Resolutions for next year 2012

Tenerife
Barcellona
Prague
London
Dublin
New York

Let's see what I can do.

National Museum of Cinema

Lesson # 1: a man dressed as a monkey, can turn an interesting pic into an epic photo.

Source: http://www.magnumphotos.com/

Studying International Comparative Business Law

Keep studying knowing that I will never be able to pass the exam is the worst thing ever.. It feels pointless but at the same time I'm still hoping to be lucky enough to read the questions to which I know the answers on the tomorrow exam of law..


I have no chance to pass it.

This old pic shot in Dublin well describe how I feel inside right now.

Huge lack of post

Yep, as usual I'm not able to keep a blog updated.. daily bloggin is not for me :(


Anyway in the last few months a lot of things happened:
- April and May where extremely hot (30°) while June (thank God) is absurdly not hot (20°-25°)
- My friends come to visit me at home during Easter holidays;
- I got a full-time internship at Vodafone (which means I'm not going to have 2 months of summer holidays this year);
- We did two shows for the musical and it went kinda good ^^  ;
- Also i took some pretty good photos during the long hours of rehearsals;
- My brother and my mum came to visit me to see the show (and the day before mum left I took her to a great Japanese restaurant in Via Tabacchi, 40);
- Yesterday I turned into a "printers technician" but I can't try the printer because, doing the cleaning procedure, I finished the blue cartridge and my "beloved" Epson printer does not allow me to print (nor even in black and white..) but 
- I had a good idea for a pic;
- I also had a good idea for a photography blog in those days :D
- Tonight there's my boyfriend improvisation performance;
- I'm not ready for wearing a bikini.. but this is not an issue since I'm not going to wear it a lot :D
.. and last but not least
- I'm in the exam period. Three out of four are already gone in just one week :P


Well, is not that i didn't have things to write on it's just that I'm way to lazy for doing it sometimes :D Sorry about that! I promise I'll try to write about my work/internship experience and to have a more summery header as soon as I manage to take a decent and easily editable picture of me with summer cloths on. ;)

The importance of colors

A small collection of pictures on which I've been working on or I shoot lately.

Enjoy.

PS: only the last 2 photos have been edited.

History of Nintendo - How reliable is Wikipedia?

So I'm working on the first part of the Nintendo group work: Company History.

During my research I found out some really interesting facts.
For example: the birth of Nintendo Co., Ltd. date back to 1889 when Fusajiro Yamauchi started manufacturing “Hanafuda” Japanese playing cards.
1953 Nintendo became the first company to succeed in manufacturing mass-produced plastic playing cards in Japan. Additionally, in 1959 the company revolutionized the card market creating a new product with Disney characters dedicated to child.
In the following year Nintendo started an expansion in different business such as the creation of a taxi company, a "love hotel" chain, a food company and a vacuum cleaner called Chiritory. All these ventures eventually failed, except toy-making, where they had some earlier experience from selling playing cards. In 1970, Nintendo was the first company introducing electronic technology into the toy industry in Japan. Only in 1975 Nintendo started to get involved in the video games industry and in 1983 the company launched its first 'console' (I don't know if this name is appropriate for the Famicon).
Also interesting is the fact that apparently Nintendo strategy has always been the same: high expenditure in marketing to advertise consoles as amusement devices for the whole family (not just kids) and inventory shortage to keep both price and demand high.


But apparently Nintendo is not really proud of its heritage in the playing card and toys since there is a more accurate history of the company on Wikipedia than on their corporate websites.
Do the comparison on your own:
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Nintendo
Nintendo Eu: http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/service/nintendo_history_9911.html


Now the question is: can I use Wikipedia as a reliable source?
I know that usually wrong info stay on Wikipedia for no more than 2 hours but would it be a good reference to put on our work?
Additionally, do you think that Nintendo does not care of what there's written about it on Wikipedia and they do not control the correctiveness of the info posted by Wikipedia users?


Well, I've decided that I'll try to do my best without the help of the awesome collection of human knowledge called Wikipedia.

Short video

Enjoy this short video of the Tour Eiffel ;)

Photos: Federica Cavaliere
Soundtrack: Scott McLean - One sweet dream (Common creative license)
Song available at: http://www.jamendo.com/en/download/track/393189/?output=contentonly

Typical of me

How is that I always mess things up? As soon as I think I managed to get something fixed in my life I ruin something else.


Friends, my boyfriend, University, family.. myself. I am just unable to cope with everything around and inside me.

Torta di mele (apple pie)

My mum's Torta di mele recipe :)

Ingredients:

3 eggs

200g of sugar

1 glass of oil (150g)

350g of flour

1 bag of baking powder (16g)

A bit of grated lemon skin

2-3 apples

A bit of butter

Procedure:

Combine the 3 eggs (1) with 200g of sugar (2) and beat until they become pale white (3) with an electric mixer. Add the glass of oil and the grated lemon skin and beat until fully incorporated. Add little by little the 350g of flour (4) with a sieve (5) and mix (better if with a whisk). Once you have added all the flour the batter will become thick (6).

Preheat the oven at 180°C. Peel, core, and slice the apples. Grease accurately the pan with the butter and then flour it.

Add the baking powder to the batter and mix carefully with a whisk. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan (7) and smooth the top with an apple slice (8). Decorate the cake with the apple slices (9). Bake in the preheated oven for about 35-45 minutes or until golden brown and a speghetti inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

When ready turn off the oven open it and wait for the cake to cool down in it.

Enjoy! 

Barilla Cover

TaDaaaaa!!!! \(^o^)/

The cover of the Barilla work!!

 I just love it! ^_^ But as we say in Italy:"Ogni scarrafone è bello a mamma soia".

Opinions?!

Corporate strategy group works

I'm having trouble in creating a new cover for the Barilla group work. The first 2 covers for Harley-Davidson and Manchester united where fine but I need a brand new great/awesome idea for the Barilla cover!

I though of a pic of the shape of Italy made by people but apparently none had this idea in the past so there are no pics like this on Google images. I do need something that will be outstanding to use it also on the presentation we are going to run on the 18th in front of the Barilla guys. 

By the way, that's the 4th group work in a month and on Friday professor Grant (yes, he's the one in the photo) added another assessment to be due in a week, exactly on the day I'll be back from Paris. This "Corporate strategy" course is pretty tough and everyone is fed up with all those damn group works..

Feel free to express all your feelings towards group works in the comments. :)




03/15/2011 - 00:32 I just had an awesome idea for the cover!!! :D

Week-end/start with friends (aka heaviest post ever)

Fabiola and Luciana with a friend, Chiara, came to visit me/Milan on Saturday! ^^
As they get to my place we spent some time talking and relaxing since they trip was a nightmare and then we went to the grocery. 
At 9:00pm we went out to get to Francesca place to have dinner with her and their friends. 
We walk from my place to Duomo and we get the metro there since the weather was really nice and we had time. After dinner we reached Ettore and Lina at Alcatraz, the best discotheque in Milan, in my opinion, since it's huge, you can actually dance and do not spend the whole night queuing for everything!
 It was a great night and we had so much fun dancing all the night!
Here some photos of the night at Alcatraz. ^^

We came back home at 5am before than expected. On Sunday, at 11am we were already out on our way to Cioccolati Italiani (where I got this huge and delicious ice-cream) where Nicola reached us and we spent the whole day walking around Milan. Luini (best place for a calzone in Milan) was closed O_o so we had lunch about 3pm at Spizzico.

After coming back home at about 8pm and a quick change of clothes we went out for an aperitivo at La Hora Feliz and about 12pm we came back home too tired to stay out more.
On Monday I had to go to the International Finance class and the girls came back to the city center. We met at about 1pm to have lunch at my place with Francesca. After taking Chiara to the metro station, we spent some time catching up on the latest news in our lives since, because of the exams; we were basically not talking since Xmas holidays. Then we went in the city center again and took some crazy pics (without tripode obviously -_-" and a broken auto-focus ) and we had a nice aperitivo at 20. 

On Tuesday morning, after the girls did their baggages, we went in the city center on a mission: get inside the Abercrombie & Fitch store. I gotta say it: I'm not impressed. Apart from the good-looking shop-assistant and the strong perfume, there was nothing special in that shop.. It's all about hoodies, shorts and plaid shirts with a really expensive price and nice colors. We queued for 15 minutes and we came out after 45 minutes (if the shop was not that crowded we would have been out in 15 minutes)  with three instant photos of us with a model/shop-assistant.
After that we went to Vintage, a really nice shop, we walk around Brera and we had lunch in Parco Sempione where we also took some nice photos. ^^

Then, we came back home, took the baggages and I took the girls to Cadorna. :)
It was super nice to have them in Milan with me for few days. We all felt as being on holiday and I really missed that feeling.

Shooting

I really need to go out and taking some pics. Luckily next weekend Fabiola and Luciana will be here and I'll be 'forced' to go out and taking hundreds of pics since the weather forecast predicts sun and 14° during those days!!


During the excel class today I found the pics that are on my old myspace blog. I was looking for a photo in which I'm wearing my Mozart costume and then I started going through all of them and I just realized how badly I screwed up my body since 2008. Why I am one of those people that eat a lot when they fell sad? Damn me and that giant 3kg nutella jar.

Check ✔

Tickets for Paris.
Check ✔

I really can't wait for it :D

Mexican party with:

- a home-made "Pin the tail on the donkey"
- margaritas and rum shoots
- contest on who drinks faster
- people drawing mustaches on their faces with a marker
- make myself ridiculous (and pretty similar to Frida Kahlo)
- walking a drunk friend home
Check ✔

Sad days

Here I am again in one of my really moody periods. Exam session was a nightmare and during the holidays and this period in which I was basically locked in my house I get back to my weight. Additionally, I'm going bankrupt this month since I subscribe to a gym (hopefully this is gonna help me to get back in shape) and I'll have to renounce to the Venice trip.


It's just a really really sad period. I fell better when I'm with my friends (like yesterday) or with Nicola but I get so depressed when I'm alone. Can't wait for the lectures to start again so my mind is gonna be busy with University stuff and I wont have time to fell miserable.

L'histoire de Federica au Scala

Going to La Scala was outstanding. I didn't bring my camera with me (which I regreet since none was there to control) 'cause there's a rule against it.  Also, I figured out only in the end that it was the 'prima' of "L'histoire de Manon". :D

I went out of my house with a comfortable pair of ballerinas on my feet which I changed with a wonderful pair of 12cm heels on the tram :D. Then I met Nicola at Piazza Duomo and we went to la Scala together. As soon as we get in the atmosphere get magical and when we reached our seats (which were the best ever and with a small private room for our coats) it felt even better. While waiting for the show to start we had time to notice how wonderful (even though not particularly big) the theater was.When the light went off and the overture started it reminded me of all the ballet dvd I saw and I felt as I was in one of them.

I particularly loved the choreography (especially in the first act, while the last one was kind of boring). As Sylvie Guillem made her entrance a huge applause started. There are no word to describe her.. everything she did was just perfect. She is the personification of dance. The male dancers, instead, were way below her technique. Massimo Murru was not as good as I thought. I saw both him and Thiago Soares jumping while performing their piruettes (which were about a thousand :D). Additionally, during a dangerous lift, Sylvie almost fell on her face. On the other hand, there was a dancer (Maurizio Licitra) with a minor role that was unexpectedly good!

Anyway, the whole experience was just wonderful and also funny since during the pauses between the acts we saw some kind of weird things such as an old woman spying the audience with her opera glasses and people talking to each other through the balconies as neighbours would do from their windows. Obviously, being there with Nicola made the whole night much better. :)

Ready for tomorrow

A quick post to show you why I was so excited about the new lens :D
Un breve post per mostrarvi come mai fossi così felice per il mio nuovo obiettivo :D


Lens Canon EF-S 18-55mm
Without and with zoom

Lens Tamron SP 70-300mm without and with zoom

And that's the view from our seats. ;)
E questa è la visuale dai nostri posti. ;)

Presents

Two of the most waited presents for my graduation are on their way to my hands!! \(^o^)/
Both literally and figurative. Indeed, the two presents are a ticket for "L'histoire de Manon" (more info here) and a teleobjective!!!
Due dei regali più attesi per la mia laurea sono sulla loro strada verso le mie mani!! \(^o^)/ Sia leteralmente che in senso figurato. Infatti, i due ragali sono un biglietto per "L'historie de Manon" (più informazioni qui) ed un teleobiettivo!!!

                  

Can you see how this two presents are the best match ever?! :D Can't wait for the 27th!!!!!
And, who knows, if I'll find a way to have the signatures of Massimo Murru and Sylvie Guillem  to keep Roberto Bolle's signature company.
PS: thanks a lot to my boyfriend and my uncles! ;* And to my cousin for Bolle's signature. :) 


Riuscite a vedere come questi due ragali sia la miglior combinazione di sempre?! :D Non vedo l'ora che sia il 27!!!!!
E chi lo sa, magari troverò un modo per avere gli autografi di Massimo Murru e Sylvie Guillem per tener compagnia a quella di Roberto Bolle.
PS: grazie al mio ragazzo ed ai miei zii! ;* E a mia cugina per l'autografo di Bolle. :)