Norway, here i go!

In Norway!

2012-01-12T12:03:00.000-08:00

Finally! I did it! JEG ER I NORGE!

To the portuguese policemen and military men

2011-12-28T15:05:00.000-08:00

This protest banner reads:

"Policemen and military men

How will you face your children on the day they ask you:
Father, why have you protected the politicians and bankers who have stolen my future?

Do not stay on the wrong side of history
Refuse to use force"

Getting GPS to work on the Samsung Wave S8500

2011-12-20T04:52:00.000-08:00

When I bought this mobile phone, I was very excited with the prospect of using the GPS feature, especially while driving. However, the GPS feature was very disappointing in the sense that the phone did not come with a working GPS application, you have to buy a license for the one pre-installed in the phone, or buy another one on the Samsung Apps store. Additionally, the phone took a huge amount of time getting a GPS lock (5 minutes or more), which for me is not acceptable.

Fortunately, after a lot of research on the web, I found out how to get a lock in just a few seconds using only the GPS receiver embedded on the phone (this means that I am not using any of the Assisted GPS features, thus avoiding any costs related to the exchange of data with my mobile operator).

So, here is how you can do it:

Dial *#4097*4097# to access the GPS menu;
In the menu go to the “Application Setting”, scroll down, and in “GPS Device-Type” select “BUILT-IN” to use only the GPS receiver on your phone.

At this moment we have our phone using its embedded GPS hardware. Now, here is the thing, In order for you to get a fast lock, your phone needs to calculate the position of the satellites, and it is capable of doing this a lot faster by getting a packet of data with updated information on the satellites position. This data is valid for about 167 hours, meaning that after that it does take a lot longer to get your GPS position. So, if you want to know where you are, fast, my advice to you is that you update this data everytime you leave your home.

So, without any further chit chat, here is what you have to do:

Make sure you have your phone connected to the internet (tip: use the wireless connection on your phone to avoid extra costs);
Dial *#4097*4097# to access the GPS menu;
Select “Delete GPS Data” and press “Yes” when the pop-up menu asks you if you want to delete this data;
Back in the main menu (*#4097*4097#), go to “Test Application”, “GPS+” and select “Download Data” and a small text message should appear saying “SUCCESS to Get GPS+ Data”;
Go back to the previous menu (“GPS+”) and access the second item “Check Valid Time”. If you get a small text message saying “GPS+ Remain Validity Time: [167]” you are OK to go.

Now you can disable any 3G or Wireless Internet connections and use the embedded GPS to get your position quite fast. It usually takes me less than 10 seconds (tip: when using Samsung LBS as your GPS application, remember to enable “Activate Location Services” only when the pop-up menu appears once you start the application; remember to disable it after you have finished using your GPS if you want to have extra battery time).

Basic soup recipe

2011-12-08T10:17:00.000-08:00

Portugal is a country with a strong history in the field of agriculture. Having a small garden where you can grow your own vegetables is still a matter of survival for some people, as it was many years ago. Combine our love for growing things with a Mediterranean climate and you get fresh vegetables available all year long. I am going to show you how you can cook a basic soup with fresh vegetables.

Basic Ingredients:
- Water;
- 1 clove of garlic;
- 3 table spoons of olive oil (my grandmother used to put an entire soup ladle of olive oil, but this is too much);
- Salt (I used half a table spoon, but remember that the less salt you use, the healthier the soup gets).

Vegetables (remember to wash the vegetables before using them):
- 14 chunks of pumpkin;
- 1 half of a turnip;
- 1 half of an onion;
- 7 carrots with the ends cut out (leave the peel of the carrots because it has plenty of vitamins);
- 1 leek;
- 1 zucchini with the ends cut out;
- 1 half of a cabbage.

Notice that you can basically use whatever vegetables you have at home, experiment for yourself and check out the results. Using plenty of vegetables also gives this soup a kind of purée consistency. This consistency can also be achieved by using potatoes or chickpeas (although potatoes have a lot of calories in them, so that is why I did not use any in this soup).

Recipe:

Fill half of a pressure cooker with water.

Place all the vegetables, sliced, in the pressure cooker and finish with the salt and the olive oil. Let it cook according to the instructions of the pressure cooker (Note: pressure cookers can be dangerous if not handled properly; It is not mandatory to use one, you can cook this soup on a regular metal pan, it just takes longer to cook the vegetables). After the cooker has finished its job and it is safe to open the lid, use a hand blender to purée the soup.

Enjoy!

This shit has got to end

2011-12-06T06:39:00.000-08:00

Cottage cheese cake

2011-12-04T13:27:00.000-08:00

Here is a simple cake that goes wonderfully with a cup of coffee, or tea, in a cold winter day.

Ingredients:
250g of butter
250g of sugar
5 eggs
150g of cottage cheese
250g of flour
1 table spoon of cornstarch
1 tea spoon of yeast
Chopped almonds (or walnuts)

Recipe:
Mix the butter with the sugar in a bowl (I used a wooden spoon for the job). Separate the egg whites from the yolk. While beating the egg whites, mix the cottage cheese and yolk together with the sugar and butter. Afterwards, add the flour, cornstarch, yeast and the almonds in the bowl and mix everything.
Place the cake in a greased cake pan. I know some people use some king of aerosol for this job. I do not. The method I use is to grease the cake pan with butter and then spread some flour over the walls of the pan, removing the excess flower afterwards.

Fiat Punto 75 idle problem fix

2011-10-25T19:21:00.000-07:00

I have recently bought a Fiat Punto 75 elx. The car is 16 years old, and when you buy a car this old and cheap… let me just tell you that quality comes with a price.
Recently the engine began to shutdown at low RPM. Whenever I had to stop the car at a STOP sign, traffic lights or when arriving at a roundabout, the ignition lights would come up and the car would shutdown. This is really frustrating, especially if you have to make low speed maneuvers.

Two trips to a car mechanic and 130€ later, the problem persisted and manager was telling me the problem was probably related with the injectors, and cleaning and tuning them would cost me almost as much as the car itself.
However, one of the mechanics at the shop asked me what was the status on the car. We chatted for a while and he told me something like this: "It is my belief the problem is related to the idle air control valve".
This statement remained on my mind, so I had to make a decision, either sell the car to someone who would fix it later on, or, I could try to fix it myself. I felt an obligation to at least try and learn a little bit more about cars by fixing my own.

After some research on Idle Air Control valves, I found descriptions of symptoms that I could relate to with my car:
- Low idle RPM (lower than usual; in my case, RPM would stay as low as 700-800 RPM when it used to be at 1100RPM);
- Engine shuts down at low RPM (what I noticed later on was that it was shutting down at low speed and when my foot was off the acceleration/gas pedal);
- It was difficult to start the engine (I could only do it by pushing the gas pedal even further).
- When releasing the gas pedal, sometimes the RPM gauge dropped to 600RPM and then goes up again to 800RPM.

So, here is what I did (special thanks to everybody exchanging info on car repairs through the internet):

1. Open up the hood of the car;

2. Remove the bolts (red circle), the clamps (blue circle) and disconnect the small hose (green circle; it was enough for me to set aside the air filter assembly and gain access to the throttle body located beneath);

3. On the right side of the throttle body you have the Idle Air Control valve (or IAC; circle in red). Remove it with a Torx key. Clean it up with a carburetor cleaner spray such as STP carb cleaner. After cleaning the valve, clean the throttle body hole where the valve fits. Clean it really well (use a tooth brush and a cloth) until you remove all the dirt. Also, take the opportunity to clean the big butterfly valve on the throttle body. Afterwards assembly everything back again. There are videos on YouTube that explain you what you have to do.

Results:
As soon as I started the car... it was like I had just replaced the whole engine... a clean startup. The throttle remained at 1100 RPM, very stable.
It has been 2 weeks, over 500km and the car has given me no further problems.

Thank you FINLAND!

2011-04-14T12:53:00.000-07:00

Today it was mentioned in the news that the Finnish people are not very fond of the idea of giving money to help the economic crisis in Portugal.

Being a portuguese citizen, i must thank Finland for this decision. Here are some of the reasons:

- In the last 25 years, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been called 3 times to help Portugal. Has it helped? Temporarily, yes. Long term, NO!

- Our government has a tradition of bad management and corruption among some of its members. Me, and my generation, have a hard time believing anything our politicians say.

- Our government has too many people on it that have done nothing else but being politicians. That's right, NO REAL LIFE WORKING EXPERIENCE!

- Our current government, knowing the state of our economy, continuously lied to the portuguese people saying, among other false statements, or as the government calls it know "Non-truths", that they would not raise taxes (AMONG MANY MANY OTHER LIES).

- Do you know that the portuguese government wants to build an airport and a high-speed rail train line? Think about it for a second, if you could not afford a new car, knowing that your children would starve if you bought it, would you buy it anyways? NOT IF YOU ARE A SANE PERSON!

There are many other reasons, the list goes on and on. So, thank you Finland, for realizing that giving more money to a homeless man does not necessarily means that the homeless person will manage the money to improve his situation.

Election day

2011-01-23T07:24:00.000-08:00

Today is the day Portuguese people choose their new president. To mark this special occasion, I would like to quote a classic Portuguese writer:

"Politicians and diapers should be changed frequently and always for the same reason."

- Eça de Queiroz

Christmas in Lisbon 2010

2010-12-21T13:22:00.000-08:00

This year the Lisbon city hall decided to cut on the Christmas lighting budget on the account of the financial crisis. Nevertheless, the light-show is still as pleasant as always. If you visit Lisbon at this time of the year, get out there and enjoy the Christmas spirit. A special thanks to my friend F. for providing the photos.

A curious new song by SilverSky

2010-12-13T14:35:00.000-08:00

Searching for a job in Norway, the saga continues :)

2010-10-30T08:17:00.000-07:00

A few days ago i went to the yearly EURES employment fair. Fortunately, Norway was the only country that brought a company with it, which was also looking for engineers ;). I approached the Norwegian representative for NAV (the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Organization) and asked if she could give me some tips on job seeking in Norway and i got a few suggestions that somehow surprised me and which i am posting here in case anybody else is searching for work in the land of the midnight sun.

1. Do not put your picture in your CV. This is done in order to prevent companies from hiring people base on their gender, looks or skin colour. This information totally amazed me, not only because it is so civilized, but also it is totally anti-portuguese. In Portugal there is a general consensus on how the photo on the CV is so important, so any job seeker usually is advised on how he/she should look on the photo, what clothes to wear, etc.

2. When reading a job ad there is usually a phone number and a contact person with whom you should talk to in order to get extra information about the job (e.g. whether or not you qualify for the job, if only people with 5 years of experience should apply, etc.). In Portugal I have never tried to contact anyone before sending an application, nor have I ever talked with someone who did, so this was news to me.

Who else? ...again

2010-10-03T05:18:00.000-07:00

Who else?

2010-09-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

The "status quo" of Education in Portugal

2010-09-08T11:10:00.000-07:00

"They have between 25 and 30 years old, face nearly four decades of work and half of them have not even studied twelve years. Only Turkey and Mexico are worse than Portugal in the OCDE group."

Of course that we can blame the government but, as i read in a comment to this news:

"There is no government that replaces the parents."

SOE2PDF – freeware to scan and convert documents to PDF

2010-08-29T15:53:00.001-07:00

Over time some of us tend to accumulate a lot of books and documents which occupy too much physical space. An easy solution for this problem is of course to scan and convert everything to PDF format. Doing this process using a flatbed scanner is very time consuming and tedious, so many of us turn to scanners that have an Automatic Document Feeder (also known as ADF). Nowadays there are some of these scanners which automatically scan both sides of a page but the price of this kind of devices is somehow expensive for some of us, that is why people who have regular ADF scanners have to scan odd pages first, even pages afterwards, and then join everything together. It is likely that there is some freeware software on the Internet that already does this process, but sometimes we are bombarded with pop-up licensing windows, advertising and some annoying limitations such as scanning a limited number of pages only.

To solve all these problems I developed a simple piece of software named SOE2PDF, entirely freeware, that allows you to scan odd and even pages separately using an Automatic Document Feeder, converting everything to a single PDF document in the end of the process.

You can download it HERE.

You will also need the .NET 2.0 Framework, otherwise the program will not work. You can download it HERE.

I have only tested the software in Windows XP, so if you have any trouble or bug to report, if possible, I’ll be happy to help. There is no installer, just execute the file SOE2PDF.exe to start using the program.

The usage of SOE2PDF is quite simple, just follow the steps indicated in the program window:

Select a scanner (you can also change the picture type and resolution);
Scan odd pages;
Scan even pages;
Generate a PDF document from the scanned pages.

Enjoy!

WTF?

2010-07-31T08:42:00.000-07:00

Norway scores again..

2010-07-31T04:10:00.000-07:00

I have just found out that recycling in Norway is not only good for Nature but also for your pockets. If you write your name and phone number on a milk carton, you have the chance to win a monetary prize if your milk carton is selected from the pile of cartons in the local recycling plant. Absolutely awesome!

Here in Portugal there is no incentives whatsoever, but let's face it, avoiding extra damage to mother nature is incentive enought.

Ewa, a story of courage

2010-07-04T06:28:00.000-07:00

I saw the amazing story of Ewa in the National Geographic channel last night and i decided to share it with you.

Ewa, wherever you are, you are one tough lady! Your story is true inspiration for us all..

"A champion paraglider described yesterday how she was caught in a massive thunderstorm over Australia, hurled to a height greater than Mount Everest and encased in ice before managing to descend safely to earth.

Ewa Wisnerska, 35, was sucked 32,000 ft into the air — so high that she lost consciousness from lack of oxygen and ice formed over her body. Hospital staff say the paraglider suffered severe frostbite from which she almost lost her ears.

The adventurer said it was a miracle that she survived: "You can't imagine the power. You feel like nothing, like a leaf from a tree going up," she said. "I can't do anything. It's raining and hailing and I'm still climbing — I'm lost."

"I was climbing and climbing and the air was starting to freeze my sunglasses and then it was dark."

Miss Wisnerska, from Germany, was preparing for the 10th World Paragliding Championships above the town of Manilla in New South Wales when the storm struck on Wednesday.

After launching as usual from a hill, she appears to have flown under a black storm cloud and then, with terrifying speed, the wind whisked her upwards. She climbed from 2,500ft to an estimated 32,000ft in about 15 minutes. A 42-year-old Chinese para-glider, He Zhongpin, was sucked into the same storm and died, apparently from lack of oxygen and cold. His body was found nearly 50 miles from where he took off.

Miss Wisnerska said she encountered hailstones the size of oranges as the temperature dropped to minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit. "I was shaking all the time. The last thing I remember is that it was dark. I could hear lightning all around me," she said.

She regained consciousness mid-air about one hour later. "I wanted to fly around the clouds but I got sucked up 20 metres (67ft) per second into it and spiralled," she told The Sydney Morning Herald.

"After 40 minutes or an hour, I woke up and I was at 6,900 metres (23,000ft). I was still flying but I realised I didn't have the brakes in my hand. I saw my hands and the gloves were frozen, I didn't have the brakes, and the glider was still flying on its own.

"I was thinking 'I can't do anything so I only have to wait and hope that the clouds are bringing me out somewhere'. Then I woke up and was thinking that I was maybe unconscious for about one minute. I didn't know I was unconscious for so long."

Her ordeal was recorded by a global positioning beacon and a radio attached to her equipment. The swirling clouds released Miss Wisnerska from their grasp and she landed safely 40 miles from her launch, suffering frostbite to her face and with ice inside her lightweight flying suit — but otherwise unharmed.

Godfrey Wenness, the president of the Manilla Sky Sailors club and organiser of the Paragliding World Championship, said Miss Wisnerska's tale was unprecedented.

"It's like winning the Lotto 10 times in a row," he said, adding that the previous altitude survival record for a paraglider pilot was 24,000ft.

Mr Wenness, one of Australia's most experienced paraglider pilots, said the chances of surviving such an experience were negligible.

"There's no oxygen. She could have suffered brain damage. But she came to at a height of 6,900 metres with ice all over her body and slowly descended herself."

The German said she felt like an astronaut returning from the Moon as the ground loomed beneath her. "I could see the Earth coming — wow, like Apollo 13," she said.

Miss Wisnerska spent one hour in the local district hospital for observation and she hopes to compete in the biennial paragliding championships which begin on Feb 24."

Source here.

Bruce Lee life philosophy

2010-06-05T07:08:00.000-07:00

“Bruce had me up to three miles a day, really at a good pace. We’d run the three miles in twenty-one or twenty-two minutes. Just under eight minutes a mile [Note: when running on his own in 1968, Lee would get his time down to six-and-a half minutes per mile]. So this morning he said to me “We’re going to go five.” I said, “Bruce, I can’t go five. I’m a helluva lot older than you are, and I can’t do five.” He said, “When we get to three, we’ll shift gears and it’s only two more and you’ll do it.” I said “Okay, hell, I’ll go for it.” So we get to three, we go into the fourth mile and I’m okay for three or four minutes, and then I really begin to give out. I’m tired, my heart’s pounding, I can’t go any more and so I say to him, “Bruce if I run any more,” –and we’re still running-”if I run any more I’m liable to have a heart attack and die.” He said, “Then die.” It made me so mad that I went the full five miles. Afterward I went to the shower and then I wanted to talk to him about it. I said, you know, “Why did you say that?” He said, “Because you might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”

—Bruce Lee

Aliens vs Human Intelligence DNA

2010-06-05T07:07:00.000-07:00

Sjokolademousse – Chocolate Mousse

2010-05-23T11:11:00.000-07:00

I decided to try a classic and simple desert. Fortunately, it came right the first time. Here are the ingredients:

- 200g of chocolate with at least 70% cocoa (dark chocolate is preferable);
- 6 eggs;
- 6 table spoons of sugar (one per each egg);
- 50g of butter;
- 4 tablespoons of Whisky (optional).

Instructions:

1st: Separate the egg whites from the yolks.

2nd: Whip the egg whites in a large bowl.

3rd: In another bowl, mix the egg yolks and sugar together.

4th: Break the chocolate in small pieces and put it together with the butter in the microwave for a couple of minutes at 800W (the point is that the chocolate must be melted at the end, so adjust the time as needed and be careful not to burn yourself; if possible, use one of those microwave plastic lids);

5th: Mix the melted chocolate with the eggs and whisky using a whisk.

6th: Poor the chocolate mixture into the whipped egg whites. Slowly mix everything (you can use the whisk) until you get the typical chocolate mousse look. Place the chocolate mousse in the fridge and after a couple of hours it is ready to serve. Enjoy!

Stopping cancer with food

2010-05-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

An educational video about fighting cancer and obesity by eating smart.

Colors of Spring

2010-04-24T14:43:00.000-07:00

Flowers are blooming outside the house, and the sight is beautiful. Bellow are the photos i took to some of these flowers (by the way, everything is real, no Photoshop effects or color correction).

Searching for engineering jobs in Norway

2010-04-21T14:38:00.001-07:00

Searching for an engineering job in Norway can be quite a challenge. At first, I thought it would be easy because I got the idea that Norway needed engineers very badly, so this could be a quick process. After 2 months of job searching and dozens of CVs sent, I have learned a little bit about Norway’s job market and its needs. One of the things that surprised me was the possibility of importing your CV from another company’s database. So, instead of filling out forms with the same information over and over again, if you already filled a CV form, depending on the company careers website, you can import this information in a very user friendly way.

When it comes solely to engineering, there is a noticeable need for engineers for the oil and gas business (e.g. mining, ocean structures, hydraulics, etc.). I was surprised to see so many job ads requesting a lot of “senior engineers” and experienced workers. Portugal has the exact same kind of demands for employees (in the job ads). It is not uncommon to find ads requesting the candidate to have 5 years experience this and that, sometimes in a very long list of demands that are almost impossible to fully satisfy. Once, I found a job offering in my University where the “recently graduate candidate” should have at least 5 years of experience in a list of activities to perform that occupied the whole page. In these cases I believe it is important to remember ourselves that experience is not something that we can buy at the store by the kilo. Although it is understandable that an experienced worker has a lower learning curve that an inexperienced one, you eventually learn everything, or complement what you already know, to get the job done. So, if you see a list of required expertise in a job ad of which you have only a few, send your CV anyways because there is a chance of the target company have some realistic people working in their human resources department, and they just might like your motivation.

If possible, learn Norwegian in advance because some companies require the candidate to speak both Norwegian and English fluently. You can also respond to a job ad in Norwegian although I have seen at least a company who specifically mentioned that if the ad was not in English, than it was meant to Norwegians only.

If you are an Engineer, I will give you a list of four sites you can use to try your luck in the lands of the North:

NAV
AKER SOLUTIONS
STATOIL
JOBBNORGE

Above all never forget, job searching sometimes may not be easy (a friend of mine spent 6 months sending CVs before she was hired to work in England) but if you keep your spirits high and have some perseverance you might just find your dream job.

As for me, I was hired as a researcher in a portuguese University where I will work while continuing to send CVs to Norway. I will take this opportunity to continue to learn Norwegian and blog some more (and perhaps post some more portuguese cuisine recipies ;) ).

Lykke til! (“Good luck”)

Engineering for dummies

2010-04-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

The Portuguese newspaper “PÚBLICO” stated that in the early nineties, a certain “engineer” was fired from the technical department for private projects belonging to the City Hall of Guarda, after being warned several times by the lack of quality and supervision of his own projects. The projects that were signed by this “engineer” did not even had the location of the construction site. In one of the projects even the roof was badly designed and impossible to construct. Source here.

This “engineer” is the current prime minister of Portugal.

How to handle nosy journalists... the portuguese government way

2010-04-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

Emídio Rangel, a journalist and former director of RTP, the Portuguese television owned by the government, stated while answering to an inquiry commission on the subject of freedom of speech, that Almeirindo Marques, the current minister of public works, said the following words to him that I am about to translate for you:

“(…) you have to get out of RTP. There is no room for further discussion. I have two solutions: either we settle an agreement for you to get out of RTP, or, if we don’t reach an agreement, I will raise a disciplinary process on you for any lesser thing, you are put away, and we’ll solve this situation in the courts. (…)”.

Source here.

Graffiti art

2010-04-10T08:34:00.000-07:00

More here.

The difference between rich & poor countries is...

2010-03-28T12:47:00.000-07:00

...in rich countries there is a considerable part of the population making an effort not to eat so much, while in poor countries there is a considerable part of the population making an effort not to eat so little.

Speeding on the highway

2010-03-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

António Costa (mayor of Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal) and Paulo Portas (head of the CDS party), were caught speeding at 160Km/h. The justification was that they were in a “mission of service”, but the mission was to go to a football game.

Portugal vs. Sweden work schedule

2010-03-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

I read this in a blog about a portuguese guy that lived in Sweden:

“In Sweden, if you don’t leave work at 5 p.m. your colleagues ask if you are working extra hours.

In Portugal, if you leave work at 5 p.m. your colleagues ask you if you are working part-time.”

Comrades, ease up on the vodka!

2010-03-25T14:05:00.000-07:00

It appears Moscow has intentions of put out Stalin posters in the city. The man was one of the responsible people for the genocide of millions of people, either by famine or through imprisonment in the Gulags, and now they are using posters to remind people (i.e. propaganda) of the great “war heroes”.

The Christmas list

2010-03-20T14:22:00.000-07:00

There is an ongoing scandal in Portugal called “Face Oculta” about which the list of “gifts” given at Christmas by one of the defendants went public. I’m translating part of the list bellow, and let you take your own conclusions.

Now, just to provide a reference for the prices in the table above, 5€ is enough to buy you a Big Mac in Portugal.

Censorship in modern day Portugal

2010-02-28T08:45:00.000-08:00

Recently, a renowned Portuguese journalist, Mário Crespo, saw his weekly chronicle being removed from the newspaper where it supposedly should be published. In that chronicle, he expressed his thoughts on a conversation that the prime minister had about him while having lunch at a restaurant. According to him, the prime minister expressed how some journalists had already been “put away” from their jobs because of some undesired comments and he mentioned Mário Crespo as “a problem which had to be solved”. Fortunately, Mário Crespo is an old school journalist, the kind that has the guts to fight for his rights, leading to a wide discussion about freedom of speech in the country. The prime minister is even being metaphorically referred to as “the octopuss” because of the accusations on him using his tentacles to control the Portuguese media.

The prime minister has a problem with people criticizing him, no news there. The public has become aware of many scandals regarding his personal and political life, from his questionable University diploma, to the teacher that was fired for saying some undesirable comments on whether or not the prime minister is really an engineer. There is an huge mistrust for politicians in Portugal, as sooner or later we hear about some irregular activity executed by them before, or during, their political careers. It is really hard to hope for a politician whom has a real interest on the well being of a people, without being corrupted for external or selfish interests.

Guessing mathematics

2010-02-21T18:30:00.000-08:00

Today, while speaking to an university student in the area of business management, i asked her if she knew how to calculate the area of a 8x8 square. After much thinking, i got the answer from her:

-65?!

-No.

-66?

-No.

-67?

-No. Are you going to keep counting? Because you are not getting anywhere closer to the correct answer.

When robbing goes wrong..

2010-02-12T13:55:00.000-08:00

The man in the picture tried to rob a supermarket in Almancil, Portugal. Fortunately he was not able to escape. When the owner of the supermarket arrived at the scene he called the police (by the way, according to him, his supermarket was robbed over ten times).

After leaving the crime scene the thief was released and pressed charges on the owner of the store because he claimed having been beaten in the legs and butt while he was stuck in the hole, but without knowing whom was the author because he could not see whom it was. If there is a country where thieves complain about lack of robbing conditions that country is Portugal.

The tale of the shopping kart

2010-02-09T13:20:00.001-08:00

Last December I saw myself amongst one most unusual situation. I was waiting in line for the Bus at the Bus station. Somebody, for some reason, took a shopping kart from the nearby supermarket and left it in the sidewalk. Because it was a very windy night, the shopping kart was pulled to the middle of the road by the strong wind. The road was experiencing a period of high activity, with the Buses crossing the road from both ways with the shopping kart standing in the middle of all the action. An accident was eminent. There were about 50 people in line together with me, and other tenths around the Bus station watching the scene. Calmly, i put on my gloves while I observed the apathy of the people around me. As I finished, I walked to the middle of the road, grabbed the shopping kart and took it somewhere safe, where it could not be affected by the wind or cause an accident.

Uneducation

2010-02-03T12:37:00.000-08:00

Today, a person very close to me, a teacher, was attacked by a 12 year old delinquent student.

Education, or for the lack of a better word, uneducation, of Portuguese children is a serious issue in Portugal, which is already showing severe consequences. The indolent education policy of the current government has produced a wave of violence and disrespect for the once respected profession that was to be a teacher. In the past, I never dreamed of being rude to a teacher, and in the time of my parents or grandparents, disrespect would surely be answered with a strong beating, the kind you hardly forget later in your life.

But what makes these kids behave this way? Although some parents, not all, but some, like to blame teachers for their children’s behavior, following the good old nasty habit of blaming another person for one’s mistakes, it is important to remember that the parents are themselves the first teachers of their children. Education starts at home. And, in the same way that may be fair to question a teacher’s pedagogic ability, some parents parental capacity is also questionable. Juvenile delinquency has deeper roots that stretch beyond the walls of schools. There are situations where children are actually going hungry; teenage pregnancy (sometimes originated from violations from within the family itself); alcoholism; unstable/violent environment at home; divorced parents who use their offspring as weapons; sons and daughters of prostitutes (e.g. I was told of a case where the mother would put her son on the street to receive clients at home); neural disorders that cause unstable behavior. You name it. Things are not as simple as the cliché TV statements as “he is a delinquent teenager because he never received the G.I. Joe that Christmas morning ”.

But how does the Portuguese government handles these problematic cases? Well, if you are able to contact the social services, in the worst case scenarios, the kids get to go to special correction schools, which are also known as authentic schools of crime. Mostly, these kids are put together and are handled by people with little training to handle these cases.

I believe the key is: each case is a case. The Portuguese educational system currently lacks the aptitude of focusing a lot more effort into saving these kids, like by using teams of psychiatrists, psychologists and highly skilled social workers to help them. And as important as focusing on the kids, sometimes the parents also need education. Children should not be used as toys or tools to get more money from social services. Any civilized society should have the education of its children as its highest priority. And who knows, perhaps some of these children may become some of the people who mostly contribute to society.

Portuguese journalism

2010-01-25T12:35:00.000-08:00

"Mr. X, you have lost your home, property, your entire life's work is gone because of this awful fire. Please, tell us, how do you feel?"

Mathematics of an office

2010-01-24T14:38:00.000-08:00

smart boss + smart employee = profit

smart boss + dumb employee = production

dumb boss + smart employee = promotion

dumb boss + dumb employee = extra hours

The Nº2

2010-01-20T14:43:00.000-08:00

Today, I was told about the story of the Nº2 manager working at the factory. A few years ago, a newspaper add was published asking for engineers, but it did not refer to the field of work, neither to the name of the company. Mr. Z was an electricity technician, and after seeing the add, and despite he was not an engineer, he decided to send the CV anyways. Because no one else had tried to answer the job add, he got the position as Nº2 manager of the factory. The person to whom I am referring is a good hearted one, but he is emotionally unstable, as he handles things in a very stressful way (this is important to better visualize the temper of this guy). In the last eight years, he was sick and went on vacation two times for psychological reasons (i.e. he was losing his mind). Anyways, a few years ago, he ordered one of the technicians (let us name him Mr. T) to build a support structure near the cooling towers of the factory. So, Mr. Z arrived at the work site and yelled at Mr. T “you have to use a breathing mask to continue that job”. Mr. T, seeing some chemical engineers performing some tests with the water of the cooling towers, found the request a little bit odd, and decided to confront Mr. Z to find out the reason for having to wear the mask. So, Mr. T asked:
- Why do I have to wear the mask?
- Because I said so.
- Because you said so? That is the answer the Nº2 manager has to provide? I’m going to speak to manager Nº1!
After reaching the office and asking the same question, manager Nº1 answered:
- Because wearing a mask is a part of the procedure.
- Because it is a part of the procedure? That is the answer the senior engineer/manager has to give me? What kind of an engineer answer is that?
- OK. We have found bacteria in the water of the cooling tower. That is why you have to wear the mask.
Mr. T was really f*cked up because he was putting his life on the line and was not informed of the risks he was taking. Then, he went to speak to the chemical engineers and tried to get some answers. They told him there was no danger because the bacteria in question were not harmful, and that manager Nº1 had been misinformed.
A little bit later, Mr. Z arrived at the work site, screaming:
- WHY DID YOU HAVE TO SPEAK WITH MANAGER Nº 1 ABOUT THE MASK? WHY DID YOU HAVE TO ASK QUESTIONS? YOU JUST HAVE TO DO THE JOB!
And after these words.. he opened up a valve, and started drinking the water directly from the cooling towers while saying:
- SEE? SEE? NOTHING IS HAPPENING TO ME! EVERYTHING IS ABSOLUTELY FINE! NO PROBLEM WHATSOEVER!
Well… the water of a cooling water... is not exactly of the drinking type. It is full of other microorganisms, bacteria, seaweed, chemical products to prevent corrosion, etc. Conclusion of this story: Mr. Z had to stay one week at home with heavy diarrhea.

Welcome to Portugal

2010-01-17T15:11:00.000-08:00

This video shows the aftermath of a court ruling of a murder case. The scenes are happening in front of the court.

How the Portuguese judicial system works

2010-01-13T13:49:00.000-08:00

Case 1: A man runs over a woman with a car and tries to escape the scene; he realizes the body got stuck in the car. He drives 2 Km with the body of the victim stuck to the car while driving to get rid of it. When the man is caught by the police, he is taken to the police station, identified, and released again (source).
Case 2: A man makes living by selling jewelry in is jewelry store. He gets robbed by four young men with guns pointed to his head. He goes after the robbers and gets involved in a shooting with one of the robbers, whom gets hit and dies. Finally, the owner of the jewelry store is sentenced with murder (source).

Sleeping on the job

2010-01-13T13:20:00.000-08:00

During my time in company X, sometimes i find people sleeping in the workplace. Although it is better not to judge the reasons why people sleep during their work hours, some of these situations are funny.
The first situation i can recall was when I was entering a room where the ventilation system is located. Suddenly, I am surprised with a security guard sleeping while sitting on an improvised box. Immediately, he rose up, greeted me, and said something like “I was just resting my eyes, the fumes from the garage make a burn sensation in my eyes”.
But the funniest case yet was today. I was getting out of a service elevator when I noticed this castle-like structure made of goods waiting to be transported. Then, a face rose up from a little spot hidden in the middle of the goods, he looked at us, mumbled something, and then fell asleep again.

On the Nobel Peace Prize of 2009

2010-01-05T13:09:00.001-08:00

Obama will send an extra 30000 troops to Afghanistan! Way to go Mr. Nobel Peace Prize!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T15:33:00.000-08:00

Many people in Portugal like to celebrate the new year either in the streets watching fireworks, or at discos, or at home. Having my fair share of the first two i have become a more homely person, and prefer to celebrate the new year at home with family and friends. We spend the evening cooking sea food, where i am usually requested as a "saucier". At midnight, we went to the top of the building to get a view of our surroundings. We were able to get a glimpse at the fireworks in Lisbon, in the Vasco da Gama bridge. I hope you all have a Happy New year, and also, i am hopping the next year will bring us less wars, because frankly, i am getting very tired of this war crap. Godt nytt år!

Pepperkaker

2009-12-23T15:41:00.000-08:00

What better way to get a taste of Norwegian style Christmas than with pepperkaker? Pepperkaker are ginger biscuits and are a tradition in Norway at this time of the year. I got really curious with this recipe and I found a delicious one at this blog (a special thanks to L-Jay and Moose for giving us a taste of Norwegian life-style). The result was absolutely delicious. Pepperkaker with a nice cup of hot tea are the best for a cold winter night. I really enjoyed this recipe. Glad Jul! (Merry Christmas!)

Office decorations

2009-12-16T13:04:00.000-08:00

A certain someone I work with has a girlfriend that works in one of the Portuguese ministries. According to his girlfriend, after the elections, when the new minister arrived, the first thing she did was to change the office decoration and also bought a Persian carpet with money from the ministry fund targeted at an institution responsible for fighting cancer.

A matter of credibility

2009-12-15T13:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday at Work
Boss: Thanks to our new contract with company A, we are going to save much more money.
Me: That’s great. Aren’t we going to ask company B for new prices to check if we can save even more?
Boss: No.
Me: Why not?
Boss: Because that would make us lose our credibility.
Me: ?!

Today at work:
Boss: I asked company B for new prices, and now we are going to save even more.

Visiting Porto

2009-12-08T11:19:00.000-08:00

I traveled to Porto, to go and speak with Eli S., adviser of the EURES network in Norway. I went to Porto by bus, departing at 9:00 a.m. (from Lisbon) and arrived three and a half hours later. I have heard of the hospitality of the people from Porto and today I got the chance to experience it myself. As soon as i left the bus station, I started asking directions to the place where i would find Eli, and not only I got the help I wanted from a nice man working at a traditional grocery shop, as he also offered me a lift to the place if I had the patience of waiting an extra hour and a half. As I was in a hurry, I thanked him and got on my way to meet Eli. I spoke to her about the Norwegian job market, and she explained to me how to write my CV and what Norwegian companies I should contact during my job search. After I left the place, I had three hours left until the trip back to Lisbon, so I decided to take a walk and explore Porto.

The city is really nice (very different from Lisbon). There are some degraded areas, but that also gives a certain ancient look to the city. There are a lot of churches and landmarks to visit. You can actually cross the Douro river on foot, and take a nice walk on the neighbor city, Gaia. It is also possible to watch, in the river, the traditional boats that carry the kegs with the true and original Port Wine. Also, if you ever get the chance of visiting the city, don’t forget to eat one of the traditional dishes called “Francesinha”.

Job interview

2009-11-20T15:20:00.000-08:00

How to solve a crisis... the portuguese way

2009-11-18T14:11:00.000-08:00

I just watched this debate about the status quo of the portuguese society, where a few experts, plus an ex-minister of the economy, talked about what should have been done, and what can be done, to slow down our economic debt. According to them, there was a street inquiry where people got asked about what was the prime factor to succeed in life. Among things such as good healthcare or education, the majority said the number one thing to succeed in life is.... LUCK. That's right, luck. Don't bother making your own luck, dont bother studying or working, in portugal, you will see that playing in the lottery is the most wise course of action to have a good life.

You are what you eat

2009-11-10T14:57:00.001-08:00

Beautiful timelapse

2009-11-07T13:59:00.000-08:00

Walking in the city

2009-10-31T18:09:00.001-07:00

Today a friend invited me to participate in something called “Halloween scavenger hunt”. Halloween is not a Portuguese tradition, although there is a religious holiday called “All Saints' Day” on the first of November. In some villages there is the tradition of children going from door to door saying “Pão-por-Deus” or “Bread by God”. They usually knock at the door and say:

"Pão por Deus,
Fiel de Deus,
Bolinho no saco,
Andai com Deus."

“Bread by God,
Faithful of God,
Cookie in the bag,
Go with God.”

As I and his girlfriend were the only people to show up, we decided to have a nice chat together with a hot cup of coffee. We ended up taking a walk in the streets of Lisbon, watching the night lights. The city lights in Lisbon are a truly spectacular sight. Also, the city has acquired the nice habit of putting Christmas lights in streets of down town Lisbon. At this time the lights are still being assembled, but each year offers a different light show, providing the Christmas spirit that the city deserves.

The metro

2009-10-27T14:26:00.000-07:00

Riding the metro in Lisbon has huge advantages. Apart from some annoying technical problems, the metro in Lisbon is a very nice means of transportation, and from my point of view, far better than the bus. The metro network extends over a wide area of Lisbon, and is constantly growing. One of the nicest things about each new station is that they are built like a work of art, and it is difficult to find new stations that are alike others previously built.

There are however some peculiar behaviors of Portuguese passengers:

- You will often see people laughing while running to catch the metro as the doors close down. Even if they are caught between closing doors, they will laugh about it.

- An increasing number of Portuguese metro passengers live under the assumption that if they block the carriage doors and prevent other people from coming out, they will be able to enter the train. This is also the cause of what I like to call “The bulldozer effect”, which is the same as to say that some passengers get out of carriage without any regard for other people in front of them, and open their way by crashing into them.

- No matter how full a carriage may get, there are a few select people that strongly believe they can get in anyway.

- There are always people begging for money. Some of them i have watched collecting money for seven years, and it is practically their way of life now.

Portuguese people are rather open to other people, so if you are a tourist and need help on the metro, look for a young person (a low percentage of elderly people speak English, but you are welcome to try) and it is very likely that he/she will help a friendly tourist.

Nice excuse

2009-10-25T13:30:00.000-07:00

Portuguese sense of morality

2009-09-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

ZON Multimedia, a big Multimedia and Telecommunications company here in Portugal, officially entered the Angolan market. So far so good. To do it, they hired the daughter of the Angolan president/dictator/son of a bitc*, José Eduardo dos Santos, one of the most corrupt men alive. Angola is a country of contrasts, you have some of the world most expensive houses there. It is also a place where you'll find people in great misery, without food or water. And this portuguese company cooperates with these corrupt leaders that feed on their people's ignorance to make a life of luxury.

Today

2009-09-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

I saw underpants evaluated in 300000€ (2588674.50 NOK) just because an artist had drawn a dollar sign on them.

Wisdom

2009-09-22T11:51:00.001-07:00

Food safety first, Humans second!

2009-09-14T14:20:00.000-07:00

I have not posted in a while because i've had a lot of work lately, but this i could not let escape the eyes of whoever is out there wanting to know the other side of portuguese society.
There's a government agency here called "ASAE" which is suposed to be responsible for the economic and food safety. Today they shut down a mess room that served meals to the homeless because they found some dead cocroaches on the kitchen's floor. Way to go Portugal!
Moreover.. a little bird told me that the person who is directing this agency usually has luch in a luxury restaurant somewhere in Lisbon.. some sense of perspective hey?

Wireless electricity

2009-08-31T11:25:00.001-07:00

Status quo

2009-08-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

Synes at etterspørselen etter ingeniører i Norge er synkende, hovedsakelig på grunn av økonomisk krise. Manglende 6 måneder før jeg kan reise til Norge. Jeg håper ting blir bedre. Jeg har enorm respekt for det norske folk, og ønsker ikke å være mer en innvandrer som vil ta jobben til en norsk, så bare skal gå der hvis de trenger min kunnskap og erfaring. Jeg likte å gå til Bergens-området, virker som en god by. Jeg håper ting bedre i de kommende månedene.

Inauguration extravaganza

2009-08-25T12:23:00.000-07:00

It's almost time for elections, and with elections come inaugurations so that the short memory of the masses does not forget political party X when the time comes. Portuguese political parties seem to follow this pattern very often. But in Portugal inaugurations are really hard work. Casting agencies are appointed to choose the people (children included) who are going to appear on TV together with the respective minister. Helmets must be provided for false engineers and sometimes, a truck full of mining ore must be sent to deploy ore on the ground to appear on the background newspaper picture of minister X, to prove that mine Y is “actually working”.

Sweden has balls

2009-08-22T11:36:00.000-07:00

A Swedish newspaper reported that Israeli soldiers kill Palestinians to go to steal and sell their organs. I have no memory of any country having the courage to denounce such crimes against humanity. Furthermore, Sweden has had some politicians that have spoken on behalf of peace and denounce these situations, as was the case of Anna Lindh (Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs who was murdered, perhaps for speaking out against Israel).

Dog with gun

2009-08-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

Do you think the sun is big? Guess again..

2009-08-04T12:18:00.000-07:00

Random and interesting stuff

2009-08-03T15:21:00.001-07:00

Just saw a documentary about some Spanish researchers who were trying to measure the pollution level around a factory. They collect moss samples and analyze them, because moss absorbs a lot of pollution and heavy metals. The amazing part was to see moss being attracted by a magnet due to the high concentrations of heavy metals. Of course, iron must be the responsible for the amazing effect, due to its high magnetic permeability.
Another interesting thing was to see that there is a parking lot in Spain which is using a vertical garden on the extraction ventilation of a parking lot to absorb part of the pollution (something like this). The plants absorb CO2 and the bacteria absorb some of the chemicals on the fumes.

Portuguese Newspeak

2009-07-30T15:06:00.001-07:00

The portuguese government likes to change the meaning of words frequently. I provide you with three examples so that you can keep up with the changes:

Error or mistake - Small incorrection
Janitor - Operational assistant
Undertaker - Graveyard operator

Elephant painting

2009-07-30T11:03:00.001-07:00

Young norwegian engineers

2009-07-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

Fear sells

2009-07-28T12:02:00.000-07:00

Reporters say almost everyday that yet another person was infected with the pig flu virus. However, they don't speak a lot about the people who get cured..

I guess what applies to weapons manufacturers, also applies for pharmaceutical companies:

If people don't die, they can't sell bullets.

Ski Gliding

2009-07-24T16:55:00.001-07:00

5 Ways Your Boss Stops Time

2009-07-23T14:27:00.000-07:00

"Time might heal all wounds, but it certainly doesn't solve all business problems. In the working world, most of us are at the mercy of the clock: punching in, lunch hours, time cards and so on. Early in our careers we are trained to be as efficient as possible, cramming our hours to be multi-tasked to the max. One lesson seldom taught in the power of inefficiency. I've already talked about how the 'experts' waste time at work. Today we're going to look at clock stoppers. These are bosses who know how to get your projects stuck in quicksand, and in the process, stop you in your tracks - or at least slow you down to a tortoise's crawl.

Here's how they do it...

DROWNING IN PAPERWORK. Paper has power. It can make things move forward or grind them to a halt. Usually, the more of it there is, the longer the delay. Any boss worth his/her salt knows the best way to get an employee off their back is to ask them to produce more paper. It could be a memo that gets rewritten to death or a request to provide backing documentation for every move you wish to make. This busy work will keep you at bay, spinning your wheels for days...weeks...months...

WARNING SIGNS. Your desk is filled with folders and binders. Yet, when it's time for your annual review, you realize you've accomplished nothing.

UNAPPROACHABLE. Looking busy at work is an art form. If your boss wants to get you off his/her back he'll make himself scarce. And when you do see him, he'll be harried as hell. You'll begin to doubt yourself and worry that you will be bothering him with your needs. He clearly has bigger fish to fry, right? In lieu of being the "busy" boss, your fearless leader might take the "dick" approach. This is where he makes you feel stupid and/or small when you ask him something.

WARNING SIGNS. You make excuses to avoid asking your boss anything."

Read the rest here.

Art with sand

2009-07-23T13:15:00.001-07:00

Here.

What is Norway?

2009-07-21T16:54:00.000-07:00

Wingsuit flying

2009-07-19T10:02:00.000-07:00

Interesting philosophy

2009-07-18T12:01:00.001-07:00

Here.

Politics explained

2009-07-18T11:36:00.000-07:00

Here.

Bacalhau à Brás

2009-07-18T10:26:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:
- Codfish (up to 500g) without any scales or bones;
- 2 onions;
- Olive oil;
- Garlic (optional);
- 4 eggs;
- Salt;
- Pepper;
- Straw potatoes;
- Olives (optional).

Start by mixing the olive oil in a pan with the onions and garlic. Separately boil the codfish and cut it in very thin slices, usually this can be done very easily with a fork. Join the codfish and the olive oil and onion mixture. Season with salt and pepper to your liking. Add the straw potatoes to the pan and mix everything. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and add them to the mixture of codfish and potatoes. Mix everything to soften the potatoes. Turn off the stove and leave the pan covered for about 5 minutes.
Also, you can use some olives and a good salad to eat with this dish.
Enjoy.

Past experiences...

2009-07-17T15:05:00.000-07:00

My last job was a very constructive experience. It contributed largely to my decision of one day emigrate to Norway.
I worked for five years in a company X where i was responsible for providing the product to customers while working in a team of 10 elements. The day of the opening was memorable. On the inauguration day, there were still people in the building welding and laying cement on the floor. Work done at the last minute is typically portuguese.
Over time, some elements of my team were fired or left the job by their own initiative. Unfortunatly the management skills of our boss were inexistent. Sometimes, he took money from the safe just because he felt like buying horses, others he did not felt like paying the suppliers, etc. The case went to the courts and the company was sold. Fortunately, many of us were hired by the new company, which was logical because experience is something to which is given much value. I remember that everyone was full of dreams and hopes, thinking that under new management things would improve, I was one of those people.
Unfortunately, that was not the case. I saw everything: from managers smoking in the corridors during work hour; to the director, whom really liked chatting with his friends on MSN Messenger instead of actually managing the place.
But the most memorable thing of all was our new team leader. This “man creature” presented himself to the team as an experienced and highly professional person, who had several years of experience in other companies. He really seemed like a nice person, an impression that lasted for half an hour. Here is a list of his wonderful and “productive” deeds:
- On the first day, he fired me and my colleagues a few dozen times;
- Changed the location of the raw materials, putting them 20m farther away from the workplace just because it looked more beautiful to his eyes (despite the work now taking twice as long to complete because of the extra trips that had to be done);
- 80% of his work hours were spent in front of the computer surfing the Internet and watching videos on youtube;
- Arrived on the workplace usually 2 hours late and also got out earlier;
- Took the day off whenever his car needed to replace a tire on his car (although he lived 20 minutes away from the company);
- We discovered that he had been expelled from other companies where he used to work, and that in one of them, there was a party (with cake) when he left;
- Despite having no training in mechanics or engineering, he disassemble parts from the machines on the pretext that they were not necessary. This action increased the rate of malfunctions on the equipment;
- He accused me of being late to work in front of the director,although I am known to always arrive 10 minutes earlier to avoid any unexpected delays;
- And the list goes on ...
It is clear that his actions could not go unpunished, and so i spoke to the director and confronted him with the situation. As he refused to resolve it, I decided that there was no future in that place and resigned the job. I came to discover later on that the director and the “man creature” were friends. As such, and despite all this incompetence, they continue to "work" in the company.

Today at work..

2009-07-15T12:06:00.000-07:00

A technician to another colleague:
- Some countries do not use drinking water in toilets.
- Yes, there are third world countries that already have implemented that system;
- Portugal does not have it;
- But Portugal is a country of the fourth world.

A little bit of motivation..

2009-07-12T06:47:00.000-07:00

On the portuguese economic crisis

2009-07-11T14:15:00.000-07:00

In Portugal, former presidents have the right to:

- A car with a chauffeur and gasoline;

- An office, a secretary, a phone and an assistant;

- Monetary help whenever they travel out of their area of residence;

- Private security 24h per day.

All this is paid by the state, which is a nice way to say it is paid by the portuguese people.

How to tick people off

2009-07-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here.

Cartoon of the day

2009-07-08T12:37:00.000-07:00

Although it is not the worst place in the world, this is how it feels live in Portugal.

This is living

2009-07-06T13:05:00.001-07:00

Today in Lisbon

2009-07-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

Some guy speaking to a friend on the phone:
- What are you doing? ... Studying for the exams? ... Why? There is no purpose in going to school!

No comments

2009-07-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

Story of Stuff

2009-06-30T12:49:00.000-07:00

Advances in the treatment of Alzheimer’s desease

2009-06-29T13:21:00.001-07:00

Today I saw a fascinating documentary about Alzheimer's disease and decided to put what I learned here on the blog in case the information comes in handy for anyone.
It spoke of several ongoing researches and studies and how many of them are concentrated in the appearance of some structures in the brain called “Amyloid plaques”. However, the investigation of a doctor in particular caught my attention. Instead of coloring the tissues of the brain with common tye solutions in this type of analysis, he used another colorant that revealed the emergence of cells that are associated with the onset of an inflammation. Then he thought, is Alzheimer's disease not more than an inflammation? So he decided to contact some reimatologistas in search of records of patients with rheumatism and other problems associated with inflammations. He queried whether there was a correlation between arthritis and Alzheimer's disease. Surprisingly he could not find a record of a patient with arthritis who had developed Alzheimer's. Then he asked himself: would the anti-inflammatory drugs that patients take exert an influence on the disease? Unfortunately he has found difficulties in finding those who want to fund his research. He thinks that nobody is interested because anti-inflammatory drugs such as Ibuprofen, are cheap drugs and do not bring big profits for pharmaceuticals companies.

Norwegian Vs. Portuguese society

2009-06-26T13:46:00.000-07:00

I have high expectations for my future life in Norway. I read a lot and try to learn a little bit of the language in order to facilitate my integration in the Norwegian society.
A neighbor of mine recently told me she had already been to Norway and told me of a curious episode that happened to her. She told me she saw a bracelet in the street and asked why no one took it. They said that the person that had lost the bracelet would eventually return to the same site and find it there. Having heard this, i almost bet that this kind of attitude does not happen in Portugal very often. I think that a person in the same situation here would even be mocked by other friends if he/she would tell them they left the bracelet alone. It is almost like the birth of a culture of “every man for himself”. This may seem exaggerated, and not all people have this kind of behavior, but those who do, no matter how few, sometimes exercise a great negative influence on society.
I had a bizarre episode where in a dinner with friends I discussed with one of them the advantages of changing the Portuguese society into a more truthful one, and how we could achieve this goal by providing future generations with good examples. In this conversation, I was surprised by my friend’s answer when he tells me I should not think this way, and that to be a successful person I would have to use deception on others before others would use it on me.
Unlike this kind of attitude, I hear that in Norway the situation is exactly the opposite. People, despite their cold temperament, are more human to each other than people from other countries said "civilized". My Norwegian teacher used to tell me that people from her home town are so good and kind to each other it almost makes her cry. It must be a pleasure to live amongst such noble people.

In memoriam

2009-06-26T13:44:00.000-07:00

World of Warcraft fan gets his accout canceled

2009-06-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

Santos

2009-06-20T04:32:00.000-07:00

The "Santos" (literally means "Saints") are religious and very popular festivals that occur in Lisbon during the month of June. It's all about, sardines, alcohol and most important thing of all, spending a good time with your friends. The highlight of the festival is to walk at night in the historic districts of Lisbon with your friends and eat a grilled sardine with bread.

Clearly, as we are in Portugal, something that can not miss is an extreme lack of hygiene, people throw garbage on the floor and urinate on the walls. Anyway, it's a time well spent, specially if you're on vacation here in Portugal.

Chocolate cake - Sjokoladekake

2009-06-19T14:08:00.001-07:00

Ingredients:
- 120g of chocolate powder;
- 4 eggs;
- 2 tea cups of flour;
- 2 tea-cups of sugar (brown sugar is better);
- 1/2 tea-cup of olive oil;
- 1 dessert spoon of baking soda;
- 1 tea-cup to warm milk;
- 1 package of cream (100 mL);
- 150 to 200 grams of dark chocolate.

Recipe:
Mix while adding the ingredients by the following order: first the chocolate powder, then the sugar, baking soda, the flour, beaten eggs, milk and olive oil. The mixture seems too liquid, but no problem, just put it in the oven and heat up to 180 degrees Celsius. Leave it there for 50 minutes tops.
Now it is time to prepare the covering of the cake. Heat the cream on a stove until it starts to boil. Immediately add the chocolate broken into small pieces. Blend the hot cream and chocolate until the chocolate melts, and cover the cake with it (obviously, wait until the cake is ready). For the perfect flavor, the cake has to be placed in the refrigerator and eaten cold.
Sometimes I add an extra layer in the middle of the cake, adding either nuts or almonds. In the photo I also invented a cream of white chocolate (using the same technique as previously done with dark chocolate).

Quote of the day

2009-06-14T15:38:00.000-07:00

"Some are born lucky, others... in Portugal."

Home by Yann Arthus-Bertrand

2009-06-11T06:07:00.000-07:00

This movie is great. I liked it a lot. As the name suggests, it's about our home, earth. It puts things into perspective and it may help change some minds and behaviors that may endanger the future of our children.

Here is the link for the full movie on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/homeproject

You can check out the trailer here:

Salmon with cream and yogurt sauce

2009-06-10T14:25:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:
- 200mL of cream;
- 1 yogurt;
- lemon juice;
- salt (optional);
- 2 salmon flitches;
- Olive Oil;
- Milk.

Garnish:
- Green beans;
- 2 carrots;
- Olive oil;
- Koji sauce.

Season the salmon with salt and lemon. Put the salmon in the oven with a little bit of olive oil and cover it with milk. Leave it in the oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes. While the salmon is in the oven you can prepare the sauce and the garnish. For the sauce, simply mix the yogurt with a 200mL package of cream. When the salmon is almost done, take it out of the oven, cover it with the yogurt and cream sauce and put it in the oven again for an extra 5 to 10 minutes. As for the garnish, grab a fry pan and mix in a little bit of olive oil with green beans and a carrot, both sliced into tiny pieces. For an extra touch you can add a little Koji Japanese sauce.

Bon Appétit.

Quote of the day

2009-06-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

"In Portugal we have the best managers... that money can buy."