While I don’t resolute, in 2010 I must do the following:

1. Study for GRE’s

2. Work harder at work.

3. Reconsider career.

In order to do this, staying put would be wise. I’m tearing up my escape plan to Cali… at least for now.

Hiring a man of Shanahan’s stature ($7 million a year, not his 5’9 height) means success will be defined by a quick 2-3 year turnaround into a perennial superbowl team. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. He is going to peak at 10-6 or 11-5 coach at best and after 5 years he will start to float around the .500 mark. Of course, every team has the expectation that they will win the Superbowl, but for a team as bad as the Redskins its stupid to jump that far ahead. It’s akin to using the moon stone on Pikachu before he learns his quick attacks and evolving him into a Raichu. What that means is Shanahan is not going to build for the future but will continue, like Snyder and Vinny, to fix holes with gum on a leaky bucket.

He will fail because of a simple concept called the separation of powers. Before, Snyder made all the moves with horrible advice from Vinny. Now we have a reactionary measure in which the head coach will act as dictator. But the problem hasn’t been solved, and that problem is that the Redskins have not had a solid GM since Charlie Caserly. Swing whichever you want but these crazy tights and wig wearing hot shots 250 years ago figured out that separation of powers is a good thing when they fought in the revolutionary war. 250 years later, that principle still applies. The owner go do owner things and sign checks. The coach go and do whatever it takes to win. The GM should go manage the team trying to bring players that fit into the system and culture, not just the missing football piece of the puzzle. Together the separation of powers balances everything out and we have a profitable, solid team built on a foundation for the future. That’s not going to happen.

Bruce Allen was brought in known as a salary cap guy… but there is no salary cap next year. So… whoops. That means Mike “Napolean” Shanahan is going to be meddling for his tenure in DC. I’m satisfied with the playoffs but would give me more hope if there was a stronger sense of future.

On a side note, Shanahan is a total creeper and hit on Lindsay Szarniak blatantly and I saw this on ESPN. She asked a question and he had this smile on his face, said he’ll address it tomorrow and then said, “Channel 4 right?” But when Dave Feldman asked a question, he was gloating a bit less (I mean $7 million is a good number ) said he’ll address it tomorrow and didn’t even look twice. Creeper.

During my trip home, I had a layover in Paris and decided to take a day trip around. After une quiche and café, I walked to Notre Dame… and was utterly disappointed by what I saw. I blame it on Petra.

I met Jon (yon) in a hostel. We climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed and ended up looking down at the treasury. Not on the tourist map, very dangerous, but few get to see this.

The Nabataeans not only carve majestic facades into hard rock, they carved stone steps and aquifers all over Petra. We happened to climb on top of the Palace (which had running water inside for parties back in the day… insane) along a path when we got curious and decided to follow some more steps. Off in the distance we saw some steps going up about half a mile in front of us. So we headed toward them. 15 minutes later, the terrain got rough and we were worried about the sun setting. We pushed on forward anyway out of stupid curiosity because I happened to hear sounds of a crowd echoing in the distance. We pushed forward closer to the steps and all of a sudden saw that there was a valley between us and the steps. There, in front of us, was the Treasury, the first monument you see walking out of a crack in the rocks called the Siq. Being this high made me appreciate what these fools did because as I type this, I get a feeling of nausea. A couple of times my partner and I tripped on the rocks near the  edge and there was no hope if we fell. As I tripped I remember holding my breath and I felt the adrenaline pump. I need to move on because I keep having thoughts of falling off a 1000 ft drop to my death and its making me dizzy.

The Treasury from below. The amount of detail... amazing.

They call it the City of Red. No kidding.

Rocks can be beautiful

There are hundreds and hundreds of tombs carved out in Petra. It’s a hikers paradise.

I don't know what the repetition of the steps mean. Homage to their ridiculous step fetish or something deeper?

Indiana Jones filmed at the treasury and Transformers 2 filmed at the Monastery. Contrary to both movies, the inside of these buildings are actually… really boring. Nothing is hidden inside.

Inside the Treasury. No grail here.

The Monastery is huge. It’s so big taking a picture of it is actually really difficult. After 1.5 hours of hiking you get to the middle of the town. From there, its probably another good 45 minutes of climbing to get here. I happened to do this on the hottest day of the year in pants. I think I drank 7 liters of liquid that day. The next day it was dramatically cooler and I only drank about 2.5 and I did more climbing and hiking… You can get a donkey ride up for about  7JD. That takes about 20-30 minutes.

Go watch Transformers 2 for this part. This is NOT easy to access but its HUGE. The ledge to get in is as tall as me. Inside that hole... pretty boring. Yellow rock and stupid tourists defaced it with years of names. Nothing inside here either, sorry Shia. You can climb to the top of this and stand where that middle circular thing in the middle is. I regret not trying, though I hear its very dangerous.

The Palace, like I said above, has running water inside. Climbing to the top was the beginning of my exploration.

The palace. A place for entertaining guests. look how small that guy is.

The romans turned many of these into tombs. Now, Jordanians try to sell you stuff and rip you off with Soda that costs 5-7 times as much as soda in non-tourist areas in Amman.

2 sides of a tent. Sand bottles with Petra written on them.

Part II to come. Grand Canyon of Petra.

Time is flying by because I can’t even say what a normal week is. I keep waiting for one and instead I get weeks where I break down and do nothing.

About 3 weeks ago, I went with the middle schoolers to Ocean City for their annual Alive conference. It’s good to know that I’m nearly 10 years removed from middle school but I still can play with these guys. The most frustrating part of the trip was how immature the boys are even in 8th grade and how mature the girls are… even in 6th grade. One thing is clear, middle schoolers hear and believe a lot of stupid things. It’s a shame.

Timmy, Chinese American Beauty… films everything. From inside the hotel

I got 7 hours of sleep that weekend. Man it was tiring.

Dodgeball. I hit a few of them.

Don’t fall asleep.

Haha!

I really wish I had some time to slow down and enjoy the sunrise. But I only had 5 minutes before I had to rush to the store and buy breakfast. By the second night I was falling asleep during the closing message. What a great example right?

Colors were insane. Never got to see the sun ascend from the horizon.

What a blur. I can’t believe its November already.

Amman. A city built on seven hills. (Jebel=hill). Oddly enough, the largest and most majestic building in the city is the US Embassy built on a relatively flat area. I take that back, its more like a fortress. I would have taken a picture but they might have taken my head.

Amman is kind of weird. Since its built on so many hills, the roads aren’t exactly that efficiently paved. Up and down up and down we go just  to get across the city. Other times its left and right left and right only to have netted a distance of maybe a mile. However, it does produce many great views of the city scape. The city is very liberal by Arab standards with many women wearing jeans and a clubbing style shirt. Alcohol is not difficult to buy and even some kids are wearing shorts outside. Yet still, prayers are played loud through the loudspeakers (things don’t go to a halt though), men and women are still very separated, and women in burka’s can still be found. What’s odd about it is the way the traditional and the new mix into this weird dynamic where men and women talk… but they are always awkwardly clustered like a 5th grade dance. The population of wealthy Iraqi’s are astounding and I can tell that native Jordanians probably hate them.

The Roman's left their mark everywhere. Just below the Citadel sat pretty intact Roman amphitheater.

At the center of Amman sits the Citadel. Up there palace ruins, a Byzantine church, a mosque and a Temple of Hercules sit together in great harmony. Actually its weird to see all the different architecture together. A huge cistern capable of holding 250,000 gallons of water and a number of birs (wells) meant that somehow there was a lot of water on top of this hill way back in the day. The Temple of Hercules is larger than any temple in Rome and must have been grand back in the day. It is around here that Uriah the Hittite died after being sent to the front lines against the Ammonites (like Amman). I’m surprised there wasn’t a tourist spot with a sign that pointed to a mound of dirt signifying Uriah’s battlefield grave.

The Citadel at night can be pretty even though the dust in the air makes for a horribly gray and nasty looking sunset. I walked to the Citadel my last night in Amman but the place was closed. The guy let me in any way... for a small fee of course. Ha. Gotta love business outside of the west.

Amman is not an exciting city really. The real jewels are of course in Petra. I did have the best humus of my life. Makes me wonder what I’m eating here because in comparison the stuff here tastes like sawdust. I went to a few mosques and even went inside a few. You would never know that many mosques in some places of the world are havens for terror. Wasted beauty.

King Abdullah II has his face (sometimes with his beautiful wife) plastered all over the country, but his father left a legacy of fancy cars. On loan, the 1001 horsepower Bugatti. It is freaking WIDE. Behind that is a Mercedes SLR McLaren and behind that... at Ferrari California. All three are on loan by the manufacturer to spice up a very very nice classic car collection. Speaking of cars, one of my most vivid memories of Amman is my driver yelling MUSHKELAH every time a woman was driving a car. Mushkelah means problem in arabic.

King Hussein left his son a country in a rock and hard place. That rock is Israel and the hard place is every country around it. It gave most of its land up for the creation of Israel and still claims much of the west bank to this day. The west calls him a hero for his work after WWII yet many neighboring countries hate him for being a tool of the west. Now his son inherits just a mess of foreign policy. It is very easy to see why many Arabs hate Israel and the Zionist movement. More on this later… like in a month… later…

Travel with a partner, its safer. And you get to sit around and not be awkward. Or be an adventurer and travel alone. It's literally an adventure at every turn.

Traveling alone in a country is really interesting. It’s hard because there is no economy of scale, yet the possibility of having a lot of fun increases (echoed by a backpacker I met). The reason being that there is nothing holding you back from making whim decisions and spicing up a trip by killing what was planned. Requires a lot of independence though… there are times of awkward solitude and a very little backup when mistakes happen. Safety is also a concern (well not in Jordan, its safer than DC. Much safer) but looking super confused, lost, and any sign of weakness is probably a good indication that you are a good target to rip off. It’s not for everyone. Helps to be male…

More later…

Al Gore is that dot.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/health/27well.html

Interesting…

I had a 13 hour layover at the Charles De Gaulle airport so I decided to leave the airport and take a walk around Paris. Minus, Notre Dame, I tried to stay away from all tourist areas and just walked the streets of Paris for about 5 hours before I left for the airport again. I have to say Paris is just a beautiful city ruled by beautiful architecture, tiny cars, motorcycles, and bicycle sharing. My only problem was that I left Amman used to 100+ temperatures and found myself in Paris at a chilly 40.

I started the day off with an espresso in a cafe. I walked along a neighborhood of boutique women’s fashion shops owned by a large number of Asians. Then I hit the African area. Every black male in Paris seems to be dressed like Pharel/Kanye in contrast to the typical black male in America that dresses like Lil Wayne.

On the way back, I walked by the modern art museum and saw the creation of either an installation or advertisement.

The shock of the cold was insane. I couldn’t feel my hands so I eventually had to buy a scarf. The oddest thing about France was that it was easier for me to enter France than the US — and I am a US citizen.!The French border patrol said, “Bonour!” He scanned my passport, stamped and said merci. Took a minute. Coming back in the US I had to fill out a form, tell the guy where I went and get harrassed a couple times with potential instructions. The irony is great.

Them roots are bent. That's why this surgery is painful.

I wasn’t put completely to sleep so I remember the surgery. The bottom left one I felt every ounce of pain because they didn’t put the local anesthesia deep enough. I felt the RIP as it slowly dislodged from my mouth starting from the back to the front in a sort of a twisting motion. That sucked.

What sucked more was I ended up coughing my clot out and developing a dry socket on my bottom right tooth. So my bone has been exposed since Sunday. That explains why even on Vicodin + Tylenol with codeine (since Vicodin contains acetaminophen, I had the max 1000mg max dosage allowable for a person at one time), I still could not fall asleep at night from the pain. On Monday night, I was exhausted from having not slept well the night before and watched the clock change numbers all night. I finally got about 4 hours of sleep last night just out of sheer exhaustion but still had a lot of trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. My trip to the oral surgeon proved to be fruitful, they gave me some medication and I have been pain free all day. Too bad my mouth tastes like the dentist office. I even took a 3 hour nap after work. (got of early again, people keep telling me to go home because I look like a zombie) This is good.

A dry socket is supposed to be extremely painful but it only really really bothered me when I lay down. Then no medication was good enough. So yesterday around 5pm I got home but I just felt horrible. I was majorly sleep deprived, my dry socket was shooting pain around the whole area, my head hurt probably because of my jaw pain, no sleep, and hunger but I didn’t feel hungry because my body was just so confused from everything I just listed above. I had to be hungry because I didn’t eat anything so I forced myself down a bowl of noodles. Literally forced the last half of the bowl down my throat.

This has been a horrible experience.

Trash Bags

This weekend was my first MD game since I graduated. Unfortunately Ralph Friedgen forgot how to coach.

That morning Johnny asks me, is it going to rain? Of course, the weather report says it would my solution was simple: wear trash bags. So I took out 5 trash bags from my trunk and we were off on to the game. The commentators said that these “college students” were “dedicated” fans. Ironic! Neither are college students (Wei, girl in green bought us student guest tickets) and this is ET’s FIRST football game.

Awesome.