Year: 2003

Freezing Cold

It’s unbelievable.
Just this past Sunday, i was wondering how weird it was that winter hadn’t started yet, even though we were well into December.

And KABAAM!, i wake up the following morning and it’s freezing cold.

Ok, it doesn’t snow that often in Tunisia, and the only places it does are in the North-West of the country. So maybe it’s easy to think it’s not as cold as other countries that are always covered in snow, but well i disagree.
Tunisia is a coastal country with the mediterranean sea as most of it’s North and East side borders, which gives the coastal regions a certain level of humidity, that when combined with bitter cold goes straight to the bones and then introduces the ass-freezing syndrome we all suffer from 😛

Good thing is that our new home is kind of warm. And even in this cold weather, we still haven’t needed to use the heaters.
But the problem is when you’re outside, and no matter how much you’re wearing, you’re certainly gonna be feeling the painful bite of the winter.

Anyway, i still prefer winter over summer. In winter at least you can keep throwing on extra clothes until you feel warm. In the summer, you keep on taking off clothes, but then you’re naked and there’s nothing else to take off and you’re still dying from the heat.
So give me a winter anytime of the year, and take away those damned hot days of summer.

Gigli

I got to see “Gigli” a few days ago, a movie the critics slammed and made out to be one of the worst movies this year.

And well, i beg to differ.
It’s no blockbuster by all means, and no overwhelming experience, but it’s not nearly as bad as they pictured it to be.

It’s sort of a light nice movie you should just cruise through and try to enjoy for what it is.

Maybe the fact that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are in it, and that they are the hot topic in Hollywood, made expectations high for the movie, but well it’s not a really strong story so you can’t expect much more than what they gave it.

Computer One-liners

These are some of my favourite computer one-liners:

  • A user friendly computer first requires a friendly user.
  • Bug? That’s not a bug, that’s a feature.
  • Build a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool will use it.
  • Computer analyst to programmer: “You start coding. I’ll go find out what they want.”
  • Computers can never replace human stupidity.
  • Daddy, what does FORMATTING DRIVE C mean?
  • Every bug you find is the last one.
  • If your computer says, “Printer out of Paper,” this problem cannot be resolved by continuously clicking the “OK” button.
  • It works! Now if only I could remember what I did…
  • My software never has bugs. It just develops random features.
  • Who’s General Failure and why’s he reading my disk?
  • To be, or not to be, those are the parameters.

For more go to: 150 Computer One-liners.

Gore Endorses Dean

Now this is a quite interesting twist in the US 2004 Elections story; Gore Endorses Dean.

This will certainly blow more powerful winds in Howard Dean’s sails, and help influence more democrats to endorse him.

I always thought the strongest candidate and the only one with a winning chance among the democratic candidates currently on the scene is Howard Dean. But the problem was that the democratic party seemed unwilling to back him and endorse him.
Hopefully this Gore endorsement will help.

I think that if democrats rally behind Dean, they have the biggest chance of kicking Bush out of the White House.

So, even though i’m not a US citizen, for the good of the US and the whole world, i say: “Go Dean Go !”
And for all it’s worth, here’s a link to the Dean for America site.

Smoke Kills

I never understood how some people enjoy smoking their lungs out.
It’s like God created us whole, perfect and healthy and we’re on a marathon to try and ruin all that in the shortest time possible through smoking, drinking, doing drugs, …etc.

Anyway, back to smoking.
Just recently i saw a new Marlboro pack a friend of mine at work had, and which he was smoking cigarette after cigarette from.
The pack’s design has changed a lot ever since i last saw one, and most of it now is warning messages that are bigger than the logo itself.

The messages say:
“Smoking seriously harms you and others around you”
“Smoke contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide”

Now, i can’t imagine how anyone could take another puff after reading stuff like that.
I mean, the people who are making these cigarettes themselves are telling everyone that smoking is screwing them up, and yet they don’t seem to care.

That one cigarette contains stuff that belongs in a car’s exhaust system and not in someone’s lungs !

Oh anyway, everyone’s free to do whatever they want to do with their health, i guess.

On a lighter note, here’s a fun flash animation about how Smoke Kills.

Democrats Go Off the Cliff

This is a very interesting piece about democrats and where they stand right now in the US, and what a hard time they’re facing.
Democrats Go Off the Cliff.

As i mentioned before in one of my blogs; if i were an American, i’d certainly be a democrat, so it’s really sad to see the situation they’re in now.

I think it’s pretty obvious that Bush is going to win again in 2004, although that’s another mistake, but the lack of a strong enough democratic candidate is a big problem.
Howard Dean is maybe the only candidate gathering some steam, but i don’t think they’re gonna let him get anywhere.

I think the only way democrats could win this election was if Al Gore or Hillary Clinton ran for it, but obviously they opted out.
So, Democrats will most probably have to wait for the 2008 elections for a good chance to win back the White House.

For the time being, maybe they should focus on winning back the house, the senate and the supreme court 😉

US Strategy in Iraq

“You have to understand the Arab mind. The only thing they understand is force – force, pride and saving face.”
Captain Todd Brown

So, is that right ?
And why do Arabs only understand when they’re treated by force ?
Are they too dumb to talk with you and understand ?
Or is it that you simply don’t want to talk, and it’s easier for you to just use force and push them around as you wish ?
Force is met with force, and reason is met with reason, so if the only thing you find is force, then just look at what you’re doing and you’ll see why.
As for the pride part, it’s true, they are very proud of who they are and where they come from, and no one can shake that no matter what.
Saving face ? i think the only people who should be trying to save face now are the US administration after the big mess they’ve made.

With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I think we can convince these people that we are here to help them.
Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Sassaman

That’s maybe the dumbest thing i’ve read in a long time.
So you come into someone’s country, you tear down his house, kill his family, and put a fence around him, deny him his simplest rights, then wave around some money he’ll never get, and you expect him to think you’re there to help him ?
What kind of sick twisted logic is that ?
Wake up !

And now, to top it all, they’re taking lessons from Israel, the number one terrorist state, using tougher tactics, building fences and walls around villages and towns as well as destroying homes and buildings they suspect Iraqis are planning against them in.
“… we recently traveled to Israel to glean lessons learned from their counterterrorist operations in urban areas.”
Brig. Gen. Michael A. Vane

Interesting insight into the strategy of the world’s most famous democracy and peacemaker in a country they supposedly went to liberate and help.