Subzero Blue

Al-Quraysh: The Muslim Strategy Video Game

“Al-Quraysh” is a strategy game developed by Damascus based Afkar Media, that tells the story of the first 100 years of Islam’s history from the viewpoint of four different nations – Bedouins, Arabs, Persians, and Romans.

One can choose to command any of the armies of the four nations or lead the army of the main character, Khaled Ibn Waleed, a Muslim warrior who defeated the Roman and Persian empires and never lost a battle. Or one can play the role of the Bedouin sheikh, who must earn the respect of his tribe. The player has the task of building and protecting trade routes and water sources, building armies, conducting battles, and freeing slaves.

The makers hope “Al-Quraysh,” named after the prophet Muhammad’s tribe, will help to correct the image of Islam, alleviate tensions with the West, and stoke pride among young Muslims.

Afkar Media has already produced two games, both dealing with the plight of the Palestinian people. One game released last year, “Under Siege,” was born out of frustration with the prevalance of Arabs and Muslims portrayed as terrorists in Western video games. The creators of the game say the story line counteracts the biases in some Western games by showing the Palestinian struggle from an Arab vantage point and creating Arab and Muslim characters who are fighting in self-defense.

I haven’t had the chance to check out or play any of the AfkarMedia games, although I truly wish I get to, but I think it’s great that they’re out there and doing all this amazing work.
I also like their choice of subjects and the messages they’re trying to get across through their games.

[Via: The Black Iris]
[Source: Yahoo! News]

Subscriber Only World Cup

There’s been a lot of buzz these past days in the Arab blogosphere about the World Cup matches and the exclusive rights agreement that ART has with FIFA to air the World Cup in the Middle East.

This deal means that the only way for Arabs to get to watch the World Cup is to subscribe to ART, something which isn’t within the reach of everyone, or if they have a dish installed, hope that some satellite channel will be airing the matches, which is not such a sure bet.

Local, terrestrial, TV stations in Arab countries will only get a 20 minute ‘Match Highlights’ package, that they can only air one to two hours after the match.

A lot of people have lashed out against ART and its founder Sheikh Saleh Kamel because of this, blaming him for this and pouring out their hate on him.
What’s worse is that the ART holds the rights to airing the World Cup up to 2014.

I too think that this is very bad and unacceptable, but I think that the blame and hate shouldn’t be thrown on ART and its founder. After all, the guy is just a business man who ceased an opportunity he found available, just like anyone else would. Believe me, if it wasn’t ART, it would have been someone else.

The real blame should be thrown on the over greedy, money thirsty FIFA!
It’s not enough they’ll be raking in millions and millions in sponsorship deals, ticket sales and what not; No they also have to sell airing rights to the matches for millions of dollars, bringing about all the negative effects we’re witnessing now.
Of course, a business man paying all that money for airing rights will want to see some return on his investment, and the only way he can do that is by reselling some of the rights and selling subscriptions.

But this is the World Cup we’re talking about, the most important and biggest sporting event in existence. It belongs to the World, not to FIFA!
What is FIFA but an organization created to oversee the worldwide game, centralize its rules and promote it.
When did it become a greedy business running after every penny in our pockets?
This is complete nonsense and totally unacceptable.
Give us back our football!
Down with FIFA!

Walking The Path – Paulo Coelho’s Blog

While doing my daily round of blogs today, I came across a link to Paulo Coelho‘s blog “Walking The Path” on M.S. Hjiouij’s blog.

I’ve been a fan of Paulo Coelho ever since I read his book The Alchemist, which is a really great book, that came at just the right time in my life.

During the months of March, April, May and June, Paulo Coelho is traveling to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in 1986. The purpose of this blog is to enable distant readers to be with Paulo Coelho walking the path.

Paulo’s blog is as inspirational and well written as his books, offering precious thoughts and valuable insights into life; which made it shoot straight onto my blogroll.

The blog is published in 4 languages: English, French, Portuguese and Spanish.

So, check it out and walk the path with Paulo Coelho…

Toot’s Blog Design Competition

Toot have gone on and launched their first blog design competition, a step which I think is good because it emphasizes good design as much as it does good content.

All the blogs on toot, apart from the ones that belong to toot team members, are nominated, and the 3 blogs that win the highest votes will get prizes (digital camera, iPod Nano and a $50 Amazon gift certificate).

Here is where you can vote for the best designed blogs on toot.

As my blog is on toot, it is one of the nominated blogs. So, if you like my blog’s design, and think that it’s pretty cool or something, you can vote for me.
And well, if you don’t like it, I’d appreciate it if you leave me a comment telling me what it is that you would like to see done with it.

A little reminder to everyone though: this is a design competition, not a content or popularity competition, but a design competition, so you should keep that in mind when voting.
There are enough blog popularity competitions out there on the net, let’s not make this yet another one.

10 Steps You Can Take To Guarantee Failure

Most of the times when we have a certain project in our heads, and it fails, whether it be something related to work or to our personal lives, it’s because we did something wrong along the way.

The internet and bookstores are full of websites and books telling you how to succeed, but the following is a list of 10 steps that will guarantee the failure of any project in your life:

1. Make your goals vague
2. Make your goals difficult to visualize
3. Think and speak negatively about your goals
4. Avoid planning incremental steps
5. Don’t Do – Talk
6. Wait until you are motivated
7. Don’t set a date
8. List why it’s impossible
9. Don’t research your goal
10. Think of anything except your goal

For the list, with more details about each point, go here.

Avoid those 10 points and you should have a good chance of making your project work out.

The Tunisian Blogger Meetups

In the wake of all the negative posts that have been talking about our Tunisian blogger meetups, I’ve decided to write a post about the issue, explaining my point of view, especially that I’m the person who started the whole meetup thing in Tunisia.

The main idea from the meetups was, and still is, to give Tunisian bloggers a chance to get to meet each other, talk, maybe build some new friendships, feel somehow encouraged to go on blogging, maybe create a certain sense of community around blogs.

Of course, some people would rather remain anonymous, and that is totally their choice and right. No one’s pushing anyone to attend a blogger meetup if they don’t want to. Every one of us blogs for a reason and about certain topics, and I totally know that going public with your identity takes away your ability to write about some things you could write about before. And so, that is a very important issue to think about before deciding to come to a meetup or not.

A point that I’ve read many times is the idea that the “old” bloggers have formed groups and that new bloggers feel they’re unwelcome.
Instead of denying or confirming that, all I want to say is that we don’t go to meetups to talk to the old bloggers or the new bloggers, we go to meetups to talk to Tunisian bloggers period, no matter their age in life or in the blogosphere.

Up to now we’ve had 13 blogger meetups, that span over a year, obviously the people who have come to the meetups many times have had the chance to get to talk and know each other very well over this period, and some friendships have formed here and there, just like they do anywhere in life. Very normal.
Yet some “new” bloggers join for a meetup, then another and another and they too get to know other bloggers, they talk, they have fun, they enjoy themselves and build relationships and friendships too. And others either don’t come or come once, and then they just say that Tunisian bloggers are split into groups and they didn’t feel welcome and all. But in reality the door is wide open for everyone to join in, and many already have.

I personally never snobbed anyone or looked down at any other blogger because I’m one of the first Tunisian bloggers around. I’m always happy to see and meet new people at these meetups. And even if I don’t get the chance to talk to them in one meetup, I keep looking forward to the next meetup for a chance to chat with them.

I know that what I’m writing won’t necessarily change the ideas and perceptions that some have in their minds. But this is how I see it all and I thought I’d share it.

Again, going to a meetup or not is a personal choice, liking certain people or not is a personal issue, and it’s totally up to each person to decide for themselves.

All I know is that these meetups will go on as long as there are Tunisian bloggers willing to go out and meet for a little nice chat over a cup of coffee and that everyone will always be welcome.

The 5 Rules Of Telling A Joke

I truly believe that over 50% of what makes people laugh at a joke is how it’s told, and I’m sure most of us have witnessed a really hilarious joke reduced to a failure by someone who didn’t know how to tell it well.

These are just ideas of rules I think should be respected when telling a joke.

1. Make sure you know the joke well enough to tell it. Stopping in the middle of the joke to remember the rest just screws the whole thing up.

2. Keep it short. People’s joke attention span is very short, stretching it out for them makes them lose interest and ruins the effect of the joke.

3. Choose the right voice tone. Depending on the joke, you should slightly change the tone of your voice when you’re telling it to accentuate it.

4. Choose your words. Some words reflect “funny”, some just don’t.

5. Don’t tell it like you’re talking about a documentary. Be upbeat, into it and know how to carry the joke.

Now, tell me a good joke…

Amman’s First Charity Rock Festival

A blogospheric friend asked me, as a little favor, to post about this event that’s taking place in Jordan; and as it’s for a good deed, I could do nothing but help.

The first charity rock festival is taking place in Amman (Jordan) next Friday, May 5th. It will be at the Haya Cultural Center, in Shmeisani of course.

The open-air concert will be featuring the live local rock bands Atmosphere, Euphoria, Symphovainia and Farhan’s Band playing originals as well as covers of songs by Metallica, Megadeth, Lacuna Coil, System of a Down and more.

All the proceeds from the concert will be going to orphans.

Click on the poster or go here for more details.

German Brothel Ad Angers Muslims

Pascha, a Cologne brothel touting for clients with a World Cup-themed banner, has blacked out the flags of Iran and Saudi Arabia after alleged threats from Muslims.

The giant banner on a high-rise building shows a semi-naked woman and the flags of the 32 countries in the World Cup, which kicks off in June.

The slogan on the ad reads: “The world is a guest of female friends” – a variant of the official World Cup slogan: “The world is a guest of friends”.

The Tunisian flag – bearing the Muslim crescent symbol and a star marking the five pillars of Islam – remains on the ad, however.

It seems nobody takes us Tunisians seriously as Muslims, after all why should they if we ourselves don’t take our religion seriously anymore?

[Source: BBC News]
[Via: Thysdrus]

Practicing Islam in Space

I just read an article on NewScientist about how Malaysia’s National Space Agency is trying to determine how its astronaut candidates will practice Islam in space. Three of its four astronaut candidates are Muslim, and two will be selected for a future Russian space flight.

Once in their orbiting spacecraft, they will circle the Earth once every 90 minutes. Traditionally, Muslims pray five times per day, at times connected to the position of the Sun in the sky. This will make prayer observance a challenge if they accept a “day” as being just 90 minutes long.

Additionally, Muslims turn toward Mecca when they pray. Zooming around the Earth at 28,000 kilometres per hour might make pinpointing the exact location of Mecca pretty tricky.

There’s also a problem when it comes to ablutions, a sort of cleansing ritual, before prayer. But water is used sparingly in space and does not flow downward in microgravity.

Personally, I think these problems are superficial because Islam is an easy religion, and through its verses and the teachings of Prophet Muhammad PBUH, we know that what really counts is the will to do a certain thing such as worship, and that there are ways around to make things more practical and easier for the unable.

So, regarding the times of prayer, just like for Muslims who live close to Earth’s polar regions or at high altitudes; They should simply pick various times that would roughly correspond to their morning, noon, afternoon, sunset and night prayers.
As for praying towards the location of Mecca, if it’s impossible to pinpoint the exact location, it’s not really necessary, an estimation will do. After all, it’s the will that counts.
And when it comes to ablutions, let’s not forget that Islam started out in the Arab peninsula, so mostly desert, and they didn’t always have access to water, and so there is a process called Tayammum which is a dry form of ablution.