Ad Noctum

Of Cups and Kilos, and Other Stuff

2008-06-06T16:39:00.004Z

A wondeful place, looks nice, smells nice, good coffee, and strange pricing strategy..

i remember less than 2 years ago, i used to get my flavoured cappuccino for 1.5 JD, few months later it became 1.8 now its 2.20 JDs, that's about 47% increase, WHY!!?

I understand that the whole world is in a price crisis, and that Food and Oil prices are rising, but 47% increase!!? i mean even Taxi's didn't raise their fare for that amount.

it's a rip off, that's what it is!

3 JDs for a hot chocolate cup!?
3 JDs for a Hommus Sandwich!? c'mon, you gotta be kidding me!!

I'm not a Marketing, Management or Financial dude, but c'mon. they are a local brand that doesnt provide service, official place to sit, no WI-Fi, not even Bathrooms!! and their prices are comparable to Gloria Jean's and Costa which provide all that and more (take a look at Costa's Portions).

you know something, the problem isn't with Cups and Kilos, after all they're a free business that has the right to price their items as they see fit. the problem is with the people, people of Jordan I mean; who became so dependent on commodities and who have developed an extreme consumer culture that they don't mind paying large sums of money for "nice" stuff.

Jordanians don't manufacture anything (compared to what we import), we don't grow our food, we don't have much natural resources, our economy is barely holding, but still our school children have cell phones and drive cars, the poor have sattellite dishes, and our children (even the poor children) quarrel saying "Adidas is much better than Nike" or "Motorolla Cell Phones are crappy". Jordanians still go to commercial cool places and buy commercial nice stuff even if they know they're being ripped off!!

Walla 3eb.

*note: a quote from Al Sheikh Al Sha'rawi on the "Grow your own food thingy":

"طول ما أكلك مش من فاسك، رأيك عمره ما يكون من رأسك"

2007-03-12T23:13:00.000Z

Dear diary…
Today I discovered Charbel Rouhana… exquisite music, artist par excellence!!

nice warning!

2007-02-17T14:10:00.000Z

mmm... just exactly, who are we talking about here?

Climate Prediction

2007-02-17T13:27:00.000Z

Own a computer? Do you care about your planet? Wanna help fight global warming?
Well a simple way to do that is participate in the ClimateProdiction project, it’s a project that tries to create the weather forecast for the 21 century, that is done by using people’s personal computers to do the required calculations, because no existing server can do all these calculations, the load is distributed on volunteers’ computers.

Read more and perhaps take an action here.

Hellooooo!!

2007-01-31T15:23:00.000Z

Question!! Have you by any chance spotted the following ad, hideously glued to walls and street signs?

Well I did, and got really suspicious regarding the curious nature of the ad; no company name, no detailed skill requirements no nothing except a cell phone number and relatively large salary in US Dollars!!

So I called the number, pretended I was an unemployed guy and wanted to know what that job was, simply he said: “translators for the American army in Iraq, you’ll work in military bases, it will not included reading or writing, just talking and conversation”…how nice! They need translators who don’t need to read or write, just talk! Why would they require “conversation-only” translators? I’m thinking maybe the guy lied and it’s actually a field job, or they will be used in interrogation rooms!!

So I played on, and asked about the location, he said its in sweifiyyeh, I asked him to be more specific, he said it’s just around the corner from the 6th circle and he’ll pick me up from there!! WTF!!! HELLOOOO!! 3ammo this sounds veeeeery fishi! An agency with no specific name, nor a specific location recruiting young Jordanian to work with an invading force in the most dangerous hot zones in the world! Luring them with few bucks, using stickers in the street not even a simple ad in a respectable newspaper (personally I never saw an ad in any newspaper, if anybody saw anything correct me please), and not to mention the “pick-you-up-with-the-car-from-there” service!!!

Titan Corporation, a translation company (now owned by L-3 Communications) announced that a total of 199 Titan translators have been killed in Iraq and another 491 have been injured. But in the same time in year 2003 they earned around 112.1 million dollars from translation service to the US army!

I refuse to let our youth be exploited this way, to be sent to die while companies make money and US army roots itself more and more in Iraq.

What is that recruiting company!? Who are they? Is it legal what they do? Need an answer…

Tagged Again

2007-01-25T16:59:00.000Z

So I’ve been tagged …again.

Five things no body knows about me…

I’m very good in classic Arabic grammar and vocabulary
I have a mild case of OCD
I use L’Oreal hair gel
I remember things that happened when I was one and a half years old
I hate pranks and practical jokes

Please please no body tag me again!

La3yoon Omar: Freedom of Expression

2007-01-16T08:19:00.000Z

the sticker reads: "don't steal ... the government hates competition"

Tagged

2006-12-24T17:20:00.000Z

So I’ve been tagged…

What did I do for the first time in 2006!?
mmm… Let me think…

Started my own blog and posted my first post.

went to Serbia alone (That also includes lots of things that I did for the first time, like waiting for 7 hours in an airport, swam in a lake, drank from fresh mountain river, ate deer meet and saw an old woman with a Goatee)

Watched a horror film in the cinema.

Read 1 book only :( with the pressure of work I didn’t get to read anything other than technical books.

rawan

Back

2006-11-09T15:12:00.000Z

So i'm back from Serbia, not just now, not recently, well i've been here for about
a month now, but for some reason i didn't have the energy to write about my trip.
well now for you misfortune.. I DO!!

simply well it was amazing, new world, new people, different point of views and
different cultures, i know i might sound geeky/nerdy, but i really loved being introduced
to a new culture.

but the best part was the daus i spent in the village, waking up early in the morning,
drinking fresh home made cherry juice and going on a long hike across mountains,
rivers, forests, open fields and really really "UNTOUNCHED" nature, imagine drinking
ice cold water from a river after 4 hours of walk in green mountains and forests.
my god it was amazing.

anyways, it was awesome, here are some photos...

street in my home town

View for the intersection of the Danube and Sava rivers from the Kalemegdan castle

Kalemegdan Castle
Also
Kalemegdan Castle

Pedestrian Street near the Danube

Belgrade

Hotel Moskva in Belgrade
Zlatibor

In
Zlatibor: Directions

In Nis, Monument for liberators

Bubanj:A place where 10 000 civillian hostages from Ni? and south Serbia were being
shot during World War II by German Nazis

Bridge over troubled waters

River in the wood

Field and MountainMy
Village

Home town center at night
Lake
Bor

Going ...

2006-08-01T20:06:00.000Z

Not like anyone would really care, but I wont be blogging anything for about 3 weeks! I’ll be in Serbia for a long vacation, yes 3 weeks is a long vacation considering I can count the times I used to have a day off …ON FRIDAY!!

But yay! The workload is normal these days and I’m frankly exhausted and need the change! I’ll be back in 3 weeks … wait for photos!!

Gripped ...

2006-07-17T12:40:00.000Z

As the wise Judas Priest once said:
Gripped by steel claws, corrosion eating us ...

Rage ...

2006-07-15T19:01:00.000Z

Let’s establish a fact; Israel NEVER needed any provocative acts to murder innocent civilians… sorry did I say murder!? I meant slaughter, or maybe the word butcher is more expressive! On the other hand they themselves provoke humanity with unbelievable atrocities, they steal water from Palestinian water resources, and they threaten the whole region with the Dimona nuclear reactor, which is working 15 years past its planned lifetime. Their soldiers beat up kids, men, women, old people; they insult the Palestinians every day in every mean possible! And hello… they’re occupying Palestine for over 55 years now! They are occupying our land, we are defending it … it’s that simple!

Hezbollah never lied, never backed down, never chickened out! I believe them; I believe they will emerge victorious from this war.

Hasha Al Sam'een ...

2006-07-11T16:48:00.000Z

I criticize too much; I know that, I always talk about how stupid the world is, or how ignorant people are (inluding yours truely)! This time I'm not going to do that, This time I want to point out a certain amazing quality of Arab/Jordanian people, something that makes me smile with content whenever I face it.

Ever had a conversation with some Jordanian fellow who is describing a certain event saying “then I saw –B’eed Ankom- a donkey (AKA. 7mar) …”, this phrase “B’eed Ankom” or its alternatives; “Hasha el Sam’een” or “Ajallakom Allah”, mean the same thing more or less, they are said when someone is talking about something of inferior value, or associated with filth or repulsive beings or items, like footwear or certain animals, these phrases indicate that people listening to the speech are far more dignified than the things in question.
I’m not offended when someone talks about shit my presence but I really appreciate the beautiful effort to dignify the listener in the traditional speech of Arabic people.

Also on this subject are the “Wala ‘Alek Amer” or “Allah la Yheenak”, these are said when someone asks someone to do something for him, like picking up an object, they indicate that the speaker is not intending any kind of “Bossing” the listener, and that he means it as favor not a command. Very nice, I love it.

The other day I was enjoying a long walk near my home, enjoying the nice summer night breeze, when I passed by two gentlemen eating shawirma, I said “Al Salamu ‘Alaikom” and kept walking, to my surprise they invited my to join them, I thanked them and went on my way! I know they were just “saying” that without really meaning it, and maybe it’s a kind of hypocrisy but it gave me a nice welcoming feeling. I loved it.

There are lots of great things in our community, I’m merely scratching a surface…

Auguri...

2006-07-10T05:42:00.000Z

Benissimo, now after the bitter defeat against Brazil in 1994, the early leaving from the European Cup 1996, and the loss against France in 1998, and again against France in the European Cup final in 2000, and also after the defeat against South Korea in 2002 (go figure!) and the empty handed leaving in the European Cup in 2004, finally ... ITALIA drew a smile on my face and finally gave me a reason to be ecstatic, and dance with joy!!!

The feeling cannot be jotted down into words, simply I want to scream!

Italy won the world cup after 24 years of waiting, to be the first European team to win the world cup 4 times!!

FORZA AZZUR I!!!

Objective

2006-07-03T13:50:00.000Z

And thus it came to pass, that the fancy charts and complex mathematics that people used to prove Brazil will win the world cup; were proved wrong, there are no predictions, laws and logic with football, no history and no past, just good play and hard work.

France beat Brazil, Portugal beat England and Germany beat Argentina, except for the latter; Candidates were beaten by non-candidates, the only logic that governs football is the simple rule, you play well and work hard you win, other than that you lose. So let’s not grieve over Brazil, they deserved to lose and France deserved to win.

Another thing I wanted to say, is that people are stereotyping, they are so obsessed with the idea of Brazilian samba that they’re not being objective, Brazil didn’t play in a beautiful artistic way for more than 10 years, and maybe they didn’t play their real samba football since the days of Pele!

A relative of mine has the idea planted in his head that the Germans play really rough football, so whenever a German player makes a foul he starts cursing the German playing even if the other team makes bigger and more dangerous fouls, same case with Brazil, when a Brazilian dude does a nice move, people starts clapping saying “look at the Brazilian Samba”, and just mock the other team if they make a cool move. Point is, lets be objective all the time.

By the way I don’t cheer for Brazil nor Germany, I cheer for ITALIA since I was 8 years old, FORZA SQUADRA AZZURA!!!!

Commenting

2006-06-24T11:52:00.000Z

And finally I found some time to blog, it’s been ages since I blogged anything becuase the past few weeks were something of a tornado of tasks, deadlines, migration, splitting integration, things that really kept me from blogging and even seeing my parents.
‘nough said!

I’m just gonna comment of some events that happened in the country during the blackout period.

The destruction of Abdoun:: Great, benissimo, excelente!! For me abdoun was always the most obnoxious place in Amman (in addition to Rabieh), because it was full of kids most of the time, mostly uneducated, stupid kids and teenagers with nothing better to do except hangout there and sneak looks at girls walking by (and vice versa for girls). Plus it was always just too crowded.
The Death of Zarqawi:: Good Riddance! Frankly I didn’t believe this guy existed - or at least he was not this (bomb, biglogical, chemical weapon expert) that they claim, anyways this Zarqawi figure encouraged terrorism, discouraged religious tolerance, and was unfortunately looked up to by some members of our society as a leader and inspirer, his death want change that idea in the minds and hearts of those people. But it’s a big moral booster.
The Gang of Four:: MPs who proclaimed Zarqawi as a martyr and a hero, well everybody is entitled to his own opinion, they can say and do whatever they want, and whether really he was a martyr and a hero is something for god to decide. But the small boggle about this issue is that those MPs are respected members of society and people in the regions these guys are from look up to them and respect their opinions, so this changes perspective a bit, so if “Gang” are mislead, in this case they’re also Misleaders, they lead people the wrong direction and give them the wrong idea, and there lies the problem. They should be punished and some large media campaign should be launched to fix the damage.
The Military Parade:: I think for the first time, Jordan (Arab Army) Planned a big parade to showcase his military abilities and his collection of war machinery. It was nice, it was cool, it was great and lots of my relatives went to watch it live. I have just one small comment: are we now a “Dawleh Isti3mariyyeh”!?

My Picture Finally ...

2006-05-29T14:36:00.000Z

for anyone who reads my posts, the first idea might occur to him/her that i'm a gloomy over-criticizing guy with no bright side to look at. Excuse me, but I beg to differ, soy un hombre muy gracioso, I’m a very happy dude, super cheerful dude, don’t believe me? Check out the following Picture, taken at work :)

What the hell is happening!?

2006-05-23T16:46:00.000Z

I’ve been facing an internal struggle for the past two weeks to write or not to write this post, there is a serious problem out there, and it really pisses me off. Obviously I decided to write the damn post, out of self remedy, nothing more.

Two weeks ago, me and 2 other friends left the cinema, we went to our usual place and ate some sandwiches, spend sometime talking and after a while decided to go home, nice story isn’t it!? Anyways we were walking home enjoying the amazing night breeze when we were stopped by a policeman who asked us about our destination and some other questions which I don’t recall. Now in these situations an internal struggle fires up, between the rational part of you that says “ok, let me be friendly, answer these stupid questions and get over with so I can go in my way”, and the other part that insists that the Jordanian constitution stated that the personal freedom is sacred, and people must fight for their right. The first part won at that moment, we answered the questions, were very cooperative and went on our way.

A couple of steps later, maybe 100 meters later, another policeman stopped us for questioning, this time the other part won. He asked “where have you been”, bluntly I answered “well why do you care where have we been?”, a short conversation went around between us; “you don’t have the right”, “I have the right” kind of talk, in the end he demanded we show him our IDs, I don’t know why but we did - and here is the posts actual topic-, as soon as he saw my last name, he said “Abbadi? Shame on you, you should be the most cooperative of the three!!”. This sentence “you should be the most cooperative of the three!!” what the hell is that supposed to mean!!!?

I’m not talking now about the constitutional rights, lets a admit a small fact, we were walking near the Royal hotel, in a street full of embassies, and quite near to a Royal palace, it was 1:30 AM, and two of us were carrying Laptops and a digital camera, we were really suspicious, and the police man had every right to stop us and question us, its his duty. I reviewed the Jordanian laws, and frankly he had the right to stop us.

My note is his remark, is it because I’m Jordanian from a Jordanian origin and my friends are from a Palestinian origin, I should be more “yes sir” because Jordanian-Jordanians are more loyal to the country and Palestinian-Jordanians are not, and the more “Yes Sir”s I do the more loyal I am!!?

This is what this police man was thinking when he asked me that question, in his mind there is a small equation:

All Jordanian-Jordanians are loyal to their country
All Palestinian-Jordanians are not loyal to their country
Loyalty is measured by how much you like the police officers
Liking the police officers means, you can’t wait to see them and doing whatever they ask

I’ve been facing such mentality all my life, and I’m sick of it, and I’m sicker of it right now, especially when it comes out bluntly from a police officer.

This is discrimination and it is really deep in our community, I’m used to face it in school and university, but to hear it come out of a “law enforcement” officer it is more bitter and alarming.

What happened to us? My grandfather used to go every Friday to pray in Jerusalem, my father as a kid used to work in Ramallah! Palestinian workers used to come and help my grandfather in our land when it’s harvest time, it was all casual, we were all brothers and sisters, no one thought of discriminating between the two/one people! Could a few political mistakes from both parties do such a deep crack? Some people might say that the Jordanian army killed relatives of theirs, and other might say that Palestinian rebels killed their relatives! No one really knows who started this shit and no one knows whose to blame in it, but I know some facts, it happened 35 years ago, it is shaking the foundation of our community and surely the only one benefiting from it is the enemy of our country (whoever, whatever that may be)

It should stop, it should end, and it should die.

And quoting Dogbert (Dilbert’s dog) “Out .. Out, Out you demons of stupidity”!

Me Happy..

2006-05-15T10:21:00.000Z

I'm so happy, new law about smoking in public!
i hate smoking and i'm glad to see that officials are doing something about it.
read the full story here. thumbs up!

but still, we need more culture and manners not laws and restrictions.

Gillet 7aya

2006-05-12T14:22:00.000Z

Really it’s Gillet 7aya!! For non Arabic speaking people, I’m not sure if there is an exact English translation but it’s a term that means rudeness combined with misbehavior!

What brought that into my mind, is couple of scenes I saw last night, actually I see it around the hour, but yesterday it was just over the top.

On a red traffic light a man with a fancy car, opens the windows and just throws out on the street what it seems to be an empty cigarette pack. With no worry on his mind he just throws it onto the street! While I was thinking of going to him, pick up the empty cigarette pack and just throw in his face and give him a peace of my mind, the traffic lights turns green and he goes.

Another scene, same night, we leave the cinema after watching Mission Impossible III (excellent movie by the way). We go to get some “Shawirma” from Reem, a tradition that we’ve been doing for a while now, anyways standing in front of the crowded place, some guys were finishing their sandwiches, as soon as they finished they throw their sandwich leftovers, paper, plastic bags and don’t know what else on the floor, they get in their car and just drive away, the garbage can was less than 2 meters away from them. True Gillet 7aya.

The scene was so disgusting that some guy and I had to collect the garbage and put it in the really-close bin.

What are people thinking!!? I don’t know how Amman managed to be one of the cleanest capitals in the region and maybe the world, with such mentality and culture that its citizens hold!! We don’t need laws and restrictions to have a better life we just need some culture and respect, not to mention manners.

Headbanging experience revisited!

2006-05-10T14:13:00.000Z

I'm back, managed to steal some time from my lengthy tasks and list of TO Dos to gather my thoughts and fulfill the promise I made couple of days ago.

Regarding the rock concert held last Friday, it was bad, really bad for the following reasons:

Unprofessional organization, ticket guy didn’t show up and every body had to be marked with a nice X on his wrist, plus the concert was supposed to start at 4 and started much later.

lack of a good sound engineer made the sound really bad, the mixers and speakers were not well placed, and sound settings were all randomly set (or this is how it sounded).

Stage was really small, and equipment wiring was all over the stage making the musicians trip on them.

The most important issue is that the playing really sucked, I just can’t explain it but it all seemed wrong. And the problem of local bands that they bring anybody and make him/her a vocalist; I’ve never heard a really good vocalist in Jordan except maybe Ivan of Virgin Killer.

Bands stage behavior could be improved, for instance the bassist or guitarist should face the audience not the drummer behind him. The bands and front men/women should have some charisma and should know how to attract the audience’s attention I swear, during the performances people were talking and laughing, they were not following the music at all.

These are some of the things I can remember about the concert, if I remember something else I’ll tell you.

Everything mentioned here could be fixed and really soon, all it needs is some dedication; organizers could work harder to get proper sponsorship, big music stores and musical instrument stores and radio stations are very good candidates.

Bands themselves could work harder and rehearse all day and night for such event, and remember Heavy Metal is music and art not just people dressed in black screaming all over and acting crazy, bands should be real artists who work hard for their music not seeking to jam around and be “cool”.

Headbanging experience...

2006-05-07T16:29:00.000Z

The other day i went with few friends to some local rock concert, it SUCKED!!
my friend mozzy prepared a huge list of things that were wrong in the concert, instead he realized its not worth it to say anything. the only thing that was OK about the concert is that it was for charity.

i was Headbanging all the time!! yes headbanging my head against a post crying to make them stop!

one of the Classics!

2006-04-27T08:46:00.000Z

One of the best songs i've ever heard!

Long live eddie veddar.


There’s colors on the street, red, white and blue
People shufflin’ their feet, people sleepin’ in their shoes
But there’s a warnin’ sign on the road ahead
There’s a lot of people sayin’ we’d be better off dead
Don’t feel like satan but I’m to them
So I try to forget it anyway I can

Keep on rockin’ in the free world
Keep on rockin’ in the free world
Keep on rockin’ in the free world
Keep on rockin’ in the free world

I see a woman in the night with a baby in her hand
Under an old street light near a garbage can
Now, she’s put the kid away and she’s gone to get a hit
She hates her life and what she’s done to it
That’s one more kid that’ll never go to school
Never get to fall in love, never get to be cool

Keep on rockin’ in the free world
Keep on rockin’ in the free world
Keep on rockin’ in the free world
Keep on rockin’ in the free world

We got a thousand points of light for the homeless man
We got a kindler, gentler, machine gun hand
We’ve got department stores and toilet paper
Got styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer
Got a man of the people says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive

Keep on rockin’ in the free world
Keep on rockin’ in the free world
Keep on rockin’ in the free world
Keep on rockin’ in the free world

24

2006-04-24T21:46:00.000Z

And finally, time with its tic-tocs has done it, and added another year to my age, now when asked for my age i should state the answer "24".

a nice number, it has a beautiful ring to it .. Twenty Four.

should i be wiser now!? coz frankly i don't!
anyways i love my new age, i think i'll keep it for another year :)

where are the jordanian talents?

2006-04-22T13:40:00.000Z

What the hell is going on!!
For the past year and esense is in dire need for Developers, Designers and IT Admins, we want to hire people really badly therefore we didn’t put any complicated conditions for applicants, no experience is needed, no extreme and profound professional knowledge, all we care about is talent and problem solving skills and some really basic knowledge in development and IT in general.

Throughout the past year a total of around 3000 people where interviewed, around 30 people where hired!! Again we didn’t look at the experience, nor did we require extensive professional knowledge - because we will give the employees internal and extensive training courses, all we care about is talent and some basics, so what the hell is going on! Why are the Jordanian graduates so weak?

Examples and excerpts from the interviews, you will love this part:

A guy comes in, very confident, three years of experience, worked on about 17 projects.
esense: you have a comma separated string, how do you separate them?
Interviewee #1: [After a pause]suggests a long and extensive algorithm to it.
esense: ok you’re reinventing the wheel here, isn’t there something ready that might help you do it?
Interviewee #1: No
esense: Sure!!?
Interviewee #1: yes
esense: we’ll call you later! Thank you very much.

*note: there is a ready made function since C language in the 60’s

another guy comes, very sad because development is his soul and he didn’t work for about a year, (he also wrote a book to teach some programming language)
esense: ok, suppose you have a string that contains “Hello Jordan!” how can you retrieve the first Character from that string.
Interviewee #2 : [mmm….] [ehh…], hmmm….
Esense: ok dude, we’ll call you later.

for the position of an IT admin this guy comes in, before he sits down, he takes out and shows the interviewer his MCP, CCNA, MCSE IDs, very confident dude.
Esense: so ok, what is a gateway?
Interviewee #3: something that to give you a place on the server!!?
Esense: whatever that is! Anyways so if I connected two computers together and I didn’t specify a gateway, these two machines will not be able to communicate.
Interviewee #3: off course!
Esense: we’ll contact you within 10 days.

again a developers interview
esense: so what do you know about the windows registry?
Interviewee #4: sorry but I didn’t work on that version of windows before.
Esense: we’ll surely contact you within 10 days.

These are true events that occurred within interviews, I really don’t know the source of the problem. But my theory is that it’s the universities fault somehow, each generation is weaker than the one before.

The quality of professors is getting worse and worse, the concept of “wasta” is still available, students are passing subjects and graduating knowing nothing.

Another part of the problem might lie in the students themselves, they don’t bother learning and working hard to excel, all they want is to know whatever the professor might include in the exams so they can pass with good marks and after that they forget what they’ve studied.
Its really crappy situation; 1% of interviewees are hired. And all we’re asking for are basic knowledge and a mind open for learning

Really, its embarrassing!!

2006-04-16T17:35:00.000Z

Do you like the forwarded chain letters that you often receive on your email!? The jokes, the Images, the rumors, lies and gossip that you don’t know the actual source of?

Well I don’t, usually I just delete them without giving them a second thought, but for a while now, I’ve been receiving some “religious” kind of mails. Being a religious person (somehow, kind of, not really!!) I’m interested in reading them just out of curiosity, and for my disappointment they turn out to be “excuse my French”, crappy emails that just make me regret the few minutes I’ve spent reading them.

Putting aside the messages that push people to hate each other or those that curse everything and everyone and calls (kuffar) all people who eat French fries, I’m really annoyed with those “Scientific Miracles of the Holy Quran” forwards!

Let’s establish one fact, the Holy Quran is not a scientific book, not all scientific facts are mentioned in the Quran, and not everything that modern science will uncover is mentioned miraculously in Quran 1400 years ago! The Quran is a guiding book that is suitable for every time and place, and it is the word of Allah (God), who created the universe.

So trying to forcefully fit every finding that scholars unveil to the verses of the Quran is not a good practice, what if this theory or finding is overthrown in the future, does that mean that the Quran was wrong!!?

If you find you’re self in a great urge to write an email, and put a bunch of theories and findings that are discovered by scientists and are mentioned in the Quran, please abide by the following rules:

Don’t say “recently discovered by scientists” or “the modern Science has discovered” for something that was established 100 years ago, really it’s embarrassing to you.

Don’t say “discovered by scientists/modern science”, rather, state the name of the Scientist/team of scientists, It gives you a lot of credibility, if you don’t state the names, you have none.

A good thing is to state the year this discovery was made, along with the edition of the journal that published the research.

When describing the theory, Quote the original published text, or an exact translation, don’t write what you understood from it, or what you heard about it, it’s also embarrassing to you.

when connecting this finding with a verse in the Holy Quran, ask an Islamic Scholar or a Sheikh, and make sure that the verse means that what the theory states.

Because if someone sends and email, not following these rules, he/she will offend Islam and draw people away from studying this Holy book and this religion.

Don’t be so careless with you’re religion and its reputation, already too many people are!

Hell

2006-04-12T16:56:00.001Z

"A British, American and a Jordanian ministers died and went all to hell. The British said: I miss England, I wanna call England and see how everybody is doing there.... he called and talked for about 5 minutes. Then he said: well, devil how much do I owe you for the phone call??? The devil goes: five million dollars... five million dollars!!! he made him a check and went to sit back on his chair....

The American was soo jealous, he starts screaming, me too I wanna call the United States, I wanna see how everybody is doing too... he called and talked for about 2 minutes, then he said: well, devil how much do I owe you for the phone call???? The devil goes: ten million dollars...ten million dollars!!!!!! He made him a check and went to sit back on his chair...

The Jordanian was extremely soooo jealous too... he starts screaming and screaming, I wanna call Jordan too, I wanna see how everybody is doing there too, I wanna talk to the ministers, to the deputies, I wanna talk to everybody... he called Jordan and he talked for about twenty hours, he was talking and talking and talking... then he said: well, devil how much do I owe you for the phone call???? The devil goes: one dollar... only one dollar?!!!!!

The devil goes: yes, well, from hell to hell, it's local!!”

ok this might be a bit extreme, we're all jordanian and we love jordan and amman and every city and villlage, but with the prices and taxes, things are close to be intolerable.

god bless our country, god bless its people!!

office humor!

2006-04-10T21:35:00.000Z

You know something, I love esense!! (esense by the way is the company that I work for)
Really, the sense of humor shared between all the esensers is rarely found somewhere else, maybe because of our young age; I guess the age average is about 25 or something, though we’re about 60 people in the office.

Anyways, every minute, you can find something to laugh or smile about, whether it was Abdelqader’s Beer mug that he uses to drink “Karkadeh” or other rather queer beverages, or Rami’s quite creative pictures or Amal’s reactions to anything you say. or my favorite; Noor’s ”a wallah”.(all of these has its own story)

What really cracks me up these days is that we came up with a new esenser, it’s the office ghost “7sen”, in reference to Shaweesh 7isen in Adel Imam’s play. It’s amazing how things can easily turn into an “office legend”.

You know most of us work really late, sometimes all night and we need something to add some action to the nightly tasks, 7sen is the perfect companion and he’s really harmless (and was actually acquitted from the charge of printing “catch’em kill’em” on the papers in the printer’s paper tray, that was Rami playing a sick joke on the new esensers!!)

I suggest that we nominate 7sen for the position of “The Esense Mascot”! who’s in favor?

Remember This?

2006-04-08T14:39:00.000Z

remember Sakher computer? also known as the MSX machines??

if you're interested in playing the amazing 2D games again, there is a way,

download an MSX emulator, and then download ROM files and enjoy!!

Amazing...

2006-04-08T08:33:00.000Z

a couple of days ago i read on a certain blog that there is a musical event organized by the JU students( their third annual recital ), the theme was "Andalusian Inspirations", so i thought that would be something intersting!!

anyways, me and couple of friends went there, and frankly i was planning to leave as soon as i realize that i'm listining to a bunch of amatures who mess up the pieces they play.

as soon as the cute host finished welcoming everybody, and the first notes started to play, that thought of leaving just disappeared! "these guys are really not bad" i thought.

piece after piece and note after note, i was astonished to how these students touched me. i might be overreacting but lately i was feeling that i'm somehow of a robot, always working late; wrinting computer programs. these musicians made me feel human again.

chopin, beethoven, de falla and not to mention prof. Hamam. made me go into a strange trance that i have missed. pieces like "Sihr Al Sharq" and the female voice in "Arani Fil Hawa Asmu" though amature abit was out of this world, and of course not to mention the masterful choir in the other two songs.

there were some glitches here and there i have to say, but surely they didn't mess up the mood.

anyways thank you guys, you're simply amazing.
the question is now, where can i get a recorded version of the show? audio or video doesnt matter!

You know what I hate most!?

2006-03-28T16:03:00.000Z

Well It’s not really hate, it’s a mere feeling of stomach turning combined with a sense of wondering of how these things came to be loved and admired.

Item #1: Hubble Bubble aka. Argeeleh

I just can’t comprehend how something that is Lethal, malodorous, tasteless, consumed in the most unventilated placed (usually in winter) and not to mention “Haram”, can be “Cool”, people will be killed in their sleep with the word “cool”, most of the stupid things in humanity were adopted and done because they looked/sounded/smelled cool in the beginning.

Item#2: Sabah, also known as Sabbohah and Shahroorah.

Ok, She WAS beautiful (have to admit), she WAS a babe, everybody USED to like her, notice the past tense? Now she IS ugly, now she IS in her 90s (I guess), now her songs ARE classified as Heritage not mainstream!! I wonder when will she recognize this fact and just snap out of it!!

Item#3: Crystal Reports/Business Objects (IT people will know what I’m talking about)

Want to waste your time trying to discover where you went wrong in your report, and in the end you find out that NO, you didn’t do anything wrong its just that CRYSTAL REPORTS HAS A BUG THAT YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT!!!!?

You want to work with a vendor that when you install its Monthly Hot fixes and Service Packs, everything just goes bazooka!! Even the reports that used to work fine!!

You want a vendor that says “yes that is a well known problem and please do click here and download our special custom made fix”, but when you install it nothing happens and you go through Google groups and find out that there are 7000 pages full of posts by people who had your same experience and saying “I tried what Business Objects said and it DIDN’T WORK!!”

Well be my guest, and use Crystal Reports and please do advise your clients to use it, its very comfy!!

Other than that, I love everything in this wonderful world!!

Thank you

2006-03-26T18:04:00.000Z

Thank you Crystal Reports/Business Objects for introducing the real meaning of frustration to my humble life experiences.

Thank you Crystal Reports/Business Objects for helping me decide on the worst technology to use when it comes to reports.

Thank you Crystal Reports/Business Objects for helping me waste 6 hours of my life trying to solve a problem that you have created.

Thank you Crystal Reports/Business Objects for making me know what is the most horrible field of IT.

anyone have a clue?

2006-03-26T09:31:00.000Z

A new question popped into my mind a couple of weeks ago, and I’m trying to find a good answer for it since then, but it seems I didn’t.

Anyways, does anyone know what the is difference between Ambition and Greediness??
in the end both the ambitious and the greedy want more!!

My theory is that when you’re ambitious, you want to reach more knowing you have the right skills for what you want, greediness on the other hand, is wanting more, but not really sure if you have the right tools for it.

It seems am blabbering a lot these days!!

Admitting it at last

2006-03-21T20:37:00.000Z

warning! this post contains technical information!!

Well, its not admitting, lets just say I now know what i didn't!!

anyways, on the matter of Linux vs Windows fight/debate/discussion, i had an opinion that says, that, "Ok, Windows is great and user friendly, but come on, when you need performance and stability, you should go for linux", and i really believed in that, until TODAY!!

imagine, for testing purposes i wrote a small script to insert 3 million records into couple of tables in an Oracle 9i database, i started the script, and after a couple of minutes, my fellow developers started wondering why the hell is the database so slow!! i explained to them what i'm trying to do (also mentioning that my tables are for different User and a different tablespace/datafile) so they should not be affected, anyways apparently the database engine went bazooka and concentrated on my statements and totally forgot about other users.

i decided to stop whatever i'm doing and delay running the script until after everybody leaves, but still oracle wont let anyone do anything, i tried logging to a management console (sqlplus/inetrprise manager) but no can do sir!! i went to the main "linux suse 10" server and just tried to kill whatever sessions that are consuming the resources. to my surprise, the server went totally nuts and i couldn't event move the mouse correctly, the pointer was jumping all over the screen, windows kept leaping from everywhere and disk IO indicator was ON all the time!! and i couldn't even do anything with the keyboard.

ok this is some serious shit, i couldn’t just push the power button, coz i know that might destroy everything, the database, the hard drive( i know because it happened before ), so i was really afraid!! at the end i found out that i have recent backups, so i took my chances and pressed the power button, and prayed to god everything will still be there after i push it again, fortunately it was! end of story, moral: linux sucks!!

you can understand that the database went nuts, and you can understand it if the server hangs a bit or be slow, but you can never understand the freekishly wierd behaviour of the server!! what if i didn’t have the backups? at least in windows you have the task manager! It is there all the time and will jump into the rescue when a process goes wild.

linux will replace windows, ya right that will happen!! now i cant wait for the full version of Vista!

Darn that is a long post, sorry dudes but i had to let it out of my system!!