I seem to have a computer virus that is eating up my memory and slowing my computer down, making it freeze or crash frequently. Looks like I'm going to have to take it to a repair shop and have a tech go over it, so I might not be around to much the next few days.:cry:

I've recently added yet another Kiwi TV show to my list of edited shows, and will likely add another tomorrow. Outrageous Fortune, one of New Zealand's most successful shows of all time, is about an family of career criminals who try and go straight after father Wolf gets sent to prison for four years. The show is full of both humor and drama, and is a great watch. It's been so successful that it has generated a UK version of the show, and an American version is currently in the works. The show I hope to soon get is called The Strip. The show begins with the main character, lawyer Melissa Walker coming home to find her husband in bed with his gay lover. She undergoes a major life crisis, and decides to chuck it all and start a new life... by owning and operating a male strip club! A little far fetched, not to mention absurd, but what's not to like when it delivers a cast full of really hot guys stripping in every episode?:P It only lasted two seasons, and didn't exactly get rave reviews, but it didn't have an editor and there was plenty of info out there for me to make it my own, so why not? It starred a number of actors I've become the editor of, so it's right up my alley for them, at the very least. I've also added a handful of Kiwi actors to my list, which is always nice. There are a couple of other shows I'm thinking about trying to get, but I'll probably wait until I finish working on the new ones, since I have several of my regular shows returning for a new season at the end of the month. Good thing I don't have a life!:lol:

I mentioned that I've become the editor of yet another New Zealand TV show, Orange Roughies, and I've actually found a source for the show, allowing me to watch it. So far it's not bad, but there's one thing about it that's a definite thumbs up: the show's main title theme is the song "Long White Cross" by the Kiwi band Pluto. Pluto also has another connection for me at TV.com, one of the actresses I edit, Kate Elliott, is married to the band's lead singer. So when I went trolling for a video of the song, I found one at YouTube, and thought I'd share it with you.:) Hope you enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Kia ora! Well, I've been trying to become the editor of a few new people here at TV.com, and succeeded with all three, much to my surprise, since I didn't think there was enough out there for these rather obscure Kiwi actors. But as I was going for Nick Kemplen, I noticed that one of his shows, Orange Roughies (about a police/customs task force in NZ) had an official website with a treasure trove of the sort of information needed here, and that the show, while added to the TV.com database, had no editor. So I've been spending the last couple of days trying to get it, and just succeeded this evening, so yay me!:D I have even found a source for the first few episodes of the show, so I'm going to even get to watch it eventually, something I rarely get to do with my Kiwi shows. I'm not expecting much, since it was taken off the air in NZ because of low ratings, but it will still be interesting, if only to compare it to shows made in the US, as well as a chance to see a few of my favorite Kiwis speaking with their natural accents. But since I'm still pretty focused on my last "new" show, Soldier of Fortune: Special Ops Force, I probably won't be watching it for at least a week. In the meantime, I do intend to post some more vacation pictures, so I hope you'll pop in and have a look when I get the chance to get them up.:)

I only entered one mosque while in Egypt, the Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha, who ruled the country from 1805 until his death in 1849. He was actually an Albanian Turk by birth, but when Napoleon invaded Egypt in the late 18th century, the Ottoman Sultan sent the Pasha to drive the French out, with the assistance of the English, who were using the country's ports as a means of keeping in closer contacts with their empire in India and the Far East. Muhammad Ali commissioned the Mosque in the name of his son Tusun Pasha.



The Mosque was built at the site of the Citadel of Salah al-Din, better known in the west as Saladin, the leader of the Muslim defenders of the Middle East against the Crusade of Richard the Lionheart of England in the late 12th century. The Pasha noted that the citadel, the Cairo's main fortress, had no mosque within it's walls, and decided to remedy the lack. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a very good photo of the Citadel itself, since I was there such a short time, but this one is the best I have. You can make out one large, round tower directly behind the palm tree's fronds.



Inside the courtyard of the Mosque you can see the fountain where worshippers purified themselves before going in to pray, as well as a clock tower. The clock tower was a gift of the French King Louis Phillipe in 1845. The King traded the Pasha this piece in return for one of the obelisks from the Temple of Luxor, which now stands at the Place de la Concorde in Paris.



The interior was quite beautiful as well, so I'll post some pictures of it sometime in the near future. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these.:) Oh, and note that my father, in the foreground of the picture, os carrying a couple of pairs of shoes (his and mine, since my hands were full with my camera). All those who enter a mosque are expected to remove their shoes because it is holy ground, as a sign of reverence. This mosque is only open for services on Fridays, the Muslim day dedicated to rest and worship- on other days it's left open to tourists, though individuals may go there to pray by themselves on other days.

Here's yet another Temple built by Ramses II located at Wadi el Seboua. This means "Valley of Lions", and refers to the avenue of leonine sphinxes in front of the temple. One of the things that stands out about this place for me besides the red sand of the Nubian Desert and the beauty of the temple itself is that this is one of two places where we were given the opportunity to ride a camel. I never did, but I thought the sight of the camels waiting for tourists in front of the temple made it particularly picturesque.

One of the sights of the city of Aswan is the Aga Khan Mausoleum. This is the burial place of the third Aga Khan, the leader (Imam) of the Ismaili Shi'ites. He was born in India, but was told to spend part of the year at Aswan for health reasons, and he grew to love the city, and when he died, his wife had him buried there in this Mausoleum.



She lived there for many years after his death until her own demise in 2000. I sailed past the Mausoleum several times, but on the first day the sun was directly over it, making the picture over exposed, and I thought it was going to be a washout. But when I adjusted it to black and white rather than color, I thought the lighting made the photo quite dramatic.

The Temples of Abu Simbel are some of the most memorable. They are located at the farthest spot south in Egypt that I went, and they were both made under the reign of the Pharaoh Ramases II. The first is the Temple of Ramses, and all four colossi in front of the Temple are of Ramses from different periods of his life. It's dedicated to the Gods Amun Ra, Ra Harrakhty, and Ptah, as well as to the deified Ramses himself.

The next is dedicated to Ramses' wife Nefertari, though four of the six colossi in front of this one are also of Ramses, with only two of the colossi representing Nefertari in the guise of the Goddess Hathor, who was the Goddess of Love.

This last view shows both Temples side by side on the shore of Lake Nasser. Both Temples were under water for years when the Aswan High Dam created the lake, and in 1964, they began the five year project to block the Temples out of the water, cut them into large pieces, and then move them all to a new location above the water line for reassembly. After it was all together they landscaped the hill where it now resides to make it look as close to the original location as possible.

This is a relief from the Temple of Derr at Amada showing the ibis headed God Thoth (God of Knowledge) writing the number of years a Pharaoh would rule on the Tree of Life, as he was said to do for all Pharaohs. I thought the image was also appropriate to celebrate a certain special someone's birthday, so everybody be sure and wish breezy a happy birthday today! I wonder how many years Thoth is writing down for us on his tree...;) Also shown is the lion headed Goddess Sekhmet, who was the main God of War. She was also known as the Scarlet Lady and the Avenger of Wrongs. Red in ancient Egypt was a color of death, but her blood red color was also connected to women's monthly cycle, making her the patron of women.

The Great Sphinx at Giza, with the Mummification Temple of Khafre, The Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Khufu



Ram headed Sphinx from the Temple of Karnak, dedicated to the God Amun Ra



Sphinx from the Valley of the Lions, Temple of Wadi el Seboua

Relief from the Temple of Edfu of a Pharaoh presenting a Sphinx to one of the Gods

Sphinxes were ubiquitous in Egyptian temples, but they came in many varieties. They were guardians and protectors, so every Pharaoh made sure they had plenty of them around. The Temples of Luxor and Karnak, only a few kilometers apart, had a grand avenue of 1,200 sphinxes between them, as well as several shorter avenues. Wadi el Seboua, which translates as "The Valley of Lions" in Arabic, was named for the sphinxes leading up to the Temple. Most of the sphinxes I saw had the head of a man, but at Luxor I saw many ram headed sphinxes of Karnak. These were dedicated to the sun God Amun Ra, who was depicted with ram's horns or a ram's head over a man's body. Temple reliefs often showed Pharaohs making offerings to the Gods, but most of the time these were of food and drink and other Earthly goods, not a supernatural protector as was shown on the relief from the Temple of Edfu.