The blog

Picture me: about 39 years old, didn’t do much sports throughout my life, perhaps a few football games, squash or tennis with friends. Did start a bit of strength training in 2019 and some results are visible, but nothing spectacular.

I loved the idea of hikes and nature, but the idea of going for a 4 hour hike appalled me.

I loved the idea of looking good, but the idea of the pulling weights at the gym also discouraged me.

I loved the idea of staying healthy, but the idea of running every day seemed not only counter-productive but also contrary to what I have been raised to believe: “one should not run after buses and women, there will always be another”. I extrapolated that to “one should not run”. Smart, right?

But I always had this idea on the back of my mind that I want to be healthy, full of energy and fit.

“My goal is no longer to get more done, but rather to have less to do.” – Francine Jay

Felt like my website got stale again, so it was time to bring it a 2024 design, again inspired from about.me, which does a fantastic job at presenting one self in a simple and clear manner.

Basically, even though I dream about being a writer, I am actually very far from being one. So I felt like the serif font doesn’t suit reality. My reality. And which font is the best sans-serif font? Well, for me is Inter.

Just discovered this Meta-Analysis paper about Nutrition and Exercise Interventions to Improve Body Composition for Persons with Overweight or Obesity Near Retirement Age.

I’m nowhere near retirement age, but my logic is that if the results of the study are valid for people aged 55-70, then it’s described effects have to be much more accelerated for younger people.

Whenever automating something while working with Docker containers, you might want to execute some script inside one of your containers.

And then the fun starts.

All the documentation online will tell you that you have to run something like:

docker compose exec [container] [command]

Which is fun and all, but it isn’t anywhere close to something like:

docker compose exec [container]
$ [command]

I have a long term itch that I kept wanting to scratch. Now it’s finally worth it.

For a long time I’ve been dreaming about having my entire digital life stored locally, within my possession. I always thought about it more like a personal backup, which wasn’t a big-enough pain to determine me to do it, until the rise of GPT products.

ChatGPT and the AI boom means that right now, you can ask questions about your data and get quick and accurate responses, and, very soon, we’ll be able to spot trends and analyze data in a way that hasn’t been possible before. At least not in a personal way.

There are so many storage options out there that it’s very easy not only to store your files, but also to loose track of them.

Here’s one use case for AI (as in ChatGPT): summarizing meetings.

Jekyll is a great piece of software, it enables users to generate static website from simple Markdown files like this one.

The only downside?

After adding all the features and “everything but the kitchen sink” in my website, I simplified it so much that it doesn’t even need a navigation menu.

I do understand the need for OTPs (One Time Password). It’s a very easy way to confirm the identity of a user using a different medium. And the key here is the word confirm, because it’s not an actual password, just a simple way to confirm an existing authentication.

It’s a sunny day, last day of April. I’m in a transfer van from Recreation, on my way to Budapest airport to get a plane to Lisbon. I’m looking forward to an even warmer Spring in Portugal.

There’s one more sunset of 2021, and I’m aiming at getting some mind space for a retrospective of the year that passed.

Despite the plague, which is still rolling around, it’s been a good and full year.

I’ve been blessed with a lifestyle that I could only dream of, enjoying sunny and warm days, amazing views, delicious food and doing plenty of what makes me happy.

Plenty of activities, trips, new friends and new experiences. I can only hope that 2022 brings more of each.

I understand that everything changes, and things left by themselves tend to go from bad to worse, but what I intend on keeping is my positive attitude towards life, my laughs and smiles, and keeping up the good work.

As I rarely have vacations, this week feels a bit weird. There’s nothing that I have to do. Of course there’s plenty that I can do, but nothing urgent, nothing important. I guess it’s a good time for some downtime and reflection.

And Netflix. The Witcher and Outlander.

And PlayStation. For the last few years I played one single-player game per year. Head to tails, in a few weeks.

So I finally made some updates on my site to make it more appealing (for me, at least). Two main things are worth mentioning.

I often find myself getting involved into project, hobbies, jobs, relationships, adventures. Challenges of all types, from financial to finding time to meet with quality people. I love it and it gives me a sense of living a full life.

Started my day at 7am, to get on top of things and prepare a few Google Ads copy variation for my Ads meeting coming up soon. I see a lot has changed since I last ran my Google AdWords campaigns, now we have three headlines and two long descriptions. Moving up, I see!

Monday morning. It’s a quarter after 8. Dew drops give me the impression that it’s raining, but the sky is almost clear so I’m looking forward to a beautiful and sunny day in Lisbon.

It’s Saturday morning. I hear the raindrops falling on the window sill, while I take a sip of coffee. Another rainy day of Frebruary in Lisbon. It’s been almost two weeks since I stepped outside. Somehow, as careful and responsible I’ve been with hygiene, I managed to get the shiny new Corona plague that’s been going around. Around the planet I mean.

It’s a new year, so a good opportunity to try out new organizing tools and techniques to improve time management and, of course, my peace of mind.