I know it's a little bit late but better late than never....
I just need to tell has much as i can about this wonderfull journey that was 2008....

On the 8th of December 5 people, Laura, Laura, Roberto, Romulo & Me (i guess the only reader of my blog knows my name) got together to honour 1 tradition: the building of the Christmas tree. Using a basic principle but mixing traditions from 3 different countries (for the curious ones - Portugal, Italy, Netherlands) the night started with great dinner (many thanks to the chef....you know who you are) served with red wine, followed by a great desert and then coffee and the now traditional "Friends Whisky", the tree assembly started.

The girls made some decorations and the guys started with putting the tree standing (sounds bad but no one was injured on this procedure), and after an hour or so the tree was finished with all the necessary items. The star on top was put in by Romulo, because the best prop for the tree was the one he got.

In the end a Big Big egg-shaped chocolate was broken and our Christmas officially begun by eating a marvelous italian chocolate.

Thanks everyone for such a delightful night and to allow to enjoy again one of the traditions i was so used to back home.

hugs & kisses

Me

This is really cool....

Created by The Car Connection

Some moments captured on camera....

Just funny

So, Tuesday i went to see Pendulum at the Melkweg for the 2nd time and i must say that once again i was quite impressed....It was great....

This concert was part of the European Tour 2008 and the launch of their new album called "In Silico".

I must say besides the sound the visual part of the concert was stunning which helped to make it a memorable show.....

On a last note i would like to thank Wout and Fleur for the company and for having so much fun....

Here is a sample of what we listened:

Discover The Prodigy!

Voodoo People from Prodigy mixed by Pendulum

Official website: http://www.pendulum.com/

Just couldn't resist putting this here....

So MTV just launched a new website just for music videos for free, which is cool because you can even watch them on fullscreen, share, etc.
Also good is the fact that you can find some pretty old music videos and will find new videos in there almost every day.
It should be some good competition for youtube.

Site address is http://www.mtvmusic.com/

Here is a video taken from there, one of my favourites....

Queens of the Stone Age - Go with the Flow

Queens of the Stone Age MTV Music

Maaaannnnn....I wanted to post something about the party alll week but i had to upload the pictures from the iPhone and i'm known to be a tiny bit lazy....better late then never....let's take into consideration this pictures are taken from a phone so the quality is not the best....

Here they are....

Anyway the party was amazing!!!!I was in for Black Sun Empire but honestly they were not even my favourites this time, none of the good stuff like Future Frame, Arrakis or Driving Insane....they were still good tought.

This time my favourite was Sub Focus, it was the 1st time i saw them and it was an amazing performance.....the rest was ok....

I was happy to know that Henrique, Dome and Wout enjoyed it as well so maybe we can all return next year....

Funny thing was when i went to pick up my bike to go home, it was not there anymore....only the lock was there, it was cut with a saw in the middle of leidseplein on a friday night....amazing what this people do for bikes in holland....there goes my 3rd bike....the best of the story was not even that....but it's too crazy to be told here (hint - crazy people like hot "drinks"....LOL!!!!).

Well i guess that's the way it goes in life, nothing is ever perfect....

Tony Hawk interviews Michael Phelps between takes of the Guitar Hero: World Tour commercial they were both shooting. Kobe Bryant also shot one.

See more DissentTV videos at Shred or Die

Funny interview....

Maaaaaaannnnn this guys are hilarious.....

Viral video for the movie Tropic Thunder....

MTV Shows

Tonight is the night....once again i go back to one of the first parties i've been once i arrived to Amsterdam. Funny fact, Black Sun Empire is playing again.


Great lineup, can't wait....

Computers are funny....

After the launch of the new Macbooks an angry customer sent an email directly to Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple for those who don't know) making a complaint about that fact that was no Firewire included.

Steve at his best, gave a short and expeted answer.


I guess it's pretty clear that Apple is abandoning the Firewire feature from their consumer-targeted machines, in this particular case, the Macbook, probably because they don't see it as a viable option anymore.
In the 90's Apple helped to develop Firewire, but it never made such an impact as USB, in fact USB2.0 has proven to be the winner of the lower end of the market.
USB2.0 is in fact slower but if you want performance then the Mackbook is not exactly what you want/need.
All the Mac's still offer Firewire support at this time with the exception of the new Macbook, and the new Macbook Pro only offers Firewire 800.

Nice going Steve
....

This year despite having some short summer vacations in the end of August, i still managed to find a way to make the best out of it....

Me and one of my best friends decided to go down the coast (Costa Vicentina) starting in Setúbal all the way to Algarve, in what quickly became an EPIC journey.

So, since the weather was very good we went looking for desert or unknown beaches along the coast....but more details about that at a later time.....for now i just leave a video and some pictures of one of the beaches with the most difficult (maybe not that difficult but definitely on of the coolest) access....

Praia da Amália (Amalia's beach)

Some pictures of the beach

It was a great trip overall and i know i wanna do it again anytime soon....

Thanks DeDe

....

So next week is the Amsterdam Dance Event on of the biggest club festival events of the world (probably the biggest) which occurs every year, spread by some (about 40) of the finest places (clubs, cafe's, lounges, art galleries, etc....) in amsterdam with over 700 DJ's.

It's quite an interesting event that also includes a conference, it goes to it's thirtheenth edition this year....

I've been in some of the venues two years ago and it was great.

Website: http://www.amsterdam-dance-event.nl/

Very interesting lineup, maybe i should check out a few of them this time as well.

Since everybody seems to be talking and sharing their experiences with Segway's these days, here is me standing on one after a bumpy ride during my short summer vacations.


In general it was a very amusing experience, which i would like to repeat (or even get one for myself if i had $$$$) but like all gadgets/toys/rides it takes time and practice to get used to.

It was great
....

Since i'm not able to attend (for obvious reasons) and because one of my best friends makes sure he allways does, also helping his brother organising the event i was sure i had to briefly mention it.
Shift is basically a Event with one day of Workshops and two days of Conference about Social & Human Ideas for Technology, which happens in Lisbon every year (i think it's the 3rd edition but i'm not sure).




All about Shift can be found here:

http://shift.pt/

I just have to write about this....enjoying surf and all....

Once again Kelly Slater shows us why he is a Surf legend, pulling yet another ASP World Championship....lucky number 9 for him.




Below the heat were he got the World title in Mundaka (Spain)




Events won by Kelly Slater in this year's ASP World Tour

01 - Quiksilver Pro in Gold Coast (Australia)
02 - Rip Curl Pro in Bells Beach (Australia)
04 - Gloge Pro in Tavarua (Fiji)
05 - Billabong Pro in Jeffreys Bay (South Africa)
07 - Boost Mobile Pro Presented by Hurley in Trestles (USA)


Website: http://surf.quiksilver.com/ks9/

Well....T-Mobile G1 certainly loses the browsing battle agaisnt the iPhone with both of them using their respective 3G connections....





Needless to say the iPhone wins
....

Well in fact the "Google Phone" it's really called T-Mobile G-1.
Hardware is made by HTC (a well known smarthphone company), software by Google (Android OS) and the provider so far is only T-Mobile. As far i know it is still only available in the US.

The United Kingdom will have it available in November and Germany, Austria, Czech Replublic & Holland on the first quarter of 2009.

In the US it will be sold contract-free or under a 2-year contract, possible same setup for Europe.

Here are some pictures:







Some specs:


HSDPA 1700 / 2100 plus quadband EDGE
WiFi
3D graphics acceleration
3-megapixel camera
256 MB integrated storage, 1GB microSD card included
Android Market for on-device app purchases
Amazon MP3 app for on-device music purchases
Push Gmail support with full HTML client
Bluetooth (but no A2DP)
Google Maps with Street View
No Microsoft Exchange support
No desktop synchronization -- it all happens over the air
350 minutes talk time over 3G, 406 minutes over GSM
402 hours standby over 3G, 319 hours over GSM


Let's see if it can battle the mighty iPhone (i still prefer the iPhone anyday....)
....

This past Monday (14th October) a new line of Notebooks was presented once again by Steve Jobs, being the highlight (for me, of course) the new aluminium Macbook with integrated NVIDIA graphics (finally....it was about time) and the Macbook Pro with a facelift (new aluminium case and a black keyboard). Macbook Air also got an update with integrated NVIDIA graphics.

Being a big fan of the Macbook Pro i confess that i still have to get used to the ideia of a black keyboard, altough the LED display seems to be a good update with the benefit of improving brightness, saving energy and improving battery life. Also worth to mention the possibility of having a 128GB Solid State Drive.

They still seem expensive (i don't doubt of their quality....i'm sure they're great) compared to the very competitive market we have nowadays in terms of good quality notebooks for a reasonable price.

Still have to wait and see the Pro's reviews on this products.

More info in: http://www.apple.com/macbook/ & http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/

Finally a post....for a long time i wasn't really in to the blog "scene", but know i find it important to start reporting not only about things i find interesting but also what my life has been over the almost last 4 years living abroad....

I guess it was a good way to start.....

More to come anytime soon....