View from the window

Long you live and high you fly

2009-05-09T09:51:00.005-03:00

This was a really tough week for me, some important decisions to make -- and decisions, in my case, are always hard to make! It was when yesterday evening I was talking to a friend about 30s' resolutions and remembered some of mine -- they included not stressing too much about things (and not waiting for bad things to happen to realise how relative problems are).
As I'm listening to Pink Floyd a lot lately (and the more you know it the more you like it), I found this beautiful piece that I find worth sharing with you, here it goes.

Breathe
(Waters, Gilmour, Wright)

Breathe, breathe in the air.
Don't be afraid to care.
Leave but don't leave me.
Look around and choose your own ground.

Long you live and high you fly
And smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry
And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be.

Run, rabbit run.
Dig that hole, forget the sun,
And when at last the work is done
Don't sit down it's time to dig another one.

For long you live and high you fly
But only if you ride the tide
And balanced on the biggest wave
You race towards an early grave.

In times of great adversity...

2009-03-22T19:00:00.005-03:00

I have recently watched the movie Elizabeth: The Golden Age, which I found quite inspiring. It shows the power of overcoming great odds when Elizabeth bravely faces the supremely powerful Spanish Armada bearing down on England. Desperate, Elizabeth asks her spiritual guide (astrologer) if he foresees a positive result; the wise man says he can't tell her that things will be alright, but..

"But this much I know...

When the storm breaks,

Each man acts in accordance with his own nature,

Some are dumb with terror,

Some flee,

Some hide,

And some spread their wings like eagles and soar on the wind."

Extreme Ironing

2008-11-02T13:52:00.007-02:00

Yes, that's exactly what you're thinking! :)

Some people got bored of regular climbing, surfing, biking, diving, and other exciting stuff and are now practicing extreme ironing! Funny as hell!

But it really amazes me that they've got the motivation to take the iron and ironing board with them to all these unusual places in addition to the (not so few) normal sporting equipment! wish I had half this motivation!

Funny Science

2008-10-03T21:40:00.006-03:00

The Ig Nobel Prizes "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think". It happens every year at Harvard University, and there are prizes for several areas such as economics, physics, chemistry, nutrition, and peace. This year's ceremony happened yesterday, and some of the winning research are really hilarious! I wish I could attend to one of those. My this-year favourites:

NUTRITION PRIZE. Oxford University, UK, for electronically modifying the sound of a potato chip to make the person chewing the chip believe it to be crisper and fresher than it really is.

PEACE PRIZE. The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology (ECNH) and the citizens of Switzerland for adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity.

ECONOMICS PRIZE. University of New Mexico, USA, for discovering that a professional lap dancer's ovulatory cycle affects her tip earnings.

Last year's ceremony had some very unusual ones too:

MEDICINE: Tennessee, USA, for their penetrating medical report "Sword Swallowing and Its Side Effects."

Can't figure out what the hell they were thinking about when they came up with such ideas, or if the initial idea was good and then it deviated "a bit"... :) well well, the important thing is that some scientists have sense of humor!

Is it time to say "it's time"?

2008-10-01T16:30:00.006-03:00

I've been house hunting for the past three weeks, and I can't help thinking what kind of place should I be looking for really. Should I go for a shared flat or a flat for myself only? ... Should I go for the pretty expensive ones, or for the older and cheaper ones?

After 4 years living in student shared houses in England, and with a Ph.D. on my shoulders, I wonder if isn't now the time for comfort. On the other hand, being in a strange city doesn't give me enough certainty of whether I'll live here long enough -- and thus the expensive renting investment might not be worthwhile.

Leaving the specifics aside, when do you know when it's time to say "it's time!" .. time for starting things you've been delaying for a number of reasons; time to give yourself some special treatment; time to take some time off... ?

I don't expect any answers from you reader -- this is just something I felt like sharing with you, since it is one of those questions that people face many times in their lives (if you haven't yet!). Another (yet selfish) reason for this post is that writing helps me think in some way :)

Anyhow, when you're sure that the time is right, saying "it's time!" must be a wonderful feeling!

New Soundtrack

2008-09-08T18:56:00.010-03:00

If you haven't seen the film Into The Wild, you should at least take a look at the soundtrack signed by Eddie Vedder. It is simply amazing! And the film itself is as inspiring as the soundtrack -- it explores important topics like life style, human relationships, self-knowledge, and the strength and fragility of human life.

Go for it, it's always good to look at things that challenge your values and principles!

Pets - Interactive!

2008-08-31T18:10:00.007-03:00

The last post brought up interesting memories of unusual pet names (like little Mischa above), and I got curious to know of other ones that might be out there! So.. I've done some thinking.

First, nowadays it seems to be common to find dogs named in the categories of alcoholic beverages, like Tequila or Whisky, or traditional American nicknames, like Bill, Billy, or Bobby. However, more creative names that I've heard are inspired by famous "theorists", like Sig (after Sigmund Freud) and Nietzsche (I would be scared of a dog called Nietzsche, wouldn't you?). But I have to tell you that my favourite (and quite funny) pet names are those that represent the opposite of their characteristics -- for example, my brother once had a turtle which he called "flecha" (the portuguese for Flash)!

... So, go ahead, search your childhood memories and tell me of any embarrassing, funny or exotic names of any pets you ever had!! :)

The post of change

2008-08-26T19:04:00.005-03:00

Today's post reflects my extreme change of working environment: from computer science departments to the one of biological sciences! The highlight of my first day at work was having the chance to touch an owl. I confess that it was a bit scary because the owls looked really frightening with their big black eyes! For you to have an idea, based on a very amateur analysis from my part, I found the picture above that resembles the owl (I must say that I'm not responsible for any nightmares that you might have after seeing it!) ;)

I'm probably making a big fuss of it, which can be easily explained by a combination of me being a city girl + a computer scientist. But I wasn't always like this. I actually grew up on small towns on the country side, and I even had a sheep as a pet once -- she was called Misha, and, according to my mother, she was named after the famous mascot of the Moscow Olympic Games!

Harald Bluetooth

2008-08-21T22:37:00.004-03:00

I was watching a documentary about the Viking era the other day and the name Harald Bluetooth called my attention. Harald (or Harald Blåtand in Danish) was a tenth-century King of Denmark and Norway. So I wondered if his name had something to do with our famous wireless protocol...

It turns out that it does! According to wikipedia and other sources, Bluetooth (the protocol) was named after Harald Bluetooth, King of Denmark and Norway. Apparently, the reason was that King Harald was known for his unification of previously warring tribes from Denmark and Norway and, likewise, Bluetooth was intended to unify different technologies. Voilà!

Btw, the nice viking on top is a souvenir from Norway ;)

The Brain Quiz

2008-08-18T16:12:00.003-03:00

Fellow girls, what should you say when someone (probably a man) pops out the assertive that men's brains are larger than women's brains? After all, that's true according to some review by the National Institute of Mental Health...

Well, you should say that this is fortunate, since it makes our (female) brains similar to Albert Einstein's brain -- it was slightly smaller than the average male brain! ;)

(It is all on National Geographic!)

Ars amatoria

2008-05-05T18:07:00.009-03:00

Some half-useful culture that came to my knowledge this week:

Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman poet known as the medieval magister amoris ("master of love"). He wrote Ars amatoria ('Art of Love') in which, according to Wikipedia, he provides teaching in three areas of general preoccupation: how and where to find girls (and husbands) in Rome, how to seduce them, and how to prevent others from stealing them.
Although such books were written around year 1 AD, some of Ovidius' Roman wisdom are still valid for today's love birds. By quickly scanning parts of the text, some pieces of advice called my attention, like these ones below *for girls*

Book III Part IX: Be Seen Around
"...Lovely girls, the crowd is useful to you. Often lift your feet above the threshold. So too a lovely woman must let the people see her: and perhaps there’ll be one among them she attracts. Chance rules everywhere: always dangle your bait: the fish will lurk in the least likely pool."

Book III Part X: Beware of False Lovers
"Avoid those men who profess to looks and culture, who keep their hair carefully in place. What they tell you they’ve told a thousand girls: their love wanders and lingers in no one place."

Other parts, however, are actually quite funny to try to picture in a night out these days!

Book III Part V: Conceal Your Defects
"... If you’re short sit down, lest, standing, you seem to sit: and commit your smallness to your couch: there also, so your measure can’t be taken, let a shawl drop over your feet to hide them. (...) Those with thick fingers and bitten nails, make sparing use of gestures whenever you speak."

.. I'm glad that times are different now!

The Art of Coffee

2008-04-18T16:08:00.006-03:00

For the coffee appreciators, two of the best coffee bars I've ever been to: Caffé Vergnano 1882 in London, and Press Café in Porto Alegre (Brazil). Simply delicious! ... and if you try the cappuccino by Press Café you get cute drawings on top of your coffee as a bonus, like the one in the picture above. Not bad right? .. and you can also get an apple, a flower, a leaf, or even an Easter bunny on your coffee!

The side effect is that you'll get more selective on the coffee shops you start going to. But well.. as (almost) everything evolves.. so does your taste!

Russian Dolls

2008-04-14T15:21:00.005-03:00

When Wendy leaves the train station after having opened her heart to the guy she loved, knowing that he was leaving to meet someone else, she wonders on the streets... with a broken heart.

Such a sad moment… However, watching her expressing sincere and true love, while she was hurt inside, without playing any games, made me feel really proud of that sad girl who was then walking on the streets, with a broken heart.

...And you can’t help being sure that something good is waiting for that girl, someone that loves the way she does… a sincere, infinite love.