So I'm in Florida. It's a lot like where you live, except here they say "partly sunny" instead of "partly cloudy". I think this offers a profound insight into the mindset of Florideans, but I have no idea what it is exactly. Other notable characteristics: like everywhere else in the world, the drivers are worse here than anywhere else. There are strip malls. People buy gasoline and enjoy cola drinks. It's like everywhere else, really, except warmer and with more palm trees. Also, while you're here this plays in your head nonstop.

One thing that's kind of a fun novelty: we're in a pretty heavily Cuban area. About half of the area businesses' signs are in Spanish first, english second (if at all). Also, so far I am 2 for 2 getting waitresses who don't speak English. I don't point this out to belittle them or complain. In fact, they were both very nice and helpful. It's just kind of amazing to me that these restaurants get so few English-speaking patrons that the waitresses don't know how to say "beer" or "cheese" in both languages.

The place I'm working, Miami Dade College, likes to leave the word "Community" out of their name, but really it's supposed to go third. They have six campuses and 160,000 students, all of them either Spanish girls in asspants or mean-looking jerks with buzzcuts and bic pens jutting from the corners of their mouths.

I'm working in a windowless room at the North Campus, in a building that looks like a prison. Actually, pretty much everything looks like a prison around here. You know how when you're about to land in a plane, you look down and see rectangular patches of land and think "farmland!" even though it turns out to just be square bits of grass? Well, coming down in Florida it's the same way, except you think "penitentiary!" The illusion persists after deplaning. Too much concrete, too many right angles. And WAY too much chain-link fence. These Florideans, they LOVE chain-link fence for some reason. They use it for everything: parks, parking lots, bits of swamp -- I know, you're thinking about alligators right now, but then why is the barbed wire facing out, smart guy (ignoring, for the moment, the gator fence-climbing argument)? If you are a Floridean: I'm not going to steal your swamp, buddy. I'll be cool.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for constant paranoia born of alienated terror about my fellow man -- but they're really going a bit overboard here. But at this point I'm ready to jump on the psychosis bandwagon. Being in a hotel on business is weird, disorienting and disturbing. I can definitely see why people are always hanging around seedy motels murdering each other in classic movies I haven't seen. Luckily for my coworkers, this hotel has no bar, so I will have to rely on Cuban food and stupefyingly banal discussions about software as my primary means of reaching altered states of consciousness.

And with that, I think it's time to avail myself of this hotel's pathetic excuse for a gym -- that'd be two machines and a treadmill. More whining to come! Stay tuned!

Wilco's Jeff Tweedy enters rehab for addiction to painkillers.

i love how my only contribution EVER to the intelligent and thoughtful blog of matthew yglesias is telling him (along with a slew of other people) how one actually pronounces bruschetta.

but points to him for recognizing sette osteria as one of the best moderately-priced italian restaurants in the city.

i am so useless. i told tommy about how i only ever comment on MY when he's talking about like, pizza, or italian food, and he told me that, well, i have my niche. yes. my useless, italy-obsessed niche.

but i will forever take pleasure in knowing that i am smarter than MY in one small aspect. MOO HA HA.

the observer notes how the town of matera, where gibson's 'the passion' was filmed, is looking to make big bucks off of religious tourism.

Matera Turismo has taken its first bookings from US families for its new Passion Tour, a circuit taking in the sites where the Last Supper and the crucifixion were filmed. At Matera's three-star Albergo Italia, visitors can book Gibson's room where the maid, Maria, still remembers fondly how she helped convert the minibar into an altar for early morning prayers.

In the cool, cobbled streets of the Sassi (cave-dwellings, from the Italian for 'stones'), restaurants, cafes and bed-and-breakfasts are mushrooming in trendy 'cave-conversions'.

'We did not realise the film would have such huge commercial success,' said the mayor, Michele Porcari. 'So we are just getting things ready for the tourists now. We have some of the stage props and costumes ready to put in a cinema museum. But it's not ready yet.'

Others have been quicker to spot the business opportunity. On a quiet corner overlooking the breathtaking ravine and the desolate spot where Gibson's Christ was crucified, Stefano and Pasquale are quietly chiselling at small blocks of sandstone, turning them into Sassi paperweights, to be sold to the Easter and summer crowds for between two and four euros apiece.

'I can do you a Passion crucifix, if you like,' said Pasquale. 'But it'll take me a day to carve a cross. Depends how much you can pay.'

when i visited, there were approximately three other tourists we saw, and zero americans/british. now matera is hitting the big time! i'm all for it. it's an incredibly beautiful area, and even if it takes a weirdo psychotically violent film for people to see the amazing history and scenery, well, that's okay with me. the entire area of basilicata is extremely poor, and anything that brings in revenue is a good thing.

okay, on the camera front, i think it's down to three:

konica minolta dimage XG

the pentax optio s4

the canon powershot s400

what i'm looking for, in case anyone cares, is a fairly easy-to-use camera that will print 8x10 copies at a high resolution, can work in low light, has easy-to-charge batteries (that don't run out after taking two pictures), and not a ton of confusing settings. also, that can take pictures rapidly one after the other. i'm basically the furthest thing from a professional photographer, if that wasn't obvious, and i hardly know how to use any advanced/manual features, but i do like to take pretty/artsy-fartsy shots.

if you have any hoity-toity photographer friends, tell them to help me out! i'm so confused.