3 '''Tip:''' as always, start from the bottom and proceed bottom up to keep time flowing in one direction.
6 >MUM< creepy mummy virus it's taking access here.... :-) WRITE SOON OR IT/SHE WILL DESTROY EVERYTHING!
9 Today I'm leaving the safe and familiar BostonCity to boldly go where I've
12 The current plan is to drive south to ProvidenceCity, BrdigeportCity, NewYorkCity,
13 PhiladelphiaCity, BaltimoreCity and, finally, WashingtonCity. Maybe I'll even
14 push myself down in FloridaState to go see the SpaceShuttle!
16 I could use a GPS. I've seen a few TomTom's, but $299 seems way too
17 much to me for a talking map. Maybe I'll buy a traditional map for
20 Ah, and I will sleep frugally, of course. Hostels and motels when I find
21 them. So, over the next few days I'll be lucky if I have intermittent
22 Internet access and, consequently, I won't probably be able to sync the
28 '''Babbo''': Ma fino ad oggi con quali danari hai vissuto dato che sei partito con 10€ liquidi?
30 '''Bernie''': Ho prelevato i soldi dall'ATM... con il bancomat delle poste! E vedo dai movimenti
31 sul conto che hanno applicato un buon cambio e nessuna penale strana.
35 Today I finally rent a car. It's a SaturnIon, a brand and model I never heard
38 http://www.edmunds.com/media/seo/500/2006.saturn.ion.jpg
40 I felt very comfortable driving all over Europe: Italy, Swiss, Spain, France,
41 Germany, Belgium, and even Greece... But, for some reason, I was quite afraid
42 of driving a car here in the States.
44 Maybe it's because the road signs are somewhat different and there are a few
45 subtly different rules, such as turning right on red, not parking in front
46 of hydrants, etc. Most probably, it's because I've seen way too many movies
47 where people get stopped by police and thrown in jail quite easily!
49 Well, so far everything went very well. I mean, except for parking. Parking
50 in downtown is easy if you're willing to pay $10-12 for a few hours.
51 It's a big pain in the ass otherwise... The best way I've found so far
52 is to park near a minor T station and then get the T to downtown :-(
54 And, of course, the car has AutomaticTransmission, which I managed to learn
55 quickly: the trouble comes when you switch the other way around ;-)
57 Ok, today I've driven all around Boston just to get used to it. Tomorrow
58 I'll probably dare getting on the highway to see around.
61 ==== Business Visa? ====
63 Today I've re-read detailed information on the
64 available US visa options:
66 http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1262.html
68 Looks like a ''B-1'' Business Visa would do. To get one,
69 I should go to a US ambassy, and ambassys are usually
70 located abroad. Instead of returning to Italy, maybe
71 I could get an appointment in MontrealCity, which is
72 near to the border and also an interesting place to see.
79 Yesterday I applied for this great service: http://www.zipcar.com/ .
80 Isn't it a good idea? Costs less than renting a car and is almost
83 <rasky> http://www.carsharingfirenze.it/ :)
85 Today I walked to their offices to give them my documents
86 and get the magnetic card. They said they will enable it
87 first thing tomorrow *if* the "insurance risk declaration"
88 I got from Italy suffices.
91 ==== Simple shopping ====
93 Consumers must be very simple minded here. First, most
94 shop names are simply dumb: '''Pay Less''', '''Save-A-Lot''',
95 '''Big Deal''', and so on.
97 ''Sounds very '''meno tasse per tutti''' to me... -- PiroPiro''
99 Second, they try to subtle deceptions such as: "take 2 for $24.xx",
100 and, next to it: "take 3 for $21.xx", Which of course is
101 impossible. It's a trap! The little figures placed
102 exactly where you would expect to see the cents, are
103 indeed a small notice: ''EACH''.
105 Today I bought a dozen of razor blades ($1.50), a
106 bottle of shampoo ($1.50) and shower gel ($1.50).
107 But I spent $12 for adjusting the two pair of
108 trousers I had bought a few days ago in the mall!
109 $12 ''EACH'', I mean.
112 ==== Bad Neighborhood ====
114 Walking home alone in the night, I may encounter some ''bad'' guys:
116 http://bender.codewiz.org/wikidata/text/FunWithWeapons.jpg
118 Better be careful :-)
123 ==== Veni, Vidi, ???? ====
125 This morning I shown up at OneLaptopPerChild's headquarters. It's again next to KendallSquare,
126 in OneCambridgeCenter.
128 JimGettys was very kind: he took me to LegalSeaFood for lunch, repaired my ExOh's keyboard (two
129 keys were dead) and introduced me to the team members.
131 They left me with the usual Hollywood formula: "don't call us, we'll call you".
132 But in this particular case, I felt they were sincere :-)
134 I hope to be soon a member of the OLPC core team!
139 ==== Alea Iacta Est ====
141 As promised... Yes, indeed. Everybody please cross their fingers.
143 Babbo:Pregherò perchè tu possa ottenere quello che cerchi.
145 Camy: Mannaggia a voi due ( Bernie e Alberto ) siete cosi..."teneri". Come ho già detto tante volte a Bernie, è fortunato ad avere un babbo cosi! Lo so, lo so che non c'entra nulla con lo stile di questo blog, ma io sono cosi, impulsiva e Bernie lo sa e mi perdonerà.
146 A dire il vero anch'io sto in ansia per lui :-) speriamo bene...
148 Bernie: Via, non fatemi venire il magone voi due :-)
152 ==== International Dinner ====
154 FedericoLucifredi and his wife Irena were so kind to invite me at their place for a
155 fine dinner with appetizers, SirloinSteak (see pic below), several side
156 dishes and... Even a PinotNoir!
158 http://www.fairburysteaks.com/images/bci-sirloin-round-bone.gif
160 There were also Mauro -- Federico's colleague at Ximian -- and Irena's
161 friend who's a physics professor from Providence and could speak perfect
162 French and, surprisingly, even Italian!
164 What can I say? I think I got a pound or two that night, but it was
172 There's a cinema in building 26 @ EmAiTee, and it's cheap.
177 If you're curious, my room rent is $500 per month. Utilities,
178 forniture and DSL Internet access are included.
180 It's not cheap, but it's also not too expensive for Boston.
181 They told me that only Manhattan is more expensive here on
184 ==== CurriculumVitae ====
186 ...is almost ready. A friend told me that I'd better have
187 also a synthetic resume of 1-2 pages for the impatient.
190 Well, I said I'd be finished by last Monday, but then I
191 managed to slip past my own deadline visiting NewYorkCity,
192 moving in my current room and in other frivolous ways.
194 Now I have no excuses: the time has come. Next Monday I
195 ''will'' write my proposal. Seriously.
199 ==== Exchange Rates ====
201 Looks like I'd better convert all my money to dollars *now*:
203 http://www.x-rates.com/d/USD/EUR/graph30.html
205 What do you think about it?
207 Babbo:penso che $ continuerà a svalutare. Perderai soldi.
209 ==== StataCenter ====
211 I forgot to tell you about the kewlest building in EmAiTee:
213 http://www.eecs.mit.edu/images/big-stata12.jpg
215 See also: http://www.eecs.mit.edu/stata-link.html
219 After a long time, I finally get to (ab)use MIT's wi-fi and
220 barf my short-term brain buffer into my BrainDump.
222 Tonight we went to an Irish pub next to Kendall, where I got
223 to know a few more Ximian employees. I got rumors that
224 the famous kernel hacker RobertLove would be there, so after
225 a while I turned to the guy next to me and asked: "Is
226 RobertLove really going to come?". And he replied: "Speaking."
228 Another guy told me: "Hi, I'm BAHB". "Pardon?". "BAHB!".
229 "What???". Federico promptly helped me out: "Ha detto che si
232 The beer was good. I discovered that a BlueMoon is the
233 nearest approximation of a WeisseBeer I can find here,
234 and I'm not at all displeased by its taste.
238 My landlord has recently switched DSL provider and Internet
239 doesn't work any more: the sync light on the modem flashes.
240 It seems that crappy ISPs are a common disease in the States
243 Yesterday, he called for service and, finally, they told him
244 they would send a tech today from 8AM to 18PM. They refused
245 to be more specific. And so I've agreed to wait here to let
246 the guy in... I care about it for myself too!
250 By the way, today I'm exactly 150 pounds (use GoogleCalculator
251 to get it to SI units).
253 150 pounds = 68.0388555 kilograms
259 They told me Roxbury is quite an infamous suburb of Boston.
260 And my first impression confirms that: shops are uglier,
261 parks and streets are somewhat dirtier (but not as much as
262 in NewYorkCity!) and, most importantly, some of the neighbors
263 look creepy. Especially in the night, streets are crowded by
264 people with criminal faces and many homeless.
266 You know I'm not the type who's easily scared off by a bunch
267 of zombies, but I'll feel much better when I'll drive a car.
271 I've finally settled in my room. There's no need to describe the house
272 in detail, as it's the most typical colonial design: two floors plus
273 basement, front and back yards, sliding windows, wooden floors
274 everywhere. You've come to know them very well from the movies.
276 Today I went to the mall to gather the essentials: a blankets,
277 a pillow case and some bath towels. The bed is comfortable and
278 I was quite tired already, therefore I fell asleep early in the
279 evening and kept on until 8 AM.
281 '''WARNING: TIME WARP OCCURRED'''
285 '''WARNING: TIME WARP IMMINENT'''
289 Alberto: Attento a convertire € in $ perchè € si sta apprezzando,e quindi $ svalutando rispetto a €.
291 Belle le foto scovate da Massimo. Have a good stay in Btn.
293 Massimo: Bernie, you taught me: http://www.google.com/search?q=100+USD+in+EUR
296 Massimo: Since Bernie could not give us any picture, I had to use flickr: here they are!
298 http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=bernardo+innocenti
300 Piro: what in the heaven is RMS doing dressed like a camp tent? :D
304 ==== BankOfAmerica ====
306 I went to BankOfAmerica and opened a bank account. I went there wearing a yellow T-shirt
307 and a weary pair of jeans. In the beginning, they referred me to a young guy who quickly
308 tried to offer me a student's saving account. When I queried for interest rates, credit
309 cards, and dollar/euro conversion rates, they finally realized that I was going to move
312 When I've shown them my balance, they immediately switched me to a very polite girl who
313 took all the time to explain me everything in detail until after their closing time and
314 recommended me to open *3* different accounts to get a rate of 4.80% with no fees!
315 I totally hate when people judge you by your wealth, dressing, or other stupid status
316 symbols, but maybe a bank is the only exception where it makes sense to do so.
318 Banking appears to be far, far simpler here. I already feel like I know
319 everything while in Italy I still can't read most of the paperwork I get from
322 Batt: Or maybe american bankers are so skilled that you are happy while, in truth, they have stolen your money forever :-P
324 Massimo: Yahr yahr! He didn't realize they already got 4.80% of his balance from his pocket with a magician move! Yahr yahr! Anyway... 4-5% rate is not absurd in the US. It has always been almost like this as far as I can remember (maybe sometimes it was even 6-7%). It's useful for someone (like bernie), but tragic for someone who does not have any money and to buy a house with those mortgages it's almost impossible. Still, the US has got a very low rate in comparison with other extra-european countries.
328 ==== Good News, Everyone! ====
330 '''After a long struggling, I've finally found a room!'''
332 And I'll be moving in *today*! But I'm writing on Thursday the 3rd, actually (aren't you thinking fourth-dimentionally yet?).
334 The room is nice and comes with some forniture, including a desk. It's on the second floor
335 of a house where the landlord lives with her wife and a very friendly puppy.I like it
336 that way: all those houses shared by students I've seen so far tend to become unmaintained
337 and dirty quite quickly, while this one is a real house with a fully operational kitchen,
338 bathroom and even a clean back garden!
340 My landlord is Armenian, but have been living here in Boston for a long time. My first
341 impression is he's a very nice person, honest and easy going. I haven't met his wife yet --
342 she'll be back on Sunday.
344 I'm afraid the house is a bit far away from MIT, in southern Boston. But that won't
345 be a problem as soon as I buy a car. There may even be a chance to rent or buy the
346 car readily from my landlord's son.
348 I don't know the address yet. I should, but I forgot the sheet on the table when I went there. And I can't call my landlord either because I've stolen his cell phone by mistake also. Yeah, I reckon I mustn't a good impression, actually :-)
351 '''Camy''': the landlord lives with '''his''' wife
353 ==== Do You Speak English? ====
355 Some of you will be pissed off by this change, but I'm starting to make
356 some international friends here and none of them could read Italian.
358 Writing in English is also what I need to improve my writing skills.
359 For the few of you who barely know English, some more reading surely won't hurt!
361 [[http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbender.codewiz.org%2Fwiki%2FMayBlog&langpair=en%7Cit=en Google Translator]]
364 As always, I'd very much appreciate being told about any mistake I make.
366 ''Massimo: ok, let's start with those horrible contractions my poor eyes had to read: '''Won't''' and '''I'd'''. Hey Bernie! You already went back home from NYC. Ain't gonna play with ya 'nymore!''