Third Update on 100 Rubber Ducks on their way to Qatar

From the United States Postal Service Tracking System:

Status: Delivered Abroad

Your item was delivered in QATAR at 12:13 PM on February 17, 2009

Second Update on 100 Rubber Ducks on their way to Qatar

From the United States Postal Service Tracking System:

Status: Arrived Abroad

Your item arrived in QATAR at 7:58 AM on February 16, 2009.

Portable Pancake

On the go and need some dough...to eat...Portable Pancake!

How are the Portable Pancakes made so large and thick???...condensed milk in the recipe.

Update on 100 Rubber Ducks on their way to Qatar

From the United States Postal Service Tracking System:

Your item left the United States from ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS) at 10:50 AM on February 13, 2009.

Took the Foreign Service Exam today for the first time

I took the Foreign Service Officer Test today...they said they will let me know the results in 8-10 weeks.

I said, "that's like two months!"

This sign reminded me of when I got hit by a truck...walking with the white guy

This sign on the side of a DC Metrobus reminded me of when I got hit by a pickup truck while legally walking a crosswalk to cross at an intersection. The intersection was Glebe RD and Carlin Springs RD in Arlington, Virginia USA.

After I was rushed to the hospital in the ambulance, in the emergency room, I was asked by a Hispanic female cop if "I was walking with the white guy?" I thought either someone else had gotten hit by the truck in addition to me or that she was a racist. When she went on to further explain what she meant, I discovered that she meant, "Was I walking with the white pedestrian flashing signal of the walk sign when I crosssed the street at the crosswalk?" I had crossed the street "with the white guy," crossing legally and obeying the crossing signals.

Try not to get hit by a car or truck...it hurts.

I got hit by the truck in 1996 (13 years ago) and my right leg still hurts today.

100 Rubber Ducks on their way to Qatar

I am mailing 100 rubber ducks to a friend in Qatar. Why? Why not!

The author of Doing Without in Doha replied to my questions

For the reply to my questions, see:

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19445454&postID
=8054366157364620739

Thanks for the comment, Lisa.

What does it take for a guy to get a drink around here?

In Qatar, for some clubs, apparently a copy of their resident’s permit card and two passport-size photos and a onetime fee of QR25

See:

Clubs urged to issue membership cards

Web posted at: 2/7/2009 5:18:38
Source :::THE PENINSULA

Doha: The Ministry of Interior issued hotels and clubs a directive not to allow guests inside their premises unless they have a membership card starting March 1.

Hotels and clubs are now posting announcements and informing customers personally and through websites about the new policy. Robin Hawksworth, in an earlier interview, said the rule stated that guests to clubs like Qube are required to present a membership ID before entering for security reasons.

Qube guests, once they sign up, will get the lifetime membership ID. Applicants are required to submit a copy of their resident’s permit card and two passport-size photos and a onetime fee of QR25. The cards will be ready after two weeks. For Sheraton’s Waterhole, applicants are only required to submit a copy of their resident card with two passport-size photos at the entrance of the establishment.

Doing Without in Doha By Lisa L. Kirchner

For an idea of what it is like to live in Doha, Qatar, please read Doing Without in Doha By Lisa L. Kirchner

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/30/
AR2009013001892.html


From the article:

It was Thursday, the Friday of the Muslim workweek. I needed to leave behind the five long days I'd spent at my marketing job in Qatar and wrap my hands around my lifelong love, a Dairy Queen Buster Bar. That it was February made little difference; as I careened through Doha's life-threatening traffic, my car's thermometer hovered around body temperature.

"Finish!" the girl at the drive-through announced, smiling and blinking at me in the late-day sun.

After two years of living in this Persian Gulf country, I could interpret her meaning easily: They were out of Buster Bars. I was living in one of the world's fastest-growing economies, but this was not my first reminder that deprivation lurked. A month before, my husband of four years had boarded a plane and then informed me over the phone that he was never coming back. Now there'd be no cold comfort, either.


Anyone who lives in Qatar knows what the girl said...she probably didn't say "Finish!" in English, she said "Halas!".

For an urban dictionary definition of the word, see http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=halas%27ed

My questions for the author would be:

I thought in Qatar the wife is sponsored by the husband, and when the husband left, she was left without a sponsor and so would have to leave the country, even though she was the one with the job? How was she able to stay in the country to finish her contract without her husband's sponsorship?

Also, I thought as an American you have to pay taxes on your income, even if you live abroad. How could her job be tax-free as it says in the article? Tax protected, maybe, but not tax free.

And lastly, how did her husband leave the country so quickly and without her knowing? I thought you had to give the Qatari government notice, especially if you are married...see first question.

If you have questions about this story, like I do, here is an email to send questions and comments:

E-mail: XXFiles@washpost.com

For more information about the author go to:
http://www.lisalkirchner.com/ or http://www.lisakirchner.blogspot.com/

What is the personality of this blog?

I found this link on LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

See:

What's the personality of your favorite blog?

http://www.lisnews.org/whats_personality_your_favorite_blog

The post stated that Typealyzer is a text classifier that analyzes your favorite blog (or your blog) and assigns a Myers-Briggs personality to it based on writing style.

I went to Typealyzer and typed in my blog address and got the following:

The analysis indicates that the author of http://edkeller.blogspot.com is of the type:

ESFP - The Performers

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

Analysis

This shows what parts of the brain that were dominant during writing.



So check out Typealyzer and see what personalities your other favorite blogs have.