I Am Surprised at Myself for Not Freaking Out

This past afternoon, I was sitting on my 5 wheel computer chair replying to messages on Facebook when all of a sudden my chair began moving side to side, like as if I was on a ferry in the beautiful Azores, for at least 30 seconds to a minute; it was first reported that the earthquake to have approximately been measured at V.V on the Mercalli intensity scale, but it was then given an official report of approximately been measured at V on the Mercalli intensity scale. Luckily, no damages, injuries, or even deaths were reported, phew! Earthquakes are uncommon where I live; I have felt 6 previous earthquakes before feeling my 7^th one this past afternoon.

The very first time I felt an earthquake was back in June of 1989 when I was on vacation in the beautiful Azores at an Azorean festival with my parents and sister and my mother’s side of the family when we all felt the earthquake hit.

I am surprised at myself for not freaking out when I felt my 7^th earthquake this past afternoon. I am pretty sure you readers might be thinking I did not freak out because of how I felt my 7^th one; you readers could be right about that. The thing is readers I freak out very easily, albeit over the littlest things. For those of you readers that know me very well, you all know that I freak out very easily, hence why I am surprised at myself for not freaking out. For those of you readers that do not know me very well, you all now know that I freak out very easily.

Pork Chop 4 Life! <:o)

Eighth Thoughts Instead of Second Thoughts

This blog entry of mine is my 4^th blog entry on Blogspot. Of all the 4 blog entries I have written, there were nil blog entries that I had written that had given me second thoughts on writing them before publishing them. 

This 4^th blog entry had given me eighth thoughts instead of second thoughts on writing it, because this blog entry is based on a well-known figure, who is now dead, and who was an outspoken and controversial Nobel-laureate Portuguese novelist, playwright, and journalist during his life literature career. This well-known figure was unloved by a majority of the Portuguese population and by almost every single Madeiran population and Azorean population, including the non-Portuguese population.

This well-known figure died two days ago of pneumonia at the age of 87. His death received a lot of media attention and coverage in the Portuguese Republic, which somewhat surprised me.

Not only did it somewhat surprise me; it had also somewhat surprised me that the Portuguese government declared 2 days of mourning. Although it declared 2 days of mourning, I am unsurprised a majority of the population in the Portuguese Republic, except for 20,000 of them, did not mourn his death, whilst almost the entire population of Madeira and the population of the beautiful Azores had not mourned his death, including the non-Portuguese population.

The reason why I am somewhat surprised and unsurprised is because he was a communist and an antichrist and was also an anti-Semitist, or was accused of being one, hence why I am surprised and unsurprised. This well-known figure I am referring about is the one an only José de Piedade de Sousa Saramago, born as José de Piedade de Sousa, but commonly known as José Saramago.

I am fan of José Saramago, despite his anti-Semitist views, because José Saramago was, without a doubt, a great writer and was, without a doubt, the best Portuguese writer of his generation and was, without a doubt, one of the best writers in this world. I own books written by José Saramago and will continue to do so, because he was a great writer and, most importantly, was a great Portuguese. Maybe the word “great” is not a great word for me to write, due to him being an antichrist and a communist and being accused as an anti-Semitist. He did in fact voice his dissatisfaction with the Jews, due to their actions against the Palestinians. Here is one example of what he once said:

“Living under the shadows of the Holocaust and expecting to be forgiven for anything they do on behalf of what they have suffered seems abusive to me. They did not learn anything from the suffering of their parents and grandparents.

[C]ontaminated by the monstrous and rooted ‘certitude’ that in this catastrophic and absurd world there exists a people chosen by God … the Jews endlessly scratch their own wound to keep it bleeding, to make it incurable, and they show it to the world as if it were a banner. Israel seizes hold of the terrible words of God in Deuteronomy: ‘Vengeance is mine, and I will be repaid.’”

Some of his comments were a little extreme, but I disbelieve they were prompted by an innate hatred of the Jewish people. I am not writing this due to the fact he was once a fellow Portuguese of mine, really; I am writing this due to the fact I disbelieve they were prompted by an innate hatred of the Jewish people. Mind you readers, if I believed that his comments were prompted by an innate hatred of the Jewish people, then I would have written in this paragraph that I believe his comments were prompted by an innate hatred of the Jewish people. In fact, I would go as far as not being a fan of his, really. Although I would go as far as not being a fan of his, I would admit to you readers, including to my non-readers, that he was a great writer, in which he was a great writer. 

Approximately 20,000 mourners went during the weekend to pay their last respects to José Saramago’s body at a temporary chapel of rest at the city hall in Lisbon, just after his remains were flown home on Saturday.

After the official eulogy, the coffin, which was covered by the national flag of the Portuguese Republic, was lifted to lengthy applause. Hundreds of people shouted the Portuguese words “Obrigado, Obrigado!”, which translate into the English words to “Thank-you, Thank-you!”, whilst others wept, and others raised their fists.

Crowds then moved to a nearby cemetery where José Saramago was cremated. A banner at the cemetery read this:

“Saramago: The struggle continues.”

Some of those who gathered to pay their last respects admitted to never having read his books, but were nevertheless saddened by the death of a man who they considered as a “defender of the voiceless”.

One person wrote in the book of condolences in the chapel these exact words:

“Thank-you, a worker of words who always served the most humble.”

Numerous of people placed red carnations, the symbol of the 1974 revolution that brought to an end to the dictatorship of António Salazar.

“I may have three, four years more to live, maybe less. Every time I finish a book I wait for another idea, it may not come this time, we shall see.” - José de Piedade de Sousa

What a quote! It is a quote that sheds tears and that helps boost confidence to people, because it makes people to think how precious and short life really is. Many reasons why I continue writing and will always continue writing.

Rest in peace!

Pork Chop 4 Life! <:o)

Pork Chop

Since today marks exactly 530 years of the death of the late great Camões, I have come to a decision to explain the history of the pejorative term “Pork Chop” after being asked many, many times by many, many people this exact question:

“What does Pork Chop mean?”

The words “Pork Chop” is a pejorative term referring to all Portuguese people, including Azoreans and Madeirans; it is unknown the exact date of when the pejorative term first came into use and who was the exact person to have invented the pejorative term, because there were never any historic records traced of this pejorative term. After all, it is a pejorative term that is somewhat offensive and racist, hence why there were never any historic records traced of this pejorative term, and, most importantly, it is not a well-known pejorative term like that of Wops, Spics, Poles, Taffies, Yankees, Crackers, Canucks, Cakers, Munchy Cakes, Bafanas Bafanas, and the list of pejorative terms goes on and on. I could list more; I am not going to bother listing more, because I do not want you readers to think I am being racist and, most importantly, I do not want to offend you readers.

The main reason for the pejorative term “Pork Chop” to be used when referring to Portuguese people was so to indentify the difference from Portuguese to Spaniards and to Spanish speaking South Americans when it came to skin tone, looks, and names, because of how it is common for Portuguese to have the same skin tone, looks, and names as Spaniards and Spanish speaking South Americans.

Another reason is because of the young Italian generation in the past and in the current claiming to have had food pieces of Pork Chops hitting their face or eye, or even going inside their mouth, whenever they spoke with a Portuguese person in Little Portugal, also called as Portugal Village, which Little Portugal is located in downtown Toronto.

Another reason for the pejorative term to be used is because of the high number of Portuguese people living in the Greater Toronto Area, commonly called as GTA, which the approximate number is currently close to 500,000.

There are speculations that the pejorative term “Pork Chop” could have possibly first came into use in-between the years 1953 to 1957 when the Portuguese immigration to Canada increased rapidly, which Azoreans made up 70 percent and Madeirans and Portuguese made up 30 percent.

There are also speculations that the Wops, who are known as Italians, who had emigrated from the Italian Republic to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, since the late 18th century, could have been the inventors of the pejorative term. The Wops are known to refer all Portuguese people, including Portuguese descendents, as Pork Chops, in which they still do, just like how the Pork Chops are known to refer all Italian people, including Italian descendents, as Wops, in which they still do.

In fact, street brawls used to be a common thing in the past between Pork Chops and Wops in Toronto, which would lead to charges and imprisonment, of course. Most of the street brawls had to do with the fact of football, unsurprisingly, due to how statistics clearly show that Italian football dominates more than Portuguese football and the Italian national football team dominates the Portuguese national football team when it comes to tête-à-tête encounters.

Street brawls also occurred because of how the Italians were displeased that there were many Portuguese emigrates moving into their communities, their Italian communities, but they were eventually okay with them moving into their communities once they began to see how nice and friendly and hard workers most of the Portuguese were. Once they saw that, it became a common custom for Italians and Portuguese, or Wops and Pork Chops, to get along with one another and to help one another out in their communities and to even get together.

However, there is a debate on the pejorative term “Pork Chop”, of course, that could probably be more accurate to everything I explained above; the debate is that it is believed a Portuguese street youth gang was formed under the name as Pork Chops; they would refer to themselves as Pork Chops because of how it is common for Portuguese people to eat pork chops and how pork chops are commonly used in most Portuguese dishes, like that of sardines. The Portuguese street youth gang that referred themselves as Pork Chops were the only Portuguese street youth gang that had existed in Little Portugal, including all across Canada.

The year of the foundation of Pork Chops remains to be unknown; it could have been in-between the years 1953 to 1957, but there is a good chance it could have been when a second wave on Portuguese emigration occurred across Canada, mainly in Toronto, throughout 1960s and 1970s.

The Pork Chops did not last very long as street youth gangs during the second wave of Portuguese emigration, due to more and more Portuguese street youth gangs were formed, such as The Wallace Boyz, who are mistaken to have been the very first Portuguese street youth gang when in fact they were the second, The Gary Park Boyz, which an old high school friend, who I still keep in touch with, was once the leader of this street youth gang, and The Earls Court Boyz, and many others like them, and also due to many of the Pork Chops, most likely all of them, were beginning to drift apart from one another as they got older and wiser; they wanted to move on with their lives to focus on their future and to start a family like they have always dreamed and wished about. In fact, the Pork Chops were not the actual typical street youth gang that would cause serious offenses, really, especially one in violation of morality, really; they were a street youth gang that would only commit petty crime, or even crime that was an equivalent of a slap on the wrist, or an equivalent to going to the corner, or an equivalent to going to the bedroom, or even an equivalent to receiving a spanking.

Sometime in the 1980s, possibly in the early 1980s, the Pork Chops were inexistence; they are now completely forgotten, sadly, unlike during their existence. In fact, it is common for many people to not know that there was once a Portuguese street youth gang called the Pork Chops, shamefully, due to the Pork Chops existence did not last very long, and due the Pork Chops did not leave their traces behind to be remembered since they had never committed any serious offenses, especially one in violation of morality, during their existence.

Their inexistence meant that the pejorative term “Pork Chop” was also no longer inexistence, well, more like used, but that all changed in the year 1990, or 91, when the pejorative term surprisingly came back, in which it is still being currently used.

It was not until the year 2000 I began using the pejorative term on a few message boards, just like what you readers see on this note entry and in every single one of my previous note entries and what you readers will continue to see in my future note entries, because I like to spread the word out and to also let everyone know that I am a Pork Chop and proud of it!

“I was born as a Pork Chop, I was raised as a Pork Chop, I am living as a Pork Chop, and I will die as a Pork Chop! Pork Chop 4 life!”
- Kevin de Ávila

Pork Chop 4 Life! <:o)

The Life and Times of Luís Vaz de Camões

Today marks exactly 530 years that the late great Luís Vaz de Camões died in his death-bed; he was the greatest poet ever in the history of the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves and also in the Portuguese speaking world, despite only publishing 7 poetic works throughout his poetic career; his most famous publish poetic work was “Os Lusíadas”, which translates in English to “The Lusiads”; it was published sometime in the year 1572; it had received little attention during its release, unlike today where it receives a lot of attention and is considered by many as his best published poetic work ever; his best poetic work could have actually been his unpublished poetic work “The Parnasum of Luís Vaz”, but it got lost whilst he was working on it, hence why it was unpublished; he still remains the greatest Portuguese and Portuguese speaking poet ever and may most likely always remain the greatest ever; his poetry is compared to that of Homer, Publius Vergilius Maro, Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, and Joost van den Vondel. In fact, Luís Vaz de Camões’ Portuguese epic poem “Os Lusíadas”, which “Os Lusíadas” means the sons of Lusus, companion of Bacchus and mythical first settler in the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves, hence the Portuguese, is considered to be much in the way as Publius Vergilius Maro’s “Aeneid” was for the Ancient Romans, as well as Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey” for the Ancient Greeks. The Aeneid was to Luís Vaz de Camões at once model and challenge, but from the opening words of “Os Lusíadas” he made clear that his would be an Aeneid with a difference. “Arms and the men” was the theme, the epic exaltation of a whole race of heroes. What the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves had accomplished in the East was incomparably greater than the heroic themes of antiquity, which eventually turned out to be true. Nor was it great merely in isolation, then achievement of a handful of stalwarts. It had a national significance, for those stalwarts were the product of all their country’s past, and the enterprise was itself, but the coping-stone of the logic of that past. It boasted an even wider significance still, inasmuch as the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves was engaged in a fight for the true faith, for the spiritual values of Europe, against the forces of error and darkness. It was against this double background that the heroic narrative had to be set, thus involving a range alike in time and in space greater than the career of any one hero could span.



Luís Vaz de Camões, commonly known as Camões, or even as Luís Vaz Camões, sometimes known as Luís Camões, sometimes his surname is translated in English as Camoens, is the only Portuguese figure where many details concerning his life remain unknown and may most likely always remain unknown; his birth date is unknown and his birth place is debatable; it is believed he was born sometime in the year 1524 and that his birth place was either in Alenquer, or in Coimbra, or in Lisbon, but those places are based on what may be an incorrect interpretation of one of his poems. Although it may be an incorrect interpretation of one of his poems, Lisbon is the only place of the two other places where it is believed his birth place possibly took place.

Camões was born into the lesser nobility; his grandmother from his father’s side was Guiomar Vaz da Gama, who was related to Vasco da Gama by bloodline, hence why he was born into the lesser nobility; his mother was Ana de Sá de Macedo and his father was Simão Vaz de Camões, who was a Portuguese navigator, so, Camoes had an early interest in the creation of the Portuguese empire and knowledge of its dangers, as his father was shipwrecked and drowned off the coast of Goa shortly after Camões’ date of birth.

Camões went to Universidade de Coimbra; he received a through grounding in Latin, mythology, and history, and read some Italian literature and became conversant with Spanish; he returned to Lisbon in the year 1544 and frequented court and aristocratic circles, but an unfortunate love affair led to his banishment from the capital in the year 1546; he then went to Ceuta as a common solider in the year 1547; it was there at Ceuta that his real involvement with the adventure of empire began, the reality of which was brought home by the loss of his right eye after firing a cannon; he returned to Lisbon in the year 1549 as a tougher, rougher man; he was so tough and rough that a street brawl he was involved in sent him to prison for nine months in the year 1522.

In May of 1553, he sailed for Portuguese India, now known as the Republic of India, to head to Goa where he wrote these exact words about heading there:

“I set out as one leaving this world for the next.”

After some years of soldering and hardship, he was posted in the year 1566 to Macau, now known today as Macau Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, but the hostility of the settlers there drove him back to Goa in the year 1561; he had long been working on “Os Lusíads” and became anxious to return home and see it published; he set out sometime in the year 1567; it was not until sometime in the year 1570 he reached Lisbon to find what would later be his most favourite boy-king, Dom Sebastião I de Portugal, on the throne, who was the 16th king of the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves.

“Os Lusíads” was published sometime in the year 1572; it had received little attention; he fell ill in the year 1578, or 79, after being broken-hearted when he was told of the appalling defeat of Dom Sebastião and his Portuguese army from the Batalha de Alcácer-Quibir, which had occurred on the date of Monday, August 4, 1578, which the battle killed Dom Sebastião and destroyed the entire Portuguese army; it was the defeat from the Batalha de Alcácer-Quibir that would change the face of the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves, for good, because it was a sign that the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves’ global empire was beginning to decline gradually, but in a slow and study pace, after the independence from the Kingdom of Spain. Camões wrote from his death-bed these exact words:

“All will see that so dear to me was my country that I was content to die not only in it, but with it.”

He died on the date of Friday, June 10, 1580, in his death-bed, shortly before the Kingdom of Spain invaded Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves by June; his date of death is a national holiday in his reorganisation for his epic poem “Os Lusíadas”, because his epic poem is a national epic poem in the Portuguese Republic in celebration of Portuguese history and achievements.

Rest in peace!

Pork Chop 4 Life! <:o)

My Very First Blog

My very first blog. :) I am so happy that this is my very first blog. :D

Olé, olé, olé, olé, olé, olé viva my very first blog! <:o)

“My blog is getting better and better.” - Kevin de Ávila

Força blog! Força!

I was born as a blogger, I was raised as a blogger, I am living as a blogger, and I will die as a blogger! Blogger 4 life! - Kevin de Ávila

Blogger 4 Life! <:o)

Pork Chop 4 Life! <:o)