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Literally.
Heather, with her ever sharp powers of observation, pointed out a region that looked cool; houses and churches carved into the rock.
I took an *ew* tour, leaving 7pm from Istanbul, a lovely busride till 9am to Göreme (one of the busstops reminded me of a very very crowded place from some Indian movie, sellers barging onto the bus to sell us pastries, tons of people moving about... then again, I refuse to comment on a Nation by its bus stations... my god, go visit a Greyhound in the States! Its scary!)
Ok, hold for this.
The Aga-Khan, the effective version of the Pope to Ismaili Muslims was attacked a few days ago; Sis just sent me a forward
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/content_objectid=13225957_method=full_siteid=89488_headline=-BASEBALL-BAT-THUGS--ATTACK-ON-AGA-KHAN-name_page.html
No, he isn't worship *as* a Living God, by the way.
I hope everything is alright... I just got a chill up my back.
Anyhow got down this morning, checked in... Yes, it was a hole in the wall. Its a room carved into a cave. How cool is that, I ask? Went on the hot tour, burned three rolls of film ..
Oh, have I ever mentioned how cute girls look with their hair done up in Bandanas?
The many governmental and attitude changes in Turk define the region... Christians fled into the area in the 4th century and took advantage of the fragile rock known as tura to build their residences on... One outdoor Museum has 2,004 churches, some with frescos dating back to the 10th centuries. Greek and fastidious Muslim children had vandalized them somewhat, out of ignorance and reading into a Muslim ban on idolatry as a reason to peck out the eyes and faces of the Christian figures... Still, Christian and Muslim faiths seem to have co-existed quite well, especially with the Sejuk Turks, who valued the art and ordered it preserved.
Frescos of the last supper, the betrayal of Jesus, rising of Lazarus, etc, were quite moving just in the devotion that these people had. It seems that since they were country people, they had a lot of expendable time... which is exactly the opposite of what I'd expect, keeping the sustainance farmer in mind.
There was a long climb up a seemingly treacherous path to a particular hermits cave, and I planned upon climbing in the name of youthful enthusiasm, until the Brit girl that was up there couldnt get down... she was wearing shorts and *little else* according to her friend, and therefore couldnt reach all the footholds due to lack of foot freedom... She got down after about thirty people collaborated on a way to get her down (and the one Dutch climber that seemed brave beyond logic went to just push her up one more ledge so she could walk another 1/2 mi. to the other way down) .
Keep in mind, this is only a 20ft climb.
Anyhow, her and her friend are meeting me for drinks later. :) Just to chill, calm down. They speak English for christ sakes. So far, I've met a forsenic psychiatrist from Conneticut, a pair of decent Kiwis ( go figure), the Aussie couple from yesterday, and a very nice Turkish girl photographer... we both spent ten minutes taking pictures of a kitten in front of the Blue Mosque.. one of the best mosques in the world and we are taking pictures of a kitten... so much for professionalisim. Anyhow had a nice half English, half hand-gesture conversation.
Why are we (guys) so much friendly to girls? It isn't necessarily a thought that we might *get some* as a few friends of mine might say... sitting and chatting with a male photog from the street just seems odd.. esp. if they were turkish. Its as if, even while you dont plan, expect or try for things to happen with a girl you meet, its a minor possibility, making the casual chatting that much more fun... does that make any sense?
And yes, I have a girlfriend I adore. No, I'm not cheating on her. No one is allowed to yell at me for flirting. (except sis, who will anyhow). And the first person who rolls *her* eyes and says "Men!" with a gasp will get .. um... some sort of e-punishment. Dixie, don't even start it. :)
Hah, thats the other thing. Save a minor few incl. Heather and Sis, I can't think of anyone that might criticize me that hasn't been unfaithful in the past. :) Its not just something jerk guys do, folks.
Funny thing, the pshrink I met commented that Barcelona being such a wild place, no matter what kinda person sis is, she'll be a party girl after. Not sure if thats a good thing or not. (mom, ignore that, will you?)
Guys, leave comments. Click on comments. Only way to know that I'm not the only one reading this.
Anyhow, having fun down here, hole in the wall is surprisingly comfortable; and stayed cool through the day.
I do kinda wish Serena or Heather or HeatherW or Tara, or a number of other people were here with me. Travelling alone is its own fun, but I contantly run into mixed couples (SO MUCH MORE than in England, by the way)...
Oh, something new. UK needs teachers, so Kiwis and Aussies are working in the UK (with the pound being about three times stronger than either the Kiwi or Aussie dollar) and since salaries are numerically similar, it works out to be a LOT more money to travel with .. L6000 for a couple for a pair of months versus 20000 kiwi...
Been meeting cool Kiwis and Aussies, might have to re-evaluate my opinion on them.
Ta ta for now.
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Just setup a blog for sis, anyone know any good photo inseration things for Moveable Type? Shes got that digi cam and all, y'know.
Interesting enough day, Saturday plans are to visit the market and Taksim square, and see the sunset from a tall tower in Taksim, then party the night away, Sunday is for the Spice Market and Grand Bazzar, and to finally look INSIDE the Blue Mosque that I've been walking around all this time, then off to Uzbeksitan.
Aussies get charged $20 USD for the exact same visa I got charged $100 for. Bastards.
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[typed from a physical written journal entry, today at 1:40am]
Now, heres the thing. I've blogged tiwce today and keeping a journal seems redudant. Maybe this can be a "when im not near a computer journal".
Fell asleep on the roof at 6pm after having a delightful meal of Iskendar Kebap at the recommended restaurant and walking around Sultan-Ahmet. Woke up, went to sleep in my bed until about 1am... Across the street is an old turkish prision *hums the Midnight Express theme*, its been converted into a Four Seasons.. I've got to stay there at some point.
I cant do too much right now, can't make the noise in my room opening bags to get high speed film to shoot the lovely streets or get what I needed for a shower... [I ended up staring at the sky and listening to the second Harry Potter book] ... I'm starting to realize something.. the Turks really are friendly.. WOmen seems to love them too ... well, Euro women anyhow. I haven't met any American or Brits yet.
I want to visit Cappadocia, and the stone churches that were carved there, but beyond that, all I know to visit is the Turkish coast/rivera as recommended by the neighbor on the plane..
Whats funny is that I was really wishing that it would just be AUG 03 because I had some fear of Istanbul.. now im over it... a nice nap and food changed that :) I've got four more nights, and five days, how best to spend them...
An interesting note is that the turks think I'm a foreigner ("I've been waiting for a girl like you..." - five Rizzy points if you got that), and the Euros think im a Turk. I was just told by a carpet salesman that I walk like an American...
[the rest of the paper journal can wait]
Parents would be happy to know that I woke at 6am ... im not on LA, NYC or Turkish time ... i seem to be on Japanese time. Its very odd. Either way, the time to take a nice shower and shave was very helpful to my mood and I'm quite ready to conquer istanbul..
Interesting notes:
I've seen three one-eyed cats so far.
Old men and young boys sometimes sit on the sidewalk in the town center with a scale. Thats it. I don't know if they are offering to guess my weight, or what.
I've seen a McDonalds cart. No, not a store (although I did see one of those too).. a cart... they seemed to be selling some sort of baked pastry .. its just odd to see a McD sign in the middle of a sidewalk.
Whats incredibly annoying is that everyone wants pics, and I want to supply them... but of course, I'm shooting 35mil and Polaroid... perhaps I'll do some scanning later, we'll see... or send em home to have snapfish do? Else I'll just wait until after my trip and then punctuate with pictures.. I havent taken any anyhow.
Today, the plans are for a Bazaar visiting, the Blue Mosque, and other stuff. HeatherW is right about assuming that everyone doesnt speak English, and while I shouldn't be sensitve about sounding like an idiot reading out of the phrase book, [I dont get annoyed at tourists in LA for having poor English, just natives], but one wants to avoid the appearence of being foolish. Plus they all speak a smattering of English.
Serena : Email me directly, I tried to email you and I must have forgotten the address
Love to you all,
Rizwan
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First, I'm in a nation where the one Litre bottle of Schwepps Bitter Lemon costs 1,750,000 Turkish Lira.
Secondly, the internet cafes here, while cheap, have one oddity. Turkish keyboards. Some of the juxapositions (left turkish, right english)
ğ [
ü ]
ş ;
i '
, \
ö ,
ç .
. /
" `
Those aren't so odd on their own, since they all use the windows ability to switch to an english layout... its ..
well its this
ı
its the letter i.. but its missing something. the dot.
ı and i are two completely different sounding letters. Very disturbing to me.
Anyhow,
its quite warm here, and not having had a cool place since the airport hasn't helped. They seem to have eschewed the use of Air Condition, which is fine, but since Istanbul straddles the ocean, its also very humid, making sweating a futile endevor.
For the first time ,I wish i was travelling with someone. It could just be the first day jitters, but i see people moving in groups and its nice. There dont seem to be many americans at this particular hostel and the french and germans speak about as much English as the turks do. Past travels were easier cause I could always find someone else who would either want my company or let me tag along, the common language being a strong bond, even in a land of people that speak English.
Perhaps its just this hostel. I might end up just doing pre-packaged tours, the langauge barrier is really really intimidating me.
I just heard Azan for the first time in my life. For those of you that don't know, Azan is the calling to prayer from the mosques in Muslim countries five times a day... "Allah-u-Akbar" (God is Great), etc... its an amazing sound. Now, I'm about as religious as a pea in a pod ... i see the other peas around me, think that perhaps someone planted my plant, and thats about it. (Its not that great of an analogy, but i thought of it while walking up here and i wont let it go), but to hear the call to the faithful is amazing, just as hearing scads of people sing hymns in Ireland together was...
My watch broke on the plane, so its stuck in nyc time right now. the screw for winding the time doesn't want to work, and they cannot fix it here apparently, so either i keep it and add 7 to get the accurate time, or i buy some cheap watch ..
Anyhow, thats it for this time ... yeah, thats two blog postings in a 5 hour period .... they\ll be frequent until i calm down a bit :)
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Oh my goodness, they don't speak English here. I know this is a very naive
first comment to make about a country, especially being a semi-seasoned
traveller, but the Irish definition of not speaking English [i.e. speaking
Gaelic during drunkness] and the Turkish version [in which my cab driver
welcomed me to Istanbul about 30 times, in the effort to make
conversation]...
A post on moveabletype.org that I seemed to have missed
Those of you who checked out the Screen Savers today got a good look at
how easy it is to change style sheets on your Movable Type weblog right
within the interface. While Sarah had some good ideas on how to do this,
we don't recommend just taking someone else's stylesheets. Feel free to
learn from them, but make sure you modify them or create your own.
http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/opinion/story/0,24330,3427221,00.html
http://www.sarahlane.com/mt/
http://www.movabletype.org/docs/mtmanual_templates.html#default%20templates
Anyhow,
before I started, I have to point out a missed blog. I started a rant
about some craziness as far as girls as concerned a few days ago, but
didnt finish it. Then I started a bit about me missing the enviroment of
working on the Mike and Ben show, but I didnt finish that either. Also in
that blog was a phonecall I got from (ex-gf2) in response to a letter I wrote
her.
She is like the fourth person to suggest that I go into writing and
photography... my writing seems to be well articulated, she said, along
with some other compliments.
The disadvantage of blogging is that it might keep me from writing in my
paper journal, but im at the point where a very complete blog outweighs an
illegible partially written paper journal.
Woke up yesterday after seeing the Nightmare Before Christmas for the
first time the night before with Heather, placing 2nd in a 8th ed draft,
sucking it hard in an 8th ed sealed... oh, I walked away with a Brass
Herald and a slightly nicked Birds of Paradise, I've got a full set now.
It was something call Anaconda style where the top rankers pick the rares
out of the draft pack..
The man was insane and was going to award 4-2-1 as the prize structure for
a thirteen dollar draft, until I complained, pointing out the WoTC
standard 8-4 for an 8man $10 draft. Being cheap and rude, he upped it ot
5-3-2 and gave me a bad look. The 12man netted him a surplus $75 ... And
who charges 13 for a draft anyhow?
Woke up, loaded up the iPod and other nonsense, finally finished packing,
went to the Ismali picnic downbelow, then ended up with family for a while
before I ended up at Serenas with a flower... we packed up the car, played some Kingdom Hearts, got late night chocolate and milk
and slept... woke a few hours later and went to the airport, dining on the
back of her car there.
Waited a bloody 80 minutes in the line to check in, with no problems,
except that I had to take out all my film except those in the heavy foil
shield, because they finally publically admitted that they increased the
power on the Xray machines.
Said goodbye to Serena, I'm gonna miss her.
Security went alright, one quick body check and film check, but I can't
bitch about it; it was because I beeped, and cause I asked for a hand
search of film, not because I'm brown. So much for consipracy theories.
Ate Milanos and milk, boarded and had a very sleepy flight. The woman
offered me a Moslem meal, and I felt like going ballistic. Who the fuck
says Moslem anymore... might as well call me a Mohammeadian. Jesus.
Landed in NYC, tried to buy a First Class upgrade to no avail.. the woman
who I had asked seemed to be no-nonsense, getting a media upgrade would be
next to impossible.
JFK to IST was an uneventful fight, ended up getting some form of saag for
my "moslem" meal, asked for some of the beef everyone else was getting ;p
In changing the time, I somehow broke my watch... Watched half of Bend it
Like Beckham ...
Anyhow, arrived, and got the fastest visa I ever had. Just hand them an
open passport, stamp, hand over $100 and its over. Fucking highway
robbery.
Was met in baggage claim by a guy who ran his own cab, flashed me some
important ID badge... I negociated down to $20USD... I was worried it was
a scam, but he was clingly, and I did the american thing of being afraid
to offend and possibly walk into a dangerous situation. All that happened
was that he offered me the deluxe version of the drive for $5USD more,
then eagerly requested a tip at the end of 5 USD, and was very annoyed
when I didnt have it. He even refused to take 1.000.000 TLs (about $.75,
with the other $2 I had given him) demanding 5million... whatever, i was
there.
So im hot, tired, with a broken watch, just now remembering what it is to
backpack, and just as scarily, how hard it is to be in a country where you
cannot be understood. Oh help me trusty phrasebook. I think im gonna fix
the watch and cool down and orient myself today and do hardcore travelling
tomorrow ... maybe. I feel kinda stupid wasting the day today.
I'm gonna ask HeatherW to post this to my blog as the webserver is not
behaving over here. . it could just be seth's fault too...
[update : it was.]
[another update : im mass mailing anyone whom i care about and telling them about the blog, so im hiding the old entries. Enough personal stuff that I dont want mass aired ... just yet ]
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I know now the reason for the frustration between mum and dad, and it was what I expected... save for the fact that I didnt want to know what it was and I was told in a fit of frustration on mums part. Bad mistake, but whats done is done.
Got Sis to Spain after a weekend that seemingly lasted forever. I totally love her and I know she will do great. Felt annoyed that she had two people heping her out full time and I wont get any help at all for my trip :(.
Just swatted a mini ladybug in the house. Why are there ladybugs in my house?
Stayed with Serena from late Sun night till Mon morning, having fun, then went to spend the later day with Heather, getting travel books and errands done, etc. Serena flipped thinking that I wasn't gonna see her on her way home and then didnt want to meet Heather and I for dinner because she felt embarrassed. Serena and I had a lot to talk about which we did after the dinner happened, and the seemingly impending breakup didnt happen at all, and Heather is , of course, right; she wanted to be the most important thing in my life, the top of all my priorities list. Anyhow, while the aforementioned dinner did happen, with Shade, Serena's sister, I asked Shade to repeat something because it was noisy and I am easily distracted, and the faux pas of the month happened .. serena leaned over and whispered something into Shade's ear, which for its timing might as well have been standing on a table and shouting ADHD! Shadiya pointed out how incredilby rude it was and the whispered comment turned out to be "Hes seeing a doctor for that" ... I attemtped to dismiss it with a bygones ... actually said that, which is really odd... but it did bother me... aren't my personal things mine?
India blows hard. Since my FATHER is Pakistani born, I am apparently of Pakistani origin (!) and require 3-4 months to process my visa. In addition, other people that have entered under same circuimstances (by a story from Aarif), have had to report to CID every morning, and when they don't, they are escorted to the Airport and told to never return. How terrible, eh?
We told the Indian consul to go fuck himself (After we had our friends call in as many favors as possible, I guess all indians know each other ;p) and am now entering via Turkey, dept 23rd ... Good 5 days in Turkey too.
Speaking of ADHD, I'm doing what I used to do with Hogans Heros, I'm watching the Season 4 CD 1 of Sex in the City that just showed and watching it at double speed and just watching the subtitles... if you think women are a lot to handle, try watching that show, 3 hrs worth, at double speed...
HeatherW is amazing. I just realized what a no-maintaince friend she is, and yet I consider her a close friend that I can talk to... granted, she doesnt talk to me about personal things but I think her mentaility is such that she really doesnt have that many personal issues ... (naive of me, I know)... the emails I get from her are, if you cant hang out thats fine, but you are welcome to come, but she really means it. I had like another paragraph to write about her, but I forgot. Maybe some other time.
Time to finish the end of this CD and go to bed outside.
Oh, my glasses broke. Where can I get another pair befoire I leave? I guess Lens Crafters ;p
Poll, do I bring my Palmpilot with me?
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The deck is mostly for casual type two multiplayer, although it can function just as well in a duel if you're still playing casual. Most tournament decks could aquire too much card advantage from Howling Mines in one on one. In multiplayer, the game goes fast, but you can still maintain creature control. It uses mostly Zombie tribal cards with some spicey tech.
Smelly Cat (Mono Black Zombies and Critter Kill)
4 Entrails Feaster (Smelly Cat!)
4 Noxious Ghoul
3 Shepherd of Rot
3 Zombie Trailblazer
1 Phage, the Untouchable
4 Innocent Blood
4 Dark Banishing
3 Chainer's Edict
4 Howling Mine
4 Zombie Infestation
3 Slate of Ancestry
21 Swamp
2 Cabal Coffers
This deck is a blast to play and can easily breeze through small creature decks, like Elves or Goblins via the Noxious Ghoul. The Smelly Cat eats critters killed off with Bloods, Edicts, and Banishings to keep growing and growing and growing. Trailblazers make the large Cats and Phages unblockable. Shepherds kill already weakened opponents.
Howling Mine provides nice, consistent, early draw and keeps opponents off of your tail in chaos multiplayer.
Zombie Infestation and Slate of Ancestry are a match made in heaven... er... heck. Just keep drawing lots of cards, making lots of tokens (which give non-zombies -1/-1 if Ghouls are in play) and... draw more cards.
Phage is a nice alternate win condition to cat and zombie damage. You can easily get enough mana to play her with the Coffers and Trailblazers of course make her unblockable.
It is a blast to play. I like playing it against Wonder based decks. I honestly hate that critter. It's so wonderful to be able to eat one of those guys and get a larger kitty.
Smelly cat! Smellly cat~! What have they been feeding you? (Wonders and dead Wellwishers.)
-Pharmalade: ^_^
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I'm on a AAC kick, I need an AAC encoder for my PC .. double over my ipod (again!)
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Starting off with DCI Reporter
Judge List Archives Searchable archives from the dcijudge-l mailing list.
DCI Judge HandbookPDF-format production files for the Judge Handbook
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Pepsi has a new "patriotic" can coming out with pictures of the Empire State Bldg. and the Pledge of Allegiance on them. But, Pepsi left out two little words on the pledge, "Under God."
Pepsi said they did not want to offend anyone. If this is true then we do not want to offend anyone at the Pepsi corporate office. If we do not buy any Pepsi product then they will not receive any of our monies. Our money
after all does have the words "Under God" on it.
Assuming this is true, which is an iffy at best;
Which is worse, Pepsi spending that much time thinking about it, or someone actually being upset about it.