Guess The Movie From The Quotes

Well, every once in a while I’m in the mood for a little game of guessing or what if, …etc; This time I thought why not put it on the blog.

The following are a number of quotes from a really cool movie that has achieved cult film status, and which is among my personal faves of all time. See if you can guess the movie from the quotes; should be quite easy for any movie fan.

– What the cops never figured out, and what I know now, was that these men would never break, never lie down, never bend over for anybody. Anybody.

– The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.

– How do you shoot the devil in the back? What if you miss?

– To a cop the explanation’s always simple. There’s no mystery to the street, no arch criminal behind it all. If you find a body and you think his brother did it, you’re gonna find out you’re right.

– I used to dehydrate as a kid. One time it got so bad my piss came out like snot. I’m not kidding, it was thick and gooey.

– And like that…he’s gone.

There are many cooler quotes from this movie, but they’d make it too easy to guess.

So did you guess what film these quotes are from?

Take That – Beautiful World

It might not be information that a lot of people know about me, or that a lot of people would be openly proud of, but I was actually a fan of Take That back in the 90’s, in my teenage years; although when you come to think of it, I was more a fan of Gary Barlow than the whole band, because it was the songs he wrote and sang that I liked the most.

Anyway, ten years after their split, Take That re-united last year and launched a number of reunion concerts in the UK that were very successful, and so they decided to work on some new material; the result of that effort is the album “Beautiful World“, which moves towards a more adult pop/rock style.

I bought the album when I was in Take That’s hometown Manchester last January, and I’ve been listening to it in my car over the past weeks.

This album is the kind of album you have to listen to a number of times before you fully appreciate it, it’s quite different from Take That’s previous albums, but still it’s the one album you can actually refer to as a true Take That album. I’ll explain; in the previous albums, most of the songs were written and performed by Gary Barlow, with only a song or two by one of the other band members per album. In this album, most of the songs were written by all of Take That, and all the band members got to sing, which makes it quite different in its style and feel. At first it even feels as thought it’s just a compilation of a number of solo projects by each band member, but then after listening to it a number of times, you see how they blend together in one album.

My favourite song off this album has to be “Patience“, performed by Gary Barlow, which was the first single off the album and shot straight to #1.

Some of my other faves off this album are: Shine (second single, also #1), Beautiful World, Reach Out, Mancunian Way, Wooden Boat.

I recommend this album to everyone who is into the pop/rock sound, and of course to anyone who was a Take That fan before; It could take some getting used to at first, but you’ll end up loving this album.

Buy it now!

Twenty Eight

I became 28 years old yesterday…
It was my first birthday with my son Adam around… So that definitely made it special…
It was celebrated at our place with my wife, son, parents and sister…

So how do I feel now that I’m one year older?
Well, exactly the same…
I’ll quote myself on my 26th birthday: “To me, it’s just the same as 25, 24, 23, …etc. It’s just a number really. How much we obsess about it is what makes the difference,” and well I don’t really care about stuff like that.
Maybe in 2 years time, when I become thirty, I’ll actually feel something, and then again, maybe not, I guess we’ll just wait and see.

Anyway, what are my plans for this upcoming new year on earth?
Well, I don’t know yet, but it’s promising to be an interesting one from the unexpected events that have started to unravel over the past few days, with a number of possible changes and some big decisions to make. More details about that will be made public when possible; For the time being, please wish me luck.

[09/03/07] News Bytes From Tunisia

A round-up of some of the interesting news coming out of Tunisia these days…

The 2007 Davos World Economic Forum Report ranks Tunisia first in Africa, second in the Arab World after Dubai, and 34th in the world in terms of tourist and travel competitiveness. The report is based on three main criteria: business environment, human and natural resources and the quality of political reforms undertaken.

According to figures released February 23rd by the National Office for the Family and Population, the percentage of Tunisians over the age of 60 reached 9% last year, and it is expected to reach nearly 29% by 2050. The percentage of people over 80 will reach 40% by 2050. At no more than 1.8%, the population growth rate in Tunisia is considered the lowest in the Arab world and is comparable with that found in European countries.
These figures will have an important impact on ensuring the necessary workforce during the next decade, as well as on the social security funds and retirement systems. The three solutions suggested up to now are: reducing pensions, raising fund entry prices and extending the retirement age to 65 instead of 60.

Tunisia’s key olive oil exports jumped by 53 per cent to 167,700 tonnes last year. The value of Tunisia’s olive oil exports surged to 828.9 million dinars ($643 million) last year from 476.7 million in 2005 as a drop in output from top producer Spain underpinned prices. Tunisia’s domestic olive crop grew to 220,000 tonnes from 130,000 tonnes in 2005, and a crop of 170,000 tonnes is expected this year.

A book recently released retraces the history of Tunisian cinema over the past forty years.

What Is Happiness?

Throughout the history of mankind, one of the main objectives of the human race, if not the core one behind every other objective, has been to attain happiness.
In fact, Aristotle stated that happiness is the only thing that humans desire for its own sake. He observed that men sought riches not for the sake of being rich, but to be happy. Those who sought fame desired it not to be famous, but because they believed fame would bring them happiness.

But what is happiness?

The dictionary says happiness is:
1. joy, the emotion of being happy.
2. Good luck; good fortune; prosperity.
3. An agreeable feeling or condition of the soul arising from good fortune or propitious happening of any kind; the possession of those circumstances or that state of being which is attended enjoyment; the state of being happy; contentment; joyful satisfaction; felicity; blessedness.

But what is it that makes us happy?

Some of the states associated with happiness include success, delight, health, safety, contentment, wealth, fame and love.
But still, being wealthy, healthy, loved, safe or the whole lot together doesn’t guarantee a person to be happy.

Happiness, I think, is unquantifiable and undefinable, because we don’t know what will really make us happy; we do things to reach certain goals in an attempt to gain happiness, but it’s not always the case, and we often find ourselves reaching goals that do nothing for us.

On the other hand, some things as small as a child’s smile, a word from the heart, a passing thought, a nod of appreciation, a moment for yourself can make you feel happy.

Happiness is complicated and simple at the same time, depending on how a person looks at life, I guess.

“How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea… All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart.”

— Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

It’s also impossible to define happiness because it’s different for every single person.

Happiness to me is being with my wife and son, a fruitful fulfilling day at work, knowing that my close family are doing well, coming up with a new cool idea, reading a good book, taking a dip in a beautiful cold clear-watered sea, being able to indulge in one of my favourite pass-times, treating myself or my small family to some the things we want… and the list goes on… and to me, happiness obviously lies in the small details and things of life.

What is happiness to you?

Career Advice: Look Ahead

A friend came to me the other day for some career advice regarding moving to a new job, and I found myself repeating a piece of advice I’ve given some other friends and colleagues before.
I thought I’d share this piece of advice here, maybe it’ll come in handy for someone someday.

The idea is as follows, whenever you’re considering moving to a new job, don’t think about that next job, think about the job after it: consider what the different options you have for your next job will do to enable you to get to the job after it, and then choose.

A person should try and work out a basic outline for his ideal career life, with different points along that line marking the different positions he’ll have to go through to get to his goal.

At every point on that line, when he’s thinking about moving to another point, he should look ahead and see if the point he’s moving to will help build him up for the point after it.

Of course the world doesn’t always throw the best options at us, and that’s why we have to think this way and choose what’s best for our careers, even if it means not moving to a new job, and if that is not an option, then we have to choose the job that can best be an intermediary point along the line, that will give us some of the skills and experience we’ll need in the future.

In short, whenever someone is about to take a step forward in his professional life, he has to try and look ahead as far as possible to know where he wants to get to, and then take the necessary steps to get there.

Holy Land, Holy Blood

Over 5,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army since 2000. Since the outbreak of the second Palestinian Intifada in September 2000, until late January 2007, the Israeli army has killed 5,050 Palestinian men, women and children, wounded 49,760 others and detained 10,4000 others. 351 Palestinian women have been killed, 150 patients have died at checkpoints and 66 others have been killed due to beating by Israeli settlers. 36 medical staff have been killed, 9 members of the press, and 220 sportsmen.

According to B

World’s Fattest Countries

Tunisia ranks #86 in the index of the World’s Fattest Countries, which I guess means we’re pretty fit compared to people in a lot of other countries.

The top 10 of the world’s fattest countries goes as follows:

1. Nauru
2. Micronesia
3. Cook Islands
4. Tonga
5. Niue
6. Samoa
7. Palau
8. Kuwait
9. United States
10. Kiribati

You can go on and check the full list of the world’s fattest countries.

[Via: 2:48AM]