Off to visit my prophet

Last Friday was a busy day for me, and that's cause we decided to take a plane and head off to Madinah for the day. And for those who don't know, "Madinah" OR "Almadinah Almenawara" is a city in West Saudi Arabia where prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) lived after he immigrated from Makkah. There is a mosque there in his name, and also he is buried there next to his 2 friends and companions "Abo Bakr Al-Sedeek" and "Omar Bin Al-Khattab". So us Muslims like from time to time to go and visit him and pray in his mosque, its not obligatory by the way as many may think.

Anyway, we took the morning flight, and as usual with Saudia Airlines, the flight was delayed 50 minutes! It seems that they were shopping for a plane, cause as soon as we boarded we kinda noticed the crew look weird... They are white, speak a strange language, and have Western looks. What made me realize whats goin on is that the signs and everything else was written in a weird language in addition to English, this is an aircraft rented from Turkish Airlines!

After the short 45 minute flight, we were hit by the cold weather of Madinah. It must have been 20 C and we are still 12 PM! We headed to the mosque barely in time for Friday prayers and spent the rest of the day in Madinah to attend the rest of the prayers.

I was happy that we chose to spend this time in prayer, sorry I cant say the same for other Muslims who couldn't wait to run outside the country to Egypt, Dubai, Lebanon, and Europe, even though these 10 days of this Hijri month are very holy and sacred, and a Muslim is better off trying to worship Allah more and try to erase his sins. I felt sorry that I left Jeddah for Dubai for the last day of Ramadan... I mean we get 20 days in the whole year that are VERY sacred, cant you wait to get out of the country?? Lots of Muslim WISH to be leaving in Saudi Arabia because it has Makkah and Madina, and also because of the strict Islam rulings here and that there is no alcohol, prostitution, crime, etc. Nah, leave all that and let's hit good old Italy, pick up girls in Cairo, or roam the night clubs of Beirut... God save us...

Now even though its prohibited to photograph at the Prophet's grave, I managed to sneak behind someone and take this video below. Not many have seen this spot, (so excuse the quality cause I was hiding behind someone) . Not for security reasons, but because you are supposed to stand there to visit prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) only. But I felt obliged to show this to the world, especially people who are interested in Islam, and even the people who attack us without taking the time to know more about us and our religion... Mohamed is buried behind these gates...

What really made me upset, is that the boys and girls were not acting at all that they are going to pray and worship. Girls are wearing full make up, flashy clothes, and accepting flirts from various boys scattered around *gasp* the outer gates of the mosque! What's wrong with this world? Are you coming to visit your prophet and erase some sins, or coming to build some more and pick up girls or get picked up by guys??

We took the 11 PM flight and headed back to hot and humid Jeddah. I tried not to laugh as I boarded the plane, it was so freakin small! I felt I was in a shooting of a film and this is a trick plane or somethin! The roof was so low and there were only two rows of chairs, with only 4 chairs in each row. Here have a look:

So that wraps it up I guess... Now if you excuse me, I am very tired... Happy Eid and happy new year everyone...

Vacation At Last

Well after a hectic month of phone calls, client requests, an insane number of mid night calls on my cell phone, at last I can say the season has passed and I can relax! Well kind of...
Our company gave us only 4 days off, Saturday to Tuesday! While 95% of other travel agencies and companies took the whole week off. But I would not bend for that, so I applied for the remaining 2 days to be deducted from my 30-day per year annual vacation.

I was loosing hope that we were going to head out to Madinah (the holy city where the prophet PBUH is buried) because we couldn't find any seats, and I was too tired after the season to drive 5 hours back and forth. But thank God (and then thanks to my bro in law!) we managed to get seats! Tell me if you need any prayers! LoL..

Also in the news, I got a job as a freelance photographer in Layalina Magazine, a community mag published here in Saudi Arabia. Its a good chance to polish up my skills! And for that I bought a new Nikon SB-600 flash, cost me around US$200 but its worth it!

I love getting mail, except when its credit card statements! The sad part is I got a mail from Men's Health saying that my subscription didn't go through cause my bank didn't release the funds from my credit card! But the good part is that I got my first issue of JPG magazine, and the customs didn't even open it! Even though there's a pic of a girl with a tattoo on her chest! Now how convenient...

I watched the movie "The Constant Gardner" last night on Showtime with the Mrs. , and I have to say its one of the best I saw in a long time! Plus I saw the pilot of "Prison Break", and honestly I dont know what all the fuss is about, I didnt like it at all...

Oh by the way, take a look at this cool phone! I would deffinatly get that if its well priced!

Anyway, Happy new year and Happy Eid to all of ya.. Take care...

When we had balls

I stumbled upon this video on youtube.com which shows a report by NBC about the Arab Oil embargo back in 1973. This was done to force Israel to withdraw from occupied areas. When I look now at our situation, 33 years later, I am shocked and sad. What happened during the last Lebanon bombing and how most of the Arab countries did nothing but watch. Back in those days the Arabs actually had the balls to stand up against Israel and the USA, even the world.

Now even if we decided to do that step again, USA have already secured themselves by placing themselves in Iraq, and being buddies with Qatar. Its amazing how the United States have planned this carefully through 30 years to settle themselves within the Middle East and the Gulf, now who can say that politics isnt a dirty game?

Beaten up... For what?

We had a family gathering last Thursday, and during that my sis was telling us that she was in Tahlia Mall the Thursday before when she found lots of guys running towards something and shouting... Then one security guard came running towards the middle of the mall and collapsed on the ground! We had no idea what was the deal and just suggested it was probably a fight or something between some guys...

Yesterday I heard from one of my relatives, who happened to be there at that time with his wife and kids... he asked around and found out that the story was that one guy from "high up" was trying to enter the mall, escorted by the usual dark-skinned companions, when 2 security officers stopped them from entering the mall, because of corse its for "families only" on Thursdays...

The powerful guy did not take no for an answer, and actually sent his henchmen to get clubs and "chains" from the car and beat one of the security close to death while the other one managed to escape inside the mall (the one my sis saw fall to the ground).

What I wana ask is, till when will this continue? That these people can do whatever they please whenever they please, even if they are 2nd class or even 3rd class "big shots" if u know what I mean... What did these 2 poor Saudi youths working as security for only SR. 1000 - 1200 a month do except do their job by not letting singles into the mall?
I bet this will just go like many other stories like it before.. under the table, forgotten, and never spoken of again...

Birthday and other stuff

Well I guess this has been the longest time I stayed without writing up a post, this was cause of many reasons:
1- Too busy with the season picking up
2- My aunt had an operation
3- I caught a bad flu which knocked me out for 3 days
4- KSA decided to block off some pages of blogger which affected signing in!

Anyway, my birthday was 02 December (yeah the UAE national day, woop-dee-do), and sadly not many of my deviant friends remembered, even though half of them are from the UAE and they noticed it was the same day as their national day... Anyway when you get older you start to feel birthdays are over rated anyway, whats so special about them? you just managed not to die for 12 months!

But I did get a few nice gifts... like a new Giorgio Armani wallet from the Mrs. (thanks honey!), an overseas call from my aunt in England (awwww), the new Boss perfume from my sisters, and last but not least a nice amount of cash from my parents

So what else has been goin around in the Godfather's world... Well I formatted my I-pod cause I felt there was too much junk on it anyway (23 GB of junk!) and it was easier to format it than to remove what I didnt like. Also in the news, I finally laid down my defenses and decided to agree that I need braces to fix a few of my back teeth. But the doc discovered I had a crack in one of my teeth and it has died and now I gotta get a root canal!!!!

The Saudi stocks are falling badly, they lost 2 years of profits in just 2 weeks and people have lost more than half of their savings... I lost alot too but I managed to escape before it got worse... Sukie wrote me the sweetest words... its so great to know that you mean so much to somebody, and it kinda gave me a confidence boost after I was feeling I wasnt liked alot just cause I always speak what comes to my mind... so now after I read this, I can tell ANYONE here on DA who doesnt like me or doesnt understand me to kiss any side of my ass they wish and to go burn themselves in a place where no one will hear them scream, lool....
You can read what MJ wrote about me here

I opened an Aramex "shop&ship" account which gives u a mail address in both USA and UK, so no more "sorry we cant ship to your country" crap! I srated by buying myself an arm band for my ipod and some external speakers for the Mrs.'s Nano I-pod. oh yeah I also subscribed to Men's Health magazine for half what they would charge you for an overseas subscription! I am even thinking of buying filters and lenses from Amazon cause they got amazing deals there!

Anyway thats it for today... I got my dentist appointment in an hour so I gotta go to a bar and get drunk... wait, I'm in Saudi Arabia, oh well...

Back Again!

After switching to blogger beta, I was having a hell of time logging in to make new blogs and respond to others! I thought it was something temporary but then time passed by and I couldnt comment on my friends' blogs and I couldnt write!

I thought it was a bug, and even sent an email to Blogger. But then my friend on both DA and the blogger world: Sukie suggested that maybe they blocked off Blogger and that whats causing the problem. So I tried my proxy bypass program and it worked!! I could have not been happier! Thank you Sukie for pointing this out, and damn you Saudi Internet filtering for blocking off our voice and our sites!

I wana be gay too!

Check out this video of this reporter "checking out" if Scarlett Johanson's breasts are fake or not. And she actually didnt mind and just stood there, just cause the guy is gay. Well if I can be gay for a day just to do that, heck where do I sign up? LooL

Saudi Arabia.. Best Country in the World (Song)

I guess alot of you saw this episode of American Dad: "Stan of Arabia". I didnt know if I should feel offended or laugh! LoooL...

Let me share with you this song from this episode... If you think its funny, try to download the episodes!

Two Years...

Last Saturday was our 2 year anniversary, I got her a bunch of flowers (no, not roses!)... and I wrote this to go with it...

Red roses were always a symbol
Of eternal love, passion, and care
On occasions and even in Valentine's
You can see them everywhere

I stood at the florist wondering
What should I pick to present to you
Should I stick with the tradition...
And get red roses too?

But I picked something different
I picked several colors out of my mind
Colors that reflect my feelings for you
Because our love is one of a kind...

And a picture of the flowers that I took:



My Love is like no Other by =DJVue on deviantART

Help me know myself

Please take the time to fill out these quizes, they are very simple and you can do one for yourself!

The Dark Side of me

The Bright Side of me

This is a short poem I wrote called " Childhood Memories ", it was for my latest Photo (shown below):

Everyday passes us by
The train of life doesnt slow down
Everyday holds mixed feelings
A smile.. A laugh.. A frown

The child in us dies slowly
As life's troubles kill us inside
We seek escape, we seek shelter
From life, there is no where to hide

Norture the child in you as your own
He lives in your heart, in your head
You may need this child one day
Sadly, you may find him dead...

Childhood Memories by =DJVue on deviantART

A Story of a kitten

As I was leaving home last Thursday, I saw this little kitten getting picked on by the big cats in the neighberhood. She ran off to hide under my car, I looked under and didnt see her so I thought she ran away. Oh was I wrong... Lets watch the video together...

Fast Food Fight

This video was shot last year, at Al-Beik branch on Corniche in Jeddah. Just for the non-Saudis, Al-Beik is a famous fried chicken fast food restaurant in the Western Province of Saudi Arabia.

See how these Saudi youth trashed the place and made a big fight with the staff.

Zidan.. The Legend

I uploaded my first video to my youtube library.. more will come!

Bad Muslims.. Good Muslims...?

I want every Muslim who loves his religion to read this blog and comment if they have any comment. Thank you.

Banks...

Ok I have OFFICIALLY had it with the banks' services in this country! Where should I begin? Should I start with the ATMs that are out of order most of the time? Or the POS (point of sales) machines in shops and supermarkets that give you an Error message more than getting the transaction through? Or the Electronic deposit machines which should save our time and efforts, but instead are not working 90% of times? And when you walk in the branch and tell them its not working, they just tell you to take a number and deposit the cash through the teller, not even appologizing for the inconvenience of their super services. And of corse you have to sit and wait for your number to flash on the screen after they are done with the 25+ people who came before you.

And the final chapter of the super service, while working on my portfolio online, and the market looking all green and fresh after 10 days of dropping prices, the online system just goes into error and doesnt open till the market closes! So are we just supposed to kiss our money good bye? Or should I drop everything in hand and jump to the nearest branch to stand in line behind 50 or more sweaty angry people who wana sell their stocks? Toll Free number I hear you say? Tried that, always busy...

A piggy bank doesnt sound like a bad idea now...

Second Place Baby!

Well what do you know... seems I can win something after all! After I entered my photo to the Flower Macro Photography Contest on deviantart.com , I was surprised when the results came out yesterday and I landed second place out of over 180 entries! I am sure you are saying: "hey you didnt win, what are you so happy about?" Well for a non-pro photographer with minimul equipment, I guess I accomplished something for myself before anything else Here is my winning horse:

Tickle My Senses by =DJVue on deviantART

Bug Heaven

What you see here is not a romantic spot by the red sea,but a lake that was created at a construction site after the recent rain in Jeddah last week. This lake is a hazard to kids who might fall in,and also a perfect breeding spot for infection spreading. mosquitos..

Yeah Right

I realy have to say i disagree with this caricature.. Which is obvious the artist just wants to please the labor office.

I am not against saudization.. But saudi employees carrying the burden of a company AND the expatriat,sorry i dont think so. Through my experiance,around 7 out of 10 saudi employees just dont cut it as hard and faithful laborers,which is giving good Saudi employees a bad name.

Addicted

Help.. After i stopped smokin i am now addicted to cigarrillos (cigar tabaco wrapped as ciggerets).
My dad gave it to me to try it out.. Yeah my dad is cool..hehe..
But i wont ask him for another pack.. No matter how the delicious Cuban tabacco tastes..

Gold Gym

This is where i work out

(I am just trying out the "Blog This" feature on my new Sony Ericsson K800, you can tke a pic then instantly send it to your blog!)