Week 37, 2024

I have to start this week's notes saying that Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers has proven to be an amazing game — for me, of that kind that you play and forget about time completely. Now, I'm not a heavy gamer, but in a couple of days I've accumulated more than 14 gameplay hours.

People compare the game with Balatro, but I don't think it's fair. They're similar in the sense of being roguelike deckbuilders based on actual card games, but that's it. If you happen to like Balatro and don't yet know about D&DG yet, I can't recommend it enough.

On Tuesday I could see all of my colleagues in person, as the whole department got together for team building with our director. One of the coolest things about the meeting was to be able to see some faces in real life for the first time — including two interns I am tutoring, one living in Rio de Janeiro and the other in Criciúma, and one colleague who lives in Texas, of whom I was designated as the onboarding buddy. Before that, we were in touch only remotely, via Microsoft Teams. I really loved meeting these guys face-to-face.

Also on Tuesday, as part of the activities we had on the agenda, I could watch an speech by one of my colleagues, who's a former military aviator who served for 6 years in the Smoke Squadron, the Brazilian Air Force demonstration squadron.l, both piloting the planes and as their photographer. He's releasing a book on the Smoke Squadron's corporate culture, which is very promising, and that I've preordered. It was nice to listen to his speech, both because he has a lot of stories to tell and experiences to recount from his time serving, and because this made me respect the Smoke Squadron, as a National Institution, even more than I've always have. It was an amazing and unique experience to participate in this speech, and I'm very grateful for that.

Wednesday brought news that I received with mixed feelings. My son, who's in Japan, is coming back home next week — not on vacations, but because he's decided that, after spending 5 months in Tokyo, he hasn't properly adapted to the Japanese culture as much as he thought he would, and is missing us here.

I say mixed feelings because while as his father I feel more than happy for having the chance to see him again way before than I thought I would, being able to give him a huge hug and kiss, on the other hand I know he's studied a lot and prepared himself a lot for being there. I guess, though, culture can really be a hard thing to get used to. Besides, when saudade strikes, it's hard to beat it.

Now, it's on to receive him here next week, and fill him with love 🤗

Weather here has been a real bitch.

Alternating really cold days with really hot ones makes a mess in anyone's system, and mine is not different. On Thursday I caught myself a bad cold, and with it came some headaches and some sore throat.

After all the trouble I had with sinusitis and the f* mycoplasma bacteria, I just hope it's not this bacteria that decided to come back for another visit. To prevent it, while symptoms are only those of a cold, I've scheduled myself an appointment with the doctor next Tuesday.

As part of my plan to profit as much as I can from my 3 free months of Apple TV+, I've started watching Ted Lasso. That's a show I've seen a lot of people praising.

The premise of the series may sound quite strange at first sight, by the way: an American football coach who moves to England to manage a Premiere League soccer team even though having no experience at all with this sport; but only three episodes in, I was sold, as Ted's way of facing things and his optimism are contagious: you start rooting for him right away.

I guess Ted Lasso looks very promising, so I'll keep binge watching it. The series, also, has been picked for a fourth season after it had been declared ended by the third one, so more stories are to come.