The Movie List

Some movies are good, some movies are nostalgically awesome and must be loved by all when mentioned because they were previously forgotten.  I got into a convo last night with some friends about great movies of our childhood (and great tv shows) which I am going to try to recreate now.  Poorly.  I'll be checking out the Haji shops to see which compilations exist.  You'd be surprised what shows up on a dvd-looking thing full of 32 movies.  I'll post pics at the end of the post.

I don't recall which flick kicked it off, but I think we were talking about the animated shorts at the beginning of Pixar movies and started working back from there.  I should caveat we're not neccesarily looking for the obvious 'best movies' of the 80s or early 90s, this was more a nostalgic treasure hunt if you will.

1.  The best Disney movie ever is the Lion King (Kristin)
2. Ok but the ones from our childhood were awesome too like, the Rescuers, The original Parent Trap or anything Hallie Mills was in, Aladdin, Mulan, Robin Hood, then newer ones like Toy Story, Monsters Inc or Finding Nemo
3. Muppets everything?  I especially love Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island
4. Into TV shows we went, quickly: He-Man, Smurfs, Snorks, Gummy Bears, TGIF and SNICK lineups (Family Matters, Full House, Perfect Strangers, Dinosaurs, Step by Step, and I'm missing something), (Are you Afraid of the Dark, Roundhouse, All That, Clarissa Explains it All)
5. I have to admit I'm a bit hazy at this point, but I know a bunch of amazing films like Gremlins, Batteries Not Included, Short Circuit, Tremors, Indiana Jones (thumbs down to them making a 5th one since Crystal Skulls was sub-par), The Last Starfighter, Flight of the Navigator
6. Then I mentioned, and I think everyone should know this - that the American Film Institute's Silver Theater is in Silver Springs, MD and plays all sorts of crazy shit, including, when I first got to DC, Muppets movies for their Jim Henson theme, then later the original 3 Indy movies as part of a Spielberg theme.  It's worth checking out if you live nearby.
7.  Sarah says that apparently in Austin, TX they do a movies on the river thingy where you float in tubes while they play Deep Blue Sea and Jaws themed films.  Lovely.
8.  Followed by a promise on my part to buy as many of these as Haji Films for $2 at the shop if possible today.  Fun!  I guess that means I have to wake up and walk to the cadillac to grab a shower.  More to come.

A day in the life - Part I

I'm almost done here, so I thought I'd give an average look at a day in my life, with comments.

Good morning.  No longer reading Beating Goliath.  I've been reading Atlas Shrugged since the beginning of January.  It's long.  Thanks Knouse.  The egg is my alarm clock.  It beeps at me angrily.  I hit it ~4 times before actually getting up.

Good morning bike!  It takes me 4 minutes to get to work on this.  Amazing.  Note the rocks everywhere, they SUCK and make it like you're walking through sand all the time.  Hate the rocks.

First part of the road to work.  If you don't turn you end up at the coffee place, so its not a lost situation should that happen.  This is a huge base, not a tiny forward base, so yes, we have things like a coffee thingy.

At the desk.  Actually took this while on a telcon.  I spend at least 1-2 hours every morning sipping tea, eating Breakfast #2 (almonds on this day), and staring unconvincingly at my outlook inboxes.

On this particular day, I had to go to the palace (background).  This is the way.  I like the palace because they have real bathrooms (indoors!)

Ok folks, thats all for the first installment.  Maybe next week I add a picture of the toilet.  For someone dreads going to the port o potties every day, the indoor toilets are a big deal.  Plus they're really weird looking.  You'll see.

Ten Websites I Check

I spend a lot of time webcamming here, and a lot of time just killing time when not at work (which is almost all the time).  There isn't anywhere to go per say (except a few restaurants, which I'll detail in my next post).  So I've discovered that I enjoy the interesting-ness and laughs generated by the following sites, which I generally check at least weekly.  I've divided them up into HA and OOOH which should give you an idea of which ones are meant to be hilarious and which are... not so much.

HA
www.passiveagressivenotes.com
failblog.org
www.epicfail.com
probablybadnews.com
itmademyday.com
epicwinftw.com

OOOH
www.peopleofwalmart.com
postsecret.blogspot.com
mentalfloss.com
www.theonion.com
fmylife.com

To round it out, I've also managed to read 3 years of  Savage Love columns, no, wait... 5 years.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, you'll either be enthralled or disgusted, but he's good at what he does (advice).

On Exercise

I have to run a lot, because I make myself do it, and I engage in a wide variety of mental activities to distract myself from the fact that I still have miles to go and I'm tired.  I considered the other day what makes someone decent at working out, or makes someone do it at all.  For me, and I speak only for me, I've found that its equal parts self loathing and self love.  I am running because I am not good enough, fast enough or strong enough.  Yet, I can finish the distance I set because I am powerful and able to do so.  It's a really strange balance that essentially equals optimistic masochism.

Camel Spider Jr.

Expeditionary reporter slash photojournalist slash entomologist Kristin Russell took one step closer this week to discovering the legendary Camel Spider, or Syndaesia sp.  

At a meeting over tea with some Iraqi counterparts in the Kurdish Capital of Erbil (it would be Irbil on our maps, but I defer to their spelling...) a terrifyingly fast, although not camel-looking, spider appeared from under a leather couch, proceeded to sit still for a few minutes, then ran directly at my boots, then under the couch I was sitting on.  This caused a little panic as I pictured it scurrying up my pants leg and plunging its sword like jaws into my jugular, but I managed to sit still and focused on the tasty tea biscuits and pistachios instead.  Also, I made up what the guys were saying in arabic.  

See specimin below.  Lindsay, do I get half credit for this one?  It was impressive enough that the Iraqi guy on the couch asked for a copy of the pic.  My zoom isn't that amazing, so this thing was about the size of a silver half dollar.  You know, the ones with Kennedy on the front that you have like 50 of and don't know what to do with?

Maps

I can't sleep, so here's some of Iraq's relatively interesting geography taken on my fun trip a few weeks ago.

This last one is the Ziggurat of Ur.  Biblical Abraham's house is supposed to be around here too.  The dude in the bazaar back here tried to help me properly pronounce ziggurat.  He says it like, "ziccurah" and it's not Ur, it's "ouhr".  I appreciated him trying to help me out but still hoping I'm getting as salaam walekum out right, thanks.

Book Fair Part 1

Before I left the US I asked people to chime in on books I should read while I am in Baghdad.  Here's how I'm doing so far:

1 - Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves
This was my own choice.  I wanted I love grammar.  I hate your misspellings, incorrect use of you're, and misplaced apostrophes.  I love this book.

2 - Rob Sheffield, Love is a Mix Tape
A pretty decent book about this Rolling Stone contributor and his girlfriend/wife who dies and the mix tapes he goes though as he deals with his loss.  Some of the songs struck a relatively nostalgic note with me but since I was all of 7-17 in the 90s, a lot of them don't register.  I think are the kind of music you can only tolerate if you lived it as it was being created.  In retrospect this would probably not be a good move to download and listen to.  The book itself was good though, I read it on the plane over to Qatar.  I did not read any books on the plane to Iraq as it was dark and I had on full gear and was sleeping (dramamine).

3 - J.D. Salinger, Nine Stories
Marty, I know you reccomended this one but I'll level with you and anyone else who read and liked this.  I liked the last story.  That was it.

4 - Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy, The Laughing Jesus
Connor, this was a great choice and got me interested in a lot of other books that are going to send me directly to hell without passing go or collecting that wildly attractive fake $200.  I have to admit that I only read the first half though.  The historical perspective was AWESOME.  After that the gnostic thing was fine, but it was like preaching to the choir and I already pretty much got it so I had to stop.

5 - Sloane Crosley, I Was Told There'd Be Cake
The reviews on the cover tout her to be just like a female David Sedaris.  Let me tell you about Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim for a second.  Sedaris narrates it HIMSELF for books on tape, which is how I listened to it.  It's gloomy as shit and I laughed a few times but it would take some serious convincing on the part of a trusted friend to get me to listen or read anything else by him.  Moving on, Crosley's book is actually quite funny and my favorite story is about her having to be a maid of honor for a friend she's barely talked to in 5 years.  It was actually pretty good.  Don't let the reviews on the cover fool you.  Also, I often expect cake, or at the very least punch & pie at any and all meetings I attend.  I am often disappointed but refuse to lower my expectations for anyone.

6 - Steven Pressfield, Gates of Fire
YES!  What a fucking awesome book!  Spartans are super sweet.  It was extremely good and I would put it up there with Ender's Game as really really really important books to read if you are a military officer.  After this I watched 300, which is about the same battle of Thermopylae, but based on a graphic novel instead of Gates of Fire.  Thus, it was ok, decent even, but nothing compared to this book.  Supposedly George Clooney's production company owns the rights to the Gates of Fire movie, so someday that might be something to look forward to.

7 - Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
I think I have to thank Scott for this.  I wouldn't know, because FB deleted my posts from like April to August including the one where everyone made recommendations.  I'm more than halfway done and it's fine and nonsensical and I'm enjoying it.

I realize that's only 7ish books (I started the first one before I left) in 2 months and though not terrible I'm not sure I'll be able to get through every book I've got here but I'll make an effort and keep logging I guess.  It was one of my goals to read and relax here.  I'm finally, at 2 months trying to figure out how that works.  School doesn't help, stalkers don't help, work doesn't help, but I get a little time each night for the most part and that's at least part of the reason this is my sandy vacation.