apple F for audio tracks (and then video ones)

I am listening to E.V.R. (i think) specifically the Mark Ronson 'Authentic Shit' podcast. And I just discovered that I have a new need. I was excited when I found out that you could use apple F (or control for you haters) to search through adobe or .pdf files. Using ascii code to search through an image. swank, with increasingly high fidelity files (and with file size/storage space becoming less and less of an issue) i suppose an inevitability.

but now i am listening to this podcast and all of this talk talk talk and i am waiting for the lily allen cover/diss of britney's womanizer and i want to jump to the point. So some assholes (microsoft? bell? etc?) are developing voice recognition software and I want them to include the apple F feature. i want to type in a word and then i want your software to scan through the audio file to find my query. got it?

and then do it for video files.

in the swing of things

• current

planning the family reunion. it will be the first time since last xmas that the doylesons will
be together if you know what i mean. so i am thinking we will go down to chi town for 3 nights.
michigan ave. museums. hotel. you know what's up.

• working

yeesh. i am working for UPS as a driver helper.
marcus does the driving and i do the helping. he tells me funny stories and scans most of the
packages and is a good person. i descend from the truck and bring your package to you
as fast as possible.

• listening

arthur king summer 2008
t pain ringleader and cant believe it remix
east village radio the let out thksgiving podcast

• reading

the brief and wonderous life of oscar wao (thx grady)
interdisciplines.org
wired.com
coolhunting.com

• watching

transporter 3
rachel getting married

• news

talking to an italian in paris.
talking to an american in chicago (or minneapolis)
waiting to talk to an aussie down under.
looking for jobs.


getting ready to go to saint paul this weekend. i feel bad telling marcus that i'm gonna take friday
off... but such is life. group birthday party. maybe get in touch with an old acquaintance.
i'll keep ya posted

• end

Pictures that aren't mine

tru dat
dont you think?
yes
watch me
burnt
for me?

red moon
fan mail
zine
cuz
mit
xray
wax

Yes, Ohio is flat.

• current

Getting a letter ready for another job application. I have sent my stuff out to a few places, with mixed results so far.

D.E. Shaw, the hedge fund in NYC is not interested.
Epic, the local healthcare IT provider is interested.

I'm still waiting to hear from Google (in Cali) and the Madison-based C.O.W.S. (Center on Wisconsin Strategy).
I'm also thinking about applying to Gallup (In London or elsewhere). I've got a good feeling right now, and I think I will apply for a few more places before the week's end.

• listening

106.7 and i'm not happy about it. send help.

• reading

the axemaker's gift. A historic and cultural explanation of science and technology (and civilization).

turn of the screw. an old school ghost story

chessplayer's challenge. can you mate on the move? on two? on three? yes, yes, and please sir i'd like some more

• watching

bottle rocket. i think this is wes anderson's first flick. it's subtle, but i like.

• news

Just went with ma mere to ohio to visit mik at oberlin. The campus is amazing, much larger than i expected and generally quite elegant (yeahhh the conservatory isn't that swell). it was fun to hang with mik and meet his friends/roommates/etc. we went to a play "bug" that was terribly cliche, but performed well by the students. we also went to friendly's and then target, which was probably the worst 1-2 combo known to any woman or man.

i also have been applying to jobs, see above.

• end

unless i get the gig with google- i'm gonna try to swing a job abroad, so wish me luck!send me some ideas of where i should work if you have any, i am pretty opennnn. maybe.

hanging out with Obama

• current

the only organized activity i have in my life is the time i spend hanging out with obama. last week my dad and i made some phone calls for the campaign at HQ on monroe st. we cold called people and asked them who they were supporting for prez, and then tried to convince them to support mr O. of the 60 calls i made that night, only about 12 people picked up and only 4 of them weren't nuts.

i liked bothering people so much that i went and did it again on saturday and again this wednesday. on wednesday i brought PhD Patrick with me to keep that mac connection live (we graduated together). on saturday i also went door to door registering people to vote. i signed 8 people up, including one former felon who thought he would never be able to vote again.

the (volunteer) work is actually pleasant- it reminds me of my days recruiting and running people for experiments in the psych lab. no matter how funny they respond, i'm just keep plugging along.

so tomorrow morning i am gonna wake up and help Obama out some more.

• listening

1 in 3 things that thefader.com posts
plus a lot of Public Radio International :Social Entrepreneurship
would be thrilled to find some more schtuff

• reading

still Feingold.
plus theselby.com
also some brookings.edu

• watching

lost and for the first time,
arrested development.
and it's football season, so that's a plus.

• news

really what is there to say here? no news is good news.
i'm getting my resume ready and then we'll talk

• end

It's a Midwest Thang

• current

In Madison settling into my apartment and domestic life in general after spending a long week at the cabin and in the Twin Cities.

• listening

ratatat's new LP3
diplo's SANTO mixtape
tricky's new knowle west boy
plus spanish/and public radio podcasts

• reading

a russ feingold biography. i think this is the first biography i have read in years ...
the writing is pretty bad but feingold is interesting enough to make it happen. he was a Rhodes scholar. wish i was cool enough to be one too.

• watching

can't wait to watch the Brothers Solomon again with my brothers. it was pretty HILARIOUS

• news

spend some time at the cabin 2 weeks ago with nis and scott. it was perfect and relaxing


then i spent some time in saint paul catching up with EVERYBODY: nis & emma, paul & marina, scott & sonia, will, wes, rebecca, rachel, kristina, brooke, aaron, majid oh yeah and said goodbye to grace before she left.

now i am back in madison with the fam, living the glamorous life.

• end

movies with dad tomorrow. nick's birthday on saturday. i might get deputized to register voters on saturday morning. who knows what else is coming around the corner?

All better

• current

I'm back at home the first thing I did was to fall sick. But by today I think I'm in tip top form. I spent the week catching up with the brothers, spending time with the parents, meeting up with a few friends, etc. Started looking at apartments, but now there's a chance I'll be in Saint Paul, another Al Futtaim venture ... I think I'd rather spend my time in Madison. Well at least most of it.
I'm still adjusting to the time zones, which means I can't stay awake past 11PM and wake up every morning at 6 or 7. It's actually great to be awake in the morning, especially this time of year. The morning is the coolest time of day and the park is completely green. Grady and Ian have started their practices for soccer and >cc>, in fact I caught Grady getting ready this morning.

• listening

went to the best place ever, strictly discs, and picked up some santogold (self titled) and lykke li (youth novels). waiting on some ratatat and tricky to come in. i'm excited to have a decent music shop around again ...

• reading

How to Make Friends and Oppress People: Classic Travel Advice for the Gentleman Adventurer.

It's 19th century travel advice from various british gents, pretty great.

• watching

lost & CSI. With the fam. Got hooked on Lost with the cuz in Jordan and CSI has always been a classic.

• news

Scott and Sonia came thru today on their way to a Joanna Newsome concert in Chicago.
I took them to the Med Cafe and it was grrreat. Showed them around the city, but it was a pretty brief visit.

Next week I'm going up to the cabin with some of my friends from Mac. we're gonna be up there for a realll long weekend and I am pretty excited. I might also come thru Saint Paul for a bit, but I dunno how long? kinda depends on some other stuff going on (aka maybe another "job")

• end

mik is going to oberlin on monday so tonight we are going out for the classic family dinner. I think Adeline and Homewrecker will be there so it should be pretty classic. Too bad base will miss out.

WAOWWW

• current

I am looooving Jordan. The history, the people, the family, the friends. Spending time with the cuz and her fam is excellent and I am really getting to do some good tourism. Plus we went out and spent some time in the diplomatic community tonight, which was new and enlightening for me.

• news

today Lara and I went to Petra. Petra is an old Nabatean city, full of buildings carved into the sandstone gorge and mountains. I think that Indiana Jones might have been filmed there ...
One of the first buildings you see when you enter the site.
The end of the walk thru the gorge, right as you open onto the ...
treasury. an amazing building carved into the side of this stone wall/gorge/cliff
Whether you can tell or not, the best hiking shoes I had were converse ... but I survived.


the city in the hills, literally.

It was a great day, good to have Lara with. She just graduated in Bio from JMU. We talked about religion & science, life in a divorced family, she filled me in on what it's like to be the daughter of a diplomat. Plus she is an activist (esp. with coal issues in the virginias) and she told some stories about her being arrested during an "action" as well as some about less fortunate activists from all over the world.

it was a 3 hour drive to and from petra, and we were both sleeping each way. but as soon as we returned we each took a muchhhh needed shower and went over to another diplomat's for dinner. but it was actually a pizza party for the kids of the american diplomats in amman. so it was a fun mix of watching kids scream and eat pizza combined with talking to various men and women about their experiences abroad. One man was headed for a year in Iraq while his wife and kids waited in Jordan. Another family had just been evacuated from Yemen. It was their first deployment in the foreign services and they had been there for a month or so. Then one day Al Qaeda shot mortar rounds at the US Embassy. They missed and hit the girls' school that is next door. The next morning the media said that "Clearly some of the familes at the school are having serious disputes with one another." ..... yah. Shortly thereafter the same people started hitting the US living compound with shells... so everyone was evacuated. The family was supposed to spend 2 years in Yemen, but now they have been reassigned for 2 in Jordan.
So it was fun and amazing to hear about what everyone had done and is doing today. Then, just before we were about to leave, we were interrupted by bottlerockets, firecrackers, music, and cheering as a wedding parade passed outside the apartment window.

After that, Michael took Lara and I to the Embassy for a going away party (for a marine gunnery sergeant). It is the first time that I have ever been to an Embassy and it was cool being hosted by the RSO (he runss the security for the whole place and is the boss of all of the marines). we talked with some other diplomats, alllmost met the ambassador, and met head of the CIA for the area. the party was in the Marines' living area, which was a little weird, but everyone was nice and I think we left before the party really took off.

• end

I am having a lot of fun walking through the desert every day, being a tourist. I am also enjoying experiencing life in the world of diplomats, ever if for a short time. Plus it's great getting to know my cousin and her family better. They are very easy to get a long with and lots of fun, I wish that I was staying longer than 5 nights!!! That said, I am excited to go back to WI.

they're everywhere they're everywhere.

• IAN CAME TO DUBAI

check out the news section for pics.

• current

I'm in Amman, visiting the extended fam. Staying with my cousin Maria and her husband plus their 3 little girls. Both work for the Embassy, I think I am going to go check it out this week (I've never been to a U.S. Embassy before...). He's worked in embassy security for 20+ years and she has been a political officer for the last 10. They are coming from working in Syria, which was a much older place, with more attacks, and a much smaller embassy. The US Embassy in Jordan is large in part because Jordan receives a lot of US aid; for it's 'support' on Israel and it's support on Iraq. Currently, the US embassy in Jordan it also acts as the US Embassy for Iraq and is the staging point for everything US that goes to Iraq.

I'm here visiting/meeting the fam and doing some tourist things for a few days before I head back to the states. Thankfully Al Futtaim arranged my travel so that I am flying straight back to the states from Amman.

I'm staying with the fam in a rulllly nice embassy apt. From there I went to the Citadel and the Roman theatre this morning.

Amman is veryyy different from Dubai. It's older. The aiport is kind of a dump and a lot of the buildings here are falling apart. But it's more of a city. The population here is more homogenous, all arabic (lots of palestinians), and not so many english speakers (which makes cab rides a lot more interesting. and impossible). I learned approx. 0 arabic while in dubai, and what i did learn is more appropriate for teasing 14 yr olds and not fit for everyday conversation.
sooo i am learning the basic basics on a need to know basis and borrowing cell phones to call my cousin for help. it's as simple as that, ya turkey.



Amman is a city of jebels (hills) that are all covered in small houses and shops and roads. None of it strikes me as very modern, but Maria assures me that it's newer than Damascus. The citadel is on top of Jebel al-Qal'a. Here I am in front of Hercules' Temple. My visit to the site happened at high noon in August, so believe it or not there weren't many fellow tourists there to snap my pic. So I did my best with the timer ...
I think this is a pretty good one. I'm siting in front of an Umayyad palace here. My brain is supersaturated, there's not much space for new information to enter. I'm not entirely sure of what I saw today. BUT the Umayyads were a group of people that lived here a long time ago. The site included the palace, a mosque (just the ruins), a bathhouse, a HUGE well, plus the remains of a Byzantine church.

Then I went to an old Roman theatre. I guess an American was shot there recently and we aren't supposed to go, but whooops. The stadium seating at the theatre goes up pretty high and is very steep. The stairs are very small and made of a soft stone that is falling apart. Basically, with my fear of heights and my sandals I was quickly terrified as I ascended the monument. I didn't fall, or get shot, and I am safe and sound writing you this wonderful note.

After that I went for a late lunch with Maria and the older 2 girls at the Wild Jordan. The cab drivers did not have any idea how to get to the place thought and it was mos def an ordeal. But I made it and it was an interesting little tourist info place. Built with US $$$ and obviously catering to westerners. After lunch I dipped out and took a walk along Rainbow Road. A semi-happening road that featured lots of furniture galleries, book stores, cafes, falafel places, and gun shops. I wandered far enough along the road to find King Hussein's club and then the Iraqi Embassy (not the US embassy for Iraq that is in Amman right now, but Iraq's Embassy). At that point I figured it was time to turn around so I did and came back home (again with taxi difficulty).

Tonight my cousin's husband's daughter from his first marriage is coming into Amman. She is 22 too, which means I'll have a partner in crime for most of the rest of the week.

Tomorrow: Jerash & Aljun
Thursday: Petra
Friday: Petra &/or Dead Sea
Saturday: US of A

• news

Ian Doyle Olson came to Dubai. To visit me. Isn't he a sweetheart? We were talking on the phone and I said, "You should come." and he said, "Ok." Within 2 days (or 3 depending on how you count, teeny) he was there and then we spent not quite a week haaaaangin out. We slept a lot. Ate a lot of realllly healthy food (you'll probably see some very charming pics of me/us on his fbook soon). Watched some Olympics, at really weird hours of the day. I introduced him to the Malls of Dubai, the room service of Sofitel, Dune Bashing, plus riding on camels/driving go karts in the desert, belly dancing, etc. We also went to the Dubai museum which was pretty nice and kind of saw the Burj Al Arab (7 star hotel), they don't let you come onto the grounds unless you pay a looot of money. We also drove out onto the Palm Jumeira, but it was hard to see anything because it was after sunset during a sandstorm. The most important part of the trip was our SUIRP movie. It doesn't really counter but instead compliments the famous SPHYNX.
Suirp chronicles a toy prius as is breaks into the evil SOFITEL hq and narrowly escapes a thuggish guard and near death. Ian gets most of the credit for this masterpiece. I was only the cameraman. Sometimes.

• end

I spent the whole summer in a desert and today is the first time I got a sunburn. We were never outside long enough in Dubai to get burnt and in my effort to abandon all unnecessary items I left the sunscreen before coming to sunny Jordan. Back home on Saturday and reallllly looking forward to it. I am exhausted.

no work and all play

• current

Finally done with work! We had our presentation on wednesday and it went very well. Brett did a good job of prepping us and we actually rehearsed a fair amount.

with a bit of work, i finally sorted out a trip to jordan. because of no visa, i probably won't be able to make it to pakistan. i leave for jordan on the 11th and then come back to madison on the 16th. i already have a lonely plant for jordan, so amman and petra are already on the list. i think my cousin may recommend one or two more places, but i have less than a week there.

by contrast, i have more than a week here in dubai and not that much to do. i will go to the gym, read books, watch movies, and hopefully visit some more with other mac kids. Soham is back in dubai now, Haider and I had dinner with him before Haider left (yup, he's back in pakistan so i am flying solo here).

• news

pictures for you from france.


there was a rollerblading party
we found cool drawings at the pompidou

we went out for sushi (the mango and crab was the best)

fam on the arc de triomphe, with eiffel tower in the background
a little whirl on the ferris wheel

and then we had some burgers.

France was the perfect vacation. It came just when I needed it and it was good to be with the sibs. And I know that I've told all of you this by now, but the weather was perfect.

I think I am gonna find some museums to go to this week and head over to Jumeirah (the palm and the madinat) and who knows what else? early morning at the beach? desert bbq? mountains of fujairah? i'm sure i'll find something.

i think i found an apartment for madison, if the poster responds to my email. now it's time to start thinking about plans for the spring/fall 09. another country? job/fellowship? hmmmm

• end

no end in sight

back in the USA ... eventually

• current

i've returned to dubai from paris. took a nap this afternoon (5 to 9 pm, whups) which has amplified my jetlag. wrote a paper for work tonight. [editor's note. as i finish this entry i am forced to point out that i am suffering the consequences of the light nap. it is 5 in the morning and i don't think i will sleep tonight]

still no computer. the service center here sent it to europe for repair, now it's there waiting for a part. the computer i am using is my roommate's and doesn't have the processing capacity to deal with pictures, so those will have to wait.

i've just a short time left in dubai, until i move on to my next destination (yet to be decided). the choices are jordan, pakistan, usa, and anywhere else. i have to wait a few days to receive my stipend and then i will start booking tixxx.

our final presentation is this wednesday, and our preparation is still in its infancy (honestly it's younger, still just a twinkle in my eye...) the head honcho, however, is now in paris and may not return in time for our presentation. this is frustrating because, the whole purpose of this internship is to instill a sense of business responsibility in academic youths. but if our role model (presumably the CEO) is not modeling good behavior, well then however are we to learn?

• news

i think it will be easiest to share with you excerpts of my journal...from france. from here. whenever. I keep a journal and a blog because the process and product of writing are significantly more rewarding than the output of typing. i can reach more of you, however, via typing.

JULY 20
Sunday in Paris. Slept in LATE today. til 12 and didn't leave the hotel until 2:30. The hotel is at the Saint Paul metro near le Marais and la Bastille. It's a good neighborhood. Lots of restaurants, markets, and shops. It's on Rivoli and we can walk to Pompidou and the Louvre with no problem.

We went to the Louvre, saw the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, plus an open statue area that I had never visited before. We went to check email and buy tix for the underground train to London, but they were too $BANK$. We went to Pompidou next. I was worried because I was sick of it last time. But I walked thru backwards and it had some new rooms.
"Is that Jeff Bloomin?"
Basically it was more exciting that I expected. Then we came back towards St. Paul and had sushi for din-din. The maki was soso but the crab & mango cali rolls were delicious.

We came back to the hotel for a refresher and then walked thru the wondrously winding
streets of la Bastille (mostly w/bars and restaurants)full of young peeps - even @ 11pm on a Sunday!

It's a lot of fun being with Casey and Michael, telling each other jokes from the Office & Tim and Eric Awesome Show, checking out each others' newest fashion sense & whateva. Paris is to me everything that Dubai isn't - a city with history, museums, architecture, new fashion, very beautiful people, neighborhoods to walk thru, etc!

and the weather today was perfect.

JULY
22
u nvr axd me, "()"

I want some juice, with ice. My own room, my friends, a cinema, money, a bagel with cream cheese, turkey, spinach, and cheddar. SPACE TIME PURPOSE ACTIVITY POWER INFLUENCE ATTENTION


cramped

• end

this is, in fact, jeff bloomin. in case any of you wondered.

i have more things to tell you, about Dubai and work today and some books. But I have a lot of morning in front of me.

family reunion

• current

packing for france! trying to do laundry and take care of my travels docs before i leave for the airport at 10. also i wanted to post here and send out some emails, i won't be on the internet much while in paris.

• news

still no working laptop. and since i lost my ipod, now i am using one of the shuffles. it's actually pretty convenient. the price for the nano isn't that much more, but you can't beat the minimal design of the shuffle.

this week we worked at ACE and one day with Marks and Spencers. At Ace we didn't have that much to do, but it was fun to see. We were hosted by a great guy from South Africa, who is currently the retail operations manager but before used to be the personal chef to the president of South Africa. intresting, huh? While at Ace we also went out to the Jebel Ali Free Zone and saw some of the logistics and SCM that Al Futtaim outsources. The company we met was by far the scariest of the summer. They are a huuuuge global solutions provider. They will transport anything for you, at a price. Their rep. was telling us about the live sharks, fish, WHALES, tigers, and lions that they are currently transporting into Dubai. Next up are penguins and polar bears. But shhhhh! don't tell everyone because a lot of the environmental people don't like that kind of thing. Other than animal transport, they mentioned they sub-contract to some other companies when they need *other* flexible transport solutions, especially ones that cross international borders. the nice aspect was that when we went to lunch, we did get to meet the group president. who woulda thunk it?

what else? I'm trying to coordinate with my cousin Maria to go visit her in Jordan in early August. She's actually in Wisconsin right now, visiting the rest of the family, but she will be back soon. Working on finding a place to live in Madison for the fall, the tricky part is that I only want to live on the East Side and require a pretty flexible lease. Any takers out there?

Last night we went out with another friend from Mac, Proma - Iwas her mentor this past year- and some of her friends from work (French folks). We were of different ages, so we had some trouble getting into the venues, but one place finally let us in and we found out it was one of the top 10 bars in the world! we had a littttttle bit of trouble finding out way around new dubai but it was fun to meet up with old friends and make new ones. also got the chance to bust out some French before I arrive there tomorrow.

Hmm Haider and I had a funny thing happen yesterday, as we were leaving our hotel room we ran into one of the AF group directors (soon to be chairman of Robinsons in Singapore, which AF just bought) in the hallway. turns out he is staying across the hallway from us!!! Butttt he didn't have his glasses on and it took him some time to recognize us, so it ended up as a pretty awkward moment.

Thenn today I woke up (relatively) early to drive 1.5 hrs (with ram, always an adventure) to Abu Dhabi to meet a friend of a family friend. He's Lebanese, but spent a lot of time in Cali, worked as an MD with our friend Mark, and just came over here to UAE last fall. We went for a lunch at the Emirates Palace and just talked. It was a lot of fun because we share so much and yet are so different. He's a competitive Bio grad from UC Irvine (neuro hotspot) who then went to grad school at USC. Now he's a divorced father of 5 (4 girls and 1 boy). So we talked about families, school & careers, and coming over to the UAE from the states. If I have the time to meet him again after France I certainly will. He hasn't made it down to Dubai yet, so I'll have to bring him down here (but I won't know where to take him other than the malls...)

• end

short and sweet today. no pics and no cpu to put them up with anyway. i'm cerrrtain i'll snap some en paris. so stay tuned for updatesss

molson golden

the office

current
this crap browser that i am using won't let me format, but if you look at my last two posts you can see that i was trying to start a trend.

basically, today was the best day of the summer because it was exactly like the office.
we met with the 'buyers' for one of the companies and sat in on one of their weekly meetings. it was absolutely mind numbing, and no one in the room would have disagreed with me. and then the buyers told us about their vendors. and how they go to trade fairs to keep track of the vendors' products. so basically the sales crew in 'the office' are the vendors and i was with their counterparts today, the buyers.

and thennn, during the meeting, the 40 something british man named ashley with frosted tips started flirting with the 30 something filipino woman with braces and gave her a chocolate. she kept saying "merry christmas" whenever he delivered good news.

as if that wasn't enough... the buyers' manager (yes that's michael scott,for those of you keeping track at home)started telling us his 15 rules of negotiation!!! the most insightful being "always think like a dolphin". i can't wait until tomorrow to try out some of my negotiation skills on him, like suddenly changing the location of the meeting, or refusing to speak first!!!

end
tonight i will spend all of my free time on wikipedia, learning the art of negotiation (and reverse psychology)

technical difficulties

• current

my laptop is broken, again. it was broken freshmen year, stolen junior year, and broken again senior year. luckily i have most of my files backed up this time except, as i just realized, a lot of my pictures. so, this post will not have much in the way of visual support. however, if i am able to successfully navigate my last repair, apple care, and find an authorized repair center here, i should might be able to recover them.

with reduced cpu access i have turned my free time to books. namely, finishing off revolutionary road and starting shogun again. read this quote from revolutionary road. it comes from april wheeler, a young & unsatisfied suburbanite.

"i had this idea that there was a whole world of marvelous golden people somewhere, as far ahead of me as the seniors at Rye when I was in sixth grade; people who knew everything instinctively, who made their lives work out the way they wanted without even trying, who never had to make the best of a bad job because it never occurred to them to do anything less than perfectly the first time. Sort of heroic-super people, all of them beautiful and witty and calm and kind, and I always imagined that when I did find them I'd suddenly know that I belonged among them, that I was one of them all along, and everything in the meantime had been a mistake; and they'd know it too. I'd be like the ugly duckling among swans."

I enjoy this quote because I find it easy to relate to, in fact I was planning to spend my social time with those marvelous golden people once I'd returned to Madison this fall. Also the bit about never having to make the best of a bad job, at the moment I am considering not working this fall if I don't find a job that fits my requirements. But perhaps it would be better to have some experience rather than none?

as far as shogun goes, it's a much more entertaining novel. i am able to follow the tale of pilot blackthorne, an Englishman washed ashore in Japan in the ... 1600s? Forced to fit into their culture and survive, succeed,etc,etc. This choice was inspired by my recent stint in the Japan and is an excellent way to spend my time.

• news

my brothers have made it to the spanish language village in MN. i think there was a bit of a fuss as they settled (liam y grady son mis hermanos) but hopefully they are having a better time. i think my friend from mac, tim, is working there around this time so maybe they will spend the 2 weeks together? i still remember when tim visited our house one fall break and we played monopoly with my little brothers. liam (age 9 at the time) landed on one of tim's properties and tim failed to notice, and did not collect rent. once the next player moved and it was too late to collect the rent. liam teased tim for being "stupid" in front of paul and nis and the rest of us. liam was little and excited to brag about having tricked a college student. tim is gentle and not usually competitive, so he was a bit hurt to be mocked. the game continued until a few turns later, when tim was able to pull the same trick at liam's expense. at which point he blurted, "WHO'S STUPID NOW? LIAM!" Hahahahahah. That's the same fall break as 'which seat in the suburban is the safest?' and 'scoop it out, matthew', stories some of you already know and the rest may hear eventually.

we spent the last week working in the IKEA in DFC. it was a good place to be, the people were friendly and the environment was comfortable. IKEA follows a very strict franchise model, so it is one of the places we have visited with the least obvious Al-Futtaim influence. We actually learned a bit about business practices, they were very open about the IKEA concept and the way the design every aspect of the store to take care of the customer and earn money. Some of the lessons might have been good to know during the StarBooks era ... Early on while at GMASCO we learned the AIDA marketing technique: Attention,Interest, Desire, and Action. All steps in the consumer purchasing process. IKEA hasthe best method to induce ACTION that I have seen, in the form of their Breathtaking Items (BTIs). They are the small things (this month scrub brushes) placed at the entrance and sold at prices low enough to only cover cost. This technique immediately turns the client from visitor to customer, and starts the spending process.

It was also fun to hear about the stores' founder, whose stubbornness and swedishness make me think of nis ...

we are putting together our .ppts for our japan trip & experience a little difficulty on the group cooperation end, but hopefully the troubles will solve themselves shortly. putting together a bizniz presentation is much different than aschool one. basically it has to be much more interesting and much less grounded in fact/research/anything...

• morale

with the computer difficulties, just so-so. but i am having some fun spending time with haider and osmoon. and mail from the states (and france) is starting to find me here at sofitel, so i suppose things will be just swell. also the movie funny games is showing here in dubai (i have no idea why/how) but i look forward to seeing that when able.

• end

next week is at ACE hardware (why?) that seems like too long to learn about a big box version of a familiar brand ... but they follow the a licensing model more than a franchise one, so maybe we will learn on that front.

wish me luck getting my cpu back -- i'll most certainly need it

-molson golden

JACK REBNEY REPORT

• current

some of you know about found footage festival. 2 classy guys collected a bunch of home videos and old exercise tapes and now present them to live crowds, with commentary. they tape the shows and then sell them as dvds to fans (meeee).

*the* classic clip is of jack rebney, the extremely disgruntled rv salesman. today i can relate to him, i quote "my mind is just a piece of shit this morning."

• news - dubai

we just got back from japan yesterday and then went straight to the yacht to celebrate majid's birthday. we took the yacht to a club that was throwing a beach party ... it was straight from the movies but maybe more extravagant. at the same time, it wasn't particularly enjoyable. neither haider nor i drinks ... everyone there was rich or trying to go home with someone that was rich ... it was amusing to view for awhile, but no fun to be around for long. of course then the party moved onto the yacht and there was drinkingsleepingpassingoutgirlsandboys DRAMMA and we slept for a few hours and then took out the other boat to go fishing at 7AM. we caught some huge fish (hammour) immediately, it wasn't sooo much fun because the poles are electric reels and there are like 5 crew on deck to help us bring in the fish once the motorized reel is done pulling it in.

yes, we did eat our catch for lunch.

butttt on the plus side we did get to spend some more time around some of majid's friends. actually cool people. some of them study in the states (virginia and DC) and one was actually born there (vegas) and then moved to saudi and then UAE. the guy studying in the states was talking about a jewish history class he took - which was cool because of the way the UAE feels about jews/israel. it was the first time anyone on this trip has brought up the notion that something interesting has ever happened in a classroom.

• morale

i could launch into a monologue about my general discontent with the culture here in the UAE but i'll spare myself the typing. to stay concise, i don't find this lifestyle rewarding enough to merit the cost (time, mental and physical and social effort, commitment, etc).

• news- japan

i have gone on without even wrapping up japan
a) i suppose i need to interject and point out that KITKAT chingching was the unofficial sponsor of our japan tour.
b) we saw people walking around inside the imperial palace which is crazy because people are only allowed in twice a year (and this wasn't one of the days) so we saw divine people.


c) i nearly died at the tokyo tower because i was certain that i was going to fall thru the glass displaying how high in the air you are.

d)on our last night in toyko we went to a small sushi joint run by a husband and wife. it was me, the arab brothers (majid and hamad), the pakistani (haider), and our tour guide. the only other guy was an 80 year old retired biznizman. after downing too many rounds of octopus, eel, tuna, and fish eggs we were invited to 'an interesting place' by the geezer.

he said we would go to a place with beer and 'nice chinese girls'- but we wouldn't have to drink. i tried to steer our group clear by pointing out that none of us had enough cash on us to enjoy the facilities, whether we would be drinking or not, but the group as a whole was too determined to see the chinese girls to be dissuaded. the octopus in my stomach rolled as i thought back to my last strip club experience. while in montreal, my roommate of freshman year had insisted we go to the cheapest strip club in the city and for the rest of that night i was stuck trying to avoid the flat beer that was being spilled on me and instead focus my attention on the 45 yr old women on stage ...

so when we walked into this german place called 'Beer' the lighting was too good, the floor to clean, and the clientèle too sober to be, well it was simply a normal restaurant. we sat down and the 80 year old's fav. waitress came over to take our order, a 20 year old chinese girl dressed in full german attire. he laughed with her and pointed at us and i sighed in relief when i was certain she was going to keep her clothes on. the language barrier was pretty serious ... but he drank sake and ordered us a round of raw horse to eat as we talked about ... chopsticks, dubai, and chopsticks again.

e)after tokyo we spent a night in hakone and then left from osaka. hakone is an area in the mountains that used to be a checkpoint for those traveling to edo. it's a hot spring area, so it smelled just like yellowstone park. we climbed one of the mountains, at the top they hardboil eggs in the thermal water until the shells earn black and then serve them to be eaten. for each egg you eat, you live 7 years longer, so despite the sulphuric smell i managed to down one for longevity's sake.





we spent the night at a traditional japanese inn and spent all of our short time there either at dinner or in the hot springs. we dressed in trad. clothes too so check it out
majid isn't pictured here because he slept literally the whole time we were in hakone.
toooo many other pictures to share, hakone was the best.

the hot springs/sauna/cold tubs were super relaxing and akira san our tour guide snuck in to take nudie photos of us while we bathed. i don't have any digital copies of the photos, but he did provide us with a photobook including hard copies, so maybe a few of you lucky readers ..

• end
  

• back to the daily grind of dubai tomorrow. and then by the end of the week we have to give our japan presentation to mr. omar and all of the directors. really i think we have to do some serious work before thrs and i am struggling to find a theme around which we can frame our 'learnings' as brett would call them.

haider has a friend, osmoon, from pakistan in town. we had dinner with him tonight and he is cool.

i am trying to go to abu dhabi this week to meet up with a friend (amine) of a friend (mark) for dinner.

i just bought the oldiegoodie 'shogun' by james clavell. i think i read it in middle school but those 2 weeks in japan made me really want to read the one thousand page version of the last samurai...

paris. 2 weeks. doyleson family reunion. be there or be []