Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Harry Potter

We just borrowed the latest HP, we are going to buy it. Looks like a fews hours of reading to be done in the coming day or two.

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Politics again

I think Egyptians would be better off voting for Noamaan Gomaa. I know some people that think he's not very charismatic but I think he'd get the job done. I feel AlWafd is a strong enough party to rule and Noamaan Gomaa seems to be a good man. I defiaitely liked what he said about kicking the head of the worker uniouns, now that's something good to do. WTF is it with a unioun leader that is a millionaire anyways? Its also nice to see a guy that doesn't really like to be buttered up. While Mubarak usually seems quite happy when some one interupts his speechs and recites a poem or when some people start chanting for him, Gomaa has seemed quite intolerant of these kind of things. I would think some of the supporters would be a little dissapointed but I personally like that kind of man. Critisism s the kind of stuff you need to listen to, a pat on the back for doing something right is what you should look ahead to but buttering up I think is a no no.
While a lot think Ayman Nur is stronger than Gomaa, I don't really see it that way. Nur is obviousely more charismatic but would he make a better leader? Nur, I just read, was an hour and a half late for his conference in Alex. I think being punctual is a good personal trait that any candidate should show. I also don't believe AlGhad has the recourses yet to be a good strong ruling party.

So after the short memoried guys in the NDP forgot about it the papers talk about the guy Mubarak stopped to drink tea with in Behiera, turns out he isn't a regular peasant but an engineer. I kind of wondered because in the pictures with the president he looked too good to be a farmer, so I guess he just owns a farm.

I don't really see why some are calling for a boycott. Yeah, sure the gouvernment always tries to fix the results, but not voting gives them an even better chance to do it. Also, look at what happened with the referendum. The announced results were fictional but nobody did anything about but then there wasn't much to do. This time it does make a difference. If 10 million vote for anyone other than Mubarak and all the oposition runners get all of 7 million and nobodoy takes to the street in protest like Ukrain then we just deserve what happens to us. I want to vote but at the police office they gave me a weird reason on why I'm not listed. So come November 1st I'll go register and I'm not missing anymore elections.
Enough with being negative.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Now this is sounding more like a blog!

Yeah, here I am at home with nothing better to do other than complain that I don't have anything else I want to do. Get that? I didn't. I've even overcome my earlier depression and now am not really thinking about politics. Tomorrow Al-Ahly is playing so I'll have something to do. I probabl should do some kind of studying. I pobably have a choice of electronics, C, assembly code or English grammar. My English isn't really that bad, its just the grammar, or atleast I'm not good enough to be a copy editor, as I found out yesterday. I could also look into touch-typing lessons which I definaitely need.

I want to punch through a wall.

I really do. I also wish we had hollow walls thaen I could actually do it. But here we have brick walls, so I don't see myself as funching through a wall any time soon. Currently I just feel so depressed and I really need some good news. I also need a good movie. We're supposedly getting sattelit today so at least I can now watch something better than brain wash but still I'm depressed.
On Tuesday I had a glimpse at the demonstration. I would've stayed arround to watch for a couple minutes but I wasn't allowed. And what's with the squishing? Someday those same policemen will be kissing our butts I hope they can handle it although I really don't care.
There's actually a lot more I want to say but typing on an empty stomach isn't easy, espesially in the morning.

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Mubarak's Banner

I just can't let this go by. I mean Mubarak's picture looks nice one the banner but their's something to it and I just can't put my hand on it. The look on his face is just priceless, I mean it just is funny. I can't put my finger on it but it just reminds me of something. I don't know, I just don't know. I sitting here and half laughing just thinking of his picture. I mean its not the kind of picture that would make you love him or anything. I don't really know. Maybe it makes him look silly but I don't know.

Friday, August 19, 2005

Professional Football(Soccer)

I just had to say it while it was still in my head. Why do we bother with professioal football if we don't have the mentality? All teams except Al-Ahly and Zamalek have the same sponsors, they wear the same design of gear although they have different colours. The only exception to that rule is teams owned by companies. I mean wouldn't it make sense if a local company in Portsaid for example would want to advertise on Al-Masry's shirt? The last couple years most teams had ads for Misr Bank, this year its McDonald's. Heck the national team has only two sponsors. And why the heck don't they have press confrences after the matches that get televised? That's where sponsors want to show up. When are we actually going to see real professional football? I sure hope it'll be this millinium.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

A little science. An idea for OLEDs

OLEDs have been around for a while now. I know there's a long ways to go for OLEDs to reach the ultimate drem of being made on plastic eventually meaning having a 100" screen that you could roll up as a big sheet of paper. Now most development is done on RGB OLEDs, trying to give them longer lifes. So OLEDs currently get along as a second display on a clamshell phone and sometimes a camera's display or a flash MP3's but that's about it. Why not look into white OLEDs? They should be pretty good for lighting up LCD displays of all sizes. Since OLEDs can be made in a similar way as diplays it should provide way better backlighting for LCDs and maybe even enhance an LCDs performance in the sunlight. I would also think that it would make the displays thinner and enhance the battery life of the devices.

Let the campaigns(games) begin

So yesterday was the first day of campaigning for Egypts first presidential elections. Now I usually can't take Mubarak's crap so I saw all of 2 minutes of his campaign speech. And hating the crap we always get I couldn't stand reading the details in Al-Ahram. I do believe that I got a good idea of what it was all about. So here are a few points.

1. Mubarak and his guys couldn't care less about Egyptian citizens. They didn't tell us (as far as I know) where the speach was being held. So just picture all the frustrated people who have to cope with the traffic block up because his highness is giving a speech in Al-Azhar garden. I mean tell people ahead of time so they can plan ahead.

2. Mubarak's way of giving speeches just is so boring. 24 years and he can't learn how to give a speech that actuall makes it sound like its his words. We don't want to hear what your speech writer has for us, we want what you have to say, if there is anything.

3. The headlines in Al-Ahram were just silly. So you promise 4 million jobs. That's in your 6-year term? Well if we get a minimum of 600 thousand college graduates a year the number of unemployed people would drop by 400 thousand than the current numer. Seeing that not all unemployed people have college degrees, you could put a rough estimate that 800 thousand people are added to the unemployed list annually. That means you'd have 600 thousand more unemployed people in 2011 than now. Yes unemployment rate might stabalize but its already high.

4. We will build 1000 factories. Now that's a great statement. But what are those factories going to do. What about factories that are currently shut down? Maybe something more precise, like what kind of industries you're going to encourage and so, whould be a little more realistic.

5. We will cultivate 1 million faddans. Anywhere specific? But then we've already heard this so many times before, this is just a bag of gas.

6. We'll build 80 thousand appartments a year. Why build any at all? Mostly because you never have the for sight to see what's going to happen and if you don't build somewhere, people will come there and build in any old way just like alot of places in Cairo and other cities. When it's about housing, you always act after the problem explodes. Why are ther so many chaotic places in Egypt? Can't things be planned ahead? Or at least halted when a bad trend starts. I mean if you see these houses poppong up and the area isn't planned. Stop them, plan the area and then let them build. You end up trying to impove the area later anyways.

7. Can we really believe speach of reform? I mean how are you going to reform things that took more than fifty years to develop most of it under your own rule. The saying is, you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

8. If this were a genuine elections Mubarak would have no chance of winning. What's it with wanting it to look like G W Bush speech? What were those few dozen people behind Mubarak? It just looked silly. And were regular people allowed to attend. The size of attendance didn't seem to suggest that. It looked like an open air run-of-the-mill Mubarak speech not a presedential campaign.

9. Why can't people put up banners for canidates? Heck why can't the parties either. I'm not talking about the NDP of course.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Should I vote? Maybe I'll vote. Ok, I'm going to vote. I CAN'T VOTE

We should've figured the trick. There always is one. When Muubarak announced the intent to change the constitution, the time had passed to register to vote. They did announce however that anyone witha new ID card and born before 1986 would be automatically added to the voting lists and all you had to do was go pick your voting card up. Simple as that? This is Egypt so of course not. And that is exactly what I found out today. Actually its really simple, I ask the guy if this is the place to get my voting card. He asks when I was born, '85 so no problem. He asks was I born in Masr Al-kadimah, no but I live here and that is where my adress is. You have to be born here. "But I was born abroad", I say. "Come back in November to file an istimarah". I'm not the kind of person that gets angry and starts a scene. I should have asked him if I could get my voting card from the Egyptian councelate in LA, or maybe the Egyptian embessy in Washington. Heck to run for parliment you have to either live or work in the district where I want to run, so the same should go for voting. It should be by where you LIVE. I guess I should go and volenteer with a campaign or supervising the elections. Maybe that will help. REALLY?

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Frustration

Yeah I'm frustrated. Why shouldn't I? I just hate the present times we're living in this country. We're run by a pack of theives, that's a fact and I'd like anyone just to try to prove the opposite with something a little more than words. Then there's the f**king elections. They've obviousely made up their mind that No'man Gom'a is the best guy to run against Mubarak and obviousely want to keep the lime light on him. I have nothing for Gom'a and I'll probably vote for him, its just they want sideline everyone else. While some canidates probably won't make much effort to win if not kiss Mubarak's ass its obvious they want to keep Ayman Nur out of the lime light as he's the most likely canidate to actually outright attack Mubarak. Why did they have to bother with these elections anyway? Waste of money? I doubt it> I mean when has the gouvernment or the NDP worried about money? They never pay anything out of their own pocket, they acctually usually manage to spend tax payer's money or any other state income while putting a little in their own pocket. Why the F**k did they have to bother changing the constitution? They go and change article 76 LMAO. What about the 2nd article which states we are a socialist country? And yet they have the face to talk about democracy? Its a f**king socialist dictatorship. What I really would like to know is how they can have the stamina to stay in office till now. I mean if you have a good defence plan you'll install somebody you've raised and taught someone you know is like you and couldn't take you to court. You install him and go somewhere to enjoy your retirement with the 20+ billion dollars you've saved up. Heck you'd be lucky to spend a measurable fraction before you die. But do they notice that they're going to die? I mean wether they do or not is none of my business but it seems they think they'll live on for ever. I can't wait for Judgment day that'll definaitely be payback time. What kills me is their stamina. I mean just look and see how fat most of these guys are, the amount of colestarol must be immense and yet they're sticking around.
Ok so now I've vented some frustration but not all and its bound to build up a lot. I'd like to go to a demonstration one time but I guess it won't happen soon. There is one today which I could go to but then I have a doctor appointment so my first demo will have to wait.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

I have no Idea why I gave my blog this name

I really don't. Maybe the Egyptian whiner would've been better. And it is my intension to whine about everything that anoys me in thi country.

My first whine is why don't Egyptians have any self respect? I'll talk about that tomorrow.

Some politics

Manal and alaa had a nice description of the government rented thugs pointing their middle fingers at demonstrators. Their f**king the air because of too much viagra. Viagra has been the in bribe during election times. Heck every bribe keeps a couple happy.
I sometimes go for being a conspieracy theorist. So does the government want No'maan Gom'aa to be the strong canidate against Mubarak? Try to keep others like Ayman Nur sidelined? Nur is always more of a pain in the ass for the government, so you don't want him getting to popular. I meen just think of it Gom'aa was the only canidate that got a personal profile published in Alahram. Really is any reason to believe the upcoming elections will be fair?

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

I really don't have anything worth writing about. Or do I?

I thought M&Ms had something like melts in your mouth but not your hand or something. That's not what happened yesterday, unless the color doesn't count. And to add to that the m&ms showed sign of prevois melting. Now why that happened I'd like to know.

Ahly is leaving tonight for SA to meet AJAX Capetown. I hope they win and make top seat theirs for good. Almost every Egyptian hopes that Ahly and Zamalek meet in the final. While Ahly is in cruise control, Zamalek is in deep trouble. They're on top of their group having 3 points and are on top because all the draws were 1-1, all other teams have had at least one 0-0 draw. Zamalek has two of its final three games away from home, I think both are going to be in Tunisia. If the group continues its trend, qualifiers could be decided by a draw, and that would be a first.

I have a C project to work on so that's what I should do.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

An Idea

Protest haven't really been working lately. The big guys are too afraid of us turning into Ukranians. Actually that's exactly what we need. We need their endurance. We need demonstrations that last for days not minutes-- hours if we're lucky. I also know that the situation is a little different, the Ukranians had a slight advantage, numbers and winter. Now of course their sheer numbers helped and that is something we have yet to attain. But winter, now that should help. An obvious way to avoid being beaten up and arrested is to stick together, but that's easier said than done in Cairo's summer, Marina demonstration anyone? Ukrain had the adantage of winter where people didn't mind sticking together because of the cold but how are you going to convince a bunch of smelly people to stick together, the ladies would definately faint. So do I have a solution? No.