Friday, February 23, 2007

Back From Cairo

Well what do you know? Those 2 weeks passed in a blink of an eye, and here I am again getting ready to go to bed to wake up and go to work tomorrow, and get tied again to the usual mill like some ox. But it was a good vacation, a much needed one actually. I reached a point where I almost lost my mind at work... telephones, problems, complaints, bookings, etc. etc.
Allot has happened, and I have allot of thoughts about many things... but to keep my mind organized, and not let my blog get too long and boring for my faithful readers, I will divide it into several blogs and several paragraphs. Being organized may turn into an obsession sometimes, but it works.


The Hotels
I hate staying at a house when I travel, my idea of a vacation is a room where I know I can throw my clothes everywhere (errrm... yeah I noticed I was just talkin about being organized up there) and know that I will come back from lunch or dinner and find house keeping took care of everything! My clothes are folded on the bed, clean warm towels in the bathroom, the fridge refilled, and everything in place. That's why I prefered that we book a hotel rather than stay at my mother in-law's apartment. Its also a good chance to let my wife relax and kick back, rather than worrying about preparing breakfast and cleaning up after my chaos.
For the first 8 days, we stayed at the simple but perfect Pyramisa Hotel. The hotel is one of the oldest in Cairo, but its cleanliness combined with friendly service make up for the too-simple rooms and staff who most of them seem they were there since World War II. I guess they dont have to worry about turn over over there, sounds promising. Also a good plus for this hotel, is that it offers a beautiful breakfast buffet, something other 5 star hotels in Cairo dont offer. So for 75$ you get a good clean room, 5 star service, an excellent location, and a good starting meal for your day.


The remaining 5 days of our stay, we decided its time to dip in deep into our wallets and move to a more luxurious escape! And what's the best hotel to go to than the one which was voted as the best hotel in Cairo for 3 years in a row and best hotel in AFRICA 2006? Yup, its the one and only Four Seasons Nile Plaza Hotel!

The view from the rooms is just breath-taking, I have to say its the best view of the Nile I have ever seen in any hotel, and I have seen many! The room itself is the largest in the city according to the Tourism Board of Egypt, the bathroom makes you wana have a shower every hour. And the relaxing bed that you just sink into, makes you hate and loath the bed you have back home no matter how comfortable it is. I must know their secret some day!

Some people may think 250$ per night on room only basis (no meals) is just too much, but I have to disagree. You dont only pay for a room, but you are actually paying for amazing service (the staff are actually friendlier than some family members, lool), Countless extras in your room (my fave is the DVD player and 5 page long movie library), fully equipped gym, and the amazing relaxing facilities! I was just swept away with the relaxation lounge, a bed placed in a quiet room in front of a glass wall facing the Nile, with relaxing music playing in the background. I feel I can write dozens of poems by just sitting in this place, and if I get thirsty, I can treat myself to the complimentary green tea, ginger, or cold water with iced cucumbers.

I think I may go on about the Four Seasons Nile Plaza forever, so I will just stop here. But I warn you that it WILL pop up in many paragraphs later on, lool... SO next time you are in Cairo, dont miss out on this excellent property!


My Transport

I plan my vacations carefully, especially when it comes to the money business. So I booked a Toyota Corolla for my car rental for only 40$ a day. The car was OK, but a bit uncomfortable because of my "big&tall" posture. Also for a guy who drives a 4x4 back home, its a bit difficult to feel this close to the ground, lool... Soooooo, I said to hell with money saving and I opted for a BMW X3 instead! It was the first time I drive it, and I have to say I miss my new mistress terribly... The bad thing, is that (like most expensive cars in Cairo) the license plate was "Customs", meaning that this car was bought outside of Egypt and brought into the country without paying the usual customs. This procedure is used by tourists to bring in their cars for their personal use and then taking it out of the country once they are done with their vacation. You must be wondering "OK... where is the problem????" The problem is that this license plate means $$$ for beggars! I guess thats why the plate is golden yellow, to symbolize some kind of bling-bling, loool....


I actually had a kid run after the car and try to hang on for a distance of 50m! This kid will grow up to become some athlete one day! We were attacked by every type of beggars, from women to men to crippled to even a guy who used to be a thief and became clean and he made his life story on a DVD and is selling it to people in traffic lights! This will bring me to talkin more thoroughly about beggars in Egypt, but that will be another blog... See ya...

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Cairo 2 : the Empire Strikes Back

Cairo.... Here I come!!!! That's all I got time to say right now, loool...

Our last battle was fierce and lasted a whole month but I won only 1 day before my exit re-entry visa to Saudi Arabia expired... and now, in round two of the battle... who will win??? Will I overcome the evil Empire of bureaucracy and routine and be a free man with full exemption from the army? Or will the Empire finally have the last word and I am trapped in the pit forever... stay tuned...!

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Some You Tube Stuff

This baby looks HOT!!! I'm savin my dollars for this hottie to hit stores next June!




As a fan of Evanescence, I was blown away by their new video "Lithium" (and of corse by Amy Lee's voice and beauty!)




Now condoms dont only protect you from HIV and other STDs... they can save you ALOT of Panadol!!



Ever since I bought this game 4 months back, I have been playing it non-stop! Its pretty addictive... Just check out the intro which itself is mind blowing!! I present to you: Civilization IV ... where you take your civilization from the stone age to the space age!



Thursday, February 01, 2007

The Guide to Understanding Women

As I was cleaning up my hard disk from all the crap I had saved over the past 3 years (yeah I got a 100 GB memory, so?) I stumbled over this document, which I remember a friend sent to me long ago on MSN, its taken from an introduction of a book. But sadly, I couldnt find neither the name of the book or the author, so please forgive me about that. But even with just the introduction, I think the guy finally found the key to understanding which we have suffered for long years to understand... No its not why men always stare at boobs, its how do women think! (though I would like to know the answer to the first question too, lool... But actually there is an indirect answer for that below... so read on...)


Secrets to Success with Women
An e-book by anonymous author


In order to understand women, you must understand that they are bombarded non-stop by the following 3 ideas from the time they hit puberty.

MESSAGE ONE: Your looks are the only thing that really counts.

MESSAGE TWO: Don’t be a “slut”.

MESSAGE THREE: Be “independent”.

The effect of these messages has been to create total sexual CHAOS between men and women. I’ll explain the effect of each message:

MESSAGE ONE:
“YOUR LOOKS ARE THE ONLY THING THAT REALLY COUNTS.”

From the time a girl hits puberty, if she is attractive, she has guys hitting on her in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, ALL THE TIME. Guys are kissing up to her, willing to help her with favors, buy her things, etc. And even women want to be around her, since she is so popular.

Think about the effect that has on her. It doesn’t matter if she is totally a rotten personality, if she is HOT, she’ll still get tons of attention from both men and women. Men want them, and women want to be around them.

She becomes very distrustful of guys, and also, she starts to realize how most guys have no self-respect. Most guys are dumb and will tolerate the bad personality just to be with her. Attractive women tend to get SPOILED because they are given everything by people without having to earn it or work for it. They can get AWAY with having a rotten personality.

Unlike men, they don’t have to develop the rest of their personality in order to get respect, attention, affection, etc.

It leads to attractive women having a self-perception that they are superior to most people, as long as they have the looks. So they can treat most people as if those people were inferior. Especially men who ass-kiss, who come across as needy and uncool, and believe it or not, also come across as manipulative. (You see, womanizers don’t come across as manipulative, since they hide their agenda better. Nice guys are obvious- “Hey I like you, do you like me?”)

This is why being a “nice guy” is disastrous. Most attractive women simply do not appreciate “nice-ness” since WOMEN think that if you would be as superior as they are, you would then not be nice.

To them, nice is for people who are inferior. After all, THEY don’t have to be nice- and look how everyone kisses up to them and respects them.

Get it?

Attractive women just assume nice = loser.

THIS BRINGS US TO LESSON #1:

Since being “nice” (i.e. telling her she is beautiful, buying her things, always being there when she asks, etc.) simply makes her feel you are inferior to her and that you need her, and this just confirms that she is superior and that it is therefore okay to ABUSE you….

YOU MUST THEREFORE LEARN TO CREATE AN AURA OF SUPERIORITY AROUND WOMEN.

How do you do that?
Simple.
SPEAK THE LANGUAGE OF SUPERIORITY THAT WOMEN SPEAK.

In other words, be just as arrogant, cocky, confident, hard-to-get, indifferent, cool, and challenging as possible. That’s a lot packed into one sentence (And expanded on in my material.)

But for example, if you see a woman you’d like to speak to, don’t make it so damn obvious you’re interested. If there’s something about her that she is doing, or wearing, etc, that’s begging to be poked fun at, DO IT. Don’t act as if you need her approval or her desire.

And don’t lean all into her as she speaks as if her every word is DIVINE. Get DISTRACTED in middle of the conversation by another girl, or by something else.


LESSON # 2

The fact that attractive women are so stuck up as a result of their looks creates a FLIP-SIDE to the equation…

These attractive women are very INSECURE about LOSING their looks, for if they were to lose their looks, they would lose all that POWER. Scary thought for them. So guess what happens when you make a woman second guess whether her looks are all that great?

Like for example, if you pointed out a flaw? Yeah, a FLAW. Anything from head to toe.

Yeah, she’d be DEVASTATED, that’s what. So devastated, in fact, that she might HATE you. So I recommend being very TACTFUL about this, or she will feel so bad that she will feel UNWORTHY of you. Don’t try to cut her down TOO HARD.

But in general, just not kissing up to a woman who is used to getting her butt kissed is enough to communicate that you are just like HER: SUPERIOR, and thus worthy of her.

You see, the whole problem started because of GUYS. Men should NEVER have given women the impression that looks were all that counted, because it’s not even TRUE.

No guy on earth wants to actually STAY with a woman with a rotten personality. He might just want to have sex and dump her, but that’s it. But most women actually think that guys will want them long term too, just as long as the woman is attractive. But that is inherently false.

And to be honest, once you learn how to attract women, you tend to become more picky even just for sex- you don’t just want looks, you want a fun girl who’s also not a complaining, unstable, headcase.

Okay, on to the effect of:

MESSAGE NUMBER TWO
“DON’T BE A SLUT”.

Oh man, this one really has caused a lot of damage. On one hand, women keep getting approached by men who want to have sex with them, and on the other hand men keep telling them not to be sluts. Can you imagine what it must be like to have to live in such a crazy contradiction?

What is a slut anyway? A girl who likes sex? Does that make men sluts too?

I think that the concept of “sluts” in WOMEN’S minds is basically that men want to control women. Of course, the effect of this whole slut label
has created the OPPOSITE EFFECT: REPRESSION ONLY SERVES TO MAKE SOMETHING DESIRABLE. PLUS, IT CAUSES ACTIVITY TO BECOME COVERT.

By men trying to REPRESS WOMEN, women feel that they are missing out on something, even if it’s actually nothing. Reminds me of this Weird Al video where these religious guys are eagerly checking out their version of a Playboy “centerfold” who’s actually clothed from head to toe, but her ankles are showing.

So a little respectful bow now, to our friend Dr. Freud…

As far as I’m concerned, if we just removed the whole “taboo” label of being a slut, women would be a lot more relaxed around men and actually there would be less motivation to be a “slut”, whatever slut means. The best way to make something sexually desirable is to make it taboo. I bet you if I could make a new fad that looking at a woman’s ankles was TABOO, every guy would want to get a look at women’s ankles all of a sudden.

Or if women looking at men’s earlobes was TABOO, then every man would cover up his earlobes and if he caught his woman looking at another man’s earlobes, she would be labeled a “slut”. So the effect of the whole “slut” label has been that women feel the need to REBEL against men, who women conveniently group all together as one, to compensate for all this sexual guilt trip by society. (women translating society as being male-dominated)

Of course, the rebelling occurs COVERTLY. If you are the kind of guy who has no clue to the reality of what women want, women will TELL YOU one thing, and then do whatever they really want to do in secret. Such is the effect of repression. Plus, women know that the nice guys will STOP all ass-kissing and all favors if the nice guys wake up to reality and how they are getting taken advantage of. So it’s currently in women’s best interests to keep things covert.


LESSON #3

So, what you as a man must do is help women NOT feel guilty about sex. You must keep their mind OFF of the actual idea of you having sex with them when you are talking to them, because otherwise they will start to feel guilty. So just keep things light and fun. You might even be able to make sexual JOKES, just not direct sex.

And show that you can LEAD, by arranging the next meeting or date or whatever. She feels to guilty to be the one to lead. And, when in bed, if you can help her feel GREAT about being sexual, you won’t have to worry much about her being unfaithful, since she’ll get to enjoy her sexual nature with you and have a psychologically healthy outlet for it.

In other words, you better have no hang ups about sex, because if you do, you can imagine how impossible it will be for HER to feel comfortable having sex with you. Be an example.


MESSAGE 3
“Be Independent”

I’ve saved the best for last. This “girl power” and “independence” idea has warped into something much more problematic: It has come to mean, for a lot of women, that if she ever has to make a choice between commitment to her man or commitment to ANYTHING ELSE, that she should choose ANYTHING ELSE. Because, after all, the logic goes, a woman must be “independent”. So if it ever comes down to it, a woman’s girlfriends, for example, will win out over a guy any day, in terms of priorities.

This “independence” idea is also used by womanizers to get women to cheat on their boyfriend. They just frame “cheating” as something the boyfriend would NOT want, and now the woman will do it just out of rebelliousness and to confirm her “independence”. This “independence” idea is also used by a woman’s girlfriends who are having problems with their own relationships- the friend will demand ridiculous amounts of time and energy from the girl who IS in a happy relationship, even though she knows this will cause damage to her best friend’s relationship. Sometimes this is intentional, out of jealousy, but of course the PRETEXT is “independence”.

Independent is the excuse for cheating, the excuse for not giving as much as she gets. Another effect of “independence” is the general malaise regarding any type of genuine female commitment to a relationship until a woman’s LOOKS begins to fade.

Suddenly, then, women no longer want independence as much and are instead looking for a “stable, secure relationship”. It’s hard to want independence when no one wants to be with you. It’s only fun when everyone wants to be with you.

LESSON #4

As a result of this phenomenon, it’s crucial to absolutely NEVER be the one to INITIATE a “serious” relationship with a woman. If she wants one with YOU, then it must be ONE TRILLION PERCENT CLEAR TO HER THAT SHE WANTS IT. Let HER make it clear to YOU that she wants it. So, just enjoy going out and meeting TONS of women, enjoy them if you like, and date many women at the same time. If some of them want to get serious with you, and if that is something you might be interested in, put them to the test and see how badly they really want a meaningful relationship, or is it just some way to get you under CONTROL so that they can have YOU faithful while they continue to be “independent”.

That way, women will see that YOU are “independent” as well, which not only makes you clearly in a position of choice, and therefore increases your apparent sexiness, but will also make the women think: If everyone is supposed to be so independent, and if everyone is supposed to need so much space, then how the hell does anyone ever get into a relationship?

Trust me, you’ll be a rare guy indeed who is not so ready to give all his affection and emotion for her. She’ll appreciate you more.