Hobbies, Interests, & Curiosities

Hobbies

Drawing

Drawing is a passion I acquired when I was still a kid. Watching animations like Dragon Ball, Knights of the Zodiac, Justice League, etc., I thought to myself, I want to be able to do that — and to this day, I still have the same thought hahahaha.

Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball
Zodiak Knights
Knights of the Zodiac
Justice League
Justice League

Reading

My love for reading started when I was a little guy who would sit beside my mom, asking her to read the Bible out loud and wanting to learn how to read myself. After I learned, I always loved the reading we did in class in subjects like Portuguese (my first language) and later English. As a child and teenager, I loved comics, especially the ones that made me question things I thought were important and whether they were really true. The first book I read without pictures was The Odyssey by Homer, and later The Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Dostoyevsky — who is now one of my favorite writers.

The Odysseys
The Odyssey by Homer
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Dostoyevski
Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

MMA

I discovered MMA through a friend from my previous church who practiced with another member who knew MMA and had taken classes all around the world. There, I learned the basics of stand-up and ground fighting. What I really enjoyed was Jiu-Jitsu and its submission (My favorite one was the kimura, hehe)

JiuJitsu
Jiu Jitsu
MMA
MMA
Boxing
Boxing

Interests

I've had many interests throughout my life, some are still with me, and others I've left long ago. My interests can be summarized are:

Anthropology (history, languages, cultures, and the human experience), Philosophy, Religions, and Technology.

History

Roman Empire
Roman Empire
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Discoveries Era
Discovery eras

Languages

Portuguese
Portuguese
English
English
Spanish
Spanish

Cultures

Bumba-meu-boi
Bumba-meu-boi
Dia de los Muertos
Dia de los Muertos
Encierro
Encierro

Phylosophy

Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
Aristotle
Aristotle
Plato
Plato

Religions

Cristianism
Cristianismo
Budism
Budism
Greek Mythology
Greek Mythology

Technology

AI
Artificial Intelligenge
Hardware
Hardware
Programming
Programming

Curiosities

I was a chubby kid from 5 to 10 years old. It only changed in Portugal, where I finally changed sodas for water and stopped eating so many snacks.

Sports

Childhood Sports: Futsal & Handball

As a child, even though I was chubby, I still loved playtime, especially when it involved running and jumping.

During my time in Portugal, I spent 1 year playing Futsal and 2 years playing Olympic Handball. While doing handball, before training I would play around with my friends all day—running a lot—then I would have handball training with both juniors and seniors (even though I was young, I was part of both teams because of my skills). The training sessions lasted about 2 hours, and after training, I would still run home—20 minutes of non-stop running.

In these two years of playing Handball, I participated in a few interschool championships.

1 Silver and 2 Gold Medals
Handball Medals

Calisthenics

Before the lockdown, I didn’t do many activities after moving to Ireland, but it (the lockdown) served as a spring, making me workout at home, doing calisthenics every day. After arduous training, I was able to go from an L-sit to a handstand in one move (0.5 seconds, but still hahaha).