Monday 23 July 2007

Back to work

And there we go! Interesting summer school, I will write a report in the future if I find the time. I've got another post to put on the blog as well, that I wrote at the airport while waiting for my flight, but it's kinda serious and I want to review it a little bit before putting it on. So, as now, just a quick "welcome back" post and the news of the launch of my first conference website, a perfect way to throw the time of a research student in the loo and then flush:

http://cbmi08.qmul.net/

We use to laugh at the research student forced to waste time on things like this... at least I did it quite quickly, and it looks nice to me (I admit it, I'm a minimalist).

Saturday 14 July 2007

Goodbye, room sweet room


I'm leaving London for a week! Tomorrow I'll go in the Scottish, wet Glasgow for a one-week-long summer school. I hope my dear flatmates won't be able to tear down the house in such a little time :-) So, good bye sweet room (in the image).

There will be lectures for me to attend, and I also have to present my work (I prepared a poster the makes the matusa shit in the underwear, as my friend Zuppa would say). And, on top of that, social events of different nature. I guess if there will be a canoing tour among the flooded streets of the city, it would be interesting.

Somebody could wonder if I'm concerned about the "terrorist threat": some days ago the Glasgow airport was under attack, it seems. The answer is "not at all". And the reason is simple: I've heard that just yesterday the USA decided to double the reward on the Bin Laden's head (now it's $50M). That makes me feel a lot safer and I'm sure that it will solve every problem with the terrorism. Those Americans are the dudes, really. I'm impressed.

Nothing more, now I'll go to cook risotto and possibly a peas omelette. I'll leave you with the link of a wonderful and very nerd blog that makes me laugh out loud (lol): http://xkcd.com/. The best is http://xkcd.com/c276.html.

Monday 9 July 2007

yeah! blogging again!

It was just a matter of time, I knew that... I'm starting to blog again, with some differences:
  1. less often: I don't have a lot of time right now, thanks to my self-punishment skill..
  2. in English: well, I strongly believe that for many of us writing a blog is done more for personal satisfaction that to have a message going through, or at lest for me it is. I don't have any pretension to be interesting, so I'll write in English to improve my writing skills, and I'll talk of Italian facts because they are interesting to me. No matter how many people will actually read it. And, of course, I won't advertise my blog at all, as usual :P
I'd have liked to call this blog http://zeppe.blogspot.com, but unfortunately it looks like there already is a blog with this name. And the subject is a dog (Zeppe, actually). So, having discovered that there is a best man's friend with my same nick, I opted for zeppethefake.

The subject of the first post would have been the Italian politics, the thing that most makes me feel the desire to express myself. Now, the post is becoming too long, so I just want to inform my little readers that Italy is the only country in the world where the government is thinking about a shortage of the retirement age. And why, will the smart reader ask? What a strong argument should the politicians bring to do something so stupid (the people are living longer, it's obvious that we have to work longer...)! Well, it is strong. The argument is "because behind the numbers there are people"! Whoa. I'm impressed. As if the young workers that have to pay for 25 years people that are doing nothing else than scratching their belly because they retired at 55 were not "people". And, believe me or not, when you retire so early it's very likely that you will become depressed in a short time. But Bertinotti and Epifani are too ahead. They are the dudes. Rats.