My other interests
- family
- i love music, both to listen and to play. i've been active in the music scene in montreal for the past 8 years. check out my current band: ecos de portoalegre. We just released our first album! BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT! :)
- some of my favourite composers and musicians: astor piazzolla, frank zappa, the beatles, tchaikovsky, chick corea, keith jarrett, herbie hancock, brad mehldau, pat metheny, john mclaughlin, bach, chopin, led zeppelin, and the list goes on...
- i am interested in and like to solve problems in topology and category theory. prakash gives me cool problems from time to time
- i enjoy graphic and web design (although it takes a lot of time).
- i like activism and politically active writers/thinkers/satirists such as Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Naomi Klein, Arundhati Roy, Joe Sacco, etc.
- i love to read, especially classics (they're classics for a reason) and religious/mythological epics. my favourite book is "Don Quijote de la Mancha" by Cervantes. other favourites are "Blindness" by José Saramago, "Ramayana" (Hindu epic), "The Iliad" and "The Oddyssey" by Homer, "Paradise Lost" by John Milton, "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- i also like to read philosopher's writings. here are some which who have written some things I enjoyed: descartes, schopenhauer, plato, kant, bertrand russell, ...
- i practice(d) capoeira, which is a brazilian martial art. i'm not very flexible but i'm working on it. check out my group: porto da barra
- i like to take pictures, you can see some of my pictures here
- i like the toilets in europe, they're the best i've encountered so far
- i like building stuff around the house
Contact
Email me at: pcastr AT cs DOT mcgill DOT ca
Here is my CV (in PDF format).