But does anyone know what exactly that word means?or where it originated from? I work with a Greek client (from Greece ya3ny balash gahl ) then i find him writing the word “Ola Kala” in many occasions.

So i decided to google it up and check what it means; as i did not want to look like an ignorant. So the word “Ola Kala” in greek means “Everything is fine” and it has been abbriviated to O.K in english; And then morphed into Okay and أوكى Okiez

By the way, the study of the “87%” percent at the first paragraph was totally fake but i bet you believed it

Here  are two incidents that happened the last 2 weeks.

1 - The Worm - الدودة

There is that new fancy coffee shop chains that recently opened, they opened a branch at work, so in their second day of opening, i decided to take a break from work and go get myself a treat from there. I thought a nice cake with a cup of tea would be great.

The place is in a very strategic place in the office, with a great view and comfortable seats and the prices are specially discounted for the company employees too!!! which is a really nice thing to have at work!!!

I go through all menu and chose an “Eclaire gateaux”… a few bites later, guess what i find on the plate sharing the food with me? YES! a nice huge GREEN worm!

2- The Wii Tragedy - مأساه الويى

A friend of mine was in a visit to China, i told him to get me a Wii from there as it is WAY much cheaper there(save 3500LE). I made sure to inform my friend to try the Wii there and make sure its modded so i can run my own CDs on it.

I got the device 2 days ago; and finally, yesterday i had a chance to open it. I was so damn excited, when i runned it, i discovered that everything is in Japanese, the menus, the manuals, EVERYTHING!!!

I said ok, no problem i’ll learn my way through the menus, and I took the first CD and put it in, only to discover that it doesn’t run PAL cds,,only NTSC!!!

I said ok, out of the 11 CDs i have only 1 is NTSC, i can try that one, so i put the CD in and start the game, only to discover that if the Wii language is Japanese, all the games will run with Japanese text and Japanese sounds!!!

So yea!!! I have a totally useless Wii that i cant use or run CDs on it!

 و على رأى المثل: قليل البخت يلاقى العضم فى البيتزا

• Plan ahead, make sure you plan for your upcoming trip with at least double the time you plan to travel, e.g. if you plan to travel for 3 days, start deciding up on everything 1 week before, double this time if you’re travelling abroad.
• Decide what is your target of the trip. (e.g. take photographs, relax, party or see everything around)
• Confirm who is going with you (the people with you on a trip, *REALLY* makes a huge difference on how you enjoy a trip, make sure that everyone is compatible with each other)
• If you are the guide, make sure to announce *ALL* the details to the people going, highlight the *BAD* parts first so you don’t end up with people blaming you for not telling them.
• Read a lot about the place you’re going to.
  Check WikiPedia to read about the city or country you’re going to
  check WikiTravel to read about the tourist attractions in this area
  use google books to check the Lonely Planet Guide for that city or country
  use WikiMapia to see details of areas around the place you’re going to 
  post on the the Trip Advisor forum to ask about any questions you might need to know, many people will be glad to help. 
• Google for local websites about the place you’re going to, you might find more information from the local sources
• Write a detailed plan of the trip, for example:
  Day 1 - 10:00am leave to place X
  Day 1 - 02:00pm lunch at restaurant Z
  Day 1 - 08:00pm Checkin Hotel Y
  Day 2 - 09:00am Monument visiting 
• Try to stick to the plan as much as you can, changes are possible offcourse, but only make them when necessary, also, do not forget to calculate the time you will take to travel from one place to another.
• If you’re not travelling in your own car, make sure to read well about the places you’ll take public transportation from and the times they leave. As you might plan for example to travel from X to Y at 9:00pm while the last bus leaves at 7:00pm, this might destroy your whole plan.
• Make an estimate of the budget, include an average of all the prices you might need to pay, including food, transportation accomodation and gas prices.
• Make a packing list of all what you might need in your trip, before you travel make sure you revise that list not to forget anything.
  You can use this site to create a packing list. 
• Make sure you have entertainment with you for times you spend in transportation, or at nights if you don’t have plans, for example get a book, music or some games.
• Check the weather in the place you’re going to, this is very obvious, but trust me its very important.
• If you have a GPS enabled device, try to find the GPS co-ordinates of the places you’re going to.
• Get a map of the place you’re going to, and find directions on how to get there and keep them in a handy place. Use maps.google.com for some basic maps.
• Make sure you have enough money, your visa card is working, if you’re travelling abraod, US dollars and euros are usually acceptted everywhere, check for best rates to know if you should change in your home country first or not.
• If you’re going camping or to places like a protectorate, make sure to know if you need any special permissions from authoroties.
• Have fun, if something happens, work around it, and continue to have fun

This list is dedicated to ZeroEffect as promised (long time ago )
إيه وجة الشبة بينى و الشمعدان؟

You know when you have this feeling of peace inside you?you just feel good, relaxed, welcomed and at home, there is no particular reason for that, i just felt it.

Damas is very similar to Cairo in many things, buildings, streets, shops etc. But it’s better in many ways, it’s cleaner, not crowded, traffic is respected, people dress nicely and no one is annoying or staring. The only thing missing at Damas is that it doesn’t stay awake as much as Cairo(the city that never sleeps) does

The hotel we were staying at was located at the heart of the old city (Old Damascus) it’s similar to Al-Azhar area in Cairo, the balcony overlooked a fascinating view of a very nice building of a University. The streets were not in asphalt, they were built in stones! There were a lot of fast food, juices and sweets shops around the area.

You’d be surprised at first to know that Syria doesn’t have American(or western) fast food restaurants like McDonalds, Pizza Hut etc, but you wouldn’t when you actually live there. The food there is AMAZING! AMAZING! AMAZING! all fast food restaurants sell freshly made Kobiba, Shawerma and other home made dishes. Prices for a large *ORIGINAL TASTE* shawerma sandwich in Syrian bread and pickles is 30SYL = 3LE !!! can you imagine that!

Remember there was an old Naguib el Rehany movie, with this scene where he had a friend from Levant, and he was showing him fruits, and the guy kept telling him sorry, i didn’t recognize it, it’s much bigger in my homeland. “دة خوخ دة؟ الخوخ عندنا أد كدددددة” ” دة موز دة؟ الموزة عندنا أد ككدددددة” the guy was not joking at all!!! it is very true! fruit sizes there is amazing! and it tasted EXCELLENT too, whenever you order any juice, it usually comes in HUGE cup, decorated with whipped cream, honey, fruits, cherries, and nuts. The way they treat nuts (pistachios, almonds etc) you’d feel like its worthless, like everyone has a monthly share that HAS to be used, they put it on *EVERYTHING* with huge quantities حد راح يشترى أيس كريم من سلطانة قبل كدة و طلب فستق و قالولو يدفع 4 جنية زيادة؟

Damas, like Cairo, have beggars and people selling stuff in the streets, but unlike Cairo, beggars DO NOT INSIST or bother you asking for money, if you say no, they just leave with no other words. In Cairo, we have these filthy guys selling Liquorice (عرقسوس) in the streets, with dirty cups and filthy cloth. In Damas, people use a very nicely decorated car, with very clean and nice cups, the guy is wearing clean cloth, cut his finger nails and cut his beard nicely and he DOES NOT SELL LIQUORICE, they sell Berry and Strawberry juices (عصير توت أو فريز—الفريز يعنى الفراولة بيسموها هناك كدة)

We had a walk across Souq Al Hamedeyah at night, all the shops were closed, but the walk was excellent, we saw the Ommayed Mosque (المسجد الأموى), it had *GREAT* lighting at night, not like old mosques in Cairo where a stupid illiterate person done the lighting with Neon lamps that hurts your eyes & heart from looking at it.

What amazed me the most, was that everything was clean, everything seemed to be done with a good taste, there is nothing that is out of the extraordinary, nothing weird looking, like there was an artist and architect designed the WHOLE CITY together.

People in el sham are very friendly and helpful, if you ask anyone for anything he’ll do his best to help you with a smile on his face.

Offcourse, i can’t forget the famous Kobeba…i ate a different type of kobeba everyday! they just seem not to end, there is normal kobeba (fried), kobeba labneya (with milk), mashweyea (grilled), saneya (in the oven) etc etc

In old damas, a lot of old buildings were turned into restaurants, amazing restaurants with the old style architecture decoration, food is excellent, prices are amazingly low.

Next to the capital, there is the Mount Qasyoun, a very nice place to have a walk or a drink while having a view on the whole city of damascus

PS: am really sorry, i will not be able to continue the rest of the stories, as i got very busy to write down everything when i came back, and i now forgot most of the interesting details, i will however post the rest of the pictures and videos with my comments.

Anyway, i was surfing on ThinkGeek a couple of days ago, and found they have a “Retro bluetooth headset”, it’s basically the same idea of the Pokia, but with bluetooth

So i decided to make my own, thanks to Samer for the bluetooth headset, i used the old headset from my old pokia, and changed it into a bluetooth headset

I used Motorola HS820 bluetooth headset, my Samsung D600 phone and a Bell Phone retro headset from an old phone i had.

disassembling the headset was easy

The difficult part was to fit everything
in the headset and make
the buttons and charger to work

So yea! if you see some crazy dude talking in a retro headset with no wires connected to it, thats me and my bluetooth phone

And yes, i am a crazy geek

الإشارات تكشف نواياك للأعداء….لا تستخدمها

جحا المصرى

مش عارف لية….بس أنا مستغرب رمضان أوى السنة دى….يمكن عشان خلاص إبتدى يدخل فى الصيف

أو يمكن عشان نزلت الصبح لقيت إزاز (زجاج يعنى) عربيتى مكسور من غير سبب

أو يمكن عشان لسة مدخلتش فى مود رمضان

ما علينا! المهم أن كل سنة وأنتم طيبين….أما بقى أن أنا مستغرب رمضان فدى مش مشكلتنا

“I don’t own a cell phone or a pager. I just hang around everyone I know, all the time. If someone wants to get a hold of me, they just say ‘Mitch,’ and I say ‘what?’ and turn my head slightly.”

Mitch Hedberg

Why it’s not that simple?

And I thank God that Egypt is named Egypt and not Zimbabwe or something….Why?

BECAUSE THE ONLY REASON WE ARE RANKED 60 out of 64 in the Olympics is that our name starts with an “E”!!!

Following is a list of names of all countries who achieved more medals than us:

1. China (ok)
2. USA (ok)
3. UK (ok)
4. Germany (ok)
5. Australia (ok)
6. Japan (ok)
7. Korea (ok)
8. Russia (ok)
9. Italy (ok)
10. Ukrania (leh ba2a?)
11. France (ok)
12. Romania (ok)
13. Slovakia (be2amaret eh?)
14. Netherlands (ok)
15. Czech Republic (mashy)
16. Poland (ok, ahom ete7ad oropy bardo)
17. New Zealand (ok)
18. Spain (ok)
19. Switzerland (ok)
20. Georgia (aiwa, ely bey7arbo dool)
21. Cuba (beto3 el cigar)
22. Zimbabwe (ad3′al Afrikia)
23. Azerbaijan (law 3ereft makanha 3al khareta teksab rob3 geneh)
24. Norway (ok)
25. Canda (ok)
26. DPR Korea (meen dol?)
27. Finland (ok)
28. Mongolia (Jankeez Khan?)
29. Brazil (mesh kano beto3 kora w bas?)
30. Denmark (ok)
31. Indonesia (eshme3na homa?)
32. Bulgaria (ok)
33. Ethiopia (betou3 el maga3a,,,homa dol)
34. India (aiwa, ely benetarya2 3alehom w homa a7san menena 100 mara)
35. Jamaica (Beto3 bob marley wel dema3′ wel 7agat el gamda di)
36. Thailand (ok)
37. Tunisia (mesh 3arab dol? la2 mesh 3arab…3eeb mat2olsh 3alehom keda)
38. Hungary (ok)
39. Kazakhstan (fen bezabt?)
40. Sweden (ok)
41. Belarus (!!!)
42. Turkey (ok)
43. Austria (ok)
44. Slovenia (?)
    
45. Algeria (mesh 3arab dol? la2 mesh 3arab…3eeb mat2olsh 3alehom keda)
46. Colombia (leh ya3ny!)
47. Greece (ok, le3bethom aslan!)
    
48. Kyrgyzstan (bezemetak seme3t 3anha abl keda?)
    
49. Serbia (beto3 el 7arb dol…aiwa homa dol)
    
50. Uzbekistan (meen?)
    
51. Ecuador (feen?)
    
52. Estonia (leh?)
    
53. Kenya (Akely lo7om el bashar ely benetarya2 3alehom dol!?)
    
54. Trinidad/Tobago (ad madinet nasr keda)
    
55. Vietnam (3arfenha tab3an!)
    
56. Armenia (aiwa, el balad ely nos sokanha mehagreen)
    
57. Taipei (7arb?)

So, YES! we got 1 medal! masha2allah 3alena….aho, a7san men 0 beta3 el world cup…w menha bardo nekteshef enena balad ay kalam,,,bas fen el sha3b wel 7akoma ely ye7eso?

This is a list of ALL medals Egypt won since the start of modern Olympics:

So if you can see the pattern like me..it’s كان زمان و جبر

My parents went to the north coast and wanted me to join them, but since i hate the north coast and marina, and since i couldn’t afford a vacation of work. I decided to join them on this past weekend, on their way there, my dad had a small car accident (thank God, my parents are fine) so the car is wrecked, so the plan was changed, as i will have to go pick them up from there at the end of next week as they have no car now.

So i have been staying at home alone for quite a few days, and since i had nothing planned for the weekend, i decided to go Dahab to dive. After a beautiful weekend, diving in Dahab, i come back home yesterday (Sunday at 3:30:am) after a nice 6 hours driving, dead tired and wishing for nothing but a bed to sleep!

I open the door, to smell a very disgusting smell, like a dead animal or something, i open the lights, to find the apartment floating in red smelly water.

I discovered that when i was cooking dinner on wednesday, i forgot to close the Deep Freezer properly, so obviously, at that weather, leaving it for 3 days, it melt.

And that red water is melted ice with the blood from all the meat my mom *HAS JUST* stocked for Ramadan, the smell is the moisture from leaving all that crap in this weather for 3 days.

So you can imagine me at 4:00am, dead tired, trying to clean up a HUGE mess…

My first idea, was to make a big barrel of water mixed with Clorox, soap and vinegar to clean this….right after i emptied that mix on the floor, I DISCOVERED (after living in that house for 23 years) that we don’t have a sink(بلاعة) in the kitchen!

Seconds later, water, mixed with soap, vinegar, moisture and blood, started to fill the whole apartment and ruining the carpets (the carpets that my mom brought from the dry clean 10 days ago)… I almost cried

(looked something like this, but with water, blood & soap)

I can’t tell you how much fun i had yesterday (its today early actually), i got no sleep at all, and everything still smells like a dead raccoon. Not to mention how much my mom is frustrated at me, she just wants to kill me.

IF ONLY MY PARENTS DIDN’T GO TO MARINA!!!! (one more reason why not to go to marina & the north coast!)

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