From Book II: Surfing the Middle East - walking through Jerusalem

I'm editing Surfing the Middle East this fine weekend, and I came across a paragraph in Book II (the second part of my surfing saga, from Israel to Lebanon) that I found particularly amusing. At this point in the story, I've surfed in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, and now am on my way around the closed border with Lebanon . . . walking through Jaffa Street in Jerusalem. (I'll attach a map below so everyone can see the route I took.)

From Book II:

When walking down Jaffa Street, the biggest rush for the foreigner is when he (or she) makes the abrupt left turn at the end of the street and the Ottoman parapets of the Old City come into focus. The gradual downhill slope, next to the grassy lawn, makes for an easy finish at the Damascus Gate. The walls of the Old City are most amazing here. The sand color stones gleam high in the sun and its jagged edges hint back to an earlier time for humanity, when you had to actually layer your defenses so that drunks with arrows could shoot at whatever infidel seemed to be invading. Now, everyone has fighter jets and whatever the hell Saddam used, and thus the gradual decline from Jaffa Street to the Damascus Gate is now better known for great pictures, the entrance to the Old City and the best place to catch a taxi to Bethlehem.

The Amazon Tablet

OK. I completely understand that blogging the casbah is about love, travel, lust, fun, Ford Bronco's, surfing, the Middle East, Israel, Lebanon, Islamists, making fun of Islamists, comedy, fiction (and non-fiction), and everything else that is newsworthy . . . however, I should say that I have expertise in three areas:

iPad Apps; Middle East journalism; and self-publishing.

So I'd like to weigh in on Amazon's potential for making a tablet . . . and how it could very well could make them money.

Simply, Amazon has what others do not. They have content, users credit cards and trust. They also have their accounts, and the magical ability to make sales within 1 click of the purchase.

With this combination, Amazon could be very well positioned to be competitive for Apple's tablet market share. They'll have the ability, like Apple, to sell tablets and sell from their stores under their rules . . . Because at the end of the day it's about content, and how easy it is to buy it.

So will Amazon's attempt to get into the tablet market work? Maybe. It's complicated. But I'm more interested in why other tablet makers, such as Samsung, have failed? Because they haven't had their own app stores and controlled everything? Because they haven't been within 1 click of the sale? Or maybe because tablets are so new that the apps weren't mainstream enough to survive outside of Apple's control?

What do you think?

Writing tip: make time for breaks, vagabonding, and Baja surf trips

Hola amigos, just got back from a little Baja surf adventure to clear the mind. Indeed. That's one thing I've learned about writing a book: you can't force yourself to the point maximum mental exhaustion, because if you do, you'll spend more time having to go back over it and fix it than if you just hammered out some fine text to begin with.

How bout that, eh?

Anyway, as part of my policy in keeping my vagabonding spirit alive while putting the finishing touches on my book, Surfing the Middle East (a story about surfing from Israel to Lebanon), I decided to spend Labor Day weekend with a few friends on a surf trip to the rugged frontier of Baja, California. The following is from that menace: