How Brazilians embrace new Technology

A couple of years ago, while working as a journalist for the government of São Paulo, I was selected to be social media manager. By then, I hardly ever used my Flickr account, didn’t have a Twitter and was just starting on Facebook with 20 or so friends. But I accepted the challenge and created a Twitter account on the same day, to see how that thing worked.

Shortly after I had started, I went to see an employer-sponsored lecture on social media by the good folks of Google (even though all attemps by Google in this field have failed miserably on a global scale, but that’s another story). So there I went to a room crowded with journalists and other people who had been selected to manage this field in their respective areas for a whole day on how to use them, what is the importance and, of course, how social media relates to public services.

And I remember something they said there just the other day while browsing through my Facebook feed. They mentioned that Brazilians embrace these technologies with a lot of ease, that was the reason Orkut (who?) got so big in Brazil. People decided to take the service over and so they did. I once had an account there, but due to the lack of interesting things and postings, I ended up given up and killing my virtual me there to dedicate more time to Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and, oh yeah, Google Reader.

But something happened in Brazil and people started fleeing Orkut (now considered something that only poor people will use to post their photos of barbecues by inflatable swimming pools) and embracing Facebook. And on Facebook, you can just write what’s in your mind and publish on your wall for all your friends to see. Beautiful, eh?

Keep all these ideas in mind to know what, like a high tech spam jesus christ, is being resurrected from the dead on my wall due to former co-workers (mostly) or school/college colleagues: chain letters.

When I had my hotmail account (still have it – don’t use it), back in 1996, it was fun to send these kind of things around. I had time, was a teenager and could count on my fingers how many people I knew had emails. Fuck, I wanted to add my dentist’s email to my contacts just so I could have yet another person. I would send a chain letter to my friends, someone would send me one (without bloody BCC so I would receive each and every reply as well) and within 1 month it was not fun anymore.

But now people who didn’t live this stage are pasting interesting and cryptic stuff on their walls (and in my feed), such as “If you love jesus, paste this on your wall. Only 3% of people will do that. I did, will you?” (no, I don’t love him and I’m pretty he doesn’t give a shit about me) or “If you know someone who had cancer, post this on your wall” (and who doesn’t know someone who had cancer?) or even silly stuff that were cool when I received them via email 15 years ago (message with letters changed by numbers). Those people will publish just about anything without any filter or judgement.

Until facebook gives me the alternative of blocking posts by keywords (like I can do on my email services), I have one solution for all that: Block ‘em all before start receiving anything asking to help a Somali millionaire who can’t open a bank account.

Apparently Brazilian do really enjoy to embrace new technology, using it is a whole different story.

Getting things done

Today I photographed the Défi Sportif, an annual paralympic event that gathers athletes from many countries. I wanted to photograph it for my personal portfolio, but I ended up being called to make official photographs by the communication team, without any interview or anything, which made me extremely happy when I got the news, but made me extremely nervous and anxious as I approached the date.

By last Tuesday I took care of everything I needed to feel more comfortable to deliver a good job: bought a new memory card (just to be sure) and reserved a 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens, both at this great shop in Vieux Montréal, Photo Service.

Woke up today without the aid of an alarm clock, had breakfast and prepared my itenarary, since I had to go to three competition places: École Joseph-Charbonneau, Aréna Howie Morenz and Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard to deliver some of the photos for immediate publication.

I arrived at the first place and went straight to the goalball competition, snapped some shots and during a break decided to have a look at the swimming competition, even though it wasn’t in my duties. I had photographed goalball before (I have previous experience of two years working within the field of disabilities) and I knew it was a difficult sport to photograph, but I was happy with my previous results, so I thought I could handle it.

When I got Howie Morenz to shoot sledge hockey, I have to confess that I panicked. I am in Montreal for seven months now, but have never seen a hockey game (not even on TV – well, I saw some parts of it while hanging out with friends at a pub), so I didn’t know what to expect. And I definetely didn’t expect that amount of glass protecting the audience from being hit in the head (luckly, I didn’t rent a 14-24mm as well). I started photographing and trying to find an angle, but wasn’t happy. I was disappointed and crushing under the pressure of having to deliver the photos (and good pictures, most important. To deliver a crappy job I prefer not to take it) at the end of day.

So I sat in a warm place (it’s painfully cold not to wear a jacket to photograph hockey where there’s no protection glass – and I think that this is the hockey equivalent of war photographers going for the land mines) and put my brain to work. I tried to remember everything I have ever seen from hockey, looked at their photos from previous years and decided that this thing had to work. Fuck pressure, fuck the lack of experience in hockey. I got the job, this is the hardest part, I couldn’t screw up because of insecurity.

And so I went back there and tried different approaches (the wonders of digital photography): panning, extreme close ups on players faces, wide angle (using a Diana 20mm fisheye) and I shot a lot for the first match I saw. For the second match I was more comfortable regarding which techniques to use, so I saved my shutter, hitting it with more precision, not like a machine gun.

Overall, I liked my results and was really happy with the photographs I delivered to the client. Now I need to get back to Lightroom (not before noticing the @Defi_sportif just retweeted two of my messages  ) and this might be a long night. Anyway, I’m adding some of the photos on my Flickr account in the album for the Défi Sportif.

The World’s worst Song

I admit that I have not been following social media trends lately, but yesterday was reading an article at Mashable about this week’s Twitter trends and read about Rebecca Black and what some are calling the worst song ever (I am not putting a link to her video here, sorry. If you have not heard her, I’m actually doing you a favor).

Today, I read another article on the 13-year “singer” and her hit Friday, which hit 22 million views on YouTube in 9 days and decided to torture myself, turning off what I was listening on Rdio (David Bowie or Stevie Wonder,  don’t remember right now) and going for the video.

First, the lyrics are terrible, but nothing different that I would expect to come from a 13-year old girl. The only thing that really bothered me was the part “We we we so excited”. She could’ve traded those two we’s for a “are” and not sound like Borat. But then again, who remembers who the hell Borat is?

Musically speaking, the song is extremely poor and it kept reminding me of a Christopher Walken’s carachter on SNL, but instead of cowbells, I could hear the producer saying: “More vocoder girl!”. And I would not expect anything complex (or good) coming from such a hit.

The video is really silly and low-budget, without complex efects (which saves it from being too embarrasing, it’s better not to use effects than to go for the crappy ones, I guess). The interpretation is simple, but the girl has already written the song and sang, can we really ask for more?

Can we call it the worst song ever by the worst singer ever? If we want to be unfair and go with the hype, yes, we can. But if we want to be fair, we shouldn’t say that about it. A Brazilian singer called Stefhany has just realease the video to her song “Menino Sexy” (“Sexy Boy”, but in no way related to Air’s song) and this is much closer to top that list than poor Rebecca.

The problem with anti-religious comedy

Let me get one thing clear from the beginning: I am all in favour of using comedy as a form of criticism of government, social situations, religion and so on.

And today I discovered, thanks to the Friendly Atheist, the Jesusophile’s channel on youtube. And, even though I can’t stop watching his videos (they are hilarious), this channel creeps me out a little bit the same this website (content in Portuguese) scares me while it amuses me.

Cleycianne – the Brazilian blogger, a supposed model, former prostitute and born-again Christian who doesn’t know how to write a proper plural – and Jesusophile, a Dutch Christian (sorry, don’t have too much information on him) – have the same argument: It’s ok to have prejudice (specially against homosexuals and atheists) if it’s in the name of god, because it’s not prejudice, it’s the truth.

The situations they present are absurd and, if you’re not into this kind of thinking, the text is hilarious, but also it is the kind of thing the insanely religious people really think when it comes to these things: Homosexuality can be cured by religion; evolution is not true; or that women are the property of the man after the marriage (I heard that at a wedding once).

What comforts me with this kind of comedy is that ultra-religious people will not change their minds no matter what argument you present them with, so we might as well have some fun and maybe, just maybe, someone in this situation can look at these stories from another perspective and see how ridicolous some things are and develop some critical thinking about it.

What is my sign? Who am I?

Today, there has been a big fuzz in the astrology world after The Star Tribune published a story with astronomer Parke Kunkle about some proposed changes on the zodiac went viral and has been published everywhere. While this is an old thing (when I was maybe 12 or 13 a Brazilian TV station featured the subject a little, but it ended up restricted to that one show).

Let’s go to the subject and what realy matters: what difference does it make?

Derek C. Araujo, vice president and general counsel for the Center for Inquiry, explains in an article: “Due to wobbles of Earth’s axis of rotation (an effect known to astronomers as “precession”), the calendar dates corresponding to the various Zodiac signs have shifted by about a month since they were set by the ancient Babylonians.” This led to some proposed changes in the zodiac, changing signs and even adding one, the “ophiocus”, which was presented in that third-world TV show I mentioned above as the “serpent”.

If you are like me and was born on September 15, you have been promoted (or not) from Virgo to Leo. What want to know what does that mean.

I really want to know if I will, beggining today, stop being an ‘analyst’, ‘perfectionist’ and ‘frequently depressed’ to become ‘extroverted’, ‘creative’ and ‘arrogant’. Should I plan a new career and give up on accounting (oh, now I understand the depression part up there) or personal assistant to go to managerial positions or visual arts?

What about relationships? At home, being a Leo, I’d get along well with my Aries girlfriend (something unthinkable as a Virgo, they say, even though we’re together for 8 years). The problem is that she’s now Pisces. And my friends?! My life is shattered with all these changes, I don’t know what to do, but still I have to be confident, since that’s what the stars tell me. Thank you science for screwing my life.

But there’s still hope. Astrologers say that it doesn’t matter for their predictions or whatever it is that they do, since they operate on another level and once a Scorpio, always a Scorpio to them. To hell with science. What do they know anyway?

Decade in a post

Back in 2002 I had a blog where I used to write in Portuguese, mostly about music. I killed that that blog (not literally, since it is still hosted in some virtual limbo) and started a new one in which I don’t write anymore too. And now this one that I began after arriving in Montreal as an immigrant. This is pretty much my biggest personal achievement of the decade – migrating, not starting blogs to let them away. I might include my dettaching from my family and co-starting a new, childfree, godless one; my starting working and getting to a managing position. And I can’t forget about my getting into photography. I have always been interested in photography, since my family had a Kodak Instamatic and I was maybe six, but got really interested in the 2000′s when I got a Pentax K1000,  a Pentax S4, a Sony DSC-H50, and, my favorite so far, a Nikon D90. And in the last ten years I learned a lot about photography, about techniques and gear. There’s a long way to go, but I always have the sensation that I always have a long way to go anywhere. (“There’s always more/There’s always more” – sings right now Nicolette on Massive Attack’s Sly)

When I re-read some of my texts from the beggining of the decade, I feel like a totally different person and in some ways, I really am, but it’s fun to note that there’s some essence that was there before and keep repeating now. The blog, I have just seen, does not keep everything, only one line of each post, but I have everything on my computer (and on my external hard drive). I still like music, but I’m much less interestet in new bands than I was back then (more on that when I get to my top ten albums of the decade). I still like movies, but I don’t enjoy too much going to the movies to think, I am much more into action and stupid comedies than in those look-how-smart-I-am films. Ten years ago I didn’t understand anything about food or gastronomy and couldn’t cook anything other than microwaved stuff or hot dogs. I am not a chef today, but I know my way around the kitchen and enjoy this experience of gathering ingredients on a pan or tasting a good meal. I didn’t drink alcohol and now I can choose my wine (without the aid of QR codes) and like my whiskey neat. Ten years ago I was just about to discover Carl Sagan and got to be an atheist closeted to his parents. I used to write too much back then. Today I write less posts, but they’re much longer – and I still wonder if someone gets to the bottom of them. But now there’s Twitter, and I wonder that much more. If 140 characters is the norm, I wonder what 140 words are. And what about more than 1,500 words?

Enough of this introduction. I’ll go to the top ten albums of the decade, with a brief description – if any – of the albums. I chose the ones that I thought were creative, innovative or just fun. But they are consistent. For example, there’s no Franz Ferdinand or Kasabian or Kaiser Chiefs, because, even though they have good songs, three or four good songs in an album don’t make that album a good one and they really sound like something I have heard before. Right after the list of the albums, there’ll be a list of ten innovations of the past decade. Those that already have impact on our daily lives and may have in short to medium-term, that’s why Craig Venter’s synthetic life is not there. Hope you enjoy.

Albums:

10. David Bowie – Heathen (Bowie’s last good album, because Reality was crap).

9. Fiona Apple – Extraordinary Machine (it was not a Tidal, but I waited too much for this album to come and, even though it’s not amazing, there are some very good songs).

8. Electric Six – Fire (Fun, funny, totally surreal lyrics with the most absurd combination of disco music and rock n’ roll. Brainless fun that makes you dance in the kitchen or in the middle of the street).

7. GGorillaz – Gorillaz (rock? hip hop? electronic? a bit of everything and much bigger than Blur. Very creative and innovative first album from a cartoon band).

6. Eagles of Death Metal – Death By Sexy (another fun rock n’ roll album. Unpretentious lyrics and very catchy songs).

5. Placebo – Sleeping with Ghosts (get the double version with the album Covers).

4. Morrissey – You Are the Quarry (best Morrissey solo album since Your Arsenal).

3. Radiohead – Hail To The Thief (less experimental than Kid A/Amnesiac or In Rainbows, that tried to be revolutionary when you could choose how much you’d pay to download the album, but didn’t have the effect it was supposed to have).

2. Lovage – Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady by (downbeat, trip-hop and sexy, very sexy).

1. Them Crooked Vultures – Them Crooked Vultures (it’s funny to think that the best and most revolutionary album of the decade was made by a bunch of guys with a heavy background: John Paul Jones, Josh Homme and Dave Grohl. This album is innovative, heavy and different from Led Zeppelin, Queens of the Stone Age or Foo Fighters).

Crap of the Decade: Lady Gaga (the problem with her is that she is smart. Others had experimented success, but they were created by producers. This woman is smart, so there’s a chance she’ll be around for quite some time).

Innovations:

10. iPod (first one for Apple here, even though I’m not a fan of theirs. Before iPod there was digital music already on the Internet and people walked around with headphones in their ears. The great innovation was the possibility of buying and legally downloading digital music to your device as long as you lived within chosen countries. Still, when I left Brazil, three months ago, it was possible to buy digital music from many different stores over there).

9. Netbooks (laptops were around before, but these guys came up to make it easier to people who don’t need top performance to have theirs. Not very revolutionary in the technological sense, but still had their impact).

8. Nikon D90 (the first DSLR camera the was capable of doing HD films. After that, Canon went into the same market and went ahead, making the first cameras capable of filming in Full HD. The last episode of the last season of House was filmed with a 5D Mk. II. For digital cameras, I would include as well the introduction of the micro 4/3′s system that allowed smaller cameras with bigger sensors – still smaller than the APS-C though).

7. [Proper] 3D Cinema (before proper 3D movies – and Avatar – I went to the theatre to watch some Brendan Fraser crap and some other films. After Avatar, companies started investing heavily on 3D technology, allowing for people with enough money to watch these in their own living rooms. The technology is still crawling, but I believe it’s way better than a game – don’t remember the name – I used to play on my 8-bit Nintendo with two-coloured plastic glasses).

6. Solar propulsed flight (the plane still can’t carry many people and is huge, making it a non-commercial option so far, but this is a thing that expanded to a commercial scale could revolutionize the way people travel and the quantity of pollution generated yearly).

5. Nintendo Wii (the graphics are crappy, but it was innovative in two ways: it brought real-life action to video-games – and opened the path to Kinect; and it was the first video-game that brought together families, because it is simple to play. Instead of complex combos, you just need to do what you’d in the real world).

4. Kindle (the easy way of reading and buying books, newspapers and magazines. Besides the actual Kindle, you can get apps for your computer, mobile (Android, iPhone and BlackBerry) or tablet (Android or iPad). When you buy a book – and I carry inside my phone – within a couple of minutes it is already available to you).

3. iPad (the next step after the netbook and after the popularization of touch-screens. The great thing about the iPad – and that Android-powered tablets still miss – is the apps made especifically for it, like animated books. Even though I crave for a Galaxy Tab, I would so have an iPad too, hear that Santa).

2. Social Networking (the responsible for people not getting until here, since more than 140 characters is too much. But YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and others had had a huge impact on our daily lives. I have already used Twitter to talk to a friend instead of calling him or even using an IM software. Sometimes I send Facebook mail to people I haven’t been in touch for a long time and don’t have their e-mails on Gmail’s contacts. They will not replace other digital media, but will – and already do – complement them).

1. iPhone (I’m not an apple guy, as I said before, but I believe that it was thanks to iPhone that we now have many options to choose from: Android, BlackBerry Torch, new Windows phones, and the retread Symbian).

Extra: Cats (They were not invented in the last decade, of course, but the Internet seemed to have discovered them then. In 2002 rathergood.com started this with videos of cats “playing” McLusky’s Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues and other great songs. Recently they made a video declaring that “The Internet is made of Cats”. There’s LOLCats, BoingBoing loves cats, Flickr loves cats, they have even filmed a movie recently. Bloody hell, my mother can hardly use the Internet and she has seen cats over there already).

Crap of the Decade: Windows Vista (Are you as unfortunate as I am and use Vista based computer? So you understand my point here, don’t you?).

Christmas wishlist

Even though I was raised in a catholic family, as an atheist I don’t do christmas. Ok, until last year we had a tradition in our godless household of doing the “Natal Legal”, or “Cool Christmas” in Portuguese, which used to take place the Saturday before the actual celebration without decoration, gift-sharing or huging, but with a lot of good friends (last year we had over 30 people), amazing homemade and fresh food, Life of Brian, margaritas and wine.

And although I don’t do christmas, I do dig getting presents and even giving them. That’s why I am sharing my wishlist for this year. If someone terribly rich and generous sees this and wants to give me some of the stuff I share here, I can’t help but accept. And yes, of course you can also use this list as a suggestion to shop for someone else. Most (if not all) links will direct you to Canadian sites.

You can also go to Red Bubble and buy photos, t-shirts and other cool stuff. My work is for sale there at: http://www.redbubble.com/people/gpsachs

Gadgets

People want gadgets nowadays. Nobody wants those old fashioned stuff like CDs or books. Actually, I do want those, but I also love gadgets and want some. As my photography wishlist is too big, I’ll just shorten it and put my favorites here.

- Nikon D7000 with 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 lens: Recently released by Nikon, features 16.2 megapixel, 39 autofocus points, ISO range of 100-6400 (25,600 in H2 mode), a magnesium-alloy body and, for those who like their DSLRs for it, records movies in full HD (1080p).

- Nikkor lens 24-70mm f/2.8: Fast standard zoom lens, not as versatile as a 18-200mm, for example, but better under low light situations, which is good for sports, indoor events or photojournalism, but also to take amazing pictures (depending on your talent, of course) inside your house.

- Fujifilm Finepix X100: This is not much of a gift I could get, but really a dream. This camera will be released next year, but this is the pocket camera I want (sorry, Nikon). Stylish, old-school, compact with a big sensor (APS-C format, the same size as Nikon D7000′s), and fast (f/2) 23mm lens.

- Kindle e-book reader with 3G and wi-fi: The one e-reader I’d have if I could choose. A great variety of books, long-lasting battery, worldwide 3G.

- Samsung Galaxy S Captivate: A mobile phone with Android (Eclair, but should get Froyo soon), need to say more? Ok, 5 megapixel camera, 800×480 Super AMOLED screen and support to 32gb microSD card.

- Samsung Galaxy Tab: The iPad of those of us who are much into Google than into Apple. Flash support, wi-fi, 3G and, yes, Android. I can already picture myself playing Angry Birds on that 7-in. screen.

- Nintendo Wii (black): I like the Playstation 3 and I’m sure I can learn how to like the Xbobx 360 (with Kinect, of course), but the Wii is designed for pure fun. There is no God of War, but very stupid games with poor graphics and you can spend hours in front of them with your family/friends playing virtual sports.

Music

I am of those people who like his CDs and LPs and books. I like the convenience of mp3, but nothing replaces the act of changing CDs or adjusting the needle to right track.

- Them Crooked Vultures (Vinyl): One of best bands I have listened to lately. Vocals: Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age); Guitars: Josh Homme and Alain Johannes (Eleven); Bass: John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin); Drums: Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters and Nirvana). Very creative and complex songs. Can’t hardly wait for them to come over Montréal again. This is THE concert I’m really waiting for.

- Sony PS-LX300: Since I have just moved here and left my turntable in Brazil, this one would be more than welcome, but it’s not really a dream one, it’s just a random pick from Amazon.

This is just a part of a list that I could have started writing in the beggining of the year and would’ve never completed.