Western Arab

Yes indeed. It’s been a long time since the last post.

Life is busy. With multiple Arab revolutions going on and Lindsey Lohan making headlines, I have been busy much!

So I ordered an ipad 2. Yes I finally justified getting one, because of work!!! When it will arrive is a whole other story but my ipad 2 cover will be here very soon. I would rather they shipped them together but whatever. It will be a tease until the ipad arrives. I had to decide between the Motorola Xoom and the ipad 2. While Android looks promising, it still has some time to go before it gets there.

If you must know, I got the 16 GB black ipad with the blue smart cover.

ipad 2

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.

LOST

So tonight is the season finale of Lost season 5, well tomorrow for me as I watch it online in HD on abc.com. Which by the way is awesome, if you have not seen LOST in HD online, you should go ahead and try it. It helps to have a 24″ inch wide-screen LCD on high resolution. So yah I actually did not watch this show until sometime towards the end of season 3. I watched it all online, playing catch up from season 1 through season . And I probably watched it too fast to have time to think over things that happened then and analyze the characters further, but there was no other way. And worse I have a bad memory with names, faces and events, i.e. almost everything. I also did not watch it on abc.com because I was not aware it was online on abc.com at the time and in high definition.

So what can I say about LOST? I have enjoyed the show. The mysteries surrounding the island and the connections between each character keep me drawn to the show. My favorite characters are Sawyer and Kate. I initially liked Jack’s character, at least the when he is on the island. Sawyer is great because he does what is necessary. Then we have Sayid, ok sure he is playing an Arab, an Iraqi Muslim from Tikrit, that is all awesome and wonderful and great … EXCEPT he is not an an Iraqi nor a Muslim. He is Indian. Nothing wrong with that, but come on, he sounds nothing like an Arab, and looks nothing like an Arab. Ugh. Whatever.

Kate Austen formerly known as Lilly Evangeline

So Kate is just awesome, do I really need to explain Kate? She is cute, knows how to shoot a gun, and has some nice lips and awesome TEETH, yes teeth! Ok ok so she sleeps around with everyone on the show and considers the rest if she hasn’t hooked up with them, and she gets people killed or in trouble and she does some stupid things … HEY wait a minute, stop right there, we LOVE Kate. I just found out her name is Lilly Evangeline, what the hell? That name sucks, Kate Austen for the win! Maybe I should of started a new paragraph for Kate. Oh wait I did. I recently watched a few of Season 1 episodes, I must say Kate looked hot with the scratches on her face. I need to give her a few more.

LOST Characters

And that is really what keeps the show entertaining. The show has a lot of great characters. Some of which are Ben, Richard, Locke, Hurley, Jin, Miles, and Desmond, but we don’t need to talk about them. We have Kate to talk about!

Alright so, I am expecting a good finale, as usual, but I am not sure if the show will end good. That is season 6 is supposed to be the last season and I am not sure I will like how the show will end, even thought I don’t know how it will end. Season 5 started with them saying, we are going to start answering questions, rather than asking questions. Well what the heck, it was like what just happened here? Who is that? Who would do that? Why is this here? What lies beneath the shadow of the statue??? EH? I thought they were going to answer questions instead of ask them. Season 5 asked a lot more questions than it answered. So Season 6 leaves a lot to be answered. What is the smoke monster? What did the temple do to Ben as a kid? What lies beneath the shadow of the statue? Who is Adam and Eve? What happened to and where is Claire? Are the survivors going to return to the “present”? Who are these what lies beneath the shadow of the statue people? Who do they work for? Why is Locke alive again? And a million other who, what, where, when, why and how questions. So yes tomorrow’s episode should be great, but it is going to suck to have to wait for the next season and final season to start. If abc doesn’t try to force a seventh season.

I think we have room for one more Kate Austen picture! Or three.

Kate Austen Teeth

Kate Kate Kate

This is Kate

Update (1/18/2011) : Kate’s real name is Evangeline Lilly born Nicole Evangeline Lilly. Thanks Krystal!

2009 White Honda Accord LX

It looks like I am going with a Honda Accord lease option. After much consideration of buying new, buying used, or leasing, I decided I will be going with another lease. It is the cheapest upfront, in this crappy economy while I am looking for more work as the current project is not enough to cover the bills. I also may consider buying it after the lease is up, but I do like the idea of a new car so I don’t know if I will do that and I hear Honda is releasing a bio-diesel accord in 2010 that is supposed to do almost 63 mpg on highway. And who knows what else they may have in the next 3 years. I was considering keeping the Passat when I first leased it, but the last year, I had decided for sure I wasn’t.

I considered the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Nissan Altima, Hyundai Sonata, Ford Fusion and many others. I always ended back with the Japanese cars. They hold their value much better than the rest. The Accord and Camry are very popular and reliable. And other than feeling that the Camry is a geezer car, the Accord is also cheaper on the lease. So I am looking at paying first month payment down only so least upfront, maybe even sign and drive. It will be an Accord LX basic as much I can be basic on that, I know I will want various options but I am looking for best price right now, which means lowest if you didn’t know. And the color should be white as this is Florida and the heat is killer.

In another money spending news, I had to replace the AC unit at the other property after I had spend that $290 replacing the capacitor. Yeah I know, total rip off to start but I was hoping it would get me by through the summer without a problem. It didn’t last 1 month. Not even going to say how much the new AC unit cost, I don’t want to think about it. The old AC unit was 14 years old anyway so it did need replacing. Now if I can find a rental for this property, at least that can pay back the cost of the AC unit and help pay for the property’s mortgage. And yes I did use an Arab to buy and install the AC from, but surprisingly he was good. He was on time, was informative on what he was selling and simply knew his stuff. So THUMBS UP for an Arab providing service.

The past week or so …

My youngest sister is now engaged. She had her party this weekend. Everything worked out well with all that. Obviously the talk of me getting married is now on everyone’s mind since she was the last in line to get engaged/married which leaves just me now. So everyone gives their hint here and there that it is time for me to get hitched. Congratulations to her.

So it has been pretty cool, not so bad. Seven kids six and under running around the house, opening doors that they never close after themselves, leaving trails of food, spilling drinks, poop time alarms going off, diapers changing, screaming and yelling, crying … the WHOLE kid package multiplied by seven. But really it has been cool, not as crazy as it should be I suppose.

I finally can complain about the new mac book not having firewire. It really is odd that they left it out. I didn’t think it was a big deal cause I didn’t really need it, until I wanted to transfer the mini-dv recording of the engagement to the computer to do some editing. Yah that was problematic. Luckily what became my gaming machine after getting the mac book, has 4 gigs or ram and I was able to transfer the video file to the windows machine and then copy it over to the mac. I suppose it is like some have said, they needed to remove the firewire so that they can justify their hefty price tag on the mac book pro, or maybe firewire will be dying out slowly as floppy disk drives did. Who knows but it was annoying not having the port.

Other than that, I have been missing my work outs and eating a lot more then I should, including lots and lots of junk food. I need to get back on schedule. Family get together usually meaning gaining a few pounds. At least that is what Arab families do, eat and eat, and complain about the weight we gain afterward. Complaining is usually done while eating more. What can we do? We love to eat! And the best tasting food is always that unhealthy fattening food like the lamb we had on the weekend. Delicious!

Ok, so I decided not to call Monday or Tuesday or even Wednesday, I figured I will wait out my accountant. Well here is Thursday, still no call. Nine days after I submitted my taxes to be completed, after being told I will get a call in two days, I have not recieved a call telling me they are complete and ready to be picked up. Why? Because I used an Arab. Simple as that. Am I going to wait for two weeks to go by? I don’t know yet, but I am very annoyed. I know when I call, the secretary will say they are ready and I should come by and pick up. The problem is the accountant said he will call me, so why can’t I get the call saying your taxes are ready, come pay us for our service.

Idiots.

Maybe next year I will go to a Jew for my taxes.

Buzz buzz. I cut my hair today. My shortest cut in years. Size 2 all around. Even the woman at the barbershop had to confirm with me that I want to cut it all size 2. Yes I know, a woman cut my hair at the barbershop. It is the best shop I can find here in Florida, it took me some time to find it when I first moved down here. They keep asking me if I want to trim my eye-brows. I always say no. I like them as they are, it is one of my Arab features.

Here it is

Me - Buzz Cut