So while doing research on artists for this 'anti-pixar' movement in animation, I came across a great video. Its nothing new, but the animation is really fun and I promise it will make your day a little bit better.
music by Mika

Yesterday was a bad day. I woke up at 730 am and realized that the power had gone out in the apartment. It got hot pretty quickly with no fan and I couldn't go back to sleep, giving me 3 hours of sleep to go to work with. When I took a shower the drain in the bathroom was doing the opposite of what its supposed to and flooded the bathroom with dirty water. Gross.
I still wasn't feeling well, which was simply a result of trying to have too much fun over the weekend. I knew I had a meeting with the owner of the magazine which would decide my future in the company. I was not fully prepared for this meeting which caused a lot of unnecessary stress. Then I received an email that my family dog was going to be put to sleep due to an inoperable disease. That would leave Ethan without a lil partner in crime. Apparently, when 'jack' was sick he couldn't even walk and so Ethan just pulled up a chair next to him outside, sat down and just talked to him. A big difference from the memories I have of them running around the backyard together.
Then I received an extremely disturbing email from someone I thought was an old, dear friend. I'm not going to go into the details, but it just came out of nowhere and was terribly hurtful. I seriously thought someone had gotten into his account and sent it out as a weird joke, but that was not the case. It really bothered me all day and its something I'll never forget.
The lack of sleep and poor physical state did not help my situation.
Then we were really busy at work trying to decide and agree on the cover design for the next issue and I have to finish an article and a book review by tomorrow, so the important meeting did not happen.
As I walked home I decided to just walk along a bridge above the nile. It was beautiful. I was fortunate enough to cross right at iftar (break fast), so I could look down and see all the people along the shore sharing a meal with each other. The food smelled amazing, I had a great view of the city at dusk, and it was the first cool evening I've experienced so far. That's when I realized I wasn't experiencing the wrath of Allah, simply a bad day among many great days. I live in one of the craziest, weirdest, busiest cities in the world. I want for nothing. I work at a great magazine with the cutest Egyptian couple (my surrogate Tony and Eva) . I am learning so much and I can already see the personal progress I've made here. I wish I was better at Arabic and the metric system, made a living wage, and had a sassy, tattooed hairdresser, but these are all problems that will solve themselves. I just have to focus on living simply, having fun, being nice and producing quality work for everything to work out.
"When you see things in the world like banana peels that have no value to you, then you're free to walk without being moved, bothered, or hurt in any way by all the things that come and pass -both pleasant or unpleasant." -Ajahn Chah
As I typed that my coworker just gave me some banana milk in a little juice box. Then I looked over at his computer and realized that has spent the last 15 minutes quietly looking at pictures of cute cats. Today is already better than yesterday.

For all the visitors from Egypt - there's a new cairoscholars site that promises to fix all the problems that plague the current cairoscholars.

http://groups.google.com/group/cairoscholars

Pass it along to all your expat friends and help it out.

For all you US visitors - it's like craigslist, but more important.

I started typing something meaningful about life but I was sidetracked by the music playlist. Phantom Planet, California
I remember really enjoying this modern pop sensation in college and it has maintained a place in my 'guilty pleasures' category. I remember the OC parties. Both DC and Norfolk friends had weekly parties around the show. I never really enjoyed the show as everyone else seemed to, but I love hype and I love it when friends get excited about anything that spurs them into pro social events, like DC's OC/Taco night. In Norfolk, there was always a loud chorus of people screaming the intro song and who could forget the time atht Chuck and company drank a bottle of 1800 and made drunken 19th century jokes. It was even during an OC episode that I got my tattoo and consequently stained my carpet.
It's strange how random things become such important parts of your life and how a terrible show could bring such great people together. Everyone has a soft spot for escapism and whose problems could ever compare to any of those on the OC?
I never watched the last season, I hear it was just recycled story lines and rushed production. I can't say that it's a shame that happened, sometimes things in life just 'jump the shark' and you have to understand that and move on. For every OC, there's a Project Runway or Gossip Girl waiting for you around the corner. Then again, maybe you should get out of the house more.

The newest addition to the blog list on the right is Ambrose Manor. It's by an adorable and recently married couple that I met through dc friends years ago. They are now honeymooning around the country for one year in their 1976 Trillium camper and writing all about it. They would love to hear about your favorite cannot-miss things and places about the grand u.s. of a. so go visit. They have delightful and well written stories about their travels. The idea of riding bikes around a small, quiet town in the middle of nowhere sounds so good right now. Thanks to Jenny's Hecks Kitchen for directing me to their site.

It's always nice when nice things happen, that's why they're called nice things. In the same way, it's nice when you say nice things to people. I received an email from the person who introduced me to Renn Fest in the first place. This meant a lot to me so I'm posting it in hopes that you will go and email something nice to someone, at random. I'm not telling you to do anything nice, simply email a kind word or two to someone.


I am really enjoying your blog, it is on my daily rotation; nothing has gotten me more excited than your Renn Faire post, though. I forwarded that Steak on a Stake eye-disaster story to everyone I know. Keep up the good work!

Be safe and take good care...

Sarah

I live in a world where I stir soup with a knife. It's the only utensil in the kitchen. I wash it with a bar of soap that I found. I step outside while the soup heats up and look at the city. It seems clearer than normal, different somehow. I think that it might be a result of Ramadan, maybe since business' are closed and people aren't traveling to work as much, maybe the pollution is taking a break. Nope, I'm just wearing sunglasses. Why did I start cooking with sunglasses on? Hung over. I remember a snapshot of a really nice bed in a well lit room with a bowl of Doritos on the table next to it and 1 single Dorito on the pillow. I wonder if someone ever ate it.
Sitting here eating the soup, I swat flies away treat myself to a White Rock ginger ale. In a country full of interesting sodas no one appreciates a good ginger ale. I only know of one foreigner grocery store that even carries it. I can't get too many because they're expensive and we only have two college style refrigerators for an apartment of 6 people. Having always had the luxury of nice refrigerators I've always taken for granted the 'no frost' feature. We have to empty them out each week and let the ice melt from the freezer portion otherwise it threatens to overtake the limited space we have.
Sitting in the main room, I fulfill my need for space. The chairs are all broken somehow, the couches are not comfortable and the straw is falling out and it jabs at you when you sit. One entire wall is floor to ceiling windows. Thankfully it is the 8th floor so I have a great view. Directly across the street is a beautiful Coptic church surrounded by giant trees. Beyond that is the Cairo tower, which is covered in fancy Christmas lights that change colors very slowly. It would be tacky anywhere else but Egypt. Here it is a welcomed break from the beige landscape.
Sometimes you love food because it tastes good and sometimes you love food because it's good for you...

On American movies - "This is what I don't like about American movies, in every movie you must have a toilet exploding"
On my sunglasses - "Did these come with a magazine?"

I received this email from my mother today:
Ethan's vocabulary is really improving. Yesterday they had a bird show at school. When I asked him about the birds he said there were 2 of them. When I asked if he petted them he said yes. this is the rest of the conversation in the car: Oh no, I burned my hand. How did you burn your hand? When I petted the birds. The birds burned your hand, can I see? No, it's too late to fix it now. Of course there was nothing on his hand. Now when you ask his name he says Ethan Foster like it's all one word.

So I read Barb's latest post about centering her life around this 'really nice condo' that she can't afford. I immediately became depressed on 4 levels and needed something to cheer me up. So I googled the renn fest. Things that I found:

Boy sticks skewer in his eye at festival

By Richard Irwin

September 1, 2008

A 10-year-old Anne Arundel County boy suffered a serious eye injury yesterday at the Maryland Renaissance Festival in Crownsville when he accidentally stuck a wooden skewer in his eye, a county Fire Department spokesman said.

The boy, whose name was not released, was with his father at a food concession called "Steak on a Stake" about 5 p.m. when he pulled the wooden skewer from his mouth and accidentally stuck it in his eye, Lt. Frank Fennell said.

Besides the obvious, it was 5pm. This most likely was not this child's dinner. Steak on a Stake was a snack and somehow this kid confused himself as to which hand had the 'steak' and which hand had the 'stake' -which is obvious to us, because we can see it written out, but to him they sounded identical in his head. What I don't understand is how he then confused his 'eye' with his 'steak hole' which don't sound anything alike.

There is also a website devoted to the sufferers of MRWS
Thank you internet for all of your lovely gems of happiness.

It would be nice to go to a Japanther show with friends. The image is taken from their myspace page, it is entitled 'Tut tut, now shake ya butt."
I thought I heard thunder the other day, it made me remember rain. I'd like just a little bit of that on account of variety.
I will also be missing Maryland Renn Fest for the first time in 5 years? It's a shame, I'd love some mac and cheese on a stick. Most importantly, I miss drinking too much mead with friends, watching a juggling comedian, and staring at all the people in Maryland that come to a Renaissance festival. Especially those that have no idea what century the Renaissance was and dress up like Americanly obese pirates.
Ok, I have to stop typing. That gif is making me sick.

Some days you have to drag yourself out of bed in the morning. Unfortunately for me, I then have to walk a mile, wait for the bus, ride the bus for 45 mins, and walk another mile. So by the time I get to the office I am ready for a super nap. This is why Turkish coffee was invented.
Instead of an american coffee pot system all we have is the setup for turkish coffee. I can see why we don't have this in america, it is just an open flame/liability and a little tiny thing of hot mud. So I learned how to make some amazing turkish coffee today. The trick is the same for all good coffee: use cold clean water and heat it slowly. The flavor is in the foam, the energy is in the cup, the power is in my veins.
Let the workday begin. The time is now 2pm.

I wish I could remember all the great things, but the one that sticks out in my mind is the t-shirt I saw today. It was a bright, lime-green (almost neon) t-shirt with the obligatory picture of the Unibomber. Or was it Unabomber? I'm certain it wasn't the Unobomber.
Anyway, the shirt looked new and I wanted it.
Oh, and there was a guy with a Best Buy shirt, but it had the 'f' word screen printed above the best buy logo. it wouldn't be that funny, but it was done just poorly enough to make it great.
I noticed that the fanny pack I wanted has been sold. I should have bought it when i had the chance.

Fart jokes. That's where it started. 'Will fart jokes ever go out of style?" I wondered..."Have they always existed? Was there ever a time or a culture that didn't appreciate or relate to the humor in a loud trumpeting of the rump(eting?)?" I don't think so, but i'm too lazy to see if there's a wikipedia article on it. or a fartwiki of sorts.
I don't know if thinking farts are funny are something that is instinctual or if its a result of social taboo. i think kids think they are funny before they know they arent supposed to do it in public, so maybe it's a response to the parents reactions. I think it's funny when ethan farts and he sees me laugh, and will later strive for that positive response by farting in an ever increasing comedic fashion until he peaks with a jumping (or flying fart) into my general space. Then his 'blue period' will begin, probably followed by some interpretation of cubist toots, blah blah blah.
but what makes an adult laugh at a fart joke? is it the fact that one person's well being is compromised by another's desire to see them suffer, albeit in a minor way? we see this in the 'hide in the person' s closet and scare them' jokes, or the 'get the person to eat something gross' jokes. But how far does it go?
I think it's peeing. I think you can do anything up until peeing, and then the joke is really hit or miss.

Abracadabra by The Steve Miller Band. I can't tell you how many times i've heard song right now. ok, lets just say that in the past 2 days like 12. at least. at least 12 times i've heard 'abra abra cadabra, i wanna reach out and grab ya'. I'm pretty sure its a song about magic rapes.
I just typed that as I thought it, and then when i read it i fell into a laugh hole. whew.

Here's a good article that mentions the gallery I've been volunteering with. It's also a great article on Iraqis in Egypt and what they are going through as a result of the American invasion.

Also - Matt V is dropping some serious knowledge.

I just finished watching one of the best movies I've ever seen. It is Alexandro Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain. Do whatever it takes to watch this movie, unless you are easily offended of course. My only complaint is that no one told me about this movie earlier. Do yourself a favor, watch it on the largest screen you have because some of the shots are so beautiful and rich. If any one of these scenes were in a movie made recently all of your friends would be talking about it, but this is a movie full of brilliant moments.
I can't imagine how long it would take to dress up that many toads as Mayan warriors.

In America, when I get an apple from the store it usually says "made in some south american country." Somehow I got an apple here that said, "Made in the United States." Oddly enough I can't remember ever seeing that sticker before now, in Egypt. The apple looked decent from the outside, although it was one of those typical Red Delicious apples that look too good and aren't very tasty. Let's face it, Pink Ladies will kick Red Delicious' apple ass any day of the week. Anyway, I was just sitting here reading the news and eating the apple, and when I got down to the core it was completely rotten. It was so gross.
On a related note, I see that McCain is ahead in the polls.
Dear America,
If you are stupid enough to allow McCain to become president, you have the country you deserve.
Love Jimi

Also, being an insurance agent in a previous life, I like the idea of insurance underwriting. It looks like the insurance companies have given McCain a 1 in 3 chance of dying during his first term in office. That means that you have a 1 in 3 chance of having Sarah Palin as the most powerful person in the world. Sarah Palin, a person who admittedly has no idea what the vice president does, is a republican, has strong ties to big oil, no experience, etc etc has the possiblity of become the President of the United States. That is amazing.
If you loved Rome, you'll love America.

I just realized it has been over a week since I posted anything. This is due to a series of events that have caused me to be too busy or too worn out to post or reply to emails.
I will expand on these things later, but we had a big, fun party last weekend.
I got a jobby job. I work for a design magazine as a writer, my mom is proud.
Trying to make friends here is a constant job because people don't stay around too long and meeting foreigners in a month of no drinking is difficult.
I've been going to bed before 4am on a regular basis.

Last night I spent an hour staring at a teapot trying to think of 200 words.



This teapot is cute
I like the handle and spout
You put tea in it

This morning started with a job interview in which I was offered the job immediately. Their eagerness caused me to be wary and I told them that I'd think it over. It is easy walking distance, few and flexible hours (25 a week at any time I like), and pays enough for me to live here without spending my savings, so I'm heavily considering it. I then went home and took a delightful little nap. When I awoke (waked up) I decided that it'd be a good day to make dinner for everyone. I then made a list of things and went out and obtained them (getted them). It was the first time Cairo didn't feel overwhelming. It felt small, but I'm sure it was most likely my brain had made a world with imaginary perimeters as a defense mechanism. Either way, I have a vegetable guy, a mobile phone card guy, a kosheri guy, etc and with my few words of Arabic we're able to conduct business and there's no haggling. I love it. So then I went back to the 'flat' (living hole) and made dinner with my friend Yordanka. I made my own tomato sauce for the first time ever and peeled 4 kilos of tomatoes to do it (made her roommate peel 4 kilos of tomatoes). I then made some phenomenal lasagna, thanks to the fresh vegetables and great pasta. I then ate this lasagna with friends and roommates, one of which donated a bottle of red wine to the cause. Another roommate made tea afterwards and I dipped my new favorite cookie, the 'Hob Nob', in betweenst (betwixt) each sip. I then stayed up with my roommates and we discussed (disgust) the finer points of life whilst drinking tea.
Life is as it should be. Simple yet rewarding.

Some of you have wondered about some of the blogs I have listed on the right, allow me to highlight one of them for you that you might have a better understanding. Barb's Burblings is a blog by some random woman in Washington Dc. In many ways I see her as my complete opposite. She is a single woman in Dc who lives alone, on so many levels. That's not a slight on her either, she genuinely seems happy with her life. For me it's a baseline, I can look at it and measure success by how far away from it I am. This is from her most recent post about going to a musical, by herself...

Of course, if he had blown me off, it would've been super awkward, seeing how in the cabaret, the lights were up enough that audience members easily made eye contact with the singers. Not that I think he would, because he seems awesome. (He just got a history degree and graduated summa cum laude! Awesome!)

Well, hopefully if I run into him again, I can do better. And then we can become BFF!

She also has a great post about a tubing trip in WVa - the same place I did my tubing trip.

Ok, I have two hours to get a haircut, get food and go to a futbol game that someone talked me into playing last night at a bar. Maybe I'll meet a BFF! Ugghhh....

Thanks to her care package I was able to eat tonight. Every place that I normally eat was closed tonight and I was so hungry. I could have spent 8 dollars and ordered a ton of chinese food, but that's expensive. Instead, I made pita peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (and stuffed a cliff bar in one).
Thanks mom.
Thanks America.

For the past couple of years, the number of belt-driven bikes have been increasing. Trek has just released a couple of bikes with this new set up for the new season and they don't look too bad. The upside is that it's lighter, supposedly won't stretch, cleaner, and quieter.
It looks like it substantially increases the cost of the new models, but as with any new tech it will get cheaper over the next couple of years.
I guess my concern would be durability. I have no experience with this new set up, has anyone else used it? What are your thoughts?

I woke up and checked my 'sites.'
On the news sites two of the headlines were:
Palin says Obama unfit to lead
and
Cheney condemns Russia for Georgia Invasion

*insert joke here*

Imagine you're walking down a long one-way street. You notice a car driving the wrong way on a one way street and coming from the opposite direction you notice a fleet of cars. You don't have more than half a second to say anything, and it wouldn't do much good if you could. The driver is no more than 20 feet away from you and you have a clear look at his face. What do you expect that face to be? Panic? Fear? Realization of a terrible mistake followed immediately by horror?
no.
I was in this situation and the look that I saw could have been any number of things: What am I going to have for dinner? What was the name of that one Charlies Angel? Is this a fart?
What I didn't see was one shred of fear. He actually looked annoyed if anything. Then he pauses and calmly backs up the car into a parking space and waits for traffic to pass.
Oh, and then I think I ate 4 dinners tonight. People love feeding you during Ramadan.
I also found a place to drink, if you're a foreigner (sorry Coptic Egyptians -no dice), and a place that will risk jail time to deliver me beer at a 10% higher cost. Capitalism: 2 Rules:0

Here in Cairo, I get a lot of time to listen to my Ipod and really digest albums in a way I never had time for in the States. It becomes the soundtrack to my walks, sunsets, adventures, etc. So I've been downloading as much new music as possible and listening to the albums over and over. Since I'm writing every day I'm going to start doing album reviews periodically so that you might know what I'm listening to and if its something you might like as well.

First review is of Efterklang's Parades (The Leaf Label, October 2007).
This is for fans of Sigur Ros, Bjork, The Octopus Project
Their name in Danish means, reverberance and rememberance, which is a pretty apt description. Remember the first time you saw the movie Baraka? You got this feeling of almost overwhelming imensity and beauty, but there were also some parts that were haunting and almost disturbing. You felt like you were watching an Imax movie, even though it was on a regular sized screen. That is how you feel when you listen to Efterklang. You are surprised that there is so much music coming through your headphones, so many layers and instruments coming together to make a cohesive, symphonic and beautiful sound.
The album itself has a beautiful, slow build to it, crashing into intensity at some points and creeping into a score for a Tim Burton film only to build back up into a fiery explosion for your ears.
Any complaints I might have about any aspect of this album seem to diminish the more I listen to it. I still have a general feeling that there is something missing, that the album could be more or better somehow. I am excited about this album, but I'm even more excited about what their next full length release will bring. 7.5/10
Watch their newest video and judge for yourself:

For years the news in the United States has focused on how gas prices are a cause of great concern for Americans. Every night on the news you could find the 'on the scene reporter' asking hard hitting questions like, "how are gas prices affecting you?" The 'average joe' would respond with something like, "they're real high and I don't like it, nope, not one bit." These are the moments you don't get back. This is when you realize that your quest for truth and desire to keep up with current events is all for naught.
But then...
The gods smile down on you and, after 3 years of seeing reports on what the 'average joe' is feeling, give you the hard hitting truth: gas prices also affect people that matter.

Diddy Gives Middle Finger to Middle America

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Fuel prices have grounded an unexpected frequent-flyer: Diddy.

Sean "Diddy" Combs complained about the "... too high" price of gas and pleaded for free oil from his "Saudi Arabia brothers and sisters" in a YouTube video posted Wednesday.

The hip-hop mogul said he is now flying on commercial airlines instead of in private jets, which Combs said had previously cost him $200,000 and up for a roundtrip between New York and Los Angeles.

"I'm actually flying commercial," Diddy said before walking onto an airplane, sitting in a first-class seat and flashing his boarding pass to the camera. "That's how high gas prices are. I'm at the gate right now. This is really happening, proof gas prices are too high. Tell whoever the next president is we need to bring gas prices down."

So periodically I check my 'stats' and see just how many people are visiting the site, where they are visiting from, etc. Today I just checked a 'keyword analysis' which compiles what people searched that directed them to my site. Most people don't come to the site randomly, but if they do, it's through search engines. For example, 4 people searched 'cairo scholars' and ended up at my site. Here's where the rest came from:

2		hamburger hotdog games
2		Johnny Hamp's Kentucky Serenaders download blogspot
2		hotdog obama
1		hotdog 7
1		harrisonburg weekend
1		wizard
1		"sometimes players get lonely too"
1		bubble calender
1		a job that slowly kills you
1		sout elomma
1		how to make a hotdog
1		nintendo orgy
1		weezer "red album" turd
1		hotdog how
1		hot dog craigslist

I'm glad at least one other person was curious about the Obama/Hotdog connection. Also, if you search 'nintendo orgy' my site is the second link listed on Google.

Last night I met two roommates that just came back from Germany, Tilo and Moritz. We went to dinner at the nearby fu'ul place, I got to know them, and they seem like they enjoy fun and have a good sense of humor. We went back to the apartment, had a couple of beers, and after a couple hours of talking, the conversation inevitably turned to funny internet videos. The progression was pretty logical, but humorous. They were trying to say that nobody in Germany actually listens to David Hasselhoff, and I was expressing my disbelief. Then Moritz ruined his argument by saying, "I mean, his last video was terrible..."
I seriously had no idea he had any videos except the one of him being drunk and eating a burger.
So we watched the lateset hasselhoff video and it is nothing short of amazing.