In August 8th, 2005, I wrote a post entitled "Por que Lya Wyler será sempre lembrada como "a tradutora de Harry Potter", seja por bem ou por mal?"

I hadn't realized my first post ever was in Portuguese. It means "Why Lya Wyler will always be remembered as "Harry Potter's translator", for better or worse?".

My first post IN ENGLISH, was posted the next day and was entitled "Some people just don't know how to deal... [HBP Spoilers]", which, you can see, was also about Harry Potter.

Good times. I think.

It's a bit painful but I can't simply ignore it.

We didn't win Copa do Brasil. I don't even know why I thought they'd let us win this time. However, I can't deny that judging only from these two last matches, and referee mistakes aside, my team didn't really do much to win. Maybe if the referee hadn't so clearly been on their side on the first match, that result would be different thus making the last match totally different. As it is, we almost lost both matches.

It angers me because now they're making fun of us and it's completely maddening. We didn't have "external aid" to win like they did, couldn't count on luck and simply have been playing bellow our standards lately. But I love my players, who will not take shit from a goalkeeper whose most remarkable feature is having been consecutively relegated with two different clubs. He called us whiners but got a sarcastic response which was basically this: "There are people who win their first championship and they get way over themselves. Here we have won so many of those, we won't be affected by what he says."
The bad thing is not losing. That is part of the game, you can't always win. The bad thing is having to endure stupid reporters sticking microphones under even stupider people's mouth. He had already said a lot when his team got relegated in 2007, blaming us, now he's at it again.
Ignoring such a person is not the easiest thing to do, but surely the smarter. I couldn't care less about what he thinks and does, 'cause to care about what someone think and do you have to acknowledge some worth in this person, something that simply doesn't apply here. So, Felipe, say whatever you want. Come up with new really inventive nicknames and such, have your fun now, after all you know that in the long run you're nothing but an insignificant player who, if ever remembered, it'll be more for your sharp tongue than by your skills. And don't forget there's other matches against us to come, maybe you'll have to eat your nasty little words then.

If there's a consolation is that our rival didn't qualify for Copa Libertadores final the day after we lost the cup. It's not the real happiness, I'd rather they had qualified if my team winning the cup were attached to it, but since not I'll gladly take their misery as a source of contentment. ^_^

Only 2 "rules":
1. Credit if you want.
2. Could you comment if you take it?

Set 07 preview:

Download it at box.net or 4shared

I'm not really sure how useful the next set is, but someone might find use for them. ^_^
Set 09 preview:

Download it at box.net or 4shared.


Yes, I skipped set 08. It's a light texture I'm still working on.

Resources can be found here.

Today is the day and I will not be where I use to be in days like these
I am going to be there
My stomach just complained again that I keep remembering this
I am a bit nauseated and a bit exhilarated and a bit anxious and a bit scared
But mostly scared
If everything goes right, everything ends right
If everything goes wrong, I like to kid myself that I am going to be alright
I hope I will not cry in front of everyone
It does not matter if they are tears of sadness or joy
I want to come home in my best mood, but that does not depend upon me
Or not come home at all and go party with everyone else
Hopefully there will be a party
Oh, goodness, there goes my stomach again






This is not supposed to make sense.

I wasn't going to make them, but then I did. All heavy with textures. Shouldn't have got so carried away. And I've managed to make one more of USA than Brazil because there's a variation that HAD to be done.

06 USA
05 Brazil

1. Credit sunako_o if using, please.
2. No hotlinking.
3. I'd love to read your comments!
4. Preview:


( What's new about Brazil winning? )

I'd suppose it's Heal The World. Not one of his best neither more famous songs, but one that touched me.

Right now, there aren't words that weren't already said about him and his death. It's a loss that everyone should mourn, not just his fans but the whole lot of us who enjoy music. Much of what we hear today has had his influence.

It's always a shock when something like this happens. I wasn't born when Elvis Presley and John Lennon died, and I was very young when Freddie Mercury passed away, so this is the first time in my lifetime such an iconic person dies, and it isn't a good feeling.

Michael will live on in the hearts of his fans and in the amazing music he made. He'll be listened to and will be an influence for other artists for a very long time still, if not forever.

I'm experimenting with textures rather than making icons these days so I decided to post those before they get old and I end up not making any more Confederations Cup icons.

10 Italy
06 Brazil
04 Spain
02 USA
01 Generic

1. Credit sunako_o if using, please.
2. No hotlinking.
3. I'd love to read your comments!
4. Preview:


( The referee whistles! )

I finally did it! I made a header, changed colors and added a background pattern to this template from thefulcrum. It isn't anything special, but it's a huge step for me. I haven't done anything like this for over a year! o.o It's no wonder I'll have to study this css in depth so I can, maybe, one day, make my own. Plus, my "skills" for larger graphics have clearly waned, if I ever had any.
A header with Juliet and Sawyer wasn't exactly my first choice. I wanted to make the header with a stock image, but I didn't have anything big enough in my PC and wasn't feeling like searching for it so I just grabbed a nice enough screencap from Lost with Juliet, who has become my favorite character in the show.

Only 2 "rules":
1. Credit if you want.
2. Could you comment if you take it?

Set 05 preview:

Download it at 4shared or box.net.

Set 06 preview:

Download it at 4shared or box.net.

Both were inspired by an awesome tutorial I found in ownthesunshine. Resources can be found here.

O gaúcho desde piá vai aprendendo
A ser valente, não ter medo, ter coragem
Em manotaços dos tempos e em bochinchos
Retempera e moldura a sua imagem

Com lança, cavalo e no peitaço
Foi implantada a fronteira deste chão
Toscas cruzes solitárias nas coxilhas
A relembrar a valentia de tanto irmão

Não podemos se entregar pros home
Mas de jeito nenhum, amigo e companheiro
Não tá morto quem luta e quem peleia
Pois lutar é a marca do campeiro

May be undecipherable to most, but I had to do it.

Some more football randomness:

Good grief. Cristiano Ronaldo + Paris Hilton is like...like... English doesn't have words strong enough to describe the horror. But I guess it makes total sense.

Please, somebody put a stop to those horns people keep blowing at the Confederations Cup matches! It's not at all pleasant. Try extremely annoying. I don't care if people don't really want to watch the match but to party, just find something else to amuse yourselves! Let alone the fact that I really can't fathom how anyone would find that noise pollution amusing, but that's obviously just me.

Puma should be banned from making football jerseys. They made me laugh with our rival's new uniform, which resembles a sailor's quite a lot (or that they have a thong attached to their neckline), but I think it's horrible what they're doing with team's shirts and colours. Italy playing today looked a lot more like it was Uruguay rather than Italy. Dark gray shorts and pastel blue shirts? WTF?! I'm not a fan of blue, but it's almost a sin to do something like that to such an emblematic uniform. Italy's team is called La Squadra Azzurra for a reason.

As the title says, there are 56 textures in this batch.

[+] credit isn't a must, but a comment would be nice
[+] hotlinking is bad, claiming them as your own is worse
[+] Preview:


Download it at 4shared or box.net.

Here I was, minding my own business, when I hear Manchester United finally got rid of Cristiano Ronaldo. I was getting happy I would be able to root for a team which wears red, something I like to do when watching a football match. But then I heard names of who they are thinking about trying to take as a replacement, and among them was Nilmar. NO WAY! You English people get your eyes off our player. Go find someone expensive and half as talented, such as Aguero or Benzema, somewhere else.
Goodness, this is insane. No one pays attention to the Brazilian football unless it's to take away our talents. I find it complete madness funny how there isn't a international sports site with a proper section dedicated to the Brazilian football but when they want someone to replace their players, the first thing they do is look here. It doesn't make sense. Our championships aren't good enough to draw attention, our stars are playing somewhere else, but every year thousands of players are taken to Europe. Have we or have we not good players still here?


SportsIllustrated.com has pages for football from Scotland, Netherlands and even the J-League! Japanese football! And no page for the Brazilian championship. No wonder Americans call "football" something that is played mainly with hands.

I was thinking that it'd be good to post about something other than football, but when I put my mind to it, I came up with next to nothing. ò.ó That's not obsession, it is a... healthy interest in collective sports! XD But I'll be short and shallow.

First: Congrats to Netherlands for being the first European national team to be qualified for the 2010 World Cup! It's great to be sure I'll be able to watch them play another World Cup. I still can't digest the fact they didn't qualify for the 2002 WC. Let's hope this time they'll lose only if they're not the better team.

Second: My new PC doesn't have that many options for games so I'm trying what there's available. I found this one called Bygfoot, a football manager game. It's totally text based but it's still addictive. The only tiny problem is I'm not really good at it. XD I did promote two teams to upper series, but I don't seem to be able to keep my finances on the positive side. I always get fired in the 2nd season for spending too much. I've tried everything but nothing seems to work. >_<
I think I saw another similar game in the Ubunto list. If so, I'll download to test it and see if I simply suck at such games or if this one I'm playing is too hard.

Third: The only topic not related to football! O.O I'm slowly getting textures, brushes and patterns back, downloading pictures and making screen caps. I actually have made 8 icons already, but I won't post them. That's a problem I have. I don't make too many icons at once, so it takes me forever to think that I have enough icons worth posting. Thinking like that, I lost a bunch of icons when I had to format my PC. Aparently, a bunch is not worth posting. I know that now the risk of that happening again is slim, but still, I should upload them already.

Wanna see I turn the last topic into a football related one? Expect Confederations Cup related icons soon. ^_~

I wrote this for "somewhere else" on the net and thought it would be an incentive for me to write something similar in English if I posted it here. I have a strong point of view on the subject, so I must get off my butt and write about it.

( Europe isn't better than South America )

There are things we simply shouldn't do to people. Such as tickle their feet, put something cold against their bare skin and show them pictures that certainly will might make them cry.
Like, for example, this picture:

Noel Gallagher holding my team's away shirt. *______* They should have put his name there! And made him wear it. That would have made me weep harder, but whatever.
First I asked myself why they gave him a white shirt, but then I think I understood. Noel and Liam are Manchester City supporters, they might not enjoy the red that resembles Manchester United shirts.
From what I can see, that shirt is from the old ones. The new ones don't have that red line near the shoulder. It was probably a spur of the moment giving him that shirt. Which explains the absence of Noel's name in the back. Which, in its turn, is funny, 'cause Inter always gives shirts to artists that come here, so they should have this planned!

Noel wants Nilmar to play for City. Not happening, dear lad. But I forgive you for envying the great player you can't have. But if you had worn the shirt they gave you to the concert, when they decided to sell Nilmar, I might have put in a good word for your team. Might. XD

Of the show, I tried to stay away from any news and reviews about it. A song by Wham! comes to mind: "To the heart and mind, ignorance is kind."
I could have quoted Linkin Park, with "I find bliss in ignorance", but I find quoting Wham! too funny not to do it.

I've got a new PC! I can't even believe I'm actually sitting here in front of a LCD flat screen typing into a machine which will not freeze for no reason whatsoever and won't demand that I install the OS whenever it feels like pissing me off. Besides, now I've got a DVD-RW!!*_* And USB slots! *___* Did I mention the flat screen? ^_^
However, perfection doesn't exist and we all know it. It came with something called Ubuntu, a LINUX type of OS. Needless to say, I've no idea how it works. I'm struggling with it. I tried installing Windows XP, even if it means giving up my warrant, but was unsuccessful, so I resorted to installing something called WINE, which works as an emulator and lets you use some programs written only for Windows. It doesn't really work that well. Not for me at least. I can't read my e-books for the microsoft or the mobipocket reader nor submit my audioscrobbler. Not cool. Still, it's better than the alternative.
Something else that is bugging me is this keyboard. The keys are really hard, I have to pratically smash them so they'll work. The spacebar is the worse. Although it's virtually noiseless (when I'm not pounding at it to see if I can get a space between words), my fingers hurt after I type for some time. I want my old keyboard back.
I imagined everything was going to be alright once I bought a new PC. Isn't it funny how things almost never go the way we think/wish them?

I don't actually support any European team besides a mild simpathy towards Liverpool. However, there are teams I don't like at all, and I think Chelsea is on top of that list. Why I dislike them is not hard to answer: first, they're a club with an owner. When push comes to shove, what matters is that it's making money for its owner, not if the supporters are happy. And then their home kit is blue. To put it gently, I hate blue with all my might.

So, to be watching the League semifinals, see Chelsea winning with a lucky goal, abdicating any faint attempt to attack Barcelona and having the referee's help, was quite frustrating. Until Messi gave that beautiful pass so Iniesta could score the equalizer which enabled Barça to be the one to go against Manchester United in Rome. At 90(+3)! I might have let a tiny scream scape my lips in that moment.

It was laughable to see how Chelsea players felt wronged by the referee. First, what they considered a penalty fault at the end of the match wasn't. Plus, the Barcelona player which got the red card — don't remember who — shouldn't have been sent off simply because he didn't even touch the Chelsea player! It was ridiculous!
What they should have done was try to score another goal after their first, not put all their players in front of their goal area and hope Barcelona would keep shooting balls so far from the goal they might as well be aiming at Buckingham Palace's windows. There's a sentence a Brazilian coach said once that fits this perfectly: "If I'm afraid to lose, I lose the will to win." I love defenders and an efficient defence system, but it has to be a part of a team that has the wish to score goals, which is, well, the goal of the game!

So, since this time there isn't Chelsea at the final, I won't be wishing Manchester to win this time. Messi over Cristiano Ronaldo, always!


P.S.: I heard Liverpool has a owner too. I haven't researched it yet, but if it's true, I'm much saddened to hear it. I don't believe a football club should be a property. When it does, like I said before, it starts to serve other purposes instead of being a club which people support. It becomes a company. And worse, it's something for people, who already don't need much more wealth, make money over the love other people have for the club.

It doesn't even feel like the 2 months between my finding out Oasis was coming here and their actual show are nearly over. A week from now a lot of people will be on their toes with excitement over going to their concert. I hoped to be one of those people. I think I could've been one of them. However, I'm not even that sad that I'm not.

The thing is, while I love Oasis still, I don't love them the way I did 8, 10 years ago. Now it's more like old love, it's not passion anymore. I enjoy them on a moderate level, like you're supposed to do with beer (I don't even like beer, but whatever).

Sometimes I wonder if I try to find reasons not to want something I can't have, and I believe there are times that I do exactly that. Now I think it's not one of those times. I think I'd come out of a concert like this a bit frustrated. Most of the songs I like wouldn't be performed, there'd be much waiting (God only knows how much I hate lines and waiting) and tickets aren't exactly cheap.

Bottomline is, I'm positive that this is one of those cases in which something bad might have turned into something good. I'll stay home with my old Oasis CDs and won't spend R$180,00 on tickets to a concert I wouldn't fully enjoy.

Of the three bands I love the longest, I think Oasis is the one that I won't be as heartbroken for not going to a concert. Were it Bon Jovi, I'd be crushed; were it U2, I'd probably start crying about right now.

I've been trying to read Shakespeare's plays, but I won't deny I find them extremely hard to understand!

( We are such stuff as dreams are made on )