So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye

ونحن نعدو كالخيول الوحسية على صفحات التاريخ

And we gallop like wild horses into the pages of history.

-Muhammad al-Maghut

A fitting ending to this blog.  I'm no longer in a country that speaks Arabic, English, and French, and it seems the time has arrived to find a new home for my occasional bursts of writing.  If you care to follow, I'm (ever so occasionally) over here.

How to lose all credibility with a single word

In the process of gathering the necessary information on a master's thesis (finishing up the first chapter of my thesis and citing a few last sources for my bibliography), I come across this dedication:

"To my wife [name redacted], thank you for constantly motivating and inspiring me with your awesomeness"

Umm...

Professor Strikes Again

"Well, falling off a cliff and falling in love are kind of similar"

-Arabic professor, explaining how the structure of a sentence could be misconstrued but wouldn't be that far off.

Quote of the Day

"Professors make mistakes.  So do prophets"

-My arabic professor, trying to put his errors into perspective.

Denial

Is a state of existence sometimes.  Right now, I don't have a paper and problem set due Thursday.  No, I definitely do not.  And I'm not a college student far away from Oklahoma.

Which is why I'm reading a blog about a woman in Oklahoma who lives on a working cattle ranch and takes the most beautiful pictures of her basset hound.  This picture highlighting their awkward proportions has convinced me I am meant to have one of these animals:

Also, note that doleful expression.  I think I'm in love.

The blog in question is a great read that I discovered after a trip to a ranch earlier this year that almost convinced me to move out into the middle of nowhere and commune with horses, cattle, and cowboys for the rest of my life.

Also, her basset hound does this:

My dog will never ever ever be that calm around another animal.  Cheers to basset hounds.  One of you will be mine someday.

Quote of the Day

"We are like octopus"

-My arabic teacher, arms outstretched like tentacles, trying to explain all of the directions that our class will be heading in this semester.

The View from My (Car) Window

A beautiful car ride.  Except for the fact that I was so car sick my brain and stomach's dialogue went something like this:

stomach: "I can't hold on anymore.  Stuff's comin' up!"

brain: "no! wait! there's other people in this car"

stomach: "it doesn't matter"

brain: "yes. yes, it does. throwing up on other people rarely makes friends"

stomach: "Fine. I will hold onto my contents for another five minutes, and then we will have this conversation again"

This lasted for an hour.