This makes my day. Thank you for sharing it with me.

”Thank God for people like you Dody. You're not afraid to be who you are.”

Jose and I had our first practice yesterday, shifting through various Beatles songs for us to play and sing on the street of Chicago this summer.

We have five songs down.

1. Day in a life.
2. Nowhere man.
3. And I love her.
4. The Ballad of John and Yoko.
5. You've got to hide your love away.

We are probably doing a set of 12 for the summer. Our first backyard concert will be in two weeks.

Two guitars, one harmonica, and one good guitar player (not me).

Never let lack of talent undermines your dellusion :)

Take care Henry, send my warm greetings to your family. I will still owe you a promise to visit you in Monrovia. I'm trying and wish me luck. I can probably drop by and teach some classes at Don Bosco as well, we'll see. (Let me know if you need a website :)

”DodyG,

Greetings. Long time!

I have not been writing of late because of my basic
schedule. The new  realities in Liberia are bringing
forth a whole batch of possibilities and
opportunities; I am trying to dig in as much as is
possible:)

I am presently the Manager and Partner of a business
(Service Unlimited International - Liberia) that a
friend of mine, in the states - James, and I are
doing. We are into all sorts of things: bring in
barrels, boxes, do money transfer, and ... from the
States. I received our first container (1' x 40')
yesterday.

Security environment here is improving. Again I am
proud of LIBERIA. Thank God for United Nations Mission
In Liberia (UNMIL).

Later.

Henry
”

Thank you.

One tragic thing being a human being is that we are supposed to function even with broken heart, leaving bloody trail of shattered pieces of your own self as you walk on the broken glass. Goddamn, we are not designed to handle this. Not me. Probably I missed the fine print that comes with being born. Man, I can handle everything else, having 26 years of fire forged life under my belt.

I have a client meeting in half-an-hour (just like me, most of our clients are entrepreneurs, so they don't have normal hour per se), and everything will look fine and smooth and I will smile kindly as I help them achieve their dreams, take care of their trouble so they can concentrate on doing what they do best. I'll have to be a magical smooth running Ferarri with smashed machine, biting my lips because my heart is someplace else.

It must be just my luck for the girl I am absolutely crazy about confessed to me that she's obsessed with one of my best friend.

I wish I get angry at her, but I don't and I can't. She's too precious to me.

I'm too bloody rational to do anything stupid. Sorry, no drugs induced drunken escapist activity option for me.  Ain't life a bitch.

Una vita senza l'amore e un vita non vivendo.

I'm currently writing a survey of Islamic connected conflicts around the world in the period of 2000-2004. You'll see it at the command-post when it's ready. It's probably a good start up conversation topic for 7oriya.net as well.

My Arabic class resumes next week.

I'm no longer working from home, so there is no longer any visible sign of any digital device around (except for the DVD player)

In return, one truckloads of knowledge on dead trees.

Welcome to the Analog House.

“
Narrow daylight entered my room
Shining hours were brief
Winter is over
Summer is near
Are we stronger than we believe?”

Dianna Krall

Finally today I emerged self-quarantine and join the wonderful circle of my close friends again, watching thunderstorm passing by on a second floor balcony while enjoy my home made capirinha.

It is such a relief after finally recovering from my week long flu.

I just finished a 15 miles run in a pouring rain. That's either dedicated or stupid. We'll find out in a couple of days.

Sorry for the lack of updates. Life took over blogging.

I am developing a fever right now, for a cause that I do not know yet. Probably catching the flu bugs (it's the season you know). I ran for three hours last Saturday, going to places in Chicago I haven't been, in the unusually balmy Chicago spring.

I didn't go to the library last Saturday, just another proof of the difficulty in maintaining an unbroken habitual activities. I had to cancel the band practice for today and move it forward later on this week. A friend and I starting a hack acoustic cover band playing the Beatles. We'll be playing and singing on the street of Chicago in the coming months. Just for fun.

Saturday I'll be volunteering to help the annual Chicago Shelters' drive for pet adoption. I bagged another 3 people with me already, and I am expecting the number to grow bigger.

Cancer, that's an awful word especially when it happens to your loved ones. A good friend is a medical purgatory right now waiting for results to determine a suspected Cancer case. These are things that you do not know until you experience it. The multiple visits to doctors, labs and hospitals, crafting a macabre story in discovering the limit of your immortality. And I am watching all of this from the sidelines, on standby, ready to do little things that might or might not matters. Little chats (mostly listening), weekend's jogs, long dinners. Anything to keep the ghost away. 

And one good news from the Western shores of Africa.

“DodyG,

Greetings!

Things are still fast improving; I am sure in the next couple of months
Liberia will be getting closed to NORMAL! OK! I will then invite to Liberia:)

Have a great day.

Henry”

Celeste is going to Tunisia on a program that Youssef, Digidy and I concocted two years ago in a coffee shop in Calgary (shitty coffee, but great idea). That little idea somehow took a life on its own and managed to be brought to life by various dedicated people in five countries to its current form (whom much of the credit belong). She told me that the story was repeated to the current batch of participants while they were in New York for the pre-departure preparation. This makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

I found myself being less sarcastic in the past few months. It's probably much influenced by change of lifestyle I've had this year. Drink a lot less, exercise more, talk less, eat less meat, read more, work more, play more, spend less, think more, love more, dream more.

April I turned 26.

A friend diagnosed with possible cancer.

Two friends lost their jobs (one sales, one architecture). One is on the brink of losing one (science). SilverKey had its best month yet.

One death in New York.

100 miles run.

”This is far from a case of a fine cabinet official undone by the actions of a few obscure bad apples in the military police. Donald Rumsfeld has morphed, over the last two years, from a man of supreme confidence to arrogance, then to almost willful blindness. With the approval of the president, he sent American troops into a place whose nature and dangers he had apparently never bothered to examine.” (NYTimes Editorial Board)

”"Dear Heavenly Father, please keep the leader of China, President Hu Jintao, healthy and on an even keel. Please see to it that he moves steadily and carefully toward restructuring the Chinese banking system and ridding it of its huge overhang of bad loans and corruption, before there is a real meltdown that would be felt around the world. Give him the wisdom to cool the overheated Chinese economy without creating a recession that would prompt China to stop importing like crazy and start just exporting like crazy. And Father, forgive us for all the bad words we used in recent years to describe China's leaders — terms like `Butchers of Beijing.' We did not mean it. We meant to say `Bankers of Beijing,' because their economy is now fueling growth all over Asia, bolstering Japan and sucking up imports from everywhere. May China's leaders live to 120, and may they enjoy 9 percent G.D.P. growth every year of their lives. Thank you, Father. Amen."”

(Tom Friedman - NYT)

We are still going strong, not a Saturday goes by without a book review.

1. How the Markets Really Work by Joel Kurtzman.

The author cited an anecdote about a meeting between a group of Russian economists and politicians and some of its American counterparts. The Russians were trying to understand who exactly in charge of the Markets.

If you want to understand the nature of prices, read this book (why my Gucci bag costs $5000 dollars?)

The previous book reviewed here (How Market Really Works) works on the fundamental nature of market. This book address the higher issue of how information shapes market (including stock market, bond market), consideration about price and value, etc.

It's  a compact book and an entertaining to read one.

Go read 'em.

2. Hunting the 1918 Flue (by Kirsty Duncan)

What is the most devastating disease ever? Black Plauge, AIDS, EBola ? nope.

It's the 1918 Spanish flu that killed an estimated 20 to 40 million people in just ONE YEAR. 1918 is not even a hundred years ago.

And the problem is, even until right now the nature of the virus is not understood. More is known about AIDS than this flu virus.

This book chronicle the effort to exhume the bodies of the victims located under permafrost in Norwegia. Kirsty Duncan is the leader of the expedition and it tells the tale for struggle within the acadamic cirlce (back stabbing, betrayal, money, soap opera stuff) regarding the project.

The book can be a bit dry at places, but the story is gripping and the educational value about the flu (of what little is known about it) is tremendous.

Recommended.

3. Murder in the Hearse Degree (by Tim Cockey).

This book is hillarious. It's a story about an undertaker who play detective. The writing is sharp and witty and I can heartily recommend this book to anyone, even to a non-fan of this genre.

Recommended.