>>Single Point of Failure >>

I already spent my 10 cents of the day…

Ξ November 29th, 2011 | → 0 Comments |
∇ Cartoon | ∇ Calvin, Cartoon, hapiness, Life, simple |

“Quando Vier a Primavera” by Alberto Caeiro

Ξ July 3rd, 2011 | → 0 Comments |
∇ Fun, Life | ∇ Death, Life, Pessoa, Poetry |

A Book

Ξ October 24th, 2010 | → 0 Comments |
∇ Family | ∇ Book, Life, Movie |

I saw a movie called “The Book of Eli”. I hadn’t heard about the movie before, so it seemed strange to find it so amazing. In a world destroyed by the war, some people are still moved by faith…

Yes, it’s true…

Ξ April 18th, 2010 | → 0 Comments |
∇ Life | ∇ Boring, Life, Safe |

Society, In Books

Ξ March 15th, 2009 | → 0 Comments |
∇ Fun | ∇ Book, Life, Reading, Society |

To read is something that I always enjoyed a lot, but during the last weeks I just devoured pages after pages (for no aparent reason whatsoever)… It started by these two last week and this week I read La Colmena* by Camilo José Cela (a Spanish literature Nobel prize winner). The book, borrowed from a friend, depicts the Spanish society in the post civil war period in a very interesting way. Composed of a lots of short everyday episodes of society, what the book lacks in a continuous argument it provides by giving the reader a very interesting description of the spirit of those living in Madrid.

Another book that also provided a somehow crude vision of society was Last Exit To Brooklyn by Hubert Selby, Jr. In this case, the problems of society described are presented in a much more violent way.

Both books proved to be very controversial when they were published. The first was prohibited in Spain due to censorship, and the second originated a court case that lasted several years facing charges of obscene publication act.

* The original title is La Colmena (or The Hive), but I read the portuguese translation A Colmeia.

Lost Childhood

Ξ February 14th, 2009 | → 0 Comments |
∇ Introspection | ∇ Childhood, Kids, Life |

I proudly admit that during my child hood (pre teen years), I had a ZX Spectrum 128k + 2. My first PC came later, two years before I entered entered the university. And the Internet only became available during my undergraduate studies. For this I must admit that every business of the heart (or should I say business of the ‘raging hormones’) was handled face-to-face with the loved one.

I was somehow shocked to learn that more than half of the Portuguese population prefers to use instant messaging tools instead of face-to-face communication to exchange their “most intimate thoughts”! Even worst than that was learning that of about 31 weekly hours (1612 annual hours) each teen uses only 87 annual hours looking at soft-porn… preferring to spend their on-line period looking for diet recipes or researching about cosmetic surgeries!

Let’s see if I understand kids today. They prefers to stay at home ‘chatting’ instead of having an actual date, and they use the Internet for things other than searching for porn…

I’m feeling old!

My Own Life Changing Meme

Ξ December 11th, 2008 | → 0 Comments |
∇ Introspection, Life | ∇ Introspection, Life, Meme, Personal |

Some while ago a friend made me a proposal to write a post about what I consider a Life Changing Meme. First of all, I had to lookup the actual definition of Meme because, as it was presented, it seemed like a fancy name for a blog version of a chain letter… I hate those things!

According to the good old(?) wikipedia, the term Meme refers to an idea or behavior that is transmitted for one person to another, and it was used (by Richard Dawkins, in The Selfish Gene) in order to extend the evolutionary principles to the field of ideas, making ideas evolve by natural selection in similar ways to that of biological evolution proposed by Darwin.

Looking at the subject, a Life Changing Meme should refer to ideas capable of changing the way you live your life or that have direct impact on your life philosofy. Here are some introspections about what could change my life style (in a good way):

• Improve the way I manage my time

  Time can’t be controlled by anybody, but it can be managed. A better management of the time I spend working or with the family would do me wonders. After some thought, the time spend with my dearest ones is quite small considering the time spent at work. If less time was spent working, a lot more time would be available for the things that deserve far more attention that they are getting now.

  The main problem is that I usually get deeply involved with work and forget the surrounding environment. This is something that I need to change. The first step is to define priorities and stick with them.

• Spend more time with my family

  Following with the last topic… They are my priority!

• Decrease the multi-tasking activities

  I really enjoy doing different things at the same time, but I need to moderate the number of parallel tasks I’m performing at any given time. The number of stuff to be done starts to overwhelm me.

• Be less pessimistic

  To those who know me, I’m a pessimistic by nature and it gets worse when stress starts to increase. This doesn’t mean that the goals are not achieved, but simply that I prefer: to get to a meeting 10 minutes before it starts than 10 minutes after; or, to work more 30 minutes today than having to arrive 30 minutes earlier tomorrow; or, to test the final version twice the time that was expected instead of ‘hopeing’ that everything turns out OK.

  Sometimes this pessimism influences the people around me, and it is something that I really need to be careful about.

• Improve personal management of expectations

  Managing personal expectations is something that I find quite difficult, specially because the expectation levels are usually set to a very high standard. If expectations were more adapted to the reality, things would be more easy!

• Improve personal organisation (ongoing…)

  Some steps have been taken in the last year months in order to improve personal organisation. Some improvements have already been seen but there is still some work to be done. I find a little paper scrapbook and/or e-tasklist (like Basket) to be very important.

• Select one hobbie

  I need to have one… just one! Choose one, and stick with it… Blogging seems to the the one!

These are just some of the ideas that could change my life for the better… but there are a lot more things to do to improve life quality!

Pay Attention

Ξ June 24th, 2008 | → 0 Comments |
∇ Introspection, Life | ∇ Complaints, Life, Vacations |

@ Jack C

Let me start by saying “I need a vacation”.

That being said, today’s thought goes to my obvious lack of concentration. I suspect that not being on vacation for six months in a row is the major cause of sensing some difficulty in concentrating. And worst of all, this is becoming evident for the people around me. This week, several events have brought that to my attention. Dramatically…

I’ve never considered myself stupid, but this week:

• I was unable to find a word in a book index (of course the word was there)
• I forgot the hours of scheduled meetings (4 out of 5)
• I was unable to find an evident option in one of the applications I use regularly
• and… I forgot the forth event… I know, depressing…

I need to go on Vacation, soon…