Waleed Mohammed Shaalan

Thousands of Virginia Tech students and faculty filled the center of campus Monday to pay solemn tribute to the victims of last week's massacre -- pausing for two moments of silence for the 32 people slain by a student gunman.


Waleed Mohammed Shaalan
Doctoral student, 32


A doctoral student in civil engineering, Shaalan was from Zagazig, Egypt. He left behind his wife and 1-year-old to come to the U.S. to study civil engineering, following in his father's footsteps, the New York Times reported.
Randy Dymond, a civil engineering professor at Virginia Tech, told the Times that Shaalan had saved the life of a fellow graduate student during the shooting; Cho noticed the student, who was playing dead beside a badly wounded Shaalan, but before Cho could shoot the student, Shaalan distracted him and was shot a second time.

Sky News:

A survivor of the Virginia Tech massacre has been describing how a colleague died to protect others.
Although badly injured, graduate student Waleed Shalaan distracted gunman Cho Seung-Hui to save another person from his bullets.


The surviving student, who wishes to remain anonymous, told of Waleed's heroics through an email to his supervisor.
He describes how he was left uninjured after Cho's initial round of shots.
Meanwhile, Waleed had been wounded but was still alive.
However, when Cho later returned to the classroom to inspect for signs of life among his victims, the surviving student struggled to remain calm.
He believes he would have been shot dead were it not for Waleed's "protective movement" that distracted the gunman.

Cho turned and shot Waleed for a second time, killing him, before leaving the classroom.
Randy Dymond, a civil engineering professor, has said the student asked to him to tell the tale "so that the family of Waleed understands the sacrifice."
Shaalan's mother broke down when she heard Mr Dymond's account.
"He was trying to save someone else," she said repeatedly.
Dymond said Shaalan's body was taken to a Blacksburg mosque so classmates, teachers and friends could say goodbye before he was sent to Egypt for burial.

I hardly hold my tears when I'm imagining this. I'm sure you are among Shudaa'... And I'm sure god will support and help your family, and your son is going to grow up, knowing that his father died protecting others...

This reminds me of all those who died protecting others, not just nowadays... But nothing will stop, life will keep going on and on.... we might remember them tomorrow, but who knows what will happen next! May this simple post be in memorial of those who died and still die every day, everywhere, not just in VA tech, but also in Palestine, Sheshan, Darfur, and many other places...

Let's ask god for mercy!

Please consider making a donation to Waleed's family.
Go to:
http://www.msanational.org/finance/vt07donate.html

What Famous Leader Am I?

Responding to Myra's Tag...

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

:-) I'm not sure if that means I have a good impression on girls ;-)...

Wohooo... 3-2 Win!

Wohoooo! We won the second game in MSSL. We won the game 3-2 and I scored 2 goals and got a yellow card!!
We started the game and they scored a goal in like the 10th minute of the game...

We then pulled ourselves together, then Sean scored our first goal... By then I was the right mid-fielder. We then changed posictions, made some subs, and I became the striker...
Nikola played a long ball, I ran to it, same did Ahmed but I was faster, the goal was coming out, I just chipped it over the keeper... It was a really nice goal...

They scored the 2nd goal in the second half... It’s now 2-2

We have a corner, I played the corner but it came back to me again, Ahmed was there alone in the box, I made a good cross, the keeper couldn't get hang of it and the ball goes directly into the goal! :-) I scored our 2nd goal! Wohooo!

The other team was too aggressive... They were committing a lot of fouls against me, some of the fouls the referee doesn’t even whistle for a foul... Again a long ball, I ran to it, the other team's D pushes me really hard, and the referee didn't whistle or anything!! So I just shouted at every one in the field "COME ON!!! HE DOESN'T EVEN PLAY ON THE BALL!! HE JUST RUNS TO HIT ME!!".
Their D cleared the ball out to be out of the field, by the time I got it and came back, I found out that the referee is running towards me to give me the yellow card asking me to calm down and to take it easy! I just smiled notching my head!

Thank god we have to wear shin guards; otherwise I wouldn't have been able to walk by now! Of course I was hurt all over my leg, but if it wasn’t for the shin guards, I think I wouldn’t have been able to walk at all! Especially my right leg, I hope it gets better by the next game, which is in 10 days from now… I'll try to go practice next Tuesday to keep myself in shape.

But of course, after scoring 2 goals, having a yellow card, plus hustling and causing problems to all their D, My team mates and the referee started to call me the "Naughty Player"!

The referee blew the final whistle, I shake hands with him and with the players from both teams, smiled at every single one of them, happy and proud by my performance in the game.

We were in a pretty good shape! I was doing well in the game. The referee took my name as one of the best players in the game! :-) Cool, I'm happy, excited and glad we won!

My First MSSL Match

This weekend, I played my first Microsoft Soccer League match. Before the official game we played two friendly games, :-) we lost the first game 6-2 and then lost 3-2 the second game! :-) We wear yellow jerseys, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to buy the Ismailia’s jersey when I’m visiting Egypt, I’m also hoping I’ll be able to buy Ahly’s red jersey and Egyptian’s national team red and white jersey! Anyone knows where to find these jerseys?

Anyway, we wear yellow jersey's, but really I'm the only one wearing Orange! I was very distinguished, the other team's goalie always used to shout at his D line to watch out from this orange guy!!

We started the first game in the league, I was a striker... I played most of the game, maybe more than 70 min of the game, during the game I changed positions from a striker to a right and then left mid-fielder.

During the game I've been told that I can control the ball pretty well, and I have some skills. The same comment was said about another mid-field player called Michael.

We were leading the first half 1-0 by a good shot by Ed, our team's striker... we started the second half, that's when they scored a goal by a follow up ball bounced from our goalie... We held our team back together; we scored our second goal from a very good shot by Scott, a defensive mid-fielder, maybe from more than 35 meters... We had another striker on the bench, He came into the game, and he took my position while I played as a right mid-fielder. We then scored the 3rd goal by the substitute striker. I then moved to be the left mid-fielder.

I got the ball, I took over two players, and then I changed the field by a crossing ball to the other side of the field to the left mid-fielder who was completely free, who passed it to a centre mid-field who was alone with the goal by then and scored our 4th goal. My team mates really encouraged me for the good field vision I had... Then one of the strikers got really tired, so he went out and a mid-fielder came into the game, he took over my position, while I played as a striker again.

I was in a very good position when Ian passed me the ball, my back was to the goal, I turned and shot, the ball hit the post, moved on the line and then went into the net! :-) I scored my first goal in the league, our fifth goal in the match. :-) Of course I had to score! We are only 10 players on the field, and we scored 5! I play in the forward line of the field, :-) which means that if each of us scored one, I had to be one of them; it really doesn’t mean that I have a talent or anything!

:-) It was a really nice game (since we won of course!). My next game is next Thursday, wish me luck! :-) And I’ll tell you about the next game, wish you guys can all come and watch it live ;-)

I'm Making A Difference

The people who work for Microsoft are the most generous charitable givers per employee in the world, and that spirit is at the center of how we work with governments and NGOs. Learn more.

I've been seeing this ad on couple of my friend's MSN nickname...
I've searched to find information about it... and here it is.

i’m is a new initiative from Windows Live™ Messenger. Every time you start a conversation using i’m, Microsoft shares a portion of the program's advertising revenue with some of the world's most effective organizations dedicated to social causes. We've set no cap on the amount we'll donate to each organization. The sky's the limit.

i’m is about making a difference. Not in a huge expensive way, not in a time-consuming way. But in a simple, effective way.



How it Works
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Text Code	Cause
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