| Biker:a) “A person whose lifestyle is centered on motorcycles, may be a member of an outlaw motorcycle club”b) “A person who rides a bicycle”
According to the dictionary there’s still somewhat of an aura of rebellion around bikers and their lifestyles but guess what? That definition doesn’t really cut it anymore, not by a long shot. All sorts of people choose to be bikers these days, from hippies to yuppies and lots of others in between. I’m known to do some ATB (XC and DH) so I guess according to definition b) I am a biker… ok, ok, just the bicycle kind But the bug’s still here, oooh yeah! I realized that last week when I was present at the “Moto Clube de Faro 2009″ (Algarve, Portugal). For those who don’t know what it is (shame on you!!!) it’s the most well-known portuguese biker international gathering and it’s pretty wild, I’ll tell you that much. Imagine around 20 000 bikes and 35 000 bikers plus tons of Algarve tourists and locals, throw in a spectacular summer weather, great beaches, great food, ice-cold beer and you get the idea! Even for those who don’t share my passion for bikes it’s still something worth seeing, no doubt. It’s a yearly event brilliantly put together by Moto Clube de Faro (http://www.motoclubefaro.pt/) for the past 28 years. Congratulations to them for yet another success! If you love the roar of superbikes, choppers or cruisers, be sure to be there next year! I know I will. And maybe next year I’ll make some roars of my own (it’s in the works, it’s never too late!)… who knows? In the meantime, take a look at my photo gallery in Flickr and watch Rui Santos Youtube video. |
Bikes, bikes and more bikes… 20 000, in fact!
July 24th, 2009
But as far as motorcycles are concerned I’ve always been just a “wannabe”. Somehow my wires kept getting crossed along the way and things went a different way.MyHeritage: Web 2.0 the family way
May 22nd, 2009
Web 2.0 has found its way into the family core. As it turns out it wasn’t that sudden but I just noticed, so it was news to me.
4 or 5 years ago I went to visit my godfather. He has travelled a lot and has had quite an adventurous life, full of stories and interesting things to tell. So it didn’t really surprise me that when I got there he was in the process of writing his “memoires”. It had been talked about before and I knew that one day he’d probably do it. As a side project he was also gathering all the information he could on the family genealogy. He was already half way through but I noticed he was having a hard time organizing the family tree in a more or less attractive way so that he could include it in the book that he would later on publish. He was drawing it by hand with a pencil and ruler but it was looking a bit sketchy and unfinished because of the constant corrections and additions. “This one died”, “this one’s birth date is wrong”, “this one’s no longer married to that one but now has a son from the other one”, “this one went to Brazil in the 50’s”… What an unfortunate task! Something definitely had to be done.
The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
May 16th, 2009
Randy Pausch was a Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He taught Computer Science and Human Computer Interaction. He past away in July 2008. I read about him in one of Pedro Catalão’s blog articles. Randy was a lecturer, a virtual reality (VR) and human computer interaction (HCI) expert. He was also one of the minds behind the Disney Imagineers, the group of people who are the creative and engineering force behind many of Disney’s rides and attractions.
Already in the terminal stages of pancreatic cancer (although no one could tell) on September 18, 2007 he gave a really inspirational, upbeat lecture to a 500+ people audience at the CMU entitled “The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” . It was his last one.
The video of that lecture was made available on Youtube. His lesson on life focused on achieving one’s childhood dreams. The simple yet profound significance of it really touched me. So much in fact that I couldn’t help but share this video with you.
SEO: basic nuts and bolts
May 14th, 2009
So your website’s online… Now what? Where’s the instant traffic spike? Where’s the cash? Where’s the fame, the fortune and the chicks?
If only it were that easy… I’m constantly being asked to help out with SEO so I decided to brush up on my skills and write this article along the way. It is a work in progress so I’ll be improving it constantly from now on. It’s not even near perfect, remember that, but I hope you find it useful.
It’s becoming increasingly clear these days that the “build it and they will come” approach simply doesn’t cut it anymore. You’ll have to give it a little more thought, put in a few more hours work and basically try to “pave the way” so that visitors will start coming in. At least that’s the plan. Yes, SEO is the name of the game. Its importance has grown massively over the years. That’s not even up for debate. But nowadays most people look at it as something mystical or magical along the lines of splitting the atom. It exists, it has powerful effects when it works and most of us don’t really know how or why. But like most things in life it is not that difficult to master the basics. Sure, you can hire top specialists and come up with intelligent, expensive and highly effective strategies. SEO is a vast area of expertise and if you want top results it is probably best to hire experts that can do it for you. If you have a choice, do it. But what about those who don’t? Should they just roll over and die? I, for one, don’t think so. There are lots and lots of layers to this SEO onion. This article only scratches the surface but I think there are some basic SEO rules and techniques most people can implement without having to go back to college, getting a double mortgage on the house or selling the dog. So, let’s see what the mere mortal has to know about SEO and what he can do about it…
Don't you just wonder sometimes why you got out of bed?
May 13th, 2009
Today I missed my train. I woke up, looked at the clock, still some time. Closed my eyes for a minute, woke up, thirty minutes had passed. I was late. Rushed out of bed, into the shower, barely time for clothes, no time for breakfast, grabbed my umbrella, called a cab while racing down the stairs. The cab took its time. I used my phone to check my emails. Answered one. Got into the cab, asked the man to hurry to the train station. Got there, forgot to bring change, 50€ bill only, the man got upset, I got upset. Paid the man. Entered the train station. No line to wait in, excellent. Got the ticket, rushed to the platform. The train had just left. I sent a text message warning I’d be late. Thirty minutes later I was on another train. I checked my email again, answered a couple more. An hour later I finally arrived. Another cab, another cabbie. The man didn’t know where the street was. He left for a minute to ask someone else. While waiting, I started fiddling with the phone’s GPS. I had never used it, didn’t help me much. No matter, the cabbie was back and he’d found out where the street was. I had an urgent appointment scheduled for early this morning. By the time I got there the person I was meeting with had left for other appointments. He sent me a text message re-scheduling our meeting for the next day. I called another cab and went back to the train station. Too early for the train back home. I waited for almost an hour. Used my phone to start jotting all this down. Got into the train, sat down, realized I’d forgotten my umbrella by the bench I was sitting on. Got up again, too late, the train was moving … I put on my earphones, pressed play and listened to soothing music all the way home. I did a lot today. And nothing got done.
Don’t you just wonder sometimes why you got out of bed?
