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