subtracting light

in response to miss trinity and the eight billion emails i am getting on a daily basis, here's an update on the photos situation - my camera is still broken and apparently because sony has discontinued the model of camera that i have, i am going to continue to have difficulty finding a place that will service the bloody thing. i am in hell as far as this goes - not being able to take photos is like having my arm cut off or something... i am a behind-the-lens-kind-of-girl and not having a functioning lens is causing me to go through withdrawals. i am seriously considering just biting the bullet (so to speak) and going to get some cheap-ass substitute camera. i. can't. handle. this. shit. no. more.

other than the camera thing, i got my first dose of dubai rush hour traffic the day before yesterday. my father and i decided to go to ikea to get some kitchen gadgets... ikea (this one is something to the order of 4 times the size of a typical ikea... totally awesome!!!) is on the other side of the city... so we leave when we think rush hour traffic will be subsiding. we were so, so, so wrong. sheik zayed road (one of two principal arteries through dubai) was a parking lot. it took us 2 hours to get less than 10 km. i was about to go postal. not only is there no evidence whatsoever of any sort of planning for the shear volume of traffic present on a daily basis, but people here cannot drive. do not understand the concept of sharing the road. think their cars are toys with stereos. apparently do not understand that turning the steering wheel causes the vehicle to change trajectory. omigod. yeah. add to that the fact that i have now listened to the cds in my dad's saab over and over and over, the lack of acceptable radio stations and my lack of supply of new music, and you are left with a natalie on the verge of losing her mind (i was driving... or rather, i was the one constantly on the brakes). wow.

ikea, on the other hand, was sublime. it was so nice to walk through a store and not be affronted with horribly designed and poorly constructed furniture (mind you, not everything at ikea is wonderful, but an overwhelming majority of it at least evidences concern with effective, efficient, and aesthetic design concerns).

now, for the job interviews...