cyclic behaviours

Tonight it will be a very long long long night: we are in the middle of an exam deadline, so our room looks like a paper industry just blown up


and of course, my wife () in these things is unbelieveable...

she fills spaces like nobobody else can do. Her skill is so mature and developed, that anyone wishing to try it out, is very welcome.

All of this is just better and better because in these occasions we typically host guests (or beggars?) to share this experience: this time a nice and handsome guy from Italy will wait up to 3:00 in the morning before being able to see the floor again...
Thanks in particular to Costa and Ninno for having shown a great maturity and wisdom cutting, pasting and trimming up to 5 in the morning, having the plane at 10... thank you guys!!!

spanish machos

Let's see if I can provoke any of my spanish friends here...

The news about the baby born of Mr. Felipe and Mrs. Leticia came also here. I can see spanish people placing bets on the baby being male or female...

of course spanish and italian cultures are so similar: in the italian language, when you are speaking of a group of feminine subjects doing something you refer them to the feminine adjective ("quelle ragazze sono BELLE"), but as long as there is only one man in that group, you refer everybody to the masculine adjective ("Quei ragazzi sono BELLI"). Of course you still use masculine if there's one female among many men (come on, OF COURSE)

this is to say that the spanish girl is going to become a princess (oh dear) IF AND ONLY IF there will not be any other male among the descendants of Felipe&Leticia... hold your breathe anyone...

maschilism rulez!!

taxed texts

The italian Senate is going to discuss some 3,000 items for defining the new Financial maneuver for 2006. Every party has the right (the duty) to propose new cuts in the costs, and of course the most relevant ones are evaluated in a common discussion among all the deputies.
These days the proposals are being evaluated for going into the discussion, so anybody can see what the deputies have proposed.

Amazing! Italy is the land of brainy people! Among others, somebody proposed to get 1 cent of an euro out of ALL sms texts, so believe it or not, to fill the horrendous gap of Italian Financial situation, everyone from 10-yrs old onwards will contribute, when writing any text... What if I send a very long text, splitted in two different texts, will it count as one or should I pay double? Maybe next time I'll send a text to somebody and write "...oh, and say hi to your friends, because I can't send too many texts". Other people who will contribute to the Italian deficit are the graffiti people: 2 euro of taxes out of every spray-can: if they want to ruin my wall, at least they should pay some taxes...

My proposal for new taxes:
1) 1 euro for having too much hair (especially on chest & shoulders), they waste our environment and are difficult to reuse
2) 2 euro for those spitting on the streets, unless they have a bag and a shovel to collect it (avoid sense of repulsion)
3) 1 euro for having mega-bass stereo on your car, 1.5 euro for blue lights under your car (avoid audio-visual waste)
4) 5 euro if you have any of the multitonal rings on your mobile (avoid feeling an idiot with your own beep-beep tone)
5) 3 euro for people overtaking others in the queue (do you want to be served faster? ok, but at least you pay)
6) 0.5 euro any 1 euro collected by beggars on the streets (they are getting my hard-earned, with a lot of sweat of my forehead money without any effort)

money for dope

some days ago, one () of the nephews of Giovanni Agnelli (founder of FIAT) was recovered in an hospital for overdose. He is (was?) a brilliant manager inside of FIAT, designing T-Shirt and jumpers with the FIAT logo.
He took a cocktail of drugs, mixing them together during a party in a friend's house.
He felt in a coma, and one of the friends called an ambulance. This friend is a (relatively) well known transexual of Torino (), and other transexuals were in there.
The ambulance brought him to an hospital, not to a private clinic. Of course this news created embrace in his family, in Torino and in the whole Italy.

Of course I'm one of those people who falls for these news: even Johnny Depp admitted that he likes reading gossip newspapers when he's in the toilet

Italy is a wonderful place, anyway: why not bringing that jazz even louder? One of the most famous italian anchormen (mr Bruno Vespa) asked the father of the FIAT manager to come on a TV programme based on misfortunes of great families (kennedies, among others). Gee, maybe he could have revealed if the son was or not dressed as a woman when he was taken to the hospital.
Probably I would have watched it.

have you seen this man?

two main things happened lately
first yoseph decided to have a nice three-months vacation in south-africa, after his graduation
the beauty of it is that he pretends to be working there! and somebody is paying him!!!

where are you yoseph? give us some news!! what about the plants? found anything interesting??

the second thing is that we live in london, close to russell square
we leave behind a shared house in tinkers bridge full of cats

guinea pigs

and other...

everything here is supersized compared to MiltonKeynes and massively stimulating
it's something you have to do once in your lifetime

missing genes

there must be some kind of physical laws:
some people (like me) are totally unable of continuing something more than twice. Take for instance this blog. People like my friends in Spain keep a diary of every small fly that passes in front of them, i don't blame them!! they're so persuasive that you dive in your own bloch and hope to do the same
why men (like me) can't follow maps? why people like israel opensource get lost ten times inside of a campus in two months?
why women (like ilaria) can't help filling every space with something?
why men say "yes" but they're not really listening?
why women say "oh you shouldn't go there we go together! oh, do you want to go yourself? ok, so could you buy me this and that and that?"
i miss the genes for buy cappuccino e not get my tongue burnt

python is not only a language!!

Declaration of Revocation
by John Cleese (monthy python)

To the citizens of the United States of America, in the light of your
failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern
yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your
independence, effective today.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical
duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories.

Except Utah, which she does not fancy.

Your new Prime Minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP for the
97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world
outside your borders) will appoint a Minister for America without the
need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded.

A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any
of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown
Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Then look up "aluminium." Check the pronunciation guide. You will be
amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.

The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and
'neighbour'; skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on
your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without
skipping half the letters.

You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' (pronounced 'zed'
not 'zee') and the suffix "ize" will be replaced by the suffix "ise."

You will learn that the suffix 'burgh' is pronounced 'burra' e.g.
Edinburgh. You are welcome to re-spell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if
you can't cope with correct pronunciation.

Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look
up "vocabulary." Using the same thirty seven words interspersed with
filler noises such as "uhh", "like", and "you know" is an unacceptable
and inefficient form of communication.

Look up "interspersed."

There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer show. If you're
not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat
shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary, then you won't have
to use bad language as often.

2. There is no such thing as "US English." We will let Microsoft know
on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take
account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of "-ize."

3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents.
It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to cockney,
upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier).

You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents ---
Scottish dramas such as "Taggart" will no longer be broadcast with
subtitles.

While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no
such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is
"Devon." If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States
will become "shires" e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.

4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as
the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to
play English characters.

British sit-coms such as "Men Behaving Badly" or "Red Dwarf" will not
be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who
can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness.

5. You should relearn your original national anthem, "God Save The
Queen", but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want
you to get confused and give up half way through.

6. You should stop playing American "football." There is only one kind
of football. What you refer to as American "football" is not a very
good game.

The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your
borders may have noticed that no one else plays "American" football.
You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play
proper football.

Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a
difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to
play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not
involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full
kevlar body armour like nancies).

We are hoping to get together at least a US Rugby sevens side by 2005.

You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an
event called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside
of America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world
beyond your borders, your error is understandable. Instead of
baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called "rounders,"
which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves,
collector cards or hotdogs.

7. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no
longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public
than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible
enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a
permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

8. July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 2nd will be a new
national holiday, but only in England. It will be called "Indecisive
Day."

9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap, and it is for
your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what
we mean.

All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will
start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you
will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of
conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you
understand the British sense of humour.

10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call 'French
fries' are not real chips. Fries aren't even French, they are Belgian
though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in
Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you
insist on calling potato chips are properly called "crisps." Real
chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional
accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat.

Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to
all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity
to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.

12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling "beer" is not
actually beer at all, it is lager . From November 1st only proper
British Bitter will be referred to as "beer," and European brews of
known and accepted provenance will be referred to as "Lager." The
substances formerly known as "American Beer" will henceforth be
referred to as "Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine," with the exception of the
product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be
referred to as "Weak Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine." This will allow true
Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in the Czech
Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.

13. From November 10th the UK will harmonise petrol (or "gasoline," as
you will be permitted to keep calling it until April 1st 2005) prices
with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the
former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices
(roughly $6/US gallon -- get used to it).

14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns,
lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and
therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns
should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort
things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then
you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.

15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy.

16. Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you
shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to
1776).

Thank you for your co-operation.

growing older...

right now i see the news that policemen in Louisiana have the right of "shoot to kill", in order to avoid people jackalling houses and other poor people

...

apart from any personal appreciation of the men/women behind these decisions (blair or bush are only heads to show to people, not really the ones who do decide) my feeling is not really say "bastards! fascists!" and so on
[But yes there's also that feeling: afterall, nobody is giving you the right of "go-and-lay" with your best friend's beautiful girlfriend/boyfriend...]

i'm thinking of a friend who is on our age, and who believes that police does right to break arms, legs and whatever to citizens. That these abuses are only the answer to violence and neverending stupidity of human behaviours.
So I'm thinking of these old men who say that young people are the our hope... heheh but hey man! when you are growing older, you see your friends (and yourself????) becoming less able to distinguish your childish "fight-for-your-rights" thoughts

geeeee... what a news...

london carnival

people in london know how to carnival...

notting hill has been for two days assaulted by tourists going mad and dancing in the streets, and a large square of this neighboroughood was the centre of the biggest audio-systems you've ever seen
racks of 10, 20 30 speakers tied together to get a constant drone (if you were walking at some distance) or to make your nose bleeding and your chest bumping (if you were crazy enough to get too close to any of these
locations). Children are dancing inside the trucks hosting deejay screaming on a loop "yooooooooo!!!! are you haaaappppppyyyyy????!!?!? letsSTARThereweGOOOO": one of these children was getting sick on the street for this, and the mother was upset because she couldnt dance and showup anymore (i think that there's a competition for the "nuttest mother of the carnival", and she was clearly winning)

what's also interesting though is what happens around the event, thousands of policemen/women deployed everywhere, helicopters high in the sky, and of course fights in the streets after dozens of beer cans

the most dangerous event you can have in an italian carnival is getting hit by candies, trown by the trucks full of questionable, typical italian masks (if you're lucky you're hit by maria grazia cucinotta or valeria marini, if you're not, maybe it's berlusconi)

but if you feel risky enough you can still try and throw some oranges in the beutiful ivrea carnival, where people throw oranges for three days, in a parade of trucks with horses. The smell of squashed oranges and escrements of the horses is something i'll remember forever

Alton Towers dream-like

yesterday a loose group of people (Ilaria, Angela, Des, Katerina, Tannishta, Avik and myself) went to the well-known Alton Towers, a sort of theme park with many many many many people enjoying hours in a queue to get a 30 seconds ride on the fastest set of carriages in the world

I see that britain finds that "Rita" is a very scary name for a very fast and furious speedo-matic engine, but for an Italian "Rita" is something like "Tracy" ("Hey wozzup???" "Jo man, ive been on Tracy, waaaaa!!!"), which sounds more like a porno-conversation than a very intimistic ride with your intestine and stomach upside down

I much preferred the optical tricks and shake-shake-shake of the haunted castle, or the real fulfilling sensation of flying with twirls of "air", man, that's enjoyable!!

maybe i'm too old for these things, and I coulodnt really enjoy all the amusements in the park like Tanni (sometimes i envy her enthusiastic approach to life), expecially i dont understand the point of something called "oblivion", where you drop vertically from 80 meters inside a black smoking hole. Bah, i prefer smoking something else

discoteque cats

During my stay in Milton Keynes, once I was refused to enter a club because i was wearing white sport shoes, which i really like by the way. Apparently if you wear sports you are some kind of nuts and idiot hooligan as a principle

this is to say that in our new shared house, today i discovered that they're installing a new device for wannabe-club-cats. It's a traditional flap like dozens seen in every door, but it's only opened through a special collar that your favourite pet is wearing

I remember entering the U2 "infamous" VIP-heart-shaped-circle during one of their concerts: together with ten or so friend we passed around the "exclusive" bracelet that only some lucky people were meant to have, so i was wondering if some form of sub-culture among cats is already spreading in this sense

Today is a strange day
I was notified that soon I will be moved from my desk. Somebody else will be occupying my place. I think this is a weird situation, I'm in the middle of nothing and something's got to give
just a thought and a feeling, afterall

yesterday night

... it was scary
we saw a neuro-surgery live, with brains, pieces of skull etc

this is what English television shows you. It's even better when you are eating kebab