Week 16, 2023

✱ So after a long wait, I was finally able to watch the Tetris movie. It took me 15 days longer than I wanted and some connection problems with the Apple TV+ service happening exactly at the same time when I decided to use my free trial, but I got it — and I don’t regret having watched it. Very good movie!

✱ This week I was finally able to finish working on my yearly income tax. In Brazil, all taxes are submitted electronically via internet, and citizens have between March and May to send in their data. Normally, I submit everything in the first weeks of March so I can receive any restitutions earlier, if applicable, but exceptionally because last year I changed jobs, it took me a little longer to gather all the information I needed. The important thing is that, now, all is solved.

✱ I finished reading my seventh book this year. It’s “A Guerra da Papoula”, the Brazilian Portuguese version of The Poppy War, by R.F. Kuang. In general, despite of some ups and downs I enjoyed the story, which presents a nice plot and premise, and is actually distributed in a trilogy, from which this is the first book. With the second book already published here, the publishing house responsible for the Brazilian editions of The Poppy Wars has already declared the third and final installment of the series will be out in the second half of 2023.

✱ It made me really glad to learn, this week, that Desktop Dungeons: Rewind, the sequel I so very much anticipated to Desktop Dungeons, not only was finally released on April, 18th, but also offered free of charge to people like me, who owned the original game. Thus, I didn’t need to spend a nickel and already accumulated a couple of gameplay hours. Fantastic news!

✱ I couldn’t believe when I found out my corporate credit card had been cloned. It had just arrived and the only things I ever did with it before the incident were buying a plane round trip to Rio de Janeiro and booking a hotel there. Only a couple of days later I received a credit card purchase notification through the phone informing me of an unknown, unauthorized purchase. Fraud. I’m about to travel on business and the perspective of traveling without my corporate card really scared me, even more after the bank told me a new card could take up to 15 days to arrive. Card blocked, it was really a relief to receive a new one only 2 days after my contact. This means I’ll be able to properly travel. ☺️

✱ This last Friday, April 21st, was a holiday here in Brazil, when we celebrated Tiradentes’ day. He was the main representative of the Inconfidência Mineira movement, which fought for Brazil’s independence from Portugal. He dedicated himself to pharmaceutical practices and dentistry, earning him his nickname. "Tiradentes" means "tooth puller", a pejorative denomination adopted during the trial against him, after the Inconfidência Mineira movement was dismantled and he was sentenced to death by hanging, in 1792, 30 years before the actual Brazilian independence from Portugal happened, in 1822. History apart, I took this extra day off to rest, read, and watch some TV series. And it was really nice!

#english #weeknotes