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?