Life + GNOME + Music

For some reason, It’s been about 2 weeks that I feel very tired all the time. I guess this is a combination of work load and post-mastering. Unfortunately, because of that, I’ve been a little bit away from my usual GNOME activities. I guess I’ll be 100% back from next week on.

Congratulations to all GNOME contributors for the project’s 10 years anniversary! I consider myself a quite recent contributor. IIRC, my first contribution to the project was in September 13, 2004. It was a small patch that added save support for the file selection dialog in zenity. Glynn was zenity’s maintainer at that time. Actually, (I don’t know if he knows that) Glynn is definitely my primary GNOME hero because it was him who brought me inside the project and the community. Without his support in my first contributions, I don’t know if I would be so active (and passionate) to the project today. Thank you dude!

As a relaxing activity, I’ve been making some sort of research on the roots of jazz and funk. So, on the jazz side, I’ve been listening to the fundamentals of Duke Ellington, Max Roach, Charles Mingus, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Haynes, and others. On the funk side, Earth, Wind & Fire, Kool and the Gang, Funkadelic, Parliament, and others. I’m really willing to buy the Ken Burns’ Jazz documentary DVD box. I’ve watched some episodes some time ago and it’s just amazing!

It’s over!

Yestarday, I defended (via audio-conference) my mastering thesis entitled “Software Livre e produção colaborativa na Internet: um estudo de caso dos instrumentos de comunicação no Projeto GNOME” (in english it would be something like “Free software and collaborative production in Internet: a case study of the communication instruments used in GNOME Project”). I was approved! It’s over! Now I have master degree in Contemporary Culture and Communication. Wohoo! :-)

Delicious!

I’ve said bad things about the finnish food before. Since I moved to Finland, I’ve been experimenting several kinds of “native” food: from hering to makkara, from reindeer to “new potatoes”. My opinion about the food hasn’t changed too much. I still don’t like it in general but I can live with that now. :-P

However, there’s one thing that you can only eat in Finland that is fucking delicious: the finnish strawberries. It’s one of the most wonderful things I’ve ever eaten!

Finnish strawberries
Finnish strawberries: delicious!

Different things

Last week…

  • Acoustic guitar: it’s been a long time I don’t play and sing. So, I thought it was a good time to come back to the music mood at home. Baby don’t worry about a thing… Every little thing is gonna be alright! Yeah!
  • Tennis equipment: Carol and I had this weird idea of playing tennis. We this public tennis place close to our place and we thought it was a good oportunity to start playing. Roland Garros 2008, here we go!
  • Sunglasses: Carol and I have been looking for sunglasses for a long time. Coincidentaly, we found some good ones in a supermarket. Here’s how I look. It seems to come from the 70’s. :-P

New toy

After, reading a lot about digital cameras, I’ve got a new camera today: a Canon EOS 350D. Of course this nice camera doesn’t make me a good photographer at all (I really suck as a “photographer”) but I’ll give my best to improve that with this new awesome toy. :-) Big thanks to Ross, Hub, Tiago and Tassia for the suggestions and tips. Thanks to tigert for telling me about that nice camera store in Helsinki.


Canon EOS 350D: nice!

Age++

Today, December 23, I got a like bit older. Now, I’m 26! This is the coldest birthday I ever had. Fortunately, I have Carol (my love) and my mom (arrived in Helsinki yesterday) with me! :-)

Happy christmas and wonderful new year for everyone!

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