WoW it’s been ages

Hm.. I just can’t be bothered to update this thing much… Such a shame..
Moments often pass where I think “This would be a wonderful addition to my blog..” but then they slowly fade from memory, and I start asking Gaby things like “Do you remember that one time when this thing happened and I said I should put it in my blog???” she goes.. *sigh* and I let it die off in a dark corner of my wardrobe.

Quick update and on to more serious stuff, or well, other stuff..

Uhmm lots went by, Eric and Idzi had a brief stop-over, about 5 days, well 7 in the end, because public transportation was striking and Ryanair crashed some stuff…

My parents came by as well, onnnn Thursday, I think, we had fun, but on Saturday my mom fell down and had a lot of trouble walking for the remainder of the trip..

Uhm…. oh I made a website proposal for the Roberto Wirth Fund, if it gets accepted I’ll have a job here for the last months of my stay, pretty good, hope it works out.

Sign language classes are still awesome.

We ate some very good mozzarella today.

Almost Sinterklaas, we’re celebrating with Inge, Vasiliki (?), Kate, Gaby and uhmmm me.

What else…. Ooh, Kate got kicked out of her apartment because she couldn’t pay rent because she hadn’t been paid in forever, so last night she stayed at the Hassler hotel, which is Roberto Wirth’s hotel, and tonight she’s secretely sleeping in her own house and tomorrow she will be bunking with us.

I’ve been playing World of Warcraft, when the expansion hit the stores I vowed not to get it that same day, but voilà, we went out into the rain to find an Italian game store, the guy went “Did you pre-order?” I raised my eyebrows and shook my head.. “Well…. let’s see if I can find one…” And behold! We got us the last copy

I bought a leather jacket, Gaby bought a fake fur coat… It was all my dad’s fault…

She now wants to give it to homeless people.

Which brings me to the heartwarming fact that the other day, there were people at the Tiburtina train station, close to our house, feeding the homeless. A big pan of Spaghetti, big doesn’t quite cover it though… Warm drinks and… new clothes! They all looked like unwashed rich people!

Also, every morning, before I start work, I go to this bar. We call it “the corner bar” due to lack of creativity… So every morning I go there, have a cappucino, sometimes a cornetto (a croissant, but sweet… Some have glazing which is called “semplice” and some have stuffing… I usually have one with marmalata, which is jam really…). I sit outside and watch people rushing around me. Then every morning, this lady comes by and asks for a cigarette, so, a couple of days ago, I figured I’d buy her a pack of cigarettes! Why not?? She was always a nice beggar and never rude or pushy… So I bought her the pack and a lighter, but for the life of me I haven’t been able to find her anywhere…

Errm, let me think…

Oh, today I got scolded during sign language class… I understood nothing of the story my teacher was telling because I couldn’t get some of the Italian words… So she told me “I should practice my Italian more.” She’s right of course, so when I returned to the office, I wrote her a lengthy e-mail in Italian, telling her that she was right. I hope she thinks that’s enough practice.

Secret Santa next week, bit of trouble with that, I’m supposed to write a poem and buy a gift, but… omg… a gift up to €3…. So yeah, dunno what to buy, but we’ll see…

There’s probably a lot more to tell, but I’ll leave you with this:

We bought tickets to return to Holland for the holidays, don’t call us we’ll call you, no not really, please do call, I feel so lonely! We’ll be flying in on the… 18th, Eindhvoen Airport, be there or be square, please bring a car so we won’t have to do the train ride.

Byebye

Picasso and IKEA

So, yesterday our day consisted of two major events.

#1: Yay, Inge took us to IKEA

We bought a green table and bedsheets and yay. The whole thought of coming to IKEA was gained from the day before when we had dinner at Inge’s place, it was great, thanks , and after we had Tiramisù which was amazingly good, but also way too much to have after dinner..

Anyway, uhm here are the new acquisitions:

To show off the beautiful colors!..and the table

 

And the little table

#2: We went to see the Picasso exhibition at the Museum Vittoriano or something quite similar.

Now I have never much cared for Picasso, but I am open to new experiences… somewhat..
The thing is though.. Abstract is not my thing, unless it has some esthetic value to me and then I really don’t want to know what it was meant to be. A will list a few things I derived from this exhibition:

- I really don’t like Picasso.
- I now realise why bestiality is so wrong.
- Picasso had a weird, weird view of women.
- …and of Minotaurs…

So yes, to comment on the women thing:

Woman in black and grey...Yes. Woman in black and grey.

Then the bestiality/Minotaur thing:

Picasso's Minotaur...

And..

Just to emphasise..

So yes… did I mention I think Picasso’s art is a little weird?

Anyway..yes well that was it..

Oh and a different note.. I just noticed how messed up the layout of this blog is, I don’t know why… I’ll look into it..

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy..

 

So, I started my internship on Monday, as did Gaby her school.

I basically work from 9 till 5 on my project, which is fine really, because it’s a lot of work that needs to be done. There’s this whole Italian athmosphere of taking things slow and easy that just doesn’t seem right to me though.. I can’t quite put my finger on it.. I’m pretty sure 9 to 5 means 9:30 to 5 here though…

Anyway, to get into the more technical part of what I’m doing *WARNING: BORING*
I’ve been looking into some way of directing people through a closed space by object. Now I’ve looked into several ways of actually giong about doing that.

Basically, there’s gps, which is really just made for outdoor use, but with a lot of hassle and receivers and amplifiers and that kind of crap you could probably find a way to apply it. Which brings me to the fact that if it could be done, which I’m doubting due to the nature of museums. It wouldn’t nearly be accurate enough to actually be able to pinpoint the exact location of an object you are bumping into and simultaneously informing you about it. Furthermore, it would take a great deal of bullshit to actually get it installed. I don’t like messing around with that…

Then there’s infrared, which works, but due to battery life and range isn’t really that effective. Plus, it’s somewhat like using your Wii, it just beeps your location all the time, it just doesn’t seem useful in terms of information sharing..

There’s node mapping, using the SVG mapping technology that is used in gameplay, which is based on nodes leading to different nodes leading to nodes.. and stuff. Which is interesting, but really hard to make, for me at least, and not that easy to apply for someone with limited compy savvy..

 

Node mapping..

And there’s some more ways I forgot, but anyway, I chose RFID chips.

Which, in terms of navigation in general might not be the easiest/most profitable choice. But.. in terms of navigating through a museum, based on objects, not on route or whichever, it is quite interesting. It doesn’t actually lead you in a specified direction, it’s more like a handy information sharer/tracker of where you are. Basically, you have these RFID tags, which carry an ID#, they are passive and do nothing but contain this number. Very cost effective, I’ve seen them for about 40 cents each on the net. Then you get to the part where you’re gonna want to read the tag numbers to actually make use of them. There are readers to do this.

My actual plan in terms of applying this to my project is simple. You tag every object in the museum, which is inadvertently a very good way to map the museum and make an online catalogue. Plus if the objects are moved, they already have their tag applied.

You then apply readers to several PDA’s. When someone carrying a PDA steps in range of a tag, the tag ID# will be sent to the reader, which will enter the number into a php page, which in turn will be opened in the PDA browser. Because all tags are unique, every tag ID# has their own little space in the database, which contains, say: the name, location, description and a picture of the object the tag is connected to. The page that opens is a generic page that has a layout in which it projects all the fields connected to the tag ID#.

This way, to add new objects would be as easy as to add some information into a database.

Another benefit from doing this through a database is the fact that this is basically an online catalogue of everything the museum has to offer. Which could be used for a website or for archiving.

One thing I’m still working on is how to actually write the source code, and, how to apply some sort of sign language into this, by means of a videoguide or something:

Ok, so I’m still working no the removing of blue screen… I just started working with video programmes today… (not including windows movie maker). Also, I would like to have subtitles in it, I have made an easy to understand paint image to make you understand:

So yes, that would be awesome..

So that’s as far as I’ll go today.

*BORING ENDED*

So yesterday we went out to dinner with Inge and her friend whose name I just keep forgetting… Sorry!
It was fun, a nice little restaurant with an old man reciting the menu at your table so you couldn’t order anything that was on the menu but not in the kitchen. I understood about half of what he was saying and he understood about nothing I was saying, well, he understood pera… but not my funghi e prosciuto, which is indeed hard to comprehend, although Gaby understood me..

What else, oh yes, we talked about all kinds of things, including, somehow, me being lazy and accustomed to a luxury lifestyle. Which, I have to agree to, since I do like an easy life with easy going people doing easy things. Preferably none at all. Still, I think in my defense, I do at times try to work and earn money and clean and stuff… Not like some people who moved to Italy with me…

Anyway, we also talked about some poets and Inge was fascinated by the old man and his wife in the kitchen, and uhm we had some caffè so yeah, it was all good.

Uhm.. oh, today Christina will help us pick out the best anti-musquito deathray. Which I’m really looking forward to, since I have developped quite the allergy to this specific type of mosquito, photos will be shared shortly.

Well, I’ll keep it at that for now, I will write some more about the workings of Final Cut Pro later…

Settlers of Rome

Don’t laugh, we are, we will teach the world Italians how to speak English and then they will be able to accomodate our needs. Nah, just kidding, it’s all good, we set out today to find:

1. A Fan, omg it’s friggin’ hot in here..
2. Outlet converters so we could use our laptops
3. A phone for me
4. Groceries
5. A charger for my videocamera

We came back with numbers 1 to 4 plus an extra Guitar and a map of all public transportation. Sadly I didn’t quite understand why I couldn’t get a charger for my camera because the sales man’s Italian was faster than a speeding train.

Anyway, I’d say we did good, provided that we didn’t know where the hell we could find any stores apart from souvenir/drink/eat and clothing stores/booths..

So yes we also tried to cook, which was pretty good, but Gaby thought it wasn’t good at all, probably because she doesn’t like garlic and was limited to mere salt and pepper, which is fine, but apparently not as good as the former with a little garlic added.

I made some nice pics with my camera but found out I didn’t bring anything to upload pics from my camera to my laptop, so that’s on hold for now…

What else, what else. Oh, yeah so I have a nice shiny new Italian phone number, which I’m not gonna post here, but you can ask me for it through e-mail or msn or whatever means possible for you.

Oh and Google has a webbrowser, HUZZAH!