Geek Cred

I know it has been a year since I posted here, but, you know, not much has happened!

However, that all changed when the BBC decided to show a film about the history of home computers focusing on the battle of Clive Sinclair with Acorn. The film was cut in with archive footage from the era to give it a real feel. So much nostalgia and so much part of my life.

So you can imagine how I felt when I saw my younger self at a computer in a school uniform!

Yes, my geek credentials never need to be questioned again :)

Micro Men: Catch it until Sat 17th October 2009 in BBC iPlayer. I appear at 27:02. I am stood up to the left, Chaz Gauder is at the keyboard and Kevin Marks is at the other side.

Notte Bianca - Notte Inzuppato

Notte Bianca (White Night) was turned into Notte Inzuppato (Drenched Night) with an almighty thunderstorm that marked the transition from hot stifling summer to cool autumn.

Notte Bianca in Genova is a wonderful city-wide festival that claims to have "Music Everywhere" and arranges to keep attractions open late into the night along with ample bus services. Unfortunately 2008 was marked by a torrential downpour around about 11pm. Such was the timing and nature of the rain, just about everyone (and there were thousands) decided, as if as one person, to catch the next bus home. I have never seen such a rush for so few busses by so many utterly soaked people.

By hook and by crook we got home before 1am with 3 exhausted boys. We did feel like great parents though, as we had managed to note the weather forecast and came out with rain-coats for each of them. Mind you, Jackie and I had nothing - not even an umbrella (but one was procurred at a price - of course).

Still - despite the rain, it was quite honestly one of the best nights we have had in Genova. The "venti" was closed to trafic and instead had stalls and music. (How about Rage Against The Machine playing at full volume outside Coin!). There were stages set up all over the place and 4 huge outside pizza ovens outside the Ducal palace. MTV ran 2 stages and even had UK acts Duffy and Estelle performing. As much as I love the cute welsh 60's throwback though, the highlight for us was seeing local group "Ottocento" play to a small but thrilled audience in the old backstreets of Genova. They played the music of the famous Genovese singer/songwriter Fabrizio De André. They even played through the start of the rain, gingerly covering themselves with a tarpaulin and playing on regardless.

Random post made to a /dev/null site

Posted to : asdfghjksemicolon.com

My memory is not what it used to be. This I know. Honestly I can't remember if it is better now
than before, but i think it was. Usually because I remember knowing something that I know I no longer know.
Anyway, I digress.
Today I've been cheating. I went to the internets, sacrificed a virtual hour of my actual time and asked the god google for an answer.
It was not forthcoming, needless to say.
The question was how to solve my Brain Twist puzzle. All I could find was links to the product and the statement that a hints booklet comes with the said product - much use that was, by the way.
I came this way via the wonderfully diverting "Dry Erase Board" (MSPaint -wow!) and am now speaking to the void. Great.
Oh, I nearly forgot. Why I mentioned my memory was that I recall very clearly being about 12 or 13 (that would be around 1979) and solving the original Rubik's cube all by my self. I promptly wrote down the solution and used some carbon copy paper my dad had to make a few copies which I gave to my friends.
So, how come I can't even cheat now let alone work it out for myself.

Truncated holiday memoirs

So, I never did manage to post anything about the rest of my Roman holiday. Suffice to say it was all brilliant. Really enjoyed the Roman Forum and the Palatine hill and also the Trevi Fountain.
Hard to pick out highlights, but what was great was that everyone was very chilled out, Jackie's parents were in great form and I didn't have to shout at the kids too much.

This weekend (from tomorrow - a public hol in Italy) we are going to Pisa (so Yousef can go up the tower on his birthday) and hopefully visit Florence and Lucca while we are down there. We are staying in a 4-man tent to avoid paying through the nose for a hotel room in the most expensive week of the year.

I shall be quite happy if a) we do not cook like boil-in-the-bag fish, b) we do not get bitten raw by mozzies and c) if I don't go crazy at the kids.

A tra poco care mio.

Bright Zig-zag lines - part 2

This post (here) is my only post which people other than my direct friends and family have ever commented on. I just wanted to give a little update for anyone really interested:

The phenomena I described was the appearance of bright neon-like zig-zag lines in my vision. They appear, are quite disturbing, and then disappear as quickly as they arrived - often in a rather beautiful burst. Pretty, but quite worrying, I am sure you will agree.

It is called an Opthalmic Migrane - and is something not to worry about too much it seems. (I never have any really bad headache associated with them, but people often do.)

What I found interesting was that it seems to happen when I am particularly dehydrated - a fact I hadn't noticed until someone commented on the original post.

It happened to me again - quite severely - just last week, and once again, I had not been drinking enough, had spent far too long on the computer the day before and was generally a bit tired.

So, rest assured, it is not indicative of some really horrible brain disease (or too much LSD in your youth)
Just, relax, have a drink of water and lie back and enjoy your personal light-show!!

Roma Giorni Uno

What a fabulous city!
Our first day felt like a week. We arrived at Roma Termini at 6am having nor slept in our sleeper cabin all the way from Genova. Taking a bus to our hotel we hit the pavement immediately. A tour of the outside of the Colesseum, the wall around the roman forum, the road beside the circus maximus, the banks of the tiber before stopping on the steps of a chiesa for an ice-cream. Then, back to the hotel to find our rooms finally ready.
When the in-laws arrived via dodgy-rip-off-taxi we set off for lunch and a quick view of the place with the cats (Largo della Torre Argentina). All feeling worse for the wear we returned to the hotel to crash before setting out for the afternoon to the Vatican.
St. Peters was at the same time impressive, awe-inspiring and ostentatious to a fault. Finding our way back via a crowded bus and having a short rest, we headed out again for the evening.
Things improved greatly when we found "Casa Bleve" - a classic wine and cheese house. Platters of exquisite cheeses and bottles of wine were enjoyed before we settled the big bill and meandered home via an excellent gelateria.

So finished the longest day. Day 2 has started at an alltogether much more leisurely pace. The morning spent at the Pantheon, Piazza Nuova and a church of which I can't remember the name (but has a blue vaulted ceiling and Michelangelo's "naked" Christ in it).

And so, beer and pizza and a short rest and then on to this afternoon's schedule. Which, will take in the Colesseum again - this time with an entrance ticket ;)

jellyfish

Too long since I posted. Never mind - here are some things ....

Amazingly I was stung by a jellyfish. Not your Aussie box variety, but painful nonetheless. Only a minor graze on the arm but still hurting (a little) almost 2 weeks later. It looked cool though - a line of pairs of parallel dots - each of which individually scabbed over. (Eugh!)

Despite the jellyfish incident we have managed to spend some beautiful afternoons on the beach. Recently all of our trips have been to the west of Genova (the Potente side). Taking in Spotorno, Arenzano, Veraze and - best of all - Finale Ligure. Very different to the Levante side - sandy beaches and Riviera feel rather that stunning small fishing village feel.

Jackie and the boys laid on a really nice party for me when I got back from England after my viva. Big banner saying "Congratulations Dr. Dad". You can't buy moments like that.

Today is my Birthday. I followed the rather nice Italian tradition of buying everyone in the lab cake (and Sparkling Italian Wine/Champagne). Really enjoyable.

Got to go - catch bus!

Thesis the Defended

The great warrior lent on his bloody sword and finally took a moment to look back. The field was scattered with broken bodies of those who had thrust their spears and arrows at him and attacked with their cutting swords. He thought of one who fought with great vigour - a Knight of Queen Mary - a larger man you are unlikely to see. He had led the attack and Thesis could still feel the blood running from the wound he inflicted - but it was only minor and would need just a month to heal, even though he could take then next 3 months to rest.
So now, with his mentors - The Ukranian, the Deutch and Hollandier - by his side he could would no longer be "Thesis the Unproven" but could now proudly be called "Thesis the Defended".

Letter Home

Hi Sis!
Life over here is going really well. We've been here for a little over 3 weeks and Yousef already started at an Italian school 2 weeks ago. He is loving it and has got a really nice teacher who speaks pretty good English and is really welcoming. She got all the kids in his class to make a welcome drawing and poster for Yousef - so sweet. There is not much of the term left now though. The twins have also been doing mornings at a nursery in the same school although they aren't enjoying it as much. Their teachers don't speak much English at all and they are a bit reluctant to go each morning. But, I think they would be like that at any new school anywhere. Plus they'll appreciate English schools that much more when we return!

We have a nice flat in quite a good area of Genova - plenty of shops around and nice people but it is a little dirty. Par for the course in Genoa though. The flat is really comfortable and the kitchen especially is a lovely place to be. We do wish there was more outside space for the kids to play in though. But, when the summer hols start Jackie will be taking the kids out to the beach and stuff much more.

Jackie is settling in well too but is working hard at keeping is fed and watered at a reasonable cost. The prices of food and eating out here are much more expensive than I thought and that in itself is a bit of a struggle and will probably get worse in the summer. I'm going to have to dig deep!

Love and Hugs,
Bruv!

Ant Free Zone

Hooray! We are in our own Italian apartment and it is most definitely an Ant Free Zone (stylish or otherwise).
Much hilarity last night as we lugged down the last of our 10 cases down 4 flights of stairs only to find that the lift didn't need a key to use it.

The apartment is really nice - but it is a bit small I think and we have one less bed than we were promissed in the boys bedroom. Amazingly the agent told the landlady we only had 2 kids - a plain lie as I told him amny times that we have 3 and need an extra bed - moreover we brought the three little tykes along to sign the contract so they had no excuse!!

A dodgier agent you are unlikely to meet - all he was interested in was taking my money. I am still trying to wash the slime off my hand after I shook his at the end.

Anyway, the apartment is nice and clean although it would be nice if the shower worked!

PS - no internet connection (intermittant or otherwise) from the flat.
PPS - The boys watched Doctor Who last night and thought it was great - I'll try to watch it tonight ...

Sunshine and Focaccia

The forecast was storms and lots of rain but we were greeted with glorious sunshine as we climbed down the aircraft steps onto the tarmac in Genoa airport.

Packing was a nightmare and we arrived with 5 cases for the hold weighed to exactly 15kg and 5 pieces of hand-luggage weighed to exactly 10kg. 6 months worth of stuff for a family of 5 in 125kg - more than enough - we even packed the Wii and a hard-disk media player stuffed full of films and TV shows!

We have spent most of the first few days looking around Genoa and eating out - plenty of focaccia for breakfast, pizza for lunch, pasta for tea and gelato whenever we can get it. However not everything was perfectly smooth as our flat is not available yet. Typical Italian regard for getting things done when promissed. So, we are left in the Uni apartment for a few days yet living out of suitcases. The Uni apartment is far from clean, it is full of other people's stuff and has an ant problem. Nevermind - the excuse for our delay is that they are cleaning the apartment, so maybe we can expect a little better when we arrive there!

PS - I am emailing from an intermittant free wireless point that appears now and then in the flat. And I am downloading Doctor Who. Fingers crossed!

Like a Knife Through Butter

Who would have thought it - the administrative department here at the institute is like a well oiled chainsaw, cutting through stacks of Italian bureaucracy like a hot knife through butter. In one day I have a signed contract, and already have an entry pass. I have decided on a flat and all associated paperwork is being completed. Tomorrow I sign that contract too and open a bank account.
Amazing.

What could go wrong? ...

PS - a little aside: I just noticed that that blurred picture of me, top-left, was actually taken in Italy. We were holidaying in Tuscany when Yousef was just 3 (I think) and that pic is taken outside of the main cathedral in Florence (although I can't remember its name!). Horizontal stripes in various shades of terracotta and cream and grey - a feature of the churches and cathedrals here.

Genoa is Vertical

It will never cease to amaze me how it is possible to build building after building on higher and higher slopes - one road overlooking a 5 storey apartment block and yet another overlooking the apartments on that road!

Well, I have used some serious shoe-leather today and travelled on many buses as well as been transported around by car. I have seen most of the nice places to live in Genova proper while viewing six different apartments in a single day. Castello is stupidly high up, but I saw a beautiful flat there. Piazza Martinez and the surrounding streets are ideal living areas. Great shops really nice atmosphere, and some magnificent palacial apartment blocks. I think the nicest place I saw was in that area.
The best place though was I think on the Corsa Europa. 3 bedrooms plus a good sized living room. Kitchen, bathroom and extra toilet. 4 balconies, and a view of the sea! What more could you want?
All yours for 850 euros a month!

So, Italy looks great, the people in the office are very helpful, and it looks as if we might find somewhere nice to live. La vita bella!

Ciao!

Last days in UK - rapidly approaching

It has been a most unpleasant couple of weeks. Depths of a killer-flu, and interminable amount of work, and continuing uncertainty about my move to Italy.

I hope the uncertainty is resolved next week. I spend a week in Genoa from Monday, and I hope to get both my work contract sorted and find a place for us to live. Flat options seem to be stuck well outside of Genoa at the moment, but I will know much more when I get there.

My thesis is still not submitted. It is definitely not what I wanted it to be, but for sure I will hand something in by 18th April. I just hope it is good enough.

My last week in the UK will be 14th-20th April. Last D&D game on the 15th. Submit to ICDL by 16th. Leaving do on 17th. Hand thesis in 18th. Pack. Leave!

Italy!

Sqweeeeee!!! [just for Aris!]

The big news is that I have accepted a 6 month post-doc position in Italy!
I will be going over in April with the whole family!!
- cue much more blogging ....

The Meaning of Underground Culture

"You have to know when to take a sideways step, when to take a chance, when to do what no one else seems to be doing at the time."

Jean-François Bizot, champion of French counter-culture, publisher of Le Actuel, died 8th September 2007.

Sometimes I need reassurance that it made sense not to pursue a highly-paid job in the city, not to make millions in housing during the boom years, and instead do something that no one was expecting, least of all me.

Bizot was from a very wealthy background but dropped his job as an economist, and instead did what he really wanted to do. He also said:

"First you do what's expected of you, and then you do what you want"

:-)

Where does the day go?

OK - way too long since my last post. Any readership I might have had will have long since got bored gone away permanently.

But, as busy as I am - I just can't work out where the day has gone. (BTW thanks thespian for prompting this post)

I have a theory about one aspect of what seems to be counterintuitive time perception. It is only half-baked, so to give it a little time-in-the-oven as it were, I shall try it out here:

The question is: why does it that sometimes it can seem that you have been really busy for ages, but when you look back over such a period, it seems that time has flown by?

My theory is 2-fold:
Firstly, most activities that take up our time are mundane and so never get put into our long-term-memory as significant episodes; they just "merge" with hundreds of similar memories.

Secondly, is that what few exciting and different things do occur to us can only get fixed in our long-term-memory by relating the story to someone else.

Combining these two aspects, you realise that very few things are significant enough to be recalled as important episodes in our life, and that as you get older, this becomes more and more so. The few exciting things that do happen are well defined by retelling and so they seem very widely separated in our memories.

Now, when you look back you find that it seems not much has happened in the last year, and fun exciting things hardly ever happen, yet you are constantly busy.
Time just rushes by, and you just can't work out where it has gone.

CG Halfling Bard

According to this I am a Chaotic Good Halfling Bard. How disappointing, I always thought of myself as a bit taller ;-)
Mind you my favourite ever character was a Halfling Thief.

You Are A:

Chaotic Good Halfling Bard

Alignment:
Chaotic Good characters are independent types with a strong belief in the value of goodness. They have little use for governments and other forces of order, and will generally do their own things, without heed to such groups.

Race:
Halflings are short and fat, like minuature people. (Think 'Hobbits') They enjoy the easy life, but aren't averse to the idea of an adventure from time to time. They get along with all races, and are known for their senses of humor. Halflings also tend to be light of foot, and can move quietly when necessary.

Primary Class:
Bards are the entertainers. They sing, dance, and play instruments to make other people happy, and, frequently, make money. They also tend to dabble in magic a bit.

Secondary Class:

Catchup

No post since before we went away on our family holiday, so here is a little catchup:

• Yesterday my wife and I foolishly took 5 kids to Legoland on one of the most busy days of the whole year. Highlights included seeing Yousef walking and chatting with two of his best friends from school. Lowlights included all the damn queuing and having to shout at Yousef not to walk off in the opposite direction all the time. I now need sedatives and week on a spa resort to recover.
• The holiday in the IOW was a triumph. Great weather, hot sunshine, beach a stones throw from our tent and v. happy kids.
• My PhD work is on an all time low. I have however started writing a chapter which should make it into the thesis and that at least is giving me a bit of focus.
• I have also started dabbling with my old pastime of D&D. Hopefully it won' get obsesive, just the odd evening and the odd e-mail etc. (also see dungeontales.blogspot.co.uk). The great thing is that I get to see more of my old friend Kirk, which is worth all the effort :)
  
• We have decided to record a couple of the songs we played in the band, for posterity's sake. I haven' picked up the bass since the gig, so I'll have to start rehearsing again.
• RoboGeek the comic is still going strong - new strip on Thursday : robogeek.blog.co.uk
• Looking forward to Lars' and Angela's wedding - I need a suit!
  
• Yousef back to school tomorrow, twins next week - hooray!
  
• Getting into Heroes - only up to episode 5 though ...

Holidays

Finally my holiday is here. I'm off to the Isle of Wight with the family for
a couple of weeks basking in the height of the English summer.

Wellies at the ready!

Actually the forecast looks great, but I don't want to jinx it!