He could fit in your back pocket!

This pic is so out of context but I couldn't resist!

Big in Japan... Europe...The US...

Dear random blog reader. This is a post directed to you! It is widely known that I monitor my blog from time to time and today I noticed something strange. "Island Mike"'s readers are coming from all over the world. Up until today I could account for 90% of my readers but today I have no idea what happened! Where are you all coming from? Not that its a problem... come, bring your friends and their grandmother's son-in-law's pet hampster. I am just a curious guy and want to cater to my audience, I also want to know what tools or links are bringing all you people to my page. So if you don't mind, please leave a comment explaining who you are and/or how you found my page. e.g.: "My name is Foo Dog, I am from Area 51, NM. I clicked on a link from Google.com". I'd really appreciate the feedback. Thank for stopping by and stay classy San Diego!

Roof-Top party

Congratulations to anyone who voted for me to go to dinner with Conrado, Vanessa and Andrea. Vanessa hosted a great roof-top dinner party in trendy downtown Florianopolis. We where as high up as the eagles (not local to the island) and we ate as would only the 4 highest ranking gorillas on a planet ruled by primates where the social status was governed by brute strength and humans did not have access to robotic arms... and androids were considered "non-primatic". Here are some remarkable pics of this magical evening:
Here is all the pre-dinner prep:

Here are all Vanessa's friends - featuring me:

This is the part after all the food and people is gone :(

Stay tuned to find out what else you made me do last weekend!

Crazy Sunday - The Chronicle of Sambaqui

Hey everyone,
I've been busy lately as indicated by my lack of blog. Both past weekends I took picture and videos with intentions of writing blog, but ran short on time. Today I decided to catch up and post these picture and videos and explain the stories behind them. However this morning while minding my own business, I was subject to a most unfortunate case of loosing-of-all-my-videos-and-picture-that-I-had-taken-and-had-planned-to-blog-about. This is a problem that can strike a blogger at anytime and anywhere in the world. There have been report of such occurrences in as far away websites as www.blog.com (thats on third and main) www.bloggersRus.com (third and main as well) and www.blogSupremecyWorld.com (which is on 3rd and Main too) come to think of it they are all in the same complexe on 3rd and Main, which if I'm not mistaken is part of the blog district. Anyway, the point that I'm clearly making here is that this is an epidemic. Loosing-of-all-my-videos-and-picture-that-I-had-taken-and-had-planned-to-blog-about has taken more JPEGs in the month of September than in the entire year of 2006 and 2007 combined! Now that's no laughing matter.
All that to say that I have no picture to show you guys but only a lame text based story of 2500 words or less. Converted that comes to about 2.5 pictures.

First story is 2 Sundays ago I was about to go for an adventure "Around The Island with 40 Reais" (Reals in english - Brazilian currency). That adventure never happened. I got about 40 minutes into it and met a guy from work who was coming to my town with his wife for the afternoon. So we had a nice lunch and ended up walking around the market my town till dark. This was nice cause my adventure was a solution to the boredom resulting from of no media of any kind in my house. "Around The Island with 40 Reais" will have to be postponed till another boring day comes along.

This past Sunday I was less prepared for boredom so I just made my way to the bus terminal hoping that I would think of a cool place to go. I decided that I would visit the house in a town called Sambaqui in which I had planned to live (before I arrived). So I get on the bus and start making my way there. I get there in a 3 bus trip and no real problems. "Hey kids! There's Sambaqui!" I shouted as I drove through the town. I got out took the aforementioned pictures, had a pleasant ocean-side meal at a nice restaurant, and proceed to exit the area.
Note: Please listen to the music here as you read the rest of the tale. Chevy Chase and National Lampoon fans will know where I'm going with this...

So I had my nice meal and start walking out of town "Goodbye Sambaqui" I said as ran towards a bus. So I get on this bus which would eventually lead me back to one of the interemediate stations that I need to go through on my way home... but not before it does a circle and drives through Sambaqui again. "Goodbye Sambaqui... again" I said with a chuckle, but then the bus turns around and goes through Sambaqui before heading to the station. Once I was back at the station I get on my next bus which should lead me home. But I soon learn that that bus was not as advertised and proceed back into Sambaqui goes through it turns around, double through Sambaqui agin, takes a small road (almost getting stuck), going into the backwoods, driving by people riding horses, through a fair, turning around back through the fair, by the horsemen, doing quick Sambaqui in and out once again ("Hey kids there's Sambaqui!") but eventually landing back at the intermediate station again. By this time I had been leaving Sambaqui for about 2 and a half hours and was ready to never go back again. So I take a different colored bus that only goes on highways and eventually made it back, with nothing but photos and a leftover piece of fish from my early supper by the ocean which was now a distant and vague memory. But at least I can write about it and show the cool pics I took right? Wrong! That when Loosing-of-all-my-videos-and-picture-that-I-had-taken-and-had-planned-to-blog-about stikes the hardest: when the photos were hard to get. So instead I can only write and show you this video which I can now sympathize with and you can use to understand my Chevy Chase reference:

Inward bound

Big news everyone: I just got my first known inbound link to my blog. I'm officially popular!
Extra! Extra! IISD Promotes Mike!
See the picture of my on that site? Those who watched a lot of sappy after school sitcoms during 80-90s you may remember the houses behind me in the picture... For those who don't remember let me refresh your memory.

That pic is also a little free promo I did for Google. They call thank me later...

I'm a Reflections amendent to be - and I'm hoping that they'll ratify me!

"Reflections" refers to an email group that all us IISD interns use to keep in touch. I sent mine out early so I am taking this opportunity to amend it and share the valued content with those not blessed with the exclusive IISD privileges. Naturally, it will be presented in a fast paced, prime time network, political style interview.

****************************

Now presenting Q&A with Lisa Cyr: In this exclusive interview, Lisa Cyr delves deep into the psyche of one of Brazil's least notorious super-civilian-immigrants; Island Mike.

Lisa: Eu, todo bem?
Mike: Tudo Bem, como vai? I actually knew that one! Portuguese lessons are practically paying for themselves!

Lisa: OK didn't ask for the life story...

Lisa: How are things up there in Florianapolis?
Mike: Things are fine. Why do you ask?

Lisa: Hows the Portuguese coming along?
Mike: Learning Portuguese is slow. I'm definately catching on though. Many people at the office speak some english and like to practice on me which is good for now cause I am still settling in and need to get things done. I started a language group this week where I exchange English for Portuguese on Wednesdays and French for Port on Tuesdays. I have found that French is very similar to Portuguese so it is helping me way more than my English.

Lisa: Are they slave drivers there too?
Mike: Yes. Please contact my consulate, embassy or local police at your earliest convenience. I am located in work farm 4 just north of the sweat shop district. I am gonna be very busy for sure. Everyone seems to have a different idea of what they want me to do but that will get ironed out shortly.

Lisa: Your update was a little short - how is everything? You liking it?
Mike: Everything is fine! What is wrong with you? Can't you let me live my life!?!!?

Lisa: Hows the city?
Mike: The city is nothing special but the island is. I live a walk away from multiple beaches which is sweet but puts me in the center of traffic during the weekends.

Lisa: The ladies?
Mike: There aren't many in my office but they are all very nice. But there seems to be a floor of supermodels somewhere in the building judging by some elevator rides.

Lisa: The weather?
Mike: The weather was good the first week and this past week has been rain rain and a little bit of cloud cover.... followed by rain.

Lisa: Well that just about wraps up this interview.

Mike: So... Am i getting those Pop Tarts now or will you be sending them to me via a priority courrier?

Lisa: There will be no Pop Tarts.

Mike: DAMN IT LISA WE HAD AN AGREEMENT!!!

Lisa: Security! Take care of this one!

Head Security Guard (to foot soldiers): Dismember the corpse and send the wife a ham.

Mike (to Lisa): You have the power to end this!

(plays out to the theme of Sanford and Son)



Send this interview out to 3 of your friends or live a life of love and prosperity.

Same phone different pile.

For those of you who remember my old phone, this video will make sense. For those who don't remember: My old phone was a discount phone by Motorola that had one or two features including the ability to make phone calls on common cell phone networks... but not much else. One of it's selling features was that it used "throwback calculator screen technology" as I liked to all it. Remember those crappy screens with 8 digits and black on gray?

Well that's what my phone had except I had 12 digits (2 rows of 6... which is completely unreadable) and white-on-black text. Anyway, my new phone looks just like the old one (which looked great when turned off!) but has an LCD screen instead and is about 75% thicker. Behold:

StatMan

Hey everyone!
Yesterday lots of people came to see the blog. That's good to see. As you may or may not know I actually keep track of how many people come to see what I am up to. People seem to like Mike's (& Dave's... our lawyers are working on this dispute) Disco Dryer video. As only a transparent dictator I like to share my census results with my population. Here is the history of the blog from day one of data collection:

As you may notice, yesterday was the most popular day in almost every way. The only stat that did not reach a record high yesderday was the "First time visitors to the site" statistic. We had 24 new visitor yesterday one short of the record 25 new visitors reached on the day one. "First time visitors" can be calculated by subtracting "returning visitors" from "unique visitors".
In related news, the disco dryer can also be used as an air condition in dry heat situations. As humidity levels reach 90-100 levels it will stop functioning as a dryer or air conditioner and merely be an 1960's style disco ball (before the technology had been perfected).

Inside the Instituto (sequel to "Crossing the Gulf")

Here is an insider view of where I work (Instituto Stela)
This is the upstairs reception:

This is my humble workspace:

Here is the general work area:

Here is the lunch room, but I haven't needed it so far cause we have great lunch options. The place across the street is so close and very good for about 6-7 dollars/plate in a pay-by-the-kg style buffet. But a group of us want to save some Reals so we drive about 10 mins to the discount cafeteria which feeds us well for about $4 plate. Today I paid R$5.53 = $3.45CND which included a chocolate cake dessert. These are great options considering the quality of the food. It's cheaper than making a lunch!

And here is another glamor shot:

I'll take some more shots of outside the building (which is the nicest in the area) later.

Lazy Sunday - The Chronicle of the Laundry Solution

Sunday night was not great as nothing useful was open, particularly the laundromat. I went to the grocery store instead (which never seem to close) and got what I believe is laundry detergent (there were picture of people enjoying towels and stuff on the cover). My gas at home was not turned on either so I talk to the landlord Eriba about it in one of our broken Portugese-English-signlanguage conversations. I think that we understood each other. I'll see if he really understood when I get back. Hopefully he won't be in the yard buning all my clothes in a gas fire while giving me the "thumbs-up?" looking for approval. BTW Thumbs up are HUUUUUGE here in Florianopolis!
Here is a video of me last night explaining my situation and demoing one of my solutions.

After making this video I remembered that I have shutters on my windows so I closed them to keep the light in then turned on my light for some extra drying power. Also the cold air of the night turned my window into a condenser/dehumidifier... My clothes where quite dry by morning ;)

New Apartment

First off I want to shout out to Kels on account of here bday today.
OoooooooK... Moving onto other business, here is a map of where I am living now:


View Larger Map

As you can see I am much closer to the ocean-side beach and still very close to the lake. Here is a quick video of my temporary place. I recorded it yesterday.




Last night was my first stay here. There is much more wind here than the last place I stayed so it was a bit cold. But the "winter" will soon be over and the addition wind will come in handy.

Here is where I catch the bus:


and here is my view from the bus-stop:




Peace! We outta here! (Old SNL reference)

Out to lunch

We went out to lunch again today (5th time this week!) I guess since lunch is the most important meal of the day and restaurants are relatively inexpensive compared to grocery store food, going out to lunch is not uncommon. We eat at a cafeteria style buffet today which is subsidized by the state. It was pretty good! Some of the guys went today. On the way back we discussed the motel industry and how it differs from that in North America.

First day on the job

Before I forget, this is a picture that I stole from someones Facebook profile. It is from Lagoa Conceicao, the part of town that I am living in and plan to live in long term. Whenever people ask where I am staying and I answer Lagoa Conceicao they smile and roll their eyes as though to say "of course". It is the most desirable place to stay it seems or at least the hippest and we all know that I only live in the hippest of places. I also only drive the most fashionable geiroscope balanced scooters to go to places like work... They have a specific name but I can't remember it right now... but it doesn't matter as I only brought it up as a Segway to the story of my first day at work. I got up at about 7:30 even though I didn't start work until 10AM. Had my nice breakfast as usual and watched a little Brazilian TV before walking to the bus station. Luckily I got there at 9:24 cause even though I missed the 9:20 and the 9:33 never showed up, the 9:50 got me to work only 8 minutes late. Lesson learned, buses... not so reliable. Although it may have been a fluke: everyone seemed pretty pissed. Anyway work was great. I got loads of facetime with top management and they are all super nice! Secrataries are researching apartments for me in Lagoa. I met my supervisor and it seems that our incentives and goals for my internship are well alligned. I spent most of the day reading books on software companies and their busiess models (product vs services) which I would do on my freetime anyway then about 8 of us went out to a 3D movie of a U2 performance in Argentina. All in all a great first day. More updates will come once I get settled.