Português faz falta

Desde que saí da missão, eu sinto que perdi algumas frases muito importantes. Existem duas frases que às vezes queria usar, mas não posso, porque elas não existem em Inglés. Estou a falar do "faz falta" e "ter saudades de". Ambos são expressões que a gente de Portugal gosta muito de usar.

Aí dizem - "faz falta". No idioma Inglés, se pode dizer algo como "I really miss", mas isso não é a mesma coisa. Se você quer dizer "I really miss", ía dizer "Sinto muito falta de ...". Literalmente, "faz falta" significa "make lack", enquanto a frase "sentir falta de" é uma tradução correta do "feel lack". A frase "não faz falta" tém outro sentido, que é algo como "It doesn't matter".

Também dizem - "ter saudades de" quando a falta feita é mais forte. Gostas da aliteração? Em Inglés, se dizem "to yearn for" ou "to long for" mas outra vez, não é a mesma coisa. "Deixar saudades de" é uma maneira de dizer "to be greatly missed".

Não sou especialista de linguagem, mas ao meu ver, Inglés nunca basta quando a gente sinta falta de qualquer coisa. Português, de verdade, faz falta, e sempre vou ter saudades do povo de Portugal.

Estou certo disso.

An American Hero

Yesterday I learned that Dr. Ron Paul was selected as the straw poll winner at the Conservative Political Action Conference. I'm sure the mainstream Republican Party was shamed by this result. He may be too old to run for president in 2012, but he is a champion for true conservatism, that is, limited government. His winning of the poll sends a message to members of government across this nation that REAL change is needed, that the Fed must be abolished, that the budget must be balanced, that handouts will never help anyone, and that our presence overseas needs to end.

A few years ago, a friend of mine from Texas gave me a signed copy of Ron Paul's book "The Revolution". Unlike most books on my shelf, I actually read it from cover to cover. For the first time in a long time, I was hopeful for our present-day system of government and for my and my children's future. Paul's ideas for America, his "Manifesto" of adhering to the Constitution, was exactly what I needed. It is what America needs, which is really nothing more than returning to our roots. I'm sure I'll write more on this inspiring man later, but for now, here's a video.

This is the entire video of Congressman Ron Paul's acceptance speech at CPAC 2010. Sure, he does ramble a bit, but it's also pretty clear that he is speaking off the cuff and from the heart:

Escrevendo à máquina em Português

I'm just now learning how to type in Portuguese. There are a number of characters that don't show up on the keyboard, mostly with accent marks. I used to use the symbols search tool in Word, and then I'd copy and paste, but here's a shortcut. By holding the Alt and Fn keys you can produce them, such as:
135 = ç
128 = Ç
160 = á
0193 = Á
0227 = ã
0195 = Ã
133 = à
0192 = À
0245 = õ
0213 = Õ
162 = ó
0211 = Ó
147 = ô
0212 = Ô
130 = é
144 = É
136 = ê
0202 = Ê
161 = í
0205 = Í

My first post

This is an attempt to put in order those scrambled thoughts bouncing around between my ears. I may not come off as a deep thinker, but then again, that's not really the point, is it? I'm just here to write about what I find interesting, and make notes of the things I do.

This blog has a Portuguese title because, well, for a few reasons -
1) I absolutely love reading, listening to and speaking (as well as I can) the language of the angels. Yes, that is in fact the language they speak in Portugal. Yes, Portugal is that Indiana-sized country to the west of Spain.
2) It looked to me like a flashy title - pronounced "KOH-moo ee-muh-ZHEE-nuh, uh-SING ā ell"
3) Who wants to read "As a man thinks, so is he"? - that sounds a bit overused.
4) I prefer the Portuguese word "imaginar" to the English "think" because it gives a more active sense of mental processing (at least to me).

I admit, most of this will likely be me journaling, but at least having a blog gives me a little more incentive.