Man blogs for threee years, realises it...
9 Comments Published by Tom Gara on Thursday, September 6 at Thursday, September 06, 2007.
Three years ago to the day, this blog came to life, with a long-winded post about how awesome Egypt is. Three years later, and I'm posting about how awesome living in Egypt is. But man, the three years in between have been sweet.
I've traveled to just over 20 countries, met more ass kicking people than I could have imagined, experienced the highs and lows of loving and breaking up with one of the worlds most special people, caught and survived a life-threatening tropical disease, said G'Day to Kofi Annan, made the first step toward my dream career, test drove a bunch of BMW's as a professional responsibility, spent five days on a beach in Goa watching Australia lose the Ashes, and made Cairo my second home. I blogged as much of it as I could.
What started out as Shisha and Shawerma became Rotterdam or Anywhere during my 14 months in the Netherlands, and then switched to A Different Drummer once I moved back to Cairo last September. Today isn't exactly my third blogging birthday — I was writing An Irish Experience for my year in Dublin from April 2003 - June 2004, but alas, all my posts save for the last week's worth were lost in the aiesec.ws meltdown. It would be great to try and recover all the stuff that I lost there, but I don't think it's going to happen...
Anyhow, as a random excercise in navel gazing and related narcissism, I went back and read the first month's worth of postings to see how they hold up in the test of time. With no further ado, here are my comments, corrections, clarifications and triumphialist fist-raisings in relation to that fateful September of 2004:
Correction: I referred to Egyptian Shawerma as "the best in the world." Upon further experience with shawerma here, I retract this statement. As anyone with some experience in Egypt knows, the general standard of shawerma here is actually totally shitty. That is, if you walk up to a random shawerma stand anywhere on the street and order one, you are likely to get a pretty average sandwich: dry, low quality meat, stewed on the hotplate with a ton of tomatoes and parsley to cut down on the amount of meat being served, dished up on a fairly stale hot dog bun. Seriously lacklustre.
My Defense For This Seemingly Awful Misjudgement: This was written when I was fairly new to Egypt, and had only experienced shawerma from three amazing shawerma places: the ass-kicking Abu Rames in Cairo, Alexandria's incredible Shawermer (like a Writer, Lawyer or Builder, this guy is a Shawerm'er) and Farah, the shawerma fatta specialist in Cairo. For all I knew, everywhere was that amazing! No, they are not. The Egyptians were just taking me exclusively to incredible shawerma joints. If only the general standard in Cairo was this high. It isn't.
Triumphant fist-pumping: The word "Talentship" has not made it into mainstream business vernacular, and hopefully it never will. I picked that nasty little swine of a word for what it was from Day 1, and thankfully, it seems like even the easily-suckered talent management crowd didn't buy into it.
Comment: I dissed Egyptian bread - more specifically, the lack of good crusty loaves of bread. Although the Egyptian baking tradition indeed does not excel in the white crusty department, I should have given recognition to the powerhouse that is Baladi bread, the kind of bread that would beat the shit out of sliced white bread in a dark alleyway.
Clarification: When I referred to Adam Lemmon as "a fiend and a whore, [who] should be wrapped in barbed wire and shot into the sun," I was simplifying things a bit. He is actually more of a reluctant transsexual - one of those women trapped in mens bodies, with the willpower and resources to have the operation, but who remain stuck in the middle because the confusion helps them avoid terrible realizations....
Three years hey. Has my writing gotten any better? Maybe, but my spelling certainly has. Looking back at that first month of posts makes me think that maybe I had a couple of broken fingers? Or a dodgy keyboard? Who knows.
I was talking with someone last night about how blogging, writing, and art on a general level, has an inherently vain and narcissistic element about it. The assumption that somebody else needs or wants to hear you sing, look at a picture you drew, read your thoughts or watch you dance - doesn't it have an undeniable air of "look at me" thinking behind it?
Yep. It does. But then don't we all have something we feel good about sharing with the world, because we know we are good at it and love seeing other people enjoy it? Whether it's a smile, a hug, a compassionate ability to listen, or some kind of watch-the-dancing-monkey performance instinct, we all want to share something.
I guess my point is, thanks for reading this. I am always amazed when even one person tells me that they actually read the stuff I write, let alone like it. Inside my head, I always suspect that deep down, nobody actually does, and that all the stuff I write on my blog and in the magazines just gets skimmed over.
Whenever someone actually tells me that they read something I wrote and liked it, it is like the biggest compliment I have ever received in my entire life, happening for the first time ever. So thanks from the bottom of my heart to my peeps across the world who read this, especially the ones who made it this far into a particularly fluffy post. I'll see you all on the planet Tralfamadore, where the flying saucers come from. Peace.
I've traveled to just over 20 countries, met more ass kicking people than I could have imagined, experienced the highs and lows of loving and breaking up with one of the worlds most special people, caught and survived a life-threatening tropical disease, said G'Day to Kofi Annan, made the first step toward my dream career, test drove a bunch of BMW's as a professional responsibility, spent five days on a beach in Goa watching Australia lose the Ashes, and made Cairo my second home. I blogged as much of it as I could.
What started out as Shisha and Shawerma became Rotterdam or Anywhere during my 14 months in the Netherlands, and then switched to A Different Drummer once I moved back to Cairo last September. Today isn't exactly my third blogging birthday — I was writing An Irish Experience for my year in Dublin from April 2003 - June 2004, but alas, all my posts save for the last week's worth were lost in the aiesec.ws meltdown. It would be great to try and recover all the stuff that I lost there, but I don't think it's going to happen...
Anyhow, as a random excercise in navel gazing and related narcissism, I went back and read the first month's worth of postings to see how they hold up in the test of time. With no further ado, here are my comments, corrections, clarifications and triumphialist fist-raisings in relation to that fateful September of 2004:
Correction: I referred to Egyptian Shawerma as "the best in the world." Upon further experience with shawerma here, I retract this statement. As anyone with some experience in Egypt knows, the general standard of shawerma here is actually totally shitty. That is, if you walk up to a random shawerma stand anywhere on the street and order one, you are likely to get a pretty average sandwich: dry, low quality meat, stewed on the hotplate with a ton of tomatoes and parsley to cut down on the amount of meat being served, dished up on a fairly stale hot dog bun. Seriously lacklustre.
My Defense For This Seemingly Awful Misjudgement: This was written when I was fairly new to Egypt, and had only experienced shawerma from three amazing shawerma places: the ass-kicking Abu Rames in Cairo, Alexandria's incredible Shawermer (like a Writer, Lawyer or Builder, this guy is a Shawerm'er) and Farah, the shawerma fatta specialist in Cairo. For all I knew, everywhere was that amazing! No, they are not. The Egyptians were just taking me exclusively to incredible shawerma joints. If only the general standard in Cairo was this high. It isn't.
Triumphant fist-pumping: The word "Talentship" has not made it into mainstream business vernacular, and hopefully it never will. I picked that nasty little swine of a word for what it was from Day 1, and thankfully, it seems like even the easily-suckered talent management crowd didn't buy into it.
Comment: I dissed Egyptian bread - more specifically, the lack of good crusty loaves of bread. Although the Egyptian baking tradition indeed does not excel in the white crusty department, I should have given recognition to the powerhouse that is Baladi bread, the kind of bread that would beat the shit out of sliced white bread in a dark alleyway.
Clarification: When I referred to Adam Lemmon as "a fiend and a whore, [who] should be wrapped in barbed wire and shot into the sun," I was simplifying things a bit. He is actually more of a reluctant transsexual - one of those women trapped in mens bodies, with the willpower and resources to have the operation, but who remain stuck in the middle because the confusion helps them avoid terrible realizations....
Three years hey. Has my writing gotten any better? Maybe, but my spelling certainly has. Looking back at that first month of posts makes me think that maybe I had a couple of broken fingers? Or a dodgy keyboard? Who knows.
I was talking with someone last night about how blogging, writing, and art on a general level, has an inherently vain and narcissistic element about it. The assumption that somebody else needs or wants to hear you sing, look at a picture you drew, read your thoughts or watch you dance - doesn't it have an undeniable air of "look at me" thinking behind it?
Yep. It does. But then don't we all have something we feel good about sharing with the world, because we know we are good at it and love seeing other people enjoy it? Whether it's a smile, a hug, a compassionate ability to listen, or some kind of watch-the-dancing-monkey performance instinct, we all want to share something.
I guess my point is, thanks for reading this. I am always amazed when even one person tells me that they actually read the stuff I write, let alone like it. Inside my head, I always suspect that deep down, nobody actually does, and that all the stuff I write on my blog and in the magazines just gets skimmed over.
Whenever someone actually tells me that they read something I wrote and liked it, it is like the biggest compliment I have ever received in my entire life, happening for the first time ever. So thanks from the bottom of my heart to my peeps across the world who read this, especially the ones who made it this far into a particularly fluffy post. I'll see you all on the planet Tralfamadore, where the flying saucers come from. Peace.
Dude, some or all of your old blog is at http://archive.aiesec.ws/anirishexperience.aiesec.ws/ It would be smart if you would import all content to some more permanent place.
Hello Tom
I just came to a sudden realization.
I dont agree with more than half of what you have to say on your blog... or rather I am always picking your posts apart, analyzing them and I'm ALWAYS delighted when I spot some gaping gap of logic...
But I'll be damned if I dont click on "A Different Drummer" every day!
Thats really something!
Hey Tom,
It's been a while, hasn't it? Just wanted to let you know that down in the south your blog is being followed with interest by a certain someone almost daily. And enjoyed.
Take care:)
hola...whenever I see your name on the recently updated list on the nomad feed I click, without exception. Sometimes disappointed by it being "only" a comment but usually at the very least entertained by what I find. Keep posting the links to your articles too :)
<3 Á
Hey Tom! I'm always catching up with what you are up to through your blog. You are right, it is great to find out that when you sit on your pc and share your thoughts and views with the world you find out that others have taken the time to read them. With time being such a scarcity nowadays its really cool to find people spending some of it to read your writing. I feel the same when I find people saying that they've read my blog and like it. For you its probably double with your article writing! Keep it up!
Hey tom,
Sorry, this is completely off topic... I saw your ramadan blog. It's quite sweet. :-) Are you going to keep it this year, too? Do you think I could contribute or do I have to fulfil some kind of criteria?
:-)
Laura
Tom
Always a pleasure to read your blog. I am always delighted by both expression and content.
Rajiv
Tom,
Happy 3 years blogging... I am still new to the bloggging world but I stumbled upon your blog a while back & always check in on you though I dont really leave you comments... I thought I should this time..
You are quite an enjoyable read & if I was in Cairo I would have loved to meet you in person - you are a pretty cool guy...
Cheers!
I only discovered this about two days ago. It is great reading.
I don't think blogging is narcissic. It is the way somebody (Morgenstern? Morgenthal? Rilke?) said: you have to pull, pull at the world to make it come your way, because otherwise it will drag you along.
The original was in German and was in verse. Can't remember.