Pepe's dreams

April is over (and May is going fast!)

2009-05-17T14:24:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy month. Things are getting interesting at work. Some deadlines are approaching and there is the general feeling that we have to get really good results in these times of uncertainty

Also... I moved to a new apartment! The nice thing about it is that I got a small attic! I always wanted to have a crazy room where to set a small lab. It's a tiny space where to read, listen to music and, who knows, maybe in the future, play drums :)

Also the new house has a small patio where we are trying to grow tomatoes. It's fun and, given how much I like gazpacho, it's going to be a big help in my domestic economy :)

The patio seems to be a nice place for picnics ... when it's not raining. I haven't tried the 'typical American' barbecue yet, but I'm considering buying a grill, what do you think?

Talking about food we had the annual Spanish tapas competition. This time was out of control, more than a hundred people was there... By the way, our pulpo didn't win :)

In the mean time I got some time to travel to Philadelphia/Washington. I liked both cities a lot... They made me remember how small my world is in Pittsburgh :)

These are the only cities I have visited in the USA in the last two years, apart of New York... and I would recommend them. The museums in Washington are amazing and Phillie still keeps that special charm of the old times capital. I was able to watch one NBA game at the end: cavaliers vs 76ers. I couldn't resist the temptation of taking this photo for the patanegras , but I forgot to show at least part of the arena... so they won't believe I was there :)

Latest book acquisitions: "Marathon: the ultimate training guide" and "Flatland: A romance of many dimensions"... Did I say I want to run a marathon? but preferably over flat terrain :) I 'd like to have time to train during these warm months...let's see

Still not warm

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

We are now in April but still no warm weather in Pittsburgh. And today it's snowing again!

I guess it has been some weeks of contrasts lately. I had to go to Florida during 10 days for a data collection project in my job. It was an interesting place: a orange field with nice weather and some friendly alligators :o) So many hours of experiments... but a good way to remember real engineering work after the PhD!

Then, after returning to Pittsburgh, more changes. We have decided to move to another apartment in Lawrenceville, a quite peculiar neighborhood in Pit. It's one of the more dynamic areas in the city, and it's growing really quickly (in part due to the construction of the new and huge Children's Hospital in this zone).

-By the way, the photo above was taken in the limits of Lawrenceville but pointing towards downtown... so don't worry, I'm not moving into a skyscraper yet :) -

Finally, but not less important... I bought a bike! It is gonna make commuting way easier now that (hopefully) warm weather is close. Do you like it?

For all of you in Spain: Enjoy the Holy Week! I miss the massive vacations, even if they cause traffic jams :)

Nice weekend...

2009-03-16T17:01:00.000-07:00

This weekend something new... I tried "american" food at the end! Those pierogies are not bad!!

And a good play for desserts!

Paella

2009-03-08T12:56:00.000-07:00

I have to say that I cannot complain about anything in my life in Pittsburgh...

But sometimes I miss Spain... I've heard that space is relative, and things cannot travel faster than light. But maybe in Malaga space is bigger and light is brighter :)

So those days in which I find myself thinking about Spain I cook... and it works!! It makes me feel closer to the Mediterranean...

Today I cooked a paella. It wasn't bad considering how difficult it is to find good ingredients :)

One music recommendation for today: Weather with you. Enjoy the Sunday!

The adventure starts.... again

2009-02-28T09:50:00.000-08:00

Well, this is my first post after a while...

Many things've happened in the meantime. Too many to tell now :)

The result is I'm back in the USA, this time as a worker in here (it's not bad to work after 30 years studying, right? :) ). Pittsburgh, the IRON city. Plenty of excitement, challenges... and dreams!

I'll let you know all the new things around here. But, by the moment, here there is a couple of books that helped me in this part of my live trip:

The last lecture... How much possitive energy in just one person. Thanks Pausch for teaching us what a true professor does.
A cien millas de Manhattan. Never underestimate what a open-minded person willing to talk with people and curious about a new culture can manage to do. I never read a better description of the pleasure in discovering a different world than yours. Thanks, to this Gomaespuma man again (even if the gomaspuenglish lessons weren't very helpful :D).

I also have to say that I continue missing my friends an family!! :)

See you here soon!

EDITED: Happy Día de Andalucía to everybody!

Still here :-)

2007-04-07T18:10:00.000-07:00

Today I realized that it has been more than one month since I don't send any post to my blog. Time goes too far!! I've spent more than 1/3 of the time I'm gonna be in Pittsburgh...

Lot of things happened in this period of time. For example, Saint Patrick's day, the most known Irish party, also here. I went to a Irish pub, with live Celtic music... and a lot of guiness! :-) I also visited the Heinz Theatre to listen to a concert called "Viva España" (funny, I had to came USA to listen El Concierto de Aranjuez -among other Spanish music- interpreted by a guitar player from Malaga) The theatre is amazing, I'd like to go again...

But now time to work arrived... I've a deadline next Friday. It's for an important conference and... it's gonna be in Rio de Janeiro! It would be nice to go there, isn't it? But I don't now if I'll be on time. The new stuff I'm working on here still needs some improvements.

So... sorry for not writing a lot... I'll get more free time soon to tell you all my adventures in this city, the one with the most strange weather I've ever seen :o) We got a 25 celcius degrees drop in one day this week (sunny into snowing...in April!)

Hope it was a great Holly Week (Easter) for everybody there.

Weekend!

2007-03-04T16:14:00.000-08:00

Just because in my last posts I was talking to much about books, maths and other non-important stuff, I don't want my friends/family to think I'm getting ill, old or something like that...

So here they are some notes about my activities this weekend...

First, let me talk about the W. Penn Tavern . It has been our meeting point for the spanish guys since I arrived. Here you can have a beer (I prefer yuengling by the moment :-)) , have dinner or spend your time in an interesting conversation with some natives :-)

You can easily recognize spanish people in the photos: they are not watching basketball on TVs. Thanks to Xavi and Nuria, they were the only posing for the photo.

Later we went to ... the firehouse! A disco where to dance a lot and recover energy for the next week. It's a nice place (but I still prefer some places in Malaga). The ride was thanks to a Pitt friend (whose name I can't spell yet) He is one the nice persons we met here, who knows more about spanish soccer and painters than me. Like an european born in USA, he has a volkswagen. In the photo, he is thinking the police is coming after seing the flash... But no, we didn't finish in jail. Anyway I'm not going to publish photos of what the spanish squad did in the disco later :-) Good parties remain secret...

I hope all of you are OK in Spain... Family, I know it was a hard week; I miss you. Take care :-)

Squaring the circle

2007-03-04T13:43:00.001-08:00

(NOTICE: This is a hard reading blog entry, written after some days of few sleeping. Maybe you should jump to next one :-) )

Have you ever think about the motivations for doing something? I found myself some nights ago thinking why I choosed my job, the activity I spend most the time in my life. It's not a easy question, specially taking into account that one week ago I realized that I have an 15% salary drop starting this year! I don't believe this the best way to motivate a worker considering it's the result of a contract improvement (now I'm a formal University employee)... but anyway, let continue with the topic of this post.

Probably it's a sequence of coincidences what made me to follow this way. But one thing I'm sure is that I've been always interested in exact sciences and engineering. Why? I really don't know. I guest it should be because of the need all people have of finding something absolute, any truth. As Einstein said: "Our situation on this earth seems strange. Every one of us appears here, involuntarily and uninvited, for a short stay, without knowing the why and the wherefore."
It doesn't mean I don't like humanities. "In our daily lives we feel only that man is here for the sake of others, for those whom we love and for many other beings whose fate is connected with our own" is the second part of Einstein's paragraph I also agree with. But given that I don't have any religion or any hardcoded belief, I think I was biased toward exact sciences. Maybe it's just curiosity or maybe is the need of understanding what we are and which are the ultimate laws behind the universe (and ourselves as part of it). And engineering is the practical part of this, covering the need of doing things and leaving our small personal mark.

I think this is a common question for human beings. As said, probably many people solves this by means of the religion; in this way, they get an absolute reference, a fundamental truth which is the reason and the goal of their lifes. But other persons had tried to get this truth by their own means.

What the hell is the relation between pi and all of this stuff?!!, you may be wondering :-)

I think pi is a perfect example of this, a "small" truth (meaning just a number) that is there and that many good scientists have been trying to analyze since men are men. "If you divide the circumference of a circle between its diameter you get a constant number". As cutting as many of the geometrical laws. This constant was not denoted by the symbol pi until the 18th century, but it has been there forever and you cannot avoid it. But why 3.14159265358979323846...? Which kind of number is pi? Even Babylonians and the Egyptians knew more about pi that is mere existence.

"An history of pi" is an interesting book because is a different approach to mathematics and science, different from the unrelated views I had for maths concepts in the several courses I received. It's a history about thinkers, builders, navigators and madmen looking for an absolute concept they needed.

And it also was interesting to read many of the historical comments by the author, Petr Beckmann. He was born in Prague, but in 1963 he came to the United States and he has stay here since them. As a person just arrived here is interesting to know part of the cultural vision of people at this size of the Atlantic ocean. This is the part related to humanities:-) There are some ideas of his vision for the Roman Empire I'd like to discuss with my friend Francis, a classical history hobbist (and also capable of running the marathon :-) )

By the way... new activities for next week... I bought sport shoes yesterday... you could probably find me running by Shadyside some day :-)

Reading

2007-03-04T11:17:00.000-08:00

As part of my "mind refreshment" here in Pittsburgh I promised myself that I was going to read a lot. I actually read a lot at work but this time I mean reading true literature, not just scientific papers. It's a good habit which I've been losing probably in the last years.

And I think my first book choice was a good one. I read "An history of pi" last weekend. Yes...pi, the number. You must say: "well, man, you've completely lost your sense of having fun in America reading math stuff after work" :-) Maybe it's true but keep on reading...

When I was 16 1/2 I read a clever small book called "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4" (wikipedia reference). It a funny diary of a boy who is discovering the world. Adrian's life was a disaster, a quite strange teen life, including, of course, an impossible love for his classmate Pandora or problems with the school thug. So he decided to change everything and became an ‘misunderstood intellectual’ and tortured poet :-) The most interesting parts of the novel are the continuous references to the books Adrian is reading. Comic situations are originated when Adrian is objectively describing what he doesn't understand but that the reader grasps, oftenly through these books he is reading. An example: "Finished Animal Farm (...). From now on I shall treat pigs with the contempt they deserve". Most of then are related to political satire or the changes he is seeing in his family.

Said that, think about me as an older Adrian Mole still trying to understand the world. So what has "An history of pi" has to say about me? Coming in the next post :-)

More about Carnival

2007-02-24T14:41:00.000-08:00

Spain is said to have a lot of parties...But the one I most like is Carnival. It's a time when irony and popular art invades streets. All people is joking, singing, showing his most strange side. And it's all about the people you are with, laughing at life, problems and monotony...

All what you need is some old clothes, maybe practise some songs (if you don't mind to sing in front of a lot of people), and feel like having fun.

I think this year I missed a good Carnival year, even in my very small village. I was told that it all started with the opening speech by a famous contestant (called Moritz) in the TV show "Operacion Triunfo" (the origin of American Idol)

And a good exercise we do is to criticize what we don't like... about politics, life, ... If its done in a constructive way is something that can help us improve, and when is said in a polite and funny way is easier to accept our errors. As usual, younger people tried to put spice in the party this year.

It's nice to have news from home! I miss you all :-)

Skiing? Well, just falls in the snow

2007-02-24T12:01:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was my very first time in the snow, and don't ask about my back after that! :-) But I had to do it. I had to take advantage of Pittsburgh's weather since I can't go beach here. Thank you a lot to my skiing teachers Coro and Esther; I wasn't a good pupil but I'll try my best next time.

Another reason to go skiing was to stop thinking in Cadiz Carnival. This is the first time in several years I don't go to Cadiz to be in the greatest party all around the world :-) Some of my friends were there and I think they enjoyed a lot... Maybe next year :-) sniff

The adventure started!

2007-02-19T20:20:00.000-08:00

Time goes fast! I can't believe it, but it all began 3 weeks ago... But let me start from the beginning.

Last year, I applied for a short stay in the USA (the University of Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh to be more precise) as part of my PhD studies. At the end of December I got the answer: it was accepted! On Jan 29 I was on a plane on the way to Pennsylvania. And 21 days later, here I am, about 4000 miles from home :-)

What has happened since I left my sunny country? Well ...a lot :-)

First, I must say I'm getting used to cold (very cold) weather quite well for the moment. For a person who only saw snowing for twice in Spain, to be at 5 degrees Farenheit can be an "interesting" experience. The deep cold wave Pittsburgh had (the worst in several years I was told) was part of my training :-)

Another big change was understanding what distances are in an american city. Pitt has half the population of Malaga, the city I usually live at. But getting anywhere by foot can be a complicated question. As many places in America, small houses are the most common buildings here and that makes the urban areas to have a great extension.

The solution... to find an apartment near the University. All the spanish guys here recomended me one neighborhood: Shadyside. Its a quiet place, with some shops near. So, it's the place where I live.

I don't forget my first week in a short term accomodation, a room in Mrs Meyers' house. I don't have to say how nice she is... you can see that by yourself in the photo. For a foreign person as me just arrived, her advices and attention were priceless.

What about "Pittsburghese people"? Believe me...I don't know what idea you have about American people, but I can ensure you that here there is really good people :-) And also there is a fascinating mixture of races and cultures that makes it more interesting. For the Spanish or spanish-speaking visitor (and in general, for every being interested in having a nice time), an essential reference are "Los de Pata Negra"... they make our lifes better and happier :-) Gracias!

I don't want to finish this first chapter of my american adventure (I hope not the last) without talking about what in fact took me here. My work... all I can say is that if you like research, if you are hungry for knowledge, and, why not, if you are a little bit geek, CMU is your place. I am in a quite big group of young people (almost all of them spanish) under the direction of Fernando de la Torre... all of them are great. I'll try to do my best ... dont you think that we must always keep growing? That makes our lifes more interesting :-)

Well, I almost forgot it. Happy new year...the pig's one, isn't it? Stay tunned... more adventures to came!

First post

2007-01-15T07:55:00.000-08:00

This is my first blogging experiment :-)
I'm a PhD student, working on Computer Vision, in the University of Málaga. My hobbies are computers, Linux and basketball.
In this blog I'll try to describe personal and job experiences.