The Egyptian Way :: VIDEO - The Ride Home

The Egyptian Way :: VIDEO - The Ride Home

I've been living in Cairo for a full five semesters and I'm in my sixth semester teaching here. Seems like yesterday when I first landed in the Middle East.

Enough reminiscing. The point is the commute from where I live and to the campus should take about 45 minutes. However, in crazy Cairo the traffic is outrageous and so the commute usually takes at least an hour if not longer. Try the hashtag: #CairoTraffic and you'll see what I mean.

The other day when I woke up from a brief nap on the ride home, I decided to pull out my iPhone and snag a few pics and then I kept taking pics until I had over 50 images in the span of about 7 minutes.

This vid is not meant to be artistic or anything else. Just a view from a window on a bus in Cairo.

You can see the Cairo Life :: The Ride Home pics online too.

VIDEO - The Ride Home

VIDEO: The Food in Barcelona and Madrid

VIDEO: The Food in Barcelona and Madrid

My three week ala carte trip to Barcelona and Spain this summer was quite the learning experience. It was my first solo trip that was planned without a package or a tour company.

Planning for this type of trip is key. In the end, it all worked out and I had a nice time.

Over the next few weeks I'll be recapping my trip. I'll highlight:

• the hotels
• some of the restaurants
• the activities and sites

But for now ... how about some pics of the food in Barcelona and Madrid? Delish.

VIDEO: The Food in Barcelona and Madrid

Reverb 10 :: End of 2010 Video :: Lovin Life

I've decided to be a part of Reverb10. It's a 31-day blogging challenge where you reply to the daily writing prompts that are designed to get you to reflect on this past year as well as provide some insight for the upcoming year. I'm going to give myself 5-7 minutes for each post.

Day 25 :: December 25, 2010 :: Photo/Video

• Sift through all the photos of you from the past year. Choose one that best captures you; either who you are, or who you strive to be. Find the shot of you that is worth a thousand words. Share the image, who shot it, where and what it best reveals about you. (Author: Tracey Clark)

I've fallen behind on my Reverb10 posts over the past few days, but the funny thing is I've been working on this video for the past few days; trying to make it just right. So I'm not going to focus on one image, but several.

Boy, did I have some fun in 2010. Had some tough times too; still working through some things. Will probably always be working on some things. But my focus here is on the good times and there were plenty of good times w/good peeps because mostly I'm lovin life and my options right now.

I put together this 35 second Animoto vid to recap some of the blessings of this past year.

New Tech Stuff That I'm Using

Just a quick post on some new tech stuff that I've been checking out. They're all free and that makes them even more fun.

Dipity is for creating timelines. Another powerful way to tell stories.
Dipity

Create an incredible presentation w/Prezi. It makes PowerPoint look silly. Oh, and you can get an educators account too (if you're an educator).

Prezi

Still one of my favs despite the amount of time it takes to buffer 30 second vids - Animoto.

Animoto

I've come to enjoy Google Sites. Just learned that I could use it as a private wiki for my classes.

Google Sites

What would I do w/out Dropbox. I'll nearly stopped carrying a usb drive since I started using this program.

Dropbox

And my current fav is Google Chrome. Took some time to warm up to it. I was soooo married to Firefox. I like the uncluttered look of chrome. On start up, you can list the website that you want to open (I still like the 'save' feature in Firefox).

Google Chrome

The VLC Player has been getting some use these days to. I like that it plays nearly any kind of file.

VLC Player

I hope to post up a Prezi presentation in the next few days.

VIDEO: Random Images from Egypt

Since moving to Egypt, there is rarely a moment when I don't have my camera. It's nothing fancy a Canon A570IS, but it's compact enough to fit in my purse and relatively quick to start up.

Though I've taken lots of photos while in Egypt, there are times when taking images is inappropriate. For example, I really want a pic of Muslims during prayer, but it just seems invasive. Also, in some of the more conservative parts of Cairo, sometimes they are not comfortable w/people taking pics and so I honor that.

Often when I am out and about, something weird and/or random happens. Nice to have a camera for those times.



Some of the images in this slide show are random images from Egypt. Most of the images were taken in Cairo, but some were taken in Alexandria as well as the White Desert. And there is one image that I did not actually take - it's the one of a group jumping in the sand. That was taken by Yehya Hafez. Thanks for looking.

Winter Storm 2009

The first major winter storm of 2009 hits the Buckeye State.

Check out this short video

Just checking out a new program - nice.