And then a solemn tear fell from my face. During the Olympic bronze-medal soccer match between Iraq and Italy, a tremendous moment of solidarity emerged. The Italians wore black arm-bands as a visual elegy for the then-recent execution of Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni. As a symbolic suggestion of their sincerest condolences, the Iraqis presented the Italians a bouquet of white flowers.And then that solemn tear was joined by many, many others.I haven’t cried in quite a long time. Am I becoming soft, or maybe emotional? What’s happening? This morning, as I read that two French Journalists, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, are currently being held captive in Iraq in return for the French government’s nullification of the headscarf …

Embattlementby Joshua HaynesStriving daring caring sharingSo much to give aFleeting moment passes usQuickly onto the next,The next will have a turn.Sit down and think of aTime when time matter notTo those who cannot matter. So much to give toThose who want, have not.Secret dealings on the cuspTry to fade into the dreary duskOf time when time will spill only little.Fail to come, pose and conquerLife will carry onSiege once and life will carry on Red flower enveloped by black orBlue, sun or orange or whiteAppears unhealthy far from the stemAs a child remembers his futureThrough sullen, sunken hopes.Rejoice: tomorrow comes at onceTo carry those of spectrumed trialsFlying through the remnant.

Changes in the Great White Dessert have left it not so white. Work all day so that you can work all day. Try to prevent children from eating peas at a growing rate. The allegations of the past century have been historically unfounded. Red is a color I never want to see my water turn. Drawing from past experiences, John petted the cat torpidly. We never take the time to thank our donkeys enough. …

It rained yesterday. It might rain again today, insha’allah.I had forgotten about rain. The spring-like smell that permeates the atmosphere while the rain takes a break had been shoved to the back of my mind because I now live in a desert. The most expansive desert in the entire world, to be exact. But, as I’ve mentioned before, I reside just an hour’s journey over the mountains from the beach, so I don’t have to endure the sultry sun too much.Have you ever had mint camel burgers? Come to my house and I’ll cook you up a batch! Made some today and they turned out quite delicioso!

One thing to avoid doing in Morocco:I went to buy milk from the hanoot (the small general store located on every corner of every block) across the street today, just like everyday. Instead of finding Abdullah, I found his father manning the store. Abdullah is taking a well-deserved break and went to visit some family in some city some place. Now, I know Abdullah’s father, a spry gentleman in his late 60’s, pretty well. We’ve had conversations about the weather and about the Amzaigh in this region (and about Bush, of course). We’ve joked about the cultural earthquake that would occur if bread suddenly ceased to exist. We have history.Today sitting with Abdullah’s father was a boy named Hussein. Hussein, …

Update: For all of those who actually check this site (thank you, JSL!), I have figured out my problem of using Arabic in Photoshop or Fireworks: just use the character map! You can check out the logo I designed here to see what I was ranting and raving about…Back in Morocco, last week I had the great opportunity to visit my host dad’s village. Last Saturday he mentioned that he was going to Termaguist and asked if I wanted to come along. Of course I said yes because I had yet to be in a village-village in this part of the country.Termaguist is about 12 kms east of Guelmim and has about 30 families. It’s a very small oasis village …

Okay, time to complain a little bit.I’ve just spent the last FIVE hours trying to figure out how to write text in Arabic in either Fireworks or Photoshop. I’ve tried to import the text from Word but the letters don’t connect. I tried to take a pictures of that what I want to say using print screen, but that makes the picture static and not vector-based. That doesn’t work because you can’t produce a high-quality item. I’ve searched the entire internet both here on Earth and on Mars (that’s another adventure worth telling later) trying to find a simple, easy and free solution. You can produce a beautiful Word document in Arabic, Hebrew, Tifinagh, Punjabi, Thai, Georgian and even dead …

Check out this article. This makes you wonder how much influence over the current Iraqi Government the US Government actually has. Additionally, I want to know who Saaid al-Burini is and where he’s from. I googled him, but nothing came up. He seems very interesting.Aljazeera.Net - Aljazeera vows to cover Iraq despite closure: “ReactionsMuhammad Bashar al-Faidhi, a spokesman for the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), has criticised the closure saying Iraqis are disappointed to learn they are not experiencing freedom of speech yet."It is a disappointing move. Aljazeera is the sincerest channel, although it does not report the whole truth."There are a lot of tragedies that have gone unreported. We used to wonder why Aljazeera had …

A week and I’ve had internet at home… You really forget all the wonderful information that’s out there. I think I’ve spent the last week just reading tons of other people’s web journals (blogs – duh), as well as getting ideas for mine. As you see, I’m completely rehauling my site so that it’s simpler, yet more stylish. It’s taking me a bit because as I’m doing it, I’m having to learn about CSS and Javascript and lots of other crazy stuff.I was thinking about content the other day and I’ve been pretty lax on a few areas. In the future, I will attempt to diplomatically convey my thoughts more effectively.For those of you …

Oh boy, it is hot in the Sahara. But it is sometimes cool at night so I get to sleep. And I only live an hour away from the coast, so I can go and drown myself if need be.Moroccans drink the hot tea. Oh nelly, I am not kidding. The tea in the south is much different than the tea in the north. The northerners drink transparent tea in small glasses. The southerners drink amazingly strong and dark, yet oddly refreshing tea in shot glasses. It’s their whiskey: burly and dark in shot-style intervals, tout sans alcohol. So why am I mentioning hot tea in the hot sun? Because here, they go hand in hand.I have yet to become …