Considerations

As you know last Friday I ended working for NERSC.
I can say that this was an absolutely worthy experience, I guess the most inspiring for my career...
Be in the HPC field for me it's already a great achievement for my professional growth and now being able to work in a different enviroment for a while has been really useful ... useful to understand where I'm and where I want to go.

Work with such a kind of skilled and experienced fellows helped me to understand that there always is a different way to solve a problem or to approach a project ... and yes, also that if even you think to be a geek there is someone more geek than you!

Let me say ... awesome!

-2

Thursday, August the 2th ... tomorrow will be the last day at NERSC :-(

Yesterday and this morning I tidied up  a little bit my notes that I took during this month and I realized that I got a lot of input and that more input I get more new questions come out ... it's a never ending story ... more you know and more you want to know !!

But unluckly the time is not friend of mine ... and the period here is gone ...

I have a mix of feelings, on one side I'm pretty sad because the environment an the fellows here are really good and the end of these 4 working weeks lets the countdown  to the fly back to start ... on the other side I'm happy because my holydays begins and I still have 10 days to spend in this amazing land !!

The list on the refrigerator with all the stuff we want to do and we want see shrank down but still really long and I don't know if we will be able to tick all the lines.
Anyway, no one said that we can't come back to end up our exploration ... :-)

Cinema!

Yesterday evening we did something "special" for the kids and we went to the cinema. The theater is close to our house, just 5 minutes by car, in Emeryville.
The kids decided to watch BRAVE, the last Disney/Pixar movie.

It was a beautiful show but at some times scary for the little because of an angry bear  ... and I had to carry Nathan off because it was to scared ... despide Maya was really quiet and amused!

What to say, as usual like many things here, the cinema is huge: 16 rooms .. and it's possible to eat all you want during the projection ... from the simple popcorn bag to the more sofisticated chicken nuggets and fried mozzarella sticks! :-)

Run around the lake

This is a direct message to CSCS colleagues!!

Dear Fabio, Stefano, Massi e Vinz, I had to come here in California to find a real colleague that run as a man!!
David is not searching every time an excuse to avoid working out in a good run ...

Here close to the office there is a nice lake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Merritt) and we run around on the path ... the sun was shining but the temperature was perfect (24 degrees)... 7 km of real fun!

Thank David!

And you guys in Lugano, think on this! Shame on you!
I have to put my last hopes on Jean ...

:-)

Great Weekend

We had a great weekend!
The weather, as usual, has been sunny and it was pretty warm (22-24 degrees)...

So, on Saturday morning we went to Union square in SF and we spent the entire day there around... in and out of shopping centers and up and down the tipical roads of SF.

We had even the chance to visit the Cable Car Museum ... and let the kids amuse in 2 playgrounds found in the middle of the city.

Sunday we drove to the Muir Woods National Park to walk under the big sequoia trees and heading back home we took some picture of the Golden Gate bridge from some evocative places ...

Today is a working day ... the first of the last week here at NERSC   ;-(
Luckily I've no time to think to much about that ...

Week 3: gone

Another friday is come, the 3th here at NERSC, and I realize that the next will be the last one. I've to admit a sense of sadness because just now that I begun to feel part of the group  it's almost the time to leave ...

I was thinking that maybe a longer period for this kind of experience would be desiderable, at least 3 month ... but if someone will propose me 1 or 2 years I wouldn't say no ...

Don't misunderstand me, in 1 month you can figure out a lots of things, but from now could come the real fun... now that you understand how some stuff work ... now that the relationship with the colleagues becomes straightforward and natural.

Anyway the in coming weekend  wipe out this sadness!!!
We have no specific plans so far ... because we want to do too many things and we are unable to make a choice!
For sure we will spend one day shopping in SF ... I already see my credit card burn and my eyes crying ... meanwhile my wife's face will shine like the sun!

Obama @ Oakland's Fox Theater

Today president Obama will visit  at Oakland's Fox Theater, just few feet from my office!

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/morning_call/2012/07/president-obama-to-visit-oaklands-fox.html

So we expect a little bit of mess caused by the security measures that will be taken ...
In fact the office is pretty empty because a lot of colleagues today are working from home to avoid to stuck in the jam ... and probably even the BART will be closed.

... a sort of weird day here in Oakland downtown.