Victor Villas' Feed

Comment

Fri, 08 May 2026 22:40:50 GMT

I’ve had this # indieweb setup for a while now of aggregating on my personal website the things I say here on mastodon and my media tracking from neodb - Post-Elsewhere, Syndicate to Own Site (#PESOS); and besides putting it together on a home page, it generates an RSS feed. Today I was finally able to get a very basic translation model hosted for free that allows me to generate pt-only and en-only versions of that RSS feed. Not awe inspiring results but well, it’s free.

Started reading

Mon, 04 May 2026 21:39:35 GMT

[machine-translated from Portuguese]

Coisa de Rico: A Vida dos Endinheirados Brasileiros
I picked up this book to complement reading "The Rich and the Poor: Brazil and Inequality" by sociologist Marcelo Medeiros (which emphasizes how the problem of poverty is a problem of inequality, and the problem of inequality is a problem of wealth.) That being said, beyond the sociological point of view, it will be interesting to see from an anthropological point of view how the 0.1% differs from the 1%, who strive so hard to differentiate themselves from the 99%.

Finished reading

Mon, 04 May 2026 21:27:26 GMT

[machine-translated from Portuguese]

Os ricos e os pobres: O Brasil e a desigualdade, 6 out of 10
Interesting to learn more about the types of inequality, the characteristics of inequality metrics, measurement of income and assets, definitions of social classes, etc. Interesting to understand a bit of the history and logic behind the Income Tax and IPTU. Interesting arguments about tax reforms and ways of looking at these taxes. I do not know if the book is very playful because the target audience includes people who are not familiar with percentages, but if it is, I think it would have been better to draw because there are paragraphs full of numbers that are difficult to digest. And if the target audience is people who are comfortable absorbing econometric tables in prose format, the book is very repetitive and troubled with analogies and metaphors, or stories and historical contexts that add relatively little. Overall, I found the edition a bit bad, but the ideas behind the book and the thesis defended are well argued; if the reader can connect the scattered points among the repetitions and stories.

Started reading

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 23:44:58 GMT

[machine-translated from Portuguese]

Os ricos e os pobres: O Brasil e a desigualdade
The theme of inequality is older than democracy itself; I was curious to know how the debate is going in this decade.

Finished reading

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 18:04:21 GMT

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, 9 out of 10
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, 9 out of 10 So ingenious. A really captivating read. The later half of the book veers into Invisible Cities territory with some surreal settings but overall the story has such a relatability, and Calvino knows it and plays with the reader self identification, it’s surprisingly fun. Maybe Calvino got a little bit too “excited” on the sexual relationships here and there… and perhaps this book won’t be as enjoyable from a vantage point other than a cishet male; it’s the work of novelist man in the 70’s after all.

Comment

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 17:49:45 GMT

Books about Books
created collection Books on and about reading and books

Comment

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 03:24:55 GMT

ABRACCINE Melhores Filmes
created collection 100 Melhores Filmes

Wants to watch

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 03:24:40 GMT

Limite

Finished watching

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 20:09:42 GMT

Bugonia, 6 out of 10
A different kind of suspense and thriller, definitely current given the rise of conspiracy theorists in latest decades. The overall acting and directing was good, as unnervingly as probably intended. The ending… no way it’s supposed to be taken too literally, after all there’s zero chance that Teddy got anything right; but I can’t help but feel like it was a potential not fully realized. Would making it something obvious and straightforward too boring? Maybe. Maybe still better than what we got. Sometimes a fade to black is better than ending with the bang of a clown gun.

Started reading

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 02:14:23 GMT

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler I’ve read Invisible Cities last year while traveling, and it became my overall favourite book; so I’ll take the easy way in and pick up more Italo Calvino for this years big travel

Comment

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 20:35:23 GMT

Got this book looking for interior design and decoration expertise but got advice on which salt to use for a ritualistic bath, which precedes a “vibe” cleansing ritual to shake up the energy of the home, reading blessings as you go. — Find Yourself at Home: A Conscious Approach to Shaping Your Space and Your Life Percentage: 35%

Started reading

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 19:04:41 GMT

Find Yourself at Home: A Conscious Approach to Shaping Your Space and Your Life
Another one randomly chosen among the VPL audiobooks for home interior design and decoration

Finished reading

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 16:51:50 GMT

House Lessons: Renovating a Life, 3 out of 10
Things upper-middle-class people do to cope with therapy material; the home renovation edition. Boring, uninteresting, formulaic.

Started watching

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:39:17 GMT

SPY x FAMILY Season 1, 9 out of 10
So cute and wholesome that it pierced the bubble. Re-watching with my partner.

Finished reading

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:37:36 GMT

Life After Cars, 8 out of 10
The book is quite packed, each chapter its own thesis, but then the book closes up nicely with guidance on activism and creating change. If you are in the know about car dependency the middle of book can feel a bit slow, but it will have a little something new for almost everyone.

Comment

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 23:09:22 GMT

“George, the contractor I’ve been expecting climbed out. As he walked up the front steps, I could see he had a sturdy build and an open face. I felt an instinctive confidence in him, but no sparks between us. Good, I thought. When the experts tell you how to select a general contractor, they usually focus on issues like estimates, experience, licensing and bonding, and references. But as a married woman, I’ve got a few other criteria that are rarely mentioned. The first is: never be attracted to your builder. In my list of cardinal rules, it’s right at the top, because while affairs between an architect and a client have been known to happen, there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that says it’s far more likely to occur with a builder. Think about it. A builder is almost always a strong and capable man, working inside your house day after day. He does whatever you ask. He cleans up when he’s done. He sees you in the morning with your bathrobe. Hears you yell at your kids and he still comes back the next day. It can be like catnip for women, so I make sure that’s a non starter right from the beginning.” Wow. I don’t know if I should laugh or cringe. — House Lessons: Renovating a Life Percentage: 37%

Finished reading

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 21:00:18 GMT

How to Do Nothing, 8 out of 10
Good stuff. I dig the push for eco regionalism, getting involved with local things, stop and breathe and look around, appreciate third spaces, activism to protect those spaces, gratefulness towards the past activists who created these spaces, reconsider the hustle culture and using monetary lenses for all things. Leans a bit hard on the literary references, but I guess the writer is well read and does not mind flexing it, the intertextuality doesn’t feel forced - just mildly distracting. Reading it for the second time felt better.

Started reading

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 20:51:08 GMT

House Lessons: Renovating a Life
Very boring early chapters. Typical writing from a person who never really accepted life in the city but has no self awareness, obsessed with the image of a quaint life in a mansion in a small city; the eternal thirst to grow roots on someone else’s stagnant soil.

Comment

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 19:33:07 GMT

Vancouver had a blessed weather week and mood is fully restored. It’s the perfect timing to to overcommit with camping and hike plans that I’ll slightly regret then later be extra grateful I did it anyway

Comment

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 22:49:59 GMT

I miss 2024 when people just said “tool” instead of “agent”. Executives are obsessed with agentic everything, even when clearly what they really need is a spreadsheet with a VLOOKUP And the early days of “AI fluency” interviews has been painful to watch. I don’t know how interviews are supposed to work if most managers think “cross validation” is an acceptable answer for a question about generative AI guardrails for vibe coding

Comment

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 15:24:43 GMT

The downtown BIA has lots of interesting material and they are generally onboard if self serving urbanism like bike lanes and better transit but… BIAs will BIA and openly advocate for vibes based policy making, whatever it takes to bring in that suburban shopper who’s afraid of visible social issues. At least I gotta give it to them the goal of having both… but this is proven a zero-sum dichotomy time and time again in the halls of city council and voting booths

Finished watching

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 05:25:58 GMT

Requiem for a Dream, 7 out of 10
The movie is really intense and masterfully executed. The music, the scenes, all the juxtaposition. There are some interesting details like the obvious disregard from doctors, and the choice to include the mother in the parallels, but it’s also kind of obvious how this movie is a product of the drug scare that grew throughout the 90’s.

Finished watching

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 03:19:02 GMT

Memento, 8 out of 10
Definitely one of the greats in terms of using non linear time as a plot device, but also a great story on its own. Makes me think about the illusion of systematic objectivity and the role of memory for contextual history keeping.

Comment

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 14:49:00 GMT

# maptap is fun but seriously getting tired of getting small time US cities every day as “easy” while whole countries out there haven’t shown up yet. It’s a game by Americans for Americans I guess, so I think I’m over it

Comment

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 15:16:03 GMT

L: cities are noisy T: cars are noisy, cities without them are musical @ urbantruth.bsky.social https:// fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app /profile/did:plc:thigatosnyxffhfeyxgaahdf/post/3midms2rba22y

Comment

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 21:34:13 GMT

Sam Altman is selling the commoditization of intelligence. What does the economy look like in a world where you can get metered human-level language and reasoning on demand? I don’t believe we’re close to that, but it’s still an interesting thought exercise. How much more worthless can human life get under capitalism?

Comment

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 21:25:00 GMT

Software people made themselves valuable pushing the narrative that they could automate away other jobs. The idea sold like hot cake, and digital transformation became a story of displacement instead of augmentation. Now it turns out that software development became so valuable and abundant that it became the ideal target for LLMs, so bots writing code are taking off even before self driving vehicles. Inadvertently developers made themselves a single point of failure for labour, then imploded.

Comment

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 15:58:32 GMT

Good on Texas for having an upcoming progressive (at least for Texas) politician that is broadly appealing, ie a white evangelical guy. But I will never not find it funny that his surname is slang (in pt_BR) for someone who gets involved (sexually) with a friends’ partner, probably because of a song from the early 90’s

Comment

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 07:53:20 GMT

Is there any other city in this world where we don’t get snow but if you drive 25 min you can do some snowboarding (sure, icy and packed, but still)? And does that city has a moderately walkable downtown with apartments that cost less than 1MM CAD?

Comment

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 22:45:47 GMT

There’s this phenomenon where each generation believes its level of progressiveness is the right one, so everything before was backwards but every step forward is not needed. I guess I should look for things that make me think “ok that’s too much”… perhaps veganism as the ideal diet? Or polyamory as the ideal relationship? These come to mind as the kind of thing that I don’t think I’d ever be able to adjust, but youngsters are welcome to experiment 🤷 (3/2)

Comment

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 22:37:19 GMT

And there’s vegetarianism, urbanism, gender roles, fatphobia, pedagogy… so many things to stay curious and to be instructed. I wonder which layers I’ve yet to peel. I guess if most of these are blind spots for most of my friends, statistically speaking I should conclude there must be a myriad of blind spots of my own. (2/2)

Comment

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 22:37:19 GMT

I’m fully immersed in a circle that believes that vaccines work and human-caused climate change needs to be addressed. I’m grateful for that much. But then there’s an inner circle of people who understand the merits of harm reduction. And another inner circle that don’t think that “immigrants have a duty to assimilate” (is there a word for this?). And a circle that understands there’s no such thing as “apolitical”. (1/2)

Wants to read

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 17:58:22 GMT

Sand Talk

Comment

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 16:18:38 GMT

# CBC Listen shows are not regular podcasts - ie public RSS I can subscribe with whatever app I want? I didn’t know CBC was in a position to be so selective about how they reach their audience. What’s confusing is that they have tons of podcasts, so they know how to do this

Comment

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 20:37:38 GMT

“Virtue Signaling” = I don’t like what you’re saying but I can’t argue against, but that would mean that I’m wrong and that can’t be it… so I guess the only explanation is that you’re screwing with me

Comment

Sun, 18 Jan 2026 22:34:32 GMT

An American thing that will never not be weird to me is root “beer”. It’s like toothpaste soda that lost some of its carbonation

Comment

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 21:54:34 GMT

If millennials were chained to an abstract notion of “making it” in life mostly based on materialism, Gen Z are going to have it worse because # Wealthsimple just dropped a literal ranking of wealth accumulation so we can track how far/close we are to the 1% (or 0.1%, yes it actually goes there)

Comment

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 00:54:51 GMT

I wish I wasn’t exposed to crypto material every time I came to grab a coffee at Funk

Comment

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 17:34:08 GMT

“The market is not the economy”. I’ve only learned this recently after years of being told Nasdaq numbers going up meant the country/world was going well.

Comment

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 17:34:07 GMT

For the last 3 years of investing in North-American focused total market index funds I’ve noticed a consistent pattern of “bad news, therefore your portfolio went up”. Invasion of Ukraine, high inflation, genocide in Gaza, trade war, high unemployment… it all boils down to more forcing functions for keeping low interest rates, which fund techno-optimism, while techno-feudalism sprawls and tech oligarchs shape the world. (1/2)