Holidays!

After all the cold and wind, even after learning how to light a fire in our fireplace, I finally got a two-hour glimpse of summertime :)

We went to Ilha de Faro in the Algarve, which is an enormous sand island next to the city of Faro. Some houses were built there, first by fisherman, but it soon became a public paradise. In the Summer it is really crowded, as you would expect, but it is lovely in the Winter. It really is a quiet and beautiful place, perfect to feel the sun on your face and have a nice meal of seafood with white wine. It's memorable, really.

I'll be posting photos of the island soon ;)

Love...

...depending on each other to create something beautiful and unique.

Lights will guide you home

So you fail. You do, it just happens to everyone, sooner or later. It happens to all of them, it happens to you and it happened to me today as well. You do your best and it's not enough. You know you should have been able to do more while you could, that you could have pushed yourself a little further.

You take it personally. You can't help it. You put what you were in your actions and it failed so, in the end, you suppose it means that you failed. You. All you are, all you ever were, all you are yet to be. It all failed. And you cry, because you don't want to feel that again. Ever. Suddenly it becomes so clear that doing your best and running after stuff that matters is worth the pain, the irritation, the time. The energy. The commitment.

So you keep going, because you know one day you will be better and you will not fail so easily. You plan your next victory because you know you'll get there, you just need the time and the patience. You let the lights guide you home, and it will all be fixed, your world will have green meadows again and you are starting to feel stronger than before. The deathly blow that seemed to have destroyed you turns into a little scar, that sometimes hurts, just to remind you, in the future, of what you are fighting for.

"Success isn't permanent, and failure isn't fatal."

Mike Ditka 

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