Janine’s got a job!

Janine has found a job! Life couldn’t be better! It’s not perfect, but it is certainly a great thing! She’s working in a marketing consultancy agency that specialises in IT. It seems that there are so many IT companies in California (that makes sense) that there is a sub-industry in IT marketing consulting. Anyway – she’s a junior marketing manager in an agency not too far away from here, so commuting isn’t too bad. She got the phone call on Friday afternoon – which meant (heh heh) we celebrated on the weekend! Now, once again, we’re both exhausted on Monday morning! She’s so excited that I don’t think she’s feeling any tiredness. WE LIKE CALIFORNIA.

So, how to celebrate in Carlsbad? We went for a balloon ride in Temecula (between Carlsbad and Palm Springs)! I almost died! I was so scared. Janine loved it. Actually, the company was fantastic – and very understanding of my, uhm, not-so-macho fear! I almost lost it at one point, while we were ascending. After about 15 minutes – once I came to terms with the fact that we weren’t going down again until the flight was over – I calmed down and it was really beautiful! We went over the California wine country. Spectacular! Amazing! And it was really interesting to get an overview of the geography of our area. We could see so many places. At the end we got a certificate for taking our “first flight” and we had sparkling wine and a picnic offered by the company. It was such a great experience. Like John. F. Kennedy said – “we have nothing to fear but fear itself”! I might believe that one day, and am a little closer now that I’ve been up in a baloon. Let me tell you, doing things like that is GREAT for a relationship!!! We had so much fun on Saturday. The weather was a bit foggy in the morning, so we thought we might not go, but it was clearing up by noon and quite nice in the afternoon. Anyway – what a fantastic weekend.

We found the company over internet (of course!). Their link is

http://www.greatamericanballon.com

Now we’re both at work. Let’s see how relaxing weekends are! It’s September and people are all very busy. The families around all have children back in school and there’s a “hectic” feel to the town. Actually, I suppose its hectic compared to the summer, or compared to Madison, but not compared to Italy! I like seeing the American school busses. It’s like the movies.

The next big thing we talked about this weekend was, now that Janine is working, we should probably buy a car. Any suggestions? I would like a FIAT Panda – I love the new Pandas – but I don’t think that’s going to happen here. Maybe a SMART? A lot depends on price. I do miss Europe for our cars. Anyway – we’ll investigate the possibilities. Any suggestions?

So – fantastic week-end. Really fantastic. I can’t wait to see Janine this evening to see how her first day went. She won’t dare put Skype on today – she’ll be too busy. I suppose it’s better – they hate it in my office when people (me) put on Skype. Heh heh… we all do though.

I’ve got to get to work.

The expression of the day is “to be stoked”. (have I used that one before?) It means to feel really excited about something. “To stoke” is technically when you add wood and air to a fire to make it burn hotter – which means giving off more energy. It’s kind of a great term for having a lot of enthusiasm for something. A lot of people use it here, particularly people over the age of 35 or so. So – I’m really stoked about Janine’s job!

I can’t keep up! I must!

I went back to Italy for a couple of weeks, it was great to see everyone at home again and, heh heh – graduate from Urbino. Thank you Prof. Bogliolo! I just arrived in Madison to finish getting my things together and then Janine and I are MOVING TO SAN DIEGO! Yes – you heard me, Janine is coming too! My parents thought I was taking things a bit fast, since I’ve only known Janine for less than a year, but we figure that things will work out the way they work out whether we’re in Madison or San Diego. I guess that’s the part they’re not comfortable with – the fact that I’ll be in the US. Mum gets it a little more than Dad, but they’d both prefer I were in Italy somewhere they could see me regularly. And I thought they’d be used to it by now! Anyway – they’re basically happy, and very happy about the job.

It’s going to be really hard to leave the gang here in Madison. I got to know them pretty well, and really feel at home here. Like Frank says, though, I’m too young to be “set in my ways” (have rigid plans). I told him that the plan was fine, it’s just that I’d miss everyone “a whole f*ck of a lot”! (One thing about being young in the States – they say “f*ck” a f*uck of a lot! heh heh”. Watch US action movies or crime dramas – in fact it’s worse when they make movies about Italian American communities or what they consider “ethnic” communities. Anyway – that’ll be a discussion for another day.

San Diego – It seems really nice out there. It’s got a lot to offer as a city and I like the south western feel. What is south western? Well – somewhere between “The Big Lebowski” and a Tommy Lee Jones movie. It’s got all of the Los Angeles components in some ways, but it definitely has a more southern, desert feel to it. From San Diego, you know Mexico is just across the border and Arizona is not too far away. It’s got the ocean, which I love, and lots of tourist and cultural things. Anyway, it’s a big city – the seventh largest in the US! Maybe I’ll learn to surf more than the internet. We’ll be living in North County – which borders on the Los Angeles area, but it’s relatively close to the company and has a pretty cool beach culture. It seems “laid back” (I think I explained “laid back” once – it means “easy going”.)

http://www.sandiego.org/article_set/Visitors/8/119

This link is from the San Diego Tourist Bureau’s website. CEO’s changing into wet-suits to go surfing on their lunch breaks! I could live like that!

Anyway – I’ve got a million and a half things to do RIGHT NOW! We’re going to Janine’s parents later in the week and we’ll drive out to California from there. I’m really going to miss everyone here. (But I get to take Janine with me!) It’s going to be strange to go through the leaving and arriving phases again – so soon after settling into Madison. Oh well – that’s as it should be!

“Well I’m goin’ out west where I belong.

Where the days are short and the nights are long.

And I walk, and she walks.

And I run, and she runs.

And I shimmy, and she shimmies.

And I fly, and she flies.

And we’re all just a havin’ fun – in the warm California sun!”

(I know the version of this by the Ramones – but I don’t know who originally did the song – actually – let me look it up…

Wikipedia says it was written by Henry Glover and Morris Levy, is a song originally performed by Joe Jones in 1961, covered very successfully by The Rivieras in 1964. It reached #5 in the main U.S. pop chart

here’s the Ramones version of the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z9iUdiS3hI

and here’s the Riviera’s version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LH8q95xJ34&feature=related

I hope to have time to post more soon!

Wish me luck

Wish me luck everybody! I leave for San Diego tomorrow. My interview is on Tuesday. This is really fantastic. On the one hand, its a job interview – you know, JOB for MONEY – and not a small amount of money – at least for me! To be called for an interview means they’re interested in hiring me – or they probably wouldn’t have called an Italian. At least, I like to think that this is the case. I hope that this is the case!

I’ve been talking with Janine and Frank and everybody about this, and they all say that it makes sense: they wouldn’t call me for an interview if they weren’t seriously interested in hiring me – or seriously curious about me anyway – because of the commitment involved in hiring a non-American. Frank says that my internship here has really helped me – but he won’t say whether or not the company called him or Mr. Lundgren. If this were Italy, I’d almost be sure that they had – but it’s not, so I’m not. Anyway – I’m rambling on again.

Janine has been fantastic about all this – although right now she’s asked me (reminded me) not to write too much about her here as she does work for Mr. Lundgren here in Madison – so her comments shouldn’t be made too public. It’s been kind of funny at times, the things that I’d like to write most about are private information. Anyway – work aside, job interview aside, Janine and I have been having a great time. I’ve been really lucky here in the US. The only thing this place has required of me is that I work like crazy and have a good attitude. With that, so many things have been so positive. I have to begin thinking about moving out though. I have my apartment until the end of July – but that’s not too far away. My internship officially finishes soon too, although Frank says they could keep me on an external contract for a couple of months if necessary. There’s a lot going on. I suppose I’m tired too. More has happened in the last year than in the rest of my life – and it looks like that may be the way it stays for a while. Frank gives me funny looks at work – a lot. He says he feels proud of me like I was his little brother or something and he “gets a kick” out of watching me do all of these things. That’s pretty nice. I will hate to leave Madison. In a year, I’ve got to know my co-workers and some of them have become really good friends – and now a year is almost over and I realise that it has ONLY been a year, and that has gone fast too. When I think about it, the people I know at home, I’ve known since elementary school, but I always took it for granted that they were there. Now I have new friends – who ARE true friends and soon will not be there. Anyway – I’m rambling again. I woke up thinking about this stuff this morning, and Janine isn’t here to talk to, and it’s about time I posted something too! I really hope the job interview works out well. That will give me something to focus on. I’ve sent out quite a few applications to other places, mostly in and near Madison though – and then there’s the idea of going back to Italy. That’s perhaps the strangest idea of all. I know that whatever I do next, I’m not finished with the United States yet. I learned so much, and had so much to do, and have enjoyed it so much here, but I know that it is only a small part of what I could learn and do with more time. As Frank said, I’ve got time.

Anyway – enough for now. I’ve got to get some coffee and see what Janine is up to this afternoon. It’s Spring! The weather isn’t horrible! Maybe lunch down at the lake and a movie or something.

The expression of the day is “cool as a cucumber” – it means to be reserved and logical when everything is going crazy – to have the right reaction for the right situation and not to show excessive interest or emotion. These days, I am NOT “cool as a cucumber”! Bite into a cucumber, it’s cool inside. Cool like Fonzi! Not me, I’m a chattery mess. I’m still chatting. I’ll stop. Have a great Sunday everyone!

California

Things are happening quite fast here. It’s a fast-paced world! I’ve been job-hunting for a little while now, but with everything else going on, it seems like everything is moving at the speed of light. I GOT A CALL TO HAVE A JOB INTERVIEW IN SAN DIEGO! I’m really nervous. No thought of vacation this year! First the final presentation for the department here, and now possibly making the move to California! This is great! I’m nervous! Anyway, the interview isn’t for a couple of weeks, which is good because this is a big country and San Diego is a long distance. It will take me a little time to organise this.

I’ve asked Frank to help me prepare for the technical part of the interview, and he thinks I’ll do fine. He says they don’t usually call people who they think could not do the job. He also reassured me that my references were good. Wow! I’ve never been to California, and I could possibly LIVE there! This is a big year. I need to calm down. Going to California means changing my visa to a different form of work visa, finding a place to live (I guess I have practice) and settling into a whole new life – AGAIN! OK – let’s go!

On the down-side, I’ve been talking to Janine about it and she’s really encouraging, but it would stink to have to leave her right now. Maybe she could find something to do out there, but I suppose it is selfish of me to think that way. The point is, as Frank said a while ago “kid – yer twenny too – ya godda get sum experience!” It’ll all work out. I’ve been so fortunate here, I really have.

The expression of the day is “DUDE!” (pronounced “dood”). This is a term used by surfers to address each other, the way some people use “man”. They might say “hey dude, what’s happening?” to mean “hi, how are you?”. When used emphatically, it means “GREAT!” Frank has been making jokes this week about me becoming a surfer. He gave me a movie to watch “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”. It was really funny, and I understand why he makes fun of the surfer way of talking. heh heh “surfs up!”

What to do next?!!!

Well, sadly but inevitably it’s time to figure out what to do next. Life in Madison has been great, and working here has been fantastic, but talking to Frank and some friends, moving on is really the right idea. Frank said that at 22 years old I’ve got to build experience, in general, and specifically for my c.v. I could do that here, but it would be limited. After talking to Bill Powers, San Diego sounds like a really interesting place. I’ve never been to California. There seem to be quite a few opportunities out there, and since talking to Mr. Powers I’ve got a few addresses and contact numbers to try. Having Frank as a reference is great – he knows a lot about this business and the people in it. I could live in California for a while – I think. It’d be great to see another part of the US (and after the long Wisconsin winter – a warm climate sounds good!)

The other option in San Diego is the University of California. They have a really good Masters programme in computer science. You can check out the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at www.cs.ucsd.edu. They have about 330 graduate students! (students who have already received their first degree and now are doing a Master or PhD.) That’s massive! They seem to have a lot of financial assistance in the form of scholarships and bursaries (like our study bursaries in Italy), or research and teaching assistantships, which means there is the chance of being paid to do my graduate studies. Not bad! I could enter the Masters programme and do a concentration field in Communication Networks, for example.

The “downside” of this, however, is the deadline. To start in the autumn of 2008 I would have had to send in my application form and fee in December 2007. So, I’m too late for this coming year. The advantage is that I could use the time to gain more experience working and settle into life in San Diego. Then I could apply for the fall of 2009, if I still think it’s a good idea. So, I suppose the next step, at least in the short term, is to find a job in San Diego!

The expression of the day is “to be gassed and stoked” – I think it comes from a Rolling Stones song, Frank uses these terms a lot – both together and separately. They mean “to be really excited about something”. That’s me right now!

Getting ready for the presentation

Well, Frank wasn’t really joking. When I finished up the report on my part of the project, he asked me to present the final presentation of our project to the board of directors. I’ll be honest – at first I said I didn’t want to. It was one thing to give the presentation to the department directors – I see many of them every day. Some of them come out with us for Friday beer. The board of directors is a different thing altogether. Frank says that it’s fine, because the project has produced good results and has the support of the primary department directors – particularly James Conlon. Mr. Lundgren liked the idea – so there’s a bit of pressure to do this. I suppose it will be a good experience, but I’m not thrilled with the idea that I have to represent the whole team. It makes me uncomfortable to think that I’ll be giving the information, but Frank will be answering many of the questions. It’s a little strange. Anyway – carpe diem? I have accepted. It is a great compliment, and a useful experience. I’ve started to think about what to do next, and after this I may have time to think about it!

On a lighter note I had a great Valentines day. I got a mysterious card yesterday in the office with nothing but a time and place written on it. Having some idea who it could be, I went down to the waterfront at the time indicated on the card (freezing cold weather, it’s been about – 10° to – 12° during the day for the last week or so, but that’s normal) and found Janine with a barbeque! She’s nuts! It was tonnes of fun though, although it’s hard to recongise everyone with their big coats on! Anyway – we barbequed hot-dogs by Lake Mendota on February 14th – with everything frozen. I’ll never forget it! Janine is fantastic! – Nuts – but fantastic! It’s a good thing I’m used to the cold in the high Appennines!!! We used to do that with friends in “high school” in the winter, near Monte Cucco. (don’t tell the Corpo Forestale!) Anyway – what a great evening. I suppose I accepted to do the presentation because I was in such a good mood! Today should be hard, as I went to bed quite late, but I feel great! It must be the theraputic effect of the cold weather!

Today’s expression is “scared sh*tless” – it means to be really scared! (for the presentation – hot-dogs anyone?)

Hi everybody, here I come again – and again after too much time!

The project is going really well – I don’t sleep much anymore, but that’s ok. Frank has been great at involving me – he says he hates having interns waste company time, but really he’s a big softy. I really feel confident about the success of this thing. Unfortunately, I can’t talk to much about it due to professional privacy etc., but after our last Friday meeting the lawyers said that it would be ok to talk about our approaches to the multicast problem – in fact, as all the appropriate patents are in order – it is free publicity! You remember that I said the Internet is not currently designed to support multicast. Well, respecting the rules about disclosing private company information – this is what we’ve been doing.

The keyword is “network overlaying”, that consists of building a virtual multicast network on top of the physical unicast one. We envision three main scenarios.

The first, is joining multicast backbones that have been already created by third parties around the world. The most popular one is called MBone.
The second one is creating our own multicast backbone, by placing multicast routers in strategic positions in order to minimize the need for packet duplication.
The third one, which is the most challenging and, in our opinion, the most promising, consists of creating an application-level overlay which involves our users (that are the listener of the web radio) in the packet distribution effort. As Frank keeps telling me “we have to think outside the box!”.
We ran experiments to evaluate, by means of prototypes, the feasibility of all the three approaches. It will be time before we’re ready to talk about the results of these evaluations and the development of our specific approach.

In fact, Frank keeps joking with me that he’s going to make me give the final presentation about our project to the board of directors. He’s a funny guy! The last presentation was ok, but it was just to the department heads, and I knew some of them. At least the ones working with research and development. I don’t think I want to stand up in front of the men with the expensive ties and pretend to be an expert on this. Again – Frank is a funny guy.

Christmas made me realise that I haven’t developed much of a social life here – that is, everything outside of work I do with work people. It’s not like being a student, that’s for sure! I’ve been so busy that I never really thought about it – but I hang out with Frank and the guys in our office – and that’s it! Maybe this weekend will be time to go out “on the town”. Heh heh. Anyway – enough about my personal life in public! Like the project – disclosure must be limited in the early stages of development! Ha ha! Are any of you doing any better than me?

Today’s expression is “all work and no play makes Bob a dull boy” – “dull” means boring or uninteresting.

I should develop a vice (a bad habit).

Did I mention – “to be bushed”?

Wow – the holidays have caught up with me! I’m not sleeping much any more as the relaxation over the holidays was so total that I think my blood stopped circulating! I have to say, it was really nice to speak Italian again. I hadn’t noticed how much energy it takes to use a foreign language day after day. It’s great, and you don’t feel strange about it, or even think about it – until you go back to your mother tongue. At least that was my experience with my family here. It was like having the first night’s sleep after running a marathon. Now it’s the morning after! Frank told me to take vitamin D supplements – as the winter can be long and you don’t get enough sun (which helps the body produce vitamin D – he says), particularly in our field as we’re indoors all the time. It’s actually kind of interesting, my mum (mom in the US) said that’s true – that when you’re vitamin D level drops you can feel depressed or “run down” (low energy and interest level) – causing “cabin fever”, where you feel “stir crazy” – meaning that you feel that you are going nuts from being inside all the time, but don’t have much energy to do anything that is available to you – I think. I’m still not sure how this combines with depression, but I don’t think I’m going to find out anyway. I can’t afford that (meaning I can’t allow that to happen)! I’m looking at the second half of this experience now, and I want to keep my energy up until the end (then a collapse this summer?!?). Anyway – I’ll give it a try. I don’t know how much I should take, so I’ll ask the pharmacist. It’s funny, here it’s also called “the drug store” – the first time I went I asked for a kilo of heroin – but they didn’t think it was funny. Oh well, stupid foreigners – right? heh heh.
So, I think this general tiredness is like “vacation jet-lag” because I changed my daily routine from 380 to 110 volts and then back again in a relatively short period of time. We’ll see if the vitamin D helps. Crap – do I need to take up a sport? I hate sports!

Anyway – the expression for the day is “all hopped up” – meaning having an excessive amount of energy due to some form of chemical reaction in the body, often from ingesting some type of substance – LIKE VITAMIN D!!!

Welcome back to the work week everybody (even if it started last week – or doesn’t start for you for a while yet!)

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!

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!