captbrando’s log

Well it has been a few days since I posted. Mainly because during the work week, we don’t get to do much sight seeing. In fact, we’ve easily been pulling 12 hour days. Chris made it OK. There was a snafu in her flight arriving at Porto Alegre, and I did not get the correct flight schedules back from the airline. Chris was only waiting for me for about 15-20 minutes tho, so it’s not too bad. I still feel guilty for not being there when she walked through the baggage claim doors.

We are wrapping up our on-site client work today. We still need some minor things to finish everything up, but then we will be golden. Sucks though as I wanted to be finished by now. Looks like it will be an afternoon finish.

So far, we’ve been sticking close to the neighborhood that our hotel is in. Chris went to Shopping Total yesterday, even took a couple of cabs without incident. Of course, around this part of Brazil, that is to be expected. Our neighborhood is quite safe. Some people call this town the San Francisco of Brazil.

The weekend starts tonight! We’re going to go have a nice dinner at a place near our hotel. Not sure if we are walking there yet, it’s a little warm out here now. We can’t seem to get an accurate number, but it appears to be somewhere between 87 degrees and 99 degress. Hot.

After that, maybe a brew or 2 around the neighborhood, and get some rest for a big weekend. We’ve not planned all of our sights out yet, but we have a few good ideas.

More later!

Yeah, I know I just posted about 5 hours ago, but we just returned to the hotel from our late morning stroll. Well, I say stroll, but it was a haul. I was trying to figure out the distance, but the map that we have does not have any way to determine that. James & I were wishing we had a GPS enabled device that could have tracked our movements. We think that we avoided walking in circles, but that would have told the truth!

We started our trip today by taking a taxi from the hotel to the Casa de Cultura Mario Quintana, or the Cultural Center Building. Our information said that it opened at 9AM, though when we got there we found a sign that said they did not open until noon. On the way there, our taxi driver ruined an “indie” movie shoot. They had this street almost closed off, and were trying to shoot a scene. Here comes us, in the taxi, right up the street. Shot ruined. Anyway…

We decided we did not want to wait for the center to open (maybe we will see it when Chris gets here), so we started walking to the biggest part in the business center of the city, Farroupilha Park. On Sunday’s, they have a giant flea market which more closely represents an arts & crafts fair. Someone could make quite the interesting import business with the prices they were charging.

On the end of the park, we saw an amazing cathedral. They were having mass, but the whole church was open so we stood in the back for about 5 minutes of the service. Quite beautiful

From there, we started walking out of the park, and we found a map. First one we’ve run across the entire time we’ve been here! We realized that we had walked half of the way back to our hotel, so we decided to just walk the rest of the way. This part of the walk was entirely residential. About half way back, we saw Shopping Total. That helped us get oriented to find our way back.

We had lunch at Just Burgers, as we figured we earned ourselves a meal after the tons of walking we did this weekend. My dogs are really barking. I’ve got a couple of blisters, but I’ll push through it.

In a few hours, we’re heading to the other large shopping area in Porto Alegre, Shopping Center Iguatemi. We figure we will wander around there, see if we can find any place that has American football, maybe hang there for a bit. Eventually, we’ll make it back to our neighborhood for dinner, then turn in early as we have a work week in front of us.

On our walks today, we made a couple of key observations.

The first is that the disparity in beauty between men & women is astounding. Think about your favorite family sitcom that has the really hot wife, and the fat husband. We saw that all over the place.

The second is that the pregnant belly is a beautiful thing down here (and I have to agree!). Women wear the same tops as they did when they were not pregnant. That means that their bellies get a LOT of sun!

We had an action packed day yesterday. So action packed, in fact, that we required a break about mid day to recover!

We’ve been trying to find things to do locally, and prepare for next weekend when Chris arrives. So again, we headed off to Shopping Total. It’s a mall that is close-by (bout a R$8 cab ride), and in a very beautiful neighborhood in Porto Alegre. Unfortunately, I’ve not kept a map with me while we’ve been on the way to Shopping Total, so I don’t know what the name of the neighborhood is. There are quite a few 1-way streets here in this part of Porto Alegre and it can be a challenge to keep up.

After arriving and looking for a hat for me (got a little sunburned on Friday), we began to trek out on foot. We walked down to one of the main drags through Centro (Downtown). We felt very safe walking around downtown. If we passed a street or area that did not have any children or women walking through, we would move along. Otherwise, it was fair game. I’m not sure I’d take Chris down through there, but it was fun none-the-less. Eventually, we reached a mass of people. There is an area in Centro where a major bus terminal & market collide. I believe it is called Mercado Centro.

James & I inched through the mob and saw some very interesting characters. As we walked, I was reminded of parts of downtown Playa del Carmen, but with much taller buildings, 10x the people, and quite a bit larger. The market seemed to go on for 2-3 blocks off the main drag as well. I would guess there was easily 5-8 thousand people in that area.

After getting our fill of walking through the market, we stepped our way back to Shopping Total for a bite to eat. We decided that we needed to try and find a tourist book on Porto Alegre. After trying to talk to some locals at a book store, we decided to go back to our neighborhood mall in Moinhos de Vento. There is a bookstore in that mall on the third floor.

We found some books on Brazil, but the amount of information on Porto Alegre is very limited. Chris had the same problem when she was looking for information state-side. I’ve just stumbled upon a wealth of info online (in English even!) that we will be using today, and next weekend to find activities. After reading “tourist” books that read more like “personal editorials on democracy,” we headed back to the hotel for a break. During this whole time of course, we were enjoying a few brews along the way!

After recovering a bit, we set out on foot again to find some place to eat & drink. We ended up at Pub Dado which is about 8 blocks from the hotel. We enjoyed some of the local Brazilian wine, and then had ourselves some sushi & steak. Sushi you ask? Why yes, and it was quite tasty. This place appeared to specialize in it.

Oh, and don’t try for dinner before 8:00pm. You will be waiting!

We have more adventures to tell about later! Today, I’m working on some sightseeing. Stay tuned to the MoBlog!

James has posted several tips for traveling in Brazil.

Oh, and yes, we actually learned these things during the time we spent here in Porto Alegre!

Last night was a little bit later for us than usual. We ate a late dinner that consisted of appetizers. We did not need much food after the big lunch we had. After that, we waited for one of our new Brazilian friends, Marco, to pick us up at the hotel for a night out. People get started late around here… especially single ones. We didn’t leave the hotel until 11pm.

Marco picked us up, and took us to a club. This three story establishment offered food, dancing, and a lounge area. There was a LONG line to get in, but Marco knew the manager. We were able to sneak in the back door. Whee!

The lounge area was PACKED until just before midnight when people began moving downstairs to dance. It was quite loud in there, and both James & I have had our fill of clubs for the trip. Even today we are trying to figure out if that music we hear is in our heads or actually playing. Gotta love Techno.

So as we are heading out, we wanted to catch a taxi. We flagged one down, showed him our key card, and he started pointing out the windshield. In our limited ability to understand Portuguese, we didn’t understand that he was trying to tell us that our hotel was just a few blocks in front of us. There are many one-way streets where we are, and Marco drove for 10 minutes before we arrived at the club. The club was roughly 4 blocks from our hotel.

So the frustrated taxi driver just slammed it in first and took off, clearly upset that his spot in the Taxi line would be wasted by 2 Americans that he cannot communicate with. We arrived about 2 minutes later, unscathed, and James gave him a big tip.

Right now, we are working at the office, but there are activities planned for later this afternoon. We’re still trying to figure out what is going on, but I brought my camera with me. I hope to have some good pictures!

I tell you, our biggest challenge here is definitely the language. Many say that Portuguese is similar to Spanish; and in some repsects it is. But pronounciation has elements of French, English and also some Eastern Europe languages. Listening to the soft “R” has brought me back to my French days, and in fact, I could understand some of the french dialogue that was being used by our waitress last night.

James & I are planning on trying to take a quick crash course in Portuguese this weekend. Trodding around the city should be interesting. Last night we went to a place called “Shopping Total,” which consisted of a mall area and some eateries. The beer here is alive with flavor, and can taste the German influence. We have not found any dark beer to try yet, but maybe that is because it is late Spring here and the weather is warmer.

I’ve been posting pictures from various areas in the MoBlog, but if you are looking for hot women, this Treo camera just does not do it justice. Porto Alegre has very beautiful women, but I would argue that you see the same “hotness” in various areas Texas such as Dallas or Austin. What you DON’T see is the sensuality, or the sexual nature of the woman walking by.

For example, it is more rare to NOT see part of a woman’s midriff as you pass by her on the street. Spandex & Lycra with heels are very popular–even in the workplace! Something that has been mastered here is the ability to wear EXTREMELY low jeans, and not have a whale tail advertising to the world. In fact, you don’t even see many coin slots. Quite interesting indeed.

We had lunch at a Churrasco, or “brazilian barbecue.” Holy moly, I’m going to need to eat rabbit food for at LEAST a day. Same type of setup as the Fogo de Chou; which Porto Alegre is home to the original! Food was awesome. Never been to Fogo de Chou, but I have been to Texas de Brazil.

Anyway…..

It’s taken me about 6 hours between meeting breaks to post this. I think I’m going to finish up the day now!

So about 5:35 this am we hear this BOOMING crack of thunder. Lightning brightens up the room, and the sound wakes me up out of a nice dream (you know, dreaming of beer). Was one of those times that you shoot straight up in bed after hearing the noise. I calmly collected myself, then laid back down as I was planning on getting up in a few minutes anyway. A few more big cracks of thunder, then the power goes out.

Well, mostly.

The A/C went out with most of the lights in the room for sure. But you could still turn on the light over the door, and the light in the shower. So I got ready to go in the semi-dark, knocked on James’s door (across the hall), and he was just about ready also. I assume the power fluctuates frequently in that hotel as they had some areas under generator power (such as the Elevators. We were daring!).

This afternoon, we’ve been hearing a mix of commercial jets & fighter jets taking off from the Porto Alegre airport. There have been issues with three of the airports here in Brazil today, where many flights have been cancelled or delayed. Thankfully, neither the main Sao Paulo or Porto Alegre airports have been affected thus far. That means that Chris should have an OK time getting in!

Hey kids… I’ve been in Brazil for nearly 3 days now. It was a fun adventure getting here! We took a flight from DFW to Sao Paulo (GRU) on Sunday night. While at the airport, we learned that the aircraft had a maintenance issue, so we would be delayed. Once the plane showed up at the gate from the maintenance hanger, we all boarded. James & I enjoyed a half-assed mimosa and were just getting comfortable.

Then….

Pilot comes on and says that a panel fell off the plane when it was being transported back to the gate from the hangar, and now the Boeing 767 is not air worthy. Luckily, there was another 767 fueled and waiting for us 8 gates down the way. So we all mad-dashed off the one plane to the next.

We kept looking at our watches knowing that we only had about 3 hours to make our connection in Sao Paulo to Porto Alegre. That includes going through Immigration & Customs, then back through security to catch our TAM Airlines connecting flight. Well, as you might guess, we walked off the airplane 8 minutes past the departure of our flight.

So we see an agent who gives us a new ticket. It’s for TAM Airlines again, but at the OTHER Sao Paulo airport (40 minute cab-ride through some interesting parts of town). And only 2 hours to get there. Still have not gone through Immigration or Customs.

Well, we make it JUST in time, but it turns out that a delay on our end would have been tolerated as the second airport was shut down shortly after our arrival. Overall, we ended up being about 5 hours delayed into Porto Alegre.

That said, WE MADE IT! Porto Alegre is absolutely beautiful. The town is very safe, and we tend to hang around the hotel after work.

Time to do some client work!

Well, you know, there are days where I think that I should post something every day. Even if it is a quick link somewhere. Ideally, I’d like to post a few paragraphs every day to get more experience writing. Do I want to be a writer? No. But I do want to be able to express my ideas and not sound like a bumbling idiot.

So Christmas threw up on the house today. It’s actually very nice of course. We were able to do some good cleanup work in preparation for a second car for the garage. Got some baby stuff that we won’t be using for at least another 18 months (hopefully, right?), and we threw it up in the various attics. I also replaced all the fluorescent bulbs in the garage, so it actually lights up now when you hit the switch .

At any rate, I’m preparing for my trip to Brazil. Really looking forward to it!

Well, it DID rain today, but the weather page was reporting a steady and slow rain for several hours. Oops… Brando screwed that one up. Somehow, I have been graphing and displaying all this time an artificially calculated rain rate. The guy who originally wrote the scripts did some stuff on rain rates that worked for him.

I yanked that calc out and made it look at the console calculated rate instead. Works like a hose now.

It sure can’t get here quick enough. Two more weeks of work and we are outtie! Really looking forward to getting away. That 9am beer on the beach will be hard to get over. I’m headed to a client site right after vacation, so I hope they don’t look alarmed when they see a Shiner in my hand in place of the morning coffee! Be glad when we wrap that deal up. I may have to be out on the West Coast that Friday as well, so returning from vacation should be interesting.

Looks like I’ll be taking a quick trip the following week as well, but thankfully it’s a short week.

I asked Chris to pick up “The Cell,” by Stephen King, to read on the beach. I’m also planning on raiding Dad’s library sometime before we leave. Really looking forward to the recharge time, and looking forward to sharing it with the family (and kiddo).

Well folks, it’s been quite some time since I blogged. Why? Mainly cause I’ve not been motivated lately. Been super busy with work, wrapping up the summer term at UD. Travel has been a bear! Honestly, I think Chris has more updates about me than I have had lately. The only exception to that, of course, is my mobile blog. That is updated quite frequently.

I did get time off around the holidays though, and it was quite nice. Most of my time was spent watching Garrett grow up, but I did have time to read a book, learn a new programming language & framework (new to me that is), and implement GTD.

Last week was only a half travel week. I was out in the Bay Area for the beginning part of the week. Man, the weather is so nice out there. I was actually cold in long sleeves & jeans. Sure beats the 105 degree heat we are having right now. 15 minutes of work around the pool and in the garage caused some nasty sweat. Ick.

Today I finally went through the Texas Hunter Education course. I did the home study, which saved me a day, but the instructor really hosed us. Not only did 4 hours of classroom turn into 3 hours of classroom and 2.5 hours of sales on the range, but the frantic studying I did when I showed up was really not needed. When I arrived, I was told that I was to get a harder test, and had to score higher than everyone else. It did pay off tho, I only missed one question. Lee is going to punch me when he finds out which one. The good news is, I already knew I was deficient there and will work on fixing it.

I’m scared for our future. There were several teens in the class (Dove Season opens in about 6.5 weeks) and their relaxed attitude towards everything was alarming. When I do hunt, I am going to be sure I am on a private lease. Course, that does not stop one of those clowns from jumping a fence…

One of them was trying to figure out when their fishing license expired (they all expire at the end of August in Texas), and the statement that followed out of this guy’s mouth absolutely astounded me. Now this next part, you have to read out loud to really get the full effect. He said, “It says ‘eight, thirty-one, oh-six.’ I don’t know when that is!”

Uhh…. WHAT?!?!

Truly saddened. Oh, and here’s another thing. With all the standardized tests that students have to take, and the ubiquitous nature of the Scantron, how is it that these teens get lost on filling out standard blocks such as Name, Address, Zip Code, and Birthday? I’m not too far removed from being one of those “Damn Kids” myself, but I certainly remember my fair share of standardized testing and filling out all that garbage. I seem to remember it being an annual occurrence until I graduated. Sure, TAAS was over as a sophomore for most of us, but then there was the SAT, ACT & CLEP.

</rant>

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, it’s time to go grab another beverage, chill out, and try to stay cool in this heat!

Well, unfortunately, it seems like I have reduced my postings to once a month, and that’s not a good. Last semester was very taxing on my time. I took over a new class and there was much to be done in that class. Honestly, I was not prepared for the level of work it required. I’m doing it again this term (taking over another class) and hopefully this one will not be quite as rough.

I’m traveling way too much this month as you will see from the Moblog. I suppose the only consolation out of this month is that I renewed my Gold status last week, so at least if I stop traveling after this month I’ll still have status next year. Though, the way things are going, Platinum, here I come! We’ve had some serious successes over the last three weeks, and I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished as a team.

I broke down and picked up the new Canon 30D for the photography stuff. James is getting our Digital Rebel, and the 10D has not been put into backup. I’ve not taken too much time with it yet, but what I have taken has been pretty amazing. Technology has come along quite a ways since we bought our 10D.

On that note, I’m out. Don’t forget to help out Chris for the 3-Day walk!

This year, my lovely wife Christine is participating in a very special event called the Breast Cancer 3-Day.

She will walk 60 miles over the course of three days with thousands of other women and men. The net proceeds will support breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment through the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund.

She has agreed to raise at least $2,200 in donations and hope to raise this amount and more. If she does not raise this amount then she can NOT walk. This means that after all of her extensive training and fundraising she will not be able to participate if she can not raise the money. We need your help. Would you please consider making a donation?

According to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, approximately 200,000 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, and nearly 40,000 will die from the disease. That’s why she walking so far. To do something bold about breast cancer. I hope that you’ll share this incredible adventure — by supporting her in her fundraising efforts.

She is walking in honor of all who have survived and for those who lost their life and can’t join the walk. In hopes that one day we can find a much needed cure. If you know of anyone that might like to make a donation, please send me their contact information and she will get in touch with them. We hope that you never need the medication or treatment that the money raised will go toward, but someone will.

When you are ready to donate, please email her!

Man, the End of Quarter song and dance that we do four times a year is a beating. We’re done with it now, and all relieved. Guess I can post now huh?

So we just got back from Chicago where Chris & I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. Wow! Chris posted the pictures here. Big thanks to Lauri for taking us around and to the Browns for providing that all important Sunday Breakfast!

I’m pretty beat from grading and work, so I’m going downstairs to play with the new HDTV!

So far (knock on wood), the weather has been a non-event. We’ll take it for sure. To be safe, I’ll be unplugging my Comet Antenna anyway. Speaking of comets, anyone viewed Pojmanski?

As I’m writing, looks like Throckmorton county is under the gun. 2 mesocyclones are in the county. It looks like this will all head north of us, and we’re not going to see much action. Fine by me, I like sleeping soundly.

At any rate, I’m waiting for Wade to come back to work as it’s about time to make the jump to HD. Gonna be sweeeeeeet.

Was going through some salvaged posts from “Days of Old” and just decided to end those Wow, I’m so glad that my posts are substantive now (hah!!).

So today was a longer day. Spent the first four hours catching up on work, then spent the next 4 working on the stuff I couldn’t while catching up. Then 3 more in the stuff I still needed to to for today. Man I need an assistant.

I was futzing around on eBay today and saw some 20Ds that are coming down in price. The 30D has been announced! I’m thinking of selling the Rebel and trading up! Maybe I can do some actual for-profit gigs to finance the equipment. Oh well, at least I’m building the portfolio, maybe I can sell it one day.

Kiddo is doing well! He is almost a year old now! At this point I would normally insert a cliche about how time flies, but instead, I’ll point you to an album of the kiddo in the tub. Such a ham.

Anyway… I’m out for now. Going to get some sleep and try to avoid a cold!

Yeah, been super busy. We’ve got a ton of bigtime work projects going on, I’ve got my 2 classes to teach, and of course the wife and kiddo to keep me on my toes the rest of the time.

Next week I’m out to Arkansas for the week, so look for lots of Mobile Blog shots from there. Also got a big weekend planned! Time to celebrate the end of bachelorhood for someone close! It will definitely be a very fun and safe night, and we’ll try to keep everyone out of the slammer. At least we’re not traveling for this one.

New air conditioner for the Upstairs is emminent. I am also considering turning my closet into a makeshift cold room, but that is another story for another day. Chat you folks later!

Yeah, supposed to be on PTO and I’m on it for the most part. Just kinda crazy how you plan it and then you sill have other things you need to do.

Practicing for Super Bowl, so I’ve got 3 racks of ribs on the smoker right now. We have to be VERY careful around here with the burn ban, and the red-flag warnings, so we’ve been keeping a special eye on it all day.

Not much else to report, have to do expenses from last week (before my trip next week), and just chill out for a few days