The Long And Winding Road...

So, new plans. Early November I am going to USA. It is a quite long time, I think since 2005, that I am considering it seriously. This time I am not going if, and only if, they don’t grant me a visa.

So, I am going to Sao Paulo in September to make the visa interview. I will also take a time to visit my friend Cinthia and my old fellow Eduardo Saldanha.

So, I was writing this post and a friend just appear in the lab and I have talked with him for a while. He just came from USA! Yes, what a coincidence. His name, Luciano. He has studied and graduated with me and he stayed 15 months in USA as a part of his PhD, as I did in Oxford.

He was with his wife, a very friendly and polite woman. So, what did she say? She loved USA. It was quite surprising for me, but she really liked it. So, my idea that the couples tend to fail in this sort of experience is not a 100% true. Not at all in the end of the day.

They even considered staying there for longer, as Luciano has succeeded very well in his research. So, that is it.

USA…

“Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise.”

“(…) Physical theories allow us to make predictions: given a complete description of a physical system, we can predict the outcome of some measurements. This problem of predicting the result of measurements is called the modelization problem, the simulation problem, or the forward problem. The inverse problem consists of using the actual result of some measurements to infer the values of the parameters that characterize the system.

While the forward problem has (in deterministic physics) a unique solution, the inverse problem does not.  (…)

(…) Because of this, in the inverse problem, one needs to make explicit any available a priori information on the model parameters. One also needs to be careful in the representation of the data uncertainties. (…)”

I heard there was a secret chord
that David played and it pleased the lord
but you don't really care for music do ya
Well it goes like this the fourth the fifth
the minor fall and the major lift
the baffled king composing hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah

Well your faith was strong but you needed proof
you saw her bathing on the roof
her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
she tied you to a kitchen chair
she broke your throne and she cut your hair
and from your lips she drew the hallelujah.

Hallelujah,hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah

Baby I've been here before
I've seen this room and I've walked this floor
You know, I used to live alone before I knew you
And I've seen your flag on the marble arch
and love is not a victory march
it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah

Hallelujah,hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah

Well there was a time when you let me know
what's really going on below
but now you never show that to me do you
but remember when I moved in you
and the holy dove was moving too
and every breath we drew was hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah

Well maybe there's a god above
but all I've ever learned from love
was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you
And it's not a cry that you hear at night
it's not somebody who's seen the light
it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah

I was walking with Sergio at engineering school yesterday and he noticed the nice, over standard, treatment I am receiving there (here indeed).

It is almost two since I finished my PhD and over 3 years since the time I first left the school to work abroad. In the end they know, on the top of not being poor, I can go wherever I want, and I am very useful to the department.

I have being talking often with my old fellow Sergio. I first met him in the middle of the undergrad, at about 8 years ago. A poor guy from the middle of the north-east with a pretty interesting point of view from life. Life is to be lived, so, slow down.

He is now leaving to work at Nokia’s research centre in Manaus. It was, indeed a very hard decision to be made. It is not very clear the short-long terms advantages which will arrive from such decision. Even though, Nokia is Nokia in the end of the day…

Yes, it is gonna be a huge farewell party for this, also homeless, fella. The old song “hit the road jack and don’t come back no more”. We are all like this in the end. Who am I to say about the long and winding roads?

In the end I do believe that we must walk many roads to become a man.

He was supposed to become one of my partners in business. On the top of being a very intelligent guy he is also pretty smart. A witty negotiator (he learnt it chatting up girls) and reliable man.

Life was very though for him in the past years. Too much indeed. This all culminated in a lack of references and targets, what has led him to some very gray years. In this sense my friendship would have been more useful if I was closer in that time. But it comes the policy, do not interfere…

That is it. Friday night. I may go out a little bit to relax. I found the external world is not that bad, it is quite bearable in the end. Time to go out of the cave and hit the road…