Personal

Today is one of those days as portrayed in the picture above. I just came back from climbing with Bhu in the City — and man oh man, is it clear today. Absolutely gorgeous. Although I’m dead from climbing, I feel like biking a bit today. I’ll head up the hill to my grandparents’ house instead of driving, which I couldn’t do anyway because my alternator is busted. But I won’t let that keep me down.

So I’m minding my own business, reading The Washington Post, when I come across this piece. There, I find probably the second time ever that I’ve agreed with our beloved president. President Bush announced plans yesterday to boost foreign-language study in the United States, casting the initiative as a strategic move to better engage other nations in combating terrorism and promoting freedom and democracy. “This program is a part of a strategic goal, and that is to protect this country,”…

Turducken was a resounding success. Like in years past, it’s a 36 hour operation from (~ 3 pm on Dec. 30) start to finish (~ 3 am on Jan. 1) — shopping until cleanup and bedtime. But it’s well worth it. Courtesy of our guests (mostly Monica), Becky and I have enough champagne to take a bath in. Not to mention about 50 wine glasses courtesy of Melanie Wong. More pictures will come later. To all, a very happy and…

1) Turducken is in effect. It went into the oven at 5:50 am local time this morning. Due to come out about 7:00 pm and served at about 8:00 pm. Pictures coming later. I also made Apple Pie with Whiskey-Soaked Cherries (substituting kirschwasser for whiskey) and Sugar-Free Fudge. 2) The US has a plan to invade Canada. Really. 3) Abduraahman Wahid, the former president of Indonesia has a great Op-Ed in yesterdays’ WSJ entitled: “Right Islam vs. Wrong Islam”. 4)…

I am proud to announce that my piece on The World will be airing probably within the next week on NPR stations across the country, and of course, online. I’ll post more as soon as I know more. Tracking at the KQED studios with Clark Boyd on an ISDN line was fun — I hope this is the first of many! And also, I’m thrilled to announce that I’m going to be doing a piece for The Economist! (Big thanks…

Head over to Wanderlustgeek.com for the skinny, or download it directly here.

I just finished this book two days ago. I bought it right before I went to Istanbul, breaking my own book-buying moratorium. (I have 10+ books that I’ve bought or have been given to me that I haven’t read yet.) It was very interesting, and in a lot of ways was an impressionist painting of the city of Istanbul. My main problem with it? It doesn’t have much of a narrative or momentum. It’s a series of varying length mini-essays…

Today I woke up uncertain, and you know that gives me the fits, so I left this land of fungible convictions, because it seemed like the pits And when I say, “conviction”, I mean it’s something to abjure and when I say “uncertain”, I mean to doubt I’ll not turn out a caricature. So I set off in search of my forbears, ‘coz my forebearance was in need. — Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, “Ballad of the Sin Eater” So…

You have Thanksgiving dinner with rice and “khoresht.” (STEW) Yep, at our Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of my LA-based Persian extended family, we had baghali polo and grilled fish alongside our turkey, potatoes and stuffing.

My cousin Nena do Nascimento (who I lived with in Switzerland) is studying abroad in Brazil this year, on her junior year abroad at McGill University. She’s just started a LiveJournal. For those of you who’ve studied abroad before, some words of encourgement I’m sure would be appreciated. Go Nena!