Polaroid

Big news today: I got a new job! Early this morning I returned from my first trip with tourists from Jerusalem and Bethlehem (1 day trip). It wasn’t so bad for the first time, so I actually consider continuing this for a while on. The only downside is the border control –  both Israeli and Egyptians piss me off. Not to mention the Russian tourists that are everywhere and create many-hour-long lines at the borders. Just go back to Mother Russia please…

Anyway, while surfing the Cloud today I found this cool application for the Mac that makes your photos look a bit nostalgically and artsy with the Polaroid-look. The process itself, using the application, is fun as well and looks really nice on the desktop:

So here are some samples!

 

An Israeli preparing mocca over open fire

 

A donkey on a mule

 

There is also an iPhone application that says to do pretty much the same, and you can speed up the “film” development by… shaking the iPhone! Pretty neat…

I don’t like hotels

On hotel life

I really don’t. Not even five-stars hotels. Probably that only make things worse. Cause, you see, I have this bad feeling when in hotels: I’m here doing “nothing”, and a bunch of poor Egyptians are running around and try to make everything as good as can be, for a few dollars a day! 

 

On my life

But anyway, I got moved back to a hotel again. To get closer to the tourists, I guess…? So I’m here, preparing myself for taking the first group to Jerusalem, probably somewhere around next week. Already! It’s so much to learn about that city! I can’t even get it clear who founded it, and when! But does it matter? The things we see around today are not from King David’s or Solomon’s time anyway. But people like the biblical story. Especially Polish people. It gets even worse cause the scientist, depending on whenever they’re Jewish, Christian or Muslim, tend to claim different things only to prove they’re right and the other religions are wrong. 

 

On the weather

Damn, it’s getting colder! Especially when in Jerusalem (760 meters above sea level) or Bethlehem (about 30 meters more than Jerusalem), you can feel the chill. Winter’s coming even to the Middle East!

 

Weather in Sharm for the week of October 29th

 

 

Even Sharm got cooler, and the lows drop under 20°C during nights. Days are still warm and sunny, but it’s a good idea to bring some warm clothes if you’re planning a visit here this time of year. 

So far everything is fine. It’s time to go to the beach and read some biblical stories.

Bethlehem

So we’ve just arrived in Bethlehem. Today was rather lazy, except the border crossing between Jordan and Israel, over the Jordan River (which is like 1 meter wide, except common believe that it is a big river – it’s really more of a little creek). We were lucky, the border checkpoint controls took only 3 hours (once I spent 6 hours there…). Now we’ve seen everything there is to see in the small city of Bethlehem, in the Palestinian West Bank, and tomorrow we’ll go to Jerusalem. The only problem is that the hotel that’s booked for us is obviously overbooked, and there’s no room for us. Wonderful. Aw, one more thing: it’s way colder here! Only about 19°C in the nights, so you feel the chill. Damn, winter’s coming!

Amman, Jordan

Amman, Jordan

What a day! No sleep last night, since the bus pick up arrived at 1am. From Sharm to the Egyptian-Israeli border crossing in Taba-Eilat. I saw something there I want to do one day: a couple on bikecycles, biking their way though the Middle East. The guy even had a guitar on his bike. Another cool thing was that Jews celebrate something right now (the celebration of the ending of 40 years wandering thorugh the desert, I think…), so they like live in tents for a week or so. The tents are everywhere along the 9 km short Israeli Red Sea coastline. So there was a guy making a espresso over open fire in a mocca brewer! Only in Israel…

 

Wadi Rum, Jordan

After the bored crossing was completed we went with bus for about 10 minutes to the second border, this time Israeli-Jordanian in Eilat-Aqaba. Took a couple of hours to complete, like it usualy does in this part of the world, but after that we went to the most beautiful desert in the world, Wadi Rum. An hour or two there, and then a bus ride to the famous city of Petra. When even this was finished, I had to take a mule the 4 km back to the bus… First time on a mule for me ever. I felt terrible. Poor animal.

Anyway, after that 4 hours with bus to the Jordanian capital city, Amman, inhabited by 2.1 million citizens. The hotel is actually really nice, and the Internet connection is free, so I can give you an update. Right now I feel like sleeping after such a long day! Byea

Living on delivery

One of the best things about living in Sharm el Sheikh is arguably the vast amount of cafés, restaurants and such that have delivery to anywhere in town. Back in Sweden most pizzerias have delivery, but that’s about it. Whenever I want to eat the best burger in the world, I have to get to one of the Max restaurants (of which none is located in the city, but both in its outskirts). 

Here in Sharm there’s no Max, unfortunately, but the choice is pretty good anyway. Recently I’ve been living on the fresh, grilled turkey sandwiches from Makani. Occasionally, when I’m running low on innovation, there’s the usual Burger King, Mc Donald’s, Pizza Hut and even Hardee’s (damn good this one!), all offering food-to-your-door-experience. 

So I keep wondering – why no fast food delivery in Sweden, except the pizzas?

New MacBooks!

Yesterday, just as expected, Apple updated it’s line of notebook computers, giving updates to MacBooks and MacBook Pros. The new machines are hot and share the design of the iMac’s latest incarnation. They look amazing! I’ve been using MacBook for over two years now and I can tell that the new update fixes all three major flaws I’ve had with this machine: 1) screen, 2) graphics performance and 3) the plastic case which gave up after two years of heavy using and is now covered with plastic tape in various places that keeps the whole computer together. The last thing sounds really bad for sure, but I can tell that it occurs only when you use the computer more than it probably was designed to. MacBook is a home computer, and if you need a stable machine for everyday work, there has been MacBook Pro, with it’s aluminum case.

 

New MacBook

However, now it’s over and MacBook has received a killer update. The screen is now LED, the case is made of aluminum and the new graphic board is now nVidia -made and said to be 5x faster then the Intel-produced graphic in my generation of MacBooks. Sweet! It looks as MacBook has become a MacBook Pro lite, there are not that many differences between the machines anymore. The new MacBook starts from $1299!

Off to Jerusalem

Hey there. As some might have noticed, I still haven’t uploaded any photos from Cairo. The thing is: there is not good way to make slideshows at WordPress. They even block (do not allow!) to insert third-party code from e.g. Picasa Web or Flickr! So no embedded slideshow here. All I can give you is a link to Facebook where some pictures are uploaded. I’m not sure but perhaps you need an account on Facebook to view the album – let me know in the comments!

Now I’m off to Jerusalem for 2 days. Later I will let you know why… stay tuned!  

Another news is that Apple is holding an event this Tuesday on which they will present new notebooks (laptops)! About time for a new MacBook for me, I’ve been very happy with the one I bought over two years ago and will keep it. But if there are significant changes (multi-touch pads, serious hardware updates, or perhaps a really cool new design) I will for sure get one when I’m somewhere civilized. The prices on Apple in Sharm are well to high. Compared with that even Europe is cheap!

Almost like mine grocery list…

 

Grocery list

Why is everything so loud here?!

Disclaimer: You shouldn’t generalize about people and their behaviour. Everybody’s different so such generalizations are doomed to fail. Got it? OK, let’s move on.

Arabs are loud. They like noise. They don’t mind if everything around them is so damn loud that you barely can speak to each other. That’s one of the observations I’ve made here during the last months. Some of you might argue that you don’t have to spend any time in a Arab country to realize that, often it’s enough to take a look at one’s Arabic friends in Europe. Of course everyone is different, but most of the Arabs I’ve met in Sweden seem to like noise, just like people in the Middle East. 

Some example from real life. 1) I go with a cab in Cairo. They driver is screaming and shouting at the other drivers all the time (literarily during the whole ride). 2) I sit down to eat at a café. I sit outside cause I notice that the music inside is a bit too loud for me to enjoy the meal. So I go out, and what do I see? A large, 40-something inch TV, playing at what I can swear is maximum volume! And they’ve even attached external speakers… guess the TV’s weren’t enough. So it’s some Arabic music station playing music videos at full volume. Way to go, habibi. 3) The mosques loudspeakers. Now I know this is controversial. And I know that in Europe you will find church bells in every little town that are just as loud. But isn’t it different, ringing the bells and praying at 4 a.m. at full volume (again full volume – damn, they really make use of those amplifiers down here!). 4) I go with a bus from Cairo to Sharm el Sheikh. In the middle of the night, at 3 a.m. the driver decides it’s… movie time. What’s on the menu? Something that appears to be an Arabic musical, they sing throughout pretty much the whole movie. I suppose you can guess what volume he played the movie at? Yup.. Terrific!

In the book I’m reading, Understanding Arabs, some pages are also used to discuss this issue. The conclusion is pretty much like this: “Arabs have a great tolerance of noise”! No shit…

Why you should think twice before publishing

Recently my new passion, except the usual music, photography, all-tech-things-computing and especially all-things-Apple, I have also been reading and learning new things about a topic I’m not too familiar with: graphic communication. That is design of stuff, understanding colors, typography and such. On one of the blogs (sorry, can’t remember where I found this), I stumbled on this image which clearly illustrates why you should let somebody else see your work before publishing it. Check it out! =D

 

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