The police have to come inspect my flat (I guess) to make sure there aren’t multiple people living here. They’re supposed to come tomorrow morning or the next. Once that’s done I can finally get my scooter…which with my luck will have 2 flat tires.
Those 3 day workweeks are killers!!!
Today went to what I think is the one music (instrument) store in town. In search of something exotic, but didn’t buy anything.
2,0 tells me he may be in Berlin this summer for something to do with school I assume. This means I’ll finally be getting to Berlin as well. Another item off the proverbial to do list.
and…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/08/the-best-animal-photobomb_n_416065.html?slidenumber=nWGTdlXg1N4%3D&&&&&
See Matt…I could have gone on for several paragraphs and described my week in detail, but I spared you.
Food, football and figs.
I made it home OK. The train trip is quite nice so that’s not a pain. When the taxi man is hiding in the coffee shop and does not come out to check to see if anyone (me) is standing next to his taxi that is a pain, but alas, it happened eventually.
I may have said this before, but what a great week! Luca is the greatest tour guide ever, and we were staying at his mom’s house who I guess is a typical Italian mom. She doted over me (and everyone else), which was kind of nice. Luca’s family and friends were all great.
Luca is really the only one who speaks english fluently, so I was forced to attempt Italian. It didn’t always work, but it was a good experience. We all laughed at our failures.
I bought a couple of learn Italian type books so I guess I have no excuses. It was somewhat inspiring to be in Rome and around Italians.
When I get more pics from Luca I’ll post them on the Roma pic page.
Cheers again mate. I had lots of fun.
Words I learned this week:
busta=stop/enough…As in “I’ve had enough food” or “Stop bringing me food”.
fico=fig…Difficult one that. I also learned that if you make it feminine it’s an insult/bad word
mangare=eat…We ate well.
I somehow feel mentally better than I have since I’ve moved here. Relaxed, refreshed, refocused. It feels good!
I just downloaded some El-P, and Autolux. Cleaned a bit. Trying to catch up on laundry and soon off to the Focacceria.
Web 4,0
I saw Web 3.0 referred to in an article today…Idiot. Why don’t we just skip to web 3000?
Whoo hoo…I coined Web 3000 AND web 4.0!!! At the end of the day lawsuits will follow. Don’t you dare use it…
This is the death of Web x,x…It’s like typing www. It’s like 1999. It’s like being obsessed with midgets.
My boss accused me of having a 2 byte memory today 🙂 I think he was right.
allow me to rephrase that…
I am a bloody frickin genius…
I was dinking around on my pre 2009 blog because the link in the Dec 2008 page is gone…anyways I clicked on a random page from 2008 (August 16, 2008) and found this:
so I’m following this U.S. election with my usual aplomb…I love politics as soap opera, but don’t get emotionally involved except when I get pissed/annoyed at stupid people…
anyways…
IMO it would honestly be a huge upset if McCain actually won this year.
…Me always more viewing the big picture is much more interested in the long term repercussions for the US two party system etc.
Can you imagine the disarray of the republicans if McCain loses?
They accidentally nominated the most centrist, decent candidate they possibly realistically could have (jayssssus can you imagine Huckabee as the nominee right now?) and if McCain loses what will those dissatisfied religious voters do in 4 years? They got the centrist-ish candidate they didn’t want and he still lost…they won’t possibly compromise their ‘values’ even more in 4 years. will they backlash and get behind a ‘real’ conservative candidate in 4 years only to lose that election as well (you have to expect the economy will be better in 4 years, and after the democratically controlled house and senate actually pass things that will help middle class voters, those crazy fiscally responsible democrats won’t be so distasteful to the football mom skeptics who aren’t so sure this time)…?
anyways point is…If Obama wins this year he will win re-election…and my best case scenario is that people realize the two party system is crap…the religious wackos will vote their own party, the progressive wackos will vote their own party, and the reasonable dems, pubs will just merge…
anyways ultimate goal…proportional representation…so everyone gets a voice…
then I can complain about people having a voice that are stupid and don’t deserve to have a voice, but that argument can wait for 50 years…
…as I said…politics as soap opera much more interesting then politics as extension of my emotions…
So I claim correctness on my prediction. It was probably not original thought, but it was my own (meaning someone else probably wrote or realized the same thing well before I did, but I didn’t read anyone elses prediction before writing this)…but if two people have the same thoughts in a vacuum does that mean the second person who said it is just as smart as the first?
An article on Republicans and health care.
There is snow in the forecast next week. Uhhhhhh…..
Matt comes next weekend. Then I may head off to Rome the following week to catch up with another Frankfurt friend. It’s cheap enough and easy enough…but I’ll probably return before or on x-mas as spending time with someone elses family on a family holiday is more worse than spending it alone.
mmmmmm. tastes like ham!
A colleague showed me some babyfood he had…I was so intrigued I had to take a picture. It’s prosciutto flavoured. I find that odd.
@ eric: I’m sure you haven’t been this upset since OJ got off…did you hate america after that one 😉
I better not commit any crimes.
I mentioned this a long while ago, but I read the book “The Monster of Florence” – it’s a true story of incompetent policework, journalism, and justice gone wrong in the hunt for a serial killer. Anyways great book…but on page 390 (the third to last page) there is this:
In November 2007, Mignini became involved in another sensational case, that of the brutal murder of a British student, Meredith Kercher, in Perugia. Mignini quickly ordered the arrest of an American student, Amanda Knox, whom he suspected of involvement in the murder. As of this writing, Knox is in Capanne prison, awaiting the outcome of Mignini’s investigation. It appears from press leaks that Mignini has a theory about Knox and two alleged co-conspirators in a dark plan of extreme sex, violence and rape.
As if on cue, Perugian prosecutors were reported to be looking into a potential satanic sect angle, because the crime had occured the day before the traditional Italian Day of the Dead. “I will give you ten to one odds,” said Niccolo, “that they will eventually drag the Monster of Florence into this.” I declined the wager.
Within a week of the murder, Gabrielle Carlizzi had weighed in at her website:
Meridith Kercher: A brutal murder…Perhaps connected to the Narducci case and the Monster of Florence, to ask Satan for protection in exchange for a human sacrifice? For what purpose? In the end to save those under investigation in the Narducci case who are responsible for this homicide.
btw one of the authors of “The Monster of Florence” is not allowed back into Italy and the other has been sued for defamation or something like that…
and if you don’t know what erics on about here’s some links:
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/05/an-american-in-the-italian-wheels-of-justice/?hp
http://www.newsweek.com/id/206765
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/world/europe/04italy.html?scp=4&sq=Amanda%20Knox&st=cse
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/06/amanda-knox-upset-tired-g_n_381644.html
My best friends wedding….
I was looking through my DVDs and I found My Best friends wedding…something is wrong…The system has broken down…Will trade for Steel Magnolias, or possibly my two favourite pairs of pants, the orange-red asian shirt, and black zip up sweatshirt.
pee-pee der gatt0=cat piss….as in red bull tastes like cat piss.
Went to a greek restaurant with colleagues last week and as we were leaving I noticed a red bull in the refrigerator by the door…Grabbed it as we’re paying and the greek guy at the counter says in english “you are american?”…So that’s how they spot us. Only yanks drink red bull I take it…
At the cafe below the office they sell Red Bull and it’s only 2€. At that price I can’t say no. In germany they usually try to charge 4€. I’ll take 2…
I’m watching italian x-factor…
They are bleeping words…how am I supposed to learn the important words if they keep bleeping – bleeping them…Matteo???
I need to watch more italian TV. I remember when I moved to Germany I was surprised at all the bad TV shows that were on and dubbed into Deutsch. The only show bad american show I’ve seen on Italian TV so far is Walker Texas Ranger. Though I guess Chuck Norris is big here (as well he should be) because I also once saw a made for TV western that had Chuck in it as well…
Now listening to the Avett Brothers. Pop-bluegrass…that’s a new genre right? It’s not bad.
new words I learned this week…
pedal=pedale
exterminator=sterminatore
hardware store=ferramenta
free=gratis
I was wandering around looking for a bike shop yesterday (for my broken pedals) and found a hole in the wall old bike shop (it had no sign and two bike tires hanging up by the door). I didn’t know the word for pedal at this point, but after determining that the ancient geezer in there didn’t speak english I pointed at a bikes pedals and he said “pedale”. Another easy word. He sold me two for 10€ and I went back home then figured out the one wrench I have would not work I had to go find a hardware store. So I left again. Went to the hardware store and they dug around for a bit and then sent me to a different bike shop. The dude in the bike shop let me take the tool home and fix my pedals. I came back in about 20 minutes and gave it back. He didn’t charge me anything (gratis).
It got me thinking again how in Deutsch a lot of the little words (with, and, is, where) are similar to english, but the bigger words have little correlation to english. This means for a native english speaker learning Deutsch it’s easy to learn to speak like a 3 year old, but speaking like a 12 year old will come sooner in Italian than in Deutsch. The bigger words in Italian are more often similar to the ones in english.
I had a kebap for thanksgiving…mmmm
Whilst riding home tonight my pedal broke. I was about a third of the way home, and riding a bike with only one pedal is like being an ankle amputee trying to ride a bike. There is a method…actually I found three methods and alternated between them. Since you’re using different muscles for each one tires easily…but I guess that’s one more skill mastered…or confronted.
The pedal seems stripped so I’m not sure if I can actually replace the pedals or not. Oh well. I’ll chalk it up to immigrant life (school of hard knocks – third grade).
My landlady keeps joking with me cuz I always say “it’s not so important”…referring to a small gas in the stove (I haven’t used the stove yet – thus it’s not so important), and the fridge is broken (I don’t cook, and don’t really use the fridge – thus it’s not so important). Being a foreigner just requires some great amount of flexibility.