another bad haircut

maybe this is why i didn't cut my hair for 15 years. bad barbers. here is me with my latest haircut and my "stern" look. i've never had to deal with it until now, but a lot of the guys i work with have to go out and find a barber on the road that can do a decent job. you can't just pop down to zeke's and have him give you the same haircut he's given you since you were 10. probably the hardest part is that, here, they don't speak english. so i asked my driver how do you say "half" because i wanted my hair half as short as it was, he told me "nos". easy enough. i go in, say hi, ask "nos?" while pulling my hair to it's length, and he nods "yes". another bad thing is that, barbers here only know one hairstyle. i'd say 99% of egyptians have curly hair like me, but almost all of them comb it straight back. they don't embrace the curl. so the barber starts by combing my hair straight back though i came in with a truly wind-swept curly-do. he parts it to the right and cuts some, he parts it to the left and cuts some, he give me a back-to-front comb over and cuts some, and i'm realizing my hair is getting a bit shorter than i wanted. i told him to stop before it got too short, so he finished up, then combed my hair STRAIGHT back, and told me he was finished. i can't figure out why when i came in with with wild curly hair that he sent me out looking like a greaser from the 60's.

i seriously think this is one of the worst haircuts i've gotten from a sober person. i mean, when i was like in 6th grade or something, TheDad decided to try to cut my hair drunk, and needless to say, it didn't turn out well. it was dubbed "the MIRL cut". it was similar to this one but more exaggerated, in that, one side was several inches longer than the other. i was also lucky enough to be left with several bald spots from inebriated slips of the clippers.

luckily i have curly hair so no one can really tell, but this is a SHITTY cut job!!! and this is my disgustipated face ("tool" reference)

in other news, i'm up to 2 kings in the bible, and there is some crazy/funny shite going on in there. i think my next post will be the fourth installment of "biblical observations". i also did my third hash yesterday but wasn't named (poor me) the normal RA was away for a few days in ethiopia, so here's to hoping for next week.

the battle for all boykind

i love this picture TheMom took of TheNephew as he battles the surely hideous yet unseen water monster (power washer) armed only with a trash can lid and a hammer. actually, TheMom asked if TheNephew would like to help out with the deck by hammering down any nails that have come up over the years. when he got bored doing that, he just fought the sprayer.

my impulse buy

well, TheSteadman was ragging on me for reading "monk" books since i've run out over here in egypt. i'm currently stuck with the bible and the qur'an left, and my "learning to read and write arabic" book. so, last night i was in the room and TheSteadman was online in between jobs so we started talking. i'd asked her earlier to take a picture of her holding her kindle, and if she could also take a picture of the kindle next to a standard paperback, just to get a visual feel for the size. i was debating between getting a kindle or a kindle DX.

since i was bored and researching and she was bored, she told me to buy is so she could shop vicariously through me... so i bought the DX. my main concern is fragility. i've heard several people complain that they put them in their bag on the way to work, and when they get to work, the screen has cracked. amazon shows a 30" drop test, but it's not the drop i'm so concerned about it, the twist. it is about 10" at it's longest and 1/3" thick. i'm afraid this is going to facilitate damage, not from blunt force as in dropping, but from torquing as in it being twisted while in a bag or backpack. well, the deal is done, it's bought and paid for, so we'll see how well it goes when and if i ever get home to play with my new toy. one good thing is that the DX has a native pdf reader, so i can DL free books online in pdf to read instead of paying $9.99 for books from amazon. i AM a comparison/bargain shopper... kinda, despite the stupid things i buy, i DO try to find the best deal on said stupid things.

i'm trying to hunt down some more pix of scotland. i still have stirling pix to post, and trying to get some from rosslyn. i'll get those up in a day or two. i'm working on a third blog i'll unveil soon, and then i'll seriously try to finish up the oktoberfest saga before it becomes a year old story.

once-in-a-lifetime kinda thing

i'm posting this as close as i can to 12:34:56 on 7-8-9. well, at least my time (add 7 to the post time)

coolness. more updates coming soon.

scotland R&R - edinburgh (mostly in pictures)

april 10th, i landed in edinburgh airport for a much needed 12-day vacation. i was extremely lucky in that i had several friends who were able to meet me there as well. TheEJ was able to come over for a few days, TheJay made it for the weekend, probably the smartest female i know, friend-from college, and former roommate, TheJulie came over the visit her husband, TheBill, while he's working at the university there. it was definitely a motley crew, but it turned out to be an absolute blast as expected.

i got to edinburgh late morning, and TheEJ made it there towards the late afternoon. by the time she'd arrived i'd walked a good part of the area around the hotel near the bruntsfield fields, down through the old town near the castle, and on to princes street in the new town. she'd already been to edinburgh when she was abroad in college, so she wasn't as in awe as i was about the tall and pretty cool spires and cathedrals (that's not to say she wasn't awed, just maybe a bit less so than my first experience with them). while in scotland, i, of course, had to try haggis. for some reason, i had a picture in my head that haggis was this slimy grayish organ filled with animal leftovers that every one the world except for scots thought was nasty. it turns out, haggis is fan-FUKKING-tastic. really, i need to find a hookup in america when i get back. it's not at all what i thought it was. it turns out that it's served more like hamburger. it's ground up and served loose like that or made into meatballs, in stirling, TheJulie, TheBill and i even had haggis lasagna. i find haggis to taste like ground beef with a very black-peppery seasoning to it. i think everyone should try it once, though SOME have told me they find it to have an unpleasant aftertaste, i didn't find this to be the case.

in short, edinburgh was a nice town. the weather was good, a bit brisk. i found a few pubs that were quite nice. my usual was suggesting that we ruminate at a pub while we figured out where to go next. for some reason, i don't seem to have any pictures of edinburgh castle. i'm wondering if i didn't have my camera that day. i'm sure TheJay, TheJulie, TheBill or TheEJ have some i could steal at a later date. TheEJ and i went to a cool place called camera obscura. it was kinda like smaller version of COSI with a big camera obscura on top (those camera obscuras are different links). one night, TheEJ and i ran into an old irish friend of hers and his brother after a celtic (soccer) loss. that was an experience. her friend's brother introduced himself to me on the order of maybr 15 times (no exaggeration, and funnily enough, it turned out to be such a joke that i can't recall his name now). he was plastered having been drinking all day to drown his sorrows over the loss. TheEJ goaded him into wearing his celtic scarf on the outside of his jacket and not to be a fair-weather fan. then his friends came in and ragged on him for still showing his colors. i think i ended up drinking ciders and then jack daniels? it was all very confusing. TheEJ found a pizza place that was open on the way home so we popped in there for some greasy nosh. we got two pizzas but only ate the equivalent of one. i took the remaining frankenstein pizza back to the hotel where it resided on the TV the entire week for whenever i needed a snack. TheEJ was a bit put off that i'd eat week-old, unrefrigerated pizza. it's cute how she worries. hah.

during the trip, we walked a lot, saw some sites, walked some closes (narrow alleyways), toured some catacombs that were not as authentic as we'd hoped, and had a generally good time. here are some highlights from edinburgh, and i'll be one with stirling here soon (and finishing oktoberfest, i'm such a slacker). but you can see, my posting has increased in frequency, so i think i'm back on the horse, and should be caught up soon. here are ALL the edinburgh pix.

the foggy view from calton hill

TheJay and TheJulie taking in the national monument (also known as "edinburgh's disgrace"). modeled after the parthenon in rome, the monument was never completed due to either lack of funding or interest.

a photo of TheJulie taking a photo of the national monument

the scott monument named after sir walter scott, also has been informally described as the "gothic rocket ship".

the scott monument, also called "auld reekie" (old smokie) due to the it's color. the shale rock that it is made of leaks a sort of oil that the air pollution clings to making it look perpetually dirty.

sir walter scott of the scott monument fame.

TheEJ at old calton cemetary

a typical scottish close (narrow walking alleyway)

storage space TheEJ and i saw during the catacombs tour

spooky fog creeping across TheMeadows (which is strangely a public park with a free golf course superimposed on it)

directions for a chewable toothbrush

said chewable toothbrush (to clean my teeth after fried haggis meatballs). mmmmm....

the north side of edinburgh castle from castle street

the national church of scotland, the kirk

the stained glass of st. giles cathedral

haggis, neeps (mashed carrots), and tatties (mashed potatoes) at the tolbooth pub. i like haggis and then "neeps and tatties" sounds like "nips and titties". it's like the best meal EVER!

i can't seem to find any pix of rosslyn chapel. does anyone who was there with me have pix from there and edinburgh castle? i could've sworn i took loads, but they seem to be gone. you can send them or drop.io them, or however you wish to get them to me, i'd appreciate it. more later.

i do have a reputation to uphold

and this is my kind of commercial. too bad it was banned. and i didn't think i could like guinness any more.


Banned Commercial For Guinness - Watch more Girl Videos

mccain and i are sharing wavelengths

three or four days ago, i was socializing with my new hash friends when i came up with the idea that instead of fighting north korea and iran and china, we need to just break through the propaganda and censorship. we need to find a way to provide OTHER countries with free internet access or wi-fi. we can use technology rather than force to help the people see a more realistic and less biased view of the world and country they live in. giving people the power of information to give them the power to organize. that was my idea. i wasn't sure how to implement it, but i think it was a good idea at the very least.

john mccain feels the same.

HHH (hash house harriers)

well, the rumors are true. the thursday night before last, i drunkenly and accidentally joined a running club, or more precisely, "a drinking club with a running problem". it's a bunch of rogue ex-pats that are a part of the hash house harriers (click for more info). i was talking to a welsh couple, TheGeoff and TheJanice, that TheMech and i had met at ThePortugueseClub (ThePC) a while ago. i told TheJanice that i'd taken up running every other day out of boredom and trying to get fit, and she told me that was wonderful because they had recently resurrected the local hash. i was 10-feet tall and bullet proof so i excitedly told them i'd meet them at ThePC the next day at 3:30PM for the run.

soon after, the guys i was with (plus one wife) and i decided to go check out the belly-dancing at "paradise" in agami. i'd gone several months before and had fallen in lust with a dancer named TheSabrine. excellent dancer and gorgeous. it's about a half-hour drive, but luckily one of the guys we were with had a car and didn't mind chauffeuring. we got there a little after 12AM and waited for the dancing to start. there was a girl there in street clothes that looked like TheSabrine but she was just sitting on a bench like any other customer. i'd told the wife we were with that i know a dancer named TheSabrine from before, and i thought she was very attractive. not too long after, the girl who looked like TheSabrine came over to the wife we were with, they spoke, and the wife told the girl (who was TheSabrine) that i thought she was hot. so in my embarrassment, i told her "i love you" in arabic (making her laugh was my only hope to get out of this unscathed... and it worked). she laughed, they talked, we sat and drank until the dancers came on around 1AM. at first there were two asian looking dancers that i wasn't to keen on. the rumor was that these girls were the owner's new favorites. as far as i was concerned, he could have them. i hadn't noticed, but i'm guessing around 2:00AM, TheSabrine disappeared to get ready. she came on around 2:30AM and put on a fabulous show. she tried to get me on the dance floor once but, i refused. my vast experience from strip clubs taught me it's RARE you are allowed on stage so it's almost in my genes (TheT!!!). a few more beers later, i was coerced into getting up and dancing with her. guys "make it rain" with LE 1 (1 egyptian pound notes = ~$0.18). i know it's a cheaper society, but i feel it cheapens the whole experience, though one of the guys i was with could resist doing it to me and TheSabrine. i gave her LE 200 later that night in big bills, hoping she could palm one. there's TheMoneyMidget that runs around scrambling up the small bills on the dance floor. i handed this money directly to her hoping she could show TheMoneyMidget one and keep the other for herself, though i'm not sure if we were that smooth. i was pretty hammered by the time and starting to fall asleep, so we all decided to split. i got home around 4AM, updated things on facebook telling everyone i was running the next day, and then i hit the bed hard!

the next day, i dragged myself out of bed around 1PM dreading the run. i zombie-walked around the room to my computer and checked my facebook. i had many congratulatory and pep-talking comments on my run. i'm guessing when i had updated my status on facebook the night before, i was preventing myself from handicapping my way out of running. now that i had all this positive support, i HAD to run, no matter how i felt. so... i crawled back into bed until 3:00PM, when i had beaten myself up enough that i KNEW i had to run. i threw on some clothes, grabbed my iPod and rocking bluetooth wireless iMuffs, and grabbed a cab to ThePC.

we had a pre-run beer at ThePC then were on our way to the egyptian farmland. it was maybe a 5-10 minute drive on the agricultural road toward work then we turned off into the fields, parked the cars and talked about how the run works. the night before the run, the "hares" go out and mark a trail with balls of shredded paper. if you (the followers are called the "hounds") see a ball of shredded paper, you are on the path and you yell "ON ON!" to the people behind you so they know. you run this trail until you come to three balls of paper in a triangle (since this is the delta hash club). this is a checkpoint where the path can diverge. once there you look around for the continuation of the path. this give time for the walkers to catch up to the runners (i'm a hybrid runner/walker). but beware, because the hares have laid traps. at the checkpoint there is one correct trail, and several possible false trails. so everyone spreads out, finds a trail, and starts running it. soon someone will come across TWO balls of shredded paper which denotes a false trail and they have to go back to the checkpoint to find the correct trail. i have an uncanny knack for finding false trails which means, in the end, i run/walk further than most with all the backtracking.

once the directions were given, the hares started the run. on occasion, they will intentionally take a route they know is wrong, to give the newbies an idea of what to look for in a false trail and how it goes. early on in the run we were running along a path next to a tiny irrigation ditch. the water reeds were pretty thick pushing us to jump across the ditch for about 20 yards then back on to the path. just as i was going to jump over the ditch my foot slipped INTO the ditch, covering my lower extremities in mud and, in turn, tweaking my already-bad ankle. i walked most of the rest of the way, carefully testing my ankle with short jogs here and there. after about 50-60 minutes of running around the egyptian farms like lunatics, having the field workers laugh at us, cheer us on, and offer us tea, we were back at the cars for "the circle". "the circle" is a bit like hazing. the newbies are brought into the circle and made fun of a bit, they have to sing, the have to down a more-than-likely warm and flat beer from the ceremonial mugs, jokes are told, stories about the day's run are exaggerated, regulars are given hash names if they don't already have one (one of the driver's was named TheScrewDriver and his daughter was named TheDirtyGirl), the next run is announced and then it's "ON IN"... back to the bar to socialize. this 1-hour run turned into an 8 hour event. good times!

the next day my ankles were killing me, but it was worth it. i've realized i need to strengthen my lower back because running on actual terrain as opposed to a treadmill makes my lower back ache in just a few minutes. i went again yesterday for my second run (hash #7 for the club this year), again had the back problem, but it eased up a bit. the hare who laid the course got us lost a few times. he blames the locals for burning his markers but i think he just got turned around. either way it was all good fun. that the hash update so far.

oh yeah, about TheConfederationsCup... now i'm not big on soccer, but if it's a social event i'll check it out. last sunday, USA was playing egypt and the one of the bartenders arranged for a TV for the bar so myself and a few other americans here could watch the match. as far as i know, the USA isn't really well known for their soccer team, and i HAVE seen egypt play, and i have to say they are pretty good. there were two guys (one kuwaiti and one egyptian) sitting on a couch next to us asking why we were routing for USA to which we replied that we were americans, so we were showing our pride. he explained to us that even if the USA won, it didn't mean anything because they'd lost such-and-such already, so they were out of contention so we should route for egypt. that seemed like a complete fallacy of an argument, a win is a win, so we continued routing for the US, and took great pleasure in watching him sulk when the US beat egypt 3-0. so, the next day i read that the US WAS playing for something. on the off-chance that USA scored 3 more goals that egypt and brazil beat italy by 3 goals, then we were still in... and that's what happened! i haven't YET seen TheKuwaiti to gloat a bit, but if i do see him, i will.

so, on wednesday, TheEweTrollop (hash name), formerly referred to as TheGeoff, had a going away to do for his wife, TheCallGirl (formerly known as TheJanice). she comes to visit for 5 weeks then goes back to wales for 5 weeks, then he goes to visit her for a bit. during her farewell party, the spain-USA match was on. again, everyone kind of figured spain would wipe the pitch with us since they were going for some sort of 36-game win streak record or something like that. during the game, i was getting excited to see that we were winning and got in the way of a guy sitting behind me who asked me to sit down... so i sat down in the chair next to him rather than my own seat. TheAbdullah, as i found out his name, is a professor of pharmacology at the local college. i then found out he got his bachelor's degree at TheOhioStateUniversity in the late 70's. for some reason, that made me say something along the lines of... so, around the time when i was just being birthed, you were partying like rockstar on high street in columbus, like 2 hours from my house, and now, 31 years later, halfway around the world, we cross paths?! i think my mind was blown a bit more than his was. long story short, USA beat spain, the big enchilada, 2-0, and we are moving on to the finals with brazil tomorrow. i'm actually excited for THIS game!

my EGYPT accident

today on the way home, we were involved in an accident. it's the worst so far that i've been in, but that's still a far cry from the carnage you can see on the egyptian highways. we all had our seat belts on, and TheDriver did the very best he could to avoid an accident that wasn't his fault. i'm proud of him, we're still alive with no injuries.

we were on a feeder road onto the alex-cairo agricultural road which we take all the way to alex. as you can see from the pix at the bottom, we were heading WNW on the feeder; whereas, this truck made it's own road from the highway offramp that loops east. he tried to get across our feeder to the gas station before we got to him. it didn't happen. TheDriver got as far to the right of our lane as possible to avoid him and started on the brakes. sadly, since this is in the desert, sand collects at the edge of the road, so though he was turning right (towards the gas station lot), his tires were nevertheless sliding forward. since he was on the brakes, our momentum threw the front end down so we basically slid under the side of the truck. we stopped in the lot ready to talk to TheTruckDriver until he bolted. well, TheDriver would have none of that. he threw it back into driver and bolted after him, even as the bumper and other hood underparts were grinding away at the tire. we caught him after 1/4 mile and forced him to the shoulder. THEN TheDriver, ThePartsGuy, and TheTeaBoy all bolt out of the car dragging TheTruckDriver out of his truck!! TheTeaBoy had procured a ball-peen hammer from somewhere and was threatening TheTruckDriver with it (i think this is actually common in egyptian accidents, i've seen bats and pipes pulled out on at least two other occasions). they yelled for a bit, we made some calls, some other drivers came out to bring the cops, and i was sent home while TheDriver had to go to the police station to file the report. i offered to go to ensure that he wasn't in trouble, because it was 0% his fault, but the cop (through a driver translating) told me he knows the problem, and i wouldn't be needed.

so, here's the damage...

the damage we received from the right (TheDriver's side)

the damage we received from the left (my side)

the damage WE inflicted... a bent bolt for securing the load and a bent sheet-metal mudflap.

that's a truck full of LNG (liquified natural gas ~ propane) tanks we ran into

how our accident happened... click the pic to read it a bit better

btw, there is a new poll up. whatcha think of my style?!