Ye Auld DCveR's Twilight Zone

bye bye blog

2007-01-20T00:23:00.000Z

Yup, I'm saying good bye to this here blog.
Thanks for your visit and if you do feel like it go visit me in my new blog thingy...

DCveR's Twilight Zone

Yes, I know, ~~ssdd~~ same name different address.
Hopefully there will be some improvement on the blog, for the time being I'm still trying to find a way of getting my template together in XML.
Nevertheless I'm not deleting this address, unlike what I've done with previous blogs, maybe someone will still enjoy going through the archives here, and who knows, maybe someday I can even merge these contents with the new ones.

Reports, consultants and management

2007-01-16T21:39:00.000Z

Remember the old saying: those who can do, those who can’t teach, those who can’t teach manage?
Well, you can add to that: those who can’t manage become consultants!
At this point maybe I’d better explain that by consultants I mean people whose sole job is being a consultant, not people with real careers and who from time to time work as a consultant for a specific task or a specific and time limited purpose, something I’ve done too and something I’ll probably do again in the future.

A couple of years ago the management in our lab got us an outside consultant to try and find ways to improve productivity (a task neither specific nor time limited, mind you).
The said consultant increased bureaucracy a tenfold, thus actually decreasing the productivity of our administrative staff, to the point of nowadays scientific staff having to handle most of the red tape the folks at the desk jobs used to deal it.
Said consultant however made very impressive reports that clearly showed one year and a half of the new system would lead us into a heaven of productivity.
Two years into the new system and the productivity is still decreasing, although the consultant managed to get himself a staff position as a full time resident consultant…
Of course he still files very impressive reports, after all he’s been part of the staff for more than a year now, that adds up to more than three years filing reports on the same subject.
This got me curious about this leech-like creature, the consultant that is.
The guy is an engineer who never worked as such, ever since he graduated he started working on rules and regulations, making it short: a bureaucrat.
Who on earth would endure five years of college learning something inherently practical never to use it?
Something popped in my brain while questioning this… several people I’ve met in college have become consultants.
This was quite strange to me too, after all I thought you had to have some experience before becoming a consultant, surely I never thought I would be a consultant fresh out of college.
Quietly I started getting some background info on their careers, where have they been working, how do their former co-workers describe them… you know, what trivially can be described as gossip!
I’m aware my study lacks statistical significance, but nevertheless all the gossip gathered points to a common profile: someone who brags a lot, who makes a big bluff as far as his/her own capacities, people who will gladly undertake a thousand tasks never to finish a single one, people you can’t rely on to actually get something done!
After collecting all the gossip I could I tried a direct approach: asking them what their jobs were.
It goes more or less like this: having the people who actually have the know-how and who do something going out of their way to prepare technical reports about their jobs, compiling the technical reports into “management readable material” (yes, this is actually a description several of them used), prepare presentations that can help management taking appropriate decisions. Another astonishing thing: they all seem to be able to work in any kind of company regardless of their supposed area of expertise…

Featured Photo

2007-01-09T15:14:00.000Z

Strelitzia reginae. Or estrilicia, as it is called in Portuguese. A flower commonly known as "bird of paradise".
This flower, originally from South Africa is very common in Madeira and has become one of the symbols of the island.

Tags:photo

Bloggers do make a difference.

2007-01-07T12:53:00.000Z

Zoe posted about a journalist called Nicholas Hellen messing with a blogger (Girl with a one-track mind).
Guyana Gal regarding the same issue poses a question: can bloggers make a difference?
Media tends to act according to plenty of external influences (money, political interests, ratings, etc...), bloggers usually post things as they see them. True enough bloggers can distort information just the same way media does, but regardless of that bloggers talking about the same issue will end up presenting you several different viewpoints instead of a "digest" of the viewpoints according to a certain journalist or editor.
Plus bloggers send their voices all over this planet when they step on their soap boxes. Even though some media companies are quite global nowadays they don’t seem to be able to keep up with the speed the bloggosphere is conveying information, in fact plenty of journalists seem to be getting info for their stories on recent distant events from blogs.

Society gains when information, ideas, opinions can be transmitted to all who may be interested without being filtered.
Information is power, controlling information has always been one of the main concerns of totalitarian regimes. Being able to blog is a form of freedom, just as being able to read blogs is.

Happy B-Day to me!

2007-01-05T07:45:00.000Z

Is it just me or do you all wish there was some kind of holiday on your birthday?
I wish I could have sleeped in today instead of getting up before sunrise and heading for the lab...
So for those of you who can read portuguese check out what else happened on this day here. As for english readers you can check it here instead.
I've checked both and it seems to be of no hope getting an event worth a holiday for this day.

Happy 2007 !!!

2007-01-03T22:54:00.000Z

First of all thank you guys for the comments on the previous post! I truly wish 2007 turns out to be a great year to all of you!

And so we're back from Madeira, we've just heard it on the news that this year's fireworks made it to the Guinness World Records, although I can't find any reference to it on their official site. If you'd like to sneak a peek at a few more of the photos I've taken click on the picture. But you're probably better off checking it on youtube, after all videos will give you a better idea of what the show actually was, plus some of the guys who filmed it managed to place themselves better than I did.

New Year resolutions? None, as usual.
As for expectations... well, 2006 was a really great year for us, it really will be hard to top it, so all we're wishing is for 2007 to be at least as good.

PS: Just noticed the slideshow is running backwards, but I'm too tired to try and fix it... sorry about that.

Merry Xmas everybody

2006-12-22T16:09:00.000Z

And to all a Happy New Year!!!

Yup.
We're still alive.
We took some time off to visit this:

Then GH had to attend a meeting in San Francisco, not all work judging from her pics:

Now we're going to spend Xmas with our families and afterwards we'll be heading to Madeira to enjoy New Year's Eve alone... Like a third honeymoon. Huuummm... make that an n th. honeymoon!

Although I've been completely neglecting this poor blog I could not leave without dropping by to wish you all the best for 2007!

Socrates’ Cultural Revolution

2006-10-26T11:09:00.000+01:00

First of all let me get things straight: this is not a post about the brilliant Greek philosopher but one about our dim Portuguese Prime Minister.
Well, not actually about him personally, but about another action of the ~~bunch of jerks~~ government he leads.
In 1948 a Museum of Popular Art was created in Lisbon, ever since it has gathered an enormous collection of traditional art from all over Portugal. It is a unique collection that reflects the evolution of the popular crafts and art forms in our country.
Sadly enough the museum has been closed for the last six years, in order for the building to be repaired.
Now, after 4 mil euros having been spent on it, this government decides to close the museum and instead create a virtual museum of the Portuguese language. A multimedia center to celebrate our language and to promote reading.
I won’t even take much of your patience elaborating on how a virtual museum can be visited over the internet without the need to evict a real museum to make room for it. Nor will I ask why don’t they make a new building for the new museum or why don’t they use one of the buildings that are already state owned and yet are not being used. I won’t even be as poisonous as usual and say that a media center to promote reading is an oxymoron.
But one thing I must ask you: is it just me or this whole thing about taking cultural and historical references away from a nation, depriving current and future generations of their traditional cultural background, carries plenty of resemblances with Mao’s Cultural Revolution as well as with plenty of other cases of the destruction of cultural treasures so that dictators and would-be dictators can rewrite history in their own terms?
During the last decades, successive governments have alienated public property, selling whatever they could sell in order to balance our economy in spite of their bad management. It is strange to watch a nation standing still while a few squander the richness that is supposed to belong to all. But when cultural treasures are going to be taken away from the public to face an unknown destiny (eventually rotting away in an old storehouse or ending up in private collections), it’s not the Portuguese people who are being robbed by the Portuguese government, it is all mankind that is being robbed of a piece of its collective memory.

Tags:Portugal

Peniche's fortress

2006-10-21T15:19:00.000+01:00

Some fifty miles north from Lisbon, by the coast you'll find the city of Peniche. That's where we are right now. GH is attending a meeting of Portuguese scientists from several different areas and yours truly got invited also.
At lunch time we took a little stroll and we ended up visiting this old fortress (XVII century).
This is a place that brings back mixed feelings of pride and shame to Portuguese people: it evokes tales of heroism as a key strategic place on the defense of our coast and it brings painful memories of its use as a jail for political prisoners during our dictatorship.

Tags:Portugal

(click on the photos to enlarge)

Stats

2006-10-10T19:11:00.000+01:00

At our lab we’re roughly one hundred creatures.
Of these, 6 are currently away under psychiatric leave.
Among those currently at work, twice as many have been away with psychiatric leave at some time or another.
Many years ago, while being a trainee at a Scottish university I came across Professor M., a brilliant chemist that had this theory: “society regards chemists as some kind of crazy odd nuts and we mustn’t disappoint them by acting sane”.
Right! But from my stats almost twenty per cent of my co-workers are raving mad, I wonder if it really is healthy to stick with my job.
Don’t misunderstand me, I still love working at a chem lab, but is it safe?
Oh, by the way, a friend of mine faced with these stats asked: “What? Only 20% of you have been diagnosed yet?!”

Price tags

2006-10-09T21:26:00.000+01:00

Whenever I buy something I always must get rid of the price tags before using whatever I bought. This is true especially when it comes to books.
My wife on the other hand doesn’t worry about the tags and the result is rather simple: you can easily know which one of us brought a certain book home.
We both buy plenty of comic strip books and while browsing through GH’s new acquisitions looking for some light reading I realized they weren’t sorted. Now I’m not the kind of person who needs to have everything neat and tidy, but I decided to sort them in order to make it easier for me to pick the ones I hadn’t read yet.
During the sorting process I realized they could be sorted by their price tags: the price increases from one book to the next…
Somewhat this feels like a really bad symptom about our economy, although no real statistical analysis has been conducted to ascertain the relationship between the books’ prices and our financial troubles here in Portugal.

Hell bound train

2006-10-04T19:56:00.000+01:00

Standing on a crowded railway car, heading to Lisbon for another day’s work.
Suddenly I realize there is a preacher in the car, a damned Jehovah Witness, preaching to the trapped listeners.
I wouldn’t care for his preaching if it weren’t for the fact that I had forgotten my mp3 player at home! 22 minutes of a train ride never seemed longer!
After the first few minutes I was starting to feel like throwing that ~~prick~~ preacher out of the train…
Then the preacher starts walking and addressing the passengers one by one… eventually he reached me.
Realizing he was getting no reply that little piece of a no-brainer decides to grab my arm and shake me! At least he tried to shake me, until I got my arm loose and slowly squeezed his arm without uttering a single word.
When I let go of his arm he started saying I was surely an evil creature!
He even shouted it!
Then he went forward trying to convert the rest of the passengers.
Ok, maybe I am going to hell, but I’ll make sure not to forget my mp3 player again!!!

The picture I didn't take

2006-10-02T21:12:00.000+01:00

Last Friday, just after lunch, yours truly went for a little stroll before heading back to the lab.
In spite of the rain that kept falling.
As I walked along I passed an old movie theatre that nowadays only features porn (no moral judgments shall be passed here).
The picture I wished to take? The three old nuns hiding from the rain… at the entrance of the theatre, just in front of the billboard showing the movies currently on screen (with rather graphic detail I must add).

New family member

2006-09-23T23:55:00.000+01:00

No, GH is not pregnant, and those of you out there "cursing" us with the twins spell will have to wait a little more.
For the time being we just got ourselves a bonsai...
But it seems this little Elm is going to take a lot of work just to stay alive.
This may seem like not much of an event for you people, but the truth is we used to kill all the plants we had.
During the last couple of months things seem to have started to change.
We've got several plants and they are still with us, three on the balcony, a miniature cactus garden in the kitchen, some lucky bamboos in the living room and now we are going to try it with a bonsai.
The funny thing is that all this green little things make the place look completely different. It does feel nice to have these plants around.

Featured Photo

2006-09-18T15:37:00.000+01:00

A sunset from our balcony...

A bad, bad blogger...

2006-09-17T19:04:00.000+01:00

Yup folks, I know!
Mea culpa.
I could tell you people about being busy all the time.
I could tell you about the joy of having GH back.
I could tell you plenty of reasons for my absence... but the thing is things have been happenning in a way that all my time seems to vanish.

Hopefully I'll read a few blogs in the next couple of days.

low tech times

2006-08-29T10:06:00.000+01:00

These last few days my spare time has been spent in a rather low tech fashion, away from computers and the internet, catching up with GH, having some ice cream, helping GH with the finishing touches on the new place, having some more ice cream...
Don’t get me wrong, I do miss blogging and I do miss you folks, but the real world outside the blogosphere still takes priority.
I’ll catch up on your comments and your posts during this week and regular posting will resume tomorrow (or at least those are my plans).

Working like mad...

2006-08-11T23:25:00.000+01:00

...these last few days, but at least now I can take Monday off, plus Tuesday is a national holiday. This means some quality time to welcome GH properly!

In the meantime posts will probably be scarce in the first days after her arrival... but I guess you'll all understand that perfectly.

On a completely unrelated subject, check out this link here.

In the news today

2006-08-08T20:06:00.000+01:00

And in the mouth of every other person in Portugal.
An elderly lady and her grand daughter were killed by a falling tree.
A rather freakish accident.
Officials stepped forward claiming forest technicians and engineers attest the drought of previous years is to blame, but there was no way of predicting that tree was going to fall.
People in public transportations and restaurants today kept saying the owners of that forest strip and the government are to blame.
True enough this was a very sad event, true enough accidents happen.
But I couldn’t keep myself from thinking this is a way of mother nature letting us know we’re wrecking this planet. I couldn’t keep myself from thinking Man couldn’t care less if a tree falls… unless of course it falls over someone’s head.
Meanwhile, somewhere, there is a woman/man who lost both her/his daughter and her/his mother… I wonder if those looking for someone to blame and those trying to shun eventual responsibilities gave a second of their thoughts to that woman/man.

Warped

2006-08-07T22:24:00.000+01:00

No photo tricks here...

High School Reunion

2006-08-05T18:51:00.000+01:00

Actually I should say high school class reunion.
Our class has been a memorable one in our high school: best marks in years, several sports records (none of them mine), most stubborn pupils.
One of the fondest memories I’ve got of that class was the fact we would all stick together when facing “outsiders”. Our teachers soon found out there was not a single snitch in our class. This was cause of much worry for those teachers, for we were all very keen on pulling pranks on other pupils, teachers and auxiliary staff. And there was never a single culprit to be punished… too smart to be caught most of the times, too pigheaded to point out the guilty ones. You could say we were all accomplices. Given the fact we were all good pupils with great marks they wouldn’t punish the whole class very often, although a few times we have all been punished alike. Most of the time we’d simply go unpunished.
In the later years of high school we started inviting our favorite teachers to our parties and this lasted through our first college year, but by then we were in different universities and soon our meetings ceased.
A few years ago one of my best friends, now living in London, decided to gather our class when she was spending some time back in Portugal. A few years later she did it again. Today we met for the third time… next time we hope to invite a few of our old teachers too.
I must admit I never felt the urge to organize one such meeting. Most of us keep in touch, some of us meet now and then. We all get news from the others even when we are not together. But it is great fun when M. sends out the word for another reunion.

Featured Photo

2006-08-02T22:23:00.000+01:00

This is Seixal's bay. The same bay where I took that tidal mill pic from a previous post, but on the opposite side from where we live.

Tags:Portugal photo

Google Maps Link

Back to the rat race

2006-08-01T18:57:00.000+01:00

Getting back to work after a month long vacation is always a shock.
No matter how much you like your job you always feel you could use some extra time off.
Things get even worst when only one other person can actually do your job while you're away. As usual my favorite co-worker managed to do all her stuff and most of mine, same as I do when she is away. Nevertheless plenty of things piled over my desk during the last month.
Also some equipment failed while I was away and everybody thought it would be wise to wait for me before calling for outside assistance, either makes one feel needed or feel like the village idiot ( you don’t really have to pick one). This meant a day meddling with the toys (fixing lab equipment is a lot more fun than browsing through papers).
Now everything that could be fixed is up and running again and the rest of the week will be spent getting urgent stuff done and sorting out a pile of unread ~~crap~~ papers.

Quinta da Fidalga

2006-07-31T08:41:00.000+01:00

The city council of Seixal has been rehabilitating an old palace and its gardens for use as recreation area and to host cultural events, you can take a peek at the gardens by clicking this photo, as for the palace... I wasn't allowed in. Guess I'll have to wait for a cultural event to be held in there to visit it.

Tomorrow is "back to work day"...

Tags:Portugal photo

Google Maps link

Believe it or not

2006-07-30T10:47:00.000+01:00

This fellow is slightly over an inch long. Click here to see it.

Yup, I hadn't seen one of these bees in a while.

Trying to make the best...

2006-07-29T23:33:00.000+01:00

... out of what little vacation time I've got left, yesterday I went to Azenhas do Mar. After a long walk a nice lunch facing the sea.

Tags:Portugal photo

PS: Picking on Shyha's idea here's the link to Azenhas on Google Maps

Pieces of Portugal #2

2006-07-28T09:02:00.000+01:00

During the late XIX century and early XX century big factories attracted workers to Lisbon. Those workers needed lodging and to face that need many of the factory owners started building “vilas” (villages) inside Lisbon. Those “vilas” were like little villages, where people who worked for a certain factory would live. Most times the workers were brought from the same region or even the same town, so in most villages people already knew each other before coming to the big city.
Some people refer to those “vilas” as little ghettos, but the truth is most if not all of the factory owners who’ve built “vilas” had much pride on their housing facilities (often naming the places after their own daughters) and the places were in fact rather nice.
This is one of such “vilas”. In the heart of Lisbon and not far from my parents place (been there for lunch yesterday, so I decided to make a small detour to take these pix).
Most of the “vilas” had a main entrance with an archway with the name of the “vila”. The houses were not exactly luxurious, but they were ok. Nowadays these "vilas" are trendy among young people, artists, journalists, etc... although in some you'll still find old folks living there, some of them whose families have come to Lisbon when their house was built.

(click on the pictures to enlarge)

Tags:Portugal photo

Pieces of Portugal

2006-07-27T17:34:00.000+01:00

This little white house in the middle of those marsh looking grounds is an old tidal mill.
Marshy place to the right is the tidal dam and the water on the other side is ‘baía do Seixal’, a nice bay on the Tagus river, across from Lisbon and just a few minutes away from our place.
Back in the day when the mill was still working the dam would be open during tidal rise and then closed nearly until low tide. At low tide the water was driven through the mill’s water wheels powering its grinders.
Nowadays the place was converted into an eco-museum showing the visitors some peculiar aspects of the ecosystem in the bay.
When GH and I started dating we used to go there once in a while and yesterday I decided to take a little walk there, but the access was closed because they are repairing the building and the grounds around it. At least I could get close enough to take this pic with the cell phone.

Tags:Portugal

Hurray!!!

2006-07-26T08:31:00.000+01:00

GH presented her thesis yesterday and is now a PhD!!!
Or during this night if you happen to be nearer my time zone than hers...
Just a couple more weeks to handle bureaucratic stuff and send her things back to Portugal and she will be coming back for good, at long last!

A couple of pics

2006-07-25T10:19:00.000+01:00

A little glimpse on the new place.

The kitchen and the guest room you had already seen in previous posts.

Some things happen all over the world

2006-07-24T13:18:00.000+01:00

One of GG’s posts brought this to my mind:

Some years ago two of our friends got married and she moved to his place. Back then she didn’t have a car and she used to walk to and from the bus stop, walking every single day in front of a big construction site. Every single morning and every single afternoon the guys in the construction site would cheer and make jokes when she passed. You know the kind of remarks. Well, after a couple of months passing by those guys she was getting kind of used to ignoring them. One day as she was passing two guys on a motorbike tried to snatch her purse, but they hit the sidewalk has they did so and they crashed.
The rude guys from the construction site walked out and roughed up the would-be robbers a bit, keeping them there until the police arrived.
From that day on she started to answer their cheers and jokes and amazingly their remarks got less rude.

Stress relievers

2006-07-23T16:01:00.000+01:00

One of our most important stress relievers is now in place and ready to use again.
I've tested it thoroughly this morning and it doesn't seem to be falling down.
Throwing some punches and kicks is rather energy draining I tell you, even if you’re not stressed out nor feeling angry it helps relaxing.
Same as jumping some rope. Jumping rope is kid’s play? Try it for some half an hour and get back to me…

Now I’ll give a rest to my sore muscles and I’ll try and reply to the comments left in my absence and start catching back on the blogs I read.
Take care everybody!

Featured photo

2006-07-22T20:53:00.000+01:00

This one could even go without words, the bridge has long become one of the symbols of Lisbon.
At long last I'm back online, and it is time to change the featured photo.
Today, after three weeks off and with only one more week of holidays to "enjoy", was the first day I finally managed to get to the beach (followed by a b-day party), this means that although my connection is live again real posts and blog reading are postponed 'til tomorrow.

One thing I must do today: thank all of you who kept coming back here and who put up with my posts and my absences!

Tags:Portugal photo

The turd third world ISPs

2006-07-19T21:39:00.000+01:00

The moving is over, I’m settled.
The nest is ready for GH’s arrival next month.
The internet connection however is a whole different tale. My damned ISP has blocked my account due to “technical reasons” that seem to prevent them from providing me the bandwidth I used to have. In the process they failed to inform me that my service had been canceled, only by moving some influences did I manage to find out what was going on. Get a new ISP? It will take AT LEAST 6 to 8 weeks for me to get a new service running. There is no such a thing as a good ISP in Portugal.
So, for the time being I’m stuck with a UTMS connection (hanging on the 3G cell phone network), paying loads of money for a lousy turtle-speed internet connection.
This is the reason why I’ve been away and probably will still be away for some time more.
I’ve been missing your posts, but hopefully soon I’ll be back in the bloggosphere.

On a sadder note: after almost three weeks off I still haven't managed to go to the beach, now that finally some free time is on the horizon the weather is playing tricks on me!

A nation dressing its flag

2006-06-25T00:03:00.000+01:00

Once again Portugal is covered with our national flag. All over the country people put up flags as a sign of support for the national team in the FIFA World Cup.
We’ve seen this before, during the European Football Championship, held in Portugal in 2004.
In the streets people wear the national colors too, red and green.
As you surely noticed by now I love my country. This said it is rather nice to watch people gathering around a national symbol with pride and having a common goal.
Much could be said about such goal though, or about the fact that these people don’t have the same solidarity when it comes to solving real issues that afflict most of the population. But I’m starting to digress and even worst starting to rant, so back to my issue: where can you see more flags?
In the poorest neighborhoods. Yes, if you go into a social housing area you’ll find at least one flag hanging from every apartment.
Several friends have noticed that too and we talked about it… is it the fact they have so little joys in life that a victory of our national team would be some kind of compensation? Do they love football more than those who live in luxurious houses in selected neighborhoods? Are the rich too uptight to put up flags on their estates? Is it just a fashion issue and flags happen to be cheap enough?
I didn’t have the time to take some pictures of it, but you can take my word for it, plenty of flags, poor area, some flags middle class, no flags, big money.
And no, my flag is not hanging outside... but it will soon be hanging outside the new place!

Tags:Portugal

This blog brought to you from...

2006-06-22T18:02:00.000+01:00

HERE

(clicking on each separate image enlarges it)

My design, with GH's helpful opinions and crafted by GH's father (who is not a carpenter but retired from a desk job).

All this is about to be dismantled and hauled to the new place... I wish I could just beam it there.

Games and toys

2006-06-21T17:25:00.000+01:00

Thinking about kids these days, their access to technology, their toys, all the things that are offered to them in this “modern world” of ours brought about memories of my own childhood.
Some would probably say I was a rather spoiled brat, having all the toys I could possibly want, from “legos” and “meccanos” to electric trains, from board games to bikes, everything really.
I also got the best of two worlds, getting to spend much of my time up north in the farm I could have everything a city boy gets plus everything a country boy gets, without actually having any of the country boy’s usual nags, working in the fields, taking care of the animals, etc… However whenever I was in the farm I would do some chores of my own free will, it didn’t seem bad to me because it wasn’t imposed on me.
But whether in the city or in the countryside, no matter how many toys I had, I always loved to make my own toys.
Flippers machines (made with wood boards, nails, rubber bands and clothes pegs), slingshots, boats and rafts (great for playing in the river), kites, downhill cars, tree houses and sheds, etc…
Some may think most of these things are lost, but when faced with the chance to make their own toys kids of today will act the same, a bit of imagination and the toys they make are far better than anything you can buy.
Of course this works fine when the parents and relatives take their time to play with the kids. I was lucky at that too. And I also try and take some of my time to play with “our” kids, I just hope that if GH and I ever get kids of our own I manage to get enough quality time for them also… the will to play is no worry, I’m almost always in the mood to play, maybe because I’m just a big grownup kid.

Featured photo

2006-06-20T19:08:00.000+01:00

Jardim do Torel

One of my favorite gardens in Lisbon. Although located in the center of town it is rather secluded, it has plenty of shade and a nice view.
This is a bit like the lull before the storm, the next few weeks will be total madness, getting things ready for my holidays (no work can be left undone, there is no way I can get away from the lab leaving loose ends for others to finish so if it can't wait for me to get back it must be over before my leave), getting yours truly to the new place, getting the old place ready for selling.
The holidays won't be much fun either, getting new documents with the new address, getting the place perfect for GH's arrival, trying to sell the old place...
By the way, the old place is now officially for sale, so if any of you is considering buying a three bedroom apartment just across the river from Lisbon the price is 125000 euros.
There will be another issue that is slightly troublesome for me:transferringg my phone and DSL service to the new place, it will probably mean a couple of weeks without broadband...

Tags:Portugal photo

Damned internet!!!

2006-06-18T16:32:00.000+01:00

There is this cute little girl that GH says is my favorite.
A friend's daughter, the first of "our" girls.
Yesterday we were at her real uncle's birthday party and she went to the computer.
When her aunt got there she was using Google's image search.
- What are you doing E?
- Searching the internet.
- What for?
- Well, if I write down "naked guys" it shows me photos...

She is only nine. Some minutes before she was asking us for balloons, a while after she was crawling to my lap asking for a piggyback ride.
She is a rather innocent girl, proof to that is that she didn't even try to lie about what she was doing. And it is only natural for kids her age to be curious about sex... but I guess we all learned a valuable lesson on unrestricted access to the internet at our places.

Now I’m going to lie down for some rest, party on Friday, party yesterday, it really is a hard life!

PARABÉNS AMOR!!!

2006-06-15T18:26:00.000+01:00

Today is Good Half's birthday.
The most beautiful, smartest, sweetest woman in the whole wide world!
Well, at least as far as I am concerned.
Too bad she is too stressed out finishing her thesis.
Hopefully this will be the last time we spend her b-day on different continents.
For my part, in solidarity with her work, instead of spending this national holiday resting I'm hauling some of the old furniture into the new place.
Celebrations are postponed for now, but the delay won't make them any smaller.

Who's drawing the short straw?

2006-06-14T10:52:00.000+01:00

I was just checking today's news when I came across this Stephen Hawking's warning.
How many of us are there? Way too many to evacuate all of mankind.
So let us imagine a scenario where mankind actually settles on a different planet:
On a first stage every single person on the planetary base is a highly qualified and highly skilled element. The first settlers are chosen for the job by their value as problem solvers.
After that initial stage an evacuation plan could be conceived… but who would choose who should be saved?
We all live here, we all know the answer. Money and power would speak louder.
Of course money and power would help selecting those who hold money and power.
Those same people are however the ones who are leading this planet to its doom and if there is any justice the ones who least deserve to be saved.
Much as I would love to visit a different planet, much as I wish for mankind to strive… I’m not so sure about this space colonies idea in case we destroy the planet. Somehow I get the feeling that if we screw up the whole planet here we don’t really deserve a second chance.

The Guest Room

2006-06-12T23:22:00.000+01:00

Lousy pic, sorry.
The cell phone doesn't handle bad lighting.

Featured photo

2006-06-11T10:10:00.000+01:00

Largo Dr. José de Figueiredo

Just another of Lisbon's squares, near the ancient art museum.
The simple coblestone all around town is probably one of the reasons this city seems so bright.
This pic was taken several weeks ago. By now the square is filled with food stands, decorations for the nightly dances and all the things that make Lisbon's festivities.

Tags:Portugal photo

10th of June

2006-06-10T08:15:00.000+01:00

The day of Portugal, Camões and of the Portuguese Communities abroad. National Holiday in Portugal, of course. Sadly it is kind of a wasted holiday this year, being a Saturday and all.

In Lisbon this day also marks the beginning of the city’s yearly festivities, having its highpoint on the 13th, Saint Anthony’s Day but lasting until the 29th, Saint Peter’s Day.
On the night of the 12th there is a huge parade in Avenida da Liberdade, and in all typical neighborhoods, the older parts of town that is, there are food stands with BBQs, plenty of drinks and dances.
This year I probably won't even go to any dances in Lisbon, but having lived most of my life in one of Lisbon's most typical areas (yup, I hadn't always lived in suburbia) I can easily survive one year without all the commotion of Lisbon's festivities.

Getting stuff delivered from Ikea, getting to assemble the stuff and going to a party starting late afternoon. A long day ahead.

In case you are wondering…

2006-06-08T06:03:00.000+01:00

… I’m still alive.
My favorite lurker (Good Half, that is) just told me I had to let you all know that in spite of my blog idleness everything is fine with me.
The reason for the lack of posts is that finally I am preparing the new place for the big move.
For the time being you can sneak a peek at the new kitchen:

Today is also DCveR's Twilight Zone first bloggerversary!
Yes, you folks have been putting up with me for a full year already.
I thank all those who keep coming back here.

Featured photo

2006-05-28T00:14:00.000+01:00

A rather large area that used to be occupied by a chemical products factory in Alcântara, Lisbon, has now been converted to a residential area.
Some of the façades of the old factory buildings were kept as well as the main chimney and they were integrated in a modern looking set of buildings. Some people claim all the buildings should have been kept the way they were while others would prefer to have all the old buildings demolished. For once I go along with the majority: keep the façades and build modern buildings. It gives a sense of evolution without forgetting the history of that place.

Tags:Portugal

Dia de Espiga, Spike Day

2006-05-25T09:13:00.000+01:00

Today is a holiday in some Portuguese cities, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the Christ’s ascension to heaven.
The celebration is much older than Christ though, and it is a pagan celebration.
In this day people gather or buy a bunch of wheat spikes, stems and flowers (ramo de espiga), to celebrate the first crops.
Every piece of the arrangement has its own meaning:
wheat spikes – let there be bread to everybody
branch of olive tree – let there be peace
wild poppies – let there be fun and joy
daisies – let there be fertility and joy also
lavender and/or other scented herbs – let people be healthy and strong

Has the first fruits start to appear in the fields I send each and every one of you a virtual “ramo de espiga”.
Have a nice day everybody!

Tags:Portugal

That’ll teach them flames!!!

2006-05-23T22:31:00.000+01:00

Instead of investing in real prevention and in better equipment for the firefighters, our glorious and enlightened government has created a special unit of the republican guard, an elite commando of firefighters.
And shall a fire start those flames will have to deal with the power of the guard!
Suddenly a tidbit of history sprang to my mind… when the great Darius of Persia ordered his slaves to whip the sea with chains to punish it for wrecking his fleet.
Guess in the Summer of 2007 canons will be fired against the flames to punish them for this Summer’s forest fires damage.
In Portugal most of the firefighters are volunteers, true enough many among them don’t have enough training, true enough they are sometimes badly equipped, true also that during the last few Summers they weren’t enough to face all the forest fires.
But instead of accusing those who risk their lives for free, for the love of their country and of their fellow countrymen the government should see to their needs.
More air support was needed, more cars, more training.
Plenty of money was spent, commissions were created, lots of new jobs were created, most of them as analysts and consultants, conferences were held… and we’ve got the brave guard to fight the fires.
Remember Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? You can’t be president of the Galaxy with a full brain? Well, it seems you can’t rule a country on Earth with a full brain either. Not even half. Now that I think about it, our government plus the opposition all put together would hardly yield half a brain.

Post update

2006-05-22T20:59:00.000+01:00

Almost a year ago I've made a post about Rómulo de Carvalho. In that post I had mentioned a music, but back then I didn't have a way to post that music here.
Today as I was listening to that music I recalled the post and decided to share the tune with you all. Hope you enjoy it.

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Tags:Portugal

Featured photo

2006-05-21T10:46:00.000+01:00

Ermida de Santo Amaro

This renaissance chapel is the only round church in Lisbon and it dates from 1549.

Tags:Portugal photo

On the phone…

2006-05-20T13:06:00.000+01:00

…with my 5 year old Goddaughter:

- Can you pick me up from school more often?
- Maybe. Why would you want that?
- Mom and dad are always in a rush. With you I get to go to the playground and you always take me for a stroll!

She seems to already have her own agenda, but at least she’s honest about it.

Lisbon's regular trams

2006-05-19T22:53:00.000+01:00

Tall Glass of Vino and Ms Bees Knees, both living in San Francisco, commented the similarity between the cable cars in Lisbon and San Fran's street cars.
Well, these are the traditional trams from Lisbon... and if I had any photos of the older ones the similarities would be even more striking.

ps: Just noticed 'ka made the same comparison...

Tags:Portugal

Is anybody home?

2006-05-18T19:14:00.000+01:00

On today’s issue of Nature you can read the news of the discovery of an extrasolar planetary system found by a team of European astronomers.
In this team you can find two Portuguese scientists: Nuno Santos (Observatório Astronómico de Lisboa) and Alexandre Correia (Universidade de Aveiro).
The planetary system has three planets roughly the size of Neptune and one of those planets is in an area that seems suitable to sustain life as we know it.
The planetary system was “baptized” as Neptune’s Trident.
The problem of going there to check whether there is any life form is still way beyond human reach, the system being a wee bit far from us (41 light-years far if you care about that kind of detail).
Against all odds, with everybody in Portugal anticipating the Football World Cup (soccer to those of you in the US) and the media being mostly focused on that and on the Middle East troubles, this news made it to Portuguese newspapers and TV’s.
That is almost as much reason to celebrate as the news itself, for in most cases work done by Portuguese researchers either alone or in international teams goes unnoticed by the national media.

I'm having a cow!

2006-05-17T18:54:00.000+01:00

Click on this picture to see a preview of my Cow Parade set.
Can't place any more pix on flickr though... otherwise I'd completely wipe out my other photos.

Virtual Portugal

2006-05-16T20:09:00.000+01:00

Just found this site full of 360º panoramic photos of Portugal.
Guess I'll be spending some of my free time trying to create a few 360º panoramas of my own, as soon as I start getting results you'll find them here.

Wave farm

2006-05-15T07:37:00.000+01:00

Starting next August Portugal will have an offshore wave energy park in Póvoa do Varzim, the first in the world. Starting with an energy production of 2.25MW, the park should be producing 20MW by 2008 and 5000MW by 2020.
To give you an idea of how much electricity that is 30MW can supply energy to 20000 homes.
This technology surely won't solve all of mankind's energy woes, but if it proves sucessful it will at least help reducing the amount of fossil fuels used and/or the amount of nuclear waste created.

Featured photo

2006-05-14T00:47:00.000+01:00

Bica's cable car.

Lisbon is famed by its trams, but long before the first trams some steep hills were equipped with cable cars.
Three cable car systems were built from 1888 to 1890, all three are still working today.
This was the last one built.
The first mechanism used to power this cable car was water driven, but in 1927 the water system was replaced with electrical engines, the same system it uses today.
The first attempt to replace the water system had been made in 1916, but a brake failure caused an uncontrolled descent: the cable car crashed to smithereens and eleven years would pass before Bica's cable car could run again.

Tags:Portugal photo

A 13 de Maio na Cova da Iria...

2006-05-13T11:20:00.000+01:00

On the 13th of May at Cova da Iria, that means. In 1917 three shepherd kids claimed they saw the Virgin Mary at Cova da Iria, central Portugal. Their visions were repeated every thirteenth day after that until October 1917 with the exception of August: the children had been taken to prison and kept under interrogation because they were starting to be “politically disruptive” and the dictatorship couldn’t allow that. It seems the Virgin Mary was patient enough to wait, that month they had their visions on the 19th.
On October 13th the children were surrounded by thousands of people and they all claimed to have witnessed the Miracle of the Sun.
Ever since Fátima has become one of the most important pilgrimage points of the Catholic world, with thousands of believers visiting every day.

Today the place will probably be as crowded as it was during the visits of the Pope John Paul II: the polemics regarding the third secret, the belief of many that it regarded the end of the world in the beginning of the third millennium, the current state of affairs in the middle east, the economical crisis that is affecting our country, all the ingredients to turn people towards faith in search of hope.

Me? I hate Fátima, the town with all those stores selling religious items, trying to profit the most from the tourists and pilgrims.
I hate the fanaticism of most of the pilgrims too.

But there is one thing I love and yet fear in Fátima.
An hospital.
A place where I’ve been several times even though I dread it.
Centro Nacional de Apoio a Deficientes Profundos João Paulo II
A national centre that treats patients with extreme deficiencies like cerebral paralisy. I can’t even try to describe the ailments that afflict those patients, some of them children born with extreme malformations.
And yet there are brave and generous doctors, nurses, auxiliary staff members and volunteers that do all they can to provide those patients with the best possible treatment.
For me that is the true miracle of Fátima, a place where a few people ease the suffering of many who can have no hope of cure.

If you ever go there… instead of spending your money in mementos consider making a donation to this hospital.

Karma

2006-05-12T08:32:00.000+01:00

Teresa and Gloria were talking calmly in the old bar when Teresa’s husband walked in. Gloria Panicked because her boyfriend and Teresa’s lover had gone out to buy some cigarettes and should be arriving any minute, her panic grew as she watched her friend’s calmness.
Carlos was white, he didn’t even ask his wife what was she doing there, he entered the bar because he needed a drink, as simple as that, when he saw his wife he just sat at her table.
Deep down it seemed that if there was something wrong it was between Carlos and Gloria, the two of them were clearly terrified, whereas Teresa seemed like a mere bystander with nothing in common with those two. Teresa merely asked Carlos why was he there, to which she got no reply.
What should he do? Would he tell his wife? How?
Gloria thought she was going crazy, those two had just gone to the service area, on motorbike, surely they would be arriving and Carlos, even dumb as he was, soon would figure out what was going on.
Meanwhile Teresa was trying to find the reason for her husband to enter THAT bar that very night, to no avail. That he didn’t go in there after her was obvious, she didn’t marry him by chance, his dumbness was perfectly reliable, even before the wedding Teresa knew she could easily cheat on him, and she did so, from the very first day.
Carlos finally said he had been mugged, a reasonable lie to justify his frantic state, he thought. He could hardly think of a better excuse, not even remembering he asked for a whisky as soon as he got there and paid for it immediately.
Did anybody see it? Fortunately his jeep had no marks, he just hit the damned motorbike’s tire with his bumper. He fled without even stopping his car, didn’t even knew if those two were alive. Though it was almost certain, nobody could survive such a crash!
Not even after being arrested did Carlos come to know that ironically he had killed his wife’s lover…

This is one of the short stories I wrote many years ago.
Somehow one of my friends read it and realized it was inspired by Teresa's marriage, he then told her about the story and she hates me to this day...
If you want to read the original Portuguese version click here.

Teresa e Glória conversavam calmamente no velho bar quando entrou o marido de Teresa. Glória entrou em pânico pois o seu namorado e o amante de Teresa tinham ido comprar tabaco e deviam estar a chegar, o seu pânico aumentava ao ver a calma da sua companheira.
Carlos estava branco, nem perguntou à mulher o que é que ela estava ali a fazer, tinha entrado naquele bar porque precisava de uma bebida, só isso, ao ver a mulher limitou-se a sentar-se na mesa dela.
No fundo, parecia que se algo se passava seria entre Carlos e Glória, pois eles estavam nitidamente aterrorizados, ao passo que Teresa parecia apenas uma observadora que nada tinha em comum com qualquer dos dois. Teresa limitou-se a perguntar a Carlos o que é que fazia ali, ao que ele não respondeu.
Que faria? Contava à mulher o que se tinha passado? Como?
Glória pensava que ia enlouquecer, aqueles dois tinham ido à bomba de gasolina, de mota, por certo deviam estar a chegar e Carlos, por muito burro que fosse, depressa ia perceber o que se estava a passar.
Entretanto, Teresa tentava em vão descobrir o que tinha levado o marido a entrar naquele bar e logo nessa noite. Que ele não tinha ido ali atrás dela era óbvio, ela não casara com ele por acaso, a burrice dele era perfeitamente fiável pelo que, mesmo antes de casarem, Teresa sabia que o poderia trair sempre que quisesse, o que aliás aconteceu desde o primeiro dia.
Carlos acabou por dizer que fora assaltado, o que lhe parecia uma mentira razoável para justificar o estado em que se encontrava. Mal conseguia pensar numa desculpa melhor, nem se lembrou que assim que chegou pedira um whisky e que o pagara de imediato.
Será que alguém tinha visto? Felizmente o jipe não tinha marcas, apenas tocara com o para-choques na roda da maldita mota. Fugira sem sequer parar o carro, nem mesmo sabia se os dois tipos estavam vivos. Era quase certo, ninguém poderia sobreviver a uma queda daquelas!
Nem depois de ser preso Carlos chegou a saber que, por ironia, matara o amante da mulher...

Olé!!!

2006-05-11T08:19:00.000+01:00

Contrary to the Portuguese tradition I am not much of a bullfighting fan.
Nonetheless I rejoice at the fact that Campo Pequeno, Lisbon’s bullring, has finally been restored.
This arena built in a Moorish style dates back to 1892.
To generate an additional income in order to preserve this red brick building a mall and cinemas were built beneath the bullring.
In season there are two bullfights per week, during winter time the arena is used for concerts and circus.

Tags:Portugal

S.N.A.F.U. take 5

2006-05-10T20:14:00.000+01:00

Lisbon, 8:00AM.
Plenty of places to park in the metered area, as you can easily verify by this pic.
Where is everybody parking then? Click on the picture to get your answer...

Very inconspicuously “hidden”, right?
What? Bollards?!?! What do you mean with 'bollards'?!?!?

Tags:Portugal

H.O.P.E. for Darfur

2006-05-08T17:36:00.000+01:00

PLEASE visit this link take a good look at what is presented to you on that site and sign the petition.
After you're done tell your friends about it.

Never mind, it's just gas...

2006-05-08T12:59:00.000+01:00

British scientists assert there are no UFOs. After 30 years of research the conclusion is that there are no aliens, just gas.
So, for all the conspiracy nut cases out there this is as solid as claiming the brits have captured an alien spacecraft. Why else would they go to all this trouble just to deny the existence of UFOs?
I bet old Icke will say Queen Elizabeth, who EVERYBODY knows is a reptilian alien vampire with over 200 years of age, is just making us ignore any suspicious signs so the rest of the alien fleet can close in on us!

PS: Two unrelated e-mails confirm the conspiracy theory folks are actually right! Both Tinker Bell and the Tooth Fairy assured me an invasion is in fact imminent!

Featured photo

2006-05-07T15:11:00.000+01:00

A typical lamp that can still be found in many places of the older parts of Lisbon.
Since a few years ago Lisbon's municipality has been making efforts to rebuild the oldest buildings in town, bringing back life to areas where many buildings were just about to collapse.
This building is one of those already rebuilt.

Tags:photo

The cows are coming!

2006-05-06T11:21:00.000+01:00

Starting on the 14th of May Lisbon will be invaded by cows! The Cow Parade is coming to Portugal!
I didn't make it to the pre-exhibition so I couldn't see all the cows together, but I already had plans to 'hunt' them around town, hopefully I'll get a couple of nice pix to post later on.
I didn't enter the competition, nonetheless here is DCveR's Mummy Cow.

Five years ago

2006-05-05T20:32:00.000+01:00

Yes, five years ago. On the fifth of May (the fifth month, in case you haven't noticed) of 2001, at 5 pm.
That was when Good Half and I got married against one another, making official what we'd been living for five years prior to that.

Guess if I were superstitious I would say 5 is my lucky number.

Happy anniversary to us!

Lisbon's Oddities

2006-05-03T14:21:00.000+01:00

In the old days craftsmen of a same art or traders of the same goods would gather, this way in the older parts of Lisbon we have several streets that got their names from the traders or artisans who made their business there:

Rua do Ouro (Gold Street – Goldsmiths)
Rua da Prata (Silver Street – Silversmiths)
Rua dos Correeiros (Leather-workers St.)
Rua dos Fanqueiros (Clothes sellers St.)
Etc…

Related arts or products would also be in nearby streets.
This pink palace on the picture is Palácio das Necessidades, the palace where the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs is located.
The street name plaque on the other picture is just one street away from the said palace, it translates to “Smugglers St.”. Again related trades can be found in the same area.

Snooping

2006-05-02T08:14:00.000+01:00

Overheard on the train:
(…)
Woman 1: Can you believe this? She wanted me to pay for the wedding reception!
Woman 2: But you said her boyfriend is a nice guy?!
Woman 1: He is. And he has a nice job too.
Woman 2: I don’t get it…
Woman 1: Honey, everything is ok while they are just dating, the moment they get married it all comes down. I’m not spending money for them to get divorced in a couple of years!!!
Woman 2: What did your daughter say about it?
Woman 1: That bitch said she would do without my money and she wouldn’t invite me for the reception!!!
Woman 2: You could help her, even if you don’t want to pay it all, no?
Woman 1: I’ll help her as much as her father, not a cent!!! Her marriage won’t last any longer than mine!!!
Woman 2: Still she is your daughter!

At this point I turned my mp3 player on, so I can’t tell you how the rest of the conversation went.

Featured Photo

2006-04-29T20:19:00.000+01:00

Although Portugal is supposed to be a country of sailors I am not one of them.
I can't sail, although I used to like being a passenger every now and then.
"Used to" because it's been quite a long time since I last went for a sail.
Still sometimes when I am in a marina I feel like getting on a boat and setting off to some far away place.
Most likely that far away place would be the bottom of the Ocean given my lack of sailing skills.

You just can't beat the graphs!

2006-04-28T20:23:00.000+01:00

First of all sorry for this lousy picture, my cell phone is not the best camera when it comes to glasses and reflexes. Still I had to show you this graphs (you may click on the picture to enlarge it). Never mind if you can't read Portuguese, the words are just announcing the train company has set up another double train during rush hour, which is in fact true, so that is not my issue.
My issue are those graphics in the picture, the left one regards southbound trains (from Lisbon to Setubal) and the one on the right northbound trains, both throughout the day.
In each graph the yellow bar represents the number of seats on the train, whereas the blue bar is the number of passengers.
All the blue bars are clearly smaller than the yellow bars,i.e. there are always enough seats for all the passengers.
So, if you happen to ride a train going across the Tagus river and it is so crowded you can hardly fit in there it is just because all the other cars must be empty and all passengers picked the same car as you.
At least that is the only explanation I could come up with...

Tags:Portugal

I believe

2006-04-27T15:05:00.000+01:00

In one of his comments Chill Daddy asked me a question that required a rather long answer: do I believe in anything supernatural?
This post is that answer. I can’t answer that question without first explaining what do I actually believe in.
I’ve tried to keep it as simple and as short as possible and at the same time I’ve tried to explain as much as possible in order not to be misunderstood.
I hope the answer is clear enough, now you can either skip it altogether or click here and read it.

I believe in science as a tool, as a way to understand the universe where we live and ourselves. Science deals with causes and effects, using theories and models that allow us to predict events, the accuracy with which we can in fact predict the said events is the measure of the accuracy of the said science.
This way science allows us to have an idea of how the universe works and to a certain extent how it was formed.
Yet there are some things that science can’t answer, at least not yet anyhow.
Man tries to understand the “rules” of the universe, our physical laws are the best model we have of those “rules”. Those models however are far from perfect, take gravity for instance: our models are pretty accurate when it comes to predicting the fall of a body under the Earth’s gravity, but when we think gravitic interaction of the planets things aren’t quite that simple and there is still a lot to learn about gravity. You can read plenty of books about the search for a unified theory, one of the greatest goals of science.
But even if one day science gets that unified theory, there will still be an answer to be found: where did those rules come from?
Questions like where did it all come from? What was there before the Big Bang? If the Universe is expanding, where is it expanding to? And plenty of other questions usually can only be answered with and outer entity or god.
I accept there may be one such entity, I believe there may be some god, but on the other hand if there is one such entity, who created everything and who set all the rules, where did that entity come from?
Probably there will always be one step beyond that is never reachable.
I don’t mind calling god to whatever originated those rules, those natural laws we try to understand, even if I don’t know if that god is a single entity or even if it still exists.
Although I have been raised as a Roman Apostolic Catholic I don’t believe in any church or human religion, mankind has made all religions if you ask me.
Should we burn the Bible then? No, it is a good book, it has plenty of lessons, if you see the whole thing as a big parable it can be of great help. But take a good look at God in the Bible: in the Old Testament you have a God that tests His people, a Punishing God, sometimes even cruel. I mean, even the angels are violent in the Old Testament. With time God ‘evolves’ to a promise of hope and in the New Testament that promise becomes a message of love. This evolution of God is nothing but an image of human evolution.
But is this god entity looking after the lives of each and every creature?
I don’t believe so. Otherwise, why would the innocent suffer? Why would a baby die with leukemia? Why would a fireman burn while trying to save someone?
I think the rules are set, whatever those rules are, and that is about it.
Furthermore, even if any religion were right, religious leaders are but men, men are faulty. In every religion you’ll find good people and bad people, good leaders and bad leaders. Most religions profess a set of values that is pretty similar and so every religion is just as good as the next providing someone with good personal ethics, should that person actually live by those values.
I like religious people, priests, imans, rabbis, whatever, as long as they truly dedicate their lives to help others. Who can help but to admire someone like Mother Theresa?
But I hate people who try to impose their beliefs or use religion to manipulate others.
One thing I must say, I believe that Buddha was right by saying you can’t lead someone to Nirvana, you can’t teach wisdom, so every man must take his own path, with or without the help of religion.
That is why we have free will, that is why each of us makes his/her own choices.
Where does that path lead to? Is there an afterlife?
Maybe.
I can accept we are more than just bodies, but whatever there is after is beyond our current understanding. Do I worry much about it? No.
If there is something I’ll find out one day. The later the better ‘cuz I am enjoying my life as it is.
So what is my incentive to follow my own ethics? Hope in a better world for all our children, for all those we love and those they will one day love.
I believe that we make our own destiny, we as a whole.
Each of us has a little influence in whatever happens to mankind, if not to the universe.
This said, do I believe anything supernatural?
I believe there are things science can’t explain but an explanation for those things doesn’t need to involve supernatural powers, things like telepathy or premonitions may have earthly causes that we simply don't understand.
I believe for instance that a crowd praying may have some effect affecting someone or something, due to will power not to godly intervention.
I believe in miraculous cures, I’ve been fortunate enough to witness several in loved ones. I’ve always considered those as a consequence of will power.
Assuming that will, or soul if you prefer to call it that, still lives on after our death, it is reasonable to assume it can have influence over the physical world, most likely as much influence as it had while its body was still alive.
So if the question is do I believe in powerful ghosts and stuff like that the answer is NO.
If however the question is if I believe there is something bigger beyond our lives the answer is YES, I believe there may be something. But nothing we should fear or even long for, for the time being we must follow our own paths.

On a lighter note

2006-04-26T22:55:00.001+01:00

All this talking about our revolution brought to mind the song everybody kept singing in the first years after the revolution. A song that is one of the first memories to everybody in my generation here.
This song:

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The lyrics are here.

Somos Livres

by Ermelinda Duarte

Ontem apenas

Fomos a voz sufocada

Dum povo a dizer não quero;

Fomos os bobos-do-rei

Mastigando desespero.

Ontem apenas

Fomos o povo a chorar

Na sarjeta dos que, à força,

Ultrajaram e venderam

Esta terra, hoje nossa.

Uma gaivota voava, voava,

Asas de vento,

Coração de mar.

Como ela, somos livres,

Somos livres de voar.

Uma papoila crescia, crescia,

Grito vermelho

Num campo qualquer.

Como ela somos livres,

Somos livres de crescer.

Uma criança dizia, dizia

"quando for grande

Não vou combater".

Como ela, somos livres,

Somos livres de dizer.

Somos um povo que cerra fileiras,

Parte à conquista

Do pão e da paz.

Somos livres, somos livres,

Não voltaremos atrás.

Just yesterday

We were a silenced voice

Of people saying no;

We we’re the king’s fools

Gnawing in despair.

Just yesterday

We were a crying people

In the gutter of those who by force,

Shamed and sold

This land, today our own

A seagull flew, flew,

Wings made of wind

Heart made of sea

Like her we’re free

Free to soar

A poppy grew, grew,

Red scream

On a field somewhere

Like her we’re free

Free to grow

A child said, said

“when I grow up

I won’t go to war”

Like her we’re free

Free to say

We’re a people closing ranks

Off to conquer

Bread and peace

We’re free, we’re free

We won’t go back

Tags:Portugal

Chernobyl

2006-04-26T06:49:00.000+01:00

Thirty years ago the world witnessed the worst nuclear accident in history and the results can be felt to this day.
Some of you are probably familiar with “Kid of Speed”, those of you who have never seen her site should take some time to give it a good reading, the photos and the videos are amazing but her writing is the most important part for it gives a perspective most of us couldn’t get from the images alone.

PS
Kris on her post regarding this same issue suggested several other links related with the accident.
And portuguesa nova added this other link.

So this is it?

2006-04-25T10:56:00.000+01:00

Today is a national holiday here. The celebration of the Carnation Revolution that put an end to the dictatorship.
It’s called Freedom Day by most. Some however believe the 25 of November should be the real Freedom Day.
After the revolution the forces opposing the dictatorship split into two, a communist faction who intended to turn Portugal into a Soviet model republic and another faction who wanted real democracy and a capitalist model republic. On the 25th of November of 1975 the communists tried a second revolution but they met a counter-revolution from the moderates and finally Portugal became a real democratic state.

Yet this is the only day that is celebrated. Sadly most people don’t even know what the 25th of November was nor what led to it.
Plenty of people in my family have fought the dictatorship. That is probably the reason why I don’t really feel like celebrating this day.
True enough it brought down the regime, but not only did it almost bring another kind of oppression it also fell into oblivion in the sense the ideals have long been lost.
People are free now. But the elected rulers we’ve had ever since are as bad as the tyrants before them, for they care not but for their own interests.

Is this the country so many have fought for?
With crooks being elected, corruption grassing, people living in misery while others get increasingly rich, a social service collapsing while the government spends millions in surreal projects?
No, I really don’t feel like celebrating today.

I'll leave you with the song that served as a signal to start the revolution.
You can find the lyrics here.

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Jay walking dissuasion

2006-04-24T18:37:00.000+01:00

A friend e-mailed me this one...

PS: The words on the sticker mean "use the crosswalk".

Daemon-buster

2006-04-23T00:47:00.000+01:00

Have you seen The Exorcist or The Exorcism of Emily Rose?
Well, we have the real thing going on here in Lisbon since 1992!
A chapel in downtown Lisbon has become a sanctuary where exorcisms are performed.
Dom Armando Monteiro, who performs the rituals, is even considered one of the greatest exorcists in the world today, or so he claims.
This archbishop of an Orthodox Church, who has served time for child abuse, claims also to be a direct descendant of the Lascaris and of the Prince of Nicea thus being the Royal Emperor of Byzantium (this according to another archbishop of another Orthodox Church in Portugal, the one of which the exorcist was expelled before starting his own church and becoming himself an archbishop).
The place started to become famous due a miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary started shedding human tears, a phenomenon verified by the archbishop of the said church probably… After that the believers report a long series of miracles and of successful exorcisms.
Believe it or not people are coming from all over the world to have their daemons purged…
Guess this daemon-buster would say I am possessed should he know I would rather purge this Earth of all the child molesters…

Little treasure

2006-04-21T20:55:00.000+01:00

This is one of our favorite fossils. An ammonite shell almost completely replaced with pyrite. Nature sculpting it’s own memories in iron.

The prolific priest

2006-04-20T17:01:00.000+01:00

Legend has it that in the year of 1487 Francisco da Costa priest at the village of Trancoso, a village in northern Portugal, was sentenced to be quartered by horses.
His crime?
He had allegedly fathered two hundred and fourteen daughters and eighty five sons by fifty four women totaling two hundred and ninety nine children, which he never denied.
The mother's of the said children were twenty nine god-daughters, five of his own sisters, nine of his in-laws, seven maids, two slaves, one of his aunts and his own mother.

The story goes on that the sentence was not carried out due to a royal indult: D. João II, King of Portugal, pardoned the priest and set him free on account of the help that priest had given with the repopulation of that area, which at that time was in dire need of people.

This story has been told for quite some time now, many go as far as to claim the story is registered in the National Archives (Torre do Tombo), although there is no clear evidence of that.
How much of this tale is true is anybody’s guess, however we all know the saying where there is smoke…

Tags:Portugal legends

Featured photo

2006-04-19T18:55:00.000+01:00

This one was chosen by GG's inspiration again. This is one of GH's kites, and I almost lost my own kite to take this lousy pic...

Tags:photo

We’re number one!

2006-04-18T17:54:00.000+01:00

At least when it comes to red tape, we surely are the greatest little country in this planet!
Our government however is trying to cut on red tape, so they say.
Their marketing advisors came up with a name for the project: Simplex.
The great simplification of all the bureaucracy that afflicts us.
Let me give you one of the first practical examples of this miraculous simplification:

Before Simplex:
Every motorized vehicle had to pay a municipal tax, that tax was paid in plenty of shops in every town, where the vehicle owner would fill in a little form (in duplicate), pay the amount due and receive a little voucher to place on the windshield, keeping the duplicate of the form as proof of payment. Far too complex, as you surely agree.

After Simplex:
Every motorized vehicle must pay a municipal tax (simplifying doesn’t mean less taxes).
The vehicle owner must access the taxing service via internet, fill in an e-form, submit it, print the confirmation of the submission, take that confirmation to an ATM, pay the amount due (or do so by home banking), then someone, somewhere will verify everything and send the voucher via snail mail to the address where the vehicle is registered so the owner of the vehicle can place the said voucher in the windshield.
A lot easier.

If you are going to ask if everybody has access to the internet, if everybody who owns a car owns also a computer or any such question, the answer is no. Some people, mostly older people will have to ask for help from someone who does have internet access, making it even easier.

What? This doesn’t make any sense to you? Well, neither to me. Welcome to Portugal!

Tags:Portugal

Let the music take you there

2006-04-17T17:07:00.000+01:00

One thing that I love about music is the way it can help changing our mood.
When I visit some new place I always try and listen to the local music, later when we are back home listening to music from places where we’ve been helps bringing back memories and feelings we’ve had. Kris mentioned a particular music that reminded her the time when she lived in Africa, that e-mail made me smile because I am now waiting for the delivery of some CDs with Hawaiian music. There is something even better about music: it works as a time machine, helping us to remember happy moments from our past. I’ve never had therapy so I can’t actually say music is better than therapy to improve ones mood and the way one feels, but one thing is for sure: it works and it is cheaper than a shrink.
And sometimes you come across some long forgotten music, from when you were a kid, sometimes even music from an old TV or radio ad, sometimes the music from a school play or the Saturday morning cartoons, and it is like a blast of memories coming back to life. Guess this happens to everybody.

This time of the year...

2006-04-15T11:05:00.000+01:00

...this always seems like the right movie to see!

The right to be different

2006-04-14T13:33:00.000+01:00

A couple of days ago I’ve read this post by Bunny Jo.
Nowadays it seems most of the western world is absolutely concerned with being correct and polite.
Nobody can say anything against anybody else based on race, religion, sex, sexual preferences or political views.
This my friends is not only hypocrisy but it is also very dangerous.
People are different. Usually most people tend to bond to those similar to them and to dislike those who are too different. There is no doing anything about it. Think about yourselves: don’t you make jokes about those who are different from you? Don’t you laugh at cartoons mocking those you think are ridiculous?
Yes we should respect other people’s beliefs and points of view, but not to the point of hiding our own beliefs or to the point of having to obey their rules.
Just the same way we can’t force others to live according to our belief.
All this “forced tolerance” is a dangerous fake, people don’t get tolerant because there are laws forcing them to. What those laws actually do is to force people to hide their hate, that hate starts building up and then it bursts.
In a perfect world laws forcing tolerance would not be needed, that is true. But in the far from perfect world where we live those laws are even worst than intolerance, instead of helping solving the problems and helping people learning how to live together they increase the chasm between them.
Just like the so called positive-discrimination (another concept I hate), placing quotas where merit should be, devaluing the so-called minorities at the same time it is supposed to promote them.
One of the symptoms that lead me to this conclusion is this kind of submission some people are forced to take, having to respect other people’s religion and yet being held from displaying their own beliefs in order not to insult the “minorities”. Or the fact that when faced with someone being rude while working on a public service the tax paying costumer refrains from complaining because the civil servant is of a different race and that could be considered racism. Yes, I’ve been accused time and time again of being a bigot and a fascist and a lot of other things. Yes, I don’t give a damn if the person in front of me is white, black, catholic, budhist, male, female straight or gay or even from Mars.
The fact that I don’t care what other people are, think or do means exactly they can do whatever they want to, as long as it does not affect me. What they can’t do is tell me I can’t do this or that or that I must do something that goes against my own ideas.

On with the food…

2006-04-12T22:30:00.000+01:00

Easter time.
This time of the year is celebrated all over Portugal, on account of this being a Roman Catholic country and all that.
Well, one thing I’ve always regarded as typically ours was Pascal bread.

Until 2003 that is.
That year I was in the US during Easter and a friend of ours, also Portuguese, baked some Pascal bread, the same day another friend of ours, American with Hungarian ancestors, baked two more Pascal breads.
In spite of the different forms and although the Hungarian recipe doesn’t have the eggs baked in the shell inside the bread, the taste was exactly the same.

This may be something quite trivial to some of you, but for me it was a rather unexpected surprise to find something so familiar 9000km away from home.
It was also a lesson: plenty of our "traditions" are shared with people from several other countries who consider those traditions their own.

At last!

2006-04-09T13:08:00.000+01:00

Yes, at last a relaxed and quiet meal.
And this is what I feasted myself on.
I won't say what it is for now, as usual, try and guess it.
The recipe shall be mailed in a couple of days to the chef for approval, pending on that approval it may end up posted at Go and Stuff your Peppers!.

Tags:Portugal food

2006/04/11 And the answer can now be found at cream's food blog, not much time for posting right now, sorry...

Greenpeace is destroying the Amazon

2006-04-07T15:18:00.000+01:00

I hate McDonalds. Keep this in mind while you read the rest of this post, lest you think I am defending that ~~crap~~ fast food giant, or any other fast food giant for that matter.
In their latest “save the rain forest campaign” Greenpeace is trashing McDonalds, blaming the fast food giant for the destruction of the Amazon forest.
Well, their argument is that the Amazon forest is being destroyed do produce soy, that soy is then used either for human consumption and sold in supermarkets in Europe or sold for animal feeding (mostly chicken and cows) and those animals are then used to make hamburgers and chicken nuggets...
McDonalds being the greatest seller of hamburgers and chicken nuggets is then to blame for the destruction of Amazon.
Well, generally I support Greenpeace campaigns, generally I agree with their points of view.
But not this time. This time I think it is actually Greenpeace that is destroying Amazon.
You see, some people like me have a rather balanced diet, we eat veggies and fruit and often have vegetarian meals, we eat fish and meat also, making it short: we eat pretty much everything.
Others however have their own reasons to have a less balanced diet, they don’t eat meat nor fish and some of them subsist mainly on soy based products, those “soy based lifeforms” are usually the “radical ecologist” type, as such they are also usually Greenpeace supporters. SO... if Greenpeace supporters seem to be the main consumers of soy and soy based products THEY are destroying Amazon.
It’s a bit like when I started telling some friends they were destroying our atmosphere. They try to use mostly recycled paper. True enough that saves trees, but the energy used to recycle the paper comes mostly of fossil fuels and as such it pollutes.
Our ecosystem has very complex and intricate balances and this means everything is connected like a giant spider web: if you give it a little pull somewhere it will reverberate through the all system, trying to find single causes for a complex problem can’t usually be taken seriously.

Don’t get me wrong, I know the actions of the big soy producing companies in Amazon are a crime against mankind and against the planet, yet it seems to me that while Greenpeace is trying to make an evil icon out of McDonalds plenty of other major companies, smaller companies, governments and investors in general are just as much to blame. Moreover, McDonalds is as much to blame as any company or any person who eats or uses soy or soy based products.

Featured photo

2006-04-05T23:15:00.000+01:00

Guyana Gal asked about my dinner pics, well lately I've either been eating out (a lot, sad to say) or eating my own version of fast food (soups and fruit, frozen meals that I cook myself and freeze for times when I am in a hurry or a juicy steak inside a bun).
Tonight I was getting myself some soup for the next few days when I got this view of my own kitchen.

Tags:photo

Whirling around like mad

2006-04-04T19:54:00.000+01:00

A friend and loving father lost his temper and slapped his 4 years old daughter way too hard, a friend's boyfriend beat her up, another friend of ours found out his girlfriend, with whom he lives for several years now, has been cheating on him, several relatives have been needing assistance, two of my nieces had their birthday parties last weekend and tomorrow is dad's birthday (against all odds and all the doctors best prognosis he is doing fine now, considering he has overcome prostate cancer, a major brain hemorrhage, heart problems, lungs problems and he is doing dialysis).
Add to that tons of work every day.

Sorry, I know I usually don't start ranting on personal issues, but just this once I really felt like letting some of the steam off.
The worst part really was dealing with that friend off ours who got beat.
Sadly I've come across several abuse situations over the years, nonetheless I haven't learned how to deal with it yet.
What makes someone get mad to the point of getting physical with a loved one?
And how can someone endure abuse and still live with the abuser, and still sleep with the abuser...
I've talked this over with GH, as we do with all issues, and none of us can understand how people can take that kind of treatment.
Nowadays domestic violence is a public crime in Portugal, so anyone who knows about it must report it, yet the victim in this case tried to hide it from everybody and begged me not to report it.
Against my own principles I've agreed to let it go if and only if she would move back to her own house. But should she forgive him, what shall I do? This is bothering me more than I can make you understand, letting this go is wrong, but at the same time dragging her into court would be terrible too.
Sometimes it feels the whole world really is going insane.

game B

2006-03-29T18:03:00.000+01:00

Does any of you remember the first electronic games with an easy version - game A - and a harder one - game B ?
Well, this is Su Doku’s game B !!! And unlike the original one, this one is becoming very addictive to me.
Give it a try!

true to my love

2006-03-28T15:56:00.000+01:00

Some friends started making jokes on account of me being true to Good Half in spite of the distance between us... to give you folks a hint the hands on this picture are hers.
Well, let me put it this way: if I were to trade the greatest wife ever for the first gal passing by I would in fact deserve to be shot.

two weights, two measures

2006-03-27T19:53:00.000+01:00

Last week started with Portugal sending back to Brasil some 200 illegal immigrants and ended with Canada sending back to Portugal some 200 illegal immigrants.
Hard has it may be on those families affected, there are international laws that must be respected and those who risk working in another country without documentation know what their chances are.
In a way I feel sorry for those who search for a better life and get their dreams destroyed, but such is life. When one decides to go against the law there is always the chance that person will be caught, and I agree immigration must in fact be controlled lest the impact is destructive to the economy of the host countries.
The thing that is puzzling me though is the fact that so far most people around here seem to agree with immigration control when it comes to those guys from Brasil, people know they come here and work for lower wages and longer hours and Portuguese workers either work for less or they will loose their jobs to illegal aliens (from Brasil, from Africa, from the Eastern European countries, etc...). But the same people who say our country can't support the huge number of illegal aliens we already have seem to have a different opinion when our countrymen ARE the illegal aliens elsewhere.
I've just been accused of lack of empathy today, because I pointed out to some co-workers this discrepancy. Maybe so, maybe they have more empathy, selective empathy that is...

Back from the dead

2006-03-26T18:14:00.000+01:00

It's fixed.
No major damage in fact, just the power supply unit.
Had things been a little easier these last few days I could have fixed it before, but family and work issues kept getting in the way.
What is it you people always say about only childs?
True enough we get all the prezzies when we are kids, true enough we are the center of attention when we are kids. But when parents get older and need assistance there is no one else to share the burden. When there are other relatives who also need assistance and don't have kids... Well, I guess you get the picture.
Not that I am complaining about their needs, I do it gladly, it just gets very time consuming sometimes.
Well, let me run a few tests more on this machine and then I can start catching up on your writings.

F-ing power surge...

2006-03-19T17:19:00.000Z

...damaged my home computer.
Posting will be resumed when I get some time to fix the machine.
Kind of expected I guess, Murphy's Law, ya know...

Featured photo

2006-03-13T16:19:00.000Z

Another one of GH's. This was on board of an oceanographic vessel somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic. Sorry for the lack of posts, things haven't been exactly easy these last few days.

Tags:photo

Talking about Doom's day...

2006-03-09T18:45:00.000Z

Did you read "The Bible Code"?
If you did, do you remember when was the nuclear holocaust predicted?
Yes! This is the year! 2006! Talk about calling a bluff... I wonder how the author will sound in 2007?!
After Brendan McKay having answered Drosnin's famous rept "When my critics find a message about the assassination of a prime minister encrypted in Moby Dick, I'll believe them" by finding several such predictions in Moby Dick PLUS several rabbis in War and Peace, after even the mathematicians who Drosnin used as source having pulled the rug under his predictions, what credibility will this guy have next year?(link)
And let us all face it, the man is in a loose-loose situation: if he is proven wrong we skeptics will have a great laugh on him, if he was right the world as we know it will end. Well, there is always the profit he made with his books, but if he happens to be right there will be nowhere to spend it either.

Planet of the Apes?

2006-03-08T17:10:00.000Z

Although I am definitely not one to see signs of doom or prophetic messages, this story about the bird flu virus (H5N1) being found on cats brought to mind Planet of the Apes. That part of the story about all the pets dying of a strange disease and people taking up monkeys as pets…
Still news isn’t very clear yet and it seems only one cat really tested positive for bird flu.
Some news also report that it seems the cats managed to fight the virus, if this turns out to be exact it may be proof that in order to ‘survive’ the virus may become less virulent and thus less deadly.

Not quite dooced

2006-03-07T14:35:00.000Z

But no more posts for the workplace.
And for the time being it is a matter of option.
I've just seen data from traffic analysis. Over a thousand users blogging or accessing blogs. The bandwidth wasted and the use times are enormous.
Of course each user probably thinks that the time spent surfing blogs is no big deal, but in a large organization it builds up to something considerable.
For now nobody is checking who is doing what, and probably nobody will. Still the access to blogs will probably be filtered soon. And yes, if you are wondering I agree it should be filtered and for the most part blocked.
True enough I only used to blog from work when I had some spare time, but with so many people blogging and/or reading blogs there I bet the same didn’t apply to everybody. This may of course affect my daily posting, I don’t think I will always get home in the mood for blogging, surely not in the days when I get home in the wee hours of dawn… But after watching the global picture I think it is for the best and I couldn’t take a different decision.

It morphed!

2006-03-05T17:33:00.000Z

The egg seemed to have hatched some kind of flamingo, but it wasn't a flamingo! It changed! It seems to be some kind of gryphon after all!

Cherry kiss

2006-03-03T13:43:00.000Z

Here’s to NML and all those who can’t drink alcohol:

3oz cherry juice
1 ¾ oz pineapple juice
1oz lemon juice
¾ oz cherry syrup

Mix it all in a shaker with plenty of ice, pour down into a tall glass and garnish with a piece of pineapple and a cherry.

Have a nice weekend everybody.

The Cloaked Man

2006-03-02T18:31:00.000Z

I got the idea for this post from Ale and all her nonsense about me being the King of Portugal. She is an American and surely unfamiliar with the fact that our current King is but a ~~twat~~ joke, so I didn't take that comment as an insult.
Instead it brought to mind an old legend immortalized by a memorable fado song: o Fado do Embuçado.

Noutro tempo a Fidalguia
Que deu brado nas toiradas
E andava p'la Mouraria
Em muito palácio havia
Descantes e Guitarradas

A história que eu vou contar
Contou-me certa velhinha
Certa vez que eu fui cantar
Ao salão de um Titular
Lá para o Paço da Rainha

E nesses salão doirado
De ambiente Nobre e sério
Para ouvir cantar o Fado
Ia sempre um Embuçado
Personagem de mistério.

Mas certa noite ouve alguém
Que lhe disse, erguendo a fala:
- Embuçado, nota bem:
Que hoje não fique ninguém
Embuçado nesta sala!

E ante a admiração geral
Descobriu-se o Embuçado
Era El-Rei de Portugal
Houve beija-mão real
E depois cantou-se o Fado

The Noble Peers of yore
Who exulted in the bullfights
And who strode the Moorish neighborhood
In many palaces there was
Decants and playing

The story I’m about to tell
Was told to me by an old Lady
Once when I was singing
At the hall of a Nobleman
Near the Queen’s Palace

And in that golden hall
Of noble atmosphere
To listen to the Fado
A Cloaked Man was always present
Character of mystery

Then one night someone said
To him, raising the voice:
-Mind you Cloaked Man:
Nobody shall stay today
Cloaked in this room!

For general astonishment
The Cloaked Man revealed himself
He was the King of Portugal
People kissed his hand
And then Fado was sung.