abstruse goose chases cars

i think this comic could be a fairly accurate representation of my love life, except that instead of chasing, i THINK about chasing. i only think because if i chased, i might run into situations like this and have an aneurysm.

in jordan

well, i've been in jordan for 4 days now. i decided to come to aqaba without doing much research, and that's my bad. it's good for divers, and i was contemplating getting certified, but that went away after i came to my senses. aqaba is pretty small, and i've walked most of it. i have booked a tour to go to wadi rum tomorrow afternoon. i'm taking a four hours 4WD tour, then they are dropping me off at a bedouin camp in the desert overnight. the next morning, i'm getting picked up again, and we are going directly to petra where i'll walk around solo seeing what i want to see and when i want to see it. when i've got my fill, the driver will bring me back to aqaba. i think this will be the longest i've been off-the-grid in a decade. no internet, no blogs, NO LAPTOP! i'm taking a phone, but only in case of emergency. what is wrong with me?! anyways, thursday will be a day of relaxing, repacking, and organizing everything to increase the chances of me making my tight connection in germany on my way to spain. there, i'll visit TheSwedishChefDave for a few days, then possibly on to barcelona over thanksgiving to see another buddy i worked with in italy, then ON IN to B-Town. i'll keep you updated.

well, the tickets are booked

i booked my tickets to take my back-to-back R&Rs. sadly, they are paper tickets, and TheGeneral thinks jordan is as unsafe as egypt so i need special authorization which was given today. now i just hope they can ship the tickets in time. i'm leaving egypt just before noon on the 12th on my way to aqaba, jordan for a few days. i might think about possibly taking scuba lessons, i have a week to waste. i'm going to go to petra for at least one day, maybe more. i've heard i have to check out wadi rum, so i'm just taking any and all suggestions.

on the 20th, i fly to malaga, spain to visit TheSwedishChefDave, an old buddy i worked with in turkmenistan. i'm a wee bit concerned i might either lose my bags or miss my final connection in frankfurt, but we'll see how it goes. i'm going to spend 4-5 days there, then try to hop down to barcelona to see another work buddy i met in italy a few years back. he might be getting together with some other americans for thanksgiving, and i'll see if i can barge my way in.

i haven't booked the ticket yet due to being crazy busy packing and such, but i plan to fly from barcelona to the states on the 28th, thus fulfilling my 330 days out of country, cementing my one year on this second assignment in egypt, and getting me home with not a lot of time to do all the american things i want to do (mostly visit friends, and have some 'merican food). i'll try to update while i'm on the road, i used to be better, but now that i'm excited about heading home, i think it will be far easier. i still have to post the taxi grand prix that hash held a few weeks ago. good times. hope to see as many of you as i can in less than three weeks. back to packing my checked bag, and packing my shipments home. here's to hoping that shipping with fedex is less of a nightmare than intermove egypt was from the last job.

new ZUMEL post

i'm currently writing up a post about the Delta Hash House Harriers Inaugural Black-n-Yellow Taxi Relay. it was a fabulous time, great stories, but trying to get it all down is tough, so much to remember that the race itself was making blurry. until then, there is a new post up at the ZUMEL.

Jesus and Mo and the Irony Meter.

ZUMEL returns

well, i've decided to try yet again to find the time to post more to ZUMEL. that being said, there's a new post http://zacanese.blogspot.com

when you mock

you must know how to do it correctly. see, will ferrell and Co put out a humorous health care PSA about health care reform several months ago. whomever made this PSA to "mock" him didn't do quite as well as i think they could have.



the thing is, will ferrell, is a fairly smart man AND he's funny. he can use sarcasm and wit to get his point across, to emphasize the stranger parts of whatever topic he speaking out for or against. he's not saying that since he is a well-paid comedian, that you should listen to him. he's entertaining, and through that entertainment, he is providing information that people need to hear though they might not know where how to go about getting said information. one of the funnier parts of this mock PSA, i thought, was when they spoke about lobbyists. all lobbyists are are unfunny will ferrells. they push a point they are paid to push. will ferrell might be getting paid for these PSAs, but that is a side-note as they are something he truly believes in. you wouldn't find him doing PSAs against health care reform unless some until-now-hidden point came up that changed his mind. he was against prop 8 as well, not for money, but to spread the word using what he is good at... humor.

all i'm saying is, if they'd wanted to mock the PSA, they could've done better, maybe not tried to copy scene-for-scene the PSA, try something original... like ferrell and Co.'s PSAs are to start.

R&R alpha - (day 14/15) - the end is nigh; ney... the end is here

it's october 14th... tomorrow, TheWayne and i would head our separate ways after an awesome time in germany and the czech republic. but it's not QUITE over yet. we woke up to try to hit "mike's bikes" for a bike tour of munich. it was rainy, and we were a bit late, so we missed the tour. as per usual, we walked a lot but my blisters were doing better now, or my brain had just rewired the "agonizing foot pain" nerves to go to my "let's just get drunk" drive. all was better. we walked to the english garden which is a very nice area of munich. relaxed, greenery, beer, food. speaking of beer, we stopped at the chinese tower in the garden for a sausage and some beer. my facebook profile picture was taken from said been near said tower in said garden (man, that pic is a year old? gotta find a new one i guess). after a nice buzz was packed one, we made out way back towards town. we walked around marienplatz center for a bit. TheWayne was looking for some soccer jersey of some sort. i walked around the store for a brief bit but soon got bored, so i went outside to one of the outdoor restaurants in marienplatz and ordered a beer and some potato salad. normally, i wouldn't remark about potato salad, but i do have to say, this was the best potato salad i'd ever had in my LIFE. fantastic! and brilliant me, i forget the name of the place, and i forget the name of the sports store TheWayne was looking in, but if i could find THAT sports store, i could find this restaurant. TheWayne finished his perusing, so we headed off to near nymphenberg. there is a cool lake we walked around for no apparent reason. there must've been a field trip or something as there were hundreds of french kids running around being all... french. a few beers more, then we made our way back to the hotel and cleaned up for dinner. we went out and ate at the hofbraü haus. it is a famous brewery in germany, and the restaurant was awesome! it was just like the hofbraü haus beer tent at oktoberfest but with more room to move. they even had the brass band playing on occasion! i had a great steak, my first white sausage... a generally awesome meal in a cool environment. TheWayne and i chatted up TheAnnabelle (or was it TheAnastasia)... i don't recall. she was our waitress and very friendly. we had a good time entertaining each other. after dinner, we walked around looking for a place to grab a few beers, but were very unlucky this day. we ended up grabbing a taxi home since (we thought) we'd wandered quite a ways. funnily enough, the taxi driver was spanish, and i was drunk enough to think i could remember enough to speak it. i think he was amused by my attempt... hey, at least he didn't drop us in the middle of nowhere. it ended up we were only maybe 6-7 blocks from where we lived, but i take no responsibility for this navigational error. it is widely known that i have no sense of direction.

we woke up the next day with a heavy heart. it had been a great 15 days and now it was back to real life. TheWayne was back to jersey and his IronMan training, i was back to cairo to close out the job there and move on to alexandria. we grabbed a quick breakfast, packed and hopped on the train to the airport. we partook in goodbye beers, then TheWayne bid me adieu with a tear in his eye. i, myself, had to turn away... and order another beer. looking back, i'm kicking myself for not going this year. if TheWayne is up for it (and anyone else), next year, i think we gotta go again. so there it is... R&R alpha, documented on the blogosphere, completed within 1 day of it's one year anniversary. talk about cutting it close. as a friend recently told me... "for god's sake, finish the blog... you have to let go of the past to allow new experiences into your life.", but one thing before i do that...

take a walk with me down memory lane (soft lawrence welk in the background, bubbles in the foreground, soft filter on the camera...)
TheWayne, throwin' one back

Mmmmm. half-meter sausage

Escalators are like moving chairs when you're drunk

TheTav and TheWayne still sleeping in Berlin

TheTav being a drunk, passed out punk... and TheWayne making sure there is photographic evidence of it!!!

TheWayne at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin

me and one of the lines denoting where the berlin wall used to run

TheTav, TheJen, and TheWayne

Da Boys!

Saw this while waiting to leave germany. REALLY?! "meat wagon" is " car rental" in german? AWESOME!

Havin'a good time at the Hippodrom!!!

Until next time...

more comics