Leo’s Twitter Updates for 2007-12-31
December 31, 2007
- The muezzin is going to start the call to morning prayers any minute now. #
- Happy 2008 from Cairo! We celebrated by riding camels in the desert beneath the Pyramids. Tomorrow it’s on to Abu Simel and Aswan. #
(3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)
Loading ...Greetings from Cairo
December 30, 2007
What an experience this is. Egypt is a fascinating country with a unique culture. It feels like an Arab nation to me, but the Egyptians say they’re neither Arab, nor African - they’re Egyptian. They’re very warm and friendly, that’s for sure. Egypt is much more than ancient monuments.
Tourism is an important part of their economy so they take very good care of us. The Tourist Police are everywhere we go and they’re all carrying guns.
It’s a poor country, too, and many of the people we meet ask for “baksheesh.” It’s hard not to give it to them. There are five Egyptian pounds to the dollar, so giving someone a couple of pounds means more to them than it does to us. The children love ballpoint pens. We visited a weaving school where 6-14 year old kids sit all afternoon making oriental rugs and the guides gave out pens.
Population growth is probably the most pressing issue Egypt faces today. It’s a big country but mostly desert. The entire population lives on just 6% of the land and grows by one million people every 10 months. Cairo itself is the third most populous city in the world with 16 million people. It sometimes seems like everyone of them is on the road at the same time, in cars, trucks, or donkey.
Cairo abandoned traffic lights a few years ago and there don’t seem to be any rules of the road - even lane markings are ignored. Pedestrians blithely thread in and out of the traffic at will. There seem surprisingly few accidents. Perhaps it’s due to the language of the car horns, which are used constantly and can express a wide variety of meanings.
Today we visit the oldest mosque in Cairo then celebrate New Year’s Eve Bedouin style. Tomorrow we board the Sun Boat IV to sail up the Nile. It will be good to get out of the city.
I’ve uploaded some pictures on the Photos page. I’m also taking some video, too, but I’m trying not to be too much of a tourist. There’s so much to absorb I don’t always want to have a camera in front of my eyes.
Leo’s Twitter Updates for 2007-12-29
December 29, 2007
- Good morning Cairo! 16 million people and they’re all in cars. #
- Jiminy. The Great Pyramid at Giza is much bigger than I imagined. This thing is huge! #
Leo’s Twitter Updates for 2007-12-28
December 28, 2007
- Now in Frankfurt for a four-hour layover. Removing SIM card from iPhone and wrapping it in foil. #
- Wheels down in Cairo. It’s 3:20 in the afternoon. #
Leo’s Twitter Updates for 2007-12-27
December 27, 2007
- Trying to sleep so I can get up early for the flight to Cairo. Can’t. #
- Checking in at Lufthansa for Boston to Cairo via Frankfurt. Flight leaves in three hours. #
Leo’s Twitter Updates for 2007-12-26
December 26, 2007
- And a Buche de Noel for dessert! Yum. #
Now With Pictures!
December 26, 2007
As you may have noticed, I’ve added a Photos section to Leoville. I’m hoping I can get pictures uploaded while I’m in Egypt, and if I do this is where they’ll appear.
I’m using Smugmug to power the gallery. It’s much more powerful than anything I could do myself with, say, Coppermine and I think Smugmug beats Flickr hands down for features. I guess I could put the Flickr gallery in a frame, but Smugmug integrates into the site better.
I wish Smugmug were better known. I like the MacCaskill’s, father and son, who founded it and I think they have loaded it with so many superior features. Alas, Flickr still has much the larger community. I’ve been through the features vs community wars before (remember Jaiku vs Twitter?) and I should know better, but I just can’t help backing the underdog, especially when it works better.
The fact that I can upload my videos there, as well, seals the deal. The big negative: it’s not free. Smugmug is $40/year, $60 for gallery embedding, video and other features. Pro photographers can watermark and sell their photos and upload hi-def video for $150/year. Unlike Flickr there is no free basic account, but frankly I like the idea that Smugmug’s got a long term business model.
There are still a couple of little things I’d like to tweak. I can’t seem to get my custom background to appear on the photo pages and the dropdown menus sometimes fall behind elements. But it’s pretty close to seamless integration. I’ve uploaded pictures from Christmas just to test it out. We leave for Egypt tomorrow!
Leo’s Twitter Updates for 2007-12-25
December 25, 2007
- Yay! In Cranston and mom made ravioli. Life is good. #
- One sign your kids have become teenagers: they sleep in even on Christmas morning. Merry Christmas everyone! #
- Baking a Harrington ham with au gratin potatoes for Christmas dinner. Mom still uses a hand cranked ravioli maker. #
Leo’s Twitter Updates for 2007-12-24
December 24, 2007
- No highway traffic but the airport is a zoo. Flight delayed three hours. We could have slept in. #
- United is cancelling flights. Boston, Toronto, JFK. About six in all. There must be a big disturbance in the Force. #
- The rumor is the cancellations are due to pilots calling in "sick" on Christmas Eve. I hope that’s not true. We’re now 4 hours late. #
- Finally. On the plane. But now they have to replace the "communication unit." Good thing the gate agent is a TWIT fan. Gave us an exit row. #
Leo’s Twitter Updates for 2007-12-23
December 23, 2007
- Pre-recording my radio monologues for next week. I’m cutting out pauses to make myself sound more intelligent. #
- Charlie Wilson’s War was such a disappointment. How can you go wrong with Mike Nichols and Aaron Sorkin? Tom Hanks. #
- I’m so happy. I added dropdown menus to my blog and I only had to stay up to 2am to do it. #
- Recording an interview with Tim Ferriss in half an hour. 4-Hour Work Week? How about 400-Hour Work Week? #
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Flickr Photos
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Swag
