The dreaded first post

Greetings, Ok, before this gets out of hand, let me say. I am not a blogger, in the same way that while I've golfed, I'm certainly not a golfer. Now on any typical Saturday morning, I would awake look around and quite possibly cringe and go back to sleep. This morning, aha! I'm not doing that. How about I talk about... Well, I can mention my work, I encourage computers and other things that plug in to work better. That's what I'm doing now anyways. I guess I do a fair job of it, sadly I don't think it's really in the ballpark of things I do best, but hey, that's just me. The things I do best are generally people related, although, that is rather funny because I generally avoid people. Now while this isn't a rule, I generally don't go out. Take this weekend for example! There's almost no chance I'll leave my house. Why? Well, I just can't think of why I would want to go out. Sure, if it starts pouring rain here, I probably will go out, but otherwise, no thanks.
The time change: In what I consider to be yet another highly foolish American initiative, we are supposed to change our clocks this weekend. I have no particular objection to longer days, but I really do like the dark, so whatever. However! I think I've beaten this one - I never reset my clocks in the fall! So now, I'm faced with accurate clockware (1st Anniversary people remember this.) I quite dislike the idea of having accurate time kept in my house, so I wonder if I should set them to Newfoundland standard time or something else creative. Time is quite bad enough without having to look at it. Or perhaps,
I should set it to Jordan standard time. I'm really planning to go to Jordan for a few weeks soon. Now, many people have asked me: "Why would you want to go to Jordan, of all places?" I'm going to have to assume that these are the same people who go to Acapulco, Cuba or Bermuda and consider that a true holiday. A true holiday it may be, but none of that appeals to me. Cruises, loafing on beaches and such just doesn't sound very intellectually fascinating. If I'm actually going to pay to go somewhere, I'd really like to learn something about a new culture that is really different than ours. I've always really wanted to go to the Middle East and I fear that things may get worse there, rather than better for a while. So, I went down the list of interesting places to go:
Iran - probably a bad idea atm
Syria - sounds fun and affordable until the US bombs come raining down
Lebanon - not exactly the safest place around atm
Iraq - oi!
Egypt - everyone goes to Egypt, how boring
Turkey - well, Turks aren't Arabs, first of all, and it's too tourist friendly
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and others - no specific objections here
Anyways, at the end of all this I settled on Jordan, lots of great history in Jordan, the whole 6 days war bit, the Jordan river, stuff about Moses and all those guys, Wadi Rum, lots of desert and finally Petra, one of the most amazing archaeological sites I've seen - in pictures. Sounds fun and one of the side benefits is that I really should try to learn Arabic.
Learning Arabic
I've been working on learning this language now for a few weeks. Since I generally don't frequently learn new languages I really have no idea how its' going. I think I'm doing fine, although, let me say. I don't think beer, squares and coffee should be feminine while tea is masculine but I'm willing to overlook that, none of my business really. In any case, it's a work in progress and the timeline for the trip to Jordan is in the fall or maybe next spring. Should be fun, I'll keep me posted.
Anything else interesting happening today?
Yes! I've been taking photos out my office window - the exact same photo everyday at the same time. I really need to be less lazy and tag the photos with the exact date but I'm working on it! You can see some of the results at
My Flickr Gallery
To be honest, I'm not really a picture person. I rather consider my eyes valuable tools not devices for pleasure or fun. On many occasions I have thanked both of my rather weak eyes for indicating the location of the dread spindly killer fish lair, I then thanked my legs for directing me in the other direction. One day I intend to bring a very prickly stick and deal with that killer fish once and for all. Which reminds me, it's really a good thing that unpleasant wet, slimey and prickly things reside at the bottom of the ocean. It's almost as if we put them there so nobody would step on them.
On another note, if you're going to stay home from work with a blinding headache and your eyeballs feel like their going to explode (first, turn on your webcam - there's good money in exploding eyeballs) and secondly, don't schedule major roadwork outside your home when you do so. Bad Idea, seriously.
Finally, I'm going to finish up with my comment on this story:
Pravda Covers Alien Eating Fishermen
Ha! The whole thing strikes me as most funny. It's not an alien though, that would have to be a skate or a ray. However (and alien races please take note,) if I ever believe that I have discovered an alien life form, I promise that I will never eat you! I mean surely that's just common courtesy: Do not eat alien life forms - it's rude. I can only imagine a top world diplomat trying to explain when the fishpeople turn up to look for their missing friend:
Greetings to the Interplanetary Ambassador of Fishplanetia. Yes, we did meet your last diplomatic envoy. *cough* Err, did I say meet? I meant 'eat.' Yes, umm, sorry there was a bit of a mixup, but if it's any consolation, he did taste very good fried with some butter and served on rice. Still, sorry about that. Err, have you tried any of this delicious sushi by the way?"
Ok, that's quite enough silly for one post. I will return to my regularly scheduled life, which currently involves debating the relative values of toast, tomato soup, coffee or oolong tea. Might need a nap to properly consider though.