Poala's blog!

You can't miss these (or at least I can't).

2010-12-10T22:33:00.002+01:00

Some time ago I posted a post regarding the software that can't miss on my computer.
I am updating the list as I am discovering more freewares and changing my needs.

Formatting is taking longer and longer because of the high amount of data to be backupped. And because of the number of softwares we use, and because of their increasing size due to their high performances. So, I have decided to post a list of the software I can't forget to install on my newly formatted computer with download links. In this way everytime I format I just have to read this post to dowload the most recent version.

What you should remember to backup:
1) ~~email messages~~ Use Gmail and save from the hassle!

2) documents
3) images
4) databases such as your book inventory or your CD and DVD inventory
5) ~~address book of your email client~~ Use Gmail and save from the hassle!

6) ~~favourite bookmarks~~ (Use the add-on Xmarks for browsers to have them stored on your personal account)

The softwares you will need

THE ESSENTIALS:
1) an OS (Operative System) according to your preference (get it before formatting)
2) an antivirus (get it before formatting so that you will install it before connecting to the internet for the first time), my favourite anitivirus is free and it's called Avast
3) a web browser to download the following softwares ;) I use Firefox

THE BASICS:
4) one or more antispywares such as Spybot Search & Destroy and Adaware
5) one cache cleaner, I use CCleaner
6) a PDF reader, I recommend to use Foxit which as the same functions as Acrobat Adobe but is free and lighter (unfortunately it has some troubles with Forms created with Acrobat)
7) A suite of programs to read and write word, excel, power points, access files. You can buy Microsoft Office or you can just download OpenOffice for free.
8) An email client if you don't use your webmail. I use Thunderbird for my secondary emails, just to check them simultaneously (always keep a copy of your emails on the server, so that you don't need to back it up). Thunderbird also offers superfast configuration of your gmail accounts.
9) Cellphone software. It depends on your cellphone brand. Mine is Nokia.
10) A software to listen to the music and to watch videos. My fave is winamp but I need iTunes to listen to some music I bought on their website. Winamp indexes your multimedia files and allow you to browse it, as well as to surf the web (as a built in browser) and look for radio broadcasting channels from all over the world. Use VLC for both audio and videos!

11) An IM (Istant Messenger) such as MSN Messenger, ICQ, etc. You can also get some multiple chat clients to have a single software for more than one community like IMO - it works from the web only (unfortunately it doesn't support file receiving from your accounts).

OTHERS I WILL FEEL THE NEED TO INSTALL SOONER OR LATER:
12) Some games. It's incredible how it is hard to find good games these days. They don't have to take all your screen nor 100% your attention, they shouldn't be flashy or noisy. Card games are the best, but there are some strategy games I love. Popcap Games has excellent games. They are not free but you can try them for a while before buying. My mom also plays Brickshooter , DxBall and Bubble Golden Pack 3.
13) ~~Jack SMS: for Italian users, it allows to send a limited amount of free texts.~~ Since Facebook, I don't need it anymore

14) Power DVD, a DVD player which allows double subtitles, very handful when it comes to learn a language throught movies. Not free but has a trial version. I have the full version because it came with my DVD burner.
15) AIDA 32 - it's a nice software which shows you how the space on your HD is allocated. You can easily individuate the bigger files.
16) DVD43 - free software that allows you to view DVD from multiple regions. Great deal!

17) A neutral screensaver such as Fliqlo, which shows the time in a old fashioned yet cool way
~~18) BsPlayer is a player which allow you to watch DiVx with subtitles (to be downloaded ina separated files)~~
19) an Italian-English dictionary with pronunciation, such as the Oxford-Paravia
~~20) Filezilla to easily upload via ftp you files on your webspace~~
21) Macromedia Dreamweaver & Fireworks. The first one is to edit/build webpages, the latter is used for the photo editing.
22) WordWeb is an English only dictionary which offers for free also synonims, nearest types and figured pronounciation. It's very light and easily to use. Just select the word you want to explore and click a combination of keys of your choice to open it. Now it features also a search on wikipedia. The software it's free, but there is also a Pro version for €19 which offers some more stuff.

New layout, same ol' stuff

2010-09-04T14:07:00.000+02:00

Today I came on my blog after a very long time.

You are not forgotten, my dear blog, I was just busing doing other stuff.

I come on blogspot and all sorts of pop-ups are popping-up (well, what else?), there are a gazillion of new features, among which lay maybe a hundred of different customizable layouts that doesn't require you to know a word (or a TAG) of HTML. I can't tell how much time I spent shuffling and browsing the various theme and colour combinations, anyway you can see the results for yourself, dear reader.

The only downside is that I came on blogspot for a reason, but I cannot recall what I wanted to write. So, just to keep this blog alive (better to say half-asleep) I am writing this post to simply say: new layout, same ol' stuff.

I write like....

2010-07-17T19:47:00.001+02:00

I write like
Dan Brown

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

2010-06-11T11:09:00.002+02:00

Guida a beneficio pubblico, dopo tre ore di smanettamento su Acrobat

Creare un modulo in PDF

Per realizzare un PDF compilabile è necessario avere Adobe Acrobat installato sul computer. La versione gratuita di Acrobat Reader consente solo di leggere e compilare i PDF contenenti moduli, ma non di crearli.

Per realizzare un PDF compilabile è necessario seguire tre semplici passi:
1) Creare il PDF di partenza
2) Inserire dei campi compilabili nel PDF esistente
3) Salvare il PDF con i campi

1) Creare il PDF di partenza

Esistono diversi modi per creare un PDF: si tratta di una semplice stampa su file che può essere realizzata da qualsiasi programma, a patto di avere la stampante PDF installata sul proprio computer, ad esempio doPDF v6.

In alternativa, se si utilizza un programma del pacchetto Office 2007 o superiore, è sufficiente salvare il file come PDF.

Piccola nota: se il vostro file di partenza contiene dei collegamenti ipertestuali (link, segnalibri, un indice con segnalibri, etc.), affinché tali collegamenti funzionino anche nel vostro PDF è necessario:
1) scegliere di salvare il file come PDF
2) Nella finestra di salvataggio, cliccare sul tasto Opzioni…
3) Nel pop-up delle opzioni, spuntare la casella Crea segnalibri utilizzando…
4) Confermare cliccando su OK e pubblicare il PDF.
Tale opzione è disponibile solo se il documento di origine contiene segnalibri.

2) Inserire dei campi compilabili nel PDF esistente

i. Aprire Acrobat

ii. Accedere al menù Moduli presente nella barra superiore di Acrobat, scegliere la procedura guidata oppure Aggiungi o modifica campi.

iii. In modalità modifica del modulo, scegliere Aggiungi nuovo campo e selezionare il tipo di campo da aggiungere, per esempio, Campo testo.

iv. Utilizzare le guide azzurre per posizionare il campo nel documento.

v. Il campo è ridimensionabile e se ne possono variare le proprietà (ad es. renderlo obbligatorio). Cliccare sul campo con il tasto destro e selezionare Proprietà per modificarne gli attributi.

vi. Proseguire all’inserimento dei campi desiderati. Sono disponibili caselle di controllo (checkbox a scelta multipla), pulsanti di scelta (solo una opzione selezionabile), etc.

vii. A questo punto il modulo ottenuto ha questo aspetto: i campi obbligatori hanno il bordo rosso. Per rendere un campo obbligatorio, scegliere Richiesto nel pop-up delle Proprietà del campo.

3) Salvare il PDF con i campi

Per fare sì che gli utenti possano compilare il modulo e salvarlo compilato, è necessario togliere l’esclusività di modifica del PDF cliccando su Avanzate e scegliendo Estendi compilazione moduli e salva in Adobe Reader.

Se non si sceglie questa opzione gli utenti potranno compilare il modulo e stamparlo, ma non saranno in grado di salvare una copia compilata del PDF.

Scarica questa guida in PDF, completa di immagini passo-passo.

Ode to boredom

2010-03-30T21:09:00.000+02:00

No, the title is not ironic. I really believe that boredom is the best way to improve one's crativity, even in hard sciences like math and physics.
The point is that people don't have anymore time to get bored, not even the children.
Eagers mums drive them all the way from a piano lesson to any sport class, then school and b-day parties. But when do they have time to play and notice that "at a certain point" a book falls from the edge of the table?

Learning Russian for Italians - the vowels

2010-03-13T17:23:00.000+01:00

For my English readers:

I am sorry I have to say this table is for Italians only, because the corrispondence in the sounds gets lost for an English reader. I just thought that if learning a language is good for your memory, guess the benefit of learning one with a completely different alphabet!

Today I studied the Russian alphabet for a couple of hours.I found an easy way to memorize the vowels through this table. I don't think I am the first to invent it, but I am so proud I came up with it.

I am studying on a introductory Russian course in English. In case you are a native in English and you are interested in the Russian language, you can hear the sounds and access the free course visiting http://www.langintro.com/rintro/index.htm

Per i lettori italiani:

questa tabella è per voi! E' un modo semplice per memorizzare i suoni vocalici russi per un madrelingua italiano. Oggi ho dedicato un paio di ore allo studio dell'alfabeto russo, il quale è composto da 33 lettere.

In russo ci sono 11 suoni vocalici o semivocalici, per cui con lo studio di oggi ho già imparato un terzo dell'alfabeto.

11 suoni vocalici vi sembrano tanti? Non spaventatevi: cinque di essi corrispondono alle cinque vocali italiane, altri cinque corrispondono alle vocali italiane a cui è anteposta una "i".

Per cui, cinque lettere corrispondono alle nostre vocali "a", "e", "i", "o", "u" e altre cinque corrispondono a "ia", "ie", "j", "io", "iu". Per ultimo, c'è un suono che non trova corrispondente in italiano, però quello possiamo sforzarci di tenerlo a mente. ;-)

Italiano	Russo
		I + …
A	A	Я
E	Э	Е
I	И	Й
O	О	Ё
U	У	Ю

“I”dura, a metà tra I e U	Ы

Nota: questi insegnamenti sono tratti da un sito web di introduzione al russo in inglese con tanto di suoni.
Se ve la sentite, potete cimentarvi all'indirizzo: http://www.langintro.com/rintro/index.htm

What's the best way to learn speaking English?

2010-03-06T13:49:00.000+01:00

I have been having a thing for the English language for as long as I can remember. When I was just 4 or 5 years old, in my kindergarten we had an English class every Wednesday.

I don't remember a lot about it, I can't even tell if we had an English mothertongue teacher, but I remember clearly that the first stage was learning color names, and the next step was learning the animal names.

So, summoning 2 years of English in kindergarten I was able to say "The pig is pink" and I found it very funny.

Later in 1989 I moved to a small town, where no English class was available until I was 12 y.o.

By that time I already tried to learn some English by myself, but I had an English dictionary which was no help when you don't know the grammar.

My mom had an LP by Michael Jackson (Bad) and on the back cover there were the lyrics of some (maybe all) of the songs. So I kept looking on the dictionary for the word "are", without being able to understand why Michael used it so often if it wasn't even on the dictionary!

He looked so cool, but he talked an out of fashion-ed way. Wow!

So when I was in midschool I was about 12 y.o. and had real English classes with an Italian teacher. Reading the English mothertongue mums living in Italy, I have to say my teacher was pretty good for being an Italian. Or maybe it was me that had no benchmark and no clue about American English and British English. Italian English teachers have an issue with AmE, for they believe the only "real" and "genuine" English is the one of the citizen of the Kingdom, thus driving the children born from American mothers mad, as they are repeatedly corrected by their Italian teachers for saying/writing "specialize" instead of "specialise"

That aside, although I am very fond of my first English teacher even if she was Italian, I have to say that later in the years I called my Californian English teacher a "mistress" and she was very surprised to be called so. My first teacher said that "Mrs." was the short form for "mistress", but forgot to mention that nowadays "mistress" is not a nice name to call someone.

Now, after two years of work I came in contact with foreigner people and the official language to be used (and the only one we barely know) is English. But funny enough, our resident engineer is German and speaks English the way I speak Spanish, by ear.

Sometimes it is harder to understand a broken English for someone who knows very well the language rather for some other brokenly English speaker.

Anyway, in my plant nobody speaks English, so the words they learnt were brought in by this German engineer, who definitely has an issue with English, both spoken and written. (He's taking Italian classes, anyway). So in my plant, and there alone, we pronounce "turbine" in an unique way that won't be understood anywhere else in the world, I assume.

When I tried to correct this habit among my colleagues, I still had to convince the German engineer to switch to /turbIn/, and there I failed.

So, what's the best way to learn English? At school? On the field? I guess none of the above. I'd take private lessons if I only knew of somebody in the area available.

Anobii - do the hardcore readers use it?

2010-03-04T22:54:00.004+01:00

I've known about Anobii since years but never was enticed enough to subscribe to it.
Anyway I finally subscribed and here's my page: http://www.anobii.com/poala/books

As I often sell my books - I don't have that much space to collect them - I was not happy to have such a few. That's why created an account for my mom and spent (ME!) a whole week to insert more than 2200 books, most of them without ISBN, scanning covers and typing details.

My idea was both to play with the barcode scanner I gave to my mom as a gift for her account on Anobii and, second, to let her browse through the compatibility index for new books and to use the suggestions tailored on her existing bookshelves.

Of course when I finished this job my mom said "I really see no point into browsing into other people's bookshelves. What do I care about *their* books?"

Ah-ah.
I still have hope.

Shelf sample on Anobii (not mine)

SDLX Lite aka SDL Edit

2009-11-26T20:39:00.002+01:00

This post is just for my reference. It is a direct link to SDLX Lite (aka SDL Edit).

http://downloadcenter.sdl.com/SDLX/Lite/SDLX_2007_2_7035_LITE_EN.exe

Totally turned into a Google-gal

2009-10-15T13:20:00.003+02:00

I have been using GMail for ages, since it was available for the Italian user. It was 2005, I clearly remember it. At first I was a little taken aback since it was a completely different way to manage you e-mail, but now I am hooked and since a couple of years I totally switched to webmail.

The feature I love the most is the thread-like structure, because I just need to scroll the page to read the previous messages, the various e-mails from the various people.

At work we MUST use Outlook, which means that I have an incoming box full of thousands of messages and that I have to spend hours to move them to the appropriate folder. As a result, after a couple of years I have something like 200 folders, and often I forget I already create the proper folder, so end up having three folders about the same subject...and when I look for a message I can't still find it.

How is it possible to use Outlook like Gmail? If someone has the slightest idea pleasepleaseplease answer me because I am getting really tired with Outlook, it is so time consuming and you still have to keep a lot of stuff memorized. I am starting to see the e-mail like a drag, it would just simpler to keep everything in my mind withou having to sort all the email messages.

It seems my prayer were listened to. Fantastic article with a sort of solution HERE.

Blank

2009-10-14T13:16:00.002+02:00

I am at the office and I feel the urge to write on my blog. I have no particular stuff to tell you but also too much stuff to write about. Anyway this is not important since this blog exists for the sole purpose to leave me able to write a little, vent off and keep together the curious stuff I read about over the internet.
I am actually experience some painful moment at the office, as I don't see clearly where I am heading to, what job I am doing and what will be next. Ops! I forgot to tell you my yearly contract is going to be off later in January, so I am probably starting to chicken out.

I really believe one should be ready to reply to the question "What's your value in your company?". I think I read about it on a help book for businesswomen, "Nice girls don't get the corner office". It is an interesting question: how could you pretend your boss justifies your presence when you're the first to feel useless or simply not worth it?

Seriously, I believe this company is giving great opportunities and has a high growth potential - it is a 5 years old company, so there is plenty of space for those who want to grow and proceed in their career. Unfortunately it is not a company made from scratch, indeed was previously a public utility company, with no competitors at all for over 60 years.
You might guess what's the feeling in the lower offices... Easy it goes.
Next step is taking the managerial layer, which are younger, have travelled, know languages and have the assignment to take this company on, improve the efficiency and process (and I am talking about efficiency and process as managerial features, not regarding the machinery).

There is a strong break between the managerial ones, those who really can change their professional life working here, and the lower ones, mainly office staff who cannot advance in their career and see no point in improving their skills. They have been working the lazy way for 40 years, they would not change all of a sudden just because the new bosses are younger, intraprendent and willing to do more.

From another account, I have to say this company itself, at the managerial level, is still acting the old - public - way, with no extras for those who apply themselves and make the difference. The bonus is expected every year and by everyone, so that it is no longer a bonus but a standard extra-wage given on June-July.
Plus, there is no real structure or career path for the lower level. They are employed and count on staying at the same level forever, as there are not so many levels in my company, and most of them are reserved to graduate people.
For this same reason there is no tutoring or training, not even for the newly employed.

They just let you flow and hopefully absorbe some of the stuff you come across. Casually.

Getting a motorbike driving license in Italy in 2009

2009-09-29T20:28:00.003+02:00

In Italy you can get a car driving license at the age of 18 only. Until a decade ago, if you had a car driving license (patente B) you were entitled to drive motorbikes, too.

Of course, my bad lucky being always on, a couple of years before I was 18 the law changed and to drive big motorbikes (above 125 cubic centimeters of power) you had to get a motorbike driving license.

The only good point of this all, was that you just had to give the practical test if you already gave the theory part. But rumors had it that this was going to change, too, and that in a short while you were supposed to give a theory test specific for motorbikes - which, of course, you were going to pay.

So for years I went by like "I want to get a motorbike driving license before it gets too costly" but I had nobody who could lend me a motorbike. And motorbike rent services are not so common here, unless you live in one of the biggest cities of Italy which, of course, I don't.

This year I was taking the final decision to take this driving license because a collague of mine offered to lend his motorbike. But the hurdles were yet to come.

First of all, the practical test consist of a two parts: in the first one you have to go along a fixed route, namely a 8-shaped route, a narrow path and a fast slow-down (during which you have to change gears, in case you are using a motorbike with gears). In the second part you are guided by the inspector along a route in the city.

If you take the exam with a motorbike that has automatic transmission, then your license will be limited to automatic motorbikes. For this reason I want to get a full un-limited driving license, since I want to take (and pay) this exam once in my life - dreamin' of a coast to coast in the US. ;)

Taking the exam privately costs about 98 euros, against 180 euros (or above) with a driving school. Since I am greedy I went for the 98 euros option, then realized that the 8-shaped route is *really* hard with the mtorobike I was thinking to use.

Well, the problems are:

1) 95% of the people I know who own a motobike have an automatic model

2) the remaining 5% have a motorbikes that is too big to be able to go through the 8-shaped route, because they are too heavy and don't steer enough.

Now I have paid all that I had to pay, the 98 euros, and am motobike-less.

I asked to all the driving schools of the area if they rent bikes, and they replied that if I wanted to use their motorbike I was going to pay the full price with them and re-open the file with the driving inspectorate as a driving school candidate.

The nearest rent-a-motorbike service charges 127 euros per day for a motorbike (and 40 euros a day for a car!!!!). So renting a motorbike is more expensive than going to a driving school.

This is absurd!

It is not only me who has this problem: a lot of people want to buy a motorbike which is too big to be used to take the driving license practical test. If I were richer enough I would open such a service, for a lot less than 100 euros a day.

This is collusion. This is Italy.

Londoneri: a Croatian recipe

2009-09-21T22:35:00.008+02:00

I believe this is going to be the only English result for "Londoneri".

Londoneri is not a properly cake, just a Croatian sweet to be served in small rectangular portions as big as half a credit card (cut on its lenght). It is a very rich recipe and you wouldn't eat it so much at once, but it will taste fine for three days. It is perfect for a tea with friends and to offer as a cold dessert over a buffet dinner.

This was a recipe my granny used to do and I clearly remember its taste back in the time, when I was a kid. Luckly she wrote it down on her recipe book. She just forgot to state the baking details, so this first attempt didn't go as I hoped but it was a lovely sweet and it tasted just like I remembered.

Here you are the recipe of Londoneri.

For the base:
400 g. of flour
280 g. of butter
140 g. of white sugar
5 yolks

Stir the ingredients for the base in a bowl and lay it out in a rectangular mould (I used a 24 x 28 cm silicone mould). Do not make edges, lay it evenly.
Spread a veil of marmalade over the base - avoid flavours that are too sweet, peach or apricot is ok - and bake for 5-6 minutes at 180°C. The base should be half cooked and the marmalade smooth.

For the top:
5 eggs whites
280 g. of finely minced almonds (not peeled)
420 g. of sugar

After you put the base in the oven to semi-bake, start to prepare the top.
Beat the eggs whites until stiff
Mix the stiff whites, the minced almonds and the sugar with a spoon.

Take out the base from the oven, lower the oven temperature to 100°C.
Put the top on the base and bake again for 40-45 minutes.
You're done baking once there is a thin crust over the top. The inside of the top should not be dry (and believe me, with so much sugar it would be hard to get dry).

Serve cold in small rectangular piece of 2,5 x 4 cm.

This is how it should appear after you're done baking. As you can see, I used a silicone mould. I could get around 30 londoneri from it.

Videocracy - Italy has been sinking since I was born

2009-08-31T09:33:00.002+02:00

I haven't been blogging very much lately, also because during summer there is tons of fun stuff to do outdoor and I already spend most of my day at the office in front of the computer (like now).

I just want to post here the trailer of Videocracy, a documentary (which is different from a fictionary movie) about Italian video-informations over the past 20 years, describing Berlusconi's rise to power.
It has English subs. There are no actors, all the characters are real. The man speaking in the car is Fabrizio Corona, a photographer who took pictures of celebs and then blackmailed them.
See how he describes himself...

Jeez, where are the Allies? Someone please rescue us!

Missing granny

2009-08-12T18:41:00.004+02:00

My paternal family came from Fiume (now Rijeka, HR), a town where several cultures and populations crossed and lived together. Nothing can replicate my grandma's kitchen, its taste, its consistency and flavour. I still remember some of her dishes, but a lot I forgot, too.
Now I am surfing to look for Croatian recipes because the only Croatian recipe book ever written in Italian is odd - I have it. It doesn't even mention quantities, temperatures and times.

I have to try to do Pasticada which is basically a roasted meat sauce with big pieces of roeasted meat, used as a sort of mixed dish together with gnocchi. My grandma served it like this, although I found several different pictures and way to serve it.

Italian politics stink

2009-06-25T21:52:00.002+02:00

It's not a case that I never met a foreigner that loves Berlusconi. Therefore I am starting to believe that there should be some sort of blindness among the Italians, and they are unable to see what is going on and re-elect the Little Dwarf (as the opposition calls him).

Recently there has been a sex scandal involving "our" President. Some goodlooking ladies from the South declared they were paid to attend Berlusconi's dinner in an institutional building. They said they flew from Puglia to Rome to sit at the table with Mr. B., that there were about 30 ladies all dressed in black, and that Mr. B. entertained himself with them.
They saw the main moments of Mr. B.'s political career, like him meeting important people, all accompanied with the hymn of Mr. B's parties "Meno male che Silvio c'è" (Luckily Silvio is here). The ladies all moved their arms with the music, and Mr. B. gave them precious little gifts such as bracelets, pendants, necklaces,...

As you know, Mr. B. is sort of Murdoch in Italy: he owns most of the TV channel, of the magazines and newspapers. As he is in charge as the political leader of Italy, he now holds control even of the public televisions (other 3 channels).
All of his TV channels never reported about the sex scandal, and of all the 3 main public channel, only RaiTre talked about it during the News.

The Vatican is coming strictly at him, so Berlusconi said (to one of his magazines, of course) that these girls are paid from his opponents and that he has never ever paid a woman, because "it would be no fun".

I happened on a page on facebook against the very-righty newspaper "Libero", of Berlusconi's camerade.

In red "Sex in the ballot boxes"
in big "We are all Berlusconis"
in Italics "Not to lose these last elections, the Left Party focus on the bed affairs. But Italy is tolerant. Anyway, only a few can cast the first stone."

...

In the meantime one of the girls involved in the scandal was burglared of all her clothes (anybody remembers Monica Lewinsky?) and another one's car took fire last night.

We're one but we're not the same - Nokia N97 comparison price

2009-06-23T11:22:00.002+02:00

After just a few weeks from the Nokia N97 release I compared the various prices of this piece of technology&design.
Prices are taken from Nokia Online Stores.

Nokia Online Store US €503 ($699)

Nokia online store UK	€ 590
Nokia online store DE	€ 649
Nokia online store FR	€ 699
Nokia online store IT	€ 599

note: the Freanch version includes a bluetooth earphone.

Yummy blogs: BAKERELLA

2009-06-08T21:23:00.002+02:00

I discovered this blog a while ago, looking for luscious recipes.
It features a lot of pretty and yummy recipes, all sweets, mainly chocolate based (could you blame the author?) but certainly good looking more then the average cake.

The author is a great cooker and she's pretty good at photographing, too. This blog is really a pleasure to watch and taste!

BAKERELLA's blog

another blog from the same author: LOVELY LITTLE CAKES

Where in Europe?

2009-03-12T15:00:00.001+01:00

Neatorama says in Europe we have this wonderful ideas...of course not in Italy. Anyone has ever seen such thing? If so, where?

[source]

Make your life greener

2009-02-12T20:26:00.000+01:00

source: http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/01/19/moss-carpet-by-nguyen-la-chanh/

Raisin muffins

2009-01-19T12:34:00.006+01:00

I found a better recipe for my muffins on this Italian website. They are softer and yummier, so since now on I will bake muffin with this recipe.
I find really comfortable to put my favourite recipes on my blog. This way, whenever I need to cook them I just have to search on my blog the "ricette" (recipes), and they are available anywhere I can get an internet connection.
Today I had some spare time and tried to bake muffins. I hope my friends from the US won't be disappointed I posted an American recipe. I am awaiting for your suggestions!

Muffins (recipe for 12 muffins)

time: 15 mins to prepare + 20 mins to bake
pros: no kitchen appliance required except a oven, no special cooking tools, just a spoon and, of course, muffin tins.

380 g of white flour
1 sachet of baking powder (approx. 2 teaspoons or 160 g)
200 g sugar
a pinch of salt
2 eggs
250 ml of milk
180 g of butter
1 sachet of vanillin (approx. a scarce teaspoon)
2 ml of lemon flavour or a grated lemon rind

Preheat oven to 356 degrees F (180°C) and grease 10 muffin tins.

This recipe is very simple to do. Take two bowls: in one you are going to mix the dry ingredients, i.e. flour + baking powder (sift), sugar, vanillin and salt. In the other bowl, mix the wet ingredients. Lighty beat the eggs and the milk, then add the lemon (whatever form it is) and the melt butter.
You can use a simple spoon to do so, as lumps are not a problems.
Now put the wet mixed ingredients into the dry ones, stirring with a spoon.

When you get a smooth mix, pour it into the tins and then let's bake it for 20 mins.
As usual, the baking time depends on the kind of oven you have. The newer the faster. As a general rule use a wooden stick to check if the muffins are completely baked. Stick it into a muffin: if it comes out clean, then the muffin is fully cooked. If not, bake a little longer until the stick comes out clean.

VARIANTS: of course, muffins come in all flavors of this world, so you can add cocoa, chocolate, raisins, apples, raspberries,... In this case the baking time will increase.
For apple muffins and raisin muffins it takes me an additional 15' to bake them.
In any case, apply the wooden stick rule.

DVD protection & Sony VAIO

2008-12-28T11:21:00.003+01:00

One thing I hate is putting boundaries to culture. As some of you might know, DVDs from around the world can only be played in certain zone, as they have restricted use across the globe.
There are 6 areas: North America (region 1), Europe (region 2), Australia (region 4),... and so on.

The restriction is a mere software thing such as you cannot play a DVD unless its region matches the region of your DVD player. I have bought loads of DVDs in my travels and some I bought over the internet as they were cheaper.

With my new notebook, a Sony Vaio FW21E, there was no software to play my DVDs from various regions, nor I found a firmware to replace the original locked one. The computer kept asking me if I wanted to switch region and that I had fewer and fewer region switches left.

By chance, I came across a way to play any DVD on my VAIO, regardless of its region.
I downloaded DVDFab, a software to copy DVDs. It has a preview mode for each video track of the DVD, just pick the longest one which is the movie itself. The shorter ones are the various titles, trailers, promos, extras,...

Double click on the preview windows to go full size. use the right button of your mouse to select different languages or subtitles.

Palačinke

2008-12-10T08:51:00.005+01:00

Palačinke is a dessert derived from the Austro-hungarian palatschinken. It is a tipical dish you will easily find in Slovenjia, Croatia, Hungary, Austria and Germany.
They are very similar to crepes for shape and are made with the same ingredients as American pancakes.

Palačinke can be filled with jam, nutella, ice-cream, fresh fruit, sugar,...
They can be served rolled: cover one face with your favourite filling, like jam in this picture:

then roll it until you will get this:

I eat them with my hands, keeping the ends lifted up to prevend jam from slipping out (they are to be served warm, so the filling melts a little).

At the restaurant they are served in a different way, more suitable to be eat with fork and knife, like this:

Recipe for 6 Palačinke

2 eggs
2 tablespoons of sugar
5 tablespoons of flour
1/2 of a glass of milk + 1/2 of a glass of water

Put the whole eggs in a bowl, add the sugar and whip until you get an evenly airy mix.
While you keep whipping, add some flour and some milk+water until you finish.
You will get a smooth mix. Have a taste of it to see if it needs more sugar.

Prepare a flat non-aderent fry-ing pan, put some butter to avoid the mix to stick to it. Drain the excess of butter, then pour half a ladle of the mix in the pan. You just have to cover the whole fry-ing pan with a thin layer of the mix.
Cook it on both sides: if you are able you can turn it jumping the Palačinka in the air. If you don't want to risk to lose a delicious Palačinka playing Nigella, help youself with a dish or a spatula.

Serve warm, with a spread of icing sugar and your favourite filling.

Save energy, use CFL bulbs

2008-11-29T13:07:00.003+01:00

I discovered today that also light bulbs are still improving their efficiency. Mind you, the classic light bulb is the most inefficient thing you have in your home, as it is basically the same of a couple of centuries ago. It has an efficiency of about 10%, which means that you throw away 9 watt out of 10 you buy.

Now they are releasing CFL, Compact FLuorescent Lamp, and LEDs (Light emittion diodes), which have a high efficiency of about 4-6 times a traditional light bulb. This is because they use different principles to make light and they even have a longer lasting life span.

You have seen LEDs on every electronic home appliances starting from your televisor and ranging to your computer. Leds are those stuff used to make the small light indicator that tells you when your appliance is in stand by or running. They are one of the reason why there are campaigns to teach you to completely shut off your home appliance when you are not using them. A LED looks like this:
A classic evolution of leds is for advertising. Remember the giant ads you see on the highways that are giving you directions regarding traffics or works you will encounter? Well, those are made of a matrix with a lot of LEDs. The advantage is that if some LEDs get burnt you can still That's the main reason that makes LEDs so interesting and growing in the market. One of the modern employment of LEDs is for car lights. If you burn a LED you don't lose the whole car light, and the cost to replace a LED is much more lower than the one of a traditional light bulb.

Audi's A6 rear light, made of LEDs.

For home applications you can now use CFL light bulbs. They are like the common bulbs in shape, but instead of heating a filament with electricity (thus make it emits light radiations) they heat the gas in the bulb, making atoms hit the coating of the inner bulb, turning it white.
CFL bulbs cost more than regular bulbs, but you save 4-6 times of electricity and they last longer.

Be careful:
- if you use a dimmer, choose CFL bulmb specially designed to be used with dimmers
- don't use them for continous switching applications, they would last less
- if you need them in special positions, check on the box for any indications or limitations of that very model
- don't break the bulb as it contains small amount of mercury. Don't put them in your home garbage. If they get burnt in an incinerator they would produce highly toxic fumes.

Want to know more? Read the Environmental Defense Fund pages!

The softwares I can't miss when formatting

2008-11-28T22:35:00.005+01:00

Some time ago I posted a post regarding the software that can't miss on my computer.
I am updating the list as I am discovering more freewares and changing my needs.

[old post revised]
Formatting is taking longer and longer because of the high amount of data to be backupped. And because of the number of softwares we use, and because of their increasing size due to their high performances. So, I have decided to post a list of the software I can't forget to install on my newly formatted computer with download links. In this way everytime I format I just have to read this post to dowload the most recent version.

What you should remember to backup:
1) email messages
2) documents
3) images
4) databases such as your book inventory or your CD and DVD inventory
5) address book of your email client
6) favourite bookmarks (yiu can use the Firefox's add-on Foxmarks to have them stored on the web and download/upload them when you need)

tips: use your webmail instead of an email client, Google's Gmail is the best! It's free and give you 5+ GB of spaces and manages your emails like you have never seen before. It also come with a built-in chat (Gtalk) you can use from your webmail. So versatile!

The softwares you will need

THE ESSENTIALS:
1) an OS (Operative System) according to your preference (get it before formatting)
2) an antivirus (get it before formatting so that you will install it before connecting to the internet for the first time), my favourite anitivirus is free and it's called Avast
3) a web browser to download the following softwares ;) I use Firefox

THE BASICS:
4) one or more antispywares such as Spybot Search & Destroy and Adaware
5) one cache cleaner, I use CCleaner
6) a PDF reader, I recommend to use Foxit which as the same functions as Acrobat Adobe but is free and lighter
7) A suite of programs to read and write word, excel, power points, access files. You can buy Microsoft Office or you can just download OpenOffice for free.
8) An email client if you don't use your webmail. I use Thunderbird for my secondary emails, just to check them simultaneously (always keep a copy of your emails on the server, so that you don't need to back it up). Thunderbird also offers superfast configuration of your gmail accounts.
9) Cellphone software. It depends on your cellphone brand. Mine is Nokia.
10) A software to listen to the music and to watch videos. My fave is winamp but I need iTunes to listen to some music I bought on their website. Winamp indexes your multimedia files and allow you to browse it, as well as to surf the web (as a built in browser) and look for radio broadcasting channels from all over the world.
11) An IM (Istant Messenger) such as MSN Messenger, ICQ, etc. You can also get some multiple chat clients to have a single software for more than one community like E-Buddy, which comes also with a mobile version I use from my nokia. If you regiser (free) on ebuddy, it will allow you to access yahoo, gtalk, msn, facebook, yahoo and other chats at once. It will import your contact lists, too.

OTHERS I WILL FEEL THE NEED TO INSTALL SOONER OR LATER:
12) Some games. It's incredible how it is hard to find good games these days. They don't have to take all your screen nor 100% your attention, they shouldn't be flashy or noisy. Card games are the best, but there are some strategy games I love. Popcap Games has excellent games. They are not free but you can try them for a while before buying. My mom also plays Brickshooter , DxBall and Bubble Golden Pack 3.
13) Jack SMS: for Italian users, it allows to send a limited amount of free texts.
14) Power DVD, a DVD player which allows double subtitles, very handful when it comes to learn a language throught movies. Not free but has a trial version. I have the full version because it came with my DVD burner.
15) AIDA 32 - it's a nice software which shows you how the space on your HD is allocated. You can easily individuate the bigger files.
16) DVD43 - free software that allows you to view DVD from multiple regions. Great deal!
17) A neutral screensaver such as Fliqlo, which shows the time in a old fashioned yet cool way
18) BsPlayer is a player which allow you to watch DiVx with subtitles (to be downloaded ina separated files)
19) an Italian-English dictionary with pronunciation, such as the Oxford-Paravia
20) Filezilla to easily upload via ftp you files on your webspace
21) Macromedia Dreamweaver & Fireworks. The first one is to edit/build webpages, the latter is used for the photo editing.
22) WordWeb is an English only dictionary which offers for free also synonims, nearest types and figured pronounciation. It's very light and easily to use. Just select the word you want to explore and click a combination of keys of your choice to open it. Now it features also a search on wikipedia. The software it's free, but there is also a Pro version for €19 which offers some more stuff.

Poetry

2008-11-22T20:33:00.003+01:00

Lost is all the time spent not loving

This photo was taken in the town of Polignano (BA), Italy. I didn't shot this, I just came across it surfin' and I have been keeping it in my image folders for years. I want to share this with you.
Torquato Tasso, the author, is one of the most famous Italian poets.

Facebook

2008-11-22T18:16:00.002+01:00

Things about facebook:

1) FB is where you add people you don't greet when you meet in the real life
2) Thru FB you discover the name of your colleagues and classmates for the first time
3) Now that you added the above mentioned in point 1) and 2) you have to remember their name when you meet them and show that you have always known their names
4) I don't add people whose name I don't know if there is no clear picture of them.
5) Always put as a profile picture a big picture of your face rather than a group picture. When people are tryin' to recognize you they will see a picture the size of a stamp, so....

Gas Turbine Theory

2008-10-19T23:51:00.003+02:00

I don't think there is any engineer reading my blog except myself, but I will post this anyway.
I did a little research online to find a reliable and modern book about gas turbines and I decided that Gas Turbine Theory by prof. H.I.H. Saravanamuttoo, who seems to be a celebrity of the field and is/was teaching in Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
I just spen €75 for the fifth edition which was just published at the end of last September.

During a course at university, regarding ethic in environimental engineering, the teacher told us that in Italy we had been out of date for so long in the field because it took 5 years to translate the most important books related to ethic/environiment.

Being able to read in English well enough to understand such a book like the one of prof. Saravanamuttoo is such a privilege and this is the reason why I took myself to improve my English throughout the university. A lot of my classmates are having troubles with their English because we just took an English course in the freshman year.

I must confess that a lot of professionals I meet have a rough English, or at least an English clearly learnt on the field and with mistakes in grammar and syntax. I myself have the opposite problem: too much learning and studying written English, and so little practice!

I am a sucker for these stuff

2008-10-10T21:50:00.005+02:00

http://www.visionresearch.com/video/playvideo.cfm?file=Snuffed%20Candle4.flv&flash=yes

Back to school

2008-10-02T21:53:00.002+02:00

Well, today I spent my day at my new university (economy faculty).
It's funny because I have been through such a lot of thinking lately and just two days ago I was giving a speech to the engineering freshmen at my old faculty. It was totally unexpected as I was dragged to this presentation by one of my former professor as an example of the possibility given by the university to approach the working world.

I was the most confused among everyone and had to tell something, to teach something. Thinking about it now, I would have said something more inspiring.

Anyway my frist day at the economy faculty was great, also because I discovered I passed my engineering PE. Of course I didn't understand very much about economy, but it was a nice day anyway.

My mind is clouded

2008-09-28T21:19:00.002+02:00

Dear readers,
I haven't been blogging very much lately but a lot of stuff have been going on. I didn't feel very comfortable putting in writing my thoughts as they have been very confused and I have been changing my mind continuously.
I am still working at the power plant on an internship for €880 a month (roughly $1285). There is no serious contract ahead but I saw by mistake a folder on my boss'boss computer with my name on it and a project based contract. I read the law regarding this kind of jobs and it's say it is not applicable for professionals who belongs to a professional associations like lawyers, architects, engineers, ... So it is going to be a kind of contract below my level. With this kind of contract I should be able to work when I want and as long as I want: I just have to meet the deadlines of the project and deliver the job.
The point is that I won't be working on my own, but together with colleagues, therefore the job is not entirely up to me. I could take 3 weeks off of vacations but I don't think I will be able to deliver the project on time because when someone else I depend on is missing, my whole work get slowered down.

I don't know the amount I am gonna get paid for this project, nor the lenght of the project. You might say I shouldn't feel baffled or sad as long as I don't know the retribuition, but I already feel restless.

Anyway, as I already told you in my older posts, I came home after university and I am not very happy about my social life here. I live with mommy, my friends are married or are going to marry their longlife boyfriend next year. I can't afford to rent a place, I can't afford to pay my car's insurance.
I noticed I have been spending too much extra hours at job just because I had nothing more outside the office but DVDs and computer. I played all the hobby I had during last year and now I am already bored.
On one lazy night it popped in my head the thought that I might enroll at the university again. It will be full of young people I don't know yet and I would get back in a younger and above average cultural environment.

I told about this thing to several ppl. Everybody told me it was a bad idea because I just finished university and I just started working. It was time to focalize my efforts on jobs and studying was going to take my time and attention off to work.
But I already saw that as hard as you work, your effort are pointless if your colleagues don't do the same. And you won't get more money if you finish a work earlier (maybe someone above you will).

I don't want to sacrifice for my job since it doesn't pay. I will try with the Economy faculty, the lessons are going to start next Wednesday but I will be not attending them (except perhaps the first ones so that I get to know ppl). When I went to enroll at the university I felt so old comparing to the other people there! I kept thinking about their crazy hairs, the odd clothes, the expensive Gucci shoes,...
This is not my previous university, but anyway I felt an outsider even there, just like I felt too young and full of life for my working environment which is populated with people int heir mid 50ies just looking to retire.
I'm a jut stuck in this limbo between the will to grow up and get MY life and the feeling that independency will come in a couple of years, so I might as well keep my mind trained studying something different than engineering.

DVDs for sale

2008-09-14T17:33:00.002+02:00

I am selling a few DVDs of mine to free some space on the bookshelves. Here you are the titles:

Scrubs 3rd season - region 4 - Has both Italian & English, as well as other languages €20
Scrubs 4th season - region 4 - Has both Italian & English, as well as other languages €20
Scrubs 5th season - region 2 - Has both Italian & English, as well as other languages €30

The Office (UK) 1st season - region 2 - English language + subs €9.99
The Office (UK) 2nd season - region 2 - English language + subs €5.99

My so-called life - Complete serie (5 DVDs) - region 2 - English audio only €20
Knocked up - 2 disc edition - region 2,4,5,6 - Has English audio + subs and other languages (but not Italian) €10

I ship from Italy and will be happy to combine shipping. The average intl. shipping for a single DVD is €6, the price will be determined upon your location and chosen shipping method.
Payments through paypal, moneybookers and Italians can also pay me through bank transfer.
I placed my ads also on play.com, so the transaction can be done through this well renowed website, if you prefer.

In interested or have questions, please email me at m4rn13 -at- gmail -dot- com

Angry customers

2008-08-28T22:30:00.003+02:00

Angry customers is what anyone in the business fears the most.
They try to get you pleased with the service, hoping you will come back and hoperfully will spend more money the next time.
Just think about the amount of money spent on targeting the advertising of website based business such as amazon and you will soon realize that advertising is almost 50% in some business.
If anything might upset you, you will be refunded or you will be given a voucher for your next purchase.

But in some cases you are a unhappy customer and you are goign to be even less.
Take for example the story of Steven Jetley, a customer of Llloyd's TSB Bank:
[from Neatorama]

Steven Jetley from Shrewsbury, England, had a falling out with Lloyds TSB bank, so he decided to have his password reflect his feelings towards the bank:

A man who chose "Lloyds is pants" as his telephone banking password said he found it had been changed by a member of staff to "no it’s not". [...]

Mr Jetley said he first realised his security password had been changed when a call centre staff member told him his code word did not match with the one on the computer.

"I thought it was actually quite a funny response," he said. "But what really incensed me was when I was told I could not change it back to ‘Lloyds is pants’ because they said it
was not appropriate.

"I asked if it was ‘pants’ they didn’t like, and would ‘Lloyds is rubbish’ do? But they didn’t think so.

"So I tried ‘Barclays is better’ and that didn’t go down too well either.

"The rules seemed to change, and they told me it had to be one word, so I tried ‘censorship’, but they didn’t like that, and then said it had to be no more than six letters long."

Useful stuff to be kept in your truck

2008-08-10T12:51:00.002+02:00

Imagine you are driving out of nowhere and there is no home or gas station to be seen within miles.
You have an urge and there is no bathroom, then you open your truck and take out this:

Plus, if you don't mind the smelling thereafter, you can use it as a stool.
I am just afraid it won't bear my weight and I am not eager to know what would happen if that stuff crashes under my butt.

The genius mop

2008-08-02T13:24:00.002+02:00

Tidying the house without noticing. That's what those slippers seems to suggest.

Living in the city but lounging for some nature?
Those flip-flops were made for walking!

When I was a child...

2008-06-23T08:00:00.002+02:00

...I believed that outside Italy the people talked with a less developed language made of noises, very much like monkeys.

...I believed that to make a baby was enough to sleep under the same covers with a man that loved you.

...when I heard about gay people for the first time I was reading a newspaper article about two "he" and I though about a typo, so I asked my mom and she said that it was not a typo. I was very confused.

...when I discovered that to get someone pregnant you have to stick a piece of flesh into someone else's body I thought it should been painful and a very invasive procedure. Wasn't there a simpler way to make a baby?

...when I heard about a spouse making out with someone that was not his wife I thought "This is not possible because he is married". Like if some sort of extra-strong glue stick two people together forever. That was my idea of marriage.

...when in the kindergarten I discovered that males have a strange piece of flesh hangin' under they belly and they used it to pee I found it very funny, like if it was some sort of umbilical cord that might fall off sooner or later. I was very curious to see how it worked.

A World with barriers

2008-06-19T19:58:00.003+02:00

Sometimes I am seriously thinking to move abroad. This is one of those times. I would like to move to the US, but I don't know exactly where. How can I decide where I would like to live? Just pointing my finger on the map or basing on some TV serie that was shoted in California?

The hardest thing if you want to move abroad is the VISA issue. Some people have to jump hurdles for years before becoming legal immigrant in Italy. 90% of the illegal immigrants aren't shipped back home, so it is not such a big deal. But when I think to go to the US I explicitly remember the green VISA waiver you have to sign at the airport where you declare that you are not entering the Country to work or seek for a job, because in that case you would need a VISA. And you don't want to mess with INS because the US is a serious Country.

Do you think the people should be let free to move wherever they want?
Do you think that if the barriers were taken down there would be more immigration?
Do you think that barriers are useful to set a certain balance between territory, resources and population?

To help you get over it

2008-05-26T19:08:00.002+02:00

Well, broken-hearted princesses of the USA can finally get something good from their past-lovers. On Ex-boyfriend Jewelry they can sell the gift received from their exes (ex-husbands included) to get some money in the puch.
There is a first part where she tells us her story and a short description of the piece she is selling, the asking price and so on.
On the first part some ladies tend to steam off a little, but others fully describe all the story from how-we-met to why-we-broke.

Some bloke should have found it very funny and published this ad.
LOL!

Great news!

2008-05-24T12:59:00.002+02:00

I am chatting over the messenger with a former classmate from the university who just told me he is gonna work for the biggest company in the energy/petroleum field.
At the uni we shared the same passion over power plant and dreamed to work in a company such as the one where I work now or, better, one where he is gonna work in 15 days.

After the uni he sent several CVs to companies in this field but none replied. Indeed, he got an offer from another big company in the power distribution for a place in the PLC division. This was not really what he wanted to do, but since the idea of staying at home for months was not appaling at all he accepted. And now he got this phone call from the big international company offering him to work on the platforms all over the African and Mediterranean shores.
Needless to say he resigned from his current position, and he was offered even more money. But that was not the job we dreamed about, so there was no chance for him to stay where he was employed.

Now he is going to leave for Germany, Scotland, Egypt, Croatia, Serbia, Iran, Ivory Coast, Nigeriam...
I am so happy for him and I am also aware that women aren't offered such positions. There is a slight bitterness on the bottom because there is nothing so big ahead for me. Should I resign, too, and look for something else?

I am the less paid among by former classmates and I don't think I am gonna get what everybody seems to get so far.
To give you some example:
- Biggest study & research instuitute of electricity in Italy, who does analysis and report and certification for power plants, industrial plants, etc - €1400 net per month, 14 monthly wages per year, 18 months contract
- Researcher in the best politechnic of Italy - €1100 net per month, 4 months
- Company that owns power plants, smaller than mine, €1400 net per month, 14 monthly wages per year, 18 months contract
ME > Internship in a power plant, 6 months, €880 per month.

My boss says he is working to keep me here, that he is also trying to make me get some more money (didn't quantify this pay increment nor the kind of position). My internship will end ont he 30th June but I will sto going there sooner, probably on the 18th June because I have to prepare for my P.E..

I won't say nothing because now I need to stay calm and prepare for my PE (which is on the 26-27th June). I will think about the offer I will be made later.
Another idea is popping in my mind: take the plane and fly to the UEA. I already told you I have a friend living there (for job).
I am afraid to get stuck here in a small environment just because I am afraid to take the plunge and leave home.

Do you know what you want?

2008-05-21T07:40:00.004+02:00

There is this colleague at work - well, he is not even of my same company - that lately has been asking me a lot of personal stuff. Not the kind of stupid questions such what size of bra do you wear, but life and work related ones - such as "what do you want to do with your life?", "what are your aspirations?" "what are the DOs and DON'Ts like of your current position?".

I find irritate to be asked such personal question. I don't know why we always end up talking about this. Plus, every time we are talking I completely forget my own rational ideas and replies with silly common chick answer.
Do you want to know if I am a stubborn chick with low self esteem? Yes, I am. Now can we change the subject?

He told me to write down on a piece of paper what I like and what I don't of my year spent in this company (not his). I think I am gonna do it and show him the paper tomorrow.

See? The latter is another stupid thing: why should I handle him my feelings on ink?
Just to prove that I know who I am, know what I did and know what I want?

The mess

2008-05-18T17:41:00.006+02:00

I don't know what has been going on my mind recently. Do you think it is possible that what you had been studying for 5 years suddenly fades away within a year?
Well, wether you believe it or not it has actually happened.
My mind is blank, completely cleared of all the basic principles of physics yet alone the specialistic ones I have been studying at the university.

All the notions I piled up just to get a grade disappeared like the smoke of the caterpillar in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
I did a huge mistake at work. Nothing that made lose something other than my face, but still a mistake so gross that even in the highschool I could have missed without hesitation.

I did fall back on a basic concept of unit measurement. That's the first chapter in every damn school book, from mid school to university. Yet I did it.

I didn't remember the definition of entropy and of entalpy.

It took me 20 mins to solve a simple circuitry problem in CC.

But I can give reasonably question regarding complex regulations of thermoeletric power plants. I can easily reply to my questions, too. I can think about possible solutions with people with 30 years of experience in the field.

So how it is possible that I skip basic math and physic?! And more important: how am I going to pass my P.E. next month?

How do you see yourself in 5 years?

2008-04-27T21:55:00.007+02:00

Dear readers,

this has been a very intense period for me. The transition from school to the working life is really palpable in Italy, as 90% of the students don't have a job and is cuddled (also financially) by parents until the graduation. If you read my previous posts - you also know that recently graduated people have very low wages and an uncertain positions here. All these things add up one to another and cause a lot of heavy thoughts deep in my mind.

What was the point in studying for 5 years? Why did I invest money on post-grad education if I get paid the same as a clerk at the local supermarket, just working 12 hrs instead of 8?
When will I be able to lead a life of my own, being able to pay my rent, buy my furnitures, pay the insurance of my car,...?
What could I do to boost my career? Is "boosting my career" the same as earning more? Or is it just some experience abroad? Or a deep knowledge of a very limited sector?
How high can I aim?

Now that the university years are over I came back to my little town of 10.000 souls, living with my ma and working 15 mins by car from home, from 8 to 19, for the equivalent of $1500 a month (paid internship).
All my childhood friends took different paths. A lot of them enrolled to "easy" courses in a university nearby here, mostly because when they finished the highschool the chances to get an employment were almost 0.

After enrolling, they found a senseless job to have some money for themselves, like being the clerk at the cafè of the cinema, or in the local bakery. This job gave them the possibility to pay for their studies (very cheap in Italy, let's say one-two monthly wages pay off a year of university fees), their holidays, their expensive clothes,...
The prospect to have the same wage after graduation does not push them to graduate soon. So they just stay in this limbo of "I have enough money for my chores but not enough to live on my own" and "ma and pa cannot tell me what to do since I pay for my stuff".

In the end their approach to the university was completely opposite to mine: to me, study was a mean, to them, it's the end. I enrolled in engineering because I wanted to find a job well paid, easily and to be a pro. Italy is very provincial in this aspect: the Doctor, the Lawyer, the Engineer,... They really care about those titles.
Now that I finally got the "piece of paper" I believe I have to show what I am worth. It's time to work my ass out and try to get a profit from this goddamn degree.

What can I do? Well, I try to be available for work as much as I can. Staying 11 hrs at the office has already paid, giving me the chance to take a post-grad internship in the same place/field where I wrote my thesis.
I try to put something mine in every business I like at the office, tryin' to get involved. I talk a lot with my colleagues because I want to know everybody's opinion, as there could be a truth in each of them and it helps to get a little perspective.

My friends here just work from 8AM to 5PM, counting down to pass the exit badge and go home. They don't try to give their input, they don't believe they really have the chance to do something, to change something. When we go out together I talk about those things, but apparently there are two strictly definite roles: the manager's and the employeé's. As I came out from a master's course I am very likely to become the boss of someone, sooner or later.

My friends who just are employees of the lowest level, have no chance at all to raise their position and have power and be the boss of someone else. That's why I am not confortable with them anymore. They're ok for the gossip, the chit-chat, the carefree conversation....but I feel we share nothing more.

Have you ever seen "Sweet home Alabama"? Sometimes I feel sorta of Reese Whiterspoon, but I don't believe to the happy end of the movie.

shame, vergogna

2008-04-14T23:01:00.003+02:00

With my utterly dismay I am announcing you that Silvio Berlusconi has been elected for the 3rd time as italian prime minister. I am seriously wondering how it is possible to vote for such an unpolite and clearly thief after 14 years of worlwide critics against him. You pick any foreign article on him and you can't find a positive feedback on him as a politician. Perhaps Italians really need to learn English to open not only their minds but also their eyes! I am too old to be adopted,so i am gonna trade my italian language skills for a cheap rent in the US. I am tidy, with a master in engineering and career-oriented.

Famous allusions

2008-03-30T22:17:00.002+02:00

You're interns, grunts, nobodies, bottom of the engineering food chain.

[my version, from Grey's Anatomy ep. 1]

My internship is still going on. I made friends with an American engineer of Siemens', he's 36 and he has been working on site (my site) for three months. Of course, I have never seen him before, mostly because he works on shift and in a remote place of the site where I never step my foot before. He has been working for Siemens for 11 years and he was relocated to Germany in 2006.
He told me he is staying in a hotel 10 km from where I live, and he has been there for three months. I mean TTTTHHHRRREEEE months in a hotel in a place of nothing, without knowing the language and with the same 4 colleagues.

He asked me for a restaurant and I gave him some address. I think he wanted to invite me, but chance is I'll never know because when I gave him the addresses when he was leaving by car, so he just took my scratch of paper (where I wrote no contact detail). In this very moment our companies are fighting, and I am afraid that it would give the wrong impression to make friend with the enemy.

A part from this, I have to tell you that I am already getting sick of the Italian job. It seems that nothing is ever gonna change, that you will never be paid more even if you work harder and better than your colleagues. Things have been that way like forever, and nobody sees why this should change.
I already told you that my company was previously public (had always been before) and the privatization didn't change too much until now. The new managers are 40-45 years old, they worked abroad, saw how things work out of Italy. They come here, want to change the world, bring the company to the international level but don't consider that the people working there are 50 years old and grew up in that same town, working in the same way for the past 30 years.

I was fashinated by the new managers: I felt just like I was finally in the *real* world (meaning the international one and not the little provincial one). They talked about performances, assets, hard working, career oriented way to work. They said "who is lazy?...that's the door, keep it in mind", "you are with us or you are over", "things are gonna change here...a lot!",...
Then nothing happened. Walls got painted, but lazy people stayed. New meetings came in the daily routine, but unproductive people are still sitting at their desks, earning the same money.

So I faced the bull: the last time my boss complained about someone not doing something I asked him where all his good proposal to change things went. He replied "it cannot be done".
What the....?!?!?
They keep lazy and unproductive people that are just waiting to swing their badge at 4.30 PM to go home and I have to work my ass out 12 hrs a day to try to get a decent wage and possibly get hired?!

I realized things aren't gonna work for me in Italy.
I am waiting for my internship period to finish (end of June), then I am taking my professional exams on the 3rd of July. The next step, if I don't get hired with a proper wage, is to get on a plane and reach my friend Flavia in the United Arab Emirates. She says there is plenty of vacancies for engineers and the wages are good. Plus, it would be a great chance to boost my career.

Italy, you sink, I leave!

Paola & the English

2008-03-16T16:56:00.003+01:00

In 1998 the first episode of Sex and the city was aired in the USA. In 2008 I finally managed to watch the whole series - from the 1st to the 6th - and this seems to be right on time as Sex and the city - the movie should be released soon.

My social life is facebook-linkedin-dvds and they are all in English. You could think this is a good thing, indeed, it is not. I am gettin' confused a lot and I haven't yet left Italy for longer than a month in my whole life. I wonder what it feels like for expats that are full time exposed to a foreign language!

During the day I find myself thinking in Italian ...but then I formulate the phrase in English...but my interlocutor is Italian, so I have to translate it! And it is not easy to do it fast and to choose the right words, so I just stick with the same 50 Italians words and keep going with them.

Can it really be so hard? Do some people have a gift for language switching like someone has for music?

Love a cat

2008-03-06T19:28:00.002+01:00

From the same author of a video I posted for cat-lovers a while ago.

The working life

2008-03-02T16:08:00.002+01:00

I break my longest silence ever to let you know that I am doing fine.
I am working at the power plant where I stayed 6 months to write my thesis, but I wasn't hired. I am just doing an internship, which means that I am not under a proper job contract and I am not adding years of work for retirement purpose.

Here in Italy, a part of the money of your wage is deducted to pay taxes and your retirement. Once you collect a certain years of work AND you reach a certain age, you can retire. You can even stay longer at job and have a higher retirement. It's not like in the US where you have to think about yourself since day 1.
For this reason I am very upset: the salary is low and I have no sick days, no holidays, no retirement, no nothing.
Unfortunately this is a very common situation in Italy. For me - to tell the truth - it is not a huge problem: I still live with my mother and I work 15 km from home - I get there by car in 15-20 mins. I am 25 y.o. and just finished to study, I have no boyfriend or family dream whatsoever. I just need money for my personal stuff.

But there are people 30-something that have to live (or should we say "survive"?) with €1000 gross per month - roughly $1500 gross a month. Given that monthly rents are no lower than €400 in the country and €800 in the city, you can easily understand why Italians live with their parents until they get married.
House sharing is not very common here, also because very few people move to another city when they start working. Most of them have always lived with parents and going to work does not change things a lot. Also, part time jobs were introduced only recently and are not suitable for certain positions. So, it's not really easy to find a job here AND study.
In my case, I have to say that both I and my moms work all day long, so we just meet each other for 3 hours in the evening and on weekends.

On the Friday show of "Le iene", a satyrical program with smart questions, they sent one of their man to act as a 33 y.o. employeé that earns €1000 a month and wants to buy his first house.
First, he went to the bank to get a financing. He told them he had a full time job and earnt about €1000 a months. Given that, he was told they could not give him more than €60.000, as the monthly payment was €346 (which is more than 1/3 of his wage).

Believe me, €60.000 is the price of a nice Mercedes, but not of a house. I think that for that money you could buy a wall in the country.
Well, back to the show.... the man of the program went to a real estate agency to look for a place. He went to 3 places, where he was told that the minimum price for a 1bedroom apartment is €100.000, €150.000, €80.000 - even out of city!

So he asked them "what can I buy with €60.000?"
clerk: "A car box"
man: "A box?! Then I'll buy a car box"
clerk: "But you cannot live in a garage!"

The end of this service showed the man eating canned beans in a car box.

You can watch the service in full HERE.

Please don't read this if you love Italy

2008-01-24T21:03:00.000+01:00

Some of my readers love - or at least like - Italy. If you are seriously thinking to move here don't read this post because I don't want to be responsible of ruining your Italian dream.

----
I won't bother you with a post on Italian politics because I don't follow it so much. I think our Parliament is very colorful: there are a lot of politicians that use methaphors, quotes, etc. At party's events they also make artifacts to denigrate the opposite parties. For example I recall a manifestation of the right wing with a giant mortadella (something between a ham and a salami) because the leader of the left wing is from BOlogna, the city of mortadella and therefore he is called "mortadella" by them.

A part that this is the most unfunny thing I have ever seen....those are politicians and should be serious people. Indeed, they act like children.

The latter govern was very unstable. After election, the right wing asked for the votes to be counted all over because they couldn't accept they lost.
There was no re-count, and the left wing leaded the govern only by name.
Everytime that there was something to vote, the left wing won for just a few votes.

Italian politicians are very polemic, Italians in general like to animate their chat with silly provocations and that the other party puntually takes on account. It's like an endless soap-opera, just applied to the most important business on the State.

So, this week they were voting on something and happened what should not happened. Half of the parliament voted "yes" to the left proposal, and the other half voted "no".
In this case the leader of the govern should resign and the govern "falls" (il governo cade) and we have to vote again.

But this happened in a really sick way. After the first half's "yes", everybody was waiting to hear the other half of the Parliament. Unfortunately, in the other half of the Parliament the left wing was very very short on votes (around 5 more then the right parties) and on this particular subject there were some opposition even from the "central" parties. So there was a lot of expectations on the votes of this half of the parliament.

Before voting, a senator from the central party (which is determinant to win) declared that he wanted to give his vote to the left, while his party was decided to don't vote. Then it happened:
1) another senator on the same party accused him to be a betrayer and tried to assault him, but the two of the were too far. So the accuser kept yelling at him with very strong words I don't really know how they should be translated. Let say something that means "traitor/betrayer" but in a vulgar way. And then added something like "son of a bithc" and spit at him.
2) another senator of the right party yelled at him he was a "crappy faggot".
3) the senator passed out

After the vote the left party lost and the govern fell. The right party then opened bottles in the parliament and acted like the won the Formula one Sunday race.

What really disgusts me is that they condemn kids that bullies other kids by calling them names, and then they say the same things to colleagues. Where else you can call that your colleague and not get fired?!

And what about acting like if they were at the pub instead of being serious professionals?

I'm so sick of it

updates

2008-01-08T22:53:00.000+01:00

So, it's been almost a month since my last time.
I graduated on the 18th December and had a quiet party on the evening.

I left for NY on the 18th Dec but it didn't go as planned 'cause I went sick and spent all my money on medicines, health care and alternative accomodation.

I started my first job as an engineer yesterday, monday the 7th, but I am being paid $1000 a month to work 11 hrs a day, 5 days a week. It's an internship that lasts 6 months and can ben extended to 1 year (please no!).

I am very tired to write more, i wanted just let you know that i am fine and i hope you are too. I had a few problems with feeds and thunderbird no longer keeps me updated through the feeds, so i don't know what has been going on your blogs lately.

Freedom

2007-12-15T22:05:00.000+01:00

Two days to go before being free, forever. I went to primary school in September 1989 and now I finished the university, at the age of 24. I spent 18 years studying and my life has really come to a change. So, my friends, sing along Freedom with me!

I won't let you down
I will not give you up
Gotta have some faith in the sound
It's the one good thing that I've got
I won't let you down
So please don't give me up
Because I would really, really love to stick around

Heaven knows I was just a young boy
Didn't know what I wanted to be
I was every little hungry schoolgirl's pride and joy
And I guess it was enough for me
To win the race? A prettier face!
Brand new clothes and a big fat place
On your rock and roll TV
But today the way I play the game is not the same
No way
Think I'm gonna get me some happy

I think there's something you should know
I think it's time I told you so
There's something deep inside of me
There's someone else I've got to be
Take back your picture in a frame
Take back your singing in the rain
I just hope you understand
Sometimes the clothes do not make the man

All we have to do now
Is take these lies and make them true somehow
All we have to see
Is that I don't belong to you
And you don't belong to me
Freedom
You've gotta give for what you take
Freedom
You've gotta give for what you take

Heaven knows we sure had some fun boy
What a kick just a buddy and me
We had every big shot good-time band on the run boy
We were living in a fantasy
We won the race
Got out of the place
I went back home got a brand new face
For the boys on MTV
But today the way I play the game has got to change
Oh yeah
Now I'm gonna get myself happy

I think there's something you should know
I think it's time I stopped the show
There's something deep inside of me
There's someone I forgot to be
Take back your picture in a frame
Don't think that I'll be back again
I just hope you understand
Sometimes the clothes do not make the man

All we have to do now
Is take these lies and make them true somehow
All we have to see
Is that I don't belong to you
And you don't belong to me
Freedom
You've gotta give for what you take
Freedom
You've gotta give for what you take

Well it looks like the road to heaven
But it feels like the road to hell
When I knew which side my bread was buttered
I took the knife as well
Posing for another picture
Everybody's got to sell
But when you shake your ass
They notice fast
And some mistakes were built to last

That's what you get

I say that's what you get

That's what you get for changing your mind

And after all this time
I just hope you understand
Sometimes the clothes
Do not make the man

I'll hold on to my freedom
May not be what you want from me
Just the way it's got to be
Lose the face now
I've got to live

I finally made it!

2007-11-25T21:06:00.001+01:00

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com

Subscribe to Time Magazine at an 86% discount!

Photo Meme

2007-11-25T20:13:00.001+01:00

Jessica in Rome posted this photo meme. I wasn't tagged but I like her idea so much I want to do one myself.

Age at next birthday:

Place I would like to travel:

Two of my favorite places:

Favorite object:

Favorite food:

Favorite animal:

Favorite color:

Where I was born:

Where I am now:

Best friend’s nick-name:

My nick-name:

My bad habit:

My first job:

College major:

Favorite holiday:

My job:

Preferred Hobby:

Plans for tonight:

My wish:

My weakness:

Strength:

The last thing I bought:

How I think people see me:

How I describe myself:

Updates on the move

2007-11-18T10:12:00.000+01:00

Hello folks!
I haven't been writing too much lately but I have been spending 11 hours a day at the office. My thesis does not really require so much effort, but I discovered I really like the engineer role in a power plant (except for the meetings, to whose I am partially exempted since I'm not hired).

I am going there for free and mostly collecting material for my thesis. Anyway I spent 30% of my time chatting, 30% learning new things not related to my thesis, 30% working on my thesis and doing some stuff for the plant. For example, my thesis is about the documental flow related to the building of a new combined cycle power plant (CCPP) and I made a few tables to keep track of the manuals already arrived, of the functional tests planned,...

Really small stuffs but I enjoyed them a lot. Also, my job is apprecciated and my boss would like me to stay. Unfortunately he's not the one the decision is upon. Anyway, as you might remember, I have a 6 months VISA to enter Canada to be stamped before the end of December.

Would I stay if I was offered a job here, in the power plant next home? Who knows! Until I don't receive a formal offer I am not called to decide and I won't. There is a new big project coming along in 2008 and I really like to follow it from the beginning, because this is the field I love the most but am I really going to give up to the move?

Anyway I am pursuing my move to Canada, because if I am not offered a job here I will end up without a job and a VISA out of date.

The move

I have never moved in my entire life. I moved when I was 5 years old and I didn't even realize it. My parents got separated and went to grandma's. I was told we were going to stay with her "on holidays" but it's been 18 years and we're still there. And I was in charge of nothing since I was a child.

This time is different. I still have to book a flight, which are pretty expensive during x-mas holidays. I still have to find a place to stay. I am looking through Craig's list but it'r really risky to pick a place you have never been to and roomates you have never seen.
I am thinking to stay at a hotel or B&B for the first 10 days while I look up for a room in a shared flat. But are people really showing flats during x-mas holidays? Aren't they back at their parents' or away on holiday?

I have also thought to land in Seattle and then pick a bus or a train to Vancouver. If I might choose freely, I would stay in Seattle. Don't ask me why....I might reply "because it's the home of Grey's Anatomy!" and you would tell me "don't you know it is entirely shoot in California?". And you would be damn right!

VS.

Paola 1 - Computer 0

2007-11-13T21:41:00.000+01:00

I managed to win the competition against mom's faulty ethernet: I just plugged in a PCI ethernet card and it worked again. No formatting required. Whoa!

The softwares that can't miss on my computer

2007-11-11T18:39:00.000+01:00

It was Friday evening, my desktop computer was connected to the internet and the light went off for 2 seconds. After that, I was unable to connect through my ethernet and my d-link modem+router. I have tried everything and now the last thing I can try is to format the whole computer. The LAN is fine because my notebook is surfing the net normally.

Formatting is taking longer and longer because of the high amount of data to be backupped. And because of the number of softwares we use, and because of their increasing size due to their high performances. So, I have decided to post a list of the software I can't forget to install on my newly formatted computer with download links. In this way everytime I format I just have to read this post to dowload the most recent version.

What you should remember to backup:
1) email messages
2) documents
3) images
4) databases such as your book inventory or your CD and DVD inventory
5) address book of your email client
6) favourite bookmarks (yiu can use the Firefox's add-on Foxmarks to have them stored on the web and download/upload them when you need)

The softwares you will need

THE ESSENTIALS:
1) an OS (Operative System) according to your preference (get it before formatting)
2) an antivirus (get it before formatting so that you will install it before connecting the internet), my favourite anitivirus is free and it's called Avast
3) a web browser to download the following softwares ;) I use Firefox

THE BASICS:
4) one or more antispywares such as Spybot Search & Destroy and Adaware
5) one cache cleaner, I use CCleaner
6) a PDF reader, I recommend to use Foxit which as the same functions as Acrobat Adobe Pro but is free and lighter
7) A suite of programs to read and write word, excel, power points, access files. You can buy Microsoft Office or you can just download OpenOffice for free.
8) An email client if you don't use your webmail. I use Thunderbird.
9) A bluetooth software, I use IVT BlueSoleil. It's not free but it comes with your usb bluetooth device.
10) A software to listen to the music. My fave is winamp but I need iTunes to listen to some music I bought on their website.
11) An IM (Istant Messenger) such as MSN Messenger, ICQ, etc. You can also get some multiple chat clients to have a single software for more than one community. In the past I used Miranda, but it didn't support voicecalls so I switched back to MSN Messenger.

OTHERS I WILL FEEL THE NEED TO INSTALL SOONER OR LATER:
12) Some games. It's incredible how it is hard to find good games these days. They don't have to take all your screen nor 100% your attention, they shouldn't be flashy or noisy. Card games are the best, but there are some strategy games I love. Popcap Games has excellent games. They are not free but you can try them for a while before buying. My mom also plays Brickshooter , DxBall and Bubble Golden Pack 3.
13) Jack SMS: for Italian users, it allows to send a limited amount of free texts.
14) Power DVD, a DVD player which allows double subtitles, very handful when it comes to learn a language throught movies. Not free but has a trial version. I have the full version because it came with my DVD burner.
15) AIDA 32 - it's a nice software which shows you how the space on your HD is allocated. You can easily individuate the bigger files.
16) AnyDVD is used to burn DVDs.
17) A neutral screensaver such as Fliqlo, which shows the time in a old fashioned yet cool way
18) BsPlayer is a player which allow you to watch DiVx with subtitles (to be downloaded ina separated files)
19) an Italian-English dictionary with pronunciation, such as the Oxford-Paravia
20) Filezilla to easily upload via ftp you files on your webspace
21) Macromedia Dreamweaver & Fireworks. The first one is to edit/build webpages, the latter is used for the photo editing.
22) WordWeb is an English only dictionary which offers for free also synonims, nearest types and figured pronounciation. It's very light and easily to use. Just select the word you want to explore and click a combination of keys of your choice to open it. Now it features also a search on wikipedia. The software it's free, but there is also a Pro version for €19 which offers some more stuff.

Anonymous vs. multi-nominous

2007-11-01T12:22:00.000+01:00

In my early days on the internet (1998) I opened an email account with one of the first free email providers in Italy (I couldn't speak English then). My account on www.libero.it was one of the first on that website, I think. I picked up a very simple username, mitika, and in the latter years it has become so popular that there have been a lot of mitika-something usernames on Libero. Not so seldomly I find in my inbox emails of registration to some websites, including username & password and a link to activate the account. With those datas I can access the website and surf in the other person's profile. If the other person put his/her credit card details, I could access them too.
Unfortunately I don't even know how to contact the other person to warn him/her about the mispelling of the email address which caused me to receive their subscription details. Now I just trash these emails.

This is avery curious thing since in the real life I have an unique surname (I think there are less than 10 ppl on earth with this surname and all of them are my relatives) and I never happened to be misconfused with someone else.

This video is so funny....and TRUE!!

2007-10-18T14:26:00.000+02:00

Exams are almost over (forever!)

2007-10-07T13:09:00.000+02:00

So, today, Sunday the 7th, I should be spending my day studying for my last exam. By tomorrow 6PM it should be over and I will no longer have the pressure of "give the most you can in the shorter time". I guess I'll feel relieved and I am trying to remember how I felt when I gave my last exam of the bachelor's.

I was shocked and my friend and classmate Brizio kept saying me "Pola, my god, congrats, you did it!!". It took a long while before I realized I really did it.
But I knew that after the graduation it would change a lot since I was already enrolled at the master's.

But this time is different. It will be over, forever. Maybe my real last exam will be a professionalizing one, the one to become a Professional Engineer, but I'm not sure I will do it. Each country, or each region of Country, have their exam. For example, if I take the Italian exam I will be able to sign as an engineer only within Italy. If I emigrate to Canada, I will have to take the PE exam in the region where I want to practice. I.e. if I take the exam in Toronto I won't be able to work as a PE, to say, in Vancouver or in Ottawa.

Anyway don't let those thoughts take away this joy...and moreover, don't miss this chance to make today my last-exam day. I should really really study today. Huff!

English in Europe

2007-09-23T00:10:00.000+02:00

The European Comission has has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as 'Euro-English.'

In the first year, 's' will replace the soft 'c'. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.

The hard 'c' will be dropped in favour of 'k'. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome 'ph' will be replaced with 'f'. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent 'e' in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing 'th' with 'z' and 'w'with 'v'.

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary 'o' kan be dropd from vords kontaining 'ou' and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst pla s. "

If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl.

Ragù (meat sauce) in 8 steps

2007-09-15T14:34:00.000+02:00

[Italian version of this post HERE]

My favourite sauce, ever! I followed mom's instruction to cook it, and I am gonna post the receipt here so that I will be able to retrieve it when I move out.

This sauce can be used on any kind of pasta, even the lasagne, pasta al forno (pasta cooked in the oven) and gnocchi.
I put this sauce on gnocchi but I was so hungry I forgot to take a pic of the dish. Anyway you can find the step-to-step instruction with pics.

What will you need:

1 carrot
1 stick of celery
1/2 white onion
1 clove of garlic
1 leaf of laurel
(1 clove, if tou like it)
2 tablespoon of olive oil (not extra-virgin)
0.200 kg of fat, minced meat [0.44 lbs or pounds]
5 table spoon of tomato puree

And, from your kitchen:
a casserole, a grinder, a knife, a spoon

1. Wash and clean the carrot, the garlic, the half onion, the celery and the laurel

2. Prepare a casserole with the oil and the clove of garlic and put on the cook.

3. In the meanwhile, chop finely the celery together with the carrot and the half onion.

4. When the oil starts to sizzle, add the chopped veggies in the casserole and stir.

5. Wait a few mins 'til the veggies get darker, then add the minced meat. Prefer a fat meat to have a softer ragù, otherwise it will dry too much during cooking and result in harder meat.

6. Put the lid on the pot and leave on the cook for about 5-10 mins until the meat turns brown. Add the laurel leave.

7. (Take off the garlic clove andthe laurel) Add the tomato puree and stir.

8. After about 15 mins, lower the flame of the cook and stir now and then. When you turn off the cook add the laurel leaf and the clove, but take them away before adding to the pasta.

9. Add the sauce to the pasta/gnocchi and add grated parmesan. Serve.

nine-eleven

2007-09-11T14:22:00.000+02:00

Lately I have been watching some DVDs of the well renowned TV serie Friends. Every episode made me sad because the intro showed the twin towers.

I don't care who decided to attack the towers, which games are behind it. I just feel very sad for the lives of those who perished during the hijack.

May god bless them.

The Carpenters - Rainy Days And Mondays always get me down

2007-09-05T17:33:00.001+02:00

Talking to myself and feeling old
Sometimes I'd like to quit nothing ever seems to fit
Hanging around nothing to do but frown
Rainy days and mondays always get me down.
What I've got they used to call the blues
Nothing is really wrong
feeling like I don't belong
Walking around some kind of lonely clown
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.
Funny but it seems I always
Wind up here with you
It's nice to know somebody loves me
Funny but it seems that it's the only thing to do
To run and find the one who loves me.
What I feel has come and gone before
No need to talk it out
We know what it's all about
Hanging around nothing to do but frown
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.
Funny but it seems that it's the only thing to do
To run and find the one who loves me.
What I feel has come and gone before
No need to talk it out
We know what it's all about
Hanging around nothing to do but frown
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.
Hanging around nothing to do but frown
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.

Still alive

2007-08-28T15:17:00.000+02:00

Luckily I felt bad only on the 15th and 17th. Now it came back to normal. I am not yet 100% ok, I feel dazed but this is not as bad as it was before. So I consider myself lucky.
I am trying and experiment on the web: a real anonymous blog. As you might know, I have several blogs but none of them is anonymous, which is where the fun in blogging should be.
It is in Italian and it is not hosted on Blogger, so there is no chance for you to read it. Ah-ah!

Have you ever had an anonymous blog?

Please send your prayers to Terri's family which is going thru a bad period. Hope it will be soon over!

Bad news

2007-08-19T12:50:00.000+02:00

I am feeling sick again.

Quote

2007-08-16T18:47:00.000+02:00

She's quite ugly but she has so much money she looks so beautiful...

My colleague in the office talking about the daughter of a big industrial man, owner of one of the biggest Italian companies.

Worst translation ever

2007-08-16T14:47:00.001+02:00

Some of you know I work as a freelance translator. I came across an article about the worst translated ads. This beat 'em all! Thanks to Neatorama.

Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: “Nothing Sucks like an Electrolux.”

I'm still laughing!!

°Neruda's sonnet LXVI

2007-08-16T12:00:00.000+02:00

I liked the Italian version better, but at least my English readers can get the meaning of the poem.

I do not love you--except because I love you;
I go from loving to not loving you,
from waiting to not waiting for you
my heart moves from the cold into the fire.
I love you only because it's you I love;

I hate you no end, and hating you
bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you
is that I do not see you but love you blindly.
Maybe the January light will consume
my heart with its cruel
ray, stealing my key to true calm.
In this part of the story I am the one who
dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you,
because I love you, Love, in fire and in blood.

Ferragosto

2007-08-15T16:45:00.000+02:00

Ferragosto is today, the 15th of August. Ferragosto comes from the Latin Feriae Augusti = riposo di Agosto (rest of August) and on this day there was a feast to celebrate the ending of the major agricultural works. In Italy, this day is usually spent at the beach or, for those who aren't at the sea, grilling meat with friends.

I have never done any of these things: the first one because this is high season and going on holiday now is very expensive, the second one because there is nobody here with a grill. Anyway I am just happy as it is, and I spent the afternoon cleaning a storage room we have at the house. It's amazing to see how many stuff one can collect during his/her life.

Today I threw away some of my old school books and papers. I only kept: my diary of the 4th year of highschool (out of 5), my "pagellini" (sort of small paper where the teachers wrote your marks in order to show them to your parents before the real "pagella" came at the end of the quadrimester), my philosophy, physics, Italian, Latin books, some random paper I wrote while in the highschool.

I have to say I was pretty much bored in the highschool. I didn't have great marks and I was attending the best lyceum in my town, so there was no much time to mess around. All that pressure put me into an empasse, so I developed the art of doing anything but studying (which I am still pretty good at). I was more creative then, although I was not really skilled in drawing or other art forms.

Among my papers I found a poem by Pablo Neruda I had completely forgot, but once I read them today I still remember it. It is the Soneto LXVI and I am pasting it here in Italian since I ignore the Spanish original and I like very much the rythm of this poem. I hope my Italian readers will enjoy it as much as I do.

Non t’amo se non perché t’amo

e dall’amarti a non amarti giungo

e dall’attenderti quando non t’attendo

passa dal freddo al fuoco il mio cuore.

Ti amo solo perché io te amo,

senza fine io t’odio, e odiandoti ti prego,

e la misura del mio amor viandante

è non vederti e amarti come un cieco.

Forse consumerà la luce di Gennaio,

il raggio crudo, il mio cuore intero,

rubandomi la chiave della calma.

In questa storia solo io muoio

e morirò d’amore perché t’amo,

perché t’amo, forse, a ferro e fuoco.

Cute panda

2007-08-14T23:12:00.001+02:00

DUMBO Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass

2007-08-14T22:55:00.000+02:00

This
or this?

I miss you, NY!

if you need an excuse

2007-08-12T01:12:00.000+02:00

either he is not like HIM or he is too much like HIM.
Anyway he's not okay.

*I don't pretend you to understand this post. It's a self help one.

High school questionnaire

2007-08-07T20:48:00.000+02:00

I read this on Terri's blog.

1. Who was your best friend? I never had a best friend, I had good ones: Flavia, who is now spending a month volounteering in Mexico, was the one I was closer to.
2. Did you play any sports? Sure! I had been playing volley since the age of 6 to the age of 16. I had to quit because I had low marks at school. I kept having them also without training. Ouch!

3. What kind of car did you drive? In Italy you can get your driving license at the age of 18, so during the 4st year of highschool. I didn't had my own car, I used my mom's Ford Fiesta in the weekend and on Saturday to go to school. Just like this one:

4. It’s Friday night. Where were you? High School Football or Basketball games or out with my boyfriend at a movie? We go to school on Saturday, too. Therefore I was at home.

5. Were you a party animal? No. I enjoyed going out with friends, but there was not very much to see and do.

6. Were you considered a flirt? Absolutely not! Sigh!

7. Were you in the band, orchestra or choir? We didn't have any.

8. Were you a nerd? Not yet ;)

9. Were you ever suspended or expelled? No! I once was called my the master because I published and ad on the school board where I was looking for some metal band's CD "also burned". I was stupid and nobody used internet (and it was very slow).

10. Can you sing the fight song? What is it? I guess no.

11. Who was your favorite teacher? Mrs. Crola, math teacher. She was suffering of several cancers but always tried to come at school and teach us math & physics. She retired that year and died after 3 months I enrolled to university. We all loved her. I wish I could thank her for letting me be bad at math without making me feel stupid. I would have never chosen engineering if I felt so stupid I couldn't pass math.

12. What was your school mascot? We didn't have any.

13. Did you go to the Prom? There is no Prom in Italy (ok, Italian high school sucks...)

14. If you could go back, would you? I would love to if thre was a Prome.

15. What do you remember most about graduation? It was the day after I was working as a car washer and I told my mom I wasn't interested, also because there is no such ceremony as I saw in the American movies. She let me sleep until 11AM, I got up and was angry because I couldn't attend it. I was told it lasted 20mins, some classmate made the graduate hat with black cardboard to try to make something American-like, and then they asked the money for the stuff! So sad. I don't regret I didn't attend it.

16. Where were you on Senior Skip Day? I guess this means when you don't attend the last days of highschool. Uhm, I think I went 'til the very end, but several years ago I skipped like 3 days. I found it so boring, also because I couldn't tell mommy and we were without a car and very few girls.

17. Did you have a job your senior year? Yes, I worked as a car washer at the local gas station. I went there only on the weekends and during holidays, it was not very much because of the money, just to keep in mind why I was studying! A little effort now, better job later (I hope).

18. Where did you go most often for lunch? There were no lessons during the afternoon, we quit at 1PM (lessons started at 8AM). I came home by 2PM and microwave heated some leftovers, watching the Bold & The Beautiful.

19. Have you gained weight since then? I feel like I gained a ton but I can't swear it's true. I have trashed my highschool diaries and therefore I am not sure I was slimmer.

20. What did you do after graduation? Went to University and attended Electrical Engineering, in Pavia.

21. What year did you graduate? Bachelor's in 2005, Master's should be on this fall. :)

22. Who was your Senior Prom Date? No Prom, no date.

23. Are you going/did you go to your 10 year reunion? 5 years has just passed! We made only two reunions, the first one one year later but we couldn't still stand each others (we were 20 ppl per class). The last one was on April, I went & enjoyed it also because I was one of the only three regs with the studies, after being considered the worst of my class in the highschool.

Thanks Terri for tagging me!

Back to Italy

2007-07-28T11:08:00.000+02:00

I came back to Italy on the 24th, it was really a quick holiday in Malta to meet some friends. ALitalia lost my bag when flying TO Malta and gave me a hell of a time since I was there to have some social life. I spent a lot of money (aka Waaaaaay Tooooo Muuuuuch) on the first necessities, such as a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, underwears, sleepwear, make up. I spent around €300 in the first 2 days only.

I was abroad and didn't even had a map of the place nor other kind of advice. Islands are expensive, and are even more expensive if their economy rely on tourism and you are a tourist on high season. I asked for a refund today, but I am not optimist about it.
Alitalia is broke, Alitalia is shit and Alitalia is Italian, so has no kind of customer care.

Holiday!

2007-07-20T12:04:00.001+02:00

At least it's time to have a short holiday (5 days).
Before I leave I want to post something upshiftin': Faith Hill's pics. What's wrong with normal arms? Looks at the size of her elbow!
FYI: Faith Hill is 39 years old. The retouch removed crows feet, back fat, arm girth, neck wrinkles, waist size, and... so much more. [from The diet's blog]

The white rabbit ones

2007-07-19T19:55:00.000+02:00

Have you ever meet a white rabbit? Those people who are always late, no matter if they are the one who decided when to meet, they'll be late anyway?
Well, I have and I really hate that behaviour.
I have a friend who is always late. She blame the others, her family, and something unexpected on the last second. And you spend 30-40 minutes waiting and waiting.

Is there a cure? When we were younger everybody in your little company of friends got angry at her. She was never there on time and had always a consisten delay. When you are waiting on the street at night, with cold weather in the winter or mozzies in the summer it is not really pleasant.
But she does not seem to care. She just say "sorry" smiling and the next time does the same.

Once I was very rough to her, and told her she didn't care about others and thought everybody was at her complete disposal. She got offended and angry herself. Of course the excuse is "or you take me the way I am or you can go to hell".
She's such a nice girl, but this delay-issue is really touching my nerve.

I have tried everything.
If we are together and have an appointment with a third person, I tell her not to waste time putting the make up on, or not to wash her hair, or to don't put on the body cream. And she just replies "c'mon, it's a matter of minutes....what can a few minutes do?". Then, the few minutes are 30, then 40... I get ashamed with the third person, she does not seem to care.

I have also tried to pick her up on time. But if you think that she'll goes out on time just because she knows that you are waiting for her in the car you are wrong. She can make you wait for 30 minutes. I tried to get there earlier, like 20 mins before the appointment. I waited my 20 minutes plus another 20 of "usual delay". I yelled at her, and told her she was really rough. And she said I was the stupid one to arrive earlier.

Yesterday morning she should have picked me up at 8.15.
At 8.15 I was standing on the street because there is no parking there and cars shouldn't stop during rush hours. At 8.17 I sent her a text. At. 8.30 she said she was dressing.
Then I decided to walk to her place. At 8.45 I was there. At 8.55 we were finally heading out of town.

Silence rhymes with patience

2007-07-11T20:30:00.000+02:00

I'll just show you what I looked at on Amazon recently (but didn't buy yet)
Any suggestion?

How much is your corpse worth?

2007-07-06T22:29:00.000+02:00

$5425.00

Mingle² - Online Dating

This is reassuring

2007-07-02T14:23:00.001+02:00

You Are 64% Pure

Well, you're not exactly an angel - but you're pretty darn close.
But chances are, you have a couple juicy secrets deep in your closet.

How Pure Are You?

Not sure about this one

2007-07-02T14:21:00.001+02:00

You Are a Pinky

You are fiercely independent, and possibly downright weird.
A great communicator, you can get along with almost anyone.
You are kind and sympathetic. You support all your friends - and love them for who they are.

You get along well with: The Ring Finger

Stay away from: The Thumb

What Finger Are You?

Gotcha!

2007-07-02T14:20:00.001+02:00

You Are 32% Girly

You are a pretty hardcore tomboy, and a very free spirit.
Gender roles be dammed, you like to do things your way.

How Girly Are You?

and no belly button no party, either!

2007-07-01T15:09:00.001+02:00

No English no Party

2007-07-01T15:07:00.001+02:00

People can be really awkward sometimes. If they could only spell it....

Boys &Girls!

2007-06-24T20:17:00.000+02:00

When I was in the highschool I had a single boyfriend and he didn't last long. I was 16 years old and he was 18 y.o.. I don't want to annoy you with all these silly details of a teenager lovestory but I was in a romantic phase of my life and I could have turned into a nun, as well (ok, a nun should not experience sex...). I was all "everybody is good, they just need to be understood, forgive but not be forgiven", and so on.
While boys at that age where all metal-fans, which to them was very virile.

So I had this bf, Diego, and as a good former couple we had to decide which was our song. He proposed "Nothing else matters" by Metallica and I proposed "Without you" by Mariah Carey. I think I don't need to write who won!

And 8 years after, Mariah wins again! Here you are the video + song.

No I cant forget this evening
Or your face as you were leaving
But I guess thats just the way
The story goes
You always smile but in your eyes
Your sorrow shows
Yes it shows
No I cant forget tomorrow
When I think of all my sorrow
When I had you there
But then I let you go
And now its only fair
That I should let you know
What you should know

I cant live
If living is without you
I cant live
I cant give anymore
I cant live
If living is without you
I cant give
I cant give anymore

Well I cant forget this evening
Or your face as you were leaving
But I guess thats just the way
The story goes
You always smile but in your eyes
Your sorrow shows
Yes it shows

I cant live
If living is without you
I cant live
I cant give any more
I cant live
If living is without you
I cant give
I cant give anymore

Who need a website anymore?

2007-06-24T10:11:00.000+02:00

I was thinking about this just this morning. I have made several website and they are scattered on the web. I have not been updating my personal one for almost 3 years, although I don't like the graphic and and the contents are out of date.

So why am I not updating my website? First of all, because I don't need it. It's not a professional website and I don't have to publicize any business nor to show any sample of my works.
Second, I would not do it in Italian, since most of my webfriends are English mothertongue. The Italian ones are the ones that know me in the real life or far away and not so close to be interested in a webspace of mine. Third, making a website is really a waste of time, who need it when you can get free templates for a blog?

Yeah, blogs are more freshy and updated than a website. I don't agree anymore with half of what I wrote on my personal website. But in a website you will lost the old words if you want to put the new ones. Whereas on the blog nothing fades, it's just into the archive, buried under newer posts.

I like to read my blog for the beginning to the last post, so that I can trace all my thoughts and feelings throughout the time. And you? Have you ever had a personal website? Do you still update it? How many websites and blogs do you have?

I like it Crispy

2007-06-15T18:53:00.000+02:00

I'd love to se that bacon into my favourite hamburger: the Crispy McBacon (it's a shame it is not sold in the US). Yummy!!

Hama beads / Perler beads

2007-06-10T12:48:00.001+02:00

I am going completely insane and have ordered tons of beads from the US. I hope they'll arrive here asap! I know that IKEA makes them, too, but they're out of stock in the surrounding stores, so I had to order online from America. YOu just take the pearls, put on pegboard to form an image, iron them (so that they melt) and that's done!

Ain't they cute?

Sadism

2007-06-03T23:26:00.000+02:00

Sadism is putting a tracker of your weight on your website. (see right frame)

Living the business life - part 3: the bold and the beautiful

2007-06-02T08:24:00.000+02:00

At yesterday meeting I saw a really handsome man. He was the boss of another Electrical Plant, I think around 45 y.o., tall, dark hair, dark eyes, nice smile, very mediterranean, also funny.
It was really nice to watch, charming, smiling....and of course married.
If the last point was not enough, he lives in the farther point of Italy from here.

I tried to offer him a coffee after the meeting but when I am anxious, the words coming from my mouth overlap and I talk fast. It was better if I shut up.

What image could express it better than this?

Living the business life - part 2 : the meeting

2007-06-02T07:56:00.000+02:00

Yesterday a meeting was held at the plant.
It was one of the personell formation kind, with people wearing suit talking s**t.

You have to know that in Italy, after WWII almost everything was public. The train company, the water company, the electricity company, the telephone company,...
Later in the years, since everybody was sucking from them (I mean both the employée and the customers) it was decided to privatize them, following the American model.
The results are bad in 80% of the time, and if you have ever taken a train in Italy you know what I mean. (Or if you have ever tried to get DSL connection)

The plant where I am going everyday was privatized, too. It was bought together with some other plants in Italy by a little company (1250 employées), which is owned the second bigger one in Italy after Enel (which was the public company), which has a strong partecipation of other public and privates companies,....I could go on on endlessy.

If you have ever lived in Italy you know the difference beetwen public and private work. That said, if you read by previous post you will also know that the average employée in this Plant is 55 years old. How can they keep a 8 hrs meeting on a new approach of problem solving technique?

I don't know why I had to attend this meeting, they gave us a tablet and a pencil. We spent the first 4 hrs drawing. My boss drew sharks all the time (I wonder if there is a shrink between my readers...) The boss of the plant (so the boss of my boss), during the coffee break opened my tablet and saw that I didn't take any note.... I had written only "What do we care about THIS?"

I am unlucky, am not?

So during the coffee break he approached me and said that he saw me writing all the time, but didn't found any note on my tablet. He asked if this meeting was of no interest to us (writing the thesis, he meant) and I replied "uh, no...no... it's just that i thought it was more technical.

I mean, 90% of the public were technicians with a high school diploma (at highest) what do they know about Pareto analysis)? And about Gantt diagrams?

Living the business life - part 1

2007-06-02T07:34:00.000+02:00

My health is getting better and time is running out. That's why I decided to start to go to an Electrical Plant near where I live to write my thesis. I have been there before, because I spent two months there to write my bachelor thesis two years ago. I know at least 1/3 of the personnel and they are (old) nice and friendly. Of course, to run a plant you need experience. But I wonder what's gonna happen in the next 5-7 years when almost everyone will have the age to retire. (Consider that in Italy you get a pension from the Italian State, so nobody works longer than due, except overpaid professionals).

Anyway, I started to go there on the 28th May. I had planned to go there after Easter holidays, but I have been sick since Easter day. I don't know how long I am gonna stay there, all the summer for sure.

This is an old Electrical Plant, built in 1923 and then rebuild bigger in the '60 or '70.
Now they are rewpowering the plant (repowering is a technical word), this means they are building a new part with machines up to date, more powerful than the older, more efficient.
I don't want to bother you with details, just keep in mind that there is this new part of the plant built and which is going to be linked to the old plant in these days.

I live in the offices, of course (I would prefer to stay among the machines, anyway), and I am taking care of the manuals. In the EU there is a directive about machines (which is not a law but a guideline) which force the manufacturer to attach the instruction sheets to the machine sold. Italy has issued a law to absorb this directive, giving the basic contents of each instruction manual. This means: standard conditions of employ (power, voltage, current, etc), weight, manufacturer, repair service, maintenace, schemes, mode of employ, measures, and so on.

I am the one keeping track of the manuals already received and looking if they comply to the law requirements. That said, I must confess it is really a mess.
The manufacturer are not sending the manuals (we have received less than the 10% of the manuals, and the plant should be running by the end of August) and the ones received are really poor and don't include the basic infos required by law. Let's say that 3 out 22 manuals received until now are ok, the remaining 19 were rejected.

That's what I'll look shortly:

Garage Sale & Lemonade Stall: American traditions

2007-05-26T13:07:00.000+02:00

One thing I would really love is to host a garage sale.
I have so many stuff to give a way, and I don't throw them to waste.
I mean, I would love to get some euros from their sale, but it's not because I need money.
I would give the income to some animal rescue association.

In Italy there is no garage sale. If you have used stuff you are no longer able to put somewhere in the house, or that simply you want to get rid of, you can:
1) trash them
2) bring them to a used shop
3) give them to someone or something (a library, charity, association,...)
4) try to sell them on your own through internet

Option no. 4 is far away from money making, since eBay fees are high, but the postal costs are even higher, especially for books.
There is a used stuff marketplace called "Il mercatino", but they choose what to put on display and you are given 50% of the sale price. After a certain time (let's say, one month), the price drops to the half, so that you will get half of the half (a quarter) which is about to nothing.

Sometime ago I read on expattalk (the forum of Expats in Italy) that Italians don't have the culture of the used things. We tend to not evaluate correctly the stuff we want to self, and we are not willing to pay too much for something used. Also, we see the act of buying used stuff like a sign of poverty.

I was looking for a picture of a garage sale and come to this page from Brookville, OH, listing the rules for garage sales.

Duration no more than 4-days
One month between garage sales.
No more than 3-garage sales per year.
One non-illuminated sign not to exceed 4 sq ft in size, no more than 3 ft in height above any grade may be displayed on the property where the same is held.
No more than two (2) 4 sq ft in size, off site signs of a directional type, one per collector or arterial type road.
No balloons, streamers, special lighting, noise making devices or similar advertising or notice shall be used to call attention to the garage sign.
Signs cannot be attached to utility poles.
All signs must be removed within 24 hours after the conclusion of the garage sale.

It seems fair to me. I don't know if it possible to have garage sales in Italy.
When I was a child and I was still in primary school there was a summer of garage sales between us children.
It was nothing authorized, let's say one girl in my class, Elisa, one day put a sheet in front of her house to display some used toys and girly stuff (such as bracelets, necklaces, ...).
So every other girl in the class wanted to do the same. I didn't have the space to display my stuff, so I just put them on display in a window open to the street in the first floor. I sold nothing.

In Charlez Schultz stripes, the Peanuts, there are children selling lemonade. I have never seen one in Italy, I think it is forbidden to sell drinks & food if you are not authorized (i.e. sanitary checks, and so on).

Books books books

2007-05-23T10:43:00.000+02:00

I spent 3 hours browsing websites, looking for the best deal to buy these books and with a cover I liked. And they call it quick shopping....
Here you are the results (for the sake of the time lost looking at the covers I'll post them only if the Publisher is Dover Thrift):

Plus (any cover will do ok):
Little Women & Young Wives by Louisa M. Alcott
A little princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Look at the titles: it is cleary my premenstrual syndrome...

To choose a book

2007-05-22T14:43:00.000+02:00

Most of the time the book has a given cover. But if you want to read a classic, let say Jane Austen, you will find at least 5 editions from different editors which are different for covers, font, size, paper. Now, we can leave aside the last three because shopping online does not allow you to search inside the book. (I do like to sniff them, beside.) What about the cover? To me it is very important because i am very lazy, I am the kind of person who can have the same book on the bedside table for more than one year. I feel guilty if i spend money on a think I don't use, then if I buy a book I don't like I feel guilty if I don't read it entirely.
But lately I have been reading a lot because of my sickness (which has gone off for the last three days, hooray!) and I want to keep the habit.

There a lot loads of books whose title are known by almost everybody, but how many people did actually read them? I am not yet in the club, so I wanna remedy.
I want to read Wuthering Heights by Jane Austen and some of the books of the Bronte sisters.
Especially the one by Emily Bronte: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma.
There are also very cheap set with all the Emily's booksn but I love the cover of the Pride and Prejudice edition by Dover Publications. To buy the books singularly will cost more, since the shipping costs are per item. And, furthermore, to order the books separately will cost even more.

But isn't this cover damn nice, is it?

Turns out that...

2007-05-20T22:47:00.000+02:00

... the vet said:
1) the lady cat is 4-5 years old
2) she was sterylized, then not pregnant
3) she's mangy because infestated with fungus

Therefore I have become quite obsessed with hygiene both for we human and the other two cats. [I happened to get up at 2 AM because my knee was itching and looked up on the internet on cats' forums for details regarding fungus...]
I spent my Sunday buying hygienizing detergents and spraying vapor all over the tissues in the house (carpets, chairs, couch, beds,...).
To cuddle her I must wear rub gloves and I have to be careful to where I sit and to where she sits/lays.

The only positive thing is that the other two cats don't go near the new lad cat, so that the risk of spreading the infection is low. She is a very sweet cat, well mannered, uses the litter (and asks for it), eat a lot of stuff, ask to play,... The fur is starting to grow and she is becoming really nice and pretty. Naked cats are clumsy, you should see her playing!

I still have to find her a name. Last night I thought about Isadora, like the dancer, shortened Dora. But the decision is not yet final. I would like to wait when the fur has grown back and I can see her in her "usual dress". (Anyway I think she's to old to pick up her new name)

Everyday her furry coat improves a lot, and now she does not look anymore like a French poodle because the fur on the end of her tail is no longer an isolated bun of fur but part of a long and furry tail.

She is taking a pill for her fungus, and she will be doing so for a month and half. Although today she took the second pill only, she HAS some more fur, silky and black and does not look anymore like a naked ape. The vet says she's turning into a complete new cat in a few days and i am really waiting to see her in all her glory. I will post some pictures to make the comparison "before and after", which is the thing I love about TV shopping programs!

In these days she is really weird to watch: her naked belly and her mangy head makes she look really ugly right now. I feel guilty to apply an aesthetic criteria to judge a cat, like those people who spend $$$ to buy a purebred.

Another picture of Dora: her belly is naked but the paws are furry and soft. She looks so small and frail...

A new cat

2007-05-18T14:54:00.000+02:00

On last Wednesday I found a cat in the kitchen, eating together with Rino.
It was mangy, black and small. Rino is black and small, too, so I almost screamed when I went to the kitchen:I thought I was seeing double. I jumped....the cat run away. I called my mom and muttered "a cat a cat!!!! it's black"and she replied "That's Rino!"....and I said "no it is not".
I went back to the kitchen to check if Rino was the other cat left in there and he was.
So there was another cat, it was sure.

By yesterday she sat in our lap, looking for cuddles and food.
Tonight she was walking on my bed at 3AM.
Those two stupid male cats I have, Poldo and Rino, were completely taken off by the mangy cat.
Rino is not even my cat, it is my neighborours'. he started to come to my house since he was a kitten and kept the habit, so now he spends 90% of his time here.
I don't know why he became jealous of the lady cat, this is not even his house and he was eating next to her two days ago!

Poldo, as always, is sad but it is no news to him since he was already step over by Rino. I am happy to have a third cat because I think the mangy cat could balance the feline hierarchy of the house (Poldo can't stand Rino and they keep fightin', refuse to eat in the same dish,...). We will be taking the lady cat to the vet tomorrow morning to have the vaccine shots and ask if someone claimed her back.

Here's a picture of the poor creature, notice the mangy tail with a bum of fur on the top. Looks like one of those poodle old ladies carry around...

I forgot to tell you she is pregnant, so pratically I don't have ONE new cat but 1 plus x cats.

does not she looks like this most famous one?

Un-pause

2007-05-18T14:45:00.000+02:00

It has been almost a month since my last post. Unfortunately nothing has changed. I still felt sick and the doctors haven't yet said anything. I have been taking drugs and they did nothing, or at least they didn't make me feel ok enough to get back to my everyday life.
I will be undergoing to further investigation (in hospital, I mean) to find out - if possible - what's wrong with me. The doctors don't know much about these kind of issues. They cannot even tell me nor the causes nor the further development. I don't know if this is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime issue or if I am going to have it forever now and then.

I have been spending this month at home sleeping and being sick. I have read some books, I think I read more books in the latter month than in the whole past year. Since I don't want to annoy you with my sickness diary nor I want all these words stay on the internet forever (damn google and its cache!), I will write about something else without being too specific.

I would like to thanks all of you who left comments in the Pause post, and to those who emailed me to know what was up. Thank you very much, my friends!

Pause

2007-04-19T21:18:00.000+02:00

I felt very sick on Sunday Easter. I spent some days in hospital then I signed to go out against the doctors' suggestion. Now I am undergoing oxygen and pharmaceutical treatments.
I feel like I'm 80, I have higher pressure and my heart bumps abnormally. I spend my day doing absolutely nothing, having also a nap in the afternoon, and yet sleeping from 10PM to 8AM (I was used to sleep from 1AM to 11AM!).

I have put in "stand by" my life: school, thesis, work.
I am basically retired at home. I don't know the dyagnosis yet, I just need to rest.
So, there will probably be a black out on this blog.

I am fairly disappointed that the world goes on also without me, I have to work on this before is gets into bitterness. I also have considerable difficulties in speaking and understanding English.
I connect to the internet, but I don't like spending my days on the computer anymore. The fact of being able to stand on my legs, breath, walk, see, smell and hear is way more interesting thank a 17" monitor made of colored pixels.

Anyway I am still thinking about you all. Take care!

Venice

2007-04-07T20:24:00.000+02:00

Venetian house on the Laguna

I love Venice! Here I will post some pictures taken the last time I went there, in 2005. I was visiting family in Padua, so I took a day off to Venice on my own to pay a visit to my grandad's grave. As you know, cars are not allowed in Venice, also because streets are too narrow and there are bridges and all sort of obstacles -I think Venice is not even wheelchair friendly.

Of course, on St. Micheal island (isola di San Michele), the cemetary island, there is an unnatural silence. There are no tourists, no cars, nothing except graves. It is very small. Imagine a small cemetary whose borders are the end of the land you have under your feet. However there is a wall enclosing the cemetary, sort of impressive considering the location.

This is a very special cemetary, in fact they are no longer burying anybody there, since there is no space left. And on every grave there are fake but colored flowers, giving a nice appearence to the sad place. I think the city is doing this to keep an appearence, because I dubt the relatives are visiting regularly St. Michae'ls. My grandad is buried there because he died in the sea, he was a sailor from Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia).

I love also the small islands snubbed by tourists, such as the coloured Burano. However I had some trouble in localizing the right vaporetto so I ended in Murano (the one famous for glasses) where I took that pic:

I hope l'americano will really go there on Sat and that he will be patient enought to wait for me at Santa Lucia rail station. ;-)

Online experiment: e-business

2007-04-05T16:12:00.000+02:00

On this last semester at the university I am attending a course which teaches you how to set up your own business. It is a short course and mostly it tells you which kind of business enterprises there are in Italy. But, most important, the course teaches you to rationally think about your idea, to see if it will stand up, which possible problems you will encounter, where do you have to look, who are you potential customers and your competitors.

I have always been dreaming to run my small company, and I have been thinking also to different kind of products to sell. The fact is, I really like money. And I really like the American dream idea to start from nothing and get rich before you are 30 y.o.
Of course, the definition of "rich" is very subjective...basically "to become rich", for most of the people is to have more money than they currently have.
My definition of richness is having a housemaid to clean the house once a week, and this can make you smile. Anyway, I prefer the idea to fix small steps and achieve small results and then think big.

However to realize the American dream does no longer require to actually move to the other side of the ocean. You can just buy a computer, subscribe to an internet provider, and surf virtually.
That's the most exciting part of it, to me.

In the beginning I thought that company = store. This, of course, is no longer valid. All the small shops of my little town are closing due the presence of the new big chainstores. But being on the internet allows you to be everywhere without the need to rent a place, hire staff, have stuffs shipped around the world.

These thoughts vary depending on the kind of product or service you want to sell. The big obstacle I have to face is that I can't do nothing, except thinking. And sometimes I am pretty good at it. I haven't taken any business course because I am studying engineering, but I cannot even work as an engineer since I have no pratical experience. If nobody hires me, I will hire myself.

After this short (huuuuge) introduction, the big new is:
I have bought a domain with a cool name. I think that - if I can manage it well - it will be worth some money in the future. Instead of think think think I have finally taken an action, and now I will have to face all the concerning problems and issue to make it work. My initial investiment is small, around $120, but of course I don't wanna to throw them directly into the bin. It will take what it will take but I am going to figure how to take the most from it. Now I have to get informed on the advertising I could put on it. I know Google ads only, and for now I don't have too much money to pay a professiona advertising company.

The fact is, my website will provide a service (not products) but to be known I need to put advertising, and to have customers I will need to put some contents (or service).
So, services and contents are strictly bound to each other and I hope to take all the needed steps to achieve my target.

I will write more about this new later, once I will be confirmed as the domain owner.

Puddle of Mudd - She hates me

2007-04-03T20:12:00.000+02:00

This video reminds me of my freshman days. I just moved to Pavia in my granny's house to begin the uni. I wasn't angry at anybody but I liked the power of this song. Now I sing it with emotional carrying because I am angry! I wonder where is this band now since I never heard of them anymore.

Met a girl, thought she was grand
Fell in love found out first hand
Went well for a week or two
Then it all came unglued

In a trapp trip I can't grip
never thought I'd be the one who'd slip
then I started to realize
I was living one big lie

[Chorus]
She fucking hates me.......... trust
she fucking hates me.......... la la la love
I tried too hard and she tore my feelings
like I had none and ripped them away
[Chorus]

She was queen for about an hour
After that shit got sour
She took all I ever had

No sign of guilt no feeling of bad

In a trapp trip I can't grip
never thought I'd be the one who'd slip
then I started to realize
I was living one big lie

[Chorus]

That's my story, as you see
Learned my lesson and so did she
Now it's over and i'm glad
'Cause I'm a fool for all I've said

[Chorus]

Trust
la la la la la la la la la love
Trust
She fucking hates me

[ Lyrics found on http://www.metrolyrics.com ]