Darkness

For the past few weeks, the entryway of my building has been in the dark. It took me a while to notice it (yeah, sometimes I don't pay attention to things) but once I did, I sent an email to our building's superintendent. A week later, we were still in the dark, so I called her office and left a message. Today, I noticed that people have been propping the front door open in order to make the pitch-black entryway less dangerous. I understand the reasoning behind this but I don't want my front door open 24-7 so I called the super on her cell. She said she heard my message and would send someone to take care of it soon. Great... but wait... so nobody else in the building contacted her? You mean all my neighbors who were bitching & moaning about it did not even bother to report the situation? Granted, lots of my neighbors were still away on vacation but those who remained indeed did notice that the light bulb was dead and indeed wasted no time to use this occasion to bitch & moan about the new superintendent.

I assumed they were bitching & moaning because they had contacted the superintendent or had informed her of the situation (which seems like the logical thing to do) to no avail, but apparently not. Who does that? Is it really that hard to pick up the phone and call? Why waste time and energy complaining about it instead of actually taking concrete steps to make the situation better? Boh... at times I really do feel like an alien in this country.

Mission: iPhone 4

I've been on a mission for the past few months, desperately seeking an iPhone 4 in the Eternal City (side note: I have to buy it in Italy because I can deduct the cost as a business expense). So far it's been an epic fail. The first few iPhones that actually were released on the official date at the end of July were snatched up in record time. Not even my Mac boyz managed to get me one!

Next step: I started calling every store possible to no avail because 1) lots of places had closed or were closing for the month-long August holiday and 2) lots of places just don't answer their damn phones. I find it odd that in a country where people are glued to their cell phones 24-7, they don't demand that retailers actually answer phones and provide you with information like prices, wait times, etc. Apparently people here have an abundance of time to go around to each and every store in search of a particular item. I don't.

It's mid-September now and I am still sans iPhone 4. Today I made one last desperate attempt to call ANY and ALL electronic stores in malls, since they're actually open all day long and usually answer their phones... usually. The results? Mediaworld bites the big one because they don't answer their phones, nor did half of the Euronics stores I called. Trony's operators win the prize for answering their phones and for providing me with the requested info.

As for the iPhone 4, nada. They *should* be in stock in a month or so (yeah, right). Wish me luck and if anybody sees a 16G iPhone 4 for sale, let me know!