I don’t normally post on subjects that everybody post but this year I’m writing a post about Christmas.

Not being a religious person, for me Christmas represents a time where people try to be nicer and where I can calmly be with my family enjoying the holidays. Because of this, I love Christmas!
You see, being Portuguese, Christmas also means we all get together today, on Christmas eve, and enjoy a big dinner where turkey (hmmmm turkey!), lamb (haaaa lammmb!) and codfish (ohhhhh codfiiiishhh!), all are present. Of course, we also abuse sweet desserts and later open presents.

Note: My father tells me that many years ago, presents were given at the Epiphany (January 6) but eventually we adopted the American(?) tradition of giving presents on the midnight of December 24 (and I prefer it this way ). Curiously Spanish people still give presents on January 6 but my fellow Igalians told me things are also changing in there.

So, I wish you feel as fortunate as I feel this night to be able to spend it with the people I love most.
Merry Christmas, and if you don’t celebrate it, happy holidays!

Today is my last day of vacations. Two weeks ago I went to Portugal, in the pleasant company of my girlfriend, to visit family and friends. I arrived at dinner time on Saturday, had a quite dinner and although I was really tired I still managed to be until 5 AM finishing a paint I wanted for so long give to my cousin. The following day we had a nice supa-lunch with my family, a good beginning for the busy week that would follow. On Monday and Tuesday we were in Évora to meet with some good friends and my crazy brother. The rest of the week was spent in Lagos, the home town of my girlfriend and a land with some of the best beaches in Portugal.

In the middle of this past week we returned to Coruña as we had stuff to take care of but yesterday we went with our friends Victor, Edu and his wife Silvia to the “Festival de Pardiñas”, a very Galician folk music that started 30 years ago. We were supposed to spend the night in the camp but it had been raining a lot and the humidity and mud convinced us it was better to take the invitation of Silvia’s friend Fernando and sleep at his home which was 10 minutes from there.
The music was nice, we were late for the first band and tired for the last one but we could watch the great performances of “La Belle Image Fanfare” (France) and “Hedningarna” (Sweden). Although I think everyone of my party liked the French folks much more, I really enjoyed “Hedningarna”! Some of its songs reminded me of some metal bands I like from Scandinavia and I think it makes sense…

Now, back at home, I upgraded my Wordpress successfully and will watch a movie and relex a bit so I’m all set for tomorrow’s work.

My father just discovered the internet a while ago through his job and likes to come and check what his older son has to say. The problem is that my father can’t speak English and so I taught him how to go to Google Translator and translate my page.

Of course Google Translator is not perfect just like any translation engine isn’t but anyway it will surely at least help.

I imagined how boring it must be to go to Google Translator every time he wants to check my page and finally decided to add a little link for him to easily click and get the job done. It’s placed in under the “Links” list and is called “Em Português”.

And now dad, this translation goes for free: E agora pai, esta tradução é à borla:

O meu pai descobriu há uns tempos atrás a internet através do seu emprego e gosta de vir ver o que o seu filho mais velho tem para dizer.
O problema é que o meu pai não fala Inglês e então eu ensinei-o como ir ao Google Translator e traduzir a minha página.

Claro que o Google Translator não é perfeito tal como qualquer motor de tradução não o é mas, de qualquer forma, vai certamente pelo menos ajudar.

Imaginei como deve ser chato ir ao Google Translator de cada vez que quer ver a minha página e finalmente decidi adicionar uma pequena ligação para facilmente clicar e ter o trabalho feito. A ligação está sob a lista dos “Links” e é chamada “Em Português”.

Great news for the Python community in Portugal.

Last week I took knowledge that Nuno Mariz, a Portuguese Pythonista, created the Portuguese Python User Group!
I quickly joined it and send my regards to Nuno for the idea and action.

So far we, proud Portuguese Pythonistas, have a Django powered web page with only a blog, contacts and a planet (and a Google group as well) but it seems there’s gonna be more.
About the planet, give it a look and add it to your RSS feeds. All posts I’ve seen so far are in English, so, you don’t need to know Portuguese to follow us.

Good job Nuno! Let’s spread the Way Of The Python!

So what-up!?

Today I got up and told my girlfriend we should go take a little car trip. The idea was to go to Lugo but we ended up going to Santiago de Compostela as we were willing to go since a while ago.
The day was rainy but shiny as well, since we woke up pretty late, when we arrived there it was around 4 PM.

The center of the city is really beautiful with it’s main attraction, the cathedral which is the target of the well known pilgrims that journey in the Way of Santiago (or St. James).

I bought a t-shirt with some Celtic art (wich I dig a lot) and the sayings “Arte Celta · Galicia Máxica” — “Celtic Art · Magic Galicia” in Galician. My girlfriend bought a mug with some nice Celtic symbols as well. I know, the souvenirs are pretty cliche but whatever…

So, why the “celebration day” in this post’s title? Today is the 25th of April, a very special holiday since it’s the day when Portugal celebrates the Carnation Revolution which ended Portugal’s dictatorship and brought freedom to the people in 1974.
I am thankful to the people (the directly involved in the revolution and the others who always stood up and against the regime, like my grandfather) that not so long ago made it possible for me and others not to know how is to live in an authoritarian regime.