Fernanda – Portfolio 2 (updated)

Feng Shui really helps us to improve the “chi” in our house where we live or the place that we work. Feng shui, meaning “wind” and water” in Chinese, is an ancient form of geomancy, or the act of arranging the physical and psychological comfort at our place. Practitioners believe that the arrangement of the elements in our environment can affect many aspects of our lives such as health, happiness, and fortune. The theory behind feng shui is that there is an invisible life force or energy called “chi”, which flows through all things, like rooms, buildings, people, hills and rivers. If chi flows smoothly and freely, then the things, like money, work, health go well for people. If chi” is blocked, then the people in that space may feel discomfort or unhappiness. Sharp corners, narrow openings, poor lighting, and clutter are some of many aspects that can create blocked or unfavorable “chi”. Relying on tools and knowledge that are centuries old, trained feng shui experts give advice on the design and placement of objects in certain ways that promote the flow of “chi”. They consider the shape, size, and location of objects as well as materials, colors, and numbers. Sometimes, things like Feng Shui, Cromoterapy, Astrology could help us to improve our self-esteem working as a support to take some decisions. For instance, to decorate our bedroom we can aplly the “bagua”, which is an instrument of Feng Shui that has eight areas represented by a color- Career (black) – Friends (Grey) – Creativity (White) – Relationships (Pink) – Fame (Purple) – Wealth (Purple) – Family (Green) – Spirituality (Blue),and find out where is the relationship area to put a bed. Donald Trump, a well-known executive from New York, really believes in Feng Shui, he doesn’t make a movement before consulting an expert of feng shui; His attitude Has helped him to build his fortune. As a result, the philosophy of feng shui could help us to improve our “chi”.

Débora #6 – That Afternoon (Updated)

It was winter of 1998, precisely June 3rd. I was in my last year of Law School in my last week of classes before the finals exams. As I used to work as a trainee in a Law Office in Santo Amaro, in that specifically week, I wanted to finish my job as quickly as possible and go to the library one hour before the beginning of classes in order to study a little bit and solve all my doubts with the teacher before the finals.

But that day, I don´t know what happened to my inflexible and intolerant boss, who told me the week before, that I could leave the office one hour before the usual time until the end of the semester. Even though there was not much work to do and we were great about deadlines, he didn’t allow me to leave the office earlier that day.

As a consequence, there I was, stuck in the middle of that terrible traffic in front of Ibirapuera Park at the time I was suppose to be in class solving all my doubts. Minutes went by, and I couldn’t move my car even 10 meters. I can’t remember the music playing in my radio, but I remember that, despite my stress, I was singing and dancing — assuming it is possible to do that in a moving vehicle — and then I saw THE guy in a S-10 pick up on my right side, staring at me.

I didn’t know if it was because he thought I was crazy, dancing and singing out loud, or if I was pretty or both. Later on, he told me he was looking at my car, a S-10 extended pick-up, asking himself if he did a good job buying a S-10 regular pick-up instead of the extended one, when he noticed the driver of the pick-up and then looked at me. He smiled at me and got my smile back. Encouraged by the response, he started to mime so as to discover my cellphone number.

He was a good looking, charming guy, and owned a nice car I have to admit. He was only asking for my number. As soon as I gave him the number, he called me back at the same time. We started talking, just an innocent flirt.

I missed the class, which I didn’t mind at all. What can I say, exactly seven years later, June 3rd, 2005 we’ve married. In other words, Prince Charming does exist but don´t expect to meet him necessarily in a ball or a party: he can be anywhere.

Fernanda – Portfolio 1

A five-year-old dark-haired girl, her big black eyes showing a lot of life, her long curly black hair with pigtails dancing in the air, her full mouth showing a friendly smile. She had a turned-up nose, which sometimes show her frolic attitude. She had a thin body. In spite of it all, she was full of energy,always oozing happiness, getting everyone’s attention.

Karla #8

Wicca is a neopagan religion which had been known by Gerald Gardner, described as a modern religion, based on ancient Witchcraft traditions, the reconstruction of pre-Christian traditions originating in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It is a very peaceful, harmonious and balanced way of thinking and life promotes oneness with divine and all which exists.

  Furthermore is a deep appreciation and awe in watching the sunrise or sunset, the forest in the light of glowing moon, a meadow enchanted by the first light of the day. Wiccans don’t use the forces of nature or the universe to cast spells on others. Harm None is the whole of the law.

 For instance, Witches have a strict belief in the Law of Three which states that whatever we send out into our world shall return to us three fold either good or bane. A true Witch would hesitate in doing “magick” -relationships between things- to harm or manipulate another because that boomerang we throw will eventually come back to us much larger and harder then when we threw it.

Long time ago, ancients divided the world into four basic elements: earth, water, fire and air. Also, these magical elements have correspondences with the tarot cards and astrological signs. To the ancients, elements were physical explanation of the universe.

Mauro – Portfolio #2

My internship experience was unusual, due to Brazilian economic circumstance, but fulfilled since in this program I could learn a lot of aspects that we do not learn in the university. Before this internship program, I had already worked out of the record, helping my father in bank services, cleaning the shop, etc, but formally it was the first time. Therefore on March, 19th 1990, Monday, my first day of work, I was jubilant. My expectation to do an outstanding job was very high. However, when I got there I figured out that something did not add up. It was hard to grasp what was happening. The atmosphere was excrucitaing adverse. The staff was distressed because there were already rumors about lay offs. The reason was the “Plano Collor” that was implemented the Friday before.
In this depicted scenario I began my internship program decided to execute well the target determined by the boss. For instance, he asked me to do a computer program to control the employees’ extra time, even though I had never worked or studied computer language. After a hard time working, reading books, making tests, asking my colleagues, etc., I got it. The final result was well received by my boss because he wanted to have this tool a long time. Before the program it was made manually.
The “Plano Collor” failed aggravating the economic situation. The company had to make reorganization in order to face the crises. This reorganization included lay offs, however I was not fired. On the contrary, in January 1991, I was promoted as an analyst. My boss explained that it occurred due to the fact that besides of an unfriendly environment, I kept focused on my task, demonstrating a pro active approach. He mentioned that all my tasks were well done exemplifying the extra-time program that I had done.
The lesson that I took from this event is that, at any rate, no matter the environment people are facing, the important is to be focused on the job, doing always the best, acting proactively, and thinking outside of the box. Lessons like this we do not have in the university, only the experience teach us.

Ana #8 – Supernatural

The placebo effect is taken in great skepticism among people.  Scientist and doctors have been trying to prove its miracle mechanism, even though they haven’t yet been proved by the current science. Several illness and health problems solved have been attributed by this powerful sugar pill, not only this; the placebo effect can be attributed to medical procedures as well.

The word placebo from Latin for “I shall please” which denotes a positive meaning. This placebo treatment is mostly known as a sham medical intervention that leads the patient to believe in its effectiveness and, mysteriously sometimes the illness is cured. For example, a study of gastric or duodenal ulcers found that placebo treatments, in many cases, were as effective as active drugs: of the 1692 patients treated in 31 trials, 76% of the 916 treated with the drug were healed, and 48% of the 776 treated with placebo were also healed. On the other hand, in 2001 was publish a study that showed that was no evidence of important placebo effects except in the treatment of subjective outcome, such as pain.

Despite of the contradictions, there are two main theories about how placebo effect takes place. First, it is believed that what occurs is a positive belief from the patient that the treatment works and he will be healed; as a result the pacient tends to bias and he really feels better or in other cases he is cured. It shows an important role of the brain in the treatment of illness.

The Second theory is that the positive effect caused by the placebo treatment is simply a conditioned response of the pacient to the treatment. This conditioned response is a proven result of Pavlov’s experiment, where he ringed a bell before giving food to a dog several times and after some time, when he just ringed the bell the dog would salivate because he would associate the bell’s ring with receiving food although there was no food stimulus whatsoever. Similarly, from conversations with the doctor, articles read, comments of other people, or any previous experience, the patient is lead to believe that something is going to happen and it triggers his nervous system response.

In contrast, there are many religious people who believe that the placebo effect is nothing more or less than god’s invisible hand choosing their lives outcome. Whereas, other people think that the placebo effect does not exist, and it’s simply a natural progression of the disease. In spite of all beliefs, the answer to this issue is kept to the future, for now, as Shakespeare stated: “There are more things in heaven and earth, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

Riad – Portofolio # 2

Last October my wife and I went in Paris. One sunday morning we scheduled a visit to the Middle Age museum in Saint-Germain du Pre. There we spent two hours enjoying the paintings, ceramics and, of course, the interesting History of that age. When we left the place, it was rainning cats and dogs and we had no umbrellas nor raincoats. However, there was a church in front of the museum and we looked for a shelter there. When we walked into the church, we faced a huge Gothic Nave, envolved in the shade, with only a bright light coming from the altar. The air smelled of incence as magnificent music, actually, Gregorian chorus sound would echo from the balcony. Throughout the stained glass window we were able too see and hear the storm outside. That atmosphere and music touched our hearts and, humbly we set and listened to it for about one hour. We were touched to the quick. Personally I forgot the Inquisition, the religious wars, the crimes and the corruption in the Scolastic History and for a moment I wondered that religion might be true and I was wrong with my atheist conviction; however when we left the church I realized that religions, all of them, need a lot of tricks to handle and to keep their “sheeps”.

Laura Portfolio #1

I’ve had a different childhood. Not because my parents divorced when I was 5 years old and my father remarried. I had a different childhood because I had an unique father. A well built man, my father went trougth life enchanting women. Tall, considering his generation average height, he exercised a lot, which gave him really strong legs and a slim body. He had expressive, attentive brown eyes, a beautiful small nose and a gentle smile, all well distributed in his long face. Because of his charms and good looks he married three times and countless girlfriends. He ended up having five children from three diferent women. Somehow he managed to build an odd but very united family that would always gather together to celebrate important dates such as birthdays and weddings. His ex-wives and friends always respected his opinios and turned to him at dificult times.

As a business man, he built a very sucessful career as an insurance specialist, even thought at College he majored in History. Three years before his retirement, he became the president of ABN Real Seguros Brazil even thought he never belivied he was fit for the business world or had the ambition to go so far. His co-workers described him as a very inteligent man, with innovative ideas that most of the times would install controversial discussions at the table. They considered him a man ahead of his time.

Once my therapist told me that if there were such a job as being a dad, my father would be considered the best one at it. Not that it was easy being his daugther. He expeted too much, he expected his children to be the very best in whatever they decided to do in life, to have well succeed love lifes and to be honest well adusted people. But he was also always there, showing his love trought actions like taking care of my apartment’s rennovation, worring about my weight problem, discussing my work perspectives, giving really good advices on my son’s upbringing, and being there to talk about whatever problem I had. Everytime I wanted to make a change in my life such as buying an apartment or accepting a job offer I would prepare myself to argue with him. He would keep questioning my decisions, helping me rethink my options and see the situation on multiple angles until he felt I was sure of what I was doing. He was the only person not making moral considerations about my decision of breaking instead of marrying my boyfriend when I became pregnant.

On january 20th 2009 he was very excited about Barack Obama’s inauguration as President of the United States. He spent the day, along with my stepmother, watching Obama’s inaguration on the TV. At 6 p.m. I called him and we made plans for the following weekend. I noticed he was panting and he said he was climbing a hill, coming from the well-water. An hour later he told my stepmother he wasn’t feeling well. She became concerned because it wasn’ like him to complain. She tried to convince him to go to the nearest hospital to which he responded angryly that she was the hypochondriac of the family not him. He went to the porch, his favorite place in the world from where he was able to admire the farm’s landscape, and a few seconds later, collapsed. She heard a noise, and only had time to soften his fall. He had a sudden heart attack.

At the age of 61 he seemed really healthy. Last december, everyone of the family members at one point noticed that he appeared to be getting tired more easyly, but no one secondguessed he would not live for at least 20 more years. He was in a really good moment in his life, enjoying his retirement, spending time with his grandchildren, travelling to places he’ve always wanted to go, going to the movies in the middle of the week and writing a book, which was his dream since he was a child.

When my phone wrang at 9:30 pm I became very angry because it let my son, who was supposed to be asleep, very excited. It was my younger brother Gabriel calling to tell that dad had died. I immediatly felt my whole body go numb but I stopped myself from breaking down in front of my two year old son.

Then it struck that the last thing I said to my father was goodbye. It is funny in a bittersweet way because I had no idea his was going to die an hour later. I kept saying goodbye to him trought the funeral and cremation ceremony but it was never enough. The only thing that gave me some confort during the funeral rites was choosing the songs for the cremation ceremony along with my brothers. Music was a very important thing in my dad’s life and we wanted to get it right. He would be proud of the choices we made. To start we opened the coffin while Keith Jerrod’s version of Someone to watch over was playing in the backgroung so everybody could say their proper goodbyes. Then we cried over Ella Fitzgerald’s Dream a little dream of me and at the end, they took the coffin down during Chet Baker’s Look for the silver lining. And that was it, three songs and I am never going to see my father ever again.

I’m trying to cope with the hard feelings my father’s death has brought to my life by building a happier life for myself. As heritage, he left so many good examples such as living an intense life in its fulliest, accepting people as they are and making room for them in my life and, most of all, living life in accordance with my values and beliefs regardless what the world says.

Ana – Portfolio #2

Boundaries at work regarding personal life are insidiously blurry to employees. Making phone calls at work, using the work phone to call their loved ones, going to the bathroom to send and receive text messages, giving excuses to get off earlier are common mistakes, that surely would jeopardize the employee’s image before his employer. A massive number of people mix both sides of their lives very often, and this habit damages productivity at work as well as soothing moments of leisure with family. Maintaining work life apart from personal matters seem to be a tricky issue for most people, when it should not be.

Employees should prioritize what comes first to them at the moment, if it is sticking with their job or taking care of their children, for instance. Feeling guilty for not being present enough when someone has a child ought not to happen. The employee has to balance tasks and not give up his personal life at the same time, or else it will gradually become overwhelming. Dwelling on what is going on with your child at work harms self-steem and stresses people out. Due to this, people should always be organized and have a backup plan in case they have to work an extra hour or their child is sick or if the child needs extra care. Therefore, employees wouldn’t have to make phone calls during the work time, because they wouldn’t be worried about what’s going on with their child.

Rebecca Fernandes, a single mother, has a sick 2-year-old daughter at home and has no one to take care of  her child. However, she calls her parents or relatives to take care of her baby while she’s at work, and when they cannot she hires a professional nanny agency for these hours. She emphasizes that it’s an enriching experience because it turned out to be grandparent’s time with the baby.

What cannot happen is being unhappy, incensed and overpowered at having to go to work everyday. If people are not happy with her job they should give it up or find another one, because it’s almost certain that these people won’t be able to climb the success ladder in their career. Going to work has to be pleasant or else it will be a sing that the employees’ future in the company is bound to fail.

Karla#8 – Supernatural

Exoterics are totally addicted to  Tarot consults, believing that  warn insidious situations.