The XX - Intro

Just a wonderful song I found ;)
And, all of a sudden, I'm a fan of The XX... I've never paid much attention to them until now, but I admit they have some amazing songs and a style of their own. People always say their songs are "sexy" and I actually think it's true. His voice and the beat, it all is kind of sexy ;)

Artist: The XX
Song: Intro
Album: XX
All Rights Reserved.

Happy 2012 ;)

A brand new year, a brand new start. Our deepest wishes renewed by the excitement of a fresh start. A new chance to be, to achieve, to feel what each one of us desires. Let's take it. Let's make this our year. Let's greet every single one of these 366 days with the best of us.

It starts now :)

I wish you all a wonderful new year!

Order in chaos

"If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. The more things you do, the more you can do."

Lucille Ball

It's a fact that people work much harder under pressure and as the end of this first semester in college comes to an end, I start to fully understand this quotation. As more and more things get out of control, I find myself with much more energy and determination, able to do twice as much as all I felt too tired to do in the beginning of the semester.

It's all a matter of setting yourself to do something, and finding in all the chaos and stress the motivation to run and get things done.

Warmness

Something I just stumbled on and stared at thinking "That was exactly what I needed to hear...":

As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep it.

Mahatma Gandhi

My latest theory is that everyone needs comforting things or people around, along with challenging stuff. Just to make sure that life doesn't get neither too monotonous nor too cold.

What I'll be listening to this whole month

Why can't I just accept that having my cat bathing on my desk while I'm studying is completely normal?

Slap in the face

Hello!! This has been a quite busy week and today I'm so exausted that I can't do anything other than blogging and sleeping.

College has been even more challenging than I expected it to be. I've never been much of a social person and now I belong to a class of 60 lovely, caring people, not to mention a whole family of hundreds of Biological Engineering students. It's really new to me, but I'm loving it. I really have to dedicate a post to my new relationship with people... but not today, sorry!

On what comes to tests and evaluation, things get a bit worse. I know from the beggining that I should aim as high as possible - and I'm also aware that I am far from perfection. I knew I wouldn't be the best from the first day to the last, but I did not expect things to be THIS bad. I may be overeacting (I don't think so, but it is possible, I admit it), but this first test (Algebra, last Tuesday) made me realize how hard I have to work to get to where I want to be. Just another thing college taught me...

yours,
millou

What about writing a letter to your future self?

If you have never tried this, you really should: http://www.futureme.org/

It's so weird to place your present self before a future self you don't know, and realizing how you expect it to be... You certainly want to be skinnier, to have better marks, to have a nice job, or something else... Will you really be like that?
And what will your future self think of your present self?
Weird... but interesting.

College: first week review

Looking back to who I was a week ago and who I am now, I can only say :O

This first week was something I had never experienced before. My feet sank on disgusting mud, I screamed until my voice was gone and I wore the same t-shirt 5 days in a row. I feel like a man now.

Of course this first week of college was disgusting, unpleasant and tough. But it was also the funniest and the most instructive I've ever had in my life - and I really mean it. In five days I was taught that sometimes priorities change and it no longer matters if you're sweating like a horse; and that nothing is ever too tough for you to do it. As long as you want it, you can always go a little further: scream a little louder, run a little faster or try a little harder. Always.

yours,

millou

Deep Breath

Hello, hello...

A lot happened these last days and I'm not sure if I even know where to start... Well, I guess I would have to say this before anything else:

YEAH, I'M IN!!

GET READY, BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING...

I'm sooo excited, I have no idea of what's going to happen now! I'm in, okay, but that's only the beginning. Now I'm going to a place where I'm no longer an high-school teen... just when I started to learn how to be an high-school teen. I suppose it means I'm ready (and I do feel ready) but, still, it's somewhat scary. I don't know how students are, how teachers are, how I'm supposed to be, to study, to work... Definitely scary. But, on the other hand... it's a fresh start!!! New people, new challenges, new everything. New me, I guess. I love fresh starts and I'm sure I'll love this one even more.

Now, before going to college and developing into a new and better self, I would really like to finish some of the things I've been trying to do all my Summer holidays - and, guess what... I have no time! I had three months and, nine days before college starts, I remembered I have no time left. Summer holidays are always the same... So, now more than ever, I'll be so stressed that I'll finally be able to do in a couple of days what I couldn't do in three months (three months!!). I don't know if it works the same way with you, but there are some things I can only do under pressure. Free time makes people lazy :P

yours,

millou

Did you know...

... Muse's lovely song "Bliss" actually refers to a theory Matthew Bellamy has about the evolution of mankind into a man/machine hybrid?

Yup. I'm surprised as well. Bliss is one of my favorite songs by Muse (love the beginning!) and it sounds definitely adorable. However, according to an article NME Magazine published, including an interview with the band, the song refers to a Matthew Bellamy's belief that mankind will evolve into a man/machine hybrid and that it will be possible to download personalities into your own, therefore obtaining "all the peace and joy" in someone's mind.

Lovely, isn't it?

P.S - Love his hair in the video clip. Stunning!

yours,

millou

Sir Winston Churchill

I've spent these last days working on a page about Winston Churchill. Why? I didn't know much about him, but he seemed to be a pretty inspiring man - now, I'm sure he is one of the most talented statesmen ever. His speeches are amazing and his strategical thinking is completely stunning.

What surprised me the most, among all the stuff I found out about Churchill, was his childhood. His father died at the age of 45 and his mother kept from him and his brother (yes, he had a brother, Jack! I had no idea of this as well!) the truth about their father's will. The money he left their sons was spent by their mother on her second marriage!

Wanna know more? I suggest you take a look at the biography I made :P

P.S - On the bottom of the page, vote for your favorite Churchill quote and, by the way, feel free to leave a comment :)

yours,

millou

Sisters!

Maybe I love my cat so much because I don't have any siblings and she* sometimes acts as my little sister. Tita (that's my cat's name) was my birthday gift when I turned two and she has always been convinced that I'm her older sister: whatever belongs to me - my bed, my wardrobe, my chair - belongs to her as well. With humans it must be the most annoying thing, but with cats it is adorable!

The best thing about cats (you'll agree if you've ever had one) is that adorable snoring. I love resting my head on her, as if she was a pillow, and just listen to her snoring and feeling her chest up and down at the rhythm of her breath! It's so lovely!

About the photo above, it was shot this afternoon, while I was sunbathing and my cat joined me and sat down on my - forgive me, our - towel. The usual.

* In Portuguese we refer to our pets as "he" or "she", so referring to my cat as "it" is simply too strange. I'll just call her "she". My apologies, everyone.

yours,

millou

Lisbon photos

If you live in an old city, you've probably noticed how many times people pass by beautiful, amazing places without noticing them. Rossio Square is one of the most beautiful places in Lisbon's downtown and I often pass it by without actually seeing the fountains and the 18th century architecture - today, however, I wanted my daily 30-day challenge shot to be taken at Rossio and I just stopped and stared.

yours,

millou

30-day challenge photo: Day 6

Photograph taken in Cascais, Portugal, by twilight. Click the image to see the original size ;)

yours,
millou

30-day challenge photos: which one is the best?

Hey! For those of you who don't know, I'm following a 30-day plan to get rid of some of my worst habits (and also to learn new things). Among other stuff, I'll be taking a picture everyday, trying to make each one better than the previous ones.

Since yesterday I didn't post the Day 2 photo (I've been to a music festival with a friend and we discovered how awesome James are!!!), I decided to make a little survey to check your opinion of these photos. Here they are:

Day 2 photo: Old Book Pile

Day 3 photo: Switcher

So, which one of these is your favorite, and why?

yours,

millou

World Photography Day

Hello, everyone!

Today is the World Photography Day. This has been celebrated for the last 20 years or so, on August 19th, bringing photographers from all over the world together.

Why this day?

On August 19th 1839, the French government announced the invention of the Daguerreotype as a gift "free  to the world". Still in the year of 1839 another photographic processes was also invented - the Calotype. These two events mark 1839 as the year of the invention of photography.

Why was photography invented?

Well, during the Industrial Revolution, the middle-class became very fond of portraits. Oil panting  was too expensive and slow, so photography emerged as a much more efficient method of capturing images.

Learn more about the History of Photography right here.

yours,

millou

30-day challenge: Day 1

Hello!

Today is Day 1, the first day I'll be putting into practice an advice I found on a blog I follow - a 30-day challenge.

So, what is this 30-day challenge, and why am I doing it?

It is very simple: for 30 days in a row, I'll be changing some of my bad habits. For example, one of my main goals is to jog every morning, so that I stop being so lazy about physical exercise. Doing this everyday, for 30 days, will make sure that the habit stays with me long after the challenge is over.

What really made me do this was a question asked in the post I read: what do you want to be like in 5 years? I want to be so many things that I am not nowadays that I understood it was time to do something about it - and why not this challenge?

So, I made a list of activities I think that should be a part of my daily life - like jogging every morning, having cold (well, fresh, at least...) showers, religiously taking care of my lovely cat and working on a novel, on this blog and on my Squidoo lenses - or simply things I want to become better at, like taking photos.

Here's my Day 1 photo, presented to you as a trophy, a proof of my success so far:

Click here to read the post that inspired me.

yours,
millou

Yeah, it looks different... What do you think?

Hi, everyone! I changed my blog design and I'm hoping a feedback :P

I created a poll you can find on the top of the page. Please vote, I would love to know your opinion!

yours,

millou

Did you know...

... you're not supposed to use knives to eat eggs?

That's right. According to my research, the side of a fork will do just fine to cut soft, delicious eggs. I must confess I always act like a savage and intuitively cut the eggs with a knife, but that's me. I actually agree with etiquette makers, there's no need of a knife to cut something as soft as an omelet.

So, the next time you see this

in front of you, fear nothing: keep your back straight, the napkin on your lap and do NOT touch the knife ;)

yours,

millou

Entrepreneurship and success

I just saw a documentary about John Jacob Astor, presented as the richest man in America, back in his time. He grew up in Germany as a poor child, starving for a couple of times, and discovered his salesman abilities in London, where he began selling music instruments made by his brother. He then moved to North America and became the first multi-millionaire by trading furs and renting lands to New Yorkers.

This made me think a lot. I want to be rich. I'm not thinking of being the richest person of my time, but I want to have enough money to live comfortably and, sometimes, do something eccentric. I also want to leave a fortune and other kind of legacy to my children and grandchildren, so that I won't be forgotten (a really cool thing would be to build this kind of castle where I would have a gigantic library, with documents about me and the whole family).

So, I asked myself: what made Mr. Astor this rich?

Here are some of the answers I found:

1. Knowledge of what it's like to be poor

One thing I noticed was that many of the people who make a huge fortune during their lives were poor when they were children. Being also raised in a poor family, John Astor starved in his childhood and probably thought to himself "I have to do something about this. This is not how I want to live.". That's important, I think, but obviously not every poor person becomes a multi-millionaire, so there has to be something else...

2. Entrepreneurship

John Jacob Astor had an extraordinary ability to recognize profitable situations and he was always looking for more - maybe this is the most important combination when it comes to be successful. When his ship to the USA got stuck in the ice, he was the only passenger who didn't wait for the ice to melt: he crossed the ice and walked for about a week to reach his destination. Later in his life, he founded the first city in the Western coast of North America, called Astoria after him. Also, his sensibility for profitable deals becomes obvious when he buys land around New York, predicting the city's growth.

3. Rationality

If John Astor was sometimes seen as a cold, heartless man, more of a money-making machine than a human being, his rationality allowed him to carefully analyze every situation, learn from mistakes and create a huge, super-profitable empire. He is criticized for not having donated much money to charity, but the truth is that he was just too busy making profit.

I think this man is a great example of success for everyone. The recipe looks quite simple - dedication, analysis and lack of fear - but, even though I know it isn't, I'll be trying to put it into practice.


yours,
millou

"You don't have to be great to start something, but you do have to start to become great at it."

Loved it!

Always desire to learn something useful.

Sophocles

Learning new things is always a wonderful plan for summer holidays. Photography, cooking, ancient History, whatever you like. Begin today, make yourself a little bit richer. Why not?

How to make awesome chocolate chip cookies

Everybody loves cookies, and I obviously am no exception. I've told you before I'm starting to develop my cooking skills, and I'm proud to announce that, in less than three weeks, I turned this into this:

I used a recipe of a magazine my grandmother saved and adapted it a bit to my idea of chocolate chip cookies. Here it is (adapted):

Ingredients you'll need:

whole grain flour - 400g

brown sugar - 150g

butter - 150g

baking powder - 1 tea spoon

eggs (use only the egg white) - 3

chocolate chips - 90g

Directions:

Preheat the oven and, in a bowl, mix the butter, the sugar, the egg white, the flour and the baking powder. Use your hands to mix everything until it's brownish and a little wet. Add the chocolate chips and mix a little bit more, just to make sure they're evenly dispersed.

Now shape little balls of the size of a nut, press them to make them flat and place them in the baking sheet. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes and voilà, you have a perfect chocolate chip cookie!

Some minutes ago I saw a French videoclip in MCM and it caught my atention. Not the song itself, which was neither unbearable nor exactly pleasant, but the videoclip, the little movie. I couldn't get the whole idea, but it had that je ne sais quoi that made me want to shape it into a story of mine - dispersed ideas, here and there.

At that time I felt that thrill of "seeing" something, but now I'm facing a serious problem I have for weeks, maybe even for months: I have the ideas but I can't work them, shape them to form an original work. I'm not sure why! Maybe laziness, maybe lack of technique, maybe both - I don't know, but I will solve it.

Why we should ALL love The Lord of The Rings

If, one day, I have kids, I will tell them the story of The Lord of the Rings every night. First of all, every one in the world has to know this story. It can never die. Second, they need to admire and learn from the characters like I did.

The Lord of the Rings is not just an happy-ending fairy tale, the battle between good and bad. I must confess I've seen the films over and over again (and I saw The Two Towers again yesterday!) and I always find something new there - trust, anger, courage, revenge, anything. It's even more interesting than it seems and there are so many things to learn from it that no one can ever get tired of it.

I think that what I like the most in The Lord of the Rings is the fact that Frodo is NOT an hero. Yeah, he saves the whole planet from Sauron and the bad guys, but he's just a little hobbit, with hair on his feet and weakened by greed, just like everybody else. He was not meant to be the one who destroyed the ring, he is not the son of a great king, like Aragorn, nor a gracious and superior elf, like Legolas. He only destroys the ring because he realizes what is at stake and he makes a decision. Even when he's close from giving up, when he doesn't believe he can make it, he carries on (Sam plays a huge role there, also - he is loyalty in person), just like we do when we're running and we're so tired that we can't even see, hear or think anything, but we just keep moving our legs because we want to finish the race.

That's the first teaching I take from The Lord of the Rings. Believe me, I could be here posting about it for a week, but I simply advise you to see (again) the three films, because there is no other master piece like that. It is brilliantly made and the story itself has no equal. Here you have the most epic scene I've ever seen on a TV screen, just to remind you of how great a film it is:

(I also advise you to download the soundtrack of the three films. It's simply overwhelming.)

yours,

millou

Finally fulfilling one of my biggest dreams...

I deeply believe in my cooking talents - I simply don't get to use them that often. I've always wanted to be a great cook and, in these last days, I've been trying to put it into practice.

My grandmother and great-grandmother's recipes - specially cakes and cookies recipes - are resting in our living room since last summer and today, as I stared at all of Pingo Doce's cookies, I finally decided to cook something.

The initial plan was to make some biscuits with honey but I got the amounts wrong (because we have no kitchen scale!), so I decided to simply add some chocolate and... well, see if it worked.

I burnt the cookies a little too much, but I think it turned out pretty okay. I served them with black tea and my parents liked it (my proof: they ate them all).

I'll have to make those cookies again within a few days but, until then, I'm planning to make some noisette potatoes and a pineapple ice-cream. I dream of making pineapple ice-cream since I remember being alive, so this is the time. I'm going to cook EVERYTHING I've always wanted to cook. Now.

Here's today's breakfast

Here's a wrap I made for today's breakfast. Delicious :)

I bought the wrap and toasted it for a few minutes - not too much, otherwise the wrap won't be soft and you can't handle it without breaking it.

Then I just added sweet corn, lettuce, carrots, purple cabbage and chicken. It is a brilliant breakfast, believe me. I wanted to take a nice shot of it, just to show you, but I was starving so I had to stick to the one above (you can see it is bitten, I wasn't able to resist it...).

The world is a perfect place to be! Classes in Técnico are NOT from 8AM to 6PM :D

I went there again today to ask some questions (the day before yesterday I found it closed) and they explained me everything. It is kind of hard to explain how time-tables work, but it actually makes sense.  We have much more independence and we have to control our lives much more than high school students. - but that we already know... I'm going to love it so much!

Yesterday I went to Instituto Superior Técnico, which may be my college in the next year. The reception (where I wanted to go) was already closed but, once I got completely lost, I took a look around. It's old, that's obvious, but it is much bigger than I thought. I found some students in the gardens testing a robot (probably made by them) and I thought it was so awesome!

People are focused on their own things, that's the idea I have. They talk to each other and their social life isn't dead, but it's different. They look busier than kids in high school, which is normal. I saw some of the time-tables of Biological Engineering classes in their first year of college and I'm scared. Really. They have classes from 8AM to 6PM. Ten hours. That means my life won't be much more than sleeping, studying and eating, at least in the beginning. I know I will be a true zombie after the first week. After the first tree days. That's my prediction. And then, some weeks later, I'll get used to it.

That's the terrible part of college. There is also the wonderful part - you're doing what you love, surrounded by people who also love it and who are as seriously into it as you. It has to be an amazing feeling. It will be a shock, I'm sure, but I know I'll like it.

I just HAVE to say this

This has been stuck in my heart for almost seven months and I simply have to let it out. I was falling asleep, I suddenly remembered this and felt I had to turn on my laptop to write this in secret (uhhh).

All I have to say is a huge THANK YOU to a boy whose name I've never found out. I saw him on the Thirty Seconds to Mars concert in Lisbon, last December: we both had bought a Meet and Greet pass and we were the first two in the line of people waiting to go inside the M&G room. He was ahead of me, alone, just I was - so he was probably a huge fan too - and he simply let me go inside first. He stepped aside and he let me go inside first. We didn't know if they were already there, we didn't know anything. And still, he, the unknown boy who also loved Thirty Seconds to Mars, stepped aside to let me go inside first. It was one of the kindest things anyone has ever done to me and all I could say was thank you. Of course I thank him! He proved to me that there are still civilized people in Portugal and that boys are not a lost cause. He marked me much more than a gorgeous guy has ever done. Sooner or later, you forget the pretty faces, but I will never forget what he did. So yes, THANK YOU SO MUCH for being human, decent, kind and overwhelming. Really. You made me understand that it is okay to be romantic, dream of perfect people and chase ideals - and that's all I can expect from anyone. Now I understand the right thing to do was to kidnap you in the second you stepped aside and, since I didn't, all I have left to do is to honestly hope we meet again in another life.

yours,

millou

The Girl's Guide to Homelessness

I was browsing the web and I stumbled on a post with a wonderful reference to a girl who found herself homeless when she was only 23. She started blogging about it - here's her blog - and she ended up writing a book about her story.

She was a normal girl, went to college, had a work as an executive assistant she loved and, still, she became homeless - it only proves that it can happen to anyone. A wonderful story that I can't wait to explore.

I wanna go back down south

This song is so perfect for a trip to the Algarve... I've been thinking about it and I've started a story (not a short story, a romance type of thing) about how it feels like to go to the Algarve. I miss going back there, so I'm trying to reflect my dreams and wishes on that story. It's too much autobiographical, but I guess all stories are. You write based on your thoughts, fears, wishes and other emotions, so it always has a bit of yourself.

I'm going to write now. I hate talking about writing when all I want to do is write, so I really have to go.

P.S - I'm on a new routine - everyday, after drinking coffee and having breakfast, I'll do exercise for 30 minutes or an hour. I've started with 30 minutes today, but my goal is an hour every morning, plus some running with friends ;)

Hello :)

I'm sorry for my long absence, but I've been studying Maths as much as I can, and I've always felt either too busy or too exhausted to post. Today I realised how awfully shameful of me this absence has been, and I decided to post, even though it is the last day before the Maths exam. (Nope, I'm not too scared. Just a little bit...)

I've attended a political dinner of my favorite party, and I'm not quite sure of what to say about it. They were all friends and we were the outsiders, so it was kind of strange. I think I was expecting much more people like us, going to the dinner because they loved the party itself, not the people in it. Anyway, all we have to do is to start going more often to this kind of things, so that we get to know a few of them, at least. Then it all becomes easier.

Well, I think some of the speeches after the dinner made me think about my future. There are so many people who seemed so sure of what they wanted and committed to a certain path when they had my age, that sometimes I wonder if I was supposed to be that sure of what my life will be like. I have a general image, but my ideas are not very clear. I don't think they were supposed to be clearer than that, because there is a lot of things that can still happen. I think the secret is to be open to the opportunities and, well, go a bit with the flow.

yours,

millou

And the dark, scary exam was...

... nice, I think. I was afraid of "Memorial do Convento" by José Saramago (please don't ever read it, or you will regret it) but, fortunately, there was no sign of it. We had to analyze a poem by Álvaro de Campos (one of Pessoa's heteronyms) and to write about Ricardo Reis (another of Pessoa's heteronyms). Grammar was kind of complicated, but I saw the correction online and I'm only going to loose five points in that group (five points is a lot, but okay).

Now I'm focusing on Maths, which will take much more time than Portuguese did... So, enjoy your holidays (those of you who won't have exams) and have fun ;)

Plans for today

Hello!

I've been studying these last days (this last week) for the Portuguese exam which is... today!

Am I nervous? A bit. It's healthy to be a bit nervous for the exams. But I think I'm more anxious than nervous. I simply want to know what the hell they ask in the exam!! And I will know... in less than two hours. It's kind of scary, but okay... ;)

What will I do when I leave the exam? Hmm talk to my friends, have a bit of a nice time and then... go home and study Maths. Adorable!

P.S - I'm scared that my mark in the exam will lower my high school marks. But I'm ready. I'll tell you how it was in some hours.

Artificial inteligence

Yes, we have all seen that film, and it's beautiful. The robotic kid is programmed to give inconditional love and is then replaced by the human kid, in an act of pure cruelty. He becomes something like society's trash, along with other robots, and "dies" for the dream of becoming human, so that his mom would finally love him. It's truly beautiful.

However, I don't think a machine will ever be able to feel. Robots can be clever, can even learn and understand, but all of those processes depend only on logic. Feelings aren't logical and, even though you can make steel think, I can't see how you make it feel - but, hey, who knows, maybe in the future...

So, why am I posting about this? What could possibly make me post about artificial intelligence two days before my Portuguese exam? A documentary I just saw on TV. They were creating a robot called Watson and programing it to beat humans in Jeopardy (an horrible game we played in the English lessons and in which you are given an answer and have to create the question for it). They found a problem - the robot sometimes didn't fully understand what type of question it was supposed to ask (it asked for holidays instead of months, for instance) - so the programmers made it cross information based on the correct questions the other players had previously asked, so that it could understand the correct type of question. Once again, all logic, no feelings.

One thing I noticed - humans hate clever machines. And I'm not sure if we shouldn't, because we are very likely to loose control of something bigger than us, even when we are it's creators. That machine-controlled world scenario isn't that improbable, in fact. Computers really are much clever than humans, and if you program them to think by themselves... well, I'm not sure it will be completely good. It may be interesting, but not for humans.

Judgements

I've never been a fan of Desperate Housewives, but I'm starting to realize it's a nice thing to watch, every now and then. Today I saw an episode about judgments (the one in which Susan accidentally shoots Katherine). The message was basicly this: when you judge other people, you may be wrong; when they, on their turn, judge you, you feel uncomfortable - but, if you don't judge yourself, your life will be miserable. 

It's so true!

Everyone knows judgements can be wrong and everyone does them anyway. It's good, it's healthy, it helps you grow up. When someone is hardworking, intelligent, atractive or incredibly interesting, you (probably) feel a desire of becomig a bit like that person, and it makes you want to improve yourself, which is obviously good. Now, I think the problem is that judgments are not always right, and a guy who looked too much of an idiot can be the most lovely creature you've ever met.

On the other hand, when judgments fall upon you, things are a bit different. Other people judging you is one of the worst things ever. No matter how much you try to ignore it and tell yourself you don't need anyone's aproval, you always know how brighter things would be if they really aproved you. But hey, more important than being loved is to love yourself, right?

That's exactly why judging ourselves is the most important thing in human life. Or among the most important. Here's a quotation from Socrates that couldn't fit better:

"The unexamined life is not worth living."

And why is that? Because we are human beings and we should ask ourselves: "Am I the best version of myself?" (see this post, it also fits). We never get to be the best version of ourselves - everytime we move forward, we can see a bit more of the journey ahead of us. Still, the best thing we have to do is to keep walking, because being more is the only thing that matters.

(picture taken from here)

The veredict:

After all, X-Men First Class was...

...

...kind of okay, I guess.

I saw it yesterday and I'm forced to admit (and my friends think mostly the same) that X-Men itself is much better. The feeling of X-Men, I mean. The mutants and their wars, the ideal of X-Men. Using other words, the first two films that came out. This one was no big deal, to be honest.

Another comment: it's amazing how every mutant is incredibly atractive! They are all gorgeous, not to mention the young Magneto...

Besides everyone's beauty, one thing that I noticed was that this film was more of what we had seen before. What Magneto is in the story of X-Men (when he fights professor X's students, including Wolverine and all those people/mutants/whatever), is replaced, in this story, by a new (or should I say old?) bad guy, the one who killed Magneto's mom. I know the story of X-Men is nice, but if they go on making films like this one, people will end up getting tired.

Still, I liked it. A lot. Popcorns and friends always make films look much funnier and exciting :D

yours,

millou

P.S - Writing on a new keyboard ;)

Pancakes!

Pancakes are wonderful because they are so simple to make. You can add whatever you want and it will always be tasty. I must confess I'm addicted to pancakes. Specially at breakfast...

I used to eat sandwiches all the time, when getting ready for school. After a while I got tired of it and, in the last month, I have only drank my coffee before leaving home. Everybody says that skipping breakfast is the worst thing you can do. I believe it,  but there was just no time to eat!

Now, on holidays, it is different. Not that I'm entirely on holidays (I still have to do the exams...), but at least I have time to have a calm breakfast (I've decided that, no matter how stressed I am, from now on I will only have calm breakfasts). And when I get into college, I'll have to eat left overs - anything but the sandwiches. The problem is that those tasty and simple things like pancakes take forever when done before leaving home in a rush. My advice is simple: enjoy holiday breakfasts while you can ;)

Here is a wonderful recipe I've found:

Basic pancakes with suggar and lemon

Ingredients:

110g/4oz plain flour, sifted

pinch of salt

2 eggs

200ml/7fl oz milk mixed with 75ml/3fl oz water

50g/2oz butter 

To serve:

caster sugar

lemon juice

lemon wedges

Preparation method:

Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl with a sieve held high above the bowl so the flour gets an airing. Now make a well in the centre of the flour and break the eggs into it. Then begin whisking the eggs - any sort of whisk or even a fork will do - incorporating any bits of flour from around the edge of the bowl as you do so.

Next gradually add small quantities of the milk and water mixture, still whisking (don't worry about any lumps as they will eventually disappear as you whisk). When all the liquid has been added, use a rubber spatula to scrape any elusive bits of flour from around the edge into the centre, then whisk once more until the batter is smooth, with the consistency of thin cream. Now melt the 50g/2oz of butter in a pan. Spoon 2 tbsp of it into the batter and whisk it in, then pour the rest into a bowl and use it to lubricate the pan, using a wodge of kitchen paper to smear it round before you make each pancake.

Now get the pan really hot, then turn the heat down to medium and, to start with, do a test pancake to see if you're using the correct amount of batter. I find 2 tbsp is about right for an 18cm/7in pan. It's also helpful if you spoon the batter into a ladle so it can be poured into the hot pan in one go. As soon as the batter hits the hot pan, tip it around from side to side to get the base evenly coated with batter. It should take only half a minute or so to cook; you can lift the edge with a palette knife to see if it's tinged gold as it should be. Flip the pancake over with a pan slice or palette knife - the other side will need a few seconds only - then simply slide it out of the pan onto a plate.

Stack the pancakes as you make them between sheets of greaseproof paper on a plate fitted over simmering water, to keep them warm while you make the rest.To serve, sprinkle each pancake with freshly squeezed lemon juice and caster sugar, fold in half, then in half again to form triangles, or else simply roll them up. Serve sprinkled with a little more sugar and lemon juice and extra sections of lemon.

(taken from BBC - Food - Recipes: Basic pancakes with sugar and lemon)

(I personally prefer to put all the ingredients in a blender instead of mixing them mannually. I think it is much quicker, but it's up to you...)

X-Men

Me and my friends are going to the cinema tomorrow and we're going to see X-Men: First Class.

I'm completely crazy about X-Men. They are more than super-heroes, they are mutants. They are different, better, a minority of many, instead of a minority of one. Super Man and Spider Man are beloved super-heroes. The crowds love them, except from a few occasions when the directors try to prove that being a super-hero is not always glorious. X-Men, on the other hand, are hated, hunted down and killed. That's much more interesting than saving the world. It shows how people truly work - they oppose anything better than them, because they know it's a threat. X-Men are a threat. X-Men are not nice, some of them even turn against humans. I think it will be nice to see how the "good X-Men" and the "bad X-Men" leaders evolved into what we know from the movies.

I'll tell you my opinion about after tomorrow ;)

Goodbye high school

High school changed me as I had never thought it would, and it is strange to realize that it has come to an end.

Three years now seem nothing, but what happened throughout those years is impossible to describe. I've met wonderful, inspiring people and I've learned so much about life and relationships with others and with myself that I consider to have become, only now, a true human being.

I've had a wonderful time, obviously, but, as always, not everything was perfect. I've made mistakes, I've left things unsaid and undone, but, as they say, you often learn more from your defeats than from your victories. That's the most important thing about high school. I'm now ready to be someone.

A huge THANK YOU to all of those who took part in this wonderful journey. None of you will be forgotten.

I leave you with our official goodbye high school song:

And with a perfect quote I found:

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."

Dr. Seuss

June 10th

Today is our national holiday, the day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities.

 

For those of you who don't know, Camões was a marvelous portuguese poet, born in 1524, who wrote The Lusiads, an epic poem about the Portuguese people and it's great achievements throughout History, with special emphasis on the discovery of India by Vasco da Gama. He died on June 10th of 1580, so this is a day of huge patriotism and love for our culture.

The Portuguese culture is very often defined through Fado - however I hate Fado and I refuse to talk about it. I have to admit, though, that all of Fado's melancholy is a part of the Portuguese soul. We used to have everything in the Past, we discovered India and Brazil, we used to be very, very rich. We just didn't know how to manage what we had and we've lost everything. We used to be the most powerful country in Europe - now, we're begging for help. And why did it happen? Because, just like D. João V spent the Portuguese money on clothes, our former Prime-Minister spent it on TGVs.

However, the 10th of June is, as I said, a patriotic time. We have a new Prime-Minister, a new political cycle is coming, and I trust that all the competent people in Portugal will be called to action. A time of great effort is coming, but that effort will be made in the name of the country. It's a time for Portugal to be strong and united, so that we can feel, once more, pride in ourselves.

P.S - In Portuguese, we have a beautiful word, which is Pátria. I've been trying to find the translation to English and I can't. Homeland is not it. Homeland is the land where you come from. Pátria is the land where you come from and the land you love above any other. Your home. The bed where you hapilly fall after a long, hard journey. If anyone knows an English word for Pátria let me know :P

Two days left for my birthday

I'll be seventeen on Thursday and my hysteria is obviously growing :)
I'm now sing out loud some of my most recent musical discoveries:
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Clare Maguire - The Last Dance
Muse - Hyper Music
Muse - Endlessly
In fact I've heard Muse's songs before, but they didn't sound this good back then. I love redescovering songs, it's beautiful!

P.S - Today my English class didn't agree with me when I said that all dictators should be expelled from Earth and sent to room 101. Incredible!

Life rule I

I've read a post today and, for a while, it made me feel what I need to feel every second of my life: 

I need to do everything I've always wanted to do.

Everyone says this - which means no one is fully enjoying life. It's annoying. I can work hard on so many things but I just can't work hard on the most important... And it shouldn't be like that. My dreamed life, my super goals, all my fantasies are worth it. I am worth it. I'm done with wasting opportunities.

So, from this day on, I won't go to bed without reminding myself of an action (or more...) I made during the day that led me in the direction I want to follow. It will have to be as easy as breathing.

This is really going to happen because I'm tired of this. If I want to be something, why on Earth am I not fighting for it every second of my life?? What kind of forever young diva am I?? (I am not a forever young diva - but I will be!). I want my will to rule my life. I want the me I've always wanted. I want it NOW!

P.S - I WILL HAVE IT.

yours,

millou

More to come... part II

More to come...

Few hours left ;)

The last hours before school starts :)

I've had enough of holidays, I guess. I've enjoyed them, obviously, and now I'm ready to start school. There are so many things left to do this term, before high school is gone forever...

It's strange to think these are my last high school holidays... I guess I'm looking forward to college :)

P.S - I'm semi-hysteric because I've discovered an AWESOME software that finally allows me to download videos from YouTube (those Guns n Roses videos...).

yours,

millou

Here's my most recent addiction:

What keeps me from wishing time-travelling was possible is the existence of Muse and 30 Seconds to Mars.

Finally illuminated

We (my English class) are supposed to choose a painting to talk about, during these holidays. I, as the biggest ignorant on Earth on what comes to art, was obviously scared and decided to see all the "important" paintings available on the Internet. I had thought about going to an art gallery or something, but the best paintings are in very distant museums, which is kind of a trouble. So I spent this last Sunday immersed in Google Art Project and some other web sites. I've discovered I don't like Picasso as much I thought I liked (but I still like it a little bit) and that Monet is amazing. I also had no idea that the Milkmaid add for Nestlé was based on this Jan Vermeer painting:

 

Even more fascinating than Vermeer's Milkmaid is an English romantic painter I've found, Joseph Mallord William Turner. It seems to me (and I may be wrong...) that his paintings are like little photographs of feelings, which is basically what I try to do with my writing. He captures the moment and adds emotion to it, playing with gold or black, light or darkness. Here are some of his paintings:

 "Caernarvon Castle"

 

 "Melrose Abbey"

"The Fighting Temeraire"

I think I'm going to use a Turner's painting (none of those I've shown you) for that English composition. I've thought about Van Gogh or Dali, but Turner's are my favorites.

P.S - I don't feel such an ignorant after last Sunday. I know nothing about painting techniques, but looking at several paintings helps a lot on what comes to understand and "decode" them.

yours,

the illuminated millou

Oh, holidays!

Laying in the sun, smiling as the heat touches your skin and dancing freely to the sound of Florence and The Machine... I know I've announced here my hate to Florence, but I've changed my mind ;)

Enjoy the sun and the beautiful music people make.

yours,

millou

Day-dreaming

I can smell my holidays, feel them coming, almost here...
Ah, I'll be the happiest person on Earth after Monday morning!!!

To be printed and posted in every corner

Now I see I hate the Portuguese educational system even more than I did before.

Honestly, I used to think it was something like this:

Listen (or not) to the teacher. Memorize for the test. Forget. Listen to the teacher again. Memorize for the other test. Forget. Listen to another teacher. Memorize for the test. Forget.

But I've understood that, as if this wasn't bad enough, I was missing the worst part of all. The "let's make it easier, shall we?" and "I'm so petrified by the idea of making my students think" part. This fever is tempting and we end up sinking in laziness and uselessness.

School was supposed to teach people not only Chemistry and Maths but also how to think! And we're not even learning Chemistry and Maths properly! It's no surprise that this country is in such a bad shape. If we grow up surrounded by this "the easier the better" philosophy wherever we go, what kind of citizens are we supposed to become? We're being turned into (bad) copycats every single second of our lives and that's depressive.

The worst problem of all: it starts in school but it has already spread to the whole society. It's EVERYWHERE.

So, basically, what I hate so much is not the educational system itself (which is only disgusting and even somewhat offensive) - it's the national philosophy underneath it.

yours,

millou

A little break dedicated to meditation and introspection

To compensate the amount of posts released 3 weeks ago, I've been (once more) absent for these last days. Ok, weeks. I've been busy (studying...). The truth is that, busy or not, I don't have that much to say right now and I'm simply living my life, listening to my music and feeding my dreams of becoming a member of JSD (if you're not Portuguese you won't understand and, I'm sorry to say, I don't feel like explaining). Yesterday I would be offended if anyone questioned my happiness but now the hysteria is gone. Maybe I'm just tired, but the truth is that there are so many little things to worry about right now that I'm not able to keep myself above all the daily trouble. So many annoying little things, about the people you see everyday, about the people you wish you saw everyday, about this girl who's really getting on your nerves and that boy you can never catch. You just try to become better and better, but sometimes the process is too slow! And, even if you try to forget it, for yourself and for the others, you can't. It's real and it's there. I think I've mentioned it here before, but I still doubt I've got my karma and "happiness tower" (that was the expression I used here) back. I don't feel as confident and loved as I used to. But I'll get over it. It just that it's taking too much time.

P.S - Tomorrow I'll be smiling as I turn my face to the sun, as I do everyday (when it's sunny, at least). I'm not sad (in fact, I am happy), I'm just remembering the background of my happiness (and sharing it with you, apparently).

yours,

millou

Political chaos in my country... ih ih
New times are coming!

Ah ah!

(I've been reading my posts from a year ago and that's all I have to say. Evolution is such a pretty thing...)

P.S.

New blog design. Spring is coming and I thought it would be nice to add some color... Comments and suggestions are accepted!

Ne me quitte pas

Because some things should never be left unsaid...

Ne me quitte pas.

Feeling...

...desperate to write a story and start a new Portuguese blog.

Post mini-holiday

Hello!

I've been to Algarve and now I'm back at home, even though it feels like home there. I missed it, I guess. This kind-of-holiday thing is lovely and it gave me much more time than what I thought three extra days could give me. Time is just slower on the countryside. You don't have your usual stuff, you're not locked in the same divisions day after day, doing almost the same things... you just have the time to stop and think and feel yourself there. It's really nice to step out of the routine for a while and take a long look at things.

Well... take care and enjoy the mini-holidays as much as you can.


yours,
millou

Back again ;)

There's no excuse for my absence. My 1-MONTH long absence. No, I haven't been that busy and no, my Internet service didn't crash. I just went to Tibet (I obviously did not), to a spiritual retirement, looking for myself. Anyway, I'm back. Hello again :D

Now that the Maths test is gone, I've been kind of amusing myself by browsing the Internet and reading an English thing that makes me want to sound like a poet whenever I'm writing. But I think the browsing part would be more interesting to share... I checked on a website I had found (and loved) some time ago and discovered this post, with three life-planning related questions. The one that really caught my attention was the first one:

Are you the best version of yourself that you could possibly be?

I loved this. I'm not the best version of myself that I could possibly be (I don't think anyone is) but I see no reason for letting it go without even trying. If I want to be thinner, to write more often or to be more independent, why not to go for it? It will make me feel better with my new, more perfect self. I know there's no such thing as total perfection but that's not a reason to stop trying to reach it. The closer you are to perfection, the more you love yourself, I suppose. And I'm looking for some self love right now. I feel like I've fallen off my tower of happiness, as I feared, and I obviously want it back again.

P.S - I'm already working on the "be thinner" part and I won't stop it until that dress (the one every girl has, wants to wear and keeps in the closet because  she thinks it makes her look fat) fits me perfectly.

yours,

millou

Perfect Friday

Hello there :D

Yesterday I spent my whole afternoon at Lisbon, basically shopping. I bought a new book I already started reading (by Miguel Esteves Cardoso) and those large awesome headphones I've always wanted. I'm really happy with those.

I've already sent my tale to that FNAC contest and... that's it. I have no idea of how good all the other tales are and I'm totally aware that it's very unlikely for me to win. Still, I wrote it, someone will read it and, even if they find it poor, I can always save it and do something with it later. I don't know. Let's just see how it goes.

Today was quite an interesting and inspirational day for me (and for my whole class, I think). We received a movie director at school and had a philosophical discussion about art and attitude. One of the questions (not the most important one, though) I was faced with today was:

What is art? Does it depend on the other people's reaction, or is it's only purpose to be an expression of yourself? Does it even have a purpose at all?

I'm not an expert on what comes to art, but it seems to me that it is something extremely personal. It's a piece of you, but outside your shell and visible to all. I don't think art depends on the others - I don't believe in art made with a purpose. There's no purpose in art - art simply IS. Art is art. Art is what the artist feels, what the artist shares of himself with the world. If it's so elaborated and complicated that it becomes a treaty, I'm sorry to say that, in my opinion, it looses it's beauty. Complexity ruins emotions. And art is, at least to me, emotion.

I watched a really nice film on Saturday (500 Days with Summer - beautiful!) and I clearly remember one scene: the two main characters (a couple) were at a museum, staring at poo. Maybe not real poo (at least I hope so...), but their comment about such a deep piece of art was: "Let's go to the cinema instead".

I think this is the classic ridiculous example of a "message-passing" art. I honestly can't see the point. Every single one of us has a unique perspective of the world and it doesn't make any sense to try to make people see what we want them to see in a sample of poo.

yours,

millou

Looking for the right words...

I'm now immersed in the difficult task of defining the tale I'm sending to the FNAC contest... No more than 200 characters, they say. My powers of synthesis aren't enough to describe 11 pages in 2 lines!
I have two options: one sentence vs two sentences. One sentence is nothing. Two sentences don't fit in two lines. The first sentence is good, but the second one sounds awfully unfinished. I hate them!

I can do this, I know I can do this.    <- self-assurance

This is my scared reaction to an article on young unemployed people I've just read. This is my scream of freedom, the release of the voice I love more than all the others - the one that shouts "I WILL ALWAYS LOVE MY LIFE! I will not stay at my parents' until I'm 25. I will not sit in a corner, mourning my miserable life. That will not happen! I will take risks, I will do my best to be dynamic and creative, I will look everywhere for a job. I will get my life. I will do what I want to do. No matter what. I will."

Of course that getting a job is one of the most obvious problems in a young person's life, but that article also showed another problem - in my opinion, a much more depressive one. It showed that young people nowadays are waiting for perfection to suddenly fall off the sky, right in front of them. They don't move. They don't try. They're not here, awake, doing their best. They are just wasting their lives, wasting their youth - and why??? Why?!

I've always felt this in society, in people around me. This sleepiness, this awful stagnation, both intellectual and emotional. It's... it's scary, actually. If they look like this while they're young and are supposed to have energy, how will they look like in a couple of decades, when they're supposed to be gray and old? Will we all be asleep - even more than we are now - forever? Don't we want to be forever young anymore? Doesn't anyone out there dream of freedom, of fulfilling dreams and chasing passions? IS ANYONE ALIVE OUT THERE??

I hope so, because I'm scared. Truly scared. That's not the life I want to have: miserable and cold. Empty. The emptiness scares me more than any other thing. I don't want to carry that feeling with me every second of my life. I would prefer dying right now, while I still feel something burning inside me. Some light, some movement, some hope. Something. Anything. But it's there, and it's fertile and it's growing to be something extraordinary - not some disgusting, poorly paid "I hate this but that's life" kind of job. No, that's not life. That's your life, not mine.

I think it is time to wake up - that's one of my personal goals right now, to ignite the sparkle inside me. Because this is, like all the bad habits, extremely contagious and if you don't fight it off, you'll end up like that. Eternally bored.

I strongly suggest you spend some moments thinking about it.

yours,

millou