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October 22, 2006
Practical Advice
"How To Clean Your Toilet
1. Put both lids of the toilet up and add 1/8 cup of pet shampoo to the water in the bowl.
2. Pick up the cat and soothe him while you carry him towards the bathroom.
3. In one smooth movement, put the cat in the toilet and close both lids. You may need to stand on the lid.
4. The cat will self agitate and make ample suds. Never mind the noises that come from the toilet, the cat is actually enjoying this.
5. Flush the toilet three or four times. This provides a "power-wash" and rinse".
6. Have someone open the front door of your home. Be sure that there are no people between the bathroom and the front door.
7. Stand behind the toilet as far as you can, and quickly lift both lids.
8. The cat will rocket out of the toilet, streak through the bathroom, and run outside where he will dry himself off.
9. Both the commode and the cat will be sparkling clean.
Sincerely
The Dog"
Posted by Khodadad at 10:05 PM | Comments (5)
October 21, 2006
Total immersion
After a summer full of travels and some research, it has suddenly dawned on me that I am at the beginning of my third year PhD programme and have to finish with classes and take my exams and start writing a dissertation. This is the time I have been waiting for, a situation where I have almost complete intellectual freedom to produce something hopefully useful, and I do have a good idea about what I want to do.
But I have also realised that there are many holes in my knowldge, among which I can count my meager knowledge of post-Islamic Near East. I am also still dealing with Greek (I think it is now my second strongest ancient language), but I need to improve it much.
So, all in all, I have been immersing myself in intellectual inquiry, reading, writing, researching, and discussing things with my fellow grad students. I am in a way rediscovering why I like being an academic or being in an academic environment. At the same time, I am more and more realising how much I don't know and how much there is out there, still closely related to my field, that I need to learn. So, forgive my occasional neglect of this weblog as I am doing something that is making me very happy.
By the way, any ideas about the death of Habeus Corpus? My American constitutional historian friend is freaking out badly!
Posted by Khodadad at 12:56 AM | Comments (1)
October 15, 2006
Wow
I thought this was an April Fool's joke, but I think we are still in October.
Posted by Khodadad at 10:25 PM | Comments (0)
October 06, 2006
New Apartment
Well, I have finally moved in to my own new apartment!
yes, after two weeks of crashing on my friend's couch and driving all around West LA looking for a place to live, I found a nice little studio apartment, not very far from UCLA and in a good area of Los Angeles to live in. It is a bit too expensive, as everything in LA seems to be, and since I spent almost all of my summer research money, I am right now in dire financial circumstances. It will be alright though. The TAship money should be coming in soon and the higher rent means I have to socialise less and study more which is not bad at all and means that I will finally get down to working on the dissertation business.
Anyway, I am here with my PC and my books in an almost empty room. The next few days will have a lot of box moving and bookshelf assembling in the forecast, and a lot of sweating too, But the result will be good. A place to call my own, at least for the time being...
Posted by Khodadad at 10:37 PM | Comments (1)