weekend/holiday update, it's snowing like crazy in seattle!!!

had a great weekend, including the friday off! it's always great to break up the monotony of things, and my wife and i went with our friends meg and john to yakima, prosser and sunnyside for wine tastings, pay $20 per person and try approx. 5 wines per winery, which equals a lot of black teeth for us red wine drinkers, and poor john having to do the designated driving while the rest of us are dying of laughter and talking about random subjects! but it was really interesting to be back where i'm originally from, surprisingly at the first place that we went to, we ran into a family friend who is starting up his own winery with his own grapes. it was very lucky, as he steered us towards which would be the most interesting wineries to visit. when there are 50 to choose from, it's much better to find a few to visit rather than shooting fish in a barrel. then, i believe at the 2nd winery, ran into a friend i haven't seen since 1999, i'm amazed that she recognized me!
as john commented, it's great to get out of the city, see rolling hills, and a relatively barren landscape, just refreshing after all the movement. but then again, the lack of restaurants drove us mad, so leaving wasn't too bad. john made a comment that coffee would soon be dead, due to all the indulgence into the energy drinks, the cocaine of coffee's coca. he also commented, contrary to nathaniel's prediction that pennies are instruments of the devil (or maybe not contrary, as he simply commented that pennies will be forever, and if they are indeed instruments of the devil, then they'll probably be around forever anyway!). Over the pass there was plenty of snow, and after a little bit of hail here in seattle, it's now fairly consistantly snowing for over 2.5 hours. i'm not particularly keen that it snows too much, work tomorrow seems exciting, after tomorrow, one less day of training until i'm doing my real job. i'm always eager to be participating with the rest of the team.
my wife and i spent most of our woken hours today self-lessly cleaning the house, which was a huge task, as we had to wash clothes, bedsheets, clean the kitchen and bathroom, and get rid of all the dust around on the floor, shelves, and everywhere else. had to leave the windows open, as well to get the smell of chemicals relatively dispersed. anyhow, it's been a great holiday/weekend and hopefully next week is as good or better than last week!

thanksgiving and an update on my professional life

i know that it's been taking a while to post, an although my days so far at work not exactly chock full of things to do, mostly completing beginner's training, as to build enough knowledge so that when i start out in action, that i have at least an immediate working knowledge of where things are. the rest will only be tested when i'm in action, but the company is very cool, high speed, and always interesting. i figure i'll be "scrubbing", checking data from different inventory monitors, to make sure our supply chain has close to no kinks.

thanksgiving always gets me thinking, although i must admit thinking about the food which i deeply enjoy, about all the positive elements that i have in my life. i wanted to call some people that have had a major influence on my life recently, however on the day of, i was not able to do so, as my cell died. but hopefully i will be able to write emails to many of them before this weekend is over. i feel that this is the true act of thanksgiving, realizing what we are given, all the good things in our life, having jobs, having family and friends near, understanding oneself and your goals, and asking for guidance and help in overcoming our shortcomings to achieve what we hope in life, and to have a positive impact on everyone that you deal with on a daily basis.

shortly before thanksgiving, i wrote out a vast email looking over the past recent events in my life, and i felt that they were overall very positive, although i had been looking back to my frustrations of not having a job, but the email's intent was to keep my eyes on the horizon, to always take account of our dreams and not get sucked into the day-to-day style of living. otherwise, life passes by quickly, but it's not a race, rather it's something to savor, and you need to know what will be most important for your to achieve. setting priorities was one of the things that i learned is important while at my job over the summer, not for simply your career, but also to be able to extend into your personal life.

ok, so i wrote this two days ago, and wanted to fill this out a little more before i finished it. thus the late-ness.

last day before new job

today was a nice-paced day, although my wife and i started the day early in the morning by traveling to renton and then to black diamond with some of my co-workers from my last job. we had a very filling breakfast, and actually felt a little stomach ache later in the afternoon, but the food was delicious and the company was excellent! arriving home, my wife talked to her mother, and it appears that we may not see her for the entire period of time in which we'll be in brazil, which made her sad, because the point of our trip is not site-seeing, rather being with the whole family, and her mother is the keystone of the family. we went to pick up some 300 photos that we picked for an album to illustrate our year here in seattle, and watched office space.

i believe that i forgot to mention that friday morning i sent out a massive email to friends, just to give them a heads-up on how my life is going, what news and events have passed. turned out to be rather large, but few people responded, we'll see if maybe more respond later. i am anxious and eager for tomorrow, being my first day at a consistent workplace. i really think it'll be an environment where i'll be able to grow, and i want to focus and hone my skills from the beginning, i want to seek to impress beyond expectations. that is my goal.

on thursday night, as i had already commented, i saw galen play some songs, and i really must say that i admire his brutal honesty and storytelling, it's like he's ripping himself open on the stage in front of everyone, and i think that is very very bold, and something that most people couldn't do. i think it embues a certain quality in all of his songs that make them have an impact on the listener, rather than sing about some abstract ideas.

last night, my wife and I, along with john and meg, went out to the "six arms" bar. we enjoyed the mcmenamin's ales that they offer, drinking two pitchers of the "rubinator", a combination of a stout, and a raspberry tinged lighter ale. however, the real party started after we had finished drinking, and were paying our bill. suddenly, a "balkan brass band" (which we later found out about), entered, and it was as if a parade had entered the bar. we could tell it was impromptu, or the first time they'd done anything like it, as a massive group of people following the band came into the bar, some even asked if they were in the way of our waitress! they played about 5-6 songs, which our table accompanied with loud clapping and whistles, and they took off, leaving some czech republic and euro coins on the ground, and handing us their card. we walked along with the band in the street, to get back to the way to our place, but it was almost like carnaval, simply amazing the energy that the band generated, and everyone watching was drawn towards it like moths to a bright light. i think that really topped the evening off in a fantastic manner!

so, that's a better recap than i have been posting recently, and i have high hopes about a great day tomorrow!

attempted postings...

recently, i've been trying to post, but sometimes it won't post or won't even access the site to be able to post. yesterday (friday), i had quite a busy day, as i had to organize the house before our friends came over for dinner, head down to meet up with jonathan to go over the first chapter that he has been writing. on campus, i ran into two other people that i haven't seen in forever, and had a chat with them, returned and prepared dinner. my wife and her friends arrived, and we were able to have a fairly leisurely dinner, but at the same time, galen would be playing at café allegro, so i headed out, albeit a little late however in time for galen's performance. i saw lawrence and jones there, which was good to see them, i haven't seen them in a while. my first day of work at my new job will be on monday, and i'm really anxious to start up, to learn all about how the company works, and to do a great job as a part of the company. anyhow, it's saturday morning and i'm going to help with breakfast if i still can get some time in. hopefully the blog isn't difficult to access in the near future, because i'm going to have even more limited time to write, where i've had whole days in the recent past.

keep it rolling...

today was an overall good day, outside of the miserable rainy, windy, cold, and overcast day that it was here in seattle. today, before i sign any agreements, i wanted to make my intentions of winter travel to brazil visible. and it appears that it will be feasible, so far. i called marszal, and went to have some lunch with him, talk about how everything in his life is going. we then went back together to the u district, as i had to pick up some brazilian groceries, and i bought two cds which were spectacularly discounted, suba's "são paulo confessions", and a vinícius de moraes collection. i was tempted to buy more but i held myself back, and bought some blank white paper to print upon. tonight, my wife and i will go out together for our celebration of my new job, probably get some fancy pizza nearby our place. my old professor and friend jonathan shot me a call to check what i thought on a draft that he sent me and it was nice to hear back from him. the pizza place was good, food was fairly light, which is good for my diet. i actually meant to post this last night, but i didn't get around to it.

new job!

ok. verdict out this afternoon, and i officially am expecting documents in the mail in order to start a new position next week! i'm really anxious for this opportunity, i've been waiting slightly over two months, so it is a vast relief and satisfying to hear the results. right now, i'm boiling some corned beef with cabbage, potatoes, and carrots for dinner, bought my wife's favorite beer, and jones is stopping by for a visit. other than that, i just watched "v for vendetta" and have been murking around the house, but the news from the afternoon makes this a better than expected day! not terribly productive, but whatever. :) hmm. i should try to get something to chart what music i play and post here, just for kicks. but then again, i'm only gonna be here for the rest of this week, then my waking hours will be spent working!

monday, monday

update. professional life: waiting in extreme anxiety to hear about if i can finally have a position, and be busy and "a productive member of society".

some thoughts...

ok, before anything else, i had some thoughts right now. the first and fundamental step in life, to me, is to know thyself. everything else unfolds afterwards, but it is important to know the lens in which you see the world before you go any further into analyzing it. ok, step one taken, now strap yourself in.

but, about truth. there is no great big TRUTH, at least not one that we wrap our minds around. it is not monolithic, unless you consider that it is in itself everything. we lie on the scaffolds of the ediface that is existence. but this doesn't matter to us. being small components of the universe, of life, of energy, we can only observe the face/area that is nearest to us. humans, i believe, can be very noble creatures, although we are also capable of deep and hysterical evil. (possibly similar to shiva in the hinduism, creating and destroying). we will indeed try to scope out this "ediface". but i don't believe that we'll ever be able to understand, and therein is the beauty and the challenge of the task. however, back to our truths, it becomes essentially irrelevant what is indeed the TRUTH, and rather more important what our individual "truths" are. ask yourself this, is perception greater than an event or situation itself? when writing an empirical paper, scientists first set out with a hypothesis, a proposal of what happened. this will always come from their individual viewpoints. despite alterations of these viewpoints, we cannot change our lenses, we can try to make them larger, shift the angle that we're observing something, but we cannot pull "the god trick", as social science terms it, meaning removing your perspective.

ok, you're probably wondering, with all this ongoing nonsense about there being no truth that we can observe, the futility of it all, what is the point? the point is to allow yourself to be flexible, and revert back to what i had described as the first and fundamental step of life, knowing yourself. through knowing yourself, you can get a glimpse of other lenses, and understand your biases, we all indeed have them.

what would we gain by this? maybe the "west" would be more understanding and allow for different forms of governance in the middle east, instead of "inspiring" a top-down, inorganic democracy in iraq. maybe "conservatives" and "liberals" would find common ground in the u.s. rather than seeing each other as adversaries. maybe criminals would be looked upon not as inherently evil and static, but as a measuring stick to see how well government is serving its people, and we can build schools and opportunities rather than prisons.

the last title was very accurate

the past couple of days have been extremely full for me, compared to the last two months. things finally kicked up in relation to looking to deepen my career skills. on thursday i had interviews from 11:30 to 16:00 hours nonstop, the company seems very youthful, constantly dynamic, based on teams and communication and uses a lot of technology, so i feel that it would be a great opportunity for me to build my skills. my wage will probably be pretty close to what i had desired to start out in, if i get the position.

so arriving home on thursday, was completely exhausted, and heard an answering machine message about a day job working for an event company at microsoft, which started at 7:00. i decided to accept, which ended up causing me to wake up at 5:45, starting the day out low on energy, as on thursday, i only ate breakfast and dinner, and friday i only ate a snack in the afternoon and further snacks down the evening. then after coming home, i watched a movie and waited for my wife to arrive home, in the meantime recieving a call about the position that i was interviewing for, saying that everyone had a very positive perspective of me.

friday night we decided to have a game night over here, two other couples came by, my wife made hot chocolate with cognac, i made some bruschetta, and we had some boursin cheese and crackers, and also later on some wine and other alcohols. we played cranium, and my wife's game "detective" which consists of victims, a detective, and a killer who kills by winking. it was a great time, the other two couples, john and meg, and karissa and jared, are really cool, we all have some similarities, but at the same time many different strengths. the game night ended around 1:00 and i collapsed in bed, after a tiring two days.

my brother and his girlfriend are up in canada visiting my grandparents, i hope they have a nice trip. the rest of my family is around, but i haven't seen everyone except for eric for a week or so. i really miss seeing jones, arya, dave, nathaniel, it's been hard to coordinate getting together this time, and hopefully in the near future we'll figure some sort of consistant even, which i've been claiming for some time now, with no success in planning. anyhow, i think i'd better do the dishes, but all is well. i'll hear back about a position on monday, and the other company that i wanted to get a position with will also enter into contact with me on monday. options, options, eh?

i didn't disappear, was just busy

beautiful sun in seattle!

well, election results went far better than i could have expected! so far, it seems the rest of the world is taking this in a rather good way, from the different papers that i read from france, britain and brazil, and reading what the new york times had to say about foreign opinion, especially in the middle eastern region of the world. i'd love to read about places that were actually against the shift in politics (internationally) as i generally see only a domestic pushback against such actions. even japan, that had strong ties to bush, is looking to connect better with the new structure inside u.s. politics. it'd be really interesting to be back at school and to hear about what the political scientists and international studies professors are saying about this shift. i already owe a professor a translation of a song, hopefully i'll do that today, and inquire what she had felt in regards to what went on yesterday.

for some particular reason, today i woke up rather creative, and after walking my wife to work, on the way home i saw many different things that looked interesting to photograph. i walked back, took the photos, then manipulated them using photoshop, putting together two to three images and melding them in many different ways. the results were very pleasing, and now i have very good resolutioned images, one that i'm now using as the desktop image. if i were still writing music, and the album had a natural feel to it, i'd probably use the images as the art. however, music for me has been slow (glacial) going, so they'll just sit on my computer for now. i was having real fun putting my sketches over the images, and i've learned a new technique in photoshop to isolate a complicated image from a background, it took a while to actually get done, but it will really help me improve my digital art. i'm listening to mice parade's "mokoondi" and "ramda", very positive sounding albums, generally instrumental and circular rhythms, but beautiful and optimistic.

election day

well! it appears that the democrats might come out of this one with the power. although i'm not ultimately convinced by either parties, i tend to prefer democrats over republicans, so hopefully tonight will be a celebratory night.

on the on-going work-finding situation, so far no new opportunities have appeared, but there is the gleaming prospect of thursday, and i really hope that either that position works out, or that some other opportunities appear on the horizon. you never know, i guess that's the blessing and the curse of life.

"all this weight is on it's worse, we're moderate, we modernize"

what a rainy, pretty miserable looking and feeling day. i had a really good in-person interview, however i didn't get the position. i'm still looking at the physical interview on thursday, which gives me hope, but i think i'm going to start reaching back into the company where i was looking at temping and looking to more permanent positions. i think that's why i was brushed off today, but no offense taken, possibly better for me anyway. we can never know reasons for everything, right?
the title of this post is a lyric from "our hell" by emily haines and the soft skeleton. i liked the idea of being moderate by modernizing, reminds me a lot of an international studies/sociology class, we really went deep into the ideas of being modern. discussed how the majority world (or global south, as it is also known as) generally embraces what is considered as "modern", and seeking to throw out the "traditional", although this generally serves to entrench those who can be "modern" in power, as they hold the power to closer observe the "global north". i think so much is lost in our seeking newer and "better" things.
here we see the black impact of "globalization", as integration occurs. for example, the brazilian amazon, as tribes are discovered, they choose to integrate with the population. this, in general, is good for brazil, as it binds it's people in a more all-encompassing identity. but also, it must be recognized that slowly, as the tribes untouched disappear, and are introduced to portuguese, most will probably choose to participate in the city environments, and as languages slowly dry up, so goes all the knowledge that was not able to be translated or originated in their original culture. i believe that many traditions have deep roots, and resonate within cultures for reasons, and i think that as we deconstruct these traditions we cause ourselves to feel more vacant and distant. i believe that modernity has to be grown contextually, from a firm traditional base, in order to maintain robust, and to provide deeper and more rewarding contributions to society rather than simply providing a materialist cover/ caricature of the consumerist world that the global north is indeed engaged in. "globalization" as homogenization serves to cause the "clash of civilizations" as samuel huntington terms it (which i strongly disagree with, as it stands to be a gross distortion to what the world is in the first place, as being very biased towards the current ideas about "development" as positive).
i'm not saying i don't think that cosmopolitan communities are good, much to the contrary, that they are indeed progressive by presenting options for different cultures and allowing spaces to coexist rather than stifling them by banning or discriminating. nor am i citing the united states as the pillar of the free world, i believe that many ideas here, on which we were founded, are very important, but the manner that we've constructed our culture, indeed a very new culture that was defined after fordism, and will continue changing. i don't know who said it, but i've heard a saying that "the only constant is change", and that is indeed true for this world. there are some areas that are isolated, but these are isolated on purpose from the "global north" for lack of interest. with the current crises faced by the world, i don't know why those who follow the huntingtonian ideas of the world haven't prescribed a "conversion" strategy to convert the undecided and push the decided towards an ideological rebirth of the cold war.

ok, i did have a post for yesterday, just a little late...

all right, well friday night was very slow and i simply had to get out of the house so i walked around a little park near our apartment and came back and wrote this:

13-11-06 23:00
time... time is a helpful concept in general, helping us set goals and be able to break down life into portions providing time for rest and time for work. on the other hand, time serves as an excuse for putting things off, for living in the future or the past. 2 hours becomes 2 days, which become 2 weeks, 2 months, 2 years, 20 years... mind you, i only accept "carpe diem" to a certain extend, i am generally not fatalistic, but rather miss the passion of living every moment as if it were my last. once again, to practice this would be dangerous, however the feeling of humility at the same time as capability is very refreshing. while walking through the park tonight, i observed a girl, all bundled up in the cold, playing trumpet. it was around 22:30, and odd to see, but it made me wonder "why?". it could be as simple as those living with her or near her would not tolerate the volume. but, then again, it could be more complex, maybe the trumpet at this hour is nostalgic, tying her back to something far away. or, she may work from 8 to 20 hours or 6 to 22 hours and be winding down after work. or, maybe it is her dream and goal to learn to play the trumpet and she wants to spend all the time she can training up. i just seem to see a lesson here, of passion; we must not let ourselves get too wrapped up in time, otherwise a day working in front of a computer becomes a lifetime, and when we die, we have to ask ourselves "what have i accomplished?" however, it's ever so hard to be so determined, to have enough energy and persistence.

well. that's it for now, i'll probably update later on tonight to try to make up for yesterday's lack of posting. it was a nicely slow day, we cleaned the home, and then went to watch "babel" which was very engaging and over all very good. afterwards, i made some chili and rice, and in the evening we went to a really fancy bar that makes drinks from scratch, fresh squeezed rather than mixes, called "sun liquor". great bartender, eric, as well, really focuses on personal touch, satisfaction and connection with the customers. i must say that that is what makes expensive drinks indeed worth their value.

today continues positive, as yesterday did

wow. today so far is excitingly exceeding my expectations. first, i checked my email and recieved a personalized email saying that a particular company had seen my skill set, mentioned these skills and why they would be important for the company, so i shot them a résumé, and now will talk to them this afternoon. the temporary agency called to tell me that i'll have an interview on monday for the temporary/contract position in the company that i have been hoping for. i recieved an email from a friend inside that company just checking up on me. also, another friend is working on maybe getting me talking to a gaming company, so i'm overwhelmed, but in a very good way, as i've been waiting for two months to get something of this caliber.

today is particularly dreary outside here in seattle, that never-ending sprinkling of rain, the overcast sky, the cold weather with a strong wind. i wish i could have a fireplace in this apartment, but the heater is very comforting anyway! hopefully my wife and i will have a game night tonight with some friends, maybe make some hot cocoa. last night, i made my favorite coconut chicken curry recipe, which i'll share as i had earlier promised: chicken poached in coconut curry. it's really flavorful, and fast to prepare, as well as only requiring five ingredients: chicken, coconut milk, curry, chicken broth and yams. last night, watched kiki's delivery service, i dig the miyazaki films. saw castle in the sky the other night, but i think princess mononoke will remain my top, followed by spirited away. howl's moving castle was good, but i preferred the previous two that i mentioned.

so now, i'm sitting here, listening to "takk..." by sigur rós, thinking about maybe putting on"( )" after it.. just some positive sounds to keep my spirits high, eating reheated left-over curry, which is really nice and warming. looks like no physical exercize today, unless game night does indeed come up.

a long (in a good way) day

allright! pretty smooth sailing today, went to a professional temp agency, and it looks like i might get some great possibilities there. also had a few business contacts get back to me about things, so that feels really good. it's raining here in seattle, and this doesn't help for morale, but i think i can get myself on the right track if 1) i stop focusing on minor screw-ups i make and 2) if i cut my extended talking down to just slightly above what needs to be said. i think i'm a good communicator, but efficiency tends not to be my thing. went out with jones, arya and dave, first to the satellite, which was ok, and then had a blast at the more lively cha cha lounge, where we had the 40 of pbr, and took some photos in the booth. i'll have to go to uw and scan the photos to put them digitally where i'd like them. as december is approaching i'm increasingly anxious and thinking about travelling. i think that it is something deeply important to me. hopefully tomorrow will be as good as today was, and i'll try to count all my blessings, i really should.

burnptcruisers strikes back

it appears as if i can see the light from the end of this lengthy tunnel i've been navigating may be approaching. turns out that a temp agency might be able to get me into a large international company, that i had been hoping for. so, tomorrow may be the day i've been waiting for, i'll keep my fingers crossed and my spirits high.

halloween was pretty cool, but absolutely chill. watched donnie darko, neither my wife or myself can handle the terror flicks, so it would be of no use to rent those. no costumes this year, but there can be hopes for next year! i can't wait until december, my wife and i will be able to head to brazil, probably my favorite place in the world, my second home. it's been far too long since i've been there for more than a year, which is longer than any other period in the past 6 years. i'm not showing off, it's simply where i believe i will spend many years of my life.

"and your fear of being afraid of being afraid, don't make confusion of my strength"
"e o teu medo de ter medo de ter medo, não faz da minha força confusão"
legião urbana - "daniel na cova dos leões"