And we're off!

well were off. im writing from my cell on carpet so please excuse my punctuation. ill see you all in one week when we return. see yall later!

A Thief Gone Bad Gone Good

Check this out. This guy started out like me, stealing for sustenance. Over time, he strayed from the path of an honest thief, but in the end it all worked out. Seriously, someone should make a movie about this guy. It has such a happy ending.

Read the Story

PS.
I don't endorse thievery of anything other than what is strictly needed, or what increases in quantity when it is stolen (like digital stuff, more copies to go around).

Update

Hey, all

I haven't disappeared. I'm working on moving from a hosted blog (blogger, wordpress) to a dedicated site with my own url. This means that I have to either get some money to buy the web hosting space, or steal some. I don't really like to steal more than what I need, and technically I don't need a blog. I should really talk to Iago about this, he's great at money making stuff.

Well, keep checking here for a link to the new site when it goes up. Next week I'll be in Liamuiga, so I wouldn't expect to hear from me too much until I get back April 3rd.

Bee yourself!
- Aladdin

Library of Millat

Hey, everyone

I haven't been on lately, as I've been exploring the Library of Millat. Even though things haven't been too good between me and Jasmine lately, the Sultan still seems to like me. He assigned me, Carpet, and Genie to investigate reports of an earthquake near Millat. It turns out that the damage wasn't too bad, but we still stayed for a few days while the Millatians tried to rebuild some of their infrastructure (their city center suffered the worst). As a gift for helping them, they loaned us an archive of their weekly newspaper, the Millat Panorum. I'm trying to get some of the articles posted online, but it's hard since my scanner is a piece of junk (literally, I salvaged it from the junk yard on Glass Street). The first thing I've got for you is a piece on the Sultan of Agrabah and the history of Agrabah's royalty. I've posted it at the top of this page. As I thumb through this archive, though, I'm getting the feeling that neither Wordpress nor Blogger is going to be able to handle what I'm planning on doing with this site. So stay tuned for a brand new (again) website, with tons of information on Agrabah, the Seven Deserts, myself, and whatever piques my interest. Luckily, this is all keeping my mind off of Jasmine for the moment.

We shall see. Bee yourself!
- Aladdin

Jasmine

Hey all. First, a poem by me:

My lips are lonely. Lonely for the taste of sticky strawberry shine that glistens on your lips. Lonely for the softness of your cheek, the curve of your neck, the tingle of your hair. But there's more. My lips are lonely for the words that burst forth without thought, the love and care and comedy that seemed so natural and linear. I think there's a word for that. Sauretude. My lips miss the sauretude between us. And not just the lovely, but the rocky, the jagged, the thin pricks of hair that maybe you should have shaved a while ago, the sweet slick of sweat dripping down your nose pressed firmly against my lips. Confidently, too. I miss the confidentiality between my lips and yours, the unshaken agreement that yours are mine and mine are yours. The secrets, the woes, the bubbles of happiness and fear and platitude and sauretude that pass between us. Between my lips pass the three syllables that make the rest of my frame shake and quiver and mope: "I miss you".

OK. Here's what's going on. First of all, welcome to my new blog. I've been meaning to switch from Wordpress to Blogger for a while, but I've just never gotten around to doing it. I finally got some time over the weekend to make the change, so welcome to my new site.

Jasmine. Here we go. So Jasmine was off on a royal visit to Quarkistan, trying to work out the kinks in a trade agreement between Quarkistan, Agrabah, and Odiferous. Prince Mamoud and Prince Uncouthma were both there. As you may or may not know, Jasmine has a history with Uncouthma, and while she was in Quarkistan, she decided that she wasn't quite ready to go through with our marriage. I have to assume Uncouthma is to blame, as Mamoud is only 12 years old. Anyways, when Jasmine returned with Carpet and Iago, she told me that she wasn't sure if she's ready to get married, and that she thinks we both need some time away from each other to… what did she say? "Get some more experience". I've dated two girls before I met Jasmine, but I get the impression that I'm her first boyfriend (we never really talked about it). So, I am sad. Genie said that sometimes people need some room when they're faced with getting into a deep relationship, but the only person Genie's ever really dated is Eden (there's a small chance we'll run into her in Liamuiga). I'm not even sure if I want to go to Liamuiga. I guess I'm still moping, but hey– can't I have a mope or two?

I'm not sure where this is all going, but I'll keep you all (my 2 readers) in the loop.

Wish me luck!
- Al

Pi Day

Welcome, one and all, to International Pi Day!

Rather than soapbox at you about the importance of numbers between integers, I'll let the dapper young lad below serenade you about the value of math:

Hey, everyone!

So yesterday I told you all about how me, Jasmine, Genie, Abu, Carpet, and Iago are all vacationing in Liamuiga for our spring getaway. I had Genie take some pictures, and I thought you'd all enjoy this one.



That's Nevis, one of the neighboring islands to the south. Genie said he took this at a restaurant called the Beach House. I can't wait. I'm sure Jasmine will love it.

Speaking of which, Jasmine gets back tomorrow. It's been kind of weird not having carpet around. Abu loves to play Carpet at chess (Abu always looses, though).

In my last post, I mentioned Rockbox. I realized that most people probably don't know what Rockbox is, so here's a go.

Apple, Inc. makes this awesome little device called the iPod. When it came out way back when in '01, it changed the way people regarded their music. No longer did you have one or two CDs and a bulky CD Player with you when you travelled, no, you had 1,000 songs in your pocket. Then 10,000. Then 100,000. Now look how people treat their music. It's their prize possession. I personally have spent months collecting rare and exotic Disney Parks music.

But here's the caveat: do you actually OWN your music? Turns out, that's a little debatable. See, with the iPod came this mystical store called the iTunes Music Store. You could download untold gigabytes of music there. But it came at a cost. The price? Digital Rights Management (DRM). See, DRM is this little tag of code stuck on your music, that keeps YOU out. Sure, you can play it and put it on iPods and burn CDs, but what else can you do? Not much. Ever try using some music you purchased in iTunes in, say, GarageBand, iMovie, or your Zune mp3 player? Doesn't quite work out.

Think people liked this? Nope, not at all. Of course, Apple being the all-powerful entity that it is, would get really mad when people like Jon Johansen worked out how to beat the DRM encryption. So what to do?

I'm a pacifist. While Abu and Iago can be a little pushy at times, I don't personally believe in force or violence. So here's what I do. I get my music DRM-free, from places like the Amazon mp3 Store, FreePlayMusic, Jamendo, and SXSW. I manage it all with DoubleTwist, and I put them on my hacked iPod, running (finally, here we go) Rockbox software. Check it out.

So there's my soapbox moment. Maybe it's just the streetrat in me, but I'm with all those brilliant hackers out there who fervently believe that if you can't hack it, it's not yours.

- Aladdin

Update

Hey, everyone!

It’s been a while since I’ve had anything up here, but I’m back from being sick (Jasmine’s still off in Quarkistan, she’s been acting kinda odd recently).

I don’t have much to say, as it’s kind of late right now, but the weather’s starting to improve (it got really cold and rainy; a little rain is good, but when your city is built on sand, too much can be a problem). I think you’re going to be hearing more frequently from me in the next few weeks.

Oh, I do have something to say, I almost forgot! Genie found this awesome island in the Caribbean called Liamuiga (Carib for Fertile Island), and we’re all spending a week there as soon as Jasmine is done with the Royal Census (last week in March).

Time for me to go to bed. Oh, one more thing… A friend of mine from the US named Daniel introduced me to this really awesome US band called Owl City… Check them out, and put their music on your Rockbox.

- Aladdin

This blog isn't dead

Hey, all.

There haven't been any new posts lately for two reasons. One, about ten days ago I got caught stealing a tub of yogurt, and got put in jail for about a week. Abu is spending the next few weeks with his extended family in Madagasgar. Don't worry, carpet's with him. But that means no one was able to bust me out early, so I just had to wait it out. As a result, I got a pretty nasty cold, and I've been stuck in my hammock for the past few days. With any luck, I should be all better by tomorrow, for the presentation of the Delta Kihn Awards. My friend Farran had something similar two weeks ago, and he got over it in about three days. So hopefully we'll be hearing more from me in the next couple days. But for now, more tea, pita toast, and rest.

- Aladdin

Ambulator nascitur, non fit.

It means "Walkers are born, not made".

About a year ago, I visited Maldonia for a few weeks. It was beautiful! One of the things that really surprised me about it, though, was how little people looked around. My first stop on my tour of Maldonia was the town of Ralhontus. Ralhontus has about ten thousand people in it, most of whom live within a ten minute walk of the esplanade. After stealing some food for the night, I took a rooftop tour of the town. Near a small bakery I met a young guy named Tas. I talked to him for a while, trying to learn a little about the surrounding area. You see, Ralhontus is about ten miles inland, along the Deniz river. On either side of the town are large hills spotted with what appeared to be castle ruins. I hadn't heard anything about castles from the traders in the Agrabah market, so I tried to find out a little about them from Tas. It turns out, Tas, who must have been in his early twenties, had never been outside of the town limits. Never! How is this possible? I asked myself. Where do you go for fun? I asked Tas. He didn't really have a good answer. You know, my friends' house. The esplanade. Boring places. There was all this gigantourous beauty around the town, and Tas had never even seen it!

So that brings me to my main point. Do you appreciate what's around you? Not the city you live in, that's probably not that significant. No, I mean the environment you live in. Have you found your inner tree hugger? Here's what I suggest. Get on your carpet, or in your car, or your camel, or your boat, or however you move around, and go. Find a big, open, unadulterated wilderness, and spend a day (not a few hours, I mean a full day) out there. Don't bring your cell, or your GPS, or your iPod or your PDA, or whatever. Be a walker, not a wire. Live.

Something Happy

Geez, that last post was kind of a downer. Let's get something exciting up here, shall we?

Studies show… people are happier on weekends! (link)

There. That's happy, right? It's almost weekend, and, although I don't have to work during the week, I'm feeling happier already. Do you feel happy?

Greed

I was mulling over some recent events last night when I realized something: human beings are inherently greedy. Ohh, shocker! I know, this is something that has been known for ages. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if looked at from the point of view of greediness, a lot of confusing recent events (specifically, negative events) can be explained. Look at the market here in Agrabah. For those of you not in the know, let me go over what's happened.

OK, so this guy named Garamonde had a stall in the market on Seale St. You know, the one where I first met Jasmine. Garamonde decided that he was going to give up the sale of textiles and start selling something new called Silstens. No one really knew what a Silsten was, but they were selling for the western equivalent of $80.00 per cubit (about 0.8 meters). Obviously, they must have been pretty useful, or beautiful, or something, because they were gosh darn valuable. So people started buying Silstens in droves. Problem was, no one had actually seen a single Silsten. What they were actually buying were guarantees for Silstens when the stock became available (in about six months, or so Garamonde told people). As more people bought Silstens, their price went up. Then people realized they could turn a profit on the Silstens they'd already bought, so a big market sprang up for buying, selling, and trading Silstens. The Sultan, who lives up in the palace, heard about this, so he decided to invest in a whole bunch of Silstens. Since they were being bought for the palace, people decided they could charge whatever they wanted for Silstens, as the Sultan has plenty of money.

You can probably see where this is going. Silsten, it turns out, is a type of rope made from plant fibres, and actually worth about about 5% of what people were paying for them. Suddenly, no one wanted Silstens any more. The Sultan, who had invested much more than we previously knew in Silstens, suddenly owed a lot of people a lot of money, and had run out of both credit and credibility. Suddenly, being a street rat seemed a lot nicer than having to pay for your food. I got some heavy competition, and for a while, Abu and I were kind of tight on food.

Things are evening out now, but think about it. This was all caused by greed. If Garamonde hadn't been so risky with his sale of Silstens, and if everyone hadn't wanted Silstens for themselves without even knowing what they were getting into, this whole thing could have been avoided.

Greed is defined (by yours truly) as wanting more than is strictly necessary. Why do you work hard? So you can get more money. Why have more money? It's just gold coins, essentially worthless for their practical use. People only want money so they can trade their money in for (a) essential stuff (like food), which I respect, and (b) useless stuff that is shiny and makes others envy you. Now, don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with a little greed. The other day, I found this awesome board game in a dumpster behind a gyro joint. It's called "Sticktion", and involves moving colored blobs around a board and collecting different geometric shape cards. Do I really need this game? No. I got along just fine before I found it. But I do enjoy playing it with Abu on rainy days (I hear tell that we're supposed to get a lot of rain this weekend. For a city in the desert, that's nice, but for a city built on sand and fertilizer, everything becomes mushy and slippery when it gets wet). And I'm really good at Sticktion.

So is that OK? Sure. Here's my philosophy. Greed is acceptable in moderation, but only in moderation, and only when your having of something does not restrict others from having it. If someone was still using that game, I would not have taken it. Only because it was in a dumpster is it OK that I took it. Now, when it comes to survival, take all you can get, but for needless entertainment and personal advancement, let the more needy go first. I may be a street rat, but I'm pretty good at it. Others, like all those in the Silsten problem, had no clue what they were doing. I could have had all the food I wanted, but they needed food too, and as a more advantaged street rat, I should help them out.

Time to go, I'll see y'all later. Remember, Bee true to yourself!

- Aladdin

Morning Walks

Have you ever taken a walk along a beach? Well, I haven't. Not to many beaches here in Agrabah. But there are lots of dunes, and I hear tell from the traders that beaches have lots of dunes. This morning I got up early, and, since it wasn't too hot (we're having a blissful cold spell right now), I decided to take a walk on the dunes just beyond eastern Agrabah. Man, it was beautiful. I got to the Percival Dunes just before six, and I had breakfast on the top of the highest one (looked like a few hundred feet high, but I'm terrible at judging distances) as the sun rose. Wow. One of the traders in the market once told me that most westerners have never seen the sun rise. Never? Have you, yes you, ever seen the sun rise? Not in the city on your drive to work, but in nature. In the wild. It's an experience you must have before you die.

I went back to my roof not long after, because once it gets past 10:00 its too hot to be traveling in the desert without a camel. When I got back, Abu and Carpet were playing Mahjong together, and Abu was kicking Carpet's tassels. You know, I've never won a game of Mahjong against that monkey. I've also heard that most westerners have never played Mahjong. I looked online, and the closest thing I could find was a solitaire version. Beware, it's highly addictive. Play here.

See you later!

Welcome to My World!

Hey, you found Aladdin's World! Welcome.

My name is Aladdin. Not to many people out west know what life's like here in Agrabah, so I thought, rather than star in more direct-to-video sequels, I'll just tell you about it here on my blog. Posts should come on a somewhat regular basis, unless the guards catch me and throw me in jail for a week or two. Topics? They'll range from the weather here in Agrabah (hey - that cloud looks like a dune. So does that one! Wow. Lots of dunes…) to political ramblings about you western countries to the latest and greatest in internet timewasters to me trying to get out of homework for my Econ class at AWH (Agrabah West High).

See you in a few, and remember: Bee yourself!