Seems like Scrubs has come part way back. I'm very glad to see them do some scenes outside the hospital. I claim that's the key to making the show good again. Other than maybe at the very beginning I think all the funny and key moments of the show have either been outside the hospital or set up by something outside the hospital. Although I do feel like this entire season of scrubs is that episode of arrested development where they make a last ditch effort to save the family/show. And what is with coffeebucks? They had the cafeteria which they were able to use as a large space or zoom in to a table to make it small space. But now they just have the small area that makes me feel claustrophobic.
I think Pysch as a show on its own is ok, but not quite good enough to watch. But the fact it is a constant mockery of psychics just puts it over the worth watching bar for me. Plus it is set in Santa Barbara so I get to keep going - oh, I used to live near there. Whoa - they just had a victim with an ICD that they used to identify him. The reasons to watch keep adding up.
I keep wondering when they are going to finally post tonight's episode of BSG online, but I guess I should at least wait till the episode has finished playing on TV before getting impatient. I'm increasingly thinking that the music (especially the drums during action scenes, but also other selections) does a lot to make the show. Which I guess was really brought out by the whole All Along the Watchtower thing.
I just found out if I renew my lease for a year my rent is going up less than 1%! Hopefully raises this year won't match apartment prices.
I finally got to the grocery store so no more having a spoonful of peanut butter for breakfast any more (don't worry it is not from that company with the recall).
George Bush isn't acting as president any more (I still maintain he never won to begin with)! That finally started to sink in today. Someone should keep an eye on Dick Cheney - I feel like he could be even more dangerous now that the world isn't watching him than he was before (maybe I've watched The Usual Suspects too many times). I like the theory that Cheney was in a wheel chair so he wouldn't have to stand when Obama was sworn in (ok, I don't believe it, but I like it). I know I'm not really qualified to answer this, but I feel rather confident in saying that having a black president does not mean racism is over or that we can all forget about slavery - now all those talk show hosts can stop asking.
Music needs to get more violent. I feel like when I was growing up rap and alternative rock gave old people something to worry about (ok, mostly just rap, but I like to think I was listening to something edgy). The worrying old people sounded out of it, and didn't get it, but at least you could sort of see how they would worry that violent music might cause violence. But now it seems like social networking has taken its place. It is one thing to go on the radio and talk about the evils of violent music, it is quite another to talk about how facebook/twitter/yelp are ruining society (or to quote Emerson and Walden to prove facebook is ruining universities - seriously, that was on NPR this morning). I think every conversation about it can be boiled down to - "I'm old and this is new so it must be bad. I've only used it for a little bit and have not yet figured out how to use it intelligently so everyone must be wasting their life on it." In order to save these people some dignity, music needs to get more violent so they have something semi-reasonable to worry about again. I'm not saying music isn't violent now, it is just that we have gotten used to it (almost makes you think we'll get used to facebook/twitter/yelp in a couple years and wonder what everyone was worrying about...), but it needs to quickly get a lot more violent so people take notice again.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Climbing
I headed up to Planet Granite with Jeremy and Emily and went indoor climbing for the first time. The easy paths were actually easy which was nice because I could succeed the first time and then step up the difficulty. Then once I couldn't do it I tried going down a few levels so I could get another success, at that point my arms didn't hurt, but they stopped producing force.
When I got back from Egypt I realized just how close the deadlines were on the two projects I've been working on which quickly snapped me out of the post-vacation why am I here and why am I doing this. It was also nice that there was a company wide shut down so everyone was going through that same recovery process.
I have a twitter feed. My user name is dsignoff. I'm not really using it, but maybe one day I will. Anyway just in case you're interested in following each others feeds.
When I got back from Egypt I realized just how close the deadlines were on the two projects I've been working on which quickly snapped me out of the post-vacation why am I here and why am I doing this. It was also nice that there was a company wide shut down so everyone was going through that same recovery process.
I have a twitter feed. My user name is dsignoff. I'm not really using it, but maybe one day I will. Anyway just in case you're interested in following each others feeds.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Egypt
Well to start off the big post vacation post here is the short list of photos with captions.
Let's cover the obvious highlights of the trip. The Pyramids were very cool to actually see. As I've mentioned before they are a bit old. It was cool to have been inside the great pyramid, but I'll admit there wasn't much inside there to see. It was a bit surprising how the city has grown right up to the Pyramids - a bit less of a middle of the desert experience than you might expect. The Valley of Kings in Luxor is an area with a bunch of tombs where later Pharaohs were buried, they figured out that if you don't want your grave which is filled with jewels and gold to be looted, putting the world's tallest building over it isn't the best approach. The cool part of the tombs is the original paintings are well preserved. In Luxor I talked everyone into seeing the Temple of Hatshepsut because I think the building as part of a mountain thing is so cool looking. In Luxor we also saw Karnak which was impressively large. I found the other sites really cool because I had never seen anything like them, but Karnak was similar enough to Greek ruins that it didn't grab me as much. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo was a bit funny - they had items that I think an American museum would build an entire room to display just sitting somewhere at random with no label. There was a giant wall with stacks of unlabeled sarcophaguses. This is also where they have most of the items from King Tut's tomb. In Luxor we also tried to go on a sail boat, but there wasn't enough wind so instead we talked to a guy who told us about how Jews control the world (that was one of a small number of comments about Jews and Israel).
In Aswan we went to a Nubian village where we danced with a preschool class (we were standing outside and a teacher waved us in and then got all the kids and put on some music - and of course at the end pointed at their donation box) and had tea at a house we were passing by when they invited us in. We also found a place with a nice view of the river and city (we were going to eat there, but apparently the cook stayed up too late and wouldn't be in till dinner). And we went to the souq (bazaar) for a bit.
One odd note for the Vegas fans - Luxor and the Pyramids are both in Egypt, but there are no Pyramids in (or near) Luxor.
In addition to seeing ancient stuff we also visited some Mosques in Cairo. I already described the most interesting Mosque visit. We also saw the Mosque on the 1 LE bill. We saw a bunch of other Mosques, but given how little I know about them I had trouble really distinguishing many differences between them (anyone interested in architecture is probably wondering if I'm blind). In Cairo there was a loud speaker system so everyone could hear the call to prayer three times a day. Cairo is secular enough that most people we saw did not react to the call to prayer and I imagine anyone serious about it had made their way to a Mosque, but I did see a few people put down mats at the appropriate time. There was a decent portion of men who had marks on their forehead from touching the ground while praying. The oddest part was some old stone Mosques had neon green signs saying Allah (in arabic), as shown here. We also saw a few Coptic Churches and two Synagogues (neither are in use - one had cops outside who wouldn't let us go near or take pictures).
One of the most interesting experiences was purely thanks to Angie's adventurous spirit. In Luxor Angie was having a conversation with one of the cab drivers and after a while he invited us to his home to have tea. I was going to say no way, but as a group of 4 it didn't seem too crazy. We went to his house where his mother, most of the 11 siblings and most of the siblings' kids live. Everyone (men and women) greeted us and shook our hands. We had tea outside while they prepared for their nightly gathering around the fire and TV. He also showed us around outside his house where they raise pigeons, chickens and cows, where he is slowly building a restaurant, and the neighbor's wheat (or corn?) field (their field is a bit further away). At the end he took us to our destination. Angie wrote a bit in his taxi journal - many of the cab drivers in Luxor had these - they would ask what language you speak and then show you a comment from someone who had written in that language and they could cover just about any language, which I guess shouldn't be too surprising since Luxor was like a tour boat parking lot.
If you are in Luxor and want someone to drive you around give Hussein Ali Keliey a call 0020124133207.
The one thing I'll say about the train rides is - if you are ever going to a developing country - bring Cipro!
Some various other observations. Crossing the street in Cairo was the most intense street crossing I've ever done. It beat China largely because in China there was at least some respect for street lights - in Cairo it was like they didn't exist (and many places they didn't). Lots of places the ground was the trash can which led to trash fires and goats roaming around. In some of the less busy parts of Cairo (a city of 20 million) there were goats wandering around on the street. This trip was the first time I've ever tipped a cop (they were not shy about asking). Cheapest meal was $0.30 falafel near the Pyramids which was reasonably good - most meals were $5 to $10. In touristy areas the hassling was rather intense - there was even a place I went to that advertised no hassling and someone immediately walked up to explain over and over how he wasn't hassling me. Outside the tourist areas people were generally very helpful - got very confusing when tipping was expected. Since hospitality seems to be valued highly in the culture (such as inviting people over for tea) it made it extra hard to tell if someone was being nice or looking for a tip or setting up a scam. Basically all prices were negotiable. Cabs don't even have meters - you negotiate a fixed price based on the destination before you get in. Almost all women wore headscarves, but often with typical western clothing. Some women wore full burkhas. Most men wore typical western dress, but plenty wore robes. Some people performed some amazing acts of balancing stuff on their head. Anything from people with too many grocery bags for their hands to a guy on a bike with a wooden board the length of the bike with bread on it. The bread was very good - especially the whole wheat pita - which was far better than the US attempt at it. And of course shawarma is always good. In parks there were teenage boys and girls hanging out as couples and holding hands, but we were told that's as far as they go. Many times when we told people we're from American the immediate response would be - Bush is bad, Obama is good. And a few people wanted to know what we thought of the sandal throwing incident.
Thanks to Max, Alice and Angie for going with me. I had a great time on the trip!
Let's cover the obvious highlights of the trip. The Pyramids were very cool to actually see. As I've mentioned before they are a bit old. It was cool to have been inside the great pyramid, but I'll admit there wasn't much inside there to see. It was a bit surprising how the city has grown right up to the Pyramids - a bit less of a middle of the desert experience than you might expect. The Valley of Kings in Luxor is an area with a bunch of tombs where later Pharaohs were buried, they figured out that if you don't want your grave which is filled with jewels and gold to be looted, putting the world's tallest building over it isn't the best approach. The cool part of the tombs is the original paintings are well preserved. In Luxor I talked everyone into seeing the Temple of Hatshepsut because I think the building as part of a mountain thing is so cool looking. In Luxor we also saw Karnak which was impressively large. I found the other sites really cool because I had never seen anything like them, but Karnak was similar enough to Greek ruins that it didn't grab me as much. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo was a bit funny - they had items that I think an American museum would build an entire room to display just sitting somewhere at random with no label. There was a giant wall with stacks of unlabeled sarcophaguses. This is also where they have most of the items from King Tut's tomb. In Luxor we also tried to go on a sail boat, but there wasn't enough wind so instead we talked to a guy who told us about how Jews control the world (that was one of a small number of comments about Jews and Israel).
In Aswan we went to a Nubian village where we danced with a preschool class (we were standing outside and a teacher waved us in and then got all the kids and put on some music - and of course at the end pointed at their donation box) and had tea at a house we were passing by when they invited us in. We also found a place with a nice view of the river and city (we were going to eat there, but apparently the cook stayed up too late and wouldn't be in till dinner). And we went to the souq (bazaar) for a bit.
One odd note for the Vegas fans - Luxor and the Pyramids are both in Egypt, but there are no Pyramids in (or near) Luxor.
In addition to seeing ancient stuff we also visited some Mosques in Cairo. I already described the most interesting Mosque visit. We also saw the Mosque on the 1 LE bill. We saw a bunch of other Mosques, but given how little I know about them I had trouble really distinguishing many differences between them (anyone interested in architecture is probably wondering if I'm blind). In Cairo there was a loud speaker system so everyone could hear the call to prayer three times a day. Cairo is secular enough that most people we saw did not react to the call to prayer and I imagine anyone serious about it had made their way to a Mosque, but I did see a few people put down mats at the appropriate time. There was a decent portion of men who had marks on their forehead from touching the ground while praying. The oddest part was some old stone Mosques had neon green signs saying Allah (in arabic), as shown here. We also saw a few Coptic Churches and two Synagogues (neither are in use - one had cops outside who wouldn't let us go near or take pictures).
One of the most interesting experiences was purely thanks to Angie's adventurous spirit. In Luxor Angie was having a conversation with one of the cab drivers and after a while he invited us to his home to have tea. I was going to say no way, but as a group of 4 it didn't seem too crazy. We went to his house where his mother, most of the 11 siblings and most of the siblings' kids live. Everyone (men and women) greeted us and shook our hands. We had tea outside while they prepared for their nightly gathering around the fire and TV. He also showed us around outside his house where they raise pigeons, chickens and cows, where he is slowly building a restaurant, and the neighbor's wheat (or corn?) field (their field is a bit further away). At the end he took us to our destination. Angie wrote a bit in his taxi journal - many of the cab drivers in Luxor had these - they would ask what language you speak and then show you a comment from someone who had written in that language and they could cover just about any language, which I guess shouldn't be too surprising since Luxor was like a tour boat parking lot.
If you are in Luxor and want someone to drive you around give Hussein Ali Keliey a call 0020124133207.
The one thing I'll say about the train rides is - if you are ever going to a developing country - bring Cipro!
Some various other observations. Crossing the street in Cairo was the most intense street crossing I've ever done. It beat China largely because in China there was at least some respect for street lights - in Cairo it was like they didn't exist (and many places they didn't). Lots of places the ground was the trash can which led to trash fires and goats roaming around. In some of the less busy parts of Cairo (a city of 20 million) there were goats wandering around on the street. This trip was the first time I've ever tipped a cop (they were not shy about asking). Cheapest meal was $0.30 falafel near the Pyramids which was reasonably good - most meals were $5 to $10. In touristy areas the hassling was rather intense - there was even a place I went to that advertised no hassling and someone immediately walked up to explain over and over how he wasn't hassling me. Outside the tourist areas people were generally very helpful - got very confusing when tipping was expected. Since hospitality seems to be valued highly in the culture (such as inviting people over for tea) it made it extra hard to tell if someone was being nice or looking for a tip or setting up a scam. Basically all prices were negotiable. Cabs don't even have meters - you negotiate a fixed price based on the destination before you get in. Almost all women wore headscarves, but often with typical western clothing. Some women wore full burkhas. Most men wore typical western dress, but plenty wore robes. Some people performed some amazing acts of balancing stuff on their head. Anything from people with too many grocery bags for their hands to a guy on a bike with a wooden board the length of the bike with bread on it. The bread was very good - especially the whole wheat pita - which was far better than the US attempt at it. And of course shawarma is always good. In parks there were teenage boys and girls hanging out as couples and holding hands, but we were told that's as far as they go. Many times when we told people we're from American the immediate response would be - Bush is bad, Obama is good. And a few people wanted to know what we thought of the sandal throwing incident.
Thanks to Max, Alice and Angie for going with me. I had a great time on the trip!
Monday, January 05, 2009
Egypt Pictures
My intention is to label the pictures from the trip and to pick out something like 20 to 40 of the best. But so far I've just taken Angie's and my pictures and done a first round of elimination and cropping/touch up. So if you are up for 214 unlabeled pictures then you can take a look here. Otherwise, if you wait a few days you can see a more reasonable number of labeled pictures. And by then Max's pictures may have been added in. If you have opinions on which pictures should or should not make the short list let me know.
Saturday, January 03, 2009
The Harafish
During the trip to Egypt (hm, have I mentioned that I went to Egypt?), I finally finished The Harafish. The book tells the story of 10 generations of a family (each chapter covers a generation) living in Islamic Cairo at some point in history (I never figured out exactly when). The stories are somewhat interesting, although not interesting enough to recommend the book to someone who isn't headed to Egypt. The book became far more interesting once I got to Egypt and saw Islamic Cairo. The idea of each alleyway being a community with a clan chief suddenly made a lot more sense. And we had tea (twice) where the author used to hang out (as mentioned in a previous post). So if you are going to Cairo I would recommend picking up something by Naguib Mahfouz (and if you forget to before you go, there will be plenty of opportunities once you are there).
Friday, January 02, 2009
Boston Post-Egypt
After leaving Cairo there was less easy access to WiFi which is why the posting stopped. We saw a bunch more cool stuff which I will write about when I get back to CA and most of the pictures will have to wait till I get some time with iPhoto to sort/label/touch up.
Now I'm in Boston, and hopefully sometime soon my stuff will meet me here (Alitalia decided to send half the bags headed for Boston on a plane headed to Chicago, or so they claim). You might ask why I checked my bag that easily fits in the overhead compartment - well we got the check in lady who decided our bags weight too much and had to be checked, then you might ask what weight has to do with it and that's where my ability to provide answers ends.
I'm staying at Mike and Laura's very nice home and spending most of the time worrying about if I'm going to starve to death because Laura is so stingy with the food.
This picture was taken by two "Tourism and Antiquity" cops holding large weapons who then hit us up for baksheesh afterward. Handing money to cops really messed with my list of things you should never do.
Now I'm in Boston, and hopefully sometime soon my stuff will meet me here (Alitalia decided to send half the bags headed for Boston on a plane headed to Chicago, or so they claim). You might ask why I checked my bag that easily fits in the overhead compartment - well we got the check in lady who decided our bags weight too much and had to be checked, then you might ask what weight has to do with it and that's where my ability to provide answers ends.
I'm staying at Mike and Laura's very nice home and spending most of the time worrying about if I'm going to starve to death because Laura is so stingy with the food.
This picture was taken by two "Tourism and Antiquity" cops holding large weapons who then hit us up for baksheesh afterward. Handing money to cops really messed with my list of things you should never do.
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