21 March 2012

Falcon Fest

Falcons are always so poised and in control, like some kind of super processor is managing the bird thing. At the falcon souq, falcons patiently watch us come and go from their fancy perches, monitoring our every move with military precision. It's like the falcon brain's only purpose is to assess the feasibility of something becoming prey. I did some Qbasic back in grade school, and this is the way I imagine falcons were programed by the Cylons:
                                                                                                        Y = Attack!
IF moving object smaller than Falcon <                                                                   N = Hypnotize                                                                                                                                                                                   
Go google some images of falcons, and know that this is so. Falcons don't look cute. Falcons don't derp. Falcons are the Sauron eye of winged things, blessed with a ratio of eye-to-brain size that makes little sense.

All this to say that the Qatar annual Falcon Festival took place this month somewhere in the desert. We were tanking around dunes when we saw the signs. How on EARTH did they manage to find the one and only falcon in the world that looks so, so... lacking in chromosomal coherence, so to speak?

"What planet is this...?"