"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more."

- Macbeth

Well no picture or even a drawing with this post. I'll claim I'm tired, but I'm probably just lazy. What to write... I'm feeling bogged-down with decisions about the future. I kinda want to go back to school, but to go next fall requires getting a bunch of apps done by the end of this year. Maybe I won't even want to go next fall, but if I do I need to be ready now. Annoying. I want to stay in Africa for a while once my contract is up in mid-november, but I have a hunch that my family might not be happy if I don't come home for the holidays if I don't have a real job. And once this contract is up I'm sure my cash will dry up quickly and I'll need to either survive as a freelancer or get another job. Thinking of investing my money in my favorite football (soccer) team. COYS.

So, I have this problem where I sit down to type up reports and get work done, but I end up wasting entire days at a time without doing anything. Today was one of my good days, and I probably only put in 2 or 3 hours of real work. I'm basically Peter from Office Space. Now when I'm out visiting churches I do put in long days and I work hard. Just not when I'm staring at a computer screen. I probably read 20 articles on the New York Times website today. Probably 20 more on various sports sites.

You guys remember when they give you personality-type tests in college - sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, melancholy. I was a sanguine-phlegmatic as a sophomore in college. The definition of that goes something like this: "Most likely to be voted 'most likely to succeed', least likely to actually do it."

I'm sounding depressed so I'll try and list some good things now:
1) My boss Zaki got stuck in a big flowing river and messed up a truck pretty good.
2) I have the only 4-wheeler that works properly, probably a direct result of the fact that I drive really slow.
3) My friend Patrick, our Kenyan mechanic, has taken a job in Nairobi and so won't be here for the last 2 months of my contract. Means no one to talk to once everyone else is in bed after midnight.
4) Mark Twain is great.
5) I successfully gave off the impression of working today everytime my boss walked by.
6) The Lions are 2-0.
7) Tigers still have a shot at the playoffs.
8) I wrote a really good report in my 2 hours of work today.
9) I have to drive 4 hours south, then 4 hours north, and then 4 hours south again, in about 2 days. On a quad, with a passenger, probably in the rain, and I can't see with my glasses and I'll probably ruin my phone worse than it already is.

Alright, I'm really grumpy for some reason. Half those things weren't even good things. Just things off the top of my head. 1, 3, and 9 are actually really lame.

love and miss people,

aaron

"The world today doesn't make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?"

- Picasso


Well noticing that I haven't blogged for a while I have rebooted my blogging career with an artistic expression of a recent adventure.

My friend Tim got stuck in a river with his truck. We sent a tractor to retrieve him and this also got stuck. So Tim and about six guys with him needed rescued. We had an old truck with no headlights and a 4-wheeler. So we plugged a spot-light into the 4-wheeler and drove ahead of the truck with no lights.
So in the picture I am on the back of the 4-wheeler holding the spotlight while Troy drives in front of me, while engineer Oliver drives the big crappy truck with our boss Zaki riding shotgun.

Further notes on above painting:
1) Old English D on my hat just as in real life (go Tigers).
2) Troy is a big guy.
3) The 4-wheeler looks slightly like a wagon that would be pulled down the street by a toddler. Don't be fooled, it is a manly vehicle.
4) Oliver has a big smile.
5) Zaki is always on the phone.
6) Beneath the vehichles is a sketch of the road. The X is our base. The small man is Tim.
7) Brown denotes muddy spots.
8) The brown creature is a bush baby. They jump across the road sometimes. They look like beanie babies but they jump like Tigger of Winnie the Pooh fame. Seriously they are like 4 inches big and they could easily jump over my head I think.

Now that the blog is updated I move on to catching up on the emails I haven't replied to in months.

Ma'a Salaama (which means "peace out" in Arabic).