That’s a nice start for a new blog entry, isn’t it?

It all started on a sunny Friday morning (22nd, June). Since it was a holiday here in Finland, I decided to sleep a bit more since the new hotel where I am at serves breakfast up till 11 o’clock on weekends and holidays. So after taking a bath, and do some previous planing for the trip, I’ve decided to go down stairs to take my power breakfast. Or was I….

When I got to the restaurant, the breakfast area was already closed to my dismay, and so I asked one of the bar employees where was the breakfast area (it was 10:40 by now), to which she replied that breakfast was over at 10, and it’s only available till 11 on weekends. bastards.

Anyways, the girl was really nice, and asked me if I wanted her to see if they could make me something in the kitchen, and so a few minutes later she came out with a nice big sandwich!

Read more…

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Music is everywhere with its ethereal beauty, but powerful enough to challenge and keep awake our senses. That´s why we love it so much.

Someone wrote that a symphony is perpetually playing in the Universe since the beginning of time, night and day without recess; we are so used to this phenomenon that we even don’t are aware of it.

Music is pure, simple and straight physics and the most direct reflex of the moving force that inhabits in every single piece of matter that can be perceived by our senses.

Music is surprise and difference.

Music has no rules, except the one that says that two pieces of matter that interact with one another always cause a change, an excitement, a different state of reality.

Fortunately, the creation of a melody or any group of sounds is an experience with no use than stimulating our senses, spreading through the air and touching everything, with no ideology but the one that belongs to the ears that listen to it.

This said, let me tell you this: I hate the Stones. I just can’t endure it.

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Sound…
It’s not just the ear vibrating
Sound means feelings
It refreshes our minds
Sooths our hearts
It can make us happy, or sad, or excited

        source: Antiloop – Sound

Remember a previous post about last.fm? Now I’ve put my money where my mouth is, and have bought a 3 month subscription (7,50€).

You can read in here about the benefits you get from being a subscriber.

So far I am very happy about doing this, because:

• now I can use the Discovery Mode on the last.fm client, meaning that it will stream only musics I haven’t ever listened to
• I can now choose to listen to my Personal Radio, Neighborhood Radio, Loved Tracks Radio or Recommended Radio
• I can use last.fms client to search for an artist and listen to it and/or similar artists to the one I chose
• I can listen to musics that match only my specified tags eg. Indie/Rock/Lounge wtv
• I can create a Custom Radio based on a list of artists I provide

If you love music like I do, don’t even hesitate. Give this people some money

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I can not believe it.

Finally the place where I as getting my degree on has now a program just like any other school in the country that is in conformance with the Bolonha guidelines (it is even official).

This will make me go back to school and finish the damn thing. It is also nice because:

1. each year (in a total of 3 years) has 4 trimesters with 3 modules each, which will enable us, the students, to focus on the subjects much more easily
2. since I have some modules already complete, I’m only 6 modules away (on the first trimester, the others may vary) from getting my degree
3. they have a time schedule for students who work as well, such as me
4. but the best of all is, I will get my dad off of my back. Yes… He’s only doing his job, and he only wants the best for me et al. But being concerned about my future, to saying that I have been waisting my time goes a very long way, and I digress, specially since on the CS side of things, experience goes A VERY LONG WAY, _much longer_ than a degree. As a matter of fact, I am much better of than my high school colleagues that have their Economy/Management degrees, or my college _colleagues_ that have already finished their CS degree. They either have crappy jobs, or are unemployed.

So now the plan is:

1. continue to evolve on Critical Software and pimp my curriculum vitae even more (yes, I’m getting proud of it )
2. in 2 years (max 3) finish my CS engineering degree. And yes. My job will still be my top priority.
3. perhaps getting some management degree to complement my CS knowledge
4. …
5. PROFIT!

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Ever since I could remember, but even more now with this blog, while life unfolds in front of me, I keep constantly thinking of something to write on this blog related to what I’ve just experienced. I guess I’ve always pondered a lot about what surrounds me.
I don’t know if this happens to you as well, but I’m betting it does, even if you don’t usually write about it.

Just imagine if you’d do your comments _out loud_ I wondered. And a Family Guy scene came to mind:

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Been lurking around some forums about my car (a Peugeot 307 1.6 hdi with 110 hp), and found out that with 290€ I can get a boost of 30hp! That’s A VERY LOT.

Apparently, it is a pretty much standard and safe method. What they do is some chip tuning, which basically makes the engine have a more efficient fuel burn by tuning the spark and fuel injection timings.

I’ve even found a FAQ on this Portuguese guys website that already have quite a reputation for doing a good job (they show up in many magazines, and are pretty thorough to make sure your car stays in shape). Some of the points I’ve retained:

• the re-programing of the car’s chip is made according to diagnostics obtained before anything is changed, so every car, is a different car to them
• no hardware is changed AT ALL. It’s only the software on a chip that is re-programmed
• the motors reliability isn’t changed at all
• the fuel consumption stays the same, and can actually get lower, because you don’t need to use the gearbox so often, and can stay in high gears for more time
• the vehicle’s top speed does not necessarily increase (they say it can go from nothing, to +50 Km/h), and I’m fine with that, since I’m happy with my car’s top speed, and Portuguese roads aren’t really any good for more than that
• the vehicle’s guaranty isn’t voided, because the software is only optimized, and can’t be detected, even when plugged in to diagnostic tools. No hardware gets changed
• all the changes also take in account the exhaust pipe gases emission
• no special care needs to be taken after the re-programming

If you click here, you’ll see a test to the engine’s binary on a car similar to mine

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I’m really starting to get pissed off by these runts!

Just as I was going out to lunch, a squirrel (yes… that sneaky animal that I have been trying to photograph), stopped in front of a bicycle, and wouldn’t budge. WHAT THE HELL?!!!! When I am with my camera, and ready to shoot, they are nowhere to be seen, or are über sneaky, and when I’m without it, they just pop all over the place, never fearing anyone around them.

hate them!

Anyways, since today the weather is kind of crappy, I didn’t make any plans, and so decided to have lunch at McDonald’s (yes… I’m entitled to go there on rare occasions), and there I saw a Jaguar going to the drive-in. Well…. That is kind of awkward I thought to myself, and remembered reading about this famous Portuguese person, Carlos Cruz, who was also caught on film on a McDonald’s (and now people are speculating that he is broke, with all the scandals and stuff).

But then again, I thought. Well…. They probably have small kids, and just want to indulge them, but NOOOOOOOOOOO. As they drove by pass me, I noticed that they were only a couple, that proceeded to park their car, and ate their drive-in meal on the McDonald’s parking lot. And that, in my book, was strange.

McDonald’s at a Jaguar. Oh well… *shrug*

After having lunch, I went to LIDL for my weekly supply of sausages and yogurt’s, and in there I also found 2 things that I had never seen in Portugal:

• Playstation 2 games for sale
• A FREAKIN’ SAIL BOAT ON THEIR CATALOGUE! HOLLY GUACAMOLE BATMAN!!! It’s the exact same model (an Optimist), as the one I learned on how to sail!! For 999,90€!!!! Add to that, the fact that, as I tell almost everyone, I will not die, before I sail once more. And I am keeping that promise! I have even found the ad on their on-line page. I really have to buy me a sail boat. Very likely it is going to be a 420 sail boat. I was about to buy one with my previous girlfriend, but well… Things didn’t turn out that way

Post published while listening to Part One by Pat Metheny Group.

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That’s it! The jury is out!

Today, I’ve decided to go South, to the coast, as I’ve read somewhere that the best tour you can take during the Summer, is along the Finnish coast (seems obvious quite frankly). So in the afternoon, after some _lazy bumming_, I took my bicycle and headed to the unknown

During this small trip, I’ve noticed that the wealthier Finns concentrate near the sea, and not near the lakes (at least, judging from the neighborhoods I’ve cycled by).

Anyways, the trip was very nice, because as typical, bike tracks were available everywhere, lots of birds and stuff always around me, not too many cars, and lots of couples and _families_ walking by.

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Howdy!

Since my father was already lurking around the blog (you can see some comments from him), I asked him if he would also like to post some entries.

So… Posts by André Lemos, are mine, and by Miguel Lemos are from my father.

(I’ll also try to convince my auntie T. to do the same, although she is quite busy ATM *fingers crossed*).

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