The Vineyards

Yesterday, back to school. "Pick a project", they said. "Choose an original from those boxes to do it yourself, or join one of the permanent projects."

By the gods, I will not choose an original, read it, determine if it is good or bad, call the author, speak to him, ask him to rewrite what needs to be rewritten, read it again, proofread it, do the graphical project, prepare it, deal with the author all through these, and when hopefully it is reay to ship, sometime in the next year, call the paper sellers and printing companies to find the best prices, deal with the school department to get the funds, ask the printing company for its PDF profile, close and distill the document, send them it, call them constantly regarding it, have the book shipped here, and whatever else comes after this, or I missed.

Therefore, I will probably join the comics magazine team. It may be more work in the end, but at least I will have someone to turn to other than the teachers when something goes wrong and/or I do not know what to do next (nor how to do it). And comics are probably more fun to deal with than raw text from amateur authors.

That more or less out of the way, I was pulled aside to the parking lot where a devious trap had been set for me. One big gift with my name on it; one digital camera; one really big and fluffy and adorable and cute and huggable plush sheep in the bag. The eventual publication of those pictures will result in deaths. But until then, my sheep is sooo adorable and huggable it is absurd. The biggest in my flock now. More many thanks to those who set the devious trap.

(And yes, the guy who supposedly runs the Vineyards actually is fonder of sheep than of grapes. But back then the "Shepherd of Loures" just did not sound noble enough. For those who have no idea what I am talking about, I will explain sometime soon.)

Another subject. I do not like Mp3. I mean, of course I have lots of them, find them useful, et al. But I usually only download songs I already know (and would not buy the album for, mind you). Usually, then, the process goes like this: radio on, nice song; "Oohh, nice song!"; keep some part of the lyrics in mind, since they never say who the singer is; Google for the lyrics, if a match is found download the Mp3.

It goes like this, then. I heard a song on the radio I was very sure I knew, but it was making no sense to me. "If you go away, then you might as well take the sun away", etc. It was very cute, but I was confused, for I was sure I knew the song, but not with those lyrics. Until the singer saved the day, by singing on the original lyrics, "Ne me quitte pas". "Aahh, that is the one!" I had no idea anyone would make an English version of that old French song. I went to look for the lyrics. Okay, this is the one. P2P: "If you go away". I was very impressed by the range of singers that recorded it in English - even Bobby Goldsboro! But I was after the one I heard on the radio, and had no idea which female singer that way, so I downloaded nearly everything I could find.

Among them, I found the one from the radio. Great. I also found one by a completely new name. When she said the first verse I thought, "The filename and tag are wrong! This is Bjork!". It was not: I quickly found out the comparison is often made. Emiliana Torrini was the name. Very impressive. I got curious, threw her name into P2P. First song that came up was "Gollum's Song". That surely was unexpected. That is the last song in the "The Two Towers" soundtrack, amazing how I did not link the two (both by "the girl who is not Bjork"). Either way, a list of songs by Emiliana Torrini popped in front of me. And I threw out half an online lifetime of belief and just downloaded random songs by her, having no idea what to expect. After a half a dozen songs, I must confess I really liked her - even if it meant doing something I had not done since "Jewel - Who Will Save Your Soul" was uploaded to the BBS I used; it was its first Mp3 file.

Yet another subject. After lunch yesterday, I went to see "Treasure Planet" a second time. Yes, twice in the theatres to see the same movie. And I hope to see it again before it is gone. I thought of a tremendous lot to write here about it, and about Disney in general, but not right now, this post is long enough already. Maybe some other time.

Okay then, no talking about left and right today.

I came across this thing here: The four faces of Arnold. Take a look! But come back here when you are done, I am not finished.

For no particular reason I decided to go after some AMVs last week. AMV stands for Anime Music Video - someone with lots of free time takes scenes from an anime and makes them fit with a song. Some are beautiful, with image and music in perfect synchrony. If you are willing to download a good few megabytes, I suggest hopping on some P2P (WinMX or Overnet are better for anime) and looking for...

Ahh! My Goddess - Queen - Who Wants to Live Forever
Tenchi Muyo - No Doubt - Don't Speak
The History of Anime
Ranma - Carl Douglas - Kung-fu Fighting
Rurouni Kenshin - Carl Orff - O Fortuna
Rurouni Kenshin - Goo Goo Dolls - Iris

Notice two things: by saying these AMVs are great I do not imply the songs in them is great as well, just that the sum of all things involved is beautiful. The first two in special. And you probably will not find them with these names, but any Googler will know what to look for. On with it.

Of course, there are also very bad AMVs. One attracted me, "Evangelion - The Ride of the Valkyries". I avoid Evangelion AMV, because I never saw Evangelion (yes, I know, big hole in my anime life) and because they all look the same. But this one was especially bad. The guy saw that the music had M minutes, ss seconds; so he chose a scene and cut a slice of M'ss from it. removed the sound, put the Valkyries on top. That is all. So I saw a full battle scene for Evangelion and got annoyed at a tune I really like. No sync, no meaning, no nothing. Like playing a random CD on the stereo while watching the anime on a muted TV. Same applies to "Saint Seiya - Tina Turner - We Don't Need Another Hero". I got it out of curiosity, seeing as Saint Seiya almost rivals Dragon Ball in number of episodes and OVAs, and that is the only AMV of it I ever came across. Waste of time. No sync. At least this guy tried to do something, you can see it is not just one scene. But, really, if you cannot find the matching visual sequence for that musical phrase, do not spoil the anime and the song.

On the other hand, bad AMVs have a crucial point: seeing my dear Ride of the Valkyries so horrendously misused, I felt this great need to make an AMV myself and use this song. But it will probably be for Escaflowne instead - enough of EVAs and Angels, the Guymelef is my armored suit of choice! In fact, any Zaibach 'Melef would do, or even Scherazade; I ask for nothing big and complicated and all pompous as the Guymelef of Ispano. Looking like Allen or Van would surely be a plus, too.

Back to the point: somehow, the idea of making an AMV found a warm corner in my mind, settled down and built a home. But to make the one I want I would need to download the entire Tenkuu no Escaflowne series in Raw format (no subtitles), which I cannot do right now for a number of reasons. Then there is the problem of actually making the video: I think I forgot my bag of "Effort" somewhere. Or maybe I am a prophet of some sort and am saving as much effort as I can because I, and I alone, know the future will be a very perilous struggle and only those with the most determination will reach the end and raise above all others as the new leader of... you get the idea.

I would write about my recent attempt at programming, but it contrasts too much with the current line of the post. No more than the link up there, of course, but that is a small interlude, a break, to part completely with the political mood of the last two posts before going into something a bit more fun. I consider myself excused.

Among the messages from Edit-usp yesterday there was one about political persecution of some students in the university. They have a point, I agree with their position and regret the situation. So far so good. The message was the third or fourth forwarding of an original. All the past signatures were still in the document.

One of them said "Communist Greetings".

So I thought I could write about it. Maybe some pondering on the subject - does this guy know how things were in the USSR? [American propaganda!] Has he been to China, North Korea or Cuba? [If you haven't either, you can't say a word!] Has he read anything from people who have been there? [Just more propaganda for Capitalism!] Maybe spoken to any Cuban refugee? [Bunch of ungrateful people!]

Of course, there is the possibility he does not consider USSR, China, North Korea and Cuba as Communist countries. The Marxist ideas were never indeed implemented in any of them. But Marx once said he was not Marxist. ("What have these insane people with the red flags done to my name?", he must ask from his hole in Hell.) Which leads me to the conclusion the only differences between Vladimir Lenin and a "Communist" who does not take Marx to heart and by the letter are the degree of dellusion and the number of followers.

But maybe, maybe he does indeed take Marx's words to heart and is the last true Communist in the world in the sense that old Karl meant them to be.

If that is the case, though... He is tremendously silly in using that polluted term to describe himself. It would be a parallel to wearing a swastika (the cross of thousands of years now immediately associated to Nazism) in your clothes thinking you are carrying a symbol of the cycle of life.

In conclusion, no matter how I look at it, "Communist Greetings" is a very improper way to sign a letter.

And now I wonder... To get into USP you need a certain high level of education, which is rare (but not impossible) to get without money. Therefore USP is (contradictory as it may be) filled with people of upper-mid class families. How come, then, the concentration of left-wing extremists, left-wing dellusionals, left-wing fundamentalists, left-wing anarchists, and everything else left-wing, is so high in USP? Did I miss some clausule saying "You agree to be of left alignment upon signing of this document" when I joined?

Back to school next week, by the way. I wonder how my classmates will receive me now, considering I never give many signs of my position in the political spectre in person. Problem is: now it is obvious I do not share the left-wingism (and that I did not vote for Lula). So, by definition, without further questions, I am right-wing. Oh, bah. In the worlds of Aristotle, "Each extreme sees the middle as being as bad as, if not worse than, the opposite extreme.".

But wait a minute! I must not be unfair. Take this post as is it, and do not attribute to it what I have not said. I do not think all those who believe in the ideals of Socialism are dellusional et al. No no no, I do not. In fact, even within a declared Communist there can be reason. I understand, in essence, it is a matter of opinion on very basic things. "Will John Plow be happier owning a farm or working on the government's farm?" Very simplistic question, but surely you can expand on it yourself. The premise, then, is obvious: I think John Plow will not be too happy working for the government for fixed pay, so I think he will produce less and I think this will lead to stagnation. But I think it because I have facts showing this has happened. If Kostia the Communist thinks John Plow will be happier as part of a community that shares all goods, very well, my right is no more special than his, and with proper discussion we might reach an agreement. But if Kostia the Communist thinks that way because he finds Communism cute (ie, he has no opinion on the processes and the consequences in a global and individual level), I waste none of my time with him.

That applies to everything. Especially to the few million who voted on Lula based on "mudar tudo isso que está aí" ("change all this stuff that is around", in a stupid translation). Change what, why, to what, how, and again, why? "Because the people can no longer tolerate the situation as it is!" What situation, and who asked the people (and forgot to ask me)? "..." Well? "..." Anything? "..." Thank you.

Bottomline: I respect you and your opinion if you base it on anything more solid than empty generalizations. If you cannot point a few facts to show X would be better in red than in blue, you are nothing but steering mass, space filler, number, cattle. And arguing with that is not fun or rewarding.

Just a final note. While I pondered on what to write about that signature, I came across a most interesting site / blog. The irony begins in the title. It is too bad the content often shifts into blind American ufanism, but it is a pleasure to read, no less. Here it is, The Politburo!

Two messages in my archive for Edit-usp, the mailing list for Editing students in USP, speak of the same subject. One is from weeks ago, a forwarded message originally written in Spanish announcing the occurance of many manisfestations against the possible war, on the 15th of February. I found it cute and amusing.

Yesterday I was watching the local news, they said the UN inspectors were just beginning their report. So I switched to CNN to watch the original without any horrible on-the-fly translation voice-over. Interesting report, "They are very cooperative, we found nothing, we will keep searching". Somewhere along it I remembered that e-mail announcing the manifestations. "The US cannot fight against these facts, it is obvious they will not do anything for a while. Any reasonable person will stay home tomorrow."

This morning there was a message with exact schedule and location for a number of manifestations throughout the country. "So they are really doing it. Figures. Kids of all ages with too much time in their hands."

News tonight showed some of these manifestations. Some had a purpose and were by those reasonable people that I hoped would stay home. Others were by those who would not do it if the inspectors said Iraq changed their national anthem to "Give Peace a Chance". These are what I am talking about. American flags on fire, banners saying "Out Bush!", among other less unkind portraits of dishonesty.

Dishonesty because the manifestations were against the possible war, not against the United States and the stupid guy running it. The American attitude is wrong: hold your banners saying that, and that alone. What these people do is not even funny. "You want to attack? No, we are against the attack, and you suck, your father sucks, your mother sucks, your country sucks, your people suck, your neighbors suck, you are ugly, stupid, you have a silly face, you talk funny, you have poor taste is hats, and... and... you can't attack them because UN said you can't! And you are very ugly and stupid, too. With poor taste in hats."

Of course, when they do something like that they open way for people in the average evolutionary stage of human beings to say they are worth less than the flags they burn and banners they write (at least flags and banners can pass a reasonable message without being openly destructive) and serve only to waste Earth's supply of oxygen, water and proteins.

If war is really going to happen, they really should take their time to fly a B1 down here and fire three or four well placed missiles in the middle of these manifestations and/or (hopefully and) on buildings of the extremist left-wing parties.

Just giving human evolution a hand.

For no reason today, I came across the page for "The Ring" in IMDb (no link today). The MPAA says "Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, disturbing images, language and some drug references". One civilian reviewer says "Rated PG-13; Adult Themes, Disturbing Images, and a little bit of Profanity".

Thematic elements, disturbing images, language, drug reference, profanity.

HAH!

8 o'clock news: That is your drug reference.
6 o'clock news: Help yourself to the disturbing images and language.
Anything else: Take your piece of profanity and make good use of it.

Shut up, you cynical hypocrites.

I was astonished to see "Treasure Planet" was rated PG. "Parental Guidance".

"See, Tim, this guy was thrown into the black hole. He went to a very nice place, and the other nice guys will see him when they go into the black hole, too."
"But daddy, why don't they go fetch him now, or go visit him?"
"Because if they do, they would not want to come back, and they still have things to do here, Timmy."
"Oohh. And what are all these little babies, where did they come from?"
"Ah, you see, Timmy, when a man and a woman love each other, the dad buys a seed and gives it to the mom, who plants it, and then a cabbage sprouts with a baby in it. That is how you came to be, that is how all babies came to be."
"Aaahh, I get it now, daddy! And why did the big spider try to kill the boy?"
"Because he is evil, Tim, and the boy is good."
"Why is he evil?"
"Because he only wanted the gold. Wanting only the gold is evil. And evil people are always out to kill good people."
"Aahh, right. But that fat guy who wanted all the gold just escaped and the good boy let him. Is that the right thing to do?"
"More or less, Timmy. They were friends, and he was not really a bad guy. Just a little."
"So if you don't try to kill anyone you are not really evil?"
"That's right."
"Daddy, if I build a skateboard and go rolling in dangerous off-limits areas, will I end up as a soldier?"
"It is not so simple, Tim. The boy got lucky, and..."

Oh, I wish...

"Daddy, why did he let the bad guy go?"
"Sometimes you have to make decisions based on lots of things, son. He was greedy, and betrayed the boy, but he gave up on the gold to save him, and they were friends. Of course, he was a criminal, so the right thing to do would be to take him to justice. But can you do that to a friend? It is a hard decision, Tim."
"Aahh."

This world is in serious need of a Captain Amelia - or a thousand.

Last night was interesting.

There was a big thunderstorm, so Asgaard was off for another two hours again, which has become very rare. It was shut down because in the last thunderstorm I lost one of the two 256 Mb DDR chips in it - I had no intention of losing the second one, given the first is not replaced yet. It impressed me how long WinXP takes to shut down - maybe it is related to it being on for days in a row running a few dozen different programs.

The gates of Asgaard closed, I went for "dinner and a movie" - TV in the kitchen. The movie at the time was "The President's Man". In the first 20 minutes, a group of... something invades a... building and kidnaps the American First Lady, who was in there. Later it is explained what is going on.

They were a group of terrorists ("Movement of Popular Libertation" or something) trying to overthrow the Brazilian government to cause a power shift in the area. Okay then. Like a bunch of guerilla chicanos could take over Brasilia - especially considering they were attacking in Rio de Janeiro. Maybe if they amassed forces from the whole country and invaded both Houses during a session to raise the congressmen's salaries and killed everyone in less than 10 minutes then proceeded to the main building, killed or disabled the other five thousand people in there in 15 minutes and locked everything up tightly enough so the army cannot get in they could have something in their hands - a double-towering building with two bowls in front. That is not exactly what you need to cause a political shift harsh enough in South America. That is probably why they chose to kidnap the wife of the President of the United States (who sounded a lot like Vladimir Putin, "I will not deal with terrorists") in Rio de Janeiro instead. You see, kidnapping someone is big news, especially if the crime occurs in Rio; the government would be happy to hand control over to "Santiago" (the leader of the guerilla of chicanos) to have her returned. Because, obviously, Brazil has no police force at all: whenever something goes wrong, we pray that Washington sends Chuck Norris here to parachute from a B1 bomber (flying at Mach 4) to save the day.

Of course, then we have American marines going after this Santiago guy. In his base in the middle of the jungle, where everyone speaks Spanish. Is that the same group who kidnapped the First Lady? If it is, where did they find a piece of Amazon forest in Rio? Or did they catch a plane back to Manaus while Mr. Norris was returning in his flying parachute to Washington? Why do they speak Spanish? Why do they teach 13 year-old kids "Una manzana, duas manzanas"? Or were they Colombians all along? Maybe they figured taking over Colombia had no effect in the world (which is already proven) and went for something bigger. Either that, or they are part of PSTU. Or PCO. Dear President Putin of the White House, may I get some marines here to wipe out PCdoB, in special that waste of oxygen and protein called Aldo Rebello? Thank you.

After the half a dozen tough marines (who were all in their 20s, tall, handsome, with blue eyes) wiped out that force that was powerful enough to take over Brazil to disrupt the politics of South America, we turned the TV off and went to watch the lightning, now that the storm had gone a bit away. That was among the most beautiful things I ever saw. You do not know a thunderstorm until you see it in the tropics.

Hoje, seguindo uma longa corrente de pensamentos, acabei chegando à música do Café Concreto, que fez minha irmã rir por alguns minutos. E disso brotou um momento nostálgico sobre a Rádio Bandeirantes de outrora (claro que é de outrora, ou não seria nostalgia).

"Essa meia hora do jornal Bandeirantes Gente é um oferecimento de Café Seleto. Na hora de tomar café, é Café Seleto."
"MIAAAAAUUUUUU!!!!"
"O café de hoje vai para Fulano de Tal, de São Paulo - Oh!, seu Fulano - que escuta o Pulo do Gato desde criancinha. Bom dia, Fulano."
"Chuta para esse que toca para aquele e vai em direção ao gol bateu! ... Defendeu o goleiro! Bandeirantes informa o tempo e o placar do jogo (tan tan taaaan, tanaran tan taan tann) Trinta e seis minutos deste segundo tempo, dois para o Nyonyo, zero para o Pahupahu!"
"É isso aí, e o trânsito continua complicado aqui na Trabalhadores, se você vai pegar a estrada hoje, vá por caminhos alternativos."
"Conhaque é Preside-ente!"
"You are the Dancing Queen, pretty and sweet, only... Eeehhh, pois é. Abba! Fez muito sucesso na sua época... e ainda faz... Abba. Dancing Queen, The Winter... The-Win-ner-Ta-kes-It-All. É. Super Trouper. Agora vamos ouvir..."
"Essa meia hora do Jornal da Bandeirantes é um oferecimento de Palácio dos Enfeites. Para decorar a festa de seu filho, Palácio dos Enfeites."
"É verão! Bom sinal! Já é teeeeempooo... Férias de verão na Rádio Bandeirantes!"
"bbzzzzzerrrsstss... Porque hoje... é sábado!"
"A senhora Fulana de Bairro Longínqüo reclama dos buracos. Aê, regional de Bairro Longínqüo, tome uma providência. Boca no Trombone! FUÓ!"
"Termina aqui o Jornal do Meio-Dia. Apresentação..."
"Essa meia-hora de Me-mó-ria! foi um oferecimento de Tres Brut de Marchand. Não importa onde você vá, vá de Tres Brut de Marchand."

E obviamente não posso em sã consciência deixar de fora a mais universal das memórias de qualquer brasileiro em relação ao rádio, não se limitando à Bandeirantes:

"Tan tann taann tan taaaannnn...
Em Brasília, dezenove horas.
PAAAAANNNNNN, PAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNN, PANANAAAAANNNNN..."

Sinto-me como se tivesse oito anos de novo.

Que horror.

This should have been three or four posts, but that would be cheap. Read on, skip some parts if you will, there are three or four subjects thrown into it (even some in Portuguese!).

Consider the situation: first days of vacation, I am asked to go somewhere "real quick" because I am the only person who can go and the store will close very soon. It was about 5h30 PM then, plenty of time to go, do what needed to be done, and come back before 6h PM to watch that important episode of Inu Yasha. So I stopped at the red light, when it got to green I turned left. I was going to stop a hundred meters ahead. The street where I was has the preference, ie, cars in crossing streets have to stop and wait for me to pass. And, again, I had left from the red light 50 meters before and was going to stop 50 meters ahead. I look, I see no danger, I keep going, I get thrown to the left. The guy in the crossing street, under a big STOP sign, hit my car on the right side. After 30 minutes of debate that led nowhere, names and phone numbers exchanged, I continued on, having to hold the wheel a good 40 degreed left to make the car go straight. I reached the store, and with great difficulty, made it back home at 6h40 PM. That happened on a Friday. Only on Monday anything could be done. A few days later the car was taken for repairs, which took 35% longer than we were initially told.

The result of that was spending most of my vacation trapped home, depending on buses (no thanks) and favors. Only a few days ago the car was back, yesterday it was fully available. So I decided to "go to the movies". I had no idea what was being shown, I just wanted to go. I was ultimately frustrated in that field, seeing as I had planned to go see that movie where Nicole Kidman plays a Russian girl the Saturday after the car crash. And so I went.

I arrived there at 3h50 PM. I had no intention of waiting more than 20 minutes for a movie. So I had the options... The Thornberries, 4h; Femme Fatale, 4h. Everything else started after 5h. So Femme Fatale it was.

It is not a movie, mind you. It is an excuse to show a scene of lesbianism and the protagonist in "various levels of undress", as pointed by a reviewer in IMDb. Hormone high boys would love it - if it was not rated higher than they can see. Girls would love Antonio Banderas if his best scene was not his portrayal of a gay. So it was two hours of girls in lingerie and small clothes or no clothes at all.

Maybe I should had gone for Thornberries.

Hah hah!! Yeah, right.

Nickelodeon has this amazing ability to make the ugliest cartoons in history, and that in face of things like Cow & Chicken and Ed, Edd and Eddy.

Before that, we again went to the military post (why military? Why not civil police?) to retrive the report on the car crash. It is interesting: we have to go there, get it, then we go out, find a photocopy shop, copy it, and in half an hour we must bring it back to the post. Why do they not print two copies? Because they are military, and because the government pays with or without our complaints. Upon arrival, we noticed the closed gate. Padlock and all. No need for comments. At the other entrance there was a soldier. "It is closed, did it move somewhere?" "No sir, today we have a meeting, so the colonel told us to close it. It will be open tomorrow." But we only find that out after going all the way there, of course. If it was a store that depended on their sales, I wonder if they would do it. But they are military, and the government pays with or without our complaints.

Oh, this is an interesting conversation I had last night on ICQ.

Him:
That's why I don't bother with movies during vacation. That Xuxa movie is STILL there up to this fucking day. It disgusts the fuck out of me. :P

Oh, today my highly intelligent maid commented about "That game where you have to kill people."
"which one of the two thousand?"
"No, I mean the one where you kill REAL people."
"Russian Roulete?"
"No, it's a 3 letter word. RPG I guess, do you know it"
"Of course, I PLAY it..."
:)

Me:
Gods... :)
Oh, excuse me a moment, I need to wipe the blood off my floor, I was playing FFT this morning. :))

Him:
It's amazing how gullible those people are. She didn't doubt for a moment the information she got from the media. Her eyes got wide open when I said I played it. "Does... does your mother know that???" was all she said. :)

Me:
Why think when you can leave the media to do it for you? =p
You should had invited her to play with you. ;)
At the very least, show her "Monica na Terra dos Monstros" for the Genesis and yell, "See? It's MONICA! That's an RPG! Anyone killing people in sight?" :)

Adorei os jornais de hoje. Heloisa Helena continua sendo oposição; ela é minha anti-heroína favorita, Joana D'Arc Rouge. E chamaram o Palocci de neo-liberal e ele ficou bravo. Heh heh. Mas nada se compara à semana passada, quando os moradores da primeira cidade do Fome Zero, atendidos por seis programas do governo anterior, disseram que não queriam mais comida, eles queriam era água e estrutura (não superestrutura). O mundo é tão divertido quando ideologias contrárias às suas têm sua invalidade (e invalidez) comprovada.

Colegas USPianos voltaram de Porto Alegre, comentando a última palestra da filha do Che Guevara, aquele que ajudou o Fidel Castro a fazer de Cuba o que é hoje. Fidel tinha trauma de padre, então proibiu a comemoração do Natal. Isso é um exemplo de livro de gramática de primeiro grau em Cuba, traduzido pois minha memória não é muito boa em espanhol.

Exercício 1: Separe sujeito e predicado e classifique o sujeito quanto ao tipo (simples, composto, oculto, etc).

a) Fidel é nosso pai.
b) Devemos tudo à revolução.
C) Che e Fidel são heróis do povo cubano.
...

Lavagem cerebral do início ao fim da vida.

Uma das histórias que se conta: dois homens tinham um burro, colocaram cestos de carga no animal e entraram cada um de um lado; pretendiam chegar a Miami assim. Deram com o burro n'água, naturalmente (cliché!). Imagine, entretanto, o desespero de uma pessoa para tentar atravessar uma grande porção de água salgada dentro de uma cesta montada num burro. Naturalmente que são apenas dois ingratos que não conseguem compreender quão maravilhoso é o regime socialista. Hasta la vitoria siempre!

I strongly dislike literary analysis.

That must be specified, or I will appear to be contradicting myself. I do like explanation on poetry (I said poetry, not "And this / Is / Because we can never make a decent rhyme so we counterbalance that by making one verse two letters long and the next one / A whole paragraph."), and I like teachers that come up and say "See here how the narration was flowing, but then this character comes in the middle of it to say something? That is a technique used today in movies, and he was using it way back then! And you can see here that this old guy is the author himself, and in one line the young lady was avenged.".

What I dislike beyond the comprehension of any petty academic is the bland analysis for the analysis, "mental masturbation". "O emprego da coisa-personagem na obra euclidiana." "A releitura deciana do escrever machadiano." Antonio Candido (no specific quotes needed here).

But I stray far from my original intent, made obvious in the title.

"In A.D. 2101 war was beginning.
Captain: What happen ?
Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb.
Operator: We get signal.
Captain: What !
Operator: Main screen turn on.
Captain: It's you !!
CATS: How are you gentlemen !!
CATS: All your base are belong to us.
CATS: You are on the way to destruction.
Captain: What you say !!
CATS: You have no chance to survive make your time.
CATS: Ha ha ha ha ....
Operator: Captain !!
Captain: Take off every 'ZIG'!!
Captain: You know what you doing.
Captain: Move 'ZIG'.
Captain: For great justice."

I had to, did I not?

On to my point.

Why did "All your base are belong to us" become the cult sentence? Why not "Somebody set up us the bomb." or "You know what you doing." or "You have no chance to survive make your time."? Or even the subtle "Common sentence !!" or "Scream." (the punctuation!)?

"You have no chance to survive make your time" has much greater impact on certain occasions (eg, Quake Deathmatch) than "All your base". Or in face of any sabotage or anything that goes wrong, "Somebody set up us the bomb". And "How are you gentlemen !!" as a greeting in any text based environment. Even "What you say !!" has a lot of personality on its own.

But for some reason, "All your base" was chosen as the greater representation of SNK-glish. And that in face of Samurai Shodown's "Victoly!", even. Of course, many people have no idea where it comes from; for most it is just a funny sentence overused everywhere.

Returning to the point of two paragraphs above, perhaps the fate of this sentence was decided by the complete uselessness of it in everyday life. "All your base are belong to us." You cannot use it anywhere without seeing you hammered it into the situation to make it fit. It makes very little sense in any environment other than game set in space where one faction conquers the bases of another. Perhaps it was this absurdity that made it soar above the others.

Whee, that was a great analysis, no? Indeed, the first part of this post has nothing to do with this at all. But I had to say something to that extent sometime.

WASHINGTON - With the recounting done, it is confirmed George W. Bush is the new President. On this matter, a Democrat said, "Somebody set up us the Bush!".

Falando nisso, um amigo deu tradução melhor ao nome do mencionado presidente; embora não seja literal, aceita-se a licença poética em prol da melhor representação da figura: Jorge Moita Ambulante.

I need a Vorpal Blade to protect me from the Doorknobby of Many Pages.