Rob Cheng’s Blog

Rob Cheng’s Blog

Formerly, My Stoned Thoughts

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Archive for Brazil

Terzetto Slide Show

I might as well make it official. My favorite restaurant in the whole world is Terzetto. Here are the reason’s that I love Terzetto. They have a huge menu. I go often, and often like to try out different things. Each time I try something new, it turns out just as good as many of my old time favorites. They are very accommodating. Any change to a dish, and they will make it special order. Solange when she was pregnant, would invent special dishes while we drove there. Then she would describe it and they would cook it. It is simply fantastic. More »

ToonDoo and Portuguese

I have always wanted to find a program to make cartoons, and now I found a great one – ToonDoo. ToonDoo really makes it easy to import objects, characters and text into your cartoon. It’s done with the latest in Web 2.0 technologies enabling ToonDoo to run in any browser.

The story below actually happened to me. Move your mouse over the cartoon to see the rest. More »

Battling the Tree

My apartment is on the fourth floor of a ten story building. When I first purchased my apartment in 2003, a good friend of mine Jamie from Philadelphia made a very prescient comment. As we were looking out over the beautiful views from my apartment, he said “Wonder what you’ll do when those trees grow a little?” More »

Rio de Janeiro Christmas Tree Fireworks

I thought of this video we made last year, as we approach the Christmas season. Every year, they put a large 100 foot, 10 story Christmas tree on the lake where I live in Rio de Janeiro. Each year they decorate the tree with a different and unique Christmas theme with literally millions of blinking lights. People come from all over Rio to view the tree, literally flooding the area with spectators and street vendors. On the last night, they have a spectacular fireworks around the tree. Solange took this video from our bedroom window in January 2007. More »

Corruption

I love Brazil in so many ways. It is an amazing country with an over abundance of natural resources. They have it all. Abundant forests, amazing fruits and vegetables. Plenty of rain. On top of all of this, Brazil has no natural disasters. No hurricanes, earthquakes or tornados. It covers a huge area in South America. 8.5 million square kms to be exact. In comparison, the United States marks the map at 9.6 millions square kms. Put it another way. Pull out Alaska, and Brazil is actually larger than the United States.

Then on top of all of this, Brazil has the best energy strategy. I just bought a new car in Brazil and it has a flex engine, which burns both alcohol and normal gas. On top of this, alcohol is dispensed at all gas stations in Rio de Janeiro. More »

Rio de Janeiro Fly-by

When I made my video of our helicopter ride to the top of Corcovado, Solange took a bunch of photos. I combined these awesome photos with a new technology that I found on the web called Lytebox. It enables me to make a nice slide show with written comments on each picture. Making this slide show makes me remember all of the things that I love about Rio de Janeiro. More »

Corcovado and Beautiful Girls (Video)

Me, two guys and three very beautiful girls decided to trek up to the top of Corcovado mountain in mid 2002. It was such a fun time, and I was just starting to experiment with my video camera. I felt like my life was coming together. Great weather, great scenery, and lots of girls. :-) Just thinking back puts a smile on my face. Later, I bought a condominium in Lagoa, and I can see the Christo statue from every room of my apartment. More »

One Year Ago in São Paulo

I’ve answered the question and told the story so many times. What happened in São Paulo? I finally broke down and decided to write a photo blog of perhaps one of the strangest adventures of my life. It all started with my bachelor party, which in Portuguese, translates to Goodbye to Singleness. After 46 years of being single, I sure went out with a bang. I was really touched by all the people that visited me in the hospital. Here’s the photo blog link. More »

Brazil Is Heaven (Video)

I made this video shortly after I first visited Rio de Janeiro in May 2002. In every way, I felt that I found the perfect place for me. From the beaches, to the climate, to the food, the people, the scenery, and the women. This video was made in one of Brazil’s primary tourist attractions called Pão de Açúcar, which translates to Sugar Loaf. I then laid down Aaron Neville’s “Don’t Take Away My Heaven”. More »

Healthcare in the US and Brazil

Having lived in both Brazil and the US, it truly gives an interesting perspective in the differences between two country’s health systems. Here are some of my observations. I am going to assume that the people reading this article are familiar with the American health care system, so I will just point out the differences. More »

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Books Read

Tripwire
by Lee Child
Read in May 2012
Check it out at My Book List.
Winner Take All Politics
by Jacob Hacker
Read in Apr 2012
Check it out at My Book List.
Hunger Games
by Susan Collins
Read in Mar 2012
Check it out at My Book List.
The Drop
by Michael Connelly
Read in Feb 2012
Check it out at My Book List.
A Death in Vienna
by Daniel Silva
Read in Jan 2012
Check it out at My Book List.
Steve Jobs
by William Isaacson
Read in Nov 2011
Check it out at My Book List.
The Litigators
by John Grisham
Read in Nov 2011
Check it out at My Book List.
Confidence Men
by Ron Suskind
Read in Nov 2011
Check it out at My Book List.
Boomerang
by Michael Lewis
Read in Nov 2011
Check it out at My Book List.
Die Trying
by Lee Child
Read in Oct 2011
Check it out at My Book List.

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Welcome! I've been building this web site since 1997 and it's a work in progress, and so is my life.

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