found in Kov's blog.

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?

29

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?

4

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?

no

53. Have you ever been to Canada?

No

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?

no

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

i'm it.

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

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

Damn *itches!

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

- 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

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

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

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

....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

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

Happy Eid to all you bloggers out there :)

ramadan kareem

*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

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

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.