cesarbs’ blog

Quase todo mundo fala mal dos americanos. Dizem que eles são loucos, psicóticos, paranóicos. Criticam o patriotismo deles, e outras coisas. Em geral, quando estou numa conversa dessas, eu concordo.

Mas eis a verdade: eu concordo pra não gerar confusão. Deixar a conversa ir pro próximo assunto. Às vezes, eu próprio falo mal dos americanos e do modo de vida deles.

Hora de acabar com a hipocrisia. Eis a minha confissão: eu invejo os americanos pra caramba. Não só isso: eu realmente gostaria de ser americano.

Os subúrbios, as cidades, as universidades. A bandeira da América na frente de casa (e chamar o país de “América”!). Ensinar o filho a jogar baseball. Gostar de hóquei e de futebol americano. Usar o cartão de crédito pra tudo. Tantas outras coisas que eu acho massa, mas não consigo enumerar agora (dêem um desconto, estou podre de cansado). Quanta futilidade, César! É a dura realidade do meu ser, ao menos no estado atual.

Mas não é só pela parte material. O jeito dos americanos me fascina. Essa parte eu não sei explicar concreta ou objetivamente. Só sei que achei muito massa lidar com os americanos, ao menos com os que já lidei. Já foi pela Internet (tenho uma amizade muito legal com um engenheiro de satélites desde os 13 anos, quando eu brincava com eletrônica e participava de mailing lists sobre o assunto), por telefone e ao vivo. Sempre achei o máximo.

Tá aí, confessei

Ah, e mais uma coisa: o conservadorismo. Essa é uma das coisas mais criticadas por boa parte das pessoas. Mas eu adoro. Os americanos são conservadores (e é o que todo mundo que vai pra lá diz). Tem pudor. Ainda falam em moral, levando o assunto a sério. Cara, isso é demais!

I’ve lost about 8 kilograms in the past 5~6 months. While at first that’s a good thing (I was getting a little fat), it makes me worried because I made no effort at all to lose that much weight. However, I feel fine, except for an occasional dizziness that usually strikes me in the morning.

I’ll go to a doctor, but they always tell me I’m “too anxious” and that’s all, no matter what symptoms I have. That’s actually quite good, but it’s also a waste of time and money

As a Christian, I’m just growing sick of that absolutely unfruitful discussion. I can’t stand listening to what theologians have to say, nor can I stand what atheists have to say. It’s all a huge load of garbage.

Here are my takes on the issue:

1. People should only talk about what really concerns them. For me, a theologian who tries to force his faith into scientific reasoning is just as mistaken as the atheist who attempts to prove his unbelief using materialist arguments.
2. Following the same line of reasoning from the item above, scientific books aren’t religious texts, nor are religious texts scientific books. As Francis Collins points out in The Language of God, scientific books describe the natural world, while religious books (for me, not bookS, only the Christian Bible) talk about the spiritual world.
3. The whole thing doesn’t make a difference at all for me. The Book of Genesis presents an entirely spiritual issue (the fall of mankind). Whether things happened literally as described there, or if God used evolution as the mechanism for creation, is something that I don’t care much about. I find both alternatives equally admirable in my Creator.
4. If people want to talk about science, they should talk about science. And if the want to talk about faith, they should talk about faith. Don’t try to mix them. Personally, I believe there is perfect agreement between them, but that agreement doesn’t seem to have been found yet. And we should probably not try to find it: up until now, it has proven to be quite an unhealthy thing.

Maybe I have some more points in the back of my mind, but I think the three above are the main ones. Those are personal opinions. I am NOT trying to convince anyone here. The only thing I would like to ask people for is:

Please stop talking about what you don’t know (or understand)!

And that goes to people in both sides of the issue.

A word for my fellow brothers in Christ: concentrate on what really matters, which is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. It’s about love, forgiveness, wisdom, tolerance, respect, dignity, honor, and a bunch of other really good things. If you ever happen to discover if the universe was created in literal 7 days or if God decided to take billions of years to create will very likely not add a single bit to the kind and loving character you were taught to pursue.

Às vezes, penso em dar um passo. É um passo arriscado, que pode arruinar uma coisa muito importante e difícil de ser conquistada.

Na verdade, é praticamente certo que tudo vai dar errado, se eu der esse passo. Mas existe em mim uma pontinha de esperança de que funcione, por isso ainda não me fiz esquecer essa ideia.

Se o resultado fosse positivo, acredito que seria como se as coisas se completassem. Mas o resultado positivo viria com um preço. Algumas coisas se desestabilizariam. Eu consigo imaginar soluções pro problema que surgiria, mas na prática as coisas tendem a permanecer estragadas.

Já deve estar claro que não vou revelar do que estou falando. Mas, se eu decidir dar esse passo, as pessoas mais próximas de mim provavelmente vão encontrar sentido para estas palavras.

Neste feriado, estudei pra caramba, mas também deu pra assistir vários filmes:

• Thinner
• Goal II: Living the Dream
• Goal! III
  
• The Machinist
• I Hate Valentine’s Day

Só não gostei do Goal! III. A história não tem nada a ver com o Goal II, que termina com “To be continued…”. Perdeu totalmente o sentido, e foi um filme fraco. Thinner não faz meu estilo, mas é um bom filme, assim como The Machinist, que eu achei muito pra baixo. Os outros dois, achei bem legais.

Yesterday I bought myself three new toys:

An F-22 Raptor model

A KA-52 Alligator model

An RC F1 Ferrari

Yesterday, the whole process of getting a dental implant in my mouth was finally finished. I now have a new artificial tooth, and I am amazed at how realistic it looks. It’s really not possible to tell it is an implant by just looking at it. I didn’t really think it was going to be that perfect.

The worst part of the process was the initial surgery for drilling my jaw and installing the titanium receptacle for the implant. That was back in August, and was a terrible experience. The shaking sensation you get from the drill going into your bone is absolutely unpleasant. Besides, anesthesia kept losing its effect and my dentist had to inject some more a few times during the procedure.

Anyways, it’s all done now, and all I have to do is to keep taking care of my implant for the rest of my life. Fortunately, my dentist told me maintenance is not needed so frequently, and there is only a small chance of something going wrong with it.

Today I took a personality type test at 41 Questions, and I enjoyed my results.

Apparently, the results can be taken seriously, since the test seems to be based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test. I know that a lot of people criticize this kind of psychological tests, but I believe these tests are worth some value.