Petropolis: The Imperial City II
Wednesday, August 31, 2005 • Posted by jcb
Petroplis has a significant german population. Some of the descendants still practice traditional dance. Even though we beat their asses in WW II.
Petropolis: The Imperial City
Monday, August 29, 2005 • Posted by jcb
We took a trip to the mountain town of Petropolis about an hour outside of Rio de Janeiro. Petropolis is known as the Imperial city as this was where the Emperor, his family and his court went to escape the summer heat in the 1800’s. Don Pedro II lived in what is now the Imperial Museum in high style surround by spectacular architecture and cool mountain air. When you enter the Imperial Museum the staffers hand you a set of oversized anti-scuff slippers. The slippers soles are so slick they end up forcing people to skate around the museum. I thought I was getting pretty good at the “hockey stops” until I ended up on my ass in an ante-room. Unfortunately for the tabloids, photography is prohibited in the museum.
Katrina… Aye Caramba!
Monday, August 29, 2005 • Posted by jcb
Witzy and I are crying our eyes out watching this story unfold in New Orleans. Can’t imagine the United States without a New Orleans. I am trying to remind myself, cities are made of people and not buildings. Stay safe and strong NOLA.
Of course this was the perfect opportunity for Witzy to chime in with his own “hurricane solution”. “Why don’t they just build a BIG fan and blow it back out to sea!!” Behold a truly inspired genius walks among us.
Read this ridiculous NOAA weather bulletin
Finally, BlogPod update.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005 • Posted by jcb
Lit up the BlogPod with new material. Email me here if you have any problems with the quicktime files. Now playing are tracks from the Brasilian rap group O Rappa, legendary Brasilian singer Elis Regina and the up and coming samba fusion group Eletrosamba. Just click and enjoy.
Full Moon Block Party
Saturday, August 20, 2005 • Posted by jcb
THE BOSS IS CRAZY!!!!
Meia Maratona do Rio de Janeiro** update
Saturday, August 20, 2005 • Posted by jcb
Found a few shots of us online. Fleet-footed Witz was so fast the fotogs couldn’t catch him square.
Meia Maratona do Rio de Janeiro
Wednesday, August 17, 2005 • Posted by jcb
We took part in Rio’s half marathon on Sunday. Unfortunately we were unable to take along our camera to document the event, however I did manage to lift a few photos off the net. The race started at a tardy 9:45, with the temperature approaching a toasty 90 degrees. Beginning its way winding up Av. Nyemeyer, the race route then followed the beaches of Leblon, Ipanema, Copacabana and Botafogo before concluding at the Atero do Flamengo. I almost collapsed at 20 KM from the heat and of course Witz ran up from behind me whistling and chattering like Mary fucking Poppins at that exact moment. I managed to blurt out a few obscenities before he bashed me over the head with his umbrella and floated off towards the finish. I can’t wait for the marathon!!
Take your ball and go home snapper
Sunday, August 7, 2005 • Posted by jcb
Lately it has come to our attention that certain viewers, namely a sassy little attorney in Maryland, are miffed at our comment editorial procedures. Our plucky little litigator friend has taken it upon himself to criticize and chastise your editors. Though not above criticism, our website is not the New York Times nor have we ever purported to be. Our morals are suspect and our methods are shockingly depraved. We here at seeingfurther pride ourselves on having no code and abiding by no script in answering to no higher authority. Perhaps some feelings are frayed along the way. So be it. But we feel calculated losses are necessary on the way to an ill informed, cognitively dwarfed and attention impaired blog-o-sphere. So let it be known. We reserve the right to edit your comments in any way we see fit. We also reserve the right to edit reality in any way we deem necessary. Isn’t it more fun when you just cave in and live like a Republican rather than fighting it all the time.
litigating larry libating late late late…. Now are we really taking criticism from this guy!
iacta alea est
Sunday, August 7, 2005 • Posted by jcb
Almost forgot to mention, the Brasilian government granted us permanent work visas recently. It feels good to go through all of the regular legal channels and have some success in a timely fashion. Maybe Brasil’s much maligned bureaucracy is finally righting itself…. or not. Now that the government sees us as legal do we feel all together like we belong? Hard to say at this point. After seven months or so of living on foreign soil we are starting to grow accustom to feeling like fish out of water. Much stems from the language barrier we are trying to overcome. Trying to learn a language much less become fluent at this age is tricky business. We often ask ourselves, what is fluency? At this point our language skills are well past overcoming daily obstacles such as restaurants, shops and general street banter… although I still get handed a freshly opened coconut most times I ask for a Coke at the local lunch stands. Our next big hurdles are the telephone, of which I have had some success lately, and conversation covering more than the weather and why in the hell would we move to Brasil. Oddly we get that one a lot, although more frequently in Sao Paulo which is no surprise if you’ve ever had the pleasure. Learning for me, so far has come in fits and starts where as Witzy is frighteningly autistic in his madness. He’ll go from spouting complete nonsense (hardly unusual) to picking up a college level portuguese finance book and translating an entire passage… without a dictionary! At any rate, if we ever become fluent or even figure out what it means to be fluent, it is somewhat refreshing to be on the outside looking in for a change.
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I was a fighter, I could turn on a thread. Now I stand accused of the things I've said.