some guy in lebanon

I’ve written and re-written the intro to this post half a dozen times. How does one sum up the feeling of being 9000 miles from home on Thanksgiving? It’s not exactly a good feeling – Actually it’s not much of a feeling at all – More of a sort of nagging non-feeling. I think that probably explains the large amount of JW Black and Sake Bombs I drank last night.

But things looked up in a huge way today: First and foremost, I met with up with the Communications Manager of a trading company located here and in the Persian Gulf, and partially cemented a deal to build the company’s website and stay on relatively indefinitely on a monthly contract to provide basic support and marketing services – This is a big step up from previous projects as its both a doorway to further business development in the trading-company world (which is huge here in the Middle East), and also a relative promise of another monthly income, without intruding on my work at the paper.

Returning to the office, I delivered to the editor and publisher (i.e. owner) of the Daily Star my definitive report and analysis on the future of the paper’s website. I was able to boil down what had previously been over 25 pages of suggestions to two and a half pages, an accomplishment that I believe reflects how closely I’ve come to understand the organizations internal structure, cultural barriers, and most of all, its historic struggles with its on-line presence.

Finally, I trecked up a few miles north of downtown to interview the CEO of a company called eSharing on the current state of web and software development in Lebanon and the Levant and Middle East regions. We had a long and insightful conversation over Skype, as he is currently in America for, surprise surprise, Thanksgiving. Still, I was impressed by his tenacity, as it was approximately 6:30 AM in Nevada when we began our call. He was quite responsive all things considered. There are a lot of opportunities there for expanding my relationship with eSharing, and the interview likely will lead to four or five other stories. This one alone is quite interesting.

So – Lebanon! It progresses! “We shall see” is my new mantra – As my friend Karma says, it’s sort of like an American version of “Insha’Allah.” Sorry I still don’t have the pictures from my trip to the Cedar Reserve, but that will hopefully come this weekend.

It was a big day and representative of all the many faces I have taken on here – Business in the morning, efficiency analysis in the afternoon, journalist at night. Ironically enough, I’m too tired to party so the fourth face will sleep on a pillow before midnight it seems. Unfortunately, the nightclub in my building’s basement boots up around 1am on the weekends and doesn’t shut the hell up until 7 in the morning, so I might head out after all if I can’t sleep.

Much love to you all – Sorry if I’m sounding like a grump, but, I think it’s fare to be grumpy on Thanksgiving when you’re half a world away from home!