Saturday, March 14, 2009

Today's Hefty Helping of Little Grumblings

As always, the ones that weren't witty, are the ones I didn't write.
  • You know what felt nice? Not being accosted by a mob of Egyptians the second I set foot on the curb.
  • To whoever left a Heineken light in my fridge, it has since been drank.
  • Completely oblivious that today was St. Patricks day, that is until I got off at Park Street.
  • And yes Kevin Patrick Doyle wore no green whatsoever today.
  • I have now been awake for 24 hours.
  • That's funny there is a frozen $100 bill in my freezer, I wonder who did that......coughdanielcough.
  • Donkey ride!
  • And with that our donkeys are waiting outside a good 20 minutes early. I should not have shaved last night.
  • Aparently I have been using leave in conditioner as hand soap for the past 2 weeks. Expensive leave in conditioner according to Katy.
  • Final Verdict: Donkeys are more like Eeyore than they are like Eddie Murphy from Shrek.
  • Though Eddie Murphy in real life is more of an ass than both of them combined. Zing!
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Friday, March 13, 2009

What I Just Read: The Pearl

For a look at the the Underlings thoughts on the cover, look here.

Think Lord Of The Rings, but instead of magical creatures you have Mexicans and a pearl instead of a ring, now shrink it down to under 90 pages and you have John Steinbeck's The Pearl.

Being a novella, Steinbeck's famous longwinded prose is lacking (the sctual writing makes me feel as if I am reading a childrens story complete with life moral) so my idea of trying to inch my way in to liking Steinbeck may require to just crack open East of Eden or Grapes of Wrath and dive on in. But that would not be for quite some time.

And the story itself is a good one, because of it's size you are thrown right into the story. Though it lacks character development, for obvious reasons, you do get a good sense of what type of person both Kino and his wife Juana are, enough that you can understand their decisions and forsee what they will do as the book develops.

All in all I liked it for what it was, a long short story, and as I said I haven't found a new love for Steinbeck by reading this but I haven't ruled out reading and re-reading his actual novels.

I'll have the books for the flight up tonight or tomorrow morning (Egypt time that is) so be looking for those.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Today's Hefty Helping of Little Grumblings

As always, the ones that weren't witty, are the ones I didn't write.
  • I love how my boss assumes I can be in two places at once come next Friday and Saturday. I need to change that assumption.
  • Egyptians have the oldest crapiest phones one can imagine yet they somehow think that it doubles as a boombox and ringtones as actual songs.
  • Just witnessed an Egyptian taxi driver staredown. It was a scarring experience.
  • 4 Egyptians, 1 motorcycle. Such is Egypt.
  • The duffle bag I bought at the souk today is made by a company called "Timberlaod" not to be confused with the actual company "Timberland".
  • What I will miss most about Egypt will be the ability to nap, which is illegal in the US.
  • A novella has the strange effect of making you feel like u have accomplished something real in a short time. I need 2 read them more often.
  • When Hoopoes attack!! Wikipedia for some context.
  • High winds tomorrow, good thing I work in the desert. :-/
  • I love how here in Egypt a nap is an integral part to everyones day. This being said after a 2 hour nap.
  • Aparently I need to turn my backyard into a minefield to keep intruders out. And here I thought an attack kitten would have been sufficient.
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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Today's Hefty Helping of Little Grumblings

As always, the ones that weren't witty, are the ones I didn't write.

  • In the Muslim world you have TGIT instead of TGIF.
  • I want some Cheeze-Itz.
  • The donkey outside my window appears to be dieing by the sound of him. But by the looks of him he looks like every other donkey; pathetic.
  • Islamic fact for the day: Every first born Muslim male is named Mohamed.
  • It is not just my donkey that makes noises as if he is near death, apparently all donkeys do, does not help their image as a species.
  • Why is it that flat coke tastes like rum and coke, better yet why am I not just adding rum to my flat coke?
  • I think the Imams are compensating for some thing with those minarets.
  • Why do tourists in Egypt feel the need to wear Indiana Jones hats? I know a Indiana impersonator, and he wears full Indy gear to Borders.
  • When I go gray, it better be a national news story.
  • Egypt is white from the desert and I spent the day in a tomb underground. Quite the opposite of you @LucyFitzgerald.
  • Room service menu reads: Everything is fresh, items like Pigeon need a few hours notice (in order to be caught and de-feathered).
  • Unfortunately our entryway rug is not a flying carpet and therefore I will return my Aladin hat and complimentary pet monkey.
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Monday, March 9, 2009

What I Just Read: The Corrections

For the judging of the book by it's cover look here.

There is a reason why (with the exception of Harry Potter and the LOTR trilogy) most books over a few hundred pages can never be brought to the big screen as good as they would be. The Corrections is one of them, though I can plenty of scenes in my minds eye the length of the book could never be captured in a 100 - 150 minute film, much to the dismay of my longing for a visualization of all things Lithuanian.

This book is about a family waiting for a set of "Corrections" that are decades in the making, and in the meantime Jonathan Franzen takes you inside each characters thought process while taking pages to describe menial tasks like retrieving the mail.

Though long, some times painstakingly slow in parts (naturally having 5 narrators will lead you to want one story over another) and overall slightly depressing, The Corrections is a fun book that will have you wishing your brain could process words faster because you want to understand things quicker.

Basically: Good book, I want to convince a movie studio to do just the Lithuanian parts of the book, finished this a week later than I wanted, still a great cover though slightly warn now, will be reading this book and this book for the remainder of the trip and possibly (hopefully) some of this man's work.