Free Coffee

We don't need to pay for our coffee at work. We just go to that coffee machine, choose for either coffee, espresso, hot water for tea and so on... then select if the desired drink extra or less strong, then press the "start" button where on the top small black screen it gives in red letters the choices made, and at the end of the selection text the following sentence is displayed: Free of Charge!!!!!!

It is free of charge, we know that! or is it like a favor the company is giving us and would like to remind us every time we feel like a drink?

I wish they also serve Stroopwaffles with the coffee, that would be great :)

Largest Flag

I read a couple of days ago about a collective work by a number of Palastinian and Syrian activists in Damascus, Syria, which resulted in making the biggest ever Palastinian flag and according to these activits, the largest in the world, which qualifies it as a record breaking that can be included to the Guinness World of Records

However, searching the net revealed that Israel and the United States each claims to be the one breaking Guiness World records! In addition, information on Wikipedia showed that Cyprus claim to be the one breaking the Guiness World record. Oh! but wait a minute, I should have more in depth look into this subject. I should categorise the term the largest flag and from there pick up a winner. In other words, I should specify "the largest flag hanging" or "the largest flag representation"... etc As in this list

Two things I don't like about that: the first is the way such a competition has been carried out! each party claiming that he is the best and he did the one deserve to be breaking the world record. The second thing is: it ruined the whole idea of having something unique made by man!

Detainees

This is video of detainess somewhere in Iraq ... that's only what I have to say!

Deviantart

Last November I shared tribute with Zahra, an Iraqi graphic designer who commemorated the loss of her cousin's dad by making a beautiful picture and put it on Deviantart website. One thing I thought I did since then is to give tribute to the Deviantart website itself for being a community that brought millions of visitors, graphic designers, professional photographers, models, artists and amateurs altogether to share and discuss the beautiful art of photography, pictures manipulation, tutorials, among many others.

For that reason I put on the daily top 5 deviants on my blog as an appreciation to the work and effort being done on that site.

Congratulations, Lebanon...

Army chief Michel Sleiman became the country's 11'th
president after six months vaccum created by constitutional and other political fued between the government and the oppsition. This is the first time in the history of Lebanon that a president being elected with wide Arab and International delegations present.

One thing worth mentioning about the new president during his days as Army chief is his achievement in perserving the army from being inflicted with the secterian tension between the different groups in the country. Many people have great expectations that Lebanon's new president will bring unity and prosperity to the country despite the big challenges ahead.

Get A Life!!!

I met him for the first time at a birthday party two years ago, when he told about his first visit to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. I met him again last weekend at some friends and to my surprise DID tell the same story again. The frustration was very clear on the voice and face expressions of that 50 something years old Dutch man. He is extremely bitter about everything over there! this is the impression I can get. He is against the fact that Pakistani and Benglaishi building workers are under the burning sun for more than (according to him) 60 hours a week working. He is not happy with people enjoying the air conditioning everywhere they go. He is against the fact that families have nanies and people working as servants in gardens, car drivers, cooking...etc He is against the pay standards for labour in that country...

This time I didn't say anything but watching him talk and talk. I didn't have the mood to repeat what I said to him during the first time meeting. I am not going to address my point of view about what is wrong and what is right on this issue, because this is not the subject of the matter now! Further more, I am not against someone talking about the same subject on two or more occasions, BUT I AM AGAINST, and it makes me extremely mad when someone talk negatively about certain culture by comparing it to his own; by fully condemn many aspects in other people's culture, because in the Netherlands it is dealt with differently.

I don't want to be misunderstood here that I am against Dutch culture (or defending Dubai's culture), nothing like that! I adore the fact that in this world there are different countries, heritage, religions. I respect fully other cultures, even if they would contradict or might conflict with my own, as long as it won't force itself on me as a person!

The thing is that that man went to Dubai a number of times, not only once. He didn't pay a cent for a hotel or residency or anything else, except for his cigarettes, maybe, because of some relatives or close friends living there for years now! While he was talking I was wondering if he would ever think of visiting Dubai in the first place and worry about those poor men working under the burning sun, if it wasn't for his relatives living there!

The only conclusion is that this man either jealous of his relatives living in Dubai - there are who act and say bad things about people and countries if they are jealous, that's a fact! or it was an attempt to play the role of the ultimate protector of people's rights on a spot somewhere on this planet! or he is out of words and decided to initiate some kind of hot topic!

Image courtesy of VIPwnt

Dream Band

What a coincidence, yesterday I was thinking of what my dream band would be. I laughed today when I knew that I am not the only one who would dream of the almost the same lineup. Gus G, of the band Firewind has almost similar "wish", except for the choice of the who would be on vocals and drums. His choice are very similar to mine, of having Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell) on guitar, Steve Harris (Iron Maiden) on bass guitar, Jon Lord (Deep Purple - Whitesnake) on Organ/Keyboards. The guitarist of Firewind put Ronnie James Dio on vocals and Cozy Powell on Drums. However, not that I don't want Dio on lead vocals (he is one of my favorites), but I would put my nr.1 favorite singer instead, no other than the mighty Ian Gillan. Not only that he is the lead singer of Deep Purple, but he did "Born Again" with Sabbath, for God's sake!! Considering Cozy Powell being out of the question due to his death back in 1995, Gus G and I should pick up another drummer for this dream band. What would be my choice? Slayer's Dave Lombardo? I don't know if he would fit in considering his style! or Tommy Aldridge (Ozzy Osbourne - Whitesnake)?

I am not familiar with the music of Firewind, but one thing I am going to do today for sure, to give a listen to The Premonition!

Image courtesy of guillhermes

Captain Iraq

Below is the latest work by, Lattuf, a cartoonist from Brazil. His work is inspired by Captain America comics character who fought the Nazis during world war II.

Is it really that hard for humanity to persecute those who committed crimes against humanity that we are desperate for a super hero to act on our behalf?

Arab Comics

This website rocks!! it is as simple as that!! It is excellent work to revive old comics translated from the likes of Marvel, DC, even Manga (Japanese comics art) and other. The effort done by the men and women on that website is extraordinary, by taking time scanning old comics or translating original ones, and above all assisting each other to put these comics in a very elegant and professional way on the website. The phenomenal effort and time taken from the members of that site to do all that voluntarily without seeking commercial profit or something deserve big applause.

Many people visited the site acknowledged something of a dream come true reading their old favorites and own them digitally after all these years.

Some poeple from non-Arab countries thought that "arabising" comics published by Marvel and DC, for example might ruin the feel and essence of the story. Some mention that giving comics characters Arabic names itself is a bad idea. On the contrary, a lot of people from the Arab world enjoyed the characters of "Klark Kent" named "Nabeel Fawzi", or "Jimmy Olsen" named "Nadeem Hilmy", or "Louis Lane" named "Randa" in the Arabic versions. By the way, due to public demand and success of such book-reading, the translation of famous comic books extended to included other European languages, such as French and Dutch, where Tin Tin (or Kuifje in Dutch - Belgian) were enlisted among many other comics characters.

The translation of known comic books is not new to the Arab world - I mean it is not part of the reforms George Bush is pressuring Arab governments to pursue. Lebanon and Egypt have been the leaders in such for many and many years back. On Arabcomics.net I read one of the first Batman comics that has been translated back in 1966. They were some ups and downs with the publishing of Arabic comics, especially in Lebanon, because of the Civil War and political situation, but it remains to this day loved by many. Recently a Kuwaiti private sector company has contracted with Marvel to translate their comics and re-introduce them to the Arab world in a new look.

The work on Arabcomics.net regarding translation and scanning is considered by myself as first class work by first class artists. It is not only a hobby by some men and women who wanted to re-live their childhood through exploring forgotten translated comics

I bow my hat for you, guys!