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The Colosseum

By Alan on April 17, 2013

While in Italy for a workshop I spent a few hours in Rome. The weather was beautiful and I managed to see some of the famous, old monuments.

alan_colosseum


It’s pretty amazing that some of the old monuments were standing before Jesus’ time (the Colosseum itself was built in 80 AD); ie, there’s no doubt that the Colosseum existed (it’s still there!). We can’t say the same for Jesus! The only “proof” we have that Jesus ever existed are a bunch of second-hand accounts which were written decades after his death.

In other news, Rome’s cool. A few things that stood out to me:

  • Tall pine trees
  • Pizza by the kilo; cheap, greasy and delicious
  • Old buildings

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Posted in Travel | Tagged Colosseum, Italy, Rome, Travel | Leave a response

Alan opts out of TSA scan at Portland PDX

By Alan on December 29, 2012

Note: originally posted on mjanja.co.ke! Posted here for exposure and posterity.

I flew from Portland (PDX) -> San Diego (SAN) this week. I was greeted by one of the controversial full-body millimeter wave scanners. Unsure of the privacy and health implications of the scanners, I decided to opt out, and get a manual pat down instead. I was somewhat surprised when my mom whipped out her iPhone and started filming it… good instinct!

She filmed it until they told her to turn it off. At one point I had seen on the TSA website that it was legal to film the pat downs, but I didn’t contest it at the time as I hadn’t done my homework properly.

The takeaway

Opting out of the scanners is your right; just ask, it doesn’t have to be a confrontation. In my experience the people were friendly and professional, so I don’t have any particular complaints about that. It’s kinda sad that they work for one of the most-hated government organizations in the country, though…

With regards to the TSA and catching “terrorists”, I’m not sure how effective the post-9/11 scanning techniques are, but it does seem like it’s a bit over the top; it’s both a huge pain in the ass for travelers and a huge cost to tax payers (and I’m not sure if it’s worth the billions we spend).

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Posted in Rants, Travel | Tagged Airport, PDX, Portland, Security, TSA | 2 Responses

Real bananas

By Alan on September 9, 2012

I only buy real bananas.

"real" bananas from Uchumi
“real” bananas from Uchumi



I can’t vouch for the legitimacy of my apples, though…

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Posted in Kenya | Tagged Africa, bananas, Kenya, Nairobi | 3 Responses

Zürich isn’t a flashy town

By Alan on August 6, 2012

I’ve been in Switzerland visiting Cassandra (she’s finishing her PhD, and has been away from Kenya for a few months). We came to Zürich to get out of Basel for a few days.

I don’t usually read guide books, but I happened to be flipping through the Rough Guide to Switzerland and I saw it “Zürich isn’t a flashy town…”. Later, wandering around town we were taking a picture on a bridge and BAM, a Lamborghini drove by.

Lambo in Zürich


LOL. Apparently there is a lot of gold and precious metal trading in Zürich. I’ve seen BMWs, Audis, Mercedes, Ferraris, Lambos, etc… maybe Rough Guide should revisit Zürich?

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Cassandra, Switzerland, Zurich | 3 Responses

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Alan Orth

Lover of Linux, death metal and Indian food, blogs about living and working in Nairobi, Kenya.

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