Banks, the goddess

I am so in love with Banks! This is the perfect sound to relax, to study, for the office, even to work out; it’s so pleasant to my ears that I can’t get enough of it! I have to admit I’m addicted to her album. The first song from Banks that I discovered was “This is what it feels like”, and I was immediately curious to hear more from her. 

Goddess
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Then, there was “Waiting Game” and she convinced me that she is not just another “one hit wonder”. This American singer is a beauty and her style has been considered “dark R&B”. Her biggest influences are Lauryn Hill and Fiona Apple – that means she is in good hands! Today, I’m hearing “Goddess” on repeat and this is my soundtrack for this rainy week! Just go on YouTube, give her a chance and enjoy, you can thank me later!

You TopCrusher,

Daniela

Julie Delpy's women

If you're a man, there's no way you ever look at your wife, girlfriend, mother or grandmother and thought "I 've got you all figured out", because if you did, then you are probably wrong. 

Julie Delpy, however, knows us inside and out.

Julie Delpy is a genious
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The french distant beauty sitting on a train in Before the Sunrise, begun her acting carrer with a film from maestro Jean Luc Goddard, one of the most acclaimed directors of all time. Delpy grew up on a house full of actors, both mother and father that actually have feature in her latest movies, so naturally she had a crush on Ingrid Berman and all the itallian guys from the seventies: Brando, Pacino, De Niro...(oh! haven't we all at some point). But what makes Julie Delpy see women so clearly, what makes her characther so relatable that you almost feel robbed like the reactions she's having on screen and words she's speaking were yours at some moment in time? 

How does she do it without making rool your eyes at the female character she's portraying?

How does Julie Delpy get us?

She's a great actress, that might be it. 

No, there's more. 

She has the soul of an artist an she's sensitive and emphatetic. 

No, there's more. 

Truth be told, she's a genious. She makes the imperfection seems so perfect that you can't help but wanting some of it. You can't help but wanting to be a woman that goes off on a rant on any kind of subject and just because she feels like it without being funny or sacarstic, you want to be the girl on the screen with the golden hair that is always messy, you want to be the girl that starts talking about different subjects at the same time and doesn't really finishes them.  You want to be her, the one that is a little bit overweight but can still be sexy even doing the most usual things you can think off, you want to be the woman that get mad for no apparent reason and you want to be that women that in the back of her mind is always, always doutbing herself but still she is capable of doing the most amazing thing in the end. 

And then you realize that you kind of are that imperfect perfect woman and that is ok. 

So, Julie Delpy is a genious actress, director and a women that gets women and that's rare.

P.S: When asked about the perfect way to wacth the sunset trilogy, she said : "Backwards. Why not?! Go back in time."

See? I told you, she's a genious.

Your TopCrusher,

Alex

Sugar is sweet, sugar is bitter

The truth is we all love sugar!  Although it is so good to indulge in all the great stuff we can find at the supermarket, the sad thing is that it is proven that the amount of sugar we are consuming on a daily basis will have disastrous consequences on our health. 

Bitter aftertaste
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It's not like we don't have information about what we are eating and drinking these days, sometimes we just don't care, sometimes we just need that guilty pleasure, other times it's just easier and quicker to choose junk food. Anyway, everyone is free to choose a different lifestyle, we just have to be aware that our eating habits will dictate (or at least have a huge influence) on what we are going to be in the future.

Regarding this matter, Wall Street bank Credit Suisse has published the video Sugar: Sweet With a Bitter Aftertaste, which explains all the numbers about sugar consumption and what countries are in the worst situation. I think this video is a great portrait of what's happening in the food industry: since everyone discovered that fat is bad for us, they replaced it by sugar, and nobody seems to care now. 

Let's face it, I'm not going to erase sugar from my life, that would be an impossible mission; first of all I would be a miserable person, and second, our bodies need sugar to work. Still, I think this video is a really interesting way to explain the "evolution of sugar". Take a look if you have the opportunity,  hopefully you will learn something from it as I did! 

Your TopCrusher,

Daniela

How to prepare for a job interview with four simple tips

I’ve been working in the human resources area for almost a year and a half now, and even if this is not a long time, I’ve seen things that I never thought I would see. First of all, giving the economic situation in Portugal, of course there are a lot of people searching for our services; although not all of them have real expectations about the job offers: nowadays, for some reason, many people think they are entitled to get rich really fast, without doing any effort. However, the thing that worries me the most is that I’ve come to the conclusion that most of them are not really prepared for a job interview.

Keep it simple
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Without wanting to disrespect any of the people who have worked with me, I have seen the most innocent mistakes… And the dumbest too! So, I want to give you four simple tips that, in my opinion, will make the difference in a job interview:

Information. Make sure you do some research on the employer. Probably the interviewer will try to understand what you know about them and if you don’t have any idea of what the company does or about their services/ values, it will certainly disappoint the person in front of you. Come on, it’s not like you can’t google it in 10 minutes!

Presentation. I don’t care what they say; your appearance will influence your interview. The moment you walk into a room, they will judge you, even before you open your mouth, you just have to make sure they will look at you and feel comfortable with the way you are dressed. Of course this will depend on the type of employer, but most of the times I would recommend to dress formal, simple and clean.

Study. Of course there are always tricky questions that you can’t avoid or guess, but the interviewers are not reinventing the wheel. Questions like “tell us about yourself” “what are your main skills and qualities” “how are you going to contribute to our team?” among others, are very common and you can always study your speech in advance. Practice in front of the mirror, if that works for you! 

Punctuality.  BE THERE ON TIME. I don’t care if you didn’t sleep very well, if there was too much traffic, if your car broke down or even if there was an earthquake or any other natural disaster. If this was Pompeii and you wanted the job, you would be there on time. This will show the interviewers that you are a responsible, reliable and committed professional. Since these meetings are organized in advance, you can use Google again (just get out of Facebook for a minute!) and search the best way to get there by car, public transportation or even by foot, just don’t get there sweating.

Once you are there, just breath and do your best to impress! I also want to give you some tips on what to do and how to act during an interview and even after that, but for now you can start with these ones! I will return to this subject later, we have plenty of time! 

Your TopCrusher,

Daniela

Let the crush begin...

Here I am!

My first post is only to introduce myself within the blog and say that I'm truly happy to be here with my two lovely Top Crushers, Alexandra and Daniela.

So, I just want to say: let's do this together!

Fingers crossed. Hope for the best.

Blogging
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Your TopCrusher,

Dúnia 

Alimenta um animal abandonado com o OLX através de um simples clique

Hoje, depois de colocar um anúncio no OLX, precisamente para adopção de dois gatinhos abandonados que encontrei na rua, deparei-me com esta louvável iniciativa. Através deste site, na secção das adopções, podemos ajudar um número de animais que estão ainda em diferentes associações, apenas clicando no botão “Alimente”. E sim, é tão simples quanto isso, não tem nenhuma contrapartida. 

Ajudar através de um clique!
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Tal como se pode ler nas regras explícitas no OLX, “o objectivo desta acção é proporcionar alimentação suficiente para 3 meses, para animais abandonados (cães e gatos) e ao abrigo das Associações abrangidas”, que também podem ser consultadas na página.

Para participar e ajudar a alimentar, basta clicar no botão, e isto não tem qualquer custo para quem ajudar. 

Podemos ainda ler que “cada cão pode receber até 50 Kg de ração e cada gato até 25 Kg, suficiente para aproximadamente 3 meses de alimentação - que nesta época do ano em particular tanta falta faz”.

Esta iniciativa termina a 4 de Julho de 2014 por isso toca a clicar, para contribuir de alguma forma para todos estes pequenos que não podemos adoptar!

A vossa TopCrusher,

Daniela 

J. K. Rowling, strike II?

The Silkworm
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After reading Time’s review about the new J.K. Rowling book, The Silkworm (under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith), I am really curious to read it. 

Before going any further, I have to admit that I am a Potter absolute fanatic. I was addicted to those books as I am nowadays to chocolate, and I felt that I grew up with the different characters, since I started reading the first book when I was eleven and I believe I finished by the time I was old enough to drink. I read every book more than twice and I still get excited every time I’m zapping and I find a Potter movie on.

With this in mind, and because I never gave a chance to any other J. K. Rowling book, I think I’m going to give a try to The Silkworm. I believe that she is great writer, and even as a child, I could picture everything she described in such a beautiful way, it definitely was one of my best reading experiences and only enhanced my passion for books. 

I will give you guys my review after I read it!

Your TopCrusher,
Daniela