Allergies?!?

Since ever I remember that I suffer from Allergies... this is a problem that affects most adults and children nowadays. Here you can find a quick guide on how to deal with this problem in a practical manner. Do not miss it! It was written by myself.... :-S But translation credits go to Dehumanizer as well as technical aspects.

Impossible...

because...

Every noble work is at first impossible.
Thomas Carlyle

but a life without a dream isn't worth it...

and improving my English also looks dificult!!!!

Return from Vacations

As you might imagine I returned from vacations a long time ago (at least it feels like...) but due to huge amount of work I didn't found any time left to write here!

The week at the resort was great, I read a lot and played with my baby :) Also I got less white, despite my mates opinion on the contrary, I'm sure I did it! well, at least I look better now :P
By the way, the resort was in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Quite an interesting place, although I only went out of the resort for a visit to "Altos de Chavón", where scenes from "Apocalypse Now" and "Rambo" were filmed, and for a boat ride to "Isla Catalina", a small island with an incredible coral reef, making it very popular for snorkeling and diving.

Time with family was great too, the party last for two days always eating a lot :)

But it is over now, and I became the "Ant" again...

The ant is knowing and wise...

"A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in." Robert Orben

...but he doesn't know enough to take a vacation.
I hope I won't be the Ant...

I'm going on two weeks vacation, first week will be in a resort and second week I'll go to Alentejo to join family in the baptism of my cousin's 3 little ducks. Yes, he's been blessed with 3 at once, or cursed :S it depends on the point of view :)

I hope both will be happy hours, although on the first week I'm going to paradise of dolce fare niente, and with myprecioouuussss :)

on the second week I'll have my mother nearby, and yes, I still love to have her around sometimes, although I'm twenty fourteen :P, and I’ll also be in one of those rare moments of all family together, due to the fact that we are a large family it isn't that easy...

I also hope to get a healtier look, I'm so goddamn white!

Educate the children...

"Educate the children and it won't be necessary to punish the men." Pythagoras

Although I love my baby more than anything else in the world, I’m on the opinion that doesn’t mean gives him everything he asks/cries for. But it looks like I'm not understood by the adults themselves... and I'm not talking about family, but strangers!

The last episode happened today in the restaurant while I'm in a small vacation in Algarve. I went to the restaurant, where there are those appealing machines with large balls with toys inside that all the kids want. Usually I give him one and that's it! I don't deny everything, he's only 2 year old baby...

but after the meal he started asking me another one! And the answer was a straight “NO, you already have one”.

Then I turned my attention on something else and suddenly he was near me, big smile, with another toy! A man comes across the table where I was sitting and gave him the toy! A total stranger! At the moment I reacted saying "thanks sir", but I know that I didn't have nothing to thank at all!!! But what should I have done?

Till now I keep asking myself, but I don't know the answer... I just know I should have returned the toy, but I did not... I wasn’t guided by reason, but by emotions… one should thank someone that gives us something?... not here I guess.

Sensuality... Mmh, yes.

Talking about sensuality on my other blog: Unawen, I suddenly realized I never spoke here about one of my favorite singers, maybe the favorite singer: Kate Bush.

I knew her trough this album, The Sensual World.

In this album Kate Bush reflects the most heavenly views of love, her most intimate and charming effort, a romantic, frolicking over lust and love, but also a lover of life and its spirituality.

She also reveals a spirit of strength and independence like in "Love and Anger”, features blistering riffs by her mentor: David Gilmour, guitarist and vocalist with Pink Floyd.

Pink Floyd, which, by the way, I only started to really listen to very recently because of a very dear friend that made me take another vision of their music and the story behind it, thanks :)

She also has a peculiar look toward the future, she appears to look beyond what's present and find a peculiar celestial atmosphere in which human beings do exist. But she also keeps her feet on the ground and speaks about technology, like on "Deeper Understanding" track.

I share here "The Sensual World" lyrics, my favorite :)

Mmh, yes,

Then I’d taken the kiss of seedcake back from his mouth
Going deep south, go down, mmh, yes,
Took six big wheels and rolled our bodies
Off of howth head and into the flesh, mmh, yes,

He said I was a flower of the mountain, yes,
But now I’ve powers o’er a woman’s body, yes.

Stepping out of the page into the sensual world.
Stepping out...

To where the water and the earth caress
And the down of a peach says mmh, yes,
Do I look for those millionaires
Like a machiavellian girl would
When I could wear a sunset? mmh, yes,

And how we’d wished to live in the sensual world
You don’t need words--just one kiss, then another.

Stepping out of the page into the sensual world
Stepping out, off the page, into the sensual world.

And then our arrows of desire rewrite the speech, mmh, yes,
And then he whispered would i, mmh, yes,
Be safe, mmh, yes, from mountain flowers?
And at first with the charm around him, mmh, yes,
He loosened it so if it slipped between my breasts
He’d rescue it, mmh, yes,
And his spark took life in my hand and, mmh, yes,
I said, mmh, yes,
But not yet, mmh, yes,
Mmh, yes.

Come here let me clip your wings!

...
writing a letter to you
didn't make me feel any more peaceful than how I felt when we weren't speaking
because I didn't cop to what I did.
I can't love you becaused we're supposed to have professional boundaries.
I'd like you to be schooled and in awe as though you were kissed by god full on the lips.
I'm in the front row the front row with popcorn
I get to see you see you close up
(I'm too tired to recount the unpleasantries one by one one minute I want to banish you the next I want to be on a deserted island with you with my three favorite cd's
ambivalent in your bed we've yet to acknowledge what really happened)
Slid into the ditch I have this overwhelming loss of amibition
we said let's name thirty good reasons why we shouldn't be together
I started by saying things like "you smoke" "you live in new jersey (too far)"
you started saying things like "you belong to the world"
all of which could have been easily refuted
but the conversation was hypothetical
I am totally short of breath for you
why can't you shut your stuff off...
I'm in the front row the front row with popcorn
I get to see you see you close up
and I laughed until my lungs hurt
I love how you bust my chops
You don't always feel seen
Sometimes you feel erasable unfortunately I cannot reciprocate in my current state
I think we should be careful of how much time we spend together
.....for a while while i'm speaking
you know how much you hate to be interrupted maybe spend some time alone fill up your proverbial cup so that it doesn't always about you
I've been wanting your undivided attention I like the fact that you're nothing like me
Are you not burdened by the lack of perspective people have of your charmed life (seemingly)?
I'm in the front row the front row with popcorn
I get to see you see you close up
you never meant to be ungrateful
nor held up to be whipped or wept for certainly not analysed
prodded at more ways than one apparently you've been misrepresented
dealing with the concept of arrows being slung towards your outrageous fortune
Hey I'm not mad at you guardian
I'm mad at myself for spending so much time with you and your jeckyl and hydeness
i'm glad i firguratively slapped you on the wrist
you laughed a wicked laugh and said "come here let me clip your wings!"
(I know he's blood but you can still turn him away you don't own him
anything)
"raise the roof he yelled "yeah raise the roof!" I yelled back.
(Unfortunately you needed a health scare to reprioritize.)
No thanks to the soap box
Having my rile against them won't make an ounce of difference...
I'm in the front row the front row with popcorn
I get to see you see you close up
Oh the things I've done for you
many a sitch a friend a man's been left for you
oh the books i've read for you
the tongues i've bitten for you many a new city for you
for you many a risk taken for you (not a single regret)

by Alanis Morissette

If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer.

Most people seem to be absolutely unable to say I don’t know. Impressive but true. Even if they don't know absolutely nothing about the subject, they always feel like they must give their opinion on it and say something like "I don't know anything about it, nontheless, I think that this and that!" Is it so hard to say "I can't give an opinion on it because I don't know what you're talking about."?

The Ocean...

Since I ever remember I always loved the Ocean, the voice of the waves against the rocks devastated by the wind...

Even on winter, I love to take a walk alongside the coast and bread the Ocean... I have no words that can explain the freedom I feel by doing this.

I'd love to live near the Ocean, but then I would have traffic Jam every day to get to work... even so, the idea appeals to me more and more every day, maybe... :)

Until that moment arrives, I dream about the sea and I visit it on whenever possible. My baby also loves it and already says: "Mummy, the waves are finished", when they reach the rocks of the coast :) Indeed he's right... they finish when they touch the ground, likewise dreams...

I leave here a poem from Madredeus, “The Sea”, the fragility of the sea is my strength...

"It's not a poem what i am going to say

Neither i know if it's worth to try to describe for you

The sea, the sea.

I have been standing here only to try to see it

and now I’m getting older without never understanding it.

The sea, the sea."

To move forward you will have to run twice as fast?

After a long time no read of children books, I got back to Alice, but not "Alice in Wonderland", that one I read it when I was about 13 years old, but "Through the Looking Glass".

Here she enters a world of chess pieces where everything is contrariwise, or not so much :)

If you take a deeper look, in this case read, it is not as contrariwise as it might look at first sight...
One of my favorite quotes of the book is the one where the red queen says:

"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that."

In answer to Alice's statement that they'd been running like hell for a long time and still remained on the same exact place.

For me this makes sense... call me weird... but I think that we have to move fast or we will be left in the same place if not somewhere backwards... and then we'll have to go all way forward again, likewise in Moebius "Gardens of Aedena".

Pretty Girls are stupid?

It is often said that “Pretty Girls are stupid”, will that be true? And if the answer is Yes, then Why?

Let’s enlarge the concept a little bit to “Good looking people are Stupid”, if that happens to be true, why does it happen?

The answer come easy, at the same time to me and a friend, when we were joking about this issue. It is human nature to be competitive, if you already happen have your image working for you, to be “more accepted”, why the extra effort? In opposite, people that don’t have such attributes, they have to fight more and compensate that in other manners, skills and qualities.

At the same time, this is not really true, people that are good looking, specially women, have to prove double when they want to compete on something, because of the “stupid pretty girl” label then works against them.

Once accused of being stupid blond girl, Marilyn Monroe said: “If I play a stupid girl and ask a stupid question I've got to follow it through. What am I supposed to do - look intelligent?”

And does anyone doubts she was an incredible actress? If so, why doesn’t any other “pretty blond girl” of the thousands in the world reached the success and what she did?

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes? I leave here a quote from that classic movie:

"Lorelei Lee: Don't you know that a man being rich is like a girl being pretty? You wouldn't marry a girl just because she's pretty, but my goodness, doesn't it help?"


Yes it helps, but don’t lay your trust on that.

Firefighters photos, as promised :)

We hurt the ones we love the most... Part 2

This is a sentence frequently used on the purpose of excusing our misbehavior with the ones that love us and are “always there”.

But is this really an acceptable excuse?

Will we always be forgiven and given a second chance? I don’t think so, not forever. Maybe once, maybe twice… but not forever.
The day will come when they give up on us and don’t care anymore.

As far as I’m concerned, I don’t take that someone hurts me, injuries me and even after clearly saw that I’m already broken, still continues putting me down because he loves me and cares about. I can take that once, and I myself make mistakes and also did it, but when I lookback; I do not hesitate to apologize and sincerely regret it, that I will not do it again.

I learn from my mistakes and I don’t wanna lose the ones that care about me and love me.

In Portugal there’s a quote that says

“You don’t need to say I’m sorry, you need to avoid having to say it”

thus meaning that you shall learn from your mistakes so next time you don’t have to say “I’m sorry”.

Me I have one a little bit longer. I say that when someone hurts us, it is like as if a screw was installed on “our door”, by removing them, the hole will still be there.

We hurt the ones we love the most...

I Don't Care - Shakespears Sister

Walking through the rooms in my head
I came across your image
You looked at me with that sweet smile and said
Something they won't let me repeat
We hurt the ones we love the most
It's a subtle form of compliment

I don't care if you talk about me
I don't care if you write it out in stone
Whenever I fall I land on my feet
I don't care, I just don't care, no

Mark the spot you hate with an X
Then shoot your bow and arrow
shoot your bow and arrow...
Do your worst get it all off your chest
I'll hold my breath and swallow
and swallow, swallow...
We hurt the ones we love the most
It's a subtle form of discipline

I don't care if you talk about me
I don't care if you write it out in stone
Whenever I fall I land on my feet
I don't care, I just don't care

I don't care if you act like a queen
I don't care if you take it out on me
I've got 9 lives and I land on my feet
I don't care, I just don't care

In a borealic iceberg came Victoria
Queen Victoria sitting
Shocked upon the rocking horse of a wave
Said to the Laureate
This minx of course as sharp as any lynx
And blacker deeper than the drinks
As any hottentot without remorse
For the minx said she
And the drinks you can see
Are hot as any hottentot
And not the goods for me
Hot as any hottentot
And not the goods for me

The particular behaviors that make an individual

Today a colleague of mine, whom I didn’t even knew, till today, that she had a blog, started kind of a chain, where you’re supposed to list five of your habits, very own personal behaviors, that exclusively distinguish you from everyone else, or at least that you expect to.
It is also required you to pass ahead this message by reproducing it on your own blog and the advise for the recruitment of 5 more bloggers, but she only did it for two :)

Although I also don’t particularly like chains, this is quite an exercise on reflection about you and your personal behavior therefore I found it interesting, so there it goes:

1. I like to go to bed late, not before midnight, and wake up not before 9 a.m. neither after 11 a.m. because it shortens the day. This always made it impossible for me either to attend early events, like classes at 8 a.m. at University, or early walks on the fields (those I manage to go a few times because I really like it), and still causes me trouble getting on time at workplace...
2. I love to read and I love books, and no, it is not a pleonasm. If someone lends me a book I’ll manage that I turn it back exactly the same way it was delivered to me and I expect the same behavior from the ones I lend my books to. One of these days I lent a book to a friend and he told me he was afraid he’d ruin the book and suffer the terrible consequences :) furthermore it was a book I was offered by someone very special to me, but this goes with any book.
3. I’m crazy about music and lyrics. I listen to new music every day and almost all the daily things remember me of some lyric I can point out to exemplify it. This bores to death those that never pay attention to music lyrics and just consume "pump it up" music. Life is only worth it if lived singing and dancing... and yes, I also I’m crazy about dancing. I practice STEP and I used to do Hip-Hop too.
4. I hate smoke in the house and closed spaces. I’m absolutely intransigent about it. Nobody smokes in my house, except on the window with a small ashtray I provide, neither on my car. I just can’t take the smell. I’m so goddamn crazy about this that I never dated someone who smokes, and not only because of the smell, but that’s another story.
5. I adore going bed with a warm glass of milk and a book. The greatest tenderness someone can do to me is taking me my glass of milk when I’m already in bed, It really touches me.

I could continue, but I reached my five, so it is time for someone else to go for it!

Come on! Look at yourself; it is always a good exercise ;)

Don’t want no short brain people!

For those who know me, I’ve never been a fat person, but I’m not thin or skinny at all, I’m what’s so called Average I guess. Of course my weight has not always been exactly the same over the years; I’ve had my Ups and Downs. Nevertheless, I never worried too much about it, since I always was in the allowed BMI (Body Mass Index) values, between 18,5 and 25 for women.

That changed when I got pregnant, I gained 21 Kg during my pregnancy! Yes, that’s a lot! It’s supposed to be about 12 Kg.
So when I had the baby (did I ever mention he's beautiful...?), my doctor kind of intimated me that I had to lose the extra weight or else he would call me fat girl instead of my real name, like hey fat girl! How are you today fat girl!? So I was sensitive to the arguments and started doing some dieting. As a result I was back to normal in about one year.

But this situation alerted me to the Fat People World drama; it is different worlds believe me. And do you know why? Because nowadays there’s that sort of binary pairing of fat, ugly on one side and beautiful, thin on the other. We kind of need Social Approval for our weight. The Fats will be ostracized like outsiders and victimized by social censure and fashion society.

If not yet convinced yet check this out:

1. Thin people can wear anything; super-thin models are the Super-Models of Stylists, right?

2. Thin people are not sensitive about their size. They are never called things such as obese or overweight. Does anybody ever walked to them and asked what size they wear? Or asked, "Hey, um, do you... eat?" You gotta lose some weight…! Are thin people’s figures exposed in a sarcastic or comical way?

3. Life is easier for thin people. They can find clothes in any fashion store without any problems and always fits.

So the next time you're tempted to give a fat person (or anyone else for that matter) some unsolicited advice about their appearance, remember the old adage, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

As far as I’m concerned, I think that there are much more important things to care about rather than fatness or appearance.

Do you know “Salt N Pepa” song lyrics “Don't want no short dick man”? Me I “don’t want no small brain people”!

“Iny weeny teeny weeny
Shriveled little short mind people
Don't want don't want don't want!
Get the fuck outta here!”

Bouche du Diable

I always loved BD, but due to the fact that my father always wrongly associated this sort of book with laziness in reading, I had to do it hidden from him, what was pretty difficult at that time… But I had an allied ;)

Recently a friend lent me a great BD form a French author, Charyn-Boucq: “Bouche du diable “.

About a soviet spy with a harelip that is rescued in is homeland, Ukraine and helped by is rescuers, they even offer him a decent face, how kind those soviets weren’t they?

Of course there’s the girl stuff in the story and as always she betrays him, like in real life ;) Women are evil, beware!

The draws are fantastic, from the Ukrainian plains to the underground New York, with a lot of industrial and catacombs of Paris look like draws.

Funtastic :)

Thank ABBA For The Music...

I’m nothing special, in fact I’m a bit of a bore
If I tell a joke, you’ve probably heard it before
But I have a talent, a wonderful thing
’cause everyone listens when I start to sing
I’m so grateful and proud
All I want is to sing it out loud

So I say
Thank you for the music, the songs I’m singing
Thanks for all the joy they’re bringing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me

Mother says I was a dancer before I could walk
She says I began to sing long before I could talk
And I’ve often wondered, how did it all start?
Who found out that nothing can capture a heart
Like a melody can?
Well, whoever it was, I’m a fan

So I say
Thank you for the music, the songs I’m singing
Thanks for all the joy they’re bringing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me

I’ve been so lucky, I am the girl with golden hair
I wanna sing it out to everybody
What a joy, what a life, what a chance!

So I say
Thank you for the music, the songs I’m singing
Thanks for all the joy they’re bringing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me

Play with Fire

As a part of the Internal Emergency Plan (IEP) for the Airport area buildings (did I ever mentioned I work in the Airport Area?... well, if not before, now I did mentioned), as I was saying, as a part of the IEP, I was chosen to be in the IEP team for my building and therefore have specific training on Firefight, 12 hours (6 theory plus 6 practice). I must say that was an exciting experience and most of all, learning one, not only on the thought subjects but also on respecting Firefighters work.

One might think that “is only put some water on the fire” but it is not, it gets physical strength and most of all, self-control and respect for the fire and you team mates. During the training we “played with fire” and with fire one shall not play… but we did and it was fun thoughtful experience.

The theory class was very important because we learned a lot about fire and how it is classified:
1. Class A fires involve materials such as wood, paper, and cloth which produce glowing embers or char.
2. Class B fires involve flammable gases, liquids, and greases, including gasoline and most hydrocarbon liquids which must be vaporized for combustion to occur.
3. Class C fires involve fires in live electrical equipment or in materials near electrically powered equipment.
4. Class D fires involve combustible metals, such as magnesium, zirconium, potassium, and sodium.

Extinguishers will be selected according to the potential fire hazard, the construction and occupancy of facilities, hazard to be protected, and other factors pertinent to the situation.

But the most fun I must confess it was the practice day we had at the Firefighters in Trafaria.

We really did the exercises of extinguish and Rescue procedures, I will maybe make some photos available here in a few days for you to “get the picture”.

SeeMeRot – Buried six feet underground, but with a camera!

Do you miss that special friend, relative, enemy, whatever, that passed over? Do not anymore! Now you can watch him/her organic decomposition “real-time” here!