hurt

i was playing some sports yesterday and i landed wrong. now I can not put any weight on my foot because my heel is absolutely killing me. It is swollen and bruised. I will wait a few days to see if it gets any better and if not I will seek professional advice. Otherwise it is hobbling and hopping around for the next few days for me.

considered

My work has asked me to express if I am interested in returning for another year her to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I will need to work on a cost benefit analysis before getting back to them. I dont have a job or any other crucial things lined up for the near future so it is a possibility. Aside from that little bit of news I have started another 30 day challenge. I will try to be able to do 100 push-ups nonstop in 30 days time. There are loads of websites that have training programs on them and I should be able to follow one and get into shape. We shall see. The teaching weeks are flying by and these next two weekends will go fast. The teaching is fine except the school continually undercuts all progress that I make with my students. I was not assigned a particularly bright or advanced class. They are the same level and mixed ability as any other class and I have high expectations for them. I have taken the time to organize activities that take into account multiple learning styles and I give extra work to those that need it, but in the end I expect results. My school on the other hand has from the beginning told the teachers that all writing assessments would be academic in nature and relevant to the level and progress we are expected to make in the book. Yesterday we had the second writing assessment. We have been working on time order paragraphs. The writing prompt. What is your favorite day of the week? Who do you spend it with? This is a question that the students could have answered without ever having put foot into my class. I dont know why I am surprised it just grates on me when the institution that is tasked with improving the level of education in the country is the same institution that is hindering it. So I have a few more weeks and a few more assessments. Should be a fun time.

known unknowns

So I awoke this morning and fired up the old commodore 64 and lo and behold there was an email from my work. Mind you this in and of itself is not at all noteworthy, in fact I have just over 500 emails from my work since i started working here a few months ago. The surprising thing about this email is that it informed the workers that there would be no work today. On the one hand yippee no work. On the other what the fuck 2 hours notice is all a university can manage? I think there must be something that the officials know and are planning for and dont want to have crowds. I cant imagine them just being so incompetent that they would have forgotten to tell us about a day off until the morning of. But hey I have nearly 500 other emails that can testify to their incompetence.

raw

i have begun a challenge for myself. I am so bored here in KSA that I have elected to go ahead and try to do something difficult and potentially beneficial for 30 days. My challenge is to eat only raw food. nothing processed and nothing cooked. Thus I will be eating a lot of veggies and fruit and some nuts. I have been doing it for three days so far and I find that the food isn't the problem it is getting excited for the food. Thus I have been eating only one meal per day. I will probably make it to the end but we shall see at day 14 and 27 it is a long way to go. While deciding to do this I mentioned the concept to some of my coworkers and many of them got on board with their own challenges. One guy is running 1 mile the first week 2 the next 3 the following and 4 the final week. Another is going to eat only 500 calories a day and take supplements, another is writing 1000 words per day. And there are a few others that are going on. It is funny though when I have the choice to eat anything I tend to eat lots of veggies anyways and I dont really eat the sweets. However since I began I have walked into the store and found myself eyeballing the donuts with affection, I think it is just because I know that I can not have them that I look at them. It will be an interesting 27 more days. I just need to find a routine and a way to get enough calories into my body. What could you do for 30 days?

new evidence

there seems to be a dearth of information about the possibility of the lizard that is currently pulverizing the coastal areas of japan. I feel like the focus on this has all been wrong. Everyone is worried about the reactors and the possibilities of a meltdown, and while I agree that it would be a terrible situation a far worse one is underway. After all I just read that suddenly many of the areas affected are low on food and water. Do you know what consumes copious amounts of water and food all at once? That's right godzilla does, and I think it is not hard to imagine that after tearing apart huge swaths of the island the beast has eaten. After all the destruction has slowed for the last day and thus we must consider that godzilla was busy doing something. Eating and growing stronger for his next bout of rampage. Probably. Be afraid be very afraid. If I remember my 1950 and 60s monster documentaries correctly there was always a lull in the action after the first sighting and bout of destruction. When the monster returned it tended to be much much worse.

movement

i am watching the news and it seems that godzilla has begun to attack the nuclear facilities in the east of japan. I knew it was only a matter of time before he turned to wrecking that which created him. When will the UN step in and put a stop to this madness. I may have to form a rogue mercenary force to stop this monster. how long can we all sit idly by and wait while it ravages a country? Will we stand up when it crosses into Korea or china? Are we willing to wait and see if it has the stamina to trounce across the silk road(by and by who makes a road out of silk) and into the middle east and Greece? Where will we make our stand? I for one have had enough of this monster. I call on everyone to join my ranks and force this beast back into the watery depths from which it came. Begone foul lizard. Let the good people of japan rebuild their lives. You have caused enough damage. Dont make me get the mechagodzilla out of the storage shed.

nature or

i am not of course saying that these events happened at the same time but it does seem like there is a little too much damage to discount godzilla in all this.

warmth

i know that there is still winter in the world. it is a sad truth that it has left the part of the middle east where I reside. It is pretty consistently getting up into the 90s. which is stupidly hot. though I am told it will get into the 120s before i am released from this purgatory. One of the people that I work with has recently converted to islam. I just cant bring myself to take it seriously as a faith as it is practiced here in the kingdom. Dont get me wrong I have loads of respect for people that read and think and decide for themselves, but when many of the core beliefs of the religion are trounced in the name of state and then the state makes rules based on the portions of the religion it can use to keep itself secure it seems disingenuous at best. Let me give a concrete example. The king. now the king is a good guy from what i can tell, he pays for all schooling, he has established a social safety net for people that get fired, he is generally doing goodish things with the money he gets from the sale of the oil. So what is my problem. Well islam states pretty clearly that there are no hereditary roles. That leaders should be chosen in order to ensure the best and brightest. So how can the country that has both Mecca and Medina also have a king? Right through total disregard for the portions that are inconvenient. The guy actually has himself called the keeper of the two holy sites. In every way possible he insinuates himself into a role as a muslim guard but then he breaks a fairly simple rule for to keep power in the family. I can see the logic in the no hereditary business. Consider if you will the idea that the king knew that when he died his children would have to make it on their own and all the wealth that has been gotten would revert to the people. I think that he would be even more likely to use the money and other resources to truly benefit all the people. After all why hoard when it could serve the interest of all now and will certainly not serve the familial interest in the future. But then again this keeper feels that he knows better than the prophet(pbuh). There are loads of other examples. It makes me think people are all the same. So long as I get mine,fuck you.

off to the

Races.... This weekend I went (weekends happen thursday and friday here) to my very first ever car race. It was, interesting to say the least. I think that being from the US has spoiled me with regards to cars. Outside of the race track there were lots of young men with their cars all tricked out and polished to a shine but sadly even the best they did was a sad imitation of some of the low riders with hydraulics that used to bounce through AZ when I lived out there. I would have thought that having and spending loads of money would have given the Saudis the edge in this single category but alas it is still the homies that are reigning kings of the bouncey cars. There were of course some silly gauche cars that made me happy. And the races themselves were not that exciting. Mostly it was interesting to be in a place where Saudi youth could relax and be themselves outside and not have to worry about the religious police. There was a stage set up with just some music playing and one would have thought it was a full blown concert there were literally hundreds of young men gathered around just to move a little and listen to the music. I can see why places suddenly fall apart. These regimes think that everything is going fine because no one fights and everyone acts happy, then out of the blue there is something to do, I truly think that half the folks in tahir square in egypt and pearl square in bahrian and elsewhere are not there because they yearn for freedom at the polls, or are willing to die for a representative government, but instead are there because it is the only thing happening in town. It shouldnt be termed the jasmine revolution, but the revolution of the bored. I can almost hear the cries coming out the palaces, "let them play halo." Sometimes people just want to dance, dance revolution.

a new me

I am going to try to live a day as if i were an art exhibition. I was shown a random show name generator and decided to live out whatever the name of the show was. I will do this for a day or two and then go and get a new show name. The first exhibition

Parsing Relevance: Daring to Defy Progress


I can do that. If you want in on the action and I of course suggest that everyone should give it a try the website that generates the names is at
http://www.mit.edu/~ruchill/lazycurator.html
give it a try and see what the art exhibit of your life could be.