I’m reading a book by Paul Auster called book of illusions, where this guy David is depressed for more than a year, but gets kicked out of it by a trivial mute movie, just because it made him smile - nothing else had worked for him. Everybody has his own small set of simple little things, everyday small details, which have the power to bright up the day. David’s, was Hector Mann’s films.

Mine, it’s postcards (among other things). Doesn’t matter how was my day, having postcards on my mailbox always makes me smile. From family, friends, acquaintances, picture postcards or even silly propaganda ones, has long as they have something written by someone, they all turn my mailbox into a little surprise box. And that doesn’t work just me, as I found out that there are more people with this healthy-kinda-silly-but-inexpensive addiction.

So what does a computer geek like me? Yet another electronic postcards website? Well, no. E-cards don’t have anything to do it - doesn’t have half of the fun nor interest, imho. That’s not how IT should come in, about postcards. I believe the correct approach should be like the bookcrossing project which used the internet, to bond together thousands of individuals and make their experience richer, not the oposite.

Since last December I’ve been working on this idea I had, inspired precisely on the bookcrossing, but to allow anyone to exchange postcards with random people on the world - I’ve called it postcrossing. How does it work? Well, it’s a website and you can find all the information about it at www.postcrossing.com, but the main line is: if you send a postcard, you’ll receive one back. The more you send, the more you receive, but always from different, unknown people that also joined the project.

The website is online since yesterday and it’s still growing so if you like postcards or just want to browse around, jump to www.postcrossing.com and leave some feedback, I really would like to get some comments and suggestions about it.

• learn first aid
• use public transportation
• get fitter, feel better
• shop locally
• brew your own wine or beer
• love a pet
• watch less TV
• cut your own hair
• go to the top of a tall building and look at the view
• take time to listen
• play a musical instrument
• tell someone you love them
• ride your bike
• walk in the snow
• arrange flowers (practice ikebana)
• hold a free concert
• take up culture jamming
• use a mug, not a plastic cup

This are the tips tips :), or on other words, it’s the names of the photos which are (still) being displayed at barcode. Another tip which was almost included was do something you think you are unable to and was meant to be a photo of the exhibit itself, as none of us (me and ana) ever imagined to be doing a photo exhibit one day. It could be one of this.

(more tips photos)

It feels funny, having people looking at my photos. Not just people, but complete strangers, who might have complete different ideals on photography, art or simply decoration. Eitheir way, the small sized photos on their white A4 frames have produced the intended effect and I grin when I see people bending over or strechting to try to have a closer look on them… I can’t help myself picturing white thought balloons over their heads, and judging from their faces, most of them have a ‘?!‘ written on it. :)

Tips has been my most recent pet project, side-by-side with another one I’ve been cuddling on’n off since last december and which is still cooking - I’m just working on the last details and hopefully it should go online in the next few days. As a teaser, it’s called postcrossing and the goal is to allow people to receive postcards (paper, not electronic ones) from random people all over the world, for free. Stay tunned.

You know that feeling when you are working at your computer and you keep thinking on a zillion different things but the ones you are trying to focus on? Yes, that feeling that makes you open every weblink that you come across, but none has anything to do with whatever you were supposedly working with? Ever found yourself walking through the place, with no destination or reason, and not recalling taking the decision to get up - just having the need to do it?

Now imagine this is at work.

Exactly.

Six years ago, simple things like shopping, meeting someone new or calling a stranger on the phone could be from hard to unbearable. I had S.A.D. and I had to have professional help to fight it.

Tomorrow, I’ll be making by myself a four hour talk for a bunch of Porto University system administrators, and I’m mostly worried if I master all the technical issues.

Although most people don’t understand it, winning this battle was probably my biggest achievement in this last years.