Ramblings of a restless mind..

Averagely average

2012-01-17T18:04:00.001+02:00

96% of patients in a hospital claim to be in better health than the average patient.

93% of motorists consider themselves to be safer-than-average drivers.

90% of students see themselves as more intelligent than the average student.

94% of college professors said they are better-than-average teachers.

Ironically, 92% said they are less biased than average, too.

I just stumbled upon the psychology term for this phenomenon: illusory superiority.

It's really easy to think "Yes, but I really am above average!". Apparently almost everyone does it. Everyone thinks they're special, unique and in one way or another, 'better'.

So I decided to gamble on the opposite:

I now just assume I'm below average. It's serving me well.

I listen more, and ask a lot of questions.

I've stopped thinking others are stupid. I assume most people are smarter than me.

To assume you're below average is to admit you're a beginner. It puts you in student mode. It keeps your focus on present practice and future possibilities, and away from any past accomplishments.

Most people are so worried about looking good that they never do anything great. Most people are so worried about doing something great that they never do anything at all.

You destroy that paralysis when you think of yourself as such a beginner that just doing anything is an accomplishment. (Or better yet, an experiment)

Mind you, it's still essential to know and be very aware of who you are (or at least have the potential to be), points of real strength included. And the "weaknesses"? Well, as my mentor tells me, call them "points of improvement" instead.

There goes the sun

2012-01-12T14:12:00.000+02:00

I wonder why people, no matter where they're from, and all through time, have had and still have such an undeniable fascination with sunsets and sunrises.

Taken by Tom Anderson

They've been painted, written about, photographed, and filmed, and yet never get old. You get the feeling that they heal you, revive you, fill you with hope, calm you down, help you meditate, remind you of significant memories and people, and engulf you completely in their masterful canvases. No matter what else goes on through the day, you stand there infront of the colours, leave a wave of stillness wash over you, and let yourself connect with something much grander than you and all the earthly events are. A lot of times, they're also as painful as they are beautiful.

But I wonder why that's the case with almost all of the people that have ever existed. What is it that makes a sunset or a sunrise so special? Is it because nature gives us a unique, one of a kind painting every time? Is it because we're reminded of beginnings and endings, or the cyclic nature of life?

Is it because they make us feel closer to the One - or put in another way, one with the Universe and everything and everyone in it? Maybe these times of the day have special energies of their own that haven't been concretely (scientifically) proven yet.
Maybe we belong to the sun, and the sun belongs to us. Maybe there's a sun in each one of us, that longs to unite with its origin, and its siblings.

Ah well, that's one of the ways I like thinking about it anyway.

Guest post: Of the corporate wheel

2012-01-10T17:02:00.000+02:00

5 years in, Ahmed Bakry tells us a little about his experience, as well as his thoughts and feelings about the whole thing.

I've only been working with Bakry for about 8 months now, and have notived how he's been ignoring his old and seemingly lost passion for writing. As an attempt to encourage him to get back to it all, I opted to post a piece of his writing here so you wonderful guys and gals could check it out and give him some constructive (unbiased) feedback.

So, please read on and let him know your thoughts!

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WHY?

Why am I living in a materialistic, money driven, survival of the fittest, pressurized world ? Why am I living a life where everyday is a battle to preserve my position in the pecking order of the corporate which I work for ? Why am I constantly trying to improve myself and specialize myself in things that I don't really like in order to keep myself needed and keep myself from being relegated to the bench or worse, from being fired altogether ? In this battle I am referring to, I am completely on my own. The only allies You would have in such a battle are your family. By family I specifically mean mother, father and sibling. ( I would assume wife would also fit that category but then again I am not married so I wouldn't know ). Those allies however are only moral allies and cannot actually physically help you in this battle you have to endure everyday. Furthermore, these people will not be there forever and are also consumed by their own problems of the same kind which would maybe make your situation pale in comparison. Once the moral support you get from them stops for whatever reason ( ultimately death ) you are on your own out there. You are on your own in a world where everybody is a politician and by politician I mean a person who will play the dirtiest trick in the book to screw you if its in his best interest. For that, in order to survive you must be constantly on your toes, constantly on the lookout for such endeavours. That is the only way you shall survive! If you wish to strive, you MUST be a politician yourself, you must participate in the game and try to sleep at night giving yourself whatever excuses that would make you feel comfortable. Some people can do it but unfortunately some cannot and no matter how much you convince yourself, there is always that remaining honest part of you that never grew up since childhood and never got polluted like the rest of you that knows very well that you have betrayed your values. We are living in a world were politics have spread from governments and countries to your day to day life. We are living in a world where mistakes are not tolerated. What a ridiculous sentence! I am a human being, I will make mistakes. It is part of nature. How can I be denied part of my nature? I am not saying I should be careless, but every now and then I shall screw up whether I like it or not. We are living in a world where only the best will do. It doesn't matter how you get there, it doesn't matter how many moral codes you've broken, JUST GET IT DONE AND SHOW ME THE MONEY. Why am I living in a world where I am constantly under pressure to perform a huge quantity of tasks and deliver an end product with flawless quality with little regards to what my capabilities can actually realize ? Why do such tasks take up all my time ( work + life ) to an extent that at times you wish the day had more than 24 hours or the week had more than 7 days so that you would able to finish before your deadline. That dreaded word " Deadline ". How many of us did not several times dread and curse this word during countless long sleepless nights ? Its like they say " Drive the car to the last drop of fuel....then continue driving all the same ". No thats not a famous saying, I just made that up now. I think it is a quite good metaphor to the way we are living our lives. Why is it the better I am at what I do the more expectations I need to deal with. By this logic the better you get the more expectations are expected of you which in turn gradually raise the pressure on you till the inevitable event of you cracking occurs and make no mistake about it, it will occur ( Isn't it ironic that you shouldn't make the mistake of assuming you shall not make a mistake ?? ). At this point not only do you feel the utter disappointment of failure but your failure is also less tolerated by your superiors than it would normally be from others as you already have created this image of yourself of a calculator like human being from which no errors are to be expected. Then you are humbled by your error and you start re-building your image from scratch until the next error which you can never completely avoid but you try to postpone to the best of your abilities. Otherwise you risk losing your name in the organization chart.

Part of your soul must die in agony with every passing day under such circumstances until at the end you are rendered soul-less. Just another robot working on the production line doing his part so the big guy upstairs can afford his private jet.

I have nothing against the man. He can buy all he wants and do as he pleases....but by what logic does he enjoy that luxury and I am deprived of it. Why do I no longer have time to enjoy my hobbies ? Why do I no longer have the luxury to plan a trip abroad? Most basically why do I no longer have a chance to look into my soul and explore myself? Why am I staring at figures, numbers and emails for 9 hours a day and the rest of the day I am busy thinking about similar figures, number and emails that I will inevitably see the next day...and the next day....and the next day....and the next day. Why do weekends never seem enough any longer? Why do I start to worry about Monday morning by Saturday evening? Why can't I completely engross myself in an activity without the back part of my brain thinking about the next meeting at work? One of the few things or perhaps the only thing left that I could safely say takes up my undivided attention is the thought of a girl to which I have deep feelings for. But that’s another story for another day.

Is it the myth of financial security? I say a myth but I am not really sure. At the end of the day you need to put food on the table. You need to survive. But does it have to be a choice between survival and happiness. Is there no formula where you can combine the two? Is there such a thing as happy survival? Can I maintain "survival" while preserving "happy"? Getting a paycheque towards the end of every month is pleasing but I would certainly not call it happiness. At best I would call it a volatile pleasing sensation before you start cutting chunks out of this paycheque to pay the bills of stuff you yourself don't really need but they're needed to preserve your role as a gear in the evil corporate giant wheel. For example, the phone bill and the internet bill. Sure these are 2 essential tools in any person's life but you would survive without them. However you would be rendered useless by your corporate without them. What good are you without a phone and internet to your company? Office hours are not enough. One of the downsides ( well that is relative really ) to the invention of blackberries and IPhones is that working hours have expanded from 9/5 to 24/7. Without phone and internet you are restricted to 9/5 therefore you are useless.

So back to our main point, WHY? AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT? One not so popular opinion is to take a risk. Take a leap of faith. Throw it all behind in search and pursuit of the unknown. The unknown is vague and unclear. Vague and unclear is scary. Specially considering the way modern society has programmed us. You must have a plan. Go for the university which provides more job opportunities. At least that’s how it worked when and where I grew up. During my teenage years those were engineering school, medical school, pharmacy school and business school. But I like writing! The all too convincing answer I would usually think of to such a thought "Do you wanna end up begging at the streets". Don't get me wrong, I do not blame who gave me those answers. In the end they had my best interest in mind, they said it out of love and they might very well be right about it. We have been brought up in way were we always need to have some sort of plan. It does not necessarily have to be a good plan, but it just needs to be there. Like a guideline guiding us to wherever we go. So to snap out of this program after 28 years is not a thought to be taken lightly. Specially when you have grown accustomed to a certain standard of living. Would you risk your life as you know it? Would you risk guaranteed survival with little to no happiness (Moderate happiness at most) in pursuit of pure happiness but also with the possibility of absolute misery should the risk not pay off with no way back? If you had asked me this question a year ago...no 6 months ago I would have answered HELL NO. However as time passes I find myself tempted to flirt with the idea of a " Yes ". Life is not fair by nature so the least we could do is be fair to ourselves...not the other way around at the expense of some paycheque at the end of the month. A paycheque most of which is spent on items which you are under the illusion are useful to you but in fact they bolster the very corporate that gave you that cheque. Its like someone giving you money, tells you its yours in return for some favour but asks you to buy him stuff with the money you made and you do so willingly. Well maybe I am exaggerating a bit with that last sentence, but its pretty damn close.

To be continued.

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This is only a test

2012-01-07T15:52:00.001+02:00

Coming from a computer engineering background, testing things has been a huge deal for us. After every block of code, after adding a new function, or when making any alterations at all actually. We continually try things out, make sure they work, then try out things some more.I'm sure it's the same for other disciplines as well, to different extents and with a lot more applications.

Unfortunately it seems that we've forgotten this approach when pursuing our careers or making certain choices in our lives.

It often feels like everything is so serious - that if you make one mistake, it will all end in disaster. But everything we do is really just a test, an experiment to “see what happens”.

My favorite times in life so far have often started with a “see what happens” spirit.

Let's see what happens if I just go to China for a month.

Let's see what happens if I get back in contact with this really old friend.

Let's see what happens if I live alone for a year abroad.

Let's see what happens if I send this really famous person an email.

The ensuing events that were triggered by all these moments when I decided to see what happens have been nothing short of spectacular.

There is no failure. There can't be, if your only mission was to “see what happens”.

This is a test. This is only a test. There is no downside. Try everything.

Two years later

2011-09-23T21:25:00.000+02:00

It's been almost exactly two years now since I graduated from university and entered "the real world". The world that our professors were so adamantly trying to prepare us for, even though they themselves had chosen to stay in the bubble of academia.

Despite that I've spent one of those two years working on my master's degree and have been working in a corporation for only about half a year, there are a few things I've come to realise now that I'm on the other side of the fence.

This is some of what I've learned so far:

1. You know how everyone tells you that the university days are going to be the best days of your life and you're going to wish they never had to come to an end, leaving you with very little to look forward to? I was never comfortable with that notion. And right now I could say that it is in fact, rubbish.

Yes, I'm fond of my university years' memories very much. And right now, it seems as though we were young(er) and care-free and as light as a bunch of pillowcase feathers. But that's only because we as human beings tend to romanticise the past and we forget about all the hair-pulling, nail-biting, wall-punching and blood-spilling (don't ask) we had to go through.

No phase is "better" than the other. Each has its perks and downsides, and all we have to do is make the most and the best of what we've got at hand as we pass through them.

Maybe we should write more about the things we go through as well, then we could look back at those notes and remember that it wasn't all rainbows and fluff.

Maybe instead of always wishing we were someone else, somewhere else or living during some other time, we could look at who we are now, who we want to become, where we are now, where we want to go and how we're going to do all that in the time we've got.

2. If you never thought about your purpose in life all through your university years, don't expect that it's all going to start magically forming before your eyes once you graduate. On the contrary, it all gets even more overwhelming afterwards. It doesn't become clearer just because you earned a piece of embellished paper to hang on your wall. Identifying your purpose or life's aim, as difficult to figure out as it may be, has nothing to do with getting done with your studies. It's an effort you could choose to take on or ignore at any point of time. And as it turns out, it might have very little to do with your formal university training in the first place. Which brings me to the next point.

3. Most of the people of my class, and most people in general, end up working in completely different fields from what they've studied. So much so, that it's exceedingly becoming tempting to fall into thinking that a big part of the time and effort we spent going through all these courses and projects was a waste, because they haven't benefited us much in "the real world" now. Or maybe it's because we didn't make much use of them afterwards. Apart from the discipline and problem-solving skills we acquired because of them, I could safely say that a lot of the content has been long forgotten. You know what's funny? On my current team (a technology consultancy unit), there are people working with me that have had their university education in computer science, electrical engineering, language studies, archaeology and even applied arts.

What does that say? Apart from something being obviously wrong with our educational model, there's really no need to stress out over whether to take Constraint Programming or Fuzzy Logic as your elective.

If you're one of the fortunate ones who have known exactly what they wanted to do all along and have therefore planned their way well to what they want to reach, you've saved yourself a considerable amount of time along the way. And I sort of envy you. But if, like me, you're still trying to figure it all out, make no mistake that even if your studies were much different from what you want to pursue, it has all formed the layers of what you are, and what you'll build anything else upon. I wouldn't go as far as saying that nothing is a waste, but we can definitely still put it all to good use. The most important thing we need to get down is, "why?". Why do we do anything that we do, and then how to invest in reaching our maximum potential.

4. Contrary to popular belief, life does not end after uni. Also contrary to popular belief, life doesn't end just because you have a 9-5 job. We are in control of our own lives. We choose how to spend our time, we pick our compromises and are responsible for the outcomes of our decisions. Life will revolve only around your day job and sleeping, only if you let it be that way. Whether you choose to take on a job, or a number of them, or none to pursue setting up your own thing. Any of them will need a considerable amount of discipline, and to not kid yourself.

5. It's hilarious how with some parents, you transform into a completely different person just because you have a job. It's like without one, you're a child that doesn't and couldn't know what's good for you, and when you've got one, they fear you not needing them anymore so they become all nice and respectful of your boundaries, finally treating you as an adult.

6. Spending money on useless things decreases exponentially.

7. Your restlessness increases exponentially.

Mind The Crap

2011-06-08T23:18:00.000+02:00

When you raise cats, you become psychologically prepared to deal with all sorts of surprises. From waking up with that big warm chunk of fur spread on your face to coming upon wet coughed-up hair balls on your favorite spot on the couch (hopefully before you sit on it) to finding crap in your bathtub. Whoever told you that cats are the cleanest creatures there are to have as pets, was only partially and relatively correct.
I'm not sure what it is with most cats I've had and bathtubs. Maybe its their grandiosity of spirit, making them believe their litter box is way beneath them and unworthy of their royal usage. Maybe the cats of this generation much prefer the feeling of bathtub floors to kitty litter sand. Whatever it is, it's making my shower-taking process a lot more difficult and time consuming.

As I directed the water from the shower head at the traces of my cat's crap in the bathtub for it to dissolve, it appeared that it must've been there for quite some time since it had dried out, had gotten more stubborn and wouldn't just wash away. And it occured to me how similar that smudge of crap was to the morally depraved environment we're dealing with now.

Corruption in Egypt goes back to years upon years before I was even conceived. It got inexorable, insistant, and clinged with all its might to the once smooth, shiny, clean bathtub floor of our country. So much so, that it seemingly became part of the tub's structure itself. Its presence is not strange anymore. It's not a foreign element that intrudes on our society, rather a given, a "natural" state of things.

We had an uprising and overthrew a dictator who ruled the country for thirty years with injustice, tyranny, ignorance and greed. Some of the key players were kicked out of the game - or at least for now -, a few cards were reshuffled, a few entities renamed and voila! New Egypt.

People had thought that because a number of big shots were caught, the country's going to magically become this utopia that's going to kick all the other countries' collective ass. That was till the stage curtains drew and revealed that what we're dealing with is insanely deeper rooted than that. And it's not in the least bit a surprise, we've known it all along. Corruption's not only confined to business men and the high profile politicians of today. It's about every single person living here. In every household, every street, every shop, every company and every institution, no matter what position or role one has.
WE make this country what it is. WE decide what's important and what isn't on all the different scales of life. How? Because we're the hands that build the bathtub, maintain it and make it what it looks like. Now by "we", I don't mean the few of us who are active on twitter or facebook or the ones who live in a specific part of town.

It's every. single. person. everywhere.

We are one huge bowl of people-salad. Naturally, people who have lived all their lives in different areas of this country aren't going to see eye to eye on a lot matters. Of course even people who live in the same area are going to differ depending on their backgrounds, beliefs, behaviors or which football T-shirt colour is the best. Heck, family members sharing the same living space their whole lives are different! All our differences shouldn't weaken us. On the contrary, it's because we have such a wide variety of people that we're at an advantage. Our differences are strengths if we only let them be.

At the end of the day, we're all in this bathtub together. We're the ones who need it to be in the best form it could be. If we keep squirting flimsy spouts of water all over the place, with no direction or focus, that smudge of crap is not going anywhere. But if we put our minds to directing all our showerheads over the smudges together, one after the other, they will be no more. Our quality of life depends on that one, united, powerful jet of water. And it all starts right here, right now. With me, and you.

And showering with our slippers on for the time being.

Apple nuggets

2011-05-08T19:59:00.001+02:00

I just made a batch of these earlier today. I felt my life had somehow been missing elfin fried nuggets of cinnamon-flavored batter stuffed with delicious apple chunks and covered with a dusting of powdered sugar.

You can have them for breakfast with a nice cup of tea, with powdered sugar, dipped in light doughnut glaze, or serve them as a scrumptious dessert with your favorite ice cream. Whichever way you devour them, they're guaranteed to please your taste buds!

All you need for these miniature bites of happiness:

2-3 apples

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

2+1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1+1/2 teaspoons salt

3/4 cup whole milk

2 tablespoons melted butter

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

and 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon.

First, leave a couple inches of canola (or sunflower) oil in a pot or deep frying pan to heat up over low heat. And let's commence!

In a bowl, add the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Then whisk them together to combine.

Peel two or three apples, depending on their size.

Slice and dice them! You'd want to keep the chunk size a bit smallish so they'd have a chance to cook.

In a separate, smaller bowl, crack two eggs and beat them with a fork. Then add the vanilla extract and mix them together.

Pour the egg mixture and the milk into the bowl with the dry ingredients...

And fold it together gently, without overly mixing it all.

Next, add the melted butter...

And the diced apples...

Fold it all together again, and it's ready to go! If the batter doesn't look chunky enough, by all means add more apples.

And I know it's insanely difficult, but try to resist eating the batter raw.

Now to test the oil, one way is to drop a tiny bit of batter into the oil. If it sizzles and rises to the top immediately, the oil is hot enough. But if it immediately browns and starts to burn, you'll need to decrease the heat a bit.

Here's our cute little test nugget!

Now using a regular teaspoon, take a small scoop of the batter...

And drop it into the oil. Instead of frantically waving the spoon up and down to drop the batter, which will probably end up on your kitchen walls (that's what my brother found intuitive when he tried), you might want to gently give the scoop a little push with your finger instead.

It immediately rises to the top, slowly and steadily starting to brown.

This one actually flipped over on its own. It happens sometimes.

And in a little less than two minutes, you take it out. Observe the awesomeness that is the apple nugget!

I just couldn't help myself, I HAD to bite into it. Heavenly!

Now be careful not to make the scoops too big, or the batter at the center of your nugget will still be raw by the time you have to remove it from the oil.

Drop in as many as your frying pan can take, without crowding them too much. They like to maintain their personal space.
Some might flip over on their own, but more often than not, you'll have to lend them a helping hand.

Take them out when they're golden and crispy...

And let them drain on a paper towel.

The easiest and quickest way to devour them is to collect some of them into your snack bowl...

And give them a generous dusting of powdered sugar (and maybe an extra sprinkle of cinnamon).

Deeee-lish!

Make as many as the batter allows you to. Make more even! You could keep those in the fridge and heat them up in the oven later to eat as you watch a movie, or the next morning for breakfast. They'll be just as yummy. Maybe even more so! :)

In love of Sophia

2011-04-20T03:38:00.003+02:00

When one experiences a rather strong turbulence in the force that keeps their mental and emotional make-up as a whole together, they find themselves needing to better understand what that make-up actually entails. That leads to a need to find a meaning for it all, the reasons why things are, and to make sense of things that have long been ignored, or misunderstood.

It’s not only because of some sort of turbulence, but also an everlasting curiosity about what comprises one’s “fabric”, and how that fabric relates to the world’s.

So in an attempt to calm these incessantly inquisitive voices in my head, I’ve recently taken up learning philosophy, not fully realizing that I’ll actually be ending up with a whole lot more questions than answers. But interestingly enough, I’ve been feeling so much better after each session, more tranquil in a way, even though it’s been making me all the more curious and creating more voices rather than shutting ones that were already there up.

They explained the meaning of philosophy using the constituents of the name; Philos Sophia. Philos in Latin, meaning love, and Sophia, meaning wisdom.

The love of wisdom.

What exactly is wisdom then? Contrary to popular belief, it’s not something you reach with age. I bet we’ve all met younger people who struck us as being a lot wiser than ones much older than they are.

It doesn’t depend on the amount of experiences one has had either, although that sometimes might help. Experience is quite personal, and very unique. It can’t be true for all.

It’s also not the bucketloads of information we know about things. In+formation basically means no formation. There are tons of it to go around, it’s continuously changing, and having a lot of it doesn’t mean you become something.
Information alone isn’t really getting us anywhere. It has to be followed by something critical, integration, so we can reach a “formation”. Once we put things to practice, we transform.

For example, if someone writes everything they know about training dogs, and I read it cover to cover, focusing on every word like my life depends on it, it still doesn’t make me a dog trainer. Without applying the information I’ve attained, without making it a part of me, I don’t take much from it. The first step to truly knowing more, is to first understand what it means to know. Having information and shallowly knowing things doesn’t mean we actually know. We don’t know until we “do”.

Our opinions? They’re no good either. We’re very opinionated beings. We think our opinions in one way or another define who we are. But they too change all the time, and they don’t often project themselves from the purest of sources. Whether we have certain opinions because people around us validate them, and we like that since it gives us a feeling of belonging or being appreciated, or because we strive to be distinct and want it known that we’re “different”, opinions are seldom our own. As impossible it is for us not to have any, and regardless of their importance for “starting from somewhere”, they’re fake.

So what’s genuine wisdom? It can’t change with time no matter how long that is, nor across the borders of countries. It is timeless, eternal, unfeigned. And seeking wisdom then becomes about how much one wants to be close to this timelessness, no matter what their age or experiences are.

But what’s truly timeless? What applied thousands of years ago, applies now and would still apply for as long as the universe continues to exist? They’re these everlasting ideas, better called ideals or principles, that we should get closer to. It’s averting from everything that’s fake and fickle in our worlds, and getting closer to the truth.

Continuously asking questions is key. If we don’t, how else would we go through our education? (Or un-education, but that’s a topic for another time).
We need to decide what kind of students of life we want to be. Do we want to be true to ourselves? Are we looking for authenticity? We most definitely have the capacity and means to learn, and all the time in the world to go through the process.

It’s still a long way to go, though. Most reactions I got when I started voicing my interest in philosophy were ones that deemed it as useless, or me as a crazy person. They asked me “why?!” like I was telling them I’d be building the contraptions from all nine Saw movies and trying them out on babies.

Philosophy isn’t for old German guys with long beards, crazies and people who can’t think of anything better to do with their time. No one is above it, or far from it. It’s us, everything around us and everything we do. With seventy three red lines under the word “do”.

Spray-painting a revolution

2011-04-16T22:57:00.000+02:00

It is with great joy that I present to you my first published piece of writing! Thank you Campus Magazine for the wonderful opportunity. Working on this has been so much fun!

[Text]

Like any other form of art, graffiti is a means of personal expression. An outlet for one’s hopes, desires, anguish or humor to manifest themselves into alluring combinations of lines and colours. Uniquely, though, it’s an art form that is usually associated with an element of danger. Wondering about the artist’s consciousness and perception as well as the general context in which a graffiti was made adds to the piece, making us appreciate the work even more.

Historically, graffiti has been condemned as disorderly conduct, which merited considerable attention and preventative investment; an antisocial behavior that needed to be eradicated.
This was -and for the most part, still is- the case in Egypt. Little did people know, that the silent power of graffiti actually lies within its enormous ability to reach out to the community.

More than anything, it reveals what the people are suffering from or need to express the most. Whether it is an “Ahmed loves Salwa”, or the dissing of a prominent political figure, it exposes a few clues about a city’s soul.
Moreover, it possesses the capability of making the community itself more aware about certain topics by presenting them to the public, such as advertisement banners attempting to convince us of the greatness of consumerism, for example.

Needless to say, it takes more for what some might consider mere scribbles to become powerful messages that actually affect the observer.The more creative the implementation and the more important the message is, the bigger impact it would have on its audience. That, among a number of other issues that are beyond the scope of this article, is why drawing any politically oriented graffiti in Egypt has been banned for as long as any of us could remember.

It’s always been a very common sight over here, to see painted advertisements on the walls of empty blocks of land, or on the sides of old buildings, for nurseries, plumbing services, or marriage conductors (ma’azouns). What we rarely saw up until the revolution started though, were graffiti against the government, on high profile people, or for the betterment of social values.

This wasn’t due to a lack of interest in such issues, however. Rather, there have always been tough restraints concerning expressing one’s opinions regarding “sensitive” topics. Artists often underwent harassment doled out by the police, which sometimes amounted to personal threats if they were to draw anything to criticise the system, or anyone responsible for it. Citizens would also mock such attempts at artistry, deeming them useless and serving no purpose. And according to the law, it falls under vandalizing public property.

Graffiti was an inhibited form of expression. Graffiti artists, a rare breed.

The Egyptian populace mostly prefer visual forms of presentation to literary ones, as Mohamed Gaber, a prominent Egyptian visual artist, told us.

He has been working on his “Graffiti Against the System” project since 2007, hoping it would instigate unrest among the people against the tyranny of the government, the corruption which goes unnoticed and giving a louder voice to the desperate cries of the oppressed that usually fall on deaf ears.

His “Be With the Revolution” icon was one that possessed very significant presence during our revolution, and was passed on to sister countries for their own uprisings.
He remembers a time, a few years back, when he was painting an older version of this icon, “Be With the Art”, on a wall in Alexandria and received cynical feedback from a police officer. He was told to take his art somewhere where people wore suits, that the people on the street would rather watch a belly-dancer and that there was no such thing as street art.

The days went by, the revolution took place, and there seemed to have been an explosion of a long inhibited talent on the Egyptian streets, especially downtown. It was as if the people were on the edge of their seats, waiting for any chance to let their creativity run wild.

Mohamed remembers that police officer today and smiles, thinking of how the people had proven him wrong.

The revolution managed to play a massive role in encouraging graffiti, and altering the community’s perspective of it. People are now inclined to express themselves more often and through any means available to them. Schakels on our freedom of expression have been broken. Fear, a monster overcome.

The most interesting graffiti were the ones found downtown; the ones made by the people who were at Tahrir square, at the heart of it all.

The people there weren’t feeling comfortable, safe, or tranquil when they drew them. For days on end, they were protesting, screaming their lungs out, eating, sleeping, cheering, crying, erecting tents, protecting their grounds and dying in the square. Their graffiti, more than anything else, was genuine and full of heart. Most importantly, their graffiti truly exhibited the emotional roller-coaster the whole nation was experiencing. It documented history.

Mohamed, as well as Ahmed Saad, a graffiti enthusiast of over four years, both agree that the expunging of the graffiti done at Tahrir was a crime. It was, in a matter of speaking, deliberately erasing the blood, sweat and tears that went into this revolution. This art should have been preserved and revered. A museum in Germany was established especially for sheltering parts of the Berlin wall. Some of Banksy’s work, a famous English graffiti artist, are treasured and kept safe, surrounded by glass frames. Our art should not have received any less respect.

The future of graffiti in Egypt is something to be optimistic and excited about, though. As people realize that freedom of expression is one of life’s most essential and god-given rights, more and more graffiti artists are starting to surface. It won’t be as easy to suppress them, or control them with fear anymore. They have been set free, and it is that freedom that is expected to give birth to a lot more talents than we can possibly imagine.

What is important at this stage, is advocating awareness about graffiti and its importance, convincing people that its not merely a disease or vandalism that needs to be quashed out. Also, it should be noted that teamwork is essential; artists with prior experience and knowledge lending a helping hand to the aspiring ones, teaching them techniques and tricks of the trade. That way, such artists would always be able to express their ideas in powerful, effective and beautiful means, that would stay in our hearts and minds no matter how wildly the social or political maps of our country morph.

The water bottle

2011-04-14T16:55:00.000+02:00

He held the empty plastic water bottle with one hand, and pulled a drinking glass to the middle of the table between us with the other. He placed the bottle on top of the glass in perfect balance, then rotated the glass. The bottle stayed stable, not moving on its own, only having the same motion as that which he had caused for the glass, as if it and the glass were one object.
He said: “See? Nothing happens at perfect balance.”

He then skewed the position of the bottle a little bit, so that it settles on the glass top at a point closer to its nozzle, one of the extreme ends of the bottle. Now with a very slight twirl of the glass, the bottle on top rotated all on its own, drawing a three-dimensional infinity sign in the space around it, while still being considerably stable in its place. It had more degrees of freedom, allowing it to dance.
We watched it smoothly transpose itself on the glass without needing to cause its motion.
He went: "Wheeeeee!".

The Game

2011-03-19T00:06:00.003+02:00

[Update]

So as per the request of some of you awesome people, I bring you the English version of the sketch for all the non-Arabic speakers out there. ;)

Friday Love List: "My mom's not old" edition

2010-08-28T01:40:00.004+02:00

Today's my mom's birthday.

Actually, it's on Saturday but I'm taking advantage of the night shift to stick it to a Friday love list. Back off, technically correct people! (which normally includes yours truly, but I'm taking the day off)

She's 50 this year. Like the Egyptian TV broadcast. She wouldn't mind me telling you that too, because people normally mistake her to be significantly younger.

She's beautiful, and talented, and funny, and the kind of person people depend on when they can't depend on anyone else.

She's everyone's mom.

Everyone's sister.

Everyone's wife. No, I'm kidding.

If there's one absolute certainty in my life of 'maybe's, it's knowing that she loves me no matter what, and is always there for me. I know I'm blessed, to say the least.

That's why today's love list is for mom! Two, actually.

Things My Mom Loves

The world's most irritating cat, and Kiki

Everyone else

Dinner parties with people she loves

Decorating and design - and she's a genius at it

Lively colours, but not so much that they hurt your eyes

Good food

Modesty

Growing plants

Beautifully tailored anythings

Antiques and silver-work

Laughing

Sitting on the seashore, marveling at creation

Traveling, which she doesn't get to do often enough

Painting, drawing, sketching. Also genius.

Helping out less fortunate people

Talking to me about life's matters

Moderation, in almost everything

Storing things for my later use

Intelligence

Restoring things people would normally throw away into awesomeness

and..

Things I Love About My Mom

Her big, amazing heart

Her way with a room - she's the butterfly, the soul, the includer

Her ability to see what people need, and provide it for them without making them ask or feel silly

Her ability to figure out everything about a person from meeting them once

Her faith

Her humbleness despite her greatness (which she never admits to)

Her sense of adventure

Her nurturing ways. I don't like having people around when I'm sick, but nobody gets it right like my mom.

Her eye for the right way to set up a room

Her encyclopedic brain

The twinkle in her eyes and her grin when I make her curious about something

How she sings while she cooks

Her cooking

Her laugh

How her hug feels like the safest and warmest place on the face of the earth

Her sarcasm - yeeouch!

Her generosity

How she's ALWAYS right

That she is capable of doing almost anything if it doesn't defy the rules of physics. I kid you not.

Her insurmountable talent

Her taste

How even our cats love her and choose to sleep nowhere else but on her bed, on the pillows above her head

That I'm born on the same day as her

I LOVE YOU MOM!

The number 23

2010-06-03T21:29:00.002+03:00

The following my dear somebodies, is a description of one of the freakiest moments I've ever experienced in my life as far as I could remember.

Given that my laptop's hard drive recently broke down and I couldn't really work for the past few days, especially that (because I'm as lucky as a rabbit's foot) it all coincided with a weekend, I've considered myself on a 'forced vacation'. That means going to the gym more often, properly cooking for the first time this semester and wasting friend's times.

One such unfortunate friend who really helped out a lot through it all, Ciprian, and I wanted to watch a movie. Out of a not so short list of them, we decided on Jim Carrey's The Number 23. We were curious to see him in a 'different' role.

Let alone that we couldn't take him seriously and the movie might have been a lot better with, I don't know, Keanu Reeves (although I don't like him all that much) maybe? It's definitely more his genre than Jim Carrey's.. The movie itself was pretty interesting, with all these things getting reduced to 23. And the unexpected turn of events transformed this movie for me from 'meh.' to 'hmm!'.

Now picture this. We're in Hagenberg. A quiet, lonely, quite often freaky place by nature, especially at night. Had just watched that movie. I'm laptopless and my room's horribly quiet.
Ciprian calls.

Cip: I just noticed something.
Me: What?
Cip: I'm staying in room 5028. You're staying in room 5005.
Me (not getting it yet): Yeaah?
Cip: Subtract them!
(pause)
Me: The most genuine *GASP* in a very very long time.

IT'S TWENTY THREE!

We go to have some tea and Cip goes : You know what else?
Me: What?
Cip: We have the only two room numbers that if you subtract you get 23 and if you add them you get 10032. 32, a flipped 23.

After letting that all sink in, trying to change the subject and Cipri's eyes twitching as he keeps calculating all sorts of other stuff to freak me out, he finds it.

Cip: Your laptop broke on Friday?
Me: Yep.
Cip: That was the 28th of May. 28/5. 28 minus 5 is 23.

NOW TELL ME THAT ISN'T DOWNRIGHT FREAKY!!

One month till I give in my master project and thesis... And the world cup in South Africa starts!

2010-05-14T17:39:00.002+03:00

There's something ticklish about insanely long post titles. A guilty pleasure, just like LOVING these videos:

The magic of my master project.

2010-05-12T02:25:00.001+03:00

Thank you XKCD.

Loving these stop motion animations!

2010-05-11T04:51:00.006+03:00

Remember Wallace and Gromit or Postman Pat? Or those old episodes made to tell the stories of the prophets with clay characters (for those of you from the Arab world)?
These and a lot more similar shows and videos owe their charm to stop motion animation, one of the simplest and most fun animation techniques out there. So much so, that practically anyone with a camera and a PC (and the patience of a saint) could do it!

I've always admired this method of animation. And it's come a long way from Postman Pat, really.
And of course, like many other things left to collect dust on my metaphorical shelf, "if only I had enough time, I'd give it some attention and see what I get"... but we never seem to have enough time for anything anymore. Horrible time management. Think I'll save that for another post.

In the meanwhile, I really wanted to share these short videos of a few killer stop motion animations.
Enjoy!

A spark of inspiration

2010-04-22T01:51:00.006+02:00

You know when you read/see/smell/taste/touch something and an overflowing gush of emotions runs right through you?
You can't help being taken by it. Absolutely letting go and letting it carry you to wherever it may. Your past, your current thoughts, your dreams.

I've been feeling rather down lately. I've got barely two months left for finishing my master project and thesis, and needless to say, it's "crunch time" here in good ol' Hagenberg.
Being unmotivated at times, nervous, confused or downright bored has become the norm. Also guilty, when trying to do something different while knowing there's loads of work that still needs to be done.

But then my good friend Spuddeh came along, writing this:

"Every day our souls are being touched, affected, pulled, pushed, molded, modeled and shaped by the things we see, situations we experience, the breeze that flows against our faces, the smoke we breathe in, be it intentionally … or not. The noise and the silence, ugliness and beauty, music we listen to, scents we smell, the thrill, the fear, the anxiety, shapes and colors, light and darkness, the taste of what we eat and drink, the calmness and the turbulence… and most importantly by the people we meet, those who linger and those who depart, those who mean something to us and those who don't, the good and the bad, the kind and the mean, those we understand and those we wish we are able to understand, those we look up to as someone great and those we feel responsible towards, the ones we miss, those who miss us when we're gone, those who make us happy and those who make us sad.

Life is bitter yet sweet, sad but beautiful, light and dark.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Yin and Yang by *Izabeth "

And for a little bit of time there, I allowed myself to feel completely inspired.

Thank you ever so much Spud =)

Reporting from Hagenberg!

2009-11-26T01:42:00.010+02:00

*sound fades in with white noise*

Duuu Dururu Du Du Duuuuu!

Welcome to the Hagenberg News Channel, bringing you the latest and hottest news from the faraway land of Absentia. This is the late night/early morning (we don't really classify after 2 am and before going to sleep) news report.

There have been strong signs of life on the floor above. The bass of their techno music has been pumping through the walls all day on Tuesday. Inhabitants have also been heard letting out abrupt bursts of screams. Which was pretty ok, but things got a little suspicious when the guys started doing that as well.

Frederick-Gerald Morcos has developed a fever. He was spotted in the kitchen, Tuesday afternoon, enfolded in much warmer garments. Diana Maris fears swine flu and flees from him whenever they cross paths. Rest assured, his (in)sanity level is still intact though. He was befriending a spider hanging from the ceiling while his rice cooked.

Adriana was also seen Tuesday afternoon, after she had had her cup of tea. She was scratching her weirdly inflamed elbow. Seems like a bad reaction to an ointment for Tendinitis, an unfortunate result of Xtreme ice skating last week.

Wondering what's really got the HGB celebrity gossip media buzzing, though?
Just when you thought you've heard it all... Nardine Basta had a whopping 17 and a half sticks of spaghetti!!

The wondrous creature of light and splendor didn't get much time to bestow her awesomeness on the mortals of Absentia on Tuesday since she slept for 16 hours, after having been exceedingly sleep deprived for 3 days. But had finally found the elusive "Dragostea Din Tei". In over 12 languages.

As for the top news on sports,

After being forcedly awakened by his fellow colleagues, to try and help him regain a more "normal" sleeping pattern, Rami went for a few ping pong matches with Sameh, who has only been heard of but not seen for a couple of days now.

Hilda wa salso seen in the corridors, returning from the Banana Building gym. She seemed to be in pain because of her back injury. Also an unfortunate consequence of Xtreme ice skating. We hope she'll be fit for the grand tournaments at the end of the semester. Sponsors aren't worried though.

On a brighter note, Ciprian has made it safely to Petrosani, Romania after a painstakingly long 17 hour journey. We hope he gets back here safely as well, WITH those eagerly awaited recipes. =p

Wednesday, on the other hand, didn't start off very well. An excruciatingly mind boggling hour and a half of pure abstract maths, described as "listening to very good music" leaves me feeling like I'm completely tone deaf.

This was followed by a "darkest point of the course" machine learning class and grocery shopping from the Turkish market, that seemed to have serious problems the with electric supply (among other things, like not getting blood all over the plastic bag with the meat!), afterwards.

After a long bus ride back to Absentia, the presentation seminar from 7 was quite chocolatey! Daisuke presented winning strategies for the birrerchocoret probrem (a.k.a the bitter chocolate problem), and Sameh sank in a "chocolate factory"... xD
Let's just leave it at that. Lives are at stake here. Namely, mine.

Well that's all for today folks. Thank you for joining us. You've been with Ms. AWESOME, wishing you a pleasant dawn.

*transmission out*

And this is a pretty special dawn too.. It's the wa2fa!
Luckily fasting it here won't be a big problem. The sun rises at 7:18 and sets at 16:08.
But this is the first time I spend Eid El Adha away from home...

Not that I think I'm missing out on the streets reeking with the stench of slaughtered sheep or anything. But definitely missing out on the FOOOOD! And the general extra generous spirit of this holiday. And huge family gatherings. And collecting the "eideyya"! And big outings with friends... *sigh*

But we're planning something special over here too. Very excited about it.
And I'm going to need all your good luck wishes that the cooking trials will turn out ok! Please!

Well, have a WOOONDERFUL Eid everyone! Kol sana wento tayebeen! Especially all the ones who have to spend it away from home.

S.O.S!

2009-11-19T01:55:00.007+02:00

Egypt and Algeria played against each other on the 14th on Egyptian ground.

Algerian bus allegedly attacked by bricks thrown by Egyptians, injuring two Algerian players' heads and one's hand.

A setup by Algerians?

Egypt won 2-0.

......

Egypt and Algeria played today on Sudanese ground.

Algeria won 1-0 and got qualified for the World Cup.

AND THEY KILL THE EGYPTIANS AFTERWARDS!!

Fans literally beaten to death!

They cut the roads leading to the airports (that were originally closed!), and buses taking Egyptians there were attacked, badly injuring men, women and children (who takes a kid to something like that anyway!!).

They chase Egyptians down the roads with knives!

Sudanese people help shelter Egyptians till things calm down and *proper* enforcements arrive.

Haven't they won already?! Why the bloodshed?!

"People, please write to FIFA reporting the attack on Egyptians in Sudan and request banning Algeria from participating in the World Cup for their barbaric actions HERE!
Losing is one thing we can tolerate, but NOT TERRORISM."

Oh sweet, sweet graduation!

2009-11-01T02:35:00.010+02:00

5 years of hard work, staying up way too many nights and slaving away in the GUC mill of torment.
5 years of friendships made, lost, kept and lessons well learned.
5 years of dreaming, aspiring, believing and striving.

5 whole years, it's been. Yoda, I've become.

It's been one hell of a ride! And today was the grand finale. The crowning victory over everything we've been through these past years.

And words quite elude me, describing how I really feel right now. You can't sum up this whole period of time with everything it held in a paragraph or blog post. Or maybe it's just because I'm not eloquent enough. But I could say this:

THANK GOD WE GOT OUT WITH OUR SANITY INTACT! .. Or maybe not.

No, but seriously...

Mom, dad, I would've never been where I am right now without you.
Dad, you've let me go my own way even though you wanted me to become a dentist like the future of mankind depended on it. You stood by my decisions, even the ones you weren't necessarily fond of, and have always been ever so generous.

Mom, your very first words when I had trouble choosing where to go, "spread your wings and FLY!", have made me go after just that.. you've always supported me no matter what, let me make my own mistakes and been the warmest, most caring safe place I could have ever wished for.

I genuinely appreciate all the sacrifices both of you have made for me, that you always wanted the best for me, all the patience it took on your part, and your mere presence in my life.

I love you with all my heart.

My dearest friends, my trusty shoulders of comfort, my shining beams of light in a sometimes dark, cold world (a tad overkill?), I consider myself EXTREMELY fortunate to have met and have had the chance to get to know incredibly wonderful people as you.

It's because of you that I looked forward to going to the university everyday despite the long, grueling hours we had to spend there. How could I not? You made life so exciting!

We've created activities that will continue growing and evolving long after our class graduation. Who of us could forget how GCBT started? How a bunch of 'kids' managed to bring it all together and accomplish what many thought wasn't possible? I'm more proud of what we've begun each passing year!

We stood together for and against a shipload of things during these years. We laughed, we cried... Sometimes both at the same time. Including curse words. And object throwing. And minor injuries.

We've argued, and OH MAN have we argued! We've argued our tushies off over the years!! But never cared less for each other. Not one tiny bit.

Your friendships have coloured my life. And to some extent, I believe that I am who I am now because of you. Each and every one of you who has left even the smallest of impressions on me. I will forever carry you in my heart.

And while we're on the subject, Moblerone and Pesty, I wish you were here today. It's not quite the same without you...

Aagh, I have a flood of memories I can't contain. My train of thought is all over the place. And it seems like it has cloned itself to cover even more terrain. The presence of almost EVERYONE at the same place (not any place too, but at our GUC) all at once was, and still is, pretty overwhelming!

It rained a little. But I guess that was just the Hagenberg curse that came along.

Happy, excited and proud faces all over the place. Even noodle the cat's. He's not quite the "noodle" he used to be though.

Loads of camera flashes.

An entrance march soundtrack that sounded like a Spanish guy was going to jump out somewhere with a rose in his mouth and do the Flamenco.

My heels sinking in the soft grass bed with almost every step.

Nesma getting us jumping all around, playing on her xylophone.

Dad squishing me. Tears in mom's eyes. Taher being exceedingly sweet.

Mo7sen being there even though his brother's engagement was on the same day.

Prof. Slim's speech! What's better than working hard? - Working smart. What's better than dreaming? - Imagineering! What's better than having a vision? - Having a cause. And what's better than a long speech? - A SHORT ONE! Hehe..

Hearing your name called, your friends roaring with cheers and receiving THE certificate, thankfully without tripping infront of tens of thousands of people.

On stage with my best friends by my side, feeling like I could take over the world.

Bärenhunger!

Graduation gifts! ^_^

An abundant amount of pictures. Here's a few from the rehearsal and ceremony:

Belia, childhood bff, and I

THE TRIPLET!

CHOCOS!

MO7SEN! Bff since school =)

Receiving the certificate, pictured with Ashraf Mansour, GUC president.

Right after the pledge... YAAAAYY!

More YAAAYY! with school friends.

Prof. Slim Abdennadher

2 am *lunch* at Burger King.

........ and nostalgia.

*sigh*

This place has given and has taught me so much on so many levels. We're all very well prepared to take on whatever life might bring. And I intend to leave no stone unturned.

You know the saying that goes "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right."?

Remembering this, is the most important tool we'll ever come across to help us make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - crumble in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

Find your calling and follow your heart. However cliché that might sound.
And when you do, tell me how. =p

I'll end this with one of my old favorite tracks. It's never been so suitable as it is now...

My friends, wear sunscreen... =)

Hugs and "batates vienna"s,
4-1099 ♥

Old drawers

2009-10-01T11:20:00.007+02:00

A Myth of Devotion
By Louise Glück

[src]

When Hades decided he loved this girl
he built for her a duplicate of earth,
everything the same, down to the meadow,
but with a bed added.
Everything the same, including sunlight,
because it would be hard on a young girl
to go so quickly from bright light to utter darkness
Gradually, he thought, he'd introduce the night,
first as the shadows of fluttering leaves.
Then moon, then stars. Then no moon, no stars.
Let Persephone get used to it slowly.
In the end, he thought, she'd find it comforting.
A replica of earth
except there was love here.
Doesn't everyone want love?
He waited many years,
building a world, watching
Persephone in the meadow.
Persephone, a smeller, a taster.
If you have one appetite, he thought,
you have them all.
Doesn't everyone want to feel in the night
the beloved body, compass, polestar,
to hear the quiet breathing that says
I am alive, that means also
you are alive, because you hear me,
you are here with me. And when one turns,
the other turns—
That's what he felt, the lord of darkness,
looking at the world he had
constructed for Persephone. It never crossed his mind
that there'd be no more smelling here,
certainly no more eating.
Guilt? Terror? The fear of love?
These things he couldn't imagine;
no lover ever imagines them.
He dreams, he wonders what to call this place.
First he thinks: The New Hell. Then: The Garden.
In the end, he decides to name it
Persephone's Girlhood.
A soft light rising above the level meadow,
behind the bed. He takes her in his arms.
He wants to say I love you, nothing can hurt you
but he thinks
this is a lie, so he says in the end
you're dead, nothing can hurt you
which seems to him
a more promising beginning, more true.

World Wide Moment in 3 minutes!

2009-09-09T02:04:00.004+02:00

Ah, I'm so excited!

Will update when I take the pic ;D

------------------ (10 minute interval)

So the World Wide Moment is about a set moment in time where people from all over the world will take an instant picture of anything surrounding them and upload it to the WWM website and it'll be added to a gallery, celebrating unity, collaboration and peace!

I find it awesome.

One moment in time .. where EVERYONE.. or well, everyone who's taking part in this, posts a picture they took THAT moment!

Is it just me (I know it's not just me), or do you see the power of something like this too? I think it could be really inspiring!

Oh well, here's my WWM entry!

This is Soubie (from 'Sobia', a milk and coconut drink), my new kitten! Dr Evil (apparently not as evil as he claims) got him for me two days ago. He's the cutest tiny thing ever! And he loves to sit up there on his little soft pillow tower over my bed and keep an eye on things.. Occassionally come down give me a head massage too. And type gibberish to my friends on MSN.

I'm having a GREAT birthday, uhm, little-over-a-week! Hehe.

So this is what I've been up to..

2009-09-05T18:01:00.008+02:00

One thing in particular that's been taking up loads of time from my summer is applying for a study visa to hopefully do my master thesis abroad.

A few of us 'METians' (Media Engineering and Technology students) have been fortunate enough to be awarded scholarships to do our masters at the Johannes-Kepler University in Linz, Austria. A great opportunity for us, but what a gruesome process it is to actually apply for the visa! You have to get a paper from I don't know where and get it stamped from a further I don't know where, then get back and get another paper and chase the 'basha' around Cairo's police stations because he's the only one authorized to stamp that paper, certify papers, translate papers.. And the embassy. Oh sweet embassy. You go through so much trouble just to get inside and then find out they want another type of bank statement than the one you've submitted.

Ugh! Add the summer heat and waking up extra early to be able to go on all these trips before all the government facilities close up by about 2 pm, and you've got a real recipe for frustration. But I was really lucky to have had my best friend/navigator/entertainer/DJ wannabe =p chocos come along on these errands and help out a whole lot. It made them enjoyable rather than horrifying. And it breaks my heart that he won't be able travel with the rest of us because of his military service.

If everything goes well and the visa wasn't delayed for any reason, I should be traveling on the 13th inshaallah! And I've yet to prepare anything at all..

(src)

On a slightly (not really) different note, my lovely friends threw me and my gorgeous Roumie, our 22nd birthday party on a yacht last Monday!

They reserved it all for us, filled it with balloons and hung a cute banner (all in purple!), got delicious catering for iftar, and we cruised the Nile for the night. Was absolutely beautiful! And I was so happy to see all those people! Friends that go way back to the school days, ones from uni and others made along the way..
It was missing the mighty choco bear, though.. but he had to attend his brother's PhD defense that was taking place at the same time. Congratulations choco bear's brother!

But the night was extremely special.. and I absolutely loved it. Thank you dearest friends for giving me a fabulous night and a great start to my 22nd year!

(Roumie and I with our birthday planners)

(a big bunch of university friends)

(some school friends)

(the 3 S babes picture)
Visit S babe 1 ;)

(BFFs ♥ )

That poster we're holding is my birthday gift to Roumie! That was so much fun to work on and I'm ECSTATIC that she liked it! I was getting so rusty that I was really worried I'd screw it all up, but thank god they turned out looking.. kinda.. similar to us. Hehe.

Here it is for a closer look:

Speaking of birthday gifts, you know what's absolutely, without a doubt, totally "STELLAAA"? (Like, literally?)

Having a STAR named after you!

Choco bear passed by today and gave me this package from "The International Star Registry" that has these in it:

(The official certificate)

(My star's position and the Monoceros constellation)

There's also a star shaped pendant with my star's initials and date of naming (my birthday this year!) and wooden frames stuck at customs. Hehe.

So now there's a star up there called "Lujee The Buttercup". HOW CUTE IS THAT!

Thank you SO much Teef, for the 'interstellarly ' awesome gift!

15 reasons why you should wish my mom a happy birthday RIGHT NOW.

2009-08-28T21:32:00.009+02:00

1. It’s her birthday, so it seems like a good time.

2. She acts a decade younger than she is, so if you suck up, she might give you some advice on how to stay similarly youthful (not useful, youthful.)
3. She tends not to focus on herself, which means the rest of us have to make up for it.
4. She will cook you a lovely dinner that will make your eyes roll back in your head.
5. She’s the most generous person you'll meet.
6. She’s the Do It Yourslef queen, from her hair to house projects to making her own clothes to creating art for her home. You could learn a thing or two from the lady.
7. She laughs at her own stories when she tells them, sometimes enough that you totally miss the punchline.
8. Since she's given birth to me on this same day 22 years ago, she's become quite overshadowed.
9. She will get distracted from bugging me about tidying my room, eating more, getting more sleep, etc.
10. She is the best, most beautiful, most intelligent, most lovely mother my brother and I could have ever wished for.
11. She adores everyone who loves me. You want in on this deal.
12. She is the best listening ear you ever knew, even if she does raise an eyebrow now and then (but probably just at me.)
13. She has the kind of heart that you wish people had… the world would be a better place to live in.
14. She is turning 49. NOT 50. Because heads almost rolled.

15. I love her. And you should, too. =D

To my beautiful mama, who is brilliant, beautiful, funny, silly, gifted, creative, wise and unbelievably long suffering, a HUGE “Happy Birthday!!”

You're the ultimate best and I love you!

Ramadan Kareem!

2009-08-21T15:15:00.005+02:00

Finally! We've been waiting in anticipation for some time now!

For Muslims all around the world, this is our favorite time of the year.

There will be fasting till sunset, more praying and more Quraan reading.
There will be feeding the poor and a heightened sense of charity.
There will be delicious Katayef, Khoshaf and Dates! (and a lot more sweets, but these are my favorites)
There will be visiting all the relatives and family friends you never get the time or chance to see otherwise.
There will be 'fawanees' (pl. 'fanoos', a sort of lantern), street decorations and Iftar tents.
There will be families having the first meal of the day TOGETHER. (This means a lot to me since normally, we never have any meals together because our schedules are so different)
There will be madfa3 el iftar (the cannon that blows on sundown), eza3et el sharq el awsat (a famous radio station, generations old) and fawazeer Ramadan (riddles prepared to be aired on this month).

There will be loads of love and warmth all around.

There will be no evil this month.

(Mine, on Facebook Graffiti)

A very summery one this year, though. But surprisingly, the weather's not as hot as I had expected it to be. There's this cool breeze you'd have never felt in mid August in Cairo!

May it be a wonderful and blessed month for all of you! =)

Summer time!

2009-08-17T14:31:00.008+03:00

It's been a crazy summer this year!

Hung out a lot with friends, tried new things, attended marriage related events, got a haircut (actually two), traveled to the north coast, Elgouna and Marsa Alam (both on the Red Sea), went around preparing papers for applying for a study visa at the Austrian embassy (will tell you later)...
And a best friend was told he had swine flu and got trapped at one of the crappiest hospitals in Cairo for 24 hours only to be told the next day that he didn't have swine flu, then had to go to the hospital for viral pneumonia and German measles and couldn't see him for about three weeks!

Crazy.

But very interesting overall.

5... 4... !

2009-06-25T22:44:00.008+03:00

5 professors I'll always remember from the GUCian years:

1. Dr. Wafik Lotfallah
He gave us the Math 3 course in our second year. That was probably the most dense maths course we've ever taken, but it didn't feel as heavy as it would have if anyone else had given it to us. He was also the very first person I met at the university! Even before we started.. I'm not sure how it happened but my dad knew one of the upper management people (I still get mixed up with their names) and he had me sit with Dr. Wafik and he talked to me about the faculty of engineering.. hehe, that was about the time I was switching from the faculty of biotechnology which I had originally applied to.
I'll always remember him for the respect I have for him, for being very friendly and ever so decent, for the Calvin and Hobbes comics he always started his lectures with =) and for the academically irrelevant question in the middle of each lecture about music or whatever else!

2. Dr. Karim Darwish
Gave us the Digital Logic Design course in our 2nd semester. A course I didn't need to open a book or do a single thing to study for and got an A+, because he was that good of a lecturer. I couldn't not pay attention when he had such presence.
He told us of Sun Tzu's Art of War and that "you never know just how close you were to success before you gave up" and that phrase stuck with me ever since.

3. Dr. Rimon Elias
Prolly taught me more courses than any other professor! Computer Graphics, Web Technologies, Visualization and Animation, Computer Vision and Computer Generated Imagery using Maya.
To be honest, we hated how tough he was on us most of the time. He squeezed the life out of us with mini-projects he called assignments, grueling final projects and inhumane exams! But as long as we're being honest here, I must say I've learnt the most from his courses. Because of all what we had to deal with, many times under insane pressures, I could say I wouldn't have had as good a command on visual computing related topics as I do now. "Tough love" ? Call it as you may, but I'll most definitely miss him.

4. Prof. Dr. Mark Ihle
Oh boy. I've ranted about his ways before, about how he has this certain vision he wanted to apply on us by any means. Maybe if it were any other semester, we would have taken it better... but he came on our very last semester, giving us 3 courses out of 7, and expected all these new rules and techniques to work. He couldn't meet us midway with this. In addition, this was the first time for me to fear failing 2 courses because of how bad the midterms and all the quizzes went... It was like he was set out to show us that we're no good or something.
Despite everything, I'll remember his trials at making us understand what he was trying to do, his Audio and Acoustics quiz that was completely based on our hearing ability to differentiate tone levels, his Advanced Video Processing lectures, a semester before, and how much I liked them (and him) then, and how all what he ultimately wanted was for us to get educated, not just learn for some exams. To be a Master of Science, not a Slave of Science, as he put it.

5. Ms. Mary Hatakka
She's one of the most influential teachers I've ever had the pleasure to learn from. She gave me the Scientific Methods and English for Academic Purposes courses in the first year. Finnish, creative, interesting, unconventional and loved Nightwish! I looked forward to her classes even after the long, exhausting days at the GUC. Even though the fact that she had to leave us before the semester had ended wasn't very pleasant, we were very disturbed and sad that she was... And she will never be forgotten.

4 famous GUCian phrases:

1. "Focos!" - Prof. Slim
2. "Imagine birds that swim and squirrels that fly" - Dr. Mohamed Tawfik
3. "Welcome to the GUC" - whenever something unfortunate happens.
4. "I need to sleeEEEeeep" - practically everyone.

It's SO close, people!!!

8 ... 7 ... 6!!

2009-06-24T00:29:00.014+03:00

This old man, he played six;
He played knick-knack with some sticks.
With a knick-knack, paddy whack,
Give a dog a bone;
This old man came rolling home.

Do ya remember that nursery rhyme? =D LOL .. Eh, such sweet memories...

As I had expected, the internet connection wasn't really in top shape in our room at Marassi, where we were staying at the north coast. Well, at least inside the room, it wasn't.
Also, to my luck, the Vodafone network was... poop. There was hardly any signal on our phones and the wireless internet USB thingy was practically useless. So this is a collected post of the 8, 7 and 6 countdown posts... + a few pics from the trip! ;D

So here goes...

8 things I WON'T miss about the GUC:

1. The indifferent and utterly slow people working at the canteen and copy centre.

2. The disorganization and how they've changed their decisions about things after it was too late for us to do anything about them.

3. The horrible internet connection and insane restrictions on it. Can't download most things and can't surf most sites - even if they're work related!

4. With very minor exceptions, the rudeness of the admission people and how they've confused and misinformed us about stuff since day 1.

5. Rumors, rumors and more rumors.

6. How at many times it appeared that the business is the first priority rather than the students' wellbeing.

7. How they're always SO late about letting us know our grades.

8. How it sometimes seemed that they have no filtering process at all over most TAs and professors.

7 ways the GUC has influenced me:

1. It has made me more patient. On a lot of different notes. With people, with incompetent staff, with work, with seeing my work's worth... etc.

2. It's trained us on having a humungous workload, so I think we could basically take anything thrown at us by now.

3. It's made me more up to my responsibilities.

4. It got me to be a night crawler =p

5. It's shown me how amazing people could be... and how low too. One should always be appreciative of the amazing and cautious with the low.

6. It has practically forced us to be ready for the real life and deal with all sorts of people.

7. It's taught me to manage things better under pressure.

6 projects done during these 5 years I had a great time working on:

1. (4rth semester) THE INFAMOUS GAME! We had to program a 'Triominos' game in Java for a course project. That was our first big scale project we work on at the GUC =)
We laugh about how it took us such a long time back then and how terrifying the evaluations were when we could probably finish it in half a day now looll
Also, Tifa and I work together on everything ever since! =D It was the beginning of an awesome partnership and friendship!

(Team: Tifa, Nano and I)

2. (5th semester) The Computer Graphics 3D game, "Torture at the GUC". We had to build a 3D shooting game using OpenGL. Maybe you could guess who were being shot in our game from the title, hehe.

(Team: Tifa, Hisham and I)

3. (6th semester) The Digital System Design project. We used Verilog to design a computer processor. And ours was the only one that completely worked in the end! =D

(Team: Tifa and I)

4. (7th semester) The Advanced Media Lab and Embedded Systems projects. For the Media Lab, Tifa and I made a Greek mythology encyclopedia using SMIL and a motion detecting alarm system using Java. For the Embedded course, we had to use hardware to implement a car parking distance detection system.

(Team: Tifa, Reema, Raja, Mo and I)

5. (8th semester) THE BACHELOR PROJECT! Tifa and I traveled to Stuttgart, Germany for 5 months and worked on it there. We had to build an emotion detection system based upon video streams. So a computer would know what you're feeling if your face is in front of a camera...
That was one of the best times ever and I'm proud of us the most for this one! =D

6. (9th semester) It was one of the heavier semesters when it came to projects. The biggest of which was the Advanced Video Processing one! We had to program a full video encoder/decoder with all sorts of options and tunable parameters using Matlab. Man, was that tiring! But we still had a great time looll

(Team: Tifa, Reema, Raja, Fatma and I)

.........

And here are some snapshots from the north coast! =D

♥

9!

2009-06-20T23:37:00.007+03:00

... things I've learnt at the GUC (apart from my education):

1. A card game called "tarneeb". Was actually the very first thing I learned over here. Hehe

2. Loads of awesome computer tricks!

3. A lot about human nature.

4. You reap what you sow. So do your work, don't be stupid! =p

5. "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."... Trust a few. A very few few.

7. Even if you do wrong to none, you shouldn't expect that none will do you wrong. Like that quote about being a vegetarian's not an excuse to think the bull won't attack you, or something along those lines.

8. Procrastination mastery ;p

9. A true friend is all it takes to get through anything. And I've been extremely lucky in that area.. <= )

So I'm on my way to the North Coast to spend a couple of days at the beach with my lovelies, Lue and Roumie, as I'm writing this now. xD hehe WE'RE SO EXCITED!
We have a huge gap between our exams, don't judge us! =p

I'm not sure about the internet connection over there, so I don't know if I'll be able to post everyday for the next two days. I might collect them together in one post when I get back...

Ah well, bis später! ;D

10! IT HAS BEGUN!

2009-06-19T21:43:00.011+03:00

Bakerella

And by "it", I mean THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!!

The countdown to the final final exam at the GUC! The last day as an undergrad! THIS IS HUGE PEOPLE!

I'm overwhelmed by this bittersweet feeling. On one hand, we're finally graduating! No more assignments to give in, pesky quizzes to take every other week and worrying about having our attendance taken or we'd get our courses dropped. We're starting off on a new exciting phase. Some of us are going to continue with their master studies here, some are looking to do that abroad (as I would be, inshaa'Allah!), some are going to start working at companies, others as teaching assistants, some guys must do their time at the army and a few girls plan to stay at home and get settled down with their significant others. Or not.

This transition is not like any of the others we've been through before. The next step of the way isn't known by default. The biggest choices I've ever had to make before in that respect was to choose whether to take the Egyptian highschool certificate, the IGCSEs or the American Diploma. And with which university to apply at, and even though that in particular was a tough decision in my case, it's on a MUCH bigger scale now. And everybody's going on in his own way.

So in some way, I don't really want to leave. I don't think I'm completely ready to commence the "real life" yet. Or maybe I'm ready but I just don't want to? There was some sort of comfort knowing we belong to this place. No matter how frustrating it got there sometimes, there was a type of comfort between the GUC walls.

I really believe that words are failing me here. They're not doing what I'm feeling any justice.

*sigh*

So, I have 10 days left at the GUC. My last two exams are on the 27th and 28th and since it's Friday, I'm dedicating the first countdown post to 10 things I love about the GUC:

1. The huge variety of people I got to know over these 5 years I've spent here. I've learnt a whole lot from each and every one! I'm especially grateful and very lucky to have known those I intend to keep for life =)

2. The education I got.

3. All the extracurricular activities I've been participating in.

4. That it has given us the chance to spread our wings and fly. Literally.

5. The campus. Especially at night!

6. The TA's who would print us our reports when we couldn't do it ourselves the night before.. and who have generally cut us some slack on different occasions.

7. The security guys who know me by name and say hello when we pass each other by in corridors or wherever.

8. The guard dogs! Especially the very handsome Ra3d, Ringo and King! =D

9. Noodle the cat. I've known this cat since year 1 and named it noodle because it was so tiny and thin. Today, noodle's a very fat cat and apparently got himself a huge family.

10. That it's not somewhere too polluted, noisy and busy like Cairo University or the old AUC campus.

....... it's beach time now! =D

First swine flu case in Egypt!

2009-06-02T19:03:00.006+03:00

It has just been announced (Aljazeera, in Arabic), a mere 2 hours ago, that Egypt is suffering its first swine flu case!!

A 12-year old Egyptian-American arriving in the country for a summer vacation tested positive for the disease. Her mother and other passengers on the flight tested negative for the disease though.

Swine flu was not previously present in Egypt, though the government ordered the slaughter of all the nation's pigs after initial reports of swine flu outbreaks in other countries.

This is EXTREMELY worrying! We're not prepared for a swine flu outbreak in Egypt, especially in the HYPER-populated Cairo! With our poor quarantine precautions, all-over disorganization, and generally careless staff workers.

This little girl (they don't want to disclose her name) was moved from the airport to a hospital in the CENTER of Cairo. Shouldn't these cases get quarantined AT the airport?!
So people were around her at the airport, she was driven to one of the most crowded of hospitals, through the most crowded of streets so three quarters of Egypt's population would die. Because the bird flu still isn't doing that efficiently enough for the pea-brains.

This could probably turn into an Egyptian version of "I am Legend" or "28 days later". I could sort of imagine that if this gets to the Egyptians, it'll no longer be your average H1N1 disease. We'd probably turn into something out of those movies.

Meanwhile, we're preparing for Obama's visit to Egypt after tomorrow in the most ridiculous of ways:
(Also in Arabic, apologies to non-speakers)

Sunday Love List - because I was too busy to do it on Friday..

2009-05-31T16:43:00.009+03:00

Extremely busy as a matter of fact!

How so, you say?

(Try saying that eight times.. fast! Hehe)

Well, here's a little taste of what I've been, and currently am, going through :

Having 7 quizzes, 2 project reports and 2 projects in two weeks, apart from the normal assignments, lab preparations and classes.
Trying to organize preparing our yearbook since the university isn't going to make one for us this year.
Working on a design to print on T-shirts for my faculty to wear on our last days at the GUC.
Life.

Also had a few unfortunate events like:

Being pursued by a gigantic rabid housefly in my bedroom.
Getting a bit of basil stuck in my eye for an hour, during which I began to see in Italian.
Inserting a toothpick into the palm of my hand.
Tripping on the steps on the way to the kitchen, slamming my shoulder to the rail and hitting my toe against the kitchen table's leg. (Still, nothing as serious as Lue, breaking her right foot's toe, having inflamed ankle tendons and almost completely breaking her left foot's big toe nail off. In. One. Week.)

I'm ready for some love! LOTS OF IT!

Isn't he the cutest?!

El-Ow-Vee-Ee:

(It's the bullet point post, everyone!)
Getting this award from the gorgeous, talented and sweet S babe from One Long Road! ^^

I'm passing this award on to Miss Honey from Forever Unique because she IS truly unique! And her website is fabulous! And I love her! Hehe

The IELTS exam results. Tifa an I both got 8/9! Only one point shy from an "expert user"! YAY!

Getting a fresh new haircut. Turned out shorter than what I would have hoped for, but I really like it.

The official photo-shoot for our class at the university last Monday! That was an AWESOME day! Quite emotional but AWESOME!
Here are a few pics from the event:

Media Engineering & Technology
The cute books Lue, Roumie and I had made that we're getting everyone to sign before we graduate.

My friend Karim's short film "One Pound" was chosen as one of the top 5 videos this month for the "Stranger Festival". One of them will win and go to Amsterdam!
Last chance to vote for it is today! So please go check it out and give him your vote if you like his work. =)
A bunch of short animation films Tifa got me! They're amaaazing! So is my EXTREMELY belated 3eideyya =p
A very VERY old childhood friend finding me on Facebook and catching up on each other's lives.
The interesting answers I got to a particular QOTD (Question of the Day). I asked "Would you rather be filthy rich without a significant other or be with your love but be as poor as a garbage can?". What do you guys think?
The Happy Prince and other magnificent short stories by Oscar Wilde.
Starting to get the hang of Photoshop a little bit. I know. I'm such a late bloomer.
By the way, what do you think of this extremely rough and initial design for the class's T-shirt graphic? It should go on the back.
Any suggestions or other ideas? Would really appreciate it! =)

As always be sure to write your own list in the comments or on your blog! Spread the love, people! =D

Friday Love List: It's all about YOU!

2009-05-22T21:08:00.006+03:00

I'm loving a lot of things in life, from sunshine to the smell of coffee to the beach to whatever song I’ve got on constant repeat right now.

In fact, I use the word “love” all the time, especially here on this blog.

Some people might say that devalues love or makes it less of a big deal than it should be, but I’m not terribly concerned.
I know that when it comes to “real” love — the love you feel for the important people in your life, the love you put into the world — actions speak louder than words.
But today? Words are exactly what I want to use.
Today’s Love List is dedicated to all the things I love in and about the people in my life.
Not naming names, mind you, but just celebrating ALL the things — silly, small, medium, big and HUGE — all of you bring to my world that humble me and fill me and turn my heart into pure squoosh.
I don’t feel worthy of all the blessings, but that doesn't seem to matter. You just pour it out, and for that?
Thank you!

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT Y'ALL!
You encourage without hesitation.
You know the exact moment to say the exact best dry, witty thing.
You tell people you love them every single day.
You forgive the misfires.
And you forgive them completely.
Your eyes shine when you tell stories.
You choose words with care.
You talk with your hands to the point where you might catch some air.
You get knocked down, but you don’t stay there.
Your faith is strong but quiet.
You speak into situations, and actual change happens as a result.
I love the way you blush when people say kind things to you.
And the way it's difficult for you to accept compliments.
Your energy is unmatched.
Your music recommendations.
Your wisdom is much greater than your years.
You got up and danced anyway.
Your brain wraps around ideas and won’t let go.
The talents you have that completely astound me — how do you DO that?
You get my jokes. No matter how stupid they are.
I love your giant dreams and your inability to downsize them.
You listen better than anyone else I know.
You twirl when you try things on.
You go out of your way to make others feel at ease.
Your insane, unhinged laugh is the highlight of ANY day.
You aren’t afraid to say you don’t know.
You don’t mind if I get emo — and you know how to joke me back out of it.
You laugh until you cry.
You are always there for me, through thick and thin.
You have the biggest, kindest heart I've ever seen.
Your patience and understanding.
Your dependability.
Your pleasant surprises.
Constantly motivating me to carry out my plans, no matter how silly.
And how you indulge my silliness.
Your belief in me.
You always want to share.
Your thoughtfulness.
Your love for plants.
And how you nip a Jasmin bud when it blooms and put it on my bedside commode.
Your limitless generosity.
You can fix absolutely anything. Handiest person ever.
You loved me first, and still love me best.

Now, feel free to write your own list in the comments, or on your own blog! ♥

The love happpens every Friday...

2009-05-15T22:48:00.004+03:00

It’s Friday!

And it has been a great week, people!

Mind you, I've been having a hard time knowing what day of the week it is because of the shiploads of work all the professors just remembered they had to throw at us before the final exams next month (that usually means less sleep, deep sighs, and making pained expressions throughout).

The final exams next month. Next month. The FINAL final exams. Last ones ever as an undergrad!

I'm not sure how I feel about that... It's happening way too quickly! *minor freak out*
I'll save that for another post when I organize my thoughts.

Still... there is something magical about a Friday, and I for one, WILL CELEBRATE IT WITH LOVE!

So, have you done a Friday Love List before?
It’s not just a mental exercise or a filler post or some sort of airy-fairy way of thinking about ice cream and lollipops. Not that any of those would be particularly bad… that’s just not what they're about.
No, the Friday Love List represents the conscious act of calling up all the parts of your life that make it worthwhile, and saying them (er, writing them) out loud.
I know that there are hard times going on all over, in every possible shape imaginable. Maybe you feel like this is a futile, silly thing when the rough stuff in your life just isn’t changing. Maybe you need a good vent more than you need a Love List. After all, you can’t wave some joy wand and fix your job or your broken toe (just for you, Lue! =p) or your freakish relatives.
But I genuinely believe that you end up in a better frame of mind to appreciate your relationships and to make things happen if love isn’t far from your thoughts.

It really does help... so,

The Things I Love:
Whatchamacallit potato salad. It's the best! (I'll get the recipe and tell you)

Getting to know new, great bloggers because of Twitter. Especially Egyptian ones. It's great to know you're out there.

Vegetable soup. With as many veggies as possible. NOT broccoli! That stuff's EVIL!

Mom's fan poem! (A patient of hers wrote her a poem, framed it and gave it to her.. It was incredibly sweet, and she was extremely happy with it)
Helping a friend with her story board by taking some pictures. I was really glad to be of any use.

Burger King. With Tifa! Just like back in Germany! =)
Sunny, Dr. Evil's brother's golden retriever. Yet to meet her, but I love the idea of her. I just love 'em!
Running.
Meeting a friend I haven't seen in ages while running.
Great music.
Sweet, sweet soirees from Sedra. Caramel, chocolate, strawberry... aaaah, the bliss!
Good time management. (Not only because I have a project management presentation next Sunday)
Sour candy.
Inspiring pictures.
Notepads.
Soft, warm pashminas.

Trying to eat healthier.
This cat:

hehe, reminds me of my own! xD

So, what are you all loving these days? Please take a liiiiittle bit of time to do one, you'll see what good it does yourself!

Wed. Recommendation - For the love of music!

2009-05-14T00:03:00.006+03:00

For all of you music lovers out there, I've got two treats for you today!

1. A good friend of mine has recently brought my attention to this AMAZING online tool, an FLV to MP3 converter... What's so great about it? You could enter a YouTube URL, for example, and it'll convert it to mp3 for you..
As simple as copy, paste and a click of a button! (Thanks triple S!)

2. Also recently, last.fm have unfortunately monetized their online radio. So, if you're like me and like to listen to radio stations every now and then to refresh your musical knowledge or break from your normal playlists' routines, here's the next best thing: Yahoo!'s LAUNCHcast radio.

It's not as felxible with tags as last.fm's, but you can also listen to stations according to genre, and tune into stations playing from a lot of US states..

Well, happy listening everyone!

Friday Love List and a tag..

2009-05-01T21:20:00.003+03:00

The S babe from One Long Road has tagged me with the 8's lists!
And since it's Friday, I've decided to mix up the tag with my FLL to add one more list of 8, the things I love...

So here goes, and in no particular order...

8 things I'm looking forward to:
1. Reading all the books I've been hoarding and haven't touched yet.
2. A girls' day out.
3. Sara and I making our little side project work.
4. Starting on my masters degree (in Germany I hope).
5. Taking mom out. Somehow! Either one of us is always so busy.
6. Making my own little side project work.
7. Graduating.. I guess.
8. Life.

8 Things I did yesterday
1. Slept till 2 pm.
2. Helped my dad pick out a suit.
3. Visited a car showroom.
4. Watched 4 How I Met Your Mother episodes.
5. Agitated my cat till she caught my hand and gnawed on it like a chew toy.
6. Tidied my closet. Hallelujah!
7. Ordered a salad and a chicken BBQ pizza from Pappa John's.
8. Got 100% on my brother's "How well do you know me?" test on Facebook, hehe.

8 Things I Wish I could do
1. Travel all around the world.
2. Inspire someone.
3. Be more fit and eat well.
4. Be able to walk to the end of the street without feeling violated (ohh the perks of being a girl in Cairo).
5. React calmer sometimes.
6. Stay young at heart as long as possible.
7. Be able to speak at least 2 more languages fluently.
8. Time travel.

8 Shows I Watch
1. How I Met Your Mother.
2. Gilmore Girls.
3. Scrubs.
4. NCIS.
5. Nip/Tuck.
6. Family Guy.
7. The Big Bang Theory.
8. Dexter.

8 Things I Love ;D
1. That mom filled up a very old bucket we had from Disney On Ice with nuts for me after I mentioned that they're "healthy fats".
2. Meeting up with the S babe!
3. School friends gatherings.
4. Abu Elsid, an amazing, extremely oriental Egyptian restaurant.
5. Inspiring pictures.
6. Watching animated movies.
7. Browsing apparel online.
8. My dearest friends =)

and now tag 8 people...

1. Soné
2. Laila
3. Ibhog
4. Alissa
5. M Riyadh
6. Marooned
7. Daisy Chain Dreams
8. Girl with Big Brown Eyes

Toodles!

Friday Love List - Pre-Midterms edition

2009-04-24T17:41:00.006+03:00

And you know why we have midterms on our 10th and final semester when we weren't supposed to, in a year they call "pre-masters" because we have to attend 5 years to be called "engineers" according to the Egyptian government although according to the German curriculum and program, we were supposed to be finished a year ago right after we passed our bachelor theses?

Because Satan gives us three courses this semester. And they just figured out we needed to take a management course.

Last semester, Beezleboss used to give us one subject only and he was actually one of my favorites! He made us understand everything, he kept recapping on what he did previously every lecture and his exams weren't easy but if one understood the subject, he'd be able to answer. It was actually fun to identify tricks and know you could get through them.

This semester, it's like someone sucked the humanity out of him!

The advanced media lab's like diving in the darkest and deepest parts of the ocean. And that whole "role playing" thing within teams. Someone has to be the behavior police, waking people up and making sure that they're there on time and that nobody talks in the lab and such (or else he'd lose marks).. Another has to do all the implementation.. Another has to watch the implementation person do everything and give precious professional advice, being the "specialist" and all... another has to test if the implementation holds for crazy input.. and another has to record everything and write the pre-lab report and post-lab report, which is written and given in on the same day as the lab, although the lab content is always waaaay too much to finish on one lab session! And each one is marked according to their role during the lab, so it's not one grade for the whole "team" because of the overall "teamwork"...

The Image Processing and Audio & Acoustics courses..... I don't even know what to say. I've never been so clueless in my life. And I've never taken the FIRST quiz in a course and wasn't able to even GUESS what the answer is! And it's not like I'm the type of student who looks to just pass.. but it's truely, insanely weird this semester.

*sigh* Happy thoughts, happy thoughts... I need to write me a love list!

First of all, I need to thank all those who commented with their love lists on last week's, because it was really awesome to read about all those things you appreciate in your lives and it made me so happy!

As for the things I'm loving this week:

That a GREAAAT thing just (and I mean AS I'M WRITING THIS) happened to one of my best friends. I'm extremely happy for you!

Mestika (don't know what it translates to in English) ice cream.

Surprise cinnabon bites and hot chocolate for breakfast.

Koshary... This traditional Egyptian meal composed of lentils, rice, fried onions, hot sauce and pasta. It's a LOT better than it sounds.

Dad asking for help with his laptop and typing up and emailing documents for him. Even though sometimes he asks me to do stuff when I was intending to do something else, but I enjoy the fact that he comes to me for stuff as trivial as that. It's kinda refreshing when someone's normally very withholding.

My shipment arriving. =D

When I'm on top of things, on schedule, with no procrastinated things that need to be done.

The brief guide to world domination. It's this free 29 page e-book or manifesto that will drive you to think about your life, your aims and your dreams from many different views. It urges to take action to make your life outstanding in the generic world we live in... "Because it is so easy to be like everyone else, but it is so much harder to be just you." As chocolateMints put it.. It helps you find yourself and allow that person to be consistent and to grow... Give it a look and tell me what you think.

I've started a QOTD (Question Of The Day) thing on facebook, where I use my status message to ask my friends a question, and it's so much fun! I absolutely enjoy reading people's responses and getting to know the different points of view they have. And even though some questions are sillier than others, it feels like I get to know them just a tiny bit better. It opens up discussions and gets us to know things about each other that wouldn't normally be mentioned in our normal conversations.

Super crunchy Cheetos.

Drinking loads of water. I could feel the difference!

Last but definitely not least, my friend's "One Pound", a short movie he directed and created for the StrangerFestival competition in Europe. It shows the circulation of a particular one Egyptian pound among people on the street and exposes a little bit of the culture. I personally love it! So go take a look and please vote for this great director in the making!

So how about you guys? Would love to know what's found its way to your heart this week!

Friday Love List - ^^' ehem..

2009-04-17T23:51:00.006+02:00

Every Friday for months and months (well, haven't in the last couple of months, but consistency is boring, no? No? Okay, fine. MAKE ME FEEL BAD ABOUT MYSELF) I’ve put up a Love List here, and you’ve been gracious enough to respond by posting Love Lists on your blogs or including your Love Lists in the comments.
And it’s awesome. Because LOVE IS AWESOME.

awezmazs

And I've got months worth of love to make up for. So let's get this started!
THINGS I LOVE:
Stand up comedies. The Comedy Rumble today was awesome! I especially liked Ahmed Ahmed, George Azmy, Angelo Tsarouchas and of course, Maz Jobrani. But nothing beats the great company =)
Oh, and on the way to the hall where the Rumble was taking place, Chocos and I accidentally got into the wrong area of the conference center only to find that there was an "anonymous addicts" conference taking place. Should have sensed something was off when the guy at the door was asking me if I carried something for self defence in my bag! Hehe

Being super excited over an idea Sara and I are hopefully going to cook up soon!

Going out for breakfast.
New shoes.

Meeting up with people I hadn't seen forever.
Popcorn.
When it coincides that mom and I both feel like not having the already prepared lunch and want to order seafood.
SUSHI! Not the yucky, extremely raw, seaweed wrapped kind. The "California"s, "Philadelphia"s and "Pink Panther"s. Yum!
A virus-less laptop with a working adapter!
Finally getting a haircut. Not extremely happy with it, though. I think I should've had my fringe cut a tad shorter maybe.

La Casetta's chicken crepe. And chicken soup.
That moment when something happens or when someone says something and I think "this is SO comic material".
Being done with the seminar's presentation. Now that's a relief!
My new shades! ^^
Spending a day at Solaris with the most amazing girls.
Going through really old photo albums.
Surprises.
Working at Mediconex 2009! My feet beg to disagree.
Ruby Tuesdays. The most delicious chicken n' pasta I've had, and I've tried it almost everywhere I've been to.
Seeing the guys from Ulm (Triple S and Mo). Pity it was for such a short period of time.

Jump rope.
Knowing someone's got your back.
Silly confessions.
I'm kiiiiinda liking Twitter.
That my brother still likes to take my opinion sometimes with what to wear and if he should get a haircut yet.
Hope.
When it's not so hot you could cook an egg on the pavement.

Bean bags. Want one.
And YOU of course!

So what are you loving these days? Doesn't matter how small, just LOVE IT UP!

TAA - Kiki's photoshoot

2009-04-16T14:56:00.008+02:00

She's really one of the most delightful things in my life...

And I didn't have much time to sketch a comic.

(I love this one, hehe)

So what do you think? Quite a kitty model, isn't she?

For the mere fun of it... and looking for any excuse to be distracted rolls eyes

2009-04-07T23:57:00.007+02:00

So I was sitting at my desk as usual, preparing for my presentation tomorrow for the "Digital Imagery using Maya" seminar, devouring inhumane amounts of chocolate and cursing at a little virus my laptop caught, when I got an email from SIFE freelancers.

(notice how I'm talking so casually like I haven't been away from the blogosphere for TWO MONTHS!)

Ahem, well, they were asking for logo designs for a clothing shop called "Uta" that's for both men and women and is "casually modern". *giggles*

Now, on any other day I would have put it aside and tagged it with a virtual "will check it out later" for an undefined "later", but how could I miss on postponing rehearsing what I'm supposed to say tomorrow and be prepared FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE! Nope, no can do..

So I took out my pencil, blew the enormous amount of dust off, and scribbled these:

... in 17 minutes. I hoped it would take a little more time..

So I came here! xD

But ye know what? I genuinely miss you <= )

extreeeemely belated FLL - and what's new for 09?!

2009-01-30T19:35:00.002+02:00

Missed me?
Aaaaah, no need to ask.. sure ye have! =p (... right?! *chewing on a nail*)... (of course the one you find on your finger, smarty pants! =S)... (well, no, not YOUR finger! Dude!)...

Lujee: You're talking to yourself again.

Leave me alone!

.. Ahem, inhabitants of make-believe land! Your *cough* mentallyillbeyondallimagination *cough* extremely awesome ruler has returned to grace you all with sunshine and
crap
cupcakes!
I know it's been a long while. I know I'm seemingly very disloyal to these lands that have been oh so very good to me right now. BUT I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW! You've been on my mind all along! And I've actually thought of a couple of ideas I'm sure you'd want to try out.
And after all, don't they say that distance makes the heart grow fungus, errr, fonder?

But before I let go of the reins on those ideas I've left to ferment for some time, allow me to share the mother of all love lists, the love list of a half dozen fortnights in which I've been away from you, my dearest creatures.

Shall we proceed then?

Thou shalt not obtain amusement from crazy glue then blame it on extraterrestrials.

Errr, wrong note.. ^_^'

Things I LOVE:

Being on vacation! AT LAAAAAST!
Slow mornings and royal breakfasts. (Oh, how I've appreciated this since we've taken the mid-year recess!)
Sitting in the balcony on a warm January day. So under appreciated.
Fresh flowers. They bring such joy to the place! But I hate how they have to wilt and all. And no, plastic flowers JUST AREN'T THE SAME!
Doing cartwheels. You know how invigorating that feels? Takes 10 years off of you!
Potpourri. Even though its smell might not always be detectable in this dust-infested country, it's definitely an eye-pleaser.
Final exam group studying with good friends =) Too bad I never did that before. Could've really helped my hopeless procrastinating disease. Like, maybe start studying for an exam a whole day earlier, as opposed to starting at midnight and pulling all-nighters.
Profound conversations. Food for the soul.
The "Silver Lining"! A list that's been compiled during the project submissions and exams period of all the things I'd love to do during the vacation.
Looking forward to plans.
The surge of relief once the last project has been submitted.
Half-to-half pizzas. Half chicken BBQ, half "Super Pappa" pizza from Pappa John's. Now it's like: "hello, I want to order a pizza please".. "the usual?".. "yeap!". They don't even ask if I'm interested in any new offers or whatnot anymore.
Discovering that the Pappa John's branch next to my place has a Wii.
Roumie's 10 year old brother. "Reeeeeeem, am I stupider than a chicken?".. "No you're not".. "ok".. (3 minutes later).. "Reeeeeeem, am I stupider than a chicken?"..
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Quotes that resonate in your mind all day.
Getting someone to laugh.
Plans to go on the senior trip to Luxor & Aswan on a Nile cruise.
Crunchie bars.. ^^ mmmmm.. sweet, sweet honey comb centre!
Elvis' 30 #1 hits album. Yeah baby. We'd be a-rockin' n a-rollin' all day, everyday. Did you know that he also sung in German?
My M&Ms dispenser device I got from the Munich airport. Cheers me up! =D
Pigeon wishbones. We've this long lasting tradition, that when we eat pigeons and get to the wishbone, we make a wish before putting it away with the rest of the pigeon's bones. Not that I believe in wishing on a pigeon's wishbone in any way, but it's just kewl, OWKAY?!
(And for anyone not from around here, pigeons are a very normal and extremely tasty thing to eat in Egypt. So don't go imagining me chasing after those chubby ones that hop around in your subways, then devouring it and stuff.)
National Geographic magazines.
The Cairo bookfair. Even though it was extremely hot and sunny for a day in the beginning of February and we walked for 5 hours straight, then found that all the good places that we actually got books from were all right beside each other, right at the entrance.... it was good. And I got 8 books... (Well, was initially looking for 25) and a soft wood dragon thingy for my brother to put together.
Restaurants that have terraces looking directly at the Nile.
My motivational "Dare To Dream" snow globe. (Thanks again! =D)
How everytime I get off my desk chair, my cat comes out from wherever she was and jumps on it like she's claiming her throne.
The idea behind "Yes, Man" the movie.
Jon Stewart. Such wit, such yummy sarcastic humor.
Listening to African music on Last.fm's online radio.
Doing faux ballet moves around the house like a dork.
The High School Musicals. ^_^'
Laughing so hard you can’t breathe or stand up straight.
Debating stuff and things.
Brown mushroom sauce or buttered medium done steak. Glooooorious!
Blogging (really, can you tell?)

What about you, forgiving creatures of make-believe land? What have you all been loving for so long and have been holding back on expressing?

And no, I haven't forgotten about those incredible ideas I've promised sharing with you, but I honestly really need to get some shuteye now. But not to fear, there will be month-long disappearances no more!

In the meanwhile, SHARE THE LOVE!

Friday Love List - Dear 08...

2008-12-26T23:57:00.024+02:00

Oh, 2008, haven't YOU just zoomed in to an end!

What, you think you can just rush to the finish line because YOU’RE all done, Mr. 365?

Where is my time to reflect? Where is my time to list the blessings and challenges that have defined you? You’re not going to stop so I can write a few sentimental posts about how my life has changed, how I’ve evolved, how I’ve grown because of you?

Fine, then. See if I care.

2009 is ready for me already, and I have a feeling we’re going to get along EVEN BETTER than you and I did!

That’s right, you heard me…

Not only will I get to keep all the good stuff I got from you for my next 365, like choco bear who's been there through the thickest and thinnest of your days, the most amazing friends I'm beyond lucky to have, the most exceptional experience I had in all my 21 years, and learning that the kitchen is not the enemy... but I can also leave behind all the stuff you gave me that I DIDN’T like, like twisted ankle tendons, breaking teeth over candy and the beginning of wrinkle formation (I'm under the idea that the process can be reverted).

So there.

And I was intending to post a bunch of pictures taken while you're here that I loved, BUT YOU ALSO GAVE ME CRAPPY INTERNET!

But since I'm writing this now, well after 2k9 has already begun (because here at Lujee's: We're Proudly Just Behind the Curve!), I decided to share some anyway.

With loads of love,
me.

(on the 1st of January, 2008)

(7th semester)

(Sodany Vanilla effect)

(Mother's day)

(long story.. including a 7ama2y CD, a permanent marker and Lue!)

(some match.. don't remember who was playing xD)

(A farewell outing full of surprises =D)

(Lurve yous! ^^)

<3>

(Mediconex)

(Toffee bear =) )

(On Motaro's Birthday)

(Al3asha2 Al2a7'eer)

( 'cause I'm leavin' on a jet plaaane.. )

(Moving into Heilmannstrasse, Stuttgart)

(Our office at the Berufsakademie =) )

(Oh, yehhhs!)

(Choco bear at the zoo)

(Heidelberg)

(Cairo, 2380 km away from Konigstrasse, Stuttgart)

(Yeap, ROME! =D )

(Cartoonist at Rome)

(At the Pantheon)

(Colloseo)

(A view of the Vatican)

(Hercules! xD .. At the Vatican museum)

(The Sistine chapel, recognize the ceiling?)

(Good ol' BBQ at good ol' Stuttgart)

(YuuUUuum =d)

(Beibei! Our Chinese office mate)

(Egypt bear! =D )

(Sabrina, at the Lichterfest)

(The view from Stuttgart's TV tower)

(My Zahnschmuk! <= ) )
(On the day of the Olympics opening ceremony, we wore our matching Ts =D )

(A Russian dessert explosion in our dorm kitchen)

(MY 21st BIRTHDAAAAY! =D courtesy of the awesome, choco bear!)

(because I LOVE MY NEW CAM! =D )

(On teef's 22nd birthday.. and let's not get into why that was his facial expression loooll <= $)
(.. later that day =) )

(The last time to go grocery shopping before leaving Germany)

(The day we presented "A Facial Expression Recognition System Based Upon Video Streams" =) )

(At the Munich airport... going back home)

(At our place at Elsokhna)

(Out with good friends hadn't seen in months!)

(Repainted my room with mom.. from peach to lilac =) )

(Another birthday with some old school friends =) )

(The first comedy show I've ever been to.. and was GREAT!)

(Oh yeah, it rained. Just a tiny bit.)

(some cactus thingy at the university)

(Who might that be?!)

(Ferero! Kiki's suitor.. or at least everyone was hoping him to be..)

(Mom, at a family gathering over the bairam holidays..)

(Joe! =D )

(And Boudy! =D )

(And Fattouush! =D hehe)

(dad at his clinic..)

(dad's fan mail =D hehe)

( The End..)

TAA - Good Ol' Stickmen

2008-12-24T19:27:00.003+02:00

SHE LIVES! (at least for another day)

Surprisingly and unexpectedly, she reaches out from under the rubble, ignores her now toad-looking eyes, pulsing fingertips and the fact that she's had 3 hours of sleep in 42 hours (but that's ok since she mainly thinks that sleep is a waste of life and would seize doing it if the rest of her didn't manifest its complaints in such harsh ways), to post once again.. I've missed you, blogosphere!

Allow me to present the source of all our miseries, what's been keeping me from you dear, dear internets and the pure evil that is the LIST OF DOOM!

Sat. 10th Jan.: Fuzzy project submission + Fuzzy quiz
Sun. 11th: AVP Mon. 12th: Mobile and Pervasive Networking
Tues. 13th: Advanced Video Processing project submission + Computer Vision
Wed. 14th: Advanced Media Lab project submission + Computer Vision
Thurs. 15th: Computer Vision
Fri. 16th: Mobile and Pervasive (and a very important match =p)
Sat. 17th: AVP presentation
Sun. 18th: Mobile and Pervasive
Mon. 19th: Computer Vision submission
Tues. 20th: Mobile and Pervasive
Wed. 21st: Mobile and Pervasive project submission + presentation

Thurs. 22nd Jan. - Thurs. 5th Feb. FINALS

I bet you don't feel so bad about your own state now, do you?! Now, SYMPATHIZE!

And for whatever you hold dear's sake - DON'T tell me that these college days are the best I'll ever have and to enjoy them as much as I can! Not "THESE" days! Although all tiredness aside........ naaah, they're quite bad.

But luckily for me, I get to at least spend them with awesome people =)

Anyway, back to the focus of this post..

While I was digging up old photos to collect my favorites of 2008 and going through all those forgotten files on my external HD, I came across a diamond in the rough!

A friend of mine and I have done these back in 2005 using the handwriting feature over MSN. Of course, we did that at the times when we needed to get some work done the most... but come on, no other time is as inspiring!

I absolutely loved seeing these again and thought, there's no better way to start a new year than to remember some of the great things about the older ones.

These are "LujeeMo's Killer Comics"...

Oh, and HE STARTED IT! =p

Episode 1:

Episode 2:

Episode 3:

Episode 4:

and finally, Lujee & Mo in "Pickled Lemons":

We Interrupt This Program To Bring You....

2008-12-15T13:54:00.006+02:00

... President Bush dodging a shoe thrown at him at a press conference!

Alright, if I would comment on this... I'd say it's funny as hell! Seems he was a dodge ball star back in his day.

BUT.

Not that I like Bush in any way or anything he's done while he's been president, but "This is a goodbye kiss, you dog!" and shoe throwing?
Can a person's anger justify acting it out like that? What if everyone who detested someone did something similar?

Imagine yourself going to work one day and unfortunately, you have this tyrant boss who's making everyone's life a living hell. Maybe a living hell is the understatement of the year, even. And one day, the employees get so fed up they go into his office and send stapler rockets flying to his face. Even though that might seem as a tempting idea to play with in one's imagination, there's a reason why it doesn't happen. Civilization.

Often, you get people in your life who piss you off so bad and you think "aaagh, if I could just get my hands on him/her!!".. But how we act is different. Not because we fear being judged from someone else. Not because we fear not breaking their face well enough and they'd come back for revenge.

Because we're a lot better than that.

And in my opinion this was undignified. For both, Bush and the reporter.

FLL und eine belated TAA

2008-12-12T18:34:00.010+02:00

Well, it has been a very relaxed week for most of us. And I think I've personally tested just how well I'm able to procrastinate. Dozens of "To Do" items written and later scratched off for, I won't lie to you, mere laziness and "not feeling like it".

Take a look at the late TAA (because the tablet pen's batteries were dead and had to do it the old fashioned paper and ink way, which sadly lacks the undo feature):

But that's all over now. Tomorrow, we go back to the hell hole for an exceedingly long day from 7 am till 6 pm. We've got two quizzes, two huge assignments, a presentation and getting familiar with the program we'll be using for the Mobile and Pervasive Networks project, ahead of us this week.
Yes, Huston, seems we're looking at a substantial lack of sunshine and a big bunch of sleepless nights.

*sigh*

That been said, I think it's now clear why it's of imperative importance to celebrate LOVE right here and right now! We need MOTIVATION, an uplifting of the spirits.. A laugh, a giggle, a smile even!

On that note, here's a few things that made me laugh, giggle or smile this week.

THINGS I LOVE

Waking up to find my brother had gotten me Cinnabon buns.
How our Fuzzy Logic professor says "semsem arshiteshtar" (the actual word is still unknown to most of us).
Watching movies with my bro.
Leaping over mom when she's lying over the couch like a monkey clinging to it's mom and staying there till her side gets sore.
Lunching out with the family.
New perspectives.
Other people's stories. Kinda makes you look at things going on in your own life a little differently.
The never ending support and care of the bestest of friends. (Yeap, that's you pal ;D)
An optimistic view of the future.
Texting, texting, texting.. Aaaaaaah!
Catching up with friends.
My whiter smile.
My ability to withstand pain! (To get that smile).. Oh well, alright, with the help of some pain killers. THAT WORKED AS WELL AS A SKITTLE!
The cat snuggling next to me in the bed and purring like her life depends on it.
When she extends her neck, arms or legs to get me to scratch them.
The weather FINALLY getting a little chillier in this damned country! It's mid December and I'm still wearing Tees! I guess Winter in Egypt is getting as punctual as its people.
Seeing people around me being happy. Doing things they love. Being joyous.
Going through old birthday cards and notes.
WISE GUYS!! I want to MARRY them! (Thanks a lot for introducing them to me AZ =D). They're a German band that don't use instruments. Haven't heard them before? Give 'em a listen: Wise Guys - Denglish (in Deutsch and English) and Wise Guys - Chocolate Chip Cookies (in English) (and becoming a FAVE!).

So, fellow inhabitants of this amazing and exceedingly beautiful world, what're you loving these days?! LOVE IT UP!

WR - An Apple A Day Keeps Losing Your Mind Away..

2008-12-11T16:58:00.005+02:00

I was never that big on apples. If they're on the counter along with other fruits, they'd never be my first choice. Or last. I'd prolly have a glass of water instead. Same goes for apple juice... Somehow it always seemed "stickier" than any other type.

But as I was strolling along the beautiful and always interesting sidewalks of cyberspace recently, I found a couple of interesting reads on the benefits of this fruit in particular.

Apart from those advantages of eating fruits that we all know, apples and apple juice in particular contain antioxidants that protect cells throughout the body, particularly the brain and heart. They reduce the brain cell deterioration that may lead to Alzheimer's disease and oxidize the "bad" cholesterol that lead to hardened arteries... What it all means?

If you eat your apples regularly, you just might decrease the possibility of going mad or getting heart attacks in your old age.

The "effective substance", quercetin, is mainly found in apples' skin, so it's preferable to eat whole apples than have them peeled or in juice form.

And hey, what bad could it do to eat apples anyway. For those who aren't fans of the fruit like myself, just think of it as a preventive medication. And an apple a day will hopefully keep straight jackets away.

Happy Eid Adha!

2008-12-07T21:13:00.003+02:00

Well, today marked the last day of Hajj and the beginning of the big eid, bairam or feast... "Eid Al Adha".

What's that you ask?

It's the time when muslims (who are able to do so) worldwide sacrifice sheep (usually sheep, but they can also be cows, goats or camels as long as they meet certain standards) in commemoration of prophet Abraham’s story with his son; how he was willing to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to god.

According to the Quran, the meat is divided into three shares, one share for the poor, one share for the relatives and neighbors, and the last to keep to oneself. It's a time in which the charitable and generous qualities of muslims are demonstrated, making an effort to see that no impoverished person is left without a share of these sacrifices.

It's also the time for family visits and receiving the "Eideyya" which is a whatever amount of money given from older generations to younger ones. I'm not sure how that started, but it's a pretty solid tradition. Which is to your advantage if you're still a "younger generation" member.

I'm sort of caught in limbo now. These holidays aren't as lucrative as they used to be.

But they're still extremely festive times.

Butcher shops hanging coloured lights all over the buildings to which they belong or if they're feeling extra frisky, they spread the lights on the lampposts throughout the whole street, loads of sheep herds appearing from god knows where, the blood puddles on the "slightly" less than perfectly paved streets, the smell of ... butchering?, seeing all these family members you don't normally meet except during these occasions, sharing huge heart-attack-inducing meals together, being asked a dozen times in 15 minutes (sometimes by the same family member) in which "school year" I'm currently in, having the young ones make chew toys out of everything reachable, older people insisting that I'm severely malnourished and forcing me to eat like it'll instantly show on my arms or something and let's not forget, the decreased water pressure because EVERYONE is finally taking a shower in celebration, wearing crisp new clothes and (compliments of the one and only choco bear) guys lining up for barber shops like they are, themselves, sheep waiting for their execution.

Yes, the good times!

So I hope all of you who celebrate this ocassion have a great one, full of everything that makes you happy.. and Eid Mubarak! =)

FLL- Man, have you people been quiet lately! edition.

2008-12-05T23:48:00.002+02:00

So every week (errr… most weeks) I do a list of Things I Love on Friday.
Sometimes I have a theme, sometimes not. Sometimes the lists are long, sometimes not.
But one thing they have in common (besides sweet sweet chocolate and relaxed mornings?)
LOVE.
That’s right. BECAUSE LOVE MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND.
LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER.
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE.
LOVE LIFTS US UP WHERE WE BELONG.
LOVE, LOVE ME DO.
LOVE AND METEOR SHOWERS.
Wait, that one made no sense.
But...
I’ve found everyone to be getting kind of quietish lately, so I’m thinking that maybe we all need to feel a little more love. To be reminded of the things that make us happy. To revel in the WOO! rather than the WTH!
To take a vacuum cleaner to that little gray cloud that’s been following us around and say NO, NOT TODAY, LITTLE CLOUD. TODAY I LOVE.
So I’m going to help you out.
I’m going to help you make your own love list.
And I’m going to do it right now:
(Feel free to post your answers on your own blog or in the comments... But do it! FOR THE LOVE.)
Things YOU Love:
Song you love:
Food you love:
Thing you love to look at:
Sound you love:
Thing you love to laugh at:
Gadget you love:
Person you love:
Software you love:
Word you love:
Thing you love on the internet:
Place you love to go on vacation:
Sensation you love:
Animal you love:
Book you love:
Emotion you love:
Occasion you love:
Quality you love in people:
Thing you most love to shop for:
And finally…
What you love about today:

GO!
LOVE!
I swear, you’ll feel better just for having thought of it all.

An 8-point Peek Into The Deepest And Darkest Parts Of My Soul..

2008-11-26T19:23:00.014+02:00

The inspiring S babe had tagged me to write 8 thing about myself and tag another 8 people.
Never got to it until now. Because c'mon, what better time than the night right before my Advanced Video Processing midterm!

Well, here they are:

1. I'd write, draw, surf the internet, force my cat to play with me until she clings to my arm with all four legs like a monkey hanging from a branch and gnaw on my hand like it's a chew toy rather than study any time.

2. I neither sneeze nor yawn like a normal person. The aftershock phase (when it's over and my hand's not in front of my mouth anymore) is like I'm mumbling senseless words to myself. On more than one occasion, friends have mistaken me to have been talking to a tree or ceiling.

3. Whenever I put on running shoes, I feel like bouncing up and down. Boing. Boing. It’s an irresistible urge.

4. Although I could be extremely forgetful at times, there are some details that never seem to escape my memory cells. The type of details that people get surprised at them being noticed in the first place. Details. So Virgo.

5. You do NOT want to get between me and my chocolate.

6. I have a love-hate relationship with my hair. Love that it could be absolutely anything I want it to be, that it's manageable and never says no, really (at the cost of the time spent on it). Hate that it's unpredictable for the most part.
Thinking about cutting it short again soon. Something like :

7. I've been making all those silly facial expressions of mine ever since I started to exist. If the ultrasound technology back in '87 was advanced enough, they probably would've recorded me raising an eyebrow and scrunching my nose inside the womb.

8. Part of me wants to be a psychologist, another part wants to make cartoons and animation movies and work at Disney or Pixar, another part wants to be able to design and sew clothes the exact way I visualize them, another wants to be a professional photographer and another wants to be an interior designer. All of them want to travel all over the world.

And so I'm tagging:

Daroosh
MayG & UTP
Daisy Chain Dreams
Logodaedaly
Amr Zohny
Hussein Sedky
Yasmeen Sanad
Mohamed Almehdar
EnGi & Yara Hassaan (yeah, cheating 'cause you're sisters)

It's ok if you don't have your own blog, just list the 8 points in the comments below.. ;)
And don't forget to tag others!

I'd better go get some studying done now. Crunch time.

WR - Letter To A Young Procrastinator.

2008-11-26T17:30:00.006+02:00

As I've mentioned numerous, numerous times before on this here blog, I suffer from a severe case of the procrastination syndrome. If I would be reincarnated as a Greek god, I'd be Procrastinus himself (gender differences aside).

One of my very good friends directed me to this article yesterday, and I found it to be extremely amusing! We don't have to "suffer" from this anymore. Embrace it and have fun along the way!
Accept that that's just the way we roll and we're cool like that! ;D

I'm going to leave the talking to the article now. Hope all my fellow procrastinators out there enjoy it as much as I did...

cheerio!

Wednesday Recommendation - Clean Out Your Mind's Cobwebs

2008-11-19T21:37:00.009+02:00

Typographic Silhouette by Steph Hilton

We've all been there, alot of us still are, including myself.. In that dark, cold place called insecurity where we don't feel we're "good enough" in some way or out of sync with those around us. If you're feeling helpless in the face of problems or concerns, inadequate to handle life's challenges, afraid of being discovered as unsuited to meet your responsibilities at home or on your job, feeling like you're unaccepted or rejected or experiencing an inner turmoil resulting from a lack of direction or bewilderment as to where you're going and what you're goals are, this is for you.

If we're so displeased with ourselves, either mentally or physically, it wouldn't be so mysterious if we fall into two common traps: perfectionism and self-downing.

Perfectionism has many aspects, including the valuable desire to "do better," "look better," and generally keep up to high standards. So far, so good. Striving toward betterment is great. The quest motivates us, and keeps us on a good path for the long run. But the idea that perfection could and should be attained will cripple our style, stunt our growth, and make us miserable.
Apart from that, the self-downing habit is a facet of perfectionism that also makes us do less well and contributes to our feeling badly about ourselves. Why place a rating of your entire self (your very being) for having trouble in one of your classes? You make your performance at this task, at that time, a measure of your worth as a person, which is destructive to one's morale.

For someone to get to that place, it could possibly be because of being raised in an unpredictable or volatile environment in which they were kept off balance or on guard, maybe because of experiencing a major tragedy or loss in their lives and having a hard time adjusting to the change, experiencing a major failure in life that led them to question their personal competency, not feeling accepted by "others" in their life so much that they become generally withdrawn in their interactions, having an unrealistic set of rules and expectations dictated by significant others in their life, having a poor body image making them believe that others see them in a negative light which makes them self-conscious, or maybe feeling that they're always overshadowed by people in their life who seemed to be more successful, smarter, better looking or getting more attention which makes them doubt their ability to gain recognition for their own successes and doubt their ability to achieve success in the first place...

It seems like we're all just bound to fall under at least one of these points.. and unfortunately, instead of thinking rationally to ourselves and setting reasonable aims, we sabotage our own best efforts to reach any of our goals by negative self-thinking.
Things like: "Everyone's looking at me, just waiting for me to make a fool of myself.", "I am ugly and awful to look at!", "I don't fit in here or anywhere else for that matter..", "I am so afraid that no one will like me" or "People are just nice to you in order to use you and get something they want from you"....

But there's hope! There's light at the end of the tunnel.. We don't have to be in that dark, cold place anymore.

Now, this is what needs to be done. For one to overcome these insecurities, they need to be willing to be put in vulnerable positions in life where they might get hurt and know it's ok. That life goes on and what doesn't kill them only makes them stronger.
We need to take risks! We need to have a healthy and humorous belief in ourselves in order to overlook our exaggerated need for acceptance and approval and take a rational approach to each problem we face so that we're no longer inhibited by debilitating fears or beliefs... *Run-on sentence!*
Another good idea would be to reward ourselves for who we are and capitalize on our strengths, attributes, skills, and competencies.

Just keep this in mind: “The psychic task which a person can and must set for himself is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity."

Slightly Belated Friday Love List ^.^'

2008-11-15T22:35:00.005+02:00

If you’ve been around here long, you know that the Friday Love List is a bit of a tradition at lewjee's. Not that I’m always totally on the ball about KEEPING that tradition, mind you, and maybe it's not always on time... but I do love me a love list.
(You can find old ones by searching “lurve list” over there on the right side—> Go ahead. We’ll wait.)
I do the love lists on Fridays because I figure it’s good to start the week full of love.
(You know, instead of university related angst and ninety eight stories about the lack of organization and how they've been screwing us over and those people you kinda wish they'd disintegrate and seize to exist.)
On that note?
Let the love begin…

THINGS I LOVE

The "set topic" option on Skype. The amount of possibilities there are endless!

Cinnabon. Need I say more?
Ginger nut cookies. The ginger's aroma with the fun nutyness of the cookies have a great power to put a smile on my face.

Spontaneousness. (I don't care if it's not really a word!)

Elveda Derken. One of the turkish series that are dubbed into arabic and being played over MBC4. The story's a tad dramatic but I just couldn't help being pulled in. And the guys are so hot =p.

Clueso's "Gute Musik" album. Chilled but not boring, enjoyable and great study-to music.
Singing at the top of my lungs. Regardless of how my cat reacts to it.

My brother kissing me goodnight.
Relieving yourself of having to pretend to like someone because you have mutual friends and saving your energy and breath for people who actually care.
Apple inscent sticks.

Slow mornings. Those usually include having enough time to have a good breakfast, watch some cartoon network and read my magazines before deciding what to do.

Getting pretty cool ideas for the next mother's day already!
The "GCBT" pen Roumie gave me. Slides deliciously smoothly over the paper.
Being able to inspire someone.
That choco bear's starting his own blog! YAY! Be excited, everyone.. it's going to be uber awesome.
Freeing yourself from all the "what if"s.
Good time management. Whenever that happens. IF it ever happens.

How the J'adore body lotion by Christian Dior smells.
Romman, the favoritest cousin! ;D

So what're you loving these days? Or on any day?

TAA - Damn Those "What If"s..

2008-11-13T23:00:00.004+02:00

In coherence to what seems to be the topic of the week and because I'm really glad a friend wrote his thoughts regarding a related subject as well...

Here's an excerpt from his note:

"..... My friends, the answer is simple. It is so simple that it might perplex us. It lies before our own eyes. It is our first instinct. What our hearts told us to do when we first thought about the arbitrary problem we are facing before being clouded by any conformity, before over thinking the subject. People, life is too short to waste on over thinking and wondering "What if ?" when we should be trusting our instincts and choosing the things our heart desire and not what people enforce upon us. I am not saying that we should rush things but at the same time we should not put our lives on hold - pondering the same question everyday - just to realize late enough how life passed by so quickly......"

I must admit that I've suffered a lot from that "What if" disease myself... and it's rarely a pleasant sight. All those voices in my head coming up with the craziest of ideas and giving me a hard time over nothing. But we've agreed to breathe, haven't we? ;)

And now, BEHOLD ..... another one of my darn scribbles..

Wednesday Recommendation - Breathe.

2008-11-12T01:50:00.005+02:00

You heard that right. Breathe.

We all feel dissatisfied with our lives at times for no apparent reason. We may look around, seeking a cause, and succeed in blaming some circumstance or person in our lives, but the problem isn't our circumstances or other people.

It usually (stressing on uuuusually) isn't that we need to work harder, get more exercise, earn more money, spend more time with our family, move to a different city, or be more charitable. It isn't that we need to break a bad habit or adopt a good one, even though these may all be really good ideas (and most of them have worked remarkably well with me).

But sometimes the cause of our discontentment is that we know we aren't who we should be - in some more fundamental and profound way - and we don't seem to be able to do anything about it.

As a consequence, we might get angry or feel hurt when we know we shouldn't, say things that we wish we hadn't, do things that we know are wrong, and don't do things that we know we should. We are all in this state to some extent. We feel discontent with ourselves because we know that we're less than we could be, but we don't know what we should be doing about it, if anything.

Should I just shrug it off, recognizing that I'm only human? Should I try harder to be better? It doesn't matter which you choose; neither solves the problem. We can't get rid of the unease, and we can't change ourselves much. Something should be going on in our lives that isn't.

And I was reminded of this quote by Mettá:

"The desires for the basic necessities of life can be satisfied, whereas the selfish desires of the ego can never be allayed. These do not spring from the chemistry of the body but are purely mental constructions—to be more and more, to have more and more: money, possessions, power, prestige, love; to outstrip and outshine all others; to be supreme. It is an impossible dream which, if realized, would not bring in its train either peace or happiness. The greedy, the jealous, the envious can never be satisfied because their dissatisfaction and unhappiness do not spring from any real deprivation of the essentials of life, but from the defects and distortions within their character. "

But I don't really agree. Life is not just about the absolute basic necessities that "spring from the chemistry of the body". Money, possessions, power, prestige and of course love are also necessities to a great extent. Not the crazy, greedy, must-always-have-what-other-people-have type, but just enough to be living a comfortable life.

The thing is, we live in the age of distraction. Yet one of life's sharpest paradoxes is that your brightest future hinges on your ability to pay attention to the present.

Life unfolds in the present. But so often, we let the present slip away, allowing time to rush past unobserved and unseized, and squandering the precious seconds of our lives as we worry about the future and ruminate about what's past. When we're at work, we fantasize about being on vacation; on vacation, we worry about the work piling up on our desks. We dwell on intrusive memories of the past or fret about what may or may not happen in the future. We don't appreciate the living present because our "monkey minds," jump from thought to thought like monkeys swinging from tree to tree.

We need to live more in the moment. Living in the moment, also called mindfulness, is a state of active, open, intentional attention on the present. When we become mindful, we realize that we are not our thoughts; we become an observer of our thoughts from moment to moment without judging them. Now, according to some articles on the topic here and there, mindful people are happier, more empathetic, and more secure. They have higher self-esteem and are more accepting of their own weaknesses. With an anchoring awareness in the here and now, there's a reduction in the kinds of impulsivity (if that's a word) and reactivity that underlie depression, binge eating, and attention problems. On top of that, mindful people can hear negative feedback without feeling threatened and are less defensive.

And the first step to getting there would be to stop and breathe.

Relish or luxuriate in whatever you're doing at this precise instant, savor the moment... Often, we're so trapped in thoughts of the future or the past that we forget to experience, let alone enjoy what's happening right now. We sip coffee and think, "This is not as good as what I had last week." We eat a cookie and think, "I hope I don't run out of cookies."

Living in the moment has been proved to make people happier... and that's not because at that moment they're tasting molten chocolate all over their tongue, but because most negative thoughts concern the past or the future. As Mark Twain said, "I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened." The hallmark of depression and anxiety is catastrophizing... worrying about something that hasn't happened yet and might not happen at all. Savoring forces us into the present, so we can't worry about things that aren't there..

So as you read the words printed on this page, as your eyes distinguish the black squiggles against the white background, as you feel gravity pulling you to the earth, wake up. Become aware of being alive. And breathe. As you draw your next breath, focus on the filling of your lungs while you inhale, the stream of heat through your nostrils while you exhale. If you're aware of that feeling right now, as you're reading this, you're living in the moment. Nothing happens next. It's not a destination. This is it. You're already there.

Friday Love List - We're All For Laughs!

2008-11-07T21:42:00.003+02:00

I went to see a stand-up comedy for the first time in my life today!
The show was titled "Arabs Gone Wild" and it featured 6 half Arab, half something else or Arab but lived most of their lives in America, comedians... Two of them were off the "Axis of Evil" tour that took place here maybe half a year ago or so, which I couldn't attend for some reason that has slipped my memory... but I really didn't know what to expect this time..

Also had to work on this huge Computer Vision assignment and felt slightly guilty that I was going to see it while still having a lot to work on, but man did we need the laugh! So it was PERFECTLY justified..

The teef passed by me and we got to the Cairo International Conference Centre in a whole hour! It normally takes between 10 to 15 minutes to get from my place to the CICC, or at least it used to when I was working on that Mediconex event last year.. Driving over here has become something similar to a fish trying to swim through cookie dough! Parking? Let's not even go there. But thank god we were able to find a parking space, teef's leg muscles weren't too cramped up and we got there only 10 minutes after the announced time for the show to start.

We got to our seats, met other people from uni and school all around and Dean Obeidallah made an announcement that the show would start 20 minutes later, not because they're running late but because we're Egyptian. The show started an hour after that announcement was made.

Once they started, it was nonstop tear-jerking laughter all the way! Dean Obeidallah (half Palestinian half Italian) started off with his act and continued to show host along the way, Sherif Hedayat (Egyptian who lived 14 years in America and my least favorite among the bunch) followed but it seemed like he was trying too hard or was stiff PLUS he was cheating off his lil paper so didn't seem too natural. Maysoon Zayid (Palestinian living in America and has cerebral palsy) followed him and she was kewl, mostly fighting with the chair though. After that came Ronnie Khalil (Egyptian but has been living in America) and Geroge Azmy (Egyptian with good English) who totally cracked me up! Both were GENIUSES! My face hurt so much from laughing and I literally couldn't take my breath! I wish I could give some examples of their performance but I'd totally ruin it. And I've been kicking myself inside my head ever since for not taking the cam with video mode to shoot bits of the show. The final act was Aron Kader's (Palestinian dad and Mormon mom) who wasn't as good as Ronnie and George but wasn't too shabby either.. It's not easy performing after those two.. Tough break for him!

Overall it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I'd definitely attend something like this again if I got the chance.. and all the laughing, it really lifts a huge weight off your mind... and I believe it truely is the shortest way to one's heart.

So HURRAH for Arabs Gone Wild, for laughter, and for enjoying the simple things in life!

Now please (see how polite I'm asking?) share what made you smile, laugh or get in a good mood this week! It could very well get someone else to smile, laugh or get in a good mood, and you'd be helping humanity!

Thursdee Art Attack: oh the cuteness!

2008-11-06T21:23:00.004+02:00

My favorite two creatures together, with such warm and, dare I say, "fuzzy" (fellow Fuzzy Logic course takers would object), colours! ~^_^~

This done by Leslie.

Congratulations are in order..

2008-11-06T19:56:00.003+02:00

Two days too late, but better late than never!

We're all lucky to be existing in a time where it's possible that an African-American man, with a Kenyan father and a working-class mother, becomes elected president of a country as powerful as the United States. And I think that only accents how powerful they really are, not because of anything as much as the fact that the people were in charge. The people chose. And they chose Barack Hussein Obama. Whether it's for mere change or because they actually believe in him, his vision and are supportive of his program, they chose a man who, to many people, represents (in many ways) a minority. But they rose above that, and all their differences. The sick cycle of bigotry has been broken when it was announced that he won. And for this, many congratulations are in order..

Gobama!

Interesting fact? Obama is the first African-American president of the US and the fifth American president elected while Mubarak rules Egypt.

Hehe, there you have it.

Wednesday Don't-Have-A-Recommendation-So-I'm-Sharing-Crazy-Shoes-Instead

2008-11-05T18:20:00.005+02:00

I always feared this.... Though I'm sure I haven't completely "run out" of things to recommend because if I look hard enough, there has to be something. It's just taking a tad more effort this time, and given the time constraints and my own laziness, I've decided to share the following crazy-is-an-understatement shoes. Who knows, maybe you'll discover something you like.. if pain's your thing, that is (whether inflicted on one's self or on surrounding creatures).

Enjoy! Or Not..

I personally like the shoepant! xD

In The Last 24 Hours

2008-11-01T18:06:00.006+02:00

I've tripped over:

1. My shoelace.
2. My laptop's power cord.
3. The cat.
4. Air.
5. The welcome mat at the doorstep.
6. My shower curtain.
7. The stairs up to the computer lab in the C building at uni.
8. The foot of a friend.
9. My own foot.
10. Logic.

CURSE THE NEED FOR SLEEP!

Friday Love List .. and about time too!

2008-10-31T19:51:00.005+02:00

It's about time to appreciate what we've got here.. about time to snap out of the blues and open our eyes to everything that's special around us..

Because it really is all a state of mind. If I decide that I want to be happy, I will be and if I choose to keep thinking about why it's better not to be here, then I'll never give myself the chance to enjoy actually being here.. Alas, it's not always that simple.. Even if Micheal Phelps was determined to swim across a whirlpool, he'd get sucked in like a flushed cockroach (I apologize if visualizing Phelps as a cockroach in a toilet was disturbing to any of you)..

But even if things aren't that simple and no matter how hard we try, something comes along and reminds us of what we've been trying to block out of our minds, we should never stop trying to stay positive.. because if we did give up, that would be the end of us. And we're too young to die. Or go mental.
So we have to make the most of what we've got, look forward to our dreams and carpe diem!

And well, gotta admit that the sweet's not as sweet without the sour. So we have the sour to appreciate for allowing us to really feel the sweet!

So here goes.. for all the sour! No matter how piquant you get, there'll always be:

Amazing friends! Forgiving, understanding, tolerating and ones I could never do without.

Mom's warm hug and speaking my mind while she plays with my hair.

National Geographic mags.

Grenadine. I think it's relatively too much effort for a little amount of output, but if someone else gets the seeds out then YUM!

My room's new lilac wall colour! ~^_^~

Repainting my room myslef, with mom.

Home delivery services. While they kinda get people to be lazier, they're extremely useful sometimes.. like when the stupid uni has us from 7 am till 7 pm for two days in a row and you go home to find cabbage for lunch.

The String Quartet's tribute to Coldplay. Hands down, the best study-to music I know of.

The delightful company of my cat and the goofy things she still does despite of her old age in cat years.

Carrefour. The closest place to the university that's not too uncool for us to hang out at during our gaps and with much better things to eat than "3am sa3d"'s sandwiches.

Driving. Uhm, no wait, I don't love driving here.. but I do like the act of driving itself.

That there are so many comic material situations to illustrate.

This:

And this my friends, is making lemonade out of life's lemons. Or at least trying to. But two hands clap better than one, so please share what's making you happy this week, or generally!

TAA : Art-itecture

2008-10-30T19:10:00.008+02:00

Architecture and interior design have always been, through the eras and everywhere across the globe, some of the greatest forms of art we've ever seen.. From ancient to Renaissance to completely modern, it's the art that gets most people staring in awe..

That been said, apart from all the mega structures and architectural masterpieces that I won't be able to mention in one post, I'd like to focus on a much smaller scale.. A scale that one of my favorite shows, 'Extreme Makeover-Home Edition', tackles so very well..

What grabs my attention on that show is how they transform an extremely ordinary and worn out space into one that's beaming with life and character, how they design everything to suit the little they know about the families' personalities and hit the bull's eye with it and how they show that the smallest of details truly matter! I have to confess I've fantasized about working on a team like that before.. ehem, a couple of times..

Here are some snippets from projects they've done on their episodes..

So is it too "extreme" or would you do something similar in your own homes?

Wednesday Recommendation .. 'Cause Life's No Good Without Music!

2008-10-29T14:05:00.004+02:00

I don't know about you, but to me, music's to a great extent weaved into the fabric of my life.. *poetic alter ego's very proud right now*.

I've depended on it numerous times to change my mood, distract me from melancholic or distressing thoughts, reminisce about the times when I first heard something in particular or about what that particular something resembles... Some tracks or pieces of music are, and forever will be attached to certain situations and certain people in my mind.. and seriously, without music, life would just feel... empty! (in a way)..

I'm not (strictly) confined to specific genres or artists.. experimenting with this stuff is always rewarding.. you discover that you like a lot more than what you thought you liked..
So, while I hold some of my playlists very dear to me and listen to them uncontrollably, I'm also always on the lookout for the new..

This is where something like Last FM's online radio proves to be extremely useful. What's special about this one in particular, is that you can direct it to play things similar to what you like.. So you can play music similar to Coldplay or any other artist.. Or maybe play music according to a certain tag; "instrumental", "uplifting", "calm", "study to".. or anything you could come up with..

In addition to that, if you take the 49 seconds to sign up for an account, you can join a huge community of listeners from all around the world, comment on the played tracks, help improve the played tracks on the radio by tagging music yourself, and discover even more music you most probably are going to like through the listeners... and that would be why it earned a spot on my recommendations.. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Back To The Homeland!.. & Happy (belated) Eid!

2008-10-01T13:07:00.004+02:00

I'm not eggsactly sure why it took that much time for me to start posting again.. When someone asks, I like to blame it on the lack of time .. "Oh, we've been SO busy with settling back in and with the university starting and everything, it's just been crazy!".. But the truth of the matter is, the university work load isn't much at all in the beginning, I only have to go 3 days a week this semester, it's been almost a month since we've returned (as I'm writing this now) and settling in over there was a lot quicker even though I had so much more balls in the air.. so what is it?

And I've also noticed that some of my habits are changing back to how they were before travelling; feeling like i want to eat more often, lazying out (relatively), procrastination levels going through the roof, dosing off in front of my laptop as well as that general feeling of having my legs chained when it comes to not being able to go anywhere without having the car and knowing the way.. I wish I could say that it feels good to be back, but I can't.. even as I'm writing this now, a month later, and the impact of being "back" isn't as horrible as it was until just a few days ago.

Since this was supposed to be posted just after we got back, let me share how everything seemed (and in many ways still seem) to be.

For starters, the day we got back, we had been travelling for about 12 hours, starting in Stuttgart with meeting with our Hausmeisters, handing in the keys and going to the Studentenwerk office to get our insurance back, then taking a train to Munich, then another train within Munich to get to the airport (Teef grew muscles that weren't anatomically known before because of all the bags we (he) was carrying around), then finally checking in and taking the 4 hour flight to Cairo. As soon as we got into the Cairo airport, it really did feel, look and smell like there was no mistake about it... we were back to the homeland.

Loud people, haphazard crowds clustered at any window that offers any type of service, sticky and broken carts for moving the luggage, we had to wait to get our bags back for about an hour and a half after the plane had landed, a guy bumped into one of my plastic bags and a coupla things broke and airport parking workers, like flies hovering around a basket of fruits, all wanted a piece of whatever they can get.
But it was awesome to see my family after all this time! It didn't feel like I've been away at all, if that makes sense..
And dad was like.. don't carry your passport in your pocket, put it in blablabla.. and I was "ohhh, boy"ing in my head.. If I could take perfectly good care of myself for half a year then it's pretty pointless to give me instructions about how and where to carry my passport, don't ya think?!
Anyway, we got back home and Kiki (my cat) went crazy sniffing me and the bags, but didn't show any more enthusiasm than that.. I had been told that she pretty much took over my room while I was gone, so she was probably irritated by my invasion of "her" space.

Now, although I was tired as hell and all I wanted in the world was to take a shower and sleep for about a week, I stayed up till the next day sorting the room out! Mom thought that I went mental.
I just couldn't unpack when my room seemed so... clumpy? Mom had left everything the way I left it because I always show my discontentment when my stuff's moved around, let alone getting rid of anything. By the time I was done, my room had produced 8 garbage bags of old toys, clothes and such to give away and 7 garbage bags of garbage... and I saw my closet's floor, which I think hadn't happened since we first moved in.. then I finally felt like I could unpack..

The next day was the last day of Ramadan.. which was really special because my family and I don't normally eat together because of our extremely varying time plans and appetites and unfortunately I couldn't be around during the only time of year when we're all forced to have iftar together this year.. plus mom had made "2atayef" ~^_^~

After Ramadan, comes the Eid.. along with a refreshment of the Cairo street experience.
We went to visit my aunt and along the way, a car hit a horse and the poor thing died in the middle of the road... was a major scene which caused a significant traffic congestion.
Also, EVERYONE was dressed in combinations of green and yellow! It looked atrociously weird.. because it seemed like they all escaped from some commercial.. or a salad.
Later that day, my family and I headed to El3ein Elso7'na, for the sun and the beach and stuff.. but it was SO crowded (and how do I say "bee2a" in English?) that it was disgusting.. and I hardly spent any time on the beach too..But Porto So7'na was pretty kewl though!

*sigh*
The fact remains.. that although I'm "home" now, with family and friends... I miss everything about Stuttgart.. every single thing.

Friday Love List: The Very Last One While I'm In Germany..

2008-09-26T18:10:00.004+02:00

Well it's just a tad too late but couldn't let something like this just pass without making note of! This is the most important and significant love list to me yet. Especially that we're leaving in 2 days, being stuck tweaking the two theses (oh our presentation was just yesterday too! ... and it went great, apart from the part where I froze trying to remember what I'm supposed to say, but "egal"), having to do all these chores like canceling the bank account, health insurance, de-registering from the state and of course cleaning out the room and kitchen shelves, in addition to the dreadful packing.
And not to mention the emotional state... WE JUST DON'T WANT TO GO BACK! (well not entirely, of course we've missed friends and family.. we just don't want to "live" in colourless Cairo).

Note: using "we" everywhere might refer to Tifa and I, or might be the result of the thesis writing..

Now without further ado, my final German love list.... *sniff sniff*

♥ Autumn! The weather getting chilly over here but not uncomfortably cold, the trees getting all red, yellow and orange and leaves falling out into the air..

♥ Winter shopping.

♥ New friends that were made here.

♥ Everytime we go on an exploration trip through the city.

♥ Stuttgart vineyards.

♥ The great emotional state I've had all through my stay over here.

♥ The general organization, cleanliness and lack of noiiiiiiise. They take "If everyone cleaned infront of his doorstep, everywhere will be clean" literally.

♥ Non-alcholic lime and grapefruit beer. (Thanks teef!)

♥ "Red Girl" - a drink consisting of soda, cherry syrup, mint leaves and lime juice.

♥ I don't know if this will apply to anyone else.. but I love not eating out of boredom or having nothing else to do over here.

♥ The independence.

♥ Seeing that there's life after Cairo's virtual walls and getting this whole new perspective towards things.

♥ Everyone's nose is in thier own damn business. Nobody keeps judging me.

♥ That my German's a bit better. (And I'm planning to take German courses seriously once I'm back).

♥ ENJOYING work.

♥ Learning that "you are your own life's blacksmith" as a good friend put it..

♥ That nothing's really impossible unless you let it be.

♥ That it's been over a month since my birthday and the balloons are still in the office in perfectly good shape!

♥ Gliss Kur hair repair from Schwarzkopf - magic in a bottle.

♥ When people smile at me for no reason.

♥ Octopus sausages.

♥ All these varieties of almost ready made soups, especially the pirate one. Arrrr.

♥ El Chico burritos!!!

♥ The tracks of the week - "Viva la vida" by Coldplay and "On my way" by Rusted Root (remember Matilda? xD)

♥ Nice surprises from unexpected people.

♥ That I'm getting a reputation for my cooking! =D

♥ When I pack and actually manage to shut the zipper till the end.

♥ Salted liquorice.

♥ Rich memories of the good and not so good times alike.

Ich muss jetzt gehen, aber ich werde nie vergessen die Tage hatte ich hier.....

Good bye sweet Stuttgart.. You've given me the experience of a lifetime and so much more than that...

Till I see you again *hopefully*
- deine Lujee

The Long Overdue Update

2008-09-14T00:22:00.004+02:00

Yes, she's still ALIIIIVE!
Missed me?
I certainly hope so. I deeply apologize to everyone who did for not updating for so long. To those who didn't, well... never mind.

I'm not sure what happened exactly. It all started when the new month began and I became internet-less. Well, I wasn't totally internet-less, because we still went to the university and all, but it's soooo slow over there, continents move faster.
It took about a week to get my dorm room back online, but then that was about the time when the plans for the teef's birthday were at their peak (funny to think about it now when most of it didn't go as planned at all), among other things like panicking about OMG WE DON'T HAVE SO MUCH TIME LEFT ANYMORE! and of course, Ramadan and how it reflects on our energy level and day in general.

So I apologize. But I don't think that I'll be posting as regularly during this month either because no matter how much I tell you, it won't be close to the amount of stuff we have to get done with our work, with our preparations to get back home, and basically.. generally everything.
Time feels like it's .. nothing. It doesn't stay around long enough to leave a feeling. I don't even know what I'm feeling myself... but I'll keep that to another post.

In the meanwhile, please just wish us luck! We've begun the final countdown.. <= (

On this day...

2008-08-28T23:23:00.000+03:00

Twenty-one years ago. She was peacefully sleeping, or trying to anyway on a hot summer's night, anticipating spending her birthday with her unborn child, when she suddenly felt it was time. She was rushed to the hospital where she spent the first hours of her birthday in utter pain till they brought her her birthday gift, or curse, at 6 am, a tiny screaming baby girl.
The 28th of August would associate her birthday with her daughter's forever.
Since then, and until the girl would grow a bit older, her birthday would be overlooked at many times because of her daughter's, and she wouldn't care the least bit about it. Because she's a martyr like that.

Today, she turns forty-eight and her daughter officially becomes an adult, turning twenty-one.

Mom, I know that at many MANY times, I hadn't been exactly the best birthday gift. And that I've been a pain to get me here, and to have me here. I know you've been nothing but patient with me, that you've been supportive and loving all the way. You've had my back whether I was right or wrong. You've worked, ever since that day, for nothing but our well-being in every possible way. You've trained me to be everything that I am today. You've been my ultimate friend.
Writing this now, brings memories of humungous amounts of things we've been through along the years since that day, and I need you to know that you've been, and are, the most solid thing in my life. That you're my life support.
And now that your daughter's on the brink of adulthood, I hope for nothing more than to make you proud, and to work very hard to be the best birthday gift of your life.
I love you, mom. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

♥♥♥♥

As for today, I have had the awesomest of birthdays yet!!

Tifa told me yesterday that the professor sent him an email asking to meet up with us at 9 am. I tried to sleep earlier than I normally do, really! But with me, unfortunately, sleep doesn't come at command.
I did wake up at 8 though, but dosed off again after I hit the alarm. I was indulging in a very interesting dream about a close friend getting a kneecap surgery on a table in the middle of a street with a burning building behind us that I wanted to continue, too.
I woke up again on my own at 10 to 9, cursing at myself and running all over the place repeating "oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!!!".. I quickly (understatement) got dressed, threw everything in the bag and went running down the street to the U-Bahn station. I found U4, one of the ones I take, boarding and about to leave, so I, almost stumbled, down the stairs to get to it in time. Tifa then called asking where I was and that the professor was there, increasing my already high heartrate. When the U-Bahn got to the station, I ran to the university and up to the office.

I open the door, and it's dark. I hardly put a foot in, and I find Tifa standing there, behind a birthday cake with lit "21" shape candles on it and a bunch of balloons all around the cake, with his camera shooting a video. I was contemplating about pouncing on him and killing him, but with that video being taken I would've been publicly incriminated. Trying to catch my breath, he kept shouting out "happy birthdaaaaaaay" and "make a wish!". I did and blew the candles. We turned on the lights and I saw what he had really done to the office! More balloons and he had written stuff on the board. There was also a gift in orange wrapping.

He had finally wrapped it himself after some failed trails =p... and I tore right through it! (sorry teef, maybe I shoulda saved it, loll)

It was a Nikon D40 kit!!!!!!!!!!

I had wanted to get a good wide lens cam and was thinking about looking for one before we leave, but him getting me this was just....... *makes undefined squealing noises*!!! Just way too much!
I was, no, AAAM EXSTATIC! and speechless!! and that doesn't happen too often!

Here I am holding on to it like it'll save my life.

Then it was time for cake! But someone got plates and forgot the forks =p, so we cut it out with a plate bent in half and don't even ask how we ate it. Was loadsa fun though =D ... In the process of trying to cut through it, Beibei came and joined the festivities.
Here's a video from the middle of it all xD

Later on, the professor ACTUALLY sent us an email saying that he'd meet us in the afternoon. To kill time in the meanwhile, I tried to reply to some of the messages the people sent me on Facebook (thank you all very much! =D), but got bored shortly after. We played with the balloons, listened to some music and almost dosed off on the desks. The action had just been too much for 9 in the morning =p looll

This is us being silly..

The professor came at about 4:30 pm and he was really happy with our progress. He liked the framework so far as well as the thesis. He gave us some pointers, cracked a joke about me being 12 not 21, because of the "2" and "1" candles lying around and left. And we left right after.

I wanted to take all the balloons with me! <= ( But we had a lot to carry already.

We went back to my place so I could leave the laptop and new cam there, and went down again, to another surprise! He wouldn't tell me where we were going if his life depended on it. All I knew was that is was someplace at Mohringen. When we got there, he pretended to talk to another of our friends who knew where the place was and then told me we had to meet one of that friend's palestenian friends and he'd show us where to go. That palestenian friend was supposedly sitting at a restaurant that we know well because some friends from the guc live at Mohringen and we've been there before. We get there and I find Reem, Khairy, Yasmin, Adnan and Tarek standing around a table singing me a happy birthday! =D It was so sweeet of them all! And there was more cake! looll .. Later on, other people joined. Rana, Minz, Assy, Abdelhalim (aka alshagara almothmera). Also, Nancy and Noran passed by before they caught their train back to Ulm.. =)

(I don't have many pictures on my cam because I was running out of memory space, so these will have to do for now)

(Thanks for making these peeps! They're so kyoooot!)

Rana's going back to Egypt tomorrow, so she gave me loadsa stuff she's not taking back with her and thought I might need. Tifa carried it all. Because he's cursed like that.

We partied till we could party no more then went home. Was totally beat! So much that I couldn't even play around with my new cam! But was an exceedingly amazing daaay!! Loads of thanks for everyone that was there, everyone who called, everyone who left a happy bday wish on Facebook...

and Tifa.... his original plan was to actually take me bunjee jumping from a platform 190 meters high! =D Then meet up with the friends then take me to an animal shelter so I can play with all the doggiiiiiies!! looooll
But the bunjee people told him there were no spaces left this summer and there were no shelters near by.

So Tifa, thank you isn't even nearly enough! Couldn't have wished for a better bday.. and you know how much you mean to me bro... This is going to sound so cliche, but I truley do wish we stay as close as we are forever! Whether you like it or not, dude! =p
Because seriously people, friends like him don't just happen. They're eggstremely hard to come by. And I am one of the luckiest people alive because of my friends.

*hugs all around!!!*

Wednesday Recommendation - We Like Like.com!

2008-08-27T22:53:00.006+03:00

Or at least I do. This is a great website for anyone who likes to shop online or for anyone looking for something in particular and can't seem to find it.

What's so special about it? It collects a huge number of stores and has advanced search options! So, you can for example search for shoes based on a specific colour, texture or shape. Or search for the styles you want with a pattern match, whether they were striped, dotted or floral or whatever. You can search for items of a certain brand or just let it get you everything you might be looking for under the sun!

Using it, you'll most probably pinpoint that certain something you've been looking for and couldn't just find. And what I love about it is that it brings things forward from SO many sources!

So go ahead, try it out.. and tell me if you like LIKE.COM too!