Stay Grounded

Now

Updated on March 8, 2026

Santa Cruz, CA. Eating a breakfast burrito.

What am I up to right now? That’s the question you have wondered since you landed on this page, unless you aren’t familiar with /now pages. In such a case, it’s simple. This page is about what I am currently doing in multiple aspects of my self-being. It provides a broader snapshot, a moment in a larger timeframe of my current situation, both physically and mentally, than any updates on my social media.

Thanks to Derek Sivers for bringing up the idea of having a /now page! You can read more about this concept in the following link: this “Now” page.

So, what am I up to?

Life (New Update!)

  • I moved to San Diego, California, on December 1st.
  • Is it permanent? I don’t know. I know that I like it here. I have some travels plan tho in May, but I will leave most of my stuff at a storage unit here in San Diego. So in May I will go on a month or two road trip, and then potentially will get back to San Diego.
  • Where are you traveling next? I am planning a road trip to…drum roll… Alaska! I’ve always had this trip in the back of my mind for many years. Now the time has come to make it happen.
  • Would you be sharing your trip on social media? I am not sure. I’ve been distancing myself from posting on my IG account, although I still consume content from there. I’ve been thinking about using the “travels” category of my blog more to post more frequently about my whereabouts. Maybe I can use IG to casually share stories. I still need to make up my mind in this matter. Meanwhile, I like to enjoy the present moment.

What other things am I doing?

  • Learning Chinese. Beginner level: 你好！I am gradually learning to write as well and to recognize characters and sounds.
  • Brushing up my French. Once a week, I take an hour or so to learn French. I haven’t been able to keep up practicing French…I need to find a more efficient way to do this.
  • I met some wonderful people here in San Diego. Two of them were my roommates, with whom I hang out sometimes. With one of them, I play tennis regularly once a week and go to watch some movies at the movie theater. With the other one, I go hiking and get breakfast sometimes. Another person whom I met at the climbing became my climbing partner. Thanks to him, I get to practice lead climbing, and we are planning to start going rock climbing outdoors!
  • Gradually embracing the barefoot movement and replacing my footwear with ones that are better adapted to my natural foot shape.
  • Exploring the car camping world and making some initial steps to have my car adapted for it.

Travel (New Update!)

  • Do I have any future travel plans in the coming months?
    Yes…I am planning a road trip to the northwestern part of the US. Alaska! It’s gonna be epic! I am very excited about it.
  • Am I traveling right now? No. My Alaska trip will start in May.
  • Where have I been recently? I made a short road trip from Santa Cruz when I was moving to San Diego. So I drove first, a little north east of Santa Cruz to Grass Valley, CA, to meet up with a friend for lunch.

    I headed to Reno from there and then south to South Lake Tahoe, where I stayed for a night. It was windy and snowy. Some of the road passes were sketchy and dark. Made it safely to Tahoe. I kept going south on the road of the eastern Sierra of California. Near Mammoth Lake, I spent an afternoon soaking in a natural hot spring. It was beautiful out there, surrounded by snow while being warm in the little pool hole. Stayed for a night.

    I made my way to Manzanares to pay a visit to the Japanese Memorial. Then I crossed Death Valley. It was surreal. The dense fog, the landscape, the sand. This was my second time driving through Death Valley, but this time it was a completely different sight because days before, there were intense rainy days when going through that desert. I found another natural hot spring that required crossing a super muddy trail. It was worth every inch of mud.

    Got to Joshua Tree, and I spent a night out there. Went for a short hike in the darkness of the night brighten by the reflection of a full moon. The next morning, I headed to Bombay Beach and dug Slab City. I met a few interesting people.

    Eventually, I reached San Diego.

Pursuits (New Update!)

  • Running
  • Climbing
  • Yoga/Pilates
  • Surfing

Running

Last year I had a goal of finishing my first 50km race…unfortunately I got injured and couldn’t make that happen. I got injured in July 2025, and since then, I have been recovering from my runner’s knee. Now, I start feeling that light at the end of the tunnel. I can run 10km at an easy pace without feeling any knee discomfort, so gradually I will start again building up my endurance. However, I don’t clearly see that I can make those 50km this year, to be honest.

Climbing

I got Lead Climb certified a month ago! This is opening a whole new world in the climbing atmosphere. I met a guy with whom I now regularly climb, and we are gonna start rock climbing outdoors. So excited!

Yoga/Pilates

I slowed down on Yoga and Pilates. As a matter of fact, now I don’t even do Pilates anymore. However, I go once or twice a week to Steven’s practice, which is 80% about myofascial release trigger points, and 20% of yoga. That’s perfect for me.

Surfing

I wasn’t surfing much when I first moved to San Diego. Now tho, I found a spot that I like around here, which I go to once a week. I am riding my mid-length board more often. That’s a fun board. Recently, I even got to duck dive that thing!

Books (New Update!)

Currently Reading:

  • TBD. I have a long list of books to read, and I am deciding which one to pick up next. I have some books in the storage unit, but I was also thinking about reading something about writing, art, or a growth mindset.

Recent Finished:

Next pick:

  • Not sure yet…

Thoughts

  • What keeps me awake?

The advancement of AI and its impact on the future of software engineer positions.

How to keep up with the other languages that I know to prevent forgetting them? Here I am talking about Portuguese and French.

Work

I am a software engineer at Flipboard. Check out my LinkedIn page if you are interested in knowing more about my professional career!

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