Tentative schedule for Rome

Friday 12/19:
* Palazzo Massimo al terme - mainly ancient sculptures. The museum is very close to my hotel and is open till 7:45 PM so I hope to be able to put in a couple of hours here.

Saturday 12/20:
* San Clemente - a famous 12th century church with several layers of archaeological excavations under it.
* Domus Aurea - Nero's old palace. Walk around the area, see if it's possible to get in to any of it (they keep opening and closing the place due to security concerns).
* Capitol - The museums of the Capitoline Hill.
* Victor Emmanuel Monument - If I have the time and can be bothered I'll climb the huge monument to get a good view of the city.

Sunday 12/21:
* Ostia Antica - Day trip to the port city of ancient Rome.

Monday 12/22:
* Colosseum - Been there before, but it's so good you can't miss it when in Rome.
* Palatine Hill - Site of (the ruins of) several imperial palaces.
* Forum Romanum - The original city square of the ancient Romans.

Tuesday 12/23:
* Terme de Diocleziano - The baths of emperor Diocletian.
* Villa Borghese - Art collections and a huge ass public park.

Wednesday 12/24:
* Castel Sant'Angelo - Originally a 2nd century mausoleum for emperor Hadrian, since expanded by numerous popes and kings into a huge fortress.
* Palazzo Altemps - Largely sculptures, including the famous "Dying Gaul" (and who wouldn't want to see a dying froggie?)
* Piazza Navona - I'm giving this place one more chance. Last time it was filled with tacky bodegas selling various junk made in China. Ugh.
* Pantheon - Hadrian's 2nd century reconstruction of the by then destroyed monument by Marcus Agrippa.

Thursday 12/25:
* Trastevere - All the museums will be closed this day, so weather permitting I'll spend the day trudging around this cozy district.

More xmas travels

As previously mentioned I'm challenging fate by ordering a trip during Christmas (I always seem to come down with something when I do). Now I've upped the stakes by expanding my plans. I'm still flying to Rome Dec 19, but instead of flying home on the 26th I'm flying to Prague, which may very well be the purdiest city in the world. I'm flying home Jan 1. In Prague I'll be hooking up with my Ukrainian friend Nata, who's there with her boyfriend (I think their trip overlaps mine by 3 days). Ya'll are warned!

Paranoia

Paranoia is on the rise, according to this article from Associated Press. Some excerpts:

"Paranoia is defined as the exaggerated or unfounded fear that others are trying to hurt you. That includes thoughts that other people are trying to upset or annoy you, for example, by staring, laughing, or making unfriendly gestures.

Surveys of several thousands of people in Britain, the United States and elsewhere have found that rates of paranoia are slowly rising, although researchers' estimates of how many of us have paranoid thoughts varies widely, from 5 percent to 50 percent."

Personally I find it most likely that the main reason for this development is that more people are actual assholes, and that this "paranoia" is largely based on a rational evaluation. I know for a fact YOU people are out to get me all the time, so I'm not surprised others reach the same conclusion. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to curl up under my desk with a tin foil hat, a shotgun and a comfort blanket until the voices tell me it's safe to come out again.

11/11

What they said.

It's a strange world out there

When boredom gets me I sometimes use the random blog function at the top of the page to surf around and see what's out there on blogspot. The general impression is "not a whole fuckin lotta' anything". Most blogs are of no interest whatsofuckinever, they're borrrring family update stuff for grandparents, silly teenage girl pages with pink backgrounds and poorly concealed ad pages for mortgages or viagra. You get the picture.

Some other observations: More and more blogs are in languages other than English. Chiefly Spanish (ugh) but even the frogs seem to be worming their way into the blogosphere these days and that sucks. In the 90s I had sweet, sweet visions of the internet(s) as a tool to trample all other languages under the mighty heel of English, but alas it was not to be. Another observation: People who put pop-ups and automatic music and/or videos on their pages must die slow and horrible deaths.

Anyway, there are so many blogs out there that once in a while you're bound to happen upon some good stuff. Allow me to introduce:

* Japanese priority seat signs. I don't know if these are real, but they made me snort. There's more funny shit on that page.

* Some nice pics on the blog of this Russkie in Riga.

* This looks like some kind of tourist blog for Angola, but I don't speak Portuguese so I can't say for sure. Lots of good pics anyway.

* FINALLY, another Scandinavian blogging in English. Nice images from lovely Denmark. Click on her profile, she has more nice photo pages.