Utada Hikaru - Flavor of Life :)

This weekend I rediscovered that I like watching japanese dramas, and with tthis discovery came the memory of a song from one of the first dramas I saw Hana Yori Dango. The title song for the second season was the song that I am posting today.

I really like the whole ambience of the song, for the the violins to the softeness of her voice and lyrics are... :) Enjoy.

Utada Hikaru - The Flavor of Life

(credits to hikki @ YouTube)



:)

Just because I rediscovered them. :)

It is amazing how their music still felt fresh to me. It has been awhile since I know them and these musics mostly take me back to the late 90s/early 2000s, which means my late teenage and the beginning of my college years.

Faithless - Insomnia

 Faithless - God is a DJ

Faitless ft Dido - One Step to Far

(credits to FaithlessVEVO)

Enjoy! :D

Pfffttt, Life...

Sometimes it is hard to not let others influence you... Not in the sense of making you do the things that they want you to do, but in how you feel. Today I am exhausted. For the past month I have been making an effort to move forward in my work, in not letting others push me or at least delay me. And everything was going more or less well, I was pushing myself but I felt that it was paying off. However, the person that should be helping me moving forward, guiding me, seems to only increase the chaos in my life, changing his mind every other day. In wanting everything for yesterday that person makes it impossible for me finish what I am doing. And then wants everything finished and done, with no loose ends... It makes me feel has if I am not trying enough...

I'm tired...

hmm...

I just listened to this song and decided to share it, just because...

It reminds me of my childhood, of times gone by. I cannot say that they where happier times, but somehow now (today, at this moment) they seem. I think most people always look at their childhood as an happier time, maybe because when we are kids we are more innocent and able to see joy in the smallest things. It would be good if sometimes we would still be able to time to time see life that way. I know that we have to become not so trusting and naïve to go through life, but... it's still sad that growing up means losing such a wonderful gift.

So, here goes:

Rod Stewart - Have I Told You Lately That I Love You (Unplugged)

Credits to  Shamara011061 @ YouTube

Only today I discovered that this song was not written by Rod Stewart, but by Van Morrison. :) 

A Question:

How does it fell like to be in love?!.. It's been too long...

Porque sim...

... porque hoje posso fazer tudo que me der na real gana, até escrever no meu blog em Português em vez de Inglês. :D

(credits to BIGBANG @ Youtube)

E acima de tudo porque não há nada como um homem que saiba dançar... lol

On Posting...

If you read my previous post you might have noticed that I have kept my mind busy, which could mean that I had a lot to post. So why did I not do it?

Maybe because I am a proud person and I do not like to admit that I feel like I am not doing as good as I think I should be doing. I do not like to doubt myself, and I have done that so often in the past years. (How could we think as teenagers that life was easier as adults?!) So actually writing it down is difficult, despite also being a quite relieving action. When I am troubled I tend to close myself up more than usual, it is a mechanism of defence...

There were times that I thought of things and considered them interesting to post, but eventually I would dismiss them for a number of reasons. Being the most prominent one laziness and the second one to think that it was exposing to much. The funny thing is that this blog was created for me to write about what troubled me, how I felt at the time. It also has had the purpose of sharing experiences and things I like, but it was mostly to put my thoughts out in the world. And the latter has been the least done. 

I am my own editor. And what a fearsome editor am I...

So, you can say that one of the main reasons that I have no been posting is that I been to troubled and stressed with life...

A random fact in 15 days I'll be 30... Doesn't wisdom come with age?

Long Time, No See...

I will not even count the months that I have been without posting, It's too shameful...

There isn't much that I can say about that, life has been hectic and there are actually no excuses. :)

So, today I decided to break my silence to post a song that I discovered sometime ago, but only today I decided to search on YouTube. 

Hurt - Wonderful Life

(credits  PinkiSun @ YouTube)

The visual part of the video reminds me of the 80s. And the music in itself also kind of reminds me of that decade. Maybe that is the reason I like the music, I do quite enjoy 80s music!

Maybe it is because of the message:

Don't let go

Never give up

It's a wonderful life

I am not thinking of giving up on life, I do not really work that way. But I have been thinking and rethinking if the choice that I made to go for a PhD was the correct one. It's not that I was expecting it to be easy, it's more that it is not giving me the thrill that I expected it to give. I choose as I always do, I went for what was more appealing to me. However, I also made the easiest choice by going for a project that was more or less already drawn by me supervisor. That does not mean that do not have input, actually I think he would like me to give more. It is just that other than my boss there is no one else that really is experienced in our group, so sometimes support (in basic stuff) is lacking. There is also the question of the other lab members, I do not really feel that we are actually a group... I miss my friends from my "previous life". Work-wise things where not that good, but friend-wise... they where great.

I do not usually give up on the choices that I made. And, even though I am not completely happy with everything and from time to time get quiet depressed about things, I do not really see an actual reason to go back on this one. Meaning that I am going to stick to it and give my best as usual. I just wish that I would not make things so hard on myself by over-thinking everything...

Demanding...

Among the people that know me I am considered to be quite demanding of myself and other people. I create expectations and get frustrated when the persons that I care about do not meet them. 

Do not get scared, getting older and having expectations frustrated time and time again, has thought me to be not to so demanding or at least not to get so frustrated. Even so, there are times that my personality gets the better of me and I create them and get frustrated by them.

Sometimes life is complicated, by us...

On being me...

Lol, this title does sound pretensious...

The other day someone I know made a comment on my personality that I had not heard for awhile, but that is not a rare comment:

"You like to isolate yourself. I do not agree with that." (or something close to this).

Basically this person, as (so many) others, disagrees with me doing things by myself. Or putting in another way, with the fact that I only count on me for doing stuff that I want to do. I like going to the cinema, for walks, shopping and other stuff. And if I have no one to do this things with I will go by myself and enjoy myself. Most people find this strange, and they have no problems in telling me this to my face. As if because I do things differently from most people I am the one in the wrong...

I am not saying that this is the correct way of living. It is just my way.

I may not agree, or think is healthy, to completely depend on others to do stuff, but I do not go around criticizing people for this. I may have in occasions told someone that it would be good for them to try and be by themselves for awhile. But I do not tell them that I do not like the way they live their lives.

So, why do these persons think they can tell me these kind of things?! Is there really a single way of living your live?!

I think not!

I agree that I am basically a solitary person, and admit that occasionally I do feel lonely. However, I am comfortable with myself and in the end that is what matters.

Life is solitary journey. We are born and die by ourselves. (I do not mean with no one around us, but that these are things that can only be experienced by oneself.) Each one of us as a very particular way to perceive the world. Some people are better at conveying their thoughts than others. These are the ones that are socially more successful. I am not one of those persons, and I am cool with that. It was not always like this.

P.S. - I do like having friends and I appreciate the ones I have.

Time for bed, but not before a brief post... :)

Sometimes I feel like I'm back to my school days as a kid, when I prepared everything for the following day in advance and had to check in to bed early... When I decided to that this was going to be the next step in my life I already knew there would be hectic times, with little self time or worse with little time for others. However, when these kind of times come it is always tough. I feel like I am falling short of what I am capable of doing... I know I have so much stuff to do, that I feel increasingly frustrated with the fact that the day only has 24h and that I really need to sleep...

And the fun part is that IT ONLY JUST BEGUN...

You know whta the solution is? Vacations... I so need some right now...

The was the rant of the day/night...

Time goes by... :)

Be warned: This post is going to be a mix of things...

First, I am already 29 y.o. and a week (;p). Wow.

You would not believe if I told you that just this friday a guy tried to pick me up at the metro when I was returning home. This is not the unbeliveable thing, I hope.. But that he asked me my age and told me to my face that he thought that I was 18/19 y.o.... He either was so keen in having some luck that he fooled himself to believe that I was young and naïve or was further pushing is luck by trying to flatter me. Though I think it was the former, he asked me the strangest questions, such as if I was going home, where did I live, if lived with my parents or by myself, if I wanted to friends with him (who I had just met)... As if I was going any of this questions to a stranger... I was both amused and shocked.

Actually, I have been told that I look younger than my age, but I really think its pushing a bit to much to say that I look 10 years younger...

So this was the part dedicated to time concerning my age. I will not address the typical issues. Sometimes I do not even believe that I will be 30 in a year, but I do not really think that I would want to go back to college or even teenagehood.

The second part concerns another measure of time, the one related to relative time. How things that sometimes occurred long ago seem recent or things that are recent appear to be from a somewhat distant past. A few moments back, while I was surfing the internet I decided to go to a certain artist site/blog/whatever. This artist is named Van Ness Wu, that I got to know through a taiwanese drama that I watch a while back. He happens to also be a singer and a heck of a dancer (guys who CAN dance just kill me...). Not so long ago he released a Japanese single, that I got addicted to when I started reading stuff for my thesis project and during February I replayed this song all the time. But I have not listen to it for awhile know, and today I decided to listn to it again. And it seemed that that period of time was so long ago that I was surprised, only 3/4 months have passed...

Having said all this I decided to share is song with you guys.

VanNess Wu - Reason

(credits to 99yuchi @ YouTube)

3rd year of existence and other stuff

Yesterday marked the third year that this blog has been up and... (more or less) running. Actually, I did not forget this time (I've put a warning on my cellphone, lol), but I did not feel like writing. Also, no cool subject came to mind.

So, why am I writing today? During the day while chatting with my Sis online, she was listening to a Portuguese Radio. It seems that they where in a mood for memory lane and, consequently so was she. As usual she decided to share some of them with me. One of which that I decided to share with you all.

I actually thought that this song was not has old as it is. Its from 1989... uau... But it is a fun song. Enjoy.

D.A.D. - Sleeping My Day Away

(credits to AndreRicardoAlbino @ YouTube)

I do not consider myself a feminist, but...

... there are things that are beyond my comprehension. And this is one of them (please click on the picture to enlarge and read the text):

 

(credits to whoever first posted this online)

I know that we are talking about a completely different decade. the World was a completely different place in the 1960s. But still, to me, it is shocking to see something like this written and to actually acknowledge that this was the kind of role that was expected from women at that time: unopiniated, obedient, complaint to your husband's wills (whatever they are) and untitled to even feel pleasure... wow...

And I think that I will leave you with that, because I might start exposing my opinion too fiercely...

I would like to "hear" your thoughts on this.

Canção de Engate - António Variações

After yesterday's depressing post, I decided to share with you all a music from my childhood from one of Portugal's most innovative artists from the 1980's. :) 

I know it's been almost 30 years, but it is an amazing song. 

Actually, my first real recollection of this song is a cover, even though I think I have always known it was not the original. So, I decided to share both versions and the lyrics. Unfortunately I have not found the translation and I lack the confidende to do it myself (I am a Biology major not an English major..., but I might try to persuade my Sister... hihihi).

On with the videos:

Original: António Variações

(credits to MASMP @ YouTube)

To be honest, I do not remember hearing this version, but I liked it.

Cover: Delfins

(credits to nelsoncarmo26 @ Youtube)

 Lyrics (credits to LT):

Tu estás livre e eu estou livre
e há uma noite para passar
porque não vamos unidos
porque não vamos ficar
na aventura dos senti - dos

tu estás só e eu mais só estou
que tu tens o meu olhar
tens a minha mão aberta
à espera de se fechar
nessa tua mão deser- ta

vem que o amor
não é o tempo
nem é o tempo
que o faz
vem que o amor
é o momento
eu que eu me dou
em que te dás
tu que buscas companhia
e eu que busco quem quiser
ser o fim desta energia
ser um corpo de prazer
ser o fim de mais um di - a

tu continuas à espera
do melhor que já não vem
e a esperança fio encontrada
antes de ti por alguém
e eu sou melhor que na - da
refrão (3x)

And the usual links:

António Variações - Wiki

Delfins - Myspace

Strange Moods...

There are days that you just feel like crap... you might not really know the reason for you to feel like that, but that depressing feeling will accompany you from the time you wake up until you go to bed. You might even still feel the same the next day...

Just a random outburst... Everything will be fine in a few days. Sometimes being a girl is complicated!! lol

Back to Life

After 3 weeks of vacation that felt shorter than what they were, life resumed itself last week. To be honest it was not easy to return to having to wake up really early and to the lack of time to myself. Besides all that the weather has been really crappy and the hormones were at their best at the beginning of the week... Sometimes I feel sorry for who ever crosses my path during these days, because most of time I am unaware of the state I am in, becoming really really short tempered and needing a LOT of personal space. But well, that has passed now, I am stressed but for other reasons. Hmm, the reasons are the same but just do not seem so disproportioned has they did on Monday (or Tuesday or Wednesday). 

I do have another reason to stress though, I seem to have misplaced something very important and do not seem able to remember where I might I have put it... Usually, I am very careful with these kind of things, but it is the second object, in the space of a week, that I do not remember where I might have put it and this one is really important...

On a brighter note, yesterday I bought my ticket to Metallica's concert in May. It had to be for the second day, because I took to long to buy it the first day sold out... Which means that I will probably go by myself again to a concert, since most the people I know bought their tickets for the first day...

And this was just another random post for your entertainment.. :)

2009

United States of America

January

de Young Museum

 

California Academy of Sciences (only the view from outside)

February

California Academy of Sciences (the view from inside)

Japanese Tea Garden

 

Pacific Ocean Beach

Alcatraz

Portugal

April

  

My City

July

  

 

OPTIMUS Alive Festival - Metallica

Festival Marés Vivas - Lamb

I only have half of the year here, first because I still have a lot of photos in my camera, second, because I took a lot less pictures in the second half of the year. :) 

Nonetheless, it still is a good wrap of the year that just ended.

Welcome to 2010!!

Happy New Year everyone!! :)

I hope this year, you are all healthy and that it is a year full of good events.

I hope that we can all take a step forward in our lives facing the obstacles put before us straight on (our a least with the best of our abilities, so that we do not regret anything).

And do not forget to have fun and enjoy life!!!

Season Greetings

Credits to Me ;)