NPR : Always Go to the Funeral

NPR : Always Go to the Funeral

My father didn't teach me what Deirdre Sullivan's dad taught her. Now she taught me.

Within her text she says

"Always go to the funeral" means that I have to do the right thing when I really, really don't feel like it."

That's a very powerful assignment for each one of us. We always forget that we have to do what we have to do, it doesn't matter what it takes. The right thing is always the right thing to do.

I hope you can take a little time to read the text. It's worth it.

Tired tires

Michele Turre - portfolio

I'm not so sure if there is somebody still visiting my blog, but I'll post this link here anyway.

The only thing I'm going to tell you though, is that I was not tired of posting here. But I'm giving much more attention to my other blog (in portuguese).

If you like the link and the "visual photo-text-poetry" please, let me know. I found it very interesting!

Seoul - South Korea - Gyeongbokgung

Seoul - South Korea - Gyeongbokgung

I was browsing through the Wikipedia and then I found this beautiful image in Seoul, South Korea. It caught my attention especially because this semester I made a new and great friend and he is from South Korea.

Se, here is my hommage to our friendship. I hope we can keep it for years to come.

SPAM

Hi. Today I'm talking about SPAM. And here is one recipe with it, provided by RecipeSource:

Title: Gingered Spam Salad
Categories: Salads, Go-withs, Misc.
Yield: 1 Servings

1 cn Spam, sliced matchstick size
1/4 c Finely chopped ginger root
1 ea Small red onion, finely chopped
1/2 ts Garlic powder
1/4 c Freshly squeezed lime juice Zest of 1 lime
1/2 ts Oriental dried chili powder
1/4 c Chopped cilantro leaves
8 ea Cherry tomatoes
Thai bird peppers and
Cilantro sprigs to garnish

Combine all ingredients in a sealed glass or plastic container to marinate.
Refrigerate at least two hours or preferably overnight.
Stir or shake occasionally to evenly coat.
One hour before serving, stir in cilantro.
Serve on a bed of torn lettuce of your choice.
Garnish with quartered cherry tomatoes, Thai bird peppers and cilantro sprigs.

Ah, that was not the spam you were thinking, huh?

However, did you know that the terminology SPAM for the tons of unwanted e-mails we receive everyday came from the spam above? From this website, I got the best description of the first use of the word:

Most people have some vague awareness that it came from at first from the spam skit by Monty Python's Flying Circus. In the sketch, a restaurant serves all its food with lots of spam, and the waitress repeats the word several times in describing how much spam is in the items. When she does this, a group of Vikings (don't ask) in the corner start a song:

"Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, lovely spam! Wonderful spam!"
Until told to shut up.

Thus the meaning of the term at least: something that keeps repeating and repeating to great annoyance. How did the two get connected?

Well, I like SPAM, not spam. How about you?

G.B. Stern

Well, I don't know in which category I would put these sentences, but when I first read them, I became very interested in reading this lady's oeuvres.

I tried to find her photograph to know her, but I couldn't find any. If you have one and can share with me, I'd thank you a lot. This picture is just to illustrate one of ther quotes below. I found it at the NYPL Digital Gallery (worth a visit).

"One thing that's good about procrastination is that you always have something planned for tomorrow."

"Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society. The optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute."

"Man is a complex being who makes deserts bloom and lakes die"

"Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone."

Sombrero Galaxy

Sombrero Galaxy (Hubble Photograph)

Sombrero Galaxy (Viewed in Infrared)

I was wondering if we could call this galaxy of "God's Hat"?

The wonders of the universe have always enchanted me, since I was a kid. By universe I mean either the macroscopic or the microscopic. We can always see Gods perfection in His marvelous work!

May He bless us all everyday!

What are we doing to our children?

Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.com

Everybody these days know that most of what the children learn from their parents and colleagues is from mimicking their movements. And this happens not only at early ages. Even as adults, independents as we are, we mimick the big stars, either their look, or their way of behaving.

And even knowing this, we keep asking ourselves why the world is not yet a better place. The answer is one of the following: either we choose to mimick the wrong acts of people around or we are the ones that keep doing the wrong things to be mimicked around by the others.

Why don't we try to mimick the right actions of the right people for a change? Or try to do the right thing to be mimicked by others?

Reading some news the other day, I found that this mimick thing was taken a step further. Well, not too further, but to make cimpanzees mimick our bad habits is like teaching kids the wrong things when they are very small. They will carry the burden of vice or mistreatments for the rest of their lives.

I'll copy here the beginning of the article: "A South African zoo is trying to persuade its star chimpanzee to kick a bad smoking habit".

To invite others to share your vice is the worst kind of vice around.

Be healthy. Think right.

Ah, and by the way, the picture of the smoking chimpanzee is not an actual photo. It was treated by some image processing software. I got it at the internet.

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark"

Oddly Enough News Article Reuters.com

Well, actually, not really in Denmark, but close, very close... :D
That's how the article begins: "A Norwegian court has sentenced a woman to nine months in jail for raping a man..." and it goes on...
At the very end, the article states: "Norway has long traditions of equality". I wouldn't call this equality, at least in a sense, because to rape a man, a woman can't be equal to a man; she has to be way bigger and/or stronger... :D Anyways...
That's the world we live in!
Ah, by the way, this photo is not from the article, it is just a photo I found on the internet...

In the map below you can see how close both countries are.

Interacting Galaxies

Interacting Galaxies

I still can't believe that these days we have people that does not believe God exists...

We can see His love spread everywhere. A never-ceasing creation, a constant interaction with everything. Life everywhere.
A galactic hug to everybody.

Do you want to learn how to dance?

How to dance properly - zefrank.com

Well, well, well. If you want to know how to dance properly, DON'T visit this site... :) This guy is nuts... :) He even makes Elaine's - from Seinfeld - steps.

Worth a visit!

Crowds drawn to pig olympics in China

Boston.com / News / Odds & ends / Crowds drawn to pig olympics in China

I don't know if this worth a visit, but, anyways...

In China some people organized what they are calling the "Pig Olympics". See thos two pigs swimming on the picture beside? Well, they are competing to figure out which one is the best.

The species that is used is a midget species from Thailand. They are said to be good in sports.

An 8 year-old boy who presented a gold medal to one of the winners said "I never thougth that a pig could be so clever".

The pigs may be clever. Are we being clever?

Charlie Chaplin

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ÛÛÛ  ±ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ  16/04/1889 - 25/12/1977  ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ
ÛÛÛ  ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ                       ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ
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"Engrish"

Engrish.com

Teach Arithetic? What is this? (this picture I found some time ago and can't recall where I got it from)

I'm not a natural born english talker. But probably everybody that comes here already knows this. I can say that not only for how I'm writing (someone that is american or that knows more english than I do, probably knows that I'm using improper words and prepositions in my writings) but also because of the themes that I've been talking about.

However, when we study something knew, one of the first things we do is to make mistakes. And with mistakes we learn how not to make them anymore, or at least this is the goal to achieve when learning. On the other hand, to get rid of some old mistakes is really, really hard.

The day before yesterday I was surfing the web when I saw a shark... :) Well, of course it was not a real shark , but I really got scared! :D A web site made with actual photographs of english errors found in advertisements, in street banners, in products... I got scared with so many mistakes, but I laughed more than anythnig else. There are some pearls inside the web site. It really worth a visit. Click on the link at the top of this post to go there.

But, as entrée, I'll put here two that I think are very hilarious...


Ground-father and Ground-mother? Where are they?


Is it chocolate with milk or milk with chocolate?

APOD: 2005 April 7 - Solar Eclipse in View

APOD: 2005 April 7 - Solar Eclipse in View

Tomorrow we will have a not so common event. A Solar Eclipse. Click on the link above for a picture taken in November 2003 of another one. This picture on the left "was shot during the total eclipse of the Millennium on 1999 August 11 from Lake Hazar, Turkey."

This year's Solar Eclipse will be more visible "across the Pacific Ocean, beginning south of New Zealand and just ending in Venezuela." If you are in some location where it can be seen, be sure to take serious precautions. Please follow the instruction set on this page.

When I see these events from the Nature, that still today wonders all of us, I keep telling myself that the ancient people, that could not understand what was really happening up above, could only think that this could be a real sign of the end of the times...

Maybe it is, who knows... :) Just kidding!

NCAA Tournament

Musics and videos from the NCAA
CBS Sports complete coverage of the Finals

I can't play nothing of basketball. But I have fun watching it. A few minutes ago, the 2005 NCAA championship finished. UNC (University of North Carolina) against Illinois. The final score for the game was 75 UNC x 70 Illinois. (above you see the photo of Sean May, the MVP (Most Valuable Player) of the Final Four of NCAA.

As everybody already know here, I'm not American, so, I knew the NCAA existed because of Michael Jordan that came from there (and by coincidence, from North Carolina). But I never watched a game before. Today I watched the final. And what a game. Like every single good basketball game all was decided only at the final 2 minutes. :) UNC was 15 points ahead in the end of the first half, but with just 2 minutes to go, they were tied!

What a game!

In the end, the TV played what I discovered is the official hymn of the NCAA. A beautiful song about encouragement, the value of fight for what we believe called "One Shining Moment". I know there are lots of people out there that finds the lyrics too cheesy, but, for me, I see it beyond cheese (by the way, I love cheese :) ), it is a great hymn to continue the struggle, not only for the ball game, but for the game of life.

Below is a part of the lyrics and some links for the ones that wish to listen. I really like the song.

One Shining Moment

“Feel the beat of your heart
feel the wind in your face
it's more than a contest
it's more than a race...
And when it's done
win or lose
you always did your best
cuz inside you knew...
that one shining moment, you reached for the sky
one shining moment, you knew
one shining moment, you were willing to try
one shining moment . . .”

Here you can see a Video Clip of the song with images from the 2002 Championship
Here you listen to the TV Version of the song
Official Site of the composer of "One Shining Moment"

Congratulations North Carolina. Congratulations Illinois. Win or lose, I always believe that the important is really to compete.

Curt Schilling, red sock, and Red Sox

Boston Red Sox: Information From Answers.com

I'm not a big fan of Baseball. Where I come from we don't have baseball. Brazil's main sport is Soccer.

However, I think America won a new fan last season. I think I'm a lucky guy. Before this year, I have been in the U.S. three other times. My first was back in 1996, with my father. We spent near a week between New York and Miami. My secont trip was in 2002 to visit my brother that lives here since 1998 (I think). This second time I was here for 17 days. And the last time was last year (2004), again to visit my brother. I came to stay for two months, but stayed for five and a half. I thank God for many things that happened that period.

And one of them was that I knew the story of the Red Sox and the famous "Curse of the Bambino". But, the most important, was that I saw here they break the curse. For the ones who don't know, the "Curse" was a period of time when the Red Sox didn't win the "World Series" (the final games between the champions of two leagues of Baseball here in the US) since 1918. 86 years without winning a championship. Bostonians were completely crazy, and still are, because of this curse. But now it is over. And today (04/03/05) a new season begins.

Watching the final games last year against the Yankees (their biggest adversary) I could see why Americans love so much this sport. It is not the most entertaining evento of the world, but it has its magic. Last year, at least for me, one of the highlights of the finals was Curt Schilling, Sox's pitcher. Even with his hurt ankle (see picture of his red blooded sock during one of the games), he played to win and won the game for the Sox. Some of the other great players that won the title are: Jason Varitek, Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Johnny Damon, and Bill Mueller, among others.

86 years without winning a title. And I was here to see it. Last friday I bought a Red Sox cap to prepare for the next season. I won't be able to go to the games, but once in a while I'll watch some of them on tv.

Today the game is against the Yankees again. I don't have a good feeling about it, because they are playing at Yankees Stadium, but it will be a party anyway.

Go Sox. And don't make Bostonians wait another 86 years to win another title.

College Writing

Hi Everyone,

Today, er I mean, yesterday, I finished my first class in Bunker Hill Community College. It was College writing I.

Last tuesday we had our final exam, that talked about Graffiti and I passed. Yesterday we had to give our teacher the final version of the research paper. Everybody in the class should do one essay containing around five written pages about any subtopic that versed around the theme Sweatshops.

At first, almost nobody in the class liked the theme. One of the reasons was that few people there, including me, knew what were sweatshops. But, once again, our teacher proved to be right when decided for this topic. We had a lot of material, so much that was hard to focus on only two or three references to put on the paper.

After finishing it (I wrote about the liaison between Soccer and Child Labor), I felt very well, because now I know not only a new word, but I can really see that there a lot of problems in the world that are much bigger than mine. This makes me feel even more commited to life and commited to try to help our world to be a better place to live.

I'm glad for a lot of things today. For finishing my first class in english, doing everything well. I'm happy for the text that I wrote. And also happy for the opportunity to know new people, new friends that make our lives much more easy and light to carry on.

Ah, and by the way, today is April Fool's day (click here for another interesting link), but everything I just said is completely true and accurate... :)

In 2004, April First, "National Public Radio's news program All Things Considered announces that the United States Postal Service, as part of its "Go Postal" program, is launching a "National Portable Zip Codes Program," which will allow individuals to keep their old zip codes if they move within the United States. [14]"

Back to the future and Manure

Tractor Driver Dies Under Load of Manure

Back to the future is not only a movie. It is a classic. Some of its ideas are amazing even today. Some of its jokes too. Who doesn't remember the scene where Marty McFly takes the skate of the future and it has no wheels? Or the amazing idea of putting the time travelling machine ia a car? Or yet Biff (picture) hitting the manure car in all three movies?

But, unfortunatelly, the manure idea really happened last sunday on Prague, at the Czech Republic and it was not funny. The man was suffocated and died.

The owner of the said that "the truck is operated from the tractor cabin, using hydraulics. There was nothing for him to do under the truck, but it's tough to blame him now that he is dead".

The news finishes informing that police are investigating the death as a work-related accident.

Let's pray for him and hope next time things like this happen, the person only get dirty, stinky, and angry as in the movie.

Double serendipity

Hello everyone! It's been some days I don't come here. But Here I am.

I wish someone could have told me at least that my little poem is awful... :D But it seems to me that almost nobody comes here yet. I'll make an effort to make this change.(I don't know how :D )

Well, a few months ago my father saw a 2001 movie called Serendipity and liked it (click on the poster to see more info about it). I didn't watch it yet, but the soundtrack is good. Someday I'll watch it. What got my attention, though was the name of the movie.

I didn't know the word. Not that I know so many English words, but it is not so common to have uncommon words in movie titles. I can remember that I searched the meaning of it at the time, but if someone asked me early morning yesterday, I could have not told. I completely forgot the meaning of the word.

Tonight I was navigating, posting some comments in other blogs and just browsing around when I found out the word serendipity in a site that explains the meanings of the words. What a luck. And I was not even looking for it. Happened to me what happened to Alexander Fleming to discover that the penicillin is an antibacterial. "He was merely cleaning up his laboratory when he discovered that the Penicillium mould had contaminated one of his old experiments" (Answers.com).

But what you don't know yet that, Serendipity means exactly this: "making fortunate discoveries by accident". Isn't that incredible? To learn the meaning of a word by experiencing what the world really means. It is like understanding what milk is, by seeing it coming out of the animal and drinking it. No words are needed to explain. Just the feeling, just the idea. No words, no confusion. Simply communication.

Ah, by the way, "this word has been voted as one of the ten English words that were hardest to translate in June 2004 by a British translation company" informs Answers.com.

What a serendipity!

Have a great day!

Shhhh....

Much was talked about the silence

Much was said by the silence

How could we

shut up?

...

.

Spoonerism

Answers.com: spoonerism

Rev. William Archibald Spooner

I knew that in every language this phenomenon happens: take two words and change some of their letters and form two different ones. Or, in addition to that form different phrases with different meanings, making, normally, fun of the situation. I do this sometimes in Portuguese, my mother language, but not yet in English because it is not fluent enough for me. What I didn't know was that his type of construction had a name: spoonerism.

Spoonerism was named, according to Answers.com "[After William Archibald Spooner (1844–-1930), British cleric and scholar.]"

Here are some spoonerisms (all attributed to Mr. Spooner):

• We all know what it is to have a half-warmed fish ["half-formed wish"] inside us.
• The Lord is a shoving leopard ["loving shepherd"].
• It is kisstomary to cuss ["customary to kiss"] the bride.
• Is the bean dizzy ["dean busy"]?
• When the boys come back from France, we'll have the hags flung out ["flags hung out"]!
• Let me sew you to your sheet ["show you to your seat"].

As I told in another post, living and learning...

New word (slang) - "SHART"

Bill Casselman New Word Study: New word "SHART"
UrbanDictionary.com/shart

Well, I admit it. I'm kinda weird! I don't know why, but there is one thing that it seems to me that is part of the Collective Unconscious. Is to make fun of the act that everybody does at the bathroom and is smelly...

And today I discovered a new word (slang) that joins the act that produces the odor and the object that is smelly together. The word is shart. To see the complete definition, and why the poster of "Along Came Polly" is here, follow the links above...

Boston.com / News / Odds & ends / Don't call tomato a fruit in New Jersey

Boston.com / News / Odds & ends / Don't call tomato a fruit in New Jersey

Well, that's it for me! I'm wondering when will lawyers really start to work seriuosly! :)

In the Garden State, New Jersey, the tomato, according to Sen. Ellen Karcher, "Botanically it's a fruit, legally it's a vegetable".

What in the world is happening? Probably the next step will be sue the tomato because it must be its fault to make such a mess in the Garden. Seriously, I guess lawmakers are going too far in these lawyer things.

The problem begun because some students wrote letters urging lawmakers to adopt a state fruit. And the tomato did not win. The winner was the blueberry. And the loved tomato was left aside because, according to the high court back in 1887, if the tomato is typically served with dinner and not as a desert, it must be a vegetable! Incredible, huh? I don't eat banana as desert, eat it as part of the meal. Does it make the banana a vegetable? :) There is no official vegetable in the Garden State.

Well, let's not throw tomatoes at them; but I guess this may end up in ketchup...

Awakened Woman

White Orchid Phalaenopsis - Click to enlarge

Orchid Photos

Awakened Woman
Woman's Day Magazine
Woman Motorist
Wired Woman Society
A Woman's World

My small tribute to all women is to give each one of them one orchid. And some information too. They are never enough. Either orchids or information.

Rumbling Alaskan Volcano Prompts Warning

Rumbling Alaskan Volcano Prompts Warning


Sunset, near Exit camp at Kenai/AK

My brother keeps telling everybody he knows about the beauties of Alaska. And, although, I was not there to confirm myself, I really believe him, not only because of his words, but also because of the photos he made there.

Unfortunately, Alaska is a region with great natural "problems". Earthquakes, Volcanos and very, very low temperatures. The Alaska Volcano Observatory said friday that the volcaninc rumblings at Mount Spurr (80 miles west of Anchorage, the largest city of Alaska) are creating hazardous condicions for extreme skiers, snow boarders and pilots landing in the area.

Read more clicking the link above. And see more Alaska pictures and information clicking on the picture above.

My first post in english

Hi everybody.

This is my first post in this space. And also the first in english. I really can't promise much effort in Melogs, because I already have a blog at http://mackmelo.blogspot.com/. However the other one is in portuguese.

If you talk portuguese, I invite you to go there, because it is updated almost daily. But, despite of this, I'll try to make at least a weekly update here, like a summary of what I posted there, so you can see what I'm "concerned" about each week.

I hope we can have some good conversations in this space and develop some good relationships.

See y'all later.