Signal Eleven

Yep, it really does.

This post is made in order to avoid telling the same thing to 1000 people asking me “how’s it going? Are you graduating next month?” .  I wrote it quickly. It doesn’t have a structure. It’s a stream of thoughts with little or no filter. My English probably sucks more than the average. Be warned.

Today I flunked ODE (Ordinary Differential Equations). My last exam before graduation. I’ve got nothing to complain about, the grade is totally fair. It’s my fault.

I had 3 tests on this session, 20 credits. 2 down (15 creds), one standing. This semester was supposed to be my “cushion” semester. Kind of an extra time to “heal” the “wounds” I got on the road from first year to now.  Three, tough, exams, and plenty of time.  I failed to manage time. I procrastinated. Then I rushed. And then here I am.

Yesterday I felt like a runner on km 41. One, last kilometer to go. The asphalt became glue. Muscles not responding. Tunnel vision. Panic.

I realized I wasn’t going to make it, but I kept walking, not running. I got overtook by my “wingman”. Good for him.

It’s funny that I passed every single exam regarding Computer Science and I’m being held back by a PURE MATH exam, about stuff with little or no real use in my career.

Now what? Now what? My plans go as far as tomorrow night. I can’t even think straight right now. A couple of consequences come to mind: the Chicago Project is officially canceled. Well, it was ambitious, wasn’t it? Maybe it’s better off this way, maybe it’ll turn in something else. Who knows.

My plans for the master degree in Milano change too. And, right now, I do not have the energy to think about it. Any conclusion is biased by a mix of disappointment, anger. I’m exhausted. I need to rest.

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I know, I threw the stone and hid the hand (does this saying even exist in English?).

I haven’t been talking about my project because I’m quite busy with exams and graduat…er…nothing. Don’t want to jinx it, the situation is desperate enough without me talking about it.

Just a quick catch up:

• I paid the $60 application fee for international students. I ended up paying the bank 61,17 € (EURO!) for the process. A fracking robbery.

• I queued in my university offices for an official marks sheet, translated in english, with grades average. Since I’m not graduated yet, it was short of 3 exams, with an average lower than the requirements (req: 24/30. My avg: 23.82, now lowered by a stupid mark I got last week). Meeting the requirements is getting harder and harder.

• I sent a copy of my TOEFL score. (109/120. Come on. Dear UIC, unlike many other people applying, I might not have the average, but I do speak your language! Does that count?). For the records, the required score is 80.

• I started to think about money and, frankly, I got quite scared. Two semesters, 2 to 4 flights, an apartment, living expenses. As soon as I get my mind clear on this, I’ll post some numbers.

Things don’t look very good, to say the truth. The first derivative of my motivation is approaching -∞. Can’t really tell if an inflexion point is about to come. I can’t really compute the second derivative. (I haven’t been making this kind of low-tech calculus humor since high school).

Nevertheless, today I woke up early, packed up my documentation in a neat DHL envelope, and sent the stuff over to the windy city. (36 Freaking Euro, 2 days delivery)

Let’s keep the ball rolling and see what happens, I’m not giving up without a fight. A small fight.

Stay tuned, more to come.

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(no time to read my ramblings? Jump to the script here)

Heh. When procrastination brings productivity. I was working in Google Documents on my thesis, and felt that something wasn’t quite right. The header was taking too much space and on my 13.3” widescreen every vertical pixel is precious.

So I came up with this tiny Greasemonkey script that allows to toggle the header bar in Google documents, providing more room for working. Plus I wasn’t really feeling like working on the thesis ;-)
Example after the jump

…from this…

…to this…

You can find the script here.

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So this is it, many of you already know it, but now I’m telling everyone.

The rumors were true :-) , I’ve decided to apply for a semester (2 actually) at the University of Illinois in Chicago, for a Master of Science in Computer Science.

There are various reasons. First and foremost, I really like the idea of living in a completely different place for a while. And by completely different I mean not Italy.

Then there’s the academic appeal of the whole thing, that I recognize as the only real motivation to study that I have right now.

The next steps to advance the project are many, but most of them can be fit into one of these 3 categories

• Graduation (cause the Politecnico of Milano is still out to get my blood, 1 endterm, 2 full exams and a thesis…)
• Money (in every shape and form I can manage to raise from now to the deadline for the payment)
• A enormous, massive, gargantuan amount of PAPERWORK

Caveat, this project can (CAN!) get canceled anytime, as the number of things that can go wrong along the path is rising at an exponential rate. So expect the “Chicago - UIC” category to turn into a sea of tears. Not saying it’ll happen. But it’s possible.

So what, did I turn this blog into a personal diary? Not really. Although I plan to document my efforts in “full disclosure mode”, everything that happens to me might as well apply to one of my potential fellows in the project (that can feel free to add comments and suggestions, as well as their own experiences). The rationale is that other people that might want to “jump the pond”, and spend some time in the USA, could benefit from this informations.

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Happy new year to my readers.

Things have been a little slow here at S11, but something’s coming up :)

In the mean time, as a filler I’ll show you this link

Year in Review: The 70 Best Lifehacks of 2007 - Lifehack.org

2007 has been a year of renovation for me. I managed to meet most of my NYE Resolutions (and that “most” in place of “all” is the reason why I do NOT have resolutions for 2008. Graduation is among the 2007 casualties…)

I worked on myself in the productivity and personal development area. It sounds stupid, I know, but I did enjoy trying to follow small pieces of advice that look nothing different than “common sense”, but when put all together give a nice perspective of what I do right and what I do wrong when it comes to deal with personal productivity. Plus, I love the term “lifhacking”.

Time flies. I feel old thinking about how fast last year flew by, but I can say that I’m pretty satisfied of my 2007 and eager to do even better in 2008. I rank pretty high in the motivational scale these days, and I’m full of projects…

Don’t worry, I’m not turning this blog into a personal diary or something, but…I don’t want to jinx it so, as usual…

…stay tuned, more to come.

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EDIT: This sat in the drafts for a while. I thought I’d posted it… The post date is fake, of course :)

Check this out. And I mean all of you.

If you’re Italian, you’ve probably heard of this over the news in the last few days, but I can guarantee you that reading it in its entirety is quite something. It’s refreshing to see that seeing from the outside they are as baffled as we are when we look around.
In a Funk, Italy Sings an Aria of Disappointment - New York Times

It’s interesting how much importance they give on the Grillo case.

I don’t really support each and every thing he says, or the way he says it, but he managed to reach a point where is visible enough to overcome the political censorship of TV, papers and “driven” media in general. Like he says, thanks to the Internet. I hope he’ll be wise spending his 15 minutes of fame.

As for me, I’m leaving this ship before it sinks. I’m not telling how. Yet.

Stay tuned, more to come

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The $80 Brown Zune - Engadget

Seriously, why, WHY, PERCHE’! Why BROWN?

Anyway, I wouldn’t buy it either if it was white and better than an iPod.

*pet his nano* (this looked weird after I wrote it but I’ll keep it…)

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Just for the records. I had a macbook in repair a while ago

They kept my precious for a month. Changed the logic board. No more light flickering, yay! Changed the topcase. It was so shiny, for a while. Now with my dirty hands it’s not.

I’m afraid on the long run it’ll break again, it already have marks where it broke the other time. I guess I’ll have to live with that.

Battery and AC adapter: THEY DIDN’T EVEN LOOK AT THEM.

The thing is that here in Italy we don’t get to have Apple Stores with Mac Geniuses, but private shops, often (not always, you’ll see) with Dumbasses™ working there.

Now the warranty is over (although for italian consumer law I should get 2 years. I’ll look into that).

The charger still have false contacts, and the battery was down to an astonishing 60% of capacity.

But here’s the good news. I walked into another service shop, because I was too lazy to cross the city and go where I bought the thing. Well, without a receipt, just by looking up the serial code of the machine, they checked if Apple had a warranty extension on my battery, and CHANGED IT, right on the money. Shiny new battery. I *love* when people do their job and they do it right. If only those suckers in the first shop cared to look into the problem (and they had a month to do it)…

Now, let’s go fighting my private war with the first shop over the battery charger. Should I have to shed 60€ + VAT, I’d rather do it for Leopard.

Stay tuned, more to come.

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I’ve been watching too much Heroes lately, and tonight I found myself willing to learn Japanese.

As for my other weird ideas, It’ll pass. For the time being, I got my name in Nihon-go. Hai!!

My japanese name is 森田 Morita (forest field) 雄大 Masahiro (big hero).
Take your real japanese name generator! today!
Created with Rum and Monkey’s Name Generator Generator.

If you’ve been wondering, yes, I’m ill (strong common cold) and I’m killing time.

Stay tuned, more to come

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check out this comic

I might have an idea about WHY she left you :-)

Just kidding, I think it’s brilliant.

Stay tuned, more to come.

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