Fernando Valente's weblog

Today is January 29 2011. I must move away from this country in exactly one year, otherwise I will be forced to join military. As I said on the previous post, in Brazil, when you turn 18, you must join the military. My birthday is in March, however we must go to the army’s office to join it in January 30 of the year we turn 18.

In Brazil, laws aren’t respected unless you have good intentions(like kill a serial killer to defend yourself). The civil laws don’t apply to military. This mix makes it perfect for them! It means they may do whatever they want to you. Here are 2 things that happened a few years ago in the military police:

-New people who joined them were tortured;
-2 guys got arrested(and I believe they are still in jail) because they are gay;

There are many other bizarre stuff, but I really don’t wanna join the army. Too bad I was born in this piece of crap.

I’m looking for a job in somewhere far from Brazil. I can do iOS, Mac and web development, but if I could pick I’d pick a Mac developer position. I sent my resume to a lot of companies around the world. I’m nervous. It’s always that same old question. Will I get hired? The problem is that the answer may be “No”, which is a very big problem to me. I really need a job and I’d do anything to get it. If any of my readers knows about someone who could hire me, please leave a comment or contact me. You can see my resume on the “Resume” page of this blog(what an obvious thing lol).

I still have more than a year to get a job outside Brazil, otherwise I will get my death sentence. OK, it’s not literally a death sentence, but I will be forced to join the army. Thanks to the crappy Brazilian law. No decent country has this kind of law. You don’t really want to know what happens in the Brazilian army. Ever since I was 13, I decided to get the hell out of this country, but as the time passes, my situation gets worse and worse. I hate this country, and now the president is a terrorist. How would you feel if Osama Bin Laden was the president of the country you live? Probably the same way I feel now.

Today the last document of my emancipation was delivered to me. This allows me to move away from this piece of crap, I mean, country and gimme all my civil rights. It includes opening companies, getting married and suing people.  I finally became an adult in terms of law and I do not need my parents permission to do anything.

I live in Rio de Janeiro and was born in Belo Horizonte. BH is in another state, I had to travel to BH to take one document to the registry office I was registered in. I couldn’t simply mail it. That would be too easy to be Brazil. The other option was to ask someone to send it to the registry office to me. I have many relatives in BH, however they are very “creative”. I don’t really trust them because they hear something and then invent something really crazy. For example, when I told my grandfather I was going to travel to the US, he called my mom and said some very weird stuff.

-”Silicon Valley is an illusion. He should go to the university in Lavras and work on computer factories in Santa Rita”.

Yes, that’s it. Silicon Valley is an illusion. Hollywood, Bollywood and Toronto are also illusions, actors should go to places like Joanesburgo. Yes, that was sarcasm. He doesn’t even know I have plans to move away from this country. Lavras and Santa Rita are very small cities with poor economies. Did I mention there are less than 100 thousand people in these cities? And you know what else is too funny? He thinks I must go to the college to learn how to build a computer. I know how to do it and I must say: it’s very easy to build a PC. Where’s his brain? In his ass? Probably.

This gives you an idea of how my family things(or doesn’t think, because people who think wouldn’t say all that bullshit). I don’t usually tell them about things I do because I don’t like to be disturbed with bizarre bullshit. If I told them I made more than 1500 bucks developing iOS apps I’d probably hear something like:

-”They are human traffickers and will get you engaged in prostitution.”

Or maybe:

-”It’s a Ponzi Scheme, you’re being tricked.”

Yes, I’m forced to hear this kinda bullshit very often and sometimes I tell them to go fuck themselves. If you think I’m disrespecting them, start reading the post again. My brain needs respect too and those foolish ideas disrespects it. But, getting back to what I was talking about. I went to BH and got back in the same day. Just my parents knew I went to there. Everything went alright. It was nice to stay sometime in the bus with no stuff to think about. 7 hours to get back to Rio. In the end I was just getting tired of staying sit down.

I can say my plan is starting to work. This plan must work, otherwise I will be in trouble. No, I’m not doing anything wrong/illegal. I may be only 16, but I’m responsible. Yes, I know everyone says that, so you probably won’t believe me anyway. It’s the only way to get me out of the trouble that is to come(Dilma, anyone?). The plan has a couple variations in case one  of them doesn’t work. I just hope everything will be alright.

I totally agree with him. Intolerance must stop!

Yesterday I bought an iPhone 4. I was going to write this post yesterday, but I forgot. After looking for it in the entire city, I finally found one at a mall. It’s very hard to find them for sale, as they are sold very fast. The store I bought it received 100 iPhones a day before I buy my one, and I bought the last one!

This phone is just MAGICAL. Sometime ago when I first saw the iPhone 4, the Retina Display didn’t seem so magical. That’s what usually happens when you try stuff on a store. The display is just COOL. Things look more real on it. I really wish my MacBook had a Retine Display.

The camera is wonderful. 5MP is great and HDR makes it much more magical. I can take and record stuff with a great quality. And it works from both: frontal and back camera. The Facetime is very cool. It’s much better than a video chat on iChat.

The phone is very fast. Most apps take a fraction of second to open. Compass is also something cool to play with, but it doesn’t seem very useful. I haven’t tried the GPS yet.

But there are also some problems. I create ringtones from my music library without syncing it with iTunes in order to transfer them back to the phone. I’d really like to change the ringtone anywhere and anytime. Another problem is that Facetime is not available on 3G network. Another problem is that some(not all) apps that are non-Retina Display ready look a little pixelated. The first 2 problems can be solved with Jailbreak and the last one can’t.

In fact, this is the world’s best cellphone. I don’t even know what to expect from the next version. Maybe TV, but I don’t really use to watch it. If it could tune TV stations from other countries, that would be really cool as my favorite TV shows are from NBC.

Today I filled out the D-160 form, which is necessary for people traveling to the US. I will get my visa Friday morning. Wish me luck.

There were some bizarre questions like “Do you pretend to go to the US to engage in prostitution?” and “Do you pretend to go to the US to be a terrorist?”. WTF?! People who have this intention will NEVER say yes. It was the most bizarre questions I’ve ever seen. US immigration is a joke. I hope the immigration reform will pass soon.

Since Lula da Silva(AKA Octopus) has assumed the presidency of this fucking damn country called “Brazil”, it has became one of the biggest unfunny jokes EVER. I don’t even know where to start, maybe from his racist statements(I don’t have blue eyes, but as a white guy I’m still waiting for him to apologize) or the 45% of taxes(it’s the minimum you pay, sometimes it’s 800% depending on what you’re buying) or the corruption scandals. When he assumed the presidency, this country has became even worse than it was. Violence increased, corruption increased and your privacy too. It’s hard to believe the government gets data from credit card companies and banks to know how much you’re spending. If you spend money you don’t have or pays something to someone then she pays your credit card bill later, you will have to pay a bigger return tax for that.

There are also some weird cases of people who received small quantities of money from outside Brazil. Few time ago a guy told me one thing that happened to him. He has a company and it provided a service to a German company. It received €2.000,00 for the service. The government held the payment alleging “How can a company that has never made any money make 2k Euros?”. After a few years, he finally got that money. When that happened, the Euro exchange rate was down.

We both have something in common. My payment from Apple was supposed to be on my account by September 7, as they payed me on September 2. The payment was about R$1,200.00(approximately $700~800 US dollars). Guess what? The payment  was returned. I’m on a fucking list of people they want more information from. I emailed Apple and they told me that. And the worst part is that I have to consider myself lucky. Lucky because they didn’t steal my money. R$1,200.00, WTF!? It’s not a big quantity of money. It was the biggest payment I ever received from the, but it’s not too much. Is that all? No! The Dollar exchange rate is getting down.

I don’t know what is worse, the fact Dilma Rousseff(the candidate Lula is telling people to vote for), an ex-terrorist, having a *BIG* chance to be the next president of this fucking country, or those ignorant people who keep saying  “That’s right! He must steal our money. Everyone does it, so he has to do it too”. 99.8% of Brazilians are a bunch animals with a brain of a bacteria. Too bad I was born here. I really wish I was born in a decent country.

I’m just here to say I finally got my first passaport. I will travel to Boston soon(travel, not move), so I needed one. Now I gotta get my visa. I hope it won’t be very hard to get it.

Wish me luck

Last night I had one of those crazy dreams that makes you think about it.

I was in an island. The Brian Greenstone‘s office was located in this island. There was nothing in that island, excepting for a beach, forest, animals and a few people. Those people were apparently old and poor. They were black, white hair and had paintings on their body. They were a kind of old indians. Yes, they were the habitats of that island.

A certain day Brian was sleeping in his office when a small and aggressive animal(that looks like a mouse) attacked him. He didn’t know where that thing came from. He went to the top of a box(where the animal couldn’t reach him). He was not being able to sleep any time because that animal kept trying to attack him every single night. He decided to leave the island.

A few time later I arrived there with some people. The same animal tried to attack me and the others. Also, there were some strange creatures that looks like humans, but they lived under the sea. They were intelligent as humans and were trying to get far from that same animal. When I was running from the animal, they helped me taking me to their home. They said they use to stay there because of that thing. But after a certain period of the day, that place was invaded by water. Of course I couldn’t stay there. I remember I lived in Brian’s office, and the animal came in and tried to attack me. Also, the office had a lot of Macs(about 10), including G3 iMacs and a G4 PowerMac. The island habitants asked me to leave the island, but I didn’t wanna obey them. Then I found out there was a hole made by the habitants on Brian’s office, so the animal could come in and Brian would leave that place. We tried to close that hole with no luck. One of the habitants started living in Brian’s office and use his PM. Then I just remember I was leaving the island.

What a crazy dream.

I quitted the french course. I did it because I’m so anxious. I got a big problem with anxiety since I was born and no doctor could ever solve this. Anxiety makes me do foolish things and also causes me an obsessive compulsive disorder. But this is not the why I quitted. It’s not realated to my obsessive compulsive disorder, but to the fact I wasn’t being able to pay attention and even study for the course. I still have plans to get back to the course and I will probably do it in two or three months.

One of the reasons why my anxiety is getting worst it Chiaro. It seems doors are finally getting open. I just can’t stop thinking about my plans to the future.