Hamza's Chronicles

The Beginning

2010-03-27T00:05:00.005+03:00

I have received congratulations over the last week more than I have received in my entire life, from the close relatives around me to all the friends spread around the globe who flooded my facebook page with their congratulations for my "engagement".

The day of the "tolbeh" was last Friday which was pretty busy as I had to wake up early to go and pick KJ who was coming from Dubai and was staying in my house. We went and watched an ex-blogger's baseball game who has become more serious, especially after he got hitched. It made me think a bit of how much will life burden me with its endless commitments and whether I'll be able to keep my spiritual young spirit or not.

As we were in the mood for an exquisite delicacy for lunch, we hit "shahrazad" in downtown and sat to eat from their famous "3arayes", a meal that was too heavy and left my body agitated and my mind handicapped. By the time I got home, I was too cold and tired that I thought that the best way to shake this off is by taking a nap.

I woke up 15 minutes before my actual meeting for reading the fat7a. my mind was still recovering as it was set on "auto-pilot" and tucked myself in my navy blue suit. I was the last one to get into the car and my body was still trembling from the chilly weather rather than stressful situation.

We were three cars when we arrived at their house. I realized that we had my grandparents, my uncle and my aunt (who I see for the first time since I arrived to Jordan). I went and greeted them and without any further introduction, we rang the bell and we went in.

I scanned my surroundings. Parents –check. Grandparents –check. And then an unfamiliar face. I noted to myself that I need to investigate more and I was hoping he is not the guy I have in mind.

My grandfather started with his quiet voice making the official proposal in the form of a speech , which was welcomed by her grandfather. Upon the agreement of both parties, we had to follow the tradition of drinking the coffee…

Wait a minute…I have to drink the coffee?

As her brother got near to me, I start communicating to him with the silent language similar to that scene in "how I met your mother". I tell him not to pour me coffee, and he nods with his eyes "oh yea, you have to drink the coffee".

So as everyone raised their cup to drink their coffee, I raised mine, looked at the dark liquid simmering the cup and placed my lip at the cup and raised my hand at the same proportion I raised my head. I am fine as long as my mouth didn't have to make any contact with it.

After reading the fat7a and had few moments of silence, my grandpa started. "sob7an Allah how Amman changed over the last 100 years, Back in 1920, when I used to work in Landscaping…", oh here we go, my grandpa went on to narrate for us a story that I've heard over 10 times about how he was asked by Government to divide the lands among the citizens of Jordan who did not understand why he was doing that and how the circassians have put a bounty on his head before he fled to Syria.

During that time, I felt I was being studied by the "unfamiliar face" I referred to earlier. He is sitting still studying every detail of me with the only thing moving is his thumb that touches the pebbles of his rosary that never seemed to finish. Other than my cheesy smile, I couldn't make eye contact for more than 10 seconds. I noticed how he knelt down and whispered to my fiance's brother something in which the brother said my last name. 10 minutes later, he whispers something and my hometown is mentioned. After each response, I notice how he nods at me as if I have passed the required checklist. In my head, my doubts were confirmed. He was definitely the protective uncle who have spoilt her since she was a kid and he is the one who is going to be very picky especially after he realizes that a stranger is taking her away. His feelings were the least of my worries. What concerns me is the fact that he is going to be the guy who will definitely kick my ass if I ever fight with my fiancé or hurt her.

When my grandpa reached the time where he was being shortlisted by the University of Damascus for studying dentistry, I got called by the ladies. The excuse was to supposedly get introduced to them. I knew deep down inside of me that the true motive was for me to sit still and be amused at like an ancient statue in a museum. Sitting in the center and in front of 6 women whose eyes are fixated on me with no words spoken, whose hands sat comfortably over each other over their chests were enough to catalyze a chain reaction that reached its prime in my face that felt like an exploding sun that radiated its surroundings with the heat of my blush. My aunt was looking straight at me and made things worse as her hyperness made her whisper for me to get closer to my fiancé. My misery was over when the discussion was somehow shifted to Turkish Series.

Thankfully, i know what I am getting myself into. I know what should I expect and I am ready for that. One thing that I didn't anticipate is how frequent will I have moments like the time I was changing sim cards for 3 phones and my dad passed by me and said:

"baba, why are you changing the cards in darkness? Turn on the light so that you can see better"

My uncle shouts from the end of the room…"leave him alone, the guy is getting married, he needs to learn to see in darkness. HAHAHAHA"

Ba$t**ds

Burj "Dubai"..What's next?

2010-01-06T00:13:00.006+03:00

4th of January 2010 was a special day. Not only for Dubai, but for UAE in general.

Many of us, who were unfortunate to join the masses in celebration of opening the tallest tower in Dubai, were glued to their TVs and were thrilled with the opening ceremony, especially with the fireworks that enlightened the tower. However, The fireworks were not the only surprise we saw.

First, we were all taken by surprise when we saw Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashed Al Maktoum declare in his opening statement the new name of "Burj Khalifa". If you saw the opening statement, the Sheikh looked a bit startled. I don't know if he was thrilled for the significance of the event or is it because of the announcement he had to make of renaming the tower. Was it like the surrender and giving away one of Dubai's unique babies as a gift to the Government for its continuous support (through Abu Dhabi) especially in its bail out when Dubai were faced with the Dubai World Restructuring minor hiccup?

On the other hand, offering the name might have been a sincere gift to show the unity and the synergy among all the emirates who cooperate rather than compete.

Personally, I still have my reservations on the "Khalifa" tower. The Tower is a Dubai project and part of Dubai's vision. I think it is unfair to see it being taken away like that and being named after the Ruler who didn't even bother to attend the opening of such a world class event

The second surprise was in the announcement of the final height of 828 meters. Deferring the announcement could probably be to avoid leaking any info pre-completion of the tower to any potential competitors especially after the announcement by Saudi Arabia to build the "Mile" Tower, who didn't commence their operations awaiting the completion of its rival "Burj Dubai". It is too early to say whether Burj Dubai will achieve between 80 to 90% occupancy considering the challenging living environments at the higher floors. I wonder if building the "Mile" tower would be feasible or not and whether it would be worth it or not. It would be silly to see buildings being erected to compete on who has the tallest tower. I won't be surprised if the future holds for us apartment ads providing "Cloud view" or ads saying "You can now bid farewell to your loved ones as they board their flights and fly by you...RIGHT from your room".

Earlier this day, I shared with a colleague of my thoughts on this. He said: "حفاة عراة يتطاولون في البنيان" (referring to an old Hadith by the Prophet PBUH describing one of the signs of Day of Judgement are those who slander in structures). Well, many people might share this opinion. Despite all of that, I think that UAE should be applauded for their continuous achievements in development and in setting another icon in the form of highest point built by humanity.

What are YOUR Standards?

2009-12-31T20:15:00.002+03:00

2009 marks the end of the first decade in this century. A decade that was full of life changing experiences. Thankfully, 2009 was a successful year for me on many aspects especially on the personal level. I've talked about some of those here.

So what's next? the keywords for the next decade would be career progression and stability.
But let's start with 2010. I'll keep my resolution simple and focus on just revising my own standards. I need to draw a line and focus more what would interest me and make me comfortable rather than adapt and accept my surroundings.

Workwise – fast paced vs slow paced, systematic vs adhoc. I've been working in the same workplace for the last 2 years. Despite few mishaps here & there, I am relatively happy. I am empowered to a certain extent and I have access to a lot of resources to learn. I've learnt a lot over this period. My concern remains on my marketability in the job market and how I should always thrive to build myself without getting too comfortable and laid back in my current position. It would be pathetic if I reach a stage where I spend 8 hours daily with the only motive is receiving my paycheck at the end of the month. On the other hand, there is nothing that guarantees that any other workplace will not be worse. I could end up working in a place where you are competing with your colleagues who might attempt at succeeding in their career by riding on your shoulder and stab you in the back. That's just an example of things I haven't experienced yet and plan not to.

Friendship- shallow vs deep. You have the friends who are there just for fun, for a game of cards, or for a pool game. Their probable reaction for your expression of "this is worrying me" or "I have a problem" would be either sarcastic or "good luck". Well, the positive thing about such friendships is learning how to become independent as you keep your problems to yourself without having to rely on the influence of others. At the same time, it is sometimes a blessing when you treat others the same way without feeling obliged to be nosy on their day to day activities or problems. On the other hand, your deep & close friends are there when you least expect them. They feel your pain and would jump at any opportunity to assist you when possible. The feeling is mutual. I can't deny my joy when I feel that I've managed to assist someone in overcoming a hardship they face. Part of that depends on the community you live in. The kind of friends I had in a social community similar to the one I had in my Bachelor Degree was entirely different than the ones I had in my postgraduate degree society.

Lifestyle - Experiences are relative. A Jeddah resident's lifestyle is different than a Dubai resident's lifestyle. Someone may claim that the standard of living in London is higher and expensive than Jordan. Then maybe it is time to question your benchmark. Did it ever occur to you that if you are paying 0.60 SAR (0.16 CDN) for a litre of gas in KSA ( making it cheaper than water), compared to the 0.95 CDN per litre for gas in Canada, that you are living in a relatively cheaper place than the world's average. In a world where majority of countries impose income taxes, you should be thankful for living in a place with 0 taxes.

Few luxuries here & there make a difference. Living in a landlocked place with no access to sea vs a city on shore, living in large cities where commuting between work & home can be hours vs a small city with access to necessary areas is in minutes. During my brief time in Canada, I recall how commuting from my college to home and then rushing to finish errands before the shopes close at 7 or 8 p.m. Night life is usually concentrated in few areas and mainly on weekends. The only form of night life there would be in form of clubs or bars. On the other hand, here in the gulf, people start dining after 10 p.m. Shops don't close before midnight. Night life is always there with the addition of a little spice & extra events on weekends.

I am concerned that I might get too comfortable here that would make it hard for me to maintain the same desired lifestyle in case my situation change where I may have to relocate to somewhere new. Somewhere that I'll probably find relatively costly compared to the current situation.

While I think over those, let me ask you, what are YOUR standards?

Yellow

2009-12-15T08:34:00.002+03:00

Woke up with this feeling.

the feeling of being Yellow.

My fruits for the day are:

1- Bananas

2- Pears

3- Yellow Apples (I don't eat those that often)

I am looking around me and seeing how this color is materializing in my life.

All my post-it notes are "Yellow".

I guess I am not the only person who ever felt that way. Ask Coldplay.

here is my personal experience with it:

and let me end with the universal color of all IM messenger smileys

Memoirs of Sharm El Sheikh

2009-12-04T02:52:00.003+03:00

I don't want my blog is slowly turning to a travel guide blog. This could be due to the lack of any action here in Jeddah. This time I will highlight some of the funny/awkward moments where I expressed my known discrimination and sarcasm against Syrians, Palestinians, Egyptians, Russians and mostly myself. So that's another warning disclaimer to stop reading if you think I am offensive.

First Day in Hotel, morning buffet

Apparently, we are not the only ones. The hotel was being assaulted by a shami group. One of the annoying kids (who regularly features on the other events of my stay) approaches me: "3ammo 3ammo..7otelli min hadi….7otelli min hadi….katerli min hadi…7otelli hay…hadi labneh willa jebneeeh? 7otelli 3ammo" – sara3 rasi and I filled his plate with all what he wanted

Noon session after playing on the tubes:

I am waiting for my brother to go and get the money to pay while I sit waiting. Next to me, I managed to overhear An egyptian guy sitting by the beach bar attempting the following:

"eeeeeh…eeeh.. I am Akkountant….eeeeh…eeeh…my name iz ahmad….heh…heh…"
'daa daa" –Russian girl responds with a nod
"eeeeh….eeeeh…wanna sleeeb on za biich?"

WHAT THE..this was just his 2^nd line

"daa daa"

I hope she is understanding him. The rest was awkward as he/she escorted him to one of those beach beds where she introduced him to her parents and they all shook their heads.

I had to leave by then, I wish I stayed there to watch the rest of the scene

Second Day, morning buffet:

The Syrian Kids are in action again. Apparently one of them is being introduced to mushrooms for the first time. So, here we are waiting at the omelet queue, and these 2 kids are screaming at each other:

"Beddak feteeeeeeeeeeeeer?"
"shuuuuuuuuuuuuu?"
"Feteeeeeeeeeeeeeer feteeeeeeer"
"Shuuu? Shu ya3ni feteeeer?"
"lek feteeeeeeer feteeeeeeer, hayya honeeek"

Snatches a peace with his bare hands and shoves it down his mouth:

"hmmm..taybeeeeeeeh kteeeeer…yamoooooooo shooofi shu jebet ma3eeeee" and he ran away to his mom

Second Day, noon session:

This guy is talented. I will leave this video to say it all

Second Day, Night:

Sunday night, the night of the big game of Real Madrid vs Barcelona. I was sitting with my brother by the bar who was supporting his favorite team in the company of other fans who have been watching quietly……

Till we hear familiar voices:

"lek ta3a shooooof, lek hadi mobarat barcheloooona wi reiaaaal madriiiiiiid….shoof messi, messsiiii, MESSSSIII…..Allah Y7AYEE ASLAK YA MESSSSSIIII.."

Third Day, Diving Trip day

I had to wake up at 6:30 a.m. We were supposed to go to Tiran Island but we ended up going to Ras Mohammed. It seems that trip was scheduled yesterday but has been postponed to today because one of the divers was drunk yesterday. Damn the Russians and their vodka.

As we were passing by hotels to pick the divers, I realized that most of them were Russians. The universal conversation with all of them was something like that:

" dobroe utro"
"Dobroe utro, Daĭving ili podvodnoe plavanie…."
"da da…"

The Russians were heavy smokers and looked fishy. The most threatening was "Katrina" with a standing posture similar to this girl from sin city (without the gun of course)

Me and another guy from holland were the only non-russians. Communication was difficult as none of them spoke English. My heart was slowly sinking to my feet as I saw the Russian white army flag being raised on our sailing boat

4 hours later…

At lunch, I was approached by the Egyptian cook. "where yooou from?" – rush of thoughts to my head..If I disclose I am an arab, then the Egyptians workers will be all over me, if I don't, then I can't say I am European, I have curly hair…I kept talking my brain the way Homer simpson does "don't say something stupid, don't say something stupid, don't say something stupid"

"I am Venezuelian" - D'OH. Why did I say that??AAAAAAH

An hour later

"AAAAAAAAAAH WILLLLLAAAAAAAAAA…Muntaha mzabteh 7alha….tab3an maheye bint Abu Raaaamiiiii"

What the? Where am I? Last thing I recall, I was still on the boat reading "sophie's world" and watching the Russians play dominos. It looks like I slept for a bit. I look around. Oh I see, our boat is anchored next to another Palestinian-populated boat

and what's with the name MUNTAHA? I thought that name extinct with Muntaha Al RAmahi the famous news anchor

"inta min fein ya khalti? Kadeish 3omrak?" –speaking to someone on the other boat. I didn't dare to look and show any signs that I understand the language. I have to impersonate the "Venezuelian" identity I put myself in
"aaaaaah..inta beker ahlaaak?" :S, who asks this kind of questions. :S, the fact that I couldn't hear what the guy said meant that the woman was unreasonably loud
"martak bteqrabak?" :S :S :S. I didn't know that you would marry a relative by default. :S
"i7na min QALKEEEEEELYAAAAA" – no wonder…I changed my place and sat somewhere else

3rd Day at Night:

How nice..they are having a movie night outdoors with the projector and a big screen in the roman theater. They are showing "no reservations". Me & my brother were the only ones who slept by the mattresses of the big screen to watch the movie till…

"ta3a shoof shu bi2der sawi bi 2edayeeee " they show up and they do hand gestures over the projector so that the shadow of their deformed horse/dog shaped fingers were all over zeta jones face.

4^th day morning:

I just finished my parasailing (the first I do in my life) and I pass by the beach bar, and I find the waiter talking to a familiar guy:

"mzabbat 2omoorak ya 3am"
"la2a…di il bent rekhma awi…ba2ollak eih? 3ayez tnein cocktail"
"min 3enaya"

On the other side near the beach, the Russian girl from the first day is still sunbathing and I wondered how the rest of the day will unfold.

4^th day noon in the Zen Spa

Aroma Therapy Massage session for 50 minutes. She did every body part with the exception of arm pits and ……. Unfortunately, she wasn't very fluent in English. I wished if I could talk to her to let her explain difference between Thai and Swedish massage. We only spoke 3 times:

"so sir, jasmine oil, lavender oil or rose oil?"
20 minutes later, "your hand and feet are softer than babies skin"
10 minute later… "your bladder is full" – (of course it was, I had been served green tea by the receptionist coz you were 10 minutes late)

My response on the 3 statements was:

"da da"

4^th day at night:

Dad was another funny troublesmaker. Throughout the days, he would unleash comments like…

"I like your service but you made us sad in the Algeria Egypt game"
" How much is this? What????But I am not Algerian"
"so, what's the fare to go to…..? oh ok, nevermind, I still support Egypt despite their disappointing performance in n the Egypt Algeira game"

One of the cab drivers got excited and my camera had no mercy on him. He3 he3 he3 he3

Last day, morning buffet:

"lek yamoooooo, 3andon fatayeeer, Allah ykhaleeki, Allah ykhaleeeki, Allah ykhaleeeki…7otteeeli donaaaaa (donuts)"

Checking out:

I was on my way to the lobby and I happen to pass by the Egyptian guy. This time he was alone. He was looking around, scanning his surroundings with the hunter eyes for his next prey while scratching his….. Kudos to the Russian girl who either is very smart or that this guy did something dumber than his lame 2^nd line on the first day. Oh well, I guess we are back to square one

Four Seasons in 10 days

2009-11-06T22:16:00.005+03:00

In my last holiday, I have experienced an unimaginable new level of thrill. The timing, the weather, the locations, the activities and the planning were all factors that made this one of the most memorable trips of my life.

Geneva (2 days) – Spring Season (18-20 Sep)

Our first stop was in Geneva. It was very green and exceptionally colorful. Geneva is known for its great lake and for being a good city for cycling.

As you walk in the streets of Geneva, you feel its classy style, its richness, their prude care to discipline. You feel that the city is speaking to you and telling you "you are lucky to be walking my streets". Geneva is a quiet city but not a boring one. The streets are busy with people who are walking, dining, sitting in the parks or by the lake side. As I've said earlier, the best way to explore the city is by cycling as the roads are wide and it is well facilitated for that.

Personally, Geneva has a special place in my heart. It is where I learned cycling for the first time. Yea I Know I know. I was lame and I didn't know how to cycle when I was a kid. After half an hour of trying and falling, I learned how to balance myself on the bike in spite of the mockery of a group of bystanders who were waiting for me to get frustrated and return the only bike available for rent to the store. Oh well, I toured the major parks in Geneva for over 3 hours before realizing how stupid I was for dehydrating my body while fasting. Yea, my consciousness was killing me and I felt obliged to fast the remaining days of Ramadan

Geneva

Interlaken (4 days) – Fall Season (21-25)

The place may not sound familiar and that is what's great about it. It's a small town in middle of Switzerland. Its residents speak German.

The best thing about this place is its location. What more can you ask for from a place that is between two lakes (on the east and the west) and between the Alps Mountains (from the North and South). They have one major central park and the views and the sceneries and the landscape you experience are among the best you might ever enjoy in your life.

Four days were barely enough for Interlaken. There was not much to do at night other than dining (such trying the infamous "cheese fondue") and relaxing, which was compensated by the variety of activities that you perform during the day that can range from skydiving, paragliding, hand gliding, canyoning and skiing. I personally did paragliding (a very relaxing and enjoyable activity. You are in the air before you even know it) and canyoning (rappelling and doing impossible jumps is not my thing. I will leave such stunts for Lara Croft. But the water was refreshing despite its temperature being 3 degrees Celsius).

Another must see site that I happened to know about when I was there was the "Mystery Park". I caught three shows there: "The Contact", "Maya", and the "Megastones". Each show is 15 minutes in general shown where they use holograms and 360 screens to narrate to you a brief and simple introductory about the history behind each story & site.

Interlaken

Jungfraujoch
(1 day) – Winter Season (23 Sep)

It was a one day trip to the highest railway station in Europe. It is referred to as "top of Europe" with an altitude of 3471 meters. It is in one of the summits in the Alps Mountains. There are 3 basic sites to visit here. The Ice Palace – a small walk through a gallery of sculptures made of ice, The sphinx observatory – a place with a 360 panoramic view of the mountains. You will find a variety of restaurants that you can choose to cater your food appetite. Finally, the open area where you get to hike, play winter sports such as sledging and airlifting. And of course, nothing beats getting an "ice sun tan" (tan that you get from reflections of sunlight on snow..or whatever they call it)

Jungfraujoch

Nice (3 days) – Summer Season

Away from the luxuries and quality life, the extreme sports, Nice is a city that target tourists with a special appetite to the sea. Like many of its sister cities, Nice's life revolves around its " Promenade des Anglais" coast. Every traveler who comes to Nice for the first time will notice the rough landing of the plane. This is mainly because of the small runaway. After all, the airport is surrounded from three directions by the sea.

Another great thing about going to Nice is that it is right in the middle between Cannes (30 minute metro ride to the West) and Monaco (30 minute ride to the East). In Cannes, we spent half a day to tour the city and be educated about the famous celebrities that visit each hotel during the Cannes Festival Ceremony. From there we took a boat cruise to the small island of Ste Honorat. Being on a small island gives you the luxury of solitary, whether it is hiking around the island or swimming by yourself.

At night, we explored the city of Monaco and Monte Carlo. I hardly classify Monte Carlo as a city as all I can see there is Casinos. The city has an exceptional road structure as the city has 3 main roads. Those 3 main roads are parallel and run above each other. While walking around, there were areas that we could only reach by using elevators from one road to another. Sometimes if you are unlucky and get lost, you might find yourself taking an escalator to a casino and exiting on the other side to go where you want.

Swimming on Nice's beach wasn't a pleasant experience. First of all, the beach is very rocky. It is hard to lie down without experiencing some sore pain in your back. Other than that, my swim didn't pass by without some distractions. For someone, like yours truly, who has been swimming in beaches in the Arab region where women bath in normal bikinis, the sight of women swimming topless was an odd one that you try to avoid. I could not deny the constant internal temptation to keep an eye on the beach in case I catch a woman who does not want to deny her twin assets their share of sun tan. Unfortunately, most of those who did were oldies who are in their 40s or 50s and the sight of their aging wrinkled boobs can be a horrifying sight that you would wish if they remained sealed. Overall, let's say that I started appreciating the value of bras.

Our other activities included a visit to Eze village – you walk in small alleys on a mountain where you are surrounded by souvenir shops all around you before reaching the top mountain to enjoy a panoramic view of Nice & Monaco. I couldn't believe my eyes when I read about a 'Cactus garden'. There they were showing you all different shapes and sizes of cactuses. Another thing worth doing is the tour of the Fragrance factory there.

For a city populated by the youth, Nice is more of a partying city with a high unemployment rate. A great activity to watch at night other than dining was the sight of roller bladders who were doing stunts around ice cream cones and dancing on musical beats. One exceptional guy was doing the moonwalk with his roller blades while dancing on Michael Jackson's "Scream". He even portrayed him with the hate and the infamous white glove. Some of the guys were really talented.

Nice 2009

[P.S: this post has been in draft version for the last one month. LOL]

Ramadanian Thoughts II

2009-09-17T16:48:00.003+03:00

I know that we are reaching the end of ramadan and this post might appear later but I was inspired after publishing last year's Ramadanian thoughts and this year I had few more
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for the last couple of years, the radio stations in the area no longer plays songs in ramadan. They would play some of the silly 10 to 15 comic shows, and between breaks, they would play "anasheed". The Nasheed genre is a growing genre and at a certain point in time almost all arab artists have done at least a nasheed or two. But really, what's the difference between a nasheed and a song? there are 2 definitions I've heard so far:

nasheed - is a form of songs with limited use of musical instruments. Usually there are no melodies, electronica and tunes and the beats tend to be drum based only - I don't know what's the source of this but I heard of a hadith on the prophet where Aisha was celebrating Eid and there were of girls who were celebrating with only drums and the "arabic daf" - so maybe that's why those forms of instruments are accepted. I don't know if they had piano at that time, would it be allowed or not?

The other characteristic is that the topic is not about love and it should be about islam or religion.

However, over time, I saw that there are many anasheeds that are using more instruments and are covering different topics like kids, marriage and parents. So really, I can't see where do they really draw the line and the difference between a song and a 'nasheed'.

Some of the favourite anasheeds tha I like are for sami yousef "you came to me" and this one.
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Another habit that some people adopt in ramadan and especially the last 10 night is the act of "i3tikaf". It was encouraged by the imam of the mosque in his last jumaa prayer. Unfortunately, when I went to pray the other day in the mosque, I was shocked by the bad smell and how dirty the mosque was. I am not against the i3tikaf but the sight of dirty laundry, smelly blankets and pillows is just not acceptable and unless there is a mechanism to keep the mosque clean, then I'd prefer that i3tikaf is not performed.

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Leilet Al -Qadr is better than the prayers of a 1000 months. If you do the calculations of 1000/12 = then this is equivalent to 83.33 years, which is more than average lifetime of a person. So my idea is if you manage to catch one leilet qadr in a lifetime, then this is more than enough.

So for all the potential travel partners who use the argument of "but if we travel, we will miss Leilet El Qadr which is probably the 27th night", I confront them with my logic. Assuming that you sincerely pray on the odd night numbers of Ramadan, I guess that the chances of scoring one Leilet Al Qadr night is higher than gambling on the Roulette.

P.S: it is ironic that I convinced my travel partner to fly yesterday (i.e. before 27th night) and my inner conscience couldn't help me but to schedule my flight today after I prayed last night. Gosh, I am such a hypocrite. Oh well, he will be enjoying a day more in the Alpes Mountains before I join him. :D

Status Update

2009-09-05T17:37:00.003+03:00

2 months of no blogging.

I was just not in the mood

between vacations in jordan and in palestine

yep - palestine for 4 to 5 days where I roamed toul karem, beit la7m, ramallah

too bad I couldn't go to jerusalem

but at least I went to the nativity church

loved it

spent 2 weeks in jordan as well

wanted to go to syria but...

passed CFA Level I

which is bad news

this means I am now obliged to finish level II and level III to continue it.

I am planning preparation for that in November

workwise, I got promoted. :D

I am on twitter as well.

although I don't like it. you have to tweet daily and frequently otherwise, your tweets will be surpassed by other twitters

overall, I am happy with my personal achievements in year 2009

I anticipate updating my "relationship status" soon. :D

TAG: Eight Meme

2009-06-20T14:00:00.003+03:00

I was tagged by Asoom around one month ago. At that time, there might not have been many interesting things to talk about. So here it is:

8 Things I'm looking foward to

- finishing "Dead Space"

- arrival of the watch that was ordered over a month ago and is still touring the world.

- praying in AQSA Mosque this summer (if possible)

- meeting a "special" person. :)

- Syria Trip and possibly ziad Rahbani Concert

- "Distant Heat" ft. Armin Van Buuren

- Reform of my current organisation - to see where will I fit workwise in the new structure

- Finishing "Pillars of Earth"

8 things I did Yesterday:

- diving and seeing many new types of sea creatures

- getting sunburnt even after using SPF 25 sunblock

- testing the new features of my new cellphone - NOKIA E75

- initial packing for my trip next week

- arranging my papers and my files - mostly bills

- working on my anger management skills on responding to those mockers on facebook who made fun of italy losing to Egypt

- living for a couple of hours in the dark side as I reached the final boss in "Dead Space"

- working on a farewell party for a colleague who is leaving us

8 things I wish I could do:

- learn the jumping ropes techniques

- stop overthinking

- be photogenic

- buy a major stake in ACMilan - I am sure I'd do better than cheap arrogant berlusconi

- plan a "chlorine" bomb for someone in the office - not mentioning names

- understand and be inside the head of those people I care about

- get in touch with 4 of my classmates in primary school

- work in a radio station

8 shows I watch:

- Prison Break

- 24

-Heroes

-Lost

-Numb3rs

-Smallville

-How I met your mother

-Scrubs

8 things I love:

- AcMilan

- Mechatrinus

- My 1000 piece puzzle

- My lala land

- CampFire Mocha - from carribou coffee

- Creative marketing and uses of technology

- My insane, twisted scary mind

- the few influential people who are always there for me.

Toronto's Miracle of Runway 24L

2009-06-15T13:10:00.002+03:00

It has been over 2 weeks since the incident of the Air France Flight 447 that departed from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. I am sure that many of us are either following the case or at least aware that it happened.

whenever I travel, I tend to mute those 10 minutes where the flight attendant wastes her breath in describing to us about the safety procedures in case of accidents. I find it pointless to listen because if the planes gets into an accident, my chances of survival are minimal. As it was the case with the in most of Air Flight Accidents, like the recent Flight 447 incident , all of the passengers end up dead.

I said "most" coz there are few exceptions.

I still remember how 4 years ago we were sitting in our home and discussing with my dad on what date should we book our flight to Canada. I wanted to relocate 1 month prior my postgraduate school so that I can manage to settle in Canada and get used to it. My family were thinking that they might as well spend part of their vacation there as well since the weather in August tends to be amazingly interesting.

Our flight was initially booked on 2nd of August 2005. I can't recall the events that happened but for some reason, my dad decided to change the booking by one day and make it on 1st of August.

We departed early morning from jeddah. After spending a transit period of 4 hours in paris, we took the Air France flight and arrived to mississauga 1st of August afternoon Toronto time. For many of us, it was the first time that we experience a long 16 hour flight. So it would be normal that all of us would be suffering from the jetlag. I remember briefly walking around the town before I realized that all shops were closed. Apparently, it was the Civic Holiday. With nothing else to do, I went home and slept.

I remember waking up around dawn and seeing dad sitting on the tv and watching the live news of the incident of Flight 358 (ironically Air France as well). Briefly, the plane crashed at Pearson Airport the next day as it was landing under severe weather conditions. As it was landing on the runaway, it didn't reach a complete stop and evenutally hit a small ravine. A post fire started later that destroyed the plane. Luckily no one was killed. the thanks goes to the alert flight attendants that managed to get more than 309 passengers within 90 seconds only. What's more interesting is the emergency responses arrived to the crash site in less than 52 seconds.

you can always click on the link above to know more about what happened. What this incident shows is 2 things:

1- the myth behind surviving an air crash does not only exist in fictional tv series like "LOST".

2-If Air France was one of the options available to me, I'd definitely take it. At least they have a track record of one successful evacuation while the others have either none or were lucky not to experience such an accident.

in an attempt to teach me a lesson about destiny and life, my superstituous father says:

"see, i7med rabbak. We were supposed to be on this flight. Imagine what we could have gone through. But Allah protected us from this and inspired me to change the booking"

I said: "Hell no. I'd take my chances of being there. I'd experience the thrill and action of it. I'd have a cool story to tell my friends and I get to be a millionaire when I sue Air France, Airbus, and Pearson Airport for the so claimed psychological damage they would have caused me."

Brain Implosion

2009-05-30T09:15:00.004+03:00

My life is about moving from one obsession to another.

I am becoming recently obsessed about the preparation for CFA exam Level 1 that's coming up in exactly 6 days. I have planned well for it. I started studying since December last year. Considering that I have to read through 6 books where each book averages around 450 pages, you can understand why the CFA Institute recommends at least 250 hours of study.

The problem that you face with such exams is that as soon as you finish reading the material in book 6, you find yourself that you forgot what was in book 1 and book 2 and you tend to go back and forth. With the financial background that I have built over time, my main problem is not with complexity as much as it is with the gigantic volume that you have to absorb.

What strains my brain more is the fact that I am studying while having a full time job. So you can imagine my schedule these days as I come back from work at 5 p.m. Eat and rest till 6 p.m. and then I study for another 4 hours before I head to bed. That was my routine for the last 2 months.

consequences...? well, I am setting a new standard for nerdiness and suffering from the aftermath of "overstudying". As I am practicing more questions from the QBank available Schweser study material (over 4266 questions that I feel I am obliged to finish..lol), my performance is sloping downwards (wow, I am using mathmatical terms now) as I am overthinking questions and arriving to wrong answers where the right answer is simple and just in front of my eyes.

Despite all of that, I am trying not to let this shake my self-confidence. So far I've did well and managed to celebrate my birthday that was few days ago CFA-free. A brazilian lunch featuring grilled meat served on swords, and having a 'facial' (LOL) were few of the things I did to make it a bit special.

Few weeks ago, I received the following from the CFA institute. It was a considerate move from them that left a smile on my face. I tend to consider this the best birthday gift I got. I will leave them for you to see and enjoy

Bewildering interruptions on the beach

2009-04-18T09:21:00.003+03:00

I have given up. I wish I can find a peaceful place where I can enjoy reading my book. I can't read at home unless I am going to bed. We don't have many bookstores here (actually, we have only one) and if you read there, then you'd most probably be kicked out during prayers time.

Coffee shops are full of people who either smoke or talk loudly, watch a soccer game or stare at you like you are some kind of an alien.

So, I decided to go to the beach. I'd dive, swim a bit and get a chance to read my book.

We came a bit late, We couldn't find a shaded area to sit under. I picked a spot against the wall where there is a little bit of shadow. I open up my book. Let's see what's up with williams in "Pillars of Earth"...

"WELCOME TO HOOOOOTELL CALIFORNIAAAAA..." one of the 3 British guys next to me decided to explore his vocal talents with his horrendous voice. He sang on 3 unrecognizable songs while he was lying on the floor and tanning.

so I changed my location and sat next to someone's umbrella under whatever shade I can have. I kept on reading. Oh man, this Alfred is such a jerk...

"yee, sheftee hayda keef 7almat bazazo wa2feh..hahahaha.."

what the...? the voice was coming from my left..3 lebanese women are sunbathing and checking the guy who just passed by them...7elmat bzazo wa2feh...I didn't even know that girls even check this out...DAMN

Time to move somewhere else. I managed to find another spot that was empty after it has been evacuated. Ok, no lebanese women or british guys next to me. only a jordanian family were sitting next to me. It can't get bad.

So back to the world of my novel. Poor Tom, I hope he will better luck when he goes to the castle and...

"ta3al ya 7amoudeh, ilbes" the jordanian woman calls her fully nude 3 year old son who was running around in joy after being freed by the limitations of garments.

"khalee il walad yetshamas ya mara, a7san mayfoot leilet il dakhleh mlawan..HAHAHAHHA" said the husband

I was :|...that's it, this is the last time I'd attempt reading at a beach. I put my book down and spent the rest of the day swimming. What's different this time is that I kept checking my nipples more often.

A moment where I wished I had Moses Staff

2009-03-30T14:04:00.003+03:00

Few days ago, I was asked what was the most embarassing situation I was ever in. I drove on my memory lane where I passed by many (and they are alot, trust me) incidents that left me red-faced in embarassment. But nothing is comparable to what happened to me on the dawn of my 5th semester at university.

my phone rings:

"so hamza, any plans for dinner?"

"hmm...actually not"

"ok, fine, I'll pass by you later to pick you up and your friend and we'll go out. You'll get to meet my sister for the first time too"

Yeaaa. She was the first among our group that got a car and since that day, we no longer took the University bus that took light eons to drop us at the city centre. With the car, we can even listen to the music we want and...Oh Memories.

So that night, the 4 of us decided to dine at the "Automatic" Restaurant in Sharjah near the corniche. I don't know what was so automatic about it since the dinner takes ages for it to be served. We even have doubts about the quality of oil its being used. We believe that they cook the food with "automobile" oil, thus the word "automatic". Well, I don't wanna know.

so here we were, seated. me & my friend next to each other. Her and her sister right opposite to us. Her sister has recently joined the university and as wise 3rd year students, we try to share our wisdom about the "do's" and "don'ts" and random things here and there. When I found the conversation was getting serious, I attempted breaking the ice and changing the topic:

"oh, so what's that on your necklace? is it your horoscope..I see a scorpion"

It was the trend back in the days for ppl to wear their astrological sign. It didn't occur to me that the fuming face and the grin look would outburst at me when she said:

"HOW DARE YOU. this is JESUS CHRIST".

Time froze.

the Earth rambled

The Heaven shattered.

I saw mateors crashing on me.

I imagined Odin being summoned and running after me to decapitate my head.

I have entered into a mental coma that triggered my tongue to activate the auto pilot program titled "endless apology". I have muttered apologetic words and phrases that I cannot recall till this day. No matter how much I justify that I never intended to offend her, I still felt bad whenever I rethink of it as it sounded so degrading. Scorpion. Damn, what was I seeing?

her older sister (and my friend) helped in justifying my position as it must have been an honest mistake coz I've never offended christians before. The drama was over after a couple of awkward minutes of silence, till my smart friend who was sitting next to me decided to question something interesting:

"the real question is...why were you looking at her chest in the first place?"

OH Earth, devour me.

Time Froze.

The Earth rumbled.

The Heaven shattered....

As I lie...

2009-03-22T14:22:00.003+03:00

As I lie in my bed and myself I tug
I cuddle In the cold and the pillow I hug
an ephemeral sleep induces my eyes to wither
like the flowers that hide from the chill of the winter
Soon I fly on the sea  of dreams
that reflect on its surface  our hopes in light beams
Those threads of gold  awaken  me
I rise and whisper:  “will he”?
But the dazzling wind brings me the answer
to all my doubts and I no longer wonder

I never write poems. Yet this poem is different. It was co-written with a special person back in 2006. We have worked on 2 more pieces together and yet it remains to be seen what the future hides for both of us.

The alternate dimension of Wikipedia.

2009-03-09T19:15:00.002+03:00

haven't you always wondered how people have the time to go and actually update wikipedia? Now wikipedia grew to be among the top and most reliable sources of information.

Well, you've seen nothing.

Go and Give Uncyclopedia a spin. It is organised by a bunch of people who have the energy the wikipedia organisers have with only one difference; absurdity.

Check out Uncyclopedia. They have some amazing articles. I loved what they wrote on : , "Lara Croft", "Caffiene", "Facebook", "Psychology", "Religion". But my favourite article is what they wrote about "Wikipedia" itself. LOL

P.S: YES...I did it..I wrote a short blog post. :D

Slavery at its prime

2009-02-28T00:06:00.002+03:00

I can never forget this day.

It was the first time I rent a car in Canada. I was running low on gas. I pass by the Gas Station. I waited there for half a minute before I realized "oh damn..here I have to fill gas on my own".

See, that's the problem when you live in the middle East and in the gulf for too long. You have people that are employed with the silliest job description ever. I walked to one of the restrooms in a 5 star hotel the other day and there was this guy who all he does is just hand you a dry towel to dry your hands after you are done. What amazed me is there was this local guy who shouted at him "the towels are not warm enough".

How about the guy at the gym? He sits by the stairs and monitors the people who use the treadmills. As soon as one of the runners is done, he runs with his cleaning tools to wipe out all traces of sweat and germ on treadmills. As much as I appreciate the high level standards of hygiene that the gyms abides by, it amazes me the silliness to hire a guy just for this.

So overall, how do you handle such a situation? I believed that as long as they are content with what they do and I don't abuse them, then we'd be ok.

I don't think so. Wait till you hear about my tea boy.

When I first joined the new department (around 7 months ago), the teaboy approached me and asked me if he could serve me anything. I told him that I'll make his life easy since I don't drink tea or coffee. I only drink water. On the 2^nd day, he served me my water. Along with the service came an envelope saying "monthly contribution". Ok, fine. That's weird. It is like asking for tip in advance. I don't mind tipping as long as it is from my heart not being forced upon me. Anyway, I chipped in. In the following day, he served me water at room temperature which I don't like. I prefer cold water instead. So he said, he doesn't have cold water. That pissed me off, but I let it slide. Few days later, I asked for water at 3 p.m. and he shrugged his shoulders saying :"sorry, sir. I already did the dishes". What the? So if you do the dishes, you never serve others. Ok fine. Nevertheless, I kept tipping him although I don't feel he was doing his basic duties. Few months later, I went for 3 week training outside the office. During that month, I only went to the office for just 2 days. On the 2^nd day, he gave me the "tipping envelope". I was furious that I wanted to piss him off. I just put one riyal in the envelope just to anticipate his reaction. As I expected, he came back to me complaining that I might have mistaken by tipping only one riyal. I couldn't help it. I lost my temper and exploded at him. Since that day, we no longer communicate and whenever I need water, I go to his kitchen and fill my own bottle without his help.

The other day I went to the cafeteria for lunch. I saw the teaboy having lunch with one of the senior managers. I was impressed that he actually bought him lunch. Later I realized that he makes the tea boy carry his bag all the way to the office. I can't believe how some people can convince themselves of abusing poor people like that.

On the other side of the spectrum, my sister came to me one day expressing her frustration:

"Hamza, I am very annoyed with the way you treat our maid."

"huh?"

"she keeps complaining that you never acknowledge her presence. You always arrange your bed. You always prepare your own food. You never let her do anything"

":S :S :S"

"like today. You came from work. You stayed in your room for 45 minutes. When she went to her room, you went and prepared your food. Why not just ask her..?

"but…I wasn't avoiding her. I was just in my room trying different knots with my ties. I am bored of the "Windsor" Knot. I was practicing the "St Andrew", "Victoria" and "Cavendish" knots.

"huh?"

"nevermind"

Next day, I went to her and actually requested something for the first time in 7 months. "Could you iron this shirt for me?" She said "sure" with a big smile on her face.

Making the impossible possible

2009-01-25T21:55:00.001+03:00

That's what Israel succeeded in by waging its war in Gaza

It has been over 28 days ever since Israel decided to go all ballistic on Gaza. During the days of the war, I decided to be among those who'll be on stand by and watch what will happen. Mainly because I always believe that politics is too complicated and have infinite conspiracy theories because of the lack of truth. This could be either because of biased media or the hidden agendas that each party has. That's why I refrained from theorizing about what I don't understand and I left it for those who are more knowledgeable than me. I have to admit that the daily coverage done by Ali was among the best I've seen especially in its presentation of the case coherently and objectively.

The thanks goes to the rest of the bloggers who contributed in whatever form possible, whether it is in form of demonstrations or updates on campaigns of what could be done. As it was mentioned by many, we played the cards right by utilized the tools of Globalization. It is through facebook, blogs, you tube and emails that made our voice be heard and reach throughout the Globe. The world has not been as supportive to the Gaza Cause as much as they were during this humanitarian crisis. So thank you again.

From the beginning, I knew that this war won't last long enough for Israel to be able to break Hamas. I knew it would end when Obama steps up to the White House. Israel was just playing in what I call the 'lost time'. Israel was being a bully kid who took advantage of the absence of Big Brother (U.S) that was busy sorting out its own mess.

What has gotten to start this is something I couldn't comprehend till now. Maybe the Israel leaders were sitting in a round table discussing their achievements and their economical growth compared to what was budgeted till they arrived to their target of killing Palestinians. They realized that "Oh, we haven't killed enough. Let's start another holocaust and get rid of some 1500 filthy Palestinians". Another idiot would go like, "oh yea, we can use Hamas as a cover story. We have 25 days before Obama comes and we can even try those new weapons we have". The Brutal and loathsome attitude that Israel had towards the Palestinians was astonishing to say the least. They bombarded them with the air strikes, the Ground Defense Forces and even White Phosphorous. If Gaza was an island on its own, I bet they would not have hesitated twice before firing the nuclear. How can we ever co-exist, as called by International Community, with Zionists who has no tolerance to Palestinians.

But alas, This war is over now. Neither did Israel manage to achieve its objective nor could I say that the resistance won. The only outcome was more damage and not able to break the unity of the People of Gaza. So what's next? the Reconstruction of Gaza. The International community and the individuals have contributed a lot. They do not lack the fund as much as they lack its management. Let's take a look at for example, the 2 countries that had the biggest humanitarian aid during the war (i.e. before KSA & Kuwait & UAE's pledge after the Arab summit). They were Germany and Japan. Germany donated 15 million Euros while Japan donated over 10 million US$. The difference between those contributions is that Germans will give to a "UN-administered fund in Gaza" while Japan will give to the Palestinian Authority i.e. Fateh Administration in West Bank. Knowing the internal conflicts between Hamas and Fateh, I have my doubts over whether this money will reach those in need in Gaza or not.

We shouldn't fail to see Israel's long-term goal of starting all this mess. It all lies in the scheme for the reconstruction of Gaza. As the international community becomes more involved in the day to day operation and management of the funds (especially those given by Europe as they will be managed by an alliance of the UN and NATO), it will become harder for Hamas to operate with the same authority and control in the past. Whether this would be a good or a bad thing, nobody knows and only time could answer that.

My Early Wintereenmas celebration

2009-01-12T08:28:00.008+03:00

Wintereenmas..

Who doesn't know about Wintereenmas? It is one of my favourite times of the year. Usually it is celebrated between 25th and 30th January. However, I decided to celebrate it early this year with my other videogaming partner who talked about my visit here.
So, I have decided to invite myself over (actually its more of colonize) KJ's place. This week was just exactly what I needed in serving many of my personal motives, including finishing the horrendous Silent Hill: Homecoming (Gosh, I still can't believe I got the UFO ending) and another mindless co-op zombie bashing game where KJ picked up the only girl character, as usual, and I picked up the black businessman (seriously, I can't comprehend the idea of fighting zombies while wearing a shirt & tie). Overall, it was fun especially when you are attacked by hurdles of zombies.

a very normal scene that our comrades had to face

there is a good reason why they call hiim the boomer

So how do I rank the hospitality? Well, my mom said after she saw me: "OMG, what happened to you? You lost weight.". KJ said as he was dropping me to the airport:
"you know hamza, this week was horrible. I didn't eat well and I didn’t have breakfast all this week"
"e7m e7m"
"oooh…sh!t…this means that you…"
'YES damn it"

Yea it was that bad. I had to go twice by myself to the gas station below his house to grab Burger King. It was unfortunate (or so he claims) that there was always something wrong. He cooked for me one of his delicious pastas but he had no parmesan cheese, so instead, he gave me some weird cheese similar to the ones that they give you on cheap flights and said: "this is your parmesan replacement".
The other day, he actually managed to convince me not to eat outside and that he'll cook me onf of rice & fish dishes. An hour later, he was like: "hmmm…I burnt the rice…I could cook again..are you willing to wait?"…I looked at him and tried not to question what happened and just submitted to my fate. An hour later, he came: "hmm…by mistake, I spilled all the spices on the rice and it ruined the meal". That's it. I couldn't take it anymore. After 3 hours of unbearable hunger, I went to Burger King for one more time.
*hamza is thinking.. I better find something good to write about KJ to appeal to the appetite of his fans*
But overall, I should be grateful for him coz despite his work schedule, he managed to have the time to take me all the way to the 7he sevens avenue to watch the friendly game of acmilan vs hamburg. which was pretty far. I appreciate his planning in leaving 3 hours in advance so that we find good seats. I was fasting that day because of Ashoura so I brought with me some food snacks and juices. At the gate, they forced me to take out all the liquids I had. The security guard was shocked when he took out a bag that I was supposed to leave at home and said:
"Shampoo & shower gel…? Why would you carry with you a shampoo & shower gel to the stadium?"
Surprisingly, the avenue was free-seated and we managed to find good seats. Although the game was not played at a high level, I enjoyed watching my favorite players of the team that I've been supporting for last 14 years live on field. This includes Beckham, Ronaldinho, Pato, Shevchenko, Maldini, Pirlo and many more. As usual, the crowd have added their own touch as our section was pivotal in arranging Mexican waves.

the stadium 2 hours before the match

the players are warming up

and here they are greeting the fans. :P

The major hassle was in the post-match traffic. It seems that it is the norm in Dubai that in such events, you will have over 5000 cars or more trying to exit the stadium at same time on only a 2 lane road. We remained stuck for more than 50 minutes in a bumper to bumper traffic where our only source of entertainment was in KJ's attempt to entertain me with synthesized non-human melodies of videogames music like "eternal sonata" and Final Fantasy Remixed tracks. Everything was ok till the Humanitarian side of KJ kicked in when he saw a car stuck in the sand and he said:
"oh poor people..They need some help. I've always wanted to help people who get stuck in the sand.."
"dude, please don't do this."
"don't worry kupo. I trust my nyx, we helped many ppl in the past"
10 minutes later, I was with 7 other ppl trying to push "nyx" which got sand stuck instead. 50 minutes later, we were back on the streets:
"you know what? This is the first time that my car gets sand stu.."
"just shut up and drive"
"wallah I swear to Go.."
"I said, shut up and drive"
He just cannot make perfect moments
Despite all that and in highlight of the updates he has on the campaign for the Gaza Donations, I decided to entrust him to be the custodian of my donations where he'll participate with the others in the campaign for buying the food and medicines to help the victims of Gaza. Our chat the next morning was not as encouraging as I have wanted it to be:
"leehoz"
"leeehoz…how u?"
"so far so good. So tell me, Did you manage to buy the stuff for the Gaza Relief campaign?"
"oh yea that thing….hmm, I hope that you don't mind, but I kind of used some of your money to cut my hair"
"you WHAT?"

The World of The Brits

2008-12-21T13:48:00.008+03:00

When people ask me about my last trip, they tend to ask the wrong question. Its not about what I did. It is about what I did NOT do. Yep, that really sums up my trip to UK where I spent 8 days in London and 2 days in Manchester.

Many factors have been taken into consideration before I finally decided on my destination. I got a couple of friends in London & Manchester. I got a good deal on my airline ticket. Sterling Pound is at its lowest in a couple of years (talk about taking advantage of the financial crisis) and most importantly, I could feel the winter there where I'd be doing my favorite hobby; walking and walking and more walking.

On the day of my arrival, I couldn't control my excitement and I spent more than 13 hours exploring London and its underground subways. I started with Baker Street, the home of the legendary Sherlock Holmes to Madam Tussod's wax musem ofcelebrities. From there, I walked to Portland Street all the way to Oxford Street – the haven of all shoppers around the world. The size of each store outlet is equivalent to half the size of a mall here in Jeddah. What stroked me the most about those stores is how it is a condition that they must have all the sizes. In one of the stores, I was checking one of the jackets but when I couldn't find my size, I just went on to see other models till the saleswoman approached me: "can I help you sir?"

"oh thank you. I was hoping to find my size but didn't. Its ok. No big deal, I'll check other stuff"

With an astonishing look she goes: "Oh no sir, we must have your size" and she commands 3 other salesmen to check the inventory and stock till they replenished the missing size. In the end, I didn't buy it. :P

Sherlock Holmes on Baker Street

From there, I went to Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Marble Arch and Edgeware Road (a.k.a as the Arab Centrals Street) all in one day.

In the next days, I explored the Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace and Big Ben. I took a city tour ride on the THAMES river where I went all the way up to the London Tower then to Greenwich. I wanted to go there just to stand on the infamous imaginary Greenwich line.

Buckingham Palace

I took great images of London when I went up the London Eye. London Dungeon is another great experience that shouldn't be missed. Unfortunately, the host chose me as a candidate to demonstrate on me the different types of torture equipments. The attraction includes going through, the Labyrinth of the lost, The Great Plague, Sweeney Todd, Jack the Ripper, and the Great Fire of London. Nothing describes this ride better than Wikipedia.

You can never be bored of London. Each road & each station has a distinctive feature & flavor either in the architectural design, location of exits, graffiti, or tunnels. So there is always something to explore. Unlike other countries, I got lost many times and actually enjoyed. Once, I got lost for more than 3 hours. I went to Sloane Square in Chelsea and was planning to walk all the way up to Knightsbridge. However, I kept on walking for more than 2 hours till I discovered that I was going south rather than going North. Later, I discovered that I walked out of zone 1, zone 2 and all the way to zone 4, passing through fulham all the way to Putney train station.

I was wrong to assume that I could cover the British Museum in just few hours. Out of the dozens of exhibitions there, I only managed to see the Korean Exhibition (unfortunately nothing exciting there), the Islamic Literature Exhibition (they had interesting history about calligraphy), Ancient Egypt & Sudan (surprisingly, its much better and more descriptive than the Egyptian Museum in Cairo) and my favorite on the Aztec Era.

Rosetta Stone

I kept on touring and visiting the major streets that I could recall from the MONOPOLY game. I even went to Fleet Street – famous for its new agencies and the road took me all the way to St. Paul's Cathedral, where it was time for the afternoon prayer. Whereas the others were sitting and listening to the prayers, I kept admiring the splendid design and the beautiful architecture while trying to imagine how long it took them to build this magnificent cathedral that was among the most beautiful buildings I saw in my life, when I got the sudden urge to…

Pee.

I quietly left the cathedral trying not to cause any form of disturbance to my fellow believers who were communicating with their Creator at a higher spiritual level. As I get out, I quickly unravel my London map to locate the nearest Underground station. They have wahsrooms there. St Paul is my target. 10 minute walk. When I reach there, I follow the signs for the washroom. When I reached there, I see a huge bulletin board saying: "30 pence". What the? Are they kidding me? They are charging me to use the washroom. Ok, nevermind. I inspect my wallet while trying not to control my laugh at the silliness of the situation. My cynicism is over when I discover that I only have a 50 pound paper and 25 cents.

"Oh God, you can't be doing this to me. I was just in the cathedral". If the cinema refused to change my 50 pound paper the other day, then no way the station people would change it. I storm out of the station to scan my surroundings. I see Starbucks. I speed up my pace as I walk to it. Trying not to look suspicious, I order the Grande size of their hot chocolate and the triple chocolate muffin (talk about chocolate overdose) which should be enough to change my 50 pound. My misery was over when I finally relieved my bladder muscles while pondering and appreciating why they are called "rest rooms"

So enough about London. In my 8^th day, I took a train to Manchester that lasted for only 2 hours and 20 minutes. The city of Manchester is small that you can tour it all walking. Compared to London, cabs are affordable means of communication. You call a cab and in 5 minutes max, he'll be at ur door step. During my stay, I dined the Curry Mile (known for the variety of restaurants which are majorly Indian). I visited my friend in the small town of Bolton which is known for having a huge population of muslims. They have a great & a proper mosque there unlike the rented community center in London where we had the eid prayer at 10:30 a.m. because this is the only timing they have.

On my first night in Manchester, I went to Old Trafford to watch the last game in Manchester Utd vs Aalborg in Champions League. I got a good seat (3 rows from the manager) after extensively searching the net. For a while, I thought I fell for a scam because I didn't get a ticket through the mail. I got a membership card under the name of "Mr. Aalborne". I had to sign a confidentiality agreement that I have to return the card after the game is over. The directions were provided with the letter. Thankfully, the card got me in and as promised, I got the desired seat. I was happy to watch the game for 1/3 the price I would have normally paid. After the game, I followed the directions till they have led me to a dark alleyway. I was inspecting my surroundings and hoping I won't be assaulted by any hooligans especially since man utd drew 2-2 with such a weak team on home turf. On the corner of the street, I see a hooded man, he looks around: " who are you?" 'hamza, I have a card under Mr. Aalborne". I hand him the card. "Cheers Mate" he said as he crossed my name off some list. I don't wanna imagine what would be the consequences if I have retained the card much longer.

The icing on the cake for this vacation was in…*drum rolls*..going to the COLDPLAY concert. :D. It was on my last day. My friend persisted that there is no need to book our places in advance. The concert was at 9 p.m. and I was still in Bolton at 8 p.m. I almost gave up on catching up the concert. By 20:15, we ordered a cab to Bolton Station. From there, we took train to Picadilly where its next to the M.E.N Arena. Its 20:50 p.m. Almost everybody is seated. The ticket booth was closed. We were still waiting while I decided to leave the matters for my friend to take care of things. 20:55. 5 minutes are left and we are still outside. What are we waiting?

"here they come" my friend said as he spotted 2 guys shouting "tickets tickets".

AHA….black market. I thought this only exists back in the middle East.

The official cheapest ticket goes for around 50 to 55 pounds where you'd be seated at the top, farthest from the stage. After a long debate, we managed to bargain down to 15 pounds/ticket and we were seated 6 rows from the stage. It can't get better than this.

This was by far among the best trips in my life.

What's missing in those pictures?

2008-12-03T14:25:00.003+03:00

It is missing ME.

London..I am a couple of hours away from you. Wait for me. :D

Random Timestamps from Last Week

2008-12-01T13:34:00.002+03:00

Date: Saturday, 22 Nov 2008

Timestamp: 22:22 – we are 8 minutes away from the start of the derby d'italia of Inter vs Juventus. I need to rush to reach the coffee shop where I am supposed to meet my friends. I am on the road driving in the middle lane. As I slow down to stop at the traffic light, I hear the car behind me skid..Damn, he is gonna hit me….no, he is back in control. He switches to the left lane and stops next to me. The logo on his car says it all. "Royal Guard"..You definitely don't want to be hit by this car. By default, the 3 lane street converges to a 2 lane street where my middle lane will become the utmost left lane. And anybody on the left lane would by default turn left. The traffic light switches to green. I keep driving straight. Apparently, the royal guard is in the mood of racing. By the time I reached the converging street, I see that car going straight to the central island separating both streets. He freaked the cars waiting on the other street. And then in the middle of the highway, he reverses and gets back to my lane and starts chasing me for 2 to 3 minutes before Making a U-turn and goes back to the traffic light we were at. What's wrong with that guy? Was he drunk?

Timestamp: 23:10 – the game is still in its first half and I am already yawning. 2 guys enter the coffee shop; Or let me call them transvestites as they lack any masculinity features with their hairless body, white powdered face, eyeliners, soft voice and plastically deformed nose. I couldn't help myself from getting distracted by them and watch them every once in a while.

Timestamp: 23:50 – one of them winks me..OOOOOOOOOOOKAY. this is the first time this happens to me since grade 5 when black Mercedes cars used to chase me whenever I went to the grocery store that's 1 block away from my house. I changed my seat

Timestamp: 00:21 – "you freaking kiddin me? WHO PLAYS RACKETS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET AFTER MIDNIGHT?" as I shout at the 2 women standing in the middle of the street playing. This was some really fudged up day.

Date: Monday 24^th Nov 2008

Timestamp: 23:50

*sighs*. This day would mark as a major milestone in my life. I finally did it after I had waited and tormented myself for months and even years. Let's hope it’s a step forward in my life. I dim the side lamp next to my bed and I close my eyes to go to sleep.

Date: Tuesday 25^th Nov 2008

Timestamp: 20:10

16 – it was the number that marked the table allocated for us to watch the play hosted by the school. It was the "Glass Menagerie" play. The play was set in the 40s and it might have been boring since it only revolves around 4 characters only. But I liked the American southern accent and the performance of the girls who depicted the mother & daughter roles. Overall, it was a great night since this is the first time I attend a play in Jeddah

Date: Wednesday 26^th Nov 2008

Timestamp: 22:15

I sat there trying to relax. I've been a bee running around all over the place helping in arranging and organizing up this BBQ event. I look around me to see my colleagues who showed up. I put the people on 'mute' and pondered on the thought of how are we united here yet many of us have dark secrets behind us and past lives that we are not willing to share and explore. I look at the right and I see the "Raven" and Mr. "Big Chin" voraciously attending to their cigars while they are engaged in a conversation with the "African Cinderella".. Lying all by himself, I see the 'hyena' sitting and admiring the stars of the night. On the other side, I see Mr. Twinkle Eyes talking to the Falzou3a. I keep on scanning the landscape around me and I reach to 'bagera' and his gang who are engaged in an intense conversation involving a lot of hand gestures. I got interrupted by her:

"shu bak? You ok?" - she said.

I paused. I smiled…Then I went up to attend helping the only guy on the BBQ after I archived this snapshot in my lane of memories.

Date: Thursday 27^th Nov 2008

Timestamp: 23:15

Was the time that was displayed on my watch. Too bad I'll be missing the acmilan vs portsmoth UEFA cup game. But it doesn't matter. It isn't like everyday that I spend one last evening with 2 of my friends who are getting married next week. The 'comrade' and the 'raven' will have their weddings on the same day. It would be a difficult decision for "Big Chin" to choose which one to attend. It is not going to be a problem for me as I won't be in the country to attend any. It is funny how one of them will have his wedding and then go to Mauritius for honeymoon and the other will be spending it in mecca for Hajj. I wonder if it is as cute idea or not. 7ajj as in honeymoon sound so awkward.

So, I am sitting with them on the table having 'the last supper'. Home cooked Fish Salmon with garlic sauce and zucchini strips, grilled chips, chicken soup and rockets salad. It is indeed a healthy menu. By the time the four of us sat on the table, we raised our glasses: "Cheers"…

A prisoner in my own shell…

2008-11-14T01:46:00.001+03:00

What I have been up to…

Socialwise- Other than one soccer game with the guys and a couple of birthday parties I attended, I am not socializing as I used to. I attended an "all you can eat dessert" hosted at coffee shop near my house. The event was announced on Facebook and I found it as a creative approach to publicize and advertise for the coffee shop. Kudos points to the genius owner. I have been on a boat trip in the red sea where I went snorkeling at 3 different reef sites. For a while, I didn't feel I lived in Jeddah. Our boat was full of foreigners who were open & friendly and have enlightened me about the basic dos and don'ts when it comes to diving. This is the next thing on my to do list: learn diving. The best thing about the whole journey was the company of dolphins. :D

Workwise – I was in the office for a total of 4 days in the last 5 weeks. My boss is definitely not the happiest person as I was out of the office most of the time. I enrolled in 4 back-to-back training courses where each one lasts on an average of 5 to 10 days. Covering a wide variety of topics such as banking instruments, project appraisal, logical framework and international trade finance made me feel as I was in an intensive post-grad program. Other than the random nap attacks I unexpectedly experience, it felt good to be a student once again and be on the receiver side for one more time. This had served as an additional motive to…

Careerwise – study CFA. After my Eid vacation, I committed myself by registering for the June 2008 exam. Over the last 8 months, I barely managed to complete one out of the 6 books. Over the last 4 weeks, I picked up the pace and finished 2 books totaling 976 pages (the original one and the revision material). I am surprised at my achievement yet it is understandable considering the effect triggered by the surrounding environment ; whether it is the attendance of the above training courses or other factors that have been affecting me…

Personalwise- on personal level. A hidden side of me is coming back to surface, an old feeling that I concealed because I couldn't interpret it. All I know about it is that it consumes my mind and tires my soul. One of its major side effects is becoming extremely intolerant to human presence around me. I am hating people yet I am incapable of communicating my anger and thus I end up diverting the shock to my inner core. It is the same core that is becoming ultra-sensitive to the changing variables around it. It is yielding a hurricane of endless thoughts, ideas, interpretations, and conspiracy theories that leaves me to question my own established definitions of what's right and what's wrong. The only remedy I found lies in sealing myself in my sanctuary that serves as my current study room. It is the same room that I have had many success stories in, especially during my O-level and A-level years 7 years ago. Everything about that room changed. The bed, the TV, the cupboards, pc, and even the AC. Trying to recreate the same ambience remained a challenge. I no longer listen to my favorite radio station that all it plays now is gulf music, yet Coldplay's latest album and couple of new Arabic albums (Asala, kazem El saher, nancy ajram and darine hadchiti) are doing their best in balancing my instable mental sanity. But all this doesn't matter now. My inner demons are on hold. Maybe they are waiting for my vulnerable moment where they'd feast on me. But for now, I am just a prisoner in my own shell…

Cab drivers in Jordan

2008-10-17T18:52:00.002+03:00

My last trip to Jordan confirmed my theory about cab drivers . I had many horrible stories with this unique class of the society including those of my brother that would just blow your mind away.

I could tell you about the time I came back home with my burnt tomato face. My mom would question me if I went to the pool or not because last time she checked, I was supposedly meeting up with friends in Jordanian University Campus. She didn't know that I remained stuck for over FIFTY damned minutes under the merciless sun of August at noon. Cab drivers would never stop for me yet they stop for the girls just waiting behind me. I reached a stage where I wished I was a girl and allow myself to be molested. Just get me home. Damn it.

After minutes of waiting, a cab driver would slow down and before I open up my mouth, he goes like: "isma3 ya khali, sweifeyeh bagarebesh 3aleiha, wil rabyeh bafoothash, wi 3abdun 7alef yameen ma afoootha, wi shmesani azmeh mosh tabe3yeh wil balad wi jabal il Hussein manteqa mal3ooneh..bansharet feeeha 3 marrat bi hal shahr. Allah la ywafeqha hal 7okoomeh 3ala hal torgat. 3al 3afyeh. "…and he left without giving me a chance to explain myself. Why the hell did you stop in the first place?

On other occasions, cab drivers would just pass by me and give me signals like tilting his head and putting it on 2 hands (note that he is doing that while driving) to signal me that he is going to sleep, or pointing his hand to his mouth signaling he is going to eat.

The other day, I tried imagining myself in my brother's shoes when he was with the 'high' cab driver. According to my brother's narration, the guy had red eyes and was so hyper and was dancing with his car on the tunes of George Wassuf. Windows are open and he screams to all the pedestrians on the street: "Allah ye7ayee aslak ya abu wadeeeeeeeeee3"…car screeches to scare some pedestrians on the side road before going back to main road etc etc. Must have been one hell of a death ride.

Or the other time, my brother was riding with the taxi of 'Abu Ahmad' (we figured out his name later). On the way to dropping my brother, the driver gets a call:

"ah ya um Ahmad…..aaaaaah..ya2alla kef nseet….khalas bamorrek hassa Kaman 10 dagayeg" ("yes Um Ahmad..ooh, how could I forget? I'll be there in 10 minutes")

So the driver changes his route and without even consulting my brother, he goes to his house and picks up his wife and 5 of his kids.

"Ma3lesh yaba inta wiya..o3od 3ala 7odon 3ammak hoan"

My brother shows up with 2 sore legs half an hour later than scheduled and vowing he'll never ever ride with cab drivers.

All of this and yet you haven't heard the worst story that I had around 3 years ago when I wanted to see my cousin in sweifeyeh. After waiting for 10 minutes or so, I rode with the first one who picked me up. He was jumpy and voluntarily offered to give me "panadol' pills for my headache. Of course, I am not a kid anymore. Who was he trying to dope?

Minutes later, he checks my cellphone out and winks at me saying:

"so show me what interesting videos and pictures you have"

"what kind of pictures and videos you want?"

"you know..illi bali balak"

"I have none"

"oh come oon. Send"

I take a look at his cellphone. His model supports Bluetooth and not infra-red

"I don't have Bluetooth. I only have infra-red."

"huh…what's that?"

Oh damn..I wanted to close the subject but now I had to explain to him about infra-red.

As we were in Abdullah Ghoshe's street, a lady walking her daughter screamed at the driver: "3ajebtak il bent ah?..wa7ad mabtesta7ee 3ala dammak ya aleel il zou2"

The driver got pissed. Instead of taking left, he took a U-turn:

"DUDE, sweifeyeh on left…why did you take left?"

"bedi arja3elha hal Ga7*** heye wi bintha il sha*****. Bedi arabeehom"

"dude, its ur fault. You started it..you were the one STARING at the girl"

"its her fault. Mosh 3arfe trabee bintha illi btedala3 wi mashie bil zalet"

"DUDE, both of them are scarved. What are you talking about?"

He went back to swear at them and give them inappropriate hand gestures. I couldn't believe that I was seeing this. I wanted to leave the cab but I was already late. Finding another one would take me ages. Before reaching our destination, he stopped at HARDEEZ.

"that's not where we agreed to drop me. That's not sweifeyeh"

"I know..but sweifeyeh is 5 minutes walking from here. I gotta go."

"What do you mean you gotta go? I told you to drop me there"

"I promised to pick the lady standing there".

"what do you mean you promised? The lady just showed up. You know what? That's it. I am out of here" I stormed out of the cab not paying my fare.

15 minutes later, I see my cousin who bombards me with: "I have been here for 20 minutes. Why are you late? What's wrong with you? Why are you sweating? You look pissed."

"nevermind. I wanna forget about it"

3 hours later, I am in a better mood and as we decide to bid each other farewell, my cousin goes like:

"hey we could give you a ride. My friend has this CAB and he can…oh you are fuming again? Did I say something wrong…AAAAKH..stay away from…I am suffoca…eeeh"

Thank God I am not in jail.

A week in the Land of the Black Irises

2008-10-06T19:27:00.006+03:00

As some of you already know, I have decided to spend my Eid Vacation in Jordan. What was different about it this time is that I did my best to untangle myself from the webs of my relatives. I definitely left many negative vibes behind me yet I don't regret it

The best thing about this whole trip is meeting 2 bloggers for the first time. They restored my faith in meeting online people and actually having fun with them. Thankfully, Qabbani and faithnmystery did not fall under the stereotyped category that some may perceive against bloggers being boring, socially awkward and their online character is different than their counterpart cyber alias. The first time I got to meet the 2 of them was on Friday where we went to go pick up KJ, a blogger and a close friend who I know for over 10 years, from the airport. Although I rarely read to their blogs, I felt that the guys were talking to each other like they've known each other for years. You should have seen the look on my face when I enquired about how long have they been seeing each other and they were like: "this is the first time we meet"

Qabbani – sometimes I used to wonder how ppl in the past lived without TV and internet, but now I understand how possible it can be if you have a person like Qabbani. With 3 or 4 hours of sleep per day and a vast knowledge in most of the topics out there, Qabbani is more of a machine rather than a human being. Just press any of his buttons and you will get an infinite supply of information regardless of the topic.. He'd narrate for you the history of each store in downtown Amman or he could recite to you jokes for 3 hours during the journey from wadi rum back to Amman.

Qabbani is very resourceful. We have enjoyed this one week because of the spontaneity of our decisions. We never knew what the day was hiding for us. One minute, we are eating kenafet Habiba, and an hour later, we are on the way to the dead Sea to watch the sunset.

As for Maher, we only saw him for few hours. And I personally wished I spent more time with him. You can't help but burst into laughter when you see him. He is a hybrid of a typical American white boy accompanied by the Arab hyperness added with a flavor of Jordanian accent and attitude. Who else other than Maher who would keep smelling the butt of a camel doll..Oh well, what matters to me the most is that we managed to know the real real reason behind him joining the soft ball team. :P

KJ-well…I always experience and discover new things about this guy each time I meet him. Let's just say that in this week, he caused enough trouble between Qabbani and his fiancé who is starting to get jealous of him. One thing for sure, I am not telling him when I will get engaged.

Friday:

Iftar @ Ponte Café in Abdoun – KJ got sick and we spent the next 3 hours baby sitting him til he puked out all the food he ate. What a waste

Walk in downtown and tea & coffee at GOUZA café

Saturday:

Al-Qal3a Castle

Roman Theater

KJ attempting Meditation

Iftar @ Quds Resturant - I went for their mansaf and the chicken KJ went for the chicken Kabsa

Balat Al-Rasheed Café – a café that's open since 1926. *rolls eyes*. We were their first customers for the day and let's just say that praying the maghrib there was such a memorable experience

Sunday:

Al-Hussein Gardens -

Walking through city Mall and Mecca Mall

Iftar @ Aunt's house

Qabbani & KJ's date – I went to watch the Acmilan vs Intermilan game at my cousin's house

captured one second before the.....nevermind

Bella Café in 5^th Circle

Monday:

At my house in the morning

Sweifeyeh and specifically Barakeh Mall

Msakhan at my house

A coffee shop that I forgot around University campus area

Wakalat Street

Milkshake at Gusto with Maher

Tuesday:

Morning tour in Rainbow street and downtown

Kenafeh at Habiba

Sunset on Dead Sea

Horrible Shawerma Reem for dinner @ my house – why no body told us that they don't have chicken shawerma..for a meat shawerma, it was relatively ok but the meat was too dry.

The Class on 7^th circle

Wednesday:

Lunch @ tete's house

Tour in Webdeh and @ Chocoholic Café

Wild Jordan

Thursday:

Petra – we had to wake up at 4 a.m. We went through Seeq to the Khazneh and then we climbed for 1 hour till we reached the monastery. One of the most tiresome trips ever. This is the 2^nd time I go to Petra and each time I go there, I hate it more and more

Wadi Rum – Al Zerb for dinner. If we ignore the noisy Jordanian music emanated from the camp next to us, I would say that the best thing about the whole journey was the time we went hiking at around 11:30 a.m. to watch the stars. We left as a big group of at least 30 people. Each one of us took a separate corner. Personally, I was annoyed by the ones who kept blinding me with the flash of their cameras. I positioned myself among 2 foreigners: an Indian guy and a Czech girl and started counting the number of shooting stars and discussing the wishes of each one of us. I recall KJ disappearing into the shadows and hearing 5 minutes later the groans of wolves and coyotes. Luckily, he came back in one piece

Friday:

Marks our return to Amman and the end of our vacation. I discovered that my flight was earlier by 3 hours than expected. As my uncle was dropping me to the airport, I see 2 limo cars dropping Ragheb Alama to the airport.

Jordan in a glance

2008-09-21T00:23:00.001+03:00

Note: This post contains a lot of stereotyping and it might be offensive to many ppl. None of those are based on any scientific facts but more of personal experiences. Read at your own discretion

I will be in Jordan in a couple of days. This will be the first time I go there since 15 months. And it brings back memories. It reminds me that I have to re-adjust my mind to the dynamics that govern the Jordanian Society.

For those who don't know, like those who'll be visiting it for the first time (HINT HINT: to a fellow blogger), here is a summary about the different classes of the Jordanian Society

Jordanians: those are the pure Jordanians. All of them are originally Bedouins and they tend to represent the rich high class society. Surprisingly, they are not that common in Jordan and believe it or not, they are a minority. They might represent around 20 to 30% of the society. Their last names would usually end with names ending with –neh, bataineh, tarawneh, zawaineh etc. The reason behind their high class status is that one of the family members, whether it's an uncle, a father or a cousin have at a certain point in time held a ministerial position in the government. I won't go far and I'll take our family as an example. My mom comes from a purely Jordanian family and guess what? her cousin is currently the Minister of Environment.
1. How to identify a Jordanian guy: ask him: "we7dati or feisali?"….if he said "feisali" then he is Jordanian
2. How to identify a Jordanian Girl: you will find them hanging around the 'posh' areas of Amman. Rabyeh and abdoun are their main chilling areas. If you try to make a move on her and it happens that her brother, or parent finds out, there are high chances that you will end up in a coffin and news being published next day about "further escalation in honor killing crimes in Jordan"
Palestinians: and they are such a huge community. Surprisingly they are a majority in the Jordanian society. Many of them are Palestinian Refugees. Some of them are lucky to have Jordanian Passports and some of them are only identified by special yellow IDs or green IDs. Many of them are subjects to discrimination as they are always being mistreated by the former class society. They represent the poor segment of the society who always keep on complaining about the inflation and the rise in gas and food prices. They are the reason behind the infamous Jordanian Grin as they rarely draw a smile on their face because of the numerous miseries they face. You will find those ppl situated in the areas of sweileh, we7dat, zarqa, and rest of "mokhayamat" spread around Jordan.
1. How to identify a Palestinian Guy: ask him "we7dati or feisali"? if he said, "we7dati" then he is Palestinian
2. How to identify a Palestinian Girl : IF and it's a big IF she is out of the house and shopping, then she is in the local markets buying the necessity items of food such as meat, fruits, vegetables and abayas and scarfs. If you attempt at flirting at one of them, you'd wish you will have the ending of no.1. Under best conditions, your body will be mutilated (as the ppl can't afford kill you with shotguns and the tool of the trade will be the cheap and readily available 'white' weapon). The news being published next day will be about "Organ Trading is on the rise once again"
Iraqis: ever since Saddam's era is over, Jordan was one of the countries that have embraced the Iraqis with open arms. Nowadays, they constitute a major segment in the society and they were the ones behind the skyrocketing of Inflation and the double and even triple of real-estate land prices over the last couple of years. Some of them are sincere and came to Jordan penniless with the objective of starting a new life. And many others came with fortunes of money that were stored God no where, or…were stolen from the vaults of Saddam's mansion or the banks after the invasion of Iraq. The Iraqis are still trying their best to find their balance among the Palestinians and Jordanians who despise them because of the imbalance they brought to the Jordanian Economy.
1. How to identify an Iraqi Guy: ask him "we7dati or feisali?"..if he looked clueless or said "shinu?"..then he is Iraqi
2. How to identify an Iraqi Girl: a …there are high chances that if you attempt to flirt with a girl then she'll most probably respond with: "how much?" - (Many girls have rediscovered their new talents in music, dancing and the so-called artistic pleasures of the body. Even the industry of prostitution took a major turn as the supply has increased significantly leading to a new equilibrium cheaper price and a higher quantity. This has encouraged the establishment of pubs, clubs and bars to add further immorality to the already corrupt society
Expats: especially the ones coming from the Gulf region. Considering the standard of living in both Jordan and the gulf Region, you'd usually classify those among the rich and high class level of society. However, due to their ignorance of the internal dynamics of the system and because of the exploitation of both Jordanians and Palestinians in the way they over-charge those Expats, it'll be fair to say that they should come in the mid-range. A common feature among expats is that all of them have at a certain point in life been scammed or been victims of Fraud. Class no.2 have managed to sustain themselves by feasting on the expats and exploiting their naivety. The 3 months of the summer represent their high season as they tend to infiltrate all the districts of Amman without exception.
1. How to identify an Expat Guy: driving a car with a foreign license plate or walking round the streets with wide open mouths drooling over anything they see as they seem to be amazed by their surroundings that for them have changed so much
2. How to identify an Expat Girl: best girls to hang out with. They are here only for a small period and they are out for fun. Crazy about partying and alwaaaaays free and up to do anything. If you want a one night stand, this is the market segment to target.
Cab Drivers: unfortunately this is true. Jordanian Cab drivers are so unique in their status that they deserve a class on their own. If there is any class that you must avoid interacting with, it is this one. It is the most dangerous class and the most powerful in Jordan. They are the reference points and an encyclopedia to everything that happened and will happen in Jordan. Most of the time, their forecasting is very accurate. They are the only ones who would dare to attack and insult the Government and nobody would dare to touch them. They are loyal to no one and their true allegiance is always in question and their identity is always anonymous. He could be a cab driver by day and a drug dealer by night. Working as A part-time cab driver to finance his medical college fees. Don't be surprised if a 'mokhabarat officer' worked as a cab driver at a certain point in his life. They always have some information to add about weather, sports, politics, economics, finance, biogenetics, medicine, solving crimes and anything. You name it and they know something about it. Just never ever trust them, but if they give you and advice, you better damn well listen to it.

I could rant on and on about the horrible stories I experienced with Class 5 that were behind my new fear.. xanthophobia. But I'd better save them for another blog post.

Ramadanian Thoughts

2008-09-12T17:01:00.002+03:00

Unfortunately, those are all thoughts I either had while I am at work or while I was praying Taraweeh.

_______________________________

In an attempt to congratulate my friend on Ramadan:
"Ramadan Kareem ya sidi"
"Allah akram ya DVD"
_______________________________

what is the true meaning of the "لا يمسه إلا المطهرون" ayah in Quran. Does it mean that you really have to make Wudu' each time I wanna touch the quran? Does it mean that it can be only touched by muslims and that muslims are not allowed? tab why? what's the point? is it referring to the reading of the quran? ok, so if I wasn't 'tahir', can I let a 'tahir' person open up the quran for me and let him flip for me the pages while I read the Quran so that I maintain the 'don't touch' rule
_______________________________

so I was in madinah around a month ago. It was the first time I go to madina in 13 to 14 years. As part of the things I did was my visit to the Masjid Al-Qiblatain. According to the Sheikh who was guiding me, it was where the Prophet was ordered by Allah to turn his face from Masjid Aqsa in Jerusalem to the Kaaba in Makkah while offering the Asr prayers;..so I asked a question:
"so...the prophet was praying in front and then he got the revelation DURING prayer to turn his head. In that case, he turned from north to south, right? does this mean that him as an Emam, he was actually positioned behind the ppl? I see it as kind of funny as how ppl were able to guess when the Imam is proceeeding in the prayer...or did he just walk and turn all the way to the front WHILE praying?

The sheikh looked at me and paused for few minutes before he said: "what are you trying to say? you are mocking our prophet? get out of my cab ya faseq ya ....."
______________________________

so In Islam, a woman can only reveal her hands and her face. But they hide their ears. Are the ears part of the face or not? and what's the point behind hiding the ears? would I get turned on by seeing an ear? would ANYONE ever get turned on by an ear? I wonder

I spend the next half an hour googling images of women ears and I wasn't turned on
______________________________

efff...I don't feel this ramadan is special. Many ppl use ramadan as a reference point where they quit a habit or start a new. i have no bad habits to quit. You know what? next year, I'll start watching porn 2 months in advance so that i have something to quit by the time Ramadan comes
______________________________

Ok, I feeel bad. we have always been taught that if you get distracted in prayers or in life in general, it is because of the misguidance of the Devil. At the same time, they say that the Devils are sealed in the heavens. Ok, so why am I not concentrating in my prayers? I don't feel more divine in Ramadan. Its one of three things: 1- my devil managed to run away and stay with me (*rolls eyes*) 2- my soul is soo corrupt that it inspires evilness to my devil 3-Devils DO NOT exist (sorry God for this, but I am not convinced)
______________________________

I always thought that between praying and fasting, praying is the most important. It has been stressed alot in the quran and ppl have to pray no matter what, whether they are sick, travelling, disabled. Those 5 prayers need to be done. But as for fasting, you only fast one month and if you are sick or travelling, then you don't have to do it.

However, in one of the episodes of the "Abu Jafar El Mansur" a good point was raised. A woman doesn't have to make up for the lost prayers she missed when she was pmsing. however, she has to make up for the days she was not fasting in Ramadan. So after all, which form of worship is considered better for God?
______________________________

"LOL" is such an overused word. People are such hypocrites. I still remember spying on KJ while chatting with his friend. He keeps typing"LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL" yet he barely form a smile on his face. The same goes with my colleagues. We are at work and they keep typing "LOL" yet I know they are hiding in their cubicles and they would not move a bit. LOL should be banned from further usage in the cyberworld and I encourage the use of "loq" (laugh out quiet)

A phonecall that made my day

2008-08-30T20:14:00.002+03:00

It hasn't been the best of my days. My day didn't start up very well and i was not productive at work. I started my day with what I call my cup of coffee links where I check blogs that I missed reading over the weekend. Today, this process took around an hour..By the time I wanted to start working, I had to leave the office to go pick up my dad from the airport. His flight got delayed another hour. So by the time I picked him up and dropped him home, I ended up wasting a total of 3 hours.

Back at work, I worked for a couple of hours till I couldn't focus anymore. I got a phone call from my friend to join him for seafood lunch, again during my working hours. So basically, I stayed in my office only a total of 2 hours.

At lunch, while my friend was explaining to me how important it is that I should get used to drinking coffee and especially turkish coffee. He had a very convincing argument: "what if you wanna propose to a girl and visit her family and then she comes and brings you a cup of coffee? would you say no? they'd think you don't like her. and even if you drank the coffee and you showed up the facial signs that you don't like it..they'll assume that you didn't like HER coffee and they would consider this as a "no". and..."

I was in the middle of arguing why don't they become more modern and go and do NESCAFE or capuccino before my phone rang with the infamous metal gear solid ringtone.. I pick up the phone:
"Good afternoon Mr. Hamza Taha. This is the dental clinic calling"
"yes hi"
"how are you feeling today?"
"hm...pretty good"
"are you having any pain or side effects from the root canal treatment we did to you on thursday?"
"hmm...no everything is fine. It only hurt me at night"
"you are taking your antibiotics?"
"yea"
"ok...this was just a follow up call to make sure that you are ok. See you in your next appointment next thursday..Take care"
"ok..thanks for caring"

Did my dentist just call to check up on me? this is the first time that I have such experience. Doctors must definitely learn from him. I am definitely recommending this dentist to all my colleagues because he really made my day

iTunes and MediaPlayer Tag

2008-08-27T20:17:00.002+03:00

I don't wanna do tags but since I haven't updated my blog in a while. So I might as well do it

The rules are :
a) Put your iTunes/music player on Shuffle.
b) For each question, press the next button to get you answer.
c) YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER WHAT!!

1. IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?

Diana Ross- Ain't no moutain high [nice one]

2. WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?

Deff Lappard - When love and hate collide [good for describing my feelings]

3. WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?

Ragheb Alameh - yalla ya chabab [I don't wanna know what does this imply]

4. HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?

Westlife - Angel's Wings [totally not my ]

5. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?

Leann Rimes - One of these days (yep, a normal life)

6. WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?

Westlife - Unbreakable [ oh yeaaaaa. ;)]

7. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?

Mohammed Mounir - Ya Tayr ya tayer [why am I still doing this tag?]

8. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?

Lil Mama - Shawty Get loose [ Love it! ]

9. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?

Rihanna - Take a bow [Shaklo fee fight 3al 6aree2 :s ]

10. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?

Jessica Simpson - with you

11. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?

Kazem el Saher - Mashi Bi Share3 [yea...sort of ]

12. WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?

Ace of Base - Beautiful Life[ :D ]

13. WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?

Fadel Shaker - ya ghayeb [loooooool..considering I am never in the house..]

14. WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?

Kazem el Saher - Sayidati [naaaaaaaaaa]

15. WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?

Alisson Kraus - Baby, now that I've found you [who is singing this to me? the angel of death? :S]

16. WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?

Hani Shaker - Aeesh 3ala Hawaya [ aren't we all? :P ]

17. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?

Lifehouse - Quasimodo[ huh? oh yea...that thing! ]

18. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?

Lara Fabian - Je suis malade [:s...definitely the wron song for this question ]

19. WHAT SHOULD YOU POST THIS AS?

Assi Hellani - Bhebek inti [ I think I am having the worst answers among you all ]

20. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOURSELF?

DJ Tiesto - Elements of Life

I am regretting doing this tag and you know what? I am not taggin anyone

The dog & its nipples

2008-08-10T08:23:00.003+03:00

for the rest of the week, I'll be attending a training course titled "Islamic Banking Instruments". Yesterday was our first day. and here is an example of some of the conclusions that our instructor arrives because of the weird wiring system in his brain and the burnt up fuses he has.

A colleague of mine is questioning the difference between how a form of strucuturing deals done in islamic banking is different than the way its done in Conventional Banking. Here was the professor's answer:

"Listen...how many nipples does the dog have?"
WHAT THE.....how is that related to the nipples of a dog?
"the dog has 6 nipples. Why? because usually dogs give birth to usually 6 dogs and it needs to breastfeed all the children.
Let's look at sheep. How many nipples does the sheep have? they have only one. Sheeps usually give birth to one sheep. Right?
How many of you eat dogs? if you live in china, you might be. But how many of us eat sheep? almost all of us. For example, we in Bahrain slaughter around 5000 sheeps a day. So imagine how many sheeps does saudi arabia slaughter..especially with saudis being more voracious and they always eat KABSA 3 times a day. So they slaughter sheep 10 times more than us.
The question that arises is how come there is more sheep in the world more than dogs...ha?????
The answer is simple. GOD BLESSED sheeps. He didn't BLESS dogs. Same for banking. God likes and blessed Islamic Banking. He didn't bless conventional Banking."

I am seriously concerned about the deteriorating health of my brain. It does not need more corruption. I wish I can lend it to someone till this course is over.

NOOR (a.k.a as GUMUS)

2008-08-02T14:06:00.002+03:00

I HAAAAAAAAAAAAATE IT.

and each day, it keeps giving me more reason to hate it, especially since it started to directly affect my life.

1- like many days, I'd come back from work and I want to sit in my room to read a book, watch tv or play music on my laptop. But lately, my brother would walk in like 3antar zamano and with few clicks on the remote control, he would ruin the whole relaxing atmosphere I have when he tunes on this blasphemous tv show that would distract me from reading anything, listening to music or doing whatever I want to do.

2- One of my friends who I keep calling to see if he wants to go out. Most of the time, he is ready to go out but there are times where he hesitates to go out and he keeps giving me all those excuses like: "I am doing my AC", "I am out shopping with my dad", "I am fixing my fridge" etc etc. Lately, he confessed to me that he doesn't 't show up because I call him when he is in the middle of watching NOOR.

3- Another friend who I regularly talk to. Whenever we talk and might be having a serious debate and our conversation is almost reaching the climax, I all of a sudden hear: "oh...Noor is on....bye"..tout tout...Later, we came to this arrangement not to talk to each other during this 'holy hour'.
Latest incident I had was yesterday. I just wanted to call to say hamdella ala il salameh after arriving from the airport yesterday, but what do I get in return? "watching noor...call you later"..tout, tout..

4- and Last but not least. I go out shopping with my dad. At around 9:45, I see him getting jumpy and is hurrying up in shopping. When we rode the car, he was driving faster and recklessly more than usual. When I asked him, he goes like: "Noor is starting in 10 minutes". That's all I needed. My dad to be brainwashed too.

and for the fans of Noor, let me tell you, I tried watching the show. I seriously tried...I watched a couple of episodes. I don't find anything extraordinary about it. Its like any of those long mexican series....rich guy, poor girl....breaking up, making out, breaking up, making out, somebody is paralyzed...not anymore...there will be a new kid...turns out to be his son...the story is such a cliche. You could watch an episode now, and an episode one month later, and you can easily follow on what happened because the progress in story is sooooooooo damn slow.

and seriously, I believe that this show might be the cause of many divorces and breakups. This Mohannad guy is such a pain in the neck. He unrealisticly raises the bar for the dream guy for the girls. Most of the girls would go like: "why can't you be like mohannad? see how nice he is"..."yeeee, dakheeelo shu amooor wi jameeel hal mohannad..yo2boshli albi" " aaaaaaaaah, look at his green sexy eyes"..."7araam hal nazrah il 7azeeeneh illi ba3youno.....it doesn't suit him"

oh, one more thing...is it me or am I the only person on Earth who finds Alma annoying? I wish I can mutilate her and cut her to pieces each time I hear her annoying voice. I can't handle her naive and stupid behavior. If there is a kid who'll ever make me a child mercenary, its her and she is on the top of my list.

ah look at me, I ditched work and wasted 40 minutes just ranting about this silly series....I HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE IT.

a O_o moment

2008-07-25T16:38:00.002+03:00

I just finished texting a message to one of my friendsanswering the ultimate question that was raised 2 weeks ago in our social circle that day.

We just finished cleaning the mess left by the guests who attended the birthday party of one of our friend's daughter who just turned one. We decided to hang in the garage so that most of the guys could host their special closed session (similar to those in 70s show if you get what I am saying). There were two conversations going on. I was part of one that went like this (note: the following conversation have been modified where all the R-rated and swearing words were filtered, which were going at a rate of one x-rated word every 3 words):
"wow man, time flies by. You were the first among us to get married and look at you, you are a father with a cute little girl" - humpty
"yea man. I never imagined that I'll spend my morning blowing balloons. hahahaha" - birthday girl father
"hahahaha, I wonder who's gonna be the next guy among us who'll get married and screwed" - humpty
"man, it is a huge responsibility. My life has turned upside down. I miss the days I was single" - birthday girl father
" what are you talking about? if I were you, I'd marry two more. hahahha..especially since your religion allows for it" yogi
"oh man, trust me. You are lucky if you could manage one..hahahaha" - birthday girl father
"What you saying guy? screw management. I am talking about doing threesomes all the time" yogi
....We all stare at him till AKA said:
"is that even allowed in Islam?"
"I...I...don't know..it never occured to me" - humpty

another moment of silence. eyes shift towards me since I am considered the most religious and supposedly most knowledgeable among them. heh, that was totally unexpected.
"well...I have no clue. as far as I am concerned, there is neither a statment that prohibits it nor a statement that permits it..Its just....hmmm...that would be a good justification for another wife plust it will spice up....aaah...WHAT THE HELL you guys are thinking? threesome with two wives.." - me

the question remained unanswered, but it left my mind churning for an answer. I didn't have the guts to ask a sheikh in a mosque or anybody if threesomes are allowed with two wives. They'd think I am some kind of pervert and that will fuel the debate that some have about my sexual preference that's already in question.

I could only search the internet for an answer, but I repeat that I am not satisfied since I question the validity of those fatwas on internet. I only came upon those three links (the rest turned out to be all ads to some porn movies)
1- IslamOnline
2- Aqoul
3- Threesomes - Halal or Haram?

in brief, the major view is that it is Haram for two reasons: a) Details of intimate relationships should only be kept between husband and wife only b) women are not permitted to look at the 'Awrah' of each other. Based on that, the other view goes to the extreme of saying if the two wives agree, and that it is done in dark (so that they dont see their 'awrah'), and they never discuss it after, then it is permitted.

Honestly, opening this topic and delving more into it left a O_o expression on my face.

my Canadian Holiday

2008-07-20T20:59:00.005+03:00

Its been almost a week since I arrived from my summer vacation to Canada and I can assure you that it was exotic and I relatively enjoyed it. With the exception of few moments and things that I did not achieve, like the fact that I got reminded by how much I hate the loonies, the toonies and their children, I am satisfied in total.

My checklist was as follows:

1- Walking - People back at work thought I got a tan from going to the beach. They don't believe me when I swear to them that I haven't gone to any beach and its just a natural tan I got from all the walking I did.

2- Reading - I stayed for hours in chapters just reading books. I finished the novel "coma" by alex garland that I started reading 2 years ago. I stopped at page 120. I resumed from where I stopped and finished it. loool. I even started reading another book by Ian McEwan called "amesterdam", but i didn't finish it yet. mind you that i did all that reading INSIDE the bookstore. hehehehe. But in the end, i bought up a nice collection of books which are as follows:

To tell you the truth, I am surprised how did the last 2 books got through saudi authorities undetected

3- taking a LIMO - for the first time...:D
4- Wonderland - I even rode on the infamous behemoth ride. 125 km/h, 70 m in height, descent at 75 degrees is more than enough to send an overdose of adrenaline up my body that kept it shivering for minutes.
5- Niagara Falls- priceless
6- walking in Downtown - and i even attended the American express show of dining in the air.

7 - Movies & Theatres -
A must see amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing movie.

kind of half half.. nice twist to the story but nothing exceptional..Wait for the DVD
character and acting is amazing. I feel it could have been better, but overall a good movie too.

8- Massage Therapy session - money well spent. The feeling i got from the massages I got for my neck, back and shoulders is overwhelming and I felt vibes moving in my body..oh and for those who might dare and ask me (coz I already got asked like 3 times)...I did NOT get a "happy ending". I did not ask for one.

9- Meeting a fellow blogger

There are only 2 things on the top of my head that I planned on doing and couldn't:
1- Going to a psychiatrist
2- Trip to Montreal (I so wanted to go on this one)

Most importantly, I got to spend alot of time with myself where I had to reconcile few issues between me and myself. Myself is demanding more rights from me. This means that I had to officially give more recognition to myself and live with 2 parallel characters. Anyway, I decided to do 3 things:
1- revive my quest that I had 4 years ago in unraveling the mystery behind "voynich manuscript" - whether by studying it more and more or donating money for researches. I will start doing this soon

2- Get a pet - I highly doubt that I'll ever do this coz I never took care of a pet in my life and I highly doubt that mom will allow me to..But we'll see

3- Start studying Tantra and practice it when possible - I think I'll start with textbooks and see what i can do to practice

4- .......(I'd rather keep it private and to msyelf)

Stay tuned for more funny and awkward stories about my trip. I so wanna tell you about the time i gave my roomate the talk, and the drunk guy who was trying to levitate, and much much more.

The true meaning of a vacation

2008-06-27T15:17:00.005+03:00

A vacation for me is not about doing as many different entertainment activities as possible. My vacations used to be stressful because I always thought that I am on vacation and I shouldn't waste my time on sleeping, relaxing and wasting time. I thought it was about utilizing time as much as possible.

But not any more.

This vacation, I decided to do two things, do whatever I wanna do as they come without overthinking about who to meet, when to meet and where to meet, what to do, when to do, and where to do.

So what was the first step?

Drop the watch.

You can't believe how relieving it is to live a day without having any sort of commitment to time. Without worrying about getting to finish a task before a certain time.

In those 2 days, I never made any commitment to see anyone. I always tell my friends to call me and i just keep updating them on my location like a GPS device.

So what have I done during my first day here?

Walk, walk, and walk. Yesterday I have walked a distance equivalent to what I would walk in KSA for 3 days. I started my day with a bagel of cream cheese and hot chocolate from TIM HORTONS.. I kept shouting in my mind: "TIMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYs....." oh how much I missed TIM HORTONS. I am definitely buying their coffee and bring it back to me to KSA (looool, I don' even drink coffee)

It took me a couple of minutes to try and remember the bus system. Ok, take bus 29W to south common mall. oh, South Common Mall is still the same. Not much has changed. I spent 9 months taking the 26 bus from sheridan transport to my college. The whole trip lasted 45 minutes. I then took 1E dundas to stop by Hurontario Street & Dundas.

Later, I went to square one and just walked and walked and walked. My friend called me and we went to watch the spain vs russia game in JACKASTOR's...a pub next to Chapters in Square one. Oh man at Chapters, I remember the days where I was bored and I used to sit all alone by myself hide in a corner and read the books inside the bookstore before the owners kick me out at 9 when they close. hehehehehe

Watching the game was fun, especially when you always have smiling waitresses who enjoy doing their jobs, no matter how clumsy you can get when you get superexcited and spill the jug of beer all over your friends and all over her. She doesn't complain. She smiles back, cleans the table and the floor and adds the icing on the cake with the wink telling you: "this one is free of charge". You can't help but be very generous in your tip especially since she constantly kept supplying me SPRITE refills. I drank about 4 cups of SPRITE that my friends thought I am getting drunk on SPRITE.

3-0 was the ending result. Celebrations all over the street. We drove to streetsville, bought a couple of jerseys, screamed and cheered with spanish fans who we don't know. People thought we were spanish because we were wearing spain jerseys (except me :( ) and because of our super hyperactivity in our celebrations.
Later, we went to an Italian restaurant to try their veal sandwiches. As usual, my rooomate and his friends kept making fun of the italian team and how they 'choked' in this competition. I was siding with the waitress and her friend who were making our sandwiches till I discovered that they were InterMilan fans.

What I still don't understand is how do all girls we asked (the ones we know and the ones we don't know) find Sergio Ramos to be the cutest guy on the spanish team.

I didn't do much later. Went home, chilled for a bit. Then asked my friend to drop me in ERIN MILLS mall. The mall that I usually visit to do all my shopping errands. Had to buy the things that I forgot to bring with me like a hairbrush, and a travel adapter plug for all the electronics i have from the Middle East.

Oh man, here I was, walking again through ZELLERS, WAL-MART and SEARS. Lol at Wal-Mart. I just remembered the campaign I did 2 years ago where I vowed to myself to try all the different candy types they have on those 3 different aisles. It took me over 5 months to try all of them. But hey I did it. am I Crazy? guilty as charged. My favourite ones are the sugary jelly worms

As I left the mall, the sun was setting. I wondered what time it is. and for the first time in this day, I loook at my cellphone clock. It said 9:10 p.m. Wow, the sun is still up at 9:10 p.m?

Went back home, tired and exhausted. I didn't feel like doing anything. I guess I still didn't shake the effects of jetlag yet. I played a couple of FIFA 2008 games with my roomate on his xbox 360 (yep, he still has it) before I decided to call it a day.

I woke up half an hour ago. Its 9 a.m as I write this. My legs are hurting me. I guess it is from all the walking I did yesterday. Its ok, I am gonna walk more and more. Oh how much I miss walking. Let's see what this day will unravel for me. :)

The Milestone of this year

2008-06-20T11:27:00.003+03:00

I can't believe that almost a month passed since I wrote anything.

I acknowledged the fact that i had a blackhole growing inside of me. Now whether this is associated with depression or not, I don't know coz I didn't feel i was depressed and I had many joyful moments. Unless my situation is so bad that I am depressed but I didn't know about it.

So what was going on with me lately? I had mentally blogged in my head many topics.

I could have talked about the hectic week from 31st of May to 4th of June where we had our annual meeting. An event that took more than 2 months of organization in order to prepare for hosting over 102 ministers coming from over 56 Islamic Member Countries. The Main conclusion of that meeting was establishing the Jeddah Declaration where 1.5 Billion Dollars will be dedicated to solve the Food Crisis in the Muslim World.

I could talk about my role as an event manager for one of the seminars hosted by a partnering organisation regarding "Corporate Social Responsibility". I could talk about the poor attendance of the seminar where only 30 or 35 ppl showed up and where I was the only representative from my workplace. I could talk about the embarassing moment when the President of the organisation approached me to ask me that the Directors in his organisation are very interested in meetng our Experts in the Consultancy & Procurement Department. He asked me how big and how many people we have in the Procurement & Consultancy Department. I was too embarassed to say that we only have one person and i managed to divert the topic to something else.

I could talk about the humiliation and the lack of organisation that resulted in having the secretaries and general staff storming and filling the Lunch Buffet leaving the High Delegates and VIP guests standing outside waiting in a queue for a vacant place to sit & eat. That's assuming that there were any food left.

I could talk about what was stressing me for last two weeks in which I have to decide on where to spend my next rotation at work. I shortlisted two departments. Structured Finance Department is a small and growing department with alot of potential. The exposure and learning experience is extremely high. However, the working environment is hostile. Colleagues are not that friendly. There is no sense of teamwork and people tend to work in silos. As for Treasury Department, the situation is mysterious. The whole department has a big question mark over it. They say they are going through a reform and they need to change the way they handle investments. It looks interesting, assuming I won't be in for some shocking surprises.

but all this does not matter. What matters is that I am going through a great moment these days. I finally managed to complete my 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle. You can find the final picture here:

I started working on it 15 months ago. Long time definitely but what matters is that I finished it. It took me 2 months to assemble 60% of it which is the lower part. The upper part (which is the sky) took me all the time because assembling it was extremely hard. all the pieces looked almost the same. It was so hard to distinguish them that i could not use normal room light to differentiate between the pieces. The only time I could work on them was using sunlight. i.e. only during weekends from 10 to 2 (since I have work during weekdays).

Nobody can imagine the overwhelming sensation I felt as I put the last piece. I made this puzzle represent my life where each day I'd piece one piece in it so that i discover myself in it. I used to wake up every morning to look at it and give me the boost to start my day. Finally, the day came where i completed it. Nothing is impossible after all.

I would like to thank all those who have given their support during this period. Regarding the vacation that many of you told me about, I will be taking it next week. I will be going to Toronto for 3 weeks. It'll be definitely a change for me. I am tired of hanging around the close-minded stubborn arabs here. It will be good to hang around foreign people for a change and to re-enjoy the services and the efficient system of Canada. It might not be a full vacation as I have many things on my to-do list. One of them could be roaming the subways in search of a 5 month pregnant woman with Arabic features reading a book titled: "notes from underground". [hint hint at a blogger :P]

The Blackhole inside of me

2008-05-23T21:24:00.003+03:00

How many times have I stared blankly at this screen?

wanted to type, and write but no words would come out.

15th May passed. I felt bad that all my blogger friends wrote about Palestine Day while I didn't.

21st May passed. Wanted to write about how I wanted to explore the number 23. By watching the movie "number 23". The first statement of the movie was describing me. "today is my birthday". Wanted to write about 23 unique things about me.....Yet I didn't

What's happening to me?

a month has passed since I watched any of my regular series..."Lost", "Prison Break" or "Smallville" or any other show. the same goes for movies.

Why have I stopped reading? I used to always read before I go to sleep. I barely read 30 pages in the last 3 weeks.

The gym--- heh...I just remembered that I have a subscription that i haven't used in a months time

What's happening to me?

I have not been faithful to my close friends like I used to. I am not in touch with them as i used to. I am missing out on their news. Has the choice of moving on with the new friends affected my relationships with the older & faithful ones who has always been supportive and gave too much for me? for how long will they tolerate me?

What's happening to me?

The first thing i used to do when I wake up was stare at my incomplete jigsaw puzzle. It was a simple of my incomplete life that I try to piece each day. I used to work on it whenever I had free time. Its the same jigsaw puzzle that I bought 16 months ago and I still didn't finish it. Nowadays, it is just sitting there collecting the dust.

I am afraid of this growing blackhole and what else it will strip from my inner core and the values that it will consume..

3 family relatives in 3 weeks

2008-05-12T22:02:00.007+03:00

they were 3 hectic weeks. All of a sudden, my relatives decided to utilize this time to visit us.It started around a month ago when my aunt came for an umra. A week later, our uncle joined us. A week after it, my other aunt and her daughter came out of Palestine for the same reason..i.e. doing Umra. As it is always the case, that situation has unsettled me and made me a prisoner in my own house as I had to be careful before walking into any room that my cousin is veiled. Other than that, I'll leave it to you to imagine the terrible situation we had at the house.

Thankfully, throughout the period, I still retained the luxury of sleeping in my own bed. My relatives have lived all their life in rural areas & its normal for them to sleep on floor mattresses. Thus, our spacious living room proved to be the ideal sleeping place.

Speaking of being accustomed to rural community, I was not saved from few embarrassing (yet funny) moments when driving with them & handling few errands they have here & there. Such moments were like:

1- Imagine this situation. All of us are sitting on the corniche near the sea. Me lying on the floor gazing at the moon and slowly entering that special place romantic private place in me before I get interrupted: "Hamza, they need to use the washroom. Drop them somewhere near by"...Oh boy, how much I hate this. How am I supposed to walk to a restaurant/ hotel just to use the washroom and leave? I wish I could take them to my house. But its half an hour away and judging from their standing posture, I highly doubt they could hold themselves. So, i end up complying to do it. the nearest thing to me was PIZZA HUT. I walked in with a high confidence and drawing that cheesy smile on my face. I scan the area around me..Men washroom here, I signal for my uncle. Further scanning, women washroom located..I signal for my aunt. Ok, I am all by myself. the Pizza Hut waiters are anticipating the moment I sit down so they could raid me with setting up the table and handing out the menu. I was walking around the area, trying to avoid eye contact with them and praying in my mind that my relatives won't embarrass me and hope that they know how to use the washroom that might be too advanced for their sophisticated minds to comprehend.. those were among the longest 8 to 10 minutes I spent. As soon as they both finished, I escorted them out of the restaurant not looking back. but I swear I could have felt the -ve vibes and hatred the staff had to me for abusing their facilities

2- My dad is usually smart. However, I doubt that taking my eldest aunt who have lived all her life in palestine to STEAK HOUSE was a good idea. She kept throwing hilarious comments here & there. "why are they cutting the salad like that?" "what are those weird sauces here?" "why is the meat cooked that way?" "what kind of bread is this?". But the best comment was when she saw one of the waiters who was changing the salad items on the salad bar and he was wearing a hair cover, a mask and gloves. My aunt was like: "allah yatmo, leish shaklo hada metl il dacatra? 3am bi3mal 3amaleyeh lal salata?" (why is he dressing up like a surgeon? is he doing surgery on the salad?)....My aunt is so hilarious.

I have always been nice to them but sometimes I face situations that make me hate their backward mentality. For example, me & my siblings were raised that each one of us should be collaborating on arranging, cleaning and organising the house. Sometimes, but not frequently, my sister end up doing more work than us because she is the "girl".
When my relatives were around, I was being myself where my actions have raised few eyebrows. My cousin jumped each time I attempt to serve drinks/ clean the table etc. She goes like: "no no you shouldn't. this is our job. OMG, what if my husband sees you? he'd never offer to do anything like that". My uncle shouts at me with this disgusting look of : "what are you doing? you are the man, Sit down". I am shocked by this backward mentality. What kind of stupid logic is that? and what of this extreme sexism? so what if a guy is helping in housekeeping? I only stopped coz my dad signaled to me a sign of: "just play along".

Oh well..but overall, I was happy to see them especially since I won't be visiting palestine/jordan anytime soon. I also felt a bit satisfied in attempting to try to repay them for their generous hospitality I receive each time I see them.

I hate you Robert Zoellick

2008-05-02T20:15:00.004+03:00

Who is he?

not a famous guy..he is just the freakin World Bank Group President.

What did he do?

Nothing much. He just decided to pay us a visit in our region in our headquarters and discuss possible areas of corporation in the areas of development

How did this affect me?

Apparently, we had to prepare a powerpoint presentation describing our activites and our plan for the future. In addition to two other colleagues, I have been assigned by 2 Senior Directors to help in the preparatoin of this presentation.

This was by far the most painful exercise I have gone through since I started working here. It was the first time I spend 22 hours spread over 2 days working on just one single presentation, which we prepared more than 5 different drafts for. We had to be careful with the selection of words, slides, contents as our image was on the line.

I left Tuesday at 8:30 p.m and 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday. This was by far the longest time I've stayed at work. It is when they switched off the lights and the ACs that we understood that we couldn't stay longer.

I barely slept few hours on Wednesday before i woke up at 7:30 to wear a suit for the first time on my weekend day (Thursday) to make sure all the necessary arrangments are being taken care of..and guess what? the damned projector's colors was displaying our supposedly white themed ppt presentation with a light disgusting green color. Who could have ever suspected that color display differ that much from one projector to another. We had to go through a crash exercis of changing the theme from white to blue and changing the color of the underlining text from dark green to yellow.

But overall, the presentation was a success. We were thanked for our efforts that were well-appreciated. Even some of the Directors were amazed that they asked us for a copy of the presentation.

Despite the long stressful hours, I was a bit overjoyed as it somehow reminded me of my university days, the stress that we went through, the teamwork, the 10 minute naps that each one of us was taking, the unconditional support from the Director's secretary in getting us food when we felt hungry.

nevertheless, I sincerely hope that our reputation as the powerpoint specialist team does not spread as I don't see myself doing those ad-hoc assignments as frequently as they are needed.

My Apology

2008-04-25T22:59:00.006+03:00

Dear All bloggers,

Some of you may have noticed that I have not been very active lately in reading posts/commenting or even writing. I wanna apologize and I hope that none of you misunderstand it as lack of interest in your blogs. Its just I have been a bit preoccupied workwise and lifewise and I barely have the time to check blogs.

Another reason that contributed is the fact that I have become "laptopless". My laptop has welcomed my return to jeddah with its retirement. It no longer works. The diagnosis states that the motherboard is dead. So thank you Toshiba Tecra S1 for wonderful 44 months that we shared many ups & downs.

So now I am on the hunt for new laptops. What I want is a lightweight, prefarably with long battery life, 12 or 13 inch screen, an acceptable gfx card, and S-video output. I am pretty intersted in the SONY VAIO series. So far, I am shortlisting those 3 laptops:

SONY VAIO VGN-FZ35M

Pros: 200 GB hardisk, Nvidia GEFORCE 8400, 2.10 core 2 duo processor, 2 GB ram, cheap relative t other prices, 3 year warranty

Cons: 15.4 inch screen, 2.7 kg laptop (which pretty does not mean 2 of my 3 reqs)

SONY VAIO SZ740

Pros: 2.4 core 2 duo, 13.1 inch screen, s-video, 2 GB ram
Cons: 1 year warranty from the shop. Sony Vaio are support center are not willing to sell me additonal 3 year warranty because this pertains to SONY US which is apparently different than sony middle East. so if anything happens after 1 year, I am royally screwed.

SONY VAIO CR35M

Pros: best choice. 2.10 ghz core 2 duo, 14.1 inch ( what I want), 3 hours battery life, 200 GB hardisk, 2 GB ram...its just what I need

Cons: its PIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINK...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

On the other hand, sometimes i think that I shouldn't rush in buying a laptop. I already have a desktop pc at home (disadvantage is that its not always available for me) & I am promised a new DELL laptop for work. Nevertheless, I feel I will need a laptop for personal use. I had toshiba for 3 years and i am sick of them. ACER are the cheapest option and I heard they became better but they remain inferior to rest of brands. HP is another good option but its too common and many ppl have HPs. to tell you the truth, I like to look different (not show-off, just different). So, sony vaio would remain my best option.

UNLESS...

I go for MACs.....but the question is...am I ready for the switch? am I ready to embrace those super bright white machines? Sometimes I think, if Angels have laptops, they'd carry MACs.. So am i ready to become an angel? a handicapped angel that works with only one click? :P

The horrible incident at Sharjah Airport

2008-04-14T00:00:00.002+03:00

Thanks to the hype caused by KJ, many of you are aware that I have come to Dubai for a weekend. A trip that extended from Thursday to Sunday afternoon. That meant that I had to skip work for Saturday & Sunday…(for those who don't know, KSA is one of the few countries who still has the weekend on Thursday & Friday). ooh speaking of that, I need to get a sick note to justify my absence for those 2 days…*adds it to his to do list*

So, my plane was scheduled to arrive at around 7:30 p.m UAE time, which gives me enough time to fit something to do at night. But if I knew how I'll end up spending the next 4 hours, I would have thought twice before booking with this airline, and despite the traffic congestion, Dubai's airport would have been much better.

I arrive to the airport and start filling the necessary forms needed to apply for the Visit Visa before I was asked by one of the officers to go and join the queue.

But what I saw was definitely far from a queue. The queue was too long that it was impossible for it to remain a straight line without blocking entrance to the whole airport. The queue was like a snake growing from its tail. A queue that had at least 400 unfortunate passengers like, yours truly, who are waiting to let their eyeballs be submitted to the retina scanning devices.

Under normal conditions, you'd have 5 retina scanning devices that are processing the applicants in parallel. Unfortunately for us, four of them has magically announced a technical strike and stopped functioning at same time.

The queue kept getting longer and longer.

10 minutes pass and I haven't moved a block.

15 more minutes pass and I can see that the people in front of me have started to give up. They sat and stretched their legs as if they are about to sleep…What the…? I cannot handle this anymore

I get out of the queue and walk to the front. I skip around 100 people and try to scan the area around me. I spot two people trying to create a disturbance with one of the officers and trying to get into the queue at an earlier stage. I join them in their rally but we failed, the officer scolds us. He sets up an additional barricade and we end up being punished to go to the back of the queue.

I am not willing to give up. At this rate, I won't finish till morning. I wait 10 more minutes before I try once more but I had to think of an intervening strategy. I happen to notice that many of the women has started to give up and were sitting on the floor. Two of the people who were standing in the queue were bashing the authorities for their lack of planning in emergency situations. I join them with my loud voice by pointing to the sitting women as one of the effects of this disorganization saying "Where is the respect to women?"

The chief officer eyeballs me and shouts: ""DIDN'T I ORDER YOU NOT TO COME BACK? DON'T OPEN YOUR MOUTH AND SAY SOMETHING YOU'LL REGRET". Oh great, that's the last thing I need..to be grey-listed in another airport.

Nevertheless, he felt a bit guilty and he organized two queues. A women queue and a men queue. The officer is now sitting at the additional barricade set up earlier selecting random people to filter to the main queue. His preference was more inclined to the poor women of course. Great, more delay for us the guys.

I am still outside the queue. I was checking how much money I have. I have dollars, Qatari riyals (from my previous mission), Saudi riyals and UAE dirhams. I contemplated the idea of bribery for a second before I realized how insane and risky it is, especially if that two-starred officer sees me once again.

Few of the new male passengers arriving who are oblivious to the rule of the 2 queues end up waiting in the women queue. After half an hour, the officer spots them and commands them to leave the queue. They start another hassle on the excuse that they were not informed and many of them try to blend themselves in the male queue. I took the chance and push myself with them. The situation is getting uglier and I am still pushing. The officers are losing control. The two-starred officer arrives to the scene. I immediately duck taking the position of tying my shoe laces before he witnesses me for the 3^rd time. The situation is resolved in few seconds and he end up escorting 12 people to the back of the queue. Luckily, I was not one of them. YES, at least I made a progress. I skipped past at least 65 people standing in front of me.

10 minutes pass..and we move 2 blocks

15 minute pass..and we move only one block

Half an hour pass…and we are standing still.

A rumor is spread around that the only functioning retina scanning machine has announced its early retirement.

The situation has become unbelievably unbearable. Its 10:30 p.m. already and I've spent around 3 pointless hours in the airport.

Finally, the authorities gave up and they were a bit discriminatory in giving temporary access to all the arabs waiting in the queue (we represented 10% of the queue population) leaving the Indians/ Bangalis and other Far Eastern nationalities on hold till further notice. That was a favorable situation for us and after that, I managed to complete and clear my papers in the next 20 minutes.

But this was definitely one of the worst airport experiences I ever had. To know how things were on the other side, Check it out here.

Speaking out of Bitterness

2008-04-06T23:41:00.001+03:00

As I was thinking for the last 2 days on this, I couldn't help myself from releasing few tears that represent only a fraction of the frustration and bitterness I have. It is the bitterness feeling I am having with a very special close person who has inspired me lately. It is the return of a feeling that have shattered my heart with 2 of my close friends

On one of the days, I walked to a bar. One of the guys I knew pissed me off when I denied his offer for a drink as I don't drink. He said: "why would you go to a bar if you don't drink?". While he might be relatively right, I don't believe that the ONLY way to have fun in a bar is in being drunk. Ok, I am a person who does not smoke sheesha, or drink coffee (you'll find here all the things I don't do). Does this mean that I should ban myself from entering cafés or coffee shops. Can't I enjoy the food, cocktails, desserts or even the ambient decorations of the place?

As I've stated before, I am personally never fond of potential addictive material (my list goes here)… I personally NEVER ever tried them. And it was not out of religious reasons as much as out of personal reasons of knowing how weak I'll become. I am known for my high addictiveness and possessiveness level. And if I like any of the above (and I know I will), then I could easily get hooked and extremely become dependent on them. And if I try to quit and fail, then I'll become extremely depressed especially since I am extremely harsh on myself when it comes to self-criticism.

Don't misunderstand me. I am not one of those who call for a campaign to ban drugs, alcohol, sheesha, or cigarettes. On the contrary, I respect my uncle who smokes his cigarettes only on occasions. He would go for days or even weeks not smoking one. And he'll only smoke if there is a celebration, a birthday party, anniversary or an Eid. I admire one of my friends who only smoke his cigars when he is in the mood. He would organize his room to make it more like a jazz lounge and just sit there to read a book, enjoy the music and smoke his classy cigars.

I am just against the way how some use them as stress-relievers, or because of peer pressure, or just for the sake of doing something "crazy" or unusual. If they are used for any of the above reasons, then the person who start by saying: "only a puff. I'll never smoke one by myself" to "only one. Not more" to "only few. But I'll never buy a pack" to the extreme end of "wait..Why am I not holding one in my hand?". I just despise those who fall to the dependency webs of those addictiveness pleasures that can be a source of joy rather than as means of lying to themselves that it lessens the stress.

I have witnessed two of my best friends slip away liked that. As I said, it started with both of them saying "trust me, I know what I am doing. I am doing it for fun. I won't get hooked". As the days passed, I witnessed how they slowly changed and how they began losing their core values and became prisoners of their new addictive habits.

So hamza, I ask myself, don't you think you are exaggerating? I might be. All I need is one successful story of a person who managed to free him/herself from those devouring tentacles and became the one in control rather than be controlled.

This is just a sample of the disappointments I have witnessed in my life. I feel I can no longer trust people. "I believe in you" is such an over-rated phrase. I am losing my faith in humans. In fact, I shall perish being ashamed to be belonging to this idiotic species. I don't know what it will take to restore my faith in humanity, if it exists…

Random Qatar/ Doha Moments

2008-04-01T22:45:00.004+03:00

Fancy Pointless Words:

Biggest example is the title of the conference I attended. The conference was about "knowledge parks". In other words, its basically a conference about knowledge management and hot to utilize, disseminate and share knowledge especially in development of ICT (Communication & Technology) sectors in countries. So the concept is simple. But they love using fancy words

e-schoolbags – another fancy word referring to a project of providing laptops for students at schools.

Tropical tolerant software – it refers to developing software that can be run on old computers that are mostly widespread all over Africa. This means that the software can be run on old Pentium PCs, doesn't require a lot of space or RAM, has auto-recovery features, and is offline (independent on online connectivity)

Other than the usual Human & Financial Capital,
there are new words like Intellectual Capital and Market Capital. Words such as policies and processes are now referred to as "Management Capital". Talk about pointless terms

The Heels

"man, those are the slimmest heels I've seen in my life. How can she walk with those?"

My friend shakes his head in disappointment "ya 7aram ya Hamza, you've been in Saudi Arabia for too long. Looks like you are used to looking at the floor when you pass by women. Man, go and entertain your eyes and appreciate womens' body beauty."

Suit Skin Care:

On one of the boring lectures in the conference, I fumble with the pockets of my suit and discover this. Point no.2 is so hilarious that I was having a hard time stopping from giggling in the middle of the presentation:

Pedestrian Sign:

This has to be smartest & most confusing pedestrian sign ever. I feel it captures both genders. My friend saw it as a guy crossing the street. I saw it as a lady crossing the street.

The Hot Girl:

So we go and explore one of the malls. Our walking pace is interrupted by the sight of a gorgeous girl who brushes by us. We are dazzled by her beauty.

"man, she is sooo beautiful. She is the most beautiful woman I've seen in my life."

"I gotta agree, she has to be the 2nd or 3rd gorgeous girl I've seen in my life"

15 minutes later, and we run into her again but she was with her family.

"Oh man…oh man..she can't be human. She must be an angel. I wanna talk to her. I want to know her"

"Well, her parents are with her. You can always ask them. ;)"

"you know what? You are right. I am talking to her parents."

"DUDE, you crazy? I was joking.."

"no no, you are right. I will never see someone like her. I can't waste my chance." And starts walking away

"Come back, you lunatic…."

They were sitting in a coffee shop and her father was away talking to the cashier and I guess was ordering drinks for the family. My friend approach him and started talking..What the? He is actually talking to her dad…a minute later, the dad calls the mom..woo, what's going on here? I look at the girl. She is alarmed. She looks at me..I smile at her. She smiles back…and we turn our heads to the 3 who are having the conversation. 2 minutes later, my friend comes back disappointed: "too young"

I find it kind of awkward. I never see myself doing such a move.

Blogger Book Club Discussion: The Time Traveler's Wife

2008-03-27T20:09:00.003+03:00

First, I apologize for the delay in publishing this post. I've been burdened with multiple projects at work and the fact that my social (non-internet) life is becoming more thrilling and full of action and suspense.

Nevertheless, I won't abandon my duties towards our esteemed Book Club. So far, I am on page 300.

The story is pretty linear and revolves around one general theme which is the life of Henry & Clare as they meet each other in different time-spaces. What I really like in the novel is the narration style where it shows you the events from both Henry & Clare. You would see a scene in Clare's eyes followed by Henry's view of what happened next. All this is done in a simple language and in a seamless flow that leaves the reader interpreting the story from the eyes of both characters.

Discussion 1:

The beginning of the novel discussed how Henry met Clare in her childhood since she was 6 and how he was always in her life as she grew, lived her teenage days, and matured before marrying him. As I read the novel, I wondered what would happen if the same happened to me. How would you feel if you meet someone who knows what happens in the future. He knows the age you'll be married to him. He knows the future house that will be picked..and yet, this person is very reluctant to share this information with you as he believes that it might influence the cycle of fate and make you not enjoy the present moment especially if you know all the things in advance and the ones pre-determined. However, on the other side, I see it as a way of not sharing everything in this relationship. At many times and under different situations, both of them could be put in a situation where one party would know stuff more than the other and he/she will feel hesitant about sharing it. So what do you think?

Discussion 2:
So let's say you time travel and on one of your journeys, you meet your other self who is older than you by 8 years and he is hanging around with your wife. Despite the fact that he is yourself, would you feel some kind of jealousy from your other being? How would you react? How would you even judge and look at yourself? Its a confusing situation. I don't know how would I react. What do you think?

I can't wait to see how the story will evolve and develop especially for some of the support characters especially Gomez and Ben.

The only time I closed the lab early

2008-03-20T22:16:00.001+03:00

It is the spring of 2004. Almost 4 years ago. I was overwhelming myself in my 6^th semester with six 3 credit courses (totalling 18 credits). In addition to that, I was working as teaching assistant & grader for the "introduction to computer science II" course.. Java II- CMP 220 (heh..And yes I still remember the course number). And I was a lab assistant for one day a week.

I still remember this miserable weekend. I was assigned to open the lab on a Wednesday night (back when weekends were still Thursday & Friday) from 5 to 10. All my friends were out enjoying their time while I am sitting there like a loser grading the CMP 220 assignments.

The lab was in the physics building, 2^nd room adjacent to the computer science senior lab if my memory doesn't betray me. Since it was weekend, there weren't many students who were keen on studying. The lab was gradually getting less congested at around 7. By 8 o'clock, there were only 2 students in the lab. And from the way they were giggling, they were more of trying to hook up rather than him supposedly teaching her how to use MAPLE for calculus I....freshman..What do you expect?

I just couldn't help myself from not eavesdropping every once in a while on their conversation and see how would they geekly flirt mathematically.

Usually, every hour or so, I take a break and pass by my two colleagues sitting in the senior lab who are working on their design project, try and see what they are up to, give them moral support etc.

As I come back from one of my visits at 9 o'clock, I enter my lab and find no one there. For an instant, I was shaken for a bit as the bags & the stuff of the students was still there. Moments later, both of them storm out from UNDER the table leaving this trailing effect of trauma on my face.

Both of them were taken off guard by my presence, and the guy goes like:

"aaah...aaaah...aaaah...we dropped our pencil and we were getting it..."

What a lame excuse. I give him one of my hate looks where I tilt my head at around 50 degrees and I narrow my eyes and scream:

"aha...AND IT TAKES TWO PEOPLE TO GET A PENCIL?"...please don't insult my intelligence

"aaaaah....aaaaah....aaaaah..."

"listen, I am not gonna report this. But I don't wanna see you or your girlfriend near my damned lab again. Now get the hell out of here. I am closing the lab"

"but, sir, we have 1 more hour"

"you dare and argue with me. Wrap up your stuff now" Actually, I was even more pissed because my friend called me and told me how I have missed the premiere of a controversial and a much anticipated movie (if my memory didn't betray me, I think it was "The Passion of Christ").

Two months later, I go to the same physics building to attend my morning class (it was boring Numerical methods..was it?..oh how rusty my memory has become)and I bump into the girl. She smiles at me. I smile back. I fetch something out of my bag and say:

"hi, here is a pencil...for next time" and I wink at her. ;)

Why I no longer hang out with my sister

2008-03-14T11:17:00.003+03:00

Story 1

Its mom's birthday and we need to buy her a gift. As soon as I finish work, I pass by the house to pick my sister up. We go together and each one of us decide to buy a separate gift. My sister buys a skin care set from body shop. Then we go to another beauty shop near by called "FACES" where I asked my sister to check out what they have and pick my gift. I was not in the mood to check out what they have. So she explained to the salesman that she needs a gift for her mom (note that she didn't mention "our" mom). After a while, we both mutually agree on buying "Calvin Klein Euphoria Perfume Gift Set".

So, I ask the salesman to wrap the gift while I try to come up with something creative to write on the greeting card for my mom. The salesman did the wrapping and I was still clueless. Usually, I am very creative when I am in the mood. But if I am not, then forget it.

The salesman trying to be cool around me goes like: "shu ya zalameh...mosh 3aref toktob la 7amatak" (come on man, don't you know what to write for your mother-in law?)

What did he just say? Ok, I am gonna ignore him. I re-assess my situation. I am still in my office suit. My sister is dressed up formally for her work that's starting from 5 to 10. She is the one picking the gift and I am just standing in the corner, being perceived by the salesmen as the guy with the cash...

"7amatak ya zalameh..oktobelha 'allah ykhaleelna iyaki ya set il habayeb' " (dude, she is your mother in law. Write: "May God Bless you and grant you everlasting health") he goes once again to reiterate his point.

I snap at him: "DUDE, SHE IS NOT MY WIFE. She is my sister. Do you see me wearing a God-damn ring?"

"but...but..you..."

"I know...we don't look like it" were my last words before I left the shop leaving the guy stunned.

Story 2

We are in Hurgada in Egypt. In 2 hour time, we will be leaving the city. Whereas everybody is busy backpacking, my sister all of a sudden remembers that she has few gifts to buy for her friends back home. So she asks me to accompany her. What for? Yes, you guessed it. The portable ATM.

Apparently, my sister had specific requirements as she was looking for the evil eye amulet and for quranic verses carved on the artifacts. Her requirements were very hard to find especially since the market is targeting European tourists who are more interested in buying items from the pharaoh era and other cultural items that talk more about the history & culture of Egypt. After visiting the 11^th shop, my sister expressed her frustration in the wrong way when she said:

"Shu had? Ma3andkom gheir hal ASNAM?" (what's this...you only sell statues?)

Note: "ASNAM" is such an ancient word used in the dark ages before Islam to refer to all forms of idols and statues that were worshipped in those days.

In other words, my sister has stepped over the line and has magnificently insulted the history and culture of the hosting country.

The salesman didn't let this pass through. His eyes widened and he expressed his dissatisfaction saying:
"ASNAM eih ya ro7 ommek, da tareeekh, da 7adara" (how dare you offend me like that? This is our heritage, our history)

Me being the meditator: "hey man, she didn't mean to. Take it easy..."

"rabena yakhdek..inshalla tegeeki la3ent il fara3na. Imshi itla3 barra inta wi sa7betak min il ma7al bita3ee..mosh 3ayez ashoofkom tani" (May the curse of the Pharaohs follow you wherever you go. Go and take your girlfriend and get the hell out of my shop)

Woo....what the...? oh that's just great. That's all I need to make my life perfect. The curse of the Pharaohs.

Wait..did he just say "your girlfriend?"

Damn you genetic disparity.

Post Deleted

2008-03-07T18:55:00.001+03:00

Due to the legal implications that the post "the time my roomate gave me the talk", the author have decided to unpublish the post.

*gets out my neuralizer device and FLASHES it*

"Dear fellow bloggers, the previous heretic post that has contaminated your minds was posted by someone impersonating Hamza who managed to figure out his Google account password with the sole purpose of damaging his reputation. I would like to assure you that I don't associate myself with anything related to that post despite the fact that my imposter was extremely talented in adopting the same storytelling style. So, forget alll about it.

*FLASHES the neuralizer once more*

For Example...

2008-02-23T23:27:00.001+03:00

It was me, him and her sitting in the "SUKUK" training course.

He had a question. So he drew the figures like that:

"Why do they all have to be GUYS?" she said and added two strokes with her pen.

"no..we are in an islamic country"..I said as I covered her hair with my pen

"to be more specific, we are in Saudi Arabia"..he said before adding the final touch

My Valentine...

2008-02-19T20:05:00.002+03:00

If you know me well enough, then you know that I was never a supporter of such one-time annual occasions such as: "Mother's day", "Valentine Day", "Father's day" etc. I always believed that I shouldn't wait till new year to make a new resolution, for valentine day to express my love or do anything special.

But like many other things, my opinion has changed after I became another victim of this morphine that runs in my veins called "routine", the morphine that has stripped away my liveliness, passion and creativity.

I woke up last Thursday with one objective in my mind; to make my day a bit special. To fill it with love, even if it didn't exist. I started my day by rejecting the two breakfast invitations I got. I had something more important to do.

Me and my friend (who somehow shares my suffering) decided to write a small poem about valentine. The idea is to write a 10 versed poem, one of us would write a verse and the other would complete it with a rhyming one.. This was the result of our joined effort:

On this day of love, the day of valentine

Let me have your heart next to mine

And wake my soul to feel again

And cast aside the sorrows of the rain

That over drowned my shattered heart

Patching yours & mine will mend the broken part

Binding it by love which lasts forever

On an eternal journey that shelters us together

So I offer you a potion of the love dose

as an emblem of the passion with this red rose

What a challenge it was. It took us more than 4 hours to come up with this. While it might not be appealing, Iit is enough for me to make me feel good as I had to dig deep in my heart and shed the dust on those feelings that have been dormant for months.

After we wrote it, we both agreed that I choose a person on her facebook to put it on her wall-to-wall and she'd do the same with me. What was funnier is that one of us got the reply of "thanks for the song". Wow, it was being perceived as a SONG...as a SONG..I didn't think we were that good.

Getting excited, I even went far of making a LOVE songs CD compiling favourite all-time love songs that I haven't heard in a long time. Each song is associated with a memory that reflect my experiences and feelings. Here is my track list:

Blogger’s Book Club Discussion: 1984

2008-02-12T21:34:00.001+03:00

Right now, I am at page 150. So far, I have to say that I am quite impressed by the writer's forecast of the future. For a book that's written in 1949, you can tell that the writer was really influenced by the after-math of the 2^nd World War that ended in 1945. The story is set in 1984 in Oceania (previously called "London") where there are 3 major superpower empires who are in continuous war against each other. Does it ring any bell? In the 90s there were 2 to 3 major superpower countries in the world in form of SOVIET union, USA and UK. Whereas the writer have been right in predicting the existence of superpowers, he was wrong when he was referring to military war rather than the actual cold war going on.

Discussion 1:

One of the most brilliant things about the novel is the creation of a whole new language called "NEWSPEAK". More information can be read about the structure of this new-generation much simpler English language in the Appendix found in page 309. I was impressed by its simplicity and it made me wonder whether it would be feasible in our day-to-day or not. Frankly, I'd be the first one who'll endorse it..What do you think?

Examples of Newspeak language: all the antonyms of positive words are replaced with un+word. E.g. "bad" will be come "ungood".."expensive" will become "uncheap". Another example is where all variation in degree of words would be replaced with "er" and "est". E.g. more, most could all be replaced with "gooder", 'goodest'.

Discussion 2:

Ministry of Truth..thought police..doublethink...Big Brother...telescreens...Many ideas & original concepts who have one shared theme...Media Propaganda. It shows you how much the authorities want to dictate your life and constantly monitor its "comrades" and ensure that they behave accordingly. They do this by alienating them, stripping them of all the emotional ties they had with parents, wives, loved ones, and even ensuring that they won't develop future intimacies with any of their fellow co-workers. All the energy and tought of those comrades should be towards one goal---serving Big Brother.

Discussion 3 (mini-spoiler):

Internal struggle within self that Winston is going through. Being already a victim of the system, he starts questioning the whole system and whether life has always been like this; full of lies, no privacy, governing by fear, being always dictated what to read, what to eat, and what to know..not allowing them to ever think of something that might be against the slogan of "War is Peace, Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is Strength".

Winston is trying to find answers. He is slowly rebelling against the system. He started writing in his secret diary the only things he owns..his thoughts. Things get interesting in Winston's life when he meets the "dark-haired" girl who shares his enthusiasm in their hatred for the Party. Without ruining it for anyone who didn't reach as far as I do, I can't wait to see what the future hides for those two and how long can they survive in their hideout and fight.

I was a little bit touched by the dilemma that Winston is going through. It partly resembles my experience especially in the sense of being lost, going through the routine life and the nostalgic memories of the past that keeps haunting us.

Discussion 4:

O'Brien? A big question mark...I am totally clueless on his role and how it'll develop.

Of course, there is room for alot of discussions. Let me hear your thoughts.. J

Egypt Day Trip III

2008-02-08T21:01:00.001+03:00

Egypt Day Trip I , Egypt Day Trip II

And that’s why I decided to become a vegetarian” were my last words after seeing that bull being slaughtered.

But only for 12 hours. When it was lunch time, I couldn’t resist the temptation to eat from its meat. Everybody kept complimenting how good the meat was and that it was almost fat-free. Considering the hyper activitiy of the bull after that chase, I won’t be surprised by the high metabolism it has for burning fats.

We spent the next 3 days of Eid in Ain El-Sokhna; A small village with a great potential to become one of the greatest touristic sites in Egypt. You can tell by the amount of real-estate construction going on there. We stayed in different resorts owned by our family friends. “Venezia Resort” was the one where we spent most of our time in. We call it the adults resort because it was too quiet and peaceful. It is one of those resorts where you’d go to relax and stay away from people; or at least hang out with people who are coming here to relax. The other resort that we guys used to go to at night was called “STELLA” resort. It was mostly occupied by Christians and especially the youth generation. And by youth, I am referring to university students who spend their weekends or their mid-semester vacations there. Our timing was good as there were alot of partying going on. Most of them were Christmas-spirited parties.

In general, we enjoyed our time in Ain El-Sokhna. BBQ, soccer games, racket games and one hell of a boat trip under mild weather conditions. The chilling wind and the violent tides that were rocking our boat rendered half of us to sea sickness. We couldn’t cope up with the frequency of people who were puking all over the place.

After finishing our Eid days there, our next stop was Hurgada. We’d reach there through a 4 hour road trip. Considering the crappy taste of the driver in music, I was thankful for bringing my novel with me (Love in the time of cholera) and my cellphone/mp3 player. However, my familys’ misfortunes were in fact signs of joy in discovering that we were the only arabs in a Russian-populated hotel. Oh how great it was to stay away from an arab-dominating culture for a while.

But as usual, my parents and family friends never fail to exploit the situation, the fact that were were the only arabs there, especially when it came to the food quality. Since most of the cuisine was very Russian-oriented and could not cater the desires of our Arabic taste buds, my dad utilized his talents in demotivating the hotel staff by bashing their biased service. By our last day, the master chef got used to us walking to his kitchen and making special traditional Arabic requests: wara2 dawali (stuffed vine leaves), Fatteh, Kuskusi (traditional morroccoan dish), custom-made grilled dishes.

Although it was sunny, the weather was a bit windy making it extremely challenging to consider the idea of swimming. I overcame the temptation and swam ONCE in the sea. It was the biggest mistake. I managed to survive for only 10 minutes as each stroke I took felt like 1000 knives were cutting me. Even after I left the water, I remained shivering for one hour.

One of the interesting tours we took was the one hour glassboat tour ride that explores the underwater life of fishes and corals. I took over 100 snapshots and video files for this memorable journey.

One of the other secret tips about entertainment life in Egypt in general is to go to the worst chaotic places out there where you can play by no rules. We applied this theory when we went for our carting session. No rules, no flags, not even a safety driving suit. The only thing we wore were the dusty safety helmets that look like they were scavenged from the October war in the 70s. As I was negotiating with the owner of the house, I heard the echo of a barking dog that kept getting louder. The loose dog was running straight for us..straight for me.

20 meters....I am reminding myself to stay calm...15 meters...don’t show any sign of fear....10 meters.....damn he is not slowing down.....5 meters... RUN HAMZA RUUUUUUUUUN. He chased me for merely 10 seconds before his owner called him off. That was a close call

There was so much adrenaline in me that I vowed to myself that I’ll avenge to this incident. I was harmless in my first two laps as I was orienting myself to the arena. By the third lap, my destructive evil side started taking control. On the 4^th lap, my brother’s cart was in front of me. He saw me and was stepping aside to give me room to pass...but NOOOO...I wanna crash to him. With a sharp turn to the left I sent his cart skidding off road making two 360 degree turns. Nothing happened to my cart and what a great overwhelming evil feeling it was. I can never do this in real life.

By the time I took two more laps, they finished fixing my brother and his cart. I did 3 more laps utilizing the adrenaline concentrated blood stream running in my veins. Fate brought me one more time with my brother’s cart. This time I fixated my mind on making the damage severe and...BHAAAAAM..I felt my body was about to be launched from the vehicle. This time my brother’s cart flew even further off-track till he was stopped by the walls surrounding the arena. He came out with a bruised leg and swore never to go back again.. By the smoke released from his cart, I concluded that it was damaged beyond redemption. Mine was a bit better. I drove it for a while before I realized that the brakes are no longer functioning and the steering wheel can no longer respond to turning left. When my cart finally stopped, the manager was approaching me and I could already see the flare in his fiery eyes. He scolded me and told me that i was done for the day, that i already damaged 2 of his carts.

“But I still got 2 more minutes”..I dunno how I dared to say that. It was the last thing I said before I got kicked out of there. Its ok. No hard feelings. He deserves it. That’s for setting the loose dog on me you jerk.

If there is something that I’ve learned about this whole trip, then it is the fact that Angels DO exist. There was this gorgeous girl who mesmerizes the eyes with her glowing beauty. If you know me well, you know that I rarely get enthralled unless it was an extremely exceptional situation. She was so stunning that staring at her for more than half a minute would overexpose my mind to incomprehensible level of beauty that might risk damaging it beyond repair. She was like those rare jewels that were existed for the sole purpose of being admired. It would be sinful to touch her, approach her or even communicate with her in fear of disgracing the holy aura circumventing her splendour. In the 3 days I stayed, I would occasionally let my soul be submitted to the enchanting of her prettiness by stealing a glance every once in a while at her; At breakfast, lunch, pool time, BINGO night, Dinner, Christmas night and many more. As I said, I never intended and wanted to talk to her and that’s why I was disappointed in my last day to know that the binding spell was breaking when she approached me holding a ping pong racket in her left hand and a ball in her right arm and in her Swedish accent said:

“you....play?”

Sure why not..I joined her and the kids she hang out with. The two hyper South African 9 year old boys and 2 korean/Chinese twin sisters that were almost 6 years old.

Meanwhile, my brother and his friend befriended one of the Egyptian ushers who help in organising events around the hotel. The Egyptian usher was delighted to finally see an arab group and hang out with them. As part of his job in guiding, he even befriended the Angel Girl and her accompanied kids.

So, all of us joined for quick ping pong matches. We played till the 5^th point. I demanded that my turn be the last. When it was finally my turn, I aroused my dormant ping-pong skills that I’ve picked back 7 years ago in my first university year when we used to play tournaments in the dormitories. I took the Egyptian usher down. I won the two boys with a merciless 5-0 score. I slacked a bit against the Korean girls and won them 5-2. Then it was the turn of my Angel Girl against me. As we played, the Egyptian usher was teasing me in Arabic on how I will slack out and let her win. When I was up 3-0, he remarked in Arabic sarcastically:
“allah yekhrebetek..kol dee bzaz wi 3andek 14 sanah...7ate3meli feena eih amma teb2ee 18?” (“oh boy..if this is the size of your boobs at the age of 14, then what’s its gonna be at the age of 18?”)

My world was shattering. 3-1...the beautiful image I preserved of her in my mind was slowly losing its glow. 3-2.. this was soo funny..but why did he have to mention her lustfully? 3-3

Wait a second....did he mention that......3-4...she is just FOURTEEEEEEEEEEN? FOURTEEEEEEEEEEEEEN? Damn..what was I thinking... 3-5

“woohoo” she was celebrating her achievement and clapping vigorously for beating the master that has eliminated her team-mates, the same master that felt the impact of the news like a meteor that cratered his fragile heart.

“bos 3aleihom benatnatoo il zay.. wana mosh batkalem 3al 3eyal...rakez ma3aya” (look at how they are bouncing...and I am not talking about the kids) winked the Egyptian usher..

“SHUT UP..ENOUGH”

and enough of this memorable vacation. Roadtrip back to Cairo, stayed one more day there before we headed home back to Jeddah after spending more than 16 hours in the airport for an unforeseen delay in the departure of the flights.

Me & the Three Scrooges

2008-02-04T12:02:00.001+03:00

There are things in life that you should not consult people with, like shopping. Nevertheless, I occasionally take a couple of friends when I go look for something. Here is a sample of what went with me the other day:

"Dude, you should get this suit. Go wear it....oh it looks good on you..perfect fit. Get it man. Its only 10 days of work for a suit that will last you for years" – clothes fanatic

Hmm..I like the way he thinks. To measure the price of an item by the amount of time I spend at work

"You crazy. You wanna spend that amount of money on a suit? With this amount, you can get a PS3 and a game on top of that. You are talking about endless hours of videogaming kupo. Get the ps3. Get the PS3" – videogame fanatic

Oh who am I lying to? Of course a ps3 is more valuable to me than a new suite.

"What kind of a boring idiot are you? With this amount, you can go to venice for a 3 day trip and come back. VENICE man. VENICE. They will be the most memorable day in your life." – travel fanatic

STOP it.

They don't know that I'll listen to none of them. In the end, I am going to invest my money on an illegal MK 48 so that I empty my ammunition on the sorry corpses of those fanatics. They are definitely on my hit list.

Oh my...Oh my..what did I just say? I guess I am giving the authorities enough reason to start tapping my phone line.

Pimping my friend out

2008-01-28T23:45:00.001+03:00

I finally feel liberated. I managed to end the relationship that was bothering me lately..or at least assume I did so.

It happened all on Friday. It didn't go out very well as I felt like I have screwed things up. I didn't manage to say the speech that I've prepared in advance. I ended up saying my true gut feelings in a very frank way. I blurted out statements like "this relationship is so stressful", "I am not gonna answer unknown numbers for a while just in case it turns out to be you" etc. I was involuntarily very harsh on him. He kept on listening before at last I gave him a ride back home.

On the way back home, he was silent all the time. It kind of pissed me off coz I was hoping he'd retaliate, attack me back, or at least defend himself. I mean the whole point of this was that to listen to any final words he got.

When we were at the door steps of his home, he started speaking. At first, he scolded me for the way I decided on ending this friendship, saying that we are guys and we shouldn't have this kind of conversation, because this is the conversation that guys use when breaking up with girls. Fine..he was right. I shouldn't have been over-dramatic.

At the same time, he believes it would be inappropriate if I decide to suddenly ignore him and stop answering his calls. He was even frustrated when I said: "I think this is the best way forward as I have consulted many people and this is what they say". He didn't like the fact that I consulted others. God only knows how he would react if he knew I wrote 2 whole posts about this subject.

Later, he kept on defending me and saying how great I am and how he considers me his best friend and more like a brother. I felt kind of ashamed that he stressed all the good things in me while I stressed his bad traits. He also believes that I kind of misjudged the situation as he was depressed only lately and how he regrets opening his heart to me and being very honest with me.

I tried to close the topic and use reverse psychology in the form that he deserves better friends than me and just wish him luck for the rest of his life. He replied that one day all my questions would be answered and that this moment will be a dramatic turning point in his life. Initially, I thought it would be a step forward for him to realize that life is not all rosy and that he'll wake up and take steps to improve his situation. However, he didn't mean that at all. On the contrary, what he really meant is that he shouldn't be blamed if he ever commits suicide. It kind of sent chills down my spine and I almost panicked as I know I'll never forgive myself if he ever commits suicide.

At the end, he tried rationalizing and bargaining for a middle solution where we kind of "phase-out" the friendship slowly by less phone calls like a call a month and after 3 months, I do a re-evaluation. I refused and I remained firm on my position as I felt that this was kind of faking an existing friendship and delaying the fate that we both know will eventually happen.

I dropped him and as I was driving back, I kept on thinking on all the mistakes I've did, and how I might have misjudged him and that I know that I couldn't completely cut him off. While we never agreed on it, I know that if he ever attempts to contact me, I might (and I hope not) respond back. The only thought that keeps reminding me of him was the idea of "what would happen if I dropped him at tahliya venue at around 4 a.m?"

Last Wednesday, (2 days before the whole break-up situation), I was extremely busy and I only managed to see him after 1 a.m. We cruised in the car till it was almost dawn. By the time it was 4 a.m. I was tired and wanted to go home. For him, he'd refuse to go back. He pulled one of his stupid moves where he lied to his family and that he was going for UMRA with me and that him coming home after only 3 hours would be unrealistic. He needed to stay in a place, a coffee shop or somewhere for at least another 2 hours before he can go back. This is a sample of the kind of many moves he pulls that make me build up the rage inside me. How am I supposed to find an open place at around 4 a.m.?

My last hope was in checking the Tahliya Avenue. We parked my car and went for a walk around the area. The situation was not promising at all. It was not deserted. On the contrary, it had many people. People who were organised in groups...groups that looked like gangs...Gangs that kept staring at us and specifically at him. I kept teasing him and threatening that I'd leave him to entertain those ass-rapists. Minutes later, the joke no longer became funny as 3 of the 5 gangs started closing on us. What was even worse is that he was not co-operative at all. He kept on giggling like he was some whore waiting for a customer to pick him up. His giggling attracted two cars that started roaming around us like a pair of predators waiting to feast on their prey; being him of course.

Thankfully, we managed to escape the place safely but I always wished I had left him there for the night. The guys would have avenged for all the rage I have built up and...

I could have sought an alternative career in pimping...pimping guys out.

Wow, what a unique profession to be proud of.

Cleansing Negative Energy

2008-01-23T13:34:00.001+03:00

With the exception of the nights that Acmilan win their games, I rarely manage to end my day in a positive mood. Despite the fact that I start my day energetic and happy (especially this last month), I usually find myself going to sleep feeling miserable, sad or depressed.

I have come to realize that this drainage is due to the negative energy orbiting me. I concluded that there were 2 sources of negative energy in my life. 2 sources in the form of two people, in the form of two friends.

The first is one of my close friends who I'll never abandon because of the great memories we share and the strong bonding we have. However, the only thing that bothers me about him is that he is becoming more and more passive. He is not ambitious at all. He never talks about it as if he is satisfied by the way his life is going. It really annoys me that I care about him more than he cares about himself. Since I'd never consider abandoning this friendship, I feel I am restricted by one option; which is to take a break from him every once in a while. E.g. taking a break of two weeks or less where I seize all forms of communication with him which unfortunately means I'd have to lie and give lame excuses about how busy I am. On many occasions, this break proved to be fruitful in recharging me to handle the negative vibes caused by him.

My second source is another close friend who lately became more of a blackhole of all the joy I retain in my day. He is by far the most miserable person I've ever met in my life. He rarely opens a joyous discussion. For months, I've tolerated his endless daily complaints and utterly depressing suicidal attitude towards life in the hope that it's an unlucky phase he is going through. But this phase has prolonged for over 15 months is extremely illogical. As a friend, I tried extending all form of support that I can but I couldn't see the will inside him to help himself. Slowly, I started to lose all hope in him. It reached the tipping point around a week ago when we were discussing him. We concluded its either he is extremely unlucky that he might be cursed (I don't believe in curses but I tried to play along) or he is a loser beyond redemption. I questioned him, what if he was really a loser?. I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown when he shocked me by saying that he thought about it but concluded that if he was really a loser, then I wouldn't be still talking to him.

I was like OH MY GOD. What have I done? And that's why I decided to put an end to this friendship.

Things are easier said than done. Usually, if I want to avoid someone, I just ignore them, never pick up their calls and stop seeing them. However, this is the first time I feel that I can't do the same here. I tried ignoring but it didn't work out. For the sake of all the things we shared together, I believe that this guy deserves a closure.

The thought of finding the best way to deliver my feeling has been stressing me alot lately especially since he arrived to Jeddah last week and he'll stay for a couple of days. I decided to use this time to play along and give him the best week he'll ever have. And on the last day, we'll have a face-to-face confrontation with no limits where I admit to him how I feel and why our friendship shouldn't continue.

Efffff. I can't believe that I've reached a stage where I had to write this. I feel like a drama queen. In fact, I think this is worse than breaking up with a girlfriend.

48 hours to go. I hope that they'll pass in peace.

Knowledge Based Economy

2008-01-14T23:42:00.001+03:00

That was the theme of the conference I attended from 12 January to 13 January named "Arabian Knowledge & Economy Association". It was the first of its type in the region and it was so advanced that I felt I was in Finland or Sweden or any one of those very developed countries.

The Conference hosted several world class speakers from all over the world. The agenda of the first day was about presentations explaining the theory behind "knowledge-based" economies and that it is the next big thing after Agricultural Era (19^th Century), Industrial Era(Early 20^th Century) and Information Technology Era (21^st Century). It introduced new buzz words like "KIZ" (Key Innovation Zones), BenchLearning rather than Benchmarking, intellectual capital and its relation to structural capital and human capital, 7P Blueprint (P⁷), transforming competition to collaboration, and replace Business Planning with Innovation Strategy.

Alot of successful stories were shared such as Malaysia's Experience in building the World's Intelligence City of CyberJaya, Australia's Desert knowledge Experience, Microsoft's efforts in driving innovation through its own innovation centers & research labs spread all over the world, and SAP's experience in corporate innovation where they discuss their funnelling ideas and an example of how they are thinking of having decentralized electrical transmission system by installing smart grids in place of the existing ancient ones, and 2 more presentations that I can't recall coz I snoozed in them (HEY, I blame it on the lunch). So overall, my mind was blown with the rich density of information absorbed during those 2 days.

Other than the rich density of information that blew my mind over the 2 days, we had fun for a while in one of the workshops called "youth of the future". The point of this workshop is to assume you sit with 3 other individuals and try to come up with an innovative idea that could capitalize on the knowledge of the resources available at hand. Money is not an issue as they would provide you with at least $ 500,000. Unlike the rest of my colleagues, I decided to participate in a new group. It is a chance of meeting new people and a rare opportunity where I hoped to be proven wrong that the mentality of the new generation of Saudi youth is not as silly as I've always seen it.

Case 1: a group of young high school students demonstrated their creation of building a small robot hand whose sole task is to open and close a pipe valve. Sounds simple? Think again. The valve is at a depth of 1500 meters. Not a single human being can dive that deep because of the pressure. Diving in would take 8 hours and getting out is another 8 hours. Apparently, something malfunctioned and they needed to close that valve. ARAMCO's best solution was bringing a German Consulting company who'd do a feasibility study and had to import their machinery from Germany so they could do the simple process of closing the valve, for an amount around 60 000 dollars. The whole process would take around 7 to 8 months. So this group demonstrated a prototype of their creation and it showed us the process of how it hugs to the pipe and align itself with the valve and open it and close it. I was amazed. Its a greaaaaaaaaaat idea.

POSTIVE KUDO POINTS...:)

Case 2:

In an attempt to be a little friendly to those who were with me in the table (actually, I have some business cards that I wanna distribute :P), I introduce myself to and I ask him..."so, what encouraged you to come to this conference..?"

And what an answer I get: "7areem 7areeem 7areeem" (Women, women, Women).

My God, those Bedouin animals never cease to exist.

NEGATIVE KUDO Points :S

Case 3:

Part of our exercise was to deduce the capabilities & aspiration of your fellow colleagues where each one of them would discuss a unique project that each one of them participated in. I met this elegant, ambitious, extremely professional gentleman who is launching a new website, unique in its service of building local social networks all over Saudi Arabia through Event Management. It is like building facebook with the events application tailored to each individual's interests. E.g. you'd be notified about car or art-related events if your area of interest were in the following areas. I believe that this service would be cruicial since the country lacks in the service of promoting its events. You only know about events, or conferences through word of mouth or from fortunately being in one of those few random active communities. I was impressed by the idea and the presentation. His website is supposed to be launched in 2 weeks. It's called www.feinak.com. I'll definitely be the first one to use it.

POSITIVE KUDO POINT ...:)

Case 4:

So a coffee break. I wanted to know more about the identity of the other, shy member of our group. He was not very talkative. So I tried getting something out of him.

"so, where you from?"

"Khobar"

"aha...mashalla, you travelled all the way from there to attend this conference. I really applaud you for your ambition"

"Actually, I just came coz my father SENT me. I am not really interested."

WHAT THE...? :S. COZ HIS FATHER SENT HIM? :S :S. What a shame. I hold my rage and try to move on...

"so where do you wanna study?"

"ah here in khobar. I don't wanna go outside KSA. I hate travelling. I feel homesick. In fact, I am feeling homesick right now"

:S :S...HOME SICK? ITS JUST 2 DAYS and Jeddah is only 600 kms away. Its not like he went to Canada or something.

I concluded that there is no point to further proceed in this silly discussion

NEGATIVE KUDO POINTS ....:S

Case 5

Part of our exercise is to pass by other tables and explore other teams' projects and attempt to contribute and add ways to develop their ideas. While there are some good ideas, you'd be astonished by the amount of ridiculous ideas out there such as this guy.

"well, unlike the rest of the businesses, our business would be unique in its service. It will help in serving the shareholders..."

A moment of silence as we were still anticipating more from him.

"yep, that's my idea"

"that's your idea? Fine... what's the name of the project?"

"no name"

*sighs* "so give me an example of one of the services you'll provide to the so-called 'shareholders' "

"well, we could use the money to fund our university education & use the rest for our wedding"

Good God. Is this what they call business these days..

I wish I was in Texas. At least guns are legal there

"Love in the time of cholera" (Review)

2008-01-09T10:06:00.000+03:00

Overall, I think that this book should be taught in schools & universities under the literature course. There are endless metaphors and character development possibilities that can be discussed or analysed.

+ things -

1- one of the best coherent books I read. The flow of the ideas in the book as it goes from an event to another or from a character to another is amazing. The novel never stops at an idea till the chapter ends. E.g. It'll be talking about the character after they got married and how they are settling in the house..describing the house..the garden around it..then describing the neighborhood around it then describing the history around neighborhood till it connects to a story involving Person A & his history in neighborhood..then they discuss Person A etc etc.

2- A very good story that will be memorable for years. It could be classified as a classic in Romance & Drama genre especially when talking about hte love of Florentino Ariza

-ve things:
1- Despite its coherence, the book was sometimes tough to read. I don't know whether it was the language, the lack of action, the lack of conversations, or even monotone in the way it described things.
2- Sometimes more descriptive than informative. I was disappointed that the author didn't tell us about the actual content of each letter which I think is vitally important since the only action in the whole novel is involved around exchanging letters.

Opinion about Conclusion: when I reached half the book, I knew that i shouldn't expect surprises in the conclusion. I figured it out 10 pages before reaching the end. The best thing about it is that the final 10 pages justify the actual title of the book. Overall, I guess it was a happy & a classic ending.

Character I loved: Its not Fermina or Florentina or Juvenal Urbino. I really loved the character of Leona Cassini. I liked her ambition towards success and her obsession about finding the man of her dreams who she only met at her teenage years.

Rating: 3.5/5

Confused about...

2008-01-07T08:13:00.000+03:00

The weather has been lovely this week. It is perfect. You have this breeze in the air that does not have the chilling touch and the sun is not hot anymore. Personally, no one could ask for a better weather.

But considering the weather forecast for the next 10 days, it doesn't look like its going to rain anytime soon.

So no rain? what's the solution? go read this interesting article.

What this article is saying is that the Government have issued a statement urging all the citizens of KSA to pray the "Rain Prayer" today as it has not rained this season.

Even the Sheikh on the Friday prayer talked about this. He even went further and said that the prayer will be done in groups all at same time and it was chosen that it'll be the first period for schools students. (i.e. they should be praying it as I am writing this).

So if it rained, then it is because God answered our prayers. If it didn't, then this means that we have not prayed hard enough or God is punishing us for our sins.

I am confused about how I should feel towards this. I cannot contest against doing a "Rain Prayer" but yet I don't see myself as doing it. But I wonder about one thing:

why we never pray this in the summer?

Egypt Trip (part II) – The Eid’s Bull

2008-01-04T23:13:00.001+03:00

The third day of our trip must have been the most exciting day of our whole trip.

We woke up early at around 6:30. We prayed the Eid Prayer in the small mosque near the hotel where we shared the joy of the Eid with the other locals there. After that, we split to two groups. Some of us went back to the hotel to rest a bit and continue their sleep, while the rest went to the hosting family's house to give our farewells to "Tutu" (as his owner preferred to call him) before he goes under the knife as the Eid sacrifice for the year.

So get introduced to Tutu; A 2 year old, 350 KG in weight male bull. Alot of years has passed since the last time I witnessed sacrifices being slain in front of me. And this was definitely the first time I see a bull being sacrificed. And there is no way I am gonna miss it.

By the time we arrived, they were already untying the rope that connected the bull to the tree. They were slowly walking it to its final resting place; the sacrificial sanctuary that was in the form the building's parking lot. The car garage, located at the basement of the building, has been cleaned and prepared to be the sacrificial haven for all those sad animals sitting there waiting for their fate.

Since Tutu was the only bull among many sheep, it was decided that it'd go first. The pair of butchers was eagerly waiting to demonstrate their swift slaying skill on their first victim. We kept on cheering as they walked the bull. And I am behind them taking photos.

However, the uneventful happened. The bull refused to succumb to his fate and started retaliating against his capturers. He knocked one of his capturers in the chest. That aided in his escape and he was running freely in the garage.

I was taking this picture before I realized that I was 2 seconds away from being flown by this raging animal.

Instinct instantly kicked in. I jumped sideways (like the way Lara Croft jumps in Tomb Raider games). All those who were cheering moments ago has panicked and haphazardly scattered to hide from the raging bull. The bull circled the garage twice, doing some mild damage to few cars on the way before he managed to find the exit. It kept on running till it reached the main street. It kept running on the sidewalk till no one managed to keep up with its pace.

The problem is that those family friends' house resided in the neighbourhood that was close by to the President's mansion. Our worries has been further escalated when 10 minutes later, news arrived that bull has reached the President's mansion. It had gone past the first park, and the second park. This was sufficient enough to alarm tens of guards patrolling the mansion. If the bull dared to pass by the third and last park leading to the Mansion, the guards would have shot it dead. This will not only mean that we lost the sacrifice but it means that the owner of the bull (the family friend) will be further interrogated by the intelligence agencies and God only knows how will they handle this situation.

The bull in the 2nd park

Luckily, the bull stopped by itself in the 2^nd park (looks like bulls even know their limits). This gave us some time to get more people on site to try and capture him.

Yet the outbreak is not over yet. It seems that this short stop at the park was just a pause to catch on its breath. The bull was further raged when more people (especially the Mansion Guards) surrounded the area. the bull started his run once again back to the road he came from. It breezed by me as I was trying to avoid its path.

His 2^nd stop was in front of the Air Forces Gate. He went through a narrow gap in the road block set up there. The guards immediately circumvented to block its escape. They immediately covered both exits and were using their sticks to scare the bull. The bull's rage slowly diffused and it was being replaced by grief. It slowly realized that this crowd is on to it and that they will not let it go. for it when It started moaning with its sad voice. I slowly realized that this new sparkling in its eyes is only a reflection of the light on the tear drops that are forming. My heart ached for it. I could no longer be like the rest of the crowds who enjoy videotaping and photoshooting this unforgettable moment.

In front of the Air Forces

The bull was slowly succumbing to its fate and allowing people to drag it. But some idiot decided to cover its head with a bag to prevent it from seeing where it was going. This has raised the fear of the bull and gave an adrenaline injection that prompted it to start running again. Blinded by the cover, it didn't know where it was going. It ended up crossing the highway. What alarmed it to stop was the screeching sound of the cars' tires that had to stop before they knock the bull off. Finally, someone managed to hold the bull off and drag him off the street. Before further actions, they tied the back pair of legs so his running would be restrained. The drama is over.

After stopping the cars on the highway

With the exception of that guy who got knocked in the chest, we were thankful that there were not further accidents. They slowly walked the bull back to building's garage where they managed to knock it on the floor. What really pissed me was the careless butcher.. Usually, you should use a huge knife so that you slay the throat with one or two hits. The purpose is that the animal should die and shouldn't be made to suffer.

However, this idiot butcher used a small knife, like the ones you use to cut fruits, to slay this huge bull. It was devastating to see him cut through his throat like he is cutting a shawerma stick. He kept on cutting but it is not deep enough. So he put his hand inside and started pulling the bull's gut while it was still alive. ( A picture exists but the last thing I need is animal rights people come chasing me)

What a disgusting scene it was. It was not the first time I see animals being slaughtered but it is the first time I feel disturbed by the carelessness in such a sacrifice. The last scene I saw before I walked away was the fountain of boiling blood spilling from the bull's gut

And that's why I decided to become a vegetarian...

Flipping the Page

2007-12-31T22:03:00.001+03:00

I am moments away from closing the chapter of 2007. Everybody seems to have thrown their darts on 2008. Many have already evaluated 2007 for themselves. They are now waiting for the 12 o'clock of tonight to tick so that they welcome 2008 with the new resolutions that are freshly baked.

And I am still sitting there without my 2008 cake.

Neither I am ready to welcome 2008 nor am I excited about staying in 2007. I am stuck in the void. This is the first time that I have not yet audited myself beforehand or drew a plan for the New Year.

It is going to take me days to wake up and realize that it is time to achieve new milestones.

Meanwhile, I know there are two thing I could start with.

First, is to do something tonight rather than sit at home. Even if I know I could not have a special new year Eve and that it will be a normal one. It will never be like my last 2 exceptional New Year Eves.

The eve of 2006 was unique as I was among the crowd in Ethan Square in downtown who celebrated the night outdoors with alot of music, interviews with the public, parties, fireworks andthe whole countdown process. What a great memory it was as we were freezing under a temperature of -7 degrees. I still remember how the cold got to my sore feet. I still remember my numb purple fingers and the coldest hot dog I ate in my life.

The eve of 2007 was unique too. The 00:00 ticked on my watch as I was throwing the 5^th or 6^th pebble in the last pillar during my Hajj last year. After I threw my stones, I stood for a while and gazed at the thousands of pilgrims around me as they keep on walking . I look at my cousin and whisper: "happy new year". He responds with a smile and keeps on walking.

Second, is to make sure that I should get stressed out more often. 2007 was about discovering more about me by adopting a self-realization thinking practice. I have become a bit selfish by blocking those stress-inducing activities especially those ones caused by external factors. I think that 2007 was one of the least stressful years for me. However, I noticed that whenever I see myself in a stressful situation, even if it was a minute one compared to challenging ones I faced in my earlier years, I begin to panic and exaggerate unnecessarily about it. In addition to that, with each year that passes, it will be normal to start burdening more responsibilities, whether they are family obligations, work-related issues, or society expectations. And with this, comes new challenges and alot of decision making to do, thus up scaling my stress meter. Therefore, I need to tame myself back to those good days where I was capable of handling stressful situations calmly and in silent.

Nobody knows what 2008 has for us. But I will be there like you; standing in the queue waiting for 2008 to share its spoils of joy and sorrow. I hope I will be among those with the larger share of joys. J

cheers

Egypt Trip (part 1)

2007-12-30T23:34:00.001+03:00

Our flight to Egypt was scheduled on Monday Morning. This caused me quite a mini-problem since Monday was an official working day that I couldn't take as a leave. I wanted to avoid salary deductions by doing a single clock. So I drove to work at 7 a.m. Clocked in and just went straight to the airport. With a single clock, I can contest the fact that the machine didn't register my clock-out because its faulty and I'll start bitching about stupid technology.

(what the hell did I just say? What if a colleague at work reads this and start blackmailing me….Remove that part idiot)

We arrived at around 11 a.m. the first disappointment hit me when I discovered that my cellphone carrier was not roaming in Egypt. Not a big deal. We bought two temporary prepaid SIM cards to stay in touch.

we stayed in the NOVOTEL hotel . Considering the quality of 4 star hotels, The rooms are below average with bathroom doors that cannot be locked and a non-operational TV. On the other hand, It is near the airport (2 minutes away) which means that it does not have a Nile View. But other than that, the lobby is nice. The morning buffet was good. The hotel won its reputation for two things; the dancing nights organized in the tent and the infamous wedding hall.

I was excited that we still have the day ahead of us and we could do something more exciting. However, I wasted the rest of the day catching up on the lack of sleep that piled up; especially since I didn't sleep the night before.

By the time I woke up, (around 5 p.m), our traveling family friends had just came back from a trip to the pyramids. A trip that I already took twice before; one with my family 10 years ago and one with my University colleagues 5 years ago.

At around evening time, we joined with our hosting family friends and we went for a night out in down town, in Khan El-Khaleeli which I cannot describe it better than wikipedia. A touristic marketplace that's always a pleasure to walk in. I bought all my artifacts from the last trip from this place. I still keep in my book of memories that distant night that's 5 years old where me and my friend escaped the curfew imposed on us by the Head of our department. All he cared about was a respectable position in the regional programming competition in North Africa & Middle East. For us, it was a tourist trip that we wanted to enjoy. On that night, we went to a sliver shop that could carve our names in Hieroglyphic letters on silver pendants. I only enjoyed mine for one day before I got scolded by my muslim friends back at university who bashed me by saying that wearing necklaces is prohibited. I gave mine away to my younger sister but it didn't last more than a year as the silver polish faded away revealing the big scam that it was not pure silver after all.

Khan El-Khaleeli was not different than the last time I encountered. The attitude of the salesmen is still the same. They try to sell you an artifiact for 90 pounds but you end up getting it for 20 pounds. An artifact that they charge 60 pounds could be easily purchased with 15 pounds. I think Khan El-Khaleeli is the best place to start practicing your negotiation skills as much as it's the best place to profit from non-Arab foreigners who rarely negotiate prices.

Cairo in general is still the same. Once you unveil your camera to start taking photos or as early as you start speaking, you would be tracked by a herd of the locales who'd jump at any chance to serve you, give you a cheesy smile or even mutter the cliché "kol sana winta tayeb ya basha" (happy eid). But of course this does not come free of charge. The expected response for that protocol is to go out and give money (or eideyah as they call it) for those sad beggers. And if you don't follow their drift, they'd bluntly spill it out for you with "3ayzeen negeeb la7met il eid" (we want to bring some meat for eid) or "mafeesh 3edeyah ya basha?" (no holiday charity this year..?)

Day 2 was much better. After having breakfast, we decided to spend the rest of the day in Pharonic village. It was much different and better than last time we visited it. They took us back in time and made us live the culture of the Pharoahs, the industries, the agriculture and their lifestyle. I hope that the slideshow below would provide the best virtual tour.

One of the interesting things out there is the stick of Pharoah Tutankhamun. IF you look at the picture, the handle of the stick has statues of slaves. The legend says that he used to hold the walking stick the other way so that it shows the level of his pride and that slaves were always under him and equivalent to his feet level.

Other interesting things were the different museums such as the Alexander Museum, Jamal Abdul Naser & Sadat Museums, the history of pyramids and the mummification process. But the problem is that they know the process but they have not discovered the right volume and quantity of amounts to use. So the idea of being mummified at death is out of the question for me.

We completed our day with an outstanding night in a 2 hour boat trip on the Nile River that was featured by the Belly Dancer and the Tanoora Man show.

I went to sleep that night not knowing that thrilling events hidden for me on the dawn of my 3^rd day..the Eid day.

The prelude and postlude of my Egypt Trip

2007-12-28T20:22:00.001+03:00

*sighs*

Just finished catching up on the things I've missed during my 10 day vacation; especially my cyber-related activities such as reading blogs, emails, checking facebook, organising pictures and many more. I am the only awake person in the house. Rest of the family are asleep. I can't blame them especially after having one of the worst flights ever.

Our flight was scheduled at 19:30 p.m on Thursday. But because of a silly mistake, Saudi Airlines sent a smaller plane that could not contain all the passengers for the flight. Unfortunately, we were among the victims who have been told to wait till the next plane that's scheduled at 2:10 a.m.; 7 hours later. Thanks to my dad's negotiation skills, we let them partially compensate us for the delay by letting us sit in the first class lounge.

Things didn't go as anticipated and the plane boarded at 5:30 a.m. We arrived at Jeddah at 8:30 a.m and we spent another damned 2 hours and half waiting for our bags to be transported from the aircraft to the shuttle. With the equivalent time wasted (almost 18 hours of airport time), I could have travelled to Canada.

But I won't this last day ruin the joy of the fabulous 10 days of my holiday. Such vacations help in recharging my batteries for at least 3 months of the routine life I am coming back to. I hope it lasts longer this time since my next vacation is in June.

The only drawback of this whole journey was the wintery weather. I swam for one day in Hurgada but only for 20 minutes. The water was so cold that it felt like swords piercing through my guts. It was the first time I swim in such cold water.

I was a bit hesitant about this whole trip. First, I am going with family. Second, we are going with family friends - who I never managed to tolerate despite the long friendship they have with my parents – since the day I was born i.e. more than 23 years of friendship. Third, our invitation to Egypt was by another close family friend that we have not seen for the last 12 years. So it was kind of awkward to see them again after such a long period especially since we haven't stayed in touch with their kids. So we were clueless to how they look like and how their characters have developed. Thankfully, none of my concerns were an issue. The Hosting family showered us with their generous hospitality and entertained us with their joyous sense of humour. I managed to get along with the annoying family and communicating with them only when necessary. And finally, I thanked God for travelling with my own family. Why would I complain when I have a father who pays, a mom who organises and packs, a sister who relieves me of my photographing duties by her obsession of capturing every single moment of our journey (for your information, she filled the camera's SD card (2 GB) twice...i.e. 4 GBs of pictures), and a brother who I bully to provide me with other services I require?

There is so much to tell. I'll post about them later. But right now, I need to get some sleep.

Monthly Digest -End of Year special

2007-12-17T01:25:00.001+03:00

VideoWorld

and who said we don't have a cool king? ;)

NewSpot

It is always tragedic to hear about lives lost in an accident...or is it?

30 Miserable Lives Lost In Greyhound Bus Crash

CineMania
I was into action movies lately. The 4 movies I watched were those high-ticket movies such as:

Die Hard 4.0:

Maybe I am not a qualified person to comment on this movie as I have not seen any die hard movie before. But in general, the movie does not fail to bring something new in the world of action to the field. Die Hard 4.0 creates its own distinctive environment by showing how humans became fully dependent on technology. It shows how severe and damaging can the impact of "e-terrorism" induce.
One major thing that I didn't like about the movie was the villain. I never felt that the villain was evil or powerful enough. You always feel like he is an amateur geeky kid who acts on ad-hoc basis and never plan ahead. Throughout the movie, the villain always get humilated by the hero John Mclane even when Mclane is put in life or death situation.
Other than that, the script is well-written. The action scenes were well directed and you can already see creative ideas and new moves. Overall, I give this movie 7/10

Transformers:
Here again, I ask you to spare my life coz I never saw the original movie or series. Maybe that's why I didn't have the advantage of understanding some of the "inside" jokes that the original fans would enjoy.
I nominate this for the action movie of the year. Admiring the transformation that each one of those autobots go through is enough to leave you drooling.
The movie starts slowly or let's say normally with a quiet atmosphere. In the first part of the movie, they are setting up the plot and slowly building up to reach the climax. By the end of the first half, you already reached that scene similar to "armageddon" movie scene when they wave goodbye to their country and board their space shuttles.
The first piece of action triggers a chain reaction of action sequences that put you on a mind blowing roller coaster ride varied with battles, transformations, hide & seek strategies and many more. I think this is the first movie I unintentionally held my breath for the longest time and that's mainly because of the massive continuous action sequences that follow each other over such a significant period of time. All in all, this movie gets an 8/10.

Hostel 2:

I was a bit hesitant to go for this one considering my experience with Hostel 1 (a one that I didn't enjoy much..maybe coz I didn't watch it in ideal condition...it is very hard to concentrate when the only two people with you are making out and letting all their hormones out)
For those who didn't watch Hostel 1, the whole concept can be classified to two themes; Porn & Gore. there was no story at all and the relation between these two parts is non-existent to the extent you feel that what happend behind the scenes were as this movie was script written by a porn movie script writer who'd put nudity scenes for no reason at all. and then they fired him and they brought a fetish bloodthirsty psychopath to continue the job.
With Hostel 2, I think they corrected their mistake by bringing a schizophrenic person who'd use hostel 1 as a starting point to write a script based on his multiple personalities that are known for its satisfactory work in blending pornography & gore together in a reasonable way that justifies it.
Other than that, Hostel 2 was much better because the story is furhter developed. More information is shed on the origin of the cult and how do they select their clients and the process that the "contractors' go through. Moreover, the movie contains multiple huge twists that flips the movie 180 degrees to conclude with a shocking ending that makes you question how much humans are willing to sacrifice to survive even if it means losing their sanity and their morality.
It would be unjust to classify the movie under "horror" as it rarely has horrific moments. The movie is for strong hearted people who are willing to withstand alot of gore that are worse than SAW series. Yep, you heard it. some of the scenes are worse than SAW. In fact, there is one scene that kept haunting me in my nightmares for 3 days. So be careful. Overall rating 6/10.

Ocean's thirteen
Ocean's crew is back. Unfortunately, it is without the feminine touch of two of my favourite actresses, julia roberts and catherine zeta jones.
the plot of the movie refers to heisting a casino (similar to the story of Ocean's eleven). Again, the motive is personal and the heist could qualify to be considered the smartest heist plot ever existed. I so wanna talk about it but I don't want to ruin the movie.
Compared to Ocean's eleven, and ocean's twelve, I think that the prior movies were better. the dialogue in ocean's thirteen lacks depth and sarcasm. Although each crew member plays a crucial role in the heist, you feel that the plot focused on developing some specific characters and giving less credit for others as if their role was for support only. Overall, I give this 7 / 10.

HotBeats

I first heard this song as a soundtrack to an episode in smallville. It such a short track but really it is one of my favourites...

Blogospherian World

if we wanna talk about a post that I enjoyed reading every single word or (punctuation to it), then it is definitely Hani obaid's Killer Commas, Camp Horror Stories, Good Intentions, and Other Minutiae

Comically Illustrated:

Eid mubarak to all. Don't forget "kharoof El-eid" (Eid sheep)

Hamzatizing Moments:

I am racing with time as I write this. In 3 hours time, I'll be on a plane to Egypt to enjoy my eid vacation there. the plan is to stay in Cairo for 3 days. and then go to a new area called Ain El-Sokhna (literally translated to "hot eye") where its supposed to become the next Sharm El-Sheikh. and finally, we'll go to Hergada for another 3 to 4 days. That sums up a 10 day trip.
the weekend was extremely busy with the usual last minute shopping spree that we go through everytime. In addition to shopping for myself, I had to become a part time driver for my sister who drove me crazy by making me tour all the malls in the city.
I packed most of my stuff with the exception of my handbag. I am still debating with myself whether to pack the laptop or not. On one side, I don't wanna take it so that I can take a break from the technology world. Plus I don't want to waste my precious holiday moments hooked on it reading blogs or playing videogames.

Other than that, all I need is to put my camera (which I am charging right now) and a couple of the books I got from amazon.com AND speaking of books...

Since I am the only male guy existing in the current cyber book club, I announce myself as the Leader of the Club (hey I had the idea). No, just joking. We have no leaders. I am just a mediator.
Our club has prestigious members such as 7aki Fadi and her infamous book reviews . Sincere thanks to asoom for her continuous support for this initiative. I encourage those interested in participating in our club. the floor is open for anyone who is interested.
So, over this vacation, I am packing two books "love in the time of cholera" - our first reading assignment and a book many of us are interested in- and "Shadow of the wind" a book recommended by a fellow blogger; "Kinano" who efficiently utilizes his sick leaves by the huge magnitude of books he consumes. I hope he gets sick more often so that he'll have more books to review. Any other suggestions in the future will be welcomed.

Let's pull it together guys. We are gonna be the next big thing. We are gonna kick the butt of Oprah's book Club. :D

Housemaid wanted

2007-12-13T01:31:00.001+03:00

Around last eid, our housemaid gave us a notice that she is leaving and going back to Indonesia forever. It is not that she hated the country or hated working with us. On the contrary, we loved her. She was clean, humble, co-operative and her housekeeping was outstanding. It is very rare to find someone like her. But you gotta respect a woman who worked hard just to raise enough money to get her daughter to university. And when she did, it was time for her to go.

Ever since that day, we were searching for a decent replacement. We were extremely patient in finding someone who'd at least meet minimum standards. Instead, we dealt with bizarre situations with the ones that we tested during these 11 months. And I am willing to share with you some of the cases we had over that period:

Case 1: before I start talking about Maid 1, it is worth sharing with you my mom's theory when it comes to maids. Mom knows that each maid will eventually end up stealing from us. Mom has lost hope in finding an honest maid. Her main concern with each one we hire is to catch her steal the first time so we teach her a lesson and make sure she never repeats. This has been a very effective approach. Unfortunately, this was proven right every single time with ALL the maids that have served us during those 21 years. The best maid we had stole from us the first time but when mom caught her, she never did it during the rest of the 8 years she kept serving us. I've always rejected her hypothesis as I am an optimistic person and a believer in people's good intentions.

With Maid 1, mom caught her the first time and gave her the usual warning. Weeks later, my dad was irritated by some of the burnt light bulbs in the living room's chandelier. While he was changing the bulbs, he discovered that one of our old cell phones; (my sister's backup phone that she lost a couple of days ago) was just hanging in there. Now some of us have our crazy moments. But why would someone hide a cell phone among chandelier bulbs with a SIM card full of Philippines' contact names. The maid refused to admit it when we confronted her.

Days later, I wake up to go to work. Like every morning, I shower and shave. And when I shave, I usually tend to lock the door of the washroom. It just so happened on that day that I got an SMS message before I wanted to shave and went to my room to check it. And what a nice scene I see especially when I find her there mingling through my wallet. Oh man, for how long has she been stealing from me? How could I've been so careless?

I asked the obvious question "what are you doing"? and she defended herself by saying "she is arranging my business cards and money". What kind of a silly reply is that? Do I have a big "LOSER" sign on my forehead? That's enough, it was time to show her the door.

Heh..and here I thought I could disapprove one of my mom's theories.

Case 2: nothing beats network communities among housemaids and word of mouth. When searching for maids, the first people you'd ask are the maids of family friends if they know someone who would be interested. We Got Maid 2 which is apparently a friend in the same community that our ex-maid was part of. She came and she impressed mom with her clean work, her organisation and her attention to detail. We all liked her...except my sister.

Now that came to me as a surprise, especially since my sister becomes socially active and is always the first one who'd befriend new maids. Hmmm...maybe that explains the VIP treatment and special room delivery service she always had. Ah smart sis..

Anyway, back to the point. So My sister didn't like her. My sister justified her concern by saying: "Hamza, she is too cool. Look at those stylish jeans she is wearing. Look at her expensive cellphone. Look at her thin sexy body. She is no maid".

Ah, someone is jealous but that's an interesting theory. Maybe I can...and a running stream of ideas flush their way to my head.

36 hours later, my mom wakes up and finds me dying of laughter. It took her a couple of minutes to realize that the maid has just escaped, opened up the door when everybody was sleeping and just ran away. I just couldn't stop myself from laughing. This is the first time that a maid escapes form us. Till now, they don't know what happened.

Case 3: maid 3 didn't last too long simply because she had attitude problems. She was not doing her job right and when we criticised her in a constructive way to clean better, she starts arguing. All what we did is ask her to clean behind couches and to swipe the dust over the edges. When she actually did it, she came to me and said "Go check it. I hope you like it now. Now you have no excuse for anything". I was like what the? Is she trying to brag about herself and insult me?

Later, we asked her to clean windows but she refused on the basis that she never had to clean windows in her life. Well, excuse me if you served dirty families but we are not. She gave us another excuse that she has shoulder problems and her doctor does not allow her to strain her shoulder!!! Oookay fine

Next day, she wakes up and complains about her sudden tooth ache and how she "urgently" needs to go see the doctor. Now that's it. It was time to put a stop to this crap. So we just paid her for the 3 days she served us and discharged her.

Case 4: unlike Maid 3's mediocre work, Maid 4 was good. However, she had an annoying problem. She was toooo social. I rarely saw her cleaning without her cellphone. She'll be ironing the clothes, swiping dust, washing dishes while she is on the phone. Well, we can learn to survive with the gibberish Eritrean noise.

2 days later, she asks mom for half a day leave. She is doing shopping with her sisters. Permission Granted. Next day, she asks for another day leave; she has a wedding to attend. Permission Granted. 3 days later, she wants another day leave; a funeral to attend. Permission Granted but now we are pissed. That's 3 leaves in one week.

When it was time for her 4^th request (her mom is sick and she wants to take care of her), we were extremely generous as we granted her a "permanent Leave".

And the search still continues...

Mom and her new hobby

2007-12-07T03:59:00.001+03:00

What a great life I am living. Within this week, I got only 6 SMSs. Ever wondered what were they?

Two of them were from MOBILY (my cellphone network provider) who for some weird reason always keep sending me a notification in both Arabic and English telling me to pay my bill. I mean just send it in one language. Not both.

The other four were from the hospital. I gotta admit. I admire the hospital's initiative in utilizing technology and sending SMS notifications of the next scheduled appointments we have. But honestly, I feel a bit uncomfortable when I get one of those messages because I know it's not for me. It's for my mom.

Apparently, mom has developed this hobby of visiting dcotors or, putting in other words, abusing our medical insurance. It all started with "Hamza, let's go to the hospital to check my blood pressure". "Mom you are ok. There is nothing wrong with you" I say, but she keeps telling me that I am not the doctor and she might have something and she wants to be diagnosed early rather than late. So I listened and I did.

3 days later, "7abeeby, take me to the hospital...I wanna do an ECG".

Me feeling a bit worried "Mom, your doctor said your blood pressure is not high but you gotta watch it. He didn't ask us to do an ECG"

"I know, I am just being cautious"

And So I took her one more time. Thankfully, the results were ok but she needs to constantly monitor herself and be cautious. So far so good, but something inside told me that my mom was not satisfied.

A week later, the same request pops up. This time she wants to check her thyroid glands. She argued that her family (her mom and her sisters) suffer from Hypothyroidism and that it might be hereditary and she wanted to check it up. As usual, I kept hiding my increased anxiety towards her excessive obsession about her health.

This time the results disappointed me. The doctor's latest diagnosis concluded that she indeed suffered from "Hypothyroidism" and she has to deal with the fact of using lifetime medications. Such news could never ring well in my ears.

So up to now, my mom has committed herself to 3 separate doctors that she deal with on a regular basis. To my surprise, I feel that my mom is a bit satisfied as if she is enjoying taking care of herself. Well, I don't wanna blow her bubble but I hope her obsession will not become paranoia. If she ever asks me to take her to the dentist, then we are going to have a serious talk. I'd have to explain to her the concept of medical insurance and that it is not fully FREE, and that I have to pay a portion of each invoice and check-up.

But I know I will never do that. If she knew that I pay a portion of her treatments even if it is insignificant, she'll feel guilty and she'll only go when it is an emergency. At the same time, I don't want her to surprise me with further unanticipated symptoms of old age. Because this means that she will soon start giving me the "talk"...

the taking care of my brother & sisters talk. A one I am not ready for yet.

Replica Shopping

2007-11-30T20:27:00.001+03:00

Shopping has never been a big deal for me. I am not one of those people who go "brand" shopping; those who only wear LEVIS, DIESEL, or LEE COOPER jeans; only wear ALDO or CLARKS shoes etc. For me (and this might sound crazy), shopping is about building a relationship with a garment. If I feel I like that piece, then most probably I'll get it even if it was an unknown brand.

At the same time, I have my limit. I know that there are places that I'll never shop in; especially those neighborhoods that are in down town where clothes are sold at peanut prices. I just can't accept this to myself.

And as I've said, when I buy something, it is to satisfy me and be happy about it – not to show off in front of others how filthy rich I am or to show the brands I wear. But lately, I am starting to get pissed.

One of the exceptional things about living in this side of the world is the cheap prices you will find for some of the best brands out there. You are talking about 60 to 70% difference in pricing. And that's basically because of the widespread of "replica" products.

Over the summer, I met a couple of my friend's friends and they astonished me with their experience in buying the best with the cheapest price.

Try to imagine my feeling when I see that a guy bought an elegant classy SEIKO watch that's worth 30 riyals compared to my normal good 350 riyal SWATCH; cool amazing RAY-BUN sunglasses that look like they are worth 400 riyals while in fact they were purchased for less than 20 riyals. These provocative events can't stop me from feeling a bit frustrated by all those who shop replicas. I can't help myself to stop cursing them.

But alas, those days are over. I am joining their league. I came to realize more advantages about replica shopping. Other than the cheap prices, you will have more variety than the originals because each place will present for you a different set with different design while maintaining the brand. Second, the fact that replicas deteriorate faster will justify going back to shopping and getting the latest out there without feeling any kind of remorse for the old piece.

Damn, I feel so cheap.

Wadi Mur

2007-11-25T23:07:00.000+03:00

What an outstanding weekend. I think it was the best weekend I had in this year.

It is not that often that you find people who are willing to go on a camping trip. It all started with an email being circulated by a fellow colleague. The plan was to go to a valley 3 hours away (called Wadi Mur) from Jeddah, camp and sleep there for the weekend. I loved the idea since I haven't camped before.

We left at around 2 p.m. I joined the guys at CARREFOUR where they were shopping for what we need for the trip. Tents...check. Food..check. Mattresses..check. Apparently, the guys were experts in camping and they knew what to get. One of the guys even packed one of broken down old dining rooms that were thrown away, lying in the dust. Wood is always good for a bonfire. :D

The absence of signs and the fact that the roads were not paved forced us to be on 4-wheel drive all the time with our only source of guidance was an old 1995 guidebook that was guiding us by resetting our odometer at specific points and calculating the number of kilometres we drive. A typical description was like this: "reset your odometer at 0. After driving 14 kms north east, you'll see palm trees, take right..and drive 32 kms till you see a small farm. Take left And drive 35 kms....etc"

3 hours later, we were there. We picked a great spot that was between a small cliff and a running stream. We set up the tents before it got dark and we climbed up the cliff to a decent spot where we could enjoy the sight of the sun set.

As much as I write, nothing could describe the serenity and the beauty of that night. A night illuminated by a full moon, instrumental music and a bonfire. We shared many great stories and jokes. It was a chance to know each other especially since most us meet for the first time. It is not very often that I hang out with such a unique group; a group that consisted of:

i) Yours truly
ii)an Egyptian guy who spent many years in Cambodia and Mauritania. He basically spent a significant portion of his life camping in the wild
iii)a Maldivian with his kick-ass 10.2 megapixel NIKON camera equipped with God knows what Lens that can support up to 134x ZOOM. In other words, he is a professional photographer
iv) A half Saudi half Swedish guy (weird mix..eh?) who got his degree in Australia and spent 9 months of his life on an environmental project in East Timor
v) An American Egyptian who was an intern in the White house. He was the guy who drafted the speech for the UN American ambassador who vetoed against condemning Israel for the murder of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin.

So considering the composure of our group that give the impression that we are a bunch of amateur foreigners, I think our biggest achievement that night was not getting ass-raped and lose our anal virginity, especially after a bunch of strangers passed by at around 11 p.m. who tried to befriend us and wanted to investigate more about us. We were worried for some time as they camped somewhere near and every once in a while, they'd send out a scouting car near our camp.

By the time we woke up at dawn to watch sun rise, all of us were itching from the mosquitoes that feasted on our skin for the whole night. Well, this isn't too bad considering that we didn't become a feast for other animals, especially those dogs/wolves tracks that I've noticed around our camping site.

At around 9 a.m, we packed our stuff and headed home. On our way back, we stopped by King Abdullah Economical City, and King Abdullah University of Science & Technology. Those were the two big projects that are being heavily campaigned as future projects that will rejuvenate the Jeddah district and attract many foreigners to Saudi Arabia. It is their way of imitating the Jebel Ali & University City areas of Dubai. By the constructed civil works we've seen, it looks like it is a very promising project.

On our way, we passed by Rabigh city and chilled for a while on the beach. For those who don't know, Rabigh is an industrial city that is famous for having the biggest oil refinery in the world. We continued our journey back home and by mistake we ended up in Durrat Al-Arus. Entering that place is an accomplishment by itself as it is usually reserved for high class families who own a resort there. As the Wikipedia link says, its a tourist village that has the American lifestyle theme and it is a "very liberal and open-minded village that is far away from Saudi Arabian traditions". I guess that says it all. We managed to sneak past the security and swim for 2 hours there.

After that, we went for lunch at one of the famous restaurants lying on the outskirts of Jeddah where you personally choose and pick the fishes and ask the cooks to make it grilled or fried depending on your preference. This delicious meal was the perfect way of ending our long enjoyable journey.

nombres en français

2007-11-18T22:48:00.001+03:00

So I am now infected like the others. My life is becoming ultra-boring as it is slowly being shaped by that vicious disease called "routine". It robs from us the precious moments of our valuable time. It breezes by us and leaves us wondering "is it November already? What have I done in my time". Between working 9 hours or more, sleeping, and time spent in showering, eating and driving..There is little room left to enjoy ourselves on weekdays. The only time I have to enjoy would be weekends, which by the way I rarely do since I try to catch up on all the sleep I missed, the books I didn't read and the videogames I didn't play.

So like any other problem I face, I try to rectify the situation with my usual unconventional solutions. I decided to minimize my short-term pleasures (the ones I'd enjoy on a weekend among friends in a coffeeshop, billiards etc) and engage in more routine activities that will yield beneficial results on the long-run.

So, for the last month, I've been going to my gym on Sundays and Tuesdays. And on Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays, I am taking French lessons Level 1. It is always have a third language up your sleeve and I really regret not learning French at an earlier stage in my life.

French is not a tough language to learn especially if you keep associating it with English. Nevertheless, I noticed some differences in the semantics and the way French handle pronouns. In English we refer to "they" for both men and women. But in French, it is 'ils' for men and "elles" for women. Moreover, French differentiate between a formal "you" that you use among strangers and an informal "you" that you use among pals. A formal "you" is "vous" and an informal you is a "toi".

The second weirdest thing about French is the numbers. In both English and even Arabic, if you wanna refer to a 2 digit number, let's say 34, you'd take the "thirty" and add to it the "four" to make it thirty four. Same goes for 72..its "seventy" (70) "two" (2) etc.

The system is the same in French. 64 is "soixante quatre" where "soixante" is 60 and "quatre" is 4. 25 is "vingt sept" where "vingt" is 20 and "sept" is 5.

However, and for an unknown reason, numbers beyond 70 starts to get complicated. My only guess is that somebody really pissed off the French mathematicians. The 70 in French is the "soixante-dix" (60+10). So 76 is "soixante dix six" which is like saying (60+10+4 = 74). The same thing applies to the 90 numbers. 92 would be "quatre-vingt-dix deux". Its like saying "80 10 2" (quatre-vingt is 80). This only happens among the 70-79 and 90-99 numbers. Luckily, the 80-89 numbers escapes this anomaly and follow the normal and usual numerical system like the other numbers from 20 t0 60.

These are my basic finding so far. I still have 6 more weeks to finish the courswe. I guess that by the end of level 1, I'll be able to engage in a 2 minute conversation with the locals in France that'll end up with me screaming "please let me talk to one of the representatives in my god-damned embassy".

A penguin among eagles

2007-11-12T23:55:00.001+03:00

It was one of those Saturday nights. We were hanging out in the parking lot of the TIM HORTONS near my house. Just doing what we "usually" do.

One of us started an interesting discussion saying:

"Guys, what do you think is the biggest number in the world?" said Jesus

"I think its the number of stars in the sky" said Gremlin Ears

"well, in the quran, we say "allah akbar" as much as the number of leaves on the tree" said Mo

"or the number of sand granules in the world" said Big J

"or the number of water droplets in the ocean" sadi Jesus

"yea that makes sense. Coz our earth is 75% water. So its definitely number of water droplets" said stoner

"GUYS, I found it"...I said

All eyes fixed on me

"I think its the number of bits of everything that's quantifiable in the world since the inception of time"...I said it with the excitement of Archimedis when he screamed "EUREKA"

All eyes still fixated on me as we share a moment of silence...before Big J blasted out:

"Hamza...how many....times...have we...told you...NOT TO HANG OUT WITH US IF YOU DON'T WANNA GET F##$@%$ HIGH?"

Oh well, it was just another one of those many times where I felt like a penguin trying to fly among eagles.. Apparently, I didn't manage to join them in their "special" mood.

Unforseen Woohoos

2007-11-06T20:47:00.001+03:00

WOOHOO #1: wooohoo. I got my honey back. In my last trip to Sudan, the government of Darfur had thanked us in its own way by offering each one of us a tank of pure honey. Unfortunately, Sudan Airways refused to ship the contents on the aeroplane. We are talking about 5 kgs of pure Darfur honey for each one of us. So, we had to leave them with our accompanying driver from the Ministry of Finance.

Luckily one of our colleagues, who went there for vacation, managed to retrieve them from the Ministry (who I thank for keeping them for a period more than 2 months) and managed to ship it with back with him to KSA. Honestly, I don't like honey, but I'll force myself to enjoy every single dip of it.

WOOHOO #2: today in the morning I met my colleague as I was parking my car. He is the closest guy to me at work since we both joined the same program at around the same time in the same department. We meet up with another colleague (let's call him Uzbei) who we haven't seen since eid il fitr. And this is how the conversation went in the elevator:

"so how was your vacation?" said my friend
"good..." said Uzbei
"just good?"..

"actually very good"..
"aha.."..
moment of silence...
"I got engaged" ..said Uzbei
"yea..me too" said my friend
"ah nice..when?" said Uzbei
"just last week"...said my friend
"ah great. So Congratulatons to both of us...see ya later" said Uzbei.

I am standing there in shock telling myself "WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?". I overjoyed for both of them but at the same time I am bewildered by the their coldness. I mean these 2 get engaged and for them it is not a big deal..like some certificate or an achievement they've accomplished. Seriously, wow. I never felt I'll see this day coming.

WOOHOO #3: woohoo to my sister.. She started her first job this Saturday. Her job is in the interior design domain where she has to basically provide advice and sketch designs to meet the needs of her high-profile clients. And when I am talking high-profile, we are talking about the prestigiously rich & royal class. She is in her 3^rd day and she already met a former prime minister of Pakistan and his daughter, and made a couple of visits to the Mansion of a prestigious princess from KSA's royal family (King's Sister to be exact).

My sister is getting depressed each time she comes home. She can no longer dine in our 4 x 3 m²kitchen. The smallest kitchen she saw at the mansion is 400 x 300 m². 200 security guards, and over 15 cars are all bits and pieces of the luxury she saw. Nobody is allowed unless he/she prays 2 rakaas in the mosque built inside the mansion – built for the exclusive use of her majesty.

Of course, The shop my sister works at can never cater the likes of you and me. A vase that's worth 30,000 riyals and a small painted portrait that's about the size of the palm is around 1000 riyals. A living room with 3 sofa sets is worth over 150,000 riyals..and the list goes on and on and on.

Life is ironic. It keeps on surprising me. I should learn never to underestimate others, especially my sister who I've always bullied.

Sick & tired of...

2007-11-01T04:26:00.001+03:00

People thinking I am SYRIAN. All the people I met in the last 5 years of my life never guessed my heritage (literally none). The first thing that pops to their mind is "are you Syrian?".God damn it. I've had enough of this crap especially after a cab driver in my own country wanted to overcharge me for his fare because he thought I am Syrian. God damn it. I've never visited Syria in my life. With the exception of my grandmother (who I see her only in the summer), neither my father nor my mom are Syrian. So is it like a curse that will burden me to eternity because of my own self-customized accent that consists majorly of a Syrian dialect. Is it because of all the damned years I spent with the company of the Syrian community or is it the post-effect of watching too much "maraya" series in my teenage years?
But seriously, the Syrian accent is much easier to pronounce and softer on the ears compared to Palestinian or Jordanian accent. If you wanna confirm something, Syrians/Lebanese say "eih". Palestinian/Jordanian say "AAAH"..Seriously, stare at the mirror and try to say "eih" and try saying "aah". With the "aah", I feel like a predator who's gonna start feasting on his prey. Same for the use of "QAF" letter where Palestinians/Jordanians replace it with "GAF" while Syrians just remove the roughness and make it "Aaf" such as "GALOOLI" and "ALOOLI". And the list goes on and on.
The only time I took this as a complement is when I met someone the other day and he started "so you from Syria?". I raged and snapped at him "God damn it, WHY WOULD YOU THINK I AM SYRIAN? WHY CAN'T I BE JORDANIAN OR PALESTINIAN?". He just said: "hmmm, you smile alot".
Being always the youngest. "Oh, you are the youngest employee among all our 950 employees in this institution", "you are the youngest person in our program/team/training course"... "Oh you are the youngest student in our university/college/institution"."Oh, you are the youngest person to register for this exam". God damn it, So what if I entered university at age of 16 and was doing my postgraduate degree at age of 19 and started working at age of 20.. GET OVER IT PEOPLE.
and you know what? In all my life, I never won an award for being the "youngest in .....". So in case you thought people say it because they are impressed with me, then think again.
My Skin. If I ever get to choose what animal I wanna be, I'd definitely be a snake so I can peel off my skin every once in a while.

You have no idea how much I hate my skin. It is the same skin that was infiltrated by infinite attacks of acne during my teenage years for a period that lasted more than 6 years. Back then, I tried all kinds of crèmes, pill solutions, and I was naive enough to buy PROACTIVE solution (a tv product that Britney spears, kanye west, and Jessica Simpson used) and you know what? Its all crap.
Infiltration is back now but this time its in the form of moles in my back rather than my face. I visited 2 dermatologists and both of them have said to me the same thing:
"not to expose myself to the sun"
Me sitting in the patient's chair waiting for him to complete his sentence before we shared an awkward moment of silence that I broke with
"how long?"

"hmmm...ever"
Oh Great. So apparently, my skin has the potential of growing random irregular moles every once in a while. The process is accelerated by activities like sunbathing, tanning or anything that involves exposing my ultra-sensitive skin to the Sun. And you know what the fun part is? I have to monitor the development of those moles to ensure that they don't develop into skin cancer moles. And how do I do that? By photographing my back every few months. Thanks to the brochures I am reading, as long as these moles have a uniform color, round shaped, and have a diameter that's less than 6 mm, then I am ok.
Great..So no more sun and forget about the idea of getting a tan for this stupid pale skin. Akh, where are vampires when you need one?

Monthly Digest October

2007-10-26T14:39:00.000+03:00

VideoWorld:

so you are in sitting in the coffee shop sipping your cup of tea or coffee. and you want more milk. How would you react if you get...this.

NewSpot:

KSA has issued new penalties for those who violate its Traffic Flaws. They are listed below

and they say we live in the 21st century...*sighs*

Cinemania:

Blood Diamond

I had this movie in my stack for the last 6 months. I always hesitated to watch it because its a 2 hour and half movie.

Its A great movie with a great cast and a great script. Its one of those movies that help serve a cause. It directs a message to the audience telling them of what they can do to stop the spread of more blood diamonds in the black market.

I am surprised that it didn't win any oscars. I'd give it 8/10.

Grindhouse (Death Proof)
I was very excited when I heard about the joint collaboration of Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Tarantino to make "Grindhouse". I was hoping that it will be a successful movie like "Four Rooms". Unforunately, I was disappointed to say the least. Quentin Tarantino's movie talks about a psycho who enjoys squishing girls with his "death proof"(a car used in movie stunts). Like most Quentin Tarantino's movies such as "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction", you end up spending most of the movie listening to some crazy crap topics being discussed. this time its all boring girl talk. the movie does not have enough violence and gore that we are accustomed to in similar Quentin Tarantino Movie (Except for one flying body part scene). The storyline is totally crap. Only the last 30 minutes of the movie are watchable that got ruined by a highly unsuitable ending. Rating: 4/10

Grindhouse (Planet Terror)

Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror isn't any better. Like "From Dusk till dawn" and "Desperado", Robert Rodriguez's latest work builds up around the same theme and element in which you have an action movie that begins with a very serious tone & script that quickly changes to an extremely odd script. Combined with bizarre visual effects and few comical scenes every now and then, you end up with another extremely moody movie that leaves you asking yourself "how the hell did this movie end up like that?". What this movie lacks in its storyline is compensated by its varied and uniquely creative action stunts. I'd give this movie a 5/10.

88 Minutes
A movie that's scheduled to be released in cinemas in 2008. But don't ask me how I ended up with its DVD release. Being a big fan of AlPacino, I was not going to miss another crime-thriller movie that has a striking similarity to "insomnia" in the way the story unfolds. The movie talks about a psychiatrist and a college professor who receives a phone call from an anonymous telling him that he got 88 minutes to live. With the movie being 105 minutes in length, you live minute by minute with Dr.Jack Grimm trying to find the one behind the death threats and whether one of his college students is behind the attack or not. the movie would not be a blockbuster but it must be on your "to watch" list if you a big fan of thriller and crime movies. Rating: 8/10.

HotBeats:

I am not a fan of Timbaland or Fall out Boys. But this is just one of those one-time songs that stick in your head.

Comically Illustrated:

Hamzatizing

the past week in my life was horrible. I reverted back to the old blog template because I couldn't come up with a better design. After googling for hours on templates on the internet, and playing with the colors, I gave up because I couldn't find anything special.. I will delay the task when I come up with a more creative idea and after I install a decent GUI web designing tool like Frontpage or anything similar. The process of nitpicking at the HTML code and modifying it manually and running the code each time is painful and time consuming.

In addition to all that, I've been overwhelmed at work where I wasted hundreds of braincells on a boring brainless task related to data entry. Its funny how karma gets back at you. 9 months ago, I was the one working with the IT consultants requesting our clients to do the data cleaning assignment to help us in the data migration. But nowadays, I am on the other side where I am being instructed by the IT team to do the data cleaning needed for the data migration.
The data entry part is easy. The hard part is to reconcile with my colleagues and chase them to provide me with the correct data. In addtion to that, there was an ongoing training on Monday, tuesday and Wednesday that was related to SAP BI (Business Intelligence) Reporting that I didn't wanna miss. My director would never approve me attending this course because I have a training upcoming the next week. So I decided to attend it and never tell them about it. And during tea breaks and lunch breaks, I'd go back and chase after my colleagues to complete the data cleaning assignment.
I planned to spend the whole Wednesday night to complete the pending data entry records. However, my computer suddenly switched itself off at 6 p.m. Later, I discovered that the power system in my workplace is configured to cut the power source at that time (an indirect way of penalising me for overworking). So, I was forced to work overtime on Thursday (although we are not entitled to overtime) to finish my pending task.
I've already mailed my hand-over note for this assignment and I just hope that they will not interrupt my training with a follow up on the progress of the data cleaning especially since the deadline is on Monday.

Vundo, Generic.dx, Downloader_BFC – next generation viruses

2007-10-20T23:21:00.001+03:00

I have been testing all kinds of antiviruses to see which one is more reliable. On my sister's laptop, I have kaspersky. On my personal laptop, I have NOD32 and on our home computer had MCAFEE .

Around 2 weeks ago, the internet explorer on my home computer started crashing more often. I get random pop-ups every few hours despite the fact that pop-up blocker is installed. First thing I did is to do a system scan with the Mcafee. Didn't detect anything. I forgot that it is unlike kaspersky and NOD32 where you have to update MCAFEE manually. So after I did that, I kept getting virus alerts about the existence of random viruses such as "vundo", "generic.dx" or "downloader-bfc". What was even more annoying is that none of them can be cleaned. It would start with a pop up screen saying that a certain file is infected and showing the path for it. But then when you go to investigate the path, the file is no longer there.

Apparently, the viruses work by generating files in C:\windows, C:\windows\system32 and in C:\program files\common files and all paths that you wouldn't wanna miss with. What's even worse is that it'll create random .dll & .exe files that leaves you guessing on whether these are system files windows need or not.

That's why googling a solution was not really helpful as each case is computer specific. The files infected at your pc would differ than the ones infected at mine. And that's why all those guys who are infected ended up consulting an online technician who'd provide you with tools to use and we'll request you to post back a log file of the scan results. Accordingly, he'll study the log files and will manually be able to nitpick the path files you need to remove.

After I gave up on removing the viruses by myself (which I find it very humiliating as I come from a computer science background and I pretty much consider myself a techy person), without the need of formatting my pc, I went for my last option of creating an account on forums.techguy.org and asked for help. More on my experience with those viruses can be found here.

I'd like to thank racenutalways for his patience and for helping me to get rid of these annoying viruses. From all this, I learnt my major lesson. I uninstalled MCAFEE and now I am using AVG antivirus which is much faster and much more efficient.

The last 2 weeks left me in awe for those virus writers who got so creative that created viruses that create such random, computer-specific files making a universal removal tool almost possible.