Category: Random

Personal posts or those that don’t fit in any other category.

Random

Ovaltine is different in Brazil

I mean, beyond the name, where it’s called “Ovomaltine”, which apparently is how the whole world calls it except English-speaking countries? Well, anyway, when it was introduced in the country, there were some issues with the production line and the product didn’t turn powdery enough, becoming flaky and crispy when mixed in milk, creating a nicely texturized chocolate-y drink. I …

Random

Black Friday, linguistics, and Brazil

There’s an interesting shift in Brazil where the word “Friday”, in English, might get another meaning. Surprising no one (I hope), most Brazilians don’t speak English, so they don’t know what “Black Friday” really means. Some might be aware that “black” means “dark” or the literal color black but have no idea that “Friday”, a less common English word to …

Random

This website now federates with ActivityPub and has webmentions

What the title says. Or, at least, I hope so, as I’m unsure everything is working as it should. The ActivityPub part I tested myself seems to be all fine, so anyone on Mastodon, Friendica, Pleroma, Pixelfed, and so on, can look up for the user blog@www.whateverthewindbrings.com and follow it to see blog updates directly on their timeline. Any comment …

Random

Time zones and hemispheres are the bane of my existence

In the localization industry, we not only translate games’ contents, but also their changelogs, patch updates, news, and marketing copies. Usually, it’s all fine, except when there’s an upcoming event and we have to start checking clocks and doing math because it will be a global launch or event and we have to “translate” the time to BRT. But oh, …

Random

Wildfires in Portugal

It seems most of the fires, at least in this region, started on Sunday, but by Monday things were already out of control. I was able to take two pictures during the day and, man, things were wild. I’ve seen the Sahara dust cover the country once or twice, but I’ve never seen the sun this way. This looks like …

Random

European granularity

6 years living in Europe and the only thing I didn’t get used to yet is the granularity of everything. If I drive for 2h, I’m in Spain, and then if I go for more 8h, I’m in France. All fine and good, and different languages aren’t an issue. Services, on the other hand, can vary so much that I …

Random

Well, would you look at that

It is sad that, while being in a country with more than one café on each corner, it’s hard to find good coffee, to the point where Starbucks is an acceptable substitute. Even more because Starbucks over-roast their coffee, so much so that this “blonde roast” is more like a medium roast everywhere else. On the other hand, I’ve never …