Archive for October, 2010

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Visiting Authors

October 29, 2010

Posted by Kanga.

Wednesday was an extraordinary day. The Sharjah International Book Fair is happening currently. In addition to hundreds of publishers and book vendors, this year they have visiting authors from around the world. I was pleased to have the opportunity to hear Samar Dahmash-Jarrah speak. She is a Kuwait born Palestinian and has lived in several of the Middle East countries. She’s an experienced journalist. When 9/11 happened she was living in the States. Even though she is a shy person, she felt it impossible not to speak up and clarify that not all Muslims hate America and not all Muslims are terrorists. This led to her doing a lot of public speaking and media interviews. She then embarked on a wonderful project in which she collected questions that Americans wanted to ask Arabs, then (self-funded) travelled to several Middle East countries and asked these questions of random Arabs she met. These questions and answers are published in her book – Arab Voices Speak to American Hearts (2005). I have yet to read this book, but I will. She is currently teaching an honors course at the University of Southern Florida and is using Facebook to connect her students with Arabs around the world to continue the conversation, if you will. Individuals talking to each other is the best way to take the fear out of the “stranger.” They are no longer strangers.

So, that was a really excellent day, but it got better. There are other authors in town for the book fair – Lisa Dempster (Australia), Zohra Saed & Sahar Muradi (Afghan/Americans), Marsha Qualey (Cairo), and Octavia Nasr (former CNN senior editor of Middle East affairs). So, the Twitter community had a tweetup, of course. Here we are:

dinner gathering
Below is PK Gulati, Octavia Nasr, Jenny Saleh, and Zohra Saed.
dinner gathering

(published from my iPad)

Posted in Dubai | 3 Comments »

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Humor Will Keep Us Together

October 25, 2010

Posted by Kanga

Typical day with DaddyBird and Kanga:

[DaddyBird is terribly sick with a cold. Kanga is preparing to go out to get him some dinner, medication, and juice.]

DaddyBird: … and some lemonade and some fresh ginger to put in my tea…
Kanga: Wait, this is getting to be a long list. [grabs iPod Touch to enter the shopping list as a note] …heh, heh, it wants to capitalize Ginger…[pause for effect] I’m not bringing you that kind of ginger.

Posted in Us | 2 Comments »

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Strawberries Around the World

October 23, 2010

Posted by Kanga.
sign in grocery store for USA strawberries

So, this picture is ridiculously blurry, but the security guard was none too keen on me taking pictures, so I only got one chance. You will have to take my word for it that it says “Strawberries USA.” 9.90 Dhs is about $2.70 for a pint. So, what does a pint of strawberries go for in September in the States?

We did not buy any. Even in the states the berries in the grocery stores are pretty tasteless due to being picked before they are fully ripe. Just imagine what they taste like after being shipped halfway around the world. Some aspects of globalization should be skipped altogether.

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Risk Pays Off Again

October 22, 2010

Posted by Kanga.

Once again, we wondered into a restaurant and took our chances. So far, this has always worked for us. The name of the restaurant is Barbecue Delights and the sign had flames on it, so I was a bit hesitant because I expected the menu to be full of foods laced generously with hot chilis.

Sidebar: Barbecue here has nothing to do with American style barbecue. There is no sweet tomato based sauce in sight.

I was delighted, however, when I saw that among the spicy Indian menu items there were Afghani menu items.
small bowls of sauces, plate of cut vegetables, bowl of yogurt
So here are the condiments, if you will, a bowl of yogurt, plate of cut veggies and a few sauces.

platter filled with rice and several types of grilled meat
I don’t remember how this was listed in the menu, but it was basically some of everything. The rice was delicious. It had currents, pistachios and other tasty bits in it. There were several types of grilled meat – chicken, ground meat & lamb. Hidden in the rice was a lamb shank that was to die for. There was also a lovely long piece of flat bread and we had lassi (a salted yogurt drink).

We didn’t really need another favorite restaurant. There are too many already. However, whenever we are near Lamsy Plaza around lunch or dinner time, we know where to go.

Posted in food, restaurant | 2 Comments »

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Oliver’s new bag

October 20, 2010

Posted in cats, video | 2 Comments »

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Camel Crossing

October 17, 2010

Posted by Kanga.

Here it is! I hit the jackpot and got a video of 22 camels crossing the highway. The recording gets all jumbly and out of control near the beginning because I was standing by the side of the road next to my car and decided that I should at least move to the side of the car farthest from the road, just in case of crazy drivers.

This was taken just north of the Oman-U.A.E. border south of Fujairah.

Made my day.

Posted in animals | 1 Comment »

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Breakfast decadence

October 16, 2010

frying pan full of sausage wrapped in bacon
These pictures were specifically requested, so here they are. A while back DaddyBird discovered bacon wrapped sausages that also had cheese inside at the grocery store. They are amazingly delicious and decadent. These in the picture are not cheese “infused,” but are a homemade attempt by manually wrapping the sausage in bacon.
cooked bacon wrapped sausage
Then comes the scrambled eggs with onions and two kinds of cheese.
eggs being added to sauteed onions
The noise of opening an egg carton and cracking eggs results in the following:

Here is the finished product. This is an occasional, special weekend breakfast. This is a heart attack waiting to happen.
finished bacon wrapped sausage with scrambled cheesy eggs

Posted in food | 2 Comments »

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Random Sights

October 16, 2010

Posted by Kanga.

a caution sign with 9 messages in both English & Arabic
This sign and all it’s warnings seems a little overwhelming.

Information sign misspelled "inforamtion"
I’m glad to know where to get accurate I N F O R A M T I O N.

a t-shirt with a church logo
I suspect that the members of the Sunset Beach Community Church would be surprised to find that their left over t-shirts ended up in the bargin bin of an Asian grocery store in Dubai.

a perfume vending machine
A new vending machine appeared in the mall across the street.

close up of perfume vending machine
And, how do you know which perfume you want to buy? Well, there are samplers, of course.

Sample bottles attached to the side of the perfume vending machine

Posted in Dubai, oddities | 2 Comments »

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Feasting on Friday

October 12, 2010

Posted by Kanga.

Last friday we joined my coworkers for a traditional Indian meal. Most of it was too spicy for me, but I managed to survive and next time I will have a better idea of what to ask for more of and what to turn away.

banana leaf with rice and various sauces
This has to be the most biodegradable way to eat. No dishes, no silverware.

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Way Beyond Web

October 8, 2010

Posted by Kanga.

I wrote previously – Predictions of Future Past – about Internet predictions and what actually developed. I’m going to prattle on about this some more from a slightly different tack.

I’m amazed by the paradoxical ease and complexity of accessing information these days. We can google most anything, although the answers we find might raise more questions than certainties. (Notice how Google has become a verb?) The recent 50th anniversary of The Flintstones resulted in a discussion (via Facebook) about exactly when was Pebbles born. Googling led to conflicting answers and questions of which source could be believed. (If my students had any idea what The Flintstones was, I would use this as an example for how to evaluate sources. Unfortunately, it is not culturally relevant.) Anyway, I’m going with Feb 22, 1963.

I’ve talked about Twitter before and how important it has been for us in making friendships with a wide variety of people. For example, this week we had a dinner with 13 people (including us) in which 6 of those people were expats (foreigners like us) and 7 were locals (citizens). You will have to take my word on just how extraordinary that is. However, Twitter is also a major source of information about what is going on locally and in the world. Tweeps (people who twitter) read an interesting article on a news website or a blog and tweet a link to the article. I, being lazy or harried, rely on this referral system and use these links to go to articles that pique my interest. Yes, I could use RSS feeds to collect articles in an automated way, but I kinda like the added social aspect that the person who shared the link also read the article (I know there’s a bit of assumption there) and if I have a strong reaction or opinion about the content, I can “talk” with them about it.

Now, back in the “real” world, students are flocking into the library during their breaks to grab newspapers (in physical format), find an article and scan a copy of it on a daily basis. I have concluded that there is at least one professor who is convinced that the students must “learn to read newspapers” and is requiring the students to produce an article each day. There are teachers who are scandalized that these students have never touched a physical newspaper. But, let’s face it, newspapers are dead, they just don’t know it, yet. Most newspapers have websites where they post all their articles and possibly additional content. These websites have become quite sophisticated, well organized, searchable, and incorporate social media functions so that you can comment on what you read. The tradition of the leisurely breakfast with the morning newspaper is a luxury only the retired have. These students are not sitting down with the paper, reading it through, and coming away fully informed about what is happening locally and globally. Let go of format! Paper is dead, long live the web (until the next thing comes along). Content is where it is at. It doesn’t matter if it is carved in stone, painted on papyrus or sheep skin, inked on wood pulp, or displayed on screen.

Ironically, there are some “services” that are designed to take your Twitter feed and turn it into your very own personalized “newspaper.” At least one application for iPad combines your Facebook and Twitter to make a personalized “magazine” for you. Just how many interfaces do we need to filter our information through?

I don’t think that the word “web” describes the Internet accurately anymore. Maybe “fractal” would be more appropriate.

Posted in work | 3 Comments »

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