Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Arabic Music?

Some asked me to put a link to arabic music radio on the blog.

There it is!:
Radio Sawa seeks to effectively communicate with the youthful population of
Arabic-speakers in the Middle East by providing up-to-date news, information
and entertainment on FM and medium wave radio stations throughout the region.

Radio Sawa is dedicated to broadcasting accurate, timely and relevant news about the Middle East, the world and the United States.

Radio Sawa is committed to the highest standards of journalism, free marketplace
of ideas, respect for the intelligence and culture of its audience, and a
style that is upbeat, modern and forward-looking.

Radio Sawa, a 24-hour, seven day a week Arabic-language network, began
broadcasting on March 23, 2002. It originates its broadcasts from studios
in Washington, D.C. and Dubai, U.A.E. as well as news bureaus throughout the
Middle East. The network is a service of U.S. International Broadcasting
and is publicly funded by the U.S. Congress.




Sawa Radio Live!


Click to on the picture to listen to Radio Sawa on your Windows Media Player

Monday, November 29, 2004

Boring Monday


Today is boring….
Mohammed in Jeddah
Hisham is sick, I think he got cold (get well soon ya man!)
I saw Bhaa for an hour (That makes my day worst) BTW, he didn't like my blog… I wonder why?
Mansor FalaFil gonna come later on…
Nael didn't show up yet…
I went to a project fixed few things…

Boring isn't it?

Hey! The Simpsons is on! it's getting better!


Pic from the boring project site

Saturday, November 27, 2004

A mouse war!



Last night a mouse visited my office while we (Me, Hisham and Mansor FalaFil) watching a movie on TV...
The guys jumped and the mouse ran away... After few minuts he/she/it came back and ran away again...
In the 3rd time he/she/it got in and the guys toke there WOMMD (weapons of mass mouse distraction) out, it was half broomstick and a broomless stick and they started chasing the ugly mouse… After few minutes of using war techniques, they learn from watching news from "freedom" US wars on Afghanistan and Iraq they got him down!
After that, they throw him/her/it in the street after taking a picture next to it.



Today I was in the office and Hisham walked in and shouted: "MOUSE! MOUSE! MOUSE!"
Yes, he got back to life, got inside my office again… so Hisham called a BIG delivery dude to come in with a BIGGER weapon and knocked that dirty mouse again, and throws him in the street, but this time a huge nice brick covered him. :D

The dust is still there!

Riyadh is still covered with a dusty weather!

You can see the sun without a sunglasses! this is how dusty it is!

New Bitch!

We got in the Ezzbah a new ugly puppy bitch (female dog) we called her Petey!

We called her Petey based on the cartoon Petey and Jaydee.



Nael and Petey Don't worry he is not trying to strangle her.

Thursday, November 25, 2004

What is MRGX?

Many people ask me what is mrgx? Moreover, what is mean?
I use it in some login names and subdomains. It is like my internet nickname :)

This is what is mean:

MRGX: is an identification of a gene that reverses the immortal phenotype of a subset of cells and is a member of a novel family of transcription factor-like genes.

Freezing wave!



A freezing wave hit us in Riyadh; the temperature dropped 20 degrees in less than 2 hour! It dropped from 34° to 14° Celsius (93° to 57° Fahrenheit)
That wasn't it, there was a dust storm too. It didn't stop for 3 days!

Almost everybody got sick, I got sick too :(
This is normal for Riyadh the weather change in no time it happen a lot during this season.

It's a desert after all!

Monday, November 22, 2004

Sunday, November 21, 2004

Repeat "Oh Night You Are So Long"

Today Mansor FalaFil came to my office after a long absence cause he was in Jeddah for 15 days… It passed like a 15minuts!

You might ask why we (Me and Nael) said it passed like 15minuts?

The kid is 20 years old and he tries his best to act like a man… he always say "FalaooaFil!" when he is excited!
He is obsessed with ugly dogs, I don't know why… and he is still talk about cars all the time.
In conclusion, he is a Ta7leya Boy!

Let me ask the guys around me what they thing of him…

I will start with Nael:
"Trouble maker, Noisy… He is still a kid! And you know what I think of kids!"

Hisham:
"My feelings towards him is like when you download a 5mg file using a slow dial-up connection and when it's 99% done you get a call on the same phone line and you lose the connection and the downloaded file, then you find that the call was from Mansor… the feeling you get is what I feel toward him!
And I wish I can miss him!"


Mansor (Him Self):
"Annoying!"



Mansor FalaFil



Mansor and Nael, Nael is trying to cover Mansor face so he doesn't show beside him in the pic...
But Nael looks stupid... I like this pic



Mansor FalaFil again



Nael faking a smile

Saturday, November 20, 2004

First day of work after Eid

First day of work after Eid

Today is the first day of work after Eid holiday; I made an appointment at 5:30PM to visit Najee to upload a touch panel design program to 20 new touchpanels :..(

Najee is an employee in a company that subcontracted me to do some automation system programming and design.
He is a cool guy, but he is kinda strange. You never know when he is in a good mood or a bad mood, or if he is serious or kidding. After 2 months of working with him, I just gave up and dealt with him if he is kidding all the time… so far its working!

Back to the 20 touchpanels… Each touchpanel take about 6min to upload so it will take me about 2 hours to finish.

Then I will have to go to the site to configure the touchpanels with the main unit, in 20 rooms. I think I will do that tomorrow.

I hope I can finish the project soon cause it took too long… Since July 2004

I don't think this project will finish before the end of 2004.

Nevertheless, this is not the only work I did since Eid, I actually did a site visit to fix mess-calibrated touchpanel. I got it working with in 20min.

I will tell you later more about what I do for living and more about me… tell then wait from my next post.


Najee and Bin at there office


My laptop and the touchpanels

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

4th day of Eid: Going to Jalajil

On the 4th day of I woke up at 8AM went to the office did some work, then at 11AM Hisham walked in we talked and watched TV a little then I was thinking of going to Jalajil my home town to greet my grandmother, aunts and uncles for Eid.

I told that to Hisham and he said let go together, at 12:30PM we took the 180km road to Jalajil and of course, Hisham was driving.

After 1 ½ hours we reached Jalajil passed by our house there and to my uncles farm "AlSamirya" then to my aunt and finally to my grandmother.

That took me about an hour then we headed back to Riyadh, and we arrived on sunset.


Jalajil old watch tower


Hisham pointing at a road sign


Singles only play ground! (Don't ask!)

Monday, November 15, 2004

3rd day of Eid: Going to Bahrain

On the 3rd day of Eid we had breakfast together me, Hisham and Nael, it was about 7AM during the breakfast we were talking about what should we do next.
And Cause Riyadh is kinda boring and empty during Eid, and we wanted to watch a movie and since Saudi Arabia doesn't have movie theaters…

Therefore, we ended up with deciding to go to the Kingdom of Bahrain!

At 8AM we were ready to drive the car 400km to Bahrain just for the purpose of watching a movie…

However, there was a problem Hisham's car is not ready to make such a trip so we gonna go with Nael's car… the problem is Hisham get dizzy when someone other than him drives the car!

So Nael told him to just wait until the 1st check point then he gonna let him drive the car...

The skies were covered with clouds and the highway was not crowded with cars…

The trip was nice after about 3 ½ hours we reached the 25km King Fahad Bridge that connects Saudi Arabia with Bahrain, it was raining dogs and cats!

We passed the borders and went to a shopping mall called AlSief Mall we picked an Egyptian movie called "Zawaj min Jehah Amniyah" Staring Adel Imam.

After the Comedy movie we walked around the mall then we went to another mall called AlDanah Mall.

At AlDanah Mall, we bought tickets to AVP: Alien Vs. Predator and went to Chilli's we finished our dinner then walked to the theater and watched the stupid movie…

After the movie, it was about 10PM we picked up coffee and drove to go back to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

At 2AM we reached the Ezzbah… All that without Hisham touching the staring wheel!

He was dizzy for like 2 days!


Me and Nael in the car


Hisham dizzy in the car


King Fahad Bridge


The Border

Sunday, November 14, 2004

2nd day of Eid: Talking Scoopy and Dicey to the Wadi!

Today is the 2nd day of Eid; it was 5 AM and the weather was nice so we decided me, Hisham and Nael to take Scoopy and Dicey to the Wadi.

The Wadi is a small dry dam in the Dir'eyah City about 20km from Riyadh.

We all had a lot of fun there!


Nael, Hisham, Scoopy and Dicey @ the Wadi

Friday, November 12, 2004

Eid Saeed!


Today is Eid!

I know I didn't post much the past week, I don't know why...
I just didn't feel like it...

Anyway... Happy Eid to all!

Saturday, November 06, 2004

Me and Linux; "Linux is for IQ's higher than 98"



Lastnight before I got back home to sleep I was reading about Linux, I got a link from a blog called Black X The book is called "ßÊÇÈ áíäßÓ ÇáÔÇãá"
I always wanted to work and learn Linux so I decided to download it, I kept the desktop downloading it, and went to home.

I came back to the office but I was in a hurry cause I had to go to a project site at 9PM and I had hard time with some units there. I came back to the office at 12AM.
I burned the Linux ISO Image to a CD and I started the installation...
At 5:30AM I was able to go back to Windows XP, I had some many problems and I almost lost my XP!
I will tell you about later.

I didn't want to post today, but I wanted to write about my Linux eXPerience!

Friday, November 05, 2004

Mohammed and Hisham are back!


Mohammed and Hisham came back from Omrah!

There first stop was the Ezzbah, they missed there dogs!

I went to them me and Nael (I left Fahad in my office, and asked him to lock the door when he leaves)

The Ezzbah is one minute walking from my office.

Mohammed was in the kitchen cooking the dogs meal and Hisham was inside the cage of his new husky dog (Ice) begging him to come out.
Ice is a very shy dog I think he will return him back because he is too shy!

We sat together and played with the 5 dogs (Scoopy, Dicey, Jazz, Spice and Ice)

Then I came back here to write this post.

Hey, I took a picture of Mohammed and Hisham!


Mohammed talking to his fiancé


Hisham


Mohammed still talking to his fiancé and on his right Bhaa


Mohammed still talking to his fiancé and on his right Nael

My advice to you is: Do not give an advice to anyone!

I have a friend called Fahad.
He is a married guy with a daughter, nice and funny.
He talks with an Egyptian accent…

He went to the states to learn English cause he really like to learn and improve him self (and that a problem to me! And that why I'm writing this post)
In his goodbye party, he was wearing a shirt with writings on it.
On the end of the party, he made an announcement "After one year from now I will be able to read what written on my shirt!"
Then he left to the states, after 3 months he called and he told us he know the phrase "What's up?" then after another 3 months he told us he know the phrase "What's going on?" then after another 3 months he told us that he found out that both phrases approximately have the same meaning!

Another 4 months passed by and he came back to tell us what was written on his shirt was in French!

By now, you know a little about Fahad…

So let me tell you why you shouldn't give an advice to someone like him.

He came to me with a problem in where he works, the problem was that he was asked to make an e-manual for his department but he has little knowledge of computers.
Therefore, I advised him to get a laptop and start learning MS Office®
After few days he got a secondhand laptop and gave it to me to load it up with software, I was hit with a feeling that this will not be the only time I'm going to see his laptop… I was scared to tell you the truth!
I loaded his computer with software he will need to make that damn e-manual and he was rushing me all that time!
I gave him his laptop and I was telling the laptop "I will not say goodbye" but I will say, "See ya later!" my sixth sense was telling me that I would see you again!
After 22 hours and 34 minutes from giving him his laptop back, he called! I can't describe the feeling I had when I saw his name on my phone; I pressed the green handset button and answered
Me: "….Hello?"
Fahad: "Raed! I did something with my laptop the green Start button is on the right of the screen and the clock is on the left!"
Me: "That so strange how can you do something like that?! I think even bill gate can't do that even if bush asked him to do so!"
Fahad: "I don't know what I did!"
Me: "Are you sure you didn't install Arabic Enabled MS Windows XP?"
Fahad: "Who???"
Me: "Did you install any new software… I mean did you insert any CD inside the cup-holder-like CD drive? "
Fahad: "Where???"
Me: "Can I borrow your laptop for few hours?"
Fahad: "Sure, But I need it man to write that manual. And bring back fixed if you don't mind"
Me: "Yeah what ever! Just bring it!"
Fahad: "Chill man! It was your advice to buy a laptop!"
Me: "yeah I noticed"

Don't ask how but I got it fixed.

Few days later, and few visits from Fahad's laptop to me, I got a call from…. Guess who? I answered the phone…
Me: "Fahad's customer service. Raed is speaking. How can I help you?"
Fahad: "Raed! How can I make a link on an adobe acrobat file to open an excel sheet?"
.
.
.

It's been a two weeks since he got that evil laptop and he love to work in my office… He is thinking loud almost the neighbors can hear him...
He is in front of me right now, looking at his laptop working and every now and then, he yells "Ahaaaah!"… "Now I know how!"… "But what if…"

I took a picture of him, Check it out!

Help!

Today in Barnie's

After Isha prayer, just like everyday, I went to Barnie's; Nael and Mo'emen were there.
We talked about many things... until Bhaa showed up.

Bhaa is a very good person, but he is kinda loud and sometimes doesn't make sense.

Mo’emen is a great, literate person and write poems and stuff.

Nael is just bored all the time and hates kids.

I think I talk a lot about me going to Barnie's everyday, and spending time with Nael there, so I will post some pictures.


This is Bhaa


And this is Nael


And this is what I gonna see if I look to the sky!

Thursday, November 04, 2004

The Ezzbah!

The Dream!
The garden of the Ezzbah

What does the word "ezzbah" mean?
Okay I will tell you today about the Ezzbah.

Let start with that non-Arabic or even English word mean, to make it easy it's something like a house.
But if you look for the word "house" in a dictionary will find it mean:

A structure serving as a dwelling for one or more persons, especially for a family.

But that is not what the word Ezzbah mean...
So if the word Ezzbah in the dictionary it will mean:

A structure serving as a dwelling for one or more persons, especially for a single(s) (Unmarried) male(s).


How did the idea start?
The idea of having an Ezzbah started back in the year 2002 we were 3 guys (Me, Nael and Mohammed)
We wanted a place to hangout and stuff... And we started looking but without any luck mostly because most of the houses are for families!
We gave up and we made a yahoo group called e-Ezzbah... And we invited a lot of friends there.

After that by one year 3 more guys liked the idea and wanted to join the search of a house, we started to look again and we found a house!
We rented it and the dream came true.

The living room  (aka: our home theater!)
The living room (aka: our home theater!)

New members of the ezzbah!
After a month of starting the ezzbah, Nael brought a small cat we called it Nemo!
Then Hisham got us a puppy we called it Scoopy

Nemo!
Nemo!

Scoopy!
Scoopy!

Another day go by

I was playing C&C Zero Hour today, I think it will take me another 5 days to finish the levels...
It was fun.
My mood was not that good, I even didn't have Ifttar meal (Breakfast)...
I went to Barnie's like everyday after Isha prayer, Mohammed and Hisham was still in Jeddah, so Nael passed by we had our coffee.
We were so bored this day!

I came back to the office checked my emails, singed some letters and received some calls...

Nael came to the office, then we left to the Ezzbah (I will tell you all about the Ezzbah later) picked some DVDs and checked on the dogs.

Then we had dinner and watched a movie....

Then I started to write this post....

I didn't like this day...
Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

w.bloggar test


I'm posting this post with w.bloggar...
I'm testing it right now.

So far it's cool...

I will publish this post now to see how it looks.

Wednesday, November 03, 2004


That's a cartoon drawing of me!

Today is the 20th of Ramadan

Today is the 20th of Ramadan.

Mohammed and Hisham went to Makkah for Omrah.
That mean I was left alone with Nael.

He was late for sahour he came 2AM! And we went to Subway, my meal sucked!
I had triyake chicken... Don't try it!

I just finished my meal and watched gregean.

That's it for now.

-Raed

My first post!

This is my first post in my blog, I wish I can keep on posting here...
I have a feeling that I will not keep on posting and I will forget all about it.
I don't know why?! umm...
I got the idea of registering here when I downloaded Nokia LifeBlog, too bad it does not work on my Nokia 6600 phone :(

I will try to use the PC ver.

and I will update this blog from LifeBlog.... too much planning but I don't know if I gonna do it...

Anyway I think this is good for a 1st post... Right?


-Raed