorry, no link for the news in English, only in Portuguese.

I usually don’t comment the games I play, but this one sure deserves an exception: Call Of Duty 2 (official site / wikipedia info). I have one word for it: awesome.

War games are very interesting, specially when they relate to something real and has a very interesting history behind them, and that’s the case of this game. Added to that it has great graphics and physics, playability is smooth and guns feel very real (they react different depending on the situation, position, etc, and you really feel the difference from one gun to another).

The AI (artificial intelligence) is incredible. After you die, don’t expect them to react the same way, or be in the same places as they were when you were shot. They really act different every time you come back to the same spot or situation. And they don’t sit on a single place waiting for you to shot them. Also, regarding your fellow soldiers, it’s the first game I get feedback from the team. Except from the fact that you can’t give them commands (IIRC, there is only one mission where you lead) they cover you very well, and if you analyse well your strategy, you can even have them do most of the job for you, or act alone, it’s your choice.

The end is touching, with very cool music that makes you feel like watching the end of a war movie.

It’s one of the best games I’ve ever played. Well deserved all the time spent. Let’s see how can I follow up on the series (official site).

Your Brain is Green

Of all the brain types, yours has the most balance. You are able to see all sides to most problems and are a good problem solver. You need time to work out your thoughts, but you don’t get stuck in bad thinking patterns.You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about the future, philosophy, and relationships (both personal and intellectual).

What Color Is Your Brain?

Just found a list of “Most Annoying Grammar Mistakes in English“. I’ll try to keep some in mind.

Some people have very creative ways of asking things.

Hi! I can’t land with my spaceship. I’m in an open cosmic space and can’t return to earth until my space ship is serviced!
I plugged my space ship in port 21 of router 9
I see link up, but can’t get an address via DHCP
I’ll be short of oxygen shortly, I need to return to Earth!

Translating: he connected his computer to port 21 on the switch 9, link is up, but he can’t get an IP address, and he needs it ASAP to finish an important task.

That was hilarious.

No, they can’t. I just finished watching “Final Destination 3“, another great sequence. Well elaborated, even though had some feel of almost pushing too much. The effects are good. And, at the end, “we are all biological beings” (quote from the film, watch and understand).