quinta-feira, 23 de junho de 2011
segunda-feira, 6 de junho de 2011
Há coisas que me corroem o cerebro
e sim, eu sei que é, provavelmente, a bebida e isso, mas há coisas que realmente me fazem confusão.
Há bocado lembrei-me de uma conversa, daquelas em que o álcool está envolvido. Estava eu e uns amigos a falar sobre as melhores invenções da história na nossa opinião. Depois de se discutirem assuntos como a roda, a televisão, a Internet, a música e tantas outras descobertas, o meu input na conversa atingiu o seu auge máximo quando digo: chicletes. É verdade. Pastilha elástica.
É que, quer dizer: internet- muito bem, boa coisa, mas era um bocado óbvia (necessidade de comunicação a longa distancia e evolução da distribuição da informação - compreensivel, certo? Luz: importante, mas também ela uma necessidade.
Mas agora... Chiclet's? Quem é que se lembra de uma coisa dessas? Veio de onde? Da fome? Um tipo lembra-se: ahhh e tal, deixa-me só experimentar este pau a ver se dá para eu me manter aqui ocupado. Não. Se bem que, depois de uma grande pesquisa (aka Wikipedia) a Claudia descobriu que foi uma tribo indigena que decidiu comer resina. É, depois digam que as ervas mágicas não dão resultado.
Anyway, aqui está o artigo:
A origem do hábito de mascar chiclete é controversa. Alguns autores afirmam que o hábito de mascar gomas surgiu entre os índios da Guatemala, que mascavam uma resina extraída de uma árvore denominada chicle com a finalidade de estimular a salivação. Outros, que o hábito surgiu entre os Maias, no México, que mascavam uma goma obtida de um látex que escorria de cortes de uma árvore conhecida como Sapota zapotilla, hábito que os Astecas posteriormente assimilaram. Também na Grécia antiga era comum mastigar a resina de uma árvore chamada mastiche para lavar os dentes e eliminar o mau hálito.
Nos anos 60 do século XIX, Antonio López de Santa Anna (presidente e general mexicano exilado nos EUA) levou para a América do norte uma resina cremosa (látex) a que chamavam chicle. Apresentou-a a Thomas Adams Jr, um fotógrafo e inventor nova-iorquino, que tentou, sem sucesso, vulcanizá-la, utilizando-a depois para o fabrico de pastilhas elásticas que se tornaram um sucesso. Mais tarde, melhorou-lhes o sabor, acrescentando um pouco de licor, o que agradou aos seus clientes.
Industrialmente, a produção do chiclete iniciou-se em 1872 quando o americano Thomas Adams Jr iniciou a venda de pedaços de cera parafinada com alcacuz.
As duas grandes guerras mundiais, principalmente a segunda, contribuíram para o aumento da popularidade da pastilha elástica, não só nos EUA mas também um pouco por todo o mundo. Era tida como terapia relaxante para o stress diário de que as pessoas eram vítimas. E também para evitar o congelamento do maxilar durante as emboscadas nocturnas.
Com o aumento do seu consumo, os fabricantes tiveram de procurar novos produtos que substituíssem as resinas naturais. Surgiram novos tipos (sem açúcar, com novas cores, novos sabores, novos formatos, etc.) e novas marcas de pastilhas.
Claudia
terça-feira, 31 de maio de 2011
quarta-feira, 25 de maio de 2011
sexta-feira, 20 de maio de 2011
quarta-feira, 18 de maio de 2011
quarta-feira, 11 de maio de 2011
Dear Miss Kenyon
A few weeks before my birthday I went for a job interview. I had moved to London two months before and had been constantly sending out CV's in order to arrange interviews.
I am kind of a likeable person, so I didn't do very badly at them, but because I'm portuguese and had never worked in the UK before (well, except at the restaurant, a girl has to eat while she looks for a job), they would always choose someone more experienced. So one day I was having one of those days - the skies were gray (which, thinking rationally is not that hard in London), I was here all by myself with my friends posting pictures of them at the beach all together and drinking beer... I'm loosing my train of thought. Back to what's important - and I had been reading your Dark Hunters series for what it must be the tenth time now. Well, I was at the library and in my bag was Acheron, the book, not him, he couldn't fit there, you say he's kind of tall so, yeah, the book. Because it's one of those books that has almost the same meaning as The Little Prince or Emma, anyway, I read it when I don't know what to read or I don't feel like starting a new unknown book (you know the feeling when you finish a really good book and you kind of need to digest it before starting a new one? I always feel like I'm betraying my fictional literatural -does this word exist? Oh well, I'm sure you understand what I mean- friends). So yes, I always have it close, because I can just open it randomnly and read from wherever. So there I was, depressed, with a smelly guy sitting right next to me using the library computers for internet, and a company called Akkeron was recruiting. I smiled at myself and replied.
After a week or so they calle me up, and this girl, Joanne Hunt, who is the the front desk manager, asked me to go for an interview. Few days later, ragged knees because I had fallen jumping from the train to the platform on a rainy day, stockings completely ruined, and in a bad mood I get to this city, called Richmond, right at the outskirts of central London, with a park that has reindeers in it, beatiful, gorgeous place, I went to the closest Costa (which I dont know if you have it in USA, but it's like the biggest Starbucks competitor around here), cleaned my knees, pull my skirt dowm, my stockings up, clean up my face and went to the interview.
Meanless to say, I got the job. My Company is called Akkeron, my boss is called Hunt and the best thing of all, there is actually a pub called Sanctuary that we reccomend the tourists because it's really close to the hotel. Can you see what I am saying? What a cosmic joke! And I know it's all a coincidence, but it gives me a great pleasure, and giggles as well, to think my big boss is Acheron. And I couldnt do it if I hadnt read the series. The book related jokes, I mean.
It may not be a big deal, but moving out of the country alone and with no help, just books because there is no internet, Acheron being the only book I brought with me, a girl goes a little bit crazy, so off course she is going to find this comical and interesting.
Anyway, just to let you know, because I find it funny. And helpful in a place where everybody is a stranger.
And sorry for my mind wandering, I get lost in my own head, but hey, that's why you're the writer and not me. I'm definetly a reader.
Thank you
Claudia
(AH! Will my salary be paid in gold and stuff? If so, tell Artemis I live in a tiny room and my friend Maria is sleeping on a mattress on the floor, so please, tell her to be careful :) )
xxx
I am kind of a likeable person, so I didn't do very badly at them, but because I'm portuguese and had never worked in the UK before (well, except at the restaurant, a girl has to eat while she looks for a job), they would always choose someone more experienced. So one day I was having one of those days - the skies were gray (which, thinking rationally is not that hard in London), I was here all by myself with my friends posting pictures of them at the beach all together and drinking beer... I'm loosing my train of thought. Back to what's important - and I had been reading your Dark Hunters series for what it must be the tenth time now. Well, I was at the library and in my bag was Acheron, the book, not him, he couldn't fit there, you say he's kind of tall so, yeah, the book. Because it's one of those books that has almost the same meaning as The Little Prince or Emma, anyway, I read it when I don't know what to read or I don't feel like starting a new unknown book (you know the feeling when you finish a really good book and you kind of need to digest it before starting a new one? I always feel like I'm betraying my fictional literatural -does this word exist? Oh well, I'm sure you understand what I mean- friends). So yes, I always have it close, because I can just open it randomnly and read from wherever. So there I was, depressed, with a smelly guy sitting right next to me using the library computers for internet, and a company called Akkeron was recruiting. I smiled at myself and replied.
After a week or so they calle me up, and this girl, Joanne Hunt, who is the the front desk manager, asked me to go for an interview. Few days later, ragged knees because I had fallen jumping from the train to the platform on a rainy day, stockings completely ruined, and in a bad mood I get to this city, called Richmond, right at the outskirts of central London, with a park that has reindeers in it, beatiful, gorgeous place, I went to the closest Costa (which I dont know if you have it in USA, but it's like the biggest Starbucks competitor around here), cleaned my knees, pull my skirt dowm, my stockings up, clean up my face and went to the interview.
Meanless to say, I got the job. My Company is called Akkeron, my boss is called Hunt and the best thing of all, there is actually a pub called Sanctuary that we reccomend the tourists because it's really close to the hotel. Can you see what I am saying? What a cosmic joke! And I know it's all a coincidence, but it gives me a great pleasure, and giggles as well, to think my big boss is Acheron. And I couldnt do it if I hadnt read the series. The book related jokes, I mean.
It may not be a big deal, but moving out of the country alone and with no help, just books because there is no internet, Acheron being the only book I brought with me, a girl goes a little bit crazy, so off course she is going to find this comical and interesting.
Anyway, just to let you know, because I find it funny. And helpful in a place where everybody is a stranger.
And sorry for my mind wandering, I get lost in my own head, but hey, that's why you're the writer and not me. I'm definetly a reader.
Thank you
Claudia
(AH! Will my salary be paid in gold and stuff? If so, tell Artemis I live in a tiny room and my friend Maria is sleeping on a mattress on the floor, so please, tell her to be careful :) )
xxx
Seria de esperar...
... que me tendo mudado para Londres e com tantas coisas a acontecer, que eu não iria parar de vir aqui e deixar fotografias ou coisas assim. A verdade nem é que tenha falta de tempo. Falta de internet resolve-se ali no Starbucks que é practicamente à porta de casa. Mas não, o que se passa é mais falta de vontade. Quando nos vemos sem net muito tempo o instinto é: facebook, e-mails, tumblr (dos outros) e por em dia as series. É isto que eu faço. E quase sempre por esta ordem.
Mas pronto, cá estou eu. E vou relatar: mudei-me para Londres, arranjei emprego num restaurante, mudei-me para um quarto meu, chegou a Maria que agora partilha o quarto comigo, arranjei emprego num hotel, os meus amigos vieram cá fazer-me uma surpresa, eu despedi-me do restaurante, quase arranjamos (eu e a Maria) uma casa só para nós as duas, acabamos por não nos mudar, eu comecei a trabalhar no hotel e agora estamos de novo à procura de casa.
Uf! Tudo num parágrafo.
Na verdade muitas mais coisas aconteceram. Conheci gente incrível, fiz amigos, já tenho emprego. E vida social, que tanta falta me fazia.
Vou tentar vir cá mais vezes.
Claudia.
Mas pronto, cá estou eu. E vou relatar: mudei-me para Londres, arranjei emprego num restaurante, mudei-me para um quarto meu, chegou a Maria que agora partilha o quarto comigo, arranjei emprego num hotel, os meus amigos vieram cá fazer-me uma surpresa, eu despedi-me do restaurante, quase arranjamos (eu e a Maria) uma casa só para nós as duas, acabamos por não nos mudar, eu comecei a trabalhar no hotel e agora estamos de novo à procura de casa.
Uf! Tudo num parágrafo.
Na verdade muitas mais coisas aconteceram. Conheci gente incrível, fiz amigos, já tenho emprego. E vida social, que tanta falta me fazia.
Vou tentar vir cá mais vezes.
Claudia.
