Are we jaded?

I'm lucky enough that the customer where I'm working at the moment has this incredibly awesome view of our river (Tagus for all you non-Portuguese folk) and I was lucky enough for this image to happen at the same time I was taking a small break.

Now, as I sit here and look at the picture, I make a mental note of all the stuff that's going on in it and I realize just how incredibly small we are.

- Boats: still the main transport system of materials all throughout the world.
- Lisbon harbour: a hub of commerce and transportation, a lifeline that is part of one of the greatest man-made chaos systems: economy.
- Bridge 25 de Abril: While far smaller than it's cousin bridge Vasco da Gama (and many other bridges throughout the world), even this "little" thing is still pretty darn huge. Just the volume of traffic that it has dealt throughout the years is just... mind-blowing.
- Cristo-Rei: a symbol of one religion, religion itself being the driving force behind so many good and also bad things that have happened throughout human history.

And now for the nerdy bits:
- Water: the volume of water involved and present in this small river and the fact that it can rise or drop 3-4m, depending on the tides, which themselves are influenced by the presence of a body that is 1.23% of the mass of our own planet, around 384 thousand km away... if that alone doesn't blow your mind..!
- Clouds: they can give you quite a low mood on a rainy day, but they are responsible for the water cycle on our planet.
- Blue sky: signifies the mixture of gases in the atmosphere that has protected our species (and all others) from having a liiiiittle bit too much tan.
- Sunlight: deadly when unfiltered, a source of life when it is, it comes from a big ball of plasma, more than 1 million times Earth's volume, "sitting" in the middle of the void, just burning away at a "comfortable" 150 million km distance...

And still, when I turn on the news, I only hear about the latest reality show, the latest celebrity scandal or how our country is going down the drain.

I'll be trying to understand the mechanics of nature on that corner over there... call me when sanity has returned to our species.

I'll see you around,
Kiauze

Life is a roller-coaster

It has indeed been a long time since I last posted anything in here. As I browsed the web, I found myself at a friend's blog and noticed she had changed her template. So why the heck not do the same with mine.. and at the same time use it as a kickoff to start blogging again?

The past 8 or 9 months have been a journey of self-discovery. Learning to adapt to a new mindset and, especially, learning to focus on yourself and your own development as a person may sound easy in theory, but it's quite the opposite in reality. These have been some mildly annoying times but fortunately enough, I wasn't alone and there is a handful of people to which I'm more than grateful for opening, or rather re-opening my eyes.

If there is one thing that I've learned this year is how deeply important it is to manage, appreciate and respect yourself. You may surround yourself of your best friends, attend all the parties you want, engage in all the flirting you wish, indulge yourself in every little thing that grants a momentary pleasure... but at the end of the day and when you squeeze all the content of what happened, all that really matters is how you face yourself when you're just standing still. How you look at yourself in the mirror. How you take your thoughts and turn them to reality. How you commit to and achieve your own goals.

The ground where I'm standing on is still a bit unstable at the moment, but at least I'm getting a firmer grasp of the direction on which to aim myself at. The more you realize who you are, the more you begin to filter out what is really important and what is just... well, not important at all.

This whole "Life" thing is one heck of a roller-coaster ride. There are those first frightening moments where your eyes are just slammed shut and you're holding on for dear life. And then the excitement starts to kick in and you start opening your eyes, realizing that no matter what happens, this is your own ride. No one else will enjoy it for you... so might just as well open them eyes and enjoy it while you can! :)

I'll see you around,
Kiauze

PS: As I wrote the title, I just couldn't shake this song's title from my mind, so here it is :D