Year: 2007

People: Roles vs. Personality

Something I’ve noticed many times over the years is how some people seem to slip into different personalities when they change or assume different roles in life, work or elsewhere.

It’s as if a dial in some imaginary control room is turned, switching the person to another completely different personality.

And in most cases it doesn’t feel natural at all, it’s just an act the person is putting up, just because he thinks he should be acting in a certain new way, because of their new status.

I’ve seen this in newly married friends, colleagues who got a work promotion, people who have just had a kid, and in various other instances; and the people just change, abruptly, without warning and unbelievably.

People change. That’s a fact. But normal change is mostly done over a period of time, naturally, with people barely feeling it. It only hits them after a long period when they look back and see what a big difference there is between what that person was and what he now is.

But, the change I’m talking about here is the kind that happens almost over-night, and when asked, a lot of these people simply reply that their new responsibilites or their new status in life require a new way of doing things and handling themselves.

Is that true?
Doesn’t it mean that the person isn’t doing it because he naturally progressed to it and because he wants to, but rather because he feels that he has to?
Doesn’t it imply that he wasn’t proud of or confident in what he was?
Plus didn’t he get to the place he is now because of how he was and what he was like? So why should he change it once he got there?

It’s true that certain things in life and certain responsibilities require some changes in how a person deals with things, but I think they’re more or less small targeted changes that touch on a specific area of that person’s life depending on whether it concerns his household, work, passions & hobbies or whatever else; but not a total flip of that person’s personality.

I think it’s very important to have a balance between a person’s roles and his personality, because it can be very tiresome and troublesome to act a personality for a role, or to bend a role for a personality.

Each and every one of us is unique in his own way, that shouldn’t be lost just to fit a certain stereotype of a role, but rather used to enrich it, all the while fulfilling the new obligations of the role.

1408 – The Movie

Last night, I finally got around to watching “1408“, a movie based on Stephen King’s short story of the same name, and featuring John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson.

I’m a fan of John Cusack’s, especially his lighter comedy roles, he’s a great actor who can take on many different roles so naturally, and who picks his roles really well; so I try to never miss a movie he’s in.

I can’t claim to be a big fan of Stephen King though; I loved some of his works and their movie adaptations, but I was also let down a number of times, especially when the stories took weird twists towards including a bunch of unexpected aliens in the story in a pretty annoying way.

Anyway, back to 1408, it’s about a writer, who specializes in debunking paranormal occurrences and ghost stories, who checks into a fabled room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel, despite being warned by the Hotel manager that it is an evil room; And then genuine terror begins.

The movie started off really well, and got scarier by the minute, building up that creepy atmosphere that has you all alert and all; in other words: scary in the good old sense of scary movies, not the torture-porn or teen-startle stuff studios are putting out these days; but two thirds of the way into the movie, things started falling apart for me, and the movie just started losing my interest; I don’t know it just felt like they were padding it to make it longer, which kind of made the ending a bit less powerful for me.

Anyway, all in all, it is a good movie; I liked the idea of the story, the evolution of its events, and the acting.
Do I think it could have been done better? Maybe.
Do I recommend it? For people who are into this genre of movies, yes, it is an interesting movie, and there aren’t that many of its type out there these days.

Overall, I’d give it:
StarStarStarHalf StarNo Star

[More: IMDB, Amazon]

Fish Museum Aquarium – Carthage

Yesterday, we thought we’d go check out the Aquarium in Carthage, the Fish Museum as they call it, or “Dar El Hout” (Fish House) as it’s called in Arabic.

It’s located in Carthage near the old Punic Ports.

A number of people told me about the place before, and I was expecting a really cool aquarium, but I was somewhat let down, as it turned out to be pretty mediocre.

The “Fish Museum” is divided into three parts; a Historic one giving insight into the maritime/marine history of Tunisia, Fresh water fish and salt water fish.
There aren’t really that many unique species of fish to see, just the usual ones from the Mediterranean region; the same ones you’d see at the nearest Tunisian fish market, if not less.

It’s a shame that establishments such as this one and the zoo in Belv

Dumpukht – Indian Restaurant – Les Berges Du Lac

On our way back home today, we were both a bit hungry and felt especially like having some Indian food. Being in Tunisia, the options in this area are very limited, and the only place we could think of was this new Indian restaurant called “Dumpukht” that opened in Les Berges du Lac a few months ago.

The place is really nice, pretty well decorated, has Zee TV playing Indian music videos on a flat screen, and has this nice comfy feel to it. The waiters are all Tunisian, dressed in Indian clothes though, and the chef is Indian, which is the most important point to me.

I had some Chicken Tikka Masala and Eman opted for a Chicken Biryani; the food was really good and delicious. I personally really enjoyed it.

The prices are quite ok as well, with most main dishes being in the 8-13 Dinars range. Of course that doesn’t put it in the list of places you’d go to everyday, but once in a while when you feel like Indian food, it is a good option.

And as is the case with every good Indian restaurant, you go home smelling of curry and other Indian spices… Yummy…

The restaurant is in Les Berges du Lac, on the corner between the main road and Rue du Lac Windermere, close to Hotel Acropole.

George W. Bush, The Mass Murderer

Ex-Reagan Aide Calls Bush a “Mass Murderer”…

Bush is too self-righteous to see the dark humor in his denunciations of Iran for threatening “the security of nations everywhere” and of the Iraqi resistance for “a vision that rejects tolerance, crushes all dissent, and justifies the murder of innocent men, women, and children in the pursuit of political power.” Those are precisely the words that most of the world applies to Bush and his Brownshirt administration. The Pew Foundation’s world polls show that despite all the American and Israeli propaganda against Iran, the US and Israel are regarded as no less threats to world stability than demonized Iran.

Bush has discarded habeas corpus and the Geneva Conventions, justified torture and secret trials, damned critics as anti-American, and is responsible, according to Information Clearing House, for over one million deaths of Iraqi civilians, which puts Bush high on the list of mass murderers of all time. The vast majority of “kills” by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan are civilians.

Now Bush wants to murder more…

— Paul Craig Roberts, The War Criminal in the Living Room

[Via: AlterNet]

What Do You Like/Dislike About Subzero Blue?

I think there are two main kinds of passionate bloggers in the world: the kind that write for themselves and the kind that write for their readers.

Personally, I think I’m a mix of the two, I write for myself and for my blog’s readers at the same time.

And even though I do get your feedback on individual blog items from time to time, I wanted to go ahead and ask you in general what things you like and what other things you dislike about this blog?

I’m really interested in knowing: what kinds of posts you enjoy the most or find the most informative or useful? whether you come back a number of times per day and like it when I post several times or whether you pass by only once and would like to find just one good post waiting for you? what you think about the design? what keeps you coming back and what frustrates you about Subzero Blue?

Please do share your thoughts and ideas, and if you have any suggestions do not hesitate to let me know too, I would greatly appreciate them.

Israeli Racism

According to a study by The Center Against Racism, via YnetNews :

Over half of the Jewish population in Israel believes the marriage of a Jewish woman to an Arab man is equal to national treason

75 percent of participants did not approve of apartment buildings being shared between Arabs and Jews

Sixty percent of participants said they would not allow an Arab to visit their home

40 percent of participants agreed that “Arabs should have their right to vote for Knesset revoked”

over half of the participants agreed that Israel should encourage its Arab citizens to immigrate from the country

Over half of the participants said they would not want to work under the direct management of an Arab

55 percent said “Arabs and Jews should be separated at entertainment sites”

56 percent of participants said they believed that Israel

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (Jimmy Carter)

This morning I finished reading former US President Jimmy Carter’s book by the name “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid“. I’ve been wanting to read this book ever since it was published, I found it in Tunisia in the Al Kitab bookstore but it was too expensive, so I posptponed and bought it from Prime Megastore on my last trip to Jordan.

In this book, Jimmy Carter tackles the Middle East crisis and the question of Israel’s peace with its neighbors–in particular, how Israeli sovereignty and security can coexist permanently and peacefully with Palestinian nationhood.

It is a comprehensive and well-informed chronicle documenting the history and events of the Israeli/Palestinian crisis since its beginning to our present times from an insider who was the architect of the 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, and who has closely followed and been part of the events for decades.

I personally think that Jimmy Carter was as unbiased as an ex-American President could ever be in this book, trying not to take sides and to document the events as he witnessed them as objectively as possible.
It’s true that I did feel, at certain points, that he was being a bit soft on the Israeli side, but overall I think he was very honest and frank, and I respected that.

Weirdly (or naturally in these times), he was attacked because of this book and accused of assigning ultimate blame to Israel, being one-sided, …etc, etc, etc.
But then again we all know that’s what anyone gets for saying the slightest thing about Israel, even if it’s true and said in a nice and excusing way like Carter did in this book.
Again, personally, I think the book is unbiased, and if it is then slightly towards the Israeli side not against them.

I think everyone who is interested in the Middle East crisis should read this book for an objective and comprehensive view of the conflict, the events revolving around it, the different proposals for peace and more.

Personally, even though I’ve followed the conflict for years and know a lot about it, mainly because of studying its history at school and living in Jordan for years right next to the center of the storm; I came away from the book with a clearer view of it all, and a better understanding of the several peace proposals, agreements and UN resolutions related to this conflict.

[Amazon: Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (Jimmy Carter)]