Western Arab

Prisoners in Philippines do a tribute to Michael Jackson with Thriller. May God have mercy on him.

Video is from July 2007.

“1,500 plus CPDRC inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, Cebu, Philippines at practice!”

When are the Lebanese going to learn? When are they going to grow up? Why is the blood of Arabs so cheap?

So the Lebanese news today. Nabih Berri was re-elected to be speaker of the parliament. No surprises, everyone expected this to occur. Yet dozens of Lebanese took to the streets to celebrate this “political victory”. Some danced, some sang, and some fired aks and rpgs into the air. Yes in 2009 we still have people in Arab countries that celebrate by shooting guns, rpgs and mortars. And every time this happens, people are wounded or killed. What a great victory they had on June 25th when 11 were wounded and one woman died. Oh how great victory is, it is even greater when people are hurt. Or is it that our blood is so cheap? I read that the woman died of a heart attack after gunman fired near her apartment, but in Lebanon the story changes from one to the other, but I don’t care for how or the reason, the point is people were hurt and killed for some lame victory.

This happens in other countries as well. People think it is a great idea to shoot at weddings. There was a story a few years ago when someone fired a mortar during a wedding in Afghanistan in celebration. If I recall correctly both the bride and groom were killed. So let us just stop this stupid behavior.

My hair cut

I got my haircut today. I think it was well needed. When the hair on the back of my neck gets too long, it is irritating.

This woman cuts my hair now, the last 4 times maybe now. And she does a good job so I use her. She was sitting outside smoking today and dropped her cigarette when she saw me so she can cut my hair. I was asked by her once before and by another guy who cut my hair if I wanted to trim my eyebrows. I always refused but today I felt a little daring and after initial hesitation I told her I will try it. She promised me that hair isn’t going to grow by cutting it or else bald men would get hair and that it is just a trim, not a big deal. Blah Blah!

Well it turned out it wasn’t a big deal. Nothing really noticeable, no one noticed and I like it. So going forward I will have them trim them, every now and then!

Me at Nickelodeon Hotel Pool

I went to Orlando for some business and some pleasure this weekend. I left Friday evening and returned today in the evening.

So business is just business. Nothing really to discuss.

The pleasure part. I went to Nickelodeon Hotel and being that I have been to Disney World, Universal Studios, Typhoon Lagoon and River Country before, Nick Hotel was awesome. It was the first time I went there and it is a water park inside the hotel. Now there is so much you can do but for a 3 day weekend, it was perfect. The water slides are fun, they are not crazy but rather simple half pipe loops. One of them starts as a closed pipe so you start off in the dark. There is also a bucket of slime they pour on people at specific times and of course a pool. There is in fact another side of the hotel with another set of slides and pool. That side, the slides drop you in the pool instead. I liked the first side better. I also got to use my face mask in the pool, but still managed to lose a contact and a group of young teenage girls were attempting to talk to me.

Now Orlando, specifically route 192 or what they call highway 192 feels very much like New Jersey’s Route 1. Just has that feel and look but with great weather and a lot of parks and places to visit.

Orlando seems to have a large Arab population as well. I went to Soq al Qahera or Cairo Market for lunch. Saw a sign in Arabic and it said halal food, great so why not drop in for lunch. Ordered some sandwiches and browsed the store. The store was full of Islamic books, frames and clothing as well as all the Arab food store usual. So I grabbed up a few types of teas to purchase after the sandwiches. I was being picky on what I wanted to drink and maybe there was a reason for that, as eventually I found a can of something, I didn’t pay attention to what was in it. The can was made by an Israeli company. This can was so out of place, why was it here between all this Islamic and Arab stuff? I decide to just ignore it, pretend it wasn’t there. Only the owner of this store just doesn’t know to keep his mouth shut and opens up a political conversation shredding him of any honor. No need for the details here, but I no longer was willing to purchase anything and the boxes of tea bags stayed in the store. The food was also not good and I lost my appetite. Thanks for nothing, this store is on my list of never to go to again.

Swim Mask

Went to the pool again today, Thursday, just like last week. I was prepared with my swim mask this time and it works great. I got one for like $10 from Walmart. You have to be able to see underwater, or you are missing out. Just makes the swim that much more fun. Besides how else can you see all the bikinis in the water?

I did a better job with the sun block this time I think. Last time I got a little burn on my shoulders, had skin peeling. I think this time was better. I did a lot of laps mainly across the width of the pool which was not bad, but mainly because I didn’t want to swim between the people on the vertical ends of the pool.

There was a group of young teenagers in the pool on one end with the girls trying to pull each others tops off to the amusement of the guys with them. I am not complaining. On the other end, there was a group of older women in bikinis as well. And then there is me in the middle of all this. Needed an in between group.

And finally, my weight is moving well. I weigh myself between 196 and 200 depending on what I am wearing, time of day and whether I had just ate or not. Ideal weight of 185 is not so far off now.

Completed MacBook

Ok so apple released a new macbook. Wait let me rephrase that, apple released the completed macbook, adding the features that were missing from the incomplete. The new macbook which is now macbook pro has a firewire 800 port, an SD card reader and a back-lit keyboard. In addition, the CPU is 2.26 instead of the 2.0 and the price is lower at $1199. I think the battery may also be better. So it seems Apple does it again. They have been doing the same with the iPhone, releasing incomplete products and then selling what they call new or various generation products when really it is the same product but more complete.

Apple get your act together. I am not upset about the macbook, but clearly leaving out firewire caused a big outroar that apple finally caved in and corrected it. I would like to have the firewire but don’t necessarily need it. SD card reader is nice and so is the back-lit keyboard. But there is no way I am going to buy another macbook which also happens to be cheaper even though I got mine for about the same price or less for the original macbook aluminum. Now the new iPhone is out and I have to still decide between it and the blackberry storm. I have a few more months to decide, blackberry hasn’t released a new storm yet, just a big software update with many fixes. So in a few months I will decide if I make a change to either phone but possibly neither.

I looked at the new 13 inch MacBook pro some more, from what I see in the picture above, they removed the audio in port and made it so in/out are the same port. Odd! The 15 and 17 inch have separate in/out for audio. They also moved the Kensington lock slot to the other side right next to the dvd slot.

Swimming Pool Water

I went to the club house pool today. I have been in this pool maybe 5 times total now, but the weather was really nice today. I think it was some of the best exercise I had in some time yet and it was fun. I think I need to go more often now. I want to get some goggles for when I go. I always lose a contact or two when in the pool or at the beach in the water. Goggles help a lot with that, plus they cover the nose. I took in a lot of water through my nose today.

Other than the fun and water, I am tan skin, and being in the sun for about 2 hours, I am now pretty much black. I like my tan.

When I got home I weighed myself and scale read 197.5. My lightest weight yet since I set the goal of losing weight. Granted I had less clothing on, but being in the pool is a really good work out. My workout routine is still pretty much the same as before, but I am doing a daily fast walk around my community now as well. I started this week and missed yesterday but I think the daily fast walk is good and will continue. The summer is here and this is the best time to start using the pool!

Well Valve you have done it. You have pissed off Hitler over the so-called Left 4 Dead 2 (“the sequel”).

Lebanese Flag

Well the 2009 Lebanese Parliamentary Elections have occurred with relative quiet. Amazing.

The U.S. will gladly welcome the results since the pro-western majority won. It is worth mentioning that if the minority opposition had won, the U.S. would have called the elections unfair, flawed and that voters were threatened with death and violence if they did not vote for the opposition. In addition, they would say democracy still does not exist in Lebanon, but now that the pro-western alliance won, it does! Regardless I don’t care for any of that, what I do care is this all occurred without any real problems and hopefully the Lebanese are smart and work together peacefully and avoid any foolish internal fighting which only benefits their enemies.

So I congratulate Lebanon on it’s peaceful elections and hope for a future built together and that the mistakes of the past are avoided.

How about a good movie this year? I have not seen a good movie this year and I don’t really see anything too good coming out any time soon. Maybe Transformers will be it. The last two movies I did see were UP and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. UP sucked so bad. I was bored and my body ached after seeing the movie. I was exhausted. What kind of kids movie is it supposed to be? A story about an old man who’s wife dies and he never got to fulfill his promise to her??? NEXT. Wolverine was ok but wasn’t anything special or great. The trailer for Wolverine was epic, the trailer promised so much but the movie did not deliver.

I hear Star Trek is a really good movie but I don’t have interest in it to see it. It may be the movie to see this year but I just can’t interest myself in it. So come on Hollywood, deliver the goods! I demand a great movie!