What is that noise encircling our home?

Screeching around our home, the cicadas that come with the onset of the rainy season sound like an army of broken hard drives droning in free space. They can reach up to 120 decibels and can be heard in the heat of the day right before a storm. Their chorus is an extraordinary buzz.

Funny true life story about this part of our Brasília life. Two years ago, two friends were visiting from Alaska and Washington, D.C. when we heard a loud sound in the house. Uli was out of the house somewhere, and the sound seemed to be coming from his office. It sounded like the death of a computer, and I immediately thought that there must be some sort of hardware melting down. Our friends and I rushed into his office to intervene and search for the origin of the noise. We looked and looked and eventually found a two-inch bug happily clinging to the screen window while emitting this broken computer sound. After having a good laugh, our friends made a recording and we started to hear cicadas everywhere.

Now, when the cicadas really get noisy, I cannot help but thinking of flying broken hard drives.

Post #6: Geeks in a Stadium is a Party

In the middle of Brasília is a gigantic stadium that was built for the World Cup when Brazil hosted in 2016. Nowadays, it gets little use as there are not any big football teams based in Brasília and the colossal size makes it an overwhelming venue. Those of you that know Uli know that, despite his heritage, he does not follow any organized sports or have any passion for spectating (hey, I guess no one can be perfect). We recently attended a Wizards game (NBA) and a Caps semi-finals game (NHL), which were exciting to me even if I am not an ardent fan. Uli was still pretty non-plussed. So, why would he be spending four days in a gigantic football stadium this week? For a tech event, of course.

There is a huge event called Campus Party taking place right now in the stadium and the wings are filled with geeks camping out for four days, hackers and gamers set up at tables, and speakers talking about a range of topics from MOOCs to makers. There are so many young people wandering around with their computers. Even I found it exciting and a bit overwhelming. Uli, however, was completely in his element.

 For me, the cool part continued to be the setting of the stadium...

Homage to a Tech Guru

My entire life has been transformed in the last 48 hours... I suppose our lives are continually changing and transforming, but this shift, however small it may seem, feels rather significant... By the amazing and mysterious powers of technology and the patience of a special tech guru, I now have a home phone. Set up through something abbreviated in an oblique acronym like SIP, the phone works via my Internet connection, but the number that rings looks like one located within the United States. To those of you already initiated to such spectacular feats of the virtual world, this progress may seem like very old news. However, it is a wonderful sensation for this wanderer to know that friends and family can now use their free cell phone minutes calling way over here to me in Estonia. I can't explain why it is so revolutionary when it seems so old-fashioned to have a traditional phone. Somehow, it just feels different to hear a phone ring and pick up a real receiver to say hi. It's a fantastic feeling to know that I can be reached (rather than always reaching out) -- the world really seems that much smaller and cozier.

**A million thanks to the brilliant tech guru Uli, who made this whole phone transformation possible!

**If you'd like to give me a jingle on this new number, shoot me an email when you get a chance and I'll gladly share the details.