Mark’s Notes On The Go

From my hotel room in Aswan, I had a great view of the Nile, but only a sliver of the dunes of the Sahara was visible over Elephantine Island. I didn’t have to think about it long. On our first afternoon there, we more or less watched the sun set on those dunes from the backs of our camels. And while I don’t relish jumping up on the back of a camel again, it’s an experience I would not think to trade.

We reached the Sahara by boat, and this was my first view of that incredible landscape. I would have loved to have had more time to explore the dunes with my camera. Chances are I’d still be there finding something new at every turn…

It seems hard to believe my trip to Egypt ended over a month ago, but that was January and even February is speeding to a conclusion. Where does time go?

I’ve been busy with work lately. And when not busy with work, doing some spring cleaning and organizing. I know it’s not spring, but when Spring gets here and there’s light after my work day is done, the last thing I want to do is clean!

One good thing about working at home, and it’s a toss up some days whether I like it or not, I have a window a few feet from me all day. I wasn’t remotely near the windows at work before, and it definitely made winter more dismal. I’ve never been diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder, but I definitely get the winter blues. They’ve been better at home where I have access to light, but a lot of last week was gloomy no matter where you were, and that’s just how I felt.

Anyway, I finally found time tonight to sit down in front of the TV (watching a DVD of old Archies cartoons!) and work on some photos. I’ll post more to the gallery soon, but I wanted to share this one. I was going for that classic shadow on the desert feel, and I really like how it turned out. There aren’t a ton of desert photos as I was holding on for dear life on top of that camel! The motion didn’t help stabilize you much either!

These are the moments I plan to look back on fondly years from now, that I took the time in my life to see these places and experience moments like these.

I spent the day doing some website maintenance. Funny, I thought I was going to do some house cleaning. Coincidence or procrastination? Hmmm….

Anyway, while I was chained to the laptop, I finally caught up to the latest podcast at Have You Heard - a fairly new but swift growing local podcast. The folks doing it are local, the music calendar is local, but the music, is diverse in location and taste. There have been several bands added to my myspace friends list to keep up with, but today I made my first purchase as a result.

I pretty much suck at music reviews - I just know when I like something, and the song played on the latest podcast for a band called Vampire Weekend, appealed to me. I popped by their website and listened to some more and then splurged the $7.99 for the album at amazon. I’ve listened to it for several hours now and absolutely no buyers remorse. Anything I can listen to this many times straight is definitely road worthy!

Give the band a listen, and give Have You Heard a listen as well - even if Vampire Weekend isn’t your cup of tea, I think you’ll find something along the way that does it for you.