The Great China Wok Drying Experiment

I get to be on the front lines of a grand experiment. That experiment is called Freedom. Just 7 years earlier, the people of Iraq were ruled by a ruthless egomaniac named Saddam. He controlled what people believed, what they saw, and mostly, he controlled their media. Not anymore. This picture is worth a thousand words. There are six Iraqi local nationals in the CHUs you see, and all six have their own dish, and all have the freedom to watch what they want, when they want. There are English Channels, Arabic Channels, Italian Channels, French Channels, even some in Farsi...but the key is, that no information is censored or cut off from anyone who wants to view it, and, if you are willing to pay enough money for it, you can even get as much nasty porn as you could ever want. And I am not talking about that dumbed-down US stuff, either. I am talking about some nasty Euro-trash porn. Anyway, there are all of the Dishes, lined up like a bunch of giant Chinese Woks drying in a rack.

I am about half-way through season 4 of 24 now. Have had to pull some marathon 24 sessions to get there, but I would like to say that although it is the same shit, different crisis...I AM, indeed, hooked. Decided to skip dinner tonight to watch it, too. So I guess you could also say that 24 is helping me lose some weight!

I did get some of these dried up lemon-like things from my Iraqi brothers...you crush them up, remove the seeds, and then pour boiling water over the pieces and it makes a mean lemon tea! It tastes good, too. I need to get one of those permanent tea bags, though. I figured that the Iraqis would have such inventions, but they boil all of their water anyway...so they just put a strainer thing in the pot. So I just got a strainer for now. Cost me about $1. I also got this absolutely fabulous sesame seed candy...I think that it is the same stuff that my grandmother used to have all of the time, but in individually wrapped pieces. I wish that I would have appreciated those things more when I was young.

I need to get to bed soon...have to get up early again and watch the Blackhawks game. The only real problem that I have is that since I am streaming the game from home in Alabama, the Predators are my home club...and they black out the Chicago station! So I have to listen to the Nashville announcers, ugh! I also may wake up early enough to watch the cubs, but I am not going to lose sleep watching them any more until they figure out how to keep a lead and win some game. Or, I may just watch them. I am, after all, a hope-a-holic.

Later...