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.

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!

Missing me?

Now we're talking...

The Politburo of Little Green Island is proposing a ban on all alcohol sponsorship of sporting and large outdoor events. Finally something sensible on the nonsense battle of trying to reduce the number of death-drunken people in Ireland! A ban on all outdoor advertising of alcohol and an increase in the excise duties on some alcohol products are also in the list of actions.

They are also considering the introduction of a "social responsibility" levy on the drinks industry which could be used to help fund sporting events and a reduction in the weekly "safe" number of units of alcohol for women from 18 to 11, and for men from 21 units to 17.

These are all welcomed but the introduction of a minimum price per gram of alcohol, which is a totally mislead thinking which will ban only those who have no money to buy expensive drinks...

We are still missing some educational approach though...

110911

Ten years ago today, I recall, I was in Citibank's datacentre in Paulista Avenue, São Paulo, Brazil, and around noon, 1 pm, we got the news about the attacks. We were all in the operating room watching the images, almost unbelievable, in a small TV set. We were sent back home that day, as Citibank, like all other American companies around the world, closed its doors fearing terrorist attacks... this would be the first sign of terrorism's victory over the free world!

The theme was so explored since that it seems nothing was left to be said. The change of paradigms, the split of the world, the end of individual freedom... there were many speculations, some real and some sensational, like everything else in the press. At the time I did not have a blog - a technology still blooming - but I remember the heated discussions over the subject... even an colleague, friend of a friend of mine, poet, believed to have written "the definitive poem" on the 911. Needless to say, only he and perhaps his girlfriend of the time found the poem great. An advertising people's thing...

Grudges aside, write about the 911 in 110911 seemed, at first, opportunism. Even more considering all the hoopla american media - and to some extent european as well - around the date: Ground Zero visit by President Obama and former president W. Bush, debates about Arabic-American situation, large media coverage - written, spoken and warched. It's just too much!

Reading an article this week, by Conor O'Clery, the Irish Times foreign correspondent who lived in Manhattan at the time, he said something about remember the little things... the little things! I already knew Manhattan and the Twin Towers from my first visit to New York in 1995. I revisited the Twin Towers again in 1998 and 1999, then I visit the remains of them in 2002, during a training course I was attending in New York, near to Ground Zero site... and be there with no towers was at least weird. Besides the obvious - the horror of the act and its consequences - those little things people who lived in the area miss the most, the immense shopping and service concourse, the numerous newsagents, cafes, from Starbucks to run family-run shops, with freshly baked bagels every morning, not to mention barbers, hairdressers, key-cutters, shoes-repair, deli's, restaurants... a piece of history for each daily frequenter of that World Trade Center... and me, I just experienced for few weeks during sparse visits!

So, buddy, during this 110911, instead of consuming all that super-produced material that media will push down your throats on TV, radio and newspapers, try to remember the little things... those apparently irrelevant, or meaningless, or insignificant, that in the end make a difference, simply by reminding you that you are alive to watch them!

It's been a hard time

It's been a hard day's night, and I've been working like a dog
It's been a hard day's night, I should be sleeping like a log
But when I get home to you I find the things that you do
Will make me feel alright

I've been working hard, alright, but not like a dog! So many new things going on that it's almos impossible to find spare time to spend blogging... pity!

I'm trying to get back, though...

Where's Wally?

Wally will be in Dublin from 16 to 19 of June, as part of the Street Performance World Championship.

Details:

All you need is love

OED, the Oxford English Dictionary is launching a new revised version today. First in it's online version, and later-on on the paper. Among the new words, "wags", for "wife's and girlfriends"; an annoying modern usage of “heart” as an ironic verbal expression of the non-verbal design used to represent “love” on T-shirt and car-sticker slogans; “tinfoil hat” – referring to a type of headwear believed by some to protect the wearer from covert surveillance.

The most interesting thing though, was the patterns noticed among online users. The single most searched-for word is “dictionary” itself, but the second-most popular search was “love”...

Yeah, people are still looking for it!

I am unsuccessful man!

Someone came to me today saying that I look more successful when I'm on my suite... but it's Friday, the official casual day, so, that's OK!

This situation made me recall a text I posted (in portuguese) for the 2010 New Year's occasion. In that text I said that instead of wishing people happiness and prosperity, I'd like to wish LUXURY. What determines the concept of luxury is its shortage... So I want lots and lots of those things we lack... as SIMPLICITY, HUMILITY and SOLIDARITY, this, the noblest sense a person can have, along with COMPASSION, which I also want in large quantities...

Irishness

It's Paddy's day tomorrow, time to show up all the "irishness" people have been hiding the whole year!

Things start in the morning... It will be people all around on their Paddy's costumes: greens high hats, with the shamrock stamped in the top, green t-shirts, red fake beards... even Celtic t-shirts will do the job of bringing all that restrained "irishness" out.

Of course there will be people with much more restrained "irishness" than others. And those would be the ones still thinking in the last election pool, or in how Enda Kelly will run the country, the ones just worried about their own jobs, their mortgages, their taxes rising, their money shrinking - money now has been taken by something called Universal Social Charge.

For those who can't forget the bank's bailout, the corporate taxes, the richer people's tax privileges... for all of those, (including myself, even I'm not officially irish), they just need to push all that irishness out in a very well-known way: DRINKING THEMSELVES TO DEATH!!!

Long Live Paddy!

What a Dissimulator!

I got some feedback from friends about my "birthday poem" posted yesterday, and they were concerned about the darkness and the bitterness of the poem. I'd say this is the way I write, most of the time! And the beauty of writing is that you don't need to write the true... this is why is called fiction!

To recall Fernando Pessoa which wisely said:

The poet is a mere dissimulator

His dissimulation seems so real

That he dissimulates to be dolor

The dolor which he can really feel.

And those who read his writes,

In the pain chore feels well,

Not both the pains he delights,

But the one which no one tells.

Thus in the gutters of the funny wheel,

Spin, spin, to put my mind apart

This convoy of hope made of steel

This convoy of rope called heart.

Translated by myself...

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.

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.

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?

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.