When You've Waited Forever...

... Then Boom—Everything Aligns

We've all been there: marking days off the calendar, refreshing inboxes, whispering "any day now" into the void. That new contract, the answer for that offer you made, the big break — it feels like it's perpetually just out of reach, testing your patience like a slow-cooked stew that never quite boils. Life's waiting game can grind you down, turning optimism into quiet doubt.

But then, in a twist straight out of a cosmic comedy, it happens. Not one, but a cascade. The job offer lands while your dream house goes on the market down the street. An old friend calls with the perfect collaboration just as your side personal project catches fire online. Suddenly, the universe flips the script from drought to deluge of good fortune. Psychologists call this "clustering illusion," but it feels like magic — months of groundwork converging in a single, glorious rush.

Why the pile-up? Often, it's momentum: one win unlocks doors to others, like dominoes finally tipping after a patient nudge. Embrace the wait; it's prepping you for the avalanche. When it hits, ride the wave—you've earned it!

सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः
(Sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ), meaning May All be Happy!

A Sophisticated Astronomical Calendar

Last weekend, the School of Philosophy and Economic Science in Dublin celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Sanskrit Week, an event that began in 2015 during the Eastern period, gathering enthusiasts of this sacred language of Hinduism and classical Hindu philosophy. Since covid, the event became an online four days event, mornings only, over the Easter weekend.

I was there! Each day started early, at 7am with chanting, a bit of grammar at 8.30am, then conversation and the comprehensive study of other literature texts.

It was in one of the conversation classes, while talking about days of the week and months, that the subject came up: whether the months of the year in Sanskrit,  in the Hindu calendar, are related to the Gregorian/Julian calendar.

And the answer is... no.

As we know, the Gregorian calendar is derived from the Roman calendar, which evolved through Julius Caesar's reform and later the Gregorian reform, to better align with the solar year, but it retained months named after Roman gods, emperors and numbers, reflecting some political influences of that time.

I was amazed to learn that, on the other hand, the Hindu calendar, a lunisolar calendar system that integrates lunar months with solar years, is based on detailed astronomical observations, including the phases of the moon, the position of the sun relative to the nakshatras (lunar mansions), tithis (lunar days) and yogas (planetary angles), reflecting a sophisticated understanding of celestial mechanics and the cyclical nature of time.

The English calendar, while historically rich and globally standardised, is primarily a solar civil calendar, focused on administrative convenience and historical commemoration rather than celestial synchronisation or profound significance. In contrast, the Hindu calendar system displays a greater degree of astronomical sophistication and cultural richness due to its lunisolar structure, intricate astronomical calculations and deep integration with religious, agricultural and astrological traditions. It functions not only as a timekeeping device but as a living cultural and spiritual framework that guides daily life and ritual practice.

The New Consumer

Advertisements are annoying, no matter what! One might argue that some advertisements are really creative, almost "a piece of art" (sic), but this is not about the content, nor how creative the advertisement might be, not even about the product being advertised... It's about privacy. It's about timing. Not to mention social cost -  fake ads; children as targets; persuasion to make you think you are what you are not and etc.

I remember the old days of telemarketing when we used to receive random calls about different products, promotions, and "unmissable opportunities", usually at dinner time! I remember my father once, after saying 2 or 3 times that he was not interested, saying "Look Joe, why don't you give me your number and I'll call you back when you're having dinner!", and hung up the phone.

Enough of that! Enough of spam mails in the letterbox! Enough of junk e-mails, unsolicited pop-ups in your web navigation, and, most annoying of all, unsolicited ads inserted in YouTube videos (not only in the beginning of a video, but in the middle as well!) and before starting radio streaming.

Unsolicited ads are like unwanted advice: Nobody wants them!!!

Advertising might be causing the opposite effect they very much aim... Instead of creating empathy to satisfied consumers, they are generating repulsion and rejection to a legion of frustrated consumers, which have no much options if they want a way out of this ocean of rubbish and visual/noisy/mental pollution. What can we, consumers, do?

BAN!
REJECT!
EMBARGO!

Do not buy anything that invasively throws an ad into your eyes or ears! The consumer have the power! Down with the ads!

Yes we could...

Unplugging...

Would you dare to press the pause button on this chaotic and crazy life we are all so caught up in? Turn-off your phone, the computer, give up electricity and everything else from the "outside world" that we have grown so dependent on and start all over again? On totally different terms?

Very few of us, I'd say.

The interesting times we are all living in lately offer us a great opportunity for reflection. We might not turn our backs to internet and everything else by moving to a wood cabin somewhere in the countryside, and live on candlelight and wood burning stove -  to our cynical minds it might seem impossible to live a life without money - but if we consider the impact we are having on the planet, it would be a big motivation itself!

Unplugged from modernity, making fire by rubbing sticks together, collecting water from the  spring, foraging in the woods, tending the garden and fishing for pike and trout. A reflective, lyrical account, which is refreshingly free of doctrinaire haranguing or guilt-tripping.

But reality is that we are not pulling the plug. Instead, we were forced to a situation which we all want to see ending, and as we have no assurance of anything, we should at least exam the lives we all take for granted...

After letting it go...

The art of letting things go and detach yourself from the suffering of attachment is magical! It alleviates you from a burden - even if it was not a burden. Frees you from identification - another bad thing to carry with you - and distances you from the object in question, being a thing, a situation or a person - whatever/whoever it is!

Letting something go, sometimes, doesn’t mean you’re not responsible yet for that thing. You might still be accountable, but without any attachment, without being too demanding or critical of yourself and others.

This is good, but it might have an aftermath, where after letting something go, you might be left with disappointment, but then you might come to the understanding that disappointment is not on you - but from you. It regards to someone else, usually based on a behaviour that you’d expect to be different - thus disappointed by someone else. It comes from you, and you can let that go as well!

All you need to do is to accept that we are only humans, and we are imperfect... Beautifully imperfect!

If the people were the priority...

A Fianna Fáil spokesman for Education was on the radio today, speaking about the lack of vacancy on Secondary School for autist children - and children in general. He was very emphatic about how he has been addressing the issue with the government, but a quick research in the WWWW (World Wide Wild Web) shows the same subject has being questioned years and years (and governments) before him!

It is the same bullshit, again and again - politicians don’t give a rat’s ass to people and their problems. They are only there to perpetuate their privileges: this government I attack, the next I excuse. And the people keep voting to them!

The Pope, the Church, and the People...

... Which People?

The Pope came to Ireland. Nobody dare to say he's not a messenger of peace and compassion, whether they are religious or not - I am not!

Not being religious mean you are not in accordance with A religion, or ANY religion... that set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, that superhuman agency, practising devotional and ritual observances, containing their own moral code for the conduct of human affairs...

For this set of beliefs, we better take from the nature... cosmology (it doesn't mean you don't believe in God)! The moral code can be found in philosophy. The conduct of human affairs was broadly spoken by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. No fear involved! Pure reasoning!

But when it comes to re.li.gion... that's belief! And we are talking about a particular variety of such belief, especially when organized into a system of doctrine and practice, usually based on the teachings of a spiritual leader. It's might be all about fear!

I was discussing the abuse of children by priests, the other day, and the church's position on the subject. A friend of mine dared to question the gravity of the issue! Full of arguments regarding universal love, compassion for the kind of life the priests live... I heard, patiently. When he finished, I brought the universal love to the victims... and then I asked whether the church was above the law.

And there was no answer...

The most inclusive country in the world...

Someone in the radio said that Israel was one of the most inclusive countries in the world! We might ask: How come!

Just looking to the occupied territories, one cannot say it's an inclusive society by any stretch of the imagination! That land is an occupied part of the world, where people were (and still are!) literally thrown of their land, dispossessed from their land, and the land is taken by other people (the Israelis) who think they are entitled to it, just because some 5,000 years old text of their bible tells them so!

How crazy does that sound?

Get out from my nest, will ya?

Source: pixabay

Why should an elder couple, or a widow, give up their family house, other than by their own wish? Nothing more reasonable, I'd say... but no! Absurdly enough, AIB is planning to target the so called "empty nesters" to downsize and so free up badly needed family homes!

Empty nesters are couples/widowers living by themselves in 2 or more bed houses with no children - either because they don't have children, they left, or even died.

Pursuing this route would make more sense if the problem was space, but it's not. We have plenty of space in the country. What we don't have is a government!!!

...

Oh, ok... I accept I should kept going further the last full stop there and specifically say that we don't have a government who cares about the home crisis... but just because this post is about home crisis. That we don't have a government, we don't!

There are 5 historically prevalent forms of government: aristocracy, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny. We are - as far as I know - ruled by democracy. And democracy is referred to be the "rule of the majority"!

Either we are NOT a democracy, as clearly the government does not rule FOR the majority, or we are misunderstanding which majority we are talking about: is it the majority of PEOPLE or is it the majority of MONEY?

Who's to answer???

Of tracks, robots and shores...

What’s robotics’ benefits to humankind?

It was on the radio that Denmark is actively working on a project to integrate more robots into the public sector, as a money-saving measure. To illustrate the way they’re thinking, the project claims that while unskilled worker in health sector costs something around €30, a robot costs 80c! Impressive, isn’t it? More impressive would be to know whether there is anyone thinking about the social cost of the project!

It must be all about money only - did someone say greed is good? How could we produce something which we will need to redress later, if not moved by one’s own selfish benefit over other human beings? Is that humankind?

---

Back on track!

The recession is over, and the economy is growing... Let's get the country back on track!

You probably heard these words a lot lately. That's the Irish government trying to convince you that getting back on track is a good thing, thus must be pursued at any cost! Well... here, humbly standing before my laptop, I will disagree! Merely because the track we were - and still are - doesn't look good at all!

Grow the economy - grow to where? Make the banks “health again” (what does it mean?) so they can lend you more money, and then you can get more debts, and be a slave of consumerism and production of goods!

Is that life?

---

Shore, Offshore, Re-ashore

"money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons
entitled to constitutional rights" - https://movetoamend.org/

We all know Capital can move freely across the globe, hunting for more profitable shores. There’s nothing new on that. But people cannot. People cannot even pay less taxes in Europe! People cannot order goods across the borders within EU, they have to "move" with the good - carrying it. If ordered by post, extra taxes will be charged.

Why the same is not applied to companies? Off-shoring saves dramatically, but this saving is not socially re-passed! Big companies save billions using semi-slavery workers in desperately sub-developed countries and pocket it all!

Is 1000% profit acceptable before the world we live? What about 500% profit? Capital over humankind, profit before people, while we should rule people before profit. Will the big-bag-money companies soften their stone hearts? You better not expect that! Neither should you expect anything from the government. Still, the big-bag-money companies depend on you! They depend on your consumption, in your belief that the recession is over, that the country is getting back on its tracks, and that those tracks are good! So you will keep consuming, indiscriminately, therefore production can be maintained and the big-bags can be filled with even more money.

The way we live is excessive. We should clearly look into our lives and decide by ourselves what is necessary, without privation. The choice of how citizenry spend their money really matters, and can make the difference.

Consume. But consume wisely!

Rising Above It

There is an old song from a Brazilian composer called Walter Franco, which I confess I didn't pay the right attention when I first listened to it. As everything in life, when you give it a second chance, enlightened by the wisdom that a few more years might luckily shone over you, you see things differently.

It happened to me in regard to my grandmother proverbs - mindful, deeply wisdom - which I came to understand after she passed away. With my mother was different, I was lucky to understand her while she was alive. Although it doesn't change how much I miss her, it did change the way I miss her, which I believe is more peaceful.

With father and brother, I think we all are still learning, but it is because we are so deep human beings that it is hard to reach the bottom of things! At least we have already established one principle: true love rules our relationship, thus nothing can go wrong!

Losing someone you love is always painful. Parents losing children brings that feeling to another level: it's just not natural! Nobody says it's easy - nobody says you'll get there. It's a journey, and your toil is to accept and live your life fully, for yourself and for your loved ones.

Ah, I almost forgot about that old song... It goes like this (my translation):

It's all about keeping
The still mind
The upright spine
And the quiet heart!

And once I'm here, another Franco's says:

Open your arms
With a sigh, profound
And drop all the harms
Holding you to the ground

So, this Christmas, give people and things another chance. In this way, you might rekindle that old friendship, and even rescue that old sweater, after all not too outdated, from the bottom of the drawer, and it might turn to be an edifying experience!

o<8¬]=
Ho... Ho.. Ho.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Functional Blindness?

The term "functionally blind" is usually related to a person with some vision, but who functions as someone who is blind. In some situations, it is very difficult to determine whether someone is functionally blind or not. In the case of doubt, it is better to err on the side of caution and apply the functionally blind label.

When we say “functional”, it is implied that it is something affecting the function, but not the structure. In the case of our (Irish) politicians, we better drop the functional all together!

Sinn Féin has been signalling a disposition to join the government in a possible coalition with another party in the next elections. A big step in the broad political scene, which was even reiterated by Gerry Adam’s announcement that he is stepping off from Sinn Féin’s presidency.

It seems that the general media don’t see this flexibility as a positive diversity in our political microcosmos, and insist on comments about Mr. Adam’s past and his time in the IRA. Besides making statements as “the Irish people do not want a Communist government”, which should really be left for the Irish people to decide through democratic vote, the two (of a kind) main parties - Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael - seem to refuse a coalition with Sinn Féin, saying they have fundamentally different economic views!

It continues to baffle me that our leadership so stubbornly refuses to see what is displayed so clearly right in front of its nose! The so called economic view that FF-FG have, a unconditional bent to the rules of Washington Consensus, is not working for people!

Heavily taxing income rather than profit, waving the wealthier, looking to the other side in regarding to big companies tax evasion, free movement of capital but not people - none of this sounds nor look fair, and it’s more than time for a change!

And that change is frightening the current status quo!

The Relativity of Time

10 strings Chapman Stick

Chapman Stick is an instrument created by Emmett Chapman back in the 70s. A guitar-like that can have 8, 10 or 12 strings, half bass-like and half guitar-like strings. It is very popular among musicians who like to play bass and melody lines, or chords and textures - all together! You don't see much gigs using it, though.

Designed to act as a fully polyphonic chordal instrument, it looks like a wide version of an electric guitar's fretboard, but longer and wider. Unlike the guitar and the bass, it is played by tapping or fretting the strings, rather than plucking them.

My Chapman Stick is 10 strings. I bought it from the bass player of one of the bands I used to play, back in Brazil, but never had the opportunity nor the time to play it. Or should I say to tap it?

The tapping is not the only challenge

The "Free Hands Two-Handed Tapping" technique, a two-handed tapping with the fingers of both hands perpendicular to the strings, is harder than just tapping the guitar! Another challenge is the tuning. There are several different options, but the original 10-string Classic Stick tuning is still very popular, and it is my preferred.

An awkward tuning based on open fourths and fifths

The first 5 strings are called "Melody" strings, and are tuned as D, A, E, B and F#. Each string downs a 4th from the previous one. The next 5 strings, called "Bass" strings, starts with a deep C (a 2nd down the bass E) then G, D, A and E. They are upped a 5th from the previous one.

All together: D, A, E, B, F#, C, G, D, A, E. It is a pretty awkward tuning for those used to guitar/bass tuning.

Finding the time

All set! Now is just a matter of finding the time to learn it... but differently from that old Stones' song, time is not on my side, and if space and time are really relative and flexible as per Albert Einstein's theory - "the dividing line between past, present, and future is an illusion", said the man himself - I shouldn't need to choose between learning the Chapman Stick or studying to my so long postponed EA Certification exam...

The United States of Europe

Art by thumboy21

I just read in The Sunday Business Post, Michael McDowell's article about the speech Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament Coordinator on Brexit, gave in the Oireachtas last week.

Despite his humour - he said as a Belgian, surrealism comes naturally to him, but to reinstate a border would be more than surreal - his soothing words assuring "we (EU) will never allow Ireland to suffer as a result of the British to leave the EU. That's a commitment given by the European Parliament and the European Union as a whole" - are actually quite meaningless without a proper explanation on what he meant by "suffer" and by "EU as a whole".

Clearly Ireland has been a thorn in the EU's foot when it comes to corporation taxes, and the recent news about Apple's €13bn tax evasion in Ireland (and the mystery why Ireland doesn't want it back) only helps EU with more ammunition towards an more unified tax system across Europe. Verhofstadt's ideas are no secret to anyone. It's all there in his books - The United States of Europe (Federal Trust) and the latest Europe's Last Chance: Why the European States Must Form a More Perfect Union, among others.

Question is: will it be that bad to have a Federal Europe?

Recycling made easy

The 7 standard classifications for plastics: 1–PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate); 2–HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene); 3–PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride); 4–LDPE (Low-Density Polyethylene); 5–PP (Polypropylene); 6–PS (Polystyrene); 7–Other (BPA, Polycarbonate and LEXAN)

The title of this blog is totally misleading... Recycling is NOT easy at all! Apart from all the rules around recycling - most of them quite fair - there are the "plastic issue". Not every plastic is recyclable, and to know which is which, you need to understand what they are!

Ok, one might say "C'mon, it's not that difficult!" Yeah, but you missed the point: why, first of all, the government allow companies to use non-recyclable material, or raw material which recycling process is costly and complicated?

Take polystyrene for example. It's widely used - from disposable drinking cups, take away food containers and foam packaging protection to rigid foam insulation and underlay sheeting for laminate flooring used in home construction - even recycling is not widely available, and despite containing styrene, a possible human carcinogen, (especially when heated in a microwave). Chemicals present in polystyrene have been linked with human health and reproductive system dysfunction.

Because it's structurally weak and ultra-lightweight, it also breaks up easily and is dispersed readily throughout the natural environment. Beaches all over the world have bits of polystyrene lapping at the shores, and an untold number of marine species have ingested this plastic with immeasurable consequences to their health.

Even the recommendation is that polystyrene should be avoided where possible, there's no regulation! It's upo to the government to impose restrictions to such materials, and force companies to use greener alternatives

Populism? Moi?

It must be an assumption to think that people do not link the ends... Well, we do. When Mr. Colm McCarthy says "unpopular truths about the water issue", should he really mean unpopular truths about government mistakes? After all, we all remember - and feel still - the horrible mistakes this government has made. And not only this one, but the previous as well, and the previous, again!

Journalists like this Colm McCarthy don't give up telling half truths - or half lies? - covering their own corporated view. In the real world, we all know what this is all about: a levy to pay of the banking debt. The PRIVATE banking debts promptly paid by our (useless) government with OUR PUBLIC money! Money which should be directed, for instance, to efficiently provide the WATER SYSTEM!

Of course 9 weeks to form a government is too much. But this is what the population voted! The press trying to establish the mantra that there are "far more important issues" than Irish Water is a fallacy, a gross strategy to get some controversy in the spotlights, as we all understand that first, Fianna Fail committed itself to a plan - the so called manifesto - which people voted based on. Secondly, Irish water is not about the value - as he says, "... costs people €3 per week", or that it's "a flat €160 per annum" (considering the €100 'water conservation' grant). This is about the people being sick of politicians working in the interest of the capital instead of the interest of the people! Yeah, sounded quite leftist, didn't it? As much as paying bankers with public money should sound rightist, but the status quo somehow manage to dissimulate the meaning.

So, yes, we do understand Irish water is not the worst problem, but it's picked as the notorious issue regarding people's voicing.

Bear with that!

Numbers, numbers...

Minister for Finance, TD (Teachta Dála) Michael Noonan, said on TV that he'd support the YES campaign to change the minimum age of a candidate to President of Ireland from 35 to 21 years.

After mentioning he'd not expect to see much 21 years old people as candidates, he said he thinks is peculiar that a 35 years old person can be a candidate, but a 34 years old can't.

Well, minister, you, better then anyone should know such peculiarities are everywhere! For instance, a sixteen years old person can drive, but a 15 can't. A 18 years old person can drink alcohol, a 17 years old can't. A 65 years old person is elegible for full pension, a 64 years old is not. And so on. Then you, minister, might say: "oh, all this numbers are so confusing..."

We understand.

A Lazy Review

Everybody should know that wine tasting notes are subjective. There are some technicalities there, but the part that really matters is personal: you like the wine or you don't, doesn't matter how balanced or powerful might be.

Book reviews are the same. People might expect some technical comments about style, genre, etc, but people want to know in advance what to expect from a book in the critic review. And critics, as wine tasters, have their own opinions, and depends from who you read a review, you might not buy a book you'd love, or either be disapointed by one you just bought - and read!

Unpretentiously walking the city centre yesterday, just to watch how the world was going, I stopped in front of a bookshop. In the window, Carnival, by Rawi Hage. In the critic's note, the phrase:

"Imagine Camus rewriting Taxi Driver".

I walked away...

not many brazilians like that...

Chico Mendes

Today is the day Chico Mendes was killed, in 1988. A trade union leader and environmentalist, Chico Mendes fought to preserve the Amazon rainforest, and advocated for the human rights of Brazilian peasants and indigenous peoples. He was assassinated by Darly Alves da Silva, a rancher, who shoot Mendes in his Xapuri home, as week after Mendes' 44th birthday, when he had predicted he would "not live until Christmas".

Mendes' murder made international headlines, and led to an outpouring of support for the rubber tappers' and environmental movements. Thanks in part to the international media attention surrounding the murder, the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve was created in the area where he lived. More than 20 such reserves, along the same lines as Mendes had proposed, now cover more than 8 million acres (32,000 km²).

Mendes was portrayed by Raul Julia in the 1994 telemovie The Burning Season.

there we go...