SRQ

Another that could fit the series: "you know you've been in Engineering too much when..."

Interval. One friend start talking that he wanted to talk to a professor about some things in his project. The dialogue is more a less like transcripted below (I don't remember all the details...)

- Yep... I said before I wanted to talk to him, but I'm waiting until he finishes his talk with the other professors.

- So, have you sent a RTS yet?
(Approximated translation: have you said that you want to talk to him?)

- Nah... I'll get a NAK.
(Nah... he'll say he can't now.)

- You should try then an IRQ. And a high level one. That's faster. (laughs)
(You should go and ask even so... interrupting what he's doing.)

And so on...

Ah, and the SRQ (Service ReQuest) from the title comes from here.

More online tests

That's a Friday! Classes all the morning, experiments in the afternoon. Last one cancelled for electricity cut (due to a heavy rain)... or should I say postponed to next Thursday? And after going under the rain to the last class, find out that it was just a small talk, since the teacher's changed...

So, what a better way to finish a day like this than knowing when and how I'll die? That's another online test a morbid friend (thanks, Dalai) sent me. Let's laugh!

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Your Personal Day of Death is...
Wednesday, January 17, 2057

The Death Clock
http://www.deathclock.com/

Humm... I'll have a long life... a little less than 51 years left... hauhauahuahuahuahauh! What if I throw myself in front of a car?

-----
Let it be told...
You die from complications of liver failure caused by years of heavy drinking.

The Death Psychic
http://www.thedeathpsychic.com/

...!?
......?!?!?!?
.........What!?!?!?!?!?!? Now THAT's a strange one! Ok... One enters his/her name for this test... I'll try another combination.

You are bitten while tormenting a sickly-looking squirrel. You die from rabies days later.

Ridiculous, but better... One more!

While attempting to remove a slice of burnt toast from your toaster using a metal fork, you're electrocuted.

Hummm... I'll stop here before it gets worse.

Online tests

Procrastinating while I wait for a file to be uploaded on my e-mail (damn connection... but maybe is a problem on their server... second thought, how could the problem happen to Gmail and Yahoo servers at the same time...), I checked some friends' blogs. Then I notice that two of them (Steff and Jo) posted things about some online tests.

I really don't believe that a test can "tell what you are and what you're becoming", "tell what you were in your past life" and so on. But thay're sometimes fun to compare with your vision of yourself. So I tried some while I was waiting...

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You Are a Dreaming Soul

Your vivid emotions and imagination takes you away from this world. So much so that you tend to live in your head most of the time. You have great dreams and ambitions that could be the envy of all...But for you, following through with your dreams is a bit difficult.
You are charming, endearing, and people tend to love you. Forgiving and tolerant, you see the world through rose colored glasses. Underneath it all, you have a ton of passion that you hide from others. Always hopeful, you tend to expect positive outcomes in your life.
Souls you are most compatible with: Newborn Soul, Prophet Soul, and Traveler Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?
http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofsoulareyouquiz/

Humm... now what. "Dreaming"?! I thought I was logic... Although the positive outcomes expectation is right. Heh, whatever...

-----
The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free.
In love, you feel the most alive when your lover is creative and never lets you feel bored.
You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring.
You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please.
Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with.
Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.
You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred.
In this moment, you think of love as commitment. Love only works when both people are totally devoted.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?
http://www.blogthings.com/keystoyourheartquiz/

Now what!? This one seems even weirder... But the result isn't so bad as most of the love tests I try... hehe... Zero cheating chance?! Can I use this as propaganda? Huhauahuahauauhauhu!

-----
Your Candy Heart Says "Hug Me"

A total sweetheart, you always have a lot of love to give out.Your heart is open to where ever love takes you!
Your ideal Valentine's Day date: a surprise romantic evening that you've planned out
Your flirting style: lots of listening and talking
What turns you off: fighting and conflict
Why you're hot: you're fearless about falling in love

What Does Your Candy Heart Say?
http://www.blogthings.com/whatdoesyourcandyheartsayquiz/

What turns me off is right... Doesn't the two tests enter in conflict?

Ok, the file was finally sent. Time to go back to work... At least some of the results were funny...

Pump meeting and report division

Pump Meeting

Sunday I was bored and not really willing to read the papers I'm supposed to read. So, like any good citizen of Londrina, I decided to go to the biggest mall around: Catuai Shopping Center(there's even some kind of joke that says "If you don't have anything to do, go to Catuai..." Often mentioned only as "Shopping" even though there're others). One of the reasons was because the meeting of the Pump it Up players was that day.

Pump it Up is a dance simulator. I used to play that game considerably well, but stopped years ago and played a little only for fun. Last year couldn't find that game in Japan (not impressed... that's a Korean game...) and didn't practice at all. So, rusty, rusty, rusty... worse than almost all other players at the meeting. For those in the known, my limits now are Turkey March in Crazy and Double modes as a "stepper", and my "style" doesn't really go beyond the classic Caution and We Are... ...That bad.

Anyway, it was good to see old friends and some new faces... Check the stepper madness (Ratu, Bideh...) and the new "style" player around (Hattori). And laugh! My... the "couple tag" created for I Love You was so kawaii... and so funny! We gotta create a decent tag from it!

Also, another friend (William) called, inviting for a movie... That reminds me of Steff and her sudden calls inviting to a coffee at Starbucks... Of course I was there... to watch "DooM" (his choice... but I agreed). Humm.... surely lacking some things... It starts as a wannabe horror movie, than it suddenly shifts to action movie... The forced 1st view to "look like the game" at a certain part of the movie (well, that was even well done... based on the good game Doom 3) Although the concept of the moster's origin was interesting somewhat, the original idea of "monsters coming from Hell" was missed... especially by game fans, as this review says.

...At least it's cheper to go to the movies here than in Japan...


Report Division

When you know that you've spent too much time in Engineering?

Monday I had a "experimental class". After things were all done, my group started to think about the report. As any group with some experience, we decide do divide it into parts and each member would take care of one, and later put things together and do any other adjustments...

When it came to "how do we divide it" we couldn't find a good way to do it. The parts were defined, but nobody would decide for one of them.

Then came the idea... Decide that creating a random generator program to assign that for us...

So, when you know that you've spent too much time in Engineering? Maybe when you start to create programs to assign your parts of a report...

The last year?

I forgot to mention it before. University classes started on March 6th... My former classmates have graduated already (most of them), so I'm with a new class... The good point of being in Brazil is that it was fast to be befriended, so I have groups for most reports of the year already. Knowing some of them a little may had helped (they were "my freshmen" - free translation from a Brazilian expression when referring to people who turned into university freshmen when you were a sophomore).

But I guess I'm a little soft after staying in Japan... For example, I'm getting too used to solve things by the "conventional way", and irritated easier with the bureaucracy to do some things. Forgetting that here I'm supposed to pass my student ID everytime I enter the library... and I mustn't enter with my backpack, leaving it in a locker outside.

Not getting surprised with the computers when entering a Computer Science Lab... where there're the best computers available to undergraduate students in the campus (of course, only for Computer Science students...). Actually, even being a little disappointing because the ones at my university in Japan were better (expected... but even so...)

Forgetting about the eternal problems with equipments and professors' (and other workers') salary here... At least it seems that it won't trigger a strike this year. But the equipment problem is getting critical (this article exemplifies it, but it's in Portuguese)...

And some small things that I forgot... Like the university having so much "greenery"... that grows without much control during summer vacation. Of course the grass is mowed when we have classes nearby... And another thing that freaked me out was someone cleaning the lab building corridors with a hose. The concept of splashing water on the floor (sometimes with soap, but not in this case) to clean it is already strange to Japanese people... but doing it at the corridors of the Electric Engineering lab!? When the water was being splashed near the power cage I was chilled to the bones... Am I paranoid?

The good side is returning to a large campus with many different courses around... and lively with parties every weekend and other events. (Not that I usually go, but I found out that this liveliness is nice)

Mr Kimble

A friend used to call me Mr Kimble (the same one that calls me Madness now, by the way...) because of the movie "Kindergarten Cop"...

Explaining. I don't know why, but for some reason kids, especially those aged around 4 to 8 seem to like playing with me. Some examples were when travelling with a group my aunt gathered. There were 2 kids (brother and sister), and for a good part of the trip they were trying to play some game with me... Another one was in a party in the building where I live. Again, kids playing with me (to the point they dragged me out of a conversation to play...). So, "Mr. Kimble", whom the liks liked and trusted (after some time).

I usually don't complain. It's often fun anyway, and way better than if they dislike you. I just wonder why exactly me... Do I have something that attracts them? I'd like to know... I've heard that's because I'm too kind... But how it explains that some choose me even before even talking to me?

So, why this topic all of a sudden? Well, while I was in Japan, I didn't have meny opportunities to be next to kids, so I forgot about that a little... and, besides, my "attractive power" didn't seem to work there. So, whatever. But last Tuesday I was returning from a visit to some Japanese teachers when one of them offered a ride home, since she'd have to pick her daughter and some of her friends at school...

Kids are noisy, right? But some (or most?) aren't when close to people they don't know, right? Ok, so the car was really quiet at the beginning... only. When I was dropped we were playing a game to catch each other's thumb finger... And there comes Mr Kimble again...

My 後輩（こうはい）

One of the things I've been doing here was giving some directions and tips to the next student who'll go to Himeji through the same program. Seeing his, and especially his parents', doubts I had a déjà-vu feeling. But he is much more easygoing than I am, so I think he'll be ok (well, on the other hand he likes animes and mangas more than me, so maybe watch out for money... yes, I said that to him).

That also helped me to miss Japan more. seeing all the preparatives again remembered me of when I was doing mine and everything that came from it... Aahhhh... Good experience, really.

So, he left last Monday. Now I believe he's in Himeji already. Watching the farewells at the airport also remembered me of mine... hehe... Maybe reading his blog I'll remember many things. Let's see what happens. Good luck there!

And a strange coincidence is, from 3 "generations" of exchange students sent to Himeji through this program, there was always one who used to play futsal at ACEL (some kind of Japanese club/association in my hometown...). For the count, I'm the second.

---
Added on March 17th
Well, just a small correction that some people asked me to do. ACEL is a club/association created by Japanese descendents, but is open to anyone although most members have Japanese descendence.

First weekend...

After spending my first days getting things in order and going after some documents, I decided to enjoy the weekend, since it was the last before classes start again. So, during that, some interesting things happened/were noticed.

Before that... one of the documents I went after maybe is of some interest to some people. I justified my absence in a referendum that happened while I was in Japan. That referendum was about the legislation concerning fire weapons (guns) and attracted some attention of the international media. Just one strange thing... voting was mandatory.

I had some problems explaining that voting in Brazil is compulsory, not optional like in US or Japan. So, if you miss an election you have to justify, otherwise you might have some problems with documents or credit in the future... (I don't know the consequences deeply)


North and South

Some interesting things noticeable after a travel from the north hemisphere to the south or vice-versa. The obvious one is that some stars are different. I talked to some Japanese friends about that, including some of them who have (had) special interest about stars.

Second is that one may have the feeling that the sun is going to the opposite direction. That's because the sun is slightly to the north in the south hemisphere and vice-versa. Try to imagine the movements and superimpose them, then it's possible to see why that feeling.

Third, and this one I've been told only. It's said that when you flush (in a toilet) the water spins in opposite directions (clockwise or anticlockwise) in each hemisphere. That leads to the question: and if one flushes exactly at the Equator?


Talking about it...

Talking to some friends here, some interesting subjects appeared. One is about food. Once I mentioned that Brazilians usually eat rice with beans during lunch. Rice, beans and usually meat are the common thing. One thing that I forgot is that Japanese beans are sweet, and so they usually think about beans with that flavor... Well, I would think it was strange too to eat rice with sweet beans. In Brazil they're salty... sweet ones are the unusual.

Also, we discovered a new "Japanese superpower".

Talk to Machines - maybe the name is wrong. The correct is that machines "talk" to people in Japan. From the vending machines that say "thank you" after you buy something to the trucks that say "Warning, turining left" it's not unusual to hear some machine "talk"... and with some 3 to 5 voice tone standards that makes one think if only that few people are responsible for all the voices. One that surprised me was when I entered an elevator and forgot to press the floor button. A few seconds later (before the feeling "the elevator is not moving... something's wrong") I heard "Please press a button"...


Shopping mall

Ok, I'm back. So I had to go to the largest mall in the city and check how things are. Not that different, but there're things to write about.

First stop was the bookstore (pretty obvious for those who know me)... After getting used to bookstores in Japan, going back to my usual one was disappointing. I used to think it was very large before, but now... and now I pay more attention to the foreign books section. That's smaller then the respective section of the Junkudo store in Himeji... Books are also more expensive here (I wrote too much about that topic before, so I'll stop here) and all. The new Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", was also some kind of disappointment. The translated title is "Harry Potter e o Enigma do Principe" that would mean something like "HP and the Prince's Enigma", but they translated the word for "Prince"... and I wonder what consequences that has in the book (no further spoilers). Plus, "Enigma"!? Was there one? Maybe "who was the Half-Blood Prince?"... Ah well...

Also during lunch I faced a practice that many stores do, but now I accept less. Instead of small change, they try to give you some candies in return... First, money is money! in Japan, even if the change is one yen, they give it. Gather all the small change you get in a month and you may have a nice amount. Second, the candies don't really have the same value as the change. So, you're being cheated. Third, even before going to Japan I don't remember ever having been asked that for 10 cents change, only 5 or 1 cent...

After, it was time to look for a new mobile phone. After Japan, my standards were quite high, so I knew I wouldn't be completely happy. At least I found a decent one, although I still miss some features (maybe the infrared transmission and e-mail are the ones I miss most). So, in Japan I had a Sony Ericsson A1404S black and here is a Nokia 6060. But the device was free in Japan, and in Brazil that model is a reasonably expensive one... An intersting thing I noticed when using it is how people in Japan use it more to send messages, while in Brazil it's still more used to talk.

The next week there were sales all over the mall, so the family decided to walk around and look for clothing. Although I was needing some (namely t-shirts) I was surprised how they were expensive here... and hard to find something that really suited my taste. What happened? Have I changed or fashion in Brazil changed???

And, another obvious stop was the game center. Nothing really new... considering that I was away for some 11 months that's bad. And I got rusty. I still can kick ass in King of Fighters, but my ability in Pump it Up or Time Crisis 3 surely declined...

Initial thoughts

The blog was created after I went to Japan, so I couldn't write about my first impressions... and I really don't remember them anymore. But I can write something about my impressions after returning to Brazil.

• It's a little strange hearing everyone around you speaking Portuguese again... But it's nice to understand (read, listen, etc.) everything (or most things) around me again. And I sometimes put a word in Japanese or English in the middle of a sentence. My sisters already gave me some weird looks because of that...



• In Japan, most people at least look like Asians. So, it's kinda natural to "spot gaijin". In Brazil I have to get a little used to not having so many people no-Japanese-looking around...



• I heard (and said) some things about the strange English pronunciation that many Japanese people have. But while picking my luggage at the airport, I heard an announcement in English with a very strong Brazilian accent... Well, I could understand that, since that's Brazilian accent, but that got me to think what foreigners, especially those whose first language isn't English, would be able to understand.



• Good to be back home, where my room only is bigger than the entire cube I lived... But this abundant space makes people use it a little recklessly... I notice that better now.



• Gotta watch out for the local currency. I still had some JPY inside my wallet when I went to a barbershop cut my hair (it was way longer than usual because I waited until my return because it's chaper in Brazil... comparing the two countries I'd pay in Brazil less than 25% of what I paid in Japan), and almost gave him some yen instead of Reais (Brazilian currency).



• Still about services. Some people hate the tone some attendants say "irasshaimase" (would be roughly translated as "welcome" used when a customer enters). My reaction was neutral, but I miss the energy it was said, unlike the apathy of some here...



• Another thing I got less used to. When buying things, in Japan the shop assistants usually wait leaving one to decide by him/herself and only help if asked. When buying some clothing here I forgot that one shop assistant is expected to approach one sooner or later after entering a shop (sometimes even before that) and "help" the customer... and of course recommending tons of things... Nice if you want to buy a thing and not really in the mood to look for yourself, but annoying when they start to push you into buying too many things you really don't want or need...



• I still feel a little lost here. Some things changed, even inside home... and having lots of things to unpack and organize and some paperwork to do doesn't help...



• Typing on the keyboard is frustrating me... some symbols like @, _ or ' are in a different position in the Brazilian keyboard. I realized that I'm used to the Japanese keyboard, so I'm making mistakes when inputting those symbols almost everytime...



• My cousin's husband is British, and he used to complain about the speed Brazilians drive. I didn't believe that much until now. Now I start to think too that people drive too fast here...



• Once I woke up thinking that it was a dream and I was still in Japan... More than once I got myself thinking about things or friends there...



• Of course, it's good to see family and old friends again!

The Beginning and the End

I just realized that I forgot to post some basics...

So, in 2003 I applied for the Hyogo Prefecture and Parana State sister States/Prefectures scholarship program. After taking some language tests and interwiews (Japanese and English, as some proficiency with both were required) in December I was approved. But the process to embark was long... A long list of requirements like Level 3 JPLT Certificate (that would have to wait until the next year, since this test is held on December and that wasn't mentioned before), recommendation letters, list of disciplines studied, etc. delayed the departure for more than an year.

Then, in April, 2005 I went to Himeji to study for one year as an undergraduate Information Engineering student in the University of Hyogo.

That's how everything started. This blog was created as a way to my friends in Brazil check what I was doing. As time went on, my friends in Japan also started to read it. That was the main reason to change the language of most posts from Portuguese to English.

The program was for one year, so I'm back to Brazil now, and will return my studies here shortly.

But the blog won't die just yet. Because of my friends in Japan and some in Brazil who don't live in the same city. Besides, I still have somethings to post about Japan...