The America belongs to Americans...

I don't really understand why Brazilians don't like to call the people from the United States of America as Americans.

Most Brazilians think that American people are snobbish or presumptuous because they call themselves Americans. And most Brazilians also think that the word "Americans" should be used to everybody who is a citizen of a country in the American continent. And Brazilians think that Americans should be called 'estadosunidenses' (or "people from the united states").

The reason because the Americans call themselves that way is because the country is called UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. It is not " United States of North America". It is not "United States of United States". And it is not only "United States".

They picked up the name before everyone else and that is it. Brazil itself could have picked "United States of America" from 1500 (when Pedro Alvares Cabral arrived in Brazil) to 1776 (the declaration of independence of USA), but it didn't.

Brazilians forget that Brazil was once 'Estados Unidos do Brasil'  (or "United States of Brazil") from 1889 to 1967. Therefore, following the same rational, Brazilians should also be called 'estadosunidenses' in that period, right?

How about Mexico? The official name of Mexico is "United Mexican States". Are they 'estadosunidenses' also? Not Mexicans?!

The ignorance of my countrymen really makes me angry.

The non-acceptance of "American" nomenclature by Brazilians for those who are citizens of the United States of America is only a little thing that makes me angry.

The theory of communication

When I was at elementary school, the teacher presented me the Theory of Communication. It says that there are mainly three pieces that allow a communication: the sender (who talks), the receiver (who listens) and the message itself. At that time, the teacher told me that if the receiver cannot understand the message then it is the sender's fault. OK, fair enough, I thought...

Some years later, I quit my job at a Telecom company. The reason: I was trying (for 6 months) to convince my director that there were technical problems (that he created/ignored when he was a project manager) that could only be solved if a new - small - project was made. I wrote a report about the problem (not pointing fingers, of course) and delivered to my manager and to my director. But he refused to accept the solution, since it involved some costs in short term for the department. And probably, the spots would be on him.

So, I was quitting because the problem had no solution and I didn't want to be the scapegoat (and also I was fed up with the general incompetence of the company). When I made my complaints to my manager, she just told me that I should have insisted more; and if nobody listened to me (after 6 months trying to convince people) then it was my own fault, because the fault is always on the sender side, right?

Well, this reminded me the Theory of Communication class from elementary school. And it made me think: if the receiver doesn't want to listen to the sender, then does it mean that the sender is the one to be blamed on? Absolutely NOT! If the receiver is listening to you, but it doesn't want to acknowledge your message, it is not the sender's fault. It is the receiver's fault. The Theory of Communication from elementary school class was wrong!

So, the little things that make me angry here are:

1. People who bulls*its me with the lousy assessments from the Theory of Communication.

2. People who uses the lousy assessments from the Theory of Communication as an excuse.

Desperately looking for quarters and carrying them...

Here in the U.S., most vending machines, parking meters and washing/drying machines for laundry demand the usage of quarters (25 cents of dollar coins).

The parking meters are everywhere. Sometimes they do accept dimes (10 cents) or nickels (5 cents). But, as far as I know, those parking meters are rare around here (nearby Boston).

And what happens when you are thirsty and there is no store open? Or if you are in the lab working after hours and you feel you deserve some snack? What can you do? Of course, you go for the vending machine. Therefore, quarters are the most important currency that you can carry with you since they can relieve your thirsty .

However, it is not easy to collect quarters. I use credit card most of the times and I usually have no cash with me. Then, sometimes I need to go to the supermarket to "buy" some quarters. They sell $10.00 rolls of quarters at Roche Bros., the supermarket near my home.

But it is really annoying to carry quarters (at least 4 or 5 coins) in my thin wallet (increasing its size in 10% or so). Sometimes, this is a little tiny thing that makes me angry...