Hello and welcome once again to the ol' blog. I've recently been playing a bunch of music, as you probably well know. It's not that I like music so much. It's just that I can't seem to stand everything else for too long. In any even, a few friends encouraged to me to record some of it, so I created a myspace music page. There are already a couple of songs up, and there is more to come. Enjoy
Raise your hand if you're sick of being abused and manipulated. I know I am. No, not with fists or any other physical means. I'm not referring to being herded along with brute force; rather, in the more subtle fashion. I mean, when people convince you that their actions and attitudes towards you are correct or justified, while in reality they're not. When people respect you so little that you have become just another object in their lives, as if you were a piece of furnature or a painting on the wall rather than a person. When people have overstepped their bounds so much and are now so accustomed to doing so that they get angry when you attempt to assert yourself. I mean people who get a hard-on when they know they can get you fired-up without putting forth the slightest bit of effort. I'm talking about functioning, psychological 2 year olds who have learned to say 'mine' in 1000 different ways and get away with it.
Italy is full of people who will treat you like this if you let them. I have encountered endless numbers of them. The social dynamics of Italian people are complex. It is like warfare, strategic, highly-tuned and calibrated. If you do not know the rules of the game, many Italians will pick up on that immediately and make a floor-mat of you. Honesty is not considered a virtue in Italy. In fact, it is a vice. If you cheat someone or cut a corner in any respect, it is considered clever. It does not matter the cost. Let me repeat that. It does not matter the cost. That's why the country is going to shit. No one wants to work, the streets are filthy, half of the economy is black-market, petty criminals govern the people, and the people knowingly and somehow willingly vote for them. The list goes on and on, and there is no hope in sight.
This is the life of an American living in Rome. I hope I'm not the only one who makes these observations. If I am. Then either I am crazy or everyone else is so used to it that it has become their 'normal.'
I'm tired of it.
"That blog is supposed to be about Rome?!" A friend reminded me the other day of an important fact: I set out to write about my adventures in Rome. I've been a bad blogger and neglected to do so. I haven't even posted in two months. Sigh...what's a boy to do? Stay tuned for some new posts...about real stuff.
Ya, we'll take an order of chicken fried rice, some sweet and sour chicken, and... oh ya, 10 million of yer women folk.
Mock anchorman Steven Colbert made his mark on history by fecisciously inventing a word during his inaugural broadcast of the Colbert Report. This word has been added into Webster's Dictionary and was awarded the Word of the Year Award in 2005 by the American Dialect Society. Behold.
