downloading conscience

It's hard to have a conscience with downloading when you do not live in the US and the UK.
For a couple of years now I've been trying to develop one. I signed up for buy.com so i can buy my music and got tricked into bogus movie sites but gave up.
This morning i decided to download Milk. I didn't feel any guilt about it because i know such a movie would never come out here. I also like to think that artists in general wouldn't mind if i download their stuff if there's no way i could actually legally get them, it's art and should be appreciated even by those that can't be reached by it.
Then i got distracted and started downloading a few other films but then i remembered, i can go see them in the movie theaters when they come out, why bother - so i cancelled all those downloads.

I think I'm making progress :) Next step is to actually use that buy.com account of mine....

I'm just surprised as to why there's no one big popular site where one can legally purchase films and download them instead of running to the DVD store (or wait till someone comes from abroad) to get them.... and itunes doesn't count coz not everyone has an ipod...

My fat thumb!

I don't think that you're born beautiful. I think god gives each individual good things and bad things and then sees how you work them. For example crooked teeth, there is no beauty what so ever in crooked teeth, yet it's god gives them a lot of the times. How you get people who are naturally better looking than others is because some people fix things - braces, nose jobs, contacts; and some people accentuate the right things through make-up, hair; some people take good care of themselves like skin care, teeth whitening, cleanliness; and of course there are some people who are more lucky than others - i.e. they have more good things and fewer bad things about them.

If i apply it to myself, i think god has done a pretty darn good job! (Thanks, Big Guy)Mostly everything i would change or have already changed about me is completely self inflicted. I'm not arrogant, i'm just fair.

The big exception is my fat thumb!
It is the one thing that is not self inflicted. You see my thumb has a really wide joint so no matter what it will stay the same size. Now you might think to yourself, what a self-absorbed post that is, but i tell you it affects my life greatly. As a kid i had to endure lots and lots of jokes about it. It's always a challenge to shape and paint the nail in a way that makes it look less stupid.

Another thing is Bowling! I can never bowl properly! Just can't find the right ball. I'm not that strong so i need a light ball but the lighter the ball the smaller the finger and thumb holes are. Now finger holes are no problem, but then as I throw my ball it always gets stuck in my thumb and takes a split second to wiggle out of there and all the technique i try to put in there is ruined, and i end up with a score of 32 after a full game.
Now i could take the bigger balls - sizes 14 and up, but they are super heavy. Since they are much heavier, i can never throw well enough to score.

This is why i am pretty sure god didn't set out for me to become a professional or even a decent bowling player.
He has different plans. I hope they are just as fun, coz i think bowling is a lot of fun.




_____________________________
Dear future husband;
You might need to re-think our future couples bowling night. Perhaps couples guitar hero night?

Thanks dear
x
Luli

fall back careers

Over the weekend I spent some time in Alex contemplating my Plan Bs Cs and Ds for my career. It's always a good thing to have.
It’s also a good way to escape from having to make some serious decisions – which, if ever selected to be an Olympic sport, I’d be the Michael Phelps of. (Minus the bong… ok who am I kidding, bring on the bongs)
One option was to just move back home come September and put an end to my big city adventures. Can't be that bad huh? And then I could pick a new line of work and start from scratch again, perhaps wait out this economic shit till things we better and I can execute my "get the f outta here" (GTFOH) plan.
The other option was to explore the marriage for club membership option. Just like people get paid to marry people and keep them in the country, in Egypt that can be done to give your club membership to someone. But after some pondering I decided to make that Plan Z - stuck in prison, need bail money type situation.
Then I thought maybe I should explore my sitcom writer dream. I am so prepared to stick it out being some writer’s beeatch for some time - get coffees, pick up dry cleaning and basically eat shit so I can at some point write some funny sarcastic scripts. Instead of the MBA I’m beating myself about I could just apply for another program that qualifies me to do that. There has to be some sit-com writing course somewhere. And competition can't be that fierce, I mean how many people grow up thinking they want to become sit-com writers. It seems like something someone would settle to after failing to become a stand-up comedian or a novel writer or a movie script writer....
I'll call that plan D....
I didn’t come around to a viable Plan B or C…. And here’s why! An Olympic Gold Medalist in Decision Evasion doesn’t become a gold medalist by making viable plans that can work out eventually. That is for losers!

Next weekend, I’ll try and brain storm reasons why my Plan A can't be all that bad..

Till then....It's Sunday - definitely not Funday!

the first "first" of the year!

When i reminded myself that i need to experience new things in life i did not mean this particular first. But Alas, what's done is done.
Today marked a new first. The first time i got scammed! I signed up for www.tvmaximum.com thinking it will give me access to a database of torrents or streaming options so i can follow my series without hearing "you're screwing up my share ratio" from my brother and without putting up with mininova's limited seeders (seriously people, sharing is caring).
The website seemed pretty cool and user friendly. And at 39 US Dollars, for an unlimited membership, i was not ready to complain at all.
I probably should have googled it first so see if there's something fishy about it, but i did not.
So i signed up, and paid with my credit card and got the user name and password. As i excitedly browsed the website it took me about 10 minutes to understand that i have been scammed. The website gives you instructions on how to browse the internet for torrents and download them, and recommends which programs to use. And i paid almost 40 dollars for that.
Bastards.

So i reluctantly called the bank to see if i can stop this transaction. The very helpful agent seemed a little entertained by my fuck up and told me that it's already been taken out from my credit, so tough luck. So i asked him if i should cancel my credit card or not, and he came back with a wise-ass answer "if you don't trust the website then yes, cancel it and we'll send you a new one" so i told him "well since they obviously scammed me i do not trust them" and stopped myself from saying "duh!"
After i hung up i took out my scissors and cut my dear credit card into pieces and threw it out.

And the stupidity award for the day goes to?

Speed Dating in Cairo

So with valentine coming up, and me having some free time at work this week, my mind is drifting off all the time...

So i was thinking, why is there no speed dating in Cairo? It would be easy to organize, just get a venue, everyone pays 100 L.E., post an open event on Facebook and there you have it.
Personally, i think it's a great idea! first off the ticket price would control a little who would come, you have 5 minutes to decide, so if you meet Mr. Creepy Creeperson you would only have to spend 5 minutes with them. You could decide to give guys your email account or Facebook account as a test first, or buy a new sim to receive the call(s) which you can throw out if you end up with a stalker.

You could hold it in different venues to attract different crowds with a different entry charge, that way you give people a chance to meet. It would be like chaperoned dating so it could also be very islam-friendly

hm, why not?

'08 was a good year for Tom Cruise

Yesterday i went to the cinema - initially we were going to see Bride Wars - but the two boys with us decided they don't want to go to a chick flick and we ended up in Valkyrie.

It's pure coincidence that i blog about this topic two times in a row.



I really liked the movie, even though i heard a few people say it was not good. Since the beginning of the movie, you know the ending - it's a true story so we all know that Hitler did not die as a result of an assassination plot. The interesting thing is that despite of your knowledge, for a brief part of the movie, you sat in anticipation experiencing what those men experienced only briefly - Hope. Hope that the mission succeeded, and that in fact the 15th and final known attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler would be successful.

Entering the film and at the beginning i questioned, how are they going to make it interesting, how are they going to get us to experience this, when we all know what happened. And somehow they pulled it off.

So aside from the poor pronunciation of German names, and a blooper with the type writer keyboard not being German ones even though they were shown typing in German (the place of the Z and Y are exchanged in a German Keyboard - in the movie they were not) i say the movie was a success.

Good Job Tom Cruise - first Tropic Thunder, now this.



Once I got home, as expected i ran to wikipedia, and decided to brush up on my knowledge. And of course wikipedia gives you info that they never taught at school, like Hitler's surviving relatives. He has 3 remaining descendants - sons/daughters of his nephew. They live in the US, and even though they changed their names, one of them has the middle name Adolf, and their new last name is remarkably similar to that of famous British anti-Semitic ideologist.

There are rumors that they have a pact to not reproduce but it's unconfirmed. I guess even if they wanted to reproduce, i doubt it's easy find someone who would want to share DNA with that family!



Next movie: Bride Wars!

Nazi Dr. Death lived in Cairo!

"One of the world's most wanted Nazi war criminals died 17 years ago in Egypt, the German public broadcaster ZDF reported Wednesday."

"The network says research it conducted with the New York Times shows that Aribert Heim died in Cairo in 1992, according to ZDF's Web site."

"The investigation found that Heim lived under the false name of Tarek Farid Hussein in Cairo until August 10, 1992, when he died of intestinal cancer. "

"ZDF says it has spoken to Heim's son, Ruediger Heim, who told the broadcaster that his father fled Germany to Egypt via France, Spain and Morocco.Ruediger Heim told ZDF that he visited his father in Cairo several times, including in the final weeks of his life when the terminal cancer was discovered."

Source: CNN

I followed that story months ago, this is an unexpected twist!It would make a good movie...

He probably sat at Horreya every night sharing his stories with some admiring Egyptians staring him with wide eyes and smiles. What a shame...