She is a twenty-eight year Muslim woman who recently ran as a democrat for the Oregon House district one position in the US senate.

Following her defeat in the primary she switched parties to become a Republican because she felt the Republicans more closely reflected her conservative values. This seemed an unusual move considering the hostility many conservative Republicans feel towards Muslims.

None-the-less, Saba continues to seem satisfied with the switch.

Saba Ahmed has a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Physics from Portland State University and is currently completing her joint Juris Doctorate-MBA degree at Lewis and Clark Law School and University of Portland.

She is no intellectual slouch.

She has worked for Intel Corporation, Digimarc Corporation, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, Congressman Earl Blumenauer, and the Oregon Supreme Court.

In 2010 she successfully fought to repeal an Oregon law that banned teachers from wearing the Muslim headscarf, Sikh turban, Jewish yarmulke , or other religious attire. This was an Oregon law, originally passed to discriminate against Catholics, that was badly in need of repeal.

On the campaign trail Saba emphasizes her obvious qualifications to bridge the gap between the Christian and Muslim world view. She is also an outspoken critic of American military involvements.

Though I agree with her on some issues, her rather extreme conservatism doesn’t blend well with my observations of how the world works.

But what the hell, it’s our differences that make life so interesting. And Saba Ahmed is one interesting lady.

I’ve always been fascinated with oddball architecture and i can’t imagine anything more cool than living in a hobbit house.

So it’s not surprising I am fascinated by this hobbit house that was built in Wales by Simon Dale.

The framing is of locally gathered oak, the walls and foundation are made of mud and stone, and floor walls and roof are insulated with straw.

Virtually everything inside (flooring, windows, plumbing) is made of reused materials.

The house is heated with wood, water comes from a near by stream, and solar panels provide electricity.

You can learn more about this fascinating house at,

http://www.inhabitat.com/extraordinary-off-grid-hobbit-home-in-wales-only-cost-3000-to-build/

It’s facilitated by Kathleen Burton McDade.

For the most part it’s really good, though I don’t exactly fit in. They break the group into WordPress newbies or experienced WordPress professionals.

I don’t quite fit into either group.

I’ve done a number of WordPress blogs, my primary one being for the Washington County Public Affairs forum. I am very comfortable with WordPress, but far from being a professional.

I find the way the WordPress templates use CSS baffling and many of the plugins are downright weird.

None-the-less, I remain a huge fan of WordPress and will continue attending the group because I continue to learn new things.

As long as there is something to learn, I will continue to go.

It’s been so long since I posted that no one is reading it any more. The statistics confirm this.

Just for the heck if it I am making this post from my iPad.

We’ll see how that goes.

One thing that is weird about posting through the wordpress iPad app is that if you don’t have enough text by your picture the picture sort of mushers up with your previous post.

This is annoying.

Very annoying.

So far the only way I can correct it is by posting more text.

Even if I don’t have anything to say.

Like now.

.

Proudledrapper is a word that was introduced into the English language on January 7, 2010 by Gary Olson

He invented the word because if you make up words, and enough people use them, it gets into the dictionary, which is cool.

Though Gary invented the actual word, he developed it's definition by asking his Facebook friends for suggestions.  Flemming Laugaard came up with the best definition, which is still in use today.

The word proudledrapper is very flexible.

The definition of the word proudledrapper can be changed based on the context in which it is used, the time of day, or the number of chocolate chips in a two and one half inch Toll House cookie.

The word can be used as a noun, verb, or split infinitive as long as the infinitive is split vertically rather than horizontally.    If you split it horizontally, very bad things will happen.   Don't do it.

We ask that you use the word proudledrapper in a sentence at least three times per day.    If you do, the world will be a better place for your efforts to spread this wonderful new word.

Thank you.