Not much of a post here, just checking out this app I found. Let us see if it enables me to blog from the offline state. Anyway this isn’t needed anymore since I’m on my way back to Europe and I don’t expect as many downtimes in the access to the Cloud as I’ve had while in Egypt. But it can still be nice to have a Mac-friendly and good-looking blogging tool!
Here’s a screenshot:
OK, that’s about it!
Yesterday the Moon appeared really big and bright. National Geographic explains why: “The moon will be at its closest perigee—the nearest it gets to Earth during its egg-shaped orbit around our planet.”. Yeah sweet… So I took my lovely camera and shot a couple of pictures (with this lens attached). A close-up is visible below.
Also, there’s an exclusive wallpaper-ready version of 2048×1152 pixels available for your downloading pleasure! Grab it right here!
(Of course, there’s a Dropbox gallery with those two images as well.)
The Moon on Dec. 12th
Back from the trip with over 450 new photos on my hard drive from the last trip through the Middle East. In this Dropbox gallery you can see some of the better shots from Jordan (mostly Petra but also the capital, Amman), as well as shots from Bethlehem and Jerusalem, Israel. This time of year the weather is completly different than first time I visited the area, but luckily for me, the lower sun and the cloudy sky gives better photos. Be sure to check them out!
I’m going for a short vacation before the Holiday season vacation. I’ll visit Jordan and Israel in the next week, no work this time so there’ll be plenty of photos. Stay tuned cause I’ll post the updates here, bye!
The year’s coming to an end, so it’s time to start summing it up, right? Let’s start with my favorite albums!
4. The Roots – Rising Down
Overall a good CD, pleasant listing. Shows that new hip-hop doesn’t have to be sung using auto tune.
Snoop Dogg's Ego Trippin' cover art
3. Snoop Dogg – Ego Trippin’
Let’s face it: Snoop is exactly what I try to stay away from – mainstream. And let’s face it: I still like this record a lot! Press Play is a great opener.
2. O.S.T.R. – Ja tu tylko sprzatąm
Contemporary, kinda ol’ school but still modern hip-hop, that’s still staying away from what’s trendy these days (auto tune, anyone?). Love it, especially Introgliceryna’s second part!
1. Coldplay – Viva la Vida
This one was difficult. Sure, Viva la Vida is a great post brit-pop record, but in my opinion not as good as the debut Parachutes a couple of years ago. Still, the track with the same title as the album is amazing and can for sure be compared to my all-time Coldplay favorite track, Don’t Panic.
Coldplay's Viva La Vida cover art
Okay, that’s the good-stuff list. How about the other side? Here are my biggest disappointments of the year…
3. Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak
Kanye's new record
Recently released and played in my iPod with huge anticipation. And what? Well… not much. Let’s hope this an artistic experiment, a side album, a spin-off from Kanye’s ideas, a test… Please Mr. West, turn off the auto tune and go back to rapping’, cause you do it well. More than well on 2006’s Graduation! I’m not saying the album is bad – if it’d have been anyone else, it would be good. But with Kanye’s rap talent… singing R’nB ballades is a waste of time.
2. The Kooks – Konk
Gonk! Konk! It can be played, but you hardly notice the music. How could this happen after such an amazing debut with Inside In / Inside Out (2006)?
1. John Legend – Evolver
Finally, the biggest disappointment of the year. Seriously John, what happened? Get Lifted (2004) was amazing, Once Again (2006) was good, though I got tired of it sooner than with Get Lifted. This truly continues the backdown spiral of Legend’s. I’m afraid of the next record which statistically should arrive in 2010. Damn…
There’s one more album worth mentioning, namely Dig You Soul by Oasis. Recently released (November 2008), it is for sure the most Beatlesque record of the year. I haven’t been listing to it a lot, but I do like it for its sound and many references to the Fab Four. Still, Be Here Now (1997) is in my opinion the best Oasis record ever.
So these are my biggest favorites and biggest disappointments of the year, in a retrospective opinion. But the statitics say something else. The most listined album during the whole year is… Veronica Maggio’s Och Vinnaren Är! Seriously, I have no idea how this could happen!
Alright, that’s my opinion. Which are your favorites or most hated records of the year? Don’t hold back!
So far this month’s been great. Clear sky, 25°C in the air and something similar in the sea. Hey folks, come on and visit me while you still can – I won’t be here forever!
The Red Sea in December
More photos on my Dropbox as usual.
So I’m back from the one-day vacation. It was nice to escape the tourists in Sharm for a day. Okay, Mt. Sinai was crowded as well, but Dahab is wonderful if you’re looking for a calm, still and cheap place to chill out.
I have uploaded some pictures to this Dropbox gallery so check them out now!
Tonight I’m taking a little break from the over-day trips to Jerusalem and go somewhere else. The season in Sharm is lowering right now so pretty much all of the guides are here. Yesterday we had a nice night out over at Hard Rock Sharm and now we’ll hit the road. We will see a little more of the Sinai Peninsula cause most of us only go to Israel all the time and haven’t really seen the place we stay at. We go in the middle of the night to arrive at the foot of Mount Sinai and climb it before the sunrise. I’m really looking forward the photos I’ll take from the summit! We’ll also check out one of the oldest monasteries in the world, the Saint Catherine’s Monastery built in 526. Later on we’ll go to Dahab, world famous diving spot, and relax on the beach and in the waters of the Red Sea. Hopefully I’ll have some time to upload the photos to the blog when I’m back. Bye!
Hi folks!
Recently my access to the Cloud has been limited, lots of downtimes when I’m in the hotel. On the other hand I’m not staying in Sharm a lot – there’s been a couple of trips to Jerusalem every week. High season I guess. It feels good knowing that soon I’m going back to Europe and will no longer depend on unstable Egyptian Internet connection. Out for now, bye!
I got back from the beach, had my lunch and now it’s time for the after-noon tea. I still don’t like the hotels, but I must admit it’s very comfortable to live here. And it makes me lazy, which is probably a bad thing.
So here are my readings for today. I started off by reading about the repressions of freedom of speech in today’s Russia. Recently a journalist has been seriously injured for his criticism of some of the Moscow’s bosses and politicians. When I read that, a slide show on the same page led me to these great photos of wrestling Pakistanis. Obviously wrestling is their national sport and they’ve been doing it for over thousand years. Now a little no tech news. RED is soon releasing a new digital video cam aimed at the professional market with its… 261 mega-pixel resolution! Should be enough for a while, I think. But you shouldn’t make stupid comments when it comes to technology, like that one famous quote of Bill Gates about “640K ought to be enough for anybody” (for those who don’t get it: we’re talking about 640 kilobytes, 0,6 megabyte, okay?). Yeah funny, except he never said that – he says now. Something else he said is this:
“To create a new standard, it takes something that’s not just a little bit different; it takes something that’s really new and really captures people’s imagination — and the Macintosh, of all the machines I’ve ever seen, is the only one that meets that standard.” – Bill Gates, at a conference on the Macintosh (1984) Quicktime clip at osdata.com (1.1 MB)
And this one is as much true today as it was in 1984. Amazing foreseeing there, Bill! One last tech thing is this cool app for the Mac which is made for writing long texts, such as books or research thesis. It seems like it has everything to organize the text and even the references (crucial when writing a thesis). Check out the Scrivener.
Of course I couldn’t stay away from Wikipedia today either. I read on some of the Pan-Slavic topics and found something interesting: have you heard about the Czech Corridor? According to Wiki, there was a proposal which “would have carved out an area of land to connect Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.” And thus connecting the Western and Eastern Slavs with the brothers in the South, just as it was before Hungarians invaded the central Europe in the 9th century! Comments on this one folks?
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