Alexandrian Nights

Bloggers Night

2006-05-05T05:03:00.000+03:00

A few days ago was watching the daily show of Amr Adeeb's(Al Kahera Al Youm) on Al Youm Channel-Orbit Network ,he hosted two bloggers to discuss the phenomena of blogging and everything about it ,a lot of the show's audience in Egypt for sure wasn't familiar with the words (Blogs ,Blogging...Etc) ,he mentioned at the show's start that he will be discussing blogs at the third part of the show ,unfortunately there were another debate between Khaled Al gendy and a person whose religion is Baha'yia ,the debate was flammable and it took longer than expected so they had to shorten the period of the Bloggers part ,but it simply was slaughtering not shortening.

He hosted two bloggers ,the first is reponsible for a blog which is dedicated to Software Field's HR related ,giving job seekers in the field of software a good look on the market and job opportunities and giving the software companies a suitable portal to select their desired candidates ,it was the first time to hear about this blog and I thought it was a good idea ,the blog owner himself was looking decent ,and he gave a good impression ,but the second one was simply the opposite.

The second bloggers who has a blog dedicated for males to find the fastest and most accurate method to hunt females! ,aiming to give them a nice and easy advice to make the the hardest girl to soften and give up resistance!(that's what he claimed) ,I have no problem with that since this is a free land and anyone has the freedom to express what they like to express but what annoyed me is the Blogger himself ,I never thought about criticizing a fellow blogger personally but this guy..I don't know...There was something wrong about him ,I didn't feel comfortable either for him or for his talking method ,he seemed somewhat aggressive and arrogant. This wasn't my opinion alone but everyone sitting with me shred the same impression ,the worst part was when he talked about other bloggers ,I didn't feel concern or sypathy in his words ,even when talked about respectfully and brave people like Alaa & Manal.

I guess it was the mistake of the stupid person responsible for preparing the show's material ,why he picked this nasty person? He not only ruined our expectations but gave a lot of people a very wrong idea about Blogs and Blogging thinking by providing a very strange examples ,and believe it or not ,he was preparing to include a very famous and mysterious blogger ,actually on of the most controversial Egyptian bloggers but she never came and left us with the (TAZBEET) boy!

The Leaving

2006-05-01T06:28:00.000+03:00

Just came back home after watching a movie in the cinema when I got a shocking news ,my younger brother was on his way home when he spotted unusual crowd gathering on al kornish road beside our home ,at first he thought that this maybe some sort of car accident(which is frequently happening in this area) but it was different thing ,a young man was hanged using a rope that is attached to the stone wall of the Cornish(where people usually sit to watch the sea) ,my brother was transfixed while looking at the sight ,it's very hard to see a dead human being at any time and more harder to see it dangling aimlessly from a rope and being moved back and forth by the wind!

While my brother was shaking while telling me about this whole thing I was thinking about the reasons that may led this young man(according to my brother ,the dead man wasn't looking more than 25-27 years old) to kill himself like that? Was it failed love story? Poverty? Unemployment...Etc and hundreds of reasons that could lead most of people to death in this land we live on. I suddenly remembered this young man (Abdul Hamiid Sheta) who killed himself last year by jumping in the Nile after going into depression due to the refusal he got when he tried to join the diplomatic wire ,the refusal was not because he is insufficient or a suspicious person or any other reason that could explain their refusal but because he was poor! ,yes in this country you could get refused or even knocked off your job simply because you are poor ,simply because you don't have any STRONG one to support your back. So is there something similar happened to this young man-whom we don't know his name yet- that led him to depression or deep frustration that eventually tempted him to suicide? Was his suicide a message to the stupid regime? was it a message saying"Hey ....I am poor so I can't live a respectful life in this unrespectful country which is worse than death"?. and from the method he executed his suicide I think he wanted to attract the attention of everybody ,but unfortunately no one in the stupid governemnt will even care ,even if all of us suicide!

Anti-Censorship

2006-03-21T02:19:00.000+02:00

Today I was flipping through the pages of one of my favorite weekly Newspapers(Al Dostoor) when I saw a small article about three Anti-Government websites that were blocked from accessing by Internet users in Egypt. the article demanded the responsibility of TEData compoany(Egypt's largest Internet Service Provider) for blocking the websites from it's DNS Servers ,I tried to test the three websites on two ADSL Lines provided by TEData and LINK(The second largest ISP in Egypt) and indeed the websites were blocked.

Alot of friends here maybe familiar with using proxies to gain access to blocked sites(which is very rare in Egypt in contrary with other arabian states ,you can access any websites here including Porn sites without restrictions!),but it may becomes habbit for our stupid government in the near future to block more websites ,so what about explaining how to use proxies to gain access to blocked websites(http://saveegyptfront.org/news/ ,http://www.masryeat.org and www.egyptiantalks.org respectively) and maybe avoid the stalking of Egyptian Internet Police(in a future post I 'll talk in more details about this monstous stupid division).

For Internet Explorer Users:
1-Go to any Public Proxy websites like www.nntime.com/realtime or www.samair.ru/proxy for a list of fully updated proxies sorted by country(don't use proxies from Egypt or other stupid countries like Saudia Arabia!)

2-After selecting your desired proxy server ,copy the text of the proxy's IP and port number ,Open Tools menu-Internet Options-click on the Connections tab-Lan settings(if you are using ADSL or LAN) and check the box titled (Use a Proxy Server for your LAN) and Paste the IP into the box ,enter the port number found on the proxies page and click (OK)

3-Now instead of this:

You will see this:

Good luck ,and for anyone one needs help with other browsers please leave a comment ,there's also other techniques for evading Censorship that may will be explained later.

Back again!!

2006-03-19T03:53:00.000+02:00

I can't find the suitable words to thanks everyone who asked about me ,I really appreciate all the warm feelings received in your comments and your emails.

A lot of things happened lately ,will try to tell all the possible details later ,for now I would like you to visit my new Arabic blog ,the blog is called (7elwa ya baladi) ,it's located here

Both of the blogs will have separate subjects and posts ,I will try to write another post soon to explain why I have to have an arabic blog!

Thanks God ,I am back in the Blogsphere again!

Numbers in My Life

2006-01-26T17:29:00.000+02:00

780
300
120
240

Can anyone guess what do they refer for?

Important Update:

I wish to thank all the good friends who commented on this post ,I have been unable to reply to all those comments due circumstances beyond my ability ,I have lost my job last week ,it's been stressful days but thanks God I moved to a new one and will post details soon.

Unfortunately the correct answers is no more true ,meaning that the correct answers were the following:

780 minutes=13 Hours(The numbers of hours I work perday)
300 minutes=5 Hours(The number of hours I were able to sleep everyday)
120 minutes=2 Hours(The time I was managing to read daily before I sleep)
240 minutes=4 Hours(The time Iwhen I was doing every other activity of daily life excluding the things above!!)

As you see the whole post was a simple riddle based on my daily life schedule when I was working at my latest job,everything is changed now ,Will post more soon.

When We're Gone

2006-01-20T22:13:00.000+02:00

Today I was sitting at work and analyzing the flow of Today's news feeds as usual ,The office's Network kept loosing connection and I was fixing it furiously ,that's because I am the new Network Administrator beside my regular responsibilities!

Suddenly a news article appeared with strange content ,it really made me shivering for unknown reason:

US man kills himself live on gamers' forum
A 20-year-old US man killed himself live on a webcam on Bulgarian gamers' forum www.metalgearsolid.org, AFP and other agencies report. Mitchell "Mitch" Lee Stuekerjuergen, aka "Kuja105", reportedly swallowed antifreeze and pills "after complaining about family problems and a lack of money", forum administrator Boyan Georgiev told Bulgaria's BGNES news agency on Wednesday. Stuekerjuergen subesquently died on 4 January in hospital in Illinois.

A certain amount of controversy surrounds the whole sorry affair, with some claiming that other forum members "thought the man was joking, even though he rambled for six hours about the effects of the substances and disappeared from view several times", as AFP puts it.

Indeed, one indignant Slashdotter fumed yesterday: "Pulling from the AFP newswire, Yahoo, CNN, and others have been reporting about how a gamer broadcast his own suicide on a gaming forum via a webcam, and that members of the forum continued to ridicule the gamer while he killed himself. Gaming Horizon has just learned that this is completely untrue. The newswire reporter failed to check the facts, and, in turn, painted this simple gaming forum as cruel monsters."

As a result of the suicide the forum was recently "pulled offline via the request of a government agency pending an investigation regarding the unfortunate passing of TUS forum member, Mitchell Stuekerjuergen", as a site statement notes.

It is now back online with a number of tributes to Stuekerjuergen. Â®

This really made me think about the consequeses of Blogging

,what's the mere difference between Truth & Lies over the

internet? ,do we really believe each others when we read

our posts and exchange comments or we just pretend that to

create the "Blogging Experience" with all of it's pros and

cons? ,what if someone of our Blogging Friends passes away

one day(ba3d 2el shar 3al kol tab3an though I don't know

how to translate this to English!)? ,will we feel deep

shock like what we feel when one of our "Earthly" friends

or relatives passes awayOrr we will just continue being

here pretending that nothing ever happened and forget

about it as soon as we finished shutting down our PCs?

And what will happen in the future?

Will all of us still be remembered by the younger

bloggers...

Or will we be just forgotten...

When all of us are gone...

The African Cup of Shadows!

2006-01-18T22:24:00.000+02:00

Image is courtesy of yallakora.com

In any respectful company in the world(Egypt ofcourse is not included!) when there's a major sports event or other type of big events ,you will find that almost every thing living or residing on the ground of the hosting company reflects the essence of this event ,but this unfortunately happens only out there ,not here.

The African Cup of Nations will start next Friday. That's less than forty eight hours remaining ,if you wander around the Egyptian cities that host the games(Greater Cairo ,Alexandria ,Port Said and Ismailya) you will have no feeling about that ,a championship like that which should attract supporters from all over Africa and even Business Men from Europe and Asia who seeks the best players to negotiate with them for future Appointments in European Football Teams ,achampionship that will be watched by hundreds of Millions all around the globe ,what the hell is our smart government thinks? ,Where's the Championship?

I decided to take a roaming session around the city to see the "Festival" appearances that may be already there ,here's a summary of what I found:

-Street Ads for Pepsi that is displayed on different sizes and different locations ,and some of them features players who won't be among the selected players in the Egyptian National Team!

-Some Flags that is hanged on thin iron pillars around the city and always on the sidewalks ,it's hardly seen and can be easily overlooked.

-Another street Ads but this time it belongs to CocaCola Company(Another sponsor for the National Team!) ,with a tag saying (One Nation...One Team!).

-Street ads displaying the Cup's logo (CrocoNile) with it's idiot and retarded design which looks very near to Lizard than a Crocodile! ,also te Ads itself has a very poor quality and foggy colors(Note that those are paid for by the Official Organizational committee!).

-The newest thing which appeared suddenly today is that they started putting African countries flags over the Street Lamps ,I thought that the first flag I saw belongs to a newly opened consulate or something ,but the flag I saw was hanged on a street lamp beside a waste land!!

And that's it ,yes that's it ,nothing more. I thought first that this may apply only to Alexandria ,But according to friends who lives in Cairo and websites like yallakora.com ,those are 90% of the "Signs" available there! ,so where's the festivals atmospheres? ,where's the African decorations? ,the Huge Ads everywhere(I am talking about the Government sponsored Ads)? ,where's the celebrations? ,where's the Championship itself?

The government still dealing with a major event in the most bureaucratic attitude in the world ,the preparation were done with the mentality of the Governments Employees and lacks all the creativity and fresh ideas that it badly needs ,and they already knew that we will be hosting this Championship in early 2001 ,so what they were doing during the past five years ,if you don't know what they were busy with wait till you read the last paragraph.

A few days ago I was sitting in my Dentist's Clinic waiting for my inspection's turn ,the TV was displaying a retarded Program on the retarded Egyptian Second Channel ,the guests were apparently talking about the AFC and their expectations about it ,one of the speakers was a major member in the organizational committee ,he was simply saying that more than ten thousand Libyan supporters will be in Cairo during the matches ,and this morning I came upon a silly article in the Ahram Newspaper stating that more than three thousand Tunisian supporters will be backing their National Team which will be playing it's matches here in Alexandria ,and all the 3000 people already arrived here!. Well if you ask anyone here if he saw a large groups of Tunisian people anywhere ,ofcourse no one saw any one ,and the same in Cairo where you csn see our Libyan brothers visiting the famous doctors clinics in the Downtown Cairo!

Another notice from the list of endless notices is the booking system ,the tickets itself is offered for sale in a limited places and most of the places are the post offices locations around the hosting cities ,this is another example of the narrow mentality of the government. When you are having a sports event like that you seek the attendance of young people mostly ,so why you don't do the tickets marketing in the places they usually hang in? ,malls ,cafe's restaurants ,Universities..Etc ,and have it marketed in an attractive way instead of the traditional posters that were stuck on the post offices doors. The other notice about tickets is the online ordering facility, I was so pleased when I saw on the official website that you can book your tickets online ,this is mainly aimed at the foreigners supporters and thought that it will give every one who is coming over here the sheer opportunity of having their tickets reserverd along with all the necessary information they need. The greatest achievement is that when you click on the link to go to the purchasing page you will see the following message:

Buying tickets online is no longer available. You can now buy your tickets at: blahblahblahblah!

I guess our lovely government were so busy during the past months in forging both of the Presidential & parliament elections results ,and after that it was having a romantic conversation with the Sudanese Refugees in the heart of Cairo ,such gentlness and tenderness were very heavy load on the Sudanese people's hearts and more than one hundred of them couldn't take it anymore ,also we can't forget their sincere efforts in sexually assaulting the female protesters in the middle of the street last May and also setting up Ayman Nour and locking him up in the prison ,we are really ignorant citizens ,we never thank God for our lovely government ,and we should ignore all the above notices cause they were so busy ,and let's enjoy The African Cup of Shadows!

Feel The Magic

2006-01-17T13:05:00.000+02:00

If I caught the world in a bottle
And everything was still beneath the moon
Without your love would it shine for me?

If I was smart as Aristotle
And understood the rings around the moon
What would it all matter if you love me?

Here in your arms where the world is impossibly still
With a million dreams to fulfill
And a matter of moments until the dancing ends.

Here in your arms when everything seems to be clear
Not a solitary thing would I fear
Except when this moment comes near the dancing's end.

If I caught the world in an hourglass
Saddled up the moon so we could ride
Until the stars grew dim
Until...

One day you'll meet a stranger
And all the noise is silenced in the room
You'll feel that you're close to some mystery.

In the moonlight when everything's shadows
You'll feel as if you've known her all your life
The world's oldest lesson in history.

Here in your arms where the world is impossibly still
With a million dreams to fulfill
And a matter of moments until the dancing ends.

Here in your arms when everything seems to be clear
Not a solitary thing do I fear
Except when this moment comes near the dancing's end

Oh if I caught the world in an hourglass
Saddled up the moon so we could ride
Until the stars grew dim
Until the time that time stands still
Until.

The above lyrics belongs to Sting's song (Until) ,a very magical songand very different one ,one or two of my friends previously recommended this song to me some time ago but I haven't got the chance to listen to it ,until stumbling upon one of my newly discovered blogs where the blog's owner posted a part of the lyrics ,I downloaded the song immediately and couldn't believe my ears ,you can download the song Here.

The Cat in The Tomb and The Angel of Death

2006-01-04T21:50:00.000+02:00

My little sister brought home a very little cat about a week ago ,I am not an animal lover at all and my past experiences (including the crocodile's one) proves that ,but this cat was very cute ,about one month or two months old ,strangely for the past three or four days every day it comes to my bed and jumps to sleep beside me and never accepts to sleep anywhere else regardless of how hard they try to convince it to sleep beside their beds ,it always ran to my room.

Today moring I woke up at 10 AM exactly ,was feeling a little dizzy from uncomfortable sleeping and strange dreams I had but couldn't clearly remember ,I sat for a while in the bed trying to gather my thoughts and inject some energy in my veins to to be able to get up ,I had several problems at work during the past days and this resulted in my enthusing to go to work being decreased severely ,when I felt that time has come and now I really should get up I started my descending from the bed when I noticed somethin strange ,the little cat was lying on the edge of my bed ,looking peacefully but I felt there was something wrong ,I tried to concentrate to overcome all the remaining laziness inside me. To my utter shock the little cat was lying on her back ,not moving at all ,it's eyes were closed and it's tongue were popping out of her mouth in a strange and odd scene. Suddenly I realized that there's something spooky is going on ,there were no breathing signs coming from the cat ,it's chest weren't moving ,I touched the body to feel any warmth and there were none ,no heart beating also at all.

I kept staring for the cat for several minutes ,unsure how to proceed ,I guess it's not an easy thing to wake up after a series of nasty dreams to find dead animal lying in your own bed ,and especially a very little animal like that ,I have always been strong when it's about death ,I watched several persons dying infront of my eyes ,I was standing during seveal burials of friends & relatives and I have survived three deadly car crashes where death was very near to me ,I have even survived a bombing during the gulf war when our dear friend Saddam Hussein launched one of his Rocekets on Riyadh city and blew up a residential building which was very very near to our home there and I still remember the vibrating floor under my feet and the shuddering walls behind my back ,but this time it's very different ,to have some dead(being) in your own bed.

I entered a very dark mood and thought for a moment about not going to work but I knew I couldn't since I am currently the sole person responsible for the department I work in ,beside that my stupid manager will not be very cooperative in such matter and it may develop into a violent fight over the internet wires! ,I gathered my self and tried not to look at my bed while I was dressing ,and went to work with dark cloud over my head.

The day was very heavy ,I avoided talking to any one at the work and we usually don't talk a lot for several reasons I will tell you about later ,but at the mid of the day and during a casual conversations with one of my work's peers I told him about what happened ,by the time of telling that I was feeling a little relaxed and was starting to forget the haunting image of the dead cat ,but my work's colleague astonished me with his response ,atually I was ready to accept any thing from him ,either it was sarcasm ,sympathy or even complete silence ,but what he said was really out of my expectations.

He asked me a question (You don't pray regulary ,do you?) , I said(what this has to do about the cat's death?!) ,he continued simply saying that this is certainly a sign (or warning) from God aimed to me!! ,when I asked him to make things a little more clear he told me (I think God wanted to show you how The Angel of Death was very close to you!!).

I really couldn't believe that these words were said by a young & decent man like my colleague(we shall call him A) ,I told him that I am not a blasphemed ,I am just an ordinary human being that may lacks the regular commitment in doing his prayers ,why would God threaten me like that? ,what is this crap you are saying? ,why you try to make it like an old Indian movie?!

A was stunned from my response ,I guess his tiny mind made him think that I will say something like (sob7an 2alah ,you are right) or something like that ,he surprised me again with another retarded theory ,he said (don't you know that the married man who is not praying should be separated from his wife till he start praying!!!!!!!!!!) ,at this stage I was no longer able to take more of this crap but I maintained my coolness as much as I can ,I remembered the famous Egyptian Philosophy professor (Nasr Hamed Abu Zed) when something like that happened to hi m only because he was writing and thinking in some ways that some religious people thought were offensing to Islam and so they declared him a blasphemed!.

I told A calmly that this is nonsense and there's nothing like that in Islam ,and for God's sake this was a little cat ,what it has to do with all that ,and if this was a sign should it have been one of my brothers sleeping in the other room?

On the other hand this death made me think of how cruel we are on another side ,we used to hear about countless deaths every day all over the world ,we read about them on the newspapers while eating breakfast or watching them in the news after dinner ,all to us just numbers ,we feel temporarily sorry for them ,we may even shed a small tear or say a prayer but as soon as we get up from the table or switch the channel to get updated with the latest hot videoclips on Melody Hits every thing is forgotten ,and all that remains is vague memory in the back of our heads ,even in a near tragic accident like the one happened in Mohandeseen Cairo last week you still feel distant and safe in your warmth ,but when it's near you ,when you smell death near you ,engulfing someone or some being you have known for real ,you start to feel sorry...Very real sorry indeed.

Notice:While I was writing this a break news came from Iraq about a suicide bombing during a funeral!! ,Hey A...I guess The Angel of Death was very ready this time you stupid fellow!

The Police Always in The Service of Whom needs them!

2005-12-30T12:06:00.000+02:00

Ten Sudanese migrants were killed Friday in clashes with Egyptian police trying to dismantle a protest camp where hundreds of migrants had lived for months demanding resettlement outside the country, Egypt's Interior Ministry said.
The ministry said in a statement that the migrants' leaders attacked police after officers tried to persuade them to leave the city park where the camp had been set up, resulting in "chaos and a stampede."
Thirty migrants, mostly elderly people and children, were wounded and transferred to a nearby hospital, where 10 of them died, the ministry said.
Twenty-three policemen were also wounded in the clashes.
The Sudanese set up the camp Sept. 29 as a protest against the U.N. refugee agency nearby after it stopped hearing the cases of Sudanese seeking refugee status in the wake of the January peace deal that ended their home country's 21-year civil war.

Asylum-seekers generally must gain the status to be resettled in countries such as the United States, Australia and Britain.

Thousands of security forces moved in before midnight and closed off the area, surrounding the camp. In the early hours Friday, the Sudanese began dismantling the protest camp, while government buses waited nearby to transport them away.

But when many of the Sudanese refused to leave even after the camp was dismantled, police fired water cannons, drenching the protesters.

Source:ABCNews.com ,Aljazeera.net

This is how the Egyptian police treating people ,all the victims that fell during the parliament Elections were not enough to satisfy their love of violence ,and now they are killing helpless refugees in the heart of Cairo ,no mercy ,no Humanity ,No Nothing ,The interior Minister(Habeeb Al Adly) was one of the survivors during the latest government changes and he kept his bag in the new ministry ,and this is his first achievement after his reelection ,Thank you Mr Interior Minister! ,you are doing a great job ,your master in the Oroba Castle will be very proud of you right now!

NOTE:Most of the victims are CHILDREN

Lucky Number

2005-12-27T20:59:00.000+02:00

Although I am not in the mood of posting something funny or even not in the mood of smiling ,I will post this funny thing to try changing my dark mood.

Two days ago I had a very strange coincidence happened ,I went to the cinema & watched a movie called (Four Brothers) ,after the movie I went to Fuddruckers ,after finishing with my dinner I ordered the check ,I noticed something strange ,the check number printed was 4000 ,the table number was 40 and the total amount due was 40 EGP Pounds!! ,I always loved the number(Four) and thought of it as my lucky number ,but never had a similar kind of coincidence before ,thanks god it wasn't April 4 for example or it would have looked very weird!

My work

2005-12-20T15:17:00.000+02:00

I was planning to write today about other postponed issues that I was planning to write several days ago ,but since I am feeling a little blue today I decided to tell you the details of my new job.

The company where I work is originally specialized in the Construction & Contracts field ,it's based here in Alexandria with some business to be run from the U.S where the Egyptian American owner lives there and spends some time in Alexandria regulary during the year ,but I am not working on these activities field ,I work in a sub project which the company is executing as a new business field ,we ae developing a Website dedicated to financial services & consulting ,most of the services we offer is aimed towards the American market since a big portion of our services is related to the Stock Markets in the U.S and aims to give investors more insight about what's going on and helping them to take the right investing decisions ,one of the many services offered on the Website is the Live News service ,we are continuously updating the web site with the latest news received from different sources ,both official sources and insider ones ,my Job title is Website assistant Manager & at the same time I am Head of the news department ,meaning that I have to supervise both of the news flowing ,editing ,publishing and the Website's operations in general ,there's no Websecurity Admin or something like that yet ,they didn't think about that yet and they depend on the fact that the Website is not hosted on our servers so they leave the security sides to the hosting company ,but I am voluntarily overlooking all the LAN/Website security issues.

I am enjoying this job ,this sub business is relatively new to the company and their hierarchy is still not 100% detailed or clear ,a lot of people comes and go and there's still other departments to be formed soon to relive some duties from the current staff ,I only have one problem with my job ,which is the Working hours ,I work twelve hours per day ,this in itself maybe not a big problem in other cases but in my case it maybe ,the working hours is from 12 PM-12 AM every day ,Monday to Friday ,Saturday from 11 AM-6 PM and Sunday is OFF ,you may wonder why is this strange schedule but as I told you we are related to the working days of the American Stock Market.

I had a very hard time since I joined the company to get used to that ,my problem is not in the 12 hours durartion itself ,my bigger problem is about those hours location in the day ,most of events in your daily life happens between 12 PM and 12 AM ,everyday when I am leaving work in the middle of the night I feel so drained ,not exhausted but drained ,you have a very limited options when you think abutsomething to do or a place to go after midnight except at the weekends (Thursday nights & Friday Nights) and those are working days now! ,beside that even if you are not feeling physically or mentally exhausted you would still be needing to rest ,worse than that is my inability to take a break! ,yes I can't take a brek in the known terms of break ,as I said I am head of the News Department and I have to be available there 12 hours in the 12 hours ,the maximum duration permitted for the inactivity is 15-2o minutes ,and I have staff shortage in the News Department ,that's also resulted in their refusal to the idea I suggested which is taking the Shifts based system into consideration ,but I have got a promise from my manager that in late next January the working hours will be reduced and the Shifts system will be implemented ,I am trying to be patient ,but working (continuous)twelve or thirteen hours per day is not an easy thing ,it simply affected every other thing I am doing in life ,I couldn't read ,write or even watch movies ,and ofcourse I stopped blogging ,I am not sad or anything ,actually I feel good but this working hours matter is maddening ,I think I'll have to wait and see ,and to be frank with you ,I am still job hunting!

I am Back!

2005-12-15T14:45:00.000+02:00

Long long time gone since the last time I have been here ,a lot of things happened including a new job and this was the main reason for my disappearance during this period ,I will tell every thing in separated posts later ,I am posting this from work right now!

I really don't know how to thank all the fellows here who asked about me during my absence ,you are really great and thanks for all of you.

More later.

I am 17!!

2005-12-05T13:43:00.000+02:00

Last Wednesday I had to take an English Level's determining exam ,the were new to me since I never thought about that during mylife ,I never even took any English language courses before and I think will never do except for maybe IELTS and that would be in only the case of not being able of obtaining the proper self study materials ,anyway taking this test was enforced due to the fact that one recent job offer required all the applicants to have an official document from accredited language institute or similar organization which is clearly stating the applicant's level in the English language ,after thinking about that I found that the idea is somewhat exciting ,I mean that after all of these years of living with the English language during college ,work ,reading & writing I completely neglected the idea of knowing where I exactly stand ,I knew that I am good or maybe better ,but where's the exact spot is a new concept.

I headed directly to the AUC branch here in Alexandria to take the test ,the AUC branch here offers most of the AUC's services except for the undergraduate studies ,meaning that you can not have a bachelor degree in any field and you have to study in Cairo ,but to my knowledge the AUC here offers post graduate studies & courses in different fields through what is called (Continuing education & community Services Programs) ,these activities is committed in cooperation with Arab Academy for Science & Technology ,this was good thing to me since this is the college where I was graduated from with Bachelor Degree in MIS.

I filled the exam's registration papers and were handed the exam's papers along with instructions & answers model ,I was guided to an empty class to sit and begin answering and the maximum duration were determined to be no more than 75 minutes ,the exam was moderately easy but what frustrated me were a couple of badly structured questions that were completely nonsense ,I finished answering the exam in about one hour .I left the class and headed to the Admin to hand him the exam's papers ,I was asked to sit and wait for the result.

During my waiting I was trying to calculate and predict the results ,I said to myself that based on my answers I should be at Level 18 or 19 out of 20 levels which is all of out there in the General English Language courses ,the Admin came back and said (Congratulations ,you are at Level 17!!) ,as you may know Level 17 is the last level in the Upper Intermediate levels and I don't think they made mistakes during the correcting phase ,it wasn't OK to me at all since I know deep inside that I should be at least at level 18 and all of that were because of those two stupid nonsense questions ,anyway I will try take the test again in different place .Maybe The British Council this time and see what will be the results this time.

The Clock

2005-12-05T13:00:00.000+02:00

For the past four days I found myself every day waking up at an exact moment ,it was very strange to me ,most of people with regular schedule will wake up every day at a certain time usually in a specific timeframe ,but never heard about any one before waking up at the exact moment every day!

That what happened with me ,every morning I wake up and begin to realize who I am and where I am I then catch my mobile which I usually put beside my pillow every night before I sleep ,I look into the mobile to see the time and to my astonishment it's always the same moment ,10:38 AM! ,I thought first that there maybe something wrong with my mobile but it's running smoothly ,and it's the same thing happening every day although I don't sleep always at the same time ,I know that every human being has inside him what they call a Biological Clock which it supposedly sends internal alarms to wake up the person at certain time ,and I had the same thingduring my life but it was never this accurate in my whole life ,I would be waking up ten minutes early or five minutes later than my time but to wake up every day at the same minute seems pretty weird!

Who I am?

2005-11-30T08:30:00.000+02:00

My friend Marwa asked every one to take the (Which LOST character are you?) test ,actually LOST is one of my favorite TV shows ever ,soon I would buy the first season DVD collection and I look forward to watch season Two as well ,LOST is full of live characters and amazing twists ,when I took the test the result was the following:

Jack*
You scored 76% kindness, 43% courage,
39% seedy past,

and 46% secretiveness!

"Three days ago, we all died. We should all be able to start over."

You are Jack. You are compassionate, heroic, and a bit of a martyr. You are brave and a natural leader. However, you shouldn't keep so much bottled up inside. You are so busy taking care of others that you have no time or energy to take care of yourself. Take a load off once in a while and play some golf with Hurley. You need to relax pretty soon or else you'll be no good for anyone anymore - including yourself!

Your polar opposite is: Shannon.
You are similar to: Sayid and Boone.

If you would like to take this test then please click here

Freedom for children

2005-11-30T06:15:00.000+02:00

How would you raise your future children?
This was the pivotal subject me & my friend K were discussing yesterday ,he had some ideas and I had mine and between this and that we had some points of agreement and vice versa ,none of us are married ofcourse but it was fun to have such a discussion with a friend especially a male one!

Then suddenly he raised a question ,he asked(and what about prayers?) ,I said (what exactly about them?) ,he said(won't you make them do their prayers?) ,I said ?(OK ,but what exactly you mean by"make them do"? ,what do you exactly mean?),and I should tell you that I usually try to be very specific and accurate when I am talking with K cause he's very intellectual and sometimes he will be unnecessarily philosophical even when the conversation has no need for that! ,he started telling me that every father should teach his children how to pray and that would be preferable at the age of seven and then they should be hit at the age of ten if they are not regualry praying! ,to my knowledge I know that this is truly based on the prohet Mohammed instructions ,in a particular 7adees he say that clearly ,I started telling my friend that I know all of that but I can't simply do that ,I can't hit my child like that at this critical age especially for something that should be done as a clear choice not under enforcement ,my friend looked to me puzzled and said(don't you know that you would be responsible for that at judgment day? ,don't you know that you would be questioned about how you raised your children?),I said (OK ,but I still insist that I can't hit my child like that ,why don't I teach him how to pray and then he should be committed to it? ,do you think that hitting him would be a good idea?) ,my friend then started his philosophical debating which I don't like him usually go into that mood ,many things in life doesn't need that especially the clear as skies ones ,he started explaining that hitting is not meant to be the actual hitting ,it's a kind of physical contact similar to when you press on someone's shoulders with a powerful grip! ,he continued saying that there's another 7adees that explains the previous one and giving more details about how the children should be hit! ,based on his words the hitting:1)shouldn't leave a mark on the child's body 2)shouldn't break an arm or a leg! 3)shouldn't be a slap on the face.

I haven't read or heard about this other 7adees ,all I know is the original one with the clear word(hit them at ten) ,there's no further words after that ,I told my friend that this other 7adees may be religiously authenticated but even that I am not comfortable to the idea of hitting at all ,prayers is a relationship ritual that is aimed towards God ,and it should be based on love not on fear ,I have some bad memories when I was still a child and we were living in Saudia Arabia ,the children in the primary schools there is enforced to pray at the time of prayers while they are at school's time ,you may not believe it but most of the children wasn't actually praying at all ,just pretending to and even some of them would be going to pray without washing themselves first as the prayers interactions should be! ,why we would raise our children on fear? ,why don't we convince them of the idea of prayers and how that it should be done and how God almighty is merciful ,kind and great? ,children never forget physical pain and it stays attached to their memory for a very long time ,it won't be a good thing to attach prayers to physical pain in their minds ,why don't we raise them on freedom of mind basics and teach them how to select the right things and avoid the bad ones? ,will you be proud when your child are committed to prayers and he grows up like that and at the same time he never do anything to fight the injustice and dictatorship of most of the Arabian countries? ,what would you do if your child pretends that he is praying to avoid your punishment and then he takes drugs or smokes when he's out home? ,will this be a good thing?

Sorry my friend ,I won't hit my child for that ,I will teach him how to pray ,will teach him how to choose the right things in his path ,I will teach him how to be a proud person ,I will teach him how to say NO in the face of the injustice & slavership we suffer ,will teach him how to be open minded and never be closed on himself ,I will never hit cause I won't him to hit my grandchildren!

The Flu

2005-11-28T13:41:00.000+02:00

Everywhere I go these days it seems that many people is infected with Flu(Not the Bird's flu!) ,my younger brother ,my little sister and my are among the patients ,it was very ironic seeing my father who is a doctor trying to give tons of cold & flu medicines to my brother and sister and to himself ,other relatives and friends were infected too and it seems as every time you pickthe phone to check on someone you will find that either him or a member of the family is having flu or at least a cold!

May be it's the constantly changing weather these days ,it has a very strange behavior these days ,the nights are cold or very cold sometimes and the days are sunny and foggy! ,we are not used to this fog here in Alexandria and usually in November the weather would be colder with frequent rain showers ,but this kind of weather is no doubt strange.

I haven't been in the mood myself for the past two days ,and feeling a strange frequent pains in different parts of my chest & back ,I don't know if this is an introductory stage to the flu or not but I am not feeling well in general ,and my mood is less bright as I said ,maybe it's the weather ,someone may say(What has the weather to do with your mood?) ,I am a winter kind of person ,I love the cold ,wind & rain ,I always were feeling good during the rainy days ,but this hot weather is something I don't like ,this even resulted in being unable to check around the blogsphere for more than three days and not even able to respond to comments left by friends here on my blog ,sorry if I seem not concentrated but I hope to regain my concentration soon ,I hope also to be able to write more than five posts that were shaped in my mind and should have been written during the past days but unfortunately postponed.

Strangely I think I feel a bit better after writing this!

Pleasure

2005-11-24T13:40:00.000+02:00

I always wondered how it would be when I would be chatting with a fellow blogger ,sometimes people has differences when it comes to talking directly either online or offline ,for example you may have a favorite writer or a journalist whom you are used to read his/her books or articles regulary and you become used to a certain ego of this person ,when you see the same person talking in a let's say an TV interview or a press conference you may feel shocked a bit ,he/she doesn't seem to have the same mentality/charisma/personality that you thought that this person posses ,many people would seem to you more human when you read their written thoughts or impressions more than talking to them directly ,you feel there's something missing ,something that you always felt when you read what they wrote but wasn't there when you saw or spoke to the same person.

I was fearing that this would be applicable to some of our fellow bloggers here ,and since I never had a chat before with any blogger whom I used to visit & comment on their blogs I didn't have any chance to prove or decline my theories ,I usually put any one in my MSN Messenger or Yahoo Messenger when their emails are there on their profiles but never met any of the fellow bloggers online,one day I had the great luck of encountering a dear fellow blogger online to ease my doubts a little bit.

My chat mate had the same elegant sense that you will encounter when you read his/her blog ,the blogger was easy to go along with ,very simple ,kind and respectful ,sometimes when you start talking to people online there would be some issues that others call(Coversation's keys) which you have to get a good grip on in order to build a successfull conversation ,in this case I had no hardship at all to do that and the chatting were very enjoyable ,also the strange thing about my chat mate is that I felt I am used to chatting with him/her for a very long time although this was definitely the first every conversation ,I really enjoyed it the same as I always enjoyed reading his/her blog ,and it proved to me that great blogs has a great people behind them! ,I hope that I will have more chances in the near future to either prove or decline my theories ,and in the end I wish to thank Kayla Vincent for giving me this great chance!

Parliament elections

2005-11-20T08:49:00.000+02:00

Tpday is the second stage of the parliament elections in Egypt ,this stage includes different governates including Alexandria ,Hope that those stupid candidates from the National Party will all fail.

Memories

2005-11-18T07:51:00.000+02:00

I was sitting Yesterday at Beanos Cafe' drinking Steamer and watching our national football team on TV being defeated as usual when encountering a strong rival ,suddenly I looked around to realize that the most of the crowd sitting in the Cafe were college students and almost all of them were studying & preparing for their Mid Term exams ,discussing topics ,reviewing research papers and even two groups were sitting with Laptops extended and were rehearsing their projects presentations ,a very live scientific environment!

That got me back in memory to college days when were always under endless pressure of projects ,researches & mid term exams ,most of the other college's has one mid term exams per semester but my college has two ,one in the 7th week and the other in 12th week ,most of those were accompanied by projects and researches required to be completed in a specific deadline. I started to replay some moments in my memory ,how I suddenly discovered that JAVA is my favorite programming language ,how I stood staring to that big crowd of Professors ,teaching assistants & students while trying to start my graduation project's presentation ,who were the most likeable professor and who was the most despised one ,how we always were dreaming about the day when all of this endless loop will be over thinking that we will feel more relieved and that in five years we will be in the top of IT world ,almost all of that I am still longing to college days ,it was good days and good days never return when it's gone. When I finished with my memories I looked to the TV screen and the match's referee was announcing the end of the match with result (Egypt 1-Tunisia 2)!!

Stupid Censorship

2005-11-15T03:21:00.000+02:00

A few days ago I was watching a movie that I can't remember it's name now on Super Movies Channel which is one of Orbit Network Channels ,I was not merely focused on the movie since I have seen it before and was reading some newspapers and sometimes giving a few glances to the TV ,I thought that there's something wrong with this copy of the movie since there were some scenes missing ,I told myself that this can not be ,Orbit Network doesn't have a censorship system and has only age rating advisory system similar to the ones in USA ,UK and other countries ,the age advisory system simply alerts you prior to launching the movie about the minimum recommended viewer's age ,but it's your final decision anyway and the movies shown is simply uncut ,I told myself that I may be imagining this since I was dividing my attention between the TV and the Newspapers and that may the reason for thinking so.

Yesterday I was meeting some friends on some Cafe' ,we were chatting in different topics when suddenly one of friends asked me(Did you watch the Super Movies Channel recently?) ,I said (Yes I did ,why?) ,he told me about several movies he saw during the current and past week which were fully censored and some main scenes missing! ,pfcourse this can be a mistake if it happened with one or two movies but since me ,my friend & others have already seen it then it cannot be denied ,Super Movies channel is censoring the movies it's showing ,that's a very sad thing for movie lovers cause Orbit Network along with Showtime Network were the only sources for uncensored TV entertainment in the middle east region.

When I am talking about (Uncensored Entertainment) I am not talking about porn movies for example ,I am talking about our rights as subscribers ,viewers...Etc to make our own decisions about the entertainment's materials we are viewing ,if a certain viewer finds that the shown material is not suitable for his/her own sense,ideology ,taste...Etc then it's the viewers own decision to shut off this material and move to any other thing he sees suitable ,and censorship is a very big issue in our RETARDED Arab countries that were brought to discussion countless times during the years ,why out governments simply treat us a Civilized & Respectful adults and let us decide what we want to see instead of deciding for us? ,isn't it enough for those governments to decide for us in every aspect of life and treating us like some mindless rocks?

As I said I am an Adult who like to watch movies from everywhere on the earth and knowing all the possible cultural waves out there ,I don't see any reason for this behavior from Orbit network ,what's frustrating more is that the network didn't announce something like that before applying it(the same behavior found in the Arab governmental systems where their citizen are the last people on earth to know about their intentions ,decisions & moves!) ,maybe because it knows that it may lose a big portion of current subscribers due to this stupidity ,I really thought about canceling my family's subscription with them because of that but on the other hand it seems that I can't stop watching the great (Amr Adeeb) on his addictive TV show (Alkahera AlYoum) airing on Alyoum Channel ,but I am thinking about sending some kind of protest emails to the Network and letting them know about their stupid decision ,if there's any other one who noticed the same thing please post it in your comments.

Another tag

2005-11-11T04:46:00.000+02:00

I have been tagged by one of my favorite bloggers change destiny ,I should have done it about a week ago ,but here I am:

Name:It's written in my passport
Birthday:24/10/1978
Birthplace:Alexandria
Current Location:My room
Eye Color:Dark Brown
Hair Color:Dark
Height:186 CMs
Right Handed or Left Handed:Right Handed
Your Heritage:??
The Shoes You Wore Today:Dark Classic shoe with laces
Your Weakness:You have to find it by yourself
Your Fears:Sudden Death and most of the insects!
Your Perfect Pizza:Marinara Pizza from Little Caesar
Goal You Would Like To Achieve This Year:Have a new Job ,Get my CCNA certification ,finish some delayed books reading & researches ,see Zamalek beats Ahly at the next dawry's derby match!
Your Most Overused Phrase On an instant messenger:ASL Please
Thoughts First Waking Up:another day on planet earth.
Your Best Physical Feature:According to some female SOURCES ...My eyes and my mouth!
Your Bedtime:I don't have one.
Your Most Missed Memory:Too much to be mentioned here.
Pepsi or Coke:Cocke ofcourse.
MacDonald or Burger King:McRoyal
Single or Group Dates:Depends on many factors.
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea:Neither of them ,Earl Grey Tea rocks!
Chocolate or Vanilla:Chocolate forever!
Cappuccino or Coffee:Coffee.
Do you Smoke:Why would I make this wonderful life shorter & shorter?
Do you Swear:usually when watching football matches and when reading the governmental declarations & decisions in the governmental newspapers!
Do you Sing:Yeah ,didn't you see my latest concert with Bon Jovi?
Do you Shower Daily:With hot water even in summer and daily by the way!
Have you Been in Love:Yeah ,a few times.
Do you want to go to College:I am Post Graduate ,hope to start studying IT Diploma next year.
Do you want to get Married:Yeah ,I really wish to.
Do you believe in yourself:Yeah ,I believe in my own existence.
Do you get Motion Sickness:Nope.
Do you think you are Attractive:Maybe ,and depends of your definition of (Attractive)
Are you a Health Freak:Nope
Do you get along with your Parents:I wasn't in the past due to several reasons ,but in the past few years me & myfather started to be a good friends!
Do you like Thunderstorms:Yeah a lot ,especially that I live directly infront of the sea ,I can watch the thunderstorm coming tworards the city.
Do you play an Instrument:I wish to play Violin or Guitar someday.
In the past month have you Drank Alcohol:No Comment.
In the past month have you Smoked:Nope.
In the past month have you been on Drugs:Nope and never will.
In the past month have you gone on a Date:Maybe.
In the past month have you gone to a Mall:Anyone lives in a city in any part of the planet earth will go to malls frequently ,that's the 21st century's syndrome.
In the past month have you eaten a box of Oreos:Nope.
In the past month have you eaten Sushi:No and I really wish to ,finally found a place in Alexandria who is serving Sushi ,I will go soooon!
In the past month have you been on Stage:Nope.
In the past month have you been Dumped:No.
In the past month have you gone Skinny Dipping:Nope.
In the past month have you Stolen Anything:A lot of girls hearts...LOL...I am kidding walahi!
Ever been Drunk:Not particularly.
Ever been called a Tease:??
Ever been Beaten up:I never had a fight since school days.
Ever Shoplifted:Nope.
How do you want to Die:Sitting peacefully on the beach ,alone and looking at the sea waves ,recovering a lot of sweet memories in my mind and smiling at death when it comes.
What do you want to be when you Grow Up:My Old Self.
What country would you most like to Visit:Lebanon ,Dubai ,UK ,Spain ,Italy ,Australia ,Brazil and the USA.

In a Girl..
favorite Eye Color:Dark & Hazel
favorite Hair Color:Dark
Short or Long Hair:Long ,the longer is the sexier!!
Height:The shorter is the better ,especially with long hair!
Weight:Not fat and not skinny.
Best Clothing Style:Nothing particular as long as it fits her and makes her more attractive ,by the way I have no explanation why that there's a lot of beautiful days who is wearing hijab ,I mean that they look very attractive in Hijab!
Number of Drugs I have taken:one about seven years ago as a test drive!
Number of CD's I own:162 DVD's ,200+ CD's
Number of Piercings:None
Number of Tattoos:Hope to have a dragon tatto someday!
Number of things in my Past I Regret:A lot.

Vengeance

2005-11-11T04:12:00.000+02:00

During the past days a lot of newspapers mentioned the story of the Moroccan woman who killed her Egyptian exboyfriend with assistance from her current lover ,the woman(35 years old) working as a casino hostess or something like that in a famous 5+ stars hotel in Katamyea ,Cairo. She was in love with the prey for almost five years ,he was eight years younger than her and was working as a waiter in the same hotel,they had a deep relationship which resulted in her pregnancy more than once ,she says that every time this happened he convinced her to get rid off the baby till they settle all their future marriage plans ,the last time this happened she felt that he started to neglect her ,ignore her calls and so on. And she came to the realization that he's not thinking about marrying her anymore after she heard the rumors that he got engaged to one of his relatives ,she confronted him and to her astonishment he didn't deny it ,he also started to threaten her with exposing their relationship details ,worse than that is his clear demand of money in return of his silence.

Things got developed ,she pretended to go along with his demands ,and on the same time she started getting closer to a young man working in the same hotel as a chef ,the couple got attached quickly ,and she told him about all her troubles with her ex ,slowly he became influenced and she started putting her revenge's plan ,she told her new lover that they both will flow away after finishing their plan to Spain and will open a Moroccan Restaurant there ,together they pretended to befriending her ex and trying to convince him that all that happened in the past is forgotten now ,one day they accompanied him to a hangout and while driving the car in some remote area she stabbed him and her friend completed the mission by adding more lethal stabs to the man ,they took the body to another desert area and put the flames to it and returned to work the next day pretending that there's nothing happened ,they were still preparing to travel to Spain as the last part of their plan when they both got arrested.

The above details is taken from the investigations papers and the couple's confessions ,I am not here to judge their innosence or not and I am not telling this as a murders news or something as this kind of crimes is not new and happens frequently in Egypt ,what attracted me to this tale is the woman's intention ,patience and commitment to her plan ,I remembered an old belief that said that women is hard to forgive someone who hurt them ,from my personal experience I believe so ,the woman cannot forget or forgive easily ,even for something simple in the men's viewpoint like marriage's anniversary or her birthday ,woman can not forgive something like that ,also I guess that women's preferring for revenge is higher than men ,just look for most of the relationships between young couples anywhere in the world and you will see who's more intent on revenging for the offense they receive from the other party ,but that leaves a lot of questions ,is woman more violent than the man when it comes to her personal emotions or betrayal? ,can women really forgive or -more important-forget?

The doomed blogger!!

2005-11-09T07:37:00.000+02:00

I have many book marks in the favorites folder of my Internet Explorer browser ,I put all the blogs links there to check them easily ,Whenever I look at the Favorites menu I find it so much crowded with many many blogs addresses ,I keep telling myself that I should make some arrangements to them and divide them ,The quickest solution in my mind is to the divide them to the daily blogs(Blogs I check daily) and nondaily blogs which I check frequently.

Recently I had a very strange problem ,one of my recently discovered blogs kept disappearing from the favorites menu(or that what I thought back then) ,the first time I saw it I added it instantly to my favorites ,the next day on my regular blogs surfing I tried to find it but I couldn't see it anywhere on the favorites ,I told myself that I may be memorizing saving it when it actually didn't happen .Luckily I was still able to find it in the history menu ,opened the blog's page and this time I was sure 100% that I have added it.

Two days ago the blog is no longer again on the menu! ,I decided to do a little test ,opened the blog's page and added it ,opened the favorites instantly and strangely it was not there ,I thought that there might be something wrong with IE ,surfed some random blogs and other web sited ,bookmarked them and they all resided instantly on the favorites menu ,every one of them except this certain blogs which is not being saved whatever I try ,someone may say that the name may have a certain type of characters that is not recognized by IE but the blog's name is written inplain english without anything special ,I thought about the language but ofcourse this is English and I have Russian and Japanese bookmarks in their native language appears normally ,I am also using the latest IE version with all the udpates ,patches and service packs.

I decided to do another test that had no logical sense in my opinion ,I saved the blog with the blogger name not with the blog's name ,and believe it or not it's finally there and never got disappeared again ,I hope that the blog's owner is not doomed or cursed in anyway!

Downtown Girls

2005-11-08T02:11:00.000+02:00

Just came back from the cinema after watching the latest Mohammad Khan's movie (Banat West Elbalad) Or (Ddowntown Girls),the movie tells the story of two girls. Jomana(Hend Sabry) and Yasmeen(Menna Shalaby) who were used to take the metro daily from where they live to the downtown area where they work ,they used to see each other every day until one day they start to talk with each other and become gradually dear friends ,the film starts with hints of their every day journey ,one day they meet two guys ,Osman(Mohammad Nagaty) & Samir(Khaled Abu Alnaga) who also takes the same journey for the same purpose every day ,after some eyes flirting the two pairs exchange telephone numbers ,with Yasmeen deciding to play a little game by providing Jomana's information as hers and vice versa ,the two guys takes the bait and the story gets developed.

The most special element here is the astonishing capability of the director to capture all the things about the Downtown area ,the crowds ,the shops and the staffs ,the streets ,cafe's ...Etc ,with very elegant details that only known and felt by the people who really knows what is the real meaning and experience of a spiritually rich area like The downtown area(The movie was shot in Downtown Cairo but amazingly here in Alexandria it's 90% similar in everything but on a smaller scale ,there's even streets that has the name in both Cairo & Alexandria Like Sheriff Street ,Tahrir square and others) ,there's also the realistic look and feel about people's relationships without fictioning or extremism every thing as we have always used to have in watching most of the director's movies ,there's another two strong elemnts in the movie ,first the editing was sharp and mature ,no hard cuts or over roughed ,most of the editing was done in the proper method and the rhythm was kept on track for most parts of the movie ,second strong element is Cinematography ,there's some good shots in the movie especially on the metro and on the stations ,the director used handheld camera for many scened which added more realistic feeling and strong capturing of streets life.

Banat westelbalad is a good movie ,it's definitely not the director's best but suddenly we have a very fresh breeze between all the retarded Arabic releases we are surrounded with ,my advice to you is to watch this movie as fast as you can cause in these days a respecful movies like this doesn't last long in cinemas ,if this kind of cinema is not suitable for your appeal then don't worry ,BO7A is still on release successfully!

Coming soon reviews:
-The Cinderella Man
-A History of Violence

Hangouts News ,Closures & New Openings

2005-11-05T19:25:00.000+02:00

Ramadan is over ,many places that were closed during the month is reopened again ,and many activities are going on ,here's some news:

-Caesar Restaurant & Pub ,The original maamoura located place is preparig to open a new branch ,the new place will be at the international garden area (beside Abu Fares Restaurant & Dolphin's Sea Food Restaurant),Caesar has always been there for along time and is really a decent place ,the opening date is Friday November 11th ,there will be a huge party there with a live performance by Alexandrian born singer Talaat Zein ,review is coming soon.

-Pastroudis Retaurant & Bar,one of Alexandria landmarks through recent history is under heavy renovation & redecoration process ,the legendary has been closed for almost two years now ,the management opened a new branch last year at the new area beside Alexandria International Garden but the original place remained closed ,every time I passed beside the place I felt very sad for it ,many events happened there ,if you are a fan of Mohammad Mounir and you can remember one of his old posters for one of his 90's tapes where he was sitting on a cafe' table somewhere on the daylight ,this was a table at Pastroudis ,I have even watched the Legendary Ahmed Zaki shooting some scenes there for his movie(Al Batal) ,there were a lot of rumors during the past years saying that the whole place were bought by McDonald's Egypt and will be turned as a new outlet for them but thanks god this didn't happen ,if you pass there nowadays you will see the works going on not for the place only but for all the building which will add more value to the place ,Welcome back Pastroudis!

-DOWNSTAIRS ,the famous discotheque located at Sofitel Cecil Downtown is reopened again ,it's open every day except Tuesdays and there's matinee parties every Thursday ,Friday & Sunday.

-tapas ,one of my favorite Mexican food outlets has been closed for no apparent reason ,the green plaza located place was successful in my point of view and they never noted having any lack of success or financial problems ,they said they were closed till the end of Ramadan and will be opened before eid ,and suddenly there Mo'men outlet in their place! ,no information yet if they will be relocated elsewhere or not.

-Far & Away ,the well known Restaurant & Pub at Horryea Avenue(Down Town) will be reopened soon under new management by the original owner ,a new decoration is taking place ,not only that but the owner will open a Cafe' at the downlevel floor viewing all the Avenue ,notably inspired by the huge success of nearby Roastery Cafe' ,more details soon.

-Another sad closure ,Tartino Cafe at Green Plaza has closed ,this time I know why they were closed without having to ask any one of the management ,every time I pass there there would be a very little amount of guests although most of the Cafe's at Green Plaza mall has different degrees of success but the Tartino place were in one of the most unspotted spots there ,they had very little visibility ,anyway the Agami branch is still open next summer beside their planning to open a new branch in yet unknown location.

The SCORPIONS are here!

2005-11-02T14:12:00.000+02:00

One of the most famous rock bands in history is coming for not only one live even in Egypt ,but TWO! ,The Scorpions will be performing two live events in Egypt ,The first one at November 17th at Giza Pyramids ,the location where Sting performed his live event at Cairo some time ago ,the second event will take place in Sharm ElSheikh at November 19th at Extreme Park, Naama Bay ,this is a part of the Peace For All tour which will be taking place in other places in the middle east like UAE & Qatar plus Egypt ofcourse.

I am a big fan of Scorpions myself ,listening to them since 1993 they formed a very important part of my musical memory ,I am still enjoying masterpieces like Send Me An Angel ,Wind of Change ,A moment in A million Years ,You & I and many many others ,here's the lyrics for A Moment In A Million Years:

The lights are slowly fading down
There's no one else, just you and me
Nothing ever changed
I see your faces in the crowd
It seems I know each one of you
For all my life
I wish this night could last forever
But it's time to go
I saw you laugh, I saw you cry
All for one and one for all
Nothing ever changed
The way you sang just blew my mind
It gave me chills from head to toe
What a glorious night
To me it could have lasted forever
But it's time to go
A moment in a million years
Is all I've got for you
A moment in a million years
To make some dreams come true
A moment that I won't forget
Until the day I die
A moment in a million years
Called life
The bus is waiting right outside
To hit the road and once again
I leave you all behind
I chase another dream tonight
And by the time you'll be home
I'll be far away
Nothing seems to last forever
It's time to go
A moment in a million years
Is all I've got for you
A moment in a million years
To make some dreams come true
A moment that I won't forget
Until the day I die
A moment in a million years
Called life

I am planning to go this concert insha2alah ,for your consideration the regular ticket's price is 350 pounds while the VIP ticket will cost you 1200 pounds ,I'll post more details soon.

The Animals in the Box!

2005-10-31T13:49:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I was sitting on the table waiting for almaghreb prayer ,every one were busy in preparing the eftar ,suddenly the door bell rang ,it was my younger brother(25) and he was holding a large box covered with some plastic wrappings ,I was surprised a little bit when I notices there was a small hole on the top of the box ,he entered directly from the door to our room(we have shared large room ,me & him) ,and put the the box in the balcony attached to our room. I keep asking him what's in the box? And he simply refused to answer with a smile I didn't like ,it was ten minutes past eftar time now and I didn't want to start an argument.

After el3esha prayer I was sitting alone in my room ,I remembered the box sitting there ,my brother weren't here since he gout out directly after eftar ,I decided to inspect the mysterious box and try to discover it's contents ,I was certain 100% that it contains some kind of animals ,my brother had a very long history in owning dogs. He always had different breeds of dogs and this always resulted in a lot of problems with my mother cause she doesn't like animals in general ,anyway I opened the balcony's door and stared at the silent box, I didn't hear any movement sound or animal's sounds of any known kind. Then I tried to peer into the small hole on the top of the box hoping to glimpse anything or hear any sound ,there were none. I kept thinking to myself (what kind of animals doesn't make any kind of sounds or movements?) ,but I failed to see any answer.

I decided to wait for my brother till he get back ,when he arrived I ordered him to either let me know what's inside the box or I will simply throw them both(him and the box!) out of the door ,he tried to delay the answer but I insisted ,he sensed that there would be a huge problem if he continued hiding it and on the other hand I was not seeing any convincing reason to justify his behavior ,he said (OK ,I'll show you) ,we headed straight to the balcony ,he unwrapped the plastic covers ,I discovered that the box is simply a container for a large glass aquarium,and to my astonishment there were small Crocodiles there inside the aquarium!! ,not one small crocodile but two. I sat there speechless for a minute then said (why did you bring those animals here?) he said that this is something he like and he can't see any problems in that! ,I said (you can't see any problems in breeding crocodiles in your room??) ,he tried to tell me that they are very small and harmless and beside that they are trapped into this aquarium and there's nothing to fear ,we argued for several minutes then simply we made a deal that this is temporary situation and he would get them elsewhere soon(although I know that it wouldn't be that simple).

Now I am sitting writing this while behind the balcony's locked double doors there laying an aquarium with two small crocodiles there ,what bothers me more is that the two fellows there are male & female ,meaning that at anytime we can have a large one happy family of crocodiles!

My comment was deleted!

2005-10-29T06:51:00.000+02:00

A few days ago I was visiting a blog of the blogs I check regulary ,it's te3ma's blog ,there were a topic about the first stage play being shown for female's audience in Jeddah city ,she said that there will be a show for women privately and other one for men ,she wasn't opposing that or something .she was agreeing and sort of pleased and kept saying that this is NOT 7aram ...OK ...I agreed with her on this point but she said in the last line (أعتقد أن البديل الشرعي متوفر في جميع المجالات )!!(I think that the islamic alternatives is available for everything)!! ,mmm...that explained to me her feelings about that ,she agreed and were happy for this event but accompanied by her islamic version of separating men from women as it usual in countries like KSA ,I said in my comment something like the following(Is that the islamic alternative solution? ,why they separate men from women during the play? ,for how long a society like saudian society will stay primal like that?) ,sorry I can't remember the exact words cause my comment were deleted by her ,but in arabic I remember calling the saudi society by(مجتمع متخلف) ,and I think that's what made her delete my post ,I do insist on my words ,I have lived more than 10 years in KSA and most of those years were the most bad years in my life ,I know what I am talking about and I will keep saying that till they change their stupid systems and rules ,I have many stories to prove my theory but this is not the time for that.

Anyway just a few minuets ago I was visiting her blog only to be surprised(and shocked) to find out that my comment were deleted ,I was very angry of her ,I haven't offended her ,I just criticized the saudi society and the saudi people are the first ones to do so ,so why delete my comment? ,I am so frusterated cause that never happened to me before and I have never done it to anyone whatever he/she says beside that I haven't talked about her personally ,why she took it on her own?

I wrote another comment there and told her clearly that this will be my last comment there .I have never withdrawn from any place or situation in my life but this is different ,I can't make a conversation with someone who doesn't respect opinions difference ,I told her I am QUITTING her blog ,I hope she doesn't delete this comment as well!

Thoughts about Bloggers

2005-10-28T02:57:00.000+02:00

I have noticed something ,most of the Egyptian bloggers I have encountered(And other nationalities as well)are females ,I have checked my broweser's favourites and mostly 85% of the blogs links there belongs to females ,is it because girls likes to write more? ,do they like to express themselves in an open and free space that permits the free expression of ideas ,feelings and thoughts when this is not allowed 100% in the society we live in?

Another notice ,most of the Egyptian bloggers are from:Cairo in the first place and then Alexandria second ,there's a very small numbers of people from Mansoura &Zakazik and that's it! ,I have not seen anyone from cities like Tanta ,Ismailiya ,Aswan or other cities ,why is that? ,There's alot of people using Internet in Egypt even in the small and desert areas ,are they not concerned about blogging? ,does any one belong to or knows any one from any other city than the ones mentioned above?

Se7en

2005-10-26T04:37:00.000+02:00

This is not a post about se7en the movie ,it's about a tag I received from Nerro

Seven things I plan to do:

1)Go to the dentist.
2)Join Elghad party.
3)Watch some of the movies on my watch list during this week.
4)Upgrade my DSL speed from 256k to 512k.
5)Shop for new clothes for eid!!(That's a habbit I can't avoid)
6)Doubling my efforts to look for a new job.
7)Clear my mind of some matters.

Seven things I can’t do:

1)Drinking water without spilling some drops on my chest and chin!
2)Eat (قرنبيط أوكرنب),I guess there's something shared with Nerro!
3)Smoking Cigarettes or Shisha!
4)Sleep without making some noises!
5)Spending a single day without navigating in the BlogSphere.
6)Stop reading Newspapers daily.
7)Support ALAHLY football club under any circumstances!

Seven things I say most often:

1)ايووه
2)احلى حاجة فى الدنيا الأنتخة!
3)أكيد
4)ياحكم يا....(ده طبعا وانا بتفرج على ماتشات الزمالك
5)شغال
6)بص أوبصى...هقولك على حاجة
7)ياماما من فضلك عايز كوباية شاى سادة!!

Seven people I want to pass this tag to:

1)tota
2)EVE
3)MoonLightShadow
4)LouLou
5)Kayla Vincent
6)Charismatic Soul
7)Lasto-adri *Blue*

StarBucks in Egypt

2005-10-26T03:58:00.000+02:00

StarBucks one of the world's most famous coffe shop chains is preparing to open for the first time in Egypt ,and for the last three years there were many people asking and enquiring about the possibility of that and if this will happen or not since most of the world's famous chains already opened in Egypt during the last five years except for StarBucks ,the last chain to arrive to Egypt was Coffe Bean & Teal Leaf but that left only Starbucks for speculations without answers.

The great news that StarBucks will open not only one branch but two branches at the same time ,one here in Alexandria and the other in Cairo with rumors of Alexandria's branch opening first ,the branch opening here will be located at the new San Stefano Grand Plaza Mall (which I will be talking about in future posts) where the cairo branch is located at still yet at unknown location which wouldn't be else than City Stars or the new Dandy Mall at cairo gate.

Alot of aboard friends told me alot of things about StarBucks coffe's quality ,even a friend living in Dubai told me the the most thing he misses while he's in vacation in Egypt is StarBucks coffe!! ,I think we have to wait and see for ourselves what they are talking about! ,stay tuned for more news.

Birthday's activities

2005-10-25T08:21:00.000+02:00

After recovering from past day's events ,I decided to do some activities at my birthday ,I was planning to have eftar out home with friends but since we had guests at eftar I wasn't encouraged to do ,what made it worse is my father's continuous talk and questions abou what happenedat the embassy ,I was starving and wasn't in any mood to tell details but I tried and tried to get some details out of me with promises to tell them more after eftar!

I made a quick plan to go out with some friends ,as always they depeded on me for choosing the hang out's place ,as a change I selected Chili's ,last time I was there were a few months ago with an exception of last August when I visted their newely opened branch in Cairo(City Stars) ,beside that I was alway used to go to Chili's for Lunch or Dinner ,but since I had a very filling eftar I wasn't able to toss any more food into my stomach ,I arranged with my frieds to be there between 9-9:30 with a request from me that they be there at the time so I can watch Zamalek's match on TV there! ,and this was another thing cause I was originally planning to go watch Zamalek's match at the stadium assuming that the match will be played at Tuesday ,but since it was playing at Monday I wasn't prepared to celebrate my birthday at the stadium!

We arrived there ,the place were almost empty because there no one on the earth were hungry yet and chili's is not the usual hangout for quick coffe or something ,our meeting lasted till 12:30 Am ,there were nothing special but the usual talks about politics ,movies ,music..etc ,when we were preparing to leave I have received a call on my mobile from my aunt ,complaining about her PC ,and I forgot to tell you that I am the family's official IT consultant and support guy!! ,she invited me to so7oor and to se what were wrong with her PC ,I had nothing in my mind to object so I said OK ,i'll be coming ,I arrived there at about 1:30 ,I sat with here husband(a very nice man and a dear friend) ,I finished the required tasks at about 4:30 Am ,and we sat chatting till I suddenly discovered that the room is full of sunrays and I should go home to rest and prepare for today outing eftar ,I left and arrived home and here I am writing this dull post ,I should sleep now

Blogging Personality

2005-10-24T08:19:00.000+02:00

I have seen a link on tota that let's you see what's your blogging personality ,and here's the results:

Your Blogging Type Is Thoughtful and Considerate

You're a well liked, though underrated, blogger.
You have a heart of gold, and are likely to blog for a cause.
You're a peaceful blogger - no drama for you!
A good listener and friend, you tend to leave thoughtful comments for others.

What's Your Blogging Personality?

There's other kinds of tests there ,I guess I may be trying some of them soon.

Birthday

2005-10-24T05:35:00.000+02:00

Today october 24 th ,is my birthday ,I am 27.
Nothing more to say.

Declined Entry

2005-10-24T04:43:00.000+02:00

Feeling very frusterated ,angry,sad..etc and alot of negative feelings at the same time ,this is not normal to have all of these feelings at the same time ,but there's a little story behind that.

About an month ago I received a very tempeting work offer from a company in the US ,actually this was like having a very sweet & strange dream ,since I am still having trouble finding a suitable job in my field then suddenly this offer ,it looked like dream offer on all the sides ,finace side ,career side ,benefits side...etc ,I did think about it for a while and it seemed to me that if every thing will go alright then I will be taking a very quick shortcut on my career's path ,the only obstacle was to get a VISA entry to the US ,since it's very hard and very complicated process to be invited directly from the company itself to join it so the only available method was to get this entry visa ,spend three-six months there as a test period then transfer this temporary visa into permanent residence.

I begun prepairing for it ,I called their Appointment system's number after paying the application's fees and got an interview date at Sunday October 23 rd ,there were nothing much to prepare except for some documentations like pasport ,photo and some economical documents like my apartment ownership contract ,bank accounts statements...etc ,only one this was more important which is the person I will be staying with during my visit there and in my case he was the company's owner at the same time a distant relative of my mother ,a very decent man who just returned home after 15 years there to get married and make some settlements ,he was looking for someone to join his company there as assitant IT manager ,we met and after some interviews he became very convinced that I am the suitable candidate for this position and so I begun preparing as above.

The interview's date was at 10 AM ,I was there at 9:45 ,there were crowds outside the embassy's building but less than expected(I guess that's because of the new appointment system which is different than the old system) ,I entered the building and after security procedures I was allowed into the main consular hall ,alot of people were there sitting ot writing their applications on tables ,my documents were reviewed by an assistant and I was asked to stand in the line to wait for my turn to receive my application and passport ,I did so and was aksed to sit again ,after about 45 minuets my name was called ,I thought that this is the interview moment with the counsular officer but I was presented to a young lady sitting behind a glass wall ,she told me to pick thephone's handset beside the glass to communicate with her ,and here were a fingers scanning device resting on the stand where I was standing and they took fingers prints scans ,and I returned to my seat.

After 30 minuets I was called again ,this time it was the interview time with the counsular officer himself ,and to be frank I must admit that before I enter the embassy's buliding the wholet hing was not 100% important to me ,I felt that if I succeed or not this will be fine with me ,but something changed after entering the building ,and somehow I became very worried that I may get refused and started to think about the whole matter of this job as a top priority to me ,that I must succeed insha2alah.

I aarived at the counsular window and the officer were sitting there already inspecting my application and he seemed not satisfied about something I didn't know ,I picked the handset ,he asked me about where I will stay I told him the address and he asked some quick questions about my work then he asked me if I were married or not?!! ,I said no and he sat silent for a moment then simply said(I am sorry ,I can't issue you the visa today!) ,I said(why?) ,he said(Sorry again but you didn't convince me that your residence at the US will be temporairly!) and he hung up ,I was speechless for a moment and unable to think of something to say ,then I waived to him to please pick up the handset again ,he did so and I tried to told him about my work here and that the person I am visiting there is American citizen and he is a well known business man there ,the counsular repeated his apology and handed me paper sheet printed by the US governemnt saying that under immegration law number...etc we apologize we couldn't issue you an entry visa today because you didn't show enough evidence that your stay in the US will be temporary and youcan reapply later!

I gathered my documents and got out of the embassy's buliding without feeling where I was going or knowing what I am gonna do ,I realized suddenly that I am beside the bus's station ,I booked a ticket for the nearest bus heading to Alexandria ,got on board and slep during all the ride and the bus arrived at 6PM(shortly after eftar) ,I arrived home and didn't eat ofcourse ,just had some water and some juice ,and went straight to my bed to have a very long sleep till 2 AM.

I may have failed ,maybe not since this is not a personal failure or career's failuers ,and there's thousands gets rejected the same way every month(I noticed while I was there that most of the rejected applicants were under 30) ,but I can't help it and I feel great loss ,depressed ,sad.....
I have nothing more to add.

Things about me

2005-10-20T08:25:00.000+02:00

I have been tagged by eve ,she said that she is tagging every one on her blog list and miraculously I am there ,she is the only one of the blogs I read who put my blog within the blogs links.

Things about me
HAVE YOU EVER:

* Ever been so drunk you blacked out: Never reached this point
* Missed school bcoz it was raining: Yes(a lot of times!)
* Been hurt emotionally: Yes
* Kept a secret from everyone: yes
* Had a crush on a teacher: yes(female teacher at secondary school!)
* Been in love it made you cry: yes(a few times)
* Ever thought an animated character was hot: No
* Had an imaginary friend: Never
* Cried during a Movie: NO ,But were on the verge of tears several times
* Been on stage: Yes

FAVORITES

* Shampoo: Head&Shoulders ,PertPlus
* Soap: ZEST!
* Color: Black & Blue
* Day/Night: Night
* Summer/Winter: Winter
* Fave cartoon character: Buzz LightYear from Toy Story
* Fave Food: I like to try all the food's types ,but I like eastern ,Mexican ,Chinese ,Italian and American steaks!
* Fave Movies: The Godfather trilogy, Fight Club, Apocalypse Now (Look at my profile for more choices)
* Fave Subject: English ,Physics and Computers
* Fave 'normal' Drink: CocaCola
* Fave Persons to talk to online: Every one who is intelligent ,cheerful and respectful like most fellow bloggers here.

RIGHT NOW:
* Wearing: Blue Short and white polo shirt
* Hair: Black
* I'm feeling: sleepy
* Thinkin about: A certain thing I have to do next week
* Listening to: Mohammed Mounir
* Talkin 2: NONE

IN THE LAST 24 HRS:

* Cried: NO
* Worn a skirt: for god's sake NO(This is a female's question I guess!)
* Met someone New: I hope to do so today
* Cleaned your room: Just organized it a little bet and changed the bed's covers!
* Laundry: No
* Drove a car: I don't have one
*took a bath?: Twice
*Did something strange: feeling happier than usual

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

* Yourself: Yeah I certainly do
*Your friends: As long as I consider them as being my friends I do believe in them
* Santa Claus: No
* Destiny/Fate: That's very complicated subject ,I think I will discuss sometime in the future in my blog
* Angels: Yes
* Demons: Yes

FRIENDS AND LIFE:

* Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend?: No Comment
* Like anyone?: Naomi Watts and another secret human being
* the loudest?: The loudest what?
* Who's the shyest? Not me I guess
* Who's the weirdest? George Bush
* Who do you go to for advice? My Mind
* Who do you cry to? Myself
* What is the best feeling in the world? To be loved by the love of your life
* Worst feeling? Feeling that death is near

Zamalek ForEVER

2005-10-17T03:24:00.000+02:00

We have lost today ,that's definitely true ,but someday we will win ,and all the old glories wil be back.

IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING

First comment

2005-10-14T16:42:00.000+02:00

Why I always feel good when I am the first one to post a comment on a friend's post? ,I think it's because sometimes a blogger maybe is having some kind of issues he/she needs help about ,and it's good feeling that you are the first one to offer help to people.

Angry before eftar!!

2005-10-14T06:37:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I went to apply for a land phoneline for my own apartment ,it's located in Miami so I went to the nearest Central to resume the contracting procedures ,10 days ago I have paid the Subscription fees and they told me to come after 10 days to know about the installment date.

I tried to be very calm before entering there ,I am not usualy nervouse without reason but for anyone dealt with berocracy for many years I had to expect the worst ,and my feelings were true,they told me coldly that there's no available lines in the exchange in my zone and I have to wait till next January until they add new exchanges and cables ,ofcource I didn't believe them cause any child knows that there's always a lines reserved for the emergency cases (like someone with WASTA!) ,I tried to discuss the matter with many persons from the contracting employee to the central's manager himself without any results ,they even told me simply that I can complain them to the telecommunications Minister himself but that will not make anydifference! ,extremly retarded people.

I have rushed out of the central very angry ,I remembered afriend who adviced me to have some kind of WASTA before even applying but I didn't like that ,it's not that I don't like using one(all of us are doing that when it's about governmental issues) but I just liked the idea of going there as any citizen and try to see what they will happen ,worse than that is their continuous avertisments about their evolution and how they are offering services nice and easy ,all of that is just an illusion ,those people simply were born in the web of berocracy andthey will remain like that for ever.

Always

2005-10-14T06:31:00.000+02:00

This romeo is bleeding
But you can’t see his blood
It’s nothing but some feelings
That this old dog kicked up

It’s been raining since you left me
Now I’m drowning in the flood
You see I’ve always been a fighter
But without you I give up

Now I can’t sing a love song
Like the way it’s meant to be
Well, I guess I’m not that good anymore
But baby, that’s just me

And I will love you, baby - always
And I’ll be there forever and a day - always
I’ll be there till the stars don’t shine
Till the heavens burst and
The words don’t rhyme
And I know when I die, you’ll be on my mind
And I’ll love you - always

Now your pictures that you left behind
Are just memories of a different life
Some that made us laugh, some that made us cry
One that made you have to say goodbye
What I’d give to run my fingers through your hair
To touch your lips, to hold you near
When you say your prayers try to understand
I’ve made mistakes, I’m just a man

When he holds you close, when he pulls you near
When he says the words you’ve been needing to hear
I’ll wish I was him ’cause those words are mine
To say to you till the end of time

Yeah, I will love you baby - always
And I’ll be there forever and a day - always

If you told me to cry for you
I could
If you told me to die for you
I would
Take a look at my face
There’s no price I won’t pay
To say these words to you

Well, there ain’t no luck
In these loaded dice
But baby if you give me just one more try
We can pack up our old dreams
And our old lives
We’ll find a place where the sun still shines

And I will love you, baby - always
And I’ll be there forever and a day - always
I’ll be there till the stars don’t shine
Till the heavens burst and
The words don’t rhyme
And I know when I die, you’ll be on my mind
And I’ll love you - always

Bon Jovi

/I always loved this song ,really brilliant.

Arabic Blog

2005-10-14T06:22:00.000+02:00

I am starting to think about having an arabic blog in addition to this one I have right now ,it seems that there's alot of things I would preffer to be written in Arabic ,like some old poems I have written and some political issues also ,my only problem with arabic blog is that I am slow in arabic writing compared to the english writing's speed ,but I will try to accelerate that.

I will try to put a design plan for the new blog ,it seems that I am not yet even focusing on the developing of the existing blog ,that's because of alot of reasons ,but I will try to rearrange my thoughts and clear some space in my mind to have a satisfying blog.

When they will remove it?

2005-10-12T23:26:00.000+02:00

A few days ago I was passing by near the Marriot Renaissance hotel (The old name is Ramada hotel which is owned now by Marriot company) ,and I noticed that the huge advertisment with president Mubark picture is still rising high in the sky on the building near the hotel and facing the comers from sidi bishr area and visible also from many spots on the kornish road.

This Ad was placed as a part of the presidential campgain for Alwatani Party's candidate (That's how they were calling him in the media!) ,there were only 6 ads with this size produced and 5 of them were placed in different places in cairo while we had the luck and the blessing of having the sixth one here! ,what annoyed me is that we endured all the ridicilous talking about the rebirth of democracy in Egypt and the presidential elections(The most laughable comedian play in history) ,and it was over ,he won AND THE PLAY WAS OVER.

Now why he is till there looking at us from the heavy loaded with Photoshop's effect picture? ,as anyone knows all the advertisments for all the candidates should have ben removed instantly after the elections ,and this was done except for this huge Ad which is unique because it's paid for with the Alwatani party's money(or whoever supported the campgain) ,I wish they take it away and get the old refregrator Ad in place!!

Brazilian Coffe:Rediscovered

2005-10-11T23:14:00.000+02:00

Any one lives in Alexandria or been a regular visitor to it surely knows Brazilian Coffe store ,at earlier days it was almost the only place to have a decent cup of coffe or other drinks like Hot chocolate or espresso in town with a special blend of their own ,and it was very special scene to see crowds holding coffe cups infront of the store and filling the pavement and also the store inside which had a very limited space ,but after recent changes in Alexandria during the last eight years many other coffe stores opened and the competetion increased and crowds infront of the store begun to decrease rapidly ,so they had nothing to do but to reimagine the whole place.

Yesterday after iftar I had nothing to do ,there were a scheduled meeting with a friend that got cancelled at the last minuets ,I decided to have a walk ,and since I live in Downtown area I decided not to go far ,I started roaming the streets which was somewhat crowded with early Eid's shoppers ,the air was hot and I felt the need to have something to drink ,I started analyzing my choices and decided to o to Roastery Cafe'(I wanted some airconditioned place!) ,I started my path towards Huryea Avenue when I remembered The Brazilizn Coffe ,I knew from earlier roamings about their redocration but I didn't know if it was reopened or not yet ,I shifted my onfoot walking to their location (Saad Zaghloul Street) ,and there were the new brazilian coffe!

The place changed completely ,there were no more old looking style ,the place now has two floors with the upper floor intended as a cafe/Restaurant ,and the downfloor serves as the same old theme ,onfoot cafe ,but now there's a wooden stands atached to walls where you can have you coffe looking through the two ways glass and watch the downtown movement ,the upperfloor has a nice seating with nice view also for the downtown streets ,the decoration theme is so modern looking but not very original though ,now you have more choices on the menu including salads,starters and sandwiches beside the hot and cold drinks.

Judging now on the coffe's quality itself ,for me things has changed andin the past years we had the chance to taste coffe from many coffe houses and cafe's like Coffe Bean ,Costa Coffe..etc ,andspeaking frankly ,Brazilian coffe falls short behind those and other cafe's but it's still has a satisfying quality ,and more important thing ,when you have your drink there you still feel a glimpse of the old days of 80's and 90's.

Annabel Lee

2005-10-09T16:28:00.000+02:00

It was many and many a year ago,

In a kingdom by the sea,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

By the name of ANNABEL LEE;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought

Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,

In this kingdom by the sea;

But we loved with a love that was more than love-

I and my Annabel Lee;

With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven

Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,

In this kingdom by the sea,

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling

My beautiful Annabel Lee;

So that her highborn kinsman came

And bore her away from me,

To shut her up in a sepulchre

In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,

Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,

In this kingdom by the sea)

That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love

Of those who were older than we-

Of many far wiser than we-

And neither the angels in heaven above,

Nor the demons down under the sea,

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,

In the sepulchre there by the sea,

In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Comment:I like this poem very much since I first read it in arabic about seven yesrs ago ,I have then purchased a huge book contains all the works of Edgar Alln Poe ,This poem was written in the memory of his wife ,you can read more about the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe here:

http://www.eapoe.org/

I am currently reading( The Common Thread: A Story of Science, Politics, Ethics and the Human Genome)

2005-10-07T00:51:00.000+02:00

Amazon.com: Books: The Common Thread: A Story of Science, Politics, Ethics and the Human Genome

I am currently reading this book ,I have read two books before about the genome project (both were in arabic) ,but this book has a different approach of being written by two of the research team members involved ,and it's written in a very clear style which makes you feel in most parts as reading a novel by Michael crichton or something.

My first ever blog's post

2005-10-06T05:55:00.000+02:00

Hello all:

This is my first time to post something to blog ,I really have nothing in my mind to talk about right now ,I am still trying to discover this world of blogging ,I'll be back later with more to say.

Best regards