Rizwan Kassim's Public Log

catchup

Oh; I missed July 4 in the states... I totally forgot.

I've got my ups and downs, but overall I'm okay.

Site of some fellow travellers; amazing people; expect a lot about them in future blogs

www.e-xpeditions.com

Enough for now; cheers
Rizwan

The song that never ends

I've been giving some thought to Everquest recently... I'm not considering taking it up again, don't worry. Magic takes enough of my time, and I've got a girlfriend again, and while I didn't lose (ex-gf2) over Everquest, and Serena would probably even like it if we both played together, it didn't help that last relationship much ;p.

Its just the random factions that I had to learn to be competent. Heres a secret answer to an important question; Beyond the competitive aspect, why do I like games like Magic, Everquest, Final Fantasy, RPGs, certain fields of study etc? Its because they are closed sets.... there is a limted amount of information to learn (not really true in the "fields of study aspect"), I can read articles and strategies and become good, not necessarily through practice but by reading and contemplation. I was a decent druid and a good wizard in EQ, and I knew zones and strategies well, not because I had experienced it all, but because I could read about it. I'm a decent magic player because I know the rules throughly, watch and read about magic enough to try to learn what other people think etc... I'm better in Constructed where my deck has a limited amount of powerful approaches, and a constant set of strategies, rather than Limited where there is more data to take in and many many more decisions to make. Whats odd is that in real life, I prefer opposite situations; engineering problems that are new to me inspire me much more than something I've already done and figured out, designing a memory module in VHDL/Component Level is much more exciting than a module I've already done something similar to (say an 8bit carry adder)...

Ah, I just found the perfect contrast... Chess. I don't really enjoy Chess nearly as much as I enjoy magic, and while they are wildly different games, the number of distinct states in most Magic games is a minute sum compared to the number in a good chess game. It's not that I want to play games on autopilot, but ... actually this talking has confused me as to what my point was. So much for clarity as an author. I'm sure I contradicted myself there a few times, but whatever; I hate to edit.

Anyhow Everquest. I liked it, it was a small set of knowledge... oh, there was the point I wanted to make... Its something I could study, and master. I guess Chess is actually like that (rather than the indefinite Poker) too but I haven't studied Chess. I could learn about zones in EQ, I could make up for my lack of experience with studying... I could read articles and have a leg up on others with more experience since I had read ahead. (Later, of course, I had a leg up since I had studied the game structure and telelport around zones, summon people, make platinum, etc; but I'm talking about "legal" stuff right now)

I was playing a game on my Treo that I had just downloaded... provides a six letter anagram and you are to find as many words hidden in it as possible... you proceed to the next level if you find the six letter word... Its called TextTwist, I believe. Yahoo Games has a good game where you get a 2-d grid of letters and have to find letters within contigious words in the grid. One of the scrambles I got resembled Siren... and I remembered... Siren's Grotto.

The Grotto was placed between Cobalt Scar and the Western Wastes... the Scar was (pre-POP) a decent XP location if you had worked up your SS faction, had exits to SG and Skyshrine, and was the closest port location to WW; which was the place to be if you were a high level Velious guild. Our guild, ... damn, I can't even remember the name... Started with an M... Oh, Maloudi Clan.. then we merged with someone... Anyhow, SG was interesting... no one actually spent any time... the drops sucked, no one wanted to fight in a zone with high hp high hitters with lousy drops, and many of which were casters that could charm or mez you... Its annoying to watch yourself beat on a friend in a group, they don't really like that, no matter how much you scream "CHARMED, CHARMED! RUN!" Of course, Velious was two years old at this point, so a lot of the people that had first explored SG and deemed it unworthy had long moved on. If you were a big race then you could camp in a wall and it would succor you when you re-entered to the safe point in the zone, which was the other side of the zone; ... The ideal way was to just bring a wizzy or druid with succor though... once in a while people actually trudged through running, bringing lovely trains to the entrance, and there was always a corpse recovery run after that..

Anyhow, the point... I invested so much time and energy into this, why? It was fun, but there was more... I like limited worlds ... I like being able to know that this spell is always going to take effect, how much hp this mob has, and who my friends and enemies are... (being on a PvP server, especially after I pissed off Ascending Dawn, this became an important part of playing) ...

The real reason why I totally quit? That war with AD. I couldn't log in without being hunted down, my guild had been deformed, I was the center of a contraversy, and even though I was one of the best 10 wizards on the server, no one would have me. The innately social game of Everquest ceased to be so. I had stopped making money by selling plat at that time, so there was little incentive to force myself to log on... I started reading again (thank God!). I shiver to think what would have happened had the whole war with AD not started... And its such a trivial thing because, as both Rolo and I knew, there is this thing called post-EQ depression... its the feeling you have knwoing that you've spent 8 hours playing a game, had social conversatiosn with people that might as well be very good AI bots, made a great (or little) amount of progress in a world where your progress was a few kb on a server in San diego... Its the false subsititue for human interaction that makes it the worst though; I've spent 8 hours playing Final Fantasy or reading a book and I rarely feel depressed after, if I needed to experience people, I'd hit pause or walk outside... Having the burdens of other people relying on you to be there for raids, organize idiots ;p, do laborious Corpse Runs (which were, by far, the most inventive parts of playing and the most challenging...), skipping meals and showers because people needed you THEN; and without the interaction that comes with it. (Mostly because the interaction was just about the game.... Its like working at a job, most of the conversations pertain to work itself... you start having fun when other topics are introduced... )

Its another rant, I know; but who says these have to make any sort of point eh?

So why Magic now? First, I needed soemthing to take the place of EQ... I started and soon stopped on Magic Online because it was too expensive, and to be honest; I got tired of sitting at my computer hours playing Magic... if I can shake a hand and watch other peoples games and get winks at other people when they pass me a nice bomb in a stack of cards during a draft, it adds something to it. I'm thinking judging will probably take a lot out of that, as you aren't necessarily "one of the crowd"...

Anyhow, its a social game. Its played between two concrete people; and playing Friday Night Magic has meant that I've made friends in the Ville; granted we talk about hanging out and we never do... and granted that many can't drive yet; but its something. I met a good friend, HeatherW by playing Magic, and our friendship has branched out from there... Serena was mildly entertained by Magic at Nationals, allowing me to play and judge some events while she played or watched or chatted with folks... Hopefully she'll come to the Mirrodin pre-release and play, then her and I can start playing together more... either that or she'll start teaching me how to play Harry Potter cards...

Oh, have I mentioned how much I love Harry Potter? I've finished reading all the books, and am very glad that there is some final restful state that that fifth book ends in; I'm not a real fan of cliffhangers... Serena was right, the third, fourth and fifth books are better than the first two... its her writing style that gets me though... I normally get very tired with overly descriptive imagery (I refuse to read "The Voyage of the Dawn Treder" to this day, even though I love the rest of the Narnia series) but JK shows a lot more detail in facial expressions and looks between people than other authors, and far from being bored by it, I find it entrancing. I really don't see how you can call these kids books, they have never felt like any kids books I've read...

Digression: Has anyone the idea of the title of a book ... it was one that I read a long time ago, it was a about a kid (Canadian, I think) that went on a driving tour with some group through the states and he proceeded to run amazing scams throughout the way, setting up a disco in a warehouse in San Fran, charging people to milk cows as a tourist trap in Iowa, scamming Las Vegas casinos, and more until the Feds catch up with him... I've went back to the library in Lomitas Elementary, but they have since redone (and rennovated) their library, so looking in the same location for the book is no longer a possibility.

If you haven't read any of the Great Brain series by Fitzgerald, you are missing out, by the way.

So questions I've got about Potter, no answer, just wondering peer opinion...
1. Where will the books lead after the seventh book... After reading (well, listening to) Prisioner of Azkerban, I wondered how the theme might extend past Hogwarts, and while the underlying conflict is obvious now,
2. What happened to Percy after "Phoenix"?
3. Have they annouced plans to make movies out of Book 4 and 5?
4. What are the guesses on what Harry will do on his OWLs?
5. Why is Cho such a whore?
I had more, but of course, I forgot.

There I go again, extrapolating fiction into reality. (slaps his hand.) Thats the problem with more down to earth fictions, its hard to imagine heavy scifi as part of our daily lives, but both with books that take place in known places with characters you can relate to, and games in a "earth like world" I've woken up in the morning needing to sort out reality and fiction... that can't be good, can it?

Where is a good resource for leaks about whats coming up or a good community site?

Anyhow, I've ranted enough for today, the plan is to get a tour of Tashkent tomorrow and maybe hope to a nightclub or bar in the evening (Uncle K wants me to be escorted which is a bit much, I think).. Saturday eve has a train to Samarkand where I plan to spend a few days, followed by a quick day or two visit to the desert camps, then perhaps to Ferghana valley, the core of Islamic conservatisim in this part of the world.

The the indepednce celebrations on Sept 1 followed by a trip to Kyrgistan ... I'm not going to Kahzakstan or Tajikstan or China; the first two being "not worth visiting" and the latter being "too hard to visit" ... I'm a bit disappointed, it seems like a waste to come all the way out here and not see "everything," but its a bit silly to waste days seeing lonely steppes and whatnot if the history is in Uzbekistan and Kyrgistan. I'll have to find out more about East China though...

Magicially Delicious

The 8th edition common print runs have been cracked for both MTG and MTGO ... Good way to guess what your feeder drafted or even make decent guesses at what cards your opponent drafted... Too bad most stores don't draft eigth edition... take a look.

Ornithopter has been reprinted, that is a nice boost to storm. Mirrodin looks amazing, and quite complicated for (ahem) judging, I can't wait to judge the pre-release...

Updated text on some very nifty cards

Shared Fate

Enchantment (R)
If a player would draw a card, that player removes the top card of an opponent's library face down instead. Each player may look at and play cards he or she removed from the game with Shared Fate as though they were in his or her hand.

Grim Reminder
2
Instant (R?)
Search your library for a non-land card and reveal it. Each player who played a card with the same name loses six life. Then shuffle it back into your library.
: Return Grim Reminder from your graveyard to your hand. Play this ability only during your upkeep.

Thats just damn cool. :)

Leonine Scimitar

Artifact - Equipment
Equip Cost:
Equipped creature gets +1/+1.

Equipment is a subtype of artifacts affected by everything that affects artifacts but with two unique attributes - a cost and a benefit of equipping a creature. We aren't certain if there will be (reminder text) on equipment, or if the concept will just be added to the comprehensive rules. But basically, it looks like after casting the artifact, you can "equip" target creature with it by paying the equip cost. The equipped creature then gets the effect of the equipment. If the equipped creature leaves play, the equipment remains in play as an artifact. You can equip another target creature with it if you want by paying the cost again.

We that assume equip costs can be played any time you could play a sorcery, since it’s logical that a creature couldn’t put on armor, clothing or weapons faster than an instant. Also, we assume that you can "move" equipment from one creature to another by paying the equip cost. Unlike previous attempts at indestructible creature enchantments like Rancor, the host will not need to be removed from play to reuse the equipment.

Distinctly un-fantasy like... well sort of...
"When the holy Wotc prints Pickachu as a card tommorow soms people will still say 'what a cool card'. I've been playing Magic for 8 years now and this must be the lamest mechanic since rampage."
Some people don't like it... Rampage sounded cool to me though, and we all hate that beast that gives a rampage like ability...

Was Rancor broken, by the way?

Anyhow, bet the next set will be very uber-fantasy to balance out the tech here.... Anyone out there ready to predict the end of Magic?

A hot steamy room with men

But before that...

After the drinking incident and my bemoaning of my poor iPod, I went with a short walk to see some of Bukharas sights... The various merchants had tons of Soviet trinketry and it was all I could do to remember my past overpayments and avoid taking home what would end up to be useless garbage... Wonderful stopwatches, pins of Lenin, anniversarys, military insignia, Military Decorations, old Ruble coins... It was quite tempting, let me tell you..

Along the way we saw the ancient Ha'mam, or bathing house... stepping side and feeling quite ill from the steam I ducked out again, but it didn't seem as nearly intimidating as I thought it might be... Foolishly, I agreed to come the next morning and have an early morning bath. We proceeded on to a pair of twin masjits with the tall 46m minaret next to it... (the next day I would see pictures of its shattered hulk after the Bolsheviks bombarded Bukhara in 1920.) Teh restored minart was aew-inspiring, and I probably burnt a third of a roll of slide film on the shadows the evening sun laid across both it and the masjits... Peering around, feeling a bit nauseous again, especially while debating whether to scale the minaret or not.

I looked down to see a little girl (the afore mentioned one) which brightened my day... I think I've spoken about her so I'll move on... We walked around some and sat out playing my new form of checkers... the next morning, I was almost kicked awake by Otabek... the time had come.

Arriving, half asleep, aware that I was wearing boxers with an open front and not the (more?) appropriate speedos that Otabek had trounced around the room in, we arrived outside the Hamam to find it locked... I thought about speeding away at this point, as waking up at 6am was something I only did when absolutely having to. (to Work at Comedy World in emergencies, to eat Milano cookies, stuff like that) Otabek walked off leaving me alone to be eaten by the numerous flys... have I mentioned how much I hate flys? Half an hour later, he arrives with the attendant who rings the owner on his cell phone... Turns out he was inside all long.

We get inside, and change... I'm in a fresh pair of boxers; Otabek, Another tourist and an old Uzbek in his birthday suit join us (thankfully, I'm free of my glasses at this point, so everyone is a big blob and I don't have to do the "I really really really don't want to see that region" thing that guys do in showers.) The first room was a mite hot, but passibly bearable.. I'm used to sauna type things being very very dry... This was the opposite.

A digression.
From reading "A Blind Watchmaker" I've learned how an author can be very branched in his thinking and still keep a readers attention... It's quite amusing to see a bit of inner monolouge ("I really shouldn't try to explain the mathematics, but I will anyhow") in a published book... So back to the digression. (the first one, that is)

I hate sweating.
There are two states of being that I absolutely hate, and they are nausea and excessive warmth.
A nice warm feeling across your skin from a morning sun, a hug from a loved one, a lovers breath are all exquisite feelings. Sweating like a pig, on the other hand, is wretched, sticky and I would gladly abolish it from my life if it were at all possible (and reasonable). I avoid activities that make me sweat (one of the major reasons I don't excersize as I should), in fact, there are very few sweaty activities I will voluntarily participate in. (If, from now on, any "passionate" time I might spend with a member of the opposite sex be in, say, an igloo, there would be no sweaty activities I would care to participate in).
Nausea is almost as bad... your firm grip on the earth seems to waver, your balance is off, thinking of it makes you feel worse, hearing someone make a "puke" sound makes you want to run to a very private places and retch... the thought of being sick makes you sick, and the thought of being sick constricts your every movement...
I once used to say that I could tell a lot about a person whether they would prefer to be overly warm or overly cold... Actually, it doesn't reveal too much about a person, but it sounded smart at the time. Olga hates cold; being a small Russian grandmother, California in summer sounds like a delight...

Anyhow, the Hamam... I spent about ten minutes in the first room, then moved on to the "main room" where steam literally clouded my vision... the many-hundred year old bath house had ceramic piping running inside the stone, and I felt quite sick after fifteen minutes. I surrended then and ignored Otabek as he tried to explain that the usual sitting time was an hour... (I don't like sitting with nothing to do... my thoughts wander too much. I might think of (ex-gf2) and both pleasant and un-pleasant assocations; of being bullied as a child; the first time I asked a girl for her phone number; the awkwardness of my first kiss (and my intense embarrasment at my being 19 at the time); the beauty of my girlfriend; how much I should write in my next blog; whether I should finish at Cal Poly or UCLA; why is my iPod broken; Did Sirius really betray Harry's parents; an embarassment at whao I was when I was younger; happiness that I am who i am now; missing Heather ... my mind races too much, therefore my fear of boredom and the constant need for entertaining devices... I spent too much of my childhood sitting along and thinking... I do enough of it now as I prepare my blogs... time to consume content!)

Off to the central room with the smirking massuse, wondering why I'm already asking for my massage. In a culture thats possibly more homophobic than in the states (both here and turkey), i'm amazed how the homophobia never touched the bathing houses... even my latent (" I know gay people and some of them are very good friends and I'm totally okay with it, but don't hit on me, okay?") phobia wasn't triggered... it was just good massage... vigorous... lots of cracking back and knuckles... as I had to lower my boxers a bit, Otabek exclaimed *"Wow, you have a big bottom!" ... that just made my day... I was always told that it was cute! :p
The massuse was wondering why my muscles weren't fit ... yeah it wasn't really a day for compliments... It turns out that his family has been working in the hamams for about four generations, just like the spice vendor outside (who, apparently knows ambassadors and digitaries that come to visit and buy spices from him)... The massuse had some sort of oil that he used that smelt a bit like green tea, but I couldn't really place it then.

Far the best part of it was the pre and post massage wash... cool water, not cold, mind you; but cool water flowing over my body out of a basin.. it reminded me of my first yoga lesson... I never thought I could be in as much pain as I was doing it, and I would have wimped out long before if it werent for my not wanting to disappoint heather (and my annoyance that the teacher had stepped on my brand new glasses, breaking them) ... And then we rested... I can't think of a better rest in my life; every cell was aching and that ten minute nap on the woven mat was pure enjoyment... That being said, I've never been good at delayed gratification, and hurting for an hour or sweating for an hour for a few minutes of pleasure never seemed to be a good tradeoff.

Post-hamam, we had some green tea ("We got gypped", said Otabek... "They are out of the special spicy tea that they serve today") and headed back to the B&B where we had breakfast... and I had the watermelon that did me in...

Thats enough retelling for now, I think ill finish my last day in Bukhara till current time tomorrow. I have that list from a few blogs ago and the story 'bout the cat.

I've been inspired to write a lot recently... although its all been in my head... (ex-gf2) 's comments that i should write have been echoing in my brain recently... I've got enough interest and hobbies that I don't follow up on; should I really add another? Should I learn how to write properly? Enough people have expressed some appreciation in the delicacy I take in some of my personal letters, or have noticed how I speak when I'm thinking about what I plan to say, or the word games I play, interspersing my own forms into literature or movie lines... I dunno; Just pondering I guess.

Oh, why is it that we name things? I've found that people like to name things quite often... Reason I mention it is that I had a flashback to some story I read where guys were talking about what they named their members... Odd stuff. I spent a lot of time coming up with intracite passwords, the last one invovling a juxtaposition of words about capitalisim, Jack Benny and the fact that it was 2001... Sadly, no one knows how much work I put into those... the only two sets of things I can think that I've named (although I felt close enough to my iPod to name it had it not died on me) were my car (after being seperated from it and driving my mothers minivan for a week, I decided to name it Sapna after I picked it up from the mechanics... its a beautiful name, one that Sis loves and that I picked up from her. I could never name a child it, though, as its a hindi name, and regardless of what you might think, tradition plays a big role even if you arent that cultural... Imagine a shrimp boating family (I just watched "Foresst Gump") in Louisiana naming their kid "Rizawn)...
So yeah, I named my car, and .. well... an exquisite pair of breasts. Even then I didn't give much thought to them, I think we decided on "Lefty" and "Righty" before we decided to move on from choosing names to more interesting activities. (I actually started this diatribe as an excuse to mention Lefty and Righty; while I wont mention to whom they belong to, I have quite fond memories of them, just as others might have of a favorite blanket or soft pillow)

Mum, you can start reading now. In fact, you really should, as you'll like this.
Olga is great.
She's my uncle's second wife, and while I can't actually remember when they got married, they apparently are. Shes quite taken with him and him with her... Today Uncle Khadim was playing Freecell (actually, let me digress..
Uncle Khadim was the stern uncle.. hes the one that would shout if you were bad and rarely smiled and whatever... I don't remember a rapport with him before, even though he had one with Sis (He teased her for her tattered blanket that she carried around with her)... The thought of him enjoying comedies (as he does), musicials (as he does) and ... card games, of all things, bewilders me and I have to remember that my last impression of him was with him towering three feet above me as a "grownup".)
So Uncle Khadim was playing a card game, denying that he enjoyed it but instead that he did it for the challenge... I glance at Olga and see this sideways look on her face... I want to describe it as impish but thats just because Olga is short and playful; Impish is too devious an adjective... it was very kind and loving though and we both giggled at his lousy rationale... He caught the look and told me to ignore it, saying that women always come up with silly notions (which is quite true, but once in a while, they are correct), and we all had a good laugh.

I see her gaze at him with such love and him at her with such caring, it reminds me of the best days with my parents... I see it in them on occasion, but not as much... twenty eight years (happy anniversary mum and dad!) versus their seven years are quite different experiences, but its still cute to see.

When Olga overworkes herself, or when she had her attack of high-blood pressure; the mix of anger and worry in his face is astounding to see from a man that a month ago I thought rarely smiled... I was wrong, and glad to see it.

She pats his arm on occasion and tells me "He is very good husband, he takes good care of me, even when I don't listen", and I see a form of love... theres many forms, theres the blossom of affection that I feel for Serena that I dont dare give a title to yet, theres the inkling of love I began to feel for a girl in the past, theres the true and deep friendly love I feel for my best friend, theres the overwhelming and protective love I feel for my little sister, the supporting, laughing and nourishing love my mother and I share, the strengthning and warmth that my father gives me and I return... Its a complicated world for one with so little experience and who knows whether to dive in deep or tread water by the "shallow end." (not just in terms of Serena, but so many things...)

Anyhow, Das Svdania (Until we meet again, formal)

Rizwan

Why so fat?

It's been an interesting few days. I'm going to pretty much skip the recounting of the walled city of Khiva and all of the "to do" marks from the previous posting, I'll get to them back in Tashkent.

Rewind back to yesterday... the long drive between Khiva and Bokhara was made worse by the three hour wait for our car to fill up. (With shared taxis, they want to fill up every seat to maximize revenue.) About an hour into the drive, my iPod died. Like died. It wasn't a battery issue, I was using the external Belkin battery pack. It still doesn't work and this is a massive annoyance and depression factor for me; Almost every method of entertainment, happinses and sanity was on that thing... it doesn't respond to stimuli except button presses, when it makes a light whine. Apples tech support isn't much help; drain its batteries to allow a full reset, if that doesn't work, send it in for repair. As the nearest repair office is in Moscow, thats not a possibility. Anyone want to scourge soem online resources to see how to fix it? I've pried it open and have checked out the hard drive and the power pack visually.. nothign seems wrong.

We arrive in Bokhara, I'm slightly bored out of my mind from staring out of the window on the 6 hour drive. Check into a B&B, check my email and have some food. Meet some Aussies and Americans, although they seemed to have a ringleader, (she was from Santa Barbara) and was amazingly unfriendly, so that wasn't entertaining... We were debating whether to go out nightclubbing when a few shots of vodka made the decision for Otabek and me.

We change and show up... Only now does Otabek inform me that nightclubs in Bukara are havens for part time prostitutes... there are very few "honest girls"... at this point I've had more than I should have to drink and the calculus problems that I do in my head to gague my soberness start to blend into something else altogether.

Met some folks and started dancing and all... The girl I was with poked my tummy and said "Why so fat?" ... talk about a wake up call... she turned out to be a prostitue and still had the gall to comment on my weight ... must mean I need to work on it.

Oh, I shaved off my goatee, I'm clean shaven for the first time in quite a while.
This girl and I, along with Otabek and his friend progressed to an apartment when the "fun" started to begin... The girl I'm with asks for payment, and I suddenly sober up and realize what I almost did... I paid her for her time and split, not breaking any promises and not doing anything incredibly stupid. I'm quite thankful that I didn't mess up, especially since it was more inertia than any desire that led me to this apartment...

I was holding my picture of Serena the entire cab ride back.

I found out the next morning that instead of giving her two $20s like I had planned, I ended up giving her a hundred dollar bill and a twenty in the dark...

I've done a number of stupid things in my life, but this is one of the bigger ones. I specifically tried to avoid drinking out here because I didnt want to do anything retarded. I woke up today feeling terrible and pretty much slept for an extra eight hours ... I felt even worse when I saw the missing $100 bill, remembered my stupidity and the final straw was remembering my crippled iPod, which might not be fixable until I return it to Best Buy.

It took a little girl named Sabrina teaching me a form of checkers in one of the bazaars to fix what was until then one of the worst days in the past few years... It was really cute actually... it was regular checkers, except "must-take" and you could "eat" a piece in reverse, but not move backwards (without "Eating")... we had a small crowd and she made me promise to visit "her" shop of ceramics tomorrow; and talking to this terribly intelligent child who can seemingly speak 11 languages was enough to break the incredibly depressed mood I was in.

It my parents anniversary, I hope I can speak with them... I really really wish my iPod worked; im not so bummed about the exta $80 I lost (we called her but she denied taking the larger bills), its a definiate annoyance, but I can handle the financial lost...

Heres an interesting thing noted by Ann Coulter, a militant conservative in her new book, (which accuses liberals of plotting the downfall of America) (no, I don't agree with her about that)

The one reason we have no great American novelists is that all the smartest writers from harvards end up going to Hollywood and writing movies. And if you look at which moves are successful, despite the liberal scholck they stuff down our throats, the movies tend to be family-oriented conservative movies. (She goes on to call "Touched by an Angel" fabulously successful, so I dont really take her at face value, but it is an interesting point.)
The interview is quite a good read, as she is one of a very small group of young attractive super-conservative women in the media (can anyone say Ainsley Hayes) ... Its an article on Salon.com on 7/25/2003.

The little I've seen of Bukhara is quite nice, and now that my mood is improving, I can actually enjoy how beautiful the architecture is...

The iPod failure is really bothering me though, I had just started the fourth Harry Potter book too ;p My mood fixers are normally music, and the loop of not being able to listen to happy music due to one of the reasons I was down is quite quite annoying... I'm libel to take the entire thing apart piece by piece if i cant get it working ... ;p

Oh, Chapter 8 got cut off; if I get the ipod fixed, could someone please answer the following?
a) How much did Forge and Gred (extra points if you get the reference) win on their bet?
b) Who won?
c) What the hell happened in the game?
d) What was so amazing about those gypsy woman things that Harry became fascinated in (it got cut off right as Ron started to ask Harry if he was okay)?
e) Did anything interesting/important happen after that?

Oh Serena, AIM Express 4.0 works without needing a proxy (or java), it might work at your workplace.

http://beta.aol.com

Khiva was interesting of its own accord, but too touristy... I'll get back to more *normal* travel commentary next post. We've extended the trip a day to adapt for the lousy health and mood of today, so I plan to be back in Tashkent on the 22nd.

Final thought... it is said that around the world, the light of heaven shines down upon the world... In Bukhara, it shines up.

Boats in Sand

First, some net stuff.

Just found out today about some virus named Blaster ... not being plugged in, I hadn't heard about it until the local net cafe's computers died because of it. Blaster rewrites Windows worm rules

Interesting reads that caught my eye from my home page, they are good automatic RSS feeds folks!

Make me sound like I don't suck
When my friends ask me for help with their personal ads, I edit them the way I do writers at my magazine, with a firm but gentle hand

Two isn't company
In "Against Love," Laura Kipnis considers why the institution of marriage compels us to stray -- for good reason.

Just get a free day pass for the Salon articles.

Also, Mirrodin spoiled cards :

(no name)
Instant (C or U)
Destroy all enchantments.

Terror is reprinted. Sucks that I just sold off my foil Terror... heres the thing... with two Instant removals, Terror and Smother in Standard, can you imagine how powerful black would be (except for the massive Black Hosers out there, like Karma, and the many artifacts/enchantments that make it impossible to be mono-black. Damn.)

Atog and Shatter are back.

Fiery Gambit -
Sorcery (R?)
Flip a coin until you lose. If you lose, Fiery Gambit has no effect. If you win 1 flip, Fiery Gambit deals 3 damage to target creature. If you win 2 flips, Fiery Gambit deals 6 damage to all opponents. If you win 3 flips, draw nine cards and untap all lands you control.

Quicksilver Fountain -
Artifact (R?)
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player puts a flood counter on target non-Island land he or she controls. That land is an island as long as it has a flood counter on it. If all lands in play are islands, remove all flood counters from all lands.

Stalking Stones
Land (U)
: Add one colorless mana to your mana pool.
: Stalking Stones becomes a 3/3 artifact creature that's still a land. (This effect doesn't end at end of turn.)

Platinum Angel - ?
Creature - Angel?
Artifact Creature - Angel?
Flying
You cannot lose the game and your opponents cannot win the game.
6/6?

Evo-Morphs are creatures that combine flesh and blood with mechanical parts. They can change their form at will and seem to have 2 or more "modes".

There is a card described as "doggie-style elf" as well as a 10/10 artifact creature for five mana.

Go here for the updated partial spoiler.

Oh, I've always wanted to make video games for casinos for a living. Heres someone who does. He also made the Addams family pinball game that we played Serena..

Now back to travel news, as I am actually, you know, 12 time zones away. (Okay, it isn't exactly 12 time zones, but it is 12 hrs from PST before any geeks start counting India, Arizona and the other places with wacky timezone rules)

It seems that everyone thinks I'm either Arabic, Indian or... wait for it .. Japanese. Go figure.

First, left for Nukus, a city near the dying Aral Sea ... this large body of water is slowly drying up and visiting it was the top of the todo list... Boarded an Uzbekistan Airways flight on Monday... it was 110 degrees indoors, and we waited on the flight for 30 minutes "as if were JFK or something" (someone later commented)... I was with my guide, Otabek... Uncle K insisted that he come along after my little problem with the druggie.. after having travelled, its much better this way, the Lonely Planet sucks, they speaked DIALECTS of Uzbek, so even my phrasebook would have done me little good... his English is quite good, hes 27ish, married with a kid, and quite the philanderer.

Left for Nukus, and air finally started circulating after about 10 minutes in the air ... it wasnt a nice cool blast to make up for the heat but it slowly got better... it turns out that American services have grounded planes for being too hot in the states ,as I guess American customers won't tolerate the discomfort (which was quite extreme)

Arrived in Nukus without lodging plans, visited a number of hotels, including one that didnt have moving water (Otabek described Nukus as the end of geography, a non tourist location) ... ended up in a nice homestay with (gasp) Air conditioning , for $15 a night. Next day consisted of a day drive to Muynak, an old port town in the seventies, now a pitch desert. The drying of the Aral sea had left a number of boats stranded and there were "boat graveyards", with old ships sticking out of the dry sand, quite a sight to see... Muynak is quite far from Nukus though, 250km and the $50 to hire the driver for the day was quite spendy... The drive was torturous, I slept one way, and enjoyed the third harry potter audiobook on the way back.

My allergies have been torturing me here, and teh anti-histamines that I've gotten a hold of make my nightmares worse, makign me quite tired in the mornings. Severed coughing and difficulty breathing have made it quite difficult to travel. Stomach upsets take a back seat to this..

Drinking cold water after a hot day can lead to cramps by the way. Oh, the museum in Muynak

Nukus was the middle of nowhere, but there is a museum there of amazing art, a lot of it taken from Soviet Russia before the Stalinist purges and hidden here... the art is amazing, including some images of the New Economic Policy and the indugence that came from it... it might ahve been a picture of the Swinging 20's in the states.

Ran into some Peace Corps workers there... on their advice I went to a local junkyard... found the statue of Lenin that used to grace the city center... that was quite a shock... lying in a pile of trash was this 10m tall statue...! we all went to Urgench, the gate city of Khiva together on a Damas, sort of a bugish van (what were they called?)

I chatted with them and learned a lot about Uzbekistan, girls around here, about the Peace Corps, etc... it was quite fun having a flowing conversation ... conversation with non Americans can some times be stifling due to the need to explain metaphors and slang.... We went into the mountains for a bit trying to find some old petroglyphs but our directions seemed to be quite poor in the end. We crossed the big pontoon bridge over the ever-shifting Amadariya river.

Realize that I'm tired right now, so this isn't realyl the best blog I've written , and I know it. I've been not going out and instead sleeping a lot. My guide has a girlfriend in Khiva so he doesn't mind spending the nights with her ("once a man leaves his home by seven steps, its as if he wasn't married")

Stuff I need to hit next blog:

*More about boats and climate of Muynak
*What a hole in the mud Nukus is
*Peace corps
*Infidelity rant
*Duality of infidelity and wants/needs, listening to girls and guys
*Clipping about movies writers from Salon
*Urgench
*Khiva
*Photography (preperation, skill, burn rate, digital)
*Clubbing
*have to cancel freecreditreport (ok that was something different)

But theres the quick update. I've got another 6 nights of travelling before I return to Tashkent... on the list is a night in the desert, Bukhara, Samarakand, Shakabriz (?) ...

Oh, people who want to meet me on hot or not.
http://meetme.hotornot.com/r/?emid=SSOEEZ
http://meetme.hotornot.com/r/?emid=KLGRBQH

Seth thinks that everyone on Hot or Not has esteem issues and aren't worth more than a quick hookup or a few dates.. I've found an exception, but I think I might see what he means... I mean, look at these profiles! ;p

I really should update mine to say that I'm not single...

The current match list:
http://meetme.hotornot.com/r/?emid=KLKQNMR
http://meetme.hotornot.com/r/?emid=SZRUSM
http://meetme.hotornot.com/r/?emid=KQEZB8S
http://meetme.hotornot.com/r/?emid=KMASB8K
http://meetme.hotornot.com/r/?emid=KMNRHUG
http://meetme.hotornot.com/r/?emid=KQOESUS

Whoo, I'm 7.9!
(as you can see, i did anything to avoid the mental work required in actually blogging)
http://www.hotornot.com/r/?eid=RUNRN8&key=UHK

Reality Check

Last blog was right before I was to meet Nargiza... met her at exactly 7pm in front of the Opera house... oh and she, like Mohira, was early... by the way, what wrong with you people that think being early is a virtue anyhow? What traumatic event in your childhood led to the opposite of procrastionation, and that being super-puntual was an asset...

Anyhow, off the bat we negociated that I would have to speak slower for her to comprehend my English... took a cab to the Japanese Gardens (at which point I tried to read the Cyrillic off of the tickets.. I was right but it was still a comedy of errors... The garden was, by no means, impressive, but it passed some time and we talked about family etc... Next stop was a nightclub/restraurant that she knew about, but it seemed to be closed for the season.. next was a choice that I was given... some word similar to Acropolis and (after about three minutes of inter-language confusion) a restaurant with a strip-tease... she wanted to go to the strip tease, oddly enough, but was weirded out enough at the surprised look that she felt quite shy afterwards... not sure what the deal was... Ate an ok dinner, the soup, whos name I will put in when I think of it, was the same I had in caravan, a soup of mutton and potatos... and I succumbed to some desire to have a familiar meal... I ordered the steak. BAD IDEA. First, a steak for $3.00 should always be suspect. It was super well done, tough, rubbery, and totally lacking in flavor. Yes, I learned my lesson.

Nargisa and I talked about dating and the guy that wanted to be her boyfriend, and I realized that if I were trying to meet "girls" in that sense, I was going about it the wrong way... Uzbeks are the conservative half of the population... whats odd is that we could never agree on the concept of dating... the word, and how I described it, was quite different... Even as to physicality, it took a while for me to understand if this boy was with her or just a hanger-on... It was quite a culture shock, anyhow; and while there were still signs of her being interested, I gave up... (and am glad for it)

Next cabride had her a) promising to hook me up with her female friends that spoke English (while she was out of town, so that I have a friend), b) making plans for next time (museum and nightclub), and c) her promise to make a list of places I should visit while she is in Germany (for the next two weeks)...

Exit Broadway, and I happened to stumble onto a salesman... and he had pocket watches... and he had a stopwatch like the "60 minutes" one, something I had been wanting for about 20 years... and it was Russian, 25 years old.. I had to have it. I looked around at the other wares, including the 70 year old German stopwatch and some wonderful older German compasses and Soviet Insignia (what I really want is a Communist party pin), then I returned to the stopwatch... $20 was his offer; sadly, this was the first time I had not actually brought US currency with me, so hes holding it (perhaps) until tomorrow, but I'm going back to get it... A real pocket watch might be more useful and I would actually wear it, but I've been wanting a 60 minutes timer for years... He also had $260 pocket watches that were 150 years old... how amazing is it that the machinery still works. I don't know if my Kenneth Cole chronometer will last for ten years, much less 150.

Now heres the thing. The bill for food was 10100 sum... about $10 max. Two person meal, excellent deal. She was flabbergasted at the cost (she had seen the costs when she ordered, I would think she could have done the math); after counting out the very large amount of bills required to cover the bill, I led the conversation towards the difference in prices etc... She makes, it seems, $80/month, 80,000 sum for an entry-level travel agent job with multi-lingual skills and a B.A. ... so, at six days a week, I spent three days salary on her (from what I made at Comedy World, about $400). I can see the shock, and my wanting to buy a trinket (which at $20 was just that), that would be a weeks salary... Its odd being rich (when one really isn't).

Anyhow, we walked around broadway, got some ice cream and walked back... We are laughing a lot and having a blast, I was having a ton of fun... We walked by a Russian group of girls and I finally found out (through my translating friend), what it was they whispered whenever I was around ... "Is he Arab? No, I think hes Indian." Oh, oddly enough at the restuarant, I passed twice by a table of Russians, and the second time, one of them said Namaste... I said Namaste back, started to walk away, and then returned to join the conversation... I found out that his friend were from Moscow and I told them I was Pakistani actually, at which point they started to profusely apologize for saying Namaste, until I said, "Actually, I'm American, and as far as I am concerend, they are close enough." which actually led to quite a few laughs. I can be funning to people with poor English, the timing has to be re-done, thats all...

Outside of the apartment, I flag down a cab for her, but it pulls up with a bunch of Russian gals that look at me... who knows if it was with puzzlement or whatever.. she had been teasing me that I should go meet russian women so she hopped in the cab and encouraged me on... The girls had a head start so they had already started on their way up the elevator... and it began.

waiting in the open air, open access, mosquito infestion, urine smelling lobby of what used to be one of the best apartment buildings in the city (with still lovely interiors), a boy, about my age, comes out of the shadows and comes up to me... offers his dirty hand, "Salaam Ul-Akium." I took his hand and shook it and then proceeded to wait for the elevator car to return, when he started trying to talk to me... I obviously know almost no russian at all, so i say so, attemping to remember my russian for English please... his eyes are dilated, and he strikes me as a panhandler... I do what I've sadly had to learn to do here, ignore (its really hard when a five year old pulls on your shirt for three minutes begging you for cash, when you've been told that giving them cash just makes their parents put them out onto the street in the first place).

Another Russian woman walks up and he keep trying to talk to me.. then points at the girl and says "Woman... no?" Elevator thankfully arrives, but he gets in after the two of us... He obviously doesn't live in the building, but we let him pick the floor (remind me to tell you about the Soviet elevators, later); He picks ninth, and halfway up the shaky ride, he grabs my shirt, twists it and pulls me close to him, muttering something un-intelligable... At the ninth floor, we try to let him get off, but he wants to keep grabbing me, and we try to step aside to let her out (I asked her to "please leave" ... I can run like the devil, but not when someone else is there), and enough shoving got both of us out... the lady split and he comes to some sort of sense and attempts to pat my shirt and seemingly apologize. I say ok, and make haste down two floors to Olgas apartment... I don't like revealing the apartment location, but what can he do... then outside of the apartment, he grabs me again, and makes a cutthroat motion and points to what apparently is a knife in his shoe, yelling strange words that, of course, make no sense to me... I start knocking on the metallic door of the apartment and struggle to push him off... Olga finally got out of bed and opened up the door, at which point I shoved the nut back about 5 feet and slammed the metal door in his face... He spent the next ten minutes kicking the steel door and yelling and cursing Olga and I... aparently he was quite rude about it... he wanted $30...

Sorry to say, but I think he was a druggie; not because I'm like the paranoid adults assuming anyone deviant is on drugs, but this man needed a fix... my shirt was partially covered in blood from, assumedly, his hands. Inside the apartment, I put away my belongings in disgust, and Olga starts to feel tired. She proceededs to have a full massive high blood pressure attack, to the point that we have her in bed, hot water bottles to warm her and trying to avoid a stroke... It was quite frightening..

All is good now, Olga is fine, a lot of the surprise was that she was lying down, so getting up quickly, and the shock combined was a lot for her. My dirty shirt is in the hamper, the "ruffian" is not to be found and we assume that he was too blasted to know where I lived, and the only major problem will be a lack of freedom of movement for a while; they are both now nervous about me travelling on my own. Watching UncleK in action was amazing.. he was calm, patient, and ever loving with his wife... it was a sight to see.

In four years, nothing like this (the crazy man) had ever happened in their apartment building, and it quite visibly bothered them that it had. The private ambulance service was 16000 sum... Uncle K tipped them to 20k... Anyhow, my eyes are filled with sleepy dust, so that was the reality check...

This is Halloween....

I was gonna quote from the soundtrack, but you either know it, or you don't.

Today was boring enough, awoke to go to work and edit some English etc... Made a date (or tour, not sure which) with Nargisa, one of the girls in the office, for tonight, so should be nice...

As for my next travelling, the problem is one of language... I can fly to Nukus and see the Russian Art Museum (an eccentric millionare hid them in his mansion after the Revolution, so there is a ton of 19th century art that would have otherwise been destroyed), and the dying Aral Sea (two main rivers feed it, and both have been partially siphoned off for human use... and there seems to be an underground channel between the Aral and Caspian that isn't helping either.), but these are not touristy places.. Uncle K has offered to send along a guide with me, but of course, I'd have to pay the expenses, and I really don't feel like bringing my own tour guide with me ;p

Past Urgench to Khiva, where the normal tours start, there are local English speaking guides and complete information from Sitara... I could always pull out my phrasebook and rough it, but its far off, so im a bit nervous. I'll probably go to Nukus and the sea, worse comes to worse, there WILL be a B&B already booked... Also, sadly, my phrasebook is Uzbek, not Russian; althoguh outside of Tashkent, I gather that a lot more Uzbek is spoken.

They've got this division between Uzbeks (the brown people) and the Russians (the white people.) Walking along broadway, I saw the first black man I've seen in three weeks... It was really odd how out of place he was, and it brought attention to how nearly mono-chromatic this place is, split solely between three groups, Uzbeks, Koreans and Russians... Theres a enconomic divide between the Russians and the Uzbeks, but its not nearly as pronounced as in the states, and while there are social clubs for each, there doesn't seem to be much along the way of racism...

I'm still marvelling at the metro system, the stations are GORGEOUS! Apparently the stations in Moscow are something to behold as well... Might go nightclubbing tonight... probably not, though, you all know how I feel about that...

Just got a long wordy answer to my FOCUS request meaning that "we don't have time to deal with you, even if you want to volunteer free here for three months..." - Guess its just as well, I can do school and all, but it was a good opportunity to volunteer and serve... especially in such an amazing place... :sighs:

Maybe Peacecorps when i'm done with school ;p

Ok, speaking of "Nightmare" and every other reference to Halloween ive ever heard, what the hell is a Banshee, and how does it scream?

UncleK was marvelling at how much we waste pumpkins in the states, starting next week there will be pumpkin soup available all around, its supposed to be quite good.

And now for something completely different...

Its been a interesting past few days... its odd, actually; the whirlwind lifestyle of backpacking has settled and things are somewhat near normal right now...

So, I last blogged on Tuesday, eh? Lets see if I can follow up the time in between..

Wednesday consisted mostly of work at Sitara... I'm going through a catalog of travel agents and associates and removing all but Tour Operators and Travel Agents... they are sorted by location, then name, so I am to determine by name what they are... something that requires a functional use of English... boring, but whatever. Chatted up Nargisa, the girl that, if I didn't know better, my uncle and aunt were trying to set me up with ... (talked about her for like two minutes at dinner together; for the conversation to stay on a topic that long was amazing...) Her barely functional English (and my inoperable Russian) continued to be a barrier... In the afternoon phoned Mohira, the girl I met at the airport; we made plans for that night, upon confirmation and returned to Sitara after work... Left Sitara at 5:30 (early, as Uncle K ended up staying antoher three hours) and phone Mohira, to find out that her relatives were about to visit, so could we do it tomorrow... I said, of course; and only slightly bummed, I lied back on the couch and enjoyed, of all things, "Casablanca." I haven't watched it in quite a few years, and this was the first time that I watched without the sillyness of forwarding "boring" scenes.... Its a lot more compelling this time, I never understood Rick's explaination to (insert name of Ingrid Bergman's husband here) until now ... "She pretended that she was in love with me, and I let her pretend," and Rick's charitible act saving the newlywed polish girl from giving sex for a exit visa...

After that, Olga and I sat down and we started lesson on in Russia... the alphabet.
Now, if you don't know russian, prepare to be astounded that these people actually made it into space. I'm being silly, and Heatherw, don't start extolling the wonders of Soviet technology, please. I actually started a excel spreadsheet to show all the letters and their phonetic similarities, but you'd have to have the Cyrillic lang. pack installed, I dont think the characters are in standard ASCII. Anyhow, reciting letters like a five year old is enough to make one not want to be a five year old ;p

Dinner, walk to another net cafe, wrote two emails to serena, both got eaten by the MSIE monster, and the site was being finicky, so no posting... and then sleep... Woke up the next day feeling pretty lousy, stayed at home and slept a lot longer. Watched a lot of BBC News, then CNN... got tired of the same damn news and slept again. My registration is done here finally, I'm legal. Now to renew my visa, already ;p

Met Mohira at six for our date. We met at what used to be Lenin Square, which is now a statue of Timor .. not sure if thats much of an improvement... She was wearing a cute skirt and top; dangly earrings, definetly date material if it were in the states, or if she were a bred-American. We walked to a hotel, had a Fanta and walked around Tashkent... the fountains here are amazing... theres one where there are 100m of pointed at 45degrees, and there is a walk way right next to them where you get covered in this light misty breeze... twas quite nice.

Next stop was the metro station... heres the thing... its pure marble. They are gorgeous. They were pre-Independence, and I have to wonder where the Soviet govn't got enough money to do all this (then I remember that they have marble stores in Soviet Russia, and they had *free* manpower, the cost of constructing lavish subway wouldn't be nearly as high as in the States) ... anyhow, we proceeded to get lost and find outselves back by the statue of Timor, which was find...

Hopped over to the Turkish owned Mir Burger, for a bathroom break and as we sat downstairs we discussed whether this was a date or not.. (It wasn't obvious, and with me it rarely is. I've been trained by my female friends from highschool to fear the word "date" as it scares women away, and while I no longer believe that, its still in my psyche.) Since she had given me her phone number (and not even given me an opportunity to get hers) and since I hadn't asked her to a concert or movie or something, she thought not ... (As an American, I was safe, which made no sense to me..) Anyhow, we went to Caravan, which i later learned is the nicest restaurant in town, sampled some good food, went back to broadway, which is the near equivalent of Venice Beach without the beach and ended up parting ways, as our various parents needed us (hers were still worried about her and wanted her home, mine needed computer help), so I went home...

We kidded around like it was a date, but nothing for sure; she has a boy (well, 34 when she is 21, so not a boy,but an old man) in Vermont, but they hadn't discussed what happened now... its really weird, signals are incredibly unreliable... anyhow, we laughed, we kidded around, its like we were either flirting 5th graders or the best of friends... I don't know if anything will come of it, and at the moment, I'm too tired to care. Parted on... well nothing. Cross cultural makes it difficult, she got me as funny and cute (cause I am) but signals were way off. Looked each other straight in the eyes, but she commented that its something she always does... big hearty laughs and having fun together.. and I dont mind just hanging out, I just want to be flat out told... and this isn't like my regular (no one likes me) rants, I know plenty of people like me, its just odd working in different territory

I haven't been on a first date in a while... Its easy to lose ones touch, perhaps. Serena doesn't count; we pretty much pole vaulted over the initial (does she like me, doesn't she like me) stages...

Everyone here is thin. Any overweight people are within 30-40 lbs of where they should be ... and its not what they eat, their food is covered in fat, just as bad, if not worse, than McDonalds diets... I guess its because they walk form place to place... its just I havent' seen one obese person either here or Turkey.

Its the UN's International Year of Fresh Water, by the way. Thats why the strange topic.

I'm considering avoiding sweets here. I've gone without a soda (save a single Fanta) for a week now and feel slightly better for it, and not had any significant amount of chocolate in two. I'm at 92.5kg (someone over there convert it for me please), and the odd machine at Broadway (which announces loudly in Russian if you are overweight, why there is always a line for it, I will never know) puts me one light into overweight. (I'ts a simple BMI indicator, 180cm, 92.5 kg, I should lose up to 9 kilos. I've started doing pushups before I go to bed, but last time I only kept that up for about five weeks before I faltered... (then again, I did feel quite good after those five weeks)
>candy

Oh, here are some articles from the economist that Uncle K had, quite interesting reads about the region.

Wow, the 17 comments were actually ... like, on topic. people are discussing points i'm bringing up! Kick ass!

I'm removing the lessig news includes from the side, they are too lengthy, and too static for now. When I can fix the formatting and whatnot, I'll bring em back.

It turns out there are three countries in the world where you have to approach the government to leave (get an exit visa, I guess...) China, Iraq and Uzbekistan. Quite an impressive group to be in, no? They've kept a whole lot of nonsense Russian red-tape; you have to register what hotel you are staying at, residents must have their passports stamped with their offical permanent address, its as if it were still Soviet Russia, but it isn't.

Ok, so Davis is suing to be allowed into the recall election that was started to remove him? Jesus. Oh and the Terminator is running ... I wish I had a proper LA times or good speed access to CNN.com and figure out what the hell was going on in california. I know Gary Coleman, Larry Flint, The Terminator, and a Porn star are running, and thats just what the BBC is reporting... And ISSA ISN'T RUNNING! Feinstein isn't running, but Ariana Huffington is.. (I respect her, just don't agree with her), oh and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante. Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, who was considering a bid for governor, has said he would not run if Schwarzenegger did.

Coleman, whose candidacy as an Independent is being promoted by an Oakland newspaper to protest the recall process, said he thinks Schwarzenegger will win. Coleman even said he would vote for the "Terminator."

"Now that Arnold is in the race, there is no race. Gray Davis needs to pack his bags," said Coleman, 35, who played a boy named Arnold in the TV series from 1978 to 1986. "I'm going to stay in the race, but I'm not going to campaign." (Full story)
TV pundit and syndicated columnist Huffington, 53, also a political Independent, also announced Wednesday that she would run.(Full story)

"I'm not, to say the least, a conventional candidate," said Huffington, who was born in Greece and, like Schwarzenegger, has a distinct accent. "But these are not conventional times. And if we keep electing the same kinds of politicians who got us into the same kinds of mess funded by the same special interests, we'll never get out of this mess."

Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt also has announced his bid for the governor's office. (Full story)

Met an Italian travel agent a few days ago, as I was astounded to hear of her stories of the Italian government. The current president has recalled a thirteenth century law that protected kings from prosecution and applied it to himself and his cabinet... hes effectively overthrowing the judicuary, if she is to be believed, and I have no reason not to.

Does anyone know anything about the "Century Club?" Some club that requires 100 stamps in your passport for membership, or something like that....

Gonna see Mohira again tomorrow; I have no friends here and even hanging out is a lot more fun than aimless wandering... I meet people in singular circuimstances, rarely have I been able to meet people in a crowd (HeatherW being the only notable exception) and that makes finding other people to hang out with difficult... I have yet to see any simple cafes or anything where English speakers might hang out.

Leaving for Nukus, the dying Aral Sea, Bukhara and Samarkand Saturday or Sunday...

Oh, I just added The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia to Braincandy.

For next time, the office at Sitara, Nargisa and more... (and whatever I forgot from the rushed ending to Tuesdays post.)

International Year of Fresh Water

So, you get whats left as I am actually sitting in front of a machine from my (apparently) hormone-addled mind.

Oh, funny note, before I forget. The walk that I took with Olga yesterday passed through a third-street like area known as Broadway (which I am now at alone... Its quite an interesting and funny area, there is an entire building dedicated to dance dance revolution), and Olga pointed out that there were a lot of pretty girls here and I could have sworn she had a small smile there... then she rethought herself and clairifed "But not prosititues. Those are at the hotels."

Remember, we are in ex-Soviet country.

Today, I awoke and left with UncleK (after a scrumptions meal of some sort of honey corn-flake and what I think are Coco-Puffs) for Sitara Travel. After a short drive, Oleg (his driver) pulled over and we walked into Sitara. I met a bit of the staff after time passes, and I noticed an extra-oridnary amount of women... both young and old.

The reason I'm talking about the girls now, is a chronological fact, and doesn't mean that these comments are more important than the later goings on, but just because they happened earlier.

I think being Russian somehow gives you impeccable taste in Western fashion, because these (along with all the other girls on the street), seem to have it together. I was admiring the form of one them in particular (remember, I am a published photographer, this is my job) when Uncle K brought her over to introduce her s the fifteen year old practical student (I think thats an intern)...

Yeah, they dress kinda mature. Short skirts, flashy belt and earrings, mum would have flipped if Sis wanted to leave like that at fifteen. (lets forget that I was admiring a fifteen year old, ok? She didn't look it.)

More about the other residents of the office as I get to know them better, just an interesting note... you introduce someone by both their first and middle names...

The cafe is closing right now, I've been told I have two minutes.

Serena, I was responding to your email when internet explorer crashed, and my crafted response of a half-hour was trapped behind a "This program has had some error of some such", except in Cyrillic. Sorry hun, I'll write later when more motivated. It was cute too ;p

p.s. Commenters, are most of you even reading the post? :) Off topic convos are fine, want me to setup a forum for you, or just a post called "Comment here?" :) If you want crazy things to talk about, you should have been here when I had the old blog entries posted.

Methinks it is like a weasel.

Everyone has their dirty pleasures. Something that you wouldn't really think should be a bad thing but is frowned upon for PC reasons, for what others might think, due to taboo.
Mine is getting a Shoe Shine. I've always felt it looked and seemed really elitest and classest, but they had a shoe shine station and I succubmed; my boots were dusty from Cappadocia... Its very silly that I feel bad about it and I think may have over dramatized this paragraphs intro.

While landing in Tashkent, I saw a set of city lights reaching out as far as the eye could see... what made me expect dusty roads, adobe houses?

Turns out you have to check in all of your hard currency, Uzbekistan has very strict rules about exporting hard currencies, so you are given a reciept, and you can't take out more than you brought in... While waiting in the passport check line, I waited in the currency exchange line, the man ahead of me walked out with a shoebox of cash, I wondered why he converted so much at that time. It made a lot more sense after I got my $50 in sum.

It was 45,000 sum... in 200 sum bills. There were two wrapped stacks of 200 sum bills in 100, and I left carrying the hefty sum in my hand thinking; christ, how do they pay for anything. Was told this later:

"A man walks into a bar and puts his suitcase onto the shelf, and orders a drink.
The barkeep said, "You have to put your suitcase on the ground, we don't want luggage on the tables"
"That's not my suitcase, thats my wallet"

... it loses a lot in the translation from Russian to English to Web. I had put my cash into my underwear drawer (actually the only drawer i have hear), when Olga stopped me, telling me that the money was very dirty with lots of bacteria, and it would be best to leave it outside. Its a valid thought, have we ever wondered where our greenbacks were before our pockets?

Got all the baggage, thankfully, but first realized that I left my Polariod in Turkey, which is more annoying because I have $30 worth of Polariod film thats useless right now (plus at some point, im going to start meeting people again and wanting their portrait for my journaling...) Second was that my bag, which was marked Fragile, still managed to get broken; the telescoping handle no longer telescopes... one half is stuck in... it was quite annoying.

They did baggage and currency checks after that, chatted with a Tajik girl who was in Vermont and New York for school for a year (She wore a I Love NY shirt, it was kinda a giveaway); shes living in Tashkent too... I was trying to get info on places to hang out where I wouldn't face as much of a lanaguage problem when she offered her phone number, saying that she was half asleep and it'd be best to talk about it later... I got her info, so we might hang out later; shes doing International Relations, seems cool.

Uncle Khadim, Olga, and their driver met us when I got to the other side and he chastized me both about the size of my bags (mum you were right) and that I delayed them by talking with "the pretty girl"... chastized is the wrong word, it was just a comment.. we drove to their apartment, mostly quiet as I could think of little but sleep. We arrived and found that the elevators didn't work.. the apartment looked like a bombed out hotel, tall and proud, but with plenty of scratches, broken things (including lights!), massive cracks in the wall and an acrid odor.

We got to the apartment and after he opened the triple(!) lock, I was let into a beautiful apartment! Olga said that she liked the apartment, but just not the building around it :) They had made space for me in the study and I settled in, unpacking, finding that I was missing my polaroid, had a nice shower, and read for a while before I went to sleep.

Woke around 11:30 (we slept at 5 folks) and Olga gave me breakfast... bread (it was some sort of Russian sesame bread, quite tasty) and some sort of peach jam that was beyond delicious... I was wary at first but after one bite, I couldn't get enough! She showed me more around the apartment and talked some more ... I didn't know before that Olga was a university professor and quite amazingly educated, we've had two or three nice geo-political talks that I'm sure will continue to happen... As I tried to do the dishes etc, she stopped me.. immediately my "mother warning alert" went off, as I could literally imagine the spirit of mom hoving over me, remiding me of my manners (I would have bee nervious anyhow, but she had admonished me a few times not to be a burden ;p ) ... Olga said "Today you are guest, tomorrow, you can wash..." I thought that that was a reasonable arrangement and smile a big toothy smile.

Uncle K came home and we had tomato soup and talked a bit about the plans... they both left, Uncle K back to the office and Olga to the archives to do research for her book... I did some reading and finished my unpacking... upon Olgas arrival, we went out for a walk and we worked on a pale bit of Russian as well as a tour.. there are a lot of youngsters my age around here, mostly Russian, well dressed... it was a real surprise. Enjoyed the walk throughly, returned back with a discussion of the comparison of the effects of the Russian versus British colonial times... Ate dinner and discussed some of the possibilties for tours and working at FOCUS.. I'll stay in Tashkent until Monday, at which point I will join a tour of Italians canvassing Uzbekistan for 5 nights, (I will have to hire my own guide during the day, and I can travel with them)..

Anyhow, thats the current update... Started reading "The Great Game" by Peter Hopkins, as recommended by Unclek.

Colin Powell just said that he won't stay in Bush's administration even if he is re-elected. Wow. He says its for personal reasons, and his wife wants to leave the public eye. (how much in the public eye is Powell, its not as if people stalk his house...)

Nine hundred Uzbeki sum to whoever can find the classic reference of the topic; and another nine hundred to whoever can figure out which book in the braincandy list made me think of this.

Commenters : I'm in a good enough mood now, no longer as easily offended :) I never lobbed an insult there Ger, just a passionate defense. :) Miss you all by the way, if I haven't expessed that yet... *huggles Ger, especially you, you big Irish lug* :chuckles to himself:

Yes, I realize the significance of Wank.
Heres the story, completely and finally.

I was 9. I got a modem two years before as a birthday gift, and we had heard of this America Online thing ... (remember, at the time, Cserve and Prodigy sucked hard, even though they were the most used.. AOL was the underdog. I filled out the signup information and they suggested RKassim as a screen name... I didnt like that, not sure if its because I didnt want my last name to be public or because I like "Rizwan" more than I like "Kassim" ... so I changed it. Instead of First Initial Last Name, it was First Name, Last Initial. And thats how Rizwank came to be. Shamira pointed it out when I was fourteen at which point I had figured out the sad connotation, but it stuck and I use it for all my usernames and handles... if for no other reason than it is a silly story to tell.

Stuff I missed

Turkish Bath
Aga-Sofia, the Underground Cistern, visit and actually pray in the Blue Mosque
The Royal Palace
Take more pictures from a Ferry
Clubbing at Babylon, Soho and Jukebox
Visit the four seasons ;p
Turkish Belly-Dancing
See the ColaTurk commerical with Chevy Chase (or is it Steve Martin)
The Spice Bazaar
Just shoot some people... amazing people here
Bring home some apple tea.
Call my aunt's beau, Jalal, and meet him and his daughter (evil grin) ;p

Ok, see you all in Uzbek.

Transitory

Yesterday was spent drinking upstairs at the bar in the hostel and hanging out with folks there... spent a lot of good and bad times in that day; I swear it, I tried my best to avoid politics, but I was being rational and conceeding points left and right, but its so easy for everyone else to take the anti-American stand, and the anti-war stand and whatever; and I wasn't even pro-war. I just said I didnt know the facts well enough to make any major decision... the German was very happy to forget the past sins of his country but slam the states for ours... he was angry about hte Monroe doctorine for crying out loud... the Aussie inbetween and I had a very fruitful and intelligent conversation and then the loaded German, Kiwi start yelling... I was actually the calm one... and still, who was the negative energy focused on... even when I said, thats enough; I dont want to talk about it anymore, they did. I was about to expound the entire story, but I find that I don't have the emotional energy for it. Maybe later; hopefully not.

Before Heather and Ger have a chance to pull some anti-American (or anti-riz) comment out on me, don't. Seriously, I'm a nice enough and intelligent enough person, and hang it all, I can be mellow and hang out too. This wasn't my doing.

As you can see, I've had enough with the hostility from other people because of who and what I am.

Ger : Most people are nicer about posting than you. Thats why I ask. I enjoy reading theirs ;p Good for you; my factoids were just to counter the total scrub arugment; but whatever. I'm not in a mood to fight, call me whatever; and lets move past it, k? Hows Ireland?

Rizwan

p.s. Heather, Serena got you there :)

Of Evangelists, Sanity and Sparksmiths (and girls, of course)

"Islam is reaching out... similarly we must penetrate its heart"
I hate Evangelists. I'm sure they think they are doing the right thing, but (excuse me mum), fuck em all. This was quoted out of this weeks Time Magazine which happens to have a few page article on some Turkish politics, so i might actually purchase it.

Met my photogal and she showed me a bit around Taksim; declined my invitation to go clubbing, 11 hour work day and all.

Heres the rub; being out, you want to experience the nightlife. Then again, I dont like nightlife; its too much pressure trying to meet girls (self-inflicted pressure, I know), and I dont do it in the States. but I could.
Once in a while in England/Ireland/Scotland, I discarded the need to meet and charm a girl and had tons of fun; its just hard to do. Even now that I know that I've got a pretty girl waiting at home for me, there still is the need to at least flirt and buy girls drinks and get smiles etc...

So do I go out clubbing? Where? How many places do I pay the 20mTL entrance fee? Is it worth it to spend the night vaingloriously attempting to flirt, and feeling lousy if i fail and feeling like an ass if I succeed? Do I stay in the backpacker area, visit the tourist's belly dancer (;p) and call it a night? These aren't new questions, and having Serena hasn't actually changed it much; it was the same thing in England, just a longer stay, lesser communication problems and no blog to think through.

Part of it is sheer tiredness... This isnt the kind of stuff I do in the states and there is probably a reason why... I'm not sure if its attitude or sheer caloric facts... I dont eat until it occurs to me to eat and that rarely makes three meals a day.

I'm in Taskim square right now, looking over the lovely cafes, the Burger King and .. wait for it.. the Arbys. Of all the bloody venues to export, why Arbys?!

Serena likes my blogging because its allowing her to get a taste for travelling alone... and for how nuts her boyfriend actually is. I know I have at least three constant readers now, and thats good; all three are aware that my "sanity is only so-so".. (1 million lira to the first commenter to find the reference)

Python :
My first tourament magic was at GP Los Angeles Sealed at 40k : went 0-5-1... sunk me so far low that its gonna take me a while to catch up. Remember, I'm the guy that kept on tapping a Goblin Sparksmith for 4 when the opponent had a Goblin Turncoat out... sac; deal three only, I burn for three, target Beast stays alive. Still am prone to mistakes when playing with unfamiliar archetypes. Lost a few pts to your gal too.
For that matter, were you L1 Judging and 1750 constr within six months of starting to play the game? My mother reads this site, keep it clean. :)

Anyhow, back to the world around me,
rk

American Women Studying In Europe Are Unbelievably Easy

The Wandering Python fan : Its 1550, thank you. Also, bite me. :) Its a Dublin ip (yes, I checked)... I can only guess its Ger in an abrasive mood. Whats up?

Whats the dumbest thing you've done to save money while backpacking?

Cool combo ideas, however impractical, I fetched out of Saturday School...

Pariah & Deftblade Elite
"Pariah redirects the combat damage to the Elite, and the Elite's ability prevents combat damage to it."

Underworld Dreams, Howling Mine, and Teferi's Puzzle Box
"If your opponent starts with 5 cards in his hands, if you put the Howling Mine ability on top of the Puzzle Box, he takes 9 damage (1 from the normal draw, 1 from Howling Mine, 7 from Puzzle Box). "
(AND Dreams only affects opponents)

I'll be out of town, someone get me one of these please.

And I missed last months Disenchant too ;p Spent too much time doing other things to go to FNM :(

Interesting enough, the ran into my tour guide and the two brit girls as the bus station and hugs/email addresses abounded. I'll take it as an ego boost especially since they seemed quite friendly, and I have to remember that single/pair girls travelling may feel the same minor longing at seeing couples as I do... Someones gonna say something hurtful about the girls seeming nice to me, just don't.

Its 10 am in Istanbul, and im still tired as hell, even though i slept quite well through the bus.. the plan is to visit my photog friend where she works in Taksim (have to call her mobile and find her), and make sure I'm in the tower in Taksim before evening to get some lovely panoramas, take a cab back to the hostel and get ready for some clubbing! (or sleeping, I seem to have even less "going out at night" energy than usual.

Got off the bus a few hours early across the Bosphrous from Sultanahmet, my area of Istanbul; saved a bit of time just taking a ferry across (incredibly cheap, espcially with the Vancouver Seabus in mind) and walking to the hostel, instead of letting the bus take us to the main termanal, almost an hour out of Istanbul, then having a minibus drive us back.

One things about the underground tunnels; I realized that that was the coolest I would be in at least 45 days. I already miss air-conditioning and swamp coolers.

Oh,
• Added Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal to my wishlist

The amazing lack of strict Muslims still surprises me.

As with last time, this seems more like a wandering blog and less of a travel blog... im not feeling so hot at the momen; don't think im getting sick, just tired... its a big tempo change and takes a bit of adapation.

Time for breakfast and a good book, me thinks.

Riz

I'm an actor, but I really want to be a waiter.

So, for all my bragging about meeting girls last night; we didn't even hang out in the bar. I signed back online after the previous blog, freshly showered, shaved, and drsesed cute to im mum (who wasn't available) and serena (who, as usual, was just *pretending to work*) and then walked, half asleep, to the nearest cafe, ate a very quick meal and decided to visit the local bars at 10:30. Still dead. They advised 11:30, I went to bed, planning to re-awake around that time; Yeah right. Turns out every other person i was going to meet there decided the exact same thing, and the couple that did drop by the bars found them empty. Guess ill save partying for Saturday night, just before leaving istanbul.

Tour was good today, cute Turkish guide my age, so had the additional fun of harmless flirting (or just being friendly, for those of you that can't understand the connection between harmless and flirting)
Went for a looong nice hike.. 2 hrs or so. I really needed to excersize more and this is fate's way of reminding me, I think. also visited the underground cities of ... whatever its called. Twas amazing, 80m underground, with all natural caverns, ventilation, etc exisitng before Christ. I'm passing time until 8pm when my bus returns to Istanbul... its a nice 11hr bus drive, thankfully the roads are quite decent so i can sleep.

How to play backgammon: It's played a lot here, like most other Euro countries, about time I researched it.

Just wrote a reasonably lengthly letter to Serena to have it wash away with a "Your session has expired, please re-logon." ... I normally copy/paste fields before I click send for that reason ;p

FYI : French women are stone cold to Americans. I verified that with two other backpackers today, it isn't just that they don't like me. and by stone cold, i mean even just chatting while waiting for the tour guide to come out of the bathroom.

FYI : More westernized Turkish girls seem to like me ... maybe i should bring a bride back with me. (just kidding mum/serena/everyone)

Ack, just found my first bug bite. Yay Melfoquine, malaria has no chance against it... but it does itch.

Kick ass... Cameron, you'll be glad to see this.

Limited :
03-07-567279, Booster @ Kings Comics: 07/26/2003 (16K)
4 Philip C. Haussmann Win 1552
3 Oscar García Gómez Win 1541
2 Israel Tapia Loss 1531
1 Daniel Ohonlon Win 1537

03-07-545949, Magic 10th Anniversary Global Celebration: 07/26/2003 (16K)
3 Heather Wiencko Loss 1527
2 Richard Lee Win 1534
1 Israel Tapia Draw 1525

Standard:
03-06-547094, NSEUS 308 Standard: 06/28/2003 (16K)
5 Matt Reis Loss 1750
4 Jim McCormick Draw 1758
3 Julie L Smith Win 1758
2 Adam S Levy Win 1753
1 Skyler Rivera Win 1744

There, my standard and limited ratings are withing 200 of each other. Oh, me losing to heather, that was a typo. (actually it wasn't, she wiped the floor with me)

The first person who says girl power gets their ass kicked!

There is some question as to why im in a net cafe in Cappadocia when i had a few hrs to burn. thing is, its just a town. I cant chat with natives, no hostels nearby, no time to even take the exteremly expensive bus tour

Oh, ive been playing Backgammon against Motif. I suck hard.

A pair of ladies, covered with hijab, but not completely (full faces exposed) just walked into the cafe and sat down... they have a special barrier to seperate the men and women from each other even here, a table was rolled up and placed vertically ... Is it so they aren't sitting next to each other?

The underground caves (rememeber, I was talking about them) are amazing... even when i was crouched to 2.5 ft to fit through the doors...

Want to see how amazing the evovled human body is? Go hiking. Your eyes seem amazing detail, your memory can recall how tough some substances can be, your cognative parts process the best path, and your knees bend a hell of a lot to make it happen.. its just amazing... you can judge slipperyness, balance, load-bearing capability, stability, etc. instantaneously. Yes i know, this is how its supposed to work, but its really cool anyhow.

Is all humor langauge specific. I noticed, speaking with some Turks, how idomatic my humor is; and I wonder if its a function of my form of humor or of humor itself. Does the monty python parrot sketch work if hes speaking non-idiomatic English, or is it stifiled... Robin Willaims without idioms or euphemisums...

Try this:

Introduction: (its a python sketch)

A man walks into an office.

Man: Good morning, I'd like to have an argument, please.
Receptionist: Certainly, sir. Have you been here before?
Man: No, this is my first time.
Receptionist: I see, well we'll see who's free at the moment. Mr. Bakely's free, but he's a little bit concilliatory. No. Try Mr. Barnhart, room 12.
Man: Thank you.

Now, version one:
Angry man: WHADDAYOU WANT?
Man: Well, Well, I was told outside that...
Angry man: DON'T GIVE ME THAT, YOU SNOTTY-FACED HEAP OF PARROT DROPPINGS!
Man: What?
A: SHUT YOUR FESTERING GOB, YOU TIT! YOUR TYPE MAKES ME PUKE! YOU VACUOUS STUFFY-NOSED MALODOROUS PERVERT!!!
M: Yes, but I came here for an argument!!
A: OH! Oh! I'm sorry! This is abuse!
M: Oh! Oh I see!
A: Aha! No, you want room 12A, next door.
M: Oh...Sorry...
A: Not at all!
A: (under his breath) stupid git.

Version two:
A: What is it that I can help you with??
(or is that using idiom or imagery as well?)
Man: Well, Well, I was told outside that...
... I've suddenly realized that while I may have good luck with words and plays on them, i dont really feel like re-writing Python insults. Just be upset that I'm gonna end this example soon without any real effort to translate on my part... (im tired)
A: (under his breath) that stupid man.

After writing all that, I've realized that its quite poor, but as usual, I've spent some time writing it and refuse to discard it.

Character traits I like about my current girlfriend that my past ones didnt do:
• Shes transparent. I can read her easily and i know when something is wrong, and, gasp, she actually tells me whats bothering her and allows me to apologize/fix it!
• Shes the least paranoıd about her body. She knows I lıke her. Half of looks are attitude, me thinks. Actually only one ex really obsessed about it, but her crying on my shoulder near daily complaing that she was fat (but that she didn't want to do anything about it, or accept it, even though I liked her the way she was) got tiring quick.
• Shes willing to really like me. I've been held at a yardstick by some girls, for fear of ... something. They acted more as men, de-prioritizing the emotional part of a relationship.
This is by no means comprehensive, but all the nitty gritty details of why I adore her are our buisness, thanks. And this came from a mental comparison while waiting in a long drive ;p

I'm in a weird blogging mood, sorry if i've offended.

Flys need to be eradicated from the world. I'd be very glad of a gift of a professional, battery powered, aircraft aluminum fly swatter, please.
Does Amazon carry those?

theres been a lot of driving today so i have a lot of thinking to expound.

Did my finances check and including expenses until tomorrow morning, i'm at $85/day. That doesnt even include the visa fee. Its not bad for travelling as it does include spendy stuff like $20 for the bus tour and $160 for the 2d/3n tour to/from Cappadocia... its just that im not sure how it goes. Thats another problem with other peoples currencies. TLs go quickly. Even if you figure 15 million for water bottles and drinks, 5 million for of internet (2 hrs, which is more time than i usually use), 5 mill for lunch and 5 for dinner, ten for the hostel, thats 35 mil, $25. Where else does it go? I sure as hell am not buying anything.

$50/day is a possible minimum for Europe... and it'll crash to a few dollars a day in Uzbekistan; housing and food are family provided there :) Yay Bestway tours!

Oh, I had a mullberry. Damn good and sweet things.
They gave me halwa on the plane from jfk with my muslim meal. Go figure.

For those well educated among the audience:

Sgt.: Right. Bananas. How to defend yourself against a man armed with a banana. Now you, come at me with this banana. Catch! Now, it's quite simple to defend yourself against a man armed with a banana. First of all you force him to drop the banana; then, second, you eat the banana, thus disarming him. You have now rendered him 'elpless.
Palin: Suppose he's got a bunch.
Sgt.: Shut up.
Idle: Suppose he's got a pointed stick.
Sgt.: Shut up. Right now you, Mr Apricot.
Chapman: 'Arrison.
Sgt.: Sorry, Mr. 'Arrison. Come at me with that banana. Hold it like that, that's it. Now attack me with it. Come on!Come on! Come at me! Come at me then! (Shoots him.)
Chapman: Aaagh! (dies.)
Sgt.: Now, I eat the banana. (Does so.)
Palin: You shot him!
Jones: He's dead!
Idle: He's completely dead!
Sgt.: I have now eaten the banana. The deceased, Mr Apricot, is now 'elpless.
Palin: You shot him. You shot him dead.
Sgt.: Well, he was attacking me with a banana.

Beautiful plumage! If that doesn't make you smile, consider getting a therapist.

I'm in a Python sorta mood. The aussie couple from earlier on highly recommended ... Dudley Moore and .. someone. I've got it written down.

Reading Asimov's Nemesis right now ... pretty good so far.

From Slashdot
With Morse code slowly disappearing off the air, there seems to be a growing number of people who carry out conversations in Morse over the internet. Several Windows and Linux clients using VoIP or special protocols, such as EchoLink, EchoLinux, MorseMail, CW Communicator or CWirc exist for Morse lovers worldwide to pound brass and make contact with one another. Could the next must-have computer input device be a morse key ?

Also from Slashdot, as a comment to the iPod being packaged with VW Beetles.
It is a male fallacy that girls are impressed by long, sleek rocket cars.

Girls who don't want to have casual sex do not interest guys who drive Mustangs. They will drive Astro vans or Volkswagons if and when they are ready to settle down and get married.

By the way, as akward as sex might be, why would you want to sleep with a stranger? Seriously... I can understand the kissing and stuff, but sleeping with a total stranger... just too many things to go wrong! (then again, what do i know)

With the touch of a button on your car stereo you will now be able to listen to MP3 players, Mini Disc Players or any other audio source through your factory installed car stereo. No FM Modulator needed. No complex installation procedures. http://www.rcainput.com/ === its a line in folks! I've got one, but for the rest of you...

Also SD cool

In the 1980's Radio Shack [radioshack.com] used to sell an FM transmitter that you could wire into your car radio. The range was good enough to transmit from vehicle-to-vehicle. We were in high school at the time and the number of radio stations in town were limited. Therefore, if we were lucky enough to be on the road within a couple of car lengths from someone we knew we could broadcast an obnoxious message through their radio if we guessed what station they were listening to. The girls did not seem to appreciate our unauthorized transmissions. ;)

Or, they did not appreciate the attention from a people who probably look like people who shop at Radio Shack and have enough time to wire up such a contraption.

Ok, doesn't it seem like ive got too much time on my hands. Brain is in overdrive, i guess.

cheers,
rizwan