charaf-notes
Spontaneous recording of events and the reflection of happenings on my daily life.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
The phenomenal dream.
I dreamed of me walking -Call of duty style- by the fence of the Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria Univerisity, on that street where we used to utilize the many stationeries for photocopying, obtaining handouts and similar stuff. It is a warm sunny winter early morning (a favorite weather to many) people are going past the parked vehicles on the two sides of the street. The ambient music running in the background was not coming from an iPod or a similar player. It was coming from everywhere, comfortably loud, covering the whole place, and I am loudly singing every word of that song.
Till this moment I thought it was just another sweet dream for most of people. Nothing special. I then realized some facts; The music was by my all time favorite band: Pink Floyd, and the very specific song playing in my head was "Time"!! The very distinctive part of this song says:
Tired of lying in the sunshine
Staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today
And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun
Another fact: Today is a day in November 2010. Complete ten years has past since I graduated(Mid November 2000).
It might be a coincidence that I dream of such a song as I love it to the bone. But why do I dream of the whole scene at that time specifically at that specific time? Is it a sign that my time is getting wasted? Do I need to put on some more thoughts on what I am doing in life? Or is it just another combination of bitter sweet moments that I should let go?
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Goddess of Wisdom.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Friday, December 12, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Howa Keda
This is the new way of treatment. We rabena yostor 3alena.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
We live in crazy times
time to create well-elaborated, robust system designs. If you're not fast enough, flexible enough, and cheap enough, you'll soon find yourself out of the market."
-Nicolai M. Josuttis, SOA in practice
Monday, March 31, 2008
My Cubicle
As you can see, my cubicle is located on a strategic place. It is just next to the main entrance to the work area, so every single person has to pass by me first, distracting me and some even come and say hello. I really can't concentrate at work.
If you look to the left you will find a part of the pigeon holes, which are like the post box for everybody, so people usually come to take their mail and they never come in quiet. They have to chat over it.
Behind the pigeon holes is the kitchen, where people usually talk loud while making their coffee.
Happy me!!
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Friday, December 28, 2007
Bucharest Airport
As I reached the transit desk, leading to the departure halls, a beautiful lady officer stopped me, and informed me that I have to wait for some official from TAROM to come and check my boarding pass, and that my current boarding pass is not good for the flight. During this a male officer (like the old good ones in Egypt) came to me, with suspicious looks in his eyes, maybe just because i am from the middle east. He asked me politely to give him my passport and about my destination. He then started checking every page of the passport to see if I was forging my photo, then he checked every single visa I've got to see if it is forged. He then asked me to wait in my place and he took my passport and went to check it. In a long 10 minutes he was back with my passport with all the frustration in his own eyes, because he was not successful to stop me!!
I was then informed by the nice lady officer that I have to wait here till the TAROM official arrives. That was for 30 minutes after which the arrogant TAROM bitch arrived. Reminded me of the black widows working for some companies or the airport in Egypt. (Why they look similar). An aggressive look, a frown, little talk, and a look that would say you son of a bitch!!
After a while I was allowed to get my boarding pass and pass by the gate only to find a small airport that is much less elaborate than the Cairo airport. Eastern beauties were everywhere, but were not really tempting to me. They were just cheap!!
I tried to figure out what currency do these people use and how much of a Euro or a GBP is their currency but I couldn't get this info. Some shops were selling things in USD or Euros, others were selling in RON (the Romanian currency). Anyways I was not really very interested in buying anything so I went to the smoking zone to smoke a good Egyptian Marlboro then here I am sitting next to Gate 4 waiting for my connection flight to London, expecting a tough entry clearance as usual.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Cairo Airport
On a wide screen infront of me are the breaking news of assassinating benazir bhutto.
I was lucky to find this electricity outlet for my mobile and more lucky to find the mobinil wifi to be working and for free.
will be flying to bucharest (as I am using the romanian airlines). Then will have transit for 3 hours or little less (or maybe more) then another plane to london. Heathrow.
Inspite of the very bad bad flu that attacked me yesterday night, and despite my bad mood of this, I am still feeling excited to this trip. I hope it goes well.
I was expecting the officer in the airport to stall me for half an hour because of the similarity of my name to other people who are wanted, but he looked at my passport, found lots of check ins and check outs, then decided that he doesn't need to stall me anymore. They usually leave me go easily when i am leaving the country, but never when i am coming back in. I just hope things go well this time. :)
Thursday, November 8, 2007
The Survival Trip
Long ago back in 2003, it was my first visit to Europe. I didn't know yet that airlines were cheaper than land vehicles.
I was in Hamburg, Germany, and I wanted to visit the UK over the weekend, so I decided to get into some bus that was going there.
I looked at the map and found that the bus would go west to Belgium then a little bit to the left to Calais, France, then via the Channell Tunell to Dover, UK.
I didn't know that this was named the survival trip by people who know it; The bus headed south along Germany till it reached Frankfurt, then to the left, into France, then back to the north to Belgium, only to go again to the west to France once more till it reached Calais. The reason was to load the bus. It started almost empty and went allover western europe to collect people!!
The unforgettable trip took me 16 hours!!
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
The Unexpected Rain
Those of you who are reading my blog for a long time now, might remember the article I wrote some several years ago, titled "It's raining in Cairo". Since that time, it only rained twice. Usually it boils down to some water dropplets over some regions.
Today was an exceptional day. Thunder, lightning, and real rain was the case. I don't believe that this has happened in Cairo for the last decade. I might be wrong.
Of course, Cairo is not prepared for this. Streets got flooded. People panicked. Some put on winter clothes, although the weather is hot :). For us, Egyptians, rains are tightly correlated with winter, and cold weather. The first effect always goes to traffic.
What makes this weird is that there are no rains in Alexandria, which means that this is not coming from the Sea. In the mean time, news are talking about the rise in the water level of the river Nile. Could it be the case? Well, if so, then this might be a new phenomenon. I will try to follow up and update as I find something.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
The Hard Times!
The social market economy is being replaced by a global market economy, and the marketing guys rule the world. As a consequence, you have to be fast and flexible to survive.
It's a renaissance of Darwinism.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Girls are like apples - hehehe
---------------are like apples----------------
----------on trees. The best ones----------
--------are at the top of the tree.----------
------The boys don't want to reach--------
-----for the good ones because they-----
--are afraid of falling and getting hurt.--
Instead, they just get the rotten apples-
--from the ground that aren't as good,--
-but easy. So the apples at the top think
-something is wrong with them, when in
----reality, they're amazing. They just----
-----have to wait for the right boy to-----
--------come along, the one who's--------
------------- brave enough to---------------
------------------climb all---------------------
----------------- the way---------------------
-----------------to the top-------------------
----------------of the tree.------------------
Monday, May 14, 2007
Sefty frest
Lubber Bad.
Kaffar Bad.
One Day Go.
One Day Fix.
One Day Go.
Sefty Frest, Sefty Frest.
Ok, folks here is the story :)
I recall my friend Kohail telling me a story about this technician responsible for vehicles and their safety in that big big company.
When they took this old car to him, and he checked on this car, the former phrases were what he said.
Eshnine eat oil = means Engine eats oil, and this is the transliteration from arabic which means that the engine is leaking oil.
Lubber bad = means the tires are bad (they are made of rubber, this is also a transliteration)
Kaffar bad = Cover bad, and cover here means the hood, and he wanted to say that the whole mechanical parts of the car need maintenance.
One Day Go, One Day Fix, One Day Go = he says the car will take three days to be fixed a day to send it somewhere, then another day to get fixed there, then a third day to get it back.
Then he says his everyday motto: Sefty Frest, Sefty Frest = Safety First, Safety Firs
Sunday, May 13, 2007
The Monkeys perception.
who is conducting some training here to be sitting to the cubicle next
to mine. My attention was not that aware of him till he started to
talk on the phone. I was first fascinated with the accent, trying hard
to pick up as much words as I can in a hard attempts to fix some of
mine.
Fortunately the handsets here are very good that I could hear the
other party, it was his little little daughter.
After some basic chat between a father and his daughter, I realized
that the little girl's perception was that her dad is in this country
with camels and monkeys!!!
So the father, deceiving his daughter, was just asserting that he was
there in this store with monkeys sold !!!
He then started talking to his wife, mentioning that unexpectedly
found 5 storeys shopping mall he just visited!!
I have no comment!!
--
Sincerely yours;
Mohamad A. Charaf.
Monday, March 19, 2007
I wonder
Sunday, February 11, 2007
The horizon tells it all
I was urged to abandon Alexandria years ago, seeking the hard earned paycheck in Cairo, which is an every day scenario for alexandrians, living in a cerntralized country like Egypt where every aspect of life -well the bare necessities for most of us- is only found in the Capital.
Having to go to Alexandria every weekend to restore my dignity and self respect there, I turned to lose the feeling of home. I couldn't be so sure whether I am a native proud Alexandrian, or accept the fact that my official Address is in one of the most polluted cities in the world, Cairo.
This time it was a nice quiet friday in Alexandria, on the great Lord's month of february, with all the features of an adorable winter in sweet Alexandria, my home town.
My mom decided to visit her sister after the Prayers and I had to be driving -well it makes sense to drive my family on my day off in return for the years of suffering they had had to raise me up- although I really don't feel well going there because of the biter memories I have of this house, my aunt's husband's continous fights with everyone. I was not an exception.
Going up the 80 year's old notorious elevator that has been a major cause of lots of accidents I was really worried about my mom and sister, they would not bear to fall down the 8 levels we were climbing!! well neither would I survive as well, but I don't care about me, not anymore.
We reached the door of the appartment, and my sister rushed to ring the bell, and after a while that was as usual not acceptablly long, here comes my aunt with her slow steps and vague look to open the door for us, and again there was the usual odor of some food that is being cooked, and it smelled!!
Reaching this limit I was really as frustrated and depressed as most of you who are reading this right now :)
Well, now comes the bright side of the story, It happens that a virtue of my aunt's place is that it is located directly on the sea, the generous furious sea of Alexandria, with this nice balcony that allowed me to escape everything for a while, well a little while.
Looking at the infinity and tracing the horizon to the right and left is not only good for your sight, it is also one heal for your soul. Now look for a little while at the photo above, that was captured with my mobile phone, and imagine that Antonio Vivaldi is playing his four seasons in the background, and see yourself standing at this location with a cozy coat and a steaming hot mug of cafe mocha, while you are lighting a marlboro*.... Well I was there!!
It was a perfect mood to wipe out most of the burdens of life, and the stress of being an alien in my very own homeland. A mood to make me forget for a while that my own personal stuff are not safely located because my grandmother is most probably ditching them somewhere in this very moment. A mood to give me the freedom of virtual mobility in the vast space to cure the feeling of restriction with no decent means of transportation in Cairo, and losing 16 percent of my life in a low grade raptured disk proviking bus.
One needs a horizon for a very little while, every once in a while.
* They say that smoking kills, well, we are gonna die anyways.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Kids below 25
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
i dont get along with kids
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
below 25 years
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
dont u know this?
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
i just feel hostile
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
and they feel frightened
Mother Nature says:
laih basssssssssss
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
because little kids are usually causing lots of noise
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
and secretions
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
and i hate both
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
and they just dont know when to stop
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
and when to hit the road
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
and when to stay and cause more trouble
Mother Nature says:
laih bass
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
i only managed to be a friend with a little girl, she is around 4 yrs old
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
she is the daughter of a friend of mine.
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
she is exactly like her mom, so I could manage
Mother Nature says:
hahahaah
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
and this is the only girl i could deal with
Mother Nature says:
YA RAB ASHOUFLAK 5 3iyal kida
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
I would say , ya rab 1 only.
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
i dont like lots of kids
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
they are resource depleting and an overhead on the mom.
Mother Nature says:
mate2la2sh ...they are the most pure things in the world... loua il atefal fil doniya di kanet il 7ayh teb2a sa3ba wi gaffa..
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
and their efficiency as a closed system is below 10%
Mother Nature says:
laih baaaaaaaaaaaaaaas
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
and their payback is very late
Mother Nature says:
ya sater laih kidaaaaaaaaaa
ANTI_KIDS_NERD says:
and not guaranteed
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Java RAD Vs. Microsoft .net
During my working years as a Java developer, and holding the flag of Java on Oracle(well even before I became officially an Orcle Staff) I was always tempted to know how is it going at the other side of the competition, how do you, Microsoft Guys work?
I was really neither convinced that I had to change my belief and work for some company as a "Microsoft developer" to discover this, nor was I convinced that I have to purchase, download, or borrow a book on .net and start at my free time, because my free time is for me, not for Microsoft :) and I was not convinced to sacrifice it.
It happened that I ve got the golden opportunity to help a friend with a project with my expertise as a developer, and guess what? it was a .net project, and I had to roll up my sleeves and get down into the .net development environment to discover the fantasies of microsoft.
I have found that when you need to display a table's data, you just drag and drop what was called a data grid, then a wizard appears and voila, you have got your table. In literally 15 seconds!!!! Amazing, really it was.
Wait, wait. Don't speculate. I am not by any means deciding now that it is microsoft that prevails. On the other side, i have known the reality about it all :) It just prevents unexperienced developers from getting experienced, and make them stick to its wizards and remain as such.
On the other side, to do this in Java, you had to do this by yourself, to the latest details, and I mean it. Most of you understand what I mean so I won't get into technical details.
I was just amazed by the idea that I can finish a .net project in a tenth of the time if it is a straight forward with some lists and lookups, which is the case for small projects. so what the heck? why don't I just be somehow unethical, and buy this?
Then I thought that if I am going to buy it, I would buy it smart. I would search for a counterpart for this within my side.
What I have discovered then that I have a typical similar environment to build applications like the .net development environment called Oracle JDeveloper 10g.
JDeveloper as an IDE is not more than a fancy editor that I really admire(well, I have go to do this as an Oracle staff anyways :). But digging down in the Oracle ADF framework, and its integration into JDeveloper 10g, I have displayed the data of a table into a web page with all the whistles and wheels (a.k.a. paging and navigation) in less than 3 minutes. And I have not wrote a single line of code. It was all drag and drop of objects into GUI and here is my first page in the application up and running, hot, straight and normal.
You can discover this for yourself.Point your browser to:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/obe/obe9051jdev/adftojsp/defaultendtoend.htm
and do the tutorial. You will like it.
You could also check the page suggested by Steve Muench in his comment to this blog via the url:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/adf/learnadf.html
In my humble opinion, it gives an edge over .net because it is as easy as .net, meanwhile I have the full power and flexibility to tweak, change, modify and enhance my old plain java code sitting behind.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
The transformation of the city
Alexandria is presumed to be a beautiful city. Some people claim that it is beautiful for the sea, other say it is because of its citizens, and most of them believe that buildings are the real reason. Comparing to Cairo, Alexandria is still not a Forrest of cement, dust, and pollution as is the case in Cairo.
Nowadays, someone has decided that there has to be equality between Alexandria and Cairo, and both must have the same Forrest, so the law to ban destruction of villas is outdated and everyone with a heritage is selling it to a building tycoon to raise a 20 story building to gain more money, make poor people just poorer and make this city as ugly as he can.
Rabena 3al zalem wel moftary we ebn bent el .... :-)
Sunday, April 9, 2006
SWIFT
ANB SWIFT service allows customers to perform money transfer outside the kingdom with any currency or inside the kingdom with a foreign currency.
Sunday, April 2, 2006
Lebanese Colors
Lately, I have discovered a very nice place, called Lebanese Colors. It is located at this new area beside acacia and county club. One of the virtues of Lebanese Colors, besides the cutie chicks of course, is Shisha. :). Shisha is really good, balanced, served in a nice way, and coal is changed regularly.
Although, the prices are a little bit high, and sometimes you just can't find a nice place on a soft, but their moonlight(cocktail) is a milestone. :)
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Saturday, March 18, 2006
To cap it all
An example from the dictionary:
"He spilled red wine on the carpet, insulted my mother, and, to cap it all, he broke my favourite vase."
Hyundai
A farmer who decided to leave his parents and live in the city, started a rice shipping company. At that time the Japanese were colonizing Korea, and they stopped anyone from flourishing a business. This farmer was no exception. His business was stopped.
A stubborn and ambitios one like this farmer decided to start over with an auto repair garage, where he used to repair the Japanese cars and sell used spare parts as if they are brand new.
Today, This garage is one of the biggest Auto manufacturers globalwide!!
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Friday, March 25, 2005
Cuba Cabana
Last Friday was a real nice experience for me. I went out with my friend Ayman.
Ayman took me to a place that is new to me; it is called "Cuba Cabana". Cuba cabana is located at the heart of Maadi, a place that is very nice to be in and very difficult to navigate through.
We reached a place that immediately reminded me of "Tijuana", where I used to have nice time there with my friends from IBM.
Both places are similar, you get the same feeling as soon as you slide in, a feeling that all your problems are gone, and that you are a filthy rich man, whose sole problem now is to indulge one self.
You find a place that is totally Cuban, short palm trees, cozy couches, fire spots exotic colorful juices, and lots of smoke, mostly from shisha, though should be from cigars.
Cuba cabana is richer than Tijuana, because it has this wireless LAN, those big TFT screens, and the correct type of music.
The menu is really nice, always head for a fajita pronounced "Fahita".
You will get all what you need for a price that is really cheaper than its counterparts, much cheaper.
Spin Doctor
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Rain man
MBC 2 was playing "Rain Man" by Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, an old but authentic movie. Last time I saw it was about 5 to 10 years, dont remember, but it is really a nice one, and affecting as well.
Saturday, December 25, 2004
It is raining in Cairo.
Then you look up at any building to find people looking out of their windows, stretching hands and heads in a childish manner to experience the rain fall over them.
Wonderful people !!! :)
Monday, December 20, 2004
Tabasco - The heavenly place in Zamalek.
Tabasco is a nice Cafe, basically an underground corridor, i.e. a long and narrow place, in the nice district of Zamalek, somewhere near the dorms of the AUC.
Despite its dimensions, the owner of the place knows exactly what people want from a place such like this, so he has arranged the place and equipped it with everything you would need as an AUCian -the premiere guests- or as a normal persion ;-)
You will definitly notice the Red neon light at the facade of the place, which grabs the attention of people passing by, well, I think that was the way samir got to know the place.
You get in to find a shelf to your left, with magazines that you can read if you are alone, then two rows of tables with different types of chairs and sofas, and you can suit yourself.
Pick up the menu and take the notorious Cafe Mocha.
You will really like it.
If you have your laptop, like everyone else in this place, you make yourself comfortable that there is an internet access point there, so you can check your mail or even flirt online ;-)
I really liked this place, and wish you can pay it a visit one day.
Friday, December 17, 2004
Rewsha is wicked
That is what my brother said. I believe him.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Shahrzad
Samir picked the wrong person to accompany him, he picked me. He tried the whole previous week to make it simple for me to go to such a place. I was really convinced.
Then came the D-day, and we are standing in front of the place, and here comes the doorman, or the club tender, you name him, we all know what do they call him ;-) and he started doing his work on Samir, convincing him to enter. We entered......
Just three steps inside, to find a red dark place, with very low light, dark red chairs, and black tables, then a third degree belly dancer going from one table to the other, greeting the guests, and we were received by another lady that was most probably a man and converted, i.e. a trans-sexual. And here I decided that I have got enough of this. I returned backwards.
We have spent the whole night till 3:50 AM searching for another place that was not expensive and was not that low, but we didn't find.
For me, I was satisfied to see such a place, and know that there are real mean places in this city, Cairo.
Wednesday, December 1, 2004
Nathan D. Muir
Nathan D. Muir (Robert Redford, Spy Game movie 2001).
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
"heela hob" synchronizing, The Egyptian way.
While I was driving my way to work, I passed by an accident; a car just got over the pavement, half up half down. And there is no way the driver could get it down, so the only way to get it down was using the forces of Egyptian men and their bare hands.
As Everyone here offers help by instinct, people decided to lift up the car and get it back to the streets, and here comes the heritage they all know while being raised, without even thinking about it. The way to synchronize their forces of lift to get the car back to the street, comes when one of them start the most infamous call, "Heela Hob" , and everybody know that with the very prompt end of his call every one will give the car a push with a lateral movement to move it an inch. And again another Heela Hob and a third one, and the car is back to the streets.
Every nation has got its very own way to synchronize.