My Christmas Gift From Turkmenistan!

WOW!

My PalInTurkmenistan pulled off a major coup for me - it seems that all of that sequestering in the hotel gave her time to catch up on my blogging, which enticed her to sneak outside and put herself at risk to satisfy my desires....

Again...WOW!

So, here it is, FaithfulReaders, the rotating statue of the departed Turkmenbashi!

You have no idea what I had to go through to get this. It is illegal to take pictures of it. It involved a lot of look-outs, hiding in trees, then running from a guard when he came towards us!

Things here are still pretty calm, but today is when they announce when the "elections" will happen.

It will be interesting to see what really goes down.

Merry Christmas, FaithfulReaders!

Perspective

From the NYT's -

In Vietnam in the mid-1960s, some 200 civilians were at one point trapped between battling South Vietnamese and Vietcong forces and seemed to be doomed to die in the crossfire.

Suddenly a band of 18 monks and nuns appeared — unarmed and politically unaligned — and walked into the combat zone.

The shooting stopped.

They escorted the civilians to safety.

The Buddhists had given the right gift to the right people at the right time and asked nothing in return.

If there is such a thing as a perfect gift, that is it.

That'll Make Me Scream

According to a 200-page assessment given to Oslo police, damage resulting from the theft of Edvard Munch’s Scream may be too severe to be repaired.

Ingebjorg Ydstie, a museum curator, reported:

Water has been absorbed by one corner of the paperboard, and there is abrasion damage on the lower part of the painting. We have a large swath that is very visible.

But wait, FaithfulReaders -what to make of this:

On September 1, 2006, Munch Museum director Ingebjørg Ydstie said that the condition of the paintings was much better than expected and that the damage could be repaired. Our skilled conservators will be able to repair the damage.

Or not, apparently.

Which is it, Ingebjørg? And why the change in title from the earlier museum director to the lowly curator? Hmmmm...

More Holiday Gifts Have Arrived!

Look what the fine folks at the wire service sent me for Christmas! -Live from the Everglades!

Yep - an alligator AND a Burmese Python. This time, I don't think the python is going to win...

So Here's What's Happening

Turkmenistan's President-for-life Saparmurat Niyazov died suddenly of cardiac arrest at age 66 on Thursday after 21 years of tirelessly crushing all dissent with his iron rule over his country whose major assest is its huge natural gas reserves.


His death raises a risk of political instability in the energy-rich country that some fear could have an impact on Europe's gas supplies.

So this is not a good sign, given what some administrations will do to control energy resources (not naming names here):

I expect there will be a massive fight for power now in Turkmenistan and it's likely to take place between pro-U.S. and pro-Russian forces, said a Russian gas industry source, who declined to be named (can you say: polonium?). Gas will become the main coin of exchange and the key asset to get hold of.

That's great.

Under the Constitution, Parliament Speaker Overzgeldy Atayev is to take over as acting president until elections that must be called within two months. The Constitution, however, bans Atayev from running for president in that vote.

Originally a Soviet apparatchik, Niyazov took the title of Turkmenbashi (Head of the Turkmen) the Great and had thousands of portraits and statues, including one in gold leaf that rotates to face the sun in Aşgabat. I hope MsLee gets a photo of that if she is ever able to leave the hotel.

His death means a terrible shock for the republic, its residents and the political class. It's comparable to a shock the Soviet Union felt after Stalin's death said Vyacheslav Nikonov, head of the Moscow-based Politika think tank.

Ooooh - do you think they will embalm and put him on display like Stalin and Lenin...or better yet, wheel out his preserved corpse to oversee all of the big meetings in the country like the great Jeremy Bentham? That would be in keeping with his ego, and it would be cool!

Amongst his accomplishments, Niyazov renamed the month of January after himself as well as a sea port and even a meteorite.

How much do I love that?

His funeral in set for December 24th.

Word From My Friend In Turkmenistan

You know, only my friend, MsLee, would be sent to a place that no one has ever heard of, where nothing ever happened, and find herself in the vortex of world changing events...

Here is her email I received at 9:10 am this morning:

Check out CNN.com for the news story on what is going on here. Everything is pretty calm, but there is A LOT of uncertainty about what is going to happen. There have been strict curfews put in place here. At least we will officially become volunteers tomorrow, that way if for some reason we get sent home (I don't think we will) we get all the benefits of being volunteers. As trainees we would get no benefits.

For right now we are all being kept at a hotel in Ashgabat. We are not allowed to leave, and are on a "wait and see" plan. We will definitely be here through the 28th, but some are suspecting until the first of the year.We are safe, and things don't feel scary. There's just a lot of uncertainty and questions about what will happen here. It's an interesting time to be here- BIG history in the making for this part of the world. It will be interesting to watch how things progress and change.

Being kept in a hotel...I suppose there are worse things to do in Ashgabat.

Like spending the day at the Ak Bugday (White Wheat) Museum.

From My Inbox

Got home from work early this morning, and received this brief and cryptic note:

please check any world news.

big situation just happened in turkmenistan.

we are at the hotel, we are safe.

Of course, after reading that, I just went to bed.

It can wait til morning, I'm sure. I mean, what could be possibly be news in a made-up country?

Today's Task - A Daunting One

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue.

Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them.

And the point is, to live everything.

Live the questions now.

Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer.

-Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

My Christmas Wish List Item

Well, last year, FaithfulReaders, I asked for the lovely Olive Symphony - as I believe in the quality, and not quantity of gifts.

That did not pan out. NO Olive Symphony anywhere to be seen.

But I will try again, with this : As I am a marketer's dream consumer, being swayed unreasonably by stylish design and classic good taste - I became overcome with avarice when I layed eyes on this beauty : The Fujifilm FinePix Z5fd. The latest in the FinePix Z-series of slim (19.4-mm) digital cameras sports a 6.3 megapixel CCD sensor, 3x optical zoom, 2.5-inch LCD, a likely worthless ISO 1600 sensitivity, 26MB of internal memory, a new blog mode (don't care what it is, love the sound of it) and the hardware-based Face Detection technology seen in their higher-end cameras.

And the color choice? Mocha Brown, of course. Yum.

Yes, I know I have the hallowed, gorgeous and magnificent (not to mention 4x as costly) NIKON D70, but sometimes you want just a little, wee camera to take with you. And what a beauty. After reading the reviews, I got online to see who was carrying them so I could run out and buy me one, then I noticed the fine print - available in MARCH 2007.

Santa, you are on notice.

A One-Legged Woman, A Monkey & A Lumberjack

The Penpal gave me the 'heads up' that NPR was featuring a segment about David Lynch and his new project - Inland Empire. (The funniest part about the Wikipedia link to the Inland Empire site, is this: Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. Yeah. Right! Good try, folks!)

I can't call it a film, because Mr. Lynch has become enamoured of consumer grade digital video, and has forsaken film at this time.


As for Inland Empire, the buzz is that it is LESS narrative than (the brilliant and taxing)Mulholland Drive, and even more like being inside of Mr. Lynch's brain.

Dave says that he has tried to capture a dream. He says that no matter how good your words are, when you tell someone your dream, they just don't experience it in the same way. So his work is to try and capture the vividness, the realness of a dream and to deny any outside forces of structure or narration.

(note to Penpal - how's that for your Unity Statement? -also notice the copy - worlds within worlds -wheels within wheels -tiny alice- ohgoodgod dr mccoy)

And this, from the report, sums up why we both adore David Lynch:

Laura Dern received a call from a new producer on the project -

Producer: David called me this morning - I can't figure out if it's a joke. He said, 'Bring me a one-legged woman, a monkey and a lumberjack by 3:15.'

Laura: I said, Yeah, you're on a David Lynch movie, dude. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

Producer: But what does it MEAN?

Laura: It means that you need to bring him a monkey, a one-legged woman and a lumberjack by 3:15.

In The Dark

I'm in the dark, no hot water & no repairs in sight for about a week!
WHAT A STORM!
And we are predicted to have snow tonight!

The weather is very nasty back home - they are recovering from the worst windstorm in more than a decade, a storm which left more than 1.5 million homes (including my friend, K8, whose note starts this post!) and businesses without power and killing at least six people.

Winds up to 90 mph were reported in parts of Washington during the storm that began Thursday night. Winds in Seattle hit 69 mph.

Power was knocked out at one of the airport's concourses, canceling dozens of flights.

Flights were also canceled at Portland International Airport in Oregon, and Amtrak canceled service between Seattle and Portland because downed trees and mudslides blocked the tracks.

Gas shortages all over the Seattle area forced some people to wait in lines that took as long as two hours to get to the pump.

Holiday Photography Tips - A Public Service

There are lots of rules to follow to create memorable photographs.

Stuff with mystical names like the Rule of Thirds and the Golden Mean.

So, I found this photo on the net, and thought it was a great example in really bad compositional thinking. Don't let this happen to YOUR holiday memories, folks:

As our fine friends at Kodak, point out:

So it's easier than you might guess to focus our eyes on the principal subject only and not see that background at all.

Avoiding mergers is our sixth guideline for better composition.

The Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men

What to do to celebrate the season?

Shop for Christmas trees, drink some hot cider, drive around and look at holiday lights...If you are lucky enough to be in Ohio, you can go to the aforeblogged Christmas Story House...or drive through Wellington to take in the festive display of Nazi gingerbread men...so many choices.

Keith McGuckin was forced to remove his Nazi gingerbread men from the window of a hardware store in Oberlin, but he has found space for them in an empty storefront in nearby Wellington.

The Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men depicts a small gathering at a Nazi rally.

McGuckin said the subject is meant to provoke thought, not offend.

I remember thinking to myself, 'What's the worst thing a gingerbread man can do?' They're just copying things that people have done. There are no hidden messages here.

Last winter, McGuckin used the hardware store window to display a caroler-bashing snowman, a depiction of a suicidal snowman sitting under a hairdryer and a little boy excited about using his chemistry set to create crystal meth .

When It Absolutely, Positiviely Has To Be There...

... seven years later.

Russian Post has started delivering 4.5 tonnes of letters and parcels that were sent from the United States in 1999.

The state-owned postal service said the delay was not its fault - a shipping container with the mail inside has been at a port in Finland for years.

Calling Doktor Schnabel von Rom!

You're Wanted In Wyoming!

I've always harbored the idea that the best Halloween costume of all time would be to go as Doktor Schnabel von Rom, the Plague Doctor.

Now, it looks like I could do just that, as two mountain lions have died in Wyoming - victims of the Bubonic Plague!

In a little more than a year, four area mountain lions have died from the disease and several domestic cats have tested positive, said Ken Mills, a professor of veterinary sciences who diagnosed the cats' disease in his University of Wyoming laboratory.

The mountain lions died at the end of October, but the university just issued a warning to hunters and cat owners on Thursday.

The area affected is a sparsely populated portion of northwest Wyoming that includes little known and infrequwntly visited places like Yellowstone National Park and Jackson.

"It's A Real Rarity" - So I Ate It

Y'know, those Burmese Pythons have been doing me right this year.

In fact, I got so caught up in THAT, that I practically forgot another of my favorite topics from last year...when this little story just drops into my lap...

Rick Lisko hit a deer while driving down his mile-long driveway.

The young buck had nub antlers — and seven legs.

Lisko said it also had both male and female reproductive organs.

It was definitely a freak of nature, Lisko said. I guess it's a real rarity. It kind of gives you the creeps when you look at it.

John Hoffman of Eden Meat Market skinned the deer for Lisko.

And by the way, I did eat it, Lisko said.

It was tasty.

Attaboy.

There Is A Job For Everyone

More dolphin news - this time it is happier, though!

Dolphins at Royal Jidi Ocean World aquarium in Liaoning province, China, got sick after nibbling on plastic from the edge of their pool.

Attempts to use surgical instruments to remove the plastic failed because the dolphins' stomachs contracted in response to the instruments.

So what to do?

Veterinarians decided to ask for help from Bao Xishun, a 7'9" tall herdsman from Inner Mongolia with 41.7-inch arms - the world's tallest living man confirmed last year by the Guinness Book of World Records.

He was brought in and trained to reach into the dolphins' stomachs and remove the offending material.

This is not the first time an ultra-tall man has come to the rescue of dolphins. In 1978, Clifford Ray, a 6'9" basketball star, was asked to do the very same thing.

It's in your job description, man.

Going, Going - Sadly, Gone

An expedition searching for a rare Yangtze River dolphin ended Wednesday without a single sighting and with the team's leader saying one of the world's oldest species was effectively extinct.

The white dolphin known as baiji, shy and nearly blind, dates back some 20 million years.Its disappearance is believed to be the first time in a half-century, since hunting killed off the Caribbean monk seal, that a large aquatic mammal has been driven to extinction.

We have to accept the fact, that the Baiji is functionally extinct. It is a tragedy, a loss not only for China, but for the entire world. We are all incredibly sad. We lost the race, August Pfluger, the Swiss co-leader of the joint Chinese-foreign expedition, said.

Around 400 baiji were believed to be living in the Yangtze in the 1980s. The last full-fledged search, in 1997, yielded 13 confirmed sightings, and a fisherman claimed to have seen a baiji in 2004.
It was an odd sighting, as the baiji had an ivory-billed woodpecker on its back at the time...

Note To Self

Get a clue.

Make Your Own Kind Of Music

Noah Vawter, a graduate student at the M.I.T. Media Lab, has created a device he calls Ambient Addition.

The device consists of two headphones with transparent earpieces, each equipped with a microphone and a speaker. The microphones sample the background noise in the immediate vicinity — wind blowing through the trees, traffic, a cellphone conversation.

Then, through the magic of computer chips, the sounds are processed into music. Percussive sounds like footsteps and coughs are sequenced into a stuttering pattern, and all the noises are tuned so that they fuse into a coherent, slowly changing set of harmonies.

Santa, are you listening?

Snails

So, I've been sitting here thinking about my mom... thinking about holidays and traditions.

It is one of those back in time moments, when I wish that as I am sitting here, writing (similiar to doing homework), my mom would knock on my office (bedroom then) door, and there she would be - holding a plate a freshly baked snails and a steaming cup of coffee.

I'd kill for a plate of snails right now. I truly can't remember when last I had that little treat, but I think that the Penpal was in on them at least once, so it has to have been in the past twenty five years. Easy to say, it has been awhile.

As FaithfulReaders are familiar, my mom liked to make up names for things (a trait I apparently inherited), such as calling French Style Green Beans - spinach. So, here is what snails really are:

You start with a pie crust dough stick (do they still make those?). You roll it out. You generously spread butter over the dough. You generously sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over that. You roll it up and cut it into inch long bite-sized squares, put 'em on a cookie sheet and throw 'em in the oven for a couple of minutes. Ummmmm...warm, flaky cinnamonysugary goodness.

I just know my mom would be cracking up inside whenever she would ask if I wanted snails in front of a new guest and I would get very enthusiastic. What kid loves snails that much? The same kid that just LOVED spinach. Until she was actually served real spinach one day...