Welcome to my blog/ Bem-vindos ao meu blog/ Bienvenidos a mi blog.

"Living´s not waiting until the storm ceases, but learning how to dance in the rain"....

"Cuándo el mundo te deprima, observa lo que te rodea com objetividad. Avanza de manera positiva y recuerda que eres tú quien lleva las riendas".

"Tudo vale a pena quando a alma não é pequena"

"Sigam-me os bons!"

quarta-feira, 13 de fevereiro de 2013

Razões para ler Jogos Vorazes

Bom, gente, a "titia" aqui é uma apaixonada por literatura infanto-juvenil, então não poderia deixar de fazer uma resenha (tardia) sobre a trilogia Jogos Vorazes, que estourou em 2012 devido ao filme do primeiro livro. Aliás, vi o filme antes de começar a ler os livros e achei bem fiel, bem objetivo (o que é bem difícil em se tratando de filmes baseados em livros, cá para nós, né?).
O primeiro livro (capa preta), introduz Panem (nação formada por 13 distritos após a destruição da América do Norte), nação pobre controlada pela rígida e luxuosa capital, onde ocorrem os Jogos Vorazes, uma competição anual disputada por 1 garoto e 1 garota de cada distrito onde a regra é lutar até a morte, deixando somente 1 sobrevivente, que levará glória para seu distrito e receberá suprimentos (que são bem escassos para os moradores) vitalícios e 1 casa decente. Os Jogos são sempre transmitidos pela TV. Isso é uma punição aos moradores por antigas rebeliões, o objetivo é mostrar que a Capital é quem manda e merece ser temida.
 O livro também introduz seus heróis e seus vilões. Do lado do bem, conhecemos os protagonistas do Distrito12: Katniss e Peta (participantes dos jogos), além de Prim (irmã mais nova de Katniss) e Gale, amigo da garota e Cina, estilista que prepara o figurino dela. Do lado do mal, conhecemos garotos e garotas que matam impiedosamente e o presidente Snow.
A trama começa quando a jovem Prim é selecionada na "colheita" (sorteio que escolhe os 2 tributos de cada distrito por meio de um sorteio aberto à toda a população). Para proteger a irmã, Katniss se oferece para ir no lugar dela. Une-se a Peta sob a tutela do ex-ganhador de uma antiga versão dos Jogos, Haymitch, um bêbado inveterado. Durante os Jogos, os tributos conhecem um pouco do estilo de vida exótico e luxuoso dos moradores da capital, que contrasta direto com a pobreza dos Distritos.
O segundo livro (Em Chamas, o vermelho), apresenta outra versão dos Jogos, desta vez ainda mais elaborada, que conta também com a participação de tributos antigos. Katniss e Peta, os vencedoredos da outra edição (sim, os 2...ooops, spoiler!!! Foi mal!!), precisam fingir que são um casal feliz às vésperas do casamento, mas tudo não passa de um esquema elaborado pela Capital para dar Ibope para os novos Jogos. Novos aliados são feitos e novos inimigos também, bem como novas mortes.
O terceiro (A Esperança, azul), foge dos padrões dos outros 2 e não apresenta a matança em forma de jogos, mas sim na verdadeira batalha entre o que restou dos moradores de cada distrito, quando eles se abrigam naquele que todos consideravam destruído, Distrito 14. Katniss representa o pássaro Tordo (que estampa as capas de todos os livros), por ser um símbolo de luta e liberdade. Neste livro conhecemos o destino final de Panem e dos personagens sobreviventes. Tão cruel e implacável como os outros, mas também muito eletrizante. Aliás, toda a série prende a atenção do leitor, que fica ávido por saber qual é a próxima armadilha nesta trama de Suzanne Collins.
Bom, agora é com vocês! Até a próxima!!

quinta-feira, 7 de fevereiro de 2013

Do you know how to say these in English?






Cantada: pick up line.

Joey will never get a girlfriend! His pick up lines are horrible!

Pechinchar: to haggle.

Do you always pay the full price or do you like to haggle?

Infalível: fooproof, bulletproof, sure-fire

My plan is foolproof, it can´t go wrong.

Coma alcólico: alcohol poisoning

Have you ever had alcohol poisoning?

Entrar de gaiato: to fall into a gig

I´ve fallen into this gig and I can´t get out.

Encheção de saco: a botheration

I´m sick and tired of this botheration!

Se é que vc me entende: if you get my drift

He´ll never ever find it out! If you get my drift.

Paguei meus pecados: I paid my dues

I´ve already suffered enough. I guess I paid my dues!

Se liga!: Get with it!

She doesn´t love you anymore, get with it!

Estar no cio: to be in heat

Dogs in heat usually go for people´s legs.

Castrado: neutered

Are your cats neutered?

Plano B: backup plan

If everything go wrong, w must have a backup plan.

A jalopy/ an old crate: lata-velha (carro velho)

It´s about time you change your car, that jalopy!

Toma-lá-dá-cá: tit for tat

Our relationship has always been based on tit for tat.

Futuro promissor: rosy future

You´re too young to feel sorry for yourself, you´ve got a rosy future ahead of you.

Levar a pior: to get the short end of the stick

If you try to be nice to everybody all the time, you´ll end end up getting the short end of the stick.

Sem-terra: squatter

There are lots of squatters in Brazil

Pegar leve: to mellow out

You shouldn´t work so hard, mellow out dude!

Bocudo: loud-mouthed

You can´t tell Bob our secret, he´s so loud-mouthed!

De má vontade: halfheartedly

I´ll accept your offer provided it´s not halfheartedly

A seu dispor: at your service

Hi, I´m your tour guide and I´ll be at your service during this trip.

Esteira de praia: beach blanket

Gee, I forgot to bring the beach blanket, now I can´t lay on my back to sunbathe!

Deixar rolar: to let it ride

If things are going well, let it ride!

Explicar tintim por tintim: to fill all the blanks

I´ll try to fill all the blanks before you start asking questions.

Situação complicada: sticky situation

That´s such a sticky situation! I wonder how we´ll find a way out of it.

Autoescola: traffic school

You can only get your driver´s license if you go to traffic school.

Fazer corpo mole: to slack off

Stop slacking off and get to work!

Lei antifumo: anti-smoking bill

Things are a lot better in restaurants and pubs after the anti-smoking bill, don´t you think?

To slip up-pisar na bola

It´s ok to slip up sometimes.

"Ganhar na loteria, tirar a sorte grande": to hit the jackpot

It seems Mary has hit the jackpot: she´s got a wonderful husband, a great job, excellent kids and a very comfortable life.

"Tirar água do joelho" (homens): to bleed the lizard

Excuse me, I have to bleed the lizard.

"Foi para Portugal, perdeu o lugar": You snooze, you lose

Sorry if you missed the class because you overslept. As they say, you snooze, you lose!

Yakety-yak: blablablá

Enough of this yakety-yak, I want to read a little in peace and quiet.

"Seca" ( muito tempo sem namorar): dry spell

Josh has been on a dry spell since he broke up with Jane.

Ser feio como o capeta: to be as ugly as sin

This guy will never get a date, he´s as ugly as sin!

Blusa tomara-que-caia: tube top

Tube tops are great for the summer.

Cortar o barato de alguém: to kill somebody´s buzz/to burst somebody´s bubble

I was chatting with my friends when my mom called me for dinner. Boy, that really killed my buzz!

Tomar umas geladas: to toss some brews

I can´t wait to leave and hit the bar to toss some brews with my pals.

Tirar uma com a cara de alguém: to yank someone

What? Are you serious or are you just yanking me?



quarta-feira, 6 de fevereiro de 2013

Carnival-curiosities and history





February is the month of the typically Brasilian holiday, the Carnival, but it doesn´t mean it´s not celebrated in other parts of the world. It is, but some aspects change from country to country. Let´s take a look at some facts in a few English speaking countries.

Carnival, or Carnivale, is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent (in Portuguese, quaresma); the main events are usually during February. Carnival typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party. People often dress up or masquerade during the celebrations, which mark an overturning of daily life.
Carnival is traditionally held in areas with a large Catholic and, to a lesser extent, Eastern Orthodox makeup. Protestant areas usually do not have Carnival celebrations or have modified traditions, such as the Danish Carnival or other Shrove Tuesday (also known as Pancake Tuesday, Pancake Day, Mardi Gras, and Fat Tuesday) is the day preceding Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Shrove Tuesday is linked to Easter, so its date changes on an annual basis) events. The word shrove is the past tense of the English verb shrive, which means to obtain absolution for one's sins by way of Confession and doing penance. Thus Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the custom for Christians to be "shriven" before the start of Lent

 Traditionally during Lent, no parties or other celebrations were held, and people refrained from eating rich foods, such as meat, dairy, fats and sugar. The forty days of Lent, recalling the Gospel accounts of the forty days that Jesus spent in the wilderness, serve to mark an annual time of turning. In the days before Lent, all rich food and drink had to be disposed of. The consumption of this, in a giant party that involved the whole community, is thought to be the origin of Carnival.
Some of the best-known traditions, including carnival parades and masquerade ball masquerading, were first recorded in medieval Italy.

Origins of the word

 The origin of the name "Carnival" is disputed, between those that have argue a link with the Italian word "carne" (meat), and those that argue a link with the word "carrus" (car). The link with carne would suggest an origin within Christianity, while the link with carro with earlier religions.Those that argue for the origin from "carne", point to variants in Italian dialects that would suggest that the name comes from the Italian carne levare or similar, meaning "to remove meat", since meat is prohibited during Lent.
Folk etymologies[1] exist which state that the word comes from the Late Latin expression carne vale, which means "farewell to meat", signifying that those were the last days when one could eat meat before the fasting of Lent. The word carne may also be translated as flesh, so suggesting carne vale as "a farewell to the flesh", a phrase actually embraced by certain Carnival celebrants who encourage letting go of your former (or everyday) self and embracing the carefree nature of the festival.

In English speaking countries

 In England, the season immediately before Lent was called Shrovetide. It was a time for confessing sins (shriving) with fewer festivities than the Continental Carnivals. Today, Shrove Tuesday is celebrated as Pancake Day.
In Canada, Caribana, held in Toronto on the first weekend of August, has its origins in the Carnival traditions of the Caribbean. Due to climatic imperatives, Caribana is held in the summer when Caribbean costumes may be paraded comfortably, rather than adhering to the traditional winter dates of the other Carnivals in which the festival is strongly rooted.[26] Attendance at the Caribana parade typically exceeds one million people. The Quebec Winter Carnival is the biggest winter-themed Carnival in the world. It depends on good snowfalls and very cold weather, to keep snowy ski trails in good condition and the many ice sculptures intact. For this reason it does not coincide with the pre-Lent celebration but is fixed instead to the last days of January and first days of February. In the Ottawa-Gatineau region, Winterlude takes place during the first 4 weeks of February.
In the US, Carnival celebrations, usually referred to as Mardi Gras, were first celebrated in the Gulf Coast area of the United States, but now occur in many other states. Customs originated in the onetime French colonial capitals of Mobile (now in Alabama), New Orleans (Louisiana) and Biloxi (Mississippi), all of which have been celebrated for many years with street parades and masked balls. Other major U.S. cities with celebrations include Miami, Florida; Tampa, Florida; St. Louis, Missouri; Pensacola, Florida; San Diego, California; Galveston, Texas and Orlando, Florida.
Carnival is celebrated in New York City in the Borough of Brooklyn. As in the UK, the timing of Carnival has been separated from the Christian calendar and is celebrated on Labor Day Monday, in September. It is called the Labor Day Carnival, West Indian Day Parade or West Indian Day Carnival, and was founded by immigrants from Trinidad, one of the West Indian islands that has one of the largest Carnivals of the Caribbean region. In the mid twentieth century, West Indians moved the timing of the New York area Carnival from the beginning of Lent to the Labor Day weekend. The West Indian Day Carnival is one of the largest parades and street festivals in New York with usually over one million people participating or attending. The parade, which consists of steel bands, floats, elaborate Carnival costumes and sound trucks proceeds down Brooklyn's Eastern Parkway in the Crown Heights neighborhood.

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 (Source: Wikipedia)

Another meaning of carnival is "traveling amusement show having sideshows and rides (like a fair or an amusement park). In Portuguese, it corresponds to "parque de diversões", but not a permanent one.


Será o tempo a melhor solução? (Poema)


Será o tempo a melhor solução?

Cercada em um beco sem saída, solitária em uma multidão,
Ó desesperançoso, frágil e pessimista coração!
Tanto desepero, muito sacrifício e demasiado esforço,
E parece que quanto mais tento subir mais caio no fundo do poço!

Tentando a todo custo voltar ao topo e enxergar a luz,
Somente o vislumbre de um futuro (ainda) longínquo me seduz.
Tentando recuperar a calma para não enlouquecer,
Lutando contra mim mesma para não esmorecer.

Quando todos a seu redor parecem sorrir,
Quem se importará quando você cair?
E quem lhe dará uma palavra amiga ao estender-lhe a mão?
Será o tempo realmente a melhor solução?
Se isto for um pesadelo, gostaria de poder acordar
E voltaria a dormir somente para conseguir sonhar.

Acordar e ver que aquele buraco já não existe
E que já não há motivos para ficar triste,
Que tudo está resolvido e o pior já passou...
Que as feridas cicatrizaram,
As lágrimas secaram e nada de mal restou...


(Flavia Mangini-Fev. 2013)

segunda-feira, 4 de fevereiro de 2013

Dark Stormy Cloud (poem)


Dark Stormy Cloud (a poem by Flavia Mangini)
I´m a lonely gray cloud
But I don´t seem to have a silver lining...
Can´t you hear me thunder?
It´s deafening, it´s so damn loud!
This cloud´s crying, though the sun´s shining and everyone´s smiling...

Have you ever felt this broken, this fragile and weak?
Have you ever felt like running away?
When your body is crumbling and your soul is meek?
I guess we all feel like that someday...

Will things ever be all right again?
Will happiness ever come knocking at my door?
Is it a sin to try to change a life that´s so boring and plain?
What have I done to end up crushed on the floor again?
Pain comes pouring down my pen,
Like a storm comes to wash things down from the darkest sky...
Will it ever stop? I don´t know when...
But I keep asking myself the reasons why...
Will it ever ease down? I simply can´t figure out how...



(Feb, 2013)