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This past weekend I had the good blessing to see two things which I am not exactly qualified to describe well. One of which I am pretty confident I will never see again. I was flying on a plain from a dismal week of work in Baku and toward the promise of a free weekend in Abu Dhabi. Coming into the city of Dubai the Persian Gulf was lit by small oil rigs and fishing boats, an amazing sight to be sure. I saw a firework firework burn out almost level with the plane, and thought, 'who's shooting fireworks at 2 o'clock in the morning?' And then it hit me. It wasn't a firework at all. It wasn't a rocket or another plane. It was a shooting star. In the clear desert night sky over the persian gulf I got to see a shooting star up close. I saw it streak across the atmosphere and fizzle in a shower of sparks. I couldn't believe it. I don't even know how to describe it in a way that will remotely convey how cool it was. This I will never get to see again.

Still flabbergasted from my spotting of the shooting star, the plane continued it's descent into Dubai. Which brings me to the second amazing sight from this weekend. Towering above the city was the world's tallest building, the Berj Dubai. I have been to New York and I have seen the Empire State Building, but what makes the Berj so unique is the fact that there is nothing around it. Even the tallest buildings around are only a third of its height. A fact I was reminded of by my cab driver when I returned to Dubai three days later. 

I think it is awesome that I went into trip wanting to see Dubai and came out of it hardly having been impressed by what I saw, all because the most brilliant of manmade constructions couldn't compare with the amazing beauty of God's creation. 

On what is allowed

I don't mean to make it sound like I'm making a transistion into a philosophical hobbiest. Spending large amounts of time away from everyone and everything I know just tends to bring it out in me. I don't have much to occupy my time other than a little bit of work and a lot of free time to read, doodle, and shoot some occasional video. Which brings me to what I've been thinking about a lot lately. Freedom.

I read this book called Little Brother. I had heard about on a couple blogs I frequent and their praise, coupled with the fact that it was one of a handful of english books available here, had me intrigued. To say the least I was blown away. This book is fun, way fun. If you have ever had any interest in tinkering with things, computers, or the internet, you might want to pick this book up. I seriously geeked out. Everytime I sat down to read I had my computer there with me and every couple of pages I ended up googleing something with the thought of 'you can do that?' running through my head. 

Sadly the book doesn't exactly deliver on the narrative front. It eventually runs out of steam and drags itself up to a climax that is a whimper compared to the solid first act. Part of the reason is that the author makes the decision to preach to the reader in what I can only assume is the hope that they will accept his point of view without the processing the argument that he is delivering. He repeatedly 'Bush bashes' (Bush isn't a character in the novel, I'm just using that to summerize his overall contempt with the Department of Homeland Securities policies) and I found myself thinking, 'I can't agree with this.' I am not a staunch liberal detractor that thinks he tried to burn our country to ground, nor am I a hard core Bush supporter,  but I prefer to give the man the benefit of the doubt. He's the President. He knows more about this country than you and I will ever know. 

But I've gotten off topic. Freedom is...to tell the truth I'm not exactly sure what it is. To each person it may mean something different, but when it comes to political freedom and individual rights I have to draw a line right down the middle. I don't think that everything in the Patriot Act was justifiable, but I do feel that the Goverment has some amount of athority to tighten security in certain key areas. "Certain key areas" being the operative words. One example from the book is a reference to a court case in the early 90's. The case was Bernstein vs. The United States. In it, the Government argued that the computer code written by Daniel Bernstein for his doctoral thesis on applied mathmatics was illegal because they couldn't crack it. The brightest minds working for the NSA couldn't crack it so obviously this was dangerous right? Well you might be suprised to learn that you have at one time or another used Daniel's encription. If you've bought anything online using your credit card or paypal you've used it. If you've managed your bank account online you've used it. It keeps your information from falling into hands that you'd rather it not fall into. What the government didn't approve of ultimately bettered the lives of the American people, it made them safer. But there are numerous times when a particular device or loophole the government didn't approve of has killed thousands of people. It's hard to draw this line, and it is never a straight one, but it is important to think about. To have an opinion. 

In the end I think the best view point to have is to actively seek dialogue on the subject. Everyone is going to think something different than their neighbor and I believe that only by confronting the opposition head on can you justifiably rest in your beliefs. 

On Imitation

It has occurred to me that my English has gotten worse. I could point to the fact that I haven't written a paper in five years, or the fact that I haven't read a really good novel in a while, but I think there is another reason. I've started to imitate the local people.
Many people here speak fragmented English, which for some odd reason I have adopted when speaking to them. Automatically my brain slices and dices my sentences and they come out sounding remarkably similar to how an Azeri person would speak. Whether this is helpful or degrading to Azeri people, or people that don't speak English well, is a mute point, but what this got me thinking about was how people tend to imitate others.
It seems that in societies that are blessed with the ability to be somewhat decadent and able to neglect utilitarianism there is a tremendous pressure upon people to be creative. Be different. Go against the grain. Think outside the box. Those that we look up to, are those that create. They give us something we never would have conceived of, or better yet something we think we should have.
It occurs to me in writing this that this topic could get very complex very quickly. I could branch off into philosophizing about how our imitating things really hearkens back to some basic instinct of wanting to be creative and thus imitating God, or how there are no new stories, only new characters, but I won't.
What really interests me is the thought that learning comes through imitation, especially in regards to language. You want to influence people, just change the way you talk around them. See how long it takes them to adopt your words (Parents know just how influential their words can be on there children, for better or worse).
We imitate. There are no if's, and's, or but's about it. It is kind of suprising that people have such an aversion to something they practice regularly and have gained so much from. Or maybe it isn't. I don't know.