links for 2005-06-30

What’s in a flag?

Icaro Doria, a Brazilian 25 year old artist, along with some of his colleagues in the Grande Reportagem magazine in Lisbon, Portugal, have come up with a really cool idea to put new meanings to the colours of flags.

They started to research relevant, global, and current facts and used real data taken from the websites of Amnesty International and the UNO to create Meet The World campaign.

I think it’s a really creative and cool idea. Do check out the other flags.

[Via: And Far Away]

Bookworm

Roba tagged me with this book meme. So here goes:

Number of books I own:
I have no idea. I’ve been reading books ever since I was a kid, so how many I have in my collection or how many I have read is just beyond me.

Last book I bought:
“The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown.

Last book I read:
“Eats, Shoots & Leaves” by Lynne Truss, and I’m currently reading “The Hobbit” by J.R.R Tolkien.

Five books that mean a lot to me:
Every book is special in its own way, so I’ll be picking five random books that I really enjoyed reading.

1. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
2. 1984 (George Orwell)
3. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
4. Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)
5. Eastern Standard Tribe (Cory Doctorow)

The book I am reading since long but could not finish:
It was “Atonement” by Ian McEwan, but I got to finish it during my last visit to Jordan. And it was really good.

Five people I tag with the bookworm:
Zied, Adib, Houssein, Jordan, Ahmed.

links for 2005-06-29

The Terminal Guy

Remember the movie The Terminal starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta Jones?
Well it turns out that it’s inspired by a true story!
And well, the guy is still living in the airport!

Merhan Karimi Nasseri, a man without a country, has been trapped by his lack of papers in Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris, France, since 26 August 1988.

As of the summer of 2004, Nasseri is still living in the airport. He does not lack for money — Dreamworks paid him a rumored $250,000 for the rights to his story.

I simply can’t believe it. It’s incredibly amazing!
But it’s true!

[Source: Snopes]
[Via: 2:48AM]

2 Years of Subzero Blue

On a day like today, 2 years ago, I started the blog that would become the Subzero Blue you know now.

This blog started on blogspot, even though I had some trials on other free blogging platforms before it, and then it moved to be generously hosted by Houssein. A big thank you to him for that ๐Ÿ™‚

This blog started as a place for me to make fun of life and the world around me, somewhere I could bring out the sarcasm lying inside of me. Then at some period of time it became more of a diary detailing my everyday life. After that I started adding more and more topics and discussing more and more issues and well here I am today talking about a variety of things and enjoying every second of it.
And I still feel I have a lot more to talk about and do with it.

As for the blog design, it has gone through an evolution itself. From a crappy default template on Blogger or Movable Type, to this design that I’m quite comfortable with now and which feels more or less like home. I keep making little changes here and there every now and then, and I love it.

Where do I want to go with this blog?
I don’t want to put any limits on that, I want to go wherever my mind takes me with it and I want to write whatever I feel like writing in it.
I want it to become an online reflection of my mind, more or less an internet version of me.

I’d truly appreciate any feedback on what you think about this blog? what you think about the design? what you think about the subjects I write about?
Let me know anything that crosses your mind.

And as for me, just like last year, I’ll try to compile a list of my top favourite posts from the past year soon.

PS: I thought the blog would be 2 years old last Sunday, but then I checked and it turned out I was wrong and that today is its anniversary. The first post being about NDC 2003.

Hitch

Last night, we got to watch “Hitch” at last. The movie stars Will Smith, Eva Mendes, Kevin James and Amber Valletta.

It’s a really nice comedy about a “date doctor”, who while helping one of his clients woo the lady of his dreams, falls in love with a gossip columnist and finds his ways don’t quite work on her.

I really enjoyed this movie and actually started watching it again last night. I really like Will Smith in comedy roles, he’s a genuinely funny guy.
Kevin James did a great job, funny as usual. Eva Mendes and Amber Valletta were really good too.

Hitch also reminds me of myself a bit, as I used to do a similar job with my friends, giving them directions and tips on how to win over the affection of girls they like or have crushes on.

I think this movie is a comedy worth checking out.

My score for it would be: 7.5/10.

links for 2005-06-28