You are not hired!

Ok, remember once upon a time I had applied for a job in Shanghai. This opening is for the same job position that I have now, same company, just in Shanghai.

The first time I applied the recruiter accepted very well my application and we exchanged ideas for quite sometime. She even mentioned I was the best candidate. However, the final decision of the job placement had to be done by her superior. The Director said no and mentioned a problem I would face in the new job, the recruiter told me, I found a solution for that problem. The director then mentioned another problem that might occur, I found yet another solution! My ideas were indeed taken for the benefit of the company, they adopted quite fast at least one of the solutions I mentioned. So, eventually the recruiter told me the Director had just said no (no more problems this time, maybe I could solve them all and make her look stupid??).


Recently the recruiter left her position on kind of a maternity leave. She told me informally that another person now has the selection process, in Japan. Maybe I should try to apply again, after all, I was their best candidate! Maybe if some one else looked at my history, CV and experience, I could have a better chance. But she warned me to be careful about the director.

A couple of days ago I got my CV, made sure it was the best CV I could write. I got examples of cover letters and wrote a pretty good one, took a lot of time also in formatting it. Got another sheet of paper to write a memorandum about my previous attempt and why I am trying again...

Just got the news today. The Director had just said no.

Its sad, just for you to hear that you are the best, but you are not hired. Ask for reasons (just so I could improve something for next time) and no reasons were given. But, now maybe a door will open in Japan. Japan... wow... I'll have to think about that one.

Organizing...

This week has been pretty full. Waking up at 6am, 7am everyday and going to bed past 1am... Things at work are picking up quite well. The reason for this is that I am trying to catch up on some of the tasks that have been a bit behind schedule . Besides that, solving general problems that really only I can solve because no one else has their head on their shoulders to think straight. This week I was even called in the bosses' office to have a talk, it was a pretty stressful, pathetic talk. Imagine a person that has no sense of what is going on, no sense of business structure, process, quality control, management or customer relationship knowledge... Add on to that the inability to hold a conversation because all this person wants to do is yell. Wow... Pretty sad ain't it? It wasn't that stressful as it should've been just because it was pathetic.

Ranting boss: "Danilo, I am here to talk about your approach to customer's complaints. You are stalling too much and causing a great danger."
Me: "Ok, I am not stalling, I am being careful to really get to know the source of the problem before I call any employee's attention. In the meantime, observe closely the employee."
Ranting boss (at this point with face all red in anger): "But that is wrong! You should talk to the employee regardless on whether you know what is the problem."
Me (calm and amazed at what is spoken): "Ok, I don't do that because there is no use talking to anyone if I don't really know what the real problem is. I have been doing this for the past 20 months and we have been having the highest customer retention percentage in our history."
Ranting boss: "I am not talking about customer retention, that is totally out of the conversation, both have nothing to do with each other."
More sane boss to ranting boss: "All of this is related to customer retention, if Danilo does a bad job, customers will leave. Thus he is doing a very good job."
Ranting boss to more sane boss: "Are you calling me crazy then??!"
Me: completely perplexed at the conversation, just start to stare and nod from time to time.

Its a mad world we live in... We see a bit of everything in our lifetime.

Recently in my attempts to be a bit more organized, and better at everything got the book Blink which has had good reviews. But unfortunately time hasn't let me touch on it. This week though I have read a bit more of Allen's GTD. Actually, I have started to apply some of his ideas also found in a website to get my email inbox organized, my tasks more in order. So far, so good.

In other news... dating is going ok. Some bumps occurred this week, but nothing serious. My cousin 2 years younger then me is getting married next Saturday so everyone that sees me and my girlfriend is telling us to get married too. Not going to happen for quite sometime though, I am just way too young... Today I went to see The Lake House. Do yourself a favor, don't go watch it. Too predictable, way too corny to be good and I am not saying this because I am a guy, many of my friends agree and my girlfriend said the same.

So, now that was the week's news. Its almost 2am now and I have to sleep. Have fun, love & be safe!!

artwork: Organized Confusion - Ruth Palmer 2

All new is old in the land of the sun

Land of the Sun, that is what our state if called. Now it so happens that I really don't like the sun, I mean as hot and as bright as we get it for the number of days that we get it. I miss some rain, downpours, lightening (all within a safe, non-disaster making, limit of course).

It has started again... Boredom... Since last post, work work work. At work still everything the same, bosses playing that they are working, coming in 3 hours a days, 4 days a week and when they come, "Do this! do that! this is wrong!" No hello, thanks, how are you doing. Heck, after all, like my boss said once, "He respects his employees because he thinks it is a nice thing to do, we owe him respect because he owns us". Sheesh, unfortunately he has a point because lucky for him we are in a country with a high unemployment rate, but if he had taken the time to study something about business, leadership, human resources... It takes a little bit more then fear, threats to make someone produce at their best level. Anyway, life goes on...

Dating... 1 year, 1 month, 7 days and counting! Wow, its been a long time. So far so good, now she's hinting about marriage. Of course, I cut the conversation short. I am too young, she is too young, the relationship is too young, and everyone knows that "she's-the-right-person-for-me-feeling". That feeling hasn't hit me yet, so we take it day-by-day. My cousin is getting married though, 2 years younger then me and a proud father-to-be! Another cousin of mine is also pregnant. Now, this baby stuff is starting to hit my generation...

Actually, speaking of generation, I have been thinking a lot recently about my life. It has almost been 4 years since I am back to Brazil. Next year I have plans and luckily this semester I can much better prepare myself for it.

In other news... A topic I have been reading a lot about recently is personal productivity, how to be organized. I have come to think (maybe because I am getting "old") that time is our most precious resource. We can either make it as an asset and have it give us positive things, or as a liability where it continuously disrupts us... So far I've read Covey's two books, the 7 Habits and the 8th Habit and I am now reading Getting things done. So far these books have been of great help! I have to tell you the truth tough, I have to read them again to really get many of the concepts working out better. With these books and their concepts, I have started to use a few tools like Google calendar and a task organizer linked to it. Indeed, I have yet a lot to learn, but so far I have gained improvement.

Ok, its Sunday night and I still have to organize some stuff for the week. Until next time! Be happy, be safe and be smart!!

Artwork: Trinity by Natasha Wescoat; Three Crooked Houses by Carol Shelton.

In worldwide news... This is happening in the UN

Annan hails agreement on treaty protecting rights of persons with disabilities

28 August 2006 – Secretary-General Kofi Annan today hailed the agreement reached late Friday on the text of a treaty to protect the rights of persons with disabilities, urging all Member States to ratify the convention and implement it quickly.

Mr. Annan's spokesman issued a statement in which the Secretary-General called the agreement “a historic achievement for the 650 million people with disabilities around the world” that have lacked adequate protection until now.

Mr. Annan added that he hoped “this long overdue Convention will mark the beginning of a new era in which they will have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else.”

According to New Zealand's Ambassador Don MacKay, who chaired the talks through their final two-week session at Headquarters, the goal of the treaty is to create a “paradigm shift in the way that governments think about disabilities” that will make a “real and concrete difference to the approximately 650 million people with disabilities worldwide.”

He noted that a perception had existed in the past that existing human rights treaties applied to people with disabilities but that those rights were often not respected in practice.

“What we're basically doing in the convention is setting out a code for governments so that they implement these broad rights that people with disabilities already actually are entitled to but are not receiving,” said Mr. MacKay, speaking to reporters in New York today.

While the convention does not create new rights, it specifically prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities in all areas of life, including civil rights, access to justice and the right to education, health services and access to transportation.

The convention will be formally sent to the General Assembly for adoption at its next session, which begins in September. It will then be open for signing and ratification by all countries.

source: UN News Centre (www.un.org)

Indeed, he is alive!!

Hello to all!! Yes I am back (after sometime in the Buddhist mountains in an attempt to find myself, or something like that...)

Well, I actually don't quite have an explanation for the disappearance, things were just getting old, same stuff to write so I decided not to write.

But lets see, what can we save from the past almost 8 months I have been gone:

At work things are just the same. First semester things were just getting too frustrating for me, too out of purpose. Since we work as a team, all tasks are interlinked. The things I did had many times no use because everyone was in their chaotic, disorganized, unproductive world. I would see people chatting on msn, people looking at social networking sites, even my bosses. Meetings and meetings being done without me, actions taken only to be forgotten again. All I could do was look though, my area in the company has to do with instruction and not administrative. Even when I had ideas to improve the company, someone in the adm dept used her influence to make sure things would not change and stay at the same chaotic place. My bosses are the owners of the company and they run the place only because they own the place. In a family business, competency does not count for much or else we would see owners actually getting business degrees or doing something to actually deserve being Directors, President, CEO, what not. I honestly one day would like to ask my boss if he really would hire himself to run his business.

That was in the first semester. In the middle of the year, around May I was just not caring much about my job. At that same time was in the selection process to work in Shanghai, China (same company, same job title). No one in my company new. Ended up I didn't get the job although I was their best candidate. They told me the city is not very wheelchair accessible, so I could not do my job well. I just didn't understand that, but... It was their choice. The position is now still open, they don't have anyone and I am still their best candidate. The recruiter in charge of my selection told me.

Going back to the situation in Brazil... In may my bosses went to talk to me, I was visibly loosing productivity. Spoke to both of my bosses, they said things were going to be much better organized from now on and that had to include me. Fine by me! I'm now working a bit more up to par, but I don't know until when... Things are back just like they were, bosses traveling or "working" for 3 hours a day, other manager thinks her way is the only way to do things and may no one argue or she will shout & scream & cry (literally). That place has become a mess and because we are now in a more visible space, demand has grown and our bosses think hurray! They are doing an excellent job!!

Personal news... Yup, I am still dating. Even after continually thinking about breaking up, we are still together. Everyone has their bad days right... In February we had our Carnaval. I went with my gfriend and her cousins to my father's beach house, where he lives. We spent there a week, had a few fights, but normal. After that we spent a week together at the end of July. It was just me and her because my father was traveling. So, we are doing well so far. In Brazil, we have this tradition of commitment ring. Its to show that relationship is serious, kind of a step (way, way, way, way) before engagement. I gave this ring to her during our 6 months anniversary. We are gradually growing closer and learning how to live with each other. Our 1 year anniversay was this month, so far everything is a-okay.

Life is good, moving along as it should, not only dreams, not only sunshine, just a normal life.
I guess I am back for good, but lets wait to see when I post again.

artwork: The Window Forget Me Knots - Henri Matisse

New Year!!! Happy 2006!!

Ok folks, a new Year has arrived, we are happy, we are full of energy, we are ready 2 go!!

Lets now go down memory lane to see what happened in the past few days...

My brother arrived from Brasília (our nation's capital) on the 22nd. That day we went out to chat at a bar. There was me, my father, my brother, my girlfriend, my brother's "friend" and my cousin later arrived. We sat, we drank, we ate, we talked, it was a blast. My father went back early because he lives 90 mins away so it was a long drive. My brother then went with his "friend" to a "special" place so they could "talk in private". You all know what I mean, so theres no need to discuss this further. Then, we drove home, me my cousing and my gfriend. We were almost getting home and we found a Cuban dancing bar. There we went!! I had a blast, just sitting and watching the women shakin their thang!! (my girlfriend didn't like it that much, I wonder why...) .

Funny memory at this bar... As we are about to go in, my cousin goes in first to check out the scene. Its packed, but not crowed, very nice. He checks to see how much it is, he then tells the bouncers that its the first time I was going in, I dont know much about the city, want to meet the house, asks if I can go in without paying, the bouncers and the owner agree. We go in I sit at a corner with my girlfriend and I drink my smirnoff ice. My girlfriend isn't much of a touchy person, so we barely even hold hands. After a while the owner of the bar comes up to me saying my name, asks if I liked the place, offers me a drink, we have 20 more seconds of conversation and I noticed he is gay. Before making another move, I go for my gfriend's hand and hold it tight, close to me. He sees this, says hello to her and leaves. Now, I have nothing against gay people, matter of fact, vast majority of my work colleagues are. But, for some reason I have this luck, when I go out I have no idea why, but gay guys flirt more with me then straight women... Interesting fact...

Then we went for xmas!! I went to my mother's side of the family for a little while, it had been a long time since I hadn't spoken with them. But we got there late, so many people had already left.... Afterwards I went home, my girlfriend later came over. And by that time we celebrated my birthday!!

She was incredibly sick, poor woman... Sneezing, coughing, fever, you get the pretty picture. But I spent the first minutes of my birthday with her. Later on the day... At night, we planned a get together at a bar. I invited the people from work, but only one person showed up. So it was me, cousins, girlfriend, brother, friends... It was very very nice. We sat at the bar until it closed. Then... We weren't ready to quit drinking yet so we pulled over to an all-nighter gas station and its convenience store. I drank a little more, my cousin and my brother drank a lot more. We danced, talked, drank, all by ourselves at the gas station until the sun rose. Of course, our journey back home wasn't nice for both cars... But we have strong guardian angels and everyone was home safe (at 7am).

After that it was New Years!!! We went to the house of my aunt's parents (my aunt and uncle live in a different city). It was a huge family gathering, about 40 people, people I hadn't seen in ages! We were there until 3am drinking a lot (I only drank a bit of real champagne). At about 3am my uncle gives us 5 tickets to go to one of the most exclusive New Year's party in town. Each ticket was worth over 600 bucks, all-you-can-eat buffet, all-you-can-drink (and only the best options). When we got there I really started drinking my vodka, there was a little bit of everything to drink. We were there until almost 7am, dancing, drinking,... The rain sortta spoiled our fun at a few moments, but nothing big. And once more, the journey back home... drinking and driving.. But we got home safe, I don't really want to go through those experiences once more... Too much adrenaline for me. lol

The following week, I decided to spend some time with my father at his beach house. My brother was already there with his "friend" and I went with my girlfriend and my cousin (but he returned home 2 days before we did). It was just drinking, sun, card games, dating... Just what I needed to close down my vacation.

My brother left today, yesterday we had a little get together with family also to spend some more time with him. I really enjoyed this vacation, my brother was here, we had a lot of family presence, my beloved girlfriend was by my side at all times which definetely made our relationship a lot stronger.

Tomorrow I'm going back to reality. Work starts once more, I still haven't gotten paid, still have no money whatsoever... (2nd month now). For once I don't think I got sick and tired of my vacation, this one was busy and it was extremely pleasant.

Peace to all and a wonderful 2006!!!
artwork: Christmas - Sandi Wickersham. More pictures also here.

"When I go forwards you go backwards and somewhere we will meet."

Title from Radiohead's Elecioneering from the "OK Computer" album.

ok, so its been a while since I've been here... I think its the dating life that takes away a lot of exciting news and replaces it with other news. But lets see what we got...

Now, for the UPDATES:

I am enjoying my month-long vacation from work. Actually, on my first day of vacation I went to work to finish a couple of errands and now I'm still kinda working... Theres a pending project that I still have to work on and I have been answering a few phone calls these past few days because our paycheck is a couple days late (I'm not the one responsible for payment but being the supervisor...). So my account had enough money for me to buy a pack of cigarettes, just now I went to buy one and I have a bit over a buck left. Sheeesh, I hope we get some dough soon.

Now I was also supposed to be coming back from a week-long trip. I didn't go. I was going to my father's house because he would travel and I would watch over the house. But, my father decided not to travel so I didn't go. I will in the near future, nothing confirmed yet.

In technology news: I am now a proud owner of a new cell phone. It was quite interesting actually. I was walking around the mall with my girlfriend and decided to go in a cell phone carrier's store and ask them what and/or how much they would give me if I changed to their company. With their offer I called my carrier and told them what I had received, my carrier then gave me this new phone for a buck (and now I have a fixed plan with lower rates)!!! Try it out in your neck of the woods to see what you can get!!! After that I did the same for my aunt and for my father. So now we all have spiffy new phones with cameras!! Which means I can take some pictures, useless and kinda nice ones. So now I have taken pictures of me sleeping, pics of me at a bar, all sorts of needless pics.

In family news: my brother (and Santa Claus) are coming to town!! My brother is coming tomorrow, Santa, I guess only Sunday. Its been a bit under two years that I haven't seen my brother so that will be quite nice. It would've been better if I had money, but... lets hope that problem is solved tomorrow.

Actually, I had some money, but don't anymore because my girlfriend's cell phone broke down so I went and got one for her for xmas. Now I'm just broke.

And speaking about dating... Again we had another crisis, again I asked to resign from my position and again she said things could and would change. Now, for blog readers this looks old and stupid now. But... I think things will work out, next time though I don't think I will threaten to resign, I will just resign. Occurring problems are fine, but recurring problems are just stupidity. Plus, blog readers would welcome the add in the number of posts a single Danilo usually has. lol, jus kiddin (I have a weird sense of humor).

So, Santa Claus is coming, my brother is coming, my birthday is coming (my money is coming??) For xmas we should have a family gathering on the night of the 24th, I will also visit my mother's side of the family (I haven't seen in quite a while). On the 25th we have here a much bigger xmas feast with aunts, uncles, cousins,... we have a big family so theres gonna be lots and lots of people. On the 26th... my birthday!! I have no idea what to do, it will be a monday, which sucks for nightlife. But I have high hopes, I will find something. For New Years, I will either be traveling or will celebrate with family. That is still undecided.

Merry xmas to all!! If I don't write until then, Happy & Joyful & Peaceful & Fun 2006!!
peace!

"And it always seems we're runnin' out of time..."

Title from the Chemical Brothers song, "Out of Control" from their Surrender Album.

So, what news?? The past four weeks were exhaustive for me (like that's new...). I ran a selection process for my company. So, that includes interviewing, group dynamics activity and the longest, training... The training started off with 6 people, after 5 days I dismissed one and on the sixth day I dismissed another candidate. It sucks being a recruiter and selecting those that do end up with a job or not, specially in a country that the unemployment rate is soooo high. But, like someone told me... Its business decision-making. Four passed the training, the two I dismissed weren't bad, just weren't as good as the others... I felt really bad on a dismissal, but someone had to do it. By the way, another training will start this week, but it'll be shorter, much shorter.

My social life is still the same, going out here and there, these past days I haven't seen my girlfriend much because she's having tests at her university so she is becoming a book worm (at least for a few days). I just went to my favorite bar a couple of times, once I was going to go out but I had a small fight with my girlfriend (everything is ah-okay now).

Looking through my emails recently I read a pretty interesting article. After watching Hotel Rwanda and The Constant Gardener, one thinks about how much the media rules what is important and what's not important for us. That is why I don't watch TV news anymore, I prefer to browse through many newspapers to see what's going on. There's so much going on out there, so much going on in our lives, help others, help who, care for what first??? Just one of those moments of reflection.

And the year is almost over, I am traveling next week, my birthday is coming up... What's going to happen next year??? This year was full of surprises, but so far better surprises then last year, last year was a pretty heavy one.

Im heading out now, gotta go to work. Last days before my month long vacation!!
peace & be happy!!

artwork: Joie de Vivre - Pablo Picasso

Dude, wheres my year???

Ok, year is almost over, its already end of November, wow!!

Its been a while since I have written. One of my most avid readers actually complained but, the reason for my disappearance is no other then dating... Being single, going out, different places, 3 nights a week, different people, so many different experiences. However, once you start a relationship your life changes. And now... some places she doesn't like to go to, the drive to go out changes, some people do not like to go out with us 'cause they are single, quite different.

But, all-in-all its quite good. New experiences do occur. For example (quite childish but due to lack of stories it will be written):
I currently live with aunts and grandma to save rent, she lives with her parents (habit quite common in Brazil). I spend pretty much the whole day at work, so I can only see her at night but people here don't like her to be here until late at night, i.e. 2am (we are both late sleepers). End result, she comes here and we stay in the lobby of my apt where the apt guard also stays. So, we have mostly talking and very little dating. Yesterday out of curiosity I ask her to look at the guard post to see if hes there, and the poor fella was hidden away looking at us! What a shameless voyeur!! And he kept staring and staring and staring!! So, we were talking and talking with each other and this fella just wouldn't stop staring from his little hiding place (which he went to with difficulty). Sheeesh... But so is life.

Anyways, most of my excitement these days goes on into discovering more about her life and spending time with her. So surprisingly I don't miss my single life, at least don't miss it THAT much... lol

In other news... It has now been two weeks of working at our new location. Pretty nice to work in it. But these weeks I've done a lot of recruiting and selecting. As a result of that I will spend the next three weeks giving training. After that, vacation for a month!! yey!! I'm planning to travel, but it'll be somewhere close by. More details in later postings.

Yesterday earlier on the evening we went to a dinner party. Some of our students invited us for a potluck at a student's apartment (very spacious). Lots of marvelous food, wine, people, conversations,... Very pleasant evening indeed. So we had co-workers, our bosses, students and significant others, I had a blast.

Right now I am enjoying the last moments of this peaceful day before starting this week which seems will be very busy.

Peace out to everyone!! Take care!!!

Artwork: Chorinho - Candido Portinari (top-left); I Musicisti - Fernando Botero (bottom-right).

Normal week, plain normal

Escher - Bond of Union
Originally uploaded by madeinbrazil.

Ok, so here we are for another weekly update. From hindsight we understand the sparse posts. Dating does calm down one's life.

Ok, so... at work things have been quite different. Last week we moved locations, we transfered from a rental property to a newly constructed building, owned by our franchise owner. Very nice, pretty big, modern looking, much better. My office is in a hidden location, pretty odd for someone that has a position of importance in the company... The physical location of an office can help greatly, but... since I wasnt knocking on his door often to speak about the project like some people were, I'll work with what I got.

In other news... After almost first years I went to the dentist. All my teeth are perfect, doing very fine, thank you!! yey!! Going there next week just for some preventive work, but thats it!

In dating news... Things are moving along better, maybe stability is being achieved, slowly, but through communication its getting better.

From previous posts you saw described here a person of many parties, big parties, lots of stories, odd experiences, but now... another person, lol. Quite the opposite. We went to my favorite bar this friday, it had been about almost three weeks since we went somewhere. At this point, the first part of the relationship is the getting-to-know-each-other part. Bonding, exchanging stories, and other things that I will surely not write about.

I'm ending a five day period without working, these days were packing, unpacking, cleaning and organizing. Tomorrow I go back, full speed! A sad part about this moving location thing is that I will be spending much, much more money with transportation... I need to buy a car ASAP (accepting donations, lol).

A wonderful week to all! Peace!!

Finally lighter week...

Freshly Over I - Jensen
Originally uploaded by madeinbrazil.

ok, this post will be on a much brighter / lighter tone then the previous one.

About work, remember the training I was giving? That is over, 3 started 2 removed themselves and one actually started working thursday. So far so good. However, the position remains open so anytime now I will start training again. Besides that, theres other positions, so I think work will be much harder in the following weeks. Next week we are planing to move in to our new location, everyone at work is excited about that.

The couple that had split up the week before last are doing fine. Each one has taken their ways and both are doing ok. I am happy for both but I will miss the good times we all had (maybe we will have those again, who knows?).

In other news... today for the first time in its 505 years Brazil had the pleasure of listening to my opinion in its democratic process. Our voting process is compulsory from the age of 18. But since I had been out of the country since that age, this is the first time I vote, yey!! We had a referendum to ban the sale of firearms, and the people voted against it. I really didnt want this to happen, but... violence rate here is so high, people think that owning a gun is safer.

Switching back topics.. my own relationship is now in its healthy stage. Its been 2 months and a half now, and although we've been friends for over a decade its so different to have this kinda of relationship. What I've seen in the past months is that unfortunately relationships do not only rely on each other's efforts. The personality match has to happen. For example, I am this and she is that, we compromise. But theres so much of this compromise that is supposed to happen, if not we have different people which is not healthy for either one of them.

So, recently we were in a very stressed point, mostly I was... we sat, talked and we are still going. We both want this to work out, we are just trying to see how, our lives have many divergent points, but there is a will.

Just came back from, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. Quite funny, interesting, nice story movie / musical. I just really didnt like it cause it was dubbed at the place I went.

Ok, time for me to go and get to bed, long week ahead. Good peaceful week to all!

Wow, what a week...

ok, so... lets see. Last post, I was in the middle of a hectic schedule phase, what changed from that? Not a whole lot....

Training continued throughout this week. However, Tuesday one trainee abandoned because he suddently realized he had other prior commitments (actually he knew, just forgot to realize that the time would conflict). One out, two left... Today, training reaches the end and another one quits, says she's not ready enough for the job. So, we only have one left but he doesn't do all that good, he isn't available for all the hours we need. Training will end next Tuesday but another one might start once more at any time.

On Tuesday I receive a not so pleasant news... A very good friend that was living here says hes going back. He came to see if a relationship could work out, he thought it wasn't so he left. Not all that simple, but to save keystrokes I will only write that. So, our going out gang has suffered a great loss. Unexpected, but I respect his decision (am not going to say I approve or not of it).

Wednesday was a holiday, I slept for most of the day. Much needed, not often seen sleep. Tuesday I was going out but ended up staying at home, Wednesday just went to a restaurant that is our next door neighbor. Both of these nights were spent with my girlfriend.

And today, Friday, actually Saturday at 1:30am I am writing this. Which means, yes, I am at home at this hour on a Friday/Saturday. It is a miracle!!!

Today is the start of a huge, the biggest musical event around this neck-of-the-woods, which is their fourth, third year. I never went to one, but this year I actually put some serious thought into going. I was going with my girlfriend and her cousin. However, she doesn't like electronic music. My girlfriend reeeeeally wanted to go so thats why I was considering going. So, the event would have a little conflict of interest, plus I have to work Saturday morning. So, I was almost going, only if my cousin went. She decided today to go, no tickets left in the VIP area (which was the only place I would go). So, my girlfriend is there, my cousin is there and I am here.

Small pause in writing to answer my girlfriend's phone call. She actually called to tell me Benny Benassi, the only reason that was motivating me to go, is playing right now. aw... and I am at home. Oh well, better luck next time. Let's see what the weekend will bring!!

Peace, luv and much fun for all!!

artwork: Solitude - Edward Raymes (top left); So Boring - Solomon (bottom left)

Tired...

Chaos in Blue - Ruth Palmer
Originally uploaded by madeinbrazil.

ok, so... its been a while since I've written. This is really due to lack of time. Work is too hectic to let me get some decent hours of sleep.

Speaking of work... work is going well. This past week we've had a quality audit done by our bigshots from the national office og my company. They came and fortunately they were very happy with what they saw (or so I think...).

Furthermore, Im currently running a training for new employee. Smallest group I've ever dealt with, only 3 people. Lets see what becomes of it.

Dating... wow... one day is excellent and another is useless. Actually, one day we are getting along well and another day... To be honest, this is the only serious relationship for the past few years. Mostly I was just a bachelor enjoying the nightlife and meeting new people there.

Now, this relationship overall is doing well, but its far from reaching the point where you feel theres someone by your side thats there for you (and vice-versa). Indeed, I think theres something in da water over here thats testing relationships. Is it a bad moon phase??!

Party life... I've been a bit slow these weeks. Thursday I went out with co-workers (those doing a quality audit), on friday went to our favorite bar,... today I went to see a movie. last week, on Sunday for the first time this semester, I went to the beach. It was a company's celebratory event. It was awesome, I thought.

Wednesday here is a holyday, day to sleeeep.

Speaking of which, Im beat tired, I need to sleeep tomorrow.

Super-duper fast week

wow, one week has passed. Once again, I am marveled by the fact that I didn't see time go by. Last week indeed went very fast, but looking back at it, it was a pretty busy one.

At work... Today I was looking at my desk and I starred at the pile of errands
I have, its quite tall actually. I was amazed and thought how it got to that point. So, with little thought I remembered that last week I had a client visit, a general meeting, a workshop, a selection process, many reports to complete, besides from my usual duties. With that said, its not difficult to imagine that I was at work during morning, afternoon and night.

So, after home I got home and relaxed, right?! Not quite like that. Now, my philosophy is: "if you are going to do something, do it right". Which brings me to the dating topic... If I am going to date someone I should devote my time and effort to it. But... what time is left for dating??? With my kind of scheduling, its going to be pretty late at night.

We planned to see each other at night. At about 10pm she would come here and a couple of times she actually spent the night here. Now, c'mon, don't think we did anything kinky!! Actually, I live with my extended family (quite common in brazilian culture but not my first choice), so theres absolutely no chance of anything happening here. The end result, sleepless nights (a only a couple of hours at dawn).

Now, the past couple of days I haven't seen her so I was able to have at least my normal amount of daily sleep (which is about 5hrs). This is still not enough to recover from last week, but its the best I can do. Right now if I stay steady in one place theres a risk I will take a nap, lol. One day I will figure out how to create a day with 28 hours, then I would be happy. In the meantime I will try to figure out other time management techniques.

For next this week. Nothing quite planned yet. Theres a big party mid-october I want to go to but I still have to check a few details before making the investment. Its an enormous yearly party that happens in our city but so far I haven't gone to any.

I have another training scheduled at work that we had planned to start on Monday but the trainee gave up. So, maybe we will start one this week. Right now, after I get done writing I will return to work and try to eliminate my pile of To-Dos.

peace & lots of fun to all!!


Artwork: Sheep Can't Sleep: Dona Turner (top-right); Dream: Pablo Picasso (bottom left).