Inland Sea Part Deux

This past Friday we went back to the Sand Dunes for another go at Dune Bashing. It starts off by driving down to this place called sea line resort and deflating your tires to about 20 psi. Then we take off into this huge sand box. Going through sand dunes is like going through the snow except hotter. You can walk on sand but a two ton truck can sink in it as well. Deflating your tires gives you a bigger foot print so this will not happen. Theoretically at least.

The course of action the last two times has been to go cruise around several dunes, get stuck a couple of times and go have a barbeque. The cool part about going over the really big dunes is you have to power your way up to the top and cross of the peak without slowing down and then slow down enough so you don’t go out of control on the way down. I have not brought the mini beast out there yet so I haven’t experienced what it’s like to be in the driver’s seat.

This time we only got stuck once but that was when Anton and myself drove out into what amount to a swamp next to the shore. I don’t remember the name of it but it’s fairly solid but to a point where it is deceiving. So we drove out onto it and ended up getting fairly stuck. Luckily a guy who was with us was able to get his cousin to pull us out. I didn’t get a picture of that because people were feeling a little stressed by that point and I didn’t want to say wait wait let me take another picture. It was a sight though. This 80’s model Toyota LandCruiser pickup with two huge barrels of water in the pack pulling out this brand new LandCruiser.

After that we went snorkeling and that was awesome. I tend to sink so when I was a able to float along without any effort it was pretty cool. I saw a couple of schools of fish go by at first the rest of the time I was just watching the floor of the ocean go by.

All in all good times. I hope you enjoy the pictures. I’m able to put captions with them now but they are underneath the big pictures so you may have to scroll down a little.

Click Here to see them.

Immersing myself

Going down to the river and pray

Well this past 7 days has been pretty interesting. I have wanted to write about it for a while and more things keep on happening. Well the big news is I got Baptized at the church I attend two Fridays ago. I bet you weren’t expecting that. So why did I decide to get baptized? Lets start from the beginning, I have been a Christian since May 28, 1998 at 8:00 pm when I accepted Christ while bussing a table at Macaroni Grill in San Antonio. A lot of people told me about God, Jesus and I had even been going to church for awhile. After a while the idea of God sending his son to be a perfect sacrifice for all of man kind’s sins made sense in my head but never really in my heart. It was like figuring out a logic puzzle that I already knew the answer to. People were telling me the answer about who Jesus was but until I figured it out in my head and put all the pieces together I couldn’t really believe it. So thankfully, while bussing tables my mind wasn’t exactly occupied and things like eternal salvation could be sorted out.

So I accepted Christ and moved on. I had heard about being baptized but I thought to myself that I had already done that when I was a couple of months old. I didn’t know the reason for baptism and didn’t feel a need to get baptized as an adult for a long time. I’m not sure when but a while ago I decided that I should be baptized as an adult. Baptism has nothing to do with the validity of your salvation (some disagree with me on this but I feel the Bible is pretty clear) but at that time I saw it as a public statement of faith. Kind of like raising your hand and saying “Hey, I’m a Christian.” So, as I do with most things, I let it sit and stew in my mind for a while. I wanted to do it in the right church with my family and friends. Have somebody I knew well dunk me in and all that. Sometimes I forget about things that are stewing and the next thing you know you’re living in Qatar.

One night I was talking to a friend of mine. He asked me if I had ever been baptized as an adult and when I told him no, he said that if I had any questions that I could talk to him about it. So I thought and prayed about it some and turned the burner up a notch or two. While I was doing that I heard a sermon and in the end the guy said that if anybody has not been baptized and would like to talk to him find him after the service. So I did and we talked about basically what the purpose of being baptized is. It pretty much amounted to this. Being baptized is an outward demonstration of an inward action. When you have a Christian baptism you are demonstrating an inward repentance that you made and the acceptance that Christ paid for your sins. To get even deeper you are demonstrating that you’re dying to your old life and becoming alive in Christ. You are living in the knowledge that you are going to Heaven because Christ paid the way and gave you a ticket. Not only was being baptized practiced in the Bible it was also commanded. Jesus said go make disciples of all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The pieces fit in my head and with that knowledge I decided there was no more need to wait. So instead of trying to make it perfect like you would make a wedding perfect. The right place, guest list, food etc. I decided that it would be perfect because it was what God said to do. So a couple of days later they filled up a big tub before the church service. I told a group of people, half of whom I didn’t know, why I was doing this. We prayed, I stepped in and got baptized. It was awesome. I truly felt like I was being obedient and in God’s will. During the service I got up and told everybody my reason for being baptized and hope that I made some sense. I had planned one thing but ended up saying something totally different. I even made a joke that I didn’t bring an outline but I don’t know if anybody got it.

Driving the Beast

I made another decision that was not so life changing. After driving the beast for about a week I realized that it was far too impractical to buy a car just because it was fun to drive. It could break down, the AC wasn’t the best, I topped out at about 55 mph. So I started driving my loaner car for a while and looking at a used car for myself. Well after going around in circles with some salesmen I had to return the beast to the guy that was selling it. I remember getting up and thinking man I don’t want to have to crank that thing up today. Then while driving to work I realized that I really liked it and I would be foolish not to buy it. I just figured since I’ve always appreciated and wanted to have one of these good ‘ol boy cars that this was the perfect time. So instead of making the logical decision I made an emotional one and bought the beast. When it breaks down for good I already have my eye set on and ’80s model LandCruiser truck. It kind of looks like the truck with the tire on the hood in Ace Ventura Pet Detective. Or I could change my mind and buy something practical.

SMS This

I presented my project to all of the Faculty and Staff this week. My little SMS gateway is up and running and people seem to like it. I’ve got some more stuff to work on and it is all nice and organized in my Access Database driven todo list. What else would you expect from and anal retentive software developer with ADD. I haven’t finished it yet but when I do I’ll put it online for the benefit of the world, or whoever reads this.

A lot of words, hope all is well with everybody.

I think I’ll call it Mini Beast

Well I have found a car that I’m thinking of buying but I’m not sure why. I told Kara that if I bought this car / truck / Mini Beast that it would be one of the more illogical things that I have done in a long time. What is so interesting about this piece of mechanical machinery you ask? Well it is a 1982 Nissan Patrol. It has a very uncanny resemblance to my first car which was a 1984 Bronco II. Yes, the one that caught on fire and burned to the ground in the original Macaroni Grill’s parking lot. Except for the behemoth tires and orange and white paint job (yeah, I know) they are very similar.

The decision to be made is this. The vehicle is over 20 years old. If it has power steering I haven’t found it and the AC works but it’s not exactly a cool breeze artic blast. The upholstery leaves something to be desired and I haven’t figured out how to open the back door. It goes from 0 to 100 (62 mph) in about 5 minutes. This makes the already risky sport of driving in Doha that much more challenging.

On the other hand it is a lot of fun to drive. Even when you only have 4 gears and it is screaming at 80 (50 mph). It reminds me somewhat of this 2 ton dump truck I once drove. Ah, memories. I will only be driving it to and from work and we can take Kara’s car for anything else. The price is not bad as well. It is QR 4000 which roughly equates to $1100. If I knew I would only be here for a year it would be a no brainer. Take it, have fun. If it leaves you stranded there are always taxis. This has been my major argument for taking it so far. It’ll be a toy that I can knock around until it is ready to go and for the money it’s hard to beat. So this is where you come in. Send me an email at and tell me what your thoughts are. The winner gets a free ride in it if you ever come over.

PS I made my email an image because I’m a geek and I don’t want Internet spiders to pick it up and give it to Joe Spammer. Ha! I have enough online degrees and well lets just leave it at that.

Click Here to see more pictures. Yes my sort script for most recent pics has a bug in it Eric.

Insert some satirical comment =here=

It's been about 6 weeks since we left Texas and Qatar is now starting to feel like home. Not Texas but not a place where I'm just visiting. The local newspaper has replaced the BCS Eagle, even thought I still read it on occasion to see what is going on. The movie theatre, shopping mall and little quirks about this place are now my way of life. They are no longer little nuances to write home about.

Some major things have been happening since my last post. Kara is currently working at The Learning Center which is on the education city campus where I work. Basically we are looking for a job that will allow her the flexibility to travel with me but still find fulfillment in her job. Yes, we are asking for two dream jobs at once. I know it is a lot to ask but what we have found that either it will be provided or our expectations will be changed to what we truly need. Basically Kara has been given the position as a teacher's assistant for all of 7th grade. The pay is about 40% of what a sub would make but it is guaranteed while for a sub it is not. There really isn't any direction for the position but after discussing this with the director they told her that they would do the best they could to take advantage for her talents. We’ll keep you up to date with how this goes.

Speaking of people who we haven't kept up to date and on the chance they are reading this, I'm sorry. I still owe the people I used to work with a huge thank you email for all that they did when I left. It's coming I promise.

My project is going well. I gave my first demo yesterday. Even though the functionality is 80% there the UI (user interface) looks like a kindergartener did it. I'll demo it for real at the director's meeting on the 13th. I'll let everybody know how it went once It's done.