Surfin' USA

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!

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

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

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

Milestone 250

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

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

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.