plasticmadness

Precisamos de uma lei proibindo membros da igreja e serem candidatos.
Minha revolta quanto à presença de membros de igrejas no legislativo (“bancada evangélica”), executivo e judiciário não tem fim. Me preocupa muito o “boom” evangélico no congresso nacional e o ganho de espaço político de religiosos como, por exemplo, a quase-vitória de Russomanno em SP, e agora o tal Marco Feliciano… Será que é constitucional fazer um PL proibindo pastores, padres, freiras, pajés, rabinos, pais de santo e/ou membros de qualquer igreja de se candidatarem ao legislativo, executivo e de ocuparem cargos no judiciário? Membros de igrejas deveriam ser compulsoriamente banidos de serem candidatos ou ocuparem qualquer cargo na esfera dos três poderes, sob risco de comprometer a laicidade do estado, que aliás já está quase indo a óbito. O máximo de religiosidade que um Estado poderia se permitir é a bagagem religiosa individual de cada parlamentar, coisa que vem de casa, de educação, de criação familiar.

A CANDIDATURA DE MEMBROS DA IGREJA A QUALQUER CARGO EM QUALQUER ESFERA DOS TRÊS PODERES DEVERIA SER PROIBIDA, PONTO FINAL.

Comments Off | In: Atheism and Religion, Brazil, Culture & Entertainment, Olivia, Politics, Secular State/Estado Laico | tags: agnostic, atheism, evangelic, no religion, pentecostal, religion, secular, secular state. | #

With.. Your Song
As I promised, here is the video of Elton John saying goodbye and playing Your Song in the Porto Alegre , Brazil, Concert.

Comments Off | In: Culture & Entertainment, Music, Olivia, Personal | tags: brazil, elton john, elton john 40th anniversary, elton john in poa, Music, music concerts, music shows, music video, poa, porto alegre, shows. | #

Bellow are pictures of Elton John Concert’s last night.

Elton John is awesome, polite, lovely, sweet, professional, educated, a classy showman, a gentleman who knows how to treat his audience. I was delighted by his presence and by his live performance. I almost cried when he played “The One” solo, and “Your song”.

His sparkling blue outfit was spectacular and I really wish I could use it for my friend’s wedding because it is just as good as any party gown.

I recorded a huge video of him playing “Your Song” and signing autographs but the video is too huge and needs some shrinkage before uploading.
Also, I’m uploading a ton of photos to Flickr!

Footnote that has nothing to do with the show: Hugo Chavez finally died and pardon my cruelness but I couldn’t care less because he was a leftist moron who only spoke shit and, as a leader, did as much shit as he spoke; and Chorão, a brazilian musician from a very popular band (whose popularity, if measured in ‘USA band scale of popularity’ would be “Green Day”, that is, he was really popular) was found dead in his apartment today also!

Comments Off | In: Culture & Entertainment, Music, Olivia, Personal | tags: elton john, elton john 40th anniversary, elton john in poa, estádio do são jose, Music, music concerts, music show, poa, shows, zequinha. | #

Sempre que eu penso que nada pior pode surgir das entranhas podres da política brasileira, lá vem mais um petardo ainda maior e mais nauseabundo. Dessa vez a bomba é a seguinte: os seres evangélicos abjetos que ocupam um lugar no congresso nacional e que se auto-denominam “bancada evangélica” vão liderar a comissão de direitos humanos da câmara. Sim, esses são os mesmos seres que alegam ser os bastiões da moral e guardiões dos bons costumes. É, bons costumes, sabe? Como por exemplo propagar o ódio a gays, negros, aborto, mulheres, sexo, contracepção, qualquer outra religião que não seja a deles próprios, enfim, todas essas coisas erradas e imorais. De fato, no Brasil nada é tão ruim que não possa piorar. Brasil é que nem usuário de crack: um caso perdido.

Bancada Evangélica Deve Presidir Comissão de Direitos Humanos

Comments Off | In: Atheism and Religion, Brazil, Olivia, Personal, Politics | tags: agnostic, atheism, brazil, human rights, no religion, religion, secular, secular state. | #

Por exemplo: vocês lembram do Lindberg Farias, líder estudantil dos cara-pintadas há 20 anos, que ajudou o impeachment do então presidente Collor? Pois é, hoje ele é farinha do mesmo saco político que o Collor (são da mesma base aliada). Por isso que eu não acredito que a política brasileira tenha jamais a remota chance de se redimir, se reformar. A mesma coisa aconteceu com a geração de 64 (vide Zé Dirceu). A geração de 64 se tornou farinha daquele mesmo saco o qual eles combatiam (falavam de censura mas manipulam a mídia e se fazem de perseguidos políticos quando na realidade são o partido da situação, e a única censura que existe vem por parte deles, porque ninguém pode falar mal deles). A geração de 64 falhou. A geração de cara-pintadas falhou. A das diretas já falhou. Não existe uma história de sucesso na alegada democracia da política brasileira. Não vai existir, nunca. E isso que eu nem comecei a falar da bancada evangélica… a nova direita, a pior de todas.

Comments Off | In: Brazil, Olivia, Politics | tags: brazil, corruption, evangelic, mensalão, Politics, pt. | #

Duas tragédias aconteceram num período de menos de 24 horas no RS. Dois incendios. Um foi numa boate frequentada por jovens universitários de classe média e alta. Outro foi uma favela de maioria negra e parda cheia de traficantes. No primeiro mais de 230 morreram. No segundo ninguém morreu. Porque ninguém da mídia está falando do incêndio na favela em Porto Alegre (vou encurtar): preconceito, e ninguém morreu, ponto final. Agora, meu pronunciamento pessoal longo: eu não estou preocupada com o incêndio na favela porque eu tenho certeza que as autoridades vao provideciar moradia nova e dar assistência, e ninguém morreu. A prefeitura já queria remover e reeestruturar aquela área antes mesmo do incêndio, entãoi vai que agora deslacha né? Além disso, essas duas tragédias mostram varias faces e verdades sobre nossa sociedade e nosso governo. Sobre a sociedade.. mostra que e a mídia e a sociedade se importa mais com a juventude branca de classe média do que com os pardos favelados (é duro mas é verdade nua e crua) e o sobre o governo… bom, as duas tragédias mostram que nosso governo é bastante solícito quando a solução do problema é meramente assistencialista (construir casas, achar abrigo), porque essas medidas são fáceis e (triste, mas verdade) são populistas e dão voto. Agora, quando é pra resolver catástrofes complexas e cuja cadeia de responsabilidade recai *nos próprios governantes e autoridades competentes*, aí todo mundo quer tirar o seu da reta, e tomar providências e achar culpados fica bem mais dífícil, burocrático e improvável. Por isso que eu me preocupo mais com a tragédia de Santa Maria. Os favelados de POA que perderam a casa hoje podem subir de nível e ser os universitários do futuro, e vão entrar numa casa noturna pra comemorar e também vão morrer queimados. Na realidade esses favelados também provavelmente frequentam casas noturnas igualmente negligenciadas e estão correndo risco de ser queimados. Mas depois a prefeitura não vai ter como trazer eles de volta com medidas assistenciais populistas emergenciais… Enfim, são problemas diferentes que mostram aspectos ruins da nossa sociedade e governo, mas acho que o de Santa Maria é bem mais complicado e grave.

Comments Off | In: Brazil, Olivia | tags: brazil, fire, santa maria. | #

Hi!
I’m testing the official wordpress app for iPad. Let’s see how this comes out. Still looking for app that posts through multiple blogging platforms, like livescribe. I must say I’m frustrated that Disq.us has such a shitty and limited app that mostly fits the iPhone screen only…

Comments Off | In: Olivia, Social Media & Internet, Software, Tech and Gadgets | tags: apple, apps, gadgets, iPad, tablets, Tech, wordpress. | #

Last weekend we held a small thanksgiving feast – prepared by my lovely hubby Cary – and even though we don’t celebarte thanksgiving in Brazil, we even had Black Friday. We had turkey, blueberry pie, special gravy, mashed potatoes and yummy stuffing!!

We found out that there’s peanut butter in the public market here, which is just a couple blocks down our place, so my husband is very happy as you can imagine

My sweetie feline Mistofelis had a bad diarrhea but I’m so glad he’s competely recovered!!

I’m watching American Horror Story: Asylum. I must confess I hate psych ward – but I’m LOVING AHS Asylum. Psychiatric hospital were and still are a place  for the nightmares. Hardly any other theme has more potential for horror and suspense. I’m liking AHS better than the Walking Dead. The Walking Dead is lost within its slow story and uninteresting characters – issues that could have been solved in a three lines dialogue are lasting for the entire season. Killing Lori was a mistake, Michonne is annoying and poorly written, Merle is a pain in the ass. None of the character’s behavior has any logic or makes any sense. They really should review certain things in case there s next season.

My reading is uber slow and I’m so behind my new year resolution of reading 10 books in 2010. Aprox. 12hrs of work per day and I get home and pass out in bed. There’s french class I’d like to dedicate to a little more. I’d like to excersice, do something else. I read medical periodics but that does not count as reading. I’m pretty tired to be honest.

1 Comment | In: Culture & Entertainment, Food and Nutrition, Health, Olivia, Personal, TV | tags: AHS, AHS: Asylum, American Horror Story, black friday, mistofelis, reading, series, thanksgiving, the walking dead, TV. | #

…is one of the best 007 films ever, if not the best (I’m still thrilled by having just watched it 2 hours ago, and my previous favorite was Casino Royale). The opening sequence graphics are stunning, the theme is a classic Bond style masterpiece in Adele’s great voice. Javier Bardem’s character is really outstanding and almost outshines Daniel Craig, as good as Craig is himself! Loved the references and jokes about old Bond movies, the final sequence at the Skyfall mansion is memorable, the finale was a surprise, dark but very, very good!
I cannot wait to see this film again!

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In todays trip to the mall we happened to notice they’re selling Windows 8 Pro for just 269 Brazilian Reais (1 Real = 50 US$ cents), so it is, as we say about very cheap things here in Brazil, “Banana Price” close to what former Windows versions were priced (600+ Brazilian Reais at least)! I’m waiting however. Don’t wanna be the first to find out the first bugs!

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We’re also following the new season of The Walking Dead and it all looks good so far. Good to see most characters growing some balls and doing some killing instead of just whining around! Lori however is still a growing pain in the ass!

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A few weeks ago a tragedy happened in my life. My smartphone suffered sudden death by drowning in the toilet. I was smartphoneless for about 10 days. That was good for me to confess and accept the sad truth: I am a smartphone addict. Using a stupidphone almost drove me nuts. I have an iPad but it’s Wi-Fi only so it wouldn’t always do the tricks. So there I was having an espresso with my husband but I couldn’t check-in on Foursquare or tweet about how awesome the coffee was, of post a tweaked picture of my espresso to Instagram. I could not update my Facebook status and see people liking my espresso and commenting about my irrelevant and mondane drink!! I also couldn’t keep in contact with my friends by instantly sending them endless messages about some personal, stressing but not less mondane issue,  that in the “old times” (or 12 years ago) would have to wait until we met in person or made an expensive cell phone call (mind that talking on cell phones was not and is still not cheap).
So, here it is the saddest part of the addiction: I was so afraid of being smartphoneless again that I actually acquired myself not only one, but two new phones… you know, a spare one in case some bad accident happens again (one can never be too careful!!). It was 10 endless days until the two phones finally arrived, together, in my mailbox. One cannot imagine the joy and relief I felt when I held my 2 new babies (Sony XPERIA S LT26i running on Droid Ice Cream Sandwich and Sony Ericsson XPERIA Mini Pro SK17i on Gingerbread)! As embarrassed as I feel for being so ridiculously addicted to my gadgets, I really hope I won’t lose them again any time soon!
As gadget addicted as I am, I’m still “old style” with typing (not to say clumsy) and prefer qwerty keyboards to touchscreen keyboards, hence my latest acquisition is a Bamboo stylus. I’m having a much better relationship with my touchscreens now that I have a stylus!

Comments Off | In: Cinema, Culture & Entertainment, Facebook, Olivia, Personal, Social Media & Internet, Software, Tech and Gadgets, TV, Twitter | tags: 007, adele, android, bamboo stylus, cinema, daniel craig, facebook, films, foursquare, gingerbread, ice cream sandwich, instagram, iPad, james bond, javier bardem, judy dench, microsoft, movies, ralph fiennes, series, skyfall, smartphone, sony, sony ericsson, stylus, the walking dead, TV, twitter, windows, windows 8, xperia, xperia mini, zombies. | #

4. Nowhere Fast – that’s from Streets of Fire original soundtrack (that one may seem easy, but try doing that with current traffic jams and without getting a speed ticket!)

5. Hidden Place – Bjork (ooh yes, that one is easy, just needs to be in the very right moment!)

6. Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd (advantage: it’s a state, plenty of counties at your choice!)

7. Graceland – Paul Simon (…hey if even poorboys and pilgrims with families are going to Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee…)

Comments Off | In: Culture & Entertainment, Music, Olivia, Personal | tags: Music, olivia, travel. | #