A Lazy Day

Just a lazy day, drinking coffee and eating chocolate in the park after lunch, and then back to the office and type in these random words in this blog... I feel like all my problems are left alone, while the weekenders - as myself - are all on our own. Oh... such fun!

Yeah, these lazy days, when you make me forget myself and think I'm someone else, someone good... Oh it's such a lazy day, and I'd be glad if I could spend it with you. In such a lazy day, you'd keep me hanging on... oh yeah!

But we're going to reap just what we sow...

We Did It!

Sunday morning, exactly 26 hours and 57 minutes after the start, we arrived in Calingford under a warm cheering from our support crew and all the Oxfam staff who were around the finish lane.

Yeah, congratulations to all of us, to our enormous determination under extreme weather conditions! The 5 months of training covering roughly 500Km surely paid off.

A special thanks to our support crew who made this possible: Anna, Teresa, Julie, Bianca and Owne, thanks for everything - the smiles and words of encouragement at every checkpoint, the logistics, the help with our walking gear, the lovely sandwiches and food, the weather reports, the foot-reviving massages, the rock'n'roll soundtrack and the sheer commitment to make it happen.

We were 23rd overall, out of 108 teams, and 15th among the teams who completed with all 4 members - not bad at all, I'd say!

We didn't manage to have the champagne, but we sure need to celebrate this achievement with a glass or two...

Check the results here.

Everything has a reason...

I grabbed a photo of a Castle from  the internet and got this email:

It has come to my attention that you have made an unauthorized use of my copyrighted work, a photo entitled Castelul Hunanzilor, which will from hereon be referred to as the Work.

I have reserved all rights in the Work, first published in 2004, [and have registered copyright therein].

Your work, http://eduardomiranda-plog.blogspot.com/ , is using, without authorization, my Work. - for photo infringement

As you failed to receive permission to use the Work within Castelul Hunanziolor and did not receive permission to make or distribute copies, [including electronic copies,] you have infringed my rights under 17 U.S.C. Section 101 et seq. and could be liable for statutory damages as high as $150,000 as set forth in Section 504(c)(2).

Such an Artist, uh? This is what I call a copyrighted mind ! Well, I have to thank this person. His/her attitude made me search for another illustration of a castle - but not any castle. I deliberately searched for the same castle, and guess what? I ended up finding a better work, from an artist who is more interested in spread the art than trying to make a profit by threatening people. Check it out!

Yes, the Internet is a vast world... wide... web. Some people should just stay away from it.

Aesop's fable

Tells Aesop in his fables that one day his master - Xanthus - asked him to go to the market and buy the best that he could find to serve as a meal for some guests. Aesop went out and bought a bunch of hog's tongues. Asked why tongues, Aesop justified:

Is there anything better than the tongue? It is the bond of life, reason, and through what the cities are built and policed. Thanks to it people are not only educated, persuaded and convinced in the assemblies, but also fulfill the first of all duties, which is to praise God.

Xanthus, willing to embarrass Aesop, asked him to go back the day after and buy the worst he could find. The next day Aesop brought hog's tongues again. Without understanding anything, Xanthus asked for an explanation:

The tongue is the mother of all questions, the origin of all cases, the source of discord and war. On one hand if it is the organ of truth, is also another error, and worse yet, slander and infamy, because if at some point it praises the gods, on the other is used for blasphemy and impiety.

Where ones read tongue, read word. The word - especially the written word - is a powerful instrument. And it must be used properly and with discretion. Because of these and others I always say: Do not imbecilize yourself! Avoid the temptation of abbreviations and simplified spelling (of words sic). MSN, Twitter, Facebook, email... they all are tools that came to aid communication, not to deteriorate languages.

Call out this manifesto, whatever the language you write!

Fat is fact

Who is obese and who is fat? It should be a clear rule: if your BMI (body mass index) is greater than 25,01 and 29,99 you are obese. From 30, you are fat. Seriously fat! Thanks to the north-americans - here they go again! - and their introduction of politically correctness, everybody overweight had to be called obese, otherwise they could be offended - and prosecute you!

It seems that these days are gone, at least in UK. England's public health minister Anne Milton says the term fat was more likely to motivate people into losing weight, and has said that GPs and other health professionals should tell people they are fat rather than obese.

for a better life

After the announcement of reductions in the overall budget programme to €39 billion (from the original €75 billion) for infrastructure, plus the possible call for privatisation of particular state companies and agencies (ESB, CIE, DAA, Bord Bia, RTE, etc), comes to light what everybody already knew but pretended not to know: the crisis is not financial but about values. Surely privatisation can improve competition in areas like transport, but in the energy sector, would be better to keep the assets and clean the bills by other meanings, such as efficiency and private investment.

The solidarity is down, distorted by all those "tigers" - Celtic Tiger, the Four Asian Tigers, Gulf Tiger,  Baltic Tiger, etc. People are busy making money, while they are lobotomized to believe that their happiness is all about consumption: we have to buy more in order to keep the economy growing, without  realising our needs are limited, the resources are limited, and we are coming to an inevitable explosion.

A brand new economic model is needed, based on community, solidarity, better values, justice,  and sustainability. Live a simpler and better life, is all we need...

The Plastic Bags

We were used to have plastic bags in the supermarkets to carry the goods. Now they say plastic bags are bad to the environment - polietilenos, polipropilenos and other highly pollutant substances. They've asked you to bring your own bag to the supermarket - Fair enough! The question is, may I still bring my PLASTIC bag to the supermarket? And the answer is YES, YOU CAN! They might not proliferate as before but still will be around, and could be inappropriately dumped into the environment.

If they - when I say they, I say those who decided to cut the FREE plastic bags from the supermarkets - If they were really worried about the environment, they would make the supermarkets replace their plastic bags to paper bags. Free paper bags, and no harm would be done to the environment. Instead, they applied this ridiculous fee to the plastic bag and keep producing and providing them. Still an exposure to the environment.

All that zeroes and ones...

I must to confess that I started my IT carrer coding in BASIC, DBASE and Clipper! I was a Computer Operator back in the 80's, and more serious things only came with age... I was 'already' 24 when I became an OS/370 System Programmer Trainee, doing more interesting stuff like Assembler exits, and even OS installation - VM/370, MVS/XA - thanks to my guru Johnson Varella.

I have to agree with this article The Story of Mel when it says Real Programmer's writes in Fortran! I would not call myself a Real Programmer, but I wrote in Fortran (looks like this)! And I also wrote in Assembler in the glorious OS/370 and OS/390 IBM systems. I even wrote in C, when C became a language in these systems, but I also played with C and Assembly 8088/8086 in PCs, but it was a kid's toy, nothing serious could be done in that machines, even if my boss wanted! What kind of operating system is used by a Real Programmer? Definitely not Windows, nor Unix - which is good to write papers! Real Programmers use MVS!

Well, it was good times! We all had copies of the OS JCL manual and the Principles of Operation in our desks, open to some particularly interesting pages... but now the latest generation of computer programmers are not being brought up with the same outlook on life as their elders. They are soft-protected from the realities of programming by 'high level' languages, with fancy text editors that count parentheses, and "too user friendly" operating systems. Worst of all, some of these alleged "computer scientists" manage to get degrees without ever learning Assembler! Or C, or Fortran. They get their degrees by programming in Java...

What a World!!! Or in other 'words':
010101110110100001100001011101000010000001100001001000000101011101101111011100100110110001100100001000010010000100100001

Wow! It took some time, though...

An Irish Rendemption

After a successful campaign against France, which got not only the sympathy of Irish supporters, but also other nationalities - the photo of a Mexican supporter holding a banner saying "Mexico vs. Ireland" during the Mexico x France match was an example how football supporters felt about France -, the England defeat to Germany sounded like the golden key to the Irish. Fair played to Ireland, which enrollment to the World Cup was denied due an unfair goal.

But one could ask if the Irish got upset when Maradona's hand of God Goal in 1986 World Cup left England out of the competition... Of course they enjoyed it! Isn't this what football is all about?

Wanted: Dead or Alive?

One year after Michael Jackson's death, there are still several legal issues to solve. He left a bill of more than 300 million dollars to his beloved ones! And the family - not an easy one, we already know - has been fighting around... Latoya said Michael was murdered because he worth more dead than alive!

Well, before his death he was not selling as he used to sell and not getting media coverage as he used to get. After, he is a phenomenon again! One year after his death, the new king is selling more than the old king Elvis!

Elvis? The one who died in 1977, 33 years ago? When the world had 4.230 billion people against 6,790 billion today?

Yes, mam...

The Wicklow Way - parts 2 & 3

As expected, the weather on Saturday was fantastic! The same could not be said about Sunday... but we walked anyway!

Starting from Knockree, near Enniskerry, we walked all the way to Laragh Village, a impressive 26km, in 8.5hrs (ascent of 630 mts).

The day after, we waited for the rain to stop then went for walk about 1pm. We walked the orange way (8Km) + almost the full white way (8 of 9Km) in 5hours (ascent of 400mts).

Next week, Wicklow Way part 4!

This weekend walking...

After some days no walking (I know this is bad), I'm back to the road tomorrow. We will be walking 2 parts of The Wicklow Way - from Knockree to Roundwood and then from Roundwood to Glendalough on Saturday, and then another few kilometers in Glendalough on Sunday.

With this beautiful weather, it promises to be a nice, nice walking!

My "local" walk...

Following the walking trainings, yesterday I walked what I could call "my local", in the same sense of local pubs - everyone has a pub to call "local" here in Ireland, right?

Yeah, so I have two "local" walkings - the Phoenix Park, really close to my place, and the Royal Canal Way, which is just next door, even a walk there sometimes can not be called "local"... it extends to Longford - considerable 145km! Yesterday I walked the already familiar Ashtown-Clonsilla-Astown route, a quiet 13Km covered in 2h20min.

Urbi et Orbi

Who saw says that there were more than 100 people. Considering the size of the Whelan's (upstairs), I'd say the place was packed! From my point of view (literally from the stage) I couldn't see much because there was a spotlight targeting right in my face! When I mixed in the crowd I could clearly see ... The place was packed!

Full house, and full of energy, the recently named Wellfish caught the audience so well that, according to fervorous comments collected at the venue, they were elected the best performance of the night, despite the main attraction - The Shove.

Fair play to us, The Shove asked if we could open more gigs to them - and it seems they've been playing a lot! Now, what we need to do is wait - and pray! - for other concerts in Dublin, and who knows where else ...

A gig tonight...

Today is the first official gig with the new formation. Although announced like The Buzz, we just heard this week about a Scottish band with the same name, so we changed... We are "The Wellfishes"!

The formation is Fergus McGovern (vocals), Trevor Cudden (rhythm guitar and backing vocals), Ciarán MacSamhrain (bass and backing vocals), Louis O'Donoghue (drums) and myself, Eduardo Miranda (lead guitar).

In the repertoire, cover songs from blues to rock, and a bit of country as well. The song list for tonight is:

1. I Want Everything - Cracker
2. Willin ' - Little Feat
3. Only Team Will Tell - Jimmy Norman
4. Buy in Bottles - Richard Ashcroft
5. Tupelo Honey - Van Morrison
6. True Love Tends you it Forget - Bob Dylan
7. Take Me Down To it The Infirmary - Cracker

Whelan's address is 25 Wexford Street, Dublin 2. Phone 01 4780766. We should start by 8:30 if no delays... And as As they say in show business "Break a leg"... we are going to break two!!!

The Wicklow Way

Kepp Walking, as Johnny used to say! Last Saturday we walked the so called first part of "The Wicklow Way", the 132Km path through the Wicklow mountains - a remarkable spetacle of mother nature!

This first walking was from Marlay Park till Enniskerry and took us 5 hours to cover. 22Km made of uphills, downhills, rocky ways and a wonderful landscape! Experts say this is a wonderful mark!

And if you didn't donate yet, don't be ashemed... you can do it here!

Oxfam Trailtrekker - So far...

Trying to get prepared to September's big challenge, the 100Km walking in 36 hours, it's better if one's practice regularly...

To give an idea what has been done so far:

• 27/03 - Ashtown-Connolly Station - 8Km
• 01/04 - Mulhuddart-Ashtown - 12Km
• 03/04 - Bray-Greystones-Bray-Bray Head - 14Km
• 10/04 - Howth-Connolly - 16Km
• 17/04 - Howth-Howth Head-Connolly - 25Km
• 24/04 - Greystones-Sandymount - 30Km
• 01/05 - Howth Head-Malahide - 25Km
• 06/05 - Phoenix Park round - 15Km
• 08/05 - Cooper Coast, Co. Waterford - 10Km
• 15/05 - Ashtown-Broomsbridge-Leixlip Louisa Bridge - 23Km
• 18/05 - Ashtown-Clonsilla-Ashtown - 14Km

Today's trail: Connolly-Maynooth

Following the schedule for the OXFAM IRELAND TRAILTREKKER 2010 trainning (by the way, have you donated yet? No!? Well, then click here!), today we had planned a 30km walking, from Connolly Railway Station, walking along the banks of Royal Canal, which borders the train tracks, until Maynooth Railway Station, but eventually it didn't end up as planned.
I walked Astown-Broombridge (3 km), and then turned back towards Ashtown, till Leixlip Louisa Bridge Railway Station (approximately 19km). The remaining 7 or 8km were not possible due muscular pain...

Bailing out!

They say we should help the banks. They say if the banks collapse, all the economy will fall down with them. They say it's vital to the world, to the country, to the people. They have keeping saying that for more than 100 years, and will be saying that for the next 100, then for the next 100, and then the next, the next...

We say "That's enough!" Here in Ire-land, the Taoiseach washed his hands speaking to a group of people, saying "the government" was giving/taking wrong advices. As he were not part of "the government".

Banks were irresponsible - aren't they meant to be? They are always trying - generally with success - to take advantage over everybody else (bankers would even sell their mothers for a good rate!). It is the government economists' dutty to regulate them, but regulation seems to be something evil, prohibited, old-fashion and outmoded - according to the liberals primer, of course. But now the government wants to pay the banker's bill with consumer's money. The same money which should go to education and health - to say the least.

No, sir, it doesn't sound right at all!

The Silver Swan

by Orlando Gibbons

The silver Swan, who living had no Note,
when Death approached, unlocked her silent throat.
Leaning her breast against the reedy shore,
thus sang her first and last, and sang no more:
"Farewell, all joys! O Death, come close mine eyes!
"More Geese than Swans now live, more Fools than Wise."

we have our own volcano

Lots of friends are asking me about the icelandic volcano... "Are you OK?", "Did the ashes affect you?"

No, no... we are OK here in green Ireland. Cold Iceland is dealing with some ashes - they even need to were masks to breathe! The only thing we suffered and are still suffering here is from the airport closure, that's all. And fortunately I was in Ireland when it happened, and have no travels booked in the near future... but today, looking from my balcony, how surprised I was when I realised we have our own volcano!

think global, get local

The new globalisation is all about being local! When everybody seems to be most enjoying the (good?) effects of globalisation, it seems that the best turned to be the local... the local jamón in Spain, or the local mozzarella de búfala from Italy. Look in the supermarkets: they are proud to be Irish, to offer 100% Irish beef, or pork, or chicken.

The sense of the local has a built-in memory of childhood, of homeland. Few people would be interested in eating tomatoes from Cluj-Napoca in Romenia (supposing you are not from Romenia) or spring onions from Chenai in India.

So, one can ask me what about the "Think global" of the title?

Because is clearly more enjoyable and healthier to get things local, ignoring globalisation, it's not only about quality or even patriotism... As always, money will be your sentence!

the house effect

They say houses prices are extremely down.
They say people are hungry because they can't sell their houses.
They say their houses don't value the price they paid.
They say they can't pay their mortgages.

This should really be the minority of the population. The simplest Paddy people would not buy a house to speculate the market... they would not put the money they don't have into the property bubble...

They say people are hungry because they can't sell their houses, which now don't value half the price they've paid...

To me, it sounds more like the process are at a reasonable level...

I used to say that...

fly like a butterfly,
but sting like a bee.
through mohammed ali's mouth

"All of those who may
Forbid me to fly:
They will pass away
I'm passing by"
mário quintana, translated by myself

"I've bleed enough
I've cried a lot
I died last year
but this year I'll not"
Zé Limeira, translated by myself

check it out...

I've updated this short tale... The Call. Give it another read...

a nice walk!

Stunning sea cliffs, abundant wildlife and a fantastic walk - What more could you ask for! An invigorating walk taking in some clean sea air! This is the Bray to Greystones cliff walk.

We began our journey on Bray Promenade and moved on to the stunning cliff walk where the scenery is breathtaking! The coastal walk is about 6km in length of cliff-top paths, which snake their way south from the end of Bray esplanade to the charming and bustling town of Greystones, offering spectacular views of the Wicklow Mountains.

In our way back - another 6 km or so - we took the challenging Bray Head climb, which took my breathe away, literally!

Everything just a preparation for the great Oxfam Trailtrekker 2010!

In the meantime in Gotham City...

Gotham City is getting older. And as an old city, needs more care... everywhere! The gothamcitians cannot provide their own welfare, the state has collapsed, the pensioners are asking about their money, the money they have been paying all their life and now the government says it can't afford paying everybody...

"Collect more taxes" said someone from the inner circles of power. "Increase the state pension age", said another one, "Bilked it to a certain extent", others. Suddenly, from the back of the room, someones shouted loudly, "Let the foreigners pay it!". First a silent, followed by a rumour, and then a chorus:

"Let the foreigners pay it!" "Let the foreigners pay it!" "Let the foreigners pay it!" "Let the foreigners pay it!"

The Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) rose the acquiring an immigration card from free (yes, it was free till 2006!) to €100, and then to €150.

As the price hike doesn't affect the gothamcitians, ewverything is fine in the Gotham CVity Kingdom...

Dublin - the new Gotham City

Here is some curio... Batman's first locale was set to Manhattan, but writer Bill Finger decided to change it to a fictional city because he didn't want anyone making any references and would give more freedom to criativity. He tried Capital City and Coast City before "Gotham City Civic City", which was shortened later on to Gotham City.

The meaning of the name Gotham is literally "homestead where goats are kept", from Old English gat (goat) and ham (home). In terms of atmosphere, according to Dennis O'Neil Gotham City is something like Manhattan below Fourteenth Street at eleven past midnight on the coldest night in November. The architecture often shows Gothic, Art Deco and Art Nouveau, along with modern glass skyscrapers and buildings.

Gotham is more recalled as a no man's land due its rampant and recurring corruption within the city's civil authorities and infrastructure, and here is where Dublin comes through... it's becoming a no man's land! Drivers driving on bus lanes, doubling the speed limits, blocking crossroads, driving through red lights, parking on clearance areas, breaking clamp lockers... bus drivers not respecting bus stop signs, buses not satisfying their timetables, lawyers are for sale, blasphemer politicians all around...

What have we done?

P.S.: No, I'm not a Batman buff. All the curio info came from Wikipedia... 'course.

What a Language!

If I had to say only one thing about the English language, I would say it is "absorbent". After we all have already degusted noums turning into verbs - like the glorious email, "I emailed you yesterday", fax, "Fax me this, pelase", and google (derived from the word googol, - a number represented in base-ten by a one with a hundred zeroes after it. The name was coined in 1938 by Milton Sirotta, the nine-year-old nephew of American mathematician, Edward Kasner), "You have to google this".

In my way to work this morning, listening to the radio, I was surprised when the reporter said "Which ones (hotels) will be NAMAed?", meaning which hotels would be choosen by NAMA to shutdown their activities due under performance.

You know, NAMA is the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), which will operate as an independent commercial entity under the aegis of the National Treasury Management Agency here in Ireland...

In the Immigration Office...

- What do you mean you can't give me the full Visa? Am I not entitled to a 2 years stamp?

- Yes, sir, you are, but your passport is expiring in eight months, so I'll give you an eight months Visa.

- And after that?

- After that you will have to come back with your new passport to stamp it.

- Do I have to pay again?

- Yes, sir, you do.

- Why should I have to pay again if the Visa is still valid for only 2 years?

- You have to pay to imprint...

- Wow, what's so expensive? The stamp? Stamp-pad? Ink? I can provide them if you make it easier...

No answer.

- Why don't you just stamp my 2 years Visa and when this passport expires I just carry it with me, along the new one?

- We can't do that!

- Other countries do...

- We are not other countries. This is Ireland!

- Never mind...

He took his passport with the 8 months Visa. The Immigrant agent typed in his profile: watch out - inquisitor, with an inclination to independent thinking.

The Call

Telephone ringing incessantly. Finally, someone picks it up but says nothing.

“Hello?”

No reply yet. He persists:

“Hello, Mary….is that you?”

“There's no Mary here”. She hangs up.

He calls again, sounding more relaxed now:

Silence again.

“Mary, it’s me, Don”.

“Fuck you, Don, my name is Caroline. Mary’s dead”.

“You’re stoned Mary, you said…..”

“Fuck what I said, you viggo!”.

He sighs. She’d crossed a line but didn’t realise…

“Look, I’m not, okay? I’m just trying to be clean and keep you…”

“Don't fucking "keep-me", OK?”

“Look, Mary, I just…”

“I’M CAROLINE!”, she shouts, “Did you hear me? CAR-OL-INE!”

“That’s your hooker-name….are you on the game again?”

“FUCK YOU, YOU BASTARD!, YOU FUCKING PIG…. YOU…YOU…”

He sighs. She starts crying….silently initially….but then getting louder and louder….”

“It’s okay Mary, I’m here….I’m here Babe…”

Breathless crying.

“Look, it’s Saturday night, can I come over?”

“No”. She's crying and sniffling. "I’ve been spaced out for days and I don’t want ya seeing me looking like shit…”

“You don’t look like shit, Babe…you’re my girl, you know that, don’t ya?”

No answer. Crying and sniffling still…

“…and we’ll kick again, Baby, you and me together, you’ll see. So just let me come over…I’ll bring some whites and we can….”

“Fine, but I need some more brown stuff too, ya know?”

“Alright, Babe, for the very last time and we’re all done then, yeah?”

“Yeah, for good…”

Getting a bus in Dublin

You have got to be kidding me. There's no services on Sunday for route 239. So, those who live in Blanchardstown and might think about going to Lucan in a nice Sunday morning, just can't. Oh, I'm sorry... yes they can! They just have to spend 40 minutes in a bus to city centre and another 40 minutes from city centre to Lucan...

No, I'm not kidding you!!!

flarfing around...

I was flarfing
if to flarf is something
that flarf people
use to flarf about...

did you flarf me?

wine taste & finger food for a tenner

Every wine lover should go for wine tastes in a regular basis. It's not just for the wine, but for the whole atmosphere. You meet a lot of people among the same interest, at least one: the love for the wine. And this is not enough, there is always other ways to go through, if you know what I mean...

The Hole in the wall pub is the venues for many wine events. They Yesterday I attended to the so called "Happy Mondays". The name should be because everybody is happy there, or even because everybody leaves happy! Anyway, the Happy Monday was a wine taste of 6 new zealander wines - 4 sauvignon blanc, 1 chardonay and 1 pinot noir. All sprinkled with a nice selection of finger food during the break time - so it will not spoil your palate! And the price? A mere tenner! Jezz...

It was not my first, but was my most enjoyable wine taste ever! And now I know my way - ok, I knew already, but was too lazy! - I'll do it more frequently... starting this 22nd of February (hum... the date recalls me something...), when Teresa and me will be attendind to he unique and innovative 5-in-5 series; over five nights, we will be sampling five grapes: shiraz, chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, sauvignon blanc and merlot.


The Hole in the Wall is right there, in the Blackhorse Avenue, beside Phoenix Park, Dublin 7. Numbers are limited and payments may be made in the attendance. You can assure a place by calling them on 01 8389491.

Taking it easy ...

... and going crazy!

And now that the snow season is over and we are not enforced to be watching stones drinking a nice cup of tea, is time to get out and enjoy! The cinemas are hungry fro people, the restaurants willing to populate their display windows, teathers, museums, cafes, shops... the entire life is back and we can go out... but if you don't want to, it's ok...

Taking it easy and going crazy!

The old fashion way

Welcome to the "Frozen Pipes" club, as our heating is a boiler and it will not start if there's no pressure into the system - which is suppose to come via... the pipes!

Dublin is running out of water. The City Council is putting the system down a bit - they turn the water on in the mornings, for 2 hours, then turn it off again for the rest of the day, turning on again in the evening for another couple of hours... a disaster! Authorities are also asking people not to let their taps open during the night - to avoid the pipes to become frozen, but the problem is when there's no much water running, either the pipes can freeze or the boiler system can run out of pressure and consequently not burning the gas for hot water and the central heating...

At least we have a few electric heaters and hot water bottles, the old fashioned way. It was -11 yesterday morning...

What Agglutination!

ed·u·tain·ment
n.
1. The act of learning through a medium that both educates and entertains.
2. Any of various media, such as computer software, that educate and entertain.
3. (Social Science / Education) the presentation of informative or educational material in an entertaining style.

When I first read this word in an email a friend sent me, I though he was kidding with my name - edu(ardo) + (enter)tainment. What agglutination!

In linguistics, agglutination is the morphological process of adding suffixes and/or prefixes to the base of a word. Here, it was taken from edu(cation) + (enter)tainment...

Icy Dublin

Roads are frozen. Local authorities say they are doing everything they can to fix the problem - bring more salt to the country, pulverise the roads - as soon as possible. The Minister of Environment said it would be for the next day or so... How come?

Minister excuses started saying that main roads are OK (barely OK, I'd say), and they are the priority. Well, they may be the priority, but what about the traffic jam which in regular days, when all back roads are clean and unblocked, is already a chaos? What to say now with blocked back roads and main roads in icy conditions?

The Minister continues daying that if you watch the UK news you'll see that they have the same problem. My understanding - actually the first thing which comes to my mind - is that the Minister wants the british disgrace to act as consolation to us... jeez!

To be honest with you, I'm delighted with this weather! I'm brazilian! We have all the good weather there, and this is quite exotic to me! It's a shame the authorities don't provide people with the infrastructure they need to enjoy the season.

2o1o

It's been a long (and winding) time I din't write anything here, in my english space... 2009 has gone, 2010 has come - I've wished (in portuguese) to everybody a lot of LUXURY. Once what defines luxury is the sense of scarcity, I wish you all loads of SIMPLICITY, HUMILITY, SOLIDARITY (the most noble felling of the human been) and COMPASSION!

Happy New Year!