Quick Peek

Things have been rather hectic lately. Preparations for the pre-national tournament for collegiate mock trial sucked up most of my time that I wasn't working multiple jobs or sleeping.

This week is a bit better because the University of Iowa is on Spring Break, meaning no practice to be had. I can finally get back to the gym without feeling like I'm letting down my students (okay, so it's an excuse to not go to the gym; sue me).

However, tomorrow the wifey and I leave for Ohio. It's part business-part pleasure. I will be the AMTA rep at the Hamilton ORCS and we will be checking out Oxford as a potential future home. Big weekend!!

I intend to keep better accounts of my thoughts and goings-on (again); perhaps I will have more time when the mock trial season is over in mid-April. I suppose my busy life is partly my fault, if the team wasn't successful our season would have ended in February.

Update

I am currently working for the OpEd Board of the Daily Iowan. Thus, most of my posts can be found on The Podium Blog. A few of the blog posts have been published in the DI already. Look there for more current posts.

I will update this site with posts from time to time.

Just when you think you're out...

Well Sprinters, I'm back. Oddly enough, it's been exactly a year since I posted last and what a year it has been.

The presidential campaign, cowardly media, slanted radio hosts, financial crisis, and continued Middle East turmoil have pulled me back into the blogosphere. This time, however, I'm angry. Angry at the politicians that gave me hope, angry at the opposing politicians for being so self-serving even at the cost of America's success, angry at the media for letting the politicking, smears, blatant lies, and bigotry go unpunished, angry at Americans for being so blind, partisan, and cowardly, angry at our government for letting the average American drown in debt while bailing out corporate execs, and angry at myself for how powerless it makes me feel.

The mad dash to midnight seems looming and the race has picked up pace.

Ramadan Challenge Update

Hello Friends,

Well I'm not too good at the Ramadan thing. I am about 4 ajiza behind and fasting is completely out the window because of a nasty chest cold.

I still fully intend to catch up on the ajiza readings and finish the Qur'an cover to cover. I will have more time in a few weeks to play catch up during my international flight and my more relaxed schedule in Paris.

While in Paris I hope to see the Parisian mosque. I will probably wait until after Ramadan though as not to interrupt.

Later my fellow sprinters

Wowzers

It's been a busy week at work with getting a new office and some late night projects. Add in a sick puppy and mock trial recruitment and that makes for a quick and busy week. I do intend to post some Tawhid articles soon.

Have a good weekend!

Oscar (not so much a Grouch)

My delinquency this week can be blamed on our newest member of the family, Oscar. He's a twoish year old Beagle that we adopted from the Humane Society in Cedar Rapids.

I hope to write a Tawhid tomorrow and I will definitely have the weekly TGIFF up Friday.

Truant!

Sorry for the delay in posts to those that use this blog as a - even if brief - way to pass the time. I had planned to get caught up on some things this weekend, however my honorable plans were derailed when Melissa brought home her brother's Wii on Friday night. Between Wii, wedding invitations, and playing around with my fantasy team/"watching" online games for the Premiership, I've neglected my blog. Hopefully this week gets me back in swing of things.

Tawhid post delay

My Tawhid post will be delayed one day. If I get enough time to work on the "A Letter to..." series I will just cancel Tawhid for the week and begin that the "Letter" series.

Yes, Yes, I know...

Thursday's editon of Tawhid is tardy as well. The dog ate it.

I will try to catch up this weekend. Between moving, work, trying to set up internet, and finding time to sleep I haven't had much time to construct decent articles. I wouldn't want to dissapoint my hoardes of readers out there, now would I?

Working on Tawhid updates and unpacking may also delay the "A Letter to..." series by a week. Luckily I am my own boss re: this blog and I approve the delay.

Monday Update

I am still very busy with moving so no Tawhid post today; look for a short version tomorrow to make it's way up onto the blog in the late afternoon. With Budget calling me and telling me I might not have a truck - a truck I reserved in May - tomorrow morning, my world may be a bit hectic the next couple of days. I take possession of the townhome on the 1st at 3:15pm. Thursday's edition of Tawhid should be up at some point but I don't know when right now.

Take it easy my fellow sprinters.

Project Delay and Weekend Plans

I can already tell that I won't have enough time in the next few days to properly start my "A Letter to..." series. Moving is going to take up too much time. I will delay it by a week and try to keep up with the Tawhid series on Monday and Thursday.

Given the new anti-terror bill, the results of the pending Asian Cup final match, and the Bush Administration's proposed arms deal with Saudi Arabia there should be plenty to talk about in the interim.

I am off to Boone to see my grandfather as he is not recovering from his heart surgery very well. Then I am back in CR Sunday afternoon to welcome Ms. Lowe back to the United States from Tanzania. Sunday evening I'm watching 300 with Reis before he heads of to law school in Kansas. If I am not doing one of the aforementioned activities, I will be packing and cleaning.

Biweekly Reports and a New Project

As the deadline looms for my first installment in my semi-weekly Middle East editorials and reports, I have decided on my first topic. Tomorrow will showcase a look at the impact of football (soccer) on Iraq during their current run in the Asian Cup.

However, I have greater ambitions on the horizon. It will be hard to do more than just regurgitate international news during the biweekly updates without reader participation. It will be much easier if you submit comments or ideas for issues you would like discussed. For example, I thought about using one of the days to talk about doctrines within Islamic jurisprudence or theology. I would love to hear feedback on what would be interesting to read about.

That being said, I may truncate the biweekly posts to weekly posts beginning next week for a three-part series that I am considering. The series will be titled "A Letter to..." and will have one letter each week for three weeks. A moment on the purpose and inspiration behind the series may to help to shed light on why I am taking on this project.

On October 24th, 2002 Osama bin Laden is credited with authoring an essay entitled A Letter to America. (If you would like to read the essay here is one site and a second site that have the transcript in English. Note: "Ummah" is the Arabic word for the entire community of Muslims. Muslims believe that all Muslims, regardless of nationality or ethnicity are members of this faith-based community.) The essay is the first attempt by al-Qaeda to discuss and justify their reasoning behind the 9/11 attacks which occurred just over a year prior to the release of the essay.

What made the document interesting was that it was directed at the American people, rather than the United States government or the Bush Administration. Of particular note is answer (3) to question one ("Why are we fighting and opposing you?"); here bin Laden uses our democratic process and ideals against us in order to advocate that in American there can be no "innocent civilians" or noncombatants.

My three-part series will be in the same vein as bin Laden's "letter", in so much as he was trying to appeal to a certain audience with his message. I intend to write three "letters" to three different audiences. The first "letter" will be to the American people; the second will be to the United States government/Bush Administration; and the third will be to the ummah. Hopefully I can write one each week discussing topics like the war on terror, the future of Islam and the Middle East, and democracy in the Middle East.

I would love to hear your comments and concerns as the process unfolds.

Update

Sorry for the delay in postings. I have been busy helping with Valerie's wedding and getting ready to move. I hope to have a review of The Crisis of Islam by Bernard Lewis up soon. I also intend to start a biweekly commentary on the Mideast/World politics to be posted on Mondays and Thursdays.

In between the Mideast postings I will throw out any banter or musings I come up with or find of import.

Independence Holiday

I will be off for the homeland of Ankeny Iowa soon. I may or not may have an internet connection at my mom's, so there may be a lapse in new musings. I'm sure my small reader community will survive.

I intend to catch some Triple-A baseball and a Barack Obama speech while I am in the Des Moines area, so look for some thoughts when I return.

Have a safe and fun holiday!

The Price of Fluency

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm going back to France. As such, I want to make sure that I can stubble my way through a conversation with retailers and other salespeople well enough so that they don't get pissed at me. In the end, if they have pity and speak English, at least it won't be b/c they hate me for refusing to try.

With five years of formal French classes (8th to 12th grade) in secondary education, 2 semesters + one 8-week year review course at Iowa, plus a semester of oral French skills at Iowa I should be able to pick it up rather quickly, right? That's the hope anyway. I was thinking of getting one of those "Learn French in 3 days" magic CD sets to force me to dive head first into la langue de francaise. I also looked at Rocket French and Rosetta Stone. Rocket French is much cheaper, so a bonus point to Rocket French. I tried the Rosetta Stone demo and it wasn't too bad. I jumped right into French 201, just so I wasn't learning the words for boy and girl. (Not that I remember much French vocabulary) At the end of my 30 min lesson I learned the verbs for tying, lock, unlock, zip, unzip, freefalling, and leave through picture and sound association. I don't know how the full versions teach grammar and conjugation, but the picture association works well. It helps to know the pronouns for he and she to be certain.

I also tried the Arabic demo. I am seriously considering shelling out the $340 for Arabic vol 1 and 2. I need to learn it over the next year and private tutoring wasn't working - by no fault of my tutor, she was great. It wasn't creating an environment or schedule that was conducive to diligent studying on my part. My only fear with Rosetta Stone based on the demo, is that it won't teach me grammar or the conjugation forms/stems of the words. I need to read Arabic more than I need to speak it at this point in my "academic" career. I'm torn on what to do. C'est la vie, n'est pas?

Parisian Rendez-vous

Well the tickets are purchased (thanks to Mastercard; insert "Priceless" tagline here) and the studio down payment has been sent. Paris will be at our disposal for 8 nights in October.

The place we rented can be found here. We decided to pay the same or less than a 3-star Parisian hotel and rent a studio apartment for our time in the city. We'll be by my favorite Parisian site, Sacre Coeur. With the Metro stop near by it should be easy enough to get to other sites in the city as need be. We're excited to buy food at the local markets and bakeries.

We plan on making a trip outside the city limits at some point. A 15 hour excursion or so to Fountainebleu and Versailles, Normandy, or the Loire Valley. We'll still have to set that up. The majority of our time will be spent in the city at a nice even and relaxed pace. We bought a book that has walking tours throughout the city, complete with historical facts and maps.

The plane tickets weren't terrible at $870/person out of Des Moines. We figured we would pay the little bit extra not to have to drive and park in Chicago or elsewhere. We can get a ride to the "International" Des Moines airport and then stay the night in Ankeny upon our return if the jet lag is too much.

Slightly funny is that we will get back on a Thursday, we probably won't go back to IC until Friday, and our mock trial team's first tournament is that weekend. Nothing like re-acclimating yourself to American society by listening to future litigators.

Of course, what this really means is that I don't have much time to re-learn some basic French. Sacre Bleu!

Salutations

Welcome to my blog, where I'll talk about whatever topics are on my mind. Midnight Sprint will be your source for my opinions on rubbish to revolution.

Why "Midnight Sprint", you ask? It's a reference to the Doomsday Clock and current world events. You know, sort of an attempt to be witty, dramatic, and/or ominous.