"Mapi Liberia" documentary

When my sister was studying abroad in Ghana in 2007-2008, she started a girls soccer team at a Liberian refugee camp. The team was named "Mapi," which was our nickname for our dad, because he was the one who taught her soccer.

While in Ghana, a fellow exchange student (from Germany) thought this would make an interesting documentary. Well, a few months later, here is a clip of the trailer of the film. (Click on the clip titled "Mapi Liberia Working title with new music"). It was shown fairly widely in Germany and my sister is trying to get it shown at the local independent movie theatre in Fort Collins.

They grow up so fast

I am in the FoCo on a weekish long vacation before the start of the hell, wrath and fury that is the legislative session. I had a rude awakening on my first full day back here. My sister and I went to the club (gym, for my Northeast readers) and played some raquetball.

This is a typical routine for us, and it usually goes like this: We play, my sister sometimes scores in the double digits, but in the end I sweep the best of three series easily.

Well, turns out that my little sister has been practicing the ol' ballgame and she got pretty damn good. She has (umm, had) only beaten me in a series once before. Sure, every now and then I will lose a game to her, but a series, that was a once in a lifetime event. And I remember that the time she did beat me, I was lazy, uninterested and she basically ambushed me.

Well, mark this date down: December 26, 2009. I got a raquetball beatdown. An ol' fashioned ass-whooping. I am sure the fathers and mothers out there reading this can relate. It felt like that first time that a son or daughter beat you at something, whether it be chess, or basketball, or just plain physically beat you up.

So my little sister finally grew up (or I grew old). We played again yesterday afternoon, a best of 5 this time, and yes, although I ultimately prevailed, it was only after a furious rally from 2-1 games down. I am no longer the scary raquetballer that bullied my sister and built my own confidence at her expense. I am now running around a raquetball court like a moron chasing a little black ball - all this at the hands of a person that is barely over 4 feet tall.

Adventures in FSX

Around this time last year, I was grousing about the fact that FS 2004: A Century of Flight was no longer good enough after I had caught a glimpse of the screen shots of Flight Simulator X. This is despite the fact that I had only been playing said FS 2004 for about two months at the time and had deemed it a "major upgrade." What I did not say last December, was that I had gone to Best Buy to see exactly how much FSX would set me back. Well, if you know me at all, you would also now know that it must have been a poop load of money because I am usually quite tempted when it comes to the purchase airplane and airplane accessories.

Turns out I was at the old shopping mall the other day on different business and I decided to meander on over to Best Buy and lo and behold, FSX was available at a significantly reduced price. So I bought it.

Problem: the graphics on this game are very much as amazing as I expected them to be. Why is this a problem, you might be asking yourself? Well, my laptop is not quite able to handle all of this airplane goodness very well.

Result: sometimes choppy action on the computer and a failure to be able to run multiple flights due to my computer giving up.

It's not all bad, though. About the same time I purchased FSX, I also started using a little thing called YouTube. You may have heard of this. Well, it turns out that people out there that are in fact dorkier than me have made videos of how to use the Instrument Landing System (ILS) on FSX. This is huge actually for two reasons: (1) it allows me to use the larger jetliners because I have a greater probability of landing them and (2) I can fly anywhere I want. As I have said before, one of my handicaps with the earlier versions of FS was that I only was able to use airports that I could locate with visual clues. That really limited my options. Now I can fly virtually anywhere and the ILS will guide me down to my destination.

You can bet that I have already put all the new features of FSX to good use. Here are two screenshots of a successful landing at ALB with an A321. Check out the detail on the wing - you can literally see runway between the ailerons and flaps.Another great feature of FSX is the new and improved airline options. The plane I was using above is Pacifica Airlines. It's so good that were it real and a flag-carrier, it would have a decent shot in the best color scheme among flag-carriers tournament.

The unexptected joys of long lost emails

My mom's organization has been asking its employees to start trimming the volume of emails they keep in storage. As a result, she has been going back through some very comprehensive archives that she could barely recollect even existed. This little seemingly inane task has actually been incredibly rewarding for us because she has dug up some emails that my dad had sent ages ago.
Reading through them has been very bittersweet. First of all, it has been great for me and my sister to see that our parents, even after a difficult divorce, still communicated regularly and amicably about us and their conversations back and forth show that they had remained close friends and equal opportunity parents after all these years. Second, it is incredible to see how much parents worry and discuss their children behind our backs. I mean this strictly in a positive light. For example, in 2001 I was diagnosed with keratoconus, which is an affliction of the cornea that causes very poor vision and can only be controlled with hard contact lenses. This was very difficult for both of my parents, and I would argue perhaps a bit more difficult for my dad based on the long distance that separated us. This was certainly evident in the emails. My mom carried the same worry with her, but had the benefit of seeing me every day and knowing that I was in no danger. And finally, it is humorous to see my father and mother discuss events about me and my sister and see their takes on the happenings of the day.

Here are some excerpts, which have been translated and provided with context as necessary:

(1) Following my high school graduation in 2001 (from the humorously named Poudre High School) I went to Argentina for 6 months to spend time with family.

"Nico is doing well. He is always in a good mood and enjoys everything we do...We talk and go out a lot and we both have a very ironic sense of humor. His sense of humor is not the only thing he gets from me - he is also very inconsistent. It is very difficult for him to follow through on anything that he starts. He started playing hockey here, he bought the hockey stick (which he quickly destroyed at the first practice). I went to the store and tried to exchange it by saying that it was damaged, but I am afraid it is our son that may be 'damaged.' He then bought a chest protector, spent all his money and now he doesn't go anymore....One of the topics we have broached is the difficulty he has 'socializing' with the girls. I would prefer on some Saturdays that he go out with groups of kids his age. I don't force him to do anything, but at least we have talked about it. In this regard, I can assure you he is not like me."
(2) On the same 6 month trip to Argentina, I took a brief trip to Buenos Aires, and my dad takes his opportunity to air some grievances to my mom:

"I just spoke to Nico and he arrived safely in Buenos Aires. I just thought you should know that he is starting to become somewhat expensive for me - and not for what he is making me spend, but rather for what he is breaking. I lent him my watch, which I have worn continuously for more than 10 years. In less than 24 hours he broke it. He tried to open my closet while the latch was closed. He gave it an enormous tug, broke the latch, made the frame fly across the room and separated some of the wood from the door of the closet. Fortunately, my life was miraculously spared since I was away from the scene of the accident. Yesterday at the bus station, my mother went to give him a kiss on his hand. He made a sudden movement with those enormous sausage like fingers on his hand and struck my poor mother's jaw. I almost had to go looking for her detached head at gate number 28. All kidding aside, my mother's jaw was swollen last night....It's a good thing his career path is the law instead of gynecology."

(3) My sister studied abroad in Germany her junior year in high school. Here are some communications relating to that experience.
"On Tuesday I talked to her. The mother answered and I can't even tell you what our communication was like. I spoke to her in 'my English' because I think it is closer to German than my Spanish, and she talked to me in 'her English' which is unlike any other human language....[On Sunday] I tried to scold her by jokingly telling her that how could it be possible that we had to deprive ourselves of sleep to wait until 4am to call her. She was happy to hear from us and told us she was up and waiting to go to church. Nico and I had a good laugh about this new experience of hers. I told her that now that she was going to be attending church every Sunday that maybe she would become a nicer person."

So, the moral of the story is that parents are neat. And that is all I have to say about that.

Of EgyptAir and pyramids

All I can say is "Wow!"

At various parts of our trip to Egypt, Diane and I woud ask each other, "How are we going to describe this to people back home?" The truth is that I do not think words (or pictures) can really do justice to the history and splendor of Egypt.

First things first, the airplane information...

Our New York-Cairo trips were on B777, Nefertiti I to be exact.


We had four domestic flights, as follows:

Cairo - Aswan on an Embraer 170 (which coincidentally was my first time in such a plane).

Aswan - Abu Simbel on an A321.

Abu Simbel - Aswan on a B737.

Hurghada - Cairo on an Embraer 170 (sadly I got no picture of this plane).

A few notes on these flights...First of all, the service was very good. We were given a little tote bag with a travel toothbrush and socks. Plus, the crew handed out refreshing towels throughout the flight. Second of all, it was absolutely fascinating to hear the announcements in Arabic. Third, on the flight to Cairo from JFK, the cabin TVs showed live video (picture below) that was mounted on the front wheel, so we could see what the pilots were looking at as they taxiied. The video was left on through takeoff. I was hoping they would turn it on for landing, but no such luck. Lastly, the flights to an from Abu Simbel were very short - 45 minutes, to be exact. As such, the plane only ascended to 13000 feet.

I am struggling to find the words to describe the rest of the adventure. The trip was much better than we had anticipated. I was worried that we might be stuck in a group of tourists and have to mope around with a bunch of old people. Luckily, that was not the case. We essentially had our own private guided tour of Egypt. We went from temple to temple with our guides, who were both incredibly helpful and added so much value to the trip.

I could rattle off all the sites we visited, but I will stick to what one of our guides called the "Big Three." (1) The Great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx; (2) Abu Simbel; and (3) Karnak.

The Great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx
I remember being a bit disappointed when I first saw Mount Rushmore. I guess the pictures I had seen were taken from angles that made the monument appear enormous. In reality, it was not as large as I expected it to be. I don't mean to take anything away from Mount Rushmore, I simply mean that sometimes when you have very large expectations, you may set yourself up for disappointment. I was worried about that with the Pyramids. Boy was I wrong. They are BIGGER, LARGER, MORE IMPRESSIVE than I had imagined. If they had been built two years ago, they would still be impressive. To think that they were built thousands of years ago, without the technology that we have now, is just mind boggling.
I was also fascinated by the location of the pyramids - they are in the Cairo suburb of Giza, right across the Nile from the world's second largest city. In fact, although our excursion to Giza was scheduled for the second day of our trip, we actually saw the pyramids from the Citadel, which is on a hill in the middle of Cairo. It was so interesting to see a massive urban center with such a clearly ancient temple.

Abu Simbel
Of all the temples that Rameses II built, this one is my favorite - and it's not only because of its magnificance or location, but also for the message. It is located on the shores of Lake Nasser, near Egypt's southern border with Sudan. When it was built it was meant as a "warning" to the enemies of Egypt to the south (the Nubians?).

It is also very fitting that Rameses II also honored his favorite wife, Nefertari, with an equally splendid temple near his own intimidating temple. Rameses II had over 90 wives (or so, I can't remember the exact number). One of our guides took to calling him Casanova. The guy was a pharaonic FDR. He put his people to work on all sorts of public works, actually mostly just temples honoring him and the Gods. What a guy. As a side note, we saw him (his mummy anyway) in the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. He was around 90 years old at the time of his death, and he looks remarkably good for a 90 year old (not to mention that having been thousands of years ago). He had a horseshoe bald thing going on, and his body had not contorted in any strange way.

Karnak
One thing we kept hearing on our trip was how the main Egyptian god was Amun Ra, the Sun God. That is why Egyptians lived on the east bank of the Nile, where the sun rose every morning, and all their funerary temples and tombs are on the west bank, where the sun sets. There were many other gods that were worshipped and the most important ones had very impressive temples built in their honor. We visited one in Kom Ombo built for the crocodile god and Horus (the falcon god). Horus was an important part of Egyptian mythology, and as such, he had a very impressive temple all to himself in Edfu. All along, I kept thinking, if they built all these incredible temples for the minor gods, I wonder what a temple for Amun Ra would look like? Answer: Karnak.

Karnak is the world's largest religious complex. My guidebook said that it is larger than the Vatican's St. Peter's Basilica and London's St. Paul's. The Great Hypostile Hall in Karnak has just rows after rows of columns. And, my god the obelisks. This is one of those places where I specifically remembering asking Diane how we would explain this to people who have not been here. It is simply a collection of greatness that you would expect from a people that were motivated to please their main god. Anything less would have been unacceptable to the Egyptians.

As far as further observations about Egypt, I can only say that we felt incredibly safe the entire time. We could walk around at night in any of the places that we stayed. We never ever felt in any sort of danger. There is a law in Egypt that requires American tourists to be accompanied by armed guards. Thankfully our guide would tell police at the checkpoints that we were British so that we weren't joined by a guard. Frankly, the requirement is unnecessary.

Islam is a beautiful religion. Five times a day, moslems pray, but we came to the conclusion that meditation is a more accurate term for what occurs. I loved hearing the prayer calls, except for the ones at 4:30 a.m. But otherwise, there was no better way to know you were in the Arab world than to hear the calls from the mosques. There is a fairly sizeable Christian population in Egypt, and they appear to live in harmony with the Moslems, if what we were told is correct. Our observations certainly seemed to support that notion. I will probabl never understand the issue with women in Islam - but the rest of the religion is indeed fascinating. As a side note, everybody assumed we were Christians, when in fact we are atheists. We both felt it was easier to let them assume we were Christians than to have the conversation about how we believe in nothing.

Camels are asinine. We rode a camel around the Great Pyramids of Giza, and when I was getting on it, the camel let out an enormous groan/sigh/growl. It was clearly not pleased that I was on him. He was equally sad to learn that ADB woul be coming along for the ride as well. At least he didn't spit on us.

They love Obama in Egypt. When we told people we were from New York, the would say, "American..........Obama." That was usually followed by us enthusiastically saying, "Yesssss!" and them responding, "Obama, good man. Bush, bad." What a thrill to not be embarrased (and terrified) to travel as an American anymore.

My sister is a heartless, mean negotiator. When I was in Ghana with her, she was able to bargain for an amazing amount of gifts for ridiculously good prices. We didn't do so well in Egypt, although I did manage to offend a carpet store owner when I offered $100 for three carpets, including a moslem prayer rug that had Arabic scribe on it which he said cost $1300. He didn't even know why I wanted that one. "Excuse me, but I do not think you are Arabic," he said to me. I wish I could go into Hannaford's and say, "$3 for milk. You're crazy, I'll give you $1.15." I did get a little better as the trip went along. My favorite strategy was to tell people that I was Argentinean and a student. That way I could comfortably claim relative poverty compared to other tourists and gain some sympathy.

And this is my last comment about the trip, and actually it's only partially about Egypt. We met a couple from Saratoga on the way home, and Cathy was telling us about a Chilean they had met on their travels incessantly complained about how dirty the streets were. At that point, I chimed in, "Well...as a Chilean he should be used to dirty streets." Oh Chile, I kid.

Egypt Itinerary is in

We finally received the details on our forthcoming trip to Egypt. By the way, I highly encourage people to watch NatGeo TV - that is how trips like this are born.

The big honker is a direct JFK - Cairo flight on an EgyptAir Triple 7, just as I suspected. It's 11 hours on the way there and about 13 on the way back. We have, to my great delight and to ADB's great indifference, a series of domestic EgyptAir flights. We are flying from Cairo to Aswan on a ERJ, from Aswan to Abu Simbel and back on an A320 and B737 respectively, and from Hurghada to Cairo on an ERJ. We are going to be pretty airplaned out by the end of this, I suppose.

Needless to say, we are both very excited about the trip. We spend a total of three days in Cairo. We then head South, to Abu Simbel, and then to Aswan to begin a cruise of the Nile with stops in Edfu, Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, and Luxor. From there, we head to the Red Sea town of Hurghada for two days before heading back to Cairo for the return trip home.

I will have pictures posted of all our airplanes, as well as the pyramids probably, right here. I should note, for the record, that EgyptAir is sporting a new color scheme since the African regional in the Color Scheme Tournament. But I am sure you had all figured that out on your own already. That's what I like about you - your attention to detail.

Homophonia at Stewarts

I was filling up on costly gasoline at the Stewart's on Henry Johnson Blvd, when I noticed this sign looking back at me.
It took me a sec, but I believe they meant: "Don't let your engine CEASE; use Anti Freeze." Unless they are taking it to the extreme and warning drivers to not let their engines go into seizures. Highly unlikely.