New Car!!

After five months of being bound to a bike and my own two legs, I got a car!

1994 Suzuki Vitara 4wd manual transmission

Let me tell you. A 4wd is amazing. I am not bound by the laws of physics. Well, maybe by physics, but I'm certainly not bound by roads. In fact, I regularly park on sidewalks and have even once skipped driving on the road to driving through a dirt field to reach my intended destination. And some day, I'll even take it out to the desert to tramps around in.

But really, its just nice to be able to go grocery shopping any time I want.

An Announcement for the Ages

Most of the people who read this regularly probably already know this - but I feel that announcements such as this are only official if they meet the following criteria:

1) It is published on any public blogs
2) Your facebook status has been updated (this one is key)
3) Your mother knows

But here is the big announcement:

I'M ENGAGED!!

Below is a picture of my fiance, Alison Murphy, and I (I have long shaggy hair which has since been cut).

If you are not already aware, she is a teacher at Al Raja school with me. She teaches 11th grade algebra and 12th grade chemistry.

She is from Michigan and this is her first year in Bahrain. She has spent time, however, in Turkey and other trips outside the States.

We will get married August 2nd in her hometown in Battle Creek, and then return to teach at Al Raja. Which means that I will need to be on my toes looking for an apartment that is worthy of a lady such as this.

That's my story! Any questions or comments - let me know!

Off Scampering About

I am going to take a haitus from blogging for the next two weeks, which will be disappointment for those of you who have so enjoyed such frequent updates on the escapades in the middle east.

You see, I am leaving paradise island for the Sultanate of Oman. In a sense, I'm leaving the big city for the rustic northwoods. Oman has resisted the modernization, in contrast to cities like Dubai or Manama (Bahrain) that have jumped fully into high rise buildings and

So the next two weeks will be filled with off-roading through the mountains of Oman (using a gps coordinator), doing a SCUBA dive or two and generally scampering about the country.

We have a layover in dubai on the way there and the way back, so we'll be able to leave the airport for a bit and hang out in Sharja on the waterfront.

The Technological Circle of Life

If you've ever read Zits - the comic strip - then you might find the following amusing.

Jeremy, the 15 year old boy, comes up with a brilliant idea. Cell phones, he says are becoming smaller and smaller, as part of a trend towards conveneince. BUT, he says, what if there were NO cell phones! What if, instead of cell phones, we have a system by which phones are placed around the city for us to use at our own convenience! Wouldn't that be great!?

"Yeah," his dad says. "They're called payphones."

The almost ridiculousness of facebook was realized upon me last night when I recieved an email notifying me that someone had written on my wall. This isn't new.

What was new was that the notification email also contained the message written on my wall. Now that's convenient. I don't have to log into my facebook account to see what's on my wall. I can see it in my inbox. The same now goes if someone sends me a message on facebook.

So now, not only do I get an email saying I have a message, but I get an email saying I have a message with the message in it!!

If only they could set up facebook so that I could just hit reply, and a return message would be posted on the wall of the person who posted on mine. Brilliant!!

OR - I could just write that person an email, since I am at my own email inbox already. But I didn't. I went signed into facebook and wrote on his wall.

Axis of Evil

This last week in World History, with the 11th graders, we have started covering World War II, which of course includes the Axis powers of Germany, Japan and Italy. I try to connect and apply everything I can, and this provided a great opportunity.

In his 2002 State of the Union Address, President Bush coined the phrase, "Axis of Evil". We can debate for hours whether or not he was correct... though the President's continued hardline stance is a little disconcerting considering the recent United States report that Iran had ceased their nuclear program in 2003 (and the possibility that he's known about this report since July).

The following article was found on satirewire.com. Enjoy.

No Fair! We wanna be in our own Axis!
Andrew Marlatt (oligarch of Satirewire.com and author of Economy of Errors)

Bitter after being snubbed for membership in the “Axis of Evil,” Libya, China and Syria today announced they had formed the “Axis of Just as Evil,” which they said would be way eviler than that stupid Iran-Iraq-North Korea axis President Bush warned of in his State of the Union address.

Axis of Evil members, however, immediately dismissed the new axis as having, for starters, a really dumb name.

“Right. They are Just as Evil… in their dreams!” declared North Korean leader Kim Jong il. “Everybody knows we’re the best evils… best at being evil… we’re the best.”

Diplomats from Syria denied they were jealous over being excluded, although they conceded they did ask if they could join the Axis of Evil.

“They told us it was all full,” said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“An Axis can’t have more than three countries,” explained Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. “This is not my rule; its tradition. In World War II you had Germany, Italy and Japan in the evil Axis. So You can only have three.

“And a secret handshake. Ours is wicked cool.”

International reaction to Bush’s Axis of Evil declaration was swift as, within minutes, France surrendered.

Elsewhere, peer-conscious nations rushed to gain triumvariate status in what became a game of geopolitical musical chairs. Cuba, Sudan and Serbia said they had formed the Axis of Somwhat Evil, forcing Somalia to join with Uganda and Myanmar in the Axis of Occasionally Evil, while Bulgaria, Indonesia and Russia established the Axis of Not So Much Evil Really as Just Generally Disagreeable.

With the criteria suddenly expanded and all the desirable clubs filling up, Siera Leone, El Salvador and Rwanda applied tot be called the Axis of Countries That Aren’t the Worst But Certainly Won’t Be Asked to Host the Olympics, and Canada, Mexico and Australia formed the Axis of Nations That Are Actually Quite Nice But Secretly Have Nasty Thoughts About America.

While wondering if the other nations of the world weren’t perhaps making fun of him, a cautious Bush granted approval for most axes, although rejected the establishment of the Axis of Countries Whose Names End in “Guay,” accusing one of its members of filing a false application. Officials from Paraguay, Uruguay and Chadguay denied the charges.