Notices by Don Romano (alt) (thor@noagendasocial.com), page 5

@encarsia On the same trip, I went to a Greek island, and within the first few minutes there, I overheard a loud and passionate argument between two neighbours. They didn't care if they were drawing attention to themselves.

Southern Europeans are not quite like us...

@encarsia I have attempted nodding in reply to him several times.

The thing is...

Okay...

I once went to Italy and very quickly discovered that Italians just ignore you if you try gently try to get their attention.

I wouldn't get service unless I explicitly called attention to myself. You kind of have to go "Hey!" or wave an arm or something.

The war between Germanic Europe and Latin Europe may have ended with the fall of Rome, but the cultural differences are still very much there.

I'm not sure what an old Italian man is doing here in Norway when he doesn't even like our culture. I suspect that he may not have had migrated here because he wanted to, but because the Italian economy is doing really badly at the moment.

I think he's from Italy, and the Italian interaction style couldn't be more different to the Norwegian one.

Italy:
- Loud
- Gesturing
- Direct
- Emotional
- Intimate
- Informal

Norway:
- Quiet
- Stiff
- Indirect
- Unemotional
- Distant
- Formal

Me: "I don't have to greet you."
Him: "Of course you don't! You are uncivilised people from the caves!!!"

Norwegians like their personal space. Italians don't.

I got a new neighbour across the hallway about a year ago. First met him as he was emptying my storage room to put his own stuff in there. He yelled at me when I asked him what he was doing.

Since then, he's been insistently greeting me.

Just now, I came across him in the washroom and again he greeted me. When I didn't reply, he slammed the drier door shut and began yelling at me.

I told him "fuck you" and he yelled even more. Then I complained to the landlord again.

I guess I should wash clothes, take a shower and study for the driving theory exam instead of wasting time here on Mastodon.

I've been thinking that it's probably a good idea to not let my shoulders down completely on weekdays, and limit my slacking to the weekends.

@Mainebot You're a copywriter, right?

Wah! New keyboard. This is going to take a little while to get used to.

My old Brother multi-function printer sat dormant for years and buying a $100 toner cartridge for a printer that might not work seemed risky, so I threw it away. I had a large-format inkjet too, and several liters of Chinese ink for it, but the paper feeder didn't work anymore, so I threw that one away too.

Picking up a new printer today. A very small simple monochrome laser from Brother. I do all my scanning on my phone, so buying a multi-function printer was pointless.

Picking up two items from the friendly local computer store today: Brother laser printer and a Logitech back-lit keyboard. I don't really need keys that light up, since I can ghetto touch type, but it looks nice.

@tiphra Ah, yes, busy work is a thing. It's fortunately not a problem with my current employer, who just tells you to pick a "B project" instead, i.e. something you want to work on which might benefit the company somehow.

4. Further, these people are all slightly stressed out. They're trying to avoid work, after all, so they're always a bit behind on their work, and when you're stressed out, thinking outside the box isn't possible, which is why such organisations are so inflexible.

5. If you want a functional world and not a failed hippie commune, the majority of people *have* to do stuff they don't enjoy.

How The World Works:

1. Most people you encounter only work because they have to.

2. Everyone tries to avoid the boring stuff, and when they can't, they either try to become someone else's boss, or do the work slowly or sloppily as a form of passive aggression.

3. As a consequence, all organisations (business, government, non-profit) above a certain age and size (which tend to consist mostly of people who just need a source of income) are inefficient.

Australia has instant runoff voting, which I've always felt is a better system:

http://www.chickennation.com/voting/

I mean, what actually ends up happening in real life is probably similar to what you see in the music hit lists:

People have wildly differing opinions about what the "best" music is, so what actually ends up topping the lists is the generic stuff everyone listens to a little bit, not the stuff everybody loves (no such music exists).

I expect that's what happens in Australian elections.

Australia has instant runoff voting, which I've always felt is a better system:

http://www.chickennation.com/voting/

I mean, what actually end up happening in real life is probably similar to what you see in the music hit lists:

People have wildly differing opinions about what the "best" music is, so what actually ends up topping the lists is the generic stuff everyone listens to a little bit, not the stuff everybody loves (no such music exists).

I expect that's what happens in Australian elections.

Any geeky events I should be at in Europe in June or July? Trying to figure out what to do this summer. Merely travelling to see places isn't so interesting. I kind of need an excuse to go somewhere.