Ambiente suporta as Eleições

I apologize to my english-speaking readers, but since today is election day here in Portugal, I have to write this blog post in Portuguese. :)

Bom. Queria apenas partilhar um pouco da minha revolta ao abrir o jornal Global na terça-feira, dia 22 de Setembro. Eram oito da manhã e estava a receber esse mesmo jornal que tanto gosto de ler todos os dias durante a viagem até ao liceu. A notícia que mais sobressaía, o título com letras grandes e a bold, dizia o seguinte:

"Decisão dos portugueses em 60 toneladas de papel

Eleições legislativas de domingo obrigaram à impressão de mais de 11,8 milhões de boletins de voto em 60 toneladas de papel branco reciclado, uma operação que custou 280 mil euros"

Diga-se de passagem que a minha reacção foi logo de horror. 280 mil euros para 11.821.500 milhões de boletins que por si equivalem a 60 toneladas de papel. Agora digam-me lá, estamos em que década? Cá para mim já estamos nos anos 2000, século XXI, mais conhecido pelo século das novas tecnologias. Ora, será que com tanto investimento nas tecnologias não seria possível poupar à Imprensa Nacional e à Casa da Moeda essa massa toda e poupar, não sei, talvez, umas árvorezinhas?

Ah calma, vamos lá ver uma coisa: "Desde 1994 que o papel dos boletins de voto é reciclado, branco, liso e não transparente, explicou a directora-geral da Administração Interna, Rita Faden". Ah, pronto, é reciclado. Então já não faz mal nenhum! Desculpem lá, mas isto provoca-me uma diversão de tal forma, pensar que estamos no ano em que estamos e ver que as novas tecnologias ainda não são aplicadas nas eleições. Quem sabe, até poderíamos utilizar o nosso produto exclusivo e nacional, o bem estimado Magalhães. Escusado será dizer que de hoje a duas semanas irão ser utilizados três vezes mais boletins durante as eleições autárquicas.

O que é mais irónico é que esta notícia estava mesmo por baixo de outra muito pequenina da Quercus.

Podia ter escrito um blog mais interessante, a apresentar a minha opinião em relação ao estado do país e o que seria a minha escolha se não tivesse o azar de ter dezassete anos logo num ano de eleições, mas a verdade é que não tenho muita... consciência e discurso político para tal. Fica aqui então a minha opinião sobre uma coisa que pensava que nem estaria em causa.

- Ana

Fall

(Photo found here)

Welcome, First Day of Fall. Unfortunately I can't say that I've been feeling a cold breeze and noticing another season gone by. I can't stop saying it, but I miss the rain and the cold (the wind not so much, though), and now it's all around the news: Fall will have to wait a few more weeks until it hits. There was even a title on the newspaper this morning stating that the "Yellow leaves will appear later". Meh.

I love Autumn. You can smell the rain and feel the cold and you can watch the trees get naked and see their leaves fall down day after day until there's nothing left. It's a beautiful time of year.

What's your favorite season?

- Ana

Life gets a bit better with a brand new IKEA catalog

So, I got this in the mail today. I immediately freaked out. A brand new IKEA catalog is one of my highlights of the whole year. Maybe just as much as going to IKEA itself. I'm a very lucky person, and this modern, alluring and glamorous megastore is just a few miles away from home, you get there in 20 minutes (less with no traffic!).

Anyway, I would love to be on an IKEA catalog. To actually be a model on an IKEA catalog. Everything is perfect in the picture. Perfect people, perfect family, perfect food, perfect books, perfect decoration and, naturally, perfect furniture. The scenery is calm, nostalgic, it gives the idea of the perfect life. Thus, I want an IKEA life with IKEA furniture and IKEA family. I already consider it my second home. Well, it's a tie between IKEA and the Internet, but seeing as you can match the two very easily with a brand new white, red or even blue table accompanied by a comfortable chair, it doesn't really matter.

And have you seen the kiddies section? All the stairs and shortcuts and passageways. There are even rooms with freakin' SLIDES. I remember wanting a slide when I was a little girl. I just wanted to wake up and get that dose of slidyness and that would be how I'd get my energy for the rest of the day (which now would be equivalent to my daily dosage of coffee). I was actually a very lucky girl: I didn't have a slide, but I did have stairs. Yeah, stairs. I'd enter my room, my bed would actually roll out of its hiding place, and then I had a small staircase (which were also drawers!) and then I had a little table on top, and it was just magical growing up in a room with stair-y furniture. No photographs of this wonderful room were ever taken (or so I believe), which makes me sad and even more nostalgic.

When I have my own place, there won't be no second-hand or crappy furniture from crappy stores, and there definitely won't be any makeover shows. No. My life will be IKEA-filled and IKEA-happy. Here's to the perfect life.

- Ana

I just haven't met you yet

(Photo from here)

I just haven't met you yet.

Rainy Paris, tu me manques

(Photo from here)

Can someone please rewind time to the 26th March 2009? Merci.

Fameless Future

(Photo from here)

For the first time in eight years, Idol is making its appearance on Portuguese screens. Since I was a little girl, I've always loved to sing and dance and rock out in my room with a can of deodorant replacing a microphone. To sum up, I've always wanted to become the next Miley Cyrus. I was obsessed (and still am) with talent shows like Britain's Got Talent, X Factor and Idol and always dreamed of being a part of it, but I was always too young of age.

Now, eight years later, I have the perfect age to participate. And I did send in my application. I waited for one month, and I never got an answer back while most of the other applicants did, and soon enough the Lisbon casting went by.

Yesterday morning, while I was having breakfast, I received a text message announcing the last casting, which will be even closer to my hometown. Tomorrow. I immediately freaked out and didn't know what to do. Should I go? Should I just stay at home and regret my decision?

I think I'll choose the latter, but without the regret. Even if I did go to the audition and make it through, I really wouldn't want to win the contest (I wouldn't anyway, but still). I don't want to become a singer. I want to be a fashion journalist. And although singing is a big part of my life and my friends like my voice, it's not my future. I'd go for fun, but waiting for hours and hours just to have fun for ten minutes or less? I don't feel like it.

I'll let my shyness and "talent" behind closed doors, with no cameras spying on me. I'll keep jumping up and down to Miley's tunes, pretending to be a rockstar while "airguitaring" to Bon Jovi and singing my heart out with my friends and at karaokes and be proud of it.

- Ana

Summer '08/'09

(Photo found here)

Since I'm going back to school on the 14th and since the season's almost over, I decided to make a little list comparing this year's summer to last year's summer with a few keywords.

Summer '08: Passion, Heartbreak, Tearfullness, Traveling, Rainy summer, Condolence, Friendship.

Summer '09: Boredom, Worry, e-Friends, Nostalgia, Planning, Dieting, Sleep deprivation.

What are your Summer '08 and Summer '09 keywords?

- Ana

Ana

(Photo from here)

This is a disclosure. Since I've started to navigate through the Internet world, I've always presented myself as Lo. My name is Ana Lorena and they're both first names. My friends call me Ló or Lorena and very few call me Ana.

Nevertheless, people on the Internet call me Ana, even though I said my name was Lo in the first place. I just decided that I'm going to present myself, from here on out, as Ana. My blog name will remain the same, but I'll be signing my blog posts with my first name. I'll remain Lo for Ari :)

Some people on YouTube even call me Alorena because of my usual screen name. That really pisses me off. I think this is a bit absurd, but here it is.

- Ana

September

(Photo found here)

It's the first of September.

Everyone's going back to school, back to Uni or back to work. They're leaving the places they visited during the summer and going back to their daily routines. Honestly, I don't miss school. I really, really don't. It's my senior year, and I see it as... well, the last year of being a teenager, really. A (sort of) carefree teenager that has three months of vacation during the summer. After senior year, University will come, along with more responsibilty, more stress, more learning of becoming an adult. I can't stop talking about it to my friends, and how scared I actually am.

High school is three years over here, and I thought they would take a very long time before I watched them go by. But now? Two years later? It's like I'm starting high school again. How can two years go by so quickly? It scares the shit out of me.

I do miss the rain. I miss Christmas. I miss snuggling with hundreds of clothes on and drinking a cup of nice, warm and sugary tea while it's raining outside. I wonder what it would be like to take a year off. Just... doing whatever I felt like doing. Maybe I'd get bored, maybe not. Who knows?

Are you looking forward to the cold (those of you in the Northern Hemisphere)? Are you looking forward to going back to school/Uni/work? What will you miss the most about summer?

- Lo

PS - I have a Tumblr. account now, I'm obsessed with it: http://alorena1.tumblr.com.