Categories
geek in portugal traveling

tupperware hunting

success! joão found it!
success! joão found it!

we started geocaching a few months ago, following tips by mundoo and vera. in shanghai there wasn’t much to hunt and besides, people are everywhere and they’re especially curious of us, the foreigners acting suspiciously…

another one found!
another one found!

in portugal though, there are tons of caches, hidden a bit everywhere, so there are really no excuses not to go find them. i especially enjoy the ones that take us to far away places, make us climb rocky hills or wander around in the middle of bushes that scratch our knees… or discover strange geological phenomena or some little known historical fact.

joão checks his gps coordinates sitting on an... angry turtle rock?
joão checks his gps coordinates sitting on a... turtle rock?
that way!br/no! down there!
"that way!" "no! down there!"

it’s fun, there are caches everywhere, and it makes another great excuse for a roadtrip! :) who knows what you’ll find?

:)
:)
Categories
links and ideas

sometimes, i doubt your commitment to sparkle motion

“I have to say, y’all, that what follows is possibly the most awesome crackfic of any of the series so far.”

cleolinda jones, of movies in 15 minutes, put together a wiki of her lj’s twilight related entries. the glossary and book recaps are unmissable and hilarious. “She’s just saying what we’re all thinking”, says the nerd world times blog, and it’s true.
twilightcount

“And they sexed happily ever after in their magic cottage while their half-vampire toddler slept in the next room, and it was the best series starting with a teenage girl in love with a mysterious boy in her class that ended up with a teenage girl defending her growth-accelerated mutant hybrid baby from an ancient clan of evil vampires with her magical psychic shield that I ever read, THE END.”

if you like twilight, or maybe you find the whole thing a little ridiculous, go read, it’s brilliant! :)

Categories
geek links and ideas pretty things

framboise mint choc

500

currently browsing the colors and patterns on colourlovers.com, and falling in love with their names. somehow “vintage mount dew”, “vampire dribble”, “Ursus horribilis”, “tomato sneaking out” or “tummy ache” all make sense as colors, at least as soon as you see them. :)

also on the subject, how cool is this collection of 500 coloring pencils?
aurora_4

and of course, impossibly expensive at $33/batch of 25 crayons/month. also, who would have the courage to actually use such a perfect collection? sigh.

Categories
just life traveling

could you act human? i got neighbors.

summer light

well, crazy july is behind us, all the pinkness of building a website for young teenage girls fading with it. i css’d while listening to hannah montana, the jonas brothers and taylor swift, corrupting whatever poor sense of musical taste i had before (and dragging down those around me too!). i saw twilight, and then read (practically devoured) the 4 books and a half that stephenie meyer wrote on the series – all in the same week. i’m up to speed on all the cute idols for <16, their schedules and mischiefs. for a whole month, i was a giddy teenager all over again, but i actually had a lot of fun doing the site, and the last 2 weeks were pretty intense. i wish i could slip into this sort of focused working mode more often.

the website is a sort of portal, so it required a big infrastructure: drupal was our “community plumbing” system of choice. drupal can be quite messy and scary, with its panoply of modules, options and versions and it took me some time (months, actually) to get used to it, to motivate myself to learn it. right now, i can say i got over most of my grudges with it… and i even like it, a little. that stuff might not be straightforward, but sure as hell is powerful and i will probably use it again someday, if another big project comes along. for the small stuff, wordpress has my undying loyalty.

Share photos on twitter with Twitpic

on other news, our dealer found us a nice focus station wagon that we’ll officially purchase soon, as soon as we figure out insurances and other details. it’s pretty, and i’m already used to it since my family currently owns 2 of these. we weren’t pushing for a third one, but i think i’m secretly happy it turned out that way :)

it’s a nice car and though it is a little big for us, the size of the trunk comforts me, and i find myself making mental lists of the things we’ll be able to fit there. things like foldable bikes to use in the cities we’ll see, and ski/snowboard equipment. i’ve tried snowboarding once before, in a indoors place in shanghai and loved the feeling of it, so i’m looking forward for new tries (and falls). i think we’ll pick a nice country for that. :)

Categories
just life rants

looking for plan b

little flowers
little flowers

currently floating in a sea of drupal modules and dreaming of winning the jackpot and building a spacious loft, with minimalist decoration and lots of windows. also, of doing some sort of masters in online journalism/documentary. and a website about quirky european roadtrip stops (why should americans have all the fun?!).

i daydream way too often.