Full Immersion nel Megalomanismo

Simple Pleasures

Normally, the ideal bartender at Starbucks keeps drinks organized, writing the customers’ name on their cup so when it is time to call it out, everthing ends up being more efficient. I used to love this idea.

If anybody remembers, Deborah (Debra on the cup), was one of my first dear roommates here is San Diego. It was December 2008 when I met her for the first time. We had such a good time together, that at some point she promised me to come back to San Diego.

Guess what? After almost two years, I found her, and her two friends Julia and Rafaela, back here in San Diego. Well, I gotta be honest. It wasn’t purely a surprise. She gave me a heads up before coming here, asking if I was gonna be in town when she would have arrived here but still; I was positively shocked when I saw her again.

This whole thing happened almost a month ago, when Romain and Nelson were still here with us (the reason why I’m writing about it only now is that I just received the pictures today). What’s better than going with an old friend and a couple of roommates to chatter somewhere?

Well, we had a lot of fun talking about these last two years. Unfortunately though, because of that stupid physics course, this was the only time we could actually hang out all together.

Before leaving the park to go back home, my dear roomie left me a package. This package contained a pair of flip-flops or, I would better say the pair of flip-flops. Two years ago, before leaving, Deborah’s mother gave me this present but unfortunately they were an 8 long instead to be an 11. I know you guys don’t really care about it. I just wanna say thanks a lot mainly for two reasons: firstly because you remembered about it even after a couple years and secondly because my old pair of flip-flops (cannot figure out how), got broken right the day after you left, so if it wasn’t for you I would be wandering San Diego barefoot.

I hope to see ya again roomie!



Odore d’estate

Stamattina ho respirato per la prima volta l’estate nell’aria.

Ti svegli e sai che e’ vacanza. Ti senti libero. Mi piacerebbe davvero riuscire a descrivere questa sensazione, ma non e’ un’impresa per niente facile. Cos’e'? Sara’ il sole fuori dalla finestra? O e’ il flusso d’aria fresca che entra dalla porta aperta di camera mia? Sara’ l’orario che dice 9.34AM ma io sto’ ancora dormendo con tanto di bava sul cuscino, caccola all’occhio, e gamba scoperta che penzola giu’ dal letto. Apro gli occhi a fatica e’ la prima cosa a cui penso e’ spiaggia.

L’odore del sole e’ davvero inebriante oggi. Certo che il sole ha odore; come l’intenso blu del cielo verso le due di pomeriggio ha odore. Per non parlare poi di quella brezza che proprio quando te lo scordi ti ricorda che e’ estate.


Si, stamattina mi sono svegliato proprio di buon umore. Il corso estivo di fisica e’ finalmente finito. Il pensiero che in un mese potro’ andarmi a bere una birra con gli amici dopo mangiato mi eccita non poco. In programma, due notti a Las Vegas con Miss T., un paio di amici, ed un paio di galloni di Martini. Se tutto andra’ come deve andare il 17 Settembre verso le 8 di mattina dovremmo essere sulla I-15 diretti verso il Nevada.

Ma senza perdere troppo tempo, torno immediatamente al 18 Agosto, mi indosso il costume, prendo il telo da spiaggia, mi metto gli occhiali, chiavi, cellulare, e Ipod in tasca e via che esco di casa: destination Pacific Beach.

Una giornata stupenda. Ho addirittura deciso di fare il bagno (giusto per evitare fraintesi, qua a San Diego non e’ rituale fare il bagno a meno che tu sia un surfer equipaggiato con tanto di tuta termica. L’acqua qui a San Diego e’ gelata.)

Verso le 5 di pomeriggio torno a casa. Raphael, uno dei nuovi studenti, ha appena comprato una longboard della Sector. Non perdo due minuti ed esco di casa per provarla. Una longboard non ha nulla a che fare con un normale skateboard da strada. Diciamo che paragonare una longboard con un normale skate e come paragonare una moto da cross con una moto da strada: con la prima ci fai impennate, sgommate, salti, e trick di vario genere, mentre con la seconda scheggi tra una macchina e l’altra ad alta velocita’.

Dopo una decina di minuti, giusto il tempo necessario per adattarsi alle differenza della nuova tavola, comincio ad andare a scheggia su e giu per la pista ciclabile della Liberty Station una zona a due metri (o meglio quattro piedi) da casa. Qui, mi sono immerso in una bellissima zona di San Diego mai vista prima.

Verso le 7 di sera torno a casa.

A San Diego e’ finalmente arrivata l’estate. Ritardataria, ma anche lei si e’ fatta viva.



Physics 195 – Mechanics

The following, are the tests I took this summer in my physics class. “Engineers”, please express your most honest opinion about it and please be objective. I wanna know if the difficulty of the problems shown here are comparable to the problems you found in your exams one year ago in your first semester of physics. Thanks.

Here the questions, the related solutions attached to them, and the actual test I “solved” myself.

Measurement and Vector, Motion in One Dimension, and Motion in Two and Three Dimension.

Newton’s Law, Additional Applications of Newton’s Laws, Work and Kinetic Energy, and Conservation of Energy + past topics.

Conservation of Linear Momentum, Rotation, and Angular Momentum + past topics.

Static Equilibrium, Elasticity, and Fluids + past topics.

Thanks a lot. ns27



Corvette Diner

I know. I’ve been a prick. 15 days of absence it is something it should have never happened. I really apologize; let’s say though, that the course of physics I am taking right now is not exactly what I would define a piece of cake. Yes, lately I’ve been kind of busy because of it, but I’m glad to say that in one week, and one week only, this hell will be just part of my memories. ns22 For all those, who are interest to see what I’ve been doing in this physics course, I will post my four tests online just because I honestly think they are quite challenging and I want to know what you (engineers friends) think about it. But anyway…

Now, at the Graves we are not in seven anymore like we used to be a month ago. Stephanie, the Swiss girl left three weeks ago, headed to LA to travel with his boyfriend around the US. Vladi, the Bulgarian guy, left a week ago right after Nelson, the brazilian, and four days after Nelson it was the turn of Roman. So basically, from a big family of seven students, we ended up being in just three in a few days: me, Blasco, and Ping. I think I’ll never get used to say goodbye to people… it sucks so badly! But that’s the way it work sometime. C’est la vie.. Fortunately though, Rafael, a new guy from Brazil arrived a couple days ago taking the place where Nelson used to stay.

The day after Rafael arrived here, we thought to go and celebrate in a proper way the last night of Roman here in San Diego at Corvette Diner Restaurant, the best American Diner you can find here in San Diego. That was the first time I went there and I gotta admit I really enjoyed the place even though at first the whole environment plus the restaurant staff resulted to be kind of shocking to me.

Everything around us was nicely reproduced like in an authentic 60′s restaurant. Blue Corvette in the middle of the restaurant, waiters performing silly dances every 30 minutes, a playroom with videogames in it, and three different kind of room where you could seat and eat your meal: the regular one, the black one set up with nice paintings on the wall reactive to ultraviolet lights, and lastly the room where were projected films of old cocerts and old movies.

In there, you are positive to find crazy waiters but I have reason to believe that the one we got was particularly insane. She introduced herself throwing hundreds napkins and straws on the table and screaming out loud. Then she started taking our orders down, but she wasn’t like the ordinary waiter who asks to the costumers what they wanna drink with an adjusted tone of voice. She was like screaming at us. At first I felt kind of overwhelmed but afterwards I started getting confident with it resulting then to be quite fun. At the end, the very same waiter got Roman and me, and started sticking straws up to out hair. Just like that. ns22

Here some pictures of the place:

Sometimes I feel like life is great just because of these small things.

Alla prossima ragazzi ns22



Hits July 2010!

Here the hits of the summer played on 93.3 FM San Diego CA!

ns17 EnjoY ns17



Eu te amo esquilinha!

Oggi ho portato Miss T. all’aeroporto. Miss T. e’ tornata in Brasile.

Obrigado baby!



Nuovo Guinness dei Primati!

Sette sono ora gli studenti ospitati in casa Graves. Dopo 15 anni spesi ad accogliere studenti provenienti da tutto il mondo, questo, per i Graves e’ un nuovo Guinness dei primati.

Sfortunatamente pero’, dopo quell’episodio d’un paio di mesi fa, tra quell’idiota Italiano e quell’altra Brasiliana, Judy, la padrona di casa, ha deciso di ospitare solo ragazzi e non piu’ ragazze. Che tristezza… ns31

7 sotto un tetto: Io, Roman, Stephanie, Vladov, Nelson, Ping, e Blasco.