Obama has done it! It is a great time for America!!!

As you all know, as the world knows, Barak Obama has won the US presidential election.  He has won by a landslide 69% t0 23% with Ralph Nader and other independent candidates taking minor percentages of the vote.  As you all are reading or have read, this is historic.  Voter turn-out was very high, I think the highest since 1908, the next president will be black, with a muslim and African immigrant background.  Obama really represents America.  He is intelligent and willing to learn what he needs to know to do the job.  I have found many Americans like this. I think America can be proud of itself again. I think America can now re-position itself in the world. One of my colleagues said that it was a great day for democracy.  Ok – but the same democracy elected George Bush twice, with a close enough margine either way that it was possible to create questions about cheating or rigging the vote.  You can’t rig the vote when the margin is 69% to 24%!  Many people who never voted before came out to support Obama – something that the polls up to the election largely ignored.  It was surprising to watch Obama pull away from the debates with Hillary Clinton and actually begin to create some policy platforms for domestic and foreign policy that he could (very effectively) communicate to the electorate.  IT WAS A VICTORY FOR IT NETWORKING!!!  In the end there were a few dissapointed people here in the office, but actually not many voted for McCain after seeing a couple of months of Sara Palin.  There are a lot of us that watch Saturday Night Live, and nobody wanted to see her do that.  There was a lack of seriousness about their campaign that pulled people away in the last months. That’s not my observation, that’s talk around the coffee machine at work.

My mum (Canadian) now says that Canadians will wear American flags on their clothing and backpacks when they travel abroad so as not to be confused with people from the country of Stephen Harper (Canadian Prime Minister).  Heh heh.  I think the message that Obama represents will help other countries in the world adjust their own political “levels” of quality.  Not everywhere, of course, but in some countries.  Maybe Italy too!  I heard about a month ago that Al Queda would have supported McCain because they need the enemy to boost recruiting. It is hard to fight against this president.  The middle east may have better days ahead of it.

Let’s hope that Obama is up to the task – he sure seems willing to try!

Good luck!

Let’s take advantage of wordpress’s polling function! Here’s a poll!

Credit Crisis, Election, Mexico

The US sure has become an “lively” place to live recently.  We’re very close to the election and everyone seems to be really loud about their opinions.  People at work are forming factions.  There was a big argument in the corridor when Sarah Palin was chosen for vice as immediate supporters were jumping with joy.  I’m pretty sure that few of them even knew who she was before her nomination, but there is a definite mentality that likes that kind of thing.  They liked it in George Bush too.  There are many people who don’t really worry about what the politician thinks, just that they make themselves look like “one of the guys”.  I find it horrifying.  These people should not be “one of the guys” if they want to govern one of the most important countries in the world.  They should be professionals, interested in governing and have a sense that they are representing the nation, not taking part in the day to day idiocyncracies of SOME of the nations people.  The “gun-totin” house-wife who’s foreign policy is based on the ability to almost sea Russia from the shore of her state is really an appeal to the “lowest common denominator”.  The Americans use this term to describe when a politican appeals to the basic and base qualities that are present in most human beings.  Although many individuals and voters would never act politically on these base qualities (i.e. vote), they can’t deny that they have them and are slowly influenced over the two year campaign process.

That’s another thing. American election campaigns run for two years, beginning with the competition to enter the game and then the various stages of selection.  That’s a huge amount of money that makes only people at the top of the food chain have a chance to win.  This is not good. It’s not even democratic.  Living and working here has been really “interesting” for me. They get so involved in the election drama, as if it were a television show. Again, lowest common denominator.  It has also brought out the sense that even really intelligent people here have very little idea what it is like to live in a foreign country and so to see the world from a different point of view.  You may say, ok – Americans must see the world with an American point of view – but they often see the world as wanting to share their point of view closely, and that is simply not true.  The “exporting democracy” fallacy was one example of this.

I think Obama will win.  He’s been accused of being “elitist” and “distant” from “the people”, but this can only be a good thing. It is about time somebody set a better example.  He’s ahead now because the economy is doing so badly. McCain really doesn’t look like he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to salvaging financial and housing markets and getting people to feel confident economically.  The Democrats have always been better at that.  The one good thing that may come out of the credit crisis in this country.  This too has been the topic of debate at work – loudly and with anger.  I must say, this job is not like the last one! In Wisconsin, people were quite reserved about expressing their opinions, so they listened quite alot to each other as they built up their statements to arrive at what they wanted to say.  At first I found it a very slow way to interact, but then I really liked the amount of time it gave me to appreciate and understand what the other person was saying.  Here, the opinions fly like kites.  They are very, uhm “expressive” and tell you immediately what they think.  This leads to almost constant arguments in the office.  The guys I work with don’t even talk to each other much since three of them support McCain/Palin and the other 5 support Obama/Biden.  Of course they don’t hate each other, but they don’t get along anymore – not since Palin.  It will be nice when this is over.  I try not to take sides, since that would involve some arguments too.

The credit crisis is also interesting over here.  We’re beginning to see unemployment rise, with people nervous that it will be like the stock market crash of 1929.  I saw a man on the street in a jacket and tie with a sign that explained his skills and the type of jobs he was looking for – in a jacket and tie!  Credit was never that easy to get in Italy, so I hope we’ll be fine over there. Janine thinks we should both move back, but I think she only sees Italy as an “exotic” place to visit. I’m not sure how we’d do it. Anyway, we’ve both been working constantly.

Last weekend, however, we did get away to MEXICO! This was fantastic! We went down the Baja peninsula – all the way to Bahìa de los Angeles. It was a long drive, and we wanted to go fishing but none of the boats were going out because of hurricane Norbert.  It was well worth it though.  We stayed in a little hotel – the Hotel Villa Vitta -arriving late Friday night and at fish all day on Saturday! The people were incredibly friendly! We stayed mostly inside because of the weather, and played cards with the guys working there. It was very “rustic”, but a very nice change from southern California or So Cal as it’s called.  People seemed very genuine and honest.  The food was outstanding, everything fresh, all the time.  It was also nice to not be the only foreigner! Janine loved it. We hope to go back there to go deep-sea fishing sometime when the weather is better.  It was a long drive down and a long drive back to play some cards, but I’d do it again in a second!

Office Politics

Heh heh, things have been heating up here lately as national politics has come into the office. I hadn’t really been paying attention since there’s been so much to do at home as well as here. Anyway, yesterday’s newspaper had a headline about how Barak Obama’s wife talked about his “bedrock values” and ensured America that they were people just like everyone else. Well, it sure brought up the topic here! California seems to be a strange state, too – because although the Governor (yep – it’s Mr. Schwarzenegger) is a Republican he definitely has a European socialist view of administration. It’s kind of like he’s Repulican (centre right) on business and the economy, but Democrat on social issues. It makes it’s own kind of sense, I guess.

Anyway – the Obama speech really “pissed people off” in the office, on both sides of the election. Some of the guys here were annoyed at what they called “pandering” – which means to try to win the favour of people by giving them what they want. Coffee-break democrats said that it was stupid of Obama to underline his “everyman” appeal and try to make himself sound like an “Abe Lincoln” president. “When I went to school we had to walk – in the snow and cold – uphill – both ways!” That kind of stuff. So the centre-left who wants to vote for Obama as an alternative doesn’t want “everyman”. The guys on the other side of the spectrum thought almost the same thing – that he was simply putting on a show to get people to think of him as something he’s not. They claimed that he was elitist.

It was interesting. America does have this dual relationship with its identity. On the one hand, they are highly individualistic. On the other hand, they do have this concept that through “bedrock values” all individuals can have the same opportunities and be “everyman”. They like to see people sacrifice and then succeed. Be humble, but then become a big success (while still being humble). This makes it hard for them to deal with hierarchy and, in a way, makes it hard for them to deal with community as a collective. They tend to see community not as something you participate in and that you are inherently a part of, but something that is publicly created by the will of voluntary participant individuals. That makes all community action much more planned and much more debated. The discussion is good, I suppose, but sometimes it means that the public aspect of community only exists when there are problems, and then everyone goes back home and carries on their own individual lives. It’s just an observation, but the argument yesterday about Obama’s “everyman appeal” and “bedrock values” was just a bit strange.

Wisconsin wasn’t like this so much. I don’t know if the tone here is partially set by the fact of having Schwarzenegger as a governor or not. California is a very wealthy state, with a GDP almost the size of Italy’s, but with 20,000,000 fewer people. It’s richer as a state in the US than Canada is as a country, for example, and has only slightly more people. It also has a reputation of being a very progressive state, where the “bedrock values” are different – there is a lot of social freedom here, but there are also a lot of problems and reasons for “the community” to debate things. The atmosphere at work in Madison was much more laid back, if not reserved. Here it seems that they’ve got some undefinable project that they’re trying to put together – but in such a way that emphasises differences and exeptionalism. It really is interesting!

I suppose we’re closer to the November election too, so people are getting more excited. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if they’re excited because the government is going to change or if they’re just excited by the competition between these personalities. McCain might win on the grounds of being more soft-spoken!

Anyway – in other news. Janine and I LOVE mexican food!!!! We’re eating it all the time!!! It’s fantastic!!! We went to a place called “Las Olas” (The Waves). We had a shrimp and scallop appetizer and then I had, get this, shrimp stuffed with scallops and wrapped in bacon. It’s called the shrimp Cortez. I almost died. It was great. And quite a few bottles of Dos Equis (XX).

Here’s their menu, if you’re ever in Carlsbad!

http://www.lasolasmex.com/menu.htm

What a great time. Janine is interviewing these days, and is therefore a bit stressed, but she should hear about a job soon. Everyone is talking about recession, but my guess is that the high-tech sector will continue to grow, as people look to internet and communications technology for entertainment and work without having to fill up the car!

Anway – we’re having a good time. We like California. It’s warm.

Surf’s Up!

We’re here! It’s strange! We had a great 4 day drive from Wisconsin. It was really cool to see the Rocky Mountains. Janine really got a kick out of driving out there with me “showing her It-tai guy” what the west was like. It was fantastic! We left Madison and headed south until we got the high-way to Des Moines Iowa – and then out to Lincoln Nebraska – Bruce Springsteen’s best album! We stayed in Lincoln for the night and the next day went through Denver and into the high Colorado Rockies (the mountain range). It was spectacular. Like the alps, but somehow more wild. And the little towns and cities have real “western” feel. They are lined up along a main street with shops along the sides of the road and sidewalks. The mainstreets are quite wide, but still. Then outside the town centres there is always a shopping centre, industrial park or broader residential centre. And the mountains are everywhere! The second night we stayed in Grand Junction. It was amazing! Very different from Wisconsin! OK – here it comes. The next day we took a short drive to…

LAS VEGAS! This was the coolest, tackiest, most interesting, most disgusting city I’ve ever been in. It lives up to the movies! We stayed in a cheaper hotel and just walked around all evening. We ate at a place called the Peppermill – which was alright. We didn’t go into casinos – because rent in San Diego is going to be pretty expensive and we have all the setting up expenses to pay. Moving costs money! It was just amazing to see the place – all the lights and hotels and – a surprising number of Italian-American services (hotels and restaurants). We didn’t go.

After Las Vegas we drove THROUGH THE MOJAVE DESERT! The day before we were in high mountains and then in desert HEAT! Any Russ Meyer fans out there? Faster Pussycat territory! Again, it was spectacular – but no place for the car to break down! We bought a lot of water before we left Las Vegas. We didn’t have any problems, but it’s easy to imagine getting cooked out there! We arrived at our new apartment in the later afternoon and met our landlord. She’s very nice and very helpful.

It was so much nicer walking into a strange appartment this time. One reason was that I’ve done this before in Madison – only last year! The most important reason was that I wasn’t alone. Janine has been great with all these changes. I love it, but it does make me a bit nervous – and tired. I find it really tiring. In Italy I had all of my stuff in one place and my friends and places to go all in one place – since I was kid. Madison was great adventure, and so is this, but I think being back in Italy for a couple of weeks this summer just brought back old habits or ways of doing things. Then I came back to Madison, finished packing and “hit the road”. There was no time for re-culture shock (even if its only 110 V – ha ha!). We’ve been here a little more than a day – and haven’t really had time to explore yet. I start work officially next Monday – but I’ll go in on Friday to say hi and tell them I’ve arrived etc. this evening we ate at Chin’s Szechuan Restaurant – mostly because it was on Madison St. and we were a little homesick! It was really good though – I’d recommend it to anyone! It’s much better than the chinese food we got in Italy. Anyway – it did a great job of curing homesickness!

So tomorrow we’re setting up the house more and going to the grocery-store and shopping centre to get supplies. It’s been a crazy period, really since just after that presentation in March. I’ve got internet set up now, which is good. I e-mailed Frank, but haven’t got a reply yet. Madison seems so far away. Maybe because it is!

Expression of the day “We’re not in Kansas anymore” – it comes from the film “The Wizard of Oz” when the character Dorothy realises for the first time that she’s not in her hometown in the state of Kansas. By now it is used to mean “We’re in a strange new situation that is beyond our control – for now”.

The pot-luck at Frank’s

I went to a party at Frank’s on the weekend, a system they call “pot-luck” where everyone brings something. Frank coordinated the whole thing, asking some people to bring vegetables, some pasta and rice and bread, some salads, some meat dishes and some deserts, and BYOB (Bring Your Own Booze!) It was really cool! There were lots of different types of food, and people. The guy from Alabama brought cornbread – which is almost like a cake made out of corn-meal. It was really good. He had it in a baking pan the shape of the state of Alabama! Fantastic! I’ll admit that I didn’t cook anything – I went to an Italian deli and got pre-prepared lasagne, which was alright. Anyway – they all liked it. I ate a lot of food made by a couple from Pakistan – spicy lamb over rice! Wow – it was reeeeeeeaaaaly good! Janine made a dish with red-cabbage, walnuts, onions and lots of vinegar – which she called “Bavarian cabbage”. She says her family is of German origin and that they always have this dish at parties and family get-togethers (interesting word, huh – “get-together” – I learned it at the pot-luck. New thing every day!). It was pretty good too, with an almost sweet taste cut by the vinegar and the nuts. Interesting. Anyway – I ate too much. It was interesting too, because everyone ate wherever they found themselves while they were talking. It was really relaxed. A few people sat at the table, but really the table was used for laying out all the food (and there was tonnes!) – so sitting down at it would have been too crowded. I really liked the format. You could talk to whomever you wanted and just do what you wanted all evening. Frank throws a nice party! Lot’s of ‘60’s and ‘70’s rock, like David Bowie, the Stones, the Grateful Dead – etc. I was one of the last to leave – must have been about 2 am! It was a good chance to talk informally with so many people. Actually, Frank also gave me some good advice – to talk to a friend of his about what to do after my time in Madison finishes. This guy (person) runs a company in California that does software development and will be in Madison for a week. Frank said he’ll see if the man has time to talk to me.

One of the hot topics of discussion was the up-coming company BBQ. It’s usually at Mr. Lundgren’s house (which I have never seen – but apparently is really big) because he has a really big yard (yard is the grassy area around the house) which goes all the way down to the lake. Frank was telling me that these things are really big events, and everybody from the company – and their families go – so there can be a few hundred people there. The company pays for everything and they have caterers to do the food. I understand they usually do what’s called “surf and turf” which means meat and seafood at the same time. Everything on one plate – right!?! First, they have to wait for the weather to improve, though! They also have a live band and dancing. Anyway – that should be fun!

Today’s expression is: “to look forward to something” – it means to think about something that is going to happen in the future and really want it to happen. (that’s a hard one to explain)

Super bowled

Ok – I did it, and I admit, I might do it again – as soon as this headache goes away. Saturday evening I went out to a place called Brats on State Street. I thought that I had not spent enough time out, and then out on my own here – so Brats it was. I’ve walked by the place quite a few times. They specialise in bratwurst of all things. It was the beginning of a short and fiery marriage to pork products. Here’s a story to tell.
I’m innocent right? A foreigner in this strange and formidable land. I walked into the place to have something to eat, a couple of beers and enjoy the environment of a US sports bar. It was part of my job – right? To integrate? To discover as much as I can about these people and their customs.
Two things happened – the first was the food. I’ve had a particular taste for North American pub food since my first trip to Canada as a kid. This means nachos and chicken wings and lots of heavy, greasy things – and really good hamburgers. Like the Dire Straits song – heavy fuel. Well, this was pork sausage heaven. I had two types – the cajun brat and another dish of two different coloured bratwursts in sandwich form covered in blue cheese – something like gorgonzola but not as creamy. That was the first heart attack – washed down with more than a couple of beers.
The second heart attack was running into a colleague from work – well on my way through bratwurst number two! We had never spent much time talking at work, as she works in marketing and I don’t get out much. I was a bit embarrassed, because I was already in pork-and-beer delirium, but she-who-will-not-be-named (I read Harry Potter in English) sat down with me and we “hung out” till closing. What a great time (did I mention this girl is gorgeous – If you’re reading – you know it!). What a fantastic time! She had been to Italy last summer – a university graduation gift from her parents. She did go to Perugia, so saw some of Umbria. Anyway – one beer (Asylum Gold Digger) after another and “gabbing” (endless conversation) all night.
The third heart attack was after closing. Keeping in the mood, the staff at Brats reminded us that Sunday was the Superbowl and that they were showing it and also served breakfast. So – we walked, and walked, and walked and walked, and never stopped talking, and froze and then got coffee and were back at Brats at 11 am for “breakfast”. It sounds stupid, but to be presumptuous or forward would have been stupid too! Anyway – that much pork required some extreme solutions.
So – the Superbowl. A lot of fun to be there, even if I felt like the inside of my boots. The Americans really love this stuff – like somebody I know and football! It was a great atmosphere. I lost 10 “bucks” (dollars) betting on the New England Patriots – and if Eli Manning hadn’t made that last touch down play in the final minute, I would have won! Thank’s Eli Manning! I had never heard of him before, and I was ten bucks richer! It was a fantastic play though. I don’t understand how it works, but let’s say instead of trying to run around each other, like in our football, they try to run through each other – so its a cross between sumo and football. Anyway – loads of fun. – fun, did I say? Yes – fun, involving more beer and even more pork products! And endless vague sports directed conversation – ok – our colleague in marketing is a football fan – but that’s ok – right? Anyway – we went our separate ways for the evil recovery part – home by the Sunday evening. Happily destroyed, wishing I still felt like the inside of my boots.
Really the cold weather is fantastic, because as long as you don’t fall asleep in it, it helps your body deal with the stupid things your brain makes it do. I probably could have felt worse.
I exchanged “professional greetings” with my week-end companion in pork, football and delirium, and we both got a few sideways looks from the others at the coffee machine (I could barely stand up this morning). She didn’t look much better (sorry – if you’re reading this). Anyway – it’s head on the desk lunch today and tonnes of water and coffee. Can anybody say ASPIRIN!!!!!

The expression of the day is “touchdown”!!!! This is the act of scoring in an American football game – I’ll make jokes later. Back to work. I’m really happy.

Office comm upgrades!

Aaaggh! I wrote and published this and I just saw that it didn’t load! Grrrr. Oh well, once again!

I had a great time Monday and Tuesday going to Kenosha – about 150 km from Madison toward Chicago. Frank and I went down to see the sub-contractors and “cross the t’s and dot the i’s” on the work that we all have have done and have to do. It was great to get out of town for a couple of days. We ate Bratwurst and Miller beer. Frank’s been great. He gave me a blackberry the other day – which was a mixed blessing. Actually it’s been good. I’m learning a lot. Frank has made it clear that with a team of fewer than 10 people in the office we all have to cover each other – so any problems I may have on the TELEPHONE had better disappear quickly! In fact, he makes me answer the phone all the time. “If you don’t screw up, you don’t learn!”, he says. And he’s right. I have an easy time writing, no problem, and speaking too, but understanding the million and a half accents and idiomatic expressions in this country is really hard! For example: I learned about “pancakes” – while some people call them “flapjacks” or “griddle cakes”. Who knows! What’s a flapjack? Who’s Jack?
Anyway – Kenosha was great. Frank gave me a blackberry, actually, he gave us all blackberries – so no matter where we are, we are always in contact. This is great. It means that my favorite phone sentence “I’ll get right back to you!” won’t come with the delay of having to find information back at the office. I can carry the weeks work, or at least the notes, with me all the time. Frank is petitioning to get a document controller, as we are beginning to develop a real document flow. Anyway – the blackberry is great, although it ties you to the office 24 hours a day. I suppose my laptop does too, but the laptop gets turned off, the blackberry NEVER!!! So – office teamwork efficiency is at maximum. If we get a document controller, all the better.
Kenosha was pretty nice. It’s on the coast of Lake Michigan.
My “folks” are coming this week! That will be great! I get the week and two weekends off! I think we’ll go to Chicago! I haven’t been there yet! It should be great. As well, I’ve got so many things to show my parents. They haven’t been here before. I think they’ll love it. It’s cold, but it’s cold at home too. I hear they had snow last weekend – and the mountains are all white. There aren’t any mountains around here, but the snow storms have been massive – and it’s been really cold! Hah – Mum used to make listen to a song by Randy Bachman and Neil Young called “Portage and Main” – about the winter in Winnepeg, Canada. The lyrics were “Portage and Main – 15 below – stay inside and rock ‘n’ roll”. Anyway – we should have a good time. I can’t wait to see them.

Anyhoo – if you don’t check in until after the holidays – HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!!!!

The expression of the day is “snug as a bug in a rug” – it means staying warm and cozy!

All the best to everybody!

New guy

Hi – I’m back again! It’s been really busy here! I would have written if I hadn’t been so swamped with work. I felt relieved after the presentation, but I should have realised that the hard part was just coming up! Frank is getting really “wired” as the budget keeps getting tighter for us. We just hired a new technician. He seems like a really nice guy – from Mississippi. It’s really cool to listen to this guy talk. He’s got what is called here a “southern drawl” – where lots of the vowels are drawn out when he speaks. Instead of saying things like vehicle – he says ve-hìcle, and warshin’ machine instead of washing machine. He sounds like he’s from a movie. I mean this in a good way. Has anybody seen “Brother Where Art Thou?” by Joel and Ethan Coen? It’s a bit like that. Frank gave him a really hard time for the first couple of days, because the accent in the south of the US is very different than the one here. Actually, the Wisconsin accent isn’t too different from my mum’s – she’s Canadian. It was really easy to get used too. I’d love to go down south sometime – shoot right down the Mississippi river to New Orleans. I saw a documentary about the aftermath of Katrina (the hurricane) – it must have been horrible. I guess the city has changed alot. Still, it must be totally different from here.

I was reading a business report on this area and discovered that Madison is really active in high tech industry. I’ve been so busy here that I never really paid attention to the bigger picture. It might be nice to get a job here after the work-study is over. It’s really nice here, cold, but so far not much colder than the mountains at home. My parents are talking about coming over for Christmas, as I don’t get much time off work. I think I get the week between actual Christmas and January 1st. Anyway – it could be a good excuse for me to show them and my sister around a bit. That’d be cool. Going back for such a short period of time would almost be a waste – it takes so long just to get there from here.  Are you going back Marco?

Anyway – we’ll see.

I went to the  Chazen Gallery yesterday. It was really cool. They have an exhibit of Utagawa prints. Those are the Japanese wood-block prints done at the end of the eighteenth century and beginning of the nineteenth. Lots of samurais etc. It was a nice afternoon. Actually, I went by myself – but things have been so busy it was great not to have to interact with anyone. I spent all afternoon looking at the Utagawa exhibit. The print style was called Ukiyo-e, which means “pictures of the floating world”. (I got that from the brochure.) Forget Manga! This has erotic pictures, pictures of kabuki actors, samurai – and all from 200 years ago. Anyway – again, I’m rambling.

Today’s expression is “to sound like a broken record” – to be needlessly repetitive

Aahhh!

Like the title says – aaahhhh! The report went well last week, with only a few questions about budget and approach. Actually, I found that I wasn’t nervous once I began – it was interesting to explain these things and feel like an authority. It was also interesting, and a bit of an “eye-opener” to deal with business questions regarding web-radio. When you study, it’s all theoretical and it’s all possible – maybe because you’re just at the beginning. Here, apart from our tekki r&d (research and development) office, the concerns are cost/benefit, marketing, time to production, market share, etc. It’s really pretty cool, because it ads a sense of competition to the project. The product has to be good, it has to work, it has to be cost efficient, and it has to last in a market that “upgrades” every 16-18 months. I’m really lucky to have this experience, and with such nice people. There is definitely a degree of stress, but it doesn’t ruin the way people get along.

After the presentation on Friday, we had a celebration dinner at a place called Inka Heritage on S. Park street (I’m goin’ down to South Park, gonna have myself a time!). It was really neat! I’d never been to a Peruvian restaurant before – Marco – Do they have ceviche in Ecuador? It was really good! We’re pretty uhm, proud of our Italian cuisine, and we’re right, but there are so many different types of food to try! (OK – I love to eat). Frank told me that the national dish in Peru was the guinea pig (they look like big hamsters – heh heh) which made me a bit nervous, but it wasn’t on the menu. I think I would have eaten it if it had been on the menu, though. The US is fantastic for the mix of everything. Aparently this restaurant is relatively new, and there used to be a Chinese restaurant here. Across the street there’s a Mexican restaurant. It’s really cool how many different places to eat there are, and, of course, how many different types of people there are. I caught up with Kate on the weekend (Hi Kate!) and she was telling me that lots of people come to Madison from South America etc., study at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and work in restaurants to pay for it. It’s a different model of immigration than we have in Italy. I must say – I don’t go to Italian restaurants here! Heh heh.

Anyway, now that the progress meeting is over, things will be a little more relaxed – for about a day. I’ve been watching movies all Sunday – lazy, lazy, lazy day. I suppose it’s messed up my sleep. If I hadn’t stayed out so late on Saturday, I probably wouldn’t have taken Sunday to do nothing. It’s been a while since I’ve stayed in on Sunday. I’ll be tired tomorrow, but oh well.

Anyway – this is late night delirium kicking in – I’m rambling.

The expression of the day is: “to be snug as a bug in a rug” – it means to be really comfortable, wrapped up in blankets. That was Sunday!

Multicast overlay

After one month of research on the scalability issues of web radios I haven’t discovered anything new (I wasn’t supposed to in the first month…) but at least I’ve come to a simple and firm conclusion: scalability can be guaranteed only by means of multicasting, but IP multicast is not yet capillarly deployed on the Internet. Hence, the only way to go seems to be network overlay, that means working at a higher level to build a virtual multicast network on top of the real unicast one.

I told my boss about this, and he gave me one more month to put together a proposal to be presented at the first Friday meeting of November… I’m excited and a little scared, but one month should be enough.

I saw Kate again on the week end. Which was tonnes of fun (correction: tons of fun – in US spelling). We went for coffee again and she told me some more about the city. I hadn’t really wandered around the university yet, so we did that – WOW! Talk about facilities!!! She seems really interested in the Urbino on-line course, but I don’t know whether she’s registered or not. That would be funny! We could create a virtual university branch of Urbino in Madison! Think of the savings in administration costs! (heh heh).
It’s been rainy and cloudy here, but not too cold yet – great day to stay inside and work on overlay. I’m looking forward to the cold weather. It gets cold and snowy at home, but everybody tells me that winter here is like in Siberia! Tons of snow and temperatures to minus 20° or even 30° degrees. I still have to get used to their Fahrenheit system. 0° Celsius is 32° Fahrenheit. It makes no sense to me. It’s really funny to hear people talk about cold weather at 45°!!! Anyway – people are beginning to talk about “ice fishing” and preparing their fishing “shacks”. This is where they build a little cabin and drag it out on the lake (which freezes solid to a depth of more than 1 meter!). Then they drill a hole in the ice and fish with little fishing rods. I overheard some guys at a diner talking about this. It sounds fun! Like camping, but on the frozen lake! I think I’d be a little scared of falling through the ice – but it seems that they drag their cabins out there with trucks! They drive onto the lake! I can’t wait to see this – it must be fantastic. Kate was saying that some of her brothers go ice fishing – maybe if I’m nice……..
Anyway – it’s late. VERY LATE! I’m going to bed!

Tonight’s expression is “to sleep like a log”. It means to sleep very very deeply. (I suppose logs don’t move – do they!)