Where is Raed ?

The most disturbing news today has come from Al-Jazeera, they said that nine B52 bombers have left the airfield in Britain and flying “presumably” towards Iraq as if they would be doing a spin around the block. Anyway, they have 6 hours to get here.

Where is Raed? is pretty interesting. Salam Pax is supposedly a young Iraqi posting to his weblog from Baghdad. Real or not, it is an insightful read and some of his posts have been dead on. He said that reports that the US bombed the Iraqi sattlelite channel were false — turns out he was right.

GW better know what he’s doing over there. I agree with Salam when he says that Iraqis support the fight for democracy in Iraq… but they don’t want a war. Would any American today want a war inside the US? For any reason? What accomplishments would be worth fighting a war on American soil?

It saddens me that we are at war. My trip to Ukraine has been canceled at my request. I’m not sure how safe or unsafe it would have been for me to actually be there, but I just wasn’t comfortable going anywhere outside of America while there is a war in progress. Ukraine may have actually been safer than staying here just miles from Washington, DC… but this is my country, my home.

The last book I finished reading was Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, by Tom Robbins. I really enjoyed it. It was humorous and entertaining throughout the whole novel.

Here’s the odd part. About a day after I finished reading it, I had this weird feeling. Then it hit me. The characters in the book reminded me of my own life. Sure, sure, the main character Gwen was a stock broker in Seattle — not quite me, right? Yep. But she was — a) good looking and insecure b) hated her high pitched voice c) not secure about her job d) trying to make a relationship work with someone totally wrong for her and e) not happy with her income/financial security. HELL all that sounds like ME!

But wait… there’s more! The odd similarities between Gwen and myself was the second revelation I had after reading this, not the first.

You know how sometimes you hear voices in your head? WAIT. That should say “You know how sometimes when you’re reading a book you can hear the voices in your head?” Well, Gwen’s, umm, “romantic interest” is probably the best description, Larry Diamond, his voice in my head was the voice of my ex. And I didn’t realize it until after I finished the whole book. And I said to myself “huh, that’s odd” … then it hit me. He was my ex.

Larry Diamond had long hair, wore a beat up leather jacket, was very intelligent, but slightly different from the normal “intellectual type”. He travelled to Timbuktu, believed in beliefs of the Bozo and the Dogon. Now, my ex didn’t believe those specific things or travel to Timbuktu, but he’s been to other equally out-of-the-norm travel destinations. And he believes a lot of things most ordinary people don’t. And he certainly matched the physical description fairly well.

Then after realizing Gwen was me and Larry was my ex, even the sexual chemistry between the two matching what my ex and I had, then I had a final revelation. Gwen’s boyfriend in the book, dependable, boring Belford Dunn…. was my ex finance, the one I left before dating the ex that was Larry… which is sort of what Gwen does in the book. Altho, she comes to realize Larry isn’t quite “her type” and decides to follow a path separate from both Belford and Larry. Which, come to think of it, is what I have done.

This book hit me the way Keeping the Faith with Ben Stiller and Ed Norton hit me. In the “that’s MY life” kinda of way. Of course, that movie wasn’t exactly my life, but there were amazing parallels just like with Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas.

Anyway, that’s all for now. I’ve been meaning to post this for 2 weeks. At this point, I’m almost done with my next novel — From a Buick 8, by Stephen King. Totally different type of book, but still very good in its own right. Stephen King is awesome and Dreamcatcher starts this Friday!