party tomorrow!

10/7 - bodega do matuto - tomazina street - recife antigo - R$5
everyone is invited!

h1n1 (swine) influenza

there's a real possibility that the swine, ops, h1n1 flu has arrived in my home. my middle sister's soon to be sister-in-law arrived from argentina a week ago with some kind of flu. now, my sister has some kind of flu too. and, about minutes ago, she was coughing onto me.

i think it is not only a funny suspicion like when the first cases started and i had some silly flu days ago. the first death due to the influenza was just registered in brazil and it was a person who just came from argentina (as you can see here).

if i stop writing here, you are already warned about the reason. :P

a law graduate but not a lawyer

yesterday, i presented my final paper at law school and i think i can already consider myself a law graduate, can't i? but it's kinda scary, because i don't have a real clue of what i am going to do from now on...

no... that's not true. i do have a clue. like i said before, i am going to apply for the master's course, but the truth is that i am afraid that i won't pass the admitting exams. i suffer from a deep lack of self-confidence, that's the truth. and i hope everything turns out ok.

(i also have to study to pass the exam to get the license to practice law, but since i don't want to be a real lawyer, i'm not really worried about this one - not yet).

now, i do have to start thinking about my master's research project. it will probably be about social networks, internet, freedom of speech... and iran's elections are making a huge effect on me...

rt @carolfour #iranelection

since last friday, i can't stop reading news about the riots in tehran after the elections in iran. and i am deeply sad here for the people of that country and i wanted to do more than sit in front my computer and read/watch what is been posted.

as experts say, even without any real proof, the results that claimed ahmadinejad's victory look very suspicious. first, because it doesn't seem possible that all the nationwide paper ballots were counted by hand during the night and morning after the elections. (except, that iran created a super counting machine that we are not aware of). second, the linear progression of the election results during the night is another evidence of fraud. critics say it is not possible to the percentage of votes obtained by each candidate remain constant throughout the night as the six rounds of results presented by the comission. other evidences are related to the amount of votes for each candidate in the different provinces of iran. according to the specialists, it also seem abnormal that candidate mousavi lost in his own province. other information about the evidence of fraud can be found here.

but, in my opinion, the thing that most indicates the fraud in the election was the fact that iran's government blocked all the internet and mobile network just after the voting finished. also, many opposition leaders were arrested and, when the population decided to go to the streets to protest, the police was already waiting for them.

that's when i remember that i study freedom of speech and how it was recognized as a human right, since 1948, when the universal declaration of human rights was promulgated. the same way we must not allow torture, we must not allow people to get their voices cut off by the state or anyone else. but the most incredible thing was that, even the government blocks, the iranians found a way to exchange messages using twitter and that how we are getting to know what is really happening over the streets of tehran and that is how people there are getting together to protest. a great article about this revolution promoted on twitter can be found here.

i just hope that much more people don't have to die until the freedom is reached in iran.

peter pan's complex

against my wishes, i'm going to get my second bachelor's degree in july. in law this time, because i already have a b.a. in journalism.

i say it is against my wishes because i wanted to stay a little longer in my intership and that's why i wanted my undergraduate course to last for more six months. but, suddenly, i discovered that i wouldn't be able to take part on the graduation parties if i wasn't really graduating and my mother threatened to kill me if i didn't join those parties... so i ended up writing my final paper in two weeks and now i'm expecting for the university to say if i'm going to graduate now or... at the end of the year.

the thing the most scares me, is that i would have nothing to do in the next six months. because the application to the master´s courses is only at the end of the year, and i'll have to stay home, unemployed, waiting for the exams and hoping that i'll really pass. but, for my advisor teacher, my real problem is that i have what he calls "the peter pan's complex". he says i'm afraid to grow up, and i think that he must be probably right...

all that story is a lame excuse to explain why i haven't been writing in this blog for such a long time. and maybe the answer to my newest habit of sleeping during the day and of staying awake at night. :P

we're all the pirate bay...

"i don't write songs to make money... i write them for people to sing along..." (montt mardié)

since i've decided writing my dissertation about the pirate bay's case, i created a problem for myself. mainly, because a scientific work needs impartiality and, as you see, i'm not impartial to this matter. i'll try hard to do a good job though...

what's the future of intellectual property rights when millions of people in the whole world don't find any problem to download movies, musics and computer programmes from the internet each day? are they all against the law? but, i ask myself, wasn't the law supposed to reflect society's needs and not to be an end in itself?

temperance

"continuing on his spiritual path, the fool begins to wonder how to reconcile the opposites that he's been facing: material and spiritual (which he hung between as the hanged man), death and birth (the one leading into the other in the death card). it is at this point that he comes upon a winged figure standing with one foot in a brook, the other on a rock. the radiant creature pours something from one flask into another. drawing closer, the fool sees that what is being poured from one flask is fire, while water flows from the other. the two are being blended together!

'how can you mix fire and water?' the fool finally whispers. never pausing the angel answers, 'you must have the right vessels and the right proportions.' the fool watches with wonder. 'can this be done with all opposites?' he asks. 'indeed,' the angel replies, 'any oppositions, fire and water, man and woman, thesis and anti-thesis, can be made to harmonize. it is only a lack of will and a disbelief in the possibility of unity that keeps opposites, opposite.' and that is when the fool begins to understand that he is the one who is keeping his universe in twain, holding life/death, material world and spiritual world separate. in him, the two could merge, as in the vessels that the angel uses to pour the elements, one to the other. all it takes, the fool realizes, is the right proportions....and the right vessel." (the rest of the interpretation can be found here).

after this brief introduction, i must say that i've been studying tarot cards for a few months now and i'm getting more and more intrigued with the results i've been getting. one of the most interesting things is about this temperance card. every time i ask about my present situation i get this card. i think it telling me to act with more moderation in my life and i guess it's a great advice for me this time. but i just don't know how to put into practice yet.

the thing i've learnt for sure from those tarot studies is that it is waaay easier to read the cards to other people than to yourself. and it happens because, of course, you are impartial on the issues surrounding the question. but it is also a great way to connect with your friends and talk with them about their problems and wishes. i'm enjoying it a lot. (and i'm also becoming a everyday tarot reader through msn messenger :P)

primavera sound again

i always get a little depressed this time of the year... and it is because i end up finding the prospective primavera sound's line up. i don't look for it... i swear! it just appears on my face, like there was someone out there mocking of me.

this year, it was not different. of course. not only the confirmed artists are incredible (see it for yourself at the link above), but i'm crazy about travelling to spain. and also going to a wonderful festival in barcelona, my god, it would be a dream come true.

but i have a plan. as soon as i am hired in a job at the public service, in my first holidays i will spend an entire month in spain and i'll attend both primavera sound and benicassim's international festival. (maybe i'll take some spanish lessons too... :P)

swine flu??

rumours that there are people infected with the infamous swine flu, both in my work place and in my college, are driving people crazy. all i did was sneeze a couple of times and my co-workers started shooting ugly looks at me. but, as always, the rumours were false, of course, but the truth is that my flu is getting worse. not the swine one for sure... it's only a silly regular flu that i get from time to time.

the most bizarre thing i read in the last days was about a probable mutation of that disease that was creating zombies. yes, you read it right... zombies!

according to bbc, "this virus is able to restart the heart of it’s victim for up to two hours after the initial demise of the person where the individual behaves in extremely violent ways from what is believe to be a combination of brain damage and a chemical released into blood during 'resurrection' ".

my question is... is this a real article or this comes from someone that is losing his/her time making fun of some people who believe in everything they are told like i myself? or should a be prepared for facing the resident evil scenes in real life?

studying like there's no tomorrow

when i finally decide to start writing in english in this blog, i feel completely out of interesting things to share. it's probably because i have started studying again for those exams to achieve a place at public service. to be more specific, since my law graduation is coming closer, i'll be applying for a job as a state's prosecutor (pernambuco state and são paulo state for starters). and that's why i have thousands of books to read.

does someone want to know a little about brazillian tax law? or financial law? :P

i get so uninteresting when i am studying like this that even i can't handle myself. i just hope it's for the best...