Food and other such whatnot.

Food here is good.
Falaful is great.
Whatever my mood.
There's nothing I hate.
Course it's Ramadaan now,
So they don't eat all day.
Last night we had cow,
and it was yummay.

Dreams.

I had a dream last night that I was walking around compleatly naked. I've never had one of those dreams before. It's really very awkward. I wonder what it means. Probably somthing perfectly normal. Dream interpretation is weird like that if you have a dream that's like, I was trapped in a well with a crazy clown that turnned into a block of cheese and the the well filled up with orage juice and i drowed and went to heaven but heave was actually the kwik-e-mart from the simpsons and Apu was was a giant donkey, it always means somthing like oh you had a salad for dinner today, and if you have a perfectly normal dream like, I walked down the street and gave a homless guy a dime, it always means something crazy like, you're mother turned into a giant donkey when you were ten and then you fell in a well ful of orange juice and were rescued by you're dad who was a crazy clown.

A few Egypt photos.

A Boatsmith in Alex

The Castle in Alex

The Castle in Alex

A veiw of Alex from friends flat

Veiw of Tanta from my family's flat.

Tanta.

Ok, I think I'll start by saying Tanta isn't in the desert. It's still pretty dry and dusty but there are trees, small dusty sorta sad looking trees, but trees none the less. Tanta is in the middle of the delta so all of the surounding country side is farms, mostly rice and corn. It really looks quite a bit like northen/central India. Tanta is considered to be a small town, I don't know why, it has three million people, but I guess in comparison to Alex and Cairo it is pretty small. For the most part we walk everywhere or take a cab. Everyone here walks in the street because the side walks are eather in bad shape, blocked by a car or shop, or they just don't like walking on them. Fortunetly my hosts always insist that I walk on their side farthest from the cars. My family is very nice though acording to the other Egyptian families I've met they are boring. The father, Ahmed, is very nice but doesn't really speak english very well. The mother, who so far is my favorite member of the family, speaks slightly better english but still not that great, but she's just so warm, loving, kind, and good natured. The eldest son Muhamed is cool but I don't see him much and he can be a little boring but i think he is the most intresting of the sons once you get talking to him, he's studieing to be a Zooligest, which is cool and untypical Egyptian. Abdulah is the next son he's pretty cool but he's studying Buisness in Cairo so I don't really see him much. Then comes Abdul Rakman, who speaks good english and is pretty cool, but he's stuborn and kind of a party pooper sometimes. He also yells at his little sister alot which i don't like. Abdul Aziz is the youngest son but he's spending the year in the US so I won't meat him He sounds like the most intresting one. From what I've heard and seen he's brilliant, an artistic genious (which his father says "learn a real skill, like engineering" about) and all and all the best at everything he touches. Then there is Rooba (11ish) who is kind of like her mother very friendy and fun loving, they laugh and smile alot more than the boys do, I like watching cartoons with rooba, they have tom and jerry on TV here which is cool. We live in a flat in a building on a corner that they own. there are two stories that are livable but everything happens in the flat on the second level. when you first walk in from the stairs there is a big living/dinning room. the table and chairs on the left and the couch and three lounge chairs on the right facing the wall. agenst the wall is the computer in the corner with a rocking chair to sit in (which is pretty cool). then to the right of that is a large cubord dresser thing with the TV and some books and papers and stuff. to the left of that is a little hall/room off of which are the three bedrooms, the bathroom and the kitchen. if you walk in the front door and turn 90 deg. to your left you're facing the wall with the tv. walk about fifteen feet forward and you're in the little room/hall. clockwise from your left is my room, the room where Abdul Rakman, Muhamed, and Abdulah (when he's home) sleep, then the parents and Roobas room, then the bathroom, then the kitchen is (if you turn 180 around) to the left of the opening you walked in through. Now mom was that in depth enough for you. love you all. take care. email me. (rennerlarson@gmail.com)

Ramadan.

Today is the first day of Ramadan. I've desided to fast for Ramadan with my family. In case anyone dosn't know Ramadan is the month in which Allah dictated the Koran to the prophet Mohamed. During this month we don't eat or drink from sun up to sun down. So i wrote a big long post about what my hows was like but the for some reason it didn't work and got lost in the digital cosmos and i don't feel like writing it again so mabye next time.

Alexandria.

So we're in alexandria. Abdul Rakman and I. Along with some of his friends from tanta and from alex. It's nice here at night but during the day it's hot as hell. We went to see the 3rd largest library in the world which was kindof un spectacular in turms of it was just a lot of book but the german designed building was really cool. Then we went to the fort that is but on the foundations of the lighthouse of alexandria and that was really fun. My friends here are really cool and it's nice because i genuenly feel that they are my friends too not Abdul Rakman's friends who let me tag along. non the less i still miss everybody and wish you were all here with me. To answer Rake's question durning the day if we're not sightseeing or sleeping we're playing cards and watching tv. they watch a lot of movies here they know more american movie than i do which isn't saying much but still. They also love soccer/football in egypt and they play it eather for real or on playstation all the time. i'm not really very good at writing long bits in detail about whats going on so please ask questions about stuff and i'll answer them.

news update

So the way egypt works is you stay up late and sleep until 2:oo. that way you avoid the sun. I've been sleeping alot, it just takes a lot of energy to be here. cold showers in the morning help. and naps. my dreams are differant than they are at home. i often dream about home which makes it easier to not miss home if i get to see everyone when i go to bed at night. i can feel that i'm not getting enough hugs though. and i suppose i could hug the men in my family but it wouldn't be very comforting. guys here are really skinny and hard.

Day 3

It's hot. Not really any hotter than urbana but urbana's to hot too. Anyway, i normally feel crummy in the mornings. I'm "weaker" i guess if i'm out doing something i normally feel fine if i'm tired i get really depressed, but i'm finding out what works best for me. I got up ad took a shower today it felt good. they don't have a shower curtain so after you take a shower you have to get all the water on the floor into this drain with a giant sqeegee. my dreams have been really weird i've been dreaming about people alot. it's hard being awayfrom home but i'll take one day at a time and once things around here get more familiar it will get easier and easier.

I'm Here!!!!

So i got to egypt safely and really the only bad thing so far is no spel chek. it was a long plane ride over but lufthansa has delicious food and i snaped some cool shots of the alps as we flew over. my family is very friendly and welcomeing. i'm really tired so the writing on this blog is not going to be amazing. i didn't sleep so well last night so i'm kind dipressed today but i'll take some melitonin tonight and mabye i'll feel better tomorrow. one of my brothers (Abdul Rakman) speeks pretty good english and has been showing me the ropes. the father Ahmed is very enthusiastic but speaks very little english so most of our conversations "Hallo! Ranner!" "esalamuaalecome Ahmed!" and pointing at thing and saying what they are in aribic. I was asked about global warming yesterday and i think i did a pretty good job of explaining it. anywho maselama.

A few thoughts.

I saw an Anti- War protest the other day and it got me thinking. What does an Anti-War protest achieve? Perhaps a protest of a specific war may prove to be of some affect but a protest of war in general I find relatively pointless. Nobody is really for war in general. Most people don’t wake up each morning thinking, “Man, I wish our country had somebody to kill.” If someone drives by a young woman holding a sign that says, “Say no to war!” they will not be motivated to do anything, in fact they will probably soon forget about it. On the other hand if someone drives by a young woman holding a sign that says, “KILL, KILL, KILL,” or “Bomb the world to pieces!” they won’t forget that, they may even be outraged, and outrage is a good motivator. During the potato famine in Ireland a progressive thinker named Jonathan Swift wrote down a radical solution called, "A Modest Proposal." His idea was that the people of Ireland could solve their problems of surplus population and lack of food by eating their babies. This idea drew huge amounts of attention and upset a lot of people, exactly what it was designed to do. The people of the world suddenly paid a lot more attention to the troubles of Ireland and real ideas began to be concocted.

We are not the only species on earth that commit acts of war and genocide. In actuality all communal species have wars. Whether over territory or food or water, lions, monkeys, wolves, ants, and termites all wage war on each other sometimes even eradicating or enslaving the other colony or species. War is natural, and it hasn’t always been considered bad either. In ancient Sparta to die in battle was the greatest honor one could have. A fallen solder would not be mourned over but celebrated.

With medical advances and new technologies the human quest to prolong life continues. Homo sapiens have no natural predators. War, Disease, Famine, these are our predators. As much as we must fight them we must realize that without them the human race would have died of over population long ago. How can we work so hard to prolong our lives when the quality of so many lives is so little? Is a long life so great if it meant so little?

Fear of death is a human instinct, and if anything makes us civilized it is the ability to overcome primal instincts. Traits that humans value most are all the overcoming of instinct: Courage (overcoming fear), Logic (overcoming impulse), and Selflessness (overcoming greed).

I’m still against war and I still think we should fight AIDS, but I also think we should keep these ideas in the back of our minds because sometime the evil you seek to destroy is the very thing that is keeping you alive.

Leaving the Nest.

There comes a time in every little birds life when it must hurl itself headlong into the blue, spread it's wings, and hope it can fly. Now this very time has come for me and though I think I am ready for it, it does have a way of being a little intimidating.
It's now two weeks until I leave for Egypt and I'm doing all the thing to get ready to leave. I just flew to Minnesota to visit the relatives. I stayed with my aunt and we stayed up late at night talking about ideas for writing we had. She's a poet, I love writing fantasy though I never get around to actually doing it.
Anywho I'm all excited....

America.

For those of use leaving the country whether for good or just a period of time. We need something to help us remember this great land we so lovingly call America. This is a ballad written by the one and only Hugh Laurie to help us remember our beloved homeland... America!!!

ISYM.

Wow I'm so exited for ISYM (Illinois Summer Youth Music camp), they have a musical theater branch that I'm doing and Maura is too. The instructors are really cool and it's loads of fun. You're pretty much singing or dancing or some sort of whatnot every day. At the end of the week there's a performance where we all show everything we've learned in the last week. I'm really pumped.

Lucky.

This is a collage I did with a photo I took of poppies and a photo I took of my friends cat Lucky.

George.

So I got a new camera last week for my graduation present from my folks... Well I had to pay for half of it. It's an $1,175 camera (Canon Digital Rebel XTi) it's amazing. I've named it George. These are just a few of the photos I've taken this past week:

Nothing is as it seems.

So I've found out recently that many of my friends occasionally smoke marijuana. I know it's not the end of the world. There are much worse things they could be doing but as a person that would never even consider touching the stuff I find myself feeling really judgmental and almost disgusted. I feel really kind of bad about that because marijuana is not that terrible. the main reason it's shunned is because it's illegal. They normally do it pretty responsibly, but I did find myself almost hitting one of my best friends because I found out he was high when he was driving. I didn't let him keep driving and made someone else drive. Some of them I wasn't to surprised when I found out they smoked but the other day I learned of one person doing it that seriously bothered me. I lost a lot of respect for that person and I feel bad that I did because I'm sure it was just curiosity, but this person is almost like a younger sibling to me and I very rarely get mad but I felt something unpleasant churning in my stomach. It is comforting to know that I have friends like Rake, and Tad that I know will never give in to their curiosity though it is slightly disconcerting because I considered some of my other friends to be in that category as well. They know I'm not happy about it but I don't know what to do about it. They're all smart kids and as long as they don't do anything stupid I logically don't have a problem with it. I wish that my logical side would just agree with my emotional side for a change.

Cool movie..

So I made this cool little animation one Sunday afternoon with naught but a pencil some paper and my camera.

NEWS UPDATE>>>

I have now received my letter of confirmation that I am going to Egypt. I will leave in late August. I don't know what I'll be doing or where in Egypt I'll be and I probably won't find out for a while but I'm exited anywho.

I have now finished high school and I don't really know what I'm going to do with my time. There are a lot of people I want to get close to that I didn't get that much of a chance to know while I was in high school. I also want to get caught up with Rake because I haven't really talked, let alone hung out with, her for ever!

My pirate name is:

Iron Roger Cash

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Africa.

so I am now offically going to Ghana. Before it was kinda like well I've applied and they're going to accept me, now I have a spot resurved and I'm thrilled. I leave in late july and live in Ghana until late December.

In compleately unrelated news prom is comeing up and I've just put the finishing touches on my tux. I fixed it up my self. I'm exited cuz I'm going with my friend Maura and she's awesome so that'll be fun.

other than those tid bits nothing else to report... Cheerio!!

Reverend.

I'm really exited about this musical. Though I am sad I don't get to dance I am thrilled that I have the most interesting character in the show. I am Rev. Shaw Moore the towns moral, spiritual and pretty much every thing else leader. I'm charming, witty, loving, inspirational, and charismatic, but several years before the show my son died in a car crash while driving drunk and I never healed from it. My mind closed and though to most of the public I still appear the same my private life has become hell for those close to me.
My favorite line is from one of my sermons: "when I turn on television all I hear in the music of easy sexuality and relaxed morals. I hear rock and roll and the endless chant of pornography." The preaching stile that I have decided on has the rhythm and the stile of Martian Luther King Jr. but my voice is more country. It may change as the show continues but that's what I have for now. It should be fun. This is my last show at UHS and I want my performance to be really good. I even woke up early this morning to take notes on the gospel hour.

The man by the river.

I heard this story and it spoke such wisdom that I thought it necessary to share it.

There once lived a man by a river. One day he heard on the radio that the whole town was going to flood, but the man said to himself "I'm a religious man, God loves me, God will protect me." Then the town began to flood, a man came by in a row boat and yelled, "The town is going to flood give me your hand we'll go to safety," but the man replied, "I'm a religious man, God loves me, God will protect me." The town continued to flood. A man in a helicopter with a megaphone came and yelled, "The town is flooding I'll throw down this latter grab on we'll fly to safety," but the man replied, "I'm a religious man, God loves me, God will protect me." Then the man drowned. When he got to St. Peter's door he demanded an audience with God. "I'm a religious man, I thought you loved me why didn't you protect me?"he asked. God replied, "I sent you a radio report, a man in a row boat and a helicopter, what the hell were you thinking."

Where in the world?

"You can go anywhere in the world and take one person with you. Where would you go and who would you take?"

I have had the privilage of actually hveing been to many places around the world. I really want to go to Japan though cuz it's really expensive and I wouldn't normally be able to go. I don't know who I would want to go with though. I've never traveled with a friend before so I would really enjoy doing that, and I think I would wan't to go with someone who hasn't traveled all that much because then things would be even more amazing. It would really make the experiance much better and more enjoyable since I am not very easily impressed if someone else less traveled is experianceing it with me it would be like leaveing the countrey for the first time all over again. I don't know who I would want it to be though. Most of my friends would kind of drive me crazy as traveling companions.

Where would you go and who would you take with you?

This be a pirate saga.

As an attempt to find ideas in which to write about I have taken drastic measures. I have flipped randomly to a page in my dictionary and will write a short saga relating to the first word on that page. Unfortunately that word was placenta. Not a particularly poetic word. The only thing I can think of off hand that rhymes with it is magenta. I think maybe I'll get a different word. AH! Here we go Pirate. An honorable and poetic word if I have ever seen one. If you've ever wondered what the definition of pirate is the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as Pirate; one who commits piracy. . . ummm. . . WELL DUH!!! I can write a ten times better definition than that.


Pirate; one who sales the high seas liberating wee vessels from their burdens, often speaks in strange undistinguishable accents that usually come out as a gruff mix of a leprechaun, a welsh fisherman, and an old western barkeep.


And har be the saga. . .

I once be a pirate,
a slave of the sea,
and better a sailor,
thar ne'er shall be.

I had the finest of crews,
they couldn't be beat,
through the coldest of winters,
and sweltering heat.

Our ship was The Sealion,
a brave little boat,
no matter the peril,
she’d still stay afloat.

But on the stormiest day,
that I e’er be seein’,
my ship met ‘er match,
in the east Caribbean.

My crew lost their lives,
to that fateful deluge,
and the ocean was dyed,
a deep crimson rouge.

Though my men were all lost,
I alone sailed on,
as I stood at the helm,
with naught but my brawn.

All by my wee lonesome,
for six days and six nights,
I battled that storm,
with all of me mights.

Crashing down on my hull,
came that storms final wave,
and The Sealion sank,
to a watery grave.

My pirating ended,
that horrific December,
the day that I died,
I will always remember.

As I drink this here rum,
and I tell ye this tale,
I pass on the saga,
of God’s mightiest gale.

THIS HER SAGA BE ENDED.

Ask Renner.

My dear friend Rake and I were discussing today the difficulty of coming up with ideas to write about. As I do enjoy writing, and if I may say so myself I am particularly exceptional at it, it doesn't really matter what I write about. So ask me any question, anything at all, and I will answer it. Probably not very truthfully but most definitely entertainingly. Entertainingly... is that a word? It sounds kinda funny.

The Season to Frolic

It has come round again to the time of year where I can wear no shirt and no shoes. I won't be able to get service at McDonald's, but why would I want to. I'm actually becoming quite the outdoorsman. I've taught myself to tell time by the sun, yesterday I went kayaking. I also tracked a pair of deer through the woods. I didn't have enough time to catch up with them but I followed their tracks for over a mile. That's one of those skills that's not really useful unless your lost in the wilderness and you need to find food, but it's still pretty cool that I learned how to do it and even cooler that I remember. I learned how like 5 years ago. I'm happy that I can though, cuz that whole outdoorsy, cowboy, tracking through the woods thing is pretty sexy.

A British War Song

As I was walking the other day I tied my hanky to a stick to make a flag. Since I now had a war banner I concluded that I therefore needed a war song as well. So I decided on Victorian England as my nationality, and "The ants go marching one by one" as my melody. Then I started to sing, making it up as I went. I suppose you could call it white people freestyling. This is what I sang:

The Brits go marching one by one! Hurrah! Hurrah!
The Brits go marching one by one! Hurrah! Hurrah!
The Scots are a bunch of drunken whores,
The Spaniards can't even fight the Moors,
But the Brits go marching on, so come on, we fight for the queen!

The Brits go marching one by one! Hurrah! Hurrah!
The Brits go marching one by one! Hurrah! Hurrah!
The Swedes can't fight a war worth shit,
The Swiss won't even throw a fit,
But the Brits go marching on, so come on, we fight for the queen!

The Brits go marching one by one! Hurrah! Hurrah!
The Brits go marching one by one! Hurrah! Hurrah!
The Italians are sure to topple,
The Turks we'll make into felafel,
But the Brits go marching on, so come on, we fight for the queen!

The Brits go marching one by one! Hurrah! Hurrah!
The Brits go marching one by one! Hurrah! Hurrah!
India is ours to grab,
Hollands defense is rather drab,
But the Brits go marching on, so come on, we fight for the queen!

The Brits go marching one by one! Hurrah! Hurrah!
The Brits go marching one by one! Hurrah! Hurrah!
The Zulu only have their spears,
Everyone knows the french are queers,
But the Brits go marching on, so come on, we fight for the queen!



THE END

Trapped in a well. (answer to random question)

This actually happened to me the other day,
It was rather a pain in the butt by the way.
Course the goat ate the slinky so I couldn't use that,
So I made me a rope out of a vampire bat.
It was dark in that well,
It was darker than hell,
So all I could use was my keen sense of smell.
Using naught but my nose I slowly took aim,
And lassoed me the goat,
Thank god it was tame.
I milked the poor goat till it was weak in the knees,
Then that butter I churned into big blocks of cheese.
I built a tall staircase out of that brave goats dairy,
Then like that one movie, the one with Jim Carey.
I climbed to my freedom like the Shawshank Redemption.
I'm happy to say I got my exemption,
from a life with a goat in the depths of a well.
So that is my story, that's all I will tell.