Everything you may want to know about me...
The struggle of the mind to keep itself free from every sort of bondage - to remain curious, open, unsatiated in all its relations with nature - is tenfold more difficult than the cultivation of a stable, satisfying point of view, but a thousandfold more precious." - Gardner Murphy
Who and where am I:
Name: Carlos Alberto de Jesus Gonçalves Paula
Simões
Date of birth: August, 3, 1966
Nationality: Torres
Novas, Portugal
Marital status: Married (with Ana Cristina) since December 1997. Two kids: a boy, born in February 1999, named José Carlos and a little girl, Cláudia, born in April 2001.
Current Postal Address: Azinhaga, Portugal
Curriculum:
- Former Portuguese Military Academy cadet;
- Environmental Engineering at Sciences and Technology College (University of Lisbon);
- Since 1992, Quality Control, Environmental Protection and Information Systems Director at Campil, Lda, a Portuguese food company;
- Since May 2006, appointed as a Golegã City Hall Councillor (in Portuguese, "Vereador").
More details in the "work" section in this website.
Interests:
- Politics;
- Society, sociology, psychology;
- Biology, Genetics, Anthropology;
- Universal History (ancient civilizations, the fall of the Roman Empire, the ancient Europe);
- Recreational Mathematics;
- Religion.
Hobbies:
- Reading... favourites are Saramago, Garcia Marquez, Jorge Amado, Tolkien;
- Web Design;
- Information acquisition, i.e., Internet furious browsing;
- Strategy computer games ("Age of Empires", "Homeworld", "Command 'nd Conquer");
- Movies ("Blade Runner", "eXistenZ", "Matrix", "LOTR"...);
- Humor (Rowan Atkinson's "Black Adder", Monty Python, "The Office");
- Chess (amateur level);
- Polite discussion amongst friends (and with others, see interview about Mensa in Portugal);
- Enjoying a nice quiet winter night at home with family;
- Photography;
- Occasionally, drawing and writing.
References:
- Book (portuguese): "Memorial do Convento" (Balthazar and Blimunda), José Saramago;
- Book (foreign): "One hundred years of solitude", Gabriel Garcia Marquez;
- Musics: "Comfortably Numb", Pink Floyd; "Stationary Traveller", Camel;
- Album: "The Wall - Live in Berlin", Roger Waters;
- Web Site: Clifford A. Pickover Adventures in Consciousness;
- Graphic Artist: Roger Dean (Yes, Asia).
Some quotations:
"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."- Alvin Toffler
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." - Robert Heinlein