Revenge.

You know that feeling when you do a harmful action against a person who did a bad thing against you? It feels good right? Well I really don't know that feeling, for now. I'm not a revengeful guy... 

This desire of revenge, so well demonstrated in novels like The Count of Monte Cristo or plays like Hamlet or Othello, is quite good. It's a moment when your levels of motivation are really high and you just want to do something to the person who harmed you. But some of you might think that revenge isn't an ethical thing, to the people who think like that, you haven't been hurt enough. Revenge it's human nature, if someone punches you in the face your response is to retaliate, it's an instant reaction. So why do we have to control this desire? Really, why? The answer is simple. You don't want to step down your level of superiority. 

This is a polite thought, of course. Revenge is a dirty action. If you want to do this you need to lower yourself. So, In my modest opinion, you should do something against the person who threatens you, or hurt you, but you will want to do it right. I've been bullied when I was young and I didn't do anything back then, and I sincerely regret that. Everyone needs to feel at least once in a life time the sweet flavour of revenge, because I admit it, it tastes really good. At this point you may think, "This dude said he was not a revengeful guy...I think he lied", well, I didn't lied, at least not totally. I like to see myself like Switzerland, I'm there in Europe bit at the same time I'm not. I don't like to get in to trouble, because I'm a lazy bastard and at the same time if I want to do something against another person, I want to do it right (and I remind you, "I'm a lazy bastard").                                         

This random post is to give you my opinion about this subject, and my opinion is, don't take crap from anyone. You may think you are a bar person after you've done something bad to revenge you, but you are just trying to survive. Doing nothing is never an option. You will be sad, anger and you will never be happy if nothing happens to those who hurt you. At this point you are thinking "This dude is a revengeful person and he lied.", well, you are right. Are you going to piss me off?!

Friendzone.

"Friend zone, or occasionally friendship zone, is a dating term describing a relation in which one part wants to become intimate while the other prefer just to be friends", or the quick sand zone as I like to call it. I don't know if one of you has ever been "friendzoned", but if you have, well you know It sucks. 

I have been friendzoned a few times, and you may ask if it bothers me, well it bothers me like hell. It's hard if you like someone and that person just want to be your friend. And now you will get why I like to call it the quick sand zone. You may think, "ok, he/she is my friend, I can still get him/hem". WRONG! You are going to be polite, give all you've got but the other person will always see you as friend, and you are being just an awesome friend and nothing more. The more you do, the more you sink in to the quick sands of the friend zone. So what to do? How to escape this zone?

I really don't now, I f I had the answer I wouldn't  be in a similar situation, but this is how I see the situation. First, there's a big difference between a guys friendzone and a girls friendzone. It's rare to a guy, to just put a girl in that status, but when it happens, the girl is NEVER, I repeat, NEVER, in a total friendzone. She will always be the back up plan (I know guys are assholes). 

When a girl puts a guy in friendzone he will be in the false "relationship". This is a "relationship" when you  do almost everything in a relation, wait...I said almost....you obviously will not kiss and won't have sex, so no intimacy.

The examples I just gave can be changed of course, but friendzone means NO INTIMACY. Unless you are friends with benefits, and that's an awesome status because you have the awesomeness of a friendship and the intimacy of a relationship (if I can't get in to a relationship with the person I know I prefer to be in this place). 

I have a theory about out to get out but it's hard to do when you like the other person. Here's some steps from my theory:

1. You don't need him/her. Don't be so available. No one is more important than you. 
2. You find him/her attractive but there's always competition.  Start noticing other people, you are just friends, and noticing other people is a way to say, "ok I'm here for you, but if you don't want me....cya".
3. You are a sexual/sensual being. Talk about sex. Talk about the things you like in bed, well talk about it like you are talking about the weather. 
4. You understand the value of sex with connection. Be romantic, everyone likes romantic things even the most cold person you know. 
5. You are physically affectionate. Make sure to have some physical contact with the person, like hugging and stuff like that. 
6. Give conflicting messages that hint your desire. Just joke around and say that He/She can't wear that perfume around you....you get my point.

In theory this could work. But like I said, it's hard to do because if you like this person so much you will always go for the road of romantic stuff. Friendzone sucks, but if you can't win it, you just need to give up, and enjoy the friendship you have with this person.

Pineapple

Scientific name: Ananas commosus

The pineapple originated in the American continent, in part of Central and South America. Wild varieties are still found in North-East Brazil. The Spaniards encountered the pineapple in Central America, and recorded the fact, while the Portuguese found it in Brazil.Undoubtedly, both immediately recognized its excellent qualities and distributed it through the tropics, because the fruit was unable to withstand long journeys to Europe, and consequently it was one of the first tropical fruits to be turned into a conserve, "unlike any other plant in history", according to Pio Correia.

Pineapples were introduced to the island of Santa Helena by the Portuguese in 1505, to Madagascar in 1549, and to India in 1518, "where there are great quantities of them throughout most areas", as Cristóvão Costa stated. Some oriental historians claim that the pineapple already existed in India before the Portuguese arrived, but they do not dispute the fact that was the Portuguese who taught how to use it and introduced better varieties from Brazil.Of the native plants of Brazil, Sebastião da Rocha saw "the pineapple as the foremost which, like the all-powerful king, crowns nature with a diadem of its own leaves, which encircle its head and surrounding it with thorns, which guarded like archers".

The fruit, with its excellent aroma and flavour, and number of medical properties, is consumed raw in the producing regions, and reasonable proportion reaches the markets of temperate regions in good condition, transport having become faster and more efficient, and there having been noticeable improvement in growing techniques and plant selection. Nevertheless, even today over 60% of production is used as industrial raw material (pineapple rings, chunks, juice, etc). In some places even the leaves are used to extract a coarse fibre.

One more sub-chapter in my master degree thesis. Hope you guys like it.

The Black Keys.

The Black Keys is an American band from Akron, Ohio. Dan Auerbach and Patrck Carney met one day and decided to make music. A friend of theirs who had the habit of calling all he knew "blacks", and they like that name so much, that they decided to make music under the name The Black Keys.

From there, they started very well with the album "The Big Come Up", which was released in 2002. The duo was also compared to the duo The White Stripes, but with a footprint much more psychedelic and lo-fi (low fidelity). In this album they did a cover of a song by The Beatles, "She Said, She Said".

After the first album, not so great but overwhelming, they released their second album "Thickfreakness". This CD reached a higher level in the mainstream indie rock with a psychedelic blues, in the style of Led Zeppelin mixed with White Stripes. One song on "Thickfreakness", "Set you free", entered the film School of Rock starring Jack Black. One of the greatest hits of this album was "Have love will travel", reaching the top charts of indie rock music.

But they rocked even more in the their release, "Rubber Factory", with fast melodies and clean sounds. They were ordered in some of the most popular talk shows in U.S., like the Late Show's with David Letterman. The singles of this album was "10 AM Automatic" and "stack Shot Billy".

After this third album I practically begin to love this band in a level so high that I can't explain. Metallica is my favourite band entered to number one in my favourite band list. The albums "Brothers", and the latest "El Camino" are absolutely perfect. This band it's a real big deal for me, and it's on the list "Bands I want to see before dying". Here's my favourite song,hope you like it as much as I do.

God is a voyeur and Jesus is a Zombie.

One of the reasons I’m not very attached to this thing called religion and the belief that God exist it’s because it freaks me out a bit the phrase “God is everywhere”.I admit I am bit paranoid, and the idea of being watched 24 hours a day by an entity with a beard, colourful t-shirts, calling for peace (In my head God is a Hippie), makes me very uncomfortable. 

Ok, you can say “but God protects you and look for you”. Right…The thing is, I do not need him to watch over me while I’m in the bathroom, or while I’m dressing up or even when I’m running around the house naked screaming “THIS IS SPARTA!!!”. Is he looking in those moments? 

The bible says that God create the universe in 7 days, but what about evolution, the big bang theory (I love you Sheldon) and a bunch of other theory's that totally destroys the bible? What about the dinosaurs? If Jesus was riding a velociraptor fighting the Romans, I admit, I would probably be a Christian, but let's face it, we all now that the bible is just a book and God doesn't exist. Look at the world, there are wars, natural disasters, diseases, etc, a bunch of bad things made by man and there is no sing of God to stop it. Ok. He is not a super hero, but give me a break, if he loves the humankind, he probably needs to do something now. In my opinion, He is a bad man. The flood in a bible is an example. He wiped the human race from the Earth, only Noah and his family escaped, talking about overeating. I tough the Devil was the bad guy here. Really I did. But God punishes and needs 24 hours worshipping....is he a woman?! At least I know woman exist, and I like them very much.

But I have to admit it, Christians are cool. Why you may ask? How can I say, people that believe in something I don't are cool? It's quite simple. Think with me. Jesus died and came to life 3 days after his death...I know what you are thinking he is a ZOMBIE! Zombies are cool, and I like zombies a lot. Imagine. People worshipping a zombie. How cool is that?

I could continue talking trash about religion, God and Jesus but I will continue in another future post. Believe me I have much more things to say.

Deadly Coincidence

In 1975, while riding a moped on the island of Bermuda, a man was accidentally struck and killed by a taxi.
One year later, this man's brother was killed in the very same ways.
It was found that he was, in fact, riding the very same moped. To make this coincidence even more difficult to believe, he was struck by the very same taxi driven who, wait for it, was even carrying the very same passenger.The odds of this thing to happen are very low...really very low.
 The taxi driver sure thought "Ohhh not this again?!".

Another similar story is about some Finnish twins with 71 years old that where killed in an identical bicycle accident, on the same road and just two hours apart. When talking to the police officer Marja-Leena Huhtala, she said "This is simply a historic coincidence. Although the road is a busy one, accidents don't occur every day". She also said "It made my hair stand on end when I heard the two  were brothers, and identical twins at that. It came to mind that perhaps someone from upstairs had a thing to say".

Well, I believe in coincidences and I really don't believe in God, so I think this stories  are an example of the weird stuff that happen in the world. blaming God for this, it's just insulting him because if you do this, you are telling everyone that he is a "bad guy" and last time I checked...the devil was the bad guy.

Source: http://www.btinternet.com/~scaradoo/categories/mysteries.htm

The Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra.

My new post is about the place where I'm going to do my internship, for my master degree thesis. This place is the Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra, one of the oldest and most beautiful botanical gardens in Europe, known worldwide for its extraordinary biodiversity, beautiful scenery and historical architecture.

 This place was created during the Pomabline reform of the university and reflects the enlightened spirit of the XVIII century: It's purpose was to create a place for experimental studies on natural history and medicine.
The Marquis of Pombal ordered the director of the University to find an "appropriate place in the neighbourhood of the University", called the Ursulinas Valley.
A location  was soon found at the farm of the Benedictine College wich would later become the Hortus Botanicus. 

A first proposal was presented, probably by Elsden which it was an extraordinary masterpiece. But the project was considered "extravagant and an example of ostentation" and it was rejected by Pombal whose goal was a "boys study garden". This garden would include "only the number of medicinal herbs considered as indispensable for botany exercises".
A new sketch was submitted, probably by the Italian Guilio Mattiazzi, the first gardener of the Botanical Garden.
Although simpler than the first, the two blueprints were similar: a design of a circle of flowerbeds, around the central square, divided into four beds, with fountains and sculptures, terraces, staircases and iron railings according to the Italian design of the Botanical Garden of Padua. In January of 1774 the University became the of the garden.

The work began without delay and was, supervised by the great naturalist and resercher Domenico Vandelli.
The first plants came from the Royal Garden of Ajuda, in Lisbon. And a little later, new and unique species arrived from other continents. Many of them were sent by another naturalist, Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira, who was collecting plants and species from Brazil, during his "Philosophical Journey to Amazonia". 
A small greenhouse was built in 1776, and another larger one in 1785.
In 1791, Felix Avelar Brotero replaced Vandelli as the scientific director of the garden, and created the Systematic Schools where a diverse collection of the native Portuguese and exotic plants could be observed and studied by the students. Species from all over the world were cultivated in the greenhouses and terraces in the garden. It was taking roots.

Visiting this place can be like traveling around the globe - the collections of plants that fill every corner can transport us to different latitudes and regions. In the Central Square, the oldest part of the garden, we can find trees dating from the foundation of the garden, namely Erythrina crista-galli, whose leaves have a substance -  the eritrina - with similar action to the poison curare. Native South Americans had a habit of putting leaves of this plant on the tips of their hunting arrows.
There are many trees of exceptional size, such as the giant sequoias from California or the palms from Brazil and China, but the most tall tree in the garden is a big eucalyptus, with 50 meters.
There are two relic species that are considered living fossils at the main entrance: the Ginkgo Biloba, originally from China (that is used for therapeutic application for peripheral and cerebral micro-circulation) and the tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera L., that blossoms in June, the traditional month of final exams ("pontos") of the University and, for that very reason, is known as the "'arvore-do-ponto" ("exams tree").

Today, as in the past, the botanical garden is a place of tranquillity, enjoyment, discovery and knowledge, and I hope to be blessed by this place for my master degree thesis.