لا أعرف حتي الآن سر تفوقي ونبوغي في هذه المادة بالذات, خصوصا في مرحلتي الابتدائية والإعدادية.. والمادة كان اسمها المواد الاجتماعية وهي تجمع بين التاريخ والجغرافيا والتربية الوطنية وكنت دائما ما أحصل فيها علي الدرجات النهائية حيث كانت إجاباتي غالبا من تلك النوعية التي يطلق عليها إجابات نموذجية عندك مثلا القمح المصري.. ما أن أجده في ورقة الأسئلة حتي أدش الإجابة النموذجية فورا.. وهي أن القمح المصري من أجود أنواع القمح في العالم وأن روما في عز مجدها كانت تعتمد عليه في غذاء شعبها. تخيل سيادتك لو كتبت هذه الإجابة الآن سأحصل علي صفر علطول.. فكلنا سمعنا عن القمح المسرطن.. وقد رد أحد المسئولين مدافعا عن ذلك قائلا: بطلوا بأه اشاعات وافتراءات.. لا ياسيدي القمح مش مسرطن ما تخوفوش الناس.. الحكاية كلها إن القمح بيجيب شوية تسمم عادي خالص وعشان المواطن يموت لا سمح الله عاوزله أربع خمس سنين.. وكان دائما ما يتكرر سؤال في الامتحانات بخصوص القطن المصري. وما أن ألمح كلمة القطن في ورقة الأسئلة حتي ألسع الإجابة فورا وهي أن القطن المصري يعتبر من أجود أنواع القطن في العالم وهو يتميز بأنه طويل التيلة.. المشكلة أنني حتي كتابة هذه السطور لا أعرف معني طويل التيلة هذه.. ولكني كنت أشعر دائما أن طويل التيلة بالتأكيد حاجة كويسة وأنها بالتأكيد أفضل بكثير من قصير التيلة.. وكتبنا ذلك ياسيدي في ورقة الإجابة وانتقلنا إلي الصف الأول الإعدادي.. الحمد لله أنهم لا يراجعون أوراق الإجابة بأثر رجعي.. وإلا وجدت نفسي الآن في ثالثة ابتدائي.. أما إذا كان السؤال عن الثروة السمكية.. اعتقد أن جيلي يذكر الإجابة جيدا.. وهي أن بلدنا يجتمع فيه جميع أنواع الكائنات البرية.. بحيرات وأنهار ومحيطات تحيط ببلادنا وتقطعها.. ومع ذلك أصبحنا يا أخي نستورد الأسماك المجمدة من الخارج!! لقد اكتشفت بعد أكثر من ثلاثين سنة أن كل إجاباتي في المواد الاجتماعية والتي حصلت فيها علي الدرجات النهائية كانت كلها أخطاء فادحة عندك مثلا الأهرامات المصرية عجيبة العجائب في الدنيا لم تعد كذلك تصوروا!!
Aug 28, 2007
عدنا.. إجاباتي النموذجية
لا أعرف حتي الآن سر تفوقي ونبوغي في هذه المادة بالذات, خصوصا في مرحلتي الابتدائية والإعدادية.. والمادة كان اسمها المواد الاجتماعية وهي تجمع بين التاريخ والجغرافيا والتربية الوطنية وكنت دائما ما أحصل فيها علي الدرجات النهائية حيث كانت إجاباتي غالبا من تلك النوعية التي يطلق عليها إجابات نموذجية عندك مثلا القمح المصري.. ما أن أجده في ورقة الأسئلة حتي أدش الإجابة النموذجية فورا.. وهي أن القمح المصري من أجود أنواع القمح في العالم وأن روما في عز مجدها كانت تعتمد عليه في غذاء شعبها. تخيل سيادتك لو كتبت هذه الإجابة الآن سأحصل علي صفر علطول.. فكلنا سمعنا عن القمح المسرطن.. وقد رد أحد المسئولين مدافعا عن ذلك قائلا: بطلوا بأه اشاعات وافتراءات.. لا ياسيدي القمح مش مسرطن ما تخوفوش الناس.. الحكاية كلها إن القمح بيجيب شوية تسمم عادي خالص وعشان المواطن يموت لا سمح الله عاوزله أربع خمس سنين.. وكان دائما ما يتكرر سؤال في الامتحانات بخصوص القطن المصري. وما أن ألمح كلمة القطن في ورقة الأسئلة حتي ألسع الإجابة فورا وهي أن القطن المصري يعتبر من أجود أنواع القطن في العالم وهو يتميز بأنه طويل التيلة.. المشكلة أنني حتي كتابة هذه السطور لا أعرف معني طويل التيلة هذه.. ولكني كنت أشعر دائما أن طويل التيلة بالتأكيد حاجة كويسة وأنها بالتأكيد أفضل بكثير من قصير التيلة.. وكتبنا ذلك ياسيدي في ورقة الإجابة وانتقلنا إلي الصف الأول الإعدادي.. الحمد لله أنهم لا يراجعون أوراق الإجابة بأثر رجعي.. وإلا وجدت نفسي الآن في ثالثة ابتدائي.. أما إذا كان السؤال عن الثروة السمكية.. اعتقد أن جيلي يذكر الإجابة جيدا.. وهي أن بلدنا يجتمع فيه جميع أنواع الكائنات البرية.. بحيرات وأنهار ومحيطات تحيط ببلادنا وتقطعها.. ومع ذلك أصبحنا يا أخي نستورد الأسماك المجمدة من الخارج!! لقد اكتشفت بعد أكثر من ثلاثين سنة أن كل إجاباتي في المواد الاجتماعية والتي حصلت فيها علي الدرجات النهائية كانت كلها أخطاء فادحة عندك مثلا الأهرامات المصرية عجيبة العجائب في الدنيا لم تعد كذلك تصوروا!!
Jul 11, 2007
قم للمعلم
Here are some best parts that I liked:
Written By: Amr Ashmawy
.كلما تذكرت ذلك الموقف لا أستطيع أن أتوقف عن الضحك، حتى أنى ضحكت بصوت مسموع وأنا أكتبه، لكن لم يكن ذاك هو الحال ساعتها، فأذكر أنى قد شعرت بإحباط شديد حين فشل الجميع فى إجابة السؤال الثانى وأخذت ألوم نفسى ولكن لا أعرف على أى شئ ألقى ملامتى!! كيف لا أعرف معانى الكوارث الطبيعية باللغة الإنجليزية وأنا أدرس القواقع البحرية باللغة العربية فى مادة العلوم فى الصف الأول الإعدادى؟؟؟!!!!.
Jun 17, 2007
Al Omma Fe Naksa
I've been searching for this for a while to share it with you guys... I finally found it divided in five parts (since YouTube only allow video files as long as 10 min.)
Part 1 and 5 summarizes almost what happens... in case you don't want to watch the whole 5 videos... Just watch the top and the bottom video and you'll get the idea...
Jun 2, 2007
My Flight to London
Going to London right now… I’m on my way to Egypt, and my transit is in London… I’ll stay at Heathrow airport for 3.5 hrs or something.
Well, I have my iPod, my laptop, Twix (Yes, the candy bar)…Those are to keep me busy during this very long boring flight! I got to say, I’m not a flying fan, I just wish there is a better way to go to other countries other than flying (And yes, other than driving or taking the train, I’m not going to Egypt by train!)
Anyway, I was sitting beside the flight attendant after switching my seat with a pregnant lady to have better room and to sit beside her husband. I noticed while we were preparing to take-off that the flight attendant seat has an extra seat belt over her shoulders, and when I asked how come you got this extra seat belts, :-) Her answer was somewhat convincing, is that if there is anything happened, she has to be safe in order to help us when needed!
Then I had to reply, :-) If we are not going to be safe, then saving you is not going to be useful!
I watched a little of Will Smith’s new movie, and then I have to admit I fell asleep, because really, come’ on, it’s now almost 3:30 am my local time in Seattle, and I’d have been asleep for a while now! Actually my eyes still kind of hurt because I didn’t sleep much.
The local time in Cairo right now should be 1:30 pm… I should arrive to Cairo at 12:20 am… :-( Still long way to go! And I’m already bored! Aaaah! I really have to go back to sleep, I’ll just listen to my iPod in my ears and try to sleep again! I’ll see you when I’m in Egypt, that’s if I have time to blog at all! ;-) I’m getting married you know?!
Apr 23, 2007
Waleed Mohammed Shaalan
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.
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
Apr 18, 2007
What Famous Leader Am I?
Apr 12, 2007
Wohooo... 3-2 Win!
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.
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!
Apr 8, 2007
My First MSSL Match
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 ;-)
Apr 7, 2007
I'm Making A Difference
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
1. Download the Windows Live Messenger instant messaging service. There's no charge and it's easy to download and use.
2. Within Windows Live Messenger, click Tools and select Options. Place the text code corresponding to the cause of your choice into your Display Name. -->
Text Code | Cause |
*unicef | The US fund for UNICEF |
*komen | Susan G. Komen for the Cure |
*naf | National AIDS Fund |
*9mil | ninemillion.org |
*help | StopGlobalWarming.org |
*red+u | American Red Cross |
*bgca | Boys & Girls Clubs of America |
*mssoc | National Multiple Sclerosis Society |
*sierra | Sierra Club |
3. Keep having i'm conversations so you can keep funding the cause doing the work most important to you.
Mar 28, 2007
WOW!
This will change the whole gaming experience soon, the game play, and the interaction in multi-player games... :-) which means more fun fun fun!
Watch this... What do you think?
Mar 26, 2007
Today: Egyptian Referendum
Today Egyptians are to vote in a referendum on a set of constitutional changes, which pave the way for a police state. The changes will allow the drafting of a new anti-terrorism law to replace the emergency legislation in place since 1981, giving police wide powers of arrest and surveillance.
And of course, the majority of voters will magically say YES! and the constitutional changes will be a real fact that we have to live with for the rest of our lives. I assure that those who understand the constitutional changes would like to say NO for the changes, while others don't even understand the changes!
People in Egypt are very poor to think about the constitutional changes! President Mubarak, I just have one question, Why do you still choose to stay as a president after more than 25 years?! Do you really think that you can add anything after all these years?! After 25 years and you want to tell me that you still have something to help Egyptians with?! 25 years, ended now by the poverty and the difficult life that every Egyptian is complaining about, and you think you can still give something useful to Egyptians?! Or are you afraid that someone even worth is going to be in charge after you and make things worth?!
Now, Mr. Habib Al Adly, minister of internal affairs. I have read in FilBalad that you mentioned that the security is going to be on the highest levels to match this important event! I just’d rather that you are more concerned with the Human Rights Watch statement "Torture is endemic in Egyptian detention facilities. The most common torture methods include electrocution and beating."
I had a friend of mine; I used to work with him at Harf Information Technology. I came to work one day, and he just didn't show up, after 90 days, we found out that he was arrested while coming to work one day, without doing anything, accused of being with the “Muslim Brotherhood" party, and spent 90 days without doing anything, without having an investigation, with absolutely ZERO evidence that he's even have a relationship with the god forbid, the restricted party! Mr. Habib Al Adly, I think you have a lot to do! Or, a lot you should stop doing!
I'm a good soccer player, I play as a striker, but when there is a game, where I seem to lose the ball a lot, or just have great chances yet I still can't score or even create a good chance, I'd rather to leave the game and give a friend of mine the chance, maybe he'll be more suitable for this game, Even though I'm the main player, and I know I'm good at soccer.
Mar 22, 2007
Introducing iRack and...
A video making fun of the US government and Bush's administration
Mar 19, 2007
:-) Real Life Photos 2
:-D de msh ba2dar abtal de7k lama ashofha! 7amamat seya7ya! tb de ya3ny a msh fahem?! El gameel ba2a, :-D en e7na bntswar gambaha! 3lshan keda heya seya7eya! msh b3ed yomen w nla2y film tasgely 3n el mawdo3!
Yes, It's a tourist WC (whatever that means). I guess maybe a VI person peed in there! And that's how we discovered this monument!
Ana bardo awel ma2retha a3dt 22ol ezay b3d ma y2roha hayro7o l7d el madena el gam3ya lw7dhom!!
This is an Ad for blind students instructing them to go to the social worker's office without giving them the directions!!
b3'd el nazar 3n el clean first... ana mot2kd en el yafta de hatb2a fe 7amam mn el 7amamt elly msh seya7eya!
Yes, the sign after that was "The Wash Second"
Mar 14, 2007
Mar 12, 2007
Tagged!
SECTION 1 - Last 1s?
1. last beverage? Homemade lemon juice!
2. last phone call? Radwa
3. last instant message? Radwa
4. last cd played? I guess last album was… Music Now – 2nd Generation
5. last time you cried? I really can’t remember! Why’d I?!
6. last text message? Radwa! :-) Actually no one sends me anything except her now! She fills my life!
Section 2 - 6 Have You Evers:
1. dated someone twice? You mean have the same girlfriend after breaking up? Nope!
2. been cheated on? :-) No!
3. kissed someone & regretted it? Yes!
4. lost someone special? Akeed (Akeed is a big Yes)
5. been depressed? Akeed bardo!
6. been drunk and threw up? I don’t drink
Section 3 - List 3 Favorite Colors
1. Blue
2. Green
3. Maybe Grey, red…
Section 4 - This month have you
1. Made a new friend? Yes
2. Fallen out of love? Radwa would have killed me!
3. Laughed until you cried? Nop, I don’t think so
4. Met someone who changed your life? Nop
5. Found out who your true friends were? This month! Nope
6. Is there something you want to tell someone? Nothing in my mind now!
7. Would you kiss anyone on your top friends? :-) I’d kiss anyone, anywhere, anytime ;-)
8. How many people on your top friends do you know in real life? All
9. How many kids do you want to have? 2 be ezn Allah
10. Do you have any pets? A cat, Weby! I call him Otta!
11. Do you wanna change your name? :-) Why?! To confuse my friends?!
12. What did you do for your last birthday? That’s interesting! Well, on my last birthday, I went out with Radwa, I had my hair cut, I sold my PC, then I took a plane, left my home, my country, my fiancée, my friends… It was my first day in Seattle, my first day going to a new place, new life, new home, new everything!
13. What time did you wake up today? Round 11:00 am or something
14.What were you doing at midnight last night? I really can’t remember! But I guess I fell asleep
15. Name something you CANNOT wait for? Bringing Radwa to live with me, share our lives, live, laugh, cry, and hang out together!
16. Last time you saw your father? About two years ago. He passed away.
17. What is one thing you wish you could change about your life? I’m ok, thx for asking!
18.What are you listening to right now? Mahmoud El Essily – El Fostan Al Abyad (The white dress)
19. Have you ever talked to Tom? :-) Nop ,But I did talk to Nihal , till I was 6, then I moved on with my life with real people!
20. Have you ever talked about someone behind their back? Yes
21.What’s the last piece of clothing you borrowed from anyone? Can’t really remember anything!
22. Who’s getting on your nerves right now? No one, It’s just I have a lot of work load on me…
23. Most visited webpage? Not sure
24. Coke or Pepsi? Pepsi
25. Have you kissed or been kissed by anyone in the past week? Mmmmm… :-) Nope!! Are your trying to get me killed?!! Radwa honey, :-) I’d never do that! :-) You know that… Right?!
26. Mac or PC? :-) You are defiantly asking the wrong person here! :-) I’m in the Windows team!
Tagging... Rain, Ramy, Mohamed Nabil and Ali...
Feb 18, 2007
وطنى لو شغلت بالخلد عنه
شهرزاد.. والكلام غير المباح!
Read more...
لعنة الوضع الوسط !
لماذا لا يشم عاااااادل الورد
الأمير فوق من ذكرت
Feb 11, 2007
:-) Aliiiiii... The Goaaaaaaaaaaaal!
The reason we let it go, is that a lot of the players are really not in the good form to play for a full game... :-) If that happened we would see a lot dropping dead from our side just in the middle of the game :-)... This actually almost happened today in the practice!
:-) So we were playing, we were 12 players, 6 players a team playing against each other... :-) Ali was in the opponent team and it was really not even a close competition... All of Ali's team got really really tired... So, we decided that Meshref (he was in Ali's team) and I to switch so that it might get a little better and be more as a competitive match!
Right after I joined the team, we were starting to look better, we were attacking but we lost the ball, it was a counter attack! Coz Ali had a tired muscle and he was really tired so he was our goal keeper... He was the last player in our team... There is no really a goalie coz no one is allowed to touch the ball with his hands, and we have to strike the ball low to count as a goal...
Back to the counter attack, the guy with the ball went direct to our goal, It was noway I could get him, but one of my team mates was at least trying to do so... So, it was all on Ali's shoulder to save the ball... OK, who's shoulder?! Ali! Aliiii!! Where are you maan!!! I thought for a sec that Ali just left us and went home... that's when I kind of noticed someone standing just beside the goal... Ooh! He's Ali, and he can see that we are under attack, he'll run and save the ball now...OK, maybe now... Ok really he can't wait any longer! Maybe now!!! No way, Ali was not moving... he was right there, standing just beside the goal... leaving it empty without a goal keeper... and drinking Juice!! :-D Yes! He was right there beside the goal drinking Juice! :-) Of course the guy with the ball scored, and Ali was still there drinking his juice! :-D
Of course there was nothing we could do, except making fun of Ali... What were u doing man?! Do u think this is a school trip! Do u need a chair or something? :-D Did you bring your sandwiches with you?! :-) Yes Ali was really tired and he has kind of a muscle cramp, but still, :-D at least drink the juice and stand in the goal! It's just small goals and we have to strike the ball low anyway to count as a goal!! :-D It was very funny... Most important even after deciding that we r not going to the tournament, is that we had fun, played, practiced and most important is that we met new people... Many of them were Egyptians... :-) Good game guys... I'll be joining a team in Microsoft Soccer League (MSSL)... :-) Hope we play better and have fun in this league!
Feb 10, 2007
Wondering!
I have been listening to Alanis Morissette’s song “Hand in my pocket” (I’m a fan of her songs) and I watched "In her Shoes" and they both touched me. I felt down in my heart a lot of the song’s words, sometimes I just feel that I’m just OK, thank god of what I have, I’m in a good position in a good place, I learn a lot of things every day, I just hope that I can transfer this knowledge to others... It’s kind of funny, weird... I don’t know! It's really OK that you say that you don't know... I believe one of the greatest things in life is to feel what others feel, to make someone else happy, to know that u r just a human with nothing to lose, and that u share this world with a lot others just like you, u r not better than anyone! U never are, everyone is just like you... U just need to go out, wander the streets, smile to everyone walking by, think about him, think what he’s doing, what he’s thinking, how is his life?
Everyone, no matter what his position is, no matter what he does, or how much he earns, is missing something always... that’s the human nature, no one is ever complete, no one will ever be... You are only OK when deep in your heart you feel that you have everything you want, there is nothing you are afraid of, nothing harm could ever happen; God is always around, really what could ever happen! Try to take a moment to look at yourself, look at your life, thank god for what you have, ask god to help u in what u fear. I was reading a friend's blog recently and everyone was talking like they all know it all! No you don't! No one will ever will, you are only OK when u admit that u still have a lot to learn and to know...
I'm sane but I'm overwhelmed, I'm lost but I'm hopeful, what it all comes down to… Is that everything is gonna be fine fine fine, I've got one hand in my pocket and the other one is giving a high five… What it all comes down to, is that everything's gonna be quite alright… Is that I haven't got it all figured out just yet… I've got one hand in my pocket, and the other one is giving the peace sign…
I'm free but I'm focused, I'm green but I'm wise, I'm hard but I'm friendly, I'm sad but I'm laughing, I'm brave but I'm chicken, I'm sick but I'm pretty… And what it all boils down to, Is that no one's really got it figured out just yet, I've got one hand in my pocket and the other one is playing the piano… And what it all comes down to my friends, Is that everything's just fine fine fine… I've got one hand in my pocket and the other one is hailing a taxi cab.
Jan 29, 2007
Breaking News! The "Wow" Starts Now!
A new innovation is the new windows slide show, it’s some kind of a LCD or a device attached to your laptop, allowing you to show gadgets as the calendar, your upcoming appointments and/or your contacts without even turning on your PC. That's what you should expect from the new Windows OS.
IE Tabs allows you to view all tabs and the ability to choose and close which ever you don't like.
Windows photo gallery is now easier with features like fix (color, brightness, red-eye... etc.). The more amazing about the photo gallery is that you always have a saved original backup of the image no matter how many times you edited it, so from now on feel confident to edit and try to change whatever you want; you always can go back and remove everything even after years! Another feature in the photo gallery is the ability to play both image and video files, so whenever you preview your album, you don't need to close the photo viewer and run the Media player to run the videos, It's all in one now!
Windows Vista is full of new and cool features. It's simpler, more secure and more user friendly.
To know more about features in Vista go to:
Jan 27, 2007
Scrum Development
Scrum believes that a development team should perform as a sport team, every team member working independently but towards the same goal. Scrum suggests that a team has a maximum of 6 - 7 members. The team facilitator is called the Scrum master (project manager in most companies). His/her job is to implement and manage the Scrum process in the project. Scrum masters focus most of their time in managing outside interference for the Scrum team and solving outside impediments or ‘Blockers’ that cannot be solved by the Scrum team (Not managing the project budget like in most companies).
A project can start with any activity; analysis, design, implementation and testing and can change between activities at any time. This increases the project's flexibility and productivity. Scrum assumes that the software development process is complicated and unpredictable and treats it as a controlled black box. Scrum takes into consideration that:
- Requirements are not fully understood at the beginning of the process.
- Requirements change during the process.
- The process becomes unpredictable when new tools and technologies are used.
They say that scrum is also a way of playing the rugby (the game). Characteristics that Scrum shares with rugby are:
- The environment determines the process (the game)
- The environment (functionality, timetable, business need and competition) dictates the ending of the process (the game).
- “Rugby evolved from breaking soccer rules – adapting to the environment.” (Schwaber, K.)
- “The primary cycle is moving the ball forward” (Schwaber, K.)
The whole project gets divided into periods of time with a maximum duration of 4 weeks. One period is called a Sprint and every team member gets tasks to execute within the given Sprint. For example in our project the sprint is 3 weeks time period, during which we should come up with a complete phase of the project. During the sprint, the team conducts regular scrum meetings (2 days per week in my team, other teams do scrum meetings every day). The meetings are held in the same place at the same time every specific period of time. The meetings don’t last for more than 30 minutes. The scrum master is responsible for asking every team member the following three questions:
1. What have you done since the last scrum meeting?
2. Is there any road blocks?
3. What do you plan on doing between now and the next scrum meeting?
Conversation is restricted to the team members answering the above questions. Meetings can be established for immediately after the scrum meeting based on answers to the above questions. The scrum master is responsible for making decisions immediately, if required to remove impediments to progress. The scrum master is responsible for noting impediments that must be resolved external to the meeting and causing them to be removed.
In my opinion, I feel the scrum development management is very effective, makes the developer free to decide what he needs, which reflects on his creativity. It also identifies for the management the role of solving any blockers facing the team, not controlling the team like what really happens in many companies! It’s an amazing experience and a new thing that I’m learning in Microsoft. It also made me feel that my project manager now, is actually part of my team, we are all working to get the product done, he’s not ordering anyone to finish, he’s one of us, we are a team! But he’s the one who points out that we are late in schedule, or that we need to ramp up a little... etc.
I Hope I have transferred some of my knowledge to u in a good and effective way, I really do hope that some managers really read this way of management and try to implement it in their own companies. Just give it a try, really it’s all about the team, managers should be part of the team!
- (PDF) Rising, L., Janoff, N.S. (2000). The Scrum Software Development Process for Small Teams Retrieved August 15, 2006
- (PDF) Schwaber, K. Advanced Development Methods. SCRUM Development Process Retrieved August 15, 2006
- (PDF) Dr. Sutherland, J. (October 2004) Agile Development: Lessons learned from the first scrum Retrieved August 15, 2006
Jan 25, 2007
Breaking News! A freind's interview on JobsBlog!
What's really nice is, we have now more than 10 from the Faculty of Computer and Information Sciences Ain Shams university have been offered positions in Microsoft! This faculty only graduated 7 generations! Each have an average of 150 student... it's almost a 1% from the graduates, but these 1% are just normal students in the faculty! I admit there are many better than me that didn't have luck with MS interviews (at least I know 3 of them)! My point I want to prove is, this is considered as a very healthy sign to all FCIS graduates, we are here, in the largest software company in the world! We can do it, any Computer science Ain Shams graduate can do it... btw I hardly passed my exams during college! I didn't like to study and I believe I only studied the last 3 days before the exams, sometimes in these 3 days I open books I've never seen before, I didn't attend lectures, I hardly go to labs! This doesn't mean u should do so; the reason I'm saying this is to encourage everyone to study programming and algorithms harder and harder, be practical, if your grades are not that good in school, u should know that this doesn't mean anything in terms of practical life! GO FCISers! Coz many of u really have talent!
Mona's Interview:
http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/archive/2007/01/25/meet-mona-from-egypt-to-seattle.aspx
Jan 20, 2007
Funny from Microsoft
To: All Developers
Subject: Hello, I am a teddy bear!
And I forgot my pants today!
Signed by: A.R
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I didn’t really understand what that is?!... Why would A.R (A British dev who just joined the team) send something like that?! Until I received this e-mail from a team lead (Who’s also British):
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To: All Developers
Subject: RE: Hello, I am a teddy bear!
Really? That must be embarrassing!
Almost as embarrassing as leaving your computer unlocked, perhaps?
Signed by: I
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Now that was funny, now I got it, so A.R really left his pc unlocked, and some1 sent this e-mail for him... But, it’s not over; A.R sent this e-mail later the same day:
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To: All Developers
Subject: RE: Hello, I am a teddy bear!
I,
As a fellow British; I would have thought you of all people would have realised this message was from an impersonator – I would of course use ‘trousers’ rather than ‘pants’ in any group-wide communication, to avoid any confusion as to what I meant.
I would have thought the prankster responsible ought to be the one most embarrassed... ;-)
Yours,
A.R
Did u get it? :-) Smart from I. to figure out that this was an un-locked pc case, even smarter and funnier e-mail sent by A.R. to reply and avoid a little embarrassment!
Jan 12, 2007
Breaking News - Snow! and an Accident!
I stayed at work for more than 2 hours, just waiting for the traffic to clear up a little bit... anyway we decided to go home me and Ali (we live in the same complex)... so he took his car, I took mine, he was driving in front of me... My car is kind of a small compact car, It’s not bad (thank god) actually it’s considered a very good car, but it’s just a small car... anyway It all started by having problems with climbing out of the building garage! I couldn't get any traction, I reached almost the rpm red line, and the wheels just keep on spinning without the car moving!... after a long struggle I managed to get out of the garage, Ali was driving in front of me coz he knew a shortcut to home... He says he was slowing down for a speed pump or something just before getting out of the MS campus, that's when he actually suddenly fully stopped! anyway, I was just behind him.. I pushed the brakes but the car kept on sliding towards him, I hardly turned to the other lane of the road which luckily was free of other cars! (Thank God)... But still, I didn't manage to completely avoid hitting Ali; I just slightly scratched both of our paintings... Oops, Ali went down to go to look for how much damage we made, in the meanwhile I was still under the shock that I couldn’t even open my car door! I asked him “Did we hit hard?”, “No, no everything is OK, it doesn’t look like there is anything” he replied (Thank God again).
In the middle of the shortcut, we kind of figured out that it's moving so slow... really so slow!, so we decided to go on the normal regular way, so just turning to the other lane to head back, since the other lane was almost free (no cars actually was going on the other way), so snow was heavier on the road, so again, my car got stuck in this snow, and Again I tried to get the full car's horsepower to get out of this thing!... Anyway we went back to the MS campus, I parked my car in the garage, we took Ali's car to go back home, he and his wife spent some time with me and my Mom, we went down for a while to play in the snow... headed back, watched a little TV... and then they just went home...
Wow, What a day... How many times did this happen to u?!... It was kind of a cool day after all.
Jan 11, 2007
The Truth The Way It Is!
The sarcastic post:
http://engafm.blogspot.com/2006/12/blog-post_24.html
The banned article:
http://www.almasry-alyoum.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=41645&r=t
Let me take this part from the article, and put it here, as I feel it really describes what's going on in Egypt now... What do u think?
المعني الذي أراد نجيب محفوظ توصيله أن «الأمن العام» في مفهوم رجال الشرطة ليس هو أمن الناس أو المجتمع، ولكنه أمن النظام، وعلي الناس أن يدركوا هذه «الحقيقة» وأن يتصرفوا علي هذا الأساس. وملاحظته هذه تفسر لنا المفارقة التي نحن بصددها، حيث لم تنتبه الشرطة إلي عمليات القتل التي مارستها عصابة التوربيني طوال السنوات السبع التي خلت، لأنها كانت منشغلة «بالأمن العام» المتمثل في متابعة النشطاء السياسيين، الأمر الذي يجسد الاهتمام بالأمن السياسي دون الأمن الاجتماعي، وهو موقف يعبر بصدق عن الخلل الشديد في علاقة السلطة بالمجتمع في مصر، والذي ترجح فيه كفة السلطة باستمرار، الأمر الذي رتب نتيجة مهمة خلاصتها أن تأمين النظام بات أهم واجبات الشرطة، وكل ما عدا ذلك تتراجع أهميته أو تنعدم.
هذا التفسير رددته بعض التحليلات التي نشرتها صحف المعارضة، حتي أصبح أمراً متعارفاً عليه ومسلماً به، ناهيك عن أن شواهد الواقع تؤيده. والانطباع السائد في المجتمع المصري الآن أن أغلب مخافر الشرطة أصبحت تستقبل بفتور وعدم اكتراث أي بلاغ تتلقاه حول قضية جنائية أو مدنية، لكنها تستنفر وتعلن الطوارئ وتهرول، إذا كانت القضية سياسية أو كان البلاغ يشكك في وجود رائحة للإرهاب في أي مكان.
ليس ذلك فحسب، وإنما بات مستقراً في أوساط الشرطة أن كفاءة الضابط أو القيادي، ومن ثم ارتقاءه واستمراره، ذلك كله يقاس بمدي الإنجاز الذي يحققه في ملاحقة وإجهاض العمليات الإرهابية، فضلاً عن كفاءته في «التعامل مع الإرهابيين بالأسلوب المناسب»، وهو ما يدفع رجال الأمن إلي التفاني في اتجاه والتراخي في الاتجاه الآخر، وفي ظل ذلك الوضع فلا يستغرب ألا ترصد ممارسات عصابة «التوربيني»، بينما تسلط الأضواء القوية علي ممارسات طلاب الجامعة، إذ بحكم ذلك المنطق، فإنه من حسن حظ الرجل وعصابته أنهم ليسوا في عداد «الإرهابيين»، حيث لم يفعلوا أكثر من أنهم اغتصبوا وقتلوا ٣٠ طفلاً فقط!
Jan 9, 2007
Human
Jan 1, 2007
Seattle 2007
It was pretty cool.. I had my camera with me, I took pics of us and for the fire works.. all these pics were taken by me in the event, I also took a couple of videos for the event.. before u watch the video, please turn ur volume down a little bit, there is a lot of people screaming and yelling all around me (They are really really excited!) :-) I was excited too, :-) but apparently not as much as they were!.
Video: Seattle 2007
There was a symphony playing, and the fire works were just like the equalizer for the music playing.. It was really interesting.. I'm kind of shy to post my personal pics, but this is the first time I'm gonna post any pics in my blog.. here is a pic of us.. Ali - Me - Meshref - Ramy.
As u all can c.. :-) it was really cold, we were all wearing all the clothes we have!..
In brief, It was fun and a cool event.. In the middle of all that, all what I miss, Is my Fiancee (Radwa).. I really do Miss u, hope u'll be with me soon.. Hope u all r having fun these days too. If not, don't worry about it, just do what u have to do now, finish it right, and then u'll have ur fun time soon.. untill then, just take care..