Greek Icons

the exhibition “Approaching Heaven” featuring Icons of the Velimezis Collection from the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation and the Benaki Museum.
THE ENTIRE COLLECTION

i told the girls we should go to see it and they gave me the usual "dema3'ek"
so losers
it was worth watching really

some scenes are demonstrated in multiple icons (cross, christ's birth, ... etc)
those greek icons presents the Byzantine art in the middle ages, it has some similarity with the coptic art
(golden backgrounds, 2D perspectives, red for saints and kings, yellow hollow around the head, big eyes and forehead, ... )
i recommend that u all read the book "كيف تقرأ الأيقونة", it's very usefull
honestly, I was proud to look at these icons knowing that i share same believes and heritage with those artists

Keep Christ in Christmas

some years ago bo2bo2 sent me an email with this title
and it's about how the devil fight the existence of Christ in our lives by eliminating christ and replace it with "X"
to xmas instead of christmas
usual email, no big deal
BUT since this email, i was watching the christmas every year and how much is in it about jesus christ
and finally this year i found out that christmas in the western world is about santa, gifts, shopping, north pole, ............................................................................................... (another million things) but not christ
i did some research on the net
1- Greeting card
when searching about a christmas greeting card,, all the results are about santa, elves, whatever else
BUT if you want a christmas card about christ you have to use another search "religious cards" or "nativity" as if christmas isn't religious occasion but rather socially and christ picture is what give the social occasion a religious look
2-Gift
when searching for christmas gifts, again it's all about items with santa's pic on
3- movies
again and again, it's about an old man with red clothes called santa

where's christ in all this???? as a coptic i found it insulting to ignore christ in his birth?
is't the conspiracy theory that i use here to analyze this
conspiracy led by the devil
(ok, i'm talking like the old sunday school teachers we used to mock them a lot, but let's b it. i'm a sunday school teacher after all)
i'm not against santa but i'm with jesus

santa isn't really santa, it's saint Nicholas, another link

so, let us see how everything was manipulated to draw attention away from jesus christ
saint nicholas become santa claus
saint nicholas was a bishop, santa is an old man with red clothes
saint nicholas used to help people by throwing money to their houses using the window, which become santa throwing gifts to the children throwing their chimneys
the needy people whose saint nicholas was helping, become little kids who were good all year
the only relation between the christmas (christ's birth and saint nicholas) is that both occasions happen in the same month in the coptic calender
the christmas is on 29 keyahk, and saint nicholas is on the 10th
it's a clever game from the devil, after all the december starts with saint nicholas feast
But
people please think of it for a second:
saint nicholas didn't save us, it's jesus christ
saint nicholas story will not be there if christ wasn't here in the first place
with jesus christ the story begin
story of a religion and saints over the centuries
story that will end with the end of time
celebrate santa in his day, and christ in every day
christmas is about christ's birth not santa's gifts

christmas origin

Christmas is about Christ's birth
not Santa's gifts

people change?!

Something rare and strange happened to me: in one hour i met 2 persons i didn't see for almost 10 years.
the first is a girl i used to like very much and believe she's really a very good person with the open personality that makes her deal with everyone with a good spirit
the second is a guy i used to dislike a lot, and really i said after he left the country "Egypt now is a better place"
the difference between the 2 meetings was minutes
at first i met the guy, he was standing there and called my name, i looked to see who is calling and then i only said the following:
- OHHHH, u r here, u r back !!!!!!!!!!
- thank god u remember me
- i remember u, welcome back
-thank you
- well .... welcome back, excuse me, BYE
and i left
what happened exactly was that when i saw him a button was pressed in my mind "open the old box of dislike"
after half an hour, i saw this girl coming toward me, i smiled i laughed
i hugged her and said i'm very glad for this opportunity to see u again
we exchange our phone numbers, we talked about nothing important really
just chatting, this time the button in my head press the "like, love box"
honestly i was talking to her as if i see her everyday
it was a very good relief feeling to talk to her again
after a while a friend came to me asking me why i'm not talking to the guy
so i said: are u kidding!! i never liked this guy, anyway i said welcome back
- COME ON, it's been 10 years , people change
and he left me feeling bad about my self
he was absolutely right and i was definitely wrong
PEOPLE CHANGE
for the most the change is for worse but from time to time people may develop to be better humans
i was stupid, i didn't deal with the parameter of "time" correctly, my good friend may change to be a bad person and the bad guy may become a better person
but i used my old feelings to judge them both,
i use my previous experience to judge the future always and it's wrong
but again, how i neglect what is established inside me as facts (this person is good because ...., or this person is bad because .....)
if we set our personal experience aside when judging people, then what we should use? apparel?
should i start making new experience with every person i didn't see for longtime because "people change"?
the essence of anyone will never change by time but it only be more visible, and had more effect in his/her actions, i believe
but am i wrong?
are people really change and deserves a chance to rejudge? are our memories and experience the best judge?
what do u think?

post office forms

last week, my sister and i had to go to the post office to make (power of attorneys) for each other
the process was too simple, that i thought at first
i'll fill a form to name my sister as my agent (i don't know is't the right word in english), and my sister 'll fill a form to name me as her agent
SIMPLE
well .... NO
it's not like that at all, first you have to bring your own forms with you:
the officer said:" take these forms and go photocopy it and come back"
so the post office have ONE copy of the forms and who dares to use it has to photocopy it from outside
second you have to sit and be quiet
yes, the officer sit with the forms on his desk and our IDs, and kept looking at it to remember what he should do exactly
he filled about 4 forms, each has 3 data fields exactly (name, address, ID number)
THAT IS IT
he took more then half an hour writing 2 names, 2 address, 2 ID number twice
but this isn't everything
we were sitting next to the guy looking to his face, he had a face of a man in trouble, this was a hard task and difficult for him
he kept checking, double checking, triple checking from the data he wrote
and when other employers came and asked him for instructions he screamed
CAN'T U C I'M BUSY !!!!!!!!!
busy with what?????
the job with thinkless task if i can say that, he only fill the form with data in front of his eyes
P.S: he wasn't just any officer he was the branch manager
it's a complicated job that needs the boss to do it
LOL
the officers who deal directly with the public, take money and give money, they have one of the mentaly hard jobs ever
I admire their work (the cashiers, the bank or post people, .... ) but filling a form isn't that hard at all
remember when they announced that the post office is renewed totally and now anyone can put and withdraw money from any branch
this turned to be a joke
while sitting waiting for our forms to be filled, one employer came to the boss telling him that there's a person who wants to withdraw money from his account in another post office
do u know what they did????????
they called the other post office asking: is Mr. X has 000000 LE in his account as it shown in his account
do u believe this ???????????????????
the office is full of computers and they don't have a network system?
they didn't check the system they CALLED BY PHONE
what if the account is in another city? will they call Asswan to check the account??????????
it's a joke
i can't believe it
after the great mission is done, i remembered that last year i went to a job fair where the post office was represented by .................... " ENGLISH WOMAN"
yes English woman
an english woman was standing in the stand talking about the great development in the EPS, and how things will be different now
but no, this is like what a writer called (Ma'moun Fendy) wrote once: the government development is in the hardware not the software
it means they change the wall painting and the chairs, desks ... etc but not the rules they work by
new computers without a real system

BELLE - one of the best french songs of all time

*Daniel Lavoie alias Quasimodo
Belle
C'est un mot qu'on dirait invente pour elle
quand elle danse et qu'elle met son corps à jour
tel un oiseau qui etend ses ailes pour s'envoler
alors je sens l'enfer sourir sous mes pieds
j'ai pose mes yeux sous sa robe de gitane
a quoi me sert encore de prier Notre-Dame
quel est celui qui lui jetera la premiere pierre
celui là ne merite pas d'etre sur Terre
Ã' Lucifer, ô laisse moi rien qu'une fois
glisser mes doigts dans les cheveux d'Esmeralda
*Patrick Fiori alis Frollo
Belle
est-ce le diable qui s'est incarne en elle
pour detouner mes yeux du Dieu eternel
qui a mit dans mon A etre ce desir charnel
pour m'empecher de regarder vers le ciel
elle porte en elle le pecher originel
la desirer fait-il de moi un criminel
celle, qu'on prenait pour une fille de joie, une fille de rien
semble porter soudain la croix du genre humain
Ã' Notre-Dame, laisse moi rien qu'une fois
pousser la porte du jardin d'Esmeralda
*Garou alias Phoebus
Belle
Malgre ses grands yeux noirs qui vous ensorcellent
la demoiselle serait-elle encore une pucelle
quand ses mouvements me font voir monts et merveilles sur son jupon aux
couleurs de l'arc en ciel,
ma dulcinee laissez moi vous etre infidele
avant de vous avoir mene jusqu'Ã l'autel
Quel est l'homme qui detournait son regard d'elle
sous peine d'etre change en statue de sel
Ã' Fleur-de-Lys je ne suis pas homme de foi
j'irais cueillir la fleur d'amour d'Esmeralda
*Ensemble
j'ai pose mes yeux sous sa robe de gitane
a quoi me sert encore de prier Notre-Dame
quel est celui qui lui jetera la premiere pierre
celui là ne merite pas d'etre sur Terre
Ã' Lucifer, ô laisse moi rien qu'une fois
glisser mes doigts dans les cheveux d'Esmeralda
Esmeralda ...

CNN Election details

Check the CNN election section
those people analysis every tiny mini thing
the key word here is SEGMENTATION
voters by age, sex, eduction, income, race, religion, ....etc
and some segments are very significant : church attendance, Have Any Investments in Stock Market, Union Member, .. etc
they asked the voters important questions: one of them is "what are the most issues?" and 63% of the voters said it's economic when 9% said it's terrorism
pay attention that, the results on CNN website were published before 9AM Wednesday (that's when i checked it) and the counting was still going on some stats even after declaring the win of Obama
so it means that they build these results in 0 time, people just finished voting and already the result is on
OMG
this is not government organization, it's a news channel. it has the capability and the resources to do this huge surveys and data analysis.

then check the BBC election result section to see the difference
less analysis, less segmentation work, general data

P.S: i'm not going to even think about comparing with the egyptian election voters details

media to lead people

I like it
how individual do a positive action to enhance the society
just an actor invited some actors friends to do a couple of minutes video to spread awareness about voting right
and again, it's a clear demo of how deep the media effects people action
after the election ends, when the voters number will be announced, we'll find out how this kind of propaganda did

4000 LE salary

أنا أراهن على الطبقة الوسطى وهى موجودة، فأى مواطن تعلم لمدة 16 سنة، المفترض أن يعيش حياة كريمة، أى تقريبا 4 آلاف جنيه، وإذا لم أحقق ذلك، فقد خسرت الطبقة الوسطى، وبالتالى فقرار وجود هذه الطبقة قرار سياسى وليس اقتصاديا.

حسام بدراوى: اليوم السابع

لا تعليق

القوة فوق الحق

انظر إلي أسلوبنا في قيادة السيارات الذي يمكن أن يرمز لأسلوبنا في إدارة شئون المجتمع وتنظيم حركته وتحديد علاقة كل طرف فيه بالأطراف الأخري الأقوي والأضعف‏,‏ والأصغر والأكبر والأغني والأفقر‏.‏

الذين وضعوا قوانين المرور اتفقوا علي أن يكون الضوء الأخضر علامة علي أن الطريق مفتوح أمامنا لنقطعه بسياراتنا أو لنعبره بأقدامنا في أمان‏.‏ لكننا لا نمتثل أبدا لهذا القانون‏.‏

نحن نواصل السير والعبور بالأقدام والسيارات‏,‏ سواء كانت العلامة خضراء أو حمراء أو صفراء‏.‏ لا نتوقف إلا في حالة من حالتين‏,‏ أن يعترضنا شرطي ويفرض علينا الوقوف فرضا‏,‏ أو تدهمنا سيارة‏,‏ أو تقطع علينا الطريق‏.‏

نحن إذن لا نعبأ بالحق‏,‏ ولا نحترم القانون‏,‏ ولا نعرف إلا أن نخاف‏.‏ الخوف هو الذي يمنعنا من العدوان علي حقوق الآخرين‏.‏ والخوف هو الذي يمنعنا من المطالبة بحقوقنا‏.‏ ومادمنا لا نحترم القانون ولا نعبأ بالحق فنحن لا نحترم أنفسنا‏.‏ لأن القانون هو الحقوق والواجبات والحدود والقواعد التي وضعناها نحن لأنفسنا‏,‏ ننظم بها حركتنا‏,‏ ونمثل شخصيتنا‏,‏ ونعبر عن إرادتنا‏,‏ فإذا خرج عليه واحد منا فقد خرج علي نفسه‏.‏ والذي يفرض علي الآخرين ما يراه بالقوة أو ما يطمع في الحصول عليه والانفراد به يسمح لمن هو أقوي منه بأن يفرض عليه ما فرضه هو علي الآخرين‏.‏

هل هناك فرق بين أسلوبنا في قيادة السيارات وأسلوبنا في ممارسة أي نشاط آخر؟

أحمد عبد المعطى حجازى / الأهرام

Eat, Pray & love .. good book BUT

this book was on opera show, on all the english bookstores shelves in carefour & green plaza.
and in some websites it has some positive reviews, so i took the decision to read it
and i managed to buy it just before i went to sharm and i said to my self "5 days of swimming and reading only" and yes i managed to finish 75% from the book in those 5 days
and now after finish it all
i want to say something about it.
the book is about "
One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia"
nice introduction, who doesn't want to have everything?
the writer made a decision to have both pleasure and devotion, and balance between both.
the book is divided into 3 sections, first is about the writer journey in ITALY for 4 months, where she went there looking for pleasure, and her pleasure was in learning the ITALIAN language which she considered a musical note and in eating pasta, pizza, .. etc over and over and over.
second is the journey in INDIA for 4 months, in a yoga ashram where she was trying to reach god, and to be connected with the divine power.
third part is the journey in INDONESIA for 4 months, where she was seeking balance between pleasures and devotion.

in the first few pages she tells her story, and it's a misery, she was out of divorce and a bad love affair, but honestly i think we all need this journey despite our reasons or background.
people have zillion reasons to seek balance. most of us in the east and in Egypt are religious people, we took religion seriously BUT we are not good people though
and more we took "tahyess" seriously too :)))

in ITALY part, i was wondering sometimes how eating can be a pleasure that someone devotes 4 months for it, but again it's how she feels not me, anyway in this section she was talking about how she decided to do what she wanted to do always, how to take a decision "i'll have a good time today", she didn't care much about museums or churches seeing, OMG if i was there i'll take a picture of every brick in every wall of every building there
the idea of having fun and enjoy yourself is wonderful and honestly i get jealous (i hope one day i get the chance to do it)

in INDIA part, she spent all the time in yoga ashram, where step by step she learned how to meditate to reach for god. and i think it was something useful to learn about how an ordinary person can get so spiritual. in some points, her description of what she's feeling is really inspiring.
to know how a person can evolve from a very practical down to earth person to be a very spiritual person how can sent a prayer to the divine and get an immediate response

till this point, that woman was my hero, god she had it all, i hope everyone reads this book, i already started to tell my friends about the book
and was extremely anxious to get to the balance part
well, i had 2 questions in my mind while reading the book:1- when facing the real world again , will she be able to keep her level of spiritual? will the jungle get to her?
2-why there's a "love" in the book title, she was talking about being balanced as an individual, is love part of the formula?

in INDONESIA part, she was just living in peace, in this part the writer gave lot of information about the Indonesian community and the Balinese traditions, it was useful part. and this kept going till the half of it, and then BOMB, the love began
the writer met a person and fall in love with him, just like that, in this part i felt disconnected from the book
well, in the journey of balance she was seeking pleasure and she got it, and then she was seeking god and she had a deep strong spiritual experience, now she is seeking balance and instead of taking all her pieces together she starts a romance .. isn't too soon for that?
does she already balanced as an individual so she can make such a decision
plus, it's like a kids book, where you read about the good boy who prays a lot so he succeed in the exam.
this is not a novel, where i can critique it's a true story, so there is no place to change the facts. all i'm saying is, as a balanced seeker, she had to face the real world first using what she gained from her journey before start a new romance
but ending the book by this story did lowing the book to be a classic novel instead of great personal experience journey

Conclusion: the book has LOT of information and great moment of human being evolving to be better, just don't read the second part of indonesia

شرم الشيخ .. العبث المصرى الأصيل

قضيت اجازة فى شرم الشيخ فى فترة من اجمل فترات السنة .. منتصف سبتمبر
لم ازر شرم من قبل وتلك هى المرة الأولى
اثناء تلك الرحلة كثيرا ما قفز لذهنى هذا المصطلح "العبث المصرى الأصيل" دون اى محاولة منى لابتداعه
فلم اقرر ان اخترع مصطلحا يعبر عن ما اراه ولكن الكلمات اصطفت فى عقلى دون محاولة للبحث عنها
فما اراه هو عبث ولا يوجد غير فى بلدنا وهو موجود من زمان
تبدأ الرحلة بمطار الإسكندرية الذى هو "اوضة وصالة" كما تصفه اختى
تبدأ مظاهر العبث بالعساكر النائمون المكلفون بحراسة القاعات
كانت الطائرة فى الصباح الباكر عندما دلفت لقاعة الانتظار كان العساكر الجالسون على جهاز البوابة الالكترونية للقاعة نائمون
فمن اراد المرور بقنبلة لن يجد من يشعر به او يوقفه
ثم الطائرة وهى خاصة بالطيران الداخلى وطبيعى ان تكون صغيرة جدا وشعرت انها كالتوك توك من كثرة اهتزازتها
فى مطار شرم الشيخ حيث الوهم
مطار كبير رائع حقا
ويقفز السؤال : اذا كنا قد صنعنا هذا المطار الجميل فلماذا السكوت على قبح مطار اسكندرية؟
مظهر اخر من مظاهر العبث: من المفترض ان ينتظرنى سائق من الفندق
ولأننا نعيش بثقافة "مش غلطتى" لم اجد السائق وبعد اتصالات تليفونية اتى ليقول لى " حضرتك بلغتينا بميعاد غلط" ... انا بلغت بميعاد الطيارة صح وبلغت رقمها كمان يعنى انت لو سالت عن رقم الطيارة حيقولوك لسه ماوصلتش
ولكن عبثا احاول مجادلة السائق فانا المخطئة
"الزبون دائما على خطأ" .... ما علينا
قضيت الاجازة فى خليج نعمة فى فندق 5 نجوم والحقيقة كان مكان هادىء ومريح جدا
عندما نزلت البحر لأول مرة فوجئت بمعلومة جديدة تماما بالنسبة لى
فالشعب المرجانية قريبة جدا من الشاطىء والسياح يشاهدون السمك عن قرب طول اليوم
والحقيقة كان بالنسبة لى شىء مرعب فى البداية ان يعوم السمك حول قدمى
ماذا لو قضمتنى سمكة؟
ولكن مع الوقت شدنى تنوع وجمال السمك
بدا الخوف يقل شيئا فشيئا ولبست نظارة الغوص وتعرفت على حياة تحت الماء عن قرب اجمل ببكثير مما نراه على شاشات التليفزيون
رغم انى كنت يوميا انزل فى نفس المكان الا انى يوميا كنت ارى نوعين او اكثر من الاسماك لم ارهم من قبل
كل نوع بلون وشكل مختلف .. ولان الماء ضحل وغير عميق فقد كانت الرؤية اشد الوضوح
لقد أخذت بهذا الجمال .. وقضيت فترات طويلة اشاهد السمك يتحرك بين الصخور وانا اقول "يا الله"
عودة لمظاهر العبث:
فى المساء عندما كنت اريد ان اخرج كان على ان اختار ما بين تاكسى او ميكروباص فقط
فالمدينة السياحية العظيمة لا يوجد بها مواصلات عامة
اى عبث هذا
اما اركب ميكروباص "وهو من اشد المواصلات رعبا من وجهة نظرى" بجنية واحد .. لأسباب كثيرة لا اود ذكرها او اركب تاكسى يبدا سعره من 25 جنية
كما فهمت فالمدينة مقسمة لمناطق منفصلة (الهضبة - المارين - ...) فكيف اذن لا يوجد مواصلات عامة محددة السير بين المناطق؟
كيف تكون شرم مدينة عالمية بدون مواصلات عامة آمنة؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟
عبث عبث عبث
مظهر اخر "حرق دمى كله"
فى المكان الذى يطلق عليه المشاية حيث ينتهى بشارعين كبيرين متعامدين مليئين بالمحلات والمطاعم
هناك نوعين فقط من المطاعم: اما الاجنبية كمكدونالدز وكنتاكى وبيتزا هت او الشيشة
فى دولة تمتد حضارتها لآلاف السنين .. مر عليها عدة ثقافات واستقرت بها
لم نجد ما نعبر به عن انفسنا للسياح سوى الشيشة؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟
اى مطعم به راقص تنورة وشيشة .. هذه هى صورتنا التى نقدمها للسياح
ونتسائل لماذا تحصرنا الأفلام الأجنبية فى صورة رجل عربى يجلس فى خيمة بالصحراء حوله نساء يرقصن وفى يده "شيشة" !!!!!!!! وسلم لى على زويل

ولأنها شرم بقى وفرصة الواحد يعيش حياته !!!
قررت ان اقوم بمغامرة خطييييييييييييييييييييرة جدا
PARASAILING
نبدأ بمعلومة صغيرة ان فترة المغامرة من 5 الى 7 دقائق فى الجو فقط تكلفتهم للمصرى 170 ج او 250 دولار للأجنبى
عندما قال لى الشخص الغريب فى مركز رياضات الماء (من 5 الى 7 دقائق) قلت فى سرى (فقط !! كل هذا من اجل 5 دقائق) ولكن وانا معلقة بين السماء والأرض كان احساسى بالزمن بطيئأ جدا وشعرت ان هذه الدقائق كالدهر
لبست سترة النجاة وعلقونى فى الباراشوت وارتفع البارشوت واصبحت فى مكان ما بين السماء والارض
احساس بالخوف اللذيذ
خائفة جدا ولكن مستمتعة جدا بالموقف والمنظر
والاهم قدرتى على اتخاذ هذا القرار
وبدأ سائق القارب (احد اكبر العابثين المصريين الأصلاء) فى الميل يمينا ويسارا ومع حركة القارب كنت انا اميل كبندول الساعة من الباراشوت .. وكانت لحظات جميلة ومثيرة
ثم قرر ان يخفض البارشوت لالمس الماء بقدمى ولكنه خفض الباراشوت جدا وظل بسرعته
والنتيجة ان اصبح وجهى فقط فوق الماء للحظة ثم أعدت تمثيل مشهد من اعظم المشاهد فى السينما المصرية
مشهد سحل محمود المليجى فى فيلم الأرض
اما انا نفذته على الماء
والنتيجة ان اصطدمت بالقائم الحديدى الذى يتدلى منه الحبال لتنتهى المغامرة
بخدش فى الوجه وكدمة فى الساق
الأهم تفسير ماحدث
وهو عبث مصرى اصيل: عندما عدت للقارب وبدأت اتكلم مع السائق فى انه اسقطنى فى الماء وما سببه لى من جروح رد على رد من اغبى ما يمكن
" مش ذنبى .. كان فيه تيارات هوا فوق جامدة" الحقيقة ان القارب حدث به عطل وانا فى الهواء فلقد توقفت البطارية او كادت
كان بالقارب 7 اجانب غيرى كان من المفروض ان دورهم بعدى ولكن ما حدث انه بشكل ما استطاع ان يعيد القارب للشاطىء وهو يتحدث فى هاتفه المحمول مع احد الاشخاص ويصرخ "البطارية نايمة والفلاتر عايزة تتغير .. انت ماقلتليش ليه من قبل ما اطلع!!!!" وهكذا كان من الممكن ان اكون الآن ذكرى ويكون هذا البوست بيد اصدقائى فى ذكراى
الحقيقة انى بعد ان عدت للأرض الثابتة مرة اخرى وتخلصت من آثار دوار البحر من ركوب هذا القارب وبدأ عقلى يعمل مرة أخرى
شعرت بالرعب عندما ادركت اننى كنت معلقة فى الهواء فى مركب تالف .. وبدات ادرك ان القارب اذا توقف فعلا تماما ساسقط فى الماء من هذا الارتفاع الذى سيكون كالأسمنت
وحتى لو انقذتنى سترة النجاة من الغرق فاللطمة ستكون مؤلمة
اشكر الله على هذا وساضيف هذا الموقف لقائمة المواقف فى
Facing death

انتهت الرحلة على خير وانا على قيد الحياة وحان وقت العودة للإسكندرية لأقابل موقف عابث مصرى اصيل اخر
بعد ان وصلت لمطار "اوضة وصالة" لم اجد حقيبتى الصغيرة
وقفت على سير الحقائب حتى ذهب الجميع وحقيبتى الصغيرة لاتظهر فقال لى احد العمال :روحى كلميهم فى المكتب
وبعد البحث اتضح ان حقيبتى لم تأتى اصلا من مطار شرم وقام الموظف فى مصر للطيران بعمل اجراءات فقد الحقيبة واخبرنى انهم يبحثوا عنها فى مطار شرم ويبلغونى بوصولها فى الغد باذن الله
وكانت تلك القشة التى قصمت ظهر البعير
فالحقيبة هى ما جمعت به الأشياء الصغيرة المهمة كشاحن الموبايل وشاحن البطاريات وهكذا
ففقدانها معناه عذاااااااااااااب كبير لأجد شاحن مناسب لهاتفى الأثرى
عندما وصلتى منزلى كنت مثل توم فى افلام الكارتون عندما يغضب فيتحول وجهه للأحمر ويتصاعد الدخان من اذنيه
ولكن حمدا للرب فلقد وصلت الحقيبة فى اليوم التالى من شرم وذهبت لاستلامها، حتى الظابط على باب المطار استغرب عندما قلت له:اريد ان ادخل لاستلم حقيبتى المفقودة من طيارة شرم من يومين
الظابط: ضيعوا شنطة من طيارة شرم!!!!
نعم فالعبث المصرى الاصيل وصل لهذه الدرجة: طائرة لا يوجد على ركابها الا حوالى 30 فرد فقط يفقد منها حقيبة .. كيف يتعاملون اذن مع طائرات الايرباص؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟
ونعود للحقيبة التى "كانت" حقيبة ظهر
خارجيا: قطع عرضى بعرض الظهر كله يصل للبطانة - قطع الأيدى من ظهر الشنطة
داخليا: قطع سلك شاحن الموبايل - التواء وكسر شاحن البطاريات - بعض الطعام الذى كان فى كيس مغلق منتشر فى الحقيبة كلها
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ما نوع الأدوات التى يستعملوها لحمل وفتح الحقائب التى تقطع سلك بداخل حقيبة وتلوى معدن ثقيل مثل شاحن البطاريات؟؟؟
عبث عبث عبث

حاولت فعلا ان اكون موضوعية ومتفائلة على قدر ما استطعت ولكن ما حدث فى تلك الرحلة فعلا سخيييييييييييييف

youth back and now

in August, Magdy ElGalad wrote in Almasry Alyoum newspaper an article series about national danger which is "youth of egypt refuse to defend the country if any war with Israel happens"
article 1
article 2
article 3
article 4
article 5

after reading the articles ofcourse some will agree and others will disagree and both parts have a very convincing reasons to backup their opinions.
let us gave color blue to the agree, and color green to the disagree

the blue team says: corruption is killing the future, who have everything are 5%, the rest 95% are very poor or at least semi poor, so let who take all pay for what they took and defend the country in war

the green team says: it's our homeland after all, and war will not hit one group and spare the other

thinking of all this, let us take a look on the Nassr TV show, in the first couple of episods, we see the kid Nassr who protests the english occupation

well, it wasn't only Nassr who did it
it was the culture back then, people were into politics from the moment they can distinguish right from wrong
I remember that my father had a mark in his forehead, and once i asked about it
he answered me with 2 words " من بنادق الرش فى المظاهرات"
ok, he dealt with it as it was nothing, he used to tell me stories about him, family, history and lot of things
but the demonstrations part was so brief, because for him, it was a normal thing to do at this time, "lot of my friends were in the demonstrations, different political parties"

so let us analys this: when egypt was occupied by a foreign army, the PEOPLE were politically educated enough to demonstrate and express their opinions
but when egypt is free country, PEOPLE aren't politically well educated to express themselves, and more they hate the country and are willing to watch Israelis take it over
N.B: politically educated is a term used by the prime minister before, explaining why the goverments interfer in the election

conclusion: corruption is always there, people are not the same. Egyptians are overwelmed with problems (bread, inflation, real estate, ... ) to think about politics

weekend

lovely quiet weekend:
plumber
electrician
car mechanic
thank you god the day is over

Alchemist .. second reading

one day years ago, one girl who was in school class came one day and said:
hey girls, there's this new novel that i read, it's cooool you all should read it
so she gave it to A who gave it to B who gave it to C and so on
i had my turn
it was Alchemist but in an arabic cheap translation
and when i read it, i like it but ...
all i remember is it ends when the boy is trying to turn himself to wind
the last line is that no one could see him where he was stand
so, what i get from the story is:
a boy was searching for a treasure under the pyramids but in his search journey he learned lot of things and become richer (in knowledge, ..etc)
so the treasure was the search journey itself, but there's no money or treasure or anything like that
so for me it was like a Sunday school lesson
getting wealthier is about knowledge and wisdom not money
in Shelfari people talk a lot about how great the novel is so i decide to read it again one more time
but this time in English
WELL first of all i found out that there's a real treasure
so it's real dream of having wealth and money
secondly, in the arabic version when you read the word "مكتوب" you think it's normal
but to read it in the english version "maktub" it gives the story more magic
the writer had chosen the right word to describe what we sometimes feel or think
in the second reading, i saw new things
what got me deep is the contradiction between "maktub" and how the person has to pursuit his dream not knowing what he 's going to
i mean is't maktub that a young spanish shepherd work in a crystal shop and connect with the hand that writes all and get to the pyramid to return back to spain,
/**** OR ****\
all this happened because he was trying to fulfill his dreams, and it's all about the personal will
so in brief is't Maktub or it's the will?
the fundamental question we used to ask a lot in high school (especially during thanaweya 3ama)
mossayareen or mo7'ayariin?
in the story the wirter managed to make it both and to prove it's both of them
that's why i like the story
the most famous line of the story is "when u desire anything, the universe conspires for u" ..... i disagree with this, not all our dreams can be fulfilled, and no one found any help in achieving his goals, i mean if the universe is conspiring for us it would be more easy and fun to make dreams come true, but this isn't what happening in most cases
finally, good book to read, glad i read it one more time

نقط مهمة من حريق الشورى

المطافىء ترفض انقاذ موظف حاصرته النيران
وأضاف: «زادت النيران واتصلنا بمطافئ المجلس، ووصلت بعد ١٠ دقائق، لكن النيران كانت كثيفة، واتصلت العمليات بالمطافئ وطلبت النجدة، وحاصرت النيران وكيل الوزارة المسؤول عن شؤون الصحافة والإعلام في مكتبه، فوقف علي الشباك من الخارج، وصرخ لطلب النجدة».وبعد مرور ٤٥ دقيقة، وصلت سيارة إطفاء العتبة.. «كان معهم سلم إلا أن ضابط المطافئ رفض توصيل السلم لإنقاذ وكيل الوزارة»، وتابع: جاء طبيب مجلس الشعب، وصرخ في ضابط المطافئ، ومع كثرة ضغط العمال عليه، أخرج السلم وأنقذنا وكيل الوزارة، بعد أن ظل معلقًا خارج شباك غرفته لأكثر من ساعة إلا ربع

الناس تتمنى ان يحترق الأعضاء ايضا
أما هبة الله إبراهيم، فقالت إنها غير مهتمة بالحريق أو
نتائجه موضحة: «تكفينا مشاكل الغلاء»، معتبرة أنه لو أرادت الحكومة إطفاء الحريق لتمكنت من ذلك إلا أنهم يريدون أن «يشغلوا الشعب» مرة بقانون المرور الجديد ومرة بحريق مجلس الشعب، وقالت إنها سعدت للغاية بسبب الحريق، ولكنها كانت تتمني أن يكون في وقت جلسة يجتمع فيها كل أعضاء المجلسين معاً.

رجل اطفاء مات دون جثة
كشفت التحقيقات والتحريات الأولية في حريق مجلس «الشوري» عن مصرع مساعد شرطة يدعي «فواد نصار» داخل المبني، تواصل أجهزة الدفاع المدني البحث عن جثته بالداخل وأكدت مصادر أمنية أن الشرطي التابع لوحدة إطفاء المجلس، كان أول من دخل إلي المبني للمساعدة في الإطفاء، وقال زملاؤه بأنه اختفي عن أنظارهم بعد ساعة من الحريق وأكد آخرون أنهم شاهدوه يصعد إلي الطابق الثاني

توقف المعاينات خشية الانهيارات .... على بال ما اللى عايز يوقع حاجة يوقعها

خوفا من حدوث انهيارات داخل المبني المحترق‏,‏ وحرصا علي حياة رجال الدفاع المدني وفريق التحقيقات‏,‏ تم إرجاء جميع المعاينات الفنية داخل المبني لحين رفع المخلفات وتأمين الحوائط‏,‏ واقتصرت المعاينات علي الأجزاء الخارجية

مقال بالأهرام مليان درر
- ويؤكد الدكتور ثروت وزير أبوعرب أستاذ ومدير معمل القياسات والمعاينة رئيس وحدة دراسات الحريق بكلية الهندسة جامعة القاهرة‏-‏ ان كل الشواهد تؤكد ان الحريق بدأ في مرحلة مبكرة قبل تدخل أجهزة الدولة بساعة علي الاقل ولا ادري اذا كان تأخرها ناتجا عدم تقدير لخطورة الموقف او ان الذي أبلغها او وصول الحقيقة ناقصة‏.‏
- خراطيم المياه كانت قصيره جدا لا تصل الي مصدر النار مباشرة وضغط المياه كان ضعيفا جدا بحيث لا يمكنها من الانتشار المطلوب كما لم يحدث مهاجمة قوية للحريق لأن التدخل كان خارجيا يواجه ألسنة اللهب التي تنبعث من النوافذ ولايصل للأرضيات المصدر الاساس للهب‏.‏
- فالصنابير الموجودة بجوار مجلس الشوري ضغطها ضعيف جدا وبعيدة عن موقع الحادث‏..‏

عمار يا مصر

in one day:
- more then 9 hours to fight the fire in the parliament
- websites are closed for users in the area
"Due to high fraud in your area, this website is currently inaccessible to you. If you feel you have been blocked in error please contact a representative at (phone number) or via email at (email). Please present this value as your IP address: (my IP)"

من انا

من أنا لأقول لكم

ما أَقول لكم ؟

كان يمكن أَلاَّ أكون أَنا مَنْ أَنا

كان يمكن أَلاَّ أكون هنا ...

--------------------------------------

لا دور لي في المزاح مع البحرِ

لكنني وَلَدٌ طائشٌ

من هُواة التسكّع في جاذبيّة ماءٍ

ينادي : تعال إليّْ !

ولا دور لي في النجاة من البحرِ

أَنْقَذَني نورسٌ آدميٌّ

رأى الموج يصطادني ويشلُّ يديّْ

-----------------------------------------------

من سوء حظّيَ أَن الصليب

هو السُلَّمُ الأزليُّ إلى غدنا !

مَنْ أَنا لأقول لكم

ما أقولُ لكم ،

مَنْ أنا ؟

كان يمكن أن لا يحالفني الوحيُ

والوحي حظُّ الوحيدين

« إنَّ القصيدة رَمْيَةُ نَرْدٍ »

على رُقْعَةٍ من ظلامْ

تشعُّ ، وقد لا تشعُّ

فيهوي الكلامْ

كريش على الرملِ /

لا دَوْرَ لي في القصيدة

غيرُ امتثالي لإيقاعها :

حركاتِ الأحاسيس حسّاً يعدِّل حساً

وحَدْساً يُنَزِّلُ معنى

وغيبوبة في صدى الكلمات

وصورة نفسي التي انتقلت

إلى غيرها « أَنايَ » من

واعتمادي على نَفَسِي

وحنيني إلى النبعِ /

لا دور لي في القصيدة إلاَّ

إذا انقطع الوحيُ

والوحيُ حظُّ المهارة إذ تجتهدْ

-------------------------------

ولاثنين من أصدقائي أقول على مدخل

الليل :

إن كان لا بُدَّ من حُلُم ، فليكُنْ

مثلنا ... وبسيطاً

كأنْ : نَتَعَشَّى معاً بعد يَوْمَيْنِ

نحن الثلاثة ،

مُحْتَفلين بصدق النبوءة في حُلْمنا

وبأنَّ الثلاثة لم ينقصوا واحداً

منذ يومين ،

فلنحتفل بسوناتا القمرْ

وتسامُحِ موت رآنا معاً سعداء

فغضَّ النظرْ !

لا أَقول : الحياة بعيداً هناك حقيقيَّةٌ

وخياليَّةُ الأمكنةْ

بل أقول : الحياة ، هنا ، ممكنةْ

------------------------------------

من أنا لأقول لكم

ما أَقول لكم ؟

كان يمكن أَلاَّ أكون أَنا مَنْ أَنا

كان يمكن أَلاَّ أكون هنا ...

كان يمكن أَن تسقط الطائرةْ

بي صباحاً ،

ومن حسن حظّيَ أَني نَؤُوم الضحى

فتأخَّرْتُ عن موعد الطائرةْ

كان يمكن أَلاَّ أرى الشام والقاهرةْ

ولا متحف اللوفر ، والمدن الساحرةْ

كان يمكن ، لو كنت أَبطأَ في المشي ،

أَن تقطع البندقيّةُ ظلِّي

عن الأرزة الساهرةْ

كان يمكن ، لو كنتُ أَسرع في المشي ،

أَن أَتشظّى

وأصبح خاطرةً عابرةْ

كان يمكن ، لو كُنْتُ أَسرف في الحلم ،

أَن أَفقد الذاكرة .

ومن حسن حظِّيَ أَني أنام وحيداً

فأصغي إلى جسدي

وُأصدِّقُ موهبتي في اكتشاف الألمْ

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بضع ابيات من قصيدة لاعب النرد للشاعر محمود درويش

Happy or Satisfied?

I'm thinking a lot about one question:
Am I happy with what i have done in my life?
it's birthday syndrome (LOOOOL)
every year i think about this issue when i feel that my birthday is getting closer
so one day i was talking to one friend and posed the question:
are you happy with what you have done with your life?
we talked a lot and then later i was talking to another friend just a chitchat when she suddenly asked me the same question
so making a quick survey
A is me, B is my first friend, C is my second friend
what is in common between us:
- we almost the same age
what is the differences between us:
- A & C are females, B is a male
- A & B live in egypt among family and friend, C lives alone abroad
- A & B work in the IT field, C works in the Marketing field
- B & C bought new car in the past months
so we can say that we are 3 different types of people, 3 different lives
but we had the same answer to this question
"thank god for all his blessings BUT...."
there are more that we aim to, or think of having it
we don't think we reach the point of total happiness
we are just satisfy with our lives at this point, every one of us is grateful to god blessings and BELIEVES that he/she lives a good life
but we use the word good instead of using average
we live an average life
so is this unsettled status happened because we are bad persons, or because life is different
ex: my father was a GM before being 30 years old, can i be GM before my 50?
that's the question; is what happening around us affect negatively our progress and growing? or you can set your mind to do whatever you want?
does life accomplishments count or it's vain talking?
what's success? happiness?
what are the standards? what are the boundaries between average, good and superb?
so what if we can't be Bill Gates? will our lives be average or good?
what the right thing to do: be satisfy with what you have /or/ aim to have more to be happy?
share me your thoughts

رواية عزازيل: واحد صينى بيغنى فرنساوى

عزازيل مجرد رواية وليست مخطوط حقيقى وعلى هذا فيجب التعامل معها من هذا المنطلق
منطلق انها رواية او رؤية شخص المؤلف لأحداث بعينها
ولكنها ليست سرداً تاريخياً أميناً محايداً لفترة من الفترات
مشكلة عزازيل كرواية فى منطقها
بمعنى عدم قبول صفة المتحدث وكلامه
بشكل أوضح: من غير المنطقى ان يقول راهب هذا الكلام

اذا استبدلنا شخصية الراهب بشخصية شخص عادى
يكون الكلام الذى يقوله متسق تماماً مع شخصه
اذا وقف شخص بعينين مسحوبتين ليغنى بالفرنسية
لن يجد من يصدقه او يستمتع بأدائه
سيحدث نفور بين مانراه وما نسمعه
هذا هو ما يحدث فى القصة
فالمنطق الذى يتحكم فى البطل هو منطق غير رهبانى بل غير مسيحى اصلا
يحدث نفور شديد فى لحظات عندما يذكر راهب استمتاعه بالخطية وتمنيه العودة لها
فبينما من شروط التوبة عدم ذكر الخطية مرة اخرى وعدم الدخول فى تفاصيلها حتى اثناء ممارسة طقس سر الاعتراف يقوم الراهب بذكر التفاصيل الدقيقة لما فعله مع اللواتى احبهن
هذا هو التضاد بين الكلام وصفة قائله
فاذا كان البطل شخص عادى يتذكر نزواته يكون الكلام متسق جدا مع صفة قائله
اما ان يقوم الراهب باستدعاء خيالات الماضى كل يوم فهو فعل غير رهبانى اساساً
ولآن المؤلف لا يدرى او يعلم بتفاصيل الحياة المسيحية وبالأخص الرهبنة
نجد هناك تفاصيل تسقط عنه
فالراهب لا يذكر انه تاب ابدا عما فعل وبالعكس يستمر فى حياته كأن شيئأ لم يكن
الراهب يختار اين يصلى فى الكنيسة او فى الصومعة؟ قد ينام وتفوته الصلاة؟ لايوجد نظام محدد للدير؟ الرهبان يعلمون لاحقاً بوجود شيئاً ما بين الراهب وامراة بجوار الدير ولا يقع عليه اى عقاب او حتى يوجه له اى لوم او تأنيب؟
وهكذا تفاصيل لا تسترعى انتباه غير المسيحى ولكن بالنسبة للمسيحى فهى واضحة ومرفوضة

اظهر المؤلف حب الراهب لنسطور وكرهه لقادة كنيسة الاسكندرية فى هذا الوقت
وهذا راى المؤلف وهو حر فيه ولكن
عندما اعرض الخلافات بين الجانبين كان يعرضهما من وجهة نظر غير مسيحية
فتفسير نسطور او آريوس لم يعرضهما بشكل صحيح
كون المؤلف غير مسيحى ظهر بوضوح فى الفاظ وافكار كثيرة
وانا لا ارى ان هذا عيب فى حد ذاته
فلا يجب ان نحصر الأدب فى طوائف وانواع (ادب مسيحين - ادب غير مسيحين) ولكن ارى ان هناك الكثير الذى كان يجب ان يتعلمه المؤلف عن المسيحية كدين وعن الرهبنة كنظام قبل ان يكتب روايته
ولهذا كان كالصينى الذى يغنى بالفرنسية

النقطة الجوهرية برأبى ان الكاتب يقول على لسان بطله انه لجأ للرهبنة ليستريح من صخب العالم
وهذا هو لب القصيد
فالرهبنة اساسها حب الله ورغبة فى الحياة مع الله فى صلاة وتعبد وليست هروب من العالم وصخبه
هذا هو المنطق الذى يغيب عن الكاتب لانه لا يعرفه
ومن هذا المنطق يكون من الطبيعى ان يفكر الراهب فى من احبهم قبلا واخطا معهن
فهو لا يفكر فى الحياة مع الله بل يفكر فى البعد عن صخب العالم
اذا كانت الرهبنة هروب من العالم وصخبه فلم تكن لتستمر كثيرا بقوانينها الصعبة
فيكفى ان يقوم كل فرد يريد ان يبتعد عن العالم بالعيش على اطراف المدن ليستريح من الصخب والمشاكل
ولكن الرهبنة ليست محاولة للحياة الهانئة الهادئة بل هى حياة مع الله لها متاعبها ومصاعبها التى يتحملها الرهبان راضيون

معدل التضخم السنوى في مصر 23.1%

ارتفاع معدل التضخم السنوى في مصر الى 23.1% خلال يوليو الماضى
أعلن الجهاز المركزى للتعبئة والاحصاء ارتفاع الرقم القياسى لاسعار المستهلكين (معدل التضخم) فى الجمهورية /الحضر والريف/ خلال يوليو الماضى الى 23.1% مقارنة بنفس الشهر من العام الماضى 2007، فيما ارجع ذلك بصفة أساسية إلى إرتفاع الأسعار فى مجموعات الطعام والشراب والمطاعم والفنادق والنقل والمواصلات

\*************** رحمتك يارب *********************/ اول مرة احس بالجملة اللى بتتقال فى الصلاة (ارحمنا من الغلاء والوباء وسيف الأعداء)

pepsi football AD

my friend is away again

My friend is back to USA after 3 short months
so saying with mounir

لو كان لزامن علينا الرحيل
كارهك يا وداع ولا بديل

WIKIMANIA .. to be continued

last night in the BA, there was a meeting by the wikimania 2008 organizer about how to fill the gap in the arabic wikipedia
they were young people full of energy and hope
and i agree on everything they said
we should write about ourselves instead of letting the others write whatever they want about us
the speaker demonstrated some example:
- an israeli writer wrote that Israel won the kiboor day war (not that Egypt won the 6th october war)
- someone wrote that in alex, young homeless are selling BANGO to the tourists in the street in the daylight

one thing i want to say:
all the people who talked or the people who asked question were talking english/arabic language
as we "people in the IT world" always do
people can't make a full arabic sentence were talking about writing arabic articles
so FUNNNNNYYYYYYYY

My New BLOG design

the photos in the header are mine
the views in the posts are mine
the design is mine
:)

Heath Ledger : vain death : الموت عبثاً

this actor was died at the age of 28

he died during his last movie shooting (BatMan)

when he died he was just taking off with his career to the big actors zone

and suddently he died

what is really impressed me is that he didn't die because of alcholic, car accident, robery, ... etc

NOOOOOO

he died on the floor of his friend appartment because of an overdose sleeping pills

ya7'reb bit keda

an entire life is ended because a tiny pile

i didn't know this actor well before his death, but since his death and the net is full of stories about him

how great actor and person he was

and now they talk about award oscar to his name

well i don't care

what is hitting me is an entire life is ended by accident because he took some sleeping piles more then he should

a normal kind of action millions of people doing daily and still alife

the cause of his sleepless days is his last role of the batman Joker

the role was a chalenge and he was too much into it, and his worries prevent him from sleeping so he get addicted to sleeping piles

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNN

in other word : " عبث "

people are dying for no reason by missuse their life (if we can say that: using life)

we live and act without putting in consideration the other option that WE COULD DIE NOW

creepy

first impression i had when i read the details of his death is:

stupid!!! is a movie role equal to life

then i realized that he probably wasn't in a healthy mental condition or he could know the right amount of piles to take

fear of lose and failure can cause death!!!!!!

in his last interview he said that he was terrified because the comparison people may make between him and Jack Nicholson

again it's a job not a life

but obviously for some people, job is life, passion is a weapon

oh god !!! PLEASE GIVE US THE INSIGHT TO KNOW WHAT IS THE IMPORTANT IN THIS LIFE

i pray from all my heart that no one would fall into this fear of failure weapons

Wikamania 2008: some notes

1- more then 60% of the audience carry their laptop all arround all day
2- Egyptians use HP while foreigners use Apple (smart)
3- some foreigners had this tiny laptop in a size of a makeup box
i guess they used it in the out and then later they synchronize with a bigger devices
i can't believe someone will use 8 inch screen all his life
4- the bandwidth in the BA network is 11MB (i remember mic once said something similar to me and i thought he was jocking, 11mb!! there are no standard bandwidth over 2, you must saw a wrong number, but i was wrong)
5- the egyptians (sharafona) and mobiles !!! they let the mobiles open during the session which make it very annoying, guests were going to kill the traitor if they could know him
6- as Egyptian standard behavior, we take picture with celebrity, the legendery Jimmy wales and any member of the board when asked to take picture with, they were like (me!!, why!! i'm no one, I'm just a volunteer)
7- in a break i asked Michael Snow in the lobby (sorry sir if my question looks foolish, but i see that the foundation rely totally on the community - donating, contributing - what if the community stopped doing this for whatever reason, what is going to happen to the foundation? and more important to the idea of free knowledge?)
and his answer was (that's why we make this event to know what the communicate want, and for the financial stuff, we are trying to get another support from outside the community)
8- the previous wikimania were less vital and less numbered, i guess the BA support put the wikimania event in a higher standard
9- no Egyptian news paper was interested in the whole event, in the first day a tv channel came for 5 minutes in the opening ceremony, but in the whole 3 days there was a non Egyptian tv channels interviewing the guests, in Sunday Almasry Alyoum published a silly article about jimmy wales telling it happened Saturday where his lecture was on Thursday
10- Egyptian youth were very active in the discussions
11- lot of employees attend the conference because it's a job duty (governmental IT centers, ministries representative, ...)
12- there were 2 Egyptians people which i think they were Manal & Alaa the famous MANALAA bloggers
hope similar events happen again in Alex

Wikamania 2008 - Day3 : احنا بقغ يا ثعاد

third day

the day started with a lecture about teaching the teachers the global challenges like war, poverity .... etc

and of course these courses are open courses

it wasn't that interesting

and then a break

after ...

a session about use wikis for political participation by a spanish speaker

he was talking about events happened in Spain and how demonstrations were assembled using sms, blogs, .... etc

and he was talking about how the community responded fast to this tools and acted immediately

so it was a wiki society

then i tried to attend a session about conception & misconception about wikipedia but unfortunately the session room was full and i couldn't even step in the room

so i went to the available session and it was a session about diplopedia the wiki of the US department of state

then a session about free network services: the speaker was a geek

he talked about examples for network and he mentioned facebook as a netowrk example where they stopped sharing their code because what the community have found 2 abuses at least, they were tracking users actions
he copied the lines on the screen, yeeeeeh even facebook is a bad place to hang in
:(
then it was lunch time
later a session by another IT geek (a UN developper and project manager)
he talked about little wiki they create for the kids in the poor africa who have no schools or computers
he said some interesting points such as the kids didn't care about the site usabilities basics as we know it
they just wanted a page to write in
then another great session by Florence Devouard (the Ex chair board) - 7ete set to7faaa
she was talking down to earth
what has happened last year? negative points we should fix? how community communicate in a better way?
she wasn't telling a speech she was talking ask question listen to the audience
it was like a session in a house living room
everyone talk seriously and everyone listen, trying to reach a better status for the foundation
she start by saying that everyone in the conference was talking about how wikimedia is evolving and is the good things that happened the last year, but i wanna talk about the bad thing it needs to be fix
she was honest and serious
this is - in my culture - the closed room talking, the positive point should be mentioned only but the negative should be in the dark so no one notice it
but again this conference is a window that i used to look on the other people in the other culture way of thinking and behaving
final break and then 2 sessions about people used the wiki concept in doing some application
one of them was copernicus: The Virtual
3D Encyclopedia, which was built according to 2-Layer Interface
Paradigm (2LIP). The background layer of the 2LIP-type user
interface is a 3D scene, which a user cannot directly interact with.
The foreground layer is HTML content. Only taking an action on
this content (e.g. pressing a hyperlink) can affect the 3D scene

in other way if I'm reading an article about the pyramids, then a pyramids 3d graphic will be in the background, when i hit "KING'S ROOM" word for example the background graphic will move to the inner pyramid and then to the room when i'm reading so i can see and read the information
the other session was about tagging the text in wiki (some hight techniques)
anyway
the 3 days sessions were done and then the closing ceremony time
Dr.Ismail serag Eldin talked a little
michael snow the new chair and Sue Gardner the executive director they thanked the BA, the volunteer, Florence , the organizer, ....
they talked about the next wikimania 2009 in Argentine
and it's over
GOOD BYE WIKIMEDIA
"experience I'll never forget"

Wikamania 2008 - Day2 : احنا بقغ يا ثعاد

Day 2 was overall less interesting then day 1, sessions wasn't that awesome as day one except 3 sessions were WOWWWWWW
i skiped the first session (couldn't get up in the morning at all)
i get in the second session and it was about OpenStreetMap
which is another wiki based on the wiki concept
it's about people move in the street with their GPS devices collecting data on the street, drawing map and then upload it to the site where other people can use
it's become a culture
everyone is building an application using a wiki now
and after it was a session by Dr. Usama Fayyad Yahoo!'s executive vice president of Research & Strategic Data Solutions
imagine !!!
he talked about new technologies in yahoo search engine
this was awesome
and he mentioned some interesting stats about user behaviors, and keyword usage
later i asked him about the cat and mouse war between search engine and SEO, his answer was that after the system is mature everything will be in place
the man asked some signifcant question about wikipedia too, how they will deal with the service cost in the long term
and of course he was talking about another perspectives
then lunch
and after eating i went to a session i thought it would be interesting "Free knowledge & wikimedia projects: is the law an ally?'
the speaker was a french lawyer speaking english about: how wikimedia face the legal problems of copyright and so
i didn't enjoy it much because the tone of the speaker and the old news he brougt
"wikimedia has no obligation because it's not a publisher"
another boring session about eifl open access, it's about electronic libraries and how to share knowledge among people and libraries
and the speaker said that the organization has a program here in Egypt
a final break and then another astonishing session
it was about wikimedia and libraries: the speakers were 5, 3 of the wikimedia community and 1 american college professor and librarian and another lady librarian from the BA
the question was: well wikimedia replace the library
and of course the 2 librarians thought it's not going to happen because knowledge on wikimania is from books basically and it has not every thing in books
so it means people will not find all the answers on wikipedia and they'll have to get back to books
other great point is the librarian is not about keeping books safe, but also about guide readers to the channel of information
it was clear that the people of wikipedia have not much to argue with that
well, this is what i get from this session and i was impressed by the democracy of the people
who brought - let us say people from the opposite camp - to debate
coooooool
very deep thoughts were said in this session and in the last one
the last one was by ting chen from the foundation board, it was an interactive session
people from the audience talked more then he did
he asked a question about why not every contribute with whatever he want to, so one of the audience said too much inforamtion needs filter so the good stays and the nonsense get deleted
so other people from the audience answered by how this will be done,
another filtering fan said by the experts, so michael snow new head of the board and Rhonda from the stinkyjournalism said 2 great points; first who will defines the expert, second what you may think is nonsense now may be valued after years or may be important for another one.
so the debate was wone by the good guys
and the day ends with a BA tour
we went to a new section called VISTA, it's about 3d presentation for any topic: scientific, historical, medical, .... whatever
you wear a 3d glass and you'll be IN the scene
done with the second day

Wikamania 2008 - Day1 : احنا بقغ يا ثعاد

in some olad commercial 2 cows are sitting relaxed, one asked who are we, the other answered: we are cows احنا بقغ يا ثعاد

i remembered this confident sentence by the cartoon cow: we are cows ... attending the wikimania 2008 conference
wikipedia for me was just a cool site where i can find some info when i needed fast, DONE
site with great data
but after i found out about the conference i digg a little in it
and honestly i was astonished by what i found
for more on wikimedia foundation: The Wikimedia Foundation Inc. is a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge. It operates some of the largest collaboratively-edited reference projects in the world, including Wikipedia, one of the world's 10 most-visited websites. The Foundation was created in 2003 by Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia

first: it's non profit organization
second: the aim is in brief to make knowledge available for everyone free of charge
third: the foundation created a project for any thing needs to be shared; wikipedia, wikimapia, wikibooks, wikiversity, .... etc

eih ya ged3an el7alawa di

the fundemental issue here is: the free knowledge availabilty
meaning: not because you are poor can't have books to read !!!!!!!
this great issue is built by jimmy wales and now maintained by the community
another key word: the community ... wow
what community?
the wiki contributers, in other word any one writes even a single line in wiki is a contributer, translated in numbers means thousands of people all around the world
that's the idea behind it
so attending a conference about that is yuppieeeeeeeeeeee

the conference is held in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina
another place believes in the open source need

thursday @ 8.45 am, people from arround the world are registering and get their name tags and a bag with (fishermen hat with wikimania logo, note, pencil, brochures, sticker and tie clips with the wikipedia logo, lunch tickets)
minister Ahmed Darwish was the speaker of the welcoming session, he talked about future and questions need to be asked and found answer for
then Florence Nibart-Devouard, very lovely lady and the former chair of the board of trustees, she talked about wikimedia foundation, how small they started and how big they become.
a young egyptian named Mohamed Ibrahim of the organizing committe said a brief speech, welcomed the audience and asked people and egyptian to envolve more.
Hoda Baraka, an egyptian college professor and the first deputy of the mcit spoked about education and wiki, well .... she had powerpoint slides about children in schools with computer labs and children with IT certificate
she compared education status in 100 years and how it evolves from the Kottab to the computer labs school and next the web 2 education where children will handle their curruiculum online
i think she was talking about the other Rrepublic of Egypt (the one in the governmental commercials where sky is blue and the land is green)
anyway
she was followed by the super speaker Dr. Ismail SeragelDin
this man is something else
every speaker prepared his speech on a power point presentation where the slide have pictures and text
he had a presentation with no text at all, he was talking about a point and showing a picture to reflect this point and then move on to another picture represents another point,
how he memorised all the points he want to talk about with the perfect order
and in fact his word was deeeeep
he compared about the BA role and the wiki, both are offering free source of knowledge as he said (to all people in all times)
and mentioned how some countries spend on wars and weapons and ignore the education or the fundemental needs of it's population

a break and i had to choose one session to attend from four are held in the same time
so i did to choose "cross culture dialogue through wikipedia - Dror Kamir"
and after the session began i found out that this man is Israeli
ya nehar eswed !!!!!!! that's how i thought
and then i realized something that this man is the most suitable for this title
he is a main contributor in wikipedia articles in arabic
he talked about how what you believe is A, others belive it's B, and how people on wikipedia try to reach consensus , new word to my ears
he made examples like (palestine / Israel - Taiwan / republic of China - Republic of Macedonia / the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)
people asked him, how he describes his visit to Egypt as Israeli knowing that he may not be welcomed in some places, he said that it was easier then he expected after all it is another city with friendly people.
he said something very important answering a question about: do u reach the consensus after convincing the other or just for the things to get going?
he was very honest by saying i don't force people to be convinced and i don't care if they didn't because it's a long term process, people change their views many times along their lives and it's not just happen on talking about an article.
after the lunch break
i went to a session about the open scholarship or as i understand later, it's about medical and educational open source projects
beythay2li keda ... LOL
another session where the speaker was an egyptian linguistic, he was taking about his research on wikipedia writing, he got this result "people who write on wikipedia are linguistically skillful as PHD writers
he showed up some charts comparing the words used by the writers and so on -- very booring session
and then the lecture of the great Jimmy Wales founder of the wikipedia
he talked about freedom of speech, human rights and free culture, he was of course from time to time used china as an example - china banned the whole wikimedia sites -
he said some great statments
i want to stop here for a moment: here is a guy with a cosematic way of thinking, he created a project and let all the globe share him in it, and all this effort is non profitable
i think he deserves a noble prize for his way of thinking, he simply change the internet and the world by offering the new concepts of open source, wiki, web 2, ....etc
everything we do or use today online is a child of his product like facebook, you tube, blogs, and of course the wiki
i wonder how to be this man, have a great idea that benefit every one on the globe, seek to make it real, see it flourishing and growing and be part of the organization
wow
this man sure sleeps at night have no worry about the legacy he'll leave his children.
after this great session, there was another astonishing one by Rhonda Shearer
she was talking about the media vis wiki
she mentioned some hoax media created in the past and that in the wiki world people are modified content to make sure it's right and valid
she had some hilarious examples such a BBC news "iranina women give birth to a frog" and how this was proven a hoax and others stories
this woman was briefly saying: don't trust eveerything you read, media can manipulate the truth
in the wiki world it's impossible to happen, because people will step in and correct the fault.
coffee break and 2 sessions about wiki writing, not so interesting
except the Zotero software which makes wiki article available on your PC to modified and published by a click.
another session about inkscape SVG, very specialized session don't expect people to understand
the day end with the board panel session
wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
how people talk and think
it was a situation where the board is answering the "COMMUNITY" questions
the thing is it's a non profitable project, board have no obligation by law to offer a revenue chart or something similar
BUT
they had to answer the questions of the community and there were some questions i don't believe it would asked in a corporate company where people are by law forced to declare inforamtion
it's the difference between cultures
where we think this is mine, no one has to know anything about it
while they think that this product is belong to all, and all has the right to overwatch it
when Ahmed Zewal won the noble prize he said that the difference between the culture here and there was in the use of "i" and "we"
he was talking using the "we" referring to a team working together, not the "i"
i did, i make, i create
it's entirely a different approach,
that's the web 2 approach too
here in egypt in the IT business we did some baby steps in this direction with network community sites
it's not enough because it's not about the sharing of knowledge rather then sharing a good time online

with children again

yeaaah children
i don't know exactly the secret but i love spending time with them playing teaching
not the babies who can't respond clearly
but kids with the ability of talking and communicating
in the pic they were making shapes with the Terracotta
i was astonished by their creativity
one friend said: when we were at their age we weren't that clever or creative
yeah
they created full scenes using only Terracotta without real artistic guidance
dealing with children is a blessing not only in sunday school but in any occassion
same as last year
spending less then 2 days with them is enough to change my mood and worth the effort

driving with details

i had the chance to drive a toyota yaris car for 3 minutes , and was in a chevrolet optra car for an hour

i drove a gear car for 4 years now

and after driving the automatic, i was empressed of course

people are saying that the automatic is easier and it's true

but this isn't what i was impressed by

what hit me was the details

to change the mirror view, you press a button

to close the window, you press a button

.. etc

these kind of actions are what distract drivers along the way

having just 2 peddals to use is'nt that superb thing

it's like playing cars in the park

but have not to worry about the details is the superb

having a detail panel infront of you telling you what is exactly happening in every part of your car is the coool thing

and of course these tools are in all new car (even the non automatic)

which apply the phrase (the joy of driving)

THIS MEANS: to have control on everything even the far mirror by a press of a button

in some old TAXIs car, nothing is working except the peddals, the wheel and the stick, everything else is broken or damaged

but taxi drivers aren't complaining, i noticed how they adopt their moves with the junk cars they use, comparing with the relaxing method my friend uses to drive his automatic car

the effort they make in driving one street is equal my friend's effort driving to the north coast

(using his full automatic car) for example, and is equal the effort i make to go to sidibishr

LOOOOOOL

well, whould it be nice to have all the details buttons and tools in my gear car!!!

i love my car and can't replace it, all i wish for is the extra tools not the 2 peddals

subsidize 24 million villa

I attended a meeting last week with a huge real estate company marketing represntative, it was something related to my work

the meeting lasts all day long

from 10.30 am to 5 pm

i went home with a terrible headache and wondering where am i exactly

all the way home i was telling myself (mohamed sobhy joke: morataby bekafiny we batbara3 belba2y lesadad dayon masr)

i know people differ in their extent of wealth

and in egypt lives couple of the most richest men on earth

and most of people can live (just live) in egypt in an above poverty (just above poverty) standard

BUT

and it's huge but

this statment was valid till 6 months ago

first i'll recall what i ve heared:

DAMAC company is making new projects in egypt to sell different real estate properties

- in a specific project (hyde park in cairo) the villa price is increasing weekly by 2%

- they didn't start digging yet, and they sold about 1000 villas

- they have a long waiting list for people who are waiting the next lot of villas to buy it

- the buyer are egyptians

- some villas are 24.000.000 LE

check what's written on the website

Hyde Park

Spread across 4 million square meters, Hyde Park is the most exclusive villa development with Detached and Attached Villas nestled with a 1 million square meter landscaped park, the biggest private park in Egypt. Designed to suit multi-cultural tastes, the villa designs range from the Neo-Classical, Italian-Country to California-Spanish styles. Set atop beautiful vistas and surrounded by Egypt's natural beauty, your home will be amidst striking landscapes and beautiful water features. A gated community with several entrances, 24-hour security and controlled entry, living here is designed to give you total peace of mind and privacy.

Centre Ville

Park Avenue

NOW

it's totally healthy for the economic environement to have various standards of everything

low cost, average cost and high cost of every good

so similar projects are certainly required

what i'm wondering about is not the good, it's the buyer

if we put in mind that in the past 6 months, the economy were ruined by the gas and other goods high price increasing

AND more

the dollar interset is down to less then half

so any rich man who has 1 million dollars in the bank, he used to get more the 4% interest

meaning: 10000000*.04/12 =3.333$ monthly

but now the intersest is alomst 2%

so this means he now get 1.666$ monthly

and what makes egyptian economy a genuis record candidate is that

the dollar exchanging price is decreasing and the deposit interst tooo

it's an economical miracle because the interest rate should get up when the currency value get down and viseversa

that's not happening

so who owned 1000000$ 2 years ago he had 1000000*(5.7 to 7) LE and monthly income about 3.333$

but now he have 1000000 * (5.3 to 5.5) LE and monthly income about 1.666$

again people are loosing their wealth, value of their stocks

so who buys these A+++ real estate properties???????????????????

another question:

how many are they? projects like this are expanding more and more

now we have A+, A, B+, B standard real estate projects

it's good and healthy economically

but my question is? if the dollar deposit lost 50% of it's value, and the inflation is up by more then 30%

where all that money come from? and how ?

this makes me get to the next step

an important percentage of the egyptian people are wealthy enough to pay 2 to 24 million to buy a house

and they aren't counting on their money to live

but they share the governmental subsidize with us (the rest poor people)

if anyone from whom can afford even 2 million dollar house isn't using his share of subsidized bread, gas, .. etc

the rest who really need it will find it

the current economical situation is wrong

it's like a father who have 10 kids and one bread

and because he's a father he should give a fair share to every child so every child took 1/10 of a bread or a small bit

while 5 of his children have already eaten before and don't need more

and yet this creates another problem: who exactly needs the subsidize and who don't?

and what if someone today is declared rich and don't need a subsidize, and then another price increasing wave happens, will he be able to live without subsidize?

i believe in such communities (where a villa is worth 24 million ) no gas, water, electricity subsidize should apply, i mean people in these community should pay for electricity a bit higher then people in abies or nady elsaid (ابيس / نادى الصيد)

3arad mush marad

i have this friend that is 24/7 suffering from a sever headache

so she took some aspirine pills and go on with her life

i keep telling her "you should go see a doctor because headache is a Symptoms not an illness: meaning something else is wrong causing this terrible headache, once you know it and deal with it the headache will be gone"

but my friend keep ignoring me .... 3ady ya3ni

although she knows i'm right

WELL

it's not just her it's the community, the society, the nation, ....

we keep wasting our time and effort fight the symptoms not the illness itself

in the bread disaster we live in daily: creating a whole new system for bread distribution on every citizen using his ID >>>>>>>>> is fighting the symptoms not the illness

no bread because there are no wheat as simple as that

the new system will not create a new wheat field

the 30% raise is an obvious example on how dealing with the symptoms and not the illness.

giving the people 30% more income will not help, if inflation is way more then that and the total GNP is getting lower and lower.

it's not about having more banknote in our hands it's about the value of the banknote itself

the new traffic law is about "killing everything except the virus"

force people to pay fine for parking in the street ... while there are no garages

force the people to abandon the car older then 20 years ... while there are no obvious instruction on what exactly should we do with it

and more, how to buy new cars if i can't sell the old

etc............

even in our day to day life

we tend to take an aspirin instead of Antibiotic

make the pain stop without killing the cause of it

if i have a problem at work, i'll go out with my friend ..... just an aspirin to kill the pain

and not setting everything straight at work and make fights ... taking a Antibiotic to kill the virus

we all do this

even if we take Antibiotics, we use it more then necessary till we create another source of pain

it's a culture

Culture of Aspirin and not Antibiotic

Good Comment

لو نهر النيل صلصة ميكفيش الكوسة اللى فى مصر
good comment wrote by a reader in Almasry Alyoum newspaper

amazing graphic

see hoe th girl's hair is connected and arround the hourses necks

Ridge white hair

the Bold & the Beautiful ...... the Phenomenon

during the 90s, this series was the HIT

every egyptian watched the 9.30pm episode of the american series

even people who don't speak english

the faces of the stars were so attractive

and especially RIDGE

oh .. i remember how girls used to talk about him in school ELshabab monthly magazine give some star posters away with every issue, one month it was the RIDGE poster

i remember exactly what happened that day in school

girls came to school with the magazine ........ "this was Forbidden"

they were ready to deal with the sisters (catholic school) and get the punishment

BUT they couldn't afford to wait after school to buy the magazine "7ate7'lasss"

one girl said: i'll buy 10 issues to get 10 posters to cover all the walls of my room with his picture

later, the cast came in tour to Egypt

it was hilarious!!!!

people waited from them in the airport, in the streets

it was first page news in the national newspaper :ridge is in Egypt

no one cared to know their real names, they were ridge stephanie eric brooke ...

even the music contaminated with this epidemic: a girl in my school class gave me a tape for eric's songs

he sing too, u know .. oh he 's (yehbal) don't know the word in english

EGYPT spent sometime under the spell, before it slowly gone

people start to understand new terms like "soap"

i remember this conversation:

- this is soap

- heh?

- soap

- soap? like cleaning soap?

- no soap, just a term used for this kind of shows

- meaning?

- it's about shows for housewives to watch in the morning, well this shows aren't that value, it's just something to fill the time of the channels there, well u know in usa there are hundreds of channels and ......

new terms like "soap, channelssssssssss, satelites, ....."

at that time, we had only channel 1, 2 eltelevision elmasry elra2ed

so people who lived in egypt all their lives didn't get it easily that in another countries the TV isn't only governmental 2 channels

anyway

it was toooooooooo slowwwwwww

and it had a particular point that the series authors insisted on doing over and over again

which is "any man can fall in love with any woman / it's just a man and a woman in a relationship"

so it doesn't matter if brooke loved the father and the 2 suns and married the three of them

briefly ridge was the star of the 90s for us and he was the handsome actor that any girl was ready to watch him for hours even if he said nonsense or kept silent

then the TV repented for this sin and introduced the japanese "Oshin"

and people switched 180 degree

to find out how silly and shallow is the american soaps

and oshin had lot of common with people in the rural

so people were attracted to the character not only girls but grown up men too

yesterday, during my 10m tv time i watched the bold in the beautiful 2008

it was for 10 seconds only, couldn't bare more

ridge is old with white hair, almost same lines sine a decade

it was a shock

ridge is OLD

now i'm looking to it with a fresh point of vue

how a man sold his entire life for a soap????????

he's only work is this soap?

he's entire achivement in life was doing a handsome soap character?????

i never saw him in any other soap or movie or even on the movie news in MSN/ Yahoo

well, this post isn't clear enough

i remember how stupide we were, i wonder how stupide he's

i'm telling my self to learn and do something with my life

الشركة المصرية للإتصالات ... حافظ مش فاهم

I have no net at home for the most stupid reason EVER
the phone line was suddnly dead
the phone company guy came and fix the error which was in the street box lines
so the phone company is the responsable for the error
after it, i failed to login online from my home pc
i called tedata (and i have to admit that the auto responder service is MUCH MUCH better now then THEN)
anyway, the customer support guy told me after checking the system:
was your phone down lately and repaired?
me: yes
C S: ahh, that's why
me: sorry, what's the problem exactly?
C S: well, you see when the phone guy fix a phone error, he unplug the whole line first and then reinstall it, but they don't reactivate the dsl service
me: eh? so?
C S: i'll report the problem to our guy (someone in the a3tal) and he'll check it tomorrow with the central of your residence

IS THIS STUPIDE OR WHAT?
1- the phone company is fixing errors to create others
2- the TEDATA company is goverment owned company, and even if it's not
i think the connection between the 2 companies should be better

حافظ مش فاهم