Operation Debnam Pass

Alright, so we've talked about Operation Highlander. Now, let's talk about Operation Debnam Pass.

Oh, you've forgotten about Operation Highlander? Well, let's recap.

In mid-2010, after nearly three years in Virginia - the first time - I was getting bored, and none of my attempts to shift into a different job had panned out. So, one of my mentors recommended that I look into graduate school in Scotland. I found a program that I liked, and for the next three and a half years, that became my primary focus. Later in 2010, I got a proverbial "gravity assist" by way of a near layoff, which allowed me to transfer to a position in Kuwait that paid me an exorbitant amount of money - sort of a key prerequisite, as it were.

About two years after I'd originally identified the goal, I had the money, and I'd been admitted. I arrived in Scotland, learned a lot about the world, and followed Johnny's advice by doing my best "to taste and to touch, and to feel as much, as a man can before he repents." I finished my dissertation, made my way up to Orkney for a long weekend, sat on a bench in Stromness beside the Hoy Sound, and thought to myself, "What next?"

For various reasons, most of which had nothing to do with me, "what next" didn't really pan out the way that I'd intended. I didn't have grounds to complain, exactly - as everyone ought to know, I eventually got to move home, I married an incredible gal, we bought a cool house, and we invited an amazing dog to join our household. Even so, when I turned forty, I did a bit of a retrospective, and decided that I wanted to start getting more out of my life. I developed a plan for Operation Alchemy, which was aimed partly at getting more out of my forties than I'd been getting out of my late thirties, but also at figuring out what I wanted to accomplish with my fifth decade.

Operation Alchemy was, and is, divided into nine projects: Madrigal (personal goals), Stronsay (spiritual health), Harray (physical fitness), Egilsay (academics), SouthRon (financial management), Tigerlily (professional development), Granite Lodge (work projects), Westray (travel goals), and Wyre (miscellaneous special projects). It's been a good framework for focusing on some of my long-term goals, and it will continue. However, I think that the scope of the remaining years of my forties are coming into focus.

So, what's Operation Debnam Pass? Simple: I'm going to become a Green Beret.

Well... Not actually, but hear me out. I'm nearly a decade outside the qualifying age window. Oh, and that circulatory irregularity that some of you may have heard about? That's permanent, and it prevents me from running. So, actually joining the Army on an 18X contract and attending Special Forces Assessment and Selection is well and truly out. Fortunately, that doesn't stop me from developing a framework of goals to improve my life and accomplish my goals, based upon the Green Berets' training pipeline and operational focus.

Let's start with physical fitness. I've already been working at this with Operation Alchemy's Project Harray, but around three years of aggressive swimming hasn't done much in the way of reducing my weight. What did seem to help reduce my weight? Walking. In the latter months of the pandemic era, I unexpectedly discovered that all of the walking that I'd been doing with Tango had reduced my weight from around 315 pounds pre-pandemic to about 270 in late 2021. As we spent less time walking, the weight came back. Late last Summer, I was able to drop some of it again - ironically, when I was walking with a pack to offset several weeks of annual maintenance closures in the local municipal pool network.

For years, one of my life goals has been to complete a modified version of the BUD/S Warning Order, a workout designed by the Navy SEAL teams to prepare candidates for the SEAL Physical Screening Test. As it's written, the Warning Order involves running, swimming, push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups. That'll be the initial basis of my program. In lieu of the running, I'm walking with a pack. In lieu of the pull-ups, I'm using a lat pulldown machine to work my way up to doing an actual pull-up - presumably, this will get easier as I begin to drop weight. I've also added kettlebell presses and kettlebell squats. Week by week, I'll slowly add reps and weight. By the time I hit forty-five years of age - a little more than a year - my goal is to be able to complete, if not outright pass, a modified SEAL PST/SFAS PT Test: seventy push-ups, seventy sit-ups, fifteen pull-ups, swimming and rucking objectives that I'll determine at some point between now and then, and a goal weight of 245 pounds.

Why 245 pounds? Because Green Berets jump out of perfectly good aircraft, and to do that as a civilian, you have to be 250 pounds or lighter. As I'm writing this, I've got a year and some change, and I'm already partway into the sequence. It's ambitious, but if I keep myself focused, I believe that I can achieve that goal, and celebrate my forty-fifth birthday by jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft. Oh, by the way, I've wanted to get Accelerated Freefall certified for the best part of twenty years, so it's about time that I made it happen.

A lot of people picture the Green Berets as steely-eyed commando types, carrying out kinetic raids, eliminating terrorists, rescuing hostages, and such. In all fairness, they did a lot more of that in recent conflicts than they should have; but their actual role is to leverage regional cultural knowledge, to include language fluency, to interface directly with partner forces. Translation: once again, it's time to get serious about learning to speak and read Arabic. The main challenge in that regard is making time to study, but if I can spend a few months doing a couple of flash cards a day, I should be able to be efficient about things at a projected start date.

Furthermore, Green Berets operate in twelve man "A-Teams," short for "Operational Detachment Alpha" (ODA). These consist of an 18A Special Forces Officer as Detachment Commander; 180A Warrant Officer as Deputy Detachment Leader; 18Z Operations Sergeant as Team Sergeant; 18F Intelligence Sergeant as Assistant Team Sergeant; two 18B Weapons Sergeants; two 18C Engineer Sergeants; two 18D Medical Sergeants; and two 18E Communications Sergeants.

Do I foresee doing thirty-six weeks of intensive medical training, to include a four-week-long residency at a major trauma center, in order to satisfy the qualifications of a Medical Sergeant? No, I do not. Am I going to learn how to turn a bunch of household chemicals into the implements for breaching a door? Also no. Do I think I could stand to use these occupational specialties to develop some skills to make me more useful as an adult man? Yes, I do. A few initial thoughts...

18B - WEAPONS SGT // Special Forces Weapons Sergeants become experts in the world's weapons. I don't need the bulk of that knowledge, but I could stand to learn a little bit. Since around 2014, I've wanted to complete a Bushmaster Armorer Course, though it would appear that they're tougher to find than they were back then. Otherwise, it might be nice to take a couple of shooting courses from Thunder Ranch in Lakeview, Stoneridge Tactical Academy in Central Point, or Rogue Protection Group in Rogue River.

18C - ENGINEER SGT // Special Forces Engineer Sergeants are basically combat engineers on steroids: experts in building and maintaining a range of simple structures, but also in highly kinetic demolitions. I don't really need to know any of that, though some sort of handyman course to improve my home repair skills might be in order. In lieu of becoming a civilian version of a combat engineer, I might look into some basic automotive familiarization training.

18D - MEDICAL SGT // Special Forces Medical Sergeants go through extensive medical training, the better part of a year, culminating with a four-week-long residency at a major American medical center's trauma department. Obviously, that's not in the cards; but maybe I could renew my long-lapsed American Red Cross first aid certification? A colleague recently informed me about a Wilderness First Responder certification course through Oregon State University, which could be a good option.

18E - COMMUNICATIONS SGT // One could say that as a cyber security specialist of considerable tenure, I've already got this covered. In reality, there's always more to learn. There are some hands-on technical training projects that I've wanted to do for about ten years, and haven't had the time to dig into them. Additionally, it would be nice to read a couple of books, or take a class or two, on radio theory; and maybe get my ham radio operator certification.

18F - INTELLIGENCE SGT // Once an 18B, 18C, 18D, or 18E have done at least one tour, they can apply to re-classify as an 18F, and if they're accepted, undergo the Operations and Intelligence (O&I) Course. I've had an interest in intelligence for years, and I have a collection of both field manuals and more academic literature discussing strategic and security intelligence. I'm also very interested in geospatial information systems, and translating actionable data into map form. Additionally, I've already mentioned the Arabic, and I'm obviously interested in continuing to monitor the Middle East and learn more about its history and cultures. I don't know what the overall plan for the 18F portion of the effort is, but there's a lot of room for growth there.

Additionally, an ODA is led by an 18A (Special Forces Officer), an 180A (Special Forces Warrant Officer), and an 18Z (Special Forces Operations/"Team" Sergeant"). I'm not sure if I need to unpack any of these three roles (maybe a Project Management Professional certification?), postpone them until I've finished the first five, or dispense with them altogether. Maybe that turns into something less formal or structured? We'll see.

As a whole, the concept is loosely inspired not only by the U.S. Army Special Forces Groups themselves, but less so by The Preparation, a "practical, radical alternative to college." The ODA is structured around the question, "what core skills would the United States need to be able to nurture in a foreign partner force in order for that force to win a war"; while The Preparation is structured around the question, "What are the core skills that a young man needs to learn in order to be successful in life?" I'm too old for SFAS or The Preparation, but there's no time like the present to come up with a system for becoming a better version of myself.

So, why "Debnam Pass"? When I worked for the Army at the Fort Irwin National Training Center, one of the key terrain features was Debnam Pass, a corridor that connected the northwestern portion of the training area to the central area. I figure that it makes as much sense as any other sufficiently vague name, right?

So... Watch this space, because big things are coming!

Ambient Videos for Relaxation and Profit

In the last eighteen months or so, I've taken to using YouTube to provide a combination of ambient noise and scenery, either on my workstation or on my actual television set. This can serve a variety of purposes:

A YouTube video, playing even at low volume, will keep a computer "awake" when you're away from it for a few minutes.

Overnight, Tango the Weimaraner is less likely to detect critters like raccoons or possums, but mostly cats, if there's a combination of noise and light on the television when he's sleeping in our front room.

The ambient noise and visuals can facilitate productivity, but also sleep!
I've been enjoying two in particular, and thought I'd share them. The first is from Cozy Timez.


I love the idea of a cozy little cabin with a wood fireplace, insulated from the beautiful display of inclement weather outside. I'd prefer a sleeping dog to a sleeping cat, but it's fine.

The other recent selection is an offering from Artic Ocean: a ship plodding through a stormy sea.


Having briefly served in the Navy, but never gone to sea, part of me idealizes the prospect of leaving land behind and braving the elements aboard a tramp freighter. This video is solid not only because it's got great visuals and audio, but also because it's nearly twelve hours long, which makes it more likely to keep going all night instead of timing out. Then again, the TV tends to shut itself off after a duration without any outside input, so I often have to keep the thing going when Tango wakes me up to request a bladder relief outing.

There's another category of ship-at-sea videos, but since many of them seem to be titled in Korean, I'm unable to find them. Wait, let's try something...


There's one! So, enjoy, and if you have any similar videos that you enjoy using for relaxation or focus, feel free to link to them in the comments.

Return to the Joshua Tree... Or Very Nearly

Last year, Lady Jaye and I got our passports renewed in preparation for a family cruise to Alaska that took place in July. Ironically, we didn't disembark for the port visit to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. So, with our anniversary approaching, Lady Jaye began looking into potential trips to Canada that we could take in order to use our new passports.

She failed... Or did she?

As she was searching for accommodations, she stumbled across a listing for La Luna Cabin outside Yucca Valley, California. Immediately, I told her that this would be a great idea for an anniversary vacation. So, she booked it, and a few weeks later, we flew from our home to Las Vegas, rented a car, and got on the road.

I've occasionally mentioned my history with the Mojave Desert, near the edge of which one can find Yucca Valley. In February of 2006, I applied for a job at Fort Irwin with Raytheon, was hired, and relocated to Barstow to work as professional OPFOR in Army training exercises. I was classified as a "Civilian on the Battlefield" and even featured - very briefly - in a 2008 documentary. You can also read about a 2008 BBC podcast covering the training at Fort Irwin here, and you can actually listen to it here.

I had originally intended to stay for between three and five years, but a variety of factors led me to seek other opportunities, and I left for Virginia after little more than fourteen months. While I had been back to California twice since leaving, July of 2023 marked sixteen years since I had set foot in the Mojave Desert. So, I thought a trip back to my old stomping grounds was a great idea!

So, we flew into Las Vegas, picked up our rental car, got something to eat, and got on the road. As I mentioned, I lived in Barstow, and the initial leg of our trip took us from Vegas to Barstow along the route I had taken several times in years past, when I was flying out of Vegas to visit home. Interstate 15 from Vegas to Barstow is quite the stretch of territory, with a mixture of failed and struggling settlements, and no shortage of dessicated detritus littering the desert. Additionally, a long stretch of the highway runs along the southwest quarter of Fort Irwin, affording me occasional glances into the training area, as well as repeated glances at Tiefort Mountain. In 2006, when I first arrived at Irwin, one of my co-workers repeatedly told me - literally, about six times during a two minute-long lecture - that "Tiefort Mountain is the biggest sumbitch out here, so if you ever get lost, you just sight in on Tiefort, and you can find your way home." I snapped a photo, sent it to some of my former co-workers, and we kept moving.

I had only ever driven past the settlement of Baker. On this trip, we stopped so that Lady Jaye could witness the glory of the World's Tallest Thermometer, and a nearly defunct TCBY location. On our way back, we ate at the legendary Mad Greek restaurant.

When we arrived in Barstow, I gave Lady Jaye a quick tour, showing her where I'd lived, where I'd bought groceries, where I'd gone drinking with my co-workers, and the main drag through town. With that over - honestly, Barstow didn't seem much different than it had been when I left, but I don't know that I'd exposed myself to much of the city during my residence there - we got on the road to Yucca Valley. During my brief season in Barstow, I had driven the routes from Barstow to Vegas (I-15), Laughlin (I-40), and back home to Oregon (US-395). I think I may have taken California State Route 247 south of Barstow for a mile or two, but never as far as Lucerne Valley, and certainly never as far as Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree, or Twentynine Palms. On the advice of a neighbor, I had deliberately avoided Joshua Tree National Park. I thoroughly enjoyed the drive, which felt like a mix of familiar terrain and unexplored territory.

Aside from a memorable dinner at The Copper Room (where our waiter looked like a young David Koresh) and two lovely dinners at Yucca Kabob, we bought groceries and made a lot of our own meals. Lady Jaye went on a lot of walks around the cabin, and I joined her for several of those. The cabin itself featured twin soaking tubs on the back deck, of which we made copious use.

Our big adventure was two mornings spent in Joshua Tree National Park. Lady Jaye read online that the best place to take sunrise photos in the park was at the Cholla Cactus Garden, where the Mojave Desert transitions into the Sonoran Desert. Mea culpa: tasked with navigation, I took a wrong turn on the first morning, and we nearly ended up driving out the northwest entry gate toward the city of Joshua Tree, instead of arriving at our planned destination. Lady Jaye was furious, and the situation was tense. We ended up driving back to our original destination to confirm the route for the next morning, then doing a bit of hiking at the Arch Rock trail, taking in both Arch Rock and Heart Rock. (A couple of months later, I happened to see Arch Rock as the Windows welcome screen!) We drove around a bit more, then enjoyed breakfast at Crossroads Cafe in Joshua Tree.

The next morning, we made it with time to spare, and got situated a few minutes early. Our goal of taking sunrise photos was partially foiled by a massive cloud that blocked the sunrise, but the cloud eventually shifted enough to allow for some great shots of the faint glow of the cacti in the morning light. From there, we went to do some hiking at the Hall of Horrors, and later at the Barker Dam Trail. Between those two hikes, we drove up to the Keys View overlook point, which was - for me - one of the highlights of the trip.

Of course, our adventures in the park led to some Googling, which revealed a great website Cali49, which boasts a lot of features on the park (including the defunct Golden Bee Mine, overlooking the Cholla Cactus Garden). It joins Tom Mahood's OtherHand website, and the Wonderhussy Ghost Town Living YouTube channels, in fueling both my fascination with the Mojave Desert, and my regret at having explored so little of it during my brief tenure as a resident therein.

For these, and other reasons, I want to figure out a way to spend a bit more time there. Will it happen? Who knows. How will I make it happen? An even better question... But, as Wilfred Thesiger so rightly noted:

"The desert had already claimed me, though I did not know it yet."

So... More on that to come, I suppose.

Changing Fluids

I've lived in the United Kingdom twice, and in the Middle East once. The United Kingdom introduced me to tea, and refined my taste in alcohol. The Middle East was basically devoid of alcohol - Kuwait being a dry country, and my travels elsewhere in the region being fairly limited - but further ingrained tea culture into my system. A year in Scotland left me with a taste for a dram of twelve-year-old Highland Park Scotch whisky, and time spent in West Sussex and Kuwait eventually led me to prefer Ahmad Tea's loose leaf Earl Grey - oh, and Rakkasan Tea's Himalayan Black Dragon oolong.

Recently, I've had occasion to discover a new variety of grain alcohol that I've been enjoying, and a new tea that I'm trying out. So, I figured I'd share.

On a recent trip to Portland, I visited the Oregon Afghan Halal Market, and purchased a bag of Afghan style Saffroni Dholla green tea. I've had a few cups of it, typically with a couple of teaspoons of sugar in an attempt to replicate the Afghan style. Quite honestly, I find it fascinating that only a single website on the Internet shows any indication that this stuff exists, but whatever, right? By the way, the only reason I knew to look for a special Afghan green tea was because of a Veterans Day marketing E-mail from Rakkasan Tea.

On a side note: if you're in Portland, you should swing by the Oregon Afghan Halal Market and buy something. If you're anywhere where you can support Afghan refugees in America, you should do what you can.

Anyway, at some point in either February or early March, I had occasion to grab a bottle at my local liquor store to take to a buddy. I found a cheap bottle of huckleberry whiskey, and gave it to him almost as a gag gift. We both decided to sample it, and it was actually really good. I don't know how available it is nationwide, but it's Porter's Huckleberry Whiskey from the locale that's known for its bourbon purveyances... Ogden, Utah? Okay, so that doesn't make a ton of sense, but trust me, the stuff is good, smooth, easy to drink. I definitely recommend it.

Am I bailing on Highland Park or Ahmad's Earl Grey? Of course not, but as they say, variety is the spice of life.

NOTE: Originally posted in April, and accidentally posted to Operation Highlander. Oops.

Digital Investigation: The Missing Gymnasium

In 2007, I moved from a remote area of California into the metropolitan area of Hampton Roads, Virginia. One of my goals upon moving was to find somewhere to swim laps. Shortly after my arrival, I visited a gym within walking distance of my apartment, walked in, and asked a single question: "How much would it cost me to swim laps in your pool?" Instead of giving me an answer, the representative behind the desk gave me a complete facility tour, then tried to hype me up on the value of Muscle Milk Bars, before finally giving me some sort of price list. I thanked her, left, and never set foot in the building again.

A few months ago, I was reminiscing about the incident, and couldn't remember the name of the gym. So, I tried to look it up, and found that it's gone. Wait... What? The building was on River Birch Run, opposite Greenbrier Mall from Greenbrier Parkway. But, as one can see from the current map that the only present businesses on that block are a Firestone Complete Auto Care, an MRI clinic that was under construction in September of 2007, and a retirement complex for senior citizens. I was stumped, and even creative Googling didn't help.

I finally found part of the answer: a literal missing building. Since it was on the periphery of a mall parking lot, Google Street View offered multiple angles on the building, revealing it to be a Bally Total Fitness. Remember those?

Well, apparently the company started selling off assets around 2011, and the chain itself ceased to exist by late 2016. A quick Google search failed to determine when the Chesapeake location closed.

This may seem like a really trivial thing to post about, but it had me really curious, and it ended up taking some modest sleuthing skills to work out. I also remain stunned that a perfectly good building wasn't sold off and repurposed, either by a different fitness company or some entirely different tenant. Now, all that remains is a patch of grass and a disused, presumably deteriorating parking area. That just seems strange.

As for me, I eventually started swimming, intermittently, at several branches of the local YMCA. I frequently ran into two major issues: seasonal electrical storms that forced the temporary closure of the pools during the timeframe when I was usually there, and high school swim teams that were allowed to take up the entire pool facilities. I probably could have adjusted my own schedule if my fitness had been a high enough priority, but it wasn't, and I didn't. Such is life.

PRE-PUBLICATION UPDATE: Oddly enough, when you start Googling "Bally total fitness," you get video recommendations. As it turns out, around a year ago, some guy back in Chesapeake made a video about this very Bally's location. Here it is...


... and the bottom line from a video that's about three times as long as it needs to be is that the building was probably condemned, and demolished in lieu of being rehabilitated into something suitable for another business to occupy.

Fueling the Fires of Civilization: The Perfect Shave

I officially started to develop a bald spot around the time that I was twenty-three years old. Most of the men on either side of my family are bald, so it wasn't much of a surprise. By the time I reached my late twenties, I would occasionally go for a full shave, but usually had my barber manicure a tighter and tighter patch of hair. When I arrived in the Middle East in late 2010, I finally committed to the "bald is beautiful" look.

Some of my fondest memories of Kuwait were the hours spent, usually every other week, in the barber's chair. My Pakistani barber, Mohammed, would send his cousin to get me a cup of tea, and then shave my head, style my beard, and give me a back massage. That treatment was suspended when I repatriated in early 2012, and then resumed six months later when I arrived in Aberdeen for graduate school. There, I found a Turkish barber shop, staffed by Orhan from Turkey, and Yari and Alex from Iran. Same thing: cuppa, head shave, beard trim, back massage. The Aberdeen contingent added something I don't remember from the Kuwaiti sessions: ear hair singeing utilizing fire.

Turkish barbers are tougher to come by in the States, so I eventually had to develop my own shaving methods. For a long time, that involved a mustache and beard trimmer, followed by hot water and a double-bladed, fixed headed Gilette disposable razor. I still prefer that particular razor for some circumstances, but when I got married, my buddy Caleb sent me a fantastic shaving set that I've gotten a lot of use out of.

This started with the handle: a Merkur Mk34c Double Edge Razor with Heavy Duty Short Handle. Accompanying this was a pack of Feather Double Edge Safety Razor Blades, platinum-coated, and manufactured in Japan. When I found myself running low after a couple of years, I invested in a pack of (I think) one hundred; at present, the fifty pack seems to be the best available option.

Caleb recently reported that he's "upgraded" his own setup to include the fancy new design from Henson Shaving. If you're just starting out, or have to have the newest thing, give it a try; for me, I'll probably be using that Merkur equipment for the rest of my life. What can I say? Henson is Canadian, and Merkur is German. I have a German dog, a German car, and I'm predominantly German in my personal heritage, so it just makes sense, right?

That takes care of the razor itself. How about the lather? Caleb got me a combo pack of Pacific Shaving Company's Caffeinated Shaving Cream & Aftershave. I find myself going through a lot more of the shaving cream than the aftershave, so I've replaced it a few times. As for building and applying the lather, Caleb sent a Fento Badger Hair Shaving Brush and Chrome Razor Stand. This doesn't appear to be available anymore, but Amazon's current best-selling option seems to be the Perfecto 100% Original Pure Badger Shaving Brush.

It's worth noting that in recent years, as one might expect in the current social climate, badger hair brushes have generated some controversy due to questions about animal cruelty, particularly when sourced from Chinese manufacturers. I'm no proponent of animal cruelty, but the entire point of "Fueling the fires of civilization" is to embrace traditions. So, I'll probably remain a proponent of actual badger hair, but it's worth mentioning the issue so that people can make informed decisions about what they use, and where they source their supplies.

A few years ago, I saw a video about lathering up, and that video recommended a run-of-the-mill stainless steel dog food bowl. I bought an 10-Pint Our Pets Durapet Bowl from our local pet supply chain, and it works great. Disliking the appearance of a dog food bowl on our bathroom counter, my wife bought me some classy looking concrete bowl. I tried it, but it didn't work as well. So, I still use the dog food bowl, but once it dries out, I try to stash it underneath my sink. No small part of being civilized involves the work of maintaining a happy home.

A few lines up, I linked to a video from a Scottish company called Executive Shaving. I've never used any of their shaving supplies, but their shaving tutorial is the best one that I've found on the Internet. Once you have your supplies - or even if you're just going to stick with a disposable razor and hot water - the video below is worth your time to watch.


I almost forgot: a few years ago, a friend randomly sent me a can of Lumber Prince Beard Balm. I use it on occasion, particularly when trimming up my beard. It does a great job of softening my whiskers. I'd definitely recommend it.

The only thing I'd add at this point is that if I haven't shaved my head for awhile, I'll buzz my hair short with a mustache and beard trimmer, then shave it closer with an electric razor, then finally implement the process described in the Executive Shaving video. I'll just add that however you're shaving, and irrespective of what you're shaving, be careful - cuts aren't fun!

All Good Things: BBC Arabic Takes a Hit

Last week, I learned that earlier this year, the BBC World Service discontinued broadcasts in ten foreign languages. Among these was the BBC's Arabic Service, which had been broadcasting to the Arab world for more than eighty-five years. For me, this marks not only the end of one of the more consistent and reliable Arabic audio streams, but also the end of the BBC Xtra podcast.

al Jazeera: BBC Arabic radio goes off air after 85 years

Middle East Economy: Hundreds of jobs lost following BBC Arabic radio transmisson stoppage

Arab News: End of an Era: BBC Arabic Radio goes off air after 85 years

Zawya: BBC's Arabic radio service bids farewell to the world after 85 years of broadcasting

Daily Mail: BBC World Service is to cut 382 jobs and will AXE Arabic and Persian radio stations under plan to make more of its broadcasts 'digital only'

For the uninitiated, there are actually two BBC entities that sort of coexist like conjoined twins in the same ecosystem. The domestic British Broadcasting Corporation, often affectionately referred to as "Auntie Beeb," provides domestic programming to the British audience (though some of those program(me)s are subsequently proliferated to other countries on outlets such as BBC America). "Auntie Beeb" is funded by the infamous licensing fee, by which any Brit who owns a television (and maybe a radio?) pays a fee for it, which goes to support the BBC, public broadcasting style. The other twin is funded by the British Foreign Office, and focuses on the production of content aimed at informing and engaging an international audience.

The Arabic service celebrated its eightieth anniversary in 2018, and the History Extra podcast - a production of the BBC domestic service's BBC History magazine - used the occasion to interview one of the BBC's executives, Wissam El Sayegh. Five years later, and even under these unfortunate circumstances, it's still worth the listen.

I experienced the BBC's Arabic Service in three contexts. The first was in either late 2007 or early 2008, when I discovered the BBC Xtra podcast. That was not too terribly long after its 2005 debut. It's since jumped around a bit, but you can catch the last few episodes here, at least for a limited time. I retain a cache of dozens of episodes of Xtra from the period ranging from around 2007 to around 2013, and a handful of later episodes. I had started studying Arabic in mid-2005, with very few resources easily available to me, and Xtra was great because it's consistent format helped me to learn words and build an understanding based on what I knew was going on. I paired Xtra listening sessions with lessons from ArabicPod.

The second incarnation, which I would have experienced intermittently starting around the same time, was the live Internet stream of the BBC's actual Arabic Service, which would broadcast the Xtra programs, but also offered other programs and live news coverage. Same idea: listen, identify different segments, and learn words and phrases. The live stream was the Internet-accessible version of the BBC's aforementioned long standing Arabic radio service, which broadcast across the Arab world. During my own stint living in Kuwait, when I drove alone, I'd regularly tune the actual, bona fide radio program in on 90.1 FM - though if I'm being honest, I was usually more likely to tune in the BBC World Service's English programs on 100.1 FM.

I had noticed a couple of months ago that my previously successful efforts to access the BBC Arabic Service via the Radio Garden app had begun to fail. As stations occasionally disappear and reappear, I didn't pay it much mind, but then I decided to do some Googling, and discovered the sad news: that not only had the BBC shut its Arabic service down, I'd missed the whole thing. I managed to download the crew's farewell special. Even though my Arabic was never strong, and has deteriorated significantly since I left Kuwait more than a decade ago, I was able to get the gist of the various conversations. It was a bittersweet listen.

The BBC's official position is that this was a difficult decision to make, that it was driven by the restrictive budgetary environment in the United Kingdom following Brexit, and that their goal is to focus on digital content. So, maybe there's room to hope that some incarnation of the BBC's Arabic radio content may return at some point. In the meantime, I'll pat myself on the back for saving as many episodes as I did, and continue to enjoy those episodes when I resume my Arabic studies... Soon, hopefully.

Self Control and My Big Mouth

"All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison."
- James 3:7-8

At some point when I was in college, I stopped into the parking lot of my high school to get my car washed by one of the teams of female athletes, who were running a fundraiser. I ended up briefly meeting their coach, who may have also been a teacher, and found out that she was engaged to a guy I went to high school with. The conversation somehow produced the key data point that she was engaged to a guy I'd gone to high school with, and I said something to the effect of "Wow, that's too bad, because that guy is a jerk." She politely expressed her dissent, and that was the end of it. We never ran across one another again.

In high school, I was voted "Most Outspoken" in my graduating class. One of my student newspaper advisors gave me an end-of-year award for "always being willing to share his insights on the world"; and my AP English teacher gave me an award that translated to "Most Self-Righteous," though that was at least partially in jest, because he also gave me an award at the same end-of-year event that said "Most Likely to Pose for a Nerd Poster." The obvious take-away is that those who knew the high school incarnation of me thought that I talked too much, and also that what I said rendered me somewhat unpleasant to be around.

I like to think I've gotten better of the years. I look back at many situations in my life, think to myself that I should have kept my mouth shut, and I try to let those regrets inform my behavior. I make an effort to listen more, and to talk less. My tone and many of my positions have moderated over the years. In some cases, I've been known to de-escalate or mediate situations, rather than escalating them. I like to think that there's almost nobody on the planet that I wouldn't buy at least one beer for, and willingly sit for ten or fifteen minutes of discussion, unpleasant though it might be.

I don't know what made me remember speaking to that coach at that car wash on this bright, beautiful June morning - wait, yes I do, I saw a photo of a woman who reminded me of a friend whom the guy in question once bragged about having taken advantage of while she was drunk, in earshot of multiple people. Anyway, as I reflect on it, it's one of the few examples of me opening my big, stupid mouth that I don't regret. That guy was a jerk, and I was right to say so.

Operation Alchemy, Dispatch #1: Metaphors for Being Too Busy

When I was a freshman in high school, Switchfoot released their debut album, The Legend of Chin. One of the strongest tracks on a truly classic album was Life and Love and Why, which featured one line in particular that's always stuck with me: "Give me a reason for life and for death, and a reason for drowning while I hold my breath." At the moment, I find myself reflecting on that line, and a litany of others. I feel "buried alive." I feel like I'm "trying to boil the ocean." In the opening pages of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic trilogy, the author has Bilbo saying, "I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread."

I suspect that it's a feeling that most people can identify with: trying to accomplish things beyond one's capacity.

By the way, dear reader, that is a dram of twelve-year-old Highland Park single malt Scotch whisky. It's a fine facilitator of evening reflection.

Shortly before I turned forty, and additionally since then, I've been working on a sort of five-to-ten-year plan called "Operation Alchemy": the creation of something greater than its constituent components. A full accounting of all of the various components is another topic for another day, but the concept basically boiled down to this: assuming for the sake of arguments that (1) forty marks the halfway point between my birth and my death, and (2) my life hasn't played out the way that I had originally expected, and (3) I want to feel as if I've accomplished something when the end comes, (4) I'd better start planning for what I want to accomplish, and how to ensure that I actually accomplish it.

Honestly, even just planning this whole thing has taken forever. I'd say that I'm really still just in the initial phase. Even just moving from planning to execution requires me to finish up some projects and get myself organized. That's involved things like going through basically all of the documents and paper detritus that I'd accumulated over the last twenty years - actually, probably more like twenty-five - and either sorting it, or boxing it up for shredding. It's involved organizing and consolidating my digital files, and eliminating redundancies, so that my digital porfolio is easier to access and use. It's required me to consolidate my belongings and organize the work area that I've tried to establish in my garage. In early 2022, I finally obtained my Physical Security Professional certification. These are just a few examples. There are plenty more.

A lot of this was difficult between mid-2014 and mid-2017, when I was living on the East Coast and only had a small subset of my personal belongings with me. Of course, I look back to the period from 2007 to 2010, when I could have done some of that sorting, and didn't; and other, shorter periods in 2012 and 2014, when I had the time and apparently didn't have the foresight to utilize it. A lengthy global pandemic that largely confined me to my home was, on paper, a great time to work on all of that, except that we semi-unexpectedly brought home a specimen of one of the more notoriously demanding dog breeds, just as we were beginning to hear rumblings of something out of the ordinary happening in China. (When we initially contacted the breeder, we expected to land on a waiting list for a few months, but they'd just welcomed a litter, and the sole puppy that wasn't spoken for was exactly what my wife had expressed her preference for. That's not an expression of regret, just an acknowledgement that life played out differently than we'd expected.) And I have to say, the amount of time that just being married requires ended up really catching me by surprise! Again, not a regret, just an observation of how much time I had as a bachelor. The amount of time I wasted in my twenties and early thirties is simply unconscionable.

So, being deliberate about the planning and allocation of my time has been important. Being disciplined about sticking to those plans has been an additional challenge, and some of the preparatory tasks feel so critical to the overall plan that it feels sort of pointless to even start executing that plan until they're complete. Can I really start doing new research, or continuing old research, before I have a functioning webpage and archive online? Does it make any sense to try adjusting my diet and exercising without developing concrete plans for both? Some projects are big, some are small, some are planning, some are productive. Overall, though, there's a lot to be done.

A lot of this pre-work could get sorted if I had a solid week of just doing these projects. And, honestly, Tango has reached the point in his life at which he's vastly easier to manage than he was during the pandemic. I'm even getting plenty of encouragement from my boss to, y'know, take that time, because I'm maxed out on the leave that I can accrue. Unfortunately, as I've slowly reclaimed productive bandwidth over the last several months, a great deal of that bandwidth has, quite reasonably, been consumed by work. On the plus side, I'm feeling more engaged and ambitious about my day job than I have in a long time. Conversely, I'm constantly buried in work tasks, which acts not only as a deterrent to taking the time off that I'd like to be using for those projects, but also as an energy sink that prevents me from making productive use of my evenings and weekends. In that regard, there appears to be no end in sight.

Of course, all of this falls quite squarely into the "First World Problems" category, and I make a point of keeping in mind that I should be (and actually am) grateful for the situation in which I find myself. There's also virtue in being patient; after all, if I can pace myself, I can accomplish both the work tasks, and the personal/work-adjacent tasks. That doesn't stop any of it from being frustrating. It doesn't stop me from feeling like "butter scraped over too much bread," or as if I'm buried alive, or as if I'm drowning while desperately holding breath.

More on Operation Alchemy to come.

Salvaging the Wreckage of Disney's Galactic Starcruiser

I should really post to this blog more often.

Okay, so, based upon recent news, I had an idea that I figured I'd share. In mid-May, Disney announced that the company would be closing its Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser hotel. One Disney Imagineer speculated that the hotel cost around $350 million to build. Unfortunately, the facility reportedly required a two night minimum stay at a price of $1,200 per day, which limited the number of potential guests who were both willing and able to pay for the experience.

As a kid, I was always more of a Star Trek fan, though I enjoyed Star Wars as well. Like many folks in my age bracket, I enjoyed RedLetterMedia's infamous Plinkett Reviews of the prequel trilogy at least as much as I enjoyed the films themselves. I got increasingly frustrated that the folks running both franchises - as fate would have it, in both cases, that was J.J. Abrams on an intermittent basis - and sort of withdrew. I felt vindicated in 2019, when the sequel trilogy that I'd refused to watch got positively roasted. That followed the late 2016 release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which I saw with my nephews, only to watch the aforementioned crew from RedLetterMedia enunciate all of the regrets that I'd had for the film.


Since then, I've avoided all of the Disney+ content: The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Kenobi, Andor, and whatever else they've churned out. So, when the announcement about the Galactic Starcruiser hotel popped up in the news, I wasn't surprised.

Then, a few weeks later, I saw the advertisement for the Disney Cruise Line's newest ship, Disney Wish, and an idea for making lemonade from lemons struck me: everything that didn't work about the Galactic Starcruiser hotel would be a feature aboard a fully Star Wars-themed cruise ship.

Okay, hear me out.

People didn't care to pay $1,200 a night for standard room, or $5,000 for a so-called "luxury suite" that was smaller than the average college dorm room. But, aboard a cruise ship? All of the cabins aboard a cruise ship are small, even the so-called luxury suites. So, that problem is solved.

A substantial portion of the Galactic Starcruiser cost clearly goes toward maintaining an immersive experience. That immersive experience is a natural feature of a cruise.

Cruises go on port calls. A "Galactic Starcruiser cruise" could include "re-fueling stops" at which passengers could disembark. These might be Star Wars-themed, or just regular port calls. A portion of Disney's private island, Castaway Cay could be rigged with either permanent, or quickly deployable, Star Wars decorations.

In Star Wars lore, the Mon Calamari cruisers were passenger liners. It would be so simple to work out some kind of Mon Calamari theme, maybe with enemy infiltrators or some sort of quest... All I'm saying is that there are options for a fun, interactive, immersive storyline that would make sense.

Everyone's heard of Celebrity Cruises, right? The Star Trek franchise has proved the concept. It would be simple to do something similar for Star Wars, either by having the actors themselves make appearances, or by incorporating their characters into the storylines. Maybe an aging Lando Calrissian has booked passage aboard the ship, and he's teaching sabacc in one of the ship's lounges, or Wedge Antilles is opening up a flight school and due to disembark at one of the ports. The possibilities, like the ranks of actors who have appeared in one incarnation of Star Wars or another, are endless.

As the franchise continues to churn out new properties, the ship could do themed sailings. For example, if Disney had rolled this out in 2016, a special season of the Rogue One cruise could have been built around specific aspects of that film.

At present, the Galactic Starcruiser hotel is scheduled to continue operating until September. Given the amount of money that Disney has already spent on outfitting the hotel, most of that infrastructure could be fairly easily retrofitted to an existing Disney cruise liner, or possibly to a small- or medium-sized vessel. Of the ships in Disney's cruise liner fleet, only Disney Wish ranks as one of the world's largest cruise ships. In 1994 and 1999, I took two family cruises aboard Royal Caribbean's Viking Serenade. Long since scrapped, Viking Serenade - which weighed in at 26,747 gross tons, literally one tenth the size of that Royal Caribbean's current 236,857 ton behemoth, Wonder of the Seas - would probably be a better fit for the niche audience of Star Wars.

As they say in baseball, "Put me in, coach! I'm ready to play!"

ENDURANCE22 on Dan Snow's History Hit

One aspect of modern history that I'd like to familiarize myself with in the coming years is the modern exploration of the world, and particularly the Arctic and Antarctic. In the Arctic, that means the ill-fated voyages of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, Sir John Franklin's ships that vanished with all hands, only to be rediscovered in 2014 and 2016, respectively. In the Antarctic, that means the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, defined by the expeditions of Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Schackleton, and Roald Amundsen. Folk who watch the news may be aware that in early 2022, an expedition organized by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust was able to discover the remains of Endurance, Shackleton's ship from the ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, at the bottom of the Weddell Sea.

Among the "crew" aboard the ship was Dan Snow, host of Dan Snow's History Hit, a podcast that I've begun listening to in recent months due in part to some of the work he's done to publicize the centary of the Great War. Since I've enjoyed his podcasts on the subject, I figured I'd consolidate the links and share them. Enjoy.

ENDURANCE22: The Search for Shackleton's Shipwreck - New Season Coming to Dan Snow's History Hit!! Wed, 26 Jan 2022 (Podcast)

ENDURANCE22: Dan Sets Sail for Antarctica! Fri, 04 Feb 2022 (Podcast)

ENDURANCE22: A Story of Antarctic Survival Part 1 Mon, 07 Feb 2022 (Podcast)

ENDURANCE22: A Story of Antarctic Survival Part 2 Tue, 08 Feb 2022 (Podcast)

ENDURANCE22: A Story of Antarctic Survival Part 3 Wed, 09 Feb 2022 (Podcast)

ENDURANCE22: The Man Who Filmed the Expedition Thu, 10 Feb 2022 (Podcast)

ENDURANCE22: Dan's Diary #01 Fri, 11 Feb 2022 (Podcast)

ENDURANCE22: Dan's Diary #02 Mon, 14 Feb 2022 (Podcast)

ENDURANCE22: Arrival in Antarctica Wed, 16 Feb 2022 (Podcast)

ENDURANCE22: Dan's Diary #03 Thu, 17 Feb 2022 (Podcast)

ENDURANCE22: Searching for the Shipwreck Tue, 22 Feb 2022 (Podcast)

ENDURANCE22: Dan's Diary #04 Tue, 22 Feb 2022 (Podcast)

ENDURANCE22: Onto the Ice Wed, 02 Mar 2022 (Podcast)

ENDURANCE22: Discovery! The Behind The Scenes Story Wed, 09 Mar 2022 (Podcast)

ENDURANCE22: Questions & Reflections Fri, 18 Mar 2022 (Podcast)

Sergeant of the Guard

Christmas is behind us, and I wanted to share something that I procured for my wife, Lady Jaye. A few months ago, our friends lost their elderly chocolate labrador, so I farmed their Facebook albums and ordered them a portrait through Crown and Paw. Crown and Paw is one of a number of vendors that will photoshop your pet's head on to an old timey painting. Some services are a bit more comical than others - for example, Crown and Paw offers "The Rebel," and even uses a Weimaraner as their model for that particular selection. (Anyone who's familiar with Weims knows that they're not rebellious - you're rebellious should you choose to defy them!)

I wanted to get one of Tango, and I wanted him wearing a classic military uniform. I had narrowed it down to a couple of options, both of them from another company called Noble Pawtrait: The Soldier, or The Sergeant. I ended up settling on The Sergeant, and I actually ended up getting Lady Jaye's help to get Tango posed for just the right photo. I'm really thrilled with how it turned out. Per my Facebook post:

"Cadet Corporal Tango Macallan von Weimaraner, Sergeant-at-Arms of the Household Guard"

One of the things that I liked about Noble Pawtrait that I didn't get from Crown and Paw was a preview image, and the ability to request edits. I didn't end up requesting any changes, but getting a proof so that I'd know that it was perfect was really awesome.

I'm not sure that Lady Jaye was as thrilled with her gift as I was, but we'll find a place for it... And maybe follow it with me as The Admiral and Lady Jaye as The Countess?

Achtung Baby - Thirtieth Anniversary

Thursday marks the thirtieth anniversary of the release of U2's 1991 album, Achtung Baby. There's no other album that I can point to and say, in all honesty, "That album changed my life."

I probably bought my copy of Achtung Baby in late 1999 or 2000, as either a senior in high school or an undergraduate. I enjoyed it, because the album included several timeless songs that I'd been hearing on the radio for years - notably One and Mysterious Ways. I'd undergone a sort of radical religious conversion a few years earlier, and contemporary Christian music having more or less bottomed out late in my high school years, I was looking for something to fill that artistic void in my spiritual life. I received the Elevation 2001: U2 Live from Boston DVD for Christmas of 2001, and this opened my eyes to the deeper meanings of the songs not only on Achtung Baby, but throughout U2's lengthy catalog. Until the End of the World was a love letter from Judas to Jesus? Mysterious Ways was about the Holy Spirit? The real clincher for me was the sheer depth of The Fly, blending C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters, Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones, William Golding's Lord of the Flies, and a touch of Dante's Divine Comedy?

What else didn't I know about the world?

In the short term, this discovery of the depth of meaning that I'd been missing not only in U2's work, but potentially in other works of art, blew my mind in a way that I suspect many people only experience by way of experimenting with hallucinogens. I didn't need any controlled substances - just listening to Achtung Baby became a trip for me. Without making the decision for me, these revelations nudged a decision that would impact the course of the rest of my life. In the longer term, Achtung Baby, and particularly The Fly, reoriented the way that I thought about the world: understand your adversary, and that adversary loses their power. Among other influences, The Fly played a huge role in me learning to understand, and then embracing, people and cultures that I'd have previously considered to be my enemy. For me, it was that transformational.

My life took a major turn in 2005, when I graduated from college, spent a year looking for a real job, and struck out with a series of romantic interests. Meanwhile, The Fly's traditional performances from the ZooTV era ev-olv- ed.

The band has been performing those twelve songs since 1991, to include their epic multi-year world tour that kicked off in February of 1991 in Lakeland, Florida, and ended in December of 1993 in Tokyo. Below are my favorite versions of these twelve songs.

Zoo Station - Sydney, 1993

Even Better Than The Real Thing - Sydney, 1993

One - Sydney, 1993

Until The End Of The World - official video

Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses - Album version

So Cruel - Album version

The Fly - Boston, 2001

The Fly - Honorable Mention, Chicago 2005

Mysterious Ways - Sydney, 1993

Mysterious Ways - Honorable Mention, Chicago 2005

Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around the World - album version

Ultra Violet (Light My Way) - album version

Acrobat - Sydney, 1993

Love Is Blindness - Sydney, 1993

Thirty years. Amazing. Lots to reflect on. Maybe, one of these days, I'll post about my experiences with The Joshua Tree and the season of my life spent in the Mojave Desert.

Back to Blogging... I Hope?

After more than two years of silence, I've decided that I'd like to start blogging again. Why have I been absent for two years? Well, the truth of the matter is that we got a puppy. Pictured is our not-quite-two-year-old Weimaraner, Tango. He's been absolutely wonderful, and if I continue blogging, he'll be the source of no shortage of material. However, between him and the pandemic, the last couple of years have been nothing short of chaos.

There's no shortage of topics to write about. I expect a lot of it to be just sharing what interesting YouTube videos I've been watching, podcasts I've been listening to, or maybe occasional news articles that are worth sharing. Maybe I'll share some other projects, too - for example, I've been publishing podcasts on an irregular schedule since early 2019, and may be starting a second podcast project in the near future. All of that ought to be worth sharing, right?

Well, I suppose we'll see. It's possible that this will be little more than a blip on the radar, but if I can consolidate and synergize some things, it would be nice to start sharing some things here on a more regular basis. In the mean time, thanks for tuning in.

Moar Audio Links

Whassigo - Wednesday 10th January 2018

Whassigo - Wednesday 7th February 2018

Whassigo - Wednesday 7th March 2018

Whassigo - Wednesday 17th October 2018

Whassigo - Wednesday 14th November 2018

Whassigo - Wednesday 12th December 2018

Whassigo - Wednesday 23rd January 2019

Whassigo - Wednesday 20th February 2019

Whassigo - Wednesday 20th March 2019

It's a Long Story...

Crooked Fingers - Luisa's Bones

Menew - Don't Give Up On Us Now

Walk the Moon - Shut Up and Dance

Cheryl Cole - Under the Sun

Ward Thomas - Push for the Stride

Reporters Notebook Saturday Good Morning Scotland 2nd Dec 2017 - COMPLETE

Big Hooses - Tankerness House - 21st December 2017

Big Hooses (Archive Edition) - Thursday 23rd November 2017

In conversation - James Angus from Sanday and another chance to hear 'When Phil met Angy Muir' - COMPLETE

In Conversation with Colin Blake - COMPLETE

In Conversation with David Partner - 30th November 2017 - COMPLETE

In Conversation with Linda Gask. - COMPLETE

In Conversation with Billy Jolly - COMPLETE

In Conversation with Reverend Jack Muir in 2014 - COMPLETE

Musical Milestones with Kathryn Sclater

Musical Milestones with John Fergusson

Friday Requests with Dawn Copland - Friday 23rd March 2018 - COMPLETE

An Orkney Gathering presented by Ken Ross - COMPLETE

The Orkney Gathering - COMPLETE

Tatties and Point - November 2017

Tatties and Point 7th December 2017

Tatties and Point January 2018 - with Huw Williams and Dave Gray

The first ever edition of 'Mercy Me' (with a bonus 'Orkney Connections')

The Wey Hid Wis - 14th February 2018 - Interviewing Maggie Harcus from Papay - COMPLETE

The Wey Hid Wis December 2017 - COMPLETE

The Wey Hid Wis January 2018 - COMPLETE

The Wey Hid Wis November 2017 - COMPLETE

The Wey Hid Wis October 2017 - COMPLETE

The Way Hid Wis 14th March 2018 - COMPLETE

Dustin Off The Stoor - Monday 26th March 2018 - COMPLETE

Whassigo 1st November 2017 - COMPLETE

Whassigo 29th November 2017 - COMPLETE

Whassigo 7th February 2018 - COMPLETE

Whassigo 7th March 2018 - COMPLETE

Whassigo 4th April 2018 - COMPLETE


1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Road Trip Middle Eastern Podcast Update

For the last two months, I've been trying to track two big stories in the Middle East: the ongoing Qatar crisis, and the independence referendum (and its aftermath) in Iraqi Kurdistan. I get a most of my news from my morning news reviews, but I also get a lot of my news (particularly deeper context) from podcasts. A wedding, a cross-country move, and three months of unemployment disrupted my normal podcast diet, but I'm getting back into it. I had about five hours of driving today, so I was able to catch up on podcasts I'd missed about Iraqi Kurdistan. I've also listened to most of my downloads about Qatar as well. There are lots of different perspectives on these two matters to be heard in these two lists, so enjoy - and take all of them with at least a tiny grain of salt.

Qatar Dispute

In Qatar and Saudi Arabia’s fight, Iran’s the real winner (War College)

Inquiry: What's So Special About Qatar? (BBC World Service)

What is Happening between Qatar and the GCC [English] (Status Hour)

The Qatar Crisis with Lori Plotkin Boghardt (The Washington Institute's Near East PolicyCast)

Qatar Gets Cut Off (CSIS)

Energy & Geopolitics: Qatar (CSIS)

The Showdown in the Gulf Gets Nasty (Foreign Policy Editor's Roundtable)

Kurdish Referendum

Iraqi Kurdistan's Independence Referendum with Michael Knights (The Washington Institute's Near East PolicyCast)

Kurdistan Referendum with Bilal Wahab (The Washington Institute's Near East PolicyCast)

Iraq & Kurdistan: Energy and Geopolitics (CSIS)

Must the War Go On? Let's Talk About Iraq and the Kurds (War on the Rocks)

The Kurdish Problem | Episode 80 (Covert Contact - The Blogs of War Podcast)

New Job, New Photos

I moved back home in August. After two years of intermittent applications, and over a year of fairly diligent applications, I finally landed a job. I'll be continuing my work in information security. Without getting into detail, I'm optimistic that it will be a good fit in the short term, and set me up for continued career success in the long term.

As I've done before starting previous positions, I've begun getting things ready for my desk and workstation. That includes things like professional files that I've collected over the years, but it also includes something a bit more mundane: photos. On my last workstation, my desktop background rotated through photos that I took on Operation Highlander. So, I'll be replicating those. I've spun through my photos from my 2003, 2004, and 2012 to 2013 trips to Europe, most of which was spent in Scotland, and copied a bunch of those photos for loading into a wallpaper rotation. One of my favorites, still, is the attached photo of a December 2013 sunset, witnessed atop Wideford Hill on the Orkney Mainland with my friend Michelle (AKA "Rock Sniffer").

For the entirety of the time I spent in my last job, I thought that I needed to add a bunch of my photos from time spent in the Middle East, and particularly my photos from the Sultanate of Oman. So, I went through all of those photos, picked my favorites, and copied them as well. The attached photo made the cut, even though it's not one of mine. (Frequent readers of this infrequently updated blog might remember it from this post, where I discussed my efforts to find the village of Hamaam outside the Omani capital of Muscat. I wish I'd been the one to take this photo, and I'm grateful to the Internet for providing it!

I'm adding another group of desktop background photos as well: photos from my long-removed life in the Mojave Desert. More than a decade ago, I cut my teeth as a federal contractor by participating in U.S. Army training operations. I didn't take many photos back then, because we were regularly reminded about security requirements; but there were some occasions to do some desert photography, and my waning days in that neck of the woods provided me with a couple of opportunities to snap some photos (including from a helicopter on my last day). I took the attached photo of a Joshua tree between my apartment and the facility where I worked, using actual black and white film - those days are long gone! So, as I work on one project or another, I'll be able to reminisce about my younger days in the heat and the sand. I chose a few that show various aspects of the base itself. I recently spent some time downloading some of the photos from the National Training Center/Fort Irwin and 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment Facebook pages. I'm not sure if they'll get added at some point or not.

These desktop background images will be supplemented by something I've maintained at both of my last two jobs: a picture frame with actual, bona fide photographs. I know that electronic picture frames have been available for a few years, but as an information security professional, I consider them to be nothing more than non-secure Internet-of-Shit garbage. So, I went to Fred Meyer and printed off a ton of photos to add to those that I'd been using since 2014. There are a bunch of pictures of me and Lady Jaye. Then, there are photos of me with other folks (and one of just me). Next up are photos of Scotland, some of which are redundant to the desktop photo gallery, and some of which I didn't even take. Then, there are some pictures of my home state and my alma mater. Next up are pictures from various desert locales, some that I took, some that were offered up by my Facebook feed. After that, there are overhead and/or satellite pictures of various places that are important to me. Then, there are some photos of public figures whom I respect: Presidents Washington and Lincoln, Sultan Qaboos, General Mattis (pictured), Wilfred Thesiger, T.E. Lawrence, and various Orcadian Gordon Highlanders. Next, it's motivational images. After that, there are some fine art selections - dogs playing poker, for example. Finally, there are a bunch of funny pictures.

So, at the very least, all of these real and digital images will help to make me more comfortable as I work on one project or another. In addition, I expect that some of them will turn into conversation pieces that will help me to establish relationships with my co-workers. I mean, who's not going to be game for chatting with the guy who's got a picture of St. Mattis of Quantico at their desk?