I finished my 12^th grade in 1995 with the highest average in my class, which was 15/20 values, and entered the same year in a private University in Lisbon. I finished my 4-year University pre-Bologna course in “Informática de Gestão” (Management Computer Science) in September 1999 with an average of 14/20 values. In September 2012, I finished a Military Masters in “Guerra da Informação/Competitive Intelligence” (Information Warfare/Competitive Intelligence) with an average of 16/20 values.

People in my country often confuse my university in the 1990s, “Moderna”, with “Independente”. They were both closed by the government, but for different reasons. “Moderna” was one of the best private universities in Portugal at the time, and I don't regret having studied there.

At the end of my 2^nd year in University I had a nervous breakdown, because of my family mainly who ruined my entire life from the beginning, ending my dream — being the best of the best. I was carried to hospital by an ambulance and from that day on my life changed completely. Because of the psychiatric treatments, I spent most of my time sleeping and got a lot fatter and my marks went nose down, and I lost interest in almost everything. Currently, the relationship with my family is stable, being glad to have one.

In the 1990s, I did a lot of crap. Because I wanted to be the best of the best in my studies, I was a bad colleague and friend, hiding information from the other students. Decades have gone by, but there are still individuals who don't speak with me.

If I hadn't the breakdown, I would probably be the best student in my course, I ruined it all. I was so crazy that I thought about making the last two years in one, one year in the morning and one year at night. Of course, the university would have to approve. I even had two 20s before the breakdown, one in an exam and the other in a group essay.

In January 2001, after around one year unemployed, I got a part-time job at a supermarket as a cashier. The job isn't at the level of my education, but at least I have spare time for my hobbies. At work, I have to deal with all kind of people, from educated to savage beasts. And I see many bad things. I even see rich people who have very expensive cars that can spend €50 in shrimp and come up with a discount coupon of 10 cents for a very cheap product. There are also those who pretend to be friends and change the barcodes in products to steal the supermarket. I also see grocers attempting to buy all products (leading to stock rupture), when there are discounts, to sell the products at their stores at a much higher price.

At the end of August 2001, I was accepted for a Masters in “Gestão de Sistemas de Informação” (Management of Information Systems) in ISCTE. In 2002, I had to suspend my studies because I only had time to study and work and couldn't enjoy life nor work on things I had planned a long-time ago. Also, my part-time job was affecting my studies, as it consumed too much time (extra-hours) and caused a lot of psychological stress. I got into a big depression and got a medical leave.

I decided to stop my studies for at least one year and invest the loan I got from the bank to pay my Masters in more profitable things, such as opening my own company. I could invest all the money in University and end my course bankrupted, or I could invest it in a business and end rich and get rid of stupid jobs and start working for myself. I did start a company but, due to lack of money, I had to dissolve it in the Winter of 2003. What was sad was that I invested lots of cash and lost it all, but it was one more experience to add to my life.

In December 2005, I paid the entire Masters loan (what was left of it) to join more money every month. There was still a reasonable amount to pay, but I decided it was better that way.

One day at work in 2007 there were discounts if paying with the supermarket card starting at 7pm. A family went to my checkout and asked: “Is it already 7pm?” and when I replied “yes”, the old man got angry and shouted: “Then hurry because we want to catch the bus”. In such a day, all customers would stop in front of the checkouts looking at their watches, waiting for the discount time. This really annoys me. I am also tired of customers wanting everything for free.

In April 2008, I got into a new stage of my life. I finally realised that having a regular life in this planet was silly and useless, leading nowhere. In a regular full-time job I would probably work 12 hours a day and earn around €700 and a house rent costs around €500, plus €100+ for food and €50+ for transportation. This means it is useless to work in full-time. My only escape would be to win the National Lotto or the EuroMillions and retire. Only this way, my life would have a reverse. The hard facts of life is that my father was Director in a bank before he retired, and he is poor, which means that working hard is useless. If dad was a Director and is poor, how can I in a regular job become rich? I guess “work is a necessary evil”.

On 8.May.2008, I started taking Centrum vitamins to attempt to get back into shape. Hopefully, within a month or two, I would start feeling and looking better.

(Marco depressed on 8.May.2008)

At the end of May 2008, I got a medical leave. I was feeling exhausted, and my nervous system was all affected. I was working too much at the supermarket doing lots of extra-hours, most of the time without even going to the toilet nor have a small break. I have done 7 hours without going to the toilet. I couldn't take it any longer, and strange thoughts were crossing my mind. I asked my superiors for one or two extra days off so that I could rest, but they replied with a “no”. I even attempted to buy the days off and the answer was: “They are not for sale”. I was always doing my best at work, but no one ever valued my hard work. If I asked for extra days off is because I was really in need. I couldn't take it any more, and the only solution was to increase my medication and a medical leave. The only reason I didn't take my life was because it is risky to replace the known with the unknown.

In July 2008, I got a new insight. A couple at work told me about a Masters in a military institution. At first, I didn't seem interested, but I looked for more information about it and started feeling thrilled. I decided that in 2009 (planned one year ahead) I would apply for the Masters. This would allow me one year to prepare myself and, if I was accepted and had good marks, maybe the government would invite me for a job. This could change my life for the better if everything went out well.

In July 2009, one year later, I applied for the Military Masters and, after a lot of anxiety, I was accepted in August. Classes began in October. Finally, I had the chance of doing something to improve my life. I found a third family. Maybe two years from then I would be at a higher position in the HQ of the supermarket or in another job more related to my academic background. The name of the course is “Guerra da Informação/Competitive Intelligence” (Information Warfare/Competitive Intelligence).

This military course, also open to civilians, isn't about guns nor killing people. It is more like staying in front of a computer, which I already do at home, applying the military concepts to enterprise information management and decision-making.

On 9.Nov.2009, a supermarket customer, André, told me: “Study a lot to know little. If you study little, you won't know anything”.
 

Marco studying on 25.Nov.2009 The same friend, André, told me at the supermarket on 28.Dec.2009: “Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day”.

At classes, I learned an important military information which I am sharing here, the “Level of Threats” aka “Threat Spectrum”:
 

Paulo Viegas Nunes taught at the Military Academy in 2010: “States need to win always, while terrorists need to win only once”.

In February 2011, I made a Lotto society with dad to attempt to win the National Lotto. I called it “The Pintos' society”. This way, it was cheaper to gamble.

In March 2011, after 10 years working at the supermarket, more and more I realised how bad people really are. At work, I had to deal with lots of crap and met some of the most disgusting and rude people ever. I have seen people trying to take advantage of others, pretending they didn't know things or that they wanted to help. There are people who will never be able to use cards correctly, always making manual payments which take a lot of time and make the people in line angry at the cashier and not at the real responsible for the situation. I am also tired of old people always in a rush to catch the bus, but who can spend 10 minutes looking at the receipt to check if they were “cheated”.

In March 2011, the Santa Casa changed the way of working of the National Lotto, making my Lotto software useless and a lot harder to win the first prize. But, in April, I improved my Lotto software to make it work with the new National Lotto. Although I didn't have enough draws for statistics and the price of the bets had risen, I decided to give it a try. To win the first prize is hard because of the “lucky number” but the second prize was tasty as well.

At the end of October 2012, I caught some cold and got a sore throat followed by a respiratory infection. I couldn't breathe and went to hospital on 30.Oct.2012 and got a medical leave for two weeks. The night before going to hospital, I only slept two or three hours because, every time I lay down in bed, it would become harder to breathe. At the hospital they did several exams, including blood test and x-rays and a strange machine with a device connected to my finger which was giving many strange values up and down.

(photos dated from 30.Oct.2012)

In the Christmas of 2012, Professor Carvalho Rodrigues offered me two gifts: a t-shirt and a book. The t-shirt had written “Cyberwarrior” and had underneath the Information Metric:

(photo dated from 25.Dec.2012)

On 1.Sep.2013, I officially changed my timetable at work, from 25/hours week to 16/hours week, just working on the weekends. I thought this would be a good way of getting some extra time for studying and for my hobbies. The difference in income isn't that much, since on Sundays the supermarket pays double and, in my previous timetable, I was off on Sundays. Now I would only “suffer” two days and have five free days for everything else.

On 1.Oct.2013, I got a second job at Corporate Education (IPAM/IADE) as a Moodle Manager. I was invited by Administrator FC, who said I would only have to go to the university physically once or twice a week, and the rest was telework. I already had some experience in Moodle as a student in my Masters, and now I would only have to see things from the inside part. I adapted myself very quickly to this task and spent several hours a day inserting courses/teachers/students and giving them credential and associating them to the courses. Then, the tasks started increasing and increasing, and the income low, being an abuse from the university.

On 14.Jan.2014, I received the results from the PhD scholarship I had applied for in 2013 from FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) and the e-mail said that my project wasn't considered a priority. I received the news days later that 92% of the candidates didn't get a scholarship due to budget restrictions. I guess I would apply again for 2015. The good thing about this is that I would have an extra year to develop my project and thesis.

At the end of April 2014, I contacted Instituto Superior Técnico university asking for Information about how to do a research PhD without going to classes and just defend my thesis. I was told that I could pay two years of tuitions and propose myself to exam. After some days meditating about it, I decided that I wouldn't apply again for a scholarship because it was almost impossible to get it. What I would do is, after having my thesis and project ready, I would get a bank loan and pay to propose myself to exam.

On 30.Nov.2015, I stopped working for the university as an international group bought the universities and, in the new university of the group (Europeia), there was already someone taking care of the e-Learning platform which was no longer Moodle but Blackboard. The two years that I worked for the university were good for my CV.

On 26.Mar.2017, I had an accident at work after slipping in a cloth hanger and trying to hang to the POS, falling all twisted. As a result, I dislocated my left shoulder and was on a medical leave for around three months. The doctor wanted to make surgery to the shoulder, but I asked for a second opinion, who said it was unnecessary. This injury represented the end of my dream of one day returning to karate, and I must do physiotherapy for the rest of my life.

The doctor ended my leave on 17.Jul.2017, even though the physiotherapist reports said I had limitations and that it would require more treatment. Now I would pay the sessions myself. On that date I got a temporary incapacity of 15% and, a few days later, the main doctor gave me “cured with devalorisation”.

It took a year to be called by Work Court. The insurance company gave me a permanent incapacity of 2% and the court expert 3%. Without reaching an agreement, I went to Medical Court on 1.Jun.2018. They examined the area and noticed the muscles were solid (because for a year that I had been doing physiotherapy at home) and kept the 2%. I lost this battle.

(photo dated from 5.Apr.2017)	Magnetic resonance — 20.Apr.2017 (click on image to enlarge)