Off-Topic: Bleeding for Rails! Part 2

“Victorious!”

One small battle won in the war against THE SYSTEM! As I reported in last week’s post, I found a ‘gap’ in THE SYSTEM thanks to a tip from Vinicius. I went to Niterói and filed my passport renewal, which, through the normal channels, wouldn’t have come out before mid-June!

Yesterday I caught the midnight bus back to Niterói, on the day scheduled for picking up the passport. One detail: they said they’d send a confirmation email two days ahead. Of course, that email never arrived. THE SYSTEM seems to be choking on something.

I was seen at 7:00 sharp, and by 7:05 I walked out holding my passport! As I explained before, at that hour the 512kbps connection at the district office isn’t saturated yet :-)

At least the trip was worth it: I got to swap ideas with Vinicius at Improve It (thanks for the hospitality, Vinicius!). I took the bus back to São Paulo at noon and got in around 19:30. Even in a sleeper coach, it’s really tiring. On the way there I barely slept 2 hours, and on the way back I only managed a few lousy naps.

Thanks to São Paulo’s huge distances and traffic, I only got home around 9pm. A long day. Good thing it’s not my routine. But the effort paid off: now the second leg of the race begins, booking flights, lodging, and everything else for RailsConf!