the end in the UAE...

Today was my last day of work in the UAE. I'm sad to leave, but happy to go home, even if it's only for a week (I head off to Canada for an engagement 28 February). The iraqi I work with brought his camera in today to take some pictures. This image should be familiar to everyone who knows me (when do I not have a coke in my hand?).






This pic was taken in the training room where I work and have had the team locked up doing architecture hell week for the past two weeks.









And this is the texas kid and the iraqi failing to take their last day of training seriously :D

One thing the iraqi said to me today is that they have an expression in his country: when a man teaches you something, you are his slave. Then he thanked me for teaching him. It was touching.

I am currently in my room waiting for Ireland to show up for my going away party. We decided it would be girls only. I'm hoping for a quiet evening so I can get up and go to the beach one last time tomorrow.

ETA to Denver Saturday evening, inshallah.

robot talk

I have been totally stressed out at work for the past few weeks, trying to fit in about 30 days of training in two weeks. I've been keeping my poor engineers locked in a training room for 11 hours straight (I give them a 10 minute break at lunch to get food).

So today texas kid, who is by now very bored with training, kept asking annoying questions at the beginning of the training class. Finally, I lost my temper with him (besides doing training for 11 hours, I am spending 5 hours doing prep work for the following day, and supporting sales, and doing the usual admin stuff) and said "Stop being a little shit".

This hurt texas kid's feelings a lot. He decided that he wasn't going to speak to me anymore. So when I asked him a question, he typed his answer into google translator and then clicked on the sound button (it takes what ever you type in and reads it in a robot voice).

I found that exceedingly funny. So then I went to a different web site, that had a translator with a british accent, and typed in another question for him. And he responded through google translator again. Soon we were both finding new translators on the web with different accents.

No one else in the class thought it was very funny. But texas kid is speaking to me again.

dolphin dinosaurs

Last night I had a dream that I was walking down a beach in Abu Dhabi with these boring white people from the suburbs. We came to a narrow part of the beach, where the way forward was cut off by a river feeding the ocean.

As I was standing there looking at the river, trying to decide if I could wade across it, a pink dolphin surfaced. But it wasn't just pink, it also had these triangular plates on its back like a triceratops dinosaur. I was like "dudes, look at that!" but no one saw it.

Then, as I was getting my camera out, a giant sea monster that looked like the loch ness monster rose out of the water. This time everyone saw it. The monster came out of the water, gave me a huge smile, and then went under the water. Everyone was like "Oh my god!!! It's a monster!!!"

More monsters showed up. I was standing on the edge of the water, but every time a monster swam by me I couldn't take a picture with my camera. All the people behind me were yelling at me to take pictures, but whenever a monster showed up I was frozen.

Finally this kind of fat white guy came up to me and said "Look, if you don't take a picture, no one will believe us about the monsters". And I said "That's not true, I'll write a story and tell everyone about the monsters."

Then the guy said to me "No one will believe you." And I started to be less happy about seeing the monsters, and started to worry he was right.

Then I woke up.

Movie of Petra

This was taken in the canyon leading to Petra in the late afternoon.

driving in wadi rum

A little video to share the experience of driving a jeep through the desert with a crazy bedouin.

great white sharks!!!!!

I just got this via email from my friend Patric. Check out the web site, very cool!

Greetings Shark Divers,

Shark Diver New Zealand is now official. After a few fits and starts the website went live last week and we are now booking divers from around the planet. We would like to introduce you to the planets next white shark cage diving and research site we call "Oceania."

Over the next three months I will be spending a lot of time at this new site with CEO Peter Scott and sending back regular video updates via our blog. Please help us spread the word by re-posting our press release and passing the news on to friends, photographers, and family members. Shark sites like these are becoming rarer as we lose animals to fishing pressures worldwide. Introducing the public to big charismatic mega fauna like the white shark changes perceptions and drives regional and local conservation efforts.

The unique white sharks at Oceania over the coming years will surprise both divers and researchers. What little we know about them is already rewriting the book on white sharks.

We have just begun another grand adventure. Join us.

http://sharkdivers.blogspot.com/2010/02/shark-diver-new-zealand-announces-new.html