Livin'in California

New year's resolution

2012-01-12T18:02:00.000-08:00

For 2012 one of the things I really want, is to resurrect my blog. Although it was never (officially) pronounced "dead", it has been in a "comatose state". I do have a lot to tell, as living and studying in California has been a wonderful experience, which is making me grow a lot both as a student and as a person. Sometimes laziness just settles in and it's easy to yield... will try to overcome that! Besides a slow blog demotivates its readers, and I don't want that to happen. Please, bare with me :)
Lets start by a brief overview of the highlights of last year.

In 2011, the whole batch of senior students in my lab has graduated. Doctors Hamed, Sunhyoung, Nikhil and Vijay.

My lab is split into two rooms. The office I work in, I used to shared it with Vijay and Nikhil (respectively above these lines). Both of them are now in India at Yahoo Research. These are the guys, within the lab, that I've grown more attached to. In fact, Nikhil was almost my co-advisor :) And Vijay is an extraordinary fellow that knows a lot about a lot of things. We used to call him "Vijipedia".
We used to spend countless hours drinking coffee and talking about the most awkward issues...

And every year, it happens

2011-09-29T23:55:00.000-07:00

Just on my doorstep, in La Jolla Shores, this bio-luminescence phenomenon happens every year.
Pretty amazing effects! No underwater artificial lighting is used. Read more about it here.

Just outside Scripps' pier, some students go for a swim to stir-up the luminescent organisms.

The waves breaking in La Jolla shores.

Amêijoas à Bulhão Pato

2011-08-21T21:42:00.000-07:00

Com saudades de casa, deu-me para isto :)
Estavam bem boas, ainda que a matéria-prima não seja a mesma...

Uma pequena homenagem a Raimundo António!

Pelos caminhos de Portugal...

2011-08-12T06:34:00.000-07:00

... eu vi tanta coisa linda, tanta coisa sem igual!

Aljezur

Moledo

Aveiro :)

Resetting the compass

2011-06-27T21:15:00.000-07:00

This blog as long turned into a day-to-day logbook. Small things that happen either to me or in my "neighborhood" are posted here. I've noticed however, that at the academic level there has been very few posts. The reason is simple: I've been trying to avoid scaring my readers away. I would like to keep this a light-reading blog. By posting University-related stuff I run the risk of loosing a few of my faithful readers. Any event, here are a couple of academia-related stuff.

As I mentioned a couple of months back, I've completed my departmental phd exam in January. This means that the curricular part of my program is done. However, I'm still free to take other courses in order to broad my horizon. This was exactly what I've done in the Spring quarter. I enrolled in the "Stochastic Processes" class from the Math department (MATH 285). Challenging stuff I must say, but fortunately, everything turned out good for me. This covers Markov Chains, passing thru Martingales (fair-game betting strategy) and Brownian Motion, and culminating in Stochastic Calculus. All these topics are interesting in their own right, but this new branch of Calculus (Stochastic) is particularly interesting as well as complicated. I'll not go into detail for several reasons. One, and most important, I don't have the knowledge to do so :) ... but in some generic way this is "just" another branch of Calculus.

In introductory classes for any engineering degree, students usually have their first encounter with Calculus thru the Riemannian integral. The fundamental theorem of calculus is usually enough to understand the practical implications/applicability of such tool. A more rigorous definition of integration is given by the Lebesgue integral, usually covered on more deep theoretical material involving measure theory. Those of us that studied this subject, recall to be taught, at some point, that integration applies only to functions that are "smooth" or differentiable. It turns out this is not the case. Stochastic Calculus has two key distinctions from vanilla-flavored Calculus: it deals with the integration of random variables, and does so over non-"smooth" random functions. Rather than integrating over time or space like we used to, we integrate over random processes that are known to be nowhere differentiable. In the discrete case this is like summing a random variable over a Random walk. In the continuous case this can be seen as integrating over a Brownian motion.

We have only briefly touched this subject, has there was a lot of material to cover to fully understand it. It is a somewhat recent subject, and some of the most important results are due to a Japanse Mathematician named Kiyoshi Itô. Of paramount importance in mathematical finance Itô's integral allows us, under certain conditions, to obtain a closed form solution for integrals over a Brownian motion. I'll post parts of my last homework as a hands-on exercise for the interested reader :)

A Festa

2011-06-15T22:20:00.000-07:00

San Diego's Portuguese community holds an annual festival denominated "Festa do Espírito Santo". It's the oldest ethnic festival in the surroundings, having celebrated it's 1st century just last year. This is a mobile fest that coincides with Catholic's Pentecost. "A Festa" as it is commonly known around here is sponsored by one family from the União Portuguesa Sociedade do Espírito Santo (U.P.S.E.S.).
For one week UPSES hosts several events, with it's highlight in last Sunday's parade.
Food, drinks, traditional dancing are all part of the menu.

An example worth spreading

2011-05-29T02:24:00.000-07:00

Even though you might not understand the spanish subtitles in the beginning, I think the video speaks for itself... what an amazing strength and character. I think we can all use a "little" inspiration!

Just so that you have an idea of this endeavor: to run 42km, if I prepare well enough, will take me around 4 hours (no guarantee to finish though!). Swimming 1km used to take me around 1 hour. Now imagine: 4km of swimming plus 180km of bicycling followed by 42km of running... all of this carrying someone!

Deus quis...

2011-05-19T21:56:00.001-07:00

... os homens sonharam ...

... e mais uma obra nasceu!

Obrigado Porto, por mais esta alegria!

Government shutdown

2011-04-10T19:58:00.000-07:00

Some of you might not know what this means. In short, Government shutdown happens when the federal budget is not approved in both chambers of Congress (Senate and House of Representatives). In the last midterm elections president Obama's Democrats have lost majority in the House of Representatives (while maintaining majority in the Senate). This lead to tough negotiations between the two parties to approve the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
Until last Friday night there was no settlement whatsoever. And just as Government shutdown was about to be announced (I believe the deadline was Friday, 11:59pm PST), suddenly, an agreement was reached. Just half an hour before deadline. Theatrical, some would argue. Worthy of a good Hollywood thriller! However, history tells us that this has happened in the past, lasting as long as 5 months. And federal workers do not get payed during this period! How nice would this be if enforced in Portugal? I can almost bet that politicians would find a way to solve their differences... and rather swiftly, I could add!

Deus quer, o homem sonha, a obra nasce!

2011-04-03T16:54:00.001-07:00

Não há palavras para expressar a minha alegria. Adoro a minha terra. Família, amigos, estão todos sempre no meu coração! Mas se há momentos em que sinto a falta de estar em Portugal,
este é seguramente um deles. A festa, a alegria de alguém que trabalha cegamente durante um ano para um objectivo é algo de fabuloso!
A força da competência contra a incompetência da maioria, deve doer. Saber perder, como saber ganhar é uma virtude. Quem sou eu para dar lições de moral, mas aos meus amigos lampiões fica um conselho: menos fanfarronice e mais trabalho.
Costumo dizer, em jeito de brincadeira mas mais ou menos a sério, que têm o treinador que merecem. Um fanfarrão. Nas redes sociais, nos jornais o país vive numa realidade paralela.
Alimentar o ego de um país centrado em Lisboa só faz crescer a vontade de um povo. A fibra de uma gente que não quebra! O Norte do país é conhecido por ser uma região de gente trabalhadora. Gente que não se queixa das amarguras da vida. A cada contrariedade, em vez de se levantar para um movimento de protesto, esta gente levanta-se, e faz-se ao caminho! Nesta fase em que o meu país vive mais um período conturbado da sua vida política, quem dera que todos fôssemos portistas. Feitos da mesma cêpa. Madeira que não quebra. E se partir, então antes quebrar do que torcer! Na minha terra há uma reserva genética do povo que deu novos mundos ao mundo.
Hoje, a minha mensagem para todos os portugeses é só uma: querem voltar a fazer de Portugal um país grande e visionário, ponham os olhos em quem sabe fazer as coisas. Trabalhem mais e falem menos! Para quem não me conhece, só espero que não fiquem com uma visão retrógada da minha pessoa. Considero-me equilibrado, e trabalhador afincado para os meus objectivos. E acreditem que já tive obstáculos difíceis de ultrapassar na minha ainda curta vida...
O Porto é uma nação. Esta é uma expressão popular para os adeptos do FCP. Mas eu iria mais longe: o Porto é um planeta! De uma vez por todas, abram os olhos. Viva o Porto! Viva Portugal!

Time to a deserved retire

2011-03-21T22:19:00.000-07:00

After two years and more than 1500km my running shoes are going into a deserved retire.

In a quick math these cost around 150 usd (with customized insoles!), therefore yielding 10 cents per km... give or take :)

I'm back!

2011-02-08T22:39:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! ... it's been a while, hum? I'm so sorry for the absence of posts in the past few months. Everything is fine, I've just been incredibly busy!
Since last September I have: published my first conference paper (you can find it here in case you're interested!), submitted the second one (first author on this one), my first journal paper is on my adviser's desk for review; and last, but certainly not least, I have passed my first phd exam (the departmental exam).
As you may imagine, I'm happy with how things are working out for me, but there is still so much to be done. I'm not even halfway through! Anyhow, I'll try to post more regularly from now on. Even if the posts get less and less interesting :)

For celebration, last weekend I went to Big Bear Mountain & Snow Summit ski resort. My snowboarding was a bit rusty, but it was really fun.

Happy 2011!

Gospel choir

2010-09-28T23:17:00.001-07:00

Finally I was able to see a live performance from a gospel choir.
Special guest: the Holy Ghost!

This is far from being "the real thing" and the sound is not that great, but you get an idea of what it's like :)

some memorable dates

2010-09-16T22:12:00.001-07:00

Two years have past since I step foot in American soil. It was Sep 9th, 2008, still very well in time to live all the economic crisis and the full epic '08 presidential campaign: Obama vs. McCain. The US Government had just placed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under conservatorship of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. At this time, these two companies owned or guaranteed more than half of the US's $12 trillion mortgage market. Any event this post is not to highlight past dates, but future ones!

With no doubt, living abroad is an enriching experience. It has been so, to me! However, it is not without some drawbacks...
For instance, next Saturday a dear friend of mine is getting married, and I won't be able to attend. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you, Miguel, all the best. Certain that you're going to have a wonderful ceremony surrounded by family and lots of friends. Although I won't be present in this starting point of your "new" life, you know I will always be there in the road to come!

In this picture, from right to left: Keemosabe's birthday is today (17th), Garrett as recently celebrated his wedding's 4th anniversary (where this picture was taken); and standing is the big man, Miguel is getting married this Saturday ... uau! So many reasons to celebrate :)

thank you!

2010-08-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

I just got word, that my funding was renewed for academic year 2010/11. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all Portuguese tax payers.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you!! Will try my best, not to disappoint you.

San Francisco (CVPR 2010)

2010-07-25T21:02:00.001-07:00

I have to say, at this point I am pretty annoyed... I had this post practically complete, but somehow failed to save it before the last revision, and now I have to start all over again!

Oh well ... here goes! Little-by-little... the update continues :)
Unfortunately I still don't have the pictures from Portugal's day cocktail at Sagres (the camera was not mine), as such I will skip that and jump into my trip to San Francisco.
Let's start by it's climate. "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco,'' this saying is already a SF cliche, it is often attributed to Mark Twain, but it seems to be an invention of unknown origin.

The main purpose of this trip to SF was to attend a conference; IEEE Conference in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition. This is one of the most prestigious conferences in the area of Computer Vision; besides it was my first participation in a major event, hence I was thrilled.

The conference was held in a "multiple sessions" format, rather than single thread. Meaning that it was up to you to choose the most interesting talks to attend. I have to admit that, in the beginning, I was a bit overwhelmed with the whole thing. The conference started on a Sunday with some tutorials, but the interesting stuff started only on Tuesday.

Any event, this allowed me to get to know S.F. a little bit ahead of schedule :) Most of the folks from my lab were there for the conference; hence we organized and set on a bike trip to have some lunch at the fisherman's wharf. A very popular popular spot in SF.

Thinking ahead, we decided to hold on to the bikes for a day. This way, we thought, we can get to know SF a little better. Although this is not a very bike-friendly city, it is for sure faster than walking.
There are several touristic activities in SF. One of them being a trip to picturesque town Sausalito (North SF, crossing the golden gate). Because I had some sessions to attend in the conference, I interrupted the bike tour after lunch, and head back to the hotel where the conference was being held, and resume later in the afternoon. Sunhyoung and Kritika headed back to the hotel with me. We decided to go to Sausalito later in that afternoon. Vijay and Hamed continued the bike tour, since they had no plans for the afternoon.

As I was saying, the "usual" ride comprehends a bike tour through the golden gate towards Sausalito, and once you're there take the return ferry to the fisherman's wharf passing close to Alcatraz. But because we were departing a bit late for this, and didn't want to be left stood up in Sausalito (the ferry stops at 7pm), we decided to do this tour on the exact opposite direction. That is: Fisherman's Wharf > Ferry > Sausalito > Golden Gate > SF downtown.

The Golden Gate is one of the most pictured places on the planet... and I guess I gave my contribution to increase those statistics :)

As the conference was entering it's climax (I would say Thursday), my personal excitement curve was going downhill... tiresome was taking over I guess. Because there was a lot of interesting material in the venue.

By Friday I had enough of tutorials, talks, poster sessions and coffee-breaks. I was in desperate need of a relaxing weekend. At this point I changed from the Hyat Regency - SF business district - to the USA hostel close to Union Sq. Although the hostel experience was quite good, I have to say this was quite a difference...

The above picture, as you can imagine is from the Hyatt Regency. There was this huge football-like structure close to the bar, to celebrate the FIFA World Cup 2010. I don't seem to have any comparable picture of the hostel, but take my word... it was slightly more unpretentious :)

Arrived at the hostel, I was paired with two Swedish girls and a German guy. They were coming from a tour to the Yosemite National Park, but had just met a couple of days back. As in many other hostels, the environment was pretty layed back and rapidly I befriended my new roommates, and we set on to have dinner (the whole Yosemite gang and myself) in a Thai place, somewhere close by.

After dinner, the hostel had organized a small get together in a bar close by, where an Italian friend from UCSD that had been there for the conference as well, decided to join us.

Before coming to San Diego, I used to work in Alcatel-Lucent in Lisbon. Where I had some occasional business trips to Antwerp. Thankfully I met lots of nice people there, in particular two chaps: Diego and Robert. They both worked in Antwerp at that time, and they're now working in Moutain View (South of SanFran). I though it was funny to arrange for a beer-meeting with the guys, and so I called them and we had a nice lunch in a sunny afternoon at the Cheesecake factory. Here it is, for posterity:

The few days left that I had on my long weekend, I spent visiting the city. I have to say SF is a lovely city, with lots of nice things to offer... but the weather is certainly not one of them. You could be nicely walking around with just a t-shirt, and around the corner be blown away by a freezing windstorm. Still I do believe it's worth a visit, and to prove that I'll leave you with a couple of pictures I took:

rock'n'roll marathon

2010-07-03T19:25:00.000-07:00

I'm so late in my writing. Actually, "so late" is an understatement... I want to write about the marathon, my trip to San Francisco, my first paper, ... too much for a single post. I'll just write a few lines about the marathon, and will leave the other subjects for upcoming posts!

Roughly one month ago, I've completed my 3rd marathon, the first one completed abroad.
I had been practicing hard for the last four months and I had the expectation of achieving a record time lower than 4 hours. Unfortunately I was unable to get there... still I improved my personal best in 30 seconds or so ... "always look at the bright side of life" :)

As you might imagine, in such a big race, there is plenty of time for lots of stories. And indeed, many things happened during the race. I remember a couple of guys that were handing out beer for contestants (mile 8), Juan and Anna (a couple of spanish friends) were cheering for me at half way point (mile 13) as the race was going just outside their place, and the most embarrassing episode: how I accidentally spit another contestant... I'll come to that!

I have to say I was tricked by my mind. I was doing an absolute all-time record (for me, that is) at the 17th mile. I got so excited about that, at that moment, I've totally slacked off. By the 20th mile I noticed how slow I was in the past 3 miles (maybe 10m per mile or so), and tried to get again into a good rhythm... but my legs just wouldn't respond! This was an absolute nightmare, and it was the toughest part of the race. First, I was just reaching the "wal", and second, there was a lot of wind against us. I honestly thought about walking for a while. My legs resembled two heavy logs, my right knee was killing me and I felt this excruciating pain in my left foot. I was a complete rag at the 21st mile. And 5 miles is still a very long way to go! At this point, I had to use all my veteran experience... I was running close to the right hand side of the track trying to put my feet on the floor very carefully to avoid further pain or injuries. As I had one of my last passages for a supply post; finishing my energy drink first, and water later, I spit to my right hand side, as there was nobody there. Surprisingly, the spit turned back (with the strong wind) passed close to my right eye and hit a lady that was going behind me. I think I've never felt so embarrassed in my life. I really didn't know what to do... either run faster, or much slower... I just couldn't stay close to her. None of us stopped, but I approached her and apologized. Come to think of it, this was not my fault but the wind's. Either way I was very annoyed with the whole situation, and still struggling to finish the race. She understood that, at that time, I was more dead than alive, and even if I wanted to do that on purpose, I could never do it! She was faster than me, at that time, and soon enough, I was alone and back to my growing problems of several aches in my lower members...

Eventually I was able to control my pain, and maintain a steady pace until the 25th mile. As soon as I saw this plaque, something released my energy reserves and I boosted for a very nice last mile (in roughly 7m30s) pulverizing my previous record for the marathon with a strong finish!!

The feeling of finishing such a race, is not possible to describe through words. I had just reached Olympus, and Zeus was expecting me.

As for the organization of the race, at this point, everything was going smoothly. However, in the return trip all hell broke loose: it took me 4 hours to run 26.2 miles, and more than 2 hours just to take the bus back to the parking lot reserved to participants... this was poor organization. Completely avoidable, and everybody was extremely dissatisfied with this. I'm sure they lost a few competitors for next year...

ps- this post is too big to be re-read, and I'm tired now; hence I apologize for any mistakes you might find!

tall ship

2010-06-07T22:32:00.000-07:00

look who's visiting...

my sister's keeper

2010-05-30T23:48:00.000-07:00

that is the name of a movie, actually a novel by Jodi Picoult later adapted to cinema, that I just watched. What first caught my attention to this movie was the short (and weird) description associated with the movie. Something like: tells the story of a child looking for medical emancipation from her parents that successively "used her" for transplants - marrow and others - to her older sister suffering from a serious rare type of leukemia.
In my humble opinion this is not at all what this movie is about. It's a very sad movie, as you might have imagined by the description, but deals with a real life story. Very worth viewing... give it a try!

graduation day

2010-05-26T22:44:00.000-07:00

Estou vivo ... com pouco tempo para descrever as minhas aventuras por San Diego, mas bem de saúde! Muito bem aliás. A maratona é já daqui a menos de 2 semanas. Estou por isso no pico de forma.

Quase a completar dois anos desde a minha chegada tenho este ano as primeiras festas de formatura. Aqueles que vieram apenas fazer um mestrado (2 anos) estão a acabar agora. Tive o meu primeiro "graduation day" noutra universidade: San Diego State University (SDSU). Mais alguns se seguem mas agora em casa, na UCSD.

Nesse mesmo dia, 23 Maio, à noite tive um jantar com alguns investigadores portugueses da zona de San Diego. Foi promovido pela AICEP por ocasião das festas do Espírito Santo, famosas nos Açores; de onde aliás provém a grande comunidade portuguesa de Point Loma. Este jantar foi algo marginal às festividades, mas por ter sido agendado precisamente durante as festas contou com a participação do secretário de estado das comunidades, António Braga, e o cônsul português em San Francisco, António Costa Moura. A quem desde já agradeço o bom jantar! Ou talvez deva agradecer aos meus queridos leitores portugueses :)
Como se previa, a conversa ao jantar foi enfadonha. Quase toda a gente a lamber as botas do secretário de estado, a tentar mostrar como era fabulosa a investigação que faziam, e como estavam a anos-luz do que se faz em Portugal. Ao que ele respondia com um discurso cheio de propaganda política. Da minha parte, tentei não entrar no mesmo diapasão. Quando vi uma oportunidade para desviar a conversa para algo mais interessante aproveitei a deixa. O secretário de estado discursava com os feitos políticos do seu governo, até que entrou no tema da educação, rematando que à escola não cabia o papel de educar, mas apenas o de ensinar...
Não podia discordar mais desta opinião. Sobretudo no que se refere aos primeiros ciclos do ensino básico, onde o papel da escola é quase exclusivamente o de educar e não ensinar. O meu Pai lembrar-se-á seguramente que já tivemos esta conversa em tempos idos. À mesa, a discussão animou um bocadinho e em pouco tempo estávamos a falar da recente proibição do uso da burca na escolas públicas em França. Para grande tristeza minha, notei no entanto que as sumidades que há poucos minutos se gabavam sobre as suas maravilhosas descobertas, estavam agora silenciosas. Fiquei triste com esta falta de interesse por temas tão actuais no nosso país e no mundo...

anima sana in corpore sano

2010-04-25T10:59:00.000-07:00

as many of you know, I've been developing my running skills in the past few years. In such a way that I've even participated in some official races. In what concerns long distance running there is nothing comparable to a Marathon. To be able to finish such a race is like touching the sky; an overwhelming feeling, like no other! In the past, I was able to finish two of those 42,197 meters long races. Both of them in my hometown, Porto.
Now I'm preparing my international Marathon debut. I'm going for the San Diego Rock'n'Roll Marathon next 6 June. With that in mind I've been practicing hard. You can check my training plan below (distances in miles, rather than km):One day, I decided to take my camera and capture a couple of small video clips during a practice run. The resulting footage lacks quality, but gives an idea of my neighborhood. Hope you enjoy it!

the day the earth shook

2010-04-04T22:33:00.000-07:00

Almost two years have passed since I moved to Southern California, and on this 2nd Easter the earth shook, violently, beneath my feet!

It's Easter Sunday, after lunch today I went to my office at UCSD since I had some stuff to prepare for tomorrow. I was talking to my Mother when all of the sudden the walls, floor, lamps, shelves... everything around me was shaking! I immediately noticed it was a earthquake (perceptive, hum?). At first I found it funny. After all this was my first quake. But instead of calming down, the quake just got bigger and more intense; and now I was getting frightened; because, having no experience on quakes, I thought it would slow down as time went by. At that point I had to tell my Mother: "Mom... I need to hang up, the building is shaking", needless to say, she panicked :)
It must have last little less than one minute, and now that I look back, I admit that I've done pretty much everything I shouldn't! I was looking up watching the lamps shaking and the A/C pipes, waiting for them to fall on my lap. The alarm sounded on the building, and at that point I was running towards the emergency exit, when as sudden as it appear the quake just... disappeared! By the way, my office is on the 5th floor. As I was reaching for the stairs, I run into a friend. He was at another room in that same floor. He was beneath a table throughout the quake... smart attitude, I thought. I guess it's experience!

After all this commotion we were slowly walking down the stairs, and laughing about how scared we got. The adrenaline was still flowing through our veins.

Any event, all is well when it ends well! And yet (another) lesson learnt: do not underestimate the power of mother nature!

PS- we had several aftershocks throughout the day, but none of them even resembled the big quake.

Yet another "yes we can"

2010-03-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

The already historic health care reform bill was voted favorably today. With the republicans (GOP) massively voting against it, and after months of complicated negotiations within the democratic party, the bill got approved today. President Obama was leading these final weeks of negotiations putting himself on the line in case it redounded to failure...

I have to admit that throughout the months of negotiations I've lost track to the changes made to the original bill, but the numbers people talk about go over 30 million Americans covered under this new public health care bill. Maybe the US are on the verge of abandoning basic capitalism and embracing a more social democracy

For me the video below is one of the most emblematic and shows how controversial this theme is for the American society. It reports to a rally (tea party) against the health care bill, where a counter-protester - seemingly a very poor, crippled, parkinson patient who couldn't afford proper healthcare , or got denied coverage for some private insurance company - decides to show up. "No more handouts" they shout, while throwing some dollars to the man's face!

balance, what is it?

2010-03-14T20:51:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I live inner turmoils, pretty much like everyone else I assume. Today I had one of those unpleasant feelings. I was having a normal study day at the lab (it's quieter there over the weekend) preparing for my final next Tuesday. A little bit before 7.30pm I took a break to go to mass. Nothing special so far...
I got a little bit late to mass and Fr. JP was already reading the Gospel. For those that are familiar, the reading was the prodigal son's parable. As I was listening to his words, I got overwhelmed with this homesick feeling. It almost felt like my heart was being squeezed slowly. At that time, I thought about all my family, close friends and everything that I'm missing by being here. I felt really sad for all that. But life is indeed made of choices; and this still is my choice! Eventually all that gray mood went away as fast as it came, and in no time my brain was flooded with all the stuff I've been studying for Tuesday.

I wonder what a balanced person really is, and if they also have these moments?

Having said this, let me assure you that my strong will and determination in pursuit of my phd, is again flowing in my veins; and that sad moment as long passed. As they say: "whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger!"

PS- during another break in my study :-) I watched this new series called "the Pacific". Yes it's yet another WWII series, it seemed a classy production... I liked it!

so much for a calm end of the quarter

2010-02-28T20:48:00.000-08:00

the last few days on campus where agitated...

In the beginning of the week the University decided to issue an official bulletin condemning a themed "ghetto party" that a bunch of kids (undergraduates, I presume) decided to throw at their places. This was not a University sponsored event, but being this the Black history month the idea of throwing a ghetto party was a little bit unthoughtful, to say the least! They called it "Compton cookout" (this Wikipedia article is being considered for deletion, so better hurry up!!). In my humble opinion this whole party thing was just a bad taste joke. Nothing more than that! A lot of young kids with a lot of free time on their hands. Any event, the University decided to publicly censor the event, and rule on some penalties for the organizers. So much for the freedom of speech, some argued...

Later in the week things turned even uglier.

A noose was hanged in the library, and the police was called for. To the best of my knowledge this constitutes a crime of hate, so things were getting clearly out of proportion...
Recall that the noose is a symbol used by the Ku Klux Klan to mark someone for death. This is way over past the threshold of "just a bad joke".

It seems that the kid that pulled off this noose stunt already turned him/herself in, but there is still a lot of racial tension on campus. You can see rallies and meetings to debate minorities concerns everywhere. It's even more disturbing as UCSD, being a public University, has one of the lowest ratios of african-american students in the whole UC system.

To me this came as a surprise. I thought they were long past this racial issues. I guess not!
UCSD has been on the news lately... not for the best of motives though!
Here is a chronicle of the events so far: http://www.10news.com/news/22682950/detail.html

I just run into this link with an agenda for next week's demonstrations: http://stopracismucsd.wordpress.com/

NOTA- agora para algo completamente diferente: foi com uma lágrima ao canto do olho que vi o último programa do prof. Marcelo na RTP1, meu podcast habitual e que agora me fará tanta falta!

my first "animosity"

2010-02-23T20:30:00.000-08:00

oh well, I guess sooner or later this had to happen. I had a verbal conflict with a neighbor at our parking lot. Nothing too serious, but still worth telling :)

For those of you that don't know me that well, I guess it's worth mentioning that I'm usually a peaceful guy. Very seldom I am the cause or the start of any conflict. However exceptions do exist; and a gentleman will walk (away) but never run!

From the beginning then.

My parking lot is basically a big street with one lane in each direction. The cars park perpendicularly on that street. I was somewhat in a rush to do some grocery shopping because I wanted to run afterward, and was already in my car rolling away on that street. All of the sudden a guy pulls out of a parking spot. Truth be said that I saw he was coming out, but there is no rule that tells me to yield, so that he can take the car out. If I was not in a hurry I probably would have slowed down so that he could take out the car safely, but at that time I didn't felt like letting him pass. Somehow he didn't saw me or thought I was going to slow down, and we were very close to impact at that time! Fortunately nothing happened. I kept moving thinking to myself: "damn... what a punkass! This is why accidents happen!" Any event, I went to my business and came back one hour later or so. That same driver was getting home as well in the car just in front of me. But I hadn't yet noticed that.

As we are entering our street (him in the front, and myself just behind; recall two directions street, one lane per direction and perpendicular parking on both sides), "Michael Schummacher" decides to pull his car completely to the left (contrary to the flow of traffic) in order to park in a spot on the exact opposite side of the street (right)! Not happy with this reckless driving he did not turn on his blinker signaling the maneuver to the right. Needless to say that I passed right through him, and again we almost hit each other :)

At this point I thought: this is what happens when you give away driver's licenses in raffles. Damn students! What a luck... it's the second jackass in a single afternoon. Very smart young fellows for Phd's and stuff but very stupid for other more common tasks.

My place is around 100 meters down the road. This was where I parked. I took my shopping bags out of the car, and as I was walking I see this big asian-american dude coming towards me, saying stuff like: "dude, that's the second time today that you almost hit me!", to which I replied: "Oh! ... was that you, just a while ago? Man, you need to use your blinkers more often!", and he argued: "I need to use my blinkers? Dude this is not the freeway, this is a parking lot, you should slow down". "True", I replied. Didn't even put down my shopping bags, as we where face to face arguing when he grew an extra inch or two, probably to frighten me. And I continued: "I think we both should slow down. However the priority was still mine a while ago... you must yield! There is no rule that tells me I have to let you through. As for now, if you pull over on the left to turn all the way across the street to park on the right and you don't use your blinkers, there is no way other drivers can guess what you're going to do". "My blinkers? c'mon man... this is no fuc#$%& freeway, just slow down!"
After this he calmed down and moved away back to his car, cursing things like: "this is a fuc#$%* parking lot, man, slowdown!"

Unfortunately there was nothing more than this :(
I know, I know, it's not much and things would probably be more exciting in Portugal. But this is the US! People live in scare of a law suit, or maybe it was just my "killer-look" that frighten him :)
He was way bigger than me, fortunately in my shopping bags I had two jars of marinara sauce that could prove to be very useful in case things would have turned ugly!

pillow fight!!!

2010-02-12T18:45:00.000-08:00

This Friday, I was particularly distracted with my thoughts on a problem that I'm working on. I was walking down the library walk to have some lunch. You probably don't know the place, but there is always a lot of noise and people there. All the fraternities hand out flyers, people show up to either sell stuff, promote events or... sometimes we even have someone preaching :) Yeah, I'm not kidding, there's this guy that shows up, shouting how sinful we all are, and how we should re-think our way of life, etc, etc. Nobody gives him too much attention. But the man is persistent 'cause he keeps showing up!

Any event ... as I was walking deep in my thoughts and with all this background noise, I hear someone shouting: "PILLOW FIIIIIGHT!!!!" ... this served as a wake-up call for me, and I lift-up my head, and all of the sudden all hell broke loose. Kids with pillows in their hands, others reaching for their bag-packs where they had concealed their 'weapon'... everybody, but I mean everybody (!) started hitting each other with pillows. Ahahah... this was something else! Live and color, and in the very middle of the action. I sneaked out miraculously between pillows and was able to watch it all from a safe distance. Unfortunately I didn't had the camera with me, otherwise I would have taken some pictures or even a movie. The 'war' shouldn't have last more than a couple of minutes, but it was ... unexpected, to say the least!!
After more than one year living here, and I still get surprises like this one...

You don't believe me? Then have a look at the final part of the 'fight'. Someone other than myself actually posted a video on youtube. At this time I was already at a safe distance :)

However this seems to be some sort of recurrent event. Digging a little bit more, I was able to find the 2007 edition!

NFL super bowl 2010

2010-02-07T21:33:00.000-08:00

probably more important than the recent SOTU (State Of The Union) speech by president Obama, this weekend's NFL (National Football League) final acclaimed the New Orleans Saints as the reigning champions! They defeated the favourite Indianapolis Colts: 31-17
I guess, this year, Mardi Gras starts earlier at the French Quarter!

O! say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Why I love Trader Joe's

2010-01-26T21:14:00.000-08:00

Recently a friend told me about a new gin he had tried. Gin Hendrick's was the name. I've tried it when I was still in Portugal, and I simply loved it! So I set off to buy a bottle around here...

(alcohol on top of knowledge)

Being an unusual gin, I assumed it would only be available at the best stores. The ones that have the fancier items, like Bristol Farms. Here's what I found:
Bristol Farms $36.99
Ralphs $ 34.99
(good old) Trader Joe's $24.99
Simply amazing!

By the way, a nice touch for a gin tonic (with this gin) is to replace the lemon with two slices of cucumber. YES, cucumber! Give it a try. You won't regret it!

Thank God it's Friday

2010-01-23T00:25:00.000-08:00

Scripps' happy hour was rather lively last Friday. It was someone's birthday, hence there was free beer and live music! Not bad...

to hell and back

2010-01-17T00:23:00.000-08:00

I had a bumpy ride, to say the least, when coming back from Portugal. For starters my flight from Porto to London got delayed for 6 hours, immediately making me loose the connection flight in London to LA. Hence still at Porto, I had to find an alternative way to London. Once the delayed was announced in the airport speakers, people started to spread out. Grab their phones call their relatives and let them know what was happening. I simply needed to find a quick alternative to be in London before 2pm. Hence I headed to customs and explained the officer that I needed to leave the boarding area to find myself another flight to London. He was a bit reluctant in letting me out, but then he felt kind of pressured since I was not the only one wanting to leave. Eventually he did open the gates. Back to the airport's departure zone I started looking for an alternative flight.

I must say this was surprisingly easy: in one of those small travel agencies counters I immediately found the answer. There was a flight leaving at 10am arriving around 12pm to Gatwick, London. This would give me enough time to go to Heathrow before 2pm. I booked that flight, and went to try and recover my luggage...


Porto, good mood before the departure!	The flight delay announcement ruined the mood...

Finally at Gatwick I got a cab to Heathrow. I slept practically the entire journey, but I do remember to see an-all white freezing landscape! From here on things started to look a little bit more on track. It took us a little bit more time to board, due to the precautionary measures against terrorist attacks, but everybody was extremely patient and polite. While in line, I met a fellow labmate that was traveling from India. Started is journey on Sunday morning, he said. Uau! And I thought I was having a bad time...

Eventually we all boarded and, as usual in this sort of situations, the captain apologized for the delay and added: "we will make our best to gain the lost time during the flight!". Boy, I was happy to hear his words!


LAX, waiting for the shuttle (zombie mood).	LA, Union station two more hours of waiting... train delay!

Arrived to LA, we had to go through the usual procedure (what are you doing in the US? ... Study? What area are you studying? Show me your I-20, bla bla bla). Nothing extraordinary here. I remember we got to Union Station around 9.30pm (local time) and bought a train ticket for 10.10pm... This is going well, I thought to myself. I'll be in bed around midnight. WRONG!
Shortly after we came to know that the train was delayed for almost 2 hours: expected time of arrival 11.35pm. Oh dear Lord, what else will happen tonight!?

Disappointed, tired and sleepy, we decided to go for a bite. Just outside the station there is a Denny's open all night. I got some onion rings and a soda. My Indian friend was a little bit hungrier than me. He missed all the meals from London to LA. Slept the whole time :) So he got himself a burger with fries. The kitchen was slow, and after the snack it was almost time to take the train. Needless to say that we slept practically for the entire journey. At Solana Beach he had a friend picking him up, and got me ride home. After all, we're almost neighbors at Mesa residential apartments!

Lesson learnt: DO NOT USE low-cost airlines when traveling with connection flights.

here I go again on my own

2010-01-10T03:38:00.000-08:00

... goin' down the only road I've ever known!

As always I've had a very nice time in Portugal, and I'm now hours away from flying back to San Diego. It would be tedious to name all friends and family that contributed to this; rather I thank you all for making my stays here always so pleasant!
Porto, like the rest of the country is very cold; looking forward for the nice warm weather in SD :-)

plans for 2010

2010-01-04T07:34:00.000-08:00

2009 is gone, and by this time we're all full of plans for the upcoming year. Let's try to keep those plans simple, so that we're able to complete them ... or at least some of them!

Of course I have my own plans, and I might share some of those here throughout the year, but in the meantime here is a 2009 review...

May 2010 bring you all that you wish for!

please allow me

2009-12-17T20:42:00.000-08:00

this self-praise. But last Friday was likely one of the happiest days of my existence in San Diego. Not only I've completed an overall distance running of 500km, but more importantly, in one of toughest courses in the department, Parameter Estimation, and after a tumultuous quarter (it's becoming an habit), I have pulled an A+

Aqui o velhote deu uma lição à canalhada :)

by the way..

2009-12-14T19:02:00.000-08:00

I don't think I've introduced you to my fellow labmates. Have a look at SVCL's people.
The lab is split into two rooms. I'm in one room together with Vijay and Nikhil, two of the senior guys in the lab. The other two senior, Sunhyoung and Hamed, and the other fellow junior researchers, Weixin, Kritika and Mohammad, are in the other room. A side from these two open spaces, the lab owner, Nuno, usually sits at his office which is fairly close to both spaces.

the question I would prefer not to see in tomorrow's final

2009-12-09T16:33:00.000-08:00

prove the four Moore-Penrose conditions for existence of M, pseudoinverse of A.
1. (AM)* = AM
2. (MA)* = MA
3. AMA = A
4. MAM = M

The proof is understandable but it's definitely not straightforward...

Peter, Bjorn and John

2009-12-06T10:56:00.000-08:00

Before the stressing finals week, a little relaxation in a concert at the House of Blues, downtown San Diego. Peter, Bjorn and John. You might know them, here is a clip of their biggest hit captured "in loco".

After that, back to study... Upps, what a mess!

midterm

2009-11-21T22:02:00.000-08:00

I know, you are all very concerned about my midterm, and you should be ... because it was a damn hard exam! You can have a look at it here. And I have the results too!

Professor got really surprised about how poorly the class performed (I wonder why): the highest grade was a 75%, the lowest was a 5%. The average was 28% :) And I should remind you that I'm talking of a universe of bright young graduate students (all but myself) coming from all parts of the world. All graduated top of their schools, but in this course, people just crashed!

As I told you the exam was pretty difficult and long too. In my humble opinion much harder than any past years' exams. Now that I look back, I can't avoid a smile when I think about the day we were taking the midterm: the Professor sat down at his desk and started doing it; he barely finished the exam on time (~1h20), and he got the last part wrong :)
He told us during the exam that he was not expecting us to complete the whole thing, we should just concentrate and try to do it to the best of our knowledge. He would be lenient on partial credit, he said.

A good thing about most of the schools in the US (UCSD included) is that professors usually curve the grades. Basically this means that they are expecting X% of the students to have an A, Y% to have a B, and so on... So when this sort of collective crashes happen the grades suffer some inflation. Uff... Thank God!
By this time you're probably wonder why I look so amused when writing about this catastrophe. Well the reason is simple: I had 45%, and all things considered this was a pretty good grade. I'm not happy with it, in particular because I do feel that I've grasped the material on the course, and know better than that; but looking at the overall class performance this was not a bad grade.

In case some of my dear readers are interested in going through the midterm, you can find a solution here. But please, put some real effort before looking at the solutions :)
Enjoy!

PS- about the midterm I particularly like the footnotes

full speed ahead!

2009-11-09T22:13:00.000-08:00

As a student I was always the kind of guy that prepared ahead for trouble to come. This was my way of being, but I also wanted to avoid those stressful nights before the exams. Here at UCSD, however, I have been forced to do both :) Not only I need to prepare the course material at an early stage, but I'm also bound to study until the very last hour before the exam. There is really no other way to do it. At least one that works for me! And speaking of the devil, I have a midterm next Thursday!

Fortunately the courses I wanted to do are almost done. After the two I'm taking right now, I only expect to take one more in the Winter quarter. Unless my adviser suggests some more, I'm not thinking to take any other courses. Although I have to admit I've learned a lot just by taking courses, there is no doubt that, in the way they're taught, they tend to consume a lot of time...
Oh well, that's life! Or at least grad-life, and nobody said it was perfect.

private joke

2009-11-04T20:03:00.000-08:00

Não resisti à tentação de publicar esta pequena performance de alguns funcionários públicos da autarquia de Portimão(?). Especialmente dedicada a alguns amigos...
Prestem atenção à letra; sobretudo àquela parte em que fala sobre os objectivos :)
Afinal a diferença entre o público e o privado não é tão grande assim!

2 out of 3

2009-10-24T11:47:00.001-07:00

After my debut in baseball, now it was basketball's turn, and I'm still missing American football were our very own, San Diego, Chargers seem to be a good team!

Currently we're in the pre-season, and the Lakers played against the Nuggets in San Diego (an exhibition match, since none of the teams is from San Diego). I went there in a tour organized by the international center of UCSD. Here is a video with some of the highlights of the match. Hope you enjoy it!

By the way, the Nuggets won by almost 20 points difference!

Almoço de Domingo

2009-10-11T15:04:00.001-07:00

Para acompanhar as eleições autárquicas fiz um arrozinho de pato que partilhei com o casal Amirali. Acompanhado de um Vinha Grande 2002 (Casa Ferreirinha) comprado no World Market (10 USD).

Para segundas núpcias ficaram os jaquinzinhos fritos com arrozinho malandro de tomate!

my first baseball game

2009-10-03T22:37:00.000-07:00

Baseball is not the most famous sport in San Diego. Their team, the Padres, are not one of the nation's top teams. However they were able to beat the LA Dodgers. A team far better, from what I was told, and with a much bigger budget. This was my first live baseball game ever; and with the help from a Korean friend, Jong, I was able to understand the rules of the game.
It was a rather fast game they said... still it lasted 3 hours (!). Most of this time Americans just spent it socializing; eating, drinking, talking, sometimes even outside of the stadium were food and drinks are cheaper. They really only start paying attention to the game around the 5th or 6th inning.

This "baseball field trip" was organized by UCSD's School of Engineering. There is a whole ritual before a baseball game, which we religiously fulfilled: people arrive one or two hours before the game; they arrange for small barbecues in the parking lot just outside of the stadium and drink as much as they can so that they don't spend a lot of money inside. Alcohol is allowed within the stadium, but prices are not friendly. Normal beer starts at $8 USD, and you can get an hot-dog as low as $4 USD.

School's up!

2009-09-22T20:36:00.000-07:00

that's right! Classes will start this Thursday. Behind us is now week zero: the orientation week for new students. I've volunteered in the International Center to welcome Exchange Abroad Program (EAP) students, visiting Scholars, or simply new international students, as I was last year. It was nice to see myself in those scary new faces :)

(me at the office, carrying my lunch)

I've talked with my adviser and we've agreed that there are two good courses for me this quarter: Statistical Learning II and Parameter Estimation. Again, the Fall quarter seems to be always the most interesting one in terms of courses taught in my area. The latter was one that I was actually enrolled last year, but that I have postponed so that I could prepare better (taking a pre-requisite undergrad course: Introduction to Linear and Non-Linear Optimization). Although taking courses is always interesting - undoubtedly one learns a lot - it is also very time consuming. And my primary objective for this academic year is to have some scientific article published in a relevant journal and/or conference proceedings: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV) or Internation Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV). I need to check the deadlines for submission on those. For CVPR it's going to be virtually impossible, since the deadline is somewhere in November...

Surfin' USA

2009-09-07T17:36:00.000-07:00

Again I have to apologize... I've not been kind to my friendly followers. But I can assure you that I've been putting to good use the time that I'm not posting news! I took the generous offer of my roommate (6f.10'' South Coast surfboard) with a couple of lessons from a more experienced friend in the art of surfing (thank you Tilman!) and "surf's up dudes!". "Awesome" people would say around here :)

I have to tell you that the (really) good weather started one or two weeks ago. In such a way that I was getting up around 6am just because of the heat. So instead of finding new ways to overcome the heat and have some more sleep; I just started going to bed earlier than usual and, like any good Californian, wake up around 6am. I grab my surfboard and hit the water before hitting the books!
Water has been crystal clear, especially during the early morning when there's not that many people in there. I can see stingrays swimming below me, and a friendly seal shows up every morning! The temperature is around some very nice 23º celsius. Which makes it all even more pleasant!

I'm still surprised with the amount of "grannies" and "grandpas" that you see in the water here in La Jolla. You look at them and you can't stop thinking: these folks can barely walk, how on earth are they gonna stand on a surfboard? Then they go into the water and show you some tricks... Awesome!

Welcome California!

2009-08-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

It's always sad to leave behind Family, Friends and your homeland. But I have good friends here too. And even though I've had a bumpy journey I was still in time to have a beer in "Thank God it's Friday", at Scripps.

In the picture above, myself and doctor Tilman Friz, in my balcony.

Phoenix, Arizona

2009-08-14T04:41:00.000-07:00

This could be my fastest trip from Porto to San Diego, instead it will most likely be my longest one. Heavy air traffic delayed the arrival of my plane in Newark, and the departure to Phoenix happened 2 hours later than scheduled. Result: I lost my connection flight to San Diego.

Airport time is not always very useful; but this time I've been reading email, chating with friends, and I just discovered that California is on fire. And I mean literally... hope everything is OK at home. I think the fire is further North in Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz.

Now it's time to get going to the gate. I'll be boarding soon.

PS - I loved to spend this time in Portugal. It's just too bad that I can never be with all my friends no matter what. But it was very good anyway. Thank you all!

Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s

2009-07-19T11:23:00.000-07:00

San Diego reclaimed by portuguese troops, close to Cabrilho's national monument in Point Loma.

Milestone 250

2009-06-25T20:43:00.000-07:00

Just reached a nice round number in my practice runs: 250 km and counting only since early this year. Actually, this was in even less than 6 months, because my first log dates back to the end of January!
Thanks to my brother Alexandre, that gave me a Nike+ accessory for my iPod last Christmas, everything is properly logged so that I can brag about it :)

Last minute news: just stop by the mailbox, and Arnold has finally decided to send me my definitive California driver's license. Thanks Terminator!! Now I don't need to carry around my passport whenever I want to drink a simple beer! You can't imagine the ordeal that was to have this done. Folks at DMV are somewhat complicated and disorganized. I was waiting for it since end April. I'm thinking about suing them...
...this "American way of life" is starting to get to me!

André Teixeira Puga

2009-06-17T18:17:00.000-07:00

Hoje é um dia triste para mim. Estou certo que não estou sozinho neste sentimento. Alunos ou colegas do Professor André Teixeira Puga estarão certamente comigo neste dia em que ele nos deixou. A faculdade onde o conheci (FEUP) perdeu um dos que, na minha opinião, era um dos seus mais competentes professores. Isto claro, sem falar na qualidade do seu trabalho como investigador. Foi sob a sua orientação que fiz a minha tese de mestrado, e foi ele um dos principais motivadores na minha vinda para a UCSD. Devo-lhe muito. A minha curta carreira de investigador terá sempre a sua chancela. Recordo com saudade as diversas tardes de Sábado ou Domingo que passámos a trabalhar na minha tese. A minha motivação? o canudo. A do André? o puro prazer de ensinar!

A vida é mesmo assim. Há coisas com as quais não contamos... e esta, para mim, foi pura e simplesmente um choque.

Caro Professor, amigo André: até sempre!
do seu aluno, Zé Maria

final's week

2009-06-07T22:46:00.000-07:00

at last... the final's week for the last quarter of the academic year is about to begin! I can't imagine how time went so fast.

Today in the afternoon, I was just thinking a little bit about all the amazing experiences I've been living this year. Not forgetting some frustrations along the way... but then again, looking back it's incredible the amount of knowledge I've acquired. For those of you that think something like: "oh yeah... he works on computers", it may be complicated for me to explain how broad of an area the "computers" are. You might not be aware, but I've slightly deviated from my original major. Come to think of it, I guess I've never really worked in what my degree was supposed to prepare me for: software engineering/computer science. As such, it's easy to understand that my potential learning curve is bigger than those in the field for years (if I am willing to open my mind). I must admit, I take a lot of pleasure in going back to school. Although I keep complaining about midterms, finals, homework... I could do this for life :)

People often ask, but what exactly do you do after all? And I always have problems explaining this. When I do try to give an explanation, I always end up with this feeling that the message didn't get through... Perhaps I use too much technical jargon. Computer vision, machine learning... what is this stuff? I guess there is no better explanation than to actually show an application. Here is a cool video with a projected vision for a known game controller.

a tour to Garnett peak

2009-05-25T23:47:00.000-07:00

Today I felt somewhat compelled to write something in here. It's been so long since I last reported...
Let me tell you about a small road trip towards East: Garnett peak (Northeast of Mt Laguna)

It's a small elevation (1800m) Southeast of La Jolla. It's around 80 miles drive, and then 2 hours walking an easy trail. On a clear day, facing East of Garnett's, people say you can see all the way to Arizona. I can't vouch for that, but the view surely is overwhelming. And downwards, facing South, you can see Mexico too. It's an enjoyable hike, nothing too demanding. On our way upthere we stoped over at Pine Valley to buy a forest parking permit. It's a bit ridiculous to have such a thing for a huge park, but that's how it works around here: you need one of those in any national park to avoid a citation. Pine Valley is a realy small town but, as any typical american inland town, it has it's own road restaurant. The environment on a Saturday afternoon is a must! The parking lot packed with Harleys, and the restaurant crowded with leather jackets. Really ... a must see for any ocasional tourist.

The hike in itself went without any sort of trouble... except for the rattlesnake we bumped into on our way downhill. But, politely, we decided to go around her as she seemed a little bit upset.

I have two more weeks of instruction, then the finals... and one year is almost over. Impressive how time goes by!

Looking forward to see you all soon!

TETRA-CAMPEÕES!

2009-05-10T21:06:00.001-07:00

Mother's day

2009-05-03T17:48:00.000-07:00

First of all, my homage to all Mother's out there. Today is your day! At least in Portugal, because in the US, as in many other countries, Mother's day is just in the second Sunday of May.
In particular I would like to pay my respects to my Mother. In some sense Mother's day is a sort of a family day as well. So one tends to miss the family more in these days. At least that was my case. Fortunately (or maybe not) I had a special "entertainment" for this Sunday afternoon: grading homework for my advisor's undergraduate class (Digital Signal Processing II).

I just finished with the grading (the picture was in the beginning, hence the smile), and I'm taking some time to write a few words before going to bed. The class did well. I must say I'm a lenient guy in what concerns grading. Perhaps because I'm still taking courses myself... who knows! I'm what they call an easy-grader.

Last weekend I had the La Jolla half-marathon. Didn't yet had the opportunity to talk about that.

Got myself a new medal for the club's rich spoil (Veteranos do Parque da Cidade). I've participated in enough events like this not to be surprised easily... however, after crossing the finish line they gave us the usual stuff (a medal, some water, energy drinks, fruit) and then we were sent to something called the "beer-garden". Not surprisingly this was a rest area sponsored by Budweiser were young and veteran runners could have a couple of nice cold beers. Around 9.30am!! It's a damn good idea! We should this in Portugal as well. The thing is that in this race there were no big names, this seemed more like a social event rather than a sports event. Whereas in Portugal we usually have a couple of big names (national and international) to spice up the race.

Quite honestly, I can almost picture myself having a beer with Samuel Wanjiru or Haile Gebreslassie in the end of the LA marathon next year...

Portuguese American Post-graduate Society (PAPS), Los Angeles 18-19 Abril 2009

2009-04-26T18:24:00.000-07:00

É uma notícia curta, apareceu no Jornal 2 no dia em que o Condestável foi santificado. Tratando-se de um vídeo pode demorar um bocadinho a fazer download.
Porquê que isto está aqui!? ... Ah, porque eu apareço lá no finalzinho :)

Como é habitual nestas coisas, também há uma fotografia de família. Cá está ela:

Congratulations to miss California, Carrie Prejean

2009-04-22T22:33:00.000-07:00

My neighbor in La Jolla, she is the most recent runner-up in the latest miss USA contest. The reason is simple: when asked by one of the jurors, she said to be against same sex marriage.

Basically, she gave a true honest answer, instead of a political correct one like we're used to hear in this sort of events. Thus, many believe that she lost the possibility of becoming the next miss USA because of that particular answer. She might have lost a lot of stuff, but she certainly conquered my admiration. Congratulations kiddo!

Santa Monica Boulevard, outra vez famosa!

2009-04-19T21:59:00.000-07:00

Mizé!! Maninha querida, foste a primeiríssima a dar-me os parabéns! Sempre atenta, nada te escapa!

Com o termómetro a bater nos 30 graus, o povo enchia as praias e avenidas oceânicas em Los Angeles, lá me passeava pela Sta. Monica Bl. à conversa com uma portuguesa da universidade de Austin no Texas, quando o meu telefone tocou ... era de Portugal e pouco passava das 4 da tarde.... "ah! ... pois é" exclamei eu; em Portugal já faço anos, mas aqui ainda tenho mais 8 horas até armar definitivamente o trinta-e-um (cá te espero Príncipe).

Foi interessante este fds em LA, deu para conciliar uma série de actividades. Praia, uma incursão nocturna por downtown LA, o fórum de estudantes portugueses nos EUA, e ainda fiz a minha primeira visita cultural com conteúdo significativo: o Getty Museum da autoria do arquitecto americano Richard Meier. Estava em exibição uma colecção de "velhos mestres", em parte cedida pelo museu de Dresden com quadros da época que se seguiu à geração dourada da renascença. Depois da morte de Rafael e Miguel Angelo todos temiam que a pintura entrasse em declínio acentuado...

upcoming birthday

2009-04-13T19:28:00.000-07:00

That's right, you guessed it... my birthday is next Monday. Gifts, however, are already starting to arrive! Some nice chocolates and Easter almonds from Arcadia, a homemade chocolate cake to sweeten my mouth; and one very classy set, polo and pullover, to make me more fashion... not to mention my Easter rabbit and a nice postcard from Leça (onde o mundo começa...).

The bag of almonds must have opened during the long journey, and the cake is a bit crushed (very appropriately it now looks like a big donut), but all in all it's very tasty, and that's what matters. Mom, Dad: thank you very much!

Speaking of transportation... I was thinking about sending a couple of good California wine bottles to some friends and family who I know would appreciate it, but it turns out to be illegal to transport alcohol through postal service. The USPS simply don't do it. The private carriers don't really care about that and they even told me how to do it, simply fill in the customs form declaring it has being vinegar. If, however, they decided to open the package it would be seized, and probably a complaint would be filed against me... Oh well, if only mr. Capone was alive. I bet he could help me out!
Besides I went to on of those private carriers to ask for an estimate to send a six-bottle package of "vinegar" to Portugal and it would cost me around 250 USD. No budget for that! Sorry.
I guess this is one more reason for you to come and visit me!

Meanwhile, and to satisfy peoples curiosity concerning my car, I took my laptop (this is the only camera I have for the moment) outside to capture some images, and here it is. Nothing extraordinary... it's just to give you folks an insight.
Gas is a bit more cheap here; I've filled the tank with a little bit over 20 dollars. Not bad, ha?

Getting back to the subject, I'm not going to be upset if people don't call me in the 20th. Honestly. But because some folks have been asking for my number here it is: +1 858 220 4574. And please remember there is an eight hour time difference. So, PLEASE, DO NOT call me before 4pm (Portugal's time, this would be 8am California time). A suggestion I make for those that would like to say hello on my birthday is to simply leave a post here. I promise to read them all and reply thankfully.

Last but not least, this upcoming weekend I'm traveling to LA. There's a Portuguese American Post-graduate Society (PAPS) forum taking place there. I'll be staying at Jorge's place. Spanish nice chap that I met at Alcatel-Lucent who is now living in LA.
Jorge, if you're reading this: thanks again mate, for you kind offer!

a present for myself :-)

2009-04-07T23:46:00.000-07:00

Things are a bit crazy in the past couple of days... Haven't had the time to sit down and write about my life. I'm (still) dealing with the federal tax return, my auto insurance (should be done by now), all together I now have my permanent spot at UCSD. Not that it matters too much to someone that doesn't know the facilities but it's in Engineering building I on the 5th floor. It's a nice sunny place with a good view over the campus.

Regarding my digital camera. This is the one I'm currently in love with (Canon IXUS 100 IS as it is known in Europe or Powershot SD 780 IS ELPH in North America):

What do you think? It's nothing fancy in what concerns features... but it's so small and handy. I really love it. If anyone has any insight on the subject that they would like to share, I would be more than grateful to hear an expert's opinion before committing. This will be my birthday present to myself. So the decision should be made soon.
It comes in gold, silver, black or red. Red or gold are more or less ruled out... I'm tending towards silver at the moment.

Oh ... the price? The cheapest I found so far was at the bookstore: 264 USD.

PS- actually this would be my second present, since the first one arrived yesterday with a fearless and exuberant display of football at old trafford. What ever the outcome of this heat might turnout... that was a hell of a game. Well done lads! FCP4ever

No country for wheelless men

2009-03-27T01:05:00.000-07:00

and thus I bought my own set of wheels. It's a blue Honda Civic, dates from 2003 but is, overall, in good condition (I hope!). I went to the DMV, registered the car, took the eye exam, written exam for applying to a California driver's license, and all that I'm left with is the "behind the wheel" exam scheduled for the 24th of April. In the mean time I got a temporary license.

I bought it from a brazilian guy that is leaving the country. The transaction somewhat resembled a Hollywood drug deal: I went to my bank and withdraw the money, took it in a discrete, however thick, envelope and went to see the seller. The guy that I bought the car from is living in a boat over at marina Cortez, downtown San Diego. As I went to his boat I couldn't help thinking that some guy with a shovel would surprise me on my back, take the envelope and make a run. I guess the film industry as shown us this sort of scenes over and over... and I was just afraid that something could go wrong. At the end of the day, though, things turned out alright for everyone. We filled in the registration form at the boat, I payed the man, we talked for a while and then I went on my way. No dramatic endings to this scene! But things are not that simple... In order for me to buy a car, there were a number of factors that I had to look for: if the title is clean or salvaged, if it passed the smog inspection, how many owners, previous accidents that the car might have been involved in the past, miles per gallon (MPG)... the list is big! I was learning all about it in the past couple of months in order to achieve the safest buy possible. There is, however, always a risk involved when buying to a private party, but that's where you can make the better deals.

In the meantime, the spring break is heading towards the end, but I was still in time to make my diving debut in the pacific waters. This weekend myself and 6 other divers from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography (SIO) went to the city of Avalon, over at Sta. Catalina island. It's a two hours journey (1h by car + 1h ferry boat). This is one of the most visited dive sites in the world due to it's easy access and good learning conditions.

The visibility is more than 30 feet (~10m) and the marine life is abundant. I've to admit though, that I've met better conditions for divers in other places in what concerns facilities (running water, locker rooms, etc)... even so, southern California divers often choose this spot for a leisure weekend. While I was in the island, I tried to look for Mitch Buchannon and CJ Parker, but I couldn't find them... I guess they were probably off duty, or patrolling some other L.A. beach!

Next step... file the federal tax return. Although I'm exempt of paying any sort of taxes here, I do have to file at least the federal tax. I'm not yet sure if I need to file as well for the California state taxes. I guess I'll find out soon enough!

Springbreak

2009-03-24T10:44:00.000-07:00

is finally here! Uff... what a relief. The finals went alright and my research project turned out ok as well. So I'm happy! This week I finally have some time to handle a number of pending issues: driver's license (although as a foreign national, I don't think it's mandatory for me to have it), social security number, and browsing craigslist for a decent used car, among other minor tasks.

Yes, the car does come in first on my priority list. The digital camera will have to wait, and so will you to see some day-to-day photos in this blog. Sorry :(
You might find it funny for me to compare a car buy to a camera buy, but in fact you can find cars as low as $1000 (USD). This is not exactly the kind of car that I'm looking for though... I was aiming to an all-american car, one of those big bath tubs that do 30L/100km (gas is quite cheap around here), but unfortunately those are not reliable so I'm leaning towards a japanese car. We'll see how this turns out!

Got to go, but here's a link for a nice local band: the soft pack

desculpe sr. Patrício...

2009-03-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

o antes...

Ao fim de 6 meses de emigração, não me foi possível resisitir mais. Atraiçoei o sr. Patrício, barbeiro de uma vida. Claro está que essa versão de barbeiro, que felizmente ainda resiste em Portugal, por aqui, desconfio, nunca existiu! Onde se vai ler o "desportivo", dizer mal da política e dos políticos. Recordo com saudade os elogios que o sr. Patrício costuma fazer ao dr. Oliveira Salazar, queixando-se quão mal anda o país. Imagino que ele esteja ainda mais saudosista do professor doutor nestes tempos de crise; as coisas, pura e simplesmente, parecem não querer melhorar...
Por cá, fui atendido num salão mais ou menos industrial, por uma criatura simpática, mas que nem imagina onde é Portugal... Nestas alturas, e só para chatear, gosto de apelar à minha costela britânica ("talvez conheça" digo eu com um ar paternalista). Tratando-os com alguma condescendência, refiro: "afinal são uma ex-colónia do (meu) Império Britânico!"
Alguns dirão que não é prudente brincar com quem tem uma tesoura na mão. Mas eu não me consigo controlar!

... e o depois!

Bem a propósito a minha nova decoração de interior homenageia o tri-campeão nacional. Deixo aqui uma saudação especial ao meu F.C.Porto que hoje carimbou o passaporte para os quartos da champions. Sempre um motivo de orgulho! Como alguém dizia há algum tempo... champions é champions!!

an excepcionally simple theory about the (american) crisis

2009-03-02T21:33:00.000-08:00

A rather simplistic point of view from myself, some will say; but the thing is these guys (americans) "have been playing russian roulette with 5 bullets" (Ben Stein dix it, and I agree). The situation is cahotic, AIG just requested another bailout program from the white house. In fact "U.S. government seized control of American International Group Inc. -- one of the world's biggest insurers -- in an $85 billion deal that signaled the intensity of its concerns about the danger a collapse could pose to the financial system."
Free market sometimes leads to this sort of situations. In fact, US credit agencies promoted dangerous behaviours all the time. At least just until now. Don't know if they plan to change their policy, though. "Credit history" is key term here. It's something that everyone needs to work for. Something you build in time. Kind of like a register for your credit. As much as you can place yourself in debt, you're a good customer for the bank; thus, they'll keep on lending you money and even increase your credit. However, if you always pay your credit within 30 days, you're considered a bad customer, hence they'll not increase your credit limit and it will be difficult for you to get a loan for a house or a car. Go figure!
I still have my credit history clean. I guess I'll just ask for a credit card and start shopping :)

events...

2009-02-21T18:28:00.000-08:00

I've been a bit absent from my blog. I apologize to my faithful readers.

Just wanted to drop some words on the latest from southern California. This weekend was, and still is, full of events. Tomorrow (Sunday) we're gonna have the Oscars ceremony. It's not in San Diego, but it's close... it's in LA (roughly 300km up north). Unfortunately this year the Academy scheduled this way too early and I'll not be able to attend. But I'll send for my tuxedo for next year's ceremony!

Some people tend to give a lot of importance to dates. I'm not one of those... Yet my little sister is. And today it's her birthday. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mizé!! She just recently started to work. Like many others before her (me included), she found better opportunities in Lisbon. That's Portugal. A tinny country where people like to concentrate everything in the capital. But it's an interesting experience to work away from your hometown. We (portuguese as a people) are usually strongly attached to our place of birth, but I'm absolutely sure that she will do just fine. Wherever she goes. Actually it was rather funny, because I've talked to her through skype earlier. My family was all at my parent's place for dinner, and when they were finishing they decided to give me a video-call. I was still in my pijama, just getting up ... with an enormous hangover!

The hangover was related to something else. Yesterday another event took place. Tilman, a friend that I met here, is going back to Germany. And we had his farewell party yesterday night. He is a very good friend actually. We found in these 6 months since we knew each other that we have a lot in common... like for instance the age and the pleasure for beer. I'm sorry that he is leaving, but under his circunstances I think I would do the same. He is doing the right thing. Best of luck to you man!

It's dinner time, so I'll be heading off right now. Have some cooking to do...

My new running shoes

2009-02-06T10:06:00.001-08:00

Com estas até voo!!

Vegetarians

2009-02-02T22:44:00.000-08:00

Irrespectively of the title of this post, I would like to start by congratulate my big brother for his recent birthday. Congratulations Duarte!

The reason why I do it in the beginning of the post is because, I'm afraid you might get lost with the remaining...

Below there is a video for the new ad of a vegetarian organization. This ad was banned from the recent Super Bowl. Go figure! So much for freedom... in the land of freedom.

Don't take my word for it, here is the link:

http://www.peta.org/content/standalone/VeggieLove/Default.aspx

New...

2009-01-25T19:05:00.000-08:00

I was unable to warn everyone before I left Portugal, but I changed my portuguese mobile number. I'm currently reachable at +351 933 740 890. Please update your address book accordingly. Thanks!

PS- estou a tomar um magnífico chá persa em conjunto com a família Shayan que veio até cá casa para um pequeno lanche. Delicious, José, delicious!

PS2- acrescentei um link para um "blog amigo" aqui à direita: Igor. É mais um emigra: Rui Valente @Dusseldörf.

PS3- you have to be patient, pictures will come to this blog... eventually!

PS4- if I'm not mistaken, today is also new year's eve for the chinese year. So happy new year for those who celebrate it!

January the 20th

2009-01-20T20:51:00.000-08:00

Earlier today, precisely ever since noon according to the 20th amendment of the US constitution, is day one for the new administration. In good old american way this calls for a celebration! Speeches, prayers, parades, balls and parties spread across the nation to welcome the 44th president. IMHO, all this buoyancy will soon be over... let's wait and see.

I'll remember this day, as the day I finally installed cable tv in the apartment. After a few setbacks, it all came to a good end. Needless to say that, pretty much every channel was broadcasting some presidential event.

Yet time to congratulate my cousin Alexandre whose birthday we celebrate today! After all this is your first birthday while married. I heard a big celebration was being prepared. It's a shame I'm unable to attend... All the best!

A pedido de algumas famílias...

2009-01-15T21:27:00.001-08:00

... e também porque muito me agrada escrever na minha língua, cá vai uma mensagem em Português!

Tudo muito mais suave neste 2o trimestre. Ainda não sou uma velha raposa mas, lá diz o provérbio: à primeira quem quer cai, à segunda cai quem quer! Por isso mesmo tratei de escolher só duas cadeiras. Deveria fazer três, de acordo com as "regras da casa", mas a terceira foi substituída por unidades de crédito ECE 299 (i.e. investigação feita em conjunto com algum Professor/Laboratório). Espero ter um trimestre menos atribulado, até porque a escolha de casa, a compra de tachos e mobília já não me ocupa o tempo. Agora as minhas preocupações são outras. Nem por isso de menor monta: escolher entre um Robert Mondavi, reserva de 1999 (Napa Valey) ou um Shafer, colheita especial de 1998 (Stags Leap District), não é nada fácil! Acreditem!!

Nos meus primeiros 4 meses por aqui, tive um clima verdadeiramente extraordinário. Aliás, na linha do que todos os "entendidos na matéria" iam apregoando sempre que revelava o meu então futuro próximo. Mas na breve estadia em Portugal por ocasião do Natal, pensei que seria melhor precaver-me contra uma eventual descida das temperaturas. A verdade é que estava com algum medo que o verdadeiro frio estivesse ainda para vir. Ainda para mais com as notícias - algo empoladas - de vislumbre de uma calote polar na costa portuguesa. Pensei que não sairia impune ao rigoroso frio invernal. Nem mesmo em San Diego. No entanto, desde a minha chegada (6 de Janeiro), continuo a vestir o habitual pólo, ou a camisa de mangas arregaçadas. Camisola só mesmo à noite, e tem que ser fininha ou então o calor vai apertar. Lembro-me regularmente do meu amigo dr. Morais Meira, por esta altura a sufocar nas escaldantes areias de Copacabana. Não estou nas mesmas condições, mas considero-me ainda assim um privilegiado. Até porque ele só lá deve ficar um par de semanas e eu fico por aqui alguns anos (se tudo correr bem!). As actividades marítimas vão começar bem mais cedo do que o inicialmente previsto. Seguramente!

Este fim-de-semana é prolongado. Segunda-feira é o Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Sorte a minha. Inicialmente com planos para fazer uma viagem até ao Grand Canyon (Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park) com passagem por Las Vegas. Optei por não embarcar. Talvez me arrependa, mas a verdade é que estou com preguiça para fazer turismo! Quero relaxar na minha terrinha adoptiva. Aproveitar o bom tempo, quem sabe fazer uma praia se o calor se mantiver e começar à procura de escolas de mergulho!

Agora para algo completamente diferente. Os livros aqui, como em qualquer lado, continuam a ser caros. Sobretudo livros técnicos destinados ao ensino superior. Acabei de comprar um por 112 $USD (usado mas em muito bom estado - como novo! Ou "Has young" como diria o Lauro Dérmio). Tenho um amigo que está a fazer essa mesma cadeira e licitou no ebay uma edição mais antiga do mesmo livro por 25 $USD (!!). Apesar de algumas gralhas dessa edição, é um negócio da China, pensei eu. Entusiasmado com este negócio, acabei de licitar uma máquina de café Nespresso (não é nova mas está, como eles dizerm: in the box. Desta vez não me atrevo a adivinhar como o diria o Lauro Dérmio...) por 20 $USD. Será um milagre que ela me venha parar às mãos, mas a verdade é que os meus dólares são, de momento, a maior oferta!

I'm back!

2009-01-07T14:59:00.000-08:00

After three weeks filled with emotions near those that are close to me, I'm back to San Diego. By the way, thank you all for the warm welcome. I loved it, and I'm only sorry that I was unable to spend more time with each and everyone of you!

I'm just about to go to Ikea to buy a couple of things. Namely: a desk (incredible how I was able to do a whole quarter without one of those!), a chair and a chest drawer. I have more things to sore right now. Brought more 20kg of cloth (with a couple of bottles of Port wine) and around 15 kg of scuba diving equipment. This was lost for a few hours in Washington, but it eventually found it's way home.

PS- the weather is so much better here. Porto was so cold and rainy, here it looks like we're in Spring. Let's see if it holds...

Christmas eve

2008-12-22T21:30:00.000-08:00

weird that even though tired, I can only sleep a couple of hours at a time. It's 5:30 GMT (21:30 pacific standard time) and I'm completely awake. I guess jet lag is all about getting your body used to sleep at a given time. Which is clearly more difficult when "moving forward in time" (San Diego > Leça).

Tomorrow it's Christmas eve (according to GMT zone, a couple more hours for my friends over at PST), so I'll take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Xmas!

Winter break

2008-12-11T16:32:00.000-08:00

The warrior rests....

....FÉRIAAAAASSSSS!!!!!!!!

jet crash near UTC

2008-12-09T02:30:00.000-08:00

A military jet crashed in San Diego area. Three people were caught in the accident. This happened far from my apartment though!

I'm alright and just worried about the finals.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/08/military.jet.crash/index.html

Fall'08 balance (thanksgiving, week 9) - part II

2008-11-26T21:08:00.000-08:00

The curtain is about to drop over this quarter, but there is still time for a few more scenes. I'll start this post by addressing everyone who showed concern on my well-being after a "more dark" previous post. Those of you to whom I've been chatting more frequently, know that I'm feeling very well, actually. My aunt just told me the other day that I look fatter. A sign of prosperity! I don't think I am though. Remarkably, in almost three months, I've only been twice in those junk-food restaurants. As I was saying, there are ups and downs obviously; and in my previous post, so to say, I was emphasizing the downs. An important lesson that I retain is that it's not worthwhile to unbalance everything in favor of any single academic/professional task. No matter how important it may seem. There are always more important things in life! And for sure there is an alternative path to that goal without putting that much concentrated effort, which sometimes turns out to be counter-productive. Even though all the commitment that I was (and still am) available to put in this goal, along the way I've learnt when to stop. This was a good lesson.

Hell, but I'm not stopping now! One more week of instruction and then it's the finals' week. On the contrary to what happens in Portugal, here, there is no time to prepare the finals as good as one would like. Hey, but that's life!

Going back in time a little bit, in order to finish what I've started in the previous post, there were also a number of joyful stories that have happened to me in these couple of months. I've made new friends, among new cultures, found a very nice (and affordable) place to live with an easy-going guy. What else can I ask for? Other than that, there were also many unique moments that I was fortunate to live closely as the general election and the financial crisis. I had my first halloween, and tomorrow I'll even have my very own thanksgiving day! I'm getting together with a bunch of international students and we're going to cook a huge turkey that we bought. This should be nice to see!

Speaking of financial crisis, while everybody is talking about Lehman Bros., Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, City Group, AIG (and others); I would like to remember Linens'n'Things. You probably don't know them, but I do. They're closing business and there is no federal plan to help them out! I felt so sad when I heard the news... This was the place where I bought my very first pan and kitchen knife in the US. Those are things you never forget. I still remember the ones I bought in Cascais in my first few days there. I wish I could remember Random Processes that well...

As I've been preaching, UCSD provides an highly competitive and demanding environment. But these are just classes. Everyone says that the first year is tough but... it's perfectly doable. And more important than that, I feel I can do it. We'll see if someone proves me wrong. Hope not! The indicators that I have so far (midterms, homework) place me around the average among my peers. This was achieved with a lot of hard work, and I just hope I can maintain it until mid-December.

That's all for now. Later I'll let you know how the turkey cooking went :-)

Fall'08 balance (beginning of week 8) - part I

2008-11-16T20:18:00.000-08:00

As promised, I'll try to put in writing a few ideas collected during this first quarter. Tomorrow we're starting the 8th week. Each quarter has 10 weeks for instruction plus one week for the finals. Up until now, as expected, I have had good and bad moments. I would like to share some of those with you.

I consider myself a reasonably stable guy. Such stability is, however, sometimes questioned when you're in a strange environment, surrounded by different people and facing an highly competitive environment. You tend to question very basic things. God knows the work I had in preparing my application to UCSD, but in the very first couple of weeks here, when facing small adversities, everything seems to be questionable. Even your mental health! I was asking myself: "what on earth am I doing here?". "I could be home, near the people I love, have a nice job, facing tasks I can handle". And although UCSD has practically all sorts of facilities around the campus, it doesn't seem to hold an office for motivating students to hold on to their endeavors. You need to find that on your own! As I said, being in a strange environment with different cultures and people, I think even the most stable guy can fall apart. But truth be said, I was not completely alone. Although I had just met André, I felt like I knew him for years! I've mentioned is name in this blog before, he is a phd student at UCSD in his third year now. He was the first one telling me to hold on through this first year. "It's tough, but you need to pull it off", "Don't let yourself go down". A student's life is not that bad; what bothers me is that I'm just not used to be a student anymore. Need to regain practice. Students do things without question, just because the Professor tells them to do so. That's all I need to do :-)

I've to admit, not surprisingly, this is really a great place to live and one of the top universities in the country to do research. No doubt about that!

But moving on...

I think I'll be facing a dilemma in the next quarter. Because I'm not willing to put that much effort as I'm putting in the present one... Please don't think that I'm lazy. True, I have my laziness as much as the next person. But this place is, indeed, very demanding. UCSD is part of what people call the "public Ivy", which is a group of public universities in the US trying to "provide an Ivy League(1) collegiate experience at a public school price."

Looking back in time, I can only compare this period of my life, with the time I was taking my masters and working at the same time. Those were also though days. And now, as in the past, I need to establish goals. Set landmarks. And my current objective is to finish this quarter with the best grades I can get.

Speaking of which...

One thing I'm still very suspicious about, is the grading schema at graduate school. People say that at the graduate level, everyone will get either an A or a B. Which, as you might now, are good grades. I'm not very confident that this is always true, although I can make some sense out of the rationale behind this, I prefer to wait and see. Most naturally, as in so many universities through out the world, foreign graduate students pay heavy fees. Here, the ratio of what a California resident pays vs. a non-California resident (non-US or other states) is in the order of four less. In favor of California residents... In the end of the day, they'll be loosing a lot of money by sending me home :-)

Getting back to grading issue: it's important in the sense that you're encouraged by your department to maintain a certain level (GPA). For the ECE department we have to maintain a B or B+ GPA. If you go bellow this, you can actually be thrown out of the program. Which wouldn't be very nice, especially after you've put so much effort into it.

I have brilliant colleagues, and although all the effort I've been putting in school, at this moment, and with such a long period of absence from student's life, I'm afraid I can't reach their level. I'm not really concerned or surprised about that, because I've my own ideas on what to do around here and with whom to do it.

It's time for a short break now. I'll try to pick up this balance later on during the week.

Just a quick note to thank everyone who is continuously supporting me in this task. Always trying to do what is best for me, you know that I'll try not to let you down!

------------

(1) - the Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The term is most commonly used to refer to those eight schools considered as a group. The term also has connotations of academic excellence, selectivity in admissions, and a reputation for social elitism.

last midterm...

2008-11-13T00:14:00.000-08:00

... is just around the corner: Friday! As expected the quarter system is very fast, and in no time we shall have our finals. I've been kind of absent from my blog, but I'll try to redeem myself by posting a sort of balance for this first two months, during next weekend.

But you should always bear in mind that no news are (usually) good news!

UCSD CAMPUS NOTICE

2008-11-07T22:14:00.000-08:00

University of California, San Diego

                       OFFICE OF THE CHIEF - POLICE DEPARTMENT
   November 7, 2008

ALL ACADEMICS AND STAFF AT UCSD ALL STUDENTS AT UCSD
SUBJECT:   Campus Alert

UCSD Police are investigating a report of a sexual assault at a unit within UCSD's Mesa Residential Apartment Complex [hell... that's where I live!], which is adjacent to the east side of the main campus. The incident was reported about 3:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7.

A female resident of the graduate student housing complex told UCSD Police that she was assaulted by an unshaven [I've a beard at the moment] white male [could be me], between 20 and 30 years old [I'm 30 years old, at the moment, so this fits] who was armed with a knife and had a backpack [I've a black backpack]. The woman said the attacker was wearing a ball cap, a white Chargers T-shirt and jeans [only have the jeans].

UCSD Police spokesman Lt. Dave Rose asked that anyone with relevant information call (858) 534-4357.

Information and services can be received through the Sexual Assault & Violence Prevention Resource Center (SARC) at:
http://sarc.ucsd.edu

                               Orville King
                               Chief of Police

Potential problem...

2008-11-05T15:04:00.000-08:00

It seems that the results for the US presidential election are already causing some problems over at the dept of treasury. Bellow is the project for a new bill soon to be put in circulation.

PS- I was not supporting any candidate in the election, but I confess that I've had enough of the "yes, we can"-mania!

General election 2008

2008-11-04T00:51:00.000-08:00

Today is general election day. More than the US presidency, electors in California as well as in other states, vote for specific state propositions.

In California 12 propositions are in the ballot (http://www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov/). Among which, the more controversial ones are propositions 4 and 8. The former concerns changes in California's Constitution to prohibit abortion for unemancipated minor until 48 hours after physician notifies minor’s parent or legal guardian. The latter envisages to amend the state rule so that marriage, in California, is only valid or recognized between a man and a woman. In other words, the intention is to disallow same-sex couples to marry as it is now allowed in California. Not so controversial, but still debated, is another proposition concerning the high-speed train (TGV)...

All this to say that here, as in Portugal, political discussions seem closer than the geographical distance that lies in between.

As for the presidential election in itself, I guess it would come as a surprise for everyone, if senator Obama doesn't win... but this is America, and as such you can never tell!

PS- today is also the 29th birthday of Manel Gil Fernandes. I already had the opportunity to talk to him. This message is just a small appreciation to my long date friend in Lisbon. All the best to you!!

Halloween and (still) the midterms

2008-10-31T13:42:00.000-07:00

In what concerns the midterms, I would say: one down, two to go :-)

Next one is on Tuesday. But today, I'm not really concerned about that. Today is halloween, and these guys take it really seriously. Speaking of which:

When going to classes today, I stopped over at the Geisel library (I had some printing to do). I've noticed a couple of library clerks really dressed up. I found it funny, because I was not expecting to see people, especially in the library, dressed up for halloween since morning. Anyhow, I didn't pay too much attention to it. After the printing, I headed towards the classroom. As I was chatting with a few colleagues, the professor bursts into the classroom all dressed up as a NASA astronaut, with the most natural posture... It was a really amusing moment!

As for the midterm I had, past Monday, it went alright (I hope). Thank you all for asking. The subject was Statistical Learning. The course in itself deals with reasonably comprehensive stuff (like pattern classification, decision boundaries on classes, ...), but there is a lot of mathematical theory underneath. The homework assignments, as well as the midterm and final, are usually closely related to these mathematical proofs and geometric interpretations. This makes the exercises, fairly complicated... I'll keep you posted on how things progress.

That's it for now. Need to find something to dress up for halloween!

Unforgettable, but let nobody say unrepeatable!

2008-10-27T00:42:00.001-07:00

I have a midterm tomorrow, but quite honestly have had enough of study... ready or not, here I come! All of the suddenly I felt like writing a post...

It was more or less one year ago, that I've made my second appearance (and best until today!) in Porto's Marathon. It was the fourth edition. This year I was unable to participate, but would like to congratulate "il Príncipe" for his participation. Congrats, lad!

The completion of such an enterprise, makes you feel strong. Perhaps stronger than you actually are. Which is a good thing... when challenge lies ahead.

PS- a few colleagues were shooting around in Arkansas University... Sometimes I wonder if this will ever happen at UCSD. Just kidding, this is a safe place!

Blue book

2008-10-23T17:31:00.001-07:00

Do you know what this means?

Midterms are here! Now is the time where the going gets tough, and the tough get going!

Quarter heading towards Midterms

2008-10-18T23:42:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

Let me start by apologizing for not being able to post as many comments as I would like to... Especially in these past few days. But believe me, I've never felt so overwhelmed and at the same time powerless in my life: the classes, I can actually keep up rather well, but once we get the homework assignments... well this is a completely different story, one can say that I feel quite ignorant. But then again, I guess this is what learning is all about!

Anyhow, with regards to my courses, I might as well let you know that my final selection was: Random Processes, Statistical Learning and Fundamentals of Digital and Image Processing. I found it to be the more balanced choice amongst the plethora of interesting courses available for this Fall.

But as I was saying earlier, it's incredible the amount of homework one gets at this (graduate) level. I confess, that I was not expecting it. I guess in someway it's good because it keeps me up-to-date in my study and makes me really busy. I've hardly any time to be nostalgic or feel homesick. But no matter what I do, my days only last 24 hours, pretty much like everybody else's! I've delivered a couple of homework already, but every week we get new assignments. As such, there is no time to relax and enjoy the sunny weather. And I can assure you that these are not the type of small assignments that you can take for granted. A lot of effort is needed to complete each and everyone of them! However, I do need to rest as well... I think that, at a certain point in time, more hours of study are simply not beneficial. Actually, I believe that they can be counterproductive. Anyhow, midterms are just around the corner, and this is no time for relaxing!

People have been asking for pictures. Unfortunately I don't have a camera with me. I'm in the right place to buy one, but I lack the time to make a responsible choice. So for the moment, the best I can do is leave you with some photos of my ugly face, taken with my computer's camera. You can easily notice some degradation in my looks as days go by...

This last one was taken precisely while I'm writing this post, at home.

By the way, last friday I've made my first appearance over San Diego's roads. We had the 5K Chancelor's Challenge. This was an event destined to faculty members, staff and students. I joined as an ECE student, for the Jacobs School of Engineering (JSOE). With so little practice over the past few days, I did a reasonable time: 24m22s, for 5K. My bib number was 926. Finished in 223th place out of 1006 runners:

http://kathyloperevents.com/results/CHANCELLOR'S%20CHALLENGE%205K.htm

Cheers!

New Prize in the burg

2008-10-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

Just to let you know that we have a new Nobel in Chemistry at UCSD. Roger Tsien is it's name, and the honor was awarded for the discovery of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP).

Congratulations to him!

More on http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/NobelPrize08.asp

(ainda as) Cadeiras, Missa e garrafas de cerveja

2008-10-06T17:27:00.000-07:00

Bem sei que já há algum tempo que aqui não escrevo. Mas a verdade é que a logística não ajuda. Como sabem mudei de casa, e infelizmente nesta ainda não tenho net...

Em relação ao teste de preparedness que tivemos correu-me como se esperava. Isto é, mal. A boa notícia é que nenhuma matéria me era estranha. Urge portanto desenferrujar alguns conceitos. Tarefa onde aliás venho trabalhando noutras áreas que me parecem mais importantes (n.d.r. as palestras do Prof. Gilbert para Álgebra Linear).

Para quem não está familiarizado com o sistema de ensino dividido por trimestres (por oposição aos nossos mais populares semestres), devo dizer-vos - pois já tive esta experiência de trimestres no mestrado aí em Portugal - que o tempo passa mesmo a correr! Por estranho que possa parecer, aqui, mesmo ao nível das cadeiras de mestrado ou doutoramento, os professores apostam forte nos trabalhos de casa. Coisa à qual já não estamos habituados, talvez, desde o tempo do liceu!! Mas portanto, refrescar conhecimentos antigos é fundamental porque os trabalhos de casa já estão aí e há prazos para cumprir.

Mas ainda sobre o meu programa de estudos...

Tenho, como penso que já terei referido anteriormente, 48 créditos para cumprir antes de me propôr para o preliminary exam. Cada cadeira "vale" normalmente 4 unidades de crédito. Para o meu programa, o esboço a completar, normalmente em 4 trimestres (12 u.c / trimestre), será:

* 4 core courses (16 u.c.);

* 3 additional technical electives (12 u.c.);

* 3 undergrad upper-division (12 u.c.);

* 2 research units (8 u.c.)

A minha escolha de cadeiras terá, portanto, que ser feita de uma forma equilibrada. Cadeiras difíceis com outras mais fáceis, de forma a que haja progressão sem exageros. Neste trimestre, como certamente compreendem, eu estou essencialmente à procura de ganhar confiança. Por isso mesmo, estou tentado a substituir uma cadeira - ECE 250, a tal do preparedness test - pela cadeira que está indicada como sendo o seu pré-requisito: ECE 153. Deve ser mais fácil, e é uma boa base para retomar temas antigos. Ainda por cima não é "tempo perdido" pois esta também conta como u.c. para o programa. Esta decisão terá que ser tomada durante esta semana. Sob prejuízo de, sendo tomada mais tarde, ficar com um W (Withdrawl) ou um F (Failed) no meu transcript, o que é totalmente desaconselhável, neste tipo de programas. Resumindo, esta semana quero este assunto arrumado!

Agora para algo totalmente diferente... não posso deixar de fazer aqui uma referência à comunidade católica da UCSD. Finalmente encontrei-os. Tive diversos ataques de riso durante a Missa (que Deus me perdoe!). Cheguei à Igreja, meio a medo procurei a porta. Dou de caras com o Father John Paul preparadíssimo para celebrar. Esticando a mão, atira de seguida: "Hi there! How are you?". Simpática figura. Estivemos alguns minutos à conversa onde lhe expliquei que era aluno da UCSD, e que tinha chegado há pouco tempo para cumprir um programa de doutoramento. Bem impressionado pela recepção calorosa que era dedicada aos frequentadores daquela Igreja, entrei e procurei um lugar. Mas o melhor ainda estava para vir...

O edifício em si, é relativamente sóbrio, mas quando entramos notam-se algumas diferenças. Mormente um piano de cauda que está quase colado ao altar. Tinha já ocupado o meu lugar, quando uma senhora entra, senta-se num banco em frente ao referido piano (o Fr. John Paul ainda estava lá fora a cumprimentar as pessoas que chegavam) e começa a desejar as boas-vindas a toda a gente. Enquanto toca piano, pede aos novos membros da comunidade para se levantarem, "only to get to know you better, and to give you a warm welcome". Fiquei obviamente embaraçado, sobretudo por correr o risco de poder ser o único novo membro! Como tinha acabado de me identificar exactamente como recém-chegado perante o Padre, sentia-me mal se mentisse, permanecendo sentado. Lá decidi portanto levantar-me, e, no mesmo instante, dois asiáticos lá no outro lado também se levantaram... uff! Que alívio... ao menos não sou o único! Seguiu-se uma ruidosa salva de palmas, com uns berros de incentivo pelo meio (yupiii, yeaah,...). Acho que só faltaram os assobios. Uma cena de fazer inveja ao próprio Padre Marcelino. Nem de propósito, por falar nele, aqui o Father John também faz umas homílias interactivas. Mas mais do tipo sabatina. A assistência tem realmente direito a algumas perguntas. E ele faz questão de dizer que quer respostas... não são perguntas de retórica! Só não dá notas para as respostas. Se o Pe. Marcelino o libertasse, estou certo que o Helder (não és tu Nóbrega, é um menino pequenino que anda - ou andava - na cataquese em Leça) faria muito sucesso por aqui... mesmo com a barreira da língua!

Só mais um pormenor que achei delicioso: por altura da comunhão, há pessoas que não estando preparadas, colocam-se na fila. Tal e qual como se fossem comungar. Chegam perto do Padre e colocam os braços em forma de X junto ao peito e olham para o chão - como quem diz: estou aqui, mas não estou preparado para comungar - perante estas pessoas o Padre, em vez de dar a comunhão, coloca a mão em cima do ombro do pecador e diz algumas palavras (que infelizmente não consegui perceber, mas imagino que sejam de conforto!). Engraçados estes diferentes costumes, não?

(mais novidades em http://catholicucsd.org/)

É verdade... já quase me esquecia: outro dia tive a happy hour do meu departamento (17h-18h). Bebida e aperitivos à borla. Parecem fazer muito sucesso todas as actividades que incluam comida à borla. Quando digo comida deveria, talvez, fazê-lo entre aspas; porque de facto é só porcarias do tipo: batatas, salgados, tacos e afins. Bom, mas os desgraçados da associação de estudantes do ECE, foram abandonando o convívio perto das 18h. Cometeram a imprudência de me deixar na sala com alguns amigos (curiosamente todos europeus e habituados a outros horários) e um frigorífico cheio de cerveja. O resultado foi um frigorífico vazio, e uma ligeira ressaca no dia seguinte.

Duas notas finais (isto começa a tornar-se um hábito...)

Já saiu o último disco d' Os Pontos Negros ("Magnífico Material Inútil"). Consegui ouvir algumas coisas na Radar FM e gostei! [http://www.myspace.com/ospontosnegros].

Última: doravante vou-me esforçar por escrever os posts em inglês. Sorry! Tenham paciência mas o português vai ficar para o Natal. Dá-me jeito ir praticando o inglês escrito!

as mudanças

2008-09-28T21:30:00.000-07:00

Quem já mudou de casa sabe bem que é uma espécie de purgatório na terra. Ainda agora "desfiz" uma casa em Cascais e agora estou a "montar" outra em San Diego.

Aquelas limpezas de fundo que se fazem dão cabo de mim: frigorífico, fogão, tapetes, sofás, enfim... só posso dizer que morri de saudades da Sibyl hoje!!

Mas nem tudo é mau. Está feito! Amanhã chega a minha caminha directamente do Ikea. Terça devo estrear a casa. O meu colega de apartamento levou a família toda para conhecer a casa: mãe, avó, e um tio. Todos eles estão cá a viver há já algum tempo. O tio está há 30 anos, e parece-me que está de bem com a vida. Ofereceu-nos umas mobílias que não usava. Estão como novas. Foi uma bela poupança!

A avó dele levou um espelho e um Corão. Confidenciou-me que era tradição Islâmica, quando se vai para uma nova casa. A minha "Afó" já me deu um fio de prata, bem sei, mas.... ó "Afó", se decidir vir até cá traga, se faz favor, uma Bíblia... daquelas grandes! Eheheh... agora mais a sério, eles são mesmo gente boa. Tive sorte.

Deixo-vos a minha nova morada:

4091 Miramar Street, apt. E - La Jolla - San Diego, 92037 CA

Mudando de assunto: amanhã tenho um teste de avaliação. Ah! Já tinha saudades destes professores empreendedores. Mas o tipo comigo não vai ter muita sorte... vai ser um zero redondo! Vai-me logo aconselhar a mudar de vida :-) Eu vou-lhe tentar explicar que até sou um tipo trabalhador e tal, que a coisa até se pode compôr...

Depois eu dou notícias!

1º dia de aulas

2008-09-25T22:09:00.000-07:00

Acabo de chegar a casa, depois de comer um calzone ali na Leucadia. É um restaurante italiano onde tenho ido algumas vezes. As pessoas são simpáticas, é relativamente perto de casa e, mais importante, a comida é boa. Sem grandes requintes, mas boa!

Tenho algumas coisas para relatar neste post. O título deste podia até ser outra coisa bem diferente; tantos são os assuntos que aqui quero abordar. A começar pelo BBQ de Domingo - so typical - que um amigo de um amigo decidiu oferecer em sua casa. A casa dele é no bairro para onde curiosamente me vou mudar. Éramos só alunos da UCSD, mas de diversos departamentos. Foi um convívio engraçado e até já deu para espalhar alguma magia do nosso soccer numa peladinha improvisada. Confesso que me senti um verdadeiro Maradona no meio destes pernetas. Qual Zé Bosingwa qual quê... estou um verdadeiro playmaker!

Em relação à casa a busca parece ter terminado! Depois de intensas negociações na tentativa de obter habitação, quer dentro quer fora do campus, consegui encontrar quem me quisesse como flatmate. Vi de tudo! Americanos, canadianos, russos, velhos e novos... falei com todo o tipo de pessoas e visitei todo o tipo de casas. Acabei por ficar no local mais óbvio para a minha integração: são uns apartamentos designados por Mesa (lê-se mésa e não mêsa). É um bairro integrante das affiliated housing. Lá estão, fundamentalmente, alunos de mestrado ou doutoramento (normalmente designados por grad students). O meu colega de apartamento é um simpático iraniano. Trabalha durante o dia e estuda durante a noite. Amirali é o seu nome, e é aluno de 3º ano de doutoramento em Computer Science também na UCSD.

Mais abaixo devem conseguir ver um mapa da minha actual casa (7528 Charmant Drive, La Jolla). Usem este link - aqui atrás "em cima" da morada - para ver com mais detalhe no Google Maps: a minha casa (tem um pin) e a entrada na Mirada Residence (outro pin). Mais tarde hei-de colocar um mapa com a minha nova casa!

O 1º dia de aulas foi hoje. Só tive uma mas saí de lá mais ou menos em pânico! Acho que em parte foi aquele choque de quem volta às aulas, ao fim de tanto tempo. A aula durou cerca de 1h30 e quando acabou, por volta das 18h30, saí disparado para a biblioteca onde pedi o livro da cadeira e estive a ler algumas passagens. Fiquei por lá talvez duas horas. Mas que reconfortante que foi. Restabeleci os níveis de confiança, percebi as coisas, e acho que definitivamente (re)entrei no papel de estudante. Não posso prometer que tudo vá correr bem daqui prá frente. Aliás continuo com dúvidas em relação à escolha das cadeiras. Mas - como diz o outro - prá frente é que é o caminho!

Desculpem lá a escrita telegráfica, mas não me apetece escrever mais.... fica no entanto o registo: ainda me falta detalhar o edifício onde funcionam grande parte das bibliotecas (edifício Geisel). É uma das imagens de marca da UCSD.

PS- acabo de ouvir o presidente da Associação Portuguesa de Bancos, João Salgueiro, dizer que as taxas de juro devem continuar a subir. O que para mim são boas notícias já que isto deve fortalecer o euro em detrimento do US dólar.

PS2- para a generalidade dos leitores (aqueles que têm empréstimos na banca) o ponto anterior representa más notícias. Pelo facto, as minhas desculpas pelo comentário pouco altruísta...

uma visita pela "oldtown"

2008-09-21T20:44:00.000-07:00

Este fim de semana fui finalmente conhecer o centro de San Diego, ou melhor parte dele! Já que a cidade, não sendo enorme, está bastante espalhada. Fui passear na "oldtown". Mais concretamente o Gaslamp quarter. Esta é a zona mais movimentada da cidade. É "o" spot para diversão e restaurantes. Lá perto encontrei o mítico USS Midway (1945-92). Assim nomeado depois da batalha do Atol do Midway. Um porta-aviões impressionante que agora serve de museu. Infelizmente quando cheguei já estava fechado, mas tenho, definitivamente, que lá voltar! Segundo li, este foi o primeiro navio demasiado grande para atravessar o canal do Panamá.

Entretanto continuo sem casa - definitiva quero eu dizer, pois não estou a dormir na rua - mas estou cada vez menos preocupado com isso. Talvez esteja a entrar no espírito descontraído com que esta gente leva a vida... Claro que não me posso esquecer que foi essa descontracção que 6 meses antes do Midway os liquidou em Pearl Harbor...

Em relação ao trimestre académico, afinal é para isso que cá estou, as minhas escolhas preliminares apontam para 3 cadeiras todas elas da classe das graduate courses. Não quero ser muito maçador mas acho que vale a pena fazer um parêntesis para explicar, mais ou menos, como as coisas funcionam: há que completar 48 unidades de crédito antes de avançar com o preliminary exam. No caso dos alunos com mestrado, é-lhes permitido que peçam equivalências das cadeiras feitas anteriormente e diminuam drasticamente os créditos a completar. Como o meu cérebro está algo enferrujado vou dispensar esta facilidade e disfrutar de algumas cadeiras que me podem vir a ser bastante úteis na investigação. Completarei neste trimestre, se Deus Nosso Senhor me ajudar, 12 unidades de crédito. A saber, as cadeiras são:

250. Random Processes (4) Random variables, probability distributions and densities, characteristic functions. Convergence in probability and in quadratic mean, Stochastic processes, stationarity. Processes with orthogonal and independent increments. Power spectrum and power spectral density. Stochastic integrals and derivatives. Spectral representation of wide sense stationary processes, harmonizable processes, moving average representations. Prerequisite: ECE 153 or equivalent or consent of instructor. (F)

271A. Statistical Learning I (4) Bayesian decision theory; parameter estimation; maximum likelihood; the bias-variance trade-off; Bayesian estimation; the predictive distribution; conjugate and noninformative priors; dimensionality and dimensionality reduction; principal component analysis; Fisher’s linear discriminant analysis; density estimation; parametric vs. kernel-based methods; expectation-maximization; applications. Prerequisite: ECE 109. (F)

275A. Parameter Estimation I (4) Linear last squares (batch, recursive, total, sparse, psuedoinverse, QR, SVD); statistical figures of merit (bias, consistency, Cramer-Rao lower-bound, efficiency); maximum likelihood estimation (MLE); sufficient statistics; algorithms for computing the MLE including the expectation maximation (EM) algorithm. The problem of missing information; the problem of outliers. Prerequisites: ECE 109 and ECE 153 with grades of C– or better. (F)

Por falar em cadeiras, os exames (finals) também já estão marcados: 10, 11 e 12 de Dezembro. Só não sei quando me calham os midterms.

1 abraço deste que tanto vos quer, sou capaz de ir aí pelo Natal!

:-)

PS- uma menção honrosa para o Clube de Veteranos do Parque da Cidade, cuja delegação do Porto teve hoje mais uma numerosa (e briosa) prestação na meia-maratona.

PS2- Meira, a menção não é para ti, uma vez que mais uma vez não foste capaz de vencer a tua indolência e de te arrastar até à linha de partida

PS3- a delegação de San Diego, tem feito os primeiros treinos de adaptação - clima, humidade, altitude, enfim ... aquelas tretas - mas ainda não se sente em forma para competir!

Alimentação, orientação e... felicitação!

2008-09-16T18:31:00.000-07:00

Uma nota prévia para todas as notas de felicitações e incentivo que tenho recebido, quer na minha caixa de correio, quer na forma de comentários a este meu singelo blog. Muito obrigado! Desculpem se nem sempre respondo individualmente, mas leio todas as mensagens e gosto muito de as receber.

(João Pedro, muito me honras pela referência que dedicas a este meu espaço nessa referência da blogosfera que é a Ágora!)

Agora vamos ao relato dos últimos dias...

Acabo de chegar a casa com uma panela para sopa, uma varinha mágica, e meia dúzia de utensílios de cozinha. Vou começar a cozinhar apenas hoje. Passei no supermercado para uns legumes frescos, e cá vou eu! Não posso deixar de me orgulhar que, estando eu no país capital da junk food, passada uma semana da minha chegada, ainda não me rendi à cultura do hamburger!! Tenho-me "safado" com uns bons breakfast (à continental, pois claro!) e fruta. Fora costumo atirar-me à cozinha italiana ou asiática. Agora começa uma nova era! A cozinha mediterrânica chegou a La Jolla. Referi apenas La Jolla, porque ao Sul da Califórnia já chegou há algum tempo: Point Loma - que também é em San Diego - tem uma conhecida colónia de Portugueses. Nesse mesmo local no Natal do ano passado, o André conseguiu comprar um fiel amigo, para comer com umas batatinhas cozidas, azeite e alguns legumes.

É justo dizer que estou cada vez mais integrado. Hoje tive a sessão de orientação organizada pelo International Center. Éramos cerca de 400 alunos, diria eu. Lá confraternizei com: dois alemães, um espanhol e um tipo muito afável do Myanmar (Birmânia como nós mais comummente o conhecemos). Andávamos todos com aqueles crachás ridículos com os nossos nomes e país de origem. Mas foi muito agradável e útil para conhecer pessoas na mesma situação em que me encontro. Um dos alemães já cá passou o Verão e está por isso mais entrosado. Já tem carro e ofereceu-se logo, sabendo que tenho mudanças pela frente, para me ajudar no que for preciso. Ele tem, aliás, outra coisa em comum comigo: a idade. Somos ambos trintões! E isso por aqui não é tão vulgar assim... por cá há muitos recém licenciados que saltam logo para Msc/MEng ou mesmo Phd, pelo que a idade destes anda, geralmente, pelos 20 e poucos anos.

É claro que ainda tenho surpresas no dia-a-dia, mas as coisas começam a tomar forma. Isso agrada-me! As cadeiras estão quase definitivamente escolhidas, mas disso dar-vos-ei conta num outro post.

Tempo apenas para duas notas finais (isto começa a parecer o programa do Prof. Marcelo): a Maria Garrett casou no Sábado passado; obviamente não quis interromper esse dia tão importante para ela com um telefonema, mas deixei-lhe uma mensagem e aqui fica um beijinho de felicidades. O meu caríssimo amigo Miguel Lopo faz hoje (dia 17) o seu trigésimo aniversário! Já tive oportunidade de lho transmitir telefonicamente, mas aqui expresso votos sinceros de muitos parabéns!!! Bem-vindo aos 30, meu velho!

Está na hora de pôr mãos à obra... já estou com alguma fome!

PS- desculpem a falta de ligação das ideias, mas o meu blog é mesmo assim: uma espécie de diário digital (passo a publicidade), onde as ideias surgem desgarradas. Para ajudar à festa, muitas vezes não escrevo o post sem interrupção. Desculpem mas... vão-se habituando!

procura de casa e a nova idade dos porquês

2008-09-13T16:51:00.000-07:00

Deveras mais ambientado à minha nova terrinha, continuo a achar-me "peixe fora d'água"... Julgo que isso é normal!
Já tenho o meu cartão de estudante que me dá direito a uma panóplia de regalias. Entre elas andar nos transportes públicos que circundam o campus, de borla pois claro!

A Universidade ainda está calma. Por esta altura (pre)ocupo-me, fundamentalmente, com duas coisas: procurar uma casa que me dure talvez até ao final do 1º ano, e escolher as cadeiras em que me vou meter.

A propósito deste último tema, tenho que confessar que nos últimos dias não devo ser boa companhia: todas as pessoas que venho conhecendo são bombardeadas com perguntas sobre a vida e as escolhas de um grad student. Julgo tratar-se de uma nova fase da, aborrecida, "idade dos porquês"...

Uma coisa que me assusta é não saber muito bem o que me espera. Quanto tempo? Quais cadeiras? Onde investigar? Pode parecer estranho mas a vida universitária a este nível não está, de todo, normalizada com regras e padrões. Todos os departamentos são diferentes mas, citando o Prof. português do ECE, "o objectivo destes programas é formar um investigador, com a chancela de qualidade da UCSD". Pouco interessa se vou estudar matemática, física ou línguas! Pelo que, como não vim para cá com objectivos muito bem definidos ao nível da investigação a desenvolver, o meu interesse deve ser arranjar rapidamente um projecto da esfera de interesses de alguém influente. Imbuído desse espírito, e com vista a escolher as cadeiras certas, comecei a fazer umas revisões de Álgebra Linear. Deixo aqui um link para eventuais interessados. São as palestras para undergrads do Prof. Gilbert Strand (MIT):

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Mathematics/18-06Spring-2005/CourseHome/

Em relação à habitação, acabei de visitar mais uma. Pese embora as duas últimas serem, de certa forma, bastante razoáveis; elas são propriedade de undergrads (isto corresponde a alunos do nível da nossa antiga licenciatura/bacharelato). Ora partilhar casa com alguém nesta fase da vida, não será talvez a escolha mais sensata para o cumprimento dos objectivos a que me proponho... Mas a verdade é que ainda não tomei nenhuma decisão a este respeito.

Por último gostava de enviar um abraço especial para o Dr. Juíz de Povoação e Nordeste, de quem acabo de receber uma missiva. Caro Dr., deixe-me que lhe diga que, tendo eu já tido o prazer de estar na terra que é agora a sua comarca, como alguém disse um dia, Vossa Excelência reside numa verdadeira reserva histórica, cultural e genética do Império Português! Um bem haja para vocês os dois!

PS- ainda não encontrei nenhuma Igreja Católica Apostólica Romana por forma a participar no Santo Culto, já dei no entanto de caras com várias seitas e também com a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
PS2- vou escutar mais uma palestra do Prof. Gilbert!!

9/11

2008-09-11T21:08:00.000-07:00

I can't really tell you that I've witnessed a cumbersome day here at San Diego. Although 9/11 was for sure remembered all over the country, I was pretty much unaware of any ceremonies. Probably because I was very busy with faculty and personal stuff...

Today I've moved out of the hotel. I'm currently subletting an apartment from an Italian graduate student. She went to Rome for a couple of weeks (end of September), and I've moved in. The apartment is very nice: 1 bd + 1 bath, small living room and a good kitchen. Lots of ammenities: jacuzzi, fitness center, swiming pool. This is no doubt a luxury condo!
Now it's time to get back to earth and look for a (more) modest but definitive accommodation. I need to focus 100% on school pretty soon. In the following days I'll have to select what courses to attend... the choices are varied!

After more than one decade of leaving behind Apple computers and surrender to Microsoft Windows; today, in the place they're originated from (CA), I've bought my first computer (Apple). It's a white MacBook. I'm very happy with it, and I should say that graduate students are very well treated here. In Portugal this same machine would have cost me 1199EUR, whereas here I payed 1099USD, which was already nice... but I also got an iTouch and an all-in-one printer... pretty cool!

So I can already be video reached through skype (look for: zemariacp).

Cheers!

PS- tomorrow I'll be joining a PhD celebration party. One of Andre's colleagues has made it!

trip stories & day one @UCSD

2008-09-10T10:03:00.000-07:00

Nota previa: estes tipos nao tem acentuacao ou cedilhas nos teclados. Sempre que escrevo em portugues, sou portanto forcado a dar (mais) algumas machadadas na lingua de Camoes...

A viagem correu sem sobressaltos, e no voo de Filadelfia para San Diego, ao meu lado no aviao fiz a primeira amiga. Nada mais nada menos do que a Chief Financial Officer, da "Zoological Society of San Diego". Paula Brock e' o seu nome. A simpatica senhora vinha de Paris, exausta da viagem la fomos trocando algumas experiencias. Nao sei se terei deixado transparecer alguma saudade, mas ela la' me foi dizendo que a casa dela esta' sempre cheia, e caso eu sinta saudades de um ambiente familiar posso aparecer quando me apetecer! Quem sabe, talvez mostrar um pouco da cozinha portuguesa. Deixei-lhe a promessa de visitar o Zoo, assim que estiver instalado.

'A chegada a San Diego, la' estava o Andre'. Um aluno de doutoramento (Structural Engineering) que conheci gracas 'a familia Goncalves da Silva (muito obrigado Manel!). Eram quase 22h (hora local, menos 8h do que em Portugal) quando saimos do aeroporto, mas ainda houve tempo para uma volta pelos pontos onde vou passar mais tempo nos proximos dias: icenter, jacobs school of engineering, e outros.

Escrevo esta entrada exactamente a partir do i(nternational) center, onde acabei de fazer o meu check-in.

Saudades a todos!
Over&out

PS- obrigado por todas as manifestacoes de amizade que me fizeram chegar pelos mais variados meios. Sendo eu um tipo razoavelmente britanico no temperamento e feitio, confesso que houve momentos em que me comovi, mas ... depois lembrei-me: UM HOMEM NAO CHORA!!

PS2- algumas fotos da despedida que me promoveram os meus amigos da Vodafone: http://picasaweb.google.pt/santosmi/DespedidaZ?authkey=H1OUVHVbuNU#

PS3- Meira, estou 'a espera que publiques as tuas. Ou nao puseste rolo na maquina?

The beginning...

2008-09-07T09:19:00.000-07:00

Hi there,
My name is Jose Maria. I’m a Portuguese national who was born in the UK. I've decided to start this blog in order to detail a new phase in my life: I'm moving to San Diego - California (USA) - on the 9th of September, where I've been admitted to proceed to graduate studies at the University of California (UCSD).

This is a bilingual blog, where everyone’s comments are welcome. I’ll write both in English as well as in Portuguese, depending on my mood at the time of the post. Here I'll try to put in writing all my successes and achievements, as well as my frustrations and failures. Hope not to have too much of the latter…
Anyway, this is my umbilical cord to the world as I know it until now. Looking forward to enlarge my vision with this experience, and I also hope to receive (good) news from you all (wherever you may be!)

I’ll keep you posted.
Cheers!