cat /proc/claus

Today I continued my Labirynth Lord game with my 12yo brother. This time he invited his same-aged neighbor to play. His friend decided to create a cleric. A cleric of hades, who had a scythe as a weapon, and seemed set into killing everything that moved in front of him. Ooookay.

Our first game was short lived, as they murdered half of the people in the boat that was taking them into the city, and the rest of the sailors finally were able to get them arrested and executed (post game thought: this was the perfect excuse to have them banished into the megadungeon instead, exile-style. What a pity)

The second time around, I decided to railroad them a bit more. Had a rough, strong guy challenge them to a fist fight, and the loser had to promise to serve the winner (first henchman - the NPC lost). The kids immediately took a liking for Golias, the challenger, and even offered him a share of the treasure, instead of 1GP a day like other henchmen. Golias oriented them into hiring a full compliment of 4 men-at-arms, and they all headed into the dungeon.

In the dungeon, they found a mad old man who called himself an alchemist, and asked them to find the way to the “fire shrine” for him. They had already found the water shrine by chance, so they had an idea of what they were looking for. The kids loved killing fire beetles and hoarding their glowing antennaes (kids and bugs, not just a japanese thing). They also found the joys of greek fire: huge plant monster? Kill it with fire! stuck wooden door? Burn it down! Air shrine defiled by morlocks? Cleansing by fire! Wanted to search a room whose walls were covered in vines? Burn, baby, burn! Fortunately they were aboveground (level 0), and the area was rocky, but I tried to hint them that burning everything in sight might not be such a good idea underground.

The kids were brutal to all and everything that moved, but I found how to push their buttons when a random encounter rolled a nixie: I described a creature as a small girl with blue skin, and while they started by chasing it to death like any other living being, when they finally caugth her the sobbing of the girl made them release her and give half of their food to her as a manner of apology, not charm spell needed

Another break from the vices of old time gamers involved the henchmen. The first time they saw a crossroads in the dungeon, their first reaction was to send the henchmen one way, and follow another, scooby style, to cover more space while exploring. They considered themselves heroes above the henchmen, and would insist in leading all the time (except that Golias was always asked to kick down the doors).

They were super excited, and high fiving themselves every hundred GP they found. When G the killer was taken prisoner by the morlocks, my brother insisted in having me show how the creatures were holding his arms. When I described a small cave tunnel as the size of the cupboard near us, the neighbor kid decided to enter the cupboard himself to “feel what his character was feeling” - After just two hours, I was completely exhausted.

When I told them that we couldn’t go on anymore because I hadn’t yet prepared the next level of the dungeon, they were surprisingly understanding of that, and after a barrage of suggestions about what I should put in the second level, they headed back to the city to spend their loot.

I had to talk them down from trying to buy a dragon, and we compromised on a tiger cub. Then they bought armor for all the henchmen and a new weapon for Golias, plus a bunch of pick axes for tearing down doors and statues (a few weapons broke that way).

All in all it has been a fantastic, if tiring, experience DMing for them. They get excited about the most outlandish or simplest things that I throw at them. They explore the dungeon, but by following their own cartoon logic (they wanted to drag around the huge statues that composed the shrines, because together they might do something), and not by overengineering everything. They mourned losses like dead henchmen or broken weapons, but bounced right back from them. And they wouldn’t forgive me if I changed the voice of one of the NPCs (But the bard had a high pitched voice last time!)

Yesterday I finally had my first “normal” work day. While I’ll probably stay without a desk, one of the lab members offered to share his locker with me! Now I don’t need to keep lugging my books back and forth when I go to the university. The people whom I share the laboratory with are extremely friendly, and made me feel welcomed.

Today was “running around after documents” day - I had to try and get a “proof of residence”, without which I can’t do anything serious here. So first I went to the Gas company, and got the gas bill of the apartment changed to my name - this is a valid proof of residence, but the next gas bill only comes in December. Then we tried to get register changed in the Brazilian IRS - they gave us a number and made us wait 30 minutes, just to tell us that we needed to go to a bank to do that… WTF - I wonder if the receptionist who gave us the number was just making fun of me… While doing the above and a bit more, Ju took me to a ride by Ipanema and other famous Rio Beaches - the day was clear and it was really a wonderful sight.

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Something people always asked me in Japan, is what kind of food we ate in Brazil. Because of that, this time I made sure to take some pictures of the stuff I ate - even though doing that was seen as strange by people around me I’ll try to update this album every so often, so stay tuned!

Brazilian Food Album

Just go check the pictures, it is kinda late and I need to go to bed!

Today I went to meet my new supervisor and visit the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).

First things first: Riding a Bus in Rio is as exciting as riding the roller coaster! It is a 40 min ride from my apartment to the university, and I was hoping to play sudoku on my way there, but with the speed, sharp turns, and bumps of the ride, no way that I could control a pen! So I’ll have to look for something else to do (maybe I should look into this podcast thingy).

My new advisor is a VERY friendly guy. He gave me a tour of the COPPE building and we would stop every few meters walking down the halls to greet somebody - a student, a professor, a staff member. So different from my experience in Tokyo U., where professors and students would rarely talk unless they had business to attend to! Something else that made an impression on me is how everyone talks about soccer all the time - I thought it was just a stereotype, but everyone in Rio seems to be crazy about their soccer teams. My supervisor and his other pos doc were hotly discussing which team I should cheer for.

Prices in the university restaurants are compatible with prices in university cantinas in Tokyo. The number of undergrad students walking around, gathering, talking, and loudly studying outside impressed me. I remember how it was when I was an undergrad myself in Campinas, but I may have grow unaccustomed to it since studying in Tokyo U.

I don’t get to have my own desk or my own locker - this disappointed me a bit. It seems hard to me to make a emotional link to your workplace if you don’t have your own space in the organization. Also, it would be very good to be able to leave all my working materials in the university and not worry about lugging them back and forth.

On the other hand, I already have plenty to work to do. My supervisor’s line of work involves the data classification, using data from a “Flux Citometer”, a machine that calculates a lot of medical information by throwing laser beams at cells. Pretty cool. So some problems related to this research were thrown at me for thinking, then they asked me to read two related papers. Then a book that will be needed for some classes I might be giving next year. Then I was also asked to make a presentation on my PhD research two weeks from now.

And then, as if this is not enough, my supervisor introduced me to another professor that has similar research interests as mine, so that we can see if we can work together on something.

Oh, and I still have to learn Matlab! (at least the lab’s machines all have Matlab for Linux already installed).

This was a full and intense day, and the week promises not to let up the pressure - but since I was complaining that my vacations were stretching, the change is welcome!

Moving out of Tokyo, I suddenly have a lot to write about in my Blog. Many times my Japanese (and sometime international) acquittances made questions about life in Brazil that I dismissed as “not so different from the rest of the world”. However, after 6 years living in Japan and 2 weeks back in Brazil, I started to realize that these questions may actually have interesting answers.

So suddenly I have a lot to talk about. I’m trying also to take pictures of some of these interesting points, but this has been a little difficult since I don’t feel comfortable carrying my big honking camera when walking around by myself (hey, one difference there!). But let’s see what I can do.

I’ll try to provide updates about my life, research and random stuff as well, along with the Life in Brazil discussions. For starters, let me introduce my new living arrangements: The Lego Beach Resort!

I’m living in the 23rd floor of a building with a great view of the bay and the mountains. The neighbourhood has plenty of bars and other shops, and is much cleaner and well kept than I was expecting. The apartment itself has three rooms, a living room and a kitchen, for PLENTY of space. I’m sharing it with Ju, a friend of mine from my Unicamp days. She is also a former Comp.Eng. graduate, which means the apartment is kind of a Nerd Fest, something I was missing since my undergrad days. For example, the living room’s walls are decorated with a Retro Mario theme, and cabling can be seen everywhere. (see the picasa album for more info - with captions!).

The building also has some things of note. First one of its elevators has a creaky wheel or something, so it shakes and make terrible noises all the way up. I took that elevator by mistake on my first day here, and boy I don’t remember being so afraid for my life before (I was kinda enjoying the rush, though).

One particularly Brazilian thing, not only in this building but on the vast majority of apartment buildings in Brazil, is how they have “service” and “social” elevators. On a first look, this might seem a reasonable idea - you would want at least one elevator that should not be used for trash, animals, cargo, etc. However on practice the social and service elevator are the same size, and usually side by side with each other, and reflect on Brazil’s practice of segregating rich people from their servants. Fortunately, newer apartments don’t seem to have service elevators like these anymore, or when they do, it is actually a proper cargo elevator.

Gas is in the tubes, like in Tokyo, but water is heated by electricity - which last I remembered was cheaper in Brasil than gas, due to our hydro plants.

Compared to Tokyo, the rent is indeed cheaper. I’m paying about half what I used to pay in my Tokyo apartment. Considering that I’m sharing the flat, it means that the full rent would be similar to that of my old home. For a much bigger place, in a great location, and with good services. Remember also that Rio is considered to be one of the most expensive cities in Brazil.

Tomorrow my research activities begin. I’ll keep you all posted, and feel free to ask more about my living arrangements in the comments!