Here are the time-lapse photos I took earlier this week. [ 1 2 3 4 or visit the imagelog ] How did I do it? Rather easily, if you know how to manually operate a SLR camera. Use ISO100 or ISO50 film, and have the camera sit on a tripod. If you are taking the photos at night, it's quite easy. Set the aperture as high as possible (I took these photos at f22 and f32), and use the camera's built-in photometer to set the shutter speed, which should be quite slow, around ten seconds unless you are in a very bright area. And shoot. However, if you want to take these photographs at sunset so you can get a blue sky, you'll need to constantly check the photometer until the right time comes, when the camera allows you to shoot for several seconds without burning the picture. And that's it. Keep in mind that four seconds are more than enough if you are shooting near the cars and they move from side to side, while fifteen seconds may not be enough for a good picture if you are far away and the cars move in perspective.¶

Num Universo Paralelo has been put in place to host my short stories, such as Orwell em Fuga and the new O Melhor Homem do Mundo, also published at Cafeína. In portuguese tho', if you try to use your favourite machine translator you'll be in for quite a laugh.¶

Firstly I finished reading William Gibson's Neuromancer, at last. Since I am not english-born like the Manager, it took me much longer to read through the twisted language, through all the slang and the jamaican accents, besides the complicated jargon and the global references (words such as gaijin, zaibatsu, shuriken) that already make it a hard read to native english speakers. Anyway, it's a mindblowing piece of literature, the seminal cyberpunk masterpiece written back in 1983. Although you can see Neuromancer was strongly influenced by other authors such as Philip K. Dick and by the visuals of Syd Mead (creator of the BladeRunner world), William Gibson's novel is perhaps the most influent work in today's sci-fi. If you likes movies such as The Matrix or Ghost in the Shell, you'll find that most of the ideas were stolen from Neuromancer. And in fact, the book reads like a Matrix prequel, taking place just before the Artificial Intelligences take over. Shame that the film adaptation rumoured to be in the hands of Chris Cunningham will perhaps be criticized by the ill-informed public as a 'Matrix rip-off'. Note: if you are not interested in waiting for the Amazon delivery boy and you live in Porto, you probably can buy Neuromancer at Livraria Britânica, at Rua José Falcão.¶

Easter. Sunday. Religious holiday. Rainy day. The big daddy of all rainy days. Nothing else to do but spending a lot of time in front of the computer. So let's see, what have we got today?¶