Nasceu!

"Pesando 315g e medindo 297x210 mm, nasceu ontem às 19h20 a Teoria de órbitas periódicas no espectro e condutância de grafos quânticos. O parto ocorreu através da nova impressora Xerox Phaser 4510DT na sala N223 do Instituto de Física.

Foi levada diretamente para a UTI neonatal, para tratar de alguns pequenos problemas de má-formação. Ainda na noite de ontem, já sofreu as primeiras cirurgias corretivas. Na tarde de hoje fará a primeira consulta com sua pediatra. A expectativa é de que ela esteja em boas condições em uma semana, quando será encaminhada, clonada, para seus padrinhos da Banca Examinadora.

O batismo está marcado para o dia 25 de agosto."

Batalha sem honra*

Havia planejado comprar ingressos do Alsdair Roberts na volta do treino de hoje. Estava pedalando no circuito da Beira-Rio, e dirigiria-me depois para a zona norte, então era caminho passar no Santander Cultural, na avenida Siqueira Campos.

Desmonto ao pé da escadaria, ponho a bicicleta no ombro, e me dirijo ao balcão de informações.

"Oi, por favor, ingressos para o Alasda..."
"Desculpe, mas não é permitido o ingresso de bicicletas."
"Eu só gostaria de comprar dois ingressos para o show do Alasda.."
"Perfeitamente, mas o senhor deve deixar sua bicicleta do lado de fora."

Pergunto se eles tem um bicicletário, a resposta é negativa. Argumento que é uma bicicleta de competição de alguns milhares de reais, e não seria sensato deixá-la na rua, mesmo que por poucos minutos. "Não posso tirar as rodas e entrar com ela desmontada?" Novamente, um não.

"Ok, tenha uma boa vida", viro as costas e vou embora, já arquitetando mil protestos contra uma instituição que não respeita ciclistas e formas alternativas de transporte, pensando em escrever para o jornal, montar uma manifestação, etc. Pego o carro, ponho a bike no porta-malas, e sem nem tirar o uniforme e o capacete, volto para o Centro. Estaciono e caminho até o Santander, subo a mesma escadaria, e tento de novo:

"Oi, por favor, ingressos para o Alasdair Roberts, desta vez sem bicicleta."
"Um segundo, vou chamar o rapaz que vende os ingressos."

Espero meio minuto, e o mesmo cara que havia negado minha entrada antes aparece de trás do balcão de informações, pergunta quantos ingressos eu quero, e daí me aponta para a entrada da mostra de sei-lá-o-quê que está sendo exibida lá. Já colocando os ingressos no bolso, explico que eu não queria ver a tal exposição.

"Eu só queria os ingressos mesmo, obrigado"
"Ahn? Desculpe, eu achei que você queria deixar a bicicleta aqui para entrar na mostra."
"Mas foi o que eu disse na primeira vez: ingressos para o show de domingo!"
"Mal-entendido. Claro que você poderia ter comprado os ingressos com a bicicleta antes. Desculpe novamente."

...

* "Battle without Honor or Humanity", do Tomoyasu Hotei.

Sunday as usual

Carol threw her first milestone party last Saturday, celebrating 80 days to go until she flies to Germany for her Ph.D. ( my own count stands at 92 - amazing how fast one hundred days have gone by). I left early and, although tempted, didn't join the rest of the gang who went out dancing. Rather, enjoyed the loneliness of a middle distance runner with a good night's sleep, and on Sunday morning, drove the break to the Clockwork Orange's second win in as many weekends. But if last Sunday was summer-like, winter more than made it up this time with proper grey background and a cold drizzle - so much the better, as this was my third victory in adverse weather in just over a year.

This evening I had the pleasure to enjoy a rock concert by Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band - a welcome addition to my list of indie rock bands I'm learning to enjoy. Thanks Carol and Kàzic for the suggestion and company. No Mulligan celebration today; drinking a glass of wine instead :)

- - -

My diss is almost there; just a tad short of 50 pages; still missing are the main discussion of my results and some further talk about the conclusions. I had originally hoped to hand it in last week, but failed after some catastrophic numerical woes took longer then planned to be solved (still an open question, working around it as we speak). The date of my defense has been set for August 25; the committee consists of Profs. Carolina Nemes (UFMG), Felipe Rizatto and Cristiano Krug (UFRGS). Also held interesting talks with the Optical Quantum Information Theory group in the University of Erlangen. While my application to Munich is still pending, Erlangen's friendly Prof. van Loock may just tip me to coming back to my "native" Mittelfranken. At any rate, there'll be some Bavarian beer down the road in the coming few months!

Wrapped up in books

The week went by almost too fast. Cloudy weather throughout, still managed a couple of good training rides; the weekend greeted us with warmer temperatures and blue skies, which made the almost 200km of riding a lot more pleasant. Almost finished with the second chapter on my thesis, to which I'm slightly behind schedule. I'm finding out that writing isn't as straightforward as I'd expected, but it should still come together just-in-time. It's one thing reading to convince yourself you have learned, it's quite another to be able to explain and justify the procedures involved - a most interesting experience.

Great concerts on Tuesday, when OSPA played Strauss to a full house in their last showing at the old Leopoldina theater, and yesterday with Ulbra's Chamber Orchestra playing Vivaldi to another crowded house. Great after-concert entertainment too: sushi with Luciana and Von Gehlen, and a full-blown night at the Mulligan Pub with Vi, Carol, Marilia, Pedro, Kázic, Spritzer and his German visiting student Sebatian to close down the Sunday evening in style.

My desk looks a mess with five books and about that many articles covering pretty much all its available surface. Still plenty to write to finish off this chapter, and it doesn't help that I've been daydreaming quite a bit along the way as some interesting perspectives can already begin to be seen in the near horizon. In the meantime, a certain schedule begins to dominate: I come from training to campus to home (with showers and food and the occasional ciesta in between) and repeat, with occasional get-togethers interweaved. Songs by Belle and Sebastian dominates the soundtrack, with Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, U2 et al mixed in (right now, I blog and write to the sound of Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony ). Though I'm slowly reminded that I must find time for some important, though seemingly non-essential activities, I find myself more and more absorbed by this vicious lifestyle... Cheers to that!