We got Barcelona

I could care less, but I won't. Liverpool is going to play against Barcelona and even if we do pass them I will have to wait till after that to find out who we will play next. Does that seem right? Well, I could care less.

Barcelona was my choice for the worst outcome for the draw in yesterdays post, I guess we weren't lucky but Barcelona has only Ronaldhino to be feared, they are a powerful team and a lean killing machine, but not with us, we are the REDS. We will triumph, eventually. Best of luck in UEFA and hope to kick Arsenal ass soon.

UEFA champions league draw tommorow

Tommorow, the day long awaited for by all Liverpool fans and all other clubs in the UEFA, the draw for the first knockout round in the UEFA Champions League, the draw will against from a team of the other groups' runner-ups.

Barcelona, Inter Milan, Roma, Real Madrid, Celtic, Porto and Lille are the possibilities for the team which will LFC will play next. Home and Away, that is. I hate this phase the most, because the teams are all of high standard, nothing liverpudlian of course, but still admirable. Then after we win, we still don't have a schedule to work with to guess who we will meet in the quarter-finals and semi-finals. That's not until the 9th of march, or three days after our second match.

In the draw I'd like us to meet:
Real Madrid rather than Barcelona
Roma rather than Inter Milan
Lille rather than Porto or Celtic

If we are to get one the later 4
Celtic or Porto rather than Barcelona or Inter Milan

Wish us luck

Only in Jordan!!!

I was shocked the other on some of the pricing schemes I found in some places. I always was a spontaneous guy who trusted the brains of other people. The other day I wasn't carrying alot of cash, I walked in to Safeway in Shmeisani to buy some razer-blades and some cigarettes. I was shocked at this:







the price of the 4-cartridge pack is 5.75 while the price of the 8-cartridge pack is 11.85, it was funny because I was intending to buy the 8-cartridge pack but then I ended up buying two 4-cartridge packs at 11.50

The cashier clerk told me that I would probably rather buying the 8 pack because I would save some pennies. I told him that for every penny he would save me, I would give him 10 times as much, and vise-versa. The guy practically ran to the shelves to find the deal for me and then he came back shocked but laughing, he knew that I was two steps ahead of him.

I had that happen at more than one store and with more than one product, but only in Jordan

Now I do have a reason to hate Bush

President Bush of the United States of America is visiting Amman today, he was scheduled to arrive at 11:45 am in Queen Alia International Airport (OJAQ/AMM) and therefore my scheduled takeoff of 10:50 was cancelled.

I never had any personal reason to hate him before, I mean he did many things I would rather not see the consequences for, the Amman Bombing that affected three hotel a little over a year ago, were a direct consequence of him invading Iraq, it affected tens of families, hundreds of people and millions empathized. Personally, I was sorry that that sort of thing happens in Amman, but I wasn't hating bush till today ;)

It's so aggravating watching the streets of Amman flooded with police and patrolling army units, it's also annoying thinking Jordan is in the middle of three very troubled countries and America and its policies are partially responsible.

Somehow, I still have hope that Jordanian wisdom and courage will rub off to the guests of our country and hopefully King Abdullah will be able, through his inherited Hashemite legacy, of making ends meet and drive this region to peace.

I was born with stories of war, Palestinians, Jordanians, Lebanese all had some sort of civil war and many were engulfed in it. Iraqis, Egyptians, Syrians and the above mentioned all had war with other countries or had resistances of some sort. When you think about it, in the past hundred years, there has been a war of some sort twice in each of the countries surrounding our beloved country, Jordan not excluded.

When will peace ever come, I understand international politics, I understand human greed, I understand expansionists. What I will never understand is death, we are dooming a whole generation to orphanhood, widowry (if that's a word) and emotional turmoil. I can't get over my father's death which occured more than 8 years ago of natural causes. How will there ever be peace if people die?

I don't think I will live to see the day when my kids will drive to Jerusalem in two hours and come back just in time to catch the bus ride to Baghdad where we will have dinner with our religious Jewish friends who will be calling on our Christian neighbour to stop barbecuing pork because our kids love the smell and can't understand the difference in religion.

I think freedom fighters everywhere have the right to fight, I also believe in human rights and most importantly children's rights. Until everyone can feel inclined enough -by reasons of rights and freedoms- to have peace because he sees no point in war, I don't think we will be able to drop the notion of "kill or be killed"

This might be a first for me,

حمى الله الأردن وشعبه الغالي وأعطى كل ذي حق حقه

Thanks for the comments

I wasn't being very objective in my previous post, this blog has a wide readership in Canada and the US and also south-west Europe, I track people who link to me often (at least once a week) and I know how people conceive my blog.

Most of those people are friends, colleagues and adversaries, they seldom write any comments, they think I might mobilize against them on "go to the mattresses" as Mario Puzo so eloquently put it. I never nor will I ever do that, my previous site, radi.150m.com forwards here, I had alot of articles there, and I made some serious point. People in the west tend to follow up.

I made $25 this November from people clicking through adsense on my site. It shows how many people clicked through this site, I am guessing quite alot, I however do not like the idea that people don't comment on what I say, that's why I ask people to comment. Please do.

I thank everyone who posts and hope you like what you see here.

Pride in being Jordanian

Every time I find one reason to regret staying in this country, I always tend to find ten more that make me proud of staying and belonging here. Today, I was tossed dry by my academy, of course I was pissed, but then I picked up my friend from her university and she "made" me listen to the song she wants played at her entrance to her wedding.

Although when I first came to Jordan around 7 years ago I had trouble understanding the local tongue, now I have not only mastered it but can also speak it with pride and switch it off and on like a light-bulb. I loved this song, for those of you with an objection to Arab sites lack of privacy policy, you can check listen to a sample of it at the band's own website, don't forget the main page

Tareq Al-Naser is the most talented Jordanian composer I have met or listened to, he has by far the best group of talents around him. He is yet to disappoint me with a piece of his. This song is so reminiscent of the good old days I hear people talking about, the accent the female voice Sahar Khalifa portrays is the of not only purity but genuinely nostalgic, it remind me of a friend I had who talked like that, it seemed like the most normal thing in the world, uncorrupted and so fitting.

This musician not only made me proud to be country-mates with him he also made me understand a lot of the beauty of our heritage and our past.

Great job

It's official, no one reads my blogs

For the past two days I was busy preparing for an exam, I got no page views, yes, zero, nadda, nil, not-a-one, nothing, zip. I hate this, if you do read my blog just write anything, any comment, any email, anonymous would do, please, this is so aggravating!!!

RJ here I come

Countries where I get traffic from:
Jordan, United States, United Kingdom, France, Finland, Canada, Australia, Portugal, Spain and Monaco.

It makes sense, its the same countries I am most excited to go to WHEN I start working for Royal Jordanian. Oh, yes, the if changed to when, YES!!!!!

I passed, I officially have the green light from DLR (Duetsches Zentrum fur Luft und Raumfahrt or the German Aerospace Center) to pursue a career as a pilot in Royal Jordanian.

They have a very difficult exam that is in most parts psychological but tests you in many areas. It is very selective, but as of Thursday 23rd of November 2006 I passed it, it was exactly 4:24 pm when I left the Interview with the good news. It was fun but very stressful and I at last proved to able to make it.

Brave Young King

Most of the libraries in Jordan have little if no historical periodicals, I mean, Jordan University, the oldest in the land, was established in 1962, and with a mediocre start, you can't expect to find a 1958 article in there.

The Time magazine article, which came 6 years after the abdication of his father, King Talal, had the above-mentioned title, was first shown to me by a friend of mine, he had the magazine which he inherited from his grandfather's collection.

Fortunately our friends at Google helped me find it in their news archive. You can find it here, I am also trying to collect a repository of his late Majesty dealing with grave situations.

Just an example of his wisdom in navigating all the powers of the world, to keep his Kingdom alive. Plots always thickened against him and more often than not he was facing a joint effort against him.

It's freaking me out

Sometimes it's just scary, I started believing in "be careful what you wish for". I tried having my blog on Jordan Planet. I tried a systematic approach, I checked many of the blogs in there to see how mine compares. As for the frequency, many of them don't get 5 posts per month, as for the quality, I guess the people in there are smarter than that, they don't judge based on that.

So I was left with one assumption, I am fit to add my blog to their listing, so I sent my request, I waited for a few weeks, and I wasn't added. I sent them an e-mail to inquire about why I wasn't added; they only asked for the blog to be a month old.

Not only did I not get added, I didn't get a reply to my e-mail, so I wished for the site to go under. Yes, you heard me, I wished them bad luck, wished for all their data to be lost, and since they seemed like smart people, I wished for all the backup to be lost as well.

I know for a fact that the first part came true, and I'm now wondering what happened to them.

I also have a feeling that originated a year back, a feeling that I can harm people just by wishing it. Anyway, don't cross on a bad day, or else...

Driver Ed 102

This is the second part of this series about driving in Jordan, we dealt in the previous part with light usage, today we will deal with changing lanes, please make sure you use the signals when changing lanes:

Ch. 2 - Changing lanes

Don't use the following techniques in changing lanes or streets:

1- You push the tip of your car in front of some other car, so that's he won't be able to pass unless you pass, I will hit you car in a second if you do that in front of me. Also, save yourself the embarrassment of your lane moving and not being able to go back.

2- You think the person in the car you are trying to cut off won't try to go around you because he has a nice car and they won't want to wreck it. Nice cars usually come with insurance and someone like me behind the wheel. I will hit you and your car for that silly assumption.

3- Wave your hand out of the window, there are signal lights use them.

Don't change lanes if:

1- You are trying to go to the faster moving lane in traffic jam.
2- You think you can overtake one or two cars and reach your destination 15 seconds later, It'S NOT WORTH IT.
3- You want to checkout some girl that is in the same rush-hour traffic, if she likes you or wants you, she will open her window and talk to you. If you just wanna stare, DON'T!!!
4- You think you know someone in the other car and try to sneak up to him, especially if you have doubts because the colour of the car or the license plate number changed, IT'S NOT THE SAME CAR!!!

Please refrain from making split seconds changing lane decisions in Jordan for the following reasons:

1- Not all of Jordanians know where you are going or what you planning to do, we have the audacity to presume people will use those yellow things to tell us if you are going left or right.

2- We don't like slamming brakes and trying to avoid your car, I swear the next time you don't try to give sufficient signal and priority to the lane you are switching to, I will crash into you. I checked my air bags and I have two on my side that work, I will not even touch the brake, and it will be your fault and I will fix my car at the dealership on your expense, I have a good lawyer.

3- Brake pads last so short of a time in our hilly and mountainous terrain without your help, I am sick of avoiding careless drivers, my leg hurts at the end of each day.

4- Some people use crappy brakes or don't have quality brake systems because they can't afford it, don't rely on the condition of our roads, nor on our concentration, we have other stuff to worry about.

The reasons I might exempt you from a crash:

1- First and foremost, you driving on the right lane and a taxi driver or a bus driver cuts you off, just to pickup that "bareezeh" or "nos-lairah", in otherwords: " a fare". I don't require much of a warning but common courtesy is still in order.

2- Trying to avoid someone else while they try to crash into you, reflexes are permitted and in some instances encouraged, especially if they situation involves pedestrians.

3- If you are shot above the waste or a female in your car is giving birth, in that case use the emergency light.

The reasons I might step on the gas while crashing into you:

1- If you are the taxi driver or bus driver cutting me off, just to pickup that "bareezeh" or "nos-lairah", in otherwords: " a fare".

2- If you think that your Daewoo, Kia or Hyundai can overtake any car, especially if you drive a Pregio bus, and you make the mistake of zig-zaging between cars behind me and/or in front of me.

3- If you think that Schumacher watches videos of your driving for lessons. I mean thinking you can squeeze in an extra lane or use shoulder of the street as a lane.

Driving Ed 101

Ok here's a crash course in driving manners, these are universally acknowledged manners, and although there is no official rule book to state them, think of them as my guide to telling you how much you stink in driving (left steering wheel countries):

Ch. 1 - Lights:
If you:
1- Use the signal light less than 2 seconds before you change lanes, you stink.
2- Use the signal light less than 5 seconds before you change lanes, you stink.
3- Don't use the left signal when entering a roundabout (circle), you stink.
4- Don't use the right signal when exiting a roundabout (circle), you stink.
5- Flicker the high-beam to mean "go ahead" or "come on up", you stink.
6- Flicker the high-beam to mean anything but "give me way", you stink.
7- Flicker the high-beam to annoy the driver in front of you, you stink.
8- Flicker the high-beam to punish the driver ahead of you, you stink.
9- If you have white light at the back of your car, or connected to the brake lights, you stink
10- Have brilliant blue lights, you stink, they aren't zenon, they won't be, Zenon is a brilliant white. Blue is blue, take them out, they won't make you look cooler, trust me.
11- Have "indoor" lighting, you stink.
12- Have any lighting colour inside your car, you stink.
13- Have red lighting inside your car, call me, I'll shoot you myself.

Red light = Rear side of the car, also brake light and in some silly American cars, it can be the rear signal light.
White light = Direction of motion light, when you see it in your face, the car is moving towards you.
Yellow or orange light = Signal light, if the one to the left is on, the car is going to the left and vice-versa. If both are on, then you should pay attention because something is not right in that car.

There should be no other colours of lights until further notice, if you do have a green or blue light, break it. Pink, purple, same fate. Light under the car, NO, NO, NO!! unless you plan to drive down to hell, then you might need it.

Don't use both signal lights together (emergency light) except in emergencies. If you are shot, a female is giving birth, or maybe if you halted suddenly and you want to be courteous for the person behind you.

No work gets done in the congress

The United States Congress has two parts: The Senate and The House of representatives.
For some reason -unbeknown to me- most Arab media calls the latter: the congress, but its not, its the house.

The house members are chosen every two years, the president every four and the senate every six. The recent elections on the 7th of November had a landslide victory for the democrats, now that is good news to me, a liberal of sorts. However, the president is still a republican but that's OK, people will have more fun watching news news of filibusters and stalls, maybe even a veto by the president, haven't seen that in a while!

How work gets done in congress is beyond me, if you have to run for re-election every two years and if you will have to start fund raising for your campaign a year before the actual race or election, then you have a year for listening to the people and then a year listening to companies who support your campaign. It's simple really, you spend half your time telling people you "take the American dream back from corporate America" and then spend your other half telling lobbyist from the fourth branch of government in K street that "what is good for corporate America is good for America"

This is obviously a conflict of interest, so you have to find the companies that have similar interests to your constituents and vote for them if you are to have enough money to get people to keep you in Capitol Hill.

The senators face the same dilemma, while only a third of them go to election every two years, it still means that they have to support their party, I mean its just like Senator John McCain of Arizona who visited 21 states in the previous month, he has presidential ambitions but still, a month or two every two years is a lot to waist especially if the country has only a hundred of you.

Good thing a President can only run twice, we wouldn't want a guy like Clinton doing a third term even if the people like him, let's just give bush and his people a chance. No point restricting the incumbency of congressmen because they make the laws and amendments.

Cars in Jordan

I drive a Mercedes-Benz C200 and no I'm not a rich kid who had his daddy buy it for him, its mine, the thing I want to say is, owning a car in Jordan is hell, I only owned one for the past three months and I am suffering. I am glad you asked why. I went to top-notch Mercedes experts, all the mechanics with years of experience in Mercedes could not figure out my tiny problem.

1- no two mechanics would give you the same opinion on any one matter.
2- all mechanics are ready to go on a trial and error quest to fix your car.
3- all mechanics want to get a hint at your budget so they can squeeze it out of you.
4- they notice little mundane things about your car that I don't give a shit about. Like the colour of the wiring or the little extra features I have installed
5- even in parts which they get very little out of, they try to send you to their "friends" so you could get screwed over.
6- they never say "I don't know" or "get a second opinion", they are always sure.

I tried all the best known Mercedes mechanics and they have failed me, I only have one guy left to declare the mechanics of Jordan incompetent.

Lucky me, I saw this scene before and I didn't fall for it, the one thing I did change were spark plugs, those looked really bad and I still felt like an idiot for not shopping more to save 2 JDs. Well, I will save 2 JDs if am willing to spend 10 in gasoline for the car.

Which brings me to my second point, the government is making a living out of the poor peoples back, I mean people in Jordan are under-payed and overtaxed. I don't mind a 20% tax if I someone is making 50 thousand a year, I do mind people taxed and customed -I meant literally- if the money is barely covering their needs. Also, who do I go to if I see a government employee or office squandering away our money. Yes, face it, its the taxpayers money. Welcome to the jungle.

Why does the government allow knockoffs if it warns people not to use them, and those people who line your brake pads with fiberglass, shouldn't they close their shops. Oh, wait, we have such high unemployment that we don't care as long as people make a living. Welcome to the Jungle.

The other day I got a parking ticket, it was in a shopping area in Amman, were they previously had a meter, just like the ones all around the world, only more high-tech because you could pay with the credit card or the pay-phone card. I loved it, so I bought a pay-phone card from that company.A week later, the company went out of business and they still owe me 3 JDs worth of parking. I told that to the police officer, I also told him that he should tear up the fine and let me park here for 10 hours, or pay me back the 3 JDs, needless to say, I went and payed the ticket yesterday.

P.S. I have a very good idea what my problem is, I found it on the Internet and a friend who owns a similar car and had the exact same problem, he went to the dealership and got it fixed but I am enjoying knowing why the dealership charges more.

Getting an Award

Getting an award is always fun regardless of the person who gave it to you, or even of the acclaim for such an award. I got one at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. Most of my work there is about Jordan and making sure the facts are correctly stated before they get circulated on the Internet. I mean Wikipedia is becoming a reference and people are trusting it, so I try to get it to work.

Check it out, and also read my user boxes, some are funny.

Now it's getting personal

A good computer citizen like me was chocked last week, when I discovered that Microsoft is spying on me. I downloaded (automatically, my computer that is) a tool designed my Microsoft to tell you if your copy is pirated or original, I know mine is original because I paid for it, but if it turned out to be not original, then nothing will change and I will use the pirated copy because I am not paying twice for something that I will only get once.

If I was a user who was tricked into believing he bought an original when he actually bought a copy, I will tell Microsoft who cheated me and they should make him buy me an original copy, no? You won't! Well, too bad billy boy, I thought you were smarter than that. Did I tell you that your people in Amman, Jordan won't give me a student discount, yeah, the same one you promised the world years ago.

This tool is called Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), it is supposedly designed to help Microsoft give better Windows experience to those who actually bought it. Well, my reply is: If you can do that we can do the following.

1-Remove WGA tool, it's my computer and I will do as I please, you can't do anything about it.

Fix it here
2-Switch to a different operating system, Linux comes to mind, its free, isn't it? beat that Mr. Gates
3-Get hold of better hackers, who will tell you my copy is original, it will still be illegal, but I don't think what you did was legal, when WGA was added to my computer.

Read the EULA (End-User License Agreement) here

I use a legitimate copy but I will not hesitate to challenge those monopolists every inch of the way.

Which is which?

I know that time after 12:00 noon is pm and that after 12:00 midnight is am. But when you say to someone 12:00 am what does it mean?

Does the time go forward as: 12:00 am,12:01 am, 12:02 am, etc..
or Is it: 11:58 am, 11:59 am, 12:00am, etc..?

In other words: Is 12 am, noon or midnight?

Just wondering, I was also checking to see how many : I could use and still have five lines readable.

Happy Eid

Happy Eid everyone, but thats not why I am posting, I am sick and tired of being silent, the other day a friend of mine was shopping at a store in Mecca-Mall, I will not be saying the name of the place because they were helpful at the end.

In short, a rude female salesperson almost threwout my friend out of the store, treated her like she was a beggar and all she did was ask for help, thank God the manager was there and tried to ease it down, I thought that was part of her job, to help people!!

Terms like: "7urra" "Ma biddi" and even "3ama ye3meeki" were said by the saleswoman, but the manager followed my friend after she left, apologized, my friend demanded that if they were to keep our business, which was worthy, that either she apologized or got fired.

That store had an afiiliated store in the mall, were we were regular customers, i'm talking real regular. Thats when the manager remembered her and the money we pay (sad but true) and after talking to her (probably wouldn't apologize) he fired her.

My friend went back for the items she saw and the girl came back and wanted to pick a fight, "sho? jakara ya3ni?" she said, as if shopping at our favourite stores was suddenly a crime.

Anyway she went to the other store and they sent the pieces up, but that girl continued to be terminated, the manager explained that those are temps brought in to fill in the Eid season shopping. What I wanna know is, why do temps never have any manners?

I had this happen to me at a bank, a teller wont print out my statement, and she asked me to move away so that she would serve someone else. I usually just forget about it, but this time I refused, she called in security, who recognized me right away and refused to interfere (not having an ATM card helps), she left her desk and called in the manager, who also knew me.

She also got fired by the day end, I got my statement, its a piece of paper!! Its part of her job, and she has to do it. If you dont do your job you get fired!! Is it that hard ??

I hate seeing people getting fired, honestly, I do, but I hate to see them not helping me as required by ther job. A gas station, a hospital and a mobile company also had temps that won't do their jobs and just try to coast through till payday, I couldn't get those fired but they did shape up.

Shouldn't a company be responsible for its employees, even if they are temps ?? We hire temps all the time, but we follow a screening process that makes it worth it when we get no complaints. Shouldn't all companies do the same??

LA times article

An LA Times article comparing the King to Shah Pahlavi of Iran before he was disposed was written at the beginning of this months

the article

It is interesting how people are ready to categorize anything said about a topic as either pro or con, and finding insult in it. The LA Times article I believe has many valid points, and says something that alot of people in Jordan are saying on daily bases which is:

1-When did we become so close to the Americans?
2-The poor are getting poorer, the rich are becoming not only filthy rich but they seem not to care whatever happens.
3-Talking about anything seams to be considered "unpatriotic"

I wouldn't go as far as saying we are ready for a Khomeini, but I wouldn't mind seeing more change especially in our monetary and economic policies.

That's not the point I wanted to state here, what I wanted to say is, when someone starts saying that the article has a point, he is labelled as "unpatriotic" or "Jordan hater" and if you think the article might be flawed or poorly written then you are regressive and narrow minded. Isn't the writer human? Doesn't he make mistakes? Isn't the government human? Do they not make mistakes?

Check out this site's comments section and you will see what I mean

read the comments

Try to think of this article as something a human wrote to make a living, he may have have hit the point or missed, but that's not a big deal, I guess Globb pasha was right, we do look for a way to find offence in everything anyone says.

A nation of half McCarthist and half free-wheelers, in that meaning of the word.

A smokers dilemma

well, you see my dilemma is this, in Ramadan I fasted, which meant I couldn't smoke till sunset obviously, which wasn't that bad, you start getting used to it by the end of Ramadan, but then comes this part that I noticed last night, my body was used to a certain thing.

The (1st) morning athan which announces you have roughly 10 minutes to stop smoking eating or drinking went off, so I subconsciously reached for my pack of cigarettes, took one out and started drawing breaths.

Then when I finished it I just didn't get any cravings for hours. Thing is, I looked at the ashtray, I noticed I already had a pack from sunrise to sunset. Which meant that I had my body used to having a pack in half a day, what will happen when I allow it to smoke for a full day.

I quit quitting so don't email me with that idea.

Google

Ok, so everyone knows I am crazy about google. I use google desktop, GMail, Google Spreadsheets, Blogspot, Google Earth, Youtube, Picasa, Hello and anything Google I can get my hands on.

Although Youtube only joined the family last week, and picasa and hello a little while ago, Google's intentions are clear, all you need is a decent browser with a decent connection and you will forget about your hard-drive. About that browser, Google owns the domain name, Gbrowser.com, which makes their intention clearer, all you need is us.

The last time I used the search feature of my Windows, was last year, before I got Google desktop. Since then I search online for what I need, and if there are matches on my computer, it will tell me.

Since Google is entering the office application world with spreadsheet and word, I think in a year or so, I will switch to Linux, and using opensource and google, I will be free from anything Microsoft.

Till then, XP is a bliss.

Stupid White Men

Since the title is in capitals I am presuming you will all know I am talking about the Michael Moore book, or rather all his filmography and his literary works. Although he has a way of making everything he writes or shows seem as irrefutable facts, I will admit to the many doubts i have. Still, I am yet to see a few people with legitimate claim or lawsuit against the guy.

You watch and you think, there must be something with this, but then you watch and you think, well, would all those rich stupid men let him say it if it wasn't true. Well, I don't know, but someday he will provoke someone and their jury pool and will find himself paying fines and stuff.

Till then, he better get loaded real quick so he can settle.
Good Luck

Wikipedia on a roll

While I normally don't go around checking rankings of websites, I am however a fond searcher through google. Almost every non-trademark, non-commercialized word I searched for recently gave the same result in no.1 position:

http://en.wikipedia.com/wiki/######

Where of course ###### is the word or phrase I searched for. 95% of the time wikipedia is in the top 10 positions, which is something no one else can do. If wikipedia started using advertisements they will seriously make shit loads of money.
They are deeply principled and the generous donations of the good digital hearts will keep it running.

I started with wikipedia in 2002, where I edited thousand of faulty misconceptions about Jordan and the middle-east which were stated as facts, I thought it will be another hype and that people will soon forget it and pretend encyclopedia Britannica is the ultimate choice. I still rode along.

Luckily, wiki and open source have gained momentum recently, so much so that I would always look for the wikipedia entry for anything I was looking up. I am using openoffice.org for my office needs instead of Microsoft Office, and hopefully will soon land a very stable and easy to use Linux system that I can stick to.

I like it because it is cheap and easy, trust me, I temporarily gave up trying to push change on the world. But this entry can't harm, can it?

Debian

So Debra supports Ian in venturing in his own GNU/Linux program and what do they call it? Debian!! Well it is clear I I have been reading too many geek documents and surfing too many Linux site, I even learned alot of stuff. My next step was to go for it.

I wouldn't risk putting Debian on my newly formatted desktop, but my aging laptop sounded like a good idea. I mean what if I wasn't skilled wnough to use it, or what if I found out it isn't compatable with some of my hardware. Wwell, no matter the laptop is too old to handle anymore of me anyway.

I went ahead and downloaded the CD and then it hit me, the reason I picked the laptop was that the CD drive wasn't operable. I wanted to boot the program, from anewhere but it just won't happen.

till those people at debian find a way I can install without a floppy!!!! I mean how can you convince me it's going to be a good deal if it doesn't have a way to boot from another computer and do magic tricks (juggling is a minimum)

I think I need to sleep but I will update about my linux adventures.

WWFSMD

A while ago I heard about the Debate between Intelligence Design (ID) and Evolution taught in school. I personally believe we shouldn't teach ID in school, that is for religious school and then let children believe what they may. I don't think people should read about religion in science classes.

http://www.venganza.org has a very interesting theory, hilarious as it may be I think if we give one belief system the right to be taught, then you should give the same right to all beliefs.

This thing may twist the tide on the school board election in Kansas

Well, Flying Spaghetti Monster uses (perhaps abuses) first amendment rights, I guess the forefathers should have been clear what a religion is. Lol, too late now. The self-proclaimed prophet is currently in the process of making FSM a bona fide religion, email [email protected] if you want to help.

To all my writer friends, sorry but the gospel was already written. :)

Jordan gets its revenge

Jordan has helped the US today in getting rid of Zarqawi in Iraq, while I normally don't favour Jordan meddling in neighbouring countries, it is a matter of National Security, ever since the Amman bombings.

Also read about him here

I hope that after his death people will be safer, and hopefully some day all war and destruction is over.

Procrastinate Now!

If you followed this order what will you do?
Will you procrastinate it or follow it?

Most helarious joke ever

Lil' Johnny goes to his dad and asks, "What is politics?"

Dad says, "Well son, let me try to explain it this way. I'm the breadwinner of the family, so let's call me Capitalism. Mommy is the administrator of the money, so we'll call her the Government. We're here to take care of your needs, so we'll call you The People. The nanny, well, consider her The Working Class. Your baby brother, we'll call him The Future. Now go think about this and see if it makes sense."

So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what Dad has said. Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying and runs to his room only to find that his diapers are very soiled.

So the little boy goes to his parents' room. Mom is sound asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny's room. Finding the door locked, he looks through the peephole and sees his father in bed with the nanny. He gives up and goes back to bed.

The next morning, the little boy says to his father, "Dad, I think I understand what politics is now."

"Good son, tell me in your own words then what politics are."

The little boy replies, "Well, while Capitalism is screwing the Working Class, the Government is sound asleep, the People are being ignored and the Future is in deep shit."

Aerobatics

Nice, I am getting closer to flying aerobatics, right here in Jordan. Jordanian are relatively oriented with the world of aerobatics thanks to the Royal Jordanian Falcons. Unfortunately they are part of the Royal Jordanian Air Force in a sense, and therefore they don't offer "joy rides" to civillians that often. Even if the civilians are pilots.

More to come...

Red: the football's most popular

Think of your favourite football team, is their home kit red? No? Well, how about their away kit? There you go.

Liverpool, wears red for there home colours, and think of the greatest European teams. G-14 clubs using red as part or all of their kits including away kits and various shades:

1-Ajax Amesterdam
2-Arsenal
3-Barcelona
4-Bayer Leverkusen
5-Bayern Munich
6-Juventus
7-Olympique Lyonnais
8-PSV Eindhoven
9-Paris Saint Germain
10-A.C.Milan
11-Manchester UTD

See? Well anyway the only reason I could think of was that it is really an attractive colour. Any Ideas?

Freedom of Speech!?

I believe as a Muslim that the images ran by Jyllands-Posten are truly against the principle of free speech. I think that people should not ridicule, mock or scorn religious believes. I am writing here to say that as long as the courts in Denmark continue to refuse actions against the Danish daily newspaper—seeking a publicity stunt on the backs of religious respect issues—I will boycott all Danish products including all of my favorite dairy products. I believe that not only is an apology insufficient, it is also silly.

The magazine claims—and I highly doubt—that Jyllands-Posten commissioned and published the cartoons in response to the difficulty of Danish writer Kåre Bluitgen to find artists to illustrate his children's book about Muhammad, for fear of violent attacks by extremist Muslims. Islamic teachings forbid the depiction of Muhammad as a measure against idolatry.

I also encourage everyone to write to the justice ministry [email protected] explaining what they would like to be done. I also think that people should think twice before viewing the caricatures because publicity is just what they need, I will explain about three of the twelve caricatures because I feel strongly that you should not see these images regardless of your faith –or lack thereof—and that you should not use the curiosity excuse to view them. So here goes nothing:

1. An image of the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) with his imma or turban shaped like a bomb, in reference to suicide explosions committed by Muslims.


2. An Image of the prophet with two women in traditional Middle Eastern clothing leaving only their eyes to be seen. While the prophet has his dagger drawn and his eyes-blacked out. I think it doesn't need explanation.


3. The prophet is displayed stopping a group of Muslim warriors and telling them that we ran out of virgins. In reference to the Islamic prophecy that a Jihad Martyrs will get virgin women in heaven.

While I see them as a sickening derision for Islam, I will say that if this goes on without punishment, I will try to get a holocaust revisionism article under the same name of free speech. I am not a revisionist nor do I believe in it, but if that's free speech as they have claimed then we ought to go all the way, allowing everyone to speak their minds.

Good Unbiased reading material is available at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_cartoons

Palestinian Elections

I think it was stunning to my Muslim friends when I seriously doubted the results of the Palestinian parliamentary elections, and that I wasn't happy when Hamas won, but think of the following:

Hamas won a landslide victory against the ruling Fatah party, but they are on a crossroads, Hamas needs funding to start running the country, the billions of dollars which were contributed to the Palestinians over the years is controlled by Fatah.

As an example, Fatah is the largest real estate owner in the neighboring country Jordan. It also has many legitimate and not-so-legitimate interests all around the world.

People should be aware that Hamas has one of two apparent options at this time:

1. To renounce terrorism and all acts aimed at the civilian population for a start, and become the striking hand against anyone who wants to infiltrate to areas outside their potential rule, thus acting against its own ideology that people freely and democratically chose. This way they will receive all aid packages promised from the United States, Europe and other donors.


2. The other route is to go on ahead with their ideologies and look for funding elsewhere, Saudi Arabia has promised $100 million to the Palestinian government. Iran is probably willing to support Hamas as it has done in the past. The latter is a provider to the Islamic Resistance Movement (IRM) which is a literal translation for Hamas.

Notes to be mentioned here are:

• President Jimmy Carter and the Carter Foundation along with other groups have overseen the elections; this statement can benefit or harm the credibility of the results, depending on where you look at it from.


• The people chose Hamas as a way to tell Fatah that they aren't wanted in the government, to object to the election style and to disagree with the Oslo Accords. More so than to agree with Hamas strategies.


• Jihad Militant Group didn't participate in the elections for a major reason, not to divide the popular base between themselves and Hamas. Also not to acknowledge the Oslo Accords, but that didn't stop Hamas which also disapproves with Oslo.


• Cutting the US and the European funding to the Palestinians will only increase the hate against the west and fuel the desperation, leading to more and more violence.

I honestly believe that Hamas will disown the resistance movement and will play the cards dealt to it. The winners will be the Israelis and the Palestinians will loose yet another card from their thinning deck. Damn, I am obsessing about cards.

Peace, Out

Happy New Year

I've been really busy with all the reading I've been doing, I was trying to get hold of the Gutenberg DVD, and I downloaded 700 megs of it but it turns out that you can only burn it to DVDs and I only have a CD-RW. I settled for the CD which has around 600 books. A lot of reading material, but all of it is outdated.

Project Gutenberg relies primarily on books for which the copyright has worn off; that includes most of the major arts and fiction. It does not by any mean include those newly published books which have something to say. Much of the 17,000 books they carry at the moment are books that are read-worthy because it is the common people who donate the book, their effort and most of all their time to such causes.

Give it a visit: http://www.gutenberg.org