Vacation... but there's a problem...

Winter vacation. But it's unusually warm (maybe even hot), even for Brazilian winter. As it hasn't been raining lately (what's also kinda unusual), perfect weather for vacation, right? Well, yes, it is. With so many things to do and the weather helping...

Why did I catch a cold!?!?!?

And a very strong one, with fever, feeling lazy and all that. And in that pace, vacation will be over before I'm healed... Ok that I haven't halped much. Even in this condition I still have played futsal, gone out with friends and all that... I have to enjoy a little after all. But I wonder if that's not delaying my recovery and spreading the virus...

Anyway, I can't keep doing that. Guess I'll have to play dead for a while... Damn.

Bookworm

Finally, winter vacation. The result of the last tests were published, and thankfully I was approved without the final exams (one should get an average of 70 points in exams or 50 points after the final exam to be approved. But that one is more difficult than regular exams... and it has a weight equal to all the other exams together.).

So, it's time to decide what to do during winter vacation. Not much, since it's not that long and my research starts in the next semester. For now, just resuming the ordinary "go with friends to..." that I skipped for the last weeks because of all the exams, reports and presentations. Like going to the arcades and play futsal.

But I usually read at least one book during every summer or winter vacation. This time I still couldn't find one. I've been searching for Asimov's Foundation Series, but the complete collection is nowhere to be found. Other books that I'd like to read, like Rainbow Six, I can't find also... Well, I have one book in queue. A Japanese book that I was presented with (thanks again Kyoko!). I'll use the time to read it, but I'd need some other book as my Japanese reading is way too slow.

So, I'm open to reading suggestions...

Blue battle

So, another World Cup comes to an end. In the final match, a blue battle. Italy's "Azurra" against France's "Les Bleus".... with the deserved victory of the former. A good game I watched in a pub with some friends and former classmates (until I went to Japan). It's interesting to meet the group after (almost) everyone has graduated (well... I still haven't...) and check the path each one chose (or were chosen...) Master's course, job, unemployment... And each has different points of view now.

Back to the original subject, after some time Italy's got another title. And that was deserved. The players might not be so strong individually, but they showed a good performance as a team... plus some luck, but that's part of the equation anyway.

The bad highlight is due to Zidane... that lost his temper near the end of the game. Let's hope he doesn't become the martyr... in any meaning.

Well, the tourneament wasn't amazing. Good games, but not astonishing ones. Games usually decided by tactic rather than individual talent (but that surely showed up sometimes). Highlights to the return of the German patriotism, and the return of Italy to the top, after erasing the bad mark of being the only team that lost a World Cup final match in PKs...

Katamari Soul

One day, when I was in Japan, one guy of the same lab as me was showing a video he'd found on the internet. It was about a video-game. I couldn't find out the title at that time, but it surely was interesting. You are a tiny little... thing? Anyway, a tiny little thing that pushes around some kind of ball that is highly adhesive, capable of grabbing anything smaller than itself. That ball is called katamari (in Japanese it means something like lump, chunk or block). Grabbing objects, the ball gets bigger and can capture bigger objects.

Simple gameplay, a storyboard that is not amazing, but with some interesting lines. A game that can make one play for hours... and it's funny! That's "We ♥ Katamari" ("みんな大好き塊魂"). A completely nonsense game, one of the kind "turn your brain off and relax".

The most interesting thing so far? A stage where the katamari gets so big, that it grabs mountains, ground (yes... you've read that right), going through buildings, monuments (like the Eiffel Tower, White House and Osaka Castle), Godzilla, clouds, satellites and UFOs. Let's take over the world!!!

Well, I found that game this week at a game corner here and bought it because I remembered the video I saw in Japan. But the fun will have to wait until exams are over...

Munich: The Real Assassins

Recently, I watched the documentary "Munich: The Real Assassins" in Discovery Channel. I wanted to watch Spielberg's "Munich", but couldn't manage to do it. But the documentary was even better.

Shortly, it shows a "black op" of the Mossad (Israeli secret service) to get revenge on the ones who organized and planned the Olympics massacre of 1972, killing them in a way to intimidate other terrorists. How some operations were executed and how it turned into a new killing, having as targets "anyone who could be a threat to Israel" (more a less). Until they killed a wrong target... an innocent. And were caught.

Initial payback feeling turning into paranoic rage... doesn't it sound familiar with another conflict? Pakistan? Iraq?

And it shows that there's no "right side" or "wrong side" in conflicts like those...

It's surely fascinating. One I recommend.