K. I have to comment on this… Johnny Chung Lee is amazing. He has done something that no one else has done(reasonably anyways)… take a look:
He has created a Virtual reality head tracking system… It takes a bit to get into, but it is incredible… We(humans) have been trying to get this right by way over complicating things… 3d doesn’t “HAVE” to be for everyone in a room, surely we’ll get to that one day, but why not follow the kiss rule and break the problem down to it’s smaller parts, and knock them off one at a time… What I really love is when he gives the view for the other people in the room… it’s right near the end, so grab some popcorn, and take the time…
Oh, and send hm money. people like this need to be paid for their brains.
Browsing Posts published in January, 2008
Its the weekend… The past 2 weekends have been all about relaxing. Easing up on the stress, e a bit more liberal with the bank account, and having fun wiht the boys. Yesterday we went to the corniche, a semi-circular path that curves around the bay that Doha sites around. It is a very beautiful spot with tons of trees and flowers around. There are a few parks that the boys can play with, boats in the water to look at, off in the distance, you can see the container ships bringing stuff in from all over the world. It is a neat spot.
Yesterday, there hapened to be a speed boat race… you knwo the F-1 style boats that look like rockets on wings and all that sticks into the water is the prop? Yah, they had those tearing aroudn the bay. we sat and watched them for about an hour while the boys played in the sand. It was nice, and relaxing… Just like the weekend should be.
Today(so far) we have awoken(a feat in itself) went to the agriculture markets, saw some people bidding on goats, bought some flowers, soil and we hit up a bike store so Jen could get a slick for her bike(No fulvio here)
We hooked up with friends and went to City Centre for a quick skate around the mall… well, actually probably about an hour, and then had a bite to eat.. Nice and relaxing…
Once I find my card reader I’ll post pics and videos of the skating…
tty soon!
So… we take the dog out for a much needed walk, it’s pretty late, about 9:30 so the park is deserted, so we decide to take rosie off the leish for the first time since being over here… She is so happy running around, doing happy dog jumps and yelps… (queue scary music) he starts limping very badly and eventually dragging her right rear leg… it is so painful that she doesn’t want to walk but doesn’t want to stop trying… We pick her up and carry her home. She’s done something bad…
we go to bed, and it is a rough night… and we have no vet.
In the morning, the situation isn’t any better… Jen calls and makes an apointment to see a doctor about her knee… after 1200 riyals(bout 350 cdn) we learn that she has torn the ligament in her knee… 2 options. a 4000 riyal surgery here that “should” work or 6000 riyal treatment that will definitely solve the problem… only catch is that no one outside of north america can do it… so we’d have to fly her home…
Humm… 18 hours on a plane when you can’t get comfortable cause you have to hold your leg up is a bit too much to ask of anyone
The surgery is booked for Tuesday. We have called a few experts to pick their brains about the various options, and given the opportunities, this one seems to be the best. It isn’t great, but we can hope that this guy knows what he is doing….
I’ll let you know how it goes.
<Update>
Rosie went in for surgery yesterday. She was in fro about an hour(I am told) and spent the day at the vet… She came home with a shaved leg with a huge bandage on it… We were asked to keep it on for 12 hours… so it was a hard night for her.
This morning, she seems a bit better, we are going to take her to the vet later on today to have him remove the bandage and check it’s progress… The vet seemed to know his stuff, Jen’s confidence level from him was good… Anyways. Thanks for reading…
Living in this country is great… really really great, but I have found a few smaller issues that constantly pop up in my life here and I am starting a little pet peeve list… First off is the outlets… Yah, the wall sockets for power that are built into everything here from hotels to our house. They use the European standard of 3 large plugs, one of which is a safety key of sorts… all in all a great design, almost impossible to get shocked from… Probably the best I have seen made bar none. The issue is that everything you buy here comes with a British style of 2 little metal plugs that don’t fit into the socket… so that means everything needs an adapter. now, the solution to this problem is easy, there are adapters and power converting bars everywhere… but its the little things isn’t it?
The second thing has to do with my shower… and this might be a Ryan only issue, but the shower stall doesn’t seal properly… so every time you shower, there is a little river of soapy water running across the bathroom floor… No, not a major problem, and easy to clean… just an annoyance… Well… I’ll add to this via the comments when I add to the annoyance list. Guess 2 isn’t too bad after being here for 3 weeks.
Today is Jen’s day…
Here’s a Girl, who has by the age of 31, Buried both her parents, brought 2 wonderful boys into this world, found her natural mother, and created ties with new family members, made hundreds of friends, thousands of contacts, managed coffee shops, milked cows, worked at King and Bay, moved a family across the globe and improved my life immeasurably.
Jen sees a challenge and tackles it head on, looks constantly for ways to change, improve and formalize everything from my live to icing recipes. This past year, she set a goal to improve her physical health. She dropped 45 pounds in a few months, and has maintained this since. Jen is a wonderful mom, fighting for the best for her family. Jen is a great partner, learning how to deal with my moods and accept the fact that I am just a geek. Jen is a great friend, both easily making new and maintaining the old.
Happy birthday Jen.
So… I am in the desert. Yes, it’s “winter” but I am pretty sure that waking up to 7 is not normal. Turns out that in canada it’s 14. Not only that,but it rained all day yesterday… Yah. rained all day. We went to the markets and it turns out that a rainy day is a good day to go, most people hibernate for the day when it is raining… We walked around, Saw lots of shoe stores, Lots of textile stores, tailors, caffee shops, perfume shops, jewlery stores, more coffee shops, shisha cafe’s… Shi-sha.. that is something you have to see… It looks like a bong… but it is flavoured tobacco in it. Aparently it is normal to pass this thing around everyone taking a hit… wait, no, a smoke. Dunno…Maybe I’ll try it,maybe I won’t.
Jen and the boys and Iwent toa restaraunt for lunch yesterday. Had filaffel sandwiches for 3 riyals a piece… that’s about 85 cents. We splurged and got 5 of em. So Yummy. 500 ml’s of Hummus was an additional 5 dollars. Thomas wasn’t too happy with the sandwich. But he loved the hummus. He was dipping pitas into it for a good hour That one has good taste. Daniel liked the filafel sandwich,but wasn’t too fond of the greens in it… One day he’ll get used to it.
Ohhh the sheets… we went shopping last night, and picked up a set of new sheets for our bed. They are a conservative 300 threadcount, cotton… and so nice. We were sleeping on the equivalent of sandpaper before, and these… well… let me tell you… I hit that pillowcase and slept like a king… well, maybe a prince… So nice… woke up, looked at the clock, it was 3 am… I still had 3 more hours to spend in this luxurious setting… I know a lot of you will think I am insane, but it was nice to wake up, look at the clock and know that I had 3 more hours of rest and relaxation commin my way… So, I drifted off to sleep again, thinking of the little cotton balls of joy growing in the fields… awoke to the sunlight breaking through the curtains… uhh ohh… 7:18. I have to be in the office in 12 minutes… Up, showered, dressed,fed the dog and out the door in 8 minutes… Damn those sheets…
