tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-93333472024-08-30T03:36:16.964-04:00A Personal Blog Of The Totally Random sometimes fictional (the distinction is yours to make); Meant For Personal Ego Inflation (My Own Of Course) And To Entertain Anyone That Might Care...Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comBlogger316125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-1992533093632948242013-12-24T00:44:00.002-05:002013-12-24T00:44:08.400-05:00

Incredibly good point made on last weeks NewYorker podcast, check it out: Ryan Lizza and Patrick Radden Keefe discuss Obama and domestic spying. http://downloads.newyorker.com/mp3/campaign/131212_politicalscene.mp3

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-18179622949413053472013-06-30T02:57:00.004-04:002016-12-08T15:07:50.276-05:00

www.theatlantic.com/politics/

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-77263099571450762232013-06-21T14:45:00.002-04:002013-06-21T14:45:47.874-04:00

Is it not just alittle ironic that #1 Obama criticized Bush so much for (illegal) invasions of privacy and now he is doing (legal) invasions of privacy under FISA (which has, as i understand it, Ok'd 100% of the requests made so far) and #2 That both parties can't seem to agree on anything (with the possible exceptions of immigration, could be argued that Republicans have to to survive)

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-19762925878721864192013-06-18T08:08:00.002-04:002013-06-18T08:08:23.907-04:00

Relevant 3 years ago, and still relevant now.

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-50322298753684504682011-01-20T01:59:00.003-05:002011-01-20T02:04:32.507-05:00

I was sitting at my computer yesterday, at home (Holiday in Georgia), and all of a sudden the house began to shake. For a split second I thought it was the military doing more tests at the nearby firing range but there was no noise, then I thought maybe a massive truck but then the shaking was way too much and my freaked out dog was going nuts (which he doesn’t usually do with trucks). If I was a

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-84224625486156352532011-01-07T00:47:00.003-05:002016-12-08T14:56:53.371-05:00

I am working on a project in the country of Georgia and like the country pretty well. While I was in Azerbaijan I was constantly sickened by all the corruption that I saw on a regular basis. I have to admit that Georgia is not as bad as Azerbaijan but the government here is hardly innocent. My project was working with a livestock company in our project area and had tried to do everything right

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-26969579400630638332010-11-20T06:02:00.000-05:002010-11-20T06:02:00.272-05:00

There has been all this talk about tablets lately (thanks to apple) but I hear so many reasons why tablets haven't taken off (and MS has been pushing tablets for close to ten years); to me its the software. I am typing this out on my HTC TyTN II and it, even though it is mobile is sub optimal in terms of software, I try to just use my fingers for some apps but others I must use a pen, and still

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-68912884829327013822010-11-04T09:08:00.001-04:002010-11-04T09:08:00.167-04:00

I am always interested in knowing ingredients especially sugar (gut control) but the amounts shown grams ounces etc never quite regisered with me, i am a pretty visual person. I recently came across this website that really shows you how much sugar are in various foods, and damn I had no idea... Seeing stacks of sugar cubes beside these foods really hits it home. How Much Sugar in Shakes and

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-51724502948789636922010-10-19T09:41:00.001-04:002011-01-15T02:56:38.740-05:00

Here in Georgia they have a larger mix of nationalities/ethnicities that you would ever guess from a distance. I am constantly hearing about Armenian disobedience, Azeri cattle business, Samagrelian, Abkhaz (always a taboo topic in Georgia) but I recently heard about a lesser know minority in Georgia, footage of Aliens! Fact?/Fiction? Looks real to me; but hey, you decide!!

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-34842513695464301832010-09-04T20:36:00.001-04:002011-01-15T01:49:06.237-05:00

I recently took a job with an agricultural development project in the country of Georgia and it seems pretty interesting, certainly in my line of work (Agriculture) but at the same time it seems to suffer from lack of interest from all sides (except the donor and my organization of course). In my years of working in Agriculture I have come to learn that my line of work is about as unsexy in the

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-70678999273417864092010-05-26T12:22:00.004-04:002010-05-27T00:57:41.606-04:00

I was driving to a diner party in another town (in Azerbaijan) and got pulled over. I calmly got all my docs together etc and promptly handed them to the policeman. He unfolded one doc then refolded it, obviously barely glancing at it, and then he asked something about "chai". I don't speak Azeri but I know what chai means literally (tea) and thought he was asking me to have tea. I tried telling

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-9002563134535246272010-04-25T01:25:00.001-04:002011-01-15T01:58:09.125-05:00

In my work in Azerbaijan one of the most frustrating parts is government apathy. I am working with a livestock project where we are working with feed companies to help them more effectively sell to poorer farmers who can't access thier products as easily (just driving to a feed shop to by a few hundred kh of feed is no easy task consideirng that many farmers don't even have cars). Anyway, one of

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-33417988151179441272010-04-14T08:02:00.006-04:002010-04-14T08:24:01.865-04:00

Ok, so for weeks now there has been at least one uninvited visitor in my house (aka mouse) who has been eating my food, pooping in my shoes (on my desk, around my kitchen, etc) and has been generally annoying. I asked my staff to get the critter and the first thing tried was a humane (though seriously doubt the intention was to be humane) trap that i found totally does not work with small mice (

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-46173740591477268232010-03-04T10:21:00.000-05:002010-03-04T10:21:00.441-05:00

The president of Azerbaijan, the "benevolent-dictator" İlham Əliyev had originally expressed no interest in being "elected" to take the place of his father. A friend of mine pointed out an article that I was not entirely sure wasn't a photoshop job so I went to google earth myself and found it, pretty easy. So for a guy who didn't want to be president, it looks like he is filling out the shoes of

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-37297729048457296312010-02-05T08:47:00.001-05:002010-02-05T08:47:00.297-05:00

This weekend I apparently caught a bug that didn’t go away by Monday so I called in sick but was informed there were a few small things that were really urgent so I went for those small things. Every one of my staff that I told I was going home due to a sore throat asked me “did you drink something cold?” Now there are two things #1 in the CIS it is widely believed that drinking cold drinks will

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-52307996535142590742010-01-29T02:30:00.001-05:002010-02-01T09:01:56.779-05:00

I was recently in a "big box store" in Georgia with a Georgian and an Azeri. They were scrutinizing every product and when they saw "made in china" they would wrinkle their noses and put the product back. In many developing countries there are Chinese products that are straight from china and made to Chinese standards (or more accurately, made to the standards of the optimal price [ie cheap price

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-44074296665688981972010-01-23T09:46:00.000-05:002010-01-23T12:58:35.466-05:00

In working in various developing countries one of the most difficult parts has been the mediocre Internet access (hey, we all have our "must haves"). Bandwidth is a precious and often expensive commodity in the countries (a megabit connection in Kenya when i was there in 2006 was $500+/month). With these restrictions access to what the west would consider a bandwidth simple site such as

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-31706443426976735982010-01-10T06:48:00.000-05:002010-01-14T16:13:57.392-05:00

For years, since I installed (very very painfully) Slackware Linux v2.1 in 1995 I have heard about how Linux is “ready for the masses”, at the time it was totally untrue and now… well it is as ready as windows but… To sidetrack for a bit, I was recently ogling over a nice bit of freeware and gave a copy to my colleague who equally appreciated the usefulness of the software and my comment to him

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-89022118803569429882009-12-05T10:12:00.000-05:002010-01-17T10:15:03.385-05:00

Heating IssuesOriginally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho Well I am in the middle of a Southern Azeri winter, which is about like winter in the Southeastern US, pretty mild. This is my second winter in Azerbaijan so I had an idea of what to expect, of the weather and I thought of the heating in the house I am staying in. Many of the houses here are heated by steam radiators which would be ok if

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-14055846949925531932009-11-07T14:28:00.000-05:002009-11-09T03:21:51.207-05:00

I remember in school very often people would form their groups, usually based on social class, life philosophy and race/nationality.I look at the development community and am somewhat reminded of high school. Every time people find out that i am an American working for a European organization they are usually surprised and working in a European organization i very rarely run into Americans. Now i

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-85486676379383804292009-10-27T08:16:00.000-04:002009-11-09T03:22:12.560-05:00

I just read a bit "OpenOffice.Org demos ribbon-style UI prototype". I am totally not a fan of the "ribbon style" in MSO or (apparently) the up and coming open office. While i admit that my compu-kungfu isn't what it used to be I am still not bad with figuring out and getting used to new programs but this new ribbon style gui is beyond me. I actually installed MSO 2007 specifically so i could make

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-27706038350809309042009-09-30T01:40:00.000-04:002009-09-30T01:40:05.383-04:00

I was reading an article on the NPR site (A Turning Point For Afghan War, And For Obama : NPR) and one line struck me: "While some U.S. officials say that Obama is considering a plan to pull back from daily battles with the Taliban to focus more strictly on counterterrorism options, Republicans are pressing him to approve McChrystal's recommendations." Why isn't this situation a bit of a win for

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-26960338460206127012009-09-08T02:23:00.000-04:002009-09-08T06:23:37.967-04:00

I recently came across an article "Google's not fighting Gmail subpoenas" that tells about how google is just handing over the information of some of its users. I remember reading about an instance where google denied (but eventually had to cave) the DoJ (or was it FBI?) access to IP addresses or emails or something, either way it seemed like they tried to do the right thing; but now, this seems

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-80331096213532415312009-09-02T08:13:00.000-04:002009-09-03T06:00:33.248-04:00

Asides from the obvious (lewd) ones which I will not go into I am dreaming of an i7 Core with USB v3.0. Yup, those are the two biggies for me. Of course gratuitous amounts of memory (4+ gigabytes, which means i would need a 64bit OS which again means i would need a realtively powerful [or at least new] computer), a really fast hard drive etc but right now I need a fast processor and speedy

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9333347.post-12987990879784342852009-08-31T06:53:00.006-04:002009-08-31T07:20:30.345-04:00

Isanin dogum günü münasib?til?!!!Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho Ok, that was supposed to be “Merry Christmas” in Azeri but it actually (literally) means “With the birth of Christ” which is strange anyway since Azerbaijan is an Islamic country… but I guess the Soviets instilled a sense of yuletide cheer in Azerbaijan too (Celebrate, Be Happy, or off to Siberia you go!!!). My staff was

Gaikohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05452071371275014444noreply@blogger.com