Marisa Monte: Depois

Related to the previous post, I’m in love with the musica Depois, from Marisa Monte, from the telenovela Avenida Brasil, it’s the music from the main romantic couple.

Depois de sonhar tantos anos
De fazer tantos planos
De um futuro pra nós
Depois de tantos desenganos
Nós nos abandonamos como tantos casais
Quero que você seja feliz
Hei de ser feliz também

Depois de varar madrugada
Esperando por nada
De arrastar-me no chão
Em vão
Tu viraste-me as costas
Não me deu as respostas
Que eu preciso escutar
Quero que você seja melhor
Hei de ser melhor também

Nós dois
Já tivemos momentos
Mas passou nosso tempo
Não podemos negar
Foi bom
Nós fizemos histórias
Pra ficar na memória
E nos acompanhar
Quero que você viva sem mim
Eu vou conseguir também

Depois de aceitarmos os fatos
Vou trocar seus retratos pelos de um outro alguém
Meu bem
Vamos ter liberdade
Para amar à vontade
Sem trair mais ninguém
Quero que você seja feliz
Hei de ser feliz também
Depois

The power of procrastination (and brazilian soap operas)

Procrastination sometimes just has to win out! For the first time in I don’t remember how long, I spent the entire weekend doing absolutely nothing! Not one thing! I also did something I hadn’t done in around 14 years: I started to watch a BRAZILIAN SOAP OPERA!

Let me just say that while I was growing up, every single portuguese person watched all the soap operas that GLOBO had to offer! In fact, we are always the first country to run the “Telenovelas” after Brazil. But around the year 2000, one of our television channels started to produce good portuguese fiction, and the brazilian soap operas fell a bit in viewership. Truth is, I followed a few of the portuguese telenovelas since then, but no more of the brazilian productions. That is, until right now!

A few days ago I was watching a spanish channel, waiting for a FIFA World Cup game to begin, and there on my screen was a Telenovela (voiced in spanish off course, which I quickly changed to the original language). And just like that, I was hooked on Avenida Brasil! It took me exactly one day to decide that I wanted to watch the whole thing and to find the episodes online and start to watch them… and now I’m hooked! And I’m (almost) ashamed to say that I managed to watch around 30 hours of the series during this weekend… oh yeah… The couple of kids above totally steel the beginning of the series, they are so damn cute. But if you think it’s not reason enough, take a look at this:

I swear that when I was younger, we usually only got one of these per series… now look at it!

Doctor Who Season 8 gets a premiere date!

Saturday, 23rd of August…

…is the day that the new Doctor, the Twelfth, played by Peter Capaldi, will land on our screens!

FIFA World Cup 2014: Portugal out, Vampire on the loose and who am I gonna root for…

I promise this is my last post about football… unless something really excites me in the next couple of weeks :P! So last night, and although Portugal won against Ghana, its result was still not enough to make it through the next round. I was sad, obviously, I even shed one tear or two (or a lot more), but I was pleased that at least we played well (and way better than the two previous games). Our players tried their best, but the result we needed was way improbable – although, if Ronaldo’s aim was a little better, we could easily have scored the 5 goals we so desperately needed!

I’m still sad about the things I keep listening and reading online about our national team. People seem to forget the dimension and difficulties of our little country and expect always more, instead of being content about what we’re given. Until 2002 we hardly ever qualified for a World Cup before, and already then we had our “Golden Generation” and we did worse than we did now. Still, people talk, are stupid about the comments they made, think the players had the duty to the more, even if hurt, and that the fault is all on Paulo Bento, our coach. I know I don’t understand much about football, to be honest, 10 years ago I hardly knew what an offside was, but I think is stupid and close minded to judge a team and all the people involved in preparation in 2 games, and that’s what everyone did. Chill out people, we didn’t pass on to the round of 16, but it was hardly the end of the world… 16 national teams go home at this point, and it is known that European teams do not do so well below the equatorial line!

On a very different subject, after having bitten the italian player Chiellini, FIFA gave a close look to Suárez action and decided to pass on a harsh sentence: FIFA disciplinary committee decided that Luis Suárez is suspended for nine matches and banned for four months from any football-related activity!

The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has decided that:

· The player Luis Suárez is regarded as having breached art. 48 par. 1 lit. d of the FIFA Disciplinary Code (FDC) (assault), and art. 57 of the FDC (an act of unsporting behaviour towards another player).

· The player Luis Suárez is to be suspended for nine (9) official matches. The first match of this suspension is to be served in the upcoming FIFA World Cup™ fixture between Colombia and Uruguay on 28 June 2014. The remaining match suspensions shall be served in Uruguay’s next FIFA World Cup match(es), as long as the team qualifies, and/or in the representative team’s subsequent official matches in accordance with art. 38 par. 2a) of the FDC.

· The player Luis Suárez is banned from taking part in any kind of football-related activity (administrative, sports or any other) for a period of four (4) months in accordance with art. 22 of the FDC.

· A stadium ban is pronounced against the player Luis Suárez in accordance with art. 21 of the FDC as follows: the player Luis Suárez is prohibited from entering the confines of any stadium during the period of the ban (point 3). The player Luis Suárez is prohibited from entering the confines of any stadium in which the representative team of Uruguay is playing while he has to serve the nine-match suspension (point 2).

· The player Luis Suárez is ordered to pay a fine in the amount of CHF 100,000.

The decision was notified to the player and the Uruguayan FA today.

“Such behaviour cannot be tolerated on any football pitch, and in particular not at a FIFA World Cup when the eyes of millions of people are on the stars on the field. The Disciplinary Committee took into account all the factors of the case and the degree of Mr Suárez’s guilt in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Code. The decision comes into force as soon it is communicated,” said Claudio Sulser, chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee.

Even though many people already came to his defense, including Diego Maradona, who called FIFA a mafia, I do agree with his punishment. Sure, there are much more serious attacks, players that do dangerous entries, or those who decide to step on some other player’s testicules, or stuff in those lines. Bitting, unlike kicking, elbowing or stepping is not (at least in my opinion) a reflective action, which means that there’s more intention behind it. If you saw it at the moment, we can clearly see Suárez coming straight to the other player and biting him. And it was not the first time either, he was already punished two previous times for the same kind of offence. So, this is strike 3, the guy clearly has a problem! You know Suárez, Vampires are coming out of fashion again… you should think about quitting! I do hope that Barcelona thinks long and hard before spending something like 80 millions euros on a player that won’t be able to play until the end of October (and who clearly has some issues!). I’m just sorry that he was not expelled during the game, because, although I wanted Uruguay to win against Italy, at the moment  that this scene takes place they were still tied, who’s to say if he had been expelled if the result would be the same?! I think it wouldn’t, and maybe it would be Italy now in the 16 round.

Now without Portugal in the competition, I find it hard to find a country to root for. My choice should fall on Brasil: they have the same language as us and a know a lot of people from there, but, I don’t necessarily think that winning the World Cup would be beneficial for the people. I think that a win would throw sand into everybody’s eyes, and most people would forget everything that went on this past few years in order for them to host the World Cup. The other obvious choice would be some of the european teams… so let’s just go game by game…

• Brasil x Chile – I’m going for Brasil because, well, it’s Brasil!
• Colombia x Uruguay – Colombia, because after what happened in their last game, no way I want Uruguay to win!
• Netherlands x Mexico – Here the rule of Europe and sympathy wins! Netherlands all the way!
• Costa Rica x Greece – Greece has a Portuguese coach, so, while he’s competing (and even though I have not forgotten the Euro 2004), I’ll be rooting for them.
• France x Nigeria – Nigeria is was of the few African teams still in play, so my support goes to them
• Germany x Argelia – Same as above… never liked the Germans.
• Argentina x Switzerland – I just seriously dislike Argentina… It might have something to do with Messi… =/ (sorry!)
• Belgium x USA – USA because I think they deserve it. Their national team has evolved so much, and even got their country interested in football, so good for them.

Football and Feelings (and why I’ll be planted in front of my tv tonight!)

Well, as you might have guesses by my last few posts, I love Word Cup season! That said, I was really mad when I wrote my last post, so much in fact, that I wrote it in Portuguese, which, in fact, is something that I hadn’t done so far, so, that should give a clue as to the level of my madness!

If you don’t read Portuguese (shame on you =P), it was basically about how disappointed I was (still am) with the people of my country. Contrary to what you may think, and although I was extremely sad about it, I’m not or ever will be disappointed with my national football team. I’m confident that they give their best anytime they’re representing their country, even when they don’t get the results we wished they would. People should stop criticizing everything and start supporting more! ‘Cause it’s not normal that a random, probably not portuguese Tumblr user is more supportive of our player than us!

That said, I’m happy to read that our coach doesn’t plan on quitting, regardless of the results achieved. I’m happy about it because I think blaming everything that goes wrong in a couple of weeks on the coach is a bunch of bullshit, and I would like to see him get our team classified for the Euro 2016.

And because Portugal plays today, and even though our chances are really slim, they still exist, and I believe in the “Selecção das Quinas”! GO PORTUGAL! #IBELIEVE #EUACREDITO #SOMOSSELECÇÃO #SOMOSPORTUGAL

Portugal: Bestiais a Bestas

Ontem Portugal empatou a duas bolas com os USA, e pela primeira vez desde que comecei a interessar-me pelo futebol, sinto-me envergonhada de ser portuguesa!

Mas calma, não é pela prestação da nossa selecão, mas sim pela infeliz mentalidade do meu povo!

Quem conhece a realidade portuguesa sabe como somos: somos pessimistas! Em Portugal passa-se de Bestial a Besta numa fracção de segundos. Gostamos de falar mal, é triste, mas é verdade. E não importa o mal que estamos, é sempre mais importante salientarmos como as coisas estão mal e de quem é a culpa, que tentar encontrar soluções e uma réstia de optimismo. Claro que se conhecem apenas os portugueses fora de Portugal, esta possivelmente não é a imagem que têm, mas basta abrir os nossos jornais, ver os nossos programas de comentários, ou seguir alguns portugueses no Facebook para perceberem o que digo.

Assim que o Mundial começou e perdemos o nosso primeiro jogo contra a Alemanha, esta onda começou. Não foi a primeira vez, é assim cada vez que não obtemos os resultados que as pessoas acham “aceitaveis”, mas desta vez incomodou-me. De repente toda a gente é um entendido de futebol! Todos os jogadores fazem asneiras! Todas as decisões do treinador são más! Todas as atitudes em campo são erradas! Todas as delarações são estupidas! E eu pergunto-me: SERÁ QUE A UNICA VEZ QUE PORTUGAL ESTEVE UNIDO PELA SELECÇÃO NACIONAL FOI QUANDO TIVEMOS UM TREINADOR ESTRANGEIRO?! QUAL É A NECESSIDADE DESTA MÁ LINGUA?!

No jogo contra a Alemanha, Paulo Bento foi criticado pelos jogadores convocados, devido às muitas lesões no final dos 90 minutos. Eu pergunto: TENDO EM CONTA QUE, POR EXEMPLO, RONALDO NÃO ESTAVA NA MELHOR CONDIÇÃO FÍSICA QUANDO COMEÇOU A PREPARAÇÃO, ISSO QUER DIZER QUE PAULO BENTO NÃO O DEVIA TER CONVOCADO? REALLY?! O MELHOR DO MUNDO?!

Outra grande critica feita foi ao Pepe, que ele não podia ter reagido assim. Ora, primeiro, tendo em conta a onda de comportamentos dos arbitros até ao momento que estavam mais numa de avisar que de caras prejudicar as equipas, achei a expulsão do Pepe injusta. Já sei, questões “comportamentais” têm que ser punidas… alguem devia ir dizer isso ao meninos dos USA que ontem deu uma cotovelada ao Meireles… Mas não sou a unica a achar que foi inapropiada a expulsão, os comentadores futbolisticos espanhois acham também que ele foi mal expulso… Mas voltando ao ponto, SIM, O PEPE DEVIA SABER MELHOR, NÃO SE DEVIA DEIXAR AFECTAR E BLA BLA BLA, MAS ATÉ ESTARMOS SOBRE O TIPO DE PRESSAO QUE ELE ESTAVA NAQUELE MOMENTO, PODEMOS MESMO CRITICAR UMA ATITUDE MAIS DO QUE HUMANA?! (Zidane, anyone?!)

Triste, é ver este tipo de declarações:

A minha paciencia chegou ao limite ontem durante o jogo com os USA. Portugal entrou bem no jogo. Podia ter feito mais? Claro! Mas é obvio que a selecção não está num bom momento. Tivemos outras duas lesões imprevistas durante o jogo, o que torna bastante complicado papel de Paulo Bento, que tem passado os ultimos jogos mais a gerir o plantel que propriamente a fazer decisões tacticas. Mas não jogamos mal. Como é que as pessoas podem dizer que estão “ENVERGONHADOS” com a prestação da selecção?! Que deviam “VIR PARA CASA E PARAR DE DAR VERGONHAS”?! Será que eu tenho uma definição diferente de “vergonha”?! Não foi assim há tantos anos que Portugal nem se apurava para os campeonatos do Mundo, apenas a partir de 2002 temos sido presença assidua. E agora eles têm obrigação de passar da fase de grupos?! Porquê?! Sabem que metade das selecções não passam, certo?! Qual é a vergonha de perder com uma Alemanha ou empatar com os Estados Unidos? Ou mesmo se perdermos contra o Gana?!

Vergonha é a falta de apoio que o nosso povo dá! E nem vou só falar da selecção, basta olhar para os nossos clubes. Durante metade do ano os estadios e futebol andam às moscas. As pessoas começam a ir ao futebol quando a sua equipa está numa posição “relativamente confortável”. E isto é o tipo de adeptos que temos e que somos. Falsos! Com a selecção também somos assim, mas piores, porque como temos o melhor jogador do Mundo, achamos que de alguma forma a selecção tem obrigação de também ser das melhores do Mundo.

Vergonha é as pessoas esconderem-se por detrás das redes sociais, para mandar bitates e fazeres declarações menos proprias, e chamarem nomes a jogadores, seleccionadores ou preparadores fisicos.

Vergonha é a falta de respeito que se observa de uma forma diária, em relação a um grupo de pessoas que está a dar o seu melhor, mesmo que o seu melhor neste momento não corresponda à nossa ideia do “seu melhor”.

Vergonha é numa altura em que deviamos estar unidos, apoiar os nossos jogadores, a nossa federação, a nossa selecção, só sabemos criticar e dizer mal.

Para terminar, não me interessa se passamos à proxima fase ou se voltamos para casa depois do proximo jogo, não me importa se nos qualificamos para o proximo Europeu ou Mundial. Cada vez que a nossa selecção jogar, eu acredito! #somosselecção #euacredito #Portugal

Guardians of the Galaxy – Full Trailer #2

The second full trailer for the Guardians of the Galaxy is out!

“You just want to suck the joy out of everything”

Portugal National Team: 2000-2012

I love the International Football tournaments! I’m a late bloomer in regards to football, I always watched the occasional game, rooted for my team (Sporting) or the National team, but it wasn’t until Portugal hosted the UEFA Euro 2004 that I really started to pay attention – me and most of my generation.

Four years before, however, is where the dream started. The UEFA Euro 2000, organized between Belgium and the Netherlands, saw the epitome of our “Golden Generation”. We won our three games from the group stage, winning with Romania and England, and given that we already had enough points to pass on, our coach rested some of our biggest players for the match against Germany, and we played with our so-called B-team, where Sergio Conceição, in a match that i still vividly remember, made an hat-trick, and we won 3-0!

That year we went to the semi-finals, where we played with France, and unfortunately lost, with a penalty converted by Zidane at the 117 minutes mark, due to a “hand” from Abel Xavier. To this day, this is probably still one of the most heated discussions you can have with a Portuguese supporter, because there’s no doubt that there was a touch, but what was in question was the intentionality of that touch, and the referee decided that Abel Xavier willingly put his hand in the trajectory of the ball, in order to stop its progress. And just like this, the Euro 2000 was over.

The 2002 FIFA World Cup is not even worth mentioning… it was that bad! And then came the UEFA Euro 2004, which was incredible, and most importantly, we had a kick ass national team!

Back then, Cristiano Ronaldo was just a 19 year old kid, playing in Manchester, that still wore the number 17 and didn’t have a permanent spot on the main team. The real stars were other names, such as Luis Figo, Rui Costa, Pauleta, Fernando Couto, Ricardo Carvalho, Rui Jorge or Ricardo. Just a year after he arrived to train the team, the brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari encouraged the people to believe and for the very first time really, we did! And we did so well!!! We got to the Final, having lost only 2 games throughout the whole competition, the first one and the last, both against Greece. On the way, we won with Spain, England or the Netherlands.

 

Two years later, we managed to qualify to the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany. Once again, Luiz Felipe Scolari managed what no one before him could: unify the country in front of the TV screens! Everywhere you went in Portugal, you would see the flags flying from the windows, scarfs in the cars and everyone supporting their players. This was going to be the goodbye to the last members of our “Golden Generation”, such as Luis Figo.

So, taking advantage of the fact that Angola also qualified and was on Portugal’s group, me and a big chunk of my family, flew to Germany, where we watched the first two games of Portugal and Angola.

We won all the games in our group stage and went to the round of 16, where we won with the Netherlands. Next was England in the Quarter Finals, and, as we were used to by now, we had to go to penalties. The country stopped! The man of the hour was our goal keeper, Ricardo, who not only kept 3 balls from coming in, he also did it without gloves! Unfortunately we lost with France in the Semi Finals, and then again with Germany and ended in 4th place.

In the UEFA Euro 2008 we stayed for the Quarter-finals, losing to Germany, and shortly after that we said goodbye to our coach, Luiz Filipe Scolari.

Four years ago, at the South Africa FIFA World Cup 2010, we stayed for the Round of 16, losing to Spain, who would become World Champion that year. The team, now over the direction of Carlos Queiroz, failed to reach the unity that had once had, and the coach had enough problems of his own with FIFA after the World Cup.

Soon after, Paulo Bento took over the team. The now coach is none other that number 17 in the first photo of this post! At the UEFA Euro 2012, in Poland and Ukraine, we reached the Semi-finals, losing again to Spain, who would become, again, European Champion.

Movie of the Week: Maleficent

After putting it off due to lack of time (mostly), I finally managed to go and watch Maleficent, when my 11 years old niece expressed her desire to see the movie as well. I was a little afraid, given that most of the reviews I read online were not so positive… but I have to be honest: I liked it!

There’s not doubt that Angelina Jolie as Maleficent is reason enough to get into that movie theatre! Her portrayal of the “Evil Queen” is magnetic. The special effects are pretty awesome as well, the Moors look great, Diaval’s changes are amazing and anything related to magic looks good… I only disliked the 3 little fairies, when they were little… they looked weird.

I thought the casting was great. Angelina Jolie, as I said, is magnetic, Sam Riley as Diaval was probably my personal favourite though… I LOVED Diaval! Elle Fanning as Aurora… well… she played her well, and it was clear that they went for “a real 16 y.o. girl”, but I don’t see her as Aurora.

About all the changes to the story… I did not mind them. It works if you don’t relate the fairy tale animated movie and this one too much. SPOILERS AHEAD!

Sure, when we were kids we were lead to believe that Maleficent was the epitome of a Disney Villain, doing all those bad things just because she could and that no real reason was behind it. This movie tells a different story, a different Maleficent, who fell in trust and in love with a human, and was betrayed in his search for power. It tells a story about a scorned woman who proclaims herself Queen and vows to destroy her enemy’s life by cursing his daughter. It shows how she becomes attached to the girl, caring for her since the moment she leaves the castle, and how Aurora loves and trusts her too. It also shows what obsession and greed can do to a person, destroying Aurora’s father, and once Maleficent’s love.

All in all, a very entertaining movie. If I would change anything, it would be the intended target audience. It’s clear that this is a more “adult” movie than those that usually come out of Disney, the problem is, the adults remember a very different story, and have been living with it for a very long time… so, it’s probably hard to really get into this plot (which is not bad at all), knowing how it contradicts everything we thought we knew…

Just a little comment about how cute the baby and child Aurora were… the baby totally stole all the scenes, and the child, played by Angelina’s own daughter, was just so darn cute!

PhD Movie: Kickstarter for a sequel

Do you know phdcomics.com?! If you don’t, you should definitely check it out. If you already know it, you know how awesome and sometimes scarily acurate they can be.

In 2011, they did an independent movie based on the comics. “The PHD Movie, based on Piled Higher and Deeper (phdcomics.com), featured real grad students and scientists in many of the lead roles (including producer and director), and was screened at over 500 Universities and Research Centers worldwide (including Antarctica!) during its release.”

In the beginning of this month, its creator Jorge Cham, announced that they were starting a kickstarter campaign in order to found a sequel: The PHD Movie 2: Still in Grad School. And I think that it’s a brilliant idea, and for the first time ever contributed to a campaign.

**** PLEASE SHARE THE LINK FOR THE KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN SO THAT THEY CAN ATE LEAST REACH THEIR BASE GOAL****

During this month, you can watch the first movie free on their website: phdmovie.

If you’re a grad student or part of academia somehow, you can relate to some or most of the topics in this movie, here are some key points:

• Some subjects are tabu: “So, how’s research going? Don’t you know you’re never supposed to ask a grad student that question? It’s just rude!” “How’s your thesis going?” “Come on, why don’t you ask her weight and age while you’re at it! Gosh!!!”

• You’ll sometimes feel like an imposter: “I’ll let you in on a little secret: around here, everyone is an imposter”

• It’s OK to have no idea what to do afterwards: “I mean, what happens when I graduate? I can’t get a professor job anywhere. These jobs only open up when someone dies.” “I can’t go into industry. What have I been working all this time for? I’d be selling out, like… like…” “Like a regular person?”

• “You don’t get credit for having a life.” – You should still try to have one and not feels guilty all the time.
• You might think that you failed your professor, but remember… “he probably doesn’t think about you that much.”

• You publish or you perish… “You ever wonder what the point is?” “Eh. Not really.” “I mean about this research we do. We publish so that people can give us more money so that we can do more research so that we can publish more! Ad infinitum!” “Ad nauseum.” “See, I thought that I was gonna be working on big problems, but it seems like I’m just working on a subproblem of a subproblem of a subproblem.” “We’re all just research tools.” “I don’t wanna be here forever, like…, like…” “Me?”

• Cynicism is key! “Nobody believes anything in academia. That’s the whole point. Evidence is king. The only thing you take for granted is that there’ll be another grant.” 
• You’re there because you want to! “Life is tough. And then you graduate. Everybody’s here because they want to be here. There’s nothing reasonable about pursuing a life of reason.”

• You are NOT ALONE! “It’s easy in research to get tunnel vision. You feel isolated, like you’re the only person with your problem. But the truth is” “you’re not alone. But whenever I get stressed I just ask myself the question:” “Do I really care?” “Would I rather be doing anything else? You’re not a machine. You have to embrace the things you’re passionate about.” “Every great idea, every great moment of “Eureka!”, came when It was least expected. Google,” “Facebook, Newton and gravity, Einstein and relativity, all of these things happened when they weren’t doing what they were supposed to be doing. When they were following their passion.” “Procrastinating.”

• In which 50% do you wanna be? “Are you guys graduate students? This is for my thesis. I’m studying why there’s a fifty percent dropout rate amongst PhD students. That means that two out of every four graduate students will never graduate. But I know that there’re a lot of issues that I should be really concerned about, especially as a graduate student, because, you know, no one’s really going to be you advocate. So. How’s Research?”