Friday, June 27, 2008

Hajjaj on Society

Our attitudes as individuals and as a society, by Hajjaj.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Iron Man (2008)

I watched this film yesterday and I must say it is fantastic.

The story talks about a Tony Starks, a man who owns a weapons factory that makes firearms for the military. After being captured by a terrorist group, he finds out that his weapons are being used against America and escapes by building the Iron Man.

Once outside and in a press conference, he declares that he will shut down the factory after what he saw while he was captured. However, a man also in the company was not at all willing to shut the factory down and later became enemies with him.

Tony must now use all his power against his enemy, by building an improved, more sophisticated but powerful Iron Man, in order to battle his enemies and rid the world of evil. Along comes action packed scenes that you will love.

Talking more about the bad sides, this film's plot is rather short and might even be predictable. The action is a bit overrated but settles to be fair by the end. Putting the cons aside, the film contains great action scenes as well as well put special effects.

A stunning film for those action lovers.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Back From 3omrah

After a whole day of sitting in the uncomfortable bus, driving along the roads of Saudi Arabia and Jordan, I arrived back home. As the saying says, home sweet home.

One of the highlights of the trip was the Prophets mosque, a beautiful and well cared for mosque.

I remember when we were passing the Saudi borders, and a police man entered the bus, a young boy pointed at him and asked, “Is he the Prophet?”.

Anyway, I am now back at home on the computer, and ready to burn off the rest of the maybe five weeks of summer holiday.

Maybe I’ll watch Indiana Jones today and review it in a post tomorrow. Goodbye until then.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Sixth Day In Mecca

Here I am O Allah, (in response to Your call), here I am. Here I am, You have no partner, here I am. Verily all praise, grace and sovereignty belong to You. You have no partner.


Today is the sixth day of my 3omrah, and I have finally finished the actual part of the 3omrah, the i3timar. Yesterday at 11 at night we reached the holy city of Mecca, after a five hour drive in the bus – boring and uncomfortable as usual.

My first impression of the city was that it wasn’t as beautiful as the Medina, as the Medina is much bigger and its buildings are much more spacious. One thing that you notice is that all of Mecca’s buildings are cramped together, and the streets are mostly alleyways.

Putting that aside and looking towards the Ka3ba, I actually got to see and pray near it. Contrary to many people’s belief, the 7aram in Mecca is much smaller than the one in Medina. After the 6awaf, it was time for the sa3i, between the two ‘hills’, the safa and the marwa. This part is especially tiring and annoying, but you’ll be grateful when it’s done.

Now that we had completed all the tasks necessary for the 3omrah, it was time to go and shave my hair off. Now I look a lot like ecosaan (however you spell that green headed cartoon Chinese guy that comes on Spacetoon), so I guess I’ll need a cap to cover my bald head.

All in all I’ve finished everything necessary, and I’ll be back in Jordan after two days in this city. On Friday, I’ll be back to the uncomfortable bus for an unbearable twenty six hours. And the toilet on the bus has run out of water, so I guess it will be a very very painful.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

In The Prophets City

The land where the sun shines high above, blazing at 40 degrees high, over the two great mosques symbolic to Islam.

Welcome to Saudi Arabia.



Today is the 3rd day of our 3omrah in the holy land. We got here by bus, a 21 hour drive with constant visits to the (extremely dirty) bathrooms on the road. Arabic toilets are the only available option!! Not a very nice experience.

Off to the Medina.

After the ride which was quite long, boring and uncomfortable, the heat of the country welcomed us. It’s a bit like opening an oven and sticking your head inside.

Putting the bus and weather aside, the hotel was good, even though it has no wireless and all surrounding wireless access point are password protected – how clever.

The hotel is right beside the 7aram, the second mosque of the three important mosques in Islam. I’ve been to the mosque to pray a few times today and yesterday. The mosque is huge and the inside is beautiful.

We stay in Medina for two more days now, and on Tuesday we regroup to head to Mecca, where we begin I7ram and such. I’ll get into details once the day comes.

I’ll try to keep posting, once I figure out this 3G service or I find an access point. Until then, good bye from Saudi Arabia.

By the way, who ever knew Saudi Arabia had Indians (rather than Egyptians in Jordan) for the manual labour? :D

Thursday, June 12, 2008

First Day Of Holiday

How better can the summer holiday get?

Since I have my computer finally back, I can now fulfill my promise to post daily. And I hope I can keep up to my promise. Anyway, today since I had the DVD player to my self, I decided to burn my eyes more and watch two new films.

I decided to review them to the public. The first is The Condemned, and the second is National Treasure: Book Of Secrets.

The Condemned (2007)

Ten prisoners on death row are bribed out of prison and sent to an island to be filmed and broadcast over the Internet. There mission is to find each other and kill one another until only one wins, who will be freed. The main aspect of the film is violence packed action, in which all the islands fights center around. Although of the violence extensively that some may find fun, I find it too much.

The plot keeps twisting and turning, and the ending is not how I would expect it to be. Rather strange that a prisoner is the hero and not the producer. All in all I did not like this movie, a bad film were even the action isn't put together correctly.

National Treasure: Book Of Secrets (2007)

As a sequel to the previous film in the series, which I also watched as well, Ben Gates is a treasure hunter who solves clues in order to find his families lost treasure. Gathering friends and foes along the way, Gates manages to find his goal. This film is filled with riddles and mysteries, as well as action and adventure at the right times as well.

Especially when they are plotting to rob something, the sequel of events is great. As to not give away much of the plot, I'll leave the rest to you. The two films in the series are worth the watch, don't miss out on them.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Tomorrow's The Last One

My last exam is tomorrow, and after I finish the exam I will be free for two months - summer holiday.

I have quite alot in mind for the summer, what to do and what not to do. Where to go as well.
Lots of DVD watching, every single day, 24 hours. Ok, something close to that.

On the 13th, my family and I are off to 3omrah. I'm sure I'll find a wireless link there, so I'll keep you posted. I'll be back on the 22nd, and more things I need to find to do. Maybe campfires, or more DVDs, or some biking?

On the 5th of July I'll be getting the holy XBox 360, as written and signed on paper and blogged about as well in an earlier post. I might as well spend the rest of my summer playing on the 360, but instead I have some things to do as well.

All throughout the month of July I'll be taking part in some gym, with some friends of mine - body building of course. Should be fun. And as part of the agreement of the 360 I must go to a quran club as well. 3 times a week.

So that means a busy summer for me. And a fun one, hopefully.

What do you have in mind this summer?

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Making Origami Cranes

After being a bit too much obsessed with Prison Break, I decided to make an origami crane like the one in Prison Break.

The one in the series is a simple version of the real one, and most call it an ugly crane. Like the one below.

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I wanted to make one so I resorted to Youtube, and found a good one that I followed...



...and, after a lot of frustration and trial and error, I made the final product.

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Try it out yourself, you might learn something new.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Thoughts Before Bedtime

Miscellaneous thoughts from this peculiar day of mixed good thoughts as well as bad thoughts.

Today, my good old neighbor told me of a new shop that opened not far from here, that sells DVDs and the like for 1JDs and has offers. I decided to go and see it.

The shop was great, its owner was friendly, he had Prison Break Season 3 for only 4JDs, he tested them all out for me on the 42” screen in his shop, which I have no idea where it came from with such a small shop.

He even gave me a fifth DVD free as an offer for buying 4 DVDs. Nothing more to draw me, I will be back to empty out your shop – mark my words.

In other news, I’m still pondering to think about the upcoming Xbox I’m getting in summer, and hopefully it’ll be quite soon. The days are creeping ever so closer, and I’m getting mixed up already.

Some thoughts lurk around in my mind. Well, more like questions without answers. Arcade or Pro? 50JDs more for a bigger hard drive and more accessories? HDMI cable or just stick with the HD AV that comes with the package?

I’ll have to answer those questions later. Now, one priority is nagging around my head.

Post, then sleep.