New Blog

In compliance with the concept of "push button publishing" (see I am more accepting of such shifts because they are Google induced, non-microsoft, which I still use their not-so-cool buggy software) I have shifted to a new blog.

The new blog allows this to be more interactive as you can leave comments (which is highly encouraged)

The new blog can be found at:

http://www.nabcontract.com/blog

I still plan to maintain both blogs concurrently and in tandem. Yet I think the newer one might be a little bit more up-to-date. I might even switch redirects too (God bless Apache)

On Falling in Love Through a Description

One of the strangest origins of passion is when a man falls in love through merely hearing the description of the other party, without ever having set eyes on the beloved. In such a case he will progress through all the accustomed stages of love; there will be the sending to and fro of messengers; the exchange of letters, the anxiety, the deep emotion, the sleeplessness; and all this without actual sight of the object of affection. Stories, descriptions of beautiful qualities, and the reporting of news about the fair one have a manifest effect on the soul; to hear a girl's voice singing behind a wall may well move the heart to love, and preoccupy the mind.

All this has occurred to more than one man. In my opinion, however, such a love is a tumbledown building without any foundations. If a man's thoughts are absorbed by passionate regard for one whom he has never seen, the inevitable result is that whenever he is alone with his own reflections, he will represent to himself a purely imaginary picture of the person whose identity he keeps constantly before his mind; no other being than this takes shape in his fantasy; he is completely carried away by his imagination, and visualizes and dreams of her only. Then, if some day he actually sees the object of his fanciful passion, either his love is confirmed, or it is wholly nullified. Both these alternatives have actually happened and been known.

This kind of romance usually takes place between veiled ladies of guarded palaces and aristocratic households and their male kinsfolk; the love of women is more stable in these cases than that of men, because women are weak creatures and their natures swiftly respond to this sort of attraction, which easily masters them completely.

Ibn Hazm (994-1064)
The Ring of the Dove

And how does one lose his soul?

“TV news drags you into being concerned about things that you are by nature not concerned with: whether the balance of payment has improved or not, whether it’s Mr. Bush or Mr. Kerry who will win the elections. What is this to you? They have wasted your time, brainwashed you and preoccupied you with trivial things. Isn’t that losing your soul?”

Neama, the bright young protagonist of Tayeb Salih’s novel Urs Al-Zein (The Wedding of Zein) joined the kuttab (village school), determined to learn reading, writing and basic arithmetic.

“Then she decided that was enough and above that would be tartasha — useless stuff,” “Very much of what we teach in economics is what Neama would have called tartasha. If you delete it, no one would lose anything at all.”

Galal Amin

Class 2004 Group Photos

Check the slideshow:

http://www.nabcontract.com/auc

(All appologies regarding the XP powertoys, I'll be remedying that ASAP)

Learning UP in the word "UP"

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meaning than any other two-letter word, and that is "UP."

If you are not confused after reading this you must really be messed "UP."

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list but when we waken in the morning, why do we wake UP.

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?

Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends, we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.

We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has real special meaning.

People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special, and this is confusing.

A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP.

To be knowledgeable of the proper uses of UP, look UP the word in the dictionary. In a desk size dictionary, UP takes UP almost 1/4th the page and definitions add UP to about thirty.

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your
time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets UP the earth. When it doesn't rain for a while, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so I'll shut UP...!!!!!!

Just one last thing........when we pass on I hope we go UP.

On Friendship

For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

Khalil Gibran (1883-1931) - The prophet

How to catch a lion...

1. Newton's Method:

Let, the lion catch you. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This implies you have caught the lion (Assuming that you're alive).

2. Einstein Method:

Run in the direction opposite to that of the lion. Due to higher relative velocity, the lion will also run faster and will get tired soon. Now you can trap it easily.

3. Schrodinger Method:

At any given moment, there is a positive probability that the lion should be in the cage. So set the trap, sit down and wait.

4. Inverse Transformation Method:

We place a spherical cage in the forest and enter it. Perform an inverse transformation with respect to the lion. Then the Lion is in and we are out!

5. Thermodynamic Procedure:

We construct a semi-permeable membrane which allows every thing to pass in it except the lions. Then sweep the entire forest with it.

6. Integration Differentiation Method:

Integrate the forest over the entire the area. The lion is somewhere in the result. So differentiate the result partially with respect to the lion to trace out the lion.

7. Bohr Method:

Find a lioness. The lion would be rotating around her in circular paths, and eventually would decrease the radius between him and his nucleus.

8. The Moron's Method:

Tie down a goat with a tree, and wait on the tree for the lion. Hurrah! Here comes the lion. Now as you have found it, get down and run with your goat to save it, before the lion uselessly kills it, so that you could use it next time.

Ein Sukhna during Easter

Ancient Egyptian Proverb

The body becomes what the foods are, as the spirit becomes what the thoughts are.

Hello

Playground schoolbell rings, again
Rainclouds come to play, again
Has no one told you she's not breathing ?
Hello, I'm your mind, giving you someone to talk to...Hello...
If I smile and don't believe
Soon I know I'll wake from this dream
Don't try to fix me
I'm not broken
Hello, I'm the lie living for you so you can hide...
*Don't cry...*
Suddenly I know I'm not sleeping
Hello, I'm still here, all that's left
Of yesterday...

My Friends Testimonials

Evan, 03/29/2004:

"a true renaissance man- everything he does, he does with aplomb. sherif deserves to have a movie made about his life."

Eric, 03/25/2004:

"he introduced me to two of my great loves - fine Scotch and insulting women in foreign languages. bottom line - I'd help him bury a body."

Noura, 03/13/2004:

"Sherif is my Big man..He's nice, he's funny, he's dangerous, and witty. I love talking to him, eventhough he says i talk a lot."

Why English is a stupid Language...

Lets face it.. English is a stupid language:

There is no egg in the eggplant,
No ham in the hamburger,
neither pine nor apple in the pineapple,
and English muffins were not invented in England.

We sometimes take English for granted, but if we examine its paradoxes we find that :

Quicksand takes you down slowly,
Boxing rings are square,
A Guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

If writers write, how come fingers don't fing,
If the plural of tooth is teeth,
shouldn't the plural of phone booth be phone beeth?
If the teacher taught,
Why didn't the preacher praught.

If a vegetarian eats vegetables
What the heck does a humanitarian eat!?
Why do people recite at a play
Yet play at a recital?
Park on driveways and
Drive on parkways

How can the weather be as hot as hell on one day
And as cold as hell on another

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language where:

A house can burn up as
It burns down,
and in which you fill "in" a form
By filling it "out",
and a bell is only heard once it goes!

English was invented by people, not computers and it reflects the creativity of the human race (Which of course isn't a race at all).

Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. Thank you Reem. You are the best in everyway. I still find it amazing how you are always there for me.

Speak of the Devil

You sharpen the human appetite to the point where it could split atoms with its desire, you build egos the size of cathedrals, fiberoptically connect the world to every-eager-impulse, grease even the dullest dreams with these dollar-green gold-plated fantasies until every human becomes an aspiring emperor! Becomes his own God! And where can you go from there?

The Harvard Journal

What better than the never published before Harvard Journal to begin 2004 with:

"The original Harvard Journal was lost, because about 10 days after I had bought my HP laptop, it broke. I think the motherboard got fried due to “excessive heat” during our first two weeks at Harvard University during the summer of 2002. I was quite unmotivated, and never sat down to write it down, primarily due to the lack of time, as it was a very busy summer. The journal was divided by date, following chronological order. This journal, which bears the same name, looks like it will in paragraph style and will lack the chronological order.

Tomorrow dormitories close at 12:00 noon. It was not easy leaving Winthrop, my home for the past 8 weeks. It seems I will miss it as much as I still miss Roble Hall at Stanford University. Currently, I am on a road trip to East Lansing, Michigan, stopping at Niagara Falls. Our tour driver is Jonathan Rosenthal also known as Jawnee. About 150 miles more to go on the I-90, we anticipate reaching the falls before 2 am. Some mild showers accompanied by beautiful lightning seems to have solicited me to look back at the past 8 weeks and jot some memoirs down, beginning with the arrival at Logan International Airport around 2 pm on Monday 27th of June with high hopes of making the 6 pm class.

Niagara Falls is so cool. So far, we have been paying all our road tolls using all the change we have accumulated throughout the summer session. One toll was 50 cents, totally paid for using pennies. At Niagara Falls, Jesus loves you. Several white dudes with nothing to do in their lives were soliciting material regarding Jesus and the purification from shit. We were given several handouts which I began to give to other people is such a scary and freaky manner, with a grim: “Jesus Loves You”. The Virtual Reality tour was so bad, what can you anticipate more for $5? In an attempt to reach our final destination, East Lansing, we passed by Cleveland, Ohio. From the highway we saw the Cleveland Browns Stadium with lots of people. We scalped $ 68 worth tickets for less than $30, including all the one dollar bills we had left. Cleveland Browns vs. Detroit Lions in the pre-season was cool. Hotdogs and a lousy Marching Band but a great thrill, very patriotic, not to forget the Star Spangled Banner.

Michigan State University, what am I ever doing here in the Mid-West? Actually nothing but encountering the drunken college kids and filling in the green sweatshirt stereotype. Melrose Apartments is a very cool place. We broke into the main gate intercom over the phone lines after downloading the manual of the internet. God bless modern technology. With the aid of the eight cameras that are live fed into our TV, we had tons of fun changing the message on the display door and giving people a hard time, I think the security guard had the worst day at work. Ever watched Office Space? Partial credit is due to Sean Heiney and his very geek ROOT plate. Being a geek myself, it was a pleasure encountering an old-school geek and having tons of geek talk. Now Sean has to type in SU to access his car!! It is important to create a shortcut to this document to the desktop to enable a more updated and posted journal."

Final Blog Entry for 2003

Its true, 2003 has ended, I still remember the night of the new millenium, I was celebrating at the Pyramids in Giza, Egypt. It was an honour marking the begining of 2000 at the base of more than 5000 years of civilization.

I believe the following two persons have played such a significant role in my life that they earned to have their pictures in this years final blog entry. I am soliciting for captions, my e-mail can be found at the bottom of this blog.

Engineering Excuses

Don't say: "I forgot"

Instead say: Phrenialogically speaking, the aforementioned subject ineluctably eluded my short-term mnemonic functions, resulting in an unaccountable cognition void."

Don't say: "It'll be a little late"

Instead say: Indefeasible difficulties necessitate a reassessment of allotted time parameters vis a vis the restructuring of redesignated completion goals.

Don't say: "My dog ate it"

Instead say: The ordinarily carnivorous domestic canine under my husbandry purloined unprecedented masticatory privileges with my unobserved project.

Don't say: "I lost it"

Instead say: Indivertible circumstances misdirected the successful ensconcement of the errant property rendering possessorship inoperative.

Don't say: "I overslept"

Instead say: Due to an avouched preponderancy for somnolent indulgence, I unilaterally misapprehended the foreordained commencement of this scholastic exercise.

Don't say: "It isn't finished"

Instead say: The effectual consummation of the assigned object was inexplicably prolonged by irremediable forces unresponsive to my personal influence.

Don't say: "I broke it"

Instead say: Owing to the delicate quiddity of the foredoomed article, my innoxious scrutiny stressed certain heretofore undisclosed flaws in manufacture, precipitating an inevitable fracture of the maldesigned subcomponents.

Don't say: "I didn't study"

Instead say: The overwhelmingly addictive character of televised divertissements short-circuited my ambitionary regard for the apprehension and retention of the opusculatory material now under consideration.

Don't say: "I fell asleep in class"

Instead say: Notwithstanding the scintillating repartee concomitant to this scholastic assemblage, intransigent preternatural biologic functions conspired to surmount my fragile resolve, plunging consciousness beneath my direct autonomy and thus insuring a rapid decline into somnolence.

Madness in Love

"True, we love life, not because we are used to living, but because we are used to loving. There is always some madness in love, but there is also always some reason in madness."

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

The past few years in pictures

For some random thought, I decided to post some of my personal pictures online. No particular reason other than a picture is worth a thousand words.

http://www.nabcontract.com/shashem/pastyears

A Magnificent Friend

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."

Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury

I sincerely apologize to all my avid readers for not updating during the past twenty days, I have been beleaguered with a lot of work. Unfortunatly I injured my Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) and dislocated my knee cap during Judo practice last Wednesday. I am due for surgery early tomorrow morning. I vastly entreat for your prayers.

Zamalek continues his successive victories beating Aswan 4/0 while Ahly prolongs his defeats losing 2/3 to Al Itihad.

Due to the current drop of water and caffeine levels in my system, this update will be short, but I promise very interesting Webserver statistic and search engines stories to come soon.

Friends Final Season

I am aware of the fact that I have not blogged for a long time, although I have had several urges to do so, yet I have been strongly limited by time constraints. Yet the begining of the the 10th season of Friends has forced me to reblog, hopefully resetting me on the track of blogging more regularly too.

Friends is an integral part of my life. Over the past year I have downloaded (god bless the internet and broadband) and watched every single episode of friends. I am perpetually amazed by the fact that they have been going with such amazing performace for nine seasons, with almost 200 episodes, each is always packed with pure laughter from the heart.

Currently I am downloading episode 1001, the one after Joey and Rachel Kiss, Lets see if I can watch it before I go to bed.

If god wills, I shall be leaving to Ain Sukhna in the afternoon tommorrow, to spend the long weekend in celebration of the Armed Forces Day and the 6th of October Victory. So I guess I will be seeing you around tuesday when I come back. Wish me lots of sun and good weather. To wealth, good health and time to enjoy.

The Warm Zone

Ahly has lost its third game out of four games marking the begining of the egyptian local soccer season. I am not worrying that Ahly will drop to the second degree status but nor will it be in the quarter finals. It is obvious that Ahly will be playing to rank between fifth and tenth, which in soccer is known as the warm zone; not to hot neither that cold.

Nile FM 104.2

Seen by most as a great advancement and a great achivement I totally see as a continuation of incorporation of the world empire by the world economy. Ever read 1984 by George Orwell? Remember how Muhammed Ali's "achivements and advancements" facilitated the British Invasion?