I have been gifted of Brigit, goddess of Irish bards!

Yes! My literary gifts are as imense as they are indomitable! I have over 14,000 words. Why you ask? Because I rule. Not only is my word count well over where it must be, but my characters are developing some depth, my plot has actually taken some sort of shape and there is action and humor aplenty. Not only that, but with the pretty turn of a phrase here and there, I'm pretty sure that I may end up giving Homer a run for his money.

In the book included in the "No Plot, No Problem" kit says this about blogging: "Using Blogger, Live Journal, or any other free online diary site, set up a blog that will chart the meteoric rise of your novelist stature during your writing month. Include (very short) bits of your novel if you like, along with each day's word count totals. Be sure also to fill it with plausible yet greatly exaggerated tales of your literary accomplishtments. Discuss any bears you've wrestled and your latest victories or defeats at the hands of the ever-present procrastination demons. Decorate it with pictures of you staring pensively at your screen. Then send a link for the blog out to your cheerleaders. Be sure to tell them that your blog has a way of telling you who has visited every day, and make it clear that those who don't visit and leave encouraging comments on a regular basis will be removed from your will."

So there it is, ladies and germs! My boasts may be a little overinflated, but never my word count.

Also, I'd like to thank Tera for being my first challenger. She issued the challenge of sorting the beads. I have conquored that challenge and remain strong in my purpose and sure of my course. That said, I still have seven more challenges to go and am still accepting more. They say that words 15,000 through 30,000 are the hardest to keep up your motivation. So if you still have a challenge, bring it! If only you could see me now. I am making the gesture that famed Morpheus of the Matrix made when challenging Neo to battle. That's right. Bring it!

And thanks again for playing, Tera! You guys rule.

Stan B's birthday

Well it's Stan's birthday. Stan worked for me on Kwaj and was universally well loved in the department and by the customers. I had his birthday reminder come up and realized I didn't have his email address for some reason, so if anyone out there knows him and how I could get an email to him, I'd be grateful. And thanks, Throb, for the idea to post about it here!

Cyprus last year

Here are a couple of videos that I never got uploaded from our Cyprus trip. We went to a really cool wine festival where you bought a bottle and they kept filling it for you for free. This was a group of guys sitting around a table singing and carying on. As you can see, everyone was hot and drunk. Good times.

The next one is us in the courtyard of Aphrodite's sanctuary, also in Cyprus. Apparently the goddess was born on a beach not far from this shrine. This place had a beautiful garden outside the main gate where Tom got a picture of a perfect rose almost as an afterthought. It wasn't until we got home and were looking at the pictures that we realized how lovely it was. Maybe if you all pester him he'll post it. ;)

No writing this weekend.

So I installed some MS patches on my computer and rebooted it before beginning my writing for the weekend and wouldn't you know it, it wouldn't boot to the OS. Son of a...

Anyway, Devin helped me pull the data off my HD, now I just have to figure out what's wrong with the 'puter and we'll be back up and running. Good thing I got ahead on my word count, eh?

Hilbug and YIKES!

Check it out! Hilary has a blog! I've made a link to it on the right under Other Goodness.

Holy cow! I just realized I have to write 5000 words before Feb 9th!

Super holy cow! I just realized that on March 31, my MCSE upgrade track will expire! I have to finish two MS tests by then or I'll have to completely redo my cert!

YIKES!

Challenges

Ok, gang, the challenges and their word counts have been finalized. It's not too late though! If you have any other challenges, feel free to submit them. If you look over on the right, I have the date the challenge is due by (randomly selected by my handsome husband), the word count required, the odious task I must perform if I do not meet the deadline and then the proverbial piper to be paid. Check it out!

Other fun stuff

Ok, this is my last post about Jordan, so if you are just opening this, start at the first post at the bottom and work your way up. There was too much to put in just one post, so I had to chop it up. This is the last one. START AT THE BOTTOM!

So here are a few last fun things from Jordan.

This is the dead sea. I didn't like it one bit. In fact, something about it really creeped me out. We stopped and the swarms of flies were absolutely insufferable. I'm not sure what they live on, because there's nothing living in the dead sea. They must be eating the salt or something, but I've only seen swarms of flies like that... well... on dead things. Living salt water from the sea has a very particular taste. When I put my finger in this water, it felt greasy, not like water at all. When I touched my finger to my tongue, it tasted not only salty, but bitter. It tasted like someone had put five pounds of salt into a jug of sour milk. Did I mention the flies? I couldn't put it behind us fast enough and there was no way in hell I was going to put any more than a finger in that cursed "water." Unnatural is the only word I can come up with to describe it.

This was a temple to Dianna in Jaresh which I found absolutely breath-takingly beautiful.

This is one of my favorite videos taken our first day out as we were drinking the Arabian coffee I was talking about earlier. Tom, Linda and Ben just being big clowns. I call it Tom Blows.

And speaking of clowns, Tom has dubbed this one The Sharks of Mt. Nebo. I'm not sure what we were doing, but this just sort of happened and Tom swears it looks like being on Troy's coral head in the Kwajalein Atoll with sharks circling you. Again. Clowns.

We had a wonderful time. I cannot tell you how awesome the Jordanian people are and the amazing trust they hold with such significant treasures within their borders. Jordan is one of the few non-oil bearing countries in the region so they depend a fair bit on tourism. Anyway, it's a far sight from the way the stupid Taliban destroyed anything of non-Muslim significance when they took over Afghanistan. Idiots. But the fact that all these sites in Jordan are equally respected, cared for and proudly shown off, no matter the race or religion of the people who built them speaks volumes about the tolerant goodness of the Jordanians. In a region full of strife, surrounded by what they call "noisy neighbors" it is nice to know that goodness and true brotherhood can exist among such diverse people.

Oh, and did I mention that the soldiers and charioteers were totally hot? ;)

But my favorite was Petra

My absolute favorite was Petra. As I said below, I got really sick one day and just slept for about 24 hours. Unfortunately for me, but wicked-awesome for them, the other kids got to go on a candle-lit tour of Petra. They walked the mile or so down the canyon lit by thousands of candles in paper bags which must have lent it an ethereal glow. The rocks are all different shades, from yellow to red and are in the most amazing stratification, you pretty much have to see to believe. Their guide told them to be silent on the walk down. Then suddenly the narrow crack in the earth through which you've been traveling opens up and there is the treasure of Petra, a beautiful building carved into the cliff face. The workmanship is enough to make you cry. When their tour arrived, the face of the cliff was lit by a myriad of candles and oil lamps, much as it must have been lit thousands of years ago. With the crowd awed into any silence that they might not have remembered from the guide's admonitions, the haunting sound of a reed flute emanated from the darkened doorways of the treasury. A man in traditional Bedouin garb came out and gave some idea of how the people must have lived in this amazing valley. I can only imagine what a spiritual experience that must have been.

Petra was amazing in the daylight too, and when we went on further explorations the next day, the scope of the huge city really revealed itself. Of course several different groups of people made Petra their home over the course of thousands of years and it became an important trading post along the silk road and the King's highway.

Sorry that one is so shaky, but you really need to see the movement from the canyon into the city itself to get the sense of awe you have upon finally seeing this amazing sight!

As you can see, there are caves where the commoners dwelt and more elaborate places where the wealthier families lived. These places served both as homes and tombs, as often the people who lived in Petra would bury their dead under the floors of the living spaces or in alcoves in the walls. I love my family, but I'm afraid I have no intention of living with their dead bodies if they go first! Yelch!

The Romans also had a big influence in Petra. In this video, you can see a lower area of the coliseum which is what some of the earlier inhabitants built, then the Romans finished it. On the highest part of the cliff is where sacrifices to the various gods were performed. That's a long way to go dragging a goat behind you!

Madaba - All the fuss

And this is what all the fuss was about. At one point almost the entire floor of this church was taken up with this incredibly detailed mosaic of the holy land. The whole church was filled with these beautiful tile mosaics

Again, remember that all this beautiful art was done in tiny little quarter-inch square tiles. Amazing!

Nabhan the smart guy

Our guide was awesome. His name was Nabhan and I'll let him explain that for himself. He was just getting over a pretty nasty cold, which is where I think I got mine from...

Nabhan was our constant companion, guide and driver. The man knew tons of fun little out of the way places and seemed to have friends no matter where we stopped. This was our first day together.

Strangely, at one point, he had been a soldier in the Kuwaiti Army. If anyone has the good sense to want to go to Jordan, let me know and I'll get you Nabhan's email address and you can have him help you set up your tour and be your guide. It would be way cheaper than going through an agency. I can't remember what the name of this town was, but we stopped here to see the oldest known map of the holy land at a cute little church that is still in use today. We also got some Arabic coffee from this street vendor. It was dark and strong and you only drink half of it because they don't strain the grounds.

Mt Nebo

So in the Bible, it says that God promised Moses all the lands he could see from the top of Mt Nebo. Now the Franciscans keep it up and this is the shrine at the top. Unfortunately, there are a lot of other people that say that God promised them the very same land, so who knows? Anyway, on a clear day, you can see all the way into Israel from this point.

As you can tell, you can see very far from the top of Mt Nebo.

More Jordan

Ok, I can't tell if that video is working or not, so someone let me know, ok? Here's another one at a place called Kerak. It was thought to have been originally a palace and mosque but was later expanded and used as a crusader's outpost. The place is truly massive. I would guess it probably takes up at least a square mile of surface area and we found at least five different levels. In this first video, Linda and Ben stand atop the highest level, then Ben gives me the blow-off and Linda is left wondering why exactly she didn't bring one of those cute Roman soldiers along instead of some geeky engineer who thinks he's Indiana Jones. *smirk!*

Go there! Seriously!

There is a place in the Middle East where no one really cares all that much if you're Christian, Jewish, Suni, Shia or other. It's a place with a rich, beautiful history, attractive, down to earth people and a decent exchange rate. Courtesy and hospitality are the simple way of things and that place is called Jordan.

My friend Ben and my newest friend Linda came over from the US to visit us for New Years and we went to Jordan together for 5 fun-filled, adventure-packed days.

We started in Amman, which is the capitol city. We got in kind of late, so we pretty much just hung around the beautiful hotel bar at the Marriott. It was my dream library. Everything was rich dark woods and soft leathers with old books and paintings everywhere. We ate and drank and chatted well into the night, enjoying the lovely room and the easy hospitality of the staff.

The next few days are sort of a blur. Went North to Jerash, which is this amazing modern city that was built over the top of an ancient Roman city which had in turn been built over other more ancient cities, such as Antioch, which I found pretty funny (Think the holy hand grenade of Antioch from the Holy Grail). Here's a vid from a crossroads in the Roman city which is being rebuilt:

I'll post another vid in a second once I make sure I can actually save these things on the site.