Here in campus we have a "cafeteria" called The Zone. The place is really nice to hang out (besides the light bulbs they use that you can bake your food under it while you talk, which is another good point I guess...) but fails selling food. What I would expect is something like what they do in the college my brother goes to in Brazil: $1 meals for students. Simple food, big plate, simple drink, and swallow it down. That's what I would expect from a college food place, some crappy cheap food for poor college students. Well, our cafeteria does half of it, but not the cheap part. It's crappy expensive food. I have to give some credit for their pizza, which is not actually a pizza, and not actually good, but also not actually expensive. But they overcharge like crazy, like our bookstore. I think the University should do something about it. Give the lease to another company to install there! They are already in a really privileged place, with a well defined market, in big number and out of town (there's nothing around here less than 10min driving). Instead of them being nice, at least a little bit, counting the fact I pay 13,000 a year here, they stab you mercilessly (in Brazil when people overcharge we say they stab you). I think that's immoral. And if they are going to do it, they could at least hire a good cook, huh?

I was talking to Jen about me going to Brazil and explaining how the difference in electronic items are so big:
For birthday + Xmas last year my parents got me an iPod Touch. I guess it costs right now about $230 dollars. If I take it to Brazil, used, as it is, and sell it on eBay (in Brazil eBay bought a site called "Mercado Livre", which I prefer personally), the prices range from $300 to $350, used! So I can sell it for $300 dollars, come back here, buy a new one again and have extra $70 in my pocket... That works for any electronics. Basically, in the US everything made by machines and with "intelectual value" (e.g. technology) is cheap, and expensive in Brazil. In other hand, in Brazil, everything that is hand-crafted or done by people is cheap. But this has been changing a lot since I was a kid. With the globalization, things made by people are cheap in the US, because it's now made by Chinese people.

It's finals week... That means that I take 4 big 2-hour tests, one each subject I'm taking. The tests are over everything we learned in the quarter. The quarter is defined as "9 weeks". The other college system here is semester, which I believe works better, since you have more time to learn everything. Here it's test, after test, after quiz, after final and the next quarter starts already. Not that it really matters, since with some of the teachers learning is not the important part.
Well, that means this week I'll work 40 hours in 3 different positions (painting, monitoring computer lab and assisting classes). On top of that, take the finals (8h). On top of that, go out with my girlfriend, throw a party (like yesterday) and kill some time. And, well, study.But actually, it is pretty nice. I was thinking, I guess I spent about 50 hours in this school every week before. So now to spend 48h sounds like a nice gain... Happy me.

Last Sunday I went to a Buddhist temple since I've always had the curiosity to go in one... Well, it wasn't exactly a temple. It was a meditation group. And it was so different than what I expected. The group met in a little apartment-like place in Columbus. I loved the trip to Columbus though. There I met a girl that is dating a guy from Venezuela. Her name was Lindsey. She was so nice and talkative, we talked for a really long time about several different world subjects. She had a Masters degree already (even though looked pretty young) and she knew more about world culture than I did! And, yes, she was an American. Her Spanish was great, since she spent 2 years in Venezuela in the Peace Corps. as a volunteer. And she knew a lot about the Economy and Politics of Brazil, which interested her. All the people were really nice, I felt at home. But it still isn't what I'm looking for. So by now I'll remain religionless.

I was going to write a post about gas prices. But like I said the last post, I woke up at 6 in the morning. Anyone that knows me knows that my morning starts at 10. So I was trying to recall what price gas was today, but I can't recall anything at all! I pass right besides 3 gas stations on my way here. I don't even remember driving at all... Morning sucks...
Anyway, when I was a kid my dad taught me what was inflation, and how in Brazil inflation is crazy, and how in United States inflation is minimal. OK. Then I come here and I see that it is a lot like that. Things don't change price. The money is strong. Until I got my driver's license... Then my car... GAS PRICES ARE CRAZY!! When I first started driving gas was on 1.69 easy... Then started going up... and up.... and up... Once to my way to school a gallon would cost 2.69, and on the way back 2.79! Within a week it went up 20 cents too. Stuff like that. For the US, a 5% raise in prices is big... now... what about almost 100%. Damn you gas tycoons....

I told you guys in the beginning of this quarter that I had to do this blog and explained everything. Well, today is the day. I have to print off all the 70 posts in English to get some points towards my ENG 150 grade. The problem? I don't have 70 posts! As all of you 2 persons that followed the blog could see, I didn't post every single day like I was supposed to. That's why I'm going to be for the next few minutes in a writer's golden age and writing about everything, e.g. the lack of writing. This is supposed to be a journal, and since this happened in my day, I think it's fair to be included. That class was easy in the beginning but then got harder and harder. But the teacher is really nice, and she really likes English. But not as a English teacher freak like some of them that preaches correct English. She's open minded. And I might be writing this to suck up since she will read it. Maybe...

Argh, I had five hours of sleep last night. Today I woke up at 6 (I was glad I actually woke up) and got ready to paint! Now I don't really care, it's a routine job already. Just sometimes like today I have some new challenge like painting a round wall. But it's usually all the same. Go, tape, trim, roll, untape, and watch it dry. At least I get my money and I have a job even with the recession. Because of my F-1 visa I can only work on campus. So I can't even work at walmart as a cashier! That's a little unfair from the government because I can't work anywhere, can't work much (I have hours restriction), but my tuition is almost two times as an American citizen. Plus I don't get scholarships.

Today I was painting here in OUL and I heard "dez e quarenta e cinco...". At first I didn't care, since I understood. Then I realized that I just understood because it was Portuguese! So I just yelled: "Brasileiro?", which means "Brazilian?". They said yes. It was a guy and his mom, he took the placement test to study in OUL. What are the odds. Then we talked for about half hour (Brazilians talk a lot) and I already invited him to a party and everything. Cool people. But it was nice to remember how Brazilians were. We act so differently than Americans, simple stuff that make a big difference. Ask my girlfriend, lol.
This guy was nice, and I never saw a situation like this: his parents are Brazilian, he looks Brazilian and his name is Brazilian. But he was born in the US and has a heavy American accent on his Portuguese. Weird, but cool. I'll be sure of how much Brazilian blood he has on him in the party.

Today I hosted a get together here in my house. Yes, this wasn't the best thing to do since I have a final tomorrow and this blog is supposed to have like 65 entries for my English class. But my story is: the party gave me some subject to talk about here, which doesn't really make it stupid and useless. Anyway. I was helping Judy to put together stairs in the pool (which now look pretty nifty). Then the water was warm so I thought "hey, I should call some people over". That's how it got started. It failed so bad as a party. Everyone is either studying for finals (which was probably a sign), or said that would come but didn't or had no service or phone off. In the end, four people. But it was fun, and a really nice start. So I learned that I just have to deal with the cilture difference and start planning parties ahead.

"A vida é feita de encontros. Embora haja tanto desencontro nessa vida."

I won't even try to translate the quote. Want to understand it? Learn Portuguese. But it comes from a Bossa Nova song: O Samba da Bençã.
It's funny how life is made from so many little things that end up building the big ones. I wonder if at some point of time there will be a really powerful computer able to analyze and observe the minimum details. If some day someone makes it, I bet it would be able to predict the future. Everything is so chained together. An infinite action-reaction process that can be fowarded or returned to any point. I think this understanding of this chain is the overcome on our simple notion of time, what Christians call God and Buddhists call ilumination. The society is probably so predictable. But right now our weather channel can barely tell if it will rain within a day. Maybe we are too far from this broad understanding.

"There are no good or bad news, there are just news"
The quotes from Kung Fu Panda said by the Tai Chi Turtle are incredibly good.

Last Friday we had a "discussion" about Food Irradiation. I had no clue this even existed. But now I know everything about it.

Food Irradiation is basically the process of getting Cobalt-60, a radioactive element and expose it to food. There's other kinds of processes, but this is basically it. It is supposed to kill bacteria and make our food last longer with less risks.

I thought the research was really interesting (but not the class, man...) and it made me think about where the humans are heading.

We are a bunch of animals that learned how to do tricks around death, brushing teeth and living until we are 90. These organized animals (us) are facing a limit now (and a overcoming it little by little and easily) of food, housing, support, and crappy structure... Who would guess that most part of people would live until they are 120? (maybe that's why they don't extinguish fast food and don't make incentives for exercise... they may be trying to reduce the life expectancy). So now, why not just spray uranium around and see how it goes?

I have to say I ended up agreeing with the use of that. Yes, it doesn't sound natural at all (if we still have any notion of what's natural and what's not). But what about things they do right now? The pesticides and all chemical used... I see it just as a high-tech trade.

I think it will be bad in the end. I don't know if you can feel too, but I've been always really picky about water (that in Brazil tasted better than here btw). Tiny little difference in water like exposure to sunlight, being warm, hot, cold, cold-er, all this can make it taste so different. And make you feel so different after you drink it.

The studies show that food irradiation is OK. It will reduce the vitamins and some stuff, but it wont glow in the dark. But I think the minor differences we will never be able to notice in this short run.

We are really ignorant about nature still. We feel we have so much knowledge right now, but I bet Newton felt the same when theoricized gravity. Can you imagine how Einstein felt when he developed the Theory of Relativity??

And, just as a plus, the countries that allow food irradiation have limits to the exposure and kinds of food irradiated. But.... Brasil! We are peaceful and OK with stuff. So do you want to make a caqui glow? Sure! Why not! Just sit down, grab a beer and let's watch in glow green!

(my reference to caqui is because I miss it so much... hum... juicy... I found it for sale once, but it felt like a rock)

I was listening to the radio a show called The Bob and Tom Show. I love it and listen to it every morning. One of the days they were talking about something like a guy's speech in the graduation. I don't really know because there was a really pretty girl walking on the sidewalk and I got lost, almost wrecked, and lost my focus. But anyway, in the US, graduation is like passing the torch. The honored older generation will pass its legacy to the future of the country. Americans have a lot of that (for Brazilians, graduation = party). And it was saying that the baby boomers, the generation that fought wars, dealt with terrorism, now will pass to the next generations... a debt. A big fat one.

OK, a better subject: I remember how when I was in Brazil one of the big topics was "we can't be owned by the Uncle Sam! Pay off the IMF (International Monetary Fund)!!". Well, I got more good news: we are not owned by the United States anymore! Hooray! Now we are owned by China!

Think about that, Brazil was in debt with the US. Now US bankrupted and who threw the life saver was China. But now US and Brazil are both trying to keep their heads above water (think of the US as a really big fat guy that naturally floats - human body fat density is about 0.918g/cm/cm - and the Brazilian struggling to stay above water, but kinda used to it since it has been such a long time, and imagine the Chinese guy in a yacht).

Talking about computers, I remembered an awesome quote that I heard from my drama teacher in my American High School:

"Theater is life; film is art; TV is furniture"

I tried to search who's quote this is, but I couldn't find it.

And now I was thinking how far can this quote be true? With how many more things?

I'm realizing how computer is also furniture. I've always been a computer guru since I was a kid. But I've never had the interest of getting a computer-related major for college. Even though I work with it, and use it probably for 40 hours a week (or maybe a lot more) to talk to my family on emails, to update the blog, webcam, mic, research, youtube, facebook... so many things in this one machine.

TV is probably the most furniture of all. Couch potatoe will always be the worst disease (wide spreaded in the US). And now with the TV shows in the computer on demand, TV will soon lose it's space (OK, maybe not).

I think I'm just losing faith on our western civilization's culture and future. Not only because the baby boomer's administration got this fatal fail right now (I'll talk about this later). I think because I live in the United States now, I kinda see this culture as a close preview of the other countries' cultures too. The East I think is the only thing that can save us. The problem: China has too many cell phones now.

I, angel Gabriel, bring good news to thee. The prophecy says that thou shalt not be afraid. Thine distorted mind shall be saved by the few verily friends from the East. And culture will be true, and suffering shall be seen no more, neither in mind, neither in soul.

Last week I lost my laptop. I was with the hope of finding it... Then it started to fade... So now it's gone. It was an oldy cripple Dell, didn't worth much (since the screen was almost broken). But the price to replace it is a lot more than I would like. The funny thing is that yes, I miss it, but not much. Here in the US the ratio is probably 7:1 for computers per family... maybe 3 computers per peson. I don't know, but it's pretty high. Right now I'm using my girlfriend's* laptop and in a room with about 20 more desktop computers. Plus 5 in the other building, because they are remodeling the library (almost rebuilding) and then it will have 40 more I guess. And in the library right now they have 2 laptops that you can check out for a day. And the more I stay without that computer, the more I see how now important it really is.

I remember I heard (I think my dad told me) that computers will be "ready" when they work like the other appliances, like TV or microwave. You press the power button and start using it. Press to cook 2 potatoes and it starts right away, instead of having to load the potatoe plug in, lol.

*I almost did a typo saying "I'm using my girlfriends' laptops", lol. But of course this is not true... not all of them have laptops... I mean... typo... I'll stop here...

TV sucks... I came home tired after a 13h day in the school and got home starving. Fixed somethig and had the great idea of watching a mythbusters episode (which was pretty good I have to say). Then, oops, Famiy Guy is on... Then 70's comedy something show is on. And I don't even know that show! But I watched it. No idea why. So I spent 2h I could be studying, talking to a pretty girl (i.e. my girlfriend), cleaning my bedroom, cleaning myself, cleaning the dog! Whatever! Anything was more useful than that 70's Show. But I didn't. Damn you TV! I'll never turn it on again!

I'm here listening to Chico Buarque. In one of the song he sings "quando eu tchum no colchão, é quando ela tchan no cenário". Just to hear the expression "quando eu tchum no colchão", just this part, made me remember of my routine in Brazil. Then, like in a chain effect, I started to remember the simplest events am feelings in Brazil. All little tiny things I miss. And everything sounds perfect, and my brain creates this paradisiac image on my mind. After traveling a little in this place and getting homesick, I stop and remember this place doesn't exist. It's funny, I'm just used to be a traveler. The other place will always be better. At 1:30 in the morning after work on homework of a boring chemistry class for hours and thinking about next busy day, all other countries sound so good.

Today Matus (my host brother from Slovakia) had his graduation, and I went to watch it. It was LHS' students' graduation. I met Fri there and we stood from 4 till 5:10 having our sunbath and listening to dull speeches downloaded from the Internet, as most part of graduations. While watching, Fri asked me about my graduation in Brazil. After hearing that we gave the dinner, beer open bar, speech limited to one page and it lasts until 4, he was a bit jealous. Which male sense, I know I would be. I don't like usually most part of American parties. You play cornhole or apples to apples, fill up your stomach with the same hamburger and hotdogs, baked beans, and 3 hours later it's over. I have to say, we Brazilians know how to have fun :)