Battlestar Galactica #01

BAM! That's how me and this series met: it hit me, like right in the face (before it did the same with my heart).

I can say that now I get why Battlestar Galactica is so loved. It does have all the cool stuff, the CG is amazing without being just too much, I love the ships... but it's not just a "hey, let's kill these toasters and be national heroes!" kind of story, it's ultimately a story about the human nature and how we never stop making mistakes.

But again, what's right and what's wrong? You're never sure of anything (except that I would never entrust Gaius Baltar with my children --or even a cat, for that matter), you always have new questions, you always want to know how they're gonna survive because, help, everyone is going crazy and what the fuck are you thinking, people!! And all this happens... IN SPACE!

Yeah, I definitely love it.

A couple of elements I truly enjoy and like about BSG:

• The Vipers

Fabulous thing in a fabulous space

Sob, they're so cool. They make me want to play Starfox again.



• Kara "Starbuck" Thrace

<333

To be honest, at the beginning I though she was going to be that kind of female character the writers try to make look strong and "like a man" but in the end she's just a dickhead. I'm very happy to say I was completely wrong! She's amazing, she's cool, she's a bit too... ehm, passionate at times, and quite impulsive. But I really like her.

And she makes the best "what the fracking frack even, why do I still try" faces.

Poor girl.

• Lee "Apollo" Adama

Pollo pulling a Blue Steel

Sometimes a bit cocky, sometimes you just want to kick him in the balls, but! When he follows his heart can do good things. Or not so good, but I kind of grew fond of him for some reason.

We started calling him affectionately "Pollo". Literally it means "chicken" in italian, but it doesn't mean he's scared of everything. More something like... exactly what Apollo is. Sometimes foolish, but in a good way. Or at least, that's what he believes u__u.



• Karl "Helo" Agathon (I had to google his real name. Whaaat)

Hopeless and adorable

Such a good-hearted fool. Such a cute giant. Poor guy, really.



That's all for now. See you when I've finished the second season!

If the normal sweat rate of an adult is 10lt per day, at the moment mine is 20lt

England is melting and so am I.

My body can't tolerate these high temperatures, as it keeps forgetting that I come from sunny Italy.
Expat Italians often complain about the weather here, so at least I hope those people will take this as a chance to shut their mouths and finally enjoy the summer.

Complaining might be part of the human nature, but it's a bigger part of the Italian nature. I can't say I'm guilty free here. I don't really like complaining too much, but you know, in Italy it's often a way to start a conversation!
I think I noticed the difference much more since I started living in London.

To make you an example, thanks to a friend I ended up on this online magazine for fans of the Italian culture and language today. It's always intriguing to see how we are perceived by other cultures, so I decided to navigate around a bit... and when I found the language lessons I couldn't be more excited!

Being a languages fan (I wish I could speak them all... if only I had a babelfish in my ear!) and having tried to study a few of them, I'm sort of acquainted with language books. I never found many books for foreigner italian students though, so when I have the chance to read dialogues and exercises for those books I do, because believe me, they sound quite funny -- and they make you realize how ridiculous you sounded all these years while doing the same on your own foreign language books.

This language article talks about how to talk about the weather in Italian.
I quote the article: "When we learn the basic Italian weather expressions, [...] we can discuss the weather with Italians". You see, technically the sentence is (obviously) correct. It's the approach to the language that's wrong.

In Italy you don't discuss about the weather, you complain about it. The weather is never lovely, and when it is, well it was about time because it rained/was too cold/too hot/too mild all this time, damn it!

I can't say these complaints are totally unmotivated. I don't know about other parts of Italy, but Rome can't cope with any extreme weather, and by extreme I mean everything that's not "basic sunny". When it rains it's a disaster (impossible traffic if you go by car or by bus, delayed or cancelled trains... I've seen it all), let alone those rare times it snow (imagine a post-apocalyptic scenario, but with kids throwing snowballs at you. Yes, a double nightmare).

But it's also true these people complain about basically anything: food, the price of everything, travelling, the air they breathe... nothing's like home. Especially when they meet other Italians outside Italy.
"Wasn't the breakfast awful?" is a great way to bond over your toasts at the morning buffet if you're in a hotel, and "Is the bus ever going to come? I pay taxes!" is perfect for the bus stop.
If you're old enough, you can also add the classic "Ah, when I was young, these things worked better!". You know it's now true, but blaming youngsters for all that's wrong nowadays always feel good.

I hope I got away from Italy just in time not to be permanently affected by this syndrome, but I guess we'll know only in a few years time. If you ever meet me at the bus stop, complaining about youngsters and the weather, please, punch me in the face.

BBQ on Finchley Road

Has it ever happened to you? Sometimes your waiter has a very interesting face, or the person sitting in front of you in the underground has a unique choice of clothes, or someone older than a 10-year-old kid is playing with a Nintendo DS on the bus.

I appreciate when these things happen, but just appreciating is dull.
Think about it: every single person you meet has his/her own life, full of events, hobbies, and many other people. Why should you care about strangers, you might ask, and well, it's not like you need to. But when you read a novel, aren't you reading about the lives of a (usually) fictional strangers? Why should common people be less interesting.

If you ask them their lives may sound boring, but that's just because not everyone is a great storyteller. The job a good storyteller is to take all those little quirky details that makes something fun, entertaining, moving, and make you see them just like he or she sees them. A writer is not necessary a journalist.

Every time I see someone particularly interesting from some point of view, I always ask myself "what are their lives like?" and proceed to make up my own fabulous story about them.

Not that I'm convinced that anything I suppose about them is true --in most cases, nothing is. I make up their characters on my own, with no intention of being faithful to reality. It's just that creating stories is quite fun (especially when you're on a long bus travel and forgot to bring a book).

If I ever publish a book with all these short stories, I want to call it like this post: BBQ on Finchley Road. Why? Who? What even? Well it's a long story... and maybe, one day, you'll read it.

WIP #01

As I said yesterday, I don't do only ugly sketches. Here's the occasional more serious work in progress!

I love drawing fast food more than I love eating to be honest. And modelling, modelling it with clay too. I remember making this whole McDonald's set with modelling clay when I was little...

Ugly Sketches #01

Yes I love to draw and I can draw. But who says I can't sketch stuff roughly and decorate then with forgotten Photoshop filters and rainbow gradients anyway? No one! No one can stop me! Mwahaha! 

So have the first sketch of what I hope is going to be a long series: tv-man meets daftpunk. (?)