Jessica with a sharp knife, surgy water and 15 bar left: watch out!
Originally uploaded by jess.simms
Monday, May 03, 2010
Jessica with a sharp knife, surgy water and 15 bar left: watch out!
Jessica with a sharp knife, surgy water and 15 bar left: watch out!
Originally uploaded by jess.simms
Thursday, February 25, 2010
man with the handmade birds
There is something so achingly beautiful about this. I remember I took about ten photos of this man, trying to capture him in all his essence and I just wasn't able to commandeer (as we often must do as photographers) all the deserved allure and pulchritude in a photo. But, this will have to do.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
The compound view from my bedroom
On a more positive and beneficial note, I did enjoy a papaya boat on this very balcony with Harvey Keitel the likes-to-poop-behind-my-dresser (but-I-did-it-on-a-plastic-bag-this-time!) cat this morning. Boats, tea and rambutans pirated from the Valentines’ Day dinner fruit display compliments of the Hilton buffet last night. Breakfast is over and now, onto the essays.
What did I say? Or was it didn't?
I am now in the process of writing the THIRD grad school/PhD "please accept me and here's why" essay of 2010. Despite the logical conclusion, "hooray Jessica is finally going to grad school", none of these essays are for my own benefit. At least not the kind that will actually get yours truly into school. Someday I will write my own and feel less like this crocheted camel in the back of a pick up. But, not today. Kindly let me know if you would like to volunteer for this service as well.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
wish i could go
Realizing recently after a comment from my sister that I should remove the link to my blog from my email signature because it's been so long since I updated it, propelled me to arrive here today. More reasons why I am back:
1. Pete revealed that he enjoyed a friend's blog more than he ever did mine! How could he?
2. I have some extra time on my hands and can surely find time in my day to blog about the randomness that is my life.
3. It's been almost a year and my oh my how much has changed in that time.
4. I have a huge load of laundry to wash and would much rather write about it than do it.
5. I recently finished "Infidel" and want to encourage everyone to read it. It's incredibly powerful and thought-provoking.
6. I drank 3 cups of coffee this afternoon to caffeine-out my hangover and it has had the added effect of making my brain and thus fingertips whir.
7. I'm living in Salalah, Oman and the strangeness I see on a daily basis must be shared with someone other than the SCUBA boys who spend their evenings in the room of doom and gloom with their beloved television.
8. Ah, what the hell.
1. Pete revealed that he enjoyed a friend's blog more than he ever did mine! How could he?
2. I have some extra time on my hands and can surely find time in my day to blog about the randomness that is my life.
3. It's been almost a year and my oh my how much has changed in that time.
4. I have a huge load of laundry to wash and would much rather write about it than do it.
5. I recently finished "Infidel" and want to encourage everyone to read it. It's incredibly powerful and thought-provoking.
6. I drank 3 cups of coffee this afternoon to caffeine-out my hangover and it has had the added effect of making my brain and thus fingertips whir.
7. I'm living in Salalah, Oman and the strangeness I see on a daily basis must be shared with someone other than the SCUBA boys who spend their evenings in the room of doom and gloom with their beloved television.
8. Ah, what the hell.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Nebyue, Ghi's nephew and an explanation
Ghion's family in Ethiopia...I suppose I should update this a little more often. This is a long story, actually a pretty amazing one and one worth telling. Gimme a few more days.Of course updating it would have to do with me not being a culture-shocked kid. Life has been uber out of touch in a way for me as of late, and I am not quite sure what to think of it. Any suggestions? I'm happy to hear them.
Q: Why don't elephants use cellular phones?
A: So the rest of the world won't know their plans.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
A little creepy, eh?
A lovely day on the beach in Hasik and there are dead puffer fish washed up all over the shore. What could be the reason? Alive, they're quite cute, big eyes and funny lips, slowly cavorting thru the water. Dead, still cute.
Friday, February 06, 2009
Ashes to Mekong
A dusty tribute to Grandpa in Vietnam with the Irrawaddy dolphins to hang out with in the Mekong. Jesse took this photo and this is his hand as well.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Beach Clean Up
For those of you who will be visiting Salalah, specifically February 25 and 27, I am organizing a 2,000 volunteer-strong beach, reef and beyond clean-up. Let me know if you'll be around. You're invited, all of you. You will also get to watch my trash-rich, interdependent ecosystem presentation after we wash our hands and eat the snacks provided by the local University. After all this hard work, we will be rewarded with a barbecue at my house afterwards. We will be serving roasted plastic bags, cigarette butts, lighters, flip flops and some more plastic tidbits with green cumin sauce…mmmm...kidding. But, Pete will be cooking, and hopefully all of you have had the opportunity to eat sweet Pete's deliciously delectable gastric delights. And if not, get over for the clean-up. You won't be sorry, about the food that is. You will, however, most likely be shocked by the amount of trash on the beach and being spit out by Mother Nature at low tide, leaving a bare scrabble of rocks and rubbish.
The Smiths say it Best: Meat is Murder
Speaking of meat, did you know that if all the greenhouse gases measured in CO2 equivalency from the millions of trains, planes and automobiles spewing out their excrement each day were compared with the excrement, hormones, antibiotics, and feed waste from the world's livestock, guess which has the greater impact? That's right you meatheads! And don't forget about all the water and land degradation Ms. Cowie Hamburger dearest is causing as well. Don't be involved in the industry of death as Jesse says…*And right on Nanako! I learned of your recent abdication of meat, and am so proud. And as for the rest of you…..? At least you're not eating shark fin soup. I watched this dismayingly informative movie the other night, Shark Water and was sadly devastated to learn that in the two hours I sat and drank a Corona watching the movie, 15,000 sharks were killed. For every one person killed by sharks (of which more people are killed by soda machines each year), more than 73 million sharks are cruelly slaughtered, and mostly for the mere texture of their tasteless fins in shark fin soup. After which the still-alive and finless sharks are thrown back in the water to sink to the bottom and die. They are truly one of the most important keystone species on Earth and there is not one of the 400+ species left that isn't endangered. Tragedy of the Commons, depressingly. Most of their numbers are down 60 to 99% from their original numbers. But, do not be too distressed because you can help... http://www.sharkwater.com/ has heaps of ideas on what you can do. And if you see shark for sale at a grocery store or a restaurant say something, and don't go back if they don't take it away. I made a huge scene at a shop in Jakarta in May that was full of shark jaws, teeth, cartilage pills and other souvenirs. Any potential customer within ten meters was not going for in for a little browse, that's for sure. 
Little piggies
I am getting fat. The fucking Hilton buffet dinners with 40 dishes to spoon onto your plate (ok, only about 28 for me and my refusal to chew thru flesh), is to fault. And then there are fifteen desserts touchingly displayed underneath palm canopies. What is a sugar-toothed, green-scarfed person to do? Shun dessert? I don't think so.
And I'm sticking my stomach out.
Rainy smells and scarves
While the clean smell of rain had vanished from the sky, yesterday evening Peter and I took a little walk thru the souk (market). The air in the souk, supple with indecipherably aromatic perfume mixtures, was very still and quiet. I was the only woman, except for the few swathed in hijabs, with only their eyelined and blacked eyes visible, behind the counters selling frankincense. We bargained for three gorgeous Pashmina scarves, and proudly wore the green ones to barbecue night in the garden at the Hilton.
And yet another momentous event happened in Salalah last week. It rained in January. Three nights ago, the sky opened up and finally succumbed to the marinating heaviness that had been hiding and lurking around all day. It even rained out in Rub Al Khali, which only happens every twenty years or so unless oneiric, and never in January…As much as the plants and I enjoyed the out-of-turn-moisture, it begs the question: Global Warming in action?
Black tipped reef shark
A baby. We never see sharks diving here anymore because people are doing shit like this and then selling the fins at the fish market. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that we are catching one billion pounds of shark each year. They are killing the Earth. I know this sounds extreme, but sharks are so important in the ocean ecosystem, and the oceans, being 70% of the Earth are responsible for most of the oxygen we need to stay alive, (thanks mostly to phytoplankton), they moderate the weather and climate, 10% of human protein intake comes from the ocean, we get heaps of minerals from the ocean, they regulate and recycle our toxic poisons, the list goes on...and on....Pay attention!!
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