Cinnamon Zone

يحيا الذكاء

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:10:00 GMT

This was perhaps one of the most entertaining children shows that most of the 70's and 80's kids grew up with. I was surprised to find it in a DVD store and in a very good quality too. However, it was the Czech version, not the Arabic dubbed one, so the notorious catch phrase of the two handymen "يحيا الذكاء" was missing.

Anyway, I found some Arabic clips from Zingo wa Ringo on youtube. I also googled them as "Pat and Matt", their original names and founds quite interesting info on Wikipedia, but this was the funniest piece of information:

"In socialistCzechoslovakia, the authors had to explain their "subversive" characters and stories to the Praguewatch-dogs of the regime, e.g. one of the questions was if they chose the t-shirt colors, red and yellow, to make fun of the Soviet-Chinese tensions. However, their explanations were "unsatisfactory", and so the "ideologic impurity" and the ban on Pat & Mat production remained. Yet, the Slovak colleagues from Czechoslovak TV in Bratislava gave Pat & Mat the necessary support, assigned them production means, so the production began and went on in the same Czech studio in Prague where Lubomir Benes and his crew worked, under their Slovak cover (28 episodes, 1979–1985)."

Here's one of the Arabic clipd, and there's more where that came from

The Early Signs of Workaholism

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:53:00 GMT

As it turned out, traffic lights seem to be my new venue of inspiration

As I was leaving work today, as usual, I had to stop at a traffic light, and since it was Sunday and the traffic was heavy I had to wait a bit longer. So, I started to get bored and I had that feeling or urge or whatever that I can't be just sitting around waiting and listening to the radio, I had to do something, so I fished out the scratch card I'd bought earlier to recharge my balance, and a piaster to scratch it with, you know how they keep giving you piasters with change especially those big super makrkets, someone should put an end to that! Nothing must be sold for a price that's not a multiple of 5! Anyway, fidgety concerns aside, I scratched the card, picked up my mobile and started to recharge the balance, all the while sneaking a peek every other moment at the traffic light to see if it's time to move, and before I knew it I found myself racing to type those numbers and hit the button, and that's when I stopped and asked myself: What am I doing?

I started wondering, was it really about wanting a pastime while I waited or was it about the thrill and exhilaration of meeting a deadline? Or perhaps I feel that I need to actually do something all the time. Whatever happened to relaxation and contemplation? And if it was about doing something, anything, then what about those non-work-related things I've been meaning to catch up on or even start with but never got around to doing them? And I'm not saying that there wasn't time, there's always time, it's just that I use it to do other things.

Recently I've been favoring work with much of my time. The other day I was too preoccupied with it that I actually dreamed about the file I was working on and I hadn't finished yet. That's another sign I guess. And, you know recently when I had the occasional toothache that crippled me for like 20 minutes if not more and I couldn't do anything until the pain subsided, do you know what I once thought? "How much work time have I missed during that painful spell?"

So, if you have any similar symptoms you are strongly advised to kick back before you kick off. Other signs may include admiring career obsessed TV characters, working late on weekends; underestimating the importance of sleep and feeling like your eyes are filled with sawdust.

Bottom line, work is great and everything, but when it starts to turn into an obsession and starts to take the place of other things in your life that are no less important than it, then you better nip it in the bud

Get well soon

Here's a Third Space for you

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:41:03 GMT

Ever since 7iber.com announced the Third Space photo competition I've been carrying my camera around most of the time. So far I haven't captured any photo that's contest material but this morning as I was racing up and down the streets trying to get to work "in time", I thought this was interesting.

I wonder how much does a person spend on a lifetime stopping at traffic lights, still prefer them to circles though! Sometimes...

If Palestinians were Penguins

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:27:00 GMT

So today I was watching that episode of Martha Stewart (No I don't watch this show, I hate it, it's just for work) and they were talking about African penguins, which are warm-weather, beach-living penguins who inhabit the coast of South Africa. And there was a woman who was some sort of an ambassador for Maryland zoo, and she was there to talk about the danger those poor little penguins were in.

She used the word "endangered" in relation to the fact that those penguins were being driven away from their "homes", or "removed from their homes" as she would describe it, their natural habitat on the south-western coast of Africa by sea gulls, seals, whales and other animals of this kind. She called on the viewers to be aware of this and write letters of support to these organizations that work to help those penguins.

It was hard not to smile at the irony. Not that I have anything against penguins, I actually find them charming and very interesting creatures, but if you come to think about it, I doubt that anyone in the world would stand against those penguins in their "struggle" for their land. In fact, I think anyone's heart would melt just at the sight of them stuttering away looking for a home after being displaced and removed form their land. Moreover, I doubt that anyone would defend the scary-looking seals or the hovering sea gulls, not to mention the giant whales. It may even be considered inhumane to do so. And what about their right of return? Do you think anyone would deny them that? I hardly think so.

Well, I think the analogy is so clear that it would be almost insulting to point it out. It might sound like a lame comparison, and it is really. For 2 reasons:

1- Palestinians are not as cute as penguins

2- Seals and sea gulls are incapable of crying wolf, distorting history and committing war crimes.

3- Palestinians are not as stupid as penguins. It's true. Do you know that African penguins are called Jackass penguins? They are incapable of putting on a proper fight for their right to a land, they don't talk back, they just march away. Well, no offence to African penguins but that is in deed stupid.

But again, maybe if Palestinians were as cute as penguins or stuttered like them and acted as helpless as they are, maybe someone somewhere would write a letter to some organization, but do you really think that would change anything?

Top (something) reasons not to talk to people

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:26:00 GMT

1. Because they are boring

2. Because you are boring

3. Because they don’t listen

4. Because they talk too much about themselves

5. Because they want you to do all the talking

6. Because they are too pessimistic and grumpy

7. Because they are annoyingly optimistic

8. Because you have so little in common

9. Because you don’t know what to talk about

10. Because you’re afraid that you might “spill the beans”

11. Because they are too vulgar

12. Because they are too refined

13. Because they are too opinionated

14. Because they can’t have a say in anything

15. Because they lie

16. Because you don’t want to lie to them

17. Because you can’t stand them for some reason

18. Because you have great chemistry and you’ll afraid to fall in love with them

19. Because they are crazy

20. Because there’s no time

21. Because they don't understand...

There’s always a reason…