random catchings-up and such

WOW! it's been a while since i've updated. i hate it when that happens because i fear i lose readers, and i LOVE having you readers. so, here's what's been up lately.

• i went to sharm el-sheikh for two days at the end of ramadan. i had fun, but i would've had more fun if there were people to share it with. the first day, i went straight to the beach-side bar, got obliterated, went to my awesome room for a nap at 4PM set to wake up at 7PM to party... i woke up at 2AM, pooh! the next day, i paced myself, swam in 3 of the numerous pools, swam in the red sea, got drunk enough to go para-sailing, but i found out, though it was something new for me, it wasn't nearly as scary/exciting as i thought it would've been. still, it was cool. then back to work.


• several weeks ago, i got a call on my mobile where the name came up as TheElectricalTA. i answer it, but it's not TheElectricalTA. the conversation went a bit like this:

  caller: "do you know who zis is?"
  me: "um... TheElectricaTA?"
  caller: "no, zink a little bit harder, i know zat you can do zis"
  me: (of, fukk, shite, damn... oh, i know it... it's TheGerman who i thought was Dutch when i met him in india, oh fricksticks...) TheDETLEF!"
  caller: "very good, now i'm coming to see you"

  it's a small world in this biz. i just though that it was funny that i haven't work with him in over 3 years, and from what i gather, as soon as he found out TheElectricalTA was from TheGeneral, he asked if i was onsite. i wonder if he does this on every site he goes to. THAT would be weird. we caught up for a bit. he's here for the next year or so. he told me he ran into TheEx in dubai (again, small world), and that shipping his land rover to egypt. it was good to see an old friend. too bad he's been so busy, we haven't been able to catch up over drinks.


• i've been extended onsite until the end of october now, which sucks because i really want to get home to see friends and family, but it's also cool because i get to hang out longer with my hash friends, and after 21-oct, i get a SECOND R&R, so i can take a nice leisurely 16 day route to get home. i get my taxes back after 27-nov, so even if i spill over into november until say, oh, the 11th (which coincidentally would be my 1-year anniversary at this site), then with my 16 days R&R, despite missing thanksgiving, i'll have made my tax exemption criteria, AND i should have a decent argument for getting off through christmas.


• i did say random so... the hotel movie theater currently has showing, along with it's arabic movies: "the final destination", "slaughter", and "the hangover". WTF?! i don't the know EXACT extent of censorship here, but when i watched the last 007 movie, IT was edited for content, and i know 007 isn't graphic. my guess is "slaughter" (having no idea what it's about except from the movie poster) is gory, and will be edited down to a bunch of dark scenes, instilling fear, then cutting to the scene immediately after the "slaughter". i think "the hangover" is going to be about 8 minutes long, yeah EIGHT, and no one is going to have a clue as to how ANYONE dies in "the final destination" due to cuts.


• JUST finished watching "watchmen", and it was fantastic. i envy dr. manhattan. i learned that leonard cohen ORIGINALLY wrote "hallelujah", and i'm glad jeff buckley covered it and improved it immensely because the LC version in the movie is SHITE! i know i'm a bit slow on the uptake here, but malin akerman is HOTTTTT, especially in vinyl and garter-boots.


• this time last year, TheWayne and i were struggling to make it to the last day of oktoberfest and planning on heading to berlin. never worry, i have 4 days left before the anniversary of the last post i wrote. i MIGHT be able to pull it off, but i'm cutting it close.