Sunday, November 1, 2009

My Zune 8GB Arrives: Review


As some of you might know what I am talking about, Microsoft's infamous MP3 player "Zune" which is a counterpart to Apple's iPod. I ordered my Zune 8GB 3 weeks ago from Amazon and it arrived 12 hours ago, Red color, 8GB HDD.

Box components? well, USB cable, genuine Zune earphones, 3 pairs of colored snares, Warranty card, and Owner's Manual...nothing much, right?...So, there is no charger, it's because Microsoft thought that to cut down on prices, they won't ship any Zune product with a charger, and instead you can use the USB cable to charge it.

Is it any good? YES! and HELL YES!...It can sit on top of the iPod Nano (4th Generation) in many aspects, and I am going to emphasize all of them here (from my 12 hour experience) :


1) Glossy finish which Nano (4th Generation)  lacks.
2) Scratch Resistant screen.
3) Wi-Fi embedded.
4) FM Radio (with the ability to save songs from the radio.)
5) Zune Marketplace from your Zune...download directly without a PC.
6) Only $99.99


Thats what I can think of right now, maybe that include all of the things the Nano misses. This phone is good on some aspects as it is bad on some other aspects...and here they are, starting with the advantages:

Advantages:

1) Wi-Fi
2) FM radio with song saving feature.
3) Relatively cheap compared to other counterparts.
4) Shiny finish.
5) Scratch resistant screen.
6) Ear blowing, crystal-clear sound.
7) The earphones can be attached together by a magnet eliminating them to get tangled together.
8) Plays Podcasts that can be downloaded from the Zune Marketplace for FREE!
9) Zune community, in which you can connect Zune-to-Zune, share and send songs, and add Zune friends using your Windows Live ID.
10) there is no more "bang for the buck" other than this MP3 player.


Disadvantages:

1) Unresponsive clickwheel, so its advisable you just touch scroll with it...clicking it is a hassle.
2) Dull dashboard.
3) shippes with an actual 6.6 GB of space...so it takes a whopping 1.4 GB for system storage.
4) Small screen.
5) we have seen slimmer players.
6) not that many variety of colors to choose from.

What does "Kahraman" mean?

  Many people have wondered would does this word mean, and why I am using it as a display name on Windows Live Messenger or in my Chess,com account...This is a reply to all people who have been questioning me.

  Simply put, Kahraman is Turkish for "Hero" , the reason why I changed all my usernames into that is because it sounds good and there has been deja-vu going on with me as of where I have heard it before... I came across a local debate in Istanbul that had a cool slogan which is "Benim Kahraman" which means "I am a hero"...So, you can say I picked it up from there.

  I also suspect that the etymology of "Kahraman" is from the old Arabic language script...maybe?!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Game Review: Halo 3 ODST



  The self wonders "Is there life after Master Chief?" indeed there is with this new stand-alone expansion of the #1 best-selling game for the Xbox 360, read on for the big blast...

  Released on September 22, it features a 2 disc set, one for the campaign mode and the other for the ultimate Halo 3 Multiplayer experience featuring all the maps from Halo 3 plus all the map packs that have been released until now, on top of that a fresh 3 maps designed only for ODST. This released features Firefight mode, which is like Horde in Gears of War 2, you play online with friends "up to 4 friends" and battle your way through waves of covenants until you reach round 4, you also get to choose what difficulty you want to play this with.

  Lets talk about the campaign mode, although it has a relatively short story, you will live up to it...lots of action, lots of blood, lots of violence that you didn't see in the original halo 3. This time you don't get to play with Master Chief, instead you play with a nameless hero trooper called "The Rookie", he kicks ass in terms of personality and appearance, and is well presented.


  Should you buy this game or not? its up to you to judge, I am gonna help you decide by stating the pros and cons:

Pros:

- Relatively cheap for a 2 disc set.
- Firefight mode is tight and addictive if you have a friend who plays it online.
- Campaign mode is intense in the city of Mombasa.
- The soundtrack simply sinks to your heart.
- With the multiplyaer disc, you experience the original Halo 3 multiplayer with all add-ons and map packs (eliminating the need to purchase them).

Cons:

- Unlike Halo 3, you don't get to hold 2 Plasma rifles with both hands, and likewise with one-handed weapons.
- Multiplayer is an exact copy of Halo 3, no ODST community multiplayer.
- Campaign is short.
- If you've got no friends having ODST, then Firefight mode is useless.

Rating: 4.5 / 5 (Breath-Taking)
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Monday, September 28, 2009

Forgotten...

  Now that I arrived in Jeddah on the 12th of September, there seems to be alot of things that I miss about Istanbul and its people, and regrets are always by my side, that means that I was a bit oblivious about what going on there, and didn't care much for what will happen when I go back to Crapsville.

  So to clarify things I am gonna write a list of things I should have brought back with me, including souvenirs, pictures, and other miscellaneous.

- Penguin Comic Newspapers

  They are not actually newspapers, but those mini-newspaper like magazines that has drawings similar to that of the pages of comic books, those Penguin Newspapers usually give bad reviews of Turkish government and also portray Recep Erdogan.

  You might be wondering what I want of these, it might not be the fun of it, but mostly for me...not forgetting my Turkish and keep on reading.

- My iPod

  I am dying to know who stole my iPod, its priceless for containing tracks I don't even have on my PC...though there are many conclusions as to who or where it got stolen, those may include: class, Mosque, or pick-pocket masters on istiklal street...most probably being in the Mosque.

- Dating

  Now you know that I am not the type of guy who dates...I never did actually, and who doesn't get around with chicks alot, but before going there, I was hoping to get a chance from a good spot and from an interesting occasion (not from some random night club, hitch hikers or something shit).

  All in all, I enjoyed a hangout in a silent night that sees no moonlight with a girl named Pelin to Ortakoy and had some fried potatoe, playing chess with and American classmate and licking my own wounds.

- The Pamukcu Family

  My beloved Turkish neighbors, it was too sad for me meeting them at a late time and that is just 4 days before I went back, I really loved every family member and that was for there decency and there invitations to Iftar in my last day.

  Mustafa, being the root of all connections in the family, was the most religious teenager I came across in my stay, 24 years old, Chinese-speaking, was a good practice for my Turkish for the reason that he was unable to speak English, his brother's dream is to go for Hajj before he dies.

- Unfinished Business

  Nothing is more challenging than a game of chess with Fatih Ozcelik, ex room-mate and tourist guide, this guy is about my level in chess, our games go down to 30-40 minutes per game just to show how tight we play against each other... end score for all our combined games was 9-3 for my advantage.

  Fatih was also the center of fun in the first days of my arrival, until he got dismissed for some reason related to his tourism agency.

- Hacioglu & Taksim Lades

  Ever heard of Lahmmacun? it was my favorite dish of Turkish traditional food from Hacioglu fast food restaurants, cheap yet delicious...for Arabs reading this, it kind of resembles Safeeha...meat spread on a dough.

  Taksim Lades, the most restaurant I have visited in Istanbul...I had Iftar there every single day after being welcomed by the Turkish waiter who had a Cockney English-accent and later told me that he goes every winter to Nottingham *bending his head to his right*.

  These conclude all of the things I miss in Istanbul or the things I want them to be beside me now, I just hope to go there next summer.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Top 5 Achievement Hunting Games

  This is interesting to talk about, have you ever wanted to boost up that Gamerscore of yours, how does 400G or 500G for a game feel like?

  Well, it's as easy as a walk in a park, but there are certain games you should get your hands on...let me guide you and guide you and get started (note that these games are based on my own experience and point of view):

5) Halo 3

  Being one of the first games I bought on the 360, I started out with no hopes of getting any achievements, but indeed and without knowing, it contains a total of 1750G, one third of which are easy to achieve , it is with no doubt the #1 game in terms of achievement points.

  Whenever you complete one level from the campaign you get 20-40G. its a piece of cake, and you can do it on any difficulty as well, finish the game and you get 125G, however, it is not only limited to offline play achievements, there are also multiplayer achievements for online play.

  This is a must-have for achievement hunters out there, if you play this online you won't regret it


4) Prince of Persia

  When you first start this game, it gives you 10G like that, for "beginning your adventure" I kid you not, you also get achievements with a minimum of 10G for collecting light seeds, helping Elika more often,and speed killing enemies ontop of 20G for defeating every boss in the game, which you will eventually have to reach in the end., one of the reasons why this game is full of easy achievments is because it has a long campaign, and too many bosses.

  To make this easy on you, you have to get used to killing enemies before they spawn, collecting as much light seeds as you can, and not depending on Elika to save you, throwing enemies off cliffs, using the environment to finish them off, and using multiple combos when attacking...and the result is...achievements pouring into your account.


3) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare



  If your not a fan of FPS games then CoD 4 is not for you, if you want all the worthy achievements you have to play on Veteran difficulty which has the slogan "You Will Not Survive" and indeed you will NOT survive, if you managed to break the rusty locks and be up to Veteran difficulty, then you will get every possible achievement in this game, for completing one mission on Veteran difficulty you get 40G, and if you've never played the game before and started off with Veteran difficulty then I salute you because you will be getting 60G per mission completion.

  Other Achievements include breaking some TVs that has Al-Asad's images, collecting Intel info, completing the first mock-up in seconds, and rescuing a squad mate in some level, and as such the list continues, all achievements are easy to earn except the ones that require the Veteran difficulty setting, but that's good for us, so that we can be up to the online multiplayer level.


2) X-Men Origins: Wolverine


  My point of view, the best hack n' slash game of the year no doubt, Achievements are infested in this game, really easy to get, and fun to do, these include combos, killing 1000 enemies, throwing off cliffs and edges, and using feral senses to strike.

   I think whomever wants a good start for achievement hunting should pick X-men up, and play at normal or hard difficulty, on top of that, you also get achievements for finding easter eggs in the game, and thats all about it...if you want to do so, you should look up a video in youtube. As a start, you would easily accumulate 500G in your first game finish, play it again and see what you have missed by reading walkthroughs.


1) Bioshock


  Although being stupid long, achievements are worthy to earn but not hard, upgrade your weapons, kill bosses, buy tonic slots, and fully research enemies, this will do the trick.


  Out of all the games I played, I earned the most achievements in this game, more than 50% I guess, the game is long but you won't feel how long it is, just play and enjoy those points.

  The only thing I don't understand however is the achievements that say "Fully research the..." , but regardless of that, this will definitly be the #1 on my list of Achievement Hunting.
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And this concludes my list for this post, I hope you like it, and I promise to come back with more interesting stuff in the near future.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

The End of The Road

Today, as some of you might know, was the last day of my Turkish language course, to be honest, I have learned alot in 4 weeks to the point that I can communicate in restaurants or shopping centers, it was also entertaining...didn't feel bored at all, my classmates were friendly (more than I expected) ...
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And here I will list each and everyone of them and a glimpse of their personalities (just for the fun of it) :

1) Senim (Germany) : a talkative girl who flirts alot with us guys, aged 16 and the youngest of all.

2) Selim (France) : a non-English speaking guy who flirts with Senim at times, considered to be funny by his idiocy, was once kicked out after having an issue with a substitute tutor, aged 17, currently resides in Paris.

3) Han-na (South Korea) : Super-Friendly, Super-Generous, seems to have a problem controlling her voice's volume, I rely on her to send me our pictures and that is because she has a 999999 mega-pixel camera, those ones with a big scope. Aged 25, currently resides in Istanbul for 2 years of University.

4) Kemal-Jan (China) : a peaceful guy who has audio Koran in his mobile and likes to listen to the azaan although he is a non-Muslim, aged 21, resides in Istanbul for University.

5) Ishak (China) : Kemal-Jan's close friend, and his sister's boyfriend, an entertaining guy in all means, I had a good time exchanging my Saudi Riyals with Chinese Yuan, aged 23, currently resides in his country.

6) Maria (Russia) : a mysterious girl who doesn't like to get along with us, provided she didn't attend the last day which was the big and final uniting of us all, aged ?? , she resides in Moscow.

7) Luda (Ukraine) : being from Ukraine, she gets along with Maria pretty easily, likes to shre her opinions with us, has 9 cats , one of which is 7 kg (according to her). Aged 39, and is the eldest amongst us all, Resides in her country.

8) Kimberly (USA) : Outgoing, Clumsy, she is the only native English speaker in class, aged 20, currently on exchange, but lives in San Francisco.

9) Nadya (Ukraine) : with no doubt, she is the most fluent Turkish speaker amongst us all, I dont know why she attends the Level 1 course, preparing for her marriage soon, aged 28, resides in her country.

10) Deniz (Germany) : an English speaker, the funniest person you will ever come across, I enjoyed hanging out with him along with Kimberly, aged 27, studies photography in Bochum, Germany, and resides there.

11) Zahra (Iran) : I don't know much about this girl, she attended only for a week, she disappeared under unknown circumstances, nobody knows anything about her, and nothing has been heard of her since then, age is unknown, residence unknown.

12) Myself : Being the only Arab, and Muslim in class, felt weird fasting among the others, but everybody acknowledged my case, usually acting as the human dictionary for Deniz.

Our Teacher...

Ms. Elif (Turkey) : a bright, young woman, speaking English and Russian, very outgoing, aged 24, lives on the Asian side of Istanbul.

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On the last day, we all had this unification party before everybody goes his own way, was alot of fun... I also had the pleasure to write there names in Arabic after I was forced to by them, I will sure miss these guys alot.

Monday, August 31, 2009

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Since a week or so, I was left alone in my studio apartment since my roommate left, although I have a lonely personality, I can't just bare being alone, touring the city alone with myself...getting ripped-off from merchants and not getting any attention from the people who invited me to this glorious city of theirs, not that of a hospitality I received ... anyway, I thought I would just list these events of mine, here we go:

1) Yesterday, I mysteriously lost my iPod (also believed to be stolen), this iPod of mine is priceless, although its a 2nd generation 8GB iPod Nano, it has about 5GBs of songs, 1 GB which is Koran, and 3 GBs which I DO NOT have on my PC, so I guess it all went like that. (note: this iPod was a gift from my brother about 2 years ago when he bought the 3rd generation Nano and gave me the 2nd generation one.) ... I MISS MY DEF LEPPARD!

2) Water was out for about 25 hours, that meant, smelly Mohammad going to class, Oily-faced Mohammad. Ironically, on that I turned on the faucet and went out shopping, I then returned and foudn the faucet as is, not a drop of water...I called the owner of this apartment, she told me to go check the pipes in the basement...I went to the basement, and words cannot describe how dirty and spider-infested it is, so I searched for my apartment's pipe, tried to play with it a bit, and there it was...water was coming down the faucet I turned on...I am still curious who had turned off my pipe?!

3) Nothing will feel more annoying than being alone, not knowing anyone in a foreign country...things changed dramatically since my roommate left.

4) To top up all the other things, I don't know why people consider themselves Muslims, not being able to do the simplest thing in Islam...FASTING!

5) Having a really good Turkish accent and reading, I am still forced by my agent to read Turkish bedtime stories...but no thanks Hanim...I read my textbook and do my homeword. (this happened after she saw me reading an English novel.)

This is what I can remember for now... and thanks for reading chaps!

Sunday, August 23, 2009

In The Land of Dreams

My my my...its been ages since I last wrote my last post, since my birthday that is...you might say I was just losing taste in writing apart from that there is much on my shoulders nowadays.

I am finally here in my favorite country, enjoying my time and learning the language (not that hard, its learn-able.) . I live approximately 2 km away from the widely-known Istiklal street which literally has everything when it comes to clothing shops or restaurants and hit a whopping 3,000,000 visitors a day, that means its crowded 24/7 and you must walk while holding tight on your pockets...we are talking professional thievery here.

However, Its a complete cultural shock for me to see that no one fasts Ramadan here (except those from the poor neighborhoods), and it seems like any other day, my teacher is eating, my tourist guide, my Muslim classmates...nearly everyone, So I felt weird, and went by my own way...

Now, its been half way through my journey and I will be returning in 2 weeks, so its also 2 weeks left for my Turkish course...words cannot describe how cheap Istanbul is compared to other cities of Europe...I kid you not!

No pictures yet, sorry that I still couldn't upload them as my memory card reader failed.

Warmest Regards, and Happy Ramadan!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

19 years old!

So, as you know, the day comes...and I am 19, still haven't got a beard (and I don't want one thanks God.) , feeling a little old for doing some things I love..some of you might know what I am referring to...dirty-minded ideas are rejected anyways.

It feels normal, nothing has changed, except that I wish I would return back to the days of middle school and try to alter the future a bit by doing the things I was supposed and not supposed to do, but anyway, life goes on and we learn...some good future oppurtunities come and go, but are most fundamental at a young age, regardless of that, I am approaching 2 decades of age...and it all melts down to the benefitial experience I gained and the lessons life has taught me.

Right now, I am in total darkness in my room as I am typing this with the dim monitor light right in front of my face...you should already be aware that I sometimes like to sit alone as I have a lonely personality (yes, not a good thing, but I don't always do it.), listening to Deff Leppard songs which remind me of my website and my dream car...a Corvette...and oh yes, Kicking ass on chess.com.

I thank all of those who wished me a happy birthday and may God bless you all!

Over and Out!

Saturday, May 30, 2009

FC Barcelona: UEFA Champions League Winner


0-2 (0:1)

Without any doubt, the most exciting match I have seen this year, and words cannot describe how glad I am that Barcelona won against The Red Devils.

I am not going to be biased on this or anything, we all agree that Man utd. didn't play as expected, though we did see some wonder jobs from unexcpected players...these can either be outstanding or unsatisfactory, for example look at Victor Valdes, since when did he "once in a blue moon" last the 90 minutes without any blunders? or goals shall I say?...on the other hand we have the magnificent Ryan Giggs...Senile...didn't appear and his performance lately shows that he must retire ASAP...and the list goes on for the unexcpected Man utd. performance....such as the aggresive style of playing and excessive fouls received (typical English football) .

So that said it... 2-0 is like a dagger to the heart for whomever reads this blog who supports The Red Devils...and my congrats to all Barca fans...I raise my hat to you!

P.S. Ignore the "Click me" icon in the picture...don't get excited about it :-p

Sunday, May 24, 2009

"Thank You" note


After 6 months of trying hard enough for my website to work, it actually didn't sell well enough, not mentioning the fact that I achieved a net revenue...but didn't have the required experience for keeping ahold of my spending and money...and this is a small fraction of my failure.

I thought I would have to write this to thank you all for supporting me either by words, resources or advices, and remember that I would stand by your side one day the same way you stood by my side while I was still in prosperity at the beginning of last December.Many factors affected my plan, and one was poor management, spending alot and not keeping a record for that, and nothing special that would appeal to a customer or in other words...no website content that would repute it.

However, This was a fundamental experience that I will always remember...and most importantly, remember from my mistakes to be able to pass over them in the next phase of my life, I shall also apologize for the way I was force-promoting this website among you and making it a big deal from its start...as this isn't the appropriate way to market a website.

In the end, I say failing does give more awareness for the self to know what went wrong with him, and that it sure taught me alot, being very happy that at least I tried to do something by myself at a young age...Thank you, Thank you...and Thank you for your warm words of complements and advices that you gave me at the start.

P.S.  The site will stay available until January 2010.

Good Night...

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Book Review of The Month: "Slumdog Millionaire" by Vikas Swarup

You obviously heard the title of this novel somewhere...oh,yes...in a movie of the same name, a movie that won Oscar awards and received thousands of positive reviews.

Originally published as "Q&A", it was later changed to "Slumdog Millionaire" after the movie has been released, which means that it was published earlier than the movie (like all novels) back in 2005. Written by Vikas Swarup, an Indian diplomat who is presently serving in South Africa.

I am not cocking about any of this review, this book was an actual blockbuster that was translated into 34 different languages, It consists of 318 breathtaking pages that will never be enough for you, making you wishing it was longer.

For those of you who watched the movie; you know the story already although there are little changes in the novel such as Jamal's name and other scenarios...

So here is a brief summary of the novel:
Ram Mohammad Thomas, an orphan born in Mumbai, India applies to the "Who will Win a Billion?" quiz show in which later he gets questioned 13 questions...getting each one right and winning 1,000,000,000 Indian Rupees. After doing so, police authorities suspect that Ram has been cheating and conclude that there is no way that an orphan who has never read a book or held a newspaper or even gone to school could have answered his way to a billion Rupees. As the story unfolds, Ram explains to his lawyer how he knew the answer to each question by telling him a chapter of his amazing life, from the day he was salvaged from a dustbin to his meeting with an Australian security-crazed army colonel while performing as an overly creative tour guide at the Taj Mahal. Stunning a television audience of millions, Ram draws on a store of street wisdom and accidental encounters that provides him the key to answering the quiz show questions.

I am curious to prove that the novel is way much better than the movie itself IF and only IF you read it and understood the storyline correctly, and as I said it features many differences to character names, the actual age of Ram, and the plots and events that take place throughout the novel. So how does this sum up? well, story is not only perfect, but gives you the courage to learn more in your real life to gain more life experience like Ram...so, its inspiring. Not very long, or very short...318 pages makes it readable for some. Unlike "The Kite Runner" which I reviewed last month, this has a fast paced storyline that sucks you into the book and drags you through sleepless night, I finished this book in 2 weeks without not hastle. Characters are lively and act as real humans in real life making it somehow realistic and very dramatic.

So what about the cons?...I actually didn't notice any major con...seriously, I didn't...but it might be from the countless number of events taking place that you can't recall what happened in a particular chapter and the open-ending which I dislike in any book I read since I was a child...so you never know whether he reclaims the billion Rupees or not at the end.

I am going to give this book 9/10 which makes it close to the fun I had for "The Kite Runner" having 2 minor cons I mentioned above other than that, its pure class.

In the end, I tell you go grab this book from your nearest bookstore or library, take it as a word of mouth and you won't regret it...I didn't like it...I LOVED IT!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

A School of Fish

As the days go by, my addiction about canned sardines grows and grows countless number of times, now you may already know that, and you may also go YUCK!...who cares? nothing more nutritious than fish I think.

It started back in March of last year, hungry, nothing ready to eat noting that I favor canned food from my childhood. I went up to the storage room, picked up a can of Moroccan style sardines, clunked it open with a possibility of my index finger getting scratched and bleeding, poured it in on a plate and there you go, yummy yummy!

Although smelly when opened, it doesn't have that odor that sticks to you and your clothes, unlike the fish you buy from the market and cook yourself, some might be very spicy containing a small piece of chili pepper inside of it...that changes the color of the soy oil into red sometimes.

I tried many brands from many countries, the most common being Morocco ofcourse, Philippines, The UK, and French... I must say the best from my experience in sardines was the Filipino way...these guys are fantastic in cooking seafood, not only them but far Asia as a whole. French comes in 2nd place, very clean, no smell at all, comes in a variety of flavors (tomatoe sauce, spiced, soy sauce, sunflower oil, etc.), Moroccan and British sardines are the same...no major difference, both cooked in vegetable oil.

I currently have 7 cans of sardines in the kitchen stacked above one another, my average serving size is a can per day...this has actually been going on since January, god bless my mom for buying me this ridiculous number of cans a week, though one reason I love sardines is because it is ready to be eaten straight out of the can...and I am the type of guy who gets lazy preparing a sandwich or cooking something even if I am starving to death.

It doesn't actually matter, I sometimes have it as a breakfast, Lunch, or dinner, but most usually dinner...but you should remember the fact that whatever happens...don't induce 2 cans of sardines at once...it will leave you bolted for at least 2 months not eating seafood.

God bless you all!

Monday, May 4, 2009

Axing an Accountant

After 2 months of struggling with a South African accountant, We (his students) decided to ax him by writing (in the form of an article to be delivered to the dean) all the crude treatments and piss-offs we received from him.

First of all, I don't know how you are supposed to get scared of expressing your true raw idea about your mentor, like if you did really say the truth that he is bad, he is gonna know and disqualify you (the mentality of chickens) as if their is no system in the college and the professor has the free will to do whatever he wants (go get a life newbie chickens). So out of about 35 students, I compiled of what seems to be like 14 until now and interviewed them for the sake of getting some notes on this professor and why he needs to get axed, and the results were astonishing, even I myself had a good weapon to point at him and that was something he didn't become aware of.

So we had a midterm today, and I am not ranting about, it was stupid long, but anyway, this isn't what I will talk about here, it's the unforgivable mistake that he did with me and my colleague. After handing out the question papers, which then followed by handing out 2 answer sheets, I realized something fishy just then...when I looked at the student next to me, I noticed that he had 4 papers and I had 2 only, that also has happened with a friend of mine when given 3 papers instead of 4. However, there were 2 ways to notice, either by spending most of your time solving the 2 answer sheets I was given that would take 1/3 of the exam's time... or by trying to cheat from your classmate to notice that he had 4 and my friend had 3, which ended in him not realizing until coming up to the last question that needed the 4th sheet (that was 15 minutes before the end of the exam, the exam was 1.5 hours), that means the time was insufficient which literally made his day for walking out mental to strongly recommend the petition to be written and signed.

We were advised by the dean to write the petition and hand it out to him on one condition for him to not show our names to the doctor in case he didn't get dismissed, and so the list goes on for his awful deeds of 7 more points other than the one listed on top. (unfairly disqualifying people, coming late to class then blaming other people on coming 5 minutes late after him as if he wasn't late himself, inability to summarize or write explanations on the board briefly, etc.)

You should already know that I am one of the top students in the accounting class and I am also on my professor's good side, but that doesn't make him any good for me or for the others... and I finally hope I can get this successful without any trouble or risk.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

"Top 10 List of The Month" : The Hardest Video Games I've Ever Played

Well, I decided to add a little twist to my blog by redesigning the upper picture a bit and putting in a more formal title and description, and this will top it up a bit...it's the first top ten list from my own opinion about things that I experienced.

First of all, the following is about the hardest video games I've ever played, these however, are from my own opinion, I will not tolerate any this and that about misreporting or the unfairness of the rank (Read the footer of this blog), and you should already know that I don't own a PS3, or any Xbox or Nintendo, I am a PS/PS2 type of guy. Through the years I have played many video games and most are sure to be ultimately hard, so here we go...This shall be one heck of a ride!



10) Galerians (PS)

I first got this game as a present from my elder brother Ribal, this however was without doubt one of the hardest games I played, it is slow-paced and merciless in the way enemies are deployed throughout the game, the gameplay resembles the one in Resident Evil.

It tells the story of a boy with psychic powers who gets imprisoned in an asylum to take advantage of his powers, you start with playing with him trying to break your way out of the asylum, your weapons are telekinesis and pyrokineses, which eventually deplete by time and are recovered by taking pills. The game is so complicated and full of events that it leaves you giving up for the game, it contains 3 CDs which means that the game is brutally long, this will forever stay up to my memory as one of the hardest games I have ever played in my entire life.

9) Parasite Eve II (PS)

One of my favorite games on the PS platform, unlike Galerians, this was beatable...but not any gamer can actually beat this game, it is hard in the way of its intelligence, you need to be observant and also smart enough to dodge the enemies attacks for example, and wasn't hard in a complicated way like Galerians, and the worst thing is that this game is only available in Japanese, so you can't read any files you get...bottom line, you and your sensations alone.

You start off with a cute looking girl trying to solve cases and fight her way through NEC (Neo Mitochondrial Creatures) infested areas, through out the game you will be introduced to merciless bosses such as genetically treated humans which are referred to as"Supersoldiers" trying to mock you for your abilities, you have 2 weapons, your fire and wind powers, and a rifle or a gun or whatever your holding. You encounter dark areas and mostly have a low stamina gauge. However, this was one good challenging game.

8) Resident Evil (Sega Saturn)

So, Resident Evil arrives on #8. I played this game on the deceased Sega Saturn, It was kind of hard at certain occasions during the game, I had no problems beating the game with Jill Valentine, but when you try to beat it with Chris Redfield...we are talking about a challenging nightmare.

First thing, you start off by yourself in the mansion, you are holding a combat knife and carry no pistol, you can carry 6 items in your inventory which is annoying all the time. Chris cannot unlock doors (which require a small key that takes up one space in his inventory), and cannot play musical notes, he also is less likely to be helped by other teammates, and the likeliness to easily getting decapitated from a Hunter. So, from Chris' part of the game...This will be an ultimatum.

No matter how long I live, I will always remember this game for the countless number of times I beat it with Jill and the ONLY time I ever managed to beat it with Chris which costed guts.

7) Doom 3 (PC)

There is no doubt about it, I would say about 60% of the world suffered from this game if you play on "Hurt Me Plenty" difficulty, the things that make this game hard is the lack of resources you have, you will learn to be conservative of ammo as much as possible.

The flashlight you have in handy can only be switched on to for use as a melee weapon, so you cannot hold a flashlight and another weapon at the same time, its either this or that...MY GOD!!...and 30% of this game are dark places...so good luck buddy.

This leaves it off for #7 for the fact of having low resources and useless companions as well as the choice between a flashlight and a weapon, and the stupid long playing time.

6) Resident Evil: Outbreak (PS2)

One of the Hardest RE releases I ever played, this has a different type of gameplay than any other Resident Evil. The game is divided into 5 levels, in each level you initially start with a T-virus infection, which starts at 0.0% and when it reaches 100% in case you haven't finished the level...you are dead meat.

The bugging thing in this game is the pause menu...well, there is no pause in this game, I don't mean no pause but I mean when you are going to select from your inventory, it doesn't pause, so you don't have time looking through the inventory...but that doesn't matter anyway, because you only have 4 slots in your inventory, which is annoying all the time, except if you choose this girl that carries eight but is weaker than the others, apart from this is the mocking fact that melee weapons tend to break by extensive use so sometimes you have to run around dodging zombies if your weapon breaks, provided that it has the hardest bosses among other REs.

This game leaves you strangled in anger from its difficulty though it isn't the best RE ever made.

5) Silent Hill 4: The Room (PS2)

I am speechless...seriously, This game will raise your blood pressure, I am not saying that it sucks, you should already know by now that I am in love with the Silent Hill Series.

Ok, I am going to give it to you straight, this game is ultimate in it's preset difficulty, I haven't seen anyone I know that actually beat this game except myself, you will be walking with a girl that you have to protect and she cannot attack at the beginning, you will also be introduced to monsters (I am not talking bosses but normal monsters) that never die...so you will end up trying to run away from them which leaves no option for resources that can be collected, you have a low life gauge, so you get easily hurt and die. Most weapons in this game are hard to use, and aiming at the monster or the opponent is sometimes inaccurate, most of the ones you killed you think they are dead but some have the ability to revive.

This game however is the hardest among all 5 SHs I played so far, It is IMPOSSIBLE to beat it in a good-ending, I always end up getting a Bad or a Normal Ending.


4) The Suffering (PS2)

I feel that this game was designed in an intention to keep the player from giving up on beating it.

I beat it under the difficulty of "Easy" and yet it was supernatural, so how does the hard difficulty feel like?...anyway, the thing that makes it hard however is 3 things, first is the number of monsters that are about the number of cells in your body, So damn many, you will go like "give me a break man!" when you play it, monsters also don't die easily, not a single one that dies easily... also the complicated scenario adds to it.

This game features tricky stuff, such as companions who come to aid you then end up double-crossing you...so its about trusting them or not, and some really take out a chunk of the life gauge. You also have to be extremely observant from monsters on the ceiling that suck you in.

3) Call of Duty: Finest Hour (PS2)

From what I remember, this game has a preset difficulty, which seems to be like experiencing the real WWII yourself in the battlefield.

I include this as 3rd place because of the fact that enemies are superbly accurate with their shots, 75% of the shots they shoot go into you, controls are complicated which leaves you pressing a button instead of another, it's fast-paced which if you don't act quickly you will be announced officially killed in action.

Apart from the sharp shooters in this game, they are also good with grenades, and the lack of checkpoints make it impossible to beat. The weapon (no matter what it is) is hard to lock on an enemy with except if you choose the auto-aim option but still, no weapon in this game is THAT accurate.

This game will be ranked as the hardest First Person Shooter I have ever played and the hardest CoD ever.

2) The X-Files: Resist or Serve (PS2)

Let me bulge in straight, this game is unbearable, seriously, you just keep on getting sick from trying, you should already know that it has few save points throughout, when you go to a new level and respawn again, you lose all of your weapons and end up having to recollect them again, Weapons empty easily, creatures you fight are extremely fast and hard to kill, too many bosses in the game, too many monsters as well, complicated settings making it difficult to find special objects and you will end up missing stuff like shotguns and rifles.

Take my word for this, it is so hard from my side that I left it licking it's own wounds, you know what I am talking about, it was such a tempering game that will make you commit suicide from trying to break through it more and more...leaving it for second place.

AND THE NUMBER ONE IS...


1)The Suffering: Ties That Bind (PS2)
If you are currently playing this game or want to play it in the near future, take it as a word of mouth and give up, this game has psychological effects on you and is the second release of the original one which I mentioned earlier.

No matter how many times I recall the memories of this game...what memories they were, you start off with a melee weapon and you will need to kill countless monsters with it until you get a handgun, actually I have a long wide list of hard features in this terrifying game:

1) You are lucky enough if you survived a chapter of this game.
2) You run out of bullets easily, no matter how conservative you are.
3) at a part of the game, your weapons are confiscated from you and you end up having to recollect them again.
4) Barely any checkpoints.
5) 20% of the monsters in this game are invincible, so you end up having to run away from them.
6) battle gun fatsos are effective that means it will be a bad day if you encountered one.
7) Enemies sometimes attack you surprisingly from the back.
8) The final boss in this game is invincible and the technique you have to kill him with requires good timing, I am talking about split-second timing, making it the hardest boss of any game.
9) barely any recovery items.
10) your health depletes quickly.

So this is it for this game, I am not messing about, you won't beat this game what so ever... making it The Hardest Game of All Time.

So, after a breath taking 2 hours on this post, I am glad I finished it at last...again I say, they are just opinions of my own...I am glad if you share yours with me just for fun, and I hope you had fun :-).

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Egyptian Gaming Rampage

My friend's brother "Mustafa Fareed" has started building his own online gaming community website, It is indeed one of the most fantastic ideas to even see a 16 year old build such a community, the site is now under construction and is expected to open soon enough.

After being inspired by www.esl.eu , he decided to get a move on for himself and 2 of his friends, the description of the website is simple, it will include a typical VBulletin forum which is an interaction system for registered members and a place to discuss their gaming topics such as Cheats, Easter eggs, Glitches, Upcoming tournaments and events etc.

I recommend this however to anyone who is a gaming enthusiast despite the website's name being dedicated to Egyptians, but no, it's not only for Egyptians. I wish him the best of luck with his journey with all my heart. For more information about his website, you can reach him at mustafaronaldinho@gmail.com or his website's group can be alternatively be found on Facebook.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

A Day @ The Dentist (R-rated!)

Probably one of the most feared moments in my childhood was going to a dentist, I remember my mom taking me their for getting rid of a cavity, I used to cry alot while my mom sits with me to confront me regardless that I was toothless until I turned 8.

Anyway, recently I was being told by my personal dentist that I have Dental Caries (ouch!) for those of you who don't know what is Dental Caries, it is simply when the cavity eats all the surface of the tooth(and if possible a bit from the side) reaching down to the root bursting into the nerve which results in a small surgery to pull in the nerve ending, this though happened weirdly, I had a filling in that same spot and unexpectedly the bacteria punctures the filling down (can the bacteria do that), now I don't know how exactly but my molar was wide open from the top.

The known effect of caries are pain, tooth loss, foul breath and in rare and severe cases, death.

Three appointments was the dagger-to-the-heart reply from my dentist telling me the brief explanation of each appointment's procedure...First appointment, drilling the whole tooth down until the gum appears and removing all the cavity with a scalpel that has a bent hook at the end so called "Dental Explorer". Before all of this I requested that I get a shot of an anesthetic in my mouth which indeed I got and god it hurts when injected, you feel your chin lingers in static electricity, Then he takes a metal pin like thingy with no sharp pointed end and drills the gum down to take small chunks of cavity, as for the 3rd, I still haven't taken it yet and was placed a white temporary filling which is half broken and seems to have been made in China.

Being in the dentist today for another tooth was another case, it was badly drilled down in the middle with a small crack on the side, I feared that it would be another dental caries, the doc didn't say a word, instead he bulged into starting the operation the usual way with the idea of an amalgam to be put at the end, it took 30 minutes and with some new technology put on some white ceramic paste into the drilled hole which then he brought a laser like gun into my mouth, he pulled the trigger which I noticed my mouth starts illuminating in blue color, I then knew that amalgams are ancient history, and the purpose of this gun was to make the ceramic filling the same color as my tooth which therefore doesn't show that I have a filling, weird technologies!

Anyway, I went back home while still on anesthesia that I can't feel my right hand side of my face, every time I tried to pop up my jaw, the damn thing reaches down my neck and hurts my throat like **** (I don't know if it was an overdosage, but I like my dentist anyway), I am actually still under the effect while I am speaking here now since 7:00 pm.

The Go of My 2nd Blog

Yesterday, I decided to put my thoughts on paper and create my new blog related to such paranormal activities and phenomena, some of you might not believe in such things, well, it doesn't mean that I believe in them either you know? it is simply of what I think of such things and the effort of trying to dig out as much proof as possible for hoaxes.

The blog will be updated every 2 or 3 days as I have many thoughts and things to write about in mind, so if you are the kind of person who doesn't give a damn about these this kind of topic then it's not for you, if you believe or don't believe and/or seeking evidence on such encounters that are believed to be hoaxes then it's definitely down your alley.

P.S. This blog is not to be viewed for people younger than the age of 18.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

The Inside Story of The Saudi Golden Arches

Working in McDonald's as a summer job was a worthwhile experience during the breath-taking 9 hours a day shift, especially going through all this and that, from dealing with the uneducated and talentless people your working with to cleaning after customers and dealing with the some of their rudeness.

This topic will include the following Subcategories: The Co-Worker Effect, The Customer Effect, The Hygiene Effect and The Health Effect.

The Co-Worker Effect: All the Saudi workers here are worth my bottom, they are mostly 23-29 years of age and all of them live in a cheap Bedouin area such as Kilo 2, and Al-Hendaweya , and are typically the most frightening places to walk in Jeddah, you are lucky enough if you found one or two of them having a high school degree because most are STILL studying in public schools and failing year after year. I always keep my distance away from them and don't get involved in initiating any sort of small talking and only seek help when it comes to doing my job, though I do confess that I got harassed more than once. That's my conclusion about Saudi crew, What About Filipinos?

Well, These are the people who are willing to teach you anything you need to know, though there are exceptions. I did remain on these people's side more often than the Saudi side, they are also more charismatic as well, you look at them and you see the well for working 9 hours a day unlike working just for money.

I remember an Indian guy called Nadeem who is the laziest worker I noticed in my shift. He oversleeps in breaks and fails to comply to his co-workers' advices (his Saudi co-workers'..well I don't blame him for not complying). He once came up to me and asked my if I could lend him 200 SR, I was like "OK buddy, we will see at the end of the month". Believe me or not, one week later, I never saw him again, which I was glad for not trusting him from the very beginning (typical Indians), I heard he got kidney stones, anyway that is it for The Co-worker Effect, not so good and not comfy as well.

The Customer Effect: From what I think, only people with few money or few time left on there schedule go to McDonald's, because it is the cheapest among other fast food chains and the most easiest to eat. Most people who come to McDonald's are employees from neighboring company's such as Safola and P&G in Al-Hamra district, and the busiest timing is between 1PM-4PM excluding Thursdays and Fridays, so in my point of view, it gets ridiculously busy at this time limit that I end up serving 4 customers at once, which I hopefully don't end up mixing between orders.

Anyway, there are some knuckle-heads out there who enter and ask for Grilled Fish & Rice (WHAT THE HELL!) and Kabsah! I was once in the same situation when some Saudi guy with sport pants and slippers came up to me and asked me the same thing, I tried my best not to explode from laughing at him but ended up giving him a smirk, he smiled and simply ordered a Big Mac. Bottom line, I never got insulted or shouted at from a customer (good employee I was :-) ).

YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ SOMETHING DISGUSTING ABOUT MCDONALD'S

The Hygiene Effect: McDonald's is by far the filthiest Fast Food restaurant among its competitors, I am just amazed why didn't it close down from its filthiness. First of all, disgusting Saudis working there chop off the fingertips of the plastic gloves they wear, so they end up dressing the burger with their fingertips (FU**!), the kitchen's floor is all oily that I slipped off at times. The trays you eat on are NOT washed by soap and water, instead the are just rinsed in cool water without any soap or any detergent from any kind, so someone who is Germophobic will surely commit suicide if he reads this. I also heard that the Mecca-Highway branch is the most contaminated of all branches that the crew don't even put on there gloves while dressing and that the kitchen has litters of lettuce and tomato all over the floor.

The customer side is no good either, a mom with her children is the worst thing you can come across, they through shit all over the place, fries all over, ketchup on the table itself and the wise dad's cigarette ashes all over the floor, it's by far the most tiring activity to do after a customer leaves, they don't even consider to empty the tray in the bin!, which leaves the place to become an insect-infested hive. Killed 17 flies in just 10 minutes compiling them together

The Health Effect: Some meals are OK, and some aren't, and by that I mean getting all sort of acne, and tongue spots or whatever you call them, it also feels that the frozen meat and chicken that they fry and grill is genetically treated in some way, you won't get the same effect if you try Burger King or Hardee's, it just doesn't feel the same and that is why Americans had the courage to sew the bastards (and they have a healthier McDonald's!) while we are left licking our wounds.

One of the dishes I really detest is Spicy McChicken or McChiken in general, you eat this and your tongue start growing fungus in just 3 hours that is if not around your lips also. Seriously, this is garbage!

That sums everything up at the end of this post that McDonald's is the worst ranked fast food restaurants in my opinion and that I don't eat there except on emergencies. (contact me should you require additional details).

Thursday, April 23, 2009

One Hell of An Attempt!

What you are looking at here is something from out of this world, very rare, very unnatural and EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.

In a sweet and spicy Tabasco sauce, you would fill one teaspoon and apply it to your favorite dish...and still you would be like "shit, I really over did it"...think again baby. In a Scoville scale the common Tabasco would hit 800 Scovilles as the level of spiciness, and you would probably think that it is the spiciest liquid on this planet.

Welcome to the Mad Dog 357 Hot Sauce, and it's not child's play, trust me when I tell you this. It will quite literally melt your whole body down. I tried this sauce back in Switzerland on the summer of '08, I was challenged by my brother-in-law to try it out, and I was like "this is just another wannabe sauce". so I made a mistake of underestimating it...really, I went to open a Sardine can as a breakfast (I love them as my daily breakfast, don't go YUCK!) and that is when I opened this masterpiece and applied one drop to my dish no bigger than the size of an index fingernail, closed the bottle with absolute confidence and started mixing up my dish so it spreads throughout, and by the way, it was black in color (don't believe the picture above being dark red in color) because it is no ordinary chili extract, you will know the ingredients when I list them below.

Anyway, I started eating my bloody sardine dish with a loaf of bread, and in a matter of 15 seconds I started to feel something stinging my tongue continuously as if it was a bee in my mouth, and that was it as a result of underestimation, I hardly was able to continue the rest of the dish but indeed I did so just to feel the blast of a fingernail sized black drop, I wasn't feeling my head, it felt so cold outside and so stingy from the inside, I went grabbing a 1 Liter Evian bottle from the fridge in hopes of extinguishing the lava, I drank about 400 ml and with each sip I felt the heat growing more and more, and that was it, I gave up trying to calm the Mad Dog down, it took about 1 hour and 45 minutes for it to end, and I was wishing I could get sleep just to not feel it anymore.

No matter what you have tried before: Wasabi, Red Chili, Green Chili, Mild or Wild Tabasco...This is in a different league, it actually has the words "Use this sauce at your own risk!" written on the bottle. Let me give you a comparison between a Sweet & Spicy Tabasco and this so called Mad Dog 357, as I said, Tabasco's heat level is 800 Scovilles...Mad Dog's heat level is HELLFIRE reaching 600,000 Scovilles as written on the bottle and is considered to be one of the hottest 10 sauces ever made on this planet...you do the math. DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Take it as a word of mouth, this sauce is not to be used to prank somebody as it has alot of symptomes, I got a severe Diarrhea afterwards, and spots on my tongue that lasted a week, thanking God Almighty that this was enough for me....all that from just a tiny drop. YOU DO NOT WANT TO MESS WITH THE MAD DOG!

Ingredients: Vinegar, chili extract, evaporated cane juice, fresh HabaƱero peppers, garlic, onion, 160,000 Scoville Cayenne peppers and spices.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Book Review of The Month: "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

This is Hopefully my first book review on my personal blog for the month of April, and I am excited to tell how much I like writing book reviews and recommending them to my friends and family.

So, Let's start with one of the books I have read in February of 2009; "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini... a fiction novel about an Afghan Pashtun boy named Amir who experiences the last peaceful days of the Afghan Monarchy in the late 1970s, just before his country gets invaded by Russian forces, and his best Hazara friend named Hassan who gets separated from him before the invasion. When Amir turned 18, his father and him migrate to Fremont,CA, where Amir goes to medical college and writes his novel about his struggle and experience in the Afghan-Soviet war, during his stay, he gets a call from Rahim Khan, his father's best friend, who tells him that his best friend, Hassan, has been executed by Taliban forces, and that Hassan left a message for Amir that contains an objective which is to go to the post-war Afghanistan and retrieve Hassan's Son, Sohrab, from the hands of the Taliban forces trying to turn him into a Hazara Slave.

That was a small brief summary of the novel, now let me give you details about this novel and what I think of it after I've finished reading it. The novel consists of 401 pages and each part of this novel is divided to different time eras (ex. 1978, 1981, 2001). The storyline was great and easy to comprehend and follow throughout the book, characters are lively and have multi-personalities which is a great approach that Khaled Hosseini did and is one that we can't find in other novels.

So, the characters are realistic, the storyline is charismatic, what about the pace of the novel...well, its not slow and its not fast which is the only drawback that I've noticed in this novel, I am not that of a fast reader, my average reading rate per day is 30 pages and it took me about 2 weeks to read it, and believe me when I tell you that this book dragged me thorugh sleepless nights, it was so irresistable and full of intensful moments that keep you hanged on to it. This book is especially dedicated to the homeless children of Afghanistan that live the daily life of horror and tragedy and will teach us several things including Afghan culture, Afghan names, The life of pre and post-war Afghanistan, The Taliban Terror and even small phrases and words in Farsi scattered throughout the book.

End Result: This is one hell of a book after all that deserves all of your precious times whether you like reading or not. Personally, I give this book a 9.5/10 for the only drawback of having a normal-paced read (not fast, not slow) other than that, it's pure class. For those who would like to see the movie of the same name I also recommend, The movie basically is 2.5 hours long and has Persian (Irani and Afghan) actors, The main language is Persian with english subtitles...As I said dear reader...If you haven't read this book yet, then you are cheating yourself.

(for more information and personal quote about this book please don't hesitate to get in touch with me).

Saturday, April 18, 2009

"CS:Source" Addiction

I am a very big fan of Counter Strike game and I confess that I have been playing this game for more than 5 years, since the first 1.3 version came out, however, there are limits, and by limits I mean the actual continuous time spent setting in front of the screen getting...umm, what term shall I use?...mmm....yes, ADDICTED!

I am not in any way addicted to this game and never will be, I mean for someone as old as I am will feel ashamed spending most of his time playing Counter Strike. In Jeddah, there is a game networking place called Golden Entertainment Center and it's where you are most likely vulnerable to people infected with CSSAS (Counter Strike Source Addiction Syndrome), I go there almost every week since November 2008 and my limit for playing Counter Strike is 3 straight hours, I CANNOT last more than that and what I am trying to clear here is the way other people last for hours and hours and hours...I am not talking about 3 or 4 hours weekly like my case..but for 5 hours DAILY! yes DAILY!!

One of My friends (better not mention his name) I meet there every week who actually wakes up at 4PM (not having a socialized life) and goes there at 5PM is infected with CSSAS and his beginnings was spending EIGHTEEN HOURS DAILY playing CS and that is exactly the working time of Golden Entertainment Center (7am to 1am), for me trying to cure him was one big approach I made towards this poor filla, it's just hard for me to see someone throwing his own future away, because if he was 10 or 11 years old I wouldn't have cared but he is 21 for god's sakes, and that includes all the familiar faces I see in that place every week, on the same chair, playing the same game, repeating the same map over and over again, but anyway, my advices were useless and I am glad he had learned the hard way at last.

Let's take a look at how much an average of one CSSAS-infected individual spends on this addiction per time period.

1 account preloaded with 16 hours= 50 SR
1 hour for recharging your account= 5 SR

Assuming an individual spends 6 hours daily, and that means that 16 hours will finish in 2.75 days, so...

3rd day 2x5= 10 SR
4th day 6x5= 30SR

and so the list goes on...that sums it all to be about 840 SR for the first month...what a shame and what a waste of money...that of course excludes extra drinks, food, and obviously enough, packs of cigarettes, because the majority their are smokers.

Pathetic, Pathetic, Pathetic. I am unable to describe in words the way these people take life as if its a CS game, and I am sure that doesn't happen anywhere in the world.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Driving License Lag

OK,Lets be honest shall we, we all had troubles in Dallah Driving School (unless you got it via the famous UNDER TABLE Saudi method of getting things done), and based on the ideology of Saudi people...well, you know what I am talking about.You might think that the school still has that old system of Succeed (you get the license) or Fail (you don't get the license), but that old system is history.

However, now, there is a new system, which I rather call...unnecessary. Simply by going to the reception (and that is if there is an officer in command there) and ask for an application, you fill in your details just like the usual, and pay a fee of 425 SR...and you still haven't entered the test, so you go to the registration dude and give him your application, he signs on it and stamps some weird blue block with the initials A,B,C and D.

So, you have your papers, your pictures and every document you need, and your finally down to the driving test motorway (perhaps not the most appropriate word to use),anyway, you wait your turn in the blazing heat of the sun, you wait while you see groups of 5 people entering a 2005 Toyota Camry...and when I tell you 2005 don't go "mmm... these guys must have finally bought new cars that replace the medieval Toyota Cressida" no, because firstly, Cressida's will exist in Saudi Arabia for a thousand years to come, and Secondly, the Camry isn't that healthy looking from the outside (the car looks like its fought WWIII)...and that concludes my guess about the Camry before I've ridden in it.

Our turn Comes, and I get to set in the back seat with 2 Filipinos and one 35 year old Egyptian in the front who took the first turn, and beside him was one middle-aged officer with the rank of 2 stripes on his shoulder.

The Egyptian wasn't that bad at driving the car, especially and cornering and shifting gears, but he had forgotten to lower the handbrake before he'd set off, and he was awful at braking, he dubs the brake with such a fast and strong pace continuously, which made him get on the officer's nerve, which then made the officer take his file and write something on it...the guy left and now was the Filipino's turn.

Both of these guys were the same, everything seems to have gone smoothly with them, no faults...nothing at all, they parked on the officer's command and took there folders and also wrote something on their folders. Now it was finally down to me, I was fidgeting,the officer saw from my pares that I was saudi so he was acting all friendly and shit.To be brutally honest,I don't why in God's name did I even attempt to get in a manual transmission test (that is if I even get to have the automatic transmission test), Well let me tell you something you don;t know dear reader...I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DRIVE A MANUAL TRANSMISSION CAR...yes, I don't know...I know the basics and what I had to do but I never tried it practically, I lowered the handbrake, dubbed the clutch down until your foot bends 45 degrees upwards (god bless Honda cars, little clutch effort), put it in first and let go of the clutch...vroom...vroooooom, the car was idle..I rechecked again then...vroooooooooom...vrom vrom vroooom...it was revving but wasn't budging until i applied the full throttle down the pedal which let the rear tires squeal

He took my papers and it was right then that I was able to Figure out what the A,B,C,D initials stand for...they were level of experience in driving, A the best and D the worst, obviously enough like an amateur in a manual car...I got a D, So i went down to the registration window and asked to be registered in the D class session...The young Saudi employee told me that D class sessions start in 2 sessions at 2 months only during the year...August and on October,and when I heard him murmur that...my blood pressure hit 140.

I mean seriously, I am 18 years old and I am an idiot at driving a manual stick, how do you expect me to stay until August and we are in April now? and ontop of all that he told me that there is an additional fee of 435 SR so that sums up to 860 SR for the whole cursed license thingy, I grinned and requested my papers back and left unsatisfied...and this concludes my protest about Saudi governmental agencies...a pain in the nick and in the end you will get...umm...better not say.