For any regular college student nowadays staying focused is by far the biggest challenge. Most of us work ridiculous shifts to make sure bills like car payments, gas, school fees, etc., are out of the way and some of us on top of that have kids and spouses to take care of. To add studying for hours into the early morning (personally speaking this is the only time I have free to actually sit down and finish assignments) and then be up again in the early morning to pick a shift before class will mean that some of us will spend most of their weeks on two hours of sleep. Motivation, at this point, seems like a distant joke.
I have to constantly remind myself why I'm in college in the first place. Why do I want this so bad ??? Well, turns out, that everytime I do this "past-checking-to-assure-I-have-a-future" thing I instantly start writting without even noticing it. I truly believe that no matter how hard it may seem now, it WILL pay off. So STAY FOCUSED people because we can do it !!! :)
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Summer vacation is such a thing of the past...
So as the semester nears the end I'm getting a little nostalgic (even if it was just five weeks). But anyway, as I've been spending the last couple of nights trying to finish papers and get all my notes in order for Monday's finals I can't help but think of how my vacations used to be like.
They've lasted 3 months and I was basically everyday at the beach. I cared about very little and was happy with a popsicle (I'm not a big fan of ice cream anyway and the ones made with milk are way too heavy) and if it so happened to rain, I used to go to the mountains with my bike.
By the end of the summer I was already fed up with this way too stress free routine and couldn't wait to get back to class. I never appreciated that time the way I should've.
My how things have changed. For the last 5 years I havent had not even a week off let alone 3 months.
However I must admit that I wouldn't be able to do it nowadays. A month would be perfect. But it would have to be a month without cellphones, books, emails....nothing other vacation and some piece of mind.
With that thought in mind I'll continue with my courses until I graduate and can finally do that. :)
They've lasted 3 months and I was basically everyday at the beach. I cared about very little and was happy with a popsicle (I'm not a big fan of ice cream anyway and the ones made with milk are way too heavy) and if it so happened to rain, I used to go to the mountains with my bike.
By the end of the summer I was already fed up with this way too stress free routine and couldn't wait to get back to class. I never appreciated that time the way I should've.
My how things have changed. For the last 5 years I havent had not even a week off let alone 3 months.
However I must admit that I wouldn't be able to do it nowadays. A month would be perfect. But it would have to be a month without cellphones, books, emails....nothing other vacation and some piece of mind.
With that thought in mind I'll continue with my courses until I graduate and can finally do that. :)
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
"Apocalypse" paranoia going around...WATCH OUT !!!
The end of the world seems to be the latest craze around since Justin Bieber. Okay, Okay, now seroiusly though it's getting old.
I work with this guy who's life consists in two things: watching TV and baking. He knows everything about the weather and animal planet but little else. Last week according to him (I've later confirmed by checking the paper), at a beach in Cornwall, England, a huge sperm whale was found still alive resting in the sand (she died of dehydration soon after). This was enough to start this huge debate about the 'signs' that the end of the world is coming. I couldn't stand the whinning for too long. So I exploded and bombarded everyone with some facts. First of all, my father was a fisherman and he saw whales, fish and any other kind of sea life killing itself before, due to being hurt, poisoned or intoxicated. This means that it happens ALL the time since FOREVER. Second, for those of you who use the recent Japanese natural disaster as another 'sign', there's the 1775 tsunami/earthquake of the city of Lisbon, shanxii earthquake in 1556, there's the Yeallow River flood in 1887 and the Black Plague in 1346. These are only a few but my point is to prove that natural disasters and worldwide pandemics have existed since forever and most likely will continue to exist because that's just how it goes and the world keeps on spinning.
Third, all of this climate/oil crisis going on represents danger. We should be alarmed and the Age of Stupid does a great job in illustrating this. We only have one planet and we're extremely dependent (and careless) of its limited resources. In order to eventually destroy the one planet that we have , we have to start changing our attitudes towards it. NOT PANICKING about some factless based onspiracy theories.
I work with this guy who's life consists in two things: watching TV and baking. He knows everything about the weather and animal planet but little else. Last week according to him (I've later confirmed by checking the paper), at a beach in Cornwall, England, a huge sperm whale was found still alive resting in the sand (she died of dehydration soon after). This was enough to start this huge debate about the 'signs' that the end of the world is coming. I couldn't stand the whinning for too long. So I exploded and bombarded everyone with some facts. First of all, my father was a fisherman and he saw whales, fish and any other kind of sea life killing itself before, due to being hurt, poisoned or intoxicated. This means that it happens ALL the time since FOREVER. Second, for those of you who use the recent Japanese natural disaster as another 'sign', there's the 1775 tsunami/earthquake of the city of Lisbon, shanxii earthquake in 1556, there's the Yeallow River flood in 1887 and the Black Plague in 1346. These are only a few but my point is to prove that natural disasters and worldwide pandemics have existed since forever and most likely will continue to exist because that's just how it goes and the world keeps on spinning.
Third, all of this climate/oil crisis going on represents danger. We should be alarmed and the Age of Stupid does a great job in illustrating this. We only have one planet and we're extremely dependent (and careless) of its limited resources. In order to eventually destroy the one planet that we have , we have to start changing our attitudes towards it. NOT PANICKING about some factless based onspiracy theories.
Monday, June 13, 2011
the cell phone law in Mass. ... and how nothing has changed...
In September 2010, a new was passed regarding cell phones and driving: It was PROHIBITED.
That included texting and/or talking.
All of my classmates and co workers at the time were completely angry at this and it's obvious why: we ALL texted or answered the phone while driving.
From time to time some horrific accident is reported in the paper or news show that was provoked due to one of the drivers (or both) using their cellphones.
So the law was passed. Now what?
Does this mean that people stopped using their cell phones completely while they're on the wheel? NO.
Some of people are incredible multitaskers. They'll shuffle music on their ipods, they'll reply a text message or pick up a phone call, all during the drive. My sister and my best friend are like this. Others are a litle slower (like me) and when we're driving it's incredibly hard to move our hands away from the wheel (I'm so bad that even to turn the volume of the music up on the little button on my wheel I have to stop or not do it at all).
So does this makes me a follower of the law? NO. If I happen to be at a stop sign I will reply a text message or make a very quick phone call.
I honestly haven't seen anyone that I know getting a ticket or being punished for this.
And some people are really obvious too. Like this lady on the highway who cuts me off and then drives in the middle of the two lanes. Once I managed to pass her she was on what it appeared to be a heated conversation on the phone. She never got fined either.
Anyway, so what is the point of this law if is not being enforced?
That included texting and/or talking.
All of my classmates and co workers at the time were completely angry at this and it's obvious why: we ALL texted or answered the phone while driving.
From time to time some horrific accident is reported in the paper or news show that was provoked due to one of the drivers (or both) using their cellphones.
So the law was passed. Now what?
Does this mean that people stopped using their cell phones completely while they're on the wheel? NO.
Some of people are incredible multitaskers. They'll shuffle music on their ipods, they'll reply a text message or pick up a phone call, all during the drive. My sister and my best friend are like this. Others are a litle slower (like me) and when we're driving it's incredibly hard to move our hands away from the wheel (I'm so bad that even to turn the volume of the music up on the little button on my wheel I have to stop or not do it at all).
So does this makes me a follower of the law? NO. If I happen to be at a stop sign I will reply a text message or make a very quick phone call.
I honestly haven't seen anyone that I know getting a ticket or being punished for this.
And some people are really obvious too. Like this lady on the highway who cuts me off and then drives in the middle of the two lanes. Once I managed to pass her she was on what it appeared to be a heated conversation on the phone. She never got fined either.
Anyway, so what is the point of this law if is not being enforced?
Friday, June 10, 2011
Kids will be kids....right?
Today I've read an article about Suri Cruise (the daughter of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise) that claims that she already has a $150,000.000 shoe collection. She's often photographed with her mother, using high heels and fur coats making her own mum (the adult) look more like a servant than anything else. She's also only 5. I not going to criticize a parent from giving her kid "everything she never had", specially since we are talking about a super Hollywood couple,however I can't help but think the amount of pressure that's not only in Suri but also in all the little kids who were not as lucky to be as rich as her.
When I was 5 I used to try everybody's shoes but my shoe collection was resumed to a pair of flip flops in the summer and a pair of sneakers in the winter. I was out playing all the time. I was a kid and even though we were in a really bad financial situation, I was happy. That was until I moved to middle school.
There everybody had a mobile, changed sneakers every 2/3 months and always had good clothes. My shoe collection, though, was still the same, had about three outfits that would wear all year round (track suits) and only had a mobile when I turned 18, that I've paid with my own summer money.
I was miserable, not because of my financial status, but because of all the pressure surrounding me to look good and well dressed. But my childhood, is still the sweetest memory that I have. I was a kid.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that the fact that this little girl is already on every media outlet and is considered a fashion icon at the age of 5 might be stealing her the joy of being a toddler and also putting extreme pressure on every 5 year old kid. Too soon for all that adult drama.
Let's let kids be kids, shall we ???
When I was 5 I used to try everybody's shoes but my shoe collection was resumed to a pair of flip flops in the summer and a pair of sneakers in the winter. I was out playing all the time. I was a kid and even though we were in a really bad financial situation, I was happy. That was until I moved to middle school.
There everybody had a mobile, changed sneakers every 2/3 months and always had good clothes. My shoe collection, though, was still the same, had about three outfits that would wear all year round (track suits) and only had a mobile when I turned 18, that I've paid with my own summer money.
I was miserable, not because of my financial status, but because of all the pressure surrounding me to look good and well dressed. But my childhood, is still the sweetest memory that I have. I was a kid.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that the fact that this little girl is already on every media outlet and is considered a fashion icon at the age of 5 might be stealing her the joy of being a toddler and also putting extreme pressure on every 5 year old kid. Too soon for all that adult drama.
Let's let kids be kids, shall we ???
Thursday, June 9, 2011
When does personal opinion become bullying ?
Everyday, religiously, I'll read three newspapers: the Correio da Manha (Portugal), the Daily Mail (United Kingdom) and the Boston Globe (US). I do this not only to know what is going on around the world but also to compare how the reporting is done from one country to another.
When it comes to reporting news, most journalists (no matter what country) are on the same page by following the number 1 rule of journalism: "neutrality" resuming their job to simply "report".This is the news section. For the celebrity/showbiz section there's a whole other issue going on.
The other day I was reading the Daily Mail and there was this article about Kloe and Kourtney Kardashian. The title was something like: "Kloe and Kourtney: the long and short of it (refering to their height)" with a subtitle that went as follows: " Well, at least one won the size battle."
As I said before, the article turned out to be about their height, but considering the fact that Kloe has been under severe scrutiny because of her weight lately, I consider this journalist's writting filled with double-meaning. In a camouflaged way, I think he was actually intending to be mean about her shape.
The interesting part of it is the fact that the Daily Mail is known for writting several (good) articles about "curves", "health" and "women shapes and sizes" so my question is what side are they on ?
a little further down there's the "oh-so-lovely-NOT" public comments section.
I'm always gobsmacked by the amount of rubbish that these people publish. There's a lot of angry people out there but to let it all out in a newspaper comment section? Really though? Completely unnnecessary.
Another fine example on how to be a terrible TV presenter (and downright bully) is Graham Norton (an UK tv host) from the Graham Norton Show.
This man makes me question the hiring proccess at TV stations.... I've stopped watching his show (he was always terrible but at least his celebrity guests were good-which amazes me even more!!!!) when he presented an European dance competition (similar to Eurovision) and trashed Portugal at every chance he had. Sad but true. And he didn't stop here. EVERYTIME there's a competition of this sort he manages to slant another country with his very unique style.
This leads me to two questions:
Why and HOW does he always get picked to do these shows? AND HOW is he on TV?
In my opinion, and as a Communications major, he's everything a communicator should NEVER be.
There's a very fine line between personal opinion and bullying but at the end of the day it's all about being professional.
When it comes to reporting news, most journalists (no matter what country) are on the same page by following the number 1 rule of journalism: "neutrality" resuming their job to simply "report".This is the news section. For the celebrity/showbiz section there's a whole other issue going on.
The other day I was reading the Daily Mail and there was this article about Kloe and Kourtney Kardashian. The title was something like: "Kloe and Kourtney: the long and short of it (refering to their height)" with a subtitle that went as follows: " Well, at least one won the size battle."
As I said before, the article turned out to be about their height, but considering the fact that Kloe has been under severe scrutiny because of her weight lately, I consider this journalist's writting filled with double-meaning. In a camouflaged way, I think he was actually intending to be mean about her shape.
The interesting part of it is the fact that the Daily Mail is known for writting several (good) articles about "curves", "health" and "women shapes and sizes" so my question is what side are they on ?
a little further down there's the "oh-so-lovely-NOT" public comments section.
I'm always gobsmacked by the amount of rubbish that these people publish. There's a lot of angry people out there but to let it all out in a newspaper comment section? Really though? Completely unnnecessary.
Another fine example on how to be a terrible TV presenter (and downright bully) is Graham Norton (an UK tv host) from the Graham Norton Show.
This man makes me question the hiring proccess at TV stations.... I've stopped watching his show (he was always terrible but at least his celebrity guests were good-which amazes me even more!!!!) when he presented an European dance competition (similar to Eurovision) and trashed Portugal at every chance he had. Sad but true. And he didn't stop here. EVERYTIME there's a competition of this sort he manages to slant another country with his very unique style.
This leads me to two questions:
Why and HOW does he always get picked to do these shows? AND HOW is he on TV?
In my opinion, and as a Communications major, he's everything a communicator should NEVER be.
There's a very fine line between personal opinion and bullying but at the end of the day it's all about being professional.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
The Girl with Dragon Tattoo ... and how Stieg Larsson became the Stephen King of Sweden after his death
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo... the first time that I've came across this book I was seating down at some random chair at Border's waiting for my mum. I was so desperately bored that I've picked that book and I remember thinking: "who in their right mind would buy this? It's probably another annoying book about how some girl went dark and yada, yada, yada." I started reading it anyway and quickly realized that I was SO wrong. After I went through the first pages I was hooked. Needless to say that I've bought the book and read it all in two days. This is a story of an antisocial, extremely introverted and completely pierced girl named Lisbeth Salander who is a computer hacker and very good at was she does. She's hired by Henrik Vanger who partners her with Mikael Blomkvist, a disgraced journalist for the magazine Millenium (curiously the name of the whole Larsson's book series or aka hint for sequels). They're job is to find out who killed Harriet Vanger but what would be at first a simple investigation turns out to be something a lot more complex than that. I immediately started researching Larsson's other books (I firmly believed that there HAD to be a sequel to that story and this time I was right) and the two following ones came up: "The Girl who played with Fire " and "The Girl who kicked the Hornet's Nest" both of which I've wasted no time in reading it (please note that I'm not that much of a reader but I am an incurable cinephile and these stories, along with King's, keep my creativity flowing). Having studied filmmaking before, I could visualize almost instantly how those stories would work in a movie: "what shots would I use ?" , "what kind of actors would fit in these heavily concentrated characters ?", "what would be places used for the shooting?" and so on. It turns out that I wasn't alone. Danish director Niels Arden Oplev tought the same thing and along with filming it in Sweden (using both Stockholm and other Swedish rural areas) he did a spectacular job in casting Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist and the superb Swedish actress Noomi Rampace (yes, Salander is my new hero due to Rampace's terrific performance). Considering the movie was all filmed in Swedish (which showed true loyalty to the original story) it achieved the unthinkable by breaking European box offices like never before.
The new Hollywood version of it it's coming out on the 21st of December 2011 and if you haven't yet I suggest you read the book before you go watch it. Believe me, it's worth it :-)
The new Hollywood version of it it's coming out on the 21st of December 2011 and if you haven't yet I suggest you read the book before you go watch it. Believe me, it's worth it :-)
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