aqaba, jordan (nov 13th, 2009)

so my time was done in egypt. on the advice of some of my teacher friends working in egypt, i'd decided to fly to jordan on my indirect trip home. i'd heard that it would be a sin to miss seeing petra when i was that close. i'd also heard something about aqaba, so i booked a flight there to jump off from. i really didn't know what i was going to do there. i was pretty burnt out from being in egypt so long, so i just wanted to relax. not even do vacationy things, i just wanted to catch up on sleep, have a few drinks, and wander aimlessly. that's pretty much what i did.

the taxi driver from the airport assured me he knew where my hotel, the golden tulip, was. i had a very general idea where it was from the airport because i'd checked on google earth just before my flight. now, my sense of direction is just south of shitty, but i still knew that we were heading the wrong direction as soon as we left the airport. i'd gotten him turned around with my broken arabic, and soon had him pulling over to ask directions from a police officer. after rounding the block several times because he kept missing the turn off, i was finally at my hotel. i checked in and went to my room to drop off my bags where i found this. yup, those are my bath towels folded on my bed in the shape of a heart and some swans.

i seriously didn't do too much here. as i said, i just wanted to relax. i wandered around town a lot. i made friends with the filipina bar maid at the hotel. she had a boys name like TheMax or something. that saturday night, she invited me to go out with her and her friends to a filipina bar. it was halfway up one of the taller buildings in aqaba. we went in through a shady back door, through some partially dismantled room with lots of insulation and not a lot of lighting. i was starting to get concerned, but soon enough the broken down rooms opened onto a rooftop bar with other filipinos. there was one or two other ex-pats playing pool or throwing darts. we ate pretzel sticks, and i drank beer while they chatted away in their own language, occasionally flirting or making fun of me. i couldn't tell, but then again, i never can. i dawdled doing nothing of much import for 3 days, reveling in the fact that i had no responsibilities, schedules, or timelines to follow, though in fact i did. not on those days, but i DID need to see petra while i was there and i was told i needed to see wadi rum as well. i was off to petra on the 17th, and i did an overnight in the wadi rum desert with a bedouin tour guide and a lovely british couple... kinda, but those are for upcoming and more frequent posts. until then, some pix from aqaba.

a tanker in the gulf of aqaba as seen from my hotel

one of the many mosques in aqaba

arabic burger king sign... and i can actually read it. there was a popeye's right next door too

i wasn't able to determine exactly what these domes are for

this is TheGateway. it's the westernized part of aqaba with a McDonald's, an irish bar, chinese restaurant, discos, shops, etc. i spent some time here.

this is possibly the first (oldest) purpose built christian church in the world, estimated to be built in 300 AD.

this weather station was pretty cool. i'd like to see more of these in bigger cities. i think it would motivate the people to take part in keeping the environment (and the government's part in it) cleaner. today was a good day, just a bit dusty.
sadly, social networking, work, life, etc., has dragged me away from this original form of getting the word out for me. i'm going to try harder. i should have posts about petra and wadi rum coming up soon. thanks for sticking with me. as per usual, you can click on the pics for bigger versions, and click here for the entire set.

U.S. religious knowledge survey

recently, the pew forum on religion and public life released the results of their recent U.S. religious knowledge survey. sadly, 86% of THE PEOPLE SURVEYED (not americans as they would suggest... it IS an extrapolation afterall), believe in "god" or a higher power. the problem is, most of these people who believe in god/higher power don't really know the tenets or history of what they believe in. it seems they know that church means dressing up the family on sunday, going to church, feeding the kids cookies so they are quiet during the service, listening to the sermon (a.k.a bible cliff's notes), eating some stale bread and wine, and then going home to watch the game. it's tradition, it's a habit (and a bad one at that, in my opinion). many of these people base their personal beliefs and political stances on a book they haven't read. they cherrypick the parts of their book that support their prejudices (homosexuality is bad) but ignore the ones that just aren't fun [no premarital sex, no pork, no eating lobsters, no rare meat, shaving, or cutting of the hair (still, i think that link is a bit strange too. i think since jesus was basically raised a jew as far as we know, he was a jew who stirred a following and started an offshoot that was probably still based in part on judaism. similar to how islam is based on judaism, acknowledges jesus, and is just a 3rd iteration / prophet from the original judaism)].

as usual, i digress. i find it entertainingly ironic that of the people polled (and again, this is but 1/1000 of a percent of the population) that atheists/agnostics topped the poll with the best scores followed by jews, mormons, and the best catholic score coming in 5th. if you are here, more than likely you know i am an atheist. i was raised lutheran until the age of 14 or so when i went to TheMom and said i didn't believe in god. it didn't make sense. math and science explained a lot more than church did for me, and even though there's a lot that science couldn't explain, that set grew smaller every day, something that doesn't happen with religion. TheMom was heartbroken, thinking she raised me wrong, but i assured it had absolutely nothing to do with that. it had to do with my free will and the thinking/analytical mind i was born with. as i got older, she came out as an agnostic. i hope this wasn't from my doing as i'm not much for proselytizing... as long as no one gets hurt, i think everyone has the right to believe what they want. i believe she was agnostic far earlier in her life, but that just wasn't accepted so she fell in line with what she was supposed to do culturally. i don't blame her for this. it is certainly a safer environment now to walk away from religion, at least in the western world.

i've lived in the hindu culture which i am quite fond of in their acceptance of other religions. sadly, those other religions were massive missionary expeditions which i thoroughly despise. i personally witnessed the bringing of clothes, money, food, and classrooms to the young. the parents were hindu and the children converted to mormonism via the missionary church that was set up. i asked the parents how they felt about their children leaving the religion they themselves were brought up in, and they said as long as their children were happy, the parents were happy. i half believed this. hinduism does seem to be a happy, peaceful religion trying to better oneself. on the other hand, they wanted their children to be happy and children are simple creatures. a new pair of shoes, a crisp clean white shirt and new tie all their own, a snack after the service that the parents couldn't afford. the children would be happier, but could it be said their happiness was bought? still, the hindus i met weren't angry about it, they were just trying to give their children a better purchase on a properous life by selling out their religious beliefs.

as for christianity, i've been reading the bible off and on for years as an education tool, a piece of literature. while i was in egypt, i read the qu'ran during ramadan as is typical of most muslims. i read this, too, as an educational tool. many of the muslims i worked with were excited that i was converting. when i explained that i was reading it to educate myself on the culture and the people, i ran in to quite a few who asked me stop reading it because that was not the purpose of the book. that's not to say they are any worse than some christians i've told about reading the bible keeping in mind a high degree of "suspension of disbelief". there are always going to be moderates and fundamentalists in every religion. i fear the fundamentalists in all of them. the same bible-thumping christians who tout their 2nd amendment right to keep and bear arms are usually the ones who claim this is a christian nation, forgetting that the 1st amendment, aside from protecting freedom of speech, also explicitly prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion. we are NOT a christian nation, we are a nation of many, believers and non-believers, and a diverse spectrum in between.

i believe over the course of civilized man, religion on the whole has done more harm than good, but on a personal level, i'm sure it's helped it fair share. for fun, why don't you go here and take the abridged test. i was hoping for a score of 100%, but i missed one. :-(

it's good to have time to be back.

my whatzit

so, my trip down to tampa was more sociable than usual. what seems like eons ago, i was working in trinidad, and i’d taken a book about how to make people like you, or how to start conversations or meet people or something like that. i don't remember much about the book except that the author used several really weird terms like "have sticky eyes" and "have a whatzit". the one thing i took away from the book is the "have a whatzit" to start conversations. that was easy for me because i like gadgets.

on the flight from pittsburgh to DC, i was seated next to a middle-aged woman who noticed my kindle DX. i was testing the DX because in the "portait" position, it shows an entire page and also what page you are on out of how many the book has. when you turn the kindle to the "landscape" position, the text turns accordingly, but it also sizes up the font. for some reason this does not change the page count (i determined that you have to use the joystick to scroll down the page in this position). the lady next to me noticed my experiment and asked how i liked it. i told her it was good, but no backlighting. she told me she was looking for an e-reader for an elderly friend of hers who wanted to learn calculus and figured and ebook would be the best way. i don't know why i didn't go further into why an elderly man would want to learn calculus. my excuse will be that i was nervous that i was having to converse with someone without prior preparation. i let her check it out, she apologized several times about interrupting, but i had no problem with it. i learned she works for a company that organizes clinical trials for HIV/AIDS treatments, and they are showing some promise in, not a cure, but a drug that makes it more difficult to transmit. fancy. as our conversation was reaching it's natural end (because i'm still learning how to do this whole talking to people thing), the pilot made the announcement that we were about to land and all electronic devices had to be switched off. that, i told her, was another drawback of the e-reader. she apologized again that i didn't get to read very much at all, but i re-asserted that it was no problem, and that i enjoyed the conversation.

on my connecting flight from DC to tampa, i was seated in the middle. from the way the guy to my left was glued to his blackberry, i figured he was a business type. he had on slacks, collared shirt, and had a clean haircut. i thought the lady to my right was just a crotchety old ethnic grandma. she seemed inconvenienced when she realized there would be a big man sitting next to her. once we were at cruising altitude, i whipped out the kindle to try to get some reading done. it didn't take very long at all before the lady to my right asked if you could change the font size on the kindle. i'm pretty sure you can, though i wasn't able to figure out where while trying to show her the functions that i DID know how to operate. i mentioned how it was very convenient for me since i travel a lot, and that it was much easier to carry 400 books on this than in a steamer trunk. the man to my left asked what i did, so i elaborated a bit. in trying to fit in with you humans, i then tried to bounce the question back, asking what he was doing in DC. i found out that he was there for an interview at a new church, and he actually lives in tampa. after some brief shit-chat, we found out that the lady to my right was a principal in england. she splits her time between london, where her husband works, and sarasota, where they are snowbirds. they got into a conversation about separation of church and state (he believes it should be, she experienced the opposite being in england, there is no such thing). he was concerned about the downfall of morality and traditional values. he spoke of how dysfunctional families breed dysfunctional families, so soon we would be exponentially out of control as a society. i tried to bite my tongue through most of this. i shouldn't try to be confrontational AND sociable. that's just too much on one plate. apparently, the pastor started out as an engineer in college and then found (lost?) his way to god, so he went to seminary. somehow it was thrashed out that i was an atheist, so he wanted to pick my brain. at least that's what he said. while i was curious about what a pastor does when it's not sunday, what does a church interview entail, and how can seminary last so long when there's really only one book, it seemed to me that he just wanted to know where i went astray, what caused me to lost faith so young, etc. he wanted to re-convert me rather than actually converse. it wasn't abrasive by any means, just disappointing. the first half of the trip, i thought he was kind of a normal person, open to new ideas, but then he fell into the same religious role i'd expected in the first place. we briefly talked about evolution and "irreducible complexity" and there having to be a maker. i hadn't expected to get into a theological debate, so i was a bit scattered, though sufficient, in my defense of what i think is right, but i got my point across.

before we knew it, the flight was over and we decided to introduce ourselves (somehow, i always do that backwards). i'd met ThePastorJohn and ThePrincipalDoris. his wife and four kids were waiting to pick him up, she was driving down to sarasota, and i was going to rent a car to get me to my hotel and my next assignment.

and all these things happened because of my "whatzit".


oh, and on a completely unrelated point, florida drivers are fukking nuts. they can't drive for shite, they speed, tailgate, and cut people off all willy nilly. you guys suck, really.

this guy is a cock

i'm sorry for the lack of updates. what with vacation, TheMom going into and out of the hospital, and the holidays, i've gotten quite busy (and a bit lazy). i will be posting to PTVR this week as well. i was going to add this guy (and still might), but i wanted you to see it first.

this guy claims to be pretty much the strongest man in the world bless by allah. i say claims because he's "afraid" of doing any displays because people might get hurt. he can't work because his fellow workers might feel inadequate. this guy knows some people who've pulled some strings to show him off as some sort of miracle of islam, when, it's quite more likely he's a fat slob on the egyptian version of jerry springer. i'm guessing egyptians have never seen fake coins. until he can prove his strength, i say he's a dickhead further weakening the true meaning of islam for his own publicity.

Jesus and Mo and the Irony Meter.

mr. deity

i just found this vid from a prof i had in college, and i have to say, IF god exists, i think (if he's worthy of existing) he has to be pretty much the same.

INNNNNNNDOCTRINATION!

One Indian, One Normal - Watch more Funny Videos

i don't think these girls are smart enough to be acting. i fear they are this ignorant and, thus, dangerous. this is like brain-washing fundamentalism and general lack of education. is india in africa? why aren't your eyes slanted?

rehabilitating mr. wiggles

i just found this webcomic today, i figured i'd share it with you. it's your lucky day.

when is terrorism not, AND when it's your time, it's your time?

two articles i've come across lately that have piqued my interest enough to get me to read them. the first, here, has to do with how americans label terrorism. it is a sad and blatantly racist judgment made by the american people. in short, when is terrorism not? when it's done by a white christian, that's when, or at least, that can be strongly inferred when comparing the two recent cases in this article. please give it a read and let me know what you think.

and here is just a a strange coincidence straight out of "final destination". it's sad that after having missed a huge catastrophe, she probably felt like she got a new lease on life, only to find out each day has it's own dangers.

biblical observations III : samson was CRAZY pussy-whipped (and possibly severely mentally retarded)

i'm back into reading the bible since i'm out of books. i'm just about to finish JUDGES when i come across samson. i didn't realize that samson was actually a king of israel. well, that might not be technically correct but i'm not exactly sure what he was judging since israel was being oppressed but all the neighbors at this time (and that is another observation post). so i'll call him a king, of sorts, a leader, and he did that for 20 years.

the story starts that his mother was barren, but an angel came to her and said she would conceive, but the boy had to be raised a nazirite (that just looks so much like nazi to me, but that's not a funny joke since we are dealing with the jewish people here). nazarites weren't allowed to cut their hair, they weren't allowed to drink alcohol, and they were supposed to avoid the dead and places of the dead. in short, he was a strong mother fucker. he's the equivalent of hercules from greek mythology.

STORY #1 that proves he's a crazy badass, completely fukking pussy-whipped, and soft in the head (note: all quotes are paraphrased):

one day, he's walking through the woods on his way to hit on this philistine chick he was diggin' on when a lion comes up to him. the force was strong in this one, so he tore the lion a new one bare-handed without even breaking a sweat. apparently he did the biblical equivalent of getting her digits AND getting her to accept his marriage proposal in not time and went home. a while later, he was walking back to pick up his wife, when he walked past the lion he had disemboweled and found a bee hive growing in the thing, so he grabbed some honey and went to his wife. when he got to her town, there were 30 dudes hanging out waiting for the 7 day wedding feast to start and end. samson posited to them a riddle to solve in 7 days. if they got it right, he'd give them 30 new linens and 30 changes of clothes; if they didn't, they had to give HIM 30 linens and changes of clothes. the riddle was:

out of the eater came something eat
out of the strong came something sweet.

since you know the backstory, you might be able to guess the answer.

well, the mob pulls his wife aside and threatens to burn down her house like in a WWE studios / john cena movie if she doesn't get the answer for him, so true to a typical wife (i can say this because i'm not married, hah), she nagged the ever-lovin' shit out of him for the answer even though his mom and dad don't even know. on day seven, she tells the mob "nothing sweeter than honey, nothing stronger than a lion", they regurgitate it back to him, and he goes postal. he knows the got the answer from his trollop wife, so true to his word, he retaliated by giving them their 30 linens and changes of clothes... by killing 30 of their bestest buds and giving the mob THEIR clothes, then he stomped back to his house.

it gets worse. after a while, maybe a few weeks or months, he goes down to her dad's house and tells him "i'll show her, i'm gonna lay some pipe on my wife ans show her she screwed up". her dad's kinda like "um... we're sorry, but we didn't think you lied her so we decided to give her to your best man. wouldn't you like her younger sister better?" BURN!!! re-retaliation. if samson wasn't rip-shit pissed already, when he found out he wasn't getting any tail, that was it. he went out and captured 300 foxes, tied their tails together with a torch in the knot, and set them free in the philistine fields (if anyone's counting, this is retaliation 3, R3). when the philistines found out samson had done this, they (you guessed it) retaliated (R4) by burning down his wife and father-in-law's house. samson said "ok, mofo's, i'm getting tired of this back and forth, so i'm just going to get even ONE MORE TIME, then i'm done... we're even... OK?", then he whopped some major philistine ass (R5).

that wasn't good enough for the philistines, so they came to arrest him and take him back for judgment. he said, if you promise not to kill me until we get there, i'll let you tie me up. they promised, they tied, they went to philistine central. when he got there, everyone started yelling at him, and he got all pissed off hulk-style, so he grabbed the jawbone of a donkey and smote the shit out of 1000 philistines. afterward, he yelled into the sky, "this... is... JAWBOOOOOOOONE (heights)!", and "judged" for 20 years.

the FAMOUS story that proves he's a crazy badass, completely fukking pussy-whipped, and soft in the head (note: all quotes are paraphrased):

so toward the end of his 20 years judging, he took a vacation to gaza and banged a lady of the night. while he was there, the gazites decided they'd kill him in the morning when the sun came up. instead, at midnight, to show the gazites he was still "israel's strongest man", he ripped the gate of the city (along with the posts) out of the ground and took them up on a hill. i'm not exactly sure how this made them not kill him, except that maybe they were all still washing the shit out of their pants the next morning.

then samson met delilah. this is like the biblical version of forrest gump. samson is forrest: this soft-headed, i-love-the-first-girl-i-meet kinda guy, and delilah is like jenny: she's all "well, you're nice, but you're kind of a dope, i mean, i'll kiss ya, but i got other things to do", so the locals lords offered her some mad amounts of silver to find out his weakness. she's all about movin' on up to the east-side, so she takes the deal and starts pillow-talking samson. here's where we confirm both massive pussy-whippedness and never-before-seen brain damage.

DELILAH: so what IS your weakness?
SAMSON: 7 fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, and i'm bruce banner.
(delilah ties him up in 7 wet bowstrings that night, the philistines wait in his room)
DELILAH:SAMSON, THE PHILISTINES ARE HERE!!!
(samson tears through the bowstrings like thread, no philistine attack)
DELILAH: baby (maybe a bewb pops out), so REALLY, what IS your weakness?
SAMSON: new rope that has never been used, and i'm like superman and green kryptonite.
(delilah ties him up with brand new rope that night, the philistines wait in his room)
DELILAH:SAMSON, THE PHILISTINES ARE HERE!!!
(samson tears through the rope like it was smoke, no philistine attack)
DELILAH: (while putting on some BANGIN' frederick's of hollywood lingerie) samson, why do you mock me, i'm JUST curious, what IS your weakness?
SAMSON: new rope that has never been used, and shorty, i'm like superman around green kryptonite.
(delilah ties him up with brand new rope that night, the philistines wait in his room)
DELILAH:SAMSON, THE PHILISTINES ARE HERE!!!
(samson tears through the rope like it was smoke, no philistine attack)
DELILAH: (grabbin' his circumsized johnson), you're starting to PISS ME OFF! i'm just worried about you. baby...what IS your weakness?
SAMSON: if you weave my seven dreadlocks into the loom, i'm like rainbow brite on xanax.
(delilah weaves his frickin' HEAD in to a LOOM, and he doesn't wake up; btw, not drunk, can't drink alcohol... anyways, the philistines are still chillin' in his room)
DELILAH:SAMSON, THE PHILISTINES ARE HERE!!!
(samson gets up turning the loom into a pile of matchsticks... WTF happened, babe?, no philistine attack)
DELILAH: (promising something like BJs everyday for life) samson, this is the best deal your going to get. just tell me your weakness, and i'll get right on my knees... big daddy, what IS your weakness?
SAMSON: (tired of her bitching) GOOD GOD WOMAN (SORRY BIG GUY!) WTF IS YOUR PROBLEM? I LOVE YOU, BUT YOU ARE ALL UP IN MY BIZZLE, AND IT'S DRIVING ME CRAZY! MY HAIR, IT'S MY HAIR. YOU CUT MY HAIR, AND THAT SCREECH KID FROM "SAVED BY THE BELL" COULD HAND MY OWN ASS TO ME, OKAY?! so there, now... get to it, sugarlips.
(delilah "lulls him to sleep on her knees"... it actually says that in the bible, then brings in the town barber and give him the first bowl-cut in the old testament, the philistines wait in his room)
DELILAH:SAMSON, THE PHILISTINES ARE HERE!!!
(well he wakes up a bit woozy, as close to a hangover as possible without drinking, and the philistines make their move. they whomped on him pretty good, poked out his eyes and made him the prison wheat grinder)

he didn't see THAT coming, come on! it's like every joke ever told. three guys walk into a bar, or a guy tried something three times... moron, still, he gets them in the end. they are all so drunk on the fact that they caught this one guy who bitch-slapped an entire battalion of them with the remains of a carcass, that they order a party with ALL the philistine lords and lordettes (about 3000 of them) to watch him do some pratfalls and slapstick for them. he does a little song-and-dance then asks for someone to help him to the central pillars to catch his breath. he pulled a popeye and opened a can of god-spinach, "bringing down the roof" by knocking over the main structural pillars, thus killing all of the philistines along with himself.

rock on, samson, you idiot!

for the actual text, you can go here. it's funny, i was trying to give the cliff's notes, but ended up making it longer. the original passages is only 19 verses). hope you like the re-enactment. i apologize that delilah was such a hussy, but that's the way it was (in my head).

my new wallpaper

the feet of monk, hua chi, who believes he is around 70 years old, are seen close to the footprints he has made in wood by praying at the same spot for decades, at a monastery near tongren, qinghai province.

i saw this on a cnn link and thought it was cool enough to make my wallpaper. now i just have to move my icons around (it's an OCD thing).

a conversation about islam

two nights ago, i had to stay late for work to do CO₂ fire protection testing on the enclosures. basically, this entails releasing about 1 ton of CO₂ into the enclosure and waiting for an hour to make sure the concentration is within spec. four enclosures and about a half hour setup time in between means, in short, a lot of waiting. during the downtime, i was speaking to one of the mechanical guys i work with about the qur'an which i've started reading a translation of recently. i'm only several suras (chapters) in, but i have a load of questions already. one, i asked, was why women weren't to pray in the mosque? the qur'an says the men should pray at the mosque, but the women should pray at home. he quite plainly explained that it is for their own safety. women should stay at home to be safe. he used the example that a drunk driver might hit and kill her on the way to the mosque. wtf?! so non-sequitur! he also used safety as the reason that women should not have jobs. it is safer for them to stay at home taking care of the kids, cleaning the house, and making sure everything is comfortable for the man when he comes home from work. i'm not an activist by any means, but i couldn't believe how naturally the sexist attitude came to him. for him (and possibly the culture, i can't speak for it entirely), it's just natural. i explained that i don't think i could handle sitting at home all day, cleaning, rearing the kids, and waiting for my wife to come home to take care of her, i'd want to live, do something meaningful... this is where i was completely floored. he replied of course YOU couldn't do it, you're a man, but women are better suited for it. he was basically saying that women can handle it because they are, well, dumber! they don't need excitement, per se. it was amazing how matter-of-factly he said this.

i bit my tongue because there is no reason to upset a good working atmosphere over a religious argument that i couldn't win. islam indoctrinates it's followers by rote. muslims pray 5 times a day, they fast for the month of ramadan, i believe they are supposed to read the entire qur'an during ramadan, etc. the end user here has an engineer who is trying to convert me to islam, now that he's heard i'm reading the qur'an. i told him i was doing it more as research, to be better informed, and he told me that was wrong, i should only read it because it is the word of allah, and it is completely true. apparently, there are scientific revelations in the qur'an that allah told mohamed, his prophet, long before they were actually discovered by the human race. i haven't gotten that far yet. i'm not shooting down or blaspheming islam, it's just that, anyone who talks to me about it seems so... robotic. so, now i have to get on to reading to see how wrong/right/totalitarian this religion is.

my ramadan beard

what do you think of it? actually i started growing it when i got lazy from the shite that's fallen all about me, but when some of the muslims onsite asked about it, i told them i was converting to islam for the month of ramadan. they laughed, probably because they barely know a lick of english, but it's my joke now.

i woke up in a bad mood this morning, and it only got worse. in the morning we stop at the petrol station to get some sandwiches for lunch, drinks, and there's an HSBC ATM there. the first time i used it, i was scared. the card inserter/ejector device is slow as bawlz, like old-lady-crossing-the-street-in-manhattan slow and unsteady. i really was surprised to get my card back. since then, i've gotten used to it. today, AS SOON as i put my card in the slot, a screen came up apologizing for being out of order, so i hit cancel, and it wouldn't give me my TheGeneral CORPORATE card back!!! i hit cancel and error numerous times to no avail so i had my driver call the 24-hour number on the machine. they said that someone will come look at the machine, collect the card, and they'd be back at the HSBC office near my house at noon. i had to come before 1:30PM though because the bank closes then the ENTIRE month of ramadan, and today was day numero uno. the good thing about this was i got to leave work early to get it. i left at 11:00AM, got the the bank around 12:15PM, and waited until 1:00PM when the guy finally arrived with "the box". we followed him to the "ATM department-restricted access" door with the fancy keypad (i saw the code, i'm making a dash for the cash). i gave them my passport and aobut 15 minutes later they came out with my card. i'm so happy. then i offered the driver a meal at KFC next door. i ordered a wrap for lunch and a sandwich for snack/dinner. after about 15 minutes waiting around, the guy comes out and says they don't have sandwiches today. seriously, WTF took 15 minutes to figure that out? so i left in a huff and came home. i'm gonna hop on my bike now and do some exercising/shopping.

NOTE: btw, i uploaded that picture with my eye-fi card, how frickin' cool is that? that means, i took the photo, the eye-fi card encoded my GPS location using local router triangulation to the pic, and automatically uploaded it to my flickr account without any interference from me. if you click on the pic, and at the right, you see "taken in al maadi, al qahirah", click on the map link. i didn't have to put it on the map, it did it all by it's lonesome, and that is my exact building. really... i think that is so cool

are we seriously that sensitive/retarded/blind?

i hate to add to the "blogosphere" uproar over rachael ray's dunkin' donuts commercial fiasco, but seriously, wtf is up with people nowadays. it's a fukking scarf. look at the difference in these two pictures.

this is a keffiyeh. this is a black & white headdress commonly worn by arab men. it has a "connotation" attached to terrorism, though that's as ignorant an attachment as being terrified of all "brown skin people" because they are terrorists.
this is a black & white scarf... A SCARF!!! with a different pattern!!! around her neck!!!

are we that xenophobic that we have to CREATE racism/fanatacism where it doesn't exist? do we hate that much, that we are twisting in our heads what we see into something that is big, bad, and scary? it's not there. get over it. if i was a part of the dunkin' donuts franchise, i'd say "fukk ya, it's a scarf, i ain't pulling the advert, so shut up and go buy some donuts from me". i might bankrupt the company, but i'd be a broke man who didn't pander to a small racist faction in the community and their small-minded stereotypes.

that's my rant... haven't done that in a while.

quickly 1

i have so munch to blog about and several drafts running, but i have to post this before i forget. last night, i accompanied TheJay and TheRachel to the train station. they booked an overnight sleeper car on the giza-luxor-aswan train. they are going to spend all of today in luxor, and then take the return trip back, arriving early tomorrow morning. after consulting our lonely planet egypt guide, and talking with TheDriver, i found out that they have to pick up the train at the "giza" station on the green line. i live in maadi on the red line, so we hopped a train at out local stop, took it to the first transfer point near tahir square called "mohotit sadat" (sadat station), where we got on the green train to giza station. the ride was easy enough, taking about 45 minutes and only costing $0.18/person. at the giza station, we were lucky enough to find a guy who pointed us to the train station which, strangely enough, runs under the metro at this junction. i left TheJay and TheRachel at the top of the stairs that head down to the station. there, a security guard blocked the way with a park bench and only allowed people down with tickets. i bid them farewell and a good time, then went back into the station to make the roundtrip back to my apartment.

something you need to know about the cairo metro is that there are 1-2 "female only" cars. the common concensus is that they are the first 1 or 2 cars, but from what i've seen they are usually the two middle cars, one with a red sticker on the outside, and the one behind it with a green sticker. from what i read, one car is ALWAYS "female only", and one car is "female only" except at rush-hour. it was rush-hour-ish when i jumped on the green-stickered train. there were 2-3 guys on the train and maybe 30 ladies. i sat down and started reading, while one of the ladies sat down next to me. as we started toward our next stop, several of the ladies started getting a bit loud, raising their voices and spewing something in arabic at the male egyptians on the train. at the next stop, ALL of the egyptian men left that car and got into the neighboring car. i was a bit befuddled, but continued reading my book. then the girl next to me spoke up...

nice egyptian lady: where are you from?
ME: ana amreekee (i'm american)
NEL: oh, you know arabic?
ME: shwiya (a little).
NEL: so, you heard the argument? did you understand what it was about?
ME: no
NEL: this is a ladies' car. men aren't supposed to ride it.
ME: oh, i'm very sorry, i thought at rush hour the green car changed to co-ed, i know about the red car. i'll change cars at the next stop.
NEL: no, that's OK. you are a foreigner and don't know any better. just remember next time.
ME: thanks, and again, i'm very sorry.

i then buried my nose in my book afraid to look up and make eye contact with any of the women in the car for fear of offending them or something. i looked up once to count how many stations i had until my transfer, then counted the stops and bailed at the right station. while i was not making eye contact, i was able to hear whispers and giggling from the ladies who were getting on at subsequent stops. i'm a tard.

so that's me, international cultural offender guy. fun, fun.

the return, part II, requiem

ok, now where was i?

oh yeah, so, the REAL wasko and the REAL red showed up late since red ended up having to work a bit later than expected. we jaunted over to the easton area of columbus to grab some grub at logan's steakhouse. though i thought we were running late, our timing turned out pretty damn perfect. after dinner, we went to a comedy show at the funnybone at the easton mall. they were funny enough. one comedian from west virginia reminded me of a a twitchy(er) redneck version of robin williams. the warmup guy asked if there were any celebrations in the crowd. i tried to get his attention which Chump was having none of. there was a bachelor party in front of us for an old guy, guessing second marriage (at least). after making some jokes about him, he looked back at our table saying he thought he saw someone back our way. i was reluctant to raise my hand again, as this was Chump's night.

after the comedy show, we headed to our favorite local gentlemen's club on the other side of columbus, kahoot's. thaddius and dexter took good care of our table all night. i told them it was Chump's bachelor party, so there was a girl at the table at all times. Chump didn't want to go up onstage, which kinda sucked cuz that's a bachelor party STAPLE, but again, his night. i made sure he was covered all night for dances. i'm pretty sure a good time was had by all, but especially Chump. on the way home from kahoot's, we were privy to an impromtu version of cash cab. our inebriated bunch crowded into his taxi van, and the fun began. i asked where he was from due to his accent, guessing trinidad. he starts flashing the inside dome light of the van, joking that it was cash cab. i was wrong, and guessed tobago instead. again wrong, so i guess jamaica (since he had some bob marley on). let's just say i would've been the fastest loser on cash cab ever. we eventually found out he's from senegal. how i messed that one up, i don't know. he asked us ohio's first capital to which wasko jumped up, true 6th-grade ohio history style with "chillicothe". then he asked us which state was the silver state. Chump chimed in after a minute with nevada while we were all mumbling about it. the driver didn't answer, we mumbled, and Chump said it a bit louder, no answer from the driver. finally Chump bellowed (there may have even been an echo), "NEVADA!". the cash cab guy flashed the lights, and we were winners... of nothing more than a good time. we got him to play some of our favorite bob marley tunes for the rest of the ride, particularly jamming to "no woman, no cry". it was a fun(ny) ride, but it had to end, so he dropped us off at the waffle house near the hotel. we ate more greasy food than we probably shouldn't have, but it's tradition, then we stumbled to the hotel.

i stayed a few more days in columbus to watch the NASCAR race and ended up getting to try out a wii. we played a couple hours of bowling, which was fun, but i really like my action and racing games, not to mention the graphics and i can watch DVDs on it and such. the wii is, dare i say, a bit immature? i don't know. after columbus i went home to open my new goodies (oh yeah, i bought a new laptop, my FIRST personal laptop). while home, i shopped, had square pizza (a local specialty), got Chump and soon-to-be mrs. Chump's wedding present and generally dilly-dallied doing nothing of any import though seeming to never have time for myself to relax. such is R&R in this field.

friday was the rehearsal and dinner. the rehearsal went pretty well. the church had REALLY narrow aisles, so walking down the aisle side-by-side with a bridesmaid was impossible. we remedied this by allowing the girls to lead the way while we followed trying not to look like dejected suitors. I was lucky enough to get TWO girls since she had both her sisters as maids-of-honor. after the rehearsal, we wound down the country road to our local watering hole, TheFBar, where the rehearsal dinner was being held in the "back bar". it was a really nice spread, and since we know the owner, we got to bartend for our selves. BAD IDEA!!! by the end of the night, us young(ish) bucks (and a few of the respective does) had floated the keg and downed several shots that apparently don't mix well together in the stomach the next morning.

the next morning we all arrived at the church LOOKING fine, but how everyone felt was another story. i think i was one of the few who felt pretty well. i won't name names, but some of the BTBz and their wives had had a "reversal of fortune" or two throughout the morning and the drive to the church. still, we all arrived, we all knew our duties, and things were going to go off without a hitch.

the ushers seated, i made sure the groom had everything, i felt for the bride's ring in my pocket the whole time, always nervous it would vanish. i'm sure the girls were downstairs getting gussied up and such. the ceremony began wonderfully, no one missed their cues, everyone was in the right position, even the ring bearer and the flower girl, who oftentimes succumb to tantrums, inability to follow directions, and confusion, were perfect. T was sweating like he was thinking about hot wings... everything was going as we had expected, then about halfway through the ceremony, i heard a bit of a commotion in the rear of the church. it seems one of the groomsmen was "over come with emotion" and had to step outside for some fresh air, but he only made it about halfway down the side aisle before taking a dive. the pastor took it all well and tried to get the fans going since it was a warm day. soon enough, said groomsman was outside feeling much better... and we all figured T'd be the one to bite it, but with all those years of marching band training behind him, he knew not to lock his knees in the heat. the rest of the ceremony went as planned, and everyone was excited to the see the happy couple kiss and walk away married.

after the wedding, we hopped onto the wedding trolley they rented. we took it to oglebay park, a local spot popular for wedding pictures. nice rolling hills, rustic gates, and a mansion. after those pictures were done, we went back to TheFBar, incidentally where MrandMrsChump got engaged, for some "casual" pictures. i really think those pictures are going to turn out well. i can't wait to see those. then it was off across the ohio river to wheeling, WV for the reception.

the reception was damn near perfect. ChumpsDad isn't much of a dresser-upper. he's also not much for social gatherings. he did great at the wedding, but when we got to the reception, he wasn't there. i'm guessing he hasn't been to many weddings due to this, so maybe he didn't know the procedure. he'd gone home and made lunch and was just chilling there. i called him for Chump and told him to get over to the reception ASAP so we could announce the wedding party. he said he'd think about it. Chump gave him a call asking him to come, and he was there in no time flat. i'm pretty sure that was about the only hitch i can think of at the reception. i was fretting over my best-man speech all week, and i think it went well, but i kinda blacked out. i DESPISE public speaking, and i just couldn't think of anything to talk about that was worthy of the happy couple. my speech was short, i HOPE it was sweet, and everyone seemed happy with it. Chump made a REALLY awesome DVD slideshow (with awesomely appropriate music) of pictures of he and MrsChump as kids, growing up, with their friends, their families, and then finally them falling in love with each other. it was top notch. they had it playing in a large separate room that the buffet line was at, so people could watch it while getting food, plus they could watch it later in the night without being bombarded by the dance music.

the next day, i made the rounds to pick up the tuxs to take them back. being that i'm the only non-married/engaged BTB now, i wasn't used to people already having checked out when i was calling around to make sure everyone was up at 11AM. i was calling to wake them up and get their tuxs, when many of them were already checked out and at the mall turning them in. i guess getting married means you have a "married in" alarm clock.

that was that. 2 days later i got on a plane to be back here in egypt. i landed tuesday evening for work wednesday. wednesday night, one of the TAs had an official engagement party. he flew his girlfriend over to visit, and that night, she became his fiancee. around 11PM, jules and i had to cut out, so i could take her back to the apartment, since she had to leave for her R&R in turkey at 2:30AM. thursday, TheSiteLead, TheMech, and i hung around the pool until 3:30PM then went to the airport to hop a 1hr flight to a resort in hurghada for the weekend. in hurghada, we swam, went to disco's, drank, and had a thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing time. we flew back saturday, and began the work grind again on sunday.

lonely ol' me has only gotten to spend about 1 day with my girl in the past 3 weeks, so i'm sad, but she'll be coming back early saturday morning, like 1:30AM. so, THAT'S what i've been up to. apparently, there is a big coptic christian feast something or other going on this weekend so we MIGHT not have to work thursday through monday (these people know how to have religious holidays, i might have to rethink this religion thing. egyptians get to have FOUR wives). i'll be updating more regularly now that i'm back to a *more* normal schedule. missed you guys.

fitna

i downloaded 'fitna', the controversial movie about islam written by a dutch politician, geert wilders. it's 16 minutes long, and it's easy to say that it is nothing more than a sensationalist propaganda movie. in this short film, he "highlights" 5 verses from various surahs (chapters) in the qur'an whose english translation lend them toward violence against non-muslims. i think the geert wilders, along with many others in the western world, is plainly muslim-phobic. the old testament bible speaks of similar actions, to rise up against those who don't believe in the christian god. i won't go too far into that because i've not yet read enough of the bible to not saying something stupid. that is why i'm reading the bible AND qur'an now, to learn about what christianity and islam REALLY stand for, instead of what people THINK they stand for.

i'm living in a muslim country, and i'm not afraid. these people aren't aiming to hurt westerners. there is no jihad. they are people, same as me: going to work, eating, having fun, living. no muslims here have tried to convert me. i've tried to engage in intelligent conversations about their religion because i know very little about it and am interested in learning more, but these conversations are typically fruitless, not because of ignorance, but due more to the language barrier. this movie shows one extreme of the muslim religion, the fundamentalists, the radicals. they are the minority that we know of because they make headlines. since those are the only way we know of islam, it's generalized that all muslims must be this way. christianity has this same type of fanaticism with our pat robertson's and jerry falwell's, the westboro baptist church. i would truly like to see a reciprocal movie made about these fundamentalist christians. both movies would be skewed in the manner that IS the definition of propaganda, but then watch the christians defend themselves with "we're not ALL like that" arguments that i fear they wouldn't find applicable to the muslims. people are hard-wired into an "us vs. them" mentality: family vs. strangers, lovers vs. friends, protestant vs. catholic. it's a dangerous and hurtful thing that we need to consciously try to change.

wilders believes he made a movie to open the eyes of the world to islam, where he only promotes the same hate that he fears they have for him (and i'm sure, even the peace-loving muslims are offended now). he's carelessly poured salt in an already excruciating wound, all based on ignorance and fear. i hope i'm not coming off as too new-agey, but we're all people on the same planet trying to be as happy as possible and make babies so they can be happy someday. i'm hoping that people who see this movie don't take it as a documentary on the muslim culture. still, i'm afraid too many will.

you can DL it from this site if you haven't seen it, and go here (yeah i know it's wikipedia, and this is a hot topic so beware graffiti) to read more about it. let me know what you think.

happy easter to all the churchly folks

i didn't even realize it was easter until i saw all the easter vids on myspace and the easter messages on facebook. is that bad? i just started a book today, "the complete idiot's guide to world religions", and i'm dragging myself through a couple chapters of the bible every couple weeks. oh, the joy of learning.

anyways, i just popped in to say, last night i weighed in at the gym, and i've lost 16.3 pounds since i've started recorded which just over a month ago. jules and i decided i was allowed to have a "gift" or a "break from my diet" for one meal once i'd lost 15 pounds, because i'm ALL about the positive reinforcement. i don't even like ice cream that much, but walking past the baskin robbins is tempting just because i know i CAN'T have it. so tonight, i get to have a 1/4 pounder with cheese meal from mcdonald's DELIVERED. i'm so excited. now THAT is bad, being excited to get to have a cheeseburger that isn't even really good, and some greasy fries (i won't eat all of them). i don't get to skip the gym since there's no NASCAR race on today, so gym, mcdonald's, some billiards, and bed. i'm getting a migraine (i get tunnel vision and after-images more than intense pain), so i need to run, take some headache meds quick.

alexandria picture post

the library at alexandria. though this library is breath-taking, i'm sure it's nowhere near as impressive as the original back in roman times.


this is the inside of the library at alexandria, looking from the top floor down.


jules had a habit of popping her head into my pictures this trip. this is the library from the bottom floor looking up.


this is me, looking the consummate dopey tourist, standing next to a real live dead mummy at the national museum of alexandria.


i like these. i think they are called box statues. they are meant to represent someone sitting with their knees pulled up to their chest, then the front is adorned with hieroglyphics detailing their life.


here is a stereotypical tablet with hieroglyphics inscribed on them.


the taxi that we took from the library at alex to our hotel had this "pitch" and "roll" gauge on it. if you know anything about egyptian drivers, neither of those gauges were very level throughout the trip. that being said, i want a set of those gauges.


this picture isn't from alex, but i had to share it. i think their is something wrong with this picture, but i just can't put my finger on it. if you can't tell what books those are, click on the picture for a larger version, as you can do with all the pictures in this post.

the rest of my alexandria pix are here if you are interested. also, i updated my "location" in the right sidebar. now, it shows my apartment location rather than the hotel i moved out of.

THEY'RE TRYING TO USE THE BACKDOOR!!!!

Penn & Teller Creationism Bullshit


not THAT backdoor, you pervs... oh, just me then? anyways, i think it's an amazing coincidence i ran into these two videos within the same relative timeframe. i've heard of the show called "bullshit", starring penn & teller. i may have even seen an episode or two at BTVJGJHo's house. this episode is about creationism and intelligent design. of course, since i'm on the side of P&T in this episode, i'd have to say, it's well organized, detailed, and thought out. of course, i'm a bit biased, but i HAVE done some formal debating (coincidentally with BTVJGJHo) and understand that you have to look at both sides of the argument critically in order to support your points and rebut to counter's points. i think this episode set a good foundation for that type of debate.

separately, i found a link to a CNN.com video about the anti-christian themes in the new movie "the golden compass". i think the movie looks good, i blogged about it many moons ago here. the president of the catholic league believes that this movie is trying to introduce children to atheism through a fantasy movie. they are afraid it's presenting christianity as a big, bad meanie society while promoting atheism as a free-thinking utopia, of sorts. this is what happens when grown-ups forget what it was like to be a kid. the kids are going to see witches, and fighting polar bears, monkeys, cats, and a cool story. that's pretty much it. the adults who, by this time in their lives, probably have their minds pretty much made up on this topic, might pick up some of the religious overtones, but that's a moot point.

anyways, i digress. the title of this post is such, because ironically, that paraphrase is used in both arguments, against creationism and ID in the "bullshit" episode, and against atheism in CNN.com report.

when will we ever grow up, er... i guess in this case, grow down?