The Empty Canvas

conspiracy theories

2011-11-17T22:47:00.001+02:00

i don't believe conspiracy theories easily. i don't like to blame our failures on other people's bad intentions. i do believe that we are targeted by some people, but not in the "the whole world is against us" kind of way.

surprisingly, what made me write this blog post isn't anything related to the revolution in egypt...not the arrivals, freemasonry (الماسونية), freedom house, intelligence agencies, or any of that normal stuff we hear about every day...what made me think of this topic is an article i read a couple of days ago on a chess website. it was an initiative by an international organization aiming to teach women in Palestine chess. i thought what a cool initiative, how thoughtful of them...of course there are much more important things to do which could help the palestinians in these rough times, but it's the thought that counts. When i read more into the article i started having second thoughts, but maybe it's just me. it's particularly the following paragraph which made me suspicious about their intentions:

The intrinsic values of chess (such as perseverance, discipline, creativity, accepting defeat, continual quest for progress and focus) will facilitate these vulnerable young women’s personal development, improve their emotional stability and encourage their social integration.

Accepting defeat?? yeah because in chess, unlike all other sports and games, there is a winner and a loser. how ridiculous is it to include "accepting defeat" amongst the benefits of learning chess??? am i over reacting here? do u think it was just bad taste from the author? or is there some kind of message they're trying to convey to the women of palestine that they should give up and accept the current status as it is?

tell me what u guys think about this, i'd really like to know if you think i'm over-reacting.

Hajj

2011-11-11T19:39:00.001+02:00

I just came back from Hajj yesterday.

It was an amazing experience to say the least.

Now that it's over, i realized that the most difficult parts about Hajj are the ones you can't prepare for.

sitting 11 hours in a bus that smells like vomit (because a little kid vomited twice, including once on the bus driver's head)
walking 7 km with a very painful swollen foot - i felt sorry for myself when an old man offered to carry my bag for me
using public bathrooms for a whole week, knowing that someone is always standing at your door waiting for you to finish...etc.

I also realized that Hajj isn't merely about getting you closer to God through spiritualities. It also helps alot in counting your blessings. Starting with your clothing, your shoes, your home, your bed, your phone, internet, and everything else you might have taken for granted.

I feel lucky to experience this wake-up call so early in life. We need to reset our priorities.

I can talk for hours but i'll spare you the headache.

Goals...Dreams...Hope.

2011-10-30T22:58:00.000+02:00

Hope keeps us alive.

The best thing a person can do to himself is to set a difficult goal and strive to achieve it.

Knowing that something is virtually impossible, and still having a tiny hope that it can be done... and the more you chase the dream, the more you realize that nothing's impossible.

The effort you put into achieving the dream... the suffering you go through...the sacrifices you make...

the exhausting journey filled with pleasure and pain...

it's all worth it.

and most of the time, it doesn't even matter to you anymore that you finally achieved the dream...what matters the most is that you proved everyone wrong...you overcame the difficulties despite everyone's lack of support...you believed in yourself.

...

I'm currently at that starting phase where everything is unclear and you start giving yourself false hope when you know deep inside that these things don't happen in real life...

i'm at the phase where i imagine how happy i will be at the end if i DID achieve my dream, but when i look at the obstacles i lose hope again...

i'm at the phase where i write stupid blog posts just to encourage myself, then realize mid-way that it's not working.

oh well.

marriage

2011-10-25T19:21:00.000+02:00

Sense of Humor............................check
Appearance..................................check
Ethics & Religion............................check
Open-mind....................................check
Bilingual.......................................check
Social class & family reputation.......check
Suitable wife?................................nope.

Every man has his own checklist when it comes to imagining what the right girl should be like. I'm sure the women have their own checklist as well. I recently realized that no matter how perfect the girl is on paper, it's the whole package that counts. You can't judge if a girl is suitable or not based on a checklist. Sure it can be used as a preliminary guide, but you shouldn't base your final decision on it.

The key word is Chemistry. Chemistry will make your life lighten up all of a sudden....it will make you ignore any of the items in the checklist if the girl doesn't satisfy them...it will make you feel excited that this is the person you will be spending the rest of your life with, simply because she understands you. Simply because you have a connection.

I'm the kind of guy that enjoys stability. I can see my future as a family guy, studying for my children and making sure they do their homework and sleep early...taking them to swimming twice a week...helping my wife with dinner every once in a while..you know, the kind of stuff my own dad used to do.

Getting married is a huge decision, and i've been really close to being married at least once so far. The reasons it didn't work out are irrelevant, but i can't say i'm happy with where i am at the moment. Sometimes i get worried that my chances of finding the right person are decreasing greatly because i'm not in Egypt anymore. I'm 28 now and the last thing i would ever want is to pass 30 without getting married...i want my children to have a normal father with a normal age difference.

The thing is, even when i was in Egypt it wasn't that easy to find someone good. It so happened that my circle of friends, whether they're in college or work, had no one suitable for me. Now what? If I don't bump into a girl in a random place, and we click instantly like we see in the movies, then i guess i have no other option but to listen to my family's recommendations of having a pre-arranged "Salon" wedding. Is that so bad? At first it was. I didn't want any other people interfering in this important decision at all, not even a little bit...I can handle things on my own.

On a completely related note, our society is messed up.

Most of the marriages don't work out for financial reasons. It pisses me off so much that parents are putting prices for their children's happiness. They don't realize that after a year from the wedding, no one even remembers any of these stupid details. The only thing that matters is if the couple is happy or not.

I hate how egyptian families complicate things. I hate how the parents are always desperate for their kids to get married (whether they're boys or girls), and once they find the appropriate partner, the parents don't even consider making any compromises to make things work. I'm not referring to my own parents here, i'm just talking generally about our society in egypt. Countless relationships have been ended just because the parents of both parties were playing a game of "who's in control". They forget how desperate they were for this opportunity to come, and how hard it might be for their beloved child to find someone else suitable.

There's a lot to talk about when it comes to marriage. I don't think this will be the end of it.

Loneliness

2011-10-21T19:41:00.002+02:00

This is a difficult post to write. I don't enjoy expressing my weak points.

As you might already know, i have been living outside egypt for almost a year now. I've visited egypt twice since then - quick 3-day trips - just because i was feeling homesick.

Don't get me wrong, i'm very happy with the direction my career is taking. I was totally against leaving Egypt and working abroad, but the opportunity that came up was just too good i guess. Working in a multinational company as an architecture specialist is a dream job for many people my age, me included. Lots of travelling is involved, the work itself is very diverse and it isn't boring at all, i get to meet many VIP's and coordinate with them in lots of projects, and ofcourse I can't complain about the money. El7amdolellah.

It's the times when I'm not working that I hate the most. Facebook and youtube can be good companions for an hour or so, but what next? I'm not much of a TV guy and besides, all the shows these days are talking about politics and stuff... i hate that. I managed to make some friends from work and we play soccer every wednesday. The fact that they're all married makes it very difficult to socialize with them more frequently.

I miss sitting with my friends at the Ahwa at 2:00am playing cards or just chatting about random stuff with shisha in my hand and enjoying cairo's beautiful weather.

I miss being able to go to sa7el on the weekend to take a swim in our amazing beaches and come back refreshed to start a new exhausting work week.

I miss taking my sister to eat sushi in dandy mall like we used to do at least once a month.

I miss hanging out with Mahmoud & Ahmed, reminiscing about the stupid stuff we used to do when we were kids.

I miss taking my dogs out for a walk late at night.

I miss my chess-enthusiast friends who i would always find available to play some quality chess with.

I miss my old work friends who were more than family for 3 whole years.

I miss the joy of watching both of my nieces growing up and learning something new every day (they're 2 years old now).

I miss taking random walks on Imbaba bridge every once in a while and enjoying the best view of the nile available in cairo.

I miss going to alexandria in the winter.

I miss being next to my parents, knowing they're in good health.

The list goes on and on...

Loneliness is brutal.

Back

2011-10-21T16:38:00.002+02:00

I can't promise that i'll stay here for long but it feels good to be back. My new sweet friend Zaina has inspired me to get back to blogging, so you should all blame her for this crime i'm about to commit :)

It's been more than two years since i've last posted and there's lots of stuff going on these days. I think it's only healthy to vent and ramble even though few people are actually paying attention.

I can imagine that the next few posts will probably have a serious and somewhat depressing edge (or as some fellow egyptians might say: "tutch"). That's normal i guess, posting happy thoughts isn't really my kind of thing. I tend to enjoy the happy moments and live them without expressing my feelings, whereas the sad moments: well, misery loves company.

You can't say i didn't warn you :)

Awesome Video

2009-06-11T13:29:00.001+03:00

This video is by far the best wildlife video i've ever seen.

question

2009-06-02T12:40:00.002+03:00

When you're driving and you want to change lanes...does the signal you are giving mean that:

a) you are asking for permission from the driver in the car behind you to let you go in front of him/her, and they have the right to either let you change lanes or not.

b) you are notifiying the driver that you are going to change lanes anyways, so they should slow down a bit.

Mubarak's grandson

2009-05-19T19:57:00.002+03:00

Today's sad news left everyone feeling sympathy for the president's family, even though none of us knew anything about his grandson. It goes without saying that dealing with death is never easy, especially if it's a child.

The cause of death until now is still unknown to the public, although many people have made different speculations. I have narrowed them down to the following 3:

1-Amr Adib says the boy had a rare fatal brain disease which activates without any warning.

2-Some friends told me he had an accident playing Tennis (which i find strange) or Riding a Beach Buggy

3- Some Israeli journals and egyptian blogs say he suffered from food poisoning after eating bad food from a restaurant.

ta3adatad al asbab wal mawt wa7ed.

rabbena yer7amo we yesabbar ahlo.

ten more things you don't know about me

2009-05-15T20:14:00.004+03:00

in continuation of this post which i enjoyed writing....(and yes, i figure if i just jump straight to the topic without explaining why i've been away from blogging for so long, you guys wouldn't notice)

1. Everyday i have a 30-minute walk from Zamalek(where i park my car) to Garden City(where my job is) and back. I enjoy every minute of crossing the Kasr el Nil bridge, especially at sunset.

2. My latest website addiction belongs to FMyLife.com which i found in Gmag's latest addition, check it out.

3. I enjoy registering tongue-twister nicknames on Nile FM to baffle the presenters when reading out my messages...so far i tried " Jack's Black Back Pack ", " Juicy Shoes Sushi " and my current one "Lime n' Lemon Liniment"

4. I haven't been to the cinema in over 3 months.

5. I spend more time in my car than i do with my family

6. Last Friday, i spent over 6 hours watching Just For Laughs clips on YouTube.

7. The one thing i hate more than the Taxi with an irritating tune that goes on every time he presses the brakes, is the Taxi that has the extremely annoying car horn that starts in a high volume and fades away gradually.

8. i hate politics.

9. i keep soccer shoes in my car just in case i'm invited to a match and don't have the time to go home.

10. Last August, I paid over 3000 LE to join Gold's Gym and i've only been there 14 times so far.

disappointed

2009-01-23T16:43:00.003+02:00

we didn't get to complete the lebanon project..it's due in a couple of days and there is no way we can finish it up on time so we called the whole thing off yesterday

i don't usually give up so easily but it's different when you're part of a team..i can't just keep working alone.

oh well, there goes 3 months down the drain.

i've changed back, sort of

2008-10-13T00:53:00.003+02:00

referring to this post , i can proudly say that i'm alive again.

i've regained my interest in most of the the things mentioned. excellent!!

i think i'm still lacking interest in photography and blogging though, which is only natural i guess...moods come and go.

ramadan

2008-10-11T04:30:00.003+02:00

thoughts during ramadan: "how the hell am i going to survive until 3:30 pm at work without drinking tea/coffee or having a lunch break?!"

thoughts after ramadan: "how the hell am i going to survive until 6:00 pm at work?"

the grass is always greener on the other side.

Lebanon

2008-09-29T21:48:00.002+02:00

Together with two of my friends, i have entered an international architecture competition. It's the first time for me, so hopefully i'm going to learn alot from this experience. The objective is to design a Culture and Arts Center located in Beirut.

My favorite part of the whole project is that i will get to learn more about the Lebanese culture and people. I'm going to be reading their poetry, listening to their music, watching their plays, and enjoying their paintings. For the next couple of months i'm expected to know everything i can about the Lebanese people so that i can design a cultural center that can actually benefit them.

The chances of us winning the competition are ofcourse really low, but we're giving it our best shot. It's the experience that counts.

mental pasteurization

2008-07-31T01:44:00.002+03:00

in a span of only 4 days i managed to go the cinema 3 times.

first i saw The Dark Knight. Fabulous. Heath Ledger was outstanding to say the least.

then i saw Boshkash.

and finally i went to see Wanted. Best action movie I have ever seen. Period.

mental pasteurization.

collision

2008-07-23T01:39:00.003+03:00

just a couple of hours ago i experienced a truly horrific experience.

i was driving my car on the Daa2ery highway when suddenly i found that a big accident had just happened seconds before i arrived. The people weren't even gathered yet. my first thought was that i would stop to help if i saw someone hurt, but if it's just the car that's been damaged i wouldn't bother..so that i don't block up the road.

i looked beside me inside one of the cars that's been in the accident and i saw an old man, sitting next to the driver, having a heart attack. The man had his arms held in front of him with his palms dangling downwards, his eyes were squinching, his eyebrows expressing fear. The car was filled with panic. i immediately decide to pull over and see how i can help. while pulling over to the right side of the road i bumped into the rear bumper of another car. i was only moving at 10 km/h hour or so. no time for apologies, there's a man on the verge of death and there's little we can do.

i stop the car and go running to the old man's car and i find his 30 year old son (in the driver's seat) shaking him and screaming " Matmotsh ya Baba!! Ya Baba Rod 3alayya!! ". there were 2 women screaming and crying in the back seat.

I was helpless. I was thinking of any way i could help. Do i pick him up and take him to the hospital? Is he too fragile? Where IS the nearest hospital anyways? Will he die on the way there? Do i move away and give him space to breath instead?

By now many people have been gathered around the man's car which made me urge everyone to step back since the guy could use the air. i opened the car's door and let the old man's feet out of the car. The son was still shaking his father and screaming at him.

The old man began nodding lightly indicating that he's feeling better. He wants to comfort his son. I was releived to see that he was aware of what was happening around him. The gathered people decide to stay away and give him more air to breath which made a big difference. A couple of minutes later the man felt somewhat better and the car took off, probably heading to a hospital.

The other car that was involved in the accident was completely destroyed. The woman sitting in the front seat had a face full of blood from the collision with the glass. Thank God it was only some minor cuts that caused this... a couple of tissues and some water made the lady look and feel much better. Thankfully, no one else was hurt.

We carried the damaged car to the side of the road then i got into my car. I find a guy my age waiting next to my car accussing me of breaking his car's rear bumper. i was surprised that in the midst of all this nervous tension he could still think about the slight damage in his car that i have caused. i apologized to him but i justified my self by telling him that i wasn't even looking on my right side when pulling over, i was concentrating on the man dying in his car. it's not the smartest thing to do but we were barely moving and i couldn't look away from the man. the guy accpeted my apology but apparently his mother (sitting in the back seat of his car) didn't. she was shouting at me for bumping into them. i apologized again offering to fix his car if he wishes. he denied, got into his car and went home.

Top 5 things i hate about 5 star hotels.

2008-07-18T14:26:00.002+03:00

5. Most of the food Looks delicious but tastes normal.

4- The overpriced items in the room's refrigerator and the room service menu.

3- The music in the reception and the restaurants.

2- The early breakfasts. i'm in a VACATION for God's sake. breakfasts should be extended till noon.

and the thing i hate most about all five star hotels:

1- the way they stuff the blanket so tightly beneath the mattress. every night i have to spend 10 minutes of kicking with my leg to free myself from the damn blanket. i hate how they expect us to sleep like King Tut without turning over.

advice

2008-06-27T22:26:00.003+03:00

a word of advice: do not watch The "Incredible" Hulk. (the quotations add a whole new meaning to the tite)

a more valuable word of advice: do not watch The Happening.

the most valuable piece of advice ever: do not watch any movie you haven't watched a trailer to and/or have read that it has good reviews.

bas khalas.

i've changed

2008-06-09T22:22:00.002+03:00

i used to be passionate about music.

i used to be passionate about soccer.

i used to be passionate about chess.

i used to be passionate about architecture.

i used to be passionate about photography.

i used to be passionate about reading and learning.

i used to be passionate about my job.

i used to be passionate about blogging.

i've become dead inside.

that's depressing.

found in Kov's blog.

2008-04-12T10:17:00.002+02:00

you should do this when you're bored like kovs..or when you want your boss to think you're sitting on the computer working like me.

1. How old will you be in five years?

2. Who did you spend at least two hours with today? no one yet..woke up and came straight to work.

3. How tall are you? not sure...182cm maybe.

4. What do you look forward to most in the next six weeks? the 12 day vacation we're gonna get because of Easter holidays. i love the Coptic Christians.

5. What’s the last movie you saw? No country for old men. pretty good.

6. Who was the last person you called? mahmoud

7. Who was the last person to call you? my sister

8. What was the last text message you received? a message from mobinil

9. Who was the last person to leave you a voicemail?

don't use voicemail

10. Do you prefer to call or text? call

11. What were you doing at _AM last night? driving my car.

12. Are your parents married/separated/divorced? married

13. When is the last time you saw your mom? yesterday

14. What color are your eyes? brown/hazel

15. What time did you wake up today? 8:00 am

16. What are you wearing right now? jeans and a polo shirt.

17. What is your favourite Christmas song? don't really celebrate christmas but there's this song that has a solo by the guitarist from The Darkness...

18. Where is your favourite place to be?

alexandria in the winter

19. Where is your least favourite place to be?

alexandria in the summer

20. Where would you go if you could go anywhere? for a vacation? probably spain or italy.

21. Where do you think you’ll be in 10 years?

happily married with kids hopefully.

22. Do you tan or burn? tan.

23. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child? the monster under the bed.

24. What was the last thing that really made you laugh? a joke my friend told me yesterday.

25. How many TVs do you have in your house?

26. How big is your bed? it's a standard single bed.

27. Do you have a laptop or desktop computer? desktop. my laptop stopped working a couple of months ago and i can't afford to buy a new one yet.

28. Do you sleep with or without clothes on?

clothes on.

29. What color are your sheets? there are many. different colours.

30. How many pillows do you sleep with? one

31. What is your favourite season? spring, but since it only lasts for 2 days in egypt i'll have to be realistic and say winter.

32. What do you like about Fall? the not-so-cold-not-so-hot weather

33. What do you like about Winter?

rain, the cold breeze, the thick blanket.

34. What do you like about the Summer? the company i usually have when on a trip.

35. What do you like about Spring? it's obvious, the weather

36. How many states/provinces have you lived in? 2: cairo and dhahran in saudi

37. What cities/towns have you lived in?

same as previous answer.

38. Do you prefer shoes, socks, or bare feet? el shebsheb.

39. Are you a social person?

not really. but i've been trying to work on that lately

40. What was the last thing you ate? mcdonalds

41. What is your favourite restaurant?

hmm..tough one...i think chopsticks in mohandeseen makes amazing chinese food...

42. What is your favourite ice cream? vanilla i guess

43. What is your favourite dessert?

om 3aly

44. What is your favourite kind of soup?

chicken mushroom

45. What kind of jelly do you like on your PB & J sandwich? strawberry

46. Do you like Chinese food? love it

47. Do you like coffee? nope

48. How many glasses of water, a day, do you drink on average? one or 2

49. What do you drink in the morning? tea

50. Do you sleep on a certain side of the bed? no

51. Do you know how to play poker?

yes

52. Do you like to cuddle?

53. Have you ever been to Canada?

54. Do you have an addictive personality?

yes

55. Do you eat out or at home more often? lately i've been eating out much more than i've been eating at home...but i'm not happy about that.

56. Do you know anyone with the same birthday as you? no

57. Do you want kids? sure

58. Do you speak any other languages? english and arabic

59. Have you ever gotten stitches? nope

60. Have you ever ridden in an ambulance? nope

61. Do you prefer an ocean or a pool? depends on my mood.

62. Do you prefer a window seat or an aisle seat? window

63. Do you know how to drive stick? yep.

64. What is your favourite thing to spend money on? can't really think of anything

65. Do you wear any jewellery? No

66. What is your favourite TV show? lost/scrubs

67. Can you roll your tongue?

Yes

68. Who is the funniest person you know? my dad

69. Do you sleep with stuffed animals? No

70. What is the main ring tone on your phone? "fee fi fo" by the cranberries

71. Do you still have clothes from when you were little?

72. What red object is closest to you right now? a red pen

73. Do you turn off the water while you brush your teeth? no

74. Do you sleep with your closet door open or closed? closed but it makes no difference

75. Would you rather be attacked by a big bear or a swarm of bees? big bear

76. Do you flirt a lot? nope

77. What do you dip a chicken nugget in? bbq sauce

78. What is your favourite food?

koshari/stuffed pigeons/ sea food/ spaghetti with white sauce..

79. Can you change the oil on a car? i know the steps but i've never actually done it before

80. Have you ever gotten a speeding ticket? yes many times

81. Have you ever run out of gas? no

82. What is your usual bedtime? weekdays at around 12:00, weekends at around 3:00

83. What was the last book you read? roald dahl's Completely Unexpected Tales...great read.

84. Do you read the newspaper? yes but i just read the headlines

85. Do you have any magazine subscriptions? nope

86. Do you watch soap operas? nope

87. Do you dance in the car?

nope

88. Who is in the picture frame closest to you? no picture frames in my office.

89. What was the last note you scribbled on a piece of paper? a work related note

90. What is your favourite candle scent?

i've only tried lavender..not bad

91. What is your favourite board game? chess

92. When was the last time you attended church? i went to the mosque yesterday

93. Who was your favourite teacher in high school? i guess my math teacher Amin Selim.

94. What is the longest you have ever camped out in a tent?

3 days, not really a tent... more like a hut.

95. Who was the last person to do something extra special for you? my cousin bringing me back a gift from his trip to the states.

Poor Knocked Up Kiki

2008-04-04T14:02:00.001+02:00

i'm it.

2008-03-25T23:27:00.003+02:00

thanks gjoe for the tag

ok so here goes:

The Rules :

Post 10 random things about yourself
Choose 5 people to tag and a reason you chose each person
Leave them each a comment directing them to your blog so they know they are it
You can’t tag the person who tagged you (you’ll have to make new friends)
As a courtesy to the person who tagged you, please let them know when you have posted so they can have the sheer delight and extra work load of reading your answers)

1- i always look on the bright side.

2- my face goes tomato-red whenever i get myself in an embarrassing situation or get angry...which automatically triggers mocking comments causing my face to get even more red...which in-turn gets me more angry or embarrassed..

3- i was once bit by a dog...it was around 10 years ago, and the dog was one of those little white hairy ones...i was going to pet it and it got scared so it bit my hand....i had to take 6 concentrated injections to avoid catching rabies

4- i've got more than 15 keys in my key-chain but i only know what 4 of them are for...i'm too afraid to throw the rest out because i always think i'm gonna regret it when i remember what the keys were for...it's been like this for more than 5 years now.

5- i watched "the departed" 3 times this past week and i can't get enough of it.

6- i told 3 of my real-life friends about this blog this past week..so now, unfortunately, i'm going to have to kill them.

7- my favourite song for the cranberries is Cordell..i've spent hours trying to know what the word means but to no avail. my only guess is that it's a nickname she used for a loved one who passed away.

8- i missed 3 days of work in the past few weeks just because i didn't feel like going. i woke up on time and everything, but the weather was too good to waste on spending the day at work. I told my boss i had some urgent things to do.

9- when i was a kid my dad once bought me a new alarm clock that had this reeeeeaaally loud ring...he convinced me that the only way to turn it off was to talk to it and say "good morning" in a cheerful voice. since i didn't find any Off button, and since the batteries were only accessible through a screw driver, i had no choice but to believe him....i only found out how to really turn it off six days later (the off button was camouflaged ingeniously in the body of the alarm clock).

10- i prefer nancy 3agram over haifaa wahby.

heard this on the radio on my way home

2008-03-24T19:00:00.003+02:00

"traffic in nasr city is like a severe case of constipation" - a Nile Fm listener.

Damn *itches!

2008-03-19T21:08:00.003+02:00

i'm speechless.

i can't believe she could do such a thing. it hurts me to say it, but the *itch has done the most awful thing i could imagine.

she ran away from home, OUR HOME, committed fornication, and returned back guilt-free.

unbelievable.

and might i add, that her partner in such a crime was nothing but a WORTHLESS STREET RAT!!

you haven't heard nothing yet...we just learned that the b**** is PREGNANT!!

i'm thinking of killing her AND her baby. they both mean nothing to me now.

my whole family is furious with her, my mom can't even look her in the eye.

so now we have to wait for an unwanted baby to be born. what the hell are we supposed to do with it?? we most definitely can't raise a street rat among us.

i knew i should've bought a male rottweiler instead.

things i learned from my trip to the desert

2007-12-24T08:56:00.000+02:00

- the beauty of God's nature
- why the toyota landcruiser is the only car suitable for the desert
- how quite it can be
- how cold it gets
- how underrated water heaters are
- the effect of listening to your echo bouncing between the mountains of a completely vacant desert
- how much the full moon glows at night
- how colorful the oasis looks in the midst of a monochrome environment
- how cozy and relaxing it is to sit beside a fire in a cold winter night
- how soothing and relieving it is to sit in a hut lit by candles
- how entertaining it is to play a tight game of Estimation (cards).
- how rewarding it feels to look at the vast desert from a new perspective after spending 2 hours climbing a large rocky mountain

sony ericsson k810i

2007-12-07T13:53:00.000+02:00

i'm loving my new phone. the camera in particular is really great.

also, my graduation party was yesterday. it was nice seeing my college friends again, and ofcourse celebrating graduation is something i can never get tired from.

special note to Deee:
i can't seem to post a comment on ur latest entry. i'm so sorry for ur loss. rabbena yer7amo we yeskeno fasee7 gannato insha2Allah.

Heya Fawda

2007-12-02T08:40:00.001+02:00

Great movie. The movie was amazing on all levels: directing, acting, writing, and even the poster was extraordinary (unfortunately i couldn't find a copy of it on the internet).

Khaled Saleh is going to have a hard time topping this performance.

stupid errands

2007-11-25T21:44:00.001+02:00

i can sense if it's gonna be a bad day the minute i wake up in the morning.

today i woke up all grumpy. i was supposed to do some errands before i go to work. i hate going to work late, the manager keeps giving me these looks like i'm not a hard worker and stuff..and i guess he has every right to do that, but i'm only late for work to do some work-related errands like finish my military papers, or like today : finish my insurance papers.

apparently they need something at work called "ka3b 3amal", which i think could be translated to "work slip" if it makes any sense. supposedly, i should first go get my insurance identification number from the insurance facility then i should give that number to the people at the human resources facility. simple. everyone i know tells me they did the whole procedure in 3o minutes max.

ofcourse with me, everything has to go wrong....

on my way there in the morning i was driving too fast again, which caused my license to be taken. after i've arrived to the insurance facility i spent 20 minutes waiting for my turn...then the lady sitting on the computer (which by the way is reaaaaally old) asks for my ID. After examining it she tells me that i should go to the other insurance facility in maadi since that's the one my address follows.

so i spent almost an hour trying to find the damn place. after i finally found it i spent another hour waiting inside because the computer wasn't working and i had to wait for it to get fixed. ofcourse if i knew the wait was gonna be an hour long in the beginning i would've went to work and returned to them in the morning, but they kept telling me that it's only gonna take 10 minutes.

finally the computer's fixed, so i asked the lady for my insurance number and she started searching on the computer's database for my name. she didn't find it and she told me to give her a photocopy of my birth certificate and my ID card and come back to see her tomorrow.

so i went back to work at around 1:00 pm after having a very hard time finding a parking space.

word of advice: if you ever think of going to Garden City during work hours TAKE A TAXI to save yourself the torture i go through nearly every day.

i hope i get this over with tomorrow.

Tagged

2007-11-25T21:37:00.000+02:00

....by Deeee again:)

ok, here goes:

blog name: a greyscale perspective

reason:well grey is my favourite color obviously, but i've never aliased my self as greyscale before in my life. i just chose the name the moment i created the blog, without too much thinking.

blog photo: none. but if i did have one it probably would've been a sketch for one of the projects i designed during college.

Talal

2007-11-10T18:38:00.000+02:00

Talal is the name of a barber shop in Saudi Arabia. My dad and i where going to the mall one night when i was around 4 years old. He parked the car in a dark street and he told me to remember the name of the nearest shop so we could find the car easily when we return. Talal's Barber. On our way back to the car i proudly anounced that i remember the shop's name and my dad acted like if i hadn't remembered it we would've never found the car. He kept telling me that night that i've got an amazing memory and that i was special. For years later, i would remind him every once in a while that i still remember the shop's name, and he would always act like it was a big deal. It's amazing how the smallest action from the parent can influence a child. This incident has affected me till today actually, it gave me confidence that i was a smart guy throughout my childhood.

why am i blogging this? no particular reason. just a random thought that crossed my mind recently.

what i've been up to in the past few weeks:

* i switched to a new job as a junior architect in an italian/egyptian architecture firm. the work is very exhausting, but the people here are very friendly...they made me feel at home from the first day there. overall, i'm loving it here.

* had an accident with my car, took around 2 weeks to repair it...then had another accident just 2 days ago. no injuries whatsoever, thank God... i think i need to take driving lessons again.

*got exempted from the military service...which is the best news i've heard since graduation:)

Happy Eid

2007-10-12T23:44:00.000+02:00

Happy Eid to all you bloggers out there :)

ramadan kareem

2007-09-18T21:47:00.000+02:00

*as you might have noticed, i've got very little time to blog in ramadan. it's just that most of the time there's always something more useful to do.

i'm not comfortable in my new job. too much routine. i actually expected that it would be like this before i started but since it was the leading architectural firm in egypt i was willing to give it a shot. i figured i was lucky enough to get this opportunity so before i throw it away i should at least try. however, i'll probably wait until ramadan's over so that i'll have completed one full month...enough time to make the decision.

also, today i excused myself from work to go have an interview in another company. i prefer companies over private firms, they seem to have a more professional environment and a better administrative system. i did quite good in the interview, the guy seemed to be impressed...i hope i get the job.

*my cousin, who i spend most of my free time with is leaving to the States soon. he'll be staying there for 6 months doing a course. 6 months is a long time. the afternoon shisha with him has been an almost daily tradition for at least 7 years now. oh well.

* did anyone notice the new trick some beggars use to manipulate you into giving them money? many people i know, and myself, have seen beggars crying on the sidewalk with a smashed up carton of eggs lying next to them on the street. one of my friends gave the beggar 5LE, the guy kept crying and pleading for 16LE which is the cost of the egg carton. after feeling sorry for him, my friend gave him the money he asked for...an hour later my friend returned to the same road and he found the beggar still there. he got out of the car and went to ask him why he's still sitting there after he got the money back...at that moment, he was surprised to see another beggar come up to him from behind with a knife, telling him to get out of there. fortunately my friend did what's safe and got back into his car.

my first day at work

2007-09-09T22:57:00.000+02:00

i'm now working in a leading architecture firm in mohandeseen. today was my first day. i arrived at 8:45 and i spent 5 full hours doing absolutely nothing because there weren't any free computers. they assured me that this problem is only temporary.

anyways, they finally gave me something to do at around 3:00pm but there was no time i was going to be able to finish it by 6:00pm. i ended up staying until 9:30 and now i'm exhausted.

long day

2007-08-24T02:52:00.000+03:00

yesterday was a looong day...my whole family is in "sa7el" at the moment, so i try to spend the least time possible at home because it gets too boring...i was outdoors from 8:00 am till 4:30 am.

my day was pretty much normal until around 9:00pm - doing some errands in the morning, hanging out with friends in the afternoon.

i got a phone call from my dad at 9:00pm asking me to go home and look for some important papers.. i was in nasr city at the time.

the 6th of october bridge was jam packed. it usually isn't so crowded on wednesday nights but i guess there was an accident or something. my car's engine started to heat up, which usually happens in high traffic, but within the "normal" range.

only later did it exceed this level and i started to get worried.. i was about to stop the car before the temperature reaches the red zone, but i was too late... something exploded...steam was bursting out of the engine...alot of steam...i couldn't see through the windshield.

i got out of the car and i saw looks of sympathy on the people's faces. no less than 7 people in 4 different cars have stopped their cars, got out, came up to me and offered their help. i was amazed, no where else in the world would you find this helping attitude. unfortunately, there was little they could do.. the car's cooling system had burst...all the water in the car had either been spilled on the floor or evaporated...and i can't add more water obviously because it would all just leak instantly. they offered to give me a ride to my destination but i declined claiming that i can't just leave my car like that in the middle of the bridge. i thanked them anyways, telling them that their kind gesture meant alot to me.

so now i was left standing in the middle of a crowded bridge, not knowing what to do.
the car won't start because the engine is too hot, i can't call anyone to help because they won't be able to reach me in such crowded traffic, and i can't just leave the car and go home with a taxi (although i did consider that option seriously at one point.)

i finally decided to wait for 10 minutes until the car cools down a bit, take it off the bridge, then see what my options are.

as i was waiting, this police guy came up to me and told me to move my car since it was obstructing traffic...i flipped out and i started shouting my head off telling him to get the hell out of my face. after realizing how pissed off i was, he apologized and tried to cool me down..he then offered to push the car for me, which i declined..we were too far away from any exit... it would be too exhausting.

after 10 minutes of waiting i tried the ignition and it worked...so the car is now moving without any water in it, which is really dangerous since it's going to heat up much faster than before...especially in this awful traffic. as i was driving towards the nearest exit i found the temperature approaching the red zone again..luckily i found an emergency parking space ahead of me so i decided to park my car their until the traffic eases up. i considered leaving my car there until the next morning but i was afraid of it being towed by the police and i would have a really hard time finding it after that.

i waited for over 3 hours. the car had cooled down and the bridge now looked much better. i drove the car for over 15 minutes before it died on me again. .i was now 20 minutes away from home (remember i live in the 6th of Octboer city), so i had to stop the car and wait again...i waited for another hour this time... i repeated this process once more before i reached home feeling exhausted.

now that the situation is over, i think i learned something new about myself: i'm not comfortable asking for help.

i should have called any friend to come tow the car with me after the 6th of October bridge had cleared up, but instead i kept convincing myself that i could handle the situation on my own, without disturbing anyone.

P.S. i'm gonna be out of town starting saturday for around 12 days. probably won't have internet access.

my brilliant idea

2007-08-17T12:53:00.000+03:00

as i was checking out my new website : greyscale.youaremighty.com i suddenly felt inspired...i found the most amazing idea for a business. Following the trend of private beaches in the north coast, you find La Plage, yashmak, and Oxygen among others... but no one had thought before of my million dollar idea:

A PRIVATE BEACH FOR MEN ONLY

you can only wear speedo swim suits inside and there would be tons of fun activities like wrestling tournaments and stuff..loads of fun!!

the Sunni's and gays will make an excellent combination.

discipline

2007-08-14T02:42:00.000+03:00

i went to visit my newly-wed brother today along with our neighbors. they're a young couple with a 4 year old kid who is the most energetic creature i've seen in a long time... the kid spent the whole night running around the house.

i noticed, however, that the father had the hardest time controlling his son. whenever he'd ask the kid to keep his shoes off the couch the kid would punch him in the face.

- " we won't take you to the zoo with us if you don't behave"
- "i don't care, i already went to the zoo"

i was laughing my head off the whole time, which i think encouraged the kid even more...but i couldn't help it.

his parents were trying everything to make him behave...shouting, threatening to go home, threatening to leave him with his grandfather all alone in the dark, no cinema, no cartoons, etc....nothing worked.

i know MY dad would've beat me as a last resort, but the kid's father apparently was against that. i'm not sure i agree with him though, spanking ur kid or beating him is a very useful way in making him behave himself. ofcourse too much beating will give the kid some issues regarding his character and lack of confidence. but u can't just leave the kid not knowing his limits.

towards the end i got fed up. he stained my brother's new couch with juice and he was running around pulling the veil off his mom's head. i told him to play hide and seek with me, he should hide and i would count to 50. it worked, i spent the rest of the evening counting as slow as i could..until it was time for them to leave.

2007-08-07T04:51:00.000+03:00

my sister(apparently solving a crossword puzzle or something): hey, i bet you can't name an animal that starts with "U".

me: you.

things that happened in the past few weeks

2007-08-04T04:09:00.000+03:00

- went to sa7el with friends...had a great time
- grades came out - i have now officially graduated ahl :) i could write ALOT about how i feel right now, but i'll save you the headache. "happy and proud" should do for now.
- had an interview with a leading architecture firm...i impressed them and they were willing to hire me, but i wasn't happy with the conditions...they improved the offer and i declined again. my family and friends think i made a mistake.
- my sister got married, beautiful outdoor wedding. now spending her honeymoon in Paris and Venice.
- trying to learn Interior Designing on my own through books and internet while searching for available courses in cairo.

finally.

2007-07-15T02:11:00.000+03:00

i'm done. after 7 years of torture i finally finished college.

how much time do u think is appropriate before i start looking for a job? keep in mind that i apply for the military service next january. so during these 5 months any job i take will not be with a contract.

treat urself with some stand up comedy

2007-07-11T21:04:00.000+03:00

found these guys on youtube, apparently they're a bunch of arab guys trying to improve our image in the states through stand up comedy. really funny stuff.

nope, not done yet.

2007-07-09T17:42:00.000+03:00

they gave us an extra week to work on the project, so the final due date is next friday. only 4 days to go.

i got another phone call from this lady asking me to work in her firm as soon as i'm done with the project. i had already made up my mind that i didn't want to work in an architectural firm, at least not in egypt. so instead of excusing myself politely and thanking her for the opportunity (which would be the mature/responsible way of handling the situation) i decided to have a little fun and and let her have second thoughts about hiring me. childish and stupid? probably. but it felt like it would be something that would cheer me up at the time.

normally when someone is applying for a job he tries to give the impression that he's really eager to work, and that he can do anything they ask for. i did the exact opposite of that.

this is how the phone call went:

her: "introducing herself and politely asking if i needed help with my project"

me: thank you. so if i do work for you, what exactly will i be doing? working drawings, designing, photoshop, 3d modeling?

her: a little bit of everything.

me: ok will i be working inside the office? or will i be supervising the project's construction in the field??

her: both. you'll visit the field every once in a while to see how everything's going.

(here's when i started having second thoughts - it sounds like an awesome job : tons of experience and a flexible job description.....but if you know me at all, u'll know that i don't miss a chance to have a little fun. especially if i'm not hurting anyone....so i decided to stick to my plan)

me: ok but you should know that i'm still technically a student, and my main objective would be to gain experience about the architectural practice in egypt, and ur firm would be helping me alot in that. so i'll be more like an intern rather than an architect.

her: uuuhh- well we all need a little help at first. that's perfectly normal.

me: great. so when do u expect me to start?

her: well ofcourse ur gonna need a vacation after ur done..

me: (interrupting) yeah, i'm gonna need like 2 months or so...i've spent alot of time in college and i need some time to relax - feel like i graduated.

her: 2 months?! ummm..(i could feel the disappointment in her voice) well that's fair i guess. but if you feel like you want to drop by at anytime during the vacation just to see what the environment is like, feel free to do so.

me: (really surprised at her tolerance) yeah sure, i'll do that definitely...thanks again for this great opportunity, and i'm looking forward to seeing you soon.

her: great! and if you want, u can bring a friend or two to work here as well.

ok so that phone call showed how cool that lady is. i felt like a complete idiot afterwards. she actually got me seriously thinking about working for her.

i hopefully will visit the firm as soon as i'm done, and if i like the place and if the pay is good enough i probably will be working there after i graduate. just because of that lady- seems like she would make a good, understanding boss.

don't need the money

2007-06-25T20:25:00.000+03:00

if you've been through the 26th of July bridge/me7war in the past 2 weeks you would've seen a huge billboard that says:

Dr.Tamer Something
C H E E R S
Soon To Leave the Bachelor World

i'm sorry i do not have its picture, but i'll try to take a photo of it soon.

why would someone do that? a billboard that size on that road would cost alot of money - around 100,000 LE a year. which means that if he rented it for only a month that would be around 8000 LE.

not only that, he rented 2 billboards, so that you could see it if you're going to the 6th of October City, or the other direction - to mohandeseen. which means he spent at least 16000 LE to let people know he's getting married.

why?

unless this is some creative way of advertising a new product or something, which i doubt because i don't see how they can make a connection, then i'm afraid something's wrong with this fellow.

2007-06-21T16:57:00.000+03:00

lots of stuff going on.

i was able to keep my word this time and not smoke sheesha for one full month... i know i'll eventually get back to it (i can't imagine summer without smoking sheesha), but it's good to know that i still have some determination left in me when i need it.

in the past few weeks i got like 4 different job offers and i didn't even graduate yet...i didn't apply anywhere either, i get these phone calls from a friend's friend or a distant relative's acquaintance telling me that as soon as i'm done with the graduation project i should go and work in their architectural firm. cool. but that doesn't change the fact that i'm still gonna be spending A LOT of time considering which career i'm going to get myself into first.

my brother's wedding is tonight. he wants me to give a small speech/toast in the wedding. i don't know what i'm gonna say. also the whole dancing bit i talked about before in my earlier posts is making me nervous.

my graduation project is turning into a nightmare. we were supposed to submit our pre-final phase a week ago, and i didn't. i'm really falling behind in the project. the professor gave me a final chance to submit it next saturday. that gives me thursday and friday to work on it. and as you already know i can't work today because it's my brother's wedding. so that leaves me tomorrow only to finish up my whole project. sort of an impossible task but i'll do my best.

ok gotta run.

found in facebook

2007-06-10T01:51:00.000+03:00

random thoughts

2007-06-05T19:10:00.001+03:00

- i feel safer with a tank full of gas than with a pocket full of money
maybe that's because i live far away from the city... maybe it's because i own a credit card.

- i've been told several times that using credit cards to borrow money via ATMs is considered "7aram", yet i still use it occasionally.

- five years ago, i would spend most of my free time watching tv... now i only watch tv once a week or so, and it's only to see Amr adib's "el qahira al youm" or "el 3ashera masa2an" on dream tv...

- i enjoyed watching the interview with naguib sawiris in "el 3ashera masa2an" a couple of days ago..i was surprised to see him shed tears in front of the camera.

- i'm 3 weeks away from graduation and i'm not excited. i hate college, but i'm afraid of the responsibility of achieving my dreams...i don't want to be another "mowazaf" who waits till the first day of the month to get his paycheck and goes home to his routine-saturated life.

- i'm worried i'll get called to do the military services after i graduate which will waste another 1-3 years of my life.

- i'm bored

facebook

2007-05-31T21:10:00.000+03:00

i finally joined facebook to see what all the fuss is about.

not impressed so far.

tagged

2007-05-27T18:58:00.000+03:00

tagged by ravine

How evil are you?

i hate it when this happens

2007-05-24T21:18:00.000+03:00

i get a missed call on my cell phone from a friend of mine, so i call back to see what's up.

me: alo
him: aywa yabni ezayak
me: tammam ahl, eh el akhbar?
him: enta fel beet?
me: aywa
him: tab kallemny 3al beet delwa2ty
me: tab wenta matkallemtesh 3al beet mel awel leh?
him: makontesh 3aref enak fel beet
me: tayeb.

i call him at home.

him: aywa ba2ollak, hateegy el koleya bokra?
me: isa
him : tab ok..c u there isa..

and this is normally where i slam the phone down in his face.
he couldn't have just said these three words on the cell phone and got it over with??!

funny commercials from youtube

2007-05-10T15:52:00.001+03:00

yesterday

2007-05-01T12:27:00.000+03:00

yesterday was a big day. i woke up to a phone call from my cousin telling me he's in haram and he doesn't have a car, begging me to go pick him up since he's in no mood to go to home (heliopolis) using public transportation.

after i brought him back home with me we stayed for lunch then we started preparing ourselves for what we thought was going to be the highlight of the day: my sister was gonna be competing in the Virgin Megastore Treasure Hunt. if she wins she's gonna get a shopping voucher worth 10,000 LE to use in Virgin.

the competition was tight, she was going up against 2 other people, a boy and a girl, both around her age. to win the competition you have to know everything about virgin megastore (how the products are sorted out inside the store) so that if they ask you to find the Superman DVD you should do so in the least time possible. i of course predicted that the boy was going to win it easily since he would be a faster runner and he would probably have had alot of time to memorize the place. we live in the 6th of october city, so my sister didn't have any chance to go to city stars just to look around...the boy on the other hand probably went there everyday.

when the competition started the guy was running all over the place like crazy...my sister and the other girl looked very lost. Fortunately, the guy did lose some time looking for a specific dvd. my sister was looking for the ricky martin cd and i found it right in front of me, so of course i showed her where it was which made the Virgin guys give me a few words about how unfair that it is and that i shouldn't let it happen again. of course the competition was far from over but that little tip i gave her probably had a lot to do with the final outcome.

my sister ended up winning:)

it turns out that she's not allowed to use the voucher to buy laptop computers, mobile phones, or big-screen tv's. she had to choose between PS3's, ipods, home theaters, dvds, books, music cds......

i was trying to stay away from her and let her make all the decisions, and her fiance was doing the same....everyone else (we were 9 people all together) was giving her all these suggestions that made her really confused...

she ended up getting 2 ipods (one ipod video for her and another ipod nano for yours truly) , PS2, all seasons of Dawsons Creek on dvd (she loves that show), 7 books or so, some music cds, and tons of accessories for the ipods and PS2.

she was really hesitating on whether she should get the PS3 or not but she decided not too since its too expensive and it would mean she would have to get much fewer books and dvd's...

surprisingly, that was not the highlight of my day.

on my way home i was driving too fast as usual. apparently i made a sudden move which caused another car to almost have a major accident....the guy caught up with me and he started giving me these gestures with his hand...he wasn't doing anything rude, it was more like a "what the hell are you doing?!" kind of gesture. i was confused since i didn't remember doing anything extra dangerous so i asked him to stop by the road to see what he was talking about... the guy (in his late 20's) seemed really tense and he started explaining to me that if he hadn't pushed the brakes i would probably be dead now. he gave me a lesson about how i should be considerate about other people's feelings including my parents.

i got the message. i apologized and got into my car, as i took off i saw him sitting inside his car with his friend all shocked and speechless.

i'll definitely drive more carefully in the future.

i'm back

2007-04-28T15:54:00.000+03:00

no i wasn't in alex all this time. but i've been in a pretty bad mood since i came back. 2 funerals, almost no progress in the graduation project and an aching tooth that makes me want to kill myself, are some of the main reasons why i haven't been blogging.

i'm not the kind of guy that likes to share my feelings when i'm feeling down. i'm trying to change that a bit through blogging, but it's not as easy as i thought.

on the bright side, the past few days weren't so bad. in college we're celebrating our final year by organizing all kinds of activities for the whole class to attend together.
there was a 5 day trip to luxor and aswan ( didn't go ), a prom (didn't go to that either), and a fun day in college where we all wear the same t-shirts (designed by us) and we go around crashing lectures with the assistance of oriental instruments, trumpets, and of course our chanting voices. i was determined not to miss this one since i always felt jealous in my previous years when i saw the older students celebrating that day.

also yesterday one of our female colleagues was kind enough to invite us over for lunch at her home. we were about 15 students all together. after lunch we sat down in a circle and each one of us started imagining what the other students will be like in 10 years time. surprisingly, they all agreed that i was going to be some sort of bill gates. and they all agreed that i wasn't going to work in the architectural field at all. i guess they're right about that part, i don't feel like the architectural work environment in egypt is suitable for me. too much routine.

to clear my mind

2007-03-25T04:19:00.000+02:00

need to relax....

off to alex for a couple of days.

graduation project

2007-03-20T04:21:00.001+02:00

i'm currently working on my graduation project which is the rehabilitation and re-designing of any part of egypt that consists of a beautiful, valuable building with a poor surrounding environment. lots of those around, eh? the pyramids, the train station in ramses square, the temples in luxor, etc..

i chose to work on the region surrounding Salah el Din's citadel. that place is packed with beautiful islamic monuments but is also a home to a very poor sector of the egyptian public. supposedly my plan will be to remove those homes and move them to a new bigger, cleaner, better planned neighborhood in one of the new cities in cairo like 6th of october or 10th of ramadan....then i'm going to use the empty land that's left to make some sort of big project that suits the region and acts as a high-class tourist attraction. i'm still not sure what exactly the project will be but i'm thinking about maybe a large islamic museum but not a typical one...one that shows the lifestyle of the egyptian people in that period of time, sort of like the pharoanic village we have now but islamic instead....of course any better ideas are highly appreciated but please keep in mind that the project does have to suit the surrounding enviroment which means that i can't go and build an olympic stadium there for example...the place is very historic and rich with beautiful mosques and stuff...

looking forward to your suggestions and ideas!

UPDATE: the pictures weren't uploaded correctly the first time, when i come back from alex i'll try posting them again.

who do you hate more?

2007-03-10T01:24:00.000+02:00

if you had the choice to ban either the people driving too fast or those who drive too slow, who would you choose?

i would definitely ban all the very slow drivers.

laziness no more

2007-03-06T01:52:00.000+02:00

i own a '97 opel corsa. i love my car but i do little to show it. little things keep getting worn out and i'm always too lazy to fix them. i always brag about loving my car despite it being the least classy of all five cars we own. whenever given the option to take any of our other cars to do an errand i always prefer taking my own car. because i love driving it. because i love hatchback cars. because i love how stable it is. because i love its control.

i'm the most lazy person i know. yesterday i woke up and decided to change that. i decided not to go to college and instead go to the mechanic and spend the day there fixing the millions of things i needed to fix in my car.

here's a list of some of the things that needed fixing:

the cooling system was leaking
the cooling system was all rusty and needed to get cleaned
the wipers were worn out
the water pump that supplies the wipers wasn't working
the right rear-end lights weren't working
the a/c wasn't working
the cassette player wasn't working (only fm)
the handbrake was weak
the suspension system needed to be checked on

so after spending more than 8 hours with the mechanic here's what i did get fixed:

cooling system fixed
cooling system cleaned and changed coolant
rear lights
a/c
suspension system
handbrake

i didn't fix the wipers because there wasn't a near-by shop that sells them. the water pump needs to be replaced too but i won't do that anytime soon probably because winter's practically over and i could use the money.

the cassette player needs replacement too but i'm thinking of buying an mp3 player instead and hooking it up with the car speakers.

national champs

2007-03-01T02:15:00.000+02:00

sorry for the slow blogging lately. after i came back from monofeya i had one day to rest then i started the National Chess Championships.

yes, you read right..the big event...it took place in nasr city and over 200 players participated, all very strong. The competition was 11 rounds in 12 days (1 rest day) and it just finished today.

its my first time participating in this event so i wasn't expecting any big results. overall i played some good chess but my results could've been better...i always had to do some mistake at the end of the game due to time trouble or just plain lack of concentration.

i ended up with a score of 6 out of 11 (4 wins, 4 draws, and 3 losses) which puts me in the the top 50 players of the tournament.

the tournament was very exhausting and i'm glad it's over. enough chess ba2a, two big chess tournaments in a row can't be good for my health. or mental stability.

3rd place

2007-02-15T13:29:00.000+02:00

i spent the past week in monofeya participating in the universities championship. it was like an Olympics between the egyptian universities in all sports. i was participating as part of the chess team. team chess is no different than single player chess except that 3 players from each team play each other seperately and then the scores are added up. win = 1 point, draw = 0.5, and loss = 0. so the maximum score you could get in a match is 3 and if your team loses all its games you get zero.

before i went there i was expecting a poor city, bad bathrooms, small rooms and "prison" food....

i was optimistic.

the city sucks. the streets are a mess and there are more donkeys walking around than people.
the bathrooms were the worst i've seen in my life. there's no warm water and they actually have those "hole" toilets instead of the normal ones...these things are really disgusting and i'm yet to learn how to use them..whenever i would really have to use the bathroom i would come back home to cairo ( monofeya is only an hour away from cairo).
the rooms were tiny. 3 bunk beds cramped up in the smallest bedrooms i've ever seen...yes, that's SIX of us in a single room.
the food was terrible, serving badly cooked vegetables for lunch and potato chips with cheese sandwiches for dinner. breakfast was beans (fool) of course.

you'll be surprised to know that overall i enjoyed the experience. the competition was really exciting to play and it was a tight race for first. we were doing really good until we lost from our main competitor with a score of 2.5-0.5 which forced us to win our remaining games hoping that the first and second place teams would fall.

unfortunately they didn't and we finished up in 3rd place but only half a point behind them.

personally i played some good games, i remained undefeated throughout the tournament and i only conceded 1 draw. i wasn't playing in the match we lost as i had returned to cairo to take an exam in college that day. i think i would've made a difference since i am a stronger player than the substitute.

so like i said, i enjoyed the company and the whole spirit of the competition. we had some good laughs and i watched some beautiful chess games being played.

advertising competition

2007-02-02T03:04:00.000+02:00

made me laugh

2007-01-26T14:34:00.000+02:00

WOW!

2007-01-26T02:01:00.001+02:00

wow.

i've just finished watching a documentary on the 9-11 events...i'm not going to go into any specific details but you HAVE to watch this...i downloaded it off Ares (a p2p program like emule and bearshare). i was looking for season 3- episode 7 of Lost and i found this camouflaging under its name... strangely enough, after watching it i looked for it under the names "september, 9-11, documentary, etc..." but found nothing...

to find it type "lost 7 in sight" in the search panel...the file size is around 510 MB, and it's 54 minutes long...

they're providing convincing evidence that usama bin laden wasn't the one who did the attacks...

this is a must see, really.

P.S.
the documentary wasn't done by arabs, it was done by this american production company called Power Hour Productions.

2007-01-23T23:19:00.000+02:00

thanks Deeee, this is my first tag ever..

ok, five things you don't know about me:

1. i love tea (especially Earl Grey) but hate coffee...nescafe is ok....my favorite potato chips flavor is Vinegar.

2. i hate science fiction movies...i'm a realist.

3. i prefer samsung over nokia mobile phones but my current phone is a nokia because my samsung one is getting fixed (and has been for the past 2 months)

4. my favorite sitcom is Mad About You.

5. i have been listening to Om Kalthoum daily for the past week after a friend of mine made me listen to "amal hayaty"....now i'm hooked on "enta 3omri, amal hayaty, fakaroony, and my favorite: seeret el hob"

sorry i'm not in the mood to do the handwriting thing now.

i'm tagging: palo-girl, jannah, zee puppette, egyptiandust, and anyone else who feels like doing it.

the police incident

2007-01-14T14:50:00.000+02:00

this is the disturbing incident that i was referring to in a previous post.

a few days ago i was working on a group project with my colleagues every day for more than a week. we used to stay at the girl's house from 8:00 am to around 1:00 am every night with the exeption of the last night where we spent the whole night there.

when i arrived there in the morning i found the perfect parking spot...under a tree and right infront of her house...and everyone knows how hard it is to find a parking space in heliopolis.

after a long and hectic day, i finished work at around 1:30 am... when i reached my car i found that some dude has parked his car next to mine (raken saff tany) blocking the way for me to get out...and he had the handbrakes pulled..

what really pissed me off is the way he parked his car...it wasn't parallel to mine, it was rather slanted towards the front end of my car completely ruling out any chance of me squeezing my way out.

then i realized he had broken my left mirror.

i originally thought there were 2 possible reasons for him to act this way:
1- he was pissed because i took his spot even though there were no signs showing that it belonged to him...and he wanted me to suffer for that.

2- he/she don't know how to park the car in the first place...they suck at driving and they don't know that when ur parking in the second row you leave the handbrakes down so that ur car could be pushed.. and they don't have the manners of leaving me a note apologizing for the broken mirror.

i was more convinced that it was reason 1.

i live in the 6th of October city..more than an hour away from heliopolis and taking a cab to home would cost too much and besides i didn't want to leave that guy without any punishment for what he did to me.

i started asking around for the owner of the car and no one knew who it was...then a man in a nearby shop told me that there was a 60% chance that it was the guy living in the first floor of the building in front of me.

i wasn't ready to go knocking on strange people's doors in the middle of the night asking for something they might have done..if i was sure it was him i would've done it instantly but i personally wouldn't want to be woken up in the middle of the night for something i had nothing to do with..

i then decided to call my cousin who happens to work for the police and i asked him if i filed a complaint (3amalt ma7dar) at the police station, would they send a tow truck to remove the car....he replied that it's a possibility.

so i took a taxi to the nearest police station and the minute you set foot there you find all these nosy men that demand to know what your complain is about before leading you to the way of the officer...really pisses me off..i didn't want to satisfy their curiousity so i just told them my cell phone got stolen.

after finally reaching the officer i told him what the real story was and i added that all i cared about was to go home and rest. the officer said "sure thing, we'll just finish up some paper work, ask you some questions, then see what we could do about it"...he then pulled out a pen and paper and began the "who, what, when, where, and why" questions...he then asked me this incredibly stupid question: "is the car with you now, outside the station?" and my face immediately turned all red and i could feel a little smoke coming out of my ears.

anyways...after signing on the paper he went inside the room for a few minutes and came back telling me that he's sorry there's no one with the authority to send someone and go make a report about the incident now ( ya3mel mo3ayna) ...

"the head officer is at home and i can't give that order myself"
"so what am i supposed to do now?"
"come back in the morning, we'll be more than willing to help"
"in the morning the guy is gonna be gone without being punished...and how am i supposed to go home now??"
"no we already have the guy's car number, we'll bring him here and interrogate him"
"ofcourse he'll deny all this and there's nothing to prove what i'm saying"
"i'm sorry, i feel sympathy for you but i really can't do anything about it"

i then called my cousin again and told him what happened...he asked to talk to the officer.
they chatted for around 5 minutes on the phone and then the officer immediately sent a small police guy to go make the report...

"why didn't you say that (A) is your cousin from the beginning?? da 7abeeby men zaman!!"

i thanked him anyways (but i really felt like beating him up) for his efforts, got on the motorcycle with the police dude (yes first time on a motorcycle in my life...kinda fun actually, but freezing) and when we finally got to the "crime" scene i found my cousin there waiting for me..

ofcourse the police guy filed a report that was very much in my favour just because my cousin was there...and after that we started thinking of what to do with the other guy's car since unfortunately there are no tow trucks available in the middle of the night.

my cousin suggested we brake his mirrors and front glass because he caused me financial damage too...i was surprisingly in a less aggressive mood than him, despite all that's happened..

we ended up dragging the car and blocking the road with it so that no other cars could pass through..the next morning at 7:00 am i called the police department and told them that a car was blocking the road and i can't get to work...two hours later they came and took it.

i didn't get to meet the guy unfortunately, i wanted to find out the real reasons behind his stupid act.

small things that make me comfortable

2007-01-13T23:40:00.000+02:00

here's a list of some of the small things i keep at home that make my life easier to handle:

1. My Ugly Mat

its colours are hideous i know, but man its comfortable!! its made of this spongy material that is soooo soft...sometimes in the summer i prefer sleeping on it instead of my bed. also the blue praying mat is the one i prefer praying on ever since i bought it last ramadan from Mecca...its the small kind, made for children, but what the hell...whatever keeps me comfortable.

2. The Slippers

everyone's got slippers i know...but i just wanted to say that whoever made these black egyptian Onda slippers is a genius...not only are they made in egypt, but also they are as comfortable as any slippers can get...without any "fazlaka"..

and the brown ones on the left are the ones i bought from El Madina el Monawara last ramadan...also very comfortable but i prefer the black Onda slippers when i'm at home.

2. Transparencies & Red Coal Pencil

nothing is more irritating than having a nice idea for a building and forgetting it later on because you forgot to draw it when you had the chance... these transparencies have made life much easier for architects because they enable you to improve your work without completely re-doing the drawing, you just add another layer of transparencies and fix the previous errors...

and the red pencil just runs on the transparencies like no other pencil can...it pulls ideas out of your head by being so smooth on the paper (because it's made of coal ofcourse, not because its red :p)

3. My Chess Bag

consists of the following (clockwise starting with the black bag):

black bag - carries the rest of the stuff obviously

scoresheets - when playing official games you have to write down the moves in these scoresheets, i keep them for the record and they're helpful when trying to learn from my mistakes

clipboard & pen - useful when analyzing games with a friend or solving chess puzzles

photocopy of a chess puzzles book - useful when practicing for a tournament

digital chess clock - i have two chess clocks..my other analog one is broken and i can't find anyone that fixes chess clocks in cairo. chess clocks are used to time games so that players don't use too much time when it's their turn to move...it's basically used in official tournaments only

large portable paper board - good because it's portable and big, bad because it's paper and doesn't live that long...there are other leather ones but i'm waiting till this one's done before i buy another one

old brown leather bag - perfect size to fit all the chess pieces in.

4. The Little Red Cup

costs only 1 LE...and can carry the exact amount of water that i need to drink any given time...i hate it when the glass is too big, plus i love the color.
also water coolers are much more comfortable than normal bottles...we stopped using the normal tap water after the janitor (in our old home in maadi) found a dead cat in the water reservoir of the building...that incident had a bad psychological effect on us and we started using bottled water until we got this cooler.

5. Heat Insulated Cup

i bought this cup 2 years ago when "On the Run" had this offer that i could save 20% off the hot drinks from there as long as i buy this cup from them and use it...and since i stop by that shop every time i go to college to drink the morning nescafe, i thought of it as a good deal....i think i'm the only person still showing up there asking for a discount with the refill.

6. Cappuccino Maker

this gadget is a work of art! i got it as a gift a couple of days ago and i've been hooked ever since...it makes the nescafe all foamy like cappuccinos...what's the difference between nescafe with alot of foam and cappuccino by the way?? anyone know?

KOL SANA WENTO TAYEBEEN:)

2006-12-30T08:39:00.000+02:00

happy eid to all you bloggers out there...enjoy the fatta!

also, today its ahly vs zamalek... GO AHLY!!!

bad news: i just found out that they executed saddam hussein this morning. maybe he deserves to be executed for his crimes (allah a3lam)...but why today? i think its on purpose. they're treating him like a sacrifice as we do with sheep on this special day.

everyone has a thing

2006-12-26T05:54:00.000+02:00

so exam season started, and for the next month or so i "should" be busy. the reason i have the word should in quotations is that yesterday was my first exam, and you'd expect me to study for it at least for a day. my exam was at 8:00am, i started studying at 4:00am. the fact that the subject was an easy one is irrelevant...its a FINAL EXAM for God's sake. and i already failed 2 years, ya3ni mesh na2sa...ok, i'll walk you through my day and you can judge for yourself how irresponsible and lazy i've become.

the previous night i had slept at 11:00pm (much earlier than my usual bedtime) so that i could wake up early and therefore sleep early the next night (exam night). so far so good, right? well i woke up at 2:00pm...that's alot of sleep. after waking up i knew what kind of day it was gonna be. the lazy, irritating, and yet guilt-free kind.

i didn't start studying immediately because i always convince myself that i can't study while i'm hungry...so i had to wait for lunch which was at 5:00...after lunch ofcourse i had to rest because the food made me feel all heavy and stuff.

suddenly its 8:00pm.

i started fooling around with my new digital camera...its 9:00pm.

ok this is when my addiction started to reveal its colours. chess. like i said in a previous post i enjoy the game alot...i started playing online chess for almost 4 hours...yes FOUR long hours down the drain, playing a stupid game on an exam night.

no guilt, nothing.

..went down to walk Kiki(our pet dog - rottweiler) and then i started to feel a little bit worried that i might not finish the whole curriculum in the next 4 hours...yes, ridiculous.

thank God i started studying at that point, because it was just about enough time to finish up what i'd missed from lectures i attended throughout the semester.

funny enough, i did pretty good in the exam. it was just that easy i guess (not something i'm used to in this college).

ok so this incident supports my theory: everyone has a thing. every single one of us. there's mainly one thing that everyone spends time doing or thinking about more than anything else. obsession is too strong of a word, but its close to what i mean.

that thing could be your love life, outings with friends, watching tv, praying, blogging, or just your job. whether you like it or not, that thing has some control over your mind.

mine's chess....what's yours?

newspapers

2006-12-21T21:09:00.000+02:00

I've been wondering lately why we (internet users) still buy newspapers everyday. Newspapers contain both facts and opinions about different events from around the globe. The internet does too. The advantage of the internet is that the news in it isn't biased. All of our daily egyptian newspapers are pro-government and you always find the headline saying something about our president no matter how unimportant it may be to 99% of the public. That really annoys me.

Recently the blog world has covered everything the newspaper does when it comes to reading different opinions and such. Ofcourse the blogs are much more diverse and there are much more writers on the internet than there are on newspapers.

The newspapers have more advertisements, but that's not a reason to buy them daily. Maybe when i'm looking for a new apartment, car or job it would be a good idea to buy the newspaper, or maybe just the ones made exclusively for advertisements like "el waseet".

man i'm bored.

2006-12-17T08:11:00.000+02:00

ok so i tried to get the highest and lowest scores possible in this test...

...yes i do have a lot of spare time...and i'm bored.

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	9.9
Mind:	9.5
Body:	9.8
Spirit:	10
Friends/Family:	6.7
Love:	10
Finance:	9.7
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	0.1
Mind:	0.6
Body:	0
Spirit:	1.4
Friends/Family:	3
Love:	0.7
Finance:	0
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

my real scores are in an earlier post.

this is so annoying. my real "love life" score is really close to the one i tried to make bad on purpose, and my "friends and family" score is worse.

apparently my personality is close to hitler's

2006-12-15T17:54:00.000+02:00

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

3amar ya masr.

2006-12-13T21:30:00.000+02:00

"hey adham, what's wrong man, why are you so bummed out?"
"a bulldozer fell over my car"

In our college's parking space there was a bulldozer parked there for the last 10 years or so. The government finally decided to move it yesterday. Excellent!!

The problem was that they decided to do it in the morning, when all the cars and people were still there.

check this video out.

thank God he wasn't in it when it happened.

the way i think

2006-12-07T19:56:00.001+02:00

Your Dominant Intelligence is Spatial Intelligence

You've got a good sense of space and how the world around you looks.
You can close your eyes and "see" images. You have innate artistic talent.
An eye for color and shapes, you're also a natural designer.
Since you think in pictures, visual aids and demonstartions help you learn best.

You would make a good navigator, sculptor, visual artist, inventor, architect, interior designer, or engineer.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

the veil

2006-12-07T12:38:00.000+02:00

I once had an english literature teacher who was in her late 20s and sh had the strangest concept when it came to women wearing veils. She was a very decent lady and from previous conversations it seemed that her religious knowledge was pretty good. I don't remember how it came up, but i asked her once why she wasn't veiled and her reply was "here in egypt, the veil is a sign of poverty." She started telling me about how 90% of the veiled girls are ones that come from lower-class families and that their families are the ones forcing them to wear the veil. Being the optimist that I am, I didn't beleive her at the time and i thought she was being unfair to the girls that came from lower-class families and wear the veil out of conviction.

A couple of years ago a friend of mine from college asked if i could go with him to the 6th of October university to meet up with some of his old friends. It was a normal weekday, and the time was around 1:00 pm. When we got there they told us to go meet them at this place i've never seen before despite living in the same city for over 4 years at the time. The "cafe" was on the second floor and they had black-out curtains covering the windows so the place was pretty dark. 4 Huge DJ speakers were placed in the corners, boys smoking sheesha while playing cards at the side, almost everyone was drinking beer. In the middle, around 50 guys were circling a dance area clapping to the music while 6 college girls were belly dancing like crazy. I was mainly surprised that this sort of thing happened everyday but i was really shocked when on my way out i saw one of the girls that was belly dancing wrapping a veil over her head and heading for the doorway.

Looking back at my teacher's opinion, i think what she said is partly true but it's no reason for her not to wear the veil. She was mainly concerned about her prestige and that people would look at her as being a less classy person than she already is.

Why do girls wear the viel in the first place, to please God or society?

life rating

2006-12-04T17:36:00.000+02:00

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	5.7
Mind:	5.7
Body:	4.9
Spirit:	7.1
Friends/Family:	2.3
Love:	0.8
Finance:	6.4
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

the big day

2006-12-01T05:13:00.000+02:00

Ok so today is the big day. My sister's engagement party is gonna take place at our home this evening...we've been working for weeks trying to make this day as good as it can be and since she didn't want to have it at a hotel (too formal), it wasn't as easy as we imagined. The tables, lights, flowers, music, camera men and food are all issues we had to deal with. We actually live in a villa with a spacious garden which will supposedly be hosting most of the event.

There are two things I'm terrified of happening tonight. If it rains its gonna be a catastrophe. There simply isn't enough space inside the villa to take 150 guests. If they were just gonna stand there then it's fine, but what are we gonna do when its time to eat? I know it hasn't rained yet in Cairo (except maybe at dawn once), but it is December. Hopefully the weather is gonna be as expected in today's forecast (sunny with a little wind).

The other thing i'm dreadful about is dancing. I'm the worst dancer on earth. Any type of dancing, but of course it's the arabic songs with fast beats that really give me nightmares. I had to beg the DJ not to put the infamous dance anthem today, "el3enab" (the grapes) in his playlist. The problem is that all my relatives know that i suck at dancing and hate it. They'll be setting up pranks days before any wedding or party just to see how i'm gonna react when i'm on the spot. I can't remember any recent wedding where they hadn't pushed me in the middle and then instantaneously made a circle around me while clapping to the damn music. Every time i fall for it. And there always has to be someone recording it on video. When i try to pull someone to dance with me, as to attract some of the attention, no one wants to. Aaaaaah i hate it!!!

ok so lets be realistic, its my sister's engagement party...can i really expect that they won't try to make me dance? it's double the amount of relatives i have in any wedding (both parents this time), and they'll all be teaming up on me. I can't just disappear when it's time to dance. i mean dancing is gonna be a big part of the program... I don't know, maybe i'll fake a broken leg or something.

the problem with our education system

2006-11-15T02:45:00.000+02:00

My school in saudi was the best a person could ask for. All its staff were either american or british since the school was funded by the american army (it was right after the gulf war and the number of americans in saudi was greatly increasing which required them to have their own schools ofcourse). Also, almost all the students were either fully or half american, except for a small percentage (including me) which had to find a really good "wasta" to let them in. This great number of foreigners around me was what really taught me the english language.

The school itself was amazing. I was recently watching old video recordings of me practicing a presentation i had to do infront of my class about "Chicago, Illinois"and how it was one of the most important cities in the USA. I was doing that presentation in the 2nd grade! Doing a presentation infront of 20 students and my teacher, learning how to talk out loud and not be shy when i'm only in the second grade...that's good education. Forcing the kids to attend Sports Day every year, where they had to run one whole mile in less than 10 minutes (i remember once almost beating the record of 6 min 20 sec) is good education. Making the kids take part in school plays where the students do all the acting, choreography, decoration and music (teachers only wrote the script and directed the plays) is good education. Giving the students the chance to be in a school band once they're in 5th grade where they learn how to play a "classic" instrument (the clarinet, flute, trumpet, saxophone, trombone, etc...) is good education. I remember actually passing the test and being picked to learn the trombone when i reached 5th grade. Only a small number of lucky students got to be in this school band and all the students dreamt of joining it. I was foolish enough to quit after 3 weeks, and the funny thing is, i don't remember why.

The curriculums themselves were really educating and beneficial. They resorted to teaching methods which required creativity, not memorizing, for a student to succeed. I remember once we had an assignment in science class that required us to build a miniature submarine that floats and sinks upon request without touching it. I happened to get the best grade in class in that assignment after i used a drinking straw to blow air into the submarine, which increased its weight and therefore made it sink....that was in the 4th grade.

I've got uncountable memories in that school making me feel happy and sad at the same time. I feel sad because I doubt the regular egyptian boy will ever get to experience this kind of education in the near future. This is the kind of elementary school Egypt needs. Screw high school...screw college... no one learns anything in them anyways. The egyptian government should spend as much money as it could to provide the education that will really make a difference in its childrens' lives. I'm not sure if all american schools are like this or not, but i'm sure that a great deal of them are of this high standard of education, and i'm guessing most european schools are like that too.

The government should force people to pay big money in college (unless you have exceptionally high grades) and put some of that money in funding the elementary schools. No more free education in college. No one is learning because of it, poor or rich. Our "governmental" universities are pathetic and useless, and its mainly because of this stupid idea of providing their services for free. This results in having absolutely no equipment at all... can you imagine studying architecture without a computer lab for God's sake?!!! We're still using T-rulers and compasses in college when everyone knows you won't see them again once you graduate...all architectural firms in egypt and around the world are using computer software to generate their drawings, why do architecture students learn it the old fashion way? no money, that's why! The professors don't work full time because their salaries wouldn't feed a dead chicken, so they have to rely on their own firms for money.

So if people paid alot of money in college, the educational system will improve greatly... those who do not have that kind of money should either earn scholarships by getting high grades in school, or not get into universities at all, they could enter intitutes or other lower educating places. yes its unfair. but having 1 person learn right is better than having 2000 not learning at all.

Ok, so what i'm saying here is that elementary schools should remain free for everyone, but their educating quality should increase greatly. There should be no such thing as private schools and governmental schools...they should have the same teaching standard and quality. The government should cancel the "free university education" program and put that money into elementary schools. People should pay extra money if they want their kids to attend universities.

Now i know that this only solves the financial part of our educational system's problem, but that's actually a big part of the whole dilemma. Also i know that we already have private universities that have high tuition rates, but that money doesn't help the whole system in any way...i'm talking about the government saving money from the "free education system" program in its universities so that it could provide better education in the elementary level for the whole public.

trying to be perfect

2006-10-31T01:03:00.000+02:00

A few days ago I was feeling a strange urge to be on my best religious behaviour. On my way home, while listening to a religious lesson by Omar Abdelkafi, I decided to visit an orphanage for the first time in my life. I had just taken some money from the bank so I was willing to make a small donation after I play with the kids. When I finally got there, the receptionist looked surprised to see me. I asked him if I could take a look at the kids and he asked if I was adopting any of them and after I told him that I didn't he told me that I would have to wait five minutes or so before he could tell me if I could see them or not. It turned out that I couldn't see them since Friday is the only day reserved for visits which made me give them my donation and go get in the car. I usually pull the seat belt as soon as I get in the car but I don't know why I didn't pull the belt this time. I got to the Hosary Square at the end of the road and I was stopped by a police man asking me for my driver's license. I quietly handed him my driver's license…

Police Man: "Why don't you have the seat belt on?"

Me: "I'm sorry, I'll put them on right now, I just came out of the parking slot…I was at the orphanage over there"

Police Man: "What were you doing at the orphanage?"

I gave him the "it's none of your business" look

Police Man: "Do you work there?"

Me: "No"

Police Man: "Then what were you doing?"

Me: "I was visiting the kids and stuff"

Police Man: "Visiting them, eh? Hmmm…that changes everything. Here's your license back"

Me: "thank you"

As soon as I left I felt like I've been cheated off of the good deed I just did. Did I tell him that I was in the orphanage so that he would think I was a good person and leave me or did I want him to know that I was parking my car real close and had no time to wear the seat belt??

I've heard before that God doesn't like to share any of the good deeds you do with anyone which means that when doing a good deed do it for God's sake only, not for social purposes for example.

I was mainly pissed because when I finally decide to do some charity work just for God's sake the police man comes and ruins it for me. I was actually ready to go back and ask him to take my driver's license so that I would take full credit for the good deeds I have just done!! It does seem ridiculous, even to me now while typing this. Thank God I changed my mind after seeing him being bribed by a couple of guys who have also broken the traffic laws in some way.

saudi vs egypt

2006-09-17T07:04:00.000+03:00

i used to live in saudi until 1997.

Is living in Saudi Arabia better than Egypt? It’s a tough question and it's been going in my mind since I was a kid. When I was with Kariman's friend in Cilantro we were talking about the differences between here and there. We finally came up to the conclusion that Saudi Arabia is a safer place, but that's only because you're locked up in the same compound so you have very limited experience. Also, almost all of your interactions are with foreigners so you're basically meeting more civilized people. In Saudi you're more up to date with the rest of the world, and you're also speaking two different languages on a daily basis. When you return to Egypt in the summer it's always a big deal and people appreciate you more and you try to make the best out of your time by going to movies and plays …etc

But to live in Cairo, that's a totally different story. The loud noise and crowded streets are what make it special. Egypt has a much richer culture than saudi, and maybe anywhere else in the world for that matter which makes the sense of loyalty to the country grow inside you gradually i guess. I guess the main difference between Egypt and Saudi is that here you interact with people more. Self independence is more possible and effective in Egypt, but it also comes with responsibility of course.

Overall I prefer Egypt, but it’s a close call.