This will be a quick entry, I think, since it's getting late, and I'm tired from all the karate and beer I've had recently.

This afternoon Steffi and I got together with Jacque Morin (my Canadian colleague) and his wife Denise for drinks after work. We went to Spanky's, a classy bar/restaurant on the corner of Columbia and Franklin Street. It's known, in particular, for its fish tacos (which I've had and liked), but we were there for the bar's generous offering of $2.50 pints. Man, I took advantage of it, having a black and tan, follwed by two wheat beers. I'm surprised that amount of alcohol had as little effect on me as it did.

Jacque regaled us with stories of the Middle East, where he worked as an IT Director at the University of Dubai. Apparently driving over 250 km/hour isn't at all uncommon, and nor are the unbelievable traffic accidents that often ensue. Jacque also had the chance to witness the aftermath of such accidents, where rubber-neckers often slow down or stop in the middle of these highways (where most drive 75+ miles per hour) because it's important to watch the deceased's soul ascend into heaven. There's also a "blood money" clause built into all automobile insurance policies: If I remember correctly, insurance companies will not pay for the money that the instigator of an accident should pay to the dead victim's family in order to avoid being the target of a revenge killing. Oh, and another interesting bit is that if one, faulted for an accident, injures another, that person must spend the same amount of time in prison as the injured in the hospital. If the victim dies, well it's pretty obvious what happens (unless you pay the blood money -- which is the equivalent of an Arabic Get-Out-Of-Jail-Card-Free.) Jeez, our justice system along with capital punishment almost seem civilized by comparison.

Later, Steffi and I drove over to Hillsborough to see the city's Last Friday sponsored by the town Arts Council. We went because I occasionally work with Heather Deslisle, a ceramicist who is also the Department Manager for CompLit at UNC. She had an installation above one of the shops downtown, and I wanted to go just to support her. Before leaving, though, we actually decided to purchase six sawdust fired spheres which she had arranged - hung on nails - vertically on the wall. Five of these hollow clay balls are of about the same size while the last is about a time and a half the diameter of its siblings (which are about 3 inches wide.)

Heather explained that she threw each sphere on the pottery wheel, starting out with doughnuts of clay, raising them up into cups and then gently rounding off and closing the ends. She fires the ball in an electric kiln thereafter and then, to give them their random textures and patterns, she builds small "brick chimneys" on the ground, puts her already once-fired artwork inside, smothers them in sawdust, lights the whole thing, and lets the dust and the clay smolder for about 9 hours. The ash and smoke from the burning sawdust gives each clay ball a unique texture, adding random, darker elements to an otherwise bone-colored complexion.

Unfortunately, we couldn't take the six spheres home right away, but I anticipate once they're in hand and we're ready to disply them in the house, we may hang them differently -- perhaps horizontally over our upstairs couch.