Geek Spasms

Doha Diaries: Days 81-88, Dominating Washer-Dryers, Chicken Anus

2012-02-15T00:39:00.002-06:00

[Day 81] January 18, Communication With Icons Is Not Ideal

I had been having ongoing issues with mastering the demonic beast known as a combo washer/dryer, as pictured below.

I was using regular detergent, but I changed to one that had a combo washer icon on it, like so:

But apparently, that was not good enough. This detergent generated too many suds, leading to a tiny amount of spillage, nothing as amusing as you might expect from an episode of a sitcom, though.

So...back to Carrefour to buy a detergent that *only* has a combo washer-dryer icon. Hmm, only two choices, both that are completely new to me and the description is, once again, in Arabic. Umm, let's pick this one:

[Day 82] January 19, Washer-Dryer Dominated

Yes, finally. I have mastered the beast and I can actually wash and dry a load of clothes effectively. Huzzah! Excelsior even!

So, here's my approach. First, it is accepted that these machines only dry effectively with 1/2 to 2/3 of a load. Second, the dryer will not automatically start when the washer finishes unless you push in the button to use half as much water. OK, so I limit my loads to about 1/2. I don't like residual detergent though, so I flip the switch for extra rinsing.

The end result is clothes that are either dry or are just very slightly damp and dry very rapidly after being removed and laid out. The joy of clean clothes is dampened by the horribly inefficient, and thus probably not Earth-friendly process. Meh.

[Day 83] January 20, Chicken Anus

Yes, you read that correctly.

So, Eric, a buddy that works at Shell, and I head to Thai Snack. After selecting our curries, we decided to examine the menu more closely. And we found this:

Being professional, adult, cultured, Western men...we found this far too amusing. Hence the picture. Neither of us was brave/foolish enough to try them, but wow, what a deal!

[Day 84] January 21, No Idea

Yes, you read that correctly. I have no recollection of what I did today, so I assume I was just killing time, relaxing, and coding for OwlCon.

[Day 85] January 22, Gold Souqs

Ed took me on a tour of the Gold Souqs and showed me some cool, off-the-beaten-path places for souvenirs and such. I shall return...

Note: I may not have bought anything, but it appears that, in hindsight, they gave me some free germs, as I was on the verge of becoming very sick for the rest of the week.

[Days 86-88] January 23-25, OwlCon

For the most part, my days were focused on busting ass to get my work done before the weekend and my evenings were focused on coding for OwlCon.

I credit exercise and diet with allowing me to fend off what seemed to be a potentially very bad illness that kept creeping up but never quite taking me down. I did have to sleep in a bit extra one day, but I still managed to get in a full work day. Hooray for fitness!

All went well, and the way was clear for my trip to Abu Dhabi...

Doha Diaries: Day 77-80, A Day of Art, Condom Tower, Getting Domestic

2012-02-06T02:42:00.001-06:00

[Day 77] Saturday, January 14th, Ponderosa and Islamic Art, Two Great Tastes?

Today, Bob and I headed over to Ponderosa. Yes, you read that correctly; Ponderosa. I opted for the buffet + T-bone, both of which were mediocre. So, a pretty accurate rendition.

Then we headed off to the Museum of Islamic Art. I have put up a bunch of pictures in a Picasa album, but here are few samples. Here is a picture of the main building containing the art.

Some textile magic.

A fancy pants pen box.

And a lot more (again, see the album). One thing I can say for sure is that they have wayyy too many candle holders in that museum.

The little cafe inside the museum was very cool. The beautiful surroundings, chill couches, and a lovely view. Good stuff.

[Day 78] January 15, Sunday, Beams of Light, a Slippy Floor, and a Delivery Bike

On the way to work, I passed by a building as light was flooding through it.

A common site in Qatar is misapplied use of the English language. Here is a good example.

The traffic in Doha makes you wish you were driving an armored car. In many places, it feels like the automotive equivalent of a rock concert stampede. The people that drive these things are some combination of crazy, suicidal, or desperate.

On a related note, you can get quite a lot of food delivered to you in many parts of Doha.

[Day 79] January 16, Window Washer, Corniche at Night, Condom Tower

While at work, I spotted a regular window washing cart, as opposed to the suicidal dangling from a rope I saw earlier.

While running, I managed to get a couple of night time pictures, one of the Corniche...

...and a picture of the "Condom Tower", a nickname it was given, well, for obvious reasons... *cough* reservoir tip *cough*.

[Day 80] January 17, Getting Domestic

In any foreign land, produce can be a problem, especially a developing country like Qatar. Many, if not most folks, will tend to just avoid it to be safe, unless they end up staying on a long-term assignment. When I was briefed by my travel health nurse, the advice was that anything that did not grow on a tree was dangerous, but I think their information was for the Qatar of 10 years ago.

Either way, I finally broke down and picked up some produce from Carrefour because I wanted to make 1) a salad and 2) guacamole. Now my refrigerator looks a little less bachelor-ey.

And I made a salad!

Even here we have some cultural and regional quirks.

Cultural quirk, red wine vinegar - you cannot find red wine vinegar because it is based on an alcoholic beverage and this is a Muslim country, so I picked up "grape vinegar".

Regional Quirk? While the produce may not be as dangerous as some might think, the lettuce is fantastically more dirty than what I get in the USA. I had to run a washing sink (just a few drops of soap) and a rinsing sink, then peel apart every leaf of the lettuce and carefully, meticulously clean then rinse each leaf, which had a significant amount of dirt and grit trapped within every leaf. When I was done, there was a layer of fine dirt across the bottom of the washing sink.

Regional Quirk? The avocados are like little green rocks, miles from being ripe. I am told that there may be a place to get riper ones.

Regional Quirk? You won't find Cilantro at Carrefour, but you will find Coriander. However, my experience is that the Coriander I can find at Carrefour has a significantly less bold taste than the Cilantro I have had in the USA. I am not sure if that is just how it is here or if Carrefour has weak herbs...more exploration is necessary.

If and when I do end up with ripe avocados, I am all ready with my ingredients for guacamole, to include the spices you see in the picture above.

Stay tuned to see if the guacamole comes to fruition...

Doha Diaries: Days 74-76, THE FOG, Brunch, and...Worst. Directions. Ever.

2012-01-20T06:36:00.003-06:00

[Day 74] Wednesday, January 11th, Rooftop Vista and THE FOG!

At work, I headed up to the roof of the building where I work and took some pictures today. The first one shows the land of villas, where people are forced to live and work in buildings so short that you can count the number of floors on one hand; madness!

Here is a 3-shot panorama of the bay.

This picture shows the pyramid-esque Sheraton hotel, where the Corniche starts.

Google Maps calls the island in this shot Old Palm Trees Island., but I think it's just supposed to be "Tree". Strangely, Old Palm Tree Island has no palm trees, of any age. The "Old" designation is because there is a new Palm Tree Island. I think the couple of trees on the island are actually Sidra trees, but I am not sure.

And in this picture, is the section that juts out into the water with a restaurant (great ambiance, but very mediocre food; that said, with nice weather, being able to sit right on the edge of the water and eat was a great experience). Here is a close-up, where you can barely make out the Minoryx, which currently marks the halfway point for my runs.

Later in the day, we saw a huge fog bank roll into Doha. On the walk back from work, I saw something fascinating. Some of the mirrored buildings combined their reflections and the fog to create an awesome (yes, as in awe) sight that looked almost like some otherworldly entity floating in the air (for my friends that play World of Warcraft, think Naaru).

This picture does not do it justice. It was incredible. Let's try zooming on the picture...

A little better, but still nothing like it looked. The picture does not catch the soft, subtle reflections in the fog that really made it look magical. You had to be there. It was amazing.

During my run, the fog was really thick, but patchy, so you had things like the picture below, where it's pretty much crystal clear...right up to the point that the fog swallows the rest of the view.

[Day 75] Thursday, January 12th, Back to Johnny Rockets

My colleagues and I went back to Johnny Rockets for lunch. I haven't mentioned this in the blog yet, because I lacked pictures, but now I have some!

So, last Saturday, we were cruising around doing various errands, you know, the usual, booze and computer monitors. I had the bright idea to get lunch, burgers and shakes entered the discussion, and I recalled a place called Johnny Rockets, that I had seen on a web site of Doha restaurants.

We agreed to go there for lunch.

I dialed the restaurant for directions.

Me: Um, there are aren't enough numbers in this phone number.
Bob: Just add a "4" at the start.
Me: OK.
Phone: <beep> <boop> <beep> <boop> <beep> <boop> <beep> <boop>
Me: Hello, can I get directions to your restaurant?
Guy at JR: Yes boss, we are at the Ramada Junction.
Me: OK, is it easy to see your restaurant from the junction?
Guy at JR: Yes boss.

* - it's an intersection with a Ramada hotel; many names here are boringly pragmatic)

To the Ramada Junction! Driving, driving, looking...um, where the heck is it?

Phone: <beep> <boop> <beep> <boop> <beep> <boop> <beep> <boop>
Me: Hello, we can't seem to find your restaurant. Is it on the corner with the Ramada or another corner?
Guy at JR: It's behind the Dairy Queen.
Me: Oh, we know where that is, thanks!
Guy at JR: Yes boss.

To the Dairy Queen! Or, rather, behind it.

The Dairy Queen is a very prominent feature as it is right at the intersection, commanding most of the real estate of one corner. We head over there. The only thing behind Dairy Queen is a lot of parking and the Ramada Hotel.

Phone: <beep> <boop> <beep> <boop> <beep> <boop> <beep> <boop>
Me: Hello, we are at Dairy Queen and we cannot find your restaurant. Can you give us some more landmarks? Is it really *at* the intersection?
Guy at JR: Yes boss.
Me: OK, is it on the corner with the Diary Queen, the corner with the Pizza Hut...
Guy at JR: Pizza Hut, own the street from there, next to the car dealer.
Me: OK, so when you said it was behind the Dairy Queen, you meant it's nowhere near the Dairy Queen and up the road from a different corner?
Guy at JR: Yes boss.

So, where was it? Let me show you.

Armed with the information about the correct corner, we drove down the length of the stores and we drove right in front of it and *still* almost missed it. Here's why:

Yes, that's right, those three panes of glass are the store front, maybe 30 feet (10 m) across and that bit on the left is the building projecting out quite a bit, blocking the view of this tiny storefront. And yes, the sign is *inside* the restaurant, hidden by the reflections off the glass, *and* it's only in Arabic.

It's a bloody miracle we found it. But it was a weekend and it was worth the trip. This is one of the few restaurants in Doha that actually met my expectations. The only tip I have for you is to ask for extra chocolate in the chocolate milk shake, they have a bit of a light pour with the syrup.

Oh, and the tiny restaurant also had this comically skinny bathroom, where the doorknob clears the sink by about an inch (2.5 cm).

[Day 76] Friday, January 13th, Brunch!

What better way to spend a weekend day than eating and drinking? Today started late...because last night ended late, but not so late that I couldn't make it to brunch with some friends.

How do I describe the brunch culture here? Well, it's hard to draw an analogy. The work week here is Sun-Thu, so Friday is our "Saturday", but at the same time...it's also the day of worship (interestingly, for both Muslims and most Christians, since Sunday is a work day). So, Friday brunch is a combination of "well, church is over, let's all go hang out and eat!" and "woo hoo! I don't have to work tomorrow, so let's get our drink on, yo!" Of course, the expatriates bring more of the latter than the locals. :-D

Oryx Rotana was the place where we ate. It had a very open interior, here are a couple of pictures from inside.

It was a great brunch. I opted for the brunch with alcohol for about US$70. That included as much red wine (Shiraz), white wine (Chardonnay), champagne, and beer (Tiger) as you could drink, albeit there was only one choice for each. The buffet was not as big as I expected, but it had a great deal of tasty seafood choices. A great way to spend the morning...and afternoon. We stayed there for like 4 hours eating, drinking, and chatting. It was more interesting because there was a native Qatari among our small group, which was cool.

Doha Diaries: Days 71-73, High Wire Act, McDonald's, and Nervous Eggs

2012-01-15T10:12:00.001-06:00

[Day 71] Sunday, January 8th, High Wire Act

After getting some stuff sorted out with the apartment, I headed over to the mall to get some lunch. As I was walking there, I was dumbfounded to find that it was raining on a particular stretch of the path; a section about 30-40 meters long. I was pretty sure it wasn't natural. I looked up and saw the following:

If you're not sure, yes, those are people...hanging from cables, cleaning the building. Here's a close-up (click on it to see a bigger version).

As far as I can tell, they are all being suspended from that one pulley system and there are no backups. Foolhardy? Desperate? Probably a bit of both. Either way...damn there's got to be better ways to make a living. Perhaps by inventing a contraption for window cleaning... :-P

Later that day, I finally tried out a local McDonald's the one in the City Center Mall.

I had a Big Mac and fries. They were...similar to what you get in the USA. As I have in other posts, I would describe the flavor as "adjacent" to what you expect. It's like it, definitely reminiscent of it, but slightly out of phase...

After such a healthy meal, I decided to pick up some ice cream at Carrefour, since I now have an apartment and can store such things. Hooray!

My colleagues and friends here have complained that their perishable groceries seem to perish faster here, especially the dairy. I think I found the problem...they have made the (apparently) unreasonable assumption that the freezers in Carrefour approach anything resembling freezing. Case in point, I bought my ice cream, walked the ten minutes home (it was about 60-65 F, 15-18 C) and the ice cream was pretty much like soup...

[Day 72] Monday, January 9th, RunKeeper Win!

So, with the crappy gym here, my options are more limited and I am inspired to run more frequently for my cardio days. Well, this was run #3 here in Doha, and this time I didn't screw up using RunKeeper, so I had some pace data. I managed to chop 33 seconds off of my average pace from run #1, which was pretty nice. I am not sure how much more I can reduce that, but at least I will have a beautiful view while I try (well, for about 60% of the run).

[Day 73] Tuesday, January 10th, You Know That Humidity They Mentioned...

So, today, I once again walked to work and, as normal, I tossed some snacks in my bag. Does this egg look nervous to you?

Wow, that egg is sweating like a <insert offensive joke here>. Nah, it's just the crazy humidity and the fact that the egg was in the refrigerator before I left. Still...this egg was *inside* my bag and the walk only take 20 minutes. Not to mention, my shirt was a bit damper than usual.

My colleagues and friends here tell me that the humidity gets pretty crazy here because it's a coastal town. For me, that was surprising since this is a desert and, even though I comprehend the rational argument that sea + heat = moist air, on an emotional level the idea of a humid place in a desert is hard to fathom. It's not anymore. So, I have a better sense of what folks mean when they describe steam bath conditions here. Yikes!

Doha Diaries: Days 66-70, An Apartment, The "Perfect" Margarita, and The Fearsome Minoryx!

2012-01-07T08:43:00.002-06:00

[Day 66] January 3rd, Tuesday, Hi Ho, Hi Ho...

It's off to work I go. Back at work. Actually eager to get back to work and equally eager to sort out my expenses and get reimbursed. :-D

[Day 67] January 4th, A Disturbance in the Force

I hopped on the rowing machine again today and managed to push up my distance a bit, but, for the most part, about the same as my last time.

I walked to and from work today, and en route, snapped a picture of another interesting-looking building.

I finally moved into one of the corporate apartments Dell has at the Al Rabban tower today. Here is a very poor quality video of the experience.

My primary motivation for moving in was because of the wasted money paying for a hotel. If you recall from my prior blog post, Doha Diaries: Days 23-28 , Exercise, Apartments, Turkey, Orchestra!, I had reservations about moving into this place primarily because of the gym facilities. Well, now that I only have four weeks left before my assignment ends, so if my routine has to be dialed down to "maintenance", I think that is manageable.

Of course, when I moved from a hotel to an apartment, I suddenly needed some extra things. Even though the provide pans, dishes, linens, etc. Here is my list of things you might need if you make the same move:

TOILET PAPER - Imagine remembering this when it is too late...that would be crappy
Bar soap, if you don’t already have some with you
Dish soap & sponge
Laundry Detergent
Laundry Softener
Bottled water
General purpose cleaner/disinfectant (unless you are planning on paying for cleaning)
Shampoo/conditioner, if you don’t already have some with you
Trash bags – I just use my old grocery bags
Snack foods
Breakfast food - Oh how I wish there was a diner, Denny's, IHOP, etc. nearby.
~~Kit Kat Chunky Bar~~ [How did that get in there?]

Also, if you are planning on hosting...

Drinks for guests - sodas, tea, beer, wine, etc. - for sodas, I just grabbed two each of a few of the big names; I am not going to pack up cases of soda in four weeks...
Hand soap (and perhaps hand moisturizer) for the guest bathrooms
Snacks for guests (in case, like me, your usual snacks tend to be limited and healthier than the average person wants)

Some immediate observations about the apartment. Aside from the bidet in two of the three bathrooms, which seems to be the norm here for well-appointed bathrooms (you probably don't want to see a picture of the ones where you squat and use a hose afterwards).

1. Virtually no bathroom storage space - the ledge you see in above the sink. That's it; in every bathroom. No counters. No cupboards. My toiletries pretty much spill over the edges; oh well, I will have to be careful.

2. Wifi only exists in the living room - because of the thick (concrete?) walls and the router being located in the living room, that is where you will get wifi, period. Do NOT expect to get it anywhere else.

3. Only the living room and master bedroom can have internet access, and the living room only has a cable port so 1) provide a long cable if you want to use the office desk to work and 2) provide your own wifi router if you want wifi.

4. Funky washer/dryer combo...with no manual...I have this I Love Lucy scene in my head with me slipping and sliding on a sea of soap bubbles pouring out of my washer...manual requested.

5. TINY closets. I am not kidding here. Half of the closest are shelf/drawer space. So, you actually end up with about the same closet space as a hotel, maybe even slightly less.

6. SHALLOW closets. The doors rub significantly against your hanging clothes when you open and close them. In fact, you have to be careful where you hang your suits, lest your sleeves get mashed in the door when it closes.

7. No outlets in the bathroom - This is something I have come to expect from the hotels, but I thought that in an apartment there would be one. Is it the cost? The safety risk? Oh well, on the plus side, I don't have a hair dryer since I usually rely on the hotel to provide that, so I have nothing I need to plug in there... :-P

8. The regular spatula is stainless steel, but the skillet is a non-stick surface...this will not end well for the skillet.

9. You can faintly hear the "call to prayer" through the windows...hopefully the early morning ones will not wake me up...if you are not familiar with this, here is a sample of the times that the interwebs tells me for today for Doha - 4:58 AM, 6:20 AM, 11:40 AM, 2:40 PM, 5:00 PM, 6:30 PM. There is supposed to be a preliminary call to muster folks for prayer, then one to tell them to line up for said prayer. I am not sure if the former comes even earlier. I just know that it is a lot of praying and a lot of some guy saying stuff on a loudspeaker that you hear whether you want to or not.

10. The gym is worse than I thought. It turns out that the free weights are the cheap ones from Technogym. The handles as skinny, slick, and they rotate. On the plus side, they may build up my forearms even more, which I did not need. On the negative side, sometime in my near future, I may accidentally launch a free weight across the room into someone or something.

[Day 68] January 5th, TGIT! Back to the Scene of the Crime...

At work, I spotted this strange, green, caffeinated beverage...

A couple of colleagues and I went to the Irish Harp, the Irish pub in the basement of the Sheraton hotel. This time around, they gave us some crap about buying a 60 QAR (~$17) membership. The cost was not a big deal, but the annoyance was, so as we were calling our friends to tell them we would rather go somewhere else, they decided to let us in without it...this time. Not sure it's worth the hassle to come back, as I am not going to carry around a wallet full of bar memberships.

OK, so we get in there and I decide to roll the dice and get some food, as this is the place that gave me food poisoning during my first week in Doha. I had the steak and kidney pie. It was not bad. I made a mistake and ordered Guinness, my least favorite beer, and this killed my desire to drink anymore. That, and the possibility that I would be called later to meet some ladies...or perhaps I would get food poisoning again and I'd rather be well hydrated if that happened. So, I stuck with water for the rest of the evening.

[Day 69] Friday, January 8th, Minoryx! Salsa!

I started the day out with another run. I was determined to cut at least 30 seconds off my average pace and I was well on my way. I ran from the Al Rabban down to the Corniche and then along the Corniche to what I call "the Minoryx" - a freakish half man, half oryx mascot of some games (the past Asian Games or the future Olympic bid? Not sure).

Then I realized that I had paused RunKeeper while trying to modify the audio cues...while running...so much for that route record. Sigh. Next time!

My clothes still go unwashed as I have not yet received a manual for the demonic washing beast in my kitchen.

THREE containers for detergent and stuff! So many dials and pictographs! Ahhhh! I will defeat you, demon...as soon as I have a manual.

Well, in my quest to exhaust all Tex Mex options here, I dragged some friends out to the (old) Marriott (near the airport) to go to Salsa, a self-described Mexican restaurant.

I started out by ordering "the perfect margarita".

It did not taste perfect, and, like most hotel drinks was absurdly expensive, (~$20). However, I have to hand it to them on potency - I felt that margarita more than any margarita I have had in the USA.

We all ordered canonical food, chile con queso (appetizer), burritos, enchiladas, and fajitas.

[Left to right: Me, Eric, Bob, Jeff]

The food was not bad, but the general consensus was twofold - 1) fajitas are the smartest choice, because it's hard to mess up grilling some meat and 2) Salsa was probably not worth a return visit in terms of their food.

Now, that is only part of the experience. Like I said, the food was not bad. The ambience was quite cute, in a "this is how I imagine Mexican/Texan restaurants to be" sort of way. The staff's Mexican garb, the singing and obligatory Sombrero picture for the birthday boy/girl, and the potent drinks make this a decent choice for a group outing. So, for a large group gathering, especially when someone else is paying (hint: your company), it might actually be a good choice, but I recommend the fajitas. :-)

They had a live band, which was interesting. About half or more of the songs were just random songs. It was not significantly Mexican/Tejano-themed music, especially the instrumental flute and guitar rendition of Genesis (I can't remember the song now). However, I give them props for 50% of the band being very cute and dancing well. Hint: it's the half that is smiling.

After diner, my Xbox forced Eric to play Gears of War for hours. The poor guy...so abused.

[Day 70] Saturday, January 7th, Back to the Qatar Distribution Company

A few weeks ago, a lady friend suggested tequila shots and I, a Texan, had to admit, with embarrassment, that I neglected to pick up tequila when I went to QDC. Well, today I was able to wash away the shame and correct that. I also filled out my BEvERage selection for guests.

You see...currently, beer is my last choice for alcoholic beverage; I don't dislike it, I just prefer liquors, mixed drinks, and wine. But many of my colleagues like a beer, so I picked up a dozen light (Stella Artois) and a dozen dark (Franziskaner Weissbier). Now, my refrigerator has a serious bachelor look to it.

You'll be relieved to know that I finally had a chance to correct my error of omission and pick up some Patron tequila and Jack Daniels whiskey. now I have all of the usual suspects for common mixed drinks.

And the cashews, pistachios, and almonds make it healthy, right?

Now to find shot glasses...

Ninety minutes later our hero returns with no shot glasses. Hmm,well, this will be more challenging than I though. Of course, what I REALLY want are souvenir shot glasses with "Qatar" emblazoned on them. :-D

Doha Diaries: Days 60-65, Red Bull, Katara Cultural Village, Sleeping In!

2012-01-03T13:25:00.006-06:00

[Day 60] December 28th, Wednesday, Doha Gives You Wings?

I am getting into serious vacation mode...time flies, I do very little but relax. I am cool with that. While waiting for the elevator, I spot something that I did not expect to see...a Red Bull car.

[Day 61] December 29th, Thursday, Katara Cultural Village

At breakfast, I was exposed to a new local dish...

Yes, that placard reads "Foul Madames. However, it appears the actual name is Ful Medames, or just Ful (pronounced more or less like "full"). It is a slow-cooked fava bean dish. I was told it was a regional delicacy, but my quickie research suggests it is Egyptian in origin.

You can add garlic, tomato, onion, and...something else I forgot. Finally, some lemon juice and oil.

It was interesting, but I won't be craving it any time in the near future.

Later that morning, I walked out to the Katara Cultural Village. It was a good 3+ mile walk, but the weather was so amazing that it was quite pleasant. After some wandering, I stopped at L'wzaar, a seafood restaurant/market (more restaurant than market). I was amazed at the stuff they brought to every table, it sure beat a bowl of chips and some salsa.

I opted for scallops and stir fried vegetables. They were OK, but somewhat bland. Oh well, can't win 'em all. Onward to the amphitheater!

I was really taken aback by the statue at the amphitheater, so here are a lot of pictures...

And there ya go. I left prematurely in response to a call from Ed Brothers. He and his family were back from Austria and it was time to catch up while he ran some errands.

Fortunately for me, this also included a tour of some parts of Education City, to include the super swanky student center and the well-appointed recreation center. Nice stuff, these kids have it pretty good.

From there, we went to get some Karak, a tea drink that is described as the closest thing to a national everage Qatar has. Basically, it's tea with a healthy amount of sugar cubes, evaporated milk, cardamom, and possibly some other spices. It was good stuff.

Good fortune continued to smile on me this day and I was invited to a dinner party with Ed and Nicole's friends and it was...TEX MEX! Made-from-scratch guacamole, salsa, enchiladas, etc. It was great food and great company. Thanks to Raymond and Anna for graciously allowing me into their home and to crash their party.

[Day 62] December 30th, Friday, Chillin' and Rowin'

One nice feature of the new hotel is that they have a pair of Concept 2 rowing machines. I had tried them out once last weekend, so this was my second workout on them. Here's a post-workout picture. Notice in the background the expansiveness of the gym and that's only about 50% of the gym; there is also a section with dumb bells, a section with bar bells, and a section with weight machines.

Aside from that, I did very much of nothing today.

[Day 63] December 31st, Saturday, More Chillin'

More of nothing today.

[Day 64] January 1st, Sunday, More Than a Full Night's Sleep?

By some miracle, I was able to sleep more than 6-7 hours last night; I think it has been well over a year since I was able to do that. I think my body has finally accepted that I am on vacation. Aside from some sunbathing...a whole lot of nothing today.

[Day 65] January 2nd, Monday, More Than a Full Night's Sleep?

And again, I was able to sleep in. Of course, tomorrow I return to work. I am actually ready for that. Sleeping in is nice, as is the state of relaxation I have reached, but I really want to get back to work and tackle the work I need to do.

Doha Diaries: Days 53-59, Dubai Santa, Towel Elephant, Kinda KFC and Tex Mex

2011-12-28T02:28:00.001-06:00

[Day 53] Wednesday, December 21st, Decking the Halls in Dubai, Back to Doha

We wrapped up our work in Dubai early and I headed back to Doha.

That picture above was one I took in the Dubai airport. I kid you not. Apparently, Santa wanted to experience some warmer climes and share the love with his Middle Eastern friends. And in case you missed the guy dressed in bright red, there is a guy dressed as Santa in there. I mean the full on Christmas tree with animatronic Santa blew me away on its own, but when I crested the stairs and spied a real live Santa, I was floored. From what little data I have, Dubai seems a little more Christmas-friendly than Doha.

To continue the weirdness, I went to a Potbelly's (a sandwich shop chain in the USA) in the airport and got a Wreck and a chocolate shake (if you haven't noticed by now, chocolate shakes and hot fudge sundaes are my kryptonite). As with many Western things made in the Middle East, I would describe the taste as "adjacent". It's a lot like it, and it's not bad, but it's a step sideways from the flavor, slightly out of phase, off key, something...

And I'm back in Doha!

By the end of the day, I was in a new hotel (work moved me from the W to the Marriott Courtyard adjoining the City Center Mall) with a box o' boozes from the Qatar Distribution Company.

[Day 54] Thursday, December 22nd, Boyz in the Souq

I am on vacation now. It's more than a little weird. I have canceled two vacations this year and delayed/shortened this one. So, my brain is having trouble accepting it.

The day was a bit of a blur, I may have slept, as my sleep cycle was seriously messed up from the 7 day multi-country tour across countries spanning a 10-hour time difference. I stopped by the pool and snapped a picture, I will return...

Oh, and how awesome are the housekeeping staff here? TOWEL ELEPHANT AWESOME!

Seriously, I loved it. Now have I have a pet to keep me company until I go home and he's really low maintenance. Now if I can just resist the urge to wipe up spills with him...

The evening was spent with another trip to Souq Waqif. This time I was hanging out with a friend from Shell that I met at the W. He wanted to show a buddy from work a good touristy time, and what better place to start than the Disney Land version of Doha, Souq Waqif?

For the most part, the Souq is dry (maybe completely, but I *think* there was wine somewhere), so my box o' booze was cracked open for some tasty pre-souq beverages. This plan was full of win.

For pictures and more details on the Souq, see the post about my first visit.

We hit the Souq, and the visiting buddy whips out a GIGANTIC camera and hangs it around his neck, then goes into stereotypical tourist mode, snapping pictures left and right. I think he and the folks at the souq found each other equally amusing.

We caught the tail end of a festival, which was apparently related to the Arab Games, which I forgot were still going. We stopped and watched a goofy act by a European gentleman (German maybe?). In this picture, he is honking out classical music with horns strapped to overalls. It was pretty goofy, but we watched and clapped and hollered, if only to make up for the stony silence of the rest of the crowd.

We hit Bander Aden, got a room where we could sit on the floor and eat more gigantic bread, lamb, and chicken.

Wander the shops. Check.

Show the buddy the "real life Peeps". Check.

Shisha bar. Check.

Lady friend shows up and...wait what? Well, that was it for my souq adventure. the souq isn't going anywhere.

[Day 55] December 23, This Ain't Your Momma's KFC

I relaxed by the pool today, sunbathed for the first time in months, maybe the third time this year. I was out there for two hours without any protection and did not get a sunburn. Weak winter Sun is weak. However, it was incredibly pleasant and relaxing. It was basically room temperature with a gentle breeze.

Curiosity finally overrode good judgement and I tried one of the THREE Kentucky Fried Chicken places in the City Center Mall.

I *think* I got Original recipe, but I can't be sure. Ordering had more of a language barrier than usual. Ordering the sides was easier. I mean, there were a ton of choices - slaw, fries, slaw, fries, slaw, or fries.

Now, you may notice that this picture is blurry, but that is a good thing. You see, professional photographers and cinematographers have long understood that blurring can mask dry, wrinkled things, consider Elizabeth Taylor's White Diamonds commercial. So, this blurring is for your benefit...brace yourself.

You expected warm, moist, seasoned chicken that you have to resist shoveling into your mouth it's so good? Will you settle for warm?

You expected fresh, yummy, seasoned french fries? Well, these are definitely french fries.

You expected a biscuit? Well, how about a stock hamburger bun, not toasted, warmed, buttered, or even sliced.

The cole slaw wasn't bad..and that was the high point of the meal.

OK, maybe it was a bad time, an off day, whatever. But it was REALLY bad. I mean it was *almost* bad enough that I just threw it out and went somewhere else. Oh well, I had low expectations, just not quite low enough.

I went on a short quixotic quest for a place that sold good boots and snapped some nice pictures of buildings along the way. Here is the Al Fardan Towers and friends.

And here is the iconic Tornado Tower.

Ignore the building behind that it trying to make it look fat; it's jealous.

Aside from that, some lazing around and more coding for OwlCon.

[Day 56] December 24th, Christmas Eve in Doha

The day was spent sunbathing, coding for OwlCon, and screwing off

This evening was set aside for romance. 'nuff said.

[Day 57] December 25th, Christmas in Doha!

So...I woke up with just enough time to workout, get ready, and get some lunch before heading off to the home of Paul and Tracy Marriott, who graciously and generously invited me over for Christmas dinner with them and Tracy's parents. :-)

I was pretty wiped out from Christmas Eve, so when the cocktails, wine, champagne, more wine, more champagne, etc. started flowing, I had to cry "uncle" eventually. I think UK folks have a genetic tolerance for alcohol; either that or they are the result of some mad experiment to increase alcohol tolerance. With the lack of sleep and the alcohol teaming up on me, I even had some caffeine (cue dramatic music) in the form a cup of tea, because I would very likely have dozed off in mid-bite during dinner.

It was a very UK experience, something I remember from a Chirstmas (or two) I spent in England as a child. Christmas crackers, Christmas pudding, and ample alcohol (did I mention that?). :-D

I headed back home and soon went to bed for much needed rest.

[Day 58] December 26th, Monday, The Day After Christmas...

I am starting to lose track of time...which I am told is a good thing on vacation. Definitely not stressing out about things. I even spent some time playing computer games, which is a stark indicator that I have lots of time on my hands.

I said good bye to my lady friend, whose short term assignment here is ending. "We'll always have Doha" still sounds cheesy to me...but it's true.

[Day 59] December 27th, Tuesday, Wave Pool and The Tex Mexening!

It was a tad windy today, which allowed me to capture this cool footage.

After a long day of completely goofing off, I recruited my friend Eric to go with me to try out Paloma, in the Intercontinental Hotel, which claims to be Tex Mex.

Eric is the proud owner of a shiny new Qatar Driver's license and a rental car. Freedom! It was really weird driving around Doha and not expecting to get hit by a car at any moment. It gives me hope if I ever get a license and car here.

What we saw when we arrived was not what we expected. It was basically a bar* that had a kitchen next to it / in it. I am not kidding. you walk in, you see bar tables, a bar, big screens with sports on them, more bar tables, people drinking and smoking, and then, BAM, a kitchen staring right at you, daring you to order food. The only encouraging sign I saw was some peppers hanging in the kitchen.

Doha cultural norm interlude: This bar versus restaurant primacy aspect is important actually. You see, if it's a bar that serves food, then you need to have your passport or a Qatar resident permit to show them at the door to get in. However, if it is a restaurant that serves alcohol, they don't care. Don't ask me how that makes sense, but it is what it is.

We sit down and peruse the menu, which is not a typical Tex Mex menu. It was more like an intercontinental menu with a lot of Mexican-influenced dishes. There was one taco dish, one burrito dish, one enchilada dish, and a lot of other dishes that could have been in any restaurant. Still, we were determined to try Doha Tex Mex, so we got Nachos for an appetizer, he ordered the burrito meal and I ordered the enchilada meal.

The nachos were very nacho-ish. Tortilla chips, good start. Cheese, meat, jalapenos, etc. They were good, not great and what stopped them from being great was the lack of Tex Mex flavoring. It tasted very Tex Mex adjacent. Close, but not quite. Don't get me wrong, they were quality ingredients, but the recipe for nachos is not chips, meat, cheese. You actually have to put some seasoning in there to get the Tex Mex part going. Still, they were good.

At about this time we noticed a couple drunkenly pawing each other at the bar. It was a strange site, given the modesty thing in Doha. In the US, it would have been a blip, but here it seemed so out of place...maybe I have been here too long. :-D

OK, so the main courses arrive and, again, good, quality ingredients, but the resulting flavor is Tex Mex adjacent. However, I will say the refried beans were pretty spot on. The rice was pretty close too.

Verdict? It's not bad, but if you don't like eating around cigarette smoke or you are looking for authentic Tex Mex, you probably should look elsewhere. You see, the punchline is that this is a hotel restaurant and the Tex Mex adjacent meal I just described cost me about $60, and it just was not worth it.

And with that...it looks like I am actually all caught up on my Doha Diaries! Hooray for vacation!

Doha Diaries: Days 42-52, Travel Til Your Eyes Bleed, Geography Test!

2011-12-26T13:09:00.005-06:00

[Day 42] Saturday, December 10th, Coding...

I will be traveling back to the USA in two days, but it's for work, as I have decided to spend my Christmas in Doha. All of those late night calls back to the USA time zones are over...for now. The sleep deprivation led to the above picture, which I call Mr. Snackyface. I plan to be stranded on a desert island with him and hallucinate that he's a real person...until snack time, then he'll be in ma' belly! [For those that are not familiar with Cast Away and "Wilson", and thus the joke, my apologies for what must seem like a bizarre statement.]

Mostly I did a shedload of coding for OwlCon today, renovating a number of features for our Registration Coordinators.

[Day 43] Sunday, December 11th, Packing and "Seasonal Party"

The flight out to the USA leaves early in the morning, so I got busy preparing for the trip, but there was a brief break to attend a "seasonal party" for work. You see...Christmas...not so much of a holiday here, so around this time of year, phrases like "seasonal" or "festive" are used. I wonder if the folks at Fox and Friends would go ballistic over it.

Another little reminder of where I am as in one of the hotel drawers.

Not unlike the Bibles left in hotel rooms back in the USA. I do have to make it clear that from my limited experience in the region this is atypical, a Qur'an and prayer mat is pretty swanky; sometimes, the best you get is the arrow pointing in the proper direction to pray.

[Day 44] Monday, December 12th, If You Thought the TSA Was Bad...

I checked out early in the morning. The fiscal acrobatics of resolving the check was a bit involved because of the changing expenses processes throughout my stay, but of the...um, credit, for that goes to the Global Mobility team at my work. I hate to be mean, but there are times when that term feels like an oxymoron.

I get to the airport with ample time. I go through security and decide to get a bite to eat before the flight. They have a nice bowl of freshly-cut fruit, a nice surprise in an airport.

I finish my snack and head to the gate to find that I have to go through security a second time and it's worse than ever. First, they have me take EVERYTHING out of my carry on, even plugs and wires, to the point where it's basically empty. They have me take off shoes, belts, etc. Then they hold me up in line before I get to the scanner.

When I get to the other side, there is a guy has slid all of my belongings way down to the end in a great big jumbled mess, about which none of the security personnel seem to care. There are easily a half dozen other passengers with ready access to my luggage and valuables; yippee. Well, at least there wasn't a body cavity search...but it was slow and painful nonetheless and what was a leisurely schedule turns into - damn, I hope I get checked in before they close the gate (they generally close the gate early).

My fellow travelers and I make it to the bus. They drive us out to the plane and we embark. I settled into the plane for another freakin' long flight. We are going with the rotation of the Earth, so it's about 1.5 hours longer and it's daylight the entire time, but I am going to Dulles, in the Washington, DC area, which is slightly closer than Houston. They cancel each other and I am facing another 14.5-hour flight.

This flight was more...um, interesting that last time? You see, this time all three seats were full and the middle seat contained a little old Indian lady that kept falling asleep...usually on me. Maybe it was the new cologne... :-P

On the plus side, it helped distract me from the 14.5-hour long "try not to permanently flatten your ass on this plane ride" dance. I think I was successful.

Anyway, this is my first time coming back to the USA since I was a child, so I have no idea what to expect for customs. The first part was...weird. You see, we stepped off the plane and were herded into this:

Yeah, not a very illuminating shot, so here's a view from the outside of one that is gorging itself on passengers, or maybe disgorging them, whatever.

Yeah, that's right, it's a sort of funky room on wheels. It raises and lowers itself on hydraulics, but not in the latino lowrider sense; even though that would be hilarious, I think there would be some broken hips and law suits.

And here is a pack of them, resting after having had their fill of feasting on human beings.

I don't know why, but it had a creepy feel to it. The efficient containerizing and transport of humans, herded into said containers. I half expected to see some guy stumbling out of customs, yelling, "Soylent Green is immigrants!"

[Day 45] Tuesday, December 13th, Work, then Home!

I met with some folks for work (the whole reason I stopped in the DC area for a layover), and then prepared to head home. Some fascinating crossovers between industries...

I was staying at a place called the Staybridge Suites, in Chantilly, VA. I chose them because they had an incredible 5-star rating on TripAdvisor. That's pretty hard to comprehend, given the freedom folks have to wreck such a thing on a site like TripAdvisor (not a knock against TripAdvisor, just stating the obvious about ratings on the interwebs).

Do I think they are worth 5 stars? That's a tough one. I think my answer is this - they are absolutely worth 4 or 5 stars. If I compare them to a regular hotel in terms of a short term stay, they fall short, but I can see that they would be incredible for a long term stay. They arrange social gatherings on a number of weeknights, have a library, games, lounge areas, a roaring fireplace, etc. The gym was barely adequate, in my opinion, but I demand more than most folks from a gym. As an extended stay place, yes, 5 stars, as a hotel, I am not certain. That said, a fine place to stay and the staff are incredible. Bonus - a shuttle to and from Dulles, local businesses, and the nearby museum (if only I had more time).

Anyway...that night I touched down at DFW, was picked up by my buddy Paul and we went to one of my regular spots, Rockfish, for dinner and then it was back home to start laundry and COLLAPSE.

[Day 46] Wednesday, December 14th, Work...then shopping!

Aside from work, today was spent doing laundry, some shopping, and dinner with some family.

When I went to Doha, my jeans were already too big on me, and they were "relaxed" or "loose" fit, so they are pretty gigantic on me. As a result, before I embarked on this trip, a lady friend charged me with the mission of getting jeans that "showed off my assets" more. Since the nights in Doha were sometimes surprisingly chilly, I also charged myself with the mission of getting a nice leather jacket (my favorite was long past dead, and I was using an ill-fitting substitute that really needed to go to Goodwill).

Unfortunately, I tried on the fancy pants designer jeans first, so I was spoiled when I tried Levi's and the Gap. After a long night of trying on clothes...the winners in the jeans category were Citizens of Humanity and 7 for all mankind; although Gap and Levi's came close. The combination of fit, comfort, and style stole the show in all cases. It was a good thing.

[Day 47] Thursday, December 15th, Work then off to Houston!

Aside from work, a little bit of shopping and a visit to another favorite for lunch - Fogo de Chao. Just before lunch, I dropped by the mall to pick up my new leather jacket. After sleeping on it, I finally settled on the tailored fit of a Hugo Boss jacket. It has a nice clean motorcycle jacket aesthetic, i.e., not a million zippers and pockets, just the essentials. I can't seem to find a picture online and the picture I had was too crappy to post.

That evening, I arrived in Houston, the last leg in my US tour. I met some friends and got to bed. I may have done a bit of coding for OwlCon in there somewhere.

[Day 48] Friday, December 16th, Work, Coding

The work meeting ran very long, but it included lunch at the local Fogo de Chao. I don't recommend Fogo de Chao on two consecutive days. It makes it a lot less special, it's a bit pricey for that, and it can sometimes take more than 24 hours to recover from your meat coma. :-)

Anyway...it was a great meeting. Lots of great discussions, but that is work...and this is not a work blog.

The rest of the night was more coding and probably dinner somewhere, that I don't remember...

[Day 49] Saturday, December 17th, Coding, Trip Prep, Eating!

Aside from lots more coding for OwlCon, we hit Kenny's and Ziggy's deli for lunch and the Grand Lux for dinner. I had some sort of heart attack on a plate at Kenny's and Ziggy's, I think it was the Knish Knosh; a Ruben with a sea of cheese, on top of a knish? Something like that. I added a chocolate shake to guarantee that it was not a healthy meal. Luckily for my body, I offset it with a healthier choice at the Grand Lux - a Mediterranean fish dish...followed by a molten chocolate lava cake; aren't those healthy too?

[Day 50] Sunday, December 18th, Off to Dubai!

Well, it was time to head back. This was not the original plan. The original plan called for me taking a few days of vacation (which, at this point, I cannot possibly use up before they expire), but our customer expressed a need for my presence in Dubai and I agreed, so there I was, heading back to Dubai. With this 25-hour trip through Atlanta, New York, and Doha to Dubai, I ended up spending a total of about 50 hours flying in a 7-day period. I have been bombarded with so many cosmic rays at this point that I damn well BETTER have super powers soon.

When I arrived at the gate in New York (JFK airport), I had a surprise awaiting me.

Yep, the 18th of December is Qatar National Day. From what I know, it's a holiday created by the government to celebrate national pride and such. Apparently, the best way to celebrate it is with white sheet cake served on a Christmas tablecloth. :-D

This trip went very smoothly, although I did have some close calls in terms of spare time initially.

[Day 51] Monday, December 19th, No...More...Flying...ughhhhhh

I spent basically the entire day flying. I don't recommend it. When I got to the hotel, I stopped by the nearby 24-hour Subway, truly a shining jewel of cultural advancement that shows a city has really made it. Well, made something. I have to say that cities seen from taxi cabs late at night start to look more alike.

[Day 52] Tuesday, December 20th, Work, Geography Test!

I visited the campus of Philips today for my work. The interesting thing for you, dear reader, is this nifty geography test...see anything missing in the picture below?

Lunch was interesting. We worked through lunch for the most part, so they had Indian food delivered. And yet, when I showed up to get my lunch, I saw pizza boxes...

But when I opened it up, it all made sense.

All in all, quite a clever approach, although I suspect an environmentalist somewhere just had a cerebral aneurysm from contemplating the environmental impact of this approach.

My colleague, Paul, and I headed to the Sheraton to eat at their Chinese restaurant. It was pretty good. It was more upscale than I am accustomed, but there are so many Chinese restaurants and buffets back home and they tend to err on the side of cheap and austere.

This post is already pretty long, so let's publish this and continue in the next post...

Doha Diaries: Day 41, The Opening Ceremonies of the 2011 Arab Games

2011-12-23T18:08:00.001-06:00

[Day 41] December 9, There will be many ellipses in this post...

The opening ceremonies of the Arab Games is upon us!

I finally remembered to snap a picture of my default breakfast at the W brunch. Actimel for the probiotics (I assume they are good ones), half an orange, half a FRESH MANGO, a few colorful bits of vegetables, a poached/boiled egg, some salmon, and a bit of Gouda. Yum. Oh, and "still" water (as opposed to sparkling water). On the way out, I usually snag a boiled egg or two and a piece of fruit for snacky fun time later.

The day started leisurely. I had a lot of time to kill. Then suddenly the time was dead.

You see, being a guy, I do stupid things. Long story short, I felt inspired to follow the advice of the interwebs and buy 15 roses to say "I'm sorry" to a lady friend. I'll let your fevered imagination run wild with why I felt so inspired, supremely confident you will never guess. OK, it was also a good opportunity to buy her more flowers.

So I had this grand vision of showing up early, presenting said bouquet, and heading off to the opening ceremonies on a high note cleansed by my floral penance. Then time dilated.

I headed to Carrefour...crappy roses and no baby's breath. I Googled florists and found one sort of nearby. One confusing cab ride later and we are there...but the store is not. Calling...internet only you say? Yippee. To Villagio!

Yes, it was back to Villagio to visit the only decent florist I have found thus far. I still have well over an hour to complete this errand and the cab driver tells me it will only take 15 minutes to get to the mall.

About 25 minutes later, we get to the mall. I jog in order the bouquet and then wait impatiently as they craft it...back in the cab with 45 minutes left.

"How long to get to the W?"

"20 minutes"

"Perfect. Let's go!"

We arrive at the W 50 minutes later...

So, yeah, in spite of setting aside what seemed like an excessive amount of time, I end up arriving late, having to send the flowers to her room, and then meeting them at a Carrefour, where they are buying goodies for the pre-ceremony gathering. The good news is that it gets better. Here are said flowers...

Onward to a villa. Stuff happens...time passes...villas are visited, conversation is had, someone gets scratched by a cat.

We learn how the exact same villa can vary fantastically by one's choice of paint, decoration, and landscaping. We also learn that a "maid's room" can be depressingly small. Oh, and we re-learn that Doha is dusty. Learning is fun!

We gather with some friendly folks for some grilled food and beverages. It was very nice; good food and good company. I met a fellow Texan that came to Doha to teach special needs kids (no, not me). Our host had a disco laser, so I saw a brief glimpse of a disco laser show...I need to get a disco laser!

Then it's off to the ceremonies!

One of the many cool things about this plan was that we were able to stroll to the ceremonies and avoid the mind-shattering agony of trying to park near the stadium. So, stroll we did, saunter even.

We arrived at the stadium and passed through our gender-specific security...of course. I felt sorry for the women in our group, as their line was really slow, but eventually we were re-united and made the trek to our seats.

Show time!

No, wait, not yet. It's the pre-show!

Arab-speaking guy and English-speaking lady say things...

We count down from 10...repeatedly...

We get many useful warnings...which teach us things like don't have lots of kids and let them run around; rather, have one child and hold them firmly, or bad things may happen. Trust the check mark, it knows best.

Boys dance/shuffle and sing on the stage with rifles and swords because...why not?!

Girls dance/shuffle and sing on the stage, sans rifles and swords...

OK, cute, but COME ON...enough waiting and counting down from ten...quit teasing us!

The Emir opens the games...

Let's fly a flag! Check out the arm-swinging awesome...

Many athletes from many countries march out and around the stadium. Somalia gets props for dressing like they were prepping for a 1980s-era street dance battle...straight street. There is some odd ribbon-dancing; you can smell the lack of excitement off of most of the performers, but a few of them really get into it.

Then we get to the cool light shows and performances...this was where things got really interesting. This was a pretty cool demonstration of the cool gear they had at the Arab Games. Check out the choreography of the lights with the wizened, wizard-like guy. I wish I knew more about what was going on, but we only got the most rudimentary information in English. It was still cool, though.

So, the story is like this...some old guy walks out into space and makes the Earth, or the desert, or something...

So, the lady on the metal horse watches as the old guy wraps up his spiel and exits. As he does, the red tribe and blue tribe (I guess the designers of the event played a lot of player-vs-player computer games) step out onto the field...

Here's a crappy picture of the lady on the metal horse. The light was overwhelming the camera.

After insulting one another and fighting a bit [What do you expect? Red HAS to fight Blue!], the tribes are united by their common enemy, "the monster of earth" (a hydra). They flail about a bit, then the lady comes down off the metal horse, apparently armed with the "light of dignity", which she shares with the tribes and they collectively use it to beat down the monster. Seconds after my video ended, fireworks and flames shot into the air...c'est la vie

Here is a still picture of the battle.

Triumphant over the monster of earth, she takes the light of dignity to the big torch and lights it (which she did *right* after I stopped filming).

One nice touch is that after they lit their torch in the stadium, a flame lit up on the torch tower outside and in the funky atom-like symbol outside. Here is a shot of the atom-like thingie.

OK, that's a lot of media to process, so I'll wrap up this post with "just" the one day.

Doha Diaries: Days 33-40, Residential, Booze, Mandancing, and Curry or Massage?

2011-12-21T20:27:00.003-06:00

[Day 33] Thursday December 1, Residential Treatment

TGIT!

First a quick follow-up to Doha Diaries: Days 29-30, NEEDLES! Qatari! In that post, I related a trick for when you have to do leg exercises and your grip has given up the ghost, the trick being to balance the weights on your shoulders. I tried to get a good picture of it, but I failed. This morning, I had to do the trick again and remembered to snap a picture, a much better one.

OK, back to current affairs...

December kicks off with me officially becoming a Resident of Qatar, and you know what that means...liquor permit! Yes, I can now buy booze and pork. Such a momentous occasion!

Well, I can't actually buy it yet. There is another bureaucratic hurdle before I can get a liquor permit. They require your employer to provide a letter that says you make a certain minimum amount of money (4,000 QAR or US$1,100). Apparently, only people with enough cash are allowed to get booze...which must suck if you want to drink to forget your poverty.

If it reduces the likelihood of a poor person drinking themselves into greater poverty, then it's probably a good thing. Unfortunately, I am betting they still have that opportunity, but it involves greater danger or expense. Hmm, that was a bit heavy, how about a picture of my new ID?

Personally, I like my goatee. I caught as much of the cool holograms as I could, only so much of it shows up at a given angle. But hey, palm trees, water, crossed scimitars, it's Qatartastic!

The truly depressing part is that it's Thursday, the end of the work week here...so no booze-buying for Michael's weekend. Man, I have such a tragic life, I should write a crappy series of novels aimed at a teenage audience, no wait, Twilight already locked that up.

[Day 34] Friday December 2, Mandancing and Shisha

A lady friend and I went to Souq Waqif one night and were pleasantly surprised to see some live music there. Because of the gender-based cultural norms of the region, the men and women are separated, so guys either 1) dance alone or 2) dance with other guys...I call this "mandancing". Here is a short video of the event. Be sure to check out the male gogo dancer with the white headband rocking out in front. This video was a poor representation; he was usually dancing like it was the finale to an Arabic Footloose.

I also finally tried shisha. Basically, that's the stuff they smoke in a hooka. No, it's not "special" tobacco in the way that some brownies are magic. /sadface Rather, it's candied and flavored tobacco. It's actually not that bad. I expected to weather a horrible experience, but it was all right. I was happy that I did not cough or sputter once, but I knew enough in advance to puff more than inhale...although I did inhale a bit. I recommend trying it once just to get the experience. Where you go from there, well that's all up to you. Here's a blurry picture, but I am using it because every other picture we tried to get of me blowing smoke or puffing just looked crappy.

[Day 35] Saturday December 3, Coding and Recovery

I spent the majority of my free time today coding portals for the OwlCon Coordinators. But I did step out for lunch and snapped a picture of some buildings outside the City Center Mall. The middle building is the Ministry for Environment.

I *think* this may also have been the night that I went out for a business dinner to the New York Steakhouse at the Renaissance Marriott. The appetizers, entrees, and sides were good, but the desserts were unanimously deemed not worth getting again, and we all had different desserts. As for the value, the jury is out on that; it's a pretty expensive place which really raises the bar. I need more data. :-)

And thus ends the weekend.

[Day 36] Sunday December 4, Liquor Permit and More Coding...

I picked up my letter and stopped by the Qatar Distribution Company on the way home from work. OK, I took a huge detour is more accurate. Nothing is on the way to the QDC, except maybe the western border of Qatar.

When you arrive, there is a traffic gate and a guard who will not let you enter unless you have a permit or a letter for a permit. I showed the letter, had the taxi wait, and went to get my permit. I took a number, filled out my application, and sat in a tiny waiting room, curious what would happen next.

The form covers basic contact information and the all important, "what is your religion?" question. Important because Muslims are not supposed to be getting booze. After less than 10 minutes, I was called into another room. I had no idea what to expect. A rubber stamp? A room of jack-booted thugs grilling me about my booze plans? Well, it was somewhere in the middle.

A pleasant person confirmed my information, took my 1000 QAR deposit (about $300), took my picture, and gave me a permit. Downstairs to the store!

The QDC store is smaller than I expected. Being the sole place to buy liquor for a thirsty expatriate population, I was expecting a vast Mecca of booze. What I got was a small- to medium-sized liquor store.

The selection was adequate, but the brand choice for a given type of liquor was limited. There were some oddities, for example, you can buy Grey Goose, but only in a gigantic bottle. There was a decent variety of wines, considering the shelf space. Overall, the prices seemed pretty reasonable. There were many wines that came in at or under 50 QAR (about $13).

I took a look at the legendary pork section, but living in a hotel room, I had little use for it, so I moved on. Personally, I think I would rather have more selection in my liquor, but let's keep that little secret between you and me; my colleague, Paul, might lynch me for uttering such heresy.

With my imminent return to the US and thus need to eliminate the liquor I bought before I left, I picked up a few bottles of wine and headed back home. It wasn't much, but it definitely gave me a sense of being slightly more empowered. At the very least, I had a few bottles of wine for which I would not have to pay the 400% to 500% markup.

[Day 37] Monday, December 5, Work and Coding...

Another dual timezone work day, working here, then staying up late to talk with US contacts. In between, OwlCon coding.

[Day 38] Tuesday, December 6, Restaurant vs. Massage

I finally visited the Landmark mall today with a lady friend. It's one of the bigger ones and it has a sense of exclusivity and refinement about it, compared to City Center. The latter feels more like a shopping factory with its sprawl, throngs of people, and relatively antiseptic decor; that said, City Center is very useful, but it falls short on the experience, relatively-speaking. New cologne acquired...commencing sexy smell in 3, 2, 1...

After shopping, we headed to a cute little Thai place called Thai Snack. On the way, we passed what she called "the Christmas store". It has, well, Christmas stuff in it. However, since Christmas is not exactly a desirable term here, the store's official name is the somewhat more vague Champs d'Elysees. We hopped out of the taxi, and en route, discovered where bros from the gulf region go to roast things:

I found this surprisingly funny, don't judge me. Onwards to Thai Snack!

As usual, there is the decision of restaurant vs. massage.

I am not kidding, click on it for the close up.

Anyway, so we decide to go with "restaurant" this time. We enjoyed all of the food, but the Pad Thai could have been better. The green curry was great and the red curry was even better. It was incredibly affordable too, so I give it a hearty "thumbs up".

After dinner, we perused the Christmas store. We found all sorts of interesting, often shiny, things there

The commemorative Christmas ornament...from last year
The various signs with a word vaguely resembling "Merry" rendered in wire, clearly by someone that was not familiar with the English language
A figure that I can only describe as "Coming Out Santa"
And much more

We stopped at the antique store (the best description I can give; it was filled with old crap) next door. Some of the things were cool, but some were a bit disturbing, like the old timey photos of Nazis and Adolf himself.

The evening ended with a somewhat comical experience talking the taxi in to our location. Note to self, call the taxi even farther in advance when going to Thai Snack.

[Day 39] Wednesday, December 7, Work and Work and Coding

Another fun dual timezone workday...and a bit of OwlCon coding. Did I mention how much fun testing and proofing pages can be when your maximum bandwidth is less than a tenth of what you normally experience back home?

[Day 40] Thursday, December 8, More OwlCon Coding...

Going against my plans, I have acquiesced and agreed to recode a page for OwlCon that is going to be a major PitA to renovate.

Will I finish it before I go to the opening ceremonies of the Arab Games? Stay tuned for our next exciting installment...

Doha Diaries: Days 31-32, Fingerprints, Out on the Street?!

2011-12-01T09:00:00.003-06:00

I got another Monte Cristo Tuesday, and en route, I came across this sign. Can you guess the trademarks? Check your answers at the end of the post...

[Day 31] Tuesday, Fingerprints
Our hero continues to be cataloged by the State...

We got the welcome news that our approval paperwork came back from the medical exam. Not only did we confirm we had neither HIV nor TB, it meant we were one step closer to getting our passports back and getting residency permits! Yay!

I went to Bennigan's for my second Monte Cristo visit. It was not as amazing. I think maybe that should be a once a month thing...my heart is probably happy to hear that.

Late in the afternoon, Mike and I piled into a car and drove...and drove...and drove. OK, it was only 35 minutes away, but my average time in a car here has been about 10 minutes and when you don't know where you're going, subjective time passes VERY slowly, unless you doze off...which I did. For reference, we were at the very outermost outskirts of civilization. Beyond the building it was pretty much all desert.

You see, last night I was up late pinging some contacts for work, and I had a morning meeting...so I missed sleep. That was bad, but oh well.

Anyway...so we finally get out to the fingerprint place and there are two other people there besides us. As I waited, I watched the TV screen, which was showing us all of the bad driving habits you should avoid in order to not have an accident and DIE! Of course, they could just title the movie, Typical Doha Taxi Driving Habits and the content would be appropriate, especially the dead people and blood. They really do seem to have a deathwish.

The fingerprint place seemed a bit out place. Out here on the fringes, a shiny new building, gleaming inside, with high tech devices using LASERS to catalog us potential international criminals.

The first machine took a picture of our eyes and scanned our index fingers. Maybe it scanned our retina, I have no idea.

The second machine was a fingerprint plus. They did simple surface, rolled surfaces, palm prints, etc. My hands felt violated and vulnerable.

Afterwards, the driver was kind enough to drop us off at our hotels, which was cool.

The rest of my evening was, in a word, blah. I coded OwlCon stuff and pinged some US contacts for work. The latter meant staying up pretty late so I could catch people during the regular business day.

The W Hotel delivered a turd sandwich - it turns out that my reservations were still showing a checkout date of the first of December, you know, less than 48 hours from now, and they were overbooked for their hotel because of a Petroleum industry conference. Mmm, fun.

Time to being on the street: 36 hours.

[Day 32] Wednesday, Living on the Street? Bonus Fun

Yawwwnnnn. Oh boy, working two time zones nine hours apart is not fun.

Time to being on the street: 24 hours.

They *may* be able to do something for me, in light of my MONTH stay here, but it would not be the usual corporate rate...blah blah blah...blackout dates...blah blah blah...time for breakfast and off to work.

Work was a bit chaotic today. On top of the chaos of my room reservations, the whole day had a bit of a pucker factor to it (I leave it to the reader to figure out what that means).

There are NO hotels available...this could be bad. OK, if push came to shove, I could probably impose on someone with an apartment here, but imposition is not fun. Keep hope alive!

The day screamed by.

Time to being on the street: 18 hours

I get back to the hotel and find that I will in fact still have a room. Relief.

Exhausted. Stress going, but I could use a distraction.

My friend rides to my rescue and she joins me for a wonderful meal at a Thai restaurant. It's an unusual place. It's the most upscale Thai restaurant I have experienced. They serve Tappas style...you know "little plates", a Spanish tradition. But boy what they do with those plates.

The most memorable, for me, was the Duck Curry. The duck curry was great, but the memorable part was the pea eggplant, also known as solanum torvum. Sounds like a great name for a science fiction movie, huh? Anyway, a gentleman on the staff explained that Thailand has a lot of varieties of eggplant and they like to showcase them here. Well, we were both impressed. It was a big hit.

I ordered too much food, though. I fell for their "You should order 3-4 plates apiece" line.

When I finally get back to my room, it's time to ping more US contacts for work. Just thinking about it is making me yawn again. Yawwwwnnn.

And now, for the answers to the trademarks.

How did you do? If you got them all, maybe I will mail you a Monte Cristo.

Doha Diaries: Days 29-30, NEEDLES! Qatari!

2011-11-28T15:17:00.001-06:00

[Day 29] Sunday, Making an Impression, Vitamins, NEEDLES!

Another work week dawns.

Making an Impression

Sometimes, when you slow down the counts on your repetitions with free weights, you can hit a wall with the endurance of your grip strength. Today, I had that issue, but then I remembered a trick for squats, laying the dumbbells flat on your shoulders instead of holding them in your hands. I used this trick to finish out my squats...and made a humorous discovery. Because of the weight sitting on my shoulders, I had effectively branded myself with the name of the manufacturer of the dumbbells, Technogym.

Meh, it's hard to see, but it's there. Oh and there's my favorite pre-trip electronics purchase, the Bose SoundLink. Oh, how I love it. And in related news, my deltoids are casting a serious shadow now*. W00t!

* - rectifying the atrophy of my poor shoulders due to my sedentary lifestyle from 2006-2010 was one of my chief concerns.

Vitamins!

I can already feel the difference from taking vitamins. I guess vitamins work or the placebo effect is strong. I feel more alert and...mojoful? Of course, this means more grunting at the gym, because, well, I am a guy, and it's what we do.

I am also accepting that maybe I was working out too much last week and I should stick with just one workout per day, unless the intensity of my routines goes down a lot.

NEEDLES!

After work, it was time for my teammate Mike and I to go for our "medical examination" to further our Residency Permit progress. This is all handled by a third party contractor. Our outing started with a half hour wait for our ride. It turns out the driver that was going to pick us up was in an accident. Oy.

Eventually, we were on our way to...I don't know. But arrive there we did. Our driver/chaperone was an actual Qatari. That was pretty cool. It was pretty impressive to hear him switch in and out of Arabic and English with relative ease. He spoke with Mike and I in English; proudly recounting his visits to America, especially California and Las Vegas. He spoke to the other two gentlemen in the car in Arabic. At one point, one of them commented on his ability to speak multiple dialects of Arabic. He seemed like a cool guy too; I'd like to party with him sometime.

Male Qatari Clothing Interlude

Male Qatari traditional clothes consist of the Thawb (shirt/robe) and headgear composed of two pieces - the Ghutra (the folded cloth) and the Ogaal (the rings that crown the Ghutra and help hold it in place). In Qatar, the Ogaal tends to have long black ropes hanging down from it, which end in tassles.

/end interlude

So, we head into...the place I don't know. There is a sea of Filipino and Indian workers crowded into the place. Our guide walks us up to the front of the line and hands over our paperwork. I can't help feeling like a douche bag, walking past all of these people, but I am in no position to argue. A few minutes and a hasty photo, then we are on our way to another window.

Again, our guide walks up to the front of the line. We hand over our paper, get another paper and a vial.

Our guide walks us past everyone and directly into the phlebotomy room and right up to the chairs. Mike and I get the fastest, most painless blood draws in our lives. Of course, the phlebotomist does about a thousand people a day, and I do not think that is a significant exaggeration.

I roll down my sleeve, grab my stuff and...where the hell did they go?!

I look back the way we came, nope.

I navigate the sea of people, pushing forward to a 4-way intersection.

Not ahead.

Not right.

Can't see past that guy to the left...a ha! I manage to spot our guide's Ghutra swaying back and forth as he powerwalks down a hall off to my left.

I catch up and it's off to the X-ray room. A quick chest X-ray and we're done.

So, why did we get these tests? I am told that the primary concerns are HIV (the blood) and Tuberculosis (the X-ray).

Then it's back home....no wait...where are we now? More blood?

We pile out of the car. Mike decides to leave his bag and jacket in there. I have already learned the lesson he is about to learn...

Mike: "Will the car be locked?"
Josef: Quizzical look
Mike: "I left my bag in there."
Josef: "I leave my house unlocked 24-7, no one steals anything."

The car remains unlocked and we go in. Now, that may be a fine approach here in Qatar, where most people are too well off to care or they risk losing their livelihood through deportation if they wrong someone. But I don't plan to spend the rest of my life here, so I want to keep appropriate reflexes and habits for the rest of the world. And that's why I just carry my stuff with me.

As for MORE BLOOD, it turns out it's a finger stick to determine our blood type. I am surprised they don't just ask, but perhaps they had too many folks that were ignorant or simply made up an answer because they didn't care.

In total, once we were picked up, this took about two hours.

The next step in the process is to await medical approval in a day or two and then get fingerprints.

On a whim, I decided to go exploring after dinner. I credit the vitamins again.

I found the Moroccan Embassy, some nondescript private residences with what looked like tank traps in front of it, and some cool architecture. I have quickly taken interesting architecture for granted here. With the money flowing around this place, it's like an architect's wet dream. All sorts of freaky buildings are going up, like the zig zag towers. Of course, sometimes it goes wrong, like the building I like to call "condom tower"; It even has a reservoir tip...

[Day 30] Monday, Chunky Kit Kat? Whaaaa? Om nom nom.

I guess it's been a while since I mentioned music...I fired up Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill for my Spartacus workout today. Decent music-wise, but it lasts barely long enough to finish the workout, let alone the warm up. Oh well, a little Blade II Soundtrack to finish it off.

Work. When I showed up at 11:30, there was not a soul in the cafeteria, then a few showed up. Speaking of the cafeteria, first, here is one interesting quirk, tissues as napkins.

And the main cafeteria itself...

They generally have 3-4 entrees and 2-3 sides. The cuisine of each varies every day, so for example, you might have Asian vegetable dish and an Arabic fish dish, as I did today.

No progress on the medical exam yet.

I came across this in Carrefour after work. I am not sure they have them in the US. I had to get one, I was starving and curious, a dangerous combination.

It was tasty. It seemed more chocolatey than a usual Kit Kat, which is a good thing in my book.

Dinner at the Pearl with a friend. It was an Italian place...staffed completely by Indians. The food was decent. The fish special was good, but the potato side was uninspired. The wine and desserts were good. The cost was on par with dinner at the W, but I think the W Market produces better food. Overall, not a bad place, but perhaps the value is questionable. Of course, a fish dish may not be the best way to judge an Italian restaurant. :-)

Stayed up late to make calls to the US for work...but it was difficult. I started turning into a pumpkin at ~23:00, but I had to keep going...time zones are fun?

Doha Diaries: Days 23-28 , Exercise, Apartments, Turkey, Orchestra!

2011-11-27T12:00:00.008-06:00

Well, it's been a while and honestly I can't really remember much of the week. I am not sure if that is good or bad.

[Day 23] Monday, Fitness Ramp Up and Blogging...

I am happily getting into the home stretch of my year long fitness quest. Since I am nine months in, the rate at which I add muscle has slowed to a crawl, but that is natural and I am cool with it. However, I still have some nagging residual fat around the mid-section. Not a lot, but my standards have changed and it's gotta go.

So, I have cut back on food a bit and added some bonus exercise until I get to the point where I want to maintain. This may be a mistake, but I am incensed to push through this plateau and I can always back off.

Now I feel I should insert something Doha-ish in here, so...behold Mister Potato Crisps!

I think Mister Potato Crisps is Pringles' secret migrant worker half-brother. As for the chips/crisps, the MPCs are crispier, almost like they were fried twice. Aside from that...pretty much a knockoff of Pringles.

I have to confess that this comment is somewhat out of order, because these chips are a souvenir from the Dunebashing trip; in my defense, though, I was waiting to get back to the hotel and stack them with the Pringles can for the picture. I picked these up when we stopped at the equivalent of the "Last Chance Gas Station", where we also came across a Qatari with a falcon (no kidding; wish I took a picture).

I then sat down to compose my Doha Diaries: Days 19-22, The Social Blur post, missing some key pictures of me on a camel.

[Day 24] Tuesday, Camel Pictures! Apartment Scouting

Today, I coordinated picking up the camel pictures that were missing from Monday's blog post and got them posted.

I spent the rest of the evening with very unexciting scouting of corporate apartments. This is sort of work-related, but also not, because you may find yourself looking at the same apartments. So, here we go...

Things to Consider When Getting an Apartment in Doha

Transport: This is a complicated consideration. It's more than just location.

First, you want to figure out how easy or hard it will be to get where you want to go. Because of the relatively young infrastructure of Doha, this is a more significant concern than you might expect. It is not uncommon that a single road is the only way to where you want to go. So, consider how the roads are laid out and if the traffic will be tolerable for you.

If you plan to take cabs, consider how easy it will be to get cabs where you are. If cabs are loathe to go out there, or simply are not willing to hang out for fares, then you may have an issue with excessive delays. You should also think about how the location will impact your need to take cabs. If you are isolated from restaurants, groceries, entertainment, work, etc., then you may find yourself spending a lot more time and money due to cabs.

Qatar is undergoing rapid development and it seems that people are far more interested in building very tall towers than adequate parking. On top of that, lots of folks are buying cars. So, if you are going to rent or own a car, look into the parking arrangements.

For me, I currently plan to use cabs, chiefly because I have no Qatari driver's license and we are unsure how difficult it will be for me to obtain one. For US and Canadian folks, it's complicated, reputedly due to some diplomatic tit-for-tat. /sigh

Facilities: Be sure to check out the facilities. They vary wildly here.

Laundry facilities are usually not impressive. It is common for residences to have the all-in-one washer/dryers that take close to forever to wash a load of clothes and, at least in one case, appear to dramatically accelerate the aging/wearing of clothes.

For me, the fitness facilities are very important. Especially since I have yet to find a commercial gym nor a store that sells an adequate quality and quantity of sports equipment in Doha.

For pools, you have to consider the scorching, humid summers. So, unlike in the states, it can be very important as to whether or not the pool is indoors; if not, does it have a shade over the pool area? Heating and chilling of the pools is another consideration. Finally, if you want to do laps, does the pool accommodate that?

If you are also a fan of free weights, pay close attention to how high the weights go, the amount of free space you have to exercise (more important when it's crowded), bench quality, etc. If you have a love for a certain type of cardio machine, check that they have it and try it out; some machines have an awkward motion.

Shops: In my experience here, thus far, you will not find fully-stocked grocery stores or pharmacies on virtually every major intersection in a residential area like you would in the US. Therefore, your primary concern in this category should be the shops that sell your commonly-used necessities, e.g., grocery shops or drug stores (aka "the Chemist"). An hour round trip to get some milk or cold medicine would be a real pain.

Restaurants: If you plan to eat out regularly, then riding across town every night for dinner may be problematic. Scout out the nearby restaurants and ask to see the menus. As every one here quickly learns, restaurant prices commonly vary by almost an order of magnitude; e.g., I can feed 5 people at Bander Aden, (see Day 22 of my Social Blur post) for what it costs for dinner for one at the W Hotel Market restaurant. Make sure the cuisine and the PRICES work for you.

The Apartment: How is the kitchen? I saw an apartment with only two burners on the stove top. While that may be adequate for quick, simple stuff, it would be problematic for cooking a good meal. If it is a furnished apartment, are the pots and pans provided? I saw an apartment with one skillet, one pot, two sauce pans, and no kitchen towels...I knew I forgot to pack something! :-P

How is the bed? This varies quite a bit here. The shapes, sizes, and materials are all over the place. "King" is not a uniform size here and mattresses can be anything from a real mattress to what is essentially a thick pad. Sit on it, lay on it. Be sure.

How about a balcony? Well, right now, in the "winter" it's nice, but when summer hits, it may become a waste of space. For a good six months or so out of the year, the heat and humidity outside is rather oppressive.

Then there are the usual things that you would consider anywhere.

Location: Is it where you want to be? Consider the beach, view, and access to stuff. The beach is nice, but so is access to shops, entertainment and work. Unfortunately, in Doha, it is very hard to have both, so consider what you want on a daily basis, versus something you would want infrequently and thus be willing to drive. Also, the beach may be a moot point for half the year, due to the heat and humidity.

The People: Do you want to be surrounded by expatriates or mix with others? Some residences are practically expat enclaves and you can all but completely avoid anyone else. For some, that is a plus; for others, a minus.

The Apartments I Scouted

The Pearl - These apartments are a fair distance out from the main city area. It is essentially an expat enclave. There are nice restaurants nearby with hefty prices. There is a grocery store being built at the moment, but for now you will have to take a car/taxi out to get groceries and other essentials. The apartments and the area have a swanky, upper crust (posh for my UK friends) feel to them. It's a mixture of pretense and polish, so, again, a plus or a minus, depending upon your tastes. You are near the beach. For most jobs, you have a significant commute and traffic tends to bottleneck, especially during the morning rush. The workout facilities are great and the pool is decent.

My concerns: Pretty isolated. My commute to work will shoot up from about 5 minutes to 20-40 minutes each way. I would probably hemorrhage money at the local restaurants.

Al Rabban - These apartments are about a five minute walk from the City Center Mall, which has groceries, a pharmacy, movie theater, and restaurants. The layout, decorations, and furnishings are adequate, but in comparison to the Pearl, Al Rabban is his slightly-less-wealthy cousin. You have ready access to shops and entertainment. If you work in the city area, you will probably have a short commute. Unfortunately, the fitness center is crowded and I need heavier dumb bells than they provide. In a pinch, there is usually a line of taxis at the City Center.

My concerns: Mostly, the fitness area. While I can accept some lack of gear for a few days in a hotel, moving into a place for months that has inadequate facilities is not appealing. I could conceivably fork out some cash and get some weights and a bench...but that is complicated (Where would I buy them? Where do I put them? Can I sell them when I leave?).

Here's hoping I get some more choices...

[Day 25] Wednesday, Eye Test and A Little Too Motivated...

Ah, yes, the eye test. What can I say about the eye test?

How long does it take to get a 15-second eye test at a place that is about 5 minutes away? Wrong! It takes over an hour.

Hop in the chartered bus (and when I say "bus" I mean tiny van)
Wait around while people that are not supposed to be on the bus have many confused discussions with the coordinator.
Show up at the license place as everyone is heading out for their afternoon prayers.
Wait
Compete for access to the test with a group of people that rolled up just before the prayers ended (a smarter plan)

I passed! I am so proud.

On the fitness front, today I went too far. I didn't injure myself or anything, but I did three workouts and I could tell it was just too much. Oh well...back to one workout a day for now...maybe.

[Day 26] Thursday, Thanksgiving x 2! Mini-Farce

Being in the Middle East, I had no expectations of a Thanksgiving dinner. However, much to my surprise, I found myself invited to TWO! The first one was simply lunch at Ric's Kountry Kitchen (see November 2 of my Doha Diaries: Week 1 post). They had a basic turkey dinner. It was OK. The turkey was good. I am told the cherry pie and mashed potatoes were good (I had pumpkin and pecan, both were not very good, so i was not up for more pie). As for the rest, we all agreed it was pretty mediocre. Still, we enjoyed the meal and each others' company.

This was the start of a near farsical execution of activities, errands, etc...

So, from there, Paul was gracious enough to take me to Dean & Deluca, a fancy pants grocery store where I had hoped to find a side dish for my evening Thanksgiving event. Hmm, not many side dishes and all of them are too...Middle Eastern or contemporary. Bummer. TO THE CHEESE! With Paul's expert UK-certified assistance, I pick out some nice cheeses.

TO THE FLOWER SHOP! Now it's time to speed walk across the mall to pick up some roses for a lady friend while John gets a snack at Dean & Deluca's snacky place. Waiting for the bouquet...done. TO THE SNACKY PLACE! Hmm, where is the bag of Cheese? TO THE FLOWER SHOP!

I was relieved that the cheese was still there, since time was not on my side, but some part of me regretted that I was not caught up in a Wallace & Gromit-esque adventure chasing a cheese thief. TO THE..man, starting to work up a sweat here...TO THE SNACKY PLACE!

John's done with his snack, Paul has had his coffee. TO THE W HOTEL!

OK, so now time is really getting away from me. I drop off my stuff at the room. I hop in a cab to drop off the roses. Sure, I really don't have the time to spare, but hand delivery is how I roll, yo. TO THE <HOTEL NOT NAMED>! (Sorry Paul & John, keep guessing)

Flowers delivered...

TO THE W!

OK, so now it's 10 minutes until dinner and I am at the hotel, sweaty, in a suit, desperate for a shower and a change of clothes. I call Ed and, thankfully, he grants me a reprieve to shower and change.

Fastest. Shower. Ever.

TO THE BROTHERS' HOME!

The cab driver doesn't exactly know where to go but, thankfully, I have just enough recollection to get us there and Google Maps actually has the compound on its map.

I finally make it to my full-fledged family Thanksgiving dinner at Ed and Nicole's house. It was awesome.

Ed and Nicole are wonderful hosts. Their friends are pleasant and fun. The kids are busy being kids. And I am quietly doing my laundry in the background. Win.

The food was incredible. The side dishes ranged from great to great & intriguing (e.g., Nicole's tasty cranberry relish...chutney..whatever that Ed and I fought over).

The post-meal banter was great too. Ben could probably be a successful stand up comedian if he wanted.

Oh, and the cheese! Paul had recommended a specific one, a stinky blue cheese that was yellow instead of white. Paul tells me it was Stilton Blue. It was surprisingly good. If you had told me how it would taste, I would not have believed you fully until I tried it. It was completely unexpected how rich and smooth it was; I was expecting it to be akin to being kicked in the throat.

Ed had me try some funky liqour/liqueur. I think it was ginger schnapps or something like that. The only way I can describe it is angry cough syrup.

After the dust had settled and everyone else had left, Ed and I enjoyed another chat in his courtyard about culture and life in Doha.

A great evening.

[Day 27] Friday, Haircut and R&R

Slept in a bit, since I got to bed well past my bed time, then I had to hustle a bit because I wanted to knock out my workout, breakfast, and a haircut before lunchtime.

Getting a haircut here takes one of two paths. You can go to a "Gentleman's Saloon [sic]", pay some guy virtually nothing, and be happy with what you get, which may include various massages, a facial, etc. Or, maybe you want to be able to actually communicate effectively because you feel life is too short for bad hair cuts. I prefer the latter. I got a recommendation from a colleague at work for the Bio-Bil spa and it was great. Here I am showing off my new 'do with Allan, the stylist/barber that cut my hair. Thank you, Allan.

See that cool picture in the back? It's an images of birds within birds. Very cool. Let's zoom in on that...

Cool, huh?

All righty, all presentable now. Time for some lunch. Today, let's try "Chicken Barq".

Oh, hey, look at that, meat, bread, and rice! The tiny little bowl of Fattoush (the salad) is the reason I have settled on this among the three kabob places in the mall to be my primary choice. At least they try to make their standard meals healthy.

I am still curious what the hell a local chicken looks like, I have no idea what part of the chicken produced this meat, and maybe ignorance is bliss here.

Speaking of bliss...it's time for R&R. I took advantage of the couples room at the Bliss Spa at the W. Because of the cultural norms, I am not sure how much I should say. So, I will just say, it was cool.

Their massage technicians (their term, not mine) were great. Mine helped teach me that I was not stretching enough. She found this spot in my mid-calf that was a nasty knot, which she brutally assaulted as I tried to climb off the massage table, desperately looking for weapons to defend myself. My friend put me to shame, taking the beating from her technician with a smile. I thought it was over...then the technician found the exact same knot on my other calf...oh...the...pain.

A great start to what turned out to be a wonderful day and evening. I am a lucky man.

[Day 28] Saturday, Coding and Getting All Up In Some Culture

I slept in a bit, worked out, and napped a bit after that. Feeling a bit tired/lazy today.

I headed over to Carrefour (aka, the French Wal-Mart) and picked up some stuff.

I swung by a chemist (pharmacy) and picked up some vitamins, because I have become concerned that I am not getting all of my nutrients here, especially with the current reduction in calories; I am feeling a bit worn down. It's too bad bread, meat, and rice don't provide 100% of the Recommended Daily Allowances of nutrients, otherwise I would be set.

Today, I tried the new "Spicy Fish" dish. The sign...

And the meal itself...

Oh look, more meat, bread, and rice! It tastes better than it looks, but spicy? Eh, not Michael spicy.

I spent the day coding for OwlCon, working on the "back office" portals where the Planners do their magic; but first I have to do my magic and give them the portals. PHP, HTML, and MySQL do not make for a tasty dessert.

After dinner, I went to see the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra at the Katara Cultural Village with a couple of colleagues. The orchestra performed Beethoven's Emperor Concerto and Brahm's first symphony. It was great. It would be better if they had an acoustic stage, but it was still good. The venue is cozy enough that the sound was not swallowed.

Here is a picture of the seating area.

The stage...

And the stage with people on it.

A beautiful venue.

The pianist was really getting into it. His facial expressions bordered on comical, but I decided that laughing out loud during an orchestral maneuver would be a bit of a faux pas. Then there was the conductor.

I can't quite decide what a conductor's role is. I see him up there, hopping around, waving his arms about. but I also see the musicians intently reading their music and playing, oblivious to his apparent grand mal seizure. Even worse, I see the conductor's motions all too often seem out of time, disjointed, or completely superfluous.

So, I have concluded that conductors are most likely fancy, overpaid go go dancers, sans the sexy.

After the show, we hit up Royal Istanbul for a chicken shawarma. Not bad. Not exactly the nectar of the gods that I was expecting from my colleagues' description, but not bad. :-)

Side note: The best shawarma I have ever had was at Droubi's in Houston.

And now, to set this to post at a time when my friends and family will actually be awake...let's try...noon CST.

Doha Diaries: What the Hell is Happening Back Home?

2011-11-23T12:02:00.004-06:00

I have been in Doha since October 31st of this year. For various reasons, I have effectively stopped watching TV. My time is focused on work, exercise, and play. What news I do get comes from the Qatar Tribune.

The other night, I was eating at Bander Aden with some friends. As we sat down to dinner, we saw footage of Egyptian military/police beating the crap out of a guy for apparently being near them (we saw no weapons, no threatening actions). We (Americans and Canadians) collectively thought/said something to the effect of, "What the hell?"

Ignorance is bliss. I then see this:

What the hell?

I think Michael Chorost, PhD, does a good job of conveying my feelings in his article, especially the part about wanting to tear those officers apart. You can blame the idiot administration all you want, but those police are a disgrace to the uniform and their country. I guess we only get the concept of following only lawful orders in the military. The idiot with the spray is just flat out a power mad sadist, the exact wrong person to have a uniform.

Seeing this in 2011 makes me both furious and sad.

Serve and protect? My ass.

Doha Diaries: I Need More Camel!

2011-11-22T12:58:00.001-06:00

Well, here are the missing pictures from the Dunebashing trip, taken by a lovely young shutterbug.

Riding off into the sun...

Coming back...

Dismount...

Good camel, have a treat!

Trivia: I karate-chopped the apples in half. I am not joking. It's what the guy told me to do, so I did.

And a picture from inside the SUV as we were plowing through dunes.

Finis.

Doha Diaries: Days 19-22, The Social Blur

2011-11-21T09:40:00.004-06:00

Holy crap. So...much...socializing. Here's the breakdown:

Week 1: Social activities on most of my nights.
Week 2: Social activities every day but one
Week 3: Social activities every day and conflicting social activities on many of those days

Here. In Doha. Where I knew like two people when I showed up, one a family man and the other not naturally fond of social gatherings.

Color me freaking stunned.

When I came out here I expected about as much social activity as I did acres of lush farmland. Which is to say, I expected it to be a rare surprise. But I was naive.

I am not sure exactly about the genesis. One of my many new friends suggested that it is the nature of expatriates. That those folks willing to come out to the desert are not typical. Perhaps it is a shared lack of roots, family, and long-time friends here. Perhaps it is the sense that you need to huddle close with friendly faces. Or maybe UK folks* are just naturally more social, and taking the rest of us along for the ride. Maybe it is the lack of our old familiar ways to kill time that causes us to more actively seek anything to do that is not eating and shopping.

* - the plurality, if not the majority of the westerners appears to be from the UK

I honestly don't know, but it has made things very interesting and it has been a lot of fun.

So, in a twist, this means less blogging.

As a reminder: I don't like to get overly detailed on social outings as that treads on folks privacy and potentially parts of their life they wish to keep intimate, including me. So, while I might describe an outing and maybe what I ate, don't expect much more, especially if alcohol or the opposite sex are involved.

[Day 19] Thursday, The Most Boring Day In This Post (for me)

Sometimes it is the little things. On the way to the ATM in the bank next door, I glanced down at the cars I was passing in the parking lot and spotted this.

The written Arabic language has such beautiful calligraphy, it makes the mirror look classier. I have no idea what it says, but I will guess, Infidels in mirror may be closer than they appear.

TGIT! You know, thank God it's Thursday! Yes, another work week behind me. I have an invite out to a new sports bar, at the Marriott, with some new colleagues and some I have already met. Should be fun.

I hop into a cab. "To the Marriott!"

20 minutes pass. I walk into the hotel and ask where Champions is located. The doorman points to a hallway. I head down the hallway. I see a Filipino woman dressed like a Doña from Spain, but no Champions sports bar.

I inquire again. "Oh, that's in the *other* Marriott."

Um, other Marriott?

I hop into a cab. "To the Marriott!"

20 minutes pass. I walk into the hotel and ask where Champions is located. The doorman points to an escalator...well I finally find it. I am an hour late, but hopefully the group was large enough that my tardiness will go unnoticed...wait, where the hell is everyone? It turns out that most of the crew got stuck at work and the bat signal to cancel the gathering was out of commission.

Ah well, time for some much needed rest and a blog post.

[Day 20] Friday, I'm On Another Boat!

Rather than repeat my link to I'm on a Boat! I decided to go with another Lonely Island song, Jack Sparrow.

Yep, I got on another Dhow! This one was a dinner cruise more or less. We cruised out to Banana Island, parked, swam, ate, drank, and chatted. No rolling swells kicking the boat all over the place and no frigid wind eating your flesh at night (I brought my jacket this time, just in case...).

By sheer coincidence, we were treated to an air show by the French Air Patrol. They were performing for the boat races nearby.

So far, this was one of the best experiences I have had here. I will have to do this again. Next time I will bring some shorts so I can swim. :-P

That evening I got together with some new friends and visited some night spots. The evening was wonderful and lasted well into the early morning, although I may* have had a bit too much to drink.

* - there was no "may" about it, but it sounds better that way. The Brits are rubbing off on me.

[Day 21] Saturday, I'm Tired and Queasy...Let's Go Dunebashing!

After about four hours of sleep, I got up, had as much breakfast as I could eat...which turned out to be about a handful of egg because my stomach was still uncertain from being abused yesterday.

Then it was off to Dunebashing! This is the term used to describe when you get into an SUV, let some air out of the tires and then do you best to turn gigantic dunes into a makeshift roller coaster ride, but a lot more fun.

The austere majesty of the giant dunes stretching out to the horizon was breathtaking at times.

On the way to the dunes, we stopped and rode some camels, but I didn't take any pictures...but pictures were taken and I promise to post some when I get them. It was a cool, touristy picture and once I have that picture of me riding a camel, I can leave the middle east with peace of mind. :-D

After the actual dune bashing, we got to the Inland Sea. The Sun was setting and it was beautiful.

And my feet in the Inland Sea...

And a quickie self-picture which was *supposed* show some Saudi Arabian mountain behind me, but I can't make it out in the picture...oh well.

Once the sun went down, it was back to base camp. A couple of folks in the group had been wrestling with nausea all day and we had to stop for a moment en route to insure the inside of the SUV was not redecorated, but we eventually made it there much to everyone's collective relief.

And the dinner table...

While we waited for dinner, I tried out sandboarding. This is like snowboarding, except you trudge up a high dune with a snowboard and ride it down. Having never snowboarded, I expected to eat sand. But much to my relief, I was able to pull off a passable impersonation of someone that knew what the hell they were doing. I did it three times to insure it was not a fluke. It was pretty fun. I may have to give snowboarding a try someday. Again, no picture of this, but I do have a video of the *tiny* bit of sand that got into my shoes while I was trudging up the dunes.

Another day of great fun and socializing, wrapping up an amazing weekend. All of these happy words coming out of my mouth is making me feel like Tony Bennet.

[Day 22] Sunday, Back to Work, Back to Souq Waqif

This evening I went back to Souq Waqif with a group of new friends, but this time I had dinner. We went to a place called Bander Aden. We sat on a carpeted floor, lounging on cushions, and eating wonderful food. First, there was the soup...and the super sexy plastic sheets they put down on the floor.

The bread was...big.

We didn't order fish, but I had to snap a picture of how they prepared it.

And finally, they were gracious enough to take us back and show us the oven where they made the bread.

We strolled the Souq a bit and goofed off. I still need to come back here and try the shisha...another day...

Doha Diaries: Days 16-18, Football, Souqs, and Bennigan's LIVES!

2011-11-16T11:32:00.001-06:00

[Day 16] Are You Ready For Some (Real*) Football?

* - for my friend Paul, a proud citizen of the UK.

I can't recall what I listened to for today's workout. Oh well, whatever it was, it must have been fine for chest, back, and legs. :-D

Today's big thing was going out to the "International Friendly" football/soccer match between Brazil and Egypt. This is part of "Football Against Famine" and the proceeds of the match will be donated to help combat famine in Somalia.

Now, if you know anything about football, you know that this will basically be a shooting drill for Brazil. The two teams are incredibly mismatched. But, like they said it was "International Friendly" so who knows how hard they will play?

I was going to the game with three co-workers (John, Bob, Paul) and Paul's wife Tracy.

The evening started with John and Bob picking me up an hour earlier than expected, so I was bolting down another awesome meal from the Market restaurant at the hotel and racing out the door. So, there we were leaving two hours in advance for what should be a 20 minute trip. Sound excessive? Well, it turns out it was not.

We hit progressively more traffic as we traveled down the ONE highway that went to the stadium.

Qatari HOV lane

We saw a lot of what is considered commonplace in the country - people in SUVs hopping off to the side of the road and blazing along. I have dubbed it the "Qatari HOV lane". We indulged in a bit of vengeful schadenfreude when more idiots* decided to go off-road, like the guy who did not understand how his air dam worked and pretty much tore his to pieces on the rocks. In our defense, these people were basically like the folks I remember in Houston who would dart out of the exit lane, race up past everyone then dart back into the exit lane. Most of them were doing exactly that as they soon ran out of drivable ground and got back into traffic. I have not yet learned the Arabic word for "douche bag" so I was ill-equipped to properly communicate my support for their driving habits.

* - when you significantly endanger others to save seconds off our trip time, you are certainly not driving smart

Horsies!

Eventually, we get to the stadium and the cab driver lets us out at the street, since they have blocked off the road to the stadium and all of the regular paved parking, which was pretty silly. We marched up to the entrance, got frisked (they were pretty hardcore, even seizing the little light-weight plastic sticks in people's Brazil/Egypt flags). OK, I didn't get frisked. I think I was just lucky, but my friends tell me that it was because I did not look like a laborer...hmm.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of their funky night sticks, but I DID take a picture of their horsey guard!

It was funny, because the first picture I took, half of them were just farting around, but by the second picture they were looking all martial and the guy near posed for the shot. I appreciate the artistic collaboration. :-D

Here is a quick video of the outside of the stadium, with Bob hogging the spotlight (he's such a diva).

We headed around to our seats. En route I stopped by the concession stand. It was a pretty simple thing, basically a staging point for food from elsewhere and a selection so limited that it made a hot dog stand seem exotic and multi-faceted. Oh well, I got my foil-covered cup (literally like 240 mL of liquid) of water and headed to my seat. We got there with about 15 minutes to spare, so just about perfect. Now, remember, we left about two hours in advance...well, plenty of time for a picture...

So, you see my black, white, and red shirt? Well, what you don't see are my red and black running shoes. It turns out the Egypt colors are black, white, and red, so more than one person took a double-take, unsure if my choice of colors was or intentional or not, especially since I did not fit the profile of a typical Egypt fan...not that I fit the profile of a typical Brazil fan, either.

We checked in with Tracy and Paul and they were still driving. The match started. Here is my obligatory picture of the actual game.

Check out the sexy gold capes on the camera crew. Fabulous! :-D

The game was a lot of fun to watch. I was so engrossed with watching he ball and trying to figure out where it should go versus where they put it, that the time just flew past. For the first half, our goal was Brazil's so most of the game occurred on the other side of the field.

Half time came and went...no Tracy or Paul. The poor things were still stuck in traffic. :-(

Now Egypt was defending the goal near us, so most of the game happened near us. Tracy and Paul arrived shortly after the second half started. Good news, they were there for the more interesting half.

The final score was 2-0 for Brazil. Not a shocker for anyone. I have to give the Egypt fans credit for cheering their team on until the very end, although they lose a few points for "booing" early in the game whenever Brazil got the ball and headed towards Egypt's goal. They soon tired of that, since that was 90% of the game.

Still, it was fun and memorable.

So, after the game, we marched across the barren wastes to Paul and Tracy's car. We blazed down the road in the opposite direction we wanted to go because Qatar roads tend to be rigidly divided with very few opportunities to turnaround. We finally turned around and blazed back down the road until we hit some traffic and then proceeded to go nowhere fast.

You see, the Qatar traffic police were holding up our lane for 20 minutes at a time (yes, we timed it), then letting us pass for maybe 3 minutes. It was not fun. We almost lost our minds the second time, as we were two cars away from freedom. We finally escaped into regular traffic.

All in all, the 20 minute trip took about an hour. We rested for a few minutes at Paul and Tracy's and caught a cab home. Bedtime...

[Day 17] Souq it!

I delayed my workout to the afternoon, which I regretted, but it was that or get less than 6 hours of sleep. I think the next time I have to make that choice, the sleep will lose. I find exercising in the morning SO much easier, better, and more fun. On top of that, I just feel so much better when I get to work after working out.

During today's workout, I learned that Metallica's "Black Album" is not very good for the Spartacus Workout because it has a number of slow songs. The songs are good, just not enough beats per minute for the workout. However, this song, Of Wolf and Man, is plenty good for working out.

This evening, Paul was kind enough to take Mike and I out to visit the Souqs. A souq is basically a mall, but I think that word does not conjure up the right image. Bazaar, yeah, that's better. Even better, how about some pictures?

A beautiful building at the Faran Islamic Cultural Center.

Real Life Peeps!

We came across some real life Peeps. The only difference is that people freak out when you grab one and pop it in your mouth.

These guys were in a hall full of animals and I don't call it that because Paul (near, gray shirt) and Mike (let, white pants and peach? shirt) are in the picture, it was the OTHER animals.

Wander, wander, peek in the Turkish restaurant at Paul's advice. Shiny.

We hung out and had some refreshments. I had a strange and exotic dish called a "banana royale" from a place called "Baskin Robbins". It had such wonderfully odd things in it, ice cream, hot fudge, banana, whipped cream, a cherry. Oh wait, that's a hot fudge sundae with bananas. Oh well, sue me, I like hot fudge sundaes.

We did a fair amount of people watching....

The cluster of guys obviously visiting from the Air Force base...

The table of Asian women who literally spent 15 minutes (at least) taking pictures of each other over and over and over...

The guy that looked like a local trying to look very suave but mostly just choking on the smoke from his own hooka, repeatedly...

The woman that was completely covered, but had bling on her robes in the form of rhinestones or something sparkly, spelling out letters and patterns. I guess modest doesn't mean you can't be fabulous.

There were many more sights, but onward! We decided to go looking for a KVM (keyboard, video, monitor) switch for Paul. We headed down hallway after hallway. Phone stores, no good.

Hallways gave way to streets. Electrical shops, no good.

Streets gave way to dark alleys. More electrical shops, no good.

*Just* as we were turning around to head home, I spotted a dolly with printers on it. We inquired inside and Voila! We found a KVM cable.

Even this was somewhat of a cultural experience as I eavesdropped on the young man selling computers to a local couple. "Very special price just for you." I wish had recorded it. It would make a great ring tone.

[Day 18] Yes, That *Is* A Bennigan's!

Today's workout was legs, back, and shoulder. The music was Beats International's Excursion on the Version. Here is a video of the track Echo Chamber.

There was no mango on the brunch today. A dark day indeed. But kiwi made an appearance which was cool.

Today, I finally went to check out a place that I had longed to visit since I learned of its existence - Bennigan's! That's right, the Bennigan's in Doha is still open. I have pictures to prove it. First, the signs outside for Bennigan's and Fuddrucker's.

I was greeted immediately inside by a sign warning me that only "ladies and families" were allowed in the section to the left.

And the other side...

So, why was I so excited about going to Bennigan's? The Monte Cristo! It's a horribly unhealthy and oh-so-yummy deep-fried sandwich monstrosity. Behold! [Ignore the bites I had already taken, I got carried away.]

You have to eat it fast because it gets nasty when it gets cold. So basically you slather jam on the pieces and chow down as fast as you can, working in some salted fries occasionally to break up the sweet. I know it probably sounds disgusting, but you have to try it first. I am not sure how good of a Monte Cristo it was because I was just so happy to have one that I was not very discriminating. That said, it was good. Yum. That's gonna cost me, gutwise, but it was worth it.

And once again I am all caught up on my blog! Yay!

Now, I need to get to bed early because we are hitting Ric's Kountry Breakfast tomorrow before work.

Doha Diaries: Days 13-15, Laundry Party, Blackout, and Tiger's Balm!

2011-11-13T10:54:00.004-06:00

Wow, it's already been two weeks!

[Day 13] Friday, November 11, A Doha Moment and a Laundry Party!

The work week is Sunday through Thursday here, so you might think of Friday in middle east as though it was Saturday in the USA. It is and it isn't. Because Friday it the Islamic day of prayer, it becomes more of a cross between what you would experience on Saturday and Sunday back in the USA. Shops open late or close for hours at a time to accommodate prayer times. It's not quite like the "bible belt" of the USA used to be, but it's reminiscent of it. Of course, there is the distinctive public broadcasting to the Friday prayer service on loudspeakers throughout the city, so if you are thinking of sleeping late on Friday...that may be difficult...

...but somehow I managed. I arrived at the gym a bit late today. On a whim, I decided that today I would not use a towel to dab sweat off my face and body while I worked out. Rather, I would just let the drops fall where they may. I managed to avoid dripping on my iPhone; yay! Afterwards, I asked the hotel attendant/trainer, Buddhika, the gentleman that is the beneficiary of my occasional post-workout lectures (his idea, not mine), to take a photo of the river of sweat flowing across my face, but the sweat doesn't didn't show up well (there is actually a bit of an art to taking the best possible picture with an iPhone).

Here is a pictures of the drops that fell on the floor and the mat during the workout. The mat gets most of it, really, which makes sense when you think about it (e.g., when you are doing a T-pushup, the sweat falls from your face to the ground, as opposed to dripping down into your shirt).

And here's a picture of Buddhika:

Today's musical interlude was from the lighter side. I figured that since it was late on the weekend, I would pick music that might be less...oppressive to others. I went with General Public's All the Rage. Light and dance-y, but still enough of a beat/groove to be good for exercise.

"A Doha Moment"

While I was eating brunch, Ed called to tell me that he was experiencing a "Doha moment". I have a vague intuitive understanding of what he means by this, but I suspect that it is a phrase that would not do well under scrutiny, so I am content to let it be.

Anyway, this particular Doha moment is because a friend's daughter is laying over in Doha en route to Nepal and since I have been shockingly lax in doing the usual touristy things, he offered to take us both around for a super quick tour.

The best laid plans...

So, the first intended location was Donut House which proclaimed proudly to have the best donut in town.

Ed confirmed that the claim was well-founded, so I was excited at the prospect...but we were denied. it was closed, which apparently is an anomaly; Ed described it as a place that never closes. Sure, it would be easy to explain it away as a consequence of it being a day of prayer, but clearly, it was a devious plot hatched by Dunking' Donuts, which is where we ended up going.

This particular location featured some interesting donuts, inclining some "premium donuts". Well, how could I pass up a premium donut? I got the "Always" donut, which was basically a Boston Cream with a heart shape and Valentine's day theme. And not surprisingly, it tasted a lot like a stale Boston Cream donut with extra icing on it. I don't think I like the taste of premium.

Strangely, this donut shop decided to close on us about five minutes after we got our donuts and sat down. I kid you not. We were still finishing the one donut apiece we each got when the guy came up and said...something...we can't be sure if he was going to another job, going to pray, or just had stuff to do and wanted us to bugger off. Regardless, he was not even going to let us finish, we had to go. Luckily for him, no one in our trio was feeling ornery.

Time for super speed tourism!

We walked around the "gold souq". A souq is basically a market area. It was the place for shopping back in the day. The newer, shinier, more Disney-esque one is Souq Wakif. Behind that is the remains of the old one, the gold souq; I guess it gets its name from the golden colors among the facades and signs. However, because of the time and day, it was shut down. Still interesting to see, but I'll come back and take pictures when its more lively.

Then it was off to the Corniche, which is a walking path that circumnavigates the edge of the bay. We stopped for what Ed tells me is the most touristy tourist picture in Doha, a picture in front of the Pearl Fountain.

Not too far away from this tourist spot, I snapped a picture that epitomizes an interesting cultural characteristic.

It's what appears to be a pretty new building in pretty good condition, being ripped down. This is surprisingly commonplace; well, surprising if you have not lived in Doha for a while. If it's not to clear the way for some visionary new project, then it's part of a sort of Logan's Run for buildings; after 15 years or so, the little red light flashes and the building is soon put down.

And by simply swiveling about 90 degrees to my right, I get a picture of this palatial building (I think it is a residence of the Emir or Sheika, but it may just be a ministry building).

And now for the most fantastically anachronistic picture I have taken.

A Dhow, which is the type of boat that the Qatari of old used for pearl diving, with a Seadoo (or something like that) and a speedboat tied to it, and in the background the cluster of sleek modern buildings that make up downtown Doha, many of which did not exist 10 years ago.

We wrapped up our mini tour, as Ed's friend's daughter needed to catch her flight. Ed and Nicole graciously welcomed me back into their home for a laundry party! This is a thrilling event in which I sit around your house and wash my dirty clothes (Ed and Nicole are such lucky people). We stopped by the store where Ed showed me a magical substance they had for sale, Tiger Balm. Not quite Tiger's Blood, but still magical:

I have to wonder, though, to which affected area do you gently apply the balm in order to treat flatulence?

Ed fired up the grill and a cigar, but not in that order, and cooked up some yummy hamburgers. I chatted with Ed and Nicole about a wide variety o' stuff while the washer and dryer faithfully did their duties.

At around 7:00 PM, Ed was kind enough to drop me off back at the hotel, but the day was not yet done. En route, I got a call from Paul, a co-worker, to let me know that a group was gathering to check out a bar and/or dance club.

So, I headed back to the hotel, dressed in my usual casual outfit, and met up at Paul's place. I determined that we were dressing a step above t-shirts, but it worked out all right, as it turns out the bar and dance club they wanted to visit was in my hotel. :-P

We hit Wahim and the Crystal Lounge. The former was a bar with cool little curtained rooms/cubbies with lots of pillows for lounging about while drinking...or other things. They had a DJ but no dance floor, which felt a tad awkward. After a bit we hit the Crystal Lounge, where I wielded my mighty power of "I have a room here" to sashay in and get a table without missing a step. It was more like a club. There was a medium-sized dance floor, a DJ, a couple of bar areas, and lots of tables with couches. However, the tables required you to buy a full bottle of alcohol for the very reasonable price of about $300. Yeah, it's a scam, but it's a hip, cool scam and that does include bottomless mixers, of which they have a wide variety (but no Creme de Banana, so no Boston Gold for Michael).

Being a respectable and considerate fella, that is all of the detail I am going to share about the night. I will say it was fun. Both places were expensive, but they get away with it because folks will pay the price to be there and they had an appropriate amount of pretense to match the price tag. :-D

[Day 14] November 12, Fancy Pants Movies and Blowing a Circuit!

Umm...I sorta slept in pretty late. I managed to finish my workout before brunch ended, though. Workout music was selected to be more crowd-friendly. I went with Stereo MCs Connected.

It was well-received by others working out. But it's not hard to pull that off when you rescue them from the music hell of the W's house-esque...club-esque...music...like...thing...that they keep on a constant loop in there. Don't get me wrong, I like house music just fine, but whatever it is they play screams pretense and really gets old after an hour or ten.

I met John, from work, for lunch at the mall. We hit the Noodle House, which is sort of a hybrid Japanese, Thai, Chinese, place. Some of the stuff was good, some was great. Overall, pretty good. Not super healthy, though, so the full balance would be a rating of OK. Ihad wasabi shrimp that were fried and then slathered in a thick creamy wasabi sauce, and too much of it; but it still tasted pretty good. The lamb curry was lamb, so it's hard for me not to like it. However, there was too much fat on the meat. I should have snapped some pictures, though, as they had a pretty good presentation.

We decided to go see Immortals. I invited a fellow traveller I met at the W, Eric, from Shell, to join us. I sprang for tickets to the VIP GOLD movie theater. Basically, you pay three times as much, but you are in a gigantic overstuffed recliner, with an end table between you and the next seat. It was pretty cool. Worth the price? Not sure, but definitely worth it for at least one visit, just to see it.

While I was at the mall, I picked up an Xbox power supply local to the area. You see, I had researched my consoles online and found that:

PS3 consoles, while they will only show your local power specs, will in fact support everything; this is counter-intuitive because the console does not have a big ol' adapter "brick".
According to the forums, an Xbox requires voltage conversion, but the recommendation was to get a local Xbox power supply and use that instead.

I plug in my PS3 to an adapter strip and fire it up. No flames shooting out of it, no strange noises. I pop in Resistance: Fall of Man and start up the game. It works!

Because of some of the commentary I saw and the fact that my PS3 only needs an adapter, I have doubts about using the local power supply for the Xbox. OK, that and my experimentalist mindset. So I contact Xbox support. It takes forever and a day, but after about 30 minutes, the final answer is - "You can just use an adapter, you do not need a converter, transformer, or a local power supply." And I waited while she confirmed it with her supervisor.

Cool! Let's plug this sucker in...POP! And everything went black. Hmm, it seems the circuit has blown in the room.

By sheer serendipity, and my healthy does of curiosity, I happened to discover earlier in my stay that the breaker box for the room is hidden behind a panel of the wardrobe. So I popped it open and flipped the breaker back on while the Xbox person profusely apologized.

I hooked up the local power supply and plugged it in. It seemed to work. I powered it up and everything looked fine. She gave me an RMA number and made a note for a free replacement if I get back to the states and find out the US supply is not working or the Xbox craps out on me.

Well, lessons learned. Might as well lay the first scenario of Resistance...

[Day 15] November 13, Work, Work, Work
I got carried away doing random crap on my computer last night, so I woke up a bit tired. One part of my brain tried to convince the other part that I should just go back to bed for an hour and exercise after work. The latter part slapped sense into the first part, and I went and exercised.

During the weekday, I get to the gym before anyone, even the guy that works there. So, I *thought* it would be relatively safe to bust out Sepultura's Chaos AD. Here's Refuse Resist.

As you can hear, it is not the most unobtrusive music available. Well, wouldn't you know it, THREE people trickle in over time; the most I have ever seen during my early morning workouts. So, I turn it down a bit (I am using my Bose SoundLink instead of the gym speakers) and keep on rocking and sweating.

Then it's off to work. For some reason, I feel I should point out that my workout music is pointedly aimed at high energy music. I have wide musical tastes, for example, at work today, my background music was Thievery Corporation's The Richest Man in Babylon and The Cosmic Game. Here's Omid(Hope) from the former.

When I got back to the hotel, I got caught up on my blogging (Egads!) and got some dinner at the hotel. Dinner was amazing. I really like the W's Market restaurant. Tonight it was their grill special, which featured steaks. I had a steak with a market salad to start, a side of caramelized Brussel sprouts, and warm chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream for dessert. All of it was wonderful.

Good god, I sound like that businessman in the Kids in the Hall skit, Dull Since the Heart Attack. "Fantastically terrific."

Well, until the next post... :-)

Doha Diaries: Days 10-12, I'm On A Boat!

2011-11-12T15:05:00.003-06:00

[Day 10] November 8, Moving, Fruit, and Fishing

Yes, today is the day of the fishing trip on a Dhow. But first...

Do you recall how excited I was about getting to bed at a reasonable time last night? Part of that excitement was because I have felt tired since I got here. I assumed it was just jet lag and I was taking unusually long to get over it. Well...about that...

I woke up at 1:00 AM to the curious sound of dance music coming from my pillow. I was pretty damn certain that I had explicitly ordered the non-musical pillows, so I got up to investigate.

Room to the right...quiet.

Room to the left...quiet.

Trade the robe for jeans and a shirt. [Apparently, I am OK with wandering *my* floor in a robe, but getting in an elevator in a robe, well, that's just going too far.]

Upper floor...quiet.

Lower floor...quiet.

WTH?

Back to the room. Pillow is still musical. Bed is musical. Maybe something outside...hmm...that balcony...is that part of the bar downstairs? In the esteemed word of Lana, from Archer, "Yup!"

I head down to the front desk and let them know that I am having trouble sleeping and need to relocate my room when I wake up. The night manager apologizes profusely and even comically offers to have the bar turn the music down a bit, which I laugh off and tell them I'll just wait until they close (by then, it was around 1:30, only 30 minutes more). We agree to get me moved in the morning.

Morning comes...I am drowsy and stiff. To the gym!

So, two quick points about the gym today. One, their benches are awesome and they have nifty degree markings on the heights so you don't have to guess which setting is 30 degrees.

Two, their dumbbells have this interesting feature, a spinning handle. I shot a quickie video to show you what I mean.

This is a double-edged sword. I left my weightlifting gloves at home, so this is nice because it is a bit easier on my hands and thus should result in callouses growing less quickly. HOWEVER, when you try to do a stability exercise that requires supporting yourself on a single dumbbell...well, let's just say the exercise gets a LOT more effective with rolling grips. For example, the T-Pushup from the Spartacus workout, specifically, this part of it:

A tad wobbly, it is. Super core workout go!

OK, enough fitness talk. I'll close the fitness interlude by saying today's workout music was the Blade II soundtrack, which has a number of collaborative works between a hip hop or rap artist and an "electronic" (e.g., dance, trance, trip-hop) artist. For example, Mos Def and Massive Attack's collaborative work, I Against I, which is an anthem for the tragedy of vampire-on-vampire violence. We all gots fangs yo; stop hating, daywalker.

Changed hotel rooms, off to lunch!

So, I know I am going on a boat later with my co-workers, but I don't know how small or cramped it will be. In a fit of foolhardiness, I decide to go to Nando's again for some peri-peri chicken, fully aware that if I am not careful, I may end up conducting chemical warfare against my colleagues. I decide to get the more fancy pants dish today:

Tasty. And the cole slaw (with Nando's "special" mayonnaise...I don't want to know) was good. When I get back to my room, I am greeted by a make up gift from the manager. Fruit!

Tasty. Now, on to the Dhow!

After a bit of mucking about, we finally all converge onto the Dhow.

There are only about a dozen of us, including the crew, so it should be relatively roomy. The plan is to head out to "Banana Island" and fish nearby (we won't actually land at the island, just float around it). We set out for a 6 hour tour, so we could get twice as lost as Gilligan, but given that Banana Island is a small lifeless patch of sand, I am sizing up which of my colleagues to cannibalize first...

About Alcohol in Qatar: Drinking in public and public display of alcohol (as in, outside of bars and such) is forbidden; public drunkenness is also illegal. I have been told that even carrying alcohol is illegal unless you are non-muslim and have a special permit, which you can only get after getting Qatari residency; however, I suspect that as long as you were truly transporting to a legitimate location for alcohol consumption, it would be OK. Even a house party with alcohol is illegal, unless the home owner has an alcohol permit.

The first leg of the trip was cruising out to international waters, or leaving Qatar's territorial waters, or whatever. The important point is that once you get there, if you happen to come across alcohol, it would be legal to drink it. Until then, though, the alcohol needs to be out of sight. I can neither confirm nor deny that any alcohol was on our Dhow...

Here is some footage of the outbound cruise. I did my best to avoid the wind noise, but it was choppy and windy, so whatcha gonna do?

And another video off the port side, showing the downtown skyline.

OK, so we cruised up to the Qatar Coast Guard ship, which I initially mistook for someone's party boat. It is permanently moored at the imaginary boundary of Qatar's territorial waters (or whatever you call them). We were told that close up pictures of the ship might upset them, so here is a very distant picture to give you a sense of why I thought it was just some party boat (but the gun emplacements on it suggest otherwise...):

All righty, the ship is checked out and cleared to proceed, so we do. After a while we arrived at Banana Island and got busy fishing. The fishing was a bit comical - a dozen people with a BEvERage in one hand, a fishing pole with two hooks on it in the other, stumbling about a boat that is rocking so hard side to side that the side of the boat is going up and down a meter or so...miraculously no humans were caught on the hooks.

Our fishing was not stellar. We caught a total of four fish. What was remarkable is those four fish were caught by two people from a single cast each. That's right, twice someone cast their line and pulled out two fish at one time. That whole two hooks approach is pretty slick.

To be honest, though, the fishing was not as major of an event as I had expected. The Dhow was more suited to chilling out, sitting on the benches, eating, drinking, and chatting; over time we started to put up our poles and do just that.

At some point in the late afternoon, we had some grub, which did not include the fish we caught, somewhat to our surprise. The food was OK, but I didn't each much, because it was pretty much meat and starch.

As the sun set, the air got REALLY cold. Remember how I was wearing essentially running shorts and a sleeveless work out shirt? Well, as that cold win kicked up, it started feeling like bits might fall off before we got back to port. One of my colleagues made a makeshift hobo windbreaker from a garbage bag...and after a while I sat downwind of her and used her as a windbreaker. :-D

We headed back home, checked in with the Coast Guard, and got back on dry land.

I got back to the hotel and had a quick meal and relaxed a bit before bed. I did not choose wisely with my meal. I picked a salad with bitter lettuce and failed to notice that my Veal Milanese also came with bitter lettuce on top. The Veal was good, but I was pretty bittered out by the end of the meal.

[Day 11] November 9, A Day Without A Picture...

This is the first day for which I don't have a picture. Uh oh...I need to find my inner tourist and get that camera fired back up. In my defense, today was a work day that ran a little long, so I pretty much just worked out ate, worked, and slept.

Today's workout music was Offspring's Smash. Instead of linking one of their most popular songs off this album, I will link one of my favorites, an ode to road rage.

Yummy lamb chops and herbed spinach for dinner.

[Day 12] November 10, Real Arabic Food!

Today's workout music is Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power. I was torn on which song to link, but I'll go with Mouth for War.

The morning was educational. As my cab driver started heading off into the desert, I once again learned the important lesson to not even mention the word "medical" when I tell them where I want to go. You see, I work in the Sidra Medical Tower, but when they hear "Sidra" and "Medical" they generally stop listening and decide I want to go to the Sidra Medical Center construction site. So, today's valuable lesson is - just say "Sidra Tower".

The big news today is that I went out to dinner with my coworkers for a company-sponsored "team dinner" at a local Arabic restaurant, Nobles. The food was great. Here is a picture of the group:

We had all of the usual goodies - hummus, baba ghanouj, kafta kebab, shish kebab, tabbouleh, pita, falafel, and some stuff I am probably forgetting. Some new stuff (for me) - a strong raspberry drink, an excellent seafood soup that was red and reminded me of borscht, some vinegared vegetables, a tray of jams and jellies with crispy bread, and turkish coffee (I passed on that and the tea). All in all, a great meal. It was the best baba ghanouj I have ever had.

Doha Diaries: Days 7-9, No Tongue, Hot Chicken, Making it Rain

2011-11-08T04:54:00.002-06:00

Administrative note: I am going to post a little more frequently to reduce the epic duration of these posts, at least until there is less to say, and I am going to go by the numbers of the days since my trip started as opposed to the weeks.

[Day 7] November 5 (continued), No Tongue!

After I posted yesterday, I saw a movie with John (the EA team lead). We ended up seeing In Time. John had forewarned me that I should expect cuts during romantic bits and there were a few. What's interesting is that there was one gratuitous kiss that was not cut and one shorter one that was. Of course, no part of the sex scene survived. So, I think I have their censoring algorithm worked out.

If naughty bits, then censor
If tongue, then censor
Move along, nothing to see

And we all know how racy Puss in Boots is. I give you...Cat in Boots!

After the movie, we grabbed some dinner...another exotic meal at Chili's. :-D

I settled on a New York Strip with steamed veggies and sauteed mushrooms. I *was* going to get broccoli as my second side, but the server was emphatic that it was unacceptably redundant, since the steamed vegetables also contained broccoli. Unwilling to start an international incident, I laughed and acquiesced.

Apparently, the workout earlier and/or the last vestiges of recovering from food poisoning left me too tired for a second workout today. Ah well, if I skip my day of rest for a couple of weeks, I'll catch up anyway.

Speaking of the food poisoning, I opted to use the Dompy sparingly, and within 24 hours I had stopped. My stomach is not 100% queasy free, but it's calm enough to stop the med. The decision to not take the other two meds seems to have worked out fine.

[Day 8] November 6, Peri-Peri Good

The morning workout was interesting today. I decided to take my iPhone 4S and my Bose SoundLink down to the gym and take full advantage of 1) being able to fit all of my music on my phone now, and 2) the wireless portability of my SoundLink; the goal was to play my own music instead of the loud but strangely sedate clubby...jazzy...music-like sound that played in the hotel gym.

Well, it turns out that there is a plug where I can directly hook my iPhone into the gym's sound systems. MUAHAHA!

I fired up Audioslave and started rocking the weights. Much to my amusement, the hotel attendant / fitness trainer there kept cranking up the volume to near ear-splitting levels. The other guest and I didn't mind, and for a while it was full on rockin' gym mode. Feet were tapping and weights were lifted with zeal.

And now, a musical interlude

The band Audioslave was formed by the singer from Soundgarden and all but the singer from Rage Against the Machine. If you have watched Iron Man or Aliens vs. Cowboys, you have heard their music. Here is a video on their genesis and them performing two of their more popular songs - Set It Off and Gasoline. It's live, so it's not as polished, cut them some slack. :-)
[If you want the polished version, try this link for Set It Off and this link for Gasoline.]

Both songs do a fantastic job of showcasing the distinct but well-matched sounds. What Tom Morello can do with a guitar is just amazing, Chris Cornell's vocals are incredible, Tim Commerford's bass riffs are awesome, and Brad Wilk's drums bring the beat. Good stuff.

OK, musical interlude over.

So there we were rocking out to Gasoline when another guest, a lean British woman, came in and ruined our man party by turning it down so she could listen to her headphones. Ah well, I can understand; it was crazy loud. And she's in great shape, so at least the scenery improved.

She had really overdone it on turning down the music, but the attendant snuck over and turned it back up a little. :-D

I had chatted a bit with the attendant during some of my workouts, but today was a whole new level. I gave a lecture on physics, nanotechnology, communications technology, the genesis of Audioslave, and a lot more.

But then I did something silly...I decided to show him the Spartacus workout while my muscles were still worn out from the workout I had just finished. I only did one circuit, but holy crap did it kick my ass. On the plus side though, it was kicking his ass just as hard and he was a fitness trainer ten years my younger. Hooray for fitness!

Breakfast brunch at the W Doha amazing as usual. I wonder when I will get tired of their fresh mango. It's hard to imagine right now...but I know the day will come.

Today is a national holiday, so I was told I could work from the hotel. This is a good thing because there are so many little administrative and compliance things I need to knock out.

I headed over to the mall for lunch and settled on Nando's Peri-Peri.

Now, you may be thinking, "Hey, Michael, Mister I-wanna-eat-exotic; that sounds like some Tex-Mex joint." Ah, but it is not. You can read about them on their site. It turns out they started in South Africa. Their name comes from a bastardization of a Swahili name for an indigenous pepper called the African Bird's Eye Chilli. So, there, naysayers, it's more exotic than you think.. We'll just ignore the fact that I could buy the same stuff in Washington or Maryland...

What closed the deal for me was seeing that they had a heat scale.

Now it was a matter of pride. I had to conquer their heat scale. I shall be the King of the "Perio-meter".

I ordered the quarter chicken with grilled vegetables and smoked corn on the cob. And this is what they served me.

That is unlike any chicken I have ever seen. I chalked it up to different breeds and soldiered on. The chicken tasted great. Not very spicy, but really tasty. I'll ignore the fact that the sauce probably has sugar in it and is likely not the best for me, but it's tasty and spicy, so screw healthy; I mean it's grilled chicken, so that's gotta count for something. The Grilled vegetables were somewhat exotic (for me); the chief ingredient was eggplant. They were somewhere between OK and good.

The corn was not so good, I think it was mummy corn stolen from Egypt, because it would take some special process and thousands of years to make corn that dessicated and tough. But...they gave me another ear that was more moist and tasty, somewhere between OK and good.

Overall, probably a place I will visit again. I really liked the taste of the "extra hot" chicken.

Work, work, work.

Hmm...it seems that the Extra Hot peri-peri chicken from lunch is striking back with chemical warfare. Luckily there are currently no innocent bystanders in my room, so no collateral damage. Definitely not a good lunch choice if I have a date planned that night.

I hit one of the in-house hotel restaurants, Spice Market. I had actually had my first meal in Doha here the night arrived - lamb chops. Tonight I had some funky salad with green papaya and for my entree I had red curry chicken. It was all very tasty.

The restaurant is nice, but a tiny bit pretentious. The ambiance is really nice - dark, sections are segregated somewhat so that everywhere still feels a little cozy/intimate. Beautiful furnishings, etc. Portions are small, so trying to get by on an entree alone is challenging (I learned this during my first visit).

The jazz piano was fired up tonight and I swear I couldn't recognize a single song. They were English songs and the person was an English-speaking person, American or European. I am not sure if the songs were simply obscure (to me) or just so brutally re-imagined that they no longer recognized themselves. Out of kindness, I will assume the former.

The piano area in the bar was strangely crowded. The cocktail tables were right next to the piano. The singer had a very passionate audience of two. A couple of guys sitting at a table practically in arms' reach, clearly enjoying the alcoholic beverages available, as witnessed by that glossy sheen of that says, "I am f'd up!" After each song, the two of them did their best to cheer and whoop enough to make up for the rest of us who were just there to eat. Gotta give them credit for trying, but it came off more comical than I think they intended.

My body is still sore and worn out from my folly in the gym, so no second workout tonight. It looks like I'll just have to skip my day of rest each week and slowly get back on schedule over the next two weeks.

[Day 9] November 7, It's Raining?

I had the gym to myself this morning, so I hooked up the iPod (I need the iPhone for the timer) and fired up Rage Against the Machine's first, eponymous album.

Sidenote: When I went to insert a link to Killing in the Name Of, one of the better-known songs off of the above album, I stumbled across a video of a live BBC Radio performance. Apparently, in 2009, there was a campaign to break a cycle in which a song from the winner of the show X Factor would be the #1 song for Christmas. This had been true for a few years. Well apparently, there was a campaign to break this by pushing Killing in the Name Of to the top. And it worked. [This performance is a bit raw, if you want the polished version, try this link.]

/end sidenote

I have been told that we get only a few centimeters of rain in Doha each year. Wikepedia reports 7.5 cm per year. Egads. I thought Dallas was bad, but we are practically drowning in rain compared to Doha with our roughly 36" (91 cm) average per year. So, I was understandably surprised when it rained while I was working out this morning.

I thought it would take me at least two weeks to make it rain here.

Since it was such a special thing, I thought I'd take a video, but this was smack in the middle of the second circuit of a Spartacus workout, so my movies looked like they were taken by Hammy, the hyperkinetic squirrel from Over The Hedge. I finally had the brilliant idea to brace my iPhone up against the window of the gym and I got a nice steady sequence. Time to upload it...and we're uploading...and we're uploading...and we're uploading...

Wow, you really feel that low bandwidth when trying to upload a video. It's only 30 megabytes, but it keeps going and going and going...I wish Blogger would give me a progress bar; the suspense is killing me! Ah, to heck with it, it's time I created a YouTube channel anyway.

All right, let's see if uploading via YouTube works better. Ooh, that IS better. A description, a name, no interference with injecting other video content into my blog post, and a progress bar! Yay! Anyway, here is the short (10 second) video.

The rain interlude was nice, since the Spartacus workout was really kicking my ass today. After the first circuit, I figured out why...virtually no breaks between exercises. At home, I use the Powerblock "Intellbells" (they ain't dumb, I tells ya!).

They are wonderful for a home gym because you get 0 to 90 lbs in a very small footprint. However, changing weights is not instantaneous. You have to slot the weights back in, change the pin, then pull them back out. If you want to make smaller changes, you have to slide inserts out of the handgrip. So...that 15 seconds between exercises happened pretty naturally, no matter how motivated I was.

Well...in the hotel gym, I pulled the weights I planned to use and placed them all in easy reach. My first circuit damn near killed me because I wasn't taking any breaks at all between exercises. But boy was it a good cardiovascular workout.

The gym was also a bit warmer today, so I was making some salty rain of my own inside as well; it was like one of those Gatorade commercials, except my sweat did not have a cool fluorescent color to it. At home I have the AC cranked and a Vornado room fan blowing on me the whole time to keep the sweat under control. Anyway, workout done.

Breakfast is still interesting, as I made a new discovery - menemen. Now, did you just think of the muppets and the "mahna mahna" song when you read that word? I did. And if you do not know what that means, then welcome to the brain worm:

However, like most of my brunch food, menemen has nothing to do with muppets. It's a Turkish egg dish with onions, pepper, eggs, etc. Read Wikipedia for more detail. It wasn't bad, but a little wet for my tastes.

Work, work, work.

Lunch time. Off to the mall. I came across this ad for KFC featuring what I can only describe as a conservative, middle eastern version of Captain Jack Sparrow; I found it amusing but I can't really articulate why. I might make up an amusing name for him, but I will err on the side of diplomacy.

Today, I tried another of the trio of what I am calling kabob places in the mall's food court.

As with the others, no matter how hard I try, getting just meat and some green vegetables in a single meal seems impossible. Green veggies are always an "extra" side. So, when I ordered "barbecued chicken" (their description, not mine) and tabbouleh, and told them to hold the rice, bread, and chips (they use the UK term for French fries here, given the history of the region and the heavy UK population among the ex-pats) this is what I got:

Notice the pepper. Score!

The chicken was surprisingly good, but again its shape was unfamiliar to me; I really need to lay eyes on what chickens these folks are slaughtering for this food. It reminded me a lot of Caribbean jerk chicken. The tabbouleh was decent, but had a tad too much olive oil. I caved in and ate that little piece of bread on top because it was slathered in hot spices, but I left the rest of the bread for whomever, and avoided most of the chips/fries.

By sheer serendipity, Ed (the academic fellow that welcomed me into his family's home last week) was at the mall and he took me for a quick tour of Education City before dropping me off at the hotel.

It was a fascinating trip. Such long stretches of sparse, low level buildings outside of the city center. It feels so strangely open. Education City, which is being renamed to something I can't remember at the moment, is primarily an amalgamation of satellite locations of Western schools. For example, Ed works at the Texas A&M at Qatar facility here. There are others, including a Weill Cornell Medical School in Qatar that will be collaborating with the Sidra medical center for which I am working. In fact the same person, Sheika Moza bint Nasser Al Missned, that is the driving force behind Sidra was/is a primary driving force for Education City. She seems like a remarkable person.

I even got a direct glimpse of the Sidra Medical Center itself, which is still being built. It has a certain beauty to the lines and it is definitely a large facility. It's hard to describe. I forgot to take pictures, but they have a webcam trained on it.

Work, work, work.

I tried a different restaurant in the hotel tonight. There are like a million or five. I can't remember which.

Anyway, tonight I tried the place that serves brunch in the morning, Market. This is not to be confused with the place I had tried the previous nights, Spice Market. Got it? Good.

It's been feeling increasingly more difficult to eat a healthy meal, so I opted for simple and ordered the "roasted organic chicken with farm vegetables" and a side of "herbed spinach". I was expecting a somewhat unexciting, but nutrient-licious meal. I was grossly mistaken. It was incredible. It is the tastiest meal I have had since I arrived. Everything was awesome. The chicken had been deboned, which was a plus.

I tried to find a way to rate it, but Yelp doesn't recognize the area...Google Spaces only lets me rate the entire hotel...bah, whatever. I know it was good and now you do too, that will have to suffice.

Ooh, actually getting to bed at a good time. Maybe I will wake up a little less tired tomorrow...

Doha Diaries: Week 1

2011-11-05T07:07:00.006-05:00

All righty, so I guess it's time to blog about my adventures in Qatar.

October 30, My God, It's Full of Stewardesses

My abundant time to pack and prepare rapidly evaporated and I found myself a little stressed as I piled my gigantic new bags, along with the usual carry on and brief, into Paul's HHR. The advice online was to arrive three hours in advance, but I showed up with two hours to spare.

Worried that two hours might not be enough, we pulled up to the curbside baggage check. There were two guys there, one was practically lounging on a chair, listening to his iPod. The other one was sitting near a computer. The latter sluggishly responded to our presence. After a painfully slow, confused exchange of "information", I was referred to the IPod guy, who had to be seriously goaded to stand up, turn off his iPod, and actually do stuff. More painfully slow, confused inquiries...and nothing.

So, I bid Paul adieu and headed up to the ticket agent. In sharp contrast to the curbside experience, the American Airlines agent (John Shannon) was incredibly friendly, efficient, and helpful. Working with him washed away the grime of the curbside check in snafu.

It turns out that there is a weight limit for carry ons...40 pounds. This was problematic because my grand plan for travel included packing every piece of electronics into my carry on or brief. My carry on ended up being about 8 pounds over, so the PS3 and Bose SoundLink went into the "suiter" case.

I offered my prayers to the gods of baggage handling and asked them to watch over my electronics.

Speaking of electronics, John mentioned an interesting electronics alternative plan from his and his friends' experience with long stays abroad - buy them locally and then sell them when you leave. Not a bad idea. Oh well, I was committed to my crazy plan to take lots of electronics with me.

I touched down in Houston, hopped on the interterminal train, and arrived at the gate for my Qatar Airways flight. I wasn't in Kansas anymore. The gate waiting area was noticeably warmer than the other terminal. The Indian and Middle Eastern folks in the area vastly outnumbered everyone else. It was already starting to feel like I had left the country.

I was unable to get a seat assignment or boarding pass ahead of time, even at DFW, so I headed up to the desk and was greeted by an attractive young woman attendant. I think I filled out some paperwork. She took my bag check tags and confirmed that my bags were being put on the plane, which was a welcome reassurance. Then it was back into the line for me.

You know how they have the folks in wheelchairs at the front of the line? Oh...my...God, so many wheelchairs. There were dozens of folks in wheelchairs. Oh well, it's a big plane.

Boarding started late, but I was not worried. My bags were accounted for and I had a 14.5-hour flight ahead of me, so small delays were irrelevant. We ended up leaving more or less on time (7:55 PM).

When I did get aboard the plane, I was taken aback by two remarkable things. One, the seats in economy were actually reasonably spacious. Two, an army of attractive young stewardesses in formal uniforms.

It was like I had time-traveled back to when I was a kid, flying to England for the first time. Outside of the TV show Pan Am, I had not seen this since I was a child. It was cool. It really takes the edge off of a long grueling flight to not only have a cute young woman tending to you, but to have plenty of them. I mean wow, so much service. There were 3-5 stewardesses within a 40 ft. radius at any given time. A smiling army of burgundy-capped beauties...Qaddafi would be jealous.

As if that was not enough to blow my mind, they offered me a free drink...no not just a soft drink. That's right, they were pouring cocktails in economy class. Sweet. One gin and tonic please! And some water...gotta stay hydrated. :-)

Interestingly, they fed us appropriately for the time zone we left (UTC-6) as opposed to our destination (UTC+3). So, we had dinner first. Dinner was actually good, but I can't remember exactly what I had. It was a complete meal though, including dessert. Each portion was smallish, but collectively, it was satisfying. And the complimentary wine was nice too.

Clearly, Qatar Airways realizes that mildly inebriated customers enjoy their 14.5-hour flight more. :-)

Then it was time to settle in for the long haul. Many hours of fidgeting, shifting, and repositioning to avoid leaving a permanent flat spot on your ass.

Entertainment was plentiful, as each seat had its own monitor with music, movies, TV, and more. You could even pull up a screen with flight information. I watched Cars 2, which taught me the valuable moral lesson to not befriend a moronic tow truck.

Then there was much fitful sleeping, with an occasional water break.

Somewhere over the vast black expanse of the Atlantic, October 31st arrived.

October 31, No Tricks Nor Treats

After a few more fits of sleep, breakfast arrived. Again, it was surprisingly good, but you have to weigh that against a healthy pessimism about airplane food quality built up by life experiences and hackneyed routines of comedians that lack creativity.

I tried to watch The Tree of Life, but the background noise of the airplane was just too much, when combined with the frequent whispered commentary. So, I switched over to Too Big To Fail. It was an interesting film that gave me more insight into the machinations. I hope someday to learn more about it and explore the arguments made in the film.

We landed a few minutes early, just before 7:00 PM local time. We were ushered onto a terminal bus to take us to our appropriate terminals. As we rolled along, I was pleasantly surprised to actually recognize a word I understood from my Pimsleur Eastern Arabic CDs. Apparently, the word for "station" was also used for "terminal". Understanding stuff is fun!

The processes here were clearly refined for satisfying the needs of a broad swath of cultures and languages. Your boarding pass sleeve and bag tags were all uniformly color-coded to match your destination terminal. In my case, blue.

The bus pulled up to the Blue terminal and I stepped into a large, brightly-lit room with a large network of stanchions. I saw two signs...both read "all other countries". As I stood there, baffled as to whether I was "all other countries" or the mysterious unnamed country or countries not included in "all other", a gentleman flagged me over to him. He pulled back the stanchion rope and guided me to a distinctly different area.

Most of the people being served were being served by men in open booths. I was guided to an obscured booth with acid-etched glass. When I entered, it made more sense; the women inside were covered completely in black. I tensed a little bit. I had been told that women in such garb I should avoid, avert my eyes, and generally not interact with in any way. However, I was told that if I "had" to interact with them it was OK.

So I sort of stood there, befuddled until the woman called me to her, impatience clear in her voice. It was all very confusing but, somehow, I left with a visa stamp and a credit card receipt. Then it was time for customs.

Which is apparently, just another area of the airport, as virtually all of us just walked right through.

As I reached the exit, I had another cultural encounter. Because it had been so easy, I was concerned that I had not done everything needed for my immigration process. So, I went over to the information booth and proceeded to wait for a good ten minutes while the woman there shot the breeze with a fellow Qatari, occasionally glancing at me every few minutes. I had been warned about this, but it was weird to be standing in arms' reach of someone, clearly needing them to do their job, and just have them blow me off while they chatted with someone. Well, I am a guest, so I did my best to grin and bear it. She confirmed that I was good to go, and I headed out to the taxi.

I had heard horror stories about the traffic, but it was far better than I expected. People were a little aggressive at times and way too comfortable riding right on top of each other. By all rights, we should have been in an accident at least six times during my taxi ride.

Regardless, I arrived at the W Doha Hotel and Residences in one piece.

There was a bit of confusion checking in. My corporate American Express would not run the authorization. Now, he was trying to authorize a month, so that was not a surprise. Then he tried a week. Still no luck. Thankfully, since I was with a large corporation, they waved me up and resigned to settle the issue later.

This is when I started to feel the pain of not having a phone. It got worse, though.

You see, American Express provides an international collect call number, but apparently there is no way to make international collect calls in Doha. So, I hopped onto the American Express website to check out my options and the "fastest" one was using their messaging system. Hours later and we had the problem identified. The hotel was trying to run the charge as retail and that is the one thing that is explicitly capped on our corporate cards. In fact, it was a $1000 cap and one week at the W is $1440 (with our corporate rate). Mystery solved. Cap extended, just in case.

I opened my suiter to see how my electronics fared. Um...what is wrong with my suit? Holy crap...

Yeah, that was a brand new hanger, shattered by the compressive force placed on my bag. Yay! Well, here's hoping the PS3 works when I get around to using it.

On that topic, the room safe is big enough for my Xbox, PS3, Bose SoundLink, and more. Nice.

Clothes unpacked, suits and shirts hung. T-shirts and jeans...sorta flopped over furniture...bedtime!

November 1, I Came All This Way for a Mushroom Burger?

My first day of work got off to a slow start. There was some confusion on timing. Suffice to say I got up very early for no reason. Ah well, better than being late. The hotel breakfast was freaking awesome! I discovered a tasty new food - Sujuk, which appears to be sausage-like meat with tomatoes. I also got to try dragon fruit, which sounds way cooler than it tastes.

I showed up to work at the Sidra Tower. I am working with the Enterprise Architecture team they hired from Dell to help with planning for the new Sidra Medical & Research Center. I hopped into an empty desk and got to work.

I had lunch at the tiny cafeteria in the tower. The food was not bad. Cash only.

That evening, I met the EA team lead, John Cady, for dinner. He is from the USA and is not exactly the adventurous type when it comes to food. We went to Chili's. So, there I was, on the other side of the world, eating a Chili's Mushroom Swiss burger. Exotic!

Then it was time to get a phone. The company was already going to pay for the SIMs and phone minutes, and they were willing to buy a phone too. But I took this as that final push/excuse to get an iPhone 4S (buying it myself, of course). We headed over to the obvious place, the iSpot, an "official reseller" for Apple products. But, to my dismay, they were all out of iPhones.

I trudged out of the store, forlorn...for about 20 feet. Then I spotted what appeared to be iPhones in the adjacent store. Yay! "I can't run your card" Boo! "There's an ATM" Yay! "This transaction cannot be completed" Boo! So, John graciously bought the phone on his card (and I will reimburse him). Yay!

We headed over to Qtel and picked up a SIM, popped it in the phone, added some minutes, and I was ready to go!

Now, I had the presence of mind to contact my credit card company and my bank and tell them of my travel plans. So, I was a bit peeved that my cards were not working for me. I spent the rest of the evening trying to determine why my card didn't work and why the ATM withdrawal did not work. My answers were:

The card was not refused, it was referred. In such cases, the merchant is supposed to call the card company and answer some quick questions. Merchant fail.
My ATM card is set up with a daily limit to minimize losses if it gets stolen. Oh yeah, I forgot I set that up. Michael fail. Can we get this increased for a day or two? Um, we can't get into the system, please try again later. Bank fail.

November 2, Pancake Breakfast With Colleagues, Dinner With New Friends

The morning started off with breakfast at Ric's Kountry Kitchen, a favorite of John's because of the familiar food. Paul Marriott, John's "Number 1" picked us up and the three of us headed to Ric's for our "American" breakfasts.

On the way there, I noticed Paul had a small red and green lapel pin and, being who I am, I asked about it. It turns out it is a Poppy. Apparently, in the UK, they wear poppies around Remembrance Day (similar to what we in the USA celebrate as Memorial Day) in honor of their fellow countrymen that have died in battle. It comes from fields of poppies growing up around the fallen dead, especially in Flanders field, in World War I.

Hearing that, I remarked that it explained Sting's lyrics, "poppies for young men, death's bitter trade" in his song Children's Crusade (off Dream of the Blue Turtles). Learning is cool. By the way, the whole song is filled with beautiful, sad lyrics, I recommend listening to it...and here's a YouTube video with the lyrics. Enjoy!

All right from somber to cheesy! Here is a picture of Ric's.

I had the pancake breakfast. It was pretty good, on par with Denny's or IHOP. I discovered once again that no one can escape Coca Cola products.

Or, if you want to see that in Arabic, just spin the bottle around...

The ham actually tasted like ham. This observation spurred a discussion about the legality of pork products. My colleagues explained that selling pork is not illegal, but importing it is, or something like that. I bet that makes the pork on the US Air Force base quite valuable for an enterprising soldier...

Off to work. Work was done. Lunch in the Cantina again.

That evening I enjoyed the gracious hospitality of Ed Brothers, his wife Nicole, and his friend Mike, as Ed and Nicole welcomed me into their home for dinner. We had salad, lasagne, and strawberry shortcake. Many nerdy jokes were made. Fun was had by all. Well, maybe not the large cat-like lump that they claim is a living cat; I am not sure it had fun. Further, I am still not sure I believe that it is 1) a cat or 2) alive; however, out of courtesy, I will take their word for it.

Ed, Nicole, and Mike are all involved in local academia at Doha, and have been here a while. It was an interesting to hear their take on life in Doha. I look forward to more visits.

November 3, Work Before You Crawl

Brunch was awesome again. Today, they had fresh mango. Holy crap was it good. I was inspired to post to Facebook about it:

So *this* is how mango should taste. I am officially spoiled now. When I go home the mango will seem like an imposter. Sigh. Well, we'll always have Doha, mango, we'll always have Doha.

Seriously, it was wonderful.

And off to work. You may have noticed that I am not talking about my work. That's intentional. This is a personal blog. However, I will say that I managed to get on board for a fishing trip with some colleagues during the holidays next week. We will be renting out a Dhow. I am not sure what to expect, as a Dhow can be pretty swanky or pretty basic. Either way, it should be another unique experience and I look forward to it. They have speakers that work with the "I-pot", which I can only guess is a Rastafarian MP3 player.

That evening, after pounding out a lot of work for a deadline, John, Paul, and another colleague, Bob Johnson, took me on a mini pub crawl. We started at an Irish pub located in the bottom of the Sheraton. They had smoking, pub food, and beer, all in a dark wooden milieu. It was quite pubesque.

While trying to find the pub I came across a bizarrely incongruous sight. A woman covered head to toe in the "do not talk to this woman" black garb. The only things visible were 1) her eyes and 2) bright red 5" stiletto heels; you know, the kind of shoes you would usually expect to see on a woman that was the opposite of covered.

So, back to the pub. I had hoped to experience the duo of shrill Asian women singers that John and Paul had described so emphatically but, alas, we had to settle for a guy and girl doing covers of popular songs. The vocals all sounded like Cher, so when she did Amy Winehouse it was painful; if alcoholic toxicity hadn't gotten her, hearing this surely would have. I kid. It was fun and the pub had a good vibe to it.

That said, I would prefer not to hear someone trying to mimic Amy. She had a style all her own, she is gone, and I am sad for that.

Excited by the prospect of "real" British pub food, I ordered Bangers and Mash. Of course, with the taboo of pork, it was made with veal sausages which, technically, still makes it bangers and mash. It wasn't bad going down... (subtle foreshadowing)

Anywho...moving on.

John parted ways as Paul, Bob, and I headed on to the Bavarian Cafe. I was almost sad to leave, as the place was really jumping when we left. But so was the Bavarian Cafe.

The cafe, however, had a different vibe. No dance floor or live music, but a lot more beer and many of them with high alcohol contents.

Then it was back home for the night. Shortly after I got back to the room, my bangers and mash decided to leave my body the same way they arrived, via my mouth. Yep, food poisoning.

November 4, When I Said I Wanted to Crawl, I Did Not Mean It Literally

The vomiting continued throughout the night and morning. Some time after the sun came up, I realized I had unfortunately passed the point where my body would no longer accept water. Not even sips. So, I needed to get some intravenous fluids. If I didn't act now, I would be riding to the hospital unconscious and incoherent later. Time for Michael's Doha Hospital Adventure!

Apparently, because I am not a resident, yet, I can only go to one of two private hospitals, according to the concierge. With no other data, I chose the one with "American" in the name - American Hospital. So, I asked the concierge for a couple of plastic bags...just in case my body managed to find something else to expel during the trip.

It was a much longer taxi ride than I had experienced thus far, and there were a lot of half-demolished buildings...uncertainty was rising. Of course, time sort of stretches out when you are constantly focused on keeping your stomach calm. When I arrived, I was not greeted by the sprawling, shiny Mecca of medicine that I might have hoped. Here is the outside of the building and, to be clear, this was the building, that is not a close up on just the front. I clipped the left edge slightly, but otherwise that is the entirety of the hospital.

I headed in and stopped short of the reception desk. There was an Indian gentleman and a woman completely covered in (do not approach or look at this woman unless you HAVE to do so) black garb. She was staring right at me, so I hazarded a glance and she beckoned me over, explaining that she was the only one there (and thus it was OK for me to approach her and talk to her). I guess the Indian fellow was not real person and, I have to admit, I never did reach out to touch him and confirm, so perhaps he was a figment of my imagination. No wait, I have picture of him, so he at least must be a sophisticated hologram. The woman hidden by the desk on the right; you can just see part of her head dress sticking out of from behind the left of the nameplate on the right; I didn't make an effort to get a more direct picture of her, as I am unclear of the social acceptability of taking pictures of a covered woman. Better safe than deported.

And to jazz up the flavor a bit, a close up of the price list in back:

It's hard to read, because I was too much of a slacker to take a close up picture of it, but the board on the right lists their medical specialties in English and the price list on the left is as follows:

Consultant 140 QR (Qatari Riyals)
Specialist 120 QR
GP [General Practice] Doctor 100 QR

For reference, there are about 3.5 QR to a dollar.

I got another taste of the need to be patient and lower my expectations for promptness, as they called for a nurse three times over the span of 20 minutes before I saw one. Then suddenly there were two. I got lucky and ended up with the cute one. :-)

They took me back to the hallway, took my vitals, and led me to the doctor. I gave a concise description of my signs and symptoms and suggested that I needed IV fluids. The doctor concurred, but ordered a battery of tests to be certain. I can't blame him, I certainly could have had something else going on. My parting statement was, "As long as I get IV fluids until I start peeing, I am happy."

Now it gets fun. You see, back in the day when I was a nurse, I was "da man" when it came to giving IVs. That meant I got to cringe as other nurses desperately tried to get needles into peoples' veins before they would give up and I would painlessly one-shot it, much to the relief of the patient. In all of my time as a nurse, there was one patient that I did not save from IV hell and that was because he was a Down's Syndrome patient with very thick, chubby arms which made his veins completely impossible to see and I knew that he needed a cutdown from a doctor, not a nurse blindly sticking him and praying. Suffice to say, I have seen every possible bad technique for IVs.

But I needed fluids, so I bit my tongue and told myself that unless I felt like they were going to do serious harm I would stay calm and take it like a man. One stick...ah ah ah. Two stick...ah ah ah. Three stick...ah ah ah. I LOVE to count needle sticks! No wait, let's not take it out yet, let's just keep trying in that third spot. Oh cool, let's let the other nurse try. Why not? We're all here and we have nothing else to do, needle party!

I was this close to going Special Forces medic on them and doing it myself, when they finally got a blood flash. Yes, eventually, they managed to get a pediatric needle (read, very tiny) into a tiny vein in my hand. Yay!

The blood samples were collected by letting blood drip ever so slowly out of the catheter, as opposed to drawing out the blood and injecting it into the container. Probably not a bad idea, given my dehydration, the size of the needle, and tiny vein, which would likely collapse if they tried to pull out the blood. However, I knew that small needles could also mean greater hemolysis (broken blood cells), which could generate erroneous potassium levels. Mentally noted for the future in case they say that is a problem. I am not here to teach and I certainly don't want to offend.

Fast forward 4 hours. My tummy is calm, I have gone pee pee, and all is right in the world. Well, righter at least.

Prescriptions, check. Payment, check. Taxi!

Hmm, what is this anti-nausea medication? I assumed it was Phenergan, because that was what I used back in the day, but it is not. It is Domperidone. Huh, let's look that up...not approved by the FDA...used for enhanced lactation...individual incidents of problems in patients receiving an intravenous form of domperidone include cardiac arrest and arrhythmia (wait, they put some of that in my IV)...sonnuva. Oh wait, apparently "the FDA's division of gastrointestinal drugs had approved domperidone." Well, the risk of sinking back into dehydration versus a few days of taking a pill that is probably not as safe as I like...I'll take the damn pill. Note to self: pick up a prescription for an anti-nausea pill before I go overseas again.

More drugs - an antibiotic and an anti-acid. While I see the reasoning, I don't like taking antibiotics or antacids, let alone any medicine, unless I need them, so I decide to hold off on those and play it by ear. For now, I'll just take the "Dompy" and hope it does not enhance my lactation.

All righty, back to the hotel for water and to pass out...time passes.

I am awake and hungry. So I do the usual drill and head to Carrefour (the French Wal-Mart) for crackers, a couple of bananas, and what the heck, some chicken shawarma and fattoush for later; experience has taught me that, for me, food poisoning resolves fast and I am usually eating pretty regular within 24 hours.

So, here's another cultural quirk. Today, the mall had signs outside declaring "family day". John has mentioned that was a day when admittance to the mall was restricted, but I could not remember the details. I was sporting jeans and my t-shirt declaring, "Video games ruined my life. Good thing I have two extra lives." I hoped it was acceptable. No one stopped me or gave me a second glance. However, on the way out, I saw guys dressed as casually or better being stopped. The difference? The only visible one was that they were dark-skinned Indian men. Yeah, that felt a little weird. I have never really witnessed overt discrimination like that. Well, aside from Ladies Night at a bar. :-D

Crackers...water...steady...more sleep

Banana...water...steady...more sleep

Crackers and bananas...steady...more sleep

Chicken shawarma...steady...a lot more sleep

November 5, Recovery and Shopping!

So now it's freaking past midnight and I am wide awake and hungry. I hop in the shower and get dressed, but nothing good is open this late (exacerbated by the holidays), so I break out the fattoush and have some more of the shawarma.

I think I may have slept somewhere in there. And I worked on wrapping up some work stuff; there were administrative deadlines from the mother ship.

Hmm, what can I do? Oh, I guess it's time to blog. Type, type, type.

Yay! Another yummy brunch. Mmm, more delicious fresh mango. More yummy sujuk.

Time for an early workout. I need to cram two in today to make up for being sick all day yesterday, but it should not be a problem

More catching up on administrata for work. More blogging. Time to get some swimming trunks and maybe weightlifting gloves. Back to the mall! I guess I could show you a picture of it. Here is the entrance. It's bloody huge and you can only see the map for the current floor, so it can be challenging. In spite of the fact that there were a half dozen stores for sports equipment, I had to directly identify them by walking around because of communication barriers.

Shopping done. Food time. I decided I wanted to eat something decidedly local, so I hit the food court and found three places that were basically kabob places plus. I finally settled on Safeer Express because they had fish and spinach. :-D

See, it even says "Middle-Eastern Flavors" right on the sign, so it's GOT to be legit. Here is what I ended up getting:

The fish was spicy, which was awesome. I am curious what was in it, because it made me sweat a little, but it was not super hot. The spinach was tasty but definitely not as good for me as my usual fare at Rockfish back in Plano. There were bits of meat and oils or fats in there; it was like someone decided to make "greens" with spinach. The yellow stuff is a lentil soup. It was all great, but I could not finish it.

Back to the hotel.

And since this is already a novella, I'll stop here and post this monster. Hopefully you were amused and/or educated.

Michael's Overseas Adventures - Long-Term Trips and Going Mobile

2011-11-03T09:07:00.001-05:00

I have not been on a long-term trip since I visited England as a kid. Well, I guess those couple of years at Fessenden boarding school count too. Even my field exercises in the Army were no more than a few weeks, and you were generally kept busy during that time. So, suffice to say, the logistics of long-term travel were invisible to me.

So, when I first heard that I might be living in another country for 3-12 months, it dawned on me that I might want to ponder those realities. For example, I use my desktop for a lot of things:

Banking
Bills
Gaming
Taxes
E-mail
Web development (99% of which is OwlCon)
Pictures
Music (45 gigs!)

My desktop is a custom built tower, so travel is not a good idea for that, especially since it would need a monitor, keyboard, etc. So, I started moving everything to my gaming laptop and the interwebs, aka the "cloud". Here's what I learned...

Laptops Are Not as Roomy Nor Powerful as Desktops

Yeah, I know, it's these fantastic gems of wisdom that keep you reading my posts. But I am only half-facetious here. You see, my laptop's capabilities were excessive for the way I used it - for gaming and short trips. When you start moving your electronic life over, things get complicated. Having 45 gigabytes of music certainly does not help, but computer games nowadays consume a lot of space, so having a dozen games installed is problematic on a laptop.

So, I picked up a Western Digital My Passport drive. I chose it for a few reasons:

I know Western Digital
It provides a place to which I can backup my laptop data
The drive is very small and portable, about the size of three passports stacked together
With a 500 gigabyte capacity it holds more than enough data to account for my music and pictures
Powered via the USB cable so I don't have to carry another power supply

This last one was a "must have" requirement for me. Here is a picture of my snazzy drive. Note my passport underneath...and my Alienware laptop under that.

So, that solves the raw storage issue. For the most part. I need to back off on the number of games installed at any given time, but that is manageable. I just need to dabble less and wrap up more. :-D

Goodbye Office, Hello Gmail and OpenOffice

Outlook is a great program. It is very useful at work. However, when you start living a multi-device life at home, buying expensive licenses left and right gets old. It is also a bit "heavy" as an application because I buy it as part of Office. That's a lot of apps and resources.

So, I made the final leap and adopted my Gmail account as my full on private e-mail. Of course, that's just part of the Office suite, so I installed OpenOffice; if nothing else, it will be a chance to seriously test out OpenOffice.

Books Are Heavy! eBooks Are Not

After months of wringing my hands over whether or not to stick with paper books or go electronic, the very idea of long-term travel rapidly resolved that conflict. So, I picked up an iPad, installed Kindle on it, and starting snagging ebooks. I also put all of my music on my iPad. I will post more on my eBook adventures someday...

Setting Up Full Synching With Gmail

So, with these changes and my new plethora of devices, I decided I wanted to fully synchronize with Gmail - mail, contacts, and calendar. If you pick he seemingly obvious Google e-mail account choice on your iPad or iPhone, it won't set up all of that. In fact, to get the most, you need to set up both a Gmail account and an Exchange account. The exchange account sync's mail, contacts, and calendar, but the Gmail one does mail, contacts, and notes. Toggle them however you like.

This page explains how to set up a Gmail account via the Exchange option on iOS devices.

Getting More Friendly With Evernote

I had dabbled with Evernote for taking notes, but with my new high mobility plan, I set it up on every device and it is awesome and convenient.

Closing Thoughts

So, all of my contacts, mail, notes, and calendars are in the cloud now, my laptop has been set up as my main computer, and I have made the switch to eBooks. I am a high mobility machine, bring on the travel!

Preparing for Overseas Travel from the USA - A Tale of Shopping, Chores, and Needles

2011-11-02T21:21:00.002-05:00

All righty, time to roll up my sleeves and get busy blogging about my travel adventures!

Setting the Stage

What you see above are pictures of my poor abused arms, fresh from the immunization wars, bravely displaying their medals of honor - Looney Tunes band-aids. Damn, I should have flexed hard for those pictures; oh well, onward.

So, about two months ago, I got an offer from within my company to go to Doha, Qatar for a period of 12 months. At the time, it was problematic due to family obligations.

About a month ago, I was asked to help a colleague, located in Brazil. She needed advice and guidance on process and methodology, which I was able to provide remotely (i.e., no travel needed).

Well, a few weeks ago, both of those turned into viable opportunities as a key family matter was wrapped up and I felt I could leave the country without doing familial harm.

For a variety of reasons, ultimately, the winner was Doha, Qatar. Now, it wasn't that simple, of course, there were many entertaining twists and turns, most of which it would not be appropriate to discuss because they are internal to my company and this is a personal blog.

What I can tell you is that I did not know where I was going, for certain, until a few days in advance. It certainly made things...more interesting.

Passport

Hopefully, this is the most obvious thing. You will want to insure your passport is not only current, but be sure that you have plenty of time left on it to cover your travels. In my case, I was told that I needed to have at least six months left to travel. Regardless, you don't want your passport to expire when you are in a foreign country.

NEEDLES IN MY ARMS!

Another obvious task to resolve, but what shots do you need? Well, the interwebs are your friend here. You can head on over to the Centers for Disease Control's Destinations page to get the information you need.

But where do you go for all of these lovely shots, especially the more unusual ones, like Yellow Fever? First, you can check with your company's wellness program / nurse, if they have one; for simple shots, they may have what you need. In my case, they did not so I called my doctor and was referred to Passport Health, a business that specializes in just this thing.

In less than 24 hours, I was being briefed on what I needed for Brazil and Qatar, as well as the usual stuff that was simply smart for travel. In total, I received one TB test and NINE vaccinations, four in each arm and one via nasal spray. I was pleased to find out that exercise was not limited; on the contrary they encouraged it.

Random comment - because of my time in the army and as a nurse, my vaccinations were a lot more caught up than normal, e.g., I only needed a Hepatitis B booster. Yay!

Did my arms hurt? Eh, not really. My shoulders got a bit stiff that night and were a little sore, but nothing incapacitating.

Did I get sick? Nope, and I shouldn't have. I was told the Yellow Fever might make me feel a bit cruddy for up to five days, which was less fun to hear with a full day of travel coming up in three days, but for the most part it was not an issue.

Vaccinations are not cheap. They gave me close to $1000 in vaccinations and one of my co-workers over here reports that he had around $2000 in vaccinations.

Storing Your Shot Record In Your Passport

This was a nifty idea from the Passport Health folks. Staple your shot record into the back of your passport and then you have the two key documents for immigration bound together. The bonus is that you are a LOT less likely to lose your shot records and have to get extra shots.

Prescriptions

Fortunately, I don't have any routine medications, so this was not a concern for me. Hooray for healthy living! But, I like you, so I am going to chat a bit about it.

If you have regular prescriptions, consider getting a full supply for your trip, just to be safe. Be sure to bring your documentation with you, as you will generally be required to show it (assuming they actually bother to ask/check).

Even if you don't have regular medications, you might need to get some. For example, if you plan to visit a country known for Malaria, you should consider getting your prophylactic antibiotics in advance. Pick up the prescription at your travel health visit.

Condoms

Yes, that's right, people all over the world have cooties. Regardless of your gender, there's the whole family planning aspect too. Nothing new here, but you might want to consider picking up your favorite brand before you head out to insure you have a supply. You may find it surprisingly difficult to locate what you want when you get there, and being prepared is far better than hoping you will have enough willpower to interrupt your exotic romantic encounter in a far away land to pick up protection.

Adapter vs Converter

This was interesting. Figuring out what you need is relatively easy, thanks to the interwebs. I say relatively, because you might get weak or misleading information. For example, my search turned up the adaptelec site which suggested that I needed two different adapters for Qatar. Luckily, my briefing at Passport Health also included the socket type, so I knew which of the two made sense.

That said, fair warning, there are multiple three-pronged sockets and the visible differences between, say the Israeli one and the British one are not incredibly stark, especially if you only had a grainy picture in a travel guide as your reference.

If you head to your local electronics store, you will see a LOT of choices and, like me, you may find that the store clerks have little to no idea what you should get or 80% of the adapters are for Israel and the ones you need are buried behind them. Also, when you get there, you will find that there are adapters and converters.

Adapters simply change your ability to plug into a socket. If you simply throw on an adapter and plug it in, you may fry (literally) your adapter or device. They are cheap.

Converters allow voltage conversion between 115 V and 220 V. Frequency can also change 50 Hz vs. 60 Hz, which can be an issue if your device relies on that for timing (the only example I saw was a turntable, so no danger there).

Do you need a converter or an adapter? Well, does your device perform at the voltage and frequency where you are going? If so, then an adapter is fine.

Laptops are interesting. In recent history, the standard appears to be that laptops generally support everything. For example, here is a picture of my Alienware adapter's specifications.

Should you get an adapter? Because they are inexpensive, I picked up a couple to be safe. I wanted to be able to use my computer immediately. If you can wait, then you can play it safe and wait until you arrive, see what you actually need, then go pick it up.

Should you get a converter? These are a lot more expensive and, in many cases, still require adapters to use. So, for example, a converter and adapter for a hair dryer can be more expensive than simply buying anther hair dryer where you are going (of course, if you are staying in a hotel, they may provide one).

Lead time

Depending upon how ready you are, for the trip, you may need more or less lead time. I found that the last 2-3 days before my trip vanished in preparatory errands and activities.

Mothballing - PO Box and Mail

Do you have a PO Box? Is it paid up past the time you will be gone? Do you need to stop your mail delivery or arrange for someone to pick it up? Large PO boxes give you more latitude in this. Plan accordingly.

Mothballing - Car Insurance Storage Discount

It occurred to me that an unused car might not require so much insurance. I called my provider, USAA, and was pleased to find out that indeed I could get my rate reduced to 10% of normal while it was collecting dust. There is a downside, if someone were to decide to use it without reactivating, then it would not cover medical, which makes sense. Either way, I saved hundreds of dollars with a single phone call! Yay!

Mothballing - Phone

Unfortunately, my iPhone is one of the locked variety. This makes it a sleek, expensive paper weight while I am in Qatar. Even though it has the proper technology, the absurd rates from AT&T are unacceptable. Given that it was going to basically be off or in airplane mode while I was gone, I called AT&T and explore my options. It turns out that they have a "suspend" option that dramatically reduces the plan cost to something trivial, like $10 a month. Yay!

Bank and Credit Card

It's not a bad idea to call your bank and 1) let them know where you are going and what dates you will be there; 2) discuss if there are any limitations with using your debit and credit cards while traveling, and 3) record international customer service numbers that you can use to contact them while away.

Packing

I had some surprises here. The sheer magnitude of what I was taking caught me by surprise. I expected my gigantic cases to be perhaps 2/3 full...they were stuffed.

Shoes: For me, shoes were part of the surprise. I have work out shoes, two pairs of dress shoes, and a few pairs of casual shoes. They ate up a fair bit of space. I feel for someone that needs to take a lot with them.

Electronics: This is a personal decision. Whatever you do decide, I recommend putting all of your electronics in your carry on luggage. It may be heavy. It may be awkward at security. But at least they should arrive intact, unbroken and not stolen. Another option, which I learned about later, is to buy the electronics locally and then sell them before you leave; clever, but more complicated than I wanted.

Shopping

For me, this also entailed a complete refresh of my high end business clothes, suits, dress shoes, etc. So, I spent a lot more time shopping in the two weeks leading up to my trip than I had in probably ten years. I tried on so...many...suits.

Closing Thoughts

There are easily a dozen more things I haven't mentioned, but the gist of this is that a trip abroad, especially an extended one, can get complicated fast. Think ahead and give yourself a week or two to work out the details.

Adventures in LASIK - Day 15, The Big Eye Exam

2011-10-17T01:39:00.005-05:00

Last Friday was a big day. With the medicate drops a thing of the past, it was time to find out how well I could see with my zapped eyes.

I was a little tense. Before LASIK, I was seeing 20/15, better than "normal" (20/20), with glasses. They guaranteed they would give me at least 20/20, and they said I *should* be able to get to 20/15 if I was able to see that well with glasses.

But there were no guarantees for that.

That said, there was the implication that I could have an "enhancement"* if I was not happy with the result.

* - remember, that is their word for a repeat surgery, which most people would probably call a "correction".

Then there was the whole discussion about no reported cases of loss of vision to the FDA.

So, my hopes were high, but there was still that nagging concern...

Don't get me wrong, having 20/20 without glasses is great. But "losing" 20/15 would take a bit of luster of the achievement.

I stood in the waiting room, amidst a cross-section of folks waiting to be evaluated. Some for their first time, some, like me, for a follow-up.

I was briefly distracted when I saw a young couple with two kids, the mother with thick glasses. As they were called in by one of the technicians/salesmen that handles the initial evaluation and price discussion, I quietly hoped that the salesman would cut them a good deal.

I did my best to use Google Reader and my never-ending RSS feeds to keep my mind from chasing its tail, worrying about what my vision would be.

Then I was called back for my exam.

I walked into the dimly-lit room. It was the same technician that had measured my eyesight on my first visit and the day of my surgery.

"Cover your left eye". Letters popped up. I was able to read the bottom row. The letters were crisp and easy to read.

"Cover your right eye". Letters popped up. Again, the bottom row was crisp and easy to read.

"Now, with both eyes". Letters popped up. Once again, the bottom row was crisp and easy to read.

"Aw, what the heck, try to read this." Letters popped up. The letters were not blurry, but they were just to small to make out.

Dammit, was that 20/15? Did we not quite make it? Was I going to have to decide between 20/20 and another round of LASIK?

"Yeah, I didn't think you could read it, but I figured why not try? That was 20/10. You have 20/20 in each eye and 20/15 with both.

A confusing statement, but I was so relieved that I didn't press further. 20/15 was all I wanted to hear.

The rest of the exam was something of a blur (see what I did there?).

Bright painful lights in my eyes. Something about being able to see the corneal flap and the hinge. It was lined up and healing well, etc. I need to keep using lubricating eye drops until three months after the surgery to be safe and promote proper healing. Until the flap was completely healed, I would have reduced sensitivity on my cornea, so there was a greater risk of something abrasive getting on there and doing damage without me realizing it...hence the need to regular drops.

Whatever, 20/15 baby!

Adventures in LASIK - Day 6, The Diminishing Flood

2011-10-05T12:44:00.003-05:00

[Isn't that a cool picture? I found it at http://www.free-extras.com/images/gushing_tears-2551.htm]

If you have been following my adventures...last Thursday afternoon, the stromata of my corneas were reshaped with LASERS! This was part of an IntraLASIK procedure to correct my vision.

Well, apparently, they seek elemental balance, because after the "fire" of the lasers, came much "water" in the form of a shedload of eye drops. It's not suprising. You just had a flap cut open in your eye. You want that to stay moist/lubricated, calm (not inflamed), and free of infection.

There were three players:

Artificial tears to keep my eyes moist; I opted for the individual sterile doses of Refreshe Plus
PredForte, a steroid eye drop to control inflammation and allow my eyes to hit more home runs
Zymaxid, an antibiotic eye drop to oppose those evil, evil biotics

Day 0 - after surgery, when awake, PredForte every 2 hours and Tears every 30 minutes. Two more reasons to just sleep through until the next morning.

Days 1-4, I was to use the artificial tears as needed for moisture (as much as hourly), PredForte 6 times a day, Zymaxid 4 times a day. In total, typically 16 applications of eye drops each day. So, most hours of the day, I was putting some sort of drops in my eyes.

[Oh, and for extra fun, you are supposed to sleep with the goggles for three nights to avoid rubbing your eyes; perfect for your Pitch Black scene recreations.]

Days 5-6, no more Zymaxid, but PredForte is still 6 times a day. Tears as needed still.

It's Day 6. I am finding that I don't need the tears very much. At this point, I am just using them to be safe.

Wow, I have never put so much stuff in my eyes. But wow, I am getting really good at putting eyedrops in my eyes!

I will be glad when the PredForte ends. No, not because I am ethically opposed to eyeballs "juicing", but because it's a milky white solution, so when you put them in, it dulls your visual clarity a bit, as if you are looking at the world through a dirty window. Also, it tends to form more eye boogers. :-P

Tomorrow, Day 7, starts a 6-day period where I only need to use PredForte twice a day, and tears when needed. After that, it's just tears when needed.

So, by the time the 2-week follow-up occurs, the medications should be all done.

For now, I am glad that my watery shackles will loosen a bit tomorrow.

Adventures in LASIK - The Day After, Part 2

2011-10-01T07:36:00.002-05:00

Time for some belated additional comments on my first post-surgery day. I meant to post this last night, but it will become clear why I did not as the story unfolds.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was instructed to not work on the computer or read for at least 24 hours after the procedure. The rational given was that you tend to focus more intently during such activity, leading to less blinking and more drying. Drying is the mind killer...no wait, that's Dune. Drying can slow your healing or even damage the flap they made, which is, in a word, bad.

No worries, plenty of meetings and calls to resolve, and I can get buy just glancing at my laptop for a quick e-mail or to look up a contact. And I had forced myself to stay in bed throughout the evening and night, so I was being pretty safe.

There are some things that were covered in my visit yesterday morning, which I neglected to mention in the other post.

First they mentioned that due to swelling, moisture (or the lack thereof), etc., I may see small fluctuations in my vision until my eyes completely heal. OK, I can understand that.

Don't freak out if my vision is not 100% constant for a little while. Check

Try to wear goggles or sunglasses for the next few days. Hmm, those goggles sure are sexy, but I picked up a shiny new pair of sunglasses just the same.

Wearing sunglasses is such a strange thing. I haven't bought a pair since I was a teenager in the Army, because after I got out, I simply started wearing my regular glasses all of the time and with anti-glare coating and 100% UV blocking, there wasn't much need. Of course, my glasses got smaller and trendier over time, so they probably did not provide as much coverage as my optometrist would like from the brutal, unrelenting UV beast that is the Sun.

But I digress. Pick up a pair of Ray-bans. Check.

And you know those drops? You ain't seen nothing yet!

Steroid SIX times a day for SIX days, then twice a day for two days
Antibiotic FOUR times a day for FOUR days, then stop
Oh, and moisturizing drops as needed, probably as much as hourly

Go go gadget iPhone alarms! So, I punched in my TEN dose times. and went about my business day.

Prepare to make it rain on my eyeballs. Check.

As mentioned, I stuck with conversational stuff most of the day, and avoided staring at a screen too much. Things were going great. It was a little weird wearing sunglasses indoors, but I simply explained to my colleagues why I was doing it, and we moved on (typically after fielding some questions about LASIK).

However...when I got home yesterday evening, I started doing some heavy re-coding of a collection of portal pages I created for OwlCon's Gaming Coordinator. Minutes turned into three hours and as I wrapped up the work, I noticed that the words on the screen were a little blurry. I had put some drops in during that time period, but I guess not enough. I guess they were not kidding about that whole "drying activity" thing when they spoke of working on the computer.

Which is why I postponed my follow-up blog post of last night until this morning.

When I woke up this morning, there was a bit of cloudiness to my vision, but after some drops, that improved.

Some of it is the brightness. I don't notice any discomfort from the illumination of the screen, but sometimes it is as if the light I am taking in from what I am viewing is strangely bright. It's sort of like the effect when someone shines a flashlight at you and that affects our ability to see who or what is behind the flashlight, but on a teeny tiny scale. That's a crappy explanation, but it's as close as I can get to explaining it.

There is also an occasional miniscule lag in visual clarity when I look in a different direction, which may simply be related to moisture, swelling, or whatever. It is occasional and only noticeable with something like text, where subtle changes in crispness are more obvious. It's not dramatic either, I can clearly read the text immediately, but there is this strange sense that it was just short of being completely crisp for maybe a tenth of second.

And yet, right now. Everything looks and works perfectly.

And in the fine tradition of my monkey ancestors, I will learn from last night, post this, and step away from the computer for a while. :-)

Adventures in LASIK - The Day After, Part 1

2011-09-30T10:32:00.005-05:00

It's been about 20 hours since the treatment. The sun should be up soon. Vision still clear but cloudy, but it seems comparable to when I wore glasses. It looks I will be able to drive myself to my follow-up. Cool.

I don't want to spend too much time staring at a screen, since that is bad, so that'll do for now.

Time for breakfast, a quick follow-up exam, and then back to work!

***

The exam went well. The flaps look great and I am seeing 20/20. I should have asked them to test me for 20/15, but it's been less than 24 hours since the surgery, so I will take 20/20 for now. :-)

They tell me that the blood shot eyes are related more to the suction that is applied to keep my eye in place. My left eye was under suction at least twice as much and at least three times as long as my right, so the apparent savage beating my poor bloodshot left eye took is understandable. I am told it will take 2-3 weeks to resolve completely. Meanwhile, my right eye looks almost as if nothing happens. My left eye is no doubt seething with envy, but it's hard to tell, since my eyes are naturally green.

My vision is not flawless, but I am told that my eyes still have not completely recovered. There will be some swelling and until it completely resolves, some intermittent changes in vision might occur.

Right now, I see almost perfectly clearly, but sometimes there is a faint, sporadic blur in parts of my visual field, akin to how it is right after I put in some drops, but much less so. That said, for the most part, it's perfectly clear. It's like I am wearing my glasses...but I'm not.

It's nice to have good vision everywhere too. No tilting my head up or down to bring my glasses to bear on an object. And it's nice to have clearer peripheral vision.

There is a faint sense of eye strain, as if I have been up all night staring at the computer screen.

All in all, better than I would have hoped less than 24 hours after having my eyes pushed, prodded, suctioned, and blasted with lasers.

So, for the next couple of weeks a progressively diminishing regimen of drops.

I am cleared for aerobic and light weight lifting today. Light weight lifting? Seems like an oxymoron at best and a waste of time at worst. But hey, elliptical here I come (well, after work, that is).

As for real weightlifting, the heavy variety, they say I can start tomorrow, but I set up my schedule so my next resistance routine is Monday, just to be safe.

I'll go back in two weeks for another (presumably final) check up.

***

It's surreal how easy this has all been. Sure, the me from yesterday evening, when the scratchyburniness was at it's peak, would probably slap the me that just said that, but overall? Wow it's been easy and much less painful and complicated than I expected. I wish I had looked into this five years ago.

Adventures in LASIK - The Big Day

2011-09-30T07:09:00.003-05:00

00:00 dropped off
00:05 read and signed some consents
00:13 paid (credit card; hooray for points!)

I am living the high tech life right now. I am sitting in a doctor's office, waiting to have my eyes operated on by a pair of state-of-the-art computer-controlled lasers. While I am waiting, I am working on my Dell laptop via WiFi to collaborate with two colleagues scattered across the USA, to help a third colleague in Brazil. And occasionally taking notes on my blog via Blogger's iPhone app. Pretty damn cool. All I need now is a robot butler serving me some brightly colored drink...

00:23 I watch a three to four minute video, along with a couple of other patients, discussing what will happen. There were no guns, sex, nor engaging characters. Two thumbs down.

00:45 They are taking my phone. Noooo! And they give me a valium...

1:00? They take me to a room where I lean back in a recliner and put on a hair cover and booties. Super sexy.

1:30? I am taken in, laid down, and covered with a blanket. Good thing, because it is seriously chilly in there, even for me (me likey cold).

1:45? Lots of drops of various kinds, repeated explanations about the process.

2:15? Walked over to another bed, situated between the two lasers.

Right eye positioned under the first laser. Eyelid retractor placed on my eye, a la Clockwork Orange, and a suction thingie lowered onto it. These are good things, as they keep your eye still for the Lasers!

Things go dim (as they told me they would) and I see some cool specular patterns. I focus every fiber of my being on not moving my eye in any way.

6 seconds...done.

They tell me I did well, but I am not sure it's sincere, since there was not cookie or lollipop reward...

On to the left eye. Things do not go swimmingly. Something about positioning problems.

They decide to finish up the right eye and let me rest.

The bed swivels under a different laser. I stare at a green beam amidst an array of lights that is reminiscent of the end scenes of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Things get blurry and dim (as they told me they would) and I hear a bit of a squeaky sound...and I briefly smell burning, which make sense, since that is what is supposed to happen, but it is a bit disconcerting, nonetheless.

12 seconds...done.

I did well again. I start to wonder if I should pursue Olympic competition in laying very still while lasers shine in my eye, but I am not sure I want to bother seeking sponsors.

A quick look at my eyes by Dr. Tylock to confirm the flaps look good. They do.

Drops in my eyes (I think maybe steroids for anti-inflammatory, not sure).

Back in the hall for "20 minutes".

Brought back in for pretty much the same routine, except they use a different laser for the flap cutting. It takes about three times as long, around 20 seconds, but it goes very smoothly. Then I hang out for a minute, then on to the IntraLASIK. Smooth again. Looks good.

More drops. Out onto the recliner to sit for 25 minutes, while they call my ride. I keep my eyes closed as much as possible.

I am handed a tote bag carrying my laptop, etc. Ironically, I had made fun of these very tote bags when I first visited for my exam for seeming to be a goofy way to advertise LASIK.

4:50 Back home. My vision already noticeably in spite of the tears. It's like a confused weatherman's prediction - clear but cloudy.

Sleeping pill taken. Ate a little bit of a salad (and some mac and cheese; lasers in my eyes warrants comfort food) so that hunger does not wake me up. Off to bed.

5:40 Eyes still stinging pretty badly. Having them closed seems to really magnify it. I know they are most though. Any time I open them, a river of tears flows from the corners of my eyes. Well, they gave me a second sleeping pill just for such an occasion, but when they did, they said "if you haven't gotten to sleep in 45 minutes take the second one" as opposed to "if you feel the urge to remove your eyes, take the second one."

So, I call the nurse to be safe, explain what's happen, she confirms everything sounds normal and to take the pill. Eventually sleep finally takes over.

Some weird dreams/thoughts...mostly just odd. Not sharing them here. You'll have to live in suspense.

13:05 Wow, that feels a lot better. They said I could get up and watch TV for a bit then go back to bed, but the also said sleeping was best...so back to bed I go and eventually fall back to sleep. But first, some pictures!

That is my right eye. Basically, it just looks red, like I have not slept enough, or been hanging around a Phish concert.

Brace yourself for the left eye.

This was expected. This was the one that required the older laser for the flap creation. Note: the damage is from capillaries rupturing due to the suction that is placed on the eye during the process and looks worse than it is; this eye was put under suction multiple times and the older laser takes about three times as long to make the flap, so this eye was under suction for a considerable amount of time.

Back to bed...

Adventures in LASIK - The Day Before

2011-09-28T22:10:00.007-05:00

That is a crappy picture of my left eye, but it will do. Tomorrow, my eyes get zapped.

I have done just about all of the pre-op stuff. I have put in steroid* and antibiotic eye drops four times today...spacing the drops out so they don't wash one another out and diminish the therapeutic effect.

* - Hopefully that doesn't mean my eyes will have tiny testicles now.

I read ahead to the post-op stuff, which motivated me to pick up some some Refreshe artificial tears. I am going to need to put them in every 30 minutes tomorrow and Friday, when I am awake. I went all out and got the individually bottled doses because, hey, I am not going to cheap out on my eyes.

I have my ride all lined up. You need a ride back since your eyes have been zapped and you are probably groggy from a sedative. Oh, and that whole keeping your eyes closed as much as possible for 4 hours afterwards thing (to facilitate healing); that probably does not go well with driving.

I was a good boy and did my Friday weight-lifting this evening since I am not supposed to lift weights for at least one day after the procedure.

There is still some residual anxiety about the procedure, but it's minimal. I am very much of the school that worrying is not a good thing, either accept the situation or do something. And since the only thing I can really do is follow my patient instructions, show up, lay still, and then follow more instructions; that is what I will do. Anxiety will not focus the laser beam and god forbid that I am anxious and pass that along to them. I need them frosty and cool as they fry my cornea.

Now for the final prep for tonight - soaking, scrubbing, and cleaning my eyelids and eyelashes. I hope they turn out real purty.

Adventures in LASIK - The Preliminary Evaluation

2011-09-28T21:41:00.001-05:00

OK, fired up for the potential of the new, bladefree and seemingly super safe LASIK technology, last week I went to the nearby Tylock LASIK, in Irving Texas.

Why Tylock?

Excellent question. There are some serious marketing dollars being tossed around in this area and it is hard to wade through the interwebs to an island of clarity.

Of the big local names, they had the best Angie's List ratings and reports by far.
Their staff was flawlessly responsive and gave great customer service
By contrast, another big name place took a week just to return my call
It didn't mean a lot to me, but it didn't hurt that they were the official provider for three local professional sports teams (Stars, Rangers, Mavericks)
Tylock's credentials, record, and experience
The nifty state of the art technology they use (granted, the other big name places were probably similar)

Yay! A Schedule for People With Jobs

Right off the bat, I was quite happy that they had later times so I could go in after work. Very nice.

Bright Lights

Ah, my old nemesis, really bright lights shining in my eyes. They had a number of devices there to do all sorts of measurements on my eyes. It was all pretty tolerable and quick. Then it was on to a regular old eye exam.

Which is Clearer, A or B?

Nothing new in the eye exam. It went quickly and smoothly. All signs pointed to me being a great candidate for LASIK. So I took the option they earlier provided to move right into the detailed exam.

Big Pupils, Small Mouth*

* - a joke for any fellow anime fans.

This is where it got uncomfortable for me, but probably funny for the casual observer. They put drops in my eyes to dilate them and waited 15 minutes. Then the kind, young attractive lady doctor from before revealed that she was actually trained in "enhanced interrogation". Oh my freaking god, THE LIGHT! I hate the whole light in the eyeball thing as it is, but she was going to town.

Now, the good news is that she was being thorough and I like being able to see well, so that is a good thing. The bad news is OMG THE LIGHT!

It must have been a sight to behold, me struggling to keep my eyes open while tears streamed down my cheeks (it's what eyes do in the presence of THE LIGHT!).

OK, I jest. All in all, it wasn't that bad. Definitely a bit of discomfort, but not fantastically more than I experience in every routine eye exam when they break out THE LIGHT!

I stepped outside, waited for maybe ten minutes, and then a gentleman chatted about the pre-op, peri-op, and post-op activities. Oh, and price. LASIK still ain't cheap. Armed with prescriptions, instructions, and the nifty little disposable shades they gave me...I drove off into the night.

My appointment would be eight days hence...

Adventures in LASIK- Investigating the State of the Art

2011-09-28T21:23:00.003-05:00

Over the last seven months or so, I have been rediscovering the healthy fit person that I had slowly buried under fat and apathy over the past decade or so. In the course of that, I have been increasingly more active, exercising regularly and vigorously. It's made my glasses more of a nuisance than they used to be. In general, it raised my awareness of the nuisance of wearing glasses to a critical level. Suddenly, they were just a huge PitA.

Part of the problem is that I simply don't like blurry vision. So, even though I *could* go without glasses in some cases, I just don't like it. I end up squinting at things because I crave clarity.

And don't say "contacts FTW!" because it just does not work for me. I tried...oh my did I try. It turns out I am sort of freakshow mutant that hates to have things stuck to his eyeballs.

And as I mulled this over I stumbled on an old healthcare spending account. I inquired and found out 1) Chase was bleeding my account with admin fees that were higher than the interest in earned and 2) I could spend the money on any healthcare expense, including LASIK!

Hello, serendipity.

So, after over a decade of not even thinking about LASIK...I decided to look into it again and see what was what. Here is what I learned from reading and talking to an experience LASIK technician.
Caveat: I can't guarantee it's all true, as the amount of noise on the internet on this topic is pretty damn intense.

Note: Dr. Tylock is the guy that I was considering at the time (and SPOILER ALERT! who ultimately did perform my IntraLASIK surgery.)

Better Than A Sharp Scalpel In The Eye

LASIK can be done without blades! This was huge. I simply cannot stand the idea of someone taking a knife to my eye. Sure, if there is a brain eating alien burrowing through my eye into my head, slice away, but the whole "achoo! AHHHH MY EYE!" factor is too much for me to tolerate a blade on my eyeball. Yes, I now know that this has been true for like nine years. /shrug

Do No Harm...To My Vision

"No case of loss of vision with blade free has been reported to the FDA since 2002, when blade free started. Dr. Tylock has never had loss of vision with either technology."

Good news - loss of vision includes vision less than your corrected vision. So, if you were correctable to 20/20 with your glasses or contacts, then loss of vision would be anything worse.

Bad news - it is possible that there were cases of loss of vision that were not reported to the FDA, given human nature and the power of money.

Good news for me - My doctor seems to be kicking LASIK ass.

Lasers!

The laser Tylock currently uses an Alcon Allegretto Eye-Q). Rather than put you to sleep with details. The short story is it's as fast as they come, uses less energy, and has a small spot size. So, less burning tissue (which equals less irritation and quicker healing), more precision, and less impact if your eye moves during the treatment (it pulses 400 times per second and tracks your eye at the same rate).

Halos and Star Bursts

There should be zero chance that I will have long-term issues with halo or star burst effects. While having halos and star bursts might sound cool, it is not. It means you see anomalies. This is becoming a thing of the past. Originally folks used broad beam lasers. The laser would expand out and the correction was correlated to the beam of the laser. If your pupil was beyond a certain size, you would get halos and star bursts; it was quite often (~70%). Laser technology changed and it went down to 15-20% incidence. Then they came out with the "Gaussian beam" (GB) which eliminated the problem, but also has FDA approval for them to state that it may actually improve your night vision.

At Tylock LASIK, with the GB, they don't see complaints about this unless a patient does "monovision"**. There may be some initial halo effects with any patient, but long-term only someone with monovision should be at risk for this problem. However, someone with pupils larger than 9 mm (mine are ~6 mm) will still probably have issues, but such folks usually have it with glasses and contacts.

** - only totally correcting one eye; this essentially leaves one eye uncorrected for nearsightedness to offset presbyopia.

"Enhancement" is the New "Correction"

In a feat of marketing goofiness, when you need a second treatment because the first one did not quite get you to your best vision, they call it "an enhancement" as opposed to, say, a word that would be more appropriate, like "correction". :-P

Now, let me say for the record, I could care less if I need an enhancement. What I want is that when the official post-operative period ends 12 months after my procedure, my eyes are all squared away. This a process with real live people and a whole bunch of moving parts. They have worked wonders to lock it all down, but as long as a conscious human patient has to cooperate, there will always be a random factor. So I can accept that enhancements may be necessary, even if I object to the term used.

The technician reports that about ~3% of Tylocks patients experience over or under correction, requiring a subsequent enhancement. For my mild correction, there should be ~1% or less chance. Since 2006, he has not seen anyone need a second enhancement/correction (i.e., a third treatment).

Astigmatism

I only have a moderate amount astigmatism, but I wanted to be thorough.

How much astigmatism can they correct? Normally, can correct a maximum of 6 diopters of Astigmatism, but a physician can override the machine and attempt to correct more if the patient is appropriate (based on their overall eye condition, correction).

My Eyes

My case: My pupils are well within the design limits. My correction is "mild". My cornea is adequately thick. I am a good candidate.

Caveat: I don't wear contacts, but those that do will need to coordinate their schedule a bit for LASIK. It's good to stop wearing them for a period before your exam and the treatment. Call your provider for details.

Other Resources

FDA page on LASIK

I think this is the FDA page for their laser...

The wikipedia page is surprisingly informative too.

My Conclusion

The technology has come far enough for me to give it a try.

Exercise Machines & The Vision Fitness X6200 HRT Elliptical

2011-09-06T04:18:00.007-05:00

[The following information is recreated and updated from a web page I created by back in December, 2003, cataloging my thoughts and adventures when I decided to buy an exercise machine while attending graduate school at Rice University, Houston, TX. I am posting it here because I have killed off the web page and this one page generated a lot of traffic and e-mail, so I figure it must be useful. Enjoy!]

After reading up on the dizzying array of products available for home use, I thought it would be helpful to share my insights, what I learned, and the final decision.

Do You Have the Space?
Exercise machines fit nicely in gigantic fitness showrooms, but they may not seem so compact when you start wrestling them into your home fitness room, garage, etc. Figure out where you want to put the machine and measure out how big of a footprint you can accommodate. Make note of it and keep that information handy as you shop.

Many machines are designed around providing a small footprint. There are models that fold in some way or another to decrease the footprint when not in use; others are simply designed so as to use less space. This limits the available models and can also fundamentally change the exercise, e.g. some elliptical trainers placed the flywheel between the pedals to cut down on foot print, but this forced a wider stance, which may or may not be a concern for you.

What Kind of Machine Do You Want?
There are a few common choices:

Climber/stairs - pumping legs up and down
Cross-country skier - pumping legs back and forth on a fixed track, pumping arms back and forth
Elliptical - all of them involve pumping your legs up and down as well as back and forth along an elliptical path; the better ones include pumping arms back and forth in concert with your legs
Rowing machine - pushing your torso/abdomen back and forth with your legs, pulling with arms/back
Treadmill - walking and/or running on a moving belt

I ruled out climbers/stairs because of the lack of upper body workout. I ruled out the skier because ellipticals provided a better workout with more comfort. I ruled out the treadmill because of the substandard lower body workout, compared to ellipticals, and the lack of a real upper body workout.

I wanted to get both an elliptical trainer and a rowing machine, because the combination would compliment each other well, but I did not have the money nor space for both. Ultimately, I settled on the elliptical because it gives the most complete workout and biggest bang for the buck/footprint.

So, the rest of this page concerns elliptical trainers exclusively. If you are interested in other options, I recommend getting an online subscription to consumerreports.org. They usually give a good background on every category of product they investigate. It's a great resource with a searchable archive of every test they have performed. A great tool for empowering the consumer.

Elliptical Trainers - Commercial or Home Models?
With treadmills, there are lots of decent home models. However, it appears that when it comes to elliptical trainers, you really want to get a commercial or near-commercial model. Even the best pick of Consumer Reports' review of Elliptical Home Models was lackluster at best:

Reebok Elliptical Crosstrainer 6808. Very good; the best pick here.
Pedals hold foot securely. Easy to mount/dismount. But resistance not indexed for easy setting. No heart-rate monitor. Monitor framework sways and creaks during exercise. Vigorous movement of arms can make machine twist and jam momentarily. Monitor needs batteries. Fixed incline. 90-day warranty. [CR March 2002]

Not exactly a ringing endorsement, huh? Also, they were generally not very enthusiastic about home models of elliptical trainers.

Unfortunately, the concept has worked best in health-club models, which are bigger, smoother, more solid, and far more expensive than home-use machines. We tested early home ellipticals in 1998 and 1999, and they were a sorry lot. One of the seven broke before our tests were done; three had durability problems. Home machines still don't match health-club models, but at least the four machines we tested this time, costing between $500 and $1,000, emerged from the equivalent of a year's use with only one or two minor glitches.

They also proved quite capable of providing a good workout to someone who's already moderately fit. However, beginning exercisers may have to pedal slowly to avoid overexertion. And very fit users may find even the maximum resistance on some machines too easy to provide an aerobic benefit. [CR March 2002]

Ie wanted to try out the machines first, of course. Actually, it's recommended that you throw on workout clothes and try the machines for 10-20 minutes before buying one, just to be sure that it works for you. I stopped by a few local merchants.

First, I hit a general superstore, Academy Sports & Outdoors. There was nothing there worth considering; the motions of the machines there were uncomfortable and the quality of construction did not fill me with confidence.

I stopped by Sears, where they sold Proform and Nordic Track. Every model I tried was poorly assembled, e.g., arms falling off, frame bolts less than finger tight, etc. So, I had little good data to go on. However, the Nordic Track treadmills that I did try functioned poorly, which spoke ill of their durability and/or assembly quality of the store.

At Oshman's I tried a Proform 800 ($499; Icon Fitness) and Reebok 525 ($799; Reebok). Both saved space by placing the fly wheel in between the pedals, something that appears common among space saving ellipticals that do not fold. The gap between my feet was about 7.5" to 8". The Proform had a Reflex Step™ Technology, which I found to be unpleasant; it caused an undesirable bounce in the motion. The Reebok was OK, but still felt a little rickety. I was not a big fan of the wider stance.

Time to step up a little in price. Winston Fitness, Fitness Unlimited, and Busy Body; all owned by the same company. I tried out various models, but because of my desire to have a small footprint, a few obvious choices emerged

Octane Fitness's Octane 35 or 35e (small footprint)
Vision Fitness's X6200HRT (folding), X6100 (folding), and X6000 (folding)

All of them were "on sale" (read: marked up prices that they reduce to make you feel good).

$1999 (Octane 35)
$2299 (Octane 35e)
$1799 (X6200HRT)
$1299 (X6100)
$799 (X6000)

I ruled out the Vision Fitness X6600HRT because it did not fold and it was quite expensive; it is targeted for the commercial market.
I went to Hest Fitness, which said they had three brands, and they did; they had exactly three machines, all of a different brand (sheesh) - Nautilus, Schwinn, and Vision Fitness 6600 (their top of the line commercial model). None of the models folded, nor did they have small footprints, although the Schwinn did have a good feel for its price ($1399). They had the stereotypical "let me talk to the manager" reply when asked for a quote and did not offer any reduction in price, so I will probably not be going back there.

Finally, I decided to try the Vision Fitness models. Unfortunately, the manager of the store we had visited had sold the floor model of the X6200HRT, which was one of my favorite contenders. So I headed out to the location on FM 1960. I tried the various models out:

X6000 - The cheapest by far; decided against it because of the lack of programs, the cable system (in lieu of a motor) for tension control, slightly less smooth motion due to fewer magnets.
X6100 - This system was a marked improvement over the X6000, possessing the full complement of magnets and motorized tension adjustment.
X6200HRT - This system had the features of the X6100 plus the heart rate monitoring, which I came to really like. It also was the lowest price model that featured the "variable durometer footpads" (read: squishy in some spots for more comfort). This was also the step at which visual program monitoring was part of the console display, allowing you to see where you were in the workout and what was coming up. Finally, there was even a limited commercial warranty, which meant I was covered, and then some.
X6600HRT - This is the full blown commercial system and it just seemed unnecessary to spend so much money on it; also, it did not fold, which was a big hit against it.

So, there you have it. I bought the Vision Fitness X6200HRT. It was listed as $1,899 on the web site, but there was a "sale" in the store for $200 off, bringing it down to the low (?) price of $1,699. No, it's not cheap, but it will sit in view of the entertainment center and right now it will mean the difference between exercising and not. So I consider it an investment in my health. They also threw in the exercise floor mat that goes under it, at no extra charge. Note: I simply asked if there was a sale price, so if you are a hard-core haggler, maybe you can do even better.

Note: if you are *really* concerned about cost, call the warehouse where the machines are delivered. When I picked up my machine, I discovered that the warehouse in Houston ("Fitness Unlimited Warehouse", 10516 Old Katy Rd, Suite J, 832.358.1702) had a used/"scratch & dent" area with a horde of good exercise equipment at reduced prices. Live and learn...

Factors to Consider When Shopping for Elliptical Trainers

Will it kill you? Seriously, if you are very unfit, an elliptical trainer can be too much; at the very least, this could make it a very expensive paperweight; at the worst, you keel over dead. I saw someone get on the machine I bought, set it to the lowest intensity, and stop after 6 minutes from exhaustion (but he was really out of shape). Consult your doctor and try it out first.
Weight - Does your machine actually have you enter your weight so it can provide the proper resistance? The machine I bought does, and I consider it a requirement now.
Stride - Some machines provide a short stride length, which can impact the effectiveness of the exercise and possibly cause discomfort. Again, be sure you try before you buy.
Lean - Some machines force you to lean forward slightly; make sure it's not too much for you. Try before you buy.
Noise - Simply put, is it too noisy for where you plan to put it and how you plan to use it, e.g. while watching TV. Some stores have lots of background noise that may make it hard to tell; feel free to ask them to turn down a nearby TV or radio so you can better assess this.
Motion - Try the machine out for at least ten minutes in workout clothes to make sure you like the motion; the longer you try it out, the better.
Heart rate monitoring - Some machines have a wireless strap on HR monitor, some have a grip/pad that you have to grab/touch, some have no HR monitoring. HR monitoring is a personal choice; one possible feature is if there is a program that adjusts resistance to give maintain a target HR. Buy the one that has what you want and make sure it works as advertised; try before you buy.
Incline - Do you want one? Most ellipticals are fixed incline; since an elliptical can vary resistance, this is a feature more common/important for treadmills.
Warranty - There will be separate warranty lifetimes for Frame, Motor/Parts, and Labor. Know what they are.
Return policy - Be aware of this; how long do you have to try it out and return it with a full refund? What delivery/pickup charge, if any, would there be if you returned it?
Delivery/assembly charge - If you are not taking it home and/or assembling it, you will be paying someone else to do this. If you are going to have to move your home, you might want to assemble it yourself so that you know how to take it apart.
Console - does it have the programs you want? Does it provide the feedback you want? Again, try before you buy.
Can it handle your body weight? I am not being facetious. The machine we bought is only rated up to 300 lbs. If you weigh less than 300 lbs. you are probably fine, but if you weigh near that or more, you should double check.

Things to Know When Assembling an X6200 HRT
I chose to pick it up and assemble it myself. The main reason was that I knew I would move at least two more times in the next few years, so I had to know what, if anything, could come apart, and I needed to know the guts of the machine to maintain it properly. It did not hurt that I was saving the $89 delivery and assembly fee (remember, I was in grad school).

To be honest, it's pretty straightforward. The bags of parts were color-coded for the various assembly steps. It would have been silly for me to pay someone to put this together.

Spare parts? There will be a bag full of small screws and two long black plastic guards that are not detailed in the parts manifest. These are the childproof guards that are to protect against little fingers and toes getting caught under the rear roller wheels. Note: if you put these on, you cannot fold the machine (so, I didn't).
Grease - it's a mechanical device, the grease is a good thing. There will be at least one part with a thick grease on it, do not wipe it off. There may be other spots that look greasy. Resist the urge to clean the machine until you are done assembling it. Once it's all put together, you are more than welcome to clean the exposed areas with vigor. By then, the important spots that need grease should be safely covered/concealed.
In step one, when it tells you to "slide" the axle through...yeah right. Slide is not the word. Friction will shut you down pretty quickly. I called the store manager and he confirmed that it's nigh impossible and that he used a tiny amount of lubricant to complete the step when he made the floor models. I used a tiny amount of glycerol/glycerine (water soluble and relatively harmless), just enough to get the bar through, then I cleaned off what remained.
In step four (?), when you are assembling the console/mast, you need to pass wires through the mass. There is a round metal cuff attached to the wires. You are supposed to use the long twist tie in the mast to pull it through. Tie the twist tie to the cuff, and pull the wires up through the mast. Simple enough, but in my case, the frame of the mast was too tight of a fit. I used a long flathead screwdriver to tap the cuff through the tight spot, being very careful not to hit the wires. Then I was able to pull it through normally the rest of the way.

September, 2011, 7.5 Years Later
It's still working perfectly. It has been moved at least four times since the review, two of those moves were across the USA. It has seen long periods in which it was not used, but it has also seen some very heavy use. It has held up well. I have made heavy use of the folding ability of the machine and it has worked great. As for disassembly, it was never necessary, I just folded it up, worked it onto a furniture dolly, then strapped down in the moving truck, as is. That worked well, even with a couple of moves across the country (Texas to Ohio, and back).

The only maintenance I have done is spray some silicon lubricant on the tracks/wheels once to resolve some squeaking. I should probably do that again soon. I would estimate that with regular use you might need to spray more often, say every 6-12 months, but that is pure speculation.

If I had it all over to do again, I would probably have bought this machine.

Knowing What You Eat

2011-09-03T07:17:00.002-05:00

There I was, searching for nutritional data on the internet, something I have done increasingly more often. The usual cycle involved something like this:

Google it
Click on a few sites that sound legitimate
Become dissatisfied with the results due to conflicting or inadequate data
Pick the least worst result or go crawl through a government database

Today, I was looking up something pretty commonplace and simple. I wanted to figure out the complete nutrition in a Rotisserie chicken. I have found myself eating a lot of this stuff recently and I figured, what the heck, I might as well know what is in there.

The usual approach produced the usual results, but I found some slight disagreements in the data.

The Gold Standard for Food Data - The USDA

I am not a professional nutritionist, just someone concerned about their health with and willful enough to smash about the internet looking for what I want to know. And in my wanderings, the most detailed and coherent data comes from the USDA.

As far as I can tell, the USDA is generally *the* reference for food data. They have incredibly detailed information on foods, tabulating about 50 different quantities in the *abbreviated* database. There are many options for accessing this data. Unfortunately, although the current data was last update in 2010, the access methods appear to have all been created back in 1998-2000 (I guess we should thank the Clinton Administration for it).

The page of interest is in the Nutrients section of their site, under Products & Services. If these links go bad due to a website revision, searching for "usda nutrient products services" should get you close to where you want to be.

On the Products & Services page, if you click on "USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference" you will pull up the page with the nifty stuff I mentioned. Then you have lots of cool options:

Search the database online
Download an application to search on your computer
Download the database so you can query it directly (Acess or Excel)

Note: Only the "abbreviated" database can be acquired in Excel format at the moment, but it's probably more than enough data for your needs. It's what I used.

As of the writing of this post, the current database is SR-23, updated in 2010.

Not All Sources Are Created Equal

When we care about an answer, we usually have the presence of mind to ask from where it came. Well, that impulse should be even stronger for a site you might treat as a reference unto itself, like a nutritional database.

The nutritional database site, nutritiondata.self.com, queries the USDA database. As of the writing of this post, it is using a slightly out of data USDA database, SR-21, which was updated in 2008. Should you care? Well, the same USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference page includes links to zip files of the yearly updates, which include PDF documents detailing the changes. Some key changes from SR-21 to SR-23:

A few hundred new foods
Some new listings for beef to reflect additional cuts and grades
Scores of foods have benefited from additional analysis
Chicken breast data was updated based on a more detailed study (how timely!)

Nutritiondata.self.com has some other nice features for visualization and presentation of the data, like their caloric ration pyramid, nutrient balance plot, protein quality plot, etc.

If you think corporations are your best source for nutritional data on their foods, then I have good news for you. Caloriecount.about.com includes corporate information sources. I am skeptical of the veracity of such data, since they have a clear conflict of interest, but that's me.

I personally favor the most current data with the least likelihood of conflict of interest, so I like the USDA database. In a pinch, I would fall back on nutritiondata.self.com's site.

I have not found a smartphone application that I really like, but I admit that I have not looked very hard.

Putting the Data to Use

Well, if you really want to get the most out of it, I recommend picking up a food scale so you can actually measure what you eat. Estimating the amounts can be tricky and even if you are comfortable with it, seeing how much food correlates to a given mass will make your estimates that much more accurate.

I swung by Bed, Bath, & Beyond, and picked up the Oxo Good Grips Food Scale with Pull-Out Display. I chose it for the following feature combination:

11-lb capacity: many only hold 5 lbs and I can easily see exceeding that, especially when you consider that includes the bowl, pan, etc.
Pull-out display: at first glance I thought it was goofy, but I quickly realized that even a standard dinner plate would make it difficult to read the display
Easy to clean: the buttons are sealed with a seamless cover, so a swipe of the sponge should take care of cleaning (and it does)
Removal stainless steel platform for ease of cleaning
Ability to display metric values

Sure, it's $50, but how many times do you plan to buy a kitchen scale and is it worth saving $20-30 over that time to get a crappy one?

As for using the data, that's really a personal choice. As I said, I like the USDA with nutritiondata.self.com as a fallback. Whether you open up a spreadsheet, scribble notes on scrap paper, or just track your daily totals on a dry erase board on your refrigerator, that is up to what works for you.

Closing Thought

Armed with portion size and nutrient data, you can make good, evidence-based decisions about what you eat and insure that you get what your body needs.

I wish you the best in reaching your fitness goals.

Memes Gone Wild - Caramelldansen and the Old Spice Guy

2011-09-01T22:08:00.013-05:00

Earlier this year, I attended my first and only anime convention when I went to A-Kon. It was fun, but I still want to see other cons. Don't worry A-Kon, we'll always have Dallas.

While looking around for (more) local stuff, I stumbled upon the site for animefest.org, a local anime convention here in Dallas that will be happening this Labor Day weekend, i.e., tomorrow through Monday. They actually have a "clubhouse" in the adjacent city/town of Richardson, TX, where they host various activities throughout the year in addition to this gigantic annual convention. I perused the various pages as I contemplated if I wanted to check it out.

One of the more memorable and picture-intensive aspects of the con was the "cosplay" (costume play), where folks dressed up as various characters from anime, fantasy, sci-fi, or internet memes. Something that seemed to happen a lot at A-Kon, including during their cosplay competition, was folks would break into a...bunny dance. I thought little of it and thought it was some anime "in joke" that was from some recent anime with which I was not familiar, which includes a lot of the anime in the last 5 years (my most recent anime interest is Samurai Champloo).

Fast forward back to today.

So, there I was, wandering through the animefest site. I came across their rules for cosplay and one of the rules sort of jumped out as me (well, it was bold faced) as being peculiar. It noted that there would be a limit to "caramelldansen" skits/performances at their big Cosplay event.*

* - This was from the 2010 Animefest rules.

And that is how I discovered what apparently became an official meme in 2008. Well, that is according to knowyourmeme.com and I certainly can't argue with such an auspicious organization. Check out their page on the meme here.

Is it a meme? Well, I can vouch for the anime convention phenomenon that knowyourmeme cites. I saw it many times at A-kon. That song starts to play and people are making rabbit ears and bobbing up and down so rapidly and in such unison that it could easily seed a conspiracy theory about government mind control satellites...controlled by the Swedish government...to make you dance like a bunny to an accelerated Swedish pop song. Devious.

Which leads into a strange occurrence over on Attack of the Show's website for their "memefight", which just wrapped up. The winner was the Old Spice Guy series of commercials. Many commenters lamented this turn of events and I think I can see why, and more so, I get an intuitive feel that it's a bit off.

Note: I am gathering it won from the comments...for some reason the site does not seem to actually indicate a winner and I don't recall the announcement of a winner during the August 29th Attack of the Show...

I say that because, traditionally, a meme is an idea that starts in obscurity and reaches great attention due to the thought, you know, the meme. So, it does seem a bit contrary to declare a clever, professional marketing campaign that launched during one of the most watched television shows in the world (the Superbowl) by a large corporation a meme.

I mean, take caramelldansen. It was just another Swedish pop song. Then some DJ decided to speed it up. Then some other folks decided that, wow, that would be a great song for a bunny-like dance. A strange, off-kilter idea that took off from some really random firings of neurons from multiple citizens of the internet. And yet, I knew about the Old Spice Guy, but I did not know about caramelldansen until today.

Ultimately, memes have no provenance. If the idea resonates with you and you feel compelled to share it with others, it's a meme. It may not be a hardworking, self-made meme from the mean streets of Memetown, USA, but it is still a meme. Sure, it's less impressive than an idea that truly has to survive the Darwinian moshpit that is the internet and rise to the top like a cerebral Thunderdome.

However, the meme born with a silver spoon in its mouth or the result selective breeding is no less powerful.

That said, I think Demotivational Posters, the competitor against Old Spice Guy in the final match, was a much better meme. They have been such a wonderful uninspiring non-influence on my life.

Which leads me to wonder if a meme that is pretty much an ad campaign for a major company can fairly compete, because you have to wonder what corporate resources were brought to bear to essentially squeeze out some very effective marketing by winning the memefight.

My closing thoughts are these:

Accelerated Swedish pop songs can be a potent mind control device
A good marketing campaign can certainly produce a meme
When a major company has great free marketing to gain from skewing a contest...don't be surprised if said contest is skewed or people complain about the result.

And one last thought too big for a bullet point: It's just a contest on a show; memes will not be beheaded based on the results, so take the results with a grain of salt (have a margarita with those grains if you like) and move on to the next entertaining offering from Attack of the Show, because that's why they are there and that's what they do.

Cash for Power in Diablo III?

2011-08-07T07:25:00.000-05:00

GameSpy reports that Diablo III will feature an in game auction house that will allow purchases with real life cash. So, you will be able to buy the best gear in the game with cash, to include accounts/characters, allowing you to literally buy a more in game power with cash.

Not Entirely New

There is already an existing mechanism for such transactions today, but they are handled by shadowy third parties. I believe that it is still technically against the terms of service (ToS). So, even though this is possible today, there is deterrent in the form of a potential ban if you are caught.

Legitimacy = More Transactions

Having a readily available auction house, blessed by Blizzard, will likely have a profound increase the frequency and breadth of such transactions. Not only will it be legitimate, it will be convenient/easy.

This will probably be good news for those selling items, as they should have a huge customer base and much shorter turnaround for sales. Whether that results in more overall profit is uncertain, but it seems likely.

Unusually Apathetic About Gold Farming and Botting

When asked about the prospect of gold farming and botting of characters, Blizzard Executive Vice President Rob Pardo said,

"Yes, it will, and if it does and it doesn't really break the game -- if it gives players what they want -- what do we care? Who are we to interfere?"

I find this somewhat troubling simply because Blizzard works hard to stymie gold farming and character-botting in World of Warcraft, where they do NOT CURRENTLY profit from such sales. They even went so far as to sue a company that made botting software.

So, it seems that when Blizzard is not making money off of it, they think it's a problem, but it appears that when they will make money off of it, then "...what do we care? Who are we to interfere?"

Purity of the Game

I am happy to have everyone have a chance to enjoy the game and have fun, but given that there is a player-vs-player component to the game, this cash for power approach seems really screwed up. Wining in such a situation should be based on your gameplay, not the size of your wallet. And to those that say, "gear isn't everything", get back to me after you have your ass handed to you by someone clearly less skilled because they were pimped out in the very best gear right away because they have more disposable income than you.

A Development Crutch?

Imagine if you have players complaining about their ability to equip their character through regular gameplay. Now imagine how that population might diminish with the addition of the auction house mentioned above. Then imagine how that reality might impact development decisions. I can definitely see this scenario play out:

Customer Service: "We have a lot of complaints that Boss JoJo The Deadly Clown does not drop enough Barbarian items."

Development: "So what? They have the auction house, so there is a path for them to acquire the gear if they have really bad luck. We have more important stuff to develop."

Evil money grubber: "Yeah, and besides, the more screwed up the drop rates are, the more valuable the rare items are, the more reliant players will be on the auction house to get them, and the more money we make." [And this is where he rubs his hands like Mr. Burns]

Basically, the bug becomes a feature as it becomes the more profitable option for them.

Conclusion

It's unsettling. It would be less so if the company did not profit from it. But hey, it's not like I have veto power for Diablo III development decisions, so I guess I'll have to wait and see how it works out like everyone else.

Yelp, Rental Cars, and Breakfast - The Import of First Impressions

2011-07-29T20:00:00.003-05:00

So, what do Yelp, Rental Cars, and Breakfast have in common?

Well, let me start with a tale of travel.

Shortly before my business trip, I was made aware that I needed to be in a different city...different enough that I needed to change my flights, hotel, etc. There is confusion on the part of the American Airlines, and I end up having to take care of it in person at the airport. I have maybe 50 minutes until my desired flight leaves when I get to the desk...no pressure. :P

The person at the airport has never done this. She doesn't reveal that until we are 15 minutes into her unsuccessfully working on it. I reach down and muster up more patience, smile, and roll with the punches, knowing that getting upset will only delay things further.

Eventually, my tickets get sorted and I mange to buy a quickie "to go" breakfast from the restaurant near my gate, where they are already boarding, and squeeze onto the plane on time. The flight is crowded as is often the case nowadays, and I arrive at my destination sore from the contortions of sitting in coach class, but that is normal.

I spot the National rental car shuttle and race up to it, only to find it is full. Fortunately, the next one is not, and I get to the lot. They drop me off in the Emerald Aisle (a free membership that gets you into a car faster), and I am surprised to see that instead of a selection of cars for me to hop in and drive off (just like the commercials), I see a cluster of fellow travelers.

You see, normally, the Emerald Aisle means you get dropped off by a wide variety of cars that you can hop into, drive to the gate, and be on your way in less than 5 minutes. Not today.

So...we wait. There is quite a lot of confusion about who is next...and rain is starting to fall. Did I mention we were not under a cover?

Finally, a car is pulled up for me. I open the trunk to put my bags in and find it is covered in sand and debris. After a short while, another car is brought out. It's not very clean, it's small, and it's a little worse for the wear, but hey, at least it's a Ford with Sync, so I can hook up my music player via USB and rock my way across Connecticut (why does rocking my way across CT sound like cognitive dissonance?).

Did this impact my desire to use American or National? Not one bit. I have had consistently good experiences with them for years. This was absolutely an outlier. And frankly, most of the issues with American started with last minute changes prompted by business requirements. These experiences would need to be repeated before I would question the choice.

And yet, I don't treat restaurants the same way when it comes to Yelp.

I generally won't write off a restaurant from a single visit unless it is a very bad experience. People have good and bad days, and sometimes a bad experience at a restaurant can come down to a single person, whether that be the cook, server, manager, bartender, host, etc.

However, there are many times I will only visit a restaurant once, e.g., when I travel. In such a case, I have to decide if some data is better than no data. Now, as a former scientist, I would prefer a good set of data, but then I remind myself that I am but one data point in a sea of data points and most of those other data points are based on a single experience. So...it should all work out in the end. A generally good restaurant gets better reviews on average and a generally bad restaurant gets worse reviews on average.

For example, while traveling in CT for work, I ventured out to a highly rate place called O'Rourke's Diner for breakfast this week. After a gauntlet of mediocre restaurants, I did not have my hopes very high. The place blew me away. It was awesome and surprisingly Irish. Sure, maybe *you* expected a diner with an Irish name to have Irish food, but I merely expect a diner to have eggs, bacon, and mundane choices of toast. It was really cool to experience what I will call an Irish diner, for want of a better label.

I wish they would build one where I live. If I ever travel in the area again, I will absolutely make an effort to go back. So I gave it five stars! Was it an unusually good day for them? I don't know, but I doubt it. I ended up there because of high ratings and, unlike the other highly-rated places I visited over those few days in CT, this place actually deserved it.

Seriously, if you get anywhere near Middletown, CT, give this place a try. Now, back to the discussion.

Basically, I err on the side of contributing to more data. That means that there is a greater importance placed on the meals I eat when traveling.

It just reinforces the conventional wisdom that first impressions are important. They bias your future experiences.

My experiences with National's Emerald Aisle had been wonderful until this week; that makes me more forgiving of occasional lapses. My experience with American Airlines has also been good. Well, that's relative; being crowded into coach class in a 90%+ full airplane is hard to describe as good...maybe "sucks the least" is a better choice of words. Again, with them I am now forgiving of occasional lapses.

And as for places like O'Rourke's, well, they are off to a great start and if my next visit was not as good, I would be more likely to give them another shot or two before considering adjusting my Yelp rating for them.

So, to all of those businesses where I will be a one-time customer, please do your best to be consistent. Then the first impression will be accurate and the ratings will always be fair. :)