Year: 2005

Things I Wanted To Be When I Grew Up

The most common of childhood questions must definitely be: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”.
We all had certain things we wished to be but ended up not being, and some of us still have some of these dreams.

Well, here are the main things I wanted to be growing up. And as I’m still in the process of getting older, some of these things are recent ones 😉

Pilot: I always loved air travel and still do. And for years and years I dreamt of becoming a pilot.
The Freedom, the flying, the travel, the beauty of it all. It’s a dream I’ll always cherish dearly.

Actor: In my childhood, I loved acting. I was always in all the school plays and stuff. I actually was pretty good. Anyway, I grew out of it by teenagehood. Just kept the needed talent to be a good liar.

Singer: With acting behind my back, my next obsession was with becoming a singer. My room witnessed many a concert by me. I actually think I have a good voice, but then again who doesn’t think that about themselves.

Continue reading Things I Wanted To Be When I Grew Up

Reader’s Request

Here’s an interesting idea…

Something about me you’d like to know?
Something you’ve been wanting to ask me?
Something you’d like to know my opinion on?
Something you’d like me to ramble on about?
Pick a topic, a question, anything, and drop it in the comments.
Come next Friday (28/01/05), I’ll go through what (if anything) is there and start talking about it.

Of course, if nothing appears, I’ll still go on blogging as usual about whatever crosses my mind.

[Via: eclecticism, The Republic of T., Stay of Execution.]

Picasa 2

Google just recently released version 2 of Picasa, the photo organizing tool they acquired last year.

Being a happy user of Picasa already, I downloaded the new version and took it for a spin.

Picasa 2 offers more photo editing options to alter the lighting, colors, saturation, contrast and more to make you happier about your shots in just one click.

It now provides added integration with Blogger and Hello so that users can directly post pics to their blogs or instantly share them.

Picasa 2 also allows you to add captions to your photos as well as make collages with photos of your choice.

Another cool new feature is the ability to create a Gift CD for friends and family with a built-in slideshow of your selected photos.

In short, Picasa is a great piece of software that just got better.
I think it’s a must for anyone who has a digital cam and/or digital pics on their pcs.

Download it from Picasa.

Israel Plans Big Jerusalem Land Grab

The Sharon government intends to strip thousands of West Bank Palestinians of their property in occupied East Jerusalem, according to the Israeli press quoting newly released government documents.

At stake are thousands of donoms of land belonging to Palestinians who live in the West Bank and are now unable to access their land due to Israel’s separation barrier.

By some estimates, the total land to be expropriated could add up to half of all East Jerusalem property.

[Via: Al Jazeera]

And who’ll be raising a finger as Israel steals these people’s properties and strips them of their land in yet another abuse of their rights? Absolutely nobody!

And then you hear talk of a fair peace process!
How can peace ever be possible when the world is biased and supports a terrorist state like Israel in all the atrocities it commits against the Palestinian people?!

Happy Sheep Eid

Eid El Adha, the big Eid, the feast of the sacrifice or the Eid of the sheep as some call it is tomorrow.

Prices for sheep sky-rocketed as they always do around this time of year, but nevertheless most Tunisians went out and bought their sheep for the big day even if they had to get a new credit to do so.

This Eid comes with the end of the Hajj, and is the day in which muslims worldwide sacrifice sheep in commemoration of the prophet Abraham’s story with his son.
Half of the sacrificed sheep is kept and the other half should be given to the poor.

We’ll be going to my parent’s place for lunch and then maybe doing some visits to the close family.

Eid Mubarak to everyone.
May it be a happy and blessed Eid for you all.
And don’t eat too much meat 😉

Father & Son (Ronan Keating ft. Yusuf Islam)

Growing up in a music loving family, I was surrounded with all types of music ever since my childhood. My uncles and aunts played and taught different instruments and my dad was as big a music fan as I grew up to be.

So in my childhood other than listening to all the music that was coming up in the 80’s and then 90’s, I also listened to older stuff from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s that my dad used to listen to.

Of course, I had my faves from the music in that era too, and one of my favourite singers was Cat Stevens who later became known as Yusuf Islam when he became a Muslim.
I really like his music, songs and lyrics and among my favourite songs by him is one called “Father & Son”.

The song was covered by Irish boy band Boyzone in the early 90’s and has been re-released again now by Ronan Keating (former lead singer of Boyzone, another fave singer of mine) featuring Yusuf Islam himself.

This version of the song is really nice too, sort of a mixture between new and old, Ronan’s warm voice and Yusuf’s smooth vocals carrying the great lyrics ever so beautifully.

The song is a dialogue between a father and his son, and the lines I love the most are when the father says:

… Take your time, think a lot,
Why, think of everything you’ve got.
For you will still be here tomorrow,
but your dreams may not.

I love this song…

CPB: Committee to Protect Bloggers

The Committee to Protect Bloggers is a new clearinghouse for information on bloggers who are punished, threatened or otherwise disadvantaged for what they post on their blogs.

The Committee has four primary spheres of activity.

– CPB will serve as a clearinghouse for information on incarcerated members of our community, as well as those whose lives have been taken from them because of their enthusiasm for the free exchange of information that blogging allows.

– CPB will serve as a pressure group to force unrecalcitrant governments to free imprisoned bloggers, and make restitution for tortured and murdered ones.

– CPB will bring to bear the formidable communicative power of the blogosphere to keep pressure on governments to stop

– CPB will act as direct agents in negotiations to free imprisoned bloggers.

[Via: BoingBoing]