This is my official apology for all you Star Academy fans. For years i despised your messages of "Please vote of Ahmed/Moahmed". I thought you were shallow people with no lives, i thought your time should be invested elsewhere, and thought you were completely crazy for watching stupid reality TV. I did not get the obsession - the text messages - the fan sites - the constant conversations by the water coolers - and the way it dominated our big family gathering last month.
I passed judgment and i am sorry.
Today, i am officially one of you guys. Although i'm still not quite on the Star Academy boat, but on another boat that has a little bit more talent, that has no arabic songs that are all about love and has no face veiled parents coming on stage (sorry, but if i want to watch darth Vader I’ll watch Star Wars instead - at least it's a classic)
As my Thursday night was in desperate need for some quiet-night-in entertainment, I decided for laughs i would follow American Idol. It put me in the singing mood, and gave me good laughs (thanks to Norman Gentle). And then things started turning around after Michael Jackson week. The kids were good. I started having favorites and liking them. Started looking forward to what they do, and soon enough i was hooked.
I had no idea how AI worked, i had never watched it before - and i didn't realize it was running for 8 long seasons. And i knew that most of the people coming out usually achieve only mediocre success except for Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson.
Soon i became the obnoxious one telling everyone to vote. And last nights result show has turned my head around.
And it was at this point i started realizing that Star Academy fans and not shallow and stupid (and no, i'm not defending them now that i am one of them). They are people who connect with other random-Joes (or mohameds in our case) and who like seeing how one person’s life can be turned upside down over night. And it's entertaining, so why not?
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
after a long wait,,,
it probably won't be worth it, but either way. Julie has surfaced again, inspired by her colleague's latest rambling over lunch about a long weekend that has gone a little sour.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
what? a year already? crap!
So i limited my notes on facebook to cool people. So if you're reading this on Facebook pat yourself on the back. I think you are cool :)
Bloggers can see whatever - they're innately cool (yes, suck it facebookers)
On to more important things.
Things that have gone through my head as a result of my apparent quarter life crisis:
- How do you get 18 year olds to think you're cool and not old?
- I wish i identified more with Rory than with her mother in Gilmore Girls - i am closer to 18 than i am to 36!
- How would people at work look at me if i walked in with hair blue-black hair?
- How bout a Goth look? The cool kids at school were all a bit gothy (german influence i guess)
- How much would it hurt to get a nose ring?
- Where can i find a tattoo parlor has an anesthesiologist?
- Is it too late to shift careers to become an astronaut?
I'm not sure i like this "growing up" thing - it is just not cool...
Bloggers can see whatever - they're innately cool (yes, suck it facebookers)
On to more important things.
Things that have gone through my head as a result of my apparent quarter life crisis:
- How do you get 18 year olds to think you're cool and not old?
- I wish i identified more with Rory than with her mother in Gilmore Girls - i am closer to 18 than i am to 36!
- How would people at work look at me if i walked in with hair blue-black hair?
- How bout a Goth look? The cool kids at school were all a bit gothy (german influence i guess)
- How much would it hurt to get a nose ring?
- Where can i find a tattoo parlor has an anesthesiologist?
- Is it too late to shift careers to become an astronaut?
I'm not sure i like this "growing up" thing - it is just not cool...
Saturday, April 18, 2009
i need to snap back to earth (or maybe just egypt)
An evening at our household is never event-free.
After a long discussion that was initiated by mentioning the movie "Milk" I can't help but find it mind boggling just how much lack of understanding there is out there.
I can understand if someone who was born in the 50ies wouldn't be so understanding, but even the not-so-religious 80ies generation? Seriously? I was surprised.
I think i'm living in a bubble, because i was genuinely baffled to find that very few young, not-so-religious, generally open-minded, well travelled and smart people still don't believe a "live and let live" attitude...
Ok, so you don't have to be totally on board with the whole marriage, kids and all (even though i see no reason why not) but seriously? i mean seriously?
still can't wrap my head around it...
After a long discussion that was initiated by mentioning the movie "Milk" I can't help but find it mind boggling just how much lack of understanding there is out there.
I can understand if someone who was born in the 50ies wouldn't be so understanding, but even the not-so-religious 80ies generation? Seriously? I was surprised.
I think i'm living in a bubble, because i was genuinely baffled to find that very few young, not-so-religious, generally open-minded, well travelled and smart people still don't believe a "live and let live" attitude...
Ok, so you don't have to be totally on board with the whole marriage, kids and all (even though i see no reason why not) but seriously? i mean seriously?
still can't wrap my head around it...
Monday, April 13, 2009
on a day like today
is when I hate living in a 3rd world country...
Normally I think it's quite a privilege, an eye opening experience and definitely an advantage for someone like me to live in a developing country...
Except for today
Imagine a street that looks right from the scene of slumdog millionaire, there's a big restaurant on the corner where a man hands people greasy sandwiches with his big hands and black dirty nails. Opposite that is an ironing guy using his feet to maneuver a big iron, the street unpaved and the cars parked with a layer of dust and quite a bit of rust on the sides of their bumpers. A poor old woman, who looks like she's not a day under 90, sits with her cheek resting on her hand and a bag of bread to sell next to her. Right in front of her a guy passes on a bike with a box in the front that holds termes - a yellow seed - and paper cones - he uses his small hand with nails that have been bitten like there’s no tomorrow to grab some termes, stuff it down the cone and pass it to the buyer. He kisses the old raggedy one pound note and stuffs it down his pocket.
On that very same street is where I will go get a medical checkup for the National Insurance. Inside i have a few lines of thought: 1) i don't need to be doing this, it's not like I’m ever going to use a public hospital - I hope 2) thank god and Ericsson for my insurance at the only 2 hospitals in Egypt that meet international standards 3) do i really need to do this? 4) i hope they don't stick me with a needle 5) what am i going to say if they show up with a syringe and i didn't see them open it. 6) my hep c and hiv tests came back negative, let's keep them negative please!
I walk in, they are mopping the floors, the water is grey with very little white soap bubbles in them. The man greets me with a smile takes my name, i go pay then i'm shown to the second floor where a female doctor greets me. She's short and round and veiled with a frown on her face - killer combo. She tells me "is this what you call 5:30" "they had me do a few things first before coming up" "you should be on time" i'm thinking in my head, oh boy i'm gonna give that lady attitude coz who does she think she is! I retract my thought and think, who do I think I am. I go in a corner covered left and right with curtains made out of latex in a color that used to be off white but time has taken a toll on it and it looks like a mesh between beige and grey. She does a bunch of stupid tests, eyes me up and down and asks me to lift up my shirt and holds the stethoscope. She basically asks me to flash her so in my head I’m like "shit, this is uncomfortable" I hold my breath, close my eyes really tight until she's done, it only takes a second. My mind drifts, my level of discomfort reinforces my belief that I am, in fact, straight - i could watch the show "L-word" just in case i need further reinforcement..
Ok snap back; sit down on a chair, regular eye check, and just as I was about to let out a sign of relief for successfully avoiding the grueling duo (syringe and cup) the Doctor hands me….a cup!
Damn it, it was so close. Resigned i take my cup which has the number 318 written on it, the cup looks old and probably used. I walk into the bathroom which reeks of urine. The floor is wet. The toilet seat splashed with water (I hope). 3 other urine samples are sitting out on a table next to the toilet. I reach for my wet wipes - thank the lord for wet wipes. For the first time in my life I have trouble doing my business, despite of the constant sound of water dripping.
I'm done, now I need to put this piece of paper with colors on its tip in the sample and off I go. As I leave the doctor, which I had chosen to hate, tells me "you're a pretty girl, I hope someone's said that to you before". She catches me compeletely off guard and i'm surprised, she didn't need to say this. I try to recall the last time someone's said that to me. I say "thank you" as sweetly as i can and think, ok maybe she's not that bad.
Downstairs I take my signed and stamped paper and walk home. It takes me 5 minutes to get home - I head straight for the shower - thank the heavens for Dettol. My mind drifts, i think i'll write a song about how much i love Dettol
The end
Is decoy effect the right word?
While i was championing the sport of wasting time i came across a blog that i would have enjoyed a lot more up until a month ago - back when i shared the writer’s frustration with the J O B.
My guilty confession is that i came across it while trying to find this particular American Idol's twitter. (yes, yes, i know - Olympic Gold Medalist in Waste of Time) I will remember to keep my AI obsession off my Harvard application...
So the blogger writes about what he calls the decoy effect, and when i read it I remembered a random thought.
Last year when the world’s worst boss stopped giving me work to do i started staying home more than ever. In the mornings you get old shows. So i started following this show called "American Dreams" which isn't an old production but place during the war in Vietnam. I remember thinking to myself, that show can be about today if only Vietnam will be renamed Iraq and the Russians would be renamed the Muslims.
Things haven't changed much, really. An old evil is replaced by a new one, hate is just shifted from one place to the next. For the old evil life is good, next to the man with the beard in a funny dress the black man with a scar on his cheek looks far less threatening.
I actually have no problem with that theory - if you think the world is, or even should be, fair then you're incredibly disillusioned, it isn't and it won't.
But the thing is that hate breeds hate. Before 9/11, there were much less people willing to strap on some explosives and go bomb some white ass. You can totally see the proliferation of hate over the last 8 years. Every person is shifting one inch closer to hate. Those who love the west, now only like it, those who liked it, now only accept it, those who accepted it, don't want to tolerate it, those who tolerated, decided not to verbally object, and those who verbally objected started organizing demonstrations and those who were already demonstrating have been pushed to the deep dark side. 8 years were enough for one person to keep shifting inch by inch.
And because this time we're not talking about a single country with borders, we're talking about people scattered over the world who can easily escape from the eyes of the law, the hate cannot be stopped overnight. It would take years to un-hate.
So you look at how things went down in these recent years and think, couldn't this have been handled better? The west reached the right root cause of the problem - lack of democracy, poverty and ignorance. Not to take away our responsibility in this whole thing, but couldn't the west have done better?
That said, I don't really disagree with the fact that Muslim extremism is something that needs to be dealt with, and if i were the one having to deal with this - I’d be pretty annoyed having to deal with the mess that my retarded little brother let grow out of proportions because of his mere incompetence and greed.
I think that's probably my first pro-Arab thought ever (minus the incompetence and greed bit - wouldn' want to get too carried away, would i)
My guilty confession is that i came across it while trying to find this particular American Idol's twitter. (yes, yes, i know - Olympic Gold Medalist in Waste of Time) I will remember to keep my AI obsession off my Harvard application...
So the blogger writes about what he calls the decoy effect, and when i read it I remembered a random thought.
Last year when the world’s worst boss stopped giving me work to do i started staying home more than ever. In the mornings you get old shows. So i started following this show called "American Dreams" which isn't an old production but place during the war in Vietnam. I remember thinking to myself, that show can be about today if only Vietnam will be renamed Iraq and the Russians would be renamed the Muslims.
Things haven't changed much, really. An old evil is replaced by a new one, hate is just shifted from one place to the next. For the old evil life is good, next to the man with the beard in a funny dress the black man with a scar on his cheek looks far less threatening.
I actually have no problem with that theory - if you think the world is, or even should be, fair then you're incredibly disillusioned, it isn't and it won't.
But the thing is that hate breeds hate. Before 9/11, there were much less people willing to strap on some explosives and go bomb some white ass. You can totally see the proliferation of hate over the last 8 years. Every person is shifting one inch closer to hate. Those who love the west, now only like it, those who liked it, now only accept it, those who accepted it, don't want to tolerate it, those who tolerated, decided not to verbally object, and those who verbally objected started organizing demonstrations and those who were already demonstrating have been pushed to the deep dark side. 8 years were enough for one person to keep shifting inch by inch.
And because this time we're not talking about a single country with borders, we're talking about people scattered over the world who can easily escape from the eyes of the law, the hate cannot be stopped overnight. It would take years to un-hate.
So you look at how things went down in these recent years and think, couldn't this have been handled better? The west reached the right root cause of the problem - lack of democracy, poverty and ignorance. Not to take away our responsibility in this whole thing, but couldn't the west have done better?
That said, I don't really disagree with the fact that Muslim extremism is something that needs to be dealt with, and if i were the one having to deal with this - I’d be pretty annoyed having to deal with the mess that my retarded little brother let grow out of proportions because of his mere incompetence and greed.
I think that's probably my first pro-Arab thought ever (minus the incompetence and greed bit - wouldn' want to get too carried away, would i)
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Updated blog?
more like updated luli!
- So i have myspace to follow the music scene and where maybe one day i'll get creative and post something myself
- I'll move my TV-related rants (of which there's plenty of) to my Couch Potato blog
- I'm tweetering my tweets on the right-hand side
For this site, i'll stick to writing my non-tv related thoughts.
No Sex in the City is going slow - Julie, my alterego, doesn't show up quite as often as some of you hope she would (judging by the responses i get for her posts) I'll let you know here when Julie makes her new post.
I really want to update the color to this blog coz it makes me want to pee everytime i see it, but i can't be bothered, it's the old version where you have to edit HTML code.
- So i have myspace to follow the music scene and where maybe one day i'll get creative and post something myself
- I'll move my TV-related rants (of which there's plenty of) to my Couch Potato blog
- I'm tweetering my tweets on the right-hand side
For this site, i'll stick to writing my non-tv related thoughts.
No Sex in the City is going slow - Julie, my alterego, doesn't show up quite as often as some of you hope she would (judging by the responses i get for her posts) I'll let you know here when Julie makes her new post.
I really want to update the color to this blog coz it makes me want to pee everytime i see it, but i can't be bothered, it's the old version where you have to edit HTML code.
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Fox was brilliant and stupid on the same night!
Update: Ok fox, you're forgiven for your glitch - he's safe!
So This morning i jumped out of bed to check CNN and find out how American Idol went, and thankfully things looked good in Adam Lambert land. So i dashed to work with a smile on my face. As the day progresses i find out that Fox - the channel that airs american idol - has fucked up during the show and it went on for 10 minutes longer. This meant that all the american viewers who DVR and TIVO the show missed out on the last performance of Adam Lambert (practically the next American Idol). Now the concern is, how will people vote for someone that they haven't seen perform?
The reason why i'm so passionate about this is coz i really think we are whitnessing the birth of a true star, and i'd hate to see stupid Fox mess that up! And c'omon, they have dress rehearsals and they've been doing this for 8 years, how the hell could the mess it up?
Alas, we'll see what happens tonight - but i'm not too worried because if Adam's in trouble the judges will save him using their one save for the season - let's face it, the "save" was made for him.
And now we get to the stroke of genius that Fox has managed to pull of on the same night. Right after American Idol comes a show called "Fringe" which is by the creator of "Lost"and "Alias".
I love that show because if combines two of my fantasies/dreams/ambitions: It takes place in Harvard University and stars Joshua Jackson (Pacey from Dawson's Creek - remember?) , seriously - it's like a show tailor-made for ME!It's like i don't know what to oogle and drool for - the boy or the school.
I love that show because if combines two of my fantasies/dreams/ambitions: It takes place in Harvard University and stars Joshua Jackson (Pacey from Dawson's Creek - remember?) , seriously - it's like a show tailor-made for ME!It's like i don't know what to oogle and drool for - the boy or the school.
The fringe follows a series of events called " The Pattern" - unexplained phenomenons and incidents all linked to fringe science (basically science that has a big IF next to it, like telepathy for example). Each time right before a pattern occurs "The observer" - a bald creepy looking guy who cannot taste food and has looked the same for the last 30 years which makes me think he's a robot - is seen looming around the scene where the pattern occurs.
Last night as American Idol started, the camera focused on Ryan Secrest (the host) as usual, then turned to the audience, and guess who was seated in the first row? "The Observer" looking like he's waiting for another pattern!
I dunno why, but i found that brilliant! It's cool mixing shows up - expecially when a sci-fi thriller like Fringe leaks into reality TV - you get a nice "what the F?!" effect when that happens.
I guess it's needless to say that i'm a TV addict?
Monday, April 06, 2009
random thoughts
Things i've learned this week
- If you stretch your abdomenal muscles while you sing you sound much better
- Making the sound of a train will train you to take short breaths, all while streching your muscles
- the piano note has 3 strings, so when you break one, you'll never know till you open up the thing
- mspace is a cool place for musicians
- myspace page is www.myspace.com/Jshazly
- a good script in egypt will land you 50,000 L.E. - translating a foreign script still counts
- Fall out Boy has a new album
- Do is the equivalent to the note C
- i'm freaking out about turning 26
- If you stretch your abdomenal muscles while you sing you sound much better
- Making the sound of a train will train you to take short breaths, all while streching your muscles
- the piano note has 3 strings, so when you break one, you'll never know till you open up the thing
- mspace is a cool place for musicians
- myspace page is www.myspace.com/Jshazly
- a good script in egypt will land you 50,000 L.E. - translating a foreign script still counts
- Fall out Boy has a new album
- Do is the equivalent to the note C
- i'm freaking out about turning 26
Thursday, April 02, 2009
My weekend treats :)
2009 so far has been all about the weekends! 
What started off as some "let's poke fun at the dorks who think they can sing" became an addiction! Thursday nights - 6 pm is my queue to leave work to get home just in time for another episode of American Idol. I had never thought of myself as one to like reality TV but I find myself wishing i were with AT&T and texting the word "Vote" to idol zero-adam lambert!
And that has become my weekend treat! I wish he'd just release his album already so i can go out and buy it (not illegally download it, i promise dude!) I also wish there were any straight guys that looked like this; you know the whole blach nailpolish, ear rings, tatoos and eyeliner. Apparently Pete Wentz doesn't count since he has a stylist. Plus he's not that great..
I wonder what he's still doing at the show? Is there really a point? Just drop out and start working on that album, yalla! But i guess the show would lose like half of its viewership huh?
My second weekend treat is that i finally have a hobby! (Haaaaleluya) Much to the horror of my neighbors, I've joined the "Osiris Singers" which is a local singing group that performs a Musical every year. We sing, we don't act, but i'm thinking in some years or so i'll convince them it's time for us to give that a go. This year it's "The Sound of Music" on the 27th of May in Sawy. I'll be standing at the waaay back hiding behind someone tall :)
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