Beyond Samarkand

I was able to find people at University of Coimbra today using facebook. From one of the people I wrote there, I know have the e-mail for a professor in the EdPsy program at UC. Now I need to write the letter! I've been distracted today by the topic of my graduation portfolio. I have just enough time to put something together, having waited too long to start assembling the pieces. A past instructor, Dave Young, was able to find some work that I had done but had lost my copies during the too numerous computer migrations I had in '08 and '09. Thank you Dave! One more day until the weekend here, and then I hope to get bulk of the work on the portfolio done. Mostly it involves looking at what I've done and assigning it to categories. Of course, there is no news on the impending lay-off with Raytheon. Inshallah there will be something definitive soon. Two months now and it just wears on the back of my mind. A level of weariness to everything I do. On a side note - I talked, ...

I've been combing the web to find stuff on University of Coimbra in English. There isn't a lot out there. I'm going to start gathering stuff here. Notes Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra (Portugal) The Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences is integrated in the University of Coimbra, one of the oldest Universities in the world. The Faculty offer graduate and pos-graduate courses in Educational Sciences, Work Service and Psychology. Same of the pos-graduate courses in Educational Sciences and Psychology have as main purpose to prepare teachers and other professionals to research and to lead with social and pedagogic problematic, like violence in society, and more specifically in schools, families and other places. Web site: http://www.fpce.uc.pt / Source: http://www.cybertraining-project.org/page.php?lang=En&page=2 University of Coimbra main web page http://www.uc.pt/en Web page that gives brief on EdPsy p...

Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world | Video on TED.com Really interesting talk, and giving me ideas for what I might be able to pursue in a PhD program.

Ash got back in Saudi two days ago, at 2am - which is typical of flights into Saudi. I picked her up at the airport and we crashed at the house in Jeddah. One of the nice perks I have is a place in Jeddah when I need it. It's a nice perk, and I should use it more often. And I would, but I don't have much use for being in Jeddah. Once we woke up we spent the day running around down there. I tried to get some things done for Raytheon, but the critical one was still waiting for a higher up to approve it, so that part was a waste. We went to the Danube for luxury food items, made pasta sauces and such, then went to dinner at an Indian restaurant. Feeling stuff, we took a slow drive back to Taif while listening to a podcast about Tolkien. Yesterday, which I had taken off, we spent loafing around the house. Sometime in the afternoon I figured I should turn my phone back on. It had run out of juice the day before. I get the usual "welcome back" text messages, and another fro...

Posting this here as a reminder. A simple tea recipe. Teh Halia (Ginger tea) (Serves 4) Black tea, 4-5 teaspoons leaves or 4 teabags 1 inch fresh ginger root, peeled and sliced into quarter-size pieces 4 cups of water Condensed milk Boil ginger slices in water for at least 10 minutes (the longer your boil it, the stronger the ginger flavor). Add your favorite strong black tea to the ginger/water brew and allow to steep for 5 minutes. Add a few teaspoons of condensed milk to each of 4 teacups or mugs. Strain tea into teacups. "Tarik" the tea by pouring back and forth between a filled and empty cup, until frothy. Enjoy immediately. Originallly came across this on the Salon website: http://www.salon.com/food/guest_chef/index.html?story=/food/kitchen_challenge/2010/03/08/singapore_tea_winner