When everyone is soundly asleep and the house is quiet you can hear a faint hint of midi tunes echoing from a room faaaaaaaar away isolated in different realm of its own, as you get closer (camera moving in) you realize that the room in question isn’t entirely dark and as you tip toe to the edge of the door frame your eyes catche the multi-colors emanating shadow play on the ground. As you take a peek from behind the door frame you realize the source of all of this. On the bed sits a bundle of shadow wrapped up in a blanket gripping a DS. With the pointed edge of the stylus the creature frantically taps, twirls and sweeps its hand in erratic movements sometimes accompanied by a few swear words. The eyes suddenly blink twice and an exclamation mark pops up on the creature’s head as realization dawns that its once hidden secret has been disocvered. The creature is no other than Sushi and Sushi needs a rehab institute to fix sleeping habits and quit DSsing in the early AM.

Quite a story, isn’t it? All that’s missing is the Psycho movie tune of suspense followed by a shriek =P

The game I’m currently playing is Harvest Moon: Rune Factory and I simply can’t put it down. Throughout the years I got sick of playing the same game everytime a new version comes out. They all have the same story and basically require the same amount of routine work that you have to do but when I read the reviews on this I thought this is definately worth it.

If you’re unfamiliar with Harvest Moon it is mainly about a boy (or a girl) that has to work on a farm and keep it running. You are expected to do all the nifty, yucky and boring work a farmer has to do to make money and buy more seeds to plant more vegies (yes we dont have anything better to do with our lives). Anyway, everytime a new version comes out you rarely find any difference in the game and you honestly feel like you wasted your money only to give your future son a ball to play with instead of a wooden cube as it was in the older versions but this one is entirely different.

The creators of Harvest Moon decided to add a “fantastical” setting to the whole game. All the elements of Fantasy are there, the skills, the music, the artwork- and although I’m a big big fan of the cute rounded shapes of the usual Harvest Moon artwork, this still managed to keep me glued it. The story is unique and all the characters are well rounded and the most interesting aspect of all is that now not only do you get to dig and plant seeds but you get to swing your sword at monsters too just like any Fantasy game! Isn’t that cool or what?

Go do yourself a favor and get it! I’m gonna go water my plants now and find some monsters to slash =P

 

Other interesting games I’m currently playing:

• The World Ends With You
• Professor Layton And the Curious Village
• My Word Coach (learn vocabulary and spelling each day)
• Maths Training (for the retards who don’t know their multiplications like me)
• Cooking Mama (Part 2)

 

And for the love of God can someone tell me where on earth did the picture-upload button go in WordPress?!

 

“The City of Words” by Alberto Manguel

This was a rather annoying book to read and I’m glad I’m done with it. I found it too heavy to digest. What Manguel was trying to attempt with this book was to define “language”, its limitations and uses as a personal, political, social and religious weapon and remedy.

He alludes to well known stories in each chapter to tackle universal ideas, organized as follows: “Voice of Cassandra”, “The Tablets of Gilgamesh”, “The Bricks of Babel”, “The Books of Don Quixote”, and “The Screen of Hal”.

In the beginning he argues whether language forms reality and experiences or not. He draws a line between the none-fiction and fiction language. In the former, it recounts from memories experiences and opinions (politically, socially…etc) and therefore cannot be taken as an accurate testimony; whereas the language in stories acknowledges, in his opinion, the impossibility of naming accurately and definately yet at the same time can offer self0revelatory identities within that structure.

As expected, he refers to Plato’s condemnation of poetry and the concept of an “ideal” republic/community. “Symbolic or literary costructio must serve as the blueprint for the city, any literary imagination that does not lead to the concrete realization of a perfectly run state has no place in his (Plato’s) definition of society” Which argues that a language that entertains (stimulating pleasure or pain) should be left out of the community unless it can be put to some effect.

The book takes off really well in the beginning to define language from a neutral point but later on when he delves into political and social issues in detail, I found myself on many occassions grimacing and frowning at some confusing information regarding the East.

I honestly wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone I know.

 

Ps. is it just me or did the picture upload button disappear ?

 

                    

 

Back sooner than expected, mainly due to the neighbour’s unconcious graciousness in lending me their wireless system. Now as much as its nice to go to country sites, the first few days are an absolute torture:

• Sivere sneezing
• Eye infection
• Difficulty sleeping
• Friday the 13th screaming style at the amount of insects (remember Mrs. Smudge?)
• Drowsiness
• Jet Lag
• And anything else remotely related to bees carrying yellow powder and peeing on flowers (u go figure)

 

Today I bought 2 full-bags worth of books from Borders, video games, strategy guide (FFVII), the whole Indiana Jones movies & Doris Day oldies (thank the lord those are cheap) and another bag filled with herbal infused teas, scented lavenders *the provence type*, cookies & fruit smoothies, and with my new flowery summer trainers I think I’m just about ready to lock myself in a room and indulge in endless paradise.

I also brought with me my new professional camera, I’ll try to upload nice pics once I figure out where’s the ON/OFF button.

Ciao.

 

 

 

                  

(pic link)

I’m stretched out on my chair at the end of a long busy exhausting day and I feel like I own my world. I got my certificate then came back home and showed it to mommy and daddy and felt 5 again given my favorite flavoured chupachups (which are strawberries, lemon and apples btw). Additionally, I didn’t score first neither second. In fact, I might have bearly passed but it doesn’t matter. It was hard and long and I am so proud of myself.

And today at offically 12:01 midnight my holiday begins! I will be away from posting for a while, and I’m going to miss everyone (probably some more than others =P).

So you all be good and continue praying for Turkey, Netherlands & Croatia (I decided to add the latter).

Oh and Angelo, I will tell you very soon when I’m starting FFVII so get your joysticks ready.

Gnight and take care

 

 

That was the most irritating & disappointing game I have ever seen in the course of my entire life!! In fact, I think my blood pressure rocketed to a point where my head felt it was about to explode as a roasted football. I didn’t even finish watching the team, by the 2nd goal I stood up said goodnight to my family and went to bed.

The French team’s goalkeeper is a total retard! Now why would a team like France put someone like that in there is simply beyond me. Apart from that, the rest of the team played well, Henri & Benzema almost scored a few times. The Italian suckers kept throwing themselves on the floor at the slightest touch which irritated me like hell!! Come to think of it everyone was on the floor yesterday and the 7akam maboga a7ad on both teams that he didn’t flash a yellow card at. Simply disgusting!

This is what happens every single time. The Italians start at the lowest of %$&* and then crawl themselves up to the top.

All of you pray Turkey or Netherlands win! You hear?

 

 

 

 

I don’t know if I can finish writing this post but what I do know is that I will probably read this tomorrow published and say “When did I write all of that” because I can’t keep my eyes open.

At the moment I feel like the 5 year old who had to wait in line endlessly to be finally given his share of chocolate cube. Do we even call them cubes? Besides the point. The festive news is that I’m done! I am finally with the training course. I can’t even believe it. Can you? Gracious, time flew so quickly and here I am. I still need to attend one more day to take care of small things but technically I passed. I feel 22 again running home after graduation, minus the I’m-going-to-save-the-world-soon attitude.

You know how it goes, dont you? When you’re constrained you could think of ten million things to do but as soon as you’re set loose you can’t think of 1 single thing worthy. I am still not dreading anything since it hasn’t even been 24 hours but I am dreading the days to come. It’s when you get used to something then things change and you have no idea what you’re going to do without that thing in your life anymore but I think I’m going to miss these days, the efforts, the people, the criticism, the work load- everything.

On a different note all I can think of right now is how much I wanna shop for a pillow. You rarely meet people who know the true bliss of owning just about the “right” kind of pillow. Its a very difficult thing to do- trust me. It has to be the right size, right kind of filling, perfect weight, perfect width and just the right kind of squishiness. There should be a pillow club a long with cigar and other fineries clubs; their devouts to be called “The Pillow Enthusiasts” such as myself.

Anyway its too late to make any more sense. I can’t even drag myself across the hall to check the football match results.

Good day everyone and goodnight.

 

                              

 

While driving to work today, half asleep and humming to myself I saw something with fur running towards my car in the middle of the street. I thought what the hell… I slowed down and pootch midget walks up to my car (totally oblivious to the danger he’s in) stops in the middle of the road and then had that look on his face that said “Hmm… I don’t know where to go- oh let’s go that way” then he takes off all the way around around my car and continues down the road. I shook my head in disbelief and continued on but I couldn’t. It honestly pissed me off! Just a few months ago a Golden Terrier was laying flat in the middle of the road with its organs displayed and blood gushing out while everyone in the neighbourhood lined up to have a look with dorky smiles on their faces.

I had to drive back and find the first Indian nearby and beg him to go tell this dog’s owner that their dog is at risk of being squashed to the floor by cars.

People pay endless amounts of money to buy these dogs and then throw them in their houses under the care of their maids and drivers without giving them the appropriate care. If you can’t bloody take care of your animals then DONT GET YOURSELF PETS. Either you acknolwedge the amount of time, caring, conditioning, and money you have to dedicate for these animals or don’t buy! These are creatures with souls and an immense need for attention and care- they’re not “zeeena” or toys for you to show off with.

When I had pets most of my days, weeks, and time was spent researching, reading books, making sure they got their vet visits on time, eating a fully nourished diet, getting enough vaccination, groomed and cleaned in order to keep them healhy. My relatives in the states were telling me they were thinking about getting a pet, they spent months doing researches over the costs, kinds and treatments they need to do before they finally made their decision. In the end they decided they couldn’t afford having a pet right now in their lives because they’re both busy working and wont have enough time dedicated for a pet. Its one of those commitment-things you either do it right or you don’t do it at all!

Having a pet is a rewarding experience but demands A LOT of your time and attention. You don’t just buy a pet and let it graze around the streets. In a way its similar to having kids. They’re not sheep! Even sheep are kept within fences.

Similarly if you go to the Friday Market and see how malnutritioned and abused these animals are then you’ll know what I mean. That place should be shut down.

 

While I was applying eyeliner this morning, I saw something fly across my face. It’s the blood sucker that bit my finger yesterday. I put everything on hold to settle things Alcapone style.

The following picture demonstrates the first killing attempt. After squashing it with a notebook I sat in silence, observing and anticipating any slight movement.

I detected some struggling with few final breaths so extra measures had to be then taken. The book was closed shut on its face. I threw the notebook on the floor and stomped my feet on it a few times with a couple of twists to ensure the best grinding effect.

On the right we find the sucker himself and on the left (small dot) is some kind of intenstinal organs.

Now I must stress the point that I don’t usually kill insects. I’m the type of person that puts them in jars and then let them loose in the garden but this one… this one is different… this one deserved a slow, long painful death.

On a different note, I just love going shopping in mornings in the middle of the week. All the malls and department stores are empty, fresh and quiet. Just the right atmosphere to concentrate on spending a few KDs undistracted so after I’ve done that I couldn’t help but notice how hostile women are here sometimes. Now answer me this, why is it perplexing to smile at your own gender? When someone holds the door for me, helps me carry a bag or does any other kind gesture I usually smile and 80% of the time the ones that smile back innocently are men (the sane ones at least) but if you smile at a woman then she gives you the “weird” look. Often they think you know them or something - so much hostility no wonder they get wrinkled up so early.

Can’t keep my eyes open anymore.. 

That’s it for tonight.

Gnight.  

 

Today is definately not my day.

I’m so stressed I feel my system will shut down any second. I came back from work exhausted and then immediately had to run out again to the training course. I’ve done a couple of things wrong there and at one point I just wanted to sit in one corner of the room and sleep. To make things worse while I was taking part of giving instructions to a room filled with people, one of the attendants forced me to lose focus with whatever it is I was supposed to say because the #%$^$^& couldn’t contain himself. He asked the most silliest questions just to seek my attention and when I finally turned my back on him he had the audacity to blurt out “come here 7abibti” in the middle of a room filled with a big number of Arabic speakers and that was just it for me.

I couldn’t wait to get back home and relax. My plan was to binge in front of Italy kicking Netherlands’ butt in the Euro 2008. For some reason the cable card didn’t work and I couldnt watch the match so I just gave up and went for a hot shower to soothe my frustration (Oh and I later found out Italy lost anyway). At that moment I couldn’t keep my eyes open. As soon as I walked out of the shower I noticed a big fat ugly bug flying around my room. I tried endlessly to kill the imposter but I couldn’t. I honestly gave up on everything and just decided to throw myself on the bed and sleep since I’m exhausted. 1 and a half minute later under the cover I feel a sting on my finger (which happens to be the only part of me that was visible out of the cover) I look and I find my finger the size of my foot and extremely itchy- bitten by the bug.

I cant sleep anymore. I’m exhausted and tired and stressed and cranky and depressed and annoyed and angry and I can’t sleep. My body feels like an electricity pole of nerves from stress. I’m too tired to sleep. Its when you reach a point of being too exhausted that as soon as you let go and relax your body has a nervous reflex and aches and can’t bloody relax which means I’ll probably be up till dawn and finally sleep around 5 only to wake up at 6 and go to work like a zombie.

Life at its best…

 

 

 

Day 1 of the weekend was spent lounging around the house pretending like I was doing something important. Day 2 was dedicated to completing the training course’ work load. Day 3 is spoiling myself from head to toe in addtion to running a few errands. In the process, I had to drive to 7awali.

Everytime I go there it’s as if I’m there for the first time. You gotta move your chair a few inches forward to keep better view, two hands on steering wheel and revise your profanity book. 1 idiot backed out of his parking space and almost hit me, 2 idiots were annoyingly flirting and the 3rd is a stupid cop that came out of no where and decided it was not allowed to turn left after the traffic light. This caused a massive traffic jam and we all had to drive all the way to the end of the road to make a U-turn. I still don’t get it when the navigator goes “Please make a legal uturn.” Ya3ni what’s the difference between a legal and an illegal one? The one where there’s no fat7a and you have to drive over the side curb to the other lane?!

On a different note, the secretary here in the office lights up 8 to 9 fags a day (when the boss is not around). Frankly my system can’t take it anymore. I learned the hard way not to approach him about it but assuming I would, here’s the imaginary scenario:

Sushi: Hi Zig (let’s call him that). May I talk to you for a few minutes?

Zig: Sure..

Sushi: I understand how much you need your fags but I can’t tolerate the smell. It is honestly bothering me. Can you please smoke outside?

Zig: No.

Sushi: Ok.

Sushi to Boss: He smokes.

Boss to Zig: You suck Zig!

Zig to Sushi: You B%$#^

Sushi to Zig: ikil 5$#%

—- The End —-

 

 

(picture demonstrates the type of people you meet in 7awali)