Too much rain

There has been WAY to much rain in Southern Brazil recently. I don't have any radio or TV but I hear that some areas are declaring "state of calamity" because of road washouts and stuff. Hasn't affected me except that at work there is no running water. We deal with it.

My placement in Brazil

Many people have asked about my internship here in Brazil. I ended up creating this visual aid to help people understand who is funding me and what the process is. From a high level, this is my understanding:

Fishing Sunday

This Sunday I woke up at about 4:45AM (my neighbors got home early from Floripa's Saturday night party culture), I waited till about 5:20 when my alarm went off then I got dressed, packed my sun lotion and bug spray and headed to the bus stop. The bus packed up pretty quickly as party goers piled in. I arrived at the bus station at 6:40 and got picked up by my trusty friends Nilda and Luciano. We left the city and headed to Luciano's Beach house for hours of fun; fishing for tiny anchovies. Here are some digital memories for you to cherish:

From Luciano & Nilda fishing

From Luciano & Nilda fishing

From Luciano & Nilda fishing

From Luciano & Nilda fishing

Later we decorated the Xmas tree.

From Luciano & Nilda fishing

This is the first time I've been fishing since cousin Billy and I caught those Muskies with the infamous Bill Craig.

From Muskie Fishing

From Muskie Fishing

Birthday Election Game Party Fun Night

Last Tuesday was my first of many birthday-election-game-party-fun-nights. I turned 27 two weeks late, Obama got elected, the Republican Senators lost in Washington, the Democrat Senators won in Washington and the Ottawa Senators won against Washington in Ottawa. Unfortunately I was in Florianopolis at the time and missed the whole thing.

But luckily Marc was able to complete my clone surrogate stand-in so that I could take in the event. Good hustle Marc!


Here is a picture of my surrogate stand-in enjoying myself at the party. "Take it easy Surrogate Stand-in Mike! ... I have to work in the morning!".

Now I remember the party very well due to the extra effort we put in to develop a ToIP (Telepathy over Internet Protocol) platform so that I could read the mind of my Surrogate using my 10 Mtps (Mega thought per second) high speed connection. Luckily we implemented call waiting so that my surrogate stand-in could simultaneously defeat Viktor Korchnoi in an online chess match without missing a beat. Way to go Surrogate Stand-In Mike! Way to defend Mother Russia against that Western-sympathizing defector! When will they learn?: "The Ukraine not weak; the Ukraine strong! I crush your stupid game!". It should also be noted that "In Soviet Russia, Surrogate Stand-In Mike downloads from you!". (Using the new Telepathy over Internet Protocol)

Anyway, due to the success of ToIP, we are planning a new product which will implement Collective Conscience Conference Calls: Its all part of my Psychic Collaborative Suite set to come out just at the dawn of the age of Aquarius. I hope everyone will be there for the opening... Bring your crystals and dream catchers!

Thanks to everyone who took part in the Birthday Election Game Party Fun Night who, my technology training tells me, includes Pat, Phil, France, Marc, Surrogate Stand-In Mike and possibly a distracted Viktor Korchnoi.

This just in: Additional "generic birthday appreciation thank you" to Sean O'Leary who probably took the picture of us based on the fact that it seems to be taken from a height of about 6'4" plus a chair or so.

Past few weekends

So I haven't posted anything for a while, but today I brought my camera to work and decided to download all my pictures from the past few weekends so that I can update everyone on whats been going on. I'll start with a couple weekends ago. This would have been about the weekend of my birthday. Two co-workers of mine graduated from their university program and a bunch of us went to the ceremony, reception lunch, and party that night. Here are some maximum extreme pictures:


Don't have any pictures from lunch but I can guarentee you that it was delicious and all you can eat buffet. BTW, in case I haven't mentioned it, buffets are huge here in Brazil... I'm talking HUGE! Some are all you can eat and others are pay per KG but either way is a good deal. After lunch it was raining something nasty so it was decided that the car battery should die. It did.

Later that night we all went to the party and stayed super late. There are a bunch of pictures of this somewhere but I can't find them anywhere. I'll post later I guess. Here is me and Dhiogo. He drove that night and some of us went to McDonald's that night. One thing that never ceases to amaze me is that no matter where you are in the world; McDees always makes you feel just as sick after you eat it.



The next weekend was just as rainy... I'm not quite sure exactly what I did that weekend but I can guarantee you this Madame: no much. Saturday night we did go to a bowling alley, ate some overpriced food then walked out cause one of the managers was being an ass. We went to the movies instead. Saw the Al Pacino & Robert Dinero movie. Was not bad... a rental. Afterwards we met some other friends who had seen the movie before us but had gone back home to Karaoke. We went and joined in on the Japanese inspired fun. I scored a 78% on a CCR song, an 83% on a duet of "With or Without you" and a whopping 91% on "Hotel California"! Whodathunkit? I'd also like to add a WHOOOOOOAAAAAAA!!! in honor of Al Pacino. Here is "House of Karaoke" (lil reference to the old House of Chung in Ottawa... now Peach Gardens.


Some of you may be axing yourselfs: "Hey, dat deres a preddy sweet house." You'd be absotively correct my slow witted, literacy challenged colleague! The girl who lives there is super nice and apparently a pro tennis player.

Finally, last weekend I went to a B-Day party at the trendiest rock club on the island... close to where I live... naturally. I attract such things. Here is a pic to satisfy your seemingly endless thirst for knowledge in the area of my personal life.



At this point I find it appropriate to inquire: "What is your fascination with my forbidden closet of mystery?"
The next day I went to a search for monkeys with my good friend Alessandro.
And if you must know... YES.. we found the elusive Jade Monkey... it was in the glove compartment. Also the maps and flashlight were there too... but NO.. we didn't take a picture of him... thats just what he would expect us do to...
Here are some more pics from that park where we (for the record) never saw the monkeys ;)


Monkeys where seen here:


Don't fool yourselves! If you think for one minute that the two layers of reenforced steel chain linked fence is keeping me safe at this moment, you'd be dead wrong... you may even be dead. This here is one tough character! This oversized rabbit from Rio is THE Frank "The Armoured Car" Hernandez: The meanest, most bad mannered mini mammal in the park. His fur has fleas the size of medium-to-large fleas!


And in the other corner, "The Alligator with No Conscience Nor Any Known Transmittable Diseases", approved by 4 out of 5 dentist: Ron!


I do have some footage of the a "Battle To The Death" between the 2 behemoths but due to the graphic nature of the footage, the fact my mainstream demographic is still in high-nightmare-occurrence range and to keep those meddling animal rights activists of my case while I am still on probation after that ostrich-quail cock fighting ring stint (god that was a good run while it lasted): I have decided to keep the footage offline. Plus I can't stand to see Alligators get decapitated like that. It's just gross. Damn that Frank is a real fighter. Cost me a fortune! I paid that bastard to take a dive, but Frank dives for nobody... NOBODY! Now I have that shylock The Jade Monkey on my back almost half the time!

Also I went to another rooftop party that night and nothing happened on Sunday, bye.