Internet.. an inherent right?

Displaying the real uses of the internet, but mostly unrelated to this post.
Two Lumps Comic = awesome.

So the other day, I was going through my Google Reader and came across an article about a person who had lost their internet for 1 year because they exceeded Comcast's bandwidth limit (link here).  If you don't want to click the link, here's a summary of what they said.

Comcast has a limit of 250 GB/month.  For 3 months in a row, this person exceeded their limit, due to their use of the Cloud (for those of you living under a rock, its is like the Internet's closet that everyone puts their crap in, and you can access it from anywhere, which is what makes it so appealing).  This guy apparently loves music and uploads all of his music to the Cloud.  He is also a photographer and he shoots in really high settings, then uploads his photos to the Cloud.

Well, all his uploading/downloading/general internet usage exceeded Comcast's limits 3x so the idiot guy got his internet turned off for a year, because he thought the limit only applied to his downloads, not his uploads AND his downloads.  Pretty shitty, not gonna argue that.  He argued that since Comcast is the only internet provider in his area (Seattle), this leaves him with no speedy or legal internet alternatives (although I'm pretty sure he could find some AOL.com disks if he looks hard enough, I kid, I kid... kinda).  Also, pretty shitty, agreed.  Due to the Comcast internet monopoly in the area, he started the process of escalating the issue, he wrote the linked blog post and sent it up the communication world chain, including the FCC, Public Knowledge organization, city of Seattle's Mayer's Officer, and his city council rep.

So it was an interesting read.  Then it got super interesting when I read this:
"My opinion on all this is simple. The ability to access broadband internet is a right, and should be defined as an essential utility. Just as you're surprised when you flick a light switch and the light doesn't come on so are you surprised when the internet goes away in your house. The internet is used for communication, entertainment, business - an entire panopoly of humor endevours. Just as there are protections to keep water and electricity flowing to your house, so should the internet be protected."  (link)

Really?  Arrogant "civilized" people piss me off.  He argued that Finland had passed a law making internet available for everyone and that the UN says broadband is a basic human right.  That's funny.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm so "plugged in", its sometimes painful.  When I can't get FB to load I get irritable, and I watched Teh Bear have the exact same reactions that I normally have while he was here when he couldn't access FB.  I have never thought that internet was a basic right.  Basic rights are food and water.  Things that making living possible.  Things that will kill you if you don't have them.  The writer argued that many things today are electronic only, meaning you have to have the internet in some places to get food stamps, distance-ed (university) classes, and VoIP services.  

I'm going to argue that if you need food stamps, then you probably don't have the money to pay for broadband internet to begin with.  If you are taking distance-ed classes, those are also pretty expensive (been there, done that).  And have you heard of POTS?  Plain old telephone system (yes you just got Navy-ed).  Apparently, that worked out for over 100 years.

I've lived in places (GTMO), where internet was a luxury.  A $60 a month for "high-speed" that was actually around 28ish KB/sec.  The guy in the article?  He had 15 MB/sec speed internet.  Let me break that down for you.  I had dial-up speed internet they charged me $60 for, and that was the only available option.  He had super high speed internet, which they probably charged him a similar amount for, or even if he paid more for the service, the point is that internet is optional.

He doesn't have to store all his music and large ass photo files on the internet (Cloud).  

BTW, I'm definitely a hypocrite writing this because due to a data size limit, I won't use Flickr.  They have a 300MB/month upload limit.  I found this out only because I was trying to find a place to store Go Karts photos. Beoler, our briefer/assigned crew member, shot all the photos (with my camera) while we were racing go karts around the track.  He asked that I send him the photos and gave him his email.  Well, I, too, am a photographer (or at least I like to call myself that), and I shoot in super high resolution so none of my files are small either.  I had deleted the bad photos (kudos to the guy for shooting high speed objects in low light, and not all of them turning out badly, because I'm sure I wouldn't have been as awesome).

Point of all that: internet is NOT a basic right.  Its a very nice convenience.  I'm sure that the people of Sudan are worried that if their neighbor decides to kill them that they didn't get to check their FB first.  In Bahrain, I'm lucky if businesses have a FB page dedicated to their business, much less an actual website.  Most of the world isn't on the internet kick yet.  

I feel like as Americans sometimes we get blindsided by our own lives.  We can't see past our own conveniences.  I know I'm guilty of this.  When I left for GTMO all I wanted was a real Starbuck's Double Chocolaty Chip Frappachino, then it was sushi, then it was a Texas Roadhouse steak, always it was real high speed internet.  In Bahrain, I have Starbuck's, sushi, and steak options.  I have the convenience of mostly high speed (mostly rerouted through monitoring sites) internet.  GTMO felt like living in a 3rd world country to me, mostly because I've never lived in a 3rd world country to know what its really like, but to feel legitimate want for things made it not America for me.  Granted, Cuba is actually considered a 3rd world country, but that's not the point.

Unrelated, but kinda related due to it's internet-ness.

Teh Bear had been in the air for almost 18 hours (when I wrote this), which meant that most of his journey home was complete.   But I was stalking the flight status pages, hoping that all his flights were leaving on time, not that I could tell if he was on those flights.

Because I'm now the only one in my shop with a car (such a sad story for Mr. Curly Sweatervest :( ), I make my fair share of airport runs for people going on/coming off leave.  Apparently, leaving the island of Bahrain is a desirable thing for people to do, ha.  I've become well acquainted with airline flight status pages.

United does most of the flights that I've seen so far (from America to Bahrain) and their flight status page is pretty simple.  

It tells you when the flight delayed, in air, landed, etc.  Pretty sure this updates in RT too.

 This is Gulf Air's flight status page, which is who Teh Bear flew out of Bahrain.  Only updated every 15 minutes, which was super annoying.

The circled area didn't populate until at least an hour to an hour and a half after the plane had arrived.  I had the check the Heathrow airport site to see that the flight had arrived, which was super frustrating after sitting on this page for hours refreshing.

 While in Heathrow, Teh Bear got on his to America connector, which was Continental.  So far the most awesome flight status page evar.

The plane actually moved across the line for an estimate real time position.  If I wouldn't have refreshed the page you could have actually seen where the plane was still over the water.  They also give you the status of the flight and list out the amenities for the 757 the passengers are on.  Continental, you win.

   

Betty f-in Crocker.

Soo..  I'm a fighter.  Ask Teh Bear.  Sometimes he says things about to me about me, and I will adamantly argue the opposite.

Examples:
Teh Bear:  You do snore.
Teh Megan: No, I do not snore.  You're wrong.
(he likes when I say wrong, because I'm Southern and I say it "cute", so sometimes I use it to my advantage.)

tB: You have a shoe fetish.
tM: Fetish would imply that I like being sexual with shoes.
tB: You have a shoe addiction.
tM: No, I have shoe options, you're wrong.

tB: You're a good cook, and you seem to like it.  You're like Betty Crocker.
tM: No.  You're wrong.  Cooking is the devil, and I'm only good at baked goods.
tB: You're wrong (but he says it the "right" way).
tM: I'm not no Betty Crocker (when he's already used wrong, I use other methods of Southern speaking to get him to bend to my wiles, including awful double negatives, which is only ok because I know that I'm doing it, and I know what its called).

It's come to my attention that I may, in fact, be "Betty fuckin' Crocker".

I earned the title when I was in GTMO.  I was the baker of cakes.  I made birthday cakes, although sometimes birthday cupcakes, and often people would request that I make cake for gatherings (going away parties, etc).  But the most special thing about my GTMO bakery was that I used "imported" funfetti cake.

Regular funfetti cake was not available in GTMO, only the seasonal funfetti was sometimes available (halloween, Cmas, spring, 4th of July).  Which was definitely a GTMO fail.  They can import special foods for the detainees to get 3k calorie meals but they didn't have a fun type of cake?  Fail.  I mean, I could have easily just bought some sprinkles and put it in cake batter, but not the same.  It has to be in the box before hand, to be true funfetti cake.

People in GTMO looked forward to receiving funfetti cake for their birthday.  I did have to settle on regular cake/cupcakes for some people (Miss Reflective, Teh Bear), because the funfetti cake had not yet been imported and Cmas funfetti wasn't out yet.  My Chief used to call it "a rainbow explosion of tastiness in my mouth."  Our department would plan an event, and immediately he would look at me and say, "I expect funfetti."

The star funfetti cupcakes were the most amazing thing evar.  <3 fun shapes. (Miss Reflective 's photo)

In GTMO, I put on 2 bake sales (with LOTS of help).  I think this was when the Betty fuckin' Crocker name was first born.  I made Cmas funfetti cupcakes, peanut butter fudge (that was so good it could have replaced cigarettes after sex, not that I condone smoking), and brownies (which I've been a master at for quite a while.  it really is about not over stirring them, and never using a blender).  I realized that I was actually kinda good at this baked goods thing.

This is what happens when you let Wee Teh Megan in the kitchen.

I've been making cakes since I was Little Teh Megan.  That was the one thing Teh Mom trusted I couldn't mess up.  Its a few ingredients, add them all at once, and get out the hand mixer, voila, cake batter.  Yell for Teh Mom to put it in the oven (because my hands were never going near the inferno that is a pre-heated oven), and not too long later, CAKE!  It was like magic.  I had lots of practice, or at least I can recall making lots of cakes or helping Teh Mom make dessert items.  I also helped with peanut butter balls and coconut balls at Cmas.  And I recall sifting something for so long my hand got tired from squeezing the handle to sift, but recently I started dreaming about her sifter.

Teh HP Wizard's bday was recently.  And the GTMO bday cake tradition has continued.  Funfetti is no longer a requirement though.  And generally, I try some experiment for each one.  For my bday this year, I made angel food cupcakes with strawberries in them, I even purchased Cool Whip (not cheap since its imported (literally)).  They were a win, even though I forgot to bring them to my actual birthday dinner.  FAIL.

Teh HP Wizard requested vanilla cake (apparently white cake isn't the same?) with buttercream icing.  I figured that buttercream icing was going to be my pitfall for that one.  So, I started looking up recipes.  Many had shortening (like Crisco), and I saw lots of comments from people not in the U.S. that indicated that shortening was hard to find in their country.  The NEX here doesn't really carry a large variety of items and I was worried that shortening would be one of the items that they didn't carry.  I mean they only carry one brand of bacon which is $6 a pack.  Its a fair judgement.

Instead, I found one with butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and whipping cream.  It was a winner.  SO MUCH WIN.  And I kinda felt like a fatty because of 2 sticks of butter, but, it was easier than scavenging for shortening.  Although, powdered sugar turned out to almost be the trick ingredient, because there was none at the market downstairs (although they did have premade Betty Crocker brand buttercream icing, which I purchased for "just in case this goes badly"), but I did find some at Carrefour when we went to the mall, where I also bought my first electric hand mixer.  Which made Teh Bear say, "Pretty sure I suggested buying a hand mixer when you were in GTMO, but you always had some excuse, like no space or some crap."  Yeah, I don't remember that conversation.  I'm not sure why I didn't get a hand mixer in GTMO, it probably never crossed my mind other than when I was mixing cake batter by hand trying to get all the clumps out.  I also probably feared they wouldn't carry them and I'd be disappointed, which I didn't need any help with in GTMO.

So here's what happened to make amazing  buttercream icing that everyone LOVED.

2 sticks of butter = 1 cup butter.  I had an unsalted stick, so a bought a lightly salted stick, since someone said it could take the edge off the super sweetness of the icing.
3-4 cups of powdered sugar.  I bought a 500 gram bag.  I'm from America and I've used the Imperial system my entire life and I have no idea what the conversions are.  I bought a bag I hoped was big enough, and expected to get some powdered sugar from Mr. Curly Sweatervest and Teh HP Wizard (from when they made gingerbread).
1/2 (ish) tablepoon of vanilla extract.  I already had this, not sure why, but I'm not complaining.
1/2 (ish) tablespood of almond extract.  I read in the various comments on the recipe pages that I looked at, and someone suggested 1/2 vanilla extract, 1/2 almond extract would make it super tasty.  I like amaretto, so I figured, almond, ok.
3-4 tablespoods of whipping cream.  In Bahrain, they don't really have cool whip, so you have to make it via Dream Whip (yum) or with whipping cream, etc.  I've manually whipped cream before.  I was SUPER glad to have the mixer.

This was my combination of several recipes that I read.  I knew I could acquire all these items, which was why I chose these ingredients.  Whipping cream can be substituted for milk, you can use just vanilla extract, you can do 1/2 cup of butter, 1/2 a cup of shortening.  The other reason I was wary of shortening was that people were complaining of the shortening flavor in the icing.  Hrm, not ok.

OMG.  Manually sifting 500 grams of powdered sugar.  

I took the butter out of the fridge and left it out for several hours so it would be soft.  I also sifted all 500 grams of powdered sugar... by hand, with a spoon, a mesh sifter, and patience (which I had less of than powdered sugar).  Luckily, I had right at 4ish cups.  I was very worried, because I went online and converted 500 grams to cups and it said 2.17.  VERY worried, as it was 2am, and less than 24 hours before it was time to eat cake.

Once the sugar was sifted, it was time to put my new blender to work.  And work it did, it started to smell all electric heat-y.  And while it says its 5 speeds, I'm pretty sure its actually one speed that tries to work SUPER hard, but can't because the mix was too thick.

ingredients to make buttercreme icing happen.  

I blended the butter some to soften it even more, then started adding the sugar, slowly.  Once the butter and sugar were mixed, I added the extracts and whipping cream and blended and blended and blended until I was afraid the blender was going to overheat and die.  Since it was brand new, I decided to give it a break.

Quality control.

Beaters are my favorite part of having a mixer.  Yay, samples!  MY ICING WAS SO DELICIOUS AND DELIGHTFUL, I WANTED TO EAT THE ENTIRE BOWL.  No jk.  It was a little grainy.  But I was giving my blender a rest and figured it was tasty, who cared.  I left it out, not ready to clean up the disaster area that was my kitchen.  I came to the comupter, and went to FB and Teh Sister was online.  I messaged her.

Teh Megan:  I'm Betty fuckin' Crocker.
Teh Sister: What did you make now?
tM: Homemade buttercream icing.
tS (who knows I used to talk about having to hire a cook when I got married): Wow.
tM: It's grainy though.
tS (who used to want to go to cooking college): You just need to mix it more for the sugar to melt more.
tM: I'm giving my mixer a break.
tS: ah, ok.

<3 my tye-dye spatula.  It's my favorite kitchen tool.

I did return to the icing and mix it for a little longer.  Till I got bored out of my mind of mixing and smelling that hot electronic smell again.  She was right, it was smoother.  I'd read that it melted easily, so to combat this, you put it in the fridge till you're ready to use it.  To the fridge it went.

This mean that I would be getting up early to icing the cake, and decorate it, but I had to be up to go to base to pick up my dress anyways, so it worked out.

Teh HP Wizard requested a sparkly and delicious birthday cake.  Later, she added a dinosaur theme.  Teh HP Wizard and Mr. Curly Sweatervest were with me at Carrefour, so she found some dinosaur cookie cutters and bought some crazy icing colors.  I had ideas of trying to shape the cake into a dinosaur, but I don't have a cake carrier or anything flat other than a cookie sheet, so it was just easier to decorate dinosaurs into the cake.

When I woke up, I immediately tended to the cake.  I mixed the icing again to soften it and spread it on the cake.  Then put the lid on the cake pan and put it in the fridge.  Then, I went to base to pick up my dress.  I also went into the NEX to find sparkles, black gel icing, and/or trick candles (which Teh HP Wizard had expressed interest in).  To my amazement, the NEX had sparkles.  In ONE color.  Green.  SCORE, the color of dinosaurs!  They had a 1.5 foot section of green sparkles, all the way to the back of the shelf.  wtf?  Who needs that many green sparkles?  No gel icing, no surprise.  And they only had one kind of candles on the baking aisle.  But, I knew I had seen other candles somewhere, so I went to the other "party" section, stationary/wrapping.  There were more candles, but no trick candles, but there were some with glitter.  Sparkle = covered, in case the sprinkles weren't sparkly enough.

I got home and had to figure out how to decorate this cake with expediency (as I still had to get ready, and shower the butter smell out of my pores, in under an hour).  I had dinosaur cookie cutters, green tube icing, and sparkles.  Oh, I had this.  I took the cake out of the fridge and took off the lid.. AND A HUGE SECTION OF ICING FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE CAKE CAME OFF WITH THE LID.

It does kinda look like a dinosaur head, right?

  .........Seriously?  I can't handle shit like that, that late in the game, so I worked around it.  I mean, the missing spot had an almost dinosaur head like quality too it.  I'd wing it.  I placed the cookie cutters around the cake, put the sprinkles in the cutters, then pressed them in the icing to get a line to trace.  I then traced the cookie cutter with the green icing.  I considered tracing the huge hole in the middle with the green icing, but figured people could just use their imagination.  The fact that I did nothing actually worked out better that I could have hoped.

Decoration corner.

The final, final product:

What Trader Vic's delivered.  

A cake with no hole in the middle.  Huh.  What a perfect placement for... CANDLES!

The cake was presented to us with no hole in the middle.  I'm not sure if they scraped the icing off the lid and put it back into place and smoothed the edges or if they used the extra icing I brought to spread in, either way, I was most definitely surprised.  I didn't expect them to go out of their way to fix it.  Maybe they thought it was their fault?  heheehehe.  Either way, the birthday cake met all the criteria: sparkly and delicious (french vanilla w/ buttercream icing specifically) with dinosaurs.





 

Copy Paste Whoring

W.T.F.  You remember back in the day when you'd get those "heart wrenching" emails about some 4 year old girl with stage 4 melanoma-Parkinson's-leukemia-sclerosis-syphilis-cancer.. well I feel like someone thought that was a good idea to bring to FB, and now everyone is copy pasting these 420 character max messages to their FB so all their friends see it.

Teh Bear and I teamed up.  I like to write, he likes to be a smart ass, its a win win.  We made responses to the currently popular copy/paste statuses.  Enjoy.

Examples:
FB Version: The status copy/pasted straight from Facebook. 
Response:  Teh Bear's responses to copy pasted statuses.  His sarcasm, wit, and meanness levels go beyond my own, but I did make some changes here and there..  editorial blogger rights or whatever.

FB Version:  At the request of a Facebook friend - We are asking everyone to say a prayer for the US "Darkhorse" 3rd Battalion 5th Marines and their families. They are fighting it out in Afghanistan and have lost 9 Marines in 4 days. IT WOULD BE NICE TO SEE IT ON EVERYONE'S PAGE......Even if it's only for an hour to show your support. I am HONORED to re-post this... Thank you to "OUR" Service men and women.
Response:  At the request of a Facebook friend- We are asking everyone to say a prayer for the US “Darkhouse” 3rd Battalion 5th Marines and their families.  They are fighting it out (not really sure why you need to specify they were fighting out, like are they going to fight indoors in a different country?  I’m lost already.) in Afghanistan and have lost 9 Marines in 4 days (sounds like they need to work on their accountability so that they don’t lose anymore Marines, we don’t have many of those guy to begin with.)  IT WOULD BE NICE TO SEE IT ON EVERYONE’S PAGE (Holy hell no need to yell at me with your ‘suggestion’, I thought you were my friend.)  Even if it’s only for an hour to show your support (Because everyone having the same status update makes Facebook more valuable to check.)  I am HONORED (I bet you are, asshole)  Thank you to “our” (why the quotes?  What’s going on here?) service men and women.

(Teh Megan's informative fact: The Darkhorse Battalion suffered 25 causalities from Sept 2010 to Apr 2011, when they returned to Camp Pendlelton.  I'm not saying its not a big deal, but they were in one of the most dangerous combat zones in Afghanistan.  War is costly.)

srsly?

FB Version:  Instead of threatening to withhold Social Security payments of people who really need the money....Lets hold the paycheck's of all house & senate members, then see how fast it is resolved!!!!! If you agree repost this & keep it going across FB..maybe the higher ups will get the message!
Response:  Instead of threating to withhold Social Security payments of people who really need the money….Lets hold the paychecks of all House and Senate members, then see how fast it is resolved!!!!!! (How fast WHAT is resolved?  Global Warming?  Home Values?  The AIDs epidemic?  The last season of Lost? What needs to be resolved?)  If you agree repost this & keep it going across FB (I wasn’t aware that Facebook was something that you could traverse like a Lewis and Clark expedition, good to know for later.)  Maybe the higher ups will get the message (My guess is that if they are looking at Facebook for the answer to this ‘problem’ they are not all that excited to fix the problem, maybe we just write them a good ‘ole fashioned letter or call your representative, pretty sure those methods are still viable options in this day and age!  Probably also just as effective.)


FB Version:  Salary of the US President. ..$400,000.

Salary of retired US Presidents ...$180,000.
Salary of House/Senate...$174, 000.
Salary of Speaker of the House...$223,500...
Salary of Majority/Minority Leaders... $193,400...
Average Salary of Soldier DEPLOYED IN IRAQ $38,000...
I think we have found where the cuts should be made! If you agree... repost

Response:  Salary of the US (they are the United States also known as U.S. not the us President)  $400,000
Salary of retired US (again with the us people…)   $180,000
Salary of House/Senate   $174,000
Salary of Speaker of the House  $223,500
Salary of Majority/Minority Leaders   $193,400
Average Salary of Soldier (pretty sure there are other service members deployed aside from the Army) DEPLOYED IN IRAQ  $38,000
I think we have found where the cuts should be made!  (Ummm, not me…you didn’t tell me where.  Should we just reduce pay for everyone, including members of the military?  Perhaps we just get the men and women OUT of Iraq that would save a bundle.  You are being entirely too vague for me to waste a status update on….be upfront with your agenda!)  If you agree…repost (naturally…..)

(Teh Megan's rant: Let's think about how many people hold these higher paid positions, then compare that to how many members of the Armed Forces there are.  Alright then.  And better yet, enlisted to officer routes are pushed on every enlisted person, so there are ways for soldiers to get raises, motivation required.  Also, some people have never earned over $15k till they joined the military, so $30k+ is a super significant, and even dangerous, amount of money for some soldiers.  Also, lets consider the average age of a soldier.  Ok, yeah, then add that with the dangerous statement.  Would I like to make more money?  Sure why not.  Should I have to go the routes that would allow me to earn that raise?  Yes, yes I should.  Those people in higher positions got there (most of them at least) because they have the credentials to back their positions.  Anyone can volunteer to be trained to hold a gun and be shot at.)

or do, and let Darwin's Theory of Evolution help out society.

FB Version:  I'm not super hot or gorgeous....I don't have an amazing figure or a flat stomach....I'm far from being considered a model, but I'm ME....I eat junk food and love to wear my PJ's and will go without makeup....I'm random and crazy, and I don't pretend to be someone I'm not....I am who I am, love me… or not, I won't change ME. Ladies put this on your status if you are proud of who you are.!

Response:  I’m not super hot or gorgeous (that was very apparent from your Facebook picture, Maybe you should get out and start exercising?  Just be sure to consult a medical professional first.) I don’t have an amazing figure or a flat stomach (of course not, but I’m sure someone will appreciate your portable table.)  I’m far from being considered a model (hand model?  Fashion model?  Model citizen?  Be a little more specific.)  but I’m ME (surprise, surprise.  The name going with this status update had thrown me off.)  I eat junk food (hello diabetes and obesity along with heart disease and early death.  At least you aren’t going to be a burden on the health care system for long.) and love to wear my PJ’s and go without makeup (the image of a bra-less troll going to the market will haunt my dreams for many years to come. (I wanted to delete this part, but I can't think of anything more clever.))  I’m random (just like ALL the other people that posted this update.) and crazy (no shit.)  and I don’t pretend to be someone I’m not (maybe you should give it try.  Try pretending to be a well adjusted person, you might like it.)  I am who I am, love me (somebody will, but not me.  You and I will remain Facebook friends…I’m just not THAT into you.)  or not (oh, thank, Jesus.)  I won’t change ME (but could you at least change those funky PJ’s?)  Ladies put this on your status if you are proud of who you are!  (I’m starting to pick up this exclamation point thing we got going on here, HELL YEAH!!)

FB Version:  Your sister is your first friend in life. No one will ever understand your crazy family like your sister. Even if you don't get together or talk as much as you could, she'll always remain your friend. Your sister will hold your hand for a little while, but will hold your heart for a lifetime. Repost if you have a sister or sisters that you love with all your heart love sent to all my sisters

Response:  Your sister is your first friend in life (unless she is your younger sister and you have a few brothers between the two of you, she might have to wait a few years to get that honor of friend.)  No one will ever understand your crazy family like your sister (unless your sister is the crazy one, then God help you both.)  Even if you don’t get together or talk as much as you could, she’ll remain your friend.  (at least until the restraining order and no contact order are signed by the judge.)  your sister will hold your hand for a little while (not creepy!!)  but will hold your heart for a lifetime (are we talking like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom heart holding here?  Cause that is rather creepy, Mola Ram.)  Respost if you have a sister or sisters that love you with all your heart love sent to all my sisters (Holy mother of Gawd.  If I have a sister/sisters that love me with all of MY heart?!?!  I am not sure if they love me with my heart, but this could be related to the fact they are holding on to my heart for a life time.  I’m just happy as hell they invented a fake heart so that I’m not dead thanks to my sister and her heart grabbing ways.  Random side note, if you have sisters…who gets to hold your heart?  Is it a random lottery that determines the holder of the heart or do you just do it by whoever is the oldest.  Perhaps we just go by the last four of the social.  This is too confusing.)

FB Version:  Needing someone to talk to, how many would actually be there for you? I can guarantee not even 1 of your Facebook friends will copy this status. If you would BE THERE FOR ME, set this as your status & see how many of us would be there for you! (I just did for 1 of my friends) Let's try it out & see. Prove me wrong friend
Response:  Needing someone to talk to, (not really, if I was I would probably be calling you on the phone or stopping by, cause we’re friends and what not.) how many would actually be there for you? (that is going to depend on whether they are at home or have to work that day.  I don’t think it’s fair to hold it against them if they have to work that day, seems a bit harsh.)  I can guarantee not even 1 of your Facebook friends will copy this status (I freakin wish this was true.  I wouldn’t be here ranting about stupid copy and paste status if you more like a bank guaranteeing loan rates and less like Nostradamus predicting the end of the world.)  If you would BE THERE FOR ME, set this as your status & see how many of us would be there for you!! (Or you could take the low tech approach and just know your friends and what they are made of before the shit hits the fan, so that you can decide whether they are worth your time to begin with.  Cause I mean, if they have to tell you via a copy and paste that they would be there for you, I’m betting it’s highly unlikely that they will actually be there when you need ‘em.)  I just did this for 1 of my friend (I hadn’t noticed from the copy and paste.)  Let’s try it out & see (Let’s not and say we did.)  Prove me wrong friend. (I just did by defriending you.)

FB Version:  It's offical. signal at 12:20 it even passed on tv. Facebook will start charging this summer.If you copy this on your wall your icon will turn blue and facebook will be free for you. Please pass this message if not your account will be deleted. p.s, this is serious the icone turns blue, So please put this as your status

Response:  It's offical. signal at 12:20 it even passed on tv. Facebook will start charging this summer.  If you copy this on your wall your icon will turn blue and facebook will be free for you. Please pass this message if not your account will be deleted. p.s, this is serious the icone turns blue, So please put this as your status (ummm…well…WOW!  I don’t have much to say on this cause if you can’t notice your FB icon is ALREADY blue…then I’m gonna go ahead and let you know there are other email services aside from Hotmail and AOL.  Thankfully this message really only appears on your mom’s page as she is probably afraid that if she clicks on the wrong link she will implode and crash the entire interwebs…)

It's all the <3s that mean you really love your mom.

FB Version:  Florida is the first state that is now going to require drug testing for welfare! Some people are crying this is unconstitutional. How is this unconstitutional but it's completely legal that every other working person had to pass a drug test in order to support those on welfare?

Re-post if you agree!!! I see no reason why my tax dollars have to pay for someone's drug habit..
Response:  Florida is the firs state that is now going to require drug testing for welfare! (Again with the exclamation points.  Florida was also one of the first states to screw up an election, but I don’t see a status update floating around about that one….yet.)  Some people are crying this is unconstitutional.  (I think the number of people was slightly more than what would qualify for the term ‘some’ but I’m going with it so far.)  How is this unconstitutional (I think because people feel it violates some right or something like that, stupid whiners.)  but it’s completely legal that every other working person (so not everyone?  Just every other one?  Pretty sure all the people that got hired at Target had to take a drug test…I KNOW all the people in the military had to take one (and still get randomly selected).  So it sounds like maybe not every other person has to pass, but a large number of people.)  had to pass a drug test in order to support those on welfare?  (Not really, cause the money from welfare comes from taxes that are collect on all working people, including those other people whom did not have to pass or take a drug test to get their jobs, lucky bastards.  Plus welfare also includes medical and food monies, but I mean some people have no problem with taking food from a baby who needs it cause their mom or dad were laid off thanks to big business trying to save some money.)  Re-post if you agree!!! (It’s like an exclamation point orgy)  I see no reason why my tax dollars have to pay for someone’s drug habit. (good job exposing yourself as a middle class white person.  Hurray for narrow views that assume most people on welfare are drug users and abusers even though there is no evidence to suggest such.  It should say “Re-post if you are a white suburbanite republican who doesn’t seek out information and waits for a talking head or status update to care about something.”)

(Teh Megan's comment:  Teh Bear is from FL, pretty sure he got all riled up for that response.)

Ok, fine, I did actually play this game.

FB Version:  Dear little Caylee, last night on ET they mentioned that your mommy was going to make lots of money off a book (her story) and a movie. CAYLEE, we the public promise you, WE WILL NOT buy either one. If you will make this promise to Caylee then copy and paste this on your status...I did..R.I.P . little Caylee...

Response:  Dear little Caylee, last night on ET they mentioned that your mommy was going to make lots of money off a book (her story) and a movie.  (Glad to see that I’m not the only one that gets my information from good ‘ole Entertainment Tonight, love that John Tesh…what, he’s not there anymore?)  CAYLEE, we the public promise you, WE WILL NOT buy either one.  (They have Facebook in heaven right?  No?  Do they at least have Google +?  This should clearly be changed from WE to I, cause claiming all the public isn’t going to do something in one status update, is quite bold.)  If you will make this promise to Caylee then copy and paste this on your status (don’t worry about the fact that you ass was GLUED to the tv and trial soaking in EVERY moment of the trial under the guise of “Justice for Caylee".)  I did R.I.P. little Caylee.

FB Version:  Breaking News: "Casey Anthony places a call to 911 in fear of her life"... (Dispatcher) What is ur emergency? Please help me,I have a bunch of people trying to kill me. Okay ma'am, calm down. What is your name? Casey Anthony. Okay Miss Anthony try to stay calm, an officer will be there in 31 days.…

Response:  Breaking News: "Casey Anthony places a call to 911 in fear of her life"... (Dispatcher) What is ur emergency? Please help me,I have a bunch of people trying to kill me. Okay ma'am, calm down. What is your name? Casey Anthony. Okay Miss Anthony try to stay calm, an officer will be there in 31 days.…(Ok, this one kinda hits home a lot, cause answering the 911’s is what I do for a living.  First off this should not be “Breaking News” it’s a joke.  It should have said “Poor, unoriginal, yet timely joke:”  Second, at no point does the dispatcher get an address, this is silly.   Where are they going to send help?  Next, the name?  Least important, we need to have an address here people.  Finally, the part about taking 31 days to send out a cop…stupid.  No dispatcher gives a time frame.  We would say something more like “Ok, Casey, we will get some out there as quickly as possible, if anything changes or escalates calls us back.”  What?  Are you upset there was no scathing sarcasm dripping from this one?  Not my fault it’s a stupid joke.  A joke you probably laughed at or at least giggled at…I know I did.)

(Teh Megan's comment:  Teh Bear is from Orlando, pretty sure he got all riled up for that response too, as he hated the constant stream of media related to case and often told me so.)

Really?  Or you could just stop being a pussy and suck it up.

FB Version:  Let's be clear on this: OBAMA did NOT kill Bin Laden. An American soldier, who Obama just a few weeks ago was debating on whether or not to PAY, did. Obama just happened to be the one in office when our soldiers finally found OBL and took him out. This is NOT an Obama victory, but an AMERICAN victory!! REPOST IF YOU AGREE!!

Response:  Let's be clear on this (finally a status that will not be vague.): OBAMA did NOT kill Bin Laden. (Oh!  Didn’t realize we were going to state the plainly obvious.  I mean there were pictures of President Obama and Secretary Clinton sitting in the White House when it all went down.) An American soldier (could have sworn it was the SEALs, who are Department of the Navy (sailors) last time I checked, but I mean we haven’t been accurate with the services in our status updates yet.  So why start now?), who Obama just a few weeks ago was debating on whether or not to PAY (I was fairly certain it was more than just the military that was being thought about.  Could have sworn it was BILLIONS of dollars to fund general Government operation that was being debated.), did. Obama just happened to be the one in office (lucky bastard, how’d he manage that?) when our soldiers (Uggg, again?  You know you post a lie enough people start to believe it and no one will dispute the truth.) finally found OBL (Thought it a joint effort involving multiple agencies and assistance from the U.S. military?)  and took him out (for ice cream?  Let’s not be vague, you said that in the start of this copy and paste.) This is NOT an Obama victory, but an AMERICAN victory!! REPOST IF YOU AGREE!! (AMERICA!!! FUCK YEA!!!!  Yay exclamation points.)

FB Version:  Stupid cancer... we all wish to have a new car, new phone, to lose weight, a person who has cancer only wants one thing: To fight their cancer. I know that 97% of you guys won't put this on your wall, but 3% of my friends will. Put it on your wall in honor of someone who died from cancer or who 's fighting it..

Response:  Stupid cancer (always ruins the party…EVERY time.)... we all wish to have a new car (how bout we start with a car period?  Bastard doesn’t have to be new, I’ll gladly take a used one at this point.), new phone (Not really, those data plans are a drain on finances.), to lose weight (I like the anorexia promotion, way to hammer home the point by picking on the self-conscious person.), a person who has cancer only wants one thing (to have meaningless sex with as many people as they can before they die, since ALL cancer is fatal right?): To fight their cancer (Oh. I feel like a complete jerk now.) . I know that 97% of you guys won't put this on your wall (never mind, I don’t. Cause you are right about me not reposting this cause it’s a waste of space.  I’m just gonna keep donating money, bone marrow, whatever it takes to beat cancer like a bully that took my lunch money.), but 3% of my friends will (I hate those 3%.  I hope they get Cancer and die.). Put it on your wall in honor of someone who died from cancer or who 's fighting it..(Like Russell Crow’s fighting Cancer ‘round the World, along with his good buddy Tugger?  That was a great show.  Too bad Tugger shot himself in the steam stack.  TUGGER WHY!!!!!)

I feel like this is the best way to make use of your entire lawn.

FB Version:  THERE IS NO spider under the skin
YOU CAN'T see the girl stripping
YOU CAN'T find out who looked at your profile
YOU WILL NOT know what that man saw when he walked in on his daughter
YOU WILL NOT see pics of Osama Bin Laden's dead body
YOU WILL NEVER know why that baby is laughing
*Do not click on these links. You are exposing yourself to viruses!* Copy & paste this as your status to spread this message.
Response (by Teh Megan):  THERE IS NO spider under the skin (and why would this be interesting anyways?  Eww.)
YOU CAN'T see the girl stripping (even though you are a perv and you want to.)
YOU CAN'T find out who looked at your profile (who the hell cares?  Trust issues much?  if you had your FB privacy settings amped up, you wouldn't have to be concerned about this.)
YOU WILL NOT know what that man saw when he walked in on his daughter (although I'm sure you could just ask any man with a daughter what he would say to find this out instead of getting hacked.)
YOU WILL NOT see pics of Osama Bin Laden's dead body (unless you're awesome.)
YOU WILL NEVER know why that baby is laughing (don't babies do tons of unexplained things anyways?  Its a baby, who cares as long as it's not screaming?)
*Do not click on these links. You are exposing yourself to viruses!* Copy & paste this as your status to spread this message. (although all your friends already clicked the hacker links already, and they ALWAYS click the hacker links and spam you, yet someone is bitter and must post a PSA copy/paste to cover ALL the viral (literally) videos with links that aren't verified.)

Teh Bear's final say: So there you go, all the great reasons of why your copy and paste status isn't going to end world hunger, isn't going to stop child abuse by changing your profile picture.  Won't make people think you are any cooler than you were prior to your copy and paste retardedness.  If you want to change something or take action for or against something, go the more traditional route and get up off your ass and get involved.  End world hunger?  Why not start in your local community at a soup kitchen?  Get those Welfare leechers off of drugs?  Why not donate some money or pester you local representative to fund drug treatment facilities.  Please stop the copy and paste in your status.  Re-Post this link if you agree!!!! (don't forget the exclamation points...oh and the hearts god don't forget the hearts.) ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Back to Teh Megan:
My other new favorite thing, creating stupid events.

Like, the Zombie Apocolypse or the May 22, 2011 Looting Day or remembering Caylee events...

/wrist.  Srsly?  As if I didn't have to spend enough time already blocking all game requests/notifications (congratulations on not having a life and always playing FB games) or hiding people that post entire status updates in txt speak, which I refuse to translate or read.

And no lie, there are people that I most definitely have had to "hide" because they only updates they have are the copy/paste statuses or game requests.  Le sigh.

I might talk in the 3rd person on a regular basis for my status updates and address my posts to non-cognizant things, but at least I'm not a copy/paste whore.  You're welcome, Gentle Reader (assuming you don't have me hidden from your FB feed for posting annoying shit).

Rant(s) complete.  For now.




PS.  I apologize that the format of this blog was so ridiculously difficult.  It was very complicated how to differentiate between myself and Teh Bear's comments.  Hopefully you didn't give up halfway through, and if you did, I probably wouldn't blame you.  Different colors prob would have worked nicely, but the issue with that is not everyone reads Teh Blog on my page (its ok you sneaky, sneakers), so using crazy formatting besides general bold/italics/underline/strike-through gets....tricky.

PPS.  The other day I posted a status on FB about not clicking on the spider video.  That was definitely before the above mentioned copy/paste came out.  I feel like they stole my PSA idea.  Glad I was able to contribute to the world in a meaningful way.

PPPS.  Yes, I know that my blogging schedule got off, it took some extra time to collaborate with Teh Bear.

 
    

   

Adventures w/ Teh Bear. Part 6.

As time dwindled down, :(, we had to do the things we hadn't done yet.  The 2 primary things that weren't cooking related were the Tree of Life and visiting the Grand Mosque.  Teh Bear also kinda wanted to go to the Wildlife Preserve that Teh Sister and I went to in March, but due to their hours vs our sleeping schedule and the heat, I kinda talked him out of it.  He wanted some camel pics, but said he'd just steal mine.  Totally worth the extra snuggles.

We considered doing the Tree of Life at sunset, but that meant getting up early, and as vacation went on, we were getting to bed later and later, which was is super annoying, because that meant sleeping in even more, and I really love my sleep.  At some point, the idea struck me, how about Tree of Life at sunrise instead of sunset.  Teh Bear was down for this idea, as we would already be awake.  Then we'd go tour the mosque and come home and go to bed, potentially at a reasonable hour.  So much potential in the idea...

We left the house around 3am, becuase I was thinking the sun rose at 330ish, I mean thats what time the first prayer call is, and that's at sunrise, right?  Apparently, not.  Teh Bear had looked it up, but didn't tell me, the sun wasn't rising till around 430.  Teh Megan, fail.  So we got there super duper early.  As if shots in the dark aren't difficult enough, I didn't bring my tripod because I'm a newb.  I figured that since the sun would be rising there would be light.  Wrong.  Teh Bear likes me enough, so he shared his tripod with me.  He might have also realized that I was sulking in the car because I was listening to my ipod and playing Pocket Frog, where all I do is breed frogs, make them happy, then sell them.  This game is supposed to be super fun when you have a large network of people you play with, except that rarely do I have internet when I am playing on my ipod (waiting rooms, middle of the desert, etc).  He got some pretty cool pics of me playing in the dark, showing off my double chin, which is only ok because he's my Teh Bear.

Teh Bear's photo, thats not the sun in the background, thats the glow of oil refineries.

Finally, the sun started to come up.  We finally got some shots with light.  I followed around this mega-huge ant and tried to get a photo of him, but that asshole was moving too fast, and I was semi-afraid he was going to bite me.  Pics of the Tree of Life were had, and because there isn't much else out there besides oil refineries and flare stacks, we left.  I was kinda sad that I didn't stop on the way down and take night shots of the oil refineries, because lit up they looked super cool, as I don't usually see them at night.  Teh Kaar did enjoy going 85mph on the highway back to civilization.

This is actually the speed limit for the street beside my apt.  The speed limit in oil refinery land was 100/kmh, which is about 60-65/mph.  I took matters into my own hands since the cops like watching people race down the streets.  :)

There is a sign on my way to work that says Humps Ahead (for the speed bumps, pervs).  A few months ago, someone put a <G> sticker over the "mp" part, so now it says Hugs Ahead, and I've wanted a shot of the sign for a while.  Apparently, while I've been on leave, some assholes decided to turn the visual sign to the side, so you can't really determine what the sign was supposed to be for.  Teh Bear tried spinning the sign back around, but it wasn't budging.  :(

Then we headed to the mosque.  Apparently, touring hours start at 9.  It was prob around 530.  Fail.  So we went home, ate dinner/breakfast, were generally lazy, then around 850 we started the trek across the street to the mosque where we got a pretty awesome tour, we got some photos, and we got a little sweaty (from walking around outside, pervs).  We also both lost our lens caps.  Very inconvenient and strange.

The tour guide didn't understand what close up photo meant.. and he had a very strong aversion to feet considering I asked for a whole body photo... because walking around in socks is my favorite part of going to the mosque.

 There is a fountain that I can see from my apartment.  I think this fountain is beautiful and I really want night shots of it.  It was on when we were walking to the mosque, so when we were leaving the mosque, we walked around to the fountain so I could get some daytime shots of it running.. And the fucking fountain was off.  I know the thing turns off around midnight 15ish.  I have no idea what its always on time is.  One day, I'll just stop being a lazy ass, and just go take photos of it one night when I get up.  It just requires so much motivation to make the trek to the fountain in the heat, with all the camera gear.  Hear me whine.

Stupid fucking fountain.  Actually, I think I read somewhere that this can be called the Princess Fountain.  IDK, but I know it hates me and never wants me to take photos of it.

I would like to say thank you to Teh Bear for putting up with me sitting at the computer for hours on end writing blogs and being an internet addict while he was here.  I got away with blogging because I told him that he's never had his vacation documented in such a way before, so he should feel excited that his Bahrain vacation has been internet immortalized.  He also dealt with the doormen/maintenance men while he was here, but mostly because once they saw someone that owned a penis they immediately thought that everything had to be ran through him.  Made my life easier, so I was ok with it.

Maintenance was also part of the reason our sleep schedules got pushed so far back.  They don't come to do work on the apartment till at least 11, which is definitely past my bedtime, so we were having to stay up to deal with them, then we'd get up late.  Nasty, vicious cycle.

The only other super amazing thing we did was eat.  I made all the things Teh Bear felt like he's been missing out on, enchiladas, lasagna, alfredo.  We had local pizza, we both had our first McArabia's (which were actually pretty good) we had dinner at Coco's, dessert at Cafe Lilou's, crepes at the movie theater place, brunch at Golden Tulip, dinner at Al Abraaj.  I feel like we covered all the things I really like about Bahrain, and that was my goal while Teh Bear was here.

Us popping our McArabia cherries together.  It was actually kind of tasty once we got past the curosity:

Fatty McFatties.  We did not eat all those fries, but it was easier to just  let them give us 3 meals instead of trying to tell them "just the sandwiches"..  Not confusing Arabs, one step at a time.

All things considered, it was an awesome vacation, even if I didn't get to experience the wonders of America.  It was nice just to be lazy and live a normal-ish-y real life with Teh Bear.

The Bear has now returned to America.  Despite some very serious concerns about missing his connecting flight once he arrived back in America, all went well.  Also, airports not having free wifi blows.  Srsly.  Internet is right!  Right?

That was a teaser for a blog to come btw.  Ahhhh.. another day.. :)



   

Adventures w/ Teh Bear. Part 5.

So, last time we ended on having to fix the car battery another day..  And I was so put off by the potential "experience" of having to get my car jumped and finding a mechanic that was open on a Saturday, that I just saved the adventure for Sunday morning before we went to bed.  We've stayed on a "night shift" schedule while Teh Bear is here.  Mostly so there is minimal adjustment when he gets back home, and because I'm actually on night shift this month and hopefully next month.

Before we went to bed the day of Go Karts, I called the spa where I usually get my massages and set up an appointment at 7pm for us.  We'd have to set an alarm, and walk there (since the car was out of commission), but it would be Teh Bear's first professional massage, so it was worth it.  They called me at 6:15p, which of course woke me up 10 minutes before the alarm went off, to ask if we were still coming to the appointment..  I wanted to scream at them, MADAM (because they call everyone Madam/Sir), IF I WASN'T COMING I WOULDN'T HAVE BOOKED AN APPOINTMENT LESS THAN 12 HOURS AGO.  Instead, I mumbled yes and stewed in anger until the alarm went off, which miraculously didn't wake Teh Bear.

(image)

He sleeps, literally, like a bear.  Nothing wakes him up.  Not his snoring.  Not his talking/grumbling in his sleep.  Not my phone ringing.  Not text messages in the middle of the night/day.  Not the alarm.  What does wake Teh Bear?  Me rolling him over and quietly saying, its time to get up.  But he doesn't wake up to any other noise!?!?!  I'm so freakin' jealous.  I want to sleep like a normal person!

hehehe (image)

Luckily, I live in a pretty awesome location, so the walk to Sherry Spa only took 5-7 minutes max, and we didn't even really get sweaty.  When we arrived, we got our "where do you want to be massaged" forms, and then they asked if it was okay if we got our massages in the facial area because they were doing renovations on the normal massage room.

There is no photo of Sherry Spa to be found.  Maybe I'll remedy this.

Let me back track about 10 hours.  9am.  I called Sherry Spa and asked for a couples massage at 7pm.  They said no problem.
Me: Wait!  The other day I had an appointment scheduled and it had to be cancelled because renovations.  Are they done?
Phone lady:  Yes, madam.
M:  Ok, good.  7p.
PL:  7pm, tonight, madam.
M:  Tonight?  *asking Teh Bear: is tonight ok?
tB: *grumble
PL:  Madam?
M:  Tonight.  7pm.  See you then.
PL:  Thank you, madam.
M: *in my head, call me madam again, and I'll KEEL you.

So now, we're doing massages in the facial room because of renovations?  W.T.F.?  Teh Bear told me it was no big deal, and while he was right, I was still extremely irritated.  I had purposely asked this question.  But, in the end, the massages were great, the price was unbeatable, everyone was satisfied, and the facial room isn't really that much different than the massage room, except the tables are collapsible, meaning that the masseuse can't crawl on the table and use their knees on my back, which has happened, and was more amazing than it sounds.

(Pizzabella)

After massages, we walked to Pizzabella, because Teh Bear has a thing about trying pizza in all the different places he goes, which he apparently did in Denver a few weeks ago.  Pizzabella is my go to pizza place.  Mostly because when I order a mushroom pizza, they say Pizza al Fungi, I say yes, they say 45 minutes to an hour and they arrive in about 25.  That is the convenience of living across the street.  Teh Bear didn't have negative things to say about the pizza, so I figured it was a success, since he continued eating it.

After food and massages, it was definitely nap time, which is my favorite thing to do when I'm not working.  Pretty sure I've taken a nap every single day I've been on vacation, no jk.

So maybe I should own some of these?
(image)

Around 730a, I decided it was time to start the "fix Kaar" adventure.  I was pretty sure it was going to be incredibly painful trying to find someone with jumper cables to jump my car.  Side note: I was pretty sure I owned jumper cables.  But the problem with living with someone is that often your belongings get confused.  I have never owned jumper cables.  Teh BFF has jumper cables.  I even remember that they were, at one point, in a clear plastic container.  They are in a round package.  They are not located in my trunk, although I was willing them to be.

I couldn't find my doorman, so I went to ask the mall security if they had jumper cables.  That guy told me to wait on a patrol car to come around.  SERIOUSLY?!?!  Who the hell knows when that will be?  He disappeared.  He reappeared.  My doorman then also appeared at the corner of my building when we went outside and I asked him if they had jumper cables.  No.  Magically, another doorman appeared.  He said one moment, and went into the market and asked the people that work there if anyone had jumper cables.  SOMEONE DID, HALLELUJAH.  Only 15 minutes had passed.  Holy hell.  Thank you, Jesus.

The dude with the cables pulled his car around to mine.  Teh Kaar didn't want to start at first.  3 tries went by and I was getting disheartened.  By this point, there were at least 4 men standing around, Teh Bear, my 2 doormen, 1 mall security guard, 1 parking security guard, the market employee in his car, and another employee from the market.  After turning off the AC and taking my stereo face off (since I can't ever figure out how to turn the damn thing off) and waiting a few moments, Teh Kaar finally starting purring again, precious life returned.

I thanked everyone, profusely.  Nothing like reviving a dead car to get a girl to be grateful.  Teh Bear and I stopped at an ATM then headed to the auto mechanic area.  I pulled up to the first garage, he tested the battery, said that it was the problem, as Teh Bear had predicted, and promptly changed it for me, charged me 30BD, and we were on our way.  WOOT.  It was right at 830.  I had definitely anticipated at least 2 hours for the battery adventure, minimum.  Thank Allah that wasn't the case.

And this is why I'm hesitant to buy
a backpack camera case.  Those are
sexy sweat lines.

Since Teh Bear and I were already out, and he hadn't been to the souq yet, I decided it would be a good time.  Sadly, I didn't prewarn him of this, so I'm not sure he wore the appropriate shoes, but he was a trooper nonetheless.  We walked around for an hour and a halfish.  Just shooting photos, dodging beggars (carrying a DSLR camera around your neck doesn't help you "blend in"), and getting super sweaty, almost Go Kart's sweaty.





We stopped and got juice at one of the juice stands, and also picked up the traditional garb for Teh Bear's next halloween costume, which I've already deemed is called Jihad Brother, I just didn't tell him that yet.  Mostly because I came up with it while we were in the shop (where the guy super ripped us off, and I let him because the smell of his armpits was so noxious that I just wanted the transaction to end or vomit), and didn't think it was appropriate to tell Teh Bear that he was wearing his jihad clothes while we were in an Arabic man's shop, too soon?  Possibly.

After the souq it was time for bed.  Well, a shower then bed.  The 3rd shower in a day, which is a very Bahrain thing.  Oddly enough, it was the clearest day I think we've had since summer ascended on us (oh yes, ascended, like the firey pits of hell are actually rising high enough to be at sea level, creating summer).  The financial center and the world trade center were completely clear, and there was a pretty decent breeze.  When standing in the shade, with the breeze, it was almost pleasant, considering one was covered in sweat, which made the breeze even better.

Random tidbit.  Text messages at my 4am (actually 4p) from the VILLAPEOPLE doesn't amuse me, no matter how close your name is to the Village People.  When you wake me up, I want to KEEL you.  Especially when I can't go back to sleep afterwards.  Assholes.  I want the sleeping habits of Teh Bear, seriously.

And for your viewing pleasure: the souq.  Or as Teh Bear likes to compare, an American flea market with Arabs.

Selling fishies and prawns.

An old lady appeared.  Score.

Mutton.  Which brings me back to days when we'd package the cows.

Ricky Martin is in Bahrain!

Bahrain, the world is your trashcan.

Looks like someone had a party.  The confetti was all over the ground throughout that entire area.

Sweets

KFC in Arabia.