MBC

I went to Al-Abraj (Source) restaurant yesterday with my (male) cousin. We went upstairs but the employee told us that it is a section for families only. I tried to explain that we are a family and that he is my cousin but we were told to go downstairs.

What really made me angry is that I know that the section was not for families only. Females could go to the families section without being asked, employees would not ask old men to go down. And even if a guy came with a girl they can never know if they are family or friends or lovers, the only way to know that is by asking for the marriage document! It is pure discrimination, everybody is allowed to have privacy in a closed cabinet if they are not young males!

I don’t think that this is the right business model and as far as I am concerned I will never go to Al-Abraj with boys again!!

Snapshots is a service that can be added to blogs, websites and Internet Browsers.  When you added this service to your website and one of the visitors roll the mouse pointer over a hyperlink he would get a preview of the website.  There are a variety of Snapshots types, snapshots could be normal snapshots, RSS Feed and even maps.

I haven’t  tried this service in my website or blog.  However, I feel uncomfortable whenever  I come across a website or blog that provides this service.  According to Snapshots official website,this technology was created  to upgrade users experience.  Frankly, I was amused when I first saw it some years ago because it could show me a preview of websites without even visiting them!  Anyway, after years of  visiting hundreds of websites I began to hate Snap because it sometimes affects my browsing experience negatively especially when I am not interested in clicking on hyperlinks and the mouse roll over it while I am trying to move the mouse elsewhere. In addition, since my ISP is the beloved Batelco sometimes the Snapshot takes times to appear because of the slow internet connection (A cable have been cut in the sea :P) which again affects my experience badly.

I haven’t posted anything for a while because I hardly become in blogging mood.   However, I think that this should change and i shall start blogging more than before.  One or two posts per month is not satisfactory at all because I spend long hours in front of my PC and I should invest this free time in sharing my knowledge and experiences if  (if I have any).

See ya!

While browsing some blogs I came across a post where the owner is talking about wedding parties.  In his post, the author is condemning all the people who allow songs to be played at their wedding ceremonies to hell and suggesting that they should write in the invitation card that there will be songs in the party.

After reading this post I decided to write a comment because I felt that he doesn’t have the authority to decide who will go to hell and who will not.

Anyway, my comment was not published by the author.  Perhaps because it was “not Islamic,” or because I asked him how many people that he know will go to hell after issuing his own Fatwa.  Only “Islamic” comments appear to be approved.  You know, sinful comments could polluted the spirituality of the blog!

Some years ago, the majority of people would bring singers to the women’s wedding party.  However, after the importation of the DJs to Bahrain, a group of women in Bahrain that refuse having DJs in wedding parties started to boycott or leave any wedding which involves DJ’s because they were un-Islamic.  A solution came after few years which is called “Islamic DJ” a DJ which plays Islamic songs.

People would go to hell if they watched “bad”  TV shows.  And today people would be immortal in hell for playing songs in their wedding parties.  Who would go to hell next time?  Perhaps anybody who shave his beard!

When would THEY understand that a sin does not necessarily lead to hell and that they are not the people who will judge!

Today was my last day at the university.  I will have no more classes there.  The day was less than normal.  The university was dead and only the ghosts of those people who graduated roamed the university.  next year at this moment I won’t be there!

Four years passed like a thunderbolt.  I wish that I stayed more but life should go on.

I had one class only today, then spent the rest of the day wandering at every special place that I like at a time.  I also met few friends and chatted with them a little bit.

That was my day! the last one…..

My term as a financial secretary for the English Language Club has officially ended this week.  I spent wonderful years in the board of directors. I learned a lot during these three years, from the day the club was established to this moment. 

I wanted to nominate myself to be a part of the new administration this year but unfortunately I have expired and I cannot do it one more time.  I cannot take that forum and fill in my information again.  Guess I have to move on.

I was Nothing, then became the Secretary General and after that I moved to be the Financial Secretary and I am back to Nothing.  That is the cycle of life  (BTW I am something but outside the club :P)

Anyway, I wish that the club improve under the new administration and more members get involved in organizing events.

What a ride it was!

I felt so bored that I decided to blog, then out of boredom I chose not to blog!

After three times of justified failure ( I am not a bright driver :P) I just got the driving license.  How horrible driving lessons were.  I hated them.  A robot will not cope with those instructions! Watch out for the clutch, the manual transmission, the mirrors, the cars on the street, the  signs and lines …….etc

Once I passed I was happy not because of that, I was happy because I got rid of those driving lessons and especially the manual transmission part, God how much I hated when I release the clutch before the car starts moving which makes it stop.

It took me almost a year to pass, but the good part is that I passed before the graduation.

They should make cars move by themselves! it would reduce accidents I suppose and will save unskilled drivers (like myself) from being tortured in driving lessons. 

After all, it was a good experience and I learned at least one lesson, never drive a car that has manual transmission!

I want to talk about many things :P, but I want to post once only!

1. Better World Books

I came Across this website accidentally.  It is a great online bookshop which offers cheap shipping (almost 3$ (almost 1BD)).  Now I can buy books online without worrying about the price of shipping.  If someone wants to buy a book from Amazon, the shipping can cost more than the price of the book itself!

They claim to support literacy by sending part of their profit to several organizations.  In addition, they use Carbon free packaging which is friendly to nature.  They collect most of the used books from libraries which want to get rid of those books.    

Anyway, after looking at the website, I decided to try their service.  Therefore, I ordered a used book, whom Intrinsic Value I value.

After 2 weeks exactly I received the book, it was in a perfect condition although it appears that someone tried to open it.  

(By the way, the word (Dick) is a nickname for Richard)

Anyway, After receiving the book I ordered two more books.  I guess I will deal with Better World Books from now on. 

2. The English Language Club

I have just finished uploading the pages which contains the stories which was submitted for last year’s Short Story Competition.  I should have published them last semester but due to uncontrollable circumstances I could not done so(IE: laziness).  It took some time to find a suitable design which fulfill the requirements of the competition. I also removed the tracking code from the website of the English Language Club because annoying Pop-ups appear once the page is opened.

By the way you may participate in the Short Story Competition if you are a student at the university of Bahrain.  For more information visit the following link

http://www.english-club.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40&Itemid=1

3. My Website (www.mbsee.info) and other stuff

I haven’t updated my website for a while.  I have localized some Softwares months ago but I have not created pages for them in the localization section.  i just finished localizing Mobaphoto lately.  It is a handy software for digital photographers which contains four tools.  Image resize, editor and batch renaming tool.  Moreover, there is a tool which creates great HTML photo albums.  The Arabic translation would be integrated in the official version very soon.

I have also updated the blog to WordPress 2.5.  it will not change many things because I already use Windows Live Writer to blog.

I tried to update the Guest Book, however, I missed it up and do not feel like fixing it very soon.

That’s it for today, I might blog again next month.

Have a nice day!

Beloved is a novel which was written by Toni Morrison.  I just finished reading it.  I can declare that it is one of silliest that I have read.  The novel tells the story of a mother who escape slavery with her children and when the slave master locate her and go to claim  the family back; she refuses to go with their master and instead she kills her own daughter to prevent her from going through slavery.

The mother goes to jail, then after spending her time there she returns home.  Once she return home she discovers that the house is haunted by the spirit of her daughter.  Anyway, she live with the ghost for a while and then the ghost returns as a girl who demands to have her mother’s love.

What I did not like about the story is repetition, the plot is repeated many time in form of flashbacks.  The author tends to make the characters repeat the story again and again.  Every time  a character tells the story he/she add more information about the story, or tell it from another prospective.  This is nice when it is done a little, but when you have to read a whole novel whose story is repeated more than twenty times it is unlikely that you will like it. 

Slavery plays a major role in the novel, the characters keep narrating their experiences with slavery and how they feel after being free.

The plot of the story is nice.  However, if the novel was sequential I would have liked it.

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I began reading The Picture of Dorain Gray by Oscar Wilde, which is basically about two homosexual men in love.  It appears to be an interesting novel.  The relationship between the two men appears to be just like a normal man and woman even in the way they met.