after_alex

I had a teacher once who said that books are like friends. I’m a sympathetic reader, actually, the kind that gets wrapped into the story easily, but not with the regular crap literature that you I across at work or the marketing pamphlets on the bus. Give me the real bread-and-butter stuff.

I like short essays, the essays that cut the crap and look straight into the human soul, or the way that the human soul looks at the world. I find that the most striking essays turn into a mirror, and let me discover that I’m actually looking at myself. EAch line of such an essay should detail my own features and my own wrinkles, and also paint a portrait of who I could be. That’s the neat part of the essay. It quickly takes me into a different world, but leaves me right here in the chair.

In that way, I say that essays are like mirrors. At least the good ones are. And if books are friends, then compilation books of essays are sycophants that give me everything I want, me. Hmm that sounds wrong. But, for me, flipping through a good collection of essays is like going on a bunch of trips in Bobby’s World. Every trip is unique, but every trip has me in there. That way, I can use the essay as an escape. And with every good escape I learn something new about myself. Always good to have change in my environment. That way, I get many perspectives. But of course, the best vistas are those with myself included. Off to another dream…

It’s Christmas and I got nothing better to do than sit here and write on my blog. I’m much used to entertaining myself virtually by now, so lemme share with you another video that I thought was pretty funny.

I particularly like the song in the video..the singing is just phenomenal. And the way the girl wags her finger is hilarious too.

As you sit back in front of the screen with a hot cup of chocolate, you’re probably thinking…I wonder what it’s like in Afghanistan?

People ask me all the time. So let me use this blog to explain a little bit of what my life is like.

I work almost every day. Mornings, I get picked up by an escort, armed to the teeth with AKs / 9 mills. They wear body armor…it actually scared me at first, but now I’m used to it. Still, it’s not as bad as Baghdad (where I heard all advisors wear kevlar and helmet…everywhere).

My transportation escort.

Usually I also get out to the Ministry of Energy and Water, where I have an office. The car that takes me is heavily-plated Land Cruiser with composite windows inches deep.

Away we go…on the road it sometimes takes 20 min, sometimes 1 hr. Traffic sucks here, just as it does anywhere else. It seems to be getting worse. But anyway, it’s not as bad as you might think, being here. You still get some of the basics of life, including good radio tunes. In the video below, note the donkey carts on the side of the road. Still a long way to go in terms of “development” …

Today was a little unusual…we ended up donating Dell computers for them to use in their “office automation” project. It was a happy moment. They’ve been bugging me about these computers for MONTHS. So…Merry Christmas, here ya go.

“USAID, from the American people”.

Unfortunately, the sad part is that their needs here are so basic. We got them computers, but they still need electricity. Nobody thought about getting them proper electrical outlets in the room, with enough extension cables to feed the PCs. Go figure.

Sadder still, is the fact that they don’t even have a warm room. It gets to about 26 deg F in the morning here. YOu can probably understand that it SUCKS… Now, the second problem is to get a decent heater set up. Of course, they have to resort to economical, traditional technologies…which means …fat ass furnace in the room!

Trust me, you don’t wanna be around when they light this. Smells like burning plastic, diesel, and ASS. I don’t know how they are going to stay conscious in there.

Anyway, that’s a wrap. You asked, so I tell. Hope you enjoyed the story.

Back in the day when we used to mess around …in our spare time.

Those were good days, weren’t they?

I’ve gotta do a plug for my god-sister Anh. She’s got a blog called “Owley Patrol.” It’s a depiction of life from a remorseless troublemaker, gifted artist, and social pundit…all rolled into one!