Fernando Valente's weblog

I’m so sad I’m writing this post. But yes, I’m going back to Rio next week. Everything started when I went to Campus Party back in January. I was going to stay in a hotel, but I’d struggle to pay for that. So a friend of mine asked if I didn’t want to stay in his boyfriend’s home. I saw nothing wrong on that and we quickly became “friends”(you will understand why the fuck the word friends has the quotation marks soon). So when I moved to São Paulo, I’d share the apartment with him and a friend of his. It’s something very common here because people can split the bills, which are pretty expensive. When I arrived at SP, the first thing he told was that 2 more people were going to live with us. 5 people in such a small apartment totally disrespects the physical laws. So I just didn’t know what to do. I looked for an apartment to rent, but I found nothing.

At the same time, things didn’t go quite well at my work. My boss didn’t think I was good at programming because of my age. A friend of mine had recommended me for the job. That same friend helped me a lot in the beginning when I was about to get fired. To me, he is a very special guy because he did so much for me and I will never forget what he did. If someday I ever get rich, I will surely remember of those who helped me. Thanks Heinar, you’re an amazing guy. I will never forget what you did.

A few time later I got my boss to trust me and almost everything was fine. I started also behaving strangely(maybe because of the problems I was having, I was just so nervous and could not think). But I really learned a lot about society after that. I really really did and I’m very thankful for this.

Getting back to the apartment stuff, I wasn’t able to find anything. The first good news I heard was that my dad’s friend had a apartment here and he wouldn’t mind letting me stay there. That sounded like music to my ears(in fact, that sounded like a Michael Jackson song lol). But the bad news came a few time later. My dad’s friend has asked a friend of his to take care of the apartment and he had rented it. But I’d just have to wait 2 months and I’d have a place to stay.

I moved to my great grandaunt’s home temporary. I tried hard to find somewhere to rent, in case anything went wrong. But I wasn’t able to find something that fitted in my salary. After some intensive research, my dad talked to his friend and asked a few details. The problem was that the condo costs were over R$1,800.00. I could rent an apartment with this money, so of course I said “Thank you so much, but I cannot afford it”. He tried to help me and I’m thankful for that

I started to look for something to rent, but I couldn’t find anything. Everything was just so expensive that, well, I just CANNOT afford. My grandmother told me she would come here if needed to help me to look for a place to live. I work 8 hours per day and I just can’t spend so much time looking for a place to live. And, there’s more. I can only look for a place to rent in the weekends, which is very hard. For a some time, I thought I’d be able to find it by myself, but I ended up saying “Yes”. WHY!?!?!?!?!? Why the fuck I did this?

As soon as she came here, my great grandaunt’s children told her I needed to get out of her home ASAP, as her health isn’t very well. I cannot say I disagree with them, because she isn’t really doing well. My mom told my grandmother “Try to find something which will not require a contract”. In Brazil, we have to pay a 30% fee in case we break a renting contract. She took this very seriously… She kept ignoring anything she found that required a fucking contract. And yes, I’d have more time if she stayed where she was.

There are many people here which will rent rooms in their homes. I kept telling her to not look for this kind of stuff because it’s dangerous as hell. Did she listen to me? NO, SHE DIDN’T! She also found some apartments which didn’t require a contract. The only one available was at a neighborhood called Liberdade(“liberty” in Portuguese). It’s one of  the most dangerous neighborhoods in São Paulo. Crackheads invaded it. If they see you have something they find interesting(like a watch or a t-shirt), they will simply shot you and take your stuff. Then they will sell it to buy more crack. They don’t even ask you, they simply kill you. When I told her about this, she kept insisting on that. What the fuck!? I wonder what happened to her brain. Really, I don’t want to put my life under risk. Not really.

So, I ended up finding nothing and I will get back to Rio in next week. Everything seemed so perfect, but a lot of stuff went wrong. I really hope I could change this, but I cannot see anything happening anytime soon. I will just quit my fucking job and getting back to that crappy city. What a crappy life

No, it’s not in another country. I got a job here in Brazil, but I must say I’m happy as hell. I went to the interview yesterday and they said I’d get an e-mail in a few hours. I didn’t get it and I thought “Oh crap, I didn’t get the job”. Today I got an e-mail saying I was hired. I will work as an iOS developer in a magazine publisher. I will be developing magazines for the iPad. I’m just SOOOO HAPPY!  Wish me luck

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.

I’d like to wish everyone a happy new year. I hope 2011 will be a great year to me. I got many great projects which may finally come true. I’m really fighting to make they come true.

In the beginning of January, FireRocker for Mac will finally come out. It’s 90% done, but there’s still work and testing to do. Also, I will finish a couple more projects that are almost finished. If FireRocker for Mac gets successful, I will try to go to Canada or UK, as they allow self-employed people to immigrate. In case it fails, I will try to get a job.

In January, I will go to Campus Party. It may be a great place to make contacts and get a job. And guess who’s gonna be there? Steve Wozniak! Yeah, one of my idols. People say he’s very friendly, so I will finally get to know one of my idols. There will be a lot of foreigners and foreign companies. The first Brazilian female to work for NASA, got her job at a previous edition Campus Party. So I hope I will have the same luck

One thing I have to do before that is to practice English. I have no problems to write, but I don’t feel secure when speaking it. The last time I spoke it, everyone understood what I said. However, at the end of 2007, when I was still learning it, I tried to talk to a couple Americans, but I failed miserable. I think that’s why I don’t feel secure when speaking it. When I feel secure, even my accent gets better. I can speak many words just like Americans would speak. I must try to get comfortable with it, so I will not have any problem. I guess I will talk to a couple friends from the UK, Australia and the US a few hours each day, so I will get familiar with it.