Just another day ...

posted by Lazarus, 3:36 PM 0 comments

So ...

... Warren Buffett gave away billions, France made it into the quarter finals, people actually watched Al Gore's movie, Michael Jackson has decided to possibly release another album, J.K. Rowling divulges something about the last Potter novel, Saad Hariri should be advised to join Toastmasters, my new neighbours are even stranger than the previous ones, the UAE has taken a very abrupt step in Emiratization, Rami Khouri's articles still have alot to be desired, I've discovered that around five Lebanese bloggers are actually my brother's friends, tomorrow is another day, a french magazine has been censored in lebanon, I am not going home this summer, Michel Aoun should join a yoga studio.

Ciao.

posted by Lazarus, 10:13 PM 1 comments

U2's Football* Commercials

*Ok. I haven't lived here long enough to start calling football "soccer."

posted by Lazarus, 10:24 PM 0 comments

FPM Direct Voting System

Michel Aoun may be a self-worshipping, hypocritical, illogical, and delusional "leader", but over the past year, some (some, and definitely not most) of FPM's stances deserve a minimal semblance of respect, as does this one.

posted by Lazarus, 7:00 PM 4 comments

Too close for comfort

If today's game of Argentina - Mexico is any indication of how Argentina will play in their next match (vs. Germany), then they are going to face a colossal loss.

posted by Lazarus, 2:59 PM 0 comments

Boxes are packed,

keys are about to be handed in, address has been updated for magazine subscriptions, DMV, banks, etc., for the fourth time in the past two years; three months later, I will go through all of that and move again - no, I'm not running from the police. In that time, I've had a Lebanese roommate - oh wait, since we're completely defined by sect, let's do that again: I've had a Shi'a roommate (horror!) - and an Israeli roommate (double horror!), and now live in a cozy studio, which I'm just about to leave.

Moving around => meeting "interesting" neighbors, the type you usually end up taking for granted if you live next to them for several years; the woman who never seems to sleep, and makes sure you're aware of that by playing music (and other things) at all times of the night, the neighbor who only leaves his home to throw out the garbage, and quickly runs back because he's addicted to day trading, the drugged out 25 year old who smokes pot during lunch and dinner, and insists on offering you a "puff" even though you've turned him down every single time he asks, and the girl next door who till now hasn't learnt how to open the oven WITHOUT triggering the damn fire alarm.

Packing those boxes isn't that bad, especially if done when friends are over, and by now has become a mechanical endeavor - books in that box, winter clothes in that one over there, etc. - and this time around was slightly relaxing, especially in the hectic context of the last several months. Tomorrow I'll load up my car and move, will soon indulge in my new neighbor's idiosyncrasies, will start some new work on Tuesday, and will probably leave some boxes packed. I'll still frequent the local pub to watch the round 2 world cup games, will go to a different cafe then the one I go to now, and life will soon continue as normal. I'll probably spend less time at the actual place, but considering that other things in my life are going quite well, I don't really mind this symbolic deterioration of "home"; however, if there is one thing I miss from that small country 10 time zones away, it is that "home" is so much more than just an address ...

posted by Lazarus, 10:20 PM 4 comments

I've never seen so many

Note: If you haven't watched the Ghana - USA match yet, and are planning to do so, do not read on.

sad faces in the same room. The local pub, which has been opening at 6am for the past two weeks in order to show the World Cup games, was completely filled with fans supporting the US in the US/Ghana match. A small corner had Italian fans watching their game, but the result for the Italy/Czech game was sorta expected. Who would have expected that the US could not even win ONE game, considering how well they did the last time around. But then again, who would have believed that France could mess up TWO World cups in a row, or that England would find tough competition in T&T. So while the Ghanian fans enjoyed every moment of the match, the US fans, as they have done in the other two games, watched the matches with serious faces, with infrequent comments such as "comon" ... "yeah, you can do it." Anyway, so the US lost, its fans were more than just dissapointed, it is out of the World Cup, and ESPN/ABC probably regret ever deciding to put on the World Cup, considering that they don't get as much advertising income from it as they would from, well, NFL.

Some groups of fans are fun to watch, even if you don't support their team. T&T fans are such a group; even though they lost vs. England, they kept jumping around, but the English fans did not change their expression between the time the score was 0 - 0 and 2 - 0. Tunisian fans, happy that they were originally 1 - 0 against Spain, paused slightly when Spain scored 2 goal in five minutes, then continued banging away at the derbake. And why does everyone think they know better than the players/coach. "He should have kicked the ball to the left," " he should have shot at the upper left corner giving the ball a spin and aiming at the post so that it bounces into the goal" are just some comments that some fans repeatedly utter. And then you have corny ESPN statistics such as "Argentina has never lost a game when at some point it had a two-goal difference" or "this is the 4th time England made that pass at that angle" and even cornier comments such as "Time is against the US team. The Score difference is also against the US team."

Anyway, I can't wait till the KSA-Spain match. I wonder who'll win ...

posted by Lazarus, 9:12 AM 1 comments

I'm back ...

... to be continued ...

posted by Lazarus, 1:59 PM 7 comments