Thursday, November 30, 2006

After some soul searching and an abrupt reminder

I have decided to begin to post here again. May I humbly apologize for the lack of content here. I really should try harder.

Well, we have a "super" typhoon heading our way http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061129/sc_afp/weatherphilippines
I had a trip to Pangasinan planned, a nice seaside town in a cheapo resort, but we are not too eager to be "trapped in Pangasinan" if the proverbial feces hits the oscillating airflow apparatus.

not sure if I should start being alarmed at this point. I got some bad news, my mom is NOT buying the house that she just decided to buy as Southwest is once again threatening to drop their Albuquerque center. I hope that they don't just threaten to do this and do it already so my beloved nearly 60 year old mother can move to Phoenix where she can hopefully almost buy a house there until they threaten to drop Phoenix, then it will be on to San Antonio and finally by 2017, they will close their final res center and people will simply inject themselves with the reservation serum and automatically book flights from them via DNA strand and satellite feed. /end sarcastic, bitter rant

Talked to Rinah and my Dad and some friends from Victoria, they are anywhere from 8" to 2 feet of snow, depending on whom you ask. I think that those who must "enjoy" the snow due to obligation probably have a lower opinion of it than those who can watch it's wonderful splendor from the inside of a cozy warm locale. Rumor has it that the City of Victoria has sold their snow plows, and people are getting stranded and freaking out. I was there during the blizzard of '96, and I can't imagine that they have not maintained a snow clearing procedure, in spite of the past low snow falls. I miss snowboarding, but living/working in Utah kind of cured me of the snow bug that was rarely satiated in Northern California and Victoria.

Our wonderful friends are our best cure against the insanity of what is Philippine Education. I could bore you to tears the problems faced by students here, but suffice to say that for some reason, it seems to be OK to just change the schedule on an hourly basis some 8-10k students on a whim. Oops, gotta stop ranting. Anyways, my good friend Raymund is ever helpful in many ways and I hope to be able to be a coworker of his one day.

Our Persian friends downstairs are hosting another bash. They are really fun loving, energetic and thoughtful people. All enrolled as dentists in my school, they have such an interesting and at times happy and sad view of the world. Not oppressively negative mind you, just the kind of outlook that comes when you have a ridiculously hard headed, foolish, dictatorial and oppressive regime in charge of how you chose to pray or not to your God, among other astounding rules. Your penalty could easily be your life and though they love their country, I think that many will never return if given the chance. I can't blame them for that. Anyways, if tradition is held tonight, the shin-dig will not go into full swing until about 10pm when the BBQ will be lit, and the drinks will come out. I have some Chivas Regal (my favorite blended scotch) to wow them with. The world standard of "good scotch" seems to be JW Black Label, though I can't dispute it is good, I favor the smoothness of Chivas, though after a couple, I could easily drink almost anything and not know (or care)... Anyways, the menu will often include saffron (imported from Iran, and yes, it is the best) marinated chicken and meats, an herbed rice and several salads, pickled veggies like garlic, my favorite, and tons of exotic sweets and whatnot.

Well, thats about it for now, Kaern and I are really looking forward to the Xmas break and her mom and dad are visiting. We can't wait.