Welcome!

Matt and I went to the middle east for the holidays. It was amazing. We started off by flying into Rome (not technically part of the middle east), and spending a few days with my friends Amber and Gordon, and their two daughters Maisie and Beattie. We then went on to Beirut, Lebanon, taking side trips to Byblos and Baalbak (in the Bakaa valley). Then we went to Damascus, and from there to Palmyra and then to Krak de Chevalliers (the crusader castle–never conquered!). Then on to Petra (!) and back to Damascus for a couple of days before flying out.

Amazing.

For anyone interested, there are photos on flickr.

There are actually lots and lots of photos on flickr. But I’ve made it a little easier by compiling a highlights set.

And, of course, my photos are the ones I took. For the rest (including any photos actually of me) you’ll have to check out Matt’s flickr.

I would suggest that you at least look at his Baalbak set, since I didn’t bring my camera on that trip.

In our whole trip to the middle east (about 2.5 weeks), we saw 1 rat. This is not because the streets are clean and all garbage is carefully locked away and everything is hermetically sealed. Far from it. Streets run the gamut from dirt to cobblestone to paved, and garbage is typically left on the side of the street in open plastic bags. Buildings are (literally) ancient, with electric and plumbing exposed. I think the reason that the streets are not overrun with rats (as, for example, on Howard Street in NYC, or 5th Street in LA) is because there are cats *everywhere*. There were cats that looked like they were mostly indoor cats, and cats that were definitely feral. One could say that replacing one feral species with another is not much of an upgrade, but I would beg to differ. It was a pleasure seeing the cats, which I can never say about rats.

I kinda like Twitter. I like hearing Laylah be moany from Melbourne, and all about Audra’s daily bus adventures. But one thing that I find hopeful and inspriring, is the use of Twitter by a local Korean restaurant. They have a truck that drives around LA so that you can get great Korean food on the go. Traditionally they would have had to have a reliable route in order to build up a customer base, but now they can (and do) use Twitter. I subscribe to their feed, and I know if the truck is headed downtown or over to Venice.

When Matt and I were in the middle east, I kept marveling at how it really was the most capitalist place I’d ever been. Everything for sale, but small (seemingly) independent vendors. Shops of all sizes (leaning towards the small), plus vendors with small carts (human and donkey powered) or large booths, and independent sellers selling everything from Hezbollah tshirts to chewing gum. It reminded me of the New York City that I grew up in. We had seltzer and milk delivered (not always, but often), and when the knife sharpener came around with his truck we all came out with our knives. I don’t think this happens much any more.

I love the local. And the mobile. And I would love if Twitter (and other web tools), helped bring back us all back to the small scale and local by being able to patronize such things as the Korean food truck.

Apparently the USA falls behind 8 countries in “robot density” INCLUDING BELGIUM AND ITALY. I can understand, as sad as it is, how we can behind Japan, Germany and Sweden, but BELGIUM? This isn’t right. I know Obama has a long long to-do list, but increasing the Robot Density in the US to at least be on a par with Finland or Sweden really needs to be in the top 100. Right after the White House organic food lawn.