I recently tasted one of the rarest delicacies in the world. I don't know if you are aware of the wide variety of bee species we have in the world, since we are used to consume the honey from an european specie. In the Americas, specifically in the tropical areas, from Mexico to north Argentina, there's a bee genus called Melipona that consists of numerous species of stingless bees. Yes! The native bees from Americas are stingless (different from european and african species). Between those stingless bees species, I'd like to detach one called Jataí (Tetragonisca angustula fiebrigi), which occupies different areas in South America, and is present here, in Brazil, where I live. This tiny bee called Jataí produce a fine honey, always in small quantities, which people regards like a natural medicine. Although this kind of honey is very rare and difficult to be found, I recently had the opportunity to taste it. It's a thin and maybe watery honey (mainly if compaired with the honey produced by common bees), but its flavor is unique, due to its composition of water and sugars.

I'm a lawyer from Brazil and recently I was questioned about the use of the word "ubiquity" around here, and to compare this use with that US lawyers make of it. Answering the question, I said that probably US lawyers doesn't use the word "ubiquity" a lot, if this usage is compaired with that make by their brazilian fellows. Brazilian lawyers that work with criminal law could use the Portuguese cognate for "ubiquity", which is "ubiquidade". Differently of US criminal law, here in Brazil we have the ubiquity principle, which is used to determine the place a crime occurred. In the USA, despite the solution should be pretty the same, lawyers use other principles to solve this kind of problem (objective and subjective territoriality principles). So, If I were questioned about the use of the word "ubiquity" in the USA, I would probably say that it is used in religious contexts, to express a God's feature. But it is just a guess... I really don't know anything about religions.

Political corruption One of the most disgusting things I can think is political corruption, because it is a crime that cause harm for a lot of people. Due to political corruption public money doesn't goes to public services, like health or education, but goes into politician's pockets.

Study English or buy a grave, that's the question! I just read an article on language learning, and, by the end, it dawned on me how dark my humor is. There was an ilustrative sentence of how we must replace negative thoughts by positive ones, that went like “studing English isn’t a waste of time, because I'm sixteen years old, and most of the people in my language class are over forty, and they'll be dead soon”. I wasn’t able to hold on my own laughs! Maybe I must stop learning the English and dedicate myself to other activities, like buy a grave to rest my dead body soon. After all, I am 41 years old and, in the words of the article, I can die anytime.

From hardship to safety net We have to spend smarter and make sure that we are living within our own means. It dawned on me some time ago, when I had a huge annual deficit and had accumulated significant debit due to the country’s economic recession. On that occasion I saw my earnings shrink as the prices (of everything) skyrocket. In part I was guilty of my hardship because I insisted in maintaining my spending like nothing was happening. I putted me in an unsustainable situation, with not only accumulated debt, but without no perspective to rise my earnings. I faced a critical time, when I had to make some decisions on how could I bring down the debt in the short term, and how could I bring down de debt over the long term. To cut a long story short, I cutted my expenditures in $$$$ over next twelve months, believing that through this reduction in spending I could balance my financial life. I was aware that, like almost every other people, I was wasting. I realized that there were things that I would like to do, that are fun to do, but I just could not afford them those days. These cuts I made adjusted my spendings to my earnings, balanced my budget and provided me some relieve. Maybe it's time to think about new sources of income and investments, or, at least, on making a financial safety net.

Words about work and values Despite work is essential for our maintainence, it sometimes can be overwhelming and unhealthy. There are no point in working countless hours if our only goal is making money. After all, what is the meaning of accumulating money if life is so brief? We should not dedicate our lives utterly to work, but work to make a living and spend our time with what is really important, accordingly our own values.

Classical music concert at the "Areião" slum It is known that, among several issues, government is responsible for establishing health policies. Nevertheless, there are some policies which, although labeled as health policy, does not seem particularly suited to improve people's health. Approximately 30 days ago, I received a brochure from city hall conveying information about a performance of the "Catira's Orchestra", which took place today at "Favela do Areião", a slum of my home town, "Ceres". Considering I am fond of classical music, I decided to attend the event. Just as I, a multitude went to the concert, but differently of me, people did not seemed content listening classical music. Matter in fact, a few of them were aggressive and had expressed their discontent shouting and yelling. I guess they possibly thought that the "Catira's Orchestra" would play country music. At a given moment the dissatisfaction triggered a violence outburst and not even the instruments remained intact. Many people were hospitalized and I was very lucky for managed hiding beneath the stage. Like I said before, I do not understand how some government policies could be considered as health policies. Although the concert was dedicated to people's wellness, it is clear that it was not a good choice for the specific public of "Favela do Areião". Further it begot health costs with hospitalizations, besides the former expenditure with the Orchestra's presentation.

Answering an invitation of my friend Petra Hi Petra! You do not know how absurdly happy I am with your invitation. I do not have many friends and generally there are not many invitations for social events. This week I am really swamped by a million chores, but next weekend I will be totally free. Therefore, if you do not disagree, I think that next Saturday is a good day for our meeting. What do you think about cooking lunch together? My favourite food is lasagna. I love the pasta intermingled with slices of melted cheese. Should I mention the red sauce and its flavour? Simply delicious! Maybe your parents could join us for lunch. But you decide about it, okay? We will be able to stay together all day long, but I have an engagement with the church community on Sunday morning. Thus, considering that I live far from your house, I think that I may start my come back home procedure at 23:00 p.m. Otherwise, I will lose the last bus that leaves from your neighborhood to mine.