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EOF [Monday 31st March 2008] End Of File... That's it, today is the official last day of work for the Japanese employer to which I have lent my services for the past year and half. It another chapter of my life that draws to a close, unfortunately thing have not worked out in a good way, I have to admit that it has been a failure. In bad things there are always positive points, so I need to force myself to learn from this experience. It's a shame that I was not put in the conditions to produce what I was able to produce any tangible result, but in a way I do not think that I should say that too much as it is a way to "excuse" myself for a failure that affected mostly me and that resulted in me resigning from the position that I had. That's it, most of the dwellers here at "La Maison" knew of these turn of events, for the fresher news I will have to wait a little bit more, there is a lot going on at the moment, but it's not yet the time to talk about it... As for this job, and this part of my life, it's time to call draw the curtain and look forward, hence... EOF [1 comment] Gandmother's Birthday [Sunday 16th March 2008] My Florentine side of the family is not that big, there are only two sisters, and of course my grandmother (granddad passed away few years ago). Today it was a very special occasion as my grandmother turned Eighty-five and it was a good chance to celebrate all together. We used to have family meetings a lot when I was a kid, I quite hated them because they were boring, and usually meant that we had to go to the countryside villa that my granddad owned to have huge meals and endless chats (not to talk about arguments but that's another story). This system was abandoned when me and my sister grew up enough to say that we had better engagements, and from then all family parties are held either in a restaurant (like in this occasion) or at my Grandmother's house. The birthday lunch was rather nice, we were all there, chatting about different things, in a very relaxed atmosphere, great food. The restaurant of choice is in the countryside so the type of cuisine was rather "traditional Tuscan" meaning lots of red meat and red wine together with veggies. A very good party, eighty-five is not an easy age, I wonder if I'll ever live long enough to see it! Happy Birthday Granny!! [2 comments] Statistics [Friday 7th March 2008] Until 6/7 years ago I never too much interest in statistical analysis, probably as every other good student I was regarding the subject to be too abstract to be appealing. The work came and I found how marvellous numbers are, and how important are they to "read" a situation and finding what to do in order to achieve one's goals. Numbers are also important because they can be presented in a way or another in order to strengthen a certain point of view, and sometimes (but politicians are better than me at this) you can use numbers and statistics to twist reality. Well, anyways all of this is a little hat to what I really wanted to say. Since February I have been monitoring the traffic that my pages are having thanks to Google Analytics. I do not know why I was always so curious to see how many people come to the site and read about my life and experiences. Apart from the obvious traffic from England, I have noticed that people from different countries connect to my site. Dunno why but it makes me happy, it would be great if they posted comments, but even the classic invisible reader is fine I guess! Soon at the end of the month I will be able to post pictures again, I've got a couple of updates that are waiting there for the right moment to come out. Thanks for reading my blogs, I hope that they evoke feelings in you readers, positive or negative doesn't matter, as long as emotions are flowing! P.S. Do not worry I am not tracking down the traffic, it's not possible with Analytics, your identity will always be a secret to me! [4 comments] Farewell Gary [Tuesday 4th March 2008] It is with great sadness that I have read that Gary Gygax, inventor of Dungeons and Dragons, died today. I have no words, I owe this man a lot in a way, I would have never met John, Rob, Tim, Jon Ellis and Chris if it wasn't for Role Playing Games. I would have never met Matteo, Francesco, Stefano, Simone, Federico plus another scores of great friends if Role Playing Games were not there. I would not be what I am now if RPGs were never invented. So, thanks Gary, I owe a lot to you and your games, a lot of great hours of fun and even now a lot of great hours not thinking of all the problems that we live everyday. Farewell Gary, D20 rolls will never be the same again. Kevin Stalflare [6 comments] Fiorentina [Sunday 2nd March 2008] Fiorentina is Florence football team, of which I am a proud supporter since 1975, pretty much when I was born. Today one of the dreams that we supporters have came true. We have beaten A.C.Juventus, probably Fiorentina's biggest rival, well in injury time, after going down 2 goals to 1 at the beginning of the second half. I was in tears, screaming like a madman at Gianfranco's place (where we meet every Sunday to watch the matches on TV). Let's hope for this event to be the first of a long series, for many years we have had only disappointments, we even saw our team bankrupting and being relegated to lower divisions... Oh well, doesn't matter, this has been a GREAT Sunday, football-wise of course! [10 comments] Collective Cynicism [Friday 29th February 2008] Today is a day that doesn't exist, that was never meant to be but that lunar phases put on our calendar every four years. Technically if someone was to live 365 years, and was born on a leap year, it would be 366 years old. Anyways, the evening of this Friday is what I feel I should talk about. Since on Saturday we have a birthday party of a friend, and since the coming Monday I am about to have a "little" trip of which I cannot yet disclose the nature, me and Gianfranco decided that it was better to go to see "No Country for Old Men" today. Since we decided to go at the late night show (starting at 22:50), we went to this multiplex cine hall that was built at the outskirts of Florence, where they have a nice pizza place. Friends, chats, pizza, cinema. What a lovely night. The problem is that we never seem to get timing right. Last time we went there we arrived more or less at the same time (around 20:30) bought the ticket in hideous advance and then got stuck at the pizza place that was full beyond belief and that forced us to eat in 10 minutes flat. That's why this time we went there a little earlier.... and the cinema was DEAD EMPTY. We were sat and fed in less than 30 minutes... This left a good hour to be wasted, now at the bathroom, now at the entertainment center and taking a walk near the cinema (weather is finally moving towards spring standards!!) Around 30 minutes before the beginning of the movie, we were standing there, in the hall that separates the cinemas from the rest of the complex, waiting for the ticket inspector to open the gates. Here a sudden outburst of cynicism stroke and like two old men sitting on a straw chair outside a small bar in a country village (the typical Italian old man that argues about almost anything and looks grumpy), we started commenting on the local "fauna" inside the cinema. I will spare the audience the comments, most of them were quite sharp and downright politically incorrect, but it helped us spending those 30 minutes and gave us a good picture at how the world is moving today, as there were a lot of younger people around and we never stop to see what they do or how they express themselves. Incidentally the law of retribution stoke here, and sitting next to us were some ladies that we especially loved to comment about (and even more incidentally the ugliest fattiest sweatiest one sat next to me...). Before leaving we helped this couple that had a flat tyre in the car park, the guy managed to to completely spoil one of the bolts and in the end all our efforts were useless, but at least the cynicism was only in the way we look at the world, not at the way we behave.. Last thing. the movie is good, very Pulp Fictionesque, didn't like the ending bit, but a good movie nonetheless! [4 comments]

Lox, Lorenzo... ME!! A little introduction about the author and the blog itself. Plus contacts and CVs... You never know! Pictures A Selection of the best pictures that I have taken all over the world during the years, all nicely indexed by year and geographical area. Jolly good! History of this Blog A collection of all the articles that I have wrote so far, divided by month/year. I have had the bad idea of writing my e-mail address on the board before, so this time I'll try to prevent some spam to get to me by putting this little image.. Let's hope it does the trick! [--------------------] A reminder to Myself Left and right Like day and night That's what makes the world go round In and out Thin and stout That's what makes the world go round For every up there is a down For every square there is a round For every high there is a low For every to there is a fro To and fro Stop and go That's what makes the world go round You must set your sights upon the heights Don't be a mediocrity Don't just wait and trust to fate And say, that's how it's meant to be It's up to you how far you go If you don't try you'll never know And so my lad as I've explained Nothing ventured, nothing gained You see my boy it's nature's way Upon the weak the strong ones prey The human life it's also true The strong will try to conquer you That is what you must expect Unless you use your intellect Brains and brawn, weak and strong That's what makes the world go round [------------------------------]