A stroll in Lisbon on the 1st of January

SAUDADE

I miss you!


I miss you!


I miss you!


And I miss you too!

So much I haven't even been able to post anything here for months...
Did I say I miss you?
Love,
Meself

Away

Been away for a while. Not as in out of the country or away from home. Quite the opposite. I have been home, secluded. Maybe secluded is not the word, but anyway... I haven´t posted anything here, for instance.

First, I had family coming over. My mom and two cousins were here and I took the chance to go out and explore the new surroundings a bit - and show them some places they had to see before leaving.



Shopping in the Haarlemerdijk, Amsterdam


You can´t see it, but that´s the Erasmus bridge in the background


Then, I had another visit that means the world to me.


We had´t seen each other in 8 years. We are now working for that never to happen again. And trying to get together as often as possible, as soon as possible.

I might have to correct something I posted back in July, but I´ll leave that for some other day.

Listening to

Blond Redhead

(discovering some of the music I hadn't listened to yet)

No (better) words to describe...

The power of feelings is watered down by taking it from the bar-bar to prolific
polysyllabic prose. It is tempting to think that evolved diction adds shades
and reflections to make the rough stone of one's soul reflect brightly with
many facets; but poly-syllabo-syntactico-nuancical elocution distracts us from
this triviality which is life."
-- Sumus Cacoonus on verbs in DiLingo.

Another quote stolen from unstable.nl

By the canal

Swans can be intimidating. This dude over here started hissing after being given some bread... Mean MF...

no comment

In the Prisengracht

Big Brother?

Missing

Bumped into this the other day.
took out the detais for privacy reasons, but I will contact owner if anyone can provide info on Don Quichotte's whereabouts

Play their game?

Listening to Asian Dub Foundation, I noticed the lyrics:

" We gotta ba as hungry as they are
Get hungry get angry and take back the power
Put your fist in the air rebels here and everywhere
Do we rise do we fall are we playing truth or dare ."

And at the same time, I recalled the activists who destroyed a couple of acres of geneticaly modified corn next to Silves, where I attended high school. There is a big fuss about the way they did it - specially because the owner of the crops was left with nothing and showed up on TV almost in tears. The entire purpose of this action has been forgotten and no matter what is said in order to explain it, all people see on TV is the destroyed crops and a farmer left with nothing because of these youths... Specially if we are talking about a country like Portugal, where the majority of people who are directly involved in the production of goods (agriculture, in this case) cannot afford to follow environmental advice and have, in some cases, been affected by some of the laws that are supposed to protect the environment.

Fires rise high again in Portugal - after years of thousands of acres burned to the gound every Summer. During Winter, floods are more and more common. This last is related (not exclusively, but also) to the fact farmers are now prohibited of making preventive fires and cutting down bushes and cleaning up their own land - because part of their land might have become part of a protected reservation or simply because they have been warned by their authorities not to do so. This, they blame on the little green men - and I am not talking about aliens here.

So when they see a bunch of youths destroying crops, they are not thinking about whether they are geneticaly modified or not. Most of them would probably not know what that is, or what that implies.

Applying this to everyday life, I also feel like there is too much focus on the activists as trouble-makers. Those who simpathyse with them usually already share the same point of view. Those who are against it will only see it as another reason not to like them.

Personally, I like to make an attempt to reason with people who have a different point of view. Even if they end up not agreeing, I am (kind of) satisfied if they respect my point of view. If they reject evidence and refuse to accept what is obvious - fighting back with agression or simply being stubborn/pretending not to listen, then I prefer to change subject. Things tend to get complicated when that happens.

------

A bit off topic: Bush said today that the US won't leave Iraq while he is in the White House... And he mentioned the lesson learnt in Vietnam as one of the reasons for that...
I guess he forgot that before the US invaded, right?
Oh! Another ADF song just came to my head: "We want some oil!!!"

Revival of the early 90's

"(...)new life in place of old life
Unscarred by trials

a new level of confidence and power(...)"

Pantera

- and still, it is your past that makes you who you are.
or is it the present?...

Scheveningen

These are 2 weeks old, but only now I got to download them to my laptop...
I haven't been to many beaches in the Netherlands, but I guess this is the top/one of the best around. I must say... I miss Portugal the most when I see the best beaches here are so... different... from the ones in other countries down south. And the food... The weather...
I better stop now.

I actually enjoyed the fact that although crowded, it was not as crowded as it would be if it was a Mediterranean beach - and the facilities, restaurants, shops and so forth are enough so as to not having crowds of people, making it impossible to bare, as in Southern countries.

Pantera

When I was a kid - by that i mean 9-11 years old, or so - my favourite animal was the black panther. I remember that because it was the subject of a school assignment at the time.

This weekend, some colleagues stayed over and we were talking about music for a while. About the fact we are no longer up to date with all the music out there - and pretty much always go back to the old music we listened to when we were teenagers. Pantera came to mind and we all agreed to it being one of the bands with the best riffs... I even dug out a live album (101% proof) and played a bit, for old time's sake.
Can't say I listen to it regularly and will never be able to attend a live concert after the lead singer got shot dead during a gig at a bar... Which in a way makes the band an even more important icon of the genre (even if the news of your death are not true, you immediately go a few steps up in the stairway of fame...). What I feel is that it will always be a mark in the history of metal.

And I might not refer the black panther as my favourite animal, but I still think it is one of the most beautiful animals - or at least mamals - in the world.

Music: Nefret - Herif Maniak /Sahi

Congratulations, "Tripeiro"

Ready

Set

Go!

Dutch fences

Some Dutch people have a very peculiar way of decorating their fences...

The Legendary Tigerman...

Hey, Dawn: I found the Legendary Tigerman - and even took a pic.
(ends up, he sits next to me at work...)

To post or not to post

This morning, walking to work, I was brainstorming and had a bunch of thoughts I was mentally blogging in my head... On the one hand, it shows how bad my memory is and how much more creative I am when I am not about to fall asleep. On the other hand - well, I guess I am becoming a bit addicted to posting.
I think I will make more use of the mobile posting from now on...

Music: quarantined - At the drive in
Mood: bah

Pic from Barcelona

Paintings for sale in las Ramblas
In the center: Don Quijote

No photo, long comments

Haven't posted many photos latelly.
Because of the limitations I have imposed on myself, it might take a while untill I get a new camera. This whole house business is new to me and I need to first make sure the bills get paid.
After I lost my camera, some colleagues gathered and collected some cash to help getting a new one. I have left it aside and I am waiting for the right moment.
Thank you all, by the way! You guys rock. If it wasn't for the great atmosphere at work - except for smell coming from the smoking area and the fact I bump into some proper terds every now and then - let's just say I wouldn't be doing it for the money.

Untill then, my faithful pocket camera will have to do the job.

Analyse

"Don't analyse
Don't analyse
Don't go that way
Don't lead that way
That would paralyse your evolution"

This is part of the song "analyse", by the Cranberries.
Now, I can relate to the rest of it, and as in when you analyse too much you end up being stuck or finding more than you wished for. But does that really paralyse your evolution?

It's late and if I start babling about his, I guess I won't make much sense. I listenned to the song the other day and noticed the lyrics, which I believe I never really did before...
This has been happening to me latelly - I have been analysing songs/lyrics I never paid much attention to. Does that mean I am paralysing my evolution?
I mean, I have been needing some intelectual stimulation - not that I don't have to use my brain at work, but I need some food for thought. I got a bit worried some years ago when I took the tests for air traffic controller two years in a row. An entire week undergoing all kind of tests - I passed them all the first year, but was not selected in the end. Next year, I did not finish them. I have considered the possibility I am getting dumber by the day... But then again, I might just be analysing too much.

Music: Tangled up in pain, QOTSA - Lullabies to paralyze