The Future Mirror's Tale of an Undreamed Past?

I foresaw a future that is now in another one's past, and for me it seems lost... If lost, for how long? Maybe forever lost. But there is a future yet to happen, and that which this other foresees today could be the past of mine tomorrow... The lost will be found when no one seeks it anymore, or when you ask a Xaositect to find it for you. Know that Never is lost, when Forever is found. And when the future is not yet totally lost, where could it be retrieved?

There is still hope for the dreamer, when his life becomes his dream, and his dream becomes his life... This one should no be here, I know, but where? I also know the tale of the faerie who was afraid of a certain dragon, but now is not the time to tell this story. It, and everything else, shall be continued when that which may be lost, could be retrieved... Or when another one dreams the past of my future!

Strange but necessary...

I once saw the Mirror of Eyes, but It is now closed to me... What the Mirror showed me? A past that never was present, but was once a future... And Lo! Before the entrance to the Dreamland, the Mirror awaits for those who knows how to find it...

.sigh.

Hard Life to Live ends, while Summer in Berlin starts! The Eternal Idol Black Sabbath into Forever Young Alphaville... Now, all the desires of my Mind require a trip to the Dreaming, and there is my Mind's currently destination...

Last days in Ann Arbor

Never spent so much time without posting anything in this blog. I am with so much stuff in my head these days that I can barely think about things to write. In less than a week I will be going back to Brasil, and next Tuesday I will be at home again. I am feeling strange these days. At the same time I am getting more and more anxious to go back, I am also starting to miss things here. It took me a while to make friends here, and now that I finally have some people that I can call friends, it is time to go back. I don't know if I will ever be back here in Ann Arbor again, and I may never see some of the people I have met here again either. I am sure I am still going to meet some of the people from the University, mainly the people that are part of the Star Formation group, I don't know when though.

I have already sent three boxes full of books, papers, manuals, cables and even clothes to Brasil. One of my suitcases is already ready, but I still need one more, and I have not even bought it yet. My table in my office is almost empty again, and tomorrow is my last meeting with my adviser here. Friday will be my last day in the University of Michigan, the day to say goodbye to a lot of people. I am never good with "goodbyes", but life goes on...

Oh sure. There will be a lot of drinking these days too. This Friday, people will hang out the prospective students that might be coming to the Astronomy Department next term, and of course I am going with them. And Saturday, there will be another party for the prospective students, but I am going to use that as a Farewell party... After that... Well... I will be drunk, probably, and I will also start to miss those people... :/

And... To all my Brazilian friends: 7 days!! And Thiago, I hope you have a bottle of Tequila for your birthday next Wednesday!! I also need to commemorate with my friend Humberto that defended his dissertation last Thursday, and as if that was not enough, also had a small daughter last Tuesday!

Dia de Falar como Físico

Próximo dia 14 de Março será instituida uma nova data comemorativa. O Dia Internacional de Falar Como um Físico.

Não existe data melhor do que esta, afinal dia 14 de Março é data do nascimento do mais famoso físico de todos os tempos, Albert Einstein, e se você escrever a data do modo inglês, com o mês vindo antes do dia, teremos o dia "Pi" (3.14).

Está data é para todas aquelas "infelizes" pessoas que decidiram que física era coisa de pessoas com distúrbios psicológicos irreversíveis, e decidiram seguir qualquer outra profissão, libertarem o seu lado físico e abusar daquela linguagem hermética que só os físicos parecem ser capazes de compreender. Assuste as pessoas nos ônibus, nas ruas, seu vizinho, estudantes de ciências humanas, ciências biológicas, e artes falando sobre distorções espaço-temporais, singularidades, instabilidades magneto-hidrodinâmicas, cromodinâmica quântica, termodinâmica de não-equilíbrio, etc, etc... Use todas aquelas palavras estranhas que você por ventura tenha lido em algum título de tese, dissertação ou artigo sobre física, e crie as mais variadas frases misturando aquelas palavras bizarras. Seja criativo!


P.S.: Divulgando novas datas comemorativas, saibam que dia 8 de dezembro é o Dia Internacional de Fingir Ser um Viajante do Tempo. (Fonte: Efeito Ázaron). Valeu Quase-Físico, por compartilhar o conhecimento de data importantíssima com todos nós!

First Year

It all started with this meaningless post. I was very confused when I decided to write this blog, confused about things happening in my life, as always. I had a few blogs in my bookmarks already, but then one day I was surfing aimlessly through the web, and then I found a blog. There was nothing special about that blog, but for some reason after reading that I decided that it would be a good idea to create a blog. This blog is not even in my blogroll anymore. So I went to blogger and decided to try this thing. I chose a template, one of the many templates that you can choose, and then I wrote for the first time. At the same day, later, I created my second post. And after that all Hell broke lose, and I never stopped.

In one year this place was visited almost 1976 times. I have written 202 posts. I changed the template 5 times, and I even created my own template. I never thought I could write so much about senseless stuff. And I turned to be a very good therapy sometimes. I have nothing to do, then I come here and write about something. Also, if I had no time at all, I had the time to come here and write about something else. I really think that this blog drains a small amount of my time everyday, looking at the statistics, looking at what people were looking for when they found my blog, or just keeping track of the visitors and where are my visitors coming from... Actually, I guess I am addicted to look at statistics. Or I waste my time looking at the blog statistics, or then I just stare at the screen thinking about stuff to write here. But anyway, I love this hobby and I love my blog! =D


You can count that this blog will still be here for a while. And I still have a lot of crazy and shocking ideas to share with people. Well... With my few readers at least! I also must keep Xaos growing, whether in the blog or in my city! Maybe in a hundred years this blog will be famous, and I will still be here praising Xaos and Entropy!

I was thinking in a totally different post, but I have been too tired these past few days, and I have not even played Rock Band as much as I would like, actually I just played it twice. All I have in my mind these days is how to make that cursed Fortran code work with my model. Damn code... I am tired, and I am going to sleep now... As a stone, I hope...

I just found out that I could filter my own visits in the blog in the beginning of July, so before that my own visits are included in the graphs. That is the reason I had so many visits during the first 5 or 6 months.

So 2008 started...

First post of the year! I was thinking about writing about the New Year's Party, yesterday, but I decided that I am going to write about it later, but I will publish it only one year from now. Well... if I remember about it by that time. But I can tell you that the party was okay, far from the best, but it was not the worst, either. It was very different, though. And by the end of the night I was sure about one thing... I shall never be dependent on the goodwill of others again! That was also something I learned last year. That does not mean I will not trust anyone anymore, it just means that I will never expect any favor or any kindness from anyone, anymore... It does not mean I did not meet nice people here, far from that, but I have met a few people who disappointed me. I will write about it sometime in the future... It simply is not time for that yet...

Changing subject totally, today, in the first day of this still new year, Xaos received its 100th habitant, and it turned into a hamlet. It is still a very small place, but it is getting larger. So far, Xaos has 100 habitants, and 17 industries, no unemployment, no pollution, no crimes, and everybody has access to transportation. As the Mayor of Xaos, I am very proud of the city development, and I welcome everyone who wants to come to Xaos, to live or to set up some industries. With this rising number of habitants, I am also looking for people interested in help to develop the transport networks of our beloved Xaos, if you are such person, feel free to come to Xaos, and talk to me about it.

When I woke up today, I turned on the TV, and there was a show about the future first human mission to Mars. We still have to overcome so many problems, some of them very difficult ones, but I am sure I am going to see that happen. There are a lot of people in the world that are totally against such crazy and extremely expensive projects, and think that this colossal project is a tremendous waste of resources, while there are so many problems to be solved on Earth, like famine, poverty, environmental problems, etc... I really do not think that as a waste of resources, actually, I see that as one of the biggest hopes for humankind... I am not thinking about the end of life on Earth due to our lack of success in reverse all the environmental damage already done to our planet... I am, actually, thinking about hope for humankind, thinking about untapped human potential, and technological advancements. I am sure that when that happens all humanity will stop everything to see that happening, as happened when humans first set foot on the Moon. That kind of thing is something that for a very brief moment of time makes you proud of being part of the human race. That moment will be the most exciting event of this century, when that happens... Only to think about the technological advancements necessary for that trip makes me excited.

After I have watched that show about the Mars trip, I decided to start shoveling the snow outside the house. Damn... That was tiresome! I am broken right now... Enough exercise for one week. I love when it snows, as it was snowing when the New Year started, but shovel snow is not fun! :P

O Fim de 2007

Última postagem do ano, mas não vou postar nenhuma retrospectiva do ano, nem meus planos para o próximo ano. Mas uma coisa eu digo, este ano que está terminando, foi com certeza, um dos anos mais interessantes da minha vida, e devido a tudo que ocorreu, eu tenho certeza que não sou o mesmo de um ano atrás, e espero ter evoluído este ano, e não involuído. Sei que o próximo ano vai ser um ano de decisões difíceis na minha vida, e espero saber fazê-las da maneira mais apropriada quando chegar a hora.

Muitas das coisas que aconteceram comigo este ano podem ser lidas nas diversas postagens do blog, desde fevereiro. Algumas estão escritas de maneiras meio enigmáticas, mas algumas estão escritas de maneira bem clara. E, no próximo ano, continuarei a escrever aqui, e é bem provável que eu escreva sobre as coisas que ainda estão pra acontecer, de uma maneira clara ou totalmente incompreensiva e encriptada.

Termino o ano, ou começo o próximo ano, com o blog de cara nova. Finalmente, após alguns meses, e algumas mudanças desde que resolvi criá-lo, consegui criar uma cara que me agradou bastante, e espero que tenha agradado às pessoas que, por ventura, passam por aqui, ou como leitores recorrentes, eventuais, ou pára-quedistas. Mas como nada é imutável, e mudanças são sempre inexoráveis, podem ter certeza que este blog ainda vai sofrer várias mudanças no futuro, próximo ou distante. Entropia e Caos, sempre!

Fico feliz em dizer que o número de visitantes e leitores aqui tem aumentado mensalmente, e já estou com uma média de 6,3 visitas diárias! A maioria delas é de pára-quedistas virtuais que caem aqui procurando as coisas mais esdrúxulas possíveis, mas tem vários leitores recorrentes, que nunca deixam comentários, mas que lêem minhas bobagens. Espero que as visitas continuem aumentando, e que eu continue inspirando o Caos e a Entropia na vida dos meus poucos leitores. (Se é que eu tenha realmente inspirado alguém, alguma vez na minha vida! Pffff... Hehehehe...) =D

Finalmente, amanhã, inauguro oficialmente o meu blog de trabalho, que será totalmente voltado pra Astrofísica, ou Astronomia, como preferirem. É bem provável que a maioria das coisas que eu vá escrever lá, não interessem a quase ninguém, e serão coisas totalmente ligadas ao meu trabalho, mas quem tiver o mínimo de interesse em saber o que um astrofísico faz, fique à vontade para visitá-lo. O nome do meu novo blog é "Stellar Xaos".

Ho ho ho... Feliz Ano (Bissexto) 2008 para todos os que lerem isto aqui!!! Que todos tenham um 2008 muito melhor que 2007, mas que ele não chegue aos pés de 2009! =D

Um Grande Imprevisto

Estranho como uma pessoa, mesmo estando tão distante consegue mudar a vida de outra de uma hora pra outra, de uma maneira totalmente inesperada. Você está em algum canto do mundo, diversas coisas acontecendo, ou não acontecendo, e inesperadamente uma única troca de palavras consegue mudar o fluxo de uma vida. Como eu já disse, eu adoro quando coisas inesperadas acontecem na minha vida, e desta vez não foi diferente.

Às vezes, tudo acontece tão rápido, e sem controle que aparece um certo receio, pra não dizer medo, na sua mente. Você se lembra de certas experiências passadas, e percebe que de vez enquando um simples deslize pode criar uma bagunça na sua vida, e que certas coisas devem acontecer, mas de preferência de uma maneira mais lenta, sem surtos de impulsividade. Isso realmente cria um certo receio. Receio de sofrer, receio de cometer um mesmo erro novamente. Mas sabe de uma coisa, tem horas que o melhor mesmo é deixar receio e medo pra trás, e deixar a falta de controle, e a impulsividade da situação tomar conta. Uma vida só de calmaria e estabilidade não tem graça. Se no final das contas, tudo der errado, você torce pra ter aprendido alguma coisa. Mas pode ser que no final das contas tudo valha a pena, e todo o Caos inicial traga algo especial e inesperado pra sua vida.

Tudo que anda acontecendo, no momento, tem valido muito a pena, mas tudo estaria bem melhor se eu estive há alguns milhares de quilômetros mais ao sul de onde estou. Já disse aqui que não gosto de fazer planos muito no futuro, mas já tenho planos bem delineados pra próxima Semana Santa (daqui a 113 dias), que será logo depois que eu chegar ao Brasil. Após isso, eu não sei de mais nada... Mas a Semana Santa com certeza será bem interessante, e eu não estarei em Belo Horizonte!!! E por mais louca, e insana que a situação possa parecer, eu estou adorando tudo, e não estou nem um pouco preocupado com a imprevisibilidade(?) de tudo o que pode acontecer no futuro.

Regrets from the past.

The mind is really a unpredictable thing. Sometimes it makes you remember things long forgotten for no apparent reason, and it all come out of nowhere. A dream, a smell, a scene, a music, and then you are living ten years back in your past again. You think about it, about correcting those "errors" from the past, but its just a tantalizing feeling, and you really can not do anything about it anymore, time passes by and the feeling of regret and the memories do not go away, they stay around you, haunting you for some time, and then they all go to the limbo again. But there are times, when those things stay more time than usual, and they give no clue at all about going away. Why does it happen? To make you realize that something similar is already happening, and to show you the regret that you would feel ten years from now, if you commit the same old mistake!?

Maybe... Who knows?

One less problem to solve...

Take heed and bear witness to the truths that lie herein, for they are part of my legacy to the world (Not even a little bit pretentious, huh? It was just a small reference from some PC Game of 11 years ago, that I am sure made a lot of people addicted to it, and I even have written something about it a time ago, using the same sentence). And so it came to pass that the problem that was haunting my dreams during these last days was at last solved. The optical depths is, again, at acceptable levels as also is the density of the excited state that was the cause of the problem. The error was not in the code after all, it was in the input file that was read by the code before, and that was used as a configuration file. The gas temperature in this file was a little too high, and it was the cause to the great value for the density of the second excited state in the hydrogen atom, and the causing the great optical depth for the transition from the 2 excited state to the first excited state!

Time to go on, and now patch some other errors... One less..

07/07/07

Não estava pensando em escrever nada hoje não, mas devido a data de hoje, vou escrever alguma bobagem aqui.

Ontem assisti Transformers. É bem legal o filme, vale a pena assistir. A estória do filme não é lá das melhores não, mas o filme é divertido assim mesmo. Vale a pena assistir no cinema. Os robos são bem legais, e as transformações ficaram bem legais também. O único problema é que eles são tão ágeis, que as lutas ficam muito confusas. Fica difícil saber onde termina um, e começa o outro transformer. O filme tem um ar de comédia também.

Ontem comprei três livros, um de ficção científica chamado Paradox: The Nulapeiron Sequence - Book I, de um tal John Meaney. Nunca ouvi falar do sujeito, mas li críticas boas sobre o livro, e resolvi comprar pra ler. O outro é do Neil Gaiman, Smoke and Mirrors, e finalmente um livro com várias estórias do H.P. Lovecraft. Comecei a ler Paradox, e estou achando muito estranho ainda, ainda estou sendo apresentada para a ambientação futurista do autor, e existem vários conceitos não muito bem definidos ainda, isso confunde, mas talvez melhore.

Coloquei algumas fotos do Klatrymadon no álbum. HAUhAUhUAHuAHuHAa... Duas fotos só! E uma foto do meu quarto. :P

O melhor de tudo é que 07/07/07 caiu num sábado! Ha! :P

Delayed photos and Pirates of the Caribean...

Four weeks in Ann Arbor and everything is still fine. The summer began yesterday, but this night the temperature here will be around 6 °C, according to the local forecast. Colder than the coldest winter night in Belo Horizonte.

About the photos, I will have to wait until I have a notebook to start posting them somewhere. The operational system in my office's computer does not recongnize my Card Reader Device, and the administrator said that it is because it is an old OS, and there is no way for it to work, so... As soon as CAPES pays me, I will buy a notebook. The problem is that I do not have the faintest idea about when it will happen. I expect it to be next week, but I really don't know.

This week I also went to the cinema for the first time here in Ann Arbor. I watched Pirates of the Caribean. It was great! The only problem is that I am still having some problems understanding some english accents, and to understand pirates speaking english with lots of different accents and lots of slangs was a little bit confused. But I could understand most of the dialogues in the movie. The problem was after the movie. After 6:30PM there are buses only at each hour, and after 10PM the regular buses stop. The movie ended just after the bus I was expecting to take passed near the movie theater, so I would have to wait for almost one 1h for the next and last one, so I decided to walk until the time the next bus was scheduled to pass. So I walked and walked and walked... And in the end, I walked until the place where I should stop, and the bus do not even have crossed me yet. And when I arrived in downtown, it was already past 10PM, so I had to walk home too. In the end I have walked around 7km from the movie theater to the apartment. It was better than if I had stayed in the bus stop waiting, and I still made some exercise, and explored Ann Arbor a little more. I even crossed a graveyard in my way home (unfortunately I did not see any kind of dark ritual being practiced there, I guess it was still early for those kind of things), walked through a road, crossed Ann Arbor city limities, not exactly in that same order. It is weird, people do not usually walk here, you see lots of people running and making execises, but they always drive their cars to wherever they want to go, even if it is near. I know 7km is not what we can call near, but during my walk I crossed at most 5 people walking around trying to go somewhere, and 2 guys riding bikes. I have not crossed anyone running, though, I guess it was too late for that. It must be weird for them to see someone with a backpack walking in a road almost at night too, but it was fun...

Yesterday, I was making some food (I do not call what I was doing of cook), and I was grilling some stuff. There is no window in the kitchen, which is kind of stupid in my opinion, and then lots of smoke start to rise in the apartment, covering everything. Then suddenly I start to hear something beeping inside the apartment, as loud as you can imagine. I started to try to figure out where in the nine hells that sound was coming from, and then I realized the apartment was totally covered in smoke, and the sound was coming from the smoke detector. I looked to that thing, and was thinking how I would make that sound to stop, and then decided to touch the thing, and it fell to the ground, and then the sound stopped. After that I had to use the bathroom exaustor (there is no window in the bathroom either, really stupid!), to suck out the smoke in the apartment. And after a while everything was ok again! That is what happens when you try to grill things inside a windowless kitchen apartment! Lots of fun! :P

My blog is still suffering some mutations, but I guess it will stabilize soon. I have to sit down, and start to understand the template code, and then change some of its parameters, to do what I want to do with it here yet. That will be done in the near future, or not... Maybe I will just change everything again.

At this exact moment (the moment I was writing this line, of course) I am hearing Johnny B. Goode by Jimmy Hendrix!! \m/,

And that is it for now. Another weekend starts, and time only knows what will be of me until next time... I guess tomorrow I will wander around the city, exploring and talking more pictures, but that is still undecided... And may the Force be with you and with me too! :P

P.S.: After a while I realized that is not so stupid to not have a window in a kitchen or in a bathroom, when the temperature in the winter can become as low as -20°C, or lower than that.

The weekend...

Since last week I have some company at the apartment. Francine's twin sister, Frances, arrived there last tuesday night. Last friday we went to a dance club here in Ann Arbor, and I can say that I drank a lot, and I had much fun there too. Frances is a nice girl, and knows how to be fun, when she wants. Saturday I had my first hangover in american soil, but it was worth the night... I have spent three weeks here without drinking anything, it was enough time... Hehehehehe

Saturday we went to one of her friend's house. The house was in the country, 1 hour by car from Ann Arbor. We went with Monique, another of her friends, and a very nice girl too. It was near a lake, not one of the Great Lakes, a small one called Sand Lake, if I am not wrong. People gathered there for a barbecue, american churrasco, and it was not even compared to our churrasco. Only some hamburgers and hot dogs. I don't know if it is really like that, but people eat one or two, and then they close the grill and it is over. At least the meat eating is over. After that only drinking and eating other things... Due to my hangover, I was not able to drink much during the barbecue, and after that. There were lots of good things to drink there, and all for free, and I was unable to do that! I was still trying to recover control of the entropic levels in my body! A pity! :P

We spent the night there, and sunday people gathered to swim in the lake. It is a very shallow lake, but it was good to swim again. After that we came back to Ann Arbor. This was the first worth weekend here in the US. I just expect more to come, soon.

Frances is going to stay in the apartment for more two weeks, pack her things, and then go back to Los Angeles. After that I will have a room! At least until the end of August.

I am getting tired of only tell about things I am doing here. Next time I post something I will start my random and senseless posts again. Maybe even some scramblespeak to put mind out of order again! Yeah!
]-]

By the way, work is progressing. Program is beginning to work, and I am starting the initial debug fase.

Digital Camera

Now I have a digital camera! And as soon as I find out how to read the photos from the card reader in my office's computer I will start to post these photos somewhere. (I know there is an USB port, but I don't know how to access it from the linux yet, nor do I think I have permission to use it, as it actually seems I have no access permission to any USB device in this computer, I will need to talk with the system administrator here about it.)

I have bought the camera thursday, and it arrived friday. I was at home awaiting for it, and the time was passing and nothing... When it was around 14:30 for some unknown reason I decided to open the apartment door, and to my surprise just in front of it, over the floor, there it was, a small box with my name on it. I have not heard any kind of knock on the door, not the doorbell, nothing... The guy simply left it there in front of the door and then went away. Well... It should not be a problem at all, if the apartment building have a gate or something like that, but there is no kind of gate, anyone can enter the building blocks, and have access to each of the apartments doors. That is what I call 'Trust in People'! That kind of thing should never work in Brazil... Unfortunately!

Next time I buy something, it will probably be my laptop, so after that, I will not tell them to deliver it to my apartment, I guess I will tell them to deliver it to my office in the Astronomy Department. Not that I don't trust them, but well, as a good brazillian guy, I am still a bit paranoid about those things, and I do not want to lose the money I will spend on that computer... :P

As you all, my brazillian friends, can see, things here are very different from things in Brazil... My only problem here until now, is that I do not know many people here yet, but I will try to remedy that soon... Yesterday, a girl that I knew some days ago (she is a friend of the girl who "lives" in the aparment with me) invited me to go to swim in her building's pool, so I went there. And there were also some of her friends there too, but sometimes when they were talking I got totally lost in their conversation. But it was fun, nevertheless, and I was really needing to swim a little...

So, it is time to catch the Magic Bus and go home... 17 days here, and I am fine, and it is getting more interesting every day! ;)

The Magic Bus

The Magic Bus is the University of Michigan bus service. The University has two campuses here, and this bus service links the two campuses and other scattered University Buildings. And fortunately its route passes near where I am living, so I am taking it every day to come to the University. They pass each 10 or 15 minutes depending on the hour, and I do not need to say that it is free for everyone, not only University of Michigan Students. The bus service starts at 5 or 6AM, I am not sure, and ends at 1AM, and if during this time you look in this webpage, you will see a map, and some bus-icons moving through this map (yes, they are really moving), and that is exactly where each one of them is passing right now. (There is a 10 or so seconds of lag, but I don't mind, it is just cool enough for me!!) You can always know where is your bus, and when you have to leave to get them on time!

In the AATA buses (the regular town bus service), there is something alike, but not on the map. There is a notice in a webpage, telling exactly where the bus is, and how much late it is. If the bus arrives in a reference bus stop before it should be, it just stands there until the time is right for it to leave. If it is late, it just stops for a minimum amount of time, and then go. If you know the bus schedule, you practically do not need to wait, you just arrive on the bus stop at the time, and it will be there at the time, with a small error or 1 minute or so.

I am just liking this place!! Everything works!! :P

The Deceiving Sun and the squirrels...

So today after I wake up, I looked through the window, and when I was near it I fell a heat wave coming from the glass. The Sun outside was bright, and the sky all clear. So I thought that this would be a very hot day, and I decided to wear light clothes. When I went outside I have felt a little unconfortable, it was a little cold, but then I thought - No, it is still early, it will get hotter! - So I came to the university wearing a shirt and a bermuda short. After a little while, I got to the university, and the temperature did not raise as I was expecting. So I am here chilling in this cold, the sun outside seems warmth and confortable, but it is not as it seems! It is almost summer here, last week the days were hot almost everyday, so I thought that sun means hot today. The temperature is around 18 degrees Celsius, and it was colder a little earlier. I guess it was 14 or 15 a little earlier. I will just think twice next time I decided to wear a bermuda.

Almost every bit o bureaucracy here is already solved. I have a place to live, a bank account, health insurance, a computer on my office's desk, my advisor is already here, my visa was validated, and my bank card is already in my hands. I also have already sent all the documentation CAPES need to start paying me here... I guess in 3 weeks I may have my first payment, I guess... And after that I am gonna buy my notebook.

Now I have to start to work without worrying to much about those things, and I can also look for a place where I can swim again... :)

I have not mentioned it yet, but there are LOTS of squirrels here. There is at least one or two of them near every tree, or green patch of grass you look. And it is almost time to go home...

A place to live...

Until I do not have this keyboard correctly configured I will continue to write in english. It will be better than to write in portuguese without accents. To be brief as I have to leave here soon, today I moved to an apartment. I will be living there alone during sometime, and eventually the other girl who is renting with me will come. She is going to spend her summer in Los Angeles, and during that time I will be living alone. It is a small, but very confortable place, and for sometime I will have to sleep in the living room, because the room that should be mine is still full of the old owner's stuff, and she is travelling somewhere. I will only get the room after she came back and take her stuff away. I really don't care, there is a sofa-bed in the living room where I can sleep, and besides I will pay less for this month because of that. And as noone is sharing the apartment right now with me, noone will disturb me while I sleep there. Only one problem though. This apartment is practically beside the Largest Football Stadium in the United States (as I was told), and I don't know how will it be during the games, fortunately though there are only Universitary League games there, and not big NFL games, and it seems they are 6 or 7 games per season. Weird, I know, but I will not complain about it! :P

And after getting a permanent address, I also have opened my bank account. I just hope CAPES's first deposit come soon, so I can buy my computer! =D

Tomorrow I will start explore my new neighborhood, and then go out to buy stuff. Hehehehe... And today, sooner, I will go out with some astronomy grad students here to drink something. Just starting to socialize! I am still a bit shy speaking english, and sometimes I still get lost in their conversations, but soon that will be past! :)

That is it, people! I know this place is needing some xaos, but there is still too much to do! Hehehehehe...

First days in Ann Arbor

So, after almost one week without Internet access, today I finally got one computer on my desk, and now after some problems with my account and password, I am online again, at least while I am at the University. I was thinking about writing this in portuguese but I am gonna write it in english.

First things first. So I will start talking about the trip. What a tiresome trip!!! Damn it!! I have to stay for 12h in Guarulhos Airport in SP, and those were the most boring hours of my life!! My luggage was not dispatched to Detroit directly from Belo Horizonte, in fact I had to get all my luggage in every airport and then dispatch them again, that was not so bad, as the chances for them to get lost were minimum with that, but when I was in SP, I have to carry all that weight around the airport for almost all the 12 hours I was there. When I arrived at Guarulhos Airport, the first thing I did was to look for Delta Airlines Bureau. I crossed all the airport and did not find it, then I went to ask the information desk girl about it and she told me that Delta only set up its check-in desks 3 hours prior to its flights, and their first flight was 9:30PM! Damn it!! I had to carry my stuff around the airport until 6:30PM. A great burden I say! I had a book to read, but I was unable to do that, as I was very drowsy, and I also could not sleep because someone with not so good intentions could simply confound our baggages and take something mine while I was not so aware. I had to stay alert during all this time, carrying more than 40kg of stuff around the airport, only hearing music, and waiting or the time to pass. I knew where Delta would set up their desks and evry once in a while I just passed near it to see. Around 5PM I was wandering around the area when I see a small crowd already in a line near the Delta Airlines Place. So I went there and find out that they were already in the Delta Check-In line, at least one hour before the check-in started. As the Federal Police was in strike, the imigration lines were colossal, and people wanted to do the check in as soon as possible to not lose their flights, so the check-in line started sooner as well. I have entered the line, around 6:30PM the check-in started, around 7PM I have already dispatched my luggage, and then after that I went right away to the imigration line thinking that I would take around 2 to 3 hours until I reach the boarding gates. My mistake, I did not even eat before enter the imigration line, and after less then one hour I was already near my boarding gate, totally hungry, and almost 3 hours before my flight! I have to eat something there, and I never paid so much for anything to eat as I have done there! Bah!!

Doing a fast forward, as I do not have so much more to tell about the rest of the trip. After I got into the plane, I found my seat, and then a couple with a small daughter (I guess) asked me and the girl by my side if we would change places with them (they were in the seats right in front of us), and it was the first file of seats, and the thing between seats in that line did not raise so the little girl could not sleep in their laps. Well... We chanceg places, and we had more space to stretch our legs in that line, as the airplane wall was a little bit further from the seats than the other seats were from one to another. I could barely talk to the girl beside me as I was VERY tired, and almost could not left my eyes opened, and the girl did not seemed to be so receptive, at least that is what I thought around that time. So the trip went on, sitting in that front line I was very close to the airplane kitchen, and in fact if I stretched my legs, then my foot would be inside the kitchen, and just after the kitchen was the First Class. During the flight I saw the stewardesses preparing the first class stuff, and yeah, there is a reason for the price they pay in the ticket to be much more expensive!! The point is not that, the point is that during all the flight I have seen the stewardesses preparing stuff for the first class people, and eventually one of them dropped a glass of wine, and the wine decided to fly in my legs direction!! Fortunately it was not so much wine, but the asian stewardess was very sorry, but could not hide her laugh, well... No problem at all, she help me clean it all after that. I just know that during the night some others small incidents have happened, involving my person, but I did not recall them very well. I just know that the asian stewardess smiled at me every time she crossed me after that, saying something that I could not understand, and I just smiled back. Then my flight arrived in Atlanta just before the scheduled time, around 7AM in the morning.

In Atlanta Airport, I had to take my luggage again, and then left it someplace to it to be dispatched to Detroit. I crossed the imigration section without any problems, as easy as possible. The guy in the bureau asked me about what I would do in the US, I told him, and we started to talk about astrophysics stuff. The officer liked the subject and was not so misinformed about things, it was a fast and nice talk. He stappled a so called I-94 form in my passport, and then a followed my way. I left my luggage in the above mentioned place, then crossed the metal detector, and then I had to find my way around the Atlanta Airport. The Airport was COLOSSAL!! I had to take a train inside the airport to go near my next boarding gate, and I am not kidding!!

I waited for the next flight, arrived in Detroit Airport, that is also a big one, but not even near the Atlanta Airport. Crossed all the airport to find my baggage, then find a taxi to Ann Arbor. The weather was very cloudy but it was not raining. The taxi driver was a paquistanese, I just wonder how he was able to enter the US, but he seemed to be a fine guy, and I not a terrorist! Hehehehe... I arrived at the Hotel around friday 1PM. The room where I am staying is very confortable, there are two queen-size beds there, a microwave, a small fridge, a TV and cable TV. My first problem was to find out how to open the sinker tap! Instead of twist it from one side to the other, you have to pull it out, and then twist it to choose hot water or cold water. The same for the shower tap. Then I took a very long and sought shower, called a University contact that my advisor left me to when I arrived in Ann Arbor. His name is Jesus, and then he took me at the hotel, and showed me the Astronomy Department. I still did not meet my advisor, she did not come to the University since I have arrived. After the University I have returned to the hotel, and have fainted in the bed. When I have woken up it was already 11pm, and then I just went to sleep again. (As you can see I was very tired!)

It was raining during all the weekend, so I did not have much to do. I have explored a bit the city and the region around the hotel, but I did not so much because of the rain. I found a giant bookstore a mile away from my hotel, and I spend a lot of time wandering in the middle of thousands of books, but I did not buy anything, as I still have to read some other books. I have bought some stuff to eat in a nearby grocery, but I spend most of my weekend on the hotel. Monday was Memorial Day, and there was not so much to do either, I walked a bit near the hotel, and then I got back and spend the rest of the day reading or watching anything on the TV. (Training my hearing.)

I am really surprised with Ann Arbor. The city is very beautiful, and there are people from all around the world here. And everywhere you enter people ask "How are you doing today?", even without never seeing you before. And sometimes they even smile at you. But even with that I am a little unconfortable with the place yet, but I guess sooner than later I will be confortable again. And here the sun is setting around 9:30 PM, so it is still day until 10PM or so... I am not used to that yet! And there is green everywhere, and the traffic is totally civilized! All the cars stop for the pedestrians, and such... I now a have a card form the University and I can take any Ann Arbor bus for free! And with a US$5,00 phone card, I can speak for around 5h with people in Brazil!! And the US is really the consumers paradise, but I still did not buy anything!

I am still looking for a place to live here, and have already one option, but I have not decided yet. I am gonna to write more another day! I have already spent to much time writing these things here!

The important thing is: I am alive, and I am well! =D

Ann Arbor Adventure Update - The Visa

So I got my US Visa, but my passport still did not arrive. I hope it arrives until next monday or tuesday. My trip is scheduled for thursday morning, and I NEED my passport until that time. I will just let time flow... Flow... Almost everything is ready for the trip, I already have my Visa, my airplane ticket, a place to stay in the first week, and I even have made some contacts in Ann Arbor. I am still looking for a more permanent settlement, but I guess that will only be solved when I get there... How will I go from the airport to Ann Arbor? Well... I guess I will let that question to be solved after I arrived at Detroit Metro Airport... What will be the fun to have everything solved before the time comes!? After all an adventure is full of chaos and unpredictable things... The only thing I want to be predictable is that my passport arrives on time... :P

My thesis title is (in english) "A Computational Model for Magneto-Accretion and Diskwind in Classical T Tauri Stars". The interview guy in the consulate, when read that title in one of the docs I have presented him, just laughed and after that told me that he will give me my VISA. He barely asked me any question, I just have to answer him one or two small questions, I showed him the docs, and he really like my thesis title. So if you want an US Visa, take a document with your PhD or Master thesis' title and you will surely get the Visa! Ah, of course, there are some prohibited keywords that shall never be mentioned in the title directly, like: radiation, nuclear, bio-hazzard, explosives, infections, and so on... So if you have any of those words in the title, just chance them for a more shady expression meaning the same thing. For example, you can change "nuclear explosion" for the expression "atomic core disruptive outbreak", or "nuclear radiation" for "eletromagnetic (for gama radiation) or particle (for alpha or beta radiation) emission generated by atomic core induced or natural decay". Atomic is a suspicious word, so it is better to change atomic for the element name, unless the atom name is Uranium or Plutonium or any other infamous dangerously radioactive element, in that case you can use for example in the Uranium case the expression "A 92-proton stable or unstable (depending on the number of neutrons) nucleus element". "A disruptive outbreak of some moles of 98% enriched mass of 92 -protons meta-unstable nucleus element" is just a primitive atomic bomb explosion! Just be creative and then you can easily get your Visa! :P

15 Days Left...

My mind is so full of things. Lots of internal conflicts, lots of things to do, lots of new things to come, and lots of problems to solve. My docs from the University of Michigan still did not arrive. I have re-scheduled my visit to the American Consulate for the second time, and also my trip to São Paulo. I had to pay a re-schedule tax to change my airplane ticket, and also my visa appointment. This DS-2019 is giving me some headaches, and is draining my money away due to all this re-scheduling thing... And I still have to fill other two forms, and pay some other taxes just to get my US Visa. I guess that in the next few weeks, all my life will be only bureaucracy. (SO BORING!!)

I have made my initial reservation in Ann Arbor's Lamp Post Inn, and I have a place to stay for the first week, and I expect to find a more permanent place in that week, and the move out from the inn. I still do not know how to go from Detroit Metro Airport to Ann Arbor, but I found out that a taxi would cost me $47. I will look for a cheaper option when I get there, I know there buses and I think there is a nearby train station too.

I am sending e-mails to people wanting to share apartments and houses in Ann Arbor, but almost no one answers me. Damn, I never thought it would be so difficult to receive a reply. I hope to have better luck when I am there, but I am not going to stop looking yet.

And then there were some weird facts in The Dreaming last night, that have made my sleep unrestful, and have left me intrigued all day long. I do not know if "unrestful" is an existing word, but I guess you get the meaning. What did happen in the dreaming? Well... Just some strange facts, that would not make any sense to anyone but me, so do not worry too much about that. Dreams are just weird, aren't they? And some of them are just weirder than others... But every night I go to sleep thinking about having weird dreams, they are what make my sleep worth of my sleeping time... :P

Time is flowing, and the time of my adventure is getting nearer. I just think that it have already started, with all this problems to solve... Well... Life is just a big adventure after all... Always changing and churning, so chaotic and fascinating... Always the unknown and sometimes the unexpected ahead of you!!

I am not afraid! And I will not fade away... You can be sure of that! ]-]

15 days to go, and counting down...

Countdown to Ann Arbor

"Take heed and bear witness to the truths that lie herein, for they are the last legacy of the Horadrim... And so it came to pass that I decided the exact day to my trip to the United States, and that will be at May 23rd. I am going to spend the next 10 months in Ann Arbor, doing part of my graduation research. And some time around March 2008 I will return to Belo Horizonte. "

Now I will start the countdown to US.

30 days left, and counting...