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Qatarperegrine's Greatest Hits!
I recently pointed someone at my blog and then realized that it's actually rather difficult to find interesting content here, amid the fluff of links to Peninsula articles. Relatedly, sometimes I try to refer back to an old blog post and am stymied by the uselessness of Livejournal's search function. So, I spent a little time this afternoon tagging ( Read more... ) -
Khalas
Since I'm no longer living in Qatar, I guess it doesn't make much sense to blog here anymore! From here on out, such non-baby-related blogging as I do will be as toorsdenote. Please friend/RSS me there ( Read more... ) -
Qatar news roundup
Three of my least favorite things about Qatar, all in one week of news.
1. The Qatari government carried out a sting operation against bakeries making obscene cakes. Because, in a country where the labor law is routinely flouted even by prestigious employers like the Qatar Foundation, law enforcement's #1 priority should really be penis-shaped ( Read more... ) -
Interview with a pearl diver
A nice short interview a Northwestern student did with a pearl trader and former pearl diver in Souq Waqif:
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Arabic logo quiz!
When we first moved to Doha, Justin and I drove around taking pictures of company logos in Arabic, in order to put together an identify-the-brand quiz. We never got around to actually making the quiz, though.
Happily, someone else has! Can you name the Companies From the Arabic Version of Their Logo?We got 100 ( Read more... ) -
September I'll... um, forget apparently
Eek it's September already ( Read more... ) -
Student jailed for inciting homosexuality
Via dubaiwalla: a student in Dubai has been jailed for 3 months after saying in an online chatroom that men having sex with men is a personal matter and the government shouldn't interfere ( Read more... ) -
Shomer Negiah again
We moved into our new house today. By coincidence, the geographic area that met our location requirements (walking distance to the park, the grocery store, the library, major bus routes) is coterminous with the area that is walking distance to Squirrel Hill's various Orthodox synagogues, so we seem to have become the token Gentiles on the block ( Read more... ) -
Moving help eek!
Pittsburgh people: I hate to ask, but we could use one more person to help us move some furniture tomorrow afternoon (1-4ish). If you're made of awesome and would be willing to pitch in, please let me know. We'll buy you dinner. -
Losing My Religion
I was recently asked why I stopped considering myself Buddhist. My response:
The first answer that popped into my mind was the last few lines of a poem by the iconoclastic Zen monk Ikkyu:
To harden into a Buddha is wrong;
All the more I think so
When I look at a stone Buddha.To answer the question more completely, I think I have to recount my ( Read more... )