Ramblings of a Hopeless KhowagaRamblings of a Hopeless KhowagaRandom thoughts and round up of the latest international stupidity. Plus descriptions of my travels to exotic and not so exotic places. Brought to you from Austin, Texas. Articles
12 of 12: February 2008
2008-02-13 03:57:00 It’s time for 12 of 12 again! 6:15 AM: Can’t see a bloody thing … that’s better! Disclaimer: my poor vision and the effect of putting in my contact lenses may be enhanced for dramatic effect. 6:47 AM: On the way to pick up Bev I’ve commuted in to work for the past few years with a coworker who lives ...SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "12 of 12: 2008 .html">February 2008 ", url: "http://www.khowaga.us/feeder/?FeederActi on=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&# 38;seed=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.khowaga.us%2Fblo g%2F2008%2F02%2F12%2F12-of-12-february-20 08%2F&seed_title=12+of+12%3A+February +2008" }); More About: Home
Diminishing Returns, or, Pure Terror, Part 2
2008-02-11 22:44:00 Well, since I blogged the experience, I may as well give you all the follow-up. Today we got the results of the Arabic language proficiency tests that we took two weeks ago, and I’m left wanting more. Since I wrote the post from my perspective as the terrorized victim of a Kafka-esque experiment, I may ...SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Diminishing Returns, or, Pure Terror , Part 2", url: "http://www.khowaga.us/feeder/?FeederActi on=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&# 38;seed=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.khowaga.us%2Fblo g%2F2008%2F02%2F11%2Fdiminishing-returns- or-pure-terror-part-2%2F&seed_title=D iminishing+Returns%2C+or%2C+Pure+Terror%2 C+Part+2" }); More About: Home
Links for 2008-02-10 [del.icio.us]
2008-02-11 07:00:00 Universities Rush to Set Up Outposts Abroad The American system of higher education, long the envy of the world, is becoming an important export as more universities take their programs overseas. More About: Links , 2008
Custody Issues
2008-02-11 00:28:00 I know people are going to see the title of this post and freak out: “OMG, you’re not splitting up with Ray?” No, not quite the type of custody issues I’m talking about. I’m currently in lazy-Sunday mode. I need to do laundry but won’t, the dog needs a bath and might get one ...SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Custody Issues ", url: "http://www.khowaga.us/feeder/?FeederActi on=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&# 38;seed=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.khowaga.us%2Fblo g%2F2008%2F02%2F10%2Fcustody-issues%2F 8;seed_title=Custody+Issues" }); More About: Weird , Just , Plain
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2008-02-10 07:00:00 The Other Iran Lost in Esfahan, the old Persian capital, an American finds a mostly friendly welcome in bazaars, teahouses and even a madrasa. A View of Pueblo Life From the Inside Cabañas offer the best way to get a deeper glimpse of life in Oaxaca’s small pueblos than is possible in a day trip. More About: Links , 2008
Bicycling like a fish out of water
2008-02-09 23:08:00 And herein is the post where I describe my evening with the Palestinian Prime Minister. If you’re crazy or really, really interested, the School of Public Affairs posted a Webcast of the speech. Don’t bother looking for me, I’m way out of frame to the right, and I like it that way. The Director and Chair of my department had both received invitations from the hosts of the event, and neither particularly wanted to go, for various reasons (I won’t go into them here). Hence, I was sent as the official representative of the unit, and showed, dressed to the nines with invitation in hand. Because of who the guest of honor was, there was a lengthy line to get in, as well as a near-strip search at the door complete with guard dogs and metal detectors, and the way that the crowd control worked was that everyone who wanted to get in had to wait in a very long line outside the building. I arrived 45 minutes early and started waving around the invitation from the Dea... More About: Fish , Water , Bicycling
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2008-02-07 07:00:00 He Says It's Greek. Will Mother Agree? In just two years, Mr. Psilakis, a chef and an owner of two Manhattan restaurants, has redrawn the city’s map of Greek cuisine, breaching the wall of tradition in several places. Recipe: Hummus With Sun-Dried Tomatoes Buttermilk in a pinch? Add some vinegar to your milk (and other emergency substitutions) - Slashfood Everyone's been there. You're going along, assembling the ingredients for your cake, and...your heart sinks. More About: Links , 2008
Good News, Bad News, Red News, Blue News
2008-02-07 03:42:00 Where to begin? So, a bit of good news to start off the day. Since before Christmas, we’ve all been pre-occupied with the black cloud hanging over our office: namely, that one of our junior professors was denied tenure. There’s been a lot of back-and-forthing, furtive meetings, behind the scenes negotiations, falling on various swords, and today the president’s tenure committee met and unanimously agreed to reverse the decision and grant him tenure. The “this never happens” quotient is extremely high — I’ve known lots of cases where people didn’t get tenure, but I’ve never actually heard of one where a reconsideration was actually made successfully. The meeting must have taken no time at all because we had word by 10 this morning. It was quite a nice start to the day. Which segued right into nearly immediate frustration. I have a colleague in another department who is very sweet except when she’s not, and today was... More About: News , Good News , Bad News , Blue , Good
Links for 2008-02-05 [del.icio.us]
2008-02-06 07:00:00 Graphic novels at Words Without Borders at The Arabist Words Without Borders is running a series of excerpts from graphic novels from around the world this month, including two from Egypt and Lebanon Australia Is Doomed: Seven Reasons Why Australia is the Most Apocalyptic Country Ever since On the Beach was published in 1957, Australia has been the country we think of when we think "global apocalypse." Making a Great Arab City What are the enduring characteristics that make a city meaningful, rather than only comfortable and efficient? And what do Arab cities in the Gulf and elsewhere offer beyond rapid growth? More About: Links , 2008
Death to Priority Flags
2008-02-05 15:00:00 I’ve been sitting on the fence for a while now, and it’s time for me to take a stand: I hate e-mail priority flags. I think they’re stupid and rude. There! I said it. When you send me an e-mail with a little priority flag, you’re not telling me that the message is important to me. You’re telling me that it’s important to you, and that you think that it should also be important to me. But it might not be. It might be mundane. And a special note to my former co-worker whose response to my “please stop sending me stupid forwarded messages” was “if you don’t want to read it, you can delete it:” no message that contains the phrase “OMG this is so funny” deserves a priority flag, no matter how hard you laughed. If Microsoft really cared about making e-mail more user friendly, they’d allow me to flag my own messages as a priority as easily as you can tell me that it ought to be. Who cares what you thi... More About: Death , Priority
Links for 2008-02-04 [del.icio.us]
2008-02-05 07:00:00 Do you speak Ikea? Here's a fun game for all the family. Can you identify these items from the world's favourite purveyor of stylish but affordable home furnishings, namely Ikea of Sweden? More About: Links , 2008
Links for 2008-02-03 [del.icio.us]
2008-02-04 07:00:00 The Mindset of the Class of 2011 Most of the students entering College this fall, members of the Class of 2011, were born in 1989. For them, Alvin Ailey, Andrei Sakharov, Huey Newton, Emperor Hirohito, Ted Bundy, Abbie Hoffman, and Don the Beachcomber have always been dead. 8 Microstock Websites and "What the Hell is Microstock anyway?" Micro stock, is that stock photography of only Macro photographs or photos of microscopic thingies? More About: Links , 2008
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2008-02-03 07:00:00 Science Fiction Politics: Five Ways 9/11 Changed Science Fiction As the United States has cracked down on civil liberties at home, and invaded nations abroad, in the name of national security, a crop of futuristic and fanciful tales have sprung up to satirize and justify "the war on terror." 36 Hours in Cairo Cairo is third world and first world, Islamic world and pharaonic world, a teeming city that jars all the senses, all at once. More About: Links , 2008
Pure Terror
2008-02-02 23:43:00 I sit outside the room in the warm, muggy hallway, looking at my watch. Someone was supposed to be out here, dammit, but I’m waiting by myself. There’s a window in the door, so I know I’m outside the right room, and the instructions were clear: wait outside until someone comes out to ...SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Pure Terror ", url: "http://www.khowaga.us/feeder/?FeederActi on=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&# 38;seed=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.khowaga.us%2Fblo g%2F2008%2F02%2F02%2Fpure-terror%2F&s eed_title=Pure+Terror" }); More About: Home
Maybe I shoulda been more specific
2008-01-31 14:58:00 When I was a girl, I used to wish that when I grew up I would be surrounded by beautiful men, and I am, and I should have been more specific. –Quintessential fag hag Margaret Cho I am thinking this morning of this lovely quote by Empress Margaret because of an e-mail that was waiting for me in my (apparently exceeding its limit) inbox this morning. Right after Christmas, I sent a letter of inquiry off to a Very Large, Very Rich Foundation (VLVRF). A rep from VLVRF had shown up at a meeting I was attending in Montréal and practically begged people who do what I do to send them ideas for funding (i.e., our ideas, their funding) because–and she only said this about three zillion times as she talked–”We really don’t know what we’re looking for, but we have all this money.” Cha-ching! So, the second day back in the office after the holiday (obviously, I couldn’t send it on the first day back — that would just be obnoxious), I sen... More About: Specific
Links for 2008-01-29 [del.icio.us]
2008-01-30 07:00:00 Super Bowl Week: Sarah's Sticky Chicken Wings More About: Links , 2008
Parallelland
2008-01-29 18:55:00 Over the past few days, I have come to suspect that I am actually living in a parallel universe from the rest of existence. This wouldn’t actually surprise me, and would to a large degree be rather reassuring to find that there really is something wrong with the universe instead of having to reconcile ... SHARETHIS.addEntry( { title: "Parallelland", url: "http://www.khowaga.us/feeder/?FeederActi on=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&# 38;seed=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.khowaga.us%2Fblo g%2F2008%2F01%2F29%2Fparallelland%2F& seed_title=Parallelland" } );
You can?t go wining again
2008-01-28 15:45:00 Over the past couple of weeks, I seem to have come up against numerous things that I have reminded me of how long I’ve been in Texas: in August, it will be 10 years. Another reminder popped up over the weekend. Yesterday, Ray and I drove up to Dallas for Ray’s godson’s 9th birthday party. ... SHARETHIS.addEntry( { title: "You can’t go wining again", url: "http://www.khowaga.us/feeder/?FeederActi on=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&# 38;seed=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.khowaga.us%2Fblo g%2F2008%2F01%2F28%2Fyou-cant-go-wining-a gain%2F&seed_title=You+can%26%238217% 3Bt+go+wining+again" } ); More About: Home
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2008-01-28 07:00:00 What's Cholesterol Got to Do With It? THE idea that cholesterol plays a key role in heart disease is so tightly woven into modern medical thinking that it is no longer considered open to question. The Simple Life First, we must understand where our true values lie and focus on them. Then, we must take time to enjoy the simple things, and slow down and see what?s right in front of us. More About: Links , 2008
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2008-01-27 07:00:00 The Frugal Traveler - Hawaii on a Dime More About: Links , 2008
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2008-01-26 07:00:00 Social relationships in the Bible graphed Crazy Things to do in Hawaii (Big Island) More About: Links , 2008
A Little Light Reading?
2008-01-25 15:00:00 I was out of the office yesterday, and didn’t start my computer at home, either (a very rare thing for me to do). When I booted up my computer this morning, I got this intriguing bit of information: Yes, in the menu bar, my newsfeed indicator is, in fact telling me that I have -2,147,483,616+ unread ... SHARETHIS.addEntry( { title: "A Little Light Reading ?", url: "http://www.khowaga.us/feeder/?FeederActi on=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&# 38;seed=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.khowaga.us%2Fblo g%2F2008%2F01%2F25%2Fa-little-light-readi ng%2F&seed_title=A+Little+Light+Readi ng%3F" } ); More About: Weird , Home , Just , Plain
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2008-01-24 07:00:00 Chipotle White Beans by Isabel Cruz If there are any leftovers, they make delicious burritos with pulled chicken. Arabic Machine Manuscript | BibliOdyssey More About: Links , 2008
Links for 2008-01-22 [del.icio.us]
2008-01-23 07:00:00 Strangest but Truest Posts of 2007 in TheBody.com's "Ask the Experts" Forums - The Body Hawaiian Marinated Seared Chicken Cappuccino Brownies More About: Links , 2008
Never Nuthin’ On
2008-01-23 01:17:00 I know that there are weightier things going on in the world that I should address in today’s post. My friend Michael lost one of his best friends over the weekend. Heath Ledger was found dead this afternoon. The economy is in a shambles, and Da Prez continues to insist that everything is just fine. Well, here’s the thing. I’ve given Michael my condolences already in private. I didn’t actually know Heath personally (I mean, it’s a shame he’s dead, but there’s little I can say beyond “Wow. I’m so surprised. I can’t believe he’s dead. What a shame.”). And one of the very few advantages to working in the public sector is that I have absolutely no money to put in the stock market, and my job is fairly recession-proof. So, I’m going to talk about something of absolutely no consequence: the alternate reality portrayed upon The Travel Channel. I’ve mentioned a few times over the past few months th...
Links for 2008-01-20 [del.icio.us]
2008-01-21 07:00:00 Presidential milkshakes Sean T. Collins of Attention Deficit Disorder has created a presidential milkshake list that tells you all you need to know about the candidates. The Ugliest Memorials in Washington DC You've seen the bumper stickers leftists put on their car saying, "Honor the warrior, not the war"? Think of this post as "Honor the warrior, but not with an ugly-ass memorial." CSS Gradient Text Effect Do you want to create fancy headings without rendering each heading with Photoshop? Here is a simple CSS trick to show you how to create gradient text effect with a PNG image (pure CSS, no Javascript or Flash). HOWTO Apple ITunes Server - Gentoo Linux Wiki Hackszine.com: Run an iTunes (DAAP) server in Linux with Firefly This one's better More About: Links , 2008
Links for 2008-01-19 [del.icio.us]
2008-01-20 07:00:00 Adventure Guide to Mexico BEYOND the sunbathers, cervezas and spring break debauchery so conspicuously on display in Cancún and Cozumel, Mexico offers a lesser-known adventure experience ? the kind that is found deep in the jungle or near small fishing villages and offshore ree The Construction Site Called Saudi Arabia The project is Saudi Arabia?s boldest bet yet that this oil-rich kingdom can transform itself into an industrial powerhouse. Violence fear over Islam film The Dutch government is bracing itself for violent protests following the scheduled broadcast this week of a provocative anti-Muslim film by a radical right-wing politician who has threatened to broadcast images of the Koran being torn up and otherwise de Nigella Recipes : Go Get 'Em Smoothie This is truly a weekday special: a breakfast that combines food and drink for people who don't feel they've even got time to sit down in the morning. More About: Links , 2008
I Need a Moment of Self-Pity
2008-01-18 23:42:00 So, I just got home from the doctor’s office. I had an appointment scheduled for last thing on a Friday afternoon because I have a skin tag right under my eyelid, and they have to freeze it off–a process that will, apparently, cause me to have a black eye. It was also time ... SHARETHIS.addEntry( { title: "I Need a Moment of Self-Pity ", url: "http://www.khowaga.us/feeder/?FeederActi on=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&# 38;seed=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.khowaga.us%2Fblo g%2F2008%2F01%2F18%2Fi-need-a-moment-of-s elf-pity%2F&seed_title=I+Need+a+Momen t+of+Self-Pity" } );
Meditations on 10 Years
2008-01-18 01:41:00 A student came to see me today in my office. This isn’t a particularly rare occurrence, as my office looks out onto a reading area where various students congregate. It’s been a while since I’ve had a student come to me to ask for feedback on a particular professor, though. One of ... SHARETHIS.addEntry( { title: "Meditations on 10 Years ", url: "http://www.khowaga.us/feeder/?FeederActi on=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&# 38;seed=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.khowaga.us%2Fblo g%2F2008%2F01%2F17%2Fmeditations-on-10-ye ars%2F&seed_title=Meditations+on+10+Y ears" } );
Geek Alert!
More articles from this author:2008-01-17 22:37:00 New photos from the set of the second X-Files movie inspire ridiculous amounts of glee in yours truly. I should be embarrassed … but I’m not … SHARETHIS.addEntry( { title: "Geek Alert !", url: "http://www.khowaga.us/feeder/?FeederActi on=clicked&feed=Articles+%28RSS2%29&# 38;seed=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.khowaga.us%2Fblo g%2F2008%2F01%2F17%2Fgeek-alert%2F&se ed_title=Geek+Alert%21" } ); More About: Asides 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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