Author: Mohamed Marwen Meddah

Mohamed Marwen Meddah is a Tunisian-Canadian, web aficionado, software engineering leader, blogger, and amateur photographer.

Reading “The Hobbit”

As the reading section on the right column of my blog shows, I’m reading “The Hobbit” by J.R.R Tolkien.

First of all, a big thank you to my dear friend Saqf for this wonderful gift. I’m enjoying every second of it 🙂

It’s taking me a bit longer than it usually does for me to read a book because I barely find time to sit down and read these days. Anyway the book has truly sucked me in and I love it. The story is really cool and catching, and my imagination is working on overdrive.

Something I find really cool is that many of the characters also appear in “The Lord Of The Rings”, and unlike when you see a movie before you read the book, this time you’ve seen the characters in a movie about some story, and now you’re imagining them in another story, in other settings and you’re using your imagination to build this whole world around them.

One of the greatest things in fantasy books is how you get to create your own version of the world being described and of the different characters. But reading this book now, I have something to build on because of the great work that was done on “The Lord Of The Rings” movies.
Now we have a vision of how Middle Earth looks like; how hobbits, dwarves, orcs, goblins, …etc look like and it just enriches the story even more. It’s as if a big set of detailed photos was added to the book.
This is one of the things that is making me enjoy the book even more.

Another thing I love about this book is how some events relate to stuff in the “Lord Of The Rings” trilogy. It gives a new understanding of some things.

I totally recommend reading this book.
You can expect another post from me about it once I’m done with it.

Btw, I watched “The Return Of The King” DVD again last night, and wow what a movie; I just love it!

links for 2005-08-19

“The Last Legion” Filming in Tunisia

Just a few days ago, filming started in Tunisia on The Last Legion, a Dino De Laurentiis movie produced by Martha De Laurentiis and Raffaella De Laurentiis, and directed by Doug Lefler.

The movie stars Colin Firth, Sir Ben Kingsley and Indian beauty Aishwarya Rai.

“The Last Legion” is an independently financed film produced in partnership with Tunisian Tarak Ben Ammar of Quinta Communications and British co-producers Chris Curling and Phil Robertson of Zephyr Films.

Part fact, part legend, “The Last Legion” is an epic adventure based on acclaimed author Valerio Massimo Manfredi’s international best-selling 2003 novel of the same name. The film is set against the fall of the Roman Empire in 470AD and its last emperor, 12-year-old Romulus Augustus (Thomas Sangster).

Over-run with rebellion, Rome is a city on the brink of chaos and destruction. Imprisoned by rebels on the island of Capri, Romulus, aided by the clever strategies of his teacher Ambrosinus (Sir Ben Kingsley) and the heroic skills of his legionnaire Aurelius (Colin Firth), escapes the island.

This small band of Roman soldiers, accompanied by Byzantine warrior Mira (Aishwarya), are determined to continue their mission to restore the Empire.

The movie’s release is set for next year.

links for 2005-08-17

links for 2005-08-16

Internet Access on Tunisian Trains

The Tunisian national railway company (SNCFT) has announced that it is now providing internet access on board its long distance trains.

Passengers can now surf the web at a low cost from the comfort of their train cars.

This new service was made possible through a new venture financed by the National Solidarity Bank, a microcredit institution which provides young university graduates with low interest rate loans of up to 33,000 dinars to help them set up their own business ventures.

SNCFT transports more than 35 million passengers yearly, 5 million of them on long distance trains.

I think this is great and I hope we see more and more initiatives like this one popping up everywhere.

Babies On U.S. No-Fly List

Infants have been stopped from boarding planes at airports throughout the United States because their names are the same as or similar to those of possible terrorists on the government’s “no-fly list.”

The government’s lists of people who are either barred from flying or require extra scrutiny before being allowed to board airplanes grew markedly since the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Critics including the American Civil Liberties Union say the government doesn’t provide enough information about the people on the lists, so innocent passengers can be caught up in the security sweep if they happen to have the same name as someone on the lists.
That can happen even if the person happens to be an infant.

Now, I totally understand the reason such a list and others like it exist, but turning back an infant because their name is similar to a suspect’s name is just plain stupid no matter how you look at it!

The government should provide more information and the security people should be a bit more intelligent.

[Source: CNN]

Dentist Urgently Needed

Ok, it’s really about time I go to a dentist.
I’ve been trying to avoid this for a long time now.
I’ve been ignoring the bits and pieces of teeth that have been falling apart every now and then.
I’ve been gobbling up painkillers to try and get over the head-splitting toothaches.

But now with small holes starting to form and at least 3 of my teeth surely in need of that painful root canal treatment I’ve already tried once before, I think it’s time I go to a dentist as soon as possible before things get even worse.

I totally hate dentists, but well a must is a must.

So, I need a favor from my fellow Tunisian bloggers to help me out here and tell me about good dentists they’ve tried out and who have a “light hand”, as we’d say, meaning that he/she isn’t a sadistic bastard who will screw the living lights out of me with pain!

Leave a comment or send me an email with the doctor’s contacts and a short description of your experience with him/her.
Thank you…

Dead Boss Joke

A guy phones up his Boss, but gets the bosses’ wife instead.
“I’m afraid he died last week.” she explains.

The next day the man calls again and asks for the boss. “I told you” the wife replies, “he died last week.”

The next day he calls again and once more asks to Speak to his boss. By this time the wife is getting upset and shouts, “I’VE ALREADY TOLD YOU TWICE, MY HUSBAND, YOUR BOSS, DIED LAST WEEK! WHY DO YOU KEEP CALLING?”

He replied laughing, “I just love hearing it…”

looooool…
Very funny…