The trouble with Siri

In one word: people. In one phrase: people that lack education a.k.a. douchebags. They'll want the shiny.

You see, when you think about a personal assistant Jetsons-like, you like to think about a perfect, idealized futuristic ambient. Reality has a LOT more noise. Technology can be blameless but the WAY people use it...

I live in a megalopolis where the majority of people seems to be composed by entitled egotistical narcissists with lack of empathy for anyone around them that isn't, well, THEM. I don't need to name names. If you live in a megalopolis, I'm pretty sure that people around you are eerily similar.

Here, specifically, we have a cultural problem of teens that love to hear loud terrible music on their cell phones. In the metro. Crowded metro. At rush hour. They have ear plugs, every fucking phone comes with them, but they REFUSE to use it. Try to imagine traveling with 3, 4 of these guys blasting music in the highest volume their cell phones can reach about "bitches taking it in da ass". 3, 4 different cellphones screaming at you at top levels at the same time for how long you take to commute. Every. day. And if you try to complain, they tell you to go fuck yourself. Sweet, uh?

Oh, but these young men are black and poor and yadayada you bigot you. Okay, try this one for size: I like to take the baby for a stroll in the park near home. When she falls asleep I usually sit on a bench, take my moleskine out and start doodling. But soon the human zoo around me demands attention, not even ONE of them paying attention to the green, beautiful park they're crossing: the young gangsta ones with their cellphones blasting music are here too, but also the 50-ish white dudes SCREAMING in their smartphones, many times on hands free/speakerphone about anything from business to where to go for dinner and once in a while disgusting details of their medical history that you shouldn't go around screaming to anyone to hear. Then you distract yourself trying to draw and another guy passes buy, no cellphone visible, screaming to himself while jogging. Schizophrenia? Nope. This douchebag has a bluetooth earplug. Women aren't exactly better. Once I heard an entire conversation between a girl in the bus and her boyfriend trying to make some sexy phone talk... while she was on speakerphone! The ENTIRE bus could hear the old "what are you wearing" and "I wanna do this and that to you, sexy" routine. Try to ask these people not to do this and the answer will be the same: fuck you (or the rich white dude version: who do you think YOU are to talk to me? Do you know WHO I am? Fuck you.)

As you can see, being an entitled asshole here is independent of age, class, money, skin color or gender.

Can you imagine this kind of person with an iPhone 4S in hands? Screaming bad jokes at Siri or asking their smartphones in the middle of a crowd if they want to sit on their dick? Just imagine a room full of these assholes talking to their phones. In the theater!

In a perfect world you would use it at home, in your car, on your own room at work and even in your bathroom*... but the world we live in is far from perfect and the fault is in our own lack of education. I'm no better than most and use my smartphone a LOT but at least my excess typing doesn't add to the cacophony around me.

Everyone's screaming, honking and blasting and not one of them are hearing themselves. Unfortunately, LOTS of them will have iPhones 4S in hands and when other brands follow in some months or years, we'll hear a LOT more douchebags screaming to their smartphones AND their smartphones screaming back. Fun future, uh?

*I heard a woman's conversation once in an office public restroom about how she would fire her nanny, screaming on speakerphone while taking a dump on the stall left to mine. PLEASE don't do it in a public place.

14 dias

Duas semanas depois, nove meses de espera e as marcas recentes ainda no meu corpo, o peito cheio que só a presença dela alivia e eu ainda olho para ela e parece surreal que ela esteja aqui, minha vida mudada pra sempre e ainda é o começo.

Playing with Barbie

So, in more or less 3 weeks I shall become the mother of a baby girl. You start to think about a lot of things when you become the mother of a girl. There's a whole world out there that wants to mold you to "fit" into certain concepts of what is the right or wrong way of being a girl today. Of course, I shall do what any mother would do: try to do my best.

 I'm not really a big fan of Mattel's classic blond bimbo Barbie, but I must say I really loved the concept of Barbie Computer Engineer. I think its a HUGE step on the matter of role models for little girls, but what bugs me is that I can't relate too much with blonde pastel bimbo computer engineer Barbie. I can't see myself when I look at her. Too much pink, too much pastel and don't even get me started on the fact that even in USA you DON'T have a majority of population composed of girls with blond hair and blue eyes. I'm a little sick of seeing beautiful brunette little girls playing with blond dolls and then asking their mothers to let them discolor their hair so they can feel "pretty".

So I played a little with Photoshop to create a Computer Engineer Barbie that I wouldn't mind buying to my daughter, trying to change very little indeed. A brunette with a more practical haircut, the glasses and laptop went from the mandatory pink to red (I dunno what happened with the toy industry but red seems to be hijacked to boys toys, like anything with Cars in it, and only pink is regarded as girly. Makes no sense to me). I kept pink, as accessory. It can be in the details and be nice if you don't overdo it. And I changed the t-shirt to a dark magenta, keeping it pinky but topping it up a notch. The jacket went from the multicolored pastel to a washed jeans with the same circuit board patterns, not fighting for attention with the t-shirt as it was before. Little changes, and yet I feel that you could walk into a IT department and find the doll in the right there, working as sysAdmin. I would love to see someone run with the concept and do a OOAK like this one.

Clica que amplia - click to see it bigger

 Então, em mais ou menos 3 semanas vou ser mãe de uma menina. Você começa a pensar em um monte de coisas quando você se torna mãe de menina. Há todo um mundo lá fora que quer moldá-la para se "encaixar" em certos conceitos do que é a certo ou errado em ser uma garota hoje em dia, e isso me incomoda um bocado. Claro que vou fazer o que qualquer mãe faria: tentar fazer o melhor possível dentro das circunstâncias.

 Eu não sou muito fã da clássica Barbie loira patricinha da Mattel, mas devo confessar que adorei o conceito da Computer Engineer Barbie. Acho que é um passo enorme na questão de modelos decentes para as meninas, mas o que me incomoda é que eu não consigo me identificar muito com a Barbie loira pastel engenheira de computação que lançaram. Eu não consigo me ver quando eu olho para ela. Muito rosa, muito tom pastel, e ainda tem o fato de que mesmo nos EUA você não tem uma maioria da população composta por meninas com cabelos loiros e olhos azuis. Estou um pouco enjoada de ver menininhas morenas, naturalmente lindas, brincando com suas bonecas majoritariamente loiras e em seguida pedindo pra mãe para deixá-las descolorir os cabelos e ficar loiras para que eles possam se sentir "bonitas de verdade".

Daí eu brinquei uma meia horinha no Photoshop para criar uma Computer Engineer Barbie que eu não me importaria de comprar para minha filha, tendo cuidado para mudar o menos possível do original, para ficar 100% factível. Criei uma morena clara, com um corte de cabelo moderno e prático. Mudei os óculos e o netbook do rosa obrigatório para o vermelho (não sei o que aconteceu com a indústria de brinquedos, mas o vermelho parece que foi desviado para brinquedos de meninos, como qualquer coisa com Carros por exemplo, e apenas o rosa é considerado como feminino. Não faz sentido para mim.) Eu mantive o rosa como acessório. Ele pode cair bem nos detalhes se você não exagerar. A camiseta eu mudei para um magenta escuro, mantendo o estilo "pink" mas fugindo do pastel. A jaqueta foi do pastel multicolorido para um jeans lavado com os mesmos padrões de placa de circuito, para não ficar disputando atenção com a camiseta como acontecia antes. São mudanças bem pequenas mesmo, e ainda assim eu sinto que você poderia entrar em um departamento de TI e encontrar uma garota como esta boneca, trabalhando como sysAdmin. Adoraria ver alguém correr com o conceito e fazer uma OOAK* neste estilo.

*bonecas personalizadas, "one of a kind" (modelos únicos, modificadas a partir de bonecas produzidas em massa)

Hello 2011

This year started giving me a nephew. Soon I shall have my own daughter in my arms. My little Rigues! =)