And, yes, I DO take it personally

Afghanistan photoblogging

there's nothing i like better than watching all the kites soaring in the skies over kabul and the absolute pleasure the kids - and adults! - get from flying them... this afternoon (friday), we're heading over to an afghan colleague's house to fly kites from his roof... we did that last year in november and he managed to take out the kites of three neighbor kids - much to their dismay - before another kid a couple of streets over cut his loose...

Kite-fighting in Kabul during the Eid holiday

then there's this sobering reminder of that "other" reality...

Surveillance airship over Kabul with two kites in upper left

that little number is new in the kabul skies since i was last here... i'm pretty sure i'm not only on live tv while i'm taking my ease on the roof terrace, i'm also confident it's reading my emails...

Proposed surveillance airship for Afghanistan

and it looks like bigger and better is on the way...

The plan to deploy an autonomous, free-flying, surveillance airship to Afghanistan is gaining, er, buoyancy. A consortium led by the US Army’s Space & Missile Defense Command is scheduled to be established by October 1 and a contract awarded for the Long Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) demonstration by the end of December.

coming soon to a neighborhood near you...

final thought: they're really missing a bet by not selling display advertising a la the goodyear blimp...

Labels: Afghanistan, Kabul, kite fighting, kites, photoblogging, surveillance, surveillance society

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Off to Kabul tomorrow

actually, i will spend most of tomorrow sitting on my tushie in the amman airport (they have free internet wireless, tho!) waiting for an evening flight to dubai where i will spend the night before flying on to kabul on friday...

i arrive in kabul mid-afternoon friday and, shortly thereafter, will be attending a wedding party for an afghan i worked with last time i was there and his new bride... it should be fun and you can plan on me posting some photos... i'm also particularly pumped because one of my friends has invited me over to fly kites from his roof terrace... the return of colder fall and winter weather to kabul means the sky over the city in the afternoon will be filled with kites... i made sure to pack my travel kite when i left buenos aires and it's been with me through my time in nevada and here in jordan... you can bet there will be photos of kite-flying too...

Labels: Afghanistan, Kabul, kites, The Kite Runner

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Sunday kite-blogging - Día de los Niños

after at least a week of gray days - very unusual here in buenos aires - the S.U.N. managed to shine today from 9 a.m. to roughly 3:30... after making myself a breakfast omelet and sitting in on a noon conference call, i was still able to capture about 2 1/2 hours of the remaining sunshine before the current set of clouds rolled over... i rode the bike over to parque de los niños and then up the paseo de la costa along the rio de la plata to the end... i had forgotten that today is día de los niños, so there were lots of folks and lots of families out enjoying themselves... carlitos, famous for its burgers and zillion varieties of panqueques (pancakes) on the paseo was packed... best of all, there were also two kite outfits who had tents and displays on the paseo and were demo'ing their wares... amazing...! i now have my eye on one particular kite that i am simply going to HAVE to check out... i wish i had had my camera...

since i don't have any pics to post, here's a youtube clip made by one of the kite vendors that features one of the kite highlights, an octopus kite, that was being flown this afternoon...

here's the links to the two kite sellers...

Batoco

and

Alto Vuelo

unfortunately, i can't find the particular kite i have my eye on in the catalog or gallery of either site... guess i'll just have to make an in-person visit...! ;)

Labels: Argentina, Buenos Aires, kites, Parque de los Niños, Paseo de la Costa