“A Year in Brazil”
In 1999, I was scouring the world-wide web for interesting stuff and stumbled upon a simple blog written by a man from England who had decided to try something new in his life. It turned into a collaboration between the two of us where I was able to help him publish his notes on the internet during times when he had no access to web development tools.
Michael P. Redbourn, a professional sound editor, decided to leave show business in 1999 and spend a year in Brazil. Our collaboration started when I posted a note on his blog about how I found it and was now living vicariously through it. He compiled the blog into an e-book called “A Year in Brazil”. Unfortunately, I cannot find any of the emails we exchanged where he includes pictures while in Brazil.
A version of the journal with no images can be found here: A Year In Brazil
I am in the Book
November 19, 1999
A Surprise
An uneventful but pleasant birthday evening (couldn’t say party) with the few friends that I know here arriving with presents. Mostly clothes which caused me to wonder if they didn’t like mine, and Amazon scented soaps etc. which is probably because of the garlic hair restorer that I’m using 🙂
More interesting was an e-mail that I received this morning :-
Paul Konopacki wrote:
I stumbled upon your site with the help of a link in a Netscape newsgroup message. I have subsequently been living vicariously through you the past few days, as I read your journal of your experiences in Brazil. What makes it even more interesting is that I don’t know why you are there or what you might be seeking. Well, I have to go to bed now. I will be reading a printout of your November journal, in anticipation of what will become of your new apartment and the model!
November 30, 1999
One More Step
If instead of struggling and racing all over town, I had just held on to the idea of the things that I’d wanted for a few moments and then released it, I’m sure I would have got all the things handed to me like I did today.
In a sense Paul K. the first unknown person to respond to this page, also arrived right on cue.
This whole web site thing is all pretty new to me and he’s been extremely helpful in giving me all kinds of technical advice, without which I would have had all kinds of problems.
June 5, 2000
Leaving Town (No Work Permit)
The partner Carlos seems a nice and honest enough guy, but whether he has sufficient work ethic is highly in doubt. If the place starts to open just now and again, all of Bergmann’s seven day weeks and long hours will have been in vain.
I would of course be the obvious person to step in and fill the gap but could only do so by marring Herika or someone else.
My ticket to England expires on Thursday so I have to be out of here too, or throw it away.
Paul Konopacki, who has been doing such a good job maintaining and improving the site for me whilst I’m without my system, definitely has his views on the subject and feels, I’m sure, that Herika should be given the email address, herika@run.from.
Not Downbeat And Not Critical
(I hope)
Paul Konopacki has indicated to me that after reading back through my diary, he feels that the old entries were ‘more observational, without judgment or analysis or spiritual interpretations’.
I hope that this is not the case, as I’m actually attempting to become less judgmental about things that surround me.
I would suggest that it’s merely that I’m now seeing things far below the surface that weren’t immediately apparent, and that now it may appear that I’m attempting to find fault.
You Still There?
I decided to get back in touch with Michael in 2008. I sent an email to the old address I had for him. In a few days I received a reply:
Paul
I gave up promoting the book a 4-5 years ago because it requires so much time and effort to sell books on the Internet that it wasn’t worth it.
I tried running the book in Win98 compatibility mode and it opens but then “no cigar” so I will have to remove either the site or the purchase option from the web.
Am having a lot of fun now learning Photoshop, DreamWeaver and Fluid Mask and got paid for building a website for someone last week – first time!
My local store offered to recommend me to people that want websites built and I’d love to do it as it’s a nice combination of the technical and the artistic.
I told him to wait a couple of months however until my Dreamweaver skills are better.
I bought a nice Nikon and some lenses a few months ago and went back to something that I used to be very talented at 45 years ago.
How are you doing?
Mike
Just a few days ago I decided to see if he had a Facebook account … and he does! So I sent him a message to catch up once again.