The Fly Conquers Nature

I love conquering nature. I simply love it. Few things give me more joy than giving nature the proverbial finger. Don't get me wrong, I love nature - love its splendor, being within it, hate destroying it... But sometimes, when nature tries to fight you, you have to give it a swift kick in the junk. What am I talking about? Well, I've been experiencing some extremely uncomfortable skin issues over the last couple of months, and I'll be damned if I had any clue whatsoever what was causing them. I'd even gone so far as to see a doctor, who sent me to another doctor. Ladies and gentlemen, I can't tell you for a fact when the last time I'd seen a doctor was; probably at some point in '03 or '04, not counting the last time I saw an opthalmologist and my dentist in 2004, the approximate dates of which I remember for the sole reason that I got myself squared away before leaving the country for two and a half months.

So here I am, being a miserable little Fly. I'd prayed about it, I'd seen a doctor, I'd even allowed it to be a partial catalyst in the end of a romantic relationship. Finally, I decided that maybe (probably) there was an environmental factor contributing to it. I worked on cleaning up my place, wondering if there was some sort of sanitation or cleanliness measure that I was neglecting. Then, it hit me - and credit for that must be properly given to God - that my problems may have started right around the time that I'd started putting my bar of soap lower in the shower than I'd done originally. I'm not out of the woods yet, but I'm relatively sure that shifting my soap's location by about a foot and a half may have solved my issues. Excellent!

And great thanks go to Mighty Mo, the bastard love child of Danny Tanner and Monica Geller, whose excellent input should help me to kill nature dead. For any bachelors reading this: if you don't live in a dry, arid climate anymore, then clean your shower regularly. You, too, can conquer nature like a big, manly barbarian.

That picture is not of me and my son (as I obviously have no children), but of the nearly-two-year-old Little Desert Rat, or Desert Rat Junior, or whatever you want to call him. He's cute as a damned button, smart as a whip, and cooler than me in college - way cooler than me in high school. I got to hang out with him and the Desert Rat in April when I was visiting Hometown/College City.

Continuing this week's theme of satellite imagery from the Sahara Desert, today's image is Tadrart Akakus in Libya. Here's a Wiki link, and here's another picture. I'm not interested in the cave paintings, so much as I am in the amazing desert landscapes. Very impressive. Some of you may have seen this coming: Tadrart Akakus will be a featured location in the second of two spy novels currently in development by your friendly neighborhood Super Fly.

Remember Cheb Mami? Of course you don't! And why would you? All he did was a duet with Sting back in 1999 or so. Anyway, today's featured video is Cheb Mami featuring Samira, performing "Youm Wara Youm (Habibi)."



For any of my readers who are interested in listening to A) more Arabic or B) anything in a foreign language, perhaps for the purposes of zoning out, I recommend free podcasts from BBC Xtra, the BBC's Arabic service.

Have a great day, folks! Stuff Fly Wants tomorrow, just in time for the weekend!