Zappa (my border collie), photography, scuba diving, horseback riding, the sea, kayaking, travel, the Middle East, foreign languages, Arabic, Latin, reading, fishkeeping, politics, current events, history, different cultures, journalism, marine biology, Nikon cameras, and new photographic techniques, and more.
Music
Cream, Morphine, Les Claypool, Rolling Stones, Drive-By Truckers, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Primus, Jimmy Buffett, Rage Against the Machine, Pearl Jam, Green Day, Foo Fighters, Tom Petty, Oysterhead, the Doors, Pink Floyd, Galactic, Janis Joplin, the Beatles, the Codetalkers, North Mississippi All-Stars, Presidents of the United States of America, Sublime, Michael Hedges, Deep Banana Blackout, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Metallica, Frank Zappa, Travelling Wilburys, Tenacious D, ethnic and world music, and so on.
Movies
Specific Movies: Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Lawrence of Arabia, Passage to India, Indiana Jones, Kill Bill, Pirates of the Caribbean, Day of the Dolphin, Jaws, Whale Rider, Key Largo, Maltese Falcon, Syriana, James Bond, Star Wars, Four Rooms, Back to the Future, Thelma & Louise, Fight Club, Office Space, Dogma, Rocky Horror Picture Show, the Godfather, Rear Window, Time Machine, Day the Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet, War of the Worlds (both the 1953 & 2005 versions), and many others.
Genres: Film noir, independent film, early scifi, good ol' action / adventure flicks
Directors & Actors: Alfred Hitchcock, Tim Burton, Quentin Tarantino, David Lean, Steven Spielberg, Terry Gilliam, Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Ghassan Massoud, Omar Sharif, and Johnny Depp (mm!)
Recently Seen: Mongol
Television
Not really interested in much TV and I don't have cable. I'll occasionally watch the Simpsons or House M.D., though.
Books
Favorite Authors: Hunter S. Thompson, Robert Fisk, Douglas Adams, Ken Kesey, Tom Wolfe, Anne McCaffery, Larry Niven, Alan Dean Foster, Michael Crichton, Shakespeare, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, Ian Flemming, Chaucer, H.G. Wells, Catullus, Cicero, Sophocles, Euripides, Christina Dodwell, Kurt Vonnegut, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Khalil Gibran
Favorite Books: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Kingdom of Fear, Brave New World, Macbeth, 1984, Last Chance to See, Gone with the Wind, A Midsummer's Night Dream, Dolphin Chronicles, Great Gatsby, Hidden Lives of Dogs, A Perfect Storm, The Sea Around Us, Alas Babylon,
Currently Reading: A History of the Arab Peoples (Albert Hourani)
Recently Read/ReRead: The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini), Sailing Alone Around the World (Joshua Slocum), Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West (Benazir Bhutto), Lads Before the Wind (Karen Pryor), See No Evil (Robert Baer), Sleeping with the Devil (Robert Baer), The Great War for Civilisation (Robert Fisk), The Crusades Through Arab Eyes (Amin Maalouf), Seven Pillars of Wisdom (T.E. Lawrence), Ringworld (Larry Niven), A Traveller On Horseback In Eastern Turkey And Iran (Christina Dodwell), South of the Pumphouse (Les Claypool), Pirate Hunter (Richard Zacks), Rum Diary (Hunter S. Thompson), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J.K. Rowling), To Have or To Have Not (Ernest Hemingway)
Heroes
Hunter S. Thompson, Xenophon, Alois Podhajsky, Federico Caprilli, Charles Darwin, Robert Fisk, Benazir Bhutto, Joshua Slocum, Christina Dodwell, Ken Kesey, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Emille Gagnan, Lotte Hass, Ken Norris, Karen Pryor, Randy Wells, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, Danny Clinch, Jim Marshall, Annie Leibovitz, and so forth.
Yeah it was great! I wish my camera had a better zoom, but they came out pretty good. I'll have to look at the board you mentioned. I have to dig up my gear and get it all inspected first. It's been a few years. Do you know if the diving is good up here?
Some Fin whales, a young Humpback (just over a year old), and some Minke. I would have loved to have been able to dive with them. I think it's time I find a good dive shop up here. I need to get back into diving.
Laurel! How are you? Things here are a bit better now that they reached a sort of agreement and elected a president. Hope you are doing well. Have a nice weekend! x
Laurel! Nice to hear from you. Thanks for listening to the song! So glad you like it. As for the situation here, it's very bad! As I type there is fighting in my neighborhood and it's very very scary! Anyway, take care and talk with you soon x
Hi Laurel! Been a while since we talked! How are you? Wanted to tell you about a new song. Last year I recorded a version of my song "What She Does" which left a lot to be desired. It was on myspace for a few months but I took it off after I came to the conclusion that it sucked and had to be redone from scratch. I just finished working on a new version! It's the first song on my music player. When you have a free moment have a listen to it. Thanks! x
Laurel! I have just completed work on a brand new song called “Strangest Little Creature”. When you have a free moment please give it a listen. Hope you like it x
Laurel!! Great to hear from you!! Things in Lebanon are still exactly the same but I try to ignore those :-) I am working on recording some new music after a long break that was due to computer problems. Hope all is great with you! x
While I was in the neighborhood I thought I would pass on a little image of peace so you know I was here. I hope things are still well with you and your co-workers read your page soon ;}
Hey Laurel!!! Things have been a little hectic lately. It's all little things though (aside from the explosion).
I got back from Maine but we saw no Moose! :( I think my favorite place to travel to is Denver. I think you'd love it there. They're huge into outdoor activities there (not just skiing and snow sports. I'm looking forward to trying to visit when it gets warmer!
congrats on the new sewing machine. you should come by and sew with me sometime (to motivate me, not sure how it would help you since I am a complete novice). It would be fun though! We could have live music probably. I do have three machines; one is a serger, one is a workhorse (cheap but great), and one is a very nice embroidery machine that I can barely use.
