Chaves do 88

This will probably not make much sense to anybody US-side. I grew up watching a mexican show called “Chaves”, about a homeless boy that lived in a small bunch of houses called a “villa”. A Villa usually consisted of a bunch of tiny houses that shared a common area, almost like the really poor cousin of a gated community. It had a cast of very odd characters, and generally veered towards slapstick comedy.

Anyways, the two videos below feature some of the characters from the show, but not doing anything they would normally be doing. Very funny if you ever watched the show with any kind of regularity (aka, anybody born in Brazil in the last 20 years)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And another one

Enjoy!

More Payne!

Not sure how I missed that one, but I should’ve remembered… Max Payne’s theme song is a fabulous piano arrangement that really gives out the feel of the game. Enjoy!

Max Payne!!!!! -- EDITED

[Note: I just realized that the plot summary below is inaccurate and makes Max sound stupid. I've changed it to better reflect what actually happened]

A few of you may know that I’m a huge Max Payne fan. No, not the movie (haven’t seen it yet), but the game was awesome.

Max who?

According to the wikipedia:

Max Payne is a third-person shooter video game developed by Remedy Entertainment and published in 2001. It is set in modern New York and follows the titular DEA undercover agent who investigates the source of the designer drug Valkyr that caused deaths of his wife and daughter three years ago. At the beginning of the game, Max's cover is blown; and he goes on a killing spree, targeting the distributors and masterminds behind Valkyr, He is then marked as a double-crosser: the police believes he abandoned the force and became a drug lord (he was wrongly accused of the murder of his partner by a mole in the police), and the bad guys felt betrayed once they discovered that he was an undercover cop. The bad guys placed a bounty on his head, and the police had a warrant on him due to the murder charges. With both sides of the law chasing him, Max has no choice but to fight and try to prove his innocence, discover why he was framed, and the real reasons why his wife was killed.

A interesting aspect of Max Payne is how the plot is presented. Most games will try to have intricate, very detailed computer-generated animation, but Max Payne’s story is presented through comic-book style cartoons, complemented with actors reading their respective lines. It’s very interesting to watch. Here’s one of my favorites: (click on the picture to see it in full size)

From My Pictures

Another great part of Max Payne is his quotes. No macho man is complete without a great set of macho quotes! Here’s some of my favorites:

• Collecting evidence had gotten old a few hundred bullets back. I was already so far past the point-of-no-return I couldn't remember what it had looked like when I had passed it.
• I would have laughed, if I could have remembered how.
• Nothing is a cliché when it's happening to you.
• He was trying to buy more sand for his hour glass. I wasn't selling any.
• So much for being subtle.

Anyways, why am I so excited? They’re releasing a new Max Payne, that’s why! Max Payne 3, baby! December can’t get here any faster.

Welcome!

 

If you’re seeing this, then welcome to our new home!

Still alive!

I don’t quite remember how I came across this site, but it is something I enjoy visiting every now and then

http://englishrussia.com

This is a site maintained by a Russian photographer about life in Russia. Not that I’m that interested in moving to Russia or anything like that… What’s interesting to me is his “field trips”, like this one

Lost City of Chernobyl

Yeah, some of this is definitely on the creepy side of things, but very interesting nevertheless!

An Abandoned Coastline Defense Canon Battery

AK-47 Kalashnikov museum

Some of this postings are bizarre enough to prevent me from checking it more regularly, but it’s always interesting for the occasional visit.

This post brought to you by the Department of Too Much Information

After successfully becoming a waterholic (really, I’m drinking a ton of water. So much, I just don’t have the “time” to drink anything else. Gotta hit that goal!), I’ve decided to expand/abuse my reader’s patience some more.

I’ve learned long ago that accountability is one of the keys of successful delegation: If you have to report it to someone, you’re much more likely to do it, for any number of reasons I’m not going to go into. So, now I’ve decided to make You, the reader, the boss of me! Yes, that’s right! Now I’m going to update my water consumption (but not every half-hour, no way), but I’m also going to update with my… food intake!

 

(crowd stares in terrifying unbelief, starts to look for pitchforks and torches)

 

It’s true… I like food! I eat a lot. I can eat all day… candy bars, grilled cheese sandwiches, peanuts, anything. If it’s within reach, I’ll grab it. If I’m stressed, I’ll grab twice as much. If I’m tired, then you’d better hide your stash, I’ll be over in a minute :-)

So now, if you look on the right side of this page, you’ll see a section called “Food & Water”. I’ll be updating it regularly with my drinkage, and with my eatage. I don’t think I’m going to give a detailed account of what exactly I just ate (unless my wife made it, and you’ll be very jealous, specially once I describe how incredibly delicious it tasted). It’ll probably just be a “I ate something!”.

Alright, now I gotta get some work done. 

Resolution!

Following my wife’s excellent example, I’m working my darndest (spell checker thinks that darndest should be spelled dandiest – brought to you by my very short attention sp….hey, look, it’s shiny!) best to stop drinking carbonation. It’s not an easy task, specially in the IT world, where Mountain Dew is King and Lord over All Other Beverages. My shameful worst is 4 cans of Dew in a single day (but they were diet!).

Anyways, one of my excuses is that I always try to drink a healthy amount of water/day, usually about 1 liter. Interestingly enough, after some googling (hey, it was my lunch time!), I found this link

http://www.naturodoc.com/library/nutrition/water.htm

Once you drill down past the wise and sage advice, I found this definition

"Proper water intake is a key to weight loss," says Dr. Donald Robertson, medical director of the Southwest Bariatric Nutrition Center in Scottsdale, Arizona.  "If people who are trying to lose weight don't drink enough water, the body can't metabolize the fat adequately.  Retaining fluid also keeps weight up."

The minimum for a healthy person is eight to ten eight-ounce glasses a day," says Dr. Flaks.  "You need more if you exercise a lot or live in a hot climate.  And overweight people should drink in an extra glass for every 25 pounds they exceed their ideal weight.  Consult your own physician for their recommendations.

At the International Sports Medicine Institute, we have a formula for daily water intake: 1/2 ounce per pound of body weight if you're not active (that's ten eight-ounce glasses if you weigh 160 pounds), and 2/3 ounce per pound if you're athletic (13 to 14 glasses a day, at the same weight).

So, right now, I weigh a manly 190lbs. According to the formula,

190 x 1/2 = 95oz per day

then, remembering that a regular water bottle carries about 17oz of water

95/17 = 5.5 bottles/day

A lot? Yeah, that’s a lot of water. However, if I’m awake 18 hours/day then

18/5.5 = 3.2

That means I have to drink 17oz of water every 3.2 hours. Hourly, that will translate into

17/3.2 = 5.3oz

So, 5oz of water every hour that I’m awake! All y’all cooks know how little that is. For us cubicle-dwellers, if I get up every half-hour and take a nice drink of water from the water-fountain, then not only I get to stay awake, I also get to stay hydrated! Awesome! Also, remember that 85% of your brain is composed of water, so you gotta make sure your gray matter is always nice and moist (maybe soggy is even better, but make sure you don’t drench it… It actually damages the gray matter, and then it don’t work so good. Anyways.) if you want to keep your marbles not looking like the poor marble in the right

 

Good luck, and happy drinking!

Queen and Weird Al

I’m not a huge Queen fan, but I’ve always admired Freddie Mercury’s talent as a singer. Apparently, so does Weird Al… Here’s a quick compare of Queen’s original, “Bohemian Rhapsody”

 

And here’s Weird Al’s version of the same song. Same lyrics, completely different song!