Saturday, 7 September 2002

I’m preparing my emergency lists these days – any suggestions are

welcome. At the moment I have:

Candles

Alcohol (maybe red wine?)

Good books

Crunchy munchies.

I think that will get me thru the bombing quite nicely.

:: salam pax 12:52 PM [+] ::

Thursday, 19 September 2002

I hate birthdays.

But I’m not going to whine about why this year was the worst ever

(I had the best days of my life for five or six months at the beginning

of this year and it has been a constant downhill after that).

I give you five thoughts which gave me the warm fuzzies:

1. Linkylove from the Legendary Monkey:_ she digs Portishead and

has magnetic poetry. I have fallen in love with her fridge. Now I’m

practising my low-frequency hums, to get those communication

issues out of the way.

1 | September 2002

------------

_ Host of the Sudden Nothing website: vaspider.surreally.net/suddennothing.

2. Raed calling me at midnight and telling me this is the last year I

will be able to say ‘I’m in my twenties.’ Not funny. He thinks it is and

laughed and laughed. Cruel bastard.

3. Friends and relatives finally realizing that I’m not good at these

things and usually show my grumpy bitch side on these days. So

instead of crashing my gates, I got e-mails and phone calls full of

good wishes and love (but none wishing me what I really needed:

seeing him and knowing that he is safe and well).

4. Watching Dancer in the Dark again. I _ Björk.

:: salam pax 12:05 PM [+] ::

I really wish Massive Attack would start worrying about the delay in

their album release rather than this.__ But it is good to know that

these people care about what is happening in Iraq and I was really

very excited about the news that Massive Attack are planning a

demonstration and a petition-signing with CND. The forum is great.

The regulars there have a very quirky sense of humour.

Did you know that Massive Attack changed their name in 1991 to

Massive only because the release of Blue Lines was too close to,

ahem, the ‘Mother of all Battles’. Now you know.

Today at work I was told that I am not getting paid this month.

‘Cashflow trouble’ da boss said. For some reason I thought that

was funny. I couldn’t control my giggles. He thought I am having a

nervous breakdown or something. Short of telling you ‘You’re fired’

this is the funniest thing evil-boss-creature could tell you on your

birthday.

:: salam pax 1:01 PM [+] ::

Saturday, 21 September 2002

All fools who spend their weekend working, although they have

September 2002 | 2

------------

_ Host of the Sudden Nothing website: vaspider.surreally.net/suddennothing.

__ ‘No Massive Attack!’, an article in the New Musical Express:

www.nme.com/news/102988.htm. Damon Albarn (of the pop group Blur) and Robert ‘3-D’ Del

Naja (of Massive Attack) delivered an open letter outlining their opposition to an invasion of

Iraq to Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, on 18 September 2002.

been told they are not getting paid, please stand on this side of the

line.

I really had nothing better to do. Besides, I forgot how much I like

working with the VIZ_ software. (I didn’t get a chance to show you

the work I did for the 100 Bed Hospital when I was in Jordan. I’ll

post the images here later.) I’m trying release four. It has a crazy

right-click menu – I orgasm every time I click it. Do you see that red

rectangular thingy in the image? That is the context menu for an

editable mesh with a slice modifier. I love it.

Anyway, back to this world.

I checked my stats today and found out that I have been linked by

Pandavox. That’s the second link in two days. The goddess of

linkylove has blessed me. Burning that modem and doing my

sacred linkwhore dance around it worked. Go check Pandavox,

you’ll be surprised. I sit between Israeli and Iranian blogs – very

geographically correct!

What really caught my eye was a post entitled ‘A war to end wars’. I

would really like to have some of that stuff you were on while writing

this. Pandavox, honeybuns, you cannot be serious.

Iraq: First we take Baghdad.__

Yeah . . . and then we take Berlin (Leonard Cohen has always been

one of my favourite lyricists).

The Iraqi people will experience a prosperity unknown to them. The

Iraqi people will see they have a friend with the American people.

Most importantly, Iraq will no longer contribute money to terrorist

groups.

Sure. We will contribute cheap reliable oil to keep western

economies going. Awww Pandavox, how I wish things were as

clear-cut as you put them in your little fairytale.

After their hostile governments collapse, many of the radical

Islamists will lose a reason for fighting. Then we can enjoy peace

again for a while.

3 | September 2002

------------

_ An architectural modelling software by Kinetix.

__ pandavox.blogspot.com.

Meg Ryan should be in this movie. She does this bad-turns-togood-

and-happy thing quite well.

It’s 3 a.m. and I should go to sleep. Tomorrow we’re having a meeting

at the Ministry of Health and I have three Lebanese engineers

from the consultancy to entertain.

Raed, if I put a commenting link would you use it?

:: salam pax 3:45 AM [+] ::

After three months of clear skies and fierce morning sun we have a

cloudy morning with temperatures around 29°C/85°F. Mmmmmm,

cool cloudy skies I love you.

Good article in The Economist: ‘Whatever their quiet wish to be rid

of Saddam Hussein, their experience of American arms has not

been pleasant.’_ And a funny cover for this week’s print edition.

OK. Have to run now.

:: salam pax 9:47 AM [+] ::

Sunday, 22 September 2002

Got the OK for the comments link from Raed. I don’t do nothing

without Master Raed sayin’ it’s fine with him first. And here is another

article in the New York Times about the war plans. I’m actually

getting tired of these. Damn it, just do it and let us get over it!

Officials said, however, that any attack would begin with a lengthy

air campaign led by B-2 bombers armed with 2,000-pound satelliteguided

bombs to knock out Iraqi command and control headquarters

and air defenses. They said a principal goal of the aerial

bombardment would be to sever most communications from

Baghdad and isolate Saddam Hussein from his commanders in the

rest of the country.__

:: salam pax 3:00 AM [+] ::

September 2002 | 4

------------

_ From ‘Saddam plays his ace’ (19 September 2002) in The Economist

(www.economist.com).

__ ‘Bush Has Received Pentagon Options on Attacking Iraq’ (21 September 2002) by Eric

Schmitt and David E. Sanger in the New York Times (www.nytimes.com).

Monday, 23 September 2002

The last couple of days I have been working in a double shift: 9

a.m. to 2 p.m. and come back at 5.30 or 6 p.m. and stay till 12 or so.

I can’t do the 3-D model thingy during the day, so I have to come

back in the evening. I don’t really mind. I like working with VIZ.

Besides, being here with no one in the office I can crank up the volume

and jump around while my sluggish computer renders the

scenes.

Music for VIZ Modelling:

Toufic Farroukh: Drab:zeen (really good arabic/jazz/dance fusion)

Röyksopp: Melody A.M.

Timo Maas: Loud (and take a break when ‘that’s how I’ve been

dancing’ comes up to jump around)

David Bowie: Heathen

Lamb: What Sound

And remember: never ever try to do work or drive while listening to

Björk or Aphex Twin – they do strange things to brain cells.

:: salam pax 7:26 PM [+] ::

Tuesday, 24 September 2002

Today I found out that WE HAVE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS on

the 15th of October. Well, I did know, but didn’t know the date. I

can’t decide if I should laugh or cry, but it is more funny than tragic.

:: salam pax 9:56 AM [+] ::

Just read this in the Guardian:

. . . like so many Iraqis after 20 years of war, [he is] a fatalist. He

smokes heavily, loves high-cholesterol foods and is preparing his

hospital for US attack._

His love for ‘high-cholesterol foods’??? What, is that another violation

against UN sanctions? Let’s make this clear, if people are

5 | September 2002

------------

_ ‘After 20 years of war, Iraqi doctors await attack with mix of fatalism and dismay’

(19 September 2002) by Ewan MacAskill in the Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk).

going to come here and demolish all high-cholesterol food production

plants I will not sit by and watch. Fight for your right to have a

heart attack! And just like me he also wants a bicycle:

The general population has been getting ready too. ‘Everyone has

extra food, water, oil, candles, bicycles. You should have these

things because of the threat,’ he said . . ._

Suddenly Iraqis are turning to environmentally friendly transportation.

Very funny people those British, they really are.

Raed, are you really going to stay in Jordan and miss all the action?

Don’t get married – come here and let’s get bombed.

:: salam pax 10:22 AM [+] ::

Wednesday, 25 September 2002

Sorry honeybunny, no images today as I have exceeded my bandwidth

limit.

Raed, since you are my rich friend abroad, why don’t you pay for my

image-hosting account at villagephotos.com?

:: salam pax 12:04 PM [+] ::

Saturday, 28 September 2002

So what do you think is the most used word in our vocabulary

these days? It is ‘ba3deen’ (for you non-Arablish-speaking people,

it means ‘later/afterwards’). Anything that has anything to do with

a decision that will affect the future will be answered with

‘BA3DEEN’.

Example 1

[salam]: Listen . . . I haven’t been paid the last two months and you

make me work like a slave. How about buying me a better monitor

than the one I have? It flickers.

September 2002 | 6

------------

_ See note on previous page.

[evil_boss_unit]: We will think about it ‘ba3deen’.

[salam]: What ‘afterwards’? After I have lost my eyesight?

[evil_boss_unit]: No. Who cares about you these days? Wait until

after i t happens.

[salam]: Whaaa? I don’t . . . ohhh, you mean i t. Oh, I guess it’s OK

then, we’ll see what happens afterwards.

Example 2

[salam]: Awww GOD! You still have those hideous curtains! You

promised they will not stay!

[female_parental_unit]: Oh . . . I thought I’ll keep them and change

them afterwards.

[salam]: They are ugly and there is no excuse for not changing

them . . . you know that!!

[female_parental_unit]: I said ‘ba3deen’ . . . and if it makes you feel

any better they will probably be shredded by all the glass that

will be flying thru them.

[salam]: Oh you mean that . . . OK, wait till ‘ba3deen’.

Raed is in Baghdad for a couple of days and since we have very

clear skies at the moment and a beautiful half-moon is rising, Raed

and Salam are taking their drinks to the roof and thinking about

what to do ‘ba3deen’, under the half-moon sky.

And in the warm fuzzies department: Raed did offer to pay the subscription

fee for my account (it pays having rich, reckless friends

and NO I don’t know what a leech is . . .), but I said let’s wait till

‘ba3deen’.

:: salam pax 11:43 AM [+] ::

Sunday, 29 September 2002

The Legendary Monkey needs your suggestions for what she

should read next. Show her what you are reading now!

:: salam pax 2:36 AM [+] ::

Well . . . as I said, Raed is in Baghdad after a trip to Basra (south of

Iraq). He is at the moment crashing on my couch. He wears that T-

7 | September 2002

shirt 24/7. It says MY LIFE IS HAPPY. Yeah, right. And I have a body

like Schwarzenegger’s.

:: salam pax 2:51 AM [+] ::

September 2002 | 8

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Acknowledgements

and Blogroll

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My gratitude goes to the blogging community. Your support and

encouragement all the way thru has been wonderful. Thanks to

everyone who has read, linked or offered support. ‘Diana Moon’

you’re a rock-star, thank you.

Raed and Ghaith, I am the luckiest man alive to have you as

friends. My father and mother, I am forever grateful to you for helping

me open closed doors.

The Blogroll

(Read them. They are like Frozen Yoghurt: ‘it adds years to our life’).

Diana Moon at [Letter From Gotham]

gotham.madhoo.com/

The Legendary Monkey at [Sudden Nothing]

vaspider.surreally.net/suddennothing/

Peter at T[he Pandavox]

pandavox.blogspot.com/

Jim Henley at [Unqualified Offerings]

highclearing.com/

Kashei at [Spot On]

kashei.blogspot.com/

Kathy K. and MommaBear at [On The Third Hand]

www.site-essential.com/

Al Barger at [The Culpepper Log]

www.morethings.com/log/

Eve Tushnet at [evetushnet.com]

eve-tushnet.blogspot.com/

Jonjon from [The Jonjon Diaries] – unfortunately now defunct but

you can still find him at [blee blo blar Blog]

www.johnkusch.com/johnkuschdotcom/blog/

Circular John at [Circular Logic]

circularlogic.blogspot.com/

Ugly Fat Kid at [The Ugly Fat Kid]

www.violentnation.com/uglyfatkid/home.htm

Acknowledgements and Blogroll | 206