Saturday, March 10, 2012

Random List-ness

Things I've been meaning to post, in no particular order:

1) Granado Pharmácias has great shaving soap, if you are the kind of man who uses a brush and the works (or if you just know one who does). My husband likes it better than the fancy stuff we bought off of Amazon. Of course, one might legitimately question how fancy it was if we bought it from that site in the first place...it's also a nice place for gifts, and some of their perfumes are really nice. Still, try them out for a while before buying, as the scents change significantly over time.

2) Burburinho Brechó, on Olegário Maciel 521, loja 4, is a nice addition to the city's growing selection of quality consignment stores. Definitely worth a look-see if you are in the area. Be forewarned, the rest of the galeria is basically empty, a bit ghost-townish, but the brechó is nice. Phone: 2147-4534 and online at www.burburinhobrecho.com.br

3) I had a massage and facial for my birthday at Levitate in Itanhangá. What a wonderful, relaxing, lovely experience. If you still have a little money left over and want to continue the pampering, As Claras is in the same shopping center. Charming, tasty, and oh-so-priced to boot, their breads and sweets are nice for an occasional treat with a strong coffee. I imagine it's a nice place to hang out...Itanhangá, if you're not familiar with the area, is lovely and green and one of the only golf courses in the city is right across the street. It's a pain, however, to get around by public transportation there, as sidewalks mysteriously appear and disappear and reappear 200 meters down the way on the other side of the road...still, the bus stop is quite close and taxis are generally pretty easy to catch.

4) Fancying Chinese food? Primeira Pá, on Rua Gonçalves Crespo 450 in Tijuca is the place to go. Located in the Chinese cultural center, it's an oasis of non-takeout-style Chinese. You *could* pay upwards of R$80 a dish at Eike's mediocre, Disney-fied restaurant on the Lagoa, and not even really be able to call it Chinese...or you could go here. Split the bill with friends, go away stuffed and spend under R$50 with drinks. Your decision. Call the day before, order the duck. You won't regret it. 2293-2653.

5) I deleted all my Pinterest boards with great sadness. If you've been following the debate online, you'll know that their terms and conditions are really not good for users...and there's a lot of debate as to the legality of the whole thing. Copyright and the like. I'll still look at other people's stuff; I haven't actually deleted my account, but I'm not willing to post at the present time if I don't have permission from the originator of the artwork/photo/whathaveyou. If you were wondering where I went, now you know...

6) Kony 2012 is rushing like a wildfire around the internets. A wise friend who has African connections linked to this post and Rachel Held Evans (whose writing I follow) also posted a list of resource here. I'd recommend thinking, reading, researching before you donate or re-post the video. Hubby and I were discussing this last night, because with the whole Rush debacle, somehow this old transcript got resurrected. My favorite bit? After a page-long rant about the Christianness of the LRA, the very last paragraph goes,

"Is that right? The Lord's Resistance Army is being accused of really bad stuff? Child kidnapping, torture, murder, that kind of stuff? Well, we just found out about this today. We're gonna do, of course, our due diligence research on it. But nevertheless we got a hundred troops being sent over there to fight these guys -- and they claim to be Christians."

This is America today. Pick sides and blather first...THEN do your "due diligence research." Because you can always figure out someone's true colors by the name they pick and the shiny outfits they wear (or the slick marketing campaigns...). Please. Don't perpetuate stupid. I've been guilty of it myself, but let's all try to research things before we blissfully and energetically pass them on, get worked up and passionate without even bothering to scratch the surface of the complexity of the issues at hand.

No comments: